Nate knocked on the door and waited. He didn’t have to wait for long before Kiri joined him, slipping out through a crack in the open door and closing it behind her. He appreciated her sparing his eyes as it was abundantly clear what she had been doing.

Holding out his hand, he withdrew the heavy orb that barely fit into the palm of his hand. Within its depth, light shifted, not in rainbows, but from one colour to the next, the transitions mesmerising.

“The last thing you need, I believe. A Nascent Orb of Enduring Ideas. Even has a hint of Soul to it, so it should be perfect.”

Kiri beamed at him, “Thanks. And sorry about…”

Nate just smiled and bumped shoulders with Kiri, “You don’t need to apologise. It seems to me we finally have some time to relax and decompress. They’ll be making plans for weeks. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for. Enjoy it while you can.”

Kiri nodded and glanced back at the closed door. Nate could read his sister as easily as she could him.

“Gwen hasn’t made a decision then?” he asked.

Kiri shook her head. “It’s funny, you know? Fili is the most risk averse of them all and she’s the only one who doesn’t need to do anything risky. Wulfgar and Jak both needed to change their Embodiments so Ankh threw them in the deep end. Nothing new there. Wulfgar is still not back after four days, though Ankh says he’s alive. Knowing Wulfgar though, he’s probably not happy about it by now. Regretting all his life choices. But Gwen…she did everything right. Not like me, who needed to have my own Path beaten into my thick head. She’s got the right Embodiment, she just can’t get the things she needs for a safe transition to a Divine Vessel. Instead she has it the worst out of all of them, and I saw how badly Jak got fucked up. I’m just…worried. Worried she’ll say yes…or no. Like, it shouldn’t matter if she says no right? I’m about to tell Reciprocity to go fuck itself. Even if she doesn’t keep up, would that change anything between us?”

“Could she keep up even if she got a Divine Vessel?” suggested Nate. “No offense, but not everyone has your natural desire to literally power through any problem. And, as it keeps getting pointed out to me, I am unusually good with Concepts. Just because we help the others to get Divine Vessels doesn’t mean they’ll keep up. What happens when it’s time to get them Nascent artifacts? What happens when they get to the next stage and have to pass through the bottleneck of Integration? And who knows what’s involved in becoming a Pillar like Ankh. I’m just saying…does it really matter if she can’t keep up?”

Kiri looked at Nate for a long moment, then smiled and hugged him.

“Thanks for putting my worries to rest.”

After holding onto each other for a moment, Nate pulled away, glancing down the hall.

“How’d the meeting go?” asked Kiri, pulling him back in from his thoughts.

“Ten items from their Vaults. Golden Tide is going to let me go through theirs tomorrow. Eternal River had the second target, which I can feel Vicoli drooling over even now in my Created Space. Nascent Molten Heart of a Void Star. It lives up to the name.”

“And the other two items?”

“I got a present for Jak when he finishes recovering. And something for Luci.”

Kiri smirked, “Gonna make sure you’re her favourite?”

Nate rolled his eyes. “That title undoubtedly goes to Frick, who seems to enjoy playing with her more than he does doing literally anything else. Though, I am going to see if I can distract him as well. One of the Elders of the Eternal River Sect is a female blue goblin.”

Kiri laughed. “You trying to annoy our allies?”

“More like trying to make sure Frick is annoying someone else.”

Kiri’s laughter slowly died down and Nate saw her glance back at the bedroom.

“Go on,” said Nate. “I’ve got a few things I want to do anyway.”

Kiri gave him one last hug before slipping back into the bedroom.

Nate headed for his own room, knowing Kiri would remove her Class Core shortly. He stopped by Jak’s room to hand the Peak-grade artifact he’d acquired to the orc. It was a broken shield that resonated with the idea of a Heroic Last Stand. Ankh’aris had been confident that it would serve as a starting point to trigger the development of a Divine Vessel for the orc now that he’d fixed his Embodiment.

