As a summoning – combined with a flurry of data corrections – it worked. The corpore corrected its trajectory.

She flashed a glance at the men, silhouetted by the dim light of the coming dawn. They still hadn’t moved. What was wrong with them?

“What’s happening?” Kyso wondered.

“It’s a corpore,” Traejan was looking in the right direction. He knew, he understood. “It’s coming for us.”

The tone of his voice had turned to dread.

“It’s going to kill us all.”

She broke her concentration, looked to them for a moment.

“No it’s not!” she shouted. “I am going to destroy it!”

She could hear one of them approach her, looked up. It was a mistake – and – for a moment, all her connections winked out.

Cursing herself, Althea turned back to the job and struggled to coax them back. Four unstable signal sources were more demanding to maintain than she had expected, and the units were physically decaying, bubbling and steaming. She increased Dorian’s autonomy, despite the risk of his exposure, of attack, of absorption. She needed the moment.

“How?” he demanded, pointed at her array. “With that?”

The transmission reception fields miraculously aligned. She had a moment, a blessed moment to make them leave. Althea whipped her head around, felt the biting of the cold wind blowing into her face, stinging her eyes. Glaring at Traejan’s obstinate stance, she swore under her breath.

“Yes, with that,” she shouted back.

He stared back at her.

“All a corpore is – is a physical extension of the Macro,” she shouted over the rising wind. “All the Macro is – is code; manipulate the code, destroy the physical. I have already contacted the corpore; I am bringing it here so I can destroy it.”

She looked back at the display; it was still strongly aligned. The signals were now powerful enough to maintain themselves. She had to do something to save Traejan, to save Kyso, to salvage something of this. She looked back up at them.

“You have to get away from here now,” she commanded them. “Get into the city, someplace safe. The corpore is coming for me, not you – but when that thing explodes, they are going to hear it in Panak!”

She held her hands wide apart.

“You need to be behind two sixes of material,” she finished. They had plenty of options within running distance. A six of the city’s reinforced walls should be enough to protect them, more would provide insurance. The trilium she would be transforming, would blast the whole area with high-energy radiation. Exactly how much… she couldn’t predict.

The two men stood their ground, wind whipping at their coats, staring at her. What are you waiting for?

“You have to go now! Both of you!”

Traejan snapped out of it, looked at the swirling sky, back at Kyso, grabbed at the elder man. Around them, the sparkling white blew in the morning light.

“Kyso!”

Kyso stared at her, eyes wide.

“Althea…”

Was he still afraid for her? She pointed to the hole in the platform’s floor almost two sevens behind her.

“That shaft back there should be deep enough for me to be safe,” she told him. She prayed it was deep enough. He didn’t move.

“I have to stay,” she told him. There was no other way. Manual input was necessary. She was not going to risk Dorian. They would face the thing together.

“I have to ensure the transmissions get through.”

He moved toward her, reached out a hand.

“We can’t leave you,” he persisted, fighting Traejan who tugged on his coat.

“You must,” she demanded, slapped it away. “Go! Go now.”

“Run away – as fast as you can!” she shouted. “You have to live!”

I need you to live.