She sent a note to her brother then finished checking her e-mails while she waited for him to respond. They had already agreed to meet shortly, but he still took quite some time to respond to her message.

Shara looked over what he sent to her as a reply then yawned slightly. Though she was not actually tired, it seemed appropriate to feign such a thing. It would no doubt be a long day for her.

The siblings met up at a small conference room on the ninety-seventh floor of their family business fortress. Shara offered her older brother a shy smile, and he nodded to her while providing a smile of his own. It had been a while since they had chatted alone.

A few snacks and drinks were already at the table waiting for them as they walked into the room. A large area fit to seat dozens of people; it provided a nice touch to the informal business meeting that they were about to begin.

Silence and Shara sat at the table then looked across at each other for a moment. The personification of death, should death ever decide to become an underwear model, reached over and plucked an apple from the snack tray. He looked it over for a moment then sighed. “You know, I see what you meant.”

“Right? This has to stop,” said Shara. “If Civil Defense Services had not been active…”

The apple suddenly ruptured in Silence’s gloved hand as he squeezed it. “A band-aid provided by people who have no business being anywhere near a live world project.”

“I agree, but what did that apple ever do to you?” asked Shara in an attempt to inject a bit of levity into the situation.

“Nothing. Yet, I crushed it just because I could,” replied silence coldly.

Shara closed her eyes and took a breath. “You know you can’t do that.”

He turned his chilling gaze toward her for a moment, though she proved completely unaffected by its piercing intensity. “Someone has to do something…”

“We have gone over this, brother,” Shara shook her head. “They have gained a legal right to that world. Ripping them apart and dispersing their souls across the infinite cosmos would warrant at least a fine, if not outright banishment or the same punishment visited upon you.”

His gaze softened even as his mood turned reflective. For a brief moment, he seemed to be lost in thought.

“It would be worth it, Shara,” said Silence. “All those people, frightened and confused… So many all at once.”

“I know how you feel. Worse, there is definite evidence of spiritual tampering,” said Shara.

“The situation with the Scott of that world? You mean?” asked Silence.

“So, you do know about it!” She leaned forward, suddenly far more excited to speak given the sparkle in her eyes. “Have you reported it? I tried, but I can’t legally enter the issue because of the non-disclosure agreement that I had to sign.”

“I have the same problem. Worse, Scott refused to give me permission to enter that link into evidence on his behalf,” said Silence. His eyes became clouded as he began to recall the events of that fateful conversation.

“What? Why would he do that?” Shara stared at her brother as though he had lost his mind. “That would have solved so many problems.”

“I know, but…” Silence’s eyes regained their penetrating focus and he turned his gaze on Shara. “There is something wrong with him.”

“Hey! He experienced severe mental trauma at a young age,” she said in defense of her bestie.

“I don’t mean that,” said Silence. He leaned forward slightly and narrowed his eyes. “Trauma can cause many things, but I have never seen it give mortals the power to destroy immortal objects, or exceptional abilities.”

“Wait… What?” asked Shara, her mouth falling open and forming into an ‘O’ shape. She recovered quickly, however, and acquired a thoughtful expression of her own. “So, maybe that’s why?”

“What do you mean?” asked Silence. “Has something happened?”

“Ah-heh. He seems to have an ability similar to a veritas spell,” said Shara.

“That too?” asked Silence. “This goes well beyond the pale. Clearly there is some sort of hacking involved.”

He gazed at her with piercing intent. “You know nothing of how this came to be?”

“No. The only thing I know is that the system seems to glitch around him now and then,” said Shara. “I get dozens of emails about it every time it happens if it’s reported by the system.”

Silence lived up to his name for a moment. He brooded quietly; his thoughts focused on the cryptic words left by the little dragon as he returned to the world of the living. The way he spoke was that of someone who was far older than the mere twenty years of age that he should possess.

“If not a hacker, perhaps someone is feeding him information?” asked Silence. “I’ve told him a few things that lie within my ability speak about, but nothing that I said could have granted him such a ridiculous level of system access.”

“Now that I think about it,” he looked into his sister’s eyes. “Doesn’t our sister’s love interest also have odd connections.”

“What do you mean? What odd connections?” asked Shara.

“I refer to his oddly potent connection to primordial magic, and the ability to learn it.” Silence leaned back then tilted his head toward the ceiling while he chose his words. “He really shouldn’t find it so easy to use such things, and yet he took to it quite well.”

“What exactly are you trying to say?” asked Shara.

“Honestly?” he asked before he took a deep breath. He released that breath then looked over to her once more. “I don’t know. It just seems weird.”

“I guess, but it seems to have helped him a great deal,” said Shara. “You know someone had tapped into his spiritual center.”

“Yes. We both know who it was, given there is really no one else who would even care that Scott existed in that world in the first place,” said Silence. He shook his head then gritted his teeth. “I am tired of that thing causing problems.”

“Sax? Calling him a thing is an insult to things,” she said with an unamused snort. “What he did to Scott is unforgiveable. Is there really nothing that you can do?”

“Spirit-Deity confidentiality clauses prevent me from being too vocal about it through legal channels,” he said. “Without concrete evidence that I can actually show without the acquisition of a court order I am unable to even get a hearing on the matter.”

“It’s too bad that Scott refused to make an official statement or let you begin a cause on his behalf, for some reason,” said Shara.

Silence slumped forward a little. “I don’t understand it, but he seemed… strange. There was an air about him that I can only compare to one thing, and that is far more unsettling than even the recent issues plaguing that world.”

“How so?” asked Shara. “What sort of ‘air’ could he possibly have had that would unsettle you?”

“He reminded me of father,” said Silence.

Shara blinked but did not speak. initially. Of all the absurd things that Silence might have said, comparing Scott to a grand arbiter was not even remotely one of them. When she finally found a way to speak words once more, she tilted her head to the side and asked, “Brother, are you overworked?”

“Yes.” He nodded soberly to her then clarified his response. “Even now, over a hundred of my spirit copies are guiding souls to the afterlife in that world. All because those idiots could not do something as simple as create a copy of a world instance.”

Shara grunted in an uncharacteristic way for her. “Yeah. I get community service for accidentally killing someone, and all they get is the right to continue to mess that world up.”

“Well, the ones who directly caused the problem were charged with their crimes. What I don’t understand is why that Earth was made into a project world.” It was his turn to snort. “Something this terrible and delicate requires experience and a skillful touch.”

Shara nodded. It was true. There had been a pretty significant public outcry over the situation, but the arbiter who oversaw the matter had seen fit to grant dispensation. A single swing of their gavel turned that world into a nightmare.