Rayna took a step back, trying to pull her staff from her Soul Realm. Nothing happened. She frowned at her hands, trying again, but still they remained empty.

The man's confusion dissolved, replaced by tired irritation. "I see… Leave this place, traveler, before you get trapped here forever."

He turned and walked away.

"Wait!" Rayna lunged forward, grabbing his arm so he wouldn't leave her behind. "Where is 'here'? What's going on?"

The fog cleared, revealing a large dimly lit room. A simple oil lamp sat on the lone desk in the corner of the room, its light barely touching the edge of the space. There were two windows built into the far wall, but they were covered over by some sort of black crystal. Both of the exits were blocked by a pile of furniture and boxes.

Rayna turned in a slow circle. Like the white world, it too had a dreamlike familiarity to it. As far as she knew, she had never been here before.

"This is your first time, I take it," the man said, taking a seat next to a desk that had been pushed against one wall. The desks surface was covered in wooden sculptures and as Rayna watched, the man pulled out a piece of wood and started carving it with a knife he pulled from his belt. The blade was covered in swirling runes, but either they were decorative, or the magic had stopped working. There was no glow to the metal.

"First time for what?" Rayna asked.

"Traveling," the man said. "You're too surprised to be experienced."

Rayna moved over to the windows, examining the black crystal.

"I would stay away from that if I were you," the man said, not looking up from his carving.

She ignored his warning, reaching out to run her hand over the surface of the crystal. It hummed with a reassuring warmth and Rayna recognized the pleasant tingle on her skin. "Crystalized Miasma?"

This time the man did look up from his whittling, a line appearing between his brows. "It should have burned you."

"I keep hearing that," Rayna said, pulling her hand back from the crystal. She sat in the windowsill, pressing her back against it to bolster herself as she faced the man. "Where is this, and how did I get here?"

He didn't answer her, so she tried a different approach.

"Why can't I pull anything out of my Soul Realm?"

For some reason, this question made his frown deepen. "Asteria is the land of the mind. Your items cannot be summoned here because they are here already, you need only to find them in the mist."

"Land of the mind?" she repeated. "You mean none of this is real?"

If this was some sort of dream, then she might still be standing in the hub with Pycha trying to scramble her brains.

The man placed his wood back on the desk, sheathing his knife on his belt. "Why would a land of the mind be any less real than the physical world?" he asked, seeming genuinely confused. "How have you made it this far in your progression without learning the fundamentals of Astral projection?"

"That doesn't actually answer my question."

The man sighed. "Then to answer your question, I'm real, and so is this tower. You're simply visiting from what I assume must be a great distance away."

"Why does it have to be from far away?" Rayna asked, crossing her legs on the windowsill.

"Because not even an Eldar could make it this far on foot," the man said. "The Obsidian Forest is a death trap. None venture here but the very stupid and the very desperate."

"Is that so?" Rayna asked. "Then which are you?"

The man's lips flattened into a thin line. "Both." There was a pain behind the word; a history that Rayna could only guess at.

Wait… a tower in the Obsidian Forest? Why does that sound familiar…?

Rayna sat up straighter, the memory of a conversation with Amon coming back to her. "We're in the System Tower?"

"Very good," the man said in a mocking tone. "Now that you've satiated your curiosity and exhausted the last of my patience, go wander back where you came from and leave me in peace."

Rayna shook her head. "Don't you think I would've done that already if I knew how? I don't even know how I got here."

The man rubbed his temples. "Of course you don't. What are you, a hundred years old? Two hundred? Astral projection is one of the later skills to master…" He frowned, looking her up and down. "Are you choosing to look younger than you are, or are you just stuck that way?"

"No idea," Rayna said. She didn't feel like correcting his gross miscalculation of her age.

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. If you're going to stay, at least pick a different floor. I have better things to do than explain Astral navigation to a budding Alidar with no control over her powers."

"Alidar?"

"Are you an A'ler then?" the man asked. "A bit early for Astral projection, but not unheard of. Either way, leave me alone." He picked his wood back up from the desk.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Hang on, you're just going to end the conversation?"

The man said nothing, pointedly ignoring Rayna.

She tried to get his attention a few more times, but he pretended like she didn't exist.

"Fine," she snapped. "I'll leave."

She stomped over to one of the doors and reached to move a box out of the way. Her hands passed right through it. She tried again, growling in frustration.

The man let out an exasperated sigh. "You can just walk through it. If you could open that door, I wouldn't have let you get that close."

Rayna shot a glare at the man before taking a deep breath and walking through the items.

There was a brief moment of disorientation as she found herself completely surrounded by solid objects, but the moment passed, and she made it through the door on the other side of the barricade.

The room beyond was darker than the one she had just left. Some sort of machinery lined one wall, and a table sat abandoned in the center of the room. A window was placed in the same wall as the previous room, also covered over in the crystalized Miasma.

Who's there? A voice entered Rayna's head. It wasn't male or female; instead, several voices seemed to speak in unison. What do you want?

Rayna looked around for the source of the voice. A small orb of swirling energy hovered in the corner.

"I'm Rayna," she introduced herself. "You wouldn't know how to get out of the tower, would you?"

Rayna had never met an energy-based lifeform before. It didn't really surprise her that they existed, considering the sheer number of species on Ember.

The ball of energy bobbed in place. I'm trapped. Why aren't you trapped?

