Ceress closed both sets of eyelids, took a calming breath, and held it for a moment, “Okay, is there anything else I need to know, right now? I am a little distracted, keeping over three hundred swarming Jih'rehk calm.”

  And you're doing a great job with that. How many thousands more can you handle?

  “… not enough, apparently. How many are there?”

  More than that. They're starting to fan out to search for prey. Come with Nat — I need time with your field in the Talent to amplify it.

  “How much time do we have?”

  I don't know. They are on the other side of the trees, circling as the swarm builds. They could, if they chose, be here in ten, maybe twenty seconds.

  “Wonderful. Does anyone else have a method for handling a swarm of Jih'rehk? That's jirrek, for the Ankarrans.”

  Nobody said anything.

  Lyn did chime in, however, “Dawn proper is only a few minutes away. That may complicate things.”

  “Soothing is still a viable delaying tactic, which may be critical. But good point, I can't compete with a schism pulse. Moira, what do you mean about time in the Talent?”

  Aetheric waveforms move in space, not time. I can make any of your fields last, without you actively maintaining them for a period of time.

  “Oh, now that's interesting. What's the range?”

  A simple factor of power. For your purposes, I could cover the underground nest in its entirety, same as I disturbed it earlier.

  “Okay, let's do that. But first, where's Soot? I can't call her at long range without dropping the field.”

  A moment was taken while the group looked around.

  “Soot! Here!” She shouted again, then softer, “Did she go back to sleep?”

  Novek was crouched on the ground, still breathing hard and cleaning whatever Vest'elah had for blood off of his paws. “I can run back to camp and get her. And… Hekkan?”

  Ceress looked at Novek for a precious moment. “Yeah, bring him.” Why not? How much worse could things get, anyway?

  Novek dropped to all fours again, checking the kit was in position, and dashed off back towards the campsite, almost half a kilometer away.

  “Okay, that'll take him a minute. How's the Talent work, inside it? I only know theory.”

  Nat answered, “It's basically pitch black, except nearby aether sources, and totally silent. It's also hard to move — the air slows everything down.”

  You are vacuum capable, but be prepared. Don't try to breathe. Nat, in and out, quick as you can — no more than a tenth of a second, please?

  “Got it. Ceress, I'm going to need to… hold your hands, I think? I haven't practiced this with a person.”

  You're going to get dramatically less time in there with her mass. Can you go lighter, Ceress?

  “So rude. But yes — I can increase or reduce mass.”

  As low as you can go, then. You'll only need to pulse it as you enter, I know mass shifts are tiring. One thing — you don't have Nat's cognition augment, so, I'm not sure how you'll perceive this, just keep your pattern stable for me, and nudge Nat if you need out.

  Nat reached up and took hold of her palms from the side, so as not to interrupt, nor touch, her claw lights.

  She took a breath and held it, then everywhere her scales or skin were visible flashed pink as she held the mass reduction. “Do it.”

  [Slip]

  They did it — and the lightening world around them blinked out and became pitch black, and deafeningly silent, the only sources of light were her claws, and Moira's flame, which were somehow impossibly bright, and … extremely hot.

  Her claws immediately felt like they'd been ignited for maximum cutting power, with no metal to transfer the heat to.

  Okay that's getting uncomfortably hot. Wasn't this supposed to just be in and out? Less than a second?

  How long had it been? Thirty seconds? The heat was exceeding her already exceptional tolerance, and was rapidly approaching unbearable.

  And still it built. She tried to tap Nat's arm, but everything was in slow motion — even though there was no air resistance between the two of them.

  She gritted her teeth as the pain escalated, and something she'd been told about helmbreakers — those Brek'ka that had fought helmsmen — stirred in her memory.

  Oh, that was it. They were all either horribly wounded, or died in the doing of it.

  But this wasn't going to be the whole three seconds, and she said she'd keep the pattern stable, so stable she would keep it, for as long as she could bear.

  Nat had long since passed uncomfortably hot, and had settled into a low level discomfort that was threatening to turn into pain.

  It's starting to burn, Moira. Isn't this long enough?

  Hold on, I need a little more time.

