[Realm: Uhorus]

[Location: Galadriel]

[Outskirts]

"Curious. Very curious indeed."

Under ordinary circumstances, walking through the outskirts consumed by the Abyss would have demanded vigilance.

The world was no longer what it had been a month ago.

Every stretch of land beyond fortified settlements carried dread. Every distant movement could be an Abyssal Creature. Every shadow cast across the ground could conceal evil. The skies themselves had become hostile, split apart by countless tears that bled darkness into the world.

Caution should have come naturally.

It should have been instinct.

Yet as Fiona walked across the ruined landscape, she found herself releasing a sigh.

Not because she felt safe.

But because Victoria looked entirely unconcerned.

The two wore their armour; Fiona’s armour sat comfortably upon her frame, and Victoria’s was immaculate as always, almost strangely pristine despite the state of the world.

Yet armour seemed to be the only precaution Victoria had bothered bringing.

The blonde girl stood atop a slightly elevated rise of rock, her gaze fixed upward towards the sky with the fascination of a researcher studying an unusual specimen. There was no tension in her posture or any visible apprehension. Along with that, there was no sign that they were standing in territory that could erupt into violence at any moment.

Fiona sometimes wondered if Victoria simply lacked whatever instinct caused ordinary people to feel fear.

Or perhaps her curiosity consistently overpowered it.

Either possibility seemed equally plausible.

Following Victoria’s line of sight, Fiona folded her arms.

"And what exactly is so ’very curious’?" she asked; the Solkari’s voice carried mild scepticism.

Victoria immediately responded. "This was where Lucinda fought the Abyssal Warden."

Fiona glanced around once more; the former battlefield remained impossible to mistake.

"I gathered as much." Her salmon-pink eyes slowly swept across the clearing.

Massive craters scarred the earth, and sections of the ground had been completely erased, exposing broken stone beneath. Deep cuts stretched across the landscape along with that. Even after a day had passed, the area still carried the impression of overwhelming violence.

"What about it?" Fiona asked.

Victoria raised a hand toward the skies.

"Do you remember me mentioning that Lucinda destroyed roughly a dozen tears during that battle?"

"I do."

Victoria nodded.

"They’ve already returned."

Fiona followed the gesture.

Sure enough.

Dark tears once again hung overhead.

The sight immediately caused her brow to furrow.

"Only a day has passed."

Victoria’s expression remained thoughtful. "Exactly."

Fiona considered it.

"But we were never truly successful at destroying tears before." Her eyes remained fixed on the sky. "Could this not simply be their normal restoration rate? We don’t exactly have much data to compare it against."

"Perhaps." Victoria’s answer came slowly.

The single word immediately told Fiona there was more.

"But..." Victoria trailed off.

Fiona raised an eyebrow.

"But?"

Victoria suddenly lifted her arm; for a moment Fiona saw nothing. Then she noticed it, a small light far away. Barely visible in the darkened skies, but the light rapidly grew larger.

As it approached, its shape became clearer.

An owl, or rather, the magical image of one. Its body was translucent white, composed entirely of softly glowing mana. Silent wings carried it through the air with grace; the construct descended from the skies and gently landed upon Victoria’s arm.

Fiona watched with interest.

The owl remained for only a brief moment, and then it dissolved. Its body breaking apart into countless motes of light. The glowing particles drifted around Victoria’s face before vanishing entirely.

Victoria hummed.

The sound immediately caught Fiona’s attention.

"A monitoring spell?"

Victoria nodded. "Yes."

"You’ve been observing something?" Fiona questioned.

"Verdantis." That answer surprised Fiona as Victoria folded her arms. A contemplative expression settled onto her face. "I wanted additional data regarding the tears there." She paused briefly. "General Mai handled the Abyssal Warden that appeared within Verdantis."

Fiona nodded; she remembered hearing the General recount it.

"The tears surrounding that region reacted differently." Victoria’s eyes narrowed slightly. "The Abyssal liquid pouring from them weakened considerably. Yet none of the tears themselves were destroyed."

Fiona remained silent.

Victoria continued.

"What’s important is that those tears have remained weakened." Her gaze lifted towards the skies. "A full day has passed, and their state has not significantly changed."

The implications immediately began forming inside Fiona’s mind.

Meanwhile, Victoria gestured upward.

"Yet the tears destroyed here have already restored themselves."

Fiona’s expression slowly hardened; the pieces were beginning to fit together. And she didn’t particularly like the picture they were forming.

"Even accounting for the difference in time between Lucinda killing her Abyssal Warden and General Mai killing hers..." She frowned. "Destroyed tears should require substantially longer to recover."

Victoria nodded.

"That would be the logical assumption."

Fiona’s eyes narrowed.

"Then whatever the source is..." The conclusion felt unpleasant. "It prioritised Galadriel."

Victoria remained quiet for several seconds, not agreeing or disagreeing.

"Perhaps." The uncertainty in her answer irritated Fiona slightly.

"Perhaps?"

Victoria shrugged, a gesture entirely too casual given the subject matter. "We shouldn’t immediately assume conscious intent."

Fiona blinked.

"You think it wasn’t intentional?"

"I’m saying we don’t know." Victoria’s gaze returned towards the skies. "There is a tendency among people to assign intelligence to every pattern they observe." Her voice remained calm. "But sometimes systems behave in complex ways without direct intervention."

Fiona considered that. "What kind of system?"

Victoria became visibly thoughtful.

