Serra Crystalstine's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Serra stood at the warlord's door with the blade singing in her hand. Then a cry came up from the shaft behind her. Kronos. Their core had flared from a small sun into a blinding white glare. The anchor was failing. The rift strained against the dead air, and the warlord's drain pulled harder now that it sensed the crossing. "The anchor's going critical," Shimmer said. She did not soften it. "If it collapses, the rift dies. We're trapped down here. No way back up." Serra looked at the door, then at the shaft. The warlord was one step away. But Kronos had held the line for them, and now their core screamed toward failure. She could cut the door and reach her goal, and leave Kronos to burn out alone. She chose the shaft. She ran to the edge and looked down. Kronos sagged against the far wall, core blazing, cracks spreading across their galaxy-fire crystal. The rift flickered beside them, half open. Serra's own clock skipped as the drain clawed at her chest. Forty-seven losses. She felt every tick fight to hold. "The core takes too much," Shimmer said, landing beside her. "It trusts it'll last. It won't." "Then we give it less to hold." Serra spread her wings. The blade's song still pointed at the drain, the force eating Kronos alive. She drove the wing-blade into the dead air between them and the shaft. The song bit into the drain itself. For one breath, the pull eased. Stellarwind dropped from above on dark wings, his clock-arm raised. The courier had not left. "I can close it clean," he said. "Or I can pull your anchor out first. Not both." "Pull Kronos," Serra said. "Close it after." Stellarwind reached into the rift with his clock-arm. The blade held the drain back while he worked. He gripped Kronos's core and hauled. Crystal scraped rock. Kronos came free of the wall, core dimming from white to a dull red. The rift snapped shut behind them. The drain surged back, but the anchor was gone, and there was nothing left for it to tear. Kronos slid down the rock and lay still. Their core ticked once. Twice. Alive. Cracks laced their chest, but the glare was gone. Serra pulled the blade from the air. Her clock steadied. She had saved Kronos. She had not opened the door. "The way up is sealed now," Shimmer said. "The rift's dead. The warlord's behind that door." Serra looked at the door in the dark. The thread still ended there, bright and short. There was no path back to the city. The only way out was through him. "Good," she said. She lifted the blade and turned toward the door.