The "chat room" was a room in a more literal sense than I was previously familiar with, stylized as a luxuriously furnished meeting room. And much unlike the last time we met, the Rainbow Mage didn't keep me waiting at all. I connected to the place the second the reservation became available, to discover that he had done the same. "We meet again, Otto. Or Toto? I'm sorry, I'm not clear what you prefer."

I mentally facepalmed. I was borderline babbling, and we hadn't even sat down. "At a time like this, it's Toto," he said, "I always use my official Tower name for business."

"I see..." Well, now we'd sat down, at least.

"Well, let's see it then," said the Rainbow Mage, and to my surprise he grinned and actually rubbed his hands together. It was the most emoting I'd ever seen from him, far more emotion than he'd displayed in either of the last two encounters.

"Err, straight to the point, of course." I materialized the virtual copy of the spellbook and laid it on the table.

"It really is incredible," he breathed, "and in all likelihood, the one granted for restoring the Mana Sanctuary will be even better. All right. I think the Mana Sanctuary is worth a visit. I admit, when I first got your attention I wondered for a long time if it was worth the risk, but it's already turning out to pay off in ways I never imagined. Perhaps we might even have cause to cooperate again, in the future."

"Would you consider a small cooperation now?" I asked. For I'd done some thinking over the time until this meeting, and if the Syndicate's real aims were anything like we were suspecting, the Rainbow Mage couldn't have failed to attract their attention just as I had.

"Of what kind?"

"We...that is to say, the team who is leading the Liberation Fleet project, have been given reason to suspect that the AFL is not directly responsible for the fall of the Sanctuaries. That there is an organization, moving in the shadows, one with some kind of vested interest in particularly strong challengers."

The Rainbow Mage raised his eyebrows, and in response I continued, "I seriously doubt that this is the first you have heard of this. I had the thought that perhaps we could compare notes on our own respective experiences of this nature."

"An information exchange then," said the Rainbow Mage, steepling his fingers, "yes, that might indeed help me confirm some suspicions. But a place like this isn't suitable for discussing such matters. Would you be willing to accept the hospitality of the Voltar again?"

"That would probably be best," I said, "if you are willing to further divert your own course."

"The Kinetice in Zone 327 are already quelled. Not a single one to be found outside of the Hive Worlds." He gave a shrug. "And besides, my entire team has hit the cap by now."

"I'm a little surprised that you're even staying in Area 1, then. Or do you plan to ascend straight away after the Mana Sanctuary?"

"Who can say what the future holds? I've been thinking just lately it might be worth sticking around to see how the rest of the Federation's grand quest unfolds. After all, even if I reactivate the Mana Sanctuary, it's still up to others to completely restore them. No one person can restore more than one Sanctuary, even if they can cast all elements. The Federation made that much clear to me from the first moment they started begging me to do it."

Yes...who can say? Now that you've changed the future, that is.

“Until next we meet, then.”

Otto nodded, and we both exited the chat session.

It felt as though the time to reenter the 7th Floor came in the blink of an eye, after that. For another blissful year, I spent time alone together with Mewi, nothing but easy work getting between us. Well, of course Serayne was with me too, and we spent lots of time getting used to fighting together. But she was very respectful, in fact she seemed almost reverent of the love I had for Mewi.

After a time like that, it almost startled me out of my boots to see Marshal Varstithon very conspicuously waiting outside the Basic Difficulty 7th Floor exit chamber. Bruzigan gathered us, then went to him and saluted. "Marshal sir, may I ask why you have come?"

"I need to speak to Lheticus in private." His tone was completely neutral, his expression stone-faced, but my heart sank. Well, this can't be good. "He will come with me to our Primary Headquarters. We hopefully won't be long."

Varstithon, of course, was one of the people of sufficient status to ride, and even have others ride, the Pantheon tram lines without going through the process of getting a ticket. We rode first to the Outer Atrium, then to Section 10. On the way, neither of us spoke, though I looked at his face more than I had ever made eye contact with just about anybody, but I couldn't get a read on him at all. He made the statues we passed by look animated.

