Location: Hope, A-class planet, D-zone (green)

  Date: April 8 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

  Ivor’s man passed me a plate full of buckwheat, mixed with the meat I brought.

  “My gratitude,” I said, accepting the hot plate and pulling the spoon planted in the buckwheat free.

  The spoon felt strange in my hand. Made of lightweight and unpolished metal, it was somewhat rough and primitive.

  It was fortunate they gave me one. The only spoon I had had been made of m-carbon, courtesy of Monocarbon Industries, and would look here like a black speeder among the horses on the racing track.

  Clearly, it wasn’t something I wanted to have exposed—the needler was more than enough already.

  Scooping a spoonful, I wondered when I had last eaten buckwheat. It wasn’t a common dish in space…

  The taste hit me hard, reminding me that I hadn’t had any salt or spice since I ate my last NB ration. It felt ages ago.

  I almost purred in delight, squeezing my eyes shut.

  It was almost as good as Lola’s hotcat…

  It broke a spell I had fallen under while tasting the food.

  Sobering up, I opened my eyes again, only to see Ivor’s men gone, leaving me alone with him by the fire, surrounded by empty chairs.

  I continued to eat, pretending that all was normal, that I had spent years in places like this.

  I had not. I saw it only in the holos.

  Neither had I seen this type of chair, made of metal rods with fabric in between.

  Scraping up the last bits of buckwheat, I just wanted to figure out what had happened and how to repeat it.

  “So, Cat,” said Ivor when I put the empty plate down on the log, “have you seen anything unusual recently?”

  Yeah, a lot.

  Nodding, I picked up a cup of something hot and steaming that I found on the log. It was made of the same metal as the spoon, and I hadn’t seen who put it there either.

  “Stumbled on the dead party,” I replied after tasting the herbal tea. The thunder leaves were better.

  His eyes sharpened at my reply, and I felt the weight of his gaze on me, but also something else—as if someone was there, just at the corner of my eye…

  “Beast? Any sign of what it was?” he asked, and I shook my head, turning back to Ivor.

  Looking at his gear—and all the things around us—I finally caught what was before my eyes. The weapons they had were too similar, as if standardised, and the way they acted made it clear—it wasn’t just a hunting party.

  “Some internal conflict. Six against one, but they bit at the wrong tail,” I answered and, bending to my bag, took out two polearm heads.

  “I picked up these two when the winner left, chased by a pack of wolves,” I added, passing the polearm heads.

  With a hardened face, he took them carefully and began to look them over, his expression darkening with each passing moment.

  “Was there a large man with an artefact sword?” he asked.

  “Aye, he died last. Almost got the girl in the end,” I replied, leaning into my chair and assuming a relaxed posture.

  “A girl?” he asked louder, looking at me with disbelief.

  What am I missing here?

  I shrugged, not commenting.

  “So, the girl got away?” he clarified, but there was no more urgency in his voice.

  “She didn’t look like a newbie, just young,” I deflected.

  “No, of course she wasn’t,” he said with a chuckle.

  I clearly was missing something, but I wasn’t about to miss an opportunity.

  “Do you want me to show it on a map?” I asked casually.

  I was met with a sharp look again, but it quickly passed.

  “That would be helpful,” he replied with a nod and reached for his chest pocket.

  Bingo.

  Accepting the map, I unfolded it in a slow, deliberate motion on my knees.

  Pretending not to care.

  The map was tactical, with a scale on the side, and was of much better quality than the one I had.

  Tracing the familiar river with a finger, I did my best to memorise it.

  “Around here,” I finally said, shifting slightly so that Ivor could see.

  “When did it happen?” he asked, frowning again.

  For a noble, he had quite an expressive face. A recently established baronet?

  “Two days ago,” I replied absently, focused on distances based on the grid. It was marked in miles, just to make my life harder.

  “Two, are you sure?” he asked.

  My brain caught up slowly on what he said, as I measured the distance between our possible location and my island.

  About thirty miles?

  “Quite,” I said, letting my amusement bleed through the mask.

  “Of course, I didn’t mean to doubt your words, mi’lord,” he slipped back to calling me lord, realising his mistake.

  And once again, I ignored it, neither confirming nor denying.

  I dismissed the apology with a lazy gesture, showing that no offence had been taken.

  “It will take us two weeks to get there,” he said, explaining himself anyway.

  I found it strange, but shrugged it off. Not my business. Instead, as I passed the map back, I switched topics.

  “I am curious about the craft. May I borrow Branco for a moment?”

  Lola didn’t reply, and I had to assume that she couldn’t.

  I didn’t know what had triggered it or how it was even possible, but I felt that it was somehow connected to those banners.

  When I last heard her, I was close to one of those.

  I needed answers.

  —

  Walking to the banner with Branco behind me, I again caught that feeling of someone’s presence. As if, if I turned fast enough, I might catch the sign…

  “Um, mi’lord,” said Branco, and I realised we were a few steps away from the banner.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  And it was a weird sight.

  With no breeze, the banner fabric hung in the air, slightly shifting, without any visible support.

  The shaft, painted with lines, was also simply standing on the ground. It wasn’t planted.

