Of the other four with her, Durff was the fastest. She wasn’t quite sure if he’d been in Integration longer than Misi, but the latter’s area of expertise was not based on physical performance.

With the safe tunnel rapidly disintegrating behind them, Velvet didn’t want to test if it would slow down for them. Instead, she urged them onward. With people fatigued, ultimately that resulted in Durff grabbing two of the others while Velvet carried Juli. With her energy she might be able to carry all four of them but the issue would be potentially touching the edges of the tunnel. It was easier to manage her own body and one more than five.

Durff’s legs were pumping rapidly. Velvet wondered if he knew that didn’t mean anything, since there was nothing for him to push against. Whatever, he was moving forward and that was all that mattered. No reason to disrupt him at a critical moment.

Another arrow from Alva probed the way. Velvet sensed some fluctuations… she was definitely on the brink of Augmentation, now. It wasn’t surprising, with what Velvet had seen during the battle.

Velvet felt certain they’d traveled ‘further’ than when she was going the other way, inside the distortion beast. While the tunnel had reached them while they were fully surrounded, that didn’t necessarily mean it was ‘inside’ the worm, given all the oddities with space. It could be taking a different route, or something. Less spatial compression might be safer, too, but this was probably just the first functional thing Catarina managed.

Durff was clearly exhausted, their break hadn’t really been that restful as the negative effects of being inside the distortion beast lingered. Some sort of toxin like effect that they had to continually resist, as well as watching out for changes in space around them.

Even so, he kept going. Admirable.

She remained ready to catch the remaining three with her energy if necessary. Until then, she kept herself focused forward, keeping herself and Juli away from the uneven edges of the tunnel.

Then she felt Timothy. She should have sensed him from much further, but any number of factors could have thrown that off. They were upon him almost before they could see him. A pulse of energy from him surrounded all of them, pressing against the walls. So she’d been right to assume it wasn’t collapsing entirely on purpose.

“Hi new guy! Run!” Durff yelled. Timothy was already running before they reached him, of course. He matched pace with the rear, keeping everyone protected- even though Timothy was also fairly fatigued.

This had been an exhausting expedition.

Suddenly, the tunnel ended and they were back in… well, not real space but at least mostly stabilized subspace. All the familiar faces were there, including the fuzzy one. Velvet had no idea how his fur managed to be soft while also protecting him from attacks, but it was wonderful.

“Hi,” Velvet said. “This is Durff, Misi, Juli, and Jyotsana. I told you about them before. Somehow, I ended up… there.”

Catarina just nodded. “No wonder the tunnel was less stable than predicted. I hadn’t expected additional energy sources. It was tuned to your energy.”

Jyotsana frowned. “You’re… all from the same sect?” she questioned.

Fuzz barked.

“Except for him, technically,” Velvet translated, then provided context. “But only extremely technically, because he’s been with us as long as pretty much anyone. Plus human cultivation techniques aren’t great for him.”

“You feel like Sybella,” Durff commented. “But less sneaky.” He looked behind them. “The tunnel is gone.” He then noticed something else. “Oh, that’s still there, huh?”

“We were going to cut it in half,” Timothy explained regarding the worm. “But then Catarina decided to use it to aid the tunnel. It seems you got carried quite far?”

“It should have been several hundred lightyears,” Velvet confirmed. “Can we get out of here?”

“Absolutely,” Catarina said. “It won’t take long. And it will solve two issues at once. It should be really bad for the distortion beast too.”

“Do you need any help?” Velvet asked.

“Nope,” Catarina said, pulling out formation flags. Some of them were wrong, but she adapted on the fly quickly, placing them in alternate locations where the longstanding runes were distorted. “I’ve studied this place enough and I have what we need.” After a few minutes… “There,” she said, placing one last thing. “Timothy, give me a boost.” She reached out her hand, and he clasped hers.

Clearly she knew just what to expect when fusing their energies, though Velvet had been anticipating a different result. She’d expected another portal, instead of suddenly seeing the world fade around her while also becoming more real. She recognized regular subspace, as well as a bit of the overconfidence it held. Seems they’d returned.

“This way I can keep the flags,” Catarina said. “And… some of them are still messed up. I wonder what will happen if I touch them? Recordings first!” She set about doing that, while continuing to speak. “Speaking of which, whoever designed this iteration of the communicators is getting a commendation. Functional even in partial order subspace.”

“So you did get my messages?”

“Just gibberish!” Catarina shrugged. “But the fact that we got a message basically means it works. As long as our messages arrived in the order we sent them, that’s sufficient. Preferably with the same time lag. We’ll have to go over that to make sure.”

After Catarina was satisfied, she plucked up her formation flags. A few seemed to return to normal, while others collapsed into odd piles of nothing as their structures no longer functioned in something closer to normal physical space. Random strips of material were all that held together.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“So you really are a formation grandmaster?” Jyotsana asked.

“The second best I know,” Catarina said. Velvet knew that wasn’t the overconfidence aura- if she’d said best, however, that would have been ridiculous. “Come on, let’s get to the portal.”

“So how do you know Sybella?” Durff asked as they walked along. “We met her on a mission recently.” On the time scale of cultivators, that was correct.

“My name isn’t Sybella,” Velvet said. It was impossible to keep them in the dark, now. Showing up in the middle of Scarlet Alliance territory and escorting them to the border but no further? That would reveal all the same things. Instead, she’d prefer to win them over.

Durff’s shocked eyes hurt a little. But then- “I’m so sorry, have I been saying the wrong thing this whole time? I thought that’s what you said!”

