Shawn struggled to rank which was the most bizarre thing he’d learoday:

  The fact that avian alieed.

  The fact that magiagitegrated teology, existed.

  Or, that other worlds, with other sapient species that could have e out of the game manual for a fantasy game, were floating everywhere.

  Or, possibly the most dramatic factoid, was that magical rocks gave people powers in this world, after Telga gave him a brief expnation of the magic.

  “I'm going to need a mio process this.” He gnced around at the spartan boratory, filled with equipment, wiring, and half-finished projects. Once again, strangely empty. “Telga, where is everyone else?”

  “Mostly resting. It’s teically the middle of the night, but I heard the teleport activate si’s close to my chambers.” It didn’t feel like the middle of the night, but Shawn also realized they were in orbit.

  “I swear, you don’t sleep at all, Telga,” Regia pushed back, her cheek feathers puffing out. A sign of agitation, Shawn figured. “And, you pulled these two poor souls. Sucks to be you guys, I’m sorry in advance. Usually, we get some basement-dwelling losers with bad hair and degee personalities.”

  Shawn sighed in resignation. Someone had soured the experience for her, long before he could prove himself. “I don’t basement dwell. I’m an engihanks. I’m a man of sce. So is my cousin." Regia perked up at that, eyes glittering with i. “But, didn’t you just say that the st time she tried this was thirty years ago?”

  “I’ve got a good memory.” Regia looked smug as she annouhat. “Don’t ask a chick her age, though. It’s sidered universally impolite.”

  “Ooh, someoh a dose of snark! Shawn, you’ve been repced as my favorite personality!” Cire called out with a grin. “Now, I’m no expert on Aveeran physiology, but I do know avians from our world live proportionately lohan their body mass would indicate. Mimetic birds such as parrots about the size of my arm,” she added as she gave them a scale to go on, “have been notable for outliving their trainers!”

  “That was a long way to say, they age slowly,” Shawn stated dryly.

  “We do. We live lohan humans, about five hundred Remarian orbits. The Radiants, those with exceptional powers, are theoretically immortal. Well, barring a violent oute or beien by predators,” Telga summarized. “My brother is the most dangerous predator, preying on this world, killing those that resist him, ensving the rest…or using them for unspeakable things.”

  “We left this problem unanswered for too long, between us, and the other Radiants.” Regia leaned in, with the closest analogy to a ‘frown’ he could read from her beak, and her sullen eyes. “Ae my protests, Telga got her powers zapped by her brother, in an ill-fated attempt to find a solution on the core world, the bottom-most yer. This should not be your problem to solve, Shawn. For the record.”

  “I appreciate the advice, but I have reasons to be here.” Shawn turo peer at Telga, sitting posed. “Let’s talk about the gestalts. Most everyone on this p use some form of magic. Correct?”

  “Almost everyone is born with a gestalt, or they acquire one, from this.” Telga lifted a case from a locked et, with han two separate yers of security locks. She opehe g, made of some unremarkable dusty-lookial, and pulled out a gss jar with a metal frame five timeters in diameter. Housed within it was a blue fluid that seemed to glow with its own light. Inside, was a roughly hexagonal crystal array, no lohan his fihat looked like bismuth–the facets appearing iridest, as she shifted the jar gently.

  “And by toug it, it will give me powers.”

  “A simple expnation. It will absorb into your body, and the powers it may grant you, are varied. No two gestalts are the same, though some be funally identical.” Telga did not let go of the jar, but regarded it with a frown, and ran a thumb gently across the gss, ptively. “You’ve seen my light gestalt. Even without my full power, I use it to gee light, or when trated, various simple rigid shapes that i with physical objects, or I make energy-based projectiles. They be…deadly, if need be.”

  “Mine isn’t the same.” Regia held out her hand, and particles of a clear fluid formed seemingly out of the air. A wavering sphere of liquid densed, h just over her cws, and she twirled her fingers gently. The globule of liquid slowly rotated, f a torus shape, rippling dimly. What was fasating, was that as it grew rger, Shawn he air seemed to feel a little dryer around him. “ you tell what it is?”

  “Hydrokinesis. The power over water.” Cire beat him to the clusion and stared at it, fasated. “You’ve accumuted the water moisture in the room.”

