Aiva flashed back into existence at the centre of a huge city. Her long red hair was blowing in the fierce winds that buffeted the tower she appeared on. Around her, huge skyscrapers rose to almost the same height. The monoliths of glass and steel contrasted oddly with the stone brick tower she was standing on. Someone unfamiliar with the city would assume that it was built around the tower, an attempt to preserve the past. The truth however, was that the tower was the most recent addition. Raised through a combination of ritual magic and back breaking work, it was a masterpiece of enchanting. Lines of power wove throughout the tower in an elaborate pattern. Aiva spoke a word, the air trembling at the utterance, and a barrier of light sprung into existence around the entire city, centred on her tower. The wind stilled, and she collapsed to the ground.

234 AT. In the north eastern corner of The Gloom, at the very edge of the Gleaming Wastes.

Cutter, Mico and Felix stood at the very edge of The Gloom. Ahead of them, the treeline suddenly ended. Beyond, glaring white light reflected off a wasteland of bare sand and dirt. Waves of heat rolled through the air. Despite the harsh landscape, Mico felt like he was bursting with energy. As he stepped forward Felix felt the glare lessen slightly and looked at Mico, impressed as always by the strength of his ability to draw. Still unenthused by the prospect of a journey into wasteland she asked, "So why do we need to head into this nightmare again?" Cutter rolled his eyes, "Always quick to complain. You know as well as I do that Mico, and you, will be 14 soon. Once Mico's able to channel, he'll need a way to bleed off excess energy from failed castings. A Brightshard is the best option we've got." She quirked an eyebrow, "So confident he'll be able to channel. What are the chances again? 1 in 10000 people?" Cutter started following Mico into the wasteland "It's 1 in 1000, as you well know. But yes, I am confident."

Felix trailed along behind reluctantly as they struck out into the wasteland. They walked for the remainder of the day, a few more hours, before setting up a campsite. This far north, the Brightstar was barely ever below the horizon, so the end of the day was measured primarily by their level of hunger. Given that they didn't know exactly how long the journey would take, though hopefully no more than a few days, their food supplies were very basic. Strips of dried, salted meat were supplemented by dried slices of a type of mushroom. The fungus, with the unoriginal name Traveler's Grace, was extremely dense with energy. Consumed with a few mouthfuls of water, to ease digestion, a full grown man walking all day would be sustained by a couple of slices. Cutter said having meat as well was important to keep your muscles strong. Mico didn't really understand how that worked, though it made a weird sort of sense to him that eating the muscle of an animal you'd hunted would help your muscles be strong.

The next day, as they headed off, Cutter spoke up. "We'll need to stay closer together today. The further we get into the wastelands the higher our odds are of encountering predators." "I know you mentioned it before but it honestly surprises me that anything lives in this light-forsaken place." said Felix. "Life finds a way." responded Cutter. "Many of them have developed specific traits that allow them to subsist mostly off energy drawn from the light of the Brightstar. Most will happily eat anything they can get their hands on though. Using the extra nutrition to grow stronger and move up the food chain. It's a real dog eat dog world out here." Both Felix and Mico looked confused. "What's a dog?" Cutter waved his hand vaguely. "Just an expression. Don't worry about it."

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They traveled, always north, for another day without seeing anything. Mico and Felix had long grown complacent, chatting casually and barely looking around. Suddenly, Cutter hushed them. They looked up, following his pointed finger to the east, where a blurred figure could be seen. The heat waves made the distant figure indistinct, so none of them could really discern any kind of shape. But there was no doubt it was large, even at this distance, it looked to be at least as large as Cutter. After watching for a time, Cutter just waved them on. "From here on, keep your voices lower. No need to make ourselves too easy to find." That night, as they were setting up camp, Mico had a sudden realisation. "Wait, should we be keeping watch or something at night?" Cutter looked at him for a long minute. He reached into his pack and pulled out a bundle. It was a series of stakes, with a thin line of cord between each of them. "I've been setting this around our camp every night. Clearly we need to spend more time on your observation skills. It's a fairly minor enchantment but it distorts the area significantly enough that most beasts won't even notice us. Any that do cross the line would trigger a loud sound with plenty of time for me to react. It's kind of like the sound a Sciura makes when they sense danger." Mico's eyes widened. "Wait, you have an enchanted item! How does it work? Where did you get it? Aren't enchanted items really expensive?" Cutter's look was flat. "Questions for another time. You can watch me set it out though, so you know how to for the future." Mico's heart sank a bit as he realised he'd just signed himself up for another chore, though it was tempered by a genuine curiousity about the process.

That night, as they were all laying down to sleep, Mico piped up again. "So how are you going to find a Brightshard? Aren't they buried pretty deep? I know you said you could sense them but it's been a few days now..." He trailed off, not wanting to directly criticise Cutter. "Oh I've already sensed a few. Just none of sufficient size that it'd be worth our time digging them up. The deeper we get, the larger they'll be. On average at least. Tomorrow should be our last day, a few today were getting close to the threshold."

Mico spent much of the night tossing and turning. He was both excited by the prospect of having his own Brightshard and nervous about it. Cutter seemed so sure that he'd develop the ability to channel any day now, but he refused to explain why. Mico couldn't help but doubt it, at least a bit. As experienced and knowledgeable as Cutter always seemed, it somehow felt too good to be true for Mico. Was he really going to be able to do magic? Actually exerting his will on the world and seeing it change, not just accidentally blasting people when he was stressed. He was trying really hard not to hope for it, but that felt impossible. Like trying to pretend you're not hungry while everyone can hear your stomach rumbling. At some point he must have fallen asleep, curled awkwardly on his side, as the next thing he knew he was jerked awake by the loud sound of a Sciura's high pitched chittering.