Back to the Mainland

The content of this page is relevant to the Gamma Timeline.

## Prologue

With a big sigh, Ina sat down at the table, newspaper in one hand, cup of tea in the other.

"Bah. More about why these walker monsters are not docile. It's not like a bunch of critter experts have been saying so for years."

The news was the same, as usual. The big things of distant places like Universe City and New Hub, the little things people fretted over locally. Being told that your path would stretch far into the future made it all less worrying, more trivial. People came and went, and likewise Ina had changed identities over the course of the years. It became easier after a while. Nowadays she only hid behind a false last name.

However, as she read on, one headline caught her eye. Not for its size, but for a name. 'Who is Leonard Essington?' it read. This wasn't strange on its own, as it could be anyone's name. There had been rumours of someone with this same name many years ago, said to be living under it as a pseudonym. Several true identities circulated for it, but the most persistent one remained her brother's. She dove into the article. This Leonard had bought a large but fairly dated flat for a handsome price, all things considered, but nobody had ever heard of him. A very wealthy individual whose identity and interests were entirely unknown.

"Funny."

Perhaps he was still out there, she thought to herself. The fact that there wasn't so much as a whisper about the old rumours made Ina think that it was plausible enough. Her brother was good at keeping himself informed if anything, and he wouldn't try an old pseudonym if he wasn't sure that it wouldn't be remembered well enough to spark speculations again.

She folded the newspaper and stood up. Her break would be over soon.

"Excellent, Gamma. That'll do."

He noted this next step down. His alternate self was proceeding with a sound plan, even if it was a little unorthodox to make no secret of your presence, even under a pseudonym. Each iteration had his own peculiarities, some more affected by their watcher's actions than others. This one was the third he'd laid his sights upon. As such, he assigned these iterations each a letter from an old scripture. Being outside of the grasp of 'normal' time as he was, the Maintenancekeeper could watch each of them live out their life in a particular version of events, sort the many possibilities and find order in the apparent chaos that was time. Gamma was, quite logically, the third. In some versions he never chose a mass exodus, but there he was eventually apprehended and incarcerated. Failures, essentially. As such, he'd stepped in to agitate various groups among the common folk a little further, so that their blind anger would move this Delinius to take his people elsewhere. Not all of it played out as he had thought before making his decision, but he would have to see what happened. He could only do so much before interference did more harm than good.

One of his devices began making an alarming noise.

"Oh come *on*, not d24 again. I'll get you, mailman..."

He'd have to sidetrack following Gamma for a later moment - the very same problematic time traveller he'd been tracking for a while now was once again causing trouble.

## One - Of Times Past

"You think it'll work out? It is the entire stack of people..."

Delinius wasn't bothered by it, at least not much. The weather was fair as they strode around the outskirts of Steckenberg city. "It will be perfect. You'll see, my dear. In the meantime, we will ensure nobody sees the stack of people, for they will never so much as think to look elsewhere."

Much had changed over the course of nearly a century. Some changes were already familiar because of similar things on Auzos that they had already experienced, others were somewhat new and foreign to the two. One of the most striking ones was what they'd come to call a 'farspeaker', judging by descriptions people were giving them of this device derived from alien species and their technologies, probably those that had their home in Universe City, in Oktov. It permitted conversation across greater distances between speakers through devices that allowed for recording your own speech and playing what the other speaker said on the other end, without any noticeable delay. As of this time, it was still too expensive to be deployed across more than a handful of locations within Steckenberg, but it was an incredibly useful boon, that was clear.

They reached a street filled with eating venues of various tastes and prices, their terraces filled to the brim thanks to the sunny weather that had been dominating the sky for the past few weeks. One such venue oddly enough possessed a rather archaic name, supposedly to denote their devotion to recreating ancient dishes.

"Hey, look at that. Over there, with the old-fashioned sign. Worth trying?"

"An interpretation, unless they have enough old cookbooks and good cooks. I say we do."

The two took a seat not far from the restaurant itself. Delinius' expression became markedly different upon opening the menu and reading an introduction on the first page. "Helc and Oktov mingled... What is this now?"

*We aspire to recreate dishes that would've been eaten in the period of the infamous Delinius and that he might have enjoyed during a rare respite from fighting and killing.*

The introduction went on about the supposed facts and history of the period. While they did outline the history very roughly without many errors, the 'facts' about Delinius were all inaccurate. Once the waiter appeared, he decided to ask the bald man how much he knew of these supposed stories.

"Excuse me, good sir. We'd like to know a little bit about this 'Delinius' figure."

"We're not from here, you see."

The waiter was visibly puzzled by their ignorance. Still, he was more than happy to fill them in.

