At the break of dawn, over a dozen Angel dropships flew over the charred remains of a schutz and the local military tanks that had been destroyed just hours ago. They kept in a tight diamond formation, with the Mezik L protected in the middle. All of the aircraft were filled with soldiers and demolition teams, as the coming mission called for both.

  Upon reaching the bridge near the embassy—a three-story former mansion that now had many of its windows shot out—the birds slowed to a hovering stop and turned towards the bridge. It was empty, for now, and there were no visible Guard forces appearing on the Mezik L’s HUD.

  “Hold on, everyone,” Simon said from the co-pilot’s seat, with Xidona piloting next to him, her hand steady on the flight stick. “If we’re doing something this risky with this many people, it’s worth a second look.”

  He had the ship’s lidar system begin a second scan, which covered everything on the other side of the Ozarus. The invisible lasers hit each window of the riverside buildings, looking for anyone posted in the rooms.

  “I don’t get it, where is everyone?” Bryant said from the back. “The sergeant and the others broadcasted their general location, unsecured. The Guard knows how valuable they are. But it’s undefended here.”

  Garder, sitting with Sieger opposite Finx, grunted and replied, “Because it’s a trap. Simon, how are we going to handle this?”

  “With extreme caution. And we don’t have a choice. The others might not have long, and if we’re going across the river anyway… We need to use this chance to take out as many anti-air emplacements as we can. We’ll never advance otherwise. Stingers in the air means no Mezik. No Mezik means those battleships aren’t going anywhere.”

  “And then the suppression tower goes up while we wait,” Xidona concluded. “Are inner City fights always this tight?”

  “Usually. It always comes down to one or two critical moves or failures. Often feels like one side only claims a City due to a technicality.”

  Xidona looked up at the holographic display at the top of the windshield, which showed a layout of the buildings—and no people.

  “All clear. Your call, Mr. Thalst.”

  “Go ahead, slowly,” Simon ordered. “Keep formation.”

  For the first time in the Battle for N, Angel forces began to cross the Ozarus. On their left, farther south on the bending river, the stern of one of Fordein’s destroyers came into view—its guns thankfully remaining just out of sight. Any closer, and they could all be shot down.

  “Crazy bastards,” Sieger grumbled as he looked outside.

  “Halfway across the bridge,” Simon reported. “Still no contact.”

  “Everyone on alert,” Xidona told the other pilots. “They would never leave the entire avenue undefended.”

  They made it to the other side, and then flew across several more City blocks. Milla and the others’ reported location was near.

  All of a sudden, light filled the street. It was an easy assumption that the sun had risen past the skyscrapers, but it was still too early for it. As shadows became dark and long, the brightness grew exponentially very quickly, and just before it became too blinding, Simon got a peek outside and up to see a second sun in the sky, directly ahead of them. The lidar sensors were soon overloaded and the HUD became useless.

  The Mezik L flooded with brilliance, Xidona and Simon covered their faces and looked away to keep themselves from going blind.

  “We can’t see anything!” several pilots reported at once.

  “Cut your throttles immediately!” Simon commanded. “We can’t stay in the air—stop moving and get on the ground!”

  The dropships did so, though it was too late for one pilot, who must have panicked and hit either their rudder or yoke too hard after reacting to the sunlight. Those in the Mezik L could hear a bird crash into a building, spin out of control, and then slam into the ground.

  Then the shooting started. It was coming from below; gunfire mostly, accompanied by the sound of two rockets taking to the air as well. Two more birds were hit, lost their engines, and crashed.

  “Drop, now!” Simon repeated his order, and then looked at the passengers in the back as the light inside began to dim. “We have smart glass—it’ll darken on its own. Just takes a few seconds.”

  Garder, keeping his eyes closed, concentrated and created a spherical vortex of wind around the ship. Though his alchemagi flow had no easy way to get outside, his protection was still strong enough to blow several incoming rockets off course while Xidona settled onto the street.

  Once the windows reached a dark enough tint, the two pilots were able to see the street again—and the men tearing into the other transports. These Guardsmen were dressed in reflective gold light armor, wore black visors to block the light, and had armed themselves with heavy weaponry.

  “Our armor isn’t going to last long against those guns,” Simon said. “Turret crews, I know you can’t see, but employ sporadic suppressive fire away from the formation center. Buy us time to figure out what this is.”

  “The Guard and their dirty tricks,” Finx said and blinked several times as the spots began to dissipate from her vision. “Is this Kae’s work?”

  “The source is too big and bright for a standard solar spell,” Simon said, scanning his console’s readouts. “Damn, it’s intense. Picking up over 25,000 lumens—about ten times brighter than an unshielded sunsphere.”

  “It’s also baking outside,” Xidona added. “Air temperature is reaching 150° Fahrenheit. We can’t fight in this.”

  “Can you dim the windows even more?” Garder wondered. “I want to see what’s causing this.”

  “Probably just a bright ball of light…” Simon got on the Mezik L’s controls and manually tinted the glass another level with each tap.

  The firefight and sight of dropships being chewed apart outside disappeared into darkness, and the source’s halo began to shrink. Once it was nothing more than a night star in a pitch-black sky, Simon took out the ship’s pair of binoculars to get a better look.

  “Tint is all the way down to three percent,” he told the others. “I should be able to look right at… Oh. Wow, I don’t believe it.” He handed the binoculars to Garder, who leaned forward to take his turn with his one eye. Simon then asked him, “Is that what I think it is?”

  Though it was bathed in an opaque light, Garder could make it out. Flapping its wings slowly and gracefully as it floated in place, a large moth made of burning, shedding energy at last solved an ancient Aurrian mystery.

  “It’s an elemental,” he confirmed and handed the lenses over to Xidona. “Kae would know its shape even if she’s never looked at it herself. You see them form in your mind before they take on life.”

  “We can tell the burrow and get this in the history books after we survive,” Finx said. “How do we make it disappear?”

  Upon hearing another dropship engine explode outside, Simon radioed the Red Tenor, where Temki would be helping to monitor troop movements from the bridge. The signal was messy due to the interference caused by the moth, but cleaned up some after a quick power boost.

  “This is Simon,” he told the operator. “I need to talk to Temki.”

  “Copy that. One moment.”

  “Garder,” Simon said back to him. “You good on the vortex?”

  He replied, “I can keep it going for maybe another five minutes.”

  “Should be enough. I just need to break Kae’s concentration.”

  “Simon?” Temki’s voice came in. “You there?”

  “Hey. How bright is it over there?”

  “It hurts your eyes if you look right at it, but otherwise it’s not too bad—combat operations out here haven’t been disrupted, yet.”

  “That light is coming from a solar elemental. They leave a residual trail of alchemagi back to their creators that you should be able to detect.”

