"I'm still missing something." Letty mutters, leaning back as she stands in front of the prototype portal frame.

"The way I see it, you are creating a connection, but there is nothing keeping it working further." I muse. "It's like... you warp the space, but as soon as you connect the two points you stop supporting it and it collapses on itself."

"I'm not, though... it's something more complex, like a rebound... should anchor it?" My girlfriend looks up at me with a small frown.

"You can try." I shrug with a smile. "When Ave'A was making a portal, as far as I understand she was compressing space... and putting the compressed edge in the portal frame. Though I don't think you need to compress it... It should be enough to anchor it to the frame."

"Hm." Letty looks back at the frame and starts weaving another spell, slightly different this time.

We, or rather she as I'm more to cheer her on and give impressions, has been trying to make a working portal, and it's going quite nicely. She has already managed to connect two frames, and I managed to use my perception through them, though her initial blueprint had a few flaws we're fixing now. Now, as in around noon, or rather midday since there is no actual noon on the ship. It is also a couple hours after meeting with Vela.

"We really don't need sleep now, do we?" I mutter.

"Huh?" Letty turns her head to me, still making the spell without looking at it.

"I was just thinking that we don't need sleep now. It feels a bit weird to stay up so long and still be as energetic as ever. Last time I slept was more than a whole day ago, during that mission, and even then it was barely a few hours because I kept watch."

"...Yeah." She nods. "I also don't really need my meditation. It's much easier for me to dynamically use and arrange my memories and all. I think my mind now works in a fundamentally different way."

"Hm. Pretty scary, huh?" I smirk.

"A bit." Letty smiles wryly, and I notice she's close to finishing the spell. "Though they are only improvements, which makes it a bit one-sided. I'm definitely not complaining. If it was before, I would need at least twice the time to do... that." She finishes at the same moment as she puts the spell into motion, and I focus on the thing to see how it will work now.

I see as the space warps and abruptly connects with the other frame along the premade connection, then fluctuates slightly before another string of Nihility attaches it all to the frame and it stabilizes. I'm just about to smile at the success before the second frame destabilizes and the whole portal collapses with a sound not unlike that of a quiet implosion.

"Ah. Should have stabilized both sides. The influence is much weaker on the other." Letty realizes instantly. "But I can't reach the other side normally... gimme a moment." She mumbles and attacks the second frame, weaving a spell into it.

Well, I'm saying 'spell' all the time, but it doesn't really have anything to do with spells and runes like Daria is using. Letty has learned to sort of program her Nihility to do actions under specified conditions or signals, which is actually almost the same as what I did when I made bullets for her, and she isn't using any runes for that. Right now, for example, she is shaping her Nihility into small structures that unravel and form a portal by themselves.

A while later Letty is done and returns back to the first frame, then starts copying what she did with the other one.

"Hm, you could use it to make one-way portals, no?" I ask, having a sudden idea.

"Hm? Yeah, I could." Letty pauses for a while, but soon resumes her work. "It could be useful, but not now. The idea is that we should be able to travel freely between the two."

"Mhm." I nod and watch as she continues the work.

After the two frames have identical spells on them, she starts preparing the portal itself again, though this time without the additional part stabilizing it. Though I think it's a bit different than before?

Either way, a moment later the spell activates and the space connects, forming a passage between the two frames. The spells... no damn I can't call them spells. The commands in the frames activate and the portal stabilizes on both sides, then stay this way as Letty probably unconsciously sucks in a breath of air.

"...Good. Good. It works..." She says quietly, inspecting the portal, which looks basically like a long tunnel of nothing... and which is pretty peculiar, if you think about it. Is it even possible to traverse?

"It works!" Letty turns to me with a squeal, and her face splits into a huge smile. Then she shots forward and hugs me tightly, and I pat her head with a smile forming on my face involuntarily.

"Now make it consistent and safe, and we're good to go. Will you be doing it now?" I ask her after her enthusiasm passes enough for her to stop clinging to me.

"Um, do you have something you want to do?" She asks, looking up into my eyes cutely. "Because testing and fine tuning will take much more time than this. I... don't wanna hold you here." She averts her eyes with a tiny blush on her cheeks.

"Not really." I shrug. "I can play with my Demonic Flame, or check up on the group in VOW. But I don't mind staying here."

"...Okay."

...

"Hm, looks good." I look at the frame with the other side of the portal visible around five inches further, more or less at the same distance as the frame ends on the outside. "Functionally it should be the same as Ave'A made. Maybe even better."

"Mhm!" Letty nods enthusiastically. "Now I just need to make sure there are no problems."

"Alright. Do you know how long it holds, by the way?"

