To say that the local Magistrate’s office was a beehive of activity would be an understatement.  Despite the late hour, there were still dozens of people in the lobby, waiting for their petitions to be heard.  However, as soon as 5 o’clock appeared on the overhead digital display, things started shutting down in haste.


    “The office of the honorable Magistrate Regulus Laurier is now closed.  If you have a ticket already, keep it and come again tomorrow morning.  We thank you for your patience and participation.” An overhead voice spoke, and a bell rang to finalize it.


    Disappointed petitioners started to disperse through the front door, and exhausted staffers closed-up their many stalls.


    “I can’t believe how many people are wanting to immigrate all of a sudden…” One of them said to another, “Everyone’s really freaked out by what’s going on in Sargon.”


    “Do you think they’d really let an afflicted guy become Emperor…?”


    “I’m less worried about the afflicted part of it than I am about the Luminaries sticking their fingers into things…  Nothing screams ‘conspiracy for world domination’ like the A.I.s of a bunch of greedy dead guys carrying on the mission because they don’t realize they’re dead.”


    “You think the Eidolon are A.I.s?”


    “Don’t you?  No one can live that long, not without being put into stasis…and I’d hardly call that living…”


    Chatter continued as doors were locked and the building emptied…all except for one lonely office in the back.  Within it, and through a door with the Magistrate’s name engraved into a brushed brass plate, was that very Magistrate.  He was an older man, but not too far past his prime, with pale ochre skin, and salt-and-pepper spikey short hair.  Pale blue eyes looked at a thin, book-sized transparent plate, framed at the upper and lower edges with a pen-sized golden bar, making it look like an unfurled scroll.  Upon that plate were the holographic images of what had been seen by local authorities around 15 minutes earlier.


    The image of the distant sky, streaked with a lightning-like blast of energy that came from the ground, which exploded outward as if it had hit the underside of an invisible dome before fading again.  Regulus flicked the screen’s bottom right edge, and the hologram flipped over on the glass, revealing a real-time map of the area with areas of interest flagged for easy identification.


    “…That’s one of the old guard,” he said quietly, recognizing the name ‘Gavin Mallerd’ where he was listed as the property owner, “And it’s not far from here at all.”  Regulus leaned back into his big leather reclining-chair, the thin screen held between his finger and thumb.  His other thumb tapped against his chin, elbow on the arm-rest…and made a decision.  With a click to the top right of the screen, the holographic lights disappeared, and the flat glass-like surface suddenly became flexible and rolled-up like a scroll.  Up-rose a special golden cylinder from the surface of the judge’s desk, and in slid the consolidated screen.  The cylinder descended again, and with a click, and a subsequent pat of one palm against the lid, the message was gone, and Regulus stood up again, “I suppose I can spare an evening for that delightful old man.  This strange phenomenon happened far too close to the Restricted Area for comfort anyway…”


    He shut the light off as he left, and took an elevator down in the bowels of the building.  What started as an underground parking garage became a hangar, and through a large steel roller-door was a huge, dark room.  Regulus lifted his hand up to the control panel on the far right side, and flicked for the lights to come on.  What he beheld within the familiar sight of a long-time and dependable friend.


    .


    Returning back to Gavin’s homestead took less time than it did to get from there to the rift, and that urgency hadn’t lifted when they arrived.  The oily residue on Ianori’s skin had thickened, turning into something like a rubbery, candle-wax shell that fit as snugly as a glove.  He struggled against it, but it was largely a mental battle; he was delirious and mumbling, unresponsive to external stimuli, and didn’t seem to be aware of what was around him.


    Ren combed her fingers through that eerily white hair, “Ianori…  Hang on…”


    Seth could only hug his arms around the nanotech containment sphere he held on his lap, on the edge of tears for the stress.  He could feel the vehicle coming to a stop though, and looked up as Gavin bailed entirely, nearly stumbling for his haste.


    “Take it and go!” The judge yelled, gesturing to the east, “Never mind anything else!  You have to get back to Sargon immediately!”


    Gabriel didn’t need to hear those words repeated, and he quickly hopped out of the middle row and into the driver’s seat.  The vehicle was never shut off, so it was an easy thing to get moving again.  He pulled the door shut and adjusted the seat, then rolled the window down, “Thanks for your help…and for the info.”


