Sev let himself relax. There was a comfortable sort of silence in the caravan as it rode and bumped along the makeshift path; Vex was poring over his notebooks, Derivan was watching over his shoulder, and Misa was typing away into the system, presumably talking to her family.

It was strange — for everything that had happened to Elyra, for all the chaos they had just witnessed, everything around them seemed just... normal. The dissonance was jarring. The Anchors did their job well, hiding any sign that there was anything wrong with the world at all.

"Do you think we would've found out about all this?" Vex mused out loud. Sev and the others glanced at him, and he elaborated after a second. "If we hadn't done that one mission in the start, harvesting those mana crystals... would we still be here?"

"Hitting us with the hard questions, I see," Sev joked, though there wasn't that much humor in his voice. He spared the effort to smile a small smile at Vex when the lizard glanced at him, but truth be told, he felt exhausted. Part of it was recent events, and part of it was the weight of all the memories that had been thrust upon him.

He had been through lifetimes. None of the memories had been entirely sorted out yet, but it explained so much about that odd feeling of familiarity, the flashes of insight he kept having into people he shouldn't have known. He wondered how much of that was manufactured, and how much of that was Onyx intentionally placing someone into his path.

"I don't know," Sev finally said. "I think Onyx was pulling some strings there, trying to make sure we'd find out as soon as possible, but if we didn't give him the opportunity..."

There were so many decisions that had led to this — small and large. What would have happened if they'd allowed Derivan to strike off on his own? If they had chosen to exile Jerome, the paladin that had tried at first to take credit for their discovery? If Misa hadn't been so determined to save her own family?

"I'd say I could find out, but I don't think my skill lets me change a decision that far back," Misa said.

"Also you probably shouldn't try," Sev said. The Anchors were strained enough.

"Also that," Misa agreed.

"Regardless," Derivan said, his voice its usual quiet stoicism. "Our decisions have led us here. One can only hope that it is enough."

"It will be," Vex said, injecting a bit of false cheer into his voice. "Won't it?"

Derivan smiled at his companion. "For you, I shall do my best."

Vex flushed, burying his face in his hands. Misa barked out a laugh. "When did you learn to flirt?"

"I have been paying attention."

"No kidding." Misa grinned. "That's still pretty tame, though. You gotta hit him with something ha—"

"Ahem," the Guildmaster said.

Everyone jumped. Of course they did. Sev physically flinched as seven different versions of the Guildmaster suddenly warred with themselves inside his head — seven iterations that had all done the same thing, building up the Adventurer's Guild to try to mitigate the effects of the Anchors.

"When the fuck did you get here?" Misa demanded. "You could at least knock!"

"But then that isn't nearly as fun." The Guildmaster smiled a serene smile.

...That, at least, was largely the same in his memories — though the Guildmaster didn't always have the same class. She just found other ways to surprise the people she worked with.

"Why are you here?" he asked quietly. She wouldn't come here herself if it wasn't something urgent. Something complicated happened in the Guildmaster's face, a twisting of emotion he didn't quite recognize; she sighed, and suddenly a whole lot of life seemed to leave her, and she looked ten years older.

"We're seeing cascading Anchor failures all around Elyra," the Guildmaster said. "I think that's what it is, anyway, based on your report. Dungeons all around are requiring a lot more delves to keep them stable, they're considerably more dangerous, and it's getting worse each time. We've already had a few close calls with dungeon breaks."

"Shit," Misa muttered. "I can spare a few clones to help out—"

"There's more," the Guildmaster said, shaking her head. "Nearly all mana nuclei are reporting severely reduced mana crystal production. We can't keep up like this. At our current capacity we can maybe handle a few months of this, assuming things don't get worse."

"Fuck." Misa closed her eyes. Sev recognized the look on her face; she was trying to organize her thoughts. "Okay. I have some information from my mom — I was talking with her a few minutes ago. We might be able to do something about the mana crystal thing."

"What?" Sev said, surprised.

"It's news to me, too," Misa said. "You remember Fendal and Teque?"

"Hard to forget," Sev said. They'd be passing by Fendal on the way to Anderstahl, and he'd been planning to make a slight detour to break through the shield and... do whatever was needed to be done. He hadn't actually planned anything further than 'break past the shield'.

"They didn't need our help," Misa said, watching the look on his face. She wore a small smile, like she'd wanted to give him the news herself.

Sev blinked, then felt a small feeling of relief blossoming inside him. It was nice when things worked out.

All too often, it didn't.

"Apparently Noram and Noram — the otter and the lizardkin, they're going by different names now, but mom hasn't told me what they are — found a way to create... soul bonds? Through the system. It helped them both, uh, exist completely. That part's not important. The important part is that a soul bonded pair only needs to deposit one mana crystal per week, instead of two. Something about efficiency in the system.

"More importantly, they also found that reality slivers can replace mana crystals in a pinch." Misa frowned. "The system's been working on a way to utilize reality slivers — I think this is it. Whatever automated systems are still running found a way."

"Do they have enough slivers?" Vex asked worriedly.

