Sorine was able to teleport us past the first set of locked doors. This hallway must not have been protected by magic, like the others. There wasn't much to it; the only door was down the hall, which was where we were headed.

  Dimitri and Sorine made quick work of the two guards, striking before they could even notice us.

  "Do you think there's some alarm system that notifies them when someone enters? Like a magical alarm system?" I asked. Sylvis seemed to know any time someone entered the manor, right?

  "Unlikely," Sorine answered, retrieving her whip from the guard's neck. "However, with their technology, they may have an alarm system unrelated to magic. It's impossible to say. Regardless, we should try to move as quickly as possible."

  Sorine inputed the code, carefully blocking the keypad with her other hand. Why couldn't we know the code? She seemed awfully fond of having insignificant secrets.

  The door opened to an elevator, or I guess an SSTEF. There was only an option to go down one floor, so that's what we did. The door opened to another hall, and guards immediately ran towards us. I summoned my weapon and probably got one hit in before all the guards dropped down. Who knew that six of us striking at once would make quick work of them?

  This time, there were multiple doors. Conveniently, none of them were locked, probably since the door to the elevator was. We made it to the next elevator just to find that the code from the previous elevator didn't work for this one. I guess that was why none of these doors were locked...

  Sorine punched the keypad while swearing under her breath. "We have to find the code. Search every room!"

  The others wasted no time racing through the doors trying to find any hints they could get. I started approaching a door, too, when I suddenly stopped—my hand hovering above the doorknob.

  This felt so familiar...

  "You're thinking about the facility back on Earth, aren't you?" Zuri's voice interrupted my thoughts. I nearly jumped when she placed her hand on my shoulder. I never realized how much taller she was than me. She had to be close to Maverick's height.

  "Y-yeah..." I answered sheepishly.

  "I don't blame you. But it's different this time—they're not going to experiment on us. They can't hurt us. Not while Master is with us. She saved us last time, and she'll save us again if it comes down to it." Her words were so confident that I found myself having no other choice but to believe her.

  "Thank you," I whispered, nodding my head in acknowledgment.

  She gave my shoulder a faint squeeze before smiling at me. "Would you like to pair up with me? Maybe it'll be less scary that way."

  "What about Lumi?" I asked, surprised she wasn't already with her.

  "Lumi can handle herself. In fact, she often prefers to work alone. Though..." Her expression suddenly became more solemn. "If something happens to her, I'm not going to hesitate to help her."

  "I completely understand." I nodded. "Besides, our priority should always be helping each other when we're in danger, right?"

  Zuri nodded. I hoped she would come back and help me if I screamed...

  We began searching what must have been some sort of security room. Zuri and I made quick work of a couple of staff members who surprisingly didn't seem to notice we had broken into the hallway. There were files stored all across the walls, but the middle held some sort of computer. The computer itself was tangible, but the screen seemed to be some sort of projection. It was like seeing VR without the glasses. I wondered if Earth would ever become this technologically advanced. On the screen was camera video footage of the casino. The biggest screen on the uh, projection, was of Mari playing slots. Clearly, one of these people was a Mari fan.

  I began searching around the computer for some sort of paper that might have the code to the elevator.

  "Um, Elaina," Zuri started hesitantly. "Whatever you're looking for, I doubt it would be in plain sight."

  "Then where else are we supposed to look?" I frowned.

  "...Maybe one of these cameras conveniently points to the locked door?" She motioned to the projection in front of us.

  "That's even less likely than my idea." I sighed. "If only we could—" Wait, that was it!

  I rushed back into the hallway and located one of the unconscious-but-hopefully-not-dead guards, and used my Talent on them. Visions of their families and hobbies and yada yada yada, I don't care, just show me the code! Huh... Maybe I did have control over what memories I saw after all. The code appeared very clearly to me— and it disappeared before I could memorize all the numbers. Stealing a sheet of paper from the office we were just in, I wrote down the first three numbers before repeating the trick with the next two guards. Finally, we had the whole code.

  We input the code to the elevator, and this one sent us plumetting down several stories. I was dizzy by the time we finally arrived, and oh boy! Another hallway! This one seemed a bit wider than the last two.

  There was only one door this time, and this door seemed a lot grander than the others we had passed. It also didn't seem to have a keypad from where I stood.

