Tys rushed them down the stairs at a dizzying speed, much faster than Nar thought himself capable of going at, given his current state.

He wondered if she was using her [Presence] to make them move faster.

What is [Presence] anyway? Nar wondered.

How could an attribute make him obey someone else just like that? To the point of stashing away his sword and not speaking until being granted permission to do so?

It’s real power, a voice said from the back of his mind. The power to remove obstacles out of his way. The power that could help him save his dad and find a place for his party in the O-Nex.

And if it’s an attribute, maybe I can unlock it as well…

He would have to see what these elite teachers could do for him.

“Halt!”

Tys slowed down and stopped in front of a group of people, man and woman.

They were dressed in some form of shiny, metallic gear, and they had long white and gray capes. Their faces were obscured under their hoods, and one of them approached Tys and pointed some sort of device at her.

“Tys. Recruiter pass. Tsurmirel,” he said, intoning it as though he was reading it off of something. Perhaps the device in his hands? “Ah, Ascendant Tys. It's an honor to meet you!”

The man bowed his head, and the rest of his people did the same.

“At ease,” Tys said, her tone easy.

“Thank you for sending that trash our way,” he said. “We rescued thirty-seven ex-Climbers thanks to you.”

Ex-Climbers? Nar thought, frowning. Is that us?

“My pleasure. Just make sure they learn their lesson,” Tys said. “No one should mess with ours. Especially not right after the Ceremony of Final Atonement.”

“Oh, they will,” the man said, his tone dark. “It’s the last lesson they’ll ever learn…”

This must be the security then… Nar thought, eyeing their shiny white armor underneath their white and gray capes.

“You’re free to go, my lady. Crystal’s Blessings upon you.”

“And you, sergeant,” Tys said.

The man gave her a short bow, and he gestured for the other hooded people to open a path for them.

“Come on,” she urged the two parties. “Down into the AetherLines. Stick close. There’s a lot of people down there, and I rather not have to waste time killing anyone to protect you.”

Wait? What? Nar thought, as his feet propelled him after her. Kill?

Nar stumbled downstairs after the others, and suddenly, he was overlooking a sea of people, going as far as the eye could see. Giant pillars held up a cavernous space, and lights and colors and sounds beamed and clashed from everywhere, in a cacophony of despair to be heard and be looked at.

“Come on!” Tys said, heading down towards the massive crowd.

“Crystal Almighty,” Kur whispered. “There’s so many people!”

“Thousands and thousands and thousands,” Cen said.

“More than in our cubeplant,” Tuk said. “More than the Climbers in the Ceremony!”

“Come on!” she shouted again. “You haven’t signed anything yet! Don’t make me leave you behind!”

Tys reached the crowd and they parted before her.

It was uncanny, and dazzled by all the sounds, the voices, the flashing lights, the competing screens, the scents, the people eating things he had never before seen, and all the races and clothing he had never seen before, Nar did his best to keep his eyes stuck to Tys’ back.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” a gruff voice sounded to their left.

“So-sorry!” Tuk mumbled, stepping away from a gray sentient, covered in fierce looking spikes, and whom Nar could not tell what gender they were.

“You should…”

“Hey, don’t you have eyes?” Tys snarled at him from ahead of the group.

The sentient froze mid-sentence, and then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone in the crowd.

Tys groaned and looked at Tuk.

“Stay in the clear space, okay?” she said, in a surprisingly gentle voice. “I know what I said, but not everyone is out for your experience. The AetherLines just turn most of us into cranky assholes. Now come on!”

“Keep your eyes on her, Tuk,” Kur exhorted the ring tosser. “We’ll be back.”

“Sorry,” Tuk said, his shoulders sagging. “There’s just so much stuff going on…”

“I know. But for now, we’re with her. And her ship. We’ll be back.”

“Got it, boss. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. I get to look cause Nar is carrying me.”

“What in the pile? How’s that fair?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Nar chuckled alongside the rest of them, and did his best not to let his eyes stray.

It was hard though. Very hard.

“...and with RealCare, you’ll never have to worry about a work accident ever again! Our comprehensive package covers…”

“Are you not getting the gains you’re working hard for? Feeling like you hit a slump? A plateau? Well have no fear! With our…

The displays sped past Nar in a blurry cacophony of voices, colors, music and light.

He breathed in the thousand smells of foods and unknown things amongst the general hot and sweaty stink of a lot of people crammed together into a place that despite its size, was still not big enough to accommodate them all.

Here and there he saw enormous people moving about, one of them looking like nothing more than a dressed brown blob. And the fashions clashed against one another endlessly, in a dizzying array of all the colors in the spectrum, more colors than he had ever dreamt existed.

Over there, a man wore a massive black and white frilly and flowing outfit, and there, another wore a skin tight, ultra pink shiny outfit, with lines of bright purple color fading in and out across its entire length.

There was so much going on, that he himself almost crashed into someone.

“Hey, you’re the guy!” some sort of feathery sentient said, through a long beak. “Honey, look, it’s…”

But they were gone in the crowd again.

“Did these people come to see us?” Kur asked, voicing Nar’s own thoughts.

“It looked like that, didn’t it?” Nar said. “But why would they do that?”

Kur sighed. “The O-Nex is… I don’t know. Something beyond us right now. Hopefully, Tys’ people will make it make sense to us.”

“Yeah.”

Nar caught the sound of a rhythmic beeping, coming from somewhere up ahead. It got progressively louder until Tys made them stop before some kind of barrier.

“Alright, I’m going to open the gate for you. Form a line. You there, you go first.”

Tun approached the gate with Raf still unconscious at his back, and Tys approached some sort of thin, black and small rectangle to a bright yellow pad on the metallic thing she called a gate.

