Nia spread out her ether, driving it into the crags of Temperantia's back. They'd been at this for over a year, now, and there was still a lot of work to do before the Titan was fully recovered. But the process, moving inch by inch and bringing life back to the dead flesh around her, was comforting. Meditative, even. She looked forward to the days she headed up the work. A chance to put her other responsibilities on pause and focus on something she was good at.
As she worked, Kalarau's ether joined hers, letting her work over a much larger area than normal. After a while, she got into a rhythm; reviving old nerve endings, peeling back ancient scar tissue, and creating new muscle so Temperantia could support itself better. But it seemed like the second she got in the flow, she had to slow down, else she risked getting too far ahead of the rest of the team. Volunteers, led by Agate, that were helping to make sure her work stuck. But they could only go so fast, so she had to match her pace to theirs.
After a couple of hours, however, she felt Kalarau's ether recede, and she glanced back to see him practically collapse against a nearby rock. He gave her a weak smile, and she pulled her ether back.
"Sorry," she said. "Didn't realize I was working you so hard."
"I'm just out of practice," he said. "Why don't we take a break for now?"
Nia cast a glance over the other work going on around them. They still had some time before the others caught up with them, so she could afford to stop for a few minutes.
"Sure," she said. She wasn't really feeling it herself, but that was probably thanks to Kalarau. Normally she couldn't work this long over this wide an area. She sat next to him, and for a while, they didn't speak to each other. It wasn't like they had much to talk about. But eventually, thoughts of her other responsibilities began to worm their way into her brain, so she tried her hand at conversation anyway. The worries could wait until she got back.
"Why did you join me today?" she asked, trying to distract herself. "I didn't think you'd leave your room at all after the whole thing with Shieldwall."
"Even I need fresh air sometimes," he said. "But that's not why I'm out here. I wanted to ask you about Zeke."
"Really? He'd be excited to hear that. I think he was afraid you didn't want anything to do with him."
"I do prefer to keep to myself. I think most people would, at my age. But I see a lot of myself in that kid, and I want to make sure he doesn't repeat my mistakes."
"What kind of mistakes?"
"I…" Kalarau sighed. "I lost my Blade. I slipped up, and she paid the price."
"Oh." Nia deflated a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up."
"It's fine," he said, with a tone that made it pretty clear it was far from fine. Still, he didn't leave. In fact, he kept talking. "It was a long time ago. I can barely remember those days anymore. I just wanted to know whether or not Zeke's looking out for his Blade."
"She's the one looking out for him half the time," Nia said. Kalarau frowned. "But he's capable. He'd go through hell to keep her safe."
"I would have too, but here we are."
"Zeke's capable," she repeated. "He's one of the strongest fighters I've met. And he's got an Artifice under his control. He and Pandoria are going to be just fine."
"That thing in his head… The Eye, I think you called it? Is it really that powerful?"
"It managed to hold back Aion," Nia said.
"And Aion was…" Kalarau waited for her to explain.
"Do you at least know what the Aegises were?"
"I'm vaguely familiar. Some kind of super-Blades the Praetorium found, I think? It was a little after my time."
"The Aegises had control over a lot of Artifices. They wreaked havoc during the Aegis War, and again during the Cataclysm. Aion was the most powerful. A supposedly world-destroying machine. It took all our combined strength to even stall it, and Zeke's Eye played a big part in that."
"Is that why you sent him to Spessia?" Kalarau asked.
"Who told you that?" Nia asked. As usual, he'd missed the meeting where she finally caught everyone up on the situation. And it wasn't like he talked to the others much. In fact, this was probably the most she'd heard him say since the Shieldwall incident.
"Qadar," he said. "She keeps me abreast of the goings on, from time to time."
"I see."
Of course Qadar knew. Even though she barely managed to make meetings herself, she knew just about everything that was going to happen. Though she never bothered to let Nia know much ahead of time. Outside of crisis situations, she seemed to enjoy keeping to herself.
"She really should stop telling me these things," Kalarau continued. "I'm not sure what she's trying to do, but it does is make me worry. You trust Zeke to handle himself?"
"I do."
"I suppose I'll have to trust your assessment, then. Still, he shouldn't be acting so recklessly. When he gets back, maybe I should have a word with him about that."
It seemed weird, that Kalarau was taking such an interest in Zeke now. A few weeks ago, he'd made it clear he wanted nothing to do with Zeke. But whatever had changed since then, she welcomed it, so long as it got Kalarau to come out of his room. And if he was feeling more sociable, then now was as good a time as any to ask.
"Can I ask you a favor?" she asked.
"Sure," he said. "What do you need?"
"Dromarch's Core Crystal took a lot of damage in the battle against Aion. I brought him back, but it wasn't perfect."
"You repaired a broken Core Crystal?"
"Dromarch's wasn't broken, it was practically liquefied. That left a lot of sections out of place, and Adenine and I are still trying to wrap our heads around how to put them back."
"You can repair Blades?" he asked. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Is that something you could always do?"
"What?" Nia asked. That seemed like a weird question. "No. I could only stitch up tissue before I became a Flesh Eater. Repairing anything like a Core Crystal was beyond me."
"I see." He nodded. "Sorry, I just… Nevermind."
"Did you… Did you know me, in the past?"
"Yes. You were with us when my Blade died."
"Oh." Nia nodded. "I see."
"You couldn't save mine, but… Maybe I can save yours. That's what this is about, right?"
"Yeah. We've just about got a plan for healing Dromarch now, but it's going to be a long process. I was hoping you could help. Supply me ether to keep me going through the surgery."
"Whatever you need," he said. "I know how painful it is to lose a Blade. I wouldn't want anyone else going through that. I'll do whatever I can."
"Thanks," she said. "And, I know this won't mean much, but I am sorry I couldn't help you."
"You've got nothing to be sorry for. It wasn't even you, really. I should know better than to hold you to account for anything she did or didn't do. But… You're right. I'm sure she did everything she could. We took a lot of casulaties during that fight."
"If you don't mind… Was Qadar with you as well? She won't tell me a thing about her past."
"I'd rather not talk about it," he said, turning away from her. "Suffice it to say, even her power couldn't turn things around for us, back then. She's powerful, but she has her limits."
Kalarau stared out across the landscape for a moment. Nia didn't feel like saying anything, and he apparently didn't feel like talking. After a while, however, he spoke again.
"I remember when this place was so full of life," he said. "Before Judicium and their Weavers tore it all apart. After the dust settled, the Praetorium claimed it was Torna that laid waste to this place and destroyed the Judician civilization. But the truth is, they did that to themselves. They pushed their people and their Titan too far, and in the end, they found out what happens when those things decide to push back. I think it's good that Temperantia has better people taking care of it, now. People who understand the value of life."
