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Pannych grabs onto Phyr’s back, and Alice onto Vector’s; they rise up into the sky above the stadium, then make a beeline for Phyr and Vector’s penthouse suite of the last few weeks. After touching down on the veranda, Alice casts Open on the sliding glass door without bothering to try disabling the security measures. They’ll only be here for a minute, anyway.
“Eugh, you reek,” Alice says decisively to Pannych, now that the wind is no longer blowing away the stench of Nathanael’s body.
Pannych turns to Phyr and says, “Hey, can I get that de-stank-ification ray?” Phyr powers down and tosses her the purification ray, then he and Vector grab their bags as Alice and Pannych stand watch. After lasering off the smell and the worst of the grime, she begins absently touching at the scraggly stubble on her face with growing irritation.
“Here,” Phyr says to Pannych, having powered up into Hellphyr once more. She stops fretting over her body for a second, and turns to see him holding both Hawkmoth in its lacquered scabbard and her bag of tricks.
“Thanks,” she says, taken aback for just a moment before she secures them to Nathanael’s belt around her waist. She looks to Alice and says, “Aren’t you getting your things?”
“I’ve been in Supermax this whole time,” she explains patiently. “So bye-bye bag, bye-bye enchanted bow, bye-bye road leathers. It’s no big deal, though - I’ve got everything I need at the…” she trails off into a frown as she remembers that all of Noob Town has been Erased. “Whatever, it’s all replaceable,” she says stoically. “Let’s get back to our boat, shall we?” The boys nod, and Pannych assumes this is a good plan and goes along with it; then they mount up again and fly almost due North, past Riverside, to the seaside cave beneath the cliffs where their stolen boat still sits.
The Sun has just set as Alice steers them carefully out of the cave and into the current of the Hypnagogia Channel, the all-navy boat nearly invisible in the gathering dark. Phyr and Vector head below decks to stow their bags and change back into their traveling gear. When they return topside, Alice is still at the tiller, and Pannych is seated in a limp heap on the deck, staring blankly at the Moon.
“Everything OK,” Phyr asks as he fans out his trench coat and sits down next to her.
She looks at him with Nathanael’s cold eyes and says, “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
“So how did this happen,” Vector asks, gesturing vaguely at her from head to toe.
Pannych takes a deep breath before beginning her explanation. “When Nathanael killed me, he absorbed my soul, just like I absorbed Edric’s. Phyr blew him away with that supercharged Mana Beam, but it didn’t damage him. He got a power form when the blast ended, while we were sailing through the air over the mountains. We had a little bit of a fight, but it was a stalemate, and we were falling fast - so I gave up, not wanting to be mountain pizza, and he locked me up in a cage in the back of his mind.” She takes another deep breath. “It was… rough. But when you broke his neck, it took him down to 1 HP, and he was weak enough for me to take over. I would've been at full health and mana, but still with a broken neck, so I sacrificed a third of everything to heal his body. I’m still a little woozy, but I’m getting better bit by bit.” She looks back up at the Moon and takes a long, slow blink.
“I don’t wanna pry or anything,” Phyr says nervously, “But it seems like something else is bugging you.”
She looks back at him, adjusting her posture with stiff and mechanical movements, and says with chilling calm, “I was consumed by self-loathing for months on end. Then Edric pieced together your plan, and Nori killed him, and I got his soul just as soon as I got back in control. So he’s in here, too, and his corruption has been purged, but he’s still hurting over what you did - and he’s also coming to terms with what he did to the world.”
“But he’s just Prosperity now, right,” Phyr asks. “And Thorn is just Humility?”
“Edric, yes; Thorn, no.”
“Why not?”
“Because Thorn never died,” Pannych says flatly. “Nothing was done to purge his corruption. I’ve got him locked up for now, but if he ever gets out…” Pannych trails off as Phyr shivers. In Pannych’s mind, Nathanael Thorn looks silently out from his cage - and smiles.
