The High Council gathered around the table with the scrolls and reports finally examined, and Lord President Chronotis opened the discussion by asking what had actually been learned. Lord Serpentine explained that the events surrounding the World Eater were effectively sealed from normal access, though his wording initially caused some confusion. What became clear was that the issue was not simply that the events were time locked, but that the memories surrounding them had been locked away. Lady Roxy admitted that there had been a great deal to read through, enough to require more than a little wine, but beneath the humor was the realization that the Council now faced a serious decision. Lord Wilde lightened the moment with a joke about the amount of reading, while Professor Maltheus quickly warned everyone not to speak too much about wine lest they summon Lord Winters, who promptly appeared to prove the point.
Once the conversation turned serious, Lord Darkfyre laid out what the Council understood about the World Eater. The creature, or mist, had been contained through the deliberate erasure of memories surrounding it. By uncovering the embassy and remembering what had been hidden, they had begun setting the old machinery in motion again. The World Eater could sense their memories and knowledge, meaning that the more they remembered, the more real and active the threat appeared to become. Lord Winters expanded on the idea, discussing their connection to the Web of Time, reality quotients, fixed points, and the possibility that their memories were effectively giving the creature greater substance within their timeline. Professor Maltheus focused on the mysterious third option mentioned in the scrolls, while Lord Darkfyre explained that the records suggested memory itself might be turned against the World Eater. If memory was the key that broke the lock, perhaps it could also become the weapon.
The question then became what the World Eater feared. No one had a definite answer. Professor Maltheus wondered whether its refusal to destroy one particular planet might hold the key, while Lord Serpentine suggested that perhaps the people on that world had completed the Temporal Anchor before the creature could reach them. Lord President Chronotis considered the darker possibility that something dangerous remained on the planet, or that the world might no longer even exist because of their own visit to the station. Lady Roxy recalled what she had seen through the TARDIS, explaining that the mist had been moving increasingly quickly the longer they remained in its vicinity. There was no way of knowing what it had done since then, or whether it might already be moving toward them. The possibility forced the Council to consider whether Gallifrey was truly safe simply because it existed outside normal Time and Space.
Lord Serpentine argued that Gallifrey should already be protected by being outside Time and Space, but Professor Maltheus cautioned that relying on that protection could leave them helpless if the mist somehow reached them. Lord Darkfyre considered what would happen if they chose to erase their memories again, suggesting that they would at least need to restrict access to the affected region afterward. Lord Winters proposed removing Gallifrey from the normal flow of time and tying the protection into the Transduction barriers, but both Lord Wilde and Lady Roxy rejected the idea as a true solution. Lord Winters himself acknowledged that abandoning the rest of the universe to the World Eater would violate their responsibilities. The creature had been unleashed through their actions, and he believed they had a responsibility to eliminate or capture it rather than simply protect themselves.
The possibility of simply forgetting was raised repeatedly. Professor Maltheus pointed out that if the World Eater remained active because they remembered it, perhaps the simplest answer was to stop remembering. Lord Serpentine noted that medicine could theoretically erase selected memories, while Lord Winters jokingly demonstrated the danger of telling people not to think about something by invoking a pink elephant. Yet as the discussion continued, it became increasingly difficult to believe that forgetting could truly undo what had already happened. Lord Wilde pointed out that erasing their memories would also mean abandoning any hope of restoring the Ambassador and his people, while leaving them without the knowledge needed to prevent the World Eater from returning in the future. Lady Roxy put the concern more plainly. They had already uncovered too much and touched too many lives. Perhaps they were simply past the point where forgetting could ever be considered a clean solution.
Lord Darkfyre asked for the latest trajectory of the World Eater so the Council would know how much time remained. Lord President Chronotis assured him that temporal researchers were monitoring it and that they still had time to make their decision. Lord Winters proposed increasingly extreme possibilities, including using a tractor system, stasis fields, and even collapsing a star into a black hole to trap the creature. His idea would require using another planetary system as bait, something the Council clearly recognized as a grim and dangerous proposition. Lord Darkfyre suggested investigating first and fighting only if necessary, with forgetting remaining as a final safeguard. Lord Conundrum, meanwhile, expressed genuine fear at the magnitude of the decision, remembering his experiences during the Time War and wondering if perhaps they should simply return to ignorance. When the vote finally came, however, even Lord Conundrum managed to steady himself and choose to fight.
The Council’s votes revealed a clear direction. Lord Winters voted to fight, believing that forgetting had already failed. Professor Maltheus initially favored investigation over immediate confrontation, arguing that they needed to understand the creature before attempting to attack it, but ultimately voted to fight when given the broader context. Lord Wilde voted to investigate and fight, refusing to allow another race to simply be forgotten in the name of safety. Lord Serpentine also voted for investigation and combat, pointing out that Gallifrey possessed a considerable amount of scientific and military equipment that could be brought to bear. Lord Darkfyre preferred investigation with the aim of avoiding a fight if possible, with forgetting retained as the backup plan. Lady Roxy made her own position clear: they had come too far to turn back now. They needed to find the fracture, close it, and see the matter through. Her final, slightly less than brief conclusion was simple: they should fight. Lord President Chronotis then confirmed that the Council was clearly leaning toward investigating the threat and finding a way to stop it rather than returning to ignorance.
