Part 1

Just a single day spent in the familiar environment of Blue Cherry High, and somehow my life started to feel normal again. Going to school with my friends, attending classes, eating unreasonably scrumptious meals at the cafeteria, and beating Josh in basketball. Everything was exactly how it's always been. Just the normal life of a normal high-schooler doing completely normal things on a normal Monday, such as… giving a strategy briefing in an underground base.

Oh, who was I kidding? Coming out of the Elysium didn't make my life more normal, just slightly less balls-to-the-walls weird, and even that assessment was debatable. In any case, back to the strategy meeting.

"And that's why," I said, tapping the telescoping pointing stick in my hand against the whiteboard, "we need you to be on alert and available to act at any given moment."

Behind me, a board filled with encircled words, such as 'The Unorthodox Faction', 'Abyssals', and 'Director Savir', and a complex, overlapping mess of arrows interlinking them. In front of me, seated on the elevated benches of the main hall's briefing area, were not only the officers of the Ordo Draconis (sans Penny), but my most trusted allies amongst the Draconic Federation and the base's personnel as well. Also, Zihao, for some reason.

"Are you certain about this, my liege?" Arnwald asked a touch skeptically, hands crossed. "Wouldn't our currently deployed forces be enough of a deterrent to—"

"I'll have to stop you there," I cut him short and theatrically contracted my pointing stick. "The point is that if a conflict breaks out, it would require more than just the usual Fauns, Squires, and ninjas on our payroll. I will need you to make a move as well."

"I believe that," Naoren spoke up next, seated in the third row, sandwiched between his younger brother and the tiny dragon, "we now have a solid understanding of the Celestial realm, but even so, this upcoming conflict you speak of sounds unsubstantiated."

"I have to agree," Sebastian followed him up from behind the seats of my draconic in-laws. "As much as I trust your insight, my boy, you have yet to establish the exact time frame or scope of this 'inevitable battle'."

Ignoring his air quotes, I shook my head and put my hands on the speaker's podium in front of me, leaning forward for extra emphasis.

"That is exactly the reason why constant vigilance is required."

"We are vigilant. Always," Brang commented on the side, the only person not sitting, and I couldn't help but feel that he mistook my insistence for being critical of the Fauns under his command.

"So are our Squires," Arnwald joined him, forming a united front.

I glanced over the skeptical group, and let out a shallow sigh. I couldn't exactly blame them, as I couldn't just tell them 'Well, we're nearing the end of a story arc, if not the whole story altogether, so there has to be a climactic final showdown,', now could I? I knew that if I insisted hard enough, they would play along with me, but I wanted to convince them to take it seriously. That's why I spent the better part of an hour outlining all the possible threats to our organizations, Angie, and me in particular, but even so, describing a powder-keg, and telling people it was absolutely going to blow up in the near future were two distinctly different things.

"I still don't understand why you need us to be prepared in particular," Mom-in-law stated in the back, and I could see a few approving nods here and there. "The Ordo Draconis has doubled in size since its inception, and with these Praetorian Guards looking after your friends, along with the Assembly's forces in the city, I don't see why you need even more hands on deck."

"I'm sure they will also play a role in the upcoming events," I answered, trying not to sound too annoyed, "But what we'll need is going to be personal power, not numbers."

"How do you know that?" Raven boy heckled me next, and I was tempted to fling my pointy stick at his face, but I suppressed the impulse.

"Fine. What if I told you that Bel of the Abyss visited me and told me that he came from the future and that if I don't mobilize enough powerful fighters, I'll be sorry?" I blurted out in exasperation, yet it had a mixed effect.

On one hand, the people in the know, namely Agrawain, Morgana, and Roland, stiffened up for a second, and Sir Griffon even facepalmed. On the other end of the spectrum, Duncan looked more than a bit miffed just by the mention of Bel's name, while everyone in-between seemed rather intrigued.

"Is that so?" Dad-in-law rubbed his chin and let out several thoughtful hums. "So far, as dangerous as this Bel fellow was, his actions always benefited us in the long run. Should we trust him?"

"We cannae troost 'at snake!" the big guy in the front row objected, but he was overruled by Naoren.

"Clan Head Abram's question is a reasonable one. If he's the source of the information, it might be in our best interest to consider it."

"But wait!" Sahi, hitherto silent in the back row, suddenly raised a hand. "Like, wouldn't doing what he said totally cause a time paradox?"

"We can't fathom the depths of that elder's power," Odango Girl chimed in next, sounding rather pensive. "He said he was once his own grandfather."

"I'm… fairly sure that was a jest," Morgana tried to point out the obvious, but her words fell on deaf ears.

"The young lady has a point," Sebastian spoke with great gravitas that was completely unbefitting of the topic. "This Bel of the Abyss might be an ancient Abyssal Lord from the era of the Great War waged between the Celestials and the Abyssals millennia ago. Maybe even older than that. Who can tell how much power such an individual could have amassed over the centuries?"

At last, Roland stopped facepalming, and sent me a questioning gaze, asking 'Should I play along?', and after a long beat, I nodded at him. With a sigh, he sat straight and cleared his throat.

"As much as it pains me to say this, I think we should accept Bel's advice." Seeing that he drew everyone's attention to himself, he further clarified, "We all have seen that Bel holds Leonard in… some form of esteem. It is unlike he would try to deceive him after all this time, and so I believe his information was genuine."

As much as I wanted to complain about how this whole briefing turned out, I decided to just run with it and doubled down.

"And that's why I want you to be ready for battle in the nick of time, if necessary. No matter the circumstances, I think we can all agree that it's better to be safe than sorry, and while I understand that this is an inconvenience, it's better than the alternative."

This time, there was much less resistance to what I said, and after a long beat, Ichiko raised her hand. Until just a few moments ago, she was sitting on Odango Girl's lap in her fox form, and her sudden transformation caused a bit of a stir in the back-rows.

"Ue-sama! Would that mean that we should set up a schedule? So that there's always someone on duty and ready to respond in case of an emergency?"

"That sounds like a good start," I granted her, and the tiny miko immediately followed me up with a determined look on her face.

"In that case, I recommend that we form teams based on compatibility! For example, we should have Rinne-san and Naoren-san in one team!"

Finally realizing where she was going with it, the tiny dragon also jumped to her feet to vehemently back her up.

"Yes! Brother Naoren and Sister Rinne will make a great team!"

"I'll… let you work that out between each other," I granted them, and the little girls gave each other a high five, as if they scored some kind of victory. In the meantime, I could feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, and after pulling it out, I turned off the alarm I set before the briefing and let out a shallow breath. "I think that was a lot to take in at once, so let's end it here for today."

