September 26, 2152
When Emory woke up the next morning, she felt incredibly refreshed despite sleeping on a plain bed. As she leaned up, she noticed Soren had already woken up and left. With a spring in her step, she got ready for the day and headed out to find him. After walking around for a few minutes, she finally found him in the back of a training class. Though he was miles ahead of the majority of the group, the Witches weren't too far behind. To Emory, this meant it would be possible to get the results she hoped for.
She lightly tapped his shoulder and whispered, "Good morning. Are you ready to get to work?"
"Ready when you are," Soren smiled as he stood up and faced her, "You look more refreshed than you did yesterday. It'll be easier today." Emory nodded as they walked hand in hand to the teleport pad while Emory used her link stone to let Elffin, Gatrie, and Sam know that they were going to get the first wave of the army. Once they reached the pad, Emory checked Jask for the main ship's location before disappearing in a bright flash of light.
Despite the fact that she had done this twice before and that the ships knew she would be coming, those in the command center of the ark ship still shuddered and hid under their workstations when she and Soren arrived aboard the ship. That was except for a middle-aged man standing a few feet away from the pair. He had a wavy auburn mullet and stood a couple inches shorter than Soren. Silver plate armor covered him from the neck down with gold gilding on the edges while a belt of daggers wrapped around his waist. After a couple moments, he slowly stepped forward and bowed to Emory and Soren.
"Lady Reiss, it's good to see you again," the man spoke softly, "I don't know if you remember me, but my name is Nolan. I'm in charge of recruitment for the High Collective."
Emory nodded, "I remember you from that first night; good to see you again, Nolan. This is my friend Soren, a leader from our new allies."
"Good to meet you, Soren," Nolan shook Soren's hand before turning back to Emory, "What do you need us to do?"
Emory explained the process to Nolan just as she had to Lloyd, albeit a bit less sassy due to the conflict she had with the latter. While the ships pulled closer together and shut off their engines, Emory and Soren sat on the ground and began channeling magik. A couple minutes later, they closed their eyes as the ship started to quake. Bright light caused all the people to cover their eyes until a load pop echoed in the silent halls of the ship. The troops quickly rushed over to the screens to see Vostea as a beautiful green and blue orb filling the room with gasps of awe and shock. Soren was gasping for air again, though not as gravely as yesterday, while Emory wiped a drop of blood from her nose.
"Remember to listen to the on-site commanders. I'd rather not send you back to the Sol System after you just arrived," Emory warned Nolan before placing her hand on Soren's shoulder. In a flash of light, the two disappeared without a trace.
Instead of returning to Vostea, Emory had teleported them straight to Yuzuno, though this proved to be a little too taxing on her and caused her to drop to her knees as they landed on the pad. Soren slowly helped her up because he wasn't in much better shape himself. They hobbled their way to the command center but found it empty of people. Sitting in some decent office chairs, they both took a moment to focus more magik before proceeding. While they sat peacefully, two young women with long hair, one blonde and one red, strolled into the room, unaware Emory and Soren were already in there. Tethys froze once she met eyes with Emory.
She boomed, "Emory! You're back! I was so worried about you!"
"Cath and Tethys! It's good to see you two getting along well," Emory sighed, "I'd get up to greet you, but we just teleported one of the armies from the middle of nowhere a few million miles to the skies above Vostea." Cath's eyes almost popped out of her head.
"Lady Aurelias, my apologies. Is there anything I can get you?" Cath rushed over to Emory and knelt before her.
"Please, it's just Emory out here," Emory groaned, "We would love some water please." Cath nodded and sped out of the room in a hurry. "What's her deal?" Emory asked Tethys.
"She was just anxious about your return," Tethys giggled, "When she heard about what you were doing yesterday, she couldn't believe it at first. Your power is getting more immeasurable by the day."
Emory shrugged, "I'm just doing what needs to be done. How have things been going here?"
"Everything is going smoothly here," Tethys cooed, "I've been practicing with Cath. Want to see something cool I learned to do?" Emory nodded as Tethys held out her palm and began forming a tiny black orb. It sparkled like a diamond but was darker than night.
"Is that what I think it is?" Soren questioned as magik quickly swirled around his body.
