Chapter 196: Book 3: Wish You Were Here
It takes us longer than I'd like to get to the Intermediary. Without full access to my skills—at least insofar as it'd be incredibly unwise to use them—I'm forced to rely on Guard and Ahkelios to get us there.
In their defense, they're still fast. Ahkelios maintains his access to my skills, but his Firmament stores aren't the same as mine; he can't cover quite the same amount of distance in a single Warpstep. Guard makes up for this, carrying us both when Ahkelios exhausts his Firmament, but his top speed while flying can't quite match what's offered by Interface skills.
Still, it's good enough that we don't need to take many breaks. None of us can explain it, but all of us can feel it—an odd sense of impending dread, like the slow descent of a guillotine on our necks. It's made worse by the fact that we can't explain why we feel it; all we know is that it's there.
It's a relief when we make it to the Intermediary. The massive door still looms in the forest near Isthanok, identical to how it looked the first time we encountered it...
...Not entirely identical. I frown, stepping closer; the door is welded shut. It's not an ordinary weld, either—there's just smooth metal where the opening should have been, like the two sides of the door were joined with Firmament.
"Someone closed it off," I mutter. It makes sense, in a way, considering how dangerous it is, but I can't help but feel that the reason it was sealed is nothing so innocent. For one thing, Guard would know about it if it were.
"I did not know of this," Guard says, confirming my fears. "I left instructions that the Intermediary was to be guarded and avoided. I do not see... give me a moment."
His optic flickers for a split second—I recognize it as him reaching out to communicate with his proxies. When he speaks again, there's a clear frown in his voice.
"The proxies I set to guard the Intermediary have vanished," he reports. "It was done in a way that would not alert me to their disappearance. That is concerning."