“Rhys really does remind me of Garder,” Milla said, continuing a long conversation about those who lived in the burrow, particularly the team of teenagers. “At least, the way he used to be, years ago. I’m not sure what he’s like now… I mean, I’ve heard the stories, the reports, but… I haven’t seen personally what the war’s done to him.”

  Simon, sitting in the seat on the other side of the aisle, replied, “I’m surprised it didn’t seem to affect Temki too much. He saw two years of it.”

  “And arguably the worst of it, too… Back when alchemagi was still stronger, Aurra was even darker and colder, and everything was chaos. We really had no idea what we were doing out there, and…” She stopped for a moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t talk about things I haven’t seen up close. We’ve been cooped up in C for so long, in relative safety. But, Temki did change. When we got him back during the formation of the alliance, he was no longer the scared, quiet little kid he was before.”

  “Mind adepts grow up even faster than regular Aurrian children, don’t they? That must’ve been part of it.”

  “I mean, yeah, that’s partially why most of the young commanders we answer to are mind adepts, but still…” Her own mind racing with thoughts, she shifted the subject of their ongoing talk again, “And I feel bad for Rayna. I keep thinking we should keep her inside.”

  “Milla, you’re anxious about Garder, aren’t you? And the others.”

  “So much has happened in five years.”

  “Reunions following a long separation are always a little awkward, like you just don’t know what to say to each other. But if you both talk for a bit, you’ll feel like barely any time has passed pretty quickly.”

  “Maybe. I hope so. He’s killed more pretorians than anyone else has over the years. That doesn’t just happen by coincidence. I have this worry that something’s behind that, like he’s hunting them down, or letting them come to him, out of some need for revenge…”

  “I think we should talk about Nish and W.”

  “What’s there to talk about? We know so little about either.”

  “Well… we can assume he has a lab of some kind, maybe full of active experiments. Seeing and understanding what he’s doing is why I’m here, isn’t it? We could at least theorize on some things. If he’s still making clones, it might help to figure out just how he’s doing it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If they really do have souls… and I assume that as well, where is he getting them from? Wouldn’t Nish need access to an injector?”

  “My dad and I have talked about that so many times over the years, Simon. Sorry. Until we finally see him face to face, we’re not going to learn anything more about him.”

  “Okay, but… what’s our plan? Do we capture him?”

  “If we can. But it’s more important that we destroy his cloning program, entirely. We don’t know how many he has following him, and if they’re as easy to manipulate and ‘program’ as Kamsa was…”

  “So, we just kill them all? Is that what you want to do?”

  “It’s safer. We can’t let the Guard have them. If that means calling in the Mezik for an airstrike that levels his lab, so be it.”

  “But, Milla, they’re pretty much related to you…”

  “I’m not sure Leovyn would go for that, anyway,” Colt said from the cockpit, its door open and just a few feet away. “At this rate, the war will be done before the Mezik bombs anything again.”

  “Let’s at least look at their faces if we meet them,” Simon argued. “You’re too compassionate to make that your only option, Milla.”

  She sighed and looked towards the floor. “That isn’t always a good thing. Not if it means others are hurt because of your decisions.”

  Simon thought of another direction to take their conversation in, but Colt spoke first, “And if you look out to your left, you’ll see City Y.”

  Milla turned to look through her window, as Simon left his seat to also get his glance. Bathed in the colors of a sunset, Y’s large island in the distance was covered in millions of small lights, all lined up neatly. Even at their altitude, it was easy to see how soulless its colors and architecture were. It sprawled across its miserable rock, holding in cramped apartments for those who were seen as not quite troubled enough to earn a place in Z.

  Colt explained for Simon, “You’re looking at a place that’s held the title of worst City other than the big prison for centuries. The officials there practically pride themselves on finding new ways to create substandard living. Do you think anyone deserves to live another life in a place like that?”

  “I try not to critique judgment too much, having yet to face it myself,” Simon replied. “But, yeah… the humanist in me is against it.”

  “Garder was the same way,” Milla murmured.

  Colt replied, “If judges are still around when I… The hell?”

  Milla shot up and exclaimed, “What?”

  “Simon, buckle back up. Now.”

  He did so, and an emergency alarm suddenly went off from the Colt’s console. He immediately disabled autopilot, and with both hands tight on the flight stick, dove at a sharp angle.

  “Two missiles are inbound and tailing us. Must be heat-seeking.”

  “Where’d they come from?” Milla shouted back.

  “Had to have been launched from somewhere in Y. We didn’t know the City had that capability. Hold on. I’ll try and evade.”

  Coming out of the dive a thousand feet over the ocean, Colt pulled up and watched his radar screen carefully to see that the missiles were still closing in. Once the nearer of the two reached just the right distance, he triggered the flares, firing off a barrage of white phosphorous that should have sent both of the projectiles off course. But only one was sent away and exploded at a safe distance; the other merely swerved a little before it was back onto the Mezik L’s hot engines. Colt hit his console angrily.

  “Damn it, we only had that one round.”

  “Then how do we get out of this?” Milla shouted back.

