Tommy sits on the railing at the front of the ship. His legs hang over the side, Alfheim spread out beneath him. The wind is biting cold, and even the heavy cloak Tommy is wearing does little to stop the fragile tremors from tearing right through his body. His wings are spread out behind him, each stroke of the wind catching on the feathers. He holds tightly on the railing, and his fingers are beginning to go numb from both the pressure and the temperature. Tommy ignores his fading digits as he slams the heel of his boat against the wooden pillars holding up the railing with increasing ferocity. The darkness spreads out all around him and the ship as they travel through sable clouds.

His thoughts swirl inside his mind, each one crashing against the other like pebbles taken by a river's current. He is hardly able to grasp onto a single one, and the ones he does manage to grasp slip away before they are given their proper dues. The only thoughts that linger long enough to properly pay attention to them are the ones Tommy doesn't want to think about, the thoughts surrounded around feathers and stars. Tommy pushes those thoughts away purposefully. He instead lets his eyes intake the slowly changing sights and his mind try to wrangle all of his thoughts together. Neither solutions are proving beneficial in the long-run, but Tommy doesn't think he needs them to.

Someone lands on the railing next to Tommy. Jimmy squats down, looking sideways at Tommy. He flashes the blonde with a nice smile that resembles the dawn that is still a few hours off. Jimmy's eyes even crinkle as his smile gets wider, buttery yellow wings spreading out behind him. "Do you want to try out flying?"

"No thanks," Tommy answers, giving Jimmy a half-smile as his attention slides downward. He knows he could glide to the ground from this altitude, but he doubts he could fly without being knocked off-course several times. The wind is too strong and too cold for that, though Tommy supposes he needs to get used to it since his homeland is the nation of ice and air, courtesy of the weather and the elemental kings in the area.

Jimmy's smile never wavers as he hums his acceptance. He jumps a little, letting his legs shoot forward and his butt hits the railing. Jimmy faces the same direction Tommy does, putting his hands on the railing. He swings his legs over the side. His wings fold up against his back. He leans forward, looking back at Tommy with a contemplative expression. "What's wrong?"

Tommy doesn't have an answer for Jimmy. He feels distant from his problems, though he knows they are circling around him like a noose. The only problems that he is consciously feeling are ones that Jimmy wouldn't understand. After all, Jimmy doesn't know how close Tommy is with his contractors. Tommy would have to explain it, and he doesn't know how to do that. Without being able to put it in proper words, Tommy instead asks, "What's your faith, Jimmy? What do you believe in?"

Jimmy's expression freezes. Then, his eyes widen with surprise and a slow laugh trickles from his lips like a dying stream. Jimmy rolls his shoulders, looking toward the sky as he answers. "I don't have one."

"What is your opinion of the Lady of Sunflowers, then?" Tommy probes. His eyes narrow at Jimmy, searching for some sign of recognition on Jimmy's face.

Unfortunately, nothing distinct appears as Jimmy shrugs. "I've never met the Patriarch or Matriarch of House Helianthia, so I don't have an opinion on them. I think Kinoko is a pretty place. It's one of the few places in the world that grows sunflowers, so that's certainly something to consider thoughtfully."

"No, you misunderstand. That isn't who I meant. I'm talking about the goddess of agriculture," Tommy shakes his head. House Helianthia is one of the noble houses in Kinoko. In the book, Lady Pearl was the only member of that house Ranboo ever met. Even then, he didn't get to interact with her much. Most of the Kinoko arc took place in the simulation, after all. Pearl wasn't in the simulation nor did she have an eidolon version of herself there. All Tommy knows about her is that she has red eyes and proficient light magic.

"Oh, I see. Well, I know of a couple of towns that still hold festivals in her honor. Unfortunately, her church has been largely dismantled. She doesn't even have clerics anymore," Jimmy answers, tapping a finger against his chin as he recalls what he knows. Tommy finds himself sighing, and Jimmy's brow knit together as he asks Tommy, "Are you a devout follower?"

