With the contract taken care of, Hester led Lawrence out of her office and down the corridor he had eyed earlier. There was a momentary pause in their step though, as she stopped to look at something on her forearm—Lawrence recognized that she wore a wireless text communicator, a device whose complexity to size ratio was at the limit of the world’s laws... or perhaps this one tried to push beyond them, as he noticed her feeling out a device on her hip—an electricity generator. There, her fingers worked to tweak the current manually.

  That was because electricity was an extremely volatile power source—realistically impossible to store and vulnerable to unpredictable fluctuations, but no one could deny its potential. Especially with the advent of pocket-sized closed-loop steam generators.

  Several clicking sounds spread as Hester pressed the keys on the attached keypad and Lawrence waited patiently. Staring at her back as she tried to send a message, he noticed that her form was perhaps slightly wider than his. A part of it could easily be attributed to the uniform, but for a second he wondered if she could have arrested him then, by force...

  It was a useless thought though, and Lawrence quickly found something else to fill his mind with. The oily scent made him wonder what projects were being worked on here... Even though the other doors were rather plain in comparison to that single white one, they sparked his curiosity about what they hid. At times like these, he almost wanted to give in, to learn all those secrets and incorporate them into his own work. Almost.

  “Good news.” The words finally left Hester’s mouth, as she resumed walking. “It turns out you may still have the opportunity to begin today.” Her voice sounded certain, if not commanding. It left a sour taste in Lawrence’s mouth.

  “Dear me, what delightful news.” Despite the sarcastic tone and a smirk that Hester didn’t bother turning her head to spot, he really considered the news to be good. She was also aware that it was just for show.

  Eventually, they arrived at a door not unlike the rest and Hester pulled on its creaking handle. At that point, they had made it to the other side of the building.

  Before he gazed inside, Lawrence couldn’t help but notice the familiar white timber in the distance... meaning, coupled with the door that had been positioned behind Marshal Hester’s armchair, that they had unnecessarily taken the long way around. Was this her quiet revenge for making her wait, or was he unworthy to see the rest of her office? He wouldn’t know, but the latter was closer to the truth.

  Shaking off the momentary distraction, he stepped into the room after the Marshal, and the sound of her closing the door echoed. The inside was dim, as only a little light filtered through the metal blinds affixed to the windows on the ceiling, but Lawrence clearly spotted four saluting officers—two generals and two colonels, judging by their uniforms. There was also a large, lengthy workbench in the middle, surrounded with tens of cabinets and various machinery standing by the walls. Still, there was enough space left to move freely.

  “At ease.” Marshal Hester commanded and the officers lowered their hands from their hearts. “Ferilay, take over. No need to be nice.” Her tone was noticeably different from when it had been just the two of them. More serious, more proud... less like she was dealing with a spoiled brat.

  “Understood, Marshal!” Ferilay answered in a gruff voice from under his gray moustache. “Greetings, mister Nockett. I am General Isaiah Ferilay. To my left are Specialist General Cordle and Colonel Leedace, who inherited ownership of project Veil-Nine.” The two officers tipped their heads in order, as was customary. But, at least the Specialist, seemed to already have a less-than-positive opinion of Lawrence. “And lastly, Colonel Wyvers. She had assisted General Nockett with the research.” The woman, wearing round spectacles, nodded curtly.

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  “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Lawrence responded, taken over with curiosity. Joseph had told him plenty more about his father than a young boy could remember, but this was new. His father's work...

  The general continued—“The project has once reached a promising breakthrough, but... the progress has been stagnant ever since.” Lawrence neither missed the pause in his speech, nor the unamused expressions of two officers.

  The breakthrough was his father’s, wasn’t it?

  But Lawrence didn’t get a confirmation. Instead, Ferilay explained the project’s history briefly—

  “As you know, the third age overturned many of our definitions; in particular, our understanding of the barrier.” By 'third age', he referred to the empire’s term that had been established alongside the fall of the first exacrystals; an event that had sparked an outrage among scientific circles. The question of what really was the sky had never been as popular in the known history as afterwards, because the old findings had decreed it an impenetrable void... but now something did come from the other side.

  That was common knowledge, but the follow-up was not.

  Ferilay disclosed that the government had started a collection of projects under the codename 'Veil' to reexamine the 'barrier'—the sky, but also investigate the portals employed by exacrystals. However, he didn’t elaborate on the matter in detail, as this was specifically about the ninth project in the series.

  The goals of it, which he discussed, were to evaluate the possibilities of disrupting portals and... their adaptation for human use. The latter of which, was now Lawrence’s goal.

  “...I understand you must have a lot of questions.” Ferilay was certainly not wrong, but Lawrence wasn’t given the chance to ask any. Rather, the General began explaining what files would be disclosed to him, how he may request additional information, and more.

  When Ferilay’s speech was nearing its end, he made one final remark—“For the period of this collaboration, Mister was assigned an assistant, as per Colonel Wyvers’ assent.” At the mention, the woman nodded while temporarily locking eyes with Lawrence. Hers were the only ones here that he could mistake for showing understanding, kindness.

  “That is all; resume duties.” Ferilay announced without much sentiment, before he headed for the door. Hester was no longer there at that point; she had made her exit around the mid-point of his speech.

  ““Understood, General.”” The Specialist and the colonels answered just before the door closed shut.

  Without missing a beat, the two 'project owners' moved on to a portion of the workbench near the entrance, where various instruments were stationed. It could be felt that the meeting had been a waste of time in their eyes—and Lawrence couldn't truthfully disagree with such an opinion. However, he hardly paid them more mind than they did him.

  At about the same time, Wyvers had approached Lawrence. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Mister Nockett Junior.” The tone of her voice was warm, if a little firm—but whose wasn’t at this place? ...Donathan was the only person that came to mind.

  The way she addressed him was unusual—more so elsewhere, but still uncommon around these parts. That was because the term 'junior' had been used by the old nobility of this land, the people who had governed this territory before it became a province of the empire.

  “Likewise, Miss Wyvers.” Neither of them saw it, but the Specialist rolled his eyes at the exchange.

  Next, Wyvers gave Lawrence a detailed overview of the project. She went over individual files, experiments, their results, relevant samples and artifacts; the time passed by quickly as the two got along really well, despite there being at least two decades separating them—‘But why can’t I remember the rest?’

  Lawrence wondered, because that’s when his memories turned into a blur, disconnected from the present. An unlikely suspicion lurked in his thoughts, but it was a crazy thought to have... and yet, he could not deny what lay before his eyes—

  It was a large chamber that wouldn’t even come off as particularly odd, if not for two reasons. First, the room was in complete disarray. The stone walls were fractured and debris was scattered around the floor. Second... there was something wrong with the statues in this place—they looked too human—the parts which were not distorted by a matter that couldn’t be mistaken for another...

  ‘I think I made it, dad....’

  With each passing moment, even though Lawrence's mind kept coming up with other excuses, the idea that he had portaled was settling in.

  ‘I’m sorry, mom. I worry I might not be there when you wake...’