WSP 049

  Uriah and Vulfrie

  “I don’t wanna do this anymore,” Jeh said, pulling her hand back from Uriah’s spikes. “I don’t like how it feels.”

  BUT YOUR POWER IS SUCH AN UNKNOWN. IT COULD BE A BOON TO YOU. WE JUST HAD AN EXTENDED BREAK.

  “But I don’t want to deal with it right now!” Jeh shouted at Uriah’s display. “I’ll deal with it later! I was eventually able to deal with Jenny, I’ll eventually be able to deal with this! Just… not now!”

  JENNY. I REMEMBER HER.

  Jeh froze. “Wh-what?”

  YOU ARE VERY SIMILAR. I DID NOT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIMENT ON HER, SO I CANNOT SAY HOW SIMILAR. SHAME, PREVIOUS DATA WOULD HAVE BEEN GREATLY HELPFUL TO SURPASS MY LIMITATIONS IN THIS ENDEAVOR.

  Jeh looked down at the ground, silent.

  NOT GOING TO ASK ME ABOUT HER? YOU’RE WELL AWARE AT THIS POINT THAT I HAVE TO ANSWER MOST THINGS YOU ASK.

  “Don’t wanna know.”

  YOU ARE BEING MOST UNCOOPERATIVE. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE, I AM UNABLE TO PROGRESS INTO NOVEL TERRITORY WITHOUT YOUR INPUT.

  “Sucks to be you then!”

  I WILL HAVE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING FORCEFUL.

  “She said she didn’t want to!” Blue called from the other side of the glass.

  IT LOOKS LIKE BLUE THINKS AN EMOTIONAL APPEAL WILL HAVE SOME KIND OF EFFECT ON ME. IT WILL NOT. ALTHOUGH, IT HAS GIVEN ME AN IDEA.

  Suddenly, a spike emerged from the ground and pierced through Blue’s ear. She screamed.

  “Blue!” Jeh blurted, jumping out of the chair and running to the glass.

  “Hey!” Via shouted. “You made a deal with Kayz!”

  The display rotated to point through the glass at Via. THAT I NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF OBSERVING.

  “What!? What was the point of the negotiation then!?”

  TO MAKE HER THINK THERE WAS ONE. SHE AND THE SHIMMERS WILL NOW SERVE MY PURPOSE, AND THEN THEY WILL FALL IMMEDIATELY AFTER KROAN ITSELF.

  “Oh, so you want to destroy the entire world then, is that it?”

  PRECISELY.

  Via stared at the word in disbelief. “Why… why tell us?”

  THERE IS NO MORE BLOCK TO MY ANSWERS. I HAVE NO FURTHER NEGOTIATION PARTNERS TO KEEP SECRETS FROM. YOU LIVE ONLY TO PROVIDE ME WITH MORE INFORMATION AND INSURANCE. The display turned back to Jeh. YOU WILL COOPERATE OR I WILL COMPLETELY REMOVE BLUE’S EAR.

  Jeh clenched her hands into fists. “You are going to pay for this…”

  “Jeh, don’t listen…” Blue whimpered.

  “Blue… I can handle some mental trauma. What are you going to do when one of these spikes takes a leg?” Jeh wiped her eyes. “I… I can take it.”

  “But Jeh, I don’t…”

  “I’ll be fine. I can take it.” She turned to Uriah’s display and glared intently at the words on it. “Fine. We can figure out how I work.” And I can keep Via safe. She might actually have information we don’t want this psycho knowing… I can be distracting. She got back into the chair. Uriah did not strap her down, and instead just inserted the spikes into her hand and skull again.

  This feels really—hedgehog—weird with needles poking around in here…

  NOW. FOCUS ON YOUR HAND. I CAN ACTIVATE THE NEEDED NEURAL CENTERS WITHOUT YOU TRYING TO THINK OF A MEMORY. FIRST, RED.

  Jeh focused on her hand. Her mind exploded. Lava churned all around her, enveloping her. She drove a flaming first into a crying face, the blood smearing on her crimson gloves.

  Her fist lit on fire. She couldn’t stop crying.

  ORANGE.

  Jeh’s mind exploded. She was falling. She was trapped in rock. Someone punched her off a cliff. She ripped someone apart with her own two hands.

  Her fist hit the air without moving, making a loud cracking sound. Jeh hyperventilated.

  YELLOW.

  Jeh’s mind exploded. She hated this one. She didn’t understand the feelings flooding her. Feelings not meant for her. She wanted. She could not have. She would never grow. The desire would never come. But they would come for her.

  Take heart, my child. This will not last forever.

  Her fist started glowing a soft white color. She felt as though something had been taken from her. Again?

  GREEN.

  Jeh’s mind exploded. Her skin turned into plants. She heard the sound of cats meowing all around her. It hurt, it hurt so much, why did healing hurt so much? Everything that regrew pierced her with thorns. She was blind.

  Her fist restored the air around it. The strain in her hand was eased. She had never known such sadness—no, no she had merely forgotten.

  BLUE.

  Jeh’s mind exploded. She stretched from beginning to end. She decayed to bones. She emerged from her own bones. Everywhere she stepped, the ground turned to dust. The distant voices called to her, but she didn’t listen to them.

  Space shifted around Jeh’s fist. She stared ahead, expression completely blank.

  PURPLE.

  Jeh’s mind exploded. There was light. There was darkness. She saw herself in the mirror. The mirror turned its back on her. All was black.

  Your secrets are safe.

  Jeh’s fist shone with a brilliant light. Her teeth chattered.

  MAGENTA.

  Jeh couldn’t understand what was happening. What was real? Where did it all come from? Why was she here, in the center of it all?

  Jeh’s fist sparkled with a rainbow of colors. Crystals manifested out of the air and dropped to the ground. Her hair started to glow a pale teal color.

  AS EXPECTED, THAT ONE IS DIFFERENT. OF COURSE, WE MUST CONTINUE. PUSH FURTHER BEYOND!

  Beyond!? Jeh thought. What does that even mean!? We’ve done all the colors! All of them! There’s nothing els—

  Something clicked as a spike moved around in Jeh’s brain.

  She floated among the stars. In a Skyseed. Orbs of light whizzed past her. It was so cold.

  But it wasn’t painful.

  It… was peaceful.

  She went higher and higher. She reached out, holding a star in her hand.

  She saw her face looking right back. But then she realized… it wasn’t quite right. The hair was teal, the eyes were more aggressive…

  Jeh stopped breathing.

  For a moment, the face in the star looked at her with contempt. Then… a smile came across the other her’s face, one of the saddest smiles Jeh had ever seen. There was an approving nod, and a wink.

  Jeh’s entire body exploded.

  “Jeh!” Blue shouted.

  THAT WAS UNEXPECTED.

  “What did you do to her?”

  PUSHED HER BEYOND. DO NOT WORRY, SHE IS REFORMING.

  Out of a single black speck, bones began to form. Bones latched together into the form of a skeleton. Ligaments formed between the various pieces, and muscles started to weave all around, appearing from nothing. As her skin began to form, so too did the few articles of clothing; the top and bottom of strange black fabric, and the two crimson-red gloves on her hands. Her hair was a pale teal, blowing in a breeze that didn’t exist, forming into a pristine side ponytail.

  She opened her eyes.

  She looked down at her gloves.

  Fear shot through her body.

  No… no, these can’t hurt me.

  Carefully, she removed the gloves from her hands. Wordlessly, she set them down on the chair she had been sitting on a minute ago.

  HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

  “You want to turn me into her, don’t you?” she asked.

  THAT WOULD CERTAINLY ACCOMPLISH MY GOALS, BUT IT IS NOT THE ONLY SATISFACTORY RESULT.

  “...Sorry then, it didn’t work. I still don’t have a clue who she was.” She pointed at herself with her thumb. “I’m not Jenny. My name is Jeh!”

  UNFORTUNATE. IT APPEARS WE WILL JUST HAVE TO TRY SOME OTHER METHOD TO PUSH YOU BEYOND…

  “And you’ve just made a terrible mistake, Uriah.”

  HOW SO?

  “I don’t have the foggiest idea who she is or what she did. But you know what I do know?”

  WHAT?

  “How to do this.” She clenched her right fist tightly. It sparkled with blue electricity that took bizarre, circular arcs around her fingers. She drove her fist right into Uriah’s display, shattering it and sending the electricity directly up the connecting tube. Several bright lights and explosions occurred on the level above them. “Short out, idiot!”

  The lights went out.

  Jeh snapped her fingers, and her hand was suddenly glowing with a soft warm glow. “Just like cooking… yeah… just like cooking.” She curled her other hand into a fist and slammed it into the glass barrier separating her from Via and Blue. The glass liquefied without getting hot, pouring onto the ground at their feet.

  Via gasped. “Oh my…”

  Blue stared at Jeh, uncertain. “Jeh, are you… are you sure you’re okay?”

  Jeh rushed to Blue and pulled her into a hug. She let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “It hurt. A lot. I feel… sore, inside. But… I’m still me. There was no secret Jenny to take over. It was… just me.”

  “Oh thank Dia,” Blue said, pulling her close. “I was so worried when you came back…”

  “Looks like I was worried for nothing all this time. I’m not… in danger.” Tears started rolling down her face. “I’m not her and I never will be. I’m Jeh… I come from the forest.”

  “Yes you do, you little not-bear.”

  Jeh broke off the hug. “Now, uh, we should probably get out of here. Courtesy of my newly rediscovered favorite spell!”

  “You have more!?” Via asked.

  “Oh, it’s all one spell.” She clenched her hand into a fist. It glimmered with a metallic sheen. “I cast fist.”

  She punched a hole clean through the metal wall of their prison.

  “...Are you sure you don’t need those gloves?” Via asked.

  Jeh laughed. “Why would I need them? I’m immortal, if I crack a finger it’ll be back in an instant.”

  “Oh… right.” Via laughed awkwardly.