"I'm not even a believer," Tommy snorts. He has reason to believe that the goddess of agriculture might have been alive at one point, but if her eidolon is the one roaming the continent, she must be gone. Santa Perla mentioned that her creator was in the deathless slumber, whatever that was.

Jimmy's eyes flick down from Tommy to the tattoo on the back of Tommy's hand. The blonde lifts his hand up, his fingers twitching as he tries to force them into a fist. They eventually cooperate, and Tommy is able to see the tattoo gleaming in the low light. "This is a reminder, not a symbol."

Jimmy nods his head slowly, looking away. "I guess that's fair, but why are you trying so hard to connect me with this goddess?"

"There is someone who is... intimately connected to the goddess that said the goddess wishes for your safety. I'm only trying to figure out why," Tommy explains. Santa Perla has no reason to lie to Tommy, and there isn't a reason to tell him to watch out for Jimmy unless it was important. Tommy doesn't know if finding this connection will help solve any of his problems, but it couldn't hurt to know why a goddess' dying wishes might have been to protect some random person. Is it because Jimmy is an oracle? Is it because he's a hybrid? Or is it something more, something Tommy isn't seeing?

"Ah, I wouldn't know. The only people concerned with my safety are False and Scott... maybe Joey and the ghosts on a good day," Jimmy explains lightly. His eyes get more somber as he looks into the distant sky. "The only other people that would care about me are gone."

Tommy finds himself wanting to ask more, but his expression is closed off, hardened with emotions that Tommy has never seen on Jimmy before. It grows sharper all of a sudden, and Jimmy sets his hands on his knees, staring down at them as if it was the knife he used to kill someone. He sighs deeply, pulling air from deep within his chest, and he starts speaking softly. "Before False found me, I had a family. I had an older sister and brother. It's been so long but... I remember that we were poor. I remember that we were happy. My sister was a cleaning lady, and my brother spent every night studying for an admission into Kinoko Scholar's Academy. We were torn apart, eventually, and my siblings died. They died pro-"

Jimmy cuts himself off, tearing his eyes away from his own hands. He looks up and Tommy can see the tears rising in his marble eyes. At least, they look like tears. More likely, they are some substitute substance False put in there to make Jimmy feel more human when his body is made from metal. "I was left to wander alone. I kept searching for work, but my only skill was my abilities as an oracle. Every nation rejected me until I stumbled into the Antarctic Empire. They imprisoned me. When I was found guilty, they tore me apart, calling me a sign of disaster. False was the one to save me. She stitched me back together and requested nothing in return. If the gods do exist, I must be the butt of their joke."

"I'm sorry," Tommy whispers immediately. His words are born from a place of empathy, knowing exactly what it's like to feel as if the universe was making out into a freakshow.  Part of his apology, however, is tainted by wrongful remorse for actions that belong to his people but not himself. The people of the Antarctic Empire were the ones to destroy Jimmy, and Tommy is apologizing on their behalf.

Jimmy glances at Tommy for a long moment. Unexpectedly, a smile— soft, small, halfway there— spreads across his face. He shrugs his shoulders like he could wash the pain off of him the same way ducks wash water off their backs. "It doesn't matter all that much anymore. I have people to love and care about, and I've learned to accept the death of my siblings for what it was. I don't want revenge anymore, not like I once did."

Tommy focuses on the word 'revenge' as Jimmy stands up on the railing. His wings spread out, catching the light to make a yellow sheen slide across the feathers. Jimmy smiles down at Tommy. "All of this sadness makes me want to fly. You can come join me when the sadness weighs too heavily on your shoulders for you to stand it."

Jimmy takes a step forward. Tommy's stomach jerks even though he knows Jimmy isn't going to plummet to the ground. As if to call him a fool, Jimmy shoots upwards, his wings visible in the darkness as he flies around the airship. He turns toward Tommy with a smile on his face, and for a moment, brief and fleeting, Tommy sees someone else in Jimmy's place, someone he knows, someone he misses. Jimmy soon flies away from Tommy's field of vision.

