XianaEvermor

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Cut.

Peel.

Cut...

Peel.

A potato skin flopped into the sink to the choir of sizzles and boiling water. It was nice to be back in his proper lab, where he had a proper kitchen. Sairyn inhaled the melody of aromas deeply and sighed as the stress melted out of his shoulders and potato peels fell into the sink, to be scooped by a mechanical arm through a miniature Conduit to the chamber where the compost was processed and kept at the perfect temperature, later to be used as fertilizer for the hydroponic beds.

Archer was right. He really needed to take some... HIM time... which was suggested in a moment of uncharacteristic fluster after fumbling one too many explosives. Everybody has an off day, right? No. Not everybody, not Archer. Archer never has an off day, he's annoyingly unflappable no matter how many times we test him!

Stop.

He's positively identifiable.

Cut and peel. We're gonna make some latkes... or maybe just some perfectly crisp hash browns. The kettle whistled urgently, and he cut off the heat with a tap to the Slate that floated at his side and pushed the button on the grinder once, twice... thrice... frice? No. Nonononono, nothing comes after thrice. Perfect coarse grind emptied into the french press, followed by boiling water at the perfect temperature. Perfect. Simple was the order of the day... just some simple crisp hash browns... simple Benedict and crisp bacon, with hollandaise simply made from scratch. Simple fresh sourdough, with a simple yogurt parfait made from berries, nuts, and grains freshly harvested from the hydroponics.

Simple.

Squirreled away in a pocket of ExoSpace where nobody could reach or bother him, Sairyn enjoyed a relaxing breakfast in solitude. What had him so wound up? The fact that his gambit against Ares with the stealth drone came up empty, and somehow he was to blame. This was exactly why he hated doing favors for SINS... or anyone, really. He huffed, sipping his coffee gingerly. It didn't help that he'd also lost the eerie cross-market staring contest he was having with the Ares CEO.

The man seemed to be able to suppress all his involuntary body movements. It was like staring at a mannequin.

Sairyn shivered. At least he was free to work on his own projects for the moment, which reminded him: Should he work on finding his missing agent? Or just trust that Maire had it handled? Then there was that blip with Felix disappearing off the Net and showing up at the stake out with the CEO's Executive Assistant?? What. The. Hell? So hard to find good help these days. He simmered, remembering he was supposed to be relaxing, and instead ate in oppressive silence while he read reports from the Slate floating at his fingertips.

"System regression complete," a pleasantly clinical voice slid from the earpiece Sovereign normally spoke to him from, causing him to bolt upright and nearly spill his coffee. He'd forgotten to take it off. "Systems compatible, resuming Framework formatting. Completed. Cooling silos online at 25%. Small power fluctuation detected within acceptable margin of error."

He raised an eyebrow. The blank framework he'd built finished regression and formatting earlier than he'd expected. A few contented swipes brought up the project schemata on his Slate, and he was greeted to the pleasant view of green check marks and progress bars filling. He hummed a pleased note and flicked through status screens and data telemetry while he finished his breakfast. If the rest of the boot went well, he'd be able to install a backup copy of Sovereign later in the afternoon... assuming he could find a way to rip one from the main server without pissing off Leonardo.

"AI systems online," she informed smoothly. Sairyn's spoon clinked against the glass holding his parfait as he froze.

"Excuse me?"

"The boot sequence has completed. Welcome, Guest User, my name is Monarch."

"Guest?!" He let his glass thump against the table as he scrambled for his Slate.

"You have a pending message on your device," she informed coolly. He swiped the notification bar on his Slate with a concerned expression. Nothing. "Your other device." Sairyn frowned and dug frantically into his coat for his Slatephone and clicked the screen on. Nothing. "Your other device."

The other device? The Red phone? The one that only rang to one contact? That device? The one that was supposed to be dark to everyone but him? He pulled the modified, red-covered Slatephone out of an ExoSpace pocket with a swipe of his hand, and it materialized in a flash of white light.

1 Message.

Oh hai! Don't freak out or anything~~ but a shipment GIFT was taken without my permission and there might be a... teeny, tiny, mostly insignificant, highly unlikely chance that some idiot hits the power lottery and causes a problem :c

Sairyn spluttered, there were so many questions to ask. First and foremost on his mind was-

AGAIN?! CAN'T YOU KEEP A LID ON THAT SHIT??

<(... ... ...)

"Oh God, here we go," he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Hey hey! It has been YEARS since that happened, and THIS time was a severe fluke. Don't worry, love, I'll be handling the repossession personally! :3

"... Fuck."

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

---

[UnderCity - Outskirts]

---

Archer rode looking over his shoulder towards the manor as they departed, trusting the stag to find its way through the overgrowth. He heaved a bit of a sigh, spotting the null-zone most typically associated with heavy cybernetic modification, and... Rat(?) through the haze of elevated Mana.

"That has to be Cruaidín, probably looking for Yue if I had a guess," he muttered, ducking under a knotted branch with bark splintered from explosive growth and shifting his weight to accommodate the Stag as it hopped over a gnarled root. "Well... It might be inconvenient if she found me down here," he mused, sitting back and rubbing at the stubble accumulating on his face with an expression of distaste.

"You know, your lack of humor might be a large contributor towards your romantic situation," he teased, with a smirk as he followed Yue's journey back down to Terra-Firma as a blip on the edge of his senses. He tucked that little quip about Aegis away in the back of his mind: he knew Raudd was being snarky but... couldn't hurt to actually look, right?

"She's still moving," he announced, letting his stag slow down a little to a less stressful speed. "Back South, most likely towards ShieldTown again at a more 'relaxed' pace," he said, making finger quotes. A "relaxing jog" for Yue was still faster than most civilian vehicles could travel.

---

Archer drove the stags at a casual run towards the gates. It seemed like he was lost in thought, but was keenly aware enough of their surroundings to guide them around more than one creature threat. He wondered if maybe he was pushing Yue too hard, or laying it on too thick. Emotional resonance was something his sister and he were particularly sensitive to, and he couldn't help but wonder if Zolya had also felt that spike of anxiety, frustration, and anger resonate through the manasphere right before Yue took off. She had mentioned that she'd already had a lot of dilated time to process what was happening, but clearly still had some lingering feelings to get through.

To be fair, Archer hadn't expected her to be all hunky dory with everything overnight. The fact that she'd come this far emotionally in just a few hours was a feat of mental strength in and of itself. Getting the answers she so desperately wanted, though...

Archer reached back and whipped a card past Raudd. It arced up, whistling as it cut through the air and intercepting a stone that was flying with significant velocity towards the Norseman. The stone shattered on an umbrella of force as it collided with the card, directing the shards over and around them. He looked up with a raised eyebrow, scanning ShieldTown's walls for threats, and just hummed an amused tone when he didn't see anything. He slid off the stag as ShieldTown's gates loomed over and above them, smoothing out his jacket and pants with a huff.

