Kaldalis found himself out on the beach again a few minutes later. He returned to the exact same spot where he’d caught the Ruddy Praeors, but this time, with a roe-baited hook instead of a spoon lure. This spot had proven very effective for catching Pale Perch, especially without the interference of monsters. Ess hadn’t needed to jump to protect him at all, so he cast his line out without concern.

Without Ess here, he was able to really enjoy the sound of the waves rushing in and out. The sounds of nature, punctuated periodically by the crashing of a pack of The Contender’s guards out of the jungle and to the beach and back.

He found himself considering his problems and possible solutions. He’d come back from Baimer hoping to escape into his normal routines, but instead, Baimer had beat him back here, and everything was terrible. The only thing he could use to take his mind off of that was Onirioago’s bombshell reveal that this was (maybe?) a real alternate universe and they were some kind of weird uninformed vanguard for an interdimensional colonization effort.

Instead of thinking about any of that, he opened his pet menu and summoned Ein, the lovable troublemaker.

Obviously, this was a bad idea. The local wildlife - while non-hostile - were much bigger than the little corgi pup. And the dog was so full of energy, he immediately made himself an extremely loud nuisance. He ran tight circles around the giant hermit crab as it picked at the sand, yapping excitedly at it. After the giant crab seemed to take no interest in him, the dog rocketed across the beach, yapping loudly at the aquatic cat-monsters. About half of them started at the sound and approach, and skittered into the water to swim away. The other half seemed ambivalent towards the dog, and while they watched him warily, they didn’t move. They were outside of the invisible leash distance the puppy seemed to be contained by.

Kaldalis found himself concentrating more on the dog than his fishing. This area seemed to be lower level for fishing, so it wasn’t a problem, but he kept having to whistle for the dog to stay close, for fear that he might get swatted by one of the giant water-cat things.

After running around for a while, the dog started to get a little tuckered out, and Kaldalis once more found himself looking inward. Without another external distraction, he decided it was time to start actually thinking through his problems.

“Alright, Ein,” Kaldalis said. The dog eagerly rushed over to Kaldalis’s side, looking up at him with visible curiosity. “Let me lay this out for you. Be my rubber duck, and maybe I can find the solution here.”

The dog sat down on the sand next to him, ears at attention, perky and alert.

“Okay, so I’ve got two problems, right?” he began. Having grown up with his dad’s hunting dogs, he didn’t feel even a little odd about striking up conversation with his fuzzy friend. “First is The Contender. I think he’s probably the real main storyline here. He’s shut down the whole expedition, and so if there’s anything that needs to be done, it’s dealing with him, either getting rid of him or facilitating his investigation so that he gets out of the way.”

Ein yapped in confirmation. His jaw fell open and his tongue lolled out in a big doggy grin.

“Obviously, I’m not going to just assassinate him,” Kaldalis said. He found his eyes darting over to his inventory, where not one but two War Weapons sat. “At best, it’ll buy us a week before the church sends out his identical brother to pick up where he left off, only under heavier guard. At worst, Zara treats it as an act of war and wipes us off the map.”

Ein stared up at him, still attentive.

“So the only reasonable course of action is to put myself at his disposal,” Kaldalis grumbled. “Do his fucking laundry for him. And probably the rest of his job, too.”

Ein gave a questioning yap, clearly sensing Kaldalis’s frustration.

“Okay, well, the other problem…” Kaldalis grimaced. If he was going to approach the issue, he would have to either turn his stream off or talk circles around it. A fish bit his line, so he took the time reeling it in to question his course. As he put the next Pale Perch in his inventory, he decided to just talk around it. “Well, the other problem feels like the overarching plot. Like it’s going to be what’s waiting for me at the level cap, whatever that happens to be.”

Ein tilted his head with a whine.

“I mean, maybe you’re right,” Kaldalis said, speaking as much to the dog as to himself. “Maybe I should leave that lie and deal with it when it comes. But after talking to Ess about it… I don’t know if that’s right. Not, like, right as in correct. But right as in moral.”

He let the distinction hang in the air for a minute.

“The problem is that I don’t have a solution,” Kaldalis continued. “It’s like one of those so-called easy-peel plastic wrappers they put on ham steaks. I can worry at the corner all I want, but the only way I’m actually going to get in is to cut my way in with a knife.” He mimed a sawing motion in the air with his free hand. “The only way I’m going to approach this problem is to cheat.”

