The core of a dungeon wasn't a place that was normally accessible to delvers. They existed as a kind of grounding point for reality anchors—a storm of unstable reality and crumbling debris, often both able and willing to defend itself from delvers. And that was if they could be found. They were hidden in obscure and unlikely places, always close to the end of the dungeon but never easily reached.

The fact that this one had a train station attached to it was surprising.

Though that wasn't entirely accurate. Whatever the Conductor had done, it allowed the train to move through stone like it was water. Sev was certain he could feel the train wriggle as it moved through the dirt. It was one of the few memories he immediately wished he could erase, because he did not need to know what it felt like to be inside a creature wriggling through the dirt.

The 'station', therefore, wasn't really attached to anything resembling train tracks. The entrance to it was covered in solid stone, and Sev suspected that the appearance of the dungeon core's room was more for aesthetics than function. Even if it felt like a standard Anderstahl train station.

Except for the storm of reality throbbing in the center of it, of course. Sev did not like that he had to use that word to describe whatever was going on there.

"That... thing... is what you're going to try to fix?" Ixoryn stared at it warily. "It looks like it wishes to explode. And it is throbbing."

"Please don't say that word," Sev deadpanned. "It's bad enough that I thought it, I don't need you saying it."

"Pulsating?"

"That isn't any better."

"Quopping."

"I—" Sev stopped. "That's not a word."

"It is."

"There is no way that's a word."

"You are arguing with a literal god."

"...If that's a word, I somehow hate it even more than the other two." Sev stared at the still-throbbing... whatever it was in the center of the station, and then sighed. "Anyway, no, that's not the thing I'm going to try to fix. It's nearby, though. That's the grounding point for the anchor."

"And it is... supposed to look like this?" Ixoryn sounded skeptical.

"I didn't design it!" Sev threw his hands up into the air. "I don't even know if anyone designed it! I think it's just the natural result of having a reality anchor tied directly to a spatial matrix that consolidates—" he interrupted himself. "—nevermind. The point is that that's a natural phenomenon and we shouldn't look at it."

"I think it's pretty!" Tinsel quipped. The light fixture—Sev really wished he had a better mental name for it, but it refused to give him a different one, and 'Soulbloom Emanation' was unwieldy—had mostly recovered from its momentary depression, to Sev's relief. It seemed, if anything, even more determined to see as much as it possibly could before the end of the world. And to help with preventing it, if possible. Sev really didn't know if there was anything Tinsel could do to help with that, but he appreciated the sentiment.

"I... suppose," Sev said after a moment, only barely remembering to actually respond to what Tinsel said. Beside him, Ixoryn snorted.

"It is not," he said. "It is an ugly thing full of chaos. Impossible to navigate. And I don't say that lightly."

"But chaos is pretty!" Tinsel argued.

Sev waved a hand and spoke, trying to head off this argument before it could escalate. "We need to get down to where the reality anchor is," he said. Then he frowned. "Well, I need to get down to where the reality anchor is. I don't think either of you need to follow me. Or should follow me."

Ixoryn shrugged. "Alright," he said, leaning back against a wall and crossing his arms.

"I want to help!" Tinsel insisted.

"And you'll help the most by..." Sev paused. "...taking care of Ixoryn. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Oh." Tinsel thought about this for a moment. "Okay!"

Ixoryn glared. "I know what you're doing."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Listen, it works, don't ruin it for me," Sev said. To his credit, Ixoryn didn't say another word, even as Tinsel walked over to him and mimicked his exact pose, leaning against the same wall. Sev snorted a little at the sight, then turned back to the dungeon core in front of him.

It was time to do this. All he had to do was feed the anchor with a couple of reality shards. That wouldn't be so bad, right? The Void was pretty accessible from here. All he needed to do was... fall.

Sev hated heights.

"We are evacuating this city." Xelil's tone brooked no argument—she stood with her arms crossed and her eyes burning with fury. The king had tried to argue with her. Tried. That attempt had lasted for all of ten seconds, and now he was positively crumbling beneath her sheer force of personality.

Well... he was still trying, to be fair. He just wasn't doing it successfully. Vex had to admit that he wouldn't have imagined Xelil to be capable of this level of persuasion when they'd first met her.

"You are asking me to empty our kingdom," the king said, gritting his teeth. His name was... something. Xelil had introduced him, but Vex had gotten a little distracted by all the artifacts that were just stored in the Enkiros palace, apparently. There was at least one cloak on display with enchantments that he'd never seen before, and that was a feat worthy of investigating in and of itself.

