Randidly felt an impulse to chuckle at her reaction, but it wasn’t enough to overcome his desire to cry. Tears continued to roll down across his face as he looked over at Devick. Belatedly, he admitted to himself how out of it he really was: not only had he failed to sense her approach, but he couldn’t even muster up enough self-position to stop.

Her presence aggravated the feelings in his body. The trembling in his shoulders grew worse. But he also felt too exhausted to try and restrain it.

They stood there for a few seconds with her question hanging in the air between them. Devick looked entirely scandalized as she pulled herself the rest of the way on top of the rock face. “I- t-this is a bit weird right? If I made you uncomfortable-”

“This… is a personal issue.” He managed to croak. Then he bit back a sob and lowered his head.

“I… oh.” Devick said rather dumbly.

“You might even be able to understand,” Randidly’s voice was raw. He barely cared that she was probably drawn here by the complex significance between them, without really understanding why. He managed to raise his head. “I’m just… trying to acknowledge how hard my teenage years were.”

He sucked in a shaky breath; talking helped rid his body of the tension too. He coughed and continued. “Facing the bad memories. And at the time, the reason I was able to sail right on through was just by… ignoring the problems. Undoing all those years of studious ignorance isn’t very comfortable.”

“Huh.” Devick blinked several times. She produced a handkerchief from a pocket and offered it to him. Randidly waved it away, pulling a towel out of his interspatial ring and getting rid of the lingering snot and tears on his face. He felt strangely detached, knowing he must look rather off-putting. Yet she watched him nervously, as though she were the one doing the emotional display. “Well… you certainly not a child anymore. You’ve escaped, right? Maybe you don’t need to dig so deeply into those things if they are such a burden.”

“You would recommend I just bottle everything up?” Randidly finally did chuckle. Some of the explosive insanity that defined her current version of herself made a lot more sense if that was her coping strategy.

“Tsk, don’t give me that look. You know something that is always bottled in nice and tight? Fireworks. And no one can deny how glamorous a concoction they become when ignited.” Devick flashed a ghost of a smile. But it quickly faded as she looked over him once more. She kicked her toes in the dirt. “I… Well, I really didn’t expect to find you like this. And I know you purposefully ran away from me before, at the game. But I just… I just had to find you. Sorry. I’m not- well, only a partial stalker.”

“Heh. Partial, huh? You found me. But let’s leave it at that.” Randidly released a sigh. The sun had begun to set and the intoxicating smell of barbecue swirled around the farm. He wiped the last few tears from his cheeks. Finally, he felt his body loosening up. “There is a connection between us… that defies common explanation. Still, let’s just have these two meetings and part ways. Becoming involved isn’t good for either of us.”

“T-two meetings? You-” Devick’s face began to flush. Over the next few seconds, her head was as red as a tomato. She kept her mouth open, her eyes bulging, clearly struggling with her own embarrassment.

Randidly tilted his head to the side. “What is it?”

“Haha…hah… of course. You don’t even remember…” Devick slumped onto her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs. Now, she very purposefully didn’t look at him. “I can only assume… I mean you are a Nether King, right? Journeying throughout the Aether lands. So I’m sure you meet a lot of people, even people in dramatic situations. And look, I’m not saying that I’m the most- haaaah, but at least, I… I thought my hair color would be pretty memorable…”

By the end, Devick mumbled into her knees. Randidly scratched his chin but didn’t press. He just leaned back in sucked in a deep breath. Weirdly, some of the constricting anger at his past was starting to wane as his body experienced this cathartic release. Crying up here, even being surprised by Devick, was strangely soothing.

Even so, he didn’t have enough spare emotional energy to engage in whatever was going on with Devick.

She cleared her throat eventually, still flushed but with a determined expression on her face. She got back to her feet and brushed off her robe. “Look, okay, this… we’ve met before. You’ve saved my life, in fact. From marauding Nether Kings. It was foolish of me to just assume that meeting would have affected you as m-much as it did me. Because you just vanished, so I’ve been searching-”

“Wait, what?” That snapped Randidly’s attention around. “We’ve… you remember?”

“So you do remember me!” Devick’s expression brightened for a moment, that warm naivety shining through her smile. But lightning quick, her mercurial features settled back down into a pout. “Hey, wait a minute. Did you think I wouldn’t remember having my life saved by a dashing Nether King? You know, I want to stress that I’ve only ever been a damsel in distress once in my life. The rest of the time, I protect myself very well, thank you very much.”

“We…” Randidly licked his lips. His mind spun. In his chest, his Nether Core began to rev with an intensity he hadn’t encountered before. Even as the departure of tension left him emotionally exhausted, this revelation forced his mind back into top form.