    “GO!” Gavin slapped at the side of the car like it was the back-end of a horse, and Gabriel got a move on.  Gavin watched with nervous eyes as the car got back onto the drive-way, heading through and eventually disappearing behind the long rows of curated trees.  He turned his attention back to the sky though, and shifted towards the west, “…You don’t want to be anywhere near this place when he gets here…”


    .


    The city of Stoneface Bluffs was on the smaller side of things, but it was big enough for the purposes of the local Magistrate, and served as the base of operations to the district.  As such, it had its own small aerodrome, and taking off from it was the uniquely and easily-identifiable visage of the local flagship.  Shaped like a spinning-top, it was bulbous and round at the top, but tapered to a thinner point underneath.  Around its base were three tiers of concentric rings, one higher and wider than the one beneath it, acting as the main propulsion system.  Each ring glowed slightly on the inside, and as the ship began its careful ascent, the rings extended down below the ship, as if ‘pushing’ it up from the ground.  It turned around, and faced towards the east, revealing a massive, front-facing cyclopean light; the rings that surrounded it coiled and rotated, acting like its iris.


    On the command-deck, Regulus made his presence known, and he looked to the ship’s captain, “I take it you received the missive?”


    “Yessir, we have a course plotted.”


    “How soon can we be there?”


    “Thirty minutes.”


    “Make it 15.” The Magistrate explained, and reached up to press his fingers to the edges of a long split in his left ear, “…I have an itch about this one.”


    “Yessir!”


    .


    Seth could feel the nervous sweat slip down the back of his neck as the vehicle went coursing along that causeway, heading back towards the Sargonian border – and in the distinctly opposite direction of a myriad number of cars they were passing - with a speed that made him almost as worried as the goings-on in the vehicle itself.  He hugged the containment sphere a bit tighter, only to twitch and look up sharply as he felt a hand on his shoulder.


    “…Seth, I need you to reassign that nanotech supply to me.” Ren said quietly, “I know it’s a big ask…”


    “…It’s…it’s all my data…  I…I can’t just…  …Why…?”


    She threaded her fingers through the dark hair at the back of her head, and pressed in for several seconds where she felt the two nodules embedded beneath her skin, “Because Judge Mallerd was really adamant about sending us on our way in a big hurry.  And for a man who was as high in the ranks of the Kitezan Duchy as he was back in the day, and as cozy as he’s been with the Council all this time…I have every reason to believe he’s got good reason for it.”  A blue flashing light appeared on her irises as her access-nodes came back online, “We may well have need to defend ourselves before the night is out.”


    “Please, no…  Everything I’ve collected for the last month is in here…” Seth pleaded, in spite of Ren’s business-serious expression, and the sight of Ianori’s corrupted frame right in front of him, “Please, Miss Ren…no…”A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    “If nothing happens, I’ll just give it back, no harm, no foul.  But that data won’t mean anything to you if we’re all dead.” Ren countered, “I need you to hand it over.”


    He could only choke back his tears as he clenched his eyes shut and hugged the sphere even tighter, but after a few more seconds of agonizing despair, he tapped the side-arm of his glasses.  His overlay became visible in those lenses once more, and with a few clicks and gestures, found Ren’s name on the local network and granted her access.


    With no time to spare, Ren loaded-up her own interface, and started moving emergency protocols over onto the new mini-cloud.  The transfer-status bar appeared – to her eyes – over the sphere, and she reached over to pat the teen’s head, “If we’re lucky, this will just be temporary.  If we’re not…hopefully it’ll be enough to buy us enough time.”


    Seth’s tearful eyes looked on at her skeptically, but he nodded, “…R-right…”


    “What’s going on?” Gabriel suddenly asked, looking back at the trio through the rear-view mirror.


    “Help is coming, but we’ll be doing it a favor if we can meet it half-way.”


    He was surprised, “…How does anyone already know we’re in trouble?  We’re completely cut-off out here.”


    “Lucky for you, the answer to that question isn’t in my file for you to have already known about,” She explained, and saw the transfer complete.  New windows opened to her sights, and she immediately activated the first protocol.  The nanotech orb opened, and that dust-like substance swarmed out, up, and all around her, “Knight-Cadet Setharion Rydell is the younger brother of the Captain of the Fafnir Knights, and he would never let Seth come into Kitez without at least four layers of safeguards.  Two were formally with the Luminary Council – the Aegis is parked on the border, and the fact that Council has sanctioned the activities here means they’re keenly interested in the outcome.  The other two, are in the car with us.”