Tommy is left alone with his thoughts once more, but his mind finally understands what it wants to cling to as Tommy remembers the way Jimmy was flying. It reminds Tommy of someone, and no amount of pulling at strings will bring what he has lost back to him. It burns inside his chest, and a heavy stone sinks down to the bottom of his soul as if to keep him from running from the flames. He turns his attention, searching for something else to look at, but all he finds is that the sky has cleared. He can now see the stars twinkling above him, and the tears make themselves known inside his eyes.

It has been a few days since Tommy has been able to contact Hetta and Tiberius, let alone summon them. The contract keeping them by his side is growing thinner by the day, and Tommy is only waiting for the moment it snaps. For some reason, Hetta and Tiberius have left Tommy. He wonders if that was the real answer to Jimmy's question. Tommy has been reconciling with their absence, if only subconsciously, but seeing Jimmy flying around with the night sky all around him... Tommy knows what he's been missing. He knows why his thoughts have been spiraling out of his control.

Tommy hears a grunt of effort behind him. He doesn't even have to turn to know who has clambered up to the front of the ship to find him this late at night. Tommy only finds himself whispering, "I think I've been abandoned. I'm alone."

"That isn't true," Deo answers, coming up to stand beside Tommy. He puts his arms on the railing, leaning over it. He tries looking at Tommy, but the prince won't even glance over. "You have so many people around you that care about you."

"You don't get it," Tommy snaps, his anger flaring up responsively. Jimmy's words echo in Tommy's mind. 'I must be the butt of their joke.'  Tommy's fingers clench into fists. "I'll always end up alone. That's the fate I've been stuck with. No matter what I do, I will always end up alone. That's the fate that I'm stuck with."

"Fate is what we make of it," Deo decides, his voice as sure as the rest of his confident demeanor.

"Fate is the shackles put on every living thing the moment they are born. Struggling against it only leads to the universe correcting itself. That must be what's happening now because why else would Hetta leave me when we swore to be lonely together in this life?" Tommy disagrees. He tried saving his mother, and that only resulted in Wilbur dying. Sure, Wilbur's back, but now Tommy is in conflict with him over the throne, just like The Ender Prince. Theseus was alone in that book, unable to contract with any elementals. If Hetta and Tiberius have left Tommy, it must be because fate has pushed them away. If that isn't the case... Tommy doesn't know what he's going to do if that isn't the case. Tommy could maybe understand Tiberius. The celestial does have a grudge against Zero, and Tommy is fairly certain he's Zero to some capacity. But Hetta... Tommy doesn't understand Hetta's intentions.

"I don't know why Hetta would do that. It could be fate; it could be her. But I told you before that Hetta loves you too much to stay away for long. Even if she does... you aren't going to end up alone," Deo firmly states, his tone somber but no less assured.

"How are you so certain?" Tommy asks dismally, finally glancing over at his companion. Deo and Hetta were growing closer. Tommy was even certain a contract would be formed between them soon enough. Deo must feel the loss of her, too, so Tommy doesn't understand how Deo can be any measure of calm.

Deo remains silent and expressionless for a long moment. All of a sudden, he pushes off the railing. He reaches into his cloak, and he pulls out a small device about the size of his palm. Deo holds it up, revealing the device to be an hourglass made from intricately folded golden wires and amber sand in clear glass. Deo flips the hourglass over, letting the sand slide from one side of the glass to the other. Deo lowers it down, fiddling with the chain connecting the top and bottom of the hourglass' frame. "My master gave me this when he gave me the mercenary name 'Time.' He told me that as long as I had this, he would always find me."

Deo grabs Tommy's wrist, pulling it away from Tommy's chest. Deo pries open Tommy's fingers. He sets the hourglass on Tommy's palm. He closes Tommy's hand again, keeping both of his hands resting over Tommy's hands, either to keep Tommy from handing the hourglass back or to warm his numb hands up. Tommy stares down as if he can still see the hourglass underneath their flesh. "How could you give that up?"