"Oh? Yeah, the guy is totally an urban legend nowadays. I know only a couple things that get run around a lot. Kind of illustrate how good he was at what he did. They say he was captured once, hands tied and blindfolded. On the day that they were executing him, he escaped. No hands, no eyes! Nobody knows how he did it, everyone present is said to have died there and then. Wherever he went, he left a trail of dead people of the Green Day movement. People feared his name then, and some still do. A lot of parents use him as an easy boogeyman, especially because there's a famous member of the Green Day that he killed in a duel."

A brief pause was supposed to build suspense in this well-rehearsed story, yet it didn't quite convey that feeling much.

"It is said that such duels were common, and they stained his axe with so much blood that it couldn't be washed off. And the list goes on and on. A lot of it is probably myth, but I'd like to believe he was a fearsome killer of everything that came across his path - monster and Gridmask alike."

The man heaved a sigh. Delinius nodded, inviting him to go on.

"They say he even went through here and then vanished. 'Went north', some folks say, never to return. But uh..."

He leaned a little closer as if conspiring, then continued a little more quietly:

"Most people consider it code speak for dying or something, but not me. I met a sailor once who *told* me there's a continent up north. If the guy is really ageless, he's gotta be out there somewhere still. And I have reason to believe he might even be back in the area."

Lyka and Delinius smiled at the incredible irony of their situation.

"Wouldn't that be something! The odds of it happening are so small, though..."

The waiter laughed and took their order.

Not everyone was enjoying the whole 'exodus' atmosphere that hung in the air. They realised well enough that this wasn't a choice, and accepted it for the most part. Some tried to object but were overwhelmed by a great force of people utterly convinced of the decision.

"So... you're all leaving."

There were of course people from outside who weren't upset with Langton Incorporated at all, some of them quite sad to see it depart. This boy was one of them. He was probably only 16 or so, but one of those independent street kids that make their living fine anyhow.

"Well, yeah. You've probably seen enough to know why. We're not gone yet, though. It'll take at least a couple weeks just to get all of the stuff across next to the people."

"I'll miss this, I think. Even with the riots, it was fun to see all the activity, these people making a living away from home. Making this place home. Saved me from an empty stomach a couple times, Delinius is totally a good guy. Maybe I should pack my things too."

"Hey, anyone can hop along. That's how it's always worked."

"Wait, seriously? That's so cool, though. Hey, I think I... yeah. I'm gonna arrange some stuff. I think a change of scenery could help me out. This place hasn't been too great for two orphaned siblings, you know? I'll be back in a couple days. It's not really for me, it's for my sister. This isn't the kind of life she deserves. I'll be fine, too late for me anyway, but she needs schooling and everything."

Another one to take care of. Two, even. But that was also the same as any other day.

The whole project was proceeding quite well, all things considered. Most of the moving was done early in the morning, generally drawing next to no attention. Every now and then there were little incidents with overly confident bystanders thinking that Langton Incorporated had been 'beaten' in some way, which they usually regretted very quickly: one of Langton Incorporated's 'scariest' members made sure of this. Their, or her, name was Ariadne. How exactly she'd gotten here was unclear, for the only one who'd spoken to her about it was Delinius himself, who had never been afraid of the rather foreign and sometimes seemingly barbaric thoughts and tastes that this strange Gridmask-spidery creature displayed. With painted mandibles she'd charge at troublemakers, screeching loudly as they backed up in fear and ran away. No such today, but she was on guard regardless. Delinius had spent a long time in conversation with her before departing for the mainland, and Theo was fairly sure this was why she kept an eye out at all times with an almost religious zeal.

"Hey, Ariadne. No trouble today?"

She nodded. Ariadne generally didn't speak much - their speech was often riddled with spider-like clicking noises, which was unsettling to most. Not as much today, though.

"They're quiet. All week. On your feet, it's bad I can feel it."

Her last words were followed by a slightly eerie noise from the large mandibles at her mouth rubbing against each other. This was part of the mystery that she was. For some reason, Ariadne was often relaxed when others were alarmed or wary, yet moody and watchful when nobody suspected a thing. People had come to call it 'spider sense' over time, which was just fine to her. Her speech would become shorter, more compact. Above all, it was never really wrong. Sometimes it created an exaggerated warning, but it always indicated that something was up or that everyone was more alarmed than they needed to be.

"I hear you. Should I send some extra people along with you for the week?"

"Four days now. I know. They know too. Not scared. Planners, shady. Don't like it."

