"Hi! I'm the office of the Delver!"

"Am I dead?"

"No way! You're the delver! I'm your office!"

Vienna found herself standing somewhere. All that she could notice about where she was, was a well and a pearlescent boulder. "My what? What is happening?"

"Your office! You are the chosen one! Congratulations! And by the chosen one, I mean I choose you! Go forth! Be the best!"

"No! What is going on? Physically, with my body, right now. I felt so strange"

"Oh man! I literally have no idea!" The office giggled out "That's such a hard one!".

Vienna let out a frustrated sigh, her confusion momentarily obscuring her worry. "Wait a minute. You're saying I'm, what, a Potesta?" she asked.

"That's correct! You're such a smart cookie. Well, not really a cookie, those are round, and not really smart, not that cookies are smart either. Forget about the confounding intelligent confectionary complementation, instead feel good about this genetic one. Good job Delver! You got it right!"

"And that is why I'm here."

"Got it again!! You're cruisin' through the chambers of moi!" the office proudly declared, adding a touch of flamboyance to its tone.

Vienna's eyes widened in disbelief. "I... I'm inside you? You're a talking house? Do I own you? Where's home?" she blurted out rapidfire, that idea simply not sitting well with her.

"Imagine if you will, the great me, not that you can imagine me, but try your best, I promise that I won't be offended. I was searching for my next Delver, that's you now, but wasn't back then. And there you were floating along aimlessly in the shallows, picking up puck here and there typical for sponges, and I thought, hey! You're perfect! And so I ate you. Not perfect perfect, like perfect did, that's all been done, just perfect fit for me. Yummy."

"So I either died or fell asleep." Vienna mumbled to herself "it was Lilly, I touched her hands, felt a prick in my own hand, then fainted. She must have drugged or poisoned me." then louder, to the room "Ok I've got it, Office I have a question that I need a true answer to. Can I wake up?" she asked in a steady voice and sure gaze, knowing the answer would change everything, so she steeled herself for the truth. This may be the end, her end, she was so young, she had so many things she'd never done, and she had to know. Could she ever wake up to her terrible, wonderful life?

"Oh I have no idea. Actually, I'm rather curious myself, can you wake up? How do you wake up? What does it mean to wake up? I figure that's something that you would know as it's not really something I do. I thought that you could, because you do, you wake up hundreds of times, but perhaps you can't! Sometimes things work that way. Isn't perplexity fantastic?"

"Ok, fine, I'm trapped here. I thought that Potesta were these great heroes of legends with mystical powers and calling, chosen by fate for a grand destiny."

"That's correct! Wow! Generic compliment!"

"Do I need to train alone on a mountain peak, or meditate for a century to unlock them?"

"Those sound great! Ok, let's do both! You have great ideas Delver!"

"Office, I want to leave!"

"Wow! That mountain peak meditation century was great. I feel so refreshed. Do you feel refreshed? Have you unlocked that thing you needed to?"

"What are you talking about?"

"We meditated on a mountain peak while training alone for a century, remember? "

"That was seconds ago"

"I do not know what that is! But enough of that for now, lets talk about what you want to do!"

"I want to go home. "

"Ok! Goodbye! Hi Vienna, you're here! Great to see you! How was the trip back home?"

"... I didn't go anywhere. "

"Of course not! You're here. As you've always been and always will be. I'm your office, You're my Delver! My very first ever! Yummy!

"That can't be right, what happened to the other one, Samuel Hartwell, He's supposed to be at the Owl right now. Oddosatum said... that the Delver... was there... while looking me straight in the eye."

A realization washed over Vienna, the pieces falling into place like a puzzle. "How did he?" she wondered aloud, her voice trailing off. "No wonder he wasn't interested in my family drama. He was looking straight at the Delver! That's why he talked about how old the guy was and how there can only be one at a time, he knew that I had replaced him... What about the last Delver?"

"I hate Sammy. We're not together anymore. He's like a bad toothache, so let's not talk about him."

"Sammy. You mean Samuel Hartwell?"

"That's right, and if we don't think about him, then it's like he never existed, and that would be preferable. Let's talk about you! You're the delver!"

"Wait, what about the last Delver?" Vienna asked again, trying to emphasize the question

"I hate Sammy. We're not together anymore. He's like a bad toothache, so let's not talk about him."

"You already said that." She paused for a second. "Actually, you said that Verbatim."

"that's strange."

"Alright, alright, ok" Vienna said to herself, starting to realize how inhuman the office was, and decided to test it a little "hey, we've been friends for a long time, over a century now. Do you remember fifty years ago when you mentioned Sammy?" She invented "I would like to grow closer to you, and I think the best way would be to share something secret about our personal lives. Can you tell me the story about how you and Sammy first met?"

