Rithys returned to her sanctum in Ceuna and floated between the representations of her two moons, gliding closer to one and then the other, as she tried to achieve peace. She remembered something Nethron had said about the mortal world being too volatile for the serene beings of Ceuna. After months of living amongst the mortal beings, she understood the worry.

The placid pulses emanating from her moons was what she required to achieve a calm state. At times, when she would hear the mortals engage in emotional outbursts, she found her own senses riled and feared that she might lose her composure, or worse. It was such a strange sensation to her. She had never once in her entire existence worried that such a thing might be possible. That once unthinkable reality now stared back at her in moments of doubt.

One of the happier thoughts she entertained about the mortal world was the single most beautiful sight in either Ceuna or Vorlanys: Her moonlight hitting Cyrona's waters. On otherwise dark nights, the splendor of her moons' glowing on the rippling surfaces of rivers, lakes, and oceans was beyond anything she had seen in Ceuna. She found herself so moved after the prior evening that reason abandoned her for a moment and she considered gushing to Forynda herself about the sight. It was such a shocking thought that she decided an egress from Vorlanys to Ceuna was utterly necessary.

"How could I have even thought that?" she muttered aloud as she floated between the proxies of her moons. She basked in their gentle glow for some hours.

The tensions that had roiled her on Vorlanys swiftly dissipated. She now was at peace once again.

As soon as she had recovered her placidity, Cyrona's turbulent presence manifested behind her. The Moon Angel decided to wait for the inevitable lashing she would receive for her unannounced return to Ceuna.

"You were planning on telling me about this, correct?" Cyrona boiled.

"I have not been gone long," Rithys replied with a smile, though she did not turn to face the Water Angel.

"That you have gone at all has been noticed," Cyrona scolded her as she floated around to face Rithy. Her shimmering watery body glistened in the moonlight, almost as beautiful as the waters in Vorlanys would appear under her actual moons. "Without Forynda delivering discipline, we need to step forward to strengthen our position, not retreat from it. Have you had a difficulty I should be aware of?"

"Not precisely."

"Not precisely?" Cyrona laughed in a mocking fashion. "This is an precarious place that we find ourselves in now. There are crises everywhere and the world continues to descend into madness. If there is something troubling you, I would be pleased to help, but I have to know what it is."

As Rithys pondered responding to Cyrona's offer, a strange pulse, both sharp and dull, struck her. Her vision spun and her sanctum suddenly appeared nearly vacant with only her moons appearing as pale translucent versions of themselves. Cyrona was nowhere to be seen. Rithys quickly spun to look behind her. Then she sped from one end of the sanctum to the other.

"Cyrona?!" she shouted. "CYRONA!"

Nothing.

"How can this be?" she muttered aloud.

Several silent and panicked seconds passed.

"Rithys?" Cyrona's voice came from just behind her. Rithys spun in utter confusion to face the Water Angel. Cyrona placed her glistening watery hand on Rithys's shoulder and squeezed. "Are you alright?"

"I... I could not find you," Rithys muttered. "Did you notice a strange sensation?"

"I did and I have my fears as to what it was," Cyrona said, her eyes glancing downward and her hand dropping away from Rithys. "I strongly suspect that one or more of the mortals dabbled with something they should not have with the Auras. Nethron was such a fool to release such power and now he is not even here to see what he has done. Their minds are not sufficiently ordered to wield them. Nethron knew that! How could he not have known?"

Rithys floated silently, unsure of how to respond to Cyrona's swelling rage.

"I know that Simel has taken to training mortals in the Auras, but..." Rithys began, but Cyrona quickly made a dismissive gesture.

"Simel has many irritating qualities, but he is not irresponsible. No, this must have been the mortals themselves!" Cyrona boomed. "Return with me now."

"Now? But is it..."

"Yes, Rithys. It is necessary. Whatever reason you had for returning here, it matters little against the troubles we face in the mortal world," Cyrona scolded her. "Now."

"You asked why I returned here without telling you," Rithys said softly. Cyrona tilted her head, an obvious combination of curiosity and irritation flowing through her. "I fear what the mortal world might be doing to me. I felt unsettled by its influence."

"Unsettled?" Cyrona asked in a murmur.

"Yes."

"Rithys, none of us do well in that world, but we will endure it for as long as we have to. Keep your mind focused and wash away errant thoughts. Those are what torture mortals and those of our brethren who failed to discipline their minds. If one of our kind does not actively push away the filth that tries to make its way in, there is no telling what depravity could be unleashed," Cyrona declared grimly and then stared intently into Rithys's eyes. "Have you simply floating about there not guarding yourself against all of this?"

"No one told me," Rithys meekly replied.

"It should have been obvious," the Water Angel scolded her, but then smiled and again placed a hand on Rithys's shoulder. "Promise me that you will do more going forward to protect yourself."

Rithys smiled and nodded.

"I promise you that. Thank you."

"Good," Cyrona smirked. "Now, on to Simel."

