Ronari's consciousness flitted from one thought to the next, unable to focus on one thing for very long without running the risk of losing hold of something else.

When she had been the Administrator, it had been fairly simple to compartmentalize different aspects of the System. It required focus, but no significant mental effort.

This was different. Ronari had nothing to anchor her and no one to share the mental burden within the System. Ronari was pulled this way and that, struggling in vain to stay ahead of the ever growing number of System glitches.

She delegated as many tasks as she was able. The Liaisons could keep track of lists, community events, player monitoring and Class Ascensions. For Class-related quests—those that Ronari was repurposing to fulfill certain functions at the moment—Amon and Aila handled the details and reported to Ronari when they were finished, abandoned or refused.

Even with all of the tasks she had managed to remove from her plate, it was too much for Ronari to handle alone.

She needed Rayna.

The thought irked her. Ronari had put too much faith in the child when she made her the official Administrator. She was irresponsible, slow to act and apparently, didn't care at all that the System was falling apart—and Ember with it.

Even without knowing that she was the Administrator, shouldn't she be doing everything in her power to stabilize the System? Ronari should never have entrusted a role so vital to one so young, though she hadn't had much of a choice at the time.

It wasn't fair of her to think ill of Rayna for acting her age, but Ronari had no mental energy to devote to figuring out what was 'fair' or 'right'. She watched helplessly as the people of Ember grew restless.

Unpredictable magic, missing name tags, failing wards; the things that they could see were only the tip of the iceberg. Ronari could no longer fault her mentor for failing to control the steady decline. She had maintained the System for barely a month and it had already come to this point.

The closing of the boundary crack in the Aeteraut forest had been a lucky accident. Who knows how long it took for that particular wound to heal, but it triggered an automatic clean up event, which gave Ronari access to the community events feature. She used it frequently, delegating even more of her job to the players of Ember in an attempt to lighten the load.

She hoped it was a good omen and not a random fluke. If more cracks—and by extension more dungeons—began closing, Ronari could reroute resources to other areas and lessen the energy expenditure.

But there was no way for Ronari to investigate the cause of the spontaneous closure. The System logs showed nothing significant, besides perhaps that there was Elemental activity in the area, but they weren't beings of Essence or Miasma, so there would be no way for them to close the crack by force. Boundary events were usually investigated by the royal family in Ellis; the System wasn't designed to track every little energy fluctuation on the planet.

Instead, Ronari turned her limited attention to the more pressing matter: fixing the glitch that kept her from viewing Rayna's profile. If she could communicate with the child, she might be able to impress upon her the urgency with which she should be searching for the hubs.

Whether Ronari wanted to admit it or not, the System needed a true Administrator, and though she didn't have the training or maturity of a real Administrator, Rayna would have to be enough.

* * *

Naomi's mind raced as she looked down at Rayna and Corban, cowering in the hole behind an invisibility charm. Their faces were difficult to see through the charm, but she could guess their emotions.

This wasn't right. Enathar couldn't just lock up anyone he didn't trust. But if Naomi didn't bring them back, he would go looking for them himself. How could she get them out of this without bringing her brother's ire down on their heads.

What if he thought there was nothing to bring back?

The idea was risky, foolish even, but Naomi couldn't just stand by and watch this happen. She understood now why Rayna had insisted on not telling Enathar. It was a mistake on Naomi's part to let him whittle the truth out of her. She should have stood her ground.

Now she would have to make up for that mistake.

Naomi reached into the hole and retrieved her dagger, scaring Rayna in the process.

"Don't seek me out when you return to Ellis," she whispered. "My brother can't be trusted. I will find a way to teach you, but not like this."

Naomi didn't wait for a reply. If she was out too much longer, Enathar would join the search, and he wouldn't have any difficulty locating the two runaways.

She sprinted back through the woods, not saying anything as she reached the dock.

Naomi had always been a bad liar, but she didn't need to fake her emotions as she reached Enathar. She pulled back her hand and slapped him across the cheek.

Enathar recoiled, holding his cheek in stunned silence. That couldn't have hurt—Naomi could put the force of a mountain behind her blow and Enathar wouldn't flinch—but the idea that Naomi would hit him seemed to shake Enathar.

I'm sorry brother, but you left me no choice.

Enathar lowered his hand. "I take it you found them?"

"Don't speak to me!" Naomi snapped. "Rayna could have saved Ember. Her friend was no threat. This is all your fault."

Every word Naomi uttered was the truth. She knew her brother well enough to know the conclusions he would take away from the misleading statements. A lie of omission was the only lie of which Naomi was capable and she would use that to her full advantage.

