Aria’s heart beat faster. She saw the small figure, heading for the quarry below. It zigzagged, trailing an aura of white and red.

“That’s her.” Alban’s eyes flicked to one of the recording devices he set up in the rocks. “We’d better be ready. Aria, what do you see?”

Again, Aria looked at Era and her trail. More colors joined the red and white. Aria saw blue, yellow, and green. “Era’s been through a lot. Right now, she’s angry, frustrated, a little sad, fearful, and not feeling all that well.”

“Really?” Pan asked.

Era dropped the last few feet and found her place among the stones, quite a distance from their own little shuttle.

“She’s coming.” Alban gestured for Pan to stand at the center of the recording devices. He shooed her away.

Pan put her hand over her heart. The pictures lay under her shirt, near her breast. Aria had worried they wouldn’t be secure there, but Pan insisted that her boot was too far to reach.

Pan’s aura seemed subdued, grey and somber, but as blue and purple colored the base, Pan’s aura came alive. She bowed her head and picked her way across the quarry to the designated spot, about thirty feet from the shuttle.

“We’ll be able to hear her?” Aria worried.

“Yes, well enough. The recording coms will relay their words as if we stood beside them. But, pardon me if I don’t want to stand between two arcanes – one a reaper and one a…I don’t know what to call Era.”

Aria nodded. Alban had a very good point.

“How’s she look?”

Aria glanced at Alban and realized he meant Pan. His blue aura reached after Pan, trying to discern what Aria could see better.

“She’s schemey.” Aria smiled.

“Aren’t we all? Ah, here comes Era.”

Aria turned her attention back to the quarry’s edge. Over the subtle glow of stone, Era walked. Her aura sparkled around her, reaching high above her head. Aria saw all the same colors – a hint of white, deep and fiery reds, unpleasant chartreuse, electric yellow, and a dusky teal. Aria rubbed her eyes. Seldom did Aria see such a mess.

“I have chased you all over. Are you finally ready to fight?” Era asked.

“Yes, I am. It’s a nice place to fight.” Pan folded her hands behind her back, adopting the cute version of the pose rather than the imposing one.

“So, we came here because you wanted to fight in your idea of a paradise?” Era’s red aura blotted out most of her features. Through it all, her hands clenched.

Pan shrugged. “Kind of. We’re really here because this place is so important to you. We can thank it for your existence.”

Era knit her brow. “What do you mean? I come from Soffet, and then, Tingaran.”

Slowly, Pan shook her head. “No, you came from here.” Pan’s lavender tickled the rocks.

Era’s aura faltered and pulled back. “Why does it matter where I come from?” Red glittered into her aura again, betraying her regained anger.

Pan jabbed a thumb back at Alban. “He wants to ask you some questions.”

“Oh, more talk. I love the chance to converse with Scaldin. That’s my favorite thing.” Era crossed her arms, and green glittered across her figure.

Aria could see Era’s hatred for Scaldin. She could hear it too.

Aria tugged Alban’s arm and whispered, “She thinks we’re gross. I think you should remind her where her powers came from.

Alban didn’t respond to Aria. He spoke directly to Era. “How much did you learn at Tingaran, before you escaped so spectacularly? You do realize that you’re only arcane because Scaldin have arcanes, right?”

Era huffed. “At Tingaran, I learned how to use my powers. They didn’t need to teach me where I came from. They just needed to and train me and let me go.”

“They didn’t do that fast enough,” Alban said.

Era smiled bitterly. “No, they didn’t. So, I got out on my own. Tingaran be damned. And, yes, I know that they used your people to learn how to give me arcane powers. What else is there to know?” She set her eyes on Pan. “I came here to fight. That’s what they made me for.”

Pan sighed. The sound came over the speaker. The red, always dormant in her aura, made a momentary appearance. “We’ll get there, but first, he wants to talk. Not me.”

Era glared at Alban from across the quarry. Her aura sparkled over the rocks, passed Pan, and almost reached Alban and Aria. Aria felt an urge to back up, but she resisted.

Alban called, “Scaldin arcanes got their powers from the Visitors. It’s the same source from which you get yours.”

Era’s aura phased to yellow.

“That got through to her,” Aria whispered.

“Good.”

“She’s going red,” Aria warned.

Alban held up a hand. “Let’s not get mad – just yet. You wanted to know why we came here. Let me explain. We searched for your origins, and we found them. Prossim is home to a Soffigen research center. This facility created arcanes. The scientists here remember you specifically.”

Era’s aura became yellow and blue. Her chest seemed to rise and fall quicker.

“Tell her,” Aria said quietly. “She really wants to know.”

“Pan is correct. They manipulated your genetics before you were born. Pan dropped you inside the offending facility on that first night you arrived. That’s where you come from. There are other would-be arcanes here. They have not been treated as well as you, and I think you’d be surprised how not like Soffigen they look. All of you, Soffigen arcanes, owe your origins to a handful of dead Scaldin bodies. That material is in you. The exact same thing that makes these two arcane…” Alban gestured between Aria and Pan. “…makes you arcane. I think that makes you a touch Scaldin.”

Panic coursed over Era’s aura.

Era shook her head. “I am not a Scaldin. At most, I’m part Visitor.”

Alban spoke low to Aria. “Should I offer capture?”

“Yes,” Aria whispered back.

Alban raised his voice and called to Era. “We don’t love to kill other Scaldin. So, we’re offering you the chance to be captured willingly. We won’t harm you, and we can take our time to sort this all out.” Alban crossed his arms and waited.

Pan stiffened, and her aura showed a quick strike of yellow.

Aria could see why. Era’s aura began to obscure her face. Two shades of red – one deep and one fiery – grew like storm clouds.

Alban glanced at Aria. She shook her head. He grabbed her arm and started to push her back towards the shuttle.

“Like I’m going to let a bunch of Scaldin cuff and take me? I am not Scaldin. I am Soffigen, and I came to fight the reaper. That’s what I’m going to do. She needs pay back. She thinks she can just take everything that belongs to us, with no repercussions.”

Pan’s aura phased grey. Aria bet that line sounded familiar.

Aria couldn’t see Era behind her stormy red aura anymore. She grabbed Alban’s arm and tugged. The two of them fled aboard the shuttle.

“Finally!” Era screamed.

The last Aria saw of Pan was Pan’s back. Her blue-purple aura looked small against the red blaze that was Era.

The shuttle door snapped closed, and Aria heard and saw no more. They had the speaker with them, but nothing came through.

“Did they already destroy it?” Alban asked, fingering his speaker.

“Nothing’s happened yet sir. They just went quiet,” the pilot called.

The shuttle hovered and hummed. Aria couldn’t see out the windshield, so she knew the shuttle moved only by its sounds and the feel of flying through the atmosphere.

A thud pounded on the shuttle’s side, and Aria fell to the floor.

“Something’s happened now.” Alban steadied himself and offered a hand to Aria. Alban sighed. “It’s like the universe is paying Pan back, isn’t it?”

Aria rubbed her arm. “Era’s a lot like Pan – angry, eager for recognition.” Aria sighed. “But, I think Era’s worse. She killed so many people – her own people – and Pan just took ships.”

“We should have pointed that out.”

Aria shook her head. “No, it wouldn’t be worth it. She’s crazy. Her aura has enough colors to start a circus.”

“I wonder if Sotir got a good read off her.” Alban eyed his com. His aura swirled blue. “But, it can wait. Pan will need him first.”