Phase 2

Ceyna decides she needs to know about these emanations if they're to track down down the Reytvateil. This meant a trip to the Neris Forest to meet with the Teru Tribe elders. Stacca was hesitant. He was not supposed to return until he had the artifact. Ceyna dismissed his concerns. Getting better intel is crucial for any operation. Stacca is flustered, declaring that he can detect the emanations, and can't understand what more they'd need. Ceyna presses him for more information, none of which he knew. She then follows up stating that all of the questions she had just asked could lead to a quicker capture of whoever stole the artifact, and a quicker return of it. Stacca relented. He couldn't handle the pressure she was bringing, and agreed to bring them to the Forest.

There was no travel directly to the Forest. They would have to get off at a nearby town and walk from there. They stopped at Reten, a small outlier town, stayed the night and then set off.

They entered the forest, but then were told that to get to the Teru tribe's home, they'd have to penetrate into the deepest sections of the forest. After crawling through the forest for some time, they were ambushed by a group of Teru. One of them stepped forward and demanded to know what humans were doing in there forest. Rous wasn't going to take this lightly, until Stacca intervened. He identified the leader as Crescen, and explained the situation. Crescen demanded the humans drop their weapons and prepare for imprisonment. Rous denied the demand. Ceyna went to cut him off but Sera did it first.

Near the bottom of the building, they find a massive room, with the Reyvateil in the center, hooked up to machines. Several viruses are loitering around the room, and one of them notices the party as they enter. Every virus is alerted, and the Reyvateil as well. The party is attacked by a group of all viruses, then by the Reyvateil herself. The Reyvateil is untouchable behind a wall of viruses, that are summoned in shortly after they die. A song from the 2 Reyvateils takes them all out, and the Reyvateil as well. She staggers, suddenly alone. With a massive upswelling of power, she summons a set of very large viruses. As they move to attack the party, the ceiling is blown out from above. Several soldiers descend from the the hole in the ceiling via ropes, and quickly dispatch the viruses. The commander comes down, and knocks out the Reyvateil. Rous recognizes him as Tren, someone he had gone to Academy with. Tren asks Rous what he's doing there, and is bemused at Rous' station. He refuses to answer any questions about what he's doing there. He does agree to give them a lift out of there. He drops them off outside the town Rous and Ceyna are based out of, then leaves.

Ceyna is suspicious of Tren, and wants to investigate, but inter-party dynamics don't make that easy. Stacca and Tahna depart, to look for a lead on their mission. Hara consults with Forst, then leaves, saying her job had been concluded. Forst decides to stick around, but only to study the EL feedback phenomenon. With so little manpower, Ceyna gives Rous some time off while she makes some calls.

If Rous hasn't dived into Sera yet, she asks him to. She saw the boost Tahna found from diving, and knew she needed to keep up. Afterwards, he brings up something that bothered him. She chastises him for attempting to break a cardinal rule of Diving, but he presses it anyway. She tells him about her older sister, Mara, who had disappeared some years previous. She was presumed dead, and Sera spent the years since trying to move on while living in her shadow. Hearing her name again must have reopened those old wounds. Rous remarks that he didn't know Cosmospheres could shift so easily. She corrects him, stating they can't, and he wonders to himself why Mara was still such a big influence on her world in that case (Those wounds never healed).

Rous gets a call from Ceyna. She had found a lead and decided to pursue it. She wants him back at HQ asap. They collect Forst from the Dive Shop, where he had been tinkering with something and go back. Ceyna meets them outside and then takes them to the path to the vertical rail. As they go down it, she explains what she had found. The Reyvateil was a Flawed Alpha after all, and had gone missing from the Administrative Choir, where Flawed Origins communicated with the Wills of Cellia. They were heading there now to meet with the Choir, and learn what they can.

On the way to the Rail, they hear the sounds of a battle going on. They follow the sound and find a virus nest, under attack by a force they don't recognize. Forst pipes up. He wants to try something. Despite protests, he heads down to join the fray. The group follows him, but lose him in the chaos. After a few battles against viruses, they find him, in time to see him summon a virus of his own to attack a group. Forst's virus isn't doing well, and the party join hims. As soon as they do, Forst's virus gains a huge power boost, and tears the enemy apart. Forst is surprised by this. He had expected the virus to suddenly gain a huge boost in power like that. The virus yells at him. The party is shocked. The virus admonishes Forst, claiming that with his link to the Binary Field severed, he could barely muster any power at all. The party ignores his claims, still shocked that he can talk. When they get over it, Forst begs the question: Where did he get that burst just now from? He considers it a dumb question. Obviously it came from the Reyvateil. Part of the effect from singing a Song was to provide their partner with symphonic power. The EL system fed that power into the partner's gear. The virus is residing in Forst's gear, so he took that power for himself.

They hear someone shout, saying there's one more nearby. The party looks in that direction and they see someone pointing at them. They're confused, until a group of them show up and attack. The other side is visibly confused as to why humans were defending the virus, until Hara shows up and orders them to stand down. The party is confused. What is Hara doing here with the mercenaries? She answeres plainly: She is an officer in the mercenary corps. Rous bristles. The mercenary corps. and the VDF don't get along, and he demands to know why she kept it from them. His reaction was her answer. Telling them would only complicate things. She gets a message on the radio, wondering what's taking her so long. She reports nothing, a former client and some soldiers. The voice over the radio orders her to bring them to her, as guests.

Hara brings the party to a set of tents, and shows them to the largest one. They enter, into a whirlwind of activity, centered around a large man in front of a table. He's shouting orders left and right as reports come in. He looks up as the party approaches, and greets them. He introduces himself as Korrero. He then wonders aloud which one is Forst. Forst, who had been hiding in back, speaks up. Korrero orders him front and center to fulfill his end of the contract. When Ceyna questions, Korrero speaks up. In exchange for protection, Forst would share his research with the Corps. When Rous questions him about it, he defends his decision. No one would fund his research, and the VDF refused to assist. So he made a deal with the Corps. Korrero cut him off, wanting to see what he had. Forst hesitates, then calls the captured virus forth. The virus immediately asks who the big ugly guy was. Korrero laughs. A virus who can talk, doesn't immediately attack him, and is cheeky to boot. He wasn't expecting Forst to come back with that. And then he gets an idea. The Corps. had been hired to take care of the nearby nest, but they were having a hell of a time.