City I was experiencing a beautiful snowfall, which its citizens were used to most of the year. The evacuation announcement was being made on the public-address system, and with everyone standing in place to listen, getting to the entryway to the underground complex was a simple task.

  “It really is wonderful here…” Milla said to Jeryn as the two went across the streets. “A City where it always snows. It sets it apart, doesn’t it?”

  “I suppose…”

  “Hey… has something been bothering you recently?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You seem a bit quiet. I can usually tell when others feel troubled.”

  “It’s… Shin. I think she knows something about me that I don’t.”

  “How’d that be possible?”

  “I’ve been wondering about my memory lately and how much I can trust it. Given the fact that my current origin is lost to me… I’m not really sure who I am, though someone else might. I just never questioned or worried about it before. I think my memory has been tampered with.”

  “Really? I know that erasers can clear someone’s mind and make them feel like a newsoul next life, but I’ve never heard of anyone able to keep someone alive after a full alteration, or tweak just a few memories.”

  “I don’t think even I would’ve been able to find an eraser. Their business is highly illegal, and there are just a few of them and most are in the lower-tier Cities… So, I… really don’t think that’s the case. Maybe I have some rare form of Aurrian amnesia.”

  “Well, what’s the earliest you can remember?”

  “Oh, I can remember everything going back to age ten or so. I just don’t know if the older things are… my actual memories. Truth is, it seems like only the last, maybe, three years or four years feel real to me.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it, Jeryn. Even if there is something wrong with your memory, everything should return to you in your next Aurrian life. Just continue being who you are, you know?”

  “Yeah… I try to. Milla… can I ask you something?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “If you still had access to City A, well, no offense, but you would be a lot more useful to us, don’t you think? Rivia’s ideas seem to revolve around going against the Guard in some way. With you being a queen once, I thought that the judges wouldn’t have ever demoted you…”

  “Oh… that…”

  “I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I was just curious.”

  Milla coughed, and then threw on a second scarf to keep warm. They walked another block before she had come up with an answer.

  “I did something… rather terrible in my last Earth life.”

  “Oh? Well, that’s a chance for everyone. I’m sure even history’s saints had their share of Earthen mistakes. I always thought judges should keep in mind all the unknowns the human spirit has to endure on Earth—”

  “No…” Milla said with a small smile. “It’s not like that.”

  “But it is, Milla. You know the old saying? Aurrian goodbyes are always sadder than Earth ones. It’s true. On Earth, we don’t remember the circle or Aurra, or all the friends we made here. We live with the fear of death, but we have a chance to reunite here, on Aurra, you know? But when you die in this world… well, we know we probably won’t meet with friends or family on the other side. And even if you did, you wouldn’t know it.”

  “Jeryn, I know that… but it was different for me. I didn’t get the chance to reflect on it until I was in Hold again, and before the judges. You see… I had partial corrupted recollection my last Earth life.”

  “I see. Yeah, that can happen sometimes, right?”

  “But it was stronger than usual. I always believed that I was a ruler once. Somehow, I knew I was a ruler. I couldn’t comprehend it, but it gave me a strong passion to triumph over others. So…” Milla sighed, “as an influential wife of a rising despot in a poor nation, and under the belief that I was fulfilling some divine goal, I helped cause the suffering of thousands.”

  “You mean… Milla, you were…” he trailed off, at a loss for words.

  Tess stopped the group in front of I’s main military compound. “We’re here. We can open up all the lifts for complete access down below.”

  Milla and Jeryn caught up with the others, Milla making no effort to continue her story.

  “Hey…” Garder spoke up before they entered. “There aren’t any of those five-legged nasty looking creatures patrolling down there, right?”

  “Have you seen such a beast before?”

  “Yes, under N. It’s scary to think that such a thing was under our feet while we were growing up. Do you know what it was?”

  “You speak of the rairer.”

  “What do you know about them?” Verim replied.

