After Lyubi and Qisyit met with Kitra, Prism spent the rest of the day exhausting what little power he had left aiding Qisyit and RED-4. He and the engineer-mercenaries spent a few hours walking through the cave systems, scanning walls with mechanical roundrones and insect drones from one of the women's dronepacks. If it wasn’t for Prism’s tech-enhancing magic, the drones would have captured splotchy surface details of the EM-disrupting caves at best.

  The scans were used to create a 3-D model of the accessible parts of the extensive and ancient cave system. The model was far more detailed than any map that the True Twins had made themselves. It served to uncover some of the caves’ secrets. The biocomputer of the dronepack that generated the model was even smart enough to highlight the caves’ problem areas without being prompted to do so.

  “What are all these small cracks in the walls? They’re in almost every cave we scanned.” Prism pointed at a series of jagged lines that glowed red upon the model.

  “Micro-fractures from the Quaking.” Qisyit waved her arms in the air above her, causing the model to zoom in on an especially large crack in one of the larger cave’s walls. “Some of them aren’t so micro, though…”

  They all stood in front of a large holographic display of the model. It was being projected from a small, detachable, dome-shaped device removed from one of RED-4’s dronepacks. The holographic projector sat at the center of a round, blackstone table in a small cave that the True Twins used for meetings.

  “Do you know about the Quaking?” Lyubi leaned forward and placed her hands on the edge of the table while she looked over at Prism.

  “That’s when the Queen made earthquakes all around ?ba to destroy the civilizations she’d created in the two centuries after she took over the Old World, right?” Prism stroked his chin hair and glanced up at the 3-D hologram as he recalled past conversations he'd had on the topic.

  “That's right." Lyubi nodded, doing her best to remain serious. Her natural state was one of effervescent positivity, so it took her a real effort to act solemn when dealing with grim topics. "The Queen killed billions of people during the decade of the Quaking. She brought our world's population down to under a billion, from what we've gathered."

  "She could do it all again if she wanted. 800 years have gone by since then and we aren't even sure what technology she used to make the earthquakes. She could reset the world whenever she feels like it; she could turn all the cities and bases we’ve built into rubble all over again." Qisyit spoke like she was in physical pain. The engineer held herself as if the pain was from a knife wound to her abdomen. "I've seen entire cities buried beneath the surface of Esdegon. Towering, glittering buildings even grander than the ones in Wolf City or Elyse, hidden under the rock and sand of my homeland. I've seen firsthand the devastation that evil woman has caused on a whim."

  "I'm sorry..." Prism didn't know what else to say.

  They all stood in a minute of silence that seemed to last an hour. Prism bowed his head low and rubbed the edge of the table. Its smooth surface was a comfort to him, reminding him of the rocks he used to climb eons ago when he was a small child.

  "The clay that surrounds the outer walls of this cave probably served to dampen the force of the earthquakes." Lyubi pointed at the substrate that surrounded the caves’ walls. The layer was colored reddish-brown on the 3-D model and almost looked like a membrane around it.

  Qisyit roughly rubbed her face with both of her hands to calm herself. She rotated the model above them, then zoomed it in on another large wall fissure. "The bigger cracks were sealed by the clay, which is held in place by the wall's weird composition of metamorphic rock. It makes me think that these were just boulder caves at some point..."

  "Must've been millions of years ago, before this was all jungle." Lyubi nodded, watching Qisyit study the visualized data projected above them in greater detail.

  “There’s signs of slippage in a few places.” One of the women stated while pointing at a few of the cave ceilings. The areas became yellow on the model.

  “Some of the True Twins told us that there have been a few cave-ins recently. Two caves were made inaccessible, killing over a dozen fighters in the process.” Another woman said softly.

  “We’ll just need to buttress the problem areas. Prism can work his magic to aid us without us needing to construct heavy lifts. The only thing we need to print are the support structures.” Lyubi drafted out an example of the buttresses she described upon the model.

