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Several children ranging from perhaps eight to their early teens were chasing each other between the plots of raised farmland. The girl in the lead was sprinting with a heavy leather ball in her arms while the others struggled to steal it from her.

A boy, slightly larger, caught her arm, and she attempted to throw the ball to another girl. However, it was too heavy and landed several feet short. It rolled into the path of another child, who kicked it wildly by accident, sending it careening in our direction.

“Why are there children here?” Ellie asked, confused.

Lyra watched the children play with a distant expression. “Many Alacryan families had taken up residence in places like Xyrus and Etistin. Mostly those of higher ranking soldiers. They have nowhere else to go.”

The ball rolled to my feet. The children stopped chasing it, keeping their distance as they stared at me nervously. I tossed the ball into the air with my toe before kicking it back over their heads, sending it sailing. A chorus of laughter broke out among the kids as they took off after it again.

When I turned back around, Lyra was inspecting me intently.

“If you’re going to Alacrya,” she said, “there is something I’d like to ask of you.” A stack of rolled scrolls and folded parchment appeared from her dimension ring. “Some of the people here have written letters to their bloods in Alacrya, but I’ve had no other opportunity to send them.”

Chul snorted. “Are we to be postmen now? Letter carriers for the enemy?”

“Of course we’ll take them,” Caera said, stepping forward to accept the stack of letters from Lyra. She gave me a questioning look.

“It shouldn’t be an issue getting them to Alacrya, at least,” I said noncommittally, feeling more in agreement with Chul than Caera.

Lyra let out a clear, honey-rich laugh, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as well. “I’m not asking you to go door to door and deliver them, Regent. But thank you. Your assistance in this, though it may seem menial to you, is greatly appreciated.”

Caera clutched the letters with care for a long moment before sending them into her dimension ring. “Do we have a destination in mind, then?”

“Is there someplace in Alacrya where we’ll be safe?” Ellie asked in response, fidgeting nervously. Under her breath she added, “I can’t believe I’m going to another continent.”

“Yes, I know where to start. Lyra, is there someplace nearby that is out of sight of the village? I’d rather not upset your people by activating a portal to Alacrya right in front of them.”

Lyra agreed before leading us to a small but thriving copse a bit farther away from the village. It was thick enough to shield us from prying eyes.

Withdrawing the tempus warp, I set it on the ground among the yellow grass and activated it, using aether to mold the mana as necessary. The tempus warp glowed, bright in the shadows of the spreading tree limbs, and a portal appeared next to it.

This time, Caera went first. I couldn’t be entirely sure what was waiting on the other side, and I wanted a familiar face to step out of the portal.

The rest followed quickly.

“Thank you, Lyra,” I said, offering the retainer my hand.

She took it. “Things are coming to a head, Regent. I can’t help but feel that Agrona is done biding his time. He does nothing without a plan, and even if his asuran nature sometimes makes him aloof in the moment, I do not believe anything that has happened is outside of his intentions. Even his defeat here in Dicathen.”

“For our sake, I hope you’re wrong,” I said, squeezing her hand firmly one more time before releasing it.

As I reclaimed the tempus warp, I felt my gaze drawn into the middle distance. Beyond the trees, I could still hear children playing and laborers shouting, followed by the low, mournful trumpeting of a moon ox. I thought of soldiers bending the nature of their attack spells to till and water cropland, of organized battlegroups working in concert to build homes instead of destroying them.

I realized that weaker people might have starved out here, or let their situation become so dire they felt no recourse except to attack again, but the Alacryans had thrived.

Who could have guessed that the woman once responsible for spreading Agrona’s vicious lies to this continent would be the same person who now stood beside me, dedicating her life to the betterment of those Agrona’s saw only as fodder?

Seeing the possibility of better days on the horizon after so long at war, I stepped into the portal.

I was enfolded in trembling light, which took a moment to coalesce into solid shapes as I appeared at my destination. Disembodied voices seeped into my awareness before I could make sense of the shapes, several different voices, most of them shouting.