  “Gah, damn it…” Colt looked out his window at the fading sunlight, which reminded him that he still had an easy way to get them to safety. “I’ll teleport us. We’ll just have to refuel and restart this trip from another direction, avoiding Y. We’ll lose maybe twelve hours.”

  “We may not have that kind of time!”

  “Better than being dead, right?”

  Colt pulled into an even steeper climb, pinning his passengers to their seats. With the horizon disappearing below, they began to lose speed, and much more of it compared to the missile that was closing in on them.

  “What are you doing?” Simon managed to get out even as it felt like someone was standing on his chest. “You’re going to stall.”

  Colt explained, “Can’t teleport until we hit twenty knots. Keeps us from slamming into wherever we’re going with our momentum.”

  “And where are we going?” Milla asked. “You don’t get out much, Colt! The burrow and C aren’t open, so where can you take us?”

  “Back to that village should work, right?”

  “Nish is going to escape again by the time we get there…”

  With the Mezik L nearly completely vertical by the time her speed had fallen enough, Colt reached over and got ready to touch the orb above the throttle. He was certain he could hear the missile’s rocket shaking the air outside. It must have been incredibly close. There wasn’t any time to…

  Colt suddenly felt a rush of air, like something heavy had just moved past him. He looked to his right and saw that Rhys was there.

  Colt breathed out, “The hell did you come from?”

  “Rhys?” Milla was equally surprised.

  The cadet looked back at the other two adults onboard, hesitated, and having no time to explain, he knocked away Colt’s hand, grasped the demirriage-function sphere, and concentrated on a place he’d never forget.

  For that split second where the passengers and their aircraft were between two locations, they saw the missile pass through them, heading towards the upper atmosphere, its target having vanished.

  The sky barely changed. Only, there was now a giant web outside. After several moments of study, Colt, Milla, and Simon realized that there were faint reflections and glare in the web—it was actually a giant skylight, its metal veins supporting its weight in straight and sharp angles.

  Those moments were all they had, as the Mezik L soon lost its airspeed and pitched downwards. A sea of lights came into view; a City. But it was different, as it had no open sky. Most of its “ceiling” was pitch black, a void, but some of the buildings were in the form of sturdy columns that towered over the rest and ran all the way to the top, where their lights illuminated some surrounding rock. Thousands of people lived in each of the support towers, of which there were dozens.

  “This is W,” Colt breathed a sigh of relief once he recovered from the stall and they were flying above the City. “But, Rhys, how…”

  Milla left her seat and headed into the cockpit to scold him, but found that she was simply more perplexed and surprised about what had just happened. He turned around and looked up with a nervous grin.

  “Sorry, Ms. Nolland… I snuck aboard before the door was closed, stayed in the back… I was going to explain when we got here…”

  She stuttered back, “But h-how… How did you bring us here?”

  “I overheard about W.”

  “We gotta get better about that,” Colt said. “I mean, I get that the burrow is a small place and word travels, but still, it’s embarrassing.”

  Milla asked Rhys, “I meant… how is it that you’ve been here?”

  “Well, that’s something of a loaded story… See, I, uh…”

  “Save it for later,” Colt said. “We’ve got company.”

  She looked out the window and saw that two chariots had come in at their sides, their red siren lights flashing. Colt gave their pilots a wave, along with a gesture that was his attempt at saying he had no idea what radio frequency they used. One of the pilots signaled to land, and that was good enough for Colt, who descended right away.

  “Let’s focus on not pissing off our hosts,” Colt huffed and dropped the landing gear as he was guided onto an aeropad, one of many on the side of the City’s largest building. “Who knows, maybe they’re on our side.”

  Once they had touched down, Colt waited for an okay from Milla to open the door. It was an action she too needed to ponder.

  “You know… if we just wait a few minutes, Eden will be open,” Colt reasoned. “They probably couldn’t force their way in by then. Just saying, last chance to back out.”

  “No,” she decided. “We already made it this far. And they don’t seem hostile… At least not yet.”

  Security officers exited the two escort ships that were flanking them, and there were soon knocks on the door and muffled voices asking those onboard to step out. They didn’t sound too impolite about it.

  After a hesitant breath, Colt pulled the lever above him to unlock and open the door. Two flashlights were soon spilling into the aircraft, with Milla standing in front of them, trying to look non-threatening.

  “Come on out,” one of the officers waved at her.

  The other one, a younger rookie, could be heard commenting, “Just what kind of bird is this? Jesus, look at it…”

  “We’re not here to cause trouble,” Milla replied, trying to keep the light out of her eyes with her hands. “There’s three—um, four of us.”

  “Okay. Okay, just come out slowly,” the senior officer ordered.

  Keeping their hands up to be extra safe, Milla, Rhys, and Simon all went down the stairs and onto the pad, where they were kept free of any cuffs or other restraints.

  “Please surrender your weapons,” the senior officered asked. “We’ll keep them secure. What are you? Non-Guard military?”

  “Something like that,” Milla said and handed him her sword, as Rhys surrendered his knives and Simon showed them he was unarmed.

  “Where’s the fourth one?” the younger officer questioned.

  “Um, hey,” Colt shouted from the cockpit. “I’m just the pilot, and this is a very special ship, so… I’m hoping I could stay with her?”

