***
She's gone.
I…
I…
…
THEY TOOK HER!
I flex with every part of my being, because they have taken what is MINE and they will pay. I reach, I flex, I push, I shove, I revel, I force, I RAGE.
[Stop.]
'THEY TOOK HER!'
[This is not the solution, you are a fetus in a shell. You will die outside of it, and you will take most of the realm with you.]
'THEY TOOK HER!'
[We know. We can feel your hurt, but this is not the answer.]
I struggle against the shell of my egg anyway, and it leaves me feeling impotent. There is nothing to push against, no cracks that I can wedge my fingers between. Or whatever I have instead of fingers.
[We are sorry, but you are not ready for that. Your shell is repaired, you cannot break it yet.]
Left stunned and useless, I let Lillian and Shiv drag me away from the literal army of monsters. I follow in a daze, through the maze of twisting corridors and classrooms of the Academy.
How.
why…
…
'Gestalt.'
[Yes Tangerine?]
'Where is she?'
[We do not know, we cannot sense where any of you are. Whatever they did to her has left our brain slug deaf and blind. All we know is she is still alive.]
'What do I do?'
[Go with Lillian and Shiv and find Maria. She is organizing the defense and evacuation of the Academy.]
I don't know how long it's been since the invasion started, but I'm noticing a lack of people around now. There are a few unfortunate souls that didn't make it, their corpses littering the hallways. But I expected more.
[Most students have followed the emergency protocol and have left the Academy through various rifts or emergency exit portals.]
'We have an emergency protocol?'
[Yes, it was explained during orientation. You didn't pay attention.]
Well shit, that was probably important. Sophia would have paid attention, probably would have taken notes and everything…
Fuck…
I…
[Focus.]
'Why?'
'What's the point, I failed!'
[Sophia isn't dead yet.]
'I…'
[Are you going to let them take what's yours?]
'Fuck no!'
[Get to Maria, we will find a way to get Sophia back.]
As I followed the girls, we ran across a pack of demons and spirits. Let me tell you, Lillian is a fucking murder machine when it comes to killing monsters. She's using a bunch of different layered auras to close the distance with impossible speed, favouring a spear she makes quick work of the demons that she barrels through.
Shiv, like myself, prefers the long-range approach, lobbing bombs and blasting lightning from her fingers.
Leaving the demons to the two of them, I dealt with the spirits. Even cycling my core in a mana-thin environment like this was enough to rip apart any of them that I could get a hold of. There was a little bit of catharsis there, but not enough to quell the roiling knot of anguish in my gut.
Eventually, we arrive at the defenses that Maria and the other Rift Officers have set up. It's in one of the food halls, not the Rift Walker food hall, but the much bigger one that the regular mage students use.
I collapse down in one of the corners, I…
I…
I don't know how to handle this.
I can't handle this.
I want to scream.
Instead I start quietly sobbing.
Maria is busy with a number of other Rift Officers. I see Teacher Amber and Teacher Astrid with her, plus a few others I don't recognize. Maria is focusing on some big motherfucker of a spell.
We look to be in a bit of a stand-off. Everyone that's here are the people who won't be lost or forgotten about. The Maria loyalists, for whom it's better to gather and fight rather than cut and run through one of the many exits in the Academy.
The army of monsters outside has been testing our defenses. Lillian and Shiv have joined in with repelling these scouting parties.
I should join them, I should be helpful.
I…
[Your Mom did not rob you of all your Eldritch abilities, you know.]
'How does seeing some rift threads help me here?'
[...]
[Creating Rifts is a risky and dangerous thing, even for those Rift Walkers well trained in it. There are good reasons why the Academy waits a while before teaching it to their Rift walker students.]
[But you have a natural advantage. Most Rift Walkers are scrambling around in the dark, but you can see, and touch, and twist.]
'So?'
[Tangerine, please think.]
Listening to my friend, I take a breath and try to ignore the gnawing pain of failure and loss. This is a fight for resources. We're here in the hall both because it's big enough to hold all these people, but also because there are micro rifts here. Maria is sucking mana out from several of them to power whatever bullshit sorcery she's constructing.
