Both girls awoke the the coming of another dusk once again, making their shared way back to the academy for more research and discovery. On their arrival, they instead discovered a Jhez who had not yet discovered a share of sleep.

“Oh, by the divine, is it that early already?” “Wait, were you working all midday? You need sleep, go to bed already.” “No, not yet. Listen, I stumbled upon my own discovery, Axln may agree that it's certainly worth investigating. Here, look at this picture, tell me if it looks familiar to you.” “That.. what? How?” “This is a picture from the dawn of the instrumentation era, a copied replica of an artifact lost to that age, like the first founding instrument ever created. It was said to be the heart of knowledge, an instrument that was designed to defy death completely. Records say though that the use of such a heart had serious repercussions, that the person was never truly left alive, they became little more than a memory trapped in a shell. The same records say that the same instrument was then sent through the veil, tapping its capacity for knowledge to seal the veil from the other side. I was looking into it because of said assumptions for dealing with the veil.. when I realized it visually seemed familiar to another tale.” “No kidding, the hell. That looks pretty much exactly like the thing I found in the frozen cave.. on my own planet.” “If it is the same artifact, then it too had a connection to the veil, left exposed in that moment of discovery. That would then mean you both touched an artifact of the veil at the same instant.. and then everything began.” Jhez looked really tired as he talked, visibly ready to fall on his face before Axln. Axln herself was also seeing the ties involved, a match in circumstance that tied everything together, leaving them thus bound. So, such really was an anomaly, it shouldn’t have even existed on that side. It however got there somehow, and if they learned the details about that, they might discover some significant parts of it, possibly even enough to outright reverse it.

“Honestly, the good news doesn’t even end there. Two different hearts of the veil, that gives us an immense lead on learning more about it, but both of them have a shared origin. The heart of knowledge was fabricated in a very special facility, the same place which later served as the colony vessel from Celese to reach Ruixse, itself housing the world seed that served as the world’s heart. The one single structure contains immeasurable tools that historically handled both. There possibly might not be a more significant place for the both of you to visit in order to uncover more about the whole thing. That said, not all news is good. Typically, you would find no trouble reaching such a location, the academy had funded quite a few trips to the very place. Unfortunately though, the foundry is blocking access to such a public wonder again, denying all access at this point. I discovered it’s not just those of the academy, absolutely no one is allowed to visit besides the wardens guarding it. Why though.. and why now?” “The foundry might know more than they are letting on. That idea doesn’t make me feel comfortable, like they are intentionally snooping into our own problems. We have to find a way to get there… Wait! Where exactly is it on a map, can you show me?” Jhez brought Axln over to a map, but not a landscape map. Pointing at an orbital map of Ruixse, he pointed at a point a distance into space. Okay, clearly one isn’t going to get there without help, but there might be another way.. a parallel path.

Searching her own memories, she tried to compare it to the Aestean orbit.. and recalled there was actually an orbital facility in that same location, one also open to the public very openly. However, this would take some accurate calculations, a precision shift in space had more than a few dangers. Axln rushed to get some writing materials, drafting up some notes on the subject based upon her own impressive memory and the accurate metrics presented to her. Of course, she couldn’t read such measures, not naturally. Adjusting her circlet, she had everything translated for her and transcribed such numbers into her own writing. Everyone else looked at her work in confusion, obviously completely unable to read such nonsense at all. She had some metrics to work with, she would have to run them by her nanites for some quality checks, but she was certain at that point she had enough to make things work. She knew of only one problem that remained.

