Novek lifted his crossbow to his shoulder, took a half breath to steady and aim, and fired — he wouldn't get another opportunity at flat-footed surprise like this.

  His target was the closest of the two southern figures — he'd have preferred the eastern one, but at these ranges, he wanted a sure hit. The bolt was invisible as it streaked towards his target, until it ignited, and lit up the shallow ravine with a piercing light. One eye pre-emptively closed so as not to ruin his night vision, Novek paused half a second to see if he'd struck. Moira's illumination for the target winked out, but was replaced, instead by another glow — direct hit or not, the flare had lit the target on fire.

  He loaded his second bolt, but the other southern target was running around, trying to put out his compatriot. With the southern group distracted, Novek took a moment to span his crossbow, but held his second shot for any eastern targets.

  The coach was underway already — but was still following the stream north a short ways, to where the incline allowed the coach to climb up the embankment out of the shallow ravine towards the road. Novek had no such limitations, however, and he ran to the east bank, then leapt the three meters up to the top of the riverbank, where Moira's targeting line vanished up the rocky ledge.

  His crossbow was immediately in position and ready, but he couldn't see the target itself — there were rocks and depressions aplenty to use as cover. He could hear faint yells from the south, when his attention was grabbed by a new blue-white arrow popping into existence on the ground in front of him, facing to the west.

  As he turned, four new lines sprang into existence, pointing westward from the workbench, where they became fuzzy as they led into the scrub in the distance. What did that mean? Moira knew there were targets, but couldn't pinpoint them? It was now time to leave — he started jogging towards the road, and the hidden eastern target.

  The coach had come around the north ravine edge and jolted onto the packed dirt road — the eastern target line was now crossing through the coach itself, cutting off his sight lines. He crossed to the north side and could now see that while the aether user had hidden, there were now additional silhouettes standing out of cover. Taking aim? “Ellie! Down!” he shouted, and the sound of metal thudding into wood was audible over the sounds of the coach and the horses.

  Ellie was yelling at the horses to gallop, and Novek's jog became a run as the coach accelerated away. He fired his second bolt into the group — ruining their night vision was the best thing he could think of at the moment. Huh, that whole group looked Human; no time to consider. Similarly, with no time to span the crossbow, he slung it across his back and crossed back to the south side, better to avoid becoming a target.

  Moira's target lines vanished; they'd stopped using aether, he assumed.

  Novek wasn't sure of the best play; Get up on the coach and swap to range? Engage the probably-blinded bowmen? He didn't have enough intel — that made the decision; it was time to disengage — any later and they'd have to slow down to let him catch up.

  Dropping to all fours, he put on a burst of speed, and leapt for the steps. His forepaw was reaching for the handle when a clawed hand came from the side and swiped down on his hind leg — he missed the grab and fell to the ground, rolling to a stop off the south side of the road, in a low ditch.

  He'd lost his momentum and was now staring at something he did not recognize — what was three meters tall, short dark fur, a horned head, two legs, and… four arms? One thing was for sure — this was no Brin. They were in deep, now; at least it was behind him — it lunged forward to grab at him again, and he jumped backwards just in time to avoid being caught by those powerful arms.

  Roaring, “Ellie! Ber! Go!”, Novek slid his paws along his bracers and took knives in each, infused his throws, and loosed. The Ber's eyes glowed green — their hands glowing a subtle yellow, and they caught both. He immediately threw two more; the lower pair of arms snapped forwards and two more hands caught these.

  Okay big guy, how many times can you repeat that trick? Novek kept backing up as quickly as he could and slid more knives from his thigh holsters. Infusing his hands again, he spun another four knives into the air, a split second between each pair. The Ber dropped the first two they'd caught, but with another flash of green eyes, aborted the catch and instead ducked low — only one knife landed a glancing block off the tough hide of the Ber's back. Novek went for his belt knives, the ones in the small of his back, and both boots, sending them two at a time from each hand, as he continued his retreat. That was too many to dodge and the Ber covered their face and lower abdomen with a pair of hands each. Some knives impacted, but Novek couldn't see well enough to determine the effectiveness of the hits — he was already turning his back and sprinting for the coach.

  Behind him, the Ber roared in obvious pain — a deep, guttural sound. Okay, he was fast, but not as tough as say, Ceress.

  Novek had only gone maybe twenty meters when he noticed he was catching up way too rapidly — the idiots had slowed. And there was Nat with the right side door open, Lyn beneath him peering out as well while… hammering on the door? What in the world did they think they were doing?

