Chapter 361: First Trace of the Enclave

Lucifer had no sooner returned to the outer observation platform than the lingering sensation of how far down Remu’s unstable seat she still had to force remained with him on the next few steps. The unstable one had been stabilized, but the distant drag it had suffered against her authority was still there, like a thin cold current running away from her to places the monitoring lattices could not yet reach.

Aeloria and Nyx were already waiting, the metronome pulse continuing its slow, steady cycle in the background projections and unchanged.

Nyx was the first to speak, her black eyes tracking him as he approached. "You stabilized her."

"Now, only," Lucifer said. "Her seat is fine now, but the pull is still there. Something on the other end is still drawing on the old witch authority through her. If we do not find the source, every new seat inheriting a harvested connection will eventually feel the same strain."

Aeloria’s expression was carefully neutral, but the tension around her eyes had deepened. "Then we use what we have. Selene’s death left trails of residual trails scattered across several layers of the outside. The metronome signal has a definite origin point, although the path to it is shielded. If we combine the two, we may be able to trace the direction."

Lucifer advanced on the main projection table. "Do it."

They worked, wasting no time. Aeloria drew the stored shockwave patterns from the time that Selene’s fused core had collapsed under Lucifer’s final blow, and Nyx laid in the precise timing and angle of each metronome pulse, the regular pattern of them a convenient reference. The old residual scars of the original disappearance of the progenitors were last, the faint lines of it a suitable comparison to the ones that were the source of concern.

For a while the projections showed little. Fragments, that is. Incomplete vectors. False paths that collapsed under pressure. The sealed universe was proving to be good at hiding things, and doing it well. They did not stop when Aeloria’s next attempt showed one thin line that stood. It was not a full path by any means, not even close, and buried beneath several layers of deliberate interference, but it did not break a second time she tested the line. It led away from every major realm, past the outer monitoring posts, into a region of folded space that had previously shown up as empty.

Nyx’s living darkness gave a small pause. "There. That’s not a blindness that is natural. Something is actively erasing traffic through that sector. The timing of metronome’s pulses match the residual drain coming out of it. If the enclave exists it is in that direction."

Lucifer was studying the thin persistence of the line on the projection. It was barely a direction, not a map in any way. But it was better than what they had had hour ago.

"How certain are you?" he asked.

Aeloria was more precise on her next answer. "Certain enough to call it a real trace, not certain enough to promise a clean path. Whatever is hiding that section has had time to prepare. If we follow the line we will not be finding ourselves with an easy road opened to us. We will be forcing our way to a place that was not meant to be found."

Lucian’s voice came through the channel a moment later.

He had been monitoring the same projection from the command hall. "If that trace is a proper one then any expedition toward it will leave the major realms thinner than I like. Remu is already under strain. The other new seats are no more far off to be in risk. You are talking about taking strength out of the board at just the time the board is starting to crack."

Lucifer did not take his eyes from the projection. "I’m talking about ending the process that is cracking the board. Reinforcing every seat while the harvest continues is only winning time. The metronome is continuing to count. Remu’s authority is being pulled. If we wait until the drag becomes critical in more than just one seat, we will have to fight a collapse and a harvest at the same time."

Nyx folded her arms together, her darkness curling slowly along her wrists. "He is not wrong. The trace is weak, but it is the first real lead we have had since the old generation vanished. To ignore it now would be the same as accepting the fact the orb will complete its work on schedule."

Aeloria was silent for a while before speaking. When she spoke, her voice had the weight of someone who had run the same calculation several times and was not liking any of the available answers.

"If we pursue this we do it with a small team. Not an army. A large force will announce itself the moment it arrives in that sector. A small group with a high output has a better chance of reaching the outside edge of interference before the enclave’s defenses respond fully. Lucifer, Nyx and I will form the core. Anyone else we bring should be able to survive a contact with something capable of holding several progenitors in place."

Lucifer nodded once. "Then we prepare the team and move before the next major fluctuation hits another seat. The trace will not always be clear, whatever is hiding that sector will have noticed us looking at it."

Lucian’s silence on the channel said he already disliked the risk. When he spoke again, it was with the argument gone, replaced by a practical acceptance. "I will hold the realms while you are gone. Do not take more time than you have to. If another seat starts to collapse the way that Remu’s did I will need you back here whether or not the enclave has been found."

"Understood," Lucifer said.

The line on the projection continued to point, a fragile thing against the vast and dark of the unmapped sector beyond it. The pulse of the metronome came once more, steady and patient, marking another step forward in the harvest.

For the first time since the old progenitors had vanished, the sealed universe had given them a direction.

It was not much.

But it was enough to move.