This is not how I expected to find our alternate strategy. King stood there with his hand resting on his chin, on the ruins of the now destroyed teleportal console, and pondering how to approach the crystalline tree growing through the fragmented remains of the teleportal.

The first thing he did was call Crosomer. The second thing he did was cordon off the area, and inform everyone who responded, that Valosterla was not to be involved in this, on pain of death. He hated to use such a distinct threat, but this time, the stakes were higher than ever.

“Hey, King, you have that far-away look. You want to tell me what you’re thinking?” Crosomer stood there, looking more draconic than ever, and his tail tapped the ground impatiently, along with a click of his talons on the ground. He too, was leaning on the console, while several workers cleared the debris. William was next to him, being addressed by a medic they’d had on hand. “King, this does not happen to teleportals. This is unprecedented.”

“So I’ve been told.” He doesn’t answer Crosomer’s question, and weighs the evidence before him. He is left with too many blanks to confirm his initial eureka moment from earlier, and turns to William. “I need to know exactly what happened, William.”

“You said Rick isn’t dead. So, where is he? You're being spookier than usual today, King, and that’s terrifying.” King drummed his fingers on the ruined console, while normally calm and collected William is frazzled, and rightfully incensed.

“I’m not spooky. I’m very controlling of information.”

“Dude, sometimes, you scare me more than Valosterla, or Fates forbid, Davos. Out of the four of you–Sorry Crosomer–you are the enigma wrapped in a mystery, with a candy coating of ‘choose your own adventure’,” William growled, and flinched as a medic wrapped gauze around his injury on his arm. “For starters, tearing the Conclave apart is one thing, but Rick started acting squirrely right before he jumped onto the platform. Said he could hear the crystals singing. So explain to me, how he’s not dead.”

“First, tell me what you were doing here, in hazmat armor,” King asked with a wave of his hand.

William sighed and rubbed his scuffed cheek, which had already been bandaged. “We were uh, taking a detour on waste disposal. I didn’t want to haul a bunch of ethically dubious barrels of who-knows-what to the proper waste disposal, or walk by Davos, because I heard he was on site.”

“You have a problem with him?”

“Who doesn’t?” William snapped. “Val is legitimately insane for bringing him into the fold, King. I will tell you this to your face, because the man is a blight upon all Kin. At some point, given enough time, he will kill you. He will actively seek your demise because someone’s offering a bigger paycheck.”

“So, you decided to ditch norms, because…you wanted to avoid him, and we're not in fact, cutting corners.”

“Well, that wasn't my motivating reason,” William stated flatly. King raised an eyebrow at this. “Alright, fine, partially motivated. Waste duty in subpar hazmat suits didn't seem like a great way to die.”

“I don't run the mine. Val does. As for Davos, his residence here is temporary.” If he had the last word, that man would die in agony, sometime in the future. But King doesn't have a plan that attains that. Yet.

“King, our beloved and currently disincorporated Rick is a fragile bird. Exposing that kid to that monstrosity is like putting a cute, adorable, baby bird, into a cage with a giant, unholy demon cat. Do you get my drift?” William edged to a point of rather tense and black-tinged humor.

“I understand the animosity–”

“You don’t,” William growled. “Not even you know this one. Before I started working for Val, I did merc work of a dubious kind. I did things that included cleaning up unsightly messes. Do you know which mess I cleaned up, one time?”

“No.” This is an oversight King hadn’t counted on. “Elaborate.”

“Cape Town.”

It is all William needs to say, for King to instantly regret this query, and his associate picks up on it. “Yeah, I was there. I was picking up body parts, King, because someone has to make sure the Veil Protocol doesn’t collapse like a house of cards in the middle of a hurricane. Your half-ton menace butchered people. By the hundreds.”

“I’m aware of the–”

“You know what I found?” William quivered in rage. “I’ll tell you because I had to burn, dissolve, or bury bodies. I know Davos thought he was hot shit, back then, before he became a liability for the Conclave. He was busy solving a problem of a little warlord in Cape Town who wanted to get rid of Conclave control. It was ‘his’ territory. Anyway, the rumor mill had long thrown warning signs that Davos was unstable. He had a messed up upbringing thanks to his old man. His brother is a fiend of a subtler nature in the Conclave. But no one cared about all those signs. Don’t get me started on his twin sister. She’s broken.”

William waves away the medic, who takes that as their cue to leave. “So, the Conclave tasked a bunch of mercs with the clean-up. Myself included. They told us to get rid of the evidence. You know what I found, along the way to the main clean-up? An orphanage for various Kin, in a veil-free zone, east end of town, by the slums. It used to be a decent place, considering the area. When I got there, my reaction, as much shady stuff as I’ve seen, was to vomit right then and there, at what I saw.”

