I scratched at Acasiana’s symbol with a heavy dose of suspicion. From what I knew about the Staura, she’d just effectively made Jun, Mortician, and I a part of her family. But she hadn’t changed any of my names, nor imposed anything on me that had any adverse effects. For someone to have that much power over the system that they could force something on us without our consent…

Well, it was plain old terrifying. But it also gave me hope for dealing with another one of our problems. “You can control people’s interfaces. At least a little.”

Acasiana tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips. “Not quite. It’s the same way I send you messages through the ‘voice of the hazard’, which is a function I can only use inside of here. If we went outside, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this to you.”

“Just like how we could send stuff to you and talk through your interface in the oilsea.” Jun nodded to herself, then turned at the sound of something hitting the ground. Mortician stumbled towards us for a moment, then broke into a jog when they collected themself. “Acasiana, if we brought people in here who don’t have access to their inventories, could you force them to do things?”

“Like what?” Acasiana asked.

Jun tapped her armor with two fingers. “We have people out there who are braindead, but still alive somehow. They can eat, sleep, and survive, but that’s it.”

Acasiana widened her eyes and crossed her arms. “Someone’s function?”

“Yup. And I’ve got confirmation from the man who did it that it’s pretty irreversible.” I confirmed. I swiped over to the Ossuary’s Archives tab and opened up the description for Dylan’s core, then gave a brief summary of its effects. “So? Do you think you can help us?”

“Mmm… I honestly don’t know. It’d be a blatant misuse of my authority, and the system itself could just tell me ‘no’. If either of you are willing to be test subjects, I can give it a go.” She offered with a twinkle of curiosity in her eye.

“Try it on me.” Jun volunteered immediately. “See if you can make me take my helmet off, then put it back on.”

Acasiana nodded. She raised one hand and tapped at thin air, then held her thumb and two fingers together as a function roared to life between them. A simple white and red key appeared at the crescendo of power, and Acasiana thrust it into what I assumed was her interface. Lines of red and white spread through the empty space like a bullet through glass, spanning out far wider than any interface I’d ever seen until Acasiana was surrounded in invisible panels made slightly visible through her function.

She swiped her hand across one of them, then opened her mouth to speak. When it came, it only echoed through my helmet, just as she had when she spoke as the voice of the hazard.

{Just for this one time, I want to make sure I have your consent to try this. It could end up being a terribly invasive procedure, and I need you to remember that you can tell me to stop at any time.}

“I know what I signed up for.” Jun said confidently. She reached over and grabbed my hand, and in her grip, I didn’t feel any reluctance or fear. Only hope stretched thin. “Whatever you do to me, my armor can fix it.”

Acasiana smiled and nodded. {The wonders of the all-world. Are you ready, Juniper?}

“I am.”

{Then I will begin.} Acasiana said seriously. Jun squeezed my hand tightly in anticipation, and a whirl of red and white burst into being around her helmet. {Is there any pain so far? Any discomfort?}

“Not yet.” Jun said warily. “It feels like I’m starting to sweat, but that could just be me.”

As Jun finished her sentence, her helmet disappeared in a haze of Acasiana’s function. Both women blinked in surprise, stared at each other for a few seconds, and grinned wide. The red and white swirled around Jun’s head once more, and a few heartbeats later, her helmet was back on.

“Did it actually work?” I asked in mild wonder. “So Moricla could’ve dis-armored me and killed me whenever she wanted?”

Jun shook her head excitedly. “Not quite. I felt something like a countdown going on in my brain, and the first time, I instinctively stopped it. That’s why it took longer for my helmet to disappear than it took to come back.”

“I can influence things, but I can’t actively go against someone’s control over their own system. Fascinating.” Acasiana murmured. “Maybe I can send messages because people expect each hazard to be unique, but if someone had such a strong belief that hazards could not talk, they might be able to block my ability to speak with them.”

I had no idea if hazards worked like that, but I didn’t know enough to dispute it either. “So we need to get all the brain-dead Staura in here so Acasiana can get their armor on. But we can’t checkpoint them, so we’ll have to fight until we get to a safe room first.”

“That’s right.” Acasiana confirmed with a nod. “And depending on how many people I’d need to help, and if I can actually access someone’s system if they can’t access it themselves. It shouldn’t take you two that long to clear back up to a safe room, but if you can’t for some reason, I might be able to connect myself to my facilities without risking my life. No promises, though.”

