The invisibility illusion washed over Jase like a shadow. In a way, it was. The term Going Dark was apt. He decided he would use that instead. Lumen’s memory had affected him more than he wanted to admit. Scenes kept replaying automatically in the back of his mind, though some were already getting too fuzzy. How much did they know about Aetherite? What did they have to do with fractals? He felt like he’d barely scratched the surface of this undiscovered culture. He wanted to know where Lumen had gone. Surely, he must be lurking in the ocean nearby. Maybe he was willing to talk with Jase, if they could find a way to communicate.
He experienced disorientation as he exited the car. Domrik was maintaining the illusion of the car being closed, so they all passed right through their car doors. There was no sound when they closed. Both Domrik and Kelly were semitransparent to Jase. He gazed at his own hand and saw the pavement through it. The nearby streetlights cast their halogen glows in semicircles, but to Jase it looked as though he had been lazily superimposed over reality. He had no shadow.
Domrik took the lead, with Kelly in the middle holding the fake Augmentor Bow, and Jase at the rear. They moved like ghosts along the sidewalk, their footsteps completely silent. Jase didn’t let that stop him from making each step intentional. Now was not the time to get careless.
The cool ocean breeze brushed against them as they continued toward the gate to the museum walkway. Jase shivered, wishing he had brought another layer. Domrik might have objected though, as the more clothing they wore, the easier it was to catch fire if the mission turned violent. He didn’t know why, but something told him that was a probability. He closed his eyes for a few steps, gauging the depth of his connection to the Aetheric field, which he thought of as the surface of the Aetheric Plane. He needed to be certain the notion wasn’t originating from his fear.
The feeling didn’t abate, though it wasn’t overwhelming. It was more like a signpost next to the sidewalk reading: “Attention! Action ahead.” Similar to Domrik’s own premonition before the stealth ship attack, it was non-specific. Perhaps he was only sensing the fact that they would be cutting through the roof of the museum, and that would be the act of violence. Only time would tell.
Bypassing the closed iron gate was simple. They climbed on the boulders piled against the sides as supports. Fortunately, the Aetheric shielding of the museum surrounded only the building itself. The building’s entrance had its own security in the form of sensor arrays, cameras, and alarms ready to blare at a moment’s notice. The visual and acoustic cloaking would be adequate to circumvent those systems.
Jase slowed as they approached the midpoint of the walkway. He peered over the side. His voice came out muffled by the acoustic cloak. “This is where I found it.”
Domrik looked back. “Don’t slow down. We’ll discuss it later.”
Kelly had slowed as well, looking where Jase had indicated. It seemed they were both hesitant. They were searching for any little tangent to avoid the inevitable and unknown. One could only travel so far outside their comfort zone before the will began to falter.
Domrik began to unwind the fishhook rope from around his shoulder. They skirted the inner wall of the front patio and approached the right corner of the triangular building. The undulating façade stood ten meters tall, a more substantial height once one contemplated scaling it.
“Who wants to take over the cloak?” Domrik asked the two. “I need to shift my focus to the toss.”
Jase raised his hand. “I’ll do it. How are you doing the semitransparent thing?”
“It’s a modification of normal cloaking. No light or sound for anyone and partial visibility for our three identities. Keep them paired as a single concept and it’ll be easier to maintain. Also, if the illusion drops for any reason, we’ll know immediately.”
Jase nodded, focusing on the crystal embedded in his left combat glove. A faint current of energy ran across the back of his hand. He looked at the others. Nobody looked different.
“Is it active?” Domrik asked.
Jase nodded. Domrik scanned both of them for a few seconds. “I have stopped. Good work, it’s you now. Make sure to keep the hook invisible.”
Domrik turned to face the building. Jase and Kelly stood to the side as he swung the hook in a wide arc and flung it into the air. It clanged just below the top edge.
“Shit!” Domrik lunged forward and caught the hook just before it hit the ground. He took a sigh of relief as he stood straight.
Jase beamed at Kelly. “Mark down this day, the day Domrik finally learned how to swear!”
She smiled nervously. “About fucking time. I knew he had it in him.”
Domrik pursed his lips in a failed attempt to conceal a smirk. “Not a word to anyone.”
“Oh, this is going on national news,” Jase giggled, waving a hand in an arc above his head. “‘Kenshlin Master Learns to Swear, Confesses He Likes It.’”
“Hey now,” Domrik said, pointing at Jase as Kelly laughed. “Don’t lose focus.”
Jase shrugged. “I haven’t.”
