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Chapter 15

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Jayce held onto the prow railing as the skiff flew over treetops. He laughed as flocks of colorful birds were spooked from branches and scattered through the sky. Maru was at the controls, speaking with Neff quietly as he drove them all toward a distant mountain peak.

“Nothing, sir.” Dastin, standing watch on the port side, lowered a pair of binoculars from his eyes.

“No one knows my entrance, no one one!” Neff stretched his limbs across Maru’s back. The Docent’s skin stretched like a bat’s and caught some of the breeze. The skiff nosed down slightly and skirted over a deep ravine.

“I love all those standing kelp beds,” Jayce said. “What do you call them again?”

“Trees. They’re all trees,” Maru said. “Go take Sarai’s post. I wish to speak to her.”

“Aye, sir.” Jayce pushed off the rail and ran to the back of the deck where Sarai clutched the railing for dear life with one hand; the other clutched an optic to her chest. She’d gone pale and her knees wobbled.

“You OK?” he asked.

“By the Light of the Veil, this is miserable,” she said. “How are you so damned cheerful?”

“What’s wrong? There aren’t even sea swells to deal with. No spray either. This is the best ship I’ve ever been on,” Jayce said. “Aren’t you having a good—”

Sarai leaned over the railing and vomited.

“Guess not.” Jayce plucked her water bottle from the side of her pack and handed it to her.

“I hate you so much.” She spat out the last of her breakfast. “And thanks.”

“Maru wants to talk to you.” He took the binoculars from her.

“I don’t want to walk right now. Did it seem urgent?” she asked.

Jayce looked over his shoulder. Maru’s attention was on piloting and whatever Neff was jabbering into his ear.

“Not particularly.” Jayce looked around with the binoculars. “This is easier than watching out for snatch squids or crimson sharks . . . Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.” Sarai set her forearms on the railing and lowered her head between them. “This is miserable. I want to be back in the void.”

“Adept Maru asked me why I want to go through the Veil with him. Why are you going?” he asked.

Sarai turned her head to look at him, then walked toward the prow. Jayce stayed at his post until the sun began to fall and Maru tapped him on the shoulder. Jayce didn’t look away from the back of the ship.

“Neff needs to get to know you,” Maru said. “It’s necessary, but a bit uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable ho-ow!” Jayce shouted as Neff stuck his snout into Jayce’s ear and sniffed quickly.

“Just stand still.” Maru took the binoculars from him. Neff jumped from Maru’s shoulder to Jayce’s and continued nosing around Jayce’s head and shoulders.

“Why why so much fish smell?” Neff scratched Jayce’s hair, then shook dandruff from his claws. “Human male child. Bad breath breath. Otherwise viable.”

“What are you doing?” Jayce asked.

“I am Docent. I find you right Veil stone. Bad stone won’t let you take through. Waste waste of time and chance. You’re a year or so away from being too old . . . last chance. Only chance!” Neff held Jayce’s left eye open for a second, then huffed.

“The Docents are something of a mystery,” Maru said. “There’s no record of them from before the Collapse, and they were encountered by the first Adepts when they crossed into the Veil.”

“Lucky those ones were. We have anchors for them. Never any Adepts without Docents. Hands. Hands!” Neff scratched at Jayce’s arm. Jayce brought a hand up to Neff and the Docent meticulously inspected his fingers.

“This is an anchor.” Maru pulled out a small disc from his jacket and let Jayce see it. He put it back before Jayce could reach for it. “It will be tethered to our Aperture gate. When you are ready to leave the Veil, you must break the anchor. It’s the only way out if you can’t return to the gate.”

“Time-lost treasures from beyond the Veil. Don’t forget the price!” Neff set Jayce’s hand on his head like a hat and peered through his fingers.

“I never do,” Maru said. “There will be temptations on the other side, Jayce. Not every stone you’ll come across is a prize. Some are false. Others are traps.”

“How do I know the difference?” Jayce asked.

“That’s what I’m for.” Neff turned upside down and wrapped his tail around Jayce’s forehead. “Ha! Have cut cut stone already. Familiar it . . .”

Neff jumped onto Maru and bared his tiny teeth at Jayce.

“Where you get get that? How dare you steal!” Neff swiped at the air between them.

“It chose him, Neff. Adept Holden has gone beyond the Veil,” Maru said. “Jayce is a good man. Holden’s spirit would not choose anyone else.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Jayce asked.

“Owe that one! Saved me from Docent eaters at great risk to himself. Never met him before but still saved me,” Neff snarled. Maru scratched the Docent behind the ear and that seemed to calm the small alien down.

“A lot has happened since we last met, Neff,” Maru said. “The galaxy is a different place now. Your aura is too much right now. There’s something else, isn’t there?”

“The Below clings to the stone. Old blood that never washes out,” Neff said. “Bad omen for the crossing. Don’t like . . . no.”

