Three shift-changes seemed to happen before Seth paid any attention to the time that had passed, and that was only – mostly – because of the void that gurgled in his stomach after a while.  A hand went to his gut, and he grumbled, “…Hmph, maybe I should aspire to be the Second just on account of how the Eidolon don’t have to eat…”


    Kourin had dressed-down from most of her uniform-accessories by this point - removing the full cloak and cowl, gloves, and boots – and enjoyed wading in the pond that had formed under the Rift.  Tadpoles nibbled at her pasty-white ankles, and as she bent down to dip her fingers under the icy cold water, she could see the reflection of the light in her eyes flitting in the ripples.


    “I think that’s all we’ll get from this distance.” Seth commented, “If you’re sure about getting closer…”


    “Yeah, it’s fine.” She answered, wiggling her fingers as some minnows came by, and she stood upright again, looking at the Scar, “It feels pretty sedate right now.”


    Seth was manic with taking notes about everything, and he quickly jotted that bit down as well, “Can you feel it even when you don’t have your affliction active?”


    “Yeah.  It’s like a vibration in the air.” Kourin explained, and flicked her hands to dry them a little.  She took a few steps closer in that murky, rock-bottomed pond, “It doesn’t feel hostile or anything.”


    “How would you know if it does though?”


    “Did Mr. Gabriel comment on it before?” She mused, “When yours went berserk.”


    “He didn’t even notice that his eyes had lit-up at the time.”


    “How did he not notice his own eyes glowing?”


    Seth looked up from his infographics and gave a shrug, “Does it feel like something?  Is it super obvious?”


    “It’s like a tickle of warm air blowing through them.” Kourin explained, and lifted her arms so she could gently comb her fingers through the floating, misty miasma, “It has a density, you know?  But maybe I’ve just had more practice.”


    That earned her a skeptical look.


    “What?”


    He just lounged back in that nanotech chair he’d made and gestured his hands out, “I dunno, you said you’re older than I am, and I believe that, but…older than Mr. Gabriel, too?  You don’t look it.”


    She gave a nervous laugh, “I…uh, I meant generally, like…the hours actually spent working on it.  He probably didn’t.  My power is kinda fun, so…”


    “Oh.  …Don’t worry, I won’t tell on you to Lord Rylen.” Seth teased, and went back to his floating keyboard, resting the heels of his palms on the forward lip of the little platform, “You’re probably right though.  Before I started bugging him about it last year, he hadn’t touched it much.”


    “Do you know what his skill was?  You must’ve learned a lot about it.”


    Seth got a bit morose at the question, and his brows betrayed him with a worried expression, “Only at the start.  Miss Ren tried to help him figure it out – she was fascinated by the affliction, too, but more from a ‘how would I kill a guy with that power if I had to fight it’ perspective than from my approach – but when I last looked at it, he only knew he could cut through any kind of material.  By the end…well, I’m not sure what he was capable of.  I know he used it to kill a Magistrate, but in that case…it was more like…he crushed the man, like a wad of paper.  He tore the whole war-machine clean in half after…and he never even touched the thing.”


    Kourin gave a weird look, “War-machine?”


    “Oh…it was this special Magistrate.  I forget his name.  I know my dad fought against him way back in the day, and he was a General or something in Kitez’s military before going the judicial route.”


    “Regulus Laurier.”


    “That’s the guy.” Seth snapped his fingers as he pointed at the Myrmidon, “Wait, how do you know…?  What would the Inquisition have to do with Kitez?”


    Kourin looked away, “…No particular reason.  Guess I just remembered it from the reports after the fighting ended.”


    “Oh…yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Seth went back to his data-panels, and continued typing, “In any case…  Mr. Gabriel said the Gate made him feel uneasy the whole time he was around it.  Right before his eyes lit-up, he said it was whispering something, and that’s when he confirmed he didn’t realize his affliction had activated on its own.  We used that trick later on at another site; made Mr. Gabriel use his power as an early-warning system.  If his eyes lit-up, we bailed.  It kinda worked…”


    “It’s not whispering right now, and my affliction is active because I did that myself.”