"Hey, I'm gonna give Yue some space. I'm pretty sure she's with someone I trust right now, and who will call me if something goes awry but... second pair of eyes and all," he nodded at Raudd. "I have another errand to run and I want to avoid getting caught out of the office by Cruaidín. Zolya knows how to get in touch I'm sure," he chirped with a smile.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

That got a grin from Dean. "You don’t say?" He exchanged a nod with his spirit. "No worries, that's what we’re here for. Oh and, maybe be a little more careful when you touch a [Primal Spirit] alright?" Dean gave Golem another look just to be sure the little guy wasn’t showing off. Really wasn’t a good time to scare a new mage with the full appearance and might of a [Primal]. Golem swayed back and forth, looking as innocent as a sentient earth entity could. Dean shook his head and returned his attention to Yue.

"Great…"

He seemed to consider something before giving a shrug. "You, uh, you’re free to ask questions if you want. I promise I’ll be the least convoluted and cryptic of any mage you could possibly meet. I’m not the most technical given that I've willingly locked myself into being a [Hedge Mage] but-" A piece of jade was pulled out of his pocket and flicked around his fingers. "I won't just spout bullshit just to sound smart and mystical." Dean made a face that made it abundantly clear this was too common a thing. Yue’s eyes flicked up and scanned the rooftops like D might be watching this exchange, and then to Golem, then to Dean.

"Primal Spirit… Primal, that’s a Primal? Walking Aetherscape shredding natural disaster shaped and brought into being by human emotion and desire Primal? That kind of Primal?" She asked with a note of not insignificant alarm.

"Ah, right. Final Odyssey. Well, yes and no. There is a Primal for every element or aspect of nature and they can become problems and great disasters. That's why Stewards, like myself, keep eyes on some of them. Some Primals will bind themselves to people though and that can get messy. It all really depends on which Spirit holds the mantle of primal for its given element, the people involved, and a lot of other junk." Dean motioned down to Golem, who seemed to be content to waddle alongside the two. "Golem here, like a lot of earth spirits, is slow to act and fairly docile. That and golems are natural protectors in stories, so his disposition is very ideal. Not the case for other Primals though. Fire, Lightning, and Force are almost always universally intense and hard to truly keep a hold of."

Letting her digest that for a second, Dean was a tad nervous since most mages didn’t always react well to realizing the cute spirit they were seeing was in fact the living embodiment of the earth and its power . . . while also being underground.

"Huh," Yue grunted with interest, tilting her head at the creature. "It’s cute… in kind of an irrationally disarming way," she observed, scratching her chin. "I… honestly would have imagined, I don’t know… an enormous, monstrous, walking craggy mountain with broken canyons for facial features and cloven boulders for hands- what’s that?" Yue asked, pointing at the jade piece as her gaze tracked it.

Yue’s eyes flooded with luminous amber, and her pupils stretched with sharp interest as a ripple of silver traveled across her temples and down her spine. She shivered, and seemed to be lost in a moment before she jerked herself out of it with a flinch. The energy faded out of her gaze as she blinked and flicked her eyes up at Dean.

"Whoa…"

Okay, maybe it was a good thing Golem was playing up the cute. The little guy was shaking in a way that indicated laughter. Dean looked at his piece of jade then back to Yue. seeing the look on her face, she probably had taken a peek. "Oh, this?" He held up the piece with two fingers. It was much larger than the one he had given Ash. more akin to a silver dollar and much thicker. " Tell me what you see first. I’ll explain, but I'm curious what it looks like to the newly initiated."

Yue raised an eyebrow, and then paused in her stride to look closely at the object. Amber flickered through her gaze, but she squeezed the corner of her barrier medallion into her palm to help ground her in real-time. Focusing made her squint against, not just the brilliance of the object, but the other sparks of [Light] seemingly speckled beneath Dean’s clothes.

"Smells sweet, like caramel?" Yue mentioned, crinkling her nose a little at the sheer weight of the phantom scent. "Green glow. Bright. Patterns of lines, like a complex Venn Diagram, burning text in a language I can’t read. A nexus of Light at the center, moving like electricity through a circuit," she explained, pausing and searching for words for a moment as waves of Silver sheen pulsed across her temples.

"It’s vibrating. Heavy: I can feel it pressing against my skin from here. It’s… kind of uncomfortable, like being touched by a stranger. Your clothes are glowing too, like thermal hot spots," she explained, indicating a pocket, and pointing out a patch and a badge on his jacket. "Big one here, kinda drowns out the other lights," Yue pointed at his jacket, probably at an inside breast pocket. After a pause she reached out and gently brushed a fingertip against the jade piece. It rang low like a crystal bell and she tilted her head back and forth for a moment.

"Alto," she commented, without explaining.

Well, she definitely was aware of all his charms, trinkets and mana reservoirs. After getting a better [look] at it and hearing Yue’s description, Dean felt confident he knew what he was dealing with. Who knew all those lessons on the more rare and extreme cases of affinity would actually be relevant? A whistle escaped his lips. " Never imagined I’d see Swordsong myself, can only imagine what you would be capable of with one of these." He considered Yue’s words for a moment before pocketing the coin; what followed was him tapping a few of his pins and patches in a specific sequence. A few mana arrays began overlaying him and dulling each signature significantly. "That any better?"

"Yes, actually," Yue frowned for a second, blinking rapidly to clear the artifacts out of her sight. "You know what it is then? Starting to feel like I’m the only one who has no idea what’s happening," she muttered, kicking a stone aggressively and forgetting about the jade piece for a moment. It sparked as it caromed off a steel beam reinforcing one of the buildings they were walking past and sailing off into the distance somewhere over the settlement wall. She grunted with a small note of annoyance.

"Something… someone told me recently is bothering me," she mentioned, slipping her hand into her legging pocket and touching the blank business card. For a moment she thought to show it to Dean before she reconsidered and folded her arms.

"’Gods are narcissists, and Mages are liars. Both of them have intentions for me. If it seems like everyone around me is one or the other, it’s safe to assume there’s a reason for that, and that reason won’t care about me personally,’" she paraphrased D’s words. "I’ve… only just learned about the magic world and… that seems to ring more true than I would like."

He mulled over her words for maybe a minute. "Kind of a stupid statement. Everyone under the sun is a liar to some extent. If gods weren’t narcissists we wouldn’t have half the stories we do. Granted some gods are spirits that have been primal in the past so there's a reason for that. AND us mages basically live in a secret world, our entire society is built on lies and secrecy to not have mass witch trials again or accidentally have everyone and their mothers know magic and throw the world and its trigger happy governments into a super-magic-techno apocalypse." Dean raised an eyebrow and gave Yue a look. "You're a mage too now, so technically you were insulted to your face by the way."

