“All right,” Bell said. “Let’s disentangle this.”

She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in a large living room that was very sparsely decorated. A few pieces of furniture had been cast to the walls — a table, two chairs, and a shelf, and some items belonging to the past inhabitants were still set on them, including a collection of dusty books that had likely been deemed too heavy to take with them.

Bell’s long and thick tentacle hair spilled out onto the floor, occasionally twitching and squelching around, probing the severely scratched oak-wood planks beneath them.

Isobel was sitting next to her and laughed out loud. “Isn’t she super cute?” she asked, stretching out her arm towards the closest tentacles, and making a point of ‘disentangling’ them.

“Not what I meant,” Bell murmured, begrudgingly. 

“Disentangling it is,” Theora murmured, sitting in front of them on her legs folded in parallel.

By now, pleasantries had been exchanged, and Dema and Iso had spent hours chatting to each other about what Theora could only classify as utter nonsense. Dema had mostly led the way talking about her favourite books, and Iso had indulged her with the greatest patience Theora had ever witnessed.

Meanwhile, somehow, Iso constantly had some tangent to offer. For example, they’d talked for half an hour about their favourite minerals, sorting them all into a list, with shale rock having found its way onto the top spot on both.

But, while Theora had been happy to offer them this chance of respite and bonding, there were still so many pressing questions, and Bell obviously felt the same, so at some point in the evening, the three had decided to sit together to finally ‘disentangle this mess of a situation’.

“Why exactly did the two of you come here?” Theora asked.

“To kill the Ancient Evil,” Bell answered, matter-of-factly.

Iso rolled her eyes, flopping one of Bell’s tentacles around. “We came here because of a quest. Supposed to help with the Afterthought problem in Hallmark. That’s what the System wanted us to do! Side quest.”

“Yes,” Bell answered, trying to retrieve her tentacle, but Iso was holding firm without noticing. Somehow, Bell’s venom didn’t work on Iso’s rock body. “But it’s clear that the System brought me here to complete my Main Quest.”

“Your Main Quest,” Theora echoed. “It’s still the same? You are tasked with ending Dema, just like back when you were with your party?”

“Not quite the same. We failed the last one, after all, thanks to you. It went through a few iterations by now, but yes, my Main Quest is to kill the Ancient Evil, and that’s why the System led me here. Same for Iso.”

Iso groaned and clattered in a smooth motion of circling her torso and head through the air. “But we didn’t know! We came here for the side quest. Didn’t even know mom was here!”

“So, Bell, how did Dema find you?” Theora ventured, her fists firmly pressed against her thighs as she sat on the ground cross-legged. “How did you two meet?”

Bell bit her lip, and took a deep breath. Her expression hardened, although some of its gravity was lost with the fact that Iso had gone back to play with her hair.

Despite that, Bell met Theora’s gaze as if she was staring into the eyes of her executioner. “I knew that None would keep you occupied today—” She broke off for a moment. “None. None or Isobel? Should I be calling you Isobel?”

Iso shrugged. “Just whichever you feel like for now, I guess!”

Bell nodded. She took another breath. “I knew that the Ancient Evil would be exhausted due to helping out with the Afterthoughts, and isolated due to None keeping you occupied. So, I went to fulfil my Main Quest.”

Iso’s head turned around in shock, letting go of a tentacle. It dropped with a soft squelch. “What?”

Bell closed her eyes for a moment, too long to be a blink, and steeled herself, fists clenched. Her hair pulled itself up into a ponytail, with one tentacle knotting all others together. “None, I did communicate to you that I would use every opportunity that presented itself to complete it.”

“Yeah, but… I thought we’d talk about it first!” Iso whined.

“There is nothing to talk about. Also, we did talk about it. I made my position clear to you several times. I will pursue my Main Quest, and I have outlined the reasons for doing so to you in great detail.”

So, it was as Theora had feared. The System had been planning its next assault for decades, and Bell had again been at the forefront of it, to play as a pawn.

“What happened when you found her?”

Bell shook her head softly. “She wasn’t as weakened as I’d hoped. Still, I perceived it to be the best chance I might ever receive. So, we fought.”

Iso’s eyes went even wider, and her mouth stood agape. “You fought?!”

“Can hardly call it a fight,” Bell murmured. “She wiped the floor with me. Well.” She considered. “That’s inaccurate too. She didn’t harm me at all. She just took all the damage, shrugged it off, and then started gushing about how cute she thought jellyfish were.”

Iso snorted in amused disbelief.

“I was stumped,” Bell continued, her voice slightly shaky. “She asked if I wanted to travel with her, and in that moment, I gained a new Main Quest.”

