Standing there on the transparent floor, gazing at the dragon, and past her into infinity, my emotions were mixed. One the one hand, I had been pursuing the Shadow Faced Guy, with a shot at stopping him; I had left my friends behind to do so, hoping that taking out the man seemingly behind the Risen Throne would stop the battle, stop the cult everywhere on the planet. And Xiournal had apparently stopped me. There was anger, as well as frustration and guilt, but there was also a mild elation, because on the other hand... I had really wanted to talk to the Ascended, for a while. I had so many questions for her that they were slipping in and out of my mind seemingly at random.

Flailing slightly, I reached for the nearest question, opening my mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the cool, echoing voice of the dragon, so different from how I remembered it from my last visit.

“Alex, you’ve left your assigned world twice now, and tried to do it a third time; I’ve been fairly lenient, I think. Because you’ve done a decent job. But you’re trying my patience, especially after allowing Anan Al’monhad to be taken.”

“Hey, I couldn’t have got to him any earlier, I flew inside of an Apex to get there, and he still got out days before I arrived. And it’s not like he’s that big of a threat anyway; if I could kick his ass I’m pretty sure any of the Apexes could.”

“It is not about Anan Al’monhad, Alex. It is about what he represents to the Risen Throne. And you could have arrived faster, by simpl – fine. Too much information. Either way, you were about to leave the world, again, and I can’t have you take any more breaks if we’re going to accomplish our goals.”

“I was going to take care of Almondhead! I’d have kicked his head down through his torso already if you hadn’t stopped me.”

“You underestimate the consequences of Anan Al’monhad’s inclusion. You would not have been victorious.”

I could not imagine what the dragon meant; Almondhead had been bouncing off the floor when I headed for the gate, at the speed I was moving, he would not have been able to do a thing before I drove a Sapience empowered echo punch through the Shadow Faced Guy; I had seen that punch explode people, and that was using Praxis, with Veritas or Sapience... I doubted even a Pinnacle would be fine.

“How? I left that guy in mid-air.”

“Anan Al’monhad is linked to the being you call the, ‘Shadow Faced Guy’. Any Authority he possesses flows through them both, and the army they control. Their abilities are complimentary, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Your fight would have been harder, if more time had been allowed for the energies involved to propagate.”

“Then can you send me back? I can still stop that.”

“It’s too late, Aman Al’monhad has left the battlefield, retrieved as your pull upon the network was detected. The Blood Martial is regaining his senses as we speak.”

I ground my teeth in frustration, wishing that I had managed to take either one of them out, but I had considered the head of the cult the more important, Aman has barely presented a problem to me.

“Can you at least answer some questions, while I’m here, before you send me back? I assume you are going to send me back?”

“You will be returned. I will say, that your consumption of the lingering Authority within Anan Al’Monhad’s blood was well done, and delayed their plans considerably. You also prevented a significant number of civilians from joining their local army, though not as many as I would have liked. But together, they should delay them long enough for my other threads to pull tight.”

“Other threads? Didn’t you say I was the only Agent candidate you’d had in years?

“I lied.”

“So, you were manipulating me, with the ditzy attitude?”

“Of course. Idiots do not reach Ascension, and if by some incredible chance they do, they do not last long.”

“And I’m just supposed to accept that you tricked me? Did you even provide anything? Is this Agency inside me mine, or yours?”

“Of course I provided things, you fool! I plucked you from the River of Souls, I built you a new body and wove Authority! Show some gratitude or I will find another way to accomplish my goals!”

Before me, the Ascended dragon seemed to grow vast, eclipsing the planet below us, her colouring shifting from pastel pings and blues to deep, burnings golds and violets, the white of her scales shining like a star. She grew beyond the the walls I had to assume were there and almost appeared to shift slightly to avoid touching the distant sun. Gulping slighty, remembering that I was dealing with a being far beyond even the Apexes and their equivalents, I finally recalled my manners and nodded a short bow, offering an apology.

“Right, death, body. Soul stuff. Makes sense. Thank you.”

The dragon shrunk back down, though her size had not really not changed, and she dragged one gracefully clawed hand over the golden orb around which she was wrapped.

“The... Agency... as you call it, was mostly your own, though I have added to it, as have you, now. You inherited it from... a previous life. The River of Souls washes you clean of Experience, but even it cannot remove Authority completely.”

“So, I’ve been here before, on the Aspirant plane, as an Apex? Or did I Ascend?”

“It is impossible to say. But it is the lingering Authority that allows us to find you among the infinite souls in the River, and which allows you to exist down there, when you were not born there.”

“All your agents have it then, the ability to move between worlds – and live – and to... alter reality, I guiess?”

“All Agents have some measure of intrinsic Authority, though it varies. What we can offer is proportionate to what you started with. We may be exploiting the system, but it is still a system with rules.”

“What about Almondhead, he was an Agent, right? What happens when an Agent ascends? Are they more powerful? Is that why he was such a threat, he had more Authority than the other Apexes?”

“Not quite. It is true that a measure of Authority is granted to an... Apex... when they refuse Ascension, however this plane can only tolerate so much. The leakage from the Ascendent plane is sufficient to fill any vessel on this plane completely, so any advantage in terms of quantity is lost when meeting the Tribulation.”