"Thank you," Nia said.
"I really hope this place lasts longer than Judicium did." Kalarau stood back up. "Well, should we get back to it?"
"Yeah," Nia said. She stood up and stretched, taking a moment to glance back at the Gardens. At that moment, however, she saw a serpentine form cross the sky, two pairs of wings guiding it toward the back of the Gardens. Tenax was paying them a visit, and that could only mean one thing. Someone had called a hearing.
"That bastard," she muttered.
"Hm?"
"Sorry, it's—Something's come up. I need to head back."
"Alright…" Kalarau shrugged. "Some other time, then. Let me know when you need me for the surgery."
"I will." Nia took off for the Gardens.
"Nia!" Agate shouted, waving her down from nearby. "Something wrong?"
"Sorry!" Nia shouted back, only bothering to slow down long enough to talk. "Something's come up back home! I'll be back as soon as I can!"
"Wait!" Agate shouted, running after her. "You can't just—!"
Nia didn't stop, and after a moment, a ball of ice whizzed past her. She looked back to see Dahlia approaching, another ball formed in her hands.
"Dahlia!" Agate shouted. "What in the world is wrong with you!?"
"She won't listen," Dahlia said, glaring at Nia. "She barely comes by to help anymore, and now she wants to leave in the middle of work? No."
Dahlia spat the last word.
"I wish I could stay," Nia said. "But Tenax just showed up, which means someone called a hearing, and I need to be there."
"There's always something, isn't there?" Agate asked. "Always something more important than the Titan beneath your feet."
"That's not what this is," Nia said. "I have obligations to the Gardens too. And I trust you to handle this without me. You two are the best we have. I'm confident you'll get by without me."
"Coward," Dahlia muttered. It looked like she might throw that other ball of ice, but Agate put a hand on her arm, lowering it.
"Do what you have to do," she muttered, returning to the line of workers.
Immediately, Nia resumed running. She did not have time to waste sitting around here. Leaving in the middle of their work was far from ideal, especially after neglecting it for so long, but this took priority.
Dromarch was busy with an appointment with Adenine, so she had to go on foot. But, with a wave of water behind her, she managed to close the distance quickly.
"Mikhail!" she shouted, hand pressed against her earpiece. "What's going on?"
It took him a moment to respond. "What?"
"I saw Tenax arrive. Please tell me Corvin didn't call a hearing."
"Not the best time, Nia."
"I don't care."
"I can handle this myself."
"So there is a hearing?"
"Yeah. It's about Shieldwall." He paused for a moment. "If you want to back me up, then you've got about five minutes."
It took Nia nearly that long just to make it back to the Gardens, but she barely slowed down as she arrived at the gates. She left the water outside and sprinted the final stretch to the amphitheater. The hearing was still going on when she arrived, thankfully, but she didn't know for how much longer.
"…not going to condone something like that," Mikhail said. "How many Blades came here to escape a life of violence?"
"Too many," Corvin said. "And that violence is perpetuated by people like them. If we want to be left alone, we need to make it clear to everyone else that we're not going to just roll over and take whatever they throw at us."
"So you're proposing we execute a hundred unarmed prisoners just to send a message? That'll send a message, all right. It'll tell the rest of the world we're dangerous."
"They already think we're dangerous. But what the Caretakers would have us do is unsustainable. We can't keep feeding and housing a group of humans that are nearly a third of our whole Blade population, especially when they all want us dead."
"They can't hurt anyone as they are. Killing them now, to respond to a hypothetical threat that may or may not respond well to being threatened in kind, would be deeply wrong. It'd be the kind of thing we all rightly despised the Praetorium for. Wielding power over others' lives simply because we can."
"They need to go," Corvin said. "We can't keep them here, and we can't let them go. How else do you propose we solve that issue?"
"Give them to the Coalition," Nia said, stepping up onto the stage next to Mikhail. He breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back, letting her take over.
"The Coalition?" Corvin asked. "The same Coalition that harbors people like them? The same Coalition that recently tried to call us to war? I don't see how that solves anything."
"Shieldwall wants us dead, I won't deny that. We have to keep them locked up to keep ourselves and every other Blade out there safe. But, for as many problems as the Coalition has, they don't want us dead. Even if they don't all see us as equals, they know they need us. And even if they didn't, their militaries are still built around Blades. Shieldwall threatens their way of life just as much as ours."
"We can't trust humans to keep each other in check," Corvin said.
"I don't believe that. If the Coalition really wanted us dead, I'm sure they'd have found an excuse to invade by now. With the exception of one very angry mercenary, they've left us alone. I believe that counts for something. But even if you're right, we can still trust them to act in their own self-interest. And Shieldwall on the loose is as much a threat to the rest of the Coalition as it is to us."
Corvin stared at her for a moment. He had his supporters clustered around him, but few people in the wider audience seemed swayed by his words. Which is probably why he'd tried to ram this through while Nia had been away. In the end, it was a hard sell to get most Blades to endorse wanton murder.
"Fine." He sat down, and slowly his supporters did as well. "That seems like an acceptable compromise."
"All in favor of turning the Shieldwall prisoners over to the Coalition?" Tenax asked. Most of the audience stood. Tenax tallied the results for a moment, then nodded. "Then that is my recommended course of action. I trust the Caretakers will see to the particulars?"
"As soon as possible," Nia said. "Thank you, Tenax."
"If no one else wishes to speak, then I will call this hearing to a close."
Tenax waited for a moment, but no one spoke. After another moment, the more impatient members of the audience began to disperse. Corvin stuck around, but he didn't come down to talk to them.
"Thanks for the assistance," Mikhail said. "These are getting more and more annoying to deal with."
"I figured he'd call a hearing on this sooner or later," Nia said. "I've been mulling over my response for a while."
"You cut things close, Head Caretaker," Tenax said, slithering over to them. "Though your secondary did an admirable job in the meantime."
"My other duties demanded my attention," Nia said.
"I would advise you not be so lax in future, but I understand you have many responsibilities to attend to. Still, if you wish to call upon my services as often as you seem to, I would appreciate punctuality."
"The recent hearings were the result of the string of attacks we suffered," Nia said. "We should be able to slow down the pace once everything's been settled."
"That would be preferable." Tenax looked around for a moment. "I see Azurda didn't bother to attend either. Give him my best, would you?"
"I will."
"Excellent. Good day."
As Tenax took to the air, heading back to her cave, Nia could see Corvin finally get up from his seat.
"We should do this more often," he said, waving at her as he and his supporters left the amphitheater. Nia scowled at him.
"Asshole," she muttered.