  “I’ve been taught how to trace it,” Temki affirmed. He then could be heard asking, “Does anyone have a pair of sunglasses?” After a few more seconds, he spoke to Simon again, “Yes, I can see the flow of alchemagi… Lechi, what building is that? Simon, Kae must be in N’s central banking building—the tall glass tower, probably near the top. Be careful.”

  “I will.” Simon turned to the others. “Once the light dims, fight back, and then get everyone going to the west. Stay in the shade. We still have to take out the SAM sites while we’re on this side of the river.”

  “What about Milla’s group?” Garder asked him.

  “They’re close. I might have the best shot at finding them.”

  “Don’t do anything crazy, Simon. Just distract her if nothing else.”

  He gave them a thumbs-up, threw on the darkest of his three pairs of sunglasses that he had on him, and after a breath, opened the Mezik L’s side door. Blinding light and baking heat flooded in for the brief moment he left it open. Once he was outside, he quickly traveled through the light to the top of the nearest tower to keep from getting hit by a stray bullet.

  The shades only barely just kept the light from burning his retinas. It looked as if the City had been bleached by a lit-up snowstorm, although the dangerous local temperature didn’t fit at all with conditions similar to a whiteout. But he could still see the building, maybe just a mile away.

  He jumped from rooftop to rooftop in bursts, once again thanking Vlad and Kerchief for the emphasis on elemental travel during his training. It also helped that solar adepts had the easiest version of the still-difficult technique. But he had yet to get used to the complete weightlessness that came with each jump, and hesitated to make them too far apart.

  Once he had reached the tower on the other side of the road from his destination, he was so close to the moth that he could feel his skin burning through his jacket and gloves, which he dared not remove. If he had spent more than a few seconds of his journey as solid matter, his health would have been in serious jeopardy from the intense exposure.

  After traveling to the tower rooftop, going through its access door, and reaching the first stairway, he swapped to his prescription sunglasses with the least tint. Cautiously, he opened the door to the top floor and headed in, sensing the unmistakable aura of a fellow solar adept nearby.

  He found her quickly, meditating by the window of an executive office. She was alone, but speaking softly into a radio. The view outside was flooded with luminance that masked everything beyond.

  “Finish off those last five dropships…” she ordered, just barely breaking her trance. “If even one of those teams makes it out of the ambush, we may lose our Ozarus anti-air battery… Give me a moment. I have an intruder up here. No—backup isn’t necessary. Keep at it.”

  Kae stood up and faced Simon. The moth’s power faded only in the slightest; she was still maintaining it, meaning she had no alchemagi of her own to use. Simon figured that would give him the advantage.

  “Mr. Thalst,” Kae said as she reached her full height, which was at least a foot greater than Simon’s stature. “I’ve always wanted to meet you. It’s a shame that you serve the Angels. I wonder… If a Guardsman had sought your help instead, would you be on our side right now?”

  “Would they have accepted an Earthen?”

  “Mr. Drides had already set a precedent by then. So, perhaps.”

  “I can’t waste time here. The gentleman in me would ask if you’d release your elemental. What you’ve done is rather low for a woman of your reputation. Both the ambush, and N in general.”

  “Mistakes were made, I admit. Certain… others have left us with a mess to clean up. That doesn’t mean we can simply pull back.”

  They both looked at each other a moment more. Simon then flashed ahead and struck first, going for a blow at Kae’s leg to try and hobble her. But her reaction time was among the best in Aurra, and she had managed to pull out her battle staff and block Simon’s attack—just barely. She hadn’t even gotten a good look at his weapon before she had parried.

  She then saw that he had heavily struck her staff with what seemed to be just a bare arm. His hand or wrist should have been broken, and yet he tried for another hit without the slightest expression of pain. He struck five times in all, pushing Kae back as she denied any solid hits.

  “Just what is it that you’re equipped with?” she wondered earnestly.

  Simon took up a fighting stance to protect himself, and it was then that she saw the metal braces around his arms, obscured by his jacket, that fed wires into his gloves. She also heard the mechanical clicks of servos.

  “I’m not very good with typical weaponry,” he explained. “I try to avoid fighting in general. But after Lenal nearly killed me, I never wanted to go into a dangerous place unarmed again.”

  “You made exo-arms in C, hm? You killed Breen without them.”

  “I got lucky back then. That’s not something to rely upon.”

  Determined to remain on the offense, he attacked again, this time mostly utilizing his left arm. He had learned mixed martial arts years ago before he began traveling around the world, for his personal protection. He never figured he’d have to fall back on those skills while in Aurra, but when the war started, he began training whenever he wasn’t in the lab.

  But Kae was quickly adapting and learning his moves, and he felt his odds of dealing any real damage diminishing by the second. Once he saw a good chance to take her off guard, he slammed his right arm down onto her staff, aimed upward, opened his palm, and had a wrist-mounted mechanism spring out. Kae looked right at it—to see an alchemagi crystal embedded in a metal disc. She realized it was a weapon a moment too late.

  He fed alchemagi into the crystal and generated a powerful burst of light. Without access to her own reserve to bend the flash away from her eyes, she defensively stepped back and swung her staff wildly until her eyesight returned. She wouldn’t allow herself be helpless in the meantime.

  Simon noticed the light outside dim. He looked to his right to the moth floating just outside, itself still ablaze in a vibrant glow that concealed most of its body. It was looking right at him, and had created a distortion of space at its side, which bent and absorbed the surrounding light.

  Realizing danger was incoming, he teleported back a safe distance just before a powerful, searing ray of light blasted through the window and into the office. The horizontal pillar of energy set nearby work papers and furniture ablaze, while also acting as a barrier to keep Kae safe. The moth began tracking him, and the beam of concentrated solar power gave chase.

  He backed into a concrete hallway that would protect him from the ray, where he waited for it disappear. He was only there for a moment before he felt the air moving behind him. Knowing what that meant, he flipped around in time to respond to Kae, who had just warped in while his guard was down. He knocked back her staff with his shielded knuckles. She struck again, and this time he grabbed onto her weapon with both hands.

  His machinery working hard to overcome her strength, he kept a firm hold on the battle staff as she tried to wrestle it away. Eventually she had no choice but to kick him, her staff still in his hands. He skidded back into the office, and feared for a split second that he would go right through the moth’s solar ray—but realized that if Kae had just used alchemagi, she would have likely had to recall her elemental. It was indeed gone, and the light outside had returned to normal, fulfilling his primary goal.

  Kae, however, was far from done with Simon, and she warped in behind him a second time, where she kicked the back of his shin and sent him tumbling to the ground. He dropped the staff, it rolled across the floor, and she teleported once more, this time ahead of him where she stepped on her weapon. She maneuvered it onto her foot, kicked it into the air, caught it, and promptly jabbed it into Simon’s chest.