"They shouldn't have tried to run," Enathar said defensively. "There isn't a monster on this island below Level 100. They brought this on themselves."

He addressed Lady Emery. "If you stand in my way again, I won't hesitate to crush you. You may be clever, but you're no match for me in a true battle."

Lady Emery raised her chin. "If you harm any of my people, I won't hesitate to test that assumption."

Enathar didn't respond to the empty threat. He turned on his heels and stomped back to the boat, cracking the deck with every step.

And now he's angry… this may have been a poorly thought out plan.

"Thank you," Din whispered, her voice seeming to come from directly next to Naomi's ear.

Naomi's gaze snapped to the woman's face, but her mouth didn't seem to move with her words.

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"Don't make it obvious," Din hissed. "I heard what you said to Rayna. Thank you for doing the right thing."

The right thing… why did that feel like such a loaded phrase? Naomi had gone against her brother—the only family she had left—to save a stranger from his unreasonable actions.

She'd saved a stranger from a stranger. The brother Naomi knew would never do something like this. He was kind and gentle, and put the needs of others before even his own life.

"My brother has changed much since the Cataclysm," Naomi said softly. "I suppose there was no way he couldn't have. It was foolish of me to think otherwise.

"I will train Rayna in secret," she continued. "She is the key to our survival, and my people's redemption. When you eventually go up against my brother, please remember that he is one amongst many. Do not punish our people for his mistakes."

Enathar turned to glare at Naomi. "Are you coming or not?"

Naomi followed him onto the boat without a word, maintaining her cold attitude towards him.

Perhaps some day he would earn her forgiveness, but only time would tell if he ever regained her trust.

* * *

It was almost an hour before Din's whisper was carried to them on the wind.

"It's safe to come out, I think. Be more careful this time. We're too far from shore to help you now. Oh, and Lord Myre thinks you're dead. Make sure you keep it that way."

Rayna removed the invisibility charm, breathing out a sigh of relief. The spell hadn't worked on the Vulpinox, but she would put it back on when they started moving just as a precaution.

The constant cloud of Essence was beginning to bug Rayna. It wasn't like she wasn't surrounded by Essence constantly, but this island was soaked in the stuff, and the further they went into the forest, the stronger it got. She was fairly sure it was coming from the hub itself, since she couldn't think of any other explanation.

"What now?" Corban asked, also disabling his invisibility.

"We need to find the hub and use it to get the heck out of dodge," Rayna said.

They stayed in the den for another twenty minutes, mostly because Rayna needed a breather after all of that excitement, but also to draw up a game plan for how they were going to find the hub. Since they weren't being chased anymore, they had time to form a strategy that wouldn't get them eaten. The Vulpinox would have torn them to shreds if Naomi hadn't rescued them; sneaking was still their best option at this point.

There had to be a specific range at which the invisibility was effective even on higher level players and monsters. They passed nearly a dozen monsters getting to the den and none of them had even turned their way, but the Vulpinox clocked them right away. Rayna's hood was still pulled up around her hair, so that probably wasn't what tipped them off. Could they sense the Essence from the spell?

Before they left, Rayna formed a party and invited Corban—in retrospect, they should have done this earlier, but Rayna wasn't used to working with other people, so the function had completely slipped her mind. She started tracking Corban and showed him how to do the same for her. A white line appeared on the ground, stretching from Rayna to Corban.

"This would have helped more when we were invisible," Corban commented.

"And it'll help when we're invisible again." Rayna's stomach growled—it had already been several hours since they stopped to eat—but she didn't dare bring out food.

If Corban noticed, he was polite enough not to comment.

"How close are we to the hub?" Rayna asked.

Corban pulled out his card and activated the screen. "Signal strength is at eighty-five percent. We should see it soon."

"If there's anything to see," Rayna said, reactivating her invisibility. "I'll lead this time. Follow the white line. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure you don't get too far behind."

Corban nodded, passing his card to Rayna.

They moved at a faster pace than earlier, taking advantage of the reduced risk of discovery. Every few minutes they had to stop to avoid running into some huge monster—all of them above Level 100—but the party function made their warning system easier to use. Rayna just had to stop walking, and Corban would catch up and wait behind her until she either told him why she stopped or continued on.

They hadn't yet reached a hundred percent when their way was blocked by a wall of rock. Rayna led Corban along the wall, hoping there was an entrance somewhere along it. Sure enough, after a few minutes of walking they came to a narrow pass between two sections of rock. They had to walk single file from one side to the other and Rayna didn't dare whisper. Every step echoed uncomfortably loud, the sound rising into the sky and out of the range of Rayna's hearing.