    “Right.  Is there a big vortex above us?”


    “A what?”


    “Vortex.  Made of light.  …Trying to remember exactly what he said.  I lost all my data on the escape-path back to Sargon.” Seth rubbed his temples as he lounged backward again, though as he looked upward in so doing, he realized the canopy would get in the way, “Oh…  Well, if we have to step out of the gully to look anyway, might as well break for lunch or something.”


    Gabriel knows about the vortex…?  But…how? Kourin thought grimly, Here I thought only Tallus and I could see it, and that was only because-


    “You coming?”


    “Huh?” She blinked a few times and realized Seth had somehow gotten up and wandered off a short ways already.  Her eye-lights went off, and she turned, trying not to slip on the moss-slimy stones at the bottom of the creek-bed, “Oh, sure…one sec.” Once feet were dried and boots put back on, Kourin quickly followed up and out of the little ravine via the cattle-path – passing one of the Fafnir recruits who’d gotten shifted in for watch-duty - and shielded her eyes as she glanced up at the early afternoon sky, “No…nothing above here.”


    “What about over there?” Seth wondered, and Kourin looked to see him pointing north…towards the Exclusion Zone.


    And there the vortex was – faint in the daylight, but still evident – slowly moving around in its slow but constant spiral, “…No, nothing.”


    “Oh, okay.  Maybe it only showed up cuz the Gate was acting-up, then.  Mr. Gabriel didn’t mention it before that.” Seth commented, sounding a little disappointed, “Ah well…some answers aren’t worth it, I guess.”


    “That didn’t sound ominous or anything.” Kourin puffed, and pulled her cowl back over her shoulders, “I have to put the mask back on for a little while, by the way.”


    “…If you must.”


    The skiff that had departed with the greenblood-rebels had returned some time later, setting-up shop as it originally intended, with passenger-seats folded into the floor paneling so other amenities could be set-up in their place.  The soldiers who’d left had also returned, creating a more local security-perimeter to protect the actual site and supporting personnel, while the Fafnir kept an eye on things further afield…including the nosey cows, who kept trying to come back.


    “Hopefully there’s still something left at this point…” Seth noted, stepping up the ramp of the rear-door as he made his way over towards the tables.


    Kourin had gotten to the top of the ramp before the sound of another skiff incoming caught her attention, and she looked back to watch a purple ship land – someone from the First had decided to come down, “…What are they doing out this way?” She wondered aloud, that digitized, monotone-voice catching Seth’s attention.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    The much-taller teen came back, looking out as well – though with a half-eaten fingerling sandwich in his hand, “That’s weird.” He mumbled as he chewed.  Even weirder though was when the door opened, two Captains came out, and Lord Rylen Vor’antiss himself manifested to greet them, “…Oh.  Well, shit.” Seth puffed, and quickly shoved the rest of the little sandwich into his mouth before hopping down into the field again.


    “…I’m telling you, if Lord Gabriel wasn’t stalling, we’d have had the whole Exclusion Zone mapped and detailed already.” Captain Gallifey was saying as he exited, “There must be something he’s protecting or hiding from us out there.  …I think we should do something to get around him.”


    “I don’t disagree.” Rylen answered, and glanced over at the flare that marked the entry-way into the gully, “Although Iresha certainly isn’t helping either.”


    “He’s only Emperor because you made him so, Lord Rylen.” Gallifey added, “This territory was conquered, and it’s only by your good graces that he can claim any kind of leadership over it.”


    “Maybe it was the wrong move to install him, but if only for this reason…then I suppose I’ll figure something else out.” The Eidolon continued, and the trio – along with Captain Torbu of the Armada – started making their way towards the creek.


    Seth panicked and took off running to catch up, footsteps swishing in the tall field-grass as he rushed through to get around and ahead of them, “L-Lord Rylen!  Captains!  What an…uh…unexpected surprise?”


    “Ah, Seth, there you are.” The First lifted his head and looked on kindly at the teen, “These two were curious about the work that’s going on here, so I decided to bring them down.  Hope you don’t mind.”


