?Shh~ it’s a secret~?

  Hetexia stared down at Emilia, possibly contemplating whether she should bite off the finger Emilia had pressed to her friend and kinda-sorta former subordinate’s mouth. If she had bitten the offending digit off, Emilia wouldn’t have been too mad—it was considered extremely bad form to touch a hy without explicit permission, and in the background, she could see the other northerners bristling, and between them—

  ?Emilia!? Key cheered, pushing his way through the much taller visitors and all but tackling Emilia. ?You’re okay.?

  ?So are you!? she cheered back, the two of them jumping in a circle of excitement—there is a chance this may have been encouraged by her, more than her friend who looked rather… confused, to say the least. ?Why didn’t you teleport away? Is that busted, too? My communication system has been down since we were brought here.?

  The aether surrounding Key shifted, preparing to let him speak, but Hetexia beat him to it.

  “What is a secret?” she asked, tugging Emilia’s attention back to her.

  ?Who he is.?

  “Who this boy is? He already told us he’s a fruwl’tha ly.”

  ?No, not Key.?

  “Then who?”

  ?One of the people in my group—they’re that way?—Emilia vaguely motioned in the direction she’d come from, having bolted the moment she heard the northerners speaking. V probably wasn’t far behind her, but he’d been behind Zyrex in a narrow stairwell and stars above was the hy Lwyn wide.?If you recognize him, you can’t say his name. It’s a secret.?

  Hetexia gave Emilia a look that implied she thought her former commander was being particularly stupid, and Emilia’s heart clenched. Once, it had been the syna Gru giving her, Hetexia and Helix such looks, Simeon standing by and ignoring them in that way of his that implied he was very disappointed in them. During the war, so far from home and still considered quite young in the eyes of her people, Hetexia had been free to mess around—to have fun with her friends despite the war raging around them.

  To see that she had now grown into someone who could give her that sort of deprecating look… it was sad, both because Emilia was realizing that after a decade of separation she might not know many of her former friends well anymore, but because she might very well be left feeling as though she needed to mourn the people they no longer were.

  ?V!? Key cheered, one of his arms releasing Emilia so V could join them.

  He didn’t—not right away. Rather, his eyes skidded over the rest of the group—the northerners he didn’t know and Hetexia. ?Hetexia,? he said, his voice warbling slightly.

  The hy Gru watched him, assessing. “Ah,” she finally said, eyes flicking between the pair of them. “You both are being stupid, then? Or, is this the end of your collective stupidity and hiding?”

  ?A bit of both?? Emilia offered, patting Key’s arm when his fingers dug into her side, trying to communicate to him that Hetexia meant no offence.

  Shaking her head and muttering about how this—meeting up with people she used to know during raids—was both a blessing and a curse, Hetexia wandered over to V, patting him on the shoulder, before moving past him to where the rest of their group had appeared.

  Her comment, of course, resulted in a confused Key questioning her about her choice of words—evidently locals didn’t refer to anything as a blessing or a curse in this world, not unless the person were referring to the blood curse or a harbinger’s blessing. Emilia went to answer him, but it was one of the other northerners—Gino jur Wren, she thought—who answered his questions, while Hetexia went to talk with Zyrex. That was probably better—she probably would have mangled her attempt to explain the northern belief.

  ?What happened?? Emilia asked the younger northerners—the girls, Myr wyn Bur, Hyr’s younger sister, and Phino jur Wren, who looked similar enough to Gino for her to assume they must be related somehow.

  ?We came across the boy when we were travelling the building,? Phino said, although Emilia thought Key was probably older than her own age—Zyrex had said the girls were in their late teens.

  “He was being held hostage. Tucked himself behind a table when we came in.”

  ?He was sooooo afraid of the hy Gru!?

  “Oh yeah~ petrified!”

  ?Shaking in his booties!?

  ?I’m not wearing boots?? Key said, popping up behind them after having been dismissed by Gino, who had been summoned over by Hetexia, presumably to discuss the missing Hyr.

  Phino rolled her eyes—something Emilia wasn’t sure she had ever seen a healer of the north do—and told Key it was just a Baalphorian translation of a Brylish saying.

