Patty waited in awkward silence as Britt scanned the letter she'd received from Kiori the week before. The others read over Britt's shoulder, but they didn't seem as interested as she was to read its contents.

Patty glanced at the rifts—boundary cracks, as Britt called them—wondering how it was that she could see them and the others, save Britt, couldn't. Britt had tried to explain to her what exactly the cracks were, but Patty had found the explanation lacking, instead preferring to still think of them as dimensional rifts between two worlds: Ember and another parallel world called Ashen.

Britt hadn't liked the word 'rift', but she had given up trying to change Patty's mind.

Honestly, Patty hadn't even thought about Kiori's letter much in the past week. The most notable thing about the meeting was that Kiori was a telepath. Everything else just sounded like flavor text for a badly written quest. It was all vague warnings and little in the way of decipherable clues. When Britt mentioned the boundary cracks, it had unlocked a very small piece of the puzzle that brought the letter back to the forefront of Patty's mind.

"The one with two natures…?" Britt muttered. "Any idea what that part means?"

Patty shook her head. "I figured it would become clearer later in the quest chain."

Britt looked confused for a brief moment, then she frowned. "I don't think quest chains exist in Ember."

"I don't know," Nathan said. "The research facility definitely felt like an information gathering quest to me."

"That's because we were gathering information," Britt said. "You can make anything a quest if you interpret everything as a set of instructions."

"Well, these are a set of instructions from a dubious source," Patty said, nodding at the letter. "I was planning on ignoring it unless something blew up. Based on your attitude toward the rifts—"

"Cracks," Britt muttered.

"—I had the right idea about it," Patty finished, ignoring the interruption.

Britt shook her head. "The fact that this 'Kiori' sent you on this mission in the first place is ridiculous. Boundary cracks are dangerous; not something you want to mess with without the proper knowledge and preparation."

"Good. Then let's not mess with it and get the heck out of here," Nathan said, gesturing toward the exit.

Emma's traveling companions were just about as mismatched and somehow coherent as DawnRising had been. Nathan seemed like a hothead, possibly the class-clown type. Britt was intense and focused on whatever problem she honed in on at the given moment and Andrea quietly observed a situation before giving her input. Patty wondered if these initial character judgments would hold up were she to get to know them. Regardless, Emma seemed to trust them implicitly.

Patty nodded. "I might be with Nathan on this one. Unless you know how to close it, we might just want to let sleeping tigers lie."

"We can't just leave," Britt said, handing Kiori's letter back to Patty. "If we don't close that crack, the dungeon will continue to destabilize. The whole area could become uninhabitable for generations."

"And standing around a cave with no clue how to close it doesn't help the situation," Bob said. "We should get Hoka and—"

"She won't be able to close it either," Britt said. "Most people can't see the cracks, let alone interact with them. Whatever was in that tea, Patty has, at the very least temporarily, been granted the ability to see the cracks which is a step above most on Ember."

Patty schooled her expression before her surprise showed on her face.

"What tea?" Bob asked.

"The tea Kiori gave her," Britt said.

Patty hadn't mentioned any tea. She glanced at Emma, who must have guessed the reason for Patty's expression because she gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head and a look that said she would explain everything later.

"You seem to know quite a bit about this," Helga commented, her face crinkling into a look that Patty recognized as her thinking face. Catching his master's suspicion, Fluffy turned to stare at Britt, his tail no longer wagging.

"Books," Emma supplied a little too quickly. "We found a library in a research facility that was studying the cracks. Britt read every book in the building."

"Not quite every book," Britt said in a tone that Patty couldn't decipher without more context.

The explanation was far-fetched to say the least. Emma was obviously covering Britt's secret, whatever it was, but the taller woman seriously wasn't making it easier on her.

Patty didn't like it. She trusted Emma's judgment in most things, but as much as Patty and the others liked to pretend, Ember wasn't a game anymore. They couldn't afford to be taking risks with unknown people just because they seemed trustworthy. Whether she trusted Britt or not would depend on what Britt had done to gain Emma's trust in the first place.

