Aris swept up behind the Unseeing and recoiled at how its void-like solute looked up close. She materialized her hand within the monster’s back and ripped out a handful of viscera as hard as she could. It screamed and thrashed and she quickly became a Shade again. Verne cursed, and she reappeared to shove it in a direction she hoped wasn’t towards the Sekrelli.

Laell cried out but by the time Aris located her in the mess of combat, Rask was already by her side. The Unseeing solute surrounding the runist dissolved as they were eliminated.

“I thought closing that big one was supposed to fix this,” Rask shouted at her. Aris let out an exasperated sound. Everyone in the group thought it would fix something.

But as they left Gymor to head back towards the Heart, they found a fresh wave of Gates opening ever closer to the empire’s capital. Aris looked around to the Gate they were currently fighting against - it was a lot smaller than the one in Gymor and had no runes around it, meaning it was one that opened naturally and not by Bringers. It meant the Gates were still opening on their own, like leaks springing on a weakened dam.

Like the previous times, Aris swept up safely invisible to the Gate to locate the solute it was using to stay open. “Ral needs to be here,” she called out, ready to plunge her hand in the ‘light’ and show where it was to her brother. She could faintly sense his solute off in the distance.

“The boy is off in his own head,” Rask muttered. “Verne, stay with Laell.”

In the opposite direction of Ral’s warm orange solute was the dark blue hue of the Yscian. Mikol had stayed with them and will continue to stay with them as far as Aris could understand. Moon have mercy, everyone knew the Yscian’s presence was going to affect Ral. Why was everyone so surprised her brother was going to be like this?

Impatient about the whole thing, Aris tried to solidify the solute and called out to Verne. “Can you hit this?” It was merely at chest height as far as Aris could tell. She didn’t have to float several paces on the ground like back in Gymor.

“With my sword?”

They were interrupted by dissonant trills of Unseeing surrounding them. Aris felt air rush by her hand as Verne stabbed at the spot she indicated.

Nothing. It would have been too easy if Verne could destroy it. In the end it had to be herself and Ral to do it. Ral rapidly approached them and she ‘lit up’ the solute again. Within a heartbeat it shattered into pieces and everything died down at once - the void of the Gate, the voids of the Unseeing, the relentless screams of monsters.

Unfortunately it was something only Ral can do.

“Where the fuck were you?” Aris demanded, appearing in her physical form.

“You can’t see but there are monsters everywhere,” Ral shot back.

“You were trying to put as much distance as you can from the Yscian,” Aris said. She crossed her arms. “If you’re going to act like this you might as well tell him to leave.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“We can’t,” her brother said. He sounded unhappy. “He’s a powerful weapon against the Unseeing, with no danger of turning. We need him while the Gates are still opening - ”

“Laell and Verne both have talismans and they are working,” Aris pointed out. “We don’t need him.”

“We don’t know that yet. The danger hasn’t passed. Until we find a way to stop the Gates from opening once and for all, we need all the help we can get against the Unseeing.”

“Well he can do that away from us,” Aris said.

“It would not be ideal for a Yscian to travel alone deep in Gaian territory,” Rask interrupted. “Even with a disguise. If we’re not there to cover for him, he’s dead the moment someone discovers what he is.”

“So?” Aris let out a disdainful sigh. “He did this to himself. He seems smart enough to know the risks. He said he wanted to help you and this is how he’ll help without getting in our way.”

“Aris, he has to come with us,” Ral said.

“Does he or do you simply want him with us?” Aris prodded him. “Sun curse it, Ral, at least admit it so we can move on.”

Her brother gave an exasperated scoff and left her standing there with her hands angrily balled into fists. She wanted to throw something. With a huff, she went back to Shade form to float around Laell, who went to work investigating the opening site. Aris distractedly verified there were no runes. Afterwards, Laell went to record the Gate on the map.

Rask was able to supply them with new points and a more accurate map. Laell spent most of her time in the evening trying to put exact coordinates and relaying them in runes such that Aris could see it in the Solvent. With the most recent one plotted, the pattern continued, except now a third line appeared.

“The three sided form is appearing,” Aris said. “Gymor was truly one of the vertices.”

“B-but closing it didn’t change anything,” Laells said.

“Maybe it shouldn’t have been opened in the first place. Once a hole is poked in a dam, the damage is already done.”

“W-we need to find the o-other points,” Laell said. “P-perhaps stop a Gate f-from forming there.”

Laell walked around for a bit and then stopped, the sound of pencil on parchment accompanying her muttering. Aris realized she must have found a table or flat surface to draw on. While the runist worked, Aris gazed around what she could see in the Great Solvent, the view much more calm and empty without the monsters and the Gate. She could see Ral at a distance again, accompanied by Rask. “I made a mess with my brother, didn’t I,” she said quietly.

Laell stopped writing for a bit, but didn’t comment.

“He just needs more time,” Verne spoke up. Aris nearly jumped - she had forgotten he was there.

“We don’t have time,” Aris said. She glanced down at the markings Laell made. “Wait, here, you hit the right point.”

Usually there was a lot of trial and error in placing a coordinate on the map to match a corresponding pattern Aris can see in the Solvent. Laell and Aris had come up with a hypothesis that it was a difference in dimensions, like how a sphere would look like a circle from some people’s perspective.

“Where is that?”

Both Verne and Laell were silent.

“Laell?”

“Aris, are you s-sure?”

“Yes. It perfectly indicates the end of each line. The vertices of a triangle. Where is it?”

“It’s at the Heart,” Verne finally said. “Right over the capital.”