  ?Don’t worry,? V said, leaning in to faux-whisper to the local boy. ?Baalphorians don’t understand half of the idioms of the north, either.?

  ?Oi! And who are you to talk!? Phino gasped, hands planting on her wide hips as she glared down at V. The teenager wasn’t much taller, but combined with her wide frame, she seemed to tower over V.

  He didn’t look concerned, and instead politely introduced himself with the same mostly proper greeting he had given Hyr and Zyrex.

  The girls looked at each other, sharing a silent conversation that only people who had known each other most of their life could sustain, before introducing themselves to him.

  “wyn Bur ur’y vyll Rosalia.”

  ?jur Wren ur’y vyll Rosalia.?

  V looked like he was fighting down his annoyance at the teenagers greeting him so rudely. Key looked confused, privately asking Emilia what they’d said.

  ?It’s basically a formal introduction,? she explained, focusing on trying to keep her thoughts between the two of them. Given no one looked their way, she presumed she succeeded. Maybe. That, or people were just politely—or would it be rudely?—ignoring her failed attempt at privacy. ?In their language, there are a few ways of formally introducing yourself. For this sort, you put the most important name—or, technically, it’s more a title—first. Normally, you put the eldest or most socially important person first.?

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  ?They put their names first.?

  ?Yes, they did.?

  ?Are they older than V??

  ?Nope.?

  ?More important??

  Emilia didn’t laugh, but it was a close call. ?No. Definitely not.?

  ?So… they’re being rude.?

  ?Oh yeah.?

  ?Teenagers,? Key muttered, shaking his head as though he were an old man, bemoaning the current generation.

  This time, Emilia did laugh, leaning into the friend she had missed and worried for and would soon never see again. ?You say that like you weren’t a teenager yourself relatively recently.? She smirked, knowing full well that Key had given off some clear still a teenager in many ways vibes throughout their acquaintanceship. The boy’s cheeks reddened, and he definitely knew that as well.

  ?So, what’s the plan?? Emilia asked as the group gathered, Gino throwing questioning looks between the girls and a visibly annoyed V, while Gale tucked herself behind Emilia, as though she was afraid of the strange new visitors. Normally, Emilia would scold her for being so judgy—more than most of the visitors they’d met, save Conrad, the northerners were by far the strangest—but she didn’t want the local girl to pick up any bad habits from the northern teens. Keeping them from talking too much was clearly for the best.

  ?Weren’t you in charge?? Hetexia asked darkly, earning a groan from Emilia.

  For one thing, she didn’t want to be in charge. For another, the hy Gru was clearly pissed that she’d lost Hyr, as though it were her fault that they’d been kidnapped and he hadn’t. So unfair.

  ?Fine, fine. Blame me. Whatever,? she sighed, asking Hetexia and Key this time what had happened—clearly the northern teens couldn’t be trusted to stay on topic or be nice.

  Several minutes later, their groups had exchanged stories about what had happened to them while apart. Most notably: Ajarni was dead, and the remaining Clarity members were acting weirder and weirder.

  ?It could be what I talked to that Risen Guard guy about, I guess?? Emilia mused, telling the assembled group about how she had contacted Boundary, and through him, had been put in contact with a Risen Guard who managed personnel. ?I wanted to see if there was a way to basically… infect the hive mind? They’re all connected, so I figured if we could affect one person’s mind, or maybe implant something into them, it might spread.?

  V hummed, his hand tight and warm around hers—he’d refused to let go since grabbing it, afraid she’d run off again, which was probably fair. ?Like a virus??

  ?Exactly! He was going to call in a few people, to look into it and uh… do some experiments on the Clarity members they’d captured. It’s possible they succeeded—I mean, it’s not like I’d know one way or another, with my messaging system down.?

  ?It could also be that their leader is dead,? Key offered, adding that they’d started to get weird before that, though. He shuddered, when he told them how they hadn’t even flinched as the late Clarity leader peeled his skin away during his breakdown.

  “Does it matter?” Zyrex asked. “What you wanted to do—kill that man and disassemble his army—has been accomplished, yes? Does the why matter?”

