“Well, that’s new,” Tresk said, clicking her tongue.

The message wasn’t just new. It was something Theo hadn’t expected to see in the development of the end of the world. This was something that was supposed to happen after everything reset, making him question what they were doing. Although the alchemist had committed the information to memory, he examined the screen again.

[World Anchors Engaged. Monitor System Activated]

As a holder of a Throne of Power (The Dreamwalker’s Throne), you have received the following message from the Monitor System:

Relative position of local sector calculated.

World anchors maintaining local void field.

Establishing link… Granted upon restart.

Please assist the local system during the reset to grant sovereignty to Sector A582 (Rael’gen).

“The gods are gonna be mad,” Theo said, turning his eyes skyward. Yet he didn’t feel the familiar pull from any of them. They didn’t know or didn’t care and the alchemist couldn’t decide which was more concerning. “Maybe not…”

“Time for a meeting of the thrones?”

Theo turned, finding Fenian jogging over to the place where he and Tresk stood. The elf had a concerned smile on his face, as though burying a grin would help ease the blow of whatever was going on with the system. They didn’t have many options. Of course it made sense to meet with Khahar, even if that man’s world was a paved nightmare.

“Let’s go,” Theo said, wrapping them all in his aura. “Can’t wait to see what the grumpy cat has to say about this.”

Theo brought them into the void this time, rather than teleporting straight to the Arbiter's Realm. He sensed what was going on in the heavens and didn't feel anything out of place. How the gods couldn't know about this was beyond him, but he had little time to think about it and soon folded them over into the Citadel, where Khahar waited.

“Took you guys long enough.”

Khahar stood behind a desk, his back facing the group as they entered his massive office. It was empty of anyone else, but the way the chairs were arranged suggested that a meeting had taken place moments before. When the Arbiter finally turned around, he shook his head.

"I mean, I thought we got here pretty quickly," Tresk said with a shrug. "It takes a couple of seconds to move across the void, you know?"

“Not that I don’t enjoy a good verbal spat, but don’t we have business to talk?” Fenian asked, flipping his hair dramatically.

“We sure do,” Khahar said, striding around the desk. He leaned against a chair, shaking his head. “This was not in my predictions.”

"Your predictions are old and crusty," Tresk said. "Things went off the rails after you ascended, so we can't assume that any of your future sight nonsense will work for current events."

"That's just it, though. Something like this should have shown up in my predictions. Makes me think the whole anchor system was created recently, but I don't believe that's the case." Khahar mulled what he’d say next over, grinding his teeth. “I can’t… Wait, do you feel that?”

“How annoying,” Fenian said, looking up and narrowing his eyes. “Every time I get interdicted, I have a bad time. It normally ends in puke.”

Theo could do nothing about the interdiction event. If this was a god drawing him somewhere, he was certain he could evade their grasp with the power of his aura. However, it wasn't just a god; it was the system itself. Drawing them up to the heavens onto that snowy platform, with the sigils representing each god, the throne holders were sucked through the void and deposited onto that snowy landscape. They had to walk the remainder of the way to get within the warm bubble that seemed to protect the platform. As expected, the system was standing at the center, with crystalline arms folded.

“What did you do?” the system demanded. It was the most emotion Theo had heard come from her.

"Theo did it, not me," Tresk said, pointing an accusatory finger at the alchemist.

“I didn’t do a damn thing, you traitorous lizard.”

“No one did anything,” Khahar said. “Yet since you’ve summoned us, I assume you were unaware of the anchors and the full activation of the Monitor System. I have one question: Were you aware they existed.”

The system took a long moment before answering. “I was aware. But there are many facets of this place that remain unused. I assumed that was one of them.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Khahar said. “Theo might’ve caused the activation, but it was likely a matter of time.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Nah, that don’t make sense,” Tresk said, turning to point an accusatory finger at Khahar. “You could see a few thousand years out, right?”

“Vaguely.”

“So you would’ve seen something like this if it was ‘a matter of time’, right?”

“Time can stretch pretty far.”

“Hold on a moment,” Fenian said, snapping his fingers. “You’re saying this would’ve happened, eventually. As in… We’d be locked in another cycle?”

“I think so,” Khahar said. “If this is as big as I expect it to be, there’s no way I would’ve missed it. An event this big related to the reset? It can’t be a coincidence.”

“I suppose no one cares what I think of the matter,” the system said, sounding even more annoyed.

“By all means,” Fenian said with a flourishing bow.

“There are some things I need to sort out. Once those are established, I’ll need your help.”

“What about the gods?” Theo asked.

“Their involvement comes later. For now, simply wait for my command.

Theo shared a look with the others. This was less information than he had hoped for, but he supposed it was good enough for now. As long as they didn't have to do anything, he would be happy. The problem was that there were simply too many questions and not enough answers. He had trouble imagining what they would be doing to help the system. He had always seen her as an omnipotent entity, but perhaps that wasn’t exactly correct.

