Sev raced back toward the train, pocketing the stone. He'd think about it later. "We need to hurry," he said, pulling a startled Ixoryn and Tinsel with him. "Not much time left."

"Were you not repairing it for the express purpose of having time?" A perplexed Ixoryn asked.

"We had hours left when I repaired it. The estimations we had were off, and we didn't account for the increased load of refugees being offloaded onto the Anderstahl anchor," Sev said. He leapt into the cabin and searched around for the Conductor—there was no time to waste, no time to wait for him to show up. "Sixty-one hours. Give or take a bit. Misa's anchor is technically separate, but it's got the exact same issue—it's going to degrade faster and faster the more people it's supporting, and need even more reality shards to maintain it."

He ducked into the next cabin, which was also empty. He kept running. The Conductor always showed up through the same door toward the front of the train; he had to be in this direction somewhere. Maybe in the first cabin or something.

"Can you not offer it more of your—" Ixoryn began. He was keeping up with Sev, though he wasn't running; it was another one of those instances where he broke the laws of physics. Each step he took carried him farther without him having to run. Sev interrupted him before he could finish.

"I can't," Sev said. "Sixty-one hours is with us feeding it every last reality shard we have. I'm going to need to send someone here to keep it going as it is." Sev found the next door locked—he pounded on it with a fist, desperation fueling him. "Conductor! Are you there?"

The door in front of him slid open. The Conductor took him in, and then came to an immediate conclusion. "Next destination," he guessed.

"Fast," Sev said. "Please."

The Conductor nodded. To his credit, he worked as quickly as he promised, in the sense that he disappeared, and then the train began to move; pretty soon, it was barreling through dirt and stone at ludicrous speeds once again. Sev collapsed into a nearby chair, exhausted, and Ixoryn and Tinsel sat opposite him, clearly concerned. The Conductor reappeared beside them a moment later.

"I hear we have little time left," he said without preamble. "We will arrive at the Vault in three minutes. Please hold on to ensure you do not get hurt."

Sev grabbed the table in front of him. Ixoryn reached out and grabbed Tinsel. The train sped up again and again, until the force of the table pressing into his chest made Sev certain it would leave a mark. The God of Navigation, on the other hand, was entirely unaffected—and Tinsel, likewise, was kept safe by him.

"I don't suppose this train can pick up my friends, too?" Sev asked. "They're outside Anderstahl. Big ask, I know."

"Not without straining the Prime Anchor even further," the Conductor said, which was... more or less what Sev expected. He winced—he'd have to rely on Blessings and Derivan's Shift to bring them here, then.

Three minutes. He used the time to perform his Blessing of Travel and to fire off a quick message to the rest of his party. They needed to meet up with him as soon as they could, so they could all bond with their respective Grand Anchors and just fix things.

The train jerked to a stop. "We are here," the Conductor said plainly, and Sev leapt to his feet, running for the entrance of the Vault. This one was protected by a keypad that was locked behind several layers of identification magic. Sev allowed it to identify him, typed in the ten-digit code, and stepped back as the doors to the Vault yawned open.

Then he ran in, grabbed the softly-glowing Grand Anchor sitting on the pedestal in the center, and began to run back out—only for a portal to split the air in front of him. Sev nearly tripped over himself in his attempt to avoid running straight into Derivan as the armor stepped through the portal, followed shortly by Vex and Misa.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"You guys got here fast," he said, surprised.

"The Blessing is effective," Derivan said simply. The portal rippled shut behind him, its power spent—Sev could feel the faint threads of divinity on it fading away.

"You said we don't have much time left," Misa said, getting down to business. "How much time do we have?"

"Sixty-one hours," Sev said. "Give or take. Not a lot of time." He handed her the Grand Anchor he was still holding; it felt strange in his palms, like it wasn't quite suited for him. At the same time, Vex pulled out the third and final Grand Anchor and handed it to him.

Misa and Sev stood there, holding their respective anchors awkwardly.

"Vex," Sev said after a moment. "How did you merge with your anchor?"

"Uh..." Vex blinked, trying to think back to the moment it had happened. All he remembered was that he resonated with it—some strong sensation of being aligned, not only with the anchor itself but with the entity of mana as a whole. The mana wanted to restore the world, too, after all; in another timeline, it had, even if its methods were flawed. "It connected with the part of me that loves magic and art. And I guess we both wanted the same thing? I remember how much I hoped bringing something back from the Void would work, and I remember feeling like the Grand Anchor wanted the same thing. Or that the mana did. And then it just... happened."

Misa frowned a bit, staring at the anchor she was holding. A small spark of understanding appeared in her eyes. She nodded once, and Sev watched as the Grand Anchor she held just... disintegrated.

A small shudder passed through Misa's frame. "There," she said. "I'm connected too. Actually, I think having a reality anchor tied to me already kind of helped. It just sort of merged with it. Sev?"

Sev concentrated on the Grand Anchor he held.

There was something about it that resonated with him. He could feel it. He'd forged a connection with so many gods at this point that he couldn't imagine not resonating with this anchor. But at the same time, there was something he felt like he was missing. Some small piece of understanding he didn't have.

He knew a lot of the gods. He was friends with a lot of them. He understood the framework for divine power, how reality was abundant with threads of divinity that could be claimed by any god, and how control over those threads granted a form of power that wasn't quite the same as what was granted by mana. On some level, it was reality manipulation—but unlike Shift, there was no source, no cause and effect. It was a simple alteration commanded into reality by a combination of willpower, imagination, and alignment with the god's domain.

But he still didn't really understand what all that meant.

The connection was there. He could feel it, almost like it was waiting to be formed—but he couldn't quite bridge the gap. He looked up helplessly at the others. "I'm... not sure," he said. "I can't—I can't connect with it. Derivan, maybe you should try."

Derivan tilted his head slightly. "I have neither the knowledge nor the connection with the divine planes that you do," he said, though he did accept the Grand Anchor from Sev. After a moment, he shook his head, passing it back. "Sev, perhaps—"

"We don't have time for me to figure it out," Sev insisted. "Maybe Ixoryn can do it. He's not far from here—he's the God of Navigation. I'll talk to him."

Derivan, Vex, and Misa all glanced at each other. "Navigation?" Misa asked hesitantly.

But Sev was already running.

This was his plan. He'd made these Grand Anchors, had pinned all his hopes on them—he didn't know what he'd do if it failed. It couldn't fail. If he couldn't connect with the Grand Anchor, then he'd have to figure it out, or someone else would have to connect with it.

And yet... something within him told him that he was the only one that could connect with it. That the connections he'd forged with so many different gods weren't easily replicated, and that those connections were what drew the Grand Anchor of Divinity to him. If he could just pass it on, he would—Velykos would be a good candidate, for example, considering the earth elemental had done an excellent job in reaching out to the gods and warning them in Sev's stead—but for better or worse, he was the one best suited for the anchor.

He dreaded the thought that he wouldn't be enough.