    “No sir!”


    “Where’s the Myrmidon that’s supposed to be here?” Rylen looked around, “You didn’t send them away again, did you?”


    “Noooo sir, she’s here!”


    The Eidolon turned to look towards where Seth was waving – and spotted the petite Inquisitor slowly making their way towards them - then back to him, “…You know they’re a she?  Why?”


    Seth balked, “Uhhhhh well…  Besides the fact that she’s built like the Myrmidon-factory ran out of parts, and came up with a runt with what was left-over?  She may have also taken her mask off, for my sake…”


    As Kourin inched her way closer, Rylen was already inspecting her credentials, seeing her profile pull-up on his overlay, “Mikkela Hennison, Myrmidon 1^st Class.  Joined the First less than a year ago and already trusted enough to come out to one of my top-level projects.  You must be something special.” He said aloud, then dismissed the window, and turned those discerning eyes down towards that petite figure, “Either you’ve proven to be something of a Limitless prodigy, or you were volunteered because no one else was willing to come.”


    Seth listened carefully – and not without a little curiosity.


    “Probably a mix of both, Lord Rylen, sir.” She said as she finally arrived, and saluted, the wind carrying her cape out to the side.


    “Bold.” He mused, then turned back towards his protégé, “Anything interesting?”


    “Yessir!” Seth answered eagerly, “Miss Mikkela’s been a huge help, honestly!  The other Gates didn’t stay open long enough for me to do much more than re-discover what I already knew, and get the data stored in the Cloud, but with Miss Mikkela, I’ve been able to find out a whole bunch of stuff that Mr. Gabriel once tried to help me with.”


    Rylen started walking – and the Captains et al followed – as Seth continued.


    “There’s a general area of effect that creates a kind of vibratory sensation to the afflicted, which can be felt whether their abilities are active or not.  This one hasn’t done any of the whispering or ‘aura of menace’ like the one I investigated last year…so far.  It’s definitely an opening though, and those new sensors you got for me are picking up some pretty neat stuff.  The energy radiating off the Gate is exactly the same as what comes out when the afflicted turn their eye-lights on.”


    “So, you’re basically on the edge of proving that the two are connected, it sounds like.”


    “Yessir!  The question on my mind now is why it’s like that.  Why do certain people have an affliction while others don’t, why does it manifest in adolescence, why does it apparently manifest more in males than females – as Miss Kou-, er Miss Mikkela made clear to me earlier – and why the effects come out of the eyes, rather than from the whole body, for example.” Seth carried on excitedly, and as they came through the brush to see the creek-bed, Seth hopped-out in front of them, arms outstretched, “This is probably as close as anyone should get, to be safe.”


    “How do you make that determination?” Captain Torbu wondered, and she gestured at the dome, “Wouldn’t the barrier be enough?”


    “The barrier is only a symbolic gesture until a Rift acts-up and we can confirm that it actually gets repelled, ma’am.” He answered, “The previous two evaporated naturally without incident, and this one has been stable since we arrived.”


    “And you’re still not sure what actually got it to lash-out the first time?” Rylen asked, keeping his distance even further than what Seth recommended.


    “Unfortunately, no…  The only variable this whole time has been Mr. Gabriel himself.  The whole ‘being a Prime Mover’ thing is the only I can slap an asterisk on.”


    “Prime Mover.” Tarrock scoffed and crossed his arms, “The only Prime thing he is, is a Prime Pain in the Ass.”


    The fact that Rylen wasn’t stopping the shit-talk was enough to set Seth’s teeth on edge.


    “There’s so many more Rifts that open in Kitez.” Captain Torbu diverted, and stepped closer to Seth’s personal perimeter to get a better look through the singular open part of the dome, “In all our time on Hadira, other than the Calamity that brought the original fleet down, I think I can count on two hands the number of Gateways that we’ve seen in our own territories.  Yet, they seem to be quite commonplace here.  I wonder why that is?”