  “The rairer was made to patrol the sprawling world under Aurra. It’s a deadly, vicious, but loyal creature. Being a living thing, it can even be put under providence and become nearly invincible. And it can perform low-level alchemagi, though it typically doesn’t have the intelligence to do so. Its bones are metal—though they still poof away like other organic material.”

  “The demon we told you about…” Jeryn spoke up. “It had the same kind of skin, and even similar gills to this creature you’re telling us about.”

  “The rairer have been around for a thousand years or so, none of them ever coming to the surface. They may look like this demon, but they certainly can’t survive the haze. They die as easily as we do if exposed. Even their bones melt away. They use gills to breathe—to get more oxygen they need. Most with access to the upper floors of the Administration know about them. And in recent years, more City officials like myself have been let down there. They used to be more secretive, Milla—back when you were Queen, even with your status, you couldn’t see these places for yourself.”

  “What odd creatures,” she replied. “But they’ll stay below, right?”

  “I’ve never heard of them coming up, so hopefully, yes. Any who, down we go…”

  Everyone gathered onto one of the large elevators connecting to the underground complex. After a minute or so, the doors reopened to a chilling sight. The metal beams of the old facility were all twisted and bent into odd shapes against the walls. Like the one under N, the place had a seemingly bottomless shaft that large bridges presided over.

  The rail system was immediately noticeable. The large bridges formed a network that was adapted into the unique ruinous environment. Instead of an Administration facility, the citizens had turned the chasm into a giant substation. Three long double-decker trains, at least a hundred years old, covered the tracks completely. A single train occupied the bridge’s space, while the other two rested further back in the tunnel.

  “This is quite a station,” Shin noted. “How many can they hold?”

  “Hm.” Tess thought for a moment. “Together, about six thousand.”

  “Two thousand per train? Impressive transport for a small City.”

  “City D is about where London is,” Verim calculated. “How fast do these trains move?”

  “A hundred miles an hour at maximum speed. Empty, they can go a little faster—another twenty or so. Return trips won’t take quite as long.”

  “So, we’re talking about two full trips a day if we’re efficient…” Jeryn explained. “Around ten thousand people a day, probably.”

  “Hekens wasn’t even close,” Shin sighed. “It’s going to take about eight months at least to get everyone out of here.”

  “As long as we can get a minimum of two million out, we can hide the rest in the shelters and see what the results are afterwards,” Tess said.

  “True. Makes a little more sense. So, maybe six, optimistically.”

  “Why do you have these huge trains here, anyway?” Simon asked.

  “We export our food and clothing synthesizers on them. Also, City I is a popular vacation spot for political figures during the summer. They come here by the thousands.”

  “I suppose we’ll be the first to leave,” Lechi said.

  “Yes. I’ll be the one who will have to tell City D’s governor what is going on. I’m still wondering how I’m going to explain the evacuation.”

  One of the elevator doors opened. Hekens, a few bodyguards, and the train operators stepped out. They got to work to get things running, as the mayor approached and gave his rambunctious son a pat on the head.

  “I announced it,” he said tiredly. “City security is now organizing things. People who really want to leave will go first. There aren’t too many who fill that group, but…” He laughed a bit. “Enough to fill a first batch.”

  “Mayor, we think it’ll take six months to get two million people out,” Milla explained. “Then we keep the rest in the shelters, and either continue the evacuation, or return to the City… or populate whatever replaces it.”

  “Six months…” He sighed. “Well, it can’t be helped. Tess, I wrote an official report. Here.” He gave her an envelope. “‘Mt. Ultimaeus is on the verge of eruption.’ Technically, it’s still an active volcano, though it hasn’t erupted since before people came up here. That should buy us time, at least until Rivia gets done with… whatever it is he needs to do. There are a lot of unknowns, but he is right in his judgment to move everyone beforehand.”

  “What about you?”