  With her alchemagi, she could move so quickly and effortlessly that she warped a fourth time before he had even hit the floor. She thrust the metal downward into his torso again, slamming him to the floor.

  “You’ve forced me to let your friends go,” she muttered angrily. “If I’m going to divert all of my attention to you, I mean to finish the job.”

  Trying to shrug off the pain, Simon extended a finger and fired off three bursts of light into her face. She deflected each of the vibrant photons away from her eyes, and then placed her other hand on the staff as well. She looked ready to push it down with great force to crush bone.

  He messily warped himself a few feet away to safety, his back still on the floor as Kae’s weapon hit the tile nearby hard enough to crack it.

  Able to admit that he was no match against a solar pretorian that was stronger and more adept with alchemagi, Simon changed his strategy to that of retreat, believing he had bought the others enough time to at least fight back and get moving on foot. He got up, warped backward to dodge a haymaker thrust from the staff, and looked for an exit.

  Behind him, at the end of the hall, was a window; all he needed. With another blow coming right at him, he teleported to the end of the hall, looked outside, and did a second jump through the light to reach the rooftop of a shorter building. He only had a moment to catch his breath before Kae appeared right near him and went for another strike.

  He leapt away again, and then again, rooftop to rooftop, but she always followed him just a split second later. By the fourth jump, she was getting in hits before he could warp again, which he blocked with his arm—but now the impacts were hard enough to deliver pain despite landing on the armored metal braces. Running out of steam, Simon teleported again and arrived on a building just two blocks from the river.

  But he knew his movements were predictable, so it came to little surprise that this time, Kae beat him to the next rooftop. He all but warped right into her swinging staff, which hit him in the face and knocked off his glasses. She followed up with a jab at his chest to wind him, blinded him with a burst of light, smashed two of his right fingers with her staff, and finally sent him stumbling back with a powerful shove from her left arm.

  He couldn’t correct his momentum in time, and found himself backing right off of the edge. As he felt gravity take over, he reached out in desperation and managed to grab hold of a windowsill before reaching too great a velocity. Spots still in his eyes, he looked up to see the silhouette of Kae looking down at him, with her combat staff retracting.

  She shifted her focus from him to watch those below: the dozens of surviving Angels, now running down the street to one of the towers that held an anti-air battery as the Mezik L escorted them a few meters above. She prepared to bring out the moth again to blind them all, before seeing that a large contingent of Guardsmen were heading in from the opposite direction to counter them, none of whom had proper eye protection.

  She was still tempted to bring harm or fully sacrifice her men to stop the Angels, but knew that she could never live with that choice.

  “Damn it…” she grumbled and got on her radio. “This is Anneise. Direct all fire onto those demo crews. Adjust the artillery.” She looked down at Simon and gave him some parting words, “You may not be much of a fighter, Mr. Thalst, but I commend your bravery. Still, when you arrive back on Earth after passing through Hold’s kingdom, you should stay there and leave all of this behind. Next time, I won’t pull my punches.”

  Once she had disappeared, Simon focused on surviving. He could see again and his enhanced arms made it easier to hang onto the sill, but he wasn’t having any luck doing one last warp to get on the ground. Once some adrenaline wore off, he felt sharp pain in his fingers. Kae must have broken them, and it hurt far too much to try and straighten them so that he could cast a spell. After several attempts, he released his right hand’s grip on the sill, hoping to pull his fingers straight with his teeth if it came to it.

  Unfortunately for him, the shift of all the weight into just one arm proved too much for the aging windowsill, and it crumbled in his grip. With nothing else to grab onto, he began to free fall to the street far below.

  “They’ll find us,” Milla promised Xavier and Shin. “I can feel soldiers approaching. The glass is rattling.”

  She was near the window of an empty, dark café. The three had spent the last couple of days traveling through alleyways at night, and ducking into and hiding inside stores and restaurants during the day. They had covered several miles of City blocks without getting caught, but there was no way across the river—until now, with any luck.

  “And what if those soldiers aren’t Angels?” Xavier worried.

  “Because they’re coming from the direction of the nearest bridge those destroyers can’t hit. I never said it over the radio, but I also knew that if our men were going to risk coming to this side, they were going to take the chance to take out those missile sites as well.”

  “Which are mostly lined up on top of the buildings of this street,” Shin said from the back of the café. “Good thinking, Milla.”

  “Yes, well, we just barely made it here in time. Hold out a little longer. They’re coming.” She then noticed the chalkboard to her right, with the daily menu of food and drinks, complete with illustrations likely made by the art students that went to school in the area. “They were still writing out the breakfast dishes when it all began…” she sighed.

  “Did you used to get food here?” Shin asked.

  “Yeah. A lot of schools and academies in this part of the City, you know? Garder and I came here, Fridays after class. Still did until we left N.”

  Angel demolition crews began to run past the window, a few of them stopping to take forward shots with their rifles. The Mezik L was hanging back overhead, and while it looked safe to come out and finally rejoin them, the three waited to be sure of it.

  It was a good thing they did—as soon as the sound of artillery fire started erupting from farther down the road, Angels fell back and took cover under and behind the shelters that the alchemagists in the crews created out of the previously damaged asphalt.

  Shells came in, raining fire down as their ominous whistles filled the air. One blast came close enough to blow out the café window, which Milla had stepped away from just as the rolling thunder began.

  After the barrage ended, Milla saw Garder run by, with several others keeping up just behind him. He didn’t even notice the café.

  “That was Garder,” Xavier said. “He came in with my squad.”

  “Xavier, wait!” Shin protested as he made a running leap right out of the broken window. “God sake. This is a war zone.”

  She and Milla exited the building a little more cautiously, and stepped behind a large barrier made up of road and destroyed vehicles that some alchemagists were maintaining. Xavier was off chasing his team, with Garder at the very front, who was taking on a group of Guard wizards.

  Milla worried for him, yet understood that he was more than capable of taking care of himself. But she did a double-take upon realizing that he wasn’t aware she was watching, and wasn’t holding back. For the first time, she caught a glimpse of his uninhibited rage in battle. He showed no mercy to his enemies, and dealt with each of them quickly but often brutally. She suddenly had more respect for Sasoire’s ability to keep him under some manner of control, but here in his burning home, there would be nothing that could hold him back. Not even his allies dared get close.

  Her concentration was broken by a faint scream from above, and she looked up in time to see someone falling from the building across the street. Shin spotted him too, but Milla reacted first, and generated a large air cushion under the person in need, without considering who they might be.

  She had gone a bit overboard with the density of the air, and the person she was trying to save bounced back up at an angle that would send him into the street on his next descent. She let out a curse and ran across the street before he made a potentially deadly impact, her arms out. She barely managed to stay on her feet as she caught him.

  “S-Simon?” she exclaimed.

