I woke up with even more questions than before. Once the drowsy after-effects of the sedative wore off, I blinked up at Zephyr.

"Dose me again," I said.

With some reluctance, she once again pricked a needle into the crook of my arm. A brief wave of euphoria washed over me again. As consciousness faded, the determination to force the demon lord to answer my questions blossomed stronger than ever. To my disappointment I encountered only blackness before waking up a few minutes later.

"Again," I said despite my mouth feeling as if it were stuffed with cotton.

Zephyr cleared her throat. "Another dose will likely kill you. You'll stop breathing once you pass a certain threshold of the drug in your system. What did you learn?"

"Nothing." I struggled to my feet, pushing Felix away as he hurried over to support me.

Despite the world spinning around me, I was able to maintain my balance. Covering my eyes with one hand, I waited for the fugue over my mind to dissipate. Zephyr did not need to know any more than she already did.

Felix and Caedius stood over the kneeling figures of the enemy Echoes. Their hands were tied behind their back with strips of cloth, and the two disciples kept their bare swords at the ready. We would have to figure out what to do with them, but now that the demons were dead, ridding myself of the Narahven was my highest priority.

This tenuous alliance would not last long. Circumstances may have forced us together, but in the end I was the one who had killed her brother. Even if such a thing could be forgiven, I was the obvious suspect for the deaths of the Magister and his guards. I would have to keep my guard up with the Narahven around. Nothing sounded more appealing than recovering alone for a few days.

She spoke in a strained voice, "You expect me to believe that? I should have never agreed to this. In fact, the best thing would be for me to take all of you into custody. Once the Archon has handled this assault, I'm sure he would love to hear whatever explanation you have to offer."

Well, that didn't take long.

"There's no point antagonizing us," I said. "Cooperating is in your best interest. After all, I'm the only one that was able to destroy one of the tesseracts. Do you know anyone else with the potential to remove the barrier around the city? No? Then let's try to treat each other with respect."

For some reason Felix laughed.

Zephyr bit her lip, eyes narrowed. After a few seconds she nodded. "How did you accomplish that?"

Revealing some of the truth couldn't hurt. Zephyr had her own magic, giving her a unique connection to the anima. Perhaps she would have some insight that would never have occurred to me.

I unsheathed Dasein, laying the white blade flat across my palm to display the weapon. "This sword was the keystone to the whole construct. Whenever I disabled it, the tesseract collapsed. That makes me think that this tesseract also may have a hidden source. If we can find it, perhaps we can stop this entire invasion. Or at least open ourselves to the outside world so that reinforcements feel safe entering the city."

"All the more reason to come with me," she said. "We should at least have Nota and Eurus help out."

It took a moment to realize she must mean the other two Winds.

"Right now, they're probably helping the Archon fight a losing battle," I said. "They might already be dead. The Goetia would never have done this if they didn't think their victory was assured. Our best hope is finding the source of the tesseract while the demons are distracted."

Caedius' hesitant voice broke into our conversation. "This isn't for me. Whatever you're planning, leave me out of it. I just want to get back to Mara. Please."

My grip tightened on Dasein's handle until it hurt. A deep breath helped ease the tension thrumming throughout my body. Why had his words invoked such sudden anger? Best to keep him out of it anyways. He had betrayed me, after all.

"We can't go to the Gardens yet," I said. "We need to figure out the source of the tesseract and see if I can unravel it. If we do that in time, perhaps we can stop the demon lord from descending. Did we figure anything out from the captives?"

The female Echo spit in my direction. "All of you are dead. Maybe you defeated us, but Kosal and I are nothing in the grand scheme of things. Your all-powerful Archon is on the retreat already."

"How long until your master descends?" I said.

She bared her teeth and remained silent. The man at her side kept his head down, lank hair obscuring his features.

"Talk," said Zephyr, holding up a needle, "or I will make you."

Some morals. Unwilling to kill without a trial, but she had no qualms about torturing others. Had she ever experienced the effects of her own paralytic? I shook my head to ward those helpless memories away.

The veteran spoke for the first time since the fight, soft enough that I barely made out his words. "You know what to do, Lisel."

The woman, Lisel, looked at her partner with soft eyes. Her smile sent a shiver down my spine.

"I will wait for you on the other side." She glanced up at me and Zephyr. "You as well."

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then their jaws began to twitch and their neck muscles stood out in stark relief. White froth foamed around their lips. Convulsions wracked their entire bodies, eyes wild and frantic before rolling back to reveal only bloodshot white.

Caedius and Felix stepped away as if their ailment was contagious. Zephyr's face scrunched up with distaste.

When their corpses finally stopped twitching, the Narahven prodded the man with one shimmering boot. "Some sort of suicide drug. Fanatics and cultists often slip a pill or pouch in the back of their mouth in case of something like this."

The shock of their sudden deaths left me rooted in place. Death had already taught me plenty of lessons, including how quickly it could claim anyone. But what would possess one to end their life before they had explored every option? Why? To protect the interest of some master that valued them as nothing more than a mortal instrument?

Caedius looked on with a pale face. Felix held a hand to his mouth, forehead wrinkled in concentration, as if what he had witnessed was a problem to be solved.