"For now. It'll give us more time, at least." Misa glanced at the Guildmaster. "I think?"

"It depends on the amount, but as long as we don't have to deal with system sickness, I think we can make things last a few more months." The Guildmaster looked grim — that still wasn't a lot of time, Sev thought, and she knew it too. It felt all too much like things were still falling apart, and though he felt this was the closest he'd ever gotten, he still worried it wouldn't be enough.

Misa gave him a sympathetic glance, as though she knew what he was thinking, and Sev winced slightly. He'd been hoping his doubts wouldn't show on his face.

And still he had so much more to remember. There was more he'd been trying to do, he was sure of it. Right at the end of every two-century period — not that he was awake for most of it — when the system and world was falling apart and they had to hit the reset button... In that moment in time where all of system, reality, and divinity were all exposed and vulnerable.

There was something he had seen. Wasn't there?

Onyx? he asked, reaching through his divine connection with his god — but there was no response. Onyx was alive, but the only thing he felt through their connection was a slow pulse of reassuring fire, like things were still running on track.

It didn't assuage his worries, but he did feel a little better.

"Is there anything more we can do to assist?" Derivan's question was more direct. The Guildmaster glanced at him, flicked through her system screens, and then nodded to herself.

"I'll have Max get in touch with you if there is," she said. "For the most part, your duty is to make sure Elyra evacuates safely. You four—" she glanced at Helix and amended herself, "—five are in charge of keeping this envoy safe."

"The rebel faction is doing a pretty good job of that on their own," Vex commented. "They're... better leaders. I think most people trust them."

"They're all well-known in their respective communities," Helix said with a shrug. "I'm not surprised people trust them. Heck, if I hadn't known half of them when I was introduced..."

"You would've fireballed them?" Vex asked dryly.

"No!" Helix looked affronted, and then vaguely chastised, deflating suddenly. "Maybe. I dunno."

Vex snorted — but his gaze flickered to his still-unconscious father, and Sev offered him a sympathetic smile. He didn't know what his friend was going through, but he doubted it was easy...

...and it said a lot that Vex's mother still hadn't shown up.

"Are you here to recruit?" Misa interrupted his musings with a question, and the Guildmaster gave a wry smile in return.

"I am here to try," she said. "We don't predict a very good return. Most of Elyra is still scared, and your new leaders are too busy wrangling an entire moving kingdom to be able to assist much with the Adventurer's Guild. If you didn't have several anomalies in your path I'd be sending you out to help with crystal collection and dungeon delving, but as it stands, you're probably this envoy's greatest defense."

"Anomalies?" Vex frowned.

"Anomalies," the Guildmaster confirmed. "We have a couple of Intuitionists thanks to Charise, some adventurers with classes focused on precognition and forewarning, and a few clerics from the temples that can divine aspects of the future. Everything is... gray right now. You have a lot of dark spots ahead of you."

"What's that mean, exactly?" Misa raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed.

"It means that every single one of those people cannot predict the outcome of events that are coming up in your timelines," the Guildmaster said. "Which I probably should have led with. Look, I have a lot on my mind."

"Do we have any idea what threats we'll be facing?" Vex looked worried. Sev didn't blame him; these were the people he had grown up with, after all.

"None." The Guildmaster sighed. "There are a lot of new dangers popping out of the dungeons, and a lot of them we've never had to deal with before. Just the other day an adventuring team nearly died because of a snake that had poison that ate away memories. By the time Max got there, they forgot who they were and were fighting among themselves."

"Venom," Vex said automatically, then looked immediately embarrassed. "Um. Sorry."

The Guildmaster looked faintly amused. "Venom, yes," she said. "Just be careful. We're trying to contain the spread, but it's not looking easy. Keep an eye out for anything strange, including strange behaviors from people, just... anything out of the norm."

"What about you suddenly appearing in our caravan?" Sev asked, raising an eyebrow. The Guildmaster shrugged, appearing perfectly serious.

"Even that," she said. "Verify it with me through your systems if you can. I'm not kidding when I say what we're up against breaks all the rules. Some of the new dungeonspawned can attack your systems directly."

"Dungeonspawned?" Derivan asked.

"New term." The Guildmaster shrugged. "In light of those like you. You're not the only one from a dungeon that's turned out to be a person, you know? The Guild can't do all that much to change public perception, but we can spread the word a little bit. Ask people to be sure that the thing they're killing is an enemy, and not someone returned from the Void, even without their memories. Least we can do, right?"

"I suppose," Derivan said. His voice was soft — almost stunned.

The Guildmaster had always been like this. In every previous iteration, she remembered the smallest things, and used the Guild to enact the beginnings of change. If the world had been just a little bit different, if it hadn't been falling apart...

Sev wondered what she might have achieved.

"I don't suppose we get to know your name yet?" he joked.

The Guildmaster smiled. "It's Alyssa," she said.

A woman stepped out of their caravan, disappearing amongst the crowd.

Misa grumbled something under her breath, rubbing her temples. "It's so strange when she does that," the half-orc grumbled. "Especially now that I know she's doing it. It's like seeing double."