“I’m getting better at it,” Elion said with a smile. Gorman nodded back. This training session had gone well, and Elion had been able to trigger several Praxian menus without speaking aloud. “Thank you for your help.”

“I enjoy seeing you improve,” Gorman said. “You’re a fine student.”

“I’m sorry about everything that has happened since I got here,” Elion said. “I’d like to help Keyla make her plan work.”

“I do too,” Gorman said. “I think that the town will want to try it. But we need to do something about that Shard, and soon. We can’t wait around forever, not with the bridge failing.”

Elion sighed. “I know.”

“But as long as you’re here,” Gorman said. “You may as well try.”

Elion nodded.

“Speaking of which, you mentioned that your uncle Zev might be on the planet somewhere,” the big man said. “You thought he jumped through a portal to Kylios?”

“Yes,” Elion said, wondering what this was all about.

“There might be a way for us to find out.”

Hope spiked in Elion, a sudden rush of adrenaline. “How?” he asked.

“We can use the tower’s transmitter. It’ll probably draw a ton of power, though.”

“When?” Elion asked. “When can we do it?” Gratitude bloomed within like a seedling bursting from the soil.

“We can do it now. But it’s not without risk,” Gorman cautioned. “It could catch the attention of Dorian’s warlocks, bringing them here more quickly. But if it helps you get out of here sooner, then that’ll be worth it.”

Elion frowned, pondering the motivation behind the man’s offer. Sometimes he seems worried about getting me to leave, sometimes he doesn’t seem to mind. Is he stalling? Trying to prevent Keyla’s plan from moving forward, somehow? Still, Gorman was offering the chance to find out if Zev was alive, and here on Kylios. That was worth any risk.

“Let’s do it,” Elion said.

Gorman led Elion over to the transmission station; the same one he’d overheard Gorman using in the middle of the night. Elion still wondered about the conversation Gorman had been having. It had seemed sinister to him. Is this a trick, to expose my location to Dorian and collect a reward?

“There’s an old Aurelian Communication Network on Kylios,” Gorman said. “I made a few modifications to our communication antenna up on the tower and I think we should be able to tap into it. Since it’s a bit of a hack, it’s going to draw a lot of power just to identify your uncle’s location. That’s all we’re going to do. You won’t be able to talk to him.” Gorman gestured apologetically.

“Okay,” Elion said. “If I know where he is, that’s a start.” He tried not to seem overeager, but inside he was singing. Knowing that Zev was alive, and where he was? Gorman did not have to apologize for that. Even the implication that it might be possible to talk to Zev excited Elion.

Elion sat in the chair at the transmitter. He took a deep breath, calming himself as he tried to remember that Zev could be dead. Or somewhere else; maybe on a different planet. They might not be able to find him at all.

Gorman helped Elion put on the headwear and then fiddled with the machine for several minutes, making sure all the settings were correct and all the instruments calibrated.

“Focus on your uncle,” Gorman said. “Hold him in your mind as vividly as possible. This could take a few minutes, so it’s important for you to stay focused. If he’s on Kylios, we’ll find him.”

Static crackled through the headset. Elion called up memories of Zev.

He thought about the first time Zev had taken him skeet shooting. Zev handed Elion the shotgun, made him pull it into the crease of his shoulder, holding it tightly against his body. A clay pigeon soared through the air, and Elion tried to track it with the gun, tugging on the trigger.

The shotgun bucked in his arms, nearly knocking him over, shot going wide.

Zev laughed and corrected Elion’s stance, throwing another clay pigeon. This time Elion tracked it through the air. He caught the clay disc in the spray of pellets from his shotgun and it exploded into a thousand pieces.

“Wow,” Zev exclaimed, “Second try! You’re a natural, kid.”

Elion swelled with pride, and didn’t hit another shot for the rest of the day.

Then there was the time just after his parents died, when Elion and Liora had temporarily moved into Zev’s apartment. A designated wilderness area covered hundreds of acres nearby, and Elion would walk there sometimes to be alone.

One day, a two-year-old boy wandered away from his parents in the woods. After 12 hours, search and rescue hadn’t found the boy and began calling for volunteers to help them sweep through the forest.

Elion persuaded Zev and Liora to come volunteer with him, and together they joined with other members of the community to search. At first Zev resisted, making excuses; he couldn’t afford the time off work, other people were already helping, and so on.

