Lyun and Axln found themselves once more on the other side successfully, thus aware that this must then be the Starlight Citadel. Things had worked out correctly, for the most part at least, it was just quickly obvious that they had made a slight error.

Lyun glanced around at the metallic nature of her surroundings, the perspective having her quickly check to ensure she did actually have her elven ears. Her world wasn’t known for using such metals, this whole place looked ripped right out of the Terran Mythos. She turned to bring up this detail with Axln.. only to find herself greeted with a solid wall. Wait, they had shifted over to a place where they had instead been separated? She really was foolish, standing so far away in what used to be a big room.. and was now just a bunch of corridors. Stricken with worry, she started off in search of her companion.

Axln meanwhile waited a while before setting off, realizing that Lyun wasn’t about to just shift them back so that they could just re-coordinate things. There wasn’t anything to do about that, they would just have to meet up more naturally then. Axln tried some adjustments on her circlet to help make navigating easier, but found no success piercing the walls. Okay, so that was also annoying, but manageable. So far, the ideal solution has looked to be the most normal. She was an expert at navigating places, this wouldn’t be a problem.

Having a keen understanding of her abilities, it only took Axln two moments to be solidly convinced she had lost all measure of bearings she might have ever had. This place was the definition of wild, even the halls were untamed by concepts like navigation. All of her best guesses during navigation was that she was being forced to constantly backtrack on a path that led her through walls that didn’t previously exist. She wasn’t even sure at this point if this was a better or worse trap than she had just left, the whole place was nigh impossible to get anywhere explicit, including to leave. After another five moments, she just sat down for a break. For once, logic wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Knowing that though, what else did she even have? She worried that such a realization should have worried her.. but she couldn’t have felt any more liberated. She was absolutely lost, and somehow the simple exploration without exhaustive thought was thrilling for her. Maybe, she was just going crazy?

Lyun collapsed hard on her face, her stamina all too spent. She was certain that was the right turn.. wasn’t it? Three lefts, two rights, another nine lefts.. wait, nine? Had she really gone left nine times? Why did she even do that? Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. What mattered was that she had still not found Axln yet. Certainly she was close though, it would make sense, she.. actually had no idea where she was. It wasn’t until that very instant that Lyun had figured out that she might have gotten carried away and had inadequately compensated for how complex everything was. Soon into being critical with herself, she also caught on that she could have maybe just shifted them back so that they could find each other. At this point though, it was far too late. She sighed, feeling very upset. She was absolutely furious, having been on edge for a while. She needed to find a productive way to vent, though that wasn’t very normal for her. Maybe she had just never had a situation this tense yet, maybe she really was getting that worried, maybe she was just getting tired. Either way, she might have understood she needed to vent, but she had no idea how she might do so without causing more problems.

Mheridz walked through another hall, staying ever vigilant. As she turned another corner, a blossom blew past her. The average person would have paid such a thing no mind, not even having considered that there was no wind in these halls. The halls had begun to move, its guardians were awake, the girls had arrived. She chased after the blossom, but it was already gone. No, no, no. She had to have all wardens on alert, the thieves were finally here, and they had to be stopped right away.

Axln suddenly got back up, resolving that no matter the details, she simply couldn’t afford to give up. Undiscovered motivation or trickles of insanity, it was better than nothing. She approached another intersection, uncertain where to go from there. After some contemplation, she suddenly decided that maybe she should just go right, it was just a feeling she had. Clearly, she was lapsing into insanity, but right was better than nothing. Meanwhile, Lyun just outright kicked the wall, the hollow gong going off through the halls. It didn’t matter, she didn’t care at this point. If she needed to vent that badly, she would just find something to vent at, just wouldn’t think about it. She would just go where her feet took her, not caring about the details.

“Over there, a girl. She isn’t a warden, is she…?” “The thief! Get her!” Two wardens suddenly spotted their prey having broken around the corner. Axon herself didn’t even get to react. Both of them in unison pulled out matching instruments, blatantly weaponized cylinders, and turned to fire upon her. Axln meanwhile felt she would be fine, a slight sway to the left, a quick tip to the right, two gleaming green projectile sheets passed right by her. Axln gave a quick giggle, this was actually amusing in a weird way. The two of them fired again, as she just dashed between them both. Both of them simultaneously fell over, sleep overtaking them quickly. A sleeping agent? The hell? Why were the wardens using sedatives? Why was everyone using sedatives? After a moment, she realized it might be a bit of a relief as she kicked one of the sleepers shoes, the alternative would have been a bit more ugly. Maybe this time they would actually keep shooting her arm again? Thankfully, that woman from aerospace control wasn’t here ruining her fun this time. Wait, this was fun? .. maybe? Didn’t matter, she just kept going, she had places to be either way.