"Don't let him get to you," Mikhail said. "People like him were bound to show up sooner or later. He makes a lot of noise, but when it comes to the important decisions, we're still the voice of reason."
"I know." Nia sighed. "I just wished it wasn't so much work getting people to listen."
"Of course it takes work. Easy solutions don't tend to last. We've had to learn that lesson too many times already."
"Doesn't make me feel any less frustrated. But at least we're not a community that endorses murder. I'll take what I can get."
"That's the spirit." Mikhail clapped her on the shoulder. "You heading back out for more repairs?"
"I'm going to swing by the lab first," she said.
"Good. I was going to tell you to take a break anyway."
"I was just on break, Mikhail."
"Hearings don't count."
"Before the hearing. Kalarau and I got ahead, so we stopped to let the others catch up."
"Hot damn." Mikhail cracked a smile.
"What?" Nia crossed her arms.
"Never thought I'd see Kalarau come out of his shell. And I'm glad to see you're taking better care of yourself too."
"For the last time, I'm fine. I shouldn't have to keep telling you that."
"I know." He put his hands up. Nia shook her head and headed for the exit. "Just holler if you need anything."
"I will," she said.
He gave her a wave, and Nia returned it as she left the amphitheater. It was only a short walk back to the Caretakers' quarters, where Adenine was still busy with Dromarch's appointment. She needed to let her know that Kalarau had agreed to help with the surgery. It'd probably move up their timetable, which made Nia a little nervous. But now that they had a viable plan, it was time to stop beating around the bush. The sooner she could heal him, the better.
As she reached the labs, she saw Obrona leaving. It'd been more than a week since she'd woken up, and Nia was starting to realize she was different than she had been before. As Akhos's Blade, she'd been an insufferable nuisance. The kind of person who always had to get the last word in, no matter what. And it always felt like she was looking down on everyone else. Now, though, she was more reserved, which was just about the last thing she thought Obrona might pick up from Zeke.
"Nia," Obrona said, a little startled as Nia came up behind her. "Sorry, I didn't see you."
"Hello," Nia said. "Just getting out of an appointment?"
"Does everyone have to have their Core Crystal mapped?"
"You're a special case. As I'm sure Akhos has reminded you a thousand times by now."
"Yeah…" Obrona sighed. "He means well."
Nia could tell by her expression that Akhos was still a sore subject. Which was understandable. A Driver outliving their Blade was rare, but not entirely unheard of. But that same Blade waking up anew and running into their old Driver? It was like something out of an old Gormotti folktale. It couldn't have been an easy situation for either of them to navigate. It didn't help that Akhos was a little overeager, either.
"Do you need me to talk to him?" Nia asked. "He's not exactly the easiest guy to get along with."
"It's nothing like that, I just…" Obrona looked around, then leaned in closer. "He's asked me to star in one of his plays, and I'm really not sure what to do."
"Oh?"
"I think he wrote it about me. But, not me, really. The old Obrona. Putting aside the fact I've never been in a play before, I'd feel weird putting on a show about my past life."
"I see," Nia said, nodding. "If you want acting lessons, I'd talk to Cole, but only if you feel comfortable doing something like this in the first place."
"Being an actor doesn't sound half bad. Someone needs to use the amphitheater for something other than those dreary hearings. And I think I want to know more about who I was, before. I just… I don't know if I can live up to what Akhos expects me to be."
"I don't think it's a matter of expectations. He's excited to have you around again is all. If he manages to twist that around into a disappointment, that's entirely his problem."
"I guess," Obrona said, nodding. "I'll think about it. Thanks."
"Any time," she said, stepping past Obrona. "I'd chat more, but I've got business with Adenine."
"Sorry!" Obrona hurried to float out of her way. "Didn't mean to keep you."
"It's no trouble. Have a good day."
"You too!" Obrona practically bowed as Nia stepped into the room. That was something she had to work on. She was here to help Blades. It didn't do her any good to seem intimidating. But one drawback of constantly working was she was constantly slightly on edge, waiting to anticipate the next problem. It probably wasn't helping her public image.
"…finished the map of your Core Crystal, I can safely say that basically nothing is where it should be." Adenine said. She was talking to Dromarch, who had cozied up on an operating table.
"My lady," he said, bowing his head as Nia entered. Adenine glanced back over her shoulder and gave Nia a small nod.
"Don't mind me," Nia said.
"Your memory core is fragmented," Adenine continued. "And there's only so much we can do to reconnect old sections. Most of its still intact, somehow, but the shot-in-the-dark approach we've been using until now isn't going to get us much further. Unless we completely rebuild your core, I don't think you'll be able to recover much else."
That wasn't exactly the best news, but Nia had figured something like this was inevitable. Appointments had been helping less and less, and Nia hadn't been able to do much herself in a long time.
"That sounds dangerous," Dromarch said. "Will there be much risk involved?"
"Depends on the approach, but no matter what, it won't be clean. There is one bit of good news, though. Your self-repair region is cut off from everything else, but if we can fix it, you might be able to repair yourself."
"You found the self-repair region?" Nia asked. This was news to her. Last she'd heard, that was still just a theory.
"The data I got from Obrona and Electra helped narrow it down. I had to run some more in-depth experiments to figure out exactly where it resides, though. Eventually, I had to resort to making small cuts on people's cores and watching the repair process up close."
"You what!?" Nia shouted. She was not okay with experimenting on people.
"Calm down," Adenine said. "They volunteered, and there was no danger. Hell, Vale was practically chomping at the bit to go under the knife. Got a weird fixation with needles, that one." Adenine paused for a moment, looking off to the side. "The point is, I'm not a monster, Nia. Not anymore, at least."
"You could at least let me know when you plan on conducting experiments on people. I don't appreciate being kept in the dark."
"Like you kept us in the dark about the spy?" Adenine asked. Nia almost punched her in the jaw for saying that, but unfortunately, she was right. She'd kept knowledge of a possible spy to herself for weeks. In the end, Zeke leaving for Spessia had forced her to tell the other Caretakers, but she hadn't expected them to harbor so much resentment about it.
"Do not," Nia said.
"Alright." Adenine shrugged. "I was just trying to say, I hadn't wanted to bother you with every little detail. You seemed like you had other things going on."
"Just get to the point."
"The point is, repairing Dromarch's core is going to mean cutting him open. A lot. Way more than just surface-level scratches. There's a whole malformed section we'd need to cut through just to get at the region. Assuming nothing goes wrong, rebuilding the self-repair region should help us fix the rest of the core. But we'd be taking on a lot of risk just to get there in the first place."
"But fixing this region would repair the rest of my core?" Dromarch asked.