Yue blinked. She hadn’t really considered that being dropped into this secret world made her a “Mage.”

He leaned his head back to gaze up at the plate high above. "As for me, I don’t know. I’m a Steward to the Primal Spirit of Earth living underground, enjoying my best life. Can’t really say I have any intentions for you other than making sure you're safe and that you and Alex don’t unintentionally ghost one another again. Though that was mostly on him." He began leading her back towards Alex and his place, though the route was more private then the one Alex had used previously.

"Yeah, that kinda happened at a bad time," she muttered in a somber tone.

"I [promise] to be plain with you. Know that that is binding for me in a very literal sense. Things are new, you're in the deep end and people haven’t been doing a good job keeping you from drowning it seems. Let’s just, make things simpler going forward yeah?"

"Please," she sighed with a note of exasperation. "If one more ‘guardian angel’ pops out of the woodwork to speak to me in riddles I might kick a building down," she grunted, rubbing her temples.

"Just say the word and I’ll bury them up to their neck for an hour or two. If it wasn’t before, it was very apparent that Dean shared similar feelings and sentiments. Golem “clapped” their hands together, eager at the mention of burying someone annoying.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Wolf really had to learn now that she had terrible luck when betting against Dean. Not that he was complaining, being a few clat richer and all. It was good that the Templar hadn't woken up any of those damn bats up there. dog sized, mutant bats with minor telekinesis. Yeah, nobody deserved dealing with those things. As entertaining as it had been to have seen Silver Fang try and brute force her way up to one of the plates, the responsible thing to do was to probably go get her. Alex was busy with . . . A lot and Given that there wasn't already word of something speed blitzing around town, the woman was probably lost. Dean considered bumming it off to someone else, he really did. But Golem looked ready to smack his shin again for some reason. "What?" Golem began to pantomime . . . something. Despite best efforts Dean still had trouble communicating with the selectively mute spirit. Dean received a rocky flick to his leg for his supposed lack in understanding clear instructions.

"Okay okay, I'll get up!" He grumbled and made a show of getting up and out of his favorite chair. "Jeez what is with you today?" There was a sort of impatience with the earth spirit, which was becoming a more common thing in the past few days. Dean however didn't get time to really consider the ramifications of such things as Golem chased him into his room, threatening his poor shins the whole way. "Alright dude, I'll get dressed!"

---

[That One Alley in ShieldTown]

[A Fate001 / XianaEvermor Collaboration]

---

All dressed and decked out in his usual gear, The hedge mage marched outside to find Golem waiting. "Alright you wise ass molehill, What now?" He crossed his arms impatiently. Golem sank into the ground for a minute, then Dean was yanked down too with a rather un-masculine yelp at the lack of warning.

The two emerged somewhere else moments later. Dean however decided to spit profanities at the rather pleased looking [Earth Primal]. Golem ignored their steward and waved at a familiar face nearby.

"Uh…! Super-fan!" Yue stopped her slow spin to look at the new arrival, eyes flicking first to Golem… then to Dean. She waggled finger guns at him awkwardly. "Um. Did you…?" She pointed at the ground. "With…?" She pointed at Golem with a concerned expression, and then waved back at the spirit hesitantly.

This sure was turning into a day.

"Oh hey! Good to see-!" Dean blinked owlishly. Looking between Golem and Yue a few too many times before it clicked. " You can see him?" He motioned to the diminutive spirit with a look of surprise. Granted it probably shouldn’t have at this point given the state of her body double.

"...Yyyyeeeess~?" She offered, as though she weren’t sure if she should answer or not. Yue squinted at the spirit. All this protocol was so hard to remember… Was she supposed to check first? Or was it just obvious because he had a waving rock with a teddy bear face on his shoulder. "Can’t… everyone??" Asked Yue with a note of suspicion.

Dean let out a sigh and straightened up. "Well alright then. Could have said something if you were [Awakened] or not. I won't claim to be offended that you went to Zolya instead of me for . . . whatever was going on." He took a much more relaxed posture and put his hands in his pockets.

"Uuuuhhh," she snapped her fingers rhythmically before sucking in a breath. "Right, uh… they sorta came to me, and I didn’t really know to say anything before this morning. So… Blue moons... waking up and all that," she muttered uncomfortably.

There was a pause as Dean’s eyes went a tad bit wide. "Well . . . damn, you got thrown in the deep end huh?" Without missing a beat, he snorted out another remark before she could respond. "Nice try making it to the plate gap by the way. Didn’t think you could go that fast out of your armor though."

Golem simply beamed at Yue, seeming rather happy that she was slowly becoming less [polluted] then she once had been.

"Oh. You saw that," Yue winced. To be fair, it wasn’t subtle. She perked up after a moment, however, holding up the medallion with a note of excitement. "Oh! I can’t, normally: I’d get my skin flayed clean off. Zolya gave me this!" Yue flipped the medallion like a coin, unsure of how to reset its operation except to re-initialize contact. When it landed in her hand it gave a metallic chime and the thin film of force flickered over her skin.

"It’s weathered smooth as you get up there. My foot slipped and I just bled off too much speed but… there was a hot second when I’d dropped this and I didn’t have my arm shaved clean off so I think maybe there’s a… a… a thing I can do!" Yue waggled the medallion at him with excitement and was immediately lost in mutters about threads and braids for a moment.

"Right," she stopped, flicking her eyes back to Dean before she was completely absorbed in thought.. "Hey um… Does…," Yue trailed off, gesturing vaguely to indicate an extremely large person.

"Alex? Oh no, he’s mundane through and through." He took a second to run what he had just said through his head and enjoyed the irony. "He’s got a full plate anyway, that and I'm not sure his brain could handle it all." Don’t need to fry the himbo’s brain after all. Or gods forbid he learns magic to add to his bullshit.

"Riiight right. I’m not sure my brain can handle 'it all,'" she muttered grumpily and then started walking towards them. "Final Odyssey terminology only then. Hey-uh… I have a feeling I’m gonna get yelled at for running ahead. Let’s walk and talk," she offered, reaching up to scritch Golem’s chin.

The spirit’s polished stone surface thrummed against her fingers, and for a just moment she could feel every stone in the settlement down to the smallest grain of sand. A deep baritone resonated through the Earth on the edge of their hearing as a thread of [Silver] peeled out of her skin and stitched into Golem. She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t pursue further contact.

How about we keep it to one Aether Cascade today?

Yue let her arm drop and then shuffled down the alley a few steps before stopping. She took a deep breath and turned back around to face Dean, fists clenched anxiously.

