“That might not actually be a bad idea,” Damien muttered, sitting down on his bed and laying back. He took his coat off for good measure before closing his eyes. A small grin flickered across his face as he heard Sylph turn the shower on behind him.

He closed his eyes and reached within himself. Damien had never actually tried to call on Herald itself, but he imagined it wasn’t all that different from reaching out to Henry. His mental energy turned inwards as he mentally brushed across his core.

An icy sea met him. A powerful suction force enveloped Damien, and he had to force himself to relax and not fight back. Liquid filled his lungs and the world spiraled around him. His eyes snapped open and he drew a ragged gasp.

Faint, twinkling stars surrounded the pitch black sky around him. He knelt on what could only be described as darkness without any true shape or form, and his body was outlined in a faint orange glow that he was starting to get used to. The air before him warped as stars blinked to life, forming Herald’s impassive form.

“Hello,” Damien said, standing up and brushing imaginary dirt off his knees. “I need your help, and you need mine.”

“You are hunting the Corruption,” Herald stated. The multitude of voices somehow managed to come out completely flat, which rather impressive.

“And I need a way to find it. Henry said he couldn’t detect it as well as you can.”

“That is logical,” Herald said. “Your human spark has blinded him, both from the Corruption and his true purpose.”

“I’m not here to discuss that,” Damien said, crossing his arms. “Look, if you want me to hunt the Corruption, you’re going to have to point me in the right direction. I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to work with you, but I’m worried enough to actually give it a shot. If that was your goal, congratulations. You achieved it.”

“No congratulations are necessary. I always achieve my goals,” Herald said. “And you would not have to hunt them if you broke that seal on your chest. I would take care of the problem for us all.”

“You would blow up the Mortal Plane.”

“And nothing of value would be lost. The rebirth would bring it all back, eventually,” Herald said. “Perhaps this cycle would last even longer than the last.”

“That hardly matters if I, and everyone else I know, is dead,” Damien said.

“You would not be dead. The cycle would be restarted.”

Damien frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? Restarting the cycle means you destroy the Mortal Plane, right?”

“Correct.”

“Then how would anyone I know be alive after it restarts?”

“The same way you’re alive this time,” Herald replied. “This is not the first iteration of the cycle.”

“I figured that much,” Damien said, his frown deepening. “But – wait, are you implying I was alive in the previous cycle?”

“And the one before that,” Herald said. “And the one before that as well. And the one–”

“Right,” Damien said, holding a hand up to stop the Void creature. “Hold on. Is every cycle exactly the same?”

“No,” Herald replied. “But some parts of them often line up. People whose lives directly affect the cycle are born every iteration.”

Damien massaged his head, trying to process exactly what Herald was telling him. “What if someone doesn’t affect the cycle until the tenth one or whatever? Does that mean they’re retroactively born in cycles one through nine so they can affect it in the tenth one?”

“Yes.”

“So we have to do the same thing each cycle? Was I the same last cycle as I am this one?”

“No,” Herald said. “The only constant is your birth. I was unaware of your previous iterations, but it is incredibly unlikely that you’ve acted identical to them each time. It is statistically possible, but with such a low chance that even I would be surprised if it had happened.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Damien said, letting out a sigh.

“Why? Even if you had no free will, it wouldn’t matter,” Herald said. “You would make your decisions regardless. Nothing would change.”

“That’s not – bah. You don’t understand,” Damien said. “Do you have free will?”

“I have a duty,” Herald replied. “And that is all that matters.”

“To whom?”

Herald didn’t respond immediately. “I presume you are uninterested in accepting my offer to restart the cycle. In such case, I shall bide my time until you change your mind, one way or another. Until then, I will assist in the location of the Corruption.”

The sudden change of topic threw Damien for a loop. By the time he realized what Herald had said, he was sinking into the shadows beneath him.

