Darkness surrounds Marn as she hurdles towards the bottom of the endless hole. A bright purple light twinkles in the distance in an almost hypnotic pattern. She steers herself towards it and the light grows in intensity until it overwhelms her field of vision. A cold, film-like material passes over her skin and her momentum slows until she lands on the ground with all the force of a leaf. Marn opens her eyes and sees Adelie lounging on the ground of the metal cavern. At least, it had the properties of metal. She strikes the ground with her boot and the floor shifts from a cold purple to a bright red.

“You can’t damage anything in here,” Adelie says as he slowly lifts himself from the ground, “I tried.”

“What’s it made of?”

Adelie shrugs, “Izia thinks it’s a mixture of Red and Clear Era technology. She’s over there.”

“Red Era...that’s what Hodin said.” Marn looks up at the ceiling and sees nothing but a massive, inverted symbol of the one Adelie made earlier. “No sign of entry.” She continues her assessment, “Ceiling is at least 30 feet from the ground, walls are solid and covered in engravings. This must be sort of hub area.” The ground beneath them is a large, circular platform with symbols engraved in concentric circles. Large tunnels line the wall, 5 in all, and each with a different symbol at the center of the arch. “These must connect to the other islands. If we were to fight here, we’d have to priortize defense until-”

“Hey! Did you hear what I said?” Adelie waves his hand in front of Marn’s face.

“Huh?”

“I said Izia and Zav went down that tunnel over there.” Adelie points towards the middle tunnel and Marn sees the symbol above is glowing. “Don’t worry though, I made Izia leave the map and waystone with me,” he says as he taps his bag.

“I’m not worried about the Evoker, but her guild is after us.”

“She’s not with them anymore.”

“Are you sure about that? I just had a talk with Hodin and he was told to be on standby.”

“So? They probably have people all over the place. Why would you even trust anything a member of Night’s End says?”

“You’re trusting her.” Marn and Adelie glare at each other. One look in his eyes and Marn can tell that he’s made up his mind on the matter. He’s always been stubborn, but not an idiot. “We have a member,” Adelie grunts but Marn continues, “a member of Night’s End traveling with us and guess who just happens to be on this island?” She sees the wheels turning in Adelie’s mind, “At the very least, we should be cautious of her. Night’s End already discovered our camp and most likely our ship too.”

“What? Then that means Zav’s men are either dead or joined up with them… which would mean-”

“You don’t think it’s fascinating? The Exigalans were able to combine Red Era architecture with engravings from the Clear Era and create a hybrid system. It’s so intuitive to use.” Izia’s voice echoes from the middle tunnel.

“No, you’re not paying me nearly enough to find it interesting,” Zav says. As the footsteps grow closer, green lights illuminate the path towards the hub. Marn and Adelie look at each other and opt for a silent conversation.

Marn clenches her right jaw muscle. “We need to make sure she’s telling the truth.”

Adelie responds with wrinkling his nose .”She isn’t with them anymore. Zav most likely is.“

“Fine, we’ll check them both out”

“Agreed.”

“Thank the Maidens you’re here, now you’re stuck with her.” Zav walks to Marn, making sure to stand in between her and Adelie. “Unless,” he eyes her up and down, “you're wanting to change partners.”

Save for his proficiency with his weapons, Marn found nothing attractive about the mercenary. He’s far too concerned with impressing others and places an unhealthy amount of importance onto things like lim. “I could easily squash this, but he annoys Adelie and if I have to go with the Evoker…” “We’ve already decided on the teams. If you'd stayed quiet, I might’ve

considered it.”

Zav’s eyes gleam with false hope and he gives Marn a smile that suggests she might have gone too far, but there are more important things to deal with. “Night’s End knows about this place,” Marn says, making sure to look directly at Izia. “I don’t know how much time we’ll have before they come back here.”

“Well they don’t have a waystone, “Izia says, “ so they shouldn’t be able to enter. This whole structure has no other entrances.”

“We should go either way,” Adelie chimes in, “we were only waiting for Marn to show up anyways.” He pulls the waystone from its pack and it glows brightly in his hand. “You take this, it’s been making me feel weird.” Adelie hands the stone to Izia and the moment it touches her hand, the glow evaporates.

“Adelie...are you an Atherial?”

“What?! No! You think I’m a god?”

“The kid is too weak to be a god,” Zav says, not wasting a moment to seize on the opportunity. “

“He isn’t a god,” Marn says, “ Maybe there’s just something going on with the waystone. Regardless, we need to move. We’ll discuss things when we’re not being pursued by a banned guild.” Hopefully, this would be enough to change the topic; The last thing we need is her finding out his secret.

