[Ishtar Sink, Ishtar Academy Perimeter]
Void waited on the ridge that overlooked the Ishtar Academy. He was still as stone, cloak barely shifting with the damp Venusian wind as he stared at the dark crater that marred the Academy's grounds.
The last few days had been quiet. The crater had deterred most creatures from sparing the Academy a glance, but today was different. Fallen silhouettes flickered through the ruins in quick, nervous bursts. Vex lights blinked in the shadows of exposed corridors, their shapes stepping in and out of sight like they were checking if the surroundings had calmed enough to take it back.
Void watched it all without blinking.
Obsidian floated near his shoulder, scanning in soft pulses. "Activity's rising. Both sides. The House of Winter is stirring again."
Void exhaled through his nose. "Of course they are."
His eyes tracked a cluster of Winter vandals in the distance, slipping along a collapsed walkway, dragging something metallic between them. The Vex didn't engage either and just watched. As if they were waiting for the Fallen to finish their mistake before punishing them for it.
Void's jaw tightened. "There's no way to stop them cleanly unless I walk in and take their leadership off the table."
Obsidian cautiously spoke up, "That costs time. And we still don't know where Winter's operating from. You'd spend a few days tracking them down and still not find their core members."
Void hummed, low and annoyed. His gaze drifted past the Academy into the thick jungle beyond, where the green swallowed everything. "And if I wipe them out here…"
"The Vex gain ground," Obsidian said immediately. "Winter keeps the Vex busy. Removing them shifts the balance."
Void nodded, understanding settling in like a weight. He'd learned this lesson once on Earth already. Removing the House of Devils had caused too many other factions to pop up.
Sure, he could wipe out the House of Winter's leadership. But every victory made another enemy stronger by accident.
He stared down at the crater again, the dark pit where Vex lights flickered like embers. "I can't be volatile. Not on Venus."
Obsidian pulsed. "You can't erase every threat you see and call it progress."
Void's lips curved, faintly. Not happy. Not amused. Just acknowledging a truth that annoyed him. "This is why the City leaned on diplomacy whenever it could."
Then he smirked, the edge of it sharp. "Enemy of my enemy."
Obsidian's eye dimmed a fraction. "Not always a friend. Sometimes just a delay."
Void didn't answer. His eyes stayed on the ruins. He watched a Vex goblin step out from behind a cracked pillar, raise its arm, and fire. Winter vandals scattered in a panic, their ether masks flashing as they sprinted. The goblin didn't chase.
It just stepped back into the dark like it had proven a point.
Minutes passed.
Void remained still.
Then space rippled.
A pale presence flickered behind him. Elsie had arrived.
She appeared a few metres away, boots on stone, rifle slung, eyes already sweeping the perimeter as if she'd already stepped into this exact scene before.
Her gaze landed on Void, and he paused.
"You're here?" she said, tone flat, almost accusing.
Void glanced over his shoulder, calm as ever. "I figured you'd show at some point."
Elsie's eyes narrowed slightly. She looked past him toward the Academy, then back. "How would you know that?"
Void shrugged, "The Academy will probably see some action soon. That tends to pull you out of wherever you've been hiding."
Elsie didn't deny it. She stepped beside him and looked down at the crater. For a second, the two of them just watched the chaos simmer.
Then Void spoke again, voice lighter, almost dry. "I will say, though. You're late."
Elsie shot him a look.
Void raised his brows. "Don't look at me like that. The Vex and the Fallen have been stirring for a good hour. You have time travel. How are you late?"
Elsie's mouth twitched. "It's more complicated than you think."
Void stared at her for half a second in disbelief, then shook his head. "Sure."
Elsie exhaled once. "Ignore that. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be busy trying to get a way to the Black Heart?"
Void's posture shifted slightly. Something colder slid into his voice.
"I did find it," he said.
Elsie's eyes sharpened. "Found what?"
Void looked down toward the crater again, "A Vex Gate Lord."
Elsie's surprise was small, but real. Her eyes widened a fraction, then narrowed again as she processed it. "You're moving faster than I expected."
"Problem is," Void continued, "there's no way for me to extract the key. Not cleanly. Not with what I have."
