Tread Lightly

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Earl 'Divine Coltsmith' Garner

The cool steel of the sky-bound chariot rests pleasingly in my palm. I have to crane my neck back to view the top of its metallic frame, but that fills me with pride more than anything else.

I've made plenty of guns, swords, and all other manners of weapons in the past several years. More than that, too, from tools Unsigiled can use all the way to protective barriers so that the powerful can protect their children from afar.

But this...

It's my baby, in the same way, that Wyatt's father made the Blooming Spider Lily. This is the first creation into which I've sunk my very soul. Nonetheless, someone disrupts my moment alone, not that I'm all that annoyed by her anymore.

"Earl! Leave your ship alone! We have guests!"

Primrose's call from across our estate, the sound reverberating from her Ether, sets my feet into motion. I step away from the cylindrical beast of metal positioned vertically into the ground. Sliding a gear over on the surface, I listen to the hatch close automatically while I walk across our open land.

Buildings with a variety of purposes litter my surroundings, the alchemy den to my right, the Coltsmither to my left, but I ignore it all, instead heading toward the semi-distant house we share.

As my feet carry me across, I stretch slightly, feeling the slim suit beneath my clothes vibrating with energy. My eyes also drift to the sky above, the midday sun beaming down onto the surrounding farmland turned into my home.

It's been five years since the war ended. How crazy is it that time flies so quickly? Five years.

I think about it almost every day. No, that's not an accurate approximation.

I relive it every day, nearly every hour. I obsess over it too much. Not in a traumatic way, or maybe it is; I'm not all too sure if I'm being honest. Instead of focusing on death, much of which I learned to live with before the war, I concentrate my efforts on what can be done.

The universe is vast.

It's so incredibly expansive.

We weren't sure just how mind-boggling and gigantic it was until Wyatt and Virgil did their first expedition, bringing Silas and Abraham with them for support. The latter can transport beings up to a few light-years, but his limit does exist, while Silas can forcibly elevate that even further. Adding Wyatt to it...

Abraham has teleported all four of them over a hundred light-years at once. Now, to the old me, that was an incomprehensible distance.

Just absolutely insane to even imagine.

But... from my measurements... the universe is at least a million times that size.

Now, the edges are unlikely to hold any kind of life, and even then, I wonder what the edges actually entail, but that's not the worry at the moment. We should only concern ourselves with realistic threats.

And if Wyatt, Virgil, and Leviathan can travel light-years at a time through space using their Divinities, then other Gods, or near-Gods, should be able to do the same.

How many are out there? These Outer-Gods?

Wyatt has only met a handful in his travels, but he hasn't gone all that far in actuality. There could be millions of these beings. That's on the high-end, of course.

A more reasonable estimate is the high tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. The further one is from the center of the universe, the less time they have had to exist, whether it's the planet or the Ether around it. As such, the further one is from the center, the less likely there is to be a God of any kind.

The good news is our home is relatively close to the center of the universe, between ten thousand and nine thousand light-years away. The Mother Below originated from that direction, entailing what is possibly awaiting us there.

Hopefully, the Starseeker will allow us to travel more efficiently by breaking down space and puncturing us straight to our location. Beyond that, we must simply wait for more Gods to be born or for those who can combat such creatures.

Wyatt, Leviathan, and Virgil are our strongest at the moment. Bonfire and Abraham are up there, for sure, especially since the dunce has ascended, but Bonfire is Bonfire.

We cannot trust him on some unknown realm, plane, or planet beyond our knowledge.

It is what it is.

More need to rise before we can send out expeditions without opening up our planet to cataclysm. Is such a thing likely?

Probably not.

Are any of us willing to risk it? Hell no.

We all quite like our new lives and would like them to remain how they are. Fortunately, Lennon Hull was unable to manage his recovery. If he had... the damned swordsman would already be rushing towards the unknown hidden in the universe, with that school right at his back.

