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    “That was fucking crazy,” Abel gasped as he thumped down next to us. “What WAS that? It was so FAST.” I couldn’t tell if he was terrified or excited (though knowing Abel I was betting on the latter). Bethy was right behind him, and the as of yet unnamed elf hunter trailed behind her silently, face stoic and no sign of her former distress.


    My vampire friend was scanning the waterline, clearly on the lookout for followup attacks, which I completely understood. I was still pissed I’d been taken by surprise. My Danger Sense hadn’t picked anything up because the danger was aimed at Callie and not me, which was a HUGE flaw in the skill that needed to be addressed if possible.


    I triggered Murmur, letting all the other domains fall away now that I was safe. With the Citizen nearby, I didn’t trust my conversation not to be overheard. The others got up to give us some space, and I focused on erasing all trace of Callie and I. Once we were covered, I pulled out the mirror and breathed on the surface, wiping it clean.


    My mother’s face appeared almost instantly. “Shane? Are you ok? We weren’t expecting to hear back so soon, did something happen?”


    I sighed, then explained everything we’d just been through. There was a surprising amount to go over in such a short time, and by the time I finished, my mother’s face was stormy. She looked ready to break down the spatial barrier and charge the dungeon.


    Suddenly, she was gone, and I saw my grandmother in the mirror. She’d snatched the device from my mother, and her face was as calm as ever. “Shane? Put Calliope on.” I shrugged, handing the mirror to my wife, and my grandmother’s expression became conflicted.  "Tell me in your own words exactly what you experienced. Don’t hold anything back.”


    Callie repeated what I’d said, but she also described her own understanding of whatever was waiting in the dark water. I hadn’t perceived it like she had, because I had no connection to it, but when she finished, my grandmother looked genuinely worried for maybe the first time since I’d met her.


    “That’s…very bad,” she looked over her shoulder at my grandfather. “Ok, these incidents are getting out of control. I know he’s thrice godspawned, but this level of fate collision is absurd. You need to talk to Judgement to see if there’s a way to offset some of it.”


    He grimaced. “It is a bit extreme. What are the chances the dungeon would be Voidtouched? At least it’s probably just a shard.”


    “Guys, information, we need it,” I said bluntly. “Is Callie in danger?”


    My grandmother waggled a hand. “Yes and no. It’s not immediate, especially with your help. I imagine it was trying to force her to create a bond with it through the Solid Path. Similar to your bond with her, or Jessie’s bond with Randall. She already has one though, and it seems like it shielded her. You pruned most of the influence from the Solid Path too, so it wasn’t able to anchor firmly.”


    “WHAT wasn’t able to anchor?” I demanded. “What the hell is down there.”


    My grandfather responded solemnly. “Void Children. Or rather, probably just the one. You know about the void, right? The negative spatial dimension that overlays our reality? Godworlds, some dungeons, pocket spaces, even spatially expanded buildings to an extent. These things are all in the void. They have stable connections to our universe, which anchors them. But not everything in the void comes from here.”


    “Void Children?” I asked. “Why doesn’t that fill me with terror like I suspect you intended.”


    “Probably because you’re scaling them wrong,” he said bluntly. “The void is infinite and all devouring. Its spawn are equally massive. We don’t actually know how or why they form, but they tend to absorb ambient recursion that seeps through the void in places with lots of spatial weight. Godworlds, for instance, often influence nearby Void Children. They’re a chaotic mishmash of powerful recursion and horribly alien material, and they are categorically insane, at least by our standards. Void Children do one thing. Consume. They’re like whales, if whales were carnivorous and hated everything.”


    I clenched my hand around my wife’s. “So why is it after Callie?” I demanded. “She’s a D-ranker, if this thing is some sort of immense all consuming void monster, she shouldn’t even be a snack. No offense, love.”


    “None taken,” she said dryly. “I have no interest in being appetizing to an eldritch hate monster.”


    “Void Children have a lot of trouble reaching into our world,” my grandmother explained. “Their nature is anathema to the positive universe. It’s kind of…corrosive. Turns people insane, warps the landscape, that kind of thing. In order to operate between dimensions, they often choose priests with one foot in the void. Avatars for their will and power. It can grant incredible abilities, but often comes at a steep price.”


    I thought about the teleporter I’d met, the one who could stride the void to reach the Godworlds directly. Was he a void priest? Did the vanished gods have some kind of arrangement with the Void Children?


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Pulling the mirror out of Callie’s shaking hands, I faced my grandparents, telling them about my experience. I’d mentioned most of what happened at Rackham, but the teleportation hadn’t been something I focused on. I’d mentioned they had a powerful teleporter, but the void explanation had been technical jargon I hadn’t felt the need to repeat.