Patty kept her guard up, but she let Britt have her secret for now. As soon as they were in a safer location, Patty would get that explanation from Emma even if she had to force it out of her.

Britt watched Patty with a strange look on her face. They locked eyes and Britt looked away quickly, seemingly embarrassed at having been caught staring.

"We can't just leave the crack alone," Patty said finally, reluctantly agreeing with Britt's point. "Alatha is already unstable enough as it is. If they start losing what little crop they've managed to grow, everyone in the country is going to starve."

Taking their lead from Patty, Helga and Bob relaxed, Fluffy following a beat later.

"Come on, guys!" Nathan said, not dissuaded from his opinion in the least. "I know that magic is real and all, but I draw the line at prophecy."

"Insight," Britt corrected.

This was the second time Patty had heard prophecy and the ability to see the future described as a form of insight. How prevalent was the notion, she wondered.

Nathan scoffed. "It's bullshit, plain and simple."

"It's irrelevant," Britt snapped back. "The prophecy has nothing to do with the need to close the crack. That thing is leaking Miasma into the air faster than the dungeon can filter it. That's how the Queen got so big in a dungeon that should have been for lower-level players."

"And how could you possibly know that?" Nathan asked.

"The runes." Britt gestured to a line of runes along the base of the wall. They seemed decorative to Patty, glowing slightly to add some mood lighting to the creepy monster cave. "There's only two lines; three, if there are inactive runes I'm not seeing. The higher level dungeons have runes climbing the walls. This dungeon was probably for those who hadn't even reached the first ascension and the Queen should have been level capped at Level 25. I'm not sure what happened in that regard. It's possible one of the runes lost power, leading the others to overcompensate and throw off the balance of Miasma and Essence in the area."

"Honestly, I don't care if we try to close the crack or not," Bob said. "But whatever we do, can we do it quickly? The Queen is starting to smell."

Patty didn't like this. If the cracks were as dangerous as Britt was making them out to be, then she was having second thoughts about being the one to mess with them first.

"How do we close it?" Emma asked Britt. "Is there a spell? Some kind of runic circle like the ones described in the journals?"

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Britt shook her head. "Theoretically, closing a crack involves using magic to sew the edges together and hold them in place long enough for the crack to heal on its own."

"Magical stitches," Helga said.

"Exactly," Britt said.

"Great! Let me just go grab my interdimensional thread and a giant needle," Nathan said sarcastically. "Anyone have a pair of scissors I can borrow?"

"And how do we sew it up, exactly?" Emma asked. "Do we need a special tool?"

"You should be able to just grab the threads and tie them together," Britt said. "Assuming you can interact with the crack. I… can't."

"That's convenient," Nathan said flatly.

"Nathan, if you're just going to be an ass, you can go wait in the tunnel," Emma snapped, uncharacteristically tense. She seemed to have reached the end of her ability to cope with her party member.

Nathan stared at her for a long moment, then he turned and left without another word.

Andrea frowned. "I'll go make sure he doesn't do anything stupid while we're gone. Give me a holler if you're ready to leave." She trotted off after him, catching up just as they entered the tunnel. Helga didn't object as Fluffy ran after them, apparently bored with the current situation.

"So, how do we do this?" Emma asked, walking in the general direction of the rift.

"You don't even know where the cracks are," Britt said. "I think Patty should—"

"Point me in the right direction and tell me what to do," Emma said. "It's a moot point if neither of us can touch the crack to close it, right? I'll try first."

Patty jogged over to stop Emma before she ran into the rift, but she stopped before Patty even reached her, waiting about ten feet away from it at the edge of the arena.

"I'm not going to walk right into it," Emma said, the amusement in her voice saying she guessed at Patty's intentions. "You all are glancing at it enough to get its general location and I figured it wouldn't be located within the arena so walking just to the edge was a safe bet."

Patty grinned. "Good to know you're paying attention this time. I usually have to pull you out of every hole you stumble into on your way to punch the monsters."