  Her strength giving out, she put him down as gently as she could—not much more than a clumsy drop—and tried to calm her racing heart. He attempted to shake off the indignity, but couldn’t hide his gratitude.

  “Milla…” He breathed out and hunched over. “You actually caught me. Holy hell. I really thought that was it.”

  “What were you doing up there?” Shin asked while Milla tried to find the right words and Simon put back on his everyday spectacles.

  “Getting my ass kicked by Kae. Not that I was trying to beat her, but, damn…” Simon paused as one of the Angel officers passed by, giving him a thumbs-up on the way. “Guess I did what I had to, though.”

  Milla smiled, and turned to watch Garder again. Her smile faded the moment she saw him slice through two swordsmen with an air blade, impale a rifleman with an icicle, and then slash through two others with his sword, all within a few seconds. It was hard to accept what he had become.

  Xavier’s team fought alongside him and others in their efforts to push forward and secure the first floor of the buildings that held the anti-air batteries. Finx launched her stone arrows or turned the road into quicksand under her enemies, Bryant provided covering fire, and Sieger took on several alchemagists, absorbing and then using the energy of the spells with the broken ax that still gave Milla bad memories of its previous owner.

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  Once the closest of the enemy had been decimated, Garder turned around and finally noticed the people he had been sent out that morning to find. He did look relieved despite just experiencing a blood rage, and came over to them as the other soldiers rushed in to establish a defensive line.

  “Milla,” he huffed and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Shin, Xavier. You all made it. And… good work, Simon.”

  Milla replied, “We… never did get our hands on any weapons.”

  Garder nodded and tapped at the data-disc at his side. Viveri’s old sword appeared in his right hand, and he gave the active blade to her, which would’ve been covered in blood had it not sizzled away upon their owners’ deaths. She stared at it for a second before tucking it under her belt.

  “Keep it. So, you finally saw Hold. What did you think of Escellé?”

  “It… It wasn’t as overwhelming as I thought it might’ve been. I had heard so much about her and the kingdom over the years.”

  “We have a lot to talk about with Rivia,” Shin said.

  “We should head back to base, then,” Simon replied. “My fingers need fixing, I don’t think we need the Mezik L here anymore, and you all must need some rest and a good meal. The others can take over.”

  “I should actually join my team,” Xavier said, and got some looks from the others. “Just for a little bit, guys. I can go for another few hours, help take out some of those SAM sites. You go back—I’ll be fine.”

  Exhaustion winning over their sense of duty, Milla and Shin joined Garder and Simon in the Mezik L, and warped directly to the bunker hangar—with Simon’s injuries beginning to catch up with him on the way.

  “Simon, that sun burn on your face is looking pretty bad,” Milla fretted as they ate an early dinner together in the camp outside the bunker.

  He touched a cheek and recoiled. “Yeah. Going to need some more lotion for that. That moth was a damn strong elemental.”

  “Tell me you got a picture of the thing.”

  “Don’t worry. The L records everything it sees. Milla, I know you’re waiting until the war council can convene to tell us what happened, but I just hope… I don’t know, that there wasn’t much pain when you…”

  She sighed. “Drides… is a real bastard. But don’t worry about me, Simon. There are too many other things to be concerned about right now.”

  Nearby, Phoebe, a fire adept, finished warming up a fresh meal for Garder at the serving booth by using a flame in her palm. Louis, an iron adept who kept the pots and pans in good condition, worked on the next helping of stew for the troops with Rayna, on a well-earned break.

  “Take care of yourself, Garder,” Phoebe said and handed him a hearty dinner. “You really look like you could use some rest.”

  He simply nodded in response, and joined Milla and Simon at their table, lit up in the orange of a sun setting between nearby damaged towers.

  “I talked to Shin,” he said and bit off half of his bread roll. “She told me Rivia just got back from G, so I guess we’ll get together shortly.”

  “Any idea what was important enough to take care of there?” Milla asked. “I figured he’d be in town, considering the morning’s operation.”

  “News is spreading about N, and it’s causing unrest in J. Rivia must’ve needed to meet with Kavinst to ensure G remains stable.”

  Simon replied thoughtfully, “If that flimsy peace agreement between the military and Guardsmen in Aurra’s biggest City falls apart, the resulting chaos might bring all of Onasia to the brink.”

  “The Guard never should’ve invaded N,” Milla said angrily. “This will go down as one of the biggest tactical blunders in Aurrian history.”

  “I don’t think you’d ever be on such a list,” Simon replied. “Milla, if you can take away anything positive from your previous Earth life… It taught you military strategy. Even if it was through your husband.”

  She looked away like she always did when the subject came up.

  Garder looked back and forth between the two of them and asked, “Simon, she told you? She’s kept that a secret to almost everyone.”

  “Some time ago,” Milla said. “We’ve grown close. As friends.”

  “… Huh. Oh. Here.” Garder took out a standard issue pocket watch, checked the time, and handed it to her. “Welcome back.”

  Milla gazed out at the smoldering skyline of her home, and after all these years away, actually felt not at all welcomed back.

  “It couldn’t be helped,” Daschel was the first to speak once Milla and Shin concluded their report for the war council, who had gathered around the table of a nearby hotel’s emptied dining hall. “Short of killing Drides on Earth, what can be done? I don’t like to admit it, but if his plans were to acquire a nuclear weapon, he would’ve just tried somewhere else.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that we failed,” Shin replied.

  “We need to let Pristil know somehow,” Rivia said. “She would never approve of the pretorians bringing a warhead into Aurra.”

  “You don’t think it was actually her idea all along?” Osk wondered.

  “Not a chance,” Daschel argued. “Look, I served the Guard for a dozen lifetimes. Twice as its Mightoria division general. I knew many of its kings and queens, a few of them actually benevolent. Not once did any of them pursue any manner of weapon of mass destruction.”

  “Lontonkon gave himself access to nova,” Garder stated.

  “True, but then again, I was eighty years old here when I saw his sick ambitions as a young man—the kind that made me swear off serving the Guard in my next Aurrian life. He was an exception.”

  “And we know Pristil hated him,” Sasoire added.

  “Yes, and I think that’d make her oppose Drides’ action even more vehemently. The Guard has always worried about WMDs getting in the wrong hands and used against them, likely overriding their beloved providence. That, and the collateral damage resulting from their designed use. They never even ran a chemical warfare program in their history.”

  “And what would Pristil be able to do?” Leovyn grumbled after stepping out of the shadows where he had been listening. “If you haven’t noticed, she and half the pretorians haven’t exactly been copacetic recently. Case in point: what’s happened to this City.”

  “You both make good arguments,” Rivia replied. “I’ve been working on a theory concerning a possible conspiracy within the Guard, led by Drides himself. Fordein and Arthur Camryde may be involved.”