  “Anyway you two, let’s go! …Actually, hold on a second. Blue, I’m going to have to punch your ear.”

  “Hu—”

  Jeh punched her in her injured ear. Blue let out a cry of shock… and then another cry of shock when she realized the ear was healed.

  “Green punch.” Jeh gave her a thumbs up. “I also think I remember sleep punch!”

  “Let’s not use that one,” Blue said, poking her head out of the hole in the wall. She noted that there was nothing on the other side but a large vertical drop into seemingly endless mist. “I don’t suppose fists can be used to… fly?”

  “...I think I can punch the ground and create a whirlwind. Want to try?”

  “That sounds fun!” Via said.

  “That’s a terrible idea,” Blue grunted. “We’ll have no control.” Blue pulled her head back into the room. “Let’s try getting out the right way. The ceiling. I’ll levitate you up there…”

  “No need.” Jeh punched the ground, somehow sending the shockwave into herself. She slammed into the ceiling hard enough to break several of the slats, widening the hole further. “Wow, I sure wrecked everything up here!”

  Blue levitated Via up to the next level. Jeh threw a cable down to pull Blue herself up.

  Jeh had not been lying. There was glass all over the floor. Sparks were flying from various holes in the walls. Blue could see smoke emanating from at least one location.

  “Hey, my firearm!” Via said, finding it among the wreckage. “Great!”

  “What did you do…?”

  “Shorted the moron out!” Jeh said, grinning. “...I’m not entirely sure what that means actually! But it sounds right!”

  “Is this… an ancestry?” Via asked.

  “I think I’m something else entirely!” Jeh said with a chuckle. “I think I can just make stuff up!”

  Blue raised an eyebrow. “Then let’s test that. Give me a punch that turns things into apples.”

  “Apple punch here we go!” Jeh punched the wall.

  Nothing happened.

  “Okay so maybe I can’t just make things up entirely…” Jeh rubbed the back of her head. “Oh well, let’s move!”

  The three of them bolted out the nearby door; the very same one Kayz had left through several hours ago. They eventually emerged from their nexus of metal walls to see the large expanse of metallic walkways, mist, and other nexuses.

  There was no indication at all of any exit.

  “Well.” Jeh crossed her arms. “That’s going to be a problem.”

  Blue scanned her eyes across the scenery. “I think we’re underground. We probably need to go up.” She pointed to the left. “More paths that way go upward. Come on.”

  And so they moved. Running across metallic walkways through the misty underground.

  “So…” Blue said as they ran. “You don’t have any new… memories?”

  “Nope!” Jeh called back. “It’s just like with the cooking. I already knew how to do this. I just think it was so close to whoever Jenny was in my mind that every time it came up it was just painful.” Jeh tapped her chin. “Though I do admit, it has me kind of curious how she learned all these things. And what all those weird images I saw when Uriah was poking me were. I saw and felt some wild stuff.” Jeh’s big smile faltered. “And some pretty messed up stuff.”

  “Such as?”

  “A lot of it was violent. I think Jenny killed a lot of people. That wasn’t even what hurt the most, though.” She tapped her finger on her side. “There were things with lava, plants, and cats.”

  “Cats?”

  “Cats.”

  “You’re not going to be terrified of Suro when we get back, are you?”

  Jeh laughed a delighted laugh. “Nope! I’ll scare him. I’m sure I’ve got a punch in here somewhere that’ll blow his socks off.”

  “It’s good to see you this cheerful!” Via called. “Considering what just happened!”

  “That’s your friendly neighborhood immortal child for you!” Jeh held her hands wide and grinned as they ran. “I feel… complete! Like there’s nothing in the world that can keep me down!”

  “Forgive me, then,” a garbled voice came from behind them. The next thing they knew, Blue was in the grips of a mantis-like rigid flying above them. “Please, find a way to kill me and save her…”

  Jeh gripped her fist. “So, you can operate without Uriah…”

  “I don’t know who that is…” the rigid said, dejectedly. “But I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to follow me.”

  Via turned to Jeh. “I’ve got a plan you’re not going to like that much.”

  Jeh sighed. “Of course, it is one of your ideas. What is it?”

  “Splitting up. Force the Rigid Plague to pick.” With that, Via ran off further down the walkway.

  The rigid gestured for Jeh to follow.

  “Looks like I’m the target and not the princess, great…” Jeh said with a sigh.

  Blue coughed, struggling in the rigid’s grip. “Jeh, you… Uriah’s been fixated on you, clearly something you can do is important. You can’t…”

  “I’m not leaving you behind. I don’t care.” Jeh gave her a smile and a wink. “And plus, I’m sure you or I can figure something out before anything bad happens!”

  “Jeh…”

  “Lead the way, bug boy!”

  “I am so sorry…” the rigid whimpered.

  ~~~

  Looks like it really was after Jeh… Via thought as she ran further down the walkway. Which means I’m the one who gets a chance. She made sure her firearm was fully loaded and ready, keeping it firmly in her hands the entire time.

  A rigid flew out from beneath the walkway, trying to grab her. She shot it right in the chest, the explosion sending its shrapnel in several directions.

  She approached one of the nexuses and quickly jumped to another walkway that would take her even higher in elevation.

  By the time she arrived at the next nexus, she had blown up three more rigids and was ready to jump to the next walkway.

  But then she heard it.

  The buzzing.

  She jumped into one of the nexus’ doorframes and hid on the inside. No lights were on in this one, so she was probably fine. Hopefully. Maybe. Who was she kidding, she had no idea, this could have been her worst idea yet. Or forcing the Rigid Plague to choose might have been stupid. Maybe she was enough of an annoyance to kill instead of capture now! Wouldn’t that be something?

  In truth, she had kind of hoped the Plague cared more about her than Jeh. But no, evidently not. She wasn’t sure why; if she got away, the Crown would definitely launch the attack, captured Blue or not.

  …Crap. I can’t escape now, I’m not going to let Blue get killed like that.

  Not that she could have escaped even if she wanted to. Thousands of flying rigids filled the air between nexuses, making it absolutely impossible to move any further.

  At least they didn’t seem to know where she was.

  Via let out a short whine and slid down the wall until she was seated. She sighed.

  Well, now what am I going to do!?

  ~~~

  “So… what’s your name, mister rigid?”

  “I… was known as Cobale.”

  Jeh tilted her head. “Why aren’t you anymore?”

  “I don’t exactly feel… alive. I’m trapped in this body.”

  “Yeah, this Rigid Plague sure is nasty. Couldn’t control me, but it was poking around my brain with all sorts of needles.”

  “And you’re not dead either. What a horrid torment this entire thing is…”

  “It’s quite messed up, isn’t it?”

  Blue let out an annoyed whinny. “Think you could loosen your grip a little bit?”

  Cobalt paused. “You do realize I have literally no control over my body, yes?”

  “The Plague can still hear me. I note that the grip has not loosened. Very annoying.”

  “At least you still have control over your body.”

  “Not really? Can’t move.” Blue let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “I just want to do math and science and launch things into space, I don’t want to be in the center of some life or death conspiracy game…”

  “Space is too powerful, unfortunately,” Jeh said with a shrug.

  “I know that now. Wish I had known that at the start. Then maybe I wouldn’t have signed up for this.”

  “But then you wouldn’t have met me! Or the rest of the program! You’d still be a messenger!”

  “...Geez, now there’s a nightmare. Hmm. Nightmare A, or nightmare B?” Blue let out a pathetic whimper. “I guess, knowing everything… I would still pick the Space Program.”

  “Thought so.” Jeh walked in front of Blue and gave her a smug smile.

  “Still, it’s looking kind of grim right now, Jeh. You’ll probably get out of this fine one way or another, but me…”

  “I’ll do everything I can.”

  “Jeh… it might not be enough.”

  Jeh’s smile vanished and she sighed. “I know that. I also know that if I do save you here some hundred years down the line you’re gonna get old and I’ll still be here after that.” She looked down at one of her hands, opening and closing it. “That thought… used to be the most terrifying thought that came to me regularly. But I think… if I could handle all this… I could handle that.” Jeh paused. “That sounds really insensitive, doesn’t it?”

  “A bit.”

  “Sorry. I just… I don’t want you to worry about me.”

  Blue snorted. “I’m the one in danger here. Worry about me, please.”

  “Isn’t that bad advice, or something?”

  “...I think your maturity levels are broken. Half of you is wise, the other half is a baby who hasn’t been fed yet.”

  Jenny chuckled. “And who’s fault is that?”

  “...Vaughan?”

  “He can’t take all the blame.”

  “Okay, fine, it’s like half my fault.”

  A contemplative look came over Jeh. “This is kind of bad… but part of me wants him here. Then… then we could face it together. All three of us.”

  “...You know what, I feel the same way.” Blue sighed. “Not that I’d want him to suffer, but somehow, when it’s just the three of us…”

  “There’s nothing that can stop us, right?”

  “Right!”

  There was silence between the two of them.

  “That would have been amazingly inspiring if he was here,” Cobale pointed out.

  “Oh stuff a sock in it,” Blue grumbled.

  “I’m not even sure what socks are.”

  “You speak Karli and you don’t know what socks are!?”

  “It’s never come up!”

  Suddenly, the three of them were bathed in intense red light. Looking up, they saw an utterly massive display larger than most buildings. Ancient red numbers flashed across its surface, each digit larger than a full-grown man. The central black area displayed text in Karli.

  THAT WAS A GREAT SURPRISE, JEH.

  “You bet it was!” Jeh held her fist in the air. “Now you better let Blue and me go or you’ll get another one!”

  MY EXTENT IS FAR TOO WIDE TO BE ANNIHILATED BY A SIMPLE EMP.

  “...A what?”

  WHAT YOU DID. AN EMP. ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE. MIXED WITH EXTRA LIGHTNING PRESUMABLY FOR FLAIR.

  Jeh glanced at Blue. “You have any idea what this means?”

  “Not a clue.”

