Kourin had to shove half the cot into the air before she was able to find the little clamshell-shaped device she’d hidden between the mattress and the base.  It jingled with the ring of a charm-laden chain – brass paw-prints, mostly – and she flipped it open.  Checking back at the door one last time, she let the cot fall back into place and scrambled to sit on top of it as she dialed-out a number.  The little phone made a few beeps before someone on the other end finally picked up, and Kourin sat fully upright, “Tallus, you are NOT going to believe what just happened!”


    Far off in Gesh’ko, a mid-level Mediator had his hand on the inside of a single-person bathroom door.  Like Kourin, he had a little clamshell phone up to his ear, and he listened carefully as she regaled to him the entire story.  By the time she was done, Tallus was leaning against the panel, phone pinned between shoulder and ear, fingers pinched to the bridge of his nose.


    “…Well?” She asked impatiently.


    “Well, shit.”


    “…That’s it?  Xanarken is alive and…you’re upset?”


    “Xanarken may have stepped into Gabriel’s mantle, but he can’t step into his role.”


    “That’s not fair…  You’re so ungrateful.  He gave up everything for our sakes.”


    “And he’s just become the reason why we don’t have a Prime Mover anymore.  The whole last year of work…it all just went up in smoke.” Tallus grumbled quietly, “There’s not even any point in tracking Scyren down if we don’t have Gabriel, too.”


    “We’ll find him…  Xanarken said they never found a body…  Scyren might even be able to-”


    “Be able to what?  Track down a dead guy?  Scyrexian had to set-up that whole crazy scheme last year to try and draw Lugios to it by luring that Fafnir girl he knew into its clutches.  And in the whole time since then, he hasn’t turned up anywhere.  He’s so perfectly gone that none of us had any idea.  Xanarken was already swapped-in before Phex even finished putting together profiles for us.” He complained, and banged the back of his head against the door in frustration.


    “I thought you’d be happier about it…  He’s done so much for us; stuck his neck out for us…”


    Tallus just looked at the phone irritably and shook his head before putting it back to his ear, “I don’t consider it help when I’m the one who put the idea in his head.”


    “…Then what am I supposed to do?  If you think it’s all pointless now.”


    He rubbed his face as he thought, “…Just…nothing.  Never mind.” He answered, and closed the device with a disgruntled sigh.


    Kourin just looked at the ‘Call ended’ text on her own side, “Wow!  Rude!” She mumbled, staring at the device for a little while as she thought about what else she could do.  With an idea, she found another contact in the list, and put the phone to her ear as it dialed-out again.  Beeeep…  Beeeeeeep…  Click, “…Phex!  You won’t believe what just happened!”


    .


    With no other Void Scars to tinker with, and the Aegis off towards the Guardian’s crash-site, Seth could only head back to Agartha.  It was a bittersweet farewell, with all five veteran Fafnir in the hangar to offer their goodbyes.


    “Wish you’d stay a little longer, but I understand why you’d want to go…” Ravan said first, threading her arms over the teen’s shoulders, “Also, how dare you get so tall all of a sudden.”


    “I’ll be sure not to do it again.” He teased, and gave a hug back.


    Jense and Corbin scuffled with him like a couple of teenagers, but then passed him along to this father, and Lequerion gave him a breath-extinguishing tight hug.


    “I’ll miss you too, dad.” Seth squeaked, and finally felt his feet set back down on the hangar floor.  He caught his breath, and Lequerion smacked him on the back for good measure, nearly knocking him over in so doing.


    “The Aegis is a lonelier place without you on it, kiddo.” He commented, and crossed his arms with a fatherly smirk, “The College at Agartha is lucky to have you.”


    “Thanks, dad.” The anxious teen answered, and turned finally to his brother.  He gave a sad smile and stepped into a hug, “Don’t tell dad, but I’ll probably miss you the most.”


    Lequerion snorted, “Betrayed by my own son…”


    Furion puffed, “I won’t tell him anything.  Don’t be a stranger on comms either.  And call me if you end up talking to that girl again.”


    The rest of the Fafnir team suddenly burst out into teasing coos, making Seth’s face go so red, he was like to float away like some unseemly Rydell-shaped balloon.  He could only shriek and run as they chased him with insistent questions, fleeing into the skiff that was going to take him back to the big city.


    “You don’t mean that Myrmidon girl, do you?” Lequerion wondered, watching the whole scene with amusement, “That would be a terrible irony.”


    “How’s that?” Furion wondered.


    “Kid who’s terrified of the Inquisitors ends up dating one?” The elder clarified.


    “Oh…yeah, I thought the same thing about the masks.  I don’t think it’s that serious though.”


    “Is that a smile?” Lequerion teased, nudging his eldest with an elbow, which only got his arm a dismissive swat, “By the Eidolon, it is!  That’s the first time your face has done that since last year.  Was starting to think you’d forgotten how.”


    It faded quickly, and Furion went back to his typical half-sad neutral look, “Hasn’t been much to smile about.”


    “Ren wouldn’t want you to languish forever on her account.” The older man noted, “How long do you think you should have to punish yourself for what happened?”


