“It’s why the high sect left, it's the only way to stay in one form for any length of time.” She shook her head. “Though, in their struggle to stop changing, they reduced themselves to cloning… Blasphemy.”

  My mouth went dry as what she said sunk in. The Forgers were from her planet, and they had the same trait as me. The one that set me apart from the rest of humanity.

  The thud of my heart kept growing louder in my ears, as I reached out to the wall to steady myself.

  “Now, I need to find a way back to the homeworld and my clan.”

  “Wait, how did you get here?” I asked, snapping to the present and what I could actually control.

  “The same way the rest of them came, through the portal they built.” She let out a sigh. “I can’t go back that way, because as soon as any member of the high sect notice me, they will want to know where my handler is.”

  “But you don’t have a collar…” The crystals that came up on my radar were the ones growing in the room, and the one in her shoulder.

  “They wouldn’t dare collar another from our world.” She shook her head. “The outrage for subjecting someone from our world would bring shame if it ever reached home. Now, keeping me contained in a cavern without a way to leave? Much more civilized.”

  Given the dry delivery, I couldn’t tell if she was joking or if she honestly thought that.

  “So, the high sect clones themselves to avoid drastically changing.” I wasn’t sure if I’d asked a question or not since the entire thing hit too close to home.

  “On a world of extremes, we change to adapt to our environment. Survival is paramount. They’ve tried to claim the high lands with the floating mountains. Less extreme adjustments occur with the elements, but still enough changes that if they want to keep their current forms they must do something, or leave.” She huffed. “They don’t want to lose the power in the high lands, and they don’t want to change, so they fight our very nature as a people.”

  “I’ve seen plenty of Forgers here in this world, though.”

  “Exiles, or contracted employees, or those trying to gain power back on the homeworld.”

  The crystals hummed in the back of my mind, keeping me steady. I moved closer to them. Each was smaller than baseball, and all were of the fire variety. None of the others.

  Something still felt off.

  I reached out again and moved closer, touching one of them.

  It wasn’t fire.

  It was something else. Something new.

  Without thinking about it, I sat down and dove inside, suddenly glad I’d snagged the ones from everyone’s collars into a separate ball. The energy inside this crystal didn’t have any of the elements in it. It was as pure as it could be. Just energy. No flavor at all.

  I pulled away and stared at it.

  [Stable Mana Crystal.]

  Mana?

  “How come these crystals don’t have an element attached to them?” I asked, remaining on the floor.

  “Attaching an element would add additional layers of complexity, when we could focus on something untouched by the elements. The main reason they even need the crystal is as a stable source of mana, to power the command structures, which are runes on this planet. Our normal power sources are just that, power. Intention doesn’t work with them, and they can’t power other magics.”

  Jemity paused for a breath. “That’s what my clan creates back home, our power sources that fuel the technology we developed.”

  “Mana is raw magic…” I didn’t have anything else to call it but magic. Maybe Lenna would have a better grasp on this.

  “Mana is energy that takes direction. Some theorize its sentient, and what controls the system, but there haven’t been any studies that have created provable results.” The even delivery of the statement made it hit that much harder.

  “Mana is sentient?” I twisted around to stare at her. The crystal was stable mana. Was it like the Manee and it passed down knowledge?

  “It hasn’t been proven, and there isn’t anyone who can figure it out.” Jemity said each word like she was explaining it to a five-year-old. Then again, given my grades in science I understood the sentiment. I’d done much better in defense.

  This time I twisted back and poked the crystal with my presence, asking if it was okay if I removed it from the wall.

  Nothing happened.

  I carefully popped the crystal out of the groove it’d formed in.

  “What are you doing?” asked Jemity, rushing in my direction. “That took ages to grow that big…”

  She paused just beyond me, staring at the crystal now in my hands.

  “What?” I asked at the look.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “It didn’t shatter.”

  “My profession is amazing like that.” She had no idea, and it was going to stay that way.

  Her head tilted to one side as she used some sort of skill on me and the crystal. “Strange… The profession helps the crystal retain its usable form. You would have made the experiments easier to conduct.”

  “Believe me, I know they want to get their hands on me,” I grumbled. The crystal warmed my hands like a fire crystal. I didn’t want to put it into my bag with the ones from the collars, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  “Just those with stakes in the crystal initiative,” explained Jemity. “The high sect has thousands of different experiments on-going across the worlds they have colonized. The rest of them wouldn’t care.”

  “Good to know.” I stood, still clutching the crystal and wondering if I should snag the rest of them. “What about the screens in the lab area?”

  The change in topic caused her to blink several times. “The records of the experiments are recorded in the databases of the computers.”

  “Can you access them?” Maybe we could find more information on what the Forgers were doing on Kabi’s world.

  “Yes. I’m not sure how the experimental data will help you. Rather, you should destroy it and set back this initiative. Other initiatives have been set back by sabotage in the past.”

  Holls loped into the room and nuzzled Jemity’s leg, stopping her from talking.

  “It looks like you have a friend,” I added at the sudden pause in conversation.