She departed with this rather ominous message, keeping her four beady eyes focused on the surroundings, a heavy crossbow firmly in two hands and supported by two arachnid appendages - further proof of her hybrid nature. The four legs were of course an equally telling feature. They were draped in cloth, but underneath they were probably more arachnid than Gridmask.

## Two - Influx

"*'Northerners': who sent them and why are they here?'*"

Ina read the article closely. This was the second time this topic was getting the headlines within the same month.
Leonard Essington was absolutely not a real name: she'd heard it before and knew it was someone's pseudonym. That much she'd already established. This quote was definitive proof of what she had suspected earlier.

*"Discussion with the people over there lead to us picking this as a building. Regrettable changes in the situation, mind you; Last time I checked, they were constructing an additional fence."*

He described the intended purpose of the whole operation as 'incredibly simple living' as well. This was her brother, without a doubt. Using an unorthodox order of words to draw attention from an attentive reader was something that Delinius would do, not to mention the incorrect capitalisation on the last part of the sentence. It simply screamed for attention - if you were looking for it. The fact that the other quote fragment spelled out her own initials only reinforced that notion. It wasn't much of a message beyond 'I am out there', but she could infer many things from the article and the myths around his name.

"Impressive, isn't it? He does so love to hide messages in plain sight like that." It was the same time-travelling man again with his familiar face but strange attitude.

"We'd try this as kids. Before the whole invasion, anyway."

When she looked up, he had already vanished.

"Khao! You keep disappearing, instead of telling me who you really are."

Unrest was gaining a foothold in the streets. People stirring the pot over rumours met others who claimed they had documented Delinius' history accurately according to their own belief, and the two groups clashed, not knowing that most of their dogmatic material was likely fictitious to begin with. Ina couldn't really stand watching it, but there was not much to choose in that regard. Fortunately, the confrontations generally remained verbal.

"Listen up, people! You're all going to be out of each other's hair in ten seconds, or I'm dragging all of you to the station!"

With a demanding voice and intimidating body language, Ina dispersed the fools without so much as a touch. It was her style, most of the time. A lot of familiars knew that she generally meant well, but was far from soft. She went by a false surname nowadays, and that was all that was necessary.

One man had remained on the streets, though not for the sake of arguing, it would seem.

"Squabbling over nothing, as always. Probably you and I both know more than all of them combined. Who indeed is he, Delinius Rupert Langton? A ghost, a myth and urban legend. That is what they think. They fail to piece together the various things because their memories are so short-sighted."

He chuckled and seemed in every way a silly old fool that found amusement in the worries and fears of the people around him.

"Oh, really? Why'd I know that?"

The man chuckled.

"You know well enough. After all, who of such a luminous congregation might not know the man. Who better to ask than a sibling?"

Ina relaxed. If the man had any idea who she really was, that knowledge was safe in his hands. Dwinians were trustworthy enough in that regard.

"Who, indeed? Yet even we do not know the full answer. I wish I did."

The moving effort proceeded more smoothly than they'd expected: of course, people were awfully curious who 'Leonard Essington' was, but given that no major news medium had access to the whereabouts of any of this, there was no noteworthy attention to the whole operation. People passing by in this fringe area of Steckenberg paid it no mind: it wasn't particularly strange to see a bunch of people renovating a large building for habitation. It was going rather fast, yes, but most of the time the average bystander didn't think about little details like that.

But now, someone approached with purpose. Not just passing along on the way to their destination: this was her destination.

"You might to stand back, miss. Renovations, you know how it is."

The woman approached regardless and greeted her, though without stating her name.

"Hey there. I'm looking for Leonard Essington. Are you his assistant?"

Lyka was slightly alarmed, until she noticed the woman appearing to 'rewind' a step backwards and then snap back to her current position. This was at least someone familiar with time magic. Whatever she knew, she didn't seem to hold any ill intentions.

"Yes. Well, more or less. I'll fetch him for you."

Hurrying up the stairs, she bumped into Delinius, which knocked both of them over in her haste.

"Hello there, my dear. In a hurry?"

They both laughed for a bit.

"Maybe. Someone's asking for you outside. She seems to know you. Any idea who it is?"

As they got up, Delinius strode over to the nearest window and gazed outside. His head immediately darted towards the glass as if each were magnetic.

"My eyes must deceive me, or that would be my sister. How quaint... oh, but of course! Ha!"

With a victorious cry he quickly looked through the notes he'd gotten from Indenar. She had not been counted among the dead at the time. She'd gotten away by some temporal loophole of her own invention, as a follower of Ukron. That was the solution to all this! Without waiting, he stormed outside. When their eyes met, he stood still. They each looked at their sibling with curiosity. Delinius' false appearance faded, and likewise Ina's obfuscating headwear came off.

