A muffled voice called out from somewhere, “Alex! Alex!”

  Who’s that?

  A harmony called to him, seemingly asking him to come back.

  No, he thought, I’m busy looking at everything. Go away.

  It was too large for his mind to hold. Sensation and being torrented through his frontal cortex, an infinite number of places, things, people, and feelings smashed together and through without mercy. Love layered over hurt, one person’s desire knocked side by that one’s anger before bottoming out into a teeth grinding impatience. Places that felt familiar shoved aside for places that were wrong, eerie, terrifying, desolate, beautiful, all ripping part his awareness as if on a film reel that refused to run out. Infinite existence, maybe his existence, flowed in and out of his brain. Faces flashed and replaced themselves again and again, some recognizable, most unrecognizable, some alien, some twisted and many thankfully grinning. Upside down worlds, almost same worlds, infinite variations of the same fragile life pressed.

  He, for he was pretty sure he was a he, grasped at the assault. The barrel of the infinite was more comfortable than the suffocating shadows of the single self. It was easier to feel the weight of a thousand problems than look inward toward roots of rot within.

  “CAN YOU HEAR ME? FUCKING WAKE UP! CAN SOMEONE GET A FUCKING HEALER?” That same muffled voice called again. He was pretty sure it was a girl. A very angry girl.

  No. Leave me alone. I’m not going in there right now.

  Seizing on the wet, mossy ground in the middle of the forest, foaming at the mouth, Alex latched onto the weird interaction of the Gnomish tea and his planar-awareness and refuted the interaction with [Burrow Sense]. That one was much too painful.

  The harmony called again at the edges of his experience, this time almost sad.

  I can’t. I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t.

  It didn’t speak, but as another thousand realities broadened his horizons, he swore the call answered back. You can, it said, I promise you.

  Too much. It’s too much.

  He knew it was beautiful, that much was clear. But underneath that beauty, there was layers of hurt and pain just waiting to be upturned and churned right back in. On the initial flood of the inward glance and connection it offered, Alex rejected it outright in favour for the mind melting infinity.

  To harmony called again. This time it didn’t plead or ask. The damn thing challenged him. No offering of comfort, no scorching bliss of the everything, but an extension of an inconvenient truth.

  UGGGGGGGGGGGH.

  Thing was, the sliver that was still him loved a challenge. Scary it might be, but Alex hadn’t ever been the type to back down from one, nor had he been graced with the opportunity for such. Streets alone in winter with nothing but wits and a fat cat, Dungeons, standing up to those who thought themselves more clever or daring. No, he felt himself most daring.

  FINE. FUCK YOU THOUGH, YOU ASSHOLE.

  He swore he felt the harmony chuckle as he tore himself free of the barrel of the infinite and rejoined the scary bit. A confrontation of himself, just himself, and the big scary world.

  “HE’S NOT WAKING UP!”

  “What’s wrong with him!?”

  “Spot’e’gnomish tea’ll do ‘ye right in.”

  One voice seemed to cut in more clearly, though. “She has him now.”

  “Someone get Emilio!”

  She? Alex thought in that split second as his mind came into reality, got bashed immediately again with Gnomish tea, and swiftly scooped up with his [Burrow Sense].

  Beacons of Essence, which he recognized as Cores, hovered all around him. Bright and laying bare their existence, he saw them and reached for their connection. Waves of magic rolled all around like snow. He tried to latch onto any of them, but the harmony’s pull was far deeper.

  [Burrow Sense] let him see all, and the Gnomish tea hurled him past his friends, over the stamping, celebrating horde of Gnomes, and straight toward Thumb Rock. Look at this. LOOK AT THIS AND SEE THIS, the harmony all but screamed at him.

  Though not an expert in sociology, Alex did see. A thousand years, two thousand, five, ten, twenty and beyond, people, specks of existence, had come here to the funnily shaped rock for not always funny things. Laughter and hope infused the stone. Treachery had wiggled in. Rituals and meetings, a thousand thousand discussions of all variety, and many acts and choices happened there. Existence and causation brought by minds centered and flowed around a rock that looked like a thumb.

