The first thing Coppun did after being snatched up by Randidly was release an aggressive pulse of his image and jerk sharply away. His eyes burned with barely controlled antagonism. Clearly, he both recognized Randidly and felt insulted by his poor treatment from him.

The Stillborn Phoenix devoured Coppun’s image in two enormous, soundless bites. For a few seconds, the ominous event horizon hung in the air above the two and hissed, desperate for additional feed. Meanwhile, Sulfur didn’t even react with pleasure to Coppun’s struggles; it wasn’t enough to interest the living plant arm. The squat man just wasn’t that strong. Randidly tilted his head to the side, regarding the abruptly sweaty Coppun with a cold stare. “How strange. I could have sworn I just asked you a question. You must not have heard it, huh? Otherwise, you would have answered.”

“You-” Coppun tried to speak, but Randidly slammed his fist against his stomach and knocked the wind out of him. All he could manage was a few flecks of spittle out of his mouth. Swacc’s servant hunched over and began to wretch. Randidly sniffed once and then brought his fist around a few more times, cracking his shoulder and pummeling the man’s sides.

For good measure, Randidly shook him one last time. “Feeling like your listening skills have improved?”

“You broke the agreement with Master Swacc,” Coppun croaked out. “There is nothing to be said.”

“Jotem has left the city, per our agreement. The Nether Ritual dissipated shortly thereafter. I assumed the task was done. And since Drane so kindly introduced me to Jotem, I figured it would be spitting on his generosity not to spend some more time getting to know him.” Randidly felt his emotional reservoir filling with more and more vindictiveness and snorted to clear that out; at some point, cathartic violence would just make him even more bitter about the situation than he currently was.

“Shoddy workmanship from your people proves nothing.” Coppun hissed. “You gave your word to Master Swacc, Hungry Eye, and if you do not complete your assigned task immediately-”

“You will do what, Coppun?” Randidly shook him again, his voice low and soft. In his chest, his Nether Core revved again, stabilizing the memory around him further for his full capabilities. Randidly sensed that he had access to about three-fourths of his previous abilities. Before taking into account the steps forward in emotional intensity he had taken. Even within the memory, he was confident that few individuals posed a threat to him.

Coppun paled but still forced the words out of his mouth. “You may be confident now, but Drane Swacc has powerful friends. The Westrisser Estate will hear of your actions. Do you dare act so brutish in front- oof!”

Randidly slammed his fist against Coppun’s guts one more time for good measure. “Don’t try and threaten me with your master scuttling to someone else and asking for help. Now let me give you a warning- I won’t just stop you next time I find you lurking around the farm. I’ll kill you, let the darkness that crushed your image take everything you have and suffocate it within itself. So do not return. Am I being clear?”

The Stillborn Phoenix gurgled, very much looking forward to such an opportunity.

After a few seconds of strained eye contact, Coppun nodded.

Leaning forward, Randidly said one last thing. “Also, I don’t want you to be under any mistaken impressions; I do not care about my reputation around Malloon. I am not afraid of Drane Swacc in the political arena. If he attempts to apply pressure through indirect means, I will carve a path of blood right to his front door and knock it down. Everything he built will be ground to dust.”

Randidly offered him a soft smile. Then he planted his feet and twisted at the waist, treating Drane’s lackey like a giant ball. Primordial Nether Juju launched the unfortunate fool high and far into the speeding up with enough force to puncture through a nearby cloud and disappear into the surly cloud back that circled the golden area of the farm.

Didn’t mean for him to get struck by lightning on his journey back to Malloon, but I won’t exactly be upset about it, Randidly reached up and rubbed his eyes. He could tell he was close to losing his temper in the short meeting, but too much had happened too fast in his life. He needed a break. And a filling meal.

Dragging his feet, Randidly returned to the barbecue. However, the experience of attending the impromptu party was relatively painless. There were thirty rowdy individuals roasting meat, eating, and engaging in squabbles all across the front yard of the farm, but all gave Randidly a wide berth, most likely due to his black Nether King robe. Devick looked up right when he made it back, but simply waved; she was firmly entrenched in the middle of a group of young men. She pivoted back and continued telling her story.

Randidly noticed one intense-looking feathered warrior on the outskirts of the group that immediately keyed in on him when Devick had waved. Randidly ignored the intense glare and went over to the food area. Either the feathered warrior had a jealous crush on Devick or he was a man in the employ of Byuresk.

Or, I suppose he might just hate Nether beings. Not that I can blame him for that, based on the behavior from the first two Nether Kings I met in the memories…

Again, the truth that all the memories were connected and his actions lingered in this place squeezed at his heart. But then he saw the sizzling of grease dripping off the roasted meat and all those worries fluttered away. Dearly wishing for some cornbread, Randidly filled a plate filled with land walrus and honeyed carrots and found a seat at a picnic table that was littered with the remnants of the enthusiastic eating from the Hobfootie team.