  “He is a sweetie, unlike the others.” She scratched under his chin as all of his eyes closed.

  “Since you want to leave, Kabi's people might be willing to help you out…” At least, I hoped so.

  “Do you have a moment?” Lenna peeked into the room. “We are trying to figure out where to go from here.”

  Kabi stood next to another, both in deep conversation as the rest of the Azura folk listened in.

  [Sadidi, Warrior, Level 105, Prey, Chocolate Fudge Ice cream.]

  I closed the notification as quickly as possible, and mentally made a note to not have it show what things tasted like ever again. Especially since as soon as I read the words, that flavor came back, and my mouth watered.

  “The tunnel is clear, if you want to head to Steadfast by traveling through the grasslands,” explained Kabi. “If you want to go via the tunnel you will have some trouble getting there, but it’s doable.”

  “Will you not join us?” asked a hopeful voice.

  “No, we have our own mission.” His voice remained steady and he nodded in my direction.

  “If Holls goes with you, he can carve a connecting tunnel,” I added when he looked at me. I didn’t want to leave these people out there defenseless, though they did have two high-level warriors. Somehow, they’d gotten caught in the first place. Though some of the others were much lower level, so perhaps they’d been captured protecting the weaker ones.

  Several people glanced at me, then the creature still rubbing against Jemity who stood behind me, listening.

  “We will join you on this trek,” said Jemity. “I will not be contained like this again by the high sect.”

  “Does anyone check on this location?” I asked, trying to figure out how long we had.

  “We had our resupply run several cycles ago and should not need more for several more cycles,” added Jemity. “Everyone should eat and water themselves before we set off on a long journey.”

  Resting was a good idea, especially since my stomach decided to get involved. I needed to eat.

  The ooze from the Forger remained frozen and I wasn’t going to try to find its heart. Still, I needed to eat, and then try and test out the computers in the lab.

  No one wanted to go back into the rooms they’d been contained inside, so a makeshift camp formed next to the lab. Dengu paced around the tunnel entrance that should lead to the badlands.

  Kabi drifted between the Azurafolk, providing updates about Steadfast and a Havi being in charge. He didn’t mention it was his father. Others asked about other settlements, and he provided what knowledge he could.

  Lenna stayed close to Jemity and Holls.

  I headed back the way we’d come to make sure that the door was closed. As soon as I was out of sight of the others, I gulped down several hunks of meat to get my stomach to shut up.

  It took more than I thought it would, but finally I ate enough to feel full.

  The door, though, remained open. I yanked it shut and pulled a wooden bar across it, wondering how Holls had gotten it open to begin with.

  Something felt off with how this area didn’t have any defenders. Though, if the pack of hunters was supposed to protect it and we took them out, that made a little more sense. Something nagged at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t figure it out.

  I tried the door yet again, and it remained shut with the board in front of it.

  I reached out to Strange, and the bond between us pulled tight.

  He still ran. Hopefully he’d rest at some point.

  Turning back around the corner, I gazed over the several large piles of straw.

  At least we didn’t need to deal with any more of the Hunters. Holls was cute, but creatures that could create new tunnels through the stone kind of freaked me out.

  By the time I rejoined the others, the Azurafolk appeared better. Water jugs were passed around, along with rations.

  Jemity sat inside the lab with Lenna peering over her shoulder. I headed in that direction. Holls huddled near the doorway but didn’t enter the white space.

  “Find anything interesting?” I asked as I entered.

  “Lots of things I don’t understand,” muttered Lenna.

  I traded places with her, and recognized spreadsheets and lots of notes.

  “Like I said, it's all the data from the initiative. Destroying this will set them back substantially.” Her eyes gleamed brighter as she spoke. “They deserve to have to start over for containing me like this.”

  “Let me check it out.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Jemity. I wanted to learn more about the stable mana crystal chilling in my pocket. I hadn’t taken the others yet, but I planned to as soon as Jemity was gone.

  Given it was a new crystal type, I had to earn some levels once I started to mess with it.

  Jemity stiffly stood from the chair and headed to the door. Lenna followed her.

  I sat and touched the screen, making the notes bigger. Thankfully, they translated into something kind of understandable. All of it was in scientific terms that didn’t make much sense to me, but the Stable Mana was referenced several times, along with trial numbers.

  The next section had notes on using them in collars, and performance compared to the original crystal. I slowed down and read this section much more closely.

  They worked the same in the collars, apparently, but whomever was putting them in the collars had a much harder time. The Stable Mana Crystals were extremely fragile, and though they said Stable in their information, that didn’t mean much for others, apparently.

  Yet, who had created these collars here?

  These were created and put on the Azurafolk in the lab. Lightening blazed through me at the thought. Someone who could use the crystals had to be nearby.

  I hurried out of the lab area to Jemity, who stood near Lenna.

  She eyed the Azurafolk like one who looked at cattle. It made me slow down and wonder if she should actually go to Steadfast.

  Lenna gave me a look I couldn’t figure out.

  “Who actually created the collars?” I asked, needing that answer first.