Elsie's gaze lingered on him. "So you came to me."
"Seems you've caught on."
Elsie's expression didn't change. "You want to know how the others did it. Don't you?"
Void's eyes met hers, and he only replied with a quiet nod.
For a moment, Elsie didn't answer.
She just turned, walked past him, and moved to the edge of the ridge. Her boots crunched gravel. Then she spoke, voice quiet, almost tired.
"Some things never change."
Void's brows lifted slightly.
Elsie didn't look back at him. "Every version of you that makes it this far asks me the same question."
Void's heart skipped a beat.
Elsie finally glanced over her shoulder.
"I do end up helping sometimes."
Void didn't speak for a second. The wind filled the gap. The Academy's distant gunfire crackled like static.
Elsie turned back to the crater. "I can help you, too. If that's what you want."
Void's thoughts moved fast. The key. The Heart. The stakes. But also the fact that she'd done this before. Which meant that maybe his timeline was conforming to something Elsie had lived through.
'Is that a good or a bad thing?'
He swallowed the questions and took a breath.
"I hate to be that guy, but. There's no other way,"
Elsie nodded once, like she'd expected that answer. "Then I'll do it."
Void's gaze stayed on her. "Just like that."
Elsie's voice stayed calm. "I don't see a reason to refuse."
Then she shifted her rifle strap, eyes narrowing toward the ruins. "Give me a moment. I need to clear the area first. The Vex and Winter are already sniffing around. I don't want them to start another fight and damage the place further."
Elsie started forward, stepping down the ridge with measured speed.
Void watched her for a breath.
Then he unsheathed his sword.
Arc light crawled along the blade's edge, wreathing his forearm and shoulder in blue cracks that snapped and faded. His cloak fluttered once as the charge built under his skin.
Void's lips curved into something sharp.
"I'll help speed it up," he said.
Lightning radiated from him; his figure crackled and flickered towards the Academy.
-
[Dreaming City]
Space tore, then settled as a fissure connecting two dimensions.
The Reef's empty darkness quivered behind Mara Sov as she stepped through the portal, replaced by a new emptiness that didn't behave like a vacuum. Rather, this strange realm itself glowed with ethereal light.
Mara stepped forward. The first thing her boots touched was a bridge of pale stone that lit up beneath her feet.
Below the bridge was an incandescent glow that pulsed akin to a heartbeat. A sea of mist was layered below it, slow and rolling in sheets that caught colour like oil. The mist wasn't water; rather, it was an odd, amorphous crystal that hardened in a vaporous form.
A sort of invisible solid. Above it was a grand structure.
The Dreaming City.
Spines of crystal climbed into the air, each one faceted just enough to fracture the glow into ribbons. The buildings in the city were tall and leaned into the horizon. Curved towers, open ribs, bridges that looped in graceful arcs, and windows cut like tears through gold-veined stone.
There was no wind in this realm. Yet the banners of this city still fluttered in slow, deliberate motions, as if orchestrated.
Even sound behaved differently in this place. When Mara Sov's Paladins stepped on the bridge, the tap of their boots did not echo. It softened, sinking into the walls as if absorbed by a curated silence.
Mara walked across the bridge, calm and unhurried.
Her Paladins escorted her in a tight formation, armour catching the realm's glow in soft highlights. The city opened into wide terraces where water ran in perfect channels, silent streams that flowed uphill as easily as down. The water carried faint sparks of light, little points that drifted like living motes. When they passed beneath a bridge, the motes rose, brushing the underside of the arch, and the stone answered with a gentle pulse.
The path ahead narrowed into a corridor of gold with smooth and curved walls that were hollow like the inside of a shell. Openings lined the sides, each one framing a different view of the city. A spire in the distance. A garden terrace. A pool of mist rolling over the edge of the world.
Mara raised her hand.
Her Paladins halted instantly, as if their bodies were tied to her gesture.
"That's far enough," Mara chimed up.
They scattered without hesitation, peeling away into hidden routes and narrow alcoves, slipping behind pillars that seemed too thin to hide anyone.
Mara continued alone, the corridors bent once more, then opened into a chamber with heavy doors. She gently pushed forward with her palm, and the doors creaked open.
