A familiar throne room appeared all around Claud and Lily as the two of them stepped across the threshold, and an intense presence began to weigh down on his senses. The oppressive might radiating from the…thing sitting in the throne was so immense that Claud couldn’t muster up the thought of resistance.

“Don’t be so uptight.” The void resting on the throne chuckled.

“Lesser Half’s right,” another voice chimed in, and the shadows retreated to reveal Count Lostfon, who was sitting to the throne’s side and gesturing with a biscuit elegantly. “Relax. We’re just here as the strongest people in this city. Which is not a lot…and yes, here she is.”

Darkness rippled, and a shadow coalesced, before dropping to her knees once. “Lord, I have arrived.”

“Don’t be formal with me, Dust.” The void in front of Claud shifted slightly. “Now that everyone of interest is present, let us begin this…social gathering, shall we?”

“Social gathering?” Lily asked, her voice slow and respectful.

“I am told that this is something that humans do. To exchange bits of information and intrigue over an elegant meal, and maybe to do trade favours and help each other out,” Lesser Half replied. “Everyone present is not only the strongest in this city, but people who had earned my approval one way or another. In a sense, I have granted you status fitting as a peer of mine.”

“I thank you, Lord.” Dust, the Dark Herald, bowed her head.

“Now, now. Enough of this.” Lesser Half paused. “I can sense a burning curiosity in three people here, so let me explain my actions. You humans are fascinating. The will to rebel and the will to comply are intertwined so deeply, as illustration. The purpose of these sessions is to allow me to understand you humans.”

Claud looked at the throne as the divinity continued to speak. Lesser Half’s…body, if he could call it that, was a rip in space that led to a vast starry sky. Within the faint illumination of the starlight within, innumerable cubes floated around in silence, radiating a serene might.

In summary, Lesser Half wanted to learn more about humans, the beings with the highest population through the world. To that end, the divinity had figured that trying out the basics — interacting with humans — were the best way to start, although Lesser Half had tried his hand at watching stage plays and reading books too.

Today’s theme was trying to find people to talk to.

“How do I factor in all this, Lord?” Dust asked.

“In my eyes, you are quite…human too. Or maybe humans are quite like my children.” Lesser Half paused. “And I do need someone who can translate any areas I am missing.”

The Dark Herald lowered her head. “Yes, Lord.”

Claud couldn’t help but grow more and more curious, and as that emotion reached a peak, Lesser Half’s presence strengthened slightly. The rift that seemed to be his body or something formed a shadowy hand and gestured at Claud, before saying, “You are very curious about something. Why not voice it for all to hear?”

“Uh…it’s about language, I suppose.” Claud couldn’t help but find something off about the whole thing. “Language is a human construct, isn’t it? In that case, how is it that you, the Dark Heralds and presumably the Shadowed Ones speak the same language as us?”

The shimmering void paused as everyone turned to look at Claud, and the master thief felt a bit nervous. Lily definitely knew that part of this question came from their exploration of the Celestia Ruins, but what about the others?

“That’s…” Dust hesitated. “I never thought of that before.”

“I mean, beings on your level” —Claud nodded at Lesser Half— “don’t need language, right? But why is it that you speak, and in the language of our world?”

“Like the Celestia Ruins,” Count Lostfon murmured. “Isn’t it? Now that I think about it, this is something worth investigating.”

Everyone turned to look at Lesser Half, who simply replied, “I cannot provide an answer for the time being, regretfully. Still, since we are on the topic of the Celestia Ruins…something problematic happened there a few days ago. It’s also one of the reasons why I gathered everyone here today.”

“A few days ago?” Count Lostfon asked, and Claud thought about the time when he and Lily broke out of the ruins, angering Greater Half and prompting the

“Greater Half was attempting to crack open the Celestia Ruins when…something problematic broke out of it a week or so ago,” Lesser Half replied. “It is an adversary, the end of the cycle. Every Godsfall, the adversary appears and attempts to subvert the order of the five grand skies.”