This means we have even more reason for some form of reconnaissance that doesn't require our literal Gods to be running around the stars. I need to get the Starseeker running soon. And that's not just because I can't wait to see it online...

I—

"Earl! Stop zoning out!"

A firm hand yanks my ear over as I exit my thoughts just before our back door, utterly working on autopilot. I smile, embarrassed, as I greet our two guests, Birdie and Silas. The two stand beside each other near our porch chairs, with the former holding her hands to her hips, much like my wife, while the latter scratches his chin lazily.

"Hey... Sorry. I was just thinking about the Starseeker. Hey, speaking of, Silas, would you mind sparing your help for a bit with it?"

The Undead man shrugs in agreement. His magenta eye radiates intrigue at the same time, with Mie entering my mind.

"I was waiting for you to ask! I've been studying interdimensional travel like crazy so that I can figure out how to do it. Pairing moves like Virgil's with the glove, and Silas' Wishes would be unstoppable. How much progress have you made?"

I grin, waving behind me toward the hidden compartment in the distance.

"Yeah, I think I'm pretty close. A Wish or two, low-power, of course, could set me in the right direction. Then, we'd be jumping through the cosmos in no time!"

Primrose gives me a glare before sighing. Stepping around me, she grabs Birdie by the arm and yanks her away. The Undead woman doesn't resist her in the slightest. Obviously, something is already planned.

"Well, that sounds wonderful, then. Birdie and I will go see this new play while you three have fun. It's called 'Of Blood And War'. Apparently, the actors can even use Ether to make it look realistic!"

Not wanting to curb her enthusiasm, I wave Primrose away while she and Birdie round the house's edge. That quickly leaves Silas with me and Mie within his eye socket.

"Yes! I needed a break from her. Too nice. I don't know how you like her so much, Silas! It's like chewing on sugary sugar."

I scratch my eyebrow while stepping back toward the Starseeker, already excited. Still, Mie's words are odd as usual, seeing as she doesn't possess her own body like Lily.

"How do you know what that's like? And that's kinda rude."

Silas again shrugs, finally showing some modicum of emotion as we gradually approach the Starseeker.

"Mie just likes to complain. She loves Birdie. More than she likes me, that's for sure. Show me what this is all about. The less I have to go off-world, the more time I can spend with Birdie."

I nod, patting Silas on the back with a smile before bending down to the hatch and reopening it with a swift pull. A mere moment later, the Starseeker remains below us in all its glory.

Mie, through Silas, a medium, spares me a glance, and we laugh before climbing down onto the ship's ladder, its cold, narrow confines already familiar but always somewhat claustrophobic.

I open the secondary hatch into the Starseeker, with Silas right behind me. The sound of the door closing behind us echoes through the hollow metal walls, sealing us inside the cramped space.

It isn't usually this bad when alone, but with a second person, it's quite a bit worse. Hmm... I'll have to streamline this somehow later to fit more.

Silas, as usual, doesn’t say much, his undead eyes glowing faintly in the dim light to provide light before I hit the switch on the console, igniting the systems ablaze. Mie, though, hums in the back of my mind while the lights reveal the whole innards of the ship.

"Alright, Mie, you’re going to like this."

Kneeling beside the console, I call for Mie to watch me. Electrical wires and nodes carrying Ether sprawl across the surface like the veins of some living beast.

"We’re going to work on fine-tuning the void-engine. It’s tricky, but I think we can get pretty close today. Silas? Can you prepare a Wish? Word it something like... the void-engine to activate. Not too much power, just enough to give me a read."

Silas cracks his neck, the bones making an eerie popping noise, but he moves without hesitation, already preparing a coin betwixt his thumb and forefinger. Since he lost his memories, he's learned new ways to use his Wishes, sacrificing either Ether saturation for the future alongside his actual money.

“Ready when you are.”

I begin wiring the core, checking connections, and listening for any telltale hums or clicks that might indicate poor Ether flow. I've done much to hone this, copying Leviathan's stolen Divinity, but I know I'm still missing something. Mie’s curiosity pokes through like a tangible force, thankfully unable to distract me through my practice with Primrose.

