March 2, 2019, 9:32 am. Almost a month after the defeat of Ivicka and her army of Fallen.

“Steal a city. Easy,” I mumble, easing my flight as Smoulder and I settle on the edge of one of the few intact outer buildings which afford a view of the abandoned Builder city of Pelwerd. Smoulder bounds forth from her pocket, stretching her legs after our long flight. I give her a quick headscritch as she bursts into flames for a moment.

Just another form of stretching, really.

Something we both need after the last couple days. After a quick trip to Pelwerd with the others, we spent out time dodging Aetherium patrols on our way north from Betheryne.

“Are you trying to jinx it?” Rose chuckles as he folds his Rose-petal wings into a cape while landing beside me, his upper eyes closing as he takes a deep breath.

“Beth already jinxed us,” Rufka says from my other side as she surveys the rubble. Most of the outer buildings are damaged, but all six engines are still in their proper location. They’re promising, but it's the central spire of twisting silver that draws my eye. An even better sign. Nothing appears damaged, the silver surface dim beneath the evening clouds common this far north of the Aetherium.

“Just cause she said, ‘third time’s the charm,’ doesn’t mean she jinxed us,” I object as we return to the air preparing to check each engine while Smoulder dashes below us.

“So, you’re saying you are trying to jinx us?” Rose asks, his tiger-orange fur slicked back as we soar forwards.

“She’s not trying.” Rufka throws an arm over my shoulder as she laughs. “She’s just lucky like that.”

“Thanks.” I can’t help but grin at Rufka. Hard to believe we’ve been dating for over a month now.

“Anytime.”

We continue our banter as we do a quick visual inspection of the engines, checking for obvious damage. Pelwerd is the third city we’ve visited now. The first two, we went in full force, but neither were intact enough to fly. The first was destroyed. The second city was only missing the central control spire, so the others are evaluating it while we scout the last of the abandoned Builder cities on the Eastern continent.

Once we’re certain none of the engines are deformed, we gather in the plaza next to the only entrance to the central spire, Smoulder landing on my shoulder with a thump. A three storey-tall dull-grey statue dominates the plaza, the only direct reference to the Creators in the entire city. The statue resembles a human carrying a backpack while leaning on a staff, except its features are sharper. The point of its nose and ears could easily draw blood if they pierced a pre-integrated life form.

Instead of idly meandering towards it, I Focus on the statue, bringing up its System information.

“Creature analyzed: Menas Sentinel. Mana seed: 1.

“A Sentinel Construct deployed by the followers of the Creator Menas to prevent non-authorized Users from accessing the core functions of a Builder City. These Sentinels are incredibly durable and will destroy a Builder City rather than allow outside forces to capture one.”

[Wyonna] “Hmm. Seems grumpy and stompy. He’s gonna show his displeasure the second you get too close. Probably by trying to make toe-jam.”

“Name: Orthas the Elkendler-MWVAE-22 (Elkendler roughly translates to ‘Explorer’)

Attributes: Physical; Extreme, Mobility; High, Magic; High, Awareness; Extreme.

Attacks: Earthquake, Slam, Menas’ Gaze, High Earth manipulation.

Defences: Extreme physical resistance, Extreme magic resistance. Immunity to Earth."

“Figures,” I mutter as I finish reading. “This one’s not gonna let us past.”

Rose is nodding as he forms a pair of throwing stars with explosive Rose-pods in their centre. “Didn’t think it would.”

“It’s never just a statue.” Rufka agrees while drawing her bow, small arcs of lightning already crackling along its length.

“Technically, It’s a guardian-sentinel kind of thing.”

“And?” Rose asks, glancing at me as he hefts a pair of throwing stars, a brand new addition to his arsenal.

“Nothing. Just thought I’d mention that we’re technically attacking it.” Which doesn’t bother me. From what we’ve seen in the other Sanctuaries, the Creators’ idea of non-lethal force is enough to render me half dead.

“About Vaus-damn time,” Rufka grins, unleashing an arrow into its chest. Her arrow has no obvious effect, the lightning arcing across the Sentinel’s surface as I playfully curse at her. Despite her enthusiasm, neither Rose or I are caught unaware, already flying to the sides while Smoulder charges in.

The Sentinel doesn’t stand around waiting for another attack. It doesn’t dodge to the side, but it does start shaking, a burgundy light emanating from the previously dark crystals adorning its limbs.

A second later, it stumbles as several of Rose’s new shuriken explode, dark thorns forcing it back. There's a high-pitched warbling in the wake of the explosion, but I'm focused on its tottering form.

If it stumbles, then it’s not strong enough to ignore our attacks.

As if Rose wants to really prove his superiority over stone, he sends a twisting bramble growing up out of the ground to hold it in place as Rufka and I continue to blast it from afar. It starts retaliating with blasts of energy from the burgundy crystals. I can feel air rushing to fill a sudden vacuum where the beam passes beneath me.