King motions for him to stop. “I believe I know where this is going–”

“This isn’t just for you, King. This is for Crosomer, who needs to know who he’s working with,” he spat, and pointed at Crosomer, wearing a disturbed expression on his snout, and clenching his lab coat, with his claws creasing the fabric. William picks up on that, and points to him. “Ask me, what I found.”

“What did you find?” Crosomer dares to ask.

“I found a trail of kids’ bodies.”

King winced–he’d heard rumors about some of Davos’ more unsavory pastimes, but getting confirmation on them had been difficult, at best. Crosomer’s citrus eyes are widened, his pupils like barely visible slits. “Tell me this isn’t true.”

“Robespierre? You are dangerously naive, for someone so smart,” William says caustically. “He had a thing in particular for kitsune–they were the ones who suffered the most. I know, because I was tossing their remains into a hole to dispose of. You know how I know it was him? The axe. It always leaves these twisted, corroded injuries. I found them all over their bodies—wounds to injure. Not kill. Not at first.” William clenches his uninjured hand, the other one now wrapped in bloodstained gauze. “Others had gunshots. Others…I will take what I saw to my grave, Crosomer. I can’t ever unsee that. And you King, should have voiced opposition.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

King had a keen knowledge of most events, but this? This was one he did not. Even given his prior experience of seeing all the worst of humanity consulting him for his intelligence, this sickened him. William continued.

“So earlier today, when I got word that Davos was walking around and being a sin of humanity, under Val’s direction, I decided I needed to spare Rick the displeasure of seeing that monster, and we decided to toss toxic waste into the void bubble that forms on an incoming teleportal connection,” William stated with contempt. “Then, Rick chased a magical rock, and then the portal blew up. Portals don’t blow up, grow crystalline trees, and then start singing like its a chime chorus. What the hell did you eggheads do to the mana?!” William snarled and gripped at his injured arm.

“Clear out.” King’s directive is abundantly obvious to everyone in the room, and they slowly work their way out. Crosomer taps a claw impatiently on his arm, and regards the veteran guard with a more somber expression. He waits until the bulkhead door slams shut, then presses the bridge of his snout, as if this whole day has become a headache for him.

“King, can we–”

“I trust William understands that we can speak in blunt terms with no one else present. So, I’ll lay out my theory.” He takes a moment to think, and walks to the destroyed portal, with William limping along. How he managed to take a broadside of debris and walk away from it with only a scuffing, is beyond him. He motions Crosomer and William to it. “You are correct. A void bubble forms on a receiver portal. However, the mana has changed. and I believe it is directly related to the device. It is converting the mana to a different form--and allowing it to grow."

“How?” Crosomer asked. “I recall your report from the Asqualia efforts. You told me that one of the arcanists found an unusual mana crystal.”

“Miss Pyromist found a primal crystal deposit.” Crosomer looked at him, eye crest raised, and jaw slightly agape. “I see your confusion. Essentially, a piece of mana charged with a slightly different aethereal energy.”

“Wait. Is this another effect of that funky device your egghead junior team is working with? Nigel, Greg, Karl?” William asked.

“Correct,” King affirms. “The device incidentally triggered opening up a door we did not intend–a door that we could not have known was there.”

“Okay, English there, King. Because I know you know more than you let on.” William folds his arms across his armor, while glancing at the crystalline tree amidst the ruins of the teleportal. He could see the trace of energy extending into the metal, now. It was taking root, here?

“Alright. How’s your kin history?”

“Serviceable,” William grunted. “What does history have to do with this? Or primal mana? I’ve never heard of it.”

“Then you are aware that there is a bit of a controversy of the history of the Schism wars, and where Kin originated from initially.”

“Okay. I’m with you. What about it?”

“Are you aware of the connection to Gaia and the organization that was spawned after her demise?” King questioned. William ponders this for a second, and shrugs.

“They theorize she’s not dead. That her soul lives on, protecting our world against those perennial boogeymen, the Outsiders. Or the theory that she wasn’t a goddess but some super advanced draconic race. Or an alien. I dunno man, I’ve heard lots of crazy stories in my time.”

“When she died, a crystalline tree grew where she fell. Her body disappeared. Few believe this, of course. But that crystal was said to have unusual properties.” King waved his hand to the tree, which even now, he could hear small sounds of crystalline chimes.

He’s always heard it, but now, it is louder than ever. “The lifeblood of a goddess. The mana itself runs like veins through our world, but this one, it was special. But it also disappeared from history. The tree disappeared shortly thereafter.”

