Luxcious looked out at the eclipse in front of him. He was back home, but for how long would he stay here exactly? That didn’t matter now as he had more important matters to attend to. He turned his attention to the spire off in the distance and looked at one of the balconies with a spyglass. Luxcious could just barely make out a doorway behind the balcony. He put down the spyglass and motioned a counterclockwise circle with his hands. Slowly a sigil formed in front of him. After completing the motion, Luxcious clapped his hands and was immediately whisked forward onto the balcony which he was staring at mere moments ago.

  He strode through the doorway and down the glass corridor towards the foyer. Once he reached the spiral staircase at the center of the tower he began to descend towards his destination. As Luxcious made his way down, he bumped into Aliyas.

  ”Luxcious dear friend, what brings you to my humble abode?” Aliyas asked.

  ”We need to talk, you and I.” Luxcious answered.

  “About what, exactly?” Aliyas inquired.

  ”James, or the bastard weasel who wears the skin of Cassius.” Luxcious replied.

  Aliyas nodded and made his way back to the foyer. The two of them sat down next to the fireplace and began their discussion.

  “I think he’s hiding something from us, all of us.” Luxcious started.

  “What exactly do you think he’s hiding?” Aliyas replied.

  ”I think he’s an Ouroboros.” Luxcious responded.

  ”Really? Pray tell, why do you think this?” Aliyas asked, his face pensive.

  ”Went down to the Archives, asked for records of Cassius. The attendant there did not remember who he was.” Luxcious said.

  ”He could just be new to the job.” Aliyas reasoned.

  ”Can’t be, in order to work in the Archives, you have to memorize the vast majority of its contents. Only way in which a Scribe can get information wrong is if someone else overwrote it…” Luxcious mused.

  ”Only way that can happen is if the collective memory was overwritten.” Aliyas said.

  Luxcious got up out of his seat and walked over to the balcony. He stared out at the gaping hole left in the wake of the Bureau’s attempted advances.

  ”Where exactly are you going?” Aliyas asked.

  ”Stopping mass genocide, that’s where I’m going.” Luxcious answered and dove off the balcony.

  He quickly reached terminal velocity and raised his head towards the tear off in the distance. After making yet another counterclockwise motion with his hands, Luxcious slingshotted himself through the tear at breakneck speed. He closed his eyes once he made contact. For a few moments, there was nothing but darkness, only for his vision to be filled with light. Luxcious felt his feet touch solid ground and opened his eyes again. He was inside of a pristine marble hallway with various potted plants on his left and right.

  He walked down the corridor as scientists and security guards passed by. Most of them paid him no attention, though a few did stop to look up at the visitor. After a few minutes, a scientist in a navy blue lab coat approached him.

  ”What brings you to our headquarters?” They asked.

  ”What do you know about a certain Silas James Mori?” Luxcious asked.

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  The scientist looked down at their tablet and touched a few buttons. Moments later two security guards appeared beside them.

  ”Would you kindly escort this gentleman to the director’s office?” They said.

  The guards simply nodded and walked down the hall a little before making a left turn. Luxcious followed after them, noticing the appearance of a serpentine pattern on the floor. The trio stepped into an elevator comprised partly of glass. One of the guards pressed a button which caused the elevator doors to closed. Slowly the elevator began its ascent upward from floor two hundred all the way to the three hundredth floor. Luxcious tapped his foot as Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up started to play. Of course James would do something like this, just out of spite to his ex-coworkers.

  Finally the elevator had reached its destination, not before the song had looped about seventeen times. Luxcious stepped out of the elevator as the two guards remained behind. He shrugged and made his way over to the desk in front of him. He caught a glimpse of the world outside from the massive window at the back of the room. Nothing but rivers of lava and decrepit obsidian towers as far as the eye could see. Smoke filled the sky making the actual details of the ground impossible to discern.

  Luxcious sat down in the chair and looked at the desk. He turned the plaque at the front to face him and the name “Benedict O’Connor” on it. He accidentally hit a button while doing so, causing a hologram of O’Connor to materialize at the front of the room.

  ”Hello there.” Benedict’s hologram started.

  ”If you are hearing this, then I am somehow dead. As for why that button played this as opposed to the usual greeting, well I’ll get to that right now. It’s hooked up to the database that monitors the current condition of every single one member of our staff here, including myself, hence the reason for this recording to be played. Anyways, you’re probably wondering how I died, right?” The hologram continued.

  Luxcious simply nodded and watched as the phantom moved across the room.

  ”Well, either I died of natural causes, or someone killed me. Now I highly doubt that any of the creatures in the Abyss could, or would, harm me. So that just leaves us a few suspects, Virgil aka James, and his supposed sister. Frankly I don’t think his sister would be so willing to murder me on the spot. She’s not that merciless, the most she would do is ask me a few questions.” The phantom paused to take a breath.

  Luxcious chuckled, though this was one-hundred percent prerecorded, why else would there be such actions?

  “Anyways, to the new director who is probably listening to this, you might have a few questions. Such as what do now that I’m dead. Well first of all, do not go and conquer the Abyss. I wasn’t even trying to, yet James probably thought I was. I was only there on a diplomatic mission, we just needed more supply routes, that was all. Which, if we are to take that into consideration, a peace agreement would be required. And if we are to then take that into account, James would be violating the customs of these people! I presume that you’ve already read up on the history of our neighbors to the East?” The phantom continued.

  Luxcious opened up the nearest book and began to skim through the pages. It was a rather shorthand account of the history and customs of the Weavers as a people. Though it was surprisingly detailed for its short length. Luxcious looked up at the phantom which hand now put its right hand on the desk. He stared at it, yet the phantom did not stare back, instead it just drew another breath and continued to speak.

  ”Good, then you would know that this creature has just declared war against the very people which harbor it. Now how exactly did it do that? The answer is rather simple, murdering a diplomat or anyone who intends on brokering peace between their own nation and the Abyss is seen as extremely dishonorable. Most cases end with the death of the person who committed the murder. All well and good, which means we just have to wait.” The phantom grinned and slammed its fist on the desk.

  Luxcious got up and pressed the elevator button before he began to pace around the room.

  ”Well, things just went from bad to worse. James, what have you done to yourself?” He asked himself.

  Of course there was no real answer to a question like that. James was an enigma after all, no one truly knew what he was doing. Now that bastard had started a war, just great, another thing that they had to worry about. Luxcious thought for a bit and contemplated whether James had planned all of this out or if it was just mere coincidence. He shook his head as the elevator dinged and the doors swiftly opened. Luxcious entered and pressed the button to descend down to the two-hundredth floor. A hand bar shot out of the ceiling which the scientist in the elevator immediately grabbed onto.

  Luxcious followed suit as the elevator plummeted down at a brisk fifty miles per hour. Just as swiftly as the elevator had reached its destination, the doors opened again. Luxcious walked back down the hallway towards where he had originally arrived. Once he reached the exact location, he motioned his hands again, this time to summon a portal to take him back home. The portal quickly materialized in front of him and Luxcious stepped through.