018

To Say Without Saying

“Right, moment of truth,” Krays said, putting her hands on her hips. “Time to see if my idea is divine inspiration or a corrosive cockroach cadaver.”

She was with Vaughan, Seskii, Suro, and Jeh in Vaughan’s backyard, looking at the latest of Suro’s arcane devices—the “mini-spinner.” It was roughly pole-shaped and composed only of Orange and Magenta crystals. While Blue crystals had been considered for the application, Blue herself had said flat-out that she couldn’t provide precise calculations for Blue application, only Orange.

The top of the pole had a disc-shaped Orange crystal about the size of an open palm. It was decently far above their heads—and for good reason. At the base of the pole, a flat piece of Magenta jutted out for someone to place their foot on and activate the device.

Suro let out a little yawn and a “mrrp” noise. “Would you like the honors, Krays?”

“Would I ever.” Krays slammed her foot down on the contact plate—the natural plastic that covered her lower leg was still considered part of her body, and contact was made.

Jeh started rubbing her hands together. “Ooooh, this is gonna be awesome…!”

“Setting to hover mode…” Suro said, turning a knob near the base of the pole. “You may start.”

Krays tossed a pebble into the air. The Orange in the device caught the tiny object and levitated it in the air at a level exactly at the disc’s plane far above their heads.

“Keep it steady…” Suro said.

Krays snorted. “I work with glass, Suro. Use your brain next time you ask me to do something.”

Suro rolled his eyes. “Setting to spin…” He clicked the knob back to where it originally was. Slowly, but surely, the floating pebble started to move around the disc. Krays kept her focus; at first, the device asked for very little of her will, but as time went on, the forces produced by it increased at a steady rate. It was far from a high-demand device—if that were the case, Vaughan would be running it, not her—but it wasn’t a low-demand one either.

The pebble kept spinning faster and faster and faster around the disc until it was little more than a gray ring-shaped blur, forming an accompanying whirlwind that blew hair and dust around

“Yeah!” Seskii cheered. “We’ve got the donut!”

“It’s not on fire yet,” Krays said. “It needs to be burning.”

“This is remarkably good for a first test,” Vaughan said. “We didn’t even calibrate it that preci—“

For a split second, Krays noticed the blurred disc wobble to the left a bit—and then the pebble broke free of the device’s grasp and went flying into a nearby tree, snapping a branch in half.

“…And this is why we made it so tall,” Suro commented.

“Woo! Awesome!” Jeh shouted. “Shoot it at me next!”

Krays shrugged playfully. “As much as I would love to fill your little pincushion body with temporary, flimsy holes, I wasn’t aiming. No way to aim, with it going that fast.”

“Good thing we won’t need to, in space,” Vaughan said. “Any direction is the same. Once we get this thing to size…”

“It’s not ready for up-scaling,” Suro said. “Remember, we wanted to hit ignition speed, but it broke before then.”

Vaughan frowned. “I think it was air turbulence that caused all that.”

“Which, if we can correct for, we’ll have an even better device.”

“That’s useful in space?”

“There’s not no air up there.”

“Trying again,” Krays said, picking up another pebble and throwing it into the device. Since they hadn’t set it to hover, it immediately threw it wildly into the sky. “Suro, do that amazingly spectacular thing you do and flip the switch!”

“Turning the knob…” Suro deadpanned.

So they did the test again. Once more, the rock didn’t ignite—it spun around extremely fast until something upset it, at which point it flew off in a random direction. Sometimes nobody could even tell what it hit, so they had no idea which way that was.

“Maybe we’ve discovered teleportation,” Krays said with a chuckle. “Imagine, popping all the way across the country after spinning for a while!”

“Siege weapons have often been designed like this,” Vaughan said. “Granted, they aren’t very accurate at hitting things, but if all you want to do is throw something huge at a city, this is generally the way to go if you have the resources.”

Krays nodded. “I’m… familiar. I’ve seen one of those, it’s what gave me the idea. Spin spin spin spin spin WHACK.” She slammed her hands together, the clack of her gauntlets sending an echo out into the forest. “Again, Suro.”

Jeh blinked. “So you guys are just… throwing more rocks into it?”

“Absolutely,” Krays said, starting the next trial run. “Gotta see if there are any flukes, then we talk about redesigning it.”

“I’m thinking we’ll need to invest in more efficient Orange fields,” Vaughan said, scratching his beard. “The simple math is just that of a ball on a string, but if we create a donut-shaped well, we could correct for instability…”

“You’re not an Orange wizard,” Krays pointed out. “How on earth are you going to create a precise field spell?”

“I can just write in. But Blue will have to do the math first to make it. And we’ll need to know the exact weight and dimensions of our satellite.”

“Satellites, plural,” Krays said as another pebble launched in a random direction. This one hit the plast-derived sheet they had set up to keep the rocks from hitting Vaughan’s cabin. It did not work—the pebble hit in just the wrong way to pass right through and break a window.

“Well, that’s enough testing of that,” Vaughan said, running over to the window and mending it with Green.

“It’s enough to tell us it’s only working as well as a drunk at the end of the night,” Krays said. “That is to say, terribly, but hey you can at least identify that the poor guy’s trying to walk straight.”

“Aww, it’s over already?” Jeh asked.

“Yeah,” Suro said. “And now I’m afraid it’s time to discuss redesigns. Perhaps the weakness is in the upright stabilization portion?”

Vaughan scratched his beard. “Maybe we should decelerate…”

As they began to discuss the finer details of redesigning the spin-launcher they got further and further into technical jargon and stuff that Jeh wasn’t able to follow all that well. She sat down on a nearby crate and kicked her legs back and forth.

Seskii walked over to her. “Hey, bored.”

“My feeling is not my name,” Jeh said, looking up at her.

“Hey, it’s fine to be bored.”

“Mmm… I don’t wanna be, this is our big project. I’m gonna be flying with the bigger version of this thing strapped to the top of the Skyseed soon enough.”

“But you don’t have to help design it. There’s a reason we have a team with a lot of different people who can do different things.” Seskii laid a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine. You can go play in the forest and find your forest friends.”

Jeh blinked. She hadn’t even considered leaving and doing something else, but… now that she thought about it, that really did seem like it would be more fun than sitting around listening to a wizard, a glassblower, and a jeweler argue about the best way to arrange crystals in a device for efficiency.

With a stretch, Jeh hopped down from her box. “Well, you be sure to have fun too.”