"That's, like, a bit abrupt," Sahi complained loud enough for me to hear. "Like, you haven't even told us when this battle would happen, and you, like, totally skimmed over what we should expect!"

I really wanted to extend my pointy stick again and repeatedly tap it against the overcrowded whiteboard that was describing just that, but I was mentally exhausted and didn't want to get into an argument at this point.

"We'll come back to this tomorrow. Same time, same place. For today, the meeting is over." I might've unintentionally channelled my Polemos persona a bit there, as some of the seats were giving me sideways glances. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I still have homework and other things to take care of. Give me a break, will you?"

My outburst, contrary to expectations, made everyone look more relaxed, and before anyone could address me again, I put my telescopic stick down and, with a wave of my hand, I took a sharp turn to the right and headed to the teleport closet in the reception area. Thankfully, nobody tried to stop me.

To be fair, I wasn't entirely truthful with them, as I had already finished most of my homework in the library after school hours. With the help of the girls, of course. My sudden departure had much more to do with a previous appointment than anything else, and once I was in the reception room, I quickly put on the black long coat and the gloves I left on the padded bench by the door.

Just to be safe, I did a quick roll call before heading out. My sisters, along with Judy and Elly, were home and preparing dinner. A lot of dinner, just as expected. The Celestial bigwigs were… rather passive. Just like with the case of Crowey and his lackeys. Since no main character type was around them at the moment, the Simulacrum apparently put them on the back burner, and without any major ongoing event to jolt them out of their routine, they had been doing nothing but dull administrative work ever since we left the Elysium.

The arch-mages were, by the looks of it, woefully unprepared for teaching actual classes, even if they would only have to do the bare minimum for the sake of their cover, and they were currently receiving guidance on how to put together a lesson plan from Mrs. Applebottom. The Praetorian Guards were, well, guarding Angie's neighbourhood, and as for our lovebirds, Josh and Angie were… washing the dishes together. Go figure.

In any case, nothing really stuck out as requiring my immediate attention, so I honed in on my actual target, and a second after stepping into our trademarked teleport closet, I was in an alley in the upscale old town area of Timaeus. Stepping out to the street, my coat was buffeted by the evening breeze. The sun was almost completely down by this point, but the area was especially well-lit, with rows of standing lights illuminating the long promenade, surrounded by a row of cafés, restaurants, and boutiques on both sides.

My destination was close by; in fact, it was technically in the building right next to me, but I couldn't quite just teleport right into the fancy family diner, now could I? When I walked through the door, the cashier lady behind the counter looked up at me, in all her vacant, placeholder glory. I still felt obligated to speak up though, and I pointed at the back of the restaurant floor.

"My friends are already here."

She followed my finger and then smiled before wordlessly returning to the cash register. I didn't dally around longer than necessary and made my way over to the table tucked away in the corner. The place wasn't particularly busy, with only about a dozen customers scattered around, but that particular area was practically deserted save for the two guys sitting there.

Mike didn't need any introduction. He was wearing a smart business casual outfit with a white shirt, a brown knit vest, and even a bow tie. Combined with that handsome face (which was totally wasted on him) and his slick heartthrob hairdo, he provided a huge contrast with the guy sitting at the other end of the table.

He was, for the lack of better words, large. Not just overweight, but heavy-set in general. His thick brown hair was tied into a ponytail at the base of his neck, and his unruly beard covered his entire face. He was also wearing a worn leather jacket and a black t-shirt with a front right off a metal album cover. If not for his guileless expression and the thick-rimmed rectangular glasses on his nose, he would've looked like a stereotypical metalhead, or at the very least, a band roadie.

"Evening," I greeted the two as I came closer, and the big guy twitched in surprise. So did Mike, but once he saw it was just me, he let out a relieved breath. "Was I late?"

"No, not at all! We just got here!"

They didn't. In fact, they had been sitting there for the better part of three hours, as the multiple sets of coffee cups and empty plates could tell.

Sometime in the afternoon, Mike messaged me again, saying the Moose was pretty freaked out by everything. We agreed not to increase the pressure further by taking him to my place, but to meet in a more neutral location instead. Considering how hard the guy was sweating in my presence, that was probably a good call, as trying to have a decent discussion at home, with two Abyssals, a Knight, a Draconian, and a Dormouse around would have probably been quite intimidating.

Anyhow, I sat down, and only when I got comfortable did the big guy speak up.

"You're… Admin, right?"

His voice was unexpectedly soft, considering his appearance, though it might have been just because he was unsure of himself at the moment. I couldn't blame him.

"Yep. And you're Moose," I answered with a friendly smile and looked him over. "You know, when we talked online, this definitely wasn't what I was expecting."

"I-I know!" Mike joined in, sounding higher-pitched than usual. "Why didn't you warn me? We almost missed each other because I didn't think Moose would look so intimidating!"

"I just said I didn't know what he looked like either," I told him with a flat look, and added, "Not to mention, knowing you, you would've been intimidated no matter what he looked like."

"I…!" Mike tried to argue back, but when he noticed that Moose was trying to speak up, he bit back his words.

"And you're also Leonard Dunning," he stated a touch hesitantly. I nodded. "The Chimera Slayer of Critias." I nodded again. "And the leader of the Draconic Federation."

"In the flesh," I said with a smile. "Though for the record, I'm only the leader of the Ordo Draconis, and only technically. I prefer a hands-off approach, you see."

Still guarded, the bearded man nodded. On closer look, I had a hard time telling his age; he had one of those faces that looked both young and old at the same time, and the thick mane and rocker-beard didn't help either.

"And… you're also… Archon Polemos," he squeezed out, and when I nodded again, he let out a gasp and buried his face in his hands. "Oh, my Deus, what did I get myself into…?"

"She's also on the island, but I can't introduce you right now. She's busy helping her boyfriend wash the dishes."

I intended that to be a joke to ease the mood, but Moose only reacted by slouching his shoulders even more. It only lasted for a few seconds though, and then he suddenly slapped his cheeks and let out a sharp breath.

"I'm fine. I'm fine," he repeated, seemingly to himself, as he readjusted his glasses and looked me in the eye with an expression that said he was still waiting for the second shoe to drop. "Any other scary revelations I should know about your identity?"

"I'm afraid that's all," I answered, though for a moment, I couldn't help but imagine his reaction if I told him about Bel of the Abyss too. In any case, he let out a relieved breath and recomposed himself a bit.

"How should I address you?"

"Leonard's fine, but you can keep using Admin if you're more comfortable with that."

"Not Polemos?" he asked, and I shrugged.

"To be honest, I'm happy that now that I'm finally out of the Elysium, I don't have to hear 'O Polemos' this and 'Lord Polemos' that all day long."

