"What in the world is that?" I heard, as we were returning up to the laboratory. Obviously this wasn't the sort of thing you wanted to hear in your day to day. The source of the exclamation was a middle-aged woman, and she was pointing to the wall of the hallway.

The outer surfaces of their building were covered in this opaque milky white material that light could permeate through and spread throughout the inner spaces, but you could see neither in or out of it. It made up one side of every hall and in many places, the walls of the rooms that adjoined the outer surface as well. Kept everything well lit while the sun was up.

We walked together up to the section she was pointing to, and very quickly figured out the cause of her - there was a whole fissure in the wall that was sparkling. We started to approach, before the hair on my arms stood on end.

Without any other warning, a bolt of static jumped the width of the hall with a loud bang, leading the lady to shriek almost as loud as the crackle of the the electricity. The sparkle in the wall material faded, but immediately a different portion of the wall began to glow, this one even closer. Looking into it, I saw dozens of tiny points of light swimming around.

Then I felt the hair on my arms stand up.

I grabbed István's arm and yelled for everyone to vacate the hallway. The two of us were just clear of the space when we heard the crack of another discharge.

Viktor peaked his head around the corner of a door frame… Which is to say he took up most of the doorway with his upper body. He looked at the both of us.

"This is not something either of you did, right?" He asked. I'd have felt exasperated but I think I'd have felt the same way in his position. We both looked at each other then back and him before shaking our heads in the negative.

"Alright. Outside, now." He said, pointing at the door to the stairwell at the end of the hallway. There were additional patches of light now, and I could hear the crackle and pop of different discharges echoing through the building.

A couple of them formed in front of us, and I began to hesitate when Viktor slapped his hand onto the wall, grounding the charge into the flooring beneath his feet, and twitching a little in the process. Then he grit his teeth and just strode forward, repeating the process with the next. As he stepped away from this second one, I noticed the shine of metal on a spot of the bottom of his work boot.

"He drove a nail in there," Istvan explained.

"A nail?" I asked, incredulous. "In his shoe?!"

"He said that he didn't like the 'fuzzy feeling' the Rifts gave him when he touched them so he put a nail through his boot into the metal toe guard."

"That's… one way to handle it. How do most people deal with it?"

"Full body protective gear," István replied. "The charge differential from a Rift is strong enough to kill, even someone with an Ember." He paused, looking at Viktor as he slapped another spot in the wall. "Normally."

We made it to the stairwell, where there was a faint hissing sound, as the accumulated charge continually drained into the metal. The whole passage smelled faintly of ozone.

"Viktor doesn't really do 'normal', does he?" I commented.

"I heard that," said the man in question, as he walked down the stairs in a relaxed looking manner, if you ignored the fact his huge stature meant he skipped every other one.

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"I figured you wouldn't mind a compliment," I retorted.

"Indeed, I do not." He said, grinning wide enough I could see his mirth from the side profile as he rounded a corner. Apparently, this 'now' was a different type than the last time we descended in a hurry - he was actually using the stairs as opposed to just falling down the center.

A low rumble permeated the air as we reached the ground floor. The mass of the building had concealed it before, but now it was obvious, like a distant thunderstorm.

Viktor lengthened his strides towards the entrance upon hearing this, which meant István and I were lagging behind a bit. He stopped up short upon reaching the door, and soon we knew why.

I hadn't seen a lot shock the two men I was with, but this would definitely do it.

I felt a distinct stirring in my soul as I laid eyes upon the horizon.

The ragged edges of reality slowly undulated, as if in a breeze. A massive tear was set low to the ground, stretching to the east and west. It came together far off into the distance, rising to form a jagged peak of staggering proportions, the top of the almost vertical sides reaching so far above us it seemed to lean inward overhead, as though it was about to topple at any moment and crush us like so many particles of dust. A light breeze from behind swept in, carrying some loose dust with it at it blew towards the monstrosity in front of us.

"Well, that is less than optimal," István said, stating the obvious for the rest of us.

All I could think of, looking at the impending doom bearing down on us from the front, was about my family, and that it would be really nice if Celistar was here right now.

I can be if you grant me your power….

Wait, what the fox?

Steeve had popped into existence in front of me. A voice that was clearly Celistar's echoed out from in front of me, but I was pretty sure it was only in my head, since Steeve just looked at me with her head tilted, as if confused why I hadn't pet her yet.

I am using this amusing creature as a relay, since it is intrinsically linked to you, Celistar explained, and I lifted a hand to pet Steeve, who responded by closing her eyes and going en en en every time my hand landed on her fur. By this time both of the gentlemen with me had noticed I had a fox in my arms that I seemed to be listening to, but they hadn't said anything yet, perhaps being familiar with familiars.

I felt a tiny tug at my soul, then it clicked. She literally needed some agency over my Nebula in order to be anything but the least scary ghost ever. I released my hold on my core, and immediately felt a very large portion of my entire pool of energy get siphoned off towards Steeve, who started glowing, then floated out of my hands.

"Again, fascinating." István, as always, was less interested in the fact that Steeve had gone all Magical Girl transformation scene sparkly and more in what he could study the phenomenon first hand. Viktor looked amused.

The glow intensified, and then I saw Celistar's familiar silhouette appear around the fox as the Nebula streamed away from me. Before long, she was fairly corporeal, petting Steeve, who seemed like nothing of interest had actually happened. Indeed, Celistar's long, slow strokes seemed very practiced.

I had the sneaking suspicion that the two had been making fast friends in my soul space.

"Greetings, István, Viktor. I am Charley's 'source' of information as it were, and I apologize for not being able to grant her permission to share more with you prior. As you might imagine, these are special circumstances. I appreciate your efforts in mentoring her in my absence."

István bowed graciously, "The honor is all ours, I assure you. She is an endless source of wonderful and inspiring phenomena, such as granting this audience with your person, if you do not mind me saying so." Viktor seemed completely stunned, and hadn't said anything yet. He just stared at Celistar, his jaw a light breeze away from falling completely slack. Not that I blamed him, I just summoned a magic pixie right in front of the two of them without warning right after the world split in half. It was a lot.

"We do not have a lot of time, as Charley is providing me with the ability to meet you at her own expense. In brief: I need you to collect her family, then I need you to bring them back to here. She can't use her powers during this process - we will need the full breadth of her capabilities later. We do not have long - please hurry."

"Yes ma'am!" Viktor shouted almost deafeningly loud, as if he was attempting to use volume along to convince Celistar of his sincerity. He scooped me up onto his shoulder, and we raced off. I turned and looked back in time to see Celistar saying something to István, before looking back at me. He bowed again to her, then she vanished.

Immediately my world went very, very wobbly.

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