The white opening above the Soul Seam remained.
Pest had expected it to disappear the moment the original Derpy stopped speaking.
It did not.
Instead, the tear remained suspended high above her kingdom like a wound carved through the darkness, revealing the strange inner world hidden somewhere inside Derpy's shadow.
Black liquid continued dripping from its edges.
Each drop struck the Soul Seam and dissolved into thin trails of haze carrying fragments of thought, emotion, and memory from the Dragon-Wolf who remained somewhere far beyond Pest's reach.
Pest watched the opening in silence.
She had demanded the original.
Threatened to drag Lewd back from the living world if the fragments refused to summon him.
Instead of Derpy himself, she had received something considerably stranger.
A shadow full of maids.
Two warriors who had descended into her kingdom and shown no intention of leaving it.
Fragments of his thoughts, falling into her realm like weather.
And a connection between Derpy's shadow and the Soul Seam that Pest still did not completely understand.
The two warriors had not moved since Derpy's voice went quiet.
The armored rabbit remained where she had landed, blades lowered but not dismissed, her lavender hair drifting in a wind the Soul Seam did not have.
The purple dragon stood closer to the fragments with both curved weapons still in hand.
Neither had been ordered to withdraw.
Neither had offered to.
Beside Pest, Rabbit Derpy had wisely stopped making comments about her reduced size.
For now.
Wolf and Dragon remained focused on the warriors, while Harpy stared upward at the chibis.
Above them, Ruda was doing the same thing.
Her lavender-silver twin tails drifted behind her as she leaned closer to the opening. Violet symbols raced rapidly across the tablet in her hands.
Then her magenta eyes settled upon Harpy Derpy.
Ruda frowned.
"There is something unusual about that one."
Harpy looked up.
"What exactly did you notice?"
Ruda tilted her tablet slightly.
"According to this, your magical signature exists in two locations at the same time."
Pest's enormous ears lifted.
The other chibis immediately crowded around Ruda.
Brin squeezed between two of them.
"Which one are you talking about?"
Ruda pointed downward.
"The winged one standing beside Pest."
Every tiny face turned toward Harpy.
Harpy slowly looked behind himself.
Then back toward them.
"I assume you are referring to me."
Kefa leaned dangerously far over the edge of the opening.
Her eyes widened.
"Oh! I know that thing!"
Harpy's eye twitched.
"I would appreciate being called something other than a thing."
Luda caught the back of Kefa's uniform before the winged maid could fall through.
The blue-haired wolf maid studied Harpy.
Her ears shifted.
"I recognize him too."
Kefa turned toward her.
"Since when have you recognized him?"
Luda gave her a flat look.
"We share the same Master, idiot. If you saw him, there is a reasonable chance I did too."
Kefa blinked.
She thought about that.
"That is unfortunately a very good point."
Pest looked from the maids toward Harpy.
Her staff rested lightly against one shoulder.
"They know your face, they know your flame.Perhaps you'll now explain your name."
Harpy sighed.
"You are perfectly capable of asking questions without turning them into riddles."
Pest smiled.
"I am."
Harpy waited.
Pest offered nothing else.
Rabbit leaned toward Wolf.
"She enjoys making everything more difficult than necessary."
Pest's ear immediately turned toward him.
Rabbit straightened.
"I said she looks exceptionally magnificent today."
Wolf stared at him.
"That was not remotely close to what you said."
Rabbit kept his expression serious.
"Survival occasionally requires improvisation."
Above them, Ruda continued studying Harpy.
Then her eyes widened slightly.
"I remember where we saw him."
The other chibis turned toward her.
"Master used him in the White Tiger Kingdom."
Harpy's expression became more serious.
Ruda continued.
"It happened when Master became tired of watching people being falsely accused."
Several chibis began murmuring among themselves.
Kefa pointed downward again.
"That is definitely him. I remember the wings."
Luda nodded.
"So do I."
Pest looked toward Harpy.
"Then these little creatures have encountered you before."
Harpy shrugged.
"Apparently they remember me better than I expected."
Ruda's eyes narrowed.
"But that still does not explain why you are standing inside the Soul Seam."
Harpy tilted his head.
"What part requires explanation?"
