With the clouds surrounding them on all sides, time took on a strange component. It was hard to tell how long Hiral carried his party, only his feeling of the runic energy beneath the clouds guiding them along. The charged energy within the storm restrained his sensory domain enough he didn’t want to push it. Sure, he could probably force the expansion of it, but that carried the potential of alerting the Enemy to their presence.

  And, according to Yanily, there were plenty of Enemy to alert. The entire sky was full of their dirty storms—even the one Hiral flew through now—which had more of the creatures lounging below than Hiral had even imagined were on Genesis. Worse, they were all at least A-Rank, as far as Yanily could tell. At S-Rank, Hiral wasn’t particularly worried about getting in a tussle with those ones. It was the S-Rank ones Yanily noticed Hiral gave a wide berth to. Fighting one of them, sure, the party could probably handle it, but several?

  A fight would inevitably bring those constructs as well. Not something Hiral really wanted to deal with, at least not until they figured out what they needed to do there on Terminus. A problem the PIMP had been uncomfortably silent on for the most part. When probed, it just told them it couldn’t directly interface with the system on the world. It was currently looking for a way in, either through a vulnerability, a sympathetic system, or any other means it could find. So far, it hadn’t succeeded.

  “We think we’re getting close to Trevallen,” Nivian said over the raid chat.

  “He says, from above the blanketing cloud cover,” Wule chimed in. “We could be in the middle of the Sea of White and have no idea.”

  “Bash has a good feeling,” Nivian said.

  “Ground speak, Bash listen,” the Troblin said in possibly the longest sentence he’d ever used.

  “You’re using Bash to guide you to Trevallen?” Seena asked the same question that had to be on everybody’s minds.

  “Of course,” Nivian said. “How else did you think we’d find our way to the city?”

  “I… hadn’t really considered it,” Seena admitted.

  “We don’t all have a Left,” Wule said.

  “Looks like he’s ready to go down through the clouds,” Nivian interrupted. “We’ll contact you again when we’ve found the city.”

  “Be careful,” Seena said. “Yan says there are Enemies everywhere, and don’t forget about the construct things.”

  “We’re aware,” Nivian said. “We’ll handle things.”

  “I know,” Seena admitted. “We’ll talk soon.”

  “I think we’re getting close to our destination too,” Hiral said. “I’m starting to feel runic energy coming from other directions. It’s all converging on one point.”

  “Odds on that one point also containing the Raze?” Laseen said with a short cackle.

  “Maybe better than you think,” Yanily said, a new urgency in his voice. “Hiral, stop!”

  A cut of Separation removed speed and momentum both from Hiral and his party, at the same time he extinguished his Rejection. From rocketing through the thick fog of the clouds to practically standing still, it was nearly impossible to tell anything had changed within the little bubble he’d created.

  “What’s up, Yan?” Hiral said to the spearman.

  “There are no clouds ahead of us,” Yanily said. “Maybe half-a-mile away.”

  “They just stop in a line?” Seeyela said.

  “A curving line, from the feel of things. A circle?” Yanily said, clearly working on deciphering what he felt. “A big circle. It’s easier to sense the dirty storms, and it’s like there is this huge gap between them all.”

  “No storms means a place the Enemy can’t go,” Romin said. “For good or for bad.”

  “I’ll go,” Seeyela said. “Half-a-mile?”

  “Yes.”

  “Left, Path of Butterflies if you would,” Hiral said. A pulse of solar energy from his double put a plane of pink once again beneath their feet, and then Seeyela was gone with a Bamf. Something about it didn’t even ripple the solar energy around her. If Hiral hadn’t been watching her, he wouldn’t have even known she’d teleported.

  “How long do you think we’ll have to wait?” Romin said.

  “It’s a city under the opening in the clouds,” Seeyela said immediately. “A big one. Looks completely… still. I don’t see anything moving. Going in for a closer look. Yes, Seena, I’ll be careful.”

  “A city?” Hiral mused. “It’s not Trevallen, because that would be underground…”

  “It doesn’t have to be any city we already know,” Laseen pointed out. “This version of Genesis—this Terminus—is so far in the future, the entire face of it could’ve changed fifty times over. Really, the likelihood of it being something familiar to us is…”

  “I know this city,” Seeyela said.

  “… logically very high,” Laseen finished with a completely straight face.

  “How?” Seena said. “And, how can you be sure?”

  “A lot of crystal covering all the buildings,” Seeyela said.

  “Crystal covering the buildings?” Hiral said. “Not buildings made of crystal?”

  “Some of them might be,” Seeyela said, her voice quiet like she was trying not to be heard by anything. “Others, though, I can see the frame of the old building within.”

  “Visionary?” Yanily asked. “If what we saw happen in The Final Sunrise actually happened, that would coat the city in crystal.”

  “More than you can imagine,” Seeyela said. “From the looks of things, the crystal even started to grow… naturally? It’s the best way to describe it. It’s still cold and static, but it also looks like it spread, kind of like roots. Or, maybe like frost would be a better image for you.”