“Yeah, we can do this. The ATA-LS shares mostly the same space as this Starlight Citadel.” “Wait, Axln, how did you read what the place was called? No one had named it yet.” “I will have to thank you for your help with that problem later, Lyun, but I’m not finished yet. ATA-LS can be reached easily by aerospace transit.. but that still leaves us with a problem. If we were to shift to my side, I’m not sure we would find anything but freezing climates far from civilization.. and we don’t happen to have gear for that on the other side right now. Meanwhile, on this side, transportation is down, making things really difficult. Sure, this gives us an advantage, a way to reach your orbital citadel.. but we still have no way to reach such services.” “So we need to make our way through the void fields without the help of any of the foundry’s services. That really does provide a challenge, especially since the wardens are bound to question anyone crossing the distance at this point.” “We might need to have a way to make most of the distance with just basic equipment, just us two, then both shift over and make the rest of the trip on the other side by plain foot. That’s going to be rough, because you don’t have weatherproof gear on that side. We have to get close enough that you wouldn’t freeze first.” Axln of course would have her conduit nature to support her, giving her a much longer tolerance to the cold than Lyun had. Even so, with little more than plain clothes, even Axln was going to find things to be very cold. A human could endure for five minutes without frostbite, a conduit could possibly go three times longer. According to her calculations, they were about three quarters of an hour from civilization, enough for even herself to freeze three times over at the same speed. She highly doubted the phasecraft was going at walking speeds. Pulling out related maps, she found her estimations at more like a four to six hour hike.

“Actually, I’ve got a better idea. The academy is getting pretty angry at the lack of transport, they would be totally willing to provide a convoy, but we can’t afford anything extravagant. We can probably furnish a normal bus for the trip, but that would still leave a few concerns. Foremost, once the bus reaches the border, the wardens will start to throw in questions.. and you two might really not want to be present for that. Secondly, the academy will not allow us to stack the bus with just those familiar to your circumstances, so we’re going to have innocents present that need to remain innocent. With that, you will both have to fit into such a crowd, completely impartially.. and then slip out in the last leg of the journey before the border without anyone noticing. You will then have to shift away at a time where the passengers of the bus are unable to notice, while similarly not being a dot on the field that the wardens scout from the border. We can have a driver provided for you if that helps, but that’s about all I’ve got to work with.” Jhez really did have a decent enough idea, despite the obvious obstacles. Axln herself had her mind racing with ideas flexing her arm in the process.

“Can ersatz drive?” “Oh, uh, of course.” “Perfect, then I need two ersatz. One is our driver, the other is a mechanic. Make sure that everyone knows we’re bringing the mechanic because there are concerns about the bus's ability to weather its climate, but such concerns are only minor. Have both ersatz stored away safely in an exterior bin of the bus, which unfortunately won’t be the most comfortable part of the trip. Please extend my condolences for that. At one point, our bus will thus fail, and the driver and mechanic will go out to see what has gone wrong. The two will eventually return as the identical looking ersatz, the original two having.. shifted away.” “You.. so.. when.. what?” “Lyun, I’ll need your help with setting this up. We will need more of those devices that can work like a holo. Illusions? You and I need to both look the part for the trip. I’ll have the illusion switch to pure invisibility when we need to, as I restore functionality to the bus. The ersatz would simply take over from there, the natural void around us and the tension of the stalling would excuse any stray void that shows up when we shift over.” Axln’s plan left Jhez stunned, it was absolutely crazy. Lyun agreed, realizing a rather significant concern in this plan.

“About driving, I’ve actually never done it before.. so I don’t know how you plan for me to do that. Am I supposed to learn on the spot?” “Don’t worry, I’ll drive.” “You.. what? You’re insane. You’re going to learn on the spot? I think it would actually then be smarter for me to do that then, and that’s saying something.” “Not that I’m going to question your ability to drive, but this might not be the time. You can do the whole mechanic apparence far easier than I can, and such a person is going to stand out much more. You’re already more than just a mechanic, so you win there. Trust me, I’ll make it work.” “Trust… Come on, this is serious.” “Okay, fine, you work on our illusions, I’ll go prove to Jhez here that I can drive his bus.” Lyun gave in at that in a gesture half of disgust and half surrender towards Axln. Lyun could certainly make such an illusion thing, even make the last touches to the timepiece Axln had asked for. If Axln could be so natural at driving, she could certainly have both. Lyun thus left to complete her own side of the deal.

