“What?”

  “Yeah, it’s a problem. If we’re gonna have any chance at all of getting that rift open again, we need to find my Cores, because we do not have time for me to walk all the way back to the Cosmic Isles and get replacements,” Asika shook her head. “I can use my Scan to find other Cores nearby, but I don’t know which ones are mine,”

  “Flyreh will have them,” Anza said. “He claimed to be a collector. Genuine faerie-made Cores are incredibly rare and valuable, I doubt he trusts his goons not to steal them and run off. He’ll have ‘em in his pocket,”

  “So . . so we need to beat that really strong guy if I’m going to have any chance of going home? Somehow? How?” Mikayla whimpered.

  “The only chance is if all of us, together, fight him while he’s alone,” Anza assessed. “And that means that we’re gonna need to find Lahlee and take her out first. As well as any other friends he’s got who can fight worth a damn. Asika. Your Scan goes through walls, yeah? Can y’all tell how many people there are here who’ve passed the Second Lock?”

  “Give me a tick,” Asika squinted. Her head abruptly darted in all directions, splashes of colour flickering in her sapphire eyes. “There are three. One’s close by, one’s several floors up and one’s lower down. We can take them!”

  “Only if we don’t let them join up,” Anza reminded her. “Damnit, there’s a third strong guy huh . . nah. It’s too risky. We need to get you three to the exit and out of Cliffwatch. Get help from Topwater,”

  “No, no, that’ll take too long,” Asika shook her head, standing next to Mikayla. “We’ve still got a chance to get Mikayla home. I’ve screwed up enough, but we can still salvage my mission!”

  “Is your mission more important than your life?!” Anza burst out.

  “Yes!”

  No one knew how to respond to that. Anza’s eyes widened in horror.

  “A . . Asika. I don’t want you to die for me,” Mikayla mustered, gripping her shoulder.

  “Oh, oh oh oh, I didn’t - I didn’t mean it like -“ Asika blustered. She stopped, forcing herself to take a long and slow breath, chewing on her bottom lip. “I’m a faerie. We get the job done. Because if we don’t, the world suffers the consequences. If . . if I can’t even complete a basic Stranded rescue mission, can’t even help one person . . then what good am I?”

  “Asika, your pride is not worth your life,” Anza reasoned.

  “Says the woman who was planning to die to make sure we escaped,” Asika was scowling as she retorted. There was something distinctly wrong about seeing that near-permanent smile twisted.

  “That’s different. You’re kids, you’ve got whole lives ahead of you. Y’all deserve to get out of here. And I ain’t planning on dying today, but if someone’s gotta, then better me than any of you,”

  “And I’m not planning on dying today either! All we’ve gotta do is gang up on these three bad guys and take them down one by one. Easy!“

  “Not easy!” Anza shook her head. “If it’s just one person on my level, sure, I could do that. But three? In a row? Even with y’all helping, I’ll be running on fumes by the time we find number three and they’ll be fresh. That’s a disaster in the making,”

  “Yeah, um, I feel bad saying this since you’re risking yourselves for my sake, especially after all the work we put into making me stronger, but . . I’ll probably just get in the way . .” Mikayla winced apologetically, looking down.

  “See?” Anza gestured at her.

  “Then we go for the Ataraxia Node. Fix my uplink,” Asika suggested. “And I’ll call for help from the Cosmic Isles. Then there’s no way we’ll lose!”

  “That . .” Anza’s furore petered out. “That’s a good idea. We’ll do that,”

  “Um,” All three women turned to Keldryn, who looked like a deer in headlights. He’d shrunk into a corner while they argued, and his ears had gone flat against his skull. “We do have some upgrades available,” he gestured at the dozens of Cores in Flyreh’s collection.

  “He’s right. No one else is gonna use any of these Cores. I’m confident in my array, but you three might as well gear up,” Anza suggested.

  “Their owners are probably all dead,” Keldryn agreed with a grimace. “Better we take them than leave them to that murdering ‘collector.’ And you’re better off with Cores that don’t fit than no Cores at all,” he told Asika.

  She grimaced. “I guess. Help me look for some guns? Or anything any of you think would be a good upgrade?”