The rock walls on the side of the pass grew taller as they went, and Rayna realized that it wasn't just a tunnel through rock but an actual mountain pass.

Though it was claustrophobic, there was enough room in the pass that Rayna's heart stayed steady, but she breathed a sigh of relief when the rock faces started to taper downward.

The pass opened up into a large valley surrounded by small mountains. The area looked like a giant bowl filled with tall grass. Rayna glanced at the signal percentage; they were definitely in the right place.

There were several entrances to the valley on either side of the bowl. Rayna kept her guard up, her senses peeled for any monsters lurking in the grass. She could still feel the monsters in the forest—a fact that she didn't find comforting since they should have been much too far for her to be feeling them this clearly—but she didn't notice any in front of her.

Taking this as a good sign, Rayna entered the valley, moving slowly just in case there was a threat that could evade detection even from her magical senses.

When she had made it a few steps past the rock, Corban grunted. Rayna spun around to find him still standing within the pass.

She backtracked just enough that she could be heard while whispering. "Is something wrong?"

"I can't get through," Corban whispered. "There's some sort of forcefield."

It's just one thing after another, Rayna thought irritably.

She tried to reenter the pass and found her way blocked by the same forcefield that kept Corban out. Was it a one way forcefield? Or had they tripped some sort of alarm and raised the defenses?

"All right, this isn't ideal," Corban said.

"You think?" Rayna snapped, pacing in front of the barrier.

"Maybe I can go around," Corban suggested. "There might be another way in."

"This barrier probably extends around the whole valley," Rayna said.

Even if it didn't, it was too risky for Corban to go alone without any way to sense monsters coming. Maybe if Rayna was with him she could figure out a way to get them both inside. At the very least, they wouldn't be separated.

"Stay where you are, I have an idea," Rayna said, hoping she wouldn't regret this.

The line shifted slightly as Corban seemed to press himself against the rock; a valiant effort, but based on the width, he would still be in the way.

It didn't matter for what Rayna had in mind.

Rayna took a step back and drew a large portal to Ashen, hopping through and closing it almost as soon as it had opened. She hoped that making the portals quickly would help minimize the effects on the boundary.

What Rayna hadn't counted on was jumping straight into empty air.

Rayna fell thirty feet into ice cold salt water. She plunged beneath the surface, flailing in surprise. She let out a stream of bubbles, before she remembered to close her mouth so the water wouldn't get in.

When her brain finally caught up with her situation, Rayna managed to right herself and swim toward the surface. The dim light of twilight was just enough to distinguish between up and down and Rayna broke through into the open air, gasping for breath. She treaded in the water, trying to orient herself. Where was Ashen's islands? The topography between Ember and Ashen had been almost identical so far, why was this different?

She could figure that out later. First, Rayna needed to get back on dry land.

A large wave crashed over her, pushing her under the water and dragging her several feet from her original position. She clawed her way back to the surface.

It took Rayna several minutes to find the rhythm of the waves, each failed attempt drawing her further from her initial location. She tried to compensate, wasting energy to swim against the current until she finally just gave up. She could fix her position back on Ember.

Rayna held up her hand and drew a portal in the air.

Nothing happened. Rayna panicked for a moment, but logic won in the end as she remembered the trick that Naomi taught her.

Taking a deep breath, Rayna reached inside and created the wall around herself, pushing the Miasma away.

She ignored the gnawing hole that her sudden lack of Essence created and focused on drawing the portal.

As soon as it was stable she plunged through it, dragging several gallons of water with her.

Rayna emerged into darkness, her head slamming painfully against stone. She closed her portal as soon as she was clear. She knelt on the ground for several minutes, coughing and retching to try to clear her lungs of salt water.

When she could finally breathe properly, Rayna took a look around.

Only the faint glow of Rayna's invisibility spell told her that she hadn't gone blind. She had emerged in some kind of cavern, the edges of which were cloaked in darkness.

She fumbled with her Menu, reactivating the party member tracking that had disabled itself when she stepped out of range. A white line stretched directly in front of her and into another tunnel.

Rayna hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should try calling Amon.

The card!

Rayna looked around her, fumbling on the ground in search of the communication device that she had been holding when she stepped through the portal.

She must have dropped it when she hit the water.

Rayna groaned, the sound echoing off the cavern ceiling.

Out of options, Rayna did the thing that she had found herself doing all too often lately. She ventured alone into the long dark tunnel with no idea what might be lurking inside.

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