As they moved through the path she created, Sigrid’s curiosity finally overcame her observation. She had been studying their party with the intensity of someone observing variables, and now she spoke.

"I know the Infiniverse and Ruination as his close constructs and family, but you"...she looked directly at Moiraine, "you carry the air of both Paradox and Origin. What’s your story?"

...!

Moiraine’s expression shifted to something between calmness and protectiveness. She looked at Sigrid briefly before she spoke as Noah was ahead of them walking with a smile, the Infiniverse floating in front of him on her leaf protectively, and Ruination even further ahead

Moiraine was the one to answer. "The story begins with a misunderstanding that became fortunate. We, a few Paradoxes, mistook Sir for a Young Paradox who didn’t produce Inevitabilities...a miracle. I was the one who thought he might be an answer to our curse."

"So you brought him to the Transcendent Paradoxical Folds?" Sigrid asked, Order itself leaning in to understand the sequence of events.

Noah picked up the thread with his characteristic casual delivery of significant information. "Yes, she did. While there, some Paradoxes saw opportunity in my unusual nature. They plotted, schemed, made their move..."

"A bitch called Diviticus decided to try and devour Sir," Moiraine interrupted, her usual composure cracking with anger on his behalf.

The emotion transformed her from follower to defender, from subordinate to someone who would end existences for the offense!

"She managed to get a portion of his blood and power before he brought me into the Early Veiled Shore."

She continued, her voice carrying the particular venom of someone who had not forgiven and would not forget. "As for Diviticus, she became what she stole...a Living Paradox who doesn’t produce Inevitabilities. Based on what Sir told me, she used this power to help Living Paradoxes steal the corpse of an Early Creature from the Coalition of Living Existences."

Sigrid’s eyes blazed with intensity that made the air around her organize itself into attack patterns.

"Is that right?"

...!

Her eyes were cold.

When she spoke, her voice carried the weight of Order itself pronouncing judgment.

"Order remembers all debts. Every theft, every violation, every breaking of proper sequence." The words emerged with such dangerous calm that space itself seemed to take notes.

"When I’m fully awakened, when Order flows through me without restriction, Diviticus and others will learn what happens when you steal from those under Order’s protection. They will be... organized. Completely. Permanently."

Noah raised his brow and whistled when he heard her proclamation!

The threat in those words transcended violence...it was the promise of being unmade, sorted into components that would never again achieve coherence.

She turned to Noah, her expression shifting from dangerous to concerned. "Is it acceptable that this Diviticus has a corpse of an Early Creature? What can she do with such a thing?"

Noah’s response balanced his carefreeness with underlying seriousness. "One thing we know, or theorized based on what a few Dukes mentioned...is that she can open tears...rips in the veil between the Living and the Dead. While that’s an excellent source of loot and advancement, it can quickly go from beneficial to catastrophic. The Dead, the truly Dead...I need more information on them."

His eyes took on a mysterious gleam as he continued. "But... there’s someone who may or may not be putting reins on Diviticus. Someone I’ve been collecting information about."

He glanced at Moiraine meaningfully. "He seems to be someone with a great level of influence and power. My Weavings are telling me to learn more about him...suggesting he might be more significant than he appears."

"Schrodinger," Moiraine said, the name carrying weight that suggested stories untold.

"Among...others," Noah confirmed.

"Many of those truly powerful will consider the endless folds a large boardgame. The game being played has more players than pieces, and some are playing different games entirely..."

As they continued through the depths, their conversation flowing with the easy rhythm of people who trusted each other despite their different natures, Ruination suddenly broke through another barrier.

The dissolution of stone revealed something that made them all pause.

Blinding obsidian gray light erupted from beyond, forcing them to shield their eyes momentarily. When vision returned, they found themselves approaching a vast cavernous space that defied the cramped passages they had been navigating!

It was a hollow world, complete unto itself.

Jagged obsidian purple crystals jutted from every surface...floor, walls, ceiling...each one containing colors that shouldn’t exist simultaneously. The crystals sang with weavings that suggested they were recordings, memories crystallized into mineral form.

But it was what stood at the center that drew their attention completely.

A figure that looked half-alive and half-dead stood motionless before a massive Memory Stone that pulsed with inner light. Its eyes contained the blank stare of something that had forgotten it was supposed to be conscious.

In its hand, a tattered blade hung with the weight of purpose forgotten but not abandoned.

|Domain Discovered: The Servant’s Crystal Requiem|

|Remnant Lifeform Identified: Kelgar the Lost|

|Distinction: Last Disciple of Early Creature Morathis|

|Origin: Desiccated Sleeping Shore #4,892|

|Status: Neither alive nor dead, perpetually serving|

|Memory Stone Detected|

|Size: Colossal|

|Potential Memories: Unknown (Requires extraction)|

|Warning: May contain consciousness fragments|

|Paradox Minerals Detected|

|Quantity: Abundant|

|Location: Embedded in crystal formations|

|Quality: Exceptional|

The entity, Kelgar the Lost, stood with the perfect stillness of something that had been waiting so long that waiting had become its entire existence. The tattered blade in its grip showed signs of impossible age, edges that had been sharp for eons slowly forgetting what sharpness meant.

Then, with the mechanical precision of ancient programming finally triggered, its head turned.

Blank eyes that contained nothing and everything fixed upon them.

The blade rose with movement that suggested routine rather than thought.

And in a voice that sounded like memories of sound rather than actual speech, it spoke.

"Master... is that... you? Have you come... to release me... from my vigil?"

The question buzzed in the crystal-sung air, carrying the weight of eons of service that had continued past the point where service had meaning!

Here was loyalty that had transcended death, duty that had outlasted its purpose, a guardian who had forgotten everything except that it was supposed to guard.

Noah gripped the Goad tighter, feeling through it the profound education this entity might provide...not through combat, but through the simple tragedy of its existence.

This was effort that had continued past reason, past reward, past any possible harvest except the hope that someday, someone would tell it to stop.

The Primordial Early Excavation Depths had revealed their first truth... some things endured not because they were strong, but because no one had given them permission to rest.