    “Mr. Ianori was supposed to keep an eye on things…” Seth added dubiously, but then reached up to grab his now-useless glasses, “And these…are a gift from Lord Rylen himself.  None of Lord Rylen’s toys ever leave his hands without some way of being able to track them.”


    The nanotech finally coalesced into something tangible and recognizable, rippling across Ren’s petite frame like water, then ice to follow, and finally, the metallic-looking temporary armor she had directed it to create.  Completed, it took the shape of a rudimentary version of the Fafnir power-suit, sans the capability of flight.  Ren inspected herself and flexed her fingers, “…Sorry you had to find out this way.  Seth may be the Captain’s little brother, but…before I transferred to the Fourth, I was the man’s right hand.”


    Gabriel stared through that mirror for a few more seconds; the sight of that armor was enough to send a chill down his spine, and he swallowed a nervous breath, “…I know.”


    Ren balked, and leaned to grab the shoulder of the front passenger seat, “Wait, what?”


    “When the old man I were on our own, and you came up to ask if I was done moping.” He answered, “He’d just accidentally told me who everyone was, including you.”


    There was an awkward pause, but Ren drew in a breath, “I hope we’ve gotten to know each other well enough that you’re not upset at me.  It was never my intent to hide this from you.”


    “No…not yours.” He answered, “Just Rylen’s.  He’s probably going to think it’s pretty funny when he founds out how I learned the truth.”  There was another lingering pause, and Gabriel gripped the steering-wheel a little tighter, “…There’s a few hours yet before we get to the border, even at this pace.  Maybe now would be a good time to let me know if there are any other helpful secrets that I should be aware of.”


    “Nope, that’s the big one.” She answered with a relieved sigh, “Glad that’s out in the open though.  Now I can stop pretending to be a Luminary baby.”


    “Are you about to turn into a whole other person?” Gabriel wondered carefully, “Was the face you put on before a lie, too?”


    “Nope.” She twisted in her seat, and put a hand onto Ianori’s chest, checking briefly to be sure the man was still breathing in his catatonic state.  That done, she turned all the way around and moved herself into the back seat with Seth, and perched her elbows onto the head-rest to start her watchful vigil on their rear, “But I do take issue with it being characterized that way.  I never lied to you.”  She took a moment to cast a glance back at the man over her armor-plated shoulder, “What about you?  Are you hiding anything by omission?”


    “Tsh…  Only that I’m useless in a fight.” He said, making fun at his own expense.


    Seth was the one to take issue then, “You’re a Limitless user though…  You should be able to do something that might help in a pinch…”


    Gabriel shrugged helplessly, “Once upon a time, maybe…but what you saw earlier was the first time my affliction had activated in many years.  I…don’t know how to use it anymore.”


    “But you were put in charge of helping the Prince learn how to use his…” Seth pointed out, “How could you do that if you don’t-”


    “I don’t mean like that; turning it on and off is like instinct.  You just…know, after a while.  It’s the actual ability I supposedly have.  Being in the Fourth meant I never had to think about fighting, so after the formalities of going through boot like everyone else when I came of age, it never really came up.” The mediator confessed, embarrassed.  He pulled his left hand off the wheel and set his elbow on the window-panel, so he could rest his cheek against his knuckles, and sighed, “Honestly, if I could’ve gotten rid of my affliction entirely, I would’ve gladly done it a long time ago.  Maybe people wouldn’t have been so wary of me.  It wasn’t enough that I was a kid from the Exclusion Zone, but a Limitless one, too?  I might as well have had a huge flashing ‘shit on me’ sign hanging above my head.  …It’s…not something I’m proud of, and every damn day that goes by, when people see the red in my hair and this one red eye, it just…reminds them – and me, by proxy – that I''m an ‘other’.”


    Both (conscious) passengers went quiet, and glanced at one another.  Ren couldn’t help but smile though, after a fashion, “Well…that was certainly the realest you’ve been since we met.  I dare say, I’m proud of you.”


    Gabriel’s face went red, and he gripped the wheel with both hands again, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have unloaded like that.”