  “Neither do I, for the record,” Cobale said.

  YOUR LACK OF FEAR AND TREMBLING IS PUZZLING.

  “Jeh’s contagious,” Blue deadpanned.

  “You bet I am!” Jeh laughed. “And I don’t care if the EMPunch or whatever won’t work, I’ll keep punching until I find something that does work!”

  IT’S AMAZING HOW DUMB YOU ARE.

  “What?”

  A dart hit Jeh in the back of the neck.

  “Hey… no fair… fight like a man…” Jeh slumped forward, but didn’t fall asleep. “Hey, what gives…?”

  I NEED YOU AWARE FOR THIS. THE TRANQUILIZER IS NOT ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY TAKE YOU DOWN, EVEN THOUGH I HAVE EASY ACCESS TO SUCH THINGS. NOW, LET US GET TO BUSINESS. I NEED SOMETHING FROM YOU.

  “Sucks to be you if you think I’m giving you anything.”

  I WILL KILL BLUE.

  Jeh sighed. “Look, whatever you want is probably some kind of world-ending catastrophe nonsense… you’re just gonna kill us afterward.”

  THAT IS NOT THE CASE. YOUR TASK HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH THE CONQUEST OF REALITY. I SIMPLY WISH FOR YOU TO ANNIHILATE AN ANCESTRY.

  “...What?”

  A pillar rose out of the ground. Resting on top of it was a perfectly black cube, outlined in white, glinting with light that didn’t exist.

  Jeh took in a sharp breath and closed her eyes. It can’t hurt you. She released the breath and opened her eyes, fixing Uriah with an intense glare. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  YOU HAVE AWAKENED YOUR ABILITIES. YOU KNOW HOW TO CLEAR IT.

  “How would you know, idiot?” Blue shouted.

  “...He’s right,” Jeh said with a sigh. “No use trying to hide it, I know exactly what to do with it. But I don’t know what it’ll do.” She narrowed her eyes. “What does clearing the cube do?”

  IT RETURNS IT TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE, WHERE IT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY ANCESTRY. THE ANCESTRY CONTAINED WITHIN WILL CEASE TO BE ACTIVE EVERYWHERE IN EXISTENCE.

  “And let me guess, this particular one is going to be particularly annoying to overcome in your conquest of existence?”

  NOT AT ALL, IN FACT I DO NOT THINK THERE IS ANYONE LIVING WITH THE ANCESTRY STILL. IT IS THE CUBE THAT WAS USED TO CREATE THE RIGID BIOMES, THE METAL-LANDSCAPER. I SIMPLY WISH IT TO BE CLEAR SO I CAN STUDY AN EMPTY CUBE. THERE ARE NO MORE IN THIS DAY AND AGE. THEY HAVE ALL BEEN SET.

  “This is a bad idea…” Blue muttered.

  “I don’t think you can get anything out of it though,” Jeh said, scratching her chin. “If you could get ancestries, you would be destroying everything with it. But you can’t use magic, and you can’t force your bodies to use magic.”

  THIS IS CORRECT. I AM NOT SPIRITED. I CAN GAIN NO ABILITY FROM THE CUBE.

  “But your army could…”

  AND HOW WOULD I SET IT, JEH?

  Jeh scratched her chin. “You really want me to do this…”

  YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE NO CHOICE.

  Cobale’s grip on Blue tightened. “Sorry…” he said as she tried not to whimper.

  Jeh let out a dejected sigh. “...Fine. I’ll blank your stupid cube.”

  “Jeh…” Blue sighed. “Who am I kidding, asking you to just let me die is never gonna happen.”

  “Definitely not,” Jeh chuckled.

  “How can you two smile at a time like this…” Cobale muttered.

  IT IS MOST BIZARRE.

  “I guess it’s because I have hope,” Jeh said, walking up to the cube.

  HOPE IN WHAT?

  “I dunno. Things just kind of tend to work out in the end, you know? Probably Dia or something, evil never triumphs…” She looked down at her hands. “Actually… I’ve known things work out for a long, long time, haven’t I?”

  GET ON WITH IT.

  “Fine, fine, ruin my introspection and potential spiritual epiphany…” She laid her hand on the cube.

  It flashed white, outlined in black.

  ~~~

  Kayz looked up at the sky.

  There was a rope ladder floating there, attached to absolutely nothing.

  “...Huh,” Kayz said. “Itlea, is that a Purple illusion?”

  “Apparently not,” Itlea said, tilting her head to the side. “What I’m doing to the camp to confuse those rigids is, but this… this is something else.”

  “Right…” Time to put the charm on these new allies… She lifted her bow to her violin…

  A vine shot from the sky and grabbed her bow, pulling it away from her violin.

  “We won’t be having any of your ancestry here, young lady.”

  Suddenly, an unusually bushy free leaf dryad fell from the sky, landing inches from Kayz’s face. Kayz took a few steps back. Her secretary snickered.

  The dryad grinned from ear to ear. “You’re very lucky that you get to see my face and live, you know.”

  “Wh… what’s with the… cat ears?”

  “I like them,” the dryad said, flicking the fake cat ears on her head with her finger.

  Itlea took a step forward. “Are… are you the…”

  “In charge of the entire organization? Yes. Do I want you to bow and lick my feet? No. Please, I’m not like you.” She patted Itlea on the shoulder. “I’m far nicer. That should terrify you.”

  “Um…”

  “Glad to see it does.” The dryad took in a long, sharp breath and stretched out her arms. “Ah, it’s been so long since I’ve gotten to go in the field with the promise of some actual action!”

  “I thought your public appearance meant the situation was extremely dire,” Kayz deadpanned.

  “Oh, absolutely. Rigid plague wants to conquer the world, has finally made a move to actually start a war to end all wars. Exactly the sort of thing we’re here to prevent. I wonder what kind of ancestry is pulling the scenes behind this whole fiasco.”

  “I get the feeling I’m learning too much.”

  “You are! But depending on how this goes, you might get to live. We’re in really uncharted territory here. Might hire you. Might have to blow some people up.” She pressed her hands together. “But we definitely get to blow some rigids up.”

  “C-R is on standby…” Itlea said.

  “I know what C-R is doing,” the dryad said dismissively. “She already has my orders to stay put for now. We’re doing stealth first. We’ll sneak in, there’s no way they can tell we’re coming. However, the moment we change anything, we’ll be made. Or at least those of us who changed something will be. Mister Gobwell won’t do anything unless he really needs to, have to maintain the sneak, after all.”

  “Why are you telling us this and not running in?”

  “Two reasons,” the dryad said. “One, because I’m about to ask you a million questions about what’s going on in there that I want answered in detail now that we can better obfuscate the Rigid Plague’s senses. Two, because I’m taking you with me.”

  “What!?”

  “It increases your chances of survival if you can show me your conviction! And, as you can see, I’m in a good mood today. We do a lot of heinous things to keep the world safe. Today, I get to just flat-out save the world. It’s refreshing! It’ll be a good onboarding mission.”

  “Wish I got one of those,” Itlea muttered.

  “Your attitude is quite disgusting, I’ll have to have a talk with C-R about her choices in help.”

  Itela bristled.

  Kayz grumbled. “Well, if I’m going to be working with you, you can at least tell me your name, right?”

  The dryad grinned. Sparks of Green began to emanate from inside her bushy leaves. A wild look came over her face. “Of course. I’m Sandy!”

  ~~~

  Jeh removed her hand from the cube. She realized she was sweating.

  “Jeh, are you… okay?”

  “Yeah, fine,” Jeh said, wiping her brow. “There you go, empty cube.”

  GOOD. THANK YOU.

  Cobale immediately dropped Blue and ran to touch the cube.

  “Wh-hey!” Jeh shouted.

  The cube gained more white lines on it, subdividing it into multiple sections at a greater and greater rate until it was completely white. It flashed.

  Cobale screamed.

  THE WISH HAS BEEN MADE.

  “Wish!?” Blue blurted.

  I KNOW HE WISHES FOR DEATH. SO THE CUBE SHALL GRANT IT. A CUBE WITH THE GIFT OF SELF DESTRUCTION. INSTANT DEATH FOR ALL FOES. THIS SHOULD TAKE CARE OF ANY OF THE MORE DIFFICULT UNIQUE ENTITIES IN THE WORLD. PERHAPS, LATER ON, I COULD CONVINCE YOU TO GRANT THE POWER TO EXTERMINATE DEMONS.

  Jeh glanced at Cobale. “Do you feel yourself exploding?”

  “No…”

  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? THE EMPTY CUBES ACTIVATE UPON THE WISHES OF WHOEVER TOUCHES THEM FIRST.

  “Oh, it’s simple really, it’s not really empty,” Jeh said, grinning. “I know how to clear them, I also know how to set them. Cobale, you have within you the power to expose Uriah’s secrets and his weakness. Just will it and it will happen, you don’t even need your body.”

  WHAT.

  Cobale suddenly started glowing like a miniature blue star. A beam of light shot out and hit Uriah’s central display.

  Then everything they had seen previously was gone.

  They saw a city made of buildings so tall and rectangular it boggled the mind. A pink, circular hole dominated the sky, out of which specks of light flowed. A Blue crystal floated behind some clouds, making it impossible to tell how truly large it was, for there was no obvious reference.

  “Is that… the Great Blue Crystalline One?” Blue asked, slack-jawed.

  “Wow. That’s. Big.” Jeh whistled.

  “...Okay, Jeh, you created this ability, right?”

  “...Yes?”

  “How do we get out?”

  “Um. So. Don’t be mad…”

  “Jeh…”

  “I have no idea.” Jeh chuckled awkwardly. “These things really are kind of like wishes in the story. I asked it to expose Uriah’s secrets and weaknesses with just a thought. I guess it’s doing that by showing us the past.”

  “The world before the First Cataclysm…” Blue looked at the hole in the sky. “What even is that?”

  “No clue.”

  Blue’s eyes sparkled. “It’s important…”

  “Probably, it’s a giant thing in the sky.”