  The heat compounded upon itself even more. He considered trying to move his hands, but wasn't sure what it might do if he lost contact with Ceress while his Talent was active.

  Another minute of subjective time passed as the heat built upon itself and became painful. Somehow the waiting made it worse, as he had nothing else to focus on. Normally Moira was talkative, but Nat assumed that she was busy focusing on the work — whatever could make her have to pay singular attention must have been complicated, indeed.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Nat noticed Ceress's hand pressing against his — or so he thought. It was so gentle that he had to pause a moment to be sure that the force against him was real, and not imagined.

  I think Ceress is signaling. We need to go.

  It's not long enough. This isn't going to last, or reach far enough.

  We can try again if we need to, right?

  That's a good point. Okay, shut it down.

  []

  They erupted back into the pre-dawn light with a burst of heat that flooded outwards, washing over Lyn, who staggered a little in surprise.

  Ceress snapped her claws closed, the blue light extinguishing, and turned towards Nat, “Ow! Ow! That burns! Fewmets! I thought you said it was a quick in and out?”

  Lyn turned to her, “Did you do it? I didn't even see you turn into a statue.”

  Ceress turned and stared at Lyn. “What? That was minutes. I felt like I was going to roast alive.”

  Nat gave Ceress a sheepish look, “Yeah, sorry, it's longer than you think, in there.”

  Okay, that wasn't quite enough, but I've extended your field to about half the cave system.

  “How long will it last?”

  I'm not entirely sure. It's hard to measure minute field dispersion rates. Based on rate of decay, I'd estimate a few hours.

  “Well, that's far better than I'd hoped.”

  Lyn had been listening quietly while watching Novek's departure, “I see Soot taking off from the camp.”

  They turned back towards the group, facing the trees that hid the rest of the jirrek swarm from them. “Oh, that's not good. Ceress, I think your team is trying to signal you — atop Soot.”

  Nat turned and looked the way Lyn was facing, but could only see a very dim glow in the sky, just over the nearby trees.

  Ceress's eye ridges shot up instantly. “What? No! No!”

  Okay, the swarm has noticed them and is starting to move.

  Her voice raised to a near shout, “Okay, new plan. We need to kill them before they kill us all, and then scour the countryside.”

  What? How? I have no idea how we could possibly achieve that.

  “I do. But we need to make them very angry, now! Moira, do the thing you did earlier. Fast!”

  I hope you know what you're doing. Nat? Bigger flame, please.

  He rebuilt the flame as it was earlier, twice the size — the strand of aether between his fingers was a cord, rather than a string. Then, it started to burn him, even outside his Talent.

  And for the second time that morning, the Ber went absolutely mad. The slowly circling Jirrek above started crashing into one another and flying erratically.

  Okay, that's enough.

  Nat closed his fingers, retaining the voice flame, but letting the pattern arc vanish.

  The disruption instantly stopped, and the erratic flyers stabilized. In moments, a different pattern of frenzied behavior cascaded through the flyers, as they seemingly noticed the other members of their swarm feasting on the corpses on the ground. Hundreds of them dove as one, wings striking Nat and the others as they dived and found open spots on the bloody bodies.

  Ceress raised her voice to be heard over the chittering horde, “Everyone group up. Under Soot!”

  Nat shuddered, and took steps back, away from the horror being inflicted on the gazelle, and starfish-looking bodies.

  The sky was suddenly filled with fury as more of the fliers started streaming over the tops of the trees. More streamed to the bodies below, but those were now entirely covered in leathery wings and fangs, and they started looking for new prey.

  One of the leathery bat-birds landed on Nat's arm, and there was a sudden feeling of burning — but Lyn slapped their hand up and the jirrek fell off, stunned.

  “Watch yourself — they use acid. Activate your Talent quickly if they land on you.”

  Then there was a gust of wind from above, and Ceress shouted, “Soot! Fire! Cover!”

  Soot slammed to the ground, a deep, resonant thud. A moment later, she spat molten sand into the raptor pack in the air above — that quickly turned into globs and threads of glass that formed a net-like shape that caught hundreds of the Ber.