"Probably," Adenine said. "I haven't tested how it reorganizes the bulk structure of the core, but the principle should be the same."
"Then let's do it."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure," Dromarch said.
"I'll need some time to prepare, then," Adenine said. "Nia, I'll have to walk you though everything I've got in more detail. And we might want to do this in stages, because it's going to be an exhausting procedure."
"I figured as much," Nia said. "Which is why I asked Kalarau to help."
"How's he going to help?"
"He's an ether amplifier. He'll keep me supplied with as much ether as I need."
"That…" Adenine stared at a whiteboard, half-covered in scribbling Nia couldn't understand. "If I had the time, I'd love to look into that more. Maybe a project for after—"
Suddenly, Adenine cut herself off, and Nia raised an eyebrow at her.
"After what?" Nia asked.
"It's nothing," Adenine said. "I was just thinking this process might help other Blades with broken or missing Core Crystals. T-elos and the others from Amalthus's vessel. Akhos and Patroka. But that's a project for later. Right now, we have to focus on this."
"It sounds like you two have a lot of work to do," Dromarch said. He jumped down from the table and stretched his legs. "I'll get out of your way, in the meantime."
"See you soon," Nia said.
"Likewise, my lady."
Dromarch bowed and left the room, and immediately Nia and Adenine got to work. She knew she'd have to apologize to Agate later, but she couldn't afford to wait now. There might be some risk involved, but she had a shot at healing Dromarch for real this time. As long as he was willing to go for it, she'd commit herself one hundred percent. As Adenine began walking her through the process, she felt more sure of herself than she had in a long time.
Before the Cataclysm, Zeke had always considered Spessia the most isolated nation in Alrest. Sure, Sthenos was further afield, and Leftheria was more politically isolated. And sure, Spessia had a measure of trade with the Guild, and an Adrainian embassy, and even a small Praetorium presence. Nevertheless, it was the only place he truly felt cut off from the rest of the world.
That was because everywhere else had something to unify around and give them a sense of community. The Ardainains had a strong nationalism, the Urayans and the Sthenosi held fast to long-standing traditions, the Leftherians possessed a shared sense of contentment, the Nopon had strict rules and regulations to bind them, and even the Tantalese managed to build a sense of belonging out of their shared hardship. But Spessia? Spessia had nothing to bind it together. Here, it was every man for himself.
That lack of community only seemed to have deepened since the Cataclysm. Despite being a city at the edge of the wilderness, Ashkareth was a flurry of activity, with merchant and mercenary alike lining the streets. But he could feel hostility behind every gaze. Everyone wanted something, either his money or his Blade. Probably both. If he'd been an easier-looking mark, they might have gone for it. But he was good at looking threatening when he needed to, which kept most of his would-be assailants at bay. Unfortunately, it also made gathering information considerably more difficult.
"Another one," Zeke said, tossing the bartender a coin. The man nodded and began pouring Zeke another ale. It was swill, and it'd take a mountain of them to get him drunk, but being a paying customer meant the man would tolerate his presence.
"Just passing through?" the bartender asked. "We don't get many of you here."
"Who do you mean by that?"
"Coalition types. You're… Ardainian?"
"Tantalese, actually."
"Same difference." The man shrugged. "This's the first time I've seen anyone like you in person since the Osirian War."
"My Blade and I figured we'd see the sights," Zeke said, motioning over to Pandoria. "Everyone's always talking about Spessia. Might as well see what all the fuss is about."
"Are they?" The man set the ale down in front of Zeke. It was his third drink that night, and he didn't know how many more he could choke down. "What're they saying?"
"All sorts of things, really. There's talk of war, but…" Zeke shrugged. "When isn't there? I have heard some interesting stories, though. Ever heard of something called the Titan Eater?"
The man cracked a smile and shook his head.
"Spessia's the talk of the world, and all you've picked up is a silly old wives' tale?"
"I don't know, it sounded interesting to me. A beast who slays Titans and devours them whole. I've been all over, but I've only met a handful of things willing to mess with a Titan. Seemed like something worth seeing for myself."
"Well, stranger, I hate to tell you, but you wasted the trip. The Titan Eater's an old boogeyman. Something we tell kids about to put the fear of the Architect in them."
"Maybe." Zeke nodded and threw back his ale. "Maybe not. Either way, its lair is supposed to be nearby, so I figured I'd go and see for myself."
"Go out into the wilderness by yourself, and you're liable to get killed. You're free to do what you want, but I'd hate to lose a paying customer."
"I wouldn't worry about that," Zeke said, patting his sword. The man shrugged, seemingly unimpressed with the weapon's size.
"Maybe you'll make it. Who knows? But you're not going to find anything out there. No sense in looking for something that doesn't exist."
"Even then, it'll still be an adventure to write home about." Zeke tossed the man another coin, wondering how long he'd have to keep this up. Luckily, he caught a break. As the bartender passed him his next drink, a group of men in dust-worn cloaks came through the door. Immediately, they singled Zeke out. Two sat on either side of him, while the others gathered behind him. The bartender sighed and stepped back as they closed in.
"You the foreigner?" one of the men asked.
"You'll have to be more specific," Zeke said, turning around. He flashed the man a smile.
"You've been bothering everyone in town about your stupid ghost stories."
Zeke looked the man over for a moment. He was very clearly a soldier, right down to the uniform-approved haircut. Exactly the kind of man he'd been looking for. None of the locals were going to tell him anything, even if they knew. But if this Atasaiah was really a Federation big-shot, then all he had to do was make himself known and wait for the goons to come to silence him.
"Let me guess. You want me to leave?"
"No," the soldier said. "You had plenty of chances to leave. Now, we're going to teach you a lesson."
"Fine." Zeke put his ale down and stood up, stretching his arms. "Let's get this over with."
He slammed his head into the man's nose, knocking him into a nearby table. Immediately, the others scrambled to grab him, but he was faster. He grabbed the nearest man's head and slammed it onto the bar while Pandoria shot forward, driving her fist into another soldier's gut. She shot a blast of ether through him, and he flew back, crashing into a bar stool.
"Easy!" Zeke shouted. "They're not Drivers."
"He's alive," Pandoria said. Sure enough, the man was trying and failing to disentangle himself from the bar stool. Still, Zeke didn't think small fry like them warranted anything but his fists. He didn't want to run the risk of accidentally doing any permanent damage.
Someone grabbed him from behind, and he spun around, throwing the man over his shoulder. As he did, he also swept his leg out and knocked another man to the ground. Two more men tried to grab him, but he jumped, slamming a knee into the first one's head. As he landed, he spun, throwing his leg out to knock the other man's hands aside. Then he sprang up and tackled the man before he could get his bearings, driving him into a table and slamming an elbow down on his neck. As the man's body went limp, he tossed him at another soldier nearby, knocking them both to the ground.
