WEBVTT

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Speaker 1: Fractality, Chapter One, Splitter.
Outside Ravencliff

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Speaker 1: Hospital, Layer Zero.

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Speaker 1: Faize looked up at the looming
abandoned hospital and knew it would be the
perfect

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Speaker 1: playground. He'd seen it in the
distance from the back of a truck a few weeks
ago

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Speaker 1: doing mun work. He'd spent the day
with a dozen muns clearing a field that had been

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Speaker 1: covered in debris so some idiot could
try and grow something there. Good luck with

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Speaker 1: that. It was basically a perfect
waste of a day, at least until he'd seen this

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Speaker 1: place peeking out over the trees like
a concrete corpse. He'd thought about sneaking

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Speaker 1: away from the muns and the overseer
to get a look, but that was stupid.

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Speaker 1: Didn't matter because now he was
here. He pulled at the chain link fence in front
of

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Speaker 1: him, brand new. He pressed his face
to the links and looked at the courtyard before

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Speaker 1: the building. Trash blew around in
the overgrown garden area. The

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Speaker 1: concrete walkway was cracked, letting
plants as big as saplings grow through. He

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Speaker 1: started climbing the fence. "Stop!"
The girl behind him walked up to the fence

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Speaker 1: and after fishing a tool out of her
pocket, started snipping away at the fence

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Speaker 1: instead. "Splitters, always thinking
with your feet" "You mean

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Speaker 1: thinking on our feet" "No, I don't"
Faize hopped off the

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Speaker 1: fence, landing lightly on the ground,
and watched Ambrosia work.

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Speaker 1: Faize took the opportunity to swipe a
protein bar that was peeking out of her pack.

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Speaker 1: "Mm, that's good. You can stop. I
want it to look like no one came through."

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Speaker 1: Amber looked at the tiny door she'd
cut in the chain link fence skeptically, perhaps

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Speaker 1: measuring it against herself in her
mind. "You're eating now?" "Yeah. Why?

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Speaker 1: It's always a good time to eat."

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Speaker 1: Faize shoved the rest of the protein
bar into his mouth, then got down on all fours

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Speaker 1: to push through the little door she'd
made. When he was through, he stood up and

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Speaker 1: started walking. "Wait! That sign
says mines." He

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Speaker 1: paused and briefly stopped chewing,
looking down at his feet.

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Speaker 1: Then he kept walking until he reached
the front doors, or where the front doors used

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Speaker 1: to be anyway. "Guess there's no
mines." Mines were expensive.

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Speaker 1: Plus, he realized after the fact that
the overgrown grass hadn't been disturbed at

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Speaker 1: all. If the fence was new and someone
was laying mines, it would be muns,

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Speaker 1: and muns were lazy. Lazy work leaves
clues.

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Speaker 1: Ambrosia pushed through the little
chain link flap with effort. When her pack
caught

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Speaker 1: the second time, Faize walked over to
help pull her through. She already looked

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Speaker 1: tired. "You came back?" In reply,
Faize tried to swipe another

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Speaker 1: protein bar. She snipped at him with
the wire cutters, and he backed off. [laughs]

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Speaker 1: Faize motioned for her to follow.
Despite his apparent carelessness, he was
actually

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Speaker 1: careful to follow the same path back
through the grass just in case there actually

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Speaker 1: were mines. "Ready to get rich?"
Amber rolled her eyes, but

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Speaker 1: she was smiling too. Of course she
was. This was her playground too.

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Speaker 1: Amber and Faize walked around the
abandoned hospital for a few minutes, scoping
out

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Speaker 1: the place for security, signs of
other splitters. To Faize, everything about the

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Speaker 1: place said it was untouched. "You
ready?"

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Speaker 1: He could hear the nerves in her
voice. He looked around, spinning slowly. The

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Speaker 1: hospital atrium had grimy concrete
walls that climbed to a high ceiling where glass

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Speaker 1: plates once formed a dome. Now only a
rusting metal skeleton hung here,

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Speaker 1: threatening to fall at any moment.
Sitting furniture lay in dusty ruins about the

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Speaker 1: room. "Yeah, this is the place."
Choosing the place for

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Speaker 1: the first rift was more art than
science. It had downstream effects on the shape
of

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Speaker 1: the fractality he would enter. "Give
me a sec to set up."

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Speaker 1: Amber sat down cross-legged on the
floor and started pulling out gear from her
pack.

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Speaker 1: Her nervousness seemed to melt away
as she silently set up the equipment. She fixed

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Speaker 1: two crystals to their tripod stands
and attached various wires to them. Then she

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Speaker 1: attached more equipment that Faize
couldn't identify. Everything ran back to her

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Speaker 1: laptop in an indecipherable tangle of
cables. "Approximating the seed now.

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Speaker 1: It'll be more accurate if you'd
rather stay the night here first, though"

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Speaker 1: Faize was looking at a dark stain
that ran down the wall in front of him. It
looked

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Speaker 1: like rust. Yeah, definitely rust.
"No,

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Speaker 1: thanks. Good is good enough" "If you
say so." She

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Speaker 1: tapped away at the keys of her
laptop, then looked up at him expectantly. "

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Speaker 1: [clears throat] It's time" She
nodded.

