“Please, Master Researcher R’shmet, the Elders have spoken against this multiple times. Those that lead will not sanction this experiment. The Captain would turn us around and put both of us in shackles instantly if they knew your true motives.”

 

R’shmet sneered at their assistant. The elders were nothing; they knew nothing of the true work, the grand idea that had brought this vessel out under a moonless sky deep into the wilderness of this horrible world. R’shmet turned their back to the assistant and pointed to a row of crysteel jars. “Fetch the first one and bring it here, and if your voice quivers in my ears again, I shall finish the job that should have happened at your failed birthing. The elders burdened me with your imperfect form to punish me. Make yourself useful.”

 

The assistant hung its head as it moved across the lab, its one deformed leg dragging slightly as it went. Reaching up and taking the first crysteel bottle, it caught its own reflection in the bottle, which only made its head drop more. As it moved back to its master, there was a small tingle at the base of its spine. Looking up at its master, who was now staring off into nothing, the cuthari’s telepathic link failed to connect within the assistant’s malformed body. It could feel the call but could not communicate with the others. As such, it should have been destroyed in the birthing vat. The scientist stayed their hand and allowed the rite to continue, bringing the assistant into the world as an example of what could happen when one tries to tamper with a process that had been perfected for many years. To be a living model of the misguided hubris of those that think they knew better.

 

“The Captain calls me to the bridge. You will put the jar back and disguise them. I shall not be long, but I feel the Captain is beginning to see through this fool’s errand I fed them to bring their ship this far into the wild. If they are with me when I return, then you are to stand in the far corner and not speak a word out of your horrid mouth. I shall give you a little gleam of hope to cling to. If you do as I say and say no more about the elders, WHEN my experiment works, and we can break free of this prison world, I will bring you forth to the great mind to be fixed into a true cuthari. Granted, of the lowest caste of workers, which will be many steps above this putrid broken form you now inhibit.”

 

The Bridge of the Reaper pulsed with life, from the small crew that attended the vessel’s few command stations to the walls themselves that moved with the precious fluid of life for the ship. The captain was hunched over a small desk looking over the charts for the region when R’shmet entered the bridge. Never looking up from the charts, the graveled voice of the captain carried throughout the bridge.

 

“Master Researcher R’shmet, I know you hold great sway among those of your caste, but I must protest this voyage. I have looked over the charts and even communicated with other captains, some of whom are the ones that created these maps. There is no great lost cuthari crash site, no hidden stronghold, there is nothing of our kind this far out. Even the lost records that have been recovered show nothing of any movement this far west. We are out of range of the tower of Navicom. I sense no ships or settlements within countless leagues; we are cut off. I would know the true intention of this voyage, or I will turn this ship around.”

R’shmet glided towards the captain as he spoke and glanced down at the charts and papers on the desk. His voice never left his mouth, but it was heard as clear as a whisper into the ear of the captain. “Why must you pollute the air with such noise? Have you spent too much time among the weaker flesh that you must bark and hoot as they do?”

 

The Captain stood and looked at R’shmet for a long moment, tilting their head slightly as they returned their voice to the calm quiet of the mind space. “Forgive me, Master Researcher, but on this bridge we speak with our voices so as not to hide anything from one another. My crew and I share a bond not unlike the one I share with this vessel. If I am to know of something, then they are as well.”

 

R’shmet took this in for a moment, and then their mouth opened, and the sound not unlike that of gravel falling through mesh to the ground came out. “Ah, well, who am I to break such a noble rule, Captain. It will be a novel joy to speak as the weaker flesh do. Though I will say I am not so removed from it; my assistant, for example, is best motivated by speech. The simple thing can be overwhelmed by the mind space sometimes, and I would save all healing salves for those of the true cuthari. As for your initial question, my reasons have not changed from when I first chartered this vessel at the great city. I have studied the recovered lost records, and with them as guides, I have deduced that within this area is one of the greatest finds that may very well date to the great breaching of this realm.”

