The trouble with Lendel was that his system was a mess.

Derivan knew that his own system was in a far worse state — but there was a difference in the way their systems were broken. His own system was something like a broken cage, the pieces scattered around him; it was still attached in only the most abstract of ways.

With Lendel, it was a different story.

Derivan did not have [Soul Sight], or whatever system skill would have allowed him to touch upon another's soul; he didn't know if such a thing was even possible in the context of the system. He'd always been able to sense his own soul — which, now that he thought about it, was perhaps an oddity — but he'd never been able to sense anyone else's.

But now there was... something. It came from Patch, oddly enough; the stat had grown high enough that he could see more than he could before. It could sense the way Lendel's system had grown into him, instead of breaking around him, and through that, Derivan saw something he hadn't noticed before.

Everyone had that, to a certain degree.

Rekka, Vex, Misa — even Sev, though there was something strange about what he saw there. Even himself, as broken as it was. The system dug itself into all of them in a way that had previously registered as their connection to the system, but the connection was so much more than that; it was the way the machinery of the system infused itself into them...

...and yet, it made sense. Derivan hesitated to think the thought at all, but it fit with everything that happened in Teque and Fendal, all too well.

The system was supporting them in some fundamental way. He'd seen it in Teque and Fendal, the way it seemed to be able to give and take away realness, like that was a transferable property. He wondered now if this was how it worked, beneath the surface.

The people of Fendal had lost access to the system, and had begun to lose themselves; in turn, the people of Teque gained life, and system boxes had begun appearing for them. If he'd had Patch at a higher level — if he'd been able to level it up, instead of being forced to leave — what would he have seen?

What was the system for?

Derivan was beginning to see an answer, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

"The system attaches itself to people and reinforces both substance and soul," Derivan said out loud, tasting the words; they felt strange to him, resonating with an odd familiarity.

"What?" Sev gave him a strange look.

"I... It is nothing." Derivan shook his head. But his mind was spinning. If he was right, then the reason that was necessary at all... "I will talk about it later," he added softly, seeing that Sev was still giving him a strange look, and the cleric paused for a moment and nodded at him.

There was a chance he was wrong. He forced himself to focus his attention back on Lendel's system, and on what had triggered this whole chain of thought to begin with; the way the system was growing into Lendel's soul and substance. He thought he could see where cracks had begun to form, and if he traced them back he almost thought he could see the causality of it all.

The system's growth hadn't exactly been intentionally malicious, here. The cracks had formed first, and then the system had grown in, preventing them from healing. If he ripped out those pieces of the system, it might be able to heal on its own —

— but the cracks were deep enough that the system was now also the only thing that was holding Lendel together. If he simply ripped out those overgrown pieces, Lendel would fall apart, and the rather horrifying thought occured to Derivan that he might fall apart in more ways than one. It would not just be his soul; it would be his substance; that thing that made him real.

"Sev," Derivan said. "Are you ready?"

"I've been ready." Sev paused for a moment, looking worriedly over Lendel. "He's... pretty badly damaged, on some fundamental level. I don't think this kind of damage is normal."

"It is a damage that goes beyond Health," Derivan agreed. "You will need to heal him after I pull out the pieces of the system that have grown into him."

Sev jerked. "Is that what's happening?"

"Yes." Derivan paused to consider the certainty of his words, and then nodded. "I think if you tried to heal him as is, now... I am unsure what would happen. But you would fight with the system on some level."

"Yeah, let's not... let's not do that." Sev grimaced a little bit at the thought, massaging his head like he could already feel the headache forming. Misa came up behind him, steadying him, and Sev took a breath. "This is going to hurt. Derivan?"

"Go." Even as he spoke the words, Derivan was reaching out with Patch; he grabbed at those intrusive tendrils of the system, the ones that should not have been there, and yanked them out with all the subtlety of a warrior — which is to say, with very little subtlety at all. Patch didn't yet have the precision it could afford to him, if he worked on the stat.

He wasn't sure he wanted to.

Pulling out those overgrown system-tendrils felt like a relief, though, a balm to his soul; he felt something inside him, probably Patch itself, uncoil and relax as he did so. At the same time, Sev grit his teeth and let out a groan. A bright glow began to emerge from his fingers as he cast.

[Divine Inhalation] again, no doubt. Derivan could already see the cracks closing, which was good, because a moment longer and they would have begun to widen instead.

