Chapter 579 - Profitable Plans & Perilous Possibilities

Sophia glared at the door. “It’s sealed shut.”

Hanna, still holding a tray full of tasty soup, snorted at her friend. “I know it’s warded, dear. If he’s this eager for rest, I’ll let him sleep. If he’s a bit famished tomorrow, he can have his fill of sausage eggs and rice then.”

Her friend still glared suspiciously at the door. “It’s not his sleep that I’m worried about.”

Hanna looked a bit crestfallen. “Still thinking the worst, sister? After what he did for Louise?”

Sophia’s lips narrowed. “I know, Hanna. That act alone has brought him a great deal of grace in my eyes. But after watching that fight tonight, I was quite painfully reminded of just how foolish it was for us to take any netherworld wildcard for granted. Not when the dark fruits of abyssal trees are infusing children with so much monstrous power that they’re capable of putting down masters who have not only formed their Silver Core, but have actually infused it with their Dao Concept as well. Powerful titans serving as NanDushi’s stalwart defenders, some of the very few Silvers who can even tolerate the impoverished spiritual energy this close to the shoreline.”

She turned to her friend, gently squeezing Hanna’s shoulder. “And let’s be honest with ourselves. We have no idea how strong your foster son truly is, infused as he is with a Contender’s wild taint. I already know that he can endure a Silver’s killing aura without so much as a flinch. Should madness or mania unexpectedly get the best of this child that we truly know almost nothing about, there’s absolutely nothing guaranteeing that even John could keep that boy in line, should the worst come to pass.”

“Sophia!”

“Hush, love. You know I speak nothing but truth. There are still far too many mysteries about that boy for me to be completely comfortable knowing that a wildcard Contender is presently sheltering in your house.”

Hanna sighed. “I thought you talked with him, and that your impression had changed for the better. Weren’t you telling me he’s actually quite talented with sigils and might have a future as a formation expert?”

Sophia clenched her jaw. “That was before… look, Hanna. You saw that fight, just as well as I did. Contenders are dangerous!” Her voice filled with genuine concern. “Not to put too fine a point on it, they’re basically untamed creatures from the underworld gifted in ways that our elders sometimes find exceptionally useful… but just as often they’re extremely perilous to work or even interact with. Like the most dangerous of spirit beasts.”

“Eric is hardly a spirit beast, Sophia.”

Sophia locked gazes with her friend. “You saw what happened to Suun and Crom, Hanna. Experienced Silvers! If they’re unable to continue acting as our guardians, or just as bad, so disgusted at being forced to lose face before the entire world—before a netherworld mockery of a cultivator of all things—that they refuse ever to set foot here again, what happens the next time our enemies strike? Because no matter how tempting the prizes that Elder Tone might offer, Suun and Crom are anomalies. Extremely few Silvers would ever condescend to come down from the grand plateau heights spanning entire underrealm worlds in length, just for the sake of a tiny strip of lowlands. It’s the prized bounty of grain harvests free of spirit beasts and savage hunters alone that inspires any interest in the affairs down here at all.”

The inquisitor sighed and shook her head. “Hell, Hanna. Forget Silver-tier defenders. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone willing to come to NanDushi’s defense. Most Energy Storage cultivators follow paths that make it perilous for them to even journey this far from the plateau, lest they’d risk rupturing that which they prize above all else. So what happens if an incursion is truly imminent, and your city has no defenders at all?”

“I hardly think that’s likely, sister. A single rumored kraken…”

“No rumor at all, sister. You saw that head! The way it writhed with the echo of vastness and seemed to burst out of the television itself… even as just a recorded memory of a glyph not yet faded from its corpse! Hanna, why do you think Elder Tone was being so gentle with the boy? All but offering NanDushi’s patronage, while making no move to strike him down. He was taking the youth’s measure. Judging his honor. And once he showed the common sense to put Crom down and prove that he wasn’t, in fact, a wanton killer or an agent of incursion himself, Tone was getting ready to offer him an extremely lucrative position as NanDushi’s guardian!”