  But most importantly, standing next to it, I felt the same stretching sensation over me.

  Some sort of field? Similar to the invisibility and the hex-field?

  K: [ do you copy ]

  The banner flapped.

  K: [ do you copy ]

  The banner flapped again, clearly reacting to me. But there was no reply.

  Do I need to be closer?

  I made one more step forward, and the banner began to flap constantly without me trying to contact Lola.

  “Mi’lord, you are not—” Branco began to say behind me, but I ignored him.

  K: [ do you copy ]

  Reality twisted, and broken patterns appeared around me, similar to the way my invisibility reacted to aetherium.

  “Mi’lord!”

  Fighting nausea, I closed my eyes and activated the regeneration again.

  K: [ do you copy ]

  [ Loud and C????????????l??????????????????????????????????r???????????. State your designation. ]

  The response came into my mind as a glyph and burned orange before my closed eyes.

  K: [ Lt. Commander Ladova. Authorisation Code: RW-7-DRC-MD ]

  L: [ C???????????o???????????d???????????e??????????? confirmed. ]

  Something clicked loudly in my ears, and static noise hit me in waves, as the world began to spin.

  K: [ What is your status? ]

  L: [ Low charge. I am f???????????i???????????n???????????e???????????, Katee. What has happened? ]

  I breathed out in relief, fighting the vertigo. No matter how many times I looked for the damage—and found none—I wasn’t sure.

  K: [ Later. This channel is unstable. At what band is this transmitting? ]

  L: [ It’s on the ARC band. I was a???????????b???????????o???????????u???????????t??????????? to ask w???????????h???????????e???????????r???????????e??????????? you found one, Katee. ]

  As reality flipped sideways and spun in a spiral around me, I realised that I was short on time.

  K: [ Roger. Keep the channel open. RW-7 Out. ]

  L: [ Copy. K???????????e???????????e???????????p??????????? ???????????t???????????h???????????e??????????? ???????????c???????????h???????????a???????????n???????????n???????????e???????????l??????????? open. ]

  Fighting my body, I stepped back. Then once more. And the dizziness, the vertigo, and the world flipping upside down were gone.

  Opening my eyes, I found myself standing before a flapping banner once again, in the original spot.

  What a flight instructor’s wet dream is that.

  Branco hurried past me and, touching a few lines, opened a secret compartment on the shaft.

  Something poured out, like sand, and he said something under his breath. Most likely swore.

  It reminded me of the sand I had from the pouch with the map. And when Branco took out a very familiar orb from a case he seemed to pull out of nowhere, I understood what had just happened.

  I overloaded it somehow, for a second time.

  And in hindsight, it was obvious enough.

  It was powered by crystallised cores, and my close proximity—my attempt to contact Lola—overloaded it to the breaking point.

  “You gave Branco a scare, mi’lord,” said Ivor, appearing by my side. And this time, his mi’lord was almost wry.

  “Cat,” I tried out, watching Branco’s hands.

  “This formation is specially designed for the Third Circle, mi’lord,” he said, ignoring my attempt, as if it explained everything.

  Perhaps for him, it did.

  “I see,” I said. But I didn’t.

  Subtly glancing around, I noticed how all his men conveniently positioned themselves around us, pretending to be busy.

  I clearly made a mistake here.

  “I thank you for a place by your fire, Sir Ivor of Duncan House,” I said, turning to face him.

  “It was only proper, mi’lord,” he replied, looking back at me with a dare.

  Mistake indeed. One I was to blame for.

  I nodded, accepting my bag from a man who appeared by my side as if he had always been there.

  Perhaps he was.

  Silently slugging my bag onto my back, I fastened the waist belt and patted myself over.

  Everything seemed present.

  “Farewell, Sir Ivor,” I said with a nod.

  “Farewell, mi’lord,” he parroted me, and looking at Branco, said, “Lower the formation.”

  This time, I felt a change more prominently, as if a bubble had popped, and the banner went limp by Branco’s side.

  Without further ado, I jumped to the nearest tree and, pushing against it, soared through the air, disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

  Well, that went well.

  —

  I didn’t go far.

  Landing on a branch high above the ground, where the sky was full of stars, I wrapped myself in my invisibility.

  The glitchy pattern stretched over me, causing nausea, and I clung to the rough bark on the trunk.

  Still the same.

  Reaching for the necklace, hidden in a pouch dangling around my neck, I held it tightly, letting it charge.

  I needed something better, maybe just a chain. The pouch was not the best to keeping her charged.

  K: [ do you copy ]

  The pattern flared, shifting, as the message, with the glyphs’ afterimage in my hand, was sent. I felt it disappearing in the corner of my mind that was hollow not long ago.

  As if my ARC was back.

  Suppressing the desire to touch behind my right ear, I closed my eyes, and with the heavy tuh-dum of my core, the stars—Sparks?—and pathways bloomed before me.

  In this hellish place, if something was strange or weird, The Anomaly was the reason.

  Of that I was sure.

  And the star I found in place of my ARC implant was proof enough of that.

  K: [ do you copy ]

  It pulsed in response.

  I waited. Then waited a bit more.

  Nothing happened.