  “I stay until I am the last one in the City. I’m not sure how we’ll keep in touch,” he turned to the others, “but if we don’t, initiate what you need to in six months. I’ll do my best to make sure the City is clear by then.”

  “Understood,” Milla replied.

  “While we’re here, we’ll help you with the early evacuees,” Shin said.

  “Thank you. They should be arriving shortly…”

  People poured out of the elevators, each carrying only a handbag or two. Some had pets, others children. They were guided onto the first train’s platform by the City’s small security force, which then left to fetch more people. The initial assortment certainly fit into Heken’s description.

  “Leaving this place? I certainly don’t mind.”

  “How’d I get stuck here, anyway?”

  “If I had known it was so cold, I never would’ve chosen this City.”

  “Right this way, right this way…” one of the officials helped people onboard. “Sit anywhere you’d like, plenty of room.”

  The first train’s lights flickered as its bulky mass came to life. More powerful than any train on Earth, its idle engine made the surrounding metal vibrate continually. The people boarding seemed to pay no mind to the place they had just entered. Maybe they already knew about the station, but since it was rarely used, didn’t ever consider actually getting a ride.

  The thousands of lights in the complex warmed up and filled the shaft below with illumination, the tunnel ahead partially lit for about a mile before fading into darkness. The four large tracks were maintained well and bared no resemblance to the rest of the damaged facility.

  “Hey, Garder?” Lechi spoke up.

  “Yeah?” he replied, looking on curiously at the bustling crowds.

  “Can I walk along the tracks a bit? I don’t think I can help out much, and I could use a little exercise. So could Tanesh.”

  “Uh… sure. You’d just get in the way, anyway. But don’t go too far.”

  “I won’t. I kind of have a thing for trains, actually. I… I like them.”

  “Whatever. Why don’t you take Temki with you?”

  “All right. Hey,” she tugged on one of his scarves, “let’s get away from these crowds for a little bit.”

  He replied meekly, “Um… Okay.”

  “You’re just letting them wander off like that?” Milla worried.

  “What’s the big deal? We’ve all got time to kill, right?”

  “Daddy—I wanna ride up front on the top deck! Tell these people to save me a seat up there! Do it!” Jeremi whined.

  “Yeah, yeah…” Hekens groaned and promptly went back to guiding people onboard.

  “Milla, could we go on the third train? I’d like to stay as far away from that brat as possible…” Garder muttered.

  “I think that was the plan, anyway. But for now, let’s just help get these filled with people.”

  “Grandmother, I’m going to walk with Lechi for a little bit,” Temki said to her. “I’ll be right down in the tunnel, okay?”

  “That’s fine, dear. Stay close.”

  The two hopped onto the tracks and went along at a leisurely pace. The noises of the crowds and train engines faded into quieter echoes the further they went. For a while, Temki and Lechi said nothing, Tanesh stopping repeatedly to smell a few ancient scents buried in the gravel.

  “So…” Lechi spoke up. “Um, I like your City.”

  “Y-yeah, it’s nice.”

  “Are you happy to be home? Er, even if you’re just leaving again?”

  “I don’t really know, actually. Everything’s happening so fast.”

  “Miss your parents?”

  “Of course I do. But Grandmother seems nice… And Milla and Garder, and the others, too. I think I’ll like being with you guys.”

  “Yeah. Garder can be annoying sometimes, but he tries… Anyway, Temki—about that staff you carry. What happens if you pull it away?”

  “They told me my powers would go out of control.”

  “It looks like a basic alchemagi inhibitor. Same material. You’re only level one, like me, so how much can your powers really go out of control?”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “I… don’t know.”

  “I think you should find out.”

  “W-why?”

  “You don’t know the full extent of what you can do. You should find out for sure, don’t you think?”

  “I… don’t really think that’s a good idea.”

  “It’ll be like facing your fears. It might make you a little braver.”

  “Well… I guess. I mean, I’ve always been curious.”

