The light of the morning sun was creeping into the room when Gaius finally finished making his bed. He had gotten up at the crack of dawn, only to muddle around aimlessly with the blanket and pillows he liked to hug when sleeping. It didn’t help that he had fewer hours of sleep than usual, and it definitely didn’t help that he had heard some really heavy things last night.

Gaius still wasn’t sure what to make of all these. He could tell that the Chanter of Innocents was honest in his admission, but the boy couldn’t help but feel somewhat bitter. Of course, he would still have done the same thing in retrospect, and it wasn’t like he’d signed his existence over to a lifetime of evil, but Gaius never asked for any of these.

Well, it wasn’t all bad, though. Still…

Unfolding his blanket once more, Gaius sulked on the corner of his bed, before folding it back up after a few minutes. He only had these few minutes to act his physical age, which unfortunately appeared to have an effect on his own mental age too. After that…he would have to adopt the all-knowing master artist persona for the sake of his little apprentice, just so that the kid would continue to treat him as a role model.

Life was hard, in the smallest of ways. Lying back down on his bed, Gaius kicked his legs around a few more times, before slapping his face twice. His skin stinging slightly, he went to wash up, before getting La-Ti, who was eating something in his dreams, up.

“Hopefully you aren’t full from eating in your imagination,” Gaius commented idly. La-Ti rubbed his eyes twice, and then ambled over to the bathroom to wash his face. The sounds of water running weakened as Gaius walked towards the card that he’d gotten last night — he’d left it out in the open in his bleary state.

His thoughts turned to Aldnath. What was the great god intending to do? Why did he descend onto Orb? Back then, Gaius had assumed that the destruction of Takamagahara had something to do with his sudden appearance, but that clearly wasn’t the case. Yet, the timing was too coincidental for him to assume anything else.

Shaking his head, Gaius did a few light hops. Last night’s fiasco had at least enabled him to see the silhouette of the Dragon of Time, which was something he could probably work with, once he got the videos of the great god to reference. The quality wouldn’t be as good as he personally wanted it to be, but now that he thought about it, dissatisfaction here meant little to him in the first place, since La-Ti was going to leave with him.

“Good morning, Gai-Us.”

“Good morning to you, Thel-Da.” Gaius looked up and down at the woman, who was wearing a suit so crisp that it felt somewhat blinding. His own suit — his psyche’s default choice of clothes — had been abandoned in favour of lighter stuff tailored for people who worked with wood, although he did bust it out once in a while to attend irritatingly important social events.

“If you’re here, I take it that breakfast is done?”

“We’ll deliver it to you today, though. Something happened last night,” she replied.

“Something happened last night?” Gaius echoed. For a moment, his heart skipped a beat — he couldn’t rule out the possibility that his return trip, done while he was in a reverie, had exposed the other infiltrators. If that really happened, this act of accidental sabotage wouldn’t endear him to that motley bunch.

“You know about the cult that worships Hereward, the supposed God of Creation of this world?”

Gaius really wanted to take issue with the fact that someone he saw as a member of a cult was calling others a cult too, but he decided not to broach that issue. “What of it?”

“They seemed to have made a preliminary agreement with bishops of our church,” she replied.

“An agreement?” Gaius raised an eyebrow. Why, then, are you still using ‘cult’? Aren’t you afraid that you’ll create some bloodshed by accident?

“Yes, an agreement. Which is why they’ll also be moving into City No.78112. If you’re lucky, there’ll be more work on the way,” she replied. “Enough for you to live a lavish lifestyle for the rest of your life.”

“That’s lovely.”

“Naturally.”

It was a pity that she didn’t catch that Gaius wasn’t really interested in any more work now, but the boy felt that her inability to notice his true feelings was probably his own fault. Either way, however, he wasn’t intending to commit any promises to her — Gaius was going to return any time now. It would be a pity that he didn’t find out what the two great gods were doing in Cybral, but he could do without learning about every single damn mystery in the world.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Gaius exhorted a promise from Thel-Da to get the videos sent over by the afternoon. He could feel a tug from his body back on Orb, which meant that his body was almost fully healed.

The time to return was closing in fast.

Doing some stretches, the boy returned to the house and sat down at the table.

“It’s almost time to leave,” Gaius said. “I’m hoping that Nakama will prepare a solution, but if I’m forced to leave first, I’ll make sure Weiwu takes care of you.”

“I know,” said the kid. “I believe in her!”

“Yes, yes.” Gaius broke into a smile. His little apprentice saw Nakama as a bona fide older sister, which wasn’t all that wrong, considering that three years had passed on Orb. With someone like La-Ti around, when the time came…

A bout of knocking severed his thoughts, and he got up to open the door. Breakfast had arrived in the nick of time — Gaius had the feeling that the midnight snacks he’d reserved for himself were going to be in danger if breakfast was a minute slower.

Resolving to finish both the snacks and the sculpture by tonight, he thanked the worker and took the tray of food into the house.