"Yeah, well, I've been doing enough falling into things lately. Thought I'd switch it up a little. Do you mind…?"

Patty directed Emma to the rift, standing in front of it with her. The rift was jagged, with loose tendrils of black and white threads flowing off of it. They swayed in the still cave air as if submerged in water.

Britt came up to stand on Emma's other side and Bob and Helga opted to stand behind them at a safe distance.

"Is it safe to just stick my hand in?" Emma asked. "Or do I need to do something first?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Britt said, examining the rift. "From what I've read, Lerians could just grab the tendrils and weave them together, given the proper protective gear."

"Protective gear?" Patty didn't like the sound of that.

"It shouldn't be a problem for you," Britt said dismissively. "Lerians are negatively affected by Miasma, just like Corvi are negatively affected by Essence. Neither could touch a crack without protecting themselves, as the boundary is made up of both energies."

Emma frowned at Britt, her concern showing on her face for a brief moment before she covered it up. Britt was oblivious to her worry, but Patty didn't miss it.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Bob asked. "We don't need to worry about that part."

"Right," Britt said, glancing back at him. She turned to Patty. "So, I guess, see if you can grab one of the strings along the edge of the crack?"

"You want me to try touching that?" Patty asked incredulously. It was the single thing she had been trying not to do since walking over to the rift. If she were more impulsive, she would have run her hand over them already, but touching unknown glowing things was a recipe for disaster.

"Well, there's another option, but it's generally considered more dangerous." Britt shook her head. "And I don't know if humans can do it. It requires at least a low level of telepathy to pull off, something that both Lerians and Corvi possessed naturally."

"Yeah, that rules that idea out," Bob said.

"Not necessarily," Emma said thoughtfully. "We're all interacting with the System, aren't we?"

"That's through the chip," Britt said, shaking her head. "That doesn't mean you can do it on your own."

"Yeah, but there's a chance."

"Should I reiterate that the other option is dangerous?" Britt said, sounding annoyed. "Just sewing the crack up is the fastest and easiest way to close it."

"Yeah, but there's one problem with that." Emma stuck her hand out and waved it through the space where the rift was. It flowed around her hand, the movement sending ripples through it, but apparently Emma couldn't feel them.

"That's why I was saying that Patty should—"

Patty tried grabbing the strings at the edge of the rift, bolstered by the fact that Emma wasn't harmed by sticking her hand through it. As she expected, her hand met no resistance as the strings flowed around it, proving Emma's point.

"Physically closing this thing isn't going to work," Emma said. "We need to try the other strategy, or we need to give up and leave the crack for someone else to close."

"Maybe we can get a Lerian to do it," Bob suggested. "Or a Corvi? I'm sure there's one somewhere in Alatha."

"They're extinct," Britt said flatly. "You might as well look for a unicorn."

"We met a Lerian during the tutorial," Helga said. "What was her name again? Rena?"

"Rayna?!" Emma whirled around to stare at Helga. "You all met Rayna?"

"You know her?" Patty asked. "Long hair? Oreo color palette—her words, not mine."

"Where is she?" Emma asked urgently. "Have you seen her recently?"

Patty shook her head. "We haven't seen her since the tutorial. We ended up in the same tavern in overflow. I'm more interested in how you know her."

Emma deflated. "Remember how I kept telling you about that friend who wouldn't try Ember Online?"

That was an understatement. Emma had ranted to no end about the childhood friend who wouldn't give the chip a chance. She had been trying for over a year to get her to try the game. She had even joked about bringing her to the opening…

Patty's eyes widened. "You didn't…"

Emma nodded. "I snuck her in under Lilly's username."

"That's why Lilly's still back on Earth," Helga said. "Because Rayna came instead."

"The one who shouldn't be here…" Patty muttered, an idea occurring to her.

"What?" Emma asked.

Patty pulled out Kiori's letter, scanning it until she found the line she was looking for. She read aloud, "'The one who shouldn't be here is somewhere in the northwest sea, sleeping on the back of an Elemental, though she may not be there for long.' Could this be referring to Rayna?"

