Unfortunately, time was not on Randidly’s side. The friendly sun crept above the horizon, shedding warm rays of light. WIth an Aether-rich environment, the entire planet was transformed. But that night, a baleful star loomed: it was the day of the Imperium Ball.

Randidly grimaced, as he paused and straightened from harvesting cabbages from the once again fertile ground. He wiped sweat off his forehead and turned toward the central building on the farm. Not even a breeze had stirred that building’s doors these past several days. Looks like… I can’t just wait until you come out to talk to you, huh…?

His chest was buzzing with anxiety over the debt he owed to the talented Nrorce, but Randidly also knew that everything had its time. He had hoped to wait until he possessed the space within his Alpha Cosmos to make the offer, but the progress of the Alpha Cosmos was slow. Even now, he was just finally getting over the discomfort of being stuffed.

Perhaps the time until he could safely absorb another planet should be measured in years, not months. He would need to wait.

Yet after the Imperium Ball, Randidly was going to throw himself totally into the task of preparing for Claudette’s image refinement. That process would consume him for the immediate future and would likely involve time dilation.

Of course, for now… Randidly rolled his shoulders and leaned back down to begin working. I should finish the chores before I force the conversation…

It was perhaps a form of procrastination, but Randidly also knew the prickly and demanding Nrorce well enough for it to be an allowable form.

About an hour before noon, Randidly and Helen finished all of the tasks. He left Helen to struggle against the fourth tier of the Hierarchy of Burden and walked up to Nrorce’s house. He ducked under the low threshold and slowly walked into the building. He passed the kitchen and dining room and took a half-staircase down, the bowels of the house sinking even deeper into the ground. The hallway was cramped and dark, but the wooden floorboards were cool on his feet.

Randidly continued walking forward, moving past the inside entrance into the spice room and then Nrorce’s private bedroom room. Neither of these was his destination. Another half-staircase led him even further down to a level with stone floors. There, at end of a short hallway, was a small wooden door. Randidly released a breath and walked up to the wooden door. He hesitated for a second, then knocked.

The noise echoed in the deep stone hallway that sat nestled several meters deep in the hill. But there was no response from within the room even after a minute had elapsed.

This is the room Helen said, right…? Randidly wondered. The bottom of his feet tingled against the cold stone. He knocked again, but there was still no answer. Feeling like there wasn’t any other choice, Randidly cleared his throat. “Nrorce?”

That finally earned a low grunt from within the room, but no further response. Which was probably the closest thing to acknowledgment that he would get. Pursing his lips, Randidly pushed open the door and revealed the interior.

The first impression Randidly had of the room was how small it was. The walls were made of stacked bricks that seemed to lean inward, as though the entire structure was about to collapse. Obviously, it was built on the scale of goblins, while the rest of the house had been rather grandly extended to house humanoids, this was short and slight. The floors were stone in here as well, except for a small area covered by a worn grey rug that was smudged with mud and dirt.

There was a flimsy dresser against the far wall, covered in cheap glass containers that held decaying flowers. The only other furniture was a small child’s bed, on which Nrorce was now laying. Tufts of straw poked out of the edges of the mattress. Even his goblin frame was too large for the bed, the heels of his feet dangled over the edge. His eyes were blank as he looked upward at the ceiling, simply existing. Since Randidly had last seen Nrorce, the old goblin had also begun to fade. The small hairs on his face had grown thin and wispy. His blue skin had lightened and greyed.

On the ground in front of the bed were several more vases filled with wilting flowers. Randidly’s eyes flicked sideways, to several stick figures that had been clumsily carved into the wooden headboard of the bed. Then he refocused on Nrorce. “Nrorce… there is something I wish to discuss with you.”

Nrorce grunted again, remaining entirely still with his hands folded across his chest. The hairs on the back of Randidly’s neck prickled. Looking at him now, it was clear that the old goblin would be perfectly content to simply lie here until the very moment he died. A dagger of guilt twisted in Randidly’s gut.

“First…” Randidly closed his eyes briefly and marshaled his resolve. “Thank you so much. Without your assistance… without your sacrifice… it would not have been easy for me to recover from that injury. The damage I received was far beyond what I was expecting. I can guess… how much that Aetherium meant to you. So… thank you.”

Nrorce just grunted again. The goblin didn’t even blink at Randidly’s words.

Randidly continued to soldier forward. To his own ears, his voice sounded mature and foreign. “I don’t want to add more to your plate right now… but I want to make you an offer. Right now… your planet is running out of energy; that’s why your people are clustered around your farm and bothering you. I want to repay your generous sacrifice by saving your planet. I can provide Aether for your people and a safe home… away from most of the dangers of the Nexus.”

Randidly watched Nrorce very carefully as he spoke, to feel out his reaction to the news. Unfortunately… Nrorce didn’t react at all. His gaze on the ceiling didn’t waver. The goblin remained transfixed in what was probably his daughter’s old bed, surrounded by withered flowers.

Randidly licked his lips. “As long as you agree-”

“No,” Nrorce rasped. His lips parted to release the word, then imperceptibly closed again.

“Huh?” Randidly blinked and tilted his head to the side. Did I… mishear…?