“Oh, I always know how to have fun!” Seskii winked. “Don’t you worry about me!”

Jeh let out a childish giggle before scampering off into the forest. Krays noticed her go, but didn’t comment on it—she was the least “qualified” among the three people debating over the device, so she needed to focus to make sure she didn’t make a fool of herself while also being heard. This was her idea, and the wizard and the jeweler weren’t going to push her out of it!

~~~

“I love cooking,” Ashen realized.

Ukelele looked up at her, head tilted and half of his eyes squinted.

“No, I can’t eat. But it means I can BURN things for a purpose!” She located a nearby squirrel and baked it, prompting it to fall out of a nearby tree where Ukelele could have it. “Food! Heat provides food! …I should ask Jeh to get some cookbooks, perhaps some seasonings.”

Ukelele nodded, picking up the squirrel. Using a shard of Ashen she’d given him, he started cutting off the hair to make it easier to eat.

“I wonder how her tastes differ from yours. I’ve been cooking for you for a while, but she’s never eaten anything of mine… Hmm, I bet she’d like bear. Next time a bear comes along, FIRE. Heh…” A few of Ashen’s facets flickered. “Ukelele, this is probably misplaced, but I thank you for giving me the gift of cooking. I must provide you food, I learn how burning can be a good thing!”

He bowed at her.

“…Please stop doing that.”

The bug-like spirited awkwardly stood back up and tried not to make eye contact with Ashen—which was odd, considering Ashen had no eyes and her own “sight” was nowhere near as good as what she saw when looking through his eyes.

“Good. Anyway, if you really are going to stay here for an eternity, I will need more recipes. You can’t just eat charred meat forever.”

Ukelele shrugged.

“Maybe trees can be cooked…”

He shook his head vigorously, then made a chattering noise. It was far from an actual word, but it was progress. A vocalization.

One day, I’ll get something out of him.

At that moment, Ukelele’s shoulder exploded. His arm remained attached to his body, but thick yellow fluid splashed all over the clearing. Ashen was able to feel the pain through Ukelele’s senses, prompting her to let out a burst of flame into the sky.

Immediately, she began compartmentalizing her awareness to figure out what had just happened. One part continued to scream at the pain while the others ignored it and spent time analyzing the actual situation. The explosion emanated from the top of the shoulder, and there hadn’t been any fire. In fact, she quickly identified it as a concussive force—something physical had slammed into his shoulder, launched from above them.

This prompted Ashen to re-arrange her crystal structure to form a roof over Ukelele, drawing him closer to her main body to protect him.

She noted that there had been a loud bang sound that had arrived after the object had struck Ukelele’s shoulder, which meant the object had been moving faster than sound. She could not rely on Ukelele’s senses or her memory of them to see above, however, she had managed to develop senses of her own. Light and vibrations that actually struck her facets were recorded, giving her sight and hearing, though it had a lot more noise and didn’t filter things out like normal spirited senses. It took her a while to process the information—which, in an absolute sense, was seven seconds.

She had “seen” nothing. She could identify the object itself only about half a second before it struck Ukelele—some kind of smooth, hard projectile. Jeh had mentioned firearm arcane devices before, perhaps it came from one of those? Ashen was able to feel some shifting in the flow of magic, but she didn’t even pretend to understand how to read that.

However, she had “heard” much more. Using her known speed of sound and how the bang had echoed off the various trees and rocks, she was able to pinpoint the location of the sound’s origin. There was nothing there—visually, anyway. But it was barely outside of her perception bubble, so even if there had been a spirited there, she wouldn’t have been able to see through it.

This was the thing Ukelele was hiding from. It found a way around me.

Ashen let some of her mind continue trying to find the current position of the attacker, though this was rather fruitless. She most of the rest of herself to Ukelele.

He was bleeding out. She was no doctor and didn’t know the physiology of his species, but she knew he would be dead very soon.

She was a Red Crystalline One. She could only burn. She could not heal.

She could do nothing.

“I am so sorry… I…”

Her thoughts were interrupted by her senses picking up Jeh walking toward them.

“Jeh! Get over here now, we need your Green!”

“On it!” Jeh called, running through the woods at top speed. She came to a skidding stop less than a minute later at Ashen’s tree, holding out her Green. “Where’s the patient?”

Ashen opened up her crystal lattice to reveal the injured Ukelele.

Jeh wasted no time in using her Green—though she clearly had to focus hard to revert an injury of such an extent. While she did so, she glanced at Ashen.

“…Ukelele?”

“He wished to remain secret, but we are out of options, I shall explain in a moment.”

“Got it.” Jeh returned to healing him up. “There. Good as new.”

Ukelele, while fully healthy, trembled in fear and refused to leave the cavity inside Ashen.

“…Not gonna talk in that weird buzz you do?”

The Red Seeker shook his head with so much effort that he bonked his head painfully against Ashen.

“Geez... I guess you did almost die, but calm down.”

He just kept trembling.

“He could stand to thank you, at least… he’s immensely lucky you arrived when you did.”

Jeh scratched her head through her bear hood. “Okay… Ashen, what?”

Ashen’s facets flashed Red in a few places. “Jeh, you were correct, this is Ukelele. He was running from some kind of monster or hunter a few weeks ago and stumbled into my protection and then refused to leave. Whatever was hunting him knew not to come within range of my senses. I decided to protect him, but he definitely didn’t want you to know he existed, so I hid him with the unspoken agreement that he wouldn’t tell anyone where I was.”

Jeh nodded. “Makes sense.”

“…I thought you would be mad.”

“Why would I be mad?”

“I kept a secret from… never mind.” Ashen’s facets flickered once again. “Regardless, before you arrived, something shot a small object at Ukelele from far enough above that I couldn’t sense the source. It was most definitely an attack, and it barely missed his head.”

Jeh glanced over at Ukelele, brow furrowing. “You really are lucky I was here.”

Ukelele had enough of his wits about him to nod.

Jeh sighed. “Not going to explain anything?”

Ukelele shook his head.

“Not even…” She pulled out some Yellow and held it out, raising an eyebrow.

He rejected the connection outright.

“Well, how am I supposed to help you if I don’t know what the problem is!?”

“Now you see my problem,” Ashen said.

The Red Seeker pressed himself to Ashen’s facets.

“If your hunter is determined enough to wait weeks to devise a method of attacking you without confronting me, she will eventually find a way to circumvent my shields. My protection cannot last forever.”

No response from him.

“…We should get help,” Jeh suggested. “Vaughan might be able t—“

Ukelele grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her violently, letting out pained whines and shaking his head.

“Man, you’re terrified.” Jeh slowly peeled Ukelele’s ebony hands off of her shoulders. “But… I mean, I can’t track the hunter down, Ashen can’t move very easily.”

“And the hunter is smart enough to avoid me but likely strong enough to overpower Jeh.”

“I wonder what being shot feels like…”

“I doubt it would be pleasant.”

“It would still be an experience!” Jeh crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Gotta help Ukelele… gotta help Ukelele… yeah, I got nothing. I barely even know how an arcane firearm works.” She put a hand to her chin. “Maybe it can be traced?”

“While I can see magic flowing, I am not able to track it very well.”

“Vaughan or Suro probably could.”

“…I am hesitant to reveal myself, but… Suro.” Ashen thought back to the voice of the cat calming her and letting her think about who she was and what she was doing in a moment of personal turmoil. “I believe he would be understanding of me.”

“So I can bring him?”

“Yes, the situation is dire enough. Let us hope that he can keep a secret.”

“I… think so?”

Ukelele let out a pained cry and shook his head repeatedly.

“Great Eights…” Jeh let out an exasperated sigh. “We’re trying to help you! Suro’s a jeweler, he can figure out the firearm thing! Then we can find the hunter and I can… I dunno, punch her or something.”

“I’m partial to burning myself.”

“Yes, that.” Jeh turned to Ukelele. “So if there’s some reason we should not do this, you’re gonna have to tell us or we’re gonna do it.”

Ukelele held up a hand. He slowly removed a piece of parchment from his cloak and then proceeded to glare at Ashen. He closed and opened his eyes.

“I am not looking through your senses right now.”

Ukelele quickly scribbled something on the paper, folded it up, and wrote something on the front. He handed it to Jeh.

For Jeh’s eyes ONLY. It read.

“How baffling… I am now no longer looking through your senses either, Jeh. I do feel kind of insulted that he’s willing to tell you and not me.”

“Maybe because I’m invincible,” Jeh said as she opened the paper up. “You aren’t exactly.”

“Hmm…”

The interior of the paper was this: Jeh, let me be clear. I am marked for death because I know something I am not supposed to know. Anyone who so much as knows that I know something is also in danger. Even giving a word of explanation such as this might mark you for death, I don’t know for sure! I can only hope you truly are invincible, and that I have not signed your final death warrant. DO NOT TELL ANYONE ANY OF THIS. DO NOT BRING SURO.

Jeh closed the letter. “Well. Uh. Er. Hmm.”

“…You look troubled.”

“No, really.” Jeh sat down on her rock and leaned into the palm of one of her hands. “…Good gravy, that’s annoying. I can’t even say anything.”

Ukelele waved his hands rapidly in panic.

Jeh glared at him. “Pretty sure I can say that I can’t say anything. That’s, like, obvious!”

He whimpered.

“And I think you’re being overly paranoid. Or…” A shadow crossed over Jeh’s face. “Maybe not…”

Ashen flickered. “So going for help is out?”

Jeh shook her head. “I… don’t think so. Just need to tell Suro not to question Ukelele.”

Ukelele would have pulled out his hair if he had any.

“Hey, you explained enough to get me worried! And… and…” Jeh stood up and stamped her foot on the ground. “This is impossible, I can’t even argue with you without telling Ashen, and you’re not going to leave Ashen and augh!”

Everything was silent for a moment. Until, at last, Ashen spoke.

“I will just have to trust you then, Jeh. You do what you think is necessary.”

Jeh locked her hands behind her back and took in a sharp breath of air. “Why does it come down to me…?” She sighed. “…I’m getting Suro, but I’m gonna have to think about how to tell Suro without telling him. Which you think would be a nonsense statement, but no, apparently not!” She pointed an accusatory finger at Ukelele, opened her mouth to say something, but then shut it. “…I have no idea if you’re even at fault here, yelling at you wouldn’t do anything.”

Ukelele looked relieved.

“I’m still very annoyed. Not sure if I’m annoyed at you or this hunter, but clearly this hunter needs to burn.” She turned her back to them and started walking out of the forest. “I’ll be back. Hopefully without an imminent disaster.” She flicked the paper Ukelele handed her into the air. “Burn that, Ashen.”

Ashen did as requested. She quickly began mentally preparing herself for Suro’s arrival, but something else was stuck in her mind that she couldn’t get rid of, merely section to a smaller portion of her mind.

Trust Jeh.

Don’t ask her what’s going on.

She’s your friend, and she knows it’s best if you don’t know.

It was not the easiest to convince herself of this.

Trust Jeh.