Britt shook her head. "Sleeping on the back of an Elemental? That sounds—"

"Isla…" Emma muttered.

Britt frowned. "Island?"

Emma nodded. "The island. The Elemental that dragged us to the cavern with the crack. Her name was Isla."

"Then Rayna is back on Lapis?" Britt asked. "Or one of the other islands…"

Emma growled in frustration. "We were just there!"

"Maybe we can retrace your steps," Bob suggested. "Find the island you're talking about and try—"

"That won't work," Britt interrupted. "It's basically a prison colony. Whatever we stumbled into, I'm not keen on throwing myself back into it."

"Oh, I'm going back," Emma snapped. "There is no way in hell I'm leaving Rayna there with—" She shook her head. "Let's just close this thing and get the hell out of here. What's the other method?"

"I told you already, it's too—"

"Dangerous?" Emma finished. "You mean like opening the door to a secret research facility lab was dangerous? Come on, Britt, it's not like we've been playing safe this far. Just give me the damn method."

Britt recoiled as if she'd been slapped. Then she shook her head, conceding. "You have to connect with the boundary. It will tell you what it needs. You provide that, and it will heal on its own."

"The boundary is alive?" Bob asked incredulously.

"Not exactly," Britt said. "It's not conscious. It doesn't decide things or want things, but it has a memory of what it needs embedded within the energy. It's not well-researched. It might be a myth."

Emma's lips formed a thin line. "Right, well… here goes nothing."

She faced forward and closed her eyes, reaching her hand through the space in front of her, but not quite touching the rift. The air glowed slightly, turning black as energy flowed from her hand into the rift. Patty watched Emma closely for signs of discomfort. As the process continued, sweat began to drip down her brow and her expression grew strained.

Britt frowned. "It shouldn't be taking this long."

"It's a big crack," Emma snapped. "You try brute forcing—" She cut off, her body stiffening as the amount of energy flowing out of her hand increased. "Hey, Patty, think you could get in here with me?" she asked through gritted teeth. "I don't think this is a one person job."

Patty didn't hesitate. She mimicked Emma, mentally trying to reach out to the boundary. The connection was almost instantaneous, and Patty took a step back from the rift as the boundary wailed through her head.

More! More! More! It hurts. Help me!

There weren't words exactly. It was more like impressions; wants and needs.

Patty closed her eyes and pushed Mana into the crack, allowing it to draw the energy out of her. Sweat started to drip down her back as the effort of working with the boundary screaming through her head made her balance waver.

After what felt like hours, but could only have been a few minutes, Patty felt Helga's shoulder press against hers. The effort to fix the portal lessened as Helga's energy joined Patty's and Emma's. Then it lightened even further as Bob started adding his to the mix.

"Is it working?" Britt asked, her voice sounding distant in Patty's ears.

"You know, you would know if you tried joining us," Bob said, his voice strained.

"I—" Britt began.

"It's fine," Emma said. "But if you just—" She cut off as something pulsed through the boundary, the desperate need for energy growing. It was like it finally noticed them and in doing so, it latched on to the energy like a starving creature.

Please. More. Need more.

"Fine! I'll help!" Britt said, her voice sounding desperate. "How do I connect?!"

Wasn't she supposed to be the one with all the answers? Patty would have told her to just push energy toward the boundary, but she couldn't speak, she was too busy trying to stay upright.

"What's going on?!" Hoka asked in a distant voice. When had she shown up?

"They're trying to fix—"

"—not working—"

"Maybe you could—"

Patty missed most of the conversation as the boundary demanded more and more of herself. Two more energies joined the flow toward the crack along with a considerable amount of shouting from Hoka.

After an unknown amount of time—and a few more added energies that Patty didn't recognize—the crack finally started to close. It was slow at first. Patty felt rather than saw an inch disappear from the top. Then a foot. Then a yard.

Bit by bit, the crack sealed itself until nothing was left but a glowing scar in the otherwise quiet room.

A notification popped up in front of Patty, but she passed out before she had a chance to read it.

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