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Speaker 1: [exhales] Now it was his turn to be
nervous.

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Speaker 1: You could free run anywhere, but you
only came to a place like this for one reason:

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Speaker 1: shard runs, the Mack Daddy, real
splitter work. He closed his

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Speaker 1: eyes and reached out in front of him,
feeling around in the air, feeling for the

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Speaker 1: place that felt right When he found
it, he pulled. There was a tension there,

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Speaker 1: not quite physical. He kept pulling
until he felt reality itself tear.

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Speaker 1: Some splitters treated that moment
with reverence, the moment when entire universes

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Speaker 1: were created in a simple motion. All
Faize could think about was shards, shards

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Speaker 1: and money, because money was power,
and if you had enough, you could disappear. He

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Speaker 1: could disappear, stop doing mund
work, be a real splitter.

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Speaker 1: When he opened his eyes, he saw the
rift in the fractality beyond. It was a

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Speaker 1: shimmering line in the air, just wide
enough for him to squeeze through. He could

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Speaker 1: just make out the world through the
rift. It was like looking through shallow water

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Speaker 1: at just another room in the hospital.
"Looks stable." Ambrosia smiled

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Speaker 1: innocently and shrugged. "If you say
so."

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Speaker 1: Faize took another deep breath, then
slipped through before he could lose his nerve.

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Speaker 1: He felt the shift as a cool wave that
ran through his body. There was a brief moment

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Speaker 1: when everything sounded muffled, but
then he was through. The shift disoriented him

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Speaker 1: for a moment, and he quickly fell to
a crouch, letting the nausea subside. He shook

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Speaker 1: off the dizziness and stood. He was
standing in a patient room, but a patient room

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Speaker 1: that had never seen patients. It had
never seen anyone. If he believed what the

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Speaker 1: collective priests said, it hadn't
even existed until he'd created it just now.

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Speaker 1: He fished the wired earpiece out of
his pocket and turned his body cam on.

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Speaker 1: [electronic beeping] "Got all your
fingers?" He adjusted his earpiece. "Seems

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Speaker 1: like. I've got eight fingers, right?"
"Good enough."

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Speaker 1: "On each hand, I mean." "Let me see."
Faize moved his hands in front of the

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Speaker 1: body cam pinned to his chest.
"Connection's loose. Can you fix it?"

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Speaker 1: He pulled the other end of the
camera's wire out of his pants pocket. The
little

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Speaker 1: white crystal that was supposed to be
attached to the other end was loose. He

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Speaker 1: tightened the nut around the
connection and put it back in his pocket. "How's
that?"

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Speaker 1: He put just his middle finger in
front of the body cam. "Oh, no, it's worse than
we

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Speaker 1: thought. There's only one left."
"Only one I need." "So you gonna get to

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Speaker 1: work, or are you just gonna wait
around until the slicers get you?" "Yeah, yeah,
let

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Speaker 1: me get my bearings." Faize closed his
eyes again.

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Speaker 1: He always located better with his
eyes closed. There were two tugs on reality
here,

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Speaker 1: like weights sagging into a soft
mattress. He could feel roughly where they were
in

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Speaker 1: relation to him. One small,
softball-sized, definitely worth something.

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Speaker 1: One big. Not big, big, but pretty
big. Bowling ball-sized.

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Speaker 1: Payday-sized. Not never-work-again
payday, but maybe big enough to take a

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Speaker 1: few years off. Time enough to build a
crew. "There's two

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Speaker 1: shards here. One small, one pretty
big. Big one's in deep, though. I'm gonna check

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Speaker 1: out the little one first, 'cause it's
on the way."

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Speaker 1: He started in what felt like the
right direction.

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Speaker 1: "Okay, be smart. I don't get paid if
you don't come back." "I hear you."

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Speaker 1: Faize looked back at the rift,
knowing it would still be there, but finding an
ounce

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Speaker 1: of relief in seeing it again, as if
it might disappear if he were away for too long.

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Speaker 1: It wouldn't.

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Speaker 1: It would be stable as long as he was
inside the Fractality to stabilize it. With the

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Speaker 1: thrill of a fresh run in his heart,
he took one last look at the easy way out. Then

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Speaker 1: he turned away and started running.

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Speaker 1: Faize vaulted over a rusty file
cabinet, belatedly hoping his hands wouldn't
sink

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Speaker 1: through the flimsy metal. It didn't,
and he kept running. He jogged through a series

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Speaker 1: of offices connected by closet-sized
hallways. The furniture was dilapidated, as the

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Speaker 1: furniture in the source building had
been. Pictures of people that didn't exist hung

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Speaker 1: on the walls. There were dozens of
them. Portraits of people with still-gleaming

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Speaker 1: brass nameplates beneath them. He
slowed only slightly to read some of the names.

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Speaker 1: Frantilda Mossmer, a wrinkly woman
with a too-long neck that peered over thin

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Speaker 1: glasses at him. Another plate beneath
the name read, "Employee of the Year."

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Speaker 1: Great job, Frantilda.

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Speaker 1: The next picture was a man with pale
skin and very sunken eyes. Faize looked away

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Speaker 1: after only a moment. Something about
the gaze of its beady eyes made his skin crawl.