  “Here, give me the staff and I’ll slowly pull it away from you.”

  “O-okay…” he said and handed it to her.

  “Feel any different?”

  “N-not yet…”

  Lechi walked a few feet away and stopped. “How about now?”

  “I… Go back a little further.”

  “Okay.” She took a few more steps back.

  “My head is starting to hurt…”

  “You have a headache already?”

  “Yeah… but it’s not bad yet.”

  Lechi hesitated, but then skipped backwards another few yards. This time, Temki dropped to his knees and covered his head in pain.

  “O-okay, Temki. I’ll give it back to you now…” Lechi responded.

  Before she could come any closer, a strange aura penetrated the tunnel. Tanesh whimpered and ran behind Lechi. The lights began to flicker, and the very air began to rumble with a heavy power.

  “Temki! Hold on, I’ll be right there!”

  The air felt heavy, making it difficult to move even a few inches. The closer she got, the more she slowed. Temki was standing again, but covered his eyes with one arm. His other was out and feeling for the staff.

  “Hurry…” he moaned. “Give it back…”

  “Can’t you control your power at all?”

  “N-no! And don’t look in my eyes… Just… give it back…”

  Lechi managed to get within a few feet of him, and the power in the air quickly faded. Relieved, she slid the staff back into Temki’s palm and sighed deeply. He opened his eyes and looked around nervously.

  “You okay?”

  “Y-yeah… I think I am now… Sorry…”

  “Don’t be. It was my dumb idea. I didn’t think something like that would happen.”

  “Actually, I did have some control after I got a hold on what I was doing… but it wasn’t much. Not enough to know what was going on.” Temki rubbed his eyes and returned to his previous stature.

  “Why did you tell me not to look in your eyes?”

  “I was afraid. Back when my powers surged and overwhelmed even the staff, I could do terrible things to people. Sometimes the Guard made me do things to prisoners. Like they were experimenting on me. I can put images into someone’s mind. I think it gets even worse when people look into my eyes… Once, they made me stare directly at a prisoner when my alchemagi flared up. And he fell into a coma… The Administration took custody of me after that. And they never made me do those things.”

  “Oh… wow. That’s terrible.”

  “But that doesn’t happen anymore. I’ve learned to use this staff, and as long as I have it, I can keep myself under control. But what I felt without the staff… It was really powerful.”

  “I won’t do it again. Sorry about any pain I put you in.”

  “It’s okay. At least I know what I can really do now.”

  “I don’t know how much they told you about alchemagi, but mind is very different from all others. The intensity of its strength varies, and it all comes from the human brain. Watching how strong you are with the alignment, I can see why it’d overwhelm you.”

  “You’re smart, Lechi. I…” Temki looked behind her in a mild shock.

  “What is it?”

  She turned around to see a flood of rats coming through the tunnels, directly toward them. Lechi wasn’t disgusted at all, but Temki became stiff and didn’t move an inch as they went by his feet.

  “That’s odd…” Lechi murmured.

  “T-t-they’re touching m-me… D-did I do this?”

  “I don’t see how… Let me find out what’s going on.”

  Tanesh barking angrily, Lechi picked up a rat by the scruff of its neck and spoke with it. After returning it to its pack, she turned to Temki.

  “It was panicked,” she explained. “Says a big predator is coming.”

  “One of t-those creatures you told us about?”

  “I don’t think so… Rats think most anything bigger than them is a predator, or food if it’s not moving, so it could be anything.”

  The rails began buckling. Something very large was making its way down the tunnel, and the lights swayed as loose dirt fell from the ceiling.

  “Whatever it is, it’s big…” Temki whispered. “I can sense a lot of energy coming from it. It feels familiar…”

  Lechi picked up another rat and asked it just what was coming down the tunnel. After coaxing out a very basic description of the “predator,” she finally realized the danger everyone was in.