Theo was happy to introduce the group back to Khahak and the Arbiter's Citadel, landing them directly in the large office once again, while the others discussed whatever it was they were gossiping about. He made his way to the window and looked out upon the endless sprawl of the metropolis. There were pieces of this puzzle that had already fallen into place in the alchemist's mind, but he couldn't be certain. The end was truly close, and he needed to make sure that everything was in order. Before he left the mortal plane permanently, that required a fair amount of study on his part and experimentation. There was no small number of potions he could craft to help him along the way, and he was certain of that. For now, he was content enough to listen to the conversation behind him and to watch people going about their business far below on the streets of the Arbiter's world.

"Theo, are you listening?" Tresk asked, snapping the alchemist out of his thoughts. He turned, finding the other three members of the party looking at him in confusion.

Instead of admitting he hadn’t been paying attention, he scanned her memories. “Problem is, we can’t know what we don’t know,” Theo said. “If the system wants us to wait, we wait. Otherwise, we plan for the switch.”

“And what are we doing for that?” Khahar asked.

“Do you have any administrators?” Theo asked. “This is the kind of work I’d assign to one of them. Maybe I’ll give the task to Belgar on Tero’gal.”

“I really dislike logistics,” Khahar said.

“You two are very eager to give the task of rehousing the entire world to an administrator,” Fenian said. “I’m disappointed.”

“You’re welcome to take the task,” Theo said.

“I’m far too busy doing… stuff. All my things,” Fenian said. “I have so many things to do before the end.”

“I really doubt that, y’know?” Tresk asked. “I don’t know if he’s even been to his world. What was it even called?”

“Eganon,” Fenian said.

“Erradon,” Theo corrected.

“Really? Is that what I named it?” Fenian asked. “Doesn’t seem like something I’d have named it.”

The argument continued for some time, but Theo couldn’t truly say that he cared. It was just something to pass the time as he allowed his thoughts to gather. Once they were done going back and forth, the actual work started. Khahar had his own administrators who would keep track of the refugees from the mortal plane. He even offered to establish a connection between the bridge so people could pass between their worlds easily. However, Theo wasn’t willing to give up control of ferrying people to their homes. It was his job as the Dreamwalker to pull those people through the void and he intended to see it through.

After squaring everything away on Khahak, Theo brought himself, Fenian, and Tresk to Tero’gal. Khahar had business to attend to on his planet, which meant he was too scared to leave since he didn’t know what would happen if he was gone for too long. The alchemist was certain these were unfounded worries, but whatever. If the cat-guy wanted to lock himself up in his tower forever, whatever.

“Hey, Belgar,” Theo said, waving as the local administrator jogged over with a smile on his face. “Want a new job?”

“Not really,” Belgar said, his smile unfading.

“Oh, sure you do,” Theo said. “You can even distribute it to other people.”

“Fine, fine. What is it?”

Theo’s plan wasn’t to lay everything out right away. He knew one fact. If everything fell into his lap, he would drop the ball. When the same thing had happened in Broken Tusk, he found himself unwilling to hold the burden of administration. No matter how hard he tried, he knew he wasn’t the man for the job. Therefore, he had to start them off early. They needed to get the wheels turning, otherwise it would fall apart before it even started. He explained this simple plan to Belgar, who seemed of a similar mind.

“Not a bad idea,” Belgar said with a shrug.

“Oh, while you’re at it… Could you sort out my world?” Fenian asked.

“Me too!” Tresk shouted

“Nope,” Belgar said. He waited a few long moments before cracking a smile. “But I can organize the people to make that happen. So long as Theo gives me the permission to create a structure for running these worlds, we should be fine.”

“You have my blessing,” Theo said. “As long as I don’t have to lift a finger to make it happen.”

“Absolutely,” Belgar said. “We’re in the early stages.”

Yet as much as Theo wanted to see Belgar flourish in this role, he didn’t want to keep his hands off the project entirely. He might not have been the best archduke in the world, but he had seen enough with the development of Broken Tusk and the Southlands Alliance to give some solid advice. Since this was a non-standard format for governing, there would be a lot of differences. And they still didn’t know what this would look like on the other side.

Belgar was an adaptable man. He had lived his life as a dronon on the mortal plane, and spent more time in the void than anyone should. When he came out the other side with his mind intact, that should’ve been enough of a signal to Theo that he would be a man of great potential. It was almost as though he had been designed for this role, and the alchemist couldn’t wait to see what he could accomplish.

“Okay, are we done with this arc?” Tresk asked. “I’m bored. Let’s go kill something.”

“Right. I’ll check in more often, Belgar,” Theo said. “Apparently, Tresk now has a taste for blood.”

“It must be sated,” Tresk hissed.