Everyone got to work.

For a heartbeat, she felt Verne’s nearness. He didn’t touch her in front of everyone but he told her in a low voice he was going to help out on the field. She simply nodded and he left. There was no need to tell him to be careful - she wasn’t that kind of person. There was a flurry of movement and it wasn’t clear to her who left and who stayed behind in the room.

She ended up beside Mikol, who didn’t make any comment and simply pulled at her elbow to lead her out of the way when Yepla hurried out to yell out orders to what Aris can only presume were his manus students that followed him off Academy island. The Librarian was already working with Laell, their murmurs punctuated with the scratch of pencil. Gardlo had replaced Laell at the talisman table and set to work on making more.

“You should go help my brother,” Aris said to the Yscian. She saw his bright blue solute flicker in surprise.

“I thought you lacked trust with me,” Mikol said.

“Honestly, anyone willing to stay here with us right now has earned a measure of trust,” she said. “Bringer or not, anyone looking out for their own skin would be long gone.”

“I understand.” He moved as if to leave.

“Promise me you’ll be by his side,” Aris said before he left. “And don’t abandon him again.”

“I promise,” the Yscian said gravely. His solute was still, so still. So sincere. At that moment, Aris decided to believe him. She had to believe that someone besides herself will love Ral like a piece of themselves because if she didn’t, she didn’t know if she could do what she was beginning to think she needed to do.

Mikol left presumably to find Ral who was the first to go after Raka to deal with the Gates. Even with three other people in the room with her, Aris felt she was suddenly alone. She could join Ral in trying to close the smaller Gates opening throughout the Heart. It seemed like their analogy of a dam weakening with holes being punctured in it was correct - the larger Gate opening in the sky was prompting smaller fractures to open. It meant if she closed the smaller Gates with Ral, it wasn’t going to do anything as another would just appear at the cost of another Gaian life.

No, the main problem was the huge Gate in the sky. If that closed… if that was gone, their troubles would be over. Was this the Finale that Mind was speaking of? It certainly felt like it. But if it was a Gate, then the concept behind closing it should be the same: find the Solute that fuels it and destroy it.

But what solute is enough to fuel such a huge gate?

If she is the only one who can see solutes, then it’s clear it’s her responsibility to find the answer to that question. She turned into shade form and floated.

Floating through the air was always a strange sensation. She was like a ghost, able to pass through solid walls or slowly traverse the air. But without physical sight the idea of just floating up made her stomach turn. While she was on the ground, she was able to take cues from glimmering spots of runes glowing sources of light from solutes. As a last resort, she could also turn back into her physical form to feel around. She could touch walls and chairs and tables and even people to feel grounded. But when she floated, she lost all points of reference.

But she needed to look at the Gate closer. Maybe it would be easier than she thought. She thought she could feel the cold air move past her, through her, as she floated slowly upwards. She only saw the huge black line in the Great Solvent with the middle opened like a heavily lidded eye. It was dark, so dark…

She had no idea how far she was from it. But as she got closer, the darkness threatened to swallow her whole. Still she saw nothing that resembled the glowing spot of solute. Aris floated into the yawning darkness and stared at it, mesmerized. When she thought she was right at the precipice of going into the Gate, she thought she could see the darkness take on an almost liquid form. It was so strange seeing that with her ‘vision’ - she rarely ever saw texture, only spots of light. But now she saw that the darkness, while it erupted into black flame at the edges, almost looked like streams of viscous liquid inside the large Gate, tumultuously churning around but not spilling out.

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Fascinating. Aris drifted closer. Closer. She felt something brush her body, like a cloth sliding over her skin and suddenly she felt like she was in a viscous liquid. Darkness surged over and around her. She could only assume she had crossed the threshold and was now inside the Gate in Shade form.

A familiar voice hissed in her ear. “Daughter of moon,” Mind sneered.

It was terrifying, but Aris found that although the Part could see her, nothing was happening to her. She was not constrained. Experimentally, she backed out and found she was able to freely enter and leave the Gate.

“An insect,” Mind said disdainfully. “Of no import.”

Aris ignored the goading words and surged forward, floating through the uncomfortably viscosity while ‘looking’ around.

“Meddling idiot,” Mind muttered.

Aris perked up with an idea. Instead of ignoring Mind’s voice, she started floating towards it. “How does it feel to be bested?” Aris taunted. The words felt weird to say, like trying to speak underwater.

“Bested? I’ve won,” Mind laughed. Aris tuned in once more to the Part’s voice and floated as fast as she could towards it. “Look at them, all turning into beasts. So stupid. Heel couldn’t do anything. The Finale came and none of you stopped it…”

Aris was barely paying attention to the words. Her heart pounded in excitement in seeing her ‘vision’ had lightened. There was something there. She just needed to get a little closer. Like a strange sentient sea, the dark viscous liquid parted to reveal a bright spot of light.

It was huge and unlike any solute she’s seen. It didn’t have a single color as it seemed to shift in iridescent hues - first a light purple, to pink, to yellow to white. Aris reached out her spectral hand to touch it. Mind’s screeching protest told her what she needed to know: she had found the Gate’s solute.

There was no way Ral could come here to destroy it. There was no way she could push it out. The solute was hidden within the giant Gate. In all previous cases, the solute merely existed somewhere within its vicinity, fueling it to keep it open. Of course, this wasn’t a normal Gate at all. But Aris could sense the Gate was feeding off of this solute of immense size. It leeched off like it was slowly dissolving and fed the dark flames.

Could she at least… indicate its location as she’s done in the past? She was still in the strange realm of the Gate. What would happen if she and Ral tried their method of closing Gates? She reached out again to the huge iridescent solute, gritted her teeth and materialized just her hand.

Immediately, pain crashed through her mind. She reflexively returned fully into Shade form. It wasn’t her hand that hurt, it was her head, like someone stomped on her brain just for trying to return to physical form. When she stopped cringing in agony, she saw that the darkness folded in on the solute as if to protect it and she heard Mind screeching in fury.

“It’s not fair! Not fair!” the Part said accusingly. “The finale must pass! That's the answer!”

Her voice raked through Aris’s mind and she made the arduous path back out, praying to the sun that she remembered the way. But what was up? What was down? Where was the exit?

The screeching grew so incessant it hurt her teeth to listen to it. Aris kept drifting and drifting and nearly cried in relief when she felt the same sensation she did when she entered the Gate. The familiar cool air passed through her as she concentrated on floating down. Was it a fluke that she was able to escape, or did Mind send her out? No, Mind wouldn’t have wanted her to escape since the Part wanted her and her brother dead. More than once she tried to force them into a Gate. It seemed like being there in physical form would lead to certain death. So it was perhaps sheer dumb luck she made it through…

She found the pain had subsided enough for her to feel frustration. It took her most of the day to figure out how to return to their ad hoc meeting room and she was only really able to do it by picking out Laell’s solute and following it tiredly.

Even in her shade form, she felt like she was stumbling. When she was finally confident enough she was where she needed to be, she turned back to her physical form and collapsed on the floor, gasping in pain. She heard Laell’s stuttering voice and the feeling of concerned hands on her. But before she could explain what she’s done, she blacked out.