~~~

“Delivery!” Blue called as she trotted around Vaughan’s cabin with a large cart strapped to her back. Whatever was in the cart was covered by a large white sheet and a lot of rope to keep it held down.

“Ooooh!” Seskii said, running over—startling Krays into launching a pebble into the forest “Are they really here!?”

“You betcha!”

“...Sure,” Krays said. “Be the interrupting cow. Destroy my dreams. No fire, no smoke, all because of—“ She realized no one was listening to her insults and were instead extremely eager to uncover Blue’s delivery. Krays folded her arms and took in a sharp breath. “They’re gettin’ too used to me.”

Vaughan used Orange to untie the cargo and remove the sheet, revealing two identical spherical mirrors roughly two-thirds of a meter in diameter.

“Beautiful…” Seskii said, putting her hands to her face.

“And mathematically neat, too,” Blue said, lifting one up with her telekinesis. “This is as close to a perfect sphere as we could purchase; it’s very light, but it’s also reinforced on the inside with a mesh so it can handle the forces we’re going to subject it to.”

“Reinforced how?” Suro asked, adjusting his glasses.

Krays grinned. “I saw the plans for these. They have thin rods inside that radiate from a central point, forming a mesh of many triangles on which the mirror is supported.”

Blue nodded. “The difficulty in making the final spin-launcher is going to be in calibrating the spell perfectly to the size of these spheres. We… are going to have to send a request to an Orange Wizard for that one.”

“I already have Alex looking around,” Vaughan said with a smirk.

Krays grinned. “Aww, you got the scaly boi to do some work for you! Devious.”

Vaughan shrugged. “If it works, it works. He’s got wings, connections, and a nose for sniffing out useful people.”

“And he actually likes being a Messenger, unlike me,” Blue added. “Works great!”

