“Let’s get this over with,” I said. “Stick together. Abi, if you see anything, speak up.”
I summoned my fusion blade, and my friends followed suit. We advanced deeper into the cavern, straining our eyes to catch sight of any enemies hidden at the edge of the silver light from our weapons. Our steps stirred up clouds of dust that hung in the air behind us like watchful ghosts. It was impossible to shake the feeling that there was someone, or something, hiding in the darkness.
Watching.
The cavern ended in a wide, circular chamber with a polished dome for a ceiling. A half-inch of dust covered the entire floor. There were no footprints, no snake trails, not even the tiny, stippled dots of insect feet. This place had lain undisturbed for what felt like an eternity.
“Jace,” Abi said. “The pattern continues here. It covers everything. Except for a circle in the middle of the room.”
I struggled to make sense of what my friend said. If this was supposed to be a fragment of the Grand Design, there had to be a purpose behind it. No one would spend so much effort to create such an elaborate project, only to hide it from everyone.
“Does it remind you of anything?” I asked Abi, hoping he might have some insight. “Other than the map of the PDF network.”
“I need to get a better look at it. Watch my back.” Abi shot me a thumbs-up, then strode into the chamber without a backward glance.
“Be nice if we knew what he saw,” Eric grumbled. “There’s something wrong with this place. It feels dead.”
Clem took a deep breath, let it out. “The jinsei is thin. Cycling inside the cave is like breathing through a wet rag.”
Abi stopped near the center of the room. He held his arms out at waist height, palms down. Sparks of blue light sprang to life between his hands and the floor, where silver circles had appeared. The sparks grew in number and intensity and became a pair of luminous beams between my friend’s hands and the ground. Dust and grit floated into the air, every particle and pebble vibrating in perfect synchronization. Sparks of light danced in the clouds of grit and dirt, and the clouds vanished in a crackling cascade of snaps and pops.
Swirls of sacred energy expanded from the base of the pillars and flowed into the pattern around Abi. A fragment of the Grand Design spread across the cavern’s floor. It crawled up the walls, one loop, one whorl, one arc at a time, until the complex geometry covered every inch of the domed ceiling.
Eric and Clem couldn’t help but gawk at the intricate network that had drawn itself into existence before us. The blue light became silver, and its holy glow burned in our eyes and limned our faces.
My heart sang with joy. This is what the Grand Design once was, perfect and pure. What it would be again, one day.
“We can only hope,” a woman’s soft voice whispered in my ear. “But the past is no more certain than the future. And the distance between where you are and where you must be is vaster than the space between stars.”
“Watch out!” I shouted. “There’s someone here!”
None of my friends reacted to my shout of alarm. They remained still and silent, sacred light caught in the tears that had frozen on their cheeks.
“Release them,” I demanded and brandished my fusion blade. “And show yourself.”
A hearty chuckle echoed through the cavern. Light flowed through the gaps of the pattern ahead of me and resolved into the shape of a robed woman. She drifted toward me, the hem of her crimson robes an inch above the floor.
“Here I am, Jace Chaosborn,” she said. “As promised.”
She bowed low, and her long silver hair floated in the air around her head like seaweed drifting on an ocean’s relentless currents. When she straightened, her smile was so familiar it could have been my own.
I’d seen that smile, somehow both impish and sorrowful, before. A scrap of memory, a temple on a mountainside, a girl younger than me drawing a map, my words guiding her hand...
“Not yet,” she said. “The maps come later. And sooner. You’ll get to the part where you draw them later. Or earlier. It’s hard for me to remember the whens.”
Scars appeared and disappeared across her face, her silver hair grew white, then glowed golden. She was a teen, then a woman in her sixties, and then back to her twenties.
Those were memories of her in my head, but they didn’t belong to me. At least, not yet. The sight of her made my heart ache and my brain throb with the inescapable pain of a broken bone. A splinter of my past wormed free of the tangled thoughts. Her name danced off my tongue.
“Maps?” I asked.
“Our time is short, brother,” she said with a smile. “The plan is unfolding, but the danger is greater than ever. Pay heed to these words. There are ties stronger than fate, and broken bonds can be more powerful once repaired.”
Her last syllables were a whisper, and her form had faded along with their voice. “Please,” I pleaded. “Tell me what that means. There has to be more than that!”
Musical laughter rang in my ears. She was all but gone, her body reduced to a shimmering outline. “There is, brother,” she said, her voice tickling my ear, “but those are the only words you gave me to bring to the past from our future. Now look alive. Enemies are coming for your prize.”
Maps left, and time shot forward with a sickening lurch. My stomach jumped into my throat, and my ears rang as the cavern seemed to spin around me. It was hard to get my bearings. Everything was moving too fast, and none of it made sense.
Eric had taken Abi’s place in the center of the chamber. Lava had flowed up through a new opening in the