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Speaker 1: The nameplate read, "Birkus Yarfned,
Tool Man". Faize smiled to

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Speaker 1: himself.

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Speaker 1: Tough luck, Birkus. There's always
next year.

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Speaker 1: He picked up the pace to make up for
his sightseeing. It was hard not to want to

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Speaker 1: stop, even on a shard run. No one
else had ever seen this place, and if he did his

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Speaker 1: job right today, no one would ever
see it again. Eh, not great news for Birkus,

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Speaker 1: actually. His hopes of ever making
Employee of the Year would be dashed.

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Speaker 1: After a long string of offices, he
came to his first real obstacle, a set of

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Speaker 1: concrete stairs that rose to the
ceiling, leaving only a tiny gap into a room
above.

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Speaker 1: Faize climbed up the stairs and
shoved his head through the gap. There was a
hallway

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Speaker 1: beyond, but the gap was too narrow to
squeeze through. Well, no one said it would be

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Speaker 1: easy.

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Speaker 1: You see this?

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Speaker 2: Already working on another route.
I've been watching. Seed looks good. If you're

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Speaker 2: going for that first shard, I think
I've got a decent map there. The second one,

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Speaker 2: though...

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Speaker 1: One thing at a time. He wanted that
second shard, though. There was no way he was

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Speaker 1: pulling the plug at the first shard.
Given more data and more time, Ambrosia's

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Speaker 1: algorithms would draw some more
accurate maps.

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Speaker 2: Right. Okay. If you go back about 40
yards, you'll see a door. It leads to a

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Speaker 2: bathroom, which leads to another
bathroom.

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Speaker 1: Hmm. Which leads to another bathroom?

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Speaker 2: You got it. Get moving.

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Speaker 1: But he was already moving. He was
always moving. Never quite frantic, but never

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Speaker 1: quite comfortable either. He moved
with urgency. Whether he realized it or not, a

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Speaker 1: silent clock was always ticking down
inside a fractality. The slicers couldn't open

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Speaker 1: their own fractalities, but they
would gladly enter his. When he stepped through

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Speaker 1: that rift, he rang the dinner bell.
If he stayed too long, they would find him

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Speaker 1: before he pulled the shard. That
encounter only ended one way: another dead

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Speaker 1: splitter.

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Speaker 1: Chapter Two: Momentum. Raven Cliff
Hospital Fractality, Layer

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Speaker 1: 1.

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Speaker 1: Phase slid under a support pillar
that grew from one wall to another, almost

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Speaker 1: horizontal. He vaulted a rusty
hospital bed frame. He heard it clatter to
pieces

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Speaker 1: behind him as he passed. The hallway
ahead of him stretched far into the distance.

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Speaker 1: There was enough scattered furniture
to make it difficult to see how far, but it

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Speaker 1: went far enough to give him vertigo.
It went straight for a mile, maybe more. He'd

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Speaker 1: been running down it for a good 10
minutes already. The fractality was starting to

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Speaker 1: diverge from its source. Good. That
meant things were about to get interesting.

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Speaker 1: Seeing no immediate obstacles, he
slowed to a walk and closed his eyes to sense.
He

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Speaker 1: felt a strong tug on his soul nearby.

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Speaker 1: I'm close.

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Speaker 2: Okay. I'll keep comms quiet just in
case.

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Speaker 1: Just in case there was something else
nearby.

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Speaker 1: The comm shards in his pocket were
quiet, but they weren't silent. They had

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Speaker 1: potentials of their own. Since they
didn't belong to this fractality, they would be

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Speaker 1: much quieter than the native shards
he was hunting. Still, using the shards to

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Speaker 1: communicate made him louder. He
considered turning his body cam off to go quiet,
at

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Speaker 1: least as quiet as he could anyway,
but decided against it. The nearby shard would

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Speaker 1: mask him a little bit.

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Speaker 1: Phase stepped into the adjacent room,
happy to be out of that endless hallway. There

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Speaker 1: was definitely something here. It was
an ambient tinkling sound, like wind chimes

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Speaker 1: blowing in a faint breeze.

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Speaker 1: Jackpot. Phase walked past a row of
desks with chairs so small that they surely

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Speaker 1: would have collapsed if anyone sat in
them. In the room beyond, he saw a soft white

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Speaker 1: light pulsing rhythmically. The sound
of chimes grew louder. He stepped into the

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Speaker 1: room. Hanging in the center of the
room, frozen in midair, was the shard, a bright

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Speaker 1: white crystal about the size of his
pinky, like its own little rift in space.

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Speaker 1: You seeing this? Looks like a comm
shard, maybe.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. You gonna pull it? Easy money.

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Speaker 1: Ambrosia was right. It was easy
money. He knew a splitter could make careers
pulling

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Speaker 1: shards like this and never do a day
of mun work. It was the reliable path to

185
00:16:04.668 --> 00:16:08.948
Speaker 1: freedom, the path that most splitters
took. Grab the first shard you could find,

186
00:16:08.988 --> 00:16:14.588
Speaker 1: then get out. But you'd never be a
legend that way. You'd always be just a step

187
00:16:14.648 --> 00:16:20.208
Speaker 1: above the muns. There was no real
freedom there. A gilded cage was still a cage.