  “No can do,” the senior officer shouted back. “Relax. You’re at the capitol building. No one’s going to impound your bird, not without the security chief’s say-so. Just come on out and let’s find out who you are.”

  “Fine, fine…”

  Colt came out with his hands up, still a little reluctant about it.

  “I’m not much of a people person when it comes to strangers,” he said and joined his friends. “Ah, man… The air is too… still up here.”

  “Yeah, it doesn’t move much in W. Now come on, let’s get inside.”

  To contrast with the dark and nearly monochromatic exterior of the City, the halls and rooms inside the tower were lit brightly in shades of blues and green. In addition, as W couldn’t have plant life naturally, small trees and flowers were kept in long green corridors behind glass.

  “This is… surprisingly nice for a City of this tier,” Colt noted.

  “We’re a lot more than just a low-grade City of slums and prisons,” the senior officer replied. “I’m sure our security chief will want to speak with you, but it’s going to have to wait. It’s been a busy day, and you aren’t our only sudden visitors. We’ll keep you in a holding cell for now.”

  “Thought you just said you were more than a prison…”

  “You’ll be treated fairly, so long as you show us proper respect.”

  The officer opened up a sliding door and waved in the visitors. The holding cell was windowless, but otherwise not oppressive. About the size of a small apartment, it had two beds, a couch, its own bathroom, a desk, a shelf with several books, and a hanging oil painting of a green landscape.

  Without argument, the four headed in and let the door lock shut behind them. Colt took a bed, while the others remained standing. Rhys crossed his arms and with a sigh, leaned up against a wall.

  “Sounds like we’re not alone out here,” Simon said. “Who do you think the other visitors might be? Garder? Or maybe a pretorian?”

  “Maybe both,” Milla replied and approached Rhys. “Either way, we don’t know how long we have in here, so, Rhys… What’s your big secret?”

  “Yeah, how have you been here before?” Colt added.

  He answered, with some reluctance, “I remember the skylight, very well… Anyway. He was going to kill me. I was smart enough to understand the euphemism he used. So, I ran away before it happened.”

  Milla asked, “Who was going to kill you?”

  “The closest person I could consider a father, I guess.” After taking a moment to think about where to begin, Rhys gave his hair a ruffle and continued, “Black… isn’t my natural color up here.”

  “Oh. You’re one of them… You are, aren’t you?”

  “He’s what?” Colt said and sat up in bed. “What am I missing?”

  “Guess I should start at the beginning, since we seem to have the time.” Rhys left the wall and began with, “I was different than the rest.”

  Garder arrived just outside of W’s main entrance on a sling, the airship fleet waiting in safety beyond the horizon. Winsles Island, where the City resided, was another large barren rock with few signs of civilization other than a couple of small ports and the deactivated Uluru portal. Within its inner mountain range, however, were some dug-in heavy blast doors that led to an entire subterranean metropolis which lived beneath.

  “Here it is,” Xavier said, approaching the entrance on foot with a sunlamp hanging at his side. “Guess they haven’t moved the entrance since the last maps came out. W’ers are not known for getting around.”

  “Ever meet one while working with Rivia?” Finx asked him.

  “Nope. Plenty of diplomats, but never one from here.”

  “How do we get in?” Sieger asked, rubbing his hand on the rugged solid steal of the exterior door. “Just… knock?”

  “Maybe there’s a call button somewhere?” Bryant suggested.

  Wendell and Verim, the last of the team sent to investigate, studied the side of the door and found a sturdy lever built to survive centuries of the haze. Verim gestured to Garder, who left their ship and came over.

  “Let’s hope they’re home,” he quipped and pulled the lever down.

  It went back up on its own, after which a portion of the wall slid up to reveal a small compartment, with a speaker and a protected camera within. His sunlamp clanking at his side, Garder came in for a close up and tapped on the speaker. The seven of them waited, for nearly two minutes.

  “State your business and allegiance,” a voice finally instructed.

  Garder asked flatly, “Are you friends of the Guard?”

  “Yeah, that’ll work…” Verim muttered.

  The voice replied, “This is about you lot, not us. Answer truthfully or turn around. You will be treated fairly inside.”

  “Fairly doesn’t exactly sound like executions…” Finx noted.

  Garder studied the door again and gave the security officer what he wanted, “We aren’t with the Guard. And I’m guessing you can tell by our weapons and clothes that we aren’t just independent military or here for business, either. So, you probably already know that we’re with the Angels.”

  “Hold on,” the voice responded, and the speaker fizzed.

  Bryant murmured, “Should we ready our weapons, or…”

  “This door isn’t opening quickly,” Wendell said. “I think we’ll have more than enough time to react once it starts…” he trailed off after a series of heavy mechanical noises, and upon noticing the door trembling.

  “There will be escorts on the other side,” the voice told them. “You must surrender your weapons. Someone will meet with you.”

  The speaker shut off, and the compartment resealed itself. As the door separated down the middle and slabs of metal slid left and right into the mountainside, the glow of sunlamps emerged from the opening. The door stopped moving after just a few feet, enough to accommodate the team through one at a time. Once they were inside and standing over reinforced grating, they could see the sunlamps lining the sides and ceiling of the airlock, more than enough to cover several degrees of redundancy.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’ve always been a little fascinated with this place…” Xavier said as the door closed behind them. “An entire City without a sunsphere.”

