A fleeting salvation.

The doors opened themselves for Irin—his battered body stumbling through the opening—before closing behind him.

He trudged forwards, gripping onto the back of the chair that had seemingly been set out for him to stabilize himself. All the while, the Seer watched with cold eyes, her smile unchanging.

After catching his breath, he finally spoke.

“...Why did you help me?”

Even after all this time, the guards in pursuit of him still seemed to be stuck out in the hall. It was the hands that didn’t let them pass.

With a smirk, she replied, “For the same reason I met with Elena.”

Irin dragged his feet around to the front of the chair and fell backwards into it, his breath still somewhat raggedy. His body was screaming to just let go—to drift away into unconscious bliss—but in his current state, he couldn’t even comfortably lean against the backrest.

“I take it you’re willing to answer my questions then?”

The one before him was one who the masses of the Confluence respected most. Her status and power were far beyond Irin’s own, yet, maybe due to the adrenaline coursing through his blood, right here and now, he felt brave enough to speak as equals.

“Hah, let’s go with that then. Three questions. I’ll answer truthfully, and that’s all I’ll give you.”

“Three?”

Irin knew he wasn’t anything like Elena. She never said it out loud, but during their time together, he could tell that she was never fully living in the present. A part of her was always reinterpreting their world—breaking it down into her own understanding.

If she were in his position right now, she’d probably unravel every mystery about the Confluence laid before him.

“But I’m not her…”

Regardless, there was still one question he had to give priority.

“Where is Elena right now?”

The Seer leaned back in her seat, tilting her head back as she closed her eyes.

“I don’t know.”

Irin waited.

“She’s never been one I could properly read, but… even the distortion around her presence is gone now. Right now, I can only say she’s in a place even I cannot peer into.”

“Even her…? Then, at the very least, she’s somehow beyond the Outer Realms—”

Irin’s eyes widened.

“Could it be that… she returned to Earth? No… it’s already illogical enough that she came here from Earth, but to be able to travel back and forth as well…?”

“You have two more questions.”

He returned his gaze to the present, focusing his eyes on the table between himself and the Seer rather than her piercing eyes.

“How can I prove my innocence?”

“You can’t. As far as the Confluence and myself are concerned, those shards were taken by yourself. Now, that isn’t to say that they’re gone—I can still faintly sense an energy similar to theirs within you, but the nature of your… shaping, for lack of a more precise term, is another thing I cannot fully ascertain.”

“So these three questions are a timer then. I don’t know what she’s getting out of this, but… once she provides that final answer, the Confluence will turn on me again.”

He flicked his eyes over to the windows in his peripheral vision.

“And I’ve led myself right into their heart, no less…”

“One more.”

Yet, that feeling of isolation—of himself against the world—only steeled his resolve to ask that last question.

“How can I reach Elena?”

The Seer’s lips twitched, her eyes opening to survey Irin’s own.

“Like I said, she is somewhere I cannot see. However, there is one person— No, one ‘individual’ whose authority may extend beyond mine. You might recall having heard this title before: The Archiver of the Brink.”

Irin narrowed his eyes, his muscles collectively tensing.

Of course, it was a name that many children who grew up near the outermost Outer Realms had heard. It was said to refer to a mad historian obsessed with recording what was “lost,” residing in shadows on the shores of the Hollow Tide, or the Brink, as many had come to call it.

The fear evoked by that figure was utilized by parents across worlds to scare their children into behaving or going to bed on time, and the one that raised Irin was no different. However, these tales were ones that were supposed to be outgrown—nothing more than cautionary warnings against the unknown.

“As you of all people should be aware, your ultimate goal is to cross the First Frontier, is it not? This is my last act of benevolence to you. I simply answered your question, but I cannot advise you to seek out the Archiver or throw your potential away for an incomprehensible outsider to these worlds.”

Irin clenched his fists.

“There’s probably a future where she’ll never return…” 

A world where they’d never meet again.

“And equally so, there could be another where she’ll return without me doing anything…” 

A world where his actions wouldn’t mean a thing.

“I could try to go back to living like normal… I can just hope that Elena can return on her own one day, but…”

Deep down, he knew he couldn’t return to being the naive boy he was before. Elena had changed something about him—something he couldn’t quite place his finger on, but something that was still there nonetheless.

