The Gemheart Chamber was eerily silent.

Legate Iola Melanthos Brygos stared in mute shock at the artefact, once clear and translucent, it now bore a single inky blot along its brilliant cut facets. Even as she watched, the blot seemed to quiver and grow…no, it was growing!

She could feel the Gemheart’s power, their connection giving her an intimate feel, and she could feel it begin to wane. Oh so slowly, and minutely, nearly imperceptible if she hadn’t been focused on it.

“No!” she gasped as her hands flew to settle on the Gemheart.

Her perception of it sharpened and she could tell that though the blot seemed to grow slowly on the surface, it was burrowing much faster towards the artefact’s core. There wasn’t a moment to lose!

Her Domain spread out, encompassing the entirety of the room. The Chaos Lord’s words rang in Iola’s mind, but she shook off the lingering dread. She had to do something! He was gone, the plane ejected him with the Gemheart’s power and gravely wounded him in the process. But having left his touch on the facet…

Crystalline slabs rose from the floor, from the ceiling, and bent around the walls. It created a dome that ejected foreign Animus and even the plane’s ambient Chaos, out of it. She pushed her Anima to enter the artefact’s dreamscape, but it was far from easy.

Where before, their link allowed her to enter the space effortlessly, now, it was as if she was wading against a powerful cross current. She pushed her dream body and was battered for her troubles. When she surfaced later, she would feel every inch of abuse. But, finally, after several minutes that felt like days, she arrived in the artefact’s matrix, where the Gemheart’s attendant spirit awaited.

Only…the crystalline golem, carved to look like an exquisite male statue, was nowhere in sight. The matrix, a complex assortment of gold, silver, and jade wires, was barren.

Iola swallowed nervously as she spread her Domain. She saw what the problem was: the inkblot, the Watcher’s taint. It was here, slowly tarnishing the matrix, and once it collapsed, the Gemheart would either disintegrate or worse, be incorporated into the Chaos Lord.

She had to stop him!

Her Anima burned as she struck the taint, and succeeded in pushing it back. But try as she might, she couldn’t push it out. It retreated into a small inky black orb, and nothing she did could expel it.

She didn’t know how long it took her, but she couldn’t stop. Not for long. It was also clear that she, a Knight Dominus, didn’t have the power to defeat a Chaos Duke, who was as powerful as a Knight Imperius.

Unfortunately, there were only two Knights Imperius in the entirety of the Empire, and neither of them was nearby. If she had Legate Segawa with her, she might have had a better chance with just their Domains, but since he wasn’t, then she had to resort to something else.

She exited the dreamscape, though she kept a thread of her consciousness within the Gemheart at all times. The crystal dome was intact and undisturbed. Those two rotters, King Garamus and Autarch Ivala, had fled. But she knew that they would be up to new mischief now that she was completely occupied.

“Burning Moon,” she muttered.

All of her messenger cranes had been destroyed in the fight. It had been too close, and the energies that clashed between the three combatants had been too much for the relatively fragile paper. What could she…ah!

A crystal shard broke off from the dome and she shaped it into a crane. She etched a quick message and sent it to her second in command, Tribunus Agatha Kaspar. She sent the construct flying and then settled down to wait. She kept her eyes on the Gemheart and was rather dismayed to see the blot beginning to grow again. She gritted her teeth. She couldn’t return to the dreamscape now, otherwise, when Tribunus Kaspar arrived, she wouldn’t be able to open the dome to let her enter.

Her sight bypassed her crystals and watched the passages too, just in case those two rotters returned. But thankfully, her Tribunus arrived soon afterwards. Her light red hair, normally contained in a tight bun, was frayed. She also had bags under her eyes, made all the more apparent by her pale complexion and the dusting of freckles across her nose.

“Legate!” Tribunus Kaspar’s voice was gravely, almost as though there were pebbles grinding against glass shards in her throat. It was a direct result of her Heritage and Facet and to Iola, it was the sweetest sound she’d heard in weeks, especially considering what the other woman had in her arms.

The crystal dome shifted until there was enough space for Kaspar to enter, and the redhead gasped as soon as she saw the inkblot. “What happened?”

“The One Who Watches and Waits.” Iola said grimly.

“But…”

“I don’t know how he managed to appear here.”

By all rights, the Veil would have stopped his entrance into the plane, and even so, the thinness of the ambient Chaos would have syphoned all of his Chaos reserves within hours. But perhaps that was the reason why she had survived their brief encounter, and why he was so gravely wounded by the Gemheart. But still, it would have taken nearly a Season before he could have passed through a Tideland, and the Chaos Channel was still blocked, right?

“Oh…” Kaspar shook herself then quickly offered her payload. It was a dagger, as black as the Dark Moon. Glimmers of light slid across the edge, and even the ornate gems adorning its pommel seemed to lose their lustre when the blade was drawn from its sheath. Nyctferrum. It was a scarce metal that could only be found in the core regions of planes and stable Fysalli. This one was from the Delovine Plane as none have been found within Rumiga.