Zephyr kneeled next to the man and rested one gentle hand on his shoulder. Despite her earlier handling of his corpse, she closed her eyes, lips forming silent words. A prayer? Imploring the Increate to give mercy to these lost souls. If Paimon was right, their lives had no real meaning. Would the Increate even notice such a small sacrifice? They were a failed experiment in this universe. In parallel realities they would have accomplished their goals. Killed us. Never met us. Never met each other. Never became Echoes. This was only one of many paths.

For every failure there was an equivalent success; I couldn't decide whether the idea was consoling.

Zephyr stood back up. "We don't know how much time we have left. Do you think you can find the source of the tesseract?"

"I'm not sure," I said. "If I can meditate a bit, there is a chance I can discover something."

In particular, I wanted to delve into the mystery of Dasein. My sword. Its paradoxical nature must mean something, and I had already experienced how receptive it was to my power.

I remembered Paimon's words from the second time we had met, after Zephyr drugged me. Dasein is and has always been my sword, destined to find me across all times and all realities. Meditate upon it and discover the truth. The ensuing chaos had offered little opportunities to follow my benefactor's advice. For now, it was my only lead.

Brother Augur would most likely be able to help, but I was reluctant to rejoin him. If he discovered I intended to unravel the tesseract, there was no predicting his reaction. While originally he made it seem as if he wanted to stop Astaroth, everything I learned from Paimon made me doubt his motivations. While I had no grounds to judge another person for working with demons, relying on the philosopher would be my final resort. He had entered the tesseract of his own volition and so far had done nothing besides kill a few demons and teleport us to Caedius' location. He must be waiting for something.

"How long do you think that will take?" said Zephyr.

I shrugged and walked down the avenue to put some distance between myself and the corpses. "As long as I need."

I discovered a perfect spot underneath a tree. Settling into the lotus position, I ignored the others. By now only a sliver of the sun peeked above the horizon, its final hints of orange and lavender almost completely swallowed by the encroaching night. On the opposite side of the sky, the moon had risen early, an ethereal omen. Though I doubted the Goetia actually lived within its core, it had become one of their symbols within mankind's consciousness.

How much time was left until Astaroth descended?

Deep breaths. Focus. Forget. Memories nipped at the corners of my consciousness: the convulsing Echoes, the slaughter within Caedius' home, Avarus crumpling in on himself. Tranquility slipped away. I almost considered asking Zephyr to dose me with another sedative, consequences be damned, but another image appeared: Felix's listless eyes and the line of drool down his chin as he fell into one of his opium trances.

Damn it. Deep breaths. I laid Dasein across my lap, resting both hands along its strange white blade. Anchoring my thoughts to the weapon, I managed to focus enough to visualize the room containing my magical orbs. Both were pathetic, no more than a pair of white and silver sparks. Nonetheless I focused on both and the physical connection of the blade beneath my hands.

For ten long seconds nothing happened, then the form of the silver orb fell apart as if melting. It turned into a silver tendril that undulated through the air towards me---or at least, towards the perspective of my observing mind.

For a moment I felt as if I had fallen into a crack between the Physical and Mental Realms, both aware of the scene unfolding within my mind and my body within the real world, sword laid across my lap. Or perhaps my mind had discovered how to exist within two locations at once.

Within the Mental Realm, the silver tendril collided with me. Within the physical world, a shock spread from my head down to my fingertips before disappearing into Dasein. Remembering how I had activated the sword during my fight with Champion Jokul, I sent my magical awareness questing into the blade after the silver tendril.

At the time I had not been able to focus much on the bizarre arrangement of silver lattices within the blade that amplified my time magic. Now I followed the path of the tendril as it slipped through the geometric construct, growing thicker and more solid as it continued along, picking up speed as it went. The structure reflected the tendril in on itself, folding and twisting it according to some specific underlying pattern. As far as I could tell, this imagery was only my mind's attempt to make sense of the swords' function. What it symbolized was more interesting.

Somehow, the sword was able to magnify my power. All of my searching had revealed no mention of time magic or artifacts before Dasein's appearance. From what Paimon said, it was my personal sword---presumably it had transcended time itself in a way that I myself was not. A sign that my dream of reversing time to the point I could save my father was not simply a childish fantasy.

But why had the sword ended up as the power source for one of the tesseracts? Astaroth must have acquired it at some point and either altered its function or made use of a power already inherent to the sword itself. Something about that explanation sounded wrong. By all rights, the sword itself should not exist. But it did.

Last time I used the sword, I took the amplified magic I had fed into it and used it to dilate time to a degree I had not thought possible before. Now, I allowed the tendril the continue its path through the blade, reflecting upon itself over and over again, growing and growing. Part of me what would happen once it stopped---after all, it was the last remaining bit of time magic at my disposal. I dreaded the migraine that was sure to follow. If not something worse.

Though only five seconds passed in the physical world, it felt as if I spent years watching the path of the tendril. Finally, it grew large enough to fill the inside of the blade, drowning out everything else with a pure silver radiance.

I opened my eyes.

The others were nowhere to be found. Everything else appeared normal from what I could tell. The first sprinkling of stars dotted the twilight sky. Had a significant amount of time passed while I experimented with the sword? No, someone would have shaken me awake or moved me. They wouldn't have just abandoned me here in the lotus position.

A suspicion dawned on me. Remaining seated in the lotus position, I reached out in front of me. My hand collided with an invisible barrier.

I smiled. Now that was interesting. The sword could create tesseracts.