Well, he was in a ley line nexus, even if it was a very strange one. That meant there was someone he could ask.

Serenity absently set Blaze down on the ground. It was steep and covered in squishy mud, but the mud was thick and gloopy. More importantly, there was only about an inch of it.

“You’re thinking something,” Blaze observed. “Talk to me. That’s why I’m here.”

“I thought you were here so the sailors wouldn’t see you?” Serenity smiled to soften the comment. “No, you’re right, you’re here because I trust you with this stuff. That,” he pointed at the peak above them, “is part of a World Core. Only it’s not, it’s like the bits that were cracked off of Lyka’s core.”

“That’s a lot of greenstone. How deep does it go?” Blaze took a step forward and seemed to search for a break in the crystal.

“All the way, I think. That is, I think the entire mountain is World Core crystal. I don’t think it’s green.” Serenity wondered if there was a way to tell. There probably was, but the only one that came to mind was attempting to commune with the crystal. Well, eating it was probably possible as well, but that seemed like a bad idea.

Blaze knelt down and brushed away the mud next to him. When he saw that it was indeed more crystal there, he sat and set his hand against it. “Give me a moment, I want to check something.”

“Do you need me to monitor you?” Serenity wanted to talk to Gaia, but if Blaze needed a monitor that obviously came first.

Blaze shook his head. “No, this will take all of my attention but it’s not dangerous. Don’t do anything dangerous yourself while I’m not watching.”

Did Blaze have to imply that Serenity always did dangerous things?

Serenity sat down in the mud and closed his eyes. It would probably have been safe to keep floating, but there was always that chance that he might try to move during his communication and accidentally tell his footwraps to do something without realizing it. It was a low chance, but if he was going to show Blaze he could be cautious, he should actually be cautious.

Which meant that the first thing was to see if there was anyone else nearby. Serenity released his aura to the widest range he could; it wouldn’t cover the entire mountain but it would at least let him feel anyone who was close.

There was nothing and no one. There was a vague feeling of ancient death from the mud itself, but it was mild and weak; no such feeling came from the crystal. There was a faint hint of something from the crystal, but mostly it felt like the essence and mana of the nexus that surrounded Serenity.

Putting it together like that made it click for Serenity: there wasn’t an enchantment or something that made all of A’Atla a ley line nexus even though it felt like that when they were in a nexus. There was no reason to do that on a planet that was innately high enough Tier to support something like A’Atla; it would only help on a lower-Tier planet and he’d already concluded that Earth was once much, much higher Tier than it was today.

No, the culprit was the World Core crystal he was next to. That was part of what a World Core did, after all; it was the biggest nexus for the planet, where all of the ley lines met. That wasn’t its primary goal in Serenity’s mind; its primary goal was to regulate all of the ley lines and their nexuses for the entire planet. That required mobile help, though, while being the central nexus didn’t.

In fact, the reason it needed to regulate the rest of the planet’s mana and essence flow was probably the fact that it was the central nexus. That wasn’t something Serenity had specifically talked to Gaia or Aki about, but it seemed implied.

Was the fact that it was made of World Core crystal the reason the nexus formed there or was the World Core crystal formed from the nexus? Serenity wasn’t certain. Either way, he was certain that there shouldn’t be a second major concentration of World Core crystal on the planet. It might even be a large part of Earth’s problem; while it was good that there wasn’t a second consciousness fighting for control, it also meant that there was an entire giant nexus that was completely uncontrolled.

A nexus that was probably bigger than the one held by the World Core. That could be what he was looking for, an explanation for why the Earth destroyed itself.

Which, when he thought about it, was more than enough of a reason for the Voice to point Serenity at the mass of World Core crystal. It knew he wanted to save the planet; if there was some reason it couldn’t tell him what was going on but could hint and nudge him towards it, everything made a lot of sense.

Serenity frowned. When could it have split off? It seemed remarkably unlikely that it landed here, as well, especially since there was no damage to the rest of A’Atla, not even directly under it. Come to think of it, there was an easy way to find out. Aide, can you determine when A’Atla started acting like a giant nexus? I’ve only been paying attention to the external readings.

Aide’s response wasn’t immediate for a computer, but it was fast enough that it was still obvious he’d dropped everything else to check the numbers. There is a significant change beginning approximately a hundred years before A’Atla’s last submergence

You mean it happened before the attacks that damaged A’Atla? The ones that led to the legends of the sinking of Atlantis? That wasn’t what Serenity expected at all. He’d expected it to happen when Gaia was damaged; that made sense, more or less. This implied something else, even if he didn’t know what yet.

