Math is what separates people from animals. Math is in everything, music, cooking, painting, and even storytelling. Most people don’t think about how much the human mind focuses on it, and even the minds that aren’t human any longer still use it for everything in their approach to understanding the world.

  Did you miss my weird comments yet? No? Well I was dead for most of that, so you’d better be impressed at how well I managed to narrate it without being sarcastic. That point aside, Reiav loved numbers. She loved them more than gears and grease—which is really rather impressive for her if you remember anything about the little bird.

  And so it was that Reiav held up the numbers, marveling at their perfection.

  There’s a certain type of balance you can never understand until you’ve seen an impossible equation solved; you can’t see it until perfection is on each side of the problem. After that, everything seems to sort itself out. To Reiav this was how the world worked, she had no chance of understanding it without that.

  Reiav was honestly baffled when she looked at the first equation and understood it immediately; she’d expected the people of the stars to have been, if not esoteric, at least genius, but this one was made from the same principles and decisions that her own people had developed, albeit used in different ways.

  No matter, that just meant the confusing part was still coming.

  Next, she found an almost identical equation to the decay model she’d painstakingly learned—in order to understand why older fuel was less effective. But here it was used as the equation that calculated the atrophy of a city mind’s muscles the longer they were asleep.

  Another equation—for the nutrients that needed to be pumped into the body—reminded her of the model for engine thrust. The model for differences in low gravity was shockingly similar to the strange equations that represented the strength of the sleeping suiki’s mind powers when certain variables were in play—such as distance, thought delay, and other terms Reiav didn’t understand.

  She flipped through the book, feeling as if the world was making more and more sense with each number and symbol. It was finally clear though, that the math that the suiki had used to get to Arendi was the same math the niortak had right now. There wasn’t a single new equation. Sure some were seen in different ways, and some were almost beautifully simplified compared to what she’d learned before. Every concept she found in that notebook was one she already understood.

  That thought was sobering; Reiav wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not.

  She flipped to the last page, searching for a missing number, and paused for a moment. If the math for this was so simple, then was there really a reason she couldn’t move Teisel’s mind into something else? The process was clear with the diagrams and the technology itself wasn’t too alien.

  She looked at it at it and glanced at Keshel. “What does this part say?”

  He looked up from his position beside one of the walls, his expression worried. He blinked at her in confusion and came over. He read the words as simply as before. After a moment where they both sat there, he tilted his head at it and gave her a strange look. “What’s this for?”

  Reiav sighed, “I’m not sure, but I might be able to move Teisel’s mind somewhere else, or at least change the hivemind modifiers so she can contact people on her own again. If her body is still somewhere that would be ideal; I’d be able to transfer her mind back into it.”

  Keshel opened his mouth and closed it several times, “That would be…”

  “I know, it’s a long shot, but it might work.”

  “No, no, I was about to say it’s a great idea. You’re sure you could do it?”

  Reiav nodded and pointed at the buttons and levers around the room, “All I have to do is the reverse of what they did to put her there.” Keshel looked curious so she continued, “I’d hook up the new vessel to this port here, and then connect these parts here, see? After that, you’d need to give it time to transfer and I’m definitely missing some access codes to start the whole process, but if we can find them… well…”

  “That’s amazing.”

  Reiav blinked, “Ah… thank you, but I’m really just restating what they have in the notes.”

  Keshel shook his head slowly but didn’t correct her further.

  --

  “There was once,” A voice began, “a world without a sun.” It continued.

  Reiav jerked her head upward, turning around to locate the source of the voice. Before her time in this dream world she might have screamed in reaction to a strange voice, but now she just asked “What’s that?”

  Keshel was also looking around, but he was focusing more on the ceiling, being able to sense somehting there. “It’s not Teisel…”

  “The world without a sun was dying you see,” It started again. The sound was louder now, less fuzzy, so Reiav was able to make it out better. It sounded feminine, childlike. “It drifted through the stars, passing worlds and suns, never having one of its own.”

  “Who’s there?” Reiav called, stepping in the direction she thought it was coming from.

  “The wandering world was alone, nothing was bound to it, not even the people who called it home. They came and went like the tides, leaving the world when it became icy and brittle, coming back when the ancient oceans resurfaced.” The voice paused, “And yet the world without a sun never had any gods, no Sacrifice or Justice, no Decay or Protection. Not even Order would call it home, for without a sun it could never be called orderly.”