Ruda tapped her tablet.
"You are also with Master."
Harpy went quiet.
Pest's attention sharpened immediately.
Ruda turned the tablet so the others could see the overlapping symbols.
"Your energy signature exists here and wherever Master currently is."
Harpy stared at her for several seconds.
Then laughed.
"I understand what you are detecting."
Pest slowly turned toward him.
"You laugh as though this makes good sense.Explain yourself without pretense."
Harpy gestured upward.
"Part of me is there."
Then he pointed beneath his feet.
"And I am also standing here."
He shrugged.
"I realize that sounds strange, but I am not certain why it matters so much."
Pest answered immediately.
"It matters because you are simultaneously occupying my kingdom and another location beyond it."
Harpy sighed.
"Of course that matters to you."
He raised one hand.
Musical energy vibrated faintly around his fingers.
"I can become a weapon."
The vibration deepened.
"I can also gather enough energy to maintain a physical body."
His wings opened slightly.
"When I exist like this, I do not need to wait inside the original's shadow for permission to perform every meaningless action."
Ruda frowned.
Harpy noticed.
"That does not mean I am opposing him."
Pest tilted her head.
"Yet earlier you claimed yourself bound.How can both truths exist unbound?"
Harpy looked directly at her.
"Because both statements are true."
Pest's eyes narrowed.
Harpy pointed toward the opening.
"I already explained this. Being connected to Derpy does not erase my ability to make choices."
He touched his chest.
"I can maintain a physical existence without interfering with whatever the original is currently doing."
His expression became more serious.
"And right now, I am deliberately choosing not to interfere."
Ruda's eyes sharpened.
"Why would you stay away when Master is clearly under pressure?"
Harpy looked toward the opening.
For a moment he did not answer.
"Because he broke," he said.
Ruda's tail went still.
"In an alley. In front of a stranger. With his own weapons on the ground."
The reaction was immediate.
Ruda went rigid.
Brin's ears dropped.
Kefa stopped bouncing.
Even Luda's black chains became completely still.
Pest noticed every reaction.
Ruda stepped closer to the opening.
"What happened to him?"
Harpy did not answer immediately.
Instead, musical energy gathered around his hand.
A translucent image formed between them.
At first, Pest saw only a street.
Then an alley.
Then —
A white wolf.
Pure white.
Pest's eyes narrowed.
This is Derpy?
Not the Dragon-Wolf shape she had expected.
Not the creature she had imagined after fighting his fragments.
A white wolf stood within the image while black haze spilled around his feet.
Something was terribly wrong with him.
Pest recognized that before Harpy explained anything.
His movements were too sharp.
His breathing lacked rhythm.
His eyes were not focused on the person standing in front of him.
He was fighting something else.
Something no one around him could see.
Something inside his own head.
Ruda's voice became quiet.
"Master…"
The image changed.
Derpy reached outward.
A weapon began forming.
Metal appeared.
Then a blade.
But almost immediately, the weapon dropped from his hands.
It struck the ground.
Derpy stared at it.
Pest's ears lifted.
Harpy's expression tightened.
"He tried to summon his weapons."
The image showed another attempt.
Again, the weapon formed.
Again, Derpy failed to use it correctly.
Harpy continued.
"His normal weapons require too much precision from him right now. His thoughts are too unstable for him to maintain the control he normally uses."
Pest glanced toward him.
"So his power still answers, but his mind cannot shape it cleanly."
"Exactly."
The image showed Derpy abandoning another attempt.
Then he attacked with his hands.
Ruda's expression changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
Not for herself.
For him.
"He resorted to fighting hand-to-hand because he could not safely use his usual weapons?"
Harpy nodded.
Ruda shot upward.
"Master!"
Brin reached toward her.
"Ruda, wait!"
Ruda reached the edge of the opening before forcing herself to stop.
She looked down at the other chibis.
Her breathing had quickened.
"He never summoned us, did he?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Ruda's voice sharpened.
"Please answer me. Did Master call any of us while this was happening?"
Luda shook her head.
"He did not."
Kefa's wings lowered.
"If Master had called, we would already be beside him."
Ruda looked back toward the image.
Derpy continued fighting.