Axln followed Jhez to a vehicle shelter, being brought to a standalone bus a distance from the others. Oh, clearly, accident relief measures, people had no confidence in her. Possibly, it had everything to do with her not knowing what she was even doing, that honestly left her a bit nervous too. Even so, she had a plan. Taking her seat within the bus, she grasped the dash ahead of her firmly with her right hand. She had seen the drill before, all devices were instruments, they all worked upon the same principles. In that light, if the vehicle wasn’t going to work the way she knew it to, it would start working the way she expected it to. Ignoring the built-in controls and simply doing vague movements with her hands, she compelled the thing to accelerate gradually to a controlled speed and rotate slightly to the right before switching to reverse and backing up to the left, all with perfect control. Jhez personally watched her do it, ready to step in if anything went really wrong.. but nothing did. It looked vaguely like she was doing motions that made the bus move, but if you were actually up front you could clearly see that none of such motions should have done anything at all. Jhez put the instrument that functioned as the starter for the whole thing away as well, Axln hadn’t even needed that. Axln had just hotwired the bus and made it work on her own design.

Axln made her way back to where Lyun would be working, reporting upon her success. She waved at an ersatz that passed her by as she turned into the empty room Lyun should have been in. Left at a loss for where else Lyun might have been, she was startled when the ersatz then tapped her on the shoulders. Axln then turned around to simply ask the ersatz what it knew.. only pause again when Lyun dismissed the illusion with a giggle. Of course, the genius inventor would have done quick work, she was already done and playing gags of her own. Such then should have come to no surprise to find the timepiece provided along with the two illusion instruments. The timepiece was something she applied with haste, like a secret service agent synchronizing watches. The little thing was a bit bigger than she had hoped, but it was rather pretty as a bracelet. After being sufficiently synchronized, it was even properly displaying the time on its little round display like a normal digital clock.. despite not actually using an optical display. The thing actually seemed closer to a prismatic sand display, which would make it unreadable in a dark place, but that was forgivable. Upgrades could happen later, it at least worked.

Soon after, all of the official arrangements were completed. Lyun had heard the tale from Jhez about exactly how Axln made the bus move, something Lyun realized she should be expecting at this point. Axln simply made instruments work, even if they didn’t want to work that exact way. Getting to see it in practice though, after having originally watched Sophie drive, she discovered Axln wasn’t even driving in the style of either world. It was honestly just abstract hand movements as far as she could tell. Quickly enough, the two of them brought the bus to its stop, the passengers loading promptly with Jhez’s instructions. Once everyone was comfortable, Axln set off away from the academy. She was at home in the wild, having no problems carefully steering a clear course through the white ashen of the wilderness. A large part of this was calibrating her circlet for course correction, but her natural ability added to that intent to create the desired design. The ten moments of the next hour passed as they reached sight of the border ahead without any incident. It was time to begin at last.

Axln disconnected whatever access the instrument had to propulsion, steering carefully as the whole thing rapidly stalled. Once everything came to a complete stop, she had the controls revert to their original format as she stepped out with her companion. Neither of them looked as they normally would, both of them wearing plain white uniforms, looking as generic as possible in their otherwise charcoal black short hair. Outside, they opened the storage containing the two actual ersatz, the two of them stepping out carefully in the shelter of the coverings as Axln tampered with their illusions to bring full stealth. Leaving the rest of the scene to the two actual ersatz, the two of them started walking directly away from the bus, the illusions starting to fizzle slightly in the onset of the void. Oh, of course, instruments had problems with this, they didn’t have much time. Fortunately, the bus started back up at that moment, ready to go.

Lyun knew that as her signal, considering their talks regarding how shifting works. This was her world, for some reason she was the only one allowed to make the call that it was time to go. The moment the bus nudged forwards, Lyun was wishing that she could once again experience that other side for herself.

