Vail appeared waist-deep in ice cold water.

The sudden change in temperature sent an unrestrained jolt through his body. In an instant, Vail was submerged. He waved his arms around in an unflattering display of dis-coordination, before finally pulling his head back above the chilly waves.

With a deep gulp of air, Vail hissed out a curse. It had been so long since he’d come to visit his friend, that he had forgotten the wreckage of the colony ship resting beneath the lake. Large masses of soulstone tended to attract the dimensional string intensely. Vail’s teleport had been pulled off-mark.

Temporarily tying another string around himself — this time far looser of a knot — Vail reappeared with dry stone beneath his feet. He was still dripping, but at least the freezing water was gone. Vail noted with a detached curiosity cultivated by a long career, that any of the liquid that slid over his death-marks disappeared. It didn’t vaporise nor evaporate. Instead, every molecule was removed from existence.

While a part of Vail demanded he explore this strange phenomenon, he couldn’t escape the dread the black marks brought. His certain future. Every goal Vail had for the next decade was now unattainable. His mind, subdivided and optimised to withstand infinitely more information, struggled to overcome his regret. If only he had achieved everything sooner.

What was worse, was that the unsightly scar grew with each moment of inaction. It stretched around Vail’s wrists, not yet wrapping them entirely, but it wouldn’t be long.

Vail brushed his thumb over the soulstone embedded ring of his right index and breathed out the remaining air in his lungs. A mist surrounds him, and the drenching water strained from his clothes. In mere moments, Vail was dry.

Dry, but no less cold.

Around him stood a city. Though, compared to the towering behemoths he had seen through the inherited memories of his distant ancestors, the buildings surrounding the lake were closer to a child’s toy-house. Stone and clay brick structures that climbed three floors at most.

The border between city and lake wasn’t well defined. In some places, walls had been built to hold back the ever-growing body of water. In others, entire city sections laid abandoned to the expanse of nature. Generations of households stood forgotten in the waters. Many had crumbled and were swallowed by the waves over time, while only the most well-built of the lot remained intact.

Considering the lack of any standard construction material — like iron — on this rock of a moon, or the methods to refine advanced ones, this was about the best that could be achieved without stripping the ancient ships for parts.

Vail’s target — or what was supposed to have been the target of his teleport — was a large research facility that stood out amongst the primitive buildings like the splotchy regions of life do on this otherwise dusty, barren moon. Being the only structure comprised of advanced alloys, the research facility stood taller and wider than any other. But only the material and architecture could be considered aesthetic.

Every surface exposed to air had been defaced in one way or another. Whether they be paints, rotten vegetables, or all other sorts of filth, the once gleaming material of their ancestors was now smeared and concealed.

The sight was a disgrace.

Vail strode through the city. His gaze not turning from the excessive act of vandalism marring one of the few great institutes remaining. Only at the heavy combined murmur of his surroundings did Vail pay attention to the citizens. All of them stared. Their eyes shifted between his old-world clothing and the mark of death that had sliced away more of his sleeves.

This was far greater hostility than Vail had expected.

The common man willingly allowed themselves to fall into the cycle of devolution. They had forgotten, and outright rejected the teachings of their forefathers, but never had they shown such blatant hatred for the Academics that work to save them.

When more people gathered than Vail was comfortable being surrounded, he grew weary and teleported the remaining distance.

This time, his aim accounted for the intense attraction applied by the soulstones, and he arrived within the main entrance chamber of the facility. This place, too, had long since sealed its doors to separate the work of the Academics from the conflicts of men.

Yet despite that, Vail felt an unnatural breeze through the interior chambers. In addition, a foul stench lingered. Vail tapped his soulstone again, and an invisible, biochemical protection weaved into the other soulworks encasing his body. The scent disappeared.

Could this be the result of one of Karaa’s experiments? Vail hoped not. She should know how important it was to keep an isolated environment for each individual test. Not only for the sake of idealised data, but also because many of their experiments tended to be unreasonably dangerous, considering the nature of their enemy.

But no, as Vail walked through the facility, he found that the breeze came from missing doorways. Sections of sealed walls had been completely punctured. The soot surrounding each revealed the cause of each was explosive. Whether that meant one of Karaa’s experiments escaped or the source was something external… Vail felt a deep pinch in his gut that something horrible happened.

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Forgoing standard politeness, he teleported all across Karaa’s facility. She had to be here. Vail was already dead, so she needed to take his memories while he was still here to hand them off. But fate is not so kind.

Vail was dead, but apparently Karaa died first.

He landed in Karaa’s meditation chamber. The walls were smoother and more nondescript than what Vail would be comfortable sitting for weeks on end, but Karaa could always zone out easily. Vail remembered so many times where she’d lost all concept of the world when in her fugue state of study.

She was so good at forgetting her surroundings, that she took a blade through the heart without noticing.

Karaa sat there, half decayed, in the same meditative pose Vail had held a thousand times. The blade wound was obvious, and exposed her chest. Yet she hadn’t fallen. Even in death, she was dedicated to her purpose.