"Certum."

Slowly, he raised his right arm, as if to greet her from afar. From his hand, a small magical 'flare' gently rose into the air, turning into a unique pattern. It was an old communication method, developed among his family during the Nazcan invasion.

"Lumen."

To his relief, Ina mirrored his gesture, displaying her own. Each was a unique signature like a fingerprint. It really was her. The two approached and embraced each other with joy.

"It's been far too long. And through the needle's eye, too. There is much to be asked"

"You bet. It's been a long trip all the way there. There is so much nonsense talk on the streets about you. I want to know everything you've done, and I've got a bunch to tell you as well! How do you like this place now, by the way?"

"My dear sister, you haven't changed a bit."

The two laughed it out heartily, despite the fact that they realised quite well that they were the only ones left of a long dead family branch. Lyka was leaning against the wall outside, smiling at something she had only heard Delinius talk about as a dream, a hope. His sister seemed so... bright, really. Bright, despite likely having gone through hardships just as much as any of them. Maybe even more.

"Trouble made? There is much to be told, though I am quite curious about your travels too. This mainland, well... It has changed quite a bit in these eight decades. My name and fame still linger, but the place itself is far from unwelcoming. What've you been doing, sister?"

"All sorts and sizes of things. Security, housekeeping, library duties. It's quite amusing to be stern and serious." She laughed, but then her face folded into a more serious expression. "It's good to see you alive, brother. There were times when I didn't think I would ever lay my eyes on you again."

"There are some pretty serious rumors going on about Delinius Rupert Langton being involved in this. Goes off of some old tales that linked the name Leonard Essington to him, but I'm sorry to say that's all I managed to get without interviewing the man himself. It's really funny - why go out of your way to create a false identity and then expose it to so much public attention?"

Baxter and Zachary were allowed some time to process this information.

"Of course, if you want something about the name everybody's whispering - Delinius Rupert Langton is a name that has no shortage of legends around it. I've managed to separate the most ridiculous stories from the rest, but you're still dealing with a wild collection of files. This is all we have, and I'm not the first to root around in this.

The investigator politely thanked them before leaving. Baxter's expression was a perfect summary of the 'case file' about the supposed Leonard Essington and Delinius Rupert Langton, respectively. Some stories were about events that took place about a century ago or even earlier, right next to recent notes about a gang of imitators. The biggest problem remained that even this 'filtered' file contained many things that would better fit into a work of fiction.

"Long-lived... what do you think, Zach? It looks like something you'd find in a story book, don't you think?"

His business associate had about as much to say about it as Baxter himself.

"I've heard the name before, yeah. There's no proof that it's actually a false name though..."

## Three - The Right to Return

"Hello, brother. Any good news?"

Ina took a seat on the other side of the kitchen table. She had taken surprisingly well to helping out with getting the many residents of Langton Incorporated settled. Able to direct people in a friendly tone or a stern voice as the situation demanded, and with a certain dominance that seemed almost out of place when considering her otherwise unimpressive stature and build.

"General commotion around a fictitious individual who supposedly roams these streets. Some man they call Delinius. I do so wonder how come."

Word about a 'Delinius Rupert Langton' roaming the streets of Steckenberg was playing up, more frequently as of the last two weeks than before. Stories and legends old and new were brought up, along with very limited written records from the time period itself. Newspapers were for a time almost exclusively filled with the topic at hand. As a result, nobody paid attention to a large-scale refurbishing project that had been started up in some distant corner of greater Steckenberg, which was a fortunate side effect, if one Delinius had not fabricated himself.

"They've finally caught on, haven't they?" Ina sighed. "It never lasts long, does it."

She, too, had suffered the inevitable start of rumours over the course of her many false names.

"Yes, indeed. Yet they have no attention left for the other events. They're on a treasure hunt..."

The two siblings looked at each other.

"...and we are going to give them some clues to where it is buried. I have my suspicions as to who might've raised the stories, but I'll tell you about that another time."

Commotion reared its ugly head, exactly as was meant to happen.

"Excellent. Through the thistles and thorns, was it not? What a catchy phrase."

"Planted the last one with a couple of workers in that pet catching business, Isles & Quint."

He looked up. Valenz was just taking off her helmet.

"Ah, yes. Such a wondrous and consistent factor so far. Tell me, will their leadership take the bait set in place?"

"I don't do sloppy work on these, you know me! There's a delicate balance between info and uncertainty that should keep them on their toes. Still can't believe that "detective" went with it though."

She sat down to flip through a folder.

"What about our relevant three for this one?"