“ I..you’re right,” says Izia. “As you can probably guess, these tunnels lead to the other island, but they also don’t go all the way through to the island, you see-”

“Kishr’s flames, does this woman ever get to the point?” Marn walks to Izia, grabs her by the arm, and drags her down the leftmost tunnel. “You guys go down the one furthest right. We’ll work our way towards the center.” She doesn’t stop to hear a confirmation, nor does she hear the protests from Izia. “Her arm is surprisingly sturdy, she must have done some physical training over in Exigal.”

Each step in the long tunnel illuminates a small portion of it. The walls match that of the inner hub area, but a shimmering red wave pulsed through it every few seconds. These Exigalans really liked to waste time making things so colorful; all you need is a sound structure that’s capable of withstanding enemy attacks, not whatever this all is. “If they had this much time to engrave everything with colors, they could have at least made a faster way of travel. It’s gonna take half a day to get down to the-”

“Are you even listening to me?”

Marn looks to her left and sees a visibly flustered Izia still thrashing to break her grip. “No.”

“You’re going to take forever if we keep walking. Let me go so I can get us there faster.”

“What? Are you going to use a craft? No thanks, I don’t mind using my legs.” Marn turns her head forward and continues walking. A gust of wind to her back forces her to let go of Izia. Marn draws her dagger and enters a stance with the tip of the weapon facing the ground, “I’ll give you a chance to summon your grimoire.”

Izia massages her right arm. “Will you relax? I wasn’t attacking you, I was taking my arm back so I can get us there faster!”

“I already told you, I’ll walk,” Marn says as she sinks deeper into her stance.

“You were the one who said we should go, why would you want to waste time walking?”

“Because I know how to walk. I know how to get places on foot and I know how to look out for traps or ambushes. What I don’t know is you.” Izia was right of course, they should be going as fast as they possibly can, but the last time she didn’t question someone’s decisions, she lost everything. “ What kind of crafting are you using?”

“Who said I was using any crafting?” Izia kneels onto the cold floor and places her palms down. “Think for a minute, this place connects to all the other islands. Why would they go through all that trouble if you still had to travel for half a day just to get there? Oh, here it is.”

Marn, with her dagger still drawn, inches closer to Izia. She catches glyphs scrolling on the ground in front of Izia. “What’s that?”

“A menu for transport,” Izia says without looking up. “The Clear Era of Grezia was marked by technological advancements that were millenia ahead of its time. We still haven’t made anything that comes close to what the Exigalans could do. Aza’s mercy I wish I could have met them. Just think, we’re standing in a place where people fought side by side with the Atherials. If we could-”

“If I wanted to have someone to ignore when they babbled, I’d be with Adelie right now.” Izia looks up at Marn but says nothing. She hunches over the glyphs, blocking the words from Marn’s line of sight. “Have you found us this..transport, or was this just an elaborate ruse to give you a break from walking?”

“You might want to move to the side,” Izia says at a barely audible level before making her way to the far right wall.

“Do what?”

A white ball of light emerges from the ground where Izia was standing and immediately traces a large, rectangular shape on the floor. Marn leaps towards Izia and lands next to her. She turns to see an object rising from within the rectangular. area It looks to be made of a different material than everything else; the surface is a blend of metals and a rocky black texture that surges with an exotic power beneath the surface.

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Marn approaches the structure with the cautious apprehension of a trained warrior. It isn’t a massive structure, bigger than her to be sure, but it didn’t take up more than a few feet of space. “Hard to believe something so functional looking could be in this place.” The shape of the structure reminds her of the seabugs near Vedan City; they have thick shells on their heads and two whip-like tails on their ends. The transport lacks the tail, and is easily a hundred times larger than any seabug, but the front end of the structure looks like it could withstand a hit from Zorya. Marn grunts and moves to inspect the transport closer.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The outside is coated in asterium, it’ll drain the ather from your body in seconds,” says Izia.

Marn regards her for a moment and then places the tip of her index finger against the rocky exterior. The strength in her finger eroded in an instant before she could pull away. “If I’d had my whole hand on it…”

“Are you so distrusting of me that you'd do something that careless?” Izia scoffs and walks to the head of the structure. A ray of light shoots from the top of the structure and appears to be scanning her body. A door appears on its surface and opens up to reveal two evenly spaced apart seats. “Are you going to stand there or can we get going now?”

Marn moves closer to the entrance of the machine, but maintains an arm’s length distance. She’s been on all manner of transportation, but nothing like this. There were no ramps to get on and no railings for the thing to travel on. “Is this thing floating in the air?”

“It’s a soildiver,” Izia says, “ can we go now?” She gestures impatiently at the door.