With the decision made, the Council began considering how to proceed. Lord Serpentine proposed using scientific probes, stealth drones, spy craft, and military resources to monitor the affected region without exposing themselves directly. Lord Darkfyre questioned the authorization and accuracy of some of the resources being discussed, while Professor Maltheus remained concerned that they still did not know what the World Eater actually was. Lord Wilde echoed that concern, warning that they knew almost nothing about the phenomenon and could not assume their technology would remain undetected. Lady Roxy offered another possibility that seemed far more promising. There was still one person who might actually understand the mist: Theron Valek, the last Ambassador. Their previous questions had focused on the embassy and the Temporal Anchor, but perhaps a second conversation could reveal what Theron’s people had known about the World Eater itself. Lord President Chronotis agreed, noting that Theron appeared to be their most qualified source of information.
The Council ultimately agreed that speaking to Theron again should come before sending drones into the mist. Lord President Chronotis believed his TARDIS might also contain enough information from their previous encounter to determine something about the cloud’s molecular structure. Lord Darkfyre even volunteered to make the journey himself if necessary, suggesting he could attempt to get close to the creature, perhaps towing an asteroid or using his TARDIS’s chameleon circuit to disguise the ship as one. Lord Winters immediately began considering how the ship’s emissions could be baffled to keep it hidden. The practical problem of reaching the embassy was then solved when Lord President Chronotis asked Lord Conundrum to improvise a way through the existing teleport system. After some grumbling and several complaints that his wristwatch was not a sonic device, Lord Conundrum reluctantly hacked into the repair bay’s teleport system and successfully transported the group to the caves.
Lord President Chronotis activated the holographic system, only to discover that Theron Valek was already waiting for them. Theron appeared weary and unstable, warning that the fracture was causing the Temporal Anchor to destabilize and that his connection could not be maintained for much longer. He urged them to ask their questions quickly. Professor Maltheus immediately asked whether closing the fracture would remove the World Eater, while Lord President Chronotis asked the question that had brought them there: what had Theron’s people actually planned to do once the temporary Anchor had served its purpose?
Theron confirmed what they had begun to suspect. The Temporal Anchor had never been the final solution. It had merely bought his people time to complete something they had already begun. They had discovered a way to confront the World Eater, but when the fracture occurred, that knowledge had been lost along with much of their history. The answer still existed, however. They had not destroyed it. They had simply forgotten where it had been left. Lord Darkfyre immediately wondered whether the mysterious planet the World Eater had spared was connected to what it feared, while Lord Winters pointed toward the records concerning the last world being deliberately spared. Lord President Chronotis wondered whether whatever the creature feared could be used to drive it back into the fracture and trap it there.
Theron’s response offered the first real glimpse of hope. The World Eater could indeed be driven back, but not through fear in the ordinary sense. It reacted to something older, something it could not consume. His people had discovered what that something was, but the knowledge had been tied to the memories they lost. If those memories could be restored, the Council might discover both what the creature feared and how that knowledge could be wielded against it. Lord Darkfyre immediately recognized the cost. Recovering those memories would also accelerate the process that was causing the Anchor to fail.
Lord Winters then returned to a line from Theron’s earlier message, asking about the statement that one day they would remember the Ambassador’s people, the Anchor would begin to fail, and they would face a choice Theron had never been permitted to make. Lord President Chronotis repeated the question directly, asking what that choice truly meant. Theron’s image flickered violently as he explained that the choice had never simply been between remembering and forgetting. It was whether to continue holding the Anchor in place or finally allow the truth to return. His people had believed they could contain the World Eater long enough to finish their work, but they had been wrong. Once the past returned, the Council might finally understand what they had known and how they had intended to fight the creature. With that, Theron warned them that his time was almost gone.
Professor Maltheus asked what the World Eater actually was and where it had come from, while Lord Winters raised another possibility. Perhaps the Council could limit the creature’s reality quotient by limiting how many Time Lords knew the complete truth. Lord Wilde considered the idea, while Lord Conundrum admitted that it was certainly a question worth asking. The discussion briefly returned to the possibility that ignorance might still offer some protection, but Lord President Chronotis instead used what could be their final question to ask where the lost memories had been hidden. If they were not in the Matrix, there had to be somewhere else they had been placed.
That question finally produced the clue they had been searching for.
Theron explained that the memories had not been destroyed and were not waiting somewhere inside the Matrix. They had been separated from the Council and placed somewhere safe. He asked if they remembered the Gift that had been returned. The answer, he revealed, lay with that Gift. It had been kept there, alongside the Temporal Anchor, for safekeeping. Find the returned Gift, and they would find the path to everything that had been forgotten. When those memories returned, so would the answers to the questions they had been asking all along.
Theron’s image began to fracture into pieces of light. He offered them one final wish of good luck and reminded them that when they remembered, they would know. Then the hologram vanished.
For a moment, the chamber was quiet. Lord Serpentine called the revelation wonderful, while Lord Winters immediately wondered whether Theron meant the strange two-headed bear. Lord Conundrum questioned why the entire mystery had been constructed as such a puzzle, and Lord Wilde took the more hopeful view that at least they now had a definite lead. Lord Serpentine agreed that the returned Gift was where they needed to look next. Even Lord Winters briefly wondered if the answer might somehow be connected to Lady Roxy’s TARDIS, before dismissing the thought.
The Council had not found the solution to the World Eater yet, but they had finally been given a direction. The memories were not lost. The answer was not gone. Somewhere beside the Temporal Anchor, the returned Gift had been waiting all this time, holding the path back to what Theron’s people had known. The Council had chosen to investigate and fight rather than surrender their memories, and now they had their next mystery to solve.