"Hm? Should... should hold forever. I only use Nihility to make the portal, afterwards there is no energy consumption, because I'm doing it with Nihility's influence... it's pretty weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah, a bit." I nod.

I guess it's like passive influence of the affinity? Something like that. My domain seems to work similarly... which reminds me I haven't tested it properly yet. I'll really need to do that sometime. Preferably sooner than later.

"Letty, Helia. Come to the command deck, please." Vela's voice suddenly resounds through the ship. "We have an unidentified arrival from the depth. Threat level unknown, ETA eight minutes."

Letty freezes in the middle of turning around and looks at me with wide eyes.

"Come on!" She grabs my hand and rushes out of the room to the corridor. I follow just behind her as we run beside the stairs to a ladder embedded into a wall and Letty jumps up, grabbing to the bars just below the ceiling. "Follow me!"

"Right behind you!" I reply, jumping up and pulling myself up as she disappears in the hole in the ceiling. I see with my magic sense that a lock between the main hull and Letty's block opens before her.

Hm. I stretch my perception a bit and notice that Dragha and Proton are both up there. Alright.

I fly out of the hole in the floor and look around a small corridor I find myself in. "Is that a problem?" I ask Letty as she waves at me and starts jogging in the direction of the command deck. "The ship, I mean."

"No idea. And that's the thing." Letty glances back at me. "The depth is how we call a special dimension through which ships travel above the speed of light. It's one of the few technologies that allow FTL travel, but it's extremely rare, because it was deemed too dangerous for civil use."

At this point we approach the room and slow down, arriving to huge open room with a captain's bridge standing two meters tall in the middle and a huge number of screens and displays in half of a circle around it. To our left there are stairs to the bridge, and both Dragha and Proton are standing in front of the displays.

They turn to us briefly as we enter, but Proton returns to the screens a moment later.

"Letty, Helia, good you're here." Dragha nods her head. "We've no idea about the danger, and any fight is unlikely, but you should stay here for now. The new arrival is very small and doesn't seem to be armed, but it is.. worrying."

She turns to the displays again, which, now that I look carefully, are all holographic and there is no glass behind them. There is instead a huge... sort of shield pulled over the deck. But, back to the displays, the few I can understand without context are a display of Abyssa with a huge amount of miscellaneous things around it, a map of the space around us, and a silhouette of another ship. All black.

"You can't scan it?" Letty gasps from my side.

"That's the worrying part." Dragha says with a nod. "Whatever this ship is, their technology is at least as good as ours, if not better." She looks back at us with raised eyebrows. "For comparison, Helia, the Empire is at least a hundred years behind us in terms of practical application."

"Wow." I glance at Letty, who seems deep in thought. "You have no idea about their intentions or identity?"

"No, unfortunately no. But

DESTINY.

A slow voice lacking form, but of overwhelming meaning, head splitting pain, and a sudden wave of faintness and dizziness assaulting my mind. Holy shit, ow ow ow.

Why the hell is it so painful?

MOTHER.

Another wave pounding against my head. I'm pretty sure I groan and fall to the ground, but my head is so cloudy I can't be sure.

ANSWER.

Next one, slightly weaker, and a spike and crack of pain piercing my mind and whole being unlike anything I've felt before.

An echo of understanding appears in my mind, a faint feeling like I knew what's happening, but I can't put it into words.

CHOICE.

Fourth word, fourth hit of the pain, though this one yet a bit weaker, and building ache in the back of my mind... I didn't know that can be a thing.

I wait for a while, and hearing no more I open my eyes slowly, still feeling the dull echoes of the pain. The first thing I notice is Letty looking down at me with panicked expression on her face. Shit, gimme a damn moment.

Why isn't my perception field working? And my hearing, for that matter? What the hell just happened to me...?

"Helia!" I suddenly hear Letty's voice through my left ear and I flinch, immediately making my body point out an issue with a splitting headache, only intensifying at the sudden movement and loud sound.

Damn, damn, damn. Gimme some Primordial Energy to my head and heal whatever is wrong. I wait for the relief for a while... and nothing comes.

...Shit. That's serious.

And suddenly a wave of cold washes over me, giving me clarity I didn't know I lacked, then a wave of relief comes and I notice Letty crouching over my body as Dragha and Proton look back in concern.

Apology.

The voice resounds in my head again, but this time I hear it clearly...

And I recognize it.

It's Shiva's voice... but also not. It's somehow... more. Different. Also, it's not really voice, not in the way you can hear. It's more like... meaning put into a package and unleashed all at once in my mind.

No intention of hurting, but to help understand, to answer the question. Remedy to the harm caused. Last message, leaving in peace. All that, and more intricate details I can't understand.