As for Luci’s gift, the Shard of Sunlight, Nate had already handed it to Ankh’aris. Despite what Kiri had suggested, Nate didn’t really care if Luci knew it had come from him. Nate had checked through most of the Eternal River Sect’s vault for artifacts that would suit the old and new members of the Risen Sun Sect. Unsurprisingly, most of the Eternal River’s treasures were focused more on Water and its related Concepts. There had been one that would’ve suited Fili, but Fili already had a Peak-grade artifact to trigger her own Vessel development. Wulfgar should as well, but who knew what his Embodiment would be when he finally came out of wherever Ankh’aris had stuffed him.

In the end, with no other choices, Nate had picked up something for Luci. Ankh’aris had been very grateful, even if Nate suspected the ancient dragon already had everything he needed to aid Luci’s progression.

Nate finally reached his own room. After a long few days, he finally had time to focus on his own interests. Taking out his easel and a fresh canvas, he began to paint.

The paintbrush that Kiri had got for him what felt like an eon ago slowly drifted back and forth over the canvas. There had been so many things that had happened since then and, when he looked back on their time in Etrua, it all felt so much simpler than now. But the thing most on his mind was the end of the World Reaping.

For so long, he had tried to keep his talents and abilities under wraps. Not a secret, or at least not always, but definitely holding back a portion of himself unless he felt like his life was threatened. But that had changed since the World Reaping. In full view of who knew how many billions of people, Nate had killed a Greater Divine while he remained, as far as they could tell, a Lesser Divine. As the saying went, the cat was out of the bag.

Or in his case, the chains were finally broken. No more hiding. No more holding back. His time in the shadows was well and truly over. It was that idea he now put on canvas. In the shadow of the volcano, he painted himself, coloured like the rainbow, breaking chains of metal, shadow and thought, before stepping into the light.

He painted so that he might take the freedom he finally felt and put it on the canvas so his feelings could be truly released. He knew that some people would talk about their feelings to let them see the light. Others buried them until, bubbling up, they were overwhelmed by them. Some sang, others became lost. The human response to emotions was as myriad as the benefits and consequences of their choices for dealing with them. But for Nate, he would always come back to this. Painting what he felt, so that both he, and the world, could see it.

*************

In the dark, Wulfgar shivered. At some point his mind had begun to torment him as much as the things that shuffled in the darkness around him. Occasionally, they would cut him, or take a small bite, spraying his blood on the unseen floor below. He never felt them come, nor sensed them leave. At first he’d swung at those apparitions with his axe. When that had failed, he’d tried to pummel them with his fists or stomp on them with his booted feet. But no matter what he did, they slipped and slithered away, like phantoms on a cloudy night.

Nightmares, he’d begun to call them, because that is what they were to him. But, shivering and alone, Wulfgar had no more fear to give. He was filled to the brim with it, tired of it after…shaking himself he realised he had no idea how long he’d been stuck in here. However long it was, his fear no longer stirred him to act. Instead, he was curled up in a ball as the nightmares ate him, piece by piece.

“Fear in the right hands is a tool…” whispered a hissing voice from the darkness.

Wulfgar didn’t even look up. The voice had come before. Always offering its little insights.

‘Feed on fear or share it.’

‘Conquer it or become it.’

‘Make a choice…’

Wulfgar was so tired of the words. What did they even mean? The slithering sound came again, all around him. One of the little nightmares sniffed in the darkness, scenting more of his blood.

Wulfgar, fed up with the constant taunting, the everlasting darkness and the incessant attacks finally lashed out. Not with his blade or with his body. With his fear-filled blood. A splattering sound as he sprayed blood in a direction, and then the bubbling hiss as his blood took form. He felt it, connected to himself, taking the form of his nightmares. Of a thick bodied serpent with a mouth of uneven razors instead of fangs and eyes an ominous black. His bloody nightmare struck and something in the darkness died.

Wulfgar slowly sat up as he felt a change within himself. His fear, that for so long had clouded his thoughts and guided his actions, felt like a part of himself rather than the spectre of something that haunted him from within.