Moose nodded, and after some contemplation, his face regained its colour.

"Which one is your true identity?"

"Leonard Dunning," I answered without reservations.

"Are you the real Polemos?"

"By all measurable standards, yes."

"I see." He paused for a while, and his eyes narrowed behind the glasses. "Are you the real Admin?"

"Hey!" Mike cut in, sounding alarmed, and then instantly lowered his voice into a hiss. "Come on, Raz! We agreed not to ask!"

"He doesn't seem to mind the question, and weren't you the one who wanted to know the most?" Moose turned his gaze to him, and when Michael didn't respond, he levelled the same gaze onto me again. "So?"

"Define 'real'," I said, and at once, he let out a sigh.

"I knew it. You took over Admin's account around the beginning of last October, didn't you? Before you switched the host servers and changed the site layout."

"Oh?" That made me raise an impressed brow. "What makes you think that?"

Moose let out a long sigh and entwined his fingers on the table.

"Before that, Admin was never so proactive. He barely communicated on the forums and didn't moderate the boards at all. The way you wrote was also very different." He paused, and raised his still-entwined fists, with his elbows remaining on the table, and rested his forehead against his hands. "To think this would be the least outrageous thing about you…"

"Stay around long enough, and you'll get used to it," Mike commented with just a hint of self-satisfaction and took a sip from his coffee. Then he froze and looked at me in a panic. "Ah! W-Wait, I should order you a drink, or… Uh, but it's your money, so using it to buy you something would be weird, but not ordering anything would be disrespectful, and…"

"Don't overthink it," I told him, but the hapless Celestial was already lost in his worries. The other Celestial at the table, on the other hand, was getting more focused with every passing minute.

"What happened to the original Admin?"

"I haven't the faintest clue," I admitted with a shrug. "I never looked into their whereabouts after I took the account. You can look into them in your free time if you want; I won't stop you."

"I'm not nearly invested enough to do that," he told me frankly, and I had to admit, I liked how direct he was. He managed to be forthcoming without being overbearing, and the way he accepted everything I said and drew conclusions from them was a breath of fresh air.

In the meantime, Mike decided to order something after all, and waved for one of the waitresses. At the same time, Moose's brows descended into a thoughtful frown, and once he let his hands down, he addressed me again in a low voice.

"This turned out to be way bigger than I expected."

"Why? What were you expecting?" I asked, out of pure curiosity, and he exhaled an exasperated 'Ugh,'.

"I thought that the vice director was asking for my help because the CIN was short-handed on Critias after Deus herself came here. Instead, it turns out I was asked to come here by Archon Polemos himself."

"Maybe if you consider that it was Leonard and not Polemos, it will be less scary," Mike chimed in, earning him a glare.

"Both of those options are terrifying!" Moose burst out, and once again buried his face in his hands, and muttered, "What did I get myself into?" There was a long beat, and then he looked up from his hands and asked, in a more level voice, "Seriously. What did I get myself into? What is this all about?"

"It's kind of a long story, but to summarize it in a single sentence," I began, only to stop as the waitress arrived with a cup of latte. I wasn't a fan, but Mike looked really expectant, so I accepted it and then waited until she left to continue the previous thought. "You know that I just came back from the Elysium, right?"

"I think everyone in the CIN knows that," Moose answered flatly.

"In short, my time there made me realize that the entire Directorate is a rotten tree that has to be cut down if Celestials would ever hope to co-exist in peace with the rest of the world."

"You want to overthrow the Directorate?!"

That exclamation came from Mike, but we both ignored him for the time being. Moose's eyes only widened for a moment, only to shift into a frown right away.

"You need a replacement, and you want to use the Hub and the Celestial Intelligence Network as a power base."

"That's the gist of it," I told him in the company of an approving nod. "On a side note, you have no idea how refreshing it feels to talk with someone to whom I don't need to spell out everything one by one."

"Is Deus in on this plan?"

"More-or-less. She's busy preparing herself to govern the Elysium, and if we don't do something about the Directorate, it's only a matter of time before they butt heads with each other."

"So she's not an active participant," he noted, and we locked eyes. "Why me?"

"Because I trust you," I told him without any pretences. To be fair though, it might have been more accurate to say 'You're the sanest guy on the Hub I know of,' but that didn't sound as flattering.

"Can I refuse?"

"You can, but that would put me in a bit of a pinch, so I would prefer if you didn't."

Moose continued to look me in the eye for a while, as if trying to read my mind, and he ultimately let out a sigh.

"I'll get paid, right?"

"Sure."

"And you won't throw me under the bus once all of this is over, right?"

"I don't do that to my friends."

"Friends? Do you even know my name?"

"I don't see how that's relevant," I said with a frown. "Until five minutes ago, you didn't know my name either, but you still came to this island when I asked for help."

"Fair enough, I suppose," the guy mumbled, and after giving him some time to think (which I spent adding even more sugar and cream to my latte), he came to a conclusion. "Fine. All of this is crazy, but I have a feeling that if I don't jump aboard now, I'll regret it later."

"That's the spirit!" Mike exclaimed with a gleeful grin, and Moose looked at him with an expression that said 'Now I understand why you were always using so many exclamation marks in chat', before he extended a hand to me.

"By the way, the name's Raz," he told me, and I reflexively shook his hand. I had a hard time resisting a Far Sight mark when it was freely offered. "It's short for Raziel."

"Seriously? You grew up with a name like that?" I blurted out, and he let out an annoyed groan and squeezed my hand.

"Don't make me get started. I could go on for days."

Honestly, the more we interacted, the more impressed I was by Moose. Or should I say, Raz? He had a distinct appearance, a fully-fledged personality, he was remarkably quick-witted, and he even had a pretty unique name too. I couldn't help but wonder: with all of those things combined, could it be that he was always meant to be a character in the Simulacrum's grand play? The only thing he was missing was a lack of direct connection to any of our so-called cast, excluding my meddling self, that could've pulled him into the plot, but otherwise, he was…

"The full name's Raziel Mensah, by the way. You probably already met my brother in Elysium."

… aaand here comes the other shoe. Goddamit.

Part 2

"Seriously… Why does everyone have to be related to someone?"

There was a short beat hanging in the air at the dinner table, and after Judy finished swallowing, she nonchalantly answered, "It's a trope."

"I know that, but it's still so contrived!" I continued to grumble as I helped myself to another portion.

"But it's dramatic," Elly pointed out, and following her unsubtle gesturing, I also picked one of the side-dishes she made before letting out a sigh.

"I don't appreciate it when it's at my expense. At this rate, I should start worrying about who I am secretly related to."

"To me!" Penny declared from the other end of the table.

