[scene follows from previous post]

“Everyone calm down!” someone yells, cutting over the screams “ThauCon here! Leave in a line! We’re here to deal with the situation!”

I grit my teeth, take a piece of glass, a piece of fire - they’re the same thing, even if it’s hard to explain in the real world. I break it, again and again, until it has the right shape - one that can’t be broken more, a perfect, smooth triangle. I make more and more of those triangles, these unbreakable pieces of the Else, and I wrap them around myself like an armor.

The mindless, all-consuming panic subsides. I’m still scared - well, people are coming to kill me, and they’ll probably manage to - but I can think straight again.

I open my eyes, seeing both the Here and the Else. I’m surrounded by sharp, flickering triangles of red power, like frozen flames that still burn. Iketek’s magic pools around her body like molten gold, bright in both words.

People are running, trampling each other, screaming. Soon, the terrace is empty - but in the Else, I catch a glimpse of another flash of color. Grass-green, smooth and hard, building up something in blocks. It’s strong, it glows fiercer than Iketek’s gold, much brighter than my power or Korentis’.

“The Council mage,” Iketek says. “Fuck, they took the strong one. We must leave, now.”

There’s a flash of green, and some of the golden snakes dissolve into sparks. Others recoil, fleeing away from the green light. Iketek stumbles, as if she had tripped, and while she recovers and turns to the terrace’s edge, she walks slowly, unsteadily. Only her hands move frantically, weaving light with twisting gestures. I’d grab her, but I can’t help even in that small way - our defenses would clash.

I look in the Else for the ThauCon - they’re cold shadows in a world of red glass and white lights, like cold holes in reality. I can barely make out their silhouettes, but they look like they’re standing still. My heart hammers. They’re so close. We must go.

We walk to the terrace’s edge. It looks solid, but in the Else, It’s full of cracks. They’re a brighter red than the rest, like fire shining through one thousand fissures. I gather Elsefire in my hand, the power to break, to unmake…

There’s a loud bang, sound of broken glass, and the Else bursts alive with red light. A glass tile above us shatters, and something small and icy falls to the floor, a small shadow in the Else.

“Silver bullets!” Iketek warns. Moonbreaker’s tits, the bullet came from above, where are they shooting from? There’s no building taller than this! Is there another chopper?

Another bang, something hits Iketek, like a stab of ice, and the golden light around her suddenly dims, rippling like a pond struck by a rock. She curses, but she’s not hurt.

She waves her arm, gathering golden power, and the golden mass of snakes disappears. People stop screaming, some stop running.

“What are you doing? The ThauCons will come!” I yell.

“They’ll come anyway. I need power,” she says. “There must be a drone. Take it down. Now.”

I look into the Else - I must find a drone. Something fast-moving. It must carry silver bullets, so I look for a dark spot against the empty red sky.

Once I look for it, I find it immediately. Air has only faint fault lines, while solid objects carry a lot of them, so they stand out. Even if I don’t see shapes that clearly in the Else, the drone looks to me like a smaller quad-copter, moving above the roofed terrace, trying to line up another shot.

“ThauCon Agency!” A booming voice announces, from the main hall. “Leave the Else and surrender!”

Not my problem. The drone is. That’s what Iketek needs taken down. I draw from the Else, from deep under the surface, where the fire is sharper and fiercer. I gather a beautiful, glass-like flame into my hands.

The glass roof is between us and the drone, but it doesn’t matter. Elsefire wants to burn, more matter will only feed it.

I focus on the drone, on the faults in it, shape the Elsefire in a thin blade, and throw it. It crackles through air like lighting, following weaknesses in the air itself. It cuts through the roof with a satisfying sound of shattered glass, and slices clean through the drone hovering above. My blade dims just before striking - there’s silver in the drone, after all - but it must be enough, because the drone falls like a stone.

“Drone down!” I say, relieved that I managed to do something, for once.

“Clear me some space,” Iketek says, “I’ll hold out the fuckers long enough for us to leave.”

She turns, and molten Else-glass pours from thin air to fill the two doors leading inside. With quick gestures - a level of easy skill I couldn’t hope to match, yet - Iketek ties her Else-glass barriers to the walls and ceiling, blocking the doors with panels of solid gold.

Now the terrace is cut from the restaurant, and we’re alone in it. Else-glass is stronger than steel - a pity it won’t last long against silver blades.