188
00:16:22.088 --> 00:16:26.468
Speaker 1: Fuse had tried to become a legend
that way, too. He pushed the thought away.

189
00:16:27.388 --> 00:16:33.348
Speaker 1: Besides, his sister was a legend.
She'd accomplished that much. And who was

190
00:16:33.408 --> 00:16:33.708
Speaker 1: he?

191
00:16:35.328 --> 00:16:38.428
Speaker 1: Nah, I'm gonna push for the second
one. I made good time getting here.

192
00:16:40.208 --> 00:16:40.668
Speaker 2: Phase...

193
00:16:43.368 --> 00:16:47.968
Speaker 1: I'll be careful. First sign of
trouble, I'll double back here or head straight
back

194
00:16:48.008 --> 00:16:48.548
Speaker 1: to the rift.

195
00:16:50.868 --> 00:16:51.428
Speaker 2: You promise?

196
00:16:52.428 --> 00:16:52.968
Speaker 1: Promise.

197
00:16:54.308 --> 00:16:56.008
Speaker 2: Fine. Where is this other shard?

198
00:16:57.528 --> 00:17:01.688
Speaker 1: Phase closed his eyes and with
deliberate effort ignored the pull of the
smaller

199
00:17:01.748 --> 00:17:06.928
Speaker 1: shard near him. He could feel the
bigger one farther out. He opened his eyes and

200
00:17:07.008 --> 00:17:11.368
Speaker 1: pointed at a wall. About half a mile
that way, maybe a little more.

201
00:17:13.228 --> 00:17:16.448
Speaker 2: Hmm. Give me a sec to find a path.
[keyboard clicking] Seed's gonna start diverging

202
00:17:16.488 --> 00:17:21.148
Speaker 2: that far out. I'm gonna try Script
Kid's algo instead. He talked it up for these

203
00:17:21.268 --> 00:17:22.668
Speaker 2: low-layer distant shards.

204
00:17:24.248 --> 00:17:29.428
Speaker 1: She said something else, but he
wasn't listening anymore. Something else about
this

205
00:17:29.468 --> 00:17:34.308
Speaker 1: room nagged at him. Phase scanned the
room until he found it, a mark on the

206
00:17:34.368 --> 00:17:39.888
Speaker 1: doorframe, the only other exit from
this room. He stepped closer to examine. It

207
00:17:39.928 --> 00:17:44.468
Speaker 1: wasn't obvious. If he'd been running,
he probably would have missed it. A gash in

208
00:17:44.488 --> 00:17:49.668
Speaker 1: the steel doorframe, almost a
half-inch deep. He stepped into the hallway
beyond the

209
00:17:49.728 --> 00:17:54.988
Speaker 1: door. There were faint scratches
along the wall trailing up to the ceiling. They
led

210
00:17:55.028 --> 00:17:58.308
Speaker 1: away from him, exactly in the
direction he was going.

211
00:17:59.528 --> 00:18:03.688
Speaker 2: I've got a route. I'll get you close,
but the last part will be on you. You still

212
00:18:03.728 --> 00:18:04.328
Speaker 2: wanna do this?

213
00:18:06.848 --> 00:18:12.380
Speaker 1: Phase was silent... He felt pulled
back, a desire to honor his promise to

214
00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:18.440
Speaker 1: Ambrosia and just take this easy
shard. He felt pulled forward by the promise of

215
00:18:18.500 --> 00:18:23.680
Speaker 1: a real treasure. The second pull was
stronger for now.

216
00:18:25.180 --> 00:18:27.060
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm in.

217
00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:42.320
Speaker 1: The Fractality diverged from
Ravencliff Hospital with each passing step.
Twice Phase

218
00:18:42.360 --> 00:18:46.620
Speaker 1: had found dead ends that Amber hadn't
seen coming. He was moving mostly on instinct

219
00:18:46.700 --> 00:18:51.080
Speaker 1: now, receiving only occasional
suggestions from his earpiece. Although he would

220
00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:55.540
Speaker 1: never tell her, he liked it better
this way. There was something right about moving

221
00:18:55.580 --> 00:19:00.700
Speaker 1: through the world this way. This must
be how the free-running splitters felt. His

222
00:19:00.760 --> 00:19:06.420
Speaker 1: thoughts melted away. There were only
obstacles and his body. He jumped onto a desk,

223
00:19:06.760 --> 00:19:10.740
Speaker 1: swung from a light fixture, then
landed on the other side of the room, rolled to

224
00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:16.540
Speaker 1: keep his momentum, then he was up and
running again. The wind licked at his face and

225
00:19:16.560 --> 00:19:21.540
Speaker 1: he couldn't keep a smile from forming
there. The first chasm he'd seen shot through

226
00:19:21.580 --> 00:19:25.980
Speaker 1: the hallway ahead of him. It was only
a few feet wide and he leapt it without

227
00:19:26.060 --> 00:19:31.380
Speaker 1: slowing. In the moment he had to look
down, he saw that the chasm opened up into a

228
00:19:31.460 --> 00:19:36.920
Speaker 1: tiny room with no doors. The light
was dim down there. He felt a tight moment of

229
00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:40.840
Speaker 1: panic, imagining what it would be
like to slip and fall down there.

230
00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:47.520
Speaker 1: Trapped in a concrete room with no
way out, waiting for something to find him.

