The shadowy forms of Emrox emerge from the dark like a ghost. Pulses of blue constantly emit from the Prismatic, Gillow hyper paranoid of running into any null currents, many of which now ribbon through the nearby waters. Illuminated by our ship’s sapphire glow, the ruins of Emrox take on a phantasmal aura.

The three of us stand and watch in silence as a pillar fades into view before passing us by. More shapes appear, all of them vaguely familiar—like Greek ruins, yet stretched and twisted in completely un-Earthly ways. The towers are taller and thinner than should be possible. Strange disk-like shapes decorate the city like shells scattered by a giant. Many structures are broken statues, with carvings still engraved in the surface, surprisingly uneroded by the water. Despite the fact that the city is demolished, it appears eerily untouched by time, as if Emrox was bombed and subsequently abandoned only a day before.

“Do you know where we’re going?” I finally ask.

Gillow scoffs. “Of course. There’s really only one place to go in this city. The question will be what you want to do when we get there.”

It finally hits me: I’m here. After all this time, after all the struggle, I’m mere steps away from home. Familiarity. My body. It doesn’t feel real.

But Gillow’s comment hits the nail on the head: What will I do once I get there? If the predator can be trusted—and let’s be honest, it can’t—then it will help me complete and activate the spell circle that will open the gate Between. That coupled with my Location spell should be able to open a pathway back to my body—and Earth. But will I need to go back out into the water to make that happen? Will Zyneth’s charms last long enough for what I need to do?

Zyneth. If everything does go to plan, we’ll be saying goodbye. Can I do that? Can I just leave him behind alone with Gillow? They haven’t tried to kill him yet. Maybe we were wrong about them wanting to tie up loose ends. Maybe they need him to get back to land. Maybe they’re not as selfish as Zyneth had assumed.

Can I count on all those maybes?

“There it is,” Gillow says, and Zyneth and I lean forward.

I can see why they’d said this city only has one destination.

An enormous amphitheater melts into view beneath us, at least twice the size of Earth’s Colosseum. Rather than seats, its walls are made of countless pillars and broken platforms. But it’s the ground at the center of the arena that my gaze is drawn toward: a massive, broken spell circle takes up the whole width of the structure. I’ve seen it before in the Library of Miasmere. In my notes. In the predator’s memories.

The entire arena is also filled with null magic.

Gillow turns on the Prismatic’s spotlights. The magic is so dense that I can make it out glimmering in the water even without Gillow’s blue pulses. There’s no way the Prismatic can get down there. Hell, even as a glass vial I don’t know if I’d be able to squeeze by.

“That is certainly an issue,” Zyneth says. “I don’t suppose you have a way to get down there?” he asks Gillow.

“Are you insane? I’m already way closer to these null currents than I’m comfortable with.”

Zyneth looks at me questioningly.

I shake my head. “I didn’t expect this. Let me think. Gillow, can you take us around the arena? I want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”

Gillow shrugs. “Not sure what you think you’ll find, but I’m perfectly happy to keep circling up here.”

But it’s not so much the angle I need as the area.

Echo, I’m going to cast Inspect as a spell, I say. Thirty-foot range to start. Notify me if any spell circuits are detected, excluding the ones in this ship. If there aren’t any, expand the range.

[Affirmative,] Echo says. [Casting Inspect.]

A pulse of my magic emanates from my soul, quickly vanishing beyond the hull of the Prismatic.

[Spell circuit identified,] she says almost immediately.

Blue lines of magic appear in my field of view, in the waters directly outside of us. I give them a Check.

[Dormant spell circuits designed for the control and tempering of the surrounding water,] Echo says. [This spell has not been active in over 518,430 days.]

And yet the skeleton of the spell still remains. Could I activate it? I ask.

[Negative,] Echo says. [Activation of such a spell requires water Attunement.]

Keep looking for spell circuits, I say. But this time only notify me if they can be activated by null magic. Also, what’s my bonus mana look like?

[Bonus Mana: 425]

“Zyneth, could I borrow some mana?” I ask, pushing my range wider.

He frowns. “How much do you need?”

“Not sure,” I admit. “At least while we do a lap of this place.”

“Alright.” Zyneth raises a hand over my chest. Yellow light glows in his palm and bathes my core. “I’ll let you know when I’m getting low.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Of course, I could track that with Echo myself, but the less Gillow knows about my unique circumstances, the better. I just hope between Zyneth and I we have enough mana to find what I’m looking for—not to mention, enough leftover mana to be able to activate the spell circles.

[Null spell circuit identified,] Echo says after a minute of searching. [Dormant spell circle designed for structural support integrity via gravitational manipulation.]

Gravity manipulation? Null magic sure has a lot of interesting applications I’ve never thought to look into before. Interesting. But not what will help me right now. Keep searching.

The minutes stretch. Echo finds another two spell circuits designed around null arcana, but they’re still not what I need.

“Kanin,” Zyneth warns.

“I know, I know.” If we don’t find it soon, then we’ll have to wait for our mana to recover and try again tomorrow. Assuming Gillow is willing to wait around that long. But I can’t give up now. I’m here! I’m in Emrox. I can see the spell circle I need to get to just a hundred yards beneath me. I can’t have come all this way just to fail at the last step.

[Spell circuit identified,] Echo says. [Dormant spell circle designed to summon a stable bubble of air at the designated target location.]

I push Echo for more details with my Inspect and confirm what I’d hoped.

