The three girls awoke on the day of their new journey, quickly preparing to depart as planned. Unexpectedly, they found they would not be travelling alone.

“So it seems in the end things will become quite the gathering. You guys are going to need a pilot, and it seems I’m the most established for the role. Jwyexzn is going to be my co-pilot, considering our transportation was offered by his workplace. Dhyinze and Nuiqhyx will be joining along as trained hunters, to make sure that we have some additional skills on the field. Eqriuxzl will be required because of his knowledge with his equipment, we will need him to scan around for anything of interest, the least of all being more gate rifts. Because I’m going to have some trouble actually supplying the gift during my role as pilot, I’ve got Hyusziq offering to lend a hand with that as well.” “Wait, why would you have any trouble with…” “Because I still can’t use the gift for now, after an accident. We don’t have time for the details, maybe Riyxia can fill you in more later.” Ayzherie still hadn’t explained the matter to Sryine, meaning she still never knew. Ayzherie took a moment to realize that Riyxia herself had held true to her trustworthiness as well, to never spoil her secret.

“Oh, if we’re finally in the mood to fill in the blanks now, there is one thing that’s been bothering me too. From everything I’ve seen in the mountains, I have no idea how anyone could imagine a vehicle would be very useful in the mountains, the terrain is absolutely garbage for it.” “Well, yes, any vehicle that had to drive over these stones would find the trip to be rather difficult. The close proximity to beasts would also be alarming, so we’ve had to secure something far safer, a windcraft.” Vwyx came to dread her question once Ayzherie made the grand reveal of the transportation they would be taking, a vehicle Sryine identified as a large helicopter. Over 50 Uyn long, this craft looked capable of seating even more people, although it was already filled with plenty of supplies. Rather than a rotary blade, the top had a more stationary disc that generated an air current by use of the gift, which would keep the whole thing in the air. Vwyx had never even heard of such a thing before, and decidedly wished she could have forever remained ignorant. This nightmarish instrument would become even worse than the train. Sryine however was much less sympathetic, herself being forced to cope with her fears at all times because of her own aspect of destruction. Rage, Pain, Fear, all three of them had gotten very good at being exposed to their own trigger for their augmentation, but not so much the trigger of each other. Riyxia wasn’t very skilled with dealing with either pain or fear, not naturally. Vwyx could deal with physical matters, but couldn’t cope with frustrations like rage and fear. Sryine could easily cope with the fear of things such as pain or anger, but she still didn’t endure them very well when they actually happened. As such, Vwyx remained a cowering wreck at the back of the windcraft for the entire airborne trip, her fear of heights being put to the limits.

The three assigned pilots for the journey remained out of their reach, but this left the two hunters and the two other girls to the main seats in the middle of the craft. The hunters took seats to the right of the craft, the girls seated on the opposite side. This put Riyxia and Sryine quite close to the exit, something that didn’t exceptionally bother them even from extraordinary heights. All of them had gear to slow their descent, but the three girls were otherwise also capable of augmentation, possibly leading to no notable effect if they were to freefall land the whole way. There wasn’t complete certainty in this, so the ideal solution was to still use the correct gear for at least a portion of the descent, in order to be certain. From their vantage, the four of them were exposed to a miraculous view to discuss from an excessive height, easily thousands of Uyn in the air, maybe even tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Eqriuxzl however was in the back with Vwyx, though he was focused the entire time on his instruments.

Everyone was even forced to take lunch in the windcraft, the trip taking that long. The pilots were forced to eat in shifts, but everyone else was free to eat at their own whims. Vwyx didn’t have much of an appetite for the first time ever, feeling kinda sick in the air like this. Sryine was marvelling just how much snow could be found deeper in the mountains, even though it was already early spring. Nuiqhyx went to great lengths to explain how the snow never leaves such mountains, even in the warmest of summers. Sryine was finding this whole trip to be really informative, especially since people were letting her know stuff now. To think Ayzherie was right now suffering from no access to her gift, to think Riyxia had known all this time and never shared it. Well, it probably wasn’t hers to share, it made sense. As Sryine considered the sudden availability of knowledge to her, the mountains began to fade, leaving a great valley with a small forest glade in the middle, standing out strongly for a single obvious reason. Every tree present had azure leaves, looking like a familiar piece of home. This view made Sryine ecstatic with curiosity, eager to share with the still distant Vwyx.