231
00:19:48.620 --> 00:19:52.360
Speaker 1: Phase shook the dark vision and
narrowly avoided slamming his head into a set of

232
00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:54.520
Speaker 1: stairs that spiraled down from the
ceiling.

233
00:19:56.560 --> 00:20:01.420
Speaker 1: The hallway ahead rose in a shallow
incline, bending up and out of view a hundred

234
00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:02.080
Speaker 1: yards away.

235
00:20:03.820 --> 00:20:09.280
Speaker 1: The potential was strong enough now
to guide him without even trying to sense it. So

236
00:20:11.540 --> 00:20:13.720
Speaker 1: Is there some reason you're in there
alone today?

237
00:20:15.300 --> 00:20:19.440
Speaker 1: Phase felt a pang of irritation at
being pulled out of his trance of movement.

238
00:20:20.980 --> 00:20:26.760
Speaker 1: Why, you wanted to split the pot
three ways? No, but I figured you'd at least
ask.

239
00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:33.260
Speaker 1: Wait. You told her? You told
Spineless about this?

240
00:20:34.140 --> 00:20:39.940
Speaker 1: He started walking again. I just
mentioned it to her. I didn't know it was a
secret.

241
00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:46.320
Speaker 1: It's not. He still sounded defensive.
Whiny. He hated

242
00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:51.760
Speaker 1: that. Why couldn't he control
himself? He sounded like a little kid.

243
00:20:53.500 --> 00:20:59.300
Speaker 1: It's just She doesn't do shard runs
anymore. She might. For

244
00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:04.900
Speaker 1: you. Phase fought the urge to snap at
Ambrosia. Hey, I'm gonna go

245
00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:10.640
Speaker 1: quiet. Getting close to the shard.
We're almost there. Talk soon. Then he
completely

246
00:21:10.700 --> 00:21:14.100
Speaker 1: disconnected the comm shard. He left
the body cam on, though.

247
00:21:15.780 --> 00:21:20.080
Speaker 1: The light inside this area of the
Fractality was unreliable. They'd come to

248
00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:23.760
Speaker 1: Ravencliff during the day so that
most of the rooms would be illuminated by

249
00:21:23.840 --> 00:21:28.240
Speaker 1: daylight. Those illuminated rooms
would get copied more often than the relatively

250
00:21:28.320 --> 00:21:32.860
Speaker 1: rare dark rooms. But now that he was
getting farther and farther from the epicenter

251
00:21:32.900 --> 00:21:38.760
Speaker 1: where his rift was, the Fractality
was spiraling into surrealism. It was nowhere

252
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:43.100
Speaker 1: near as crazy as some of the stories
he'd heard from veteran splitters. Places

253
00:21:43.140 --> 00:21:48.740
Speaker 1: without air, without light.
Escher-like mazes that started to treat basic
laws of

254
00:21:48.800 --> 00:21:53.960
Speaker 1: physics as mere suggestions. Phase
remembered the claw marks he'd seen earlier.

255
00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:59.420
Speaker 1: He slowed and listened to the world
around him, looking for anything out of place.

256
00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:05.340
Speaker 1: The world was still and quiet. The
air stagnant.

257
00:22:06.360 --> 00:22:11.960
Speaker 1: Sounds would carry a long way in this
silence. Suddenly, he felt

258
00:22:12.120 --> 00:22:13.300
Speaker 1: very alone in here.

259
00:22:16.860 --> 00:22:21.900
Speaker 1: Caution would be more important than
speed now. He looked into every doorway, peeked

260
00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:27.460
Speaker 1: around every corner before stepping
past. His heart pounded. This was stupid.

261
00:22:28.080 --> 00:22:31.940
Speaker 1: He should have taken the first shard.
Something moved in the shadows of a darkened

262
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.180
Speaker 1: room to his left. He froze. Phase
peered through the doorway,

263
00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:44.040
Speaker 1: waiting for his eyes to adjust. All
he saw was darkness. All he heard was silence.

264
00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:45.480
Speaker 1: He kept moving.

265
00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:51.860
Speaker 1: Stupid, stupid, stupid. The pull of
the shard was so strong it could have been in

266
00:22:51.940 --> 00:22:56.800
Speaker 1: any of these rooms. Something crashed
to the floor of a room nearby. He started

267
00:22:56.900 --> 00:23:02.280
Speaker 1: running. It was just debris. Just
debris. This place was getting unstable. Things

268
00:23:02.340 --> 00:23:08.180
Speaker 1: fell apart here. And yet, he kept
running. Nowhere in particular, just

269
00:23:08.620 --> 00:23:14.620
Speaker 1: closer. He hoped. He hoped. Phase
tried to convince himself that there was

270
00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:18.620
Speaker 1: nothing wrong. That at any moment now
he'd see the shard. He would pull it

271
00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:24.640
Speaker 1: immediately. His way out. He
Something slammed into his shins. Pain shot

272
00:23:24.680 --> 00:23:29.700
Speaker 1: up his legs and he skidded across the
floor, scraping and bruising his side. Stunned

273
00:23:29.740 --> 00:23:34.320
Speaker 1: from the fall, he looked back at the
cinder block he somehow missed. He rolled onto