  “I’ve heard that Arthur hasn’t exactly been cooperative with the senate,” Viktor said. “He’s in the running to lead them, and yet, isn’t being forthcoming with all his procedural ‘paperwork.’ He’s hiding something.”

  “And then his daughter ups and causes all this,” Tabi grumbled. “But what do you think they’re all up to?”

  “I wish I had a definitive answer for you.” Rivia stood from his seat, effectively bringing the meeting to an end. “Osk, Masayuki. Viktor and Tabi—I need you to ready your men. We’re heading across the bridge at dawn, before they replace their air suppression. The local military in the Pisces tower are out of time. It’s do or die tomorrow, everyone.”

  Everyone began to depart except for Garder and Rivia. On seeing this, Milla stopped at the room’s exit and turned to them.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “Garder asked for a moment in private,” Rivia answered.

  “But it’s fine if you want to stay,” Garder added. “General. I just have a quick question, but I need an honest answer. Does the name Neisa mean anything to you? Have you heard of anyone like that, in this life?”

  Milla’s eyes widened just a little as Rivia thought and then replied, “I… can’t say I have. It’s not a very rare name, but, no. I truly haven’t.”

  “Hm. Well. That’s all, then.”

  “Someone you know?”

  “… Just one I’ve heard around recently. But I can’t place it.”

  “Garder,” Milla whispered into his mind. “I know that name, too. But I can’t remember where or when I first heard it.”

  He glanced over to confirm that he heard her. Rivia gathered his papers and looked ready to tend to the next strategic meeting, when suddenly a messenger came running in.

  “General!” he exclaimed. “Did I just miss the council?”

  “Yes—what is it? Speak freely.”

  The messenger looked at the Nolland twins, took a breath, and replied, “Sir, we’re still waiting for further confirmation on this—the Blue Rosely crew is trying to see what they can, but… We’ve received a Morse code radio transmission from Hescuro Academy. An SOS.”

  With this news, Garder and Milla stood at attention. Garder could already feel the inner panic and rage bubbling up again.

  “What’s happened?” Rivia asked without hesitation.

  “They claim they were attacked by a small but powerful force. This was received a half hour ago, and there haven’t been any messages since.”

  “Why the hell would they attack a school?” Garder yelled. “And come over to this side of the river to do it?”

  “And not just any school,” Milla murmured. “Ours…”

  “We have to do something. General, please, they need our help.”

  “Hold on,” Milla said before Rivia could respond. “I’m sure they evacuated most of Hescuro a while ago. It’s a half-hour north in a buggy. Our people are either getting needed rest or preparing for our push across the Ozarus. I know—I know how much this matters to us, but we can’t divert resources or time to go up there. N’s military will have to handle it.”

  “Damn it, Milla! I have to at least know how bad it is. I won’t be able to keep my mind off of it. And neither will you.”

  “She’s correct, tactically speaking,” Rivia said, and gestured to calm Garder before he had an outburst. “But… doing nothing is not an option.”

  Milla turned to him. “General…”

  “Hescuro is close to my heart, as well. I spoke there often, and employed many of its students. I was a student and then a professor there myself, several lives ago. We can’t respond in full right now, yes, but… Garder, I told you I would win back your trust. I’ll go with you two and we’ll help anyone still at the academy. We’ll leave immediately.”

  “Rivia, I…” Garder tried to hold back any emotion. “Thank you.”

  “Messenger, please tell the gunnery sergeant that I’m requesting use of the armored buggy. I need it refueled and re-armed in five minutes.”

  “Yes, sir. Right away. And be careful out there.”

  “What is the Guard really trying to accomplish here?” Garder questioned, his tone one of rising anger. “The invasion itself, the governor, and now this? Just… what the hell?”

  “We’ll find out,” Milla promised him. “And they’ll pay for it.”

  Rivia rode in the passenger seat of the armored buggy, no slower than the others in the fleet despite its anti-alchemagi metal shell. He gave instructions to the driver to take the fastest route possible to the academy as the twins watched the passing Cityscape in the back. Such a route entailed taking a risk and getting onto the highway, which was elevated, lacked any cover, and only had off-ramps every few miles; there was no easy way to turn onto another street should they take fire from the air.

  Worse, the highway was littered with the sizeable debris that had been blown off of the surrounding buildings, and as night had fallen and the area was without power, the driver had to make the buggy an easy target by relying on its floodlights to see and avoid giant rocks of concrete.

  Providing air cover, at least for the first half of the journey, was the Blue Rosely. The airship’s primary weapon had a longer range, but not even Rivia would permit the vessel itself from leaving the controlled airspace around the command center, both for its own protection and that which it offered the Angel’s operating base. Shortly after the buggy had reached the highway, the airship was already falling behind, much to Garder’s agitation.

  “Is that it?” Garder said as he watched the long airship from the narrow slits in his window’s armor. “It’s not going any farther out?”

  “I’m sorry,” Rivia replied, as the driver tapped at his headset. “We can’t risk separating her from the base. We’re on our own from here out.”

  “Hold on,” the driver suddenly exclaimed and slowed to a stop. “Her captain’s telling me to wait. They spotted an enemy airship.”

  He turned off the vehicle lights and drifted ahead cautiously as Rivia turned on the radio so everyone could hear the conversation going on between the Rosely and one of her spotter escorts.

  “Blue Delta, confirm enemy airship,” the Rosely’s captain ordered.

  “Copy,” a reply came, with the sound of an engine throttling up.

  Above, a chariot raced past the Rosely, keeping a safe distance from a nearby dark tower that was near the river, and was wide on one side and narrow on the other; the longer side was enough to hide a small airship behind it, potentially one that was heavily armed.

  As the chariot went by, flak cannons opened fire in an attempt to shoot it down. The muzzle flashes lit up its ballonet in the night, and the buggy driver slammed on the brakes upon seeing the distinct outer edge of an air fortress—a compact Guardian airship with a small crew but multiple heavy guns and bomb bays. Had the driver gone any farther, they could have been obliterated. Fortunately, the Rosely was there to help.

  “She’s in the shadow, stationary by about the forty-fifth floor,” the spotter reported calmly as he performed his evasive maneuvers.

  “Copy that. Checking trajectory… Firing.”

  The Blue Rosely, a quarter-mile in length, had a special weapon that struck fear in the Guard nearly as much as the possibility of seeing the Mezik in battle. It hauled around a coil gun as long as the ship, made up of many miles of magnetized wire in the lengthy duct under its belly. It took the capacitors over ten minutes to recharge, but the shots were devastating.

  Within a couple of seconds, the seams throughout the underside took on a blue glow, an electrical whine permeated the air, and then the cannon fired out a projectile, letting out a distinct sound like that of a cracking whip that happened to be on fire. A tiny moment in time after it unleashed a sonic boom, the slug covered the distance in the air, bored straight through the building—collapsing several floors in the process—and tore into the enemy airship lying in wait. The ballonet and the munitions exploded violently, leaving no chance for a repair and recovery.

