CHAPTER — NOBODY WALKED IN
Noctis Arquen did not walk into ACT Headquarters.
He fell through a hole in distance on one knee.
His palm struck the floor.
Gold spread beneath it.
Then immediately went dark.
Nyxus stopped chewing.
That was how Aoikishi knew the situation was serious.
Ilyon came through next.
Or most of him did.
His left leg arrived half a second after the rest of his body, spatial alignment catching up with a wet snap that dropped him beside Noctis.
Caelia followed with one arm around Thessa.
Both women were bleeding.
Then something floated through after them.
A stretcher.
No.
A section of fractured battlefield being forced to behave like one.
Veydras Mieko lay across it.
He was conscious.
Technically.
One eye opened when the room changed.
The other remained swollen shut beneath dried blood.
His breathing sounded like someone dragging cloth over broken glass.
Yamiya stood so quickly that her chair fell behind her.
"Veydras?"
Veydras's open eye moved toward her.
He stared for three seconds.
Then Veydras rasped, "That voice is unfortunate."
Yamiya froze.
Aoikishi smiled faintly.
"He's alive."
Veydras looked toward Aoikishi.
His expression somehow became more irritated.
"That one is worse."
Aoikishi nodded.
"Definitely alive."
Then Eris Mallicia came through.
Nobody joked.
Not even Nyxus.
Ilyon had built something around her from folded distance.
It held her upright because her body could not.
Her right side ended beneath the shoulder.
Not bandaged.
Not bleeding.
Ended.
There was no torn edge waiting to heal.
No phantom outline.
No spatial impression suggesting something had once continued farther.
Her remaining arm rested across her abdomen.
Her fingers were shaking.
Every few seconds her left shoulder twitched as though her body still wanted to raise a second guard.
It never found one.
Raiyo's face changed.
Kaosu looked away first.
The breach closed behind Eris.
Silence filled ACT Headquarters.
Aoikishi moved.
"Raiyo," Aoikishi said.
Raiyo was already stepping forward.
"What?"
Aoikishi pointed toward Noctis.
"Catch him."
Noctis lifted his head.
"I do not require—"
He fell sideways.
Raiyo caught him.
Noctis finished, "—that."
Raiyo looked down at him.
"You made an excellent argument."
Aoikishi crossed the room and crouched beside Veydras.
Veydras's hand shifted weakly.
Aoikishi caught the wrist before the fingers touched him.
Static crawled over his sleeve.
It stopped.
Veydras stared at him.
Aoikishi said, "We have already established this does not work on me easily."
Veydras whispered, "Worth checking."
"Healthy attitude."
Aoikishi looked at Ilyon.
"What happened?"
Ilyon opened his mouth.
No sound came out.
Noctis answered from Raiyo's arms.
"Discordia."
Aoikishi stopped.
Only for an instant.
Yamiya noticed.
Noctis noticed too.
Kaosu did not.
Kaosu had heard another absence.
He looked around the group.
Then toward the still-open space where no one else was coming through.
Kaosu asked, "Where is my father?"
Nobody answered quickly enough.
Kaosu's face hardened.
"Where is Karma?"
Noctis looked directly at him.
"He is dead."
Kaosu did not move.
The red around his body did.
One thread appeared beside his shoulder.
Then disappeared.
Nyxus lowered the food in his hand.
Kaosu laughed once.
It had no humor in it.
"No."
Noctis said nothing.
Kaosu looked at Eris.
She did not look back.
Kaosu turned toward Veydras.
"You saw him."
Veydras's breathing hitched before he managed to speak.
"I did."
Kaosu took one step closer.
"How?"
Veydras closed his eye.
"He chose the price."
Kaosu's voice became very quiet.
"For what?"
Eris answered.
"For her."
Kaosu finally looked at Eris.
Eris raised her head.
"Discordia."
That name changed Aoikishi again.
Less visibly this time.
Noctis saw it anyway.
Aoikishi stood.
"How long?"
Noctis frowned.
"How long what?"
Aoikishi looked toward the place the breach had closed.
"How long until she follows you?"
Noctis tried to straighten.
Raiyo did not let him.
Noctis said, "My Private Domain is still active."
Nyxus blinked.
"You left somebody inside your domain?"
Noctis looked at him.
"Yes."
Nyxus nodded slowly.
"That feels rude."
"No," Noctis said. "It was deliberate."
Aoikishi asked, "What did you do?"
Noctis breathed in.
The breath shook.
"Advanced Technique."
Gold flickered once behind his eyes.
"Private Domain: Infinite Ledger."
Yamiya's notebook was already open.
Noctis continued.
"Within it, I can assign a due date to an effect."
Yamiya asked, "How far?"
Noctis answered, "As far as the ledger permits."
Aoikishi's eyes narrowed.
"And you scheduled Discordia."
"Her movements."
Noctis swallowed.
"Her attacks."
Another breath.
"Any effect she attempted to resolve inside the domain."
Kaosu stared.
"When?"
Noctis looked at him.
"In infinite time."
Nyxus slowly raised one finger.
"So she's late."
Noctis stared at him.
Nyxus lowered the finger.
"Sorry."
"No," Noctis said. "That is disturbingly close."
Aoikishi crossed his arms.
"Then why run?"
Noctis's gaze sharpened.
"Because infinite delay is not infinite containment."
The room quieted.
Noctis continued.
"The domain has structure."
"Discordia has Chaos."
"She will either break the structure…"
Noctis looked toward Veydras.
"…or learn what it means well enough to stop needing to obey it."
Aoikishi asked, "How much time did you buy?"
Noctis gave him a tired look.
"If I knew that, Aoikishi, I would call it finite."
Aoikishi smiled.
Noctis did not.
Aoikishi's smile disappeared.
"Fair."
Eris shifted.
Her body immediately punished her for it.
A broken sound escaped her throat.
Aoikishi turned.
"All right."
He pointed down the eastern hallway.
"Medical room."
Raiyo glanced toward it.
"We have a medical room?"
Aoikishi nodded.
"We have had one the entire time."
Nyxus looked offended.
"You said the room with the red door was storage."
"It was."
Aoikishi started walking.
"Until approximately twenty seconds ago."
Kaosu remained still.
Aoikishi stopped beside him.
Kaosu did not look up.
Aoikishi said, "Kaosu."
"What?"
"You can come."
Kaosu's jaw tightened.
"I'm fine."
Raiyo, still carrying Noctis, looked toward him.
For once, Raiyo did not insult him.
Aoikishi did not argue either.
He simply said, "Fine."
Then Aoikishi looked at everyone else.
"Move."
Veydras coughed.
Blood touched his lip.
Yamiya stepped toward his floating slab.
"I'll take him."
Veydras opened his eye.
"You look small."
Yamiya placed both hands on the edge of the slab.
"You look horizontal."
Veydras considered this.
"Fair."
She pushed.
For the first time since arriving, something almost resembling a smile touched his face.
It vanished quickly.
But Noctis saw it.
Aoikishi saw it too.
And as the survivors disappeared into the medical wing, Kaosu remained alone in the common room.
Nyxus stayed with him.
Kaosu noticed after nearly a minute.
He looked sideways.
"What?"
Nyxus held out the unopened half of his food.
Kaosu stared at it.
"I don't want that."
Nyxus nodded.
"I know."
Nyxus placed it on the table between them.
He sat down.
Neither of them spoke.
For once—
the food stayed there.