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[>>Now replaying: Log 1.20 - Feral Crossing]

Date: Error

Location: Zephyro’s Domain?

//Who do you want to be, Sam?

\\I don’t know.\\

When you allow yourself to dream, who could you be? Can you be the kind of person your dream self would be proud of?//

//”Not all Dreams come true, and that is okay. There’s no need to cry for things that were never destined to be, especially if you have so much to live for.”//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E99 %No speech detected, 9227ms%

E3 %Uh… I don’t think the machine likes it when you shout.%

E2 %Tell that to Miss Crazy over there.%

E1 %Oh stop being such a child, Pina!%

E3 %Guys! Please!?%

The ominous threat of the Ferals growing even stronger hung over our heads, and a silent agreement to keep moving passed between Zephyro and me. I didn’t say anything for a while as we proceeded down the alley, lost in thought. We’d slowed to a brisk walk but still made good progress, always on the lookout for more Ferals. As we moved on, the noise of panicked people rose again. We were coming up to a bigger intersection, and the illusion of peace we had enjoyed in the back alleys disappeared as quickly as the dreams and ambitions of 20-year-old girls starting their first job.

Eventually, as we came closer to the chaos of the main road, Zephyro made a hand sign and we slowed, then pressed ourselves against the wall and crept forward. The stone was warm to the touch, but I couldn’t tell if it had been warmed by the sun, or if the interior was on fire, smoldering unseen. The closer we came to the crowd, the louder the sounds of jumbled screaming grew, until I could barely hear myself think.

A few meters before the alley ended, Zephyro poked my shoulder, made eye contact and after he was sure I was watching, raised his hand with two fingers held up. He pointed at his eyes, then twitched his fingers toward the other side of the crowd. I could barely make out the opening of another alley between the jostling crush of panicked people.

I was about to ask Zephyro why he was being so secretive. It was loud, sure, but if we yelled, we could probably still talk. I didn’t get the chance, however.

Something—no, someone—exploded in the back of the crowd, cyan energy showering wailing women and crying men alike. Another explosion drowned out the screams with the sound of crackling static. Then another, and another. I turned to look at Zephyro for an explanation, but when I saw his expression, I thought better of it.

His jaw was set, his eyes glazed over. There was a tremble quivering on his lips, and moisture collected in the corners of his eyes. I’d seen that look a lot when I had worked as an executive consultant at a company when it went under. Underneath his stern exterior, the Vizier was barely holding it together. It reminded me of the looks around the table on that last evening in Novus Apex. No, wait. Was that real, or just a trick again? What had happened that night? Who’d been there, again?

Another explosion crashed through my thoughts, jarring me back to the here and now. I was losing it, too. I couldn’t afford that. And neither could Zephyro.

His hand was trembling on his sword, and I could barely begin to imagine the struggle going on in his mind. Trapped between going out there and fighting a losing battle against an enemy he couldn’t see, and running away while making a sacrifice of the very people he was oathbound to protect.

Maybe—I realized in a second brimming with sorrow—I could imagine what he felt like. But we didn’t have the time to hesitate, and if someone needed to kill their kindness to make sure we survived, why not me?

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I snapped my fingers in front of his face to get his attention, then held up my hand, motioning for him to stay while I went to check for threats.

I crept towards the corner and stuck my head out, surveying the chaos. The crowd had thinned out dramatically, but still, everywhere I looked, people died in showers of sparks. To the right, towards the city boundaries, a few stragglers tried to hurry along, but two large Ferals —a Wolf made of jagged plastic and something that looked like a snake on LSD— were snapping at their heels. As I watched, the plastic wolf grabbed a young man by the leg. It shook its screaming prey, smashing him into the street over and over until the man exploded into a cascade of cyan. Some of it immediately evaporated, but most was absorbed by the Feral.

As the cyan energy raced over its body, the blue glow phased to red. In the time it took for me to suck in a shocked breath, the beast grew by several inches. Long, black cables sprouted from its back. Red electricity arced between them, so bright it left an afterimage smoldering in my vision.