“A personal messenger dragon,” Suro mused, scratching his chin with his claws. “Sounds like something only royalty would have.”

“Watch us become royalty,” Krays said with a chuckle.

“Even if our business is successful, being rich does not automatically grant you a royal title.”

“Pfft, who cares about things like laws?” Krays waved a dismissive hand as she walked up to one of the mirrors and moved her face back and forth, watching her distorted reflection grow and shrink. “Hey there good-lookin.’ ” She struck a pose that contorted in the sphere to make her look like a giant head with tiny stick legs.

Blue rolled her eyes. “I’m going to need to perform some measurements on these spheres to make sure they really are the same and balanced.” She levitated them out of the cart and walked into the cabin. “You all can get back to your spin-launch tests.”

“Later,” Krays said. “Now, it’s mirror time.”

“…They’re just mirrors.”

“That we’re going to launch into space!” Seskii said. “Until they sparkle!”

“We should name them,” Vaughan suggested. “The Sphlanets. Y’know. Sphere planet.”

“I think Starsphere would sound better,” Krays said.

“How about just Twinklers?” Blue suggested.

This naming argument continued as they made their way toward the cabin, with Suro tailing at the back.

“Psst!”

Suro stopped, his ears perking up. He turned to the treeline, seeing Jeh waving to him from up a tree. He adjusted his glasses, giving her a look of clear confusion. She clearly didn’t want anyone else to see her, just him—and he had no clue why, but he decided to go with it. He walked over to her and climbed the tree, sitting calmly in front of her. “What is it, Jeh?”

“See, that’s the problem.” Jeh folded her arms. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you without telling you and I’ve got nothing.”

“O… kay?”

“I need your help and I can’t tell you why. And I hate that I can’t and can’t think of a way to do it.”

Suro chuckled. “Jeh, I’ll do whatever I can to help you so long as it’s not evil or something. But I do have to know what you’re asking me to do before I can do it.”

“…I’m trying to track down what I think is someone shooting an arcane firearm, and I need to do it discretely.”

Suro’s face fell and became completely serious. “An arcane firearm…” Suro frowned. “I would ask for details, but something tells me that would be pointless.”

Jeh nodded. “Yeah…”

“So instead I’ll just come with you and help.” Suro flicked his ears. “To track an arcane firearm, one needs to be able to see and filter the aether. Something that is not easy to do—but no self-respecting jeweler these days would work without an arcane lens on hand.”

“A what?”

“I’ll go get it from my shop and show you,” Suro said. “Since I assume you’d rather not show yourself in town right now?”

“Eh…” Jeh tilted her hand side to side.

“Then just wait here, I’ll be back. And yes, I am going to help you.”

“Don’t tell anyone!” Jeh called.

“I know,” Suro said. “I would not violate your trust like that. I won’t even tell Lila unless she corners me, which I highly doubt she will.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Suro hopped down the tree and scampered as fast as his short legs would carry him back to his shop.

~~~

Suro returned sometime later. He was wearing a complex pair of glasses—with many more lenses and magnifiers than his usual pair.

“That’s your arcane lens?” Jeh asked.

“Just one of them.” Suro gestured toward a lens seemingly made of Purple sitting in such a place so it could be adjusted over his right eye. “This is the arcane lens. It’s a highly difficult arcane device to construct. Since it has to have an absurdly fine level of detail to work properly, it’s one of the hardest things for a jeweler to make. Ultimately, it is a lens of Purple with pieces of Magenta dust spread throughout it, with a ring of Magenta along the edges.” He traced his finger along the fine rim, and Jeh noted that, yes, in fact, the edges were flashing slightly, indicating a stored spell. “Magenta is sensitive to spells, as you know. However, no spell is perfect or uniformly directed, and pieces of it go flying off in the aether. Magenta can still react with these fragments, but they do not contain enough will to trigger a spell. However, tiny shards of Magenta will react, and other Magenta crystals can react off this reaction so long as will is introduced. That is one of the spells in the lens, the other is a simple light adjustment. The Purple produces a soft white light where the Magenta detects these fragments—this isn’t exactly a simple spell, either, but it’s nowhere near as precise or difficult as the Magenta-Magenta reaction. Thus, it is possible to see spells being cast and in what direction they are coming from, assuming they are strong enough, and unfocused spells.”

“Unfocused?” Jeh tilted her head.

“A good wizard can focus all his mind into a spell, so the efficiency of the spell is maximized and little to no fragments go flying. However, anyone using a device isn’t crafting the spell themselves, and they send out a lot of fragments.” Suro tilted his head to the side, willing the lens to activate, triggering a soft white glow. “It reacts to itself, unfortunately, so a lot of noise is drowned out. But… here, try casting something.”

Jeh pulled out some Orange and lifted a nearby rock into the air. There was a slight difference in the glowing of the lens in the direction she was casting the spell.

“No, it’s not very precise, but it will provide a direction of someone using an arcane device.” Suro deactivated the lens. “My eyes are good enough to use it effectively and I have much experience with it. I should be able to track down this… arcane firearm. I do have to ask you to protect me, though, for I am just a cat.”

“Doing the best I can,” Jeh said, looking to the depths of the forest. “…Would you mind if I stuffed you into a sack to keep you from maybe being a target?”

“…It will be awkward but I will accept the indignity in exchange for safety.”

Jeh nodded. “Stay right here.”

Roughly five minutes later she returned with a brown cat-sized sack draped over her back. “Get in.”

Suro sighed. “The things I do…” He jumped in and allowed himself to be carried deeper into the forest.

~~~

Most everyone but Blue got bored of the spherical-mirror measuring rather quickly, and no name had been decided on. Krays, Vaughan, and Seskii went back outside to test the spin-launcher. They noted Suro was gone, but didn’t think too much of it.

Vaughan took his hand off the Magenta crystals near the top of the spin-launcher. “Right, I think that’ll improve its performance. Or else make it worse.” With a shrug, he climbed down from the crate he was standing on and went over to Seskii and Krays. “Ready?”

“Is the sky blue?” Krays asked. “Can birds fly? Is there not a single gray strand in your beard?”

“Har-de-har,” Vaughan deadpanned.

Krays slammed her foot on the contact plate and tossed a pebble up. It was quickly caught by the device and started spinning around faster and faster. Soon, it was a gray donut-shaped blur that appeared stable.

“Come on…” Krays said, starting to feel the strain of powering the increased spin power.

The gray donut began to glow a soft red, and tufts of flame started coming off of it.

