Equipped with her new shield, Corinne returned to the woods beneath the rift.

She’d shaped her experiment into a literal shield that she wore on her left arm as she disembarked her ship. With the nima, form and function wove together, and it was easier to get them to understand what you wanted if it matched the shape you crafted them into.

So far, the shield was working. Corinne could still feel the angry, twisted nima darting about, trying to get to her, but they couldn’t get close enough to do her harm, and so Corinne pushed forward, looking for any clue, any hint of an explanation for what was happening here.

She’d come armed. A nima blade would have been ideal, but even in the fortress, those were hard to come by, and Corinne would have had to explain what she wanted it for, which was out of the question. But she had one of the large guns from her suit—a bit heavy to carry by hand, and useless against a demon, but it would deal well enough with any human agents she ran across.

In her shield-hand, she carried a tablet on which she’d brought up a map. She’d marked the spot where the rift had been, identified that location down here on the ground, and that was what she aimed for.

As she got close, she saw the first sign that she wasn’t the only person who had come this way.

Not just a person—an akashic. This trail was lightly, but clearly marked, if one could look for the nima. Glowing signs embedded in the trees every hundred yards or so led Corinne further up. It was obvious once you found it, if you had the skills to see it, but how would anyone have stumbled upon it if they hadn’t known where to look? Even a Phoenix patrol wouldn’t have found this, the marks buried in the trees so that they wouldn’t be visible from above.

When the marks stopped, Corinne walked a careful circle around the last one, ranging out as far as she could without losing sight of it, but there was nothing else. No next step no…

No nima. Anywhere. Like she’d stepped into a void.

“Well this can’t be good.” Even her voice sounded strangely flat, and only after she closed her mouth did Corinne realize just how quiet everything had become.

Creepier and creepier.

Checking the map, she realized the path had led her directly to the place she’d been looking for. The ground under the rift.

Her senses alert, Corinne moved carefully through the void. It felt hollow, empty, almost unreal. The trees and underbrush were struggling, wilted and browning. There were no birds, no little animals. If the nima didn’t come back soon, this whole section of the forest would die. Corinne had no idea what could have driven them away.

She walked a full circuit, finding the boundaries of the nima void. From there, she was able to figure out the approximate center of the effect. Then, after careful searching, she found the trap door under a carpet of browning moss. It would have probably remained hidden, except the dying plant-life had sunk in, making the lines of the door just barely visible to the careful eye.

Pulling it open, Corinne was assaulted by the smell of smoke and char. She backed away, coughing, and gave it a couple minutes to air, all the while listening for any sign of life.

When no sounds came from below, she inched forward and peered down into the darkness. Steps down had been carved into the stone, descending beyond what Corinne could see with eyes tuned to the daylight.

Corinne took one last look around, one last listen for any sign she wasn’t alone, then head down into the depths.

She went down slowly, both out of caution, and to let her eyes adjust. The smoke was still thick enough she had to hold her sleeve over her nose and mouth to breathe without choking. Whatever fire had burned down here, it didn’t seem like anyone had been back since.

The stairway opened out into a cave, too dark for Corinne to see anything. Out of habit, she tried to call light through the nima, but there was no response, only that same hollow empty feeling. Annoyed with herself for not thinking ahead, she made the tedious climb back up the rough steps to find branches that would work as makeshift torches. Up top, she was able to reach out just far enough to coax a nima down to spark a fire before it fled again.

The scene that awaited her in the cave was bleak, and Corinne felt a moment of helplessness. Whatever had been here before was now a charred mess. Whoever had been here, whatever they’d been doing, they obviously hadn’t wanted to leave any evidence behind. The question was, how successful had they been? She held her torch high and set to searching.

Corinne wished more than anything she could talk to the nima. She was desperate to know when all this had been destroyed. Was it before the attack, by someone who’d been captured or killed? Or after? Had the person or persons in this cave escaped? Were they still about? Still a threat? Was there any hope of finding an answer to that question?

Looking closer, Corinne was able to make out what might have been a circle with symbols around it drawn on the floor. In one corner, shards of broken glass that could have been a mirror. As she walked, she sent tiny bits of flaky char swirling that were probably the remains of paper. All tantalizing hints that there had once been something to find.

On the far wall, it looked like some sort of shelving had been driven into the rock. The fire had destroyed it all, but a layer of the wall, weakened by the cracks, had collapsed. As Corinne dug through the rubble, she found some bits of paper that had been buried deep enough to be insulated from the destruction.

Fragments, no more, providing tantalizing hints but nothing Corinne could put together. Mention of rituals, of demons, of magic Corinne couldn’t understand. Fragments that were clearly correspondence, meaning at least two people had been involved with this. A piece that looked like it might be an excerpt of the Emperor’s schedule, and—

Corinne stopped short, staring at the folded bit of paper in her hand. The ink had blackened in the heat, but the handwriting was familiar. Corinne had traced it with her own fingers so many times she’d committed it to memory.

There was no message, not like her own invitation had held, nothing but a time and a place. A familiar time and place. A time and place Corinne had been to herself.

Whoever had been here was someone connected to Lady Snow. Maybe someone who Corinne had been in the same room with. Someone she’d looked at. Someone she’d considered…

Better not to think too far down that path. The idea of touching someone who was consorting with demons, who was playing with power so blasphemous the nima couldn’t bear to be near—it turned Corinne’s stomach.

No question she needed to show this to Lady Snow immediately.

Corinne tucked the invitation and the other surviving papers into her pocket, then climbed back out and carefully concealed the door. Then began the long hike back to her ship.