"I still don't see why you have to come with me." Nekeel glowered at Kerkael ― and consequently at Selverat as well ― then swept his glower over to include Sessil, since the dragoness was doing absolutely nothing to get out of something that was sure to be extremely deadly, especially since Nekeel had absolutely no practice in carving world-paths on his own. In fact, on reflection, he had realized that he actually didn't have the first clue how he was supposed to go about this.

"Because it'll be fun!" Kerkael responded with a toothy grin. "Now come on, you've got some stars to look at, right?"

Reluctantly, Nekeel nodded, then glanced around the empty mountains that Kerkael had brought them out to, saying that this way the other Myrsilkain didn't know that the three of them had gone into the Void. Perhaps it had merit, or perhaps it didn't, but either way, doing this was going to break so many Clan laws that it wasn't even funny ― Clan Losien was on a planet that was deemed an edge-world, as in it was on a hard edge, a line that the Myrsilk had, for some reason, drawn through the galaxy and said 'Past here, we shall not go'. If it was found that they were crossing that line… well, banishment sounded like the loveliest of the punishments they could possibly face.

But Kerkael had insisted, and Selverat had wondered, and Sessil had shrugged her wings and voiced the eternal question, "Why?"

Why did their ancestors draw that line, why did they never advance further in certain directions, why did they create such strict laws and then not record the reasons behind them? Nekeel was aware ― through having searched the records after Selverat had brought it up ― that there were only four different Edges, and when he asked Sessil to assist him in building a star map and placing the Edges in the right place, it ended up revealing two distinct sectors that the Myrsilk never entered, where their occupied worlds just… stopped. Not trailing off here and there like in other directions, but a hard stop, as if they had run into a wall. And here was one of those walls.

With a glance and a nod from Kerkael, Nekeel took to the sky and watched as the other two came up behind him as soon as he got out of the way. They fell into a simple V formation with a minimum of fuss ― all the training that Selverat insisted upon was good for something at least ― and Nekeel settled into a simple glide as he tried to prepare himself for an action that…. well, that he actually didn't know how to do. Oh, sure, he knew the theory behind it ― travel through the Void, find a star, somehow manage to look at the real world without getting into trouble by appearing in deadly places, find a planet, then figure out if it was habitable or not. Simple. In theory. In practice, he had absolutely no clue how to go about it. That, and he needed to support two other non-Void Myrsilk through a journey that wasn't usually that pleasant, being as it was travel through unmarked Void-territory.

::Well? Let's go!:: Kerkael's mental voice echoed through his mind, and spurred Nekeel into action.

Somewhere, in the deepest recesses of his mind, a piece of him mourned the death of the rule-follower that he used to be, and started getting ready to deal with all the trouble that Kerkael was sure to lead them into in the future.

The Void, when he entered it, was cold and clammy, with whispers of violence just on the edge of his sensing. It wasn't… exactly… a bad place. But it wasn't pleasant by any means. Behind him, he could sense Kerkael and Sessil, and tentatively threw a mental 'line' to the two of them, in order to keep them connected with him. They grabbed the lines up readily, and for a moment Nekeel was overwhelmed with the senses of the two of them that filtered through, until he finally managed to sort himself from Other, and placed the senses where they belonged in the back of his mind. He would keep track of the input from the other two, just in case something happened to them, but for now that wasn't very important.

No, what was important was to find those stars again. He didn't even know if he could do that same trick here in the Void, that not-space separate from the real world and distinct in topography. No way but to try, though.

So he opened his mind, allowed his senses to flow, searching, searching, hunting for the voices that he always heard so loud in the real world. For a moment, he panicked, unable to hear anything except the violent, wordless promises of the Void, but then…

Oh, but then.

It started soft, like a tourney far away, then slowly grew louder as he paid attention to the noise. A roaring, a sussuration, a wordless scream of noise that hit him like a Warrior at full speed. Desperately, he clung to the mental lines that connected him to Sessil and Kerkael, using their (mostly) sane minds to ground his as he tried to sort out the collection of noise that had invaded his mind as soon as he searched it out. He had no idea how long it took, as he picked the mess apart: there, their birth star, hum-whistling away; there, the nearest star to them, growling and spitting like a fiesty Kouletti; there, another star just as furious; and on, and on, an entire universe packed into a space barely large enough to contain him and the others ― or was it the other way around, and they were just spread out across a universe, spread so thin they could cover such vast distances that even their minds, used to dealing with great distances, failed to comprehend the size of the entirity.

Either way. One by one he sorted through the stars, sorted through them and discarded them, one by one and over and over and over. Hunting, ever hunting, for one of those friendly-singing stars that he had found in his search the night before.

Until… yes! There!

The star wasn't quite so cheerful as their birth-star, but it was humming softly to itself, peaceful and generally welcoming in tone. Carefully, Nekeel approached the 'space' that the star 'occupied' in the not-space that was the Void, and then…. came face to face with his previous problem. How did he check if the star had planets, and if those planets were safe for life?

::What about a window?:: Sessil asked, sensing his hesitance. ::Just, thin the Void enough to see through, but not enough that you break through?::

Nekeel frowned and thought the suggestion through. It made sense, but how to do it was the question. Well, perhaps if he…

Carefully, he reached out and began to peel away the cloying not-space that was the Void, thin layer by thin layer, making sure to never fully break through into the real world. It took him quite a while ― or, at least, he thought it did ― and his claws slipped more than once to piece through the veil (and they were definitely not in a safe spot, considering the uncomfortable pinching that his paws felt every time that happened), but finally he had pulled enough of the veil aside to get a hazy image of the real world on the other side.