“Yes! Fire!” Krays laughed. “Buuuuurn!”

The pebble fragmented into several roasting pieces, launching at numerous angles into the air, ground, and nearby trees. One particularly dry and nearly dead branch ignited. Seskii scrambled over and dumped some kind of juice on it, putting out the flames. “All clear!”

“Hmm.” Vaughan stroked his beard. “…Can we do that again?”

“Well, it clearly isn’t safe,” Krays said, folding her arms. “But let’s see… it’s just you, me, and Seskii here right now.” She began to chuckle ominously. “In other words, a distinct lack of responsible adults.”

“Excellent!” Vaughan picked up another pebble and tossed it to her.

“I wonder if we could rotate other things,” Seskii said. “Things that might explode more spectacularly. Like, oh… Colored crystals?”

“After we test the reliability of rocks,” Krays said.

“You mean send more exploding rocks into the forest.”

“Absolutely. Problem?”

Seskii grinned. “A few, but none that’ll make me stop the ill-advised experiment. Safety third, after all.”

“Spoken like a true Red wizard!” Vaughan declared.

“Red wizards kill themselves with their own fire all the time,” Krays said as she started spinning the next pebble.

“Bah, it’s just a risk we live with.”

“Until you don’t.”

“Yes. Until we don’t.”

“Oooh, does that make us Red wizards?” Seskii asked.

“No,” Vaughan said, waving a dismissive hand. “In f—“

The smoldering pebble shattered and sent a portion of itself right through Vaughan’s hand. “AUGH!” He quickly shoved his other hand into his pocket and mended the wound with Green. “Pain…”

Krays tilted her head to the side. “Does this mean we have to stop…?”

“No, no, carry on. I’m fine.”

Seskii put out another small fire with her juice. “These things are launching very far…” She put her hand to her chin. “…Naaaah, it won’t cause a forest fire. Spring is too wet for that.”

Krays took out a small Blue crystal. “All right, here goes…” She threw it up into the device’s range and started spinning. “Fun time…”

~~~

He flew overhead once more.

He knew he likely did not have much time. That immortal girl had gotten the cat and the arcane lens. They were going to try and trace him.

Which meant he was only going to get one shot.

He had to hand it to Ukelele, the yornik had managed to play his cards exceptionally well. By refusing to speak, he had managed to instill a sense of unease in everyone surrounding his situation without giving any information away—except perhaps to the immortal child, but there was nothing the hunter could do about her. He knew better. But the immortal child had said very little to the cat, and thus the cat was not marked.

Killing the cat and writing it up as collateral damage would be… problematic, at best.

What the hunter needed now was an instant kill because he was likely going to be targeted after one shot. Even if the odds were low the arcane lens could pinpoint his location so precisely, Ashen could likely make up the difference, and that would be that—then they could just use Green to heal Ukelele and this would all be pointless.

He shifted his body—still keeping its material as sound-muffling and sky-colored as possible—turning the arcane firearm over inside. It was an extremely high-quality device, able to release Red explosions that propelled the “bullets” forward at high velocity. These bullets were usually just hunks of metal, but he had a few special ones in reserve—highly rare and expensive, but he was only going to get one shot, so he might as well.

He grew a limb with three claws and pulled a single bullet coated in Magenta and Red crystals. He pushed his will into the bullet, starting the timer loop—a Magenta glow started rotating around the rim. He shifted his limb into a key-like protrusion made of metal that he stuck into the side of the bullet, adjusting the timer so that, when he shot it, it would explode on contact with Ukelele’s head.

Green could rarely put a splattered brain back together properly.

He readied the gun, but kept it behind a wall of flesh—when he was ready, he would open up for a split second to fire. Before then, however, he was just part of the sky, complete with clouds patterns that moved across his skin. Because of this, he couldn’t afford to grow eyes on his underside, so he had to rely entirely on secondary senses—hearing.

Fortunately, he had practiced shaping ears so well that he could easily hear everything that was happening on the ground despite how high up he was flying.

“A-ashen!?” Suro blurted.

“Yes, it is I, Ashen!” Ashen declared—a voice that the hunter had to grow an entirely new organ to hear at this distance. It was exceptionally difficult to hear a Crystalline One’s voice without them knowing the listener existed, but it was possible with careful application of subtle Yellow. After all, she was broadcasting the voice, not sending it directly into a specific mind. If she did that, the hunter wouldn’t be able to hear anything. “I, the fire of the forest, the ember of the mountain… I beseech you, Suro, for your assistance in saving this poor creature from certain doom.”

Jeh tilted her head. “Why are you talking like that?”

Suro shook his head. “She’s trying to impress upon me the importance of the situation. I believe she’s also trying to scare me a little—do not worry, Ashen, I will not reveal your location. You don’t even have to ask.”

“…You are far more accommodating than I expected.”

“Thank you.” Suro adjusted his glasses, turning the arcane lens up toward the sky, right at the hunter. He shouldn’t be able to see anything yet—all that was active was his Yellow, which he was being subtle with, and the bullet’s timer, which should have been too small to be seen from that distance.

But there was no doubt in the hunter’s mind that the lens could see the arcane firearm when it fired. Already he had drawn up a mental escape plan—shoot, confirm kill, then develop a propeller arrangement of wings to get out of there as fast as possible, maybe even go through the pain involved with breaking the sound barrier. The problem was it might take too long to confirm the kill and get away, which was making the hunter more than a little on edge.

Still, he listened, and waited. He could not sense Ukelele, as he was still inside the bulk of Ashen. However, the hunter had already heard them discuss the fact that he couldn’t be left in there. They would take him out eventually…

Jeh and Ashen explained the situation to Suro, but Jeh notably didn’t reveal much of anything about the contents of Ukelele’s letter. This infuriated the hunter—was the immortal child a security risk or not? What had been in there? Were she anyone else, she would just be taken out as a potential security risk, but no, that wasn’t even possible.

They were being too clever, and the hunter was not the sort that enjoyed a challenge. Efficiency and cleanliness was the rule of the game, and challenges tended to get dirty.

He cursed himself for not planning on any Green being nearby the first time.

“We need to come up with some kind of plan,” Suro said. “I have the means to pinpoint her location, but only if she’s using the arcane firearm you think she is.”

Correct, little cat. Aggravatingly correct…

“And while more information would be beneficial, I trust Jeh knows what she can and can’t tell us.”

“Not really,” Jeh said with a shrug. “But I’m not taking any risks.”

Just say something, you foolish child! Give me a reason to lay waste to this entire area!

“Anyway…” Suro started pacing in a circle. “Hmm…”

“You are deep in thought.”

“I am considering the possibility that everything we say is heard,” Suro said. “Ukelele is not speaking for a reason.”

Diadem you, cat!

“Eh?” Jeh said, confused.

“Rather simply, if he just couldn’t say certain pieces of information, he could talk like you are, Jeh. But he’s not saying anything. We must assume all we say can be heard.” Suro turned to Ashen. “Ashen, project words directly into my mind, I’ll respond nonverbally.”

And then Ashen started talking without broadcasting.

Diadem, diadem, diadem! The hunter wanted to roar, but kept it under control. His hearing was good enough that he could tell Suro was nodding and shaking his head, but as for what Ashen was putting in his mind, he had no idea.

“This is so weird,” Jeh said, looking between Ashen and Suro. “It’s an entire private conversation—oh! I hear you, Ashen! …Oh, different conversation? Annoying.”

Annoying doesn’t even begin to cover it. The hunter couldn’t make his ears any more precise and they wouldn’t help even if they were. He was just going to have to make do with what was being presented to him, which was… this nonsense.

They were clearly forming a plan, some way to either track him or get Ukelele to some kind of perceived safety. He watched carefully and closely for any sign of movement.

He was eventually greeted to it—part of Ashen began to separate from her main body, a shell just large enough to potentially hide Ukelele within. But the Hunter knew better; this would be the decoy, trying to get him to reveal himself. Perhaps all they wanted was to get him to shoot, but he wasn’t going to give it to them.

Then he heard the ground beneath Ashen creak slightly.

They think I’m listening, but they don’t know how sensitive my ears are! Focusing his senses on that location, he was able to determine that another section of Ashen was being moved under the ground slowly.

He knew immediately what their plan was. Try to fool him with the decoy, perhaps even letting him believe he’d killed Ukelele, while moving to hide him underground where no sign of him could be detected. It was clever, but it had several holes in it.

However, the one hole he was going to exploit was one they’d had no way to account for. He heard everything and had a specialized explosive round. He quickly mapped out the size of the crystal casing, how far it was from the ground, and subsequently where the center of it was. The explosive bullet would just have to get inside the crystal casing—no need to go for a headshot, the enclosed space would incinerate everything.

He had to shoot before Ukelele got further underground, though.

He pulled the trigger.

A crystalline object flew by him at speeds so high it was on fire. it didn’t hit him—it didn’t even come close—but it did startle him.

Enough to throw his aim off by less than a degree.

Enough to make the bullet explode next to the crystal case that held Ukelele, not inside it. It was possible Ukelele was still dead, but it wasn’t guaranteed. The hunter needed to confirm the kill.

“There!” Suro shouted, pointing a claw.

For a brief moment, the hunter considered abandoning the hunt. Running away to save his own skin. Becoming a traitor and suffering the indignity of being hunted himself for the rest of what would likely be his very short life.

He rejected this idea. He would never be marked for death. He would fight.

He heard Ashen start to lift herself from the ground, tree and all, with a powerful burst of flame. He had no chance to take her in direct combat, so he needed to be fast.

He stopped trying to be stealthy. He shapeshifted into a metallic needle shape and used a Red explosion behind him to launch himself to the ground at absurdly high speeds, aiming his point directly at Ukelele’s location. He would skewer into the earth and then expand, crushing everything and everyone. Ashen saw him and immediately started heating him up directly—the friction and the magic creating fire around him.

He could only make himself so heat-resistant, but it would be enough. Enough to finalize the kill. Enough to…

Jeh pushed him sideways with Orange.

He missed.

The moment he struck the ground and felt nothing but dirt, he knew he was done for. Ashen’s heat was too much, and if he tried to shapeshift into anything else, the heat resistance he had set up would falter and he would just disintegrate.

How embarrassing... such a pathetic end…

Ashen’s fires melted him. With what little energy he had left, he destroyed all his belongings—shredding his documents, shattering all his Crystals, and pulverizing his arcane devices. They would find nothing but burnt powder remains.

“You burn, shapeshifter,” Ashen said as she landed herself and her tree awkwardly near him. “You die, unless you offer me a reason to spare you.”

The shapeshifter laughed inwardly. Mercy? From a Red Crystalline One? What an absurd thing.

He told her nothing, resigning himself to the flames.