  The biocomputer populated the caves of the 3-D hologram with similar buttresses in rooms it identified as being at-risk of collapse. RED-4 tapped away at the forearm displays on their combat armor, double and triple checking the biocomputer’s reasoning.

  Prism grew bored of watching the women analyzing data. “I could just fill in the fissures and micro-fractures with my magic.” He said to little acknowledgement. “Then we wouldn’t need to-”

  “We’ve gone over this. You’re not an engineer. You don’t understand the physics involved in making physical objects structurally sound. Any attempt at engineering work you make would be inherently unsafe as a result.” Qisyit interrupted Prism and waved her finger in his face as if he was a petulant child.

  “You trust me enough to let my magic convert your bodies to energy and send you thousands of kilometers, but you won’t let me patch a few cracks or reinforce some rock?” Prism shook his head and smirked at Qisyit. Any respect he had for the lieutenant commander was vanishing fast.

  “Careful; that arrogance of yours is likely to get people killed.” Qisyit looked back up at the cave model, no longer paying Prism any mind.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Prism loudly sucked his teeth and crossed his arms. He saw Lyubi briefly glance over at him, but she didn’t try to assuage his bruised ego. The other three women in the room shifted uncomfortably where they stood. One of them even shook their head reproachfully at Prism.

  He didn’t realize how intimidating he looked in his new, older form. He also didn’t comprehend how quickly his ally’s trust in him could vacillate into fear. He’d started taking his relationship with RED-1 and the Red Wolves’ commanders for granted, paying no heed to how the larger Red Wolves Company viewed him.

  “This all looks good. We should go get the printers and get started. We’ve only got Prism till the end of the day, after all.” Lyubi smiled sprightly at her teammates and at Prism.

  He scratched the back of his head and nodded at her, still convinced that his way was the right one. He wanted to storm off and fix the place on his own, but he knew that it would only alienate him from the others. “I’m a Red Wolf; I should act like it.” He thought. “They’re being reasonable. These are reasonable instructions. I should comply.”

  “Well?” Qisyit asked him as she disengaged the holo-emitter. The room became a lot darker, but Prism had no trouble seeing Qisyit’s stern expression. The wrinkles at the edges of her eyes deepened as her eyes narrowed at him.

  “You’re right; I couldn’t answer your engineering questions. I’m just…” Prism rubbed his eyes and sighed. “I’m just mad at myself for not learning about this stuff after being alive for so long.”

  Prism watched Qisyit ease back her shoulders and close her eyes before pinching the bridge of her nose.

  “Exactly how old are you again?” Qisyit asked after placing a hand on her hip.

  “It’s rude to ask an Elementeitan their age.” Prism raised his eyebrows and wagged his finger at her while he spoke.

  “What-fucking-ever!” She cursed loud enough to make the other women look at her and Prism. She looked over at Lyubi and nodded her head towards the cave’s round door before leading all of them out of the room.

  “You really have a way with women.” Lyubi said once she started walking beside Prism. He couldn’t help but laugh.

  ***

  Prism didn’t get to lay down in his cot near the tele-circle until late in the evening. He’d been able to move ten buttresses into place with a spell that temporarily granted him the power of telekinesis. It was an especially taxing form of magic when used on heavy objects like the buttresses.

  The tiredness of the day of focused work ensured that he fell into a deep slumber as soon as his head hit his firm pillow. As dreams took him, he found himself standing in a dark, silent room.

  His eyes began to make out small pinpricks of light in the distance. The lights were like faint stars in a light-polluted sky. He looked down and saw that the ground beneath his feet was invisible. Through it he could see the same bleak scene, reminiscent of the void between planets. He also noticed his own nudeness as he stared at the tangle of black hair below his toned stomach and then at his wide black feet.

  He took a step forward and watched the floor ripple beneath his foot as though he were walking on crystal-clear water.

  “This is no mere dreamscape…” Prism said aloud. “And it certainly isn’t mine.”

  “Very astute.”