“I admit to lacking your third eye, Sophia, but I’m not blind to power, and I sensed nothing stranger than an admittedly vile-looking Black Sea corpse. Elder Tone was just buttering the wild boy’s ego, sister, and it worked. He preened like a peacock and left,” noted a far more jaded and cynical Hanna than the motherly woman she presented herself as for her daughter and foster children. Clearly, she was no fool. “To think that Elder Tone would gamble with our city’s fate with a complete unknown, when we’re now more secure than we’ve ever been before? That’s preposterous!”

“Not really,” Sophia countered. “That young gloryhound had just finished crippling the strongest pair of defenders NanDushi has against incursions, and Tone has absolutely no interest in being stuck down here for years on end.” Her voice filled with concern. “Hanna… you know exactly which mercenary company will be called to come to NanDushi’s defense, should the worst come to pass.”

Hanna paled at those words. “No. The elder’s formations were bound with spirit pearls and gold! Nothing’s breaking through, Sophia. It’s just not possible!”

Her words earned a cold snort. “You truly believe that? After the rift that took your—”

“Sophia!”

The taller woman lowered her head in sudden shame. “Forgiveness, sister. Those words were unworthy.”

“Yes, they were,” Hanna choked back a sob. “This conversation is over, Sophia. If you would truly be a sister to me, you will treat Eric with the respect he deserves!”

Eric squeezed his eyes tightly shut, suppressing a bitter chuckle. Of course he had woken the instant someone had triggered his proximity ward, little more than the gentlest rune of Dominion letting him know when his territory was breached. As for the sealed doorway, that he had managed to do without using any crimson arts at all. Needing nothing more than the most basic of reinforcement runes after having scooted his bed and wedging it in front of the door, pressed tightly against several folded pants so as to leave no mark or jostle. Something that Sophia could most definitely have forced open, but it wouldn’t have been without applying physical force and waking up any occupant within. And crude as it was, it was a trick any teenager was capable of.

Of course mostly he took those basic precautionary steps just to make sure that no one accidentally startled him out of sleep. Not when a single surprising jostle might spell tragedy from which there was no going back. It was one reason why Eric was now making a point of actually sleeping on his bed and trusting his own growing sense of himself, his constant internal message to move as slowly and safely as any mortal, even while sleeping.

Should he wake up with a destroyed bed… well, far better that than far worse tragedies, and at least that way, he’d know that he still had a long way to go.

Which meant that he had caught every word said, and his shockingly high Perception boosted by Unified Perception meant that he had been, for all intents and purposes, right out there in the hallway with them.

“Are you fucking serious? I’m now responsible for beating up the defenders of NanDushi?” He couldn’t hold back his bitter chuckle. “All I fucking wanted was the right to trade without being someone else’s bitch. But with Arlen Ort corrupting this chapter of Blue Corp, my go-to guys are blocked off unless I really want to start some major drama, and since it’s basically impossible for me to even reach Caliban without leaving, at least temporarily…” He sighed.

“Because of course what seemed like an easy solution wasn’t. Those three arrogant assholes playing grain barge delivery boys happily bargained with prizes that weren’t theirs, so eager to claim my own. Actually thinking that I won’t collect. And it’s not like that bitch of a jade beauty would even consent to explain what the hell the chip on her shoulder was about, or even think that, hey, maybe she could strike a deal with me that would leave us both ahead.”

He groaned and rubbed his temples, refusing to feel too guilty about how things had turned out. Suun and her husband had immediately assumed the absolute worst, seemingly affronted by his very existence.

“Or maybe Suun was pissed by what her scummy underlings painted as flagrant theft by locals who cared nothing for her sacrifices. And her husband was just pissed as fuck that a seemingly scuzzy ungrateful thief had nearly taken out his wife.”

