Fhyernz had returned back to the little building the three of them called home, him and his two other companions. Khyzae once used to call this place home as well, a home away from home, and had been expected that very night.

“By the divine, just how incompetant are you? I don’t know what has me pissed off more, the fact that you left her to the street, or that you lost her on a train. Of course, the woman is brilliant, she would be far and all capable of taking care of herself, but I do recall telling you to keep her safe. While I expect she will have no problems finding her way here, this isn’t exactly what I would call ‘keeping her safe’.” Liyuzhe was not at all happy. After hearing that her childhood friend would be making a return, she had gotten really excited at the opportunity to reconnect, share updates about how things have been over the past year. She was honestly excited to hear too about any progress with Khyzae’s little project with the moon. Suffering these additional delays was only making her mood worse.

“Actually, I’m not so certain she’ll be able to find this place as easily as in the past. I couldn’t get any details from her, but it seems like her moon venture was something of a failure. It seems this caused its own problems, one of which being a touch of amnesia. Khyzae still hasn’t recovered all of her memories, returning to Windvale as if she had never been here before. I still don’t have a full account of just how bad the amnesia is but.. it seems pretty bad.” Fhyerns was regretting everything after the wood transaction, realizing that things were basically a constant chain of his own screw-ups in the rush after that. Liyuzhe was only coming to terms with how bad the situation was, which did nothing good for her current mood.

“Liyuzhe, should I start searching the town? You know I’m way better at covering ground than this moron here.” “Ieqyisa, no, while I feel your abilities are far more dependable than Fhyernz here, I think taking drastic action wouldn’t be for the best. We have no idea where she would have left the train, where she might have gone, but even with amnesia I know she would have still sought shelter. Having funds and a couple of capable companions would be more than enough for her to take care of herself, while leaving us with the entire city to cover. You scouring the city in depth so much would cause longer term problems. While I hate to say it, we will still need to be patient. I’ll try to setup a more.. discreet search for her, something that won’t raise as much attention.” Ieqyisa frowned at the two humans in her company, disappointed by Liyuzhe turning her down. Ieqyisa was the only one who thus far was never even given the opportunity to even speak with Khyzae, not even by Cell. It was sounding like she was instead being sent back to her records, kept out of the loop. Still, this news about amnesia was alarming, it implied Khyzae might have forgotten so much of the things they had shared in the past. If the others were going to bring her back, she would instead devote the time to figuring out a good way to either restore Khyzae’s memories, or at least prepare a quick study of all of the essentials. She wandered off to get back to work, her mind still completely distracted by the recent events.

Fhyernz knew this was him being dropped from the entire process, Liyuzhe taking everything into her own hands. No one complaining about his departure wasn’t even enough to set his mind at ease, clearly this just implied that Liyuzhe felt too otherwise distracted to come up with any immediate consequences and that he would have to look forward to remedial measures at a later time. Liyuzhe in truth understood that Fhyernz was probably getting tired, and blamed herself for not having thought to send anyone to pick up their guests. By the details he had provided, it had been quite a long and arduous day, being the only one to shoulder this entire burden was not the smartest of action on her part. He had even been responsible enough to have called everything in. Liyuzhe could only hope that Fhyernz was capable of a well deserved rest so that he could continue to contribute in the morning.

“Hey, yeah, sorry for the late night call. Yeah.. no, not really. Look, so, I’ve came across some pretty interesting tidbits of information. Seems there are these girls that came in from the boonies, totally amatures to the city and everything, but really put on quite the show. Seems the girls are capable of some serious craftsmanship. If the news got wind of the details, I could totally see so many local businesses paying handsomely for a decent referral. .. I know, aren’t I such a generous woman? It helps because it seems one of my own is working with them, dropped completely off the radar otherwise. No, I know how getting such information would cost myself a pretty penny, but asking for you to share some information in return would cost far less. Could you remind her what she’s left behind with one of my spare.. business cards? Just tell her that her childhood friend still misses her. Yes, I understand you’re going to sell all of this information to anyone whos got the money for it. Thank you, you too.” Liyuzhe hung up with a sigh. This sort of action was still going to draw some attention, but it wasn’t nearly as much of a problem as some of the alternatives. Liyuzhe had always felt much more comfortable keeping to the shadows, after all.