    Furion shook his head, “…I don’t know that I’ll ever atone for what I did.”


    “You’re always so ominous when that comes up, yet you’ve never deigned to tell me what that even was.”


    “And hopefully I never have to.” He answered, and stepped away as the skiff lifted up to take his brother off the Aegis, “We should make our way to the Guardian crash-site.  I’m sure they’re all itching to get their Core out, too.”


    “Hmph… Yessir, Captain.”


    Seth kept half an eye out the skiff’s furthest-back windows as the Aegis came into view, more and more of it visible as he got further and further away.  He felt sad for wanting to leave, but at the same time – and it only made him feel worse for thinking so – relieved.  It wasn’t long before the Rosalind came into his sights, too, and for that, he could only sulk.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    With a bunch of other people aboard, and it being rather antisocial to inflict one’s private, wordy conversations onto others in public – especially a crowd that could be called a captive audience – he didn’t want to just call Kourin right then.  Instead, he supposed he’d send a text-based message, and hope she’d answer.


    [Hey!  I’m heading back to Agartha.  I’ll be free for a few hours for the flight, but if you’re busy, then I guess I’ll talk to you later! -Seth]


    He hesitated to hit send for a few seconds, rereading the words multiple times in case he could think of anything better.  With a whine of worry, he sent it, and waited with baited breath for any kind of response.  The Rosalind disappeared into the nighttime darkness, visible only by its lights, until they too vanished into a background of stars.


    And he waited.


    And waited.


    For nearly an hour, he waited, worried that she wouldn’t answer at all…until he was on the verge of dozing-off for the journey, and he got a badoop in his ears.  He was up so quickly, he nearly fell out of his seat, and looked to spy the little [New Message from Mikkela Hennison] pop-up on the bottom right of his overlay.


    [You don’t have to sign your name lol, the message already says who it’s coming from]


    Seth felt all the blood leave his face, “…Oh.  Right.” He stammered, and reloaded a nanotech keyboard over his lap, [haha yea sorry]


    [So you’re not staying for the other core?]


    [Nah, that’s Fafnir work.  I’m heading back to the college to process all the info we collected]


    Kourin made a face as she looked through her thin glasses, a nanotech keyboard over her own lap as she sat up on her cot.  She still had her clamshell phone open and pressed to one shoulder, and she heard a voice.  She switched shoulders and wrote a reply as she spoke, “Yeah, it’s Seth.  He’s leaving already.”


    “…Isn’t he supposed to be the Commander’s new apprentice or something?” Phexides wondered, “He might be able to help us.”


    She could only sigh, “I don’t want to drag him into this though.”


    “Why not?”


    “Because Scyren used to be a good friend of his.  If she’s as bad-off as that vision I had implied…he’d probably be traumatized for life to see her that way.  On top of the fact that she died…” She answered, “He’s a sweet kid.  I couldn’t do that to him.”


    “’Rin, he doesn’t have to help you spring Scyren directly from the pokey.  He just has to help you find where the Commander might be hiding her.  He doesn’t even have to know what he’s looking for.” Phexides explained, hiding in a supply closet with both hands on his own phone, covering the mic to hide his voice as well as he could, “But, like Xanarken told you, if anyone’s gonna be able to find out where those black-sites are…”


    Kourin pursed her lips contemplatively, “…Maybe.  What about you?  Why can’t you do it?”


    “Accessing common personnel files and making-up profiles is not the same as hacking into a classified First Wing database.  It’s completely walled-off from other networks, like it has its own Cloud-system, and there’s no bridge.”


    “Oh…”


    “Anyway, I can’t stay here.  Someone’s bound to start snooping if I don’t get back to my station.”


    “Alright…  Well, thanks for being slightly more enthusiastic about my call than Tallus was.”


    “Yeah, sure.  Bye, ‘Rin.”


    “Bye…” She said quietly, and reached up to clamp the shell-case closed again.  Dropping it to the sheets, she stared at the messages on her overlay, and leaned back against the wall with a sigh.  Eyes went up, and she closed them with a worried look, I really don’t want to involve him with this…  His life has barely started, and it would be over if he got caught helping us…  I have to try to find the sites on my own…


    [It sounds like you’re trying to get offline though, so I’ll probably just let you be.] Seth had written earlier, [Glad I caught you though]


    [Sorry I can’t stay up later,] She replied, [Core-extraction will start first thing in the morning.]


    [It’s okay.  It’s important.] Seth wrote, feeling the disappointment in his fingertips, [When do you get some time off?  Maybe we can hang out or something. …Not related to work at all!] He sent, only to scold himself, “Ah, you stupid idiot, that sounds pathetic!”


    Kourin smiled anyway, “Damn…you big dummy, you’re gonna make it harder to avoid asking for your help if you keep making yourself available like this.  Like a carrot on a stick…”  She shook her head and wrote, [Every 10 days I get 4 off.  So…this weekend.]


    [Wow!  That’s so soon!  I could probably make that work though…]


    [Don’t let me get in the way of the work you’re doing for Lord Rylen.  You might be on the verge of some big discovery, so don’t get distracted.]


