Jace leapt over the fence between the trail and the forge. Behind the forge’s main building was a small shed. He ran up to it and threw the doors open. Before he stepped inside, he spared a glance over his shoulder. The two guards were sprinting along the trail behind him. He had to be quick.

He ran into the shed, pushing aside old heaps of wood and rusted tools that he didn’t recognize. In the far corner, beneath a tattered tarp, was a repeller-bike—similar to the vehicles they had ridden on Aisèn Secundus. He ripped the tarp off and opened the rear compartment, just above the thruster. Starcoals still glistened in the furnace. He just had to light it.

He pushed the repeller-bike out of the shed, dragging its underbelly through the mud and grass. Once outside, he grabbed one of the rusty tools from inside the shed and a stone from the ground. He bashed them together until sparks flew off the rusted metal. A few landed in the furnace, and the iridescent coals lit up with flame. He slammed the compartment shut, and the bike began to hover.

The guards leapt over the fence, shouting, clamouring, and breathing hard. “Oh, the shirelord is gonna have our heads for this!”

“Kinfild is going to have our heads!” the other groaned.

Jace swung up onto the repeller bike, and, without wasting a moment, tightened his legs against the saddle. The thrusters roared, and the bike zipped forwards. Jace swerved around the guards.

The bike smashed through the fence. Jace guided it up onto the trail, and rode it back to the inn, earning many, many angry shouts from the nearby candlefolk. Outside the inn, in the garden, stood Mrs. Kendine. Releasing his grip on the bike’s saddle, Jace slid the bike to a stop in front of her. He inhaled sharply, then asked, “Which way to Blunt-Tip Summit?”

“Take the South Road,” Mrs. Kendine said. “It’s the only road that runs south. You’ll find Blunt-Tip near the edge of the first mountain range—that’s where Kinfild went. It’s got a flat, wedge-like top. You’ll reach it in a few hours if you travel fast.”

Jace dipped his head. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you.”

Jace winced, but quickly wiped the expression from his face. “No guarantees, though.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Ms. Kendine motioned with her arms. “Go! Before they catch up! And good luck!”

Jace dipped his head and leaned forwards. He tightened his legs again, gripping the handlebars tight. The bike shot off along the path. At the first branch, he turned south and skimmed over a pond. The bike’s wake showered a farmer and his enormous bees.

The buildings grew more and more sparse, until finally, they ended altogether. There was only one path that ran south, as far as he could see, and it cut through the light purple fields and hills.

He rode the repeller-bike for a half-hour. He wasn’t sure how far he had travelled or how fast, but the wind tore at his face and threatened to rip out his hair. He figured he was travelling faster than most cars would have on earth.

The hills flattened into fields—an empty, open prairie. In the distance, a herd of buffalo-like creatures grazed. He couldn’t see them well, but they seemed to have long, reptilian tails and forked tongues. Above, there was nothing but pure blue skies with thin white streaks of cloud.

For the entire ride, he thought about what he might do when he reached Kinfild. Should he conjure up a rousing speech? Should he force the Wielder to let him stay? Should he say nothing, and refuse to let Kinfild leave him behind via sheer persistence? Nothing came to mind.

When the suns hovered overhead, the ground bulged into foothills. After another few minutes of racing over and around the hills, mountains emerged out of the horizon. They began as small stubs of rock, but grew into a massive, snow-capped wall.

The trail curved, running along a valley and weaving through the mountains, steadily gaining altitude.Jace steered the repeller-bike out onto a bare outcropping. Ahead, a peak stood perhaps a thousand feet above the rest. At its top was an enormous block of pale brown stone, highlighted with snow. Blunt-Tip. That had to be it.

The trail led straight towards the mountain, and hopefully, up its side. Jace’s stomach dropped at the thought of scaling it by hand.

When he reached the mountain’s base, the trail branched. One route continued along the low valley, and the other wound up the forest-sheathed lower flanks of the Blunt-Tip Summit. Jace loosened his legs on the bike’s flanks, cutting his speed in half, then navigated along the second trail up to the summit. The trail took him in a circle around the mountain’s base, climbing higher with each second.

After a few minutes, the trees gave way to a plane of rock and gravel, and every so often, a glacier-fed creek. The trail continued, higher and higher. The air was getting thinner. Jace craned his neck upwards to gaze at the blunt summit. Perched near the edge of the peak, the Luna Wrath’s thrusters peered over the edge of the stone.

The propellers inside the thruster tubes began to spin. Blue light spilled out of the starship’s stern. Kinfild was getting ready to take off.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Jace took a sharp breath. Caution wouldn’t do him much good if he got left behind. He tightened his knees against the repeller-bike’s saddle and unconsciously uttered, “Hyap!” as if he was riding a flesh-and-blood horse. The bike sped up.

The trail wound around the mountain twice more. As he raced up the final slope, though, the Luna Wrath rose up. Its thrusters burned bright blue, and it crawled forwards off the tip of the mountain.