Getting the local media involved in the search would cover the entire city far quicker than any other measure she might have come up with, and it in result left far less attention drawn to herself. She had in the meanwhile left very little information about herself in exchange, only that she’s having some internal strife going on. Possibly the most valuable bit of information spent in the process was news about how Khyzae’s village friends had some valuable talent in the business world, something she was certain would be leaked out by the two staff involved in the process even if she hadn’t done anything. At this point, all she needed to do was watch the news and listen for a murmur of a reply. She could otherwise return to some of her ongoing work, stuff she hoped the same childhood friend would be happy to witness.

Ieqyisa slipped back to her workspace after the call concluded, reasonably certain at what had transpired. Liyuzhe was skilled at using every resource at her disposal, including every family member of every resource. To have included Ieqyisa’s younger brother on the search, she honestly wished Liyuzhe had taken any other measure. Ieqyisa and her brother had fallen out of positive relations several years ago, as the path of their lives divulged in two very different directions. By now, the two of them refused to even speak to one another. She thus felt very disappointed to have left such a taint to her reputation in the hands of her brother. He full-well knew she had left his path to follow along the path of her friends. Hearing one of those same friends had left them was going to come back to haunt her for a long time.

She still understood why Liyuzhe had resorted to such measures, even taking full understanding of it. Her brother hearing such news would only be even further compelled to complete his assignment, if nothing more than to witness what drama ensues as a result. Her brother was always in it for the drama, such was why he had signed up for his current line of work. With such unsated hunger, he would make use of resources spanning far wider than their own in order to achieve his success. Liyuzhe had even armed him with the right words to encourage his peers to his cause. Ieqyisa knew that such skilled planning was only possible due to learning from the most skilled of examples. Khyzae was always their most skilled planner, always coming up with some of the deepest, most involved plans that pivoted the world as she worked. If Khyzae had not chosen to do the same, it would have only been because she had found an even grander solution.

Such might itself be why the simple idea of needing to track Khyzae down felt like a futile task. If Khyzae wanted to be found, she would be found without anyone else aware they were even trying. If Khyzae did not want to be found, no amount of effort would ever change that. Somehow, even with these reports of amnesia, Ieqyisa held doubt that this feature of Khyzae would have changed. Maybe even without Khyzae consciously able to know it, Khyzae would still continue to manipulate even herself well beyond the measures of her own consciousness.

Ieqyisa sighed, dismissing matters of her brother and Khyzae from her thoughts for the night. If there was nothing left for her to do about either, there were other things she needed to worry about, even if she was finding it difficult to convince herself of the same. These concerns about Khyzae’s amnesia would have to wait until she was able to conduct a personal study. Matters of having exemplary reminders of their work however was a self-fulfilling goal if she were to instead resume the work she was undertaking before all of these matters involving Khyzae occurred. In that light, it might be ideal for her to turn her attention to delivering results Khyzae could be proud of.

Even across the year span of Khyzae’s departure, the three of them remaining had made great strides in their goal of uncovering a potential alternate power source to supplement the gift, something that reached beyond the limitations of a single individual. Converters, augmenters, instruments that reshaped the results of the gift, they helped with limits, but they could only do so much. A fully self-sustained power source, a wellpool of near limitless stamina, or anything similar to it in design. Khyzae had believed such a thing could never be found on Celese, and Ieqyisa was starting to believe she was indeed right. But they would not need to reach the stars to solve such a problem, not when the answer was hidden in the depths of Celese’s existence itself. All that mattered was manipulating the right elements, making use of the right actors, supplying the right vessels.

She had this, and yet she did not. They had plenty of suitable vessels to work with, all of the right actors in play, but the vault of celesi secrets was nigh unbreakable. It was far too easy to assume that, if the gift originated from Celese itself, then having access to the source of the gift would provide an even richer exposure, an endless stream of gift. With all of that power available, even the stars beyond the world would not be so out of reach. Khyzae’s dream would be met, they would even be the first to explore among the stars, and the world’s prosperity would know no further limits. It would be the start of a new age, one ripe with even more potential of innovation and discovery.

Ieqyisa unpacked the wood that Fhyernx had brought them, another key element in all of their work. She would need time to prepare the wood for more talismans, to set up even more experiments. She had hoped that Khyzae’s trip to the same woodland village would have brought them new wooden advantages, but such had remained unchanged. She suspected the biggest thing to blame was any changes of plans required by Khyzae’s portal project. To think such a thing had brought her amnesia in its failure, of all things. Clearly the entire venture had been nothing but a waste. At least they still had access to the wood supply though, that did not need to be salvaged as well.

