Chapter 174: Suitability

I left Tulip to her new status, to explore her connection more perfectly, departing for the Crosspath while she sent out a general broadcast to her people I caught on my way out the door.

Repository residents, she sent. Assemble. We have much to do.

Whatever plans the head archivist had for her realm, that was now on her. Hard not to feel good about passing on the spark to the place it belonged, though I was acutely aware of the fact I was down to one-Peter's-with no idea who it belonged to. Nor that, perhaps, I'd altered my dearest and oldest friend in ways that might make it harder for us down the road, especially if the Crosspath did fail and she and the archive were all that remained.

I wouldn't want to have to bear the weight of that responsibility, nor the loss. Though, I had to admit, if anyone was capable of such a burden, it was Tulip.