Eric clenched his jaw, painfully certain that Sophia was right. That shockingly powerful elder had been surprisingly accommodating, even flattering. Buttering Eric up, as Hanna had put it. Because he wasn’t actually going to give Eric the city, not that he would have accepted it in any case, and perhaps that Elder Tone could read him at least that well. Well enough to flatter a young champion whose victory could so easily go to his head, and offer him the seeming dream job of getting to play hero for an entire city… and getting paid handsomely for the privilege. To live in wealth and splendor with everyone cheering your name, treating you like a king without any of the headaches of actually being a king, all without any bloodshed needed at all.

Instead, Eric could be the hero and beloved protector of an entire city. A defender who wouldn’t miss highlands he had never been to at all, and might be content to serve as NanDushi’s revered defender for years. Decades, even. All the while thinking that he was the one coming out ahead. And maybe he would have been, if that had been his goal.

Instead, Eric showed himself to be happy enough turning the entire affair into a marketing campaign, which also seemed to please the elder to no end, because that was also adhering to the unspoken yet very real social contract needed for societies to function. To charm an entire nation or world into buying your product line was absolutely within the rules of a capitalist society. For the time-honored tradition of enticement was the farthest thing from slaughtering thousands in cold blood.

So when Eric dashed off after pimping his clothing line, the smiling elder had felt no need to follow.

Or maybe Eric’s foster mother and aunt were both dead wrong, and Elder Song had been flattering him and literally offering the city for Eric to take without feeling the need to destroy it… because Song really had sensed just how much Eric had been holding back.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Eric had found the perfect pretext to dart away under the guise of marketing instead of conquest, but it had fit the scene perfectly and he hadn’t been roped or felt compelled to take on a mantle he had absolutely no interest in. Not when he could live a peaceful slice-of-life existence he had yearned for far more than he’d ever admit aloud, even if just for a few sweet seasons.

Even if he didn’t envy Rachel the headache of wondering if a Silver-tier monster was now supporting her clothing line and how much she might be forced to pay for that publicity, down the line.

He suppressed a wince and sighed, before facing facts and accepting that he wasn’t going back to sleep, anytime soon.

And that, he decided, was fine, as he gazed out the window, feeling the nighttime breeze caress his skin, carrying so many secrets in the wind.

“How are you, Bun?” He whispered, directing his thoughts to the warm bundle of bunniness he sensed near his heart.

“Doing great, fearless leader!” Bun mentally enthused, Eric sensing that his rabbit was presently enjoying very choice accommodations indeed, which included her sitting in a pile of cotton fluff while snacking on carrot juice, lettuce wraps, and a half devoured plate of kimchi. Her little digits were twitching on a modified keypad and… yes, of all things…

“Bun, did you actually manage to find an arcade center? Are you really playing Exile’s Path?”

“You know it, fearless leader!" – Bunbun quipped as the screen erupted in lightning-infused kinetic explosions that froze and burned all the trash mobs she faced. “Jade Consortium actually has access to direct netherworld lines, and this baby runs on some sweet, sweet processing chips that work just fine with the runes warding excess energy from this room!”

Eric’s eyes twinkled. “Awesome. Do I even want to know how much it’s setting us back?”

“Absolutely free, for the arena champions. For the next 24 hours, anyway. And Xi Xiun is most eager to congratulate NanDushi’s newest champion and make you what he swears is a very sweet job offer!"

Eric suppressed a groan. “Please don’t tell me it involves becoming NanDushi’s sworn protector?”

Bunbun paused her game as she glared up at an odd-looking fleshy tree. “You better be dropping me a seven-link, with all the node enhancements I put in!” She then flashed Eric a totally innocent smile. “Maybe?”

Eric suppressed a groan. “How the fuck was I supposed to know that they were NanDushi’s guardians?”

Bunbun shrugged. “I don’t think you were. Honestly, I don’t think anyone thought you’d win.”

Eric blinked. “but wait, I thought Xi helped us clean up!’

“He did. He even helped me set up my very own account! Says we’ve proven our right to claim basic Jade Consortium trading privileges after our magnificent win!”

