Celistar was standing in front of me again.

This time, however, there wasn't the same weight on my soul there was the first time. Steeve was sitting on top of the control pedestal and was using an ephemeral pair of extra tails she had sprouted to siphon energy from it. The middle tail seemed to be 'beaming' Celistar into existence like some sort of weird water fountain: Nebula would stream from it and then fall, shimmering, and the lunar spirit's form materialized in this.

If it was a burden on Steeve, she didn't seem to notice as she was just kind of swaying like grass in a light breeze, as though vibing to some tune only she could hear. Combined with the glow from the mini-Motes swirling around her form she seemed even more fantastical than usual, and very very cute, as always.

"I seem to recall reminding you not to use your powers while getting your family back." Celistar opened with an admonishment, which was very fair — it wasn't as though I didn't know what I was supposed to do, I just knew what I was gonna do. Then I done did it.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but she put a slender finger on my lips. "It is fine - we were able to find a workaround courtesy of our companion here," she said, pointing at Steeve, "I had thought I would have to use your reserves to maintain my presence throughout this process, but luckily that is not the case."

She took a look at the void splitting the horizon. It was wide now, taking up over a third of what we could see west of the building, taking up the space where the space where the sun should have been setting. A form of artificial dusk had settled as the chasm ate up the light. I assumed the star was still there, or it'd be rather dark. I wasn't sure how that worked, though.

"The withering of this branch was not in my predictions… Not this soon…" Celistar then said, rather cryptically. I didn't bother her for an explanation. If she wanted me to understand, she'd have said more, or stated it more clearly. It wasn't as though she didn't know how dense I was, having lived in my soul and all that.

The moon fairy gave a big sigh, which Steeve responded to by making an exaggerated lean over on her perch, like Celistar's sigh had almost blown her off the top. Liam laughed, and I swore the little fox grinned at him, although I wasn't that good at reading vulpine expressions.

I heard some shouting behind us, and turned back to see the men with the guns aiming at something, then the telltale 'bloop' of the shots as they fired. I followed the shimmering projectiles with my eyes and saw that an entire side street was filled with dark abominations like the ones we'd seen in the labs. This time, there were only one or sometimes two tentacles per, which at least meant they'd be easier to take down. This fact was borne out almost immediately as the grenades that Viktor's men had been firing landed and started wreaking havoc.

"How much leeway do I have?" I asked, looking at Celistar.

She looked like she was about to answer when a big hand landed on my shoulder.

"We will take care of this," Viktor said, and István nodded, having already retrieved a launcher from somewhere. I hadn't even seen him go do it. Dude was fast, I'll give him that.

Viktor, as expected, had 'spared me the effort' purely out of the goodness of his own heart, and definitely not because his fists were lonely, no sir. Which is why he totally didn't leave everyone in the dust and jump square into the densest cluster of our enemies.

István looked back at Celistar while firing his gun. "Let us know when it's time to return, if you would be so kind."

Okay, the pair of them definitely knew something I didn't. Return for what?

Celistar didn't leave me much time to think about the conundrum as she retreated into Steeve. As she did so, Steeve's extra tails evaporated like they'd never been there. The little fox reacted to them disappearing by standing up and shaking her butt a little, like it was numb. She remained in contact with the pedestal though, and soon I heard Celistar's voice in my head again.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Time to move some heavy metal. Place your hands back on the controls, and we can begin.

I did as I was told an put both hands on the flat front of the raised surface, kicking my vision into high gear again to better visualize what was happening. I was startled to see that there was now the outlines of massive plates below me, each with dozens of large Seals around the perimeter. Four immense columns were highlighted with the flows of Nebula, one at each cardinal direction. I assumed that these were the latches I released before, although judging by their current state they still had a role left to play.

We need to arrange these such that the correct alignment of Seals is reached. Celistar said to me. She preempted my confusion about what was the right alignment by 'showing' me — in my mind's eye — a completed disc. Her version looked weathered and worn, and very two dimensional, unlike the twelve layered discs I had.

"Uhhh, how do I…" I began, not sure of how to get everything to arrange itself in the right manner. In the distance I could see the battle pick up steam as the trickle of abominations quickly became a flood. Behind them, the massive void loomed, drawing even closer as I could see it starting to consume the edges of the city in the distance.

I wondered when it would reach my mother… before shaking the thought out of my head. She was already gone, it was time for me to save the people who were still here.

I focused on the disc, noticing as I did that each one had a Seal-sized hole in it, which made me realize how the whole contraption worked - I needed to align them so they were visible from the top.

But at the same time I thought this, I realized that it was wrong. How would there be more than one arrangement if every one was required to only visualized one position below it? And wouldn't the plate above block the ones below?

"A little help here, Celistar." I was at a loss and definitely not afraid to admit it.

You're making an assumption based on physical arrangements, she said, This is not what meets the eye. Rotate to the correct selection, then just think about selecting it.

I did what she said, rotating the top one around until the correct Seal was at the top, which left a gap at the sixth place position. I thought about selecting it, and the Seal exploded out of the top at me, which startled me until I realized that it was merely superimposed upon the dais below my feet and wasn't actually popping out of the ground at me.

I will admit that having Steeve's kee kee kee kee laugh in my ear after I had jumped halfway out of my skin did a lot to settle my nerves.

I rotated the viewing window on disc to the one o'clock position, then spun the disc beneath it. My vision allowing me to see where I needed to go without having to examine each symbol through the window first. The noise of wind rushing through the city assaulted my ears, but I realized it was actually the sounds of the disc spinning.

Finding the next symbol, I quickly 'selected' it with my mind, then positioned that disc to the two o'clock position. I had the third symbol lined up maybe half a minute later, but it didn't work when I went to select it. I realized — thankfully before bothering Celistar again, although she undoubtedly knew anyway — that I needed both discs lined up in order for the selection to work. How annoying.

I could feel the increased strain from spinning two at a time, then three as I went to work on the forth. It was starting to stress me out that I could hear the sounds of battle nearby as well as the occasional shouts of the people on our side. They were relying on me and here I was being slow.

Doubling down on my efforts, I reached the ninth disc before I had to stop moving them all at once. Doing so even a half the way left my head feeling empty, and in one of these gaps suddenly I heard Celistar's voice pushing through the din.

Charlotte Ann Willoughby!

"WHAT?" I shouted, having been drawn out of my concentration.

I've been trying to get your attention for the last five discs. You can't keep moving them all like that. I'm honestly amazed you can move more than one or two at a time.

I realized I'd been focusing on my work so intently I'd been tuning out everything but the sounds of the fight, unwilling to let my guard down that much.

"What do you expect me to do?" I asked.

Slow down, do it the right way, and don't overwork yourself. You've got a manual in your head, use it.

"I don't need a man to tell me what to do." I grumbled, giving a bit of a grin as I recalled a phrase Gran liked to use regarding getting assistance with her work from written instructions.

How about a friend? Came the reply. As if to accent the question, Steeve had tilted her head. Apparently the little fox had taken upon itself to do some shadow theater with our conversation.

"Sure, I'll take that advice."

Well, lock the top four together, Celistar instructed me. Then you can turn them as one unit and it uses a lot less energy. The middle four work the same way.

"Well, if you actually think about it." I grumbled again, before doing as she said.

Only three left now.

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