"Sister Langton has taken quite well to it all, it would seem. It's fortunate that she drew favour of the sort she did. I'm certain just the two would have managed fine, but an extra pair of eyes, an extra perspective, should solidly anchor all this. The time god has decided her worthy, alongside Dwin."

There he was, the supposed 'Leonard Essington'. He was reading some historical work about explorations by sea, judging by the cover.

"Hey, you there. You're Leonard Essington, right?"

The man looked up from his reading.

"Yes, that's my name. Hello there." Leonard adjusted his glasses. "Say, aren't you that Isles fellow, from that taming company?"

How would he know? Nobody had seen him remotely near Steckenberg before the big purchase he had recently made.

"Yes, that's my name. There is a lot of talk about who you are. One of the stories is that you are actually Delinius Rupert Langton."

"Pfah! I wish I were!" Leonard laughed heartily. "I certainly have heard of this 'Delinius' fellow, though. I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about - clearly I am not a talented magician, right?"

"You're obviously not who you seem. Out of thin air, you've bought an old apartment complex and started a renovation project on it. Nobody knows where you came from, or how you gathered so much capital. And why renovate an old apartment complex?"

He eyed the man with suspicion.

"If I had to tell you about that, it'd take us a couple of days. It's a very long and boring story about a man with vision working hard to achieve his goals, his dreams. You wouldn't have the time or patience to hear all of *that*."

"How can you know if it's too long for me to hear?"

Leonard smiled. "Listen, Mr. Isles. Whatever it is you came looking for with me, I think you're poking the wrong person here."

He was hiding something, it had to be. "I know exactly who I'm looking for. Don't act like I'm a fool!"

He reinforced this by pointing a finger at the man, who seemed entirely unphased by the accusation so far.

"A fool is the last thing I'd take you for! You're one of the two people at the head of a large company, if not *the* large company of Steckenberg and beyond. If you were a fool, you would not be in such a position, I should think. Even so, you are looking in the wrong direction. Your time and effort is better spent on other matters; I'm sure this Delinius, if he wants to be found, will make himself known when he wants to. He is quite an elusive figure, isn't he?"

"I know you're hiding something."

"Think, Mr. Isles. Think, Zachary. If you were smart, you would not hound a suspect who is possibly the man himself. You could watch him and observe, to see what he is up to. So! Feel free to come along and see, if you wish. There is nothing to be hidden where I work."

"No, thanks. I've heard enough."

He stormed off, furious at the way this man poked fun at him.

*Until further notice, no mention is to be made of Delinius Rupert Langton on the workfloor.*

The commotion around some legendary figure was in the air. Normally all you felt was a dull feeling of filing paperwork for a whole day again; now people huddled together to talk about the rumors. Board notice or not, the childhood stories about Delinius were suddenly very relevant. This was the kind of atmosphere she liked more. She worked more efficiently when her ears had something to filter out, as strange as that sounded to anyone she told about it.

"Quiet office, worst office. Heheh." Some desk-sitting worker gave her an angry look, probably for speaking out loud. "Shut your mouth. It's not *my* fault you have the attention span of a kid!"

## Four - Squandering

*It is time to stir the crowds and draw attention away from the most important thing. Lyka, Ina and I myself will see to it that the commoner thinks not anything but myself in lost bits of time.*

Delinius put his journal down with a sigh. What he was about to do would not be easy. Knowing that it was for the benefit of the many lives he was trying to guide to a better place made it no less worrying.

"It is time, isn't it?"

*So today I was walking through the park and I hear a sizeable racket go off somewhere in the distance. People confused, skitt'ring about like the gods have come to judge them. Delinius is definitely here. Prepare yourselves accordingly; this will not be the idyllic revolution that our predecessors painted. There will be blood on the pavement and fires in the street. He will bathe everyone in his glaring light, and the worthy ones will be left to reap the rewards.*

Nobody had ever taken the time to explain why this Delinius was so important to the prophecies, but they didn't particularly care. There were opportunities to be found in the wake of his burning path. No time to waste. Most others were probably going to take the scraps, out of sight. But they themself had no intent of taking the leftovers. A little more riot in the street was going to make that a whole lot easier.

"Right. It is time, like you say."

This was the only thing that had ever given them purpose. There was no going back, whether that was back to the vessel that had long since disappeared or even back to a homeland that was doomed to cannibalising itself as the stockpiles dwindled. Ludus was home now, this band of eccentric and often shunned figures the only thing that resembled a family or companionship of any kind.

They passed over the crack on their carapace. Probably that would never heal, which was just fine. "Alright, enough staring in the mirror. Get dressed." The extra width of the clothing was great for hiding the band that was holding the broken shell in place.