He remembered the look on Zev’s face when he said, “I know how that little boy feels right now. Lost, alone, and sad. I just want him to be with his parents again.”

Zev’s gruff face melted, his scarred, worn exterior dissolving as he turned to wipe away tears. “You’re right,” Zev said. “I’m sorry. We need to help.”

They beat their way through the forest, rain sprinkling down around them. The smell of damp bark and decaying leaves swirled through the air. Cold, wet, and miserable, Elion pushed forward, driven by his desire to see a family reunited.

Six hours later, as the light faded, Search and Rescue started sending volunteers home to rest. They didn’t want anyone else getting lost in the woods.

Zev knelt beside Elion. “It’s been nearly 24 hours since the boy was last seen,” he said. “We have to consider the possibility that—”

“We have to keep looking,” Elion insisted. “He’s cold, and scared, and alone, and we can’t leave him out here alone all night. He needs his mom and dad.”

Zev gave in. “30 more minutes,” he said. “After that it will be too dark; we don’t want to miss him in the dark.

A dozen steps later, Elion’s flashlight illuminated small footprints in the mud, heading back through the area that had already been searched. He followed them, dragging Zev and Liora along with him.

The footprints vanished across hard stone. Elion scrutinized the rocks, finding flecks of dirt fallen from the missing toddler’s shoes. Darkness grew in the forest, and Elion turned on his flashlight, continuing to follow the trail.

Then, just as the last vestige of light faded in the western sky, Elion peered down into a dark crack between two rocks. Wedged there, in a space too small for an adult, he saw a tiny body.

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Two big eyes glittered in the beam of Elion’s flashlight. The little boy shivered and stared, too cold and afraid to cry. Elion reached down and pulled the boy out of the hole. In an instant, Zev wrapped the child in his coat, crying out with joy.

Elion remembered the look of exultation on Zev’s face, the rush of finding the child alive. He struggled to keep up with Zev as they raced back through the forest, calling for help.

The boy’s parents sobbed when they were reunited with their son. Elion did not feel happy. He felt a desperate, crushing longing to be that boy, wrapped in the arms of his parents.

That night Zev wrapped his arm around Elion, and told him he was proud.

Elion wondered if he’d ever see his uncle again. Was Elion the little boy, lost in the woods, while Zev searched for him? Or had Zev died, another member of Elion’s family gone forever?

“Ah ha!” Gorman exclaimed. He tapped on a readout screen, jotting down a string of numbers. “You found him. He’s here somewhere.” He began adjusting knobs and switches, speaking to the machine as he worked. “No, don’t establish a communication link… Power running low… not as precise as I hoped, but we can’t afford to keep looking.”

With the flick of a switch, the entire system powered off. Elion touched his cheek, realized it was wet. He wiped his face. “You found him?” he asked. “Where?”

“He’s on Kylios,” Gorman said. “Not too far, I don’t think. Not on the other side of the planet at least, probably in Erod. We’ll have to pull out the atlas and look up the coordinates.”

The words rolled off of Elion, not penetrating through the strong emotions whirling within him.

“He’s here?” Elion said. “Where?”

Gorman flipped on a screen. It filled with a large rotating globe diagram. Elion did not recognize any of the landmasses, and assumed it was Kylios. Gorman typed the coordinates in on a keyboard and the globe rotated as the screen zoomed into the place the coordinates indicated. “In Erod,” Gorman said, pointing. Elion peered at the map, but the shapes on the screen meant nothing to him.

“Several days up river,” Gorman said. “Then over the Iron Mountains and across the Plains of Valnor.”

“I need to talk to Zev,” Elion said. “He needs to know I’m here.”

“You can’t,” Gorman insisted. “It would draw too much power. And it might catch Dorian’s attention.”

“Then I need to go, now!” Elion said. “I need to get to where he is. If I had something I could float in, I could go down river, then hike back up along the banks. I could get to where he is.”

“Not so fast young man. No need to be hasty.”

“I thought you wanted me gone. Aren’t I endangering this town by being here?”

Gorman shrugged. “In a way, you are. But I think it would be better for you to stay here for a few more days.”

“I thought you wanted me to leave. To avoid conflict with Dorian.”

Gorman waved his hand dismissively. “Sorry if I gave you the impression that was super urgent. A few more days here won’t matter. Take your time to prepare, don’t act rashly.”