"This void-engine of yours is interesting. It’s not the Ether we’re used to. It’s... something else. You’re trying to fold space, yes?"

Mie's excitement is impossible to hide, but I am impressed with how much she knows about what I'm attempting to achieve.

"Sort of. It’s more like—if you imagine space as a fabric, the void-engine is designed to pinch two points together, so we can skip over everything in between. That's how Leviathan can teleport. Abraham does the same by turning into a metaphysical thought, which is far more difficult to copy."

"And how does Silas’ Wish work into this?"

The Arca's intrigue doesn't end there, and I grin further. I love explaining things like this. Only Primrose really listens anymore, mostly because she has to.

"That’s the trick. His Power can make things function even when they shouldn’t. He can Wish for a result that defies logic and natural law, and reality adjusts itself around that Wish. We just have to figure out what the engine needs to do. So, he gives it a nudge in the right direction, and I figure out the rest. We've done it before, just nothing to this extent."

"That’s… brilliant."

I laugh at Mie's awe, her eye glowing with fascination as she takes it all in like a sponge. I never knew how much she enjoyed these kinds of things before, or maybe she didn't.

This could all be new for her. Regardless, I turn to Silas with a nod. It's time for a test run.

"Can you go for it? I'm ready to measure what happens."

The suit beneath my clothes contorts while I squint, the Ether in my body accelerating my mind and perceptions beyond what I should be capable of.

While I do so, Silas flicks the coin into the air, declaring his Wish proudly. A few years ago, there would be a sense of self-loathing with each syllable, but now that is all hidden.

"I Wish for the void-engine to activate."

There's a subtle shift in the air, the kind of change I’ve come to associate with his Power—reality bending around his will. The lights on the panel flicker, and I catch the hum of the dimensional stabilizers coming online, a series of constructs powered by Ether that can forcibly lock down space.

Opening my eyes, I stare right at the spherical engine, sensing the movements in it. I trail the flowing Ether, finding its patterns to nearly be beyond my understanding.

But it's not. I can comprehend most of it, and that's good. I can make most of this on my own with some inscriptions and electricity.

"Alright. That’s good. That’s—"

Suddenly, while I speak aloud, the console lights up like a beacon, and before I can react, the void-engine roars to life as the Wish goes further than I thought possible. The entire ship vibrates violently, shaking as if an invisible hand grabbed it. A sudden surge of power—way too much, way too fast.

"Mie, what the hell?"

I yell, grabbing the console, and I flick off the power button. Unfortunately, all that does is turn off the lights.

"Silas, shut it off! That’s too much!"

Silas growls, his hands rising in a defensive motion.

"It’s not me! I didn’t Wish for this!”

My eyes open wide as I realize that I misunderstood the difficulty of teleportation. I thought I had only reached the point of folding space with the void engine and that I still needed to figure out a way to pierce through it.

How stupid. I overlooked the other dimensions. We didn't need to pierce anything. Simply folding it would be enough to transport us.

My mind slams against the wall as the ship lurches violently to the side, and I can feel the space around us warping, the void-engine pulling something, drawing us in. The stars, somehow outside the viewport, suddenly stretch, becoming streaks of light as we’re flung across the universe. The hum of the engine becomes a deafening roar, and the pressure in the cabin shifts dramatically.

"We’re moving!"

Mie shouts into my mind, half in awe, half in terror.

"Yeah, I noticed!"

I snap at her, trying desperately to regain control of the ship. The stars blur into an unrecognizable whirl of light and color, my stomach twisting as we are hurtled through space faster than we were ever supposed to.

Then, as quickly as it starts, it ends. A deafening crack rings out, and the ship slams into something solid with a bone-rattling impact. The lights flicker, and I feel the sudden pull of gravity returning.

Smoke fills the cabin, invading my lungs within an inch. The cooling system must have broken.