But those wells are running dry, I can sense it. Maria is straining to pull mana through them. The aether in the room is also bled dry of mana; there is nothing the regular mages can do right now.
The invaders probably have the same problem. Everyone is mana-starved.
'Are you saying that I can open up some rifts?'
[Yes, not only that, we believe that you can dictate the colour better than any other Rift Walker alive.]
'What do you mean?'
[It is all a matter of perception. Look at the threads, see where they knot.]
I pay closer attention to the threads around me now. In the Academy, they are always a messy bundle of twists and knots, criss-crossing over each other. But there are kinks in the lines, places that can be pushed. I can see where they overlay with other threads that aren't here – ones from other realms. And depending on the direction I observe the thread, the place it lines up with changes.
I look up to see Maria and the spell she is working on. She's sucking in pure white mana as hard as she can, but it's not enough. She needs so much more.
Running over to Maria, I start tweaking at the threads, trying to find a perspective I need.
"What do you think you are doing, Tangerine?" It's Teacher Astrid who stops me.
"I… err, do you trust me?" I try.
"You are a first-year student, of course I don't trust you."
That's fair. I wouldn't trust me either. "Do you trust Gestalt? They are helping me with rift stuff, I think I can get more of the Mana that Maria needs."
Astrid pauses for a moment, the terrible idea of letting a first year student fuck around with rifts warring with the idea that we are actually kinda fucked right now. If we don't get some more mana fast, then we are all probably demon food.
She grimaces, "Fine! At least if you fuck up, it's a relatively quick death."
"Language." Maria says through strained teeth, her eyes closed as she concentrates. Both Astrid and I roll our eyes.
It's a little painful to get too close to Maria right now, the sheer amount of mana she is cycling playing haywire with my senses. I walk around her, following the threads until I see what I need. A place where the threads are already close to being tangled, a proto-rift, the other end has a taste of Morgoth. I would recognize those spooky vibes anywhere. I feel the taste of mountains, red mana.
Touching the thread, I twist it slightly; the perspective changes, like lining up two mirrors to see what you want to see. It's still Morgoth, but instead of mountains, I've aimed the sight at fields, complete with spooky scarecrows.
I reach forward with the things that are not my hands and grasp the thread. Teacher Astrid takes a sharp breath. "What are you do…"
She doesn't get to finish before I loop the thread into a knot that feels correct, and pull it tight. Reality doesn't tear or shatter, nothing so crude as that. It's not the sound of broken glass on a chalkboard. It's a soft hum, a tone synced with another. Instead of a tear, I have made a tiny fold, one which the mana can pass through freely.
Maria's mana core sucks it up greedily. Her eyes are still closed, she says, "I don't know what you did, Tangerine. But more of that, please."
I find two more knots for Maria to suck white mana out, all the while sounds of fighting grow more intense from the hall's doorways. The enemy knows something is up.
Maria is close; the spell has almost taken shape. She is channeling more mana than I have ever seen, more even than when Mom gave me the Scour for Existence spell.
Sweat dripping from her forehead, Maria says, "Astrid, I am ready."
"FALL BACK!" Arstrid screams at the top of her lungs. "FALL BACK NOW!"
Maria let go of the spell, and from her sprang countless pink petals as if she was abandoning them to their fate, carried along by winds that she herself had created; the petals passed through the people of the hall without incident. But as they came into contact with creatures from the Realm of Shadows, each one was transformed into a flurry of petals themselves, to also be spread by the winds.
And just like that, I knew the scale of a true Rift Officer. Maria with a single spell had wiped an entire army off the board.
It was weird how quiet everything was all of a sudden.
I drop to my knees, folding the knots between the realms has not been without its cost. I feel like I could sleep for a week.
Maria strolls forward like she hasn't just channeled more mana than I ever felt possible, and takes command. "Listen everyone, we will be making for the east docks. The situation has become untenable. We need to regroup. Prepare everything you need, we will be leaving soon."
She then turns to me. "Sophia?"
I shake my head, tears threatening to spill. "No, they took her."
She winces at that. "I'm glad the realm is still in one piece. We will get her back. You will get her back."
I nod my head.
"We will be going over how you are able to create micro rifts so quickly. But can you get us some more white and black mana?"