Even with the both of them working, it took time. Derivan had to be more careful with some of the system-tendrils; he left the most complicated ones for last, so he could rely on any increase in Patch to afford him the precision he needed to pull them out. Some of them were entrenched deep within Lendel, coiled inside of him in a way that would have torn him apart if Derivan had simply ripped it out.

By the time he reached those, though, Patch had risen to 10, and that was just enough to give him what he needed to pull it out safely, to nudge all those individual pieces out of the cracks and wedges before he began to pull. Even as he did, Sev was healing —

— But Misa had to hold him back, too. There was a terrible, uncharacteristic anger in his eyes. The skill continued running, like Sev had intentionally left it on autopilot, but Misa was grimacing as she pinned the cleric's arms behind his back and he fought to get loose. Rekka was staring, eyes wide. Vex watched with a nervous sort of fear, ready to help in any way he could if he was needed.

Sev was screaming, shouting something angry. Derivan focused, pulled out the last of the tendrils, felt the last of the cracks heal over — not completely, but just enough —

"Stop," he said. "This is enough."

Sev panted heavily. There was a wildness in his eyes that wasn't there before. For a moment, Derivan was afraid the skill wouldn't cut out at all —

A runic circle formed in the air in front of Vex, and mana drifted forward, enveloping Sev; the cleric slumped over, and [Divine Inhalation] failed.

Derivan took a breath he didn't need.

"Thank you," he said.

Vex nodded. "I wasn't sure if I'd need it, but I was preparing, just in case..." he said quietly.

Derivan could almost see the source of Sev's anger. He could almost feel those selfsame cracks imposed over the cleric's psyche, this time with Physical Empathy instead of Patch; the damage wasn't the same. It wasn't to his soul — it was to his mind.

But in very small ways, he could see those same cracks beginning to form in Sev's soul, too. Not so large that they would be a problem, and likely the kind that could heal, but...

"We made a hell of a sacrifice for you," Misa said, glaring at Lendel. "Tell us what the fuck is going on here."

Lendel just stared.

Derivan saw what was going on with him, in a way. The man was off-balance — he had no context for what had just happened to him. He knew that he had been angry and that that anger had been unnatural, but he didn't know why, yet; all he knew was that they had done something, and his anger had vanished.

But Lendel had a few more points of context, too. He could see the way Rekka was glaring at him. He remembered the conversation, and Derivan saw him slowly putting the pieces together.

"Fuck," Lendel said after a moment. He stared at his still-unconscious companions, and then at Misa's glare, which was, at this point, only growing in intensity. And then he slammed his fist into the ground, hard enough to crack the wood and make Rekka jump. "Fuck."

"Hey, man, it got me too—" Rekka started, even though he didn't really know what 'it' was.

"You don't know how this works," Lendel said, staring at Rekka, and then shaking his head; he turned to look at Derivan, at Sev, at Vex and Misa. Sev was still collapsed in Misa's arms, and from what Derivan could tell, those small cracks were already beginning to heal...

...but it was going to be hard to tell until they got to speak to Sev directly.

"What are you talking about?" Rekka asked.

"I'm saying it didn't 'get' me. Or you, for that matter." Lendel took a breath. "That's not how it works. There's an element of that, but it doesn't make us believe anything we don't let ourselves believe first. I have some ideas about what happened, but this is... dammit.

"This project was supposed to help the Guild," Lendel said softly, looking toward Misa. "A lot of our smaller branches can't handle dungeon breaks if they happen; we've had one or two branches get run over. We thought if we could..."

He lapsed into a brief silence.

"I know that," Rekka said. "That's why I was on board to begin with."

"But Elyra funded most of this." Lendel's gaze sharpened. "They're partially aware of how this works. Some of them were trying to take advantage."

"No fucking kidding," Misa said. She glanced at Lendel's two companions, and then at Sev, still unconscious.

"We can wake them up," Lendel said. "They should be awake. We need to talk about this. Get you all set up for your dungeon visit, and plan around whatever the hell Elyra was trying to do here, or at least the noble families we were working with."

"I don't know if waking Sev up is safe," Vex objected softly.

"Your friend incurs a cost for healing," Lendel said; it wasn't a question. "You don't want to let him sleep through it, in most cases. The sooner he's awake the sooner we'll know if anything's wrong and we need to get him a healer. We'll wake him back up, and then we'll talk. Rekka, can you get—"

"—I'm on it," Rekka said, and he began to walk out of the room — but as he stepped out, he glanced back. "You better have a damn good explanation, Lendel," he said shortly. "Something here is fucked, and frankly, I'm not sure these guys should have saved you at all."

Lendel's eyes hardened. "I know," he said.