Unfortunately, a series of gunshots interrupted Zeke before he could move on the next guy. The one who'd initially approached them was back on his feet and had drawn a pistol, firing into the air several times to quell the fighting. As his men backed off, the gunman leveled his weapon at Zeke. But if he wanted to do this armed, then Zeke would oblige him.
Before the man could pull the trigger, Zeke switched into high gear and drew his sword. Then with one swing, he brought it up clean through the weapon's barrel, taking two of the man's fingers off with it. As he screamed, Zeke stepped in close and brought the sword down, slamming the flat edge into his shoulder and driving him into the ground. For good measure, Zeke drove a foot into his leg, cracking the femur. He stopped trying to fight back, after that.
"Let's go!" Zeke shouted, glancing back at Pandoria. She nodded and slammed her fist into the nearby wall, sending a pulse of ether through it. As it traveled, it shattered the lights, raining down glass shards on everyone in the bar. In the confusion, Zeke hoisted the man over his shoulder and ran for the exit, Pandoria on his heels. As he left the bar, however, a flash of light blinded him.
A shield went up, blocking the blast, but Zeke could still feel the shockwave hit their surroundings. As the light faded, Zeke could see a figure looming on the rooftop opposite him. A man with long, flowing hair and wings of golden light. He had his palm pointed toward them, and in the middle, he had what looked like the barrel of a cannon. He had to be a Blade, but he wasn't one Zeke recognized.
The Blade fired again, and Pandoria threw up another shield, but they couldn't keep hiding behind cover. They had to move. Zeke ran out, ducking through a nearby alley, and the man took to the skies to follow them. From below, he looked like an angel of the Architect, straight out of one of the Praetorium's mosaics.
The angel descended, trying to cut off Zeke's route, but Pandoria intercepted him, driving a fist of ether into his face. He dodged and tried to counter, but she was already behind him. With one hand on his shoulder, she ran a pulse of ether through him, trying to drive him to his knees. But it didn't seem to affect him the way it should have. Rather than go down for the count, he only seemed mildly irritated. But it did take his attention off Zeke long enough to give him an opening. He struck the angel with his sword and swatted him into a nearby building.
The two of them hadn't gone far, however, before the angel was back on their tail. As he emerged from the alley, Pandoria struck him with another blast of lightning, and he responded with another blast of light. Thankfully, it went a little wide, sailing over their heads and striking the building next to them. As rubble rained down on them, Pandoria threw up a shield to keep their path clear. Immediately, the man fired again.
Zeke swung his sword to meet the blast, but a shield blocked it before he could. A moment later, a cascade of ice erupted in the air around the angel, knocking him out of the sky. Before he could get back up, a pillar of ice formed above him and slammed down, pinning him to the ground. He spun his cannon, slicing the ice to pieces, but more formed around him and trapped his legs. Before he could blast himself free, Pandoria rushed in and slammed her fist into his Core Crystal, sending another shockwave of electricity through him. That seemed to disorient him, at least long enough for the ice to finish encasing him.
"Over here!" Nal shouted, beckoning Zeke into a nearby alley. He and Pandoria followed her, one semi-conscious soldier in tow. The three of them ran through the city streets and buildings, getting as far away from the chaos as possible. They only stopped when they couldn't hear shouting anymore.
"Thanks for the assist," Zeke said.
"He'll be back," Nal replied. "Though, I should be able to keep him off our trail for the time bein'."
"I thought you were going to hang back," Pandoria said.
"I was. Then that asshole showed up, and I figured y'all could use a hand."
"Much appreciated," Zeke said, setting the soldier down in a stairwell. "He was durable, even for a Blade. Electricity barely seemed to faze him."
"Hitting his core worked," Pandoria said. "Next time we'll just hit him harder."
"Hopefully, there won't be a next time," Nal said. "Did ya' find what ya' needed?"
"We've got this jobber," Zeke said, patting the man on the cheek in an attempt to wake him up. "You were right, making noise did attract soldiers pretty quick. Hopefully he'll tell us what we need to know. Or at least direct us up the chain to someone who can."
"Wake up," Pandoria said, snapping her fingers. A small jolt of electricity ran through the man, zapping him back to consciousness, and immediately Nal stuck her gun in his face. Zeke didn't want to torture the man, or even make threats if he could help it, but Nal apparently had no such qualms.
"Howdy," she said.
"Sorry about the hand," Zeke said. "Didn't mean for things to get that far, but you pulled the gun and I had to improvise."
"Fuck you," the man spat.
"You really aren't my type," Zeke said. Nal rolled her eyes. "But that's beside the point. Who sent you after us?"
"Fuck you," the man said, more emphatically. Nal pressed her gun against his forehead.
"Might want to think about expanding your vocabulary a little," Pandoria said. "She's not got a lot of patience."
"I'm not saying shit. Either you kill me, or they do. Doesn't much matter."
"If you talk, we can give you a head start," Zeke said. "I'm willing to bet your bosses will be too busy dealing with us to track down one lost soldier boy."
"You don't know the Federation very well, do you?"
"No, but you do. Why did they send you after me?"
"I already said I ain't talking."
Nal flicked her wrist to the side and fired, hitting the man's ear and forming a large crystal of ice on the side of his head. He screamed, and immediately Zeke jammed a hand over his mouth to shut him up. Once he stopped screaming, Zeke pulled his hand back.
"Fuck!" the man shouted.
"Like I said," Pandoria said. "Not a patient person."
"I can pay you," Zeke offered. "I think a pocket full of coin would be preferable to a bullet in the head. How much would it take?"
"Ten thousand," the man said. Nal pulled the hammer back on her gun.
"Guess again," she said.
"Alright!" the man shouted. "I'll take whatever you've got."
"Three hundred gold. Or thereabouts. I hear you guys still take old Ardainian gold?"
"Money is money," the man said. "What do you want to know?"
"Who sent you after us?"
"Orders came from the commander. There was some foreigner making noise in the winds district, bothering everyone about some old legend. We were supposed to shut him up."
"Him being me," Zeke said.
"Yeah."
"Is that how you normally treat out-of-towners?"
"No. But I know better than to ask questions. Or answer them, most of the time."
"Why roll out the red carpet for us, then?"
"Hell if I know. You'll have to ask the commander about that one."
"Where can I find them?"
"The garrison is at the base of the tower," the man said. He must've meant the massive lift built into the cliffside looming over the city. The only way to and from Spessia's upper regions that didn't involve a several-day hike through a fungal-infested wasteland. "The mayor and the commander have their offices there, where they can keep an iron grip on it. The commander should still be there. Look for the big fuck-off fence."