  A noise that just barely resembled a voice reverberated through the darkness like an echo through a narrow stone hallway. The almost-digital sound was tinny and fragmented. Prism looked all around him for its source, but he saw no one.

  “Is this…are you the Queen?” Prism raised his hands, ready for a fight within his own mind.

  “I am not.” The sound warbled.

  “You sound like a broken machine.” Prism looked up while he spoke.

  “It is difficult to communicate with you. I am weak. I am trying my best.”

  Prism paced back and forth for a few seconds while he attempted to discretely analyze the structure of the dream. He knew that his mind had been brought there against his will, but he wasn’t yet sure if the dreamscape was magical in nature. “What are you? What’s your name?” Prism yelled to buy himself more time to think.

  “I’m not entirely sure.” It sounded genderless and inhuman.

  Prism knew that certain technologies could hijack the resting or wakeful mind. There were even living beings who could manipulate the brains of others from afar using only their own non-magical biology.

  “Are you native to ?ba?” Prism slowed his walking and gestured to the formless entity. He pointed to the ground as if where he stood could even be considered the planet he asked about.

  “I don’t know if I was born there. It feels familiar to me, though. This dream feels familiar to me, too.” Despite the voice being muddy and fragmented, Prism could perfectly understand the meaning of its broken words.

  “Such contradictions are possible in dreams,” he reminded himself.

  His own ancient people commonly shared dreams in an act they called dreamdiving. Elementeitans used their magic to construct vibrant dreamscapes to play within during their lengthy sleeping periods. Prism had been taught to protect himself from intrusions into his dreams, but he’d relaxed those defenses since he’d not met anyone capable of dreamdiving on ?ba.

  Sguvi was already testing the assumptions he’d made about the planet, however.

  “This dreamscape is so fragile. Not quite magical, but something similar. Psionic, maybe?” Prism thought with a quick look around. His eyes focused on the dots of light in the distance. “I could leave whenever I want. Quite easily, too. In fact…”

  Sensing the energy makeup of the dream, Prism reached out his right hand and took hold of faint strands that were previously unseen. He felt the intimations of human presences through the strands, forcing him to make contact with what seemed like hundreds of minds all at once, each with their own joys and sorrows. There was a time when he could have handled such a communion, but he was not yet used to his new body.

  The surge of foreign thoughts and emotions caused a wave of nausea to overwhelm him. Prism then shuddered himself awake as his guts spasmed.

  *BARF*

  Prism leaned over to the side of his cot and vomited out the half-digested broiled fish dinner he’d had hours earlier. He kept retching until his whole body ached, confused by the sudden fit of sickness. Two True Twins ran over to his bedside to aid him, but all Prism could do was shake his head while the rest of him quivered as he gripped the edge of his cot.

  “What time is it?” Prism asked groggily after wiping the bile from his mouth and the tears from his eyes.

  “Around 2 in the morning.” One of the True Twins stooped down and whispered, not wanting to wake the other Red Wolves sleeping in the room.

  Prism groaned. He felt his body calming down, recovering from whatever had afflicted him. He tried to remember what he’d dreamt about, fearing it had been a terrible nightmare. He knew better than to dismiss such things, for they were oftentimes warning messages from beyond.

  Try as he must, he couldn’t remember a single moment from his dream or if he’d even dreamt at all. He only knew that he felt even more tired than when he’d first laid down.

  “Thank you. I’m fine.” Prism said to the True Twins before waving his hand over the puddle of vomit below him and over his face. All signs of the nastiness vanished in a flittering of soft sparkles. “Good night.” He then waved to the two.

  “Good night.” One of them said with a startled look in his eye before the both of them returned to their watch near the entrance of the cave.

  Prism rolled onto his back and laid his hands atop the grey blanket that covered his stomach. He looked up at the spiky cave ceiling full of slender stalactites. His eyes roved over the beige formations for only a second before they closed on their own. Prism then entered a dreamless, tranquil sleep.