Rayna stood on the wooden deck, watching the waves as they crashed against the beach. The cool night air held a hint of salt from the ocean. Rayna was using it to try and ground herself in the present.

The story was interesting. Rayna had even been the one to encourage Naomi to include the details when Lord Myre wanted her to cut it short, but the longer it went, the harder it became to listen to her.

She didn't have time for this. The story was supposed to tell her about the Cataclysm—maybe even give her a hint on how to fix the problem in the present. Instead, she was sitting through talk of petty arguments and royal weddings.

Rayna wasn't sure how to tell Naomi that she needed to get to the point. The Cervinale seemed to be getting drawn further into the telling with each passing hour. She could see the pain in Naomi's eyes. It was a recent wound for her, even if Lord Myre seemed to have long forgotten the events.

But it wasn't like Rayna could just come out and say that she needed to get back to finding the System hubs. She would have to explain why she was looking for hubs in the first place, and that involved telling Lord Myre and Naomi—not to mention Nali and her friends—about Ronari.

Rayna opened her menu, taking a peek at her notifications. They were quiet as usual. Ronari wasn't able to access Rayna's System to send her a message, which was a good thing as far as Rayna was concerned, but it meant that she had no way of knowing what was going on. The world could be on fire and Rayna would only know by the glow on the horizon.

More community events had been created while they were away. They were mostly extermination quests to bolster the System's energy reserves and clear dangerous areas.

That wasn't a good sign. Didn't they fix that problem when Ronari took over the System? What happened to the huge amount of Essence that she supposedly brought over with her when she became the Administrator?

"Something on your mind?" Corban asked, coming up next to Rayna.

She got to know him some over the last two weeks—as much as one could get to know someone while constantly under the eyes of body-snatchers who may or may not have ulterior motives for offering them help. Since she kind of fast-tracked their relationship to the telling-earth-shattering-secrets stage on the first day, she wasn't sure what box to put him in. An acquaintance that knew far more about her than he should? Maybe a friend who she hadn't really had the time to get to know yet.

"I'm just checking the community events," Rayna said, closing out her Menu. "It's getting busier."

Corban stared out at the horizon. "She's starting to panic."

Rayna frowned. "Naomi?"

"Ronari."

They stood in silence for a few minutes. Rayna wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"You blocked her out of your System, didn't you?" Corban asked.

The others were still inside, but Rayna glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was in earshot.

"How…?" She trailed off, not sure what she wanted to ask.

How did he know?

How had he learned that Ronari was cut off?

How was that any of his business?

She hadn't told Amon that she locked down her System. He still thought it was a glitch. She certainly hadn't told Aila. She avoided the grumpy keeper as much as possible.

Corban shook his head. "Amon doesn't know," he said, guessing her train of thought. "He mentioned that Ronari couldn't access your System. I made an educated guess."

Rayna pressed her lips together. "I'm not letting her back in."

"I never said you should," Corban said.

"She's toxic and selfish," Rayna snapped.

"I never said she wasn't."

"Then why did you bring it up?!" Rayna turned to glare at Corban.

She didn't want to deal with Ronari more than she had to. The woman was the worst thing that had happened to Rayna since coming to Ember.

She still didn't know where Emma was. That was all Ronari's fault. The woman could have brought them back together. Instead, she purposefully held them apart because she was scared that Rayna would get too comfortable.

"At some point you'll have to talk to her," Corban said.

"Really?" Rayna snapped. "How do you figure?"

"Even if it's just to get an update on the System," Corban said. "There's a reason we're trying so hard to get communication back up and running. If Ronari is running the System, she needs to be kept in the loop."

"What loop are we talkin' about?" Harry asked, coming out of the shadows behind the dock.

Rayna spun around, clutching her hands into fists. How long was he listening? How had Rayna not seen him?

"Didn't mean to startle you," the man said, though his voice didn't sound that apologetic. "I haven't been here long. Just heard the bit at the end. It's not the first rumors we've heard about the new Administrator. Though, I admit it's the first one I'm hearing that has her as a woman."

Rayna relaxed her hands, trying not to sound like she had something to hide. "I haven't heard the rumors yet. What are people saying."

Harry sidled up to the edge of the deck and tossed a rock in the water. "Well, I'm hearing them secondhand. Don't ask me where Nali heard them. That woman's still getting news while marooned on an island. Anyway, they're saying the new Administrator is a fancy ghost in the mountains near Helia's capital. Not sure where that is, but it sounds like a load of bologna if you ask me."

