Randidly swayed, looking at the floating cube held aloft by the humanoid form woven from thorny roots. His body already hummed with acceptance, Aether settling into place as he prepared to take the Fatepiece back into himself and activate it. Yet he also hesitated at the unexpected situation.

“You brought this to me?” Randidly’s voice came out as a growl, from several hours of disuse. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Considering you are the one who won the melee… it would be more appropriate if I would give you a prize, warrior.”

Of all the reactions, Randidly hadn’t expected the root avatar to begin to laugh.

“A prize… well, I do indeed crave your approval, my liege.” The bottom half of the avatar’s jaw moved in an approximation of speaking, even if no vocal cords existed. The longer Randidly observed him, the more he felt an odd sense of sickness spreading through his body. As the being hesitated, he felt an uncomfortable truth coming.

“However… a prize won’t be necessary. As for why I bring this to you… it is because we are alike, the cube and I. Tools and remnants. Destined to perish.”

He heard it in the distance, resonating through the Nether in the area. The doom Randidly had accepted into his body in exchange for power: ash stalked closer with a hungry mouth and cruel fingers.

Randidly’s heart sank as he looked down at the bits of charcoal fluttering away from its legs. By the time he noticed the avatar turning to ash, in spite of the presence of his Mana in the avatar’s body, it was too late. Within the next few seconds, most of its body disintegrated. He frowned and flooded the roots with more Mana. Yet Nether rolled over his Mana, annihilating his attempts to stabilize the creature.

You made this choice. This is the sort of leader you’ve become.

“What do you mean?” Randidly demanded, speaking half to himself and half to the root avatar.

But he also knew he was addressing the same part of himself that had provided this Fatepiece. These tools didn’t simply spring from nothing. Significance began to swirl faster around the duo. And as soon as Randidly wondered why so suddenly the Fatepiece had appeared, another part came forward with an answer.

You’ve finally conquered the emotional blindspots you’ve ignored for so long. Maybe now you can finally handle what this Fatepiece says about you.

The root avatar’s jaw shredded itself and floated away, but didn’t prevent it from speaking. “We are the churned bodies, the repeated patterns, the discarded and forgotten servants left in the wake of the Ghosthound. Fertilizer, required by the Lord of the Baleful would to grow his waxing kingdom. But know… we do not hate you. We know you have always needed us. That is enough.

“To be useful to you… was our greatest honor.”

The root avatar vanished. It hadn’t even left a name in its wake. Feeling quite cold, Randidly reached out and touched the floating cube.

Congratulations! You have advanced your Fateset, the Paradox of the Alchemist! You have obtained your fifth Fatepiece, The Codex Hexahedron Lvl 1!

Codex Hexahedron: Although both ingenuity and fistful of madness are necessary elements for a successful Alchemist, there is one area which cannot be overlooked: expansive knowledge. Despite the genius of the alchemist, any sort of successful endeavor is ultimately determined by the surety of their foundation in the esoteric formulae. Thousands of years worth of experiments, hundreds of lives worth of effort, and a half dozen savants weaving together the disparate insights are required to gather together the requisite understanding so the Paradox of the Alchemist could even have a shred of possibility.

You have plundered worlds and absorbed them almost casually into yourself. Perhaps it wasn’t your original intention, but your hunger has gathered the sweat, toil, and history of hundreds of civilizations. The Dungeons and Danger Zones have added to that library of knowledge, enriching it further. Drawing in the dangerous subconscious of your worlds has afflicted you with deep emotional flaws, but overcoming them has revealed equal riches, beyond even the emotional power at your disposal.

You might not know the names and faces of those individuals who have poured themselves into creating this tool, but that does not mean they didn’t exist and live both miserable and satisfying lives. You benefit from their anonymous toil.

The Codex Hexahedron is a compact database which will unlock in four stages. In the first stage, Codex can expand and surround a targeted object. Depending on the Fatepiece Level of the Alchemist, can scan the object and obtain insights into its construction, its materials, and its purpose. Effect increases with Fatepiece Level. Ability to scan larger objects increases with Fatepiece Level. Insight into particularly profound or powerful objects will increase with Fatepiece Level.

Additional abilities will be unlocked as the user increases proficiency.

The Past isn’t simply a platform. The Future yet remains in flux, oh driven Alchemist.

When fully Leveled, +10 Discretion of the Apostate Moirae per Level and +50 Mana per Level.

The cube continued to rotate slowly as it floated above Randidly’s right palm. His lips twitched at the last sentence and the half-implied threat waiting there. But then he looked back to the start of the description, as it described how much work beyond his own had been required in order to get him to this point. Randidly sighed. “Well, it isn’t wrong about that…”

His heart itched; he didn’t like the process by which he had received this Fatepiece. The training, the casual melee, the brief flash of independence and vague subservience from the winner of the fight, and finally the being’s death all filled Randidly with revulsion. Partially because of the callous treatment of life, but mostly because of how starkly it framed one of his own persistent faults.

