Selene’s eyes flitted from person to person. Beren was talking with Oria, muttering quietly, while Mark was heading down the stairs with a group of people. Others had wandered off into different parts of the room. Some sat down, meditating, while others were sparring, or training.

“How long until they turn on me?” Selene’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Perhaps I should… Their guards are down… I could call a bunch of wraiths to attack them… They wouldn’t know what hit them…”

Selene blinked rapidly and clutched her head.

“No! That’s not right!” Selene’s thoughts were a mess. “They’ve helped me, saved my life! They’re invested in my future now… That Pendulum was insanely expensive… What’s going on?”

Cruel thoughts flashed through her mind, a desire to cause harm, to kill. Selene shook her head before diving into her Inner Space.

The bridge was built from dark grey bricks with streaks of white. The white had specks of black and purple floating around in it. The gates and the walls were made from the same material.

The corridor was dark, with a gloomy, ominous feeling. The empty spaces were framed with white; like empty picture frames. At the end of the corridor were two large windows. One window showed a scene of shadowy fog, rapid movement, and slashing attacks. Frost covered the ground, and the enemies in the scene.

The other window was shattered. Countless shards floated in mid-air. Selene could see squirming movement within. At times, a black tendril stretched through the gaps to slam into the wall or floor of the corridor. Dark thoughts flashed through Selene’s mind each time they did. Strange whispers resounded from that blackness, causing Selene’s mind to swim, and blur. She staggered back, clutching her head, and retreated from the Inner Space.

“Wh-?” Selene muttered before she looked up. “Beren, Cheela? Could you come here for a second?”

“What’s up?” Cheela asked as she and Beren approached.

“Something’s wrong in my Inner Space?” Selene whispered.

“What now?” Beren sighed and closed his eyes.

“There’s a broken part…,” Selene explained in a low voice. “There’s something beyond it. Something’s whispering, and tendrils are reaching in.”

“Oh no,” Cheela said as she took a step back. Beren’s expression darkened. “Shit. There’s just no end to it, is there?”

“What’s going on?” Selene asked, meeting their eyes. “What’s happening to me?”

“You’re being corrupted,” Beren said. “You need to seal it, as soon as possible.”

“How do I do that?” Selene lamented. “I can’t even get close.”

“You need to figure it out soon,” Cheela said. “It usually has a similar method to building your foundation, but it’s a lot harder, and the longer you take the harder it gets.”

“Oh,” Selene sighed and rubbed her head. “Right. I’ll get to it.”

“We’ll watch over you,” Beren nodded with a grave expression.

“Right,” Selene groaned internally. “More like, keep an eye on me in case I lose control.”

She shook her head and returned to her Inner Space.

The broken window was just as she’d left it, and every step closer brought more insidious whispers than the last. More and more tendrils reached out and started thrashing. Cracks started spreading, causing Selene’s Inner Space to tremble. She stumbled back several steps, which caused the thrashing to slow down, and stop.

“OK, so the closer I get the worse it gets. How do I deal with this?”

She looked around, avoiding the broken parts.

“So I need to build it again? Like when I built my foundation? Can I reinforce the area around it? Maybe that’ll help me with resisting the influence.”

She drew in the fog surrounding the area and funnelled it into the surrounding bricks. She waited for a while, before the bricks stopped accepting fog, before she started walking forward. The whispers became louder, and the thrashing increased.

Selene frowned, but she kept going.

It happened the same way as before, the thrashing got worse, and the whispers got more intrusive. She was about to retreat again when her eyebrows rose. She pulled the fog toward herself and formed a wall between her and the breach. The whispers stopped immediately, but the thrashing got worse.

She kept walking forward, focusing on keeping the wall of fog up, while also reinforcing the corridor. Cracks spread as fast as she could fix them, and when she got close enough, the tendrils started slamming into her wall of fog. Pain split through her mind, but she gritted her teeth and powered through.

“Alright, I’m close enough,” she thought as she had another thing to focus on. She had to draw in fog, separately from the wall of fog, to funnel into the breach, while also reinforcing and repairing the rest of the corridor.

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She began repairing the frame around the window. She created, and placed the bricks, one after another, but from time to time she had to go back and make repairs again. The tendrils would reach out and thrash around, knocking bricks out.

Sweat was pouring down her face, and her head was throbbing by the time the frame was complete. More than once, she’d had to retreat and catch her breath, watching the tendrils undo her hard work. She had finally gotten into a good rhythm, and the frame was completed.

The window itself still had cracks and missing parts where the tendrils entered. The scene within the window was unrecognizable.

“This used to be the Undead Echoes window,” she recalled. “But, since it was merged with other skills… Maybe that’s why this happened. I might need to create a new window…”

Selene shook her head, reformed the wall of fog, and walked forward.

While funnelling Spirituality-infused fog into the window, she started channelling her new skill, Death’s Legacy. Purple energy, with floating specks of black and white, flowed into the window, merging with the fog behind the shattered glass.