  Keshel climbed on top of a box, still looking at the ceiling, “Fora is that you?”

  Reiav blinked at him in surprise, “Fora?”

  “The world without a sun was alone, cold, dead. And so it remains to this day. The end.” The voice stopped talking.

  Keshel sighed, “Fora, get out here, please.”

  She didn’t respond for a long moment before a golden glow appeared in the air above Keshel, it was indistinct so far, just a subtle shape that was still growing. “I’ll have you know that’s the first time someone’s actually managed to hear one of those monologues. Do you know anything about Yasen? That’s the wandering planet’s name.”

  “I’ve never heard of it before just now,” Keshel admitted, frowning at the glow as it started forming into the rough shape of a body. Reiav was still blinking at it. How could Fora be alive? She’d died. Reiav had been sure she’d died. But if she was alive, where had she been all this time?

  “Are you sure that’s actually Fora?” Reiav felt her voice wavering, her mind reeling at the impossibility of it. “It could just be another shade.”

  The golden glow made a scoffing sound, “I’d like to see Teisel try and make a shade to mimic me.” She didn’t explain why. After a moment the golden glow lessened and a completely intact Fora drifted down from the air, no longer glowing because glowing is for newbs at un-dying. “That was a really weird rebirth. Sparks, everyone else died, right? That’s rough.”

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  Reiav felt her mouth open and close several times, “I… yes. Eloi died, Tosono too, we didn’t see Pleseln’s body but…”

  Fora nodded slowly, finally hitting the ground, she flexed a hand, “They’re fine.”

  The two niortak blinked at the claim, “How in the world would they be fine?!” Reiav found herself snapping slightly, “I saw Eloi die right in front of me.”

  Fora gave her a confused look, “This is the dream realm. The realm of thought, of connection, of the mind. They’re fine. I wasn’t sure before but it just booted them back to the real world when they died.”

  Reiav gaped at her.

  “You’re… sure?” Keshel finally voiced.

  “Pretty sparking sure.” Fora said, her voice wasn’t wavering or anything, “I’ve never seen anything like this before, but I know how dying feels and that was not it. Pretty close, but not dying.”

  Keshel frowned, “So to get out…”

  “I don’t think it would help our lovely city mind’s mental state if you kill yourself in her brain; I sure as heck ain’t going to kill you for you.”

  “In her… brain?” Reiav echoed, studiously ignoring Keshels idea, which had admittedly been the same one she’d had in light of the information. It’s as they say, fools congregate.

  Fora nodded, “We’re trapped in the part of the between—er dream realm that reflects Teisel’s mind. Everyone has one but I’ve never seen one so big before. I should have realized it before. That’s why she could connect telepathically with anyone here even though that’s not part of her abilities…”

  Keshel sighed, “Alright, so if dying is off the table what are we doing then?”

  Fora shrugged. The little cretin just shrugged. Reiav distinctly wished to strangle her right about then. She was someone with ANSWERS—why in the stars would she not have any ideas?!

  “Great.” Reiav said, sitting back down at her equations, “When Fora decides to be helpful I’ll listen to what she has to say.”

  Fora grinned at that for some reason, walking over and glancing at the numbers as Reiav got back to them. She looked around the room, twiddled her thumbs a bit as if just to bother Reiav, and climbed on top of the control table. Reiav studiously ignored her. I’m not used to people being able to ignore me, it’s a very impressive skill when it appears.

  Keshel watched the two of them for a long moment before hesitantly clearing his throat and deciding to just not be involved in whatever was making Reiav salty. A smart plan, considering Reiav was very salty. “I think I have the best chance of just talking to Teisel and helping her.” He said slowly.

  “That wasn’t working before, was it?”

  “Those were manifestations of her various past selves.”

  Fora perked up slightly, looking at Keshel, “What were they trying to keep you from doing?”

  “...From helping her?”

  “That’s a good sign then!”

  Reiav sighed, “Why?”

  Fora grinned again, “It means on the inside Teisel wants someone to help her.”

  Reiav massaged her forehead, “... How much exactly of what we found out did you magically gain knowledge of? Because I feel like everything is pointing at the opposite. She’d like someone to help but she’d rather be right about how horrible the world is than receive that help.”