  “You can proceed,” the Rosely’s captain told the driver, as the burning wreckage broke apart and fell to the street below. “We’ll keep a few chariots in the air for you. Good hunting.”

  “Izae’s brother gets to ride around in that thing?” Milla wondered aloud once they were racing down the highway again. “I’ve heard of the ship of course, but I’d never seen its gun in action before.”

  “Too much of a bullseye for my taste,” Garder replied. “The enemy always targets it first whenever we ride in with her.”

  “So that’s why you prefer that old bucket of bolts instead.”

  “The Red is trustworthy…” As thoughts of Hescuro came back, he leaned forward, breathed, and covered his face with his palms. “Damn it.”

  “Don’t let yourself get worked up. Hey. We’ll save some people.”

  “I hate having that be the most you can hope for.”

  Not far past the embassy building, which had suffered even more damage since its last occupants had fled, was the off ramp for the academy. N had many such schools, but Hescuro was especially famous in the City for both its Earth studies and knight apprenticeship programs.

  Whereas most of N had modern buildings inspired by Roman architecture, along with a few relics from an age long ago in which her reborn attempted to recreate their empire’s famed public venues, Hescuro had nods towards ancient Persian designs. There were more archways than doors, and some open-air classrooms as well, and the school’s mighty walls surrounded a courtyard and garden that was typically filled with students on their lunch breaks, or making new friends and sharing stories.

  Tonight, there was no semblance to such halcyon days. The stairs up to the entrance were damaged and covered with the robes and armor of staff and security guards, and the grand door itself, a wooden masterpiece covered with intricate carvings that retold the school’s founding, had been forced open. Its sides were flayed and splintered, like a beast of some size had dug its claws between the panels and pried them open.

  “Careful,” Rivia said once he left the buggy and closed the passenger door. “I don’t hear anything, but the enemy could still be here.”

  “What… what have they done…” Milla said softly.

  Past the doors was the main hall, which all three of them knew very well. Only now, more robes covered the checkerboard marble floor, several of the painted portraits of famous headmasters were torn to shreds, and perhaps worst of all, the large claw marks embedded in the walls confirmed that a large, powerful rairer was involved in the sudden assault.

  “Just terrible…” Rivia sighed as he knelt down and studied some of the cloaks. “Evirtide students were involved again. Students from N fighting students from M… How senseless. This has to stop.”

  Garder, trying his hardest to keep his rage under control, grumbled back, “What did they do? Slaughter everyone inside? Kids go here.”

  “These robes are only worn by the senior students,” Milla replied. “Maybe they stayed behind to protect the school while the younger students evacuated…? W-wait… This one is a teacher’s uniform… Oh, God.”

  Rivia looked down the hallways to the left and right, which led to many of the classrooms, but the damage appeared to be minimal. Beyond the center archway, however, was the courtyard, where dozens of small fires were still burning and more robes and armor were scattered about.

  The three looked into the place, once a sanctuary of knowledge and relationships and adolescence, and despaired that it had become a war zone for seemingly no reason at all. The twins drew their weapons.

  “They never should’ve brought this here…” Garder snarled.

  They proceeded into the courtyard and down the steps, the burning fires providing their only light. There was no sign of life at first, and it was dead quiet. Then they heard nearby groaning, someone in pain.

  Huddled against the stairs, near a rose bush, were two students. The older of the two, a girl of eighteen or so, was treating the wounds of a boy in an Evirtide uniform a few years younger. He looked traumatized and had a thousand-mile stare as the student from the school he’d just attacked bandaged his arm, even though on the wall just near her was the silhouette of a person who had been incinerated by a powerful fire spell.

  Garder, without hesitation, pointed his blade at the injured student and demanded, “Why’d you come here? What did you just do?!”

  “Garder!” Milla snapped at him.

  “You think I care? This kid just helped them carry out a massacre.”

  The girl replied, “He’s badly injured. If it makes any difference, I didn’t see him attacking anyone. He was just cowering over here.”

  “That doesn’t matter! He’s with the Guard—he’s an enemy.”

  “I’m sorry…” the boy murmured, his gaze fixed on the rose bush. “They… they made us… I didn’t know what else to… I hid… A-and…”

  “What were you doing here?” Milla asked the girl.

  Seeming to ignore Garder, she looked up at Milla and replied, “Me and some others were still moving some important books down to the vault after the attack on N started, and we were almost done, when they… I don’t know how to describe it. I think it was two pretorians, leading the Evirtide kids, and they just started… God, it was horrible.”

  “Did anyone make it out?”

  “Not very many. I might be the last student here. All the younger students had evacuated days ago. There were still some teachers here, and they fought back too, but… I don’t think there’s anyone left on either side. I hid down below and just came up a few minutes ago. The boy’s the only survivor I’ve found so far. But the pretorians may still be here.”

  “If he can walk, you two should go,” Rivia said. “There’s a buggy outside, and room for all of us. I’ll radio the driver and have him hide somewhere until we need a pickup. Go on.”

  “T-thank you…” she said and helped the rival student up by the shoulder. “General Rivia… That’s you, isn’t it? Thank you.”

  “We’re just letting that kid free…” Garder muttered as he watched them go up the stairs and head out. “After what he did.”

  “Not all the students are signing up for this, Garder,” Rivia told him. “If they show enough promise, they force them to participate in attacks just like this all over the world. That boy isn’t a threat to us.”

  “You better be right about that.”

  “Two pretorians…” Milla thought aloud. “Who could they be?”

  Rivia looked around. “Judging by this damage, it’s likely Phisa Camryde is one of them. I don’t see any clean vector damage, and Kae was already in a fight today… and would also never agree to this.”

  They heard footsteps and turned to see someone on the walkway above them. He was well-dressed, armed with a rifle, and appeared to be on the lookout. Once he moved out of the shadows, they could see his face, and Rivia and Milla realized that he was possibly one of those responsible.

  “Charles Renek…” Milla spoke into Garder’s mind. “He’s a pretorian, but more of a tactician than a fighter. Why’s he here?”

  Garder began to raise his sword, but Rivia reached over and pushed his arm down, giving him a stern gaze in the process.

  “Damn it,” Charles audibly muttered. “Where is she…”

  He began to descend down the stairs, and when it became obvious that he was about to see them anyway, Garder shoved his way past Milla and Rivia and stepped in front of Renek, his sword ready to strike him.

  The defensive pretorian reacted instantly, swinging his right arm into the air to cover his face. The crystal shield that was attached to his wrist extended, and in only a second, he had generated an iron-ice lattice that covered the front of his entire body below his eyes.