The fog fused into the cracks in the glass and started filling the gaps. Little by little, the glass was repaired, all the while, the tendrils thrashed. They tried to break the surrounding bricks, undo the work on the glass, and attack Selene, but she gritted her teeth. Her head began throbbing again, but she didn’t allow herself to stop until her work was done.

Finally, the gaps had closed enough to stop the tendrils from reaching through. She kept going, eager to fill the remaining cracks.

The fog protecting her rippled as if something had struck it, like a stone hitting the placid surface of the water, creating waves. Insidious whispers filled her mind, and for a moment, she almost lost control and gave in.

“Promises of power and strength,” Selene grumbled. “As if… I would become a monster… I won’t surrender!”

She gritted her teeth and finished the repairs. The glass was completely fixed, and the shadowy fog behind it started to swirl, shaping into a scene.

She saw an army of undead. Humanoid and monstrous forms with dead eyes, or glowing eye sockets, surrounding a throne. They were kneeling to a figure who sat on the throne. The figure wore a long, black dress with tendrils of shadow and fog drifting from it. She had long blond hair, so light in colour it almost looked white. On her head, she wore a black crown with sharp edges and protrusions. Her eyes were blue, but they had swirls of black and white.

The undead around her kneeled in a field of fog as the scene became clearer, their upper bodies visible while the lower parts were hidden, blurry and indistinct.

Surrounding the window, the bricks had formed a new frame. It was white with floating specks of black and purple, like the rest. Different from the others was the level of detail. It was intricate. The white formed distinct, complex patterns in the bricks that Selene had no hope of comprehending. She shook her head, sighed in relief, and left the Inner Space.

Beren was pacing in front of Selene, while Cheela slumped in a chair nearby. Most others seemed to have gone somewhere else. Selene saw Oria standing by a window, looking out at the city.

Beren noticed Selene shifting and tensed up.

“I dealt with it,” Selene muttered in a tired voice. “I need to rest.”

“Good,” Beren sighed and closed his eyes with a slight smile. “Could you wait for a few minutes? You woke up just in time. The first batch of people should be returning soon. I’d like you to be up, in case something happens with our guards.”

“Fine,” Selene sighed and rubbed her eyes. She extended her senses into the city, through the City Interface, and waited.

It didn’t take long before she saw movement near the area they’d arrived from, and a group of people, a few dozen, came walking through. They stopped and stared at the mass of undead waiting for them, and stood speechless, as a path was formed. The undead moved to the side, creating a passage between them leading straight to the tower.

Selene smiled, as she saw Mark, and a few other familiar faces among them, who waved the rest forward. They walked with their weapons drawn, turning, and looking around themselves as if they were expecting an attack at any moment, but they safely reached the spire.

“They’re here,” Selene said. “They just entered the spire.”

“Alright,” Beren nodded. “Cheela, Oria, you stay here. Cheela, take over the overwatch of the city so Selene can get some rest. Selene, we’ve set up some bedrolls on the floor below.”

“Thanks,” Selene mumbled as she stood, and walked toward the stairs. “Good night.”

“I’ll need to ask some questions later,” Selene thought as she made her way downstairs. “Try to find some answers.”

Cheela sat down on the throne, and her eyes glazed.

----------------------------------------

“What do you think?” Cheela asked Beren a few minutes after Selene had gone.

“About what?” Beren responded.

“Selene,” Cheela said. “This new skill. Her corruption… Meelara.”

“Haah,” Beren sighed. “I don’t know, Cheela. They’re likely all connected. The corruption probably comes from her new skill, or the fact that she pushed too hard, too fast, along with the stress of Meelara’s attack, and the change in her Inner Space as a result of the fight, and the Pendulum.”

“Right,” Cheela muttered. “What can we do?”

“We wait,” he responded. “We wait and see, and help her when and where we can.”

They fell into silence for a while before Beren spoke up again.

“How’s the City Interface?” he asked.

“Basic,” Cheela explained. “She only gave me access to the Store and a basic overview of the City. I don’t have any real control. I have no access to the City Treasury or any important aspects of the Interface.”

“She’s careful,” Beren muttered. “She doesn’t trust us. Can’t say I blame her.”

“Yeah,” Cheela slumped. “She trusted Meelara, we trusted Meelara, at least at first. To learn that everything was a lie, a trick to steal her Path… It’s going to take some time to earn her trust now.”

“It will,” Beren nodded and sat down in a chair. “But, eventually she will. We will earn her trust.”

Beren turned around, toward Oria who still stood by the window.

“Oria,” he said and the woman approached. “I need you to investigate. Find anyone who could be a mole or a spy. It’s time to clean house.”

“Right away,” Oria nodded and walked away.

“You think there are more?” Cheela asked, frowning.

“I can’t rule it out,” Beren shook his head. “I can’t risk it. If we want Selene to trust us, we need to be careful. We can’t allow another one of our own to betray her. If that happens, we’re done.”

“True,” Cheela sighed and grimaced.

“Anyway,” Beren stood. “Keep an eye on the city, and sound the alarm if you spot anything unexpected.”

“Will do,” Cheela nodded and straightened herself.