The Restored: Chapter Forty-One

Despite the chaos and difficulty of getting everyone into the Wandering Path, herding everyone out of it was surprisingly simple. Several of the people were able to recognize that Devi was a druid in the employ of the Chairman, and nearly everyone could feel the weight that being in another realm provided. Just because the drain was small enough that the mages could shrug it off didn’t mean that the non-mages could. 

The strange thing was the whisperings about Nexus. Kelly had expected everyone who worked aboard the Malapert to be aware of Nexus and fully in their employ, but the truth was much more complicated than that. 

Everyone knew that the Malapert was the crowning jewel of Elucidate Labs, and that it was owned and operated by the government. They even knew that many members of the senate, parliament, and overriding judiciary council had second homes on board the luxury airship, and that members of various corporations would visit in order to hold meetings with members of the senate or parliament. 

In essence, they held all the pieces. They knew that a band of twenty five extremely powerful people from across a variety of government positions and corporations gathered for meetings with some regularity on the airship to discuss the leadership of the nation. 

But they didn’t believe in Nexus. They thought it was simply ordinary goings on. 

In the end, that had been Nexus’ strength. Even though the organization did exist, it wasn’t the massive shadow government operating from behind a curtain. It wasn’t an organization of demons that had taken command of the highest positions of authority. It wasn’t a group of secret beastfolk hidden beneath even the undercity, commanding everything. 

No, Nexus had been built by the very people who had put Elderglass’ political systems into place, and by the passage of time. 

Sure, twenty some off people was much better than a single king with near absolute power, but in the end, all it took was a group of twenty, in a city at least a hundred thousand times that size.

And he had been the one to kill those twenty people. He had been a part of the group of three that had killed them. Had Devi been right to stop Kelly from saving them? He didn’t think so, but it was hard to say. 

He was pulled from his musings by Devi stopping and spending a bit of time and aura ripping a portal, and he stepped forward. He used a touch of mind magic to imbue his words with emotion, and spoke up. 

“Everyone line up. Non-mages to the front. Mages to the back. Be adults, and don’t fight over your position in line.” 

To his surprise, even the constables that had been serving as guards on the airship listened to him, lining up, and they slowly filed out. They stepped out into a beaten copper building, what almost looked like a storage facility. There were utility carts strewn throughout, and they’d probably once been organized with tins of food and water, but the shaking of the city had thrown them into relative chaos. The building was clearly in the undercity, judging by the vents running all through the building.

The enchantments in the vents were glowing red, and Devi sighed. She muttered under her breath, letting Jin and Kelly hear, but not letting the voice carry to other members of their little gang. 

“Fallen Void. I’d hoped that the Throne of Sacrifice had been banished back to its home already. It can’t take that much longer, can it?” 

They were silent for a time as people shuffled in, and once everyone else was outside, Devi snapped. The portal snapped shut, leaving the three of them once again alone in the Wandering Path. 

“Why’d you do that?” Jin asked, a faint frown on her face. 

“It’s not locked from the inside. If they want out, they can get out. But I don’t think us sticking around with constables until everything settles down is the optimal solution. And we do need to talk.” 

“Okay,” Jin said, then turned to him, putting a hand on her hip. “What was that about? You started shouting about Devi stopping you. She MAYBE – and I do mean maybe – stopped one person. But if we’d run out of time, we all would have died. Sometimes in a fight, you have to take a calculated risk. It sucks, but…” 

Kelly shook his head as Jin trailed off. 

“No. Another psychic was stopping me from reaching the Nexus members on board. Maybe one that used a different rune bond, but it was clever. I think it was her nightmare spirit.” 

He glared at Devi, daring her to lie and say that it wasn’t her stopping him. She chewed on her lip for a few seconds, but as Jin started to study her, she let out a sigh and her shoulders slumped. 

“Yeah. It wasn’t just my spirit. I had to burn several of my debts I’d collected to give him the magic needed in order to manage the feat.” 

“Why?” Jin asked, speaking before Kelly could. 

“It wasn’t planned, if that’s what you meant. But as we headed back to the portal, I got a look at the Chairman.” 

She looked up at them, a mix of genuine vulnerability and utter hatred in her eyes. Kelly didn’t have a spell to detect lies, and wasn’t about to force her into a compact. Even if he had, the best of those could still be tricked by tricky wording and intent. 

Despite that, he still believed her. The raw emotion that was flowing though her was entirely unlike anything that he’d felt before – he could actually feel it through his mind sense. 

“You might not get it, Kelly, but I hate him. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!” 

She was practically shouting by the end, and she shook her head, eyes watering. 