“I need to go soon though,” Elion said. “I need to build a boat, something. I have to get to Zev.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Gorman said. “But you probably lose time sailing down the river. Be patient, and if everything works according to plan, you should simply be able to cross over the bridge and travel on the paths. That would be much faster for you.”

“Fine,” Elion said, unconsciously pulling the Ascendency Stone from his pocket, turning it over in his hand. “I understand. I’m sorry, I just get more anxious the longer I’m here. Knowing that my uncle is alive, well… I need to get to him. I need him to know I’m here.”

What happened to you, Zev? You told me you’d be back in twenty-four hours.

“No need to apologize,” Gorman said. “You’re welcome here for as long as you want, though I understand your need to leave.”

Elion placed the gemstone on the table, admiring the pattern of light refracting through it onto the hard surface. He was grateful for Gorman’s hospitality, but a little confused by the sudden change in the man’s demeanor. Gorman had been so worried about attracting Dorian’s attention to Aterfel, it seemed strange for him to have dropped that concern.

“I appreciate that,” Elion said.

“I can keep that safe for you if you’d like,” Gorman said, gesturing to the Ascendency Stone in Elion’s hand. Elion realized he’d been playing with it and closed his fingers around it. “Don’t want to lose it before you get a chance to use it, do you?”

Is that a jab at the fact that I already lost one? Elion inspected Gorman’s face, but didn’t detect any sign of aggression from the man.

“Should I just use it?” Elion asked. “I wasn’t totally following Keyla’s math before, and…”

Gorman slapped his thigh. “No way, not yet. The formula for gemstone experience is the square of one plus your current level.”

Elion blinked, tilting his head.

“Rule of thumb for you? Don’t use a cend until you’ve reached level two. That’s going to maximize the value you get out of them. They become less useful once you get to around level nine or ten.”

“So you think it’s a waste to let Kasm use Ascendency Stones to level up right now?”

Gorman nodded. “If he trained for three or four months, he could probably get to level two naturally. At that point, each stone he uses can help him skip a level. Remember that levels require exponentially more experience to reach. If he uses five Ascendency Stones now, he’ll still be one experience points short of level five; at thirty-one experience points. That’s about two and a half years of training. If he waits until level two, those same stones take him past level seven; one-hundred and thirty-nine experience points. That would take him about eleven years of training.”

Elion thought about this. “I guess that the exponential nature of the curve isn’t intuitive to me.”

“It makes sense when you study it out more. I can pull up some charts…”

“No,” Elion said. “I believe you. I get your point. It doesn’t make sense for me to use an Ascendency Stone at this point. But if there’s a chance that Kasm could heal infected…”

“A big if,” Gorman said.

“I get it.”

“Just offering to keep that Tear safe for you until you decide what to do with it. It would be a shame to lose another one.” Gorman looked down, scratching the back of his neck.

Elion rubbed his palms together, then slumped his shoulders. “I guess my pocket isn’t the safest place to keep it.”

“Offer’s always open. You can put it in my safe,” Gorman said. “That’s where I keep our Skillstones.”

"That would be safer,” Elion said. “But what if I needed to access it in an emergency?”

“Why would you need to do that?” Gorman asked. “You either use it now, or you use it later. Or trade it away. None of those are emergencies. Like I said, you have several months of training to do before it makes sense to use it.”

“Where is your safe?” Elion asked.

“Give me the stone,” Gorman said. “I’ll put it there.”

Elion tightened his lips, blowing air into his cheeks. He glanced sideways at Gorman.

If I have to leave in a hurry for some reason, it might be hard to get back. Wouldn’t it be better to keep on my person?

Then again, he had already misplaced one stone. At least this way I won’t lose it.

“Anytime you want it back, just tell me, I’ll get it for you.” Gorman extended his hand.

Elion relented, picking the Tear off the table and dropping it into Gorman’s hand.

“I’ll go put it away now,” Gorman said. “Besides, I have to go check on the Threnody Core and make sure we didn’t damage it with that power draw. He started climbing up the stairs. As he left, Elion felt the urge to follow Gorman, and see what the man did with his Ascendency Stone. He clenched his fists as he fought against the feeling, telling himself not to worry about it. If Keyla trusted Gorman with her Skillstones, then Elion could trust him too.

Then Gorman’s words struck him. He’d said ‘our Skillstones.’ That must mean… Gorman had his own Skillstones hidden in the safe. Why didn’t he offer them up to help with their plan?