Lyun drop-kicked one of the wardens who had suddenly got in her way. Wait, there was someone there? Oh well, not now. Her feet had a lot of enhancement to them, but she was keeping things under control. See, that one was even getting back up. Dashing him at a blinding speed, she unleashed her wrath upon his weapon with much less reservation, the instrument fragmenting on impact. The guy then fell back to his knees, shaking in terror. Much better, that’s what he gets for getting back up. The other four with him didn’t even bother standing, though their instrument had already been destroyed. She had missed once, that was all, a problem she had corrected, wasn’t anything to worry about.

Axln blocked yet another shot with her arm, laughing all the while with a laugh that had never suited her before. Out of compulsion, she made a quick customization of her circlet, the result giving her a momentary three dimensional vision all around her, even if it did not piece the walls. Somehow, she felt such a setting might have done that, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter that such a setting was affecting her other senses, defying even the laws of this reality by providing a full spectrum of enhanced senses in sound, along with a tactile feeling that extended well beyond her physical self. She then knew about the two girls to her right without even having to face them. She was reacting to weapon fire long before it even happened, almost as if she was dancing in a flow of motion with moves that weren’t quite her own. She didn’t even bother dealing with these two, they just kept firing towards her.. until they ran out of shots. She left them both behind soon after that, feeling they weren’t even worth the effort anymore.

Turning another corner, Lyun found herself confronted with quite the pack, a rather effective blockade. Lyun snarled, annoyed at this futility. Didn’t they know, it didn’t matter anyway? Approaching the wall, she took a step towards it, her own gift flowing forming ice upon her shoes, bracing her to the wall.. and then the ceiling. Several of them started firing upon her anyway, a series which got caught in frost that formed over her left hand, her own gift running strong. Catching every single shot in her frost glove, she simply dropped the projectiles upon them as she passed overhead, leaving nothing but a series of sleepers. See? It really didn’t matter. Why did they try so hard for something so futile? Oh well, no point worrying about that either, it also didn’t matter.

Axln approached another corner and found yet another warden waiting for her. However, this time she had a feeling she shouldn’t just rush into things. The warden pulled out his much larger instrument and turned to fire in her direction, a surge of green slamming like a brick against the wall as she fled back around the corner. This was no easy target, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She just needed to resort to more dramatic measures. She started pulling off her glove, giggling all the while, to only stop as she suddenly realized what she was about to do. This seriously wasn’t like her, this was bad. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, feeling outright possessed. Clearing her mind, she also found her circlet resume normal functionality, a fact which blinded and deafened her for a moment in the sudden shift. Delayed as such, the warden managed to come around the corner, taking aim once again. She no longer had anywhere to hide. Was she going to continue to resist, or would she actually let loose once again? She had a feeling she was being asked this question faintly within her mind.

Lyun continued along the corridor along the ceiling, channeling what should have been an exhaustive amount of the gift. She not only neglected caring about such a detail, she also neglected caring about how this was her first ever real immersion of the gift, having typically just depended on instrumentation. As she advanced, she found her path leading down a narrow staircase, a guy below her still not having looked up. Of course he was in her way, that left her rather upset. She would simply have to go straight through him. Except, if she just forced her way, his figure would still physically block her. Ah, but maybe then she could rend him stiff with the void, all she needed was to use her right hand and he would be little more than an ashen monument to easily shatter into dust. At the same time, the memory of Yhzia’s form shattering in much the same way passed through her thoughts, pulling her from her trance. Was she really contemplating making such a serious mistake? No, no, no, these feelings weren’t her own, something was wrong. Bringing her emotions under control cost her the focus she was enduring, having her fall from the ceiling and slightly down the stairwell. The warden at the stairwell drew his weapon upon her crumpled frame, preparing to fire upon her in her defenseless state. Was she going to continue to resist, or would she actually vent against futility? Deep within her own essence, she understood this was a conflict she was left to answer.

Axln and Lyun both refused in the span of the same instant. There had to be another way, they would just need to find it.