Without his usual weapons.
Without the chibis.
Without summoning any of the forces Pest had now seen waiting inside his shadow.
Ruda clenched both hands.
"He should have called us."
Luda stepped beside her.
"He told us to remain where we are."
"He is hurt."
"I know."
"We are supposed to protect him."
Kefa's voice became unusually quiet.
"And we are also supposed to respect him."
Ruda turned.
Kefa met her eyes.
"If Master calls us, we go immediately."
Luda nodded.
Black chains slowly rose behind her.
"We do not hesitate."
She looked toward the image.
"But until he asks, we remain here."
Ruda looked between them.
Pest watched the exchange with increasing interest.
These creatures possessed enough power that even she had stopped dismissing them as servants.
Yet they waited.
Not because they were trapped.
Not because they lacked the ability to leave.
Because Derpy had asked them to.
Harpy glanced toward Pest.
"You are beginning to understand the difference."
Pest did not look at him.
"Do not become smug."
"I had no intention of doing that."
"You absolutely did."
Harpy paused.
"I admit that I was considering it."
Pest's staff shifted slightly.
Harpy immediately raised both hands.
"I have reconsidered."
The projection changed again.
The fighting had ended.
The white wolf was no longer alone.
A woman walked beside him.
She was considerably larger than Derpy, broad through the shoulders and dressed in the dark tactical clothing of a Collar Warden.
Pest's ears shifted at the insignia on her shoulder.
"Collar Warden."
Harpy nodded.
"They handle the ones the ordinary authorities will not touch. Anything with a bound power, a contract, a mark, a leash somebody else is holding." He watched the image. "If a creature is dangerous because of what has been done to it rather than what it has done, a Warden gets sent."
Pest's expression flattened.
"So they are collar-keepers."
"They would say they are the ones who decide whether the collar is legal."
"That is the same profession with better manners."
Harpy did not argue with her.
Ruda immediately leaned forward.
"Who is the woman walking beside Master?"
Harpy watched the image.
"Her name is Voss Blackmere."
Pest glanced toward him.
"Is she his friend?"
Harpy hesitated.
"The situation between them is complicated."
Rabbit laughed from nearby.
"Everything involving the original is complicated."
Harpy looked toward him.
"For once, you are entirely correct."
The image followed Voss and Derpy through the streets.
Ruda watched every movement the Warden made.
"How close is she standing to him?"
Harpy stared at her.
"Why are you asking me that?"
"Because I want to know whether she is forcing him to remain near her."
"They are walking at an ordinary distance."
"Is she restraining him?"
"She is not."
"Did she hurt him?"
Harpy hesitated.
"They fought."
Ruda's eyes sharpened.
Luda's chains immediately rose.
Kefa spread her wings.
Brin stepped forward.
"She fought Master?"
Harpy quickly raised both hands.
"Before everyone decides to invade the living world, allow me to finish explaining."
Pest almost smiled.
Apparently she was not the only person who had learned that lesson recently.
Harpy continued.
"The original believed Voss was working for Cassandra."
Ruda's expression hardened at the name.
"So Master attacked her first."
The maids became quiet.
"Voss defended herself. She restrained him until he calmed down enough to listen, explained who she actually was, and now she is escorting him somewhere called the Warden District."
Ruda stared into the projection.
"You said she is escorting him."
Harpy already looked tired.
"That is correct."
"Is Master going because he wants to?"
"He agreed to walk with her."
Ruda's eyes narrowed.
"That was not what I asked."
Harpy sighed.
"Technically, he is in temporary custody."
Every chibi reacted at once.
"Temporary custody?!"
"Why is Master being detained?"
"Who decided they were allowed to hold him?"
"Is he being arrested?"
Harpy's musical voice boomed across the Soul Seam.
"Master is not under arrest!"
The chibis stopped.
Harpy rubbed his forehead.
"Voss explicitly told him he is not under arrest. She is taking him to the Warden District so they can continue speaking somewhere Cassandra's family does not control."
Ruda remained unconvinced.
"Can Master leave if he decides he no longer wants to go?"
Harpy hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Luda growled.
Kefa's wings spread wider.
Brin's fluffy tail puffed out.