Theora already didn’t want to know what that Main Quest was.

“So, what is it?” Iso asked.

Bell’s gaze slowly went back to Theora, and it was clear that there was a hint of fear in it — or apprehension. She had just confessed to an attempted murder of what she understood to be Theora’s crush. Her demeanour was defiant, but insecure. Unsure about how the next minutes would play out. Or rather, very sure about what would happen, and dreading the result. Theora could almost see Bell’s thoughts run through her jellyfish head — ‘I understand what I did and I’d do it again, kill me for it if you must.’ 

“You can invite her to the party,” Theora said, turning to Iso. “Let her share the quest.”

And so, within a few seconds, Theora was greeted by its description.

 

[Current Main Quest: Betray the Ancient Evil.]

Gain the trust of the Ancient Evil and its companions, to kill it when the opportunity presents itself.

 

After reading it, Theora’s eyes flickered back to Bell.

“And so,” the girl said, “I decided to agree to the Ancient Evil’s request.”

Again, Iso laughed out loud. “You’re just showing that to us? That’s typical. You just can’t be dishonest.”

“I believe in the value of open communication, regardless of what kind of position that might put me in,” Bell murmured. “If the System thought it could send me on a betrayal quest in secret, it doesn’t seem to know me at all.”

“It probably doesn’t,” Theora agreed. The System — or, the Brat, as Isobel called it — had access to about infinite knowledge, but only finite attention. It would not waste a lot of it on the states of mind of its heroes. After all, that’s how it had failed to deliver a quest either Theora or Iso had been willing to complete.

Bell nodded. She took in a slightly unsteady and shaky breath. “Still, this is rather peculiar, isn’t it?” she said. “The fact that the three of us are sitting here, talking about this at all. It cannot be coincidence.”

Iso stared in confusion, her feelers making a little circling motion. “Wait, why? Why the three of us? Something going over my head again?”

Bell raised her eyebrows. “You weren’t aware? All of us are tasked with ending the Ancient Evil.”

“What?” Iso’s head snapped around to Theora, clatters issuing over her entire body. For the first time, a hint of fear made itself into her expression.

Of course it did. Isobel had seen Theora’s spreadsheet, read [Obliterate]’s description, felt the aura burst on the top of the mountain and perceived Theora’s empty gaze. Iso knew that if Theora wanted to kill Dema, she actually could — a concept that felt much less imaginary than the prospect of Bell accomplishing the same.

“It’s how we met,” Theora confirmed.

Iso’s apprehension let off, replaced by a hint of mischievous curiosity. “Tell me all about it!” she demanded with a grin.

“We don’t have the time for sappy romance,” Bell interjected. “Or rather, I don’t have the patience for it. We need to clear this up. All three of us are tasked to kill the Ancient Evil, all three of us are sitting here, talking to each other, and all three of us are in close contact with our target. That’s peculiar. Plus, that very target is the one who got me here. I would have fled after our encounter otherwise. And she’s the one who birthed None.”

Isobel frowned, and started thinking. “I suppose that is peculiar in some way. Is Dema collecting people out to kill her?”

“I believe it may be the System gathering people together,” Theora said. “The System engineered the Afterthought problem to keep me here. That’s what it used to gain time to gather you two as well.”

“What?” Bell let out. “The System would never…”

“I only have circumstantial evidence,” Theora continued, “But it presents a strong case. Before your arrival, I would not have expected the System to act this way, either. It was the last piece of the puzzle.” Theora sighed softly, and restrained. “The Afterthought problem started a few weeks before Dema and I arrived here. In other words, when the System was aware we were on our way. While people have been injured in the process, nobody has died. The System had perhaps weighed this as an acceptable sacrifice for a shot at disposing of Dema.”

Iso slowly nodded. “Seems plausible so far.”

“Another piece of evidence,” Theora said, “Is the fact that no other hero of the System ever arrived to take care of the Afterthoughts.” She made a circling motion with her hand, one she’d learned from Balinth to refer to Hallmark while being inside it. “This is not a task that requires me. Any hero of the System could have helped. In fact, typically, for something like this, I imagine the System would send a couple of experts and have the problem solved within a few months or years. But it didn’t. I could have used this time to work on the other side quest it gave me — presumably one that can only be solved by me — but it was fine with me being stuck here, because me being stuck here was by its design.”

Theora swallowed, and tried her best to remain collected and not show her true emotions to these two girls, who were barely to blame. “I imagine what happened is this: The System tasked a couple of extremely competent heroes through quests with causing and maintaining the plague, unseen, and keeping the town at constant near-breaking point. And now that you’ve both finally arrived here, ready to commit the killing blow against Dema, the System has withdrawn its heroes, and that’s why, last week, we finally managed to shut down the first factory. The plague will likely subside over the next few weeks, and that will be the final proof.”