As the blurred colors took on meaning, I realized I was facing a wall of defensive spells. Obscured by several shields of wind, fire, ice, and translucent panels of mana was a two-story brick estate, which in turn was surrounded by green hills and golden fields. The portal had deposited us right in the middle of a finely maintained yard, and Chul had his foot in a bed of tangerine-colored bulbs.

He also had his weapon out, and he was scowling at the opposing mages. Regis had jumped in front of him, dissuading Chul from leaping at the Alacryans, while Ellie, holding Silverlight like a quarterstaff, had taken cover behind Boo. Caera had stepped forward with her hands raised over her head and was now calmly attempting to defuse the situation.

“We’re not a threat, just relax. My name is Caera of Highblood Denoir. Please, just—”

One of the shields melted away, and a young woman stepped out through the defensive line. Her orange hair faded to yellow at the tips, framing her disbelieving face and bright hazel eyes. “Professor Grey?”

“Please don’t attack my friends, Briar,” I said, slowly stepping out in front of the others. “That would make this pretty awkward all around.”

One by one, the other shields flickered out, revealing several young mages, all school age. The only one I recognized immediately was Adem, Darrin’s ward. The boy’s dark eyes had gone cartoonishly wide at the sight of me, and his face broke into a huge grin. All around him, the other young mages began to chatter excitedly, looking to Adem for confirmation of what Briar had just said.

The front door of the estate slammed open, and Darrin rushed out into the sunlight, wind already swirling around his fists. At the sight of me, he pulled up short, his expression collapsing into pure shock, then relief, and finally into a grin almost as wide as Adem’s.

“Grey! You incorrigible ass, I nearly soiled myself when the perimeter alarm went off,” he said, getting a round of unsure laughter from the crowd of teenagers. “What in the Vritra’s name are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied, letting my gaze sweep across the estate’s defenders. “Your program has expanded, apparently.”

The grin faltered, and he took a turn inspecting them. “A lot has happened since you left for Central Academy. Why don’t you and your friends come inside? You can tell me what kind of trouble you’ve brought to my door, and I’ll do the same.”

The young mages stepped aside, allowing us to approach the mansion. Sylvie fell into step on my left while Ellie moved to my right. I heard her whisper to Boo to stay in the yard. The guardian bear grumbled but did as she asked. Caera and Regis walked just ahead of me.

Glancing back at Chul, who kept a watchful eye on the Alacryans from the rear, I said, “Thank you for showing restraint.

He met my eyes for barely a single step, then returned to watching the Alacryan children. “The signal to attack had not been spoken.”

Inside the entrance hall, more young faces were peering out from doorways and down from the banister around the second floor landing.

“Master Ordin, what—Professor Grey!” Aphene, her dark hair longer than when I’d last seen her at the Victoriad, was blocking off one of the hallways.

Behind her, several much younger children were struggling to hide behind her while simultaneously trying to see what was happening, including the little girl Penka I had met last time I was here.

“Do you have all the kids from my class here?” I asked, further caught off guard by Aphene’s presence.

Darrin’s lips curled in a forced smile that didn’t make it to his eyes.

“Marcus is around here somewhere,” Briar said from the doorway behind my group. “His blood was smart enough to get him out of the academy before things really started going to shit.”

“Briar, mouth,” Darrin said, his tone lightly scolding.

I wanted to ask more questions but felt it would be best to do so in private, and so I followed Darrin deeper into the estate. A trail of kids followed at a distance, slinking behind us as if we wouldn’t notice a dozen pairs of pattering feet. Briar followed more brazenly, acting as if she were one of us, and fully intended on joining whatever conversation followed our arrival.

Sylvie took in every weapon or piece of art hanging on the wall intently. “Alacrya doesn’t seem so different to Dicathen,” she mused.

Darrin led us to the same sitting room where he and Alaric had revealed their Central Academy plan to me. My companions and I entered the room, but Darrin stopped Briar at the door.

