The small orbs swung back and forth, due to almost imperceptible twitches from their occupants. The entire wall hummed with stifled energy. This area felt like walking in a warm room in winter with warm socks, just tingling with static.

“...unbelievable. Fuck this. Fuck being trapped and displayed like that.” Xershi barked out, somewhat surprising Randidly with the vehemence of each word. The usually chill metal liger glared up at the glittering machinery along the exterior stairwell with a quiet sort of intensity that seemed to imply he was about to lose his temper. “This is… impossible. If these guys are really that powerful, how the hell could they just be trapped? There must be a trick.”

Pullas gestured vaguely at the wall. From the look in her eye, she was similarly thrown by the abrupt intensity Xershi displayed. “I mean… just look at what happened. You can’t argue with what you see. You can feel their individual auras! And Elhume is known-”

“You believe in a world where a capable image user can simply be bottled? Let me ask you something: what if we are the ones under the illusion right now,” Wild-eyed, Xershi wheeled around. His metal joints shook with the intensity of the emotion that his body currently channeled. Some inner turmoil agitated him until he rattled. “Like, the Engraving is activated, convincing us that so many other powerful warriors are captured, but that’s the fake part?! How can you say that it’s not possible?”

Randidly opened his mouth and licked his lips. He had been about to point out that Elhume was, most likely, the greatest and most experienced Engraver in the Nexus, with no one coming very close to his mastery. Perhaps Yystrix, but she was now dead and Neveah was currently still struggling to unpack her legacy. However, the real reason he didn’t offer this tidbit of information was that Xershi seemed likely to just throw this fact back in his face. Without any sort of proof, speculations weren’t much use.

Neveah whispered into Randidly’s mind, her attention considering Xershi. Something else is at play here. Better to let him expend the emotion. I’ll use this chance to memorize more of these Engravings.

Xershi took several steps forward. The closer he came to the wall, and to the bodies curled up inside of the orbs, the worse his shaking became.

Fiona and Randidly exchanged a wordless glance, falling back into the easy practicality of cooperation. Despite their other tensions, both were of one mind about the Xershi issue. Both could feel the spasming Nether within the metal man’s body.

Meanwhile, Pullas took another step toward Xershi. Her voice was low and urgent. “You are being unreasonable. Sure, both are possibilities, but one requires many more convoluted leaps of logic than the other. And when we have two crazy options, first assuming the most realistic is correct is the best practice-”

“I’m going to fucking tear it down,” Xershi announced. He immediately tightened his hands into fists and began to march toward the wall. His body shimmered with his image running rampant through his limbs. Almost immediately, the ground at the edge of the layer began to glitter as the Engravings activated, sensing an image for it to target. “In the face of a paradox, just tear it to pieces; We can figure out the details after.”

Randidly stepped lightly, landing in front of Xershi and pressing a hand to his chest. “Wait. Just from you moving your image, the Engravings here are activating. And I bet if you start ripping into things here, it will trigger an alarm.”

“But this thing-” Xershi glared at Randidly and then at the wall. The liger’s emotional affect seethed, violent and desperate.

Randidly observed the powerful emotions with a bit of alarm. This… I’m not emotional poison, am I, Neveah?

Neveah declined to answer. Pullas moved and put her hand tentatively on Xershi’s shoulder. “Is… something wrong?”

“The reason you are climbing,” Fiona whispered from behind the group. Her eyes were again luminous, with the faintest caress of her mauve image giving her insight. Randidly could also feel her reading through their Ascension Pact into Xershi’s significance; the woman was learning how to manipulate Nether quite quickly. “It isn’t just because you want to prove yourself. You aren’t a Climber at all. You are looking for someone. Someone specific.”

“They wouldn’t be tied down in a shitty place like this,” Xershi hissed, not bothering to deny the assertion. But even while he was speaking, his eyes frantically scanned through the hundred-odd orbs hanging from the walls, still quietly having their images sucked away into some deeper part of the Sonara. Gradually, the speed and desperation of his search tapered off. His shoulders heaved and he released a sigh. “Definitely, not in a place like this.”

Xershi allowed his building image to fade. The humming of the Engraving once more went dormant, not quite activated by the brief flare of an image.

“Based on your reaction, it would be your creator, yea?” Randidly said softly. Xershi turned and looked at him. Randidly shrugged. “Just a guess.”

“A good guess,” Xershi grumbled. After such a period of high-frequency activity, the metal man seemed to droop as he slowed down. “The Sonara… well, it is not life, but it is a technological marvel. How can it create such a positive environment for image training, when that isn’t even the main function? My creator… constantly wishes to outdo himself. This seemed like the best place to seek the next insight into mechanical creation.”

Pullas continued patting his shoulder. “He’s probably fine. If he had enough insight to create a contradictory being like you-”

“I’m contradictory?” Xershi tilted his head to the side.

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Pullas nodded very seriously. “You should look at yourself in the mirror. Or maybe don’t. As far as I can tell, too much observation causes headaches.”

Fiona crossed her arms, a frown creasing her face as the tension passed. She still eyed the Engraving patterns on the ground with suspicion. “Can we just climb this without triggering anything?”

“Only one way to find out,” Randidly grunted. With several long strides, he crossed the distance to the exterior stairwell and pressed his foot against the first stair. No horrible shriek occurred as Elhume’s defenses noticed an interloper. He gestured for the rest to follow and moved with more confidence.