Alice lets the beat hang for a moment before cutting in, then she says, “So you’re at about two thirds, yeah?” Pannych nods. “So we could go fix up the Rept Isles, right?” Pannych nods again, slower this time.
“And you could do that Create Spell thing, too,” Phyr says, “Right?”
Pannych nods a third time, then closes her eyes and says, “Create Spell.” After a moment’s concentration, magical libraries around the world suddenly have instructions for how to cast Conjure Exit Portal in various tomes and scrolls. She swallows back a moment’s queasiness at the massive mana expenditure, but it passes after a couple of deep breaths, and she relaxes back into the rhythm of the rocking boat.
“What’re you down to, now,” Alice asks after the moment passes.
“Uhh, just over 157K,” Pannych says.
“Good.” Alice nods as she fixes the boom in place and works the tiller. “Just making sure we’re not cutting it too close. Once we’re out in the Eventide Ocean, we might run into a kraken or the odd sea dragon. The merfolk shouldn’t be an issue, since I can See their territories with no problem - but one of those big fuckers can move faster than us, and might force a fight.” The adventurers stare at each other for a moment as they contemplate this new information.
“Hey, idea,” Phyr says after a moment. “Since Vector can fly now, why don’t we just fly the rest of the way? We could carry the boat between the two of us, and put it down whenever we need to rest. Wait - do you have Ethergrasp?”
“No, but I can get it,” Vector says.
“You’ll run out of mana,” Alice says with a dismissive handwave. “We’re going halfway around the world, and then coming all the way back, not just across a province or two.”
“I can swap out one of my features for Solar Powered,” Vector responds.
“That’s gonna be a lot slower without Phyr’s enchanted earring,” Alice shoots back.
“Can’t he dispel my binding and then bind it to himself, like I did with Usher,” Phyr asks.
“Or I could take that Mana Sink feature that Aqu has, and have infinite mana.”
“You need loads of training to be able to use that effectively,” Alice says, leaving the earring issue aside for now.
“What if I jack up my Informedness until I just know how?”
Alice throws up her hands in exasperation and nearly shouts, “Just break the whole fuckin’ game, why don’cha?!” The boat lists uncomfortably to one side, and she frantically grasps at the tiller to get it back under control. “Look, whatever you do, just… get a good night’s rest first, OK? Don’t y’all have a level to spend from Edric’s death, anyway?”
With a smattering of mutters, the conversation winds down. The three head below-decks and leave Alice to pilot the boat through the night.
Benjamin… I’ve dreamed a thousand dreams… I’m still haunted by the screams… Benjamin, where are you now? Everything’s gone wrong…
“I’m on a boat,” Benjamin says in his dream. “Where are you?”
Oh, thank the stars, you can hear me, the woman’s voice exclaims, seeming much stronger and clearer now that they have made a lucid connection. I’m still trapped here - everything’s a jumble - tangled and twisted - nothing makes sense any more. Help me, Benjamin - you’re my only hope!
“I can think of at least two other people who could help you - but who are you? Where are you?”
I don’t know my real name - I don’t even know what I look like. I was in a brownstone… then in a ghetto… I’ve been all over this town.
“Talking Heads, got it - but what town?”
I can’t… I can’t seem to face up to the facts. I’m so tense and nervous, I can’t relax. I can’t even sleep… what is this?
“You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything,” Vector says with mild amusement.
Yes! That’s it! Her voice brightens in his dream for just a moment. Now you see: I’m in a land of confusion...
“Back to Genesis, huh?”
“What about Genesis,” Phyr asks.
Vector awakens with a start, and sees Phyr sitting in his boxers on the bed opposite him. He sits up and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “It was that lady again, I think she can only speak in misquoted song lyrics or something.”
“Huh. Weird,” Phyr says with a yawn. “Anyway. I’m getting dressed and heading up top. Looks like Pannych’s already up and about.”
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