“Quantity, you said? What about all those... patterns I saw inside my soul? Are those the abilities I was given?”

“Quite. Apexes, as you call them make use of their Authority in relatively crude ways. Even most Ascendents continue to use it in simple ways. Those of us with true dedication however are able to use it in more... intricate ways.”

“But, an Apex can – in theory – live forever, right? Don’t they learn to do more?”

“Truely skilled use requires senses no available without more Authority, so while an... Apex... may gain finer control, it is mostly wasted on enforcing their own specific talents.”

“Their Domains, you mean? So, that really is why I can resist, because I have a domain it’s just... me?”

“An Apex has roughly a thousand times more Authority than you do; if they were capable of perceiving reality as we do, you could not be able to resist at all. But yes, you are essentially correct.”

“Wait, a thousand times? How was I resisting Almondhead, if he had a thousand times what I do, on top of what he got from the pool?”

“Much of wha – fine. I’m afraid the rules prevent me from telling you, Alex. Needless to say, he has substantially less than he did ten-thousand years go.”

I thought about that; I had theorized that something had happened to the Apex of the Multplicitous Self, that something about his long imprisonment, or the Shadow Faced Guy had done something to him. I remembered thought I had over the months, of the first guy flunky I had killed in black armour, and how V had said he was not a real Foundation. Both he, and the first Crown Guy had seemed off missing pieces, amalgams of flesh, like Frankenstein’s Monster.

“Is there a... necromancer involved, somewhere? The group this would had a war with? They controlled the dead, right? Some of the people I’ve faced seemed like they were corpses, though CeeCee – Almondhead – seems a little different. Is that why he has less Authority?”

“I cannot answer these questions, but I can say that indeed, there was a group I believe would call necromancers which invaded this world decades ago.”

“How does that work? Necromancy, I mean. I’ve seen other systems, and people seemed mostly normal. Not quite so... extra... as cultivators. And I’ve heard of the war, they were trouble, right? How do a bunch of dead people threaten cultivators?”

“... I cannot say much, but the army of a necromancer can be thought of as one body, with one mind. The greater the body, the more power. That is how they store enough Experience to Ascend – within multiple bodies. The bodies grow stronger the more are added, but each person has a hard limit of how many their minds can manage.”

“But Almondhead controlled an entire world, though they weren’t dead.”

“This ability was different, though complimentary, in theory.”

"So, what about the stitched people, where do they fit in?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions, Alex. This is not why I brought you here.”

“Yeah, you said you didn’t want me going to another world, I get it.”

“That is not all I wished to discuss. You are nearing the end of the tasks I have for you on this world, and I plan on moving you, since you are... mostly effective. I took this opportunity to let you know, so that you might prepare.”

“Now wait a minute, I’m not going anywhere, I like it here. My friends are here.”

“You seem to like other worlds well enough when I’m not sending you.”

The dragon’s voice was dry, one eyebrow arched up as she stared at me. She gave me a moment to think about that, before continuing.

“And you have no choice, we have an agreement. You are mine, in perpetuity.”

“Yeah... about that. I think we need to revisit that deal; forever is a long time and you were taking advantage of me. Manipulating me. And that reminds me, have you been messing with my memories? I thought I was just getting used to the new body when I arrived, but it was more than that, I didn’t react properly to anything. Even now, everything happens... easily.”

“Revisit the deal? A deal is a deal. And no, I did not interfere with your memories, I simply did not place the physical pathways in your new body’s brain when I created it, to prevent any issues from arising; your brain lacks the physical reinforcement of experience, so everything is new. It helps in a number of ways, we’ve found. You’d be surprised how many people simply broke down when reaching their new homes, before we began the practice. Or how many simply reverted to their old ways.”

I had no idea what she meant by removing the pathways, but it was clear they had done something to make me – make Agents – more open to our new worlds, to new experiences. And she was right, it had probably helped, aspecially given the state I had been in during my last life; depressed, anxious and more than a little bitter. But it still felt like a violation, to have my brain messed with. Whether it was justifiable, since she had literally made my brain from scratch, I did not know.

“Leaving aside how ethical it is to do that, we’re definitely re-negotiating our deal, or I’ll just sit down and your whole plan can burn to ashes for all I care.”

“And let your friends, billions of people be killed or enslaved? I think not, Alex. You forget, I’ve been watching you. The old you, possibly; what I could fish out of the River about you was limited. But the new you? You have a hero complex, or too much altruism. I don’t think you’d risk it.”

She was right, I knew. There was no way I was going to let a planet full of people pay the price of breaking my contract. But there were others ways to mess with plans.

“Well, the Shadow Faced Guy can move between worlds, right? How about I help take him down, but let him go? Tell him never to come back. He can start somewhere fresh, where I don’t know anybody.”

I was bluffing hard, and if I am completely honest, I knew she knew that; if an Apex could sense a lie, I was pretty sure the actual full version of whatever they were could do the same, but better. But even so, maybe the manipulative dragon was not all bad, because after several moments, during which we just stared at each other, she spoke again, the feigned frustration in her voice telling me she knew I knew she knew, but was playing along.

“Fine. I’ll make you a new deal; give your everything to stopping the Risen Throne – and manage it – and I will let you off the hook.”

“Deal.”

After all, I was going to do that anyway.