He led me into the Federation military's Primary Headquarters, taking a very confusing route up floors and through corridors. Finally, he led me into a very small, dull room. I tensed as I realized that this place looked suspiciously like an interrogation chamber.

"So, Lheticus. We've barely managed to have eyes on the Voltar for a few weeks, and suddenly, not ten minutes after we conclude final negotiations with him for the reactivation of the Mana Sanctuary, it sets what is clearly an intercept course with the Firebrand. Do you have an explanation for this?"

With how strongly I suspected the Syndicate to have its hooks into Varstithon, I couldn't just tell the truth. But I was in no state to come up with a good lie. Well, I was much better at splitting the difference between the two anyway.

"The Rainbow Mage wishes to meet with me in person, for a private matter between us unrelated to the contact mission. Sir."

Varstithon glared at me. "An evasive answer, Special Operative Lheticus. I believe I warned you not to trust the Rainbow Mage. You would have done better to have taken that seriously."

I couldn't restrain my incredulity. "With all due respect sir, I decide who to trust and who not to for myself. It was always out in the open that, strictly speaking, that I—and the rest of the allied team members, the leader excepted—are not actually part of the Federation military's command structure. The military doesn't even employ me, sir, Grosstin faction does. For the sake of restoring the safe zones, we agreed to take orders from you as overall operation commander. That's a far cry from owning me, which is what you'd need to do to dictate such a thing to me as you tried to do just now.”

For quite a while, Varstithon only glared at me. Then he sighed. "It appears," he said, standing up from where he sat, "that you are under a number of misconceptions about your position."

A moment later, his body emanated an aura of such overwhelming power that I was kept from rising myself, or even moving, by it alone. "You are extremely fortunate that the Liberation Fleets operate in the public eye. You are luckier than you can possibly realize that I am the one in charge of herding you god-damn cats. If my sister got her claws into you for the barest fraction of a second...”

He trailed off, but only for a moment. “I don’t care how much power you think the Syndicate holds—however much you think, you’re underestimating them. Our information on the true nature and scope of that organization is held in a secret file only accessible by the president and Federation Council chairman. President Krendell granted me access when I was appointed Marshal. He suspected the Syndicate was behind the fall of the Sanctuaries from the start. My point is, the Rainbow Mage’s power is incredible, true, but it’s not likely even he can help you much when it comes to them.

Did you earnestly think that they would not realize that such thoughts are the most likely reason that you would make such an overture to the Rainbow Mage?”

In the next instant, the overwhelming pressure was gone. In fact, it was as though it had never been there. Varstithon sat back down, seeming once again totally calm. “Well, nothing you do will make any difference to that anyway, and nothing you said to me was mistaken, strictly speaking. And it’s true that the Federation owes much to you, with your having successfully fulfilled your primary role in the Liberation Fleet project.

So, feel free to do just exactly as you wish...for now.” He stood up again. “Come. We should be returning you to your beloved Mewi. Can’t have you missing your usual ritual of saying your goodbyes at the Dimensional Gate, now can we?”

Serayne was beside herself when I returned. “What happened?! I sensed strong terror from you. Did that marshal do something to you?”

“I’ll get into it with you and Mewi both once we’re headed to the Dimensional Gate...”

Edwin was there to hear what happened too, saying he may as well finish the job since he’d already come in person. All three were in an uproar over what Varstithon had done, but he was the one who had a genuine—and worrying—thought to share. “Even for a High Admiral, that kind of immense power is unheard of in Area 1. Could he have been with them all along?”

“I don’t know,” said Mewi, “if that was the case then it means they’ve been manipulating both sides to a degree we don’t have real reason to suspect...”

“Maybe...”

But the possibility still hung in the air all the way to the Dimensional Gate.