“No!” Jace shouted. As soon as he reached the summit, a hundred-foot-long rectangle of empty stone, ice, and snow, he halted the repeller-bike. The Luna Wrath flew forward, dipping as it leapt off the stone platform and peeled away from the mountain. Any moment, Kinfild would climb.

Jace made his decision in an instant. He released the brakes and pushed his legs as tight as they could go. The bike charged forwards. He aimed it towards the Luna Wrath’s stern. The bike shot off the edge of the platform, and immediately, it began to plummet. It wasn’t enough. He’d fall short of the starship and fall to his death.

But he still had a trick. He set his mind on the inside of the Luna Wrath and looked towards the main body, then launched himself forwards.

In a flash of golden light, he shot through hyperspace. He emerged, forty meters later, in the main hold of the starship, and crashed into the red-velvet-upholstered bench. Another potted plant fell over, and its terracotta pot cracked.

Jace pushed himself up, then backed away from the bench. The entire starship began to tilt upwards, and the thrusters roared. He stumbled towards the cockpit, where Kinfild sat in the pilot’s seat. The Wielder gripped the controls tight and pulled backwards on them. Already, Jace heard the faint hum of the jumpstart accumulator charging.

“Kinfild!” Jace called.

Kinfild flicked a switch beside the control yoke. It locked in place. Then, he climbed to his feet and stomped towards Jace, scowling. He had changed out of his armour and back into his ornate robes and pointed hat.

Jace took a step back. “Uh…hi, Kinfild, nice to—”

Before Jace could register what happened, he felt a sharp pain across his cheek. He fell to his knees, and raised his fingers to his face. There was no blood, but it stung more than it should have.

“You shouldn’t be here!” Kinfild snapped, cradling his knuckles. “You should have stayed put, stayed safe!” He had hit Jace.

So much for Kinfild the Gentle.

Jace scrambled to his feet, then stumbled back along the tilting deck of the starship. “We’re…we’re quite high, now, and I just used a hyperdash.” Jace wouldn’t remind him that he still had his reset card available. “I wouldn’t survive the fall if you threw me out…so—”

“You just don’t get it!” Kinfild snapped. “This isn’t your galaxy, not your home! There’s too much danger wherever you go, and I can’t trust—”

“Trust me? What have I ever done to betray your trust? You’re the one who kept secrets, and you’re the one who dragged me into this without ever explaining anything. Yet I’m the untrustworthy one?”

Kinfild shook his head, then turned back towards the front of the ship. He didn’t walk back to the controls yet, though.

Kinfild took a step away, then looked back at Jace. “Don’t look at me like that. All I’ve ever tried to do is make a difference—and constantly, I find myself incapable of it. It’s no different this time, but I am not going to give up.”

Jace’s mouth slipped open. His scowl melted away. “But you don’t have to make a difference alone.” Jace sucked in a breath. He rubbed his cheek until the last of the sting faded, then approached Kinfild slowly. “I know…I know what happened between you and Lessa.”

Kinfild scowled, but he didn’t say anything.

“Maybe…maybe you can’t trust me, because you can’t even trust yourself.” Jace shoved his hands in his pockets, then quickly looked down at the deck. It was an odd thought, and it felt even worse to voice it, but he didn’t think he was wrong.

Kinfild sighed. He lifted a foot, as if moving to turn around, but he began, “I don’t—”

“Kinfild, I choose to trust you,” Jace told him. “I’ve come this far with you because it felt right. I could’ve jumped ship on Roteac, found my way onto some other cargo freighter, and set off on my own, but I didn’t. It would be nice if you could do the same—trust yourself, then return the favour and trust me. I’m here, and I’m not leaving. I need, no, want to get stronger, and now we have a job to do. There’s going to be an attack, and there are people that we need to protect.”

The warmth returned to Kinfild’s eyes, and he stroked the back of his hand. “I’m…I’m sorry, Jace.” He paused for a moment, then motioned towards the copilot’s chair. “Take a seat.”

“Gladly. Where’re we going?”

Kinfild opened his mouth, then shut it again.

“What are our options?” Jace asked. He would’ve chosen for himself if he’d had a slightly better clue what they were doing. “Someone has to get warned. The…uh, Starrealm, I suppose?”

“We could travel to Kinath-Aertes, capital of the Starrealm, to warn the Starrealm’s central government of the attack.” Kinfild flipped a switch on the Luna wrath’s console. “Or we head to the Celacor system and warn them directly.”

“Kobolds are an issue,” Jace said. “And we have to destroy the queen-core, still, too.”

“Celacor comes with the added benefit of libraries.”

Great. Just like a sorta-wizard to suggest that they peruse libraries. But Jace kept that to himself. “Anything…uh, special about these libraries?”

“There should be scrolls and accounts regarding the kobolds and the queen-core.”

Jace raised his eyebrows. “We can learn how to kill it.” Killing it would tick off one of his major quests and earn him a massive infusion of Aes.

“Precisely.”

Jace leaned forward, peering out the viewscreen and looking down. “How much time do we have? Can we travel to Celacor, then to Kinath-Aertes—we can warn them both?”

“If you move fast and find what we need, there should be time.”

Jace nodded. “Then we go to both planets. Celacor first.”