The sunrise used to bring Ethan a reprieve from the darkness of the mines. It was like the sun was waiting for him, night after night, to greet him after twelve backbreaking hours spent below the surface toiling away in anonymity until his shift ended. Now, watching it blaze a path over the eastern plains, it only served to inspire a new kind of anxiety inside him, its rise marking another missed opportunity for him to find Sola and take her to Apex.

Just after his evaluation, Ethan had been brimming with confidence, ready to take on the entire city if he had to in order to find Sola. Alex, after he broke the news of Amory’s decision to her, had a different perspective, one he brushed off initially, but was now starting to fear

she had, as always, been correct about.

“That’s not good,” she told him after he had broken the news of his probation to her. Ethan started to thank her until her words sunk in. He felt like someone had ripped a hole in his sail, halting his momentum into a standstill. She wasn’t finished yet, though, and continued to rain on his parade.

“I’ve…literally never heard of anyone going on probation,” she had told him over dinner, dumbfounded, “and Amory and I quite literally wrote the book on Protector processes.”

Ethan opened his mouth, then shut it again, unable to find the right way to convince her to be as excited as he was.

“I thought this was…good?” he said slowly, unable to take another bite of his noodles. “I’m almost a Protector.”

“But you passed your evaluation,” Alex pointed out, spearing another piece of steak from her plate. “You should’ve been a full Protector from that moment on. Amory’s still stringing you along.”

Ethan idly moved a pea around his pasta. “Well, just for another week,” he countered.

Alex finished chewing, then shrugged. “Frankly, I thought she was going to kick you to the curb anyway, so I guess this is better than nothing.”

Ethan smiled, confidence returning like a tide on a full moon, holding up his glass to hers. “I’ll cheers to not nothing.”

Alex laughed. “Well, you had a great mentor and Sola seems desperate to rob Ascension of every diamond within city limits. I’m sure you’ll find her easily.”

“Agreed, Ethan nodded. “After all, I already ran into her once without even trying. She might even be seeking revenge against me, for all we know.”

“That’d be bad,” Alex shook her head, pausing at Ethan’s wide, oblivious smile. “You do understand that’d be bad?”

“No, right,” he agreed, wiping his mouth with his napkin. “But I bet I won’t even have to look for her. She’ll probably head straight for me instead!”

When their dinner was over, Ethan headed out into the city to stake out the Ascension History Museum just like Amory had suggested, entirely convinced that he would find Sola, take her in, and become a Protector in no time.

That was four days ago. The sunrise currently blinding him meant he had just three days left until his dreams of becoming a Protector vanished like the morning shadow, and after the silence of the past few nights it was looking increasingly likely that he wouldn’t make his deadline with Amory, putting him right back at square one.

Except, now, Raz hated him, a problem he hadn’t found time to fix quite yet. Also, he promised to take Quinn on a date. And Rainey, presumably, still wanted to kill Alex.

“One thing at a time,” he whispered to himself, shaking his head free of the intrusive thoughts nagging away at his tired mind. He rolled his neck, stretching after another long night of contorting himself to crouch, unseen, behind a concrete rooftop wall overlooking the museum. He closed the portal he had left open all night inside the museum near one of the vents, acting like a makeshift space heater during his long, cold night of staking out the museum, and draped his arms over the frozen stone wall, sighing heavily.

Like each of the past few mornings, the city was quiet, slow to wake in the pale sunlight. He was practically alone on one of Ascension’s busiest streets, unsure of exactly what he should do next.

“Another night wasted,” he groaned, rubbing his tired eyes. “I’m running out of time, and I’m out of ideas. I need someone smarter than me to tell me what to do.”

As he had the past four mornings, the cafe he frequented each morning just down the street that looked open in the chilly early morning, and he was practically salivating at the thought of having a coffee to warm his hands. He opened a portal and deposited himself onto the sidewalk in front of the colorful storefront, his hand gripping the metal handle when someone called out to him. Ethan wheeled around to see a tall, shirtless man standing a few storefronts away from him, arms folded.

“Well, well, well,” the man’s gruff voice immediately sent Ethan’s blood racing through his body. He immediately recognized the brute as the Altered, Duclaw, a known mercenary who took jobs all throughout Ascension, regardless of Sector.

Aside from being nearly a foot taller than Ethan and twice as wide, his most defining feature was, of course, his razor sharp claws jutting out of his forearms. They were the full length of Ethan’s forearms, blood red, and deadly if Ethan let him get in too close.

“Just who I was looking for.

Now would have been a really good time to call for help, if he and Raz were speaking. But they weren’t, so this was solely Ethan’s problem to deal with. He gulped, flexing his palms.

“I don’t think we’ve met,” Ethan told him politely, letting go of the door slowly and squaring up to Duclaw, his hands ready to summon a portal at a moment’s notice. “Can I help you?”

“We haven’t, but we’re about to get real personal.”

Ethan gestured to the coffee shop. “Any chance I can get my americano first?”

Duclaw took off for Ethan as if shot out of a cannon, causing Ethan’s heart rate to spike. He felt his legs tense to run, but instead he forced himself to think.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Alex, knowing Ethan had the type of personality that would inevitably make him more than a few enemies, trained him for this exact situation, and he thankfully remembered the trick they came up. This particular move didn’t work on anyone who could fly, but he was fairly positive that wasn’t the case with Duclaw, so now was the perfect time to test it out.

Either it’d work, or he’d spend the next few days in the hospital with severe lacerations, effectively ending his chance to find Sola.

Not an option, he told himself.