Legends speak of the metal’s true source, but scholars only have theories. Some say that Nyctferrum actually fell from the Radiant Sun and that the planes formed around a core of it. Nyctferrum. When it came into contact with Chaos, it all but burnt away.

However, whatever active part of Chaos it touched was similarly neutralised, leaving nothing but inert ambient Chaos in its wake. Each Legate had one such dagger, and it was their weapon against powerful Chaos dwellers when they ventured outside of the protection of the planes. To use this now was because Iola was desperate, and if this Gemheart failed, then the other one in the Watchtower would fall soon after.

She took the dagger in hand, then pierced the tip against her arm, drawing a bead of blood, though hers glimmered with tiny yellow crystals. It was necessary to activate the weapon after it had been ensorcelled to dormancy.

She waited for a few moments as her blood traced the runescript lines along the blade, creating words etched in crimson. Then, hesitantly, she touched the tip against the Gemheart, over the inkblot.

Tink!

The Gemheart stopped the dagger tip cold. Not that Iola expected anything less, but she hoped. Bringing this thing into the dreamscape would be even more troublesome, but it looked like she had little choice.

“Go,” she said to Kaspar, then added, “Bring me more.”

“Yes, Legate.”

Kaspar frowned and Iola could practically see the gears in her mind turn. There were precious little Nyctferrum in the city, and only the Dukedoms had the necessary reserves. Even a tiny nail would help, and that one would cost nearly a jade mark. Of course, since they were currently under attack, and the Gemheart’s matter superseded everything else–the Legion Agminis was well within its rights to simply take the stuff. But that wasn’t to say that the ducal clans wouldn’t hide or deny that they had any.

She watched Kaspar leave the dome and closed it afterwards. The Watcher’s words echoed in her mind, and she shivered.

He was no longer willing to wait…why? What were his goals? He was already at the pinnacle of power for a Chaos Lord and the only thing greater would be if he became a Primordial…

But that was impossible. Primordials were concepts. They were the personification of things that existed long before humans came to be, and were, in fact, the architects of sentient life. They were also the destroyers, too, but only some of them. Builders and Creators. Fateweavers and Puppeteers. Destroyers and Devourers. They existed deep within the Abyss. The ambient Chaos at Equilibrium was too thin to support them, and they would be wrung dry just as the Chaos Lords would be if they entered a plane and stayed for too long.

They were in the Abyss, and the Radiant Sun kept them there. The Luminous Moon’s cycles forced them to follow its rules. They were stronger and weaker according to it, but it also meant that they lacked versatility and flexibility now.

If the Watcher sought ascension to become a Primordial…Iola shook her head. She didn’t know what it would take, and that was only one path out of many. She didn’t even know why she thought he would go for that path. Merely a passing idea.

He could also cast his form to dissolution and become Unshaped. It would be a regression, but with the power his Anima now held, he would be one of the stronger Unshaped to roam the Chaos Sea.

One other path is if he sought to subsume a planar core, and to do that, he would need to destroy or taint the Gemhearts… Oh, he could accomplish any of those paths by using the power of a planar core, but as a Chaos Lord, he would face opposition at every step of the way. The Avos would not sit still while he did so, after all.

She kept the dagger’s tip pressed against the Gemheart’s facets as she sunk herself into the dreamscape. A hooking motion with her Anima allowed her to bring the dagger with her, but where before it felt as though she waded against the current, now, she did so while pulling a heavy stone behind her. It took twice as long, perhaps more, she had no real way to tell while she was here, to enter the Gemheart’s matrix, and once she did, she gasped in surprise.

The inkblot had spread and multiplied. From the thumbnail-sized marble she forced it into a while back, it was now spread all across the lines, tarnishing the metal in the process. Her Anima created her attacks, her Domain contained and powered her forms, and she burned the ink back.

But it fought her.

It devoured her Animus, spiked her Anima, and fractured her Crystal Domain. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to contain the ink, not willing to use up all of her Nyctferrum while in such a state. If she could drive it back to a small size, she wouldn’t use up more than an inch of the blade. As it were now, she could use up all of it and it wouldn’t erase a fraction of the ink squiggles.

“You think you can drive my Will back?” The Watcher’s voice sounded in the dreamscape.

Iola drew in a sharp breath. He was here? Where?

Her eyes desperately roved around the matrix. There was a difference between batling a remnant and fighting a representation of another’s Will. She would have little choice after all. Gritting her teeth, she stabbed the dagger into one of the ink squiggles.

Hszzzzz!

The sizzling released noxious smoke and she felt ill. The squiggle burned as green flames danced above it. The Watcher’s laughter echoed and he didn’t seem bothered at all, even as the entire tendril was purified.

Great. If only there was enough Nyctferrum to extinguish the remaining thousand or so tendrils left. Even as she watched, the cauterised strand slowly began to rebuild itself. Her Animus formed into needles and stabbed into the base, preventing it from expanding further. But the remaining tendrils continued to grow and corrupt. She stabbed the dagger into another tendril and watched it burn.

She could only hope that Kaspar could bring more Nyctferrum back with her.