Velvet shook her head. “It is what I said. I lied to you.”

“About what?” Durff asked.

“About everything.”

“... So we’re not friends?” he hung his head. “And you’re… not sneaky? And you don’t use daggers? And-”

Velvet cut him off. “Okay, not everything. But about some important things. Like my name and where I was from.”

“Those aren’t important,” Durff shrugged. “But I don’t know what to call you now.”

The other three were just listening intently, clearly uncertain how to react. Jyotsana was skeptical, but the twins were curious.

“Velvet,” she said. “And I’m from the Scarlet Alliance.”

“Okay,” Durff said. “What’s the Scarlet Alliance?”

“What-?” Velvet looked at him dumbfounded. She honestly felt kind of insulted.

“So you’re a spy?” Jyotsana asked. “That makes sense, I suppose.”

Misi frowned. “That’s… the new sect in the Midfields?”

“We’re not new,” Velvet countered. “We’ve been around for centuries. Probably longer than you’ve been alive.”

“That’s not that long,” Juli shrugged. “We’ve heard of you. So… are you gonna kill us now?”

“No,” Velvet said. She glanced over at the others. “But you also can’t go back.”

“Okay,” Durff said.

“So we’ll be prisoners?” Jyotsana asked.

“If necessary,” Velvet said. “But I think you’d prefer to train with expert fire cultivators and join us.”

“Yeah?” she seemed curious. “What sorts of experts?”

Fuzz was suddenly on fire.

Velvet shook her head. “Human experts, probably. Though Fuzz is a good choice still.” She pat him on the muzzle, and he nuzzled her on her head. He was taller now, after all.

“Do you know any collectors of rare trinkets?” Misi asked.

Velvet shrugged, looking towards Catarina.

“We can introduce you,” Catarina said. “It should be fairly easy to determine.”

“So we have to start over here?” Juli asked. “That’s going to be… difficult.”

Misi comforted her. “You’re in Integration now, remember. It’s not the same.”

“If you join us,” Velvet said. “You’ll receive an appropriate amount of support in the areas you need.” She could offer quite a bit, actually, but she didn’t want them to be tempted by wealth. She’d prefer a genuine desire. Jyotsana seemed like she’d be the hardest but-

“Done,” Jyotsana said. “If that applies to me as well, I don’t care about being poached away.” Her eyes lingered on the various cultivators. “Three Augmentation cultivators, a beastly equivalent, and…” she tilted her head as she looked at Alva. “Peak Integration. Not too bad for a new sect.”

“Just to be clear,” Timothy explained, “We’re all from the One Hundred Stars. The Scarlet Alliance also has other sects working together.”

Durff was pondering. Velvet wondered if this was hard for him. He didn’t have much in the way of attachments to a sect or anything, but he’d seemed fond of his aunt. Finally, he spoke. “How do you feel about hammers?”

“Lots of people like hammers,” Velvet said. “You’ll have plenty of opportunities.”

-----

“The entire Nighstar Sect facility is disintegrating?” the woman asked.

“That’s right,” commented the messenger. “The consolidated reports also indicate damage at the first location we found. No reports yet from others.”

“Let me know if anything changes,” she said.

After the messenger left, she let herself settle into a comfortable chair and relax. She needed to do that, at least.

How unfortunate. She knew these things happened, but she liked Durff. He was her favorite nephew, despite his limitations. No, perhaps that was precisely why. It was nice to deal with someone so… straightforward. Even if it meant he got entangled with spies.

The funny thing was that the spy had seemed to genuinely be his friend. Obviously Durff would have believed that, but of her various statements that was the one that rang most true. Velvet was pretty good at integrating with her cover, but not perfect.

Of course, it made things easier that Ratna had sensed Velvet before, albeit briefly.

She wasn’t going to forget Augmentation cultivators from a new faction so easily, even if that hadn’t been her focus at the time. Ratna had almost wanted to teach her to properly conceal her cultivation. Obviously she had experience and talent, but there were a few methods one could use- especially if you were stronger. She’d been careless because ‘Aunt Eka’ had displayed herself as an Augmentation cultivator as well. Thinking they were matched, Velvet likely assumed she had the upper hand.

Perhaps the rest of the time she would have been right. Disappointingly, she’d missed a few subtle hints. Then again, they weren’t intended to actually give her away. Perhaps she’d piece it together later.

This new faction… they were enemies with the Citadel and Zaur. Ratna didn’t think they stood any chance as they were currently, but it didn’t hurt her to mention his Anchor. Hers would be more difficult to discover, and they weren’t at odds at this exact moment. Though if the Trigold Cluster as a whole called for action, the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance might have to act. Forcing Ratna herself to do anything would require more than a political push, though. Not because she particularly cared about them or not, but because she was worth more than that.

Especially not if Everheart was protecting them. She wasn’t clear on that. Ratna supposed they might just be convenient neighbors. Velvet’s distaste had been genuine but also… nostalgic? As if she’d known of him longer than made sense. But perhaps that was reading too far into things.

She grimaced, thinking back to her earlier topic. Durff was probably dead. But she couldn’t have reasonably stopped him. It would have ruined everything good about him if she forced him to do what she wanted.

Ratna could only hope that he got lucky and advanced to Augmentation or something like that. He might be able to smash his way out of the predicament. She wanted to focus on other things, but the thoughts kept popping up every once in a while. Why couldn’t he have been a brat like all her other family? They were easier to ignore.