The world wobbled a little as my other me vanished into Motes, which fluttered happily around the room, excited at what they'd just done. It was definitely not something you saw every day.

"I will admit," István said, "I thought that you had turned into Steeve for a moment. Or the other way around."

"I could see that," I said, and a kekeke echoed out as she appeared, dropping on his shoulder… as though she was trying to confuse matters. I decided to let her get away with it and have him think what he would.

The trap-maker lay crumpled in the corner, still. I was surprised my Nebula clone was able to generate enough force to do any damage at all, since it was essentially a fancy Mote-filled balloon.

István wandered back over to the remnants of the seal. Staring at it.

"So it really didn't work on you?" Celistar asked.

"It did," he replied, "But I do exactly as I wish to do at all times."

"Oh, so you have no 'ins' to 'hibit' in the first place."

Yeah, that really came out of my face. Apparently, I don't either.

Viktor roared with laughter, and I heard the bartender knock a glass over. Hopefully, Elder Mountain didn't scare the poor guy too much. "That he does not!" The big man said, "He is completely free of both ins and hibits."

I laughed along with Viktor, amused by the wordplay.

It was odd to think of a man who could best be described as 'staid' that way, but now that I was turning it over in my head, he really did do exactly what he wished any given time. It was just that the things he wished to do leaned heavily into his Elder Scholar nickname. I mean, the whole reason he'd gotten into this complication in the first place was thanks to him just deciding to wander off and 'study' something, being taken by surprise in the process.

We walked back out into the main room, with Viktor carrying the guy over his shoulder like so much trash. The man behind the counter didn't even blink when he saw us. "Aways knew he was up to no good back there," he said, cleaning what I assume was the glass we caused him to knock over.

"What do I owe you," I asked, and his eyes refocused on me, away from his work.

He gave a serious glance at the man on Viktor's shoulder, "I think you've got my payment right there."

"Fair enough," grunted Viktor. Patting the unconscious man. Probably a good thing he wasn't awake, since I could practically hear his bones creaking under the strain.

We walked out of the door, with Celistar giving her own serious glance to the seal maker. "Wonder what he did?"

"He didn't seem like the picture of stability," I commented, before looking at István. "So did you learn anything about that weird seal he made?"

"Yes and no," our own expert said, his forefinger and thumb on his chin and his other hand tucked beneath his elbow in a classic Elder Scholar thinking pose as he walked.

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"There were two seals in it," Elder Mountain said, and István looked like he'd had an epiphany as he looked at the bigger man gratefully.

"In that case, yes, then I did." He didn't seem inclined to share any more with us for the time being, so we just kept on walking. The town seemed even more eerily quiet than it had the first time, which made me worry for the old man's business, although at this point he seemed to be doing it more for his own benefit than any actual sales.

I can't imagine having a huge seal over your space either imprisoning or driving off any cultivator was great for the wellbeing of a town, never mind whatever other shenanigans the man now on Viktor's shoulder had evidently been up to.

Best I could do was keep my fingers crossed for them, I suppose.

Viktor dropped him like a bag of bricks, more or less tossing him up against a tree the second he showed serious of returning to consciousness, which happened probably a dozen minutes after I knocked him out, although for some reason it felt longer in my head.

We were only at the edge of town, so we veered off the path towards the woods, no need to give any passing townsfolk any more trauma from this man than they'd already received.

Viktor bent down over the man, sitting on his heels in a squat.

"You are going to tell me where you came from," he told our captive, brooking absolutely zero dissent on the matter.

The man, who was now very lucid at the huge mass of Elder Mountain now hanging over him like the precipice he got his name from, looked at the rest of us, perhaps hoping for some form of respite. All he got was two hardened faces and one inquisitive one, and he'd already had enough of the latter to last a lifetime.

"Haa," he said, exhaling. "What makes you think I'll tell the truth?"

"I do," Viktor said, before promptly crushing the man's whole foot inside his hand. The maneuver was lightning quick and brutal. I got the feeling it was as much for myself and Celistar as it was for the man from the Umbral Covenant, as he likely knew we didn't have the stomach for such a thing.

Before he could even react to scream, Viktor's huge hand slammed over his mouth, and his eyes shook, both in pain and fear. Pain from his now useless foot, and fear from the same hand grasping basically his entire head in it.

"When I let go, the only thing I want to hear from you is directions. Are we clear?"

The man nodded, or as much as he could with his head restrained.

Viktor did indeed let go, and the Umbral man sucked in weeping breaths of air, as apparently he'd been unable to even breathe.

"Y-you need to go down the road," he said. "There is a much bigger city a few day's walk towards the setting sun. Just keep taking the forks that direction and y-you'll get there." He stuttered on the form of address each time, likely scared he'd piss Viktor off.

"What should we do with you?" Viktor asked, and although it might have sounded like a threat, I got the feeling it was a genuine question.

The man sighed, staring at his foot. He seemed to be resigning himself to something.

"I can take care of myself," he said. I heard a thump, his body bucked in Viktor's hand, and then the man seemed to just… deflate. His breath escaped him in a wheeze as the light left his eyes.

"Did he just do what I think he did?" I asked.

"Yes," Celistar said, "he did. He detonated his core."

"Not much of a detonation," Viktor commented.

"He'd used up a lot of his energy against Benefactor," Celistar said, using a name for me I hadn't heard in a while. It made me wonder why she was still using it with no one around to fool. I supposed that it could just be a genuine feeling she held as well, but I wasn't sure why that'd be the case. "Had he not, it likely would have been significantly more energetic."

"Why would he give us information instead of just doing that first?" Both István and I appeared to have had the same question at the same time, as he'd opened his mouth to ask it. I'd beat him to the punch though.

"I don't know for sure," Celistar said, her eyes downcast, clearly thinking about events she'd witnessed in the past. "There seems to be some level of enmity towards other members of the Covenant… they have a very odd structure from what I've been able to discover. Very much a snake eating its own tail. He probably wanted to make sure that he wasn't the only one to take the fall."

"Well that's thoroughly awful," I said, "I can't even imagine living that way."

The two men nodded while Celistar looked at me.

"Me neither."

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