None of that made his first thought about it invalid. If this massive chunk of crystal had split off of Gaia in the past, maybe he could use it to help her heal. If he didn’t, however, he still definitely had to do something about it.

Serenity was about to slip into a trance to talk to Gaia when he saw Blaze stir. He’d been thinking for so long that Blaze had finished whatever he was doing. “Find something out?”

Blaze’s frown smoothed out into a carefully controlled calm expression. “Yes. Do you remember how I said there was something very similar to greendust in everyone from Earth, and that that was probably why so many Earthlings survived the greendust overdoses to become Legion?”

Serenity nodded. That wasn’t quite how he remembered Blaze saying it, but it was more or less the same.

“Well, this is it. This is exactly what made the difference.” The frown tried to reappear and Blaze banished it again. “It’s backwards, denser than greenstone but somehow less dangerous. It’s almost like there’s an Intent to them both, greenstone wants power and will sacrifice for it but this wants to play it safe. It’s almost like this knows there’s no need to hurry.”

“Slow and steady wins the race?” In a long enough race, that was often true. It depended on so many other factors, though. Or perhaps it wasn’t a race at all, at least not against others. What need did a world have to race?

“Maybe.” Blaze didn’t seem happy with that description. “I’m still not sure how comfortable I am with even saying there’s an Intent, but whatever it is, it’s not about time. Time isn’t important.” Blaze shook his head and focused on Serenity. “How about you?”

“I hadn’t started yet. I was still thinking through what this is. It’s probably for the best; this way you can watch out for anyone approaching. No one came near us while you were looking at it.” Serenity saw Blaze nod and closed his eyes. He wanted to talk to Gaia and that wasn’t always easy.

He couldn’t even feel Gaia’s presence. Everything felt muddy and stagnant; this was a nexus, yes, but it wasn’t a healthy one. He hadn’t really noticed that before, but he also hadn’t paid attention. It was a nexus and mana was moving; the fact that it was only draining into A’Atla and not returning to the world at large wasn’t obvious when he was inside A’Atla. It was obvious here.

Someone had to control the mana flow. Serenity could probably get it moving in the right direction but there was no way he could actually control it; that wasn’t what he was built for. He also wasn’t going to stay here long-term. In many ways, that was one of the things dungeons were for.

He could make the pile of World Core crystal into a dungeon core. It wouldn’t be at all difficult; all he had to do was reach out and do it. World Core crystal and dungeon core crystal were almost the same, after all. Serenity hadn’t realized just how close they were until now, but he could feel it; if anything, Earth’s Word Core crystal was closer to dungeon core crystal than Lyka’s was; he could feel the difference now that he knew what to look for.

It was tempting to try it and see what would happen but it also seemed like a terrible idea. It would prevent him from trying to heal Gaia; it might well also add a second mind pulling at the world’s mana. A strong naive presence could be devastating.

No. He needed to reach Gaia.

Serenity moved his awareness through the nexus, buffeted by the whirlpool that it created. He moved against the flow, climbing even after he was well beyond the range of his aura. It was a stretch, but it was one he was going to take.

It felt like he’d been climbing forever when he finally heard a familiar whisper. Gaia? Is that you?

Serenity? You’re back?

It was definitely Gaia. Didn’t she remember? I’ve been back for quite a while. I talked to you from Aki’s dungeon when I got back.

Yes, and then you left again. To hunt for your parents, I believe? Did you find them?

The last question was probably just Gaia being polite because she knew he cared; Serenity was fairly confident she didn’t care one way or another about his parents. At least, she didn’t care about them for any reason other than because they were his parents and he cared about them. She didn’t care about Rissa, either. It made sense; none of them had any appreciable impact on the planet. She probably wouldn’t even have noticed them without Serenity.

The fact that she thought he’d left again, however, was somewhat concerning. Unlike his parents, Gaia watched Serenity. She should have known he was in A’Atla. It had to be because A’Atla didn’t return any mana; it was a break in the planet’s mana cycle, yet another problem that needed to be dealt with. Serenity was going to blame the pile of World Core crystal he sat on for it until he knew better.

I didn’t leave. My parents are on Earth, inside A’Atla. With luck, she would know what A’Atla was. It was big enough; it wasn’t just a speck, it was a gigantic island, visible even on a planetary scale. Serenity was certain it could be seen from space without any trouble.

A’Atla has been gone for a long time, Gaia answered. I know it was once more than a strange island-that-floats, but even if I do not remember what it once was, it is gone.

Well, my parents found it and we’ve brought it back to the surface. It has a huge chunk of World Core crystal sitting on top and it’s acting like a nexus but not a proper one. It isn’t returning any energy to the world, it’s using it all.

Lillene

So how did the World Core crystal get there?

I do not think you have enough information...