"I'm not secretly related to you, kiddo, so it doesn't count."

She grinned at me in lieu of an answer, and the short break in the conversation allowed a certain outsider to speak up.

"What… are they talking about?" Tajana whispered to Snowy on her right, and my Abyssal sister slowly shook her head, telling her not to get involved. Unsatisfied yet obedient, the young spymaster let out a disgruntled sound and returned to her plate.

As far as evenings were concerned, I certainly had worse ones. After I ferried the childhood friend couple to the workshop and back for their daily check-up, I returned home to a hearty dinner prepared by my girlfriends. Or rather, two of them. Hence the reason why Tajana was allowed to sit at the table with us, and even then, there was a good chance we'd have leftovers.

Anyhow, this latest development with Moose or Raz or whatever still annoyed me to no end. After our first meeting, I instructed Mike to arrange a hotel room for him in Lorci. That's where he lived, so that way they would have an easier way of cooperating, and to be honest, Timaeus was getting way too crowded as of late, anyway.

"Doesn't it make sense in a… what was the word again?" Elly addressed me as if reading my mind (or just following up on the previous conversation). "Watsonian?"

"Yes," Judy commented between bites of her sirloin steak. "The other is Doylist."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Right, those things!" Elly exclaimed with a fork pointed my way. "The first one is the in-universe explanation, right?"

"Correct."

Meanwhile, Tajana was giving us a sideways look again, and this time, it was my knightly sister who shook her head.

"Don't even try to figure it out. I gave up a while ago."

Ignoring that side of the table, I turned to the princess and prompted her to speak her mind.

"You said you have a Watsonian explanation?"

"It's pretty obvious, really," she responded, sounding a little guarded all of a sudden. "I mean, you probably already figured this out."

"I'd like to hear it all the same."

Nodding, my draconic girlfriend reached for the glass of soda on her right, and after wetting her throat, she took a deep breath.

"Okay. So, let me see if I remember this right, but the single-winged Celestials are called the Malekith, right?"

"Malakim," Judy corrected her, and she shrugged it off with a soft 'Close enough,' before turning to me again.

"So, those people all get turned into serfs in the Elysium, right?"

"What?" Tajana muttered on the side, but nobody seemed to pay her much attention anymore.

"And these single-winged Celestials can be born even from the double- and triple-winged ones, right?"

"That's what I've heard, yes."

When I confirmed that, the princess let out a content hum and declared, "If so, then it all makes perfect sense. You said that the Celestial leaders send their kids to the outside as spies so that they wouldn't be demoted into serfdom. Logically, it means that every Celestial living in the outside world is, by definition, have to be the offspring of someone high in the Celestial hierarchy."

"There are also second and third-generation Celestials," Judy pointed out. "Like Angie's adoptive parents."

"Wait, they are Celestials?"

Elly sounded altogether too surprised by that, so I figured I either never properly explained this to her, or she wasn't paying attention at the time.

"By a loose definition of the word," I told her and put my utensils aside for the moment. "Celestial powers are recessive or something, so after a few generations of intermarrying with humans, they tend to go away. Angie's parents are both like that."

"Oooh? I learn something new every day!" the princess exclaimed, and Penny seemed to share her sentiment, as she was listening just as closely. As for the two Abyssals at the table, they seemed to be already aware of this fact, though Tajana still looked downright mortified by how casually we were discussing the topic.

"Elly makes a good point," my dear assistant spoke up again, sounding almost impressed. "MoroseMoose's position heavily implied that he was a first-generation Malakim. Him being related to someone in the Directorate is not far-fetched."

"But why did it have to be that guy of all people!?" After finally letting my indignation burst out, I reined it back by forcefully exhaling a long sigh. "I mean, I talked a bunch with the guy, and from what I understand, there's no love lost between him and his brother, but it's such an annoying 'coincidence'."

"Um… Leo?"

Hearing Snowy speak up during times like this was a rare occasion, so I automatically gave her the green light.

"Yes, sis? What's on your mind?"

"I'm not sure I completely understand what you were discussing, but… full-fledged Celestials on the surface aren't just simple agents that move out of Elysium, but the children of powerful Celestials. Is that right?"

"Yes."

"And Angie is a full-fledged Celestial."

"Yes…" I echoed myself, only to blink and glance at Judy. She was ahead of me and was already taking notes.

"I'll look into it, but I don't think the resources on the Hub will be useful. You should ask someone on the inside."

"Got it. Next time I'm in the Elysium, I'll put Kane on the case."

In fact, ever since I had the idea to use Moose to start a kind of grass-roots Celestial organization that could pick up the pieces, on the off-chance that the Directorate made the wrong call and forced my hand, I was planning to get Kane involved in the recruiting efforts, so it would kill two birds with one stone.

Nodding, I turned back to Snowy and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Good catch, sis."

She let out a delighted chuckle that was music to my ears, and with the topic mostly finished, we all returned to the food on the table. In conclusion, Elly was probably right about the familial connections, and she was also correct about me already being aware of this and factoring it into my plans. While it wasn't readily apparent, the sentiment of 'We are disenfranchised,' was one I had seen floating around on the Celestial Hub's forums every once in a while.

Generally speaking, the average Celestial asset was more like Angie than they were like Mike, at least in the sense that they didn't have a direct connection with their birth parents and they had a rosy, idealistic image of the Elysium in their heads. While on the surface, everyone was doing their best to play their role in the Celestial Intelligence Network, in practice, there was a lot of deep-seated discontent hidden away, only occasionally bubbling to the surface during heated online discussions, when they could hide behind their usernames and a semblance of anonymity.

That kind of thing could be harnessed, but it would take time and effort that I couldn't devote to it, considering I already had way too much on my plate. Consequently, I had planned to push it onto Moose… until I realized that he was related to Director Mensah. Nevertheless, he had been my trusty right-hand man on the Celestial Hub until now, so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. In time. For now, since I had a mark on him, I was planning to keep him under close watch for a few days, and if there was no funny business, then I would take him into my inner circle.

All of that was for later though, as the moment today's dinner came to an end, Penny practically jumped up from her seat.

"All right! I'll get the games!"

"We should clean the table first," Snowy pointed out, and my knightly sister flushed red.

"Y-Yes! I meant after that! Obviously!"

In the same vein, my girlfriends took care of the leftovers, while I picked up all the empty plates and piled them up so that I would only have to take one trip to the sink. Meanwhile, Tajana looked rather stumped.

"Games?"

"Leo gave Penny the allowance he missed while he was in Elysium," Snowy explained as she dutifully collected the napkins and the salt and pepper shakers from the table. "Penny bought a video game console, and it came with a free party game called Super Mareo Party. It says on the box that it's a very popular game everyone can play together."

