//INITIATING PERSPECTIVE SHIFT FROM [SEBASTIAN CORMIER PERSEPHONIA] TO [ANNETTE DELAMAR].

//PERSPECTIVE MAY BE DELAYED BY A FACTOR OF UP TO [6] HOURS.

//INITIATING…

“Seriously, what the hell am I looking at?”

Annette stared up at the crystalline pillar that jutted out of a cliffside like some giant’s errant javelin. It crackled and whispered with someone’s power, but Annette couldn’t imagine anyone being strong enough to create something like the pink monstrosity before her.

Coleen shook her head with a sigh. “I’d tell you if I knew. But all I know is that it’s under someone else’s control, and that there’s something in there that I can’t get the system to lock on to.”

“You haven’t told Garrett about this yet, right?” Annette asked warily. Something about the pillar scared her, but she couldn’t place what it was. It almost felt like she was growing weaker just from being around it. “He’ll blow a fuse if he thinks we’re going out of our way to investigate anything that doesn’t bring us closer to Rainbow Basin.”

“It was in my scouting report, but he ignored it. As per usual.” Coleen grumbled. Whatever good faith there had been between her and Garrett had eroded over the past week, as he grew increasingly desperate and twitchy. Something scared him about Rainbow Basin just as much as it excited him. “Nazanin’s got almost all of our equipment ready, but she’ll need more time if Rainbow Basin’s as dangerous as we think it is. And, well, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Annette nodded with grim agreement. “A little less than a week to go. Is everyone up to hazard tolerance fifteen?”

“Everyone except for Damian, and he’s in a hazard working on that right now.” Coleen confirmed. “As long as we can stall Garrett for another six hours, we’re on track and ready for almost anything.”

“Anything hazard rating fifteen or below.” Annette muttered. She swiped open her interface and quickly checked her functions, most of which were brand new to her, except for her core function. That one was extremely frustrating to use, since she remembered being able to use it perfectly. But now that her stats and core mastery were lower, it felt like trying to swim through sand after getting used to water.

She shook her head and set those thoughts aside. “How about Felix? Has he recovered from getting decapitated yet?”

Coleen shuddered. “Yes, in fact, he has. Perfectly. The armor works exactly like you said it would, and now he’s up and walking around without a single hitch in his step. You could come back to camp and see him for yourself, you know.”

Annette shook her head. “Not while Garrett’s still annoyed with me. It’s driving him to actually do a little bit of work, which is a nice change of pace.”

“Work that we have to double-check and then edit thoroughly.” Coleen said. She reached into empty space and pulled out a bundle wrapped in cloth, then handed it to Annette. “That’s the trinket Nazanin made for you, and three days’ worth of Damian’s meal replacement slurry infused with a battery refilling potion.”

Annette lifted one side of the bundle to reveal a glass pendant with a core of glowing filament and three canteens filled with a matte brown paste that tasted a lot better than it looked. She quickly identified and equipped the trinket, then sent the meals into her own inventory.

Pendant of Warm Luminance(Rare, Crafted)

Current Item Mastery: 1

Core Mastery Requirement: 18

All light and heat based functions, weapons, and consumables have their effects increased by 20%. Increased by an additional 1% for every 4 Item Mastery.

“Thank you.” Annette said seriously. “Tell the others that I’m doing fine, and that I’ll be back when Rainbow Basin is in sight.”

“I will. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.” Coleen said and turned to leave. She walked for less than a minute until she got to the edge of the plateau, then turned and waved goodbye before she dropped off the edge and out of sight.

Annette gently fiddled with her new pendant as she stared at the crystal. Something about it felt so wrong to her, but she had no idea what she was supposed to do about it. She walked up to it and pressed her hand to the thing’s slightly pliable surface, which had confused her to no end the first time she touched it, but it didn’t stop it from being as hard as diamonds.

“If we could mine this, maybe we could use it.” She said to herself and summoned the power of her core. The light twisted around her until it was an armor of luminance, wrapped tightly in long flowing ribbons that were as obvious as possible. Her necklace boosted the power of her function, but it still paled in comparison to what she remembered.

Yet it still did something. The bizarre properties of her light struck the crystal in ways that showed something trapped inside of it. Chunks of something that could’ve been metal, or an animal trapped inside like amber, but whatever it was, it wasn’t alive. Nothing could survive being encased in a parasitic crystal for more than a few hours, and this thing had been here for at least five days. And probably a lot more.