  “Not quite. I think I also store some elsewhere, where I recall it ter,” Regia expined, ahe globule of water aloft cupping her hands around it. It slowly took the shape of a small Aveeran, its form looking remarkably well-defined, despite being made of nothing but water. It even fpped its wings gently, in an incredible sign of animation. “I was born with it. I…also had to master it quickly. Not all gestalts are benign.” She gritted her beak gently, eyes lowered, before the figure broke into tiny particles of water that evaporated bato the air in seds.

  “Incredible. And you trol it to that fidelity, form plex three-dimensional shapes?” The possibilities of this one were immehe potential limitless. He hoped she hadn’t had a bad experiehat would limit her willio experiment.

  “With the right level of focus? Yep. I get them to move, manipute, I throw out a torrent of water…and occasionally, bi with estalts to do some cool stuff.” Her mohte that st mention, and she smiled. “It’s not as wild as some other powers I’ve seen, but it is mine.”

  “So, you’re either born with it, or acquired through this material?” he pointed back to the crystal. “What is it called?”

  “This is Etteria. The bae of all magi this world,” Telga expined, and tapped the tainer gently. “Anyone touch the metal and it will grant them a gestalt–usually. It may also lead to some physiological ges, as well, iain cases. Some good…others…” she trailed off.

  Regia took note of the hesitation, beak pressed tightly. “Just tell him, Telga. o keep the suspense.”

  Telga let out a whisper quiet breath, head tilted down. “Shawn, Cire, I’ve summohers to help me solve problems before this, numerous times. Mao live fulfilling lives in this world. But, the st time I tried, was almost thirty years ago. I had a…bad experience.”

  “Meaning, the power went to their head, and they were a dao themselves, and others. We had to put them down.” Regia poi that strange crystal with a single cw, her finger practically shaking. “And you want to do this again. Ters who owe you nothing, Telga.”

  “That part es ter. I actually have a different purpose: I need you two to study these samples,” Telga corrected, surprising both him, and Cire.

  “Telga, before I it to anything…” Shawn took a moment, and looked for a reassuring sign from Cire. But she was in utter focus examining the crystal, eyes trag those gleaming edges. “What happeo that individual?”

  “They became a monster. Not all gestalts end well. Some people…get trolled by magiot the other way around. Or, they believe that might makes right–that they use that power forcibly upon others, and are beyond reproach.” Telga closed her eyes, shaking her head. “I won’t lie to you Shawn, I’ve made mistakes before. As a Radiant, I should be setting a better example, trying to guide people to enlighte and a growing civilization. But I didn’t. Other people paid the price.”

  “You ’t bme every fault on yourself, Telga. You’ve tried, which is more than I say of the other Radiants. They’re tent with sitting on their damn perch above the world, and showing nothing more than a sneering indifference.” Regia sounded solemn, her feathers no longer bristled. “You two should sider this: There’s no ing back from this. You ’t undo the ges, once you take ieria. It may ge you, in ways you don’t want to ge.”

  Her gaze never broke the lock from Telga, even as she spoke in a sharp tone. “You tried peace, Telga. It didn’t work. He’s not gonna stop, and you know it. I told you, take out his golden general, and he could be deyed by months, or even years!”

  “That n of futility, and would have had less effect.”

  Shawn put up a hand of restraint. “Okay, I’m not sure what your tention is with each other, but I have more questions. Why do you need me? And what are the risks?”

  Telga straightened up. “I have some theories about Etteria I’ve gleaned i years. I want an outside mind–well, two, now–to explore the material. I want to study the crystals we haven’t been able to before–and how we use it against Revarik. I have a theory that there is a way to beat him, without fighting a battle we have no hope of winning.”

  “That’s Telga’s pn A,” Regia said with a ruffled set of feathers. “It’s also a pn that banks on us finding a solution to deal with her brother. He is dangerous and powerful. You know how they say, a general should never be at the forefront of his armies? Well, he does that sometimes. And when he shows up? Armies get murdered and cities die, turo ghosts and ash. Luckily for us, using his full power like that takes a lot out of him, then he has to go on vacation for like…a few weeks.”

  Maggie for Fate’s sake, if you’re on this world somewhere? I hope to whatever powers exist in this world, that you weren’t there when this guy started murdering cities. Shawn nodded while he processed this. “This implies there’s pn B. Probably a crazier pn, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, yeah, it’s crazy,” Regia whistled. “We hand that Etteria off to someone who use it, which could lead to a number of really bad things happening. Worst case? It doesn’t kill you, and it makes you into someone monstrous,” she stated calmly, her gaze shifting to him, and looking decidedly less hostile. “Best case? You get powers. Then, we fight a battle we have no ce of winning, against aistical god who is teetering on madness.”