"Calm down, Soren," Emory ordered as she leaned in closer to study the magik, "Tethys, you learned how to control it. I mean, this is remarkable."
Soren frowned, "Why does one of your people have the Void sphere, Emory? It's their sphere."
"Tethys was part of a human experimentation group before we saved her," Emory explained, "She was implanted with this. In fact, we didn't know it was really magik until Athos saw it a couple weeks ago."
"Oh. I'm sorry for my tone. I should have trusted your reaction instead of my instincts," Soren apologized as he lowered his head and recalled his magik.
"Honestly, it's okay," Tethys murmured, "Almost everyone's initial reaction has been similar to yours. Anyway, Emory, I bring it up because there's been another development besides this. Look at me instead of the orb." Understanding Tethys's actual meaning, she switched to her Arcane Sight and looked inside Tethys. As she expected, the black magik was no longer concentrated at the base of her neck, instead it circulated throughout her entire body. But that's when she looked closer and saw a small concentration above her heart. In fact, the pulse that flowed through the streams of magik seemed to be coming from that concentration.
Emory gasped, "I can't believe it! You're making a core, aren't you?"
"Obviously, I don't know for sure," Tethys excitedly continued, "But I could feel something. And my mana pool has a small amount of magik in it all the time. I've been going crazy waiting for you to come back so you could confirm it! I can't believe it!"
"I've never heard of any race in our entire history that can use the Void sphere besides the Laxtros. This is a truly remarkable event," Soren breathed.
"What can you do with it? What's the progression like?" Emory bombarded Tethys in excitement, "Is it a straight natural sphere or special like Creation or Arcane? How far along do you think you are? How long have you been making a core?"
Tethys laughed, "Slow down, one question at a time. So far, I can make a bolt or pulse like I could before and absorb weaker magik, probably level two or three. Since I've already encountered two different uses, I'd have to guess it's a special progression. With that as a reference, I'd say I'm between level two and three. The core is recent, maybe two days ago."
"How did you discover all this?" Emory asked in surprise, "Does Cath know about this?"
"Actually, I helped her develop it not long after I landed. It functions like my own Dark sphere in many ways, so it was easy to merge your training with mine," Cath answered after returning with the water for Emory and Soren. Both of them quickly chugged their glasses before leaning back in their chairs to consider the situation.
"Have you been taking notes as you develop this sphere?" Emory questioned as she set down her glass, "After all, that's how the first spellbooks were written. Just think, you may be the first person outside of the Laxtros to ever control the Void sphere. However, let me make this clear to everyone in this room right now: no one breathes a syllable of this news to anyone outside the room. The Council and the Collective are not to know even a hint about this. Am I clear?" When she said this, the pressure coming off her forced the others back in their chairs and overwhelmed them completely, Finally, she relaxed a little bit so they could nod their heads in agreement.
"I won't tell anyone in the Five or Legion either," Soren admitted, "We don't know the full implications of this yet. Telling others would only lead to infighting."
Cath echoed, "I haven't said anything to the Council. Lord Zephiel would most certainly use it as an opportunity to cause conflict."
"Good. Then we're all in agreement," Emory concluded, "Oh, that reminds me. Tethys, I have a couple gifts for you. And now that I think about it, they might help keep this situation under wraps." She dug around in her bag for the silver gloves and another suit of armor before laying all three pieces on the table. "The gloves will make any magik you cast invisible, barriers, bolts, pulses, the whole gambit. Let's reveal the armor now," Emory explained as she waved her hand over the armor set.
"Level five protection enchantment: Illusion. Active Skill: Blur."
"Though Athos didn't know about the gloves you bought, this armor will compliment them quite well," Soren chuckled, "It's pretty simple; when you activate the armor, your body will become like shadows. Tangible but very hard to detect, especially if you're moving."
Tethys smiled, "Thank you! These will be great. So tomorrow, are you going to bring the army here? What's the plan?"
Emory nodded and explained carefully what she had planned, which was different than the first two because she wouldn't be staying on Yuzuno for now. Cath would handle the training, just like the other Council leaders. Tethys, on the other hand, would focus on building defenses and other structures. When Emory herself returned, she would lead a small group to scope out other places to do battle, but until then, they would hunker down here if the enemy came.