The Docent sniffed Maru’s neck, then snorted.

“Yours too. No good! No good, I say!” Neff jumped off and ran on all fours to Dastin. He climbed up the Marine and perched on his shoulder, tail swinging back and forth angrily.

“Is he always like that?” Jayce asked.

“He has a flair for the dramatic. Don’t worry about what he said, he’ll lead you and Sarai to excellent Veil stones. He always does.”

“That dead man I spoke to—”

“Not dead dead!” Neff shouted.

“I talked to a skull! He’s dead enough!” Jayce shouted back. He cleared his voice and continued speaking with Maru. “Aren’t all the Gripped like we saw on the Iron Soul loyal to the Tyrant?”

“Technology is an incredible thing. Once word gets out of a new use for something, everyone knows that it is possible. The Tyrant’s nobles were a significant part of his rule. Some with the money and expertise found a way to use the Grip to prolong their lives without having their wills bent to the Tyrant.”

“Why doesn’t everyone want to get one? Not dying seems desirable.”

Maru removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm. The strong breeze wicked moisture away from his face.

“There is a cycle, Jayce. What lives must die. What endures from our lives after our passing is the greatest gift we can give to those we leave behind. Those who take the Grip do not live as you know it. Sensation is greatly muted. The vessel of life rots away without intervention. It is an abomination in every way. The Tyrant used the Grip to enslave his soldiers and his court; there was no life for them to live. Most of those that take on the Grip voluntarily succumb to madness and despair within a few years. The mind is alive, but it is trapped in a rotting cage. Those that trade the cycle of life and death for a pale reflection of how they lived almost always regret it.”

“Then why did that Syndicate shot-caller do it?”

“Some enjoy the power. Others fear death so much they will do anything to stave it off, no matter the cost,” Maru said. “Can you feel them? The gates.”

Jayce leaned against the railing.

“I don’t know why . . . but maybe there’s something really interesting over there.” He pointed west, toward a small hill.

“Bad bad spot,” Neff said. “Takers know it, have it monitored. Gate goes to island with bad flecks and nothing more. Young one has the touch.”

“Not bad,” Maru said.

“What are these gates?” Jayce asked.

“This was once a Shrine world of the Ancients. Perhaps they were beings from beyond the Veil who came to our dimension, maybe they were an advanced race native to our galaxy that found a way into the Veil and went on to exploit it, but this is one of the systems where the gap between becomes very thin. From time to time.”

“We couldn’t go through at the Shrine back home?”

“Too far. Too much needed.” Neff shifted between Dastin’s shoulders. “Apertures only a few tens of systems at a time. Good nose, good instincts needed to know which ones to go to. No pattern.”

“We must beware our return,” Maru said. “The entrance and exit points are the same for all who travel beyond the Veil. It’s easier and more cost efficient to take from those who make the journey instead of making it oneself.”

“How is that an advantage? Say someone comes back with an FTL stone, they can’t just take it. Doesn’t it have to stay with the Attuned who found it?” Jayce asked.

“Correct. But most who return do so with power flecks and stones rated for harness, if they’re lucky. Neither of those need Attuned for them to function. No one who makes a Pilgrimage for those is safe until they return to Illara and auction off what they found . . . or they get off-world with their bounty. There’s less risk of being ambushed for those that go deeper into the Veil to bond with a more powerful artifact.”

“Soon soon, be there soon.” Neff stood on his hind legs and wafted air toward his snout with his fleshy wings.

“The Docents can sense where the gates are,” Maru said. “But they’re more valuable within the Veil.”

“How do they—”

“Mind your business!” Neff barred teeth at Jayce. “Don’t believe lie that eating us can give you our gifts. It is lie! Also don’t believe eating Docents gives long life. More lies! We taste terrible terrible. Very poisonous to all.”

“You don’t even have any meat on you,” Jayce said.

“Adept! Protect me!” Neff clung to Maru and inched his body around to put the Adept between him and Jayce.

“He’s not serious.” Maru gave Neff a pat on the head, then narrowed his eyes at Jayce.

“No one’s going to eat you while I’m around, Neff,” Jayce said. “You have my word.”

“Watching you!” Neff swiped at the air and gave him a double take, then pointed at his eyes and swung the same fingers at Jayce. “Tell unfunny man to turn forty degrees east and stop ten klick klicks at the clearing surrounded by red blossoms.”

“Will do.” Jayce handed over the binoculars to Maru and jogged to the conn at the prow.


Dastin set the skiff down in a clearing as the sun set. He and Eabani leapt off the deck and raced to opposite sides of the wood line. Maru ignited his glaive and walked off the skiff. He stood in the middle of the clearing and looked around.

“Finally.” Sarai shut down the skiff. Her eyes lingered on Maru.