“Found it,” I say, pointing out the window toward a pillar beneath us in the coliseum. I can see the lines of magic tracing to where their spell circle is located, even if no one else can. I’ll just need to guide them close enough for me to activate it. I wave off Zyneth and deactivate Identify to save both our mana. “That’s it. Get us there.”

Gillow takes us down, hovering over the large plate-like disc that’s mounted to the top of the pillar I need to reach. There’s two dozen other pillars wrapping around the coliseum, each platform lower than the last, like a giant spiral staircase.

“This is as close as she goes,” they say. “Those null currents are too dense once you get into the stadium.”

Hopefully not for long. “This will be close enough, I think.”

The spell circle is on top of the flat surface, luckily for me. I think I can reach it with my glass and void without having to risk another dive into the water with my core. Of course, I can definitely reach it with the predator’s help, but that’s something I’m trying to avoid. I’ll need to soon enough, but I don’t want to give it any more opportunities for it to potentially take advantage of than I have to.

“What’s going on?” Gillow asks as I start to leave the room. “What’s your plan?”

“I’m going to create an air pocket at the bottom of the coliseum,” I say. “There’s a spell circle here designed to do just that. All I have to do is activate it.”

Gillow frowns. “What will that achieve?”

“The spell that creates the air pocket is designed to swap what’s in one volume for another—it should clean the area out of water and null arcana, both. As long as I can get in there, I’ll be safe.”

Gillow appears anything but convinced, but they shrug anyway. “Whatever. It’s your life, I guess. I got my payment.”

Zyneth, however, is predictably less indifferent. “These spell circles are ancient. How do you know they won’t misfire when activated?”

“It’ll be fine,” I say, hoping that’s not a lie. “The predator remembers what the circle is supposed to look like.” And if anything does happen, I’ve got a guardian monster watching over my shoulder that should keep me from getting too dead. “At any rate, I can activate it remotely, so my core should be safe. Let’s just drain the volume first and then take it from there, okay?”

Zyneth exhales through his nose. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

Gillow stays at the controls as Zyneth and I head down to the cargo bay. Looking out one of the glowing, orange windows, the surrounding waters are still and dark. I can see the platform just under us, however.

“Alright.” I summon all my signing glass and a small portion of my void out from under my coat, then push them out the window, feeling instantaneous resistance as they pass into the water. As much as it’s unnerving to have that Predator Influence stat hanging over me, it’s useful that I have enough void to keep my body upright and walking even without the portion I sent outside the ship. To say keeping my body and core inside the ship is far preferable is an extreme understatement.

Even so, I have to turn on sight in some of my signing glass to be able to tell where I’m sending my Attunements as they drift down the side of the ship. My vision splits disorientingly: I’m inside the Prismatic, looking at the window, and I’m also in the water, watching the top of the pedestal float steadily closer. I shape my signing glass into hands, and touch lightly down on the stone surface.

I re-activate Identify, briefly, just long enough for the spell circuits to flash into existence. There.

I extinguish the spell once more as I line my hands up over the circle. Void coils around them like a layer of gloves, then seeps out into the stone surface, tracing the lines of the circle inscribed there. I activate the spell.

Black lines light up across the pillar’s surface, then skitter down the column and out of sight.

Silence.

It stretches for a long, unending moment. Then a rumble vibrates through the craft, so low and distant that it’s more sensation than sound. I feel Zyneth tense up beside me. I cross the cargo bay and look out the other window. Still nothing I can make out from this angle. I lift my hands from the spell circle and send them to look over the edge of the platform, as far as I can manage with my limited range. Beneath us, something is happening.

The water outside the Prismatic begins to swirl. Silt is stirred up and pulled away as a strong current sweeps through the area. I hastily recall my void and glass before they’re swept away too, bringing them back into the ship. Spell circuits light up in the bay above us as Gillow’s voice is projected into our room.

“What the fuck did you guys do back there? What’s happening?”

“Kanin?” Zyneth asks, an edge in his voice.

“I told you, I just activated the spell!” I say. “Should I stop it?”

“I think that would be wise.”

But the water is moving too fast for me now. I can’t send anything out there without it getting swept away. “Uh, any other suggestions?”

Zyneth pinches the bridge of his nose. “What was that spell supposed to do?”

“Echo just said it creates an air bubble at the target location,” I say, trying to remember the exact wording.

“What target location?” Zyneth says, grabbing onto a railing on the wall as the ship begins to pitch. I lunge for a handhold as well. “What made you think it was going to drain the water down at the base of the coliseum?”

Oh. Fair point. “Uhhhh… gravity?”

“Shit!” Gillow says. “Hold on!”

The ship is fighting a vortex now, rotating in a slow circle against a much more rapid whirl of water. A sharp bang jolts the ship as the Prismatic scrapes against the platform. And then the color at the top of the window shifts, like a line has been drawn across it. The line starts moving down, and that’s when it finally clicks: the water isn’t being drained from the base of the coliseum, it’s being drained away from our little platform. Flushed out like a giant toilet.

The Prismatic lands heavily on the stone pillar, then rolls across its round underbelly and pitches to the side. I yelp as the bar I’m holding pivots from being on the wall to the ceiling, and the sudden lurch cracks one of my arms completely off. I jolt down—and the void reaches up, wrapping around my arm and handhold, keeping me from falling to my doom.

Meanwhile, everything else is equally going to shit.

The giant cubes I’d filled with null arcana roll with the motion of the ship, and two of them tumble right through the windows. Zyneth manages to perform a stunt that would make Indiana Jones proud, and leaps over one of the rolling cubes and out of the way of the second before they can sweep him outside.

The ship groans, finally settling to a tenuous stop, and for a moment, all is still.