  "Let's hurry," Sorine ordered us as she practically sprinted ahead.

  We were suddenly stopped in our tracks by a gust of wind. Huh? Where did that come from? Debris got in my eyes, and once I finally cleared it, I was shocked to see Mari in front of us.

  I tapped my watch, pulling up the live stream from the casino where she was posing with some fans. I stared at the projection before staring back up at her. If she was in the middle of a livestream, then how was she also here...?

  "Hold still and comply, and your sentence may be shorter." Her voice was much more commanding and serious than it had been on TV. "I don't know who you are or how you got this far, but you won't get any farther!"

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "Wait! We don't want to fight you!" I shouted. "We're going to one-shot you, and that wouldn't be very nice!"

  "I'd like to see you try." She smiled, and she was back to her cheery voice.

  I looked at her a little closer. The sleeves of her cardigan were rolled up, and she wore a green necklace. She also had one blue eye and one pink eye. Strange, I only remembered her having blue eyes— Wait, if she had two different colored eyes... Was she an Ethereal?

  Well, it didn't matter. We had three Ethereals plus Sorine. There was no way we could lose to her.

  We summoned our weapons (or at least I assumed Lumi had hers ready and waiting) and I realized that Dimitri actually had one: Two sharp claw-like weapons, almost like Asir.

  Asir...

  I shook my head. I couldn't remember that right now. I needed to focus.

  Mari snapped her fingers and two beautiful fans appeared in her hands: one pink and one light blue. The pink one depicted the sun and flowers, while the blue one depicted the moon and petals. To me, they looked too delicate to be weapons, but I knew better than to doubt the abilities of an Ethereal.

  Sorine attacked first while the rest of us stood back, certain that she could handle Mari on her own. Her whip extended at her side and seemed to move with a mind of its own as it reached out to grasp Mari's left wrist. Mari seemingly teleported backwards, dodging Sorine's attack. Sorine retrieved her whip before trying again, and again, and again... Each time, Mari managed to teleport away so quickly that it made Sorine's attacks look slow. Even Sorine's lightning was no match for her.

  "She's fast," Zuri stated the obvious. She had been holding an axe in her hand up until now, when she changed out for a couple of daggers. She ran behind Mari, trying to predict where she would teleport, but it was as if Mari had eyes all around her. Not once did she ever teleport to where Zuri was.

  It wasn't until now that I noticed Zetta was the only one not to summon a weapon. Instead, her arms were crossed as she studied the fight before her. Her expression was serious, so she definitely wasn't amused. She knew something that we didn't. "Do we have to fight Mari?" I decided to ask her. She simply shrugged. Great.

  "I can't get a single hit on her." Lumi's voice caught my attention. "She's moving too fast for me to concentrate on her."

  "Can you aim for where you think she might teleport?" I asked.

  Lumi shook her head. "I have to target the person or object I intend to hit."

  Up until now, Mari seemed focused on defending herself. She chuckled, her voice echoing out in an almost ethereal tone as she maneuvered her fans like they were dancing. A faint pink light emanated from its respective fan, and suddenly a sweet yet nauseating scent filled the air. My head started to hurt while I subsequently wanted to vomit.

  I glanced over at Lumi, who was already hunched over, clenching her head. Zuri didn't seem to miss this as she instantly ran to her side. She leaned down next to her while coughing into her arm. She pulled her close to her and glanced up at Sorine, who was still focused on Mari.

  Mari's blue fan emitted a silver glow, and I couldn't wait to find out what this one did. My head spun, and suddenly there were three Maris. No, two? Five? I was so dizzy... There were also multiple Sorines and Zuris and... When did Dimitri shift into his dog form? Right, he could probably sniff her out now that the horrible cough medicine smell stopped.

  Mari continued her dance, switching between her pink fan and her blue one. Sorine was the only one of us who managed to come close to hitting her. Dimitri howled every time the horrible smell came back, and Lumi and Zuri had completely abandoned fighting altogether. I tried hitting her and got close once during the smell phase, but instantly lost my aim when she switched back to the blue fan.

  My head was starting to hurt more and more, watching the four of her teleport around the room at dizzying speed. How could the three of us struggle so much to hit one Ethereal?!

  "Had enough yet?" Mari's voice sounded swimmy to me.

