Delve

Rain sat in Big Gulp's bridge, scratching his beard as he stared out the front window. The ship was hovering perhaps two hundred meters above the Tear. His paling curved below him, the patch appearing to him as a section of ringworld painted upon the inner surface. In this analogy, the Bastion, far, far above him, would be the central star, making the ringworld more Niven than Halo, as far as space habitats were concerned. That comparison broke down when it came to the distances involved. With the Tear covering about a third of his paling's circumference, pure geometry would place the Bastion much closer than it actually was, as reported by his avatar-sense. The chaos that filled the intervening space made such calculations fraught.

Here, though, order prevailed. As at the Bastion, large concentrations of essence imposed physical laws on their surroundings. An archway of air followed the patch, growing hazier with distance until about his current altitude, where there was something of a hard line. He couldn't see the whole patch from here—or anywhere, really—but it was progress.

The other notable physical rule was gravity. In keeping with the ringworld image, it pulled outward, making it possible for Rain to walk along the rubbery patch with the support cables stretching overhead like high-tension power lines. It wasn't exactly real physics. A ringworld was supposed to spin to simulate gravity, and there was no spinning here. It was just an image. Similarly, Big Gulp was ignoring the external gravity, the cabin interior having its own simulated 1g simply because Rain said so.

For what felt like the hundredth time, Rain glanced at the newly-built clock that protruded from one wall, then sighed. The clock's pendulum—tick, tick, ticking away—was about a quarter-meter in length. The math said that meant one oscillation per second under 1g. It was accurate enough that the speed of the second hand didn't seem off to his eye, but clearly, there was significant error. He'd been waiting here for well over twenty minutes, intending to observe his scheduled 8 AM essence exchange. Going strictly by the clock, that should have been ten minutes ago. He'd accounted for the increase to the time acceleration, but he didn't have an exact measurement of the factor yet, introducing another source of error.

Annnnd…. Rain raised a hand, then held it for a moment before whipping it down to point at the clock. Now!

…

Okay…now. Damn it, NOW!

…

With a frustrated groan, Rain sat back to rake his fingers through his hair, closing his eyes. The instant he did this, naturally, a tremor ran through the craft. He snapped his eyes back open, sitting up to stare through the window. As the essence exchange began, he felt his core rushing toward him, along with every avatar that wasn't already at the Tear. The view through the window didn't reflect the contraction of the paling, but that was normal. Invested essence shrunk at the same rate. His avatar was made of invested essence, so his perspective would be shrinking along with it. The same was true of liquid essence. Gaseous essence, though—and chaos by extension—were another story.

As the essence exchange ramped up, the turbulence increased, chaos mixing with air and making the orange haze more pronounced. A trio of gauges on the console told Rain that the pressure was rising. Each had a different scale corresponding to area rank, the first ranging from zero to ninety-nine, the second from twenty to thirty, and the third and most sensitive from twenty-four to twenty-six. The third needle had already risen to read twenty-five point three.

In Rain's experience, the pressure would go no higher for a normal, non-leveling exchange. The paling became permeable during the process. The turbulence he was experiencing was coming from the chaos rushing to freedom during the 'exhale'. That was normal. What wasn't normal was the way his patch had started to balloon outward. Unlike the paling, his patch wasn't permeable. That was the point.

Not even a second later, a great sound rattled the ship, so loud that Rain would have clapped his hands over his ears had he not decided on a frantic lunge for the controls instead.

*Ppptppttpptppttppptpttptttppptpt…*

He just caught a glimpse of the patch sputtering like the world's largest whoopee cushion before a wall of chaos rolled past him, blocking it from view completely. Abandoning his physical senses, he used his distant avatars to orient himself as he brought the ship's turbines to full reverse. He struggled with the suddenly heavy flight controls, the craft starting to spin. Fortunately, he'd left enough distance, and the exhale ended long before he was in any danger of slamming into the web of support cables. The respite was brief. The sound soon returned, the wind now blowing in the opposite direction with the inhale.

*Upptptttptptpttptppptptptptptpptp…*

This time, Rain didn't even bother trying to keep the ship stable. He brought the engines back down, then clamped his palms over his ears as he squinted at the barometer gauges. The third gauge had bottomed out, and the second read twenty-one, though it was swiftly rising. As the third gauge climbed back onto the scale, the sound ended, the patch sealing itself. The turbulence continued for a few seconds more, then faded along with the wind, the pressure stabilizing at twenty-four point five.