Harpy hurried onward.
"The legal and political situation is complicated."
Rabbit called from below.
"He finally said it!"
Wolf solemnly nodded.
"He did indeed."
Dragon folded his arms.
"Everything eventually becomes complicated around the original."
Pest ignored them.
She watched the image.
Derpy walked beside Voss.
No chains.
No collar.
No weapon pressed against his back.
Yet tension lived inside every step.
The black haze had vanished.
But Pest could still sense the emotions that produced it.
Fear.
Anger.
Humiliation.
And underneath all three —
restraint.
Derpy was deliberately holding himself back.
Pest's expression slowly changed.
This was the creature she had demanded be dragged before her?
This exhausted white wolf?
This was the original whose fragments had challenged her repeatedly?
The master of the strange maids waiting inside his shadow?
The owner of the shadow somehow connected directly to her Soul Seam?
Pest studied his face.
Something about his eyes bothered her.
Not their shape.
Not their color.
Something behind them.
She had seen eyes like those before.
A very long time ago.
Beneath an ancient tree.
Drago sitting beside Roae with fruit in his hand and absolutely no understanding of why everyone was angry that he had created an entire tree simply because he wanted something to eat.
Pest's fingers tightened around her staff.
No.
She had already established the truth.
Derpy was not Drago.
She could feel the difference.
Different presence.
Different soul.
Different existence.
But those eyes —
The same exhaustion.
The same restraint.
The same expression worn by someone constantly measuring his own thoughts because he knew what could happen if he stopped.
Pest stepped closer to the projection.
Harpy noticed.
"Did you recognize something?"
Pest ignored him.
Derpy turned slightly toward Voss.
For less than a heartbeat, Pest saw Drago.
Not physically.
Not literally.
A memory.
Drago standing beneath the shattered sky after reality had begun fearing him.
Every second, I'm thinking about what I must not think about.
Pest's ears lowered.
In the projection, Derpy looked down at his hands.
Pest remembered Drago doing the same.
And every time I do… reality listens.
The projection flickered.
Pest stepped backward.
Rabbit looked toward her.
"You look like something frightened you."
She said nothing.
Harpy watched her carefully.
Before he could ask again, the white opening changed.
The armored rabbit's ears rose.
The purple dragon's tail became still.
Ruda immediately checked her tablet.
"Something else is approaching the opening."
Pest raised her staff.
"Your master's shadow seems quite fondof dropping strangers from beyond."
Harpy laughed.
"You demanded the complete original."
Pest looked toward him.
"I demanded Derpy."
Harpy gestured broadly toward everything above them.
"This is apparently part of the full experience."
Before Pest could respond, the darkness behind the chibis rippled.
Two enormous shapes moved around them.
At first, Pest thought they were simply part of the shadow.
Then eyes opened.
Huge eyes.
One presence curled protectively around the tiny maids from one side.
Another did the same from the opposite direction.
Pest stopped moving.
The power coming from them differed from the chibis.
Older.
Heavier.
Closer to something divine.
Ruda looked upward.
"Everyone remain calm. They are not attacking."
Kefa pointed.
"They are moving closer."
Luda's chains rose.
Brin looked between the enormous forms.
Pest stared.
She could not see either presence completely.
Only pieces.
One shape behind Ruda.
Another behind Brin.
Both large enough that the chibis resembled toys beside them.
Harpy's expression changed.
Pest noticed.
"You recognize them."
Harpy nodded slowly.
"I recognize enough to know they are connected to the original."
Pest gave him a dangerous look.
"That explanation contains almost no useful information."
"I know."
"Then improve it."
Harpy looked toward the enormous shapes.
"The original's shadow attracts things."
Pest's eye twitched.
"You already explained that."
"Divine things."
"You also explained that."
Harpy scratched his cheek.
"Some eventually become part of him."
Pest stared.
Harpy continued.
"Some protect him."
She waited.
"Some are things he created."
Her grip tightened around the staff.
"And what about the others?"
Harpy gave her an uncomfortable smile.
"We are still attempting to understand those ourselves."
Pest closed her eyes.
Of course they were.
When she opened them, something had changed nearer to the ground.
The two warriors had not moved.
