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"The long and short of this bloodythe traversion tunnels created by the arches This h one of these arches could drop out in a completely random place--maybe another realm, maybe the Gloom" He threw up his hands "I have no bloody idea The other proble havoc with the Obsidian Arch network We still don’t fully understand the h our people have studied theht depicted on the global ical pipes carried people from one point to another If one had leaks in it-- journey I’d taken from the small arch in Thunder Rock to El Dorado It had dropped me into several different places, some of which wereo At the tiet back to Elyssa after cherubs had separated us in the depths of Thunder Rock But a strange bubble in reality had preventedher, and I’d been sucked back in and dropped through a broken arch in the dead city of El Dorado in the far southern reaches of Coloht on what exactly had happened to me The arch I’d takencracks in the traversion tunnel and allowing me to fall into different realities for a span of seconds before suckinght have been trapped forever in a hellish nightmare of a realm One of them had been filled with cherubs It wouldn’t have taken long before they’d sucked me dry and turned noring the man’s concerns about the tunnels "I wasn’t told anything about that"

"Probably because you’re there to secure the area, not work on sensitive ical equip to a condescending angle

"I know that, but securing the area h priority and where we can fall back if things get ugly"

The second operator sighed "Battle es think they’re such badasses"

Shelton smirked "We do our job just like you do yours Now, you want to be safe, or do you want to keep things from me and make my job more difficult?"

The first operator considered it for a ed "The layout of the control room is supposedly very similar to this one with one major exception"

"And that is?" Shelton prodded

"The special arch we’re supposed to work on looks like a half-sized version of an Obsidian Arch, except that,well"--he looked at the other operator--"it’s white and black"

My iven us The arch the Seraphim had used to invade our realm the last time was the same exact color combination

Jeremiah Conroy intended to fix it

Chapter 10

Shelton and I exchanged troubled glances, before he recovered and turned back to the raed confused looks "We don’t have one," the first said "Nobody’s ever docue"

"Then how does Jeremiah Conroy know there’s even control room there, ?" the man replied, as if it were the stupidest question he’d ever heard

"I hear he has demons ork for him," the second said in a conspiratorial whisper "And not the small ones either"

"He’s insanely powerful," the first said, nodding his head vigorously

"He told us to expect a similar layout to this one, but that’s about it, other than our engineers will be working on the white and black arch"

"What the hell?" Shelton said "What does an arch like that do?"

The operators shrugged in unison

Shelton leaned forward "It’s important I know"

The first operator shook his head "He didn’t tell us His engineering creas supposed to be here tonight to help us with the arches"

"With the Obsidian Arch shut down, how are they gonna get here?"

"He ht have to fly theht" Shelton onna look around and base our infor else, let us know"

We walked down the rows of small arches Each one stood about ten feet tall with a silver ring eht aisles ran between the arches, wide enough for several people to walk abreast of each other Shelton ran his hand along the twisting architecture of one arch, his brorinkling

"What is this stuff anyway?" He shook his head "It feels like rock, but it doesn’t"

I touched the slick surface, n "No idea"