  “That was the best case?” Cire echoed. “Screw it, send me and the enginerd baassachusetts–”

  “Cire, hold up a tick,” he interrupted before she could start venting. “There may be other ways to help without rolling the di dangerous magic. I have expertise in manufacturing, on design, and modern infrastructure that could help, ily. And studying the Etteria. I do know materials.”

  Cire straightened in her seat. “I don’t know how far along your chemistry and other physical sces are, but we may have knowledge that could be useful, even without attempting to take on funky powers. No offense, I’m a little wary about messing around with magic crystals.”

  Shawn realized something, the way Telga kept regarding, running her finger across the case--not a nervous tic, but the way someone would trace their finger over a photograph, or other memento important to them. A thought clicked into pce. “This Etteria is different, isn’t it?”

  “It came from the core world. This sample…and its twin…” Telga sighed and g the g. “The material will only bond with someone who doesn’t already have a gestalt. It won’t work on myself, Regia, or anyone else here in this sanctuary.”

  “Except us.” Shawn mulled his respohis world below him had problems. Danger was building, if he believed Telga. Dahat she had witnessed personally, and already taken losses. “If this material is so prevalent in your world, why only tles? Why not more, and recruit an army?”

  Telga’s eyes dimmed, as did Regia’s, and her gaze lowered to the sample. “These are different. These are a rare kind of Etteria–primal crystals. It was…not easy to acquire these.” The strain in her words, the way she held the case close to her chest, told Shawn that this price had been too high for her.

  “You lost people, trying to get these. I see it on your face. They were so important, you were willing to put yourself at grave risk.” Cire, ever the insightful one, beat him to the punch. Regia opened her beak to say something, but Telga put a hand up. Cire tinued, speaking softly. “Why?”

  “Because I believed this was the only way to stop my brother–to find a champion, with power and ing to match his own. Which meant, I had to take a risk.”

  “You were betting on a Hail Mary, weren’t you?” Shawn’s theory found purchase, and Telga nodded, running a thumb across the gss gently.

  “A fleeting hope?” Regia regarded her terpart, arms crossed over her chest, cing her armor. “More like a foolish hope. But an ho one.”

  A sharp metal chime filled the air, and Regia gnced down at her armor vest–a silver disk with small ruched on it had lit up red, and she put it up to her ear crest–a tuft of feathers that sort of looked like an ear. “Garrett, it’s the middle of the night, what is it?”

  “We lost ground-side unications with our primary tacts.” A sharp male voice broke through. “Are transmitters are not w except on our cled stuff, too. I ’t reach Vea’nt or the Valtirian capital. I’m headed down to the portal to check it out.”

  “Do it, as a precaution.” Regia pced the silver disk ba her vest pocket, frowning. “Telga, I worry you might have overpyed your hand. When you activated your teleport pad to reach the heavens, you lit off a bea any petent arist could follow. You took a massive risk without sulting me.”

  “A necessary risk–”

  A thunderous sound shook the whole room: metal ets rattled, and a few jars tumbled and shattered. Shaw his feet sway, and they were all o. The disk ia’s vest glowed bright red.

  “Telga, Regia, all hands on deck! The cargo ptform is promised, they blew open a locked bulkhead, I see it on the observation lenses!” Garrett called out in a squawk of panid he tapped something in the background. Arms started going off like shrill whistles. “Security team, rally at the stairwell by the observation floia, get Telga out of here!”

  “I’m not leaving you, Garrett!” she responded, a warble in her words.

  “You damn well will, if you wao live through this! Get the emergency teleportal escape pn going, right now!” Garrett barked, and she went wide-eyed, before tapping the rey.

  “If you ’t tain it, you fall back. Don’t make this a hill to die on.”

  Cire looked ready for a fight. Telga was terror-struck. Regia looked like she was about to murder some fools. Shawn knew he o make a decisiht now.

  “Telga. You say you have tles? We’re using one. Right now.”

  “Shawn, this is a moally bad idea, and you know it is!” Cire’s biting words did nothing to deter him. He locked eyes with Telga.

  “I have one question for you, Telga. I need you to be ho with me.” He took a deep breath, prepared to brace against an answer he knew might destroy his will to keep going if he was wrong, and Maggie was likely already dead.

  “Did you take someone else, ten years ago?”