Up against the wall, the humming of the potent Engravings felt more like the unconscious growl of a sleeping predator. Randidly’s understanding of Engraving had fallen quite behind Neveah, but he could still look at the sharp curls and elegant shapes and admire the artistry to create such an effectively binding system. They moved on the surface of its skin, the heat of its body flowing around them.

As he ascended, he would occasionally pause and look more closely at the thick metal tubing siphoning off energy, the inert bodies within the orbs, and the heavy and squat ‘fuseboxes’ along the walls that gathered together multiple inputs and then shot them up to the next layer. Even through the shielding and Engravings, Randidly could feel the potency of the stolen images.

The low level of alarm he felt about passing through this middle portion of the Sonara began to tick upward.

The worst part was that these captured bodies were not reduced to vegetables. Perhaps even now, they were stuck in some sort of weird mental loop where they never stopped toiling to perfect their image. It reminded Randidly of the Nether King he had assisted on the front lines, stuck inside of a dangerous cycle that was impossible to overcome from the inside.

He felt the strong impulse to free one individual from their tiny, spherical, mental prison. Perhaps to become a part of their group, maybe to help in the fight again Elhume’s defenses, definitely to explain their experience with what it felt like to be trapped by the Engraving. But he also knew that it would just draw attention to their movements. While the Patron of Feathers still suffered, and while she also had a lot of information they needed, Randidly turned a blind eye to these trapped individuals.

Although the worse answer, Randidly mused to himself. Is that they know exactly what happened to them. They struggled and fought for a while, desperate to escape. Some gave up, maybe even killed themselves. But very few; the individuals who climbed this high in the Sonara are the best of the best.

So they hone their image, even knowing Elhume steals a portion of their power. Because what choice do they have, but to do that or give up?

Also during the ascent, Randidly occasionally sent glances behind him at Xershi, who brought up the rear of the group. For the cool Xershi to have suddenly so obviously lost his temper… was it really just the fact these orbs made him anxious that his creator had been captured? Or more likely…

Randidly looked at the fine workmanship of the metal portions of this elaborate trap system. Even to his relatively untrained eye, having not worked in true machinery since his time in Zone 1 making drones, the organization looked sophisticated. With an exhale, he continued ascending.

Randidly passed through that golden barrier at the top of the staircase, briefly withstanding the growing presence of image fragments between the layers, and stood upon the next level. It turned out to be a very good thing he had been in front.

Almost immediately, a whistling wrought-iron bolt attempted to rip its way through Randidy’s chest and pulp his heart on the way through. Almost casually, while scratching his neck with the other hand, he slapped the projectile sideways. The metal crumpled and deformed immediately, skittering and ricocheting off the ground.

It occurred to him, primarily due to the intense sonic boom his arm produced to block the attack, that the speed of the assault would be too much for most to react. At least, without utilizing their image in a moment of sudden panic.

Randidly glanced around quickly, getting a lay of the land. Like the previous layer, a tempting primordial darkness that seemed ripe for the harvest of a superior image hovered above him constantly beckoning. About a hundred meters away, a tall machine faced the entrance, a small circular mouth three-fourths of the way up making a constant o.

His attention turned to the ground beneath his feet. The Engravings were difficult to sense in the middle of the vast floor of the Sonara like this, but Neveah assured him they were there, waiting for a mistake.

Fiona followed Randidly, stumbling through the barrier, and another obsidian bolt shot out of the machine’s mouth. Fiona reacted too late, reeling around, but Randidly had already slapped down the attack.

She stared at the shattered bolt for a second as the pieces of torn metal spread out and jingled to a stop. “This… is it just trying to scare someone into activating your image?”

“Seems like it,” Randidly said with a long sigh. He looked again at the machine. “Can’t decide if its genius or insulting. Also, if the Engravings can capture you just from mobilizing your image defensively-”

“Yea,” Fiona nodded. The golden portal behind her wobbled and she stepped to the side. Pullas came next and Randidly spiked another bolt into the ground. Xershi came through a few seconds later and didn’t even react to Randidly’s protective swipe.

“It shoots an attack as soon as you walk through? How methodical,” Pullas muttered.

The group approached the machine that had released the rather ineffective assault. It stood about the size of deep-set wooden bookshelf, a weirdly square and hefty edifice for only that single hole that released the bolts. Fiona put her hands on her hips. “Does this mean this thing always works? Because if anyone managed to dodge and not get captured, I would think they would have destroyed it.”

Randidly squinted at the thing, sorely tempted to simply wrap his arms around the edges and crumple it inward like an empty soda can. “Well one, no one can use their image to attack or they’d be trapped. In the Nexus, being relatively sturdy makes it nearly invulnerable. And for those who survive, they probably also don’t want to attract too much attention. But I have an idea-”

With a few light steps, Randidly gathered up the crumpled pieces of metal that he had previously deflected. When he found the scattered remnants, he easily mashed them together to make a thick ball. Then he examined the area behind the portal. Heading back a fair distance, he found the skidded remnants of hundreds of similar bolts, some melted or frozen or covered in what was unmistakable dried blood. Grimly, he gathered these and sculpted them into a thick tube of metal, thinner at the front and thicker toward the end.

Randidly carried the tube back, finding Xershi muttering to himself and kicking the machine. Randidly hoisted the dense metal tube and shoved it into the opening that shot out bolts, careful not to shove too hard. Obviously, he could destroy this without an image. But he also didn’t want to trigger any sort of alarm.

When the tube felt relatively stuck, Randidly gave it a few tentative pats that sent the whole machine shuddering underneath his force. Sulfur hummed, wanting a turn, but Randidly shook his head.

He turned back to the group. “Alright, let’s go.”