“We do not need promises. We need to help Juniper’s people.” Mortician said seriously.

I nodded in agreement. “What they said. If we stay here for a few minutes, is the quiet god going to come back and try to kill us again?”

“I have no idea. Probably not, though?” Acasiana shrugged. She walked up to Jun and tapped her on the head. “Moricla’s not the kindest person out there, but she’s good at heart. Not like a lot of other people out there, which I’m sure you’re aware of. But the real Moricla… she’s too complacent. My Moricla lost everything to the war with the other gods, but if you have any sway with the real Moricla… tell her that staying quiet lets others be as loud as they want.”

Jun nodded sagely. “I think she already knows, but if I ever see her, I’ll tell her that. So… can we stay here for a few minutes while we get ready to go back outside?”

“Oh, of course! I wouldn’t kick you out just because our conversation looks like it’s come to an end.” Acasiana walked up to the throne and planted herself on it with a contented sigh. “Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

I stood next to Jun and Mortician with all of my experience and stat nodes applied and ready. I didn’t have enough experience to put any of them to their next thresholds, but I was getting pretty close on all of my armor pieces. By the time we liberated Rainbow Basin, I’d be surprised if I didn’t have all of my armor at their second real upgrade level.

“Everything’s all ready?” Jun asked Mortician and I.

“All good here.” I confirmed. All of my combat functions were ready to go, and the only endless consumables on cooldown were the ones I definitely couldn’t use in combat. “Mortician?”

They nodded and tightly gripped their book in their hands. “We too are ready. Though we will have a brief reprieve before we are returned, correct?”

“I don’t know. We aren’t technically going through a gateway, so we might not get to visit The End.” I said. The possibility certainly was there, but I didn’t know how everything exactly worked. I turned to Acasiana and tried one last time to recruit her help. “You’re sure you can’t help us clear out Rainbow Basin?”

She shook her head, just as she had before. “Nothing’s changed since you last asked. Moricla’s really angry for some reason, and I can’t leave her alone in here. I know it's cowardly, but if she does something to my control over the hazard, I won’t be able to help you with the braindead problem.”

“It’s not cowardly at all.” Jun said. She straightened her back and cleared her throat in preparation for what we needed to do. “I give up.”

//One vote to flee. One additional vote is needed to leave.

I nodded at Mortician, then at Acasiana. “I give up.”

The world around me paused. Nothing much changed, since nothing much was moving, but the raggedy banners no longer flapped in the wind. They stayed frozen in place as if casted in resin. Jun tilted her head to the side, and Mortician gulped as they voiced their own desire to leave. Acasiana smiled at us and opened her massive interface once more.

{The vote has gone through. You will be ejected, and if you return with only members who have access to a checkpoint, you will be given the option to return to that checkpoint.} She informed us, though it was wholly unnecessary. {Good luck with everything, you three. I’ll be cheering you on until I see you again. And check your inventory, Sebastian. I’ve left you a little gift that the trinket you told me about might be able to make good use of.}

“You couldn’t have given me it sooner?” I asked, but Acasiana wasn’t there to hear it. I stood in the middle of a field, next to a hole in the ground. Jun and Mortician stood behind me, each facing a different direction that was filled with enemies. And by filled, I meant two. For a total of six people I’d never seen in my life, each of which wore turquoise armor with amber accents.

“Is that one person with a cloning function, or a bunch of people with the exact same armor?” Jun asked calmly as she drew her gun and swiped her hand through the air. A dome-shaped barrier popped into being, which crackled with electricity and gave off an air of danger. “...They’re not moving. Why aren’t they moving?”

Jun was right; none of them were moving. At all. I raised an eyebrow and my shield, with my other hand filled with the petal-scales to summon a hydra ready to go. But none of them reacted. Something was going on, but the crackle of static cut off my train of thought.

{Juniper, Sebastian, Mortician, ya there?} Okeria’s voice cut through clean and worried. {Is that all of ya, or is Scalovera clonin’ your signals again? Drown me, I hope this ain’t another dummy.}

I tapped on my arm, then paused. I turned to Jun, who looked like she had the same idea. If Okeria had been getting dummy signals, then this could be a dummy call. We all shared a silent meeting for a handful of heartbeats, and a consensus was quickly reached.

“We’re here, Okeria. What’s going on?”