Light was always the first thing to return. Upon reawakening, hours could pass before Nona’s quickening mind registered anything but the capsule in which she dreamed. The coalescence of sensory input overwhelmed her. When her senses began to return, for a time she thought she had been given control of a different body. For the briefest moment, she had to relearn this was a part of her—it was her—and the puzzling self-disconnect was just a spike as the interrelations severed.

Describing the sensation proved difficult. A blissful slumber enhanced by an understanding of physical interactions, multiplied to unfathomable degrees by elegant implementation. The complexities dizzied her.

She longed to stay like this forever, entombed in tranquility. Though the process allowed her a tenuous connection to the Old Ones, it was not without risks. A number of other recruits endured seizures and strokes, but for her it had been less damaging. Headaches gripped her at night, but fled by morning. For reasons yet to be determined, she appeared uniquely suitable for this strange device, so now it was hers alone.

The podlike contraption became her obsession. When not encased, she drifted about the lab, trancelike, barely aware of Geshin’s comings and goings. The headaches bore into her but she sought no aid. Already, her mind was coming into sharp focus, connections forming at such speed and intensity she doubted if her head could contain them. The capsule offered clarity, though it did not always provide such insight in the most straightforward manner.

For Nona’s superiors, it was a waiting game. She knew her long stints inside delayed them, but the process moved at its own pace. She had discovered more than one outpost in this way, and her overseers had impressed upon her the importance of finding others. In her quest for understanding she had advanced their cause far beyond her own ambitions. Now there remained just one: a single outpost left undiscovered and inaccessible. She could almost see it, but even after weeks inside the capsule, it felt just out of reach. It called to her in her dreams, a voice old and unintelligible, the language long forgotten in a world plagued by conflict.

Desperate to determine its location, she remained inside longer each time. Finally, the last outpost formed in her thoughts. Darkness gave way to a swirling brilliance. She screamed in her mind as her inert form lay rigid.

* * * * *

Outside the capsule, a slim figure looked on. The frosted exterior softened his reflection, denying him a view of the full extent of his dishevelment. Geshin had not slept in his own quarters for weeks. He raked his ginger hair with his fingers and returned to his desk, frustrated by the parchment and equations that littered its surface.

The pod’s soothing glow drew his attention back. His restless mind struggled to focus on anything besides its lone occupant. Why do I stay? She doesn’t even know I’m here.

Papers Nona had written cluttered his desk. Others collected, leaflike, on the floor. He squinted at her latest offerings, but whatever she had scrawled across them was as difficult to understand as what she saw in the capsule.

Geshin still had no idea what the process meant, nor how it felt. Nona would babble when she stepped out of the pod. She would flow from language to language, often speaking faster than he could follow. Some of her utterances bore a resemblance to Sallenic, but not a dialect he had ever heard, and her transcriptions stretched beyond what he would have called cryptic.

He swatted the unintelligible pages, scattering them across the lab. Does she truly know what’s she doing any more? Do I?

The change in her worried him. She no longer seemed like the same person who had volunteered for this, and that was not his only concern. Plans were moving forward ever more rapidly. The Outworld was in chaos. Nothing new in itself, but what his masters were attempting was a different, untested breed of chaos. But what do I know? Smarter people than I will unite the continent.

He rose from his desk and gathered the fallen pages. A sigh escaped him when he realised he could not determine their order, if there was such a thing. He slouched against the wall in defeat, his gaze falling on the capsule’s frosted exterior. Inside, Nona lay as if enchanted. She had been like a sister to him, but these last two years had seen her drift farther away. It was a wonder, she had told him, but not all wonders were good. How few of the others understood her immersions worried him. If they knew it had gone this far, would they have allowed it to continue?

Footfalls from outside broke his train of thought. The door slid open and a robed figure stepped through. Geshin rose in deference. “Mehu. I wasn’t expecting you.”

Mehu waved Geshin’s concern aside. His white hair glowed in the light, its glare deepening his wrinkles. “I take it our young prodigy is unavailable.” He stared at her through the casing. “How long has she been inside?”

“Almost two weeks. She insisted on not being disturbed.”

“You’ve kept watch all this time?”

Geshin nodded. “Her writings have become more obscure of late.” He fumbled with the unfinished translations and equations.

“Give it time.” Mehu approached the capsule and peered inside. Bathed in light, Nona lay unmoving. “She’s probably a full year younger than she should be.” He rested his liver-spotted hand on the enclosure above her head. “When is she due to emerge?”

“She didn’t specify, and I’m beginning to worry. The last time she stayed inside longer than a week, she saw something.” Geshin debated with himself whether to continue, but decided there was little point in keeping something this critical from his elder. “I think she may be close to finding the last one.”

Mehu smiled. “Then we must leave her be. This last one is important.”

Geshin banished his objection to the crowded corner of his mind where he kept his unspoken fears. How many recruits are they willing to sacrifice? He knew Mehu understood the danger the capsule posed to Nona, but he also knew Mehu was not in complete control any more. After Nona’s discovery of two outposts, things started to change. Half a millennium of isolation—peaceful, for the most part—devolved into something Geshin did not understand and could not reconcile. He had attempted to confide in Nona between sessions, but when she was not crippled by headaches she wrote incessantly. Unsure if she even heard him, Geshin decided he could not speak his fears to anyone else.

He cleared his throat. “What other news? Is Yomm—”

“No longer a concern.”

The strike against the powerful nation of Yomm was a step beyond anything previously attempted. Pressure on Geshin’s chest choked his feigned enthusiasm, forcing his words out in a toneless blurt. “So it’s done? We can move west?” He hoped Mehu could not hear his revulsion.