Axln ignored the strange within her, not reacting using either thought or emotion. Out of instinct alone, her body reacted. Her racing blood fueled her with the gift, catching her instinct long before it hit anything else. Before the guy could possibly fire, a shower of dust surged forth towards him instead, the powder instantly putting him into a trance instead. He wasn’t even sleeping, he was more sleep walking, caught in a dream. Axln herself felt she was also in a trance, unable to break her focus from the strange effect of such an unexplained phenomenon. She wasn’t even thinking about it, she didn’t want explanations, she wanted the stupid voiced in her head to shut up.. and yet her focus persisted. After a moment though, she realized she wasn’t being assaulted by such phantoms anymore.

Lyun zoned out completely, locking herself away in the moment, desperate to not react. Her own blood caught this factor, an absence of all things, a will without will. Her blood too flowed freely through her leg, passing through the cybernetics of her leg in the process. Nothing? How would it do nothing, is that even a thing? Overprocessing an instruction, her leg started to vent raw elements. The other instrument fired at this point.. only to fizzle into nothingness itself in this pure contradiction. His own instrument was then quick to surfer the same impulse, shutting down. Lyun however was still locking out everything, not even paying attention to anything, refusing everything. Even when no shot came, she kept herself in lockdown, she simply could not give up. But as a while more passed, she learned that nothing was going to happen, the powerful emotions that haunted her had stopped.

Both girls had passed their test.

Axln's first realization in what remained of her circumstances was that, whatever she had done, whatever she might have still been doing, it was rapidly draining her. She collapsed to the floor, feeling immeasurably weak as her stamina was spent by her continued usage of the gift. The warden carefully picked her up, she didn’t even have the energy to resist. However, she noticed that the guy wasn’t taking her anywhere, he was more waiting for instructions. In that moment, a blossom fluttered past the two of them, Axln faintly being aware of it in the process. Strange, such a blossom flew with a path that seemed almost unnatural, in a hall without any wind. She worried that this might have been another trap, but she still certainly couldn’t stay here. She would have to see where this temptation was going to take her, to decide for herself if it was to also be denied. With that realization, the guy began carrying her after the blossom, while she herself drifted to a state that felt remissant of slumber too, halfway to dreaming.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Trying to get up, Lyun quickly learned the complication of what had actually happened. The instrument beside her was dead, it wasn’t the only one. Her cybernetic legs had completely gone offline, unable to function at all. She opened the casing of her cybernetics, finding the ebony black shard still sitting rich inside. So, everything was normal, but simply refused to work at all, which wasn’t normal. It was as if both instruments had started to reject the reality of their original designs. That was bad, she was then stuck. While worried about such, a blossom blew through the windless halls, dusting up a black stain from the floor. The blossom instantly ignited into a purple blaze, then settled into the opened casing of Lyun’s leg. A horrifying hiss ruptured on contact, and somehow the feeling of the instrument she was connected to suffering such a burn felt as if it was her own leg that suffered. Inside the casing, the kyuemu crystal was no longer ebony, it was an intense violet. After a moment more of such torture, she finally started feeling a bit of relief, even if the entire feeling had yet to leave her. Closing her leg up before another of such accidents occurred, she carefully stood up and brushed herself off, only realizing that her legs worked after trying them. She turned to the other instrument, itself still seeming completely dead. Well then, nothing here was a coincidence, there was simply a power here that she simply did not understand. Standing remained a struggle in the surreal tension her legs endured, but she could at least walk. In that same moment, she found yet another blossom swirl around her, leading down the corridor at a rather slow drift. Knowing she was deep in something she couldn’t hope to control, she followed carefully and cautiously, worried about her safety the entire duration.

It was much later when Axln had finally stirred from her slumber, having found herself left beside a door, a blossom having come to rest upon her, and the original guard having long wandered away. She was right where she was meant to be then? She turned to the door, but the entire unit refused to budge. Was it locked then? Kneeling before the door as she searched around it for clues, she eventually found what seemed like a very suspicious marking, the mark of a crescent moon. That was indeed curious, she tried to brush it with her right hand, only for the hard crystal to fail in her expectations. Right, of course, this was the sort of problem she had being stuck with no real hands left. Technically, she did have something though. She carefully tried to brush the same area with her left hand, trying to clean up the mark on the door. The moment she did so, there was a subtle click, her hand faintly glistening under her glove. Wait, did something there react to it? Was that even possible? Axln proceeded inside, finding the room a vast repository of both instruments and books, countless records scattered everywhere. Clearly, the archives would have paid anything for this treasure trove. As she walked in further, the door behind her clicked shut, and it felt as if all sense of sound fled from the room, like she was in a sort of vacuum that only affected sound. She wandered further, finding a series of large instruments clearly used for research. She turned away from such intimidating matters for the moment, her path taking her to what looked in all honesty like a small library, a bed scattered in the middle as if it was standing against the test of time, several books scattered upon it in a mess. Books or otherwise, she needed a comfortable place to sit down and gather her thoughts, and this was going to serve better than most.

