Dorian sat upon the Golden Throne. He shuddered, his eyes rolling with ecstasy. I held my breath, fearing detection. He sat near enough to me that I could have struck at him, perhaps dealing the avenging blow.

My cheeks wet with tears, I restrained myself. If I acted in violence now, I would be killed. Better to honor Loreign’s final request. I would be a witness.

Overhead, the ceiling glittered, millions of gems scintillating like stars in the night sky. Sounds of violence echoed in the distance: explosions, screams, and the telltale crackle of Sentinel power.

In this moment, I admired the beauty of the Throne. Intricately crafted and filled with delicate internal mechanisms, the Throne holds the power of House Starhold. I watched through ornamented windows in the throne’s back as gears and wheels ticked steadily along. The Throne would not betray us.

Dorian tapped at controls, flipped switches, and adjusted knobs. But the infinite wisdom of those who crafted the Throne prevented him from taking control. Its powers are only accessible by the true heir.

Hope surged within me as I understood Loreign’s final gambit. In remaining here, to face down her son, she bought time for you, Aria. She enabled your escape from the palace. When she died and you became heir, you were already out of Dorian’s grasp.

----------------------------------------

At the bridge, Gorman had cleared a large area inside the small structure that housed the drawbridge machinery. Tools and parts lay strewn about everywhere. Keyla was back at the tower, busy working on constructing more laserarms.

His normal assistant otherwise employed, Gorman had brought Elion to the bridge to fill in. “I’ll do some teaching while you help me,” Gorman had said. Elion’s stomach had fluttered as he remembered the last time he’d helped Gorman at the bridge. But he’d gone along with it anyway.

It does feel like Gorman is just trying to keep an eye on me, he thought.

“This device is going to have to function inside of the distortion field of the Shard,” Gorman said, gesturing to the two metal half-spheres lying on the ground. “So, while we can’t use any Artefin magic to hold it together or make it function, we can use the power to build it.”

Elion shifted his weight from side to side. I need to get to Zev. I wonder what happened to him? Why did he not come back to Earth like he said he would?

Gorman knelt beside one of the half-spheres. Using a measuring tape and a pen, he marked out points on the dome, spaced two hand-widths apart.

“Use this to draw three inch circles,” Gorman said, tossing a compass to Elion. Elion caught the device and stared at the markings on it until Praxis translated for him.

Zev must be trapped, somehow. If he didn’t come back for me, it’s because he couldn’t.

The compass had two legs, one ending in a sharp point, the other holding a pen. Elion pulled these apart until the angle measure at the top indicated three inches, then twisted the knob at the top to lock the angle in.

He bent over the sphere, and then placed the sharp part of the compass into the center of one of Gorman’s marks. He twisted the compass, rotating the pen around on the surface of the dome, leaving a perfect circle around Gorman’s mark.

What could have stopped Zev from coming back? Dorian? Could he have been captured?

“Where is Dorian’s palace?” Elion asked. “Where does he live?”

Gorman looked up, surprised. “What did you say? The palace?”

“Yeah, the Palace of Stars or whatever it’s called. Where is it?”

“The Palace of a Million Stars,” Gorman corrected him. “It’s in Erod.”

“Where Zev is,” Elion said. “How accurate was our location for him? Could he be in the Palace?”

Gorman shifted suddenly, turning to watch Elion intently. “Maybe,” he said. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m just wondering why Zev didn’t come back like he said he would,” Elion explained. “If he somehow was also trapped by Dorian, that would explain it.”

Gorman relaxed, a smile touching the corner of his mouth. “That would explain it,” he agreed.

“So could he be there? Held in the palace?”

“He could be,” Gorman said. “We weren’t triangulating long enough to get a precise location in Erod. So he definitely could be.”

“Then they’re both there,” Elion muttered. He drew another circle on the dome with his compass. “Both are trapped. I’m the only one who can do anything about it.”

Gorman grunted, inspecting Elion’s circles. “Good work,” he said.

Elion finished the first dome, then moved on to the second. Gorman began cutting the circles out of the domes. He used his pointer finger, tracing it lightly over the lines Elion had drawn.

Light crackled and sparked from the tip of his finger as he cut. Elion averted his eyes from the light to avoid being blinded by Gorman’s magical plasma torch finger. He didn’t want to give Gorman an excuse to replace his eyes with cameras.

A small metal disk clattered to the floor inside of the half-dome, cut away by Gorman’s Artefin skill. Elion continued drawing circles on the other dome.

So I have to rescue them both. If I’m going to have any hope of helping Zev and Liora, I’m going to have to level up, fast.

Elion touched his pocket, where he still had the Tear.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“How do you get Ascendency stones?” he asked.

Gorman finished cutting another hole in the dome.

“Cends are granted in exchange for excellence,” Gorman said. “Think of it as a reward for embodying the ideals of your Ascendency.”