In the Else, I see the dark outline of two ThauCon agents running inside the restaurant. The council mage trails them, like a beacon of green fire.

Time to do my part. In front of me, the glass-and-steel ceiling curves down to enclose the edge of the terrace.

Steel doesn’t want to break as much as glass does, but it has faults, too. Larger faults where the metal is ever-so-slightly bent, minuscule faults around the grain.

I put my hand against the steel frame, and channel Elsefire into the faults.

There’s some resistance, but I pour more power into it, and a whole person-sized chunk of the metal lattice explodes into misshapen steel and glass shards.

In a flash of guilt, I realize the fragments could kill people by falling down, so I reach into the Else and yank them back. Most of the material falls back inside, some of it bouncing against our shields.

The terrace is open to the sky now. I try not to look at the long, long fall to street level.

“Fuck,” Iketek says, her tone strangled. “Their mage. She’s breaking through. Keep them busy for a few seconds!”

“How?” I ask. What the fuck am I supposed to do, die in a distracting way?

“Do something!” She answers, and as I watch, the golden barrier blocking a door shatters, reverting to a snarl of golden threads. A ThauCon agent strikes at it with a sword, and it dissolves into golden mists. The agent runs into the terrace, toward us, silver sword raised. The world slows, and everything feels unreal, as adrenaline burns in my veins.

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“Leave the Else and surrender!” the second ThauCon screams - a tall, broad one who is aiming a rifle at me.

The instinct to defend myself, to put something between me and the Men in Silver, shakes me from my paralyzing fear.

In the Else, I see the flaws running through everything. The ThauCons are cold voids in the red sea, though, I can’t attack them directly.

But I’m decent with another Path, not just Ruin. I reach with my power, fast as thought, and sink hooks into the flaws of the table right in front of me. I push with all my magic and fear, straight toward the charging ThauCon.

The agent with the sword ducks aside, but the table’s edge hits her leg, and she falls on the floor, taking cover behind a flowerpot. The one with the rifle takes a step back, but that’s fine, I’ll use the table to block the door.

A moment before the table slams against the open door, there’s a flash of emerald, something like green ice grows around it, freezing the table in midair. There’s a power opposing mine - not like Iketek’s slippery magic or Korentis’ confusing deflection, this feels like my own magic is hitting a wall.

Golden light coalesces in front of Iketek and me - a half-dome of else-glass between us and the ThauCon. At the same time, Iketek power joins mine, pushing the table. The thick wood cracks and groans as our combined magic struggles against the council mage’s.

“We need to block the door for a fucking second!” Iketek says, her face a snarl of concentration, golden threads streaming from her fingers.

“Stop fighting and you’ll be left alive!” The ThauCon with the rifle says - they sound almost pleading. They’re standing behind the table stuck in midair, and there’s not enough room between table and the door for them to squeeze through. They aren’t an immediate threat.

But the agent with the sword is on the terrace with us, and they’re scrambling to go back on their feet.

“Or die,” a different voice says. The Else shakes with her power – it’s the girl with the green armor, her arms and face entirely turned into green glass, a manic grin on her face. Because of course we are up against an Else-Mad, super powerful council mage.

Her power is so bright. Even together with Iketek, I’m no match for her - she pushes again and, creaking, the table moves away from the door, centimeter by centimeter, trying to open a space for the rifleman.

At the same time, the agent with the sword is back to her feet, cursing. Fuck, fuck.

I dive into the Else, as deep as I manage, until I can barely recognize the Here. I see the flaws and weakness in everything - floor and ceiling and walls and bodies. It would be so easy to break it all, to collapse the ceiling…

Well, I’m not going to collapse the ceiling this close to me. But there are weaknesses in the council girl’s magic - her power is strong and hard, holding the table like a vise, but her spell is made of many small blocks, combined like a child’s construction bricks.

It’s too far to touch with my hands, but in the Else, it doesn’t matter - I reach for the green else-glass holding the table, and command it to break.

My red light burns against her green glass - she’s strong, so strong, but she’s not good at keeping her magic together. The green ice shatters, and I feel her anger as the table snaps forward again, pushing back the big ThauCon agent and blocking the door.