Riyzia noticed that this area formed like a peninsula, surrounded by water beyond the reaches of her vision. At the tip of the peninsula was a single massive mountain, a soft black smoke gathering at its tip. She had never seen the sight, never read about the sight, but somehow still knew what it was, a volcano, to her known as a fire mountain. This must have been one of her preloaded thoughts provided by her father.. well, her creator. Ever since the letter, she had been wondering if she should instead think of Khyzae as her mother, making it like her creator was more her grandfather. Her only hesitation remained concern in how much her creator might like the idea of being called a grandfather at still such a young age. In all considerations, unless the two of them come up with another child of their own, that might be their only hope in getting to be a grandparent. She knew by her own design, not being actually elven, actually being artificial, there was thus no way for her to ever have a child of her own.

The windcraft took to a clearing of even elevation along the coastline, trying to keep a fair distance from both the cold mountains and the hot volcano. The chill of the mountains wasn’t even the largest concern, it was the beasts that remained concerning. The fire mountain on the other hand looked so intimidating that it would even scare away the beasts, though in ways that also made it too dangerous to stay around themselves. Once on the ground, Ayzherie went to Eqriuxzl for an update on his readings while everyone else disembarked and got a good look around. Vwyx at this point finally got to see the glade for herself, the familiar azure leaves, a feeling of nostalgia filling her. Finally, after all this time, here again were the same trees of her childhood, a familiarity she had felt herself so withdrawn from. But even in that moment, both her and Sryine came to a realization, this memory was not their own. Yes, much like Riyxia, their own first true moments were also in such woodlands, but it was a place matching the childhoods of the people they were previously, not they themselves.

“So.. no one else is asking, so maybe I should get us started. Why this, why here? Wasn’t this supposed to be unique to the village, I clearly remember these trees being so rare being a huge deal, Sryine getting us quite the profits for that very reason, Vwyx having a huge business running for the same reason. Actually, Vwyx had a huge business with Khyzae’s friend, and even Khyzae sent us here, so they even knew this was here. Something else is here then, something makes this place different. It could be that volcano, it might be the beasts. Eqriuxzl, do you know anything more?” “All through the mountains there were actually several rifts, and even here were a number of rifts, for one thing. If rumors of Khyzae’s friends doing the teleportation are true, that might already make sense. What else is alarming is the reading from two other instruments I happened to have handy. The first is a reading of the Celesi Veil, which itself shouldn’t be a surprise, because the Celesi Veil is everywhere. What is concerning is that the reading here is very weak. Even more alarming than that.. actually, maybe I should try and confirm it first. Riyxia, if you look around, do you notice any faint semblance of movement in this scenery?” Riyxia stood still, observing carefully, trying to see what Eqriuxzl was referring too. After a moment of patience, ever so slightly, she figured out what he was hinting at.

“It’s… It’s almost as if the very ground is shimmering ever so faintly, mostly in the area near the volcano. It seems to have stopped half way towards the trees, so only a quarter of the entire valley here. Is that like a heat illusion then or something, is it then really so warm around there?” “It probably is really warm, but that’s not what you’re seeing. Vwyx and Sryine might possibly be able to see the same as you, if things have gone well enough for them, but none of us have a chance of seeing the same thing, only you three.” “Wait, are you saying that the shimmer..!” “It’s even more traces of the Astral Flame, somehow having been unleashed. Dating the readings, it’s really old, possibly a couple hundred years old already, but only at that distance. I expect it’s probably too far for your own vision, but if we got closer to the volcano, it would probably light up like a bright sun. With the veil growing so weak over here, something has burst through, something associated with the Astral Flame, and it’s really hot.” Riyxia couldn’t see such a distance, but trusted Eqriuxzl’s observations. The volcano really seemed extraordinarily hot.

“What’s interesting is actually how this place forms a type of balance, even from some of the more mundane readings. Right between the mountains, one side of heat while the other of ice, the temperature is at its most mild. Right between the two coastlines, the humidity is stable without being overwhelming. But readings of this entire area say something even stranger after casual readings. This place is dead, devoid of all natural life. The combination of this death, with the taint of the veil’s otherworldly influence.. it’s caused a massive strange fluctuation that doesn’t even make sense, something I’m still trying to figure out. It’s like.. the gift is impacted here. If this is a weakness in the veil, this whole area has a distortion in the dynamics that makes the gift work as it does. Even so, I have no idea what this result is, not without more information, maybe even testing.” “Khyzae sent us here, she wanted to show us something, and already things look serious. You said this place is already dead, but there are trees obviously growing here. I’m not going to doubt you though, I’ve learned things can still work without being natural. That means the trees themselves too, not really alive, artificial and unnatural. I’m going to check the place out. It’s not far either, could rush back augmented in a flash if anything happens, so I can go alone if I have to.” Eqriuxzl went back to his instruments to figure out his readings as Riyxia decided to go take a look for herself, needing to know more. Sryine and Vwyx were of like minds, deciding to go with her, the three of them could all augment if required after all.