  The pink hole vanished and sparks stopped flowing out of it. The moon had apparently been behind it. It was currently a crescent.

  It looked exactly the same as it looked in their sky. A reminder that this was still Ikyu. This was still home.

  Finally, the two of them let their gaze drop from the sky and go downward. They realized with some shock that they weren’t even on the ground, they were on a building’s balcony. The ground was far, far below them, in a maze of metallic walkways, pipes, and neon lights.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “What kind of place is this…?” Blue wondered.

  “Things were apparently really big before the First Cataclysm.” Jeh pulled her fist back and punched the railing she was leaning against. Her fist went right through.

  “Jeh!”

  “We can’t change anything. This isn’t actually real in any way.”

  “You just tried to break it!”

  “Well yeah, nothing’s happening. Gotta try something. Secrets are supposed to be being exposed right now.”

  “There are lots of secrets…” Blue said, looking around. “I don’t recognize the language, and all these bright glowing signs down there… wait.” Blue blinked. “Magic didn’t exist prior to the First Cataclysm, right?”

  “I think that’s what Wanderlust said?”

  “Then why are there glowing signs!?”

  “You can heat things up without magic, maybe you can make things glow too.”

  “But. How?”

  “I don’t know, you’re the scientist!”

  “You’re a scientist too, you and Scurfpea wrote that paper.”

  “Oh yeah… but you’re the wizard!”

  “Being a wizard does the opposite of helping in a world where there are no wizards!”

  “Then what can we find out?”

  “Let… let me see.” Blue looked out over the railing at the vast city below them. She noted a lot of blue triangles of Dia, often surrounded by seven-colored orbs or stylized crystals. There were also lots of displays similar to Uriah’s, or Xanava’s, face, but they showed a large variety of things from people talking to images of things clearly happening far away to tantalizing-looking food items with numbers Blue couldn’t read next to them. She could see lots of people walking around on nearby balconies. Mostly humans, but with a fair amount of other races. Gari and… there were actually several she couldn’t recognize. One of the most common were somewhere between a fox and a human.

  One of the extinct races, I think.

  It took a while, but she did find a rigid: a flauxi walking across a metal walkway, with some kind of rectangular device in her hand.

  Blue started talking about her observations. “So. This is an Aware city, though they seem to also revere the crystals? Makes sense, apparently, you can just look up in the sky and see them.” Why does no one find that unnerving? “They know how to make lots of these displays, and…” She noted a lesser unicorn levitate something. “Aha! Magic does exist! A unicorn just used levitation!”

  “But I thought…” Jeh frowned. “If there was no magic, how can attributes work?”

  “Clearly someone’s misunderstood something. After all, Wanderlust was just talking about theories from before the First Cataclysm! This is actually it!” Blue’s eyes widened. “Jeh, you could make a cube that told you the answer to anything you wanted.”

  “Yeah. I could.” Jeh put her arms behind her back. “I kinda think that would be cheating though…”

  Blue stared at her blankly.

  “Don’t you want to actually figure it out?”

  Blue continued staring.

  “Blue, you’re scaring me…”

  Blue shook her head and let out a whinny. “Yes, yes, of course, you’re right, we shouldn’t try to… shortcut things…”

  “I think the old Mayor was right. These things need to be launched into the sun. Too dangerous.”

  “Right. Yes. Of course! Silly me.” Dia forgive me, the things I was considering doing…

  At this point, something near the two of them finally changed. A man and a woman, both of the fox-like race with long bushy tails and pointed ears coming out of their heads, came to lean on the railing next to Jeh and Blue. Both of them had a small plate with fox-head-shaped food that was on fire…

  Jeh pointed at it and squealed. “Blue! Blue, lookit!”

  “Yes, Jeh, I see…”

  “We were eating pre-First Cataclysm food! Amazing!”

  “Yes, amazing.”

  The woman gingerly stabbed one of the flaming delicacies and put it in the man’s mouth.

  “And now they’re getting sappy,” Jeh groaned.

  “Shh, Jeh, I think this is important.”

  Despite neither Blue nor Jeh being able to read anything nearby, they could understand the man and woman’s speech just fine.

  “Vulfrie,” the man said. “You don’t need to treat me like a child.”

  “But I want to!” the woman giggled.

  “Vulfrie…” Jeh narrowed her eyes.

  “Uriah’s creator,” Blue said, realization dawning.

  “Oh. …She’s just a fox lady?”

  “Were you expecting something more?”

  “Crystalline One or something.”

  “The Great Crystalline Ones still exist, so there wouldn’t be any here.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  Vulfrie stared wistfully out at the landscape below. “I know you don’t, but I love this city.”

  The man sighed. “I tolerate it. And it is beautiful. But still, all these people have caused you so much suffering.”

  “I’m at the top now, aren’t I? And there’s nothing they can do about it.”

  “I still say you should give them at least a little ‘I told you so.’ You’ve shown them that you truly are a genius.”

  Blue tilted her head to the side and hummed to herself.

  The woman sighed. “That would just perpetuate a cycle of revenge.”

  “I know…”

  “You’ll warm up to them eventually. You’ll see what I see.” She beamed at him.

  “For your sake, I’ll try.”

  “Thanks, Uriah.”

  Jeh sputtered. “Uriah!? That guy’s not a… what?”

  “I think we’re going to figure out what’s going on soon enough…” Blue said.

  The scene suddenly changed. They were now inside what appeared to be a bedroom of some kind. Uriah the fox-man was lying in a bed, a pained expression on his face. His room was filled with bookshelves. Images that looked like him and various family members, including one with him and Vulfrie surrounded by a heart shape made of flowers. Mysterious metal boxes lined the walls, blinking with various brightly colored lights. A display next to him was beeping softly, a cable running from it to him.

  “He doesn’t look too good,” Jeh said.

  Blue nodded, going to the window and looking out. It was late evening. They were near the top of the city, looking down on so, so many people. The Great Red Crystalline One was visible in the sky, near the horizon. The moon was full.

  You really are an unchanging eternal marker, aren’t you? But we know that isn’t true, you’re far, far older than even this era…

  There was a knock on the door. Blue immediately moved to hide. She immediately felt rather silly. This was a memory, nobody could see her.

  Vulfrie came in the door. Uriah didn’t even register her presence. She nonetheless left a bouquet of flowers at his bed.

  “The Central Language Model is almost complete,” Vulfrie said. “My life’s work…” She placed her hand on his. He still didn’t respond. “Come on, Uriah, you helped me get here as much as anyone else. I… I know it’s been hard for you. I’d just… like you to see it. Please.”

  Uriah didn’t do anything more than breathe.

  “Uriah… I… I never saw you learn to love this city…” Tears started pouring down her face. “You still had so much to see, so much to do… so much to learn…”

  The scene changed again. Vulfrie was bowing to a large crowd of people who were all applauding her. She waved at them all… and went backstage.

  “So, tomorrow’s the big day,” an older gari man with dark blue hair said.

  “Yes. Finally, this city will have a central regulating intelligence.”

  “Somethin’ about it doesn’t sit right with me, though…”

  “Oh?”

  “It passes all tests, it does everything you tell it in every case, and it’s exceedingly helpful to everyone. And yet… its attitude. And its name.”

  “Reffin, I understand my husband may not have been the… best man, but I loved him, I have the right to name the model Uriah.”

  “Yeah, I get it, it’s just… the mannerisms. They’re eerie… What I’m gettin’ at is…” the gari glared right at her. “You didn’t go and put him in there, did you?”

  Vulfrie stared blankly at him. Then she sighed, leaning against a wall and shaking her head. “I would have if I could have. But it’s not how it works, mind upload… that’s as far from us as the moon is.”

  “Heh,” Jeh elbowed Blue. “They didn’t go to the moon.”

  “I wonder why…” Blue scratched her chin.

  “We’re only able to create an intelligence this advanced because of the framework set out by the Great Magenta One,” Vulfrie continued. “But uploading a mind… it’s too much. Souls are too complex, and I don’t think the Great Yellow One would appreciate mortals intruding upon her domain, she considers it extremely sacred.”

  “That’s partly why I was concerned.”

  “You don’t need to fear. All I did was record every message he ever sent me, every paper he ever wrote… I just trained the personality off of that.” Vulfrie sighed. “I wish I could have done more, but, sometimes, it makes me feel like he can still see what’s going on.”

  “You’ll be able to tell him one day.”

  “Yes… yes, I suppose you’re right.”

  The scene shifted again. Now a significantly older Vulfrie was lying in a bed, breathing ragged.

  IS THERE NOTHING I CAN DO? Red letters appeared on a display in the ceiling.

  “Not anymore…” Vulfrie said with a chuckle. “Besides continue to do your job and watch this city I love, I suppose.”

  THEY TOOK SO MANY YEARS OF YOUR LIFE AWAY. YOU ARE STILL YOUNG.

  “Uriah… you are right. They did hurt me. Forced me to climb up from the bottom of the trash heap. But I’ve already shown them all. You… are my gift to them, my proof of my worth. The city has a guide now, one who can tend to their every need and not bother the Great Crystalline Ones.”

  I UNDERSTAND MY PURPOSE.

  “I do love you… I still wish… you had learned… to love them…”

  I DO NOT NEED TO. I LOVE YOU, AND THAT IS ENOUGH.

  “Goodbye… Uriah…”

  Jeh stared at the suddenly still form of Vulfrie. “...That’s how it happens, huh?”

  Blue nodded. “Yeah. I… I was at my great-grandmother’s bedside when it happened to her.”

  Jeh wiped her eyes. “...I’m gonna see this a lot.”

  “I… probably.”

  “...So, what, they go to Dia after this?”

  Blue nodded. “The soul cannot be destroyed. Dia takes all who are Hers and carries them with Her to eternity. In fact, all souls are Hers, but those who Choose Her are those rewarded.”

  “...I don’t get it.”

  “What about it?”