I cough, stumbling toward the hatch, my hand scrambling for the emergency oxygen mask. The hatch opens with a wheeze, and I half fall, half stumble out, pulling the mask over my face and sucking in fresh air. Behind me, Silas follows, completely unfazed by the lack of oxygen. His long-dead nature makes breathing irrelevant.

The smoke billows out from the ship, rising into the open air and ascending toward the skies above. The smell of burnt metal and fried Ether inscriptions fills my nostrils as I take in the scene before us.

Yeah... We're definitely not home anymore.

Around us stretches an endless field of cerulean grass, its strange, soft blades waving lazily in a light breeze. The sky above is a shade of blue I’ve never seen before, more vibrant, almost electric. I glance at the horizon, then up at the stars—none of them look familiar. Not a single constellation matches what I know.

"We’re... not on our planet anymore."

I sigh under my breath while Silas forks out a cigar from his pocket, hitting a puffy drag in the new world. He doesn't seem too alarmed by our sudden arrival, though, neither am I. Nor is Mie. If anything, she's thrilled.

"Woah..."

It's scary, sure, but we're both Angels. We can handle this. Even if...

I stare up at the alien sky, my heart pounding and my mind racing to figure out where we are. But even after everything, there’s only one thought I can voice.

"Well… that was one hell of a Wish."

Silas finally laughs, more smoke bursting from his faux lungs. Shaking his head, he points a thumb back to the Starseeker.

"Yeah, and you made one hell of a boat. So how long are we sightseeing until we return?"

I twist back toward the ship, my eyes running along the damage as I bit my lip. Things aren't looking all that good.

"I don't think we'll back it back before their play ends. This... is gonna take a while."

Silas rotates one eye while Mie's vibrant pupil explores the surface of the newfound planet. Then, the Undead rolls up his sleeve, prepared to get dirty.

"Alright. Tell me what to do. I've got a thousand coins, and I haven't used any of this upcoming year's Ether yet."

I want to investigate more about this planet, but that can come later. We have no clue where we are, whether it is the den of a monstrous God or home only to plant life. Based on my readings, the air here is slightly toxic to humans.

An Angel like me, even with my non-physical Sigils, shouldn't have too much of a problem for a few weeks, perhaps months, but it will be uncomfortable. Not to mention...

Primrose is gonna kick my ass. Our anniversary is in two weeks. If I don't get back before then...

"Wish for a coin to point our way home. While you do that, I'll check what's wrong."

Silas doesn’t say anything, but I can feel the shift in the air as he flicks his thumb over a coin, preparing to make another Wish. His magenta eye glows faintly, reflecting the bizarre cerulean grass around us. Mie hums softly, the resonance of her voice almost soothing despite our situation. I crouch down near the open hatch of the Starseeker, smoke still curling up from its insides, and run my hand over the jagged edges of the hull.

"I’ll need a rough heading if we’re going to fix this in time."

Silas closes his eyes, flicking the coin into the air behind me. It glints for a moment, shimmering with Ether, and then spins violently, hovering just above his palm. When it finally lands, it points in a direction, high up, at an angle I quickly write down with the ship as an anchor.

I can't imagine the price it would have been to do the good ol' fly toward the destination. Thankfully, a point is enough.

"Got it. That way. But it feels... far."

"Of course, it’s far."

I shake my head, leaning further into the bowls of the Starseeker.

"Yeah! But look! The grass is made of cobalt. Isn't that weird? That's poisonous to Unsigiled. How is the grass alive?"

Ignoring Mie for the moment, I note down all of the Starseeker's vitals.

It isn’t in good shape. That much is obvious. The void-engine, my pride and joy, is completely fried. The inscriptions around it are scorched, Ether conduits snapped and leaking the stored substance into the open air. Worse yet, the dimensional stabilizers are cracked—without them, the engine won’t fold space correctly, and even if I managed to repair it, we’d end up warping straight into another planet or, worse, into some inhospitable dimension.