    “No, I think it was good for you.  Do it again.” Ren teased, and turned her eyes back out through the rear windows, “What else have you been dying to tell people all these years?”


    He hesitated, but the nervous flutter in his chest told him to try anyway, “…I…  I’m…afraid of heights.”


    “Wha?” Ren balked, but tried to keep focus on her post, “How the Hell are you afraid of heights when you fly Maeve around all the time?”


    “There’s a reason it doesn’t have real windshield, that you can see through.” He answered warily, his heart racing from the compounded embarrassment, “I don’t get palpitations when the view is on a screen.”


    That just made her choke on a stifled laugh, and she shook her head, “That’s incredible.” She hummed an amused sigh then, “You know, it kind of feels like we got off on the wrong foot before.  Maybe we should pretend like we’re meeting for the first time again.  …Hi, I’m Ren, formerly Wing Commander-One of the Sixth Wing’s Fafnir division.  Nice to meet you, sir.”


    “Ah…you don’t have to do the ‘sir’ stuff.” He answered, “Gabriel is fine.”


    “You sure?”


    “Well, you’ve been doing it all afternoon anyway…” He huffed a laugh of his own, “After we’re done in Kitez, going back to those formalities will feel weird.  I…think I’d like it better if we dropped it.  And you, kid…”


    Seth flinched where he sat, having spent the last several exchanges just turning his eyes between each speaker, “Y-yessir!  Mr. Gabriel, sir!”


    “You don’t have to do the ‘mister,’ either.”


    “He’ll never quit that,” Ren noted with a smirk, “I’ve known him since he was 9 years old, and nothing I’ve done has ever gotten him to stop the ‘miss Ren’ stuff.  You’re just gonna have to get used to that one.”


    “I guess one of the two isn’t all bad,” Gabriel surmised, and went back to focusing on the road, feeling much more relaxed than before, in spite of the circumstances.


    .


    The Magistrate’s ship hovered ominously over Gavin’s homestead, and from a de-boarding capsule that lowered from the base of the point, that self-same Magistrate stepped out, his grey uniform covered by a long, white, formal cloak.  Gavin stood out on the front patio, trying not to look nervous, but every hair on the back of his neck was on end to see the man who now approached him.


    “Well, now…” Regulus began dryly, “If it isn’t the Honorable Gavin Mallerd.  A man of the Conclave from the days before the Council was banned from Kitez.”


    “…General Regulus Lauriel, the proverbial warrior-monk who gave up his rank as a combat leader to go into politics and research instead.” Gavin answered, hands clasped over the horse’s-head cane in front of him, “Though I suppose ‘gave up’ is an incorrect description, since you were offered the option of doing that or being dismissed from your post outright.”  He narrowed his eyes a little bit, “Taunting the Fafnir Captain to the point of violence during a time of negotiations was not the most brilliant move, I must say.”


    “So says the Luminary sympathizer who was shamed into retiring outright.  Invaders and absconders aren’t entitled to my kindness or civility.” Regulus countered, “Let’s get straight to the point though.  I received reports that there was a strange phenomenon witnessed on your property.  This close to the Restricted Zone, I’ve taken interest.”


    “Oh?  What kind of phenomenon?  Please, enlighten me.”


    Regulus paused on that thought, and looked around a little bit from where he stood.  From that vantage, the audio-piece that wrapped around and into his right ear was visible, and those pale blue eyes looked straight at the car parked nearby, “Is that new?  I thought yours was a different color.”


    Gavin felt a suspicious chill go down his back like a rush of cold water, “A man can’t change cars when he likes?”


    There was another strange pause, but this time, Regulus withdrew his right arm from his cloak to reach up to the earpiece.  He touched a fingertip to it – listening to something – and then lowered it again.  He cast a few glances around the area one more time…and then lobbed a single pulse of pure energy straight through Gavin’s chest.  The former Magistrate didn’t even have time to look surprised before his lifeless body crumpled to the ground, and Regulus turned where he stood, cloak expanding widely around him; he held his finger to the earpiece again, “Luminary equipment was confirmed on-site.  Mallerd’s personal vehicle is missing.  It’s been one hour since the phenomenon here was witnessed.  If they started their escape towards the Sargonian border immediately, then they’re probably about a quarter of the way there now.  We’re hunting Luminaries tonight.”