“Alright, we are about ready to go live.”

Emily startled awake as the governor spoke to her from across the room. They were in the lobby of the baptist church near Jeff’s Pillar. All the stress of the last three days had left her exhausted. Although, she always felt that exhausted.

She shook herself and put on a forced smile. She was nervous about what she had to do. Luckily, the Governor didn’t dump too much of the weight on her.

The plan was for himself and some other hot shot to give the announcement with Jeff’s Pillar in the background. She was supposed to stand behind them and show support during the briefing. She would then do another interview with Jessica Gardner in front of the pillar where she could give her warm support of the plan. She honestly wasn’t sure how well the plan would work. So much was just left up to chance. But, she figured it would be better to have a plan to mitigate the worst odds than to just leave everything up to the roll of the dice.

“Here we go,” Governor DeValt said to the room full of attendants. Emily placed herself behind the man feeling the nerves strike her again.

He strode boldly through the front doors of the church and she followed along behind him. She tried to focus on the man in front of her instead of the crowd of people waiting for the event. It seemed that all the adults who had been watching at the surrounding pillars had all made their way to this one. She followed the governor on stage and over toward the podium.

She looked out to the crowed and froze. An attendant grabbed her elbow and puller her back into position. She didn’t realize how close to the podium she had been standing. Her face flushed bright red, but she tried to maintain her composure.

“The loss we experienced two days ago still stands heavy on my heart today.” Governor Harrison DeValt began, “With out our young ones the world has already changed in a way that it will never be the same again.” The silence of the crowd in that moment spoke louder than words ever could. The people, the Stranded were in mourning. Many were on the verge of giving up. “If the Broschyan System is to be believed, and I do believe it, then the world will change yet again. A few days from now many of us may be able to use magic. Magic like we see from the Chosen like Jeff behind me. And some of us…some may become Monsters.”

Emily expected an outrage at his words, but the Stranded had been hearing similar things for the last three days. There was an acceptance by most in the crowd. A few faces seemed skeptical, but also respectful due to the seriousness of the situation.

“President Standiford gave an address this morning regarding the plan that the United States Army and the leadership of our great nation deems the best course of action. I am proud to say that many of you in this state of Arizona have listened to the call already and submitted yourselves to hotels, apartments, and schools. The difficulty of defending all of our people all at once should not be understated. The only way we can provide the necessary protection is if we have your cooperation.”

Emily zoned out the rest of the speech. It was all the same stuff she had been going over the whole day. She was just glad they allowed her to stay close to the Pillar while they discussed. Jeff continued to push himself in a way that made her so proud of him. He had struggled the last few years. She was glad to see the familiar determination return to her husbands eyes.

Emily hoped she could have the same kind of determination. Jeff always said she was more determined than him. He always said he was jealous of her ability to stay consistent. That when she set goals she accomplished them without fail. She knew he was overstating it, but she did accept that it was a strength.

Could she create a Myst connection with consistency?

She had been trying to go through her potential affinities. Even is she did have a strong connection with consistency or determination that didn’t mean she would attract a Spore that could build those connections.

She had learned a lot being around the Governor the last few hours. He had a whole team of people searching for any information gleaned from the hundreds of thousands of Pillars across the world. They would report to him with the most pertinent and concrete information. She was lucky to have overheard so many details most wouldn’t be able to piece together till days later.

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Apparently many of the Chosen had died. When they did the System Pillar would allow for another person to enter and be selected as a Chosen. Not all of them had though.

It apparently had to do with limited Spores. One Chosen had asked what happened to their fused companion if they died. She learned that there was technology set in place that would catch the precious sapient Spore as they dissolved to Myst. That Spore would then be offered to others who were deemed worthy. It wasn’t a perfect system though.

The main reason the Boschyans had limited Spores was due to sapient spores slipping through the mechanisms to catch them. They never learned exactly how well the spore catching tech worked, but according to on attendant only 80% of the Pillars who had their Chosen die would open itself again to others.

Even more surprisingly the Pillar did not seem linked to the same Spore once the Chosen was replaced. A few of the new replacement Chosen had linked to a Spore with the same name as they had seen before. Not 80% of them though… only 30% or so were the same familiar Spore as before.

Emily brought her attention back to the governor as he finished his speech.

“-to introduce to you someone who has been working hard to answer the more scientific questions around what is happening to us. Dr. Quincy Platt.” Governor DeValt stepped back to stand by Emily while Dr. Platt moved to the microphone.

The scientist seemed extremely frazzled, but held himself together enough to present himself professionally. “Uh, hello. I know the question on all of your minds is; when will the Mysts arrive? We have very limited information to go on. Most of it came from the word of Kazi, the Boschyan Spore who fused with the Chosen, Jeff.” He pointed to the towering Pillar behind him. “Kazi gave a time limit of three to ten days. If the Mysts were moving at the speed of light, then that would put the starting place of the Mysts somewhere between our solar system’s Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Though it would be much closer to the Kuiper Belt.”

Dr. Platt pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at the sweat on his brow as he continued. “Do the Mysts move at the speed of light though? We have no idea. If they do, then we will have no chance to observe it as it nears Earth. We can only really see things that emmit light or reflects the suns light back to us. If it’s coming as fast as that light back to us, we won’t see it till the moment it arrives.”

Emily could tell the man was rambling, but the crowd took it in. The thought of something coming at them at the speed of light was terrifying. It would be able to surround the Earth in seconds. Would the spores choose people that fast?

“We were not able to observe the System Pillars until they already began falling upon us,” the scientist dabbed his head again, “and we have never been able to see the Myst Gate, so we don’t expect to be able to spot the Myst while it’s on it’s way. We don’t even know if Myst is limited to light speed. Based on how it moves when it’s dissolving it would take years to reach us if it was on the edge of our solar system. Everything we are trying to answer is based on speculation.”

Emily realized this man was faced with the impossible task of trying to understand technology and forces that went complete against all our basic understandings of physics. She did not envy his position.

The governor decided to step up and help the man out, sharing the podium with him while asking a question to get him back on point. “So our best guess is still three to ten days for the arrival of the Mysts?”

Dr. Platt stood there shocked for a moment, “Uh, yes. Three to ten days from when the Pillars descended. That means that it could happen anytime from, well, now to a week from now.”

“Thank you Dr. Quincy Platt. That shows we have all the more reason to act quickly as we have been directed.” The Governor must have noticed some of the skeptical faces growing more skeptical as the scientist talked, because he addressed them directly as Dr. Platt moved back. “I know many of your believe the Mysts won’t come. And for all of our sakes, I hope you are right. However, there are two facts that must be acknowledged. Our youth are gone and the Pillars are here.

“I know many of you prefer not to believe anything seen or said on the Pillars,” He said, gesturing to the one looming above them. “But we are standing here where we have been given the only opportunity to see our children. We have the parents of those children here.” He pointed to Emily and another couple who stood nearby.

Emily shared a glance with them. They must have arrived during her short nap, she hadn’t had a chance to speak with the parents of Summer and Haley Hall yet.

“All I ask is that you all prepare as best you can for what is to come. Learn from the Chosen how the System works. Every news station is focused on gleaning all we can from the fused around the globe.”

A sudden laugh came the crowd the startled Governor followed the eyes of the attendees and began laughing himself.

Emily looked behind her to see the cause of the commotion. Jeff’s large projected form was peeing on a tree right behind where the Governor was standing. Emily face palmed again.