“Tonight is the premier of the long-awaited action and thriller movie the Haunting Crescent, and from the initial polls and reactions from the film critics, it was somewhat of a mixed bag!” On the screen of Jason’s tablet placed right in front of both Jason and Laura, the hostess in a red dress said with an exaggerated dramatic tone: “According to some of the critics, it was suspenseful and has good actions. But the inconsistency in tone suggested that the rumors about it having reshoots were likely to be true.

“What was a surprise to some of the critics was the screentime of action star Josephine Wong, who hinted recently through social media that she would be going on a hiatus from action movie roles to focus on her other projects. Wong’s role was originally designed to be more of a cameo, but it turned out she was present in more than half of the action scenes! Not that we’re complaining though, because who can get enough of her? Sadly, we may have to wait quite a while to see what her other projects are all about!”

“Morning!” Just this moment, Aimee, Thomas and Caroline walked into the lounge.

“Morning, matcha cake and coffee to go?” Laura stood up and asked.

“Yep. Thanks.” Aimee nodded and stood on the side of the reception’s desk: “How’s business?”

“Slow season.” Jason put down his phone and stretched: “How’s work, officers?”

“We’re still the beat cops of the Division.” Thomas sighed and took a look at Caroline: “Caroline’s helping us with some investigation work, but there’s something we think we could use your help on.”

“It’s array stuff, we have this array that protects a metal box, about this big.” Caroline gestured the rough size of said box with her hands and arms: “I can just crush it, but it’s obviously not what we want.”

“Sure no problem - my shift ends in about ten minutes.” Jason nodded.

“Wait, my shift is tomorrow.” Caroline frowned: “And Boss is out for a few days. Who’s taking the next shift? Rash?”

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“I am.” The sleeping black cat, Mr. Night Owl, woke up and said: “Surprise. I work here part time now.”

“Where’s your sister?” Aimee asked as she took the coffee and brown bags handed to her by Laura: “Didn’t you have to go home with her?”

“I went home earlier, so she’s off my back for the moment.” Mr. Night Owl yawned and turned into a puff of smoke, then walked out from the smoke as a young woman with shoulder-length hair in a black dress and - cat whiskers on her face.

“You - you still have - ” Thomas pointed at his own face with his rotating finger.

“Yeah, I know, but people like it.” Mr. Night Owl tilted her head then turned to Jason: “Jason! You can leave now, and you’ll owe me one.”

“It’s only 10 minutes, dude.”

“Whatever.”

—--------------------------------------------------

In the edgelands, another birthing ritual was being held, only this time, there were officially invited human guests: scholars like Professor Atkinson and Dolores, and ambassadors from the human realm, sent from a coalition of power wielders. And different from their usual lack of interest in the events, the Depth Dwellers sent two captains with the names of Daekan-Velliander and Xyankor to attend the ritual to show solidarity with other voidborns, or descendants of voidborns, now that their creator was back and reconnected with them with other branches of its creation, it was time to put their internal conflicts on hold for the time being.

Beams of gentle light rained down from the sky and lit up the altars, and voidborns of different shapes and sizes started appearing from them. This time, there were no coreless and therefore soulless husks. These new voidborns still didn’t have “it” - but most of the individuals present were not concerned - the first ascendant of the voidborn had come back, and “it” would surely come back as well.

Professor Atkinson and Dolores were the first scholars to visit the edgelands in several decades, and now they were the only ones in recorded history that could come here with the blessings of Xyn to set foot on the edgelands and other elemental realms. And since the new realm, created by the Creator Avatar of Xyn had just been connected to the edgelands, they would be the first humans ever to visit that realm as well.

With all of these sudden changes to their access to knowledge about the elemental realms, their stature in the Grant Academy had changed for the better for them. They were not sure of the details yet, but they would assume funding would no longer be an issue for their normal research.

Their only worries now? Finding the right medium to transcribe the knowledge they gained. And coming here to barter for Muto, the material used by the elementals to build the Bastion of Gwai-Mon, was an agenda of theirs coming here.

“I wonder what Mr. Yu will say about this if he saw it - this new realm.” Dolores whispered to Professor Atkinson.

“We could ask him to come along when he comes back from that excavation trip.” Professor Atkinson shrugged: “I heard he and Josephine found another close-earth realm, not that far from the first temple of Xyn. I don’t know what’s in that realm, but it’s definitely interesting enough for both of them to go at the same time.”

“Oh…”