  “I think it’s the Guard,” she said as the rats dissipated. “Their machines are really big and dark.”

  “T-the Guard? Here?”

  “We have to warn everyone… Come on—hurry.”

  They ran down the tracks, trembling more and more after every step. By the time they were out of the tunnel entirely, the lights were swinging dramatically, and the air had filled up with heavy industrial fumes.

  “Milla! Garder!” Lechi called out.

  Garder turned and shouted back, “Huh? What is it?”

  “A big train is coming down the tracks. I think we should hide.”

  Lechi and Temki caught up with the group again as an ominous shadow began to loom over the station entry.

  “What is that?” Milla wondered.

  “Oh no…” Hekens muttered. “Take Temki and get out of here.”

  “But the elevators are all filled up.”

  “We’ll clear one—we can’t let them see you lot! I’ll deal with this.”

  “Too late,” Tess said. “Milla, take your friends and find cover. There’s plenty of rubble to cover you—right over there.” She pointed to a large heap of twisted metal and debris.

  An iron train slowly chugged down the track ahead: a triple-decker, just low enough to squeeze through the tunnels. The Guard’s infinity emblem was proudly displayed in gold and shimmered in the low light, the black windows of the two command cabins above it.

  “The Guard…” Jeryn murmured and looked at the crowds filling the elevators to the brim. “Tess is right. All we can do is hide.”

  “Oh, look! It’s the Guard!” Jeremi, standing next to his father, shouted and pointed to the train. “Have they come to assist us?”

  “Thank God!” someone in the crowd responded. “This will go much more smoothly with them here to help us!”

  “Get out of here… now!” Hekens nearly snapped.

  Milla led her group over several mounds of ancient and decaying metal. It was a rather treacherous path to the hiding place. Tanesh and the adults had little difficulty managing it, but Lechi and Temki required assistance before they all managed to get behind a pile of twisted beams—right before the train came to a stop. Each of them shrunk down low and huddled close, adjusting themselves to get a view.

  The triple-decker had taken the same track City I’s trains were on, effectively barricading them in. People stopped boarding immediately and remained calm, awaiting any superseding orders from the Guard. The large train was so long that more than half of it was still hidden in the tunnel.

  All fell silent for a few minutes. The elevators dropped off more people and waited at the bottom. Escape was almost possible for a brief moment—until the front car opened up and dozens of armed Guardsmen poured out. The hatches covering the hull were easily visible, each holding a cannon or other armament. Only the train’s third floor had any windows.

  City officials formed an orderly line to greet the commander, who came out last to lead his platoon. The soldiers were comprised mostly of knights, with a few archers, riflemen and alchemagists in the mix. Even if the group could take them out, many others would replace them. They had to lie low and wait. The Guard likely knew that they were coming this way.

  “Where is Mr. Hekens?” the lieutenant demanded.

  “Right here, sir…” He raised his hand from the platform just above.

  “Would you step down here, sir?”

  Desperate to keep the peace, Hekens left his son near Tess and went down to meet with the Guard formally. The crowds kept quiet and mostly still, with some using the momentary lull to secure a good seat on the train.

  “Mr. Hekens, where are you taking these people?”

  “To D, Lieutenant.” He lowered his voice and added, “I know this was an Administration center, but we’ve been treating it like a substation.”

  “I’m aware of that, sir. That’s not the problem. This leave was not authorized, or even requested.”

  “How did you get here so quickly?” Hekens asked calmly.

  “Why are you attempting this leave?”

  “It’s an evacuation…”

  “Evacuation?”

  “It’s Mt. Ultimaeus. We believe it’s close to erupting. We have shelters—but they only hold a million or so. I decided to be safe and—”

  “So that’s your excuse, hm?”

  A woman with long and flowing black hair had stepped out of the train. It was obvious by her stance and decorated black uniform that she was a higher-up. Just by stepping out, she commanded respect—all of the Guardsmen, of any rank, bowed lightly, an act that she didn’t acknowledge.

