"Ronan. The Town Entity Cluster would like to speak with you," the synthetic voice read out from the tablet in Alan's hand. The man wasn't in sight from where I was working, but the machine voice was unmistakable.

I climbed down from the roof of the building using the series of steps I'd created by minimizing to as much as my body could tolerate. By the time I made it to the figure of Alan, he was striking a tuning fork against the mana-created stone and taking readings on the same tablet that let him speak. My chest clenched as I looked at Alan, and not for the first time.

In his bid to save us, the non-Fallen had pushed his Traits to their limits. Quite literally, the man had burned himself out to reach the Death Territory in time to stop the Aberrant and Galloway. The price had been his voice and a disconcerting amount of scars that seemed to trace either nerves or veins. Much like healing dismemberment and other more serious ailments, the Life Attuned had not been able to help Alan. Ophelia and Diana had been able to purge and stabilize the man enough not to drown in his own blood, but that had only aggravated the injuries when they attempted to do a more precise job.

Regardless, the wheezing husk that was the brightest mind on MetierTech, spell chains and mana in general didn't seem bothered by his injuries in the least, at least when it didn't concern struggling with communications.

"Hello Alan. I'm glad to see you are doing well," I said by way of greeting.

"Platitudes, Ronan. My health is stable, and my work is unimpeded. The Entity has requested your presence in exchange for further data collected in the core influenced region of its energy field," the tablet read out as Alan typed madly away. "Haste, if possible."

"You know you could have used the comm-plant, Alan," I said. For my own benefit, I added softly, "The mental communication works just as well as the verbal ones, per your design."

"Multifaceted trip," Alan replied. "Ava has suggested that my research topside has affected my level of physical activity. My body seems to agree, so I conglomerated the tasks."

"Sure, don't let me stop you," I said, shaking my head at the man's oddities. Nevertheless, if he was here it had to be something important. 'Conglomerating' of tasks aside, Alan was a master at prioritization. He completed the Implants in less than two years with minimal testing, and created the Aberrant purging device in roughly a month. Said device had not survived the task, and it had required more than a little elbow grease on my and Devon's part, but it was the only reason any of us were still alive on the surface.

"Magnificent. As for your development in the usage of your Active Genetic Modification..."

For the short walk from the Crafters Hall to the Metier Crystal in the center of town Alan pestered me about how my Harmonic Sinew was developing. Other than updating him on my improved control of my vibrosense, nothing had changed with the Trait. The appearance of the progression percentages for Devon, Olivia, Danny and I was something that still seemed to stump the quirky researcher. To the joy of my budding headache, the moment I arrived within the Blessing of Magic a tentacle of crystal reached down from the bulk of Tec's body to pluck me into the whitespace.

"You know, he was mid sentence," I called out into the white void. Three glowing orbs of pulsing light materialized in the air above me. The orbs shifted, taking on different geometric shapes in an attempt to make themselves more identifiable in their unifying iridescence. The only time the three Entity Clusters had been on a magical conference call at once had been in the aftermath of the fight with the Aberrant, where there had been more questions than answers even for the artificial crystalline minds.

--Authority above our own has called this gathering--

---Affirmative. Expediency was key---

"Hey, Bec. Good to hear a sensible voice amidst those two," I said, nodding towards the pulsing light that had opted to remain an orb instead of some weird prism. It was hard to match the way the light shifted, but the sensible tone and equally sensible shape spoke for itself.

Before the Bunker Entity Cluster could respond, the whitespace vibrated around me. What looked like stress fractures spiderwebbed all around, letting in a gray-tinged darkness not dissimilar to what I saw when I freed Afflicted from the Dreg. As the fractures covered more and more of the space, a pyramid of pulsing light on a different magnitude of intensity manifested above the three smaller Entities.

[-] Perceptive. Should facilitate our discussion. Human, contact the representatives of your group and seek an audience at my physical manifestation.[-]

Just as quickly as they'd appeared, the cracks vanished, sealing themselves in reverse order of their appearance. The pyramid popped like a soap bubble and the whitespace was restored. I blinked to clear my eyes from the strange visual effects and mind numbing contrast of dark and light before I was able to formulate a response.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, turning to Bec in the hopes of getting a coherent response.

---+---

"You want us to do what?" Sarah asked.

"I need to put together a group of people to represent all of our interests," I said. "There is something inherently different about Gec. I'm not sure what and the other Entities haven't told me anything they didn't already. The only explanation lies in the fact that Gec is a Category above either Tec or Wec."