    “Proximity to the Exclusion Zone, is my guess.” Seth answered, still giving a bit of a sneaky stink-eye to the Bulwark’s Captain before finally turning to the more reasonable one, “Until the Emperor gives us permission to go into there, though…”


    “The Emperor is just a boy.” Tarrock shrugged, “He should only need a firm reminder of who crowned him.  We shouldn’t have to wait on his permission.”


    “Iresha isn’t a child.” Seth finally countered directly, “And he isn’t some pawn you can move around.  These are his people, and it’s his land…  The values of Sargon and Kitez were interlinked for two hundred years.  Expecting him to throw all that away because we showed up three years ago completely defeats the purpose of making him the Emperor at all.”


    “You impudent-”


    Rylen held his arm out that time, “That’s enough.  This one is mine.”


    Tarrock twitched slightly, and gave a half-assed head-bow, “Yessir.”


    “Have you considered, however, that you may succeed where Lugios has failed?” The First wondered, lowering his arm again as he cast his attention onto the Rydell, “Iresha may be more amenable if you were the one to bring it up to him.”


    Seth balked at the suggestion, “…I could never take advantage of his trust like that.  He immediately said no when it only seemed like I was about to ask.”


    “Then we wait on Lord Gabriel and his infinite wisdom.  I don’t intend to let him stall for much longer.” Rylen said, and turned to take a step back from the site, “Once the clean-up with the Ward and Guardian is done, I’ll have no more distractions.  The Emperor is already trying me with his continued refusal to bring Sargon into the Accord.”


    “That’s…because he knows you’ll use them to pressure him.” Seth explained warily, “When Sargon joins, it loses its autonomy and identity.”


    “In any case,” Rylen said impatiently, “If you’re unwilling to broach the subject with him even for your own sake, maybe just stick to what you’re good at and leave the politicking to others.”


    Seth felt those words like a gut-punch, and he recoiled into himself like a kicked dog.  Tarrock just snorted a mocking half-breath at him as he and Captain Torbu turned to follow their Eidolon back out of the bramble-patch.


    She, however, paused a moment and gave some reassurance, “You’re doing a great job with these Rifts, kid.  The Inquisitors love the data you’re bringing in, and it’s going to good use.”


    “Oh…  Okay…”


    Captain Torbu tilted her head at him slightly, but then just pet his shoulder and went to catch-up.  Rylen paused half-way up the trail and looked back, only to dissolve his mantle right there and then.  Seth could feel the sneer creeping across his face unwillingly as he stared at Captain Gallifey’s back.  The man had made steady progress up the incline and was near to the bright light of the exit through the brush when Seth made up his mind.  Boots trampled over loose stones as the teen rushed to catch up, and shoved past the older man with his stupid-looking mutton-chop beard.


    When Seth turned, he put a firm knuckle into the Captain’s chest, “I may just be a kid to you, but I’m a son of the Rydell family and I will make your life Hell if I hear you talking shit about Mr. Gabriel again.”


    “Oh?  You will?” Tarrock scoffed, and smacked the arm away as he stepped fully into the open field, “Will you send your daddy after me?  Think he’ll risk his own reputation as a Rydell patriarch just to protect your bruised ego?  He’s already dealing with enough after your brother screwed up last year.  You have no power here.  The best you can hope to accomplish is getting Lord Rylen what he wants from your paper-Emperor friend.  Save that, maybe you should just stay in your lane, boy.”


    “I’ll ask Iresha to open the gates when you apologize to Mr. Gabriel for all the years of grief you’ve created for him.  I know you’re half the reason he was so uptight before.”


    “Shame I can’t take credit for why he’s that way now.” He growled and pushed the teen away to get by.


    Seth could feel the swing tensing in his arms, but Captain Torbu got in his way before he could make any poor choices.  She put a finger to her lips to shush him, too, and the pair left him there on the cattle-trail to chew on his frustrations.  By the time Kourin caught back up with him, he’d gone back into the gully to sulk, and stared at the Void Gate through the opening like it, too, was mocking him.


    “…You okay?” She wondered as she pulled the helmet away again, “There’s still some food up on the ship if you’re hungry.”


    “…I lost my appetite.”