“The library?” I echo in dull shock.

“Not on my watch!” Rakesh thunders. His deep olive complexion burns dull crimson with anger. He waves the failed wand that almost killed Mender Uttara at me. “Nuri, Mel, I need you to amplify the vitality draw further. I’ve got a plan to turn this around on them.”

“That’s not exactly how the healing magic works,” Melina says. She peers at him in concern. “You know that. Take a breath; we’ll figure this out together.”

Her cool, clear voice cuts through the righteous rage billowing off Rakesh. The raw force of his emotion is almost overwhelming as it crashes through my Domain, but I center myself and stay alert. Through it all, I keep an eye on the library, which has slammed shut its doors and activated a defensive ward that glows faintly with power. The mob will take a while to break through. I hope.

“Fine! Then I’ll take care of it the old fashioned way,” Rakesh growls, grabbing a spare punty in each hand. He stomps out of the room, awkwardly swinging the glassblowing tools like maces, followed by an ominous flock of mismatched birds—both paper and glass.

I stare at his retreating back. “Mikko?”

“Already on it!” my brother calls, running after our indignant [Researcher]. “I’ll make sure he’s safe from the crazies. And that he doesn’t give too many people paper cuts.”

“Might wanna hide the lemon juice for a while,” Avelina snickers as she joins Mikko on his way out.

“Wait! That’s not what I meant!” I call, running after them. When no one listens, I channel extra mana into my legs and sprint faster, passing them in seconds.

“Rakesh! We’ve got a job to do here. You can’t just abandon your post and dash off. I’m the reckless one, remember?,” I remind my friend, planting my feet wide and standing in front of him to block off the hallway.

“It’s a self-appointed job,” he snaps.

“Even so! We’re better off coordinating communication with your birds. You can see most of Gilead from here. Why spread ourselves thin?”

“Get out of my way, Nuri. I’m not letting all those books go up in smoke.”

I put my hands on his shoulders and keep my voice calm. “My friend, please, think about this for a moment. We’ll ask Nicanor to defend the library. He can get there way faster than we can. Even if you run, it’s an hour away. Probably more with all the crowds and chaos around.”

Rakesh scowls at me, then lets out an exasperated growl. The anger bleeds away and he hangs his head. “I’m afraid it will be too late either way. It’s a sad day when knowledge dies.”

“Sorry you won’t get to read those books,” I say, trying to inject some levity into things.

He lifts his head back up. “Hm? Oh, no, that’s not the problem. I’ve gained a powerful knowledge-absorption Skill recently. I’ve read most of them. I just feel bad for other people.”

“Another Skill? You’ve been holding out on us!” I say, intrigued at how he’s developed so quickly the last few months.

“Doesn’t do me much good now,” he says quietly. Sadness tinges his voice, so profound that I swear I can see the outline of a dark purple cloud in the air when he speaks. Rain clouds look less depressing than he does right now.

“We’ll figure something out. Together. Send out your flock. Who knows what we’ll come up with by the time they reach the library?”

Rakesh hands the punties back to me. A sheepish half-smile makes him look younger and less certain than usual. He straightens his robes, takes a deep breath, and sends away his birds just like I suggested.

They zip through the Orpheus and soon leave the range of my Domain. We jog back to the glass studio where we’ve set up our command center, and I nudge the mental connection I maintain with my golems, guiding a glass spiderling to follow after the birds as they wing through the city. Moments later, the scene on the scrying window panes displays the strange sight of paper and glass flying along, held aloft by magic—proof that birds of different feathers can flock together.

With our birds on their way to the library, we turn our attention back to communicating with the Army units that infiltrated alongside Nicanor. Thanks to our overhead view, Rakesh is able to warn them off two ambushes and guide them through the city to set up a trap of their own. Their [Captain] obeys Rakesh implicitly, which makes me wonder what orders he’s under. It’s not like military men to listen to civilians like that.

Despite our good work, Rakesh keeps stealing glances at the small scrying mirror in the corner with the library image on it. None of the squads are free to help; unfortunately, they’re on the wrong side of the city. I shake my head ruefully and move the image to the central pane of glass so we can all keep an eye on the defense of the library.

“Glad you’re not out there,” I say softly when I see a crack spread across the library front door. My stomach twists at the thought of anything happening to my friends. I know that they’re smart and capable, but I still worry when I’m not there to safeguard the team. The [Inquisitors] are excellent at reconnaissance, infiltration, and assassinations, but I doubt they’ve made our team a priority to protect.

“It’s a lost cause,” Rakesh says, heaving a sigh and slumping down on a chair. He stares off into space with a dejected air about him. I’ve seen happier funerals before.

“Too bad I can’t cast magic through my golems,” I mutter to myself, wishing there were a way that I could put a stop to things for him.

Apparently, I’m not as discreet as I thought, since Melina perks up. She shuffles over to stand next to me, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she leans in to whisper so Rakesh can’t hear. No sense giving him false hope.

