Randidly’s pupils dilated and he watched Drane Swacc walk out of the dance floor to polite applause. Even the man nearby who had been complaining about how ostentatious the event was brought his hands together. An instant dislike emerged in his chest.

Drane Swacc was a smiling, slender young man with thick glasses. He quite looked quite undersized in his robes, which included a heavy sash covered with Engravings. Perhaps it was a sophisticated design for the age, but the Engravings crammed onto the sash looked messy and superfluous. He was young, too; age was a difficult concept to grasp for the Nexus, but he was probably younger than the current Randidly.

This possible progenitor of the Swacc Family looked a lot less humanoid than his descendants. His limbs and neck were long and bony, perhaps almost double the length of Randidly’s own. His face was pinched to give it an almost insectoid quality. The movements of his limbs were twitching and quick. His orange and luminance eyes made him seem like a cave-dwelling scum dragged out into the sun.

Randidly acknowledged that perhaps some of the color of his response was bitterness over his history with the Swacc Family. Not only had Ileot Swacc made his time on the frontlines hell, but his early days in the Nexus were dogged by the antagonism from the Family. They had sent individuals to Expira, before it had been safely protected inside the Alpha Cosmos. Shal had his spirit broken under their ministrations before they offended Elhume at the wrong time and vanished.

Head of the merchant family, huh… Randidly sniffed. But his image isn’t weak, either. Strong, even for the modern-day. As strong as Wick.

Despite his spindly physique, Drane Swacc possessed a resonant and warm voice. His words spread out from the dance floor and seemed to reach every corner of the hall. “Friends and business partners, thank you so much for attending this small congratulatory party. Looking around and seeing so many of my closest supporters brings me so much joy. Together, united with one purpose in mind, we are so, so strong. And let me promise you something.”

Drane tightened a hand into a fist and raised it. However, his sickly thin limbs made the gesture appear vaguely sharp, as though he held aloft a knife. “Unlike the many thankless individuals that have been corrupted by their presence on the council, I will not forget the platform I used to get there. And that means creating a strong central authority in Malloon, just like I promised, so we no longer need to cower inside our walls from the Nether Raids. Aether forces are by far more numerous and more capable than our foes; we simply get too distracted by petty concerns to unite against the Nether threat. But I will never allow my focus to waver-”

Randidly’s eyes narrowed and flicked sideways to track movement, noticing what was about to happen before it did. Across the ballroom, a squat individual with smooth, slimy skin pushed one of the wait staff in the small of the back. It was a sharp, brutal gesture. So just as Drane built momentum through his oration, a few champagne flutes came crashing to the ground.

Drane Swacc’s horrifying orange lantern eyes hummed and snapped to the source. The crowd paused and pivoted to look, following his lead. Gasping, the server began to splutter. “Sir, I- I’m sorry-”

“Armel.” Drane Swacc spoke with the frosty hiss of sleet off a glacier. His eyes were very still as he considered the unfortunate individual. A very obviously fake smile came across Drane’s pinched features. “You and your family have served me for a long time. Because of that, this mistake is obviously a small matter. For now, please go back to my study and rest a bit; it seems you are quite tired from today’s toil.”

Randidly felt anxiety radiating off of some of the other waitstaff, but they kept their eyes on the ground.

“Sir, really, I-” The man’s eyes turned frantic. He swiveled slightly, side to side, looking for the push that had made him break the glass at such an important juncture. But the squat man had gone, moving with remarkable speed out a side passage and leaving the waiter to take the entire fault.

“No apologies necessary, Armel.” Drane’s voice was gentle. “Wait in my study.”

Guards materialized around the unfortunate individual, their firm expressions giving lie to Drane’s ‘request’. The waiter could only hang his head and follow along. After a few seconds of standing unnaturally still, Drane launched again into an impassioned speech. By the end of it, everyone seemed to have forgotten about the brief interruption.

Drane Swacc ended his speech to impassioned applause and began to walk around, mingling with the guests gathered to celebrate him.

However, Randidly quickly grew sick of his own intensifying dislike and the pandering conversation around him. He turned and left through a nearby side passage. He quickly moved through the halls, heading for an exit. Parties were one thing, but listening to a stuffy politician, a Swacc no less, spout bullshit wasn’t the sort of information Randidly was looking for. He figured he could discover more just by wandering around Malloon than lingering here for shitty conversation and passable champagne.

In a strange echo of Randidly’s previous party experience, he passed from the passage out through into a balcony. This time red stone and a low railing, unlike the previous location. Immediately, his eyes went to a sky filled with churning clouds; so far as he could tell, a massive barrier surrounded the whole of Malloon. Powerful storms, both of Nether and strange Aether elements, slammed against the Engraved barrier. Giant grey and brown maelstroms churned in the sky outside the barrier, a testament to the violence and raw force of the weather patterns.

The view was breathtaking and humbling. Nature in the Second Cohort seemed cutthroat.

Perhaps due to his previous surprise in the memory, Randidly looked down and scanned his surroundings a second later. And he was glad he did, because he raised his hands and caught the shoulders of someone who hopped at him. “Ma’am-”

“What a gentleman,” The woman in his arms giggled and pressed herself closer to Randidly. He recognized her; it was Lylla, the woman who had gotten into a fight with Iyork and squashed out all the interesting conversations. She batted painted lashes above glassy eyes at him. “But believe me, I don’t mind if you were a little rougher.”