She tapped on her helmet to ensure her words stayed inside. “Kavre, I’m right at the crystal. What do you want me to do?”

Static crackled through her helmet, then blossomed into a voice that spoke with a fanaticism and love for absolutely everything. Obsession tended to have a negative connotation about it, but from everything Annette had learned about Kavre, it was all about acting on the worst impulses.

“My sweet chosen, could you please remove your hand for a second? Our short time to speak is draining a little too quickly for my tastes.” They said easily, but eagerly. Annette did as they asked, and they sighed in relief. “Thank you very much. I can tell that whatever made this beast of a crystal is extremely powerful, and after a few days’ worth of research, I can tell you that it was made by a creature known as a ‘Staura’.”

“A Staura, huh?” Annette mused. An image of a dinosaur-like creature flashed through her mind, and she nodded in assumed understanding. “Is it breakable?”

Kavre clicked their tongue in thought. “I don’t think you’ll have to break it. Something else is working on it, and you might be able to help it along. Another Staura, if I’m going to hazard a guess.”

Annette furrowed her brow and looked around. If there was a Staura here, she wasn’t seeing it. “Where is it? Should I be worried? Is the camp safe?”

“I don’t know, probably not, and most likely yes.” Kavre said smoothly. “You’ve found a good small group for yourself, which is more than some of my fellow Embodiments’ chosen can say. Especially Voralk, poor girl. I tried to tell her she made a bad choice, but she just stared at me and said ‘you’re about thirty years too late to try and tell me that’.”

“That’s Dylan’s Embodiment, right?” Annette asked. She crossed her arms and stared at the crystal in an attempt to find some way she could help destroy it. “Is the crystal light sensitive?”

“Yes, Voralk did choose Dylan. And no, the crystal is not light sensitive. But whatever is inside it most certainly is.” Kavre said cryptically. “The crystal seems like it was designed to be opaque, but your light can pierce through thanks to the strangeness of your core. Up the heat and give the thing inside everything you can, or leave it alone and keep moving to Rainbow Basin. Both hold their own dangers, just like they have their own positives. I trust you to make your own decisions.”

“For now.” Annette laughed bitterly. “Thanks, Kavre. See you in another week or so.”

“Yes, see you then. I very much enjoy our chats, Annette. Please don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger.”

Annette smirked and shook her head. “What, the necessary danger’s just fine?”

“Of course it is. You can’t control it, so all you can do is weather it.” Kavre said seriously. “Stay alive, Annette.”

With those parting words, Annette’s connection to her Embodiment fizzled out. To stay dead for another week, or more, if she wanted more time. But Kavre had given her enough information that she felt comfortable moving forward. To find Sebastian, learn what happened to Dylan, and just maybe find some way to stop herself from losing her mind.

Her core burned with overwhelming splendor, and she directed all of it into the crystal. It became as transparent as pure water, revealing the pieces to be chunks of armor with some sort of plant-like matter spread about around them. She paused for a split second as Dylan’s face popped into her mind, but the armor looked nothing like his. And if it was his, she already had confirmation he was dead.

The light baked the armor with a glow that grew in intensity until it seemed it was coming from the armor itself. The chunks that looked like they were made from coal grew hotter and hotter and shifted to seem like they were burning, and much to Annette’s surprise, the crystal began to melt away.

Until it shattered in thick chunks the size of her torso. She stumbled back in confusion, but steadied herself and summoned a simple sword that had been enchanted to work with her core. Runes lit up in sequence as her light wrapped around it and transformed it into something deadlier, yet also a blatant lie. Her other hand filled with grains of light that could–and would–lie to the world around her if she needed to escape.

Armor clattered to the ground in a puddle of liquid crystal. Annette held her breath as the things began to shiver, the plant-like growth inside dripping a thin clear liquid that mixed with the crystal to create a slurry that gave off a miasma of power and life.

“Drown me, that was unfortunate.”

Annette stiffened and snapped toward the source of the voice. Yet there was nothing there.

“Hey, you, the one with all the light. Give a guy a hand?” The voice continued. It seemed to be coming from the helmet, but that wasn’t possible. Felix had survived six seconds, and that had been cutting it close. “Can you hear me? Hello? Actually, how am I talking without lungs? Huh. Maybe I’m just imagining this.”

The helmet grunted in effort and rolled itself over so its faceplate was turned towards Annette. “If you can hear me, brighty, the name’s Inopsy. I’m scattered over a few more of these crystals, and I could really use your help to pull myself together.”