    They looked worried. My grandmother especially. “That’s… I’ll call my father. If there are void touched among the vanished gods’ forces, he needs to know about it. Luckily my mother got her hands on that Inkstone. Her Enshrining Darkness has a suppressive effect on void entities. Speaking of which, you should think about teaching your Sammael form to Calliope, or at least some version of it. It should help negate some of the void influence from that Solid Path. Although…I don’t actually know what mixing those two elements will do. I imagine it will be difficult to manage, but it might yield interesting results.”


    “I can…try? I guess,” I said slowly. “I’m not sure she can learn it without the staff art, and teaching her the whole thing would be difficult. At least in any reasonable amount of time. Too much to focus on.”


    Callie looked pensive. “What if we don’t?” she said slowly. “What if we use the method you used with Jessie? I could wish for a catalyst that will help me attain the Sammael racial trait. We have proof of concept for both, melding them together should be doable. Your Wish power can do anything it has the stats for, and triple your stats is…well, not the peak of D-rank, but most of the way there.”


    I hadn’t even considered that. Normally I’d be worried, since racial traits weren’t supposed to be able to reach godhood, but I knew from Bethy’s example that you could do it if you built your Domain properly. It involved lots of complicated concepts I had no clue about, I was sure, but since it was doable, I was confident I could do it eventually.


    “Not yet,” my grandmother warned. “You need to balance the structures. You won’t be able to neutralize the void influence if the two forces aren’t equal. If one of them overtakes and consumes the other, it would be a disaster. Which means you need to merge them as completely equal influences. Racial traits replace abilities. Calliope only has one, which means to successfully merge the two, her Solid Path needs to be part of her ability first.”


    I nodded slowly. I could see what she meant. In order to form a Chronicle, you needed to merge your Solid Path with your ability. It was the next step after forming a Solid Path, usually done during late C-rank in preparation for forming your Chronicle before breaking through to B.


    Originally, this would have been impossible without talent like mine, but since Callie had limited access to my library, and her Solid Path was even created there, I was sure we could manage it. That would also give me more time to increase my stats in preparation for the wish for the catalyst, and even to study Sammael and adapt Callie’s Solid Path to mesh with it more stably.


    I was sure that with the Wisdom of Solomon, I could create a perfect version of Sammael for Callie, one that would even surpass the original. By the time we finished with her new racial trait, she might even surpass Bethy in terms of raw power.


    Which reminded me that I needed to work with Bethy on this. And the angels. I didn’t know NEARLY enough about racial traits. Only the fact that I created Sammael myself made me even slightly confident in attempting this. Not creating the permanent trait, the wish power would do that, but balancing the Solid Path before integrating it.


    Because my wife’s life was at stake, I didn’t hold back either. I peppered my grandparents with questions, exploring several aspects of technique creation I had been curious about, trying my best to shore up my lacking theoretical foundations.


    I was a natural prodigy with techniques, but prodigies do things by feel and instinct. Creating a form or a pseudo Domain was one thing, but this was going to be integrated into a racial trait that would permanently change Callie in ways we couldn’t predict. Sadly, it seemed like this was going to be a long term project.


    Aside from the fact that Callie needed to acclimate to her Solid Path, and that I wanted to comb through it to try to double check for Void Child influence, I needed to wait for the Ten Demons Tree to recover before using the Wisdom of Solomon again.


    Finally, after I had stalled and waffled so much trying to put off disconnecting that even I was becoming aware of it, I thanked my mom and grandparents and dismissed the mirror image. I sighed as I put it away, glancing at Callie worriedly.


    She smiled back, unafraid. “Hey, don’t look so gloomy. You better work your ass off, or when I get my new racial trait I’ll leave you in the dust. Your Sammael form is pretty cool, but you don’t have VOID powers.” Despite her upbeat tone, I could sense worry through the bond. We had a solution to this problem, but she was still stuck in here with a Void Child who had partially influenced her path.


    I swept her up in my arms, earning a squeak as I walked her purposefully away from the shore. “Don’t worry about that,” I winked at her. “I always come up with something. I haven’t even made a domain with Sammael yet. Plus I’ve been thinking, and I want to try to integrate that green candle flame into Leviathan.”


    My soul defense form was perfect for resisting void influence, based on the interactions with the mist here. Plus, I’d been developing too quickly. Too many new powers and abilities. I needed to stop and shore up what I had. Reinforcing Leviathan, testing out Behemoth, working on Callie’s Solid Path. I had a lot of catching up to do to make sure I could use my resources well given how many new tricks I had.


    Callie laughed, snuggling into my chest. Not at what I’d said, but at the sensation of me getting lost in my work. She could feel where my head was, and I could feel how much she loved me for it. I was a giant nerd, but I was HER nerd.


    We rejoined the others, and the Citizen gave us an odd look, which I ignored because I didn’t give a shit what he thought, and we headed across the island, aiming for the next walkway. We stayed in the center, only approaching the water at the walkway entrance where the candles could cover us, and with our safety assured, we resumed the trip to Ironreach. Once we got there, I was renting a damned hotel room, and actually SLEEPING there. I fucking hated road trips.