I described what I was sensing. He listened, his expression becoming more serious.
"That's the Nytheris portal," he said. " I knew we were coming up on it, but I thought we had another day or so. You're right about it being unstable. The realm's collapse damaged the portal structure."
My stomach flipped. This was it. This was what we'd been training for. "Can we get through it safely?"
"That depends on timing. The portal fluctuates between stable and unstable states. We need to wait for a stable period, then go through quickly before it shifts again." He looked at me. "Can you sense when it stabilizes?"
"I'm sure I can manage it, but I've never done anything like this before. What if something goes wrong?" I thought about the three crew members he mentioned losing, and horror struck me at the thought of that happening to anyone on this ship.
"You'll do fine. Just trust your instincts." He raised his voice. "All hands! Prepare for portal transition. We're approaching Nytheris."
The crew erupted into activity. Omri checked the engines, Knives and Tor secured the cargo, Vic made sure the medical supplies were ready.
Kora appeared at my side, her face pale. "This is it," she said.
I nodded, grabbing her hand, our fingers locking. "This is it."
"Can't be worse than the fire incident, right?"
Cypher cut a skeptical glance our way. "Thewhatincident?"
I squeezed Kora's hand, but laughed. "We agreed never to discuss the fire incident."
We sailed closer, and the portal came into view. It looked wrong, the edges flickered and jumped, and the light it cast was sickly and dim. Through it, I could see darkness shot through with veins of purple and green.
As the Night-Piercer sailed closer, the Nytheris portal loomed more massive with each passing minute. The sickly glow pulsed like a diseased heart struggling to beat. It was easily three times larger than any portal I'd ever encountered, its edges ragged where they should have been smooth, the fabric of reality visibly torn and mending itself in an endless cycle.
I shivered despite my leather void mantle. This was Nytheris, one of the most ancient settlements in the known realms. I'd grown up hearing stories about it, whispered with a mixture of awe and fear. The first great civilization to truly master Gallery travel, to understand the currents and map them. Their scholars had developed technologies we still used today, and had combined elemental affinities in ways no one had managed to replicate.
"It was beautiful once, wasn't it," I said quietly, more to myself than anyone else.
Cypher stood beside me at the helm, his face grave. "Yes. It was."
Soul magic had been their specialty—the rarest and most powerful of elemental affinities. While other realms had fire, water, air, and terra elementals, Nytheris had perfected the manipulation of spiritual energy. Their healers could mend wounds that would kill others, and could ease suffering with a touch. Their explorers had mapped more of the Gallery than anyone before or since.
And then, thirty years ago, it had all ended. Without warning, without explanation, Nytheris had collapsed. I was born afterthe fall, so I remembered nothing of it, of course, but the stories had persisted through my childhood. How in a single day, billions had died as the realm fractured, islands tearing apart and drifting into the void. The survivors—less than a million spread across the realms now—carried their culture with them, but the heart of it was lost.
No one knew why. That was perhaps the scariest part of the story. A thriving civilization at the height of its power, gone in hours.
"We're close enough," Cypher said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Scavenger, I need you to sense the portal's stability. Tell me when it's safe to approach."
My mouth went dry. This was it. The lives of everyone on this ship now rested on my ability to read the void's currents. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.
"You can do this," Kora whispered beside me, her hand still tight in mine.
I nodded, letting go of her hand and stepping forward. I placed my palms on the ship's rail, feeling the vibration of the crystal engines through the wood. Then I reached out with my senses, opening myself to the Gallery in a way I'd been practicing for weeks.
The currents appeared in my mind like rivers of light flowing through darkness. I could feel them twisting and churning around the portal, feeding its instability. The portal itself pulsed with chaotic energy, its structure constantly shifting between states of solidity and dissolution.
"It's like... a heartbeat," I said, eyes still closed as I focused. "The portal is cycling. Every few minutes it stabilizes briefly before destabilizing again."
"How long are the stable periods?" Cypher asked.
I concentrated harder, trying to time the pulses. "Maybe... forty seconds? Not long."
"That's not much time to get a ship this size through," Jask said from somewhere behind me.
"It's enough," Cypher replied. "Omri, I need full power to the engines when I give the word. Tor, Knives, be ready to adjust the wings the moment we're through. The currents on the other side will be chaotic."