I sigh, dragging a hand across my face.

"The void-engine is busted. Like, really busted. It’s not just about folding space; it’s about folding it safely without tearing everything apart in the process. I need to develop something to protect the folder itself... protect us. We got lucky this time."

Silas steps closer, his eyes narrowing as he examines the damage.

"We’re stuck here, aren’t we?"

I respond to him by pulling out my tools, starting with some basic diagnostics. "Not forever. But it’s going to take time. The good news is, you and Mie know a thing or two about barriers, right?"

Silas' one eye twinkles with the love for the woman she had hidden previously.

"Oh, Birdie’s taught us so much! I could lecture you for days about Ether barriers. It's her Power, but she went all in on learning about them! She even developed a Dzil recently that works on blocking Ether inside a person or thing."

I chuckle, though I know Mie’s enthusiasm comes from a place of genuine interest rather than practicality. Still, her knowledge could be the key to getting us home. With Silas' help, too... it shouldn't take us all that long.

"Silas, start by reinforcing the Ether inscription here with a Wish, but remember—very low power. Another malfunction..."

The Undead gets my meaning, and we all quickly fall into work. Thankfully, none of us need to sleep, so we just get to it, with my oxygen mask slowly dwindling.

For the next several days, time seems to blur as we throw ourselves into repairing the Starseeker. Silas helps here and there, using his Wishes to replace cracked stabilizers or rewire entire sections of the engine when we run out of spare parts.

Meanwhile, I focus on redesigning the protective barrier around the void-engine, working closely with Mie’s guidance to construct something that will hold when we make the next jump through space.

"It’s not about blocking the Ether completely. You need to find ways to move the Ether within the barrier, expelling the excess without going overboard. Like... the exhaust of those auto-carriages you've made."

Mie explains Birdie's technique as I inscribe pathways for the Ether to flow on the engine’s casing.

I reply, wiping sweat from my brow.

"I’m trying to find that balance. We need enough Ether flow for the fold to happen, but we can’t let the space tear apart the engine. Who knows how many jumps we'll need to get back."

"We're close. This layering technique you’re using... it’s almost like Birdie’s personal shields."

Mie encourages me, though I know she's just happy to have someone new to talk to other than her typical two.

The days pass in a repetitive rhythm: repair, test, calibrate, fail, and repeat. The void-engine gradually, after far too many hours of work, starts to look like itself again, albeit with more intricate layers of protection, a web of Ether, and a built-in shielding skill wrapped tightly around it.

Silas doesn’t complain, though he often leaves me to work while he explores the surrounding area, keeping an eye out for any threats—or, more likely, any local plant life to sample. He occasionally shows up with cerulean grass woven into his coat like some bizarre accessory.

It seems, however, that there is no fauna here, only flora. How peculiar.

On the morning of the fifth day, time kept by the watch on my wrist, not the twenty-eight hours of the planet's day, I finally stand back from the engine. Patting my hands, I call Silas over.

"Alright, I think we’re ready for a test."

Silas, chewing on some alien leaf, glances up. Apparently, he can taste that one. It must be spicy as all hell for an Undead to feel it.

"You’re sure about that?"

I shrug. I can never be sure about anything, and I was pretty certain that this wouldn't happen a few days ago. Regardless, I point to the engine.

"Just try it. Low-power as before. Get it working. I don't want to spend the extra time to reverse engineer your Wish. The shields were time-consuming enough."

Silas cracks his neck again with that familiar popping sound filling the air. He then flips the coin in his hand, and as it soars into the air, losing its brilliance, he speaks his Wish into existence.

"I Wish for the void-engine to work."

The ship hums to life, the lights flickering for a moment before stabilizing. I hold my breath as the engine vibrates with dangerous amounts of Ether, the protective barriers humming around it.

For a moment, nothing happens. Then, with a low, steady thrum, the ship begins to jolt—not violently like before, but with purpose. The Ether flows through the conduits smoothly, and it seems to be holding firm with the added reinforcements.