~~~

Jeh patched up Ukelele again—his carapace had been cracked in multiple locations due to the explosive shockwave and he’d been in great pain, but he wasn’t dead. “Oh, thank Dia…” She wiped her brow. “I was worried there for a sec!”

Ukelele pulled himself out of the hole in the ground he occupied. Ashen was sitting nearby, her tree lopsided and uprooted, but she was using her Red to shape the soil and plant the tree again, while also grabbing the fragments Ukelele had been enclosed in so she could incorporate them back into herself.

Ukelele glanced at the pile of smoldering ash nearby.

“Yep, that was your hunter,” Jeh said. “Some kind of freaky shapeshifter.” She patted him on the back. “She won’t bother you anymore, so we’re free we—“

“We are not free,” Ukelele buzzed. “We merely have a respite.” He leaned in toward Jeh, trying to give her the impression he was locking eyes with her, even though that was impossible with the kind of eyes his species had. “There will be others after me. You should still say nothing. Nothing. Do you understand?”

Jeh frowned. “But—“

“Perhaps he knows what he means, Jeh,” Suro said.

Jeh crossed her arms and sighed. “All right… it’s not like I know much anyway.”

“Which is good for you. Not for me.” Ukelele twitched. “I can’t stay here, I need to go in hiding far, far away, where no one can ever find me.” He dusted off his robes. “…Ashen, queen of fire, speaker of the Red… I thank you for your patience, kindness, and understanding. You have shown me that what we Seek can have many different forms.”

“…You are welcome,” Ashen said as she worked to right the tree properly. “Is there anything we can do to make your journey easier?”

“Forget I ever existed,” Ukelele said. “Forget everything about this. I know you won’t… but it is better for all of you if you do.” He reached into his robes and pulled out a letter, handing it to Jeh. “Make sure that Joira gets this. Do not read it.”

“I won’t!” Jeh said, shaking her head rapidly.

“Good.” He turned his back to them. “…I should get moving. I’m going to need as much of a head start as I can get…” He all but ran into the forest, leaving them all behind.