Claud, who was half-expecting to hear about a Bearer of Destiny, nearly tilted his head out of sheer confusion. Lily, who had known the truth of what happened that day, was probably equally confused, but the two of them had more than enough presence of mind to not actually show it.

“The adversary…are you referring to that adversary mentioned in the faction mission?” Count Lostfon asked. “The one that gives 22% to your victory percentage?”

“Oh?” The void froze. “Ah, I see. The five grand skies must be behind this…yes, indeed. By the way, that faction mission automatically completes itself after fifty years or when there are less than a tenth of our foot soldiers on either side, at which point the rewards are dispensed. I am told that there are very confused Dark Heralds that don’t know when the quest is complete.”

“Well, the requirement was to have one side win,” Dust chimed in, and Claud glanced at the Dark Herald.

His gaze shifted to Lily a moment later as the repercussions of those words hit them — for some reason, the Dark Heralds also had a Status. Was that supposed to happen?

As Lesser Half chuckled, a few shimmering shadows appeared into view, and the world blurred over for a moment. When it next returned into focus, everyone was now seated around a round table, seats next to each other. The table was filled with dishes, and Claud blinked.

This was a marvellous feat.

“What is a social gathering without a feast?” Lesser Half looked at the dishes. “I hope these are to your liking. As you can tell, I can’t quite eat, which is fairly disappointing. That said, it is my earnest wish that everyone present treat this as a standard social gathering and behave accordingly.”

“Very well.” Lostfon paused. “So what did Greater Half do afterwards? We’re still waiting for you to complete that very exciting story, Lesser Half.”

“Well, he scoured the world with a very powerful attack, but I am not sure whether he succeeded or not. Nonetheless, the effort was enough to rebalance the state of affairs, allowing the Moons to take a few steps forward,” Lesser Half replied.

“Speaking of that,” Dust interrupted, “we have to thank you, Lostfon. Recruitment of mercenaries and fresh troops have been very successful due to your actions so far.”

“It is a fair trade, and to be honest, I was very pissed with those who fled in the first place,” Lostfon replied.

A chuckle came from the formless void. “Indeed, but you might want to make it less obvious. One of my avatars overheard Lord and Lady Primus discussing this issue, and one reason why I invited them here was because they had guessed the truth.”

“You guys noticed all that?” Lostfon asked, a touch of shock in his words. “How did you guess?”

“We just did?” Lily replied. “I mean, it was quite obvious, wasn’t it? There was so much free manpower, but you just let them lie around and stew in discontent. With the attractive terms — relatively speaking, anyway — of the recruiters from the great Dark, anyone with a brain could tell that you were doing it on purpose.”

“Bummer. But even if they know, so what?” Lostfon fiddled with his plate and picked up a fork, before ferrying some sliced pieces of what seemed like fried beancurd. “They can accept it, or just trek all the way to Quies, I don’t care. They sure didn’t care when they fled this city.”

There was some bitterness in those words, and Claud had to forcibly resist the urge to wince. Clearly, the count had felt betrayed by their flight, and he had even bottled it up for some time. All this definitely meant that he didn’t have much goodwill to those who fled.

Whether his anger was justified or not, however, Claud wasn’t going to make a stand on this. He was neither qualified nor knowledgeable enough to comment on the finer aspects of government and ruling; Lily might come close, but she didn’t have the actual experience either.

“It’s your call, I suppose.” Lily shrugged. “It’s quite obvious to those who can think, though, and you don’t want those who can think to be your enemy.”

The count tapped the table thoughtfully, and then inclined his head in her direction. “I’ll think about it, then.”

“Please do.”

Claud turned his attention to Lesser Half, who was observing their conversation with what felt like relish, but he couldn’t tell for sure. He didn’t want to seem rude, however, so he eventually moved his gaze to Dust.

“So, uh, about that little Shadow toddler, Zin…how is the little fellow now?”

“Gurgling happily, last I checked.” Dust smiled. “He seems to want to see you guys again, though. I think he likes you two.”

“Can we visit?”

Dust paused. “…I don’t know how, actually.”

Lesser Half let out a small chuckle. “How about I bring you two there?”