While tending to the supply of wood, a feral howl echoed through the halls, leaving Ieqyisa aware of the fact that Liyuzhe was not leaving her own work unfinished either. Liyuzhe had gone to considerable strides to make sure everything Khyzae had left behind continued as planned. Deprived of their leader, Liyuzhe had salvaged the mantle of leadership and ensured everything continued even in Khyzae’s absence. Liyuzhe had even been doing a reasonably good job as leader, all things considered. A lot of progress had been made, a lot of things had been accomplished. They might not have fully realized their goals, but things were still moving forwards, it was something they could be proud of. Even so, the day was getting late, night would be soon to follow. Remaining focused was getting harder and harder, it might be better to leave everything for tomorrow. Their progress would find opportunity to continue in the morning, with a fresh day of accomplishments waiting for them. Every day was one ripe with fresh opportunities.

Elsewhere in the city, a young elf was pouring over his tomes and instruments in the apartment he called home. While most of his neighbours saw fit to spend the night in relaxation, sleep eluded him, much like it had for many nights before. Sure, he knew he wasn’t totally alone in some of his concerns, it was not the entire city that remained ignorant to the threats presented by the Vesper Mountains. Almost everyone on the other side of the Windvale River lived in daily fear of such a threat, knowing the ravenous beasts of the mountain could come raging upon them at any time. This is why the eastern side of the city was almost a warzone with nature, hunters that held the line against a tide. But none of them asked the important questions, none of them asked why this had happened.

He himself didn’t even know for certain. The original threat occurred almost three years ago, the first of the beasts to force their way over the Vesper mountains. At first, it was almost casual encounters, beasts that were easy to deal with, many just sent back home. Overtime, the beasts grew more and more determined, more and more ferocious, until they would not be turned away by anything except their deaths. Everyone just believed it to be migratory patterns, beasts that no longer felt satisfied with the mountains, that wanted more. With all of their fertile farmland, it was a theory that generally made sense. No one else thought to question things beyond that, thinking it to be the big picture.

But in all of his measurements, something about Celese as a whole seemed.. broken, shattered. His instruments started reading the signs about a year ago, something had shifted, causing a chain reaction. But the simple fact that things weren’t adding up had not been enough to convince anyone that anything else might be wrong. He might be able to complain that something was off, but he never had answers as to what might be wrong. Without answers, his words held no weight. If people needed answers before they would be willing to take any action, he would find such answers.. somewhere. After an entire year, he had still been left with no progress and no leads, endlessly searching for a hidden ghost that held no presence at all.

Eqriuxzl thus jumped in his near slumber when one of his instruments started making a sound. He scrambled over all his supplies to discover what might be causing it, as the sound of a train went past his window. Reviewing the display, his eyes went wide in shock. One of his instruments had detected faint traces of the astral flame, of all possible things. It was weak, more like ashes than a raging fire, but something was there. It had come, and then it was gone. It also made no sense, the astral flame was something only told to exist beyond the Celesi Veil, it didn’t exactly come and go at its leisure. For even traces of the astral flame to be detected, that would mean that something would have needed to allow the veil to vent into Celese. His tomes told of the magnitude of any interference with the veil, something that hadn’t occurred in hundreds of years. Worse, the last time it happened, the world had been left forever changed, marked as the start of the Instrumentation Era.

It was an answer that only provided more questions, but it was at least a lead. The presence of the astral flame on Celese, to have the veil itself pierced once again, that would explain how the world was seeming itself tainted as a result. It did however fail to answer what exactly was changing in consequence. Were the beasts fleeing the tear in fear, or rushing towards it like moths to a flame? Was it even just a coincidence, and itself still unrelated to the beasts in general? He had a lead, but he didn’t have enough answers. If he wanted enough answers, he would need to find out more about any potential damage to the veil, and see if he could track down that faint trace of the astral flame his instruments had detected. It wasn’t for more than a moment, to have come and gone as the passing of the wind. If the traces he sought were so mobile, it might prove very difficult to locate after all, passing beyond the reach of the city quickly after that. He glanced over his instruments again, praying that they could give him even the smallest of clues. As the world around him returned to a still and quiet state, slumber returned once again to steal him away, this time for the remainder of the evening and the night afterwards.

With the sun having fled the sky in full, night was quickly approaching. Even though many people were finding their beds safely for the night, some passengers recently traveling in a local train were still struggling to find such luxuries.