"A passive one, perhaps." She slowly gestured towards the countless tears hanging overhead. "There are simply too many, millions. Possibly more." Her expression sharpened slightly. "It would be inefficient for a central source to consciously manage every individual tear."

Fiona could not deny that logic as Victoria continued.

"So it may function automatically like a network with a process." She tapped a finger lightly against her arm. "Something designed to determine where Abyssal Creatures should be concentrated. Where resources should be allocated and which tears require restoration."

The idea sent an unpleasant feeling down Fiona’s spine. Abyssal Creatures were terrifying enough. The notion that the Abyss itself might be operating according to some greater system was far worse.

Victoria continued speaking.

"Destroyed tears closest to the source may receive priority."

Fiona’s eyes widened slightly; there it was. The true implication.

"Wait." Her voice grew sharper. "If that’s true..." She turned fully towards Victoria. "Are you suggesting the source is somewhere near Galadriel?"

Victoria met her gaze, then shrugged again far too casually.

"Maybe."

Fiona stared.

That single word somehow felt more alarming than anything else.

"It’s one thing after another..." Fiona rubbed lightly at her temple. "...honestly, this is becoming exhausting." The words left her in a low mumble, barely louder than the wind sweeping through the ruined clearing.

First the tears.

Then the Abyssal Wardens.

Then the growing instability of the realm.

Now potentially a source hidden somewhere near Galadriel. Every answer seemed to uncover three more questions. And victories appeared to reveal an even larger problem waiting behind it.

The Solkari exhaled slowly through her nose.

She normally considered herself level-headed and capable of approaching problems one at a time. Yet lately it felt as though the world had become determined to overwhelm everyone trying to save it.

Besides her, Victoria watched the expression settling across Fiona’s face.

The blonde girl was silent for several seconds.

Then a familiar grin began forming.

The exact kind that immediately made Fiona suspicious.

"Would you perhaps like a special message to help calm yourself down?" Victoria offered; the grin widened.

Fiona immediately knew she was going to regret whatever came next.

She slowly turned her head.

The flat look she gave Victoria could have frozen water.

"From you?" A pause followed. "No thank you."

The answer came so quickly that Victoria actually looked mildly wounded.

Or at least she pretended to.

"Aww." She placed a hand over her chest. "You refused so fast." Victoria shook her head dramatically. "That genuinely wounds me, Fiona. Here I was trying to be supportive."

The sigh she released was so exaggerated that it nearly became theatrical.

Fiona stared.

The girl had somehow managed to look like the victim despite being the one provoking her.

"Honestly..." Another sigh escaped Fiona, this one far more genuine. "How are you even capable of joking right now?" She gestured vaguely towards the corrupted landscape surrounding them. "The world is practically falling apart around us."

Victoria followed the gesture; for a brief moment she looked towards the skies. Towards the countless tears splitting the sky apart and towards the darkness bleeding endlessly into the world.

Then she looked back at Fiona.

Her smile had softened somewhat, though it had not disappeared.

"That’s precisely why." Fiona blinked as Victoria lifted a finger. "It’s important to maintain a clear state of mind at all times." She gently wagged the finger as though delivering an important lesson. "If panic starts making your decisions for you, then you’ve already made things harder than they need to be."

Her tone remained light, but she was being genuine; it was something Fiona recognised.

Victoria might joke constantly, and she might appear far too casual. But that did not mean she was oblivious; in fact, sometimes Fiona suspected the opposite. Sometimes it felt as though Victoria understood exactly how dire things were and chose to smile anyway.

The thought was strangely irritating.

"You sound like a monk." The dry remark left Fiona before she could stop it.

Victoria immediately brightened. "You’ll make me blush with compliments like that, dear." She placed a hand against her cheek, the picture of false modesty.

Fiona’s eye twitched.

"That wasn’t—" She stopped herself immediately; her ear flicked sharply in annoyance.

The movement made Victoria’s grin widen even further.

Which only worsened the problem.

Fiona closed her eyes briefly and took a breath.

"No." She shook her head. "I absolutely refuse."

Victoria tilted her head. "Refuse what?"

"To get dragged into an argument with you." The response came instantly as Fiona pointed at her. "I know exactly how this ends."

Victoria looked delighted. "You do?"

"Yes." Fiona folded her arms. "We spend the next twenty minutes debating something completely ridiculous; you somehow convince yourself you’ve won, and I leave with a headache."

Victoria looked genuinely thoughtful. "Hm." A brief pause followed. "That does sound familiar."

Fiona groaned as Victoria’s smile somehow grew even more innocent. Which made it substantially less trustworthy. Deciding that preserving her sanity was preferable to continuing this conversation, Fiona chose to redirect things back toward the actual reason they were here.

She glanced around the ruined clearing one final time.

"Is this everything we came to investigate?"

Victoria’s expression finally shifted back towards something more professional.

She gave a small nod.

"Yes." Her gaze lifted towards the sky one final time as though committing the sight to memory. "We’ve confirmed what we needed to confirm." The blonde girl folded her arms. "At least for now."

Fiona studied her carefully.

There was still concern beneath Victoria’s calm demeanour; she could see it now. The blonde spawn simply expressed it differently.

"We’ll return." Victoria turned away from the clearing, her armour’s coat shifting lightly as the wind caught it. "Astrid and the others should have completed their own investigations by now."

The mention of the others immediately pulled Fiona’s thoughts elsewhere.

Whatever answers awaited them...

They were unlikely to be comforting ones.