Fall of the Spectrum

Chapter Three

"You're doing much better."

"You can't be serious." Gwen took Lonali's hand and got to her feet. "I didn't even get close to reaching Astral this time. The last two days might as well have been 'Groundhog Day' for all the progress I've made."

Lonali started to ask her, "What's Groundhog Day?" when Forneus stepped forward. Astral trailed behind him, rubbing his wrists where up until a moment ago, ropes had been binding him.

"Lonali is right. You really are doing much better," Forneus said. "You just need to start utilizing your armour's offensive capabilities more. Remember, it can do more than just shield you from enemy attacks."

She didn't need reminding, least of all after the disaster two nights ago. Of the few good things that had come of their battle in London, learning that her armour could be used for fighting back was one of them. Gwen might not have been able to use it as effectively during training as she could when faced with real life-or-death situations, but she was trying. Otherwise, Phenex's sacrifice would have been all for nothing.

Still, it was a poor trade-off. Gwen knew it, and so did everyone else. In spite of all the good that had come of discovering her powers, losing one of the Regulations Force's best had been a steep price to pay. Not that it would have turned out differently, either way—unless Gwen counted the fact that she probably would have wound up dead alongside him. No matter how many operatives had been there, Iris's and Reeves' combined forces had outnumbered them ten to one.

Still, if I hadn't been there...if he had never met me in the first place, maybe he wouldn't have—

"Perhaps now would be a good time to practice your Magic Sight." Gwen gave a start when Forneus spoke again, interrupting the dark turn of her thoughts. "Asclepius and I have council matters to discuss, anyway."

Whether it was because he'd picked up on her mood or because of something completely unrelated, Gwen didn't know. Either way, she was glad for the chance to take a break. She had enough cuts and scrapes to last her a lifetime, not to mention muscles she hadn't even known existed were screaming in protest. Doing a scavenger hunt for magical energy with Astral would be a welcome respite after all that.

Hell, it would be welcome even without the continuous aches and humiliation that came with combat training. Not only was her practice with Magic Sight the one thing she could actually see an improvement in, she genuinely enjoyed Astral's company. While Gwen liked the rest of the Fifth Unit well enough, even felt the stirrings of affection for a few of them—though nothing that could rival her fondness for Forneus—Astral was the only one who didn't talk to her like a parent to a child, or a mentor to a student. He spoke with her as an equal, and in spite of being nearly two hundred years old, was brimming with youthful optimism.

It was with this same exuberance that he guided her away from the others now, both Forneus's and Asclepius's voices fading into the background as he led her toward a rocky outcropping a short distance away. Asclepius had enchanted the Training Facility to take on the guise of a seaside cliff, surrounded by dense scrub on one side and crashing waves far below. Or what would have been far below, had it not only been an illusion.

"So what are we working on, today?" she asked, carefully stepping over a crevice as she followed him down a narrow, sloping trail along the edge of the rock face. Her Magic Sight training often rotated from one thing to the next: From sensing ley lines (veils between worlds that were more like mirrors than actual dimensional rifts), to tracking down condensed pockets of ether (the "scavenger hunts", as she'd started calling them during their first practice session), to seeing invisible spirit entities.