Taking every precaution to make extra sure there wouldn’t be any adverse reactions, the first thing that Randidly did when he exited the Dungeon and returned to Kharon was release a huge pulse of Aether that covered the surrounding area. The Aether density of Earth was already extremely high, but he didn’t want to take any chances. Especially for the children he brought into the Dungeon, Aether Sickness would be extremely detrimental to their growth. So he tipped the scales a bit in their favor.

Of course, the Aether he released would gradually disperse outward and affect the surrounding area. But since the Orchard would soon be home to the duos tournament, the extra Aether couldn’t be considered favoritism toward the Orchard. Everyone who came to fight for glory would unconsciously absorb the pure Aether in the air and rapidly improve.

Randidly suspected that a few years down the line, many power individuals would trace their beginnings back to this tournament. Or at least, he hoped that would be the case.

The second thing Randidly did after arriving on his island and releasing the large contingent that had gone into the Dungeon was glare around at the surrounding melodrama. Because his subordinates were too excited to have returned.

“It’s like finally breathing clean air after living next to a trash heap for a month!” Ed Dugg announced with his hands on his hips. Then his expression briefly darkened, as though he recalled something unpleasant.

Helen nodded and glanced around at Randidly’s mist-covered island. “Truly… who would have known that high-level images would cause such… well, for lack of a better word, pollution…”

Flicking his fingers at them, Randidly hopped off his island and proceeded to Kharon City Hall. The various groups had already figured out what they would do next. The teachers would go to the education facilities and introduce themselves to the children. Especially for the groups from the Alpha Cosmos, they were excited to start work as soon as possible.

The kids that had now been trained by Ed Dugg would be going with him to work on other projects in order to get more practical experience before the main event. The Riders would return to the Borderlands to patrol and play out their endless competition amongst themselves. Sam would continue his research and the police force would return to their previous role in Kharon, hopefully with a longer and firmer reach.

A quick brush against Kharon’s image confirmed that while there was some agitation that wasn’t there previously, nothing of significance had happened while they had been gone. The midday sun was warm on Randidly’s skin as he landed on the roof and descended through the familiar passageways toward Tatiana’s office. Talking with her would be the quickest way to catch himself back up.

Immediately as he entered, Tatiana passed him a cup of iced mint tea and then gestured to several piles of papers that were on the table. Light slanted sharply down through the windows and filled the stuffy office with life. “So, want the quick or the long version?”

Inwardly, Randidly sighed. Tatiana’s good mood and preparations meant that things weren’t as simple as they appeared. “Let’s just start with the short version. Exactly how long were we gone for…?”

“About 28 hours,” Tatiana replied with a smile. “A pretty small amount of time, although it does mean the Duo Tournament preliminaries are scheduled to start tomorrow. Is Clarissa prepared for that?”

“Yea, we will go ahead with plan A, thank god,” Randidly rubbed his chin and took a sip of the tea. The mint was cool on his tongue, leaving a lingering taste of bitterness that remained long after he swallowed. Tatiana certainly had nailed his taste. “So, the short version?”

“A fifteen-year-old boy was carved up on one of the side streets in the residential area of Kharon. Luckily the boy survived and the culprit was caught. But because of our lack of codified laws… we haven’t yet figured out how we wish to punish him.”

Randidly chewed on his lip. Then he narrowed his eyes as purple-black energy flashed across his pupils. “Huh… You think this was arranged? No, you would have gotten a confession or launched a larger investigation otherwise. This man was nudged into coming here. Hum. Let Helen return the favor by slashing him a bit and then drop him off in the Wildlands.”

Tatiana cocked an eyebrow and pursed her lips. Randidly couldn’t help but laugh. Just like you seem to have a sixth sense regarding me, we’ve worked together for so long that I can tell when you think I’m being hasty even if you try to hide it…

Randidly said aloud, “It’s a blunt response, but I think the more we think about this the more time we waste. And I assume you are already working to put out laws that mean this won’t happen again. What else?”

Moving with an easy grace, Tatiana walked to the piles of paper on the table and tapped her fingernail against them. “The statements are recorded here, but several malcontents were gathered as they tried to infiltrate Kharon. A man whose cologne business was bankrupted by competition with Kharon, a woman whose boyfriend left her to pursue a dream of joining Kharon, a few individuals who didn’t pass the recruitment criteria and bore a grudge… small things, but I believe they were also nudged into acting now.”

“A bunch of coincidences, huh…” Randidly pressed his eyes closed. Although he had been rather annoyed by their glee earlier, the people were correct that it was somewhat refreshing to be away from that Dungeon that had been so thoroughly soaked in his image. The scents of other images were sharp and clear in comparison. It was an ecosystem of images with no hegemony. So he could search carefully through Kharon for these people who came to cause trouble.

Their images weren’t strong, but they were so different from the general image of Kharon that it was easy to locate them. Once he locked on to the images, he carefully brushed the relatively gentle roots of Yggdrasil against those images. Although he couldn’t find anything definite, his Grim Intuition told him that there was definitely a common element between them all.

