“Dear Gaia, I hate ducts.” It’s the first few words Joey has spoken in a few minutes.

"Are you…claustrophobic?" Julia isn't quite sure how to lead the question, because she doesn't seem claustrophobic.

"Not really. I only like close spaces some of the time."

"Uh…Is there something I should know about that, Joey?" She stays notably silent. "Okay, gonna guess this one has a story behind it. Hey, you keep saying that thing about Gaia, like there’s real gods out there. Should I be worried about taking one’s name in vain? Is there more than one?”

“Tell you what, I just saw the most terrifying thing imaginable to my incomprehensibly tiny existence about twenty minutes ago. So yeah, you should be careful what you say, Julia.”

“Seriously, what happened to you and Drenar in the archives?” Julia is busy crawling through ducts and wonders how this is the easy job that Drenar alluded to. Whatever Joey and Drenar saw, she plans to unpack later, because both of them look twitchy. Drenar isn’t usually twitchy like that, and now this psionic seems to be tapped in, if by accident. Is that why she’s twitchy? She dismisses the thought for later.

Joey finally answers, in a slow, drawn-out way. “Julia, can I be honest? I have no idea what we just saw. That pure unknown is sort of a slow-burn existential crisis brewing for later.”

“Too much to unpack, I get it. Cripes. Drenar’s having a rough day. You’re not catching him at his best, in all fairness,” Julia says. This girl needs reassurance, big-time. “I never thought I’d see the day where he vowed on someone's death, but it was for someone who truly deserves it. Some hulking killer named Davos, who snapped a man’s neck on live television.”

“Fates. The butcher of Cape Town.” There is palpable fear in Joey’s voice.

“Do you know of him?”

“You could say that he’s made a splash on the Arcanet with some of his more gruesome endeavors. That’s a man who views war crimes and depravity as a means of keeping score.” There’s a tension in her voice that Julia hasn’t heard before–this man must have done something that personally was an affront to her. “Julia, if we ever cross paths with that man, I am going to kill him, if Drenar doesn’t first. There’s no question in my mind. Not after the things I’ve seen.”

“What did you see?” Joey stops behind her, and her eyes look dimmed.

“You don’t want to know, Julia. Not right now.”

“Not gonna lie, how that man has so many enemies, and no one has killed him, is surprising,” Lavernius offers from the rear. “I think he’s a new addition to the roster. King was not happy about it, either.”

“Maybe it’s best if you don’t mention that, Lavernius,” Joey growls from behind Julia. “Tell me that King isn’t as utterly depraved as the rest of these monsters.”

“He’s not. King is a…he’s a good man, who has been forced to do terrible things. That is, if I had to sum him up in a single sentence.” It sounds truthful, from what Julia knows of Kelly’s father.

“But he keeps to his word?” Joey presses. Lavernius grunts.

“He does. But with Val tearing the place apart, I think plan 'A' is now out the window. She’s not going to stop now, even if we somehow got the journals to King’s hands. Which means our continued survival is contingent on stopping this slaughter.” Even Lavernius sounds grim now.

“One problem at a time. We need to stop their reinforcements. Left here,” Joey directs at an intersection. The dim lighting coming from vent ports is barely enough to see–even with her enhanced vision. Mana sight also doesn’t seem to help here, it doesn’t allow her to penetrate the dark–maybe if there was mana nearby? She can see faint glimmers of it–presumably the brickwork, but she can’t hold her focus for long.

She is not okay with being scrunched down, and hoping the Talons soldiers don't wake up and check the ducts. The thought of getting a bolt to the backside is as embarrassing as it sounds unpleasant. “Since we’ve got a minute, what happened in the archives?”

Joey’s answer is surprising. “Well, we just found the fabled blade of Luminari that Alex also wielded about seven hundred years ago, and it responded to Drenar. Also, he sliced up a dragon while Angela was grappling with it. He's got bravery, I'll give him that.”