Lyun continued her gradual pace forward, slowly getting faster as she recovered. She pressed on, passing by what looked honestly like an abandoned library from above. The blossom guided her to a nearby stairwell going downwards.. but as the blossom reached the bottom of the stairs it was suddenly engulfed in flames. A warden stepped forward, spotting Lyun on the stairs, and a second came to join the first. Lyun and Zxyd locked eyes at the same moment, in absolute shock. Lyun bolted first, not wanting to have to face Zxyd in this situation, but the girl beside him was quick to follow, determined to not fail again. At the top of the stairs again, she searched around for the hall leading out, but the only exit she could find was the sheer drop in the middle of the room. The woman was quickly up to catch her, her intent driving her like a possessed demon. The woman took aim and fired, Lyun narrowly dodging. Of course, having turned down the fury she held before, Lyun was left with little to defend herself with. Zxyd however was then quick to also arrive.

“Lyun.. wha-what are you doing here? We were told a thief was breaking into here, but you…” “Yeah, that’s her. The same from the Obsidian Halls, she holds herself the exact same way, she runs away with the exact same impulses when caught. Come quietly, I hear these things are painless.” “No, wait, please, just let me talk to her. I know this has to be a big misunderstanding.” “You idiot. Clearly she’s already using your feelings for her to her advantage. She’s probably been using you the whole time, it would be really handy having a friend in the wardens if you were a thief. Now you see her true colors.” “No!” Zxyd yanked aside the instrument as the female warden tried to make another shot, ruining the shot in the process. Lyun knew she had to make the call now, she could either give in and come quietly or she could take advantage of this opportunity to escape and betray Zxyd’s trust forever. Unfortunately, she knew she wasn’t just making this call for herself either, if she got caught, that would complicate everything for Axln too, who could then also get caught. The foundry would not be compromising, if they were caught.. everything would be over for them both. Sure, she could always get them both caught, then flee the world forever, to never again return, never to learn the truth of their strife.. and thus still betray Zxyd. Every solution involved betraying Zxyd, it was just that some solutions were otherwise worse than others. In that light, this wasn’t a choice at all.

Lyun dashed forward in the distraction Zxyd had caused, a side kick smashing the instrument down to the level below. Zxyd looked crushed in that moment, a shattered gaze Lyun was simply unable to meet. The other warden however wasn’t done, she resorted with martial prowess of her own, a shoulder tackle that set Lyun stumbling backwards followed by a leg sweep that brought Lyun to the floor. An instant later, the woman had grasped Lyun’s right arm with a firm grip. Of course, this proved it, she really didn’t have a chance against this woman back in the Obsidian Halls if she had simply tried to force her escape. Even now, she had little to no chances either. This woman was really good. Even so, she simply could not afford to give up. Lyun pulled away from the woman, her glove coming off in the process, the woman grasping the same arm with her other hand. All the while, Lyun’s desperation fumed, and a pale storm surged up from the library below, awakened after almost a millenia. Sparks flew wild across the room, her own arm lighting in a pale glow in the process, and the brilliance blinded everyone.

When the light cleared, the three of them bore witness to a spiral of white crawl up the warden’s arm, her hand having gone fully stiff. She screamed as her flesh was ripped asunder in white flakes that peeled from her and shattered to dust on the floor. By the time it had reached her shoulder, she was wordlessly caught between a scream and a sob, futility having overcome her. The entire cartilage of her arm collapsed on the ground, even her bone structure having grounded to powder in the process. She was finally free to let go, and she reached towards Zxyd with a silent plea for him to save her.. somehow. He instead backed off, absolute terror overtaking him. Long before the same process reached her head, her expression went dim, the very life within her having bleed out in the process, and she collapsed to the floor with a frozen look of horror. Her neck released the head, which promptly rolled over the edge, to shatter into dust once it connected with the floor below. It took a while longer for the body itself to also decay away, much longer than it took for Lyun to lose the contents of her stomach on the floor beside her. She thought she had denounced such a horror, but it had fallen upon her anyway. Worse, she was then left confronting Zxyd, who himself was realizing that the thieves may have been much more dangerous than first assumed. He stumbled to go for his own instrument, clearly worried about his own safety.