Nrorce twisted his neck slightly. His eyes were glazed, but they were now pointing in Randidly’s direction. The lips slowly opened again. “No. Do not save them. This planet… deserves to die.”

Toward the sudden intensity in Nrorce’s eyes, Randidly had no response. He could only allow several moments to pass in silence before he tried again. “I’m very sorry that you lost something precious. To save me. Let me repay this debt. This was your daughter’s world, yes? She would want-”

“Hmph. Like everyone else, always spitting her desires in my face. Little bastard, you aren’t wrong.” Nrorce coughed a few times, but his voice was suddenly more lively. He twisted and stared straight up at the ceiling once more. “She would… would definitely want to save this pathetic planet. But she’s dead. And I want to let it die.

“I regret it, you know.” Nrorce continued. Randidly saw his tiny blue fingers flex and tighten. “Giving the Aetherium to you. What a waste. But… even worse than you living happily because of it was the torture of watching leeches of this planet, constantly sucking away the last fragment of my precious daughter. Even after her death… they would not allow her to sleep peacefully. Always demanding more…”

“My method could save these people, without any costs-” Randidly began again, but again, he was interrupted.

“The people are the problem. Do you think Ivlin would have pushed herself to this if she didn’t want to help them…?” Nrorce hissed. He coughed several more times before he could continue talking. “No… no. Let them die. I can feel… you’ve already started helping us. Cut that support immediately. Let our suffering end.”

Suddenly, Randidly’s eyes hardened. He leaned forward. “Don’t doom these people because of your own grief. There are innocents-”

“I was her FATHER!” Nrorce snarled. Finally, his hands came apart and he pressed his bony fingers into the bend. He leveraged himself up into a sitting position and glared at Randidly. “And at that time, while she was alive, I had no power to stop what I knew was coming. Her eventually failure. She poured herself out, drop by drop, to keep this planet safe. All these innocents you speak of… they did nothing but ask for more as she forced herself through dangerous and painful hardships… all for what? What thanks did she receive? Was I supposed to enjoy the moment she finally failed and they were content to subsist off of her for hundreds of years? Without morning her for more than a day?”

Nrorce shifted on the straw bed again, raising one of his thin arms and jabbing it at Randidly. “You probably need to hear this. These people… all sorts of tiny, bug-like people… they will devour you from the inside if you aren’t careful. They aren’t worth your time or your energy. They are carrion.”

Randidly gritted his teeth as his face flushed with heat. “I refuse to simply allow these people to die when I could-”

“Your gratitude is a cheap thing,” The blue-skinned goblin sneered at him. “You come here to thank me… yet when I make a request, suddenly you are forcing your morals on me? Is that last shred of my daughter that you absorbed truly such a cheap treasure?”

Rage came first to Randidly as Nrorce resumed his vigil facing the ceiling. Then confusion and hesitation. Finally, everything was swallowed by a horrible sense of loss as Randidly looked at the twisted features of Nrorce. Obligation warred against justice. The two imperatives marched across his ribs and had their armies crash together between his heart and lungs.

Bits of shrapnel flew outward from the conflict and cut a thousand tiny wounds through his organs.

Randidly hissed a breath out through between his teeth. His fingers slowly clenched into fists. “Do you truly… feel this way?”

“Of course,” Nrorce shook his head sadly. His ear dropped and pressed flat against his head. Then he lowered himself back into his laying position. He brought his fingers together and returned to his previous position. “We all… for driving her to her death, for burdening Ivlin with our need… deserve to die.”

Randidly didn’t even remember leaving the room, but soon he found himself standing out in front of Nrorce’s house. Helen was by his side, looking at him with worried eyes. He stood there and trembled for several seconds. Then Randidly released several strong breaths, surprised that immediately the surroundings were obscured with the thick water vapor that flowed out of his nose. He looked down in surprise and realized that his entire body was steaming; he was so incensed that his physical body was responding and shifting into battle mode.

Randidly forcefully calmed himself down. When his exhales had turned even, Helen finally spoke. “Is everything alright?”

“No,” Randidly said simply. Then he reached up and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his right hand. “We… need to leave. If you want… you should say goodbye to Nrorce. I don’t think… we will be coming back for a while. And even if we do-”

He couldn’t finish that sentence, picturing the abandoned and dead bodies that he had found on those moons in space. This planet would become the mirror image of that, soon. Helen nodded slowly, sensing his mood. She slipped past him into the house.

Meanwhile, Randidly turned his attention downward, to the delicate arrangement of Aether veins that Neveah had made to feed energy into this world. Sensing his intent, Neveah’s consciousness swirled up to him. Is this really necessary?

No, no it’s not, Randidly heart ached as he gripped all those precious Aether veins. He could sense each life on the planet, each struggling to survive. Each of those individuals had been pushed to the limit over the past several years by the Nexus’s cruel allotment of energy and Nrorce’s apathy. Which is why its a tragedy.

Randidly bared his teeth and ripped all of those Aether flows out of Nrorce’s planet. Neveah’s consciousness flickered. I can make a portal. At the very least-

Don’t tell me about it, Randidly snarled. He hunched his shoulders and clenched his hands. Then I won’t need to lie about it… if Nrorce asks.