“Wow. So. Many. Books!” Avelina says in mock wonder, gesturing around at the few surviving fragments of paper amidst the ash heaps of the Gilead library.

We’re in the charred-out remains of the vestibule, taking in the devastation. Security ropes block off the burned area. No one is allowed entrance, although they made an exception for the young “heroes” of the ill-fated Deathtouch Insurrection, as the populace has named the fateful day Saphora struck a month ago. It’s the last thing on our list to do together in Gilead, which is why we keep postponing the visit. No one seems ready to face the reality of our team changing again.

Rakesh shoots Avelina a dirty look. “There were more before the rebels burned the place down. If I’d just been a little faster—”

“I know, I know, dummy,” Avelina replies, her voice softening and turning the insult into a familiar term of endearment. “You did your best. But cheer up! They’re just bits of dusty old paper. No great loss.”

“No great loss?” Rakesh sputters.

The Linas both let out peals of laughter at his indignation. Their mirth rings across the vast library, earning some strange glances. Our sensitive [Researcher] crosses his arms, glaring at the twins. “Mel. How could you? I’m disappointed that a scholar at heart would be so callous about the loss of the books.”

“All of the knowledge inside is what matters, not the medium,” Melina replies archly.

“That’s . . . true,” Rakesh allows, but he looks like the admission pains him deeply. He scrunches his face, grumpy at the teasing as we stand in the middle of rubble and ashes.

Suddenly he brightens, straightening up and staring intently at a shelf being cleared away by a repair team. He jogs over to them, stopping in the middle of the vestibule, and turns in a slow circle as he squints at the walls and lifts his hands up in front of his eyes, making odd shapes with them and pointing with his fingers as though measuring out the space visually.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I mutter to Lionel, who simply grins and elbows me in the ribs like when we were kids.

“Nuri! I have an idea. An extraordinary idea. The best idea!” Rakesh announces, beckoning me over. His enthusiasm is undimmed when I groan and bury my face in my hands.

“What is it this time?” I ask.

“Remember when we combined our techniques to allow you to imprint what you saw through your Domain on the scrying sensors?” Rakesh says, launching into an explanation as soon as he sees that he has our attention.

“Let’s see. You memorized the books and you’re going to repeat them for me while I dictate them with my Skill?” I guess.

“Almost, but my memory isn’t that good. I only have a few of the books cataloged, not dozens of shelves. I didn’t have time to get to them all.” Rakesh bows his head, sounding a touch defensive as he’s forced to admit that he hasn’t memorized millions of lines of text while also coordinating a counterintelligence initiative and coming up with all our outlandish plans.

“Only you would look at that as a weakness,” I say, shaking my head at my friend in admiration. “You’re pretty impressive, you know that?”

He makes a rude noise with his lips, dismissing me entirely. “You’re forgetting that my greatest Skill just completed its refresh cycle. You can record the entire contents of the Index here, protected by a new [Sanctuary of Glass]! Let’s turn these ashes into the fertilizers of knowledge and dreams.”

“That was a silly line,” Avelina objects.

Rakesh glowers. “I’m a [Researcher], not some daft [Poet]! You come up with a better speech.”

“Easy. Just appeal to Nuri’s vanity.” She turns to me. “This is a perfect way to challenge your Skills to grow. See how many of them you can rank up in one go! Set a record on the way to Gold!”

“She’s got you there, Rakesh,” Mikko says, smiling fondly at Avelina.

The dreamy look in his eyes is enough to make me gag, but I’m happy he’s happy. It’s just hard for me to think about losing Mikko and Avelina once we return to Silaraon and they invariably want to settle down. I’m already feeling lonely since Lionel is staying in Gilead to help with the Menders. Add in rumors of the new [Inquisitors] base of operations, which is an obvious fit for Rakesh, and soon our little team will be just me and Mel.

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And I’ve already promised to take her to see Padouk, which means she’ll probably race her twin to see who gets to the wedding altar first. Everyone is leaving. They’re finding new ambitions, new paths forward. Me? I’m all alone. Worse, I feel stuck in a rut. Maybe I’ll have to consider Xharrote’s suggestion to train with Nicanor, or team up with Casella and Mbukhe again. At least then I won’t have to bear all the burdens of leadership. But I want to get back to glass, too, and I promised to check in on—

“Nuri? Nuri!”

I blink, coming back to my senses as Avelina snaps in my face to get my attention. She sends showers of harmless, rainbow-hued sparks from her fingertips with each snap, no doubt inspired by the firework displays during the recent celebrations in her honor.

“Uh. Yeah. Ranking up sounds good.”