Enkri? Something like that. King Enkri.

"You are asking me to abandon our walls. To empty our homes. To leave behind our gardens!" Enkri was clearly worked up, and yet he couldn't be quite as forceful as he wanted—he flinched under the force of Xelil's glare. Vex kept an eye out, worried that Enkri would try to cast a spell, but so far he seemed too afraid of Xelil to even try an attack. "All on the delusions of—"

"Finish that sentence," Xelil said coldly. Enkri gulped.

Vex had learned that Xelil was very protective of her little brother, and did not take kindly to insinuations about the other dragon's intelligence. Or any kind of insult toward him, for that matter.

"—of some adventurers!" Enkri blustered, trying to recover.

"Our information is verified by the Adventurers' Guild," Derivan said calmly. "By the High Priestess of Navigation, and by both the Elyran and Anderstahl governments."

"It's not your information I'm questioning," Enkri said, exasperated. "It's your solution! How can evacuating possibly be the solution? Enkiros is the product of generations of—"

"Everything we have accomplished will mean nothing if we lose the people of this kingdom," Xelil hissed. "Do you understand, Enkri? Your responsibility is to your people. The gods may guide you, but you must listen."

Enkri winced and fell silent. It was clear that he'd heard these words before—they struck a cord within him. The spiderlike man hesitated.

And then very, very slowly, he nodded.

"Fine," he said. "If... if that is what the gods desire. Then it shall be done."

"Good." Xelil's attitude brightened almost immediately. She clapped her hands once, then gathered the trio of Vex, Misa, and Derivan into a small huddle with her wings. "You guys said you needed to do one more thing, right? Something about a Grand Anchor. I won't pretend to know what that means."

"It is complicated," Derivan said.

"We're hoping it'll help us fix all this," Misa said. "No promises, though. By which I mean you should still evacuate."

"I'll handle the evacuation," Xelil said dryly, glancing back at the king. "Trust me. You guys go and get whatever you need. Do you need me to authorize anything for you?"

"Depends on whether we need permission to get into the center fountain or not." Misa grinned. Xelil raised an eyebrow.

"I should not be surprised that that's where it is," she said. "No, you won't need my permission. Just pretend you know what you're doing. It'll be fine."

To everyone's surprise, Xelil was right. it was not, in fact, difficult to get into the Vault—nor was it difficult to lay claim to the Grand Anchor that lay within. The fountain responded to the passphrase easily enough, and no one seemed interested in stopping them when they simply walked into the now-parted water. Everyone just seemed to sort of... assume that was what they were supposed to be doing.

Vex wasn't about to complain.

The Grand Anchor was warm in his arms. It sat in the middle of the Vault, accompanied by strange threads of golden webbing that stretched from wall to ceiling to anchor. The pedestal it sat on was worn with dust—it had been a long time since anyone had been in here, clearly. Unlike Elyra, no one had tried to force their way in.

Vex spared a moment to be thankful that Wisfield hadn't found this Grand Anchor instead of the one for Magic. They'd tried to create a god using its power. With the Grand Anchor of Magic, that was a difficult task at best, and one that required the combined effort of several of their elders. If they'd had access to the Grand Anchor of Divinity instead...

...Well, it didn't bear thinking about.

"I'm surprised getting the Anchor was this—" Misa started, and then she stopped mid-sentence, looking around surreptitiously. "...You know what? I'm not going to finish that sentence."

"Probably a good idea," Vex said. He'd reflexively clutched the new Grand Anchor close, wrapping both his arms around it and curling defensively around the glowing orb.

"Think it's about time we get this to Sev." Misa glanced around the empty Vault and frowned. "He needs to grab the Divinity Anchor and bond with it, right? And he needs to get me the Reality Anchor..." She paused. "Maybe I shouldn't call them that. I feel like that last one is confusing."

"Grand Anchor of Reality is a mouthful, though," Vex said with a laugh. "I'm sure we'll figure it out. It's not like you've got both a reality anchor and the Reality Anchor bonded with you."

Misa scowled at Vex, though it was a playful scowl. "Now you're just making fun of me."

"Just a bit." Vex smiled.

"I have informed Sev of our status," Derivan said. "I may need his assistance with another Blessing for us to rejoin him—the distance is great for Shift alone, and there is a barrier in the way."

"Right. The Anderstahl barrier." Misa frowned. "What's up with that, anyway?"