  “He stopped foaming! Alex! Can you hear me!?” The same muffled female voice called.

  Damn, dude. That’s kind of cool. Ok, I see you, song lady.

  The harmony seemed to nod, and young as she was, got excited that this existence seemed able to not only connect to her, as the Gnomes did, but really see.

  So Gaia, who the Gnomes called Mother, who even Emilio had a good relationship with, blasted Alex on a top-down view of the entirety of the Algonquin region. History and life over thousands of years laid bare.

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  First and foremost, Alex convulsed even more brutally. His whole body seized and he foamed at the mouth as he clenched and screamed into the night. The entire gang went into full panic mode again. Nino fanned his pants on his employee while Mary and Snu cried in each others arms. The drones, with their own special connection to Gaia, calculated that things would be alright and decided collectively that there was dancing to be had.

  And in that briefest moment before Gaia realized her mistake and shoved him back into himself, Alex did see.

  Life and death interwoven as millions of variations of existence sprouted and withered. Stories unfolded, small and large, of heroes and sacrifice, of revenge and hope. Layers fell as new powers came. Thousands of Relics were stashed away in the forest, buried beneath a rock or at the bottom of a bog. Importantly, as Gaia forced him to see, Alex recognized to the delight of the harmony. There was just a smidgen more good than there was of bad.

  But that’s not balance? I thought it was all balance?

  The harmony laughed and sent something to him. He didn’t understand the music, but he got the gist of it. It was the beatings of life that tilted the scales. Minds forming good out of the chaos of it all, and something way in the bowels of the soil that tried it’s best. Little wiggles of Essence reaching up out from deep down.

  Ahh…so no meaningless existence then. Gotcha, little song lady. And what is that? What are those wigg--

  But his connection to Earth had already been snapped off, in fear from the harmony that he might truly see it.

  Into his own mind he went as his [Burrow Sense] was closed off to battle his own demons.

  “Why is he crying!?” A gnome laughed.

  Ok, that’s embarrassing.

  “Eh!” Nino called angrily. “Is OK for him to cry! Let the boy cry it out.”

  Old anxiety and the self-loathing of the desperately lonesome child called out from his mind. Alex recognized these things within him, and rather than sequester them away, he did something different. He curled around them and hugged them within his brain, flattening out his hurt with the wire brush of self empathy. Rather than letting it root in, Alex calmed it. He didn’t erase the bits that made him, well, him.

  And then it all cut off at once as something extremely heavy landed on his chest and purred.

  “OUF!” He grunted, eyes finally rolling back to their place to open.

  Pressing a wet nose into his face and purring louder than the beating drums of the partying Gnomes was Emilio. It was the first thing he saw and felt. Thirty pounds of grey cat sitting on his chest, as there was no way his cat wanted wet paws.

  “Buddy,” Alex reached up and scratched under his waiting chin. “That was kinda crazy, you know? You did a damn blessing or something on those new babies. How are you doing?”

  Emilio just purred and blinked his big green eyes at Alex, rooting him back in reality. He was no longer glowing. Just a simple cat and the human he had chosen as his [Companion]

  “Alex!” Snu and Mary dropped to the wet ground next to him, hugging him, and Snu kissing him all over his foamy, tear covered face.

  Beating drums banged around Thumb Rock in the background as the Soil Mind mushrooms strobed. Beepy, Zippy, and Aria were doing the Rasputin and the Gnomes were cartwheeling in celebration through a [Volt Whip]. Yet on the edge of the party, a small group circled around Alex and made sure that he was OK.

  After the assault of love from his friend and girlfriend, Emilio leapt to the wooden bench next to Petal and watched as Alex finally sat up.

  “Did you guys all have a good time?” He scratched the back of his head.