The elder man studied him, his expression unreadable. “Yomm will fall shortly. We may allow them the illusion of resistance for a time, but they’re no longer our main focus. Our allies in the capital will take it from here.”

Geshin smiled, his practiced expression masking insincerity. The last year had seen his people’s influence spread in ways that horrified him. Almost the entirety of the eastern lands now lay under Union control. Territories had been persuaded to join or were subsumed, but any fighting was soon quashed. I knew it would develop into something bloodier eventually, but to unleash an assault on this scale, and unprovoked … it’s unthinkable. If Nona knew the destruction her discoveries have wrought she’d never give them the Final Outpost. Finding her outside the capsule—lucid—had become infrequent. I have to make her understand.

Mehu folded Nona’s discarded robe and laid it on a stool. “This unusual, brilliant child has brought us much. I would hate to see her consumed by madness, but she must continue, especially if what you say is true.”

Geshin nodded. “The others who tried weren’t compatible. What makes you think Nona can find it?”

“She was born to. She gave us the last two outposts, and now she’ll give us the final one: the one we’ve been seeking since we first came to this place.” A note of anxiety crept into his tone. “Watch her well, Geshin. You know as well as I it was not designed for us.”

Geshin offered no response.

“If anything changes … ”

“You’ll be the first to know,” Geshin assured him, though he grew less certain it would be wise to keep that promise. We’re meddling with power that scares even the oldest among us. This will not end well.

* * * * *

The capsule hissed open at the end of its cycle. Nona lay still, her skin tingling. Colours and shapes danced behind her eyelids, out of focus and unreachable, but seeping into her unconscious mind as information. Disparate strands teeming with unknown meaning bombarded her from all directions.

Unfamiliar voices whispered and screamed. Each wail shredded her, stripping away the light she sought. The scene darkened and her mind retaliated, unable to make sense of the barrage.

Through successive battles she had learned to silence the screechers, or most of them. Each time, more of thelight joined with the whole, but at a cost—the voices were hers. Her subconscious manifested unuttered screams, railing against the outside influence. She struggled to quell them, to allow the light to take hold, and each time it burned her.

With every ounce of emerging strength she focused on the swirling brilliance, silencing the wailing wraiths that threatened to destroy it. They fled from her, blinded by the luminous onslaught. As the last howl faded into nothing, the darkness fell away. Pain raged through her, overpowering her. She tore down her own defences, letting the torment in, allowing it to sear and shred her.

How long her suffering lasted was unclear. Her head pounded and her eyes took in nothing but bleached outlinesthrough the frosted enclosure. Everything hurt. She lay still, calming herself with slow breaths. Ownership of her body returned, and with burgeoning awareness came a measure of control. Enlightenment would soon give way to agony if she did not regain focus.

The information littered her thoughts in a patchwork of disparity, but from it a pattern emerged. She realised it had been there all along, only now becoming tangible enough to register. She reached out, stretching her mind farther through her pain and fear. Outlines grew more distinct until the answer took shape.

She froze, incredulous. It was so obvious she laughed.

* * * * *

Geshin peeled one of Nona’s Sallenic scripts off his face. That’s what I get for sleeping in my lab. Rows of smudged symbols blotted the page. The Old Tongue, they called it, always with great reverence. How old? he wondered. No one seemed to know exactly, but they all agreed it was very old indeed. Hardly a useful conclusion.

He rubbed sleep from his eyes and thought he saw a shadow move. Probably Mehu checking in again.

When he looked there was no sign of him. Footsteps outside the lab padded down the corridor and faded. He threw a robe over himself but paused when he saw the open capsule. Vapour wafted from the empty cavity. Nona’s clothes lay folded on the stool to its side.

“Every time! Why can’t you emerge while I’m awake?” Without thinking to fasten his robe or fix his hair, he stormed out of the chamber after her, only to find Mehu approaching.

“Geshin, I had meant to discuss—”

“She’s gone,” Geshin blurted. “I just woke to find the capsule empty.”

Mehu’s eyes widened. “The headaches incapacitate her. She’s never left the lab after reawakening.” He inclined his head and wondered aloud, “You don’t think she’s found it?”

Every part of Geshin hoped she hadn’t.

“I may know where she’s going.” Mehu hurried down the corridor.

Geshin followed, cursing silently to himself. Not now, Nona. You don’t know what damage they’ll do once they accessthe final outpost.

Mehu stopped by a large doorway and pressed the release. The doors peeled away and a blinding glare blazed into the corridor.

Geshin shielded his eyes and followed Mehu. Sparks flew from a circular platform in the centre of the room. Nona stood on top, silhouetted in a river of light erupting from the floor. Energy coiled upwards in pulsating arcs, engulfing her.

“Nona, stop. You can’t!” Geshin forced himself forward but a wall of energy toppled him, flinging him back against the door.

Nona’s outline began to fade.

“She’s done it, Geshin. She’s found it!”

Nona, no. It’s too soon. I didn’t get a chance to tell you …

The beam subsided with a flurry of sparks. Seared into the platform, the smouldering ring of its outline wafted acrid smoke around the lab.

Pain thudded through Geshin’s back as he hauled himself up.

Already on the platform, Mehu knelt on metal singed and twisted. “She’s done it. She’s opened the way for us. It won’t be long before we unlock the sequence. Gather her scrolls. It’s time I took a more active role in this.”

Scorched metal stung Geshin’s nostrils and watered his eyes. That’ll be the least of our worries once Kelenken learns what she discovered. He dragged his gaze away from the smoking remains of the energy beam and the girl it had taken.

Nona, where are you?