  "I have," Zetta answered, her voice sounding serious but also annoyed. She summoned her guns and threw something so small I couldn't see up in the air, before shooting wind out of her gun, launching it at Mari.

  What was it? Some sort of bomb? A device to seal her magic? A teleporter?—

  Mari squealed, piquing my interest further. "I hate raspberries!" she shouted.

  ...Zetta threw a raspberry at her?

  With Mari distracted, Sorine attacked her, actually managing to strike her blue fan, slashing it in half. Mari's jaw dropped as she positioned herself more defensively, and there's that horrible smell again!

  Mari might not be able to duplicate herself in my vision again, but I could clone myself! Three copies of me appeared, which seemed to genuinely startle Mari. Each struck with a different element, including myself, who used fire, and she narrowly teleported away each time. She seemed a lot less confident in her movements this time.

  "W-why do you want to destroy the city?!" Mari asked, her voice pleading and desperate. She wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer.

  "Destroy the city?" I asked. "We don't want to do that!"

  "Then why are you down here?!"

  Would destroying the conduit destroy the whole city? Maybe the city's power was reliant on the conduit...

  "We're searching for the conduit," I explained, causing Sorine to groan. Right, I probably wasn't supposed to tell her that.

  "The conduit?" Mari's expression faltered. "The conduit isn't back there."

  "Huh?"

  "Well... You guys put up a good fight! Next time I'll have to livestream it for the fans! You know, whenever I'm not already livestreaming!" Her chuckle was full of energy. And then she just... disappeared.

  "Is the conduit really not here...?" I asked, turning to the others.

  "There's only one way to find out." Sorine pushed past me and completely obliterated the door with fire magic... Someone was in a bad mood.

  Inside the room were dozens upon dozens of tower computers and wires and things I didn't even know how to describe. Further, the ceiling was several stories above us, allowing the wires to climb the walls like vines. It was like a jungle of technology.

  Yet...

  The ether still felt the same. And there was no sign of the conduit.

  "Elaina, I thought you said the conduit was here?" Sorine's voice was impatient as she tapped her foot.

  "T-that's what the vision showed me!" I tried to defend myself as I looked around frantically. Maybe we just hadn't found it yet. Maybe it was hidden in one of the computers.

  "Maybe you should use your Talent here...?" Zuri suggested not unkindly. She herself looked a little shaken. Lumi looked completely lost in thought as her gaze trailed the wires.

  "Yeah..." I answered, reaching out my hand in front of me and focusing on the ground.

  Where is the conduit?

  A vision appeared before me of the same room we were in, but entirely empty, save for the green crystal. The conduit! So it was here!

  Was...

  Another vision appeared of a group of people in cloaks surrounding the conduit performing what looked to be some sort of ritual. When the ritual was complete, the conduit shrank to the size of a handheld object, and the mages dropped to the floor.

  My vision returned to normal, and I noticed everyone's expectant glares. Why had that shrunken object looked so familiar?

  Mari's necklace.

  "Mari's wearing it!" I blurted out, causing a mix of shocked and confused noises from the others.

  "Explain," Sorine demanded.

  "Sometime in the past, a ritual was performed to shrink the conduit into a wearable size!"

  "So that's why she was so powerful... I wondered how a simple Ethereal could be so powerful, but it all makes sense if she was relying on the conduit's power to amplify her ether."

  I thought back to Aidan when he had absorbed Meridia's ether. This seemed to be different—Mari didn't absorb the conduit's ether; she just tapped into it as needed.

  "So, how are we going to break the conduit now?" Dimitri asked.

  "Mari is a celebrity—chances are she's guarded at all times," Zuri added. "We can't just teleport to where she's streaming and attack her! Especially when she's using the power of the conduit!"

  "Mari has the ability to split in two," Zetta began. "Unlike the clones that Elaina created earlier, Mari is able to exist as two individually functioning people at once. Thanks to the conduit, she's able to keep up both at once. But only one of them is holding the conduit." She pulled up the livestream on her watch, and sure enough, the Mari at the casino wasn't wearing the same green necklace she had when we fought her.

  "Sorine, can you teleport directly to Mari's double?" Zuri asked.

  Sorine shook her head. "If I couldn't teleport here, then I definitely can't teleport to her."

  "Then what do we do...?" I asked.