  Then the group was suddenly enveloped by the rocky leather wings, with only a small hole to the outside showing, which was half occupied by an out of breath Novek, carrying a small, irritated-looking Hekkan.

  “Okay, Novek, get in here and put Hekkan down where you came in. We need the rest of the swarm as close as we can get them, without giving them too much time on Soot.”

  Novek opened his pouch. “Gunpowder and the rest of your flares good enough?”

  “Perfect. Make it happen.”

  “On it, twenty seconds.” Novek's hands glowed yellow-orange, as he moved things around rapidly that Nat could not see in the darkness.

  Ceress turned and grabbed hold of Nat in the darkness within Soot's wings, “Nat, this is not a joke. Listen to me.”

  She continued, “You need to activate your Talent — keep Hekkan outside of it — then, reach out and rub Hekkan, from within your Talent, as hard and fast as you can.”

  “You can't be serious. I'd kill him.”

  “Not even with every ounce of your power, could you permanently harm him. It'll hurt him, but this is his job, and he knows how to do it.”

  Soot had started to screech outside, and the wing-tent flexed as she spat more molten glass.

  Ceress looked pained, and put her hand on the nearby wing joint.

  Novek, calm as ever, had his contraption loaded in his crossbow. “Firing now. Give it ten seconds.”

  The tiger Brin got down on the ground, and rolled partway out the small hole near the ground where the wings met, slapped a jirrek away, and fired. He then covered the hole with his pack, still laying down.

  Nat's attention snapped back to Ceress, “You're serious?”

  “Deadly.”

  Novek, who had been looking outside, slapped his pack back over the hole and interrupted, “This is as many as you're going to get.”

  Ceress asked, “Moira, how many do we have within fifty meters?”

  Over twenty thousand now, more are still coming.

  “Out of how many”

  More than a hundred thousand.

  “That's not nearly enough, but Soot can't wait. We'll have to clear the nest, if we survive.”

  “Okay Nat. Pet the felinid, push him outside, then get behind Soot's wings before you leave the Talent.”

  “I can't believe this is a conversation—”

  “Quiet! Pet the cat! Do it or we all die!”

  “Fine! Move back!”

  [Slip]

  This had to be the stupidest thing he'd ever been asked to do. I mean, if he was going to die at least it'd be petting a cat — well, felinid — whatever. So he did — he felt like he was squishing the hell out of the cat — it was somehow malleable, even inside his Talent, even more so than air.

  Within a minute or two of subjective time, the heat had begun to build as it had earlier. He kept going, and hoped Ceress knew what she was talking about. He felt terrible — if it was this bad for him, what was it going to be like for Hekkan? It was becoming painful now, and he still felt burned from earlier.

  Still, he kept going — he didn't think he was going to get the full time out of the Talent before he'd have to deactivate it. The heat was becoming intolerable, but whatever this was supposed to do, he didn't want to stop too soon.

  He wasn't even close to the full duration when he couldn't take the incoming heat anymore, it had started to burn worse than he'd felt after the scrav attack, and he didn't want to be injured for whatever was coming next. He hoped it was enough.

  Nat pushed Hekkan outside of Soot's wings, and then moved back behind them, inside the dome of cover, then let his Talent end.

  []

  Nat came back to Soot screeching at the top of her lungs, and Ceress yelling, but barely audible even so. What should have been the dark dome of Soot's wings was instead a horror show; veins, arteries, and bones clearly visible, lit from outside.

  Lyn, Novek, and Ceress were all digging into the sand as fast as they could, scooping with paws and claws. Lyn was only using a single hand, the other was holding an enlarged arc for Moira.

  Ceress was glowing a deep red, shouting, “Faster! It's still too hot! Soot has to take off soon, ready or not!”

  Even Moira's louder arc voice was barely audible over the furious activity and Soot's pained vocalization. “Nat! Grab hold of Soot and take her into your Talent. You'll only get a moment with that mass. I'm sorry for this.”

  Nat didn't say a word, but put his hands on the draconid, pushing hard enough that his hands started burning with the heat of her skin, and went.

  [Slip]

  He felt the draconid shudder, body vibrating with a noiseless scream, as he entered the void of his Talent — good, she'd managed to come with…

  []