Ashevian looked up as Kinthek left, pausing in his explanation to Taenseva—who seemed even more willing as the minutes ticked by to sacrifice Talf for the sake of the group. He’d caught Kinthek trying to add something a minute ago, so why was he leaving? Ash frowned at the others, who were bickering so loud that it was a wonder the slumbering Aremolots deep beneath the ground couldn’t hear them.

  He turned back to Taenseva, “So no, we aren’t sacrificing Talf for the greater good.”

  “It’s his own fault though, if that squalling idiot hadn’t insisted on going down there, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with!”

  Ash massaged his temples. He loved his wife, he really did, but it seemed like there were always things like this… “Talf will learn from this, I bet he’ll listen to what you say much harder from now on.”

  She scoffed, “It’s Talf! He hardly listens to anything!”

  Ash glanced at the man in question, who had turned white as a sheet at the argument, his gaze horrified, pained, worried. “Well I have a feeling he’s going to start.”

  Ash stood up from his seat by the fire, making his way toward his old friend. Talf had always been a firebrand. The kind of person who could make mountains quake with his sheer energy and drive. It was odd to see him without it. He sat beside Talf, not speaking a word. Taenseva seemed to get what the gesture meant though. We aren’t leaving him behind no matter what. She folded her arms, frowning, but seemed to finally accept the decision.

  Ash glanced up as Kinthek returned to the area, smiling for some reason. What was that about? Of course, Ash was glad that the kid hadn’t been somehow scared off by the arguing, but that expression. It was calm, relaxed, and anticipatory.

  That’s when Ash looked behind Kinthek and spotted the stranger.

  She was young, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, short enough that she was over a head shorter than Kinthek. She walked with purpose though. A purpose accented by her far too familiar shape. She didn’t have four arms like he’d expected, but the gray skin and two thin antennae that peeked out of her hair told the rest of the story for him.

  Ash stared at her, his mind circling around two words, Alanerea, Suiki. How in the world had one of them gotten to Arithren? Scratch that, how in the world did Kinthek know one of them? Was this the girl who’d freaked Flame out that one time? Ash hadn’t gotten a good description out of that incident, and this was making him regret it.

  Ash stood up, his muscles tense even though he honestly doubted they were in any danger, from what he’d heard, the Suiki were relatively peaceful people. The others noticed his tense demeanor and slowly quieted, turning to look at the newcomer. “Kinthek? Who’s this?”

  Kinthek scratched his head sheepishly, “This is Eliax, a friend of mine.”

  Teizen stood bolt upright, “Stars Kinthek! You didn’t say she wasn’t Larborak! Isn’t that a Suiki?!”

  The newcomer regarded Teizen with an almost expressionless gaze, though there was confusion in her eyes, “Ah… What’s that?”

  Ash frowned at that, though it was possible they didn’t call themselves Suiki, no matter, “Where did you come from? We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

  Eliax shrugged, but didn’t answer directly. “Does it matter?” she turned to look at the thunder crystal, seeming curious, “Kinthek called me a minute ago, I was available so I came straight here. He said you have a problem, correct?”

  Ash sent Kinthek a slight glare, just a slight one. “He didn’t run this by us first, but yes, we have a problem.”

  Eliax nodded, walking toward the thunder crystal, “I’d be willing to take it off your—” A piece of paper floated down out of seemingly nowhere, landing on Eliax’s head. It was nice paper from what Ash could tell, almost pure white. She picked it up, read it over a few times, and then immediately started tearing it up, “That sparking bastard! What in the sparks!” She muttered under her breath for a moment and started digging in her bag. Her arm seemed to go deeper into it than it should.

  Taenseva, who was standing beside Ash, folded her arms, both concerned and annoyed. She was looking above Eliax though, perhaps wondering where that page had come from, “Who?”

  Eliax glared at the pieces of paper before scattering them on the ground like confetti. She put her arms back in the bag, digging around, “I’m here to help! Okay, I’ll take a look at the crystal if you don’t mind. Hopefully that will give us more options!”

  He nodded with a frown, watching as a strange bulge in her bag… ah… what?

  Then she pulled an entire table from it.

  Ashevian wasn’t entirely sure how it had fit inside. He found himself and the rest of the Leftbites staring slack jawed at it. After far too long, Alafaya stepped forward and took the other end of the table to help set it down. It seemed like a sturdy table, all four legs were made of thick wood and the surface itself was masterfully crafted. It was a miracle that Eliax had been able to

  Talf disappeared around this point, probably seeing a chance to get away from Taenseva. Alafaya moved to the edges to watch on, and Taenseva herself followed her, too rattled by the strange display to object to it. Branix had his arms folded in that way of his, and Teizen simply moved closer, peering at the table with obvious interest and curiosity. “How in the world did that fit?”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Eliax put some the goggles on—Ashevian wasn’t sure where they’d come from—following the strange woman’s gesture to the table, “Ah, sparks, I keep forgetting that people here don’t have dimensionalism. It’s an ability of mine, I can bend space. I use it to make bags that are bigger on the inside.”

