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He’d tried to ignore it, of course, knowing that dwelling on it was pointless. All that would accomplish was making him even more miserable than he already was. Better to concentrate on things that he could actually change. Or on things that could at least provide some sort of escape for him mentally, however fleeting.

But this situation was suddenly bringing it up again. Stronger than ever. Because it was accompanied by an actual sense of hope, for once.

Agh.

Very dangerous thinking, that. He needed get a hold of himself. At the end of the day, Rezolo was right. He shouldn’t put too much stock in that idea.

Really. When had hope ever worked for him?

Another set of winding stairs lay ahead, but Darksteel stopped, which brought the rest of them to a halt, too.

“I think we’ve passed beyond the dark fog that was blanketing everything,” said Hector, his voice tinged in metal. “Can you reapers sense the city above us, now?”

Voreese spoke up first. ‘Yep. That’s a lot of souls up there. Looks like we’re in the right place, after all.’

“Anything else?” the lord pushed. “Any... weirdness? Vito reported some sort of mass hysteria up there.”

‘Hmm, let’s see. Eh. Seems normal enough to me. What about you two chuckleheads? Sense anything strange?’

Rezolo and Garovel remained quiet a moment, perhaps concentrating, before Rezolo spoke up next. ‘Not I.’

But Garovel had a different response. ‘Actually, I do... feel something off. I can’t quite tell what it is, though.’

‘Well, think harder, then,’ said Voreese. ‘Figure it out! Right now, dammit!’

‘Very helpful, thank you.’

‘Okay, fine, where is it? Tell me the direction of this “offness” that you sense.’

‘Agh. Um. Northwest of here, I think.’

‘Great. Cool. Which way is northwest?’

‘Are you kidding me?’ And Garovel pointed with his ethereal gecko’s tail.

‘Oh, don’t give me a hard time! We’ve been wandering around in the dark after teleporting across the continent! My internal compass is busted as hell, so how can yours still be working after all that?!’

‘What can I say? I’m just the greatest.’

‘Greatest bullshitter, maybe.’

‘Ha, well, that’s definitely not true. Anyway, just help me out, will ya? What do you sense over there?’

Voreese grumbled wordlessly but seemed to start concentrating. Rezolo, too, from the look of it.

‘...Okay, yeah, you’re right. There’s definitely something fucked going on over there. Can’t tell how fucked, though. It’s weird.’

‘...I believe that may be the work of an aberration,’ said Rezolo.