“Stop!” The sword agent says, running to us, but I send a hail of cutlery, stools and dishes flying toward her, forcing her to get back to cover behind a flowerbed. She’s barely five meters away, but she doesn’t move very fast, and favors a leg.

Half-hidden behind the flowerbed, she takes something in her hand and throws it, one-handed. I ready my shield, but a web of golden light appears in midair, blocking the object halfway through.

“Let’s go! now!” Iketek says. I glance behind me, and where I broke part of the terrace, there’s a golden thread, leading outside. It’s like a zip-line, reaching all the way to the roof of the closest skyscraper. Which isn’t close at all. And it’s way below us. Exiled’s tits, I grew up on an airship, and this still gives me vertigo.

I run to the golden thread - but green light floods the terrace, the Else shakes with the Council mage’s power, and the table we jammed against the door explodes into splinters, together with a good chunk of the wall around it. Behind the open gap, is the council mage again, her body covered in green armor, dozens of tables and stools floating behind her, as if the restaurant was suddenly underwater.

“Jump!” Iketek says, turning to the mage, golden light streaming from her fingers to reinforce the half-dome shield in front of us. “You go first! Don’t argue!”

The council mage flicks her wrist, and a long table flies towards us, colliding with Iketek’s golden half-dome, and shattering it at once.

The agent with the rifle, now standing behind the mage, shoots at us - I feel an impact like a hammer made of ice, a sudden drain of power, and my red armor flickers and dissolves. Now, there’s only a thin layer of power around between my skin and the people shooting at me.

“Go Away!” Iketek snarls, and golden snakes slither through the Else, coiling around the Council mage. She screams, pressing her hands against her head, and Iketek’s power pushes against her, trying to get inside her mind.

As for me, I see the faults in the floor, and Abyss, if I do nothing I’ll die anyway. I take a moment to gather power into my hands, until my fingers burn, and I shape it into a long, scythe-like blade.

I look at the ThauCons - the one with the blade is crouching, ready to run toward us again. The rifle guy learned their lesson and stands behind the broken door, lining up their shot.

There are flaws below them. I could collapse the terrace under their feet. The council mage stands still, her hands clutching her own neck, her power fighting Iketek’s, like a battle between green blades and golden snakes.

Gunner, guide my hand. Doctor, forgive me.

I strike with my scythe, but at the last time I flinch, and strike in front of the ThauCons, not directly below them - partly because I can’t bring myself to outright try to kill them, partly because the silver in their armors could stop the spell.

The concrete groans and breaks, my magic cuts the steel beams, and the whole terrace trembles and shakes, throwing us all on the floor. But even if I push and tear, I find myself empty of power, and I’ve cut only a third through the reinforced concrete. The ceiling above explodes in a million shards of glass, falling down like a rain of knives, and my defense is so weak, even keeping them away is an effort.

Fuck, slicing through concrete is hard.

The terrace groans ominously, and half of it - thankfully, the part they are standing on - starts tilting downwards. Everyone is screaming, and so much dust sputters into the air, the visibility is zero.

Not really what I meant to do, but it will do. Time to go.

I look at Iketek one more moment, her power still pushing against the Council’s mage.

If I leave her alone, what if the Council Mage frees herself? What if the ThauCons get through the other door? What if the whole terrace breaks off?

But she told me to go.

“Stop!” A shrill, scared voice says, faint in the Here, but stronger in the Else, “stop using magic, there’s something…”

Not my problem. I run to the gap, and as we’ve practiced, I cover my hand in Else-Glass, then grab Iketek’s golden thread. Even making such a small spell, I have to grit my teeth and fight dizziness. I’ll be out cold when I’ll run out of adrenaline.

“Go!” Iketek barks. But something is wrong, I feel it - the Else is twisting, green and gold power are spinning like a maelstrom of energy, and in the Here, there are sudden lightning-like flashes, of a deep purple color.

Fuck, fuck, I’ve seen this before, back in Kalester. Who thought the whole situation could go worse?

“Iketek, go now, this is…”

“Go! Idiot! I can handle it!”

I promised to obey, so I grab the golden thread, take a deep breath, and jump into nothingness.

But I must warn her. What if she doesn’t know? She’s not Kalestran.

“Demon!” I scream, as I fall into the void, hoping her thin golden thread will bring me to safety. Or dissolve halfway through, and let me splatter to the ground seventy floors below, I’m fine either way, I just want this mess to be over.