But they had become heavier.
Whatever the widening connection was doing to the opening above, it was pouring into them as well. The armored rabbit's presence had thickened until the Soul Seam bent slightly around her boots. The purple dragon's wings, which had been folded and quiet, now displaced the darkness itself when they shifted.
They had descended as warriors.
They were standing there now as something closer to complete.
The rabbit looked down toward Pest's reduced form.
The purple dragon looked toward the four fragments.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then the rabbit smiled.
"I have another question for you, small rabbit."
Pest's eye twitched.
Again.
Rabbit Derpy leaned toward Wolf.
"She actually called Pest small a second time."
Wolf elbowed him.
The purple dragon's blades brightened.
The rabbit warrior tilted her head.
"Master told us not to attack you. He did not tell us how long that instruction lasts."
Pest slowly raised her staff.
Black roses bloomed around her feet.
"You test my patience, test my throne.Perhaps I'll teach what I have known."
The rabbit warrior's smile widened.
Before either woman could move —
A voice filled the Soul Seam.
"Still no."
Everything froze.
Pest.
The warriors.
The fragments.
Even the chibis.
Derpy.
It was the same voice as before.
It was not in the same condition.
The layers had thinned. Some of them had dropped out entirely, and what remained sounded like someone who had already used this sentence once tonight and had not expected to need it twice.
The rabbit warrior looked upward immediately.
"Master."
"I already told you not to attack her."
"You told us before she raised her weapon."
"I am aware of the order in which things happened."
The purple dragon's tail struck the ground.
"She threatened to drag the mouse back into the Soul Seam."
"I know."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it keeps being true, and it keeps not changing what I am telling you to do."
The warriors exchanged a look.
He sounded exhausted.
More exhausted than the first time.
But beneath that exhaustion existed something else.
Control.
The sort of control that existed only because something beneath it desperately wanted to break.
Harpy's hand went to his chest.
He did not mention it.
"I will deal with Pest later."
Pest raised one eyebrow.
"You intend to deal with me?"
Harpy covered his face.
"Pest, I strongly recommend that you do not continue."
She ignored him.
Her eyes remained fixed upward.
"A voice above may boast and claim,but rulers should descend in frame."
Silence followed.
Rabbit Derpy whispered toward Wolf.
"Why would she deliberately provoke him after everything we just showed her?"
Pest answered without looking at him.
"Because I still want him to come here."
Rabbit stared.
"You may actually be insane."
Pest considered that.
"Possibly."
Then Derpy's voice returned.
Not louder.
Not angrier.
Simply tired.
"I am walking into the Warden District while carrying enough problems already."
Pest looked toward the projection.
Voss and the white wolf continued walking.
"Cassandra keeps pushing me."
Black liquid began dripping more quickly.
"The gods keep watching me."
Another drop struck the Seam.
"Everyone seems to want something."
Another.
"Everyone has an opinion about what I should be."
The white wolf continued walking.
"I do not need another person deciding what I am supposed to become."
Pest stopped.
Harpy slowly looked toward her.
The words struck harder than Pest expected.
Because she had heard something painfully similar before.
Not from Derpy.
From Drago.
Long ago.
Before reality erased him.
Pest looked at the white wolf within the projection.
Then toward the fragments.
Then toward the strange creatures living inside his shadow.
Perhaps that was what felt familiar.
Not the power.
Not the species.
Not even the impossible things surrounding him.
The pressure.
Everyone looked at Derpy and saw what they wanted.
A god.
A weapon.
A recruit.
A master.
A threat.
A future ruler of the Soul Seam.
Pest's eyes slowly widened.
She had done it too.
He will belong here.
He will stand beside me.
He will rule the Soul Seam with me.
She had said those things without once asking whether Derpy wanted any of them.
She had said them out loud, to his discarded fragments, while they stood there knowing exactly what he was going through.
For the first time, Pest understood why they had looked at her the way they had.
The original's voice continued.
"Stay with the chibis. Both of you."
The two warriors looked upward.
"Protect them. Nothing else."
The purple dragon hesitated.
"And the souls?"
There was a pause.
Long enough that Pest realized he was reconsidering something he had already said once tonight.
"Ask her."
