Desari held her fist just away from the door, letting out a breath and gathering herself, steeling her expression.

After Eira had disappeared back to her plane. She and Mya left the summoning hall, Mya excused herself while Desari went off in search of her mentor.

He wasn’t in his office so she tracked him down to his alchemical laboratory.

She knocked on the door, her thoughts still a jumble.

“Come in!” Egrin called out, the locks on the door disengaged and she stepped through.

Egrin was fixated on two pipettes and a dish infront of him. He slowly dripped the liquids into the bowl, hanging them up on separate racks before he picked up a powder with a thin piece of metal and shook it over the liquids.

He tapped the powder off and dropped the piece of metal to the side-forgotten.

Desari moved around the table, watching the reaction. The guards at the door pulling the door closed as the locks engaged again.

A fizz rose from the small dish.

“Damn, I need trepintin root!” Egrin yelled.

“Powder or solution?” Desari moved for the ingredient racks. “Powder half strength!”

“Half!”

Desari grabbed it out as Egrin was adding more of one solution to the dish. Desari opened the container of the Trepintin root.

“Half a teaspoon.” Desari used the measuring device on the table and scooped up what she needed.

“Ready.”

He grabbed it from her and added it into the solution that was bubbling away. The bubbles stopped as Egrin took out a glass rod, stirring the remaining powder in.

He grimaced. “Wasn’t able to stabilize it in time. Will come out a lot weaker than I thought it would.” He tapped off the material on the glass rod and set it to the side.

Desari looked into the dish, crystal bloomed out of the bottom of the dish and throughout the dish. They looked like flowers unfurling in seconds instead of hours, but made of stone.

“What’s that?” Desari asked.

“In the information we learned about the Crystaline Dominion it got me thinking about crystals. So interesting their ability to change the elemental composition of a spell. I was taking a greater look at creating various crystals.” He shrugged. “Ikor is having more fun with them, if you strike them then they create sparks. Got him and all of his storm buddies interested.”

He clapped his hands together. “Alright, what’s got you in a funk?” He pulled off his goggles and moved to some chairs near the window looking out over the school beyond.

“Vessali captured Aerus one of the elementals I was bonded with,” Desari said. “Tried to do the same with Eira.”

“He knows that you’re back?” Egrin asked as he sat down in a chair.

“I think we can assume so, there were enough spies coming in from all different kinds of nations and groups checking things out here before the fighting kicked off, even more during and we’re finding new spies everyday from various groups.” She took in a breath, the words bringing her pain and guilt. “Though he captured Aerus three months after I ‘died’.”

Sat in the seat opposite him.

Egrin closed his eyes and let out a sigh, before opening them once more. “Desari, I’m so sorry.”

“I’ll finish out what I started, tear the house Haker to the ground. I’ll find Aerus and free him.”

“I would have warned against anger and vengeance before. Though that was as one that had seen it from the outside. They can be a powerful and terrible motivator and fuel.” His voice filled with learned ignorance.

“It was only here that I found a place that I could pursue other things for the joy of it, without those two wolves on my heels,” Desari said, trying to draw the painful subject to a close.

“When the time comes, you have my aid,” Egrin gripped her arm and sat back in his seat, taking out a folder from his storage device.

“I read your reports, didn’t exactly make for easy reading.” Egrin he shifted it in his hands. “Jana and I have talked to the people you want to take over from you. They seem capable.”

Desari thought about the various people that ran her networks, brothel and bar owners, those on both sides of the law.

“Each and every one of them have found a place here in Ilus and they want to keep it that way,” Desari said. “Coin and oaths don’t make loyalty. One’s feelings do.”

“I feel like I should be the one telling you that,” Egrin smiled. “You are preparing yourself to go away.”

Desari breathed in, feeling the loss that hadn’t happened already, forcing onward. It was not something she was familiar. Friendships were not a reality in her world, another path to get the information she required.

She was not so blind to know that she had formed bonds with the other three beyond just the contracts they held.

“We’re going to have to head to the Water Plane to deal with some issues that have appeared. Afterwards I suspect it will be just I returning to Ilus,” Her voice was clipped and terse, relaying information to keep away from the feelings and worries below. “Before that we’re going to need some time to see to our own needs.”

Egrin grimaced. “Is it something that we can help with? I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but the work you and your friends have been doing has helped get our feet under us in a big way.”

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“It’s a favor for a friend, it shouldn’t take us too long and we don’t want Ilus and the peninsula getting too reliant on us.”

Egrin chuckled. “I guess I should have seen this, I kind of predicted it to be honest.”

Desari tilted her head in question.

“I pushed you to go and adventure, while knowing that if you enjoyed it I’d see little of you. I felt that once you got your chance to travel, to see what the world had to offer you’d seek out the new and interesting constantly. Now there are entire planes and new worlds open to you.” He leaned forward, his smile softening. “Know that you always have a place here Desari, a home, your friends too if they need it. You have all done so much for us.”

Desari’s throat closed up as she fought to clear it.

“This duty that you have taken up wants you to remain here and continue to protect us. Though you know how much the others have helped you. You wish to repay them. Do so without guilt. You have given us the tools. With this network and,” Egrin grimaced. “Lyra—we will keep our growing nation free of spies.”

“You still don’t’ agree with her binding,” Desari said. Keeping to topics that she understood, away from the relief, excitement and fear that lurched in her chest at his words.

“I don’t like it, but I understand it. It has also created a pillar that supports the alliance and binds us tight. It worries me that Mya knows such knowledge to do this. Though also makes me hopeful knowing it is her that holds it and not another. Your party members are the honorable kind.”