Both transported in whirs of light to Emperor Rohmhelt's camp where they found Simel along on the camp's northwestern periphery, his focus toward the gray cloudy horizon so unyielding that he did not greet them. While Simel's appearance was, by his own choice, that of a haggard mortal, his weariness was more pronounced than normal.

"You felt it, too?" Simel muttered, his voice distant while his eyes continued their deep northwesterly gaze.

"Are you able to tell us what that was?" Cyrona queried.

Simel closed his eyes and reached out into the air with his right hand.

"It came from the city the mortals call Eynond," he said, his voice dropping into a lower rumble. "I had felt strange happenings from there for some time. I was content to leave it be so long as it did not interfere with anything else. This, however, was a great disturbance of the Auras. I have not yet sensed such a thing in my entire existence."

"So, these mages, as they call themselves, blundered into trouble," Cyrona scoffed.

"That is a modest description," Simel said as his metallic eyes opened again. "It was as though the Auras ruptured part of the world, annihilating a portion of it utterly. All of them at once in a single horrific confluence."

Cyrona shot a skeptical glance toward the Mind Angel.

"A confluence?" she asked.

Simel nodded.

"All of the Auras converged upon a single point in an unstable fashion and the resulting calamity shook both this world and Ceuna," Simel explained. "My primary question is why should this have happened now? Mortals have been dabbling in the Auras for months ever since Nethron unleashed them and this is the first time someone appears to have blundered into it. If this is more than an accident, but rather a deliberate design, that should worry all of us."

"Before I get too worried, I should like to see the site of this incident," Cyrona said, forcing a shrug.

"Very well. We shall travel there immediately," Simel declared and sped off to the northwest.

Rithys followed Cyrona's swift path through the Keldras River and up into Eynond. They could have chosen to return to Ceuna and then directly manifest in Eynond, but this was a more enjoyable experience. Rithys prized the time she could spend beside Cyrona, especially within Cyrona's own creations.

The high-walled blue stone city of Eynond was new to Rithys and when she sprang out of the river to float above the city, she spent some time examining it. While it was not one of the largest mortal cities she had seen, it was clearly prosperous and orderly, not fitting the image she had in her mind of a place where such wild excessive use of the Auras might take place.

However, from the citadel in the city's center, she and the others sensed where the disaster had occurred. Together, they floated down into what had once been a courtyard, but was now a ghostly crater with perfectly even rounded edges. It was not like any destruction Rithys had seen before. There was not even ash or crumbled rock left from what had once been there. There was nothing.

A man stepped out from one of the nearby structures that had only lost its outermost stones. He was a bearded man with a meticulous appearance and walked with a cane.

"My Angelic Lords, I'm pleased to see you," the man shouted from below. "Please, come."

Simel and Cyrona swiftly descended to the ground, or rather what was left of it, while Rithys followed slightly behind.

"My name is Dastov, Commander Dastov," he said with a guarded smile. "As soon as this happened, I was certain I would be getting a visit."

"With reason, commander," Simel muttered. "I already know what happened here. I want to know why it happened."

The commander gave each of the three angels a slight glance with his languid green eyes.

"A fair question, I'll admit. I instructed some of our mages to attempt wielding more than one Aura at a time," he said without a trace of emotion or remorse. "It seems that they couldn't handle that."

"Why were you even pursuing that?" Cyrona asked, her voice roiling.

Dastov breathed deeply and shrugged.

"It seemed that it could be useful. We'll be more careful next time," he answered calmly.

Simel glided closer to Dastov, who calmly watched the Mind Angel approach.

"What you mages did is not a minor problem. This requires intervention," Simel declared. "Were Forynda still descended onto this world, she would be far less lenient than I."

His eyes narrowing, Dastov nodded.

"Yes, I do understand what the High Angel did to Zarmand and, before that, Nethron and his acolytes. I appreciate your more generous approach," he said. "I'll prepare a place where we can meet and discuss with my mages what exactly it as that happened and how to prevent it in the future. Would that be satisfactory?"

Simel nodded and Dastov immediately returned to the structure behind him to begin barking orders. Once Simel and Cyrona sensed he was far enough away, they turned to one another.

"Do not trust that man," Simel said.

"I did not intend to," Cyrona replied with a smile.

"I know not what his true intentions are, but that he is deceptive is beyond any doubt. What unnerves me is that he almost made no effort to appear trustworthy," Simel murmured in a tense tone. "Cyrona, you should see what you can learn about what has been happening here. I will speak with him when he is ready to receive me."

"Feel free to leave me out of that. I do not think I could hold my temper with such a man," she grinned as she shot up into the air and out of the citadel.

Rithys still floated above Simel when he turned his attention to her.

"You saw something when this incident happened. You were in Ceuna and experienced an odd event, stemming from this," his voice took on a more urgent and prodding character.

Rithys knew it was folly to question how Simel was aware of such things. His perception dominated that of any other angel. Hiding the truth from the Mind Angel was a waste of time.

"Yes, I did," she answered.

"And what did you see?"

"To be forthright, nothing. I saw nothing."

"You will have to tell me more than that," Simel said as he floated up to look directly into her eyes. "The precise nature of this nothing might matter quite a lot."