Instinctively, I wanted to deny Tamrie, to tell her that the nightmares were over.

Except I clearly remembered those lines of red, the hordes of Sahevin swarming just beneath our cliffs.

And those were only the most immediate problem.

“You’re right. It’s going to get worse, before it gets better,” I said, still holding her close. “We’re in a better position than most, and yet…”

She nodded against my chest. Then she pushed to her feet, her fists curled tight once more. “We don’t have time for me to… to be so weak.”

“Tamrie, you’re not… well, your body’s weak, but you’re not,” I said, pushing her hair out of her face. She looked up, tilting her face into my hand. “I love you.”

“Aye, ‘spose you do,” she said, her smile threatening to break through. “Might be that I love you too.”

Before we could get distracted, a call from ahead reminded us that Arizar had entered the trial with us.

We made our way forward, finding her standing just inside the entrance, waving. The blue bracelet that looked to be made from heavy corded seaweed bobbed about her wrist, almost looking like it was gonna come free and smack her.

As we hopped down from the raised platform at the end of the red lily path, Arizar greeted us. “Honestly thought it was gonna be worse, with how that monster built it up.”

Tamrie stiffened next to me, though it only lasted a fraction of a second before she laughed. “Aye. Better than dealing with a Shaper looking for a book ten minutes before close, it was.”

“That does sound annoying,” Arizar said, taking Tamrie’s other arm. “I always tried to avoid visiting the library close to closing time.”

Tamrie nodded, and they continued in a much lighter vein than we’d been talking moments earlier. Yet I could still feel the way Tamrie’s arm was clenched.

Outside, Tender was waiting alongside the assembled Tethered. Only after I’d returned them to Tetherfall did the three of us, along with Bevel, sit down to listen through Tender’s guidance.

“Even without the power of Kinya, self-reflection has long allowed the many branches of humanity to understand their bodies better. To feel the stress and aches within, the entwined cords. And then unwind it with simple motions,” Tender demonstrated, going into a position that required the rest of us to stretch.

“Like this?” Bevel asked, reaching over so far she’d practically folded herself in half. Even with my improved Agility, my back ached just seeing it.

“That is excessive,” Tender said, gently tapping her shoulder to move her to the proper position.

It wasn’t meant to be difficult or extreme, Tender explained. We were to simply move enough for us to feel where the Kinya had been incorporated, where it had made changes. After taking us through ten minutes of the sorts of stretches I’d only seen in movies back on Earth, Tender had us sit down.

Then Tender guided us through directing our attention to specific regions of our bodies, pushing and pulling at the small bits of Kinya our bodies had failed to absorb by relaxing and contracting our muscles.

I was surprised at just how much sat scattered about my body. It was only small fragments, less than a tenth of a percent of the Kinya I’d absorbed, yet the fragments were everywhere.

Figuring out how to move them was an exercise in frustration. Instead of using our magical senses, we had to flex and relax our muscles, and simply doing so affected every fragment of Kinya along the entire limb.

And once that happened, most of the fragments dissipated. Meaning practicing with another part of the body until the fragments had all disappeared.

“This is merely the first step,” Tender said as we all stood, pushing off the root covered stone floor. “Once you are capable of guiding Kinya at rest, you must then learn how to guide it while remaining in motion. Mistakes may well increase the pain, instead of reducing it.”

“That’s right mucked up, it is,” Tamrie said, letting out a long sigh. Then she shook her head, nodding. “Is what it is, I ‘spose.”

“An unexpected impediment, most certainly. Yet one we will overcome,” Arizar said, patting Tamrie’s shoulder.

With our practice over, conversation turned towards their many tasks, with Arizar not so subtly reminding me that she would appreciate having a Waygate leading to Overflow B.

“They really are quite the marvel,” she added, stopping next to the Waygate leading out of Tender’s hall, inspecting it. “Not nearly as complicated as I’d thought, but the theory behind them… even fourth Order spells don’t make use of the higher dimensions with such efficiency.”

“That’s partially because of their fixed locations. Let’s them establish more efficient links through the cracks in reality… I think,” I said, double checking the Waygate since we’d stopped anyway. It was fully intact, and really was just waiting for us to finish repairing it on the other end. I wondered how many of the undiscovered Waygates were the same. Would it be faster for us to rebuild the Waygates in the central chamber and search out the working connections that way?

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Guess it depended on how long it took me to finish up Banya’s work.

As it turned out… not that long.

With Bevel working on her own Waygate at the same time, we managed to finished repairing four of the outer ring Waygates. All of which were important. Nexxa and I would no longer be needed to get people into the Final Rest or the Golden Halls, and it’d be much more convenient to visit Conflict and the new port town.

In addition to our basic repairs, we added in some additional security features.

First was the ability to manually shut down a Waygate by entering a specific Spellcode. I was the only with the codes, for the moment, though I’d give them to Nexxa next time she visited. And Bevel and Tamrie once they had the spell scribed.

The second might’ve been a bit of paranoia on my part, but after learning that Mount Aeternia had incredible spatial weight, I worried about others using that to infiltrate it. So… we worked in a protection to the Waygates.

