Solving that mystery turned out to be harder than Theora had hoped.

Nobody in the library had ever heard about Fragments of Time. Nobody at the university had either, nor in the observatory, nor at the other four places Ulfine recommended they check out. In the end, they’d spent the entire day walking from building to building, talking to person after person, with what Theora could only call absolutely no result.

“That’s not a problem!” Ulfine assured, big smile on her face. Her eyes still looked tired, her movements were still reserved, but after an entire day of having Theora trail after her like a silent and curious fish, the two had somehow managed to warm up to each other.

“Not a problem?” Theora repeated. It was getting dark, and they were pacing through a central part of town, near where Ulfine lived. Theora had offered to take her back home.

“It’s just that the people haven’t heard of them. But there’s still tons of books in all the archives. Old sources that are rarely read. I will just have to go through them myself.”

“And you are still certain you want to do this?”

“Of course!” the girl shouted enthusiastically. “It’s a real mystery. We know that they exist, because you have received a quest to find them, but nobody has heard of them! That’s pretty exciting, isn’t it? I kind of want to find out about it now. Would even if it wasn’t my project.”

Theora nodded. “Thank you. Please, let me know if you change your mind.”

Ulfine grinned. “More likely, I’ll let you know the moment I find something. Hopefully soon! See you!”

And with that, she vanished into her family’s house.

Theora stared at the door for a while, unsure what to make of this. The System hadn’t sent her off on a fool’s errand, had it?

Probably not. If it had, Theora would never do another side quest again, and the System wouldn’t risk that. It needed her. She was, despite everything, a valuable resource who was ready to help with almost anything. Spiting her filled no purpose.

She sighed.

This was probably a good time to go back home. It had been a rare clear day, and as such, above her, stars littered the sky, making her nostalgic of that time two decades ago — even though the town’s ambient light brightened the night and obscured the view much more.

She strode down one of the main streets, going south. Every few seconds, she caught herself looking up, trying to decide on what her favourite constellation was. She just liked all of them too much.

At some point, as she was eyeing the constellation of the deer, she heard a familiar laughter ahead on the road. Looking down, she found Dema and Magda, hopping side-by-side, apparently also on the way home after a day full of clearing Afterthoughts. Ah, they looked like they’d been having fun. For a short moment, Theora couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. She also wanted to have fun with them.

“Yeah!” she heard Dema shout. “Can you imagine? She touched it, just like that, and it did nothing to her. Made me think it was safe. Big mistake! And then I got whammed.”

Magda giggled so much she bowed down, holding her sides, unable to walk straight. “I absolutely can imagine. I saw her blast herself into a wall with a huge-ass explosion, and then she just got back up and said sorry.”

“Hey!” Theora shouted to them, raising one of her hands high, to make herself seen. The two turned around, recognising her, and waving back. Dema immediately ran closer, while it took Magda a moment to realise she was being left behind.

“Fun day?” Theora asked when both of them were close enough to hear her.

Dema nodded. “Really fun! Broke a record.”

At that, Theora raised her eyebrows in slight alarm. Dema immediately caught that, and lifted her hands apologetically. “All good! Didn’t pass it. Don’t scold me!”

“Pass what?” Magda asked, panting a bit from the short run.

“Ah, nothing,” Dema waved off. “Theora’s just a worrywart.”

“Sixty percent?” Theora asked.

“Yeah, yeah! I promised!” Dema looked into Theora’s eyes with an expression that was somehow both sincere and playful, with slightly raised brows and a confident small smile. “Not gonna break a promise made to you, little rabbit.”

Theora’s heart lurched. She didn’t usually mind being called that, but this time, that title felt like balm on her aching soul.

“I also got a Level-up!” Dema continued proudly. “Didn’t happen in ages. Like, damn.”

Ah. A Level-up. Theora was close to one as well, wasn’t she? By now, her hopes of getting something out of levelling the Class were low, but a slight spark of anticipation remained.

