Lilian produced the canister in question and they departed the Reawakening hideout a few minutes later. Angel grabbed some broken artifacts and shoved them into his bag on the way out. The chopper awaited them outside, covered in sand but otherwise unharmed. After brushing it off, the group got into it and Silver brought the blades roaring to life.

“The canisters are replaced and recharged,” Lilian said as they took into the air. Angel had to strain to hear her voice.

“What a wonderful hideout,” Silver said wistfully. “I wish my old ones were like that.”

“I guess the Reawakening had a few sign-on benefits other than eternal life,” Angel said with a chuckle. “Lilian, now’s as good a time as ever. Let me take a look at you and see if there’s any damage I can repair.”

Lilian shrugged. She pulled her shirt up, allowing Angel access to the port in her side. His eyepiece slid down and provided light as he popped it open and peered at the Magitech within her, examining it for damage.

There were some slight markings and a few runes had been scratched, but nothing was serious as far as he could tell. After surveying for a few minutes, Angel took his scribe and repaired what he could.

His gaze caught on her core. It had belonged to Soul not all that long ago, and it still unsettled Angel. Soul never would have died so easily, and he had no doubt that the wily man had done something to the core. Unfortunately, he’d hidden it so well that there was simply no way to figure out what it was. Even Blue had failed to discern its secrets.

The fact that the core had yet to malfunction or otherwise cause trouble only worried him even more.

“Is something wrong?” Lilian asked.

“No,” Angel said, taking his arm out and closing the latch. “The Magitech and your core are both in good shape. Whatever damage your throat took is unrelated. I’ll check if I can do something about it directly, but I’m hoping your body will just heal on its own.”

Lilian raised her chin, giving him a better view of the nape of her neck. A pink, ropey scar ran along her throat.

“Can’t you change your form?” Angel asked. “I’d think you could just make the scar vanish, even if you don’t know how to repair your voice box.”

“No,” Lilian said. “I’m worried that shifting my form while its unhealed could cause even more damage. A lot of it is instinctive, and I don’t want the Star Fragment to decide that the injury is my normal state. It’s getting better, just really slowly. Speaking at a loud whisper is starting to get very frustrating, though.”

“Maybe we could just make you a voice amplifier?” Alison suggested. “It would be better than nothing.”

“That would be appreciated,” Lilian said with a smile.

Angel pulled out some of the scrap artifacts he’d taken from the hideout. “That’s a good idea, Alison. Tilly, could you start on the outer patterns for one? I’ll do the inner pattern. I don’t mean to exclude you, Alison, but we want this design to be small. Your talents are much better suited to larger pieces.”

“Yeah, I’m well aware of where my strengths lie,” Alison said with a smile.

Angel and Tilly got to work, inlaying runes into the metal. He used Liquid Metal to strip pieces of the artifacts back and wipe the runes off them before handing the parts to Tilly. A device started to take shape after an hour.

It was a metal collar with a metal box at the front. Runes wrapped around the metal in a swirling pattern that had been Tilly’s idea, making the collar look almost like a piece of art. If it hadn’t been for the box, it could have been fashionable.

Angel double checked the runes that Tilly had drawn, making a few small tweaks to make sure they’d work properly with the ones he created, then handed the collar to Lilian. She clipped it around her neck and cleared her throat.

“Hello?” she tried. Her voice was still a whisper, but it came out amplified by several times to the point where it was too loud. The sound quality wasn’t the best and a few crackles interrupted her, but it was more than passable.

“Not bad,” Angel said. “You can control the volume by pressing on the box. It cycles between a few levels, so you can probably lower it a bit while we’re in here.”

Lilian nodded, doing as he suggested. She tried talking again. This time, it was much closer to normal volume.

“Thank you, Tilly, Angel,” Lilian said. “I appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Tilly said. “But what now?”

“I’ve been flying toward the spot on the map where the Reawakening were,” Silver said. “But don’t we have the Key thing? Maybe you should try to use that. It’s supposed to lead us, isn’t it?”

“That’s a good point,” Angel said. He pulled the Key out of his bag. Blue chimed to life and lifted into the air beside him. “Blue, you know how to work this?”

“Insert magical energy. It will guide you,” Blue said.

Angel placed his hand on the inlet and sent a spark of magic into the construct. Tingles shot through his fingers as the gems along the key lit with white energy. Power flared around the disk, traveling to the hole in its center and forming a small sphere.

The sphere morphed, transforming into an arrow that pointed roughly in the direction they were moving.

“Looks like we’re in the right direction,” Angel said. The energy he’d sent into the Key faded a few moments later and the orb blinked out, followed by the gems.

“Convenient,” Silver said. “Once we get to the Vault, you think you could rewire that thing to point at the nearest pile of gold?”

Angel rolled his eyes and ignored the question, putting the Key back into his bag. “Well, that’s that. Do you have an idea on how long it’ll take us to catch up with the Reawakening?

“It’s Blackstone,” Lilian provided. “I checked with my map.”

“Should be a little over a week,” Silver said. “Maybe two, actually. We’re going to have to stop for supplies.”

“And that’s assuming they haven’t moved since they go to the city,” Tilly pointed out. “Somehow, I feel like Old World Magic isn’t kept inside a city. They could have just been restocking or something.”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Angel said. “Until then, we should do everything we can to prepare for another conflict with them.”

“What are we supposed to do inside a chopper?” Tilly asked.

“Well, for one, you can focus on trying to make contact with your Star Fragment. Just… try not to use it until we’re on the ground. Just see if you can sense it. I don’t want to find out that you’ve gotten the Star Fragment that blows up everything in a ten foot cube around you.”

Alison pulled out a plate of metal covered with tiny scribbles running all across it and started to study it intensely.

For his part, Angel picked up one of the remaining broken artifacts he’d taken from the Reawakening. He had a rudimentary understanding of Magicore Command, but the feature still escaped his full control.

There was a good amount of time until they got to Blackstone, and he planned to have a grasp of it by the time they next met the Reawakening. They were going to need every single weapon in their arsenal if the group was going to have the slightest chance of standing up against the Reawakening and their Buried Gods.