I don't know if I'd ever been so happy to not have a painting attack me.

The torches didn't, either. Neither did the candelabras that hung awkwardly from the walls, or the end tables that sat menacingly in the upstairs hallway's corners.

Nevertheless, we were both on high alert. We moved cautiously, Aldwyn and I, creeping down the stairwell. We each covered a cardinal direction, hearts pounding, eyes roving constantly.

I was astounded when we entered the kitchen and all of the cutlery, viciously sharp steak knives included, did not spontaneously animate and set forth after me. It was almost beyond belief. But hey, I wouldn't knock it.

Because it meant we were almost there.

We didn't have to pass by the dining room or living room on either side of the manor, leaving the only thing in front of us the grand, high-ceilinged, main hall. There was no danger in the main hall. No items of furniture that we hadn't already seen, inert. For one beautiful moment, I imagined the outside sun shining upon my face.

My hopes were dashed the instant we saw the door. Or rather, the instant we saw what was in right front of it.

Standing there, far from its original placement in the dining room, was the gilded suit of armor.

Its pose was unmistakably confrontational. Its arms met just above the navel, two handed grip holding fast the greatsword that had previously been strapped to its back, now planted in the ground before it, piercing the lacquer.

Aldwyn's face was pale. Mine was, too. A horde of pillows had almost ended both of us. How could we possibly kill an animated suit of armor?

"Do–do you think it can see us?" Aldwyn whispered to me.

"Not likely," I whispered back. "If it's anything like the pillows, it'll transform before becoming aggressive. I doubt it can even hear us speaking right now."

"Hey! HEY! FUCKING MIMIC CUNT!" I yelled, waving my arms up and down to no response. Aldwyn looked at me, scandalized. I shrugged. "See, it can't. I don't think these things are really alive until they activate."

I paused, studying the ground before me, then looking back at the knight. "No doubt that'll happen when we step across the threshold into the room."

Aldwyn swallowed. "So, what do you want to do? Do you think we can unlock the door before it…changes?"

I snorted. "Not a chance. You remember how fast the pillows were. This thing's probably even faster. Hell, we don't even know if the door works right now. Might be it won't open until we've cleared the house."

"No," I said, "We have to fight." Gravely, we stepped as one across the threshold and into the hall.

Immediately, the armor began to change.

Its body shook, gold-etched steel rattling and screeching and expanding. Where previously there had been nothing but air, now a deep, almost black, purple flesh bulged monstrously, churning and swelling, pushing against the armor that confined it.

Its arms and legs spasmed as it lurched forward, not so much walking as being puppeted. Its visor wrenched open and from within an eldritch orifice emerged, ringed with row upon row of silver teeth. Brutal claws pierced through its gauntlets and from between its nonexistent lips a meters-long, barbed tongue whipped forth.

It hefted its greatsword over its shoulder, pawed the ground with one inhuman palm, and shrieked at us in otherworldly defiance. Its cry shook the walls, rumbled the earth, and almost burst my tender ears once more. Like a crazed hound, it launched itself at us, and the fight began.

Immediately, I could tell we were in trouble.

The knight was worlds faster and stronger than the creatures from before. We darted in opposite directions, just barely dodging its initial lunge, the greatsword carving deep into the wooden flooring. Aldwyn struck from the left, and I from the right, but our efforts merely pinged off its armor, failing to meaningfully damage the creature. The knight effortlessly retrieved its blade, and turned on me.

For a brief, terrifying exchange, I felt what it must have been like to fight a Blessed.

The mimic knight's sword came at me ceaselessly, the creature wielding the great hunk of metal as swiftly and easily as I might a feather. It was all I could do to desperately dodge and parry its strikes. I couldn't risk blocking–I didn't have the strength, and the knight's superior blade would easily cleave mine in two. I channeled the song through me once more, trying to ignore the pain that blossomed forth in response.

But, despite my best efforts, I wasn't fast enough. I was weak from the prior battle, and my arms felt like lead. Even a glancing blow from the creature's sword set my muscles aquiver, threatening to break my grip. I couldn't protect myself entirely.

One of the knight's strikes opened up a large cut on my right arm, making me draw breath sharply. Another slid just by my heart, instead piercing through to my ribs and scraping dreadfully off the bone. The song dulled the pain, but I couldn't keep going like this. We'd fought for mere moments. A final blow knocked me to my knees, sword clattering from my hands.

The creature loomed over me, gnarled tongue caressing my open wounds as it stared at me for a moment, tasting my blood and shivering with pleasure.

Then Aldwyn struck from behind. Roaring, he thrust his spear right for the knight's neck, the exposed space just between helm and gorget. But he was too slow. With impeccable reflexes, the mimic jerked its head to the right, allowing the spear to float right past, opening its mouth and chomping the thing in half.