“Are you sure you can’t, Nuri? Normally, I’d expect that mana control would fizzle out since the nuclei of the spell structure are too far away to maintain, but you’ve got practice with distributed spell-casting through your Domain.”

“Huh. Guess I do,” I say in surprise.

I frown as I consider the possibilities. I’ve been using my Domain to control the world in small ways for a while, and after my Class evolution, my sphere of influence has only grown. Do I actually have a path forward here?

“Now’s not really the time to run a research project,” I murmur at last, gesturing toward the fights on the scrying table and glass panes.

“Nicanor seems to have the most unruly members of the insurrection well in hand. And I’m certain the [Inquisitors] will track down anyone from the conspiracy who tries to flee,” Melina counters calmly. She folds her hands in front of her and stands with a quiet, patient smile, as if my participation is a foregone conclusion and she’s just waiting for me to catch up.

I let out a shaky laugh. “Hard to argue with that. Pondering magic is as good as anything else we can do. It will be a while still before the birds reach the library.”

“What are you two nattering on about?” Avelina demands, hands on her hips.

“I’m innocent!” I say reflexively.

“It’s actually my fault this time, shockingly enough,” Melina agrees with a smirk.

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Mikko and Avelina both back away in tandem. My brother shakes his head at us. “You gotta warn us when you’re scheming. Life has a way of getting dangerous when you put your heads together like that.”

Through it all, Rakesh simply stares morosely at the scrying image. He doesn’t seem to pay attention even when Melina pulls out her notebook and materializes a mana pen. That more than anything makes me worry for my friend.

“All right. Here I go.”

I select a faint link to a golem just outside the range of my Domain’s sight and activate [Greater Heat Manipulation]. If there’s any chance of succeeding, it will be with a Skill that I’ve used since I first gained my Class. I understand it better than any other ability I’ve got, whether earned or borrowed. My mastery over heat and cold is an intimate part of me after all the years of pushing it along to greater and greater heights.

Mana pulses along the thin connection to the golem, and a surge of excitement builds up like a wave on the sea as I put theory into practice. I close my eyes to help focus, envisioning a bloom of fire at a distance, but nothing happens. Crash! The wave hits the shore and recedes! How anticlimactic.

I shrug. “Sorry, Mel. No go.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Since when do you give up that easily? You’re hardly trying.”

“What? I gave it a shot.”

“No, you poked at your Skill and didn’t see anything amazing, so you gave up. What would Ezio say about that? No rigor! No creativity!”

I scoff. “All right. You’ve got a point.”

“Always do,” Melina says primly.

I roll my eyes. “Now you sound like Ava. Fine, let me see what else I can do. It gives me something to focus on at least.”

“Nervous energy is your enemy. Take a breath. Instead of doing it all at once, consider what you’re trying to accomplish and break it down into smaller steps,” Melina says.

“Yeah. I feel it. Seems wrong to be here watching instead of participating, huh?” I ask as I pace in front of the scrying mirror.

Mikko clears his throat and steps toward the mirror. “Good point. We should be out there. It’s probably safer than staying here, anyway. Rakesh! Where should we go, my man?”

“The docks, if you can make it in time. Ships under attack,” Rakesh says absently. “Fire control might counter the attacks. Keep the rabble off Ava.”

“I’ll protect her with my life,” Mikko vows. He and Avelina hold hands and dart out of the room without a backward glance. I feel like I ought to be insulted since they can’t wait to get far away from my magical experiments, but they’re too sweet together for me to stay mad.

“They’ll be all right. Hey, try a different Skill at a distance. Use your Domain to find out if Casella and Mbukhe are here. Let’s meet up with them,” Melina suggests.

I brighten. “Fantastic idea. I’m not sure it’s practical, but I’ll try it.”

“You can do it, Nuri!”

Once again I extend my senses along the connections I have to the glass golem. There’s a sensation of distance, like an unbridgeable chasm, but I’ve seen first-hand the power of mana. I can find a way to make up the gap. My [Arcane Domain] reaches out toward the golem—and, once again, I fail to initialize my Skills.

I grunt. “Still nothing.”

Melina crosses out a line in her notebook and jots down a new thought below it. She looks up, her pale eyes intense and focused. “How do you visualize your Domain?”

I blink. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I have a theory, but I don’t want to influence you too much one way or another by getting into the details. Describe your [Arcane Domain] for me? Free association is fine.”

“It’s . . . um, well . . . it’s kinda hard to describe,” I start lamely. I rub my temples with my fingertips. “Right. Yeah. It’s like a sphere of perfect awareness—no, that’s not the right word. It’s more than that. Control? Authority? Hah, that sounds ridiculous.”

“I won’t judge,” Melina says, her lips curving up into a smile that tells me she is definitely already judging me. “Keep going. This is helpful.”

