Platform Four was massive.
Jin stepped onto the polished white stone circle. The air inside the teleportation ring was incredibly dense. It felt like walking underwater. The six towering pillars surrounding the platform hummed with a deep, vibrating energy that rattled Jin's teeth.
Nyx walked up beside him. Her dark cloak hung perfectly still. She was entirely unaffected by the raw atmospheric pressure.
Luna stepped onto the platform last. She hesitated at the edge. She looked terrified. She clutched the oversized sleeves of her grey tunic tightly in her small hands. She had never been inside an Aether-gate before.
A gate technician stood at a control console outside the ring. He was an older man wearing thick leather gloves and heavy protective goggles. He did not look at them with respect or disdain. He just looked bored. He processed hundreds of travelers a day.
"Priority relay passes confirmed," the technician announced. His voice was amplified by a small, glowing crystal on his collar. "Destination: Crimson-Rock City. Initiating spatial fold sequence."
The humming from the six pillars grew louder. It shifted from a deep vibration to a high-pitched whine.
"Safety protocol," the technician ordered loudly over the noise. "Close your eyes. Keep them closed until the transit is completely finished. The Aether will tear a temporary tunnel through physical space. If you look directly at the raw spatial fold with mortal eyes, your optical nerves will burn out. You will go permanently blind. Close them now."
Jin appreciated the clear warning. It was a standard workplace safety briefing. He did not need to be told twice. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut.
"Luna," Jin said. He kept his voice loud to cut through the whine of the pillars. "Grab Nyx's cloak. Do not let go. Do not open your eyes."
He felt a small, trembling hand brush past him. Luna grabbed a fistful of Nyx's heavy grey fabric.
"I am holding it," Luna squeaked.
"Commencing jump in three," the technician counted down.
Jin braced his legs. He lowered his center of gravity. He did not know what a spatial fold felt like, but his corporate instincts told him to prepare for severe turbulence.
"Two. One. Mark."
The world vanished.
There was no sound of an explosion. There was no rushing wind.
Through his tightly closed eyelids, Jin saw a blinding flash of pure, absolute white light. It was so bright it physically hurt his retinas.
Then, gravity simply ceased to exist.
The polished white marble floor dropped out from under his heavy boots. Jin felt his stomach leap directly into his throat. It was the exact sensation of being inside a falling elevator when the main cable snaps. It was a terrifying, uncontrollable dead drop.
He was falling from the sky.
His inner ear screamed in total confusion. He lost all sense of up and down. His Foundation Level 4 muscles tensed automatically, trying to find purchase on solid ground, but there was nothing to push against. He was floating in a chaotic, frictionless void.
A massive, crushing pressure clamped down on his chest. It felt like a giant, invisible hand was squeezing his lungs. The air around him grew freezing cold, then instantly boiling hot, flipping back and forth in a fraction of a second.
He heard Luna let out a muffled, panicked cry.
Jin clamped his jaw shut. He refused to panic. He relied on pure, cold logic to anchor his mind.
It is just transit, Jin told himself. It is a heavily regulated supply chain route. Thousands of merchants do this every day. The physical stress is temporary. Count the seconds.
One. Two. Three.
The falling sensation grew worse. The pressure on his skull was immense. His brain felt like it was rattling inside his head.
Four. Five.
Just as his lungs started to burn for oxygen, the terrible feeling abruptly stopped.
The transition was violent. Gravity slammed back into him like a physical hammer. His boots hit solid stone with a heavy, jarring thud. The impact sent a sharp shockwave up his legs, but his newly healed spine held firm.
The blinding white light bleeding through his eyelids vanished. The high-pitched whine of the Aether pillars died instantly.
The air around him was different. It no longer smelled like the clean, ozone-heavy atmosphere of the Iron-Spire tower. It smelled dry, dusty, and strongly of sulfur. The ambient temperature was significantly higher.
"Transit complete," a new voice echoed.
It was not the bored technician from Iron-Spire. This voice was harsh and heavily accented.
"Clear the platform immediately," the new voice ordered. "Incoming jump from Zenith City scheduled in thirty seconds. Move your feet."
Jin slowly opened his eyes.
The world spun violently. His vision blurred, splitting into double images. A high, ringing buzz filled his ears like a swarm of angry bees.
A wave of intense, sour nausea hit his stomach. His Foundation Level 4 body fought the sudden geographical displacement, but his human brain was heavily lagging behind. His inner ear was completely scrambled. He felt like he had just stepped off a massive, spinning carnival ride.
He stumbled forward a half-step. He quickly planted his feet wide to stop himself from falling over. He took a deep, slow breath of the dry, sulfur-scented air. He forced his eyes to focus.
He was no longer in Iron-Spire.
The smooth white marble walls were completely gone. He stood on a massive, circular platform carved directly out of dark red bedrock. The transit hall around him was huge, but it was rough and unpolished. Thick dust hung in the air.
He looked to his left.
Luna was not doing well. The spatial jump was far too heavy for a regular mortal. She was on her hands and knees on the red stone floor. She was dry-heaving violently. Her small body shook. She could not even lift her head.
Nyx stood perfectly still beside her.
The shadow-guard looked completely unaffected. The brutal gravity shifts and spatial pressures did not even wrinkle her dark cloak. She was a Divinity Realm expert. Bending space was just a minor inconvenience to her. She looked at Jin, waiting for his next command.
"Give her a minute," Jin said. He swallowed hard, forcing his own nausea down. "The biological toll for low-level assets is high."
He looked around the new terminal.
It was crowded, but the people here looked different from the wealthy merchants in Iron-Spire. The armor was heavier. The cloaks were dusted with dark red sand. The guards patrolling the hall did not wear polished silver armor; they wore thick, boiled leather and carried heavy iron spears.
This was Crimson-Rock City.
It was the first major waypoint on their route. They had just bypassed hundreds of miles of hostile wasteland in exactly five seconds. The cost was three high-tier Aether cores and a terrible headache, but the logistical efficiency was undeniable.
Jin looked toward the front of the red stone hall. He saw a row of long wooden desks. Lines of travelers were paying tolls and negotiating transfer routes.
He reached down and touched the small grey spatial pouch on his belt. The wealth of the bandit camp was still secure. He had the priority relay passes in his pocket.
"Get up," Jin said to Luna. His voice was not cruel, but it was firm. A manager could not let his employees sleep on the job. "We are not staying here. We need to book the next connecting flight."
Luna gasped for air. She wiped her mouth with her grey sleeve. She nodded weakly. She grabbed the edge of Nyx's cloak and pulled herself up on shaky legs. Her face was incredibly pale, but she did not complain. She understood the rules.
"We go to the transfer desk," Jin ordered.
He started walking across the rough red stone floor. His head was still buzzing, and his stomach felt heavy, but he ignored the physical warnings. They were in a new market. They needed to secure their next ticket to Silver-Gate City before Kaelen's hunters caught up to their paper trail.