One of the perks of having a shade watching your back is that you never woke up surprised by your surroundings. Sylver knew Chrys was standing there, he knew she had been standing there for over 10 minutes, and he even knew that her eye had glowed 3 times during the 10 minutes she spent standing there.

“Is it a prophecy?” Sylver asked, as he gestured towards his robe, and made the bundle of threads float over to him. It slithered underneath the covers, and in under a second Sylver was fully dressed.

“It’s… No, not quite,” Chrys answered.

Her voice was very strange, shaky as if she was in pain but hadn’t realized it.

Sylver got out of bed and crouched until he was roughly eye level with her.

“Do you mind?” he asked, with a gesture towards her head. When Chrys nodded Sylver placed his hands over her ears and closed his eyes.

Apart from a slight intolerance to milk, there wasn’t anything wrong with Chrys on the physical level.

In terms of her soul… Sylver opened his eyes and did his best to project calmness.

“You tried to absorb your future self, and now you have a scattering of memories. In your mind 2 weeks ago is simultaneously 2 weeks ago, and 2 weeks ago 10 years from now…” Sylver explained, and Chrys mutely nodded.

“How bad is it? Did you lose pieces, chunks? Is it random, or limited to a specific range?” Sylver asked, as Chrys took a shuddering breath, and almost burst into tears.

“I was back in the lab,” Chrys cried as she reached out and grabbed Sylver’s robe. “You swore I wouldn’t go back there,” she said with a tear rolling down one cheek.

Sylver was very careful as he leaned forward and protectively wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

“It’s alright, you saw a future, not the future. I promise you Chrys, you won’t see that place ever again,” Sylver said, as the small girl started to shake from fear.

It was at moments like this that Sylver wished that he could do something other than kill and hurt. Chrys cried for a while, long enough that one of the rabbits heard her crying, and ended up waking up Misha and Masha, and even brought Ria along with them.

Sylver had hoped she would run over to them, but Chrys barely spared them a glance before she continued sobbing into Sylver’s shoulder. This continued for a while, but at some point, Chrys just sucked up her tears and snot and calmed down.

“How much did you see?” Sylver asked, and made the group peering into his room through the open door scowl at his callous question.

Chrys used her sleeve to wipe her eye properly.

“I didn’t see it, I knew it,” Chrys responded, as Sylver nodded.

“Did it overwrite a memory, or can you remember both?” Sylver asked while looking Chrys right in the eye.

She rubbed her nose with her sleeve again and then paused for a moment before answering.

“It’s gone. I remember remembering it, but the actual memory isn’t there,” Chrys said.

She gradually went from shaking in fear, to confused, and even looked surprised when she touched her sleeve and found it wet.

Sylver looked at the girl, and then looked up at the group standing outside his door. Spring materialized next to it, and very gently closed it.

“Chrys… What I’m about to say, you can’t tell anyone else. I want you to promise me,” Sylver explained.

“I promise,” Chrys said after a very short pause.

Sylver couldn’t actually sigh, but he felt like doing it anyway. The next words out of his mouth sickened and upset him, even if he knew this would be for the better.

“I just moved 30 shades into your shadow. They’re yours, they will always be there. No matter what happens, as long as there is some kind of darkness attached to your body, they will always be there,” Sylver explained, as Chrys became even more confused but nodded along anyway.

“They will… If somehow… If somehow they manage to do the impossible… As of this moment, the possibility of you seeing that place is nil. Do you understand me?” Sylver asked.

He didn’t know if it was the fact that she was a child, or if it was the fact that he was so ashamed that this is the best solution he could offer her, but for whatever reason, the lump in his throat refused to let him say it.

Despite how vile the remedy to her fears was, Chrys’ face lit up as if Sylver had just told her he destroyed that whole realm, and there was no lab for her to go back to.

Somehow the smile hurt him ten times worse than the terrified crying.

“Thank you,” Chrys said, and Sylver stood up to his full height so they weren’t looking eye to eye anymore.

He clapped his hands together and forced himself into a cheerful mood.

“In that case let’s go downstairs and celebrate with waffles, and pancakes, and whatever else Maul can come up with,” Sylver said loudly enough that the people with their ears pressed up against the door heard him loud and clear.

By the time he reached the door and opened it, only Ria was there, with an unreadable expression on her face.

“I think I understand you a little better,” Ria said quietly, as her body deflated and coated the floating trident staff.

“I’m glad to hear that. Now let’s have breakfast, and then we can go,” Sylver offered, while he waited for Chrys to finish wiping her face clean on his bedsheets, and then walked with her towards the breakfast table.

***

“Wait, you’re just leaving her?” Faust asked, as Sylver double, and triple checked he had everything he needed on him.

“I’m not just leaving anybody. I’m leaving her with Lola, who will find her the best clairvoyants money and connections can buy. In the meantime, Zelvash will keep an eye on her. Things between him and Ruslana haven’t been great, ever since she found out all that effort she put into keeping him out of the loop was for nothing, so at least he’ll have something to take his mind of that,” Sylver explained, as Ria made her staff spin fast enough that it was starting to create a slight breeze.

“Don’t you have a ritual to help her or something?” Faust asked while he watched Ria twirling through the air.

Her perfect memory meant that once she figured something out, she could repeat it however many times she wanted, without any issue.

“I can make a bracelet out of lead that would constrict her abilities and magic. But that would cripple her in the long run. Her body is still growing, and getting used to its new mana channels, and she’s going to have to learn to control it,” Sylver explained with a grimace, as for a second he couldn’t find the vial full of bromine.

Thankfully he found it, so the crisis was averted.