Rosa was shivering but an instant later. By the divine, this really was cold for her. Kori immediately called for a quick flame, a warmth that would offer her a chance to get her bearings. Her nanites responded quickly after, having found her without much effort. They could cross distances at light speed, after all, even space. Such was fortunate, considering that was their overall destination. Kori took a lay of the land in the process, even getting a scan of the area the academy would be located, the place being little more than cold ruins. Of course, that would have been a disaster, but it was interesting to note that something might have once been out there. Either way, addressing their current circumstances, they needed to move now. The barrier was still a few minutes ahead.. time they simply couldn’t afford to waste. Rosa however slowed to a crawl, her metal knees growing stiff in the cold. Kori had not accounted for this, her own arm having troubles staying mobile too. Obviously, her other arm was having absolutely no problem at all, technically being even colder than their environment. If only she could stop the heat transfer over their entire bodies like that, but she didn’t even have the time for such idle thoughts.. no time at all.

Both arms flared faintly under the gloves, leaving them feeling uncomfortable but without other visible effects. Of course, this was another one of those strange moments, possibly at the best of times. Taking her glove off, she let the effect course forth, spreading a feeling of white over a blanket that was already black and white. The snow itself stopped moving, floating unmoving in the air. In turn, the cold around them itself also froze, unable to remove further heat from them. Kori knew.. this trick had only bought them a little time, they had to move. She picked up Rosa with a quick sweep, the taller human still taking a lot out of her in the process. Making a desperate dash with everything she had, she pressed a majority of the distance towards the barrier before the haze faded, the cold returning once again. Keeping to her burst, she edged the last remaining distance, giving everything she had. On the other side, she collapsed, the desperation of the moment having robbed her of more oxygen than she needed to stay conscious. Of course, being a conduit, that in turn was a greater concern for her. Rosa caught on quickly to Kori having lost all consciousness. After making sure Kori was alright, Rosa took the chance to warm up before herself taking the turn to carry her companion.

“Hello Rosa. We notice that you’re having trouble carrying Kori. Would you like some help?” “You know, I can totally see how Kori misses you guys while we’re gone. Yes, getting some help would be pretty cool. We’re trying to go somewhere, but it might be good to get a break first before we make the next jump. Where should we go for such a thing?” “To rest? If you desire sustenance, there are several nearby options that provide such services. If you want a quiet place, the closest rational option is possibly Kori’s office, considering her preferences.” “We had a bit of an excursion there, so maybe getting your boss a bit of a nutricious pick-up would help. Then we’re probably going to your office. Sorry, I’m not good with figuring out what she might need to get back on her feet, what would you recommend?” “Conduits, like humans, can process a variety of vitamins as an energy boost, the cheapest option however being sucrose. Going to a quality place to get a vitamin boost would draw potentially too much attention, so a sugar boost might prove more viable as a short term solution. A vending machine would provide the most suitable source for such sustenance, and we can provide support in the process.” The nanites really had just shown up to save the day for Rosa, she just accepted their plan and went along with it. The nanites in turn carried Kori as if she was more sleep walking and floating slightly over the ground, a fact which from a distance and without close observation thus drew no attention. Following such guidance, she managed to procure a canned beverage for Kori, though she obviously couldn’t read what it was. To her, it didn’t even matter, the nanites said it would help, that’s all she cared about right now. Soon around that time, Kori even managed to wake up, finding herself floating on an invisible holo. Of course that would have been slow, but she still felt rather weak. Finding a can thrusted at her, she knew she was being quite cared for regardless. Cherry cola, not bad. She took to a seat to finish her beverage and to plot out her course. Instantly, her course was provided to her. The office? That might not be bad either. If things were just being provided for her, she could relax for a while and get her energy back.

It was still a bit of a hike to the office, and the night was still early for society, leaving things reasonably quiet. On arrival, they both took the chance for some early rest to endure the upcoming long night ahead.