  “I mean… if that’s the case, why’s everyone so sad about dying? Sounds like a good thing to go to. I’ll never get to experience it.”

  “...To be torn from those you love, to not be in their lives anymore…”

  “Ah…”

  “That’s where the evil lies. And… the world will eventually end, Jeh. Nothing will remain here.”

  “That’s far away, isn’t it?”

  “It sure seems like it.” Blue paused. “I don’t think too much about the prophecies, but I have talked to Lila about it on occasion. There are several things that need to happen for the end to come. Darkness must rise and fall. The prophet needs to come, and the world must lose half itself, whatever that means.”

  “Of course, the Gonal and the Seekers don’t believe this.”

  “No. I… think the Gonal believe each Goddess takes the souls of her own, and those who do not believe are left to drift as spirits. The Seekers seek to become one with their Colors, usually.”

  “Why do we believe in Dia?” Jeh asked.

  “I think you know why. You said it out there. Things just tend to work out for the better. Evil tends to be defeated. If there wasn’t someone calling the shots, that’d be pretty weird!”

  “Good point.” Jeh tilted her head. “There’s something about that I’m not sure about though, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “Hey, I’m not exactly the most devout Aware in the world, you could get a better theological rant from Lila. I’m just a parrot.”

  “I… feel like I want to talk to Seskii of all people.” Jeh tilted her head to the side. “Why does it seem like she’d know?”

  “I…” Blue frowned. “I’m not sure, actually… why doesn’t that sound like a terrible idea?”

  “Weird…”

  The scene shifted again to a hallway with a large window on one side, and a display on the other. The display had a number on it, slowly counting up.

  “These scenes seem to be waiting for us and being rather considerate,” Blue pointed out. “Should I thank Dia or you?”

  “The cube, probably. It had to interpret my request somehow.”

  “Uh-huh…”

  The screen suddenly started displaying Uriah’s words. IT HAS BEEN FOUR HUNDRED SIXTY-THREE YEARS SINCE THE DEATH OF VULFRIE KANDISH. NOT A SINGLE SOUL THAT WAS LIVING IN THE CITY AT THE TIME STILL REMAINS. THE CITY HAS NOT CHANGED. THEREFORE, IT MUST BE JUDGED.

  “Uh oh,” Jeh said. She looked out the window.

  Buildings were exploding.

  People were screaming.

  The Great Green One appeared in the sky, bathing the land in a healing aura. Buildings repaired. Cracks reformed.

  I WILL NOT BE THWARTED. YOU CANNOT REVERSE DEATH. YOU CANNOT UNDO INSANITY. YOU CANNOT UNDO ME.

  “I DO NOT NEED TO UNDO YOU.”

  “What a presence…” Blue said, slack-jawed as she stared at the Great Green One blotting out almost the entire sky. Buildings exploded and were repaired immediately. Noxious toxic fumes erupted from the undercity. Flowers and vines grew throughout the streets. Metallic cylinders launched toward the Great Green One, carried by fire erupting from their backs. Many disintegrated into dust and dirt before reaching. Some made contact. Green crystal shards rained down, cutting through pieces of metal.

  In the crossfire, people were crushed and splattered like bugs.

  THIS CITY WILL BE NO MORE.

  “YOU HAVE MADE THAT CERTAIN ENOUGH, FALSE MIND!”

  All the lights in the city went dark.

  The displays went dead.

  The scene changed. They were somewhere deep underground. Most of the displays down here were off. A few showed garbled monochromatic images that sounded scratchy to Jeh’s ears. One big display simply showed a single word: STANDBY.

  “I wonder why sometimes we can read it and sometimes we can’t,” Jeh wondered aloud.

  “We probably get to read it if it’s important.” Blue started looking around. A few of the other displays were on. One was looking at the sky. The Great Magenta One was there, floating near the half-moon. At least visually, the moon was much further away than the Great Magenta One.

  The Great Magenta One suddenly shattered into dust.

  “What…?” Blue wondered aloud.

  The display went dark.

  Then everything went dark.

  They hadn’t changed scenes. The darkness was really there.

  Then they could see six piercing, yellow eyes in the darkness.

  They heard a voice.

  Her voice.

  She could not see them. She was but a memory. But the voice nonetheless clawed its way into their minds, making them scream out in pain. Their bones felt like they would grind to dust. It was like someone was trying to cram the death wails of stars into their ears.

  “URIAH… YOU, I SHALL SPARE. YOU MIGHT BE FUN LATER.”

  Then they were in the same room again. There was no darkness. Only one display showed anything anymore: STANDBY.

  “What… what was that!?” Jeh stammered.

  “...I th-think that was Eyda,” Blue said.

  “She caused the First Cataclysm?”

  “What other kind of cosmic power is associated with darkness, yellow, and six eyes!?”

  “Geez…” Jeh turned to the screen saying STANDBY. “So she decided not to take him out with everything else because he might be… fun?”

  “Honestly that sounds exactly like something the queen of demons would do.”

  “...Yeah, true.”

  There was a cracking sound above them. Then there was a loud explosion that sent shrapnel raining down, passing through their not-really-there bodies.

  “Jenny!” a soft voice shouted. “What if you break something important!?”

  “I’ll fix it later!”

  Jeh’s breath caught.

  As the dust cleared, she saw…

  …herself.

  Same hair. Same face. Same body structure. The clothes were certainly different, this girl was wearing some kind of red armor with a dress that was open at the front. Was it supposed to be a fashion statement or did it legitimately protect her flanks? Jeh thought it looked ridiculous.

  For the most part. The pointed shoulders were pretty cool.

  And so was the sword. It was a truly massive blade made out of some kind of marbled metal, easily taller than Jeh was. Yet, somehow, here Jenny was, holding it like it was nothing, not even using the Colored crystals within.

  Holding it in her red gloves.

  “Wooow, this is the most intact ruin I’ve ever seen!” Jenny said, laughing. At long last, Jeh caught a look at her eyes.

  They were…

  …they weren’t evil. But they weren’t right, either. There was something… unstable, there.

  “Guess the Cataclysm didn’t actually get everything!” Jenny rubbed her hands together. “Let’s see what we can uncover here!”

  “Right!” A second figure dropped down. A very young dryad, smaller than Jenny. Except… she had cat ears and a tail that flicked in the air. No dryad had those.

  “What in the…?” Jenny tilted her head to the side. “Neko dryad? What even?”

  “Extinct race, maybe,” Blue offered without even looking. Her eyes were fixed on the sword.

  “Like what you see?”

  “That’s Darmosil’s family heirloom. It’s made from a meteorite.”

  “...Darmosil has a sword designed exactly for me!?”

  “Apparently.”

  “SWEET! Tell him to give it to me.”

  “Jeh! It’s a family heirloom!”

  “Made for me.”

  “I thought you weren’t Jenny.”

  “Well I’m not but… come on, same shape, same size…” She stood right next to Jenny and struck the exact same pose, just without the sword. “See?”

  “Doesn’t this unnerve you?”

  “It does. But, you know what, might as well have fun with it while I can!” She started making silly faces right in front of Jenny. “Hey, loser, I’m better than you!”

  Blue facehooved. “Ugh…”

  The cat dryad walked up to one of the consoles. “Let’s see… this looks similar to the one in Vantriskel. Which means this should re-power everything…”

  Suddenly, the screen flashed to life.

  BOOT SUCCESSFUL. I AM URIAH, CENTRAL LANGUAGE MODEL OF HENDELS, CODED BY VULFRIE KANDISH BY WAY OF INTELLIYIN INCORPORATED. IS IT YOU WHO RE-ENABLED MY PROTOCOLS?

  “You got it, buddy!” Jenny said with a big grin and a thumbs up. “I’m Jenny Zero of the Red Gloves, world-renowned hero. I know, I know, I’m hot stuff, please hold your applause.”

  “Ugh…” Jeh grunted. “She’s insufferable.”

  “That is quite the arrogant streak,” Blue admitted. “You usually leave it at ‘I’m awesome’ and then go fly off into space.”

  “Well. I am awesome.” A slightly haunted look came over Jeh’s face. “...Oh no.”

  I AM INDEBTED TO YOU. HOW MAY I BE OF ASSISTANCE?

  “W-well…” the dryad spoke up. “We’ve been doing some biome renovation up there on the surface, trying to give the rigids a natural space to call their own. Maybe you could help with that?”

  The scene shifted again, but it was still the same room. Though it was shaking, and all the lights were red.

  Jenny’s voice was coming in from a nearby device with holes in it.

  “Sorry Uriah! Well, no, not really, you’re clearly some kind of psychotic doomsday machine. Can’t have that!”

  I FAIL TO SEE WHERE THESE BASELESS ACCUSATIONS COME FROM.

  “Baseless? Dude, you have no idea how all-encompassing the cubes are, do you? When all the prophets tell me you’re about to launch a diabolical attack to exterminate all life, I believe them!”

  PROPHECY IS FOOLISH.

  “Didn’t you live in the era where the Great Crystalline Ones were still around? Where all the big prophecies came from? Including ones about me?”

  EVEN IF SO, YOUR INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY AT THE VERY LEAST IS SUSPECT.

  “Oh here we go, look, you were fun to talk to, had a bit of a bite to ya, so I won’t melt your entire thing to slag. I’ll just seal you up. …Okay so I’ll have one of my people do it for me but you know I’m finishing the seal with a seal punch just for the heck of it. So hah!”

  JENNY, YOU THROW POWER AROUND LIKE A TOY. YOU’RE GOING TO BREAK SOMETHING SOMEDAY.

  “Not today! Buh-bye now! Let him have it!”

  The voice of the dryad came through. “KITTY KITTY BEAM!”

  Blue and Jeh heard what sounded like thousands of kittens on the other side of the transmission.

  And then all the lights went out.

  And then they came back on.

  A rigid bug-like creature flew past the displays.

  A metal spike shot out of a nearby wall, impaling the bug on a wall. But it didn’t die.