  “Does that mean they just use lamps for the entrances, and vents?” Bryant asked. “So… it’s more that they just filter the air coming into the City, instead of purifying the haze. I wonder what that means, physically.”

  “Can’t be much different than traveling in an airtight aircraft like a sling,” Sieger wondered. “The haze, purified or in its nasty form, is usually everywhere. Just thinkin’ out loud here.”

  Once the front door was closed, the secondary opened, this one a little lighter and faster. They stepped through when the opening was big enough and met a security team of four on the other side. They handed over their weapons, though Garder was reluctant to part with his new sword, and it took two men to carry away Sieger’s shields and large ax.

  They were in a large room, a security checkpoint with one more blast door at the other end. Most noticeable was its use of blue colors and the living trees kept behind glass along the walls.

  “W accommodates all its visitors, rare as they may be,” the tallest of the security officers explained. “We’ll have to register your names and give you ID cards first, and you’ll be held here for a minimum of six hours before you can go into the City. Standard procedure.”

  “I doubt Guardsmen are that patient,” Wendell replied.

  “We make an exception for them, give them priority access. But new visitors we know nothing about… Oh, and there’s a questionnaire.”

  “Seems like a lot of trouble to go through before we can even simply tell you why we’re here,” Xavier said. “It’s important, you see, and time may be of the essence, so if there’s any way we can…”

  “Perhaps we can work something out, if we had a good reason.”

  “It’s sensitive information,” Garder said. “I think we can only share it with whomever is in charge here.”

  “Ah. Well, that may still take some time to…”

  “I’m sure we can speed things along here,” a voice said from down the hall to their left, from a woman having just come out of a large office. “If Garder Nolland has a reason to come all the way out here to see us, we should be accommodating.”

  She was African in appearance, about Garder’s height with long black hair and a formal, light gray uniform similar to Connarth’s. She also had the commanding and confident gait of a typical pretorian.

  “Wait, this is the Nolland?” her subordinate replied skeptically.

  “One of them.” She turned to Garder and offered a hand, which he shook with a strong grip. “Blythe Xidona, Chief of Security. I’ve kept up on your exploits, the war in general. I hope you’re not here to bring it to our cave. We’ve rather enjoyed waiting it out down here.”

  “So, I take it the Guard hasn’t seized control?” Garder asked.

  “Not yet. You’ve come at an interesting time. We…” She paused and touched her earpiece, which she listened to carefully. “Do you have their names? What’s that? Hm. Now that is interesting. I’ll be there shortly.”

  “What are we doing?”

  “Come with me,” Xidona said and used the keycard hanging at her side to open the door ahead. “We’re going to the capitol building.”

  “Did someone else arrive?” Wendell asked.

  “I’ll tell you on the way,” she promised as a gush of cold air came in from the other, very dark side of the entrance. “Follow me.”

  As the door slowly opened, Garder looked up and noticed the security camera observing them, wondering who might’ve been watching.

  The seven visitors did as asked, joining Xidona on an open-air tram waiting for them at a platform station made of steel and rock. The area was dimly lit by only a few lanterns, but there was a soft and expansive glow above and past a short tunnel ahead. Once everyone was seated, Xidona pulled a lever and the electric tram car took off down the track.

  Her long hair waving in the moving air, Xidona explained from her spot up front, “Garder, I just heard that your sister arrived with a small group at about the same time you did. Though I’m not entirely certain how.”

  “I might have some idea…” he replied gruffly.

  Xidona leaned back and gave him a wry smile, “I figured you would’ve been more excited. Hasn’t it been some time since you’ve seen each other? I mean, I’m just assuming. There haven’t been any stories of both of you on the same field of battle since around the start of the war.”

  “He hides his emotions well,” Xavier replied.

  “I can see that. Along with the eyepatch, people probably consider him some unfeeling, brooding badass or something.”

  Garder shrugged. “Never really cared much about reputation. I just do my job.”

  “And that’s become killing pretorians, right? Well…” she sighed, “you may have another chance coming up.”

  Finx replied, “Wait, there’s a pretorian in W, right now?”

  They passed through the tunnel and emerged into a sunken railway heading towards the center of the City, one that would be locked in perpetual night—if not for the large skylight far above, though currently only starlight came in through its glass.

  Dodging the question, Xidona asked, “Before we all sit down for the big talk, at least tell me this: are the Angels here to try and establish some foothold in Tillethy? Your party is too small to attempt it through force, and I can tell you, we aren’t heavily involved with the other Cities on this continent of islands. On the other hand, if you only seek some help…”

  “Our business is to get in, and get out,” Garder answered. “We have no interest in W beyond a critical assignment that just happens to involve your City. And if the Guard is already here, time really is of…”

  He trailed off when he saw thousands of lights flicker throughout the City—an event that was followed by the sudden stop of the tram car.

  “Damn it,” Xidona muttered and got up to try the lever again. After opening the nearby circuit breaker and checking the fuses, she said with some agitation, “The City’s been having power problems like this for a few months. We haven’t been able to track down the cause yet.”