  “Is it safe?” Romin said.

  “It’s quiet,” Seeyela said. “Some of the buildings aren’t completely sealed, and I’m checking them out. Doesn’t look like anything has lived here in a long time. Pretty sure Yan’s theory is right, though. There are people encased in crystal here. Some of them look like they were hiding. Others, they were already dead when the crystal grew on them.

  “Right now, I’m just on the outskirts of the city, and it’s a warzone. Well, what’s left of one. You want me to keep moving in?”

  “We should join her,” Hiral said. “If she runs into trouble…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence for the others to get it. Seeyela—being Seeyela—could probably get away from most of the things they’d encountered here. Then again, if there was something new down there, say something like the Raze, that could be another story entirely. One with an ending none of them wanted.

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  “We’ll come to you,” Seena said. “Give us an idea what we’re looking for, and the situation getting there.”

  “There’s a wall of rain running along the border of the city as far as I can see,” Seeyela said. “Enemies in there, but they aren’t hanging out right at the edge. Only catching glimpses of them.”

  “They won’t be able to see us outside the rain,” Hiral said. “Probably.”

  “Anything else looking will,” Yanily said. “You’re kind of glowy.”

  “Regular mounts?” Romin said.

  “They’re no less flashy,” Seena said. “What if we…?”

  “Let me try something,” Seeyela said. “I don’t think it’s my imagination I can feel where you all are. What if I… ugh… just… pull here…?”

  With a grunt over the party chat, a sheet of black opened up directly in front of the party.

  “Did you… just open a portal for us?” Hiral said.

  “It worked?” Seeyela said. “Nice. Well, come on through. It’s inside, so nothing should be able to spot you. Don’t want to leave it open too long.”

  “I’ll go first,” Right said as everybody else shared a look. “You big babies.”

  “If you get eaten by the portal,” Yanily said. “Hiral will summon you right back so you can go second, too!”

  “You better hope it doesn’t eat me,” Right said, turning and walking backwards toward the portal, his arms filled with a plate full of Yanily’s stored pastries. Then he was gone, into the black, even as Yanily stretched his arm ahead.

  “You really should learn not to taunt him,” Hiral told the spearman while watching to see if his tattoos would emerge on his right side. Nothing. “Looks like he made it.”

  “Of course he made it,” Seeyela said. “Now, get your asses down here.”

  “Going,” Hiral said, a burst of Rejection pulling him and the rest of the group through the portal to emerge on the other side. Like Seeyela had described, they were inside a building, a layer of crystal coating the floor, walls, and ceiling. In a way, it made Hiral think of a sudden, deep freeze that had encased everything in ice, with rooms hidden deeper in the building showing less coverage.

  Not that less coverage saved the people of the city, a couple holding each other in a permanent, crystallized embrace not far from where the party had exited.

  “Phew,” Seeyela said. “Definitely feel it when you all come through at once.” A wave of her hand dismissed the portal, though she leaned on the wall for a moment to catch her breath.

  “Is it safe to touch the crystal like that?” Romin said. “You mentioned it was growing.”

  “Not quickly,” Seeyela said, gently rapping her knuckles on the wall beside her hip.

  “If this is the same crystal used to seal the Fallen,” Laseen said. “It’s theoretically possible it could continue to grow on its own. Growth was part of its design, after all, to encase the Fallen.”

  “Analysis complete,” the PIMP construct said. “Crystal shares a ninety-three-percent profile with records of crystal used to seal Designation: Fallen.”

  “Only ninety-three?” Seena said. “Why not one hundred percent?”

  “If the theory is correct,” Laseen said. “And Genesis is experiencing cyclical variations of what actually happened, with small differences around how they happened, it would make sense. In our version, we had at least one Progenitor sticking her claws into things and stirring them up. Some of her work may’ve leaked into the final product, resulting in this seven-percent difference.

  “If anything, that difference adds credibility to the theory.”

  “So, this is Visionary,” Seena said. “The Fallen’s city. The one we watched get destroyed in The Final Sunrise dungeon.”

  “The original version of it,” Hiral said. “It’s also where the runic energy from Genesis is… collecting? No, that’s not quite right, because I don’t feel it building up. It’s getting pulled here, then vanishing. It’s weird.”

  “Just the energy from Genesis?” Yanily said. “Didn’t you say this world already had plenty of its own?”

  “It does,” Hiral said. “It’s mostly just floating around free. The energy from Genesis, it’s coming here on those specific pathways I was talking about before. Because of the purity?” He shook his head, not having an answer to what he was feeling.

  “Can you tell where it’s vanishing to?” Seena said.

  “No. I might be able to figure it out if I see it,” Hiral said. “It’s all going and converging in that direction.” He pointed.

  “Deeper into the city,” Seeyela said. “Since you all wanted to come along for the walk, follow me. We’ll go back out the way we came in, then stick to the streets.” Pushing herself off the wall—she’d recovered enough, thanks to her S-Rank stats—Seeyela started down the hall, the party falling in behind her.

