Alex closed his gate so he wouldn't run into every string stretching through the base's corridors. He had to have run through so many, but because his gate was closed, it hadn't drawn him into that hidden world. He told Erin and Li Wen to do the same, though he didn't know if it would have the same effect.

  Maybe it was just one of the cursed boons of the metal device embedded into his heart. A device cooked up by Doctor Ozymandius to forge a curse under controlled conditions. A method that no one else in the nightsea knew since the island that had housed the laboratory burned down by Alex's hand.

  If that was the case, it made him question who the dark figure in the visions was. Either the machine in his heart allowed him entry, or the one who hid at the bottom of Tartarus was another one of his kind—a WPN. As they walked down the hallway, the possibility rested at the back of his mind.

  "We'll have to find a ship," Erick said, his eyes focused on the ground. "I work the docks normally, so I should be able to get us a tug boat without too much suspicion."

  "Why not one of the shuttles?" Li Wen asked as they stepped out into the open.

  Whoosh.

  The air pressure changed around them as they walked back out into the dome. Ahead of them, the massive platform stretched along the wall of the dome, with long lines of metal docks reaching out into the open air for the various slipships and shuttles docked at the base.

  "It'll be more attention," Erick said. "Shuttles don't go over to the island, but there is a tugboat that does the shift changes."

  "You're paying a lot of attention to it," Alex said.

  "It's a mystery to us normal soldiers." Erick shrugged as he reached the platform's railing and looked over the docks. "No one wants to talk about it, so everyone talks about it."

  "Well, don't share too many secrets with us." Alex smiled. "Don't forget we're the enemy."

  "Hah." Erik smiled. "This is different, at least for me. You saved Klaus and me on Cragg Hollow. That's not normal for an outlaw."

  "Hm." Alex shook his head. "It doesn't change why we're in the base, but I'll leave it at that."

  Alex couldn't help the churning in his stomach as they stood there. Something about the entire operation was off. It was too easy and it also felt like everything could go wrong at any second. He had expected a massive amount of security waiting for them when they entered the base, but it was mostly empty. He wasn't even sure he needed Erick with him, but the strange creature had insisted that he did.

  "I recognize that ship," Li Wen pointed a few levels down. "From Diamond Peak."

  Resting in one of the air docks was a dark and flat Military Police ship. It had the swooped design common to these ships, with light sails on the back that stuck up and a flat main deck. The pilot's cabin was at the front, a large square box with big windows higher than the deck. Several cannons lined the ship, each able to easily turn and fire.

  "It just looks normal to me," Alex said. "How can you tell?"

  "Unlike you, I pay attention to these things, and I'm telling you, that was the ship we ran into on Diamond Peak."

  "That's the Arbiter," Erik said. "I think Captain Drake commands it. He came in yesterday."

  Alex raised his eyebrow at Erik.

  "Part of my job is going over ship logs," Erik said.

  "Captain Drake." Alex had a flash of memory from a desert island full of tumbleweeds and dry. "That name sounds familiar."

  "He was on Diamond Peak," Erin hissed, her eyes roving around them. "The dragon that attacked the ship."

  "Well, that answers that question." Alex thought back to his first questions when he saw the lizard man back on Tombstone. "I guess he was a dragon, after all."

  "You know him?" Erik's jaw dropped.

  "We've had an encounter with him." Li Wen shrugged. "However, the real problem is that he knows what our ship looks like."

  "And he could be here to give a report," Erin said.

  "Which means it being parked right in Aherlow's docks might be a problem." Alex sighed, drawing out the 'radio' that wasn't a radio from his jacket's pocket and clicking the button. "We've got a problem. Over."

  He hoped that Sayed didn't have it currently. Now was not the time to be loud and obvious. Now was the time to be as sneaky as possible and hopefully get the ship out of the docks and away from the city while they finished the operation. Static hissed across the device as Alex waited for a response.

  "From the mouth of a rover," an unexpected person answered. "Do I need to take to the skies—ah, over."

  Alex paused, looking at Li Wen and Erin. Finally, he pushed his finger down on the button.

  "They might know what the ship looks like," Alex said. "Where's Jean and Sayed? Over."

  "They saw the ship was being watched at our stopover," Artur said. "So they set out with great haste in response—over."

  "At least they didn't have a party or something," he said. "Well, I don't think it's an emergency yet, so just make sure they get back to the ship as soon as possible and get it out of the docks. Over."

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "That is understood," Artur said before the device went quiet. "That promise this knight will make good."

  "He didn't finish," Li Wen said, eyeing the device.

  "I think he was running out of words that rhyme," Alex sighed. "Let's just get moving. The sooner we get in and out, the sooner we'll get back to the ship."

  Pat. Pat.

  Alex turned as Erin stopped patting his arm and grabbed his jacket's sleeve. She wasn't saying anything but pointed down the walkway to an opening about halfway across the semi-circle. Her face turned ghostly white, and as Alex followed the direction of her finger, he knew why.

  Down the walkway, a large red lizard man stalked down the metal docks along with a uniformed woman with long blonde hair. Alex recognized both of them. His mind raced as he thought about his surroundings. He needed a place to hide.

  "Scatter," Erik said.

  Alex didn't need to be told twice. The captain and lieutenant appeared to be involved in a conversation, and they hadn't noticed the four standing together on the walkway yet. Erin ran for the hallway with Li Wen, and Alex grabbed hold of Erik and did the best thing he could think of at the moment. Aether gathered in his legs as he focused on taking in a deep breath.

  "Step."