The dragon blinked.
"Master?"
"It's her kingdom." A breath. "I should not have given that order the first time."
Pest's staff lowered a fraction of an inch.
The purple dragon turned slowly toward her.
She did not look pleased about it.
But she waited.
Pest stared at the enormous warrior standing in the middle of her realm, awaiting her permission because a white wolf walking into custody in another world had told her to ask.
"Nothing wandering," Pest said finally. "Nothing that has not been judged."
The dragon inclined her head half an inch.
"Understood."
Rabbit leaned toward Wolf.
"Did they just resolve something without anyone being thrown across the afterlife?"
Wolf watched carefully.
"I do not trust it."
Above them, Ruda exhaled.
Brin lowered her hands from her face.
Luda looked faintly disappointed.
Kefa was openly outraged.
"There was going to be a fight!"
Ruda caught the back of Kefa's uniform.
"There was going to be an incident."
"That is what I said."
The black liquid slowed.
The projection of Derpy and Voss began fading as they walked deeper into the Warden District.
Pest watched until almost everything disappeared.
The street.
Voss.
Derpy's white fur.
Until only his eyes remained.
Those familiar eyes.
Not Drago's.
Pest knew that.
She would not make the mistake of turning one living person into the ghost of someone she had lost.
Derpy was not a replacement.
Not a reincarnation merely because she wanted one.
Not proof that history had returned something it stole from her.
But his eyes carried something Pest remembered.
The exhaustion of being feared for what you might someday do.
The loneliness of being surrounded by people who wanted your power more than they wanted to understand the person carrying it.
And the terrible discipline required to possess overwhelming strength while constantly choosing not to use it.
The image vanished.
Pest remained silent.
Harpy approached carefully.
For once, he did not place a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you all right?"
Pest looked toward him.
"Ask foolish things and you may findmy thorns have answers less than kind."
Harpy smiled.
"There you are."
Pest rolled her eyes.
Rabbit cautiously approached.
His mouth opened.
Pest looked at him.
Rabbit stopped.
Then closed it again.
Wolf looked upward.
The white opening remained.
Dragon studied the black liquid.
Ruda and the chibis still waited on the other side.
For once, nobody seemed particularly eager to attack anyone.
Pest looked toward Harpy.
"You told me that whenever someone believes they finally understand Derpy, the original reveals something else."
Harpy nodded.
"That happens frequently."
Pest looked toward the place where Derpy's projection had disappeared.
"Do you consider what I just saw another one of those surprises?"
Harpy thought about the question.
"I do not."
Pest raised one eyebrow.
Harpy's expression softened.
"I think you finally saw the part everybody keeps missing."
Pest said nothing.
Harpy looked toward the white opening.
"People see what he can do."
His gaze shifted toward the black liquid.
"They see what he creates."
Then toward the two warriors.
"They see what follows him."
Finally, he looked back at Pest.
"But they do not always see how hard he is working not to become whatever everyone keeps telling him he is."
Pest's expression became unreadable.
Long ago, she had watched the world decide what Roae was.
She had watched it decide what Drago was.
One eventually became the monster history demanded.
The other was erased because reality itself had been taught to fear what he might become.
Pest looked upward.
Perhaps that was why Derpy's eyes felt so familiar.
She had seen the beginning of that story before.
And she knew exactly how badly it could end.
Pest tightened one hand around her staff.
This time, however, she was standing near the beginning.
Not remembering the end.
The distinction mattered.
Above her, the opening into Derpy's shadow pulsed softly.
Pest stared into it.
For the first time since the fragments arrived in her kingdom, she no longer wondered how she could make the original Derpy belong to the Soul Seam.
That question suddenly felt embarrassingly small.
Another took its place.
Could she keep everyone else from deciding what Derpy was supposed to become —
before Derpy had the chance to decide for himself?
A faint smile touched Pest's face.
That question was considerably more interesting.
And somewhere in the living world, beneath the weight of Cassandra, the Wardens, watching gods, and powers he continued refusing to unleash —
a pure-white wolf walked toward the Warden District.
Unaware that deep within the Soul Seam, an ancient goddess had looked into his eyes —
and remembered someone reality had once destroyed.