I raise my eyebrows, but continue despite my skepticism. “You know how when you drop into your core you see an entire inner world? Your soul space, or whatever?”

She nods, and I continue my explanation, my confidence growing as I go. “Well, when I first got my Domain, I thought it was just a fancy version of [Manasight] or something. It’s not. It works more like examining or changing my inner world, but clarity diminishes with distance. It’s why I have more range now. Oh, and it’s harder to affect things the farther away from me they are. The less familiar something is, the harder to change. Does that make sense?”

While I’m rambling, Rakesh finally seems to notice we’re working on something together. He slides out his own notebook, but his hands hang limply by his side, and he doesn’t jot down any notes. Even so, the distraction can only be healthy, so I struggle onward, stringing words together to try to express myself.

As difficult as it is to adequately assess the feeling of my Domain, talking about it like this is freeing in a way that I never imagined, like I’ve experienced an epiphany about who I am.

Melina dutifully writes it all down. Whenever I get stuck or struggle to find words, she encourages me to continue in her typical gentle yet inexorable manner. By the end, she reads off her summary, drawing connections between words that I didn’t quite notice.

“You think of your Domain as an extension of your soul. It’s an inversion—or, really, an expansion—of who you are, with the inner world slowly taking over the outer. That’s the key. So why not think of each of your golems as part of you when you try to extend your casting range? They’re far-flung hands and feet and eyes.”

I chew on her words for a while. Is that why I was so determined to get a real hand? I’ve already got pseudo-extremities all over the city. One more nearby wouldn’t move the needle. But real flesh and blood? That makes me feel complete.

“Moving my concept of self, huh?” I mutter to myself. Easier said than done. Still, it’s not like I lose anything by trying a new tactic. I activate [Glass Animation] first this time, establishing a stronger link to the creature before I attempt to reach through mana-wrought ropes tying me to the distant beast. Then I borrow on Viewing techniques, opening my sight to the metaphysical world, and drift along the link.

Exactly as Melina suggested, my sense of self shifts along the link. Awareness blooms in my mind, glimmering gold and white against the darkness of the void. I pour more power into it, chasing the euphoria of success, and for a brief moment, the discordant images in my mind’s eyes grow clearer. Overeager, I push too much power into the attempt, causing the mana ropes to stretch, distorting under the overwhelming surge of power coursing through them.

I try to ease back, but the connection is already waning. Flickering, faltering, fading.

Failing.

“Shatter it all!” I curse, smacking my hands together in frustration. The slap of my palms hitting each other stings, but it still brings a wry, determined smile to my face. I haven’t felt my left hand in over a year. Phantom pain aside, this is the first intense sensation I’ve experienced in my hand for far too long.

It feels good, in a weird way, even though it still hurts. There’s just something profoundly right about restoring a proper connection. Huh. Maybe there’s something to that.

“. . . Nuri? Nuri!”

Melina’s voice shakes me out of the reverie I’d fallen into, and I give her a sheepish grin. “Heh. Had an idea.”

“You don’t say,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You’ve been staring at the wall for a solid two minutes now.”

I snort out a laugh. “Sorry, got distracted. The birds won’t arrive for another few minutes at this rate. I think I know how to make things work by the time they get there. I don’t want to try pushing my Skills through the scrying golem in case it breaks the connection.”

Melina’s notebook is still out. She’s been documenting my experiments with enthusiasm. I suspect it helps keep her mind off her sister, but I still appreciate that she’s helping me instead of wallowing in her own fears. She taps the page with her mana pen. “What’s the plan?”

“Moderating the power draw is a problem, so I need to spread out the foci of the ability to multiple golems at once. It takes more concentration, but I think it will dilute the mana enough to give me a chance.”

Rakesh pops up to his feet, his lips twisted into a frown. “If it were that easy, then you would have just used less power and gotten it to work on your first half-hearted attempt. You’re smarter than that.”

I grin at the reluctant [Researcher], glad he joined the conversation at last. I rub my hands together, if only for an excuse to use both hands while responding to the conversation. “Got that right! That’s why I’m gonna use [Adjuration of the Phoenix] first and watch how it enables long-distance spell-casting. I’ll borrow the right runes, do some free-form magical prestidigitation, and pull off a miracle. Easy!”

A flash of light interrupts us before I can put my plan into action. My friends spin to look at the pane of glass where I’ve projected the scene of the library assault, and the two of them go completely still.

I turn my head, following their gazes, and let out a gasp when I see the source of the glaring light in the scrying image. Fire dances along the front of the building, burning through their defensive wards—no, the fire is inside already.

My stomach turns. The insurgents have breached the door. Now they’re torching untold millions of words in their indiscriminate rampage. My breathing gets faster and faster. Rakesh is moaning like he’s about to keel over and die. Someone has to stop them. Someone has to—

Anger washes through me. I reach out through the void, heedless of the cost. Usurping control of the glass golem, I take command of the flames and extinguish the blaze.