"Amon," Corban said. "That's the rumor going around."

"Right, that was a name I heard!" Harry said. "Anyway, who's the lady? Another rumor or an inside scoop?"

"No one," Rayna said, turning to go back inside.

Harry caught her arm and Rayna had to make a conscious effort not to bite him, reminding herself that he was only just past the First Ascension and she didn't have a healing spell to grow back his fingers.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"It's not wrong to ask for help, you know," he said. "You may not know me, but you do know Nali. That woman could face down the devil himself and probably come out on top."

Rayna yanked her hand free and stomped back to the guardhouse.

What did he know? Nali couldn't help Rayna out of her current situation. Telling Nali more would just put her in more danger.

It was Rayna's fault that Nali was marooned on an island in the first place, she didn't want to make it worse.

The room was quiet as Rayna entered. Naomi was looking off into space while chewing on one of the cookies that Myre brought out of his Inventory to snack on.

"I've made up my mind," Rayna said, sitting down next to Nali. "Naomi, we need to hear the end of the story."

Naomi blinked, taking a second to refocus. "Right. Where was I?"

"No," Rayna said. "We need to hear the end. Skip the middle unless it's absolutely vital to our understanding."

"What's the rush?" Harry asked, following Corban into the room. "Weren't you just staring off into the distance with your boyfriend over there?"

"I have a quest that's time sensitive," Rayna said, ignoring the boyfriend comment. "As it is, it'll take two weeks to get back to the mainland. The longer this takes, the later I'll be."

"What is this task?" Lord Myre asked. "Perhaps we can help."

Rayna looked uncertainly at Corban.

He shrugged. "I'll follow your lead on this."

Rayna wasn't fond of being in charge. It was more stress than she was comfortable with, even on a good day.

She could tell them the truth. That held some risks, but also the potential for new allies. She could suck it up and listen to the rest of the story, but she felt like it would go on for several more hours before they got to anything useful.

Unlike the rest of Ember, the Myre siblings might actually be able to help Rayna.

"I'm looking for the hubs," Rayna said before she had a chance to talk herself out of it. "I need to open as many as I can, as fast as I can."

Lord Myre frowned. "Only the Administrator can open an inactive hub. Finding them would gain you nothing."

That explained why Ronari didn't just tell Rayna to spread the word that she was looking for the hubs.

This bit of information would make her cover story harder. Rayna may have decided to let a few details go, but she was not telling them that she was the Administrator.

"Does this have to do with that Ronari woman?" Harry asked.

Rayna stiffened.

Naomi's eyes shot to Harry. "Where did you hear that name?"

Harry nodded at Rayna. "A couple minutes ago on the dock. The two of them were chatting about it."

Rayna glared at him. "Is he one of yours?" she asked Nali.

"Unfortunately, yes," Nali said. "I'll talk to him later."

Harry snorted. "If you wanted it to stay a secret, you shouldn't have been talking about it out in the open like that. Din heard you for sure and she's just too polite to say anything."

Rayna looked back at the woman, who looked guilty.

"I can't always help it," she admitted. "I try to assume that all words are secrets unless otherwise stated."

Rayna pursed her lips. "Fine, yes, it's about Ronari," she admitted. "She's the Administrator now. She asked me for help when she took over. I have limited access to the System—just enough permissions to open the hubs."

"Ronari can't be the Administrator," Lord Myre said. "It's impossible."

He spoke with absolute certainty.

"How is it impossible?" Rayna asked, praying that it was something she could explain away.

"Ronari's dead," he said. "She died right in front of me. Cremble took over the System to keep everything from falling apart."

"I thought you didn't remember the details," Corban said, crossing his arms.

"I didn't," Lord Myre said. "Not until Naomi started mentioning people. It's not a time I like to remember."

He watched Rayna for a long moment, seeming to come to some sort of decision. "I'll take over from here."

"It's fine. I can skip to the end of the story," Naomi said.

Lord Myre shook his head. "I know parts of the story that you don't, and Rayna is right: we don't have time for this. Fill in any gaps if you see them." He turned back to Rayna. "But after we're finished, you explain how you know of Ronari, and why you need to open the hubs."

Rayna hesitated a moment, then she nodded. She had let too much slip already; she couldn't reel it back in.