  Lyn called out — their voice punctuated by the sound of more bolts slamming into the coach, “Ber chasing from the west! Get in!”

  Well, he didn't need to be told twice. The sounds of the bolts had stopped — they were probably out of range by now.

  He closed the distance and leapt again; this time he landed and got his hand on the door handle, but Nat and Lyn were blocking the door. Leaning down to catch his breath a moment, he managed to gasp out, “Where's Siya?”

  Nat turned to point, “In the food cabinet — it's the only place he'd stay put!”

  It was at that moment the door opposite was jerked open, and a Tiger uplift with patches of fur still smoking, grabbed hold of Nat's shirt and threw him backwards, out of the coach.

  The other tiger was badly burned in multiple places, but was apparently well enough to point a forelimb bracer with a nasty looking barrel attached at Novek. Disregarding Lyn, and growled out, “You die for that flare.”

  Lyn put up both hands without hesitation, “We surrender! Don't hurt us!”

  Novek brought his hands up, and kept his gaze locked firmly on the other Brin's eyes, gesturing slightly while he answered, “Hey, we're all Brin here, can't we come to an understanding?”

  Which is when Lyn leaned forward with their upraised hands and blew the Brin out of the coach with a deafening explosion of light.

  They turned towards the front of the coach, shouting, “Ellie! We need to slow down! Nat got thrown out!”

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  Nat appreciated Novek and the others throwing things at him randomly to make him activate his Talent by reflex a lot more now — without that, he'd likely be lying on the ground unconscious with broken bones, or worse.

  While the manner in which he found himself midair was disturbing, he'd still been giddy with excitement at the novelty of swimming through the air to reach the ground while in his Talent. Well, for the first few minutes, at least. It was a lot harder than walking forwards — there was so little to push against that he'd considered leaving it early, but Moira had cautioned against it — the extra second of action now was worth more than one later.

  He'd enjoyed a brief strategy discussion with Moira during the strange swim. The Brin had caught her by surprise because they hadn't activated a Talent, but she could clearly detect the four quadruped Ber on the road behind them as they were now using aether skills. They were twenty to forty meters out — far enough that they'd worry about it after the next freeze. The current problem was that both of them could now ‘see’ the four-armed Ber in the dim light of Moira's aether bubble, as it was only two meters behind him on the road.

  There was no way for him to walk back to the coach in his Talent without having to freeze at least once — which Moira was currently reminding him was a bad idea.

  Don't underestimate the Ber — you don't know what they can do, so be out of their reach before you freeze — remember Ceress's flame.

  The current plan was multifaceted — he pulled some caltrops out of his pouch, and struggled his way towards the four-armed Ber — moving away from the coach to do so. He set up a line of them where he hoped the Ber would fall, and then as he finally reached the hulking form, he placed some right under where the one foot was about to come down.

  And you're sure we can't just burn him or something instead? He's tall, but I could climb him?

  Not with the other Ber coming. Any extra time spent frozen isn't worth the risk. This should distract him enough.

  Okay, so, let me get out of the way, and then I'm ready to make as much headway to the coach as I can, then cancel this.

  Sounds good. I'll put up the flame wall to obscure you as soon as you're out. Then come back in as soon as you're able — don't risk looking around in real time.

  Turning back towards the coach, Nat ran out of space he'd emptied on his way to the Ber after only a couple of meters, and the slog to push through the thick air began anew. At least he could see the outline of the ground in the aether bubble now — it changed the entire feeling of the Talent from a somewhat terrifying void to more of a late night walk by candle. Through a hurricane. One couldn't have everything, he supposed.

  Moira, is there some way to speed this up?

  Lyn said it was meant to be used in a vacuum. That it's working well enough in-atmosphere is more than they'd expected.

  Can we bring air in along with me? I know there's a mass limitation, but we managed to bring in Soot — and she's huge.

  Well, you also just froze immediately with no time to act. There's also the problem of your Talent's event horizon.

  Oh, right. How far out can I pull things in?

  I don't know, honestly. You got all of Soot, so, clearly you can reach multiple meters out. But air's not quite the same — there's no boundary to tell the Talent where to stop.

  Intent matters, right? So can I… intend a shape? Maybe a sphere?

  Let me do some math; okay, a sphere is probably out. If it's centered on you, that's over forty kilograms for a two-meter diameter, and that won't get you very far.

  How far would that be?