 

“…But, Master Researcher, I have studied the lost records myself, and there is no mention of anything this far west. And if there was any ship, it would be long lost. I cannot even fathom to think of what point this voyage would bring. At the great city, you spoke of a grand treasure of the cuthari, something that would bring more power to the cuthari. I fear the road you are walking will lead you to madness or, worse yet, put you against the elders, which can lead to punishments worse than death.”

 

R’shmet floated past the table and out onto the balcony. The Captain followed behind, their booted feet making the only noise that carried into the night’s air. It was a few minutes before R’shmet broke the silence and spoke. “Tell me, Captain, what do you know of the great breach? Of the coming of the cuthari to this realm?”

 

The captain studied the Master Researcher for a moment, trying to run through the angles they were playing before they spoke. “I know the same as all; the Grand Fleet assaulted the shell that surrounds this realm, and we breached into it, but the breach sealed behind us, trapping all but those of the purest and highest cuthari of the Grand Fleet on Sordane.”

 

R’shmet nodded. “Very good. Many have forgotten that we do not belong here, that we are not meant to remain on Sordane. Their magic is powerful, and the resources of this world serve us well, but the majority of the cuthari are trapped here. We are held in this prison world by those you think know best, shackled to this world. I seek to fix that. The lost records give us all we need to calculate the exact location the great breach happened. If one were to take into account the events that have happened from that point until the present day, many of my caste would never seek such power. They forget our own magic, more so the old magic that is more powerful than that which shaped and spirited this world away. It moves, turns, and even pushes the world. The Elders have always stated, and rightly so, that this realm sits alone. It floats like a shelled seed in the darkness of nothing, cut off from all planes and left safe from the outside. Obviously, we know this is untrue as we came from outside that shell. The Grand Fleet traversed the void and crawled inside. What if I were to tell you that the great nothing, the void, was not as empty nor as wild as we have been told? That it could be charted, traversed by any of us, not just the Elders who hold the power. We could not only leave on ships but return again and again, a second breaching event, a permanent breach.”

 

“…We will remind you only once more, such words could be taken as treason against the great cause. Master Researcher, you cannot be serious. You think this great treasure is a tool to cause a gateway? If the Grand Fleet had such an item, they would have used it long ago when the breach sealed behind us. This mission is folly. We are returning to the great city right away.”

 

Fire boiled up within R’shmet, but they calmed it before others could feel it. With a second’s pause, they called out to the mindspace to the captain. “Please, Captain, I know it seems like a child’s dream, but I know it is here. I understand your hesitation, and I know you are on edge being this far, being cut off from others. I shall make a bargain with you. Give me three more hours undisturbed to finish a finding rite. If I come up with nothing, then my words will never be brought up again. We shall return to the great city, and I will have the researcher caste pay your full fee and half again on top.”

 

The captain paused and glanced back over their shoulder to R’shmet. They spoke aloud rather than return to the mindspace. “Three hours, and I do not care if you find the Grand flagship itself. We are casting off back to the great city.”

 

R’shmet bowed their head slowly and returned their conversation to the mindspace. “Thank you, noble Captain. Your duty and care for your vessel and crew are among the highest I have ever seen. Truly, you are a pinnacle of Cuthari captains.”

 

R’shmet watched the captain return to the bridge and paused to look over the landscape far below them, moving past for a few moments before moving back down towards the lab, taking their time to take in the living vessel around them. When they returned to the lab, the assistant stood very still until it was clear R’shmet was alone.

 

“Gather the jars. The captain has granted us three hours to finish before we return to the great city. We shall accelerate to finish, and I shall not return empty-handed.”

 

The assistant moved and uncovered the jars, bringing each over to the large work table. Each crysteel jar contained the elements needed for the rite, one filled with a black liquid that reflected no light. The liquid seemed to move within the jar but gave no sign of motion. Almost as if both jar and liquid existed in the same place but not on the same plane, as if pure darkness filled the jar and left nothing inside or remaining.

 

R’shmet moved to the work table and placed their large journal open on it. They searched through pages of handwritten tables, loose pieces of scrolls, and faded charts that looked like they were written on with materials not found on Sordane. The pair quickly gathered the rest of the needed items and prepared to start. R’shmet closed their eyes and took a long, raspy breath before beginning in earnest, speaking in a tongue not heard within the shell of Sordane, a black tongue, twisted and foul. Words dripped in power and held meaning to those who would hear them from beyond.