"Thanks for the info," Zeke said. He slipped the pouch of gold off his belt. "Last question, then. Have you ever heard of someone named Atasaiah?"
"Ata-what-now?" the man asked. Zeke stared at the man. He probably wasn't lying. No reason to start now, after being so forthcoming.
"What about the Titan Eater?"
"You're really committed to this old fairy-tale thing, huh?"
"Just answer the question. What do you know about it?"
"It's a big scary monster that eats Titans and wears their skin. Supposed to live in the caves about a half-mark toward the Titan's rear. And if you're a naughty little boy, he'll sneak into your bedroom at night and gobble you up too, so you'd better watch out."
"Enlightening," Zeke said. Nothing he hadn't heard before, though. They'd checked the caves out yesterday, too, and the only thing there had been bits of scrap machinery and a half-crushed skull. But someone, or something, had been living there in the past. Hopefully this commander would be able to tell them where they'd gone.
"Do I get my money now, or what?" the man asked. Everyone here got so pushy the second money entered the picture. With a sigh, Zeke stood up and tossed the man the coin pouch.
"Pleasure doing business with you," he said. He leaned out the door and checked the street, making sure the way was clear. There was some shouting in the distance, but it didn't sound like they were in any immediate danger.
"Tower, then?" Pandoria asked. He nodded. As they stepped outside, Nal put a barrier of ice up around them, distorting the incoming and outgoing light to render them invisible.
"That was a bit much," Zeke said, keeping his voice low as they moved through the streets. Nal could keep them hidden from sight, but she couldn't do anything about sound.
"He needed some incentive," Nal said. "I provided. Yer welcome."
"You didn't need to blast his ear off," Pandoria said.
"Y'all didn't need to pay him three hundred gold for basically nothin'. Keep that up, and we'll be hikin' home."
"I don't think they'll be selling us lift tickets after tonight," Zeke said. He motioned around at the deserted streets. "Half the city knows what's happened by now."
"Sure. But tossin' coin to a dead man's just idiotic."
"His injuries weren't that bad."
"He ran his mouth. Spessia ain't gonna stand for that."
"Spessia operates on the cheap," Pandoria said. "I doubt a border city like this has the budget to track down dissenting soldiers."
"That's not the…" Nal sighed. "Whatever. Do whatever the hell ya' want. Just don't come cryin' to me when ya' need to pay for somethin'."
"Duly noted," Zeke said. Before he could say anything else, a group of soldiers ran past, heading in the direction they'd come. They had to step aside to keep them out of Nal's ether field, but the group didn't notice their presence. The three of them waited a moment for the soldiers to get further away before continuing.
"They're really going for it," Pandoria said. "I hadn't expected this kind of response."
"Probably has something to do with the angel man," Zeke said. "I have a hunch someone higher up the chain than the commander or the mayor is calling the shots at the moment."
"Cut the talk," Nal hissed. A moment later, another group of soldiers passed them. Gunfire erupted from the direction they'd come from.
"Looks like they found him," Zeke muttered. "Assholes."
"We should move," Pandoria said. The three of them took off running for the tower as more soldiers moved in. Thankfully, in all the commotion, they were able to move quickly. As they reached the fence, Zeke drew his sword and cut them a path in. No alarms went off, but there were people moving by the buildings.
"Where to now?" Nal asked.
"We find this commander," Zeke said. "We could start knocking heads, but it'd be a hassle to fight the whole garrison."
"They haven't found us yet," Pandoria said. "We should keep it that way. Move quietly. With all the commotion, the commander's bound to be around here somewhere. That soldier mentioned an office, remember?"
"I'll see if I can't find it," Nal said. Before Zeke could protest, she disappeared, leaving the two of them stranded by the hole in the fence with no invisibility. With no other options, they crouched low and started moving toward the buildings at the base of the tower. There were lights on, but no one here was on very high alert, so they were able to keep out of sight. They waited, minutes ticking away, but Nal didn't return.
"Figures," Pandoria muttered, looking around. "Do you think she ditched us?"
"She wouldn't have tagged along just to jump ship now," Zeke said. "And she isn't Mikhail, so I doubt she'd leave us high and dry just for a laugh. Something happened."
"Great. I guess we're moving in ourselves, then."
Zeke nodded, and the two began making their way through the garrison. Or whatever this place was supposed to be. The buildings were few and far between in this area, but there weren't many people around either. With care, they managed to move through the area to a large, official-looking building jutting out from the side of the tower. It had an imposing metal exterior, bearing the Federation's coat of arms. A sword laid over a shield, bearing wings on either side. A poor imitation of the Ardainian crest.
They slipped into the building and made their way up, floor by floor, until they heard voices. Zeke couldn't read Spessian, but the door they were coming through bore an official-looking plaque, so it seemed good enough. They got close enough to make out what the people inside were saying.
"What if Saur's right?" a woman asked. "If this is a Coalition agent, then they could be after the project."
"Don't be absurd," a man said. "Barely anyone in the Federation knows it exists. How could the Coalition have caught wind of it?"
"We keep testing them. They were bound to send someone to find out why. And our information network isn't that airtight."
"Herletta," the man said, sighing. "You're overreacting. Saur's upset because things didn't go his way for once. We're dealing with one lone dustbagger and his Blade."
"One dustbagger that took out an entire squad, took one of my best men captive, and managed to give Saur's people the slip? That doesn't track. Something's going on here."
"Don't be so dramatic. We wouldn't want to cause a panic."
"Eat spores, Cadovir," the woman said. "I'm not going to pretend everything's under control just so you can save face. If the committee wants to blame someone, they can blame Saur for dumping this project on us, but I'll be damned if I let your idiotic politics jeopardize the plan."
"Control yourself, commander," the man said. Which probably made him the mayor, unless there was another major player in the local scene Zeke didn't know about. "Even if this is the work of the Coalition, we can't let ourselves fall into hysterics. You have men guarding the project, don't you?"
"Obviously. I'm not an idiot."
"Then as long as they can do their jobs, I'm sure things will be just fine."
"Project?" Pandoria whispered. Zeke put a finger to his lips.
"Fuck you, Cadovir," the woman said. "You call my men's competence into question again, and an oversight committee is going to be the least of your worries. And where the hell is Saur?"
"Tracking down our dustbagger. His new toy should be able to handle the capture."
"I don't like relying on that machine. It can't be a coincidence that this happens just days after it shows up. I'm sending a team after him the second he reports in."
"You do that," the man said. "Shall you send a team to check up on my secretary as well, make sure she isn't secretly conspiring with the Coalition to kill us all?"
"Keep this shit up and maybe I will."