Inside, the chamber looked like it had been carved out of a single golden bone.
It was shaped like an egg split open. A hollowed chamber with many openings, each one a dark wound in the gold.
The gap in the doors allowed light to slip through, but despite the polished interior of the chamber, not a single ray of light was reflected. Instead, a stale and colorless aura stained the room.
The moment Mara stepped over the threshold, her hair shifted slightly, and a tremor ran through the floors. An immense presence lurked in the darkness. It's figure rolled across the chamber, deep and slow, like a tide arriving without water.
Then the darkness in one of the openings rippled.
A draconic head emerged, simply weaving out of the shadow, as if the dark itself had taken that form at will.
Riven.
Gargantuan. Restrained by the magical geometry of the chamber. Her scales caught the gold in dull flashes; her eyes were many, each one fixed on Mara with a different kind of hunger. Some curious. Some amused.
Mara stopped beneath her, gaze tilted up.
"Riven," Mara smiled, "Have you been well?"
Riven's mouth curled, slow. Her voice filled the hollow chamber like an echo.
"How could I not be well?" Riven replied. "We've built you a beautiful city."
She paused.
"And me, a beautiful cage."
The Ahamkara's words lingered, but Mara's expression did not change.
"It keeps you hidden."
Riven's eyes narrowed by a fraction. "So it does."
The silence that followed was heavy, but controlled. A silence between two beings who never spoke without weighing the consequences.
This time, Mara spoke first.
"I met someone today," she said.
Riven's attention sharpened.
"Did you," Riven murmured.
"An enigma," Mara continued. "Another who carries the power of an Ahamkara."
The chamber tightened, space itself quivered and contracted.
Riven tilted her head, and the movement made the shadows in the openings sway as if they were tethered to her thoughts. "And you are certain."
"I know what I felt."
"Did you see it?"
"I could not mistake that energy." Mara's fingers flexed once at her side as she recalled the sensation of the energy lingering on her hand. "I want you to find out if what I saw was real."
Riven's lips parted in something like a smile.
Mara's tone lowered, the warning threaded cleanly through her words. "Be careful. If the other one senses you reaching, the result could be… unpleasant."
Riven's eyes flashed.
For the briefest second, they turned white, and the chamber's pale light dimmed as if a candle had been pinched between fingers.
Then Riven went quiet.
So quiet that Mara could hear her own breath.
A moment passed. Riven laughed, peevish and soft.
"I see," Riven said.
Mara's eyes narrowed. "Explain."
"A price," Riven replied.
Mara's answer came immediately. "The same as always."
Riven's grin sharpened. "How generous, Queen."
She paused, as if choosing which truth to reveal and which lie to dress in silk.
Then she spoke.
"What you saw was true," Riven said. "There is another."
Mara's gaze hardened. "I thought you said you were the only Ahamkara left?"
"I was mistaken"
Riven leaned closer, just enough that her form shifted into a serpentine creature. "Because the one who carries it was cunning enough to hide its presence."
Her eyes flickered with faint delight.
"Much like yourself."
Mara frowned, "Is that all?"
"Do you wish to give more?" Riven smiled back.
Before the Ahamkara could finish, Mara had already turned to leave.
Halfway to the exit, she stopped. She looked back over her shoulder. "I will ask you one last time. Are you certain?"
Riven's smile became something harrowing. Her voice slid through the hollow like a vow.
"Would I lie to you, O queen mine?"
Mara held her gaze for a second and then walked away. The door slowly pulled behind her with a soft finality, as the gold floors swallowed the sound of her footsteps, and plunged the chamber into darkness once more.
Riven form shifted again, but it was different this time. The Ahamkara didn't feel the need to assume a form while alone. What she had adopted now was something akin to smoke.
Yet even this formless smoke had conjured her distinct eyes that always seemed to stay open. Alone in the dark, Riven's eyes flickered white once more, and endless possibilities flashed through her mind.
A shapeless and wretched smile bloomed on her cloudy figure.
-
A/N: AAAAND we're back! Damn, I kinda maintained 4 chapters a week this time. Going forward, will try to maintain the release rate as best I can. Enjoy it!
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