As Duclaw was sprinting recklessly towards him, Ethan flicked his palm and summoned a small, solid void just in front of Duclaw’s shin, forcing him to stumble. Duclaw was knocked off his feet, flying towards the pavement with a surprised grunt. Before he could hit the street, Ethan opened a portal onto a nearby rooftop and connected it to the void in front of Duclaw, sending him through the portal and slamming, face first, into the rooftop across the street.

Ethan closed the portal with a chuckle, his problem momentarily solved, then headed into the store. After he bought his coffee (which, surprisingly, was free for getting rid of Duclaw), he came back out and opened a portal to the adjacent rooftop well out of Duclaw’s range.

Duclaw, never quite known for his intelligence, was looking over the edge of the roof, probably trying to figure out if he could make the jump down to the street below without breaking a few bones in the process. Most people affected by the Surge gained an increase in durability, but a four story jump wasn’t something anyone wanted to do, increased bone density or not.

Ethan chuckled, then called out to him. “Enjoying the view?”

Duclaw wheeled towards him, then stalked to the edge of the rooftop. His claws were glimmering in the sunlight as he gestured wildly with his arms. “What the hell, man?”

Ethan was taken aback by Duclaw’s sudden indignant attitude. He stammered until Duclaw continued yelling, his voice echoing.

“Why would you do this to me, man? How am I supposed to go get down?”

Ethan scoffed, throwing his hands up. “You were going to try and kill me!”

“Come on! I’m not a killer, I was just going to rough you up! You know, make you think twice about coming back to sector two.”

“Sector Two? Who even cares about…” Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “Did Vider put you up to this?”

“Yes, but he didn’t tell me you were such a menace. I never would have agreed to face off with you if I knew this is what you were going to do! I have to drop my kid off at school soon!”

“Should’ve thought about that before you tried to attack me in front of my favorite coffee shop. Now you’re stuck on a roof and your kid’s going to be truant. Double whammy.”

Duclaw dropped his arms dramatically. “Come on, man, what’s it going to take? I can’t stay up here!”

Ethan casually sipped his coffee, thinking, then smiled.

“I’ll get you down,” Ethan told him, “but I need some information first.”

Duclaw looked up to the sky, muttering to himself, then retrained his intense gaze on Ethan.

“How about you get me down now and I don’t cut you to ribbons?” Duclaw countered. He clashed his claws together, menacingly. At least, it would’ve been if he wasn’t ten feet away and completely trapped. Ethan decided to change tactics.

“Right now,” Ethan told him, slowly so Duclaw could understand the impact of his words, “someone might see you up here. It’s early and Ascension is a bustling city, after all. Maybe you could even call one of your Altered friends to come bail you out. But…did you see how easily I put you up here?” Ethan summoned a void just in front of him.

Duclaw was quiet, nodding, his eyes transfixed on the swirling void.

Ethan pointed to the top of Quandry peak several hours by car away from them. Heavy gray clouds were gathering around it, signaling another snowstorm later that evening.

“Do you snowboard?” Ethan asked. Duclaw shook his head, pointing to one of his claws. That would make things difficult, Ethan thought.

“The mountains get over twenty feet of snow a year. If you go off the edge of a run, you can bury yourself in snow. I can open a portal anywhere I can see. What if I drop you out there?”

“I’ll climb out,” he told Ethan, his confidence wavering.” Ethan cocked an eyebrow.

“Maybe, but who is going to find you once you pull yourself out of the snowbank? The only person who is going to know where you are is me. The only person who could reach you before you freeze to death is me, and I don’t think I’d be in the mood to help you if you don’t help me, you understand?”

“Okay, okay,” Duclaw put his hands out, pleading. “What do you want to know?”

Ethan smiled, pleased. “There’s a new Altered running through Ascension. So far she’s stolen a number of diamonds, but I don’t think that’s her end goal. I need to know what she’s really after.”

“I don’t know what she’s after,” Duclaw shook his head. Ethan sighed, then opened another portal way out in the mountains. Frigid wind suddenly roared through the air and slammed into Duclaw, forcing him off balance. He sputtered, wiping his face, and yelled to be heard.

“Wait, wait,” he begged, “I don’t know what she wants, but I do know where she’s targeting.”

Ethan slowly shut the portal. “What do you mean?”

“It might just be a rumor, but I heard through the grapevine that after the Surge, jewelry stores invested in a moving depot to store their inventory somewhere in Sector Three.”

“Where in Sector Three?” he asked.

Duclaw shook his head rapidly. “Nobody knows. Ever since the Surge the owners move it constantly out of fear of attack, using different warehouses every few months.”

Makes sense, Ethan nodded, if you have to house that much jewelry at one time, you’re better off moving it so Altered can’t plan to attack it. Of course, Apex would need to know where it was so they could organize protection for it. And I just so happen to know a guy who works at Apex. He hates me, but…I’ve been meaning to fix that, anyway, and this is my best shot.

“Alright. Good enough,” Ethan said to the visibly relieved Duclaw. Ethan summoned a void in front of Duclaw, then a portal onto the street below, gesturing for him to go through. Duclaw eyed it suspiciously, then tentatively put his foot forward, pulling it back after he touched the asphalt. He gave Ethan one last look before he stepped through the portal.

“You’re a real freak, you know that?”

Ethan scoffed as Duclaw disappeared into the morning crowd. With Duclaw gone, his eyes drew not to the new hotel rooftop he had made his home the past few nights, but back to his apartment. Ethan was going home, and he had little time to waste, but there was just enough time to make a stop at the nearest grocery store. Mending this relationship would be difficult at best, but there was one thing he could do to make it a little easier.