The two paused for a moment, and Zeke looked back at Pandoria. Would it be a good idea to rush in and question them, or should they hang back? Clearly, there was something more at play here that they weren't aware of. Pandoria shrugged, leaving the decision in his hands. But the universe seemed to make it for him.
There was a rumble from outside, and the whole building shook. A moment later, Zeke heard more explosions, followed by the sound of the angel man's laser firing. He was nearby. Too close for comfort, certainly, which probably explained what had been holding Nal up.
"Asshole," the commander muttered. "Can't even radio in when he starts shit."
She headed for the door, and Zeke drew his sword. It was now or never. He stepped into the room and held the sword out, catching them both by surprise.
The commander stood by the door, the sword perilously close to her chest. She had deep burgundy skin and was decked out in full Titan hide armor, save for a helmet. The man, by contrast, had extremely light pink skin and wore a very drab bureaucrat's uniform. He sat at a large desk, amidst an office adorned with myriad trappings, administrative records, and such. It looked just a little too decorated to belong to the mayor of a border town like this.
"Well," the man said. "It seems our dustbagger's found us first."
"Shut up," the commander hissed. There was another explosion, closer this time.
"Hello," Zeke said. "I'm looking for someone. I was told you might be able to help me."
"Go to hell," the commander said. "Coalition dog."
"I don't have time for this."
Zeke passed the sword to his other hand and punched the commander in the gut, hitting hard enough to drive the impact home even through her armor. As she doubled over, he stepped forward, leveling the sword at the mayor.
"There's a man named Atasaiah working for the Federation," Zeke said. "You're going to tell me where I can find him."
"It's a complicated and delicate procedure," Adenine said. "There's a lot that can go wrong."
"Don't be so dramatic," Nia said. This would be complicated, and delicate, but after walking herself through the process a few times, she didn't really think it was very risky.
"He could die. You do realize that, right?"
"Only if I screw up." Nia glanced back at Dromarch.
"It's a chance I'm willing to take," he said. "I'm tired of feeling like I don't belong in my own fur. If there's a chance this works, that I can feel normal for the first time, then I want to try."
"You're the patient," Adenine said. "It's your decision. I just want to make sure we tread carefully. Every time we poke around with Core Crystals, we run the risk that whoever we're operating on comes out the other side different."
"I'm already different," Dromarch said, hopping up onto the operating table. It took him a moment to flip over and get himself into a good position.
"I'm taking every precaution," Nia said. "But getting Dromarch even this far should have been impossible, and we did it anyway. We can do this too."
"I have no idea where you get your confidence," Adenine muttered. She angled the table to give Nia a better view of the core, then started strapping Dromarch in.
"I've been avoiding this for months, Adenine. I'd hoped for a safer way forward, but there isn't one, so I'm making the most of it. Doubting myself now won't do anyone any good."
"You could do with a little bit of caution, at least," Adenine said as she began attaching equipment to Dromarch's chest.
"This is a lot of gear," Kalarau observed. He'd been hanging back for a while, going over Adenine's writeup of the procedure. He'd taken so long it made Nia wonder if he could read modern script, but he seemed to understand his role, at the very least.
"It's a complicated process."
"Of course, it's just… This reminds me a lot of how Weavers used to operate. They had dozens of tools they'd cram into you when they wanted to change things around. All crafted out of fragments chipped from Temperantia's core."
"Sounds barbaric," Adenine said. "But it makes a kind of sense. You need a material with the same lattice structure as a Core Crystal, otherwise you won't get the proper resonance propagation. Thankfully, the Praetorium had more Core Chips than we knew what to do with, so making surgery equipment was fairly trivial."
"What's a Core Chip?" Kalarau asked.
"Crystalized ether," Nia said. "Drawn directly from a Titan's blood stream."
"That's horrible."
"Better than chipping off bits of their vital organs," Adenine said. "Alright, we're all good on my end. Starting up the equipment."
Adenine flipped a switch, and the machines around the room whirred to life, producing a faint glow around Dromarch's core.
"Wish me luck," Dromarch said.
"You don't need luck," Nia said. "You've got me, remember?"
"You make it sound like it's going to be easy," Kalarau said.
"There's no way this'll be easy. But, for once, this is a problem I'm well equipped to deal with. Compared to every other issue that's come our way recently, this should at least be straightforward."
"Not the word I would use," Adenine muttered. She wheeled a harness over to Nia and fiddled with the equipment connected to it for a moment. "Alright, you're good to strap in."
"Strapping," Nia said, taking the harness off the rack and slipping it over her head. It held some equipment that hooked into her core, connecting her directly to Dromarch. She had her normal Driver resonance with his core, but it wasn't sensitive enough to detect small-scale changes. So Adenine had thrown together this setup to boost her resolution.
"I'm forcing resonance," Adenine continued, floating between several machines to triple check they were running properly. The glow around Dromarch's core intensified as she force-fed it ether.
"Guess that's my cue," Kalarau said. He put his hands on Nia's shoulders and began transferring her his ether. She took it and immediately converted it to water, spreading it out over Dromarch's core. Slowly, she massaged her ether into it, repeatedly spreading the water back and forth. With each pass, a fraction was absorbed into the core alongside the ether Adenine was feeding in. It was the best way to get already-processed ether into a Core Crystal without doing damage, but it took time. Hours went by before she had enough to work with. They were lucky Kalarau had agreed to help, otherwise she'd be pushing her limit by now.
Once the ether was inside, Nia had to work it down through the core to reach the self-repair region. By herself, she couldn't tell what was where, but Adenine had built a map of the core using her resonance analyzers. It was based off a composite they'd built from the Aegis data and calibrated by mapping real-world Blade cores. Once she was in place, Adenine's analyzers would let them know.
"Alright, you're at the tricky part," Adenine said, eyes glued to her machine's readout. "Take this next bit very, very carefully."
"Of course," Nia said. Most of Dromarch's core was permeable enough to let ether flow normally. But there was a layer in the crystal where the lattice shifted abruptly. It had cooled too quickly when Nia was trying to repair it, and as a consequence the area around it had hardened wrong. It was too thick to simply press her ether through. She'd need to cut it.
Slowly, she gathered all the ether into a line, pressing layers together until they formed the edge of a blade. She had to grind it back and forth, cutting a gap through the hardened material big enough to get her ether through. She also had to take extra care not to leave any dust behind in the core. Once the self-repair matrix activated, it would repair any damage caused, but there was no sense in making that job harder than it needed to be.