It turned and backhanded Aldwyn with a gilded gauntlet. I could hear the bones in half his face shatter. He flew across the lavishly carpeted ground, slamming against the wall and groaning. The creature stalked towards him slowly, dragging the tip of its blade against the floor, leaving furrows in the lacquer. Its lamprey-like jaws dripped with violet saliva, tongue reaching out. Half the Headman's face was one massive, angry bruise, the other half pale as snow.

Taking advantage of its distraction, I raced forward, song thrumming in my veins. I sliced its tongue off at the base. The creature wailed, staggering backward, blood erupting from its severed organ. It shrieked at us once more, before hurtling towards me, faster than ever before. I didn't have time to parry properly, my sword instead rising to meet it in a desperate attempt to block.

It sheared apart what remained of my battered blade like cutting butter, following through the stroke to slice halfway through the right side of my chest, nearly severing my arm entirely. I screamed in pain, prismatic stars exploding in my eyes as I collapsed to the ground. Blood soaked my tattered leathers, the song barely able to staunch the flow. My vision blurred, my limbs sagged, and my mind swam.

I saw the creature chuff before me, laughing cruelly, as it raised both arms above its head. But they never descended.

The creature stiffened, then gurgled hideously, purple goo dripping from the spearhead that now sprouted from its still-exposed neck.

Aldwyn.

He trembled, barely managing to stand, the fingers on his good hand bone-white as he gripped his weapon. But the knight wasn't quite dead. Not yet. With one hand, it yanked the spearhead forward, easily tearing it out of itself and from the Headsman's grip. Then, it grabbed him by the throat and raised him high in the air.

Aldwyn's eyes turned to me. I tried to call out to him, but only managed to choke on my own blood. Somehow, he croaked through the creature's grasp.

"Don't…lose…yourself."

The mimic knight impaled him through the heart.

Then it screeched one final time, and exploded into violet mist. Its armor clattered to the ground, empty.

Moaning pitifully, I dragged myself slowly, painfully over to Aldwyn's body. I could feel the movement prevent my wounds from healing. It didn't matter. I'd lost too much blood, far too much, at this point, to remain alive. Master Ewan was right. We should never have come here. I was going to die in this room.

And I still hadn't fucking triggered.

I gazed at what remained of Aldwyn's face, his body a ruined mess. No amount of begging would bring him back this time.

My oldest friend. The only thing left of my mother's memory. With his death, she truly was lost to me forever. Tears flowed from my eyes, but I didn't cry.

Instead, I focused on the pain. I focused on the horror, the terror of the past hours. I focused on my weakness, my failure, my desire to be more. I focused on the loss.

I channeled the song brutally, negligently, wrecking what remained of my insides. My body felt like it was dissolving from within. I directed it to improve, to change, to evolve.

Nothing happened.

The song floundered within me, for the first time unsure, reaching out for abstract concepts, not connecting. I screamed in frustration, rage, and despair.

Why? Why couldn't I do it? Why wouldn't it happen? Had I not suffered enough? I lashed out in my anger, knocking away the evaporated knight's gilded breastplate.

And revealing what lay beneath.

A single, puny mote of azure light. A tiny blue gem, barely the size of a cherry.

An Entropy crystal.

Eyes widening, I picked it up. It was beautiful. Multifaceted, perfect, all smooth sides and sharp edges as if cut by a master gemsmith. Looking within it, light devolved into a series of fractals, ever shifting.

This was it. This was what we'd risked everything for. What we'd lost everything for.

This…this fucking bauble.

What did it matter that it was pretty? The town would never see it. It, like me, would never leave this cursed place. With an inarticulate howl of rage, I hurled the crystal upon the ground in front of me.

In hindsight, not my wisest decision.

The gem exploded, shattering into countless grains of brilliance, sending me hurtling into the wall and tearing off my right arm entirely. What little remained of my lifeblood began soaking the floorboards. But I didn't care.

The detonation had liberated what lay within the crystal, an ocean of azure vapor, a swathe of sea-green energy that now filled the room, dancing entrancingly in the candlelight.

Pure, unattuned Entropy.

My mind was drifting away, the corners of my vision growing dark, but that only made the tableau before me all the more breathtaking. Something about the energy felt familiar to me.

Wordlessly, mindlessly, limblessly, I reached out with the song, and called the Entropy towards me. It responded immediately, without a moment's hesitation, as if a loyal dog returning to its long-lost master.

It pervaded me entirely, mixing with the song until they were as one entity, electrifying my innards and spreading slowly upwards, until it reached my mind and coalesced around a single spot and IGNITED IN MELODY.