Rayna shrugged. "Something about Astral projection, I guess."

The energy started swirling faster as the being grew excited. You're like me. How is that possible?

"Like you?"

A being of both worlds, the ball said cryptically. Did they hurt you too?

Rayna had no idea what the energy was talking about. "Who's they?" Rayna asked.

The dark and the light, the ball said. The ones who twist and destroy. It hurt when I was born. It hurts still. I'll never forgive them! I will destroy them!

The ball grew in size, bolts of electricity spiking off of it as its anger grew. Rayna clapped her hands over her ears, but it didn't stop the voice that stabbed through her consciousness like rusty nails.

I will wipe them from the face of Ember so they can never hurt me again. The world will burn, and I will bathe in the light of the flames. I will bask in the darkness that follows.

Rayna backed away and the energy followed.

You should join me, the being said. Help me rid Ember of their filth. I won't stop until every last one of them is dead. I won't stop until every last one of them feels what I felt.

A bolt of lightning hit Rayna's arm and she fell backwards, gripping the badly mangled flesh.

The ball instantly shrank back to its original size. I hurt you…

Rayna gritted her teeth, pushing her way back out of the room.

No! Stop! Don't leave! The ball moved closer, and Rayna retreated, dragging herself through the door. Please! You're the first—

As soon as she crossed the threshold, the voice vanished. Rayna kept backing up until she was in the center of the room.

"You're back," the man said flatly, not looking up from his wood carving.

Rayna groaned, clutching her injured arm to her chest. "A little warning would have been nice! What the hell was that thing?"

The man looked up sharply. "What are you talking about?"

"The thing!?" Rayna snapped. "That thing in the room, it almost killed me! What did it mean 'a being of both worlds,' anyway? Are all energy beings that cryptic?"

The man put his carving aside. "You spoke to Medris?"

"If that's the name of the homicidal light bulb on the other side of that door, then yes!" Rayna said. "And I'm not planning on talking to it again any time soon."

A new pain flared in Rayna's stomach, stronger and sharper than the effect of Medris' lightning. She clutched her middle, groaning in pain as she curled into a fetal position. "What the hell?"

The man crossed the room in a flash of movement, kneeling next to Rayna. "What did Medris say to you? What exactly?"

Rayna squeezed her eyes shut, the pain making her head spin. "I don't know, something about being the same as it. A being of both worlds… it happened really fast." She cried out as another wave of pain tore through her stomach.

The man swore under his breath. He placed a hand on her shoulder. To Rayna's surprise, it didn't go right through her.

He grimaced as his skin sizzled where he touched her. "I'm sending you back. Whatever is happening to your core, you won't be able to hold on much longer. Find someone to heal it, then come back and find me when you've recovered. I have more questions, and I have a feeling you have the answers."

"Why the hell would I come back here?" Rayna snapped, the bite in her words undermined by another groan.

"Because you might just be the key to saving everyone on Ember," the man said.

"If I had a nickel…" Rayna muttered.

The man's brow furrowed. "What?"

A cool sensation spread through her body, originating from the shoulder where he touched her.

Rayna's eyes snapped open, and she pushed Pycha away, bending in half at the waist. "What the hell did you do to me?!"

Pycha didn't even try to resist her. He backed away, his eyes wide. "That's impossible."

The injury on her arm didn't follow her back to her body, but the pain in her stomach did. Rayna focused on taking deep breaths, trying to ride out the waves of pain that rippled through her core.

"Cycle energy," Pycha said urgently.

"What?" Rayna squinted at him, unable to make the two Pychas that she was seeing squish back together.

"Push Mana out of your body and pull it back into your core."

"Why the hell would I do anything you tell me to?" Rayna demanded, falling to her knees as another wave of pain wracked her body.

"Because your life depends on it!"

Rayna gritted her teeth, vaguely aware of Corban kneeling by her side. She took a deep breath and pushed her Mana into the air around her.

Pycha backed away further, but Rayna didn't have any brain power to spare. She ignored him, focusing on drawing the Mana back into her core. The pain subsided by a fraction, so she did it again and more of the pain faded. It was working.

Rayna created a rhythm, energy out, energy in. The power flowed in and out of her, taking away a small amount of her pain with each cycle.

When the pain was low enough that she could barely register it, she turned her attention back to Pycha, ready to chew him out for whatever he had tried to do.

She stopped short at the sight of his hand. The burned flesh was starting to sprout blisters, a foul smell reaching Rayna from across the room.

She nodded at the injury. "Why aren't you healing that?"

"Miasmic burns are harder to heal than regular injuries," Pycha said slowly. "I am healing it, but it will take time."

"Miasmic…" Rayna shook her head. "There's no Miasma in here." Just to be sure, she scanned the room with her eyes, but all she saw was the steady glow of Essence.

"I made sure of it," Pycha said. "Hold your hand up and push some energy out of it—not from your Mana pool, but from your core."

"I don't know how," Rayna said. "I've only used Mana."

"You know how to locate your core. It's as easy as pulling energy in. Push it out instead."

Rayna's curiosity got the better of her and she followed his instructions, holding her hand up and pushing energy out of her core.

Black particles hovered just above her palm, spiraling lazily in the air.

Pycha stared at it, frustration and shock battling for control of his expression. "A blackened core," he said, his voice low and angry. "You're not a Lerian, Rayna. You're a Corvi."

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