“Wait, how will I know–”

Icy water flooded through his mouth and his sentence ended in a gargling curse. He jerked awake just as a prickle formed at his left palm. Damien’s confusion vanished and he scrambled out of bed, dashing towards the shower as pain erupted in his hand.

Blood poured down his palm as he threw the bathroom curtain open. Sylph stepped to the side with a smile that was both amused and concerned as Damien shoved his hand under the healing water.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as Herald carved runes into him. The blood running down his hand turned a murky pink on the shower floor, mixing with the healing water before vanishing down the drain.

Damien jumped as he felt Sylph put her hands on his shoulders. Despite his initial shock, her presence was more comforting than he’d expected. It didn’t do much to lessen the pain, but it helped make it a bit easier to bear.

It only took a few minutes for the runes to finish appearing on his palm, but it felt like an hour. The burning agony finally faded into a painful pulse, and then that turned to a dull throb. Damien let out a weary sigh, shaking the water and last bits of blood off his hand as he examined Herald’s work.

“What did he do this time?” Sylph asked.

“Something useful, hopefully. I asked it to help me find the Corruption, and I suppose this is the way it’ll do that.”

The rune was, thankfully, almost invisible. The cuts were thin and only a shade darker than the rest of Damien’s flesh. It looked more like an old scar than the jagged black rune circle on his chest.

Damien flexed his hand and was relieved to find that it hadn’t affected his range of motion at all.

“How does it work?”

“No clue. I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Damien said with a grim chuckle.

Sylph rolled her eyes and helped Damien to his feet, before tossing him a towel.

“Thanks for the help, Sylph,” Damien said, drying his arm off and putting the towel back.

“You’re welcome,” she replied and walked back into their main room.

Damien followed after her. He threw his coat back on and examined his hand once again before shaking his head and glancing away from it. “Well, I’m not entirely sure how it works, but I think we’ve got what we need. I suppose I’m ready to leave when you are.”

“We should stock up on supplies, at least to get us a week or two,” Sylph said. “And more changes of clothes. You can’t have many left after soaking most of them with blood.”

Damien glanced inside his travel pack and grimaced. Sylph wasn’t wrong about that. Maybe Herald was trying to bankrupt him by making him burn all his gold on clothes.

“Okay, let’s take a trip to the general store first. I’m sure he’ll have something,” Damien said.

“That should work,” Sylph allowed. “What about magical herbs? I don’t know how long we’ll be out, but if it takes all of our break, it might be a good idea to have some.”

Henry?

“Not a bad idea, although this one is your call,” Henry said. “Your core is still stabilizing after the evolution, and the same goes for Sylph. Maybe even more so, due to the massive change in the Ether in her body. However, after a month or two, you’ll probably be settled down. It just depends on if you want to carry the herbs around or buy them somewhere else. The quality of the stuff you won in the tournament and bought from the store did not appear to have any significant improvements over what you could find in the wild or buy elsewhere.”

Damien relayed Henry’s words.

“Let’s just get them later, then,” Sylph said. “No point carrying around a bunch of breakable glass. We’ll probably end up smashing it in a fight on accident.”

“There’s something else that you should get, though,” Henry said. “I want more books. You’ve been lax, and I’m bored.”

I can’t bring a bunch of library books around while we hunt the Corruption. They’ll get damaged and the librarians will kill me.

“Bah. Just let me read some now then. Somehow I doubt that the Corruption will have any interesting reading material, and if we do end up running into anything else from the Void, it will probably be horrible conversation.”

Fair enough. I’ll stop by the library and we can look through some books for you.

“Wonderful,” Henry said, sliding back into the depths of Damien’s psyche. The boy shook his hand out as the new runes on it tingled. It was mildly uncomfortable, but the feeling faded quickly.

“I think Herald wants us to go,” Damien said, heading into the bathroom to collect some personal supplies for the trip. Sylph mirrored his actions, packing everything into a small backpack that she’d bought at some point.

