Black Jackal Company destroyed the Abhorrent that had retaken the Gateway complex with no casualties. Purattu led the way to the platform and used the Gateway Key to force a tunnel open to Humusi above. Purattu explained that Xerxes and Katayoun would be ‘staying behind’ with him to help with a confidential task. No one asked any questions. They were all obviously relieved to be leaving.

Ningsummunu offered to be the first go through, not only to explain the incoming arrival of dozens of soldiers and accompanying mages, but also to send an urgent message ahead to Sin-Amuhhu.

After a group of Unsighted followed Ningsummunu, it was Kishar’s turn to leave. She had a tearful parting with Katayoun, then disappeared.

More troops went through. Then came Teucer, who embraced Xerxes, then stood in front of him with hands on both his shoulders. “See you again soon, right?”

“Yeah,” Xerxes said. “Say hi to Mystic Rabya. And keep practicing. I expect you to give me a run for my money next time we spar.”

“You got it.”

Teucer left.

More troops went through. Some, he knew. Stratos. Tustimant. Mazlauwa. They offered sincere salutes that he returned with full formality.

Kashtiliash stopped in front of Xerxes. He had his sword in his hand. “To us,” he said.

He lifted the sword in a salute.

Xerxes returned the salute.

Kashtiliash lowered his sword, flipped it around, and sheathed it at his back. “Take care, Xerk. I want to hear good stories next time we meet.”

“Same.”

Kashtiliash left, and more troops followed. Finally, Gandash prepared to go in. He bowed deeply to Katayoun and gave a crisp salute to Purattu.

Then he was in front of Xerxes.

“Good luck, Xerk,” he said. “I hope you do a lot of good out there.”

“Yeah, Gandy. So… are we… you know?”

Gandash’s brow furrowed slightly. “Are we what?”

Xerxes looked awkwardly at Katayoun and Purattu, who were standing only a few cubits away.

Seeing his expression, Katayoun grabbed Purattu by the arm and pulled him out of the room.

The light of the Gateway danced as Xerxes looked back at Gandash, then lowered his gaze. “Friends,” he said. “Are we… still friends?”

“Oh.” A long moment passed. “Xerxes, everything I said before… it still stands. We’re different people now. Moving in different directions in life. I respect that you had difficult decisions to make, and you… you did what you had to do. It was the same with me. I don’t have any hard feelings. But at the same time, I realize we need to go in different directions.”

A tight, piercing sensation lanced through Xerxes’s chest. He ignored it. “I understand.”

Gandash took a step forward and extended his hand. “No hard feelings?”

A flickering fire burned inside of him. He quashed it, reached out, and took Gandash’s hand. “Of course not.”

Gandash shook his hand firmly, then stepped into the Gateway.

Xerxes stood looking at the shimmering light for a while, then stepped around to the control station and severed the connection. Then he looked once more at the empty portal, and thought about everything. Tears welled up, but he brushed them away. Then he composed himself and walked out into the hallway beyond.

Purattu was leaning against one wall, with Katayoun opposite him. They had been talking, but once he appeared, they stopped and looked over.

“They’re gone,” Xerxes said.

Purattu stepped away from the wall. “No complications?”

“No.”

“Good. Now, let’s get out of here and to a safer place. That’s where I’ll explain what we’re doing next.”

**

Purattu set a rapid pace, pushing the two mages hard, but not too hard. They sped south through the mountains into the gathering darkness, eventually winding down into a tree-choked valley that was filled half with a lake. Nestled in amongst the trees on the shore of the lake was a cabin that Xerxes didn’t realize existed until Purattu opened the front door.

“How did you know about this place?” Katayoun asked.

Purattu stepped across the small room and produced a device that sparked a flame. He lit two candles on the mantle of the fireplace that took up half the wall opposite the door.

“I did a lot of research before my initial mission.” He closed the device. Then he looked at Xerxes, who was just stepping in the door. “Grab some wood from outside, will you? It’s scattered everywhere.”

The area outside the cabin was dark, but he could still make out a pile of wood beneath the eaves. It seemed dry despite all the recent rain, so he picked up a few pieces.

“We’re building a fire?” Xerxes asked. “Is that safe?”

“Should be,” Purattu said. “I haven’t heard anything to indicate Abhorrent are drawn to smoke.”

As Purattu built a fire, Katayoun used a broom from the corner to sweep the cabin, while Xerxes used a spare stick to remove cobwebs.

A few minutes later, Purattu produced a small tin, into which he put some lentils and water. He put it over the fire.

“There are Gateways other than the ones you know about,” he said. “They usually call them obsolete. Or dysfunctional. You see, the starsea isn’t a static thing, like a statue. It’s constantly moving. New starisles aren’t just ‘discovered.’ They’re born.

“Of course, it all happens over very long periods of time. Long even for the Anunnaki. But the point is that, as the geography of the starsea changes over time, the Gateways need to be adjusted. In the starisles subsidiary to Ku-Aya, there’s a whole network of Gateways that stopped working some ten or fifteen thousand years ago.

“They were disabled, and new Gateways were built. The same ones that exist today. But the old ones are still around, if you know where to look. And the thing is, it’s not like the old network just ceased to function. Rather, the connection between the different nodes grew more unstable and weak. But they still work. Especially if you have the power of a Gateway Key to operate them. To be clear, I didn’t know about this until recently.

“In any case, that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll travel to the obsolete Gateway complex here on Jehannemid, and use it to disappear along with the Key. After that, I’m going to get to the bottom of this whole invasion thing.”

Xerxes felt like the new information should flabbergast him. But given everything that had happened, he was underwhelmed.

“Okay,” he said.

Purattu looked at him with eyebrows raised. “That’s it? I tell you that the very fabric of reality is different than you understood, and your only response is ‘okay’?”

