Chapter 6
The next week passed in a blur of intensive training as we approached Nytheris. Cypher worked me harder than I'd ever been worked, pushing me to use my rift senses in every situation. Navigate to that portal. ‘Sense this current. Feel the fabric and tell me what's approaching.’
At first I failed more often than I succeeded. But gradually, something shifted. The conscious effort became instinct. I could feel the currents as naturally as I felt wind on my skin. Could sense portals from miles away, could detect disturbances in the fabric before they became visible.
"Better," Cypher said after I'd successfully navigated us around a dangerous eddy. "You're starting to trust your instincts instead of second-guessing yourself."
"Careful, Captain, that sounded like praise."
He cut me a dry look. "Don't push it, scavenger."
I was at the helm with Zoya when I felt it, a portal, larger and more powerful than any we'd encountered. But this one felt different. Wrong, somehow. Like reality was fraying at the edges.
"Zoya," I said quietly. "There's something ahead."
She checked her instruments. "I'm not seeing anything on the astrolabe."
"It's there. Maybe three hours ahead at our current speed. A portal, but it's... unstable. Very unstable."
She called for Cypher, who appeared within seconds.
"What is it?"
I described what I was sensing. He listened, his expression becoming more serious.
"That's the Nytheris portal," he said. " I knew we were coming up on it, but I thought we had another day or so. You're right about it being unstable. The realm's collapse damaged the portal structure."
My stomach flipped. This was it. This was what we'd been training for. "Can we get through it safely?"
"That depends on timing. The portal fluctuates between stable and unstable states. We need to wait for a stable period, then go through quickly before it shifts again." He looked at me. "Can you sense when it stabilizes?"
"I'm sure I can manage it, but I've never done anything like this before. What if something goes wrong?" I thought about the three crew members he mentioned losing, and horror struck me at the thought of that happening to anyone on this ship.
"You'll do fine. Just trust your instincts." He raised his voice. "All hands! Prepare for portal transition. We're approaching Nytheris."
The crew erupted into activity. Omri checked the engines, Knives and Tor secured the cargo, Vic made sure the medical supplies were ready.
Kora appeared at my side, her face pale. "This is it," she said.
I nodded, grabbing her hand, our fingers locking. "This is it."
"Can't be worse than the fire incident, right?"
Cypher cut a skeptical glance our way. "The what incident?"
I squeezed Kora's hand, but laughed. "We agreed never to discuss the fire incident."
We sailed closer, and the portal came into view. It looked wrong, the edges flickered and jumped, and the light it cast was sickly and dim. Through it, I could see darkness shot through with veins of purple and green.
As the Night-Piercer sailed closer, the Nytheris portal loomed more massive with each passing minute.
The sickly glow pulsed like a diseased heart struggling to beat.
It was easily three times larger than any portal I'd ever encountered, its edges ragged where they should have been smooth, the fabric of reality visibly torn and mending itself in an endless cycle.
I shivered despite my leather void mantle.
This was Nytheris, one of the most ancient settlements in the known realms. I'd grown up hearing stories about it, whispered with a mixture of awe and fear.
The first great civilization to truly master Gallery travel, to understand the currents and map them.
Their scholars had developed technologies we still used today, and had combined elemental affinities in ways no one had managed to replicate.
"It was beautiful once, wasn't it," I said quietly, more to myself than anyone else.
Cypher stood beside me at the helm, his face grave. "Yes. It was."
Soul magic had been their specialty—the rarest and most powerful of elemental affinities.
While other realms had fire, water, air, and terra elementals, Nytheris had perfected the manipulation of spiritual energy.
Their healers could mend wounds that would kill others, and could ease suffering with a touch.
Their explorers had mapped more of the Gallery than anyone before or since.
And then, thirty years ago, it had all ended.
Without warning, without explanation, Nytheris had collapsed.
I was born after the fall, so I remembered nothing of it, of course, but the stories had persisted through my childhood.
How in a single day, billions had died as the realm fractured, islands tearing apart and drifting into the void.
The survivors—less than a million spread across the realms now—carried their culture with them, but the heart of it was lost.
No one knew why. That was perhaps the scariest part of the story. A thriving civilization at the height of its power, gone in hours.
