"That stingy bug ruined so of our ti, but now we’ve been rid of it." Aelira stood akimbo with a grin. "It’s almost night, so let’s go to a place where we can eat and also watch so kind of show for entertainnt."
"Sounds good. There is more than one such place here," Rudrean nodded.
...
They found the place with three taps on the resort card.
The Velvet Lantern Pavilion sat on a wide carved terrace above the lake tier, lit by hundreds of paper-thin floating lanterns that drifted between the tables at varying heights. The lanterns changed color slowly as the evening deepened, warm gold giving way to rose, then soft violet, then deep blue.
Each table was its own small island in the drifting light.
They were seated at a circular table at the edge, looking out over the lake. The staff brought the food in slow, deliberate courses, each dish arriving with a small narrative card explaining what the chef had been thinking when he made it.
Ryzen read his card aloud once, snorted, and ate the dish anyway.
The performance began as the lanterns shifted to violet.
It was not a stage performance. There was no stage. Instead, the dancers moved between the tables themselves, weaving through the lantern light in long flowing patterns. Three won and two n, all dressed in flowing silver, each carrying a slender ribbon of mana that trailed behind them as they moved.
The mana ribbons sang.
Not taphorically. Actually sang, each one humming a different note as the dancer moved, and as the dancers crossed paths with each other, the notes layered into a chord that hung in the air for a long mont before dissolving.
A soft music rose from sowhere unseen, built around the singing ribbons rather than over them.
Aelira watched with her chin on her hand, her food forgotten. Lyra’s tail had gone still again. Isalyn drank her wine slowly behind her veil, her amber eyes soft for the first ti all evening.
The dancers finished their final pattern as the lanterns turned deep blue. A long, warm hum filled the pavilion. The diners applauded softly, the kind of applause that did not break the mood it had just absorbed.
They walked back to the Skyfather Tree together through the cool mountain air, splitting at the trunk to go to their separate branches.
Aelira’s hand was already on Rudrean’s by the ti their lift reached their own residence.
She was not subtle about it.
Isalyn caught up half a step behind, her veil already coming off her face, her hair loose down her back. The door recognized them, opened, closed behind them, and the privacy formations clicked into place.
The robes did not survive the entryway.
Aelira’s grin was already wide and hungry as her dress vanished into her storage ring with a flick of her hand. Isalyn took longer, the way she always did, the slow, deliberate motion of soone who had relearned how to enjoy this without rushing. Her amber eyes t Rudrean’s as the last of her clothing slipped away, and she let him look at her for a long mont before she moved.
Rudrean was caught between them in the next second, the warm gold of the residence’s lighting catching their skin, their hair, the slow rise and fall of every breath. Aelira’s mouth found his shoulder. Isalyn’s hand found his jaw.
The pool outside continued reflecting the cloud layer, perfectly undisturbed, the world below entirely unaware.
The residence’s lanterns dimd automatically. The night held them.
...
Morning ca soft through the crystal wall.
Aelira was sprawled across Rudrean’s chest with one leg hooked over his hip and her hair fanned across the pillow in deep blue waves. Isalyn had ended up on his other side at so point, her cheek against his shoulder, her dark hair flowing over the white sheets in long, quiet lines.
Nobody moved for a long while.
Then Aelira yawned, stretched, and imdiately stole the entire blanket as she rolled over to find her clothes.
"Mission day," she announced.
Isalyn groaned softly into Rudrean’s shoulder. "Five more minutes."
"You have had eight hours."
"They were busy hours."
Rudrean laughed under his breath and stayed where he was. Eventually, the call of the day beca unavoidable. They freshened up, ate quickly, and t the others at the trunk by mid-morning.
The Grand Dream Prix Resort released them with the sa quiet professionalism it had welcod them with.
The spacecraft was waiting at the city’s northern docking platform. A long, sleek vessel of pale silver with the Rainstar Guild emblem etched along its flank, registered for interplanetary travel within the Ocean lody Starfield. The captain greeted them politely, confird their mission registration, and gestured them aboard.
Six hours through the void. One short FTL jump in the middle. They spent most of it in the lounge, going over the Miasma briefing on the central display.
The phenonon was old news for veteran adventurers but new to most of them.
A Miasma Entrapped Town was a sealed pocket of mutated space, born when one of the spatial films from the Nihil Chasm settled over a populated area. Once the film closed, no one inside could leave. Monsters erged from the corrupted air itself, spawned by the Miasma’s gradual reshaping of the local laws.
The only way to break it was to find and destroy the Miasma Core. Until then, the space remained sealed, and everyone trapped inside stayed trapped.
Level 2 ant the monsters would be Foundation to Core Genesis equivalent, with elite variants. Manageable for their team. Dangerous for the civilians.
"Civilians," Aelira repeated. "How many?"
Lyra checked the briefing. "Approximately twelve thousand in the town we have been assigned. Adventurer teams have rotated through the protection roster for the past six days."
"They have identified a route leading to what they assu is the Miasma Core. A team is going to form for that expedition." Lyra inford as she read a notification. "To get a spot for this expedition, we’ll have to prove our power. Since it can turn into a Tier-3 Miasma film at any ti, they’ve put a simple test to asure combat power. The twenty people with the highest combat power will join this expedition."
Rivera nodded. "All the good rewards will be acquired through this expedition, so every adventurer will go all out to get the spot."
"Well." Ryzen wryly smiled. "You three can get in, but Rivera and I have to truly go all out to make the cut, I suppose."
Lyra’s cat ears flapped as she looked at Rudrean. "Rudrean lost his weapon, so i am going to make one for him right away. For you two, I’ll create two artifacts that can temporary increase your raw elental power. I got so materials that can do that."
"We can’t let you waste your materials on us like that." Rivera shook her head.
Ryzen nodded. "That’s right."
Lyra shook her head. "I can produce materials that can enhance elents on my own, so don’t worry. I still have so from the last batch i produced."
...
Sowhere else, on a much smaller and faster private vessel, a relayed ssage arrived in Ron Velkar’s hand.
He read it twice.
Then he laughed.
It was not a pleasant sound.
"A Miasma Entrapped Town," he said softly, to the four heirs lounging in the cabin around him.
"A genuine sealed pocket. The kind that doesn’t open again until the Miasma Core is destroyed."
The red-haired heir lifted his head from the couch. "aning?"
"aning," Ron said, "anyone who dies inside that town stays inside it until the core breaks. No bodies recovered. No external investigation. No witnesses outside the seal. The monsters get blad for everything."
A slow smile spread across the greasy heir’s face. "Oh."
"Oh indeed."
Ron notified his people. "Move in ahead of them. Set up positions inside the town before they arrive. Stay invisible until we give the signal."
"Understood."
He sat back in his chair and finally tasted his drink for the first ti since the casino. It was warr than he liked. He didn’t care.
"Boys," he said quietly. "We are going to have a much better week than I planned."
"I want to ravage his won in front of him, and then kill him." Ron’s eyes glinted cruelly. "Get your peak Soul Tree stage subordinates ready as well. This ti, we want no surprises or hisccups."
"For real. That bastard is quite powerful for soone who recently ascended to the Core Genesis stage. Tsk, he’s better dead than alive for us."
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