Domrik turned back to the building and swung the hook in small circles around his hand. “Time for take two.”
The hook cleared the top, but when Domrik pulled the rope, the hook came clattering back over the edge.
“Again?” he complained, catching the hook delicately as it fell toward him.
Kelly folded her arms. “Some burglars we are. Might as well turn ourselves in right now to skip the embarrassment.”
“Third time’s the charm!” Domrik chanted as he hurled the hook over the top again. It banged on metal a few times, then the rope went tight as it caught. Domrik looked back as he held the rope. “That didn’t sound cloaked.”
Jase internally flinched as he realized the truth of that statement. He spoke as he mentally adjusted the parameters of the illusion to include their equipment. “It will be from now on.”
Domrik yanked on the rope, testing its sturdiness. “I’ll go up first, then Kelly, then you transfer the illusion to me, then you climb.”
Jase nodded. Domrik gripped the rope firmly, planted his feet against the wall, then climbed at a steady pace. He pulled himself over the top edge and rolled out of sight. “Kelly!”
She made the climb. Domrik grabbed her hand and pulled her over the edge. He looked down at Jase. “Drop the illusion. I have it now.”
Fear tightened in Jase’s chest as he contemplated ending the illusion. It wasn’t like giving an object to another person, where he could feel when they have a hold of it. Other than Domrik’s word, there was no indication that they would stay cloaked. For all he knew, they would become visible again. He had never done a trust-fall before, but he figured this was the equivalent. He breathed deeply. Fear spasmed when he let the illusion go, but his hands and the rope were still transparent. The fear evaporated, leaving only reality behind.
He hoisted himself up the wall, his sweaty hands threatening to slip. He took Domrik's hand just as he reached the top, and let himself be pulled over. Kelly was pacing behind him, scouring the flat roof as though it contained hidden dangers. Domrik coiled the rope around his shoulder and dislodged the hook from the wall while Jase took in the view from the new height. The roof slanted away ever-so-slightly to allow rainwater to funnel to the drains at the edges.
"Where's the secret entrance?" Kelly demanded. "Didn't you say there would be a hatch?"
"I said there *might* be a hatch," Domrik replied, striding to the center of the roof. "I didn't think they'd oblige if I asked them for their building schematics. Besides, even if there were a hatch, it wouldn't be wise to use it. That would be an extra layer of security to dismantle."
"And we're hoping they don't have heat sensors up here?"
"No, that wouldn't matter. We have our illusion, remember?"
"Right."
Jase looked at Domrik. "How are we going to locate it? The exhibit is about in the middle of the building. Should we pace it off from the edges?"
"No," Domrik said, "we have an easier way. We can each walk around and sense where its presence is strongest, since that sense changes with distance."
They spent the next few minutes meandering silently until they realized they were confounding each other with their own presences. They decided to go one at a time while the other two stood far off to one side, and incorporate Jase's suggestion. Jase went first, and when he stood over the spot that felt closest to the Augmentor Bow, he turned to one of the edges of the roof and counted the paces to the edge. Domrik and Kelly completed the same process individually, each striding to their own edge. Then, they took their recorded number of strides at right angles to their respective edges. They ended up a meter or two apart from each other. Then determined that the average of the three was directly above the Bow. In a few minutes, they would see if they were correct.
Jase volunteered to do the cutting. He created a short Aetheric blade and slowly carved a circle into the roof, pausing at regular intervals to keep the roof material from catching fire. It wasn’t stone like the rest of the building. He angled the tip toward the center of the circle so the resulting plug would only come out by lifting. When he was three quarters of the way around, he sat back and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "No alarm yet."
"You just had to say it," Domrik commented, gazing off into the distance.
"Come on, man. It's just an observation," Jase groaned as he got back to work.
"Kelly, are you seeing this?" Domrik pointed along the coastline.
Jase looked up, curious. A faint red glare hovered just above the horizon. For a moment, it seemed stationary, but with time it slowly increased in size. Jase widened his eyes when he realized the flare was partially invisible. "Is that a cloaked craft?"
"A Guard Jet?" she guessed. "Can they cloak themselves?"
"I've never seen one do that," Domrik admitted. "Why didn't they use cloaks during the Ridgemire strike? This one's different. They also fly in formation. Why are they sending just one, cloaked, at this time and place of all times and places?"
Kelly whirled to Jase. "Hurry up!"
"Hurrying up!" Jase cried as he hastily completed the circular cutout. He wedged his fingers into a cooled-down section of the cutout and lifted. It came out with relative ease and slapped down away from the new opening. He peered into the darkness, then created his own illusion to shine a white light. "Guys, there's another layer! We just cut into the attic."
