Chrysalis

“Hold, dammit!” Brilliant roared.

“I’m not sure it can take it,” Assistant cried out. “It’s going to overflow!”

“It needs more power! Give it everything you’ve got!”

“We can’t do any more, the matrix will collapse!”

“A little further,” Brilliant urged as the mana surged and frothed. Dimensional boundaries were cascading around them and she could peer into them all, flashing images of twisting reality that bent and warped themselves around her.

They were so close!

“It’s gone! Run!” Assistant shrieked, and Brilliant was vaguely aware of her followers ducking for cover or diving into the blast cages. She herself didn’t move, of course, transfixed as she was by the beauty she beheld in front of her.

“So beautiful,” she whispered.

A moment later, she was spear tackled and knocked from her observation platform.

“Experimant! What are you doing?!” she yelled.

flicking her antennae with irritation. “It’s a little difficult to make use of your insights if you die in the process of

Eldest had been at pains

boasted, “I see it coming a

Experimant to yank her back to the ground. Then the explosion finally happened, the haywire mana discharging as purple lightning that arced over

Brilliant muttered. “Forgot

and carvers that made up her merry band began to emerge from the reinforced concrete bunkers someone had decided to install in their research chamber. She strongly suspected Assistant was

rushed around the team, giving everyone an enthusiastic tap with an antenna. “Fantastic experiment, another rousing

Assistant asked as she finally emerged, still hugging the floor as the last few sparks

times do I have to teach you? Only a truly successful test will end with a multiple manifold-collapse. We

embedded into the floor beneath the great stone edifice she had dubbed the rift-arch. Reinforced behind thick layers of hardened ice and embedded within a holding structure of living stone, the array was a sophisticated piece of enchanting, the only one of its kind within the Colony. Smithant herself

sixteen identifiable threads. Our spatial pathway managed to make it a third of the way to its destination before

through it would be liquified.

strides. Great strides. You don’t discover the secrets of teleportation magic without

my brain could handle

this is so difficult…” Experimant huffed, clearly frustrated, her antennae swinging low. “If we only want to travel through regular space, why is it necessary

helper, contempt evident in every line of her carapace, but it

i-is a dimension. If you punch a h-hole in one, you

destination in three dimensional space, but rather find our way