"It was on a discount!" my other sister exclaimed defensively. "A-And I didn't buy it for myself! I bought it for the family!"

"It should be fun," Snowy added with a sweet smile directed at Tajana, and needless to say, it was all part of her overarching plan to butter her up. Unfortunately, someone else in the room wasn't in on the plan.

"I said 'for the family'," Penny emphasized with a huff. "Freeloaders aren't included."

"I'm not a freeloader! I'm a guest! A guest!" the young spymaster insisted with a glare, and for a moment, I could practically see the sparks flying between them. By the looks of it, the relationship between these two was still far from harmonious.

"Don't be like that," Snowy cut in between the two and gently squeezed Penny's shoulder. "The more people we have, the more fun it should be."

"That's right!" Tajana followed her up with a triumphant huff.

"And while she isn't related to me, I always thought of Tajana as a big sister," Snowy continued to lay it thick.

I rationally understood what she was doing; trying to lovebomb the hapless spymaster and make her attached to us, so that she could be convinced to switch sides, but the way she was doing it was just a bit too blatant to my ears. I worried if she would pick up on it, but to my slight confusion, Tajana took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

"M-My Lady! Me too! I always thought of you as the little sister I never had!"

That threw me on a loop, and I couldn't help but frown. Was she gullible, genuinely starved for affection, or trying to play my sister the same way she was trying to play her, I wondered. Whatever the case was, after a while, she noticed the sideways look I was giving her and turned to face me with a stiff expression.

"W-What? Did I say something wrong?"

I let a long beat linger in the air, and then hefted all the plates in my hands and simply stated, "I'm not adopting you," before I headed into the kitchen.

"Who asked you to do that?!" she yelled after me, finding her courage once I was no longer in the same room with her, and I couldn't help but shake my head. My home was certainly livelier than it used to be, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel worried about how it was becoming more like the set of a sitcom with each passing day.

Oh well. It was certainly one of the better worries to have, I supposed.

Part 3

"I'm busted," I whispered as I fell onto my bed with a thud, eliciting a giggle from Elly.

"I'm tired too, but it was fun!" she declared with a triumphant grin. It was no surprise though, as she was the ultimate champion of the first Dunning Family Super Mareo Pary Tournament (the name was Penny's idea, I refuse to take any responsibility). As for me… well, I ended dead last.

Put simply, I was woefully unprepared for any of this. First off, nobody told me this was one of those motion-control consoles that required a lot of wiggling and shaking and jumping around. Secondly, it also had a dice-game element, where a lot of things were decided by rolls. Uncannily enough, my rolls were all pretty good, but each time there was a new game mode, by the time I got a feel for the controls, it was over and it was someone else's turn. Not only that, but I completely forgot that Penny and Elly were cut from the same cloth, which meant they had the same competitive streak, and it didn't take long for their scores to leave the rest of us in the dust.

"I agree," my other girlfriend noted, following up on the princess's last words. "Everyone had fun, and that's the most important part." She casually opened my wardrobe, as if she were at home, and after rummaging around for a bit, she took out two towels before adding, "Next time, I won't let you win though."

Oh, right. She also had a bit of a competitive streak, didn't she? In fact, she came out third, because the game also had a couple of trivia challenges, and she nailed all of those, allowing her to catch up to the hot-blooded duo. But putting the games aside, I turned a questioning glance at the towels in her hands, and she gave me a shrug in return.

"We jumped around, so I want to take a shower."

"Me too," Elly followed up on her at once and wiped her forehead for emphasis. "I don't want to smell sweaty when we're in bed together."

"… I thought we agreed there would be no lewding while my sisters and Tajana are in the house."

"Chief, we still need to sleep," Judy noted in an extra-deadpan voice and turned to my draconic girlfriend. "Are you coming?"

"Sure!"

With that, the two of them left the room together. To shower. As if it was only natural.

…

And Judy had the audacity to wonder why there were rumours about the physicality of their relationship among the Dracis mansion's staff. Unbelievable.

They weren't entirely wrong though, and while I didn't take the game super-seriously, I also worked up a bit of a sweat during the motion control challenges. It was probably prudent to take a shower after the girls finished, I concluded and sat up on the bed. Since I had a bit of downtime, I figured I should make a Far Sight roll call, but just as I closed my eyes, I had a new idea. While it was in the heat of the moment, I promised Judy that I would put more effort into dismantling the Simulacrum to ease her worries.

Honestly, I had to admit that I was slacking off on that front lately. I saddled Fred with a lot of the experimentation and developing the protocols and equipment required, but with the recent projects taking up his time, his side was also stalled, and as for my end… Well, let's just say that staying on top of all the Celestial malarkey of the Elysium was taking up too much of my headspace to do any tests on my end.

I no longer had that as an excuse though, and while I could've certainly left it for later, preferably after the girls were already asleep, I had a feeling that I was developing a bad habit of procrastination, and it was high time I acted contrary to it. The only question was, what should I do?

For one thing, I now had a whole bunch of phantom limbs. I gained them during the Polemos-cocoon incident, and so far, I haven't had an opportunity to put them to good use. For example, let's look at the ret-conning ability I had. There was a self-imposed prohibition on it, both because it was a scary power that could have unpredictable and devastating consequences, and also because it quite literally knocked me off my feet whenever I tried to use it. There was also the 'temporary' version of the same ability, where I, for lack of better words, 'fractaled' an object and temporarily replaced it with an alternate version of itself.

While the effects were subtly different, the method was similar: use my phantom limbs to enter the 'fractal space', anchor myself with another phantom limb, and then overlap the alternate version of the object with the 'real' one. Now, it didn't require a genius to deduce that more phantom limbs equalled more anchoring, and thus it might have opened new opportunities. Maybe I could use them to dig myself in even deeper and find a safe way to retcon items, or even catch the tail of the elusive Narrative while it was busy tweaking things backstage. The possibilities were mouth-watering.

Yet, while I was itching to give it a try, I had to restrain myself. This was definitely better to be attempted with Judy around, both to serve as an outside observer and to tuck me in, in case I miscalculated and knocked myself out in the process.

If not that, then what other options did I have? To answer my own question, I raised one of my ethereal appendages. I kept calling it the 'stubby one', but after the last round of changes, it was hard to tell it apart from the rest. Fortunately, just like how I could tell my left hand apart from the right one without having to actively look at them, I have developed an instinctive sense for my tentacular extensions.

This one was special though. Unlike the rest, it was the only one that allowed me to enter into the space between spaces, where the not-black not-room was occasionally found. I said occasionally, because for the last couple of times I tried to enter there, I couldn't find it. Nevertheless, since I had nothing better to do while I waited for the girls to come out of the shower, I figured I might as well give it a go.