Myre nodded. "The Cataclysm happened about six months after Naomi's trip to Korsa. I spent most of that time fighting off small groups of monsters and trying to keep the people from panicking…"

* * *

Enathar wiped the blood off his blade. "You alive?"

Hinesh sat up from where he was lying on the ground. "Unfortunately."

"This sort of thing doesn't happen often, does it?" Prince Yolan asked.

The visiting dignitary was in Helia to finalize the arrangements for Naomi's wedding. Enathar wasn't sure yet how he felt about the Corvi, but Yolan was polite and didn't shy away from the fighting when it began.

That was more than could be said for most of the Corvi that Enathar had met.

"It's becoming increasingly more common of late," Enathar said, his tone grim. "We're finding boundary cracks in the strangest places."

"I'd say someone's doing this on purpose," Hinesh said. "But it's too damn random. Other than this attack, none of the cracks have been opened in strategic locations and all of the monsters spawning have been easy to kill."

Yolan frowned. "You called this easy?"

The level 5 Weleks were small lizard creatures that mostly fought with ranged attacks; not ideal for Enathar's style of fighting, but it gave him the advantage if he could get close. The individual monsters were no threat to him or anyone with even a few levels on Ember, but their sheer numbers had made them a pain in the ass to eradicate.

The other soldiers under Enathar's command were still sweeping the forest for stragglers. It wouldn't be good to leave them running around with the System Tower so close. System outages weren't catastrophic, but they were inconvenient and dangerous.

"I'm beginning to wonder why you all created the dungeons in the first place," Yolan commented. "Foreign energies are less destructive than monster hordes."

"They're not supposed to spawn outside of dungeons," Hinesh said. "The dungeons keep the energy contained, while the monsters give us an easy way to hold the two energies in stasis until they can be properly filtered. We tried several methods, but living beings were the only ones that didn't explode… often."

Yolan shot him a doubtful look.

"Anyway," Enathar said. "We're still trying to figure out what's causing this."

Were he not the crown prince of Helia, Enathar might have abandoned the effort to his sister. She was far more knowledgeable about how the dungeons worked. Enathar was just the one holding the sword, Naomi told him where to swing it.

He wasn't sure how they were going to manage without her. Their mother, the queen, was searching for a replacement at the moment, but no one was quite as smart as Naomi and many shied away from the responsibility that the royal family was born into.

"We should get back," Enathar said. "Father will be waiting for my report. If we run, we can—"

A high-pitched screeching sound cut through the air.

Enathar slapped his hands over his ears, gritting his teeth against the pain. Hinesh doubled over, his expression pained.

"What the hell is that?" he shouted.

Yolan looked confused. "What is what?"

Enathar read the Corvi's lips, but he couldn't hear him over the ringing in his ears.

His screen popped up in front of him, red instead of the normal blue.

EMERGENCY ALERT

Several boundary cracks have appeared in a 500 mile radius. Find shelter and await further instructions. Safe areas have been listed below along with an assigned group leader. Group leaders, please gather as many citizens as you can and head to the safe area immediately.

Catastrophic failure: 29m 52s

"What in goddess' name?" Hinesh swore, his voice muted by Enathar's damaged hearing. "How many is 'several'?"

"What's going on?" Yolan demanded.

Enathar showed the man his Menu, hoping that Corvi had the telepathic abilities needed to tap into the System.

Yolan's eyes darted across the screen, widening as they moved down the message.

"I have to go back," he said.

"There isn't time," Enathar grabbed the Corvi's arm. "Catastrophic failure means that the System won't be able to protect us. That means that whatever this is won't be locked behind wards. We need to get to the nearest safe area and wait it out."

Yolan yanked his arm out of Enathar's grasp. "You're asking me to abandon my people?"

"No, I'm not," Enathar said. "But if you go, you will die."

He didn't know what was coming, but they were wasting time.

"I'm willing to take that chance," Yolan said. He transformed, his body growing taller, his eyes turning black. Tell Naomi that she better make it out of this alive. She owes me a game of racki.

Enathar nodded, turning to Hinesh as Yolan loped away on all fours. "Who is the designated leader for the nearest safe area?"

Hinesh looked up from his menu. "You are."

"What?!" Enathar pulled his Menu back up, navigating to the safe area list. There was his name in bold red letters.

Safe Area: System Tower

Distance: 3 miles

Current population: 500/10,000

Group Leader: Enathar Emberan

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