Randidly opened his eyes. “Who caught them?”

“Derek and Hydie. Honestly, even I was surprised by how good of a team they are turning out to be,” Tatiana replied. “Do you want to speak to them directly?”

Randidly opened his mouth to say no but his Revelation energy hummed to him.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 321!

“Actually, yes. That sounds like a good idea.”

Almost immediately, Randidly left Tatiana’s office, at her insistence taking the other various reports with him, and proceeded to the Kharon police headquarters. Valor Rend, who had manned the headquarters while the police were gone, met him at the door and led him toward the interrogation rooms. The man practically begged Randidly to bring him on his next training expedition, to which Randidly provided his amused agreement.

But that training session might be quite far in the future… perhaps even several years.

Eventually, Valor pointed to Randidly's destination and Randidly thanked him for his time and increased his pace. As he walked up to the door, Randidly sensed more concretely why his Revelation energy had reacted to the suggestion earlier. Randidly’s emerald eyes flashed. But he didn’t dwell on this revelation and simply walked into the room.

Apparently Randidly’s casual training to conceal his image was more successful than he thought because both hopped to their feet as soon as they noticed him. From the expressions on their faces, neither had sensed his approach. Hydie’s movement sent her chair clanging across the floor and slamming into the wall with a loud bang. For a second, the room fell into an awkward silence.

Randidly grinned to break the mood. “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but I wanted to spend some time focusing on these people trying to infiltrate Kharon. Do you mind if I ask a few questions?”

“Of course not, sir.” Derek Moss responded immediately. His arm twitched as though he was going to salute Randidly, but he suppressed it. Randidly’s smile widened marginally; one of his strongest beliefs was that he didn’t want to turn the Order Ducis into a military organization. A salute was only a small part of that, but Randidly was pleased that Derek had curbed this habit so quickly.

“I’ve read the reports,” Randidly lied, imagining Tatiana shaking her head sorrowfully. “But I want more information about their attitude. Or their images at the time immediately prior to capture or immediately after. How were they behaving? Was there anything unusual?”

Hydie and Derek exchanged a glance. Both of their brows were furrowed in thought. Hydie busied herself by moving to the chair she knocked over and setting it back on its feet. For a second it looked like she was going to return to her seat in the chair, but then seemed to recall Randidly’s presence and just swayed like she was drunk. Eventually, Derek shook his head. “Their image was just that of clearly intending to harm Kharon. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have caught them… nothing sticks out to me… other than the fact they all came quietly when confronted.”

Randidly nodded. Then he glanced at Hydie.

She felt his gaze and visibly flinched. Then she made a very overt show of considering the question carefully. But the more she thought, the more the lines of her face curved into a frown. “...I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning… but usually when we caught them, they would burst into tears. About half of them cried, wouldn’t you say?”

She glanced at Derek and he nodded slowly. Then Hydie shrugged. “It didn’t have anything to do with an image, but they were all… rather pathetic when it came down to it. Helpless, almost. I… I’ve felt like that in the past, so…”

Randidly breathed out through his nose and considered that perspective. The helplessness was interesting to note, but it largely just conveyed that they weren’t serious threats to Kharon on their face. Perhaps if they didn’t have the opportunity to come to the city, the negative feelings would have withered and died naturally. The reasons that these people had come here were rather mundane grievances, after all.

Randidly spared one last narrowed glance for Hydie before turning away. “I’ll keep that in mind. In the meantime, if you remember anything else, please let me know. And thank you both for the hard work.”

“Yes sir,” Both replied. Then Derek offered a small smile. “Honestly, I’m not so good at image detection. Most of the work was done by the moss spirits. I do recall having an impression of what Hydie is talking about... I almost wish I could share my memory with you so you could view it yourself. Maybe then you could learn more.”

Randidly opened his mouth to say something polite, but he froze. Because the rope wrapped around his right wrist twinged, just slightly. Frozen with his gaze on Derek, Randidly’s Willpower reached out and touched his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. And the Fate proudly told him that it could accept donated memories from other individuals, although there was a cost to doing so.

You seriously waited until now to tell me? Randidly’s mouth twitched. Is that why the Leveling of the Fatepiece stopped in the seventies, no matter how much I used it? I had been focusing on thinking through definitions and functions of Dreamcatchers to unlock the rest… but what if the operative words were ‘Long Night’?

This Fate is an extension of my Class. It was an object made to accomplish the dream of my existence… and a large part of that dream is Earth. So the Long Night isn’t just the troubles I face, but the troubles of the entire Earth… This dreamcatcher could contain the memories of many individuals- hell, do I even need to keep it on my person?

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 72!

Suddenly, Randidly’s eyes widened further. And we had already been designing keystones to act as focal points for images of weakness within Kharon Academy. If the weight of memory could be added to that as well…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 73!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 81!

“Ahem,” Derek coughed lightly at the look of stunned surprise on Randidly’s face. “Is something the matter…?”

“No… just some good news,” Randidly’s mouth curved into a smile. “There actually is a way for you to donate your memories to me…”