  “Ah… Lady Trinqit… I was hoping to settle this on my own, but if you feel the need to step in, by all means…” the lieutenant stammered a bit.

  “Go back to your men. Hekens is sentimental. He’ll try and weasel his way into doing whatever it takes for the good of his people. But he scares easily—so allow me to handle this,” she replied mockingly.

  She made no effort not to be overheard. The officer bowed, and then merged back with his squad to watch from afar. The woman, a bit taller than Hekens, crossed her arms and walked up in front of him casually.

  “A-are you an officer?” Hekens asked.

  “Do I honestly look like one? Jenera Trinqit, Third Royal Pretorian.”

  “Another pretorian…” Milla gasped lightly. “All the way out here…”

  “Are we really that important?” Garder replied.

  “We need to get out of here right away…” Jeryn added.

  “Nowhere to go. Just keep quiet.”

  “A pretorian?” Hekens stuttered, “Is this r-really necessary? I’m sorry that I couldn’t get authorization, b-but this was a recent discovery, and—”

  “Come on now, Mayor. I know that you’ve been visited by a certain group of people. They took some thing precious from us and fled here. They seek to destroy the Guard, and by letting them into your City, you may have just secured yourself a fate worse than death alone.”

  “I… T-trying to destroy the Guard? Them?”

  “We are?” Garder murmured.

  “Turn all of these people around at once. Your City is hereby under martial law until these traitors are captured, is that understood?”

  “V-very well …” Hekens racked his brain for an answer on what to do next. “Hold all of us, but not here—we can’t stay here—”

  “Please, Mayor. You are making a grave mistake. I suggest you put an end to this and stop lying to your people.”

  “Hekens!” someone called out from the crowd. “What the heck is going on? Are we going or not?”

  “Everyone, return to your homes immediately,” Trinqit yelled out.

  “No, don’t!” Hekens shouted louder. “Remain where you are!”

  “Mayor, you have no idea what you’ve just done. Going against the direct orders of a pretorian? You are brave, perhaps, but very mistaken.”

  “L-look. Please. We have to get everyone out of this City. They’re all in great danger, and—”

  “Enough,” Trinqit snapped angrily. “I give everyone three chances—and one of yours has just been expended. Here’s your punishment.”

  “Wait, don’t do anything! Wait!”

  The pretorian raised three fingers and summoned a powerful spell within a second’s time. A dozen large vector lines formed over the first train and came down like a flurry of whips, tearing apart the train’s hull mercilessly. Within moments, it had turned into a flaming ruin on the track as a cloud of orange dust vanished above it. There were at least a hundred people already inside. And each had been callously sent directly to Hold following the pretorian’s decision.

  “A vector pretorian!” Milla exclaimed. “The speed of her lines… There’s no way I could counter them.”

  Trinqit calmly put her casting hand into her pocket as if nothing terrible had just happened. Her brutal show of force had turned everyone on the platform to panic. Tess and Hekens, now frozen, could only watch.

  “Okay! Okay—no more, I beg you!” Hekens pleaded.

  “Those are the words I like to hear. Good—now tell me where that group of people is staying. I won’t hesitate to tear your crowds apart.”

  “They’re… In my office… Be careful—they’re very dangerous.”

  “You don’t need to tell me. But we both know that you might be lying. I’ll go to them myself and leave these men here to make sure they don’t flee. Oh, and remember, Hekens, you still have two chances. But the consequences for each mistake rise dramatically. Think upon your actions.”

  “Yes… I will…”

  “Lieutenant—you are to remain down here. I’ll be back shortly.”

  “Y-yes, ma’am.”

  “Mayor, tell your people that we’re taking control of this City. We’ve brought in a rairer for… security. A pet of mine, actually. Treat him nicely.”

  Right on cue, a muffled roar erupted from the tunnel. The Guard had one of the nightmarish creatures with them, and its handlers were ready to deploy it at a moment’s notice.

