Alex retraced his steps back to the temple, ensuring James could follow him. He hadn't wanted to worry the rest of his crew, but he was certain an island core was near the temple. The voice had reached out to him, and he couldn't ignore him. However, he wanted to bring James with him because there was something he needed to see.

He held a torch out in his hand, not for his own sake but for James's. Alex could get a decent idea of his surroundings by using his magnetic senses alone. James might have been a master of the Path of Will, but that didn't mean he could always keep it up. Considering the old man's condition, Alex was surprised he could even stand.

"You say there's a secret in the ruins," James said as he followed after Alex, his pace slow as he bent forward on a walking stick under his arm. "What are you talking about."

"You were a commander with the Military Police, right?" Alex asked as he peered out into the darkness, pausing for James to catch up.

"I was." James huffed as he stopped next to Alex.

The ruins stretched out below them, and Alex kept his gate open so that he could see the buildings around him with his magnetic senses. They lit up like neon blue signs in his mind due to the gold content that covered all the stone. Alex nodded to himself a few times before he started again, heading directly toward the temple at the center of the complex.

"What do you know about island cores?"

"That is an interesting question." James paused, and Alex turned to watch him. "Why would an outlaw ask a question like that?"

"Because you have one in that temple," Alex said, cocking his head toward the temple.

"I've never been able to access it," James said. "Though I have tried. I thought I could use it to get us off the island. Maybe conjure up a functional slipship."

"That's a bad idea."

"Island cores can do pretty much anything from what I understand." James narrowed his eyes.

"Not without a cost." Alex sighed. "Black spots are possible, but there's also hidden costs for changing too much."

"How do you know so much about it?" James's grip tightened on his crutch.

"Because I can use a core," Alex said, holding his gaze steady. "And if you're willing, I'll use this one to help out before I sink it into the deepest parts of the island."

"Show me."

There was no hesitation or doubt in his eyes. James nodded at Alex, and Alex turned to follow the path into the temple. While James's condition made it more difficult to get inside quickly, Alex was able to help him through the entrance and into the inside of the temple. His magnetic vision made navigating the entire thing easy. The mazes of golden plates lit up in his eyes, and his senses saw beyond even sight to see the various turns in the path until he found the right path

Tap.

Together, they stood in a large, empty square room that lined the inside of the temple. At the center was a large glowing orange pool with a stone arch on an island inside. All along the walls were bodies lying on shelves and wrapped in bandages. Alex looked around as James joined him.

The lava pool was unusual. Alex was used to black pools of viscous sludge around the entrances to island cores. What he saw here was different. A lava pool that gave off no heat. Only a slight smell of sulfur filled the room. He supposed a shield could be generated around the pool to keep the heat contained inside of it. There were a lot of things he didn't know about cores, and if the core had been used to create the temple out of a previous volcano, the lava would have been as good a defense as one of the black pools.

It was all above his knowledge, though.

"There's a lot of bodies down here," Alex whistled.

"It is holy ground," James said. "The spirits are interred here along with the bodies, according to the Zoan's customs."

"I guess if I had to choose a place to be buried, inside a golden pyramid would be high on the list," Alex said, looking over the bodies before starting toward the lava pool. "Are you going to need a lift across?"

"With my back." James laughed. "Yes."

"Sorry for any pain, then." Alex nodded, stepping next to James and putting his shoulder under James's.

He paused before jumping over, looking back toward the door they had come in. With all the metal in the room, picking out the faint traces of a person was difficult. However, he was sure that there were eyes watching them, and Alex had a guess about who it was. He smiled as he called out.

"Ikal, you don't want to follow without help over this. If you fall into that, it'll be over."

"Ikal?" James turned, squinting at the entrance.

From the opening, the small Zoan boy stepped out, his dark fur almost invisible in the darkness of the temple. James practically jumped off Alex's shoulder, hobbling over to Ikal and shaking his head the entire way. Alex smirked and didn't immediately run forward. In his mind, Ikal following them wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Ikal, how many times must I tell you to stay away from the temple?" James demanded. "You know it is dangerous."

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"I do, but I wanted to know why you were both coming out here," Ikal said, crossing his arms. "Everyone else is in the village, but you both came here."

"He has a point," Alex said, smiling. "And honestly, it's probably better if at least one Zoan is here to see this before I sink it. It's their ruins, after all."

"You're certain?" James asked, looking over his shoulder.

"If he thinks it's a good idea to keep it around after I explain the problem, then that's just what it'll have to be," Alex said. "I'm not here to save the world. I just want to do what I see as the right thing for the tribe being so hospitable."

"Fine," James said, walking back over to Alex.

Alex got his arm beneath the man's shoulder again and then called to Ikal.

"Grab hold of my leg, and don't let go. We're jumping over with the power of magnets."

It took Ikal a moment, but Alex waited all the same. After a few moments, he felt scrawny arms wrap around his leg and looked down to confirm that Ikal had a good hold. Once everyone was secure, Alex pulled against the roof with his magnetism, pulling himself and his two passengers up and in a long arc toward the gate. When he reached the apex, he released his pull and pushed against the ground with his magnetism, allowing a slow descent to the floor.