  It was like he took a thousand steps in one instant, his feet hitting the ground impossibly quickly in a flurry of movements before he kicked off toward the stairs on the far end of the walkway. It would keep them ahead of the two, assuming they were headed the same way, and also remove them both from sight. Erik shouldn't have been in danger, but they didn't want to lose their only guide.

  Erik slammed into his side as they stopped, and Alex did his best to ensure that the man's body didn't have to absorb all of the technique at once. So long as he didn't make the jerk too suddenly, Erik shouldn't have to deal with whiplash, but being carried with the Path of Step wasn't easy.

  "What—"

  "Come on." Alex cut him off, heading toward the stairs. "We need to get down a level."

  "It feels like my stomach was ripped out." Erik groaned, clutching at his stomach as Alex limped him to the stairs with his arms over his shoulder.

  "Yeah, sorry," Alex said. "First instinct."

  He looked back and saw that they had both paused at the hall. Erin and Li Wen were out of sight. Drake stood closer to the empty hallway entrance while the woman stood with her back to the docks. Alex gulped down a lump in his throat as Drake turned away from the woman and started down the hallway while the woman started toward Alex. He only had one way to go unless he wanted a fight with both her and the entirety of Tartarus.

  And that was straight down.

  "Come on," Alex said, heading down the stairs and formulating a plan. "We need to get down there."

  "What about those two?"

  "They'll handle themselves," Alex said. "They're more likely to recognize me than those two."

  He slammed down to the next level, turning into the next set of stairs and starting down it. After the third flight of stairs, Erick could walk independently, and they headed toward the docks.

  ***

  A flicker passed through WPN One's senses as she spread herself through the base. Ortega had been successfully separated from his group, well, except for Erik. That was probably as good as she could engineer it in her current state.

  Ortega would come to her cell, and everything else wouldn't matter. That was the reality that she willed into existence. Finally, she would be free from the restraints. Finally, she would be beyond Milton's reach. That was all that mattered. Her decades of service would be at an end. The pain would be gone.

  However, the flicker was a problem.

  She followed along the lines of power that lay strewn through the base, catching hold of the flicker that interrupted her lines. A tiny thing passed through another of her strings, and she focused on it, drawing it into her world and away from Tartarus. She plucked it the same way she had plucked Ortega into her world, catching it as it passed through a cleaning closet.

  A small boy appeared in the darkness of her world, a single light shining down from above to illuminate him. He wore one of the uniforms from the barracks school: a simple black and red shirt with black pants. It didn't take her long to recognize the blonde boy, though she had no idea what he was doing inside the base.

  She warped her form as she went to find out. Instead of appearing as a shadowy giant in the dark, she took on a form she remembered fondly—a young, pale girl with long black hair in a white dress. WPN One couldn't recall the girl's name—the name had been erased from her mind long ago—but she knew the girl was kind. That was all that mattered.

  "Hello there," she said as she stepped out of the darkness and into the spotlight behind Klaus.

  Klaus jumped away from her, falling back to the edge of the light and throwing his arms to stop himself from falling. He turned to face her, his blue eyes wide with shock, but still not saying a word or making a noise. WPN One remembered that about Klaus from the few times she had spied on the boy and Erik. Klaus hadn't spoken a word since he had come to Tartarus, though she didn't know why.

  That would be a problem. While her curse allowed her to see much in the world, it didn't allow her to read minds. There were things she could guess, of course, but other than that, her strings couldn't stretch beyond the natural aetheric defenses that every person possessed, especially those with strong wills.

  It was not that Klaus had a particularly strong will. However, if she forced her strings deep into his mind, it would cause damage. It would hurt him and leave him scarred. WPN One didn't want to do that. People like Klaus were the reason she had first volunteered for the WPN program to begin with. People like him needed to be protected.

  Those with strong wills who knew the Path of Will were the hardest to reach. She couldn't even draw Commander Milton into her realm against his will. Someone like Ortega could keep his thoughts protected, but without the Path of Will, he could be forced into her domain. Normal people, like Erik, could give her surface-level impressions without her causing harm to them.

  "Can you tell me what it is, Klaus?" she asked, crouching down and wrapping her hands around her knees. "I promise I won't be angry with you. I just want to know why you're in Tartarus."

  Klaus shook his head, backing closer to the shadows but still staying in the circle of light. WPN One sighed, sitting down and scooting back to give him more space. If she tried to force it out of him, he would only shut down more. She really didn't want to hurt Klaus. She just needed to know why he was in the base and, more importantly, how he had gotten inside.

  She raised a hand and displayed an image to Klaus and herself. That was the more important question. How had he managed to sneak inside the base? It wasn't like the area was infallibly secure, but letting a child inside was unthinkable. The screen flickered until it showed the shuttle landing, and WPN One saw Klaus stumble through the solid side of the ship like the hull hadn't been there at all.

  "A curse," she whispered, looking down at Klaus, who was watching the screen with a gaping mouth. "You can pass through walls."

  Klaus didn't betray a response, his eyes still on the screen as she flickered through, passing into the ground and onto the floor below. WPN One nodded, putting the pieces together. He had the power to pass through solid objects and obviously had some control of his curse to keep himself from just falling through the ground.

  "Klaus," she said. "I think I know why you're here, but I need you to tell me. I want to help you, but I need to know. Tell me why you're here."

  Klaus paused before taking a deep breath. Finally, he spoke, his voice rattling as he pronounced the words. It took him a few attempts, as he clearly hadn't spoken for a long time.

  "Erik," Klaus rasped. "Save Erik."

  "I understand," WPN One said, looking out into the dark before turning to the boy. "Let me tell you how."