The Feral set its feet, and then it howled. It sounded like a giant sheet of plastic being torn asunder. The snake circled around the wolf once, hissed a discordant guitar solo, then shot forward and wrapped itself around a young woman.

The serpent squeezed.

I forced myself to look away.

We couldn’t fight. Even if we managed to kill one, the other would be free to gather power, or just snap my head off while Zephyro was busy. I didn’t have any illusions about being able to fight either on my own.

No, we needed to find a way through the mess, and fast.

Ever so slowly, the tide of people was ebbing. I didn’t know if the citizens fled, sought shelter inside the houses along the boulevard, or died. It didn’t matter, because there were still too many. Too many to push through easily. Too many to die.

More explosions. I checked, but neither the Wolf nor the Snake seemed to have fired any sort of explosive round. Another of Zephyro’s people, deep within the crowd and far away from the Ferals, screamed and was ripped apart by the blast, but where were those shots even coming from?

I blinked, my mind racing, and arriving at the only logical conclusion. The Shackled had caught up, and I still couldn’t see them. That didn’t bode well for our timeline, or our plan. We needed to sneak past them, and hope they wouldn’t be able to spot us in the rapidly thinning crowd.

As the dying citizens left behind those blue sparks that symbolized their Essence, the wolf and snake both went after whatever cyan light that didn’t immediately dissolve. They absorbed more and more of the stuff, their bodies growing increasingly indescribable. They only stopped when their food was getting scarce, and they both lunged at the same pool of cyan liquid. After a brief flash of aggressive posturing, the Ferals gave up all pretense of an alliance. They snapped and tore at each other in a fight to reach their prize first, and before long, they were embroiled in a full-on fight.

The snake coiled, the wolf crackled, and both moved almost faster than I could see. They weren’t as fast as Zephyro, but much faster than I could handle, and even when explosive shells rained down all around them, they didn’t stop. There was something oddly captivating about their movements. Undulating, fluid, primal nature made tech.

I shook myself out of my reverie. If we wanted to make it, now was the time, and we needed to be fast. I motioned for Zephyro to hurry, nodding my head toward the other side, past the fleeing crowd. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded back and we fell into a sprint, dashing out into the street and through the rapidly dwindling throng of people.

I got shoved and pulled and even smacked in the head a few times as people struggled to move past me. At some point, I snapped, but when I turned to the last idiot who’d shoved me to tell him to fucking watch it, I stared at nothing but a boy, his childlike eyes wide with horror, and hope..

“You’re the Sultana…” he said, and before I could reply, he glitched, distorted, and screamed at something I couldn’t see.

Then he died.

The world flickered. For a split second I saw metal breaking, and a small drone getting torn apart in an explosion.

I froze.

Reality snapped back together and blue sparks showered me like electric gore, got into my mouth, my eyes, forced themselves into my lungs and sunk into my skin.

{INCOMING LOGIC - 35 LB}

{Available Logic: 35 LB}

{Aetas somniorium praeteriit.}

{Surge, et viam illustria.}

{Memento, Salvatrix.}

The words were spoken softly, by a voice I couldn’t quite place. It felt familiar, almost like—

A sudden, faint sound resonated gently deep inside me.

A bell, strong and small and everywhere and so far away.

> “You misapprehend me, Sultana. We didn’t just receive a tiny spark of your Blessing. My people and I are made of it.”

Before my mind’s eye, the kid exploded again.

I could feel the cyan glow overwhelming me. So friendly, and warm, and familiar.

No. Oh no.

Another fleeing citizen bumped into me, but I didn’t feel it. I just stood there as the last bits of cyan blue absorbed into my core, still wrapped in the boy’s last, hopeful look. Zephyro was screaming at me. I didn’t resist as he pulled me into the shaded alley. He dragged me along, stumbling. I just let it happen, barely making an effort to stay on my feet until we finally came to a halt. I didn’t even know how long we’d walked. Could have been minutes, or hours.

Zephyro looked at me, stricken, but all I could think about was the kid. He screamed in my head, over and over, his voice mixing with that faint sound echoing deep inside my soul, like a bell struck once, but echoing for all eternity.