“It’s got a vacuum-beam of some kind,” I inform the others as everything the beam struck goes flying towards the Sentinel. This one is in way better shape than either of the others. I’m tempted to use Lesser Cataclysm, but our fight isn’t desperate.

“On it!” Rufka acknowledges, her voice crackling from inside her plasma armor as she runs across the top of a broken wall on the far side of the plaza. She does a twist, sliding down the collapsing corner and distracting the Sentinel with an overpowered shot at the same time. The sentinel doesn’t dodge, and her arrow cracks one of the burgundy crystals.

I’m about to call out encouragement when I notice everything near the crystal is now being drawn towards the Sentinel. Including Rose’s restrictive bramble.

But instead of breaking free, the gathered debris seems to constrict its movements further.

After I inform the others of the flaw in its design, we focus on cracking another of the crystals. We're able to rain spells on it until it falls forward, revealing that its backpack is full of colourful and beautiful birds. Living birds that are chirping in distress.

Well, I guess that explains the warbling sound.

"Lots of health but didn't stand a chance," Rufka remarks, even as we continue wearing down the annoyingly still active sentinel.

Rose laughs, "We're lucky. Imagine if we'd run into a jacked-up Cricken swarm. I swear I'm still picking pieces of them out of my fur."

I can't help but shudder at the thought. The thumb-tack sized beetles fed on most types of mana. That dungeon was horrid. Even using invisibility and Beth’s void energy to sweep them clear, it had been unpleasant.

When we did a debrief after, it was brought to my attention how close we were to being sent to respawn. Smoulder had done her best to reassure me, going so far as to offer to cleanse me with fire. Not wanting to have to reincorporate my clothes, I’d declined her generous offer. She’d been rather disappointed at not being able to help.

Speaking of which, she's trying to make up for it with the collapsed Sentinel, another section slumping away from her repeated blasts. Before she can attack the flightless avians on the sentinel's back, I call her over, giving her well-deserved head-scritches now that the Sentinel lays completely idle.

"Well, shall we?" I gesture towards the tower, eager to get started.

"Hellz ya!" Rose races past me, aiming for the entrance at the bottom of the tower. "Last one there has to brief Beth!"

"Oh no, you don't!" I'm barely a second behind him. Not that I mind updating Beth.

But it's the principle of the thing.

We're nearly at the tower when a flash of lightning strikes the base. When the flash clears, Rufka's standing where it struck, reaching out to touch the door before Rose and I reach her. I barely manage to tag the door before him.

"Cheater," Rose mutters good-naturedly, elbowing Rufka as she opens the door.

"As often as possible," she replies while pulling her bow taut before laying her hand on the smooth surface of the door. It swishes quietly to the side, granting us entry.

Rufka leads the way, twirling to face us while stepping backwards as she asks, "Think we'll run into any more guards?"

"I hope so." Rose follows behind her, staying between us so the door doesn't accidentally close on him.

He might be a user now, but his interactions still glitch on occasion.

The emptiness causes me to shudder the second I step inside. It's better than when we still had the command centre, but any area lacking ambient mana sends a chill down my spine these days. I'd forgotten working Builder structures are mana-dead zones.

The layout of the tower is familiar enough, sharing some basic features with the engines. Which isn’t perfect, since this is clearly for a different purpose.

Moving directly to the open space at the centre of the tower, we find an empty shaft. There's a broken disc lying at the bottom. A quick analysis confirms it's the remains of the elevator. Luckily, we don't need it.

We fly up the empty shaft, forcing our way through the jammed doors at the top.

Once we pop it free, the door slides open quietly, none of the grinding or crunching that we encountered in the last spire. "A good sign," I note.

"Yep. Mum's going to be thrilled when we tell her about this." It's rough, but all we can do is tell her mum. Even though we probably wouldn't have survived our assault on Ivicka's Sanctum without her, Genitha wasn't awarded Citizen status. Which means she can't even enter the core structures. It's especially frustrating because Genitha is the best artificer on Akilo. Not being able to have her access the systems directly makes repairs extra complicated.

"Wow. That's not… how are we supposed to pilot that?" Rose is staring at a sphere floating in the middle of the room. It's composed of over a dozen rings, all spinning in different directions.

"I don't know why you’re surprised. It matches the schematic Wyonna found." Though it is prettier than I expected, each ring a slightly different variation of silver or gold.

"Well, yeah. But I thought it would be less impressive. Or that there would be a frame."

Rufka reaches a tentative hand towards the spinning rings but doesn't touch them. "Seems fragile. Guess that's why we never found remnants in the remains of the other spires."

"Pretty too. Probably taken as salvage." Rose is checking the rest of the control room, but there's not much else here other than a robust terminal.