“I feel bad for her. First all that shit back in that other realm, and now this? Isn’t there-”

“I know this might be a hard concept to grasp, but maybe I don’t want to talk about the girl I’m too weak to help? I realize I’m a heartless killer and all that, but would it surprise you to know I do care? You know who would be great at helping with something like this?” Sylver almost shouted.

“Edmund,” Faust said.

“He’s a healer, children love him, at the very least he’ll know how to deal with a clairvoyant, he actually had training for it. The best I can offer is overloading her with so much raw information that she goes insane,” Sylver explained with a sneer as Bravo chose that exact moment to appear.

He looked downright terrified as Sylver’s mildly furious gaze was affixed on him, but he calmed almost immediately once Sylver forced his face into a warm smile.

“Where is everyone?” Bravo asked, as Sylver slung his bag over his shoulder, and tried to figure out why he felt like something was missing.

“Probably sleeping off a hangover, or working, I don’t know,” Sylver answered with a warm smile and ice in his voice.

Bravo looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Thankfully, Lola didn’t work with people who would let a little fear get in their way.

“Would you prefer to arrive high up in the air, or down near the ground?” Bravo asked, and Sylver smacked himself on the forehead as he realized what was missing.

Or in this case, who.

He reached out through his connection and felt small hands touching his face. They seemed to be feeding Mora something but were now lightly petting the horse-like creature.

“Can you open a portal into Bruno’s cave?” Sylver asked Bravo, whose face went pale at the question.

“No sir. Too much interference, despite appearances it is still a dungeon,” Bravo explained, and Sylver clicked his tongue.

“Alright, you two wait here, I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” Sylver said, as he sent a tendril of fog through the underground tubes.

***

It was so simple, that Sylver was surprised he hadn’t thought of it before.

Mora extended a string out of her hoof, used magic to amplify its air resistance, and then used the almost motionless string as a midair stepping stone.

Except, she timed it in such a way that the thread functioned like the string in a bow, and with every step, Mora gained a bit more speed.

Sylver lost count, but in the span of about 20 seconds, she was as fast as Will was.

By the time he could see his house, she was as fast as Will when Sylver empowered him.

As for stopping/slowing down…

Suffice to say, Mora would need a great deal of training before Sylver could in good conscience invite a non-immortal to ride her. Sylver was fine, he turned into a gaseous state a half-second before impact, but if he couldn’t do that, he would have been a very messy splatter on the cobblestone floor.

As Sylver took hold of Mora’s rein, he noticed another oddity about his steed.

She didn’t make any sound as she walked. Her horseshoes looked like metal, but apparently, the wearer of said shoes hated the sound of metal clicking on stone, and wouldn’t budge on the issue.

Sylver could tell she would fully solidify them if he forced the issue, but to be perfectly honest, he doubted anyone would think twice about it, even if they noticed it.

They would probably assume Sylver was the one casting a silencing spell on her, as opposed to the fact that the giant pure white horse had sensitive ears, and that her horseshoes were made out of tightly-woven threads.

While Sylver walked alongside the beast, he reached into his pockets and pulled out the two colored contact lenses, and with a bit of help from [Necrotic Mutilation] managed to get them in without blinding himself. Sylver blinked the tears out of his eyes and then started looking up, down, left, and right, to make sure the lenses were in properly.

As the gates to his house swung open, Sylver made a ta-da gesture at a very confused-looking Faust.

“What?” Faust asked as Bravo backed away from the large equine.

Sylver gestured at his face, but there wasn’t any recognition in Faust’s eyes.

“My eyes?” Sylver asked, and pointed directly at them.

“I mean, it’s still a little freaky, but everyone got used to it,” Faust explained, and Ria nodded along.

Sylver lifted his hand up to his face and used the blade of his dagger as a mirror.

Both of his eyes were pitch black as if they were a birds.

Using [Necrotic Mutilation] Sylver removed the contacts and incinerated them in his hand before he sprinkled the ashes down at the grass. Sylver wiped the ashes by rubbing his hands together, and with a clap of his hands cheered himself up again.

“Aright, at least now I know not to bother. Bravo, are you good to go?” Sylver asked as the small man nodded at him.

“Faust, how about you?” Sylver asked, and gestured with both hands at the man wearing what looked like a very fancy bathrobe. Minus the knot at the back, it looked to be of the same origin as the thing Poppy had worn when Sylver had last seen her. Faust’s costume was dark yellow, but not red enough to be orange.

“I’ve been ready for 10 minutes,” Faust said, with a hint of excitement in his voice, that made Sylver’s forced smile genuine.

“I hope I’m not being rude by asking this, but is no one going to see us off?” Bravo asked, with a gesture at the empty courtyard where only Sylver, Faust, and Mora were. “I won’t be able to bring you back for at least 20 days,” Bravo explained.

"I don’t like to say goodbyes as I leave, and it’s not that far. Not to mention I have a waystone, so depending on the circumstances, we might not even need you,” Sylver explained, as he tapped his shoulder.

Faust cracked his knuckles and Sylver felt as if someone rubbed his face raw with sandpaper, as the grass around Faust’s feet turned a much lighter shade of green, and grew up to his knee.

“Alright. Let’s go find me a wife!” Faust shouted, and gestured at an extremely confused Bravo. He motioned for the man to start, but both he and Sylver were just staring at him.

“What do you mean find you a wife?” Sylver asked, and both he and Mora cocked their heads in perfect sync.

Faust answered with a tone that didn’t have so much as a droplet of shame.

“Plenty of fish in the sea! Even more in a foreign sea!” Faust explained.

Sylver was about to say something but then had a sudden realization.

I only need him to get me inside. He can take care of himself, and this might actually be good for him. It will keep him busy, at least.

Sylver thought, as he smiled and nodded at Faust.

He’ll find a wife, or he won’t, what’s the worst that can happen? Sylver though, as Bravo summoned his portal and waited for it to stabilize.