"Okay, I'm... fine, I think." I say quickly after processing the gist of the message so that Letty won't worry too much and I'm suddenly enveloped in a bone crushing hug from her.

"Helia! What was that!? What happened!?" She asks in almost panicked voice, though laden with huge relief.

"Uh, gimme a moment." I pull myself up, taking her with myself since her version of a hug was basically laying on top of me, and rub my face, then orient myself and give her a kiss to her cheek. "Um, so I just received a message, but, uh, I'm having trouble understanding it. Gimme like... a couple of minutes, and I'll be able to tell you more."

"Oh, alright. Take your time." My girlfriend nods her head and we stand up properly, reassuring the rest that I'm fine.

Now what do we have here?

Four messages... not exactly four, because you could argue there was only one, but the point stands.

First was destiny. Long awaited, bound to happen.

I don't understand anything apart from that.

Second... mother. The one who created me. The one who waits, eager to meet.

No way. Shiva? She is on this ship? I can't interpret it in any other way. So... I'll get to meet her? She said we'll meet soon, after all.

No way no way no way. I feel a knot in my chest merely at the thought. Damn, what am I going to say to her? I can't just come up to her and say "hello, mom". That would be...

No, damn, focus. Finish the messages.

Third one was... answer. Explaining, clarifying, knowledge to be gained.

There is nothing more. So... yeah. She'll answer my questions.

And the fourth one, choice. Crossroads, paths to take. Great importance, everlasting consequences.

Well, if that doesn't sound ominous.

What do I do now? I definitely want to see who's on that ship now. Can I check it first by myself? I should be able to survive in the void, be it with or without the capital letter whatever the difference is, and I should be able to reach the ship. I can easily conceal myself by warping space around me, because my perception field can work around it.

"Where is this ship?" I look up at Dragha.

"Exactly in front of us, very close. Three million kilometers and decreasing. It hasn't left the depth yet, the foreimage is moving alongside us. ETA two minutes." She answers quickly, turning to me. "Did you get to know something?"

"...Not for sure." I reply with a frown and concentrate on my magic sense.

Three million kilometers, huh? Challenge accepted.

Before I try to approach it manually, I need to see if I won't manage to spot it with my magic sense. Normally I wouldn't even try since there are no supernatural energies naturally existing on this plane, but if it's Shiva, I'd bet I could at least spot her. And I'll probably notice a disturbance in space, if depth has anything to do with planes or dimensions. Or whatever. Maybe a disturbance in Aether?

So how do I go about it? Doing it like sonars do should be viable. So a wave, just that it doesn't need to return to me.

So let's stretch my perception field a hell lot forward and to the sides... yeah, to the point that I look like a blur that might or might not be there, and even much further to the point I can't see myself. Now press it together close to me, so that I make a thin flat surface that passes through me, allowing me to see a vaguely humanoid shape made out of Primordial Energy, and now push it through my whole perception field.

Now wait, because if I didn't make a mistake, it passes the space at one hundred thousand kilometers per second. Not sure how exactly I know that, but I am also somehow aware my perception stretches for five million kilometers. I don't think there's a point in questioning that.

Around thirty seconds later I notice my perception field passing through something and I immediately stop it, then retrace the wave at much slower speed till it passes the thing again.

I repeat it a few more times, each time decreasing the speed greatly, till I finally manage to stop at a concentration of... Aether. Huh? That's suspicious. No engine should be using Aether.

But that only solidifies my opinion that it's probably Shiva.

I pull my perception together, focusing it on the concentration of energy, and now that I look at it more closely, I notice that it's very... peculiar. Or rather, so peculiar that I have no damned idea what's happening there. I can see it warps and shifts space somehow, but the way it does it is like... comparing this to my attempts at manipulating space is like comparing modern AI to ancient's Earth's personal computers. The difference is so enormous that it's hard to even compare.

Just about the only thing I can see is that it connects the space to somewhere else, and that it does it in complicated manner, not as straightforward as I did it. It probably has something to do with time as well, but I'm not sure what or how, because I can see a silhouette of a ship in all of this that somehow overlaps with the structure, but at the time isn't there. Unless it shows me the other side? But then I'd probably know it does, and I'm pretty sure my perception doesn't reach the other side.

Eeeh, I won't be attempting to understand it for now. What matters is the silhouette of the ship seems to be getting more and more... present, without actually appearing yet. Does that make sense?

I watch it for a while till it reaches the breaking point and the ship suddenly... is there. Can't explain it another way, because that was just how it seemed to my perception.

And now that it appears, it stops being just an impression of a ship, but I can actually see it, and see inside it, instead of knowing it's there.

And see the person waving at me with a wide smile on her face.