Egrin gave her a knowing smile and sat back, becoming more serious. “If we cannot help you on your mission, how might we help you before you prepare to leave?”

“I will talk to them and find out. Once we have completed our mission we will return if only to summon Limos. I think it would be a good idea to have the council ready to talk to him.” Desari looked into the distance.

“Jaxus is but part of his trade network, if you can cut a deal with him, it could give you an incredible edge over the Geraxi Empire.” She turned her head to look at Egrin. “He’s the one that gave me the books on the interplanar travel.”

Egrin nodded slowly. “I thought it might have been him or Irshon. That old turtle has enough of them.” He chuckled good-naturedly. Irshon had been a longtime guest of Ilus and had even given a number of lectures.

“How goes the deciphering of the books?” Desari asked.

“Well,” Egrin sat back in his chair and leaned forward. “The good news is that it has jumped us ahead years of understanding. The bad news is that now they’ve learned so much they don’t want to just fix the teleportation enhancement they want to alter it completely. Update it to something better.”

“What happens if you can teleport Ilus?” Desari asked.

“And there is where you hit the nail on the head,” Egrin put his elbows on the arms of his chair and held his chin. “We teleport the city back to where it was, we leave this area and all the work we’ve done. We stay here, then we are keeping those who wish to return home prisoner.”

“I do not envy you,” Desari said.

“What you told me of Aetheria, and of your travels, it gave me another thought.” Egrin lifted his chin from his hands. “Convergence points.”

“Create a convergence point between here and where Ilus was?” Desari asked.

“Quite, or at least a series of gates. The Abyssal plane might be a tough place to live, but it is absolutely dense in mana. With the captured dungeon hearts--some student said it and it stuck—matched with the right enchantment. We can create doorways between here and the material plane.”

“Okay,” Desari nodded. “The Geraxi Empire do that with their planar blades, allowing them to cut through the barriers between the planes and the material world.”

“Quite, though those are small openings. These gates, they would remain open. Just like any other doorway, but instead of walking through into another room. You walk through into another room in another plane.” Excitement swum in Egrin’s eyes as he dropped his hands from his chin and sat upright.

“Think, a school split between planes, but connected seamlessly? The ports from the harbor in the material plane, pass through gates that bring them to the different cities across our small nation. Other gates allow us to move food from village to city and back again as fast as the beasts of burden can carry them.”

“Everyone across both planes and the nation would be able to move with impunity between the two,” Desari said.

“Work in the fields in the day, be in the academy at night,” Egrin tapped the armrest of his chair with his finger, excitement running through his every fiber.

“That will take time to complete,” Desari said. “Completely different from what was created before.”

“Yes,” Egrin grimaced. “Which is why the first step is to create a way for people to be teleported back to the material plane. The planar gem works really well.”

“And we know through testing that only I can use it because I’m soul bound to it and it’ll go with me wherever I jump to,” Desari finished for him.

“Right, so we’re working on getting a fixed teleportation to one of the nations that we were friendly with. Make contact and start sending and hopefully bringing back people who are interested,” Egrin said.

Desari began opening her mouth.

“Yes, yes, check to make sure they’re not spies. We both know that there are going to be more spies than there are traders among the first batches. I think it will be fine as long as they know not to stray into our secrets too far.”

“As soon as you do that, the Geraxi Empire will see it as a reason to fight.” Desari said.

Egrin’s expression darkened, a steel coming into his bearing, a new side hammered out here in the abyssal plane.

“If they do, and we can draw their strength here, then we can draw the fighting strength of other nations in the material planes against them. Even possibly the strength of other groups within Vedra.”

There was a dangerous composure to him, of someone that had been tested and changed with it to become the person that was required.

“A devil that has an interplanar company and can pull people away from the gods themselves and revive them. That is no simple being. That is an ally we will cherish.”

“He reminds me a lot of the other horsemen. We have our own histories. What people see on the surface is but a glimpse. I’m still learning about the others now. Each are highly competent and determined. So much left to unpack. Each playing at being people, the veneer of normality.” A smile spread upon her face, eager to see their limits, what they could do. “Each of them exceptional.”

“And you don’t think that you belong to that group?” Egrin asked, disagreeing by infelction.

“Normality is something sought out, but its not a reality for us.” Desari shook her head. “Living at the edge of a blade, in the middle of a fight, among the laboratory, a forge or tailor’s shop,” She snorted, picturing the other’s faces when they slid into that part of themselves totally and singularly focused. “That’s where we come alive, that’s where our true selves reveal themselves.”

Egrin’s smile tightened before he let out a sigh.

“I know that your soul seeks the travel and the danger. I won’t lie that I wish you sought out your place here. Though I want you to know you will always have a place here Desari. You and your group have saved Ilus, given us a new chance. You by yourself have saved us at least a half dozen times. I would wish you to be safe, though that is an older man’s worries.” He looked into Desari’s eyes. “A younger me would tell you, go and live life to its fullest—whatever that means to you. You’ve been given another chance here. You lived your life for others the first time. This time don’t let anyone stop you from living it your way.”

Desari stood up and hugged him, stilling holding the book.

“Thank you Egrin,” She said.

He squeezed her back before they released.

“Well, seeing as you’ll be heading out soon. I’ve worked on most of those concoctions. I’m still a teacher and I could give you a few pointers.”

A smile spread across Desari’s face, happiness still seemed distant today with Aerus’ news. Though she would use every minute to prepare. The next time she faced her brother she’d make sure when he died, he stayed that way.