  Ashevian stepped up beside her, “What are you going to do?”

  Eliax adjusted her goggles, “I’m going to figure out why the sparks they apparently explode when you put them through dimensional imbalances.”

  “Explode?” Branix blurted, his eyes wide. The man backed away several steps as Teizen started cackling.

  Eliax regarded him curiously, “I’m not going to let it actually do that. I just need to see if It’s possible to stabilize it.” She folded her arms and then strode toward the crystal, picking up one side, Kinthek obediently took the other side, the two of them lifting it onto the table.

  “You’re saying that you can explode thunder crystals?” Kinthek asked, curious.

  She gave him an odd look, “Probably, but we sure as heck aren’t going to use that.” Eliax hummed to herself, sitting down cross-legged at the short table. “Alright, this’ll take a while.” She waved her hand, “You guys can go back to whatever you were doing.”

  Ash regarded her with a complicated expression. He didn’t like how she was acting, but at the same time, she might be the only one who could help. She was young but she seemed so sure of herself… He hadn’t realized there was anyone who looked at problems like these and simply said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got this.’

  It was creepy as Aeinar itself to have people watching me as I worked.

  Eventually someone remembered to make dinner, which they’d apparently been preparing before this whole debacle began. It wasn’t until I smelled the sweet scent of it that I fully remembered that this was a real body. I hadn’t had time to make a clone, at least that was my excuse.

  Partially… Well, partially I’d wanted to see Kinthek as soon as possible. That wasn’t that weird, right? He’d been keeping away for so long and once he’d called it was natural that I needed to see for myself that he was alright. It was perfectly sixty-four percent natural. Completely and entirely.

  I flipped my goggles to the next setting, magnifying my gaze further. I’d found these in a shop after visiting Kenny, and they were in every way worth their weight. Unlike every pair of goggles ever back on Virna, these ones weren’t made of all kinds of magical ores with a million useless spells on them that confused my magesight. No, they were made with wooden frames, intricately carved, with moving dials and screws that could put new lenses up, or even stack them. It made seeing small objects much easier, but it also had several special lenses on the other eye. There was even a lens that was green! For… some reason. I hadn’t figured that one out yet but it certainly looked cool!

  I looked into the thunder crystal, examining the runes and shapes that danced around it, invisible to everyone but me. These goggles were very helpful with seeing the smaller ones, and sparks I hadn’t realized there was so much detail to half of the familiar runes. After first using them, I’d had a headache for three days, but it was well worth it!

  I hummed to myself, moving from place to place around the thunder crystal as I took in its every rune pair and connection. I moved some of them around, looking for a connection that was about to break or a piece of the puzzle that explained why dimensional anomalies would make it explode.

  Someone handed me a bowl of stew, but I barely thanked them before I was focused again on that crystal, on the runes and the connections. On the subtle and fragile balance that was becoming more and more clear the longer I looked at it.

  I leaned back after a long long time, letting out a low breath and noticing that the sun was starting to rise. The people around me had dispersed and gone to bed, all except for Kinthek, who sat snoring in a chair. I pulled my goggles up to the top of my head, rubbing my eyes at the strain and tiredness.

  Sparks I should have had a clone do this instead. This body needed to sleep. But it was well worth it to have all that information straight into my own mind. I wouldn’t have to worry about it getting lost in transition. I massaged my forehead at the slight headache, marveling at all the things I’d learned.

  I could tweak things here and there and the crystal would be fine, in fact, if a concentrated and powerful burst of dimensional energies was sent at it, nothing would happen. But the balance it existed in wouldn’t be able to handle the whole structure going through even a minor deviation. It was baffling to say the least, and I sure as the stars shone wouldn’t have realized it if Astral hadn’t told me what would happen.

  I sighed again, putting away my goggles and letting my gaze stray back to the crystal itself. It was a marvel. Magnificent. One day I’d have to ask how natural ones came to be, because it didn’t just block earth magic.

  It did a myriad of other things that I doubted anyone even noticed. It purified the air to a certain degree, it drank in and recycled water by putting it back into the air, it even had little passengers, tiny creatures I could hardly even spot with just my eyes. They skittered about the crystal, cleaning it or feeding off its energy I wasn’t sure. But they didn’t seem to be harming it. But the more I watched it, the more it became clear that they were the part that made the aura. The crystal itself had absolutely nothing to do with anti earth magic.

  It just led to more questions though, and that led to introspection. Could other things that were so mystical be explained by more mundane means?

  Perhaps I was looking too much at it, or perhaps it was just the fact that larborak didn’t have a word for magic that was making me see connections like that. But the more I thought about it, magic itself… well could we even call it that if it was possible to understand? It was simple cause and effect after all. Sure the soul and the piece of us that could do things like this was still a mystery, but I was understanding more and more about it with every day.

  It was just like Kolen and his crystals. We could make the world easier and better if we could just understand how things worked.

  I glanced back at Kinthek’s sleeping form, frowning. This hadn’t solved the problem, but I felt distinctly as if things finally made sense. Fora would probably hate this idea. I couldn’t wait to throw it at her.