  Snu sat back down beside him, snorting. “I mean, yeah. At first, you were kind of just passed out. Looked like a crazy nap…,”

  She looked at the ground sheepishly and picked at some moss. Petal and Nino burst out laughing together.

  “Nino…,” Alex began, “What happened to your pants?”

  Nina floated around her husbands back, grinning as she licked her lips while looking at his muscled legs. “They laugh because this one,” she tilted her head toward Snu, “went full anger mode and transform to boss size. Very scary. Very loud. Demand that someone heal you.”

  Alex glanced at her and went to speak, but Francesca chimed in, singing, “Love is in the air. Oooooh, love is in the air.”

  Snu reddened and tossed a pebble at her, which whizzed past at the speed of a bullet and blasted through a tree a kilometer away. “I was just worried.”

  Alex went red in the face too, looking around and finally landing on Petal, who at least was grinning rather than waggling his eyebrows while mostly naked, like Nino. “And the Ritual went well?”

  Petal perked up, pressing out his rather large nipples. “Yes! The Gnomes of Allen Garden have welcomed children under the moonless night and declared it a success. Marzipan and Petunia rest with the children in a hold out while the rest of the brigade has fun.”

  The Gnome looked very proud of himself as he looked out onto the crowd of moshing Gnomes.

  “Dude! You’re up! See, I told you all he’d be fine. Street rats are tough,” Jemin wobbled over, shirtless and scales covered in mud. He pecked Mary on the cheek and grinned at Alex with sharp teeth. “Crazy eh? Not sure I had as good as a trip as you, but those Titles? Buddy. Those Titles are something else.”

  “Different for each of us too,” Mary added and looked at the dancing drones. “Now they think they’re even more invincible.”

  “I told ya,” Jemin responded. “They’re going to grow up fast. I know it’s hard.”

  The odd couple went on yapping away about potentially moving in together, with Jemin promising that he would do the laundry and cook for her. Mary, from what Alex could gather, was all for it, but clearly nervous.

  Two notifications sat waiting in his mind to open. Alex, always welcoming upgrades, was about to open them, but realized that Snu was waiting on the ground next to him, clearly staying close but not wanting to be a bother.

  He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Hey. Thanks for being there with me. Means a lot. Plus, it’s kind of cute when you get angry,” Snu grinned at him and leaned in to snuggle up as he continued. “I do think I’m ready to go home, though. That was a lot.”

  “You want to check out your—"

  PLINK

  Something dropped and rolled over to Alex. It was a large, reddish Monster Core. Out of habit he threw an [Investigate] on it.

  [Heroic Hawk Core]

  Both he and Snu looked up and saw Emilio staring at him, blinking slowly into Alex’s eyes.

  “Ah, his Girthdom has brought you another gift!” Petal barked as he stood. “The Heroic Hawk was quite the bother in this area for years.”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Moose, the Dungeon Boss, stomped over from the woods. The Moose greeted everyone, had another conversation on the best way to herd raccoons with Nino, and then looked at Snu.

  “I must discuss things with Emilio, so this is our temporary goodbye. May we meet again under the awning of Earth, Lady of the Spires,” then he looked at Alex. “She treated you well?”

  “She?” Snu, Mary, and Francesca all asked at the same time.

  Alex scratched his head and pocketed the Core. He was exhausted, and now he had Titles to explore, a Core his cat wanted him to cultivate, and a Dungeon Boss girlfriend looking at him waiting for answers.

  He smiled at Emilio. “Tomorrow, then. Titles too. I’m fricken zapped,” then he looked at the expectant Snu and leaned in to whisper just to her.

  “Don’t worry about her. From what I could tell, she was a bit young for me.”

  The notifications dinged again, waiting, and thankfully, Snu giggled back. Since she didn’t seem mad, Alex hoped she’d join him in using the gift she’d gotten him for Christmas. Now was a good a time as any.

  Just as Alex got up, he received another notification. His third of the night.

  DING!