“Why are you here? With him?”
When she didn’t offer an answer, he frowned and backed away, watching Kaelith as if he could sprout fangs at any moment. Even when they passed through the finalcheckpoint and stood before the Waygate, the hardened Hollow-born around them kept a safe distance.
“Not that I would ever question your skills, but have you ever done this before? Or even used a Waygate, Rynna?” Kaelith’s eyes glinted as they flicked over the ancient carvings etched into the stone. He leaned in. “It might be safer if I do it.
She ignored him, focusing on the stone before her. It stood tall and unassuming, an ancient monolith, humming faintly with untapped power. At a glance, it looked mundane, a simple slab of weathered rock, but beneath the surface, Rynna could feel the subtle thrum of the Source pulsing through the intricate lines etched into its surface.
“Once,” she said. “I used one once with Fang Unit. Fenn made it work, but…it should be simple enough. Not that I could remove your restraints even if I wanted to. They’re keyed to Fenn.”
Kaelith scoffed, which she ignored, and continued to study the gate.
She didn’t like using Source power. It gave her a major ‘ick,’ though she couldn’t explain why. But, at the end of the day, it was just another form of magic, or power, or whatever you wanted to call it. She could impose her Will on it, just like any other energy.
Before they’d traveled to that tiny village for their first real mission, Fenn had told them that the Waygates were created millennia ago by ancient Hollow-born during some forgotten war against a great evil from beyond the stars. Part of her couldn’t help but wonder if it was that very enemy who had first brought the Source to this world. She could sense its foreignness, the flavor of the energy tangier than the natural flow of power here. But beyond that, she hadn’t a clue.
Closing her eyes, she let the mental walls she normally kept so rigid begin to soften. Slowly, her awareness expanded, reaching out toward the Source within the gate. It felt alien, the energy swirling in jagged patterns beneath the smooth stone surface, as though it didn’t quite belong in this world or anywhere else.
“Rynna? What are you doing?” Kaelith asked. She could almost see his curious expression in her mind’s eye.
“Shhh.” Her fingers hovered just above the gate’s surface, tracing the invisible lines of power. The energy felt slick against her senses, like oil sliding between her fingers, unnatural.Familiar, yet not, she thought, her hand drawing closer until it grazed one of the threads.
In an instant, her body fell away, and she was no longer standing at the gate. Pulled out of herself, she hovered above the land with a bird’s-eye view of the entire continentsprawling beneath her. The Great River wound like a silver vein through lush valleys and mountains lying against the horizon.
“Interesting.” She saw the glowing points scattered across the land—other Waygates, pulsing with the same unfamiliar energy. But it didn’t stop there. As she stretched her awareness further, she caught sight of more distant lights, faint glimmers far beyond the boundaries of the continent. More Waygates. Not just here, but elsewhere, past the borders of the known world.
What’s out there? she wondered before Kaelith pulled her back to earth.
“Rynna, whatever you’re doing, that is not how one uses a Waygate.” His voice now verged into alarm.
“Since when were you so cautious, Kae?” The power surged through her, intoxicating and wild. Without warning, she reached for his hand, her fingers closing around his. “Here we go!”
Before Kaelith could protest, she plucked the cord that would take them to the border of Stone territory.
“Rynna!” he shouted, his grip tightening as they were both yanked into the stream of power.
Shooting through the weaves of Source, the world around them dissolved into streams of colors bending and twisting in ways that defied natural order. Bright flashes of light streaked past, layered with the oily shimmer that coated the magic of the gate. The energy wrapped around them, pulling them deeper, faster.
And then, in the span of a few heartbeats, it was over.
With a jarring lurch, they were spit out into the open air, the ground rushing up to meet them.
“Yahoo!” Rynna laughed as she stumbled forward, her knees buckling slightly as her feet hit the dirt. It had been ages since she’d willingly thrown herself into an open wormhole like that.
“Yahoo?” Kaelith wheezed, landing beside her with far less grace, his hand still gripping hers tightly, before falling to his knees and retching.
“Oh, you poor baby evil Hollow-born,” she patted him on the back, waiting for the heaving to subside. “Did you not like the trip?”
“That is not how you use a Waygate.” He staggered to his feet, glaring at her through narrowed eyes. “What the hell was that, anyway?”
She looked around them. The air here was dry and heavy, the faint scent of earth and dust clinging to the breeze. The landscape was stark, with jagged rocks rising from the barren ground. They had made it to Stone territory.
“I took a faster route.” She shrugged, patting herself down. “Looks like we’re both in one piece.”
“Speak for yourself,” Kaelith grumbled, then paused. “Perhaps you should check me as well. Make sure I’m all in one...piece, that is.”
She glared but couldn’t stop the corner of her mouth from tugging into a grin. It was like old times. She loved how easily he could flip from grumpy to teasing and make her laugh without even trying. He’d always taken her shenanigans in stride, whether she was pantsing him in the middle of the village, spilling secrets that would’ve sent anyone else running, forcing him to wear Source-restricting restraints in the middle of a war zone, or, you know, throwing him face-first into a freaking wormhole.
Kaelith would ride this world, this life with her, no matter the madness she stirred, Mission be damned.