Lyun couldn’t take this anymore, she needed a way out. No wait, not like that, she needed to stay in this world, but she needed an escape route. In response, another blossom fluttered down the hole in the middle of the room. Seeing no alternative she liked better, Lyun went for the drop. Crashing hard upon the level below, she didn’t give herself an opportunity to recover, she needed a place to hide. She found the blossom flutter onto an open bookshelf, landing upon the mark of a crescent moon before igniting straight to ash. Lyun reached for the same location with her right arm, hitting a hidden switch in the process, the wall moving to reveal a hidden passage. As Lyun dashed in, the same panel swung shut behind her. Zxyd himself arrived within the same room by the stairwell, but could find no trace of Lyun anywhere.

Axln was startled suddenly as all the lights went out, the room then only lit by the haze of a purple flame. The faint light cast in this moment revealed very little, but it then drew attention to a strange wardrobe almost hidden at the side, the mark of a crescent moon resting there too. Opening it, she found it full of strange folded metal plates. Taking one out, she managed to get it unfolded into what looked honestly like a strange suit of armor.. in a design that seemed more familiar to earth’s history than this world’s. This was certainly no medieval armor though, it looked more in nature to some kind of low tech power armor. Inside the same wardrobe was another just like the first. Keeping that one folded, Axln tried on the strange armor set, the entire unit powering up by her presence alone. She made sure to pack the other suit to the current as she somehow fumbled with the controls and got everything online. As she started to walk around the room testing such armor, sparks started to surge, another layer of the room waking up too.

Lyun continued along the secret path, a path which led her downwards into a level deep below. In the faintly lit room, sparks stuttering occasionally from the walls, she found a strange pedestal in the very middle of the room. Sitting upon such a thing was a book of all things. The book however was written in a language even she could not understand, though she knew it to be old elvish, Elaethyx. The one thing she could make out, abide only barley was a single word. That word.. somehow.. looked like her very own name, Lyun. It.. simply couldn’t be possible. This book had been waiting all this time.. for her? She reached towards it and picked it up, sparks flying wildly in response. With such sparks, the room itself began to move once again. The gears woven into the walls began to turn again after an entire millenia, clicking faintly in tune with time. As the gears began to turn, the entire citadel responded, flooding the halls with a neon red light.

Axln jumped when her own room lit up unexpectedly in red. A panel of the wall too shifted in response, revealing controls that had been too without use over the last millenia. A giant display appeared too, lighting up and displaying upon it a golden sphere, the heart of wisdom itself. At last, this is exactly what they had been searching for, finally delivered to them. She however had no idea what to do about any of it, but pressed a button anyway. The screen shifted again, revealing an image of a book. Certainly she just needed to find such a book then, she began searching through the collection, but quickly discovered that such a book was not kept here. Pressing another button caused the display to shift to a video feed of the clockwork chamber, clearly displaying Lyun standing there holding the very same book. Oh, well then that means Lyun had beaten her to punch her.. again. However, she was still coming out of this with findings of her own. She slipped out of the treasure trove, making sure the door was sealed behind her. Someday, it might really be worth it if they could come back here and dig into more of these informational treasures. The two mechanical treasures she had picked up looked like quite the distinguished treasures in their own right, stuff she was pretty certain Lyun would love. Axon still owed Lyun a treasure of her own, and she suspected that this sort of thing would be almost too perfect.

Mheridz jumped in surprise as the wall beside her came alive with a red haze. This.. was bad. She had lost the race, the fortress was awakened once again, the treasure in the hand of those who would misuse it. Still, there was a slight chance she could still recover the book, the two had not escaped yet with it. They would not be able to use the book here, they would need time to uncover its secrets first. Most likely, they were still separated. She needed to prevent their rejoining, to stop them from switching over. At the very least, she needed to ensure they would escape under the worst possible terms, in some of the worst of locations. If they were caught, this could be salvaged. No matter what, she just needed that book before it was used.

The guardians of the starlight citadel returned to rest once again. Unlike Mheridz, they knew that this future could be trusted to those who walked it, the two who had proven their worth this time.