“What about you?” Dema asked. “Fun day? You look happier than usual!”

Did she?

Theora blinked, and considered the question for a moment. And at that, she saw the little face of Ulfine in her mind; scrunching up her eyes in thought as she was considering where to go next, or the excitement on her face whenever someone had told her they’d never heard of the Fragments before. Like she was looking forward to having this become the largest mystery imaginable, being happy about each stone lying in their way.

And Theora remembered them eating lunch at a small food box in one of the streets. How Ulfine had asked questions about adventuring and being a heroine that Theora barely managed to answer.

“One day, I want to leave and travel too,” Ulfine had said wistfully. “I wonder what kind of magitech secrets are out there in the world. They say Hallmark is at the peak right now, but who knows if that’s true? The world’s big. Maybe somewhere out there, in a town hidden within mists, someone’s using one of those Fragments as a paperweight!”

As she remembered these words, Theora blinked. All things considered, Dema was right, wasn’t she?

“Yes, I had a nice day,” she answered.

At that, Dema just about beamed at her, with one of the fullest smiles Theora’d ever seen on her. “That’s great! I was hoping you would!”

“I agree,” Magda said, grinning as well. “Slay it, girl! I’m glad we got the others to put in shifts.”

Theora blushed a little and nodded gently, half bowing, and fell back just a step. This was more attention than she’d anticipated.

Meanwhile, Dema gazed around the streets, and shrugged. “Wanna drop off Magda and then go home?”

Magda nodded, but Theora hesitated. She looked up at the sky.

“Are you two exhausted?”

Dema waved her hand dismissively. “Sixty percent, remember? Am doing well.”

“Didn’t do much fighting today,” Magda replied. “Mostly coordination. So I’m good. Why?”

“I was wondering if you two would want to take a walk with me,” Theora murmured. This had been her first free day in months, and her first day of not having to use [Obliterate] hundreds of times. Instead, she’d trailed after Ulfine, who’d done all the talking, exerted all the effort, and had just been comfortable to be around.

For the first time in a while, Theora didn’t feel mind-numbingly exhausted. And tomorrow, she’d have to go back to that monotonous life that ate away at her. But for now, maybe she could spend some time with her friends.

“Sure!” Dema cheered. “Magda knows the town! Gonna give us a tour?”

Magda smiled. “Of course,” she said. “There’s some really cool places you might’ve not seen.”

As they branched into side-alleys to venture through the nightly town, Theora fell back a step as the other two walked side-by-side in the front, happily going back to chatting with each other. This felt incredibly cosy. She could just listen to the two of them, gaze at the sky, and enjoy the moment to the fullest. That said, listening to them provided some challenges, because Theora soon realised that their favourite topic to chat about appeared to be ‘Theora’.

She did her best to persevere through all the boastful praise the two shared about her with each other. Sometimes, the conversation wandered off, though, mostly when Magda made comments about the buildings in town.

“There!” she said at one point. “That empty building there, see that? Used to be a theatre. They had a light mage who was able to capture rays in crystals, and then send them out onto a large canvas later. So everyone could watch what she’d put together.”

“Not here anymore?” Theora asked.

Magda hummed with a nod. “Gone like a week or two ago. People couldn’t leave home. So, no visitors. Plus, takes a lot of mana, and since she didn’t have any combat Skills, it wasn’t safe for her to go down to the crystals to top up like she used to.”

“What a bummer,” Dema said and flicked a foot over the ground in mild frustration.

“Yeah, really is,” Magda said. “The town thrived on those crystals. We’re still able to sustain life, since some can still access and draw from the crystals if we clear the strong Afterthoughts, but it’s just not the way it used to be. And we have no idea how much longer it’ll keep going.”

No idea how much longer it’ll keep going.

Theora repeated these words in her head, because they rang true. Whatever was happening to this town, maybe it was here to stay. Theora had considered using [Obliterate] on ‘the source of the Afterthought plague in Hallmark’, but that was an incredibly abstract concept, and thus very dangerous to use as a target. She’d already accidentally rotated the planet in trying to come up with a shortcut to end this plague.