“Start cutting,” Domrik commanded. “We’ll buy you time if you need it.”
Jase dropped into the hole and landed on solid rock two meters below. He shined his illusion-light around. Vents and air ducts snaked around each other in all directions. None drew close enough to present more of an obstacle than the stone beneath his feet. He knelt and knocked. It was a stable piece of construction. If the architects of the museum were consistent with the thickness of the slabs used for the walls and ceiling, then he had over half a meter of stone to cut through.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
He sighed. This was going to hurt. On the positive side, he didn’t have to worry about catching the building on fire. He would have to keep the crystal from overheating. He wished Domrik had brought along more sophisticated technology. An industrial Aetheric blade or welder would have done nicely here, although they were known for overheating as well.
He extended a meter-long line of glistening red Aether from his fist and slowly inserted it into the stone. It slid through with zero resistance, but that was because the Aetheric structure didn’t transfer force back into the crystal in his glove. In these cases, the Aether behaved like a jet of compressed water.
He held his fist close to the ground, shuffling in his crouched position to trace the shape of a tight circle. The challenge was to make the other side of the hole wide enough to fit through.
“It’s landing!” Kelly called.
Jase looked up. “Where?”
“In the parking lot… And now Guards are being deployed.”
“Those aren’t Guards,” Domrik said, suspicious. “The police would be informed immediately if we had triggered any alarms. Guards don’t do the work of the police, especially not equipped with Aetheric rifles.”
“They’re fully armed!?” Jase shouted, dragging the crackling blade faster through the stone. He ground his teeth against the pain of the overheating crystal in his right hand, before he realized he could switch hands and continue with a fresh crystal. “Maybe this happens regularly for them? They were cloaked, nobody would know. It could be a coincidence!”
“You know what I say, Jase…”
“Yeah, whatever, no such thing as coincidences. But just this once, please?”
“Give it up and focus, Jase!” Kelly shouted. “They’re coming down the walkway. We have a minute at the most. You sure we’re cloaked? How do they know we’re here?”
“Yes, we’re cloaked,” Domrik replied. “I don’t know how they found us. Perhaps a manner similar to how we can perceive them.”
The circle cutout was almost complete. Jase furrowed his eyebrows as Kelly incredulously spoke his thoughts. “They have active Vision Embers?”
“I don’t imagine that’s the case,” Domrik admitted. “They might have new tech the public doesn’t know about.”
“Do you think they’ll shoot on sight?” Kelly asked, frightened.
Jase completed the circle and let the blade dissipate. He felt around with his fingers to find a spot to lift the plug, but the stone wouldn’t budge. It was heavy, potentially too heavy to lift.
“I need one of you to give me a hand down here!” Jase pleaded.
“Can’t,” Domrik said. “You need to find a way. We need to defend our position. They’re coming up here. Kelly, get on the other side.”
Jase rubbed his forehead. If only he could get a better grip. He hastily cut a notch around a part of the rim. When he removed the piece, the slot was wide enough for his fingers. He put both hands in, gripped firmly, then lifted. His hands slipped off instantly. They were slick with sweat. He rubbed his palms against his shirt several times and tried again. While he had better grip, the plug still refused to budge.
Questions spurred through his mind. Was it too heavy, or had he not cut deep enough? How could he tell the difference?
His mind was silenced by the clomping of boots on the far end of the roof above. He looked up in anticipation, and saw that Domrik had concealed the cutout. “Is that them?”
“Quiet,” Domrik said in a hushed voice. “We don’t know how well they can pierce my illusion.”
The number of boot-clomping sounds increased. The soldiers seemed to form a perimeter around the center of the roof. Jase was torn by the frustration of his current task and the morbid curiosity of what he would see if he poked his head out over the roof.
Muffled voices emerged from the silence above. Jase couldn’t make out the words, but the tone seemed to be observational and objective, like they weren’t sure what they were seeing.
Then a commanding male voice boomed on speakers. “Whoever you are… Whatever you are… Reveal yourself now.”
Just then, a thought appeared in Jase’s mind with no prior indication. It came with an unmistakable yet unobtrusive clarity.
Bevel out.
He looked at his stonework, frowning. He responded reflexively. But it would fall and crush the bow!
Bevel out! The thought repeated with more intensity. He glanced up at where he sensed Domrik standing. He knew telepathy was possible, but this was his first time experiencing it directly. It was simple. He somehow knew he was communicating with Domrik, who apparently didn’t trust his acoustic cloaking.