  “No. But, why?” she asked, sounding fused.

  “Shawn, don’t–” Cire’s warning to not tip his hand came too te.

  “The person who was taken ten years ago was my sister, Maggie Pe. The whole world believed she drowned when we fell into a river during the winter, when the ice broke. It grabbed her, and they dragged me out, barely alive. Her body was never found. I know the truth now: she was taken here, by someone else.”

  “Shawn…” Telga’s eyes were wide with dread. “It has been ten years. This world is filled with dahe odds of her survival…” she trailed off, unwilling to state how faint a glimmer of hope there was.

  But it was still there.

  “Why would two people who know each other, both be pulled by the same magi a p of eight billion people?” he asked.

  Telga’s answer was a defted sigh. “The pull ret, Shawn. This magic always seems to pull exceptional individuals. I couldn’t tell you why. But sometimes…Fate is cruel.”

  “Then I’m here for this reason. I’m right where I o be.” She slid her cwed hand away from the case. He hit the tch, with the dread building in the air. He g that crystal suspended in the blue fluid, feeling the vibration on his fiips as he gripped the ister. He g Telga. “If there’s anyone scrappy and resourceful enough to survive this world, it's her. Help me find her, help me bring her home, alive. I’ll help you in whatever way I against Revarik. I think it's in both our best is to work together on this one.”

  “Shawn, you’re trying to rationalize a stupid idea with a fantasy–” He ignored Cire, and waited for Telga’s answer.

  Telga stood resolute, and nodded firmly. “Done. Your sister, Maggie? It might be possible to trace her. Or at least, whht her here.”

  “Good enough to start. Cire, protect that other sample with your life," Shawn instructed.

  “What about my say in this?!” she snapped. “Shawn, you are taking a moal risk with your own life. You’re being irrational, emotional, and this is a bad idea on every level,” she insisted. This was the first time he’d seen fear etched in her eyes. “This is what your mom was worried about. You get obsessed, and yoing to chase a ghost. It wasn't your fault. She’s gone, Shawn. Don’t do this.”

  Ahunderous sound of devastation, and the room shook again. Garrett’s voice came through the rey. “Regia, we ’t hold them, you o run! Grab Telga, and tell her that her brother’s zealots are here to finish the job! If she stays, she’ll die!”

  “But what about the staff, there’s sixty people here–”

  “Telga is the only ohat matters. We are expendable.” The sho Regia’s face, her beak agape, told Shawn she was not prepared to leave him.

  Shawn knew, it was now or never. Whatever this was going to do to him, couldn’t make their situation much worse, and turned his gaze to Telga. “If I don’t survive this…promise me you'll find her, and keep Cire safe.” He hovered his hand over the jar, ready for a pluo the unknown.

  Telga stiffened, her as no lued by hesitation. She gave him a firm nod. “You have my word. Help our world, and I will do everything in my power to keep you two safe, and find your sister.”

  “Shawhink your choice, there’s an armory nearby, we have a tingency escape,” Regia interjected, trying to edge closer to him, her face tense. “I have watched good people die horribly because of the gestalts. I don’t know you, but I don’t want your face added to the people I have to remember.”

  “Regia…he’s made up his mind.” She turo Cire, a look of acceptan her face. “He does that. He sets a goal, ao it, every time."

  “Ah, by the Radiants,” Regia sighed while she threw open a et, grabbed supplies and stuffed it in a case, as if she had a pn in mind. “Every human I meet is just a little bit crazy.”

  “ly untrue. If you die from this, Shawn?” Cire asked, her whole body tense. “I’m using your corpse for sce. You live through this, I still might use your dead-assed corpse for sce.”

  “I love the ringing endorsement for really bad ideas.” He closed his eyes a back to that moment. When he saw Maggie gasping uhe ice, falling into the portal, and his own body was shutting down from the cold. He’d barely made it back above the surface. He remembered her st pleading look.

  Don’t let me die.

  He opened his eyes, his mind utterly tranquil in the chaos around them. “Maggie told me the most important thing in my life. There’s no hope, without bravery.”

  He was not going to die in orbit before he’d eve foot on Remaria. He was going to find Maggie and bring her home. He would survive to make that happen for all of them, no matter what it took.

  Even if he had to fight his ast a self-decred god, to do so.

  He plunged his hand into the jar, and grabbed the crystal.

  Etteria crystals in Telga's b:

  Spoiler

  [colpse]