  Hekens turned his eyes toward Milla’s. She stared back, unsure of just what he was thinking at the moment.

  “This is your only chance…” he said into her mind. “Get out of here. I’ll do what I can, but for now, this plan… isn’t going to work. You have to forget us for now. You must escape.”

  “What do we do?” Verim whispered.

  “We can’t fight them…” Milla replied.

  She turned to look at the crowds swarming back to the elevators in terror. If they could move right away, they might be able to hide among them right before it went back up. It was likely the only means of escape.

  “See that lift?” she said. “We’re going to make a run for it.”

  “How? We’ve got so much rubble to get through. They’ll see us for sure,” Shin replied.

  “I’ve got an idea. Simon—I need you to kill the lights when I say to.”

  “W-what?” He trembled. “I don’t know if I can, Milla… There are so many of them… D-do I really have that much power?”

  “I guess we’re about to find out. You’ll just have to try your hardest. You know how the spell goes… and you have to put everything into it. We need to make an escape in the dark.”

  “That’d make getting over all this debris a nightmare,” Garder noted.

  “I’ll blast it out of the way—even if it looks like the pretorian is attacking again and I further panic the crowds. Garder, smooth out the rest with an ice technique. Give us a slide. Shin and Jeryn—if things get bad, combine your plasma and static barriers. Temki and Lechi, stay close…”

  “Right. Sounds insane, but let’s give it a try.”

  “Ready, Simon?”

  He raised his hand and kept it steady with his other. “Y-yeah…”

  “Now!”

  Simon summoned the spell in his mind and kept a firm hold on it. At first, nothing changed. He concentrated harder and focused on each individual source of light and the shadows they created.

  It began to work—a dome of darkness quickly formed as each ray of illumination was literally pushed back to its source. The crowds, despite their anxiety, froze in curiosity. Even the Guardsmen and the pretorian had to take a moment to get a hold on what was going on in the complex.

  “Keep on it, Simon!” Milla’s voice came from the blackness.

  Ten thin vector lines sprung out in front of her. With firm control, she blasted them outward diagonally. The attack shaved a usable slant in the debris as it sheered the metal into bits. People fell into chaos, believing that the pretorian was responsible for both the blackout and the vector lines.

  Using the localized but vibrant illumination provided by the glowing lines, Garder found a spot to place his open palm and form a thin sheen of ice to speed up the escape. In the dark again, they had to follow the voices of frightened evacuees as they slid down a ramp of smooth frozen water.

  Simon found himself straining to keep the lights from penetrating the area, and his hold on the spell vanished by the time they had joined the crowds. But it had been enough, as the entire effort had lasted less than ten seconds. Working as a team, they had managed to secure an escape.

  “That’s them!” Trinqit shouted. “Stop them! Now!”

  They had already wormed their way through to the back of the lift before the doors closed. Vector lines from the pretorian were incoming—she didn’t at all consider innocent lives. Milla barely had time to react. She countered the atomized lines with her own and slowed their speed.

  The doors closed before the attack hit, and just seconds later, everyone inside the lift could hear the metal being cut apart below. The lines had just missed, but no one in the lift seemed to be relieved.

  “You’re the ones they’re after!” someone yelled angrily. “It’s your fault they came here, isn’t it? You brought them here!”

  “People, please…” Milla tried to calm the crowd.

  “Get out of here! Get out of our City!”

  “We’re going to, I assure you,” Garder replied.

  “We should go back to the villa—to Rivia,” Jeryn said over the noise.

  “But the sun is down by now…”

  “I know. Simon—can you concentrate the light on the demirriage?”

  “I… I can try.”

  “Please do. I think we’ve taken them by some surprise. They weren’t expecting us to have a solar. And you did well down there.”

  “Oh… thanks.”