“He’s the reason my life is awful. He’s kept me on a leash for years. Jin gets it. But I know him, and he’s the kind of snake who can slither out of any punishment. He never would have faced any trial, let alone a punishment. Most wouldn’t. But all of them would have taken the deal to survive, then got out of the punishment. Maybe if we were lucky, we could get one or two of them to actually spend some time before a judge. But their members were all Overriding Judiciary Council! Even if they stepped down as a part of the deal, do you think their replacements wouldn’t have been grateful? Wouldn't have shown leniency towards their peers and mentors?”

“I–” Kelly started to try and say, but Devi shook her head and cut him off. 

“I did what needed to be done. You can hate me if you want. I don’t blame you. Hell, a part of me hates myself for it. Your arguments are fine. Unrefined, but fine. Maybe I’m a monster for believing that this was the only way, but… I do believe it. It was the only way to end Nexus.” 

She took a long breath. Despite how long it was, it sounded shallow, as if she was having trouble breathing. Kelly couldn’t blame her. He was also having trouble breathing right now. 

Nevertheless, he managed to let out a gasp as Devi lunged forward and snatched up his wrist. There was a sharp, burning sensation as a spike of aura stabbed into him, and Devi started speaking again.

“I’ll take the punishment. You and Jin were dragged along, and forced to do it by the mental magic I implanted into both of you. It has a bomb that I could detonate.” 

“It was just a homing spell, though, with some weird Wandering Path and Dreamscape components,” Jin said, confused. “There is no bomb.” 

“Are you sure? I think I threatened you with a bomb inside your aura,” Devi said. “Obey me or you blow up.” 

Kelly felt a chill come over him, but it wasn't from the threat of being blown up. It was from Devi’s willingness to take the fall for him. Even though he’d argued with her every step of the way. Even though she’d been willing to extrajudicially execute thirty people, including constables who may or may not have known what was happening.

“The worst punishment you’ll get is some sort of manslaughter charge, but likely not even that,” Devi continued. 

Though neither one of them knew it, both Kelly and Jin felt their throats go dry at exactly the same moment. Jin’s demon, who had joined the Throne of Love, felt her aura recharge activate as the emotions burned out of Devi’s soul. Kelly didn’t have anything of the sort, but he couldn’t properly describe exactly what feelings were going through him at that moment. 

“Thank you,” Jin whispered hoarsely. She felt like there should have been more, and was overcome with the urge to lean forward and embrace the older girl, but she couldn’t bring herself to. 

“I… yeah. Thank you,” Kelly said. He felt like there should have been more, that he should have demanded her remove the tracking bond, and allow him to take his share of the punishment, but he couldn’t bring himself to. 

Devi wiped at her eyes and then turned around. 

“Alright. I can’t get us right to the battle, but I can probably get us into the center of the city, near the Depository and Elucidate Labs. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do, but I might be able to try a banishing ritual on the Throne of Sacrifice.” 

“Will that even work?” Kelly asked, grateful for the change of subject. “I mean, it’s one of the Eleven Thrones. Twelve Thrones? Thirteen and One Sundered?” 

He was rambling, and he knew it, but he didn't know how else to react right now.

“No, it won’t. I’m nowhere near strong enough to banish one of the big Thrones,” Devi agreed. “But it’s spending Aura and maybe soulstuff to stay in this world, and we killed Alyphize. It’s going to leave the moment the energy it’s expending starts to outweigh the energy it’s absorbing.” 

“The amount it’s gathering should have dropped, shouldn’t it?” Jin asked. “After the initial massive gathering spell and all the deaths. Now people are fighting back.” 

“It should. Even if my banishing spell can only increase the amount it’s expending to stay in this realm a little bit, it might help. Maybe make it vanish a minute or two earlier.” 

“Archangels above, let’s give it a try,” Jin said, taking a deep breath. “I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? We die? That might have happened just staying in the safe room if the enchantments exploded or something.”

In silence, Devi guided them through the monotone gray landscape, before she eventually stopped to open a gateway. And for the first time in the – admittedly rather short – entire time Kelly had known her, Devi’s portal sparked, then failed. Devi stared at where the portal had been, her mouth hanging open like a fish.

“Is it because the buildings collapsed?” he asked. 

“No, that shouldn’t matter. I mean. Okay, yes, it should. It would open onto a bunch of rocks, and then we’d have to move the portal. But it shouldn't have stopped it from opening! Something altered the aura landscape and –” 

Devi continued speaking, but her words were silent. Even her lips looked blurred, making them hard to read. She sighed and stamped her foot, then started getting to work. She drew ritual materials from her bags, and began to draw spells out on the ground. Kelly and Jin both watched on with some curiosity as she placed crystals, sands, glasses, herbs, stones, and other components all around, but none of them understood enough to help. When she was done, she charged the ritual with her aura, and a ragged, uneven portal tore open in the air. 

Stepping back into the real world, the first thing that caught all of their eyes was the skyscraper sized pillar of crystal in the center of the city, growing out of the Central Aura Depository.