Around the middle of the glade was a small clearing, with a few sparse trees, and scattered assortments of sand. Riyxia glanced around at the ground, loving how the sand made the ground look like a subtle starcape on the ground. She took appreciation of the entire perspective, stopping at a tree with a patch of sand around it like an incomplete circle.. or a crescent moon. That starry-eyed Khyzae could see the stars in anything, just like herself in fact, so she knew that impression was not something missed by her mother either. She dove into the sand, searching for anything interesting. Vwyx caught on to her intent, and took even more initiative, making the sand there even lighter in material. Sryine pitched in as well, blowing sand away with a steady wind. At the bottom, the three eventually found a small metal box, sealed with an emblem of a crescent moon. Sryine snickered at this involuntarily, clearly Khyzae had an appreciation for treasure hunts or something, the entire scene felt almost torn from one of her storybooks.

“Follower of the crescent moon, I trust your discovery has only been one of many in your path of discovery getting here. There are a number of people I know who could have gotten here, a number of people sent here, and thus I hope you accept my request to ensure that this book remains here as a form of warning. The place where you stand is one full of insight and discovery, but can also be equally dangerous. I would have sent you here to learn, but the woods you are in are of a material designed to make learning easier than it should be. This has some considerable flexibility, my friend has even found the wood here has become adept at making creatures who handle it adaptable and flexible, open to new insight or freezing them in a locked perspective, all based upon outside influences beyond their control. My father found that same thing useful for his own work, as it provided a compound for his silly dolls that also made them similarly adaptive, able to take on the qualities of life in the process. It makes great material, so I’m certain it can be popular in the production of various woodcrafts, it even makes for some really good paper, and that’s something we can look into marketing. I know this will be almost priceless for the advancement of my friends' dreams, so that's why I brought it to her.” Riyxae flipped the page, reading the rest of the letter.

“However, I worry we are actually missing the forest for the trees. This place is dangerous, so I know we will have to cover our searches elsewhere, find another place filled with this same wood. Even so, I worry we are missing something else here, something I was never able to figure out with my own equipment. Why here, what made this spot special. By the time you get here, I know you will have done so with more equipment than I brought with me before, and if you found a reason to return to these origins, you’ve come with more knowledge than I did as well. Unlock the secrets of this area, discover what I had missed, why I had most likely sent you here in the first place. But the biggest warning I can give you is that you are in danger, not just because of the threat I couldn’t figure out when writing this, not just because of any danger of the woods, the mountains, or the wild. You are in danger because you aren’t alone, someone is watching you, listening to you, interested in the same thing, and just as they are a danger to you, you are a danger to them. I’m sorry for leaving you in such circumstances, I’m sorry that my own considerations had left such unresolved conflict, and I’m sorry I never was capable of picking sides. I’m sorry, and I wish you all the best in getting things resolved. Khyzae.” Riyxia put the letter back in the box, feeling more than a little alarmed in that closing. She set the box back down in the hole, throwing some sand over it cautiously while taking account of her surroundings. Even at first, she couldn’t figure out anything, but after a while she heard it faintly, the sound of soft breathing, and a touch of growling. Something was stalking them, for once it was her being watched unknowingly.

With little warning beyond that, she grabbed the hands of her friends and ran. Bursting from the trees was a beast, magnificently large and decidedly familiar. It was in fact the same beast they had seen originally, the one who had destroyed the cafe way back in the beginning, back once again. The usual part was how it was wearing a vast selection of unusual instruments, a collar with a strange wooden bit attached to it, a harness with an unfamiliar contraption, bracelets attached to all four paws. The beast still seemed to behave as wild as it had always been, but in this case it wasn’t appearing quite as wild, not with all these instruments decorating it. Something had very obviously happened to it. The beast was snarling at them, but waiting patiently, like it wasn’t simply capable of rushing her no matter how much it might want to. Something was keeping the beast from pressing any assumed advantage it should think to have, something else was in control.

Riyxia knew in that moment, the beast had not come here alone, nor was it simply the beast that they had to look out for. Khyzae’s warning had been exceedingly accurate, there was indeed someone else who had come here right at the same moment as they had, also searching for the same thing, all set in play by her orchestration in accordance with her overall goals.