Unfortunately, Nia didn't have a choice. As her ether approached the target region, she could feel it washing over tiny, fibrous lines. Those lines carried raw ether to and from the different sections. They were small and showed up in Adenine's map as a kind of fuzz, and they were what Nia needed to rearrange to return proper functionality to the self-repair region. She'd been expecting to see most of the connections broken already. To have something she could regrow. But that wasn't the case. Every connection she needed to move was already tangled up in the surrounding regions.
"Adenine," Nia said, keeping her voice calm. "There's no free connections. I'm going to need to cut some."
"Give me a second," Adenine said. She checked the readout from another machine. She took a lot longer than a second.
"Adenine?" Nia asked.
"I'm thinking."
"What's to think about? It's just a few ether connections."
"Those are critical systems; we can't cut their connections. I'll need to look for another route."
"I've got my ether all around this thing, and I can tell you right now there isn't one. I must've smoothed the connections down when I was making my initial repairs. I'm going to need to improvise a little."
"Cutting those connections might kill him," Adenine said, still not looking up from her machines. Her hands were moving fast, looking for a solution that wasn't there, but Nia knew better. There wasn't an easy solution here. They all knew this had come with some risk. She looked down at Dromarch, and he stared back up at her with conviction. Slowly, he nodded.
"I'll compensate," Nia said. "All he needs is ether flow, right? I can handle that while I make the repairs."
"Then you'd better work fast," Adenine replied.
"Starting," Nia said. She was used to reconstructing things from scratch, rebuilding flesh that had been destroyed or broken beyond repair. She wasn't so used to deconstructing things, but it was the same principle. Use the ether to rearrange the connections that made up an object. Only this object was a Core Crystal, where one wrong pulse of ether might have extreme consequences.
Still, there wasn't another way to proceed, so she worked as delicately as she could. Despite how her power looked to others, she couldn't make something from nothing, she needed raw materials. And this deep inside a Core Crystal, the only material she had access to was the core itself. Thin ribbons of ether sliced out sections of various connections, replacing them with bridges of her own ether to ensure she didn't break the flow. She then stitched the sections together, creating new connections that she began patching into the target region. Everything went smoothly until one of the broken connections slipped out of her grip.
"Nia!" Adenine shouted.
"I know!" she replied. Frantically, she dragged them back together, but as she did, another slipped. Then another. Her ether bridges couldn't hold.
"Shit!" Adenine looked up at Nia. "Whatever you did, put it back now!"
"I can't!" Nia shouted back. "The fix isn't done yet!"
She did her best to work on two fronts, moving her ether around to reattach failing connections while building out the new ones they needed. But she couldn't keep both up, even with the amount of ether Kalarau was feeding her. Still, she wasn't going to give up. She kept working on the new connections, hoping that once the self-repair region reactivated, it would be able to take care of the rest.
"Doesn't matter!" Adenine floated over to the wall and grabbed a syringe of thick, blue liquid. A coagulant the Praetorium had developed to help Core Crystals retain their integrity during surgery. If Adenine was reaching for that, she was going to abort the procedure. But Nia couldn't give up. Not now.
As she soldiered on, however, Dromarch began to convulse. His eyes rolled back, and if he hadn't been strapped in, he would have thrown himself off the table entirely. That's when Nia finally noticed what was happening.
The connections she'd cut were brittle, and cutting them had introduced the tiniest of cracks that she'd overlooked. Ether had seeped into those cracks and expanded them, and now they were growing rapidly, tearing up other sections of the core. The more ether she poured into them, the more the cracks expanded. At this rate, Dromarch was going to be dead before she could finish.
"Fuck!" Nia shouted, using as much ether as she could to force the disintegrating connections back together. "Inject him!"
Adenine jammed the syringe into his core and pressed the stopper, flooding it with coagulant. Nia could feel it flood around her ether, stopping the cracks from spreading. But it couldn't undo the damage. Neither could she. Not unless she wanted to risk doing more. Slowly, she pulled her hands back and looked at Dromarch's core. There was a gash running through the middle, now mostly filled with coagulant. The damage had spread so fast in such a short amount of time.
Why him? Why now? Nia could scarcely believe it. Healing was supposed to be the one thing she was better at than anyone else. The one thing she knew she could do. How had she made such an idiotic mistake? And she hadn't even managed to do what she set out to. The self-repair region was still dormant.
"Well, that could have gone better," Adenine said. She stared at Dromarch's now unconscious body for a moment. Thankfully, he was still breathing. "I'll need some time to assess the damage. Take a break, and I'll let you know when we're good to go again."
"No," Nia muttered, drawing her ether back out of Dromarch's core. "I can't."
"You can't?"
"I can't do this," she said. "I thought I knew what I was doing, but rushing in like this was stupid. I can't fix something I don't understand. If I keep working in there, I'll only make things worse."
"The damage is already done," Kalarau said. "You can't leave him like this. You owe it to him to see this through. It's what he would want."
"He's still alive, at least. I will not be responsible for killing him."
"Look at him!" Kalarau shouted. Reluctantly, she did, and what she saw made her breath catch in her throat. The damage she'd done to his core was already spreading out to the rest of him. His fur had changed color in places, and his muscles looked atrophied. She'd done immense harm in such a short span of time.
"We need to fix this," Adenine said. "Tell me what happened, and I can try to whip up a fix, but we cannot leave him like this."
"I can't," Nia repeated. "If you can find a way to fix him, then…" She paused. Was there any way to fix this? "I can't be involved. I'm not going to hurt him anymore."
She slipped out of the harness and headed for the door. If she looked at Dromarch any longer, she would throw up.
"No," Kalarau said, practically growling. He grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her to a stop. "You have to fix this."
"I can't!" she shouted, batting his hand aside almost instinctively. She turned back around, ready to unleash more of her frustration, but a light flashed, and something knocked her back. Kalarau had struck her with his ether.
"Coward," he muttered. She leapt up at him, swiping a claw for his face, but Adenine caught her before she could reach him.
"Do not," she hissed. "If you want to beat on each other like animals, do it where it won't hurt my patient."
Nia glanced back at Dromarch, then immediately glanced away. Even just looking at him was too much to bear. But Adenine was right. She lowered herself to the ground and stepped back, glaring at Kalarau. He just shook his head and left the lab. Neither of them tried to stop him.
She wanted to shout at him, to tell him he was wrong, but he wasn't. She was a coward. Hell, she was terrified. She'd already lost Dromarch once, and she wouldn't let it happen again. It was one thing to talk about risk in the abstract, but when it was staring her in the face? That was different. It felt like White Chair all over again. The desperate struggle to keep someone together as they fell apart in her hands. She'd been powerless then, and she felt powerless now. Even after all the power she'd gained, all the sacrifices she'd made, she couldn't protect the people she loved when it mattered.
She left the lab before the gnawing pit in her stomach could get any worse.