My Infinite System.

Lirael stood at the front of the line, allowing the others to take her in.

Twelve containment specialists, three erasure class constructs waiting impassive at the back of the line like sculptures. The specialists were all already suited up, already quiet, already assessing her like a professional does when a professional has just failed and been given a second chance regardless. Lirael didn’t bother pretending she wasn’t aware that they had considered her failure.

”You all know why you’re here.” She said finally. ”If you don’t, then you’re in the wrong room.”

No one said anything, so she gestured, and a pale set of markings and lines appeared in the space between them.

The keep, the extraction point, the second secondary trail that Black had opened up when he’d taken his people back. ”Lucian Black is primary,” she said. ”Not because he is the anomaly but because he is creating anomalies. Evelyn Merrin is secondary and high priority. The rest are variable depending on how much time we have to deal with them before they become problems in themselves.”

One of the specialists, a wiry man with the scars of older burns along his collarbones, tilted his head. ”The report said he broke the grey containment with very little effort at all.”

”He did.”

”And you want to engage him directly.”

”I want to contain him directly,” Lirael corrected. ”There is a difference.”

She gestured again, and the lines in the air changed, showing likely places for pressure, probable ground to have been found.

”He will not return to the keep immediately. Black is not that foolish, not this soon. He will press secondary ground to stabilize before making any decision on what to do with the keep at all. It gives us an opening before he realizes it’s there.” Another specialist shifted, a woman with pale eyes and a containment rod strapped across her back. ”And what of the Outer Gods?”

The air at the very edge of the staging field seemed to tighten for a moment as if something was pressing against it. It started with pressure, mostly, the sense of it, before the first seam appeared. A vertical gap running up through the air like a flaw in reality itself. Then a second. Then a third. In the distance, something was pressing against all three at once, sending out tendrils of presence thick enough that two of the constructs took an involuntary step back. The Outer Gods did not appear, not entirely, but the impressions of them poured through the openings like something had been unchained and was reaching in. Masses of lesser impressions following right behind like soldiers under a general’s sky.

The specialists kept their posts, but their formation was tighter.

Lirael did not turn to look at the nearest presence until it had settled into something like a physical form, tall and unfinished with edges that kept shifting against the light of the staging field.

”You’re late”

The reply pressed into the space between them instead of coming out of a mouth. The anomaly has already interfered with two recovery efforts. There would be no more delays.

”Then stop wasting time,” Lirael said. ”You wanted coordination. Consider this an answer. ”

A second presence pushed out and around, making only shadows with the light. Lucian Black is to be broken or bound completely. The secondary anomalies are to be lowered. The spread cannot continue.

”I’m aware of the terms of the operation”

You failed to hold the woman

”I failed to hold her when Black came for her directly. That does not mean I fail to understand this operation. If you wanted her completely erased before Black became what he is, you should have done your job earlier.”

There was a pause, one heavy enough that Lirael could see the throat of the youngest specialist move as she swallowed.

The first presence shifted. You have been given resources to use. Use them. We will close the outer doors to prevent reinforcements from coming from the outside. Marc Black and his physical anomaly have already been marked.

”Silas” Lirael said. ”His name is Silas. and If you are going to track him, do it right. Underestimating either him or Black is what got us here in the first place.”

The constructs behind her made a sound like a low laugh as the pressure of the Outer Gods’ presence brushed against them. Lirael felt the familiar pull of the Aethel at her back, colder than memory, as sharp as it always was.

She turned back to the specialists.

”Targets” she said. ”Black goes first. If an opening presents itself to take Evelyn Merrin out without compromising the integrity of the operation, take it. Do not pursue lesser targets if it risks greater ones. Do not engage in distractions for the sake of personal glory. This is not a hunt, it’s a stop. The spread will stop here, and Black will either break or be bound.”

The man with the burns gave a slow nod. ”And if Black engages us directly?”

”Contain if you can” Lirael said. ”Disengage if you can’t. If you can do neither, fall back on the pressures of the Outer Gods to contain them. We don’t have to prove this is worth your time, we just have to stop them from spreading again.”

The woman with the pale eyes and the containment rod turned her gaze to the spaces between, where the impressions of the Outer Gods still pushed in. ”And if while doing all this, you find that their presence would rather make room for some of the lesser ones to stay?”

Lirael did not change expression. ”Then you keep doing all the things I just said until I tell you to stop. Their work is the closing, your work is the precision cut.”

The nearest presence pulsed, perhaps in amusement, perhaps in irritation, one could not tell with the Outer Gods. Begin preparations. The longer they maintain their gatherings, the more difficult their removal will become.

”They will maintain their gatherings” Lirael said, ”Because every time you push them apart, Black pulls them back together again. You should have seen that already.”

She gestured, and the markings in the air faded away.

The staging field was already preparing for the operation, checking rods and seals and the small markers for displacement. The three erasure class constructs powered up, pale lines of energy running between their joints. On the other side of the pressure points, the lesser impressions of the Outer Gods continued to push in, filing denser and more threatening in the distance.

Lirael stood in the center of them all, feeling the shape of what was about to happen.

Lucian Black would not run forever. He would push ground to secure, to stabilize, to press, and he would try again to turn reaction into choice. That was the only certainty.

She thought, not for the first time, of the river that had not been there. Of the hesitation that had cost them a world. Of the long and terrible series of necessary cuts that had followed in its wake.

She let the thought go.

”Form up, people.” she said. ”Let’s go get some anomalies.”

The gaps in the air opened to either side, and the pressure of the Outer Gods filled the space between them all like an incoming tide.

Lirael looked to the path ahead.

This time, she would not be alone.