  Mikayla nodded, remembering the temp-mod privileges that Asika had granted her. She picked a Core at random and focused on it. “Identify,” she enunciated clearly.

  [RUBY OF GRAPPLING HOOK (CORE)]

  “Pass,” she frowned, putting it back and glancing at her rusty old Core Controller. She had two open slots, not counting all the broken ones, and she thought she knew what she wanted to do with them. “I want a shield,”

  “What?” Nocturnus hissed at her. “Nonsense! The Black Knight never fought with a shield!”

  “Well, I don’t have a hundred levels’ worth of Health Points and I’m sick of taking hits. I want something to block with,” she whispered back at him, working her way through the shelves and firing off Identifies.

  Two aisles down, Anza and Asika exchanged a glance. “Her armour’s talking to her, isn’t it?”

  “Oof, yeah, gotta be a sentient mind imprint. That’s super-duper illegal and something we’re gonna have to sort out after we’re all out of here. Explains how she survived though,” Asika commiserated. “Think she knows we can hear her?”

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  “Clearly not, or she wouldn’t be being sneaky ‘bout it. Whatever, y’all’re right, a talking rock is the least of our problems,”

  Meanwhile, Mikayla noticed Keldryn holding a Ruby Core, which seemed odd because there were plenty of Lapises on offer. “What’s that?”

  “This was Chesham’s crossbow,” He stared at it for a moment, then screwed it into his Core Controller. “I hope he won’t mind if I keep it. It’ll be nice to remember him,” He glanced back at where Mikayla was restoring her loadout. “Hey, why aren’t you taking a new Core Controller? Far be it from me to dismiss sentimentality after saying all that, but that one’s only got four working slots. Some of these have seven, or even nine,” Keldryn asked.

  “It’s not about sentimentality. You’re right, this thing is crap. But it’s crap I know how to use. If I took one of those I’d need to relearn how to use it, adjust to its Engravings, figure out where to send my Mana and how. I’d end up making a mistake and probably get myself killed. I’ll stick with the trash I know and trust for now,” Mikayla paused. “And maybe I’ll take this to learn its ins and outs later,” she added, grabbing at one of the smaller but more intact Core Controllers, one that would fit in her pocket.

  Anza noticed the rusted Controller for the first time, having worked their way back towards them. “You’ve been using that thing? Seed of Chaos, I’m surprised it still works. Did you pull it off a skeleton?”

  “Yes,”

  “. . guess I did ask,”

  Keldryn’s gaze fell on another Ruby, one that he had identified as a Scythe Core. He picked it up, indecision etched into his face.

  “Whatcha thinking about?” Asika peered at it. “A Scythe? Edgy. I’d ask if anyone actually uses those, but clearly someone does,”

  “My father did,” Keldryn murmured.

  “Huh?” Mikayla looked back at them. “Taking a backup weapon?”

  “. . I shouldn’t,” Keldryn gritted his teeth. “He never trained me in how to use one. And I don’t have his anymore, I didn’t have a chance to teach myself. Taking this would be a liability,”

  “Then hold onto it for later,” Asika advised with an encouraging smile. “Once we’re out of here, you’ll have time to figure it out,”

  “Maybe,” He put it back down, glancing at the faerie. “What about you? Found anything that’ll work for you temporarily?”

  She held up a scavenged Core Controller full of Rubies. “A bunch of meh-tier guns. Something to be said for quantity over quality though!”

  “Here. You said you wanted a shield?” Anza threw a Lapis Core to Mikayla, who caught it and Identified it. “Don’t think you’ll find anything better than this,”

  [LAPIS OF HEATER SHIELD (CORE)]

  As a historian, Mikayla knew a thing or two about shields. “A heater shield? I’d feel a bit more comfortable with a tower shield,”

  [EQUIPPED LAPIS OF HEATER SHIELD (CORE)]

  She let her Mana flow into the new Core, which burst outwards with red lines. Her aura traced orange panes that extended into a semicircular shape with a point at its base. “Yeah, this feels a little small,”

  Anza was giving her a look that she was used to seeing on Keldryn. “It’s a Core with a Goliath Engraving. You can change its size,”

  “. . oh. Yeah. Right,”

  Asika sharply whistled. “Okay, everyone ready?”