  After several seconds of stillness, Bryant inhaled a chest full of air and asked Xidona, “So… What’s it like not having a central sunsphere?”

  “Not something we really think about,” she replied. “We have purifiers, a necessity of being underground, and the outside air we draw in runs through a series of lamps. We keep a few in weaker spots of the rock just in case. Other than that…” she paused when the tram’s power returned and it started again with a jolt, “… we’re the same as any other City.”

  The car headed to the center of the City, where its largest tower, built in the architectural style of an ancient ziggurat, loomed over a large open-air plaza. Sitting atop gray stone arranged into a swirling pattern were dozens of shops and food stalls, and W’s citizens of all ages were packed in tightly, enjoying their night. Their clothes, while not as nice as those found in any mid-tier City, weren’t as ragged or drab as might be expected.

  They stopped at a fork in the track, with one direction heading to the City’s main train line and the platform for the plaza, and the other leading directly to the capitol building. Xidona had to swipe her card into an onboard reader to switch the track, and then they started moving again.

  “Xidona, what kind of leadership does W have?” Wendell asked as they approached the tower. “We may need to meet with them.”

  She answered, “We don’t have a single person with executive power. People vote on issues, and we have a council, but no single person that makes decisions. Still, a perceived leader always emerges, someone for the people here to look up to, who shares their ideals.”

  “I see. Hm. And… who might that be, currently?”

  “I would say they haven’t emerged yet, since… the previous title holder.” Xidona tapped at her ear. “We’re almost inside. You can move our visitors to the conference room. I’ll be up shortly.”

  Sliding doors opened on their own as they approached, and soon after they closed on their own, one last pair parted in front of them. The tram emerged into a public space the size of a sports stadium and stopped at another security station. In contrast to the outside, this place was very green and bright. Flowers and trees grew throughout an indoor plaza, with both politicians and ordinary citizens on official business walking together among small moving streams and over miniature bridges. Above, several dozen floors of lit windows overlooked the large forum.

  “I have to admit. W is nicer than I thought it’d be,” Bryant said.

  “Yes…” Xidona replied. “There’s a reason for that.”

  They stepped off the tram and walked across a raised platform made of glass, which led them to an elevator just for officials. Once they were onboard and heading up, Garder crossed his arms, sighed, and went to the side of the lift where he looked down at the shrinking plaza.

  “Garder, you’re about to see Milla again…” Verim said quietly.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Any idea what you’re going to say?”

  “No.”

  Wendell, close enough to hear them, chided Garder, “Your own sister, lad… The least you could do is say hello.”

  Garder sighed again. “That goes without saying. But I don’t think we’re going to do any ‘catching up.’ She’s not going to approve of the things I’ve done. After this, I’m sure we’ll go our separate ways again.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that. Rivia wants to bring everyone back together, remember? I’m sure she’s done things she isn’t proud of, too.”

  The elevator arrived at a floor near the top of the tower, where they stepped out and entered a large conference room. Speaking with some security guards by the window on the other side of the room were the other four visitors, their backs facing them. And though she had grown taller like he had, Garder could recognize Milla’s long brown hair. The young man near her, however… His heart nearly skipped a beat. It was impossible, of course, but he thought for a second that he was a younger version of himself. Then he remembered how much Colt once looked like him.

  “Xidona,” the older of the two security guards welcomed her, being the first to notice them. “Here’s, ah… the party that arrived earlier.”

  Garder and the others were halfway across the room once the four had turned around to face them. The moment that his eye met Milla’s, Garder stopped mid-step. Wendell was right; she had changed, as well. Not nearly as much, no, but she must have had some scars behind those eyes, to go along with the physical bumps and cuts acquired over the years. She wasn’t the same girl she was back when the alliance was formed, to say nothing of how far removed she was from her life in their apartment in N.

  And it was also like looking in a mirror, which Garder tended to avoid. As someone who tried his hardest not to linger on his battle wounds, seeing Milla reminded him of how much time had passed, the horrors of war he had seen, the distance between them and his previous Earth life…

  “Garder.” She tried to keep herself from outright gasping. “You… you got tall,” she said with a weak smile, as if he were otherwise unchanged.

  “I, uh… I like the haircut,” Simon added with his own platitude.

  Garder greeted them back, “Simon. Milla. Colt… And…”

  “Oh,” Milla looked towards the youngest of the four, “Rhys. He was something of a stowaway, and… Mm, never mind.”

  As the two groups converged, Milla came in for a closer look.

  “I lost it,” Garder explained when she nearly touched his eyepatch and the scar running beneath it. “I know. I’m… hard to recognize.”

  “It’s been rough on you. I’ve kept up on the stories. But I wasn’t quite ready for… I mean, you really bulked up, huh? And you’ve got at least two inches on me. But the old Garder’s still in there, right?”

  “Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “Maybe… waiting in some dark corner, waiting to come out after all of this is over.”

  Milla peered over at Verim next. “Verim, your hair is so…”

  “Ah, yeah,” he said and gave the bird nest on his head a ruffle. “This is what happens when you…” He stopped, remembering he was in the presence of people who likely didn’t know about his kingdom. “When you’re out in the wilderness for too long. You know what I mean.”