“That’s a little vague,” Elion said. “Isn’t there some kind of formula for that kind of stuff? There’s math for everything else.”

Gorman chuckled. “No. Not that I know of. Maybe there is.” He sat back on his heels and rubbed his ear. “I guess the other way to earn them is through quest completion. But quests are very uncommon these days, since The Breaking of The Sky.”

“Why?”

“You can be granted quests in two ways,” Gorman said. “By a Sentinel, in a time of great need, or through the more formal organization of Ascended that oversees the Ascendency. Since the Breaking, much of the formal organization has disintegrated.”

“What are the quests like?” Elion asked. “Could I get one?”

“They’re usually involving tasks that help us fight against the Tephalians,” Gorman said. “But again, with fewer centralized structures, there just aren’t many quests available.”

Gorman rubbed his beard. “Why do you ask?”

“I need to help Zev,” Elion said. “If he’s been captured by Dorian along with Liora, then I’m the only one left who can do something. So I have to level as fast as possible, if I’m going to stand a chance. What do you recommend?”

“You’re definitely going to need to find an Aurelian to train you,” Gorman said. “They will know what kinds of things you should be doing to gain more experience, and help you to level faster. That will be the best path forward. Don’t try to cheat the early levels with cends, it’s not worth it.”

“Where could I find an Aurelian mentor? In Erod?”

“Doubtful,” Gorman said. “I don’t know, to be honest. Dorian has done a thorough job of hunting down Aurelians.”

“Why is he hunting them down?”

“They were very loyal to your family, for the most part. There are some of them who are working with Dorian, but many of them refuse, and are hunted.”

“Could we use your transmitter to locate or call other Aurelians?” Elion asked.

“Not if we don’t know who we’re trying to call,” Gorman said.

Elion sighed. I have to find some way to progress. Maybe it is a bad idea to share my cends with Kasm.

Gorman lifted up the half-sphere and collected a handful of the circles he had cut from the dome, setting them on the table.

Elion watched, wondering about Gorman’s power. “So if what you’re doing now won’t be affected by the disruption field of the Shard, then what kind of skills will be?”

“That’s a good question,” Gorman said. “A common one is rune warping.”

He picked up one of the metal disks and produced a sharp metal stylus, like the one Elion had seen Keyla using to construct her laserarms. He etched a shape onto the disk. The thin lines glowed turquoise.

“With this I can modify the properties of the metal,” Gorman said. “This rune makes makes metal adhere to other metal. It’s a simple one, but I can do much more complicated runes that are very specific.”

Gorman selected another metal disk from and pressed it over the top of the rune. He tossed the fused plates to Elion.

“You’ll never be able to pry those apart,” he said.

Elion caught the chunk of metal and tried forcing the two plates apart. His efforts were useless. For all intents and purposes, he held one solid piece of metal.

“That will just fall apart inside the distortion field,” Gorman said.

“I thought you said that Sentinel power is used to fight Tephalians,” Elion said. “If they can make it fall apart, what good is it?”

“That’s a great question,” Gorman said. “There are differing power levels. The more powerful the Ascended, the deeper into a distortion field his power will work.”

Elion turned this information over in his mind. Yet another reason to level as quickly as possible.

Gorman got back to work cutting holes in the dome. Elion finished marking circles out on the other half dome.

I need to get away from this island. There are no cends here. Nobody to help me train.

Elion waited for Gorman to stop his work.

“So the fastest way for me to level up would be finding a huge store of cends,” Elion said.

“True.”

“How many would it take to get to level twenty?”

Gorman burst out laughing. “Level twenty? Why would you ever… that’s so…” He gasped for breath, unable to complete his sentence. “That’s so high. You could train for…” He trailed off, his eyes flickering sightlessly around the room as he performed the calculations.

“That’s about one-hundred-seventy-five thousand years worth of training, to get to level twenty. Although I assume you get faster at gaining experience points with that much training.”

“I mean cends,” Elion said. “How many Ascendency stones would it take?”

“One second,” Gorman said, drumming his fingers on his leg as he continued calculating.

“That would take… 2977 Cends, to level you from 0 to 20. That is a ridiculous amount. That’s Starholder kind of wealth.”

Gorman stopped and looked at Elion. “Oh,” he said.

“So Dorian could be that strong,” Elion said. “Or stronger.”

“He also has the support of the Black Wall.” Gorman said. “Even if you were able to rise to and match his level, you’d never stand a chance.”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Elion asked. “Any better ideas?”

Gorman rubbed the back of his neck.

“I don’t have a hundred thousand years to sit around and wait. So I’m going to need to find a lot of Ascendency stones somewhere, and use them to help my family.”

“It’s still going to take you a long time,” Gorman said. “If you can manage at all.”

“That’s why I’m anxious to get going,” Elion said.

“I understand that. We’ll get you on your way, as soon as we can.”