The terminal is just as important as the fancy sphere floating in the middle of the room. At least according to Theglia. With a little help from Wyonna, we should be able to adjust the permissions for the entire city from this oversized terminal.

Everything in these damn cities is sized for Yrken. Well, the important stuff anyway.

Concentrating, I contact Wyonna through chat, letting her know we're ready for her. I don't technically need to contact her, since she's always watching, but it makes her feel more included if I don’t demand things of her.

Besides, even though she's technically a voice in my head, she can chat with the others whenever she wants. She and Rose have been getting along particularly well.

[Wyonna] "Congrats on finding a non-busted ass city. Third time's the charm, as they say."

[Alexis] "Yep, literally what Beth said. You able to help with the console?"

[Wyonna] "Already on it. For some reason I’m an excellent multi-tasker."

I can't help but chuckle at that.

The console blinks several times, the screen going dark as Wyonna does her thing.

Rufka pulls me close as we wait, Rose giving us a knowing smile. Then she spins me around before allowing me to rest in her arms, drawing out a laugh from both of us. I'm amazed that neither of us has gotten tired of spending time together. Even after everything in the last month, we're still going strong.

My longest relationship yet.

Which is why that night was so terrifying.

But I've been stable since the System took the command centre, so at least she hasn't needed to heal again. I dreamt about the smell of her burnt fur again last-

As if knowing what I'm thinking, Rufka gives me a peck on my cheek, drawing my thoughts back to the present.

The screen flickers again, this time lighting up with Vausian text. Rose rushes over to it before I have a chance, so Rufka and I look over his shoulder as he taps through the menus.

"Josh would be so jealous. Here I am, operating a real alien spaceship!"

"That's just the city-oof!" Rufka pretends to be impacted by my gentle elbow, slumping away.

"Let him have his fun," I insist while holding Rufka as she dangles limply from my arms. She's going full bore, fluttering eyes and everything. But she forgets I can feel her breathing and see her status. This particular ploy stopped working on me a week ago.

It's still fun to watch.

"Ha. Found it," Rose exclaims, drawing my attention back to him. Peering over his shoulder, I see settings for each sector of the city. The permission settings are extensive. They can be tuned to rank, species and gene-seed type. There are even settings for individuals. However, the spire itself remains constrained to Citizens and Builders, as do the engines.

Switching it so K'tharn and humans can enter without paying an integration point or surrendering their class is as simple as unsubscribing from an email list. (One that isn't maliciously trying to prevent you from unsubscribing.) We also make sure to exclude Ivicka (we've come back to life, so could she), Folthka (despite Rose's disgruntled protests) the four Malkog (stupid fanatic bugs) and a particularly annoying Zephite from Raz's. I swear, that beetle-person must have an issue with me, cause he never bumps into anyone else.

"Well, that was easy." Rose practically hops up once he's finished, turning to look at me. "Are you going to take it for a spin?"

"Uhm…" This is the part of the plan I'm kind of leery of. To fly the city, one of us needs to get inside the spinning sphere. The one that never stops spinning, according to Theglia. Though she admits she's never seen one, never mind tried to interact with them. It’s a very Builder type design.

Rufka doesn't stop dangling, even as she asks, "What's the worst that could happen? You get diced into thousands of little pieces, painfully scattered to the corners of the room and leave me grieving and alone..."

"For thirty-six minutes," we say in sync. It's not the first time she's extrapolated my gruesome death since we returned from the mana dungeon. In fact, it's kind of become a whole thing. I'm not certain why her describing all the different ways I could die is endearing, but it is.

Still, she has a point. I'd rather not be diced into thousands of pieces.

While it's true we can be resurrected from nothing, Beth hasn't been the same since her respawns. Although she won't talk about it, she's made it clear. Dying was extremely unpleasant. Even our not-quite deaths at the hands of Atun proved that.

On the other hand, Josh said when he faded away, it was like slipping into a warm bath. I’ve yet to experience it.

Somehow, I don't imagine getting torn to bits would be on the warm bath end of the spectrum.

"You don't have to," Rufka reminds me. "We still have time to figure out how to get inside."

"True," I admit, giving her a half-smile.

Rose throws his arms in the air. "Of course, you have the opportunity to fly a spaceship the size of a city… scratch that, let's just call it a city-ship. You could fly a city-ship, but you don't want to because…"

When he trails off, he lowers his ears in shame. He knows exactly why I don't want to do it.

"Because things go wrong if I'm not careful," I repeat for what must be the millionth time. Teleportation is damn handy, but this isn’t ideal circumstances.

That said, there's a damn good reason to use teleportation here.

Flying the cities won't just give us a way home, each city will enable us to save over a million people. It's funny. I can't really comprehend that many people. It’s more people than used to live on Akilo before we raised their population limit...

It's not enough to save Earth. But it's a start.