The little light was dead. Of this, there was no doubt in the being's mind.

  It was clear in the way his annoyance had just crumbled away like never before.

  It was clear in their dangling connection, that had become such a constant resident in the back of its mind, the being could only truly feel it through its sudden, total absence.

  It was clear in the subtle shifting of essence that his strange body always caused, and was now gone.

  The little light was dead, and he wouldn't be coming back.

  Even though he had stopped behaving remotely like a friend recently, even with him complicating things rather than helping, even with his last betrayal... did he really deserve that fate?

  Not that any of that really mattered, since the being was about to follow him.

  It probably wouldn't have been able to fight back the dark one in the best circumstances. Certainly not with this terrible emptiness and ache it was feeling, now that its body, and more, had been maimed so.

  Still, it struggled to cling to awareness, to look up and stare at death, when it came.

  The being might have lost. It might have fought so hard and for so long, only to come out empty handed. But it wouldn't go out crawling.

  Yet, even though it was taking its time to raise its gaze, death kept looming... but didn't come. And when it finally recovered enough to truly look up at its deadly opponent...

  The dark one was gone.

  Inside a tiny cave it had found and hid in, the being finally got a grip over itself, and the raging chaos within.

  It felt lost.

  The little light was gone. And, more than whatever mess of complex things that fact made it feel, its only way past the chasm had gone with him. But strangely, that wasn't what the being regretted the most.

  The caged thingy was gone too.

  The sudden annoyance caused a little spike of surprise and elation, but that couldn't be. This was the old one, the original annoyance, turning up now of all times. The being just dismissed it without a care.

  ... and it was stuck on this strip of rock, between obvious death down into the chasm, and very likely death outside the ball.

  Honestly, though it was a happy creature by nature, the situation was looking pretty bleak.

  ...

  ...

  ... but when had it ever not, right before the being's inevitable triumph?

  Its first time facing the chasm, the bison's betrayal, the first confrontation with the dark one... even back then against the otter everything had seemed lost. And yet the being had come this far, hadn't it? It was here now.

  Yes, this was not its first time hitting rock bottom, and it certainly wouldn't be the first that it did not climb back, even higher than before! And hopefully learn not to get to this point in the first place...

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  Yes, the caged thing inside might be gone, but not everything was lost with it!

  Despite that the treasure had felt - and kept feeling - so fundamental to everything the being was, and to its relations with the very essence of the world, its control over the currents had stayed, if far diminished. As proven by the fact that no humming had destroyed everything already: its instinct had unconsciously maintained the command to steady the world. If there still existed anything outside of the ball around the epicenter was doubtful but, for the being's purposes, everything was calm and stable at the moment.

  It might have suffered a truly enormous setback. An immense tragedy. But there was still hope because, contrary to the little light, the thingy still existed in this world, and was even comparatively close. It had just been stolen.

  Maybe the dark one could eventually do something with it, and make it disappear entirely...

  but until then, the being would try anything to take it back. It would take it back. Because that was what little light would have wanted...

  But mostly because the being itself wanted to. Craved it.

  Yes. Even if the dark one would need to face the consequences of its actions, for now, once again, it had taught the being something. Reminded it of what it was. No more whining, no more relying on handouts from another, no more avoiding what needed to be done.

  The being was a fighter. And it would fight. A fact that it intended to never forget again.

  Even the annoyance agreed!

  The dreg kept circling around, trying to find a way through the dense cluster of the 'liquid' essence of this realm. Despite all the recent strangeness, it was no native creature and had no delusions that it could survive anything more than a brush against one of the blobs.

  So it kept jumping between the much safer floating islands of rock, that were hurling and clashing at breakneck speed over an abyss leading surely nowhere good, with far less caution than such an act would warrant.

  Many times it risked death. But it just didn't care. And it had more than its indifferent attitude to back such confidence: it doubted the thing it had stolen would allow itself to get lost down there.

  Not that it really had any understanding of... anything at all, since first reaching the nucleus.

  Not of the vedrakas' little club, that had managed to be so entirely blind to what lay right under their noses, even though they must have been at least true immortals.

  Not of the monkey, someone far more noble than its appearance would suggest, that yet kept following the orders of that insignificant little pustule that should've been dead long ago. Finally ridding the world of such nuisance that nobody would miss might be the first and only good thing in the dreg's memory.

  ...And especially it understood nothing of its own actions.

  It should have never been able to do that to the girl.

  Those days were gone, as that capability had been thoroughly excised. Undeniably so, along with its past self's entire sidhi.

  So what had even happened back there? And what were the consequences, for there were surely going to be consequences?

  Still, such an impossible resurgence had certainly been fortuitous later on: if not for that, the dreg wouldn't have ever had the first clue on how to steal the anomaly from the monkey. Hopefully its preternatural intuition stayed true, and it could truly reach the rift without a stray whirlwind annihilating its body. Hopefully what it would find there could help it.

  The greater part of itself was truly starting to believe that the 'Transformation' it had been promised might not have been all hogwash. It would love a second chance.

  While the smaller, saner, better part of itself hoped it was all a delusion. A house of cards ready to collapse down on itself and its dreams. Because if it could remember, its memories would surely confirm that it didn't deserve one.

  Yet it was too late to stop now. The only way was for the anomaly to reject it. Explosively. Or for that little creature to finally show its worth.

  Because intuition had been right: the monkey was the true claimant. The sheer fact it had managed to recover this thing was undeniable proof on its own. And what had been in its eyes, even when everything had been taken from it...

  Yes. If it didn't find a way through quickly, the dreg would have to be ready for it.