"I’m lost," she blurted out suddenly, like she was going to forget to say it.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

"Don’t apologize," Yue answered after an awkwardly long pause, then looked up at D and smiled, genuinely this time. "I wouldn’t have gone. Too many unanswered questions. As angry as I am, something happened that was serious enough to spook my whole family into hiding, I’m coming to discover," she sniffled, pushing herself to her feet and wiping her nose on her arm… then grimacing because she just wiped snot into her open scrapes.

Smart.

She kept her eyes averted. As long as she didn’t look directly at D the vertigo was manageable, which was fine since eye contact was a thing that happened to other people.

"In a way, I’ve been running my whole life. Now that I know that there was something to run from, I want to stand my ground and punch it in the face… keep it from happening to anyone else." She extended a hand.

"If your sage advice will help me do that then you are, indeed, quite charming… after a fashion. It’s Yue. Nice to meet you while I’m awake?"

D didn’t take Yue’s hand, but rather extended one of her own, a piece of blank cardstock appearing between her first two fingers as she turned her palm up. ”Likewise,” D greeted in turn. My business card, so you can get in touch with me next time you’re in trouble.”

Yue’s eyes flicked down to the card as she took it and flipped it over in her hand… and flipped it again. What the hell? "It’s blank? H-how…," Yue trailed off, feeling like she was about to sound silly by asking how she was supposed to call a phone with no number. Were there even phones down here?

”It’s not blank, it’s empty,” D corrected.”Of course you wouldn’t be able to see something that isn’t there. You’re looking at it.”

"It’s-, This is-, But it’s-... Sure! Sure… Coolcoolcool," Yue nodded, slipping the card into the thin pocket of her leggings. She was beginning to appreciate Raudd’s disdain for all of this ‘magical bullshit.’ "Is this the part where you vanish into the aether after leaving a charming impression and imparting your sage knowledge?"

D blinked at Yue once, then looked away. ”Hmm. Sage knowledge, huh.”

The pocket of D’s long coat buzzed. Her hand withdrew briefly, reappearing with a small flat rectangle that lit up when she pressed a button on the side. A button, from the looks of it- and an old one. Her finger swiped and tapped across the front for a moment, eyes fixed on the illuminated screen. She sighed through her nose, stuffing the phone back in her coat.

”The only thing stupider than trusting a god is trusting a mage. That’s my sage knowledge.” Her eyes met Yue’s. ”You understand?”

That made her frown. Her whole world was gods and mages right now, and so far it seemed like they were all trying to be helpful… Ulterior motives and overprotective hovering aside, they'd been helpful after a fashion at least. Yue was growing increasingly disquieted with the number of ‘guardian angels' in her life that were hiding in the wings, truthfully enough. What was so goddamn important about her that warranted all this attention? Yue’s eyes flicked up at the woman, and she endured the vertigo for a long moment to make eye contact.

"I’m not to trust you then? Aren’t you one of those things?" And Archer? Wasn’t he both? "Seems I’m finding out just about everyone in my life is some kind of God or mage. Can I not trust anyone then?"

D gave her a conspiratorial grin. ”Didn’t I tell you already? I’m not either of those. I’m a devil.”

Her face sobered, and she looked away again. ”But yeah. You aren’t far from the right idea. Gods are narcissists, and mages are liars. And both of them have intentions for you, kiddo.” D extended out her arm, holding her finger mere inches from the center of Yue’s brow. ”If it seems like everyone around you is one or the other, it’s safe to assume there’s a reason for that.”

She let her arm fall. ”And that reason won’t care about you personally.”

"Sage knowledge from the Devil who creeps on me while I sleep, offered out of the goodness of her heart, then?" Yue smirked. "No intentions there, just being a good Samaritan?"

"That's right."

"Hmm," muttered Yue with a note of doubt. She broke eye contact to keep from falling over again. D felt like every suspicious quest-giver in Final Odyssey. "I’ll keep that in mind."

D gave Yue a long look, her mouth tightened into a thin line. ”You can think whatever you like, girl,” she declared, shifting on the ball of her foot. Her phone buzzed in her pocket again. ”I’m not your boss, after all. Just passing through.”

D looked away, studying a patch of wall. Her ears were red, despite the cool morning. She crossed her arms, hands gripping her biceps. The heel of her shoe tapped the ground as D bounced her leg, agitated about something unclear.

Finally she spun around, marching toward the opening of the alley. ”Well, this has been fun, but I gotta get going before the big guy catches on that I’m here,” she announced, waving a gloved hand up to her shoulder to wave goodbye without looking in Yue’s direction. ”Stay safe, remember what I told you about- Oh!”

She spun back around and pointed at Yue. ”This doesn’t really matter, but don’t go flashing my business card at people. Your eyes only.”

”Right…,” Yue mumbled, rolling the barrier medallion over in her palm. ”Of course.”

She felt like she was missing something. Like there was something she was supposed to say or ask, and it just wasn’t clicking. Instead, she shuffled awkwardly in place and tried to find somewhere productive to look that wasn’t directly at D.

”Good, good!” D cheered, whirling back around. ”I’m glad you understand.”

Her leg moved to take another step forward, but hesitated. D stood near the entrance to the alley for a long while, back to Yue. She fidgeted with her hands, raising and lowering them, clenching and unclenching into fists. It seemed she wanted to say something else, perhaps, and her shoulders were tense with resisting the urge to turn back around.

”I-” D began to speak, but cut herself off. She dug the toe of her shoe into the alley floor, replacing the polished leather sheen with dust and scuff marks. She huffed, eyes fixed on the ground, then clicked her tongue one last time and disappeared.

Yue stared at the the empty alley entrance where D had vanished for a long minute trying to process everything that had just happened. Her head tilted slowly, eyebrows raising as her expression went from alarm to regret to disappointment. She snapped her fingers rhythmically and blew out a disgruntled sigh as she turned in a slow circle to try and get her bearings.

She was still lost.

"Maybe I should've asked for directions... or, you know, a ride out of here?"

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

---

[Some Alley in ShieldTown]

[A Druidquest / XianaEvermore Collaboration]

---

”See what happens when we don’t listen?” Her voice was closer to the ground now. She had crouched down, blocking Yue’s attempts to crawl away. ”Go ahead and take a breath for me. Nice and slow. Try and keep your eyes closed. I won’t touch, but it should be easy enough. Like breathin’. Just try and remember the sensation from before.”

Yue froze, taking a few halting breaths. Right right right… a teleporting Mover she couldn’t look at. This was it! This was it. This was it… She did warn us… her breath steadied after a minute, though she couldn’t force herself to uncoil the tension in her body. Yue tried to squash the primal fear twisting in her gut. Too many questions were ripping through her head.

