[b]Jade[/b]

There was calm. Before you turned to your Dolly. The presence faded as quickly as it rose, and the spirits you have eaten are strange, but they are not deadly on their own. You can hold them, digest them, do with as you please. Perhaps that will be an adventure for another day. 

[b]Dolly[/b]

You burst out with your new crew in tow, Jade cheering you on. You have enough time to see Isabelle holding Marcina at swordpoint, and Kiriala trying to catch her breath as she rolls around to get off the floor. Other staff at the station are too stunned to do anything, all standing in shock after coming from a job that does not typically entail violence. 

You skid over the servers, land on smooth floor, and the Terenians behind you start running out of sheer inertia. And then, then Ksharta pops up in the middle of the hallway and shouts “this way, Dolly!” and unlike the others she’s a little late in coming but this means that she’s not tied up or fighting or otherwise in the midst of chaos herself. That makes hearing her voice a wash of relief. There’s an exit route, there’s someone who knows where she’s going. 

As you get further out and the crowd thins, a few employees try to stop you, at least to get in the way and ask what’s going on and where you’re running off to so fast, but Sam shouts something garbled at them that sounds like “fire drill!” and they get out of the way. 

And finally, as you round a corner, you see Angela, who’s guarding the entrance with the tripcaster crossbow you once used to capture her.

“You’re lucky, little priestess, that I still think this is fun, ay. You wish for a gallant escort. So I will be forced to carry you out I think.”

She grins and, before you can quite realize what’s happening, she once again hefts you unceremoniously over her shoulder, right in front of your new Terenian friends!

“Hm, everyone here will not fit in the Barn Owl though, we’ll need to get some additional transport” she adds almost as an afterthought.

***

[b]Isabelle[/b]

“You know, Isabelle” says Adriana. “One of the mistakes I think business leaders use is comparing their work to combat. I’ve done both so I think I have a good sense of the two.”

She grins, a grin that says she’s enjoying herself immensely. “Business works best when it’s handled methodically, and, for my taste, openly. Do you know, while I’m on this…” she steps a bit to the side and takes the coffee that one of the useless employees is holding up for her. “...one of the best ways to gain power in business is to give it out. Be the person that helps other people succeed and then they’ll be happy to help you when you need it. Doubly so if you’re earnest and actually do that out of friendship without telling them you expect the quid pro quo. It’s one of the grand ironies of these things.”

She takes a sip of the coffee, sniffs, wrinkles her nose. “Ugh, a cut rate distraction to boot. I’m shocked you lured so many people with treats this poor. Next time, tell the Fisher cat I expect a Murzon blend or I’m not coming.” She grins, takes another step around you. “At any rate, the things people think they need to do for business, all that cunning, deception, decisive action and sudden strikes to annihilate anyone who threatens you…” 

She tosses the coffee, lid flying off, right at Kiriala, pulls out a rose from her outfit that was actually a knife and uses it to parry your sword out of the way, and begins sprinting down the hallway, calling behind her “...those are the things you need for a fight! Marcina, distract them!”

For her part, Marcina gives you an apologetic grin and simply stands in the way with the opening provided by your sword, ready to dodge or go for a body hold if you thrust inexpertly. 

***

[b]Mirror and Solarel[/b]

At first, there is uncertainty. Time dances tantalizingly before you, the strike is done and undone, the core pierced by the needle and then restored, pierced and then restored. 

But even within a realm of ghosts and broken laws of matter, there is change. With every cycle, the energy of the remaining crystal fire drive leaks and wanes, merging with the surrounding radiation. With every cycle the animating force behind the Aeteline weakens. It moves less. The arms slump and cannot raise themselves. The legs collapse. And at last, that baleful green light fades to nothing amid the wind, the water, the leaves, and the nanobots. 

It is right that ancient hate lay itself to rest in the face of unrestrained love.

Moreover, around you, the camera drones are stilling, falling to the earth and working inexorably to rest even as they fall up and down in ever smaller cycles. Was that truly all connected to the Aeteline, or was there help from Jade within the network?

The world is not normal. What has happened here will not easily be undone. The power of combined crystal fire drives will make this a place where physics becomes exceptionally exotic for years to come. There are rumors of crystal fire accidents that are still sealed centuries later, though they are usually small, shipwrecks and crashes and the like. 

But the world is no longer filled with malevolent will. There is no place for it to rest, no center of power for it to congregate. Only a broken hulk and a strange, shifting world. 

A pressure you did not know was present is released, and you can breathe normally for the first time. The wind is gentle, the hum of change calmer. It is not safe to linger long, but you should celebrate your victory. 

***

[b]Matty[/b]

You take the claw you had nervously been chewing on out of your mouth and let out a sigh as you let a big shudder take your whole body and then stretch. 

You had to pull out the audio feed for a bit. The fighting was a bit too stressful to listen to, and there were too many people doing too much. But you can see Dolly rushed out while Isabelle still hasn’t moved. And, more importantly (you admit guiltily to yourself), the camera network is starting to come back. Everything in the blast region is dead still, completely gone in fact, but camera drones from other parts of the planet have been moving inward and most have reached the edge of the blast radius and are prepared to show some feed of the result, though nobody seems keen to move anything from outside the blast inside it.