Larenok knew something was wrong the moment he woke up. His memory was fragmented, but whatever they’d done wasn't enough to hide the fact that he had been beaten and robbed in his own house.

Someone had completely overwhelmed every single one of Larenok's defenses. Someone had gotten through enough protections to stop an army.

Maybe it was time he moved into the Institute full-time after all. He’d long resisted allowing his life to be defined by his job, but if his life had ended up with enemies of this caliber?

There was no question. His job was more important. At this point he had two options: commit fully to the Institute, or go on the run as a fugitive. Dalin Larenok had no interest in living a fugitive lifestyle. It sounded incredibly dull. Difficult and annoying. He didn't avoid difficult things, nor annoying ones, but when unnecessary they grated.

He set aside future decisions for the moment, focusing instead on the present and the past.

First things first. Who had broken in? What did they take?

How long had it been?

The first was much harder to discern in the second. His entire purse was missing, as was his backup purse, and his entire jacket.

That was the biggest problem. His jacket contained several hidden pockets for the kind of things he never let away from his person, which could be a problem for him if people knew he’d had them.

A quick check of the wall clock showed that the assault took place somewhere between one and three hours ago. Probably closer to one hour, but since he didn't take his lunch on a specific schedule and had been paying attention to more important things than the time before he left, he couldn't be sure.

His stomach complained about not having enough food in it, but he ignored that without even thinking about it. There were much more important things to deal with at the moment than hunger.

Someone was after his secrets. Someone had successfully taken things that should never be out of his sight.

Dalin Larenok was paranoid for good reason. His layers of defenses, security, and obsessive habits to protect himself from just such an occurrence had proven insufficient.

First step, investigate. He slid open the storage panel in the transit room and pulled out one of three fully-charged high-grade mana crystals that he kept there in case of emergencies. Normally, he would overdraw the grid and accept the slow charge time and added fees, but right now he couldn't afford to wait. He closed the panel and locked it securely, old habits stronger than his haste, before placing the crystal into the charging cavity.

Crossing to the dial, he tapped in the number for his contact in the palace.

Vaes City, capital of Veor, was located significantly north and west from the Astralla region, requiring the transit to be relayed through several oases and two independent stations - all drastically increasing the expense. This one trip would probably drain the crystal entirely. But it would be worth it.

Larenok activated the transit platform. Light flashed. Then he stood somewhere else. Light flashed. He stood another somewhere else. Light flashed.

Seven jumps later, the transit flashed one final time and the light died.

He stood in a private alcove between two statues of King Linrix the Fourth and Queen Vitain of Mirek, respectively. Twenty-two statues total lined the hall, eleven on each side, each pair bracketing another shadowed arrival platform.

This arrival-only platform could not be used for outbound transportation, nor could any of the others within the hall.

Despite its grand size and expansive design, this arrival hall rarely saw use. Its official purpose was for mustering military forces from across the continent if the need arose. There was an adjacent departure hall with a full-size transit circle, built with an openable roof design to allow for lunar transit at need, but that one was primarily used for royal sightseeing these days.

There hadn't been a cause for major military action in Veor for generations, despite its preparations to the contrary.

Instead, the arrival hall was more often used for secret rendezvous and other such intrigues.

All this information flitted through Larenok's mind in the instant between arriving and stepping off the platform. Then his focus returned fully to his destination and the man he'd come to see.

No one stole from Dalin Larenok and got away from it.

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“You really want to get out of sandshark driving, don’t you?"

Ran shivered. "It isn't fun getting eaten. Every time I end up properly swallowed I'm terrified that I’d take too long activating your Soulspell and end up dissolving instead of coming back properly. I don't know how you manage it."

"Well, in my case it got to be a bit more instinctive after so long. Honestly, at this point I have more problems with false activating during a nightmare or something. I can't tell you how many loops I've lost by accidental reversion."

"So you’re not perfect, good to know." Ran hunched tighter in on himself. "Do you think I'll be dragged along with you when you revert? Or is this a one-way thing? Once you get your own soulspell fixed, I mean. Do you think we’ll still be together on this, or will you be back to solo?"

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"I’ll bring you with me, whether we remember it or not. Not going to leave you behind."

“Except when you go sandshark riding.”

“Oh? You don’t want to come with me even then?”

“This time I’ll be the one sitting back, sipping cherry cocktails while you go off wrangling sandsharks all day.”

“I’ve actually outgrown my love of that particular drink. Nowadays I find it a bit overpowering and lacking in subtlety.”

For some reason, Ran laughed when he said this.

“But, yes, if it bothers you that much, I’ll hire someone else to drive.” Jair could already think of a half dozen people off the top of his head who could be convinced to help. Not easily, but when you knew as much as he did recruiting people became much more doable.

Jair had plenty of contacts in plenty of places, and finding someone willing to drive a sandshark would only be moderately challenging.

The trouble with finding sandshark riders was that they didn't tend to congregate near transit platforms. Nor did they even pay much heed to things like outposts or roads. Jair’s family, in the southwestern sandbog close to the fringes of Veor, were about as rural as you could get, and they were still more readily accessible than the average sand nomad.