“I have to.”

He could feel a few of the Seer’s strings beyond the door beginning to snap.

“You could still become a legend of the Confluence—mark your name among the likes of the Nine. In my good conscience, I cannot allow such a dangerous outcome.”

Irin rose from his seat, and nearly instantly fell over as the Seer’s Possibility Density condensed to within the room. His knees bending, he glared at the Seer.

“This is my choice.”

“If you take this path, you will only become an entity like Elena—one I cannot read and one I cannot defend.”

Irin’s thoughts flashed back to the dream leeches from earlier. Back then, it was Elena who stepped forward—not him, not the adventurers, and not even the Seer before him.

“Then I won’t receive your protection anymore.”

 《[Skill], [Tenacity], is aligned with your decision.》

“I’ll stand alone if I have to—if it means I can find Elena again.”

“Do you not understand? Once those doors open, you will return to being a fleeing criminal. You stand no chance against the guards and will fall from your ideals of climbing past the First Frontier.”

Irin could feel defiance rising in his chest, but he kept his breath steady nonetheless.

《[Skill], [Systemization], is aligned with your world.》

“Then, if I am to chase my own dreams…”

As he began to speak, faint hovering words made themselves visible above the Seer’s head, growing more definite with each passing moment. They bore the same light blue glow as his system’s messages.

“A name…”

“…I can no longer align myself with the Confluence, Fourth Dreamer Arinya.”

Her expression seemed to flicker for a moment before immediately returning to her usual guise. Whether it was rage, confusion, or some other emotion, he couldn’t tell.

But the instant that name left his mouth, the door flew open, several hands grabbing onto his neck and shoulders before flinging him back out into the hall. The guards now turned their arms towards him, multiple distinct beams of Possibility locking onto him.

“Not even going to arrest me, huh?”

He drew his sword as he flew through the air, a lethal light show soaring at him in the name of order.

“[Tenacity].”

He spoke its name aloud this time, and as its radiance coalesced over his sword and body, he once again was shot through the building’s walls.

A shower of rubble fell over the stairs and streets below, the cacophony of destruction joined by the cries of those below.

Only, Irin didn’t look at nor pay attention to them, his gaze instead affixed on the skies above. He felt like he was falling in slow motion, maybe cast from the heavens themselves—but that building he had been thrown from wasn’t anything of the sort.

“I wonder… Is this the sight Elena saw when she landed before me…?”

***

Only a few minutes had passed since Elena had woken up.

She now sat completely upright in bed, her gaze hazily pointed towards the blank wall across from her, seemingly lost in thought.

“Back to reality…”

Slowly, she rolled out of bed and trudged through the motions of her usual morning routine. Checking the time on her phone, she thought, “So it really has been just one night…”

She opened the door to her fridge and sighed, staring soullessly at the menagerie of snacks inside before closing the door again.

“Well, if I don’t go crazy with my budget, I should be able to last a few months at the least.”

A pile of botched letter drafts rested on her shelf like little angry mistakes reminding her of the choices she made the previous day.

Without much of a choice left, she headed outdoors and back onto the somewhat familiar streets, weaving her way through crowds of familiar strangers she never knew. Arriving at her usual cafe, she ordered an iced caramel latte paired with a bagel and cream cheese, catching herself opting to sit down by the window rather than taking her food back home or eating on the go.

She was never much of a fan of people watching. After all, there was always the possibility that someone could look straight back through the window and make very undesired eye contact. Yet, right now, there was a sort of emptiness gnawing at her insides that simply made her feel as if she didn’t care.

“Man… Go back to this old life? As if I could after all that…”

She returned to the counter, this time ordering a cream-filled donut that she took back to her room, delicately holding it in hopes of not deforming it.

At last, she addressed the bag she had left on her desk—the one that contained her notes and drawings from that mess of a conference.

“It was foolish to think they’d understand, but…”

She pulled out the most important diagrams and unfolded them across the floor.

“...my dreams are mine to dream, so let’s get back into this.”

With the donut half in her mouth, she began spreading the diagrams across her walls, taping their corners so they wouldn’t fall, before pulling out a fresh pen.