Greg starts to talk inside his mind. "Three hundred feet high... flying... taking in whole cities..."

"Three days by horse and cart..."

His mind raced through all the things that could happen, but each one fell apart because it was impossible. Could they find some horses? Even the fastest horse wouldn't get them there on time because they at least needed two.

"Is it possible that Elwen's plant magic could move there...? No, we've never done anything like that before, and this isn't the time to try something new. Could we—"

"No! Stop it, Greg...! I need to think! There must be something that we can do!"

But there wasn't. Greg knew it too.

He turned to his team again. Hilda could barely stand because the creature they were supposed to stop was consuming her body.

Lylia was still shaking from her fight with Agatha, which had broken her confidence. Elwen was exhausted from using all of her magic. He was also dealing with a broken arm guard and a growing sense that he was leading them all to disaster.

"Isn't this what it means to be a leader? Standing here, knowing you don't know what to do, knowing people are counting on you, and knowing that thousands of lives are at stake."

"There is Marina... She knows what she's doing. She is strong, but is she strong enough to handle this? Is there anyone strong enough to handle such a thing as the Calamity!?"

"And what if we could somehow get there on time? Agatha was only one person, but we barely made it through."

"How many people have died because of the Calamity? How many souls are screaming inside that thing?"

"And Rosalina... if she's still in there and still fighting, how do we even start to help her?"

He held the crystal tighter, feeling its warmth against his palm. This was the same crystal that had just saved them; it had transformed the Brotherhood's worry and hope into a force strong enough to break time magic.

"They trust me. Every one of them."

"Everyone is back in Meridian... Marina, Seraphine, Mira, Donetta, Felix, Bork, and Tunner... they want me to give them answers, show them the way, and give them hope in this hopeless situation!"

"And I don't have anything."

"I didn't keep them safe from Agatha... I didn't see through her trap..."

"I wasn't able to keep Hilda safe. I couldn't stop the Calamity before it got this bad since we left Meridian, or maybe even before that, I've been failing."

The silence went on and on, and Greg could almost feel Marina's anxiety growing on the other end of the line. She needed to be reassured and given a way to do things. She needed her boyfriend, who's reliable, to tell her what to do.

"But what if I'm not the one in charge? What if everyone has been wrong about me all along?"

"What if we only succeeded before because we were lucky, and now our luck has run out?"

He thought about all the people who lived in Meridian. Families are getting ready to move. Kids being taken out of bed. The elderly are having trouble moving quickly enough. Guards were trying to keep things in order even though their hands were shaking with fear.

"They don't know who I am..."

"They don't know that I'm just a guy who got into this by accident and has been making it up as I go along..."

"I'm scared that one day everyone will find out that I don't know what I'm doing."

"And today could be that day."

Greg's eyes moved to Hammy, who was still shaking on Elwen's shoulder. The hammer inside the slime was glowing faintly.

Then he went back to his broken arm guard. Then to the cracks in the floor where Elwen's vines had died and withered.

"It seems like everything I touch breaks eventually..."

"Greg?" Marina's voice came through again, this time with more urgency. "Are you still there?"

Greg said, "I don't know yet, but I'll think of something. I always do."

"You better." Marina's voice got softer. "Because I'm not going to lose you again..."

"Not after the Sunken Citadel. Not after all that."

"You won't. I promise." Greg ended the call and turned to his team. "Okay, here's what's going on."

"We can't help you directly because we're too far away, but that doesn't mean we're useless."

"We need to find out what Agatha's true plan is and how to stop the calamity. We must be missing something."

Hilda's voice was weak but clear when she said, "The Voidsilver."

"This is all my fault... I was the one who gave her that cursed ore."

"I didn't know what she was going to do, but I should have been more careful. I should have..."

"Stop." Greg went over to her and knelt down so they could see each other. "None of this is your fault."

"Agatha tricked you! She played with all of us, and you were trying to help me get something useful for the festival. You couldn't have known what she would do with it."

"But there wouldn't be a calamity if I hadn't..."

Greg said firmly, "The Calamity exists because Agatha chose to make it."

"And we already know that she's angry and hurt, so she thinks that destroying things is the only way to make her point."

"That's her fault, not yours. Do you hear me loud and clear?"

Hilda's eyes were watering, and the silver marks on her face looked like they were pulsing faster. "I only wanted to help."

"I thought that getting you something special and difficult to find would make up for all the trouble I caused when we first met."

"And it's all because I was greedy for wanting the pickaxe that she's going to exchange for."

Greg said, "You've already made up for that a hundred times."

"You saved me from those wolves. You've been helpful and brave the whole time we've been here."

"Don't you dare blame yourself for what a crazy old woman did."

Lylia put a hand on Hilda's shoulder. "He's right. Agatha is the only one to blame for the Calamity."

"All of that is just her trying to make sense of what she did."

Hilda nodded slowly, but she still looked worried. The silver marks seemed to fade a little, as if Greg's words had helped her deal with some of the problems she was experiencing inside.

"So what now?" Elwen wanted to know. "We were supposed to find Veldway, but if he's not here..."

Greg said, "Then we agree that this was a dead end."

"We're going to stop hoping for someone who's gone and focus on getting back to Meridian as quickly as we can."

"We might not be able to get there in time to help with the evacuation, but we can at least be there after it happens."

"Help with rebuilding, healing, or whatever else is needed."

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