Once they were all down, he let Ikal and James walk away before he approached the gate. The stone of the arch stood tall above him as he stepped onto the dais that surrounded the island core. Alex knew island cores and immediately put his hand on the spot on the stone that he needed to begin the activation.

"▇▇."

The words weren't conscious words that he thought about before he said them. They rose out of his subconscious mind, fueled to his lips in a language he neither understood nor could hear. Like almost all his knowledge surrounding island cores, it rested hidden in his mind.

"What was that?" James shook his head, rubbing at his ears.

"It was like a crack of thunder!" Ikal grumbled, his hands covering his pointed ears.

"That's how you get in," Alex whispered.

Blue light lit up around his hand, causing rune markings to light up and flow in a circle before entering the archway. The entire dais was covered in runes, and quickly, the entire area glowed in a blue light. The torch was no longer necessary, and Alex threw it into the lava.

Sizzle.

It disintegrated on contact.

"Now, are you ready to go in?"

Click. Bzzt.

As he said it, the archway gave way, revealing a metal structure beneath. The gate's cover lowered into the floor and was soon replaced with a purple light. A portal opened between the arches, and Alex motioned for James and Ikal to enter. It took them a moment, but it was enough to get them inside after Alex stuck his hand inside and pulled it out again. Alex stepped through immediately after.

"What is all of this?"

James stood with Ikal in a metal spherical room with windows on the side. Through the windows, a realm of absolute darkness known as the Outside could be seen. It was one of the three realms that made up Erth: the Real, where normal day-to-day happenings occurred; the Surreal, which was the realm of techniques and curses; and finally, the Outside, the realm beyond both.

"This is the inside of an island core," Alex said, stepping past them and down the carpeted hallway, following the glowing square lights embedded in the floor to the control room. "Come on. I'll show you as much as I can."

Tap. Tap.

An island core was a construct from a sci-fi novel. It looked like what the nineteen fifties might imagine technology from the two thousands on Earth. At the end of the hallway was a control room, where several boxes in the center of the circular room formed the main controls, with several control panels full of buttons and switches along the walls.

Alex walked in and immediately proceeded to the central control panel, flicking a few switches and pushing a few buttons instinctively as he pulled up a glowing screen in thin air above him. It showed a picture of the ruins and timple from an aerial view, and Alex pointed up at it so that Ikal and James could see.

"That is the temple," Alex said before flicking a switch.

When he did that, the structure of the entire complex began to glow, and bright blue and dark splotches appeared across the surface of each of the buildings and along the hidden pathways beneath the ground. James gasped as he squinted at the picture, and Ikal's eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"That is the aetheric residue of the transmutation that was done however many years ago to plate this entire complex in gold," Alex said. "Well, a gold alloy, more accurately."

"Transmuted?"

"Island cores don't create out of nothing, not really. They operate a lot like curses, using the aether from the Surreal to bend reality. When it happens, a residue is left behind from the expended aether. I'd say it is like radiation, but I don't think that's going to translate well."

"But what does it mean?" James demanded, leaning forward. "Why is that important?"

"Because it's why Ikal's people are dying." Alex shrugged. "Creating something this large takes time for the aether involved to dissipate, and when it does, it's tainted. I made a large jail cell on Tombstone, and the aetheric residue from that would take a few weeks to distribute back into the environment. A temple like this would take several generations of people's lives."

"You're saying that's why they don't have any more children?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "Too much corrupted aether in the water, in the air, in their food."

"And you can use the island core to change that?" James asked.

"I can use the core to sink this area with a few minor changes and put it out of the way so they can recover," Alex said.

"But—"

"Big changes, creating new things, cause the problem," Alex said, pointing up at the screen. "If I used the core to wash everything away, then it would just put more aether out into the air. If I reversed the transmutation, it would just double the amount of corrupt others on everything. There's also the risk of creating a Black Spot if you do too much at once, but that's not the problem here."

"You're going to destroy the temple?" Ikal asked in the silence that followed the explanation. "The most sacred place, where our ancestors sleep?"

"If you want your people to keep going, yes," Alex said, crossing his arms.

"Is there no other choice?" James asked. "Is there no other option?"

"You could leave," Alex said. "Go out into the nightsea and the Erth. Try your luck against the Military Police, bandits, bounty hunters, and slavers."

"How would you do that? Can you carry all our people on your ship?" James asked, sighing. "I know that would be too good to be true."

"Well." Alex flipped a switch and revealed an image from the water that surrounded the island. "You said that your old ship was out there."

The image crackled to life of a long and narrow vessel that was very reminiscent of other Military Police vessels Alex had seen, if not a lot longer. James's eyes widened at the sight, but Alex saw understanding soon cross his face. It wasn't a guarantee, but it was a chance to get off the island.

The ship just needed to move.