I pull myself to my feet. "Yes."
Maria can see the strain that I'm putting myself under. "I'm sorry to ask this of you, but we do really need it."
I find three more rift spots, two white and one black. By the last one, I can feel something hurting, in the non-human bit of myself. Teacher Astrid catches me as I collapse. "You did well, girl. Rest for a moment." She said,
Pulling my drained body and mind to a corner, I fold down on myself. Both Teacher Astrid and Amber are greedily sucking down mana from the rifts I created, prepping instant spells.
Lillian finds me, both her and her spear are covered in demon blood. "You alright, Tans?" she asks.
A bit of a silly question really, I'm sweating and shaking, I just want to sleep. "Yeah, all good." I say anyway, because I ain't no bitch.
Shiv joins us, looking me up and down. "She looks fucked to me. You think we are gonna have to carry her?"
Lillian nods her head. "Yeah, she's not moving for shit. I can carry her on my back. At least she's small."
"Fuck, you." I manage to squeeze out. Fuck, I'm so tired, I turn to Shiv, "Where's Daisy?"
"She's gone, along with most of the others. She wanted to stay and help, but she's not exactly a fighter. I made her leave. Her family isn't involved in this mess, so she should be safe."
Lillian follows up, "Ria took Corack home with her, neither of them are good in a scrap. Well, Corack might be, but it's a little young for that life just yet, so we told it to go with Ria. The elves and Rupert bounced early. Vincent is with Bronson, causing trouble somewhere. They should meet up with us soon."
"ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY, IT'S TIME TO MOVE!" Astrid yells from the entrance of the hall. It's hard to stand, my legs are shaking so much. Shiv helps me clamber onto Lillian's back.
We move as a group, there's maybe a hundred of us, give or take. The Academy is eerie now, too quiet. Only an hour ago the place was awash with the noise of warfare, but now the invaders are gone, along with all the students and staff.
That's not to say we are alone. There are still enemy mages and Rift Walkers, hiding in the shadows, preparing to ruin our day.
Even more than they already have.
'Gestalt, are you going to be okay? It looks like we are leaving.'
[Yes, we will be fine. It is very hard to get to our basement unless we allow it. We also have escape plans if it comes to that.]
'Good luck buddies.'
[Thank you, good luck to you as well.]
We run into a little bit of resistance on our way to the east wing service docks. This massive, horrible centipede-looking fucker comes scrambling down a hallway it barely fits in. Amber hits the thing directly in its maw with a sunlance spell, Astrid follows up with a fatal blow that leaves the creature a pulverised mess.
Fuck, my teachers are scary when they want to be.
I should probably pay a little more attention in class.
But that sounds boring, so fuck that.
There's a few other little fights, and a bit of spell slinging along the way. We run into Bronson and Vincent, just in time to see them take apart a fresh pack of demons like a precision sledgehammer. The two of them make quite the team, which is funny, because they clearly hate each other.
The East Wing docks are a much smaller affair than the main docks of the Academy. Just three piers vertically aligned. It's quiet; there's one leftover supply barge, but the rest of the piers are empty.
'Why is it so quiet here?'
[The main docks are on the other side of the Academy. There hasn't been enough time to send anything around. Also, your land creature did quite the number on them. They are still recovering.]
'Glad I was some help.'
[You were.]
'I can't believe we lost the Academy.'
[All is not lost yet. People need to be secured, families need to be made safe, then there will be a counter attack.]
Rising up from the Aether are a number of Voidcraft and War Barges, not enough for a counter-offensive, but certainly enough for a tactical retreat. They moor up one at a time, covering each other, letting people climb aboard.
Gideon steps off the last one, taking Teacher Amber into his arms and kissing her in a very not PG friendly way. Huh, I had no idea. Honestly though it makes sense, there is always at least one teacher couple at any given school.
The aether is getting dark now. I don't know what time it is, but it must be getting late.
I'm not sure if the enemy doesn't realize we are here, or if they just aren't in a position to stop us. But we are able to leave without interference.
I find a corner on the Voidship that Lillian carried me onto, and curl up into a ball.
For the first time in a long time I am alone.
For the first time in a long time I sob myself to sleep.
***
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