“Okay. I follow. What’s this one doing here?” William asks as they survey the debris. He pokes at one of the crystal spines, and shivers. “This thing is eerie, for reasons of simply not knowing what to make of it.”

“The Kilnstar'noth was used by the dragons to attempt to get off-world, much like the now-destroyed astral gates. But it went wrong. Horribly wrong. They destroyed their bodies, but their souls remained intact. Crosomer was tinkering with it, during research that was widely surveilled by the Conclave as encroaching on secrets that should stay buried.”

“I know this part,” William stated with a sigh. “But I bet you don’t know why. And not for the reasons you’d normally think.” he peered at Crosomer, eyes narrowed. The expression is puzzling, and King suspects it must have meaning. “Didn’t know about the device, till Nigel wouldn’t stop yapping about it at cards night, and how it triggered some kind of global relay, then, poof! Total draconic disintegration. How is this related, exactly?”

“The dragons went to the world between worlds. Nigel confirmed this when Drenar Rashalda claimed to have seen it, on his initial Awakening. Dragons came out. But, we left a door open.”

“Eh? Okay, before I call both of you eggheads crazy…” William sucked in his breath, before daring to continue, “You’re saying, there’s more than dragons in there, when they went and ghosted themselves.”

“Miss Pyromist, now a member of the Luminaires, and from what I gather is now closely involved with Rashalda, found a primal crystal deposit. I haven’t been able to risk a survey team to go back to Opechea Falls to find out where. Especially given the immense Valkyrie and SAF presence there,” King explained. “It was the same thing, the same crystal when I observed it through an Arcanlink. Val killed an immense research opportunity–and may have opened another, unexpected avenue.”

“King, what is the short version?” Crosomer sighed, “Because even I’m getting lost, now.”

“What would destroy the veil faster than an ugly scene in the middle of the public?” King asked.

“I don't know. Awaken a long-dead goddess?” Crosomer proposed. “Which wasn’t my aim, other than undoing Volkir’s screw-up. Which is also technically mine.”

“Closer to the mark. Find a long-imprisoned goddess, and heal the world,” King answered succinctly. “Oh, and bring back two million dragons, as a bonus.”

“Okay, now tell me when your punchline drops,” Crosomer stated deadpan a few seconds later.

“You’re right, it’s too lofty. It’s all theory right now,” King stated with remarkable calm. William narrowed his eyes–he’s too good at reading his poker face, he realized. Very few could, except maybe Nigel.

William points to the crystalline tree. “You’re saying that thing right there, is the desperate call of a goddess trapped in our world? Going by that deadly line of questioning, who is powerful enough to entrap a goddess? The not-a-goddess Gaia, who couldn’t possibly be more than flesh and blood, who has been theoretically imprisoned for four thousand years, assuming the history isn’t a complete and utter crock?!” Each word notches higher in disbelief, and King motions for him to lower his tone.

“Would you like to know the answer–”

“Oh piss off, King,” William cursed, and edged closer to him. “You know things. You know things that nobody should. I take it back, you are scarier than Val. Because the only time you lie is when you bluff on poker night. And it isn’t Friday.”

Even the sound of crystalline chimes can’t break that uneasy silence between the three of them, and Crosomer coughs to get their attention. “King, be straight with us. Is this discovery important?”

“Yes. It is proof the Kilnstar'noth has cracked into the aether. And the dragons are dripping out, slowly but surely. But we need to crack it wide open with the next phase. And it might have some…other effects,” he adds while glancing at the tree growing another crystalline limb.

William looked at the development warily. “You know something, I’ll take my chances with the slow-burn apocalypse of global warming, overpopulation, and deforestation, on second thought.” He winced and put his palm up to his face. “Shit. that still leaves Rick floating through wherever the hell he is. How do we find him?”

“We need to replicate the means of egress. If we are to believe that there is a connection to the aether, then we need people with direct connections to it, to enact the same effect, to follow him.”

“And how do we…” Crosomer trailed off and frowned. “Val said that Rashalda seemingly teleported like a jackrabbit during her encounter. And you reported to me that there was something unusual about one of Rashalda’s friends…” he stopped, and his eyes went wide. King smiled politely.

“Yep.”

“You are out of your goddamn mind, King. They’ll never agree to this.”

“Robespierre, I’m a man with a perpetual plan,” King sighed contentedly before grabbing an errant crystal shard that was still glowing. “We just need to offer them something they can’t live without, to find our dear Rick.”

“Do I have a say in this?” William asked exasperatedly. “What is the plan here?”

“We need the Luminaires.”