  With each step, the crystal grew thicker in the hallway. In some places, doors had been coated, permanently sealing whatever had been beyond them inside. For others, where the doors had been slightly ajar, Hiral got a quick look inside to see another coated room, before some even had the doorway blocked off. Through it all, they found more and more people forever trapped within crystal coffins.

  “Do you think they could still be alive?” Romin asked, stopping beside one seated on the floor, her face and clothing perfectly preserved.

  “Suffocated,” Laseen said. “If the crystal process didn’t outright kill them.”

  “The Fallen survived it,” Seena said.

  “The Fallen were power-incarnate, girlie,” Laseen said. “Like us, they didn’t need silly things like air. As long as they had solar energy, they would survive. Even without it, they’d live a long, long time on their own reserves.”

  “Wait,” Yanily said. “We don’t need to breathe?”

  Laseen looked at him. Three seconds passed before she shrugged. “Eh, you might. Want to test it?”

  “Not really,” Yanily said.

  “They way out is around the corner,” Seeyela interrupted the pair. “I didn’t see anything moving out there, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything. Follow my lead when we get out there.”

  “Hiral, can you do more of your Separation thing?” Seena said.

  “Won’t help if anything can see us,” Hiral said. “I’ll do it occasionally, anyway. If something doesn’t have its eyes on us, it should make them forget about us.”

  “You sure that’s smart, boy?” Laseen said. “With all the runic energy getting pulled here, don’t you think something might be sensitive to your fiddling?”

  “I’ll keep it quick and small,” Hiral said. “Having done it once, should be easy to repeat it.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” Hiral said. “Using the runes is coming easier and easier every time.”

  Seena looked at Hiral as he spoke, her teeth chewing the bottom of her lip for a second, but she didn’t speak.

  “Still looks clear out there,” Seeyela said, peeking back around the corner she’d rounded to scout while the others talked. “If we’re going, it should be now.”

  “Rest of you go,” Seena said, snagging Hiral’s sleeve with one hand. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  That made everybody share a look, but they all nodded quickly enough, and continued around the corner.

  “Seena?” Hiral asked.

  “Are the runes getting easier because you’re turning into an Edict?” she asked bluntly.

  “It’s probably part of it,” Hiral admitted. “Along with PIM Supremacy, since I chose attunement.”

  “Could using the runes be speeding up your change?”

  “Is that what you’re worried about?”

  “Yes, obviously,” she huffed.

  “It is speeding it up,” Hiral said, then held up his free hand before she could protest the point. Instead, once she’d closed her mouth—with a grudging glare the whole time—Hiral reached down and lifted her hand to take it in both of his. “In a good way, I promise. This isn’t like I’m sitting on a log rushing down a raging river, with a waterfall at the end.

  “It’s more like… I… uh… I don’t have a good metaphor for this part,” Hiral said with a laugh. Seena didn’t find it so funny. “Look, I’m picking up in speed and proficiency every time I work with the runes and Edicts. I’m understanding how they are a part of me, and how my predecessors worked with their own Edicts.

  “Each of them only had one Edict to work with, and they only changed when they had no other option. At least, that’s the feeling I got from them. Usually, when they died. But, none of them wanted to give up, so they became what they are now.

  “Me? I’ve got their support, and while I will become Eclipse some day—probably—it won’t be until I choose. I promise. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  “You can’t be sure.”

  “No, I can’t be,” Hiral admitted. “I won’t lie to you, most of this is a guess.”

  “Then maybe you should stop using the runes so much?”

  “Also… no,” he said, then made sure she looked him in the eye. “We have too much riding on all this. You know we can’t afford to pull our punches. The runes are too powerful to sit on the sidelines. I need them to do what we came here to do. I need them to protect you.”

  “I know,” Seena said, squeezing his hand. “As soon as I asked it, I knew it was dumb.”

  “It’s not dumb. You’re worried about me. I get that, and I appreciate it.” He squeezed her hand again. “This isn’t the thing to worry about, though. The Raze is the threat. Focus on that, and figure out ways to make them burn.”

  “You really know how to sweet talk a girl,” Seena said.

  “Only you, assuming it worked,” Hiral said.

  “Not really, but I get what you’re saying. I just… I’m looking forward to later. To having a dog. Doing some traveling that doesn’t involve running for our lives. And you better be there with me, mister.” She poked him in the chest with her free hand.

  “All three of him will be there with you,” Yanily said over the party chat. “Since, you know, we all heard that conversation—including Left and Right—again.”

  “We were still on the party chat, weren’t we?” Seena said.

  Hiral shrugged, showing how little he cared this time. “Doesn’t change anything.”

  “No, I guess it doesn’t,” Seena said. “Fine, I’ll try not to worry about this. We’ve got other… stuff to deal with anyway.”

  Hiral pulled her in for a hug. “Really, I appreciate it.”

  “And speaking of stuff,” Seeyela interrupted. “You two going to join us? We’ve got an enemy city to sneak through.”

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