Two loud beeps came from the machine, and the two yellow arms barring their way folded onto themselves and disappeared into the machine. Tun looked down in stunned bewilderment.

“Come on, hurry!” Tys said, pushing him to walk forward. “Captain’s gonna dock my pay for this!”

The yellow arms pushed forward once more and Tys repeated the same operation, beeping them in one by one.

“Was that you… Paying?” Row asked, hesitating at the new word. “For us?”

“Of course!” Tys said. “And I’m not getting any of that back. Ugh.”

And with that, she stormed off again, forcing them to run after her.

Ahead of them, five massive queues were forming, and people were being carried down. Nar gaped as he watched stationary people be carried downwards by some sort of moving stairs.

“Leave those! We’re walking down!” Tys said.

Behind him, as he ran down the steps of the non-moving stairs, he could feel that Kur turned his back to watch the people at their side, going down the moving stairs.

“My Crystal… Just what is this place?” Kur whispered.

Suddenly a warm wind blew up the stairs, ruffling Nar’s hairs.

“Shit! It’s coming! Run!” Tys shouted.

Nar felt his legs move out of his own accord, and stumbled his way downwards.

Below, people were opening a path for Tys to skip some kind of queues. She was getting glares and curses right, left and center, but no one was stopping her.

Finally, they came to rest before another barrier of some kind. This one was transparent, and Nar gasped and panted, trying to regain his breath while he could.

“You okay?” Kur asked.

“How… Is she doing that?” Nar gasped. “She’s making me run faster than I can go!”

“Right?” Tuk asked, panting beside him.

The ring tosser carried Mul now, having swapped with Gad. “Not… Cool!”

“Crystal…” Cen whispered, herself out of breath as well. “Is this aether? Aura?”

“Like I said, it’s an attribute,” Tys said. “But you don’t have to worry about it for a long time yet. Here it comes!”

She raised her voice as a loud roar rushed towards them from their right.

Some kind of blue tube machine came screeching to a halt in front of them, and through the transparent barrier, Nar could see that it was filled with people.

“Move to the sides,” Tys told them. “Let them out first.”

The machine screeched to a crescendo and came to a full stop. The barrier in front of them parted to either side of them, and the doors of the strange contraption opened, vomiting a torrent of people.

“Hey!” Jaz muttered, when someone bumped into him.

“Careful,” Tys said. “Like I said, commutes ruin the best of us.”

Nar stood further back, to make sure that he wasn’t hit. Tuk however, didn’t, and someone carrying some kind of box by a handle banged it right against his knee.

“Auuu!” Tuk yelled. “Shiiiiit!”

“Are you okay?” Cen asked.

“No! I don’t feel my leg!”

“Did you take damage?” Gad asked.

“Uh… No. But what is wrong with these people?” he huffed.

“Come on, inside!” Tys told them, once the torrent of sentients was through. “And mind the gap!”

Gingerly, Nar stepped over the gap between the platform and the tube, and walked into a strikingly cold compartment. Above them, hidden vents blew gales of frozen air down on the passengers, and Nar found himself trying to shirk away from the frigid air currents.

“Wow it’s… Cold,” Tuk said, staring in amazement, his banged-up knee all but forgotten.

“Hold on to something,” Tys told them, and she herself grabbed hold of some kind of handle that was attached to the ceiling.

Nar looked around for one, and found one close to Tys herself.

“We’ll have a good view from here,” Tys said, smiling at him. “Even if just for a split second. Keep your eyes open, or you’ll miss it!”

Both Kur and Tuk nodded in silence, and looked out the windows of the closed doors on the other side of the compartment.

“Everyone in? Yes? Good!”

However, behind them, came a reverse torrent of people, and Nar and Kur soon found themselves pressed up against the window, with Tuk on their left and Tys on their right. Though there was no one pressing in on her.

Nar briefly considered whether she was exerting her [Presence] on everyone around them, or if people knew that she was not someone they shouldn’t annoy.

The security people seemed to treat her very reverently, calling her Ascendant Tys. And even the doctor had seemed very apprehensive of Tys.

Guess we’ll find out, Nar decided.

The woman had sworn by the Crystal, so there was no reason to doubt her intentions. Right?

Unless you can you lie under Oath? Nar wondered.

However, the compartment shook under him, and Nar forgot all about it as he felt the tube pick up speed, bodies pressing him from behind.

At his back, he heard Kur groan under the pressure.

“Welcome to your first AetherLines ride,” Tys told them, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “It sucks, but it goes everywhere. Oh, here it comes! Look outside!”

Nar faced forward and suddenly, the blank blackness outside was replaced by something else.

It was gone before Nar could make any sense of what he had seen.

“What was that?” Tuk mumbled.

“The outside of the O-Nex. An indentation of the outer level,” she explained. “Level Zero.”

Nar blinked, staring at the blackness outside in a daze.

What had he seen?

A vastness. A blue emptiness. An infinity of towers and buildings of all sizes and shapes, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of aetherships gliding through the air, across a chaos of infinite lines of lights of all colors.

“It’s just a factory hub, though. Chips, I think,” Tys explained. “But it's the best view of the O-Nex you’re going to get until you come back.”

“Were those aetherships?” Nar asked, unable to keep the words from blurting out of his lips.

Tys threw her head back and howled in laughter.

“Those tiny things? Those were just transports. Cars. Trucks. Trams.”

She shook her head and laughed again. “When you see the Scimitar, then you’ll see an aethership.”

“Is there more?” Tuk asked, the need evident in his voice.

Tys shook her head again. “Afraid not, kid. But don’t worry, the Labyrinth is far more interesting if you ask me. You’ll get to see many things out there, don’t you worry.”

“Nice,” Tuk said, his eyes still wide open, dazzled by the brief peek they had gotten of the O-Nex.

“Now try and settle down. We have three more stops to go.”