274
00:23:34.360 --> 00:23:39.560
Speaker 1: his back and looked down the hallway
ahead of him. He realized then the fall had

275
00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:44.940
Speaker 1: saved his life. The first thing he
noticed was that a red glow illuminated an

276
00:23:45.020 --> 00:23:50.560
Speaker 1: otherwise dark room three doors down.
The sound of chimes echoed into the hallway,

277
00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:56.880
Speaker 1: calling him closer. The second thing
he noticed was claw marks. So

278
00:23:56.940 --> 00:24:02.620
Speaker 1: many claw marks on the doorframe.
There was a sound nearby. Not in the red room,
but

279
00:24:02.660 --> 00:24:07.740
Speaker 1: behind him, in one of the other dark
rooms. Another sound, like the clicking of a

280
00:24:07.820 --> 00:24:11.000
Speaker 1: pencil against stone, came from a
room on the other side.

281
00:24:12.636 --> 00:24:16.196
Speaker 1: He craned his head around, trying to
determine the source of the sounds, heart

282
00:24:16.456 --> 00:24:22.436
Speaker 1: beating faster. "Time to go, Phase."
He gritted his teeth, jumped up, and ran

283
00:24:22.476 --> 00:24:27.276
Speaker 1: for the red room. If he could just
get inside, if he could just pull the shard...

284
00:24:28.976 --> 00:24:33.136
Speaker 1: At the last moment, he spun away from
the illuminated room, changing direction to

285
00:24:33.196 --> 00:24:37.816
Speaker 1: keep running down the hallway
instead. As he turned, he saw inside the shard
room.

286
00:24:38.276 --> 00:24:43.796
Speaker 1: He saw the walls moving. The walls
hadn't been moving, he

287
00:24:43.856 --> 00:24:49.296
Speaker 1: realized, his brain finally catching
up. The things covering the walls were moving.

288
00:24:50.076 --> 00:24:56.036
Speaker 1: That meant... "Amber!" No response.
He climbed over a small tower of

289
00:24:56.116 --> 00:25:00.176
Speaker 1: file cabinets, falling awkwardly down
the other side and bruising his legs even

290
00:25:00.236 --> 00:25:05.216
Speaker 1: more. The connection, the connection.
Phase plugged the comm shard back in.

291
00:25:05.536 --> 00:25:08.576
Speaker 2: You idiot. Where are you going?

292
00:25:09.096 --> 00:25:09.736
Speaker 1: I don't know.

293
00:25:11.476 --> 00:25:16.416
Speaker 1: There was a reverberating cry from
somewhere behind him. The shriek set his nerves

294
00:25:16.496 --> 00:25:21.936
Speaker 1: on end. It made his limbs want to
freeze up. It made him want to crawl into a
corner

295
00:25:21.976 --> 00:25:22.616
Speaker 1: and hide.

296
00:25:23.776 --> 00:25:25.176
Speaker 2: Phase, where are you going?

297
00:25:26.156 --> 00:25:29.456
Speaker 1: He couldn't die here. No, no, no.
They couldn't get him. He-

298
00:25:29.796 --> 00:25:30.556
Speaker 2: Phase.

299
00:25:32.196 --> 00:25:37.636
Speaker 1: A memory drifted into Phase's mind.
Another Fractality run, long ago.

300
00:25:37.636 --> 00:25:43.636
Speaker 1: "You'll see things in here, Teddy,
things you aren't ready to

301
00:25:43.716 --> 00:25:49.016
Speaker 1: see." His sister, Fuse, walked,
holding her hand on his shoulder.

302
00:25:50.336 --> 00:25:56.236
Speaker 1: Phase hated his real name. "You're
supposed to call me Phase." Fuse

303
00:25:56.316 --> 00:25:56.996
Speaker 1: just laughed.

304
00:25:58.556 --> 00:26:04.076
Speaker 1: "You're not Phase, not yet." She
stopped walking and motioned for him to sit down

305
00:26:04.136 --> 00:26:09.056
Speaker 1: next to her. She tucked the hair
dangling in her face back behind one ear and
handed

306
00:26:09.096 --> 00:26:13.356
Speaker 1: him a water bottle. He hadn't even
realized he was thirsty until he took a drink.

307
00:26:13.396 --> 00:26:18.396
Speaker 1: "One day you're gonna open your own
rifts, Teddy, and I won't be here to help you."

308
00:26:19.916 --> 00:26:24.796
Speaker 1: Phase didn't know what to say to
that. Where was she going? Fuse looked out at
the

309
00:26:24.856 --> 00:26:30.096
Speaker 1: trees of a forest that wasn't real.
He still couldn't believe he was here, actually

310
00:26:30.156 --> 00:26:36.156
Speaker 1: inside a Fractality. "Do you know
what makes the Splitters strong? Why

311
00:26:36.196 --> 00:26:37.936
Speaker 1: we're not all dead or locked up?"

312
00:26:39.836 --> 00:26:45.536
Speaker 1: He thought for a moment, not wanting
to be wrong. "Shards." She

313
00:26:45.616 --> 00:26:51.276
Speaker 1: smiled, but then shook her head. She
fixed an unexpectedly serious stare to him,

314
00:26:51.976 --> 00:26:57.776
Speaker 1: her green eyes piercing him. He
stopped drinking. "No, not

315
00:26:57.856 --> 00:27:00.256
Speaker 1: shards." "Freedom?"

