The evening was still young when the car reached Cliff Party House, and Emily helped Lenora out as they both looked up at the towering building. Called The Cliff, the bar center stood in the heart of District 2, rising above the surrounding streets like a giant glass crystal.
Emily and Lenora walked in and took the hover lifter to the center floor where the bar was located. The moment the doors opened, a wave of sound and color met them.
This was the first time Lenora had been to a bar since her mistake, while Emily came here once in a while just to drink her pain away.
The exterior was covered in transparent panels that shifted between different colors as astral energy flowed through them, and massive holographic advertisements floated above the entrance while music pulsed through the entire building.
Inside, music filled the air as people sat around floating tables and service drones moved between them carrying drinks. At the center stood a large circular bar surrounded by glowing bottles and holographic screens—one of the most popular places in the district for young Awakened and wealthy families to relax.
Lenora and Emily found a seat in a private booth. Emily left to order food and drinks, and while she was gone Lenora looked around the booth before removing the privacy screen to check what was happening around the city.
The news wasn’t anything new; it was the same reports she had already heard while watching television at home.
The first story covered the temperature dropping in the northern cities, with scientists debating the cause and some calling it the beginning of a breach—though that theory was quickly dismissed to avoid panicking the people of the north. The second focused on a high-tier weapon discovered in District 12’s Eternal Breach.
Lenora stared at the picture of the glowing breach. It was a corruption to the world, and the image dragged up memories she had no desire to revisit, memories she would have deleted if it were possible. Yet she still wanted the pain to remain as a reminder of her failure, of her mistake. Even calling it a mistake did not do it justice.
Just before the memory could pull her under, Emily returned with spiced food and drinks. The two of them talked mostly about how little time they had for each other lately, and as they ate and drank they slipped into stories from their childhood. The atmosphere stayed warm for a while.
Emily was an Awakened, so getting drunk was never easy for her, and even though Lenora had lost her powers, her cold eyes still showed she remained clear-headed. Then the mood shifted with a single question.
"Lenora, why did you get married?"
Emily looked at her friend. "I know I like to joke, but I know you. You don’t make impulsive decisions."
Lenora smiled, though it never reached her eyes, and picked up her drink. Her gaze stayed cold and sharp. "Decision? That’s a weird word."
She glanced at the screen in front of her, then pressed a button that shifted their booth to a different location. Looking up at the stars that had appeared around them, she said, "Emily, after that disaster I have never really trusted myself to make any decisions. And besides, what is my worth to the Sloane family? It was either marriage or... you know."
Emily nodded, picked up a small piece of meat, and ate it before asking, "So you and your husband aren’t really all lovey-dovey like the news claimed?"
Lenora shot back, "What if we are?"
Emily laughed. "If it was someone else I might have believed it, but it’s you. So talk to me, babe. What’s going on?"
Lenora sighed. "Nothing much, really."
"If it was nothing, you wouldn’t keep looking at your phone."
Lenora only smiled. "I was just checking it."
Emily sighed. "Look, you can’t expect him to call you. Orson was dragged into this mess the same way you were, so don’t expect him to suddenly remember he has a wife or that he’s supposed to check in."
Lenora looked at her phone one more time, then sighed. "Fine. I’ll focus on you. So what’s up?"
Emily shrugged. "Nothing much, really. You know, the usual."
"What about the guild?"
"It’s fine. Preston’s been running things."
Lenora smiled and took another sip of her drink. "So anything you guys are working on?"
"Hmm... nothing major. In three days we plan to enter the Golden Sun Realm for the weapon."
Lenora glanced down at her leg, then back at her friend. "Why haven’t you gone already?"
Emily looked around at the stars surrounding them. They looked beautiful under the soft light. "The high-ups are still trying to track where the news leaked from so they can shut it down, and we’re waiting for the right moment. That’s why the Silver Rain team was sent in first."
Lenora smiled faintly. "Wow. So they’ve started trusting Rain more."
Emily nodded. "Yes, but the woman has been acting stranger and colder for about a year now. Since nothing’s gone missing, though, we just keep going."
The conversation drifted on from there as they reminisced about the past—about the days when Lenora was still with the guild before her injury and everything that followed.
When they finally stepped out of the bar, the sky had gone dark and the moon was rising, but to Emily and Lenora the night still felt young.
Meanwhile, in the Golden Sun Realm, Rain sat staring into the fire burning in front of her. The flames stirred memories she had no intention of revisiting. Lightning crackled around her body like living snakes as she checked the time on her watch.
Technology usually failed inside a breach because it was another space entirely, yet her watch still worked. It showed around eight in the real world—nighttime—while here the five suns still shone high in the sky.
Lucas sat on the other side of the fire the guild had built for their camp and watched his captain. Rain looked over at him and said, "Stay here and protect the team. I’m going to scout ahead."
With that she turned into a streak of lightning and shot forward at unbelievable speed. When she landed on the next island a boom echoed across the land, waking every beast in the surrounding area.
A giant wolf rose from where it had been sleeping. A cold aura clung to it as it fixed its gaze on Rain, sending a chill down her spine. She refused to be deterred.
Even though the wolf standing before her was terrifying, she could see it clearly—golden eyes, fang-filled jaws, pure white fur. But it wasn’t the aura that truly intimidated her. It was the information the system displayed in front of her.
[Name: Golden Eye Wolf]
[Beast Rank: Ravager]
[Beast Class: Azure]
An Azure-class beast. Rain knew that defeating it might be nothing more than a dream.
She immediately moved like lightning across the island, yet the beast was faster. Golden light descended upon her as she ran, and when she glanced back the wolf was already on her. It roared and released a blinding beam of light.
She dodged and kept moving, knowing she couldn’t lead it back toward her team. She weaved between the trees, leaping from one to the next, but the beast followed like a walking disaster.
As she raced through the forest the wolf roared again and opened its mouth wide. Golden light poured into its jaws and condensed into a glowing sphere.
Rain kept running at lightning speed, covering yards in seconds, yet even though the distance between them seemed vast, the explosion that followed made her heart turn cold.
The blast covered three miles and sent a shockwave of air that uprooted almost every tree on the island.
The explosion erupted at the center, and the force hurled Rain—who had also been near the center—through multiple trees before flinging her clean off the island.
She looked up as she fell and realized the island itself, as massive as it was, was falling with her. Worst of all, it was falling straight toward the island where her team waited.