Then… all the memories are connected. That’s why I could travel directly from one to the other. I can affect this version of events, which was a giant dream created by Elhume. Which unfortunately means that my efforts at the upcoming trial will have lasting consequences: if I want to understand the actual flow of events, I’ll need to keep my profile as low as possible.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Then my plan to demolish Drane Swacc is a bit… And that isn’t even taking into account whatever important detail was changed in this version of events by Elhume. Huh, maybe I can examine the significance in the memories to try and find inauthentic qualities.

Shit. There are so many other things to consider-

His mind swirled with possibilities, worries, and realizations. His actions in the memories had meaning. He could alter the flow of events. Which should have been reassuring, but now he also realized the problems with this development.

“You stop to think a lot,” Devick interjected, her face still sour. She vaguely waved a fist in the air. “Aren’t you worried about being ambushed?”

Randidly rubbed his chin. It honestly hurt his pride he hadn’t noticed her approach. “Usually, most people don’t notice when I’m thinking. Or just don’t call me out on it. But you know, I do a lot of thinking while fighting. And that hasn’t stopped me from winning most of my fights, these days.”

“Okay, okay, that’s enough, mister undefeatable. No one likes a braggart,” Devick grimaced. But then she took a step toward him while keeping her eyes on the ground. “But… I suppose the fact I notice makes me special. What did you say about it? Our connection defies common explanation.”

You are special for more reasons than you know, Randidly thought as he nodded. Back in the current timeline, you are one of the few people who would wipe the floor with me. But still, now that I have so much emotional force, that clash might be getting closer…

Haaah, one set of problems at a time…

Clearing his throat, Randidly said. “Alright, let’s head back. I’m feeling better now. And that barbecue smells damn good.”

The duo began moving, with Devick following a short distance behind him. The air between them felt strange and almost companionable. Intuitively, he understood that Devick wouldn’t share that she had seen him crying. And weirdly, releasing that emotion and it simply being accepted by someone else-

Actions like that were what I always needed, mom, Randidly sighed inwardly. To distract himself, he asked Devick a question. “By the way, why are you competing on a Hobfootie team? The first time I met you, I just assumed you already had a Class. Is… everything alright?”

While speaking, Randidly had bumped up against his worry that Devick’s adoptive father hadn’t handled Randidly’s refusal to hand over Devick very well. However, Devick only grinned. “Oh, everything’s fine. Ole’ Byuresk actually sponsored the team, at my direction. I’ve wanted to focus on working with Padraic to learn patterns, but I also didn’t want- I don’t want to be weak. I figured sharpening my edge on the Hobfootie field would be the best way.

“Besides,” Devick’s smile widened even further. Her eyes glittered. “There’s nothing like absolutely clobbering someone publicly and having everyone cheer for you. You should try it. Such an adrenaline rush.”

Just as he rather ruefully reminded himself that just because Devick hadn’t yet gone insane she wasn’t completely innocent, Randidly stilled. After Devick had showed up so close to him without him noticing, he had spread Grim Intuition back across the area and now followed movement very closely. With his control over the environment due to the weather working, very little occurred within the surrounding few miles without him noticing.

And right now, a single individual was rapidly approaching the back side of the farm.

“Go on ahead. Looks like a wild animal is making a break for Ara Fruits,” Randidly said lightly. “I’ll turn it away and be right there.”

Devick eyed him suspiciously, perhaps suspecting that he might just be ditching her to flee once more. But in the end, she nodded and turned away. Almost immediately, Randidly’s face twisted into a vicious snarl. From bottled emotion, to rage, to cathartic sobs, to an unexpected few minutes of relaxation, now his emotions began to twist and tighten once more.

Whoever was trying to sneak onto Jotem’s farm had better have a damn good reason for doing so.

The Stillborn Phoenix pulsed, releasing a silent, gravitational cry across the farm. A shiver ran through the clouds as Randidly lifted up off the ground and began to speed through the sky. The red sun of this place continued to sink below the horizon, the shadows of dusk spreading to cover the surrounding hills.

But with unerring accuracy, Randidly crashed into the ground into a short, sprinting figure. To the figure’s credit, he responded well. Digging his feet into the ground, he skidded to a stop before he crashed into Randidly.

Still, that just meant he was only a meter or so in front of Randidly. With Sulfur, Randidly reached out and grasped the figure in front of him. His wild snarl widened. “Well, well, well. To what do I owe this pleasure? Why would the bloody right hand of Drane Swacc be skulking around my farm, eh, Coppun?”