“Feels like . . . feels like my teeth are humming,” Jayce said.

“Squeaker! Open the big pocket on the left side of my pack!” Dastin called out from the woods.

Jayce pulled his pack off the pile and unsnapped the pocket. Crabs crawled out and skittered over his hand. Jayce snapped back as the crabs sprouted wings and flew away. They spiraled overhead, then spread out into the woods.

Jayce hopped off the skiff and tested his footing. He went to one knee and touched a thick weave of vegetation. He snapped a blade off and held it up to the waning sky. He rubbed it between his fingers and sniffed it.

“What are you doing?” Sarai asked.

“Is this that ‘grass’ you’ve mentioned?” He pressed his palm against the ground. “It’s . . . neat.”

“Don’t go hugging any trees just yet,” Sarai said. “Unless you want to figure out if you’re allergic to the bark.”

“Come here.” Maru tossed his helmet toward the skiff. He pointed to an armband with an anchor stone fastened to it. He snapped similar devices onto both their arms. “These anchor stones will bind to this Aperture as we pass through. If there’s an emergency or you’re injured, break the stone with one solid blow. Cracking it can offset the recall and you could end up inside one of those trees or half-in, half-out of the gate.”

“I can’t believe this is finally happening,” Sarai said. “Now I can finally know which stories are true and which were lies Dastin would tell to scare me when I was little.”

Jayce looked at the Anchor stone, then glanced around. Dastin and Eabani emerged from the woods and brought over the packs.

“Listen to me.” Maru locked eyes with Jayce. “When the Aperture opens, you must keep moving. Do not stop for anyone or anything. You linger too long in the Between and you’ll end up like them.”

“There’s a ‘them’?” Jayce asked.

“There is only one direction. Keep moving until you find us on the other side. Everyone goes through alone. Such is the way of things.” Maru helped Sarai shoulder her pack, then spoke to Jayce. “Know this: any water you drink from the Veil will not quench your thirst. Any food you did not bring with you will not stop your hunger. The Veil underpins our reality, but it is not of us and we are not of it. Do you understand?”

“Only eat and drink what I’ve packed. Got it.” Jayce snapped his waist strap together.

“Sarai, tell him about the dilation. I must prepare.” Maru went to the center of the clearing and spun his glaive around and stabbed the blade into the grass.

“Time isn’t the same in there,” she said. “We will feel time passing. We’ll get hungry and thirsty and need to sleep, but when we leave . . . everyone comes out at the exact same time. All across the Aperture world. The gates will open for about an hour or so, but when everyone comes out can be a bit funny. Longest is six standard days. Usually only a few minutes pass out here.”

“Then why are we carrying all this crap if we’re only going to be gone for—”

“Say an hour passes out here before the Return. You can stay in the Veil indefinitely if you have enough food and water and don’t get killed by anything. Or anyone. Some aliens don’t have the same bio needs we do and they’ve stayed there for years.”

“Ugh . . .”

“We get through the Between and I decide I’m not going to put up with your crap and snap your anchor. Poof! You’re gone from the Veil and you’ll be right back here. Maybe a couple of minutes have passed. I go on and it takes me days to find the right Veil stone to synch with. I crack my anchor and poof! Right back here at the exact same time you arrive. But I’ve lived all that extra time and you haven’t. I can’t make it any simpler without drawing stick figures.”

“I get it now. Weird.”

“Also: don’t die in the Veil,” she said.

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“You die there and you won’t come back. You’ll . . . you’ll see.” She drew her hilt and spun it in her hand. “I’m going to become an Adept. Finally.”

“Good luck.” Jayce tried to reach for his hilt, but his pack was in the way.

She grabbed him by the front of his jacket.

“Do not get in my way. The Docent finds a stone worthy of me, you keep your thieving mitts to yourself. Understand?”

“I haven’t stolen anything,” Jayce raised his hands to the side.

Sarai’s face contorted with anger, but she didn’t elaborate. She pushed him away.

“Adept, perimeter defenses are in place,” Dastin said. He and Eabani pulled out their crossbows and checked the strings.

“Soon! Soon so very soon!” Neff jumped into the air and flapped his wings, slowing his fall slightly.

Maru began chanting. The words were low and indistinguishable. A vibration in tune with the invocation resonated through Jayce’s feet and he lifted one foot up and hopped to the other in panic.

Dastin grabbed him by the arm.

“It’s OK, kid. This is how it goes,” the gunnery sergeant said.

Jayce tried to pull away, but the older man’s grip was iron.

A dull glow appeared beneath the grass and grew more intense with every passing moment.

“Maybe . . . maybe this was a bad idea!” Jayce shouted as a rush of wind came from the ground and blew grass and dirt around him.

“Keep moving!” Dastin shook Jayce. “One foot in front of the oth—”

Jayce fell into white light.


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