Suro sighed. “Well… that was certainly an experience.” He walked up to Jeh and put a paw on her leg. “I’m proud of you, though.”

“Huh?”

“You kept your head and managed a dire situation with courage. Not many adults could claim to do that.”

Jeh smiled warmly at him. “Thanks. I just…” She rubbed the back of her head. “It doesn’t really feel like we won, you know? I mean, sure, the monster’s dead, but… Ukelele’s running off, I can’t say anything, and I still don’t know any answers.”

“Are you certain you want answers?”

“No. And that bugs me.” Jeh crossed her arms. “Bugs me a lot…”

“I would like to thank you, Suro, for being so quick to understand and accommodating.”

“Sadly, this comes from experience,” Suro said with a sigh. “You have to put uncertainty, reservations, and history aside in an instant for these kinds of things. I didn’t even get an opportunity to ask how you’ve been doing, Ashen, or how you got to know Jeh.”

“Oh, I can tell you that later,” Jeh said. “So long as you can keep the secret.”

Suro let out a purr. “It’s far from the only secret that’s been entrusted to me, Jeh.”

“Oh?”

“…Yes. They’re secrets. I can’t tell you what they are.”

“Oh.” Jeh rubbed the back of her head. “Eheh…”

“Now, some of them I would certainly like to tell, and I think it might be ultimately harmless to do so, but that would be disrespectful of who I’m keeping the secrets for, now wouldn’t it?” He turned to Ashen and winked.

“You have seen much, Suro. Much more than I. I feel… as though I must appeal to your wisdom. Should I truly keep myself secret?”

Suro nodded. “I think it’s the right call. The Seekers would not leave you alone if they knew you existed. I suppose we can only trust that Ukelele’s letter does not tell them where you are.”

“…I believe he understands me well enough, and I kept his secret for him.”

“Then we are probably in the clear.” Suro looked up at the sky. “It is getting late, people are probably wondering about me. Jeh, we’ll talk later, okay?”

Jeh nodded. “Right. I have a letter to deliver. To the top of a mountain.” She adjusted her bear furs. “Climbing time.” She began the long journey to the top of Mt. Cascade.

Suro bid Ashen goodbye with a wave of his tail. “I may return to this place, should you desire it. A conversation partner aside from Jeh may be beneficial to you.”

“You will be welcome if you do, Suro.” Ashen paused. “I am sorry I did not invite you sooner. I owe you a great debt as it is.”

“I merely helped my friends by helping you. And, if you’ll have me, you can be added to my list of friends as well.”

“…This is… acceptable. Good, even. Great. Yes.”

“A flummoxed Crystalline One…” Suro chuckled. “I have met a few of your kind in my life, and let me say, Ashen, you are a bit of a unique one. I think this is, ultimately, a good thing.”

“If you say so.”

~~~

“Joira!”

Joira shot out of her bed and violently grabbed the shoulders of the Red Seeker who had woken her. “This… better be… unimaginably important…”

The Red Seeker shakily held up a letter. “F-f-from Ukelele, ma’am…”

Joira ripped the letter out of the Seeker’s hands and read it.

Joira, most illustrious of us seekers…

I have to leave. I will not say why. It is not because I fear you or dislike the Seekers. I would much rather stay and live as I have these last few years, but the flow of the Red demands it not be so. I am sorry.

I have found our Ashen. She has become a truly amazing being, worthy of the Red in ways you and I would never have considered. She does not wish to be found, nor seen—do not look for her, but rest easy that the Red has been furthered greatly.

I also have a confession to make. It does not feel right to leave without telling you of my little private blasphemy. I was trained as a Yellow wizard, and even when I came to the Seekers… I never abandoned my practice. Brand me a heretic if you must, I will not be returning to suffer the consequences at this point.

Yes, me, a huge hypocrite. Imagine that.

Hate me, miss me… do what you will. But know that that time I spent with the Seekers… it was some of the clearest moments of my life that I have ever known. The future seemed so orderly, so bright, so… purposeful.

Thank you, Joira, for taking me in. And I am sorry, again.

-Ukelele.

The intensity in Joira was completely gone. “…Leave me,” she whispered to the Seeker who had given her the letter.

She heard the voice of Jeh outside. “…Is she okay in there?”

“She’s…. I don’t know,” the Seeker admitted. “You will not be welcome, though. On behalf of Joira and the Red Seekers, I thank you for delivering this letter.”

“You’re welcome!”

“…Would you like to rest on one of our beds for the night? It is quite late.”

“Sure!”

Joira didn’t even have the heart to go out there and throw Jeh down the mountain. She just sat down on her bed and stared at the wall.

“…You were among the best of us, Ukelele,” she said to no one, voice hollow. “How… how could you leave us? How could you… have been this way?” She slowly laid down on her back, staring at the ceiling. “Red… what is this thread you are weaving?”

~~~

“Just so you know,” Suro told Lila in bed that night. “I have a new secret.”

“Oh, really?” Lila smirked.

“It’s actually a rather important and serious one,” Suro said with a sigh. “Can’t tell you, of course.”

“Of course.” She gave him a quick kiss on the nose. “I am a bit concerned that you managed to get a new one of those. We are here to get away from all that, aren’t we?”

“Dia has plans for us all that may or may not line up with our personal wishes.” Suro sighed, staring up at the wall. “I get the impression this little space program of ours is going to throw us back into it more than we realize.”

Lila chuckled. “Yes… of course it will. But it is where our lives have led us, and so we must meet it with cheer. In times of peace, in times of unrest… we are to remain true no matter where our lives lead. And plus… I know you feel nostalgic for the old days, far more than I do.”

“…Yes.” Suro remembered the shapeshifter burning to a crisp under Ashen’s might. He shivered. “Though maybe you’re right, we shouldn’t yearn for the days of death.”

Lila looked at him in concern. She clearly wanted to ask, wanted to know so she could comfort him more actively—but she refrained. She simply wrapped her legs around his. “It’ll be okay. We have each other, we have our family, we have our friends… and we have this town. Whatever comes, I’m sure we’ll meet it well.”

“You always know how to look on the bright side of things.”

“Joy is one of the great virtues. What kind of Keeper would I be if I was gloomy all the time?”

“A standard one.”

Lila let out a sharp laugh and playfully bapped him on the head. This prompted Suro to lazily flop a pillow into Lila, which resulted in her retaliating with a much more forceful pillow slap to the face.