The voice thundered again. “Show yourself! This is your final warning. We will open fire.”
Jase extended another Aetheric blade from his hand and plunged it into the stone, this time angled outward from the center. He traced the circle he had carved, being careful not to move too quickly. Aetheric blades cut easier with slower motion.
He jumped at the sound of the Aetheric rifle firing. There was no sound of the bolt impacting or exploding.
What happened? He thought frantically.
Don’t stop cutting, Domrik replied in thought. I deflected the bolt. It seems like they’re testing us.
Jase continued cutting. He focused more energy into the blade, making it brighter and louder. The Aetherite in his glove began to burn, but he pushed through it. If he burned himself, he could heal later. Wasting even a second or two could get himself and his friends killed.
Another rifle fired. A sizzling blast erupted, followed by Kelly’s pained cry. Jase forced himself to keep working, his eyes tearing up. Anger surged through him, involuntary increasing the strength of the blade again. The crystal was a hot coal on his skin.
“Kelly’s alive,” Domrik reassured. “Her back armor saved her.”
Jase’s anger dimmed slightly, but refused to abate. They should never have come here. This was a mistake. He was angry at Domrik for coming up with the idea, angry at himself and Kelly for going along with it, and angry at the soldiers for making things inconvenient.
The Aetheric blade began to flicker and falter, and he immediately knew why. The crystal still had charge left, but the skin directly underneath was charred to the point of becoming numb. As the skin died, his body lost direct contact with the crystal, and therefore lost the ability to extract and channel Aether.
He switched hands and continued moving along the previous cut. He was already past halfway. Boots sounded on the roof again.
“They’re experimenting again,” Domrik said. “The second bolt disappeared from their perspective. They did not witness the explosion.”
The second cut was nearly complete. Just a few more centimeters.
The roof trembled with the impact of anther Aetheric bolt. Jase wasn’t sure whether the lack of a pained cry was good or bad. Then he heard the buzzing of an Aetheric blade being swung through the air.
“He doesn’t appreciate my warning shot,” Domrik observed.
Time slowed as the edge of the Aetheric blade reached the beginning of the new cut. At first, nothing happened, so Jase continued cutting, only to jump back when the circular plug fell away. He gritted his teeth at the sound of glass shattering and metal clanging. He chastised himself for forgetting to create an illusion below to conceal the break-in from cameras. There was no alarm sound, but why would the security system alert the burglar they’d been caught? He had to assume someone had been notified by now.
He looked through the hole and saw only dim reflections of the ambient security lighting. Everything else was concealed in shadow. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the chunk of stone ceiling laying off to the side, surrounded by the broken exhibit glass. The Augmentor Bow was directly below him. It lay on its side next to its supports, which had been bent way out of shape. The bow itself looked untouched. How could that be? The way it was positioned, there was nothing between itself and the ceiling. It had just withstood several hundred kilograms-worth of rock crashing into it.
Perhaps there was something special about it.
“They heard the glass shatter!” Domrik said. “Several are advancing. I still don’t think they can see us or the hole.”
He snapped out of his wonder and created a cloak around himself and the bow. He couldn’t afford to have Domrik slip in focus and reveal Jase’s face to cameras. He slid through the hole and landed on the broken glass with a crunch. He’d forgotten to apply acoustic cloaking, but at this point he didn’t care. The police would be on their way soon.
“Watch out, Jase!” Kelly hollered. “Our bolts do nothing to their reactive armor shields. We can’t keep them away. One’s about to fall through!”
Jase looked up just in time to see an armored body tumbling down through the first hole. The solder’s chest slammed into the edge of the second hole. Jase lunged and seized the bow. The soldier crashed into the marble floor, stunned.
Jase couldn’t help but marvel at the artifact in his hand. It was much lighter than he anticipated, and the texture of the bowstring was smooth. It’s presence was stronger than he’d ever felt before, and he got an odd sense of gentle acknowledgement, like he knew that it sensed him.
The tender movements of the soldier caught his attention. He looked up. Sounds of combat came from above. The hole was too high. He wouldn’t be able to use it for escape. Or maybe he would have thought of a way if they weren’t being attacked.
“I have the bow!” He shouted, watching the groaning soldier cautiously. “Get out of there, now! I’m using the front entrance.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He sprinted away as the confused soldier finally got to his feet. He leapt over the railings for the stairs connecting the first and second floors. He skipped five steps at a time. He traversed the lower hallways quickly, making sure to cloak the sound of his steps. Then he came face-to-face with the glass doors of the front entrance. They were most certainly locked.
