Mod stalked toward Master Toldrei, staff at the ready. He’d felt her hexes and her illusions but… they’d been pitiful. With his UV and infrared vision, he could see through all of her tricks. With his mutagens and upgrades, he shrugged off all of her hexes.

Despite that, Mod didn’t relax. He knew that the branch master of the Felwardens would be either Class 4 or close to it, so she would have other spells at the ready. He still had his smoke pellets, sonic weapons, and a mix of powdered minerals and crushed gems. All of those should at least slow her down…

Toldrei shrank from Mod as he approached. …Was she afraid of him?

Instead of attacking or countering with another spell, Toldrei held out her staff with both hands. “I surrender. Felwardens, stand down!”

Mod paused, dumbfounded. He’d had the advantage, but the mage’s surrender had caught him off guard. Her arms trembled and her chest heaved.

The furious clash of metal on metal faded as Arsenal and the lone knight stopped fighting.

Mod had trouble believing that they’d won that easily. He kept his eyes locked on Toldrei in case she tried something.

He circled slowly around toward the exit to the demiplane, keeping one eye on Toldrei. The portal rippled steadily. Athena had used a barrier to lift herself out of the quicksand. She walked over and stood next to Mod.

Toldrei glanced between the three supers. “The Felwardens have done nothing wrong—nothing to warrant an unannounced search and seizure of property. You should’ve identified yourselves… Are you members of the Summit or the Binary Brotherhood?… We could’ve had words instead of violence.”

Mod didn’t know what to say. Toldrei was mistaken. They weren’t with the Summit or the Brotherhood…

Not anymore.

Athena walked up to the group, hands clenched and eyes narrowed. Mod watched her out of the corner of his eye. The image of her forcefields slicing through solid stone was fresh in his mind. The battle was over, but that didn’t mean that Athena’s anger had subsided.

“She surrendered,” Mod said, as much to himself as to his friend.

Athena walked up to Toldrei, standing head and shoulders above the mage. Though Toldrei continued holding her staff at arm’s length, she seemed to shrink even further.

Mod didn’t blame her—he’d never seen Athena look so intense.

“We’re leaving,” Athena said, her voice cold as a blade. “And you are in my way.”

Mod held out a hand. “Wait…” He swallowed dryly and ignored Athena’s glare. He turned back to the defeated mage. “How does your staff work? You use it to control the demiplane.”

Toldrei looked at him in surprise. “Yes.”

“Give it to me.”

The golden knight stepped forward to protest. There was a flash of blue light and a screech of metal. The knight stopped cold and stared at the deep gash in his shield. He wasn’t hurt, but Athena had nearly lopped the top of it off.

No one moved. Even Mod and Arsenal stood still.

Toldrei’s eyes widened, and she stammered, “It’s… It’s bound to me!”

Athena asked, “Will the demiplane collapse?”

“Yes!”

“How long will it take?”

“...A day, maybe less—”

Athena reached out and seized the staff. She used a small barrier to push the mage backward, tearing the relic from her hands. Another flick of Athena’s wrist sent the branch master tumbling across the demiplane in flashes of golden light.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Athena’s knuckles were white as she held the staff. “Let’s get out of here.” She turned and glared one final time at the knight. “Don’t even think about coming after us.”

Mod and Arsenal followed warily through the portal.

~

Going through the portal a second time was only slightly better than the first time. Mod wasn’t sure how much of that was his body acclimating to it or him worrying about his friend.

Athena led them away from the carnival and TINA guided them around the prying eyes of drones and biomech patrols. Mod and Arsenal tried to engage their nanite disguises, but they’d lost a large portion of their nanite mass in the fight with Toldrei. It would take time and resources for their nanite stash to recover. In the meantime, Mod and Arsenal wore flat black suits. Just enough to help them blend into the shadows.

Mod continued looking back over his shoulder, but didn’t see any sign of Toldrei or her mages. They snuck through the streets for two blocks before taking shelter in a derelict restaurant. Athena kicked her way past overturned furniture and finally set the staff down on the bar.

Arsenal stayed in the doorway, checking the street behind them. Mod glanced around the room, disregarding the wreckage, before turning back to Athena.

She stared at the staff with the same glaring intensity she’d had for its owner. She turned it over several times, running her hands across its surface. At first, mod thought she was looking for hidden buttons or mechanisms, but as the moment stretched on, Athena hovered her hands over the surface.

Mod was torn between not wanting to break her concentration and wanting to know what she was doing. In the end, curiosity won out.

“What is it?” he asked quietly.

Athena replied without looking up from her work. “Toldrei is still tied to the staff. I’m seeing if I can sever her connection.”

“And if not?”

“She’ll be able to track us. I’d rather not lead the Felwardens back to my apartment.”

Mod stepped closer and pressed his luck. “Are you going to keep it?”

Athena’s fierce gaze faltered and she smirked for a moment. “Yes. I think I will. My apartment is slowly being taken over by TINA’s servers.”

“Thank you for letting us move in.”

“It’s fine, TINA.” She turned back to Mod. “Besides, you don’t know how to use it.”

“I don’t know how to use any magic… yet.”

“There it is…” Athena narrowed her eyes, then she uttered several magic phrases, each in a different language.

Mod didn’t understand them and TINA didn’t have her databases to translate them in real-time. Still, Mod silently asked TINA to file them away for later.

The staff flickered with faint golden, almost like TV static. Despite the reaction, Athena’s irritation grew.

“Fine. Have it your way.” Athena seized the staff and stared at it in concentration. Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light from inside the staff. The rest of the golden light flicked off like a switch had been thrown. Athena set the staff down and sighed.

“What did you do?” Mod asked.

“I don’t have the knowledge, the time, or the patience to sever her connection the normal way. So, I destroyed one of the internal crystals. Thankfully, I got it right on the first guess. It’ll be a little weaker than before, and now no one can permanently connect to it… but at least it’s done.”

Mod glanced between Athena and the staff, trying to process everything that just happened—they now had a magic staff to make their own demiplanes, or at least make Athena’s apartment bigger, and Athena could create her barrier-blades inside objects…

Mod shook the thoughts away. He’d have to ask her about that another time.

“It will still work, right?”

Athena nodded. “Like I said, it might be a little more difficult than before, since the staff is weaker, but it should still work. I probably pissed off my future-self, but yeah… That’s the gist of it.”

~

The group made their way carefully back to Athena’s apartment. Drones and biomechs patrolled the streets, even in the middle of the night.

Were the Brotherhood’s forces patrolling other cities? Other countries? Would the patrols continue after Belport was done rebuilding?

Those questions and others weighed heavily on Mod. Most of all, questions about Athena.

It was almost midnight when they finally got back to the apartment and climbed in through the window. Mod had kept silent on the way back, more out of fear of discovery than any respect for Athena’s privacy.

But in the quiet apartment, the questions threatened to spill out like a dam about to burst.

Athena laid the staff on the counter, then pulled out her friend’s necklace and lay it beside the staff. She leaned wearily against the cabinet. Mod and Arsenal pulled off their mask and helmet.

“Athena…”

“Tomorrow,” she said. “Tomorrow we’ll talk. Get some sleep.”

Then she walked off toward her room, leaving Emmett standing there with his mask in both hands.

Arsenal took his arm in hers. “She’s right. We’ve got time.”

~ ~ ~