  No, it didn’t really matter. Whether it was an outside force—an actual god of this world, the platform maintainer or raid designer—or something internal—a general loss of hope as their numbers dwindled and their leader losing his mind, or some interference by the Risen Guard—their mission was, at least to some extent, done.

  So, what now?

  ?We should keep going down,? Emilia finally said. There was nothing above them, as far as anyone had seen. Down was the only option. ?Hopefully, we get access to the communication system back, and can contact the others and let them know Ajarni is dead. With any luck, we’ll be able to contact Hyr, and they’ll be able to use the {Blood Glass} to figure out what next.?

  “What next?” Zyrex asked over Myr, who was summarily shushed by Gino, who seemed to have realized the girls had been rude to them and was now in charge of making them behave respectfully… which essentially amounted to keeping them quiet.

  ?Yeah, I mean… we might have at least partially cleaned up this mess, but there’s still the blood curse,? Emilia said as they began to move, V’s hand still clasped in hers while Gale took the other. ?According to what I’ve heard from, well, pretty much everyone, it was assumed that the visitor system access would hold the secret to breaking it—or at least gaining a new blessing or curse for the world.?

  ?Yes,? Key agreed, telling them that people had tried practically everything during the last visitation to gain access. ?The Enclave keeps records of the blessings gained during each visitation. Usually, the method is tied to the system, and access to it is gained through something related to the last blessing or curse.?

  ?Like the whole making the universe bleed thing,? Gale said, having already heard the details of how Emilia and Conrad had gained their system access.

  ?Exactly. Due to how different the visitor system is compared to our version, however, there generally haven’t been many details on how the blessing is gained through it. Sometimes they mention quests or missions, but other times it’s things that our record keepers had a difficult time even trying to explain.? Key shot Emilia and V apologetic smiles, telling them that usually, Enclave families eventually let their harbingers read—or listen to them read—from the records, as they usually have a better time understanding them.

  Emilia’s mind whirred as they moved, the northerners’ long legs taking them down two or three steps at a time while the rest of them were left behind. Zyrex led the ground, Astra still being toted along, much to the amusement of Hetexia, who had switched the Brylish to tease the younger hy about having a crush, something Zyrex denied. V had helpfully yelled down at them that Astra was only fifteen or sixteen, but none of that stopped the hy Gru or the younger girls from teasing the hy Lwyn about how he’d have to wait quite a while for things to be legal.

  Astra, as far as Emilia could tell, wasn’t fluent in Brylish, and she made a note to discuss the situation with her later. While their age difference wouldn’t make much of a difference in the long run—although as the northern women had pointed out, nothing would be able to happen between them for many years—she didn’t want the girl to feel pressured! Regardless of anything, Astra was her friend—in a strange, almost parental way—and if she needed someone to tell Zyrex to fuck off—or that Astra just wanted to be his friend—Emilia was perfectly willing to fill that role. Actually, she should probably just start by asking if Astra wanted Zyrex’s contact information, for when they were back in the real world. Regardless of anything, the two had clearly become friends in their short time together.

  Unfortunately, Emilia had no idea if she’d ever get that chance to ask such questions—not when Astra was the one who had her contact information, not the other way around.

  In an ideal world, Emilia might have been able to go up and tug Astra out of Zyrex’s arms and talk to her about it—figure out what she wanted, if she liked the northerner’s attention, wanted to meet him in real life, wanted to be left alone, wanted to meet him one day, in the far future when their ages would make less of a difference.

  In an ideal world, Emilia would have been able to press one last kiss to the girl’s head and remind her that whenever she wanted, she was free to contact her—anytime, for anything.

  This wasn’t an ideal world, and when the attack came—Gino barely having time to erect a barrier behind him to protect Hetexia, Phino, Emilia, V, Key and Gale from the water bullets that skewered through the rest of them—all Emilia felt was shocked, then revulsion as Gino, Zyrex, Astra and Myr’s bodies imploded, leaving only puddles of blood in their wake.

  For a moment, none of them moved, unsure where the attack had come from or how to react to the death of almost half their group. At least for the northerners, they’d see their friends again. For Emilia, it was perfectly possible that she’d never see Astra again.

  She’d known it was possible—likely, even.

  Still, Emilia hadn’t been prepared for how much it would hurt.