Eric rubbed his chin. “So, we basically proved ourselves…”

“We did indeed! Which means that we can now buy everything that Professor Klein the grumpy can. Even if to get the really good stuff…”

Eric nodded. “I know. We gotta put down the gold, and lots of it.”

“You know it!"

Eric smirked as he wrote a quick note, unsealed the door, and slipped out the window, thoughts already racing with wondrous possibilities that had absolutely nothing to do with becoming any city’s guardian. “So, let’s go see if we can impress Xi with just how serious we are as customers… and just how far we can push what’s basically an agricultural Real Estate Equity Investment Trust’s privileges. And you can tell Xi Xiun, flat out, that I’m not interested in playing city hero or garbage man. Suun and Crom aren’t getting out of their responsibilities that easily.”

He flashed a wicked smile that his bunny could at least sense at her location, even as he took to the heavens, breathed deep of cool night time air, and began racing through the skies back to the city once more. “I might have cracked a few bones, bruised a few muscles, but not much worse than that. They can take high end healing pills and get back to fucking work!”

“Ruthless! Love it, Fearless Leader! But um… you might not want to head to the consortium quite yet?”

Eric immediately slowed down, scowling at the far off city lights. “What’s up, Buns?”

“Well, um… it’s just that you’re garnered you a lot of interest, Fearless Leader. Especially from all the Toya clan elites putting serious money on the pair of champions that actually had Dao-infused cores compatible with life in the lowlands. The rest of those monsters? Not so much. So they backed their champions with the confidence of elites expecting their proxies to put upstart Contenders in their place.

Eric winced as an errant gust blew a stray lock of straw-colored hair. “Shit, are you saying that the fortune in spirit pearls we got…”

“Yup! Claimed off scowling elders who weren’t at all pleased to lose their bets, against someone who had basically ground all their faces in the mud. But Xi assures me it isn’t all bad! A number of factions exist within the exceptionally large Toya clan’s many multifaceted branches. Even if they’re nowhere near as powerful as the clans deeper within the massive plateau that I incidentally found out really is a hell of a lot larger than the planet of our birth! But for a clan clinging to the periphery of the plateau, they’re the crème of the crop when it comes to low rung cultivation academies. They long ago claimed status as guardians of NanDushi, vital for lowland trade, not to mention that they control a decent swath of the terraced rice fields on either side of our new home, and I’m given to understand that they make a sweet profit selling considerable amounts of rice to the sects and academies that are further inland.”

Eric frowned at this. “Wait, I thought all the farmland was managed by Jade Consortium? Even if that really just means whoever they mark as owner gets a guaranteed 5% profit on their investment and it’s the overseers running the farms that make additional coin based on whatever rice they produce beyond the 1000 mon quotas per million gold credit land plot?”

“Well, yeah. All true. Except for the 24% cut, which it seems that most cultivating sects like to collect personally.”

Eric shrugged. “Okay, fair enough. So what you’re saying is that our glorious victory didn’t come without a cost, and now the extensive Toya clan is now very interested in our mysterious champion.” He gave a cynical chuckle. “So, did Xi Xiun sell us out already?”

“Nope!” Bun cheerfully assured. “He made it clear that information is not for sale, as that was a Jade Consortium agreed upon boon for winning the fight, as is our 20% cut which is sweet, sweet icing on the cake!”

“Agreed. So…”

“So, you’d better believe that all sorts of people are still very, very curious, and there are more than a couple Jade Beauties not so deeply into Energy Storage that they can’t survive quite well here in NanDushi, and a couple shadowy figures that I’m just betting are wujen or ninja type specialists no doubt eager to track down any idiot silly enough to come collect his winnings so soon after the fight. And if my Perception weren’t still the match of your own, one or two might have actually slipped past my notice!”