As such, I took a deep breath, and slowly plunged the phantom limb into my own head. At once, I was assaulted by a familiar sense of vertigo, and before long, I found my consciousness floating somewhere outside what is colloquially referred to as 'space' and 'time'. It took me a week-long blink of an eye to get my bearings, but as expected, I couldn't detect anything nearby. No chatty corner of my mind, no star people, and no binary stars crested by a crown of black tendrils. Everything was so mundane (at least by this non-place's standards), it was almost disappointing.

I didn't let it deter me though, and with a wilful effort, I forcefully twisted the lack of space around me, this strange void's version of looking around. At first, there was nothing, yet there was a small discrepancy in my senses, and the more I focused on it, the more obvious it became. I pulled it to me, and the feeling gained physical form in the shape of a small crack in the non-space, its multiple edges trailing into two-dimensional spirals, and its middle filled with a myriad of sparkling lights, like the stars of the night sky.

Curious, I approached the strange fissure. Or had it approach me. Semantics, really. Peering through it, I felt like I was in a maze, but not a very difficult one. More like the kind one would find at the end of a children's magazine. Once I realized what it was, it was trivial to reach the end of it, and there…

"—ling you that there has been nothing like it since then," the unmistakable voice of The Man spoke, yet his usual overbearing tone was nowhere to be found. His countenance was strained, as if something large cast a shadow on his barren surface, and…

"And you are telling me this ripple was caused by him."

I was suddenly jolted by a new, never-before heard voice entering my ears. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Observing my environment, I beheld the not-dark not-room, though its shape was unfamiliar. It was as if the walls were twisted and the floor and ceiling were given a swirling checkered patterned makeover, right out of a Tom Burton movie. In the middle, as much as such a term could be applied to the place, were the four familiar figures of The Man, The Woman, The Boy, and The Girl. Yet, recognizable as they were, they all looked strange. Drained of colour. The ruby oceans of The Woman were but a pale, flat pink, while the rainbow-coloured orbital rings of The Boy were still and dull.

"I assure you, sir ************, the situation is under control, and he is—"

"Silence. I'm not done yet," the new voice spoke again, and everyone shuddered at once.

The Woman called the newcomer by name, but as usual, it wasn't a 'name'. It was many things, and it evoked many images. A small planet, or maybe a moon, drifting in pitch-black darkness. Bleak skies, with only the pinpricks of the stars shedding any light on the surface, covered in a thick blanket of… bones. The moment I made that observation, the sight in front of my eyes snapped together, as if the whole of the solitary planet was condensed into the shape of a human.

A thin man without any clothes on his impossibly wiry frame. He had no skin, and he looked like some kind of art project made entirely of bleached animal bones, teeth, and fangs fashioned into the crude facsimile of a human. He had no eyes, and his face, just like the rest of his body, was but a constantly roiling, shifting, subsuming and emerging jigsaw of bones.

In his hands, with three, uncannily long fingers, there was a strange sphere of light, and as I focused on it, its shape rapidly changed into a bundle of pages stapled together and filled to the brim with tiny, undecipherable letters. The… creature of fangs and bones, for lack of better words, seemed to be browsing these pages for half an eternity before raising his head.

"Is this all the proof you have?"

"******, you have to understand," The Woman spoke up again, sounding distinctly nervous.

This time she used a different term to address the strange being, and I was slightly more familiar with this one. Or so I have felt. It was something I have encountered in the past, and after rolling it around on my tongue, so to speak, to get a feel for it, the words 'Venerated Emergent' came to mind.

"I am very understanding," he answered, his voice dry and raspy, like a man who hasn't had a drink in three days. "But this isn't proof." He paused, and turned his head to each of the other people in the not-room one by one. "The Simulacrum is a privilege, not a right. You have abused the right given to you for your personal use, and in the process, *********** was lost."

Once again, the subject wasn't a word, but an image of a huge, solitary red star. It was strangely familiar, yet before I could take a closer 'feel' to it, The Boy exclaimed in panic, interrupting me.

"H-He isn't lost! He's in there! He has to be!"

"Right!" the girl chimed in, though the birdsong accompanying her voice was strained and twisted as if it was played back on a stretched-out audio tape. "I told you, we had no means to hurt him, so he has to be hiding on purpose!"

"Either that," The Man cut in, hesitant to speak up. "Either that, or there was something else we were also unaware of."

"You are trying to blame an unknown third party," the bone-being's dry, emotionless voice stated, and the papers in his hands evaporated. He moved his limbs to cross them in front of his chest, yet at the same time, they remained frozen in place as if he had found arms. "Where is the evidence?"

"We… don't have any," The Man admitted, and the bone-man let out a low, grinding noise. Was it a sigh, I wondered?

"The Simulacrum has to be shut down," he stated, but then after a beat, his head turned again and he added, "However, it has progressed too far, and thus it would be unfair to the *************."

Once again, the word was familiar. It meant something along the lines of 'Submerged Ones'. Whatever that really meant was still up for grabs, but it was something.

"Yes!" The Woman jumped at the opportunity as if it was a last-second lifeline. "If you look at the metrics, you can see that, despite the complications, our results are actually not th—"

Whatever she wanted to say died in her throat as, without warning, the bone-man's arm lashed out. But not at her. Even though we were far apart, his three-fingered hand suddenly covered my vision, as if he directly grabbed onto my head.

"Uninvited visitor," he stated in a low voice, and I was too slow to react. "Rat."

His hand squeezed down on me all of a sudden, and there was… it wasn't pain. It was something else. It was worse. It was as if a piece of me was being ripped out, and it made me scream in shock and agony. My voice shook the not-black not-room, and scattered The Woman, The Man, The Boy, and The Girl. The bone creature, the pale white man, The Predator Moon, was also startled, and his grip weakened on me. At that moment, the non-space around us shook again, and I felt like I was suddenly wrapped in a hundred thin ropes and forcefully dragged out of the not-dark not-room, into the void of space between spaces, and then flung back into my body before I even had the opportunity to process what happens.

With a jerk, my whole body tensed up, and if not for my gritted teeth, I would have probably let out an undignified scream. I clenched my fists, to stop my hands from shaking, and took several deep breaths. My heart was in my throat, and it took me several seconds to register that I was still sitting on my bed, safe and sound.

At last, I forced my mouth open, if only to gulp in an even deeper breath and then slowly exhale it again. I was still trembling. Not just my flesh and bone limbs, but my ethereal ones as well, and as I carefully raised the 'stubby one', for the first time in months, I felt a panic claw at my mind, sinking its talons into my every thought as my flight-of-fight response was in full effect.