The star he had heard was a tiny red thing ― it was so peaceful because it had settled into a long, cool, slow death. It was highly unlikely that there would be an habitable planets around this star, but he still looked, still gazed out into space and tried to spot the little specks that would signify planets. One, two, three… four? Maybe that was a fourth, way out there, but it seemed too far out, in his opinion.

Checking the three planets took another small eternity of moving, carving careful holes and looking through, only to patch the holes over and move on when the planets proved barren. Rocks and wastelands on the first, rocks, wastelands, and poisonous clouds on the second. The third was a ball of ice ― and Kerkael insisted on reaching through the hole he had made and grabbing a chunk! ― and the fourth was just more rocks and more wasteland.

::Well, onto the next!:: Kerkael sent, then paused and asked. ::You do have another one to look for, right?::

Nekeel snorted. ::Yes, Kerkael, I have another one to look for. Give me a bit.::

This time, it didn't take him as long. He could already discard the voices of the stars that he had already sorted through, leaving him with slightly fewer in number to check ― though he hadn't thought to take into account the new voices that spoke up due to his new position in the Void. He set those voices aside for the moment and concentrated on the initial voices that he had heard.

This time, the search and examination took a bit less time. It was getting easier to carve the holes in the Void to look through, and this window showed him a strange yellow-orange star that seemed stable enough. It didn't have any worlds that he could spot, though ― well, not any beyond the huge planet that circled far too close to the star for life, and… wait, was that planet made of gas? Curiosity led him on, and he slowly shifted down through the layers of the giant planet, searching for a solid surface. Whatever it was made of, it was pretty, with bands of red and orange and some yellow, though after a point he had to ask Sessil to send a light through the window in order to see. And then…

::Woah…::

::That's beautiful.::

::What is it?::

Nekeel shook his head and just stared at the shimmering, flickering mass of… something that met his gaze as soon as he'd gone deep enough. It was definitely not land as they knew it, but it also wasn't water as far as he could tell.

::Selverat says it looks almost like the molten metal that the smiths pour out to cast into shape.:: Kerkael spoke up. ::Except less red and more silver.::

::Metal..?:: Nekeel eyed the silvery mass. He… supposed that could be metal. But if that was metal, it was an entire sea of metal.

::I'm going to try to pull some to me,:: Kerkael spoke.

Before Nekeel could protest, he felt Kerkael shift up closer to the window he had created and peer intently through it. Slowly, ever so slowly, a tendril of the silvery fluid wended its way through the thinned Veil ― Nekeel had to carefully thin the veil further where Kerkael was pulling it through, and make sure to hold the rest of it steady so that nothing else came through. But, oddly enough, as soon as it crossed the barrier it just… whisped away. Like water under the noonday sun.

::What in the world..?:: Nekeel asked. ::Kerkael, what's happening?::

::As soon as I pull it through, it just… stops reacting to my power. But that doesn't make any sense! Even when water evaporates, a Water Elemental can still control it even without seeing it.::

::Maybe… maybe it's not really a metal?:: Sessil chimed in.

::But it looks like a metal, and it reacts to me like a metal! But then it comes through and it just disappears! I can feel it slipping through my grasp like how it feels when you try to hold water in your paw and it just trickles out.::

Nekeel hummed in thought, looking from the sea of silvery metal-not-metal that went on and on, and then up at the strange red-orange clouds. A crazy thought started to run through his mind. What if… what if…

::Guys? What if… what if it's actually like when an Earth decides to make gemstones?::

Sessil shot him a curious look, then looked back out at the strange landscape. ::But… that would mean that the silvery liquid is actually… compressed air?::

::And it takes on metallic properties when compressed far enough.:: Kerkael chimed in. ::I… suppose it could be that. Selverat thinks the idea has merit ― though he's still not sure how that would explain why it evaporated when I pulled it through.::

::A need for constant pressure?:: Sessil hummed. ::Well, try to pull something through again, and I'll see if I can catch it since I have Wind Element.::

With a nod, Kerkael once again began to pull the silvery liquid through the veil, but this time as soon as it was through, Sessil attempted to latch onto it. She fumbled and slipped for a bit, allowing most of the liquid to wisp away the same way it had the first time, but…

::I did it!:: She exclaimed, pulling the tiny pool ― barely enough to cover Nekeel's paw ― up before their faces with her power. ::Earth and Wind to do it. Wind to hold it, Earth to keep it compressed. And it is compressed, heavily. I can barely keep it stable.::

::So, a cool trick to awe hatchlings, but nothing practical.:: Nekeel spoke as he examined the liquid closely. ::What is it anyway?::

::It's the flying air. Just flying air,:: Sessil answered him.

::Huh.:: Kerkael added, then shrugged. ::Well, this is interesting, but I don't think we could go exploring out there, so… move on?::

Sessil nodded, allowing her grip on the flying air to dissipate and allowing the silvery liquid to wisp away into invisible gas. Nekeel took that as his cue to close the window through the veil once more, shutting them back into the lightless Void, and went in search of the next star to explore. This was definitely turning out to be an interesting experience.

Maybe… maybe this squad would be a good thing, no matter what his first impression of the other two had been.