Eric stiffened at those words. “Fuck. As much as I’m not such an idiot that I’ll be sleeping with any black widows or fearing any assassin’s knife…”

“If they follow you and you end up leading them back to your vulnerable foster family… yeah. That’s our concern, Fearless Leader. On the other hand, Xi made it clear that they most definitely won’t be intending to kill you, since the hatchet between you and the Toya clan is now forever buried. Haha! But you never know just how much of a troublesome headache they’ll end up being while skirting annoying rules that let them give us constant headaches while we’re bound to those same rules that prevent us from ever retaliating! And if a loved one succumbs to an accident that no one can prove was anything but unfortunate circumstances… is it really cheating?”

Eric’s blood ran cold with what Bun had so casually let slip.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, I know. Even if Xi said it’s more likely that they’ll give us an offer we really won’t be able to refuse.”

“I’m already refusing it. Whatever it is.”

“Yup! And the absolute best way to do that is by not bothering to play this game at all.”

“Noted,” Eric said with a sight, turning back around. “Put like that… with a giant clan’s worth of jade beauties to throw around, maybe it’s best that I not play the happy-go-lucky wildcard at all tonight.”

“Wouldn’t recommend it, Fearless Leader.”

Eric suppressed a groan as he dove through the air, heading right for the garden. “Best bet would be me just getting a good night’s sleep and heading to class bright and early, like a boy with nothing to hide, who hadn’t been pissing off Silver-tier jade beauties in front of his entire class like an idiot.”

“A class that had been most fervently sipping their tea, so we’re good there, Eric, you lucky boy. And don’t feel too bad! Xi’s made it very clear that Klein’s class will enjoy the rare privilege of being able to enjoy a follow visits, so that his elite students may make full use of whatever family connections, pull, and capital they have to invest in whatever toys they’re able to afford. We’re calling it a professional courtesy for their previously precarious experience, even if almost no one actually remembers.”

Eric flashed a fierce smile as he sunk to the loamy earth, savoring the soothing rustle of the apple and pear trees just a short distance away, taking his ease on a bed of copperthorn vines that didn’t prick him once. Not that they could… but they were definitely showing him their best leaves, and he appreciated it.

“Bun! That’s perfect!” he declared, brimming with fresh excitement. “Considering that Elder Song has basically given me free reign for economic conquest…”

“I think he was just relieved as fuck that you weren’t actually a raging psycho?”

“Sure, but he said it, so no take-backs.”

Bun snorted. “Economic conquest it is. Eric? I sense those neurons firing in some very exciting patterns. Do share!”

Eric couldn’t help chuckling at that, impressed with his familiar’s perception even as his thoughts raced along unexpected and exciting angles. “I have an idea, Bun, but it’s going to require a tiny bit more capital than what we presently have on hand.”

“No problem there, Fearless Leader. Xi made it clear that if our earlier queries were serious and not simply a means of goading for a certain fight where we basically cleaned up, and he fully commends that… then yes. There are ways for the truly connected to get directly in touch with certain powerful figures, even in the netherworld.”

Eric froze at those words. “Wait, are you serious? But I thought, with it practically being a dimension away… Bun, what exactly are you…”

“Let’s just say that our Jade Consortium contact made it quite clear that for the most elite of clients, contacting our underrealm friends really is just a phone call… or perhaps a crystal globe the literal exact opposite of the one Grim used… away.”

Eric took a shuddering breath, licking suddenly dry lips as visions of sugar plumbs and mercantile glory danced inside his head. “I have just a few questions for our friendly Xi Xiun, good buddy.”

“And what would they be, fearless leader?”

Eric pulled out with hands that shouldn’t be trembling one bit with his absurd Finesse his finance notes. Going over a very crucial choice bit of wording.

“Our fatherly sects are entitled to a 24% share of any and all rice and grains that we produce.”

“Correct, fearless leader.”

“And whatever rate we sell our foodstuffs to them, we can’t sell to any other market maker or merchant for more than said rate. Correct?”

“Yup! Precisely what Xi took pains to emphasize when speaking to our class.”

“Okay, so, here’s my question. What if we didn’t charge them for the rice at all?”

Bunbun was silent for a painfully long moment.

“You glorious madman! Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

Eric grinned. “Only if you’re at least half as brilliant as I know you to be.”