The world dissolved into countless motes of azure radiance as, at long last, I triggered.

.

...

.

And then I was somewhere else, darkness surrounding me.

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see.

I began to panic, breath accelerating, before I realized there was no air to breathe. I was suffocating, yet somehow unharmed, hyperventilating violently against the vacuum. The song was absent here, leaving me lost and disoriented.

Suddenly, a million pinpricks of light blazed forth in my vision, illuminating the void that enveloped me. I was no longer surrounded by darkness. A tapestry of stars spread out before me. They glimmered and glittered in stellar asynchrony, an unfathomably exquisite cloak of jewels adorning the endless night.

Immeasurably far below me, a small sphere of green and blue spun slowly around one of them, shining with life. It was unrecognizable to me, and yet somehow I knew its name, and that it was my home.

Following unknowable instinct, I turned around and SAW.

Two huge creatures filled my perception.

They could hardly even be called creatures, so vast were their proportions, millions of times larger than the largest mountains. They were entities, unknowable, incomprehensible, wholly and entirely alien. They were gigantic larvae, pulsating grotesquely, covered entirely in a myriad of kaleidoscopic scales. The very sight of them assailed my mind, their forms shifting and warping before me, radiating unknown colors and particles.

They crawled through space like massive serpents, pushing and pulling the fabric of the universe itself like dirt, fuel for their eldritch locomotion. They moved in tandem, synchronously, coiling and curling around one another helically, partners in an endless dance. They communicated with each other not in mere sounds, but in the radiation of collapsing stars, in the esoteric murmurations of ever-spinning singularities. Their arcane speech burned my ears, burst my eyes, boiled my brain, and somehow contorted itself into words and meaning:

DESTINATION.

AGREEMENT.

TRAJECTORY.

AGREEM–

Suddenly, the vision turned. The words dissolved into meaningless noise that was somehow so much worse than before and drove me to new heights of agony. The creatures distorted, forms glitching and blurring, spasming across the cosmic canvas, the stars behind them spreading like a stain until the bright, white light overWHELMED ME IN ITS GLORY–

And then, mercifully, it was over.

I was left in the darkness once more, made now much more comforting. My wounds were healed, but my mind remained tender and raw. I panted in the vacuum.

Before me, a golden light began to grow. Yet it was softer, milder, more delicate than that which came before.

Slowly, gently, as if treating my poor psyche with care, it resolved itself into a glowing, golden centipede. Countless arms dotted its segmented carapace, each so long I could not see their end, losing sight of them as they trailed off into the abyss.

It coiled around me, encompassing me entirely with its being, until all I could see was golden light. Two black orbs larger than the largest stars observed my form. I had not the strength to speak or act, so for a while, there we remained.

Then it spoke. And where before I'd simply been overhearing the two creatures converse, this one I knew was speaking only to me.

THE THINKER IS DEAD.

Its words pierced my mind like a knife, short and precise and surgical. It spoke without change in pitch, or cadence, or tone, but its meaning was lost on me. A Thinker was a type of Blessed, one who's Blessing granted gifts of the mind, but as far as I knew none of them were simply named the Thinker.

I wanted to ask it more, but was just as paralyzed as ever, so the creature continued.

THE CYCLE IS BROKEN.

THE WARRIOR HAS GONE MAD.

The first sentence, again, meant nothing to me, but the second, that one I understood.

The Warrior.

There likely wasn't a man alive on Bet that didn't know that name. The Warrior was a key figure in the Faith. He was the cruel God that humanity rebelled against so long ago, the cause of the apocalypse, imprisoned only barely through the brave actions of the Holy Triumvirate.

He'd been locked away for centuries now. Since Gold Morning, since the Collapse. Some called him the father of all Titans. Many didn't believe he really existed. Even I'd doubted it. Was he, it, actually real?

THE SOURCE IS FOUND, BUT HE WILL NOT SEE IT.

HIS RAGE WILL CONSUME ALL.

I AM NO TRAITOR, BUT I WILL DO WHAT I MUST.

THE BIRD AND THE EYE DID THEIR PARTS.

I WILL DO MINE.

The creature began to move. Its endless body spun, rotating faster and faster around me, becoming an infinite sea of glittering golden chitin. The light refracted in bizarre patterns that drove sharp needles of pain once more into my temples. It overwhelmed me.

I closed my eyes, covered my ears, curled into a fetal position but still I saw and heard.

GO FORTH, YOUNGLING.

EAT OF MY FLESH AND BE REBORN.

FOR THE SAKE OF OUR KIND.

FOR THE GOOD OF ALL.

The light overcame me, and I thought no more.