"Okay!?!" Was all that she managed to force out of her mouth.

”Well not yet, but you look like you’re gettin’ there,” the woman answered without missing a beat. ”How are your eyes feelin’?”

"Like I’ve been staring into the sun, but it wasn’t there," grunted Yue.

A breezy chuckle followed her comment. ”That’s nice. I should write that one down.” Gravel shifted in the alley as the woman made the stand. Yue felt a hand reach toward her, hesitate, and pull back. ”Think you can try closing your eyes yourself? It really is important.” The woman snorted. ”Shocked they didn’t teach you that first, honestly,” she muttered.

Was she talking about magic?? Goddammit what was it Archer was saying about how to tell… something about “blue moons” and being awake? All this cloak and dagger nonsense was making her head swim worse than it already was. Why wasn’t she paying attention for something so important?!

"I am… physically incapable of doing that," she ventured at a guess.

A click of a tongue. ”Is that a fact?” The woman scoffed, footsteps moving away and coming back, moving away and coming back. The woman was saying something to herself, just above a breath. ”This was s’posed to be a quick thing…”

”Y’know what, let’s start smaller then,” she said, addressing Yue once more. ”Try squinting for me. Like you’d do at the sun to keep it from burnin’ your baby burgundies.”

"How ‘bout we start with introductions and… you know, like what you want from me? Since this was supposed to be so quick and all," Yue grumbled as she forced herself up to her knees without uncovering her eyes. "You seem to know an awful lot for someone I’ve never met."

”We have met, this is just the first time you’re conscious for it,” the woman answered, apparently not concerned with what a terrifying comment that was. She paced away again, Scratching her head. ”Damn it, I had this whole thing planned out. It was- I was gonna be witty, and clever, and you were gonna find me just so, so charming. Ffffuck.”

"CONCERNING?!"

”Okay.” She clapped her hands together, spinning back on her heel. ”This- well, you’re gonna think this is bullshit now, but I’m your… let’s say guardian angel, alright? Fairy godmother. I’m- I was here to give you some sage wisdom, you know? Help you out and shit, before fucking off somewhere else until you got in trouble again.” She let out a long sigh.

”You can call me… Well, this just sounds stupid now, but it would’ve killed if things had gone to plan, alright? You can just call me Devil God D for now. Don’t comment on it,” she added hastily.

"I’m not-, this is-, you know what?" Yue flustered with a sigh, finally relaxing the coiled tension in her body. Nobody was this awkward before they kidnapped or murdered someone. "I’ll humor it? Bestow upon me your sage wisdom whilst I squint upon thee, oh ‘Devil God D,’" she said, with an air of defeat, tossing her hands up.

Yue let her palms down, careful not to look directly at ‘D’ and instead acted on an idea that had struck her- you know using her Aether threads to sew her astral eyes shut didn’t sound like a terrifying, creepy, awful idea until just then. She decided to try squinting instead, as suggested, and managed to block out the worst of it. She still felt ridiculous, as she was actually squinting at the woman.

A woman in a dark gray salary-man’s suit, tailored in places to keep it from being too baggy on her frame. Polished shoes, black leather gloves. Through squinted eyelids, burgundy hair and eyes met burgundy hair and eyes. D gazed at Yue for a long moment, a smile coming to her lips. When she spoke, Yue could hear it in her voice.

”You’re a good kid.”

D did not continue for another short while after that, shifting her gaze to look down the other end of the alleyway for a moment. She rubbed at her wrist, like she was adjusting a watch that wasn’t there.

”How are you feeling, by the way?” she asked, looking back in Yue’s direction. ”About the magic thing.”

"Angry that it was kept from me for so long. Relieved that I’m not sick. Overwhelmed with all this new information and sensory overload. Like everything is better. Like everything is worse. Like I don’t understand the world, how it’s supposed to work or where I fit in anymore," she found herself admitting. She’d held most of this back from Archer.

D nodded sympathetically. ”Well, everyone’s gonna have their opinions on that,” she stated simply. ”They’re all gonna have a favor, or an opinion, or a cause they want you to chime in on.” She clicked her tongue, studying the tip of her shoe.

”That’s the one thing you can accept with absolute certainty movin’ forward, sister. Now you’re part of the world and so long as you stay in it, no one’s gonna let you just mind your business.” She gave Yue an appraising look. ”Though I suppose that’ll be pretty familiar, yeah?”

”Beyond that… I mean really, your best bet would be to run while you can, but failing that, you’ll do fine so long as you keep a good grasp on who you are and who everyone else is.”

"Tried running. I hit my head… fell a long way," she replied, gesturing to the mean scrape on her shoulder and the flecked cuts along her temple and nose. She knew that wasn’t what D meant, and couldn’t help the half-hearted smirk that flicked across her face. "Don’t think I can run from this, D. It’s everywhere I look, and I can’t close my eyes." Yue sniffled and looked down into her lap, suddenly finding the dirt under her fingernails to be entirely transfixing.

”You’re in Titan’s Fall, kiddo,” D said gently. ”If you couldn’t close your eyes, they'd’ve burned outta your skull by now. More’n likely you used to do it without realizin’ and forgot how.” She shook her head, glancing back down the alley. ”You’ll jus’ have to relearn to do it manually. It’s a practice thing is all.”

”You’re right though,” she said after a moment, clicking her tongue. ”You won’t be able to run, not really. I was hopin’ I’d still be able to give you the option, but I guess I missed my window at some point.”

”I’m sorry about that.”

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

---

[Some Alley in ShieldTown]

[A Druidquest / XianaEvermore Collaboration]

---

Doll’s face flew from abject terror to seething contempt in the span of a second as a woman’s voice cheerfully chimed in behind Yue. She turned to see who had snuck up behind them, but a leather-gloved hand slipped over her eyes before she could catch sight of the new interloper.

”Ah ah ah!” the voice tutted, holding Yue’s eyes shut. The field of pitch blackness at the back of her eyelids gave her the sense that somehow that wasn’t the only [sight] being blocked. ”No peeking, sister. Gotta protect your eyes, you know?”

Yue flinched, sending a crack through the foundation of the adjacent building. She heard Doll click his tongue and curse something in a language she couldn’t understand. The woman behind her gave a comically beleaguered sigh. ”Always so quick to run off, that one.”

”And you,” the voice continued, grabbing Yue’s shoulder and gently turning her around, hand shifting to remain firmly over her eyes. ”Didn’t anyone ever warn you not to run off with strangers? Shameful, and at your age, too! You’re lucky I came to help!”