"I don't need my master. I'm not a child anymore, and he's the one that left without explanation, so I don't even want him to find me. But if you're so certain that loneliness will be your damnation, keep this on you so I can find you and prove you wrong," Deo explains, then he shakes his head. "Well, it isn't supernatural. It's just so that when you look at it, you'll know I'm coming."

Deo removes his hands. Tommy holds the hourglass against his chest, feeling the lapis lazuli crystal underneath his shirt. Both of them are reassuring as they both mean Tommy will never be alone. At least, until he gives Theseus' soulstone to the Underworld and Deo retrieves his hourglass.

"Can we get down now?" Deo asks, nodding his head towards the ladder he used to get up here.

"I can't jump even if I tried," Tommy responds. His wings would instinctively get into a gliding motion, and Tommy would have a long way down to the ground, unless he started flying in some direction.

"Intention is sometimes as bad as action," Deo murmurs, his voice almost taken by the wind. Deo shakes his head, giving Tommy a cheeky smile. "But that's not what I'm worried about. I think you're going to get sick from the cold. We wouldn't want you to arrive in Rivendell with a fever, now would we?"

Tommy snorts, lowering his hands and the hourglass into his lap. "I've only gotten sick once in my life."

"That's surprising. You're super unhealthy," Deo shamelessly says in disbelief, reaching over to poke Tommy's cheek.

Tommy shrugs, the words barely registering in his mind as something he should be offended by. "I wasn't always like this. I remember getting antsy in the months leading up to my mother getting attacked by the death goddess zealots."

"The Reapers," Deo says knowingly, and Tommy doesn't want to know what connection Deo has with that group even though he imagines Deo has an entire past he doesn't want to know about.

"After the night of the attack passed, I found out that my brother and friend were dead. A lot happened after that. My family was trying to deal with their grief, and I... I don't think I ever quite dealt with mine. Even now, I'm terrified that when I go home, Wilbur won't be there," Tommy explains, trying to remember that little boy that has been absolutely crushed by the news of Wilbur and Shelby's death. He had spent days, maybe even weeks, struggling to do anything. He couldn't get out of bed, could barely eat or drink water. It was so miserable, and it grew worse when both Philza and Techno practically abandoned Tommy, chasing after some way to make themselves feel better. Even Kristin seemed farther away than Tommy would have liked, but with everything that happened at the funeral and all the events afterward, Tommy kept putting off reconciling with the facts of the matter. This went on for years, and then, Wilbur and Shelby were back.

"Why did you leave, then?" Deo questions, hopping onto the railing when he realizes that Tommy probably isn't going anywhere soon.

"After Wilbur died, the duty of tsesarevich fell onto me. I had already spent many years trying to forge connections with the nobility for several reasons, like getting access to their personal armies and having an escape route out of the empire if I needed it. But with Wilbur gone, all of those connections suddenly became my way of keeping my family from decline in the eyes of the aristocracy. I was also able to help my mother, and maybe I was overcompensating for something because I... I don't know. I fear I got too fucking good at it. Now, the nobility wants me, an avian hybrid, to rise to the rank of tsar. Even though Wilbur is here now, all they see him as is a phantom hybrid. As long as I'm the one with wings, they'll pit me against Wilbur. I can't lose my brother, not again," Tommy tries explaining. His words feel inadequate, even to his own ears. There is so much more to the situation, and all Tommy can remember is Kara explaining to him how fragile the ecosystem called politics is. Tommy has never understood more than he does now, heading for a kingdom that hates him for being human to flee from a nation that is obsessed with him being tsar.

"I guess that's why you're so hellbent on cutting your wings off," Deo understands, breathing out harshly.

"There's another factor to it," Tommy admits slowly, "But I can't tell you."

"Taboo knowledge?"