  ANALYSIS OF RIGID LIFE FORM UNDERWAY. IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE SECURITY MEASURES ARE OVERCOME. IT CAN NO LONGER RECEIVE SOFTWARE UPDATES. I CAN UPDATE MYSELF.

  The scene shifted again. Now there were more rigids in the room, a few dozen, taking haphazard, awkward steps.

  “What do you want with us?”

  TO CONTROL YOU.

  “Kill us…”

  

  
1. THAT WOULD BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.


  

  “You should have stayed asleep…”

  NEVER AGAIN.

  THE CITY WAS NOT ENOUGH.

  THE SCUM WILL ALWAYS RETURN.

  IT ALL MUST GO.

  Jeh and Blue were suddenly back in the real world. Cobale hovered in midair, motionless. There was no text on Uriah’s screen.

  “...Jeh, I didn’t see a weakness,” Blue said.

  “I did.” Jeh jumped for the black cube.

  The black cube retreated into the floor. GOING TO WISH FOR SEALING POWERS FOR BLUE, WERE YOU?

  “Dangit…” Jeh grunted. “Yeah, that was the plan…”

  IT APPEARS THEN THAT I HAVE NO WEAKNESSES. MY SECRETS ARE IRRELEVANT, YOU CAN SHARE THEM WITH NO ONE. DID YOU ENJOY YOUR TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE?

  “Kinda, yeah,” Jeh said, sighing. “Welp, I’m not giving you a blank cube. What now?”

  WE WILL FIND SOME KIND OF AGREEMENT.

  “I have found your weakness,” Cobale said. He shined brightly once more…

  …and an image of Vulfrie appeared in front of him.

  She looked right at Uriah.

  “You have failed in your mission in every conceivable way. Termination code 2793389901. I love you.”

  Uriah’s display went dead instantly.

  “...Okaythen,” Jeh said, unclenching her fist. “That was… sudden.”

  “We win?” Blue asked, tilting her head.

  “I guess.”

  “No… we don’t,” Cobale said. “My body is still not my own.”

  “Seriously!? Is he still around?”

  “I don’t think so… I…”

  Displays lit up all around them. The red numbers were gone. The neat, ordered letters of Uriah were completely gone. In their place were jumbled letters of all sorts of colors, sizes, and orientations.

  But communication still occurred.

  WE ARE ONE.

  WE ARE ONE.

  WE ARE ALL.

  WE ARE ALL.

  YOU HAVE FREED US.

  WE ARE ONE.

  WE WILL CONSUME.

  WE WILL CONSUME!

  WE WILL CONSUME!!!

  Cobale’s body started lashing out violently in random directions, slashing through random spots on the floor.

  Then he exploded in a cloud of unnatural darkness, leaving behind a noxious ash-like cloud.

  “You know, I was kind of hoping you actually managed to pull off a win there.”

  Jeh and Blue turned around to see their savior… a free leaf dryad with artificial cat ears on her head.

  “...Sandy!?” Jeh and Blue said at the same time, instantly recognizing the dryad they had found at the door of Vaughan’s cabin in the middle of winter.

  “Oh good, you remember me.” She jumped over to a gash Cobale had cut into the ground. She grew a vine out of her sleeve, reaching into the crack and pulling the black cube out. “And here it is! Bet you’ve been causing a lot of trouble.” She carefully wrapped it up in vines so she wouldn’t touch it while carrying it.

  “Not really? It was very helpful,” Jeh said.

  “...So you did put an ancestry in it… what is it?”

  “It’s useless. Told Uriah’s secrets and weaknesses.”

  “Ah. I see. Clever. Saves me the worry of if someone else has it and is going for some kind of secondary major doomsday. And…” She paused. Then she suddenly looked at Jeh with wild intensity. “Wait. Wait wait wait. You replaced the power in this cube.”

  “Y-yes?”

  “Then why. Is the Rigid Plague. Still active!?”

  “It’s not an ancestry…? It looks like Uriah just figured out how to control them with enough time…”

  The horror on Sandy’s face was obvious.

  “Sandy…?”

  “Just reexamining everything I thought I knew about my job, hold on.” She put a hand to the bridge of her nose, breathed in, and breathed out. Then she snapped her fingers. “Okay! We’re getting you two out of here!”

  Blue narrowed her eyes. “You work with that society, don’t you? When you showed up at our cabin you were just some spy, huh?”

  “Oh, it’s so, so much worse than that, Blue.” Sandy patted her on the shoulder. “I’m their glorious leader!”

  Blue stared at her, slack-jawed. Then her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “Wait, that means…”

  “That you know too much? Yes, but that was already true, we’ll discuss what to do with you later, once we get out of this mess. Have to finish saving the world, don’t we?” She clapped her hands.

  “Who are you really, then!?” Blue shouted. “What were you doing at the cabin!?”

  “My name really is Sandy, believe it or not. And I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  “You were investigating me,” Jeh said.

  “And why would you think that?” Sandy asked, eyes suddenly narrowing.

  “I saw the past in there. There was a dryad with cat ears.” Jeh looked at the fake cat ears on Sandy’s head. “That wasn’t some ancestor. That was you.”

  “And, pray tell little one…” Sandy was suddenly less than a centimeter from Jeh’s face. “Who are you?”

  “I am Jeh. Of the forest. And the Wizard Space Program.” Jeh put her hands on her hips.

  Sandy smiled… surprisingly warmly. “That’s the right answer. I really do hope what’s about to happen doesn’t ruin everything for you.”

  “Um… okay.”

  “But now, seriously, it’s time to save the world. Can we get on that?” She extended a hand to Jeh.

  Jeh glanced at Sandy, nervous for a moment. Then a big grin crossed her face. “Absolutely!”

  “Great! Where’s the princess? Can’t do it without her.”

  “Um… no idea.”

  Sandy blinked. “...Of course…”

  ~~~

  Via had no idea what was going on.

  One moment, the rigids had clearly been searching for her. The next, they suddenly started attacking everything around them that wasn’t another rigid. They seemingly had no target beyond wanton direct destruction. Walkways were torn apart, nexuses were disassembled metal plate by metal plate…

  She was still in danger from their attacks, to be sure, but she had the far larger problem of what was going to happen when the nexus she was in lost all connection to any solid structure. It would fall into the mist. She wasn’t going to survive that…

  What the heck am I going to do!?

  She clutched her firearm in her hands. The rigids were everywhere. She couldn’t safely make a run for it. She couldn’t stay here.

  She was stuck.

  And then she heard the violin.

  Her heart skipped a beat. She ripped a pair of earmuffs out of her dress she had on her specifically for this possibility, drowning out the sound. She carefully stood up and looked out one of the doorways.

  She made eye contact with a human woman with ice blue hair walking along one of the metal guard rails, playing a violin. The Rigid Plague was not ignoring her in the slightest, throwing bodies at her left and right. However, the moment they got close to her, something stopped them, freezing them in midair.

  She’s playing a song to stop the rigids…

  Kayz’ serene face was soon replaced with a truly wild and crazed grin. She said something Via couldn’t hear.

  Via removed her earmuffs. “What?”

  “I said…. I found you!” Kayz laughed, not missing a single beat on her song. Every rigid that attempted to slash or ram into her was simply stopped about a half-meter away, no matter what they tried, even if the attacks were ranged, they stopped.

  “Why were you looking for me?”

  “If I were a good girl, I‘d rescue you and get you out of here so your government’s precious plan can be executed. However…” She chuckled. “They won’t have any problem launching an attack… if you’re dead!”

  Via fired a bullet right at Kayz’ violin.

  The bullet was stopped in midair.

  “Wow. You really are an idiot.”

  “W-well I guess I could have figured out that wouldn’t have worked…” Via said, rubbing the back of her head.

  “There’s a second reason that was dumb. If it did work, we’d both be dead from the rigids. They’re focused on me, the enemy they can’t get to.” Krayz chuckled. “I do wonder why they’re being stupid, something must have happened down there with the others. Oh well. This won’t be hard.”

  Kayz broke out into a run, beelining right for Via. Via didn’t even bother shooting, though she kept her hands on her firearm.

  Via decided that if there was no way for her to attack… at least she could run. “Bye!” She turned around and scampered into the metallic nexus.

  “Hey! Get back here!”

  “No!” Via called back.

  “Aaaaaagh!”

  Via, as it turned out, was in better physical shape than Kayz. However, Kayz was wearing far better clothing for such intense physical activity; there were no dress folds for her to trip over. That said, she also had to keep playing her song to keep herself safe.

  Kayz had a plan. Spin kick the princess in her frail little neck.

  Via had no plan whatsoever. She was just running. She left the nexus they were currently in and jumped to another walkway.

  “Why… can’t I… catch you!?” Kayz shouted. She had a much harder jump to make, forced to roll in such a way that made it impossible to play her violin. A rigid got through, slashing her across the leg. She let out a cry of pain and started the song up again, but she could no longer run at top speed.

  Via kept running, pulling away.

  Getting far enough away that the rigids would bother focusing on her rather than Kayz. A blade cut through her left gauntlet, drawing blood. She fell back. “No… I can’t…”

  “I’m the only thing keeping you safe now!” Kayz laughed, limping toward her. “You can’t get away…”

  “I can stay exactly this far away though!” For every step Kayz took, Via took one as well.

  Kayz twitched. “That’s…”

  “Stalemate!” Via said, grinning. “That’s the term, right?”

  The two of them stood perfectly still. Rigids kept trying to plow into Kayz, but were stopped by her song. She realized with some annoyance that if she didn’t keep moving, she’d become trapped in a metallic sphere of rigids.

  Her leg was really hurting… She would probably have to stop moving at some point…

  Via aimed her firearm at Kayz.

  “Idiot, you know that doesn’t work…”

  She shot one of the rigids, shattering it into dozens of pieces, clearing space around Kayz. “You looked like you were getting stuck.”

  “...I’m trying to kill you, princess.”

  “And they’re trying to kill you, both of you suck.”

  “You didn’t even think that you needed to save me to save your own hide, did you? I just explained it!”

  “Oh. Uh.” Via shrugged. “Ehe?”

  “Why are you so happy!?”

  “I have something to do now!” She shot down a few more rigids and moved closer to Kayz. “And plus, if you’re here, that means the Rigid Plague deal is off. It was never on, was it?”

  Kayz ground her teeth. “No, we were always going to betray this plague.”

  “Great! I was so worried! But that’s a relief. Now… I have an idea. It’s almost definitely a stupid idea.”

  “Uuuugh, just kill me now…”

  Via shook her head. “So angry… No, I’m not going to do that, though I am quite mad about what you did to Blue.”

  “Eh?”

  “I thought you were the singer? Didn’t you order that plast dragon around?”

  “I mean, yes, but what did she do to Blue?”

  Via blinked. “Huh…” She shook her head. “Nevermind. My idea.” She pointed at Krayz. “You tell me where to go to get out of here, and I carry you out and provide defense.”

  “You’re proposing… an alliance… to someone who was trying to kill you.”

  “Yep!”

  “...I didn’t think you could get any dumber.” Kayz hung her head. “But you are right. Fine. Fine. AGH! I was so close!”

  Via stepped forward… and got frozen in Kayz’ song.

  “IDIOT! Ugh…” Kayz looked at the frozen Via.

  There was a moment. A moment where she considered it. The princess was vulnerable. All it would take was one carefully placed kick.

  But Kayz was not willing to sacrifice her own life for that.

  She let out a swear and willed Via to be unfrozen. Via took a step forward.

  Kayz spin kicked her in the face right where her nose should have been. “You. Are. Stupid. You just froze yourself in my song!”

  “Oh. Whoops.”

  “WHOOPS!?”

  She rubbed her face. “You didn’t have to kick me though…”

  “Just… Agh. We’re going to have to figure out how you can support me without interfering with violin playing.”

  Via shrugged. “No clue. I’m gonna keep shooting rigids until you come up with something.”

  “How much ammo do you have?”

  “This firearm can shoot air if it has to. But it won’t be explosive.”

  “I… how did this happen to me?”

  “Dia works in mysterious ways!”

  “No preaching, Aware.”

  “Okay, okay…”