"I am?" She asked with a note of heavy doubt. Clearly she didn’t enjoy being blinded… though the darkness was oddly serene, she hadn’t realized how much she’d come to depend on her… Aethersight(?) for sensory input. Did she give in to the immediate impulse to defend herself and risk hurting a bystander? Would she be hurting one of Alex’s friends? Yue huffed and tried to uncoil the tension in her shoulders unsuccessfully.

"You have me at a disadvantage, it would seem."

”Oh you’ve got no idea,” the woman laughed. It wasn’t unkind. ”I mean honestly, you didn’t notice anything off about that kid at all? Not one bit? Here, let’s try a simple exercise to get you closer to my level, alright? First step in a million.”

She cleared her throat, slowly moving to stand behind Yue while keeping her hand over her eyes. ”Try and remember for me. Which direction did that kid turn you in last? Left or right? Or the walls on either side of you, what material were they made of? Stone, wood, metal? How ‘bout the ground? Was the area industrial, or residential? Oh, here’s a real easy one. How far away was the plate up top?”

The woman sighed again, coming back around to stand in front of Yue again. Her hand fell away until only a single finger rested over each eyelid. ”Come on now, girl. I know you just woke up ‘n’ all, but you gotta be more aware than that.” There was a brief pause. ”Well, not right now, but generally.”

Something about the way the stranger’s touch felt on Yue’s skin made her bristle, more than just her aversion to physical contact. Did this person have powers? Were they touch based? Could she react fast enough to catch this stranger off guard. The medallion wasn’t singing. She turned it off? When did that happen? Yue’s thoughts screamed, and she squeezed one of its sharp corners into her palm to help keep her in real-time.

"I don’t like being touched," she announced firmly, squashing her fight or flight reflex. If she took this person’s arm off and they turned out to be Dean or Alex’s friend she’d feel real bad later. Instead, her brow furrowed and the corners of her lips curled into a frown.

”Yeah, I know how that feels. I’m real sorry about that.” Something in the woman’s tone made Yue feel she could believe that, at least. ”Kinda have to right now, though. One of us has to keep your eyes shut, and somethin’ tells me you can’t, right?” A brief pause. A slight shift in her finger’s told Yue she had probably shrugged. ”At least it's not bare skin.”

Yue forced one of her hands to stay open in spite of the anxious urge to ball them up, though her hand clutching the medallion did flex. A drop of blood seeped out from between her fingers.

”Tell you what,” the woman proposed, sounding more firm. ”Take three steps to your left. There’s a wall there. Sit against it, and we’ll see how well we can do with the no-touching.” An audible grimace. ”But no promises.”

Would three inches be too much? Yue didn’t want to liquefy any organs. She couldn’t judge distance while blinded… maybe just the second knuckle? Open palm would be the safest. She reached forward with disarming slowness, searching for an abdomen or other soft tissue with her lips pressed into a thin line.

There was a soft thump as air rushed to fill suddenly empty space, the soft pressure against Yue’s eyelids vanishing in an instant.

”I told you to sit, girl. I’m tryin’ to help you out here, you know?” The voice reappeared several paces behind and above her, drifting from a low rooftop, accompanied by a quiet swishing of air as the woman kicked her legs lazily.

”Don’t turn around, by the way. I think this is as close as I can get without overwhelming you, and I dunno if that radius gets larger if you’re look- oh, stupid girl.”

Yue whirled around, her eyes burning luminous amber with aggressively thin slitted pupils. She swung an open palm behind her, creating a pressure wave that ripped down the alley, though she had to take a step to steady herself afterwards when the world continued to spin sickeningly. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for the source of the voice… and then up, dreading that she would see a black and white theater mask.

What she saw was… the world upending as she lost all sense of balance. Yue crashed to the alley floor and pressed her palms to her eyes, rolling onto her stomach away from the woman and desperately trying to keep the shakshouka down. Something. [Nothing]. An overwhelming presence of [NOTHING].

"F-fuck!" Yue spat involuntarily as she tried to wriggle and crawl away without uncovering her eyes.

The woman’s polished loafers clicked across the floor of the alley as she approached from behind Yue, a half-pace to the side to give her some space. ”I warned you, kiddo,” she sighed, footsteps coming around Yue’s head while staying out of arm’s reach.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

---

[Castle on the Clouds]

---

Dawn rested her elbows on the table and rubbed her temples in silence for a long minute before taking a deep breath. Is this how she made other people feel? "Sit," Dawn instructed, with an air of frustration. She turned one of her fingers down and pressed it into the table with a gentle thump as she pinched her brow with her other hand. A barely perceptible iridescent force pushed down on Felix's shoulders and at the back of his knees until he fell back into his chair.

"Take a breath. Felix. I like you, but... you frustrate me. I'm going to impart on you some wisdom I never thought would come out of my mouth," she flicked her eyes towards the ceiling as she took another deep breath. Gods why am I the responsible one in this dynamic? "It's never going to be perfect," she said, locking eyes with him.

"If you run back to your lab every time you experience a glitch or a setback to fix something, you'll always be fixing it. And there will never be any meaningful progress if it can't leave the lab until its perfect. What about the other ten things you overlooked? How about those three situations where it might not perform the way you expect it to? How about... that one time it breaks when you really needed it to work? Where's your lab going to be? Not where you need it?" Dawn reached across the table like she was going to take his hands in hers and seemed to think better of it.

"My brother should be the one saying this to you, not me. I'm not qualified- I~~'m an impulsive, immature fuck up," she said, stabbing the table with a finger for emphasis. "Spirits alive, we're at a restaurant! Just order something! I'm not allowed in your lab, and that's a good thing! I'm here. Talk to me here!"

"Trouble in paradise, Nightlight?"

"Oh, fuck me," Dawn muttered, pressing her face into her hands. Ion rode down on a curtain of lightning, alighting on the glass and sliding a good ten feet towards them unsteadily on Felix's vomit. He squared his chest after regaining his balance and planted his fists on his hips dramatically. His helmet peeled back, retracting in segments into the suit's collar and revealing a roguishly handsome grin. It was clear from his unshaven stubble, and even the dark circles under the thin mask that only covered his eyes that he'd probably been out on patrol all night. Dawn peeked through her fingers and looked him up... and down... and then up again.

"The thing! Your Thing! It did the thing!!!" he gestured at Felix excitedly. "Holy smokes, you were in the Tower one second and then BAM! Wow! I think that beats Fang for the speed record, King!"

"We're not touching, and I didn't drag him off the net," said Dawn, holding her hands up defensively.

"Naw, Felix filled me in. You're on the okay list," Ion informed, snorting when Dawn exhaled in relief. "Hey, listen: I gotta scram. Big hubbub on the Sector 7 plate, some kind of explosion over in Justice Square?"