Ein’s doggy smile faded, and he whined again, more insistently.

“Yeah, I know,” Kaldalis said with a sigh. Another fish caught the line, but it was yet another Pale Perch. His hands went easily on autopilot to reel it in. “But I’m afraid that this problem isn’t the overarching plot. What if… What if Monsoon doesn’t do anything with it? What if this storyline goes to the same graveyard as every other promising idea they’ve ever had? What if no solution ever appears because they abandoned the storyline without exploring it?”

It was difficult to talk about the idea of Onirioago telling the actual truth, rather than it being an in-world storyline. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to admit that to himself, even as it was the most likely situation in his mind. But if it was, Monsoon would likely never give him the tools to approach the problem. They might even go out of their way to make things worse just to stop him from bringing their investment down around their ears.

Ein yapped, and Kaldalis realized he was introspecting to himself instead of out loud to the dog.

“But what am I going to do?” Kaldalis said, trying to pick his train of thought up where he left off. “Go back in time and stop it? Shit, even if I can go back, how would I stop it? The Lataxinans knew it was coming, and they were powerless to do more than beg for mercy.”

He snapped his mouth closed, wincing. He hoped he didn’t say too much. His stream was still on, so it must have not been enough to give away the game. But he was getting dangerously close to the thin and crispy part of the ice. Way too risky.

Ein gave an encouraging yap, bringing him back to the conversation.

“I want to say that there has to be a way,” Kaldalis said at last. “I really need there to be a solution to this problem. But… Maybe there’s not. I mean. I’m just a guy, you know? As much as I may want there to be a way, there’s no rules that say that one has to be here.”

Ein gave two yips and a bark, as if speaking.

“Right,” Kaldalis said, smiling down at the dog. “There might be! And I can wish for it all I want. But wishing only breaks the laws of reality if there exists laws that allow wishing to break them.” He reached down and scratched behind the dog’s ear briefly. “That’s how wishes work!”

Ein gave a questioning yap, as if asking about wishes. Or the rules of reality. Or possibly bacon.

Kaldalis immediately blurted out: “Deck of Many Things.” He laughed for a second. “You learn a lot about the intersection between wishes and rules when the Deck gets involved.”

The dog seemed appeased by that, and settled down to lay on the sand, staring out at the water. Something caught Kaldalis’s hook and he took a moment to reel it in before speaking again.

“I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t want to deal with The Contender,” Kaldalis said. He didn’t throw his line out again, and hunkered down beside the dog, favoring him with another scratch behind the ears. “But it seems like I have to. I have the tools to deal with him. I have friends. Connections. I think I can talk to him. Negotiate, even. I can’t really talk to the rules of reality.”

Ein yawned. It seemed that talking to him tired him out faster than letting him run around the beach. He’d have to remember that in the future.

“Maybe I should finish what’s in front of me, even though it makes me feel like a puppet,” Kaldalis grumbled. He didn’t like the idea. Not even a little. But there didn’t appear to be any other way. There was no path forward but along the strings he was dangling from. Through the Contender. “I guess that’s my answer,” Kaldalis said to Ein. “Thanks for helping me talk through it, buddy.”

The dog happily leaned into Kaldalis’s scratching fingers, clearly enjoying both the attention and the praise.

“Maybe I should get the band together and start talking about it,” Kaldalis said. “If the reason I’m taking this route is because I have the resources to deal with him, maybe I should start getting those resources together.”

Kaldalis sent the blissful pup back to the pet menu, and swapped his fishing rod for his spear again. He’d only caught a dozen more Pale Perch, but the clarity of mind was what he’d come for, and on that front, his goal was complete.

As he activated Nyxlas’s Augment and Jump, and started back towards Kayore, he found himself remembering a third problem he had to deal with.

Heluna.

Ultimately, he was going to need to keep her as far from his mind as possible. The challenge she represented legitimately scared him in a way that none of his other problems could.

He was facing down powerful church officials, and plotting to overthrow the laws of reality. How was it that the scariest problem he had before him remained his uncertain relationship with a lovely woman?

What was he, a YA protag?