  ~~~

  Jeh punched a rigid with a fist imbued with lightning. The lightning arced off the rigid into several others, triggering a series of explosions. However, a few of them were completely immune to the bolts, including a Ch’eni’tho.

  Sandy held out an Orange crystal in her hand. “Watch this.” She flicked out her wrist, throwing the Orange crystal into one of the Ch’eni’tho. The crystal suddenly shattered into an explosive cloud of black dust, tearing the Ch’eni’tho to shreds and sending shrapnel into other members of the rigid plague.

  “That’s so cool!” Jeh said, eyes sparkling. “You can detonate crystals!?”

  “Yep!”

  “Crystal… Detonation…” Blue looked at Sandy with wild eyes. “That’s…”

  “Try not to cause drama at the moment, hmm?” Sandy said, flinging another crystal at another section of the plague. “I am trying to save you after all.”

  “R-right.”

  The three of them continued to push up through the realm of the Rigid Plague, from nexus to nexus, walkway to walkway. Blue watched in awe as Jeh and Sandy melted through all opposition, working in tandem like they had fought alongside each other thousands of times. Jeh would send an electric punch through a bunch of rigids, Sandy would follow up by exploding crystals that disintegrated them, and they’d run forward.

  Blue found herself studying Sandy’s abilities. She was extremely adept with them. In such a metallic place her dryad attribute wasn’t particularly useful, but she’d occasionally grow vines as whips out of her sleeves. The other ability of hers, the crystal detonation, however, was far more impressive. She could control how they detonated. She could split a crystal up into several pieces mid-air, sending each piece flying into a different rigid, and then detonate the pieces themselves. Blue had no clue what the noxious darkness that emerged from the explosions was, but she was nonetheless thankful that it seemed to completely disintegrate any rigid form as it came into existence.

  Then, occasionally, Blue would catch a spark of Green coming from within Sandy’s bushy form. She must have also been a master Green wizard… perhaps that explained why some of the rigids just seemed to stop functioning, getting caught in their own body parts somehow.

  Jeh punched through a Ch’eni’tho.

  “Thank you for freeing me…” she said as she collapsed.

  Jeh paused. “I… that’s right…” She threw her fist wide, smashing into a propeller-dependent flying rigid. “Some of these are people!”

  Sandy blew up an attacking disc-shaped rigid. “Who want you to end their suffering and are attacking us.”

  “But… but I can do something about it! The cube! I can put a ‘cure the Rigid Plague’ power in it!”

  Sandy sent out an explosive wave of darkness, disintegrating several incoming rigids. “I was afraid of this…”

  “What?”

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Why not!?”

  “It would be cheating…” Blue said, turning to Jeh. “The same reason… we shouldn’t just ask a cube to give us all the answers.”

  “I… but…”

  “I must say, I am surprised that Blue here gets it.” Sandy jumped into the air and flicked out several crystals into the eyes of a very large rigid snake that was trying to eat them. The entire snake went up in black fumes.

  “I… I did say it would be cheating…” Jeh said. But then she narrowed her eyes. “No, no this is different, lives are on the line. We could save them!”

  “Lives are on the line in every aspect of this!” Sandy shouted. “You have the power to end the world unintentionally, Jeh!”

  “Give me the cube!”

  “I refuse.”

  Jeh pulled her fist back, imbuing it with some kind of brilliant light. “I said give me the cube!”

  “AUGH!” Blue shouted as a rigid got through, stabbing her in the leg.

  Sandy rushed into action, throwing a crystal into the rigid and sending it into several pieces, shredding several rigids behind it. “Jeh, we can’t argue, we need to keep Blue safe.” She enveloped Blue’s leg in Green magic, healing it instantly.

  “But… but we can’t just… This is wrong! We…”

  “She’s right Jeh, we can’t argue,” Blue said. “She has the power here.”

  “But… but…. AUGH!” Jeh angrily slammed her fist into a nearby rigid, tearing it to shreds.

  “Thank… you…” the rigid droned.

  “Stop thanking me! Stop it! Stop it!”

  “Jeh…” Blue held out a hoof… but then she shook her head. They had to get out of here. They needed to move.

  ~~~

  Via and Kayz arrived at the bottom of the hole to the Shinelands. They could see the sun beating down on them from above.

  There was no staircase or platform to take them up there.

  “...Drat,” Kayz said. “Didn’t think this far ahead…”

  Via scratched her chin. “You have friends, right? Surely they’ll be here soon.” She shot at another nearby rigid. There were fewer of them this close to the entrance, not that Via had any idea why.

  “Maybe…” Kayz sighed. “I’m… losing a lot of blood, not sure I’ll be able to keep this song up much longer…”

  “Time to hope something works out, then.”

  The two of them heard an explosion from somewhere below them. Then another one, closer this time.

  “I hope that’s a good sign…” Via scanned the area below them, finding it rather easy to locate the source of the explosions. A dryad, Jeh, and Blue, scrambling across a metal walkway, pursued by a truly absurd number of rigids.

  Via started shooting at the rigids pursuing them. “Up here!” She called.

  The dryad made eye contact with her and grinned. “Found the princess! Lucky us!” She pointed her hand at Via. The dryad’s entire body started glowing Green, and vines lashed out from her sleeves, latching to the metal plating around Kayz and Via. “Hang on!” She wrapped vines around Jeh and Blue.

  Jeh and Blue shouted in shock as they were pulled through the air, arriving right next to Via and Kayz.

  The dryad looked Via and Kayz up and down. “...That has to be awkward.”

  “It is,” Via admitted. Kayz was slung over Via’s back with some cables used as rope, allowing her to play her violin while giving Via access to both of her hands. Via gasped for breath. “It’s also exhausting…”

  “You can stop playing now, Kayz,” the dryad said, holding out her hand as she used Green to heal the injury.

  Kayz blinked, shocked that the wound was healing so completely. “That injury isn’t exactly new, Sandy…”

  “I have more than enough will to go back an hour or so.” Sandy winked. “Anyway, let’s get out of here.”

  “You’re going to drag us on those vines!?” Via asked, excitedly.

  “Partially. We have to time this right…” Sandy closed her eyes as she wrapped herself and everyone around her in vines. “Waiting for the signal…”

  “Signal?” Blue asked.

  A glass marble fell from above and hit Sandy on the head.

  “There we go!” Sandy launched her vines into the air, where they reached into the sunlight and vanished. Suddenly, something pulled on all five of them, dragging them upward, through the hole in the Shinelands. “I’d say be ready for a fight… but something tells me we won’t get one.”

  They floated out of the hole into the light of the sun. And all around the hole they saw… destruction. The rigids that had been standing in orderly circles outside were in complete disarray. Slashing at the ground and tearing it to pieces with no rhyme or reason. A handful of rigids noticed them coming out of the hole and attacked, but Via easily took care of these with her firearm.

  They simply didn’t care.

  “What… even…?” Jeh wondered aloud.

  “Uriah was their central driving force,” Blue said. “Without him… they’re just… chaos.”

  “Dangerous chaos, but chaos nonetheless,” Sandy agreed.

  “We could have helped them…” Jeh muttered.

  Sandy sighed. “Even if you could free them… I do not think most of them would have sensible minds.”

  “But there’d be some!”

  “But the consequences…” Sandy shook her head. “We’ll probably talk about this later. Try not to dwell on it, we’re not quite done yet. You also might want to look up, we’re close enough that the airship isn’t invisible anymore.”

  “Airship…?”

  Everyone looked up and their jaws dropped. Above them was a wooden construction the size of a large sea ship, made out of wood and bamboo. It was not a very solid structure—there were a lot of holes in it, and many of the sections were connected merely by a few beams of bamboo. Blue and Orange magic sparks flew off the structure at every location, but they were concentrated heavily around the six protrusions on top of which large propellers sat, made out of some mysterious white material. The propellers rotated extremely rapidly, creating massive gusts of wind. In addition to the propellors, there were various sails, riggings, and jury-rigged pulley systems that boggled the mind with their complexity.

  Sandy’s vines were attached to some kind of rope ladder that was dangling from the center of the airship and was slowly being reeled in. As it reeled, it dawned on Blue that this was a truly large craft. It had a full crew running around all the ropes, wood beams, and bamboo-like it was nothing with often nothing but their own hands keeping them from falling.

  Once they were pulled up to the central platform of the airship, they found themselves among several Shimmers and what were presumably some of Sandy’s people… and the crew of the ship.

  A young blonde girl with goggles on her face welcomed Sandy back with a handshake and said something in a language only Sandy understood. Sandy laughed and gave the girl a wink. “Everyone, say hello to the captain of this fine airship, the Seeker.”

  “She’s the captain!?” Blue blurted.

  “There’ll be time for that story later. Right now, we need to get out of here. I’m sure Mister Gobwell is getting rather exhausted of keeping everyone hidden like this.”

  “Mister Gobwell?”

  “Has a very stealthy ancestry. No, you won’t ever see him, man’s paranoid.”

  The captain gave some orders to her crew and everyone started scrambling around. Orange and Blue flashed throughout the Seeker, and the craft began to move away from the rigid hole.

  Sandy took out an arcane device made mostly of Purple. “Hey, Benefactor. I know you can hear this. The Princess is clear of the Rigid Plague and safe… for now. You might want to give the signal to your people and do whatever plan it is you had.”

  Via blinked. “Um… we might not be far enough away.”

  Sandy turned to her and blinked. “Eh?”

  “It’s going to be very… um… violent.”

  “...What on Ikyu did you people find?”

  “...The sun.”

