Since there’s barely any light coming through the blanket of blackness above, this world’s illumination comes from the plant life.
We’re surrounded by a massive and seemingly impassable swamp. The wild and overgrown trees are tall and spindly, their limbs crisscrossing with each other, and their leaves glow with silver light, like Ophiuchus’s eyes.
They look like stars hanging from tree trunks.
Just like its Guardian, this planet never died. It got caught between states—not quite part of this world, and not quite part of the next.
While the other ships find places to land and more Zodai disembark, I glance at Hysan, who’s ogling at everything and for once looking just as mesmerized as the rest of us. “Guess I finally brought you somewhere you’ve never been before,” I say.
His lips hitch into his centaur smile, and it’s like a small sunrise in the midst of an everlasting night.
Then I notice Ophiuchus.
His wide eyes are taking up his whole face, and he looks smaller somehow. He drops to the earth and touches the loamy soil with his bare hands, the way one would caress a long-lost lover. I feel like I’m intruding, so I turn away to let him have his moment.
If I had the chance to return to Cancer, I would be on my knees, too.
As the rest of the army joins us, I notice most people are in their Zodai suits, but some are donning their House’s actual warrior uniforms, like the ones worn during the Trinary Axis.
The Arieans’ armor is a bloodred fireproof fabric made from the wool of their House’s Rams. It’s woven so tightly as to be as impenetrable as the toughest of metals. But the most striking part of their getup are their metal helmets, which have Ram horns sticking out from either side—when coupled with their huge bodies, they look terrifying.
The helmet is Aries’s signature weapon. It’s called the Helm, and it provides a polarized, panoramic view of the battlefield and alerts them of incoming attacks or problematic vitals.
A different herd of horned beasts emerges from the swamp, and after a moment I realize it’s the Taurians, who are dressed in their own fearsome battlefield regalia. The House’s Promisaries wear formfitting olive green uniforms adorned with shoulder epaulets that resemble the horns of a Bull.
I quit scoping out the Houses’ getups when General Eurek says, “We should assemble the Guardians quickly, before the Marad catches up with us.”
I search for Ophiuchus, and when I spot him tenderly touching a silver leaf, I call out, “Can you feel the presence of your original crash site?”
He turns and strides over to us. “The whole place is buzzing with Psynergy. It’s too busy to locate a particular place.”
Hysan comes closer, frowning, and before he says anything, I say, “We need to find Sage Ferez. I think I have an idea.”
Eurek dispatches a Major to fetch Ferez from his ship, and when the Capricorn Guardian joins us, I don’t waste any time. “You once told us that uniting the four Cardinal Stones might lead us to the Unity Talisman—but do you think it could also lead us to the Talisman’s original landing place?”
“A wise theory,” says the Sage, nodding.
“My Talisman is built into my ship, so we’ll need to do this from ’Nox.”
We follow Hysan inside, and he activates his Stone’s Ephemeris in the ship’s nose. I switch on the black opal next, and then Eurek and Ferez do the same with theirs. Four star maps overlap with each other, and the four of us close our eyes to Center ourselves, creating a Quorum. Ophiuchus stands in the middle of our group, and we channel his Psynergy to help reconnect him with his birthplace.
At first I don’t sense anything, but then a light begins to glow inside me, like I’m carrying new life in my womb. I feel overwhelmed with compassion and care and concern, like a new mother, and as my body swells, so does my heart, and I realize I’m embodying Nurture.
I can sense the presence of Wisdom and Justice and Military might nearby, and as our energies combine, our individual essences are united into a single purpose.
“I know,” says Ophiuchus, and I open my eyes. He’s staring directly at me. “I know where we have to go.”
We regroup with all the Guardians while the commanders of every troop gather their Zodai. “Ophiuchus has located his crash site,” announces Eurek once the Guardians are assembled. “Report your findings.”
Neith joins our group and stands by Hysan’s side, and the other leaders stare at him.
“Most weapons won’t function here due to this world’s different scientific and metaphysical laws,” says Ferez, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “We’ve tested the Shrill, and it won’t sound in this air.”
“Bind won’t disburse properly in this atmosphere,” says Hysan, and he directs himself to the Leonine and Scorp Guardians, who are scowling at him.
“Our Veils aren’t camouflaging us here,” says the interim Virgo Guardian. “This air won’t accommodate invisibility collars.”
Virgos fight with the Veil and Thorn: They vanish and sneak up on their targets with an elegant and small-but-deadly dagger called a Thorn. It’s often dipped in poison, sometimes meant to paralyze and sometimes to kill.
“The Scarabs work just fine,” says Skiff proudly.
“Our Swaths won’t function without solar energy,” adds the Guardian of Leo, Holy Leader Aurelius. Their weapon is a sword with a handle covered in microscopic mirrors that traps rays from the sun and produces a focused beam of solar energy that consumes whatever it passes through.
“The Tremble can’t produce earthquakes in this soil,” reports Fernanda. “So what does that leave us with for protection?”
“Everyone has been trained using a Barer.” I turn to look at Rubi and Brynda, who are standing beside me. “Gemini and Sagittarius’s weapons will also be fine. We’ll have to defend ourselves with what we can.”
“Remember that if we’re encountering technology constraints, odds are so are they,” Hysan points out. “Aquarius’s technique was sophisticated, but this place is primal and untamed, down to the very particles of air. Their Veils likely won’t work here either, and the Marad will be limited to their Murmurs, which we can fend off with the shield produced by our Barers.”
Brynda faces me. “Rho, do you know where you’re going and what you have to do when you get there?”
I nod and look to Eurek. “Should the whole army march there as one?”
“We’d be leading the Marad right to you,” he counters. “The best strategy is to split up into factions so they don’t know where you are. Remember they’re only here to get Ophiuchus—and they win by either taking him away from us or waiting out two more days until the portal fully opens. The more confusion we create, the better.”
“Then we’ll divide into teams,” I say, “and we’ll stay in contact through our Rings. If anyone needs reinforcements, just call out to the Collective Conscious. And if we close the portal, we’ll send the alert to the rest of you so we can regroup and get out of here.”
“I’m on Rho’s team,” says Rubi, but Eurek shakes his head.