  Renek, on the lowest step that still gave him some height over Garder, exclaimed from behind his shield, “Nolland! Why are you here?”

  “Because you attacked my school,” he growled back.

  With no choice, Rivia and Milla stepped out and flanked Garder, both of them with fingers extended and ready to produce spells of their own, defensive or otherwise. But they tried not to appear overly hostile.

  Renek backed away, going up a step, and said, “General Rivia, and Ms. Nolland. Could we parley for a moment here? This academy… doesn’t need to see any further violence. I did not participate in this atrocity.”

  “You expect us to believe you?” Garder continued, and inched forward threateningly. “This is what the Guard does. This is what you and your subordinates always do. You pretorians… All the same.”

  “Garder, stop,” Milla told him. “He’s not going to attack us.”

  “She’s right,” he replied. “I know I’m no match for the three of you. I came here to try and put an end to this… But I’m too late.”

  “Did you really have nothing to do with this?” Rivia asked.

  “I pursue the ideals of the old Guard, and strive to be a man of honor. I would never attack a school. I consider this a sanctuary.”

  “This never would have happened if you never came to N in the first place!” Garder shouted and pointed his sword at him. “You did this.”

  “Garder!” Milla snapped. “Are you really going to make me say it?”

  He looked at her, breathing heavily. “Our enemy is right here.”

  “Stand down. That’s an order.”

  Garder lowered his sword, but left it unsheathed and kept a harsh eye on the pretorian. Seizing on a tenuous moment of peace, Rivia took a step forward, palms and fingers up to indicate he had no intention of attacking. Renek was still clearly intimidated from behind his shield.

  “Mr. Renek, I only wish to know what, exactly, happened here,” Rivia requested. “What went wrong in N? The governor, and now this…”

  Charles shook his head. “It’s a pretorian matter.”

  “Bastard…” Garder hissed. “You’re involved in this. Murderer.”

  “Speak for yourself, Mr. Nolland. I know what you did to Sefis when you had him beaten. He asked you to spare his life, and then, what you did to him… Unspeakable. He was a close friend of mine.”

  “He slaughtered an innocent nomadic village. He deserved it. And I’ll never believe a single word that comes from the mouth of a pretorian.”

  “And yet, Kamsa meant so much to you, didn’t she…?”

  Upon hearing her name, Garder lost what little remaining patience he had, and lashed out by empowering his blade with ice and ripping into the air, generating a frigid blast of ice needles and cutting air. Charles cut the powerful current apart with his own wind gust before it reached him, and fearing for his life, reacted by turning the stone of the courtyard into a pointed spire that reached upward and threatened to impale Garder.

  Hearing the molding of stone behind him, he turned to deal with the rapidly-growing stalagmite—but Milla managed to act first, and cut it to ribbons with her vector lines. Charles used that moment to make his retreat, forming an escape tunnel underneath him, connected to the basement.

  “I can’t die here,” he said as his enemies turned back around. “It’s too important that I report what happened. Farewell.”

  Garder launched a quick air slash that could have taken off the pretorian’s head, but Charles dropped into the hole that formed below him in time to narrowly avoid it. Once the tunnel sealed up, Milla let out a huff.

  “What is wrong with you?” she asked Garder. “I ordered you to—"

  “He was never going to tell us anything,” he argued. “What should we have done, debated with him all night? There might be other survivors that need help. I chased him off. Good enough for now.”

  “… You say that, but I can hear the hatred in your voice.”

  He didn’t want to say anything else, and wouldn’t have had a chance in any case—not when their next enemy was making its appearance. At the back end of the courtyard, a rairer arm had just reached over the walls, its hand digging into the masonry and leaving behind more large claw marks. Rivia and Milla turned just as a second arm appeared.

  They approached the center of the courtyard, and a giant bull rairer, in full armor, crawled over the wall and landed with a heavy thud just in front of the doorway to the academy’s administrative offices. It let out a snarl and drool dripped down its exposed teeth as its rider, a man almost as threatening as the beast itself, dropped to the floor and stared at Rivia.

  He was in a heavy suit of dark red armor, but without its helmet, revealing to the group that he wore glasses and had an intimidating gaze. He held at his side—with one hand—a great sword, nearly as long as Milla was tall. It was made of refined black steel, dark as obsidian, and also had a unique feature: alchemagi crystal swirled across the blade from the tip all the way to the hilt, wrapping around its edges and fuller.

  “That’s not… Lenal’s replacement, is it?” Milla whispered to Rivia.

  “No. Vermer is still going through the process,” he answered. “It’s Lenox Crawn, the leader of the League of Flame. He’s quite dangerous.”

  “What the hell is he doing here?”

  With the back of his left hand, Lenox knocked on the door behind him. A moment later, another man walked out. Though he had aged some since the twins last saw him, there was no mistaking it: the bearded, kind, and wise scholar with unkempt hair was the school’s headmaster.

  For a brief moment, Garder—and even Milla thought that, just maybe, Mr. Seseck was in league with the Guard. But that unjustified notion disappeared once they noticed the cloaked figure behind him, pushing him out into the light of the fires. Once the two of them were at Lenox’s side, the hostage-taker raised the blade of a scythe to his throat. Mr. Seseck looked down at the twins and Rivia, silently begging for help.

  Garder’s grip on his blade’s hilt became almost crushing.

  “Hello,” the hooded figure said in a digitized voice and stepped out to the side enough to reveal of their glowing red lenses. “Welcome home, Garder and Milla. I didn’t expect that you’d have Rivia in tow.”

  “Phisa, right?” Milla replied. “Is this how you’re making a name for yourself? Let him go. Surely taking hostages is beneath you.”

  “I don’t think I will. Your former headmaster here has judgment coming. We uncovered quite a den of rats. He’s corrupted the youth of this school, turning them against the Guard. We had to fight back after they began attacking us when we sought temporary shelter here.”

  As much as he could without having his neck sliced from the scythe pressed against him, Seseck shook his head.

  “Do you honestly think we’d believe that?” Rivia exclaimed. “This an act of cowardice; you’re using him as a shield. Your fight is with us.”

  “Mr. Seseck!” Milla called out to him. “Do you remember us? It’s Garder and Milla, and I’m sure you’ve met Rivia. We’re going to save you.”

  “Is that so?” Phisa scoffed.

  Seseck replied, “Y-yes, yes, I remember you. Please, whatever happens to me, don’t let her hurt anyone else just to get to you—that’s all she wants. She lured you here, out of some sick fascination.”

  “He’s mostly correct, actually. Though I wouldn’t call it ‘sick.’ I’ve been wanting to meet you both for a long while. But in the breadth and chaos of war, it’s hard to get everyone in one place, isn’t it?”

  “You have our attention,” Milla said. “Now let him go.”