 

Placing the last jar that held utter darkness down, R’shmet opened its lid, allowing the darkness to slowly spill over the brim and onto the table. The assistant slowly backed away from the growing darkness, shaking their head vigorously as the feeling of dread crawled up their body and shrieked into their mind.

 

“Master, I hear voices within my head. They cry out in the distance but are growing closer. Master, something is coming. I can hear them call out… for you.”

 

R’shmet opened all the jars and poured each onto the growing darkness that had wrapped itself around the table. R’shmet reached out and snatched the assistant by the back of their neck with strength that seemed impossible for their slender frame. Pulling the assistant back to the table, R’shmet’s voice was only a whisper but held the malice of a thousand daggers to the back.

 

“Good, I knew you would be the key, my assistant. The moment those fools for elders thought they saddled me with you for punishment, my plan started. I made you, I oversaw your creation. It was my hand that stayed your destruction. You have no idea what you are, my little creation.”

 

R’shmet gestured to the growing darkness. “That is the essence of the void, the nothingness that surrounds this world like a prison. But within that nothingness is a realm of true power, a realm of creation. The Grand Fleet knew that; they sought to harness the power of the void. They struck bargains with the things that dwelt within it. I believe, no, I know that is how they caused the first breach. Not through the power of the cuthari, but from the whim of a creature within the Void. It has taken me nearly a lifetime and countless experiments, but I finally was able to fuse the essence of the void into a living creature. To make the key that opens the breach, a sacrifice must be made. A creature of the void and Sordane will unlock the gateway and leave the breach open.”

 

The ship began to shudder as power surged within the lab, and the groans, audible and within the mindspace, of the vessel began to call out warnings of discomfort and panic. The living ship could feel the void begin to tear and weaken the space around them. R’shmet lifted the assistant higher into the air and slammed them down onto the now full darkness that covered the table. There were no sounds as the assistant’s body hit the table, no feeling of impact. It was as if they had hit a wall of thick liquid, but no sound came forth. The sounds of anguish and horror broke the air as the assistant flailed against an unseen attacker but was slowly being dragged down into the darkness. The sounds began to be replaced by a voice calling out from the darkness. It spoke in a cursed tongue, and few would be able to hear it and retain their sanity, let alone understand the meaning behind it.

“I hear the void and I speak for the Cuthari. Long ago, you opened the breach for our Grand Fleet to enter this realm. I seek a bargain to not only reopen the breach but also to allow it to remain open. I have gifted you a being born of Sordane and the Cuthari, fused with the void. The Cuthari seek to escape this….”

 

The clatter of boots and yelling coming down the hall behind R’shmet was lost on them as they spoke, but the fire and thunderclap of the Captain’s pistol cut through not only their concentration but also the armor and robes they wore. “Master Researcher R’shmet of the Circle of Cuthari, I deem your work treason against the elders, and your life forfeit.”

 

R’shmet slumped forward and reached out to feel the hole in their chest where the Captain’s pistol had found its mark. Their blood slipped out and onto the table, quickly being absorbed by the darkness. R’shmet looked back at the Captain, their eyes wide. “You fool!”

 

The darkness began to pulse, and soon a slow, deep laughter was heard as if it came from all around them. It was faint at first, but it grew louder. The ship began to lurch from side to side as if a massive load was put within its hold. The Captain moved into the lab more and trained their pistol onto the table, firing once. The blast hit the darkness and traveled beyond the table, slowly fading out into the darkness. The laughter began to grow again, this time it grew closer until from the darkness one eye opened, then another, and more followed. Their gaze fixed on the Captain, a voice followed that sounded like a hundred voices speaking at once.

 

“Fool indeed, thank you for finishing the ritual, Captain. I was unsure my plan would work without pure Cuthari life essence, and my pawn here thought themselves my better. But they will see that the void consumes all, including this thorn of a realm.”

 

The form of the creature rose from the darkness into the lab, and true terror overtook the Captain as the hideous laughter rang out throughout the ship.