“Eric, this is… you know what our next step would have to be, right?”

Eric nodded. “Complete vertical integration. All the elements of production. Harvest, dehusk, and mill, grade and sort, package and transport.”

Eric’s head filled with Bunbun’s dark chortles. “Eric, this could be… Eric!”

Eric chuckled softly under the sound of rustling leaves and evening birds and locusts. “I know.”

“Okay. But we gotta feel around this carefully!”

“Agreed.”

“Like… if we grow extra veggies on the side, which I know the farmers do for their own benefit once they make landlord quota, they can sell for profit. But what if they were to gift some to their benevolent Energy Storage overlords come harvest time, surely they wouldn’t then be forced to sell the remainder of their carefully harvested carrots in the city for free… right?”

Eric’s teeth flashed in the reflected nighttime light. “What unthinking monster would penalize a gift like that?”

Bunbun tittered. “Okay, wait… once I compose myself and get my seven-link, I’ll ask Xi the right questions. See what else he has for sale, from a mercantile perspective. Now, you you'd best head home and get your beauty sleep, Fearless Leader, because if we’re going to take this in the direction that I think we’re going to take this, it’s going to be a long semester.”

“But profitable, Bun. And check out the view from here! A wild valley free of any farming interest at all. Strange, no? I didn't see any sign of this hidden gem while we were flying."

“You know it! Profitable beyond our wildest dreams! Look at all those wildflowers! I see a herd of cattle, and nothing else. As a rabbit, I highly approve! But with your Perception stat, how could you not have spotted this during our flight?”

Eric shrugged. "Because I'm not perfect, but I'm smart enough to trust my gut? I knew that giving into my totally not elven impulse to explore the woods was the perfect thing to do at one in the morning and--" Eric froze, stock still as the hair on the back of his neck began to prickle, his Perception finally picking up the sound behind the rustle of the leaves.

An odd hum. So chillingly like the hum in one of his favorite fantasy games of all time. Only now instead of excitement that he would feel while resting in his gaming chair competely safe and snug at home... now what he felt was the oddest prickle of dread.

"Bun?" Eric said as he slowly left the cover of the forest and began taking a very careful look at the valley... and the cluster of cows that had backed up to the far northwestern end of the clearing. Cows that were dead silent. Because maybe they weren't sleeping.

Maybe what froze them in place was fear.

"Yes, fearless leader?"

Eric furrowed his brow as his eyes continued to roam the periphery. "Nothing, I guess. I just heard an odd sound that reminded me of all those crackling crimson portals."

"Ooh! You mean with the odd humming, and how the skies would turn black and red with brilliant violet lightning, once you got close?"

"Yup, pretty much. Only I don't see anything odd at all."

"But you do still hear it, right?"

Eric frowned, ignoring the chill in his gut as he forced himself to consider his familiar's words. "You know what?"

"What?"

He forced himself to say it. "I do. Only... it's odd. Like it's a sound just beneath the surface. A sound I probably shouldn't be able to hear at all. But I know it's there. I remember hearing it just a second ago, even if I'm not hearing anything now... but I know that I am. Does that make sense?"

"Not even a little bit!" Bun cheerfully declared. "Though I do see that herd of perfectly still cows across the glade."

"Yup. Me too."

"Perfectly still cows with big bovine eyes."

Eric sighed. "Me too."

"Cows without any supernaturally high attributes at all!"

Eric winced. "I'm going to have to go down there, aren't I?"

"That's up to you, my brave and bold and absolutely fearless leader!"

"Ha ha."

Eric grit his jaw and glared, refusing to acknowledge the tingle of peril racing down his spine as he slipped across the field, making hardly a sound at all as the rustling stopped, and he heard not a whisper of anything.

No odd buzzing in his ears. No sound of rustling grass.

Nothing.

Just an odd pressure that he hated to think was just his nerves, for the grass waved just fine in the breeze and what had muffled his ears had simply been his own pounding heart, roaring in his head.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" He muttered as he approached what were, after all, just sleeping cows.