I couldn't help but stare at the phantom limb, even though I couldn't see it with my eyes, and whisper, "Is that… a fucking teeth mark…?"

Part 4

"I tell you, boss, there's nothing wrong with you."

I levelled a skeptical stare at Fred and flatly uttered, "Check again."

"We already checked three times!" he exclaimed and waved a clipboard holding a whole bunch of graphs and data tables in front of my nose. "Look! Everything's normal!"

"Mostly normal," Mr. Plague Doctor noted from the other side of the workshop. He was in the middle of calibrating the soul-analysing machine, and after a long beat, he looked up and added, "The structure of the seat of your consciousness is already rather unique, so I meant 'normal' in relation to that."

"So you say there isn't anything out of the ordinary," I noted. "Can I ask for a second opinion?"

While Fred was confused by my question, Galatea quickly realized I was looking at her, and she walked over to our side. She casually snatched the clipboard out of our chief mad scientist's hand, and her eyes quickly skimmed over the pages.

"Master is correct," she stated flatly and handed the documents back to the man. "There is a sigma of zero-point-two in Grandmaster's readings."

"Meaning?"

"It means Grandmaster's recent readings show no statistically distinguishable difference from the ones taken during the afternoon. In layman's terms, there's nothing wrong with you."

"I see…"

I exhaled hard and closed my eyes. I came here right after the girls returned from the shower (and I managed to catch my breath) to have my measurements taken by Fred's machine, but it apparently couldn't detect any change. Which meant one of two things: either the equipment wasn't up to snuff, or the damage I received was completely unrelated to my 'soul', so to speak. If it was the former, then it just meant some upgrades were necessary, but if it was the latter… it opened up a whole box of worms.

Ever since I first gained my phantom limbs, I rarely stopped and thought about what they were and where they came from. They were simply a very convenient and mysterious form of power in a world already full of convenient and mysterious powers. Yet, this recent incident indicated that there was most likely much more to them than what met the eye. Or what didn't, considering they were completely ethereal, but that was half the point.

From the perspective of the Simulacrum, these intangible tendrils of mine didn't seem to be detectable on the surface-level, yet they could interact with the world's middle-layer of 'magic', and even the bottom-stratum made of souls and seemingly infinite fractal spirals of teacups. On the flip-side, while they could interact with and dismantle magical phenomena, up to and including 'true dragon breath', which was supposed to be the top-of-the-line 'melts everything, magical or otherwise' force of the universe, nothing could meaningfully interact with them in return. That is, until this day.

Focusing on the 'wound' on my phantom limb, I could still feel a low, pulsing sense of pain, disassociated from my body and feeling like it was emanating from my inside. It wasn't an unbearable one; in reality, once the first shock wore off and I could look at the injury with a semblance of rationality, it felt a little more than a large paper cut. It hurt, it was hard to ignore, but it wasn't exactly debilitating.

However, that wasn't the main problem. The issue lay in the circumstances; nothing inside the Simulacrum could affect my phantom limbs, yet something outside the Simulacrum could. Q.E.D., my phantom limbs existed outside the Simulacrum, and they were vulnerable there. What exactly that meant was up to debate, but one thing was for sure; going into the space-between-spaces in general and the not-dark not-room in particular became dangerous all of a sudden.

Shaking my head, I stood up and rolled my shoulders. Simultaneously, I tightly wrapped the other phantom limbs around my injured one. It lessened the pain and gave me a sense of comfort, like applying pressure onto a cut fingertip.

"Thank you for your cooperation at this hour," I spoke in a low voice, and Fred immediately let out a relieved chuckle.

"Kihihi! Don't even mention it, boss." Then, after a beat, he continued in a more serious tone, "You could, however, explain why you wanted us to test you in a hurry."

He was right. I was still a bit panicked when I Phased over, so I only demanded that they run the usual tests on me without clarifying exactly what happened. On second thought, though, how was I supposed to even begin to explain what happened? While I had Fred involved with our research into the various layers of the Simulacrum, I never fully let the cat out of the bag about the nature of the world, and explaining all of that to him at this point would've taken too long.

In the end, I decided to leave the particular details about the jigsaw-man of bones, the star-people, and the not-dark not-room for another day and only told him about the most directly relevant details.

"I was experimenting with something, and in the process, one of my phantom limbs got injured."

"Phantom limb?" Mr. Plague Doctor inquired on the side with an implied raise of one brow.

"Grandmaster's hitherto empirically undetectable means of directly interfacing with mana-driven mystical phenomena," Galatea explained before I could, and the man in the mask let out a thoughtful hum before returning to the machinery.

Meanwhile, Fred looked at me like I just told him my hair was made of ice cream.

"Do you mean those phantom limbs? The one you use for enchanting and everything?"

"Yes, that," I answered a touch sourly. "I'll explain the exact details another time, but suffice to say, I came here in a hurry to see if the wound showed up on the readings."

"It didn't," Fred stated the obvious, and after a brief pause, he let out a delighted chuckle. "Kihihi! Fascinating! Truly fascinating!"

"That's one way to put it," I grumbled and turned to the trio one last time. "I better head back; the girls must be worried about me. I'll come by for another checkup tomorrow."

They nodded, more or less in unison, and seeing that nobody was trying to stop me, I promptly teleported back home.

"Chief?" My sudden presence was immediately greeted by a deadpan voice from in front of the PC. "What was that about?"

"Right!" the princess, standing beside her, followed her up and was just about to pout at me when she turned to me and stopped in her tracks. "Hold on. You're pale! What happened?"

Before I could answer, she skipped over to my side and put her hand on my forehead. Unlike Judy, who was wearing standard-issue pyjamas, Elly opted for a light night-gown, and the way she raised her hands and leaned over made it very obvious she wasn't wearing a bra underneath. Of course, considering the circumstances, I wasn't in the mood to do anything with that information, but it was hard not to notice. In any case, I carefully removed her palm from my forehead.

"I'm not sick, I just ran into an… unexpected situation."

Judy was seemingly browsing the Celestial Hub using my Admin account, but when she heard that, she closed the window and got up from the swivel chair as well. In the end, the three of us sat down on the side of the bed, and after collecting my thoughts, I gave my girlfriends a brief explanation of what just happened. The two of them listened intently, though based on the princess's expressions, my attempts to explain the non-euclidean geometries, as well my translations of the unique terminology used by the people of the not-dark not-room, were inadequate at best. They didn't interrupt though, and patiently waited for me to finish up the tale.

"… and they told me that there was no trace of a change or injury on the readings, so I came home, and here we are," I concluded, and waited for their responses.

"Chief."

"Yes, Dormouse?"

