Leaving behind an irradiated patch of water, Elisime flies on towards the southeast, the distant shore behind them fading away until only blue is left as far as the eye can see. After a few hours of cutting through the blue, watching the rough waves below for faint signs of aquatic life, Emily pushes herself out of her command seat and turns her eyes away from the screen displaying a scan of the ocean that reaches down hundreds of metres without hitting the seabed.

"I'm going to step out here for a bit," she says, releasing a mist of purple and blue mana and weaving together the magic circle for a short-range Blink.

"Wait, you're leaving the ship?" Dante questions, scanning the horizon for any signs of what caught her interest. "Why?"

"I have some research to do in the deep sea," she explains, glancing at Mensacus and raising her brow, silently asking if he would like to join her and receiving a slight head shake in response. "I'll teleport back aboard when I'm done. I shouldn't be long, but Elisime will be entering Lebard's territory soon. If you run into any resistance while I'm not here, try to remain peaceful until I return, but Mensacus is my voice, and I'll support whatever decision he makes."

Dante nods and turns back to conversing with his dad, who doesn't bat an eye at the chimaera being left in charge. Emily gives Silica one last pat on the head before pushing her towards her brother and activating her spell, vanishing from the bridge in a burst of sparks and reappearing below the ship without any forward momentum, hurtling down towards the water's surface instead.

She slams into the icy drink, pouring out more lightning mana and burning through the water, boiling the liquid that tries to slow her descent and creating a pillar of bubbling steam that rises to the surface. She watches fish scatter as she passes, hurrying to get away from the light and warmth she's producing, with not a single higher circle creature near the surface.

The light shining down from above quickly reduces until Emily can only see by the glow of plasma skipping across her skin, and the pressure closing in around her gradually increases, although still only a fraction of what she felt within The Abyss. She focuses most of her attention on her magical senses as she sinks, reaching out and testing the balance of elements in the water around her and searching for any sign of The Abyss' signature.

Though there are hints of ice, darkness, and even death present all around her, none of them bear the same purity or concentration as in the depths of The Glade. Emily narrows her focus on the concept of death, feeling out the water around her to work out where it's gathering before subtly shifting the angle she's sinking at to tilt towards it. The touch of death grows stronger the deeper she falls, and Emily feels several large shapes moving around nearby, just out of the range of her limited light.

After a long, silver-scaled body flickers past the edge of her vision, Emily finally decides to take a look at the creatures showing an interest in her. She casts Invisible Light, forming a glistening grey orb a few metres above her before letting it pour out unseen rays of off-white that illuminate the water just for her.

Her gaze is immediately drawn to the massive sea-serpent lazily coiling around her. The beast is half the size of Elisime, with dull scales the size of Emily's head covering its entire body, and its narrow, slitted eyes are trained on her, reflecting the gleam of charge still propelling her down. Though its eyes are glassy and distant, not designed for use in high-light environments, there's a clear spark of intelligence in them, and the beast doesn't appear threatening despite slowly wrapping itself around her and emanating the pressure of a fourth circle lifeform.

Emily offers the snake a nod, and the beast flicks out its tongue, tasting the water before nodding back and turning to propel itself into the darkness, leaving her alone with her less-friendly visitors.

A few small, dark bodies throw themselves at her the moment the large snake slips off into the unknown, but Emily simply boosts the charge pouring from her skin and fries the piranhas before they can take a single bite. The thick tentacles of a fully-grown archite stretch up from somewhere below moments later, snatching the cooked fish corpses and dragging them down out of sight, leaving behind a haunting trill of gratitude.

Emily remains on guard as she continues drifting towards the seabed far below, but she doesn't see any signs of the titan of the deep returning, and, after nearly an hour of every living thing avoiding her glow, she finally glimpses something solid rising from the gloom to meet her. She isn't surprised to see valleys of rock and bone jutting out of the ground after following her instincts towards death, but the dark slivers of nothingness between them do draw an interested hum from her chest.

That feels like The Abyss…

She swims closer, releasing the lightning that was forcing her down and using a light twisting of water mana in its place to hold herself steady. She reaches out to one of the gaping black maws, dipping her fingers in and drawing them through the ice-cold water within.

It's almost identical to the crack I found Mensacus in.

Emily's arm vanishes up to the shoulder into the darkness, and she reaches around, patting the smooth, rocky walls of the confined space in search of anything of note. Finding nothing, she withdraws from the slot and pulls back, looking around to see if she can find any holes large enough to fit a person.

After a little searching, she finds one that looks like it could work, but the passage narrows after a few metres, making it impossible for her to continue following it. She doesn't find another candidate, despite looking for a while, so she eventually gives up and settles for making notes on the way mana is both spreading from the cracks and entering into them, forming a rhythmic circulation that reminds her of breathing.

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Finally, satisfied that she won't be able to gain anything else from staring at the bottom of the sea, Emily casts Teleportation, wrapping herself in a dense magic circle before burning a large chunk of mana and sending herself back to one of Elisime's generator rooms, free from the pressure of the ocean.

***

When she steps into the bridge again, Emily's met by the sight of a large fleet of ships sitting on the water below, aiming up at Elisime with cannons and crossbows. It's strange to see ships with sailed masts in place of steam balloons, but Emily still drinks in their designs, tracing the arcs of their bows and the careful positioning of their rune-covered weapons.

"What's the situation?" she asks, simultaneously pushing her mana through the ship and letting it wash out across the opposing fleet, spreading her perception and finding six fourth circle mages scattered between the waiting boats.