Marn narrows her eyes and cautiously steps into the soildiver. The weakness that was once in her finger travels throughout her entire body in an instant and Marn quickly falls into the seat in front of her. “What’s going on? I didn’t touch that black stuff.” She digs her hands into the armrest of the seat as a way to steady herself, but feels her body not responding as it normally does. “I feel like I’m half awake...and this seat feels like it’s draining me.” Marn tries once more to free herself from the seat, but to no avail.

“You have terrible ather control.” Izia sits in the seat in front of her and it turns around so that she’s facing Marn. “You’re only supposed to channel a little bit of it to get the car moving.”

“Channel?” Marn sucks in a deep breath and releases it slowly. The overwhelming weakness inside her subsides and she’s able to move her hands more effortlessly. “ This thing runs off ather, and you didn’t think to say that beforehand?”

“Right, because you’ve been listening to a word I’ve said this entire time.”

Marn looks around the inside of the car; it’s a miniature version of the hub area. The center between her and Izia has a raised, purple platform with a console around the sides. “You seem to know an awful lot about the Exigalans...even how to operate their technology.”

“I went to school in Exigal, of course I’d know things.” Izia starts pressing symbols on her side of the console and a map projection of the islands appears. “Ok, looks like we’ll get to the island in two hours if we keep a consistent ather output.”

“I’m not Adelie,” Marn says, catching Izia’s attention. “I don’t ignore obvious inconsistencies or give untrustworthy people the benefit of the doubt.” The door to the outside disappears in an instant and the interior of the car lights up. A pulsing red wave emanates from the floor and travels around the ship.

“Untrustworthy? Why? Because I didn’t tell you guys about Night’s End? I thought we were past that.” The soildiver erupts down the tunnel, pulsing with intermittent waves of red and purple waves, illuminating the tunnel in flashes.

“Even someone like me knows that the knowledge of how to operate Red or Clear Era technology has been lost to us; and yet not only can you do that, you can also read the Atherial scripts.”

“The libraries of Exigal-”

“Don’t have information on that. There’s no way a school of Evokers would be keeping that a secret.”

Izia sets her face and stares at Marn. “Why don’t you ask what’s bothering you?”

“Who are you working with?” Marn also sets her face, but she’s much more practiced at it than Izia. She can see the uncertainty in Izia’s eyes; “I’ll push a bit more.” “I found it hard to believe that Night’s End would just let you go or that you somehow escaped. You’re too concerned with the deaths of others to have killed your way out of the guild. That, mixed with the fact that you were able to read an extinct language tells me you’ve been working with someone.”

“I’m not working with anyone,” Izia says, “ and even if I was, it has nothing to do with you. If I recall correctly, you and Adelie had other business to attend to anyways so how about you focus on that?”

This surprises Marn a little bit, she expected Izia to crack under her intimidation alone. Evokers weren’t built for confrontation, it was why they let their crafting do all the work...and yet here Izia was, putting up more of a resistance than any Evoker should be able to. “Your secrets concern me when they can get in my way.”

“You want to talk about secrets? How about you and Adelie? You guys are clearly hiding something, or was I supposed to never notice that his ather triggers things in the waystone?” Izia and Marn stare at each other for an eternity before Izia sighs and rubs her fingers around her temples. “This is getting us nowhere. I’m going to send for another soildiver to pick up Adelie and Zav. You can sit there and glare until we make it to the island.”

“I’m going to rest. Tell me when we get there.” Marn closes her eyes before Izia can protest, but she doesn’t sleep; there’s too much on her mind for that. She was a Gladius with no blade and could only make room for a few daggers in her pack. “I won’t be able to face Hodin with just daggers, I’ll need to get another weapon somehow.” This was just a surface thought and Marn knew as much. If she let’s her mind make the connections, her thoughts will drift until, “Zorya. Hodin knows the 13 Blades and Zorya. Is that where she went after the hunt? To Night’s End?” Marn pushes the thoughts away, it would do her no good to sit here and agonize over Zorya’s reasoning; she’d make Hodin tell her where she went. As Marn opens her eyes, she sees Izia mouthing to herself. “Evokers are weird,” Marn thinks to herself as she closes her eyes once more, replaying her battles with Hodin in her mind.

“We’re here,” Izia says to Marn.

Marn looks at the map to verify Izia’s statement and slowly lifts herself from the seat. “When is this feeling going to wear off?” Marn says as she catches herself in front of the seat.

“You’ll be fine once the door opens. The soildiver traps all of the ather inside but the minute the vehicle is off, it returns the ather to the source.” Izia walks over to the area where the door originally appeared and places her hand on it. A curricular impression appears and glows with a red light before Izia turns her hand clockwise, causing the light to switch to white. Izia turns to Marn as the door opens, “You feeling better?”