Nor was there a system in place for renting sandsharks and their riders. The skill was highly prized in their culture, one to which every youngster aspired, but not one which everyone actually undertook. Mainly due to its high fatality rate.

If one could learn to do it, they were set for life. Sandshark tamers received all the glory, all the accolades of their clans, and that made it very difficult for outsiders to qualify as worthy to utilize their time and abilities.

Luckily, Jair had a ready-made credential in the form of his own ability to tame a sandshark. That should be enough to get him in the door, as it were. He could play it off as having learned from a different tribe, or claim to have picked it up on his own, or claim divine intervention. Any of them would work.

“It does.” Ran looked ashamed to admit it. “I know it’s an important skill, and I will learn it, but… not right now.”

Jair nodded and turned to their fellow conspirators. "Change of plans. We're going to need to add another person to our team. Mission abort for now, head back to our apartments and I'll call you when we're ready.”

Lorsit looked around in bafflement. "We already assaulted someone on the way here. Now you want us to go and wait?"

“I'd forgotten that part.” Jair considered that a moment. “You’re right, Larenok will be on the rampage once he wakes up."

"Is there a reason you left him alive?" Ran stopped dead still as he registered what he’d just said. His eyes widened and he shook his head emphatically. "You know I didn't mean that. It was just a–"

Jair was laughing uproariously and couldn't stop. "You, wow– it only took, what, two months?"

"I didn't mean it! Of course I didn't mean it!"

"I know that. You’ve never killed anyone. Certainly not done so frivolously. But the mere fact that the concept crossed your mind is hilarious."

Ran kept shaking his head, looking haunted.

“Don’t worry about it. For now, we’ll consider this a test run. We can verify locations and timing of everything before we try it for real. I know we’re on a tight deadline, but I'll need to do some scouting to find the right person before we can proceed."

Ran mulled this over. "Can't you get your own sandshark, leave Lorsit and Yast to do the breaking in? Do you need to be there to grab Maelstrom, or can you tell them the general area it’s in and have them grab the whole pile?"

Jair laughed. "Never thought I’d see the day where Ran Serin casually suggests we steal a dozen soulswords to save a little time."

"But it would work. Right? There's no point during the actual infiltration that requires you specifically, apart from grabbing Maelstrom. Right?"

Jair was loath to admit it, but Ran did have a point. Jair himself was largely unnecessary. As long as they gave complete enough instructions, the other two could in theory complete the heist alone. Probably.

"Okay, we'll try it your way. Where did you get your sandshark?"

"It's the same one that's been hanging around Astralla City. Pretty sure I recognized it from our first trip."

Jair nodded. "Then I'll go grab it.”

He didn't like the thought of it, trusting Maelstrom’s retrieval to anyone else, but in its unbounded, non-upgraded form, it came with none of the innate protections that the fully bound and ascended version had.

"Honestly, stealing more than one is probably a good idea anyway. It'll conceal what we’re doing. If a bunch of soulswords suddenly show up on the black market, people go after them, not the one kid who happens to have a new soulsword."

"See? I'm pretty smart after all." Ran elbowed Jair playfully. “I’ll wait here to retreat with Yast, while you pick up Lorsit. If anything happens I’ll have full information to bring back for next time.”

Jair nodded. "Fair enough. Change of plans, change of plans.”

Their infiltration duo, now very confused, stopped to listen as they gave a detailed briefing on the new attack plan. Ran would be handling the blackmail for Rhebina’s cooperation while Jair left to find a sandshark, Yast deal with the security, and Lorsit to do the actual stealing.

"I'm all but getting whiplash from all these plan changes," Lorsit grumbled. "I thought you knew what you were doing."

"I do. I don't know how we’re doing it, is the problem."

With a suspicious glower, Lorsit shook his head and started off toward the transit platform with Ran.

Jair had to give Yast a full summary of the plan with multiple contingencies, since quick and clear communication with the elf would be impossible once Jair left the group.

As soon as he was satisfied everyone knew their roles, Jair transited back to Astralla City and ran for the gate. He was on a timer now. If he didn't make it back to the Academy cliffside in time to catch Lorsit on his escape, then they’d need to replan yet again.

He chafed at the wait to get through the exit. There wasn’t a long line but it was enough to slow him a few precious minutes.

Then he was out into the sand, sprinting full speed without direction.

It took a few minutes before any sandshark noticed him, but when it did, it obligingly surged upward and swallowed him. Jair twisted as he fell, reaching out to the control points with the exact precision of someone who’d done it a thousand times. The sandshark barely twitched as it moved smoothly from its pre-existing path to the one Jair decreed.

By the time he reached the base of the cliff atop which rested the Astralla Institute, the cliffside had already been smashed open and Lorsit and Firdon were nowhere to be found.

“Hm.” Jair prodded the docile sandshark experimentally. “You slower than you should be today?”

The shark didn’t reply.

Jair waited a few minutes, but it quickly became clear he was too late and nothing interesting was going to happen.

“Up the dunes and around we go, then.” He sighed. “I hope Ran’s side of things went better. This is definitely going to require reverting.”

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