Katayoun shifted against Xerxes. “Sorry, Purattu. I guess it’s just… it seems very academic. Especially after everything that happened.”

“I see.” Purattu edged back to the fire and stirred the lentils. “That makes sense. I imagine it wasn’t easy losing so many fellow mages and soldiers.”

“It wasn’t,” Xerxes said, and he realized the words came out sounding more gruff than he intended. “I guess that’s just war.”

“I guess so.”

Shortly thereafter, they had some lentils, and then slept on bedrolls.

The next day, they woke early and moved south. Purattu provided them with special clothing and footwear designed for long-distance, high-speed running. He also taught them a few tricks of breathing and stance, designed to make running more efficient.

Then he set a speed that made anything Gandash had asked of Black Jackal seem like a walk in the park.

They ran in extreme bursts of speed, followed by short cooldowns and rest periods. Using this method, they left the mountains behind them by the evening of the next day. Because of the focus on running, Xerxes hadn’t been checking the skies. But as the sun set, after purchasing foodstuffs from a town and then setting up a fire by a riverside, he noticed the falling stars.

This time, for the first time on Jehannemid, they fell from north to south.

“What does it mean?” Katayoun asked.

“I don’t want to speculate too deeply,” Purattu replied, “but it’s probably because of us. Maybe Black Jackal’s message reached Sin-Amuhhu already, and word got to the traitors.”

“What if it has nothing to do with us?” Xerxes said. “What if they just want to take over Jehannemid? Destroy all the people. Or… eat them. Isn’t that what they did in the Nightmare Cove?”

Purattu frowned. “I guess it’s possible. And if that’s what’s happening, we need to get out of this starisle as soon as possible.”

“But… what about all the people here?” Katayoun asked.

“You think the three of us can save them?” Purattu asked.

Neither Katayoun nor Xerxes provided an answer.

“Can the two of you survive on four hours of sleep?”

Xerxes shared a glance with Katayoun.

“I think so,” she said. “Do you have any more of those energy pills?”

“I do, but you can’t take too many. Another round tomorrow will be fine, though. I’ll wake you in the morning.”

True to his word, Purattu started them out before the sun rose. Encountering no Abhorrent, they stuck to roads. They made excellent progress.

More meteors fell throughout the day.

The night went smoothly, but they ran into some Abhorrent the following day. And from there, the journey became harder. Meteors fell endlessly, and more and more Abhorrent filled the lands through which they traveled.

The spawn, and even the low-level juveniles, were easily dispatched. Xerxes taught the Swordmasters’ Vengeance to Purattu, who was suitably impressed, but had suggestions to improve it. Using the improved version, they took down large juveniles with ease.

Toward the end of a week of travel, stage four and five juveniles became more common.

The endless running and fighting weighed on Xerxes. And the further they got away from the Gateway complex in the mountains, the more he thought about what he was leaving behind.

Temperatures got hotter, and the air, more humid. Eventually, they reached a city with a large harbor and thick walls. It was clear that the place had suffered some Abhorrent attacks, but not enough to destroy the city. Yet.

It was remarkably easy for Purattu to hire a boat. After all, he had a lot of money. That reminded Xerxes of the loan he still needed to pay back. Purattu brushed off mention of the outstanding debt, saying that it ‘didn’t matter anymore.’ But Xerxes wasn’t going to forget it. He’d pay back the loan one day.

Once they were out on the open water, the Abhorrent weren’t a problem. Purattu remarked that water-dwelling Abhorrent were known to exist, but apparently hadn’t been part of the invasion force.

After three days of sailing, they reached a chain of islands. The captain was surprised when Purattu asked him to drop them off and return to the city. But he complied without asking any questions.

Located in the depths of the island was a crumbling facility that Xerxes would never have guessed to be a Gateway complex. It was in the middle of the maze of weathered stone walls and pathways, inside a cave. The facility was in such ruins that, even with his knowledge of Gateways, he would never have guessed its true nature.

“And here we are,” Purattu said. He walked to the far end of the platform, to where a pile of vine-covered stone rose slightly above everything else. “I’m guessing this is the control station.”

“Are you sure it’s functional?” Katayoun asked, squatting and plucking a flower from a crack in the stone.

“Yes,” Purattu replied, producing the Gateway Key. “Come over here.”

Katayoun put the flower behind her ear as she and Xerxes joined Purattu at the control station.

Purattu used mage touch to clear the vines and dirt from the rubble. As he did, Xerxes realized that the stocky mage was right: it was a control station.

A moment later, Purattu inserted the Key into what had once been a dirt-filled hole.

The ancient Gateway trembled, and melam surged within it.

Purattu grinned. “We’re in business. Based on what I can sense, this Gateway can open seven unique tunnels downward, four parallel, and one upward.”

“Wait,” Xerxes said. “Parallel?”

Purattu nodded. “To other Stricken starisles. You want to go to see your family, we can probably make it happen.”

“We want to,” Katayoun said firmly.

“Then we will.” He did some things with mage touch. “The downside is that I can sense the passageways, just not where they go to. So it might take some experimentation to reach a specific intended destination. But I promise you, we’ll get there. With this Gateway Key, we’re more free than you can imagine.”

Brilliant light illuminated the area as he opened a passageway. Then he pulled the Key out of the control station. “It’ll remain open for two minutes. Let’s go.”

Not waiting for them, he strode across the open space and stepped into the Gateway, leaving Katayoun and Xerxes alone.

“You sure about this?” Xerxes asked.

“At this point,” she replied, “what else are we going to do? Run back to the other one?”

He smiled, leaned forward, and kissed her. She kissed him back.

“Let’s go together.”

She nodded.

Holding hands, they walked into the brilliant light.

The End of Immanent Ascension Book 1