Izzik flinched, but didn’t make a move to run. So he had been lying, but it wasn’t bad enough that Izzik feared for his life. Which was as good as Elach could have hoped for, given the circumstances.

“Izzik might not have told the entire truth.” Izzik quietly admitted. “But Izzik also does not remember the entire truth. The darkseed inside Izzik ate away at those memories until nothing remained except a yawning hole to tell Izzik they were once there. The eggs are the Elach’s only chance at finding the whole truth. Free from darkspawn or darkseed spinning the tale for their own ends.”

“Need anything clarified?” Elach asked, leaning on the outside of the hideaway as he watched Izzik run off into the distance.

Shar shook her head, but paused before speaking. “I believe everything he told you, unfortunately. I’ve seen people like him before, but they’re usually under the effects of mental Issi. This is simply a hole where something used to be, and nothing will return those memories.”

“And you know that… how?”

Shar’s face cracked into a sly grin. “I wasn’t stationed on the eleventh floor for no reason. Being observant is a need for a hidden asset.”

“So observant that Glasrime’s apprentices slipped right by you?” Elach quipped.

“Funny man.” Shar said with a swat of the back of her hand. “No, I was the one that alerted the Emperor to our intruders. But he wanted me to remain hidden, since they weren’t strong enough to pose a real threat. That’s why you were sent after them in the first place.”

Elach raised his eyebrows in surprise, then slowly nodded. It fit with everything else Shar had told him, and it gave a reason to why she had been stuck on floors eleven through twenty for so long; Hoalt didn’t want to unsheathe his hidden weapon. Or, more likely, one of his many hidden weapons. And especially not for some practitioners that Elach got close-ish to defeating on his own.

“He probably expected whoever’s in charge of floor twenty one to deal with them, right?” Elach theorized, tapping his fingers against his forearm. “But obviously they didn’t. Isn’t that a really bad sign?”

“I suppose so.” Shar said with a shrug. “It could also be that they reported their involvement to the Emperor, and he told them to stand down because he was sending you. But we can ask him ourselves once we find Prisoner; now we need to get whatever information’s inside those eggs into your head.”

A wave of exhaustion gave Elach a slightly different idea. “Maybe after a good night’s sleep. And most of the morning too.” He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, groaning at the slight pain in his muscles from Flow’s technique. “We still have plenty of time, and it feels like we’re ahead of schedule. Unless you don’t think we can afford six to eight hours?”

“Actually, I can go through those eggs while you sleep and tell you everything through your dreams!” Y’talla chimed in, her voice drowning out whatever Shar’s response was. “It might feel a little weird to start, but you’ll get used to it. Probably.”

“Did you hear anything I just said?” Shar asked, tapping her foot against an exposed root impatiently. “Was Y’talla speaking to you?”

“She was.” Elach confirmed. “Apparently she can let me sleep and see whatever’s in those eggs at the same time. So we won’t lose any time at all.”

“Excellent. To reiterate what you missed; I’m going to try some things with the pieces of Occril and the scorpion while you sleep. And in the morning, we set out for Lighthome.” Shar decreed, gently shaking the lantern that held half of the lights Izzik had gathered.

“Thanks! Bye!” Y’talla waved, hopping off the invisible platform and down to the shattered spring. “See you in your dreams!”

Elach waved goodbye, turning the coin between his fingers absentmindedly as he remembered the feeling from the fight with Occril. One side felt like a normal coin, albeit far more valuable, but the other felt like something completely different. Looking down at his symbol as he placed it on the indent for the empty space that was his normal headspace, he felt like he was staring down at the concept of a coin, but not the coin itself.

It was like the promise of value, but not value itself. A merchant’s deal to be paid at time of delivery, subject to whatever upsells and barters might happen at the end. He flipped the coin and the feeling completely disappeared, the coin back to its regular valuable self. Except it now held the image of a single link of chain, one that wasn’t there moments ago.

“I am not awake enough for this.” Elach chuckled, rubbing his hand down his face and shaking his head. “Maybe it’ll all be back to normal in the morning.”

The first useful dream came in the middle of a boring one, interrupting a scene of managing a slow day at the family candy shop. Elach sighed and rolled a green sphere of hard candy across the counter, one moment bored out of his mind at the seemingly infinite shift, and finding himself in the middle of a massive spider web the next. It glowed a yellow so close to white it was almost imperceptible, a scene of many non-shadowed bugs sitting on stools made from a deep black wood frozen in time until it fully took over his mind.

A small piece of paper drifted by, and Elach snatched it out of the air with two fingers. He unfolded it to reveal a message from Y’talla. It read; ‘The orange and yellow eggs were pretty much only about how to use the bugs’ light. Boring, so I didn’t bother. What you’re about to see is the cool stuff I found from red and white. Rip this in half to start the memory, and enjoy the show!’

Elach nodded to himself and looked up at the bugs, trying to move but finding that his entire lower body was fixed in place. He shrugged and gripped the paper between his hands, ripping it down the middle in one swift motion.

A sound like the reverberations after a giant bell had been struck washed over him, pressing his thoughts into the background as Elach fell into the mind of something else. Worry and trepidation overwhelmed him, along with a burning hatred directed at something that wasn’t present among all the bugs. Elach tried to grimace, but his face didn’t respond. Because it couldn’t respond in that way. He didn’t have lips anymore.

“The Luminous Web welcomes representative Myttos, torchbearer of Lighthome.” An overly long bug person announced, curling around a podium that sat in the perfect center of the web. “What brings Myttos here, the web wonders, after centuries cut off?”

“Representative Myttos, torchbearer of Lighthome, greets the Luminous Web.” Elach spoke, four legs carrying him towards the empty podium. His feet met resistance the closer he got to the center, the web itself attempting to halt his momentum. He pushed light down to his legs, his bright orange body glowing with lines of very deep blue, barely making it to the podium with labored breaths.

