Kel’rk’ath and Sa’ar’kik stood side by side as they watched a replay of what happened to the most interesting mortal they had found in recent memory. They both winced as the Cyst suddenly appeared in the air and rained fire upon the outpost. They both sighed as the Long-Ears suddenly appeared and killed nearly every undead stationed in the outpost to buy time, leaving only the hybrid zombie-husk Frankie alive in the end. And they both exclaimed their confusion when they saw an E-X model Clockwork in such a poor state as what X52 was in.

The replay ended when they finally outran the guns of the Cyst and when they were making a mad dash south. Sa’ar’kik sat down on one of the leather couches Kel’rk’ath had around in his work office, holding her chin with a festering hand, “That’s bad. Really, really bad. Is… is there anything we can even do? I mean, one of the Sky Takers nearly killed one of the older dragons… What happened?” she asked aloud. She rewound the playback feature of their monitoring system to the conversation between Mori and X52, “And now she knows too much… We’re either going to have to kill her or…”

“Give her an invitation to the Rift,” Kel’rk’ath finished, “We both already know the answer here, Sa. Neither of us want to kill her. But you know what has to happen now, do you not?”

She sighed, hanging her head and slouching over, “She has to follow the dwarves, doesn’t she?”

He solemnly nodded, coming to sit beside her and rubbing her back, “It may be for the best, Sa. But I think Fara will be included in this, not to mention her undead. That woman from Earth, Eva, is still a toss-up. For now, though, what matters more is how we respond to this. They will come to us soon enough and we need to have some plan for when that time comes. Do you have an idea?”

Sa’ar’kik leaned into Kel’rk’ath’s embrace, snuggling up as much as her body would allow, “I do… but you may not like it.”

“An idea we don’t like is better than no plan at all,” he soothed.

She nodded slowly, “You’re right… what if we ask for that E-X’s help?”

Sa’ar’kik knew that the idea was outlandish, preposterous even, but she did not expect the bewilderment of her proposal to be betrayed on Kel’s face, “Sa… Are you sure we should even consider it? She is… She is the child of En’gem’ia. She is the child of the one who drags the war out. Would she even consider working with us?”

They both knew the way what happened when they tried to talk to En’gem’ia to stop the fighting. She would start telling them how they needed to listen to her, how they would all be killed if they did not do what needed to be done. Neither of them understood what she was talking about, as the goddess referred to things that, in all honesty, did not click with how they thought. They tried to comprehend what En’gem’ia was trying to communicate, but it never worked. So, instead, they fought the war.

Kel’rk’ath’s worry, to Sa’ar’kik, was not a baseless one. There was a good chance that X52 would be as fanatic about the predictions of her mother. Despite that, Sa’ar’kik had a feeling that this meeting would be different, “Kel. Do you remember all the times when En would go on and on about this ‘87%’ thing?” The god holding her nodded, “Do you remember how X52 said something about Mori almost figured out whatever that was?” He nodded again, “Well, do you think that the problem with translating whatever En was saying is… on us? If this Clockwork girl can translate this idea into Akashic or even mortal languages, then… have we just been ignoring her trying to explain it to us? If we had simply listened, would we be in a different place?” Sa began to tear up, thinking about how much time could have been saved, how much more they could have done if they had simply stopped fighting.

A firm, conceptually watery hand grabbed her chin and a pair of firm, conceptually watery lips kissed her forehead, “It is not that simple, Sa… This one has lived for hundreds of years, we have seen her before. Yet, the last time we tried talking to En was just a half-dozen decades ago. If she knew that this one could translate the concept to us, she would have used her. Besides, I’m not going to kill or cripple a sibling if I can help it. Not without a good reason to.”

“I know, Kel. I agree. But… let’s hear her out when Mori brings her. If she can tell us what this ‘87%’ thing is, then we’ll be better off. While we wait, though, how are we going to stop the crazy Hive? It might start spitting out harder to kill enemies before we can resolve anything,” Sa’ar’kik said.

Kel’rk’ath nodded idly for a moment before his eye sockets widened. He pulled up the map of the Vast Dust and zoomed in on Mori’s skiff, then zoomed out. He mapped out their projected course, then any points of interest nearby. Sa’ar’kik gaped when a very specific, very special location of interest came up, “You aren’t thinking of…” she trailed off, pointing at the specific place Kel highlighted.

“I am. Who has the technology to defeat a mad Hive? Who has the resources to make an army built out of those fascinating undead machines? Who has the reason to help them? Who are we willing to leave Granulous? Who actually lives around a Shrine for them to contact us with? And, finally, who is on the right wavelength to work with Mori?” he asked, a smile growing wider with every moment.

“I know, but if we do… this could change Granulous permanently without an apocalyptic scenario. It would ruin our whole purpose of having a presence there,” Sa’ar’kik said nervously.

Kel’rk’ath snorted, something he never really did before, which caught her off guard, “They already survived the end of the world. Twice. And, if we actually understood what this ‘87%’ business is about, we won’t have to worry about the Clockworks upping their game. We would be on good terms and there would be no more violence. No more war. We could turn Granulous into a real faith-world. Maybe even the first faith-world for everyone. But, that’s in the future. For now… what do you think?”

She pondered for a moment, then cracked a smile, “You know, I think this is the most energetic you’ve been for a good few decades. Are you so interested in getting Mori up here that you’ve got a spring in your step?” she teased. Married as they were, she was not shy about him having other relationships with other people. It was one of her tenets, after all. Being a Goddess of Growing Beasts, she not only had dominion over what was considered a beast, but also over what was considered growing.

One of the most basic practices for a god was interpreting their domains in different ways to exert control over different things. Growth, to Sa’ar’kik, could just as easily mean the growth of a family, the growth of a population, the growth of a field of crops, or even the growth of emotions. The further she or any other god stretched their interpretation, however, the weaker their control was. She, for example, was best at growing nests of mana beasts or normal beasts. She just had more trouble and was less powerful in other places.

Kel’rk’ath, in response to her teasing, rolled his eye-flames, “Sa, you know that I would not prance around with other women. I promised you that before and I will again. I’m not Bi’er’luk, after all.”

“Hey, she’s a great person and a great older sister for us. She just is much more… open with what she does,” Sa retorted.

Kel sighed, levitating some papers he was working on over to the couch, “With what, specifically? The massive parties that could kill an angel with the amount of alcohol she has, the massive polygamy she calls her harem, or the fact that she keeps trying to add each and everyone of us to said harem?”

Sa deflated a bit, teleporting a few papers she needed to get done to her, “Well, all of that, but you shouldn’t judge her for it. Most people don’t have a fetish for paperwork like you do.”

“The only reason you say that is because you have such an aversion to it that you think anyone who tolerates it loves it,” he quipped back, “So, send them to the Aeverus Range to meet some new friends?”

Sa turned a bit to look into Kel’s eye-flames, “Yeah, fine. We’ll figure it out. At worst, we just take Mori and Fara’s souls out of there and bring them here. And that whole crew she’s got there.”

“Just make sure she doesn’t get reincarnated or something. As much of an interesting experiment it would be.”

“I know, Kel. I know.”