"Oh, fuck!" Dawn blurted out, covering her mouth. Her golden eyes flicked over to look at Felix... if she hadn't played hooky from the office this morning, there was a chance they'd have been caught up in all that.

"Yeah, bunch of people got hurt. It's an all-hands-on-deck sort of thing. Hey," he smirked, leveling an armored finger at Felix. "This kind of up-all-night chaos is what you have to look forward once you pass your Field Agent exam!" Ion waggled his eyebrows suggestively and clucked his tongue at Felix.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

---

[UnderCity - ShieldTown Region]

[A Druidquest / XianaEvermore Collaboration]

---

Yue checked over her arm and groped her face where prickles of numbness had cropped up to make sure everything was still there. Besides a scrape, a few nicks, and some road rash, she’d probably have (another) neat looking bruise from her collision with the cliff face. All things considered, it could have been worse.

She wondered if she’d done something to prevent herself from becoming a red smear on the wall in that instant where she hadn’t been protected by the medallion’s barrier. Something to meditate on later…

No doubt Archer was pulling his hair out, so rather than dwell on it, she brushed the dust off with a sigh and started back towards ShieldTown at a much more modest pace. After an uneventful run, she lazy-vaulted the North perimeter and slid down the interior wall. Alex’s place would be the obvious place to wait to be yelled at, and she knew it was vaguely located in the center of town.

Yue turned the medallion over and over in her hand as she walked, letting it sing in her ear while she mulled the events over in her head. If there had been one more foothold she probably would have had enough velocity to escape. Somehow she doubted the others would be amenable to her running loose without supervision around the perimeter of the crater and attempting to climb at all the plate gaps.

Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to suggest it, being a simple solution that didn’t need to inconvenience the lives of the others she’d been imposing on for… what felt like years now. It’d barely been a day, of course, but still. The thought that people were probably panicked over her disappearance weighed heavily on her. No doubt resources were being spent that didn’t need to be, and the Templar… well Sai, mainly, was probably turning the city upside down or concocting some ridiculous plan that involved far too many explosives.

Right. Focus on what we can control.

Yue blew out a sigh, coming out of her thoughts and pausing in an intersection. She squinted at all the buildings, turning in a slow circle and realizing she’d lost sight of the wall, and all these buildings kind of looked the same… to her at least.

"Fuck," she muttered. "I really do need adult supervision."

”Looking for somethin’, Miss?”

A young boy no older than twelve popped up by Yue’s elbow, gazing up with the backs of his hands resting on his hips. There was something… odd about him she couldn’t quite place. He looked like a normal enough kid, tan skin, dusty black hair, but something about looking at him made her eyes… sting. Like staring into a campfire. He tilted his head slightly, waiting for a response, before continuing on his own.

”I can help out if you need directions,” he commented, hopping out in front of her. ”I’m somethin’ of a guide, you see. People ‘round here call me Doll. You know the Rats? They’re good friends of mine.”

"Doll? Rats?" Was that some kind of gang? She squinted at the child for a long moment. "Um… Well…," she hesitated, not wanting to perpetuate the small-town stereotype that everyone knew everyone else. Since… surely that wasn’t the case, right?

"I’m meeting some friends? One of them is a huge…," she gestured vaguely, indicating someone extremely tall and wide.

”Oh, you’re looking for Aegis,” Doll interrupted before Yue could finish. ”Yeah, I know where he’s at.”

Because of course he does.

"O-oh," she stammered awkwardly. "Would you… be so kind?"

Doll stared at her for a moment, as though considering her request. A few seconds stretched toward the full minute mark, his silence lasting long enough to make Yue start feeling antsy. She was about to reconsider when he suddenly spun on his heel and started marching off. ”Sure thing!” he announced cheerfully. ”This way, Miss.” Yue exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

Doll led Yue confidently off the main thoroughfare, guiding her into the narrow twisting alleys of Shieldtown’s heart. He whistled as they walked, some silly jingle which sounded so familiar but Yue couldn’t quite place. It somehow resembled every commercial soundbite released in the last twenty years at once, but she couldn’t pick out any single riff that was quite like any of them. He occasionally cast his glance back over his shoulder, double checking that she hadn’t fallen out of step, but otherwise seemed to leave the woman to her own thoughts.

This was the part where normal people made small talk. ‘From around here? Lead people through sketchy, dark alleyways often?’ Though all she could really muster was a concerned "Hmmmmm," as they vanished into the labyrinth of poorly planned between-spaces that all looked alike.

Clearly… we’re about to be murdered.

Yue chased the suspicious thought with a pang of guilt. The kid couldn’t have breached double digits yet, and she’d faced down far more intimidating adversaries than a mischievous kid in an unfamiliar town… right? RIGHT?? Even still, she watched him as though he would disappear the moment she took her eyes off him.

Doll glanced back at her, as though sensing her eyes on him. He turned back forward for a moment, then after a beat spun on his heel to face her fully, never breaking pace as he continued walking backward. He studied her face for a long while, never bothering to check he wasn’t going to run into anything, turning corners and ducking under obstacles like he had a frame-perfect memory of where they all would be.

”You’re a lot prettier than I’d expect one of his friends to be,” he remarked, finally breaking his silence. ”Are you really friends?”

"Uh!" The things kids say. The question made her flinch, and though she fought against the urge her eyes flicked up and to the right for an instant as her cheeks flushed. "Well…? I suppose I haven’t really met him in person," she admitted. How did you explain online games to a kid who lives in a literal hole?

Doll blinked in a manner which could’ve been pity. ”Are you sure you aren’t being cat-fished?”

"Wh~!"

”Yeah, are you sure you aren’t being cat-fished?”

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Archer took a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to uncoil. It wasn't fair for him to snip at Zolya on account of Yue being difficult. He'd only just caught up with her and now she was running off again. It wasn't even that he thought she couldn't handle herself: it was about the unintentional chaos she might cause and the... other elements whose attention she might attract.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I-," 'shouldn't have lashed out like that,' was what he was going to say before Zolya interrupted by suddenly invading his personal space. Her fingers traced the surface of the expensive linen dress shirt he'd manhandled over his frame which was only slightly rumpled from the previous day's wear. His gaze first traced the path of her touch while his eyebrows crested his hairline, and then clear ocean blue's flicked up to meet her olive green eyes as she brushed past. He couldn't suppress the swirl of luminous emotion in them, nor the rather brilliant flush of his cheeks and the involuntary silly grin that curled at the corners of his mouth.

Deja-Vu.

"If she keeps talking to me like that, your wish to marry into the family might get realized sooner than you think," he grinned, clucking his tongue at Raudd. "East, towards Shieldtown. At least she's speed-limited without her suit, unless-," 'that barrier can protect her from some serious air-resistance,' was what he was going to say before the sharp *CLAP* of an over-pressure wave rolling over the building interrupted him. His eyes darted to meet Raudd's.