  Fora gave her a baffled look, “What?”

  “It’s a behavior theory one of my tutors has been trying to get published.” She grumbled, absently flipping to another page of numbers, “We ask for something with our mouths all the while convincing ourselves it’s impossible, but when we don’t get what we expect, all we let out is anger and frustration. Like with you, if someone asked I would have said I wanted you to be alive and alright, but here you are, perfectly fine, and all I am is annoyed.”

  She let out a long breath, “Because I was wrong. Because I spent all that time mourning your loss for nothing because you just appeared out of nowhere and gave us answers we’ve been looking for for days. I would have said I wanted those answers, but all I am is angry because I didn’t get what I expected.”

  Reiav glared at the notebook, “Teisel expects us to fail, she expects us to not even try, but we’re trying anyway and that’s making her angry because all those things she thought that people were… well she was wrong; that means those people in the past were just that much worse. Sure she’s happy too that someone cares, but she’s spent all this time crushing her hope with despair, it might just make her more bitter that that hope never paid off over all this time.”

  Fora was silent for a long moment, “Normal people… do things like that?”

  Reiav remembered the ten long years she’d hoped that she could see Ruirel, and then, when she finally had seen him, how scared she’d been. Inside, she hadn’t actually expected to ever see him again. Part of her had thought that things might be better if the betrothal never went through, but she’d been wrong. It was harder that way.

  She shrugged, “I don’t know that anyone’s normal. I used to think I was but here I am, trying to learn ancient math just to save someone I barely know.”

  She shook her head and sat down roughly.

  The two of them sat near Reiav, mulling over what she’d said.

  Teisel wanted help deep down inside, but closer to the surface, she just wanted it all to be over.

  Keshel understood that feeling. The pain was sometimes smaller, but it always came back. It was like the horrible fear that was constantly in the back of his mind these days. A fear that he would be alone forever, that his life would end one day and no one would see it.

  Keshel closed his eyes. Teisel, this is about Teisel, not me.

  Were they all similar to her though? Was that the real reason they’d been the ones sucked into this place? He glanced at Fora, but couldn’t imagine what might be hiding there. He glanced at Reiav, who had spoken with such familiarity before of that deep deception he’d never even thought about.

  So much pain. A person shouldn’t have to feel so much pain.

  “You can’t contact her, right?” Fora asked, “Do you know why?”

  Keshel sighed, “No, I don’t know why.” She must be blocking him out, for… some reason. Maybe it was what Reiav had said, and a big part of her didn’t want to be wrong.

  “Is there anything else you think we can learn from this place?” Fora asked after a moment of hesitation.

  Reiav blinked at her, “You have a way out, don’t you.”

  Fora nodded, and didn’t explain.

  “And you didn’t think to tell us earlier?!” Reiav glared at the child, almost like a strict parent who’d lost all semblance of patience.

  “I’m telling you now, and I’ve only been back for about twenty minutes.”

  Keshel massaged his temples. “What are the odds of it killing us?” He asked after a moment.

  Fora shrugged, “Zero.”

  Reiav grumbled again about Fora’s weirdly pretentious ways of existing, “Great, so what are we waiting for then?” She tucked that notebook under her arm. “I think we have a much better chance of talking to Teisel if we can track her down and make her listen.”

  Keshel reflected again that Reiav was not in a good mood at the moment. Fora leaned back slightly, apparently still surprised at the depth of her annoyance. “Ah… maybe?”

  Keshel squinted slightly, “We’ll go back to where we were when this first started, right?”

  Fora nodded, “You’ll be back in that control room, Reiav will be wherever she was, and I’ll be back in the suiki burrow place.”

  “You were at the burrow?!” Keshel asked, blinking in surprise.

  Fora shrugged innocently, “I was raiding their library.”

  He opened and closed his mouth several times. “Abbil would never let you do that.”

  “I never said I had permission.”

  Reiav cleared her throat pointedly.

  Fora grinned, “Right, I’ll poke a hole in this world, it’ll dissolve, and you’ll wake up a moment later back where you started. Got it?”

  The two of them nodded.

  She nodded back at them. After a second she stood up, raising her arms above her and chanting something in a language Keshel somehow didn’t understand—I don’t know why his ability didn’t pick that part up, but it would have been embarrassing if it had. Keshel just watched Fora, confused as suddenly the world just… popped.