She crossed her arms and lifted her chin defiantly, but he only had to cock an eyebrow at her. She deflated, flipped her hair in irritation, and shouted at all the other children to get back to their duties, herding them away.

The small, finely appointed chamber was an awkward fit for all of us. Regis, sensing this, became immaterial and vanished into my core. Chul moved to the window and stared out, his back to the rest of us. Caera, still showing the signs of wear from her long ordeal with Vajrakor, eased into a plush chair. Ellie did the same, although she sat much more stiffly, her hands on her knees with Silverlight gleaming across her legs.

Sylvie stayed at my side, her sharp eyes watching Darrin carefully.

It’s fine. We can trust him.

‘Maybe, but can’t you sense how stressed he is? Things haven’t been going well for him.’

Arms crossed, I leaned against a bare patch of wall, one of the few not covered by bookshelves or drink cabinets. “So, what’s the deal with all the kids?”

Darrin sighed and slumped into a chair. His head slowly panned across the room as he took in each of my companions, and he didn’t answer until his eyes met mine. “Civil war, Grey. Some are recently orphaned, others are in hiding to avoid being sent into combat. Your impact can’t be understated, either. I’m told that many of your students convinced their bloods not to participate in the war because of you.”

“Which is, in a way, why we’re here,” Caera interjected, drawing Darrin’s attention.

“Lady Caera, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” Darrin said, his gaze lingering on her horns.

In a motion that seemed unintentional, Caera’s hand drifted up to her horns, almost as if she’d forgotten they were visible. “Some of us have been fighting this civil war for a long time. Like Scythe Seris. We’re seeking word of her. Is there anything you can tell us?”

Darrin’s jaw clenched, then relaxed. Standing suddenly, he went to a low shelf containing bottles and glasses and poured himself a drink, then drained it in a single quick gulp. “Half of these kids’ parents are trapped in the Relictombs with her. Forces under Scythe Dragoth Vritra have been assaulting the portals to the second level nonstop for weeks.

“Alaric has a couple people embedded with those soldiers feeding us intel, although it’s hardly necessary. The first level industry hasn’t slowed at all, even with the ascents basically shut down. All I know is that the assault forces are growing more confident each day that they’re going to breach the second level soon.”

Caera glanced at me, her urgency apparent. “We shouldn’t wait then, Grey—sorry, Arthur. We need to go immediately.”

Darrin’s brows shot up as she said my name. “So, it’s true then. You’re Dicathian, like the rumors say?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Ellie asked defensively, clutching Silverlight as she looked nervously at Darrin.

Darrin responded to Ellie’s discomfort with a warm smile. “Nothing, really, I just…I’m sorry, Grey—Arthur—hasn’t introduced us. I’m Darrin, ex-ascender and current wrangler of terrified children. I’ve helped him out of more than one precarious predicament, and I’m hoping he’s here to return the favor.”

“Oh,” Ellie said, looking sheepishly down at her knees.

Sparing him too many details, I quickly introduced everyone other than Caera, with whom he was already acquainted.

“It does sound like we need to leave immediately, but…there is a problem with this next part,” I admitted, pushing away from the wall and meeting my bond’s eye.

“I can’t go into the Relictombs,” she said with a pinched frown.

“I’ll stay with Sylvie, if that’s what you want,” Ellie volunteered, surprising me.

“I don’t want to leave anyone behind, but we don’t have a choice. It’ll be fastest if Caera, Regis, and I go alone.” To Darrin, I asked, “Can the others stay here? Sylvie and Chul should be of great help in keeping your wards occupied.”

Chul turned away from the window, glowering. “I did not trade one hiding place for another.”

I began to respond when something caught my attention. Realmheart bathed my vision in a sea of colors, allowing me to see the wind-attribute spell with sound deviancy altering the protection cast on the door.

Darrin—noticing my gaze—strode quickly to the door and swung it open. A handful of the older students spilled to the ground. Behind them, Aphene and Briar had the decency to at least pretend to be sorry.

