Chapter 1431 (2/2)

Almost immediately, Randidly left Tatiana’s office, at her insistence taking the other various reports with him, and proceeded to the Kharon police headquarters. Valor Rend, who had manned the headquarters while the police were gone, met him at the door and led him toward the interrogation rooms. The man practically begged Randidly to bring him on his next training expedition, to which Randidly provided his amused agreement.

But that training session might be quite far in the future… perhaps even several years.

Eventually, Valor pointed to Randidly's destination and Randidly thanked him for his time and increased his pace. As he walked up to the door, Randidly sensed more concretely why his Revelation energy had reacted to the suggestion earlier. Randidly’s emerald eyes flashed. But he didn’t dwell on this revelation and simply walked into the room.

Apparently Randidly’s casual training to conceal his image was more successful than he thought because both hopped to their feet as soon as they noticed him. From the expressions on their faces, neither had sensed his approach. Hydie’s movement sent her chair clanging across the floor and slamming into the wall with a loud bang. For a second, the room fell into an awkward silence.

Randidly grinned to break the mood. “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but I wanted to spend some time focusing on these people trying to infiltrate Kharon. Do you mind if I ask a few questions?”

“Of course not, sir.” Derek Moss responded immediately. His arm twitched as though he was going to salute Randidly, but he suppressed it. Randidly’s smile widened marginally; one of his strongest beliefs was that he didn’t want to turn the Order Ducis into a military organization. A salute was only a small part of that, but Randidly was pleased that Derek had curbed this habit so quickly.

“I’ve read the reports,” Randidly lied, imagining Tatiana shaking her head sorrowfully. “But I want more information about their attitude. Or their images at the time immediately prior to capture or immediately after. How were they behaving? Was there anything unusual?”

Hydie and Derek exchanged a glance. Both of their brows were furrowed in thought. Hydie busied herself by moving to the chair she knocked over and setting it back on its feet. For a second it looked like she was going to return to her seat in the chair, but then seemed to recall Randidly’s presence and just swayed like she was drunk. Eventually, Derek shook his head. “Their image was just that of clearly intending to harm Kharon. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have caught them… nothing sticks out to me… other than the fact they all came quietly when confronted.”

Randidly nodded. Then he glanced at Hydie.

She felt his gaze and visibly flinched. Then she made a very overt show of considering the question carefully. But the more she thought, the more the lines of her face curved into a frown. “...I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning… but usually when we caught them, they would burst into tears. About half of them cried, wouldn’t you say?”

She glanced at Derek and he nodded slowly. Then Hydie shrugged. “It didn’t have anything to do with an image, but they were all… rather pathetic when it came down to it. Helpless, almost. I… I’ve felt like that in the past, so…”

Randidly breathed out through his nose and considered that perspective. The helplessness was interesting to note, but it largely just conveyed that they weren’t serious threats to Kharon on their face. Perhaps if they didn’t have the opportunity to come to the city, the negative feelings would have withered and died naturally. The reasons that these people had come here were rather mundane grievances, after all.

Randidly spared one last narrowed glance for Hydie before turning away. “I’ll keep that in mind. In the meantime, if you remember anything else, please let me know. And thank you both for the hard work.”

“Yes sir,” Both replied. Then Derek offered a small smile. “Honestly, I’m not so good at image detection. Most of the work was done by the moss spirits. I do recall having an impression of what Hydie is talking about... I almost wish I could share my memory with you so you could view it yourself. Maybe then you could learn more.”

Randidly opened his mouth to say something polite, but he froze. Because the rope wrapped around his right wrist twinged, just slightly. Frozen with his gaze on Derek, Randidly’s Willpower reached out and touched his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. And the Fate proudly told him that it could accept donated memories from other individuals, although there was a cost to doing so.

You seriously waited until now to tell me? Randidly’s mouth twitched. Is that why the Leveling of the Fatepiece stopped in the seventies, no matter how much I used it? I had been focusing on thinking through definitions and functions of Dreamcatchers to unlock the rest… but what if the operative words were ‘Long Night’?

This Fate is an extension of my Class. It was an object made to accomplish the dream of my existence… and a large part of that dream is Earth. So the Long Night isn’t just the troubles I face, but the troubles of the entire Earth… This dreamcatcher could contain the memories of many individuals- hell, do I even need to keep it on my person?

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 72!

Suddenly, Randidly’s eyes widened further. And we had already been designing keystones to act as focal points for images of weakness within Kharon Academy. If the weight of memory could be added to that as well…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 73!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 81!

“Ahem,” Derek coughed lightly at the look of stunned surprise on Randidly’s face. “Is something the matter…?”

“No… just some good news,” Randidly’s mouth curved into a smile. “There actually is a way for you to donate your memories to me…”