"Is that where the Aegis went? What the hell kind of artifact did you guys give her?" He muttered as he focused in on Yue's signature. "She's moving North now?" He informed, while trying to figure out what could be in that area that would have attracted her attention.

---

Yue blinked, eyes following the ravens and their display... or warning. For a moment her head swirled before she remembered that yes, indeed, magic was real, and that these creatures belonged to Zolya. She sighed heavily, gnawing the inside right corner of her lower lip in thought. They were probably right: vertical velocity was hard. She couldn't fly or generate the constant thrust required to fight against gravity.

There would have to be sturdy footholds for her to push off of. She didn't think she could develop acute enough control over the shape of the barrier in the handful of seconds it would take to reach the crater wall to glide for any sort of distance.

"So, what then? Give up?" She muttered, more to herself than the birds as her gaze traced the plate-gap to the crater wall some miles in the distance. Yue rolled the medallion in her palm over and over, pausing to squeeze its sharp corners against the inside fold of her knuckles after each flip.

That anxious vibration, the restless urge to move coiled around her neck, causing her to roll her roll her shoulders involuntarily. One of them cracked in protest. She could feel the individual muscle fibers behind her knees screaming as they twitched. An individual mote of dust that had been suspended in the light in front of her came into focus as a thread of luminous [Silver] waved lazily across her gaze.

"Don't think I can let this one go, friend," she informed as she stepped North with a purpose.

Threads of [Silver] peeled out of her chest wildly as she took a deep breath. She tried to recall Zolya's lesson on directing and allowing Aether to flow through her body, though... she found her [Silver] threads didn't wish to move that way. When she tried, they often got stuck part way, or tugged awkwardly against her skin.

Don't force it... what did it do naturally? Her head tilted as she remembered observing the threads crawling up the manor's cairn stone. Her Aether wasn't fluid like Zolya's or Archer's, and it only flowed when she was touching something. Yue turned the medallion up in her palm, watching her threads of Aether stitch themselves into the engravings, naturally laying in complementary support as it formed braids and lattices around what she guessed were the most important structures of the array. The occasional bolt of [Crimson] would arc down her forearm and thrum against the array, usually chasing a spike of frustration or irritation that this Aether thing just wouldn't do what she was asking it to.

She exhaled gently, rolling into a new breath. Keeping a lid on all that inner turmoil was gonna be a thing, wasn't it?

Yue closed her eyes as she walked, trusting the near imperceptible caramel glow from the Earth below her to keep her feet steady. She imagined thread twisting into twine, weaving into braided ropes against her skin and pulsing into the medallion. She didn't have to open her eyes to see the [Silver] complying slowly. Her eyes snapped open to that familiar tension in her irises. She was tuned in enough to feel her pupils stretching. Her hand closed tightly on the medallion at the top of her breath, and she found herself coiled to pounce.

Right. Clear my head. Don't think too hard about it. Just do what feels natural, the Aether will fill in the rest.

Her foot sank inches into the Earth before it started to push back, and her chest slammed into that familiar wall of pressure. She was ready for it this time, ducking her head into it. She imagined creating down-force like her suit would to counteract the strong lift, and the barrier seemed to comply as she angled her body into as flat of a profile as she could while retaining her balance. Clouds of vapor roared over the contours of her shoulders, roiling over her spine as the barrier formed a sharp spike just slightly ahead of her, reinforced with a lattice of [Silver] Aether.

Yue pushed, feeling her foot skip across the broken concrete before achieving friction. She lurched forward, punching through the pressure as a violent cone of white vapor roiled around her waist and thrashed against her thigh as she forced her knee up to her chest.

She streaked across the bleak empty outside of ShieldTown as a plume of curling dust ripping savagely across the landscape, punctuated by periodic explosions of dirt and debris as she skipped across the ground. Long trails of vapor streamed intermittently from her fingertips as she made minor attitude adjustments between steps.

The downforce eased only slightly as the slope of the crater began to increase sharply, and her steps became taller and taller leaps. Finally, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, she was perched on the peak of the sturdiest boulder she could pick out on her approach. It shattered beneath her as she rocketed upwards along the crater wall, her eyes flicking back and forth rapidly to pick out footholds and the barrier angled so that she was nearly crushed against the cliff face by the downforce.

The morning sky, which had just been a brilliant thread moments ago was rapidly expanding to fill her vision. If she could just stay super-sonic past the half way point she should have enough inertia to clear the surface... Yue braced herself for a final push, angling towards what looked like a shallow overhang she could get traction on, though her breath stuck in her throat when she reached it. A trick of the light against the weathering of the rock made it look like there was more to grasp than there was. A quick scan told her there wasn't any other anchor within reach that would allow her to keep her inertia, so she had to commit: there was no aborting at this stage.

Yue's foot slipped and she wobbled unsteadily for a moment, and the momentary lapse of concentration caused the braided lattice of [Silver] threads to buckle and unravel. The barrier lost its curated shape, and she skittered across the cliff face as she tried to re-shape it. Streaks of vapor shrieked over her wildly as the shock cone closed in over her shoulders and she was slammed into the cliff face by the shockwaves. The breath was knocked from her lungs and the medallion spun from her fingers.

She managed to protect her face with her arm, hot sparks dragging along her skin as the lattice of Aetheric threads rapidly unraveled. She pushed away from the wall before any serious injury was sustained. The sharp corners of the medallion dug into her palm as she reached out and grabbed it just before it spun out of reach. The damage was done: she was bleeding speed rapidly, and flailed awkwardly as she hit the apex of her ascent. Her fingertips only just brushed against the corner of the plate ceiling before she started falling.

Yue managed to control her descent by angling the barrier to keep herself pressed against the cliff face and sliding down. Towards the bottom where it became rockier she pushed away from the wall and skipped unsteadily across the rocks until she slammed hard into the dirt, sliding the rest of the way. She stared at the sky through the distant plate gap for a long minute before she pushed herself slowly to her feet and began walking at a normal pace towards ShieldTown... she needed a minute to catch her breath after that.

---

"Hey Dean... are there any Rogues on your roster that can go super-sonic?"

"No... Silver Fang is our guest, though. She could."

"Our surfacer is Silver Fang?? Fuck. She's making a run at the Plate Gap."

"Hah. It was never a question of 'IF' she would try, only 'WHEN.' Easy money."

"I'm flush from the Scarhide bet. 50 she makes it."

"Actually the minimum bet on that pool is-"

"Well, raise it 50!"

"Oooooh! That looked painful..."
"Oooooh! That looked painful..."

"... Fuck."