316
00:27:01.956 --> 00:27:06.676
Speaker 1: She seemed to consider this, but
shook her head again. Phase felt a pang of

317
00:27:06.736 --> 00:27:12.276
Speaker 1: frustration. "Sometimes, but that's
more likely to get you into trouble than out of

318
00:27:12.336 --> 00:27:18.276
Speaker 1: it. Slicers are fast, faster than
you, but they're dumb.

319
00:27:19.296 --> 00:27:24.916
Speaker 1: Tesserati are smart, smarter than
you, but they take orders,

320
00:27:25.216 --> 00:27:29.896
Speaker 1: move as a group." Phase didn't speak,
afraid to get it wrong again.

321
00:27:29.896 --> 00:27:35.136
Speaker 1: "What makes us strong?" "Momentum.

322
00:27:36.156 --> 00:27:42.036
Speaker 1: Act fast, but think. Anyone can go
fast. You have to keep moving, but always

323
00:27:42.076 --> 00:27:47.416
Speaker 1: make the smarter move. Be bold. Keep
them on their toes. But don't be stupid

324
00:27:47.476 --> 00:27:52.836
Speaker 1: either." When Phase didn't respond,
she lifted two fists into the air apart.

325
00:27:52.836 --> 00:27:58.536
Speaker 1: "Mind and body." She brought the two
fists together. "Momentum."

326
00:28:00.956 --> 00:28:05.016
Speaker 1: Phase rounded the corner at full
speed, knowing he could be brained by anything

327
00:28:05.076 --> 00:28:10.336
Speaker 1: sticking out, but also knowing he was
dead if he slowed down. Something big slammed

328
00:28:10.396 --> 00:28:15.816
Speaker 1: into a pile of file cabinets he
passed. He was in a cafeteria now, or something
like

329
00:28:15.896 --> 00:28:21.436
Speaker 1: one anyway. He closed his eyes and
felt for the rift, felt for his way out. He

330
00:28:21.496 --> 00:28:26.956
Speaker 1: couldn't feel it, and he had to fight
the rising panic. He had to be smart, had to

331
00:28:27.016 --> 00:28:32.136
Speaker 1: keep moving. He felt himself tiring,
but the scratching on the walls kept him going.

332
00:28:32.796 --> 00:28:33.575
Speaker 1: Momentum.

333
00:28:35.116 --> 00:28:36.276
Speaker 1: "Find me a route to the rift."

334
00:28:39.156 --> 00:28:42.976
Speaker 1: He heard something clatter in his
earpiece as if Ambrosia had been shaken awake.

335
00:28:45.256 --> 00:28:45.836
Speaker 2: I'll try.

336
00:28:47.336 --> 00:28:53.296
Speaker 1: "Just give me the rough direction,
shortest path." He had an idea. An extended

337
00:28:53.336 --> 00:28:57.596
Speaker 1: chase wouldn't favor him. Splitters
might look graceful compared to the average

338
00:28:57.656 --> 00:29:01.996
Speaker 1: person, but the Slicers, the Slicers
lived in Fractalities.

339
00:29:03.676 --> 00:29:07.096
Speaker 2: Okay. Take a left out of this room,
then the next right. You should see a long

340
00:29:07.156 --> 00:29:07.616
Speaker 2: hallway.

341
00:29:08.896 --> 00:29:13.636
Speaker 1: He took a left out of the cafeteria
and glanced to the right. Something large and

342
00:29:13.736 --> 00:29:18.896
Speaker 1: flat rounded that corner on a hundred
chitinous legs. The segmented body shimmered

343
00:29:18.956 --> 00:29:24.616
Speaker 1: like asphalt on a hot day. Crap,
crap. He took the next right and

344
00:29:24.696 --> 00:29:28.556
Speaker 1: almost ran straight into a wall. Dead
end. "Amber!"

345
00:29:29.416 --> 00:29:32.756
Speaker 2: It's going, it's going. Stupid script
kid.

346
00:29:34.216 --> 00:29:40.196
Speaker 1: He heard the sound of a hundred
clicking legs on concrete walls. "Amber!" Phase

347
00:29:40.316 --> 00:29:45.756
Speaker 1: pressed his back to the dead end,
eyes wide. They'd tear him apart, cut him up,

348
00:29:46.356 --> 00:29:50.456
Speaker 1: take as many pieces as they could
until he passed out, until he died and the

349
00:29:50.476 --> 00:29:54.376
Speaker 1: Fractality fell apart, sending the
monsters back to wherever they came from.

350
00:29:55.976 --> 00:30:00.156
Speaker 1: The very first Slicer came around the
corner, then shivered and fell off the wall

351
00:30:00.196 --> 00:30:05.076
Speaker 1: with a thud. It unfurled its
segmented body and its front half rose into the
air,

352
00:30:05.716 --> 00:30:11.656
Speaker 1: almost as tall as him. Dozens of
razor-sharp limbs unfolded. "No,

353
00:30:11.776 --> 00:30:12.796
Speaker 1: no, no, no, no, no."

354
00:30:12.856 --> 00:30:13.576
Speaker 2: Take the next right.

