The next day dawned with promise, despite the lack of a sun. When Rory was woken up by Viv for his early morning watch, he found no sunlight to greet him. Instead, the sky was once more overcast, clouded over with a heavy blanket of grey. But there was no rain falling now.

No, there was only Mana.

Rory smiled as he stepped outside and felt the chill air on his face. He held out his hand, which was soon coated with tiny blue crystals. “We’ve been blessed with replenishment.”

“That we have,” Viv said.

Melvin and Angus had been on watch before it had been Rory’s turn, and before they had retired to their well-deserved rest, Viv had instructed them to wake up basically everyone else. Considering how much Mana they had burned through trying to raise their Sigils’ Tiers the other day, it was imperative that they used an all-hands-on-deck approach for the current Mana-fall.

So, Rory wasn’t the only one up at dawn. Pretty much everyone else had risen as well, doing their best to collect the Mana and hoping it kept on falling from the sky.

It was strange to consider the portents in an overall sense. They were faced with monsters who couldn’t be killed by the use of Sigils. At least, not directly. Yet, here they were being gifted with more Mana, something they solely needed to power their Sigils.

It seemed a strange, cruel joke. What was Alex up to if they were even in charge of the war now?

“Rory,” someone called from behind.

He turned to see Allen bringing in the walky-talky with groggy eyes, and his free hand clamped over his mouth as he tried to stifle his yawn. “Thanks, Allen.”

“No proooooo—” Allen snapped his mouth shut for a second after another big yawn. “No problem.”

Rory grinned at him. “Stayed up late last night?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” he muttered.

Chuckling, Rory waved him off and picked up the call. The Sigil of Calling had been blinking all the while, indicating a rather relentless caller.

“Hello,” Rory said.

“Rory?” It was Hakim. “Are you and your people alright?”

“Uh, yes, we’re all fine. Good to hear from you all. I’m guessing you’ve heard most of what happened from the other Homeworlders.”

“I know of your help in rescuing our fellows, yes. We are quite grateful for it. However, I do wish to know when you will allow them to return.”

“I’m not holding anyone back, Hakim. It’s just not safe out there right now with all those Misericords. We’re trying to come up with a way to fight them, and once that gets going, I think we can equip your Homeworlders and then you can all reunite.”

“Yes. I heard of that as well. But it also sounds as though you can’t make what you planned, can you?”

Rory hesitated a moment before answering. “I know a way I can get it, but… it’s going to take me a little while.”

“I see. Well, this call was to mostly inform you that we are sending a party to retrieve the ones who are stranded at your palace.”

“Another one? The last one you sent—”

“We’ve learned from our mistakes, and we’ve learned what exactly works against this new breed of monsters. We will be much better prepared to deal with them. Trust me. We’ve been going over many methods. Rest assured that there won’t be another fiasco for you to rescue us from.”

“What exactly have you learned?”

“Regular weapons. Sigils that can harm indirectly. Those are the things that will work against the Misericords. Thankfully, we are well-stocked with both.”

Rory frowned. “Oh? That’s good. Do you mind sharing some, in an appropriate deal, of course?”

“We can certainly discuss when we arrive.”

They cut off the call. There was something about the general feeling from the call that had bothered him, something left unsaid by Hakim. It had been unmistakeable, though, that he didn’t approve of the Homeworlders staying at the palace.

Rory decided to put it out of his mind and focus on more Sigil Weaving. By midmorning, they had collected enough Mana to take their coffers up to 30,000 again. They had selected one of the rooms in the back as their new storage space. It was a slightly longer trip than the tower, but they had to make do with the circumstances.

Thankfully, no more Misericords attacked. Rory had to wonder, distantly, if they had dealt a significant blow to the monsters’ population.

With the lack of that threat, they were able to calmly focus on raising the Tiers of their own Sigils. Rory helped Viv take her Omnipresent Thunderclaw to Teal IV, before crossing into Teal V. Dez’s Chthonic Inferno, Miles’s Stormfire, Trish’s Reinforced Steel, Allen’s Wooden Gargoyle, and even Arie’s Portals received similar treatments.

By the time they decided to pause for lunch, Rory had raised his Weaving to Teal V. Another hard few hours of work, and only one Tier raised. It was looking less and less effective the more time went on.

They got a very curious visitor when it was time for lunch, however. Rory was happy to stop eating and greet a returning Truck into their midst.

Well, not exactly into their midst. The talking Otherworlder donkey got shy whenever he saw new people, which was quite at odds with his personality. It was like seeing a monster truck trying to hide from a bunch of SUVs in the parking lot.

“Ho there, dear man,” Truck said as Rory approached him at the corner of the gate. “How goes?”

Rory smiled at the donkey. He looked much the same as ever, with his long ears and white snout. “Hey there. Been a while. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”

Truck eyes him. “You speak as if you had other visitors in mind.”

“I did, actually!”

“Ah. You must tell me all about your amazing endeavours. I regret not staying to witness your greatness in action.”

“Please. I don’t blame you for running away when the Corebeast came, but some sort of heads-up would have been appreciated.”

He was not about to let Truck off the hook for disappearing when the Corebeast had threatened to destroy everything. Just because the donkey could go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted, didn’t make it a right decision.

Unfortunately, Truck didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with it. “Ah, yes. I am certainly pleasantly surprised to see that you survived.” He looked past Rory and frowned at the state of the courtyard and the palace’s lack of a tower. “Though I see there has been some… redecorating.”