In the corner of his vision a notification flashed but he didn’t get to read it. A gigantic clawed hand reached in from the darkness, wrapping around him before tossing him into the light.

Laying on the smooth floor, Wulfgar looked up at two sets of eyes. The larger of the two sat just above an unamused black draconic jaw. The smaller of the two was on a girl that looked to be around twelve years old with an odd golden complexion, and two upswept horns on her head.

“Took you long enough,” rumbled Ankh’aris.

“Yeah! Took you long enough!” repeated Luci before she vanished in a burst of golden light.

The sound of rumbling explosions and the hissing of burning stone echoed moments after she left. Wulfgar didn’t even care as Ankh’aris walked away. All he had eyes for were his changed Embodiment. No longer Bloodborne, he was now Bloodfear. He had no idea what the word or Concept meant, but he knew what he felt. He had turned his fear against his enemies. Not conquered, not suppressed. He’d taken his fear and turned it into a weapon. It was a small victory, but it was his, and that was enough for now.

*************

Remdeyr, Patriarch of the Severing Blade Sect, frowned in impatience. He’d brought a small ship when he’d left the Sect, uncertain of where his targets would be. On the trip, he’d found out the details surrounding his daughter's death. How Perenthia had become fixated on some boy from the Risen Sun Sect and in the end had pursued him without care or regard for anything else. And how, in her usual rare fits of interest, she had attempted to remove anything she considered a barrier to getting what she wanted.

In the past, that had never been an issue. Until of course, it was. The girl, Kiri, had defeated his daughter in what appeared to be single combat. He could’ve let it go at that. It wasn’t like some factions had banded together and used underhanded means to assassinate his daughter. Perenthia had picked the fight, doggedly pursuing them as they attempted to avoid her. When they finally gave up running and turned to fight, one had faced her in single combat and won. He should let it go. But he couldn’t. She was his only daughter. A price had to be paid. Would be paid. By both him and his target.

The boy he would spare. All he’d done was turn his daughter down. Even if the boy had allowed the battle between Kiri and Perenthia, he hadn’t participated. Remdeyr could show him mercy. But the girl named Kiri would die by his blade. Then and only then, would the scales be balanced.

Remdeyr would have done it already, in fact, as his ship floated just outside of the Verdant Sector of the Heartlands. He’d always found it somewhat amusing that the main factions of the Verdant Sector were one of the only Sectors constantly at war. Given the name of the Sector, and the fact that the factions populating it mostly focused on world development and World Reaping preparations, it was just odd that it was one of the few Sectors constantly at war. Then, there was the Golden Tide. The pin that held those small, looser factions of the Verdant Sector together as they fended off Belori’khan’andur and his push from the shallowest reaches of the Wild Realm.

Remdeyr had always wondered why Belori pushed into the Heartlands rather than deeper into the Wild Realms. He had his suspicions, of course. After all, the rumours that the Wild Realms were home to some Old Masters who predated The System almost certainly had some truth. The few factions that had made attempts on the Wild Realms always returned beaten with their tails between their legs. Though none ever shared what they encountered.

But Belori was different. He already had a foothold in the Wild Realms. Again Remdeyr wondered why push out and not in. The cause of his musings was sitting even now on the core world of the Golden Tide. A small nugget of absolute Destruction that seemed to conceal whatever was held within. Remdeyr did not fear the True Divines of the Golden Tide or their allies. In fact, he would have already descended to their core world and taken the life of Kiri Beaufoy, if not for that zone of Destruction. Even floating in his ship, far enough away that anything below a True Divine would struggle to sense him, Remdeyr could tell that were he to pit himself against whatever was creating that bubble of darkness, he would likely die.

So, Remdeyr waited. And would keep waiting. A good sword knew when to strike and when to remain in the sheath. So, for a little longer, Remdeyr would be like the sword, remaining sheathed. And when he drew his blade, the target of his ire would find their life cut short, Severed.