  Milla glanced over at Garder, worried. Over the last few seconds, he had become increasingly tense, and was now in a trance-like state that exuded something tangible. It was like he was “leaking” powerful mind alchemagi, as if his hatred and rage was emanating in waves of negative energy. It was affecting her, too, forcing her to feel an existential dread.

  “I aim to instill fear and hopelessness in my enemies,” Phisa said. “To take down your world, one person at a time. In fact, everyone needs to begin fearing the Guard again. They stopped, and then there was war.”

  “Where do they find people like you?” Milla exasperated. “It’s always about fear, pain, mental torture. You sound just like Trinqit.”

  “I am nothing like her,” Phisa said angrily. “… Here. He’s yours.”

  She withdrew her scythe and shoved Seseck forward, and he barely stopped himself from stumbling down the stairs. Untrusting and hesitant of his freedom, he walked down a step—and then picked up on the smell of a potent fuel that had soaked into his suit’s upper sleeves and collar. Phisa must have dripped it onto his clothing while she had him hostage.

  He froze and looked down at Milla, an expression of desolation on his face. She frowned and wondered what was wrong. Then Phisa raised up two digits to cast a spell, and concluded her incantation with a finger snap.

  Seseck burst into flames. Hot, horrible flames that scorched his clothing and burned away his hair in seconds. He screamed in terror and pain, fell, rolled down the stairs, and then desperately tried to put himself out on the ground. Milla, in utter shock, couldn’t make herself move.

  “Garder!” Rivia shouted at him, expecting him to cast a watairre spell right away, even if it would be in vain.

  But even now, he remained transfixed only on Phisa. Something was happening in his mind, as if it were stuck in a loop, or he was having a showdown with Caeden over control. Regardless of his struggle, it was clear to Rivia that he was no longer totally in the moment.

  Forced to expend some of his own alchemagi in a dangerous situation, Rivia would at least try his very best to save a life. Using a level three watairre spell, he used the already cloudy skies above to create a sudden downpour, and focused the rain into a waterfall over Seseck.

  The fire was hot, destructive, and lingered for a few seconds more even under so much water, but once he was doused thoroughly, it was put out. The courtyard had filled up with nearly an inch of water in the process, and the precipitation continued to come down. Phisa looked up as droplets splashed her goggles, impressed but agitated; the rain would hamper her fire to the point where she was better off relying on her scythe.

  Without fully thinking it through, Milla rushed over to help Seseck, lying in the shallow pool of water. He was badly burnt across his body, but was still breathing. Phisa saw her opening and leapt into the air, scythe out, its blade covered in fire. Rivia created a blast of air to knock her off course just enough to save Milla, and the scythe, powered by a rocket burst, slammed down into the courtyard several feet from her.

  Milla looked up to see Phisa needing a moment to pull her weapon out of the stone, and used it to yank Seseck up by the shoulders and drag him to the courtyard wall, where he would be safer. Garder, having just woken up after fighting off Caeden, witnessed Phisa’s attempt on his sister.

  And he really woke up.

  With a cry of primal fury, he charged at Phisa, his sword surrounded by a torrential, contained hurricane. She freed her weapon in time to just barely block his wild downward slash, and the wind ripping around the blade like a chainsaw exploded outward, putting out her scythe’s fire and blowing away the surrounding rain.

  Phisa’s use of a pole weapon meant that she could keep Garder at a distance, and she was strong enough to fight on nearly equal footing with him, despite having to back up as she parried his crazed attacks. At one point, she attempted to burn him with a fire spell, but he easily snuffed out the fireball the moment it appeared with a sphere of condensed rainwater.

  She studied his movements, and saw just how much finesse he had sacrificed to fuel his powerful swipes. He was inaccurate and left himself open often during his lengthy recoveries, sometimes lasting a full second each. Once she had backed up to the stairs, she leapt up to the third step to get some height, waited for her chance at an easy kill, and initiated a rocket-powered swing that was aimed right at his neck.

  Two vector lines appeared at Garder’s side to protect him, and knowing that they could cut her weapon in half, Phisa pulled her scythe away at the last moment. Another glowing, atomized line appeared in front of her legs, which she jumped over as it passed under her. It only got worse for her when she noticed the glow of yet more lines in the rain, fast approaching. She jumped onto the stair railing, and then the walkway, narrowly avoiding the vector mandala that had formed behind her and soon covered the entirety of the space above the stairs.

  “Agh, annoying…” she grumbled.

  “We should withdraw,” Lenox said. “We’ve done enough here.”

  “But I’m not finished yet.”

  “Neither am I!” Garder shouted.

  Garder used an air-propelled jump to get up the stairs, where he resumed his attacks on Phisa, with even great ferocity.

  “Ha-ha!” she exclaimed as they traded blows. “There it is! That famous temper of yours! That’s what I wanted to see.”

  Needing a quick breather, she leapt back to get out of range—and then watched, befuddled, as Garder suddenly changed his target to Lenox, who was only there as an observer. The much larger man effortlessly blocked Garder’s frenzied attacks just by putting his great sword in the right place on each attempt, and letting his armor nullify any alchemagi that hit it.

  “Garder, get out of there!” Milla yelled at him. “You can’t take on both of them at once! We can’t keep saving you!”

  “All this rage, over what’s basically a performance review…” Phisa sighed. “Lenox, you can tell Daedalus to eat him, if you want.”

  Lenox whistled to signal to his beast, watching from the top of the wall. A shred of clarity returning to him just in time, Garder saw the chomp coming, and blew himself backward right as the jaws crunched down. He returned to the courtyard after a messy landing and caught his breath.

  “That was educational,” Phisa said after climbing onto the rairer’s nape. “But I won’t put any more effort into this, not when all three of you are together. Save him if you can. We did what we set out to do.”

  Garder raised three fingers, but Milla stopped him, afraid that he was bordering on exhaustion. Lenox joined Phisa on the beast’s back, it climbed over the wall, and the three attackers disappeared into the night.

  “Damn it,” Garder said with a cough and grabbed onto the railing to keep himself from toppling over. “Still… not enough…”

  “You were very nearly killed,” Rivia told him. “I know you have a penchant for insubordination, but think of Milla as your family before your superior. You two… are both so very important. You can’t forget that.”

  “I’m sorry…” He steadied his breathing. “Caeden almost… I had to keep him out… Milla, is Mr. Seseck…”

  At her headmaster’s side again, she replied, “He needs medical attention right away. The buggy has a med-kit, but I don’t know if…”

  “The embassy has a full clinic,” Rivia said. “The building’s still mostly intact—it would be his best chance. Garder, help carry him out.”

  Garder nodded, and did want to help, but again found himself cursed with the lust for revenge. He knew it would inevitably take over his mind, just it had with Connarth. Only one thing would ever free him.