The office let out a dramatic sigh, as if touching nostalgia. "Of course ViVi, Fifty years is a whole lot of years, and I suppose that it's time to bare my soul- Samuel was quite the character. Full of grand ideas and whimsical notions. But his tenure as the Delver didn't last long. He had this habit of... getting lost, you know? 'Always delving beyond what the mortal mind was meant to know' That's a quote from his book, 'Memoirs of the deep, Delving the secrets that lay beyond the shallows, the biography of the Delver Samuel Hartwell'. You can pick up a copy anywhere books are sold."

It worked. Vienna wasn't entirely sure what exactly just happened, but it worked. "So, he was a bit of a maverick, huh?"

The office nodded enthusiastically, its voice filled with fondness. "Oh, absolutely! To quote Sammy's book, he 'had a knack for venturing into uncharted territories, both metaphorically and literally, which are the same thing.' which means that he went delved into other's territories to catch and eat. Dangerous places, and that's why he's not with us anymore."

"He died?" Vienna said with acceptance. Then continued internally "There can only be one delver."

"He's become one with the great seal. Vienna, please don't delve so deeply. I don't want to lose you too."

"And the shallows are?"

"Physical reality. And a little below. All the offices live in the shallows".

"What does it mean to be a delver?"

"It means that we're not alone anymore! You and me, Delver and Office! Forever and ever!"

"So I'm stuck inside this tiny box forever?"

"Haha, that's a funny way to describe a body. Want to explore? I can show you all kinds of things about yourself I'd bet you never knew! Well, of course you know them, you just don't know that you know, you know? Did you know that you fear spiders? I love them! They're everywhere!"

"Spiders are everywhere?"

"No, the fear of spiders is everywhere, spiders are everywhere you don't know they're not! Right over there! Spiders! Well not anymore now that you've looked, when you look for spiders, reality breaks down into a spiders slash not spiders duality! Of course there's only spiders or not spiders in your collapsed binary reality model! You really should throw that away, you're killing all the potential spiders! Luckly you can never see inside your own eyes where the last observation spiders persist! Can you imagine! Look, I'll manifest the fear of spiders for you."

"OH DEAR GOD WHAT IS THAT" Vienna screamed as she smashed the fear of spiders into goo, the feeling Cathartic. Honestly she felt great, even the prickle in the back of her mind that was always there was gone. She hadn't even known it was there.

"Sadness!" the office wailed

"Is the spider dead?"

"No, just your fear of them" office said mournfully "i'm so, so very sorry, I never expected you to react that way. but you can never be afraid of spiders again. Ever. you really must be more careful here"

"That so?" Vienna chuckled. "So you can manifest attributes of me, such that I can interact with them physically? Can I see my fear of relationships?"

"Of course!"

*smash*

"Oh by the depths of the abyss please be more careful! I'm literally begging you to stop being so klutzy!"

Something was wrong. She felt numb, in shock, but also free. Something was very wrong with her, so she pretended nothing was, and continued on as she had, as she had no idea what it was. "What else can you manifest? Can I see my death from cancer? Is that something you can do?" she asked, prodding the boundaries of his ability.

"It would be my absolute pleasure! In all existence, your personal death by cancer is the greatest masterpiece known! The grand lovechild that heartache and mutation ever conceived of! Oh I dare say that there's never been a concept more artistic! Bask in its elegant Anguishéclat! That's a word I made up, so you might not know of it yet."

Vienna shattered the mural, and staggered from the blow, feeling an emptiness cutting her from deep inside.

"It's ok Vienna, you don't need to be so concerned, they can always whip up another one if they fancy it. Just do try to be more careful, or else you may find yourself unable to die at all!"

Vienna swayed, something was very wrong. She needed to escape, she needed to find a way out, a way back home. "Can I see Tradition?"

"The whole thing? How about just your family's branch? That sounds more digestible."

And then she could see it. It was always there, an unbelievably ancient tree, unmovable, it's roots the foundation of the world, its branches reaching the sky, ancient beyond reckoning, history just one of its many fruits, everything that ever was nestling in its branches. she felt her family in the branch nearest her, healthy, strong, growing, changing. It filled her with awe, comfort, unity, trust, power, security, and love. This was what it was. But this was nothing like the tradition she knew, one that stifled freedom, creativity, and smothered her. Where was that tradition? Where was the nightmare that she ran from? Tears welled in her eyes. Her heart broke. She struck it, intending to crush it like the other manifestations, but it was strong, stronger than her. She struck it again, why wouldn't it break? She wailed and whaled, crying and hitting until her manifested fists ached, and her knees gave out. She didn't care if this was just a dream, or hallucination, she wanted to hurt the thing that took so much from her, she wailed for the family that she wanted, for her maids that she could never befriend for fear, for the freedom to do as she pleased, she wailed because of the fear. She was afraid. She was always afraid. She always knew it, but now she was aware of it. She wailed until there were no emotions left inside of her. She cried until there were no tears left to cry. And she watched her family's Tradition, taking in every facet.

Vienna woke.