“Let’s go, then,” Sylph said. “And we’ll hope that the clerk hasn’t left for vacation as well.”

They were in luck. After the short walk from their room to the general store, the two of them found the clerk sitting at the counter, idly spinning a top. He let out a slow yawn, then glanced over in their direction.

The top clattered to the table as it lost momentum and the man smacked his lips. “Still here, huh?”

“Leaving today, actually,” Damien said. “We’re going on a small road trip and need supplies.”

“I can do that,” the clerk said, giving them a lazy grin. “I assume you want the budget kit?”

“What’s that come with?” Sylph asked.

“Two person tent, sleeping rolls, rations for two weeks, two water skins, and a few other basic survival supplies like emergency knives,” he replied. “It’ll only run you five gold.”

“What’s the tent made out of?”

“Treated and runed canvas. It won’t leak and it’ll hold up against any normal weather. Walk into a thunderstorm and get hit – not my problem.”

“That’ll work,” Sylph said, dropping a few coins into the clerk’s hand. He put them into his pocket and wandered into the back, reemerging a minute later with a tarp bundle. There was a rough strap across it.

Damien took it from him and slung it over his back. “I’ve also got to get a few changes of clothes. Messed all of mine up. Nothing fancy, just hardy.”

He counted out the coins that Sylph had paid for her own set of clothes and handed them over to the man before he could even say anything. The clerk grinned.

“You’re coming here too often if you’re memorizing prices. Get out more,” he said as he walked into the back. The clerk came back out shortly after with another bundle that Damien stuffed into his travel pack.

“What kind of merchant tries to get people to shop somewhere else?”

“One that doesn’t make commission from the lame stuff he sells,” the clerk replied. “Anything else I can get for you two?”

“That’s it,” Damien said. He and Sylph bid the man farewell and wished him an enjoyable summer before heading back out.

Henry gave him a mental prod. Damien bit back a laugh and rolled his eyes.

“Let’s drop by the library really quick. This shouldn’t take long.”

Sylph nodded, not even questioning the change in plans. They reached the library a short while later. Only one of the librarians was currently working, but the balding man gave them a cordial nod as they walked inside.

Right. What do you want?

“Just let me look around. I’ll figure it out soon enough,” Henry replied, gently taking the reigns of Damien’s body. With a grumble, Damien offered up no resistance and let his companion commandeer him.

Henry directed Damien over to a section near the middle of the library that seemed to be entirely concerned with modern fashion. The eldritch creature burned through about twenty of the novels within a few minutes before wandering down an isle to the rather small ‘fantasy’ section of the library.

“I never understood the purpose of these,” Henry said, using Damien’s voice, to Sylph, plucking a book out of the shelf. “It’s just… made up stuff.”

“I don’t read much fiction,” Sylph said. “Never had the chance. I’d like to, though. It’s nice, reading about someone else’s problems and forgetting about your own. Not everything has to happen to you for it to be real.”

Henry harrumphed. He flipped the book open and scanned through it within a few seconds. Then he set it back on the shelf and picked up another one beside it before proceeding to burn through the entire row.

“I thought you didn’t see the point in those.”

“I’m just making sure they’re all equally unimportant,” Henry said, his face buried in a thick novel. “Now be quiet, I’m getting to the good part.”

Sylph smirked. Henry finished off the rest of the section, then peered around the other side. Damien’s face fell when Henry realized that he’d already gone through everything in the section. He caught Sylph watching him and cleared his throat.

“That’s good enough for now.”

He tossed control of Damien’s body back to its rightful owner and slipped away, leaving Damien with the slight sensation of embarrassment.

“At least he’s progressed from smut,” Damien said with a sigh. “I’ve had a few of those memories leak in, you know. Nothing I wanted to see.”

“I’m sure,” Sylph said, cracking a grin. “Anything else you need to do here?”

“Nope,” Damien replied. “I’m good. Let’s go.”