  “Hm. Saw it happen to Shin. Yeah, I know… Wendell. You’ve hardly changed,” she said, and knowing that he could be a big teddy bear, accepted his hug with a smile. “Your beard could use a trim, though. Oh, and wow, is that Xavier? You I can really hardly recognize.”

  “And my squad.” He gestured to them, who all waved back. “But we’re just here for backup, rear lookout, that kinda thing.”

  “We still don’t actually know why any of you are here,” Xidona emphasized. “So, why don’t we have that talk now?”

  The twins both eyed the two lower security officers, thinking the same thing. Milla spoke first, “We need some confidentiality, if possible.”

  “That’s the head of the entirety of W’s security,” the senior officer argued. “If we wouldn’t leave her alone with the Guard, then we—”

  “It’s all right,” Xidona told them. “Please, wait out in the hall.”

  “If… that’s what you want, ma’am,” he sighed and headed out with his subordinate. “But if any of you try anything…”

  He left instead of finishing his threat. Xidona gestured to the chairs in the room, which everyone except for Garder pulled up and sunk into.

  “I believe you mentioned that the Guard’s already here?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she told everyone. “The pretorian Gause Lenal arrived here several hours earlier, with a small team of Guardsmen, who looked fairly up there, rank wise. We cooperated with them, just like we… always do, but all he asked for was to stay out of his way. I’ve gathered that he’s searching for something, or someone. I take it you may be after the same thing?”

  “Have you ever heard of Nish Formel?” Milla asked her.

  “I can’t say that I have.”

  “He was something of a mentor of mine, long ago,” Wendell said. “But we know almost nothing about how he’s changed since then, other than, in some detail, a disturbing and long-term project he’s been heading.”

  “We… actually know a little more about that now,” Milla replied.

  Those on Garder’s side looked at her, and he asked, “Did your, ah, ‘team’ make some discoveries about his work?”

  “Only very recently. As in, within the past few minutes.” She turned to Rhys. “Could you tell them what you told us, Rhys?”

  The boy stood up straight, looked at Garder for a moment, and then at everyone. “Nish is… sort of my father.”

  “What?” Wendell replied. “He would have to be… at least in his eighties by now. And you’re so young.”

  “I’m even younger than I look. I’m a clone, of the current watairre paradigm. I’m not a paradigm myself, technically, but I can’t use any other alignments very well. In fact, I can’t even manipulate water or make ice that well, either. Seems like he ‘made’ me that way, just focused on… air.”

  “So, you’re one of his…” Garder looked at the confused faces in the room, including Xidona’s, and those in Xavier’s squad. “Remember the pretorian named Kamsa? She was something of a prototype, sent out to work with them as a trial-run. They killed her when she turned on them.”

  “Garder…” Milla said quietly.

  “And we grow up quickly,” Rhys continued. “I never met Kamsa, but when I was younger, the others in her line still talked about her sometimes. I guess she was like an older sister to them.”

  “But how many of you are there?” Xidona questioned. “How long has Nish been in my City? And how has he operated without us knowing?”

  “I was smaller then. We snuck in through the old Administration facility further below. The laboratory moved many times, so I wouldn’t know where it is now. The way he moved us, like he knew just where to go to avoid being seen, even when there were so many of us originally… I never really thought about it much. I mean, he was the only adult we knew.”

  “Wait, what do you mean originally?” Milla asked him. “We didn’t get this far in our talk before they moved us up here, so…”

  “Kamsa was the best specimen of her line, the third and biggest one. I was in the fourth line. He was always trying to perfect us. When it came out that she was disobedient after my line was already bred, Nish had both her siblings and the ones that came after her destroyed.”

  Milla gasped. “Oh my God…”

  Some of the others in the room responded with looks of revulsion as well, while both Rhys and Garder remained stone-faced, though for different reasons. Rhys simply had no reaction to his own past anymore.

  “By now, the fifth line is probably fully grown, or maybe about to be. I don’t know, I wasn’t there to see them be born, but the incubation pods were set up for another line by the time I fled his lab. I’m certain all of my brothers and sisters were killed. I know I don’t look it, but believe me, I already went through all the emotions you’d expect. Anger, I’d say hatred, all of that… Nish deserves justice, but I’ve kept my head clear.”

  “That is sick…” Xidona said in disgust.

  “It sounds like he sees no value in life,” Finx added.

  “We’re already too late. I couldn’t uphold my promise to Kamsa,” Garder sighed. “Her ‘litter’ is already completely gone.”

  “Garder, there may still be lives to save!” Milla exclaimed.

  Simon murmured, “But, Milla, weren’t you just saying…”

  “I know what I said. And I renounce that idea. If Nish already treated them so callously, we’d be no better than him if we…”

  “But, what about your Earth life?” Xidona asked Rhys.

  He shook his head. “Didn’t have one. I’m a newsoul.”

  “That’s not possible.” She looked around for a response. “Is it?”

  “We’re still trying to figure that out,” Milla told her. “Still, what I’m wondering is… Rhys, why are you the way you are? Is it just, like, an act?”