The other two were left dead silent, staring at Theora, trying to absorb the information she’d shared.

The truth was, Theora left most of it unsaid.

The System had acted this way because Theora was refusing to do her duty, and because the System, to the best of its knowledge, believed that Dema had to be stopped. And it would use whatever means necessary to accomplish that goal.

And so, Theora left unsaid how this meant that this was all her fault. How if she never had arrived at Hallmark, this city wouldn’t have encountered this plague. How if she hadn’t arrived at Hallmark, Balinth’s leg could have properly healed. How Magda’s life would have been that much more peaceful. How nobody would have been injured by Afterthoughts, and how the town wouldn’t have lost half its population.

Theora had stayed here under the misconception that she’d be of help. She’d done her best to get up every morning and aid this town in need.

The truth was, the actual plague had been Theora herself. Had she decided to leave this place behind at any point, the issues would have ended right then.

It made sense, of course. She was the Roaming Blight. What else could she have expected from staying in a place for long? She’d poison it, no doubt.

“Okay, wait,” Iso said after a few moments of thought. “So, you’re saying that both Dema and the Brat are trying to surround her with people tasked to kill her?”

Bell hummed in thought. “Makes sense. The System obviously just thinks that being close to the target increases the chances of success. Meanwhile, the Ancient Evil is a manipulative deceiver.”

At that exact moment, Dema coincidentally walked past the door leading to the kitchen. “I can hear you there!” she shouted. “Dinner’s ready soon! Also, do we have some more paper? My next scheme is slowly coming together!”

Bell shook her head in annoyance, and continued. “The Ancient Evil probably thinks something like ‘keep your friends close, but your enemies closer’. Maybe she believes that having us around will help ensure our tasks fail.”

“Look,” Iso said, “If you’re going to travel with Dema to gain her trust, maybe at least use her name?”

Bell blinked. “Right. Dema. What I’m saying is, there is a chance that both Dema and the System consider it beneficial to them if she is surrounded by her enemies, and that may be how this meeting came to happen.”

“Could also just be that Dema loves isopods and jellyfish and—” Theora swallowed. “Strong girls,” she added awkwardly.

Bell rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, I am aware that you are living under the misguided assumption that Dema is just a harmless cutie. She’s not. Let’s not waste our time on that debate, we’ve had it before. More importantly, I would like us to be upfront about our aims in this.”

“Our aims?” Iso asked. “How do you mean?”

“What we are planning to do. How we are going to proceed,” she said. “We all are tasked with the same thing. Let’s discuss how we feel about it.”

“I hate it, duh! She’s my mom! I’m not only going to protect her, I’m going to give that Brat a hefty slap until it stops this nonsense.”

Bell nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean. Let’s be open. As for me — I’m going to do exactly what this quest asks of me. I will use whatever opportunity presents itself.”

“Oh, come on!” Iso let out. “I know you don’t mean that!”

Bell’s eyes flickered to Theora, again with that defiant apprehension, that fear of being executed on the spot. When nothing happened, she asked, “And you?”

Theora took a deep breath.

So, it had all been disentangled.

The two realities of her life were sitting in front of her, collapsed into two different people. One that refused to do her duty because of how much she appreciated Dema, and one who knew that her Main Quest inevitably had to be completed, no matter the cost.

This was such cruelty. And still, Theora had no answer. Communicating clearly? Being upfront? How could she do that if she didn’t even understand herself how this situation could possibly be resolved? Being faced off with all of it in this way felt excruciating and cruel, and self-centred too.

Both Bell and Iso were living each reality, in its full fervour, unable to hop around and pick whichever was easier to bear at the moment. Iso, desperately trying to protect her mother and mounting whichever resources she could to do so, even going as far as to dream of dismantling the System itself, and Bell, who’d gone on a hopeless endeavour with the full knowledge that it might have simply gotten her killed, just like that. And she’d still pushed through.

“I don’t want to kill Dema,” Theora muttered, and it felt like the truth, albeit incomplete, because despite it all, she still had that nagging, almost-but-not-quite banished feeling in the depths of her heart. That calm sea of truth, that certainty, that knowledge.

The knowledge of how Theora had come to be and the knowledge of how she’d come to end, that made it hard to breathe and get up in the mornings and talk and even move, because it left only one inevitable conclusion.

“I don’t want to kill Dema,” she repeated, and in saying that, her voice nearly broke.