"Can we trust this Entity?" Dylan said, leaning back and steepling his fingers. The man had been surprisingly quiet since the transformation of the memorial and the death of Kirby. Everything he did took an extra moment of deliberation and this seemed to be no different.

"No idea. While I trust the Entities we've dealt with so far, I don't think our relationship with Gec is going to be a simple thing. If someone charges into your pleasantly relaxed meeting, guns blazing, you certainly get an opinion about them," I said.

"Ironic," Irwin said, gesturing vaguely at me and my friends. "I seem to recall something quite familiar happening not too long ago."

"Irwin, it's not the time for us to lecture them on their lack of political soft touch," Dylan said, wagging his finger all the while. He clearly wants to do just that. "I just want to make sure we aren't sending people to get swallowed up by this rock. Is it completely free of that... Aberrant thing?"

"After Devon and Ronan killed Galloway, the crystal melted into sludge before dissociating like all the other stuff. I can only hope that the assurances from our Entities are enough," Clara said, speaking for the first time in the meeting.

"If it gets frisky, then we get frisky right back," Daniela added with a flat expression. The council, other than Sarah, still didn't look convinced. "What? Not the first magical rock we've... Well, rocked."

"Daniela," Samuel groaned, holding the bridge of his nose.

"What about Alan? Can your researcher tell us anything?" Irwin said, turning to me.

"Alan isn't looking into that right now. He's working to figure out the percentages that some of our Traits have acquired. He's particularly interested in why they show up at Q6 and in a handful of Q5 individuals. Until he reaches a comprehensive stopping point, it would be difficult to redirect him," I replied, thinking of Alan. The moment I'd left Tec with the message from Gec the man had practically dove into the large crystal. At least him and Tec didn't like to mince words, otherwise the two would never leave the whitespace. Less of a problem for Tec, but Alan still needed to eat.

"So what? We chance going into its home turf?" asked the fishermen's councilman, Trey.

"I don't see many options. As much as this fight was a win, there is a whole world out there," I said, thinking of my words to Arnold. Wildwood was important, but there were likely others that could use help. They didn't even have to be far from the town, just outside of where their power had been able to reach.

"I am inclined to agree with the Vanguard," old man William said. "Isolationism was what led to our current predicament. Perhaps if we'd reached out earlier after the Fall, our struggles would have been lessened."

The farming councilman made it no secret that he wasn't a fan of the Bunkerites and even Samuel only got the occasional nod of approval thanks to what he'd done for Wildwood's farming industry. That he verbally agreed with me showed that Clara's message to interconnect the towns had finally gotten through some of the most stubborn heads.

"I still don't like it," Trey said.

"Good thing this is a council and not a dictatorship," Irwin said. "Anything else to add before we let the Bunker Busters move forward on this?"

"Do we still pretend that we tell these three and their family what to do?" Sarah asked, leaning back in her chair. That got a round of chuckles out of the scattered Wild Guard in the room and a grimace from the older council members.

"Point made, Sarah," Dylan said, giving his daughter a 'we'll talk about this later' look that the orc woman poignantly ignored. "All in favor?"

Every hand, even the ones from non-council spectators, went up. Even Trey sighed deeply before joining the others.

"I'll send a squad to relay a message to Stonecrest. We have close to a wagon's worth of goods for Lake Weir and you can do double duty escorting it," Irwin said, holding a clipboard gingerly in his clawed hands.

"They should have some of the things I requested available to ship south too," Samuel added, which put decidedly positive expressions on Irwin and William's faces.

"Good! Maybe we can finally get a proper economy going," Irwin said. I could almost see the dollar signs replacing his pupils.

"Who's gonna ride our coattails?" Daniela asked, leaning back in her chair further than Sarah. The chair balanced perfectly on two of the legs. The orc woman glared at Daniela, but all she got in reply was a mischievous grin.

"'Ride your coattails'?" Irwin asked.

"We can't speak for Wildwood. We speak for the Dreg Warrior effort and for the Bunker. You should speak for yourselves," I said. I waved my hand vaguely at the people sitting around the large meeting room. "Gec asked for representatives. I want to make sure everyone has a seat. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be a... weightier discussion than we expect."

"What makes you say that?" Dylan asked, his fire hair simmering low on his head.

"I've never heard the Entities talk about an authority that affects them," I said. The room fell silent as everyone contemplated my words.