He couldn’t slow down now, so he did the only thing he could do. He squeezed his eyes shut and thrust one edge of the Augmentor Bow forward. Glass shattered around him as he rushed through the first layer of doors. He looked and saw Domrik and Kelly running away on the walkway. He burst through the outer glass doors and followed them.
Once on the walkway, he risked a glance back. The squad of soldiers flowed off the roof, using Aetheric thrusters to land softly on the front patio. They ran, but not at a speed to give chase. They did not shout threats or fire upon him. They simply ran, as if they were the ones who had stolen the relic.
Jase took the same rocks as before to bypass the front gate. Domrik and Kelly were already sprinting down the sidewalk. The chevron-shaped Guard Jet sat patiently in the empty parking lot.
An idea struck him, and he stopped, shuddering. Ahead, Domrik stopped and turned back as if sensing Jase’s hesitation. Kelly kept running but looked back in concern.
Jase opened his mouth to shout, but Domrik’s thoughts reached him first. You’ve felt the change in our currents?
Jase’s mouth went dry. They’re diverging.
Domrik nodded. Are you willing to let it lead you?
Just barely. He frowned, admiring the Augmentor Bow in his hands for one last time. I cannot keep this with me.
He drew back his arm and flung the Bow at Domrik, who took a few steps forward to catch it. They locked eyes for a few slow-motion heartbeats, exchanging nonverbal information Jase knew he might never decipher.
Domrik gave a small bow in Jase’s direction. Your bravery is inspirational.
Jase ran toward the semitransparent Guard Jet before doubt tainted his decision. He made sure he was still visibly and acoustically cloaked, then leapt up and grabbed the edge of the Jet’s wing. He pulled himself up and crawled to the central axis of the craft, searching for handholds. He found a pair of vents a meter apart from each other. At least, he hoped they were vents. If they were thrusters, he was doomed to lose both his hands in a red blaze.
The Guards hustled into the Jet, not bothering to follow Domrik and Kelly. Sirens wailed in the distance. Jase looked for Domrik’s car parked on the side of the street, but it was gone. Or cloaked.
The craft roared to life. Jase gripped the vent edges with all his strength as it lifted off the ground. It turned down the coastline and accelerated away from the museum. Jase panted his feet on the inside of the vents to brace himself against the acceleration. Wind tore at his hair and skin. His hands began to cramp from the strain. They were sweaty, but the wind worked to make his skin dry as paper. After a minute of flight, his face was completely numb.
He could afford to open his eyes for only a few seconds at a time. Any longer and it felt like the wind would claw his eyes out. The brief glimpses told him they were moving away from the ocean over a rural area. The craft stayed relatively low in the air, around a hundred meters. He figured they did not want to interfere with commercial air traffic.
After ten minutes of flight, the craft began to slow and descend. Jase looked ahead. Foothills dotted the landscape in front of the mountains that made up Sormera Valley’s northern border. He thought her recognized a few landmarks indicating they were over a nature preserve region. Any form of civilization, even temporary like camping, was prohibited by law. He was beginning to see the deeper reason behind that restriction.
The craft grazed the treetops of the foremost hill, then tilted up. A massive force slammed the side of Jase’s face into the cold metal as the vehicle decelerated. After shaking his head to clear the resulting headache, he spotted a clearing in between the foothills. The meadow was flat, unnaturally flat. A hexagonal section of the brush and grass was transparent, revealing a metal platform underneath.
The Guard Jet levelled out over the landing pad and descended. Jase stared in fearful awe at the craft passed through the moving, realistic illusion. Any number of these entrances could be hiding in plain sight, and those who couldn’t pierce illusions would be none the wiser.
The craft settled on the platform and powered its Aetheric engines down as the platform descended into the depths. The hexagonal opening closed like an iris, leaving the only source of light the edges of the platform. The vents expelled scalding hot air, causing Jase to recoil his limbs in pain. He was surprised to find that he was still cloaked, but maintaining the illusion was easier with anxiety’s assistance.
After a minute of descent, they entered into an expansive artificial cavern. Jase estimated half a kilometer wide. The floor was made of hexagons the same size as the platform. Each one contained a Guard Jet. The platform settled into the floor.
Jase was simultaneously elated to discover a hidden underground base and terrified of the consequences. But there was no going back. One way or another, he would have to deal with the dark unknown.
Now the real mission began.