“Fuck that’s good,” Randidly let a soft groan as he bit into the first rib, the tang of barbecue perfectly complimenting the smokiness of the fatty walrus meat. The flesh fell right off the bone. With a sharp gesture, Randidly created a gravitational vortex that plucked up a cider and carried it over to his position. He took a long drag and then sighed. “Need to figure out how to carbonate these…”

He let his mind turn over that problem for a while, watching Bogart swagger into the midst of the Hobfootie team and challenge them to a series of arm-wrestling contests. The challenge was obviously edged in his favor: he might be from the Nether, but he had the equivalent of a Class, due to the significance and Nether Weight accumulating within his body. Yet the Hobfootie players relished the challenge.

They quickly hashed out the rules: due to the advantage of a Nether Class, Bogart would need to face them all in quick succession. The question was whether he could marathon his way through the entire team or not.

Randidly lingered around to watch, partially because he was curious and partially because Bogart was receiving training from him; he didn’t want to admit it, but he would definitely be disappointed if Bogart wasn’t able to overcome them all. He had a reputation to uphold.

A disappointed Randidly would need to reevaluate the training regimen he had given the devil-looking young man. If a Hobfootie team could render Bogart exhausted with just a series of arm wrestling competitions, they hadn’t done nearly enough conditioning.

But Bogart managed to grasp victory, despite cursing, spluttering, and arm-shaking his way through the final three challengers. Devick was second to last, pouncing a split second before the match had begun to try and cheat her way to winning the arm wrestling contest. But Bogart noticed and managed to restrain her offensive and clam her hand against the table.

The final challenger was the feathered warrior that had given Randidly a heavy glance earlier. His bicep was split by a thick vein as he placed his elbow on the table with enough force to shake the wood. But Bogart slammed his hand down against the surface all the same.

After, Randidly returned back to his room and laid down to sleep. He left his mind drift away. For a while nibbling thoughts and emotions kept him awake, but he forcefully quieted himself. He let his consciousness sink into a healing state of oblivion. After the emotional turmoil, he definitely needed it.

When he awoke, Jotem ambushed Randidly outside his door as he went to do his farm chores. “Nether King, it is unbelievable! Through common discourse with these freeloaders- er, athletes, I learned that that young angel Devick is the adopted daughter of Byuresk! Her pockets are absolutely stuffed with generosity: we will be paid to feed and assist in the housing of these individuals! Our fortunes have truly-”

“Talk to Armel about the buildings,” Randidly grunted, breezing past. He had finally recovered his energy after a long night of sleeping; he wasn’t going to allow Jotem to suck away his peace of mind first thing in the morning.

Gretite had departed the farm, but Randidly had quite a few ideas of how to improve based on her advice. He carefully scrawled several more chunks of wooden cucumbers and tossed them up into the sky, making very minute adjustments for precipitation over the neighboring vegetable fields. Then he gathered up some seeds from previous cucumbers and planted them in a new area. With all the buildings they had been throwing up in the past few weeks, they had entirely burned through his store of lumber.

He pivoted on his heel and examined the area. The low wind across the farm ruffled the happy green sprouts poking out of the dirt. Despite the shouts and laughter coming from over the hill, the sudden presence of the team in the surroundings didn’t detract from the idyllic contentment Randidly felt when he looked over everything he had shaped.

He scratched his neck. “Okay, enough lazing around; let’s get to work.”

For the next two weeks, Randidly kept his activities simple. He worked the farm, developing more and more specialized environments for the various vegetables. He experimented with growing different crops to create a barbecue sauce entirely from produce on the farm. He dabbled in different gravitational radiations to try and add carbonization to the cider. He used the image of Yggdrasil to clear large swaths of land for Devick’s Hobfootie Team, the Miracles, to practice. He even volunteered the services of some of the growing cohort of Arakis Beasts hanging around the back part of the farm.

When he had finished with his daily farm chores, he spent a few hours meditating. That meditation took a lot of forms: sometimes he refined his emotional sea, other times he examined the significance within the memory to try and sense when the next large event would happen, and Randidly also spent about half of the days firming up the details of his three images so they could handle his weightier emotional affect.

During those days, he didn’t speak much with anyone aside from Demetrius. And those conversations were generally just regarding their grand working and how it was functioning in real-world conditions.

Randidly had been worried that Devick would try and ingratiate herself into his life, but she seemed very genuinely consumed with practice with the team. For two whole weeks, Randidly only felt her presence on the periphery of his senses. He let everything else fall away as he distracted himself from the emotional pain of facing his past.

And gradually, he healed.

Just in time for the Hobfootie tournament to begin. With the trial of Elhume looming just over the horizon.