  He smiled just a little. “To blend in, you mean? I had to do something about my hair, sure—I keep it dyed—but this… is kind of the way I always was. I don’t know why. I remember Kamsa’s line as placid, with no emotions. My line was a little livelier, but I was way up there. I’m not sure if I was ‘defective’ or if Nish made me this way as some side experiment. I think he saw Kamsa’s brood as too robotic and changed that with us, but I was always a lot more free-spirited than the rest.”

  “Still doesn’t explain everything about your character, though. He would’ve educated you a certain way, right? You sounded world-weary, and knowledgeable, even when we first met.”

  He shrugged. “I snuck out a lot. Explored this City, interacted with the locals. Listened to how they spoke, learned how a community worked. Then I fled this place before Nish could dispose of me, hopped or bartered my way across black market transportation channels, roamed in a few nomadic villages, heard about this big rebellion against the Guard, and made my way to C. You have to remember that I can naturally take care of myself. Like Kamsa, I’m stronger than the average Aurrian.”

  “I had no idea you had to endure so much,” Milla said solemnly.

  “Y-yeah… But I’m okay, Captain. I don’t need a hug. I want to confront Nish again and show him what I’ve become, and if I can, plant a trench knife in him for what he’s done. I didn’t really have a big ‘epiphany’ moment concerning my existence. I’ve been like this for a long time.”

  Xidona was livid by this point and muttered, “And this… monster has been hiding in my City, using our resources, bringing children into this world and murdering them, for who knows how long…”

  “About two years. Yeah… Sorry, Chief.”

  “This will be a nightmare of a story once it gets out,” Bryant said.

  “Nish is cunning and highly intelligent,” Wendell told Xidona. “It isn’t surprising that he’s managed to evade detection for so long.”

  Xidona sighed. “That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing. W is under my watch. Whether I wanted it or not, the people here were starting to see me as their leader. Damn it. Trevor wouldn’t have let this happen.”

  Colt replied, “Trevor?”

  “My husband, the former security chief. The Guard killed him.”

  Milla asked, “What? Why?”

  “They made it look like an accident, like he worked too hard—and he did, but I know they’re behind it. He had been openly opposing them for years. The Tillethian division was getting worried he’d turn the City.”

  “You do seem to be on rather strained terms with them.”

  “The nature of that contention is rather ridiculous, really. I understand how anything can escalate, but it all started with trees.”

  Verim wondered, “Trees? How?”

  “They can’t grow ‘outside.’ We grow them inside buildings instead, so people have greenery, and parks. The basics, right? But there are Guard codes against indoor foliage for Cities of this tier.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me… This is all about bureaucracy?”

  “I’m guessing they really didn’t like the indoor park down below,” Finx said. “If all I had in a City was dark monochrome, I’d lose my mind.”

  “They begrudgingly made exceptions due to the nature of W, but that base argument against us just made everything that followed worse. We need to simulate sunlight indoors as well, for the health of our citizens. But they think this makes the lighting too ‘nice,’ too artistic. And all of our actual art is inside; anything that looks nice is inside. More code violations. They suspected we were hiding nice places from their sight, like we have grand plazas hidden on every other apartment floor. They want to see a City from the air, to see how nice it looks, but they can’t do that as easily here.”

  “Do Guardsmen possess any critical thinking skills?” Garder grumbled. “But, also, is there anything else to this?”

  “Well…” Xidona took a breath. “To be fair, Trevor and rest of the council had been making some of their criticisms true. They had been trying to claw W out of this tier, but when anyone tries to do anything nice for a ‘punishment’ City, the Guard fights back. It’s always been that way.”

  “Why is that?” Bryant asked.

  Milla explained to the second youngest among them, “U through Y have barely ever changed letters during the re-ranking, historically. Their leaders inevitably try to improve things, but get replaced with someone crueler, and devoted to the Guard. W just had a better springboard.”

  “We were just talking about this,” Simon added. “It’s insane that some Cities have leaders who purposely strive to keep their homes and citizens miserable. On Earth, countries have many reasons for failing, but in Aurra, what with synthids… There just isn’t a good enough excuse.”

  Xidona continued, “It’s not as if we don’t do our expected part. We have prisons, hard labor, reform centers. We don’t get reborn murderers here—they start a letter lower at the very most—but we do have our share of the dregs of Earth’s society. And we do our best to ‘cleanse’ them, as outdated a term that may be. We do believe in second chances.”

  “No one wants to be on top of the trash heap,” Garder remarked.

  After several seconds, Milla responded “We’re not here for this, but… How would you measure the local disdain for the Guard?”

  “Rising. But at the same time, we have too many disagreements with how the Angels operate to outright join your side. We would prefer to remain independent, but neither will this place ever be a home given to the Guard with open arms. We don’t have a trained military that could join you, regardless. Our police force is strong, but they’re not the same as soldiers.”

  “We were a little concerned that maybe W had been compromised by infighting or an uprising,” Wendell said. “We’re glad that isn’t the case.”

  “You seem to be quite in control, and stable here,” Milla added. “An oasis from the war, really. There aren’t many of those left.”

  “We will try and enjoy it while it lasts,” Xidona assured them. “But I fear that if Nish is here much longer, our peace will be in jeopardy.”

