Chrysalis

To purify the fifth’s mana is an absurd idea, a comical suggestion. It’s impossible, everyone knows it’s impossible, and not because we haven’t tried, or made half-hearted attempts. Hundreds and thousands have died, enough resources to bankrupt an empire have been spent, over several attempts, some by individual empires, some by conglomerates of several major powers.

All have been unsuccessful. Not only unsuccessful, but unmitigated disasters. Even when these efforts managed to gain a foothold, they were eventually snuffed out, unable to hold their ground against the unrelenting pressure placed upon them by the fifth. The monsters there will not abide any change to the environment, which is itself a horrifying ordeal to overcome.

Then, there are the Krath tribes, roving bands of sadistic killers, who will unleash unspeakable torment on any they capture, breaking the will of would-be invaders and sending them running back to the safety of the fourth. Against these factors, purifying the fifth has become nothing more than a dream within a dream.

Yet, when the great ant spoke of it, I couldn’t help but have hope.

- From the private notes of Rathwyn Werilos, Mage of the Tower

I hate it here. I can’t believe

down the experimental ‘track’ we intend to use to feed the wuffers. After all, they’re helpless little things, unable to fight at all, every drop of evolutionary potential and energy was required to create the incredibly unique set of organs and mutations required to not only tolerate

keep them safe, but let them work, we need to create a steady flow of contained ‘goop’, aka fifth stratum mana, to feed to our happily chuffing wuffers. The answer the carvers came up with was a sweet track system. Each section slots into the next and powers up, extending the reach of the formation

the ground before we can lay down the track. The end result is that we can easily expand the

engineering of the

to. The second they do, they come screaming out of the shadows, twisted with rage, and

it for a while, but I’m a little different than the others. Having an exo-skeleton is a serious advantage since it takes the acidic effect a lot more time to eat through it than it would skin and muscle. My joints are vulnerable, as ever, but compared to the others, I’ve got it

but that’s no defence against the omni-present acid. Every time he so much as sticks a finger outside the slowly expanding bubble of clean mana, he has to snatch his hand back as it begins to sizzle. Even Crinis has a hard time. Her flesh… shadow… I mean… is it even flesh anymore? Whatever. It’s a lot of things, but it ain’t that durable, so if it's exposed to the acidic atmosphere, it starts to burn away rather quickly. Even worse for her, it’s hard to replenish what was lost using Biomass

his little fluttery wings and noodle arms is the weakest of all of us, physically. Were he exposed to the atmosphere for even a few seconds, he might lose a limb. Thankfully, he’s the one who is the least likely to suffer, since, as a master mage, he doesn’t need to go anywhere near his targets in order to

they can reach the rest of my family. Every now and again, I duck into the safe zone, just for a little breather and to give myself a thorough scan, to ensure