“Really now,” Darrin chided, shaking his head. “What are you, a bunch of wild animals?”

“My parents are in the Relictombs,” one young man said from his knees. “I want to know what’s going on.”

“Professor Grey will need help if he’s going to help Scythe Seris Vritra.” Bold as always, Briar didn’t flinch under the combined gaze of my entire group. “We can fight—”

“Which is exactly what you were sent here not to do, correct?” Darrin said softly. I saw then just how much he cared for his many wards, as his kindness only grew in the face of Briar’s defiance. “Now go on, all of you.”

With the door closed and protected once again, our conversation continued for some time. Darrin was more than willing to allow my companions to stay with him, although they themselves were less enthusiastic about being left behind, especially Chul.

In the end, though, it was the Relictombs that set our course.

Withdrawing the Compass, I dislocated the two halves and activated the ascension portion. As I’d seen it do many times, the crystal within disintegrated and formed an opaque portal above the half-sphere. I knew immediately that something was wrong.

The portal itself was distorted, the light spilling out from it bending unnaturally. I stepped quickly aside to avoid touching the clutching rays of viscous light, only then catching sight of my bond.

Sylvie was staring at the portal as if a trance, and it almost seemed as if the portal itself was reaching toward her.

“You okay?” I asked, my fingers twitching with the desire to cancel out the portal.

Sylvie nodded, her hand coming up slowly as she reached out toward the light that was simultaneously reaching for her. “I’m fine, it’s just…there’s some kind resonance between me and the portal…”

Faint striations were rippling through the atmospheric aether, I realized, connecting Sylvie and the ascension portal.

“Sylvie,” I warned, a vague, disembodied panic tightening my chest.

She hesitated, looking to me as if asking for permission. “It feels…comfortable.”

My fists clenched at my sides as I resisted the urge to hold her back. I tried to consider the situation rationally, but I had no basis for making a decision. The portal should simply push her back, like what had happened with Taci and Aldir, but Sylvie could be different. Alternatively, the Compass could work differently, but I had no way of knowing if that was a good or bad thing.

All I could do in the end was trust her. I nodded. Her fingertips brushed the edges of the opaque oval, and she stepped through, vanishing into the Relictombs.

‘Well shit,’ Regis thought, leaping through the portal after her.

“Change of plans,” I snapped. “Chul, go with her.”

He grinned, conjured his weapon, and leaped in. Caera set her jaw in determination and followed.

Ellie was watching me carefully, clearly still unsure if she was coming with or not. I nodded and waved her toward the portal. There was a faint pop and Boo appeared next to her, his bulk overturning an end table. “Oops, sorry,” Ellie said before striding into the portal, followed closely by Boo.

“No one else will be able to enter the portal after I go through,” I explained to Darrin, “but don’t let anyone tamper with the artifact.”

“It’ll be locked in this room. No one will enter, I can promise you that,” Darrin assured me as he righted the overturned table. “Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”

“Nothing pleasant, I’m sure.” Not wishing to leave my companions inside the Relictombs without me for any longer than I already had, I strode through the portal.

And stepped into…something indescribable.

Furious violet pressure locked my body in place. An invisible storm raged, and my pulse seemed to start and stop again, my heart being rapidly and then not at all. I couldn’t see, hear, or think clearly. I wasn’t even sure if I’d arrived in the Relictombs.

‘It’s Sylvie…’ Regis’s voice came to me through the crush of aether, distorted and halting.

Along with his voice came the flash of a memory: Regis, appearing on the other side of the portal. Sylvie, her body stiff and falling like she was having some kind of seizure. Moving a half step toward her. Then, an explosion of aether, compressing Regis into little more than a wisp trapped inside viscous aetheric tar.

Activating Realmheart, I sensed for the others. They were there, immobile, frozen, but otherwise they didn’t appear to be harmed in any way.

