The white void was familiar to me. Looking around, I saw everyone else that had come along, only their eyes were closed, and they were laying horizontal - to me anyway. There was no real way to tell what is up or down, or any indication that those directions even mattered.

Even Celistar was here, floating supine like everyone else, eyes closed. They all looked a bit too dead for my liking, which was giving me a bit of a flashback to my mother. l had to suppress a bit of a panic attack welling up inside of me at the sight, a sort of frantic feeling in my chest like my heart was trying to flee and my brain was hitching a ride on the escape pod.

I settled into the meditative pose I used to create my Streams and carefully circulated them, paying close attention to each node in the process, something that calmed me down immensely. I could tell that I was like a pressurized tank, having forcefully pushed down all of the feelings from the last few days in the interest of survival, and I'd need to keep releasing that tension with this practice if I wanted to deal with any of it without exploding.

Opening my eyes, I looked around again, and noticed that a few of the people seemed to be dreaming.

I floated on over to Liam, and watched as his brow creased and relaxed, his eyes moving rapidly. I set my hand on his chest, and closed my eyes before circulating some of my Nebula to wrap around him, like a warm blanket — then watched as he visibly relaxed. Watching him settle helped calm the frazzled feelings flying around my own self.

Opening my eyes, I moved over to Gran to discover her sleeping like a stone. She was out out, sleeping calmer than I'd ever seen her. I wasn't about to disturb that.

Alessa was a bit of a conundrum. I could tell that she was dreaming like Liam, but not if it was bothering her at all, I eventually decided to leave her be.

It was weird seeing Viktor doing anything but towering over me. Seeing him floating there was something different. His hands were curled into fists, and the muscles in his arms twitching, while he had a very satisfied grin on his face. Clearly he wasn't in need of any of my assistance.

István startled me by talking. I couldn't make any of it out clearly, because it wasn't in any language I recognized. I knew that him and Viktor spoke something else, but I kept forgetting to ask about it. That said, I could somehow tell that he was talking about his research. Something about the cadence of the words and the way his eyebrows were raised in the same manner as he had when he was intensely studying something tipped me off.

I wished him sweet dreams then took a gander at the rest, calming down those who needed it and leaving them be if they seemed to be resting peacefully. I even found Alex over in the corner. I wasn't sure if he was actually part of Viktor's business, or if Steeve had just grabbed everyone inside. He was here, at any rate.

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Speaking of which, there was one notable absence. I hadn't seen Steeve yet.

The second I thought about it though, I heard a yip yip over my head. I looked up and saw her walking upside down above me, making little ripples in what looked like a pond. Looking down at me was a reflection of myself, occasionally wiggling as her footsteps disturbed the surface.

As I looked up at the reflection of everyone, I started noticing details. When I gazed at a person, a would see the Motes related to them. I could see Celistar's Nature Affinity flowing out from her in a sinuous pattern, looking very similar to branches or roots. If I squinted a little, I could see some leaves. Each person had a few interested Motes around them, even those like Liam and Alessa, who I was pretty certain didn't have any powers to speak of. Watching the little lights, I got the feeling they were curious about these intruders to their domain.

A cloud of colored Motes covered István, which initially confused me until I remembered that the man always carried a full selection of Artifacts on his person - something that had apparently translated into this space.

Viktor had a set of very red Motes sitting around him, almost stationary, but they'd pulse in a very ordered manner whenever his fists squeezed, which was very interesting. It appeared he was passively exerting control on the naturally occurring Motes in this space unconsciously.

Steeve had apparently picked up on what I was looking at, and she'd somehow ordered all of her MiniMotes into a neat pair of lines behind her, and they stepped when she stepped, looking like a adorable general leading her troops.

I watched her be silly until she started arranging them into s-shapes and squares and finally looked away back at myself. I had an entire swarm of colors whirling around me like a tornado. It appears I was quite the commodity in the Mote world.

I examined a few more people, before coming back to myself. I tried circulating my Streams, and noticed that it affected the speed and quantity of Motes interested in what I was doing. I surrounded my arms in a rough coating of Nebula and watched the Motes in that area become brighter in response.

I played with a few different things for a while, learning from the Motes as they moved, feeling as though I improved my control somewhat, before I felt a shift in the environment. A ripple passed through the whole space, and I got a distinct feeling that something changed.

Steeve was falling slow motion from the ceiling, like she'd been knocked off her perch. It was amusing watching her hit the floor, her fur and body flopping like she was running at one-tenth the time I was experiencing. Her squad of MiniMotes gathered around her like they were paying respects to the fallen. She held a single paw shakily to the sky, before letting it flop slowly to the floor, giving a ragged last breath as her eyes slowly fell shut. She flopped her mouth open and her tongue lolled out. The little Motes shook like they were crying.

What a drama queen.

At the edges of the space, it started breaking down, little pieces of white breaking off and floating off into the ether, while the blank, dark static of the void showing through. I didn't feel any sense of fear, and Steeve was doing some sort of eulogy for herself… somehow, so I figured this was expected.

I looked up, seeing flurries of Motes rushing through the space. I looked back at myself, feeling something there. An absolute maelstrom of Motes were flooding the space, as though competing for space with each other as I locked eyes with myself. The gaze between my reflection and I seemed to deepen as the Motes all around us took on a golden hue, glowing brighter and brighter.

A pulse of power flew out from me, and the space shattered. The pool of water fell from the sky, flooding over the bodies of everyone present.

The me in the reflection smiled.

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