“Science is the search for truth, that is the effort to understand the world: it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation, but not the rejection of morality.”

  Linus Pauling, American Scientist and Peace Activist

  Milly followed Bestian into the courtyard, leaving Coco behind so she could play with Enzel one last time. The playful snorts of the capybara and laughter of the girl echoed out of the main building, and Milly couldn’t help but smile at the joy that existed within the residents of the research station.

  Unlike their previous conversations, Bestian didn’t stop at the garden. He kept silently walking, out of the courtyard and through three of the empty residences. As they passed through, Bestian curiously scanned the two levels of rooms, as if, for the first time, realizing they were vacant.

  Beyond the third residence was a staircase carved into the side of the mountain, leading to the top of the bowl in which the research complex had been constructed.

  “Bestian, what…?” Milly started to ask, but Bestian held up a finger for silence. He slowed his gait, each step slower than the last, until his final step – the last one before they reached the ridge – appeared almost painful to take.

  Bestian sighed, pulled out a piece of chalk, and marked the side of the mountain.

  “It’s funny how interrupting one’s routine can make you notice things you couldn’t see before,” Bestian said, staring over the bowl towards the island below, unable to take that last step.

  He held up the chalk and pointed behind them. There were two other marks on the stone, each a hundred feet apart.

  “Do you remember when you asked me to stand near that empty workbench? The dread cold – the heaviness – that settled over me in that moment is hard to describe. All I knew is I needed to be anywhere else but where you wanted me to go.”

  Though the air was warm, Bestian shivered from the memory.

  “That night, I had a nightmare – the most vivid of dreams,” Bestian said, as much to himself as to Milly. “I was in a war – the strangest of wars – fighting alongside my family and my friends. We had been granted incredible power and were forced to fight against hideous beasts unleashed upon us. And we died. By the thousands, we died. I met my own end in battle against a monster as tall as this mountain. As the final blow fell, I woke up in a cold sweat. The nightmare… it felt more real than the mountain beneath my feet, or the complex that is my home.”

  Bestian began to pace along the step, his mind whirling. “I couldn’t shake how real it felt, so, in the dead of night, I came out here for a walk. I walked, and I walked, until I reached this stairway and began to climb. Only… I soon found myself unable to climb any further. Halfway to the ridge, I felt the dread cold settle over me once more – the cold of that empty workstation – and try as I might, I couldn’t bring myself to take another step.”

  Milly stayed silent. In the growing darkness of the setting sun, she could see the golden thread that tethered Bestian to the black orb stretched tight. If the Administrator took another step, Milly was certain the thread would snap.

  “I marked the spot. There, where the stairway first twists. Last night, I tried again, and I was able to make it a little further. And tonight… tonight I made it to the final stair, yet try as I might, I cannot bring myself to take that final step. Do you think, perhaps, I should expect to have it within my ability tomorrow?”

  He looked expectedly at Milly, awaiting her answer.

  He’s trying to be stoic, but I can see the fear behind his eyes. The look of an animal who came to realize he was trapped in a cage. He’s helped me so much since I arrived… doesn’t he deserve some answers before I depart in the morning?

  “I… think that’s likely,” Milly answered truthfully.

  They’re tethered to the orb – infants dependent upon their mother for life. But with every day that passes, the life stolen from the Nexus fills them a little more and gives them strength. Eventually, they will be free – fully alive once more.

  “Is this your doing?” Bestian asked simply. There was no accusation in his voice. Only a need to know the truth.

  “No… well, not really,” Milly replied. “I just… turned it on.”

  “Milly, I have done my best not to pry into where you came from, despite my rather intense curiosity about the subject,” Bestian pleaded. “But if this is something that might harm my people, I’m afraid my politeness must be set aside. Please, before you leave, I need to know what is happening. I need to keep them safe.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Milly gazed into Bestian’s eyes, trying to sense any hint of Cizen’s schemes behind the question. But all she saw was a man worried about his friends and family, desperately trying to stay strong in the face of the unknown.

  She decided to trust her gut. Extending her hand, she channeled her fire magic to create a small, purple flame in her palm. It danced in the growing darkness and reflected the surprise in Bestian’s eyes.

  He deserves to know. Because his people and mine and the fairies – we’re kindred spirits. They lived the hell we’re now living. Their past is our present.

  “It wasn’t a nightmare, Bestian,” Milly whispered sympathetically. “Those powers you had. Those monsters. You caught a glimpse of your past – one I don’t think you were meant to see. It was an error in the orb’s construction – an error I might have triggered accidently when I activated it.”

  “How…?” Bestian asked, staring at the flame. “How are you doing that?”