355
00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:18.980
Speaker 1: His legs moved without his mind. He
ducked as he slipped past the creature. The

356
00:30:19.040 --> 00:30:21.820
Speaker 1: slicer swiped it where his head had
been moments before.

357
00:30:23.600 --> 00:30:27.520
Speaker 1: The next right brought him down a
hallway with few obstacles. He sprinted down it.

358
00:30:28.940 --> 00:30:34.860
Speaker 1: It's this way, right? Roughly, but
you're so far. Don't

359
00:30:34.900 --> 00:30:39.840
Speaker 1: worry about that. When I disconnect
my body cam, I want you to pour as much power as

360
00:30:39.860 --> 00:30:45.840
Speaker 1: you can into the signal, okay? Okay.
Phase ripped the cable off his body cam and

361
00:30:45.920 --> 00:30:49.800
Speaker 1: chucked the rest of the device, shard
and all, as far down the hallway as he could.

362
00:30:51.040 --> 00:30:52.800
Speaker 1: Then he ducked into a dark room

363
00:30:54.520 --> 00:30:55.240
Speaker 1: and waited.

364
00:30:56.800 --> 00:31:00.880
Speaker 1: He heard scuttling sounds and moved
down the hallway past him. He ignored them,

365
00:31:01.560 --> 00:31:03.000
Speaker 1: closing his eyes and sensing.

366
00:31:04.580 --> 00:31:08.700
Speaker 1: He still couldn't feel the rift he'd
enter through, but he guessed the slicers

367
00:31:08.820 --> 00:31:14.480
Speaker 1: could. Fuse had called them dumb, but
they were only dumb in a can't-do-math or a

368
00:31:14.900 --> 00:31:19.980
Speaker 1: can't-tie-shoelaces kind of way. They
had sharp senses and an instinct for finding

369
00:31:20.080 --> 00:31:20.360
Speaker 1: prey.

370
00:31:22.340 --> 00:31:26.860
Speaker 1: He focused, trying to ignore the
stronger pull of the bigger shard nearby.

371
00:31:28.820 --> 00:31:30.960
Speaker 1: There, he felt the first shard.

372
00:31:32.600 --> 00:31:33.080
Speaker 1: Phase?

373
00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:38.100
Speaker 1: I'm fine. Calm silence. Trust me.

374
00:31:40.100 --> 00:31:44.160
Speaker 1: It must have been terrifying for her
now that he'd gone dark. She wouldn't know for

375
00:31:44.200 --> 00:31:49.340
Speaker 1: sure he was dead until the rift
closed in the real world. But it could take a
long

376
00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:52.700
Speaker 1: time for someone to die. Too long.

377
00:31:54.340 --> 00:31:59.520
Speaker 1: He moved on instinct from there. A
few times he stopped and ducked into a closet or

378
00:31:59.560 --> 00:32:03.780
Speaker 1: an open door, not knowing why he'd
done so until he heard the scuttling sound of

379
00:32:03.840 --> 00:32:08.880
Speaker 1: slicers in the distance. At first
he'd been tempted to go back for the second,

380
00:32:09.120 --> 00:32:14.060
Speaker 1: bigger shard. Once the creatures
realized he wasn't going for the rift, they
might

381
00:32:14.120 --> 00:32:18.820
Speaker 1: go back to the red one, thinking he
would seek out the largest potential. Or

382
00:32:18.860 --> 00:32:21.420
Speaker 1: whatever passed for thinking in their
alien minds anyway.

383
00:32:23.580 --> 00:32:28.800
Speaker 1: Instead, he moved quickly but quietly
on instinct back to the first shard.

384
00:32:29.760 --> 00:32:33.880
Speaker 1: When he heard the tinkling chime, he
finally released some of the gut-wrenching

385
00:32:33.940 --> 00:32:38.220
Speaker 1: tension he'd been holding. Phase
jogged up to the brilliant white crystal and

386
00:32:38.260 --> 00:32:42.360
Speaker 1: without hesitation yanked it out of
the air where it hung suspended by invisible

387
00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:42.840
Speaker 1: threads.

388
00:32:44.740 --> 00:32:50.120
Speaker 1: He felt those threads pull, then
snap, and with it all of

389
00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:55.960
Speaker 1: reality unraveled. Somewhere far away
he heard the frustrated yowls of the creatures

390
00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:00.780
Speaker 1: who had hunted him. When he opened
his eyes again, he was on his hands and knees,

391
00:33:01.340 --> 00:33:06.340
Speaker 1: breathing deeply. Someone grabbed him
and pulled him into a squatting position. He

392
00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:11.080
Speaker 1: grinned at Ambrosia and held out the
shard. His first shard.

393
00:33:12.260 --> 00:33:17.900
Speaker 1: See? No problem. She snatched it out
of his hands, scowling. You

394
00:33:18.300 --> 00:33:24.240
Speaker 1: idiot! She pushed him and he fell
backward onto his butt. He rolled all the way
back

395
00:33:24.280 --> 00:33:29.780
Speaker 1: and laid down, looking at the ceiling
of the dilapidated hospital. It was a sight he

396
00:33:29.820 --> 00:33:31.440
Speaker 1: wouldn't miss anytime soon.