"Normally, this would be the part where I scold you for being reckless," she began, but then she put a hand on my back and started stroking it up and down. "However, considering it's a unique power only you can use, and something we can't help you with, I'm only going to say I'm glad you got away with a bite."

"Agreed," Elly backed her up and tried to pull me into a hug without interfering with Judy.

While their reaction felt nice, I couldn't help but let out a sigh anyway.

"Thanks, girls, but I think I really messed up this time," I admitted, causing Judy to stop stroking my back and look up at me questioningly. Before I answered, I raised my hands to stare at my palms. They were no longer shaking, but I clenched them anyway. "I was complacent. I got too used to having all these powers and being nigh-untouchable, and it didn't even cross my mind that I could be caught with my pants down like that, let alone getting hurt in the not-dark not-room."

"To be fair, you are quite OP," Judy pointed out.

"OP?" the princess echoed her with a raised brow, and so my dear assistant elaborated.

"Overpowered. At least by the standards of the Simulacrum's current power levels." She took her hand off my back and reached for her phone, sitting next to mine and Elly's on the night stand. "I have the data if you don't believe me."

"Dormouse? Did you seriously make another power-ranking list?"

"I did it in my free time."

"You didn't even try to deny it this time!" I griped, but she didn't argue. Instead, she poked her phone and showed a graph to us.

"You see, Chief, you are currently easily one of the top ten most powerful people in the simulacrum, and potentially in the top five when it comes to individual combat abilities. If we count your outside context powers, I would argue you are head and shoulders above the rest."

"I get that, but…"

"Hush, Chief. I'm not finished," she chided me and let her phone down, only to look me in the eye. "The point I'm trying to get across is that this situation could have only been considered hubris if you got injured by someone else inside the Simulacrum, due to your overconfidence. As things stand, you encountered someone who also had outside-context abilities, as shown by them being able to injure your phantom limb. Outside context, by definition, means you couldn't be prepared for it, therefore I officially acquit you of any hubris."

"You have to be more careful in the future though," Elly pointed out, and Judy nodded along.

"Yes. You get a free pass the first time, but now that we know those extra-Simulacral beings pose a potential threat to you, any further thoughtless interactions and injuries will get you scolded, so act prudently."

"That's the plan," I told them with a sigh, and with that, Judy considered the topic closed and picked up her phone again.

"Good. Now, let's consider what we learned from this encounter."

"Let me see…" The princess raised her hands and started counting on his fingers. "Leo's phantom limbs can be hurt by outsiders."

"Which means they are most likely not just outside-context powers within the Simulacrum's magical framework, but likely originate from outside of it altogether," Judy remarked on my other side.

"I theorized as such in the past, but this seems to confirm it, yes," I added, and my dear assistant dutifully noted it down.

"Secondly," Elly contained, showing a second finger, "There is a new… what did you call them?"

"Extra-Simulacral entity," my other girlfriend answered on autopilot.

"I prefer star-people," I added a touch sheepishly.

"Star-people it is then!" Elly declared, and grabbed her second finger again. "So there is a new one of those, and the others seem to work under him."

"Or at the very least, there are rules and a form of hierarchy they adhere to," the girl on the other side reckoned even as her fingers continued to dance on the screen. "That implies there has to be a method and a goal behind the operation of the Simulacrum."

"Third," Elly barrelled on, holding up a thumb next. "This new star-person is scary and weird."

"Which is an important data point," Judy noted with a frown. "It can mean one of three things: either they are fundamentally different from the other four, they purposefully didn't adopt a fully human appearance, or they are so alien, this…" She paused and scrolled back on the screen. "'Humanoid made of a patchwork of bones, claws, and fangs' was the closest approximation your mind could impose on it."

"In either case, it means that they are inhuman," I mused, and Elly looked rather interested in that remark.

"Do you think they are aliens? As in, space aliens?"

"I'm personally more inclined towards elder gods," Judy responded, and I automatically corrected her.

"You mean 'outer gods'."

"No. The elder gods are the humanoid ones," she corrected me back.

"But these star-people are also planets and moons and whatever," I argued, yet before we could get any further than that, the princess raised her voice.

"They are from space either way, right?" Not knowing what else to do, I tentatively nodded. "Then they are space aliens! Let's move on!"

I shared a skeptical look with Judy, but at the end of the day, neither of us wanted to argue the fine print, so we let it go and just ran with it.

"In either case, we know a bit more than we did before," I stated, and everyone agreed on that point. "Now what?"

"For now," Judy began, only to pause while she poked her phone a few more times, and then she put it back onto the nightstand. "For now we know the Simulacrum is not getting shut down yet. We still have a long way to go, but at least now we know there is a definitive goal behind this world, and it lies in these 'Submerged Ones' you mentioned. As soon as we figure out what those are, we'll be one step closer to unravelling the secrets of the Simulacrum."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" I raised what felt like an obvious question, and to my surprise, Elly had a proposal.

"You could try exploring that space you talked about." I might have looked less than enthusiastic, because she hastily added, "I-I don't mean those dangerous star-people in particular, but the rest of it! You said you once saw a pair of suns in there, and this bone-man had to come from somewhere too! Maybe there are more of them out there you could ask for information?"

"That's… not a terrible idea," Judy admitted, and then she reached out and squeezed my hand. "But only so long as you can promise to be very, very careful while doing so."

I didn't remember agreeing to the princess's idea, yet they were treating it as a given. To be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled by the prospect, but maybe that was just because the shock and the pain were still fresh. Thinking about it, it wasn't like I stopped Phasing when overusing it made me sick, or using my phantom limbs to manipulate enchantments even though I was suffering constant migraines from it. By ignoring the adverse side effects, I got to the point where I could do both of those things without any negative consequences. So… should I just tough it out and keep exploring the space-between-spaces anyway, I pondered?

"Let's get back to this tomorrow," I proposed a touch wearily, and I even rubbed my temple for show. "I'm mentally exhausted after what just happened, and I'm not sure I'm in the right mind space for this."

"Right! You should rest up!" the princess declared and sprung to her feet. "I'll go and get you something warm to drink."

"Bring cookies too," Judy called after her as she left the room, and Elly gave us a thumbs up from outside.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" I inquired, and my dear assistant gave my off-hand question a lot of thought.

"Since you are not in the right shape for a serious discussion, we'll go with plan B."

"Which is?"

"We cuddle, then we watch some funny videos, then we cuddle some more, and we'll see how things would develop from there."

"That sounds chill, though I don't know what 'development' you're expecting there."

"We'll see," she echoed herself and snuggled up to me while we waited for Elly to return. All things considered, as much as I was usually dragging my feet, for once since forever, I really wouldn't have minded some physical intimacy, if only to take my mind off a certain featureless face made of bleached bones…