  “To go this far… To send two pretorians after us…” Shin murmured as the townspeople finally quieted and accepted that they were stuck with the visitors for another minute.

  “She said we’re trying to destroy the Guard. Rivia never told us about anything like that,” Garder added. “Really… it seems a bit extreme.”

  “Either way, we’ve screwed up this mission.”

  “It’s not our fault, though,” Verim replied. “I’m sure Rivia will understand once we tell him.”

  “He’d better. He owes us some answers, too,” Milla said.

  The lift came to a stop. Everyone poured out quickly into the cold night air. What was happening to the City became immediately apparent.

  “This is indeed martial law,” Jeryn commented as they stopped by a streetlight. “They were just this desperate to stop us.”

  In the sky, three smaller airships were patrolling and giving orders through their loudspeakers. Buzzers—small, one-manned gliders, were swarming between buildings. As soon as a pilot landed, they retracted their glider and secured a position on a street corner or tower entrance. People were cooperating, and the Guard already seemed to have a grip on the City.

  “Hurry, Jeryn,” Milla urged. “They’ll be here any moment.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  He sprawled out the demirriage scroll in the spot on the street where the most light hit it, but it wasn’t enough to power it. Without a command, Simon again tried controlling the light in the area to focus it on the scroll. Rays from several other nearby lamps melded into a wide, bright beam. He kept it focused on the scroll, and slowly, the carriage formed.

  “There they are! Take them down!” Guardsmen shouted as they rounded the corners of towers.

  “Get in!” Jeryn commanded. “Simon—you’ve done enough.”

  As they piled into the small confines of the carriage, Jeryn created one of his plasma fields. It was weaker than usual, as the cold air took longer to warm up, and by the time he had rejoined his friends, the field had already dissipated. Dozens of Guardsmen soon surrounded them.

  And then they vanished. The frozen buildings of City I blurred into cool colors and transitioned into the scene of a scenic villa.

  Now on the other side of the planet, the sun was just coming up. Everyone quickly stepped out before the underexposed carriage faded away.

  With Simon nearing exhaustion after expending so much of his energy, his natural protective barrier had shrunken substantially—but was still wide enough to keep the group out of the haze.

  “Looks like no one was waiting for us here,” Garder sighed. “But we’d better not stay around for long.”

  “I would’ve taken us directly to the island, but I didn’t get a clear enough memory of it last time…” Jeryn explained. “Seeing as how… we were being attacked by a different pretorian. We’ll have to wait a little.”

  “How do we get into these situations?”

  “We were lucky to escape again,” Shin sighed. “But I’m really worried about City I now. And Hekens and Tess…”

  “Rivia better not be too angry at us. I don’t think I could deal with a lecture after all this.”

  “He shouldn’t be,” Verim assured. “Heck, he might’ve even expected that something like this would happen.”

  “He sure is putting us in a lot of danger,” Simon added.

  “W-where are we?” Temki wondered as he looked around.

  “Oh… That’s right, you haven’t been here yet,” Lechi replied. “It’s a really strange place we’re going to.”

  “And that’s where Rivia is, right?”

  “Yeah… it is.”

  “What do you think we’ll do now?” Garder questioned the others. “Is he just going to tell us to go back and try again? Because… well, I don’t think that’ll work.”

  “If he really does have some bigger thing going on, he’ll probably have something else for us,” Shin said and took a seat on the ground. “But he’d better tell us something this time. I’m not here to tag along aimlessly.”

  “To destroy the Guard…” Garder grumbled. “Would he really be so crazy to try such a thing? Makes me wonder.”

  Having narrowly escaped the Guard or Administration for the third time in a row, they took their earned brief rest on the villa cliffs without hesitation. As soon as the sun was up a little further, they would be able to jump over to the island and return to the strange dimension they just left.

  So far, their tasks had been a series of misguided successes. Now, with an unavoidable failure behind them, perhaps the opportunity for some needed explanation would finally open up.