  “Then let’s work together to find him,” Wendell offered. “Now that you know he’s here, and what to possibly look for, I’m sure you have records and unexplained events we can pour through to learn something.”

  Milla thought and replied, “If we can keep tabs on Lenal and his investigation from afar, we may get lucky and have him find Nish for us.”

  “You have a CCTV system, don’t you?” Garder asked.

  Xidona answered, “Yes. A few thousand cameras. Not terribly extensive, but we have all the vital areas of the City covered. We should be able to find Lenal while we do some investigative work.”

  “If we realize he’s found him though, you’ll have to move fast,” Xavier noted. “We can’t let the Guard get their hands on the clones.”

  “And I hope our side doesn’t try and conscript them, either,” Rhys said. “They deserve freedom, a safe place to grow up properly. At least let them make up their own minds.”

  “C may still be the only place where they have that chance,” Milla told him. “But you’re right. We’ll take good care of them.”

  Garder looked at the floor. “Unless they just… outright attack us.”

  He turned around and went to the corner of the room to be alone, where he watched the City that surrounded them. As Xidona went to the door and got her guards to fetch some specific records from the archives below, Milla joined Garder, confident he wouldn’t push her away.

  “If you’re hurting, let me know…” she said to him. “You don’t need to keep up a rugged fa?ade around me. I understand if you consider those you’ve been fighting alongside with for the past five years your family by this point, but I still know you better than any of them would.”

  He shifted about some and obviously didn’t want to talk, but after some time replied quietly, “You’re referring to Caeden.”

  “Sure, but… I’ve also known you the longest, and before all of this. I still remember what you’re really like; Verim and the others would have gotten used to this… new you. And I get that war hardens people, but…”

  “Does Caeden talk to you?”

  “What? I mean, sort of. Maybe. There are subconscious choices, I think. Whispers. I often feel braver than I thought I could be alone, before I knew a part of him is there. It isn’t as if we have conversations. Still, I do know a lot about him now, after so many talks with… Dad.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He… really was pretty ordinary, life after life. A good, steady friend to Leovyn and Rivia across time, sure, but of the three, you never would’ve expected him to become an apostle.”

  “Did he hate the Guard?”

  “You mean especially? More than usual?”

  “I have a burning hatred for them. I keep it on a steady simmer, I don’t lose control, but there’s a constant… desire to destroy them. I don’t think I used to be this way. I wonder how much of it is him.”

  Not sure of what direction to take the conversation, Milla looked back out, and noticed a thin, small cloud forming over some buildings.

  “This cave must have its own weather system,” she said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if it drizzled a little bit sometimes, from place to place.”

  “Hm. It’s warmer down here, too. Winter’s barely started up north, and I’m already sick and tired of the cold and the wind.”

  “So much has changed, Garder. In C, and the Burrow, and…”

  “I don’t really need to hear all about everything. I’d rather just keep going forward, one day at a time, until this damn war is over.”

  “I… I understand.”

  He looked at her. “But… no one we were close to has died, right?”

  She shook her head. “Somehow we’ve all pulled through, so far. But Shin might… You should say goodbye to her, if you get a chance.”

  “That bad, huh…” Garder looked back towards Rhys, studying a map that Xidona had just laid out on a table as her security brought in a second batch of file binders. “And what’s the kid like?”

  “A lot like you used to be. And much different than Kamsa.”

  “I just remembered something,” they could hear Xidona tell the others. “During our last monthly check on the Uluru portal—it’s a way’s from here and has been shut down for years—my men reported that someone had broken in and dismantled the entire machine.”

  “Why would someone do that?” Xavier wondered.

  The lights suddenly went out, and it sounded like the whole tower was powering down. As backup emergency lamps filled the room in a dull red, everyone watched the City outside as blocks went out, one by one. In under a minute, the entire City had lost power and became pitch-black.

  “It’s never been this bad before,” Xidona said.

  There was a deep sound and rumbling emanating through the walls, which could have been the City’s power plant trying to restart. But instead, a series of blue flashes burst out in the distance, towards the City limits where the buildings met the surrounding rock.

  After several seconds of the phenomenon, a bright azure pillar of unsteady, flickering luminance exploded into the top of the cave, where it cast a bright glow. Somehow, it also seemed to pierce the mountain above; the pillar of light could be seen through the skylight, continuing far up into the heavens. This stage of the event was also only several seconds long, after which the column of light spread and expanded through the City so quickly that everyone didn’t even have time to cover their eyes.

  Then it was over, and the metropolis began to slowly recover its power, the capitol building being the first to get its lights back.

  Xidona was the first to breathe out, “What the hell was that…?”

  The two security officers rushed back in and got right onto their radios, asking for status updates from W’s vital municipalities. Those on the floor moved their discussions away from the Nish investigation to trying to understand what just happened. Several theories were already floating about within minutes, but Garder kept himself quiet and focused as he concentrated and felt Aurra, trying to sense if anything had just changed.

  Though he lacked evidence, he brought up his suggestion.

  “Hey,” he said to the others. “I had a thought.” Once he had their attention, he asked them, “What if Earth just opened back up?”