Gathering as much of my own power as I could, I pushed outward, attempting to force my way through the obstruction while carefully maneuvering between my companions. Bit by bit, the opposing aether gave way, and I was able to inch forward. One step, then another, deeper into the morass, until…

My right foot bumped into the source of the chaos.

Bending down—slowly, as I had to be careful now to push out only enough aether to keep from being locked in place again—I reached for Sylvie.

The air between us cleared, the amethyst fog pushed aside by my countering force.

Sylvie was on the ground, her eyes open but rolled so far back in her head that only the whites showed. Her body was rigid and motionless. Grabbing her shoulders, I shook her gently. When she didn’t respond, I shook harder.

She didn’t react.

“Sylvie!”

Sylv, can you hear me?

She didn’t respond.

My mind raced. I couldn’t be certain if the aether was being controlled by her in some kind of spell or emanation, or if the Relictombs itself was generating the phenomenon. She was unconscious, but the aether felt like her, neither of which made sense. A defensive mechanism, maybe? I wondered. Triggered by some reaction from the Relictombs.

Attempting to expel the aetheric storm was too dangerous. I might rip Ellie or Caera to pieces in between the opposing forces. I could try to cancel it, but without understanding what was happening or why, I was afraid to inhibit Sylvie in any way.

Still, I knew I had to do something.

Expanding my senses, which required a forceful effort on my part as I exuded my own aether to push outward through the spell’s effect like worms burrowing through soil, I tried to find the edges of the cloud.

My pulse quickened at what I discovered.

The storm was expanding outward, building on itself with the atmospheric aether of the zone. Sylvie didn’t have an aether core and so had no purified aether of her own to utilize. Like all dragons, she could only influence the aether around her. If I could force the aether back inward, containing it somehow, I could prevent her spell from affecting the rest of us without cutting her off from it.

Only, I saw a problem with this almost immediately.

If I was spending all my energy containing Sylvie’s unconscious spell, I wouldn’t be able to help the others clear the zone. But Sylvie had no natural way to contain so much aether, no ability to draw in and store the aether like I did.

Except I did have a way to manipulate aether outside of my body without constant conscious input.

Reaching for the tether to my relic armor, I tried to manifest it without conjuring it onto my body. The black scales appeared over my skin. I ground my teeth and attempted to physically remove it, but unlike normal armor, there was no way to do so.

‘Maybe I could help, if I could move,’ Regis thought.

If we could just…yeah, that might work. Let me see what I can do.

Kneeling next to Sylvie, I opened the floodgates of my core. I didn’t attempt to control the aether that began pouring out of me, simply let it expand out into the atmosphere. It spread through the cloud, doing nothing to disrupt the spell but blending in with the atmospheric aether forming the emanation.

I could feel the expanding edge of the cloud and the density of the atmospheric aether, and I tried to match my output to how much the spell was influencing. It took a minute. When I thought the two forces were nearly in balance, I took control.

Each purple particle of my purified aether latched onto a particle of what made up Sylvie’s spell. I couldn’t hope to individually control each mote, but the aether responded to my intention and reacted appropriately.

Finding Regis within the storm, I stilled the aether around him, then opened a sort of tunnel between us. He was with me instantly, flying out of the cloud and into my core.

‘What even is she doing?’ he groused, mentally shaking off the effects of the spell.

No time. After.

The basis of our idea was the same concept Regis and I had utilized when I imbued a conjured sword with Destruction by channeling our combined power into my aether. First, Regis flowed into the armor itself, maintaining his incorporeal state. Then I released the armor. Regis stayed with it, allowing himself to be pulled between aetheric states.

The armor faded, becoming incorporeal as well, but did not entirely vanish. However the djinn had crafted the relic, they had never accounted for it bringing along another aetheric form, and so it froze between states.

When Regis flew toward Syvlie, the shadowy armor was dragged with him. He disappeared into Sylvie, and I tugged at the thread between me and the armor, making it physical again. Or, rather, trying to.