Mikko’s goofy look sharpens immediately. He frowns at me, his brow furrowed, and I’m certain that he’s preparing his best encouraging lecture for later. He’s more and more like his father with each passing day. That brings me to a halt again. I miss the family.

“Maybe I’m just homesick,” I blurt out, wincing at the ill-timed admission. I’m supposed to help Rakesh restore the library with a never-before-seen combination of amazing Skills, not spill my guts to the team.

“Me too,” half of them chorus immediately. They seem so sincere, so non-judgemental in their acceptance of my statement that it unties the knot that’s been tightening in my chest for the last few weeks.

“Let's do this. Together,” I say, my morose mood slowly melting. “Then let’s go home.”

Lionel avoids my gaze, but I just smile and pat his shoulder. “We’ll come visit, Lio. Don’t worry.”

A loud screech interrupts what was supposed to be a touching moment. We all turn to behold Rakesh dragging over a table that’s still mostly intact. It protests as it’s manhandled over the floor, which is cleared out in preparation for the upcoming cleaning work at the library.

Rakesh is breathing hard by the time he maneuvers the table into position. He brushes off the dust and debris on top of it to make a spot where he can sit down. He crosses his legs and gets comfortable, arranging his black scholarly robes around him with great dignity and deliberation. Once he’s satisfied, he closes his eyes and activates his grand Skill.

Golden mana rushes in from all around us: up from the ground, drawn from where it pools near the Rift; down from the skies, falling softly like the first snow of the year; in from all four corners of the world, drifting in spirals and converging on our [Secretarial Researcher] in a flash of power.

As I warm to the idea, I reach out with my own mana, buttressing his Skill and sharing the strength of my Domain. Splitting my focus, I bend down and place both palms on the floor of the library, calling on my [Vitrification] to turn the ground to glass.

Without releasing the Skill, I connect my Domain to the tables and shelves around us, shifting the mana to a new target. I walk around the damaged wing of the library, turning more and more of the broken pieces into glass. It feels symbolic as I heat up the glass, pulling it into a ball with my Domain and preparing it for creating a [Sanctuary]. Time for a new beginning.

Instead of merely relying on my Skill, however, I fold the glass over, weaving the molten strands in on each other and creating a complex orb of folded glass. [Sanctuary of Glass] runs alongside my other Skills, but I draw on [Artisanal Acuity] as I work to guide the shape. Instantly, the image of the tree holding up the world in the underwater city springs to mind. The first and grandest [Sanctuary] I ever created.

Holding the idea of a tree, I compress the glass further, curving it over into an oval and sharpening the bottom until it looks like a giant acorn. All of the borrowed information from the Index will be stored within, but it won’t change or develop in its current state. It needs to grow.

The higher-order concept makes the mana around us frolic. The energy of the world resonates with my desire, and I impress each concept I’ve discovered related to innovation and growth into my [Glass Animation] Skill in conjunction with [Sanctuary of Glass]. Grinning in pure delight, I push mana into the combined Skills, and impart a new directive to the building-sized, tree-like golem I’m creating.

Sprout! I shout in the voice of my soul. More than that. Flourish! I admonish the glass tree. Seek out knowledge and blossom as more and more wisdom is added to your ranks.

Power rushes out of me. By the time the dizzying flood of mana cuts off, I’m panting on the ash-stained floor. Bits of dirt and soot are smeared across my clothes.

Before me, a pulsing sphere the size of my head instantly draws my sight. Overflowing with power, it blazes against my mana senses too brilliantly to watch, looking for all the world like the core of the Lesser Domain I drained to save the townspeople so long ago. I flinch away and withdraw my Domain, letting only a trickle of my perception through.

“The seed of potential,” I whisper.

Rakesh stares at it in dazed awe. I shuffle over and squeeze his shoulder. It’s the best I can do as a parting gift. I know he’ll stay in Gilead with Lionel, working alongside the Menders to revolutionize healthcare science—at least, when he’s not revamping the [Inquisitors]’ entire communication network.

He breaks away at last, wiping a tear from his eye. “Thank you, Nuri. This city needs a sign of hope right now. You’ve given them the promise of a brighter tomorrow.”

No one else seems to know what to say after that. Reverently, we return to our suites at the Menders, where we’ve been staying now that Lionel is their star. We share a quiet dinner, with no talk of politics or future plans. We’re simply together.

Tomorrow, I’ll set out for home with Mikko and the Linas, but that’s a tale for another time. Tonight, we’re here. We’re family. The moment stretches on, immortal, even though it’s all too fleeting. Sometimes, life’s like that. Adventures will come. New horrors and challenges will arise. But for now, everything is perfect. I sigh in contentment. I don’t want to miss a single moment with my friends.