    Seth could only read the message on repeat, cheeks pink.


    [Night Seth]


    He panicked and speed-typed, [Nihhtt!]


    [Mikkela Hennison has gone Offline]


    Seth stared vacantly at his atrocious typing skills, “Ni-he-he-tit!?  That’s what I wrote!?”  Both hands went up to his face in embarrassment, and other passengers stared at him in confusion.


    The typo haunted him for days.  Getting unloaded in Agartha, getting to the College, every night in his dorm, back in the lab – he felt like he was just spawning into locations like the player character in some video game, and was barely going through the motions.  Other researchers – mostly First Wingers, with some guests from abroad – noticed his absurd level of distraction.  Every time it was mentioned, he’d double-down on his data, but after about an hour or two, he’d lose focus all over again and his thoughts would wander.


    Never even mind the damn typo…this research suddenly feels so stalled on my own, he thought, looking over footage of Kourin closing the Gate.  Practically going through it frame-by-frame, he’d made the obvious notes about her queer gestures – looking at him over her shoulder, pulling her hand back to her chest like she was worried about something, just the general length of time it took between the Rift’s edges starting to flicker with sparks of Limitless gold to the moment she actually closed it – but the thing he could never shake was how deliberate it looked at the end.  I don’t want to think she’s hiding something, but…it definitely looked like she knew how to do it…  Could it really have been as simple as she made it sound?  “Argghhh!!! Not being afflicted SUCKS!!” He yelled, making the whole lab go awkwardly quiet.


    Seth would’ve hidden under his workstation if he could, but he just covered his head with his hands.


    And a few minutes later, the First Wing himself turned up in concern, “…Seth?”


    “L-Lord Rylen!” He actually fell out of his seat that point, falling a few feet to the ground from that high perch.  He could hardly believe it when that purple-hued hand came into view to offer him a way back up to his feet again, but Seth took it anyway and rubbed his elbow where he’d banged it on the way down, “…Sorry…”


    “I’m getting word that you’re distracted.” The Eidolon commented, and crossed his arms, “This is entirely unlike you.”


    “…Sorry, sir…” He said again, and shook his head at his own expense.  Seth looked up at the footage displayed on those huge screens, “…I’m just wishing I had Miss Mikkela’s help right now.  She was fantastic in the field, and now I just…feel like a blind man looking at all the data on my own.  I hate it so much to know that there’s pieces I can’t see because I’m not afflicted…  It feels pointless sometimes.”


    Rylen looked up, seeing Seth’s point of view of what had happened; Kourin was only visible from mostly-behind but slightly to the side – enough to get her and the Void Gate into the same shot, through the gap in the barrier.  For a moment, those orange eyes narrowed, and Rylen tilted his head slightly.


    A memory of chaos ripped through him like wildfire; the screaming, the confusion, and in the midst of it all, a tiny brunette-haired woman with blazing bright golden eyes making it all go quiet again.  Eerily quiet.


    “…Sir?”


    The First blinked hard and looked away, “It’s nothing.  Just…a bit of déjà vu, is all.  Who was that again?  The Myrmidon?”


    “Yessir…that’s Miss Mikkela.”


    “Ah, right…the one who took her mask off.”


    “Please don’t reprimand her for it…  We got so much done because I could focus…”


    “And now you can’t focus at all.” The First noted, which just made Seth feel guilty, “What do you need?  An afflicted to do your bidding?”


    Seth perked up slightly, “…Y-yessir…er, well, no…not like that…  And not just any afflicted…  I’ve worked with the Myrmidon before, but…I never got anywhere with them because they wouldn’t talk to me.  They took their job as canaries very seriously.”


    “So, I’ll permit them exemptions.”


    The teen could feel his whole body get heavy with worry, “Sir, could I just…ask specifically for Miss Mikkela’s help?  I feel like things would be much smoother if I worked with her in particular.  She’s very smart and extremely intuitive.  It’s like she knows what I’m looking for when I don’t know how to ask.”


    Rylen was surprised, “…I see.”


    “If…you could at least consider it, sir?” Seth continued, “I can’t just work with any afflicted; most of them don’t know what their power is capable of and they have very little practical experience with it.  I’m afraid they’d be as useless as I am, not knowing what they’re looking at even if they can see it right in front of them.”


    “…And this Mikkela is different.”


    He nodded, “Yessir.” He answered, feeling hopeful.  Rylen had gone quiet though, and Seth’s optimism quickly shifted to worry.  He couldn’t tell that the Eidolon was checking to see where the Rosalind was stationed and what its schedule looked like, and in particular, one of the Myrmidon aboard it.  “…Sir?”


    “I’m updating her orders.” The First commented, “I can’t take her time-off from her without good cause, but I can make it so that once she’s back on duty, she’ll be stationed here at the College.  I just need to find a replacement for her on that ship.”


    Seth was elated, “Y-yessir!  Thank you so much!”


    “Don’t make me regret it.  You know how I feel about the Limitless.  It’s extremely dangerous, and in the wrong hands…”


    The teen gave a strong salute, “Yessir!  We’ll be careful!”