Instead, the shadowy essence of the half-summoned armor tore like a silk shirt. Cursing, I reached out with my aether and attempted to grab onto the armor, similar to how I manipulated mana with aether. Regis pulled at it, trying to draw the armor around Sylvie while I held it together.

Closing my eyes, I made one thought clear in my mind. Protect her.

I let all other thoughts slip away, focusing entirely on the armor and that simple idea.

Time seemed frozen.

In a jittery, sped up fashion, the armor started to coalesce, shrinking to fit Sylvie’s body while hardening into its corporeal state around her. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

My mind went back to the aether I’d released into the atmosphere, each particle bonded with those of Sylvie’s spell.

The atmospheric aether fought me, attempting to maintain the shape Sylvie’s will was influencing it into. But as the djinn projection had explained, my core gave me the advantage of much tighter control and a much stronger bond with the purified aether. I overpowered Sylvie’s influence.

The spell’s area of influence was forced inward toward Sylvie herself. I could feel the edges of the storm shrinking as the obscuring purple haze faded from the air. Bit by bit, it was all contained within Sylvie using the relic armor as the shell.

A bloodcurdling battle cry exploded just beside me as Chul reared back, his weapon held at the ready as his head jerked this way and that in search of an enemy.

Someone else heaved, and I turned just in time to see my sister be sick on the ground not far from where Sylvie lay. Caera wrapped an arm around her and pulled Ellie’s hair out of her face, muttering something soft and consoling.

‘Hah, it worked. I didn’t expect that,’ Regis thought as he drifted free of Sylvie’s body. He transformed into his physical form and shook the mane of fire burning around his neck.

I cupped Sylvie’s face in my hand and used Realmheart to search for any signs of injury, backlash, or magical damage, but she seemed physically unharmed. Now that the spell had been contained, it was clear that this effect was being projected by Sylvie herself and wasn’t an attack by the Relictombs.

“The armor is doing most of the work, but I’m going to have to stay focused on it to keep her spell from breaking free again,” I explained to the others.

“Pah, what here could threaten me?” Chul asked, staring around confidently.

My gaze followed his, fully taking in our surroundings for the first time.

We had been deposited on a narrow patch of flat, barren ground in the midst of a forest. Except for where we stood, the trees grew up out of calm, clear water. Giant roots occasionally rose above the surface like winding highways, mirroring the limbs above.

There was no sky, only the constantly climbing flora, branches as wide as highways weaving together to create the impression that there was no beginning or end to the forest canopy. Despite the lack of sun or sky, the forest was lit with cool, sourceless light.

“Is—is Sylvie okay,” Ellie asked weakly, struggling to stand straight as she wiped her mouth clean. Boo moaned and nudged her with his broad forehead. “Why does she look like that?”

Sylvie was still rigid, her eyes rolled back into her head. I tried shaking her again, then lifted her up into a sitting position. Her muscles were so taut it was difficult to move her. “Hey, Sylv…Sylvie?”

When there was no response, I closed my eyes and projected my voice directly into her mind. Sylvie, can you hear me?

My constant connection with her mind was absent. My thoughts reached nothing.

The others weren’t silently waiting for me to give orders. Caera had already activated the artifact bracer she’d claimed from the Spear Beaks’ treasure. Multiple silver spikes flew outward, some going up into the limbs above, others skirting the top of the water.

Chul had leaped from the ground to a nearby root that stuck up fifteen feet above the water’s surface. With one hand on a tree the size of an old Earth skyscraper, he searched our surroundings.

“We need to move, to reach the exit portal,” I said, lifting Sylvie and laying her carefully across Boo’s broad back. “Maybe this state is only temporary, or maybe we need to get her out of the Relictombs, I don’t know. Either way, I don’t want to linger here any longer than necessary.”

Ellie jumped up behind Sylvie to hold her in place. She gave me a fierce look. “We’ve got her, Arthur.”

“Grey,” Caera said softly, her eyes flickering open and closed rapidly as she focused on whatever input was coming from her drones. “We’re not alone.”