"We ceased our movement the moment we spotted them," Mensacus replies, vacating Emily's seat and taking his position at her side. "They haven't made any moves to attack or contact us, but they've been gathering ships."

Emily nods, glancing up to the horizon where she can see more boats riding the waves towards them. Before she can give any orders, though, she feels movement in the fleet below. All six of the fourth circle energy signatures she can feel leave their ships and rise into the air. The moment they enter her eyeline, Emily's brows rise as she takes in their transport spells: one rides a bubble of wind; another dual wings of stone; one flies dragged by tendrils of water; and another burns flaming footsteps through the air. The last two draw her focus, gliding forward at the head of their formation on beautiful wings of burning golden light with three pairs each.

"Looks like they're interested in contact now," Emily says, gesturing for the other occupants of the bridge to rise as she forms a portal out into the air before Elisime. "Come on. Let's go say hi."

Everyone follows Emily out, and she conjures a floating metal platform to carry Silica, Dante and Pod, forming it into seats for them as Virgil and Mensacus make their own from fire and condensed darkness on either side of her. Emily relaxes on her simple metal throne, resting her chin on her metal knuckles and fixing her expression into a friendly smile.

"Gonzo, Shinush," says the first Lebard mage with glowing wings, a man with dark skin and short black hair, as he comes to hover a few metres in front of them. "Dekim avorea mo shiru eim fos rusi?"

The moment she hears the foreign tongue, Emily's mind immediately sets to deciphering it, following the near-instinctual push her linguistics skill gives her and comparing the spoken words against the written translations filed away in her cortex. Before she can respond to the man, the other Lebard mages come to a stop beside him, and the woman with a single pair of delicately carved stone wings scoffs.

"Sozo shinushme surudaro wazura rikai fos rusi," she mutters under her breath.

Emily turns her gaze to the winged woman and stretches her welcoming smile into a cold grin that doesn't reach her eyes.

"This intruder has bothered learning your tongue," she says, matching their language and watching their eyes widen in shock. "And we don't intend to intrude."

"You speak our home tongue?" asks the first man who greeted her, holding up a hand to stay his companions' reactions.

"I do, though my friends don't," Emily replies, turning away to make eye contact with her son's third eye, letting him form a solid tether bound to one of her cores. "If you'll give me a moment, I'll correct that."

Mensacus reads her intent and nods before scanning over the rest of their party with the cold light of his magical eye.

"Let him in," Emily quietly says to Dante and Virgil in Ulea's common tongue, meeting their eyes with a firm look of assurance and receiving two calm nods.

They allow Mensacus' connection, and he shuts his third eye before turning back to face the Lebard mages. Emily sets the core linked to her son to actively translate everything she hears, letting him relay it to the others in the correct tones.

"Impressive," the man with six wings says, narrowing his eyes on Mensacus with caution in his gaze. "That's a lot of trust you're showing The False One."

"He's my son," Emily responds coldly, reaching out to trace the curves of his tightly coiled arm while lightning builds behind her eyes, causing the air to hum with charge and the opposing mages to shiver. "What reason would I have not to trust him?"

"I apologise, I did not mean to offend," the man replies, meeting her gaze with firm respect. "Your son bears a striking resemblance to The Great One in presence, and I can't help but fear signs of their likeness. I appear to have failed in my greeting, so allow me to try again. I'm Rimaro of clan Salsori, Third Wing of The Great One. Their blessings to you."

"The offence is forgotten." She relaxes the charge in her gaze, lifting the pressure of her presence. "Emily Coldstone, Technomancer and free mercenary. I follow no gods, but I appreciate the sentiment."

"My companions are Yusith of my blood, Fourth Wing of The Great One," Rimaro continues smoothly, falling into a well-practised rhythm as he turns his unnatural, burning golden eyes to the woman to his left with a matching set of hard light wings.

Her skin is a similar sun-touched hue, and her long charcoal-grey hair is braided in a complicated knot down her back. Her eyes match Rimaro's, but they're a half-tone dimmer. They're both wearing matching black leather armour covered in faded battle scars and blood-red runes. Emily can feel the dense magic layered into the material.

Yusith meets her gaze without a change in expression and nods.

"Ion of clan Hisori." Rimaro gestures towards the man with long braided blue hair, so dark it's nearly black, suspended by a pair of floating watery tendrils hooked under the soles of his feet. "Second Eye of The Drowned One."

His dark armour has a slick sheen that reminds Emily of ectolyte mucus, and Ion nods at her but doesn't relax the firm frown set on his face.

"Mai of clan Chisori, Third Fang of The Burned One."

The woman with short auburn hair and flames emanating from the soles of her feet nods at Emily, flashing a grin that reveals the jagged cut of her teeth.

"Guntal of clan Visori, Second Mouth of The Scattered One." Rimaro turns and nods towards the man standing on an air bubble.

He has close-shaven brown fuzz on top of his head and pale tan hide covering his body. His left leg appears to be carved from enchanted wood, and his eyes are a soft green. The corners of Guntal's lips curl up ever so slightly as he nods at Emily.

"And Akisa of clan Lisori." Rimaro nods to the woman with stone wings wearing pale grey leather. "Second Talon of The Buried One."

"I apologise for my insult," Akisa says while meeting Emily's gaze with her piercing brown eyes. "That was no welcome for one of our tongue."

"Think nothing of it," Emily replies, waving off her apology and turning to introduce her companions. "This is Mensacus of my brood, my eldest; Silica much the same, my youngest; Podrick Rockworth, my sole apprentice; Virgil of house Hibiscus, Marquess of Modo; and Dante of house Hibiscus, mage of The Covenant."

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