Marn opens and closes her hands and then pulls out her dagger. Her ather swirls through her body and connects with the weapon. Her strength returned to her, Marn heads out the door and into the dimly lit transport bay. A few feet away from her she sees a large door with a massive, brown and red porous stone in the center. “What’s with the rock on the door?” Marn asks as Izia approaches from behind.

“How should I know?”

“She’s either annoyed or really doesn’t know anything,” Marn thinks to herself. “Still, I don’t think they did this just for decor. Maybe I can break it…” She looks at the small dagger in her hand, “ ...no that won’t work. Damn it. If I could use the 2nd style this wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Oh, really?”

“Hmph?” Marn looks at Izia, “Oh really what?”

“I just remembered, that’s the symbol for desert. That rock represents the type of stone found in the desert region of the islands.” Izia steps towards the stone, looks up and mutters something to herself. Light pours in as the door splits open and bits of sand fly inside. Izia shields herself with her arm and takes two steps onto the red sands. Massive pillars of caisin rock stretch over the horizon

Marn regards Izia for a moment but follows her to the desert outside; she would get to the bottom of things after they complete their task. She takes a few steps away from the door and the massive entrance starts to close. “Judging by the position of the suns, it’s been about 3 hours,” Marn says as she drops her back onto the ground. She pulls out the map Izia had made and unfurls it across the sand. “If this map is correct..”

“It is.”

“...then once we get past this initial rock formation, we can cut across to the river.” The map of the island zooms in their location and shows a pulsing line to the next waystone. “The map just moved to our location, everything on the map is moving.” The river she was previously looking at starts to flow as if it was made of actual water.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s a special map from..”

“Let me guess, the Exigalans? Well that explains everything.” Marn tucks the map into her waistband and slings her pack over her shoulder. “I’m gonna look out ahead, make sure no else is here. I’ll be gone for a hour, then I’ll come back for you.”

“Absolutely not,” Izia says, “I’m not here to be left behind. Don’t forget, this is my expedition.”

“Which is precisely why you should stay here. If Night’s End or someone else is here, it's better for us to not be together. I’ll be back, just stay put.” Marn runs up the sand hill infront of her, disappearing from Izia’s view. After a few moments of sprinting, Marn slows down; there was no way an Evoker could keep up. “Ok, now that’s over with, let’s see what we’re working with.” Even though she had put quite the distance between themselves, the terrain looked largely the same, save for a floating slab of rock in the middle of the sand. The rock moves towards her foot and she takes a step back. A set of pupiless eyes spring out from the bottom of the rock, along with 3 sets of insect-like legs and fins along the sides. The little creature darts its head left and right, squirms free from the sand and pops over Marn’s head. It lands behind her and dives into the sand, emerging several feet behind her and continuing in that pattern until it disappears from her sight. “Never seen one of those before.”

“There you are!” Izia looks down at Marn from the top of the dune and slides down next to her. “Do you know...how much ather..I had to spend...to catch up?” She asks with her hands on her knees. “Never used so many wind incantins in succession like that.”

“I thought I said I’d be back? Why are you here?”

“Because...if Night’s End is here...I can’t just sit by and do nothing.” Izia stands up straight and looks at Marn. “I also… don’t want to owe you anything.” Marn sighs and rolls her eyes before starting down the opposite direction. She takes a few steps and a swarm of the rock creatures emerge and swim away, popping into the air on occasion to dive. “Marn, we need to go.”

There was an edge of fear in Izia’s voice. “Why?” Marn asks, “those little things got you spooked or something?”

“Those are caisiki, desert fish, and they are fleeing from something.”

“From what?” Marn asks but then something in the far distance catches her eye; the large pillars of rock from earlier. “What happened to the pillars?”

“The pillars?” Izia looks to the horizon, “There aren’t any pillars, there aren't any on the map. This area is just a massive desert island.” Hundreds upon hundreds of caisiki burst from the sand below and leap over the pair, blocking out the suns.

Marn’s senses kick into overdrive and she reflexively reaches for her sword that’s no longer there. “Hey, something’s comi-” The ground vibrates with such force that the hills of sands start to sink. A row of pillars emerge from the sand..no not pillars, fins; each one a mountain onto itself. Marn says nothing and lets instinct take over; she runs over to Izia, grabs her arm, and sprints with all the power left in her body. Sand flies in the air around them but Marn doesn’t focus on that, she doesn’t even focus on how hard she’s pulling on Izia’s arm; a broken arm would be the least of their worries. “Have to get away, have to make it somewhere safe.”

The massive creature chasing them erupts into the air and Marn stops running. The shadow the creature casts blots out half of the island; there is no escape. Marn looks to the sky, ready to fight, but what stood before her was a creature that made any resistance futile. The closer it gets, the less she can see. An approaching blackness descends upon Marn and Izia, swallowing them whole.