Randidly took a step backward, “Ma’am, what are you doing?”

“Teaching Iyork a lesson. And hopefully giving you the night of your life.” She coquettishly bit her lip but did it with enough force that she broke the skin and began to drip blood. Or perhaps she did it purposefully in some sort of erotic play he didn’t understand. The whole situation made him quite uncomfortable.

Randidly shook his head several times. He decided the simplest lie would be the easiest one. “I’m currently promised to someone else. Thank you for the offer-”

“Ah, a double affair! I have a beloved, as well. Even more forbidden. Let our shared passion sweep us away.” Lylla practically shouted these words and grasped at Randidly’s arms. Comparing their physiques wasn’t even a contest. She soon gave up by collapsing into a pile of scaly, feathered limbs and crying.

The shift to loud sobs followed quickly after that.

Randidly scratched his cheek. He took several steps away from the woman to the edge of the balcony and looked down into the streets of Malloon. He didn’t quite want to leave, but he also didn’t think it would go well to engage directly with this intoxicated woman. So he studied to surroundings. Compared to Tatem, which only had the plaza, the main hall, and then everything spread out into hastily constructed hovels, this area was more developed.

Smoke wafted out of chimneys. Various bipedal animals argued in front of open-air market stalls. Tall polls throughout the surrounding neighborhood held up streamers with three flush circles, all in a line, one gold, one blue, and one orange. Directly below the balcony was a manicured garden filled with royal purple roses. Further away, the buildings shrank and became less regal, but still quite well maintained.

“How many people live in Malloon?” Randidly finally asked as the woman’s emotional display seemed to be nearing its end.

The woman lifted her head up from her arms, sniffing. “What?”

“How big is the city? This is the greatest of the Aether Councils, yes? I’ve never been to Malloon before.”

After wiping her nose, the woman nodded slowly. “Um… well yes. The biggest of the trade cities. Some of the closed enclaves can be bigger, but they mostly house children and the elderly. Almost a million people, but that can swell to almost five million on trade weekends, or when there is a Hobfootie tournament hosted by Malloon. Some people say its the greatest city in the universe.”

“Is that true?” Randidly asked.

The woman let out a small and bitter laugh. “When shit people walk around a great place, everything starts to stink.”

Randidly offered a chuckle of his own to that. The tension eased and the silence continued for a bit. Eventually, the woman rubbed her eyes and sighed. “Sorry about earlier… I just- I don’t know. My fiance. He drives me insane sometimes. Like he would roll over and agree with everyone else but me. I can’t decide if it’s just me or he just doesn’t feel like giving me the benefit of the doubt.”

“To be honest, all of my attempts to form any lasting relationships have become rather pitiful,” Randidly sighed. His mouth moved without him even thinking; a part of him noted that probably liberating so much emotional intensity freed up some previously restrained thoughts. In a weird, memory environment it was easy to be brutally honest. “So take everything I say with a grain of salt. But… as an observer, you don’t seem like an individual who needs someone who just agrees with her.”

“Of course I don’t need that idiot’s approval for anything,” The woman grumbled. She pushed herself to her feet and brushed off the feathers on her arms. “Still, there is such a thing as romance. To have him even try to defend me to someone else would be nice. Ugh… honestly, I’m surprised. You really haven’t had much luck? You are actually quite good-looking. Do you-”

The woman blinked several times. Her eyes went very round as she looked at his robe. “Ah. Oh. You… you’re a Nether King. Well, I don’t know much about the mating habits of the Nether, but… what are you doing at the celebration for such an anti-Nether individual?”

The air chilled as a new arrival walked out onto the balcony. “I was wondering the same thing.

Drane Swacc squinted at Randidly, hands in the folds of his robe. The garish sash continued to pulse weakly with inefficient Engravings across his chest. “Is your blatant presence a threat? Or did you seek to embarass me, beast? We both know that would harm us both equally.”

Randidly just blinked with the confidence with which Drane addressed him. And Lylla seemed even more bewildered than he. “Ah… Undersecretary Drane. We didn’t get much opportunity to talk at the party, but my fiance and I-”

Drane Swacc gestured, almost casually. As before, his limbs twitched with sudden speed. But too late, Randidly felt the vicious undercurrent in the movement. An image flared and raged in his stick-thin fingers. Lylla gasped as a burst of Swacc’s image tore into her ribcage and pulled out her organs. They splattered across the stone balcony, a deflating lung skidding to the edge. Randidly began to clench his jaw, watching the woman sway and fall to her knees.

By the time she hit the ground, the remnants of Drane’s image had obliterated her consciousness.

“Once she saw you here, knew we talked, she needed to die,” Drane Swacc turned away. “Anyway, follow me. I’ll give you what you came for.”

Drane Swacc’s heels clicked on the ground as he departed the balcony. For a second, Randidly just stood there and watched blood seep from her body and light from her eyes. Shock and fury warred in his heart. Then he very consciously closed his mouth and walked after Swacc.

His emerald eyes bore into the skinny man’s back. All his emotional affect simmered through his veins, adding a small tremor to the memory. What the hell do you mean, you’ll give me what I came for…?