We might’ve been able to repair six if the Waygate connected to the Golden Halls hadn’t attempted to drown the chamber again when Bevel reactivated it. Turned out there was a mechanism that had been switched when the Waygate had malfunctioned the first time which Bevel had missed when doing her repairs.

Still, we’d been prepared for something to go wrong, so, other than Bevel getting a surprise bath, the only damage was to the Waygate itself.

“You okay there?” I asked her as she picked herself up from where she’d landed in the lower part of the chamber.

Bevel didn’t answer at first, stalking over to the pooling water. Then she kneeled down, peering into a crack.

Eagle Eyes let me see the bubbles escaping said crack, and I soon joined her, ankle deep in ocean water.

“I think there used to be stairs here,” Bevel said, gesturing at the wall.

Inspecting the wall more closely, I nodded. It was faint, barely noticeable even being so close with Eagle Eyes active.

“You want to finish up the Waygate first? Then we’ll check this out,” I said, running my hand along the near invisible seam.

“Shouldn’t we work on more… I mean, yes?” Bevel asked, a crooked grin on her face as she caught herself.

“This is potentially dangerous. Or rewarding. Last set of stairs we found led to Keeper and my Beacon. Either way, best we deal with it,” I replied. “I’ll check with Keeper, see if it there are maps I’ve missed.”

I’d asked it about Mount Aeternia, back when we’d first arrived. And it had nothing except the map of outside. Still, it might have records of this place under a different name. Like Tertiary Transfer Nexus.

A quick visit had a full set of blueprints for us to wade through, a process I quickened with a short dip into Memory Palace. Which reminded me that I still needed to cast the upgraded version. Not that I was up for even more time dilation at the moment.

“Not sure these are going to be much use,” I said, holding the closest set of drawings up. “Seems like at least half of these passages were sealed over or collapsed over the years.”

“My room wasn’t there before you made it, right?” Bevel asked, tapping the spot on the drawing where her bedroom sat which was clearly marked as a hallway.

“Nope. Not even a little,” I said, glancing to where the crack sat. “Time to get to it. You ready?”

Bevel patted her modified Petal rod with one hand - which no longer required the silly twirling motion - and her grimoire with the other. “Yep, tight as a knot.”

Nodding, I cast Sculpt Stone, being careful to only take out enough around the edges that we could keep most of the stone block intact.

Saved mana and reduced the chances it’d accidentally fall and crush something important.

It took fifteen minutes to make it to the passage that lay a mere foot beyond, but considering the rough shape of the stairs we found, I was glad we’d taken our time.

Even after we removed the wall, our path wasn’t totally clear. More than half the stairway was full of rubble from old collapses. There were enchantments along the wall that were partially functional, having even repaired the sections where the rubble fell from.

Not enough to keep it clear though.

Luckily, clearing regular stone was something that could be delegated once I ensured the passage was safe.

A little more stone shaping for the parts of the stairway where the enchantments had weakened and Bevel and I descended further.

We made it down into a central corridor with several hallways that branched off only to terminate a short distance later when we saw it.

“Ew,” Bevel said, scrunching up her face. “Isn’t it dead? Why’s it moving?”

Just ahead of us, the skeleton of a small dinosaur was walking into the wall, its head bumping repeatedly.

“Not rightly sure,” I replied, kneeling down and taking a closer look around the room. There were a couple other skeletons lying dormant, mixed in among the rubble. “Could be some sort of enchantment. Or a spell of some kind. Might even be an awakened ability.”

“Worst awakening ever,” Bevel said, shaking her head. “Making your own skeleton keep going after you die?”

I was about to correct her, to point out I meant that it might’ve been another creature’s awakened ability. But then, for all I knew, she was right.

“What affinity could this even be?” Bevel asked, taking a step into the room.

I kept my metaphorical finger on Lightning Bolt, prepared to blast anything that attacked her.

Still, the other skeleton’s remained where they lay.

“Not certain. If it’s enchanted, it could be Nature, Arcane or even Earth,” I replied, moving to inspect one of the skeletons more closely. It was the same type of small dinosaur as the one still bumping its head into the wall. There was a glyph carved into its forehead, though not one I recognized.

“Not enchanting,” Bevel said from beside me, kneeling down. “Only the one glyph. No supporting runes.”

“With a glyph like that, probably a spell of some kind,” I said, glancing over at the dino bumping its head. “Considering one’s still active, a powerful spell, at that.”

“Coulda been one of the thieves, couldn’t it?” Bevel asked, brushing off her legs as she stood up. As she did so, she accidentally kicked one of the leg bones, causing the skeleton she’d been inspecting to rattle.

We both froze at the noise.

Nothing struck.

Bump. Bump. Bump.

“Heh, oops,” Bevel said, giving me a weak grin.

“Oops,” I agreed, prepared to move on. Then I noticed that something had changed. The skeleton she’d bumped had shifted and slid down, revealing something it’d been covering.

An egg. One marked with the same black glyph embedded in the skeleton’s head.

It glistened, the recent deluge of water that passed through clearly having made its way to even this corner of the room.

“Hold on,” I told Bevel, gesturing to the egg when she turned back.

Which is when it decided to crack.

Seconds later, thousands of echoing cracks joined the first.