11 INT. VENT SYSTEM - DAY
Also running barefoot down the vents is AETHER (20), a thin girl with silver hair and silver eyes, dressed in a pure white cloak with her skin covered in silver patterns. Looking back over her shoulder for something, she doesn't look ahead fast enough to stop a collision with Joseph from around the corner, knocking them both to the ground.
JOSEPH
Ouch. What the...
AETHER
What a ridiculous person.
She immediately stands up, looking herself up and down through the cloak. The silver patterns on her skin are undamaged.
AETHER
You are aware that you cannot touch the floor here, aren't you? Please watch where you're going a little more carefully. We are in a hall of mirrors, so you must be a very special kind of moron if you honestly didn't notice.
True to form, Joseph stares blankly at the odd-looking stranger who just barrelled headlong into him.
AETHER
Are you listening to me? Are you perhaps hard of hearing? My circuits are extremely delicate, so I would appreciate it if you didn't sprint at full speed into me, you sprinting oaf.
JOSEPH
(giving up)
I don't have time! I don't have time.
He moves to run down the way she came.
AETHER
I wouldn't do that if I were you. The priests that way have machine guns, so if they see you, you're as good as dead.
This is enough to give him substantial pause, and he looks at her with utter bafflement.
JOSEPH
Wait, what?
AETHER
So you deaf, at least. Machine guns. I don't suppose you have some guns means of dealing with those.
JOSEPH
Aren't machine guns a bit much to deal with a petty thief?!
AETHER
So you're a petty thief? Yes, I suppose they would be. Fortunately for you, nobody is quite so insane. Not here for you, they're here for me.
JOSEPH
What the hell did you do to warrant machine guns?!
AETHER
Given the outstanding capacity for awareness you've demonstrated, I doubt even time to explain why I don't have time to explain.
The lights briefly turn red as a female voice echoes through the vents.
ANNOUNCEMENT (V.O.)
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Heat exhaust will be released in thirty minutes. Please vacate the ventilation system as soon as possible. Repeat. Heat exhaust will be...
JOSEPH
Okay, then don't. But you're also gonna want to get all the way out of here right now, this place is going to be a furnace any second.
AETHER
It's not really "any second", is it? It's thirty minutes. We both have bigger worries.
JOSEPH
Like what?!
AETHER
Machine guns.
Joseph completely gives up.
JOSEPH
Come on!
He grabs Aether's cloak, dragging her back down an alternative path.
12 INT. VENT SYSTEM - DAY
Five figures march in perfect step with each other down the tunnels, dressed in full body armour with royal purple adornments and religious iconography. In their hands are the machine guns that Aether promised, but their capes and helmets make them appear more like knights than soldiers.
These are the WARPRIESTS, clerics and warriors granted the duty to protect The Faith by force. The priest in the middle wears a crownlike headdress on her helmet, marking her as an authority among the group. Her face, though it cannot be seen through her helmet, could belong to someone aged either 20 or 50. This is SOPHIA, the Defender of the Shrines. She is not armed, and her right gauntlet is marked with faintly glowing violet patterns.
13 INT. VENT SYSTEM - DAY
Joseph and Aether are heading deeper and deeper into the tunnels, and the reflections are beginning to become disconcerting. The images, from their sizes to their angles, are making less and less sense, with only the lines showing where the paths begin and end.
JOSEPH
This isn't helping me navigate. What's going on?
AETHER
We're approaching the main body of the Lesser Grand Shrine. The shape of space is deforming.
JOSEPH
The shape of space? What does that even mean?
AETHER
You don't need to worry about it. A circle is still a circle for now, and it's on scales larger than a human body. But you're going to want to consider turning around pretty soon if you don't want to see the inside of your ribcage.
Joseph stares blankly at her, lost in her babble.
AETHER
Don't look at me. I didn't build it.
JOSEPH
I didn't think it was possible to build something that deforms space.
AETHER
The Last Stars are the souls of God. They need something to receive them. What, did you think the clergy spent the history of civilisation pissing around? The Tower in the middle of your town isn't just a massive stick for them to shove up their asses.
(beat)
It is that, but it isn't just that.
SOPHIA (O.S.)
Need I remind you, Fifth Greater?
The booming voice echoes through the tunnels. Aether and Joseph freeze, and Aether reflexively shrinks into her cloak. An enormous image of the masked Sophia is bearing down on the two - a reflection, but a terrifying one.
SOPHIA
Until you serve your function on the day of The End, you are unqualified to speak on the astral mysteries. Such is the fate of those who refuse their education.
JOSEPH
Who is that?
Aether only grasps her cloak tighter.
SOPHIA
I am here on behalf of the unborn God. Do not interfere.
Joseph looks between the two.
BEAT.
He grabs Aether by the hand--
JOSEPH
We're almost there.
--and they run.
14 INT. VENT SYSTEM - DAY
Sophia recoils in frustration from the miniscule reflection she has been seeing on her end, returning the party of four Warpriests.
WARPRIEST #1
Your orders, Holiness?
SOPHIA
I can still sense her. We will continue to pursue.
WARPRIEST #2
The other?
SOPHIA
Assume he is a nihilist.
The Warpriests cock their guns. Sophia steps into file, and the party begins to march again.