So instead, she just decided to help alleviate the pain for as long as it took.

That night, they came home very late.

Bal and Hell had already retired to their rooms, so Theora attempted to be as quiet as possible when she entered. Dema scuttled after her, equally subdued. That changed when they made it to their room, because as soon as the door was closed, Dema went on to undress viciously.

“Can’t believe it went by so quickly!” she complained. “Unfair! Time ain’t got any right to pass this fast.” In emphasis, she threw her cloak on the ground. “Your one free day and we only saw each other for a few hours! Well, was really nice though, right?”

“Dema?” Theora asked quietly, having trouble maintaining eye-contact.

“Yes, little rabbit? What’s up?”

“I had a lot of fun today. I’m very exhausted too.”

“Yeah! Time for bed!”

Theora gulped. “Before that, I wanted to ask…” She took a deep breath, and made a step forward. Now was a really good time, wasn’t it? They very rarely went to bed at the same time, because typically, Theora was either gone way past midnight due to issues that had arisen during the day, or came back home so exhausted she needed to crash immediately — or at least shortly after getting home. So, Theora really needed to take this chance.

Especially because inside, she was overflowing. Overflowing from having met someone new, from having been a little jealous at seeing Dema and Magda spend a fun day without her, from having walked under the night’s sky with the two right after and enjoying every moment of that. From all the second-hand praise she’d received.

And tomorrow, it would all go back to the same old.

So, now was her chance.

She took a deep breath.

“Goodnight-hug?” she asked.

For a moment, Dema looked like her brain had stopped working — wide-eyed, stunned. Her amber eyes flickered between Theora’s, surprised and with her mouth slowly opening.

“Why, that’s a question I like to hear,” she finally said with her raspy and smokey voice, although she sounded a little shaky. But then, she caught herself. “I mean, yeah!” she shouted and smiled. “Alright, fine, sure! Why not! Yes! We can definitely do that, yeah!”

With that, Dema stumbled forward a few steps, almost losing balance, so Theora advanced to catch her. “There,” Theora said, holding Dema in her arms, and receiving her embrace in turn. It was a soft embrace, with Dema’s arms gently cradling along Theora’s back.

“I—” Theora started, and then braced herself before continuing. “Can you — hug a bit harder, perhaps?”

Dema laughed into Theora’s chest. “Sure!” she said, and did just that.

Theora felt butterflies in her stomach. Dema was so soft and small and yet, so strong. Wrapping Theora firmly into her arms, as if to crush her. And, Dema had a habit of gently pressing her horn against Theora’s neck when hugging. Feeling that made her dizzy every time.

The embrace went on for ages and was still way too short. Once they separated, Theora was a blushing mess, so she went to the bathroom to cool herself down with cold water, and eventually, they went to sleep.

And the next day, Theora was back to work. Running her route, receiving news from Rogue or Magda, exerting herself and her mind with each use of [Obliterate], and then crashing back into sleep the moment she got home. Sometimes, she managed to spend time with Dema and the others, though the fatigue accumulated quickly, until her life blurred into an endless stretch of quenching Afterthoughts.

During that entire time, Theora felt that growing, uncomfortable anxiety in her chest. The gnawing suspicion that something wasn’t right. But the hope that it might soon be over, and the tiredness of her limbs and mind made it hard for her to understand what was wrong. She couldn’t even stop and think about it, because she was just oh so busy all the time.

What if the Afterthoughts were just waiting for her to let off? Waiting for her to leave, or to start slacking. What if then, they’d pursue their true goal, the moment the opportunity presented itself, whatever it was. At the start, before the guards had understood what was happening, a few hundred inhabitants in town had been hurt. None killed, but hurt nonetheless. Balinth had been one of them.

And so, to prevent that from happening again, Theora just got up, and went to work, and got up, and went to work, every single day.

That is, until she finally had her second free day.