The pillow fight was soon in full swing with feathers and stuffing flying everywhere.

“MOM! DAD! PLEASE, SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!”

“Nirk!” Another voice shouted. “Some of us were asleep until you shouted!”

“WAAAAH WAAAAH WAAAAH WAAAAH!” one of the kittens started crying.

Both Lila and Suro blushed. “Oops,” they said in unison.

~~~

Far to the north, beyond the border of the Kingdom of Kroan and well within the land of Shimvale, a single ballon-whale drifted through the sky, a fancy gondola attached to its underside. Inside were a handful of people sitting around a table, examining a map.

One of those people was the self-proclaimed “great” Purple wizard Itlea.

The other was the strange porcelain creature known as C-R.

“We are here,” C-R said, twisting her three arms around to place a single pawn on the map. “We are soon approaching the danger zone.”

The map made that clear enough—the pawn was very close to a ring of purple they had drawn on the map, labeled projected range of mental connection. In the center of this circle was a large purple cube—no doubt meant to represent the Purple cube that had been seen from space.

“I still have no idea how we couldn’t know about such a large Crystalline One…” a man with an eyepatch and scars all over his face said. “Thing’s bigger than a mountain.”

Itlea huffed. “Really? It’s a Purple one. Who knows what kind of large-scale illusion spells she can organize?”

“Precisely,” C-R said. “Which is why we need to be careful. Once we’re within her suspected range, she can tap into any of our senses. We cannot permit her to be aware that we know of her. So…” She pulled another map out and laid it on top of the old one. It was nearly identical but didn’t show the Purple cube’s location. All it showed was the Hark Mountain Range. “From this point on, all of us must live and breathe as though we are simply on an exploration expedition, seeking to go to the Greater Northern Wastes. Our path will take us near, but not over, the Purple Cube. We will take readings, but draw no attention to ourselves. It is imperative that no one slip up, for even private mental communication from myself can be perceived if she desires to tap into any of our senses and focus. Be wary.”

Itlea and the rest nodded.

“Since we are traveling at a leisurely pace, it will be some time before we leave her perceptions again. You must get used to it.” She leaned back and tapped her fingers together near her waist. “Is there anything confidential to report before we go in?”

“Yeah,” the scarred man said. “Sig’s reports stopped coming in. Last we knew he was hunting down the bug that intercepted one of his messages. He’s very late.”

“It appears as though the bug got the better of him.” C-R craned her neck to the side. “How unfortunate for Sig. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to respond right now. Send a message to the operation in The Tempest, they can deal with the situation.”

“Unless they’re busy too…”

“In which case, the bug gets a nice head start.”

Itlea grumbled. “How could that tiny town have taken care of your prized assassin?”

“Sig was just one of many of our hunters, Itlea. And that town is far more capable than you give it credit for. Were it not for them, we would not have this map, nor this current mission we are on.”

Itlea wisely decided to say nothing further.

“…We are crossing soon. Remember, we are just explorers. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Yes, C-R,” everyone said.

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT

What, there’s science today?

Yes! Yes there is! Two parts, actually.

First, Ashen’s attempt to triangulate the hunter using sound is actually a real thing! Sound travels at a certain speed through air, so if you can know when something happened and when you heard the noise, you’d know how far away it was.

However, Ashen did not know when it occurred—there was no light, and the sound was all she had to go off of. Fortunately for her, it’s possible to determine the distance without knowing the start time if you have multiple locations of reference.

We detect earthquakes like this. The waves they create propagate through the ground at the speed of sound through earth. If we have three separate locations we measure the wave from and measure the difference in time between the locations, we can pinpoint exactly where an earthquake started.

Ashen, however, only had one sensor: herself. But it was a very sensitive sensor, one that could detect echoes. When the hunter fired his gun, the sound went directly to Ashen, but it also went out in every other direction. Some of these other directions were trees next to Ashen that reflected the sound in an echo to Ashen. The sound had to travel more distance to hit the trees and reach Ashen, and thus would arrive at a different time than the initial sound wave. By tracing the path the sound waves took backward, she could determine how far away the source of the sound had to be. Three sources are all that are required to do this, but since there was a lot of noise that garbled the signal, she needed more. Luckily the forest is filled with trees.

This is more or less how bats “see” (even though they aren’t blind). They let out their screeching calls, sending sound waves out, and listening for how the sound returns to determine how far away things are. Granted, bats have the benefit of knowing their position so they can compare the start time to the end time easier, but it’s still possible to work out the start point of a noise from multiple measurements of the endpoint.

Unfortunately for Ashen, the shapeshifter was clever, and even though she did pinpoint the correct location of the gunshot, the hunter used sound-muffling to cancel out any attempts to sense him. However, no matter what form he shifted into, he would not have been able to muffle the arcane signature of the firearm, hence the whole lens business, but that’s not science. (Or is it?)

Second, there’s the device Krays and the others are working on to launch satellites. There’s not as much going on here—a ball, in this case a rock, but hopefully a satellite soon, is pushed in two directions simultaneously. One force pulls it toward the center of a circle. If this were a physical object, this center-seeking force would be like the rope on a tetherball, or the gravitational pull of the Earth on the Moon. However, with this force alone, all one can do is keep a constant circular motion—you won’t increase speed. To increase speed, you need a second force—one pushing the ball in its direction of motion, a force that changes direction depending on the ball’s position. However, if you want to keep a circular path, you’ll also have to increase the center-seeking force. In the tetherball example, this happens automatically—the tension in the rope increases as the ball tries to fly away. However, in a gravitational situation, there is no “rope” and instead the orbit becomes elliptical.

Since their goal in designing this device is to allow them to accelerate something to high speeds while keeping it more or less in one location, it would be bad if their circle started to deviate. For one, ellipse math is much harder than circle math. Secondarily, the ellipse would keep getting larger and larger, making it harder and harder to hold onto it.

The solution is to have the center-seeking force and the velocity-increasing force increase at an equal rate so they continually balance each other out. The ball accelerates but never leaves the circular path.

This is essentially how particle accelerators work. There are a lot of forces and fields going on, but the ultimate goal is to keep the particle on the circular track while also increasing its speed.

There’s actually a satellite launching system that uses a large vertical rotator to spin things up to high speed and then release them all the way into space. It’s called Spinlaunch. It remains to be seen if this is actually a practical way to do things, but it has completed a test flight.

That said, the WSP is trying the much easier task of spinning-to-launch while already in space. They just have to build the device.