  “I’m good,” Keldryn confirmed.

  “Born ready,” Anza grinned.

  “Hang on, I’ve still got an open slot,” Mikayla cast around, only for Anza to press a Core into her hand.

  “Here. Backup sword,”

  “I was hoping for a Companion Core, like Bluebell,” Mikayla gestured in Keldryn’s direction.

  “No, bad idea,” the ranger denied. “Companion Cores take time to bond with. All the ones here don’t even know their masters are dead. They’ll freak out, be more trouble than they’re worth. Take the sword,”

  “Oh,” Mikayla sighed. “Fine,”

  “Alright. I’ll lead the way, cover me,” Anza commanded, striding to the door. “Asika, do another Scan, where are we going?”

  A pattern of lights flickered through Asika’s eyes again. “Oh! I’ve got good news!”

  “What?” Anza grunted as she opened the door.

  On the other side was Branch Head Lahlee, her prosthetic hand reaching for the doorknob.

  Both women were shocked to see the other, but Anza’s expression of disbelief quickly collapsed into snarling rage. “Oh, hello there,”

  “Round one!” The sound of a bell emerged from Asika’s throat, a much more lifelike imitation than Mikayla had expected her to be capable of. “Fight!”

  Anza tackled Lahlee into the corridor before she could say anything, but the Branch Head recovered quickly, her metal arm twisting inhumanly to grab Anza’s shoulder and force her up and away. “How did you get free?”

  “Not all of us need to trade away our limbs to get stronger,” Anza spat in response as her Cores formed around her, an obsidian fist wrapping around her left hand while a swirling earthen drill engulfed her right. “Not that y’all’d know anything about that, huh?”

  “Diminishing returns, my dear. I’d rather partake of exponential growth,” Lahlee’s belt lit up pink, and Anza braced herself, but the Artefact of War didn’t materialise.

  Instead, there was a rumbling noise, and she looked up just in time to see a Core-projected Sports Car rush down the hallway and crash into her, sending her flying right back through the door into the Core Storage room.

  Mikayla, Keldryn and Asika watched with a wince as Anza crashed into a storage rack, which collapsed under her weight and sent her falling to the ground amidst a shower of colourful crystals.

  “Oh, I am taking that back,” she promised with vicious glee, picking herself up.

  “How can we help?” Keldryn piped up, already raising his Core Controller.

  “You kids go. Get outta here. Find the Ataraxia Node, fix your uplink. We ain’t got enough space to team up against her here, y’all’ll just get in my way,” Anza waved them away, cracking her knuckles and glaring at Lahlee. “Besides, I said I was confident in beating her. I ain’t no liar,”

  “That was a double negative,” Lahlee cast a disdainful look in her direction as she surveyed the room. “Hm. I see. I told them we should have just killed you all. But his greed had to win out over common sense,” She rolled her eyes, and Mikayla wondered what she was talking about.

  “Let’s go this way. It’ll take longer, but we won’t have to get past her,” Asika was already at the other door, waving for Mikayla and Keldryn to join her.

  A tentacle of black flesh flew across the room and grasped her wrist. “Eh?”

  Lahlee pulled, her extended arm that had burst free of the false prosthetic yanking Asika off-balance and trying to reel her in. The faerie grabbed at the door handle to keep herself anchored, struggling against the pressure.

  A wave of silver-red light flew from Mikayla’s hand, forming into the sword that she hadn’t realised how much she’d missed, and she brought it down on the rubbery black flesh. Her blade bit deep into Lahlee’s wrist, but didn’t manage to sever it. Still, the shock was enough to make her fingers go slack, and Asika threw the hand off. “What was that?!” Mikayla shrieked.

  “I’ll give you all one chance to -“ A tower shield appeared, which Lahlee had only just barely conjured in time to catch a crossbow bolt on. Her eyes narrowed at Keldryn, who was now wielding a crossbow that shone in an imitation of freshly waxed wood. “Of course, I’m fine with killing you all as well,”

  Anza squared off with her, placing herself solidly between Lahlee and the three teenagers. “Y’all can try. But only if you survive what I’m boutta do to ya,”

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