  You know what? I can show you. Here.

  A sphere of light brighter than the surrounding bubble popped into existence around Nat, ending just above his head. He looked up and a sense of claustrophobia crept in. Moira was right — that was basically just a step forwards, or back. Nat considered a moment — wait, why did he need back?

  A cylinder then? Perhaps just in front — like a tunnel?

  The sphere winked out and was replaced by a tunnel. The rising sense of claustrophobia immediately told him that particular option wasn't going to work.

  How about slightly thinner, but taller?

  The tunnel shifted, and now looked like a hole cut into the world, meant just for him.

  Okay, I'm not thrilled with the thought of it, but I think that will do. What's the mass cost for that?

  Well, assuming this goes ten meters out, it's just over twenty kilograms. That would easily leave you enough time to get to the end of it since you could just walk carefully.

  Nat thought about that a second, Why not just run?

  You could hurt yourself if you slam into the end of it suddenly, or bump against the edges. Be cautious — we'll find out how much you can pull in, first.

  Can you detect where it ends and mark it for me?

  Oh! Yes, yes I can. Let's try it — on your next activation, pause to focus on bringing the air within the tunnel with you for a moment before you activate. Time's almost up, by the way, ready?

  Okay, I'm off to the side a bit — leaving now!

  []

  The world around him was filled with blue-white flame, the wall of flame to distract and hide him, and his tunnel. He stared at it, intent on bringing it along with him, and reactivated his Talent.

  [Slip]

  Well, now, this was different. He took a breath. He could hear himself taking a breath, though it was, for some reason uncomfortably loud.

  And I'm back. And I can breathe. Did we get the whole tunnel?

  You did, the full ten meters. Your time is cut in half though, but you should just be able to walk up to the end.

  Great. He did that, just to see that he could. Never before had he been so happy to take a short walk. Okay, what else did I miss?

  Okay, good news: big and ugly got distracted by the wall of aether and the caltrops, took a tumble, and is on the ground starting to pick them out. Bad news: It doesn't look very hurt, just surprised. Honestly it's skin is probably just too thick for that size of caltrop — but you've bought time, and that's the most important thing.

  Nat looked around him — the big guy was out of the aether bubble, and so not visible anymore.

  Hey, can you light him up in here like you did for Novek?

  Not without using a lot more power than I'd like — the number of photons I'd need are extreme. I could put an aether marker where he is for you, though — he's burning aether on speeding his hands up, so he's obvious.

  Oh, yeah, that'd be great, please.

  Suddenly a big stick figure with four arms, appeared out in the darkness, sitting on the ground holding a foot in two arms.

  The angry eyebrows really make it.

  They do, don't they? Anyway, next up — the canid Ber. With four of them, I don't think you should risk trying to retrieve your caltrops. I'd suggest you get to the coach while the big guy is down. I don't think he can see and catch you in three seconds, whereas another three seconds standing here and the first of the Ber will be on you.

  Okay, so once I'm near the coach, what's the plan?

  Well, if you can get close enough, get in. Or grab on. Once we're close enough, I can get Lyn to help with the canids, and then I've got a plan for the big guy.

  Alright. Well, this is definitely an improvement, but the tunnel ends well before the coach, so I'll get as close as I can.

  By the time he was standing just below the steps to the coach, Nat was overheated and getting exhausted — the problem with bringing air is that his Talent wasn't handling his body heat for him at the skin-covering event horizon, and he kept trying to breathe air that had since gone stale. With one final burst of exertion, he pulled himself up onto the step and sat down beneath Novek's looming form.

  Okay, I'm on. I need a break. Something we need to consider in the future — bringing air along makes normal exertion harder — the Talent is doing less work for me.

  That's an unexpected outcome, for sure. We'll have to talk to Lyn about that later. Take a break now, though; we might need you cooled down and ready for this next part.

  []

  Nat came back to the sound of Novek shouting to Ellie. “No, speed up again, apparently he got back up on his own.”

  Nat gripped the handhold with one hand, and with the other waved cheerily. “Hi, Novek!”

  “Hi, Kid. Glad to see you're okay. Have fun?”

  “Eh, little bit. The big guy is too durable for caltrops to do more than slow him.”

  “Ah, so that was you. Good job — but he's already back up and moving.”

  Lyn, Nat could use a breather — you want to see what I can do with air density differentials, caltrops, and your arcs?

  Lyn began to beam as they replied, “Oh, Moira, I thought you'd never ask.”