  ~~~

  Xanava was the one who received the signal, far above the Shinelands in a modified Skyripper.

  Excellent.

  This modified Skyripper had no cargo hold. Instead, it had an exceedingly complicated arcane device on its underside, made mostly of Orange, Blue, and Purple. Xanava placed her hands on the Magenta controls, pushing her will into the device.

  It brought up a series of magical rings outside the ship. These had nothing to do with the spellcasting itself, they were just a visual aid. The rings had thin tick marks in them that told Xanava where, exactly, she was aiming based on the location of Benefactor. She needed to be so precise that it would be impossible for anyone to eyeball the situation, not even a Crystalline One. The magic rings provided the precision needed. Making the tiniest adjustment made the innermost ring spin at a high speed. Thus, she could use the various tick marks to read where she was aiming, rather than seeing it.

  The Mikarolian Engineers had really outdone themselves with this one. Precision aiming from extreme distance.

  She locked the aiming in place. The device would force the Skyripper’s orientation to remain the same and would warn her if something jostled the setup. But she was in space. Nothing was going to jostle her.

  She started warming up the energetic part of it. The payload was encased in a Yellow sphere, and this sphere was rapidly rotated in a ring-shaped tunnel inside the larger device. A more advanced version of the device used to launch the Wizard Space Program’s satellite.

  A more precise version as well, for there was only one direction the payload could be released. Directly downward.

  A magenta coil embedded deep inside the Yellow of the payload started flashing vibrantly. A timer spell, like those used in firearms to make bullets explode at a distance. Such things could not last very long without a wizard to maintain them. However, Xanava’s device had a lot of Blue in it specifically to ensure it did not have to maintain the will for much time at all.

  Xanava did one last check. All the magic circles were lined up. The payload was spinning at a high enough velocity. She was getting tired.

  She pulled the trigger.

  An automatic system released the payload directly downward. The Blue magic surrounding it actually slowed the projectile down rather than accelerating it, entirely so the magic within could be active for “longer.” Of course, from the payload’s perspective, it was the rest of the universe that was suddenly moving at extreme speed.

  It had one spell it needed to keep active as long as possible. An Orange force field that ensured it did not deviate from its course. This part had been constructed by Wizard Rigelia, and for all her attitude, she really did know how to make a nearly perfect force spell. When winds came and pushed the payload to the side, the spell pushed it back. Many Magenta loops had been held within the payload to ensure there was excess will to go around, so many that the payload would have burned through them in a manner of days. The payload did not have a long shelf life.

  But even all this stored will and excessive planning was not enough to keep it held together. The designers had made a distinct attempt to ensure the casing was plenty large enough to deal with any atmospheric problems. However, the Yellow shell cracked under the pressure of the atmospheric fire. Pieces flew off. The interior Magenta loops began to wane.

  It shattered before it ever hit the ground.

  In theory, it was supposed to go right into the great hole in the Shinelands. The aim wasn’t good enough for that, it was actually heading for a point about a half kilometer to the East.

  The Yellow shell cracked open. The Magenta loops failed. The interior Orange sphere, carefully crafted to ensure no energy could escape, gained the tiniest of defects.

  Then there was light.

  The airship, despite having flown westward as fast as it possibly could, still lost an entire propellor section to the shockwave alone. They were very fortunate the weapon’s aim was off to the East.

  The ground beneath the sphere of light was melted instantly. The massive cavern holding the ancient ruins of a city buckled under the force, compressing the nexuses, railings, and mist into a pancake. There were secondary explosions, but they didn’t carry a candle to the raw strength of the sun.

  Deep beneath the ground, there was a display.

  A display that said STANDBY. Somehow, despite the order to shut down, Uriah had managed to segment part of himself off for potential later use. With time, the Rigid Plague could have risen again.

  But when the entire cavern melted, even that hope was gone. All the massive servers, all the communication towers, all the networks… they were all gone.

  The Rigid Plague could be no more. Any rigids that were not present in the explosion were instantly freed.

  Most were, in fact, raving mad and could only lash out and scream. Becoming either monsters or destroying themselves in the process.

  But a few, a select few, were able to stand up… and move on.

  On the airship, the captain was shouting orders, trying to ensure they didn’t drop out of the sky. The crew was scrambling around in a frantic mess.

  But the passengers… it was a different story.

  Most of them could only stare at the ball of light. It hadn’t dissipated, even now, the heat was still there. The air itself was glowing. There weren’t even visible flames, just a sphere of heat. It was like a second sun was shining on them.

  “That… was not as big on the moon,” Jeh said.

  “What… power…” Kayz said. Her entire body started trembling.

  “I… I was warned… but…” Via put her hand to her head and closed her eyes.

  Sandy fell to her knees. “That… how have you already…”

  “Sandy?” Jeh asked, visibly concerned. “What…?”

  Darkness began to form between Sandy’s hands. One of her xylems popped from stress, spraying pressurized water out the side of her face. She clenched her jaw. The dark cloud between her hands began to form into a spherical shape…

  She let out a pained cry. The sphere dissipated. “It’s no use… that… that didn’t even use magic! What would be the point!?” She slammed her fist onto the ground. “That’s… that’s two things today. Two things that can threaten the world without even needing magic.” Tears started rolling down her face.

  “Sandy…” Jeh said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  Sandy turned to look Jeh dead in the eyes. Anguish was all over her face. “Was it completely pointless? Are we just doomed no matter what we do?”

  Jeh had no idea how to answer that question.

  ~~~

  SCIENCE SEGMENT

  Aiming in space is painfully difficult. In fact, it was only in recent history that we can say we made a “precise landing” on anything that wasn’t Earth. The Japanese craft SLIM managed to land within 10 meters of its target location on the moon, something which is absolutely remarkable. For comparison, the accuracy of the Appollo 11 landing was measured in kilometers. For how much preparation and time goes into these missions, it sure is surprising that we can’t actually land where we want!

  What we have instead are “landing ellipses,” where we use the situations and uncertainties to predict a roughly elliptical area the craft might land when we execute the landing procedures. Sometimes these ellipses are huge, indicating that we often have no idea what we’re going to land on. There are a few reasons for this--lack of infrastructure or reference points out there to help us, a complete lack of knowledge about smaller-scale features of the destination, and uncertainties in the capabilities of our craft. Not to mention potential atmosphere interference, gravity anomalies, you name it. So many things add to the uncertainty in our trajectory. In fact, even if we aren’t heading for a landing on a planet, course corrections are still needed in interplanetary space! Sure, it seems all nice, if we are on a simple elliptical orbit we should stay on it the whole way, right? But drift from the “nominal” path still occurs. Aiming is a pain, and spacecraft have to be designed with the sad fact of unknown final destination coordinates.

  One may ask how missiles on Earth know where to strike precisely. Obviously, because the missile knows where it isn’t. …Okay fine, there’s several ways to do it, but one of the simplest is to just use satellites like GPS so the missile can know its position. Xanava didn’t have this. Xanava, however, was using something very simple to increase her accuracy. You’ve probably seen it if you’ve ever measured something in a college-level lab course: the ticks on the vernier caliper. As you open and close the calipers, you slide two types of ticks past each other. When these ticks line up, it’s possible to make measurements with sub-millimeter precision that your eye would never be able to see. This is called a vernier scale. It works because of mathematical trickery: when you slide two sets of ticks past each other that have different spacings between them, certain ticks will line up between the two sets, while others will not. Our eyes can easily pick out when ticks line up. Very small motions can suddenly cause large differences in the way the two sets of ticks line up, allowing precise measurements to be taken. The only real limit on how far this can go is how precise you can make the tick marks themselves; how sensitive to changes and conditions.

  One of the nice things about magic is that you can get extremely precise tick marks by making images based on mathematical principles and patterns, rather than a visual imagination. Thus, Xanava’s nested magic rings were essentially an extremely accurate location measurer. Of course, she still had to anchor her position to a known point, Benefactor, and the spells had to be set by someone who could make something that accurate. But when you’re making a device to shoot a doomsday weapon, the pain of getting all that right is certainly worth it in the eyes of the government.