Vail’s knees dropped to the long dried blood crusting the floor. Two months, maybe three. Duration estimates slid through his mind, but he shook his head in disgust. Vail didn’t want to know how long her body had rested in this position after having been murdered.

The scent hit Vail all at once; his soulworks unravelled despite desperate efforts to pull it together.

Vail heaved. Bending over, his hands landed in the crusty old blood. Vail heaved again. Nothing came out. Nothing could come out. It had been many decades since he ascended; his body no longer sustained itself from nourishment. It made no sense, but Vail continued to dry heave until he was out of breath and panting.

Who could be so monstrous as to drive a sword through one of the few remaining people who could save mankind?

Vail remained kneeling before his old friend for the longest time. Death had consumed her features, leaving them almost unrecognisable. Vail watched her anyway. Death continued its slow, unrelenting march, stealing away more life with each minute that passed.

Eventually, sound beyond the subtle breeze snapped Vail from his grief. He turned at the echo of footsteps. Heavy, metallic boots clanging against the unblemished alloy surface announced the dozen men and women that entered through the broken wall behind him.

Vail’s eyes followed the sound, finding the heavy footwear covered in mud. The pristine, ivory ground now filthy with the muck they’d dragged through the facility. Vail rose. The people walking towards him all wore the same carved metal suits; armour. Stark white cloth hung from their shoulders and full helms, standing out from the mud of their boots, stained knee-guards, and rusted shin plates.

The lead — a tall man with golden lunar motifs decorating his cloth — snapped his foot to a halt. With an impressive show of coordination, the others ceased their march as one.

“I am Selenwright Craul. By the will of the Life-Giver and our Provider, your existence is sin.” The man’s voice was powerful, clearly enhanced by forbidden technology. A colony ship had been tainted. “Give yourself to us for judgement, and you may retain your dignity.” The man’s covered eyes dropped to Vail’s arms, where the mark had grown beyond his elbows. “Even if you have already been judged.”

“Did you kill her?” It was the only thing Vail could consider asking. Between the criminal acts of damaging a colony ship, thievery of old world equipment, and the sacrilegious worship of humanity’s nemesis; only Karaa mattered.

“Prostrate yourself to our command.” The felon didn’t even consider Vail’s words before shouting an order of his own.

“Did you kill her?” Vail demand. His voice slammed over them like a wave, rattling the armour of the men and women before him. The self-proclaimed Selenwright’s modified voice may be strong, but anything he can do with the technology stolen from the colonyship, Vail could replicate to far greater effect with soulwork.

Craul’s eyes shifted to the decaying corpse behind Vail. “She refused to submit. Now do what she failed.” With a single motion, he unsheathed a blade of pure soulstone to legitimise his threat.

Vail’s fists clenched as he stared at the weapon. Such a wasteful use for the resource. Almost as bad as this celestial body’s unrestrained greed for it.

Never before had Vail felt such murderous inclinations. The purpose of Academics was to achieve the deliverance of humanity via means separate from warfare. They strove to bring humanity out of the clutches of this parasitic moon, but were dedicated to keep their discoveries out of the hands of those who would use it. History had proven this was the correct path.

But that was not to say the Academics’ creations could not be deadly. No. More often than not, they could inflict terrible harm if mishandled. This had been the way even long before their planet died.

As Vail stood before the murderers of his friend, his soulbound oaths had never felt more strained. They burned. It would be so simple to end them all. A string of dimensional thread around the brain and they’d suddenly lose their most valuable organ. A single change to a couple compounds in the air, and any without protective soulwork would suffocate in a breath. Even a flashlight, if set to the right frequency sequence, could send this small crowd into a mass of seizures where they felt nothing but agony until they choked on their own tongues or their heart failed.

There were so many innocuous little details about the universe that could be used to inflict death and suffering. And right now, Vail had to strain himself not to give into his baser desires. He had lived and researched long enough to know a dozen ways to shatter the soulbinding oaths… but what would that make him? Vail’s purpose was to give these people their life, not take it away. Even with his own life stripped by the most sinister of methods, Vail would not break the oaths that make him what he was.

Craul decided he’d given Vail enough time to bow before him and his insulting beliefs, and rushed forward. The others unsheathed their own weapons and fanned out at his sides.

Vail teleported to the other side of the room to make space. Despite being crude uses of the material, the fact that they were made of soulstone meant he couldn’t directly interfere with them as he would any metallic blade. Also, with how much of it they lug around, any subtle effects Vail tried to enact with his own soulstone would only be smothered and distorted.

Vail should abandon this place. Death had nearly consumed his arms, and he had not yet shared his research. There was a ticking clock strapped to the Academic, and he didn’t have the time to waste with these misguided fools.

But Karaa remained. Her body was out in the open and would continue to rot without being given a proper rest. Vail could not leave her. If these Selenwrights were willing to discard her final send-off rights for this long, there was no chance they’d suddenly discover the care to so now. Vail needed to be the one to free her soul from the clutches of this greedy world. And if he could punish this group without succumbing to murder or assault, then all the better.