"We're close enough," Cypher said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Scavenger, I need you to sense the portal's stability. Tell me when it's safe to approach."
My mouth went dry. This was it. The lives of everyone on this ship now rested on my ability to read the void's currents. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.
"You can do this," Kora whispered beside me, her hand still tight in mine.
I nodded, letting go of her hand and stepping forward. I placed my palms on the ship's rail, feeling the vibration of the crystal engines through the wood. Then I reached out with my senses, opening myself to the Gallery in a way I'd been practicing for weeks.
The currents appeared in my mind like rivers of light flowing through darkness. I could feel them twisting and churning around the portal, feeding its instability. The portal itself pulsed with chaotic energy, its structure constantly shifting between states of solidity and dissolution.
"It's like... a heartbeat," I said, eyes still closed as I focused. "The portal is cycling. Every few minutes it stabilizes briefly before destabilizing again."
"How long are the stable periods?" Cypher asked.
I concentrated harder, trying to time the pulses. "Maybe... forty seconds? Not long."
"That's not much time to get a ship this size through," Jask said from somewhere behind me.
"It's enough," Cypher replied. "Omri, I need full power to the engines when I give the word. Tor, Knives, be ready to adjust the wings the moment we're through. The currents on the other side will be chaotic."
I kept my focus on the portal, tracking its rhythm. Unstable... unstable... a brief moment of stability... then back to unstable.
"How will you know when to go?" Zoya asked.
"I'll tell you.” I was deep in the sensation now, feeling the portal's rhythm as if it were my own heartbeat. "I can feel when it's about to stabilize. I'll give you a ten-second warning, then count down to the stable period."
"Good," Cypher said. "Everyone to your positions. Secure anything that isn't already tied down. This transition is going to be rough."
The crew scattered, leaving only Cypher, Zoya, and me at the helm. Kora hesitated, then squeezed my shoulder before heading to help Knives with the wing controls.
"You're sure about this?" Cypher asked quietly.
I opened my eyes to look at him. "No. But I'm sure I can feel the patterns. The rest is up to you."
He nodded, accepting my honesty. "That's all I need."
I returned my attention to the portal, tracking its fluctuations. We were close enough now that I could almost reach out and touch the energy. The hair on my arms stood on end, and the back of my neck tingled with the proximity of so much unstable power.
"Ten seconds," I called suddenly, feeling the shift. "The portal is about to stabilize."
Cypher's hands tightened on the helm. "Omri, standby for full power!"
"Ready, Captain!" came the reply from below.
"Five seconds," I counted. "Four... three... two... one... NOW!"
"Full power!" Cypher shouted, and the ship surged forward as Omri released everything the engines had.
The portal stabilized just as we reached it, its sickly glow steadying into a more solid light.
We hit the threshold at full speed, and the world around us dissolved into chaos.
Sound and light bent around us. The ship groaned and creaked as if being torn apart.
My stomach lurched, and for a terrible moment I thought I'd misjudged, that we were going to be ripped to pieces in the transition.
Then we were through, bursting into a darkness so complete it swallowed the light, emitting nothing in return. Only the crystal lamps kept us from absolute blindness.
"Wings!" Cypher shouted, and Knives and Kora moved in perfect sync, adjusting the great sails to catch the chaotic currents.
The ship stabilized, and I sagged against the rail, suddenly exhausted. My head pounded, and my vision swam.
"Status report!" Cypher called.
"Engines holding!" Omri replied.
"Wings stable!" Knives added.
"Everyone accounted for," Jask confirmed after a quick headcount.
I looked up, and the sight before me stole what little breath I had left.
Nytheris spread out around us, a shattered realm suspended in eternal darkness.
Islands floated in the void, some the size of small mountains, others barely large enough for a single building.
Purple and green energy arced between them, remnants of whatever catastrophe had torn the realm apart.
In the distance, I could see the largest island—Calvaris, according to Cypher's maps—with the broken spires of the Reliquarium rising from its center.
"We made it," I whispered, a small, hysterical laugh bursting through.
Cypher's hand landed on my shoulder. "You did good, scavenger.
" I looked up at him, surprised. "Don't celebrate yet," he said, addressing the crew.
"We're in now, but getting out will be just as dangerous.
And between now and then..." He gestured to the broken realm around us. "We have to survive Nytheris."