Drenar finding and attuning to mythical artifacts is about on par for how wild this week’s gotten. But when does she get a magical weapon? Does Matilda count? “Damn. My boy is getting savage.” It’s her gut reaction, one that fills her with immense pride.

“Is he yours, then?” Joey asks testily. Oh, is this an opportunity? Let’s see what the psychic girl views him as, now that we’ve got a couple of minutes.

“Uh, Julia, as a fair warning in case you’re plotting something, would you mind not projecting your thoughts that loud? The hell is up with my psionics lately, they won’t turn off,” Joey says heatedly behind her. So she is listening in. “I’m blaming Alex and Samarina. I meet two drakensouls, and things go screwy!”

“Nah, I think that’s just Drenar. Weird stuff happens around him all the time.” It’s just awful that some of those things involved tearing his whole life apart, even with some of the incredible things in between. “So, going back to your question, it's…complicated. Drenar and I have been friends since we were toddlers. Life long friend sort of thing.”

“I picked up on that. But, not always?”

Julia winces. Those two years where they barely talked, after he–she shoves the thought from her mind. Joey doesn’t need to see that. “As you might have picked up, Drenar had his whole life turned upside down. Now we find out both our mothers are or were Valkyries. There’s a lot of turmoil going on in that kid’s head right now, and I’m not sure what he needs anymore, or wants. Aside from thrusting himself into a battle to defend others, even at great risk to himself.”

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“Fair enough. Right turn, here.” They duck down past a circulatory fan that is arrayed horizontally above them. They must be getting close. “Lavernius, what do you need in the teleportal hub, anyway?”

“I’ve left Kyle with a solution, but we’re missing a piece. I need a console with an intact navigation system,” Lavernius interjects. Her and Joey both turn to face him. “The one-time teleportal I had stashed, it's the key. I think we can use it to get everyone out. Once the staff is out of harm's way, we can get down to the vault and get the journals. My job is still not finished.”

“Listen, Lavernius, there’s no deal here. King was only getting the journals, contingent on this place staying in one piece. The five dead people in the teleportal hub–and likely more since then–would offer a stern rebuke,” Joey snarls. “Those deaths are on your head, you know.”

“Save the arguing for later. Do you think King would go through all this trouble to preserve lives if he wasn’t sincere? Much as I hate the guy, and so does Drenar…he was willing to set that aside to preserve lives.” Julia cuts off the argument before it can get heated. She can hear voices below, in the grill just ahead.

A peek outside shows Talons soldiers on the move, and the distant sound of supersonic cracks. gunfire, or autobows–it’s hard for her to discern. All she knows is that there are several with injuries below, in the hallway. The fight has not been one-sided, and some of them are plasma burned. Badly.

Oh. That was me. It smells nauseously like something acrid and bitter–burnt meat. She can’t even find the slightest bit of sympathy. March in here with guns drawn, opening fire indiscriminately. I hope I killed some of you evil bastards with that opening salvo. She points down and motions for silence to the two behind her. Joey, whisper quiet. Enemies down below. Joey takes note after Julia taps her head for emphasis. This is a superpower that is going to earn its keep, even if the rest of the mage world thinks it's a danger.

A few minutes later, Joey motions for them to stop. “Access panel, just ahead. I think we’re above the teleportal hub. Okay, game plan. Lavernius, we’ll clear the room. You’re the only one that knows what we need. But I need to know something,” Joey takes a deep breath, and looks back to him. “If you care about the people of Asqualia, you do what it takes to preserve their lives. Are we clear?”

“That is my priority. I just hope that at the end…Mirabelle, and Kelly can forgive me for what has happened.” his head sinks further than his soul in that sentence, and Julia bites her lip to keep from saying something bitter.

You should have thought of that a long time ago, Bernard. But, better late than never.

“Wait. Before we do this…” He takes a deep breath, blue eyes like cornflowers looking over her, taking in the fact that she’s a far cry from the person she was only a week ago. “Julia, there are things that you should know. Things that King told me.”