Rain removed his hands from his ears, then chuckled, thinking about the sound. "Classy," he said to the empty cabin.

After watching the gauges for another second or two, he left Big Gulp to spin, then switched to a Kludge in one of the anchor stations. Picking himself up from where the avatar had been tossed, he repaired the avatar as he limped to the cable gauges to check the maximum recorded strain. It was high, he saw, but not terrifyingly so. He reset the gauge quickly, then hopped to a Kludge in the next station. As he made his way down the line in this manner, his concern lessened, becoming elation.

No damage! Everything within tolerance! Not great, but within tolerance!

By the time he returned to Big Gulp, he was grinning like a madman. He checked the pressure again, then laughed. It had barely changed, reading at twenty-four point six. It would get back to nominal eventually, he was sure. His paling at large would be working even now to restore the essence that had been lost to...flatulence.

Rain snickered, reaching for the controls to arrest his spin.

There was a crash of breaking pottery, and Lana recoiled as crushing dread washed over her. Her heart fluttered in her chest like a small bird's, her every instinct screaming at her to run. To hide. She staggered away from the fallen tray, fighting not to cry out.

The dread was overpowering...but also familiar. She knew what this was.

And then it was gone.

The terror lingered, but the oppressive, overpowering weight had vanished.

Lana reached to the hilt of her sword to steady herself, drawing strength from its presence. Samson's training took hold, and she found her breath, inhaling evenly.

Calm. I'm calm.

"Who—?" a voice asked.

Lana looked up, seeing Ameliah's head poking out of the tent. Their eyes met, and Lana froze. There was no alarm in the other woman's expression, only confusion.

"Lana?" she asked, exiting the tent. "What are you doing here? Where's Samson?"

Quickly removing her hand from her sword, Lana straightened up her spine, then met Ameliah's gaze. "I—Good morning. I was just bringing you and Rain some breakfast. You both missed the party, so I thought you'd appreciate it. Samson wasn't going to let me through, but then Tallheart walked by and told him it would be okay as long as I didn't ask about what happened last night." She closed her mouth before she was tempted to ask just that. Tallheart had looked exhausted. She didn't believe Kettel's theory, of course, but it was...suspicious.

"Ah," Ameliah said, smiling and looking down at the fallen tray.

Following her gaze, Lana muttered an oath, then dropped to her knees. She flipped over the tray, scrambling to refill it with food and shards of broken pottery. The porridge and the beer were goners, but the rolls and sausages would be fine. They were dry. The freshly sliced beef was another story, but Rain had Purify for that.

"Sorry," Lana said, shaking the dirt from each slice of meat as she placed it back on the tray. She glanced up at Ameliah, then at the tent, lowering her voice to an urgent whisper. "Please don't tell Rain I reacted like that. The pressure surprised me, and I tripped. It was just so…strong. Stronger than it ever was before."

"Well, there's one question answered," Ameliah said, laughter in her voice. Her armored boots came into view, then she knelt down, moving to help. "Thank you, and don't worry about it."

"Why's it back?" Lana asked. "The terror thing? I thought that was fixed?"

Ameliah smiled wryly. "Because Rain is a trouble magnet. He tore his...wound...open when he picked his class."

Lana's mouth made an 'o' of surprise, and she worked her jaw as if to ask something. Before she could figure out what, Ameliah chuckled, gesturing to the tray. "I'm glad to see you brought enough for yourself this time."

Lana closed her mouth with a click. Ameliah clearly didn't want to give her any more detail just now and was trying to change the subject. She looked down at the tray. She'd brought a lot of food, yes, but that was only because she'd seen the way awakened tended to eat.

"But I didn't—" she finally began, looking up, but Ameliah laughed, interrupting her.

"Nonsense," she said, rising with the tray and shifting it to one hand to offer Lana the other. "This is what? The fifth time? If you're going to keep doing this, you're going to start joining us." She beckoned with her gauntleted fingers for Lana to take her hand.

Lana, still working through her shock, took the offered hand.

Ameliah's grip was firm as she hauled Lana back onto her feet with the gentle yet irresistible strength of a mountain. She released her the moment she was up, though, turning and carrying the tray back toward the tent. After a few steps, she paused to look over her shoulder with a smile. "I think there's a Ranks board in Rain's pack. Do you play?"