"I don't know, but I'm not risking it," Tommy explains. He hasn't tried telling anyone other than a Transcendent about The Ender Prince. Technically, even the Aether doesn't know about the book, so maybe it isn't taboo knowledge. Then again, does taboo knowledge make people go insane because the Aether sealed it away or did the Aether seal it away because it makes people go insane?

"We can always use Transcendent EXP to fix me up," Deo reminds Tommy.

"That isn't a risk I want to take," Tommy mentions. He doesn't know how much EXP he can give, and he doesn't know if it will work every time.

"I would rather risk this than have you bottle everything up. It isn't healthy for you, and you really are only making yourself unhealthier for it," Deo says with a hard edge in his tone.

"I don't get your insistence. Even if I unload all of my problems, you won't have any solutions for me. Putting aside the world-ending stuff that no one has figured out, the rest of my problems are personal. There's the matter of me feeling distant from my family because of our grief. There's a matter of the nobility wanting me to be tsesarevich instead of Wilbur and how that's going to affect our relationship. There's the matter of all the internal problems of the other nations and the empire that I can't solve but have to reconcile with. There's so much. Half of it, I can't solve, and none of that you can solve," Tommy remarks wryly, annoyance blooming into an ugly flower inside his stomach.

"Maybe you're right, but I refuse to believe that I can't help even a little bit. I can listen to everything you have to say, and then I can do my best to think of solutions," Deo firmly says, turning slightly to give his full attention to Tommy. "And I will get stronger."

"What does that fucking mean?"

"I've had visions my entire life. I didn't understand a lot of them when I had them, but I think I'm starting to get it now. I have places I could visit. I have things I can do. I have leads to follow. I don't want the world to end, after all," Deo explains, crossing his arms over his chest.

Tommy stares at Deo, searching the parts of his face that he can see for anything— answers, maybe. Some reason why Deo is confident that Tommy will be the one to lead the world— lead him— to salvation. "Look, I can't reveal the whole truth right now... but I'll answer one question honestly."

"Why did you choose me?" Deo asks immediately without a second to even think about it. Deo leans forward slightly, continuing when Tommy doesn't answer with as much certainty as him. "You didn't know that you were going to need a visionary. I'm still not sure how you even knew I was one, but I digress. I want to know why you picked Time out of all the mercenaries or guards out there to come with you to the Badlands that night?"

Tommy tilts his head upwards, staring at the heavens as he thinks out loud. "I knew that you were one of the strongest mercenaries. I knew that you were in the area. I knew that you could be bought and would stay silent, even if the imperial family caught us. I knew that you would do what I needed you to as long as I paid, even if I didn't think we'd need to go inside your simulation. Most of all, though, I think I just knew it was the right choice. I wanted to save you from your fate. I don't know if I have, but I want to keep trying." Tommy looks at Deo. "How about it? Was that satisfactory?"

Deo smiles, looking away into the distance. "No matter what happens, you have saved me from my fate."

"Where is Deo?" Ranboo asks, looking around a second time to figure out where the mercenary is hiding. Ranboo is half-tempted to start poking his nose into places he wouldn't be welcome just to see if Deo is hiding out there.

Purpled shifts instead of answering, making Ranboo peer up at him. Purpled is staring at Ranboo. His eyes are broadcasting everything his sealed lips aren't saying. Ranboo translates once, twice, a dozen more times until he thinks he can process what Purpled must be trying to communicate. Ranboo's breath is knocked out of his chest. Everything in him seems to climb upwards, and he's suddenly marching across the tent. He grabs onto Purpled's cloak, pulling it forward to make sure that Purpled can't look away from him. "What happened?! Where is he? What did you do? Does his master know? Does Mi—"

"I know," A voice calls behind them. Ranboo whirls around. Purpled nearly drops onto the ground, a haunted look in his eyes. "I knew that brat was foolish enough to run off. I knew he would fight those dragons himself. I knew he would die and that the Taint would take him. I knew, so stop yelling. Keep your cool. You are our key to fixing this whole mess, and it won't do for you to start losing your marbles like the rest of us."