“Forced redecorating, yes. But it’s not from the Corebeast’s attack.”

“Oh?”

“No, we were dealing other monsters. Ever heard of Misericords?”

Trish stiffened, his eyes widening. “Tell me that is not true.”

“Why? What’s wrong with them?”

“They are the bane of, well, of everything. I am amazed you even survived an attack by Misericords of all things, which I suppose explains why your Safe Zone was unable to protect you. But…” Truck shook his head. “This is incredible. Misericords. Those monsters should never have appeared.”

The donkey clip-clopped a few steps back. Rory swallowed. The way he was talking, it sounded as though he knew a lot about the monsters and none of it was pleasant.

“Why do you say that?” Rory asked. “The monsters that come into this world, don’t the Invigilators have control over them?” He frowned. Once again, he wondered if Alex had sent the Misericords into Hillhard on purpose. “Are you saying this goes against what an Invigilator would normally do?”

“Yes. The war has stopped, my fellow Observer.”

“I’m not an Observer.”

“An Invigilator’s purpose is to ensure that the war continues on, no mater what. That means anything that impedes a war’s progress will need to be gutted. So, introducing something like a species that specifically inhibits the use of the main component of the war—use of Sigils—makes everything too topsy-turvy, see?”

“I do see.”

Truck started pacing in a circle. “What could Arkone be thinking? Sending Misericords of all things? How could it ever…?”

“Truck, can you get in touch with the Invigilator?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You said that they would remove your privileges as an Observer if you interfered, right? By they, I guess you meant the Invigilators. So that means you can contact them, right?”

“I suppose so. But I ask again, what need to you have of an Invigilator, my dear man? Contacting Invigilators is normally not a good idea. Besides, I cannot promise that my contact will even reach them. They can be surprisingly disinclined to reasonable conversation at times.”

“Just try it for me, will you?”

“What, now?”

Rory looked back at the palace where some of the others were watching them from a distance. He didn’t want to summon an Invigilator in the middle of everything like this. It was bad enough for some of the Homeworlders to see him talking with a donkey.

“Well, maybe not here,” Rory said. “Let’s find—”

“I couldn’t perform such a call even if you had wanted me to. We need to make special preparations and find the correct spot. It is no easy matter to contact an Invigilator, truth be told.”

Rory frowned at the donkey. “Where and when exactly can you make the call?”

“A zenith is a good moment, so it will have to wait until tomorrow at the latest. In the meanwhile, I will make other preparations, such as gathering the requisite materials and making sure that I am properly equipped to deal with any backlashes or fallout from the call.”

“This sounds like an intensive process.”

“You wouldn’t believe the half of it.”

Rory sighed. “Well, please make sure to let me know before you start actually doing the process of calling the Invigilator. I want to be present.”

“Of course. I will take full responsibility. In return, I want something, of course.”

“Let me guess—an entertaining tale about my exploits so far?”

“Yes!” Donkey clip-clopped in place excitedly. “Regale me with your adventures. How did you survive the Corebeast? Or the Misericords, for that matter? I wish to know everything.”

Rory had to laugh at the way the donkey was so excitable. When he began explaining the sequence of events from the moment the Corebeast had invaded, he was a little stumped on whether or not he ought to reveal the whole mess of Alex, their involvement with the rebels, and the subsequent consequences.

He figured Truck was going to find out one way or another, so he might as well. The words caught in his throat as he tried to dredge up the events. As such, Rory did his best to summarize only the facts and leave his feelings out of the matter, thereby absolving himself of the need to go over his worries, fears, and anxieties.

That wouldn’t be entertaining for Truck, now would it?

With that done, he went on to explain how he had used the Invigilator’s powers using his Sigil of Weaving, and how Alex had become the new Invigilator.

Truck was rather startled at that, but he didn’t interrupt with any questions. Rory was free to go on, and he continued the tale by explaining the incidents with the Misericords, the Homeworlders getting stranded, and then their rescue mission, and finally, their attempts at setting up a Crafting Station.

“It sounds as though you have been quite busy,” Trick eventually said.

“That… is your response?” Rory asked.

“Well, I need some time to process everything you said and then formulate the correct questions.”

Rory grinned wryly at him. “Would you like to depart and disappear for a few days again?”

“Perhaps.” Truck stood up straighter and raised his neck higher, though the tips of his ears only came up to Rory’s chin. “However, I will profess to feeling sorry for your loss. This is why you are so desperate to determine the whereabouts of the Invigilator, yes? Because the Invigilator is now your… offspring?”

“Correct. Well… I just want to know if they’re alright.”

“As is the right of any father.”

The way Truck said that, it made Rory look into the donkey’s eyes. “Do you…?”

“Who, me?” The donkey made a choking sound in his gullet. “Preposterous. I assure you, I would not be here if that were the case.”

For a second, Rory considered asking Truck about his family, and his life back on whatever world he had come from. But then they heard noises. A familiar shout came up from the driveway, warning that they were about to have guests soon.

“It seems my visitation has been cut short,” Truck said.

Rory tried to see just how far their latest callers were down the driveway. Too far to be seen, apparently. “Hmm.”

“I shall contact you when I have everything I need to get in touch with the Invigilator. For now, toodle-oo!”

With that, the talking donkey jumped up, sprouted wings made of pure air, and then disappeared. Rory watched him go for a while, before turning his attention to the new guests.

Hakim and the Homeworlders were already here.