“Save it for when we're far and away from here. I will drag your sorry ass home to Kelly, and I will fight my way through an army if I have to. Despite the awful people you work for, she still needs a dad,” Julia says forcibly. “Let’s see what we’re up against.”

“Alright. Let’s send our eyes out.” Joey hands her the last observer golem, which springs to life and sits gently in the palm of Julia’s hand. She slowly pulls open the hatchway, and the golem clings effortlessly to the wall, and she closes it back up. They’re both watching the golem from their new bracer display. They both monitor the motion below.

The teleportal hub has been reinforced, and someone is tinkering with a panel in the back of the room. The portal is inactive–maybe they’d run out of juice, or there had been sustained damage to the portal. Two men are fiddling with the console Drenar had damaged earlier. A powerful and imposing third man is practically breathing down their necks.

“How long before we can fix this thing? We’re cut off from Val’s base until this thing is up and running. As if I need to remind you much of an utter disaster this is,” he growls.

“Listen Jack, this console is confetti. We’re lucky the backup residual program held for five minutes, and if we run anyone through the portal now, it’ll be really bad. A power connection was damaged, if you try to light it again before we fix the damage, it’ll implode and take out a good chunk of everything nearby. You might want to throw yourself into the blast radius if that happens. Because Val will do worse to you.”

“No, she’ll do worse to you. I will feed you to that ravenous dragon myself, as the price of failure,” the officer growls. He grabs a cigarette off his helmet, and lights up with a puff of flame from his finger. A mage always has a lighter, Julia thinks grimly. “I want it done in ten minutes. Ring the dinner bell, to the beats. Dragons get hungry, for the meats,” the man says with a leering smile as he sing-songs to the poor techs. They visibly shudder at this, and Julia curls her nails into her palms.

These men are all psychos, and now they’re all joining in on the chorus of that madwoman. The golem shows that they’ve barricaded the door with an impromptu cover of temporary arcane barriers, projected by a small emitter. Cover in a pinch, she realizes. Joey spins the golem around via the armband, and nods. The soldier radios in “Val, ten minutes till we’re up and running.”

“Good. We’re running into resistance, my inside man failed miserably…should’ve known better than to trust a rat,” Valosterla growls through the radio. Joey grips the controls so tightly Julia is worried she’ll break it. “The rest of the layout is at least updated. We’ll keep cutting through barricades. Orders are to kill everyone to the last, leave no witnesses. And make sure not to smash everything? This place might be a new summer retreat for me.” Joey pans the golem around afterwards, and is whispering numbers after they surveil the room.

“Four men, plus the officer. We need to take them all out at once. If they radio in, we’re done. They must have dozens of men still inside–hundreds even, if they had that portal open for five minutes after Drenar smashed it.”

“Emergency contingency buffer, lucky it wasn’t longer,” Lavernius murmurs. “Alright. I’m going to need a weapon.”

Julia hands him the backup bolt pistol that she’d acquired from Kyle’s lab earlier–he had an impressive collection she wanted to explore later, though it wasn’t as massive as Nick’s. She still had her plasma for mid-range, anyway, and she knew it could be just as deadly. “You only have one magazine. And that’s loud.”

“Subsonic ammo. I have tranq rounds,” Joey says before pulling open an ammo pack, and taps one tipped bolt that has needle and plunger–the bolt itself is lighter and has significantly less mass. She hands them the magazines to Lavernius and Julia’s respective weapons. “Julia, take the two by the console. Lavernius, you take out the two by the far side. I’ll make sure to bulls-eye that officer. Just remember that if you miss, they will likely shoot you and kill you.”

“Joey…the odds of surviving today are nonexistent.” Lavernius turns to Julia, his expression withdrawn. “Julia, if I don’t make it–”

“But you will, if I have anything to say about it,” she corrects.

“Julia…your mother is–”

“The least of my problems, Lavernius,” she growls. “Save it for when we do this.” He lets out a deflated sigh.

“Let’s get on with this, then.”