The other bugs seemed to sit straighter at that display, and the millipede moved out of the way to let him onto the podium with a nod of acknowledgement. He heard whispers of great lights, and felt his heart swell with pride, but he didn’t let it show on his face. He needed these people’s help for a reason he didn’t know, since he only had access to Myttos’ thoughts, not his memories.

He looked around, scanning the entirety of the web in a slow turn before settling on seven thrones each decorated completely differently. Only six of them were occupied, and none of their occupants seemed happy to see Myttos.

“Representative Myttos stands before the luminous web with a plea.” Elach spoke in a voice not his own. He tried not to let the desperation show through, but the great centipede’s legs clicked in interest. That was never a good sign. “The Gilded Night changes. Where Myttos’ people were once free to hunt, the night’s infinite eyes now watch in contempt. Light and meat are scarce, and no amount of coin can buy the minds of corpses.”

“Gilded Hoalt has had a change of heart?” The centipede laughed, shaking her head while her light flickered in amusement. “Lighthome abandoned the web to curry the Night’s favor. Took much of the web’s warriors with the promise of meat and slaughter. What does Myttos ask of the web that the Night cannot provide?”

Elach felt Myttos’ thoughts run over his meticulously practiced speech, and felt his blood run cold. “Myttos asks for the sickly spawn of praetor Ghravv to aid Lighthome’s fight against the Gilded Night’s tyranny.”

Unfortunately for Elach, Myttos’ mind wandered to the spawn of praetor Ghravv. Images of three eggs coated in thick black strands of ooze like a mixture of spider web and pond scum flashed over his eyes, a power rooted in sickness that threatened to devour the life of any and everything that touched them. Almost exactly like how he remembered the wolf Hoalt’s Issi feeling, except without the overwhelming feeling of isolation.

The smallest of the throne-occupiers buzzed in disgust, eyeing Myttos with distaste. His bright red body carried far more strength than his size presumed, and when his colony was behind him, the ant king of Brightcolony was unmatched. “Myttos brings death to the Gilded Night. Gilded Hoalt will retaliate in kind.” He spoke as if stating a simple fact. “If the web decrees to aid Lighthome, Brightcolony will warn the Gilded Night before death can be brought. Gilded Hoalt will spare none if the Gilded Night falls.”

The other leaders squabbled as Myttos watched in horror, his speech forgotten in the quagmire of disdain for aiding Lighthome. There was no love for his home, just as Lighthome had no love for the Luminous Web when they accepted the Gilded Night’s offer to become the city’s ruthless enforcers. The rest of the memory passed by in a blur, and ended with the Luminous Web completely and utterly rejecting Lighthome’s plea for aid.

“Whoah.” Elach muttered, finally able to move his upper body again as the web dissolved into complete darkness. “So Lighthome brought this on themselves. But why would Hoalt let them live after they created the other Hoalt?”

Another note flitted through the darkness, perfectly white against the background. It paused right before Elach’s face, and he leaned back a little as he unfolded it.

“You’re probably wondering why all the bugs aren’t dead if they screwed with Hoalt right about now.” Y’talla wrote. “I was too, especially after I broke the stupid egg to get to the deep memory you just saw. It’s barely explained, so you’ll have to ask Hoalt next time you see him. Heck, he might not know the bugs are here at all. Remember, rip this to start.”

Elach ripped the paper, and the scene before him played out as if sped up. He wasn’t back in Myttos’ body, but was sitting on the ground perfectly motionless. He felt like everything else was an eternity away, the all-consuming isolation eating away at him moment after moment. Then suddenly, a light. A brilliant, dark blue light. While Elach recognized it, whatever he was certainly didn’t. But that didn’t stop him hungering for it.

Two arms lifted him off the ground, and Elach saw his pitch-black surface reflected in Myttos’ lightblood soaked face. “Hello there.” Myttos cooed, a slightly drunk joy showing through the gore. “The Great Lights extend an offer to Ghravv’s spawn to join the halls of Lighthome.”

Elach pushed out rapid, desperate acceptance.

Myttos’ laugh was manic, filled with equal parts joy and malice. “Lighthome welcomes the three spawn of Ghravv.”

That was the last Elach heard before the darkness disappeared, replaced with a fairly familiar city. The bottom half of the Gilded Night was much like he remembered, save for the fact that nobody was shrouded in the wolf’s isolating obscurity.

“It is time for the feast.” Myttos said, a liliting laugh spilling out around his words. “The weaklings who gave in to Gilded Hoalt’s demands will weep at the freedom carved out today.”

Another quick shift in scenery, this time from the ground. It felt cold, as if everything was leaving him. Words were spoken in the distance, but he couldn’t make out any of them. He rolled over to his back, the perfectly black ceiling of the Gilded Night’s lower floor the only thing he could make out through the almost black purple covering half of his face. A face Elach recognized leaned over him, ablaze with power and utter hatred as it leered down at him.

“I gave you an option. Plenty of food and coin to make it through the winter and start a new colony. Hells, you had every chance to come back and live in the pillar with your memories only slightly altered to get rid of most of the murderous instincts your people have.” Hoalt spat, golden Issi gathering in his eyes as the wings of a technique unfurled behind his back.

“Ghravv’s spawn does not know…” Elach croaked before the wind was stolen from his lungs.

“No, you did not. Because you are merely a weapon.” Hoalt said plainly, a column of molten gold erupting off into the distance. Elach could swear he heard Myttos scream, then complete silence. “Your siblings have been dealt with. Their sickening Issi scoured from existence. But you…”

Hoalt bent over, and there was something else gleaming in his eyes. “You could be an asset.”