Page 102 of Gate of Chaos

There.

My ribbons and threads slipped into a magical groove in the stone. It slid deeper, into the complicated, entwined mass of stone’s bulk.

A rush of pictographs and diagrams flooded my brain.

Oh, oh, oh!

I flapped back while the jumble sorted itself. I settled into the floor and arranged myself in a puddle of serpent, head resting on my coils, wings to the side, while my brain processed everything.

The center stone—the pictograph translated toleystone—was the actual Gate.

Itmanifestedas a stone, and was perceived as a stone. The actual stone housing often described in paintings, pictures, and texts provided a way to automatically open the Gate. Otherwise, the leystone had to be fired up, essentially, cylinder by cylinder.

Inside the complex mass of the stone was a nine-sided matrix. The Chaos dragon wove energy into the matrix-node-knot that made the core, then once everything was secure and taut, gave it a final hard spin. Gate was open for business.

Thatwas why the power core couldn’t have worked. If the housing had been present and intact, it could automatically weave and activate the matrix. No housing meant the Gate might have been getting power, but it wasn’t going anywhere.

I didn’t have much knowledge about the wiring for the power core to the Gate itself—that seemed to be a later quality of life adaptation.

I flipped into human form. “Power core, please.”

“You’re sure?” Keon asked.

“I don’t think this Gate is broken at all,” I said eagerly, trying not to get too excited. “Without the stone housing, it has to be started manually. Like an old plane engine. Cylinder by cylinder. The leystone appears to be completely intact.”

Holy shit, if this turned out to be fuckingsimpleI would faint right on this cavern floor. Then weep from joy.

“You have the memories?” Auryn asked.

“I have the knowledge,” I said. “It’s all in there! All of it! Although there are gaps. Like I don’t know howthis,” I pointed at the power core slot as Akoni installed the core with a twist of his wrist and precise shove, “works. If it’s broken, I’m pretty sure I can’t fix it. But let’s see.”

First: safety check.

Auryn? Check. Akoni? Check. Keon? Check. Stars? Distant, but there. Cosmos? Rotating. Name? Helenaof Earth.

Safety check completed.

I dug ribbons into the stone around the power core’s vessel and felt around in a tangle of stars and filaments. Not the first time I’d shoved my hand (proverbial or otherwise) into muck looking for something.

There should be a switch somewhere around here…

I chirped and flipped the switch.

Power surged from the core and flowed down the tangle towards the leystone.

Ack! No! No!

I grabbed it with ribbons and hastily started wrestling it into the matrix before it could overflow like a toilet.

I clumsily strapped the rushing power into the points of the matrix, floundering and flailing. As I did so, magenta-white lines started to form on the surface of the Gate.

“Helena…” Auryn said.

Chirrrrp

More lines appeared as I struggled to direct all the power from the core. The Gate hadn’t been powered on for eons, and it soaked up the power like a sponge, and the rush took everything I had to control.

Lines appeared as each node came online.

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