Randidly pressed his eyes closed. How often have I influenced a people and then discarded them and moved on…? Even the Lancers of the Baleful Crusade I essentially just allow to function on their own. All these groups I’ve benefited from, yet I move on without strengthening my connection or really acknowledging them.

And that doesn’t even acknowledge the other half: I might be talented at Engraving and the creation of Nether Rituals, but most of that is imitation. Where did Yystrix gather her knowledge? Those Nether Heralds I found in the Shaft didn’t just spring from nothing. I joined a long line of students.

His emerald eyes burned as he looked at the floating cube. Perhaps I am the culmination of thousands of years worth or preparations, aimed at escaping or resolving the horror of the Nexus. Perhaps, even I, individually, am more important by far than the next most important individual.

“But comparing myself to the whole of effort that made my actions possible,” Randidly muttered. Guilt and sadness twisted in his chest. With a liberated emotional sea, his emotions became that much more powerful and volatile. “I’m just a figurehead. A fraction of the effort required. Insignificant.”

He didn’t necessarily mind that realization. But that spot on his left hand tainted by the fourth emotional core’s exhaustion throbbed. These unknowable lives were part of the weight that he would need to carry.

A sudden impulse seized Randidly, a scrap of an idea to try and pay back these faceless individuals from whose efforts he benefitted and those he had used and discarded. He still retained the capability of creating the word Ghasthund: he had mostly forgotten it after he climbed through the lower Sonara and discovered the altered memory.

But now, he could create a ‘Ghasthund’ as an individual whose efforts were vital, but never acknowledged.

His significance stirred at that option, but the currents of meaning only managed a sluggish surge before collapsing. Randidly hesitated, then shelved the idea for now. Perhaps that definition was close, but it didn’t feel entirely right. But he swore to himself he would find a way to honor all these unseen workers.

With a great effort of will, Randidly set those emotions to the side. For now, he reached out to examine his new Fatepiece, the Codex Hexahedron. Waving his hand, he banished the clouds above the area and allowed sunlight to stream down and illuminate the object.

The Codex looked a lot like a rubix cube, a larger shape made up of stacked silver cubes. Instead of being three by three on each flat surface, it was five by five. He reached out and brushed a finger against its surface and the cube engaged, puffing out a mouthful of air and the cubes animating and floating apart from each other create some distance between themselves. The exposed space between the tinier cubes glowed with teal light, but as Randidly watched the colors gradually shifted to become yellow and then pink.

Humming to himself, Randidly exerted his will against the Fatepiece. The cube buzzed and the cubes extended further apart until it covered about the size of a basketball. Randidly activated Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart and scooped up a handful of dirt. He brought that dirt into the middle of the floating rubix cube and squeezed, following his instincts.

The Codex Hexahedron buzzed softly. Then, without any input from Randidly, flat planes of cubes began to rotate. As the Fatepiece examined the dirt, invisible hands continued to adjust themselves and zero in on accurate information.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 2!

Eventually, the cube ceased its motions; it had dug up all the available information to Randidly, considering his Fatepiece Level.

The dirt he examined was, in fact, thoroughly dirt. Pulped granite, with a few pinches of gypsum and some trace elements that didn’t correspond to anything he had seen on Expira.

Randidly grimaced. Great, now I have insight into dirt. But still, it’s a bit strange that I cannot examine its significance to learn a bit about the history-

No sooner did the thought appear than the Fatepiece rumbled again. Little bolts of ruby energy flickered around the floating squares as the inner illumination pulsed. Randidly felt an obstruction resisting his desire, but now that he noticed the block, he brought the whole of his Discretion of the Apostate Moirae to bear upon it.

The impediment cracked and disintegrated before his concentrated effort; with Randidly’s Stats, bulldozing his way through the early levels of any System creation was child’s play.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 3!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 7!

The relatively sedate rotation of cubes on a plane was replaced by whirlwind motion as Randidly’s powerful Nether senses struggled to take advantage of the particular boost given to him by the knowledge hidden within the Codex Hexahedron. After a headache-inducing flood of unintelligible rock-truth, Randidly gradually received a picture of how the dirt beneath his feet had been formed.

He sighed and released his examination. The cube clicked several times as the rotations slowed until the object settled into the rigid superstructure of spaced silver cubes with a burning inner light, now a lovely turquoise. However, that light dimmed and all the cubes settled together with a satisfying click.

“Where did all the knowledge contained in this come from, I wonder?” Randidly muttered to himself. The inert cube didn’t answer.

He tsk’d at his own behavior and stored it away in his Soulspace; he could experiment more on it later. He raised his hand and cracked his neck. “Okay, a quick nap, and then I just need a score more Skill Levels-”

Randidly’s head whipped around, following a rapid flow of significance flowing back toward Malloon. The current wasn’t large and domineering enough to be an inflection point within the memory, but something important was definitely about to happen.

With a tired sigh, Randidly kicked off the ground. He would be late to the party, but only by a few minutes.