"Is that what happened to whoever saved me?" When I fell?"
Cypher's head snapped toward me. "What?"
"I wasn't alone for all three days. Someone—or something—found me in the darkness. They pulled me toward the portal that led me out." I wrapped my hands around my mug. "I never saw their face, but I felt them."
"And you think it was a rift who'd given in to the void's call?"
"I don't know what else it could have been. The echoes are fragments of those who were lost to the void, not conscious enough to guide someone to safety. But whoever helped me felt alive somehow."
Cypher's expression had gone strange, almost haunted. "That's not possible."
"I know what I felt."
"No, you don't understand. Rifts who give in to the void's call don't become helpful guides. They become part of the Galleryitself, lost to madness. They wouldn't save you. They'd try to drag you deeper."
"Then what was it?"
"I don't know."
We stood in silence. Close enough now that if I leaned just slightly to the left, our shoulders would touch. Close enough that I could see his chest rise and fall with each breath. I had no business being this close to the captain.
"You should get some sleep," he said finally as he began to turn away. "Tomorrow I want to push your training harder. If we're going to survive Nytheris, you need to be able to use your abilities instinctively, not consciously."
"Cypher?" He paused, looking back at me. "Thank you."
His dark brows dipped into a frown. "Don't get used to it. I don't make a habit of late-night confessions."
"Aye, Captain."
"Good night, scavenger."
"Good night."
I watched him disappear below deck, then stayed a while longer, nursing my tea and thinking about everything he'd said. And everything he hadn't said. He had secrets. Deep ones. And they were connected to Nytheris somehow. I should have been worried. Should have seen the warning signs. Instead, I found myself wanting to know more. Wanting to understand this complicated, damaged man who pushed me away with one hand while pulling me closer with the other.
It was dangerous. He'd said as much. But I'd never been good at staying away from dangerous things.
The next weekpassed in a blur of intensive training as we approached Nytheris. Cypher worked me harder than I'd ever been worked, pushing me to use my rift senses in every situation.Navigate to that portal. ‘Sense this current. Feel the fabric and tell me what's approaching.’
At first I failed more often than I succeeded. But gradually, something shifted. The conscious effort became instinct. I could feel the currents as naturally as I felt wind on my skin. Could sense portals from miles away, could detect disturbances in the fabric before they became visible.
"Better," Cypher said after I'd successfully navigated us around a dangerous eddy. "You're starting to trust your instincts instead of second-guessing yourself."
"Careful, Captain, that sounded like praise."
He cut me a dry look. "Don't push it, scavenger."
I was at the helm with Zoya when I felt it, a portal, larger and more powerful than any we'd encountered. But this one felt different. Wrong, somehow. Like reality was fraying at the edges.
"Zoya," I said quietly. "There's something ahead."
She checked her instruments. "I'm not seeing anything on the astrolabe."
"It's there. Maybe three hours ahead at our current speed. A portal, but it's... unstable. Very unstable."
She called for Cypher, who appeared within seconds.
"What is it?"