My heart pounds with excitement as it's finally working.

The stars outside the viewport stretch again, but this time, there’s control. The ship jumps, folding space around us in a smooth calculation that doesn't abruptly lose hold of reality. I feel the familiar pull of space warping, but it’s manageable, held in place by the barriers we’ve built.

Then, just as quickly as it started, the Starseeker lurches out of the void, settling back into normal space with a soft thud. The shaking stops, and I exhale sharply, relief washing over me.

Again, I exit the ship, holding the oxygen mask against my mouth with its remaining supply, to find us on another unknown planet. However, this one is lifeless and simply a barren rock.

To make matters worse, though, the wheels of the Starseeker are broken, shattered by the landing. We hadn't noticed before because the ship was partially in the ground. But now that it is above ground...

I sigh...

I can't let it stay like this.

"I'll be back. Gonna go find a round-shaped rock. I need to make a few wheels."

Silas leans against the console while I walk away, and Mie's purple glow waves me away.

It only takes me a few moments to find adequately sized rocks that I chop up with Ether. I could use my Power on it, but I need to save my Ether as much as I can in case something goes wrong, and Creation is one of the most intensive Powers out there.

Once I have the stone-age wheels, I set them back onto the ship with Silas' help. Then, we take another jump with yet another Wish, sending us across the stars after we orient ourselves with... another Wish.

Man, I wish I had his Power. It's too fucking versatile. Whatever, though. Creation's pretty cool, too. I grasp the wall as the now-familiar lull of folded space welcomes me before it evaporates into nothingness.

I lean against the console, staring out the viewport to see if we've made it. And to my surprise, outside, familiar constellations twinkle against the dark sky.

We're home.

And in time for my anniversary.

She won't be that mad, right? I was only gone five days.

The hatch opens with a press of a button, and I file out with Silas behind me as I realize we are in front of the house instead of behind it. The slight difference is caused by Silas running out of gold to spend on Wishes.

I had to agree to pay him back a hundredfold for him to sign away his next six months of Ether for everything to work appropriately. It was worth it, though. I saw the void-engine work enough to perfect it—

"Earl!!!"

Shit. Shit.

"Silas! Send us back!"

"What? We just—"

An eerie puff of greenish smoke hurtles toward us from the house only a few hundred feet away as Silas begins to use his Wish. Unfortunately, he's too slow as a clasping hand takes away the Ether in his body.

"Birdie? Come on..."

The Undead woman giggles to herself, walking out the door of the quaint house while Primrose reconstitutes right in front of me.

My wife's hand points a finger directly against my chest, and I lean back, fearful of what she'll say.

"Did you bring any souvenirs?"

Deflating as it's not as bad as it could have been, I reach behind me and give her the bluegrass. Primrose takes it with a smile, hopping down the Starseeker's frame like it's nothing and walking back to the house.

Mie echoes into my thoughts with her own.

"No more complaints about Birdie. She could be Primrose."

I give her a glare and wave her off.

"She's my wife. That's just how she shows her love. She was worried about me but won't say a thing until we're alone."

Silas' eyes, both of them, raise in surprise before he nods. They must get it now.

Primrose is a cruel bitch to just about everyone in the world. But...

She's nice to me. Nice enough to learn all she can about my technology and help where she can.

I can't ask for anything else.

Exiting the Starseeker entirely, I stand beside it and pat the metal, listening to its resounding beat. Silas climbs out, too, sighing as he lights another cigar, this one of that bluegrass, and I look up at the construct.

This is our future. We'll send out scouts to the stars!

Well... maybe in a few years.

The Starseeker took me a whole year to make. Future ones will be faster, but... we need more than just the ship. We need a full array of tools, specialized teams, and charted maps of the nearby dimensions and distant stars.

Otherwise, we can't expect anyone to return alive.

But for now...

I'll start planning this anniversary. Maybe I take us to that planet with bluegrass...

I think Primrose would like to be a first explorer.