Touchstone 1 - Stray

they did, very tense and prepared. I was wondering how long they had to wait before going without a signal, but Mara came back almost straight away and Lohn and Zee went through followed by me and my Ketzaran/Alay escort. Lohn brushed a hand against my arm and was off.
    The things they were fighting were like gargoyles. Or bats with wolfish faces, all grey-skinned. The sky above the mountainside was thick with them, and they dived like hawks, incredibly fast. Ketzaren’s Wind manipulation abilities were really useful there. It’s not the same kind of instant-hit that Lohn’s Light wall is, but if she sets up enough movement in the air, it grows to cyclonic levels. It made it incredibly hard for the gargoyles to fly, and funnelled them together really handily.
    That space was huge, too. It took almost an hour for First Squad to chase down all the gargoyles, and I noticed a few escaped through other gates, and that one of the things First Squad were trying to do was prevent that, although they wouldn’t chase them through the gates. It was also by far the worst time I’d had with First Squad, because there’s no way slaughtering a couple of hundred animals could be anything but awful. The Ionoth might just be memories, but they still don’t want to be killed. Being Setari is a really horrible job.
    It was only when the very last of them was gone that First Squad said anything more than “There,” or “To the left”. Maze called for a break, and we all sat down on some rocks and had a drink and some of the molasses-tasting food bars. Using their powers takes an awful lot out of the Setari, especially over such a long period of time, and they were sweating and looking drained. In a way it annoys me that it doesn’t take me any effort to enhance them. I’d feel less like a useless spectator if it at least made me tired.
    “That was more than twice as many as the last time we did this space,” Zee said, after drinking thirstily.
    Maze nodded. “I’ll recommend reclassification of the rotation.”
    “Don’t understand how ecology work here,” I said. “Do Ionoth need eat? Or just attack people out habit?”
    “It varies,” Lohn said. “In some spaces the Ionoth don’t have any apparent food source, and we’ve never verified if they have to eat, but they often turn on each other or start to roam, preying on whatever they can find until separation from their home space causes them to fade. There are others, roamers and static, which are not aggressive and don’t have any interest in us at all. If we do Boulders Rotation, you’ll see the Tenders. They ‘notice’ but never attack us, so we leave them be, as we do anything not classified as a threat.”
    “It’s a big job keeping up with all the known types,” Alay said. “But a lot easier dealing with types already encountered than new varieties.”
    Maze called the end of the break then – they don’t like to hang around in the spaces unnecessarily – and we went into the next space, which was a single short corridor with a couple of gates in it. All the doors were outlines, showing only blackness. and First Squad were really tense as they passed through it. They said that they’d occasionally encountered very unusual Ionoth in there, but there was nothing this time.
    Next was the reason it was called Lights Rotation. It was a night time space with lots of huge overarching trees by a lake, and there were floating balls of light everywhere, about the size of two fists together. It was the coldest space I’ve been in yet, and everyone’s breath came out smoky. The lake was black and mirror-still and reflected the glowing balls. Maze had explained before we went through that there were usually only one or two creatures in this space, but that they were fast, and clever enough not to just jump out and be killed. That was a rather nerve-wracking space, because after enhancing themselves, Lohn, Mara, Zee and Maze all disappeared off into the dark and Alay and Ketzaren and I waited by the gate. I turned on the names in my interface again, but could only see where Maze and Zee had gone. And then, while I was craning to see the others, Alay leaned forward and the chilly silence was ripped apart by a high vibrating sound, followed by a shrieking yowl accompanying a black shape falling out of one of the trees. Alay has a sonic talent which seems to only be useful when she can take a few moments to build it and, importantly, none of her squad are