  “Bestian, are you sure you want to hear this?” Milly asked, though she knew it wasn’t in his nature to stay ignorant.

  Bestian nodded curtly. “I am a scientist, Milly. I desire to know the facts. I desire truth. Only then can I judge the right course of action. Without it, I’m lost in the dark.”

  Cizen is… no, it doesn’t matter what he’s up to. Not right now. This is not Bestian’s fault, and he deserves to know the truth. They all deserve to know.

  “You and the others… you didn’t survive that war. Only three of your people survived. Oracle, Hephaestus… and your nephew, Taydon Cizen.”

  “My people? Not… our people?”

  “I’m not an Oriane,” Milly confirmed. “I’m a human. My family – my people – are fighting the same war you fought. The God Contest.”

  “And Taydon… he survived this God Contest?” Bestian asked, trying to take it all in. In any other conversation, learning of the existence of another sentient species would have been a momentous discovery. Yet right now, it barely registered with the man.

  “Yes, her survived. And, if I’m right, Cizen – Taydon – spent his lifetimes thereafter trying to find a way to bring you back. Trying to find a way to bring Syune back.”

  Bestian was silent for a long while as he stared out at the setting sun. Milly snuffed out her flame and placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

  “It’s an unbelievable story,” Bestian started, and he let out a soft chuckle. “Except for that last part. Taydon would certainly be stubborn enough to tear apart the very fabric of reality if it meant returning his family – and his new love – to him.”

  “Bestian, it is the truth as best as I know it,” Milly promised. “But I won’t pretend to have all the answers.”

  “I know, Milly,” sighed Bestian. “You have no evidence. No way to prove it. The scientist in me wants to dismiss what you said as unsupported nonsense. Yet despite everything, I can feel that you speak true.”

  Bestian scoffed at his own conclusion. “A feeling – if I gave that explanation to anyone at Core Station, they’d run me out of my position as Administrator. Oriane’s don’t make scientific conclusions based on feelings. Do you… humans… make such leaps?”

  Milly laughed. “Yah, we do. All the time. It usually doesn’t work out.”

  Bestian chuckled, and they sat in silence for a long while, until the sun finally set below the horizon and the stars appeared in the sky above.

  Milly thought about everything that she’d told Bestian – conclusions she hadn’t drawn until she finally said them aloud. She felt heavy under the weight of the implications.

  Cizen, Oracle, and Hephaestus. They won the God Contest and became gods. Their reward, or their curse? To live through hell, only to inflict it upon others. Cally… Rain… Elmer… Billy… Ying… everyone. How many of us will live to see the end of this game? And for those that do – will that be their curse to bear. Or does the madness infecting the gods wait for them?

  It felt like they were speeding down a tunnel, unable to stop, with a cliff waiting for them on the other side.

  Eventually, Bestian spoke, jarring her from her contemplations.

  “I want you to tell me everything you know about my people’s circumstances. As you sail the skies in search of your family, grant us the knowledge we need to study what is happening to ours. I want to understand what Taydon has done – and what it means for both your people and mine.”

  They spoke deep into the night. She told him of the black orb and the two-year countdown. Of how it gives them life, but because she activated it early, its task was incomplete. Of magic and monsters, and of what she knew of the world they’d found themselves in – a reconstruction of their Archipelago – separate from the God Contest but built upon its rules and contained within.

  Bestian patted his coat, searching for his notebook, but realized he’d left it in his quarters. Milly opened her inventory and handed him pen and paper. It’d taken a full two minutes for Bestian to recover – both from the appearance of her inventory and from the technology she casually handed to him. Milly chuckled and she told him what little she knew of how the pen and paper were created, though it wasn’t much.

  She never told him of the gods, or of the madness that spread like wildfire through the gods and corrupted the God Contest. She didn’t have the heart to tell him what Taydon, his beloved nephew, had become.

  Eventually, exhaustion overwhelmed them both, and they retreated back to the complex, Bestian asking his questions until they finally reached her quarters. Coco waited patiently for her outside her door, and Bestian gave the creature an affectionate scratch.

  “What will your people do now?” Milly asked, concerned for her new friends.

  Bestian thought for a moment and responded with a sad smile.

  “We’re scientists, Milly. We’ll do what we do best. We’ll learn, and we’ll adapt. And perhaps, along the way, we’ll find answers as to what Taydon has planned.”

  Bestian bid her good night, and Milly closed her door. She collapsed into bed, uncertain whether she’d done the right thing.

  She closed her eyes and dreamed of thousands upon thousands of doomed Orianes fighting in the God Contest.

  The Non-Canonical Aftermath: