They gathered under the changing hues of the war-weary sky, Harbingers of Immogen and the First Sentinel, and the refugees from across the planes.

Solomon raised his hand, palm upward, cupping the glowing space beneath Hod. "Your work amazes me, Forge."

He could not perceive how the capacitors maintained their orbit, each a ring envoloping another as they silently whirled. The passing of the rings gave only brief glimpses of the small, polished bronze orb where Hod was housed.

Forge stepped close. "It still needs work."

"It's marvelous." Solomon peered close, squinting his gold gleaming eyes. Along the rings were small lenses. "The power he can wield in battle with this device... How did you think to arm him with a PRAE weapon?"

"A whatsit?" asked Revol.

"Prismatic ressonance array emission," said Forge. "Netz gave me the specs." He shrugged. "We'll see how it does. I'm worried about his transference."

"He'll be fine," said Needle. "Trust me."

"Speaking of rusty tin cans," said Revol, "how's our oldest sentinel doing?"

Both Needle and Forge glared at him.

"How's Netz like her new wheels?" Needle asked, ignoring Revol.

Netz was hovering near Hod, and turned towards Needle once he said her name. She flew quickly to the center of the gathered warriors and spun slowly in a circle, flaunting her seamless spherical shell of burnished silver. Her name, spelled in old semitic script, glowed in a small screen, counting as her face. When enough eyes were on her, she opened her gun ports and brandished her twin rotary microguns.

"They work like our guns," Forge explained. "She can charge her rounds the same way we charge ours."

Eukary stepped forward, stopping just below Netz and looking up. The light from her violet eyes mingled with the faint cyan mist that softly emanated from Netz's shell. "And without needing to maintain a body, she can fire radiant ammunition almost ceaselessly."

"I'll do my best," Netz said meekly.

Solomon looked at her and helt his heart soften. That such a sacred acheivement could be so humble. "You and Hod will win our victory for us."

Netz turned her shell so her screen faced her companion. "We'll both do our best."

"Aw c'mon," said Revol. "Don't shell yourself short, girl." He looked at Forge while pointing to Netz. "Get it? Shell?"

Forge rolled his eyes.

The voice that came from Hod was soft, with a hidden strength beneath a layer of pain. "Netz is right. I'm very tired. And so, I think, is she."

She nodded.

Solomon gasped. He can still speak.

Needle stepped forward. "Talkin' already, eh? Fantastic. I'm not gonna lie; communing with you was exhausting."

"Okay," said Ramses, stepping forward, "so that's great, ya? New guns for the..."

"Sefibots," said Needle.

Revol laughed. "Yeah. No. Not callin' them that. Netz and I came up with something better."

"Ehem," said Haruspex.

"Netz and I and Ru," he corrected himself. Then he turned to his partner. "Would you like to say it?"

"Yes, I would. We're calling them Angels."

Hod turned, pointing his screen at Netz. "What have you told them?"

Her Hebrew script glowed bright, then she shook from side to side. "What do you mean?"

Hod's screen, a diamond with his name in faint rose script, flashed rapidly.

Netz shook from side to side again, her way of nodding apparently. "I don't understand," she said.

Hod floated close to her and shined a beam directly into her screen. "You've forgotten."

"As much as I possibly can," she replied.

"Why?"

Netz turned away, ashamed.

"Okay, okay," Ramses blurted. "So they Sefibots got new guns and a new name. So how about this battle we got comin? Forgive me for saying this, but I want more for strategy than Cat's lucid dream."

"And where's the rest of Team One?" a Harbinger Solomon didn't recognize asked.

"Aster's with Cat," said Haruspex.

Solomon felt pity for them. The looks on their faces; Forge so sullen, Ishtar afraid, and the lovers both hiding the deep hurt of their echos' less effectively than normal. Even Eukary looked daunted, a rare sight.

They came at dawn, speaking quietly first to Revol, then Eukary approached Solomon alone, stepping outside the camp.

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"He's gone, Sol," she told him.

"We can't know that, Ariel."

She smiled. "Been a while since you called me that. But Sol, I'm serious. You didn't see him."

"But I can. I can see him more brightly than ever."

"I'm not talking about his aura. I'm talking about his mind."

"The aura is the mind, Eukary. A lesson I'd hoped to see you learn on your own one day."

"I don't understand."

"Neither did I, until I saw it. A young, frightened woman crossed my path in another time. In a moment of terrible distress, she showed me a thing I never would have thought possible, and I learned that day what we truly are."

Eukary shook her head. "We all know what we are. We're echoes given shape by threads of yliaster."

Solomon shook his head back. "No. I don't mean what we are in material terms. We are weapons of horrific power." He raised his hands and clenched them into fists. "These shells, this blood and bone we can't comprehend functioning without, they keep Briah safe from what we're capable of. I tell you, Ariel, don't fear for Catalyst. Fear for his opponent."

His mind returned to the present, annoyed with the bickering of his colleagues. Only Needle was silent.

There's a switch, he thought. He didn't like the idea of Needle standing quietly. What's he thinking?

"Solomon!" Black Fountain boomed. "Guide us, brother."

Yes, Catalyst. I see you. "We need to train."

"Oh," said Revol. "Why didn't I think of that. Yeah, let's all uh, like, get better. That'll do it."

Solomon caught Eukary's eyes and held them. Slowly, the smile crept across her face.

"The aura is the mind," she said softly.

Solomon let the bonds of his atoms loosen, feeling the surge of raw power seeping through the cracks between. The earth dropped beneath him as his radiance pulled him starward. The ranks of his fellows below marvalled, and he looked down to them with a wry grin. You've seen nothing.

He let the power burst wild for an instant, then he pulled it in to a tight orb between his hands, no more than the size of a kettle. He held it there, gathering the warmth of his hidden energies, then he thrust it down with both his palms. It stopped just above the crowd and slowly spread until it had faded. Then he closed the boundaires of his form and dropped to the ground.

The Harbingers all looked down at their hands, making fists or raising them upwards, their own radiance beaming and scintillating around their fingers and palms.

"I call it 'splendor'." He told them. "For a short time, your bodies will be minutely dispersed, allowing you to tap into more of your power. I've learned other skills, and I am confident you will develop more still."

Eukary dropped to one knee and traced a spiral in the soil. Then she rose to her feet and leapt into the air, a dozen feet or more. There was a purple light that spread like a bullet hole in cloth around her, then she was gone. Another flash, accompanied by a tearing sound, spread instantly, some twenty yards away, and she appeared again, landing with a thud and a confident smirk.

Forge stepped forward, then gestured for everyone to stand back. He hunched downward, gathered blue light into his limbs, then raised them upward with a shout. The shockwave ripped chunks fo earth from the ground, making a series of rifts that crumbled as they formed. All around him, the air was filled with static.

Haruspex then gestured for others to clear a path before casting an orb of her green light onto a distant boulder, causing it shimmer. Then she shouldered her rifle and fired a shot. The round struck the shimmering field around the boulder and imploded. The bould was crushed, then exploded in a rain of tiny shards. She looked over her shoulder at the others.

Ishtar sent a field of tiny flambeau into the air, then clenched her fist, causing the sparks to explode. And Revol glowed white hot with blinding light, shot forward like a bullet. Lightning remained in his wake to mangle the ruts he left in the ground. When he stopped there was a thunderclap and a flash of light that sent several Harbingers sprawling.

"You're lucky I didn't hit ya," he said to them before returning to the center of the gathering.

"Amazing," said Paragas. "Alvia is true."

Ramses scoffed, but Solomon raised a hand. "No. Let him speak. Paragas, which passage do you refer to?"

Paragas emerged from the edge of the crowd and walked over to Neta and Hod. He turned to Haruspex and Revol. "You call them Angels. Well, fair enough. If Doctor Yamin's claims are true, they were made with Ohr. To master such a power... The first matter and the all matter... But, according to Alvia, we Harbingers are the real angels. But we're not like the terrifying spirits of ancient text. No. We're made of hidden light, sure, but were are not the mighty beings crafted by the hands of the Radiant Soul. We are angels with evening knowledge, made by a lesser Titan, one of the Nine who left Beulah."

Needle faked a loud yawn.

"I can't accept your literal interperatation of Alvia," Solomon told Paragas, loud enough for the crowd to hear, "but I can agree that we are a strange fluke of creation, having the bodies of immortals, yet minds of common clay. Those of us who've passed through the Klippotic Verge have..."

"How can you," Paragas interrupted, "of all people, deny what is plainly written?"

Needle waved both his hands. "Don't get him started. It's all comparative mythology with this guy. Monomyth this and archetypes that."

Solomon gave Needle a confused scowl, then looked at Paragas. "We can debate philosophy another time, Paragas. For now, let's focus on what we have in common; knowledge that we were made for a purpose, and are slowly discovering that purpose and by what means we can acheive it. As I was saying, nothing from Briah can return from Ulro unchanged. Our forms are more loosely held, and so we've access to more of our wellsprings. Some here have begun to stretch themselves as well. Not all of us can accomplish this thing to the same degree, partly because of circumstance. But we can all loosen our bonds at least a little, and learn these advanced combat techniques.

"The battle with Red Orak will not only be a victory, but a turning point in history. We take the first steps as an army towards the shape we are meant to grow into. What we learn here against this crony will give us the foundation which we will build our true strength. Then, when the Phrastus Belt bursts and the armies of Ulro ride through, we will be ready. Don't fear this trifle of foe we face now. Orak is practice, nothing more. So line up, let Harbinger One shoot, beat, stab and bomb all of you to the brink of death, and feel the power grow within you when your subconcious deprioritizes physicality."

The Harbingers followed his command, removing their armor as they formed ranks.

Needle drew a heavy barreled revolver from his belt and pointed it at one of the Harbingers.

"No," Solomon said.

Needle cocked his head toward him slowly. "Beg your pardon?"

"You and I need to talk."

"Well of course we do, Sol. That's all we ever do. But I wanna play first."

Solomon put his forefinger on top of the muzzle of Needle's weapon, then slowly pressed it downward, his radiant hand only just outdoing Needle's myomer fiber muscles.

Needle sighed, then holster his weapon and shrugged emphatically. "What?"

"You were quiet before."

He shrugged again, more emphatically. "It happens."

"Come with me. I want to know everything you were thinking."

"Ha! Sol, I think faster than a jumpship navigation computer. And, if we're being completely honest, I'm a bit of a perv, so I'll give you a chance to reconsider your request."

"You know something we need to know, and you're going to tell me."

Needle shook his head, then looked off to the horizon. "Fine. But you're not gonna like it."