No great mystery at all.

"Ooh, all sorts of things. But you're a snappy dresser and look absolutely badass with a sword, so who cares? I certainly don't. And neither does your sister. And everyone who would make a big deal... you've already eaten! Ha ha! Just kidding."

"Not entirely," Eric conceded with a wry smile, smirking at the perfectly ordinary cows before turning around and heading—

"Nope, not entirely. But we like to leave the past in the past, so why sweat it, I say! And why did you stop dead still? Oh. Wait. Nevermind. Eric?"

"Yeah, Bunbun?" Whispered a frozen Eric, blinking as he tried to register what he was seeing.

"Is that a crackling rift I see on the far side of the valley?"

"You mean the slit in reality bleeding ebony darkness and violet lightning, surrounded by a corona of fire?"

"No, I mean the blue one... of course I mean that one! Fuck! I thought we were getting to enjoy the slice-of-life arc of our life story! This isn't an ascending world. This is bullshit!"

Eric nodded. "Yup," he said, before walking back the way he had come, turning to look in the very direction that had filled him with dread…

"Shit, where did it go? It's gone!"

Eric nodded, seeing nothing but a peaceful glade once more. "I still feel the pressure, though."

"And the humming, ringing sound?"

Eric flashed a bleak smile. "I still remember hear it screaming against my ears... seconds ago. Even if I think it's silent... it's not."

"Eric? You know what you have to do, right?"

Eric clenched his jaw. Forcing himself to approach the spot where he knew the rift to be. Feeling an odd, terrible cold before he abruptly turned back the way he had come. Before he got too close.

Then he retraced his steps back to the cows.

Turned around.

And saw the massive rift of crackling darkness and violet lightning once more.

"Shit."

"Eric…"

Eric shook his head, forcing his steps forward. One at a time.

Even if the pressure he felt…

Deep Silver.

Deadly, even for him.

"No fucking way..." Bunbun muttered. "Eric, I feel that."

Eric swallowed. "Does that mean that something truly awful is getting ready to step out, or is that just the strength of the rift itself?"

"I have no idea. Do you think you can dispel it?"

Eric's nostrils flared as the lonely breeze tousled his hair. "I'm not sure, Bun. Maybe? But now that I'm looking right at it... I can feel it radiating such a furious presence that…"

Eric paled. "Fuck."

"Eric?"

"Bun, I think this might actually be beyond me."

Eric winced in the sudden mental dead silence, even as his bones seemed to vibrate with the awful ring as he forced himself closer, the portal growing vast and huge... far faster than his approach warranted.

"Eric, get back! We don't know shit about portals here! But we do know what happened the one time you ruptured a pocket realm!"

Eric blanched, ears ringing with the memory of his own silent scream when he had been violently pulled into the awful blackness between realms... before Bunbun had somehow shoved him right back into the reality that was his own."

He swallowed his suddenly painfully dry throat, heart pounding way to fast. "We need research. Intel. We have absolutely no idea how things work here! How fucking bad are portals here on New Titan, the bedrock of everything, supposedly?"

Bun flew into a nervous panic, hopping around in tight little circles, wherever she was. "Shit... shit, shit, shit! Okay, okay... here's what we're going to do. You're going to go head back home as fast as you can, and you're going to tell your foster dad and Sophia everything!"

"Everything, Bun? I'm not sure that's a good idea…"

"About the rift, obviously. Get what intel you can about what we can expect from rifts here, and how best to close them! While you do that, I will ask Xi here some very pointed questions and sound the alarm that some very serious trouble might be manifesting. But not before I get a promise that whatever I reveal won't be used by assholes to track us down."

Eric nodded. "Sounds like a plan, Bun.” He then raced back along the forest trail he had taken to get there, forced to accept that his mental vacation away from serious responsibilities had just come to an end.

He had been given a second chance with a family that actually seemed to care about him, and he sure as hell wasn't going to lose anyone he cherished about to any damned rift that had formed way too close to home.

Especially not one crackling with the promise of oblivion itself.