  Opening my eyes, I absently scanned the view before me, thinking about those strange banners as my eyes wandered over the top of the forest, landing on the long cliff line.

  Somehow, they let me talk to Lola, and if I could just figure out how to—

  Something is wrong here.

  The intrusive thought came into my mind, jolting me alert, and I looked over the view once more.

  A forest, the long cliff line, the faraway battle cry of beasts.

  The long cliff line.

  Before I fell into Ivor’s camp, it wasn’t there.

  The fuck?

  —

  Dumbly looking at the map lit by starlight in my hands, I failed to comprehend the change.

  Looking back at the cliff line, or more like the end of a plateau, I had to agree—it looked similar to the line I found on my map.

  But if I remembered Ivor’s map scale right, it had to be around three fucking hundred miles south of the island with my hideout.

  I had barely crossed thirty, most of it on the river.

  Something whistled, and the loud crash reached my ears as a few trees came down a hundred metres away from me, on my right side.

  Whoever was fighting there was getting closer.

  That was another change I had noted. The forest was much louder, with signs of beasts battling each other here.

  Hiding the map, I unbuckled the waist belt and, flipping my bag forward, looked for the detector.

  If… if I had been miraculously moved, somehow, across that distance, the detector would show it. It had to.

  Here you are.

  Freeing it from the leather wrap I had used to hide its glow, I saw the colour.

  Blue.

  The reading was blue, almost pale.

  E-zone, almost at the other end of it, if I got it right.

  The last time I had checked it, the reading was solid green, deep in the D-zone.

  Fucking shit.

  Glancing back to the north, I saw the faraway mountain range. The place where I had landed on this planet. It was further away.

  Three fucking hundred miles.

  And my only clue was the grey space I saw before losing consciousness. The subspace.

  I didn’t know how I got from there to here, and why I fell out into Ivor’s camp, instead of going all the way back to the aetherium cave, but I knew—it was all connected.

  Somehow.

  Glancing over the horizon, I looked south, hearing another battle cry in the forest, and realised I didn’t really care.

  The fuck with zones, or the jump through space.

  All I wanted was to talk to Lola.

  —

  My logic was spotty, I knew that. But it was also my best shot.

  Except for the obvious one.

  Glancing back at Ivor’s camp, hidden from view behind trees, I once more rejected the idea of sneaking closer to talk to Lola.

  That wouldn’t end well.

  No, I had to somehow replicate it, at least in basic function.

  I didn’t know what kind of wood they used, or what those lines on the shaft were, but I already had my own replacement, one I had already tested.

  A claw knife, the spare without the ice-tip on it.

  Flipping it between my fingers, I recalled how the ice-tip had happened—what had led to it, and what I needed to do to replicate it.

  I had a core, more than one, and all I lacked was the crystal with the field-like ability. An energy shield or invisibility.

  I doubted I had any of them among those in my pouch that I had taken from dead men.

  With a sigh, I reached for the pouch and tried to sit more comfortably on the branch, my back against the trunk.

  It was long overdue to test them all.

  And perhaps this place, not that far from Ivor’s camp, was the safest, at least for now.

  I doubted I would find any better anytime soon.

  Reaching for the first crystal, I pulled out the one that looked like an egg. In the darkness of night, I couldn’t see its colour, but I knew it was yellow and that the dark spots were brown and blue.

  Squeezing it tightly, I relaxed against the trunk and, levelling my breathing, focused on the crystal, cold in my hand. I tried to feel its energy, or whatever I had felt before.

  As the wind breathed between the twigs and the beasts cried in the night, I felt the trunk pressing into my back.

  One, two moments stretched, and then I felt it. A heartbeat inside the crystal.

  Somehow it felt alive.

  Frowning, I put it back, catching a few sparks floating inside. That wasn’t an energy shield or invisibility spark.

  Shaking off the strange behaviour, I reached for another one, the size of my pinky. If I remembered right, it was a muddy blue, partially transparent.

  This one responded almost instantly—as soon as I focused on it. Or perhaps, I was getting better.

  It felt almost wet against the skin of my palm, and I dropped it back into the pouch, too.

  It wasn’t what I needed.

  The spongy one was the last one I didn’t know about. It was similar in size to “river-rock”, and like that one, I got it from the wolf in the clearing, together with the white seed.

  I nervously chewed on my lip.

  It might be it. The wolf I cut it from had the energy shield.

  Rolling it between my fingers, I closed my hand around it and breathed out.

  Focus.

  It was rough and light in my hand, almost absent. I felt nothing, like with each moment it was getting melted in my palm, and I had to squeeze my fist to feel it there.

  It took me stupidly long to realise that the emptiness was exactly what I had to focus on.

  Rushing prey, I jumped, reaching for the neck. But before my teeth sank into the exposed neck, a glowing stick rushed at my side, and I tensed up mid jump.

  The so familiar constellation flared inside me, key star hidden in my belly, and stale air flashed, hit by a glowing stick.

  I hit the ground, fighting against roots fruitlessly, scraping against stale air…

  I jolted awake, happy not to feel the death this time.

  But most importantly, I found what I had been looking for.

  The energy shield crystal. A missing piece.