Adriel’s scolding began every bit as fiercely as I expected, but I weathered it stoically, and in the end, her tirade was short-lived—the lich was too exhausted to stay worked up for long.

“It had to be done,” I said quietly when she finally ran down.

Adriel, Safyre, and I were sitting alone around the cave’s main campfire. The lich had not made any effort to hide her ire, and not wanting to risk her wrath, the nagians and even the wolves had withdrawn to the cavern’s outskirts.

“Oh, I know that,” Adriel growled, “but not in the manner you attempted. I could’ve helped.”

I shrugged. “You were busy. Both of you were,” I replied, including Safyre in my response. “Neither of your tasks could have been put on hold for this.”

“That does not excuse your stupidity!” Adriel snapped, her ire seeming to find a second wind. “And what were you thinking by leaving Ghost behind?”

“I was thinking of protecting her,” I growled, my own irritation growing. “If the worst befell, and I died, she at least would not have to suffer the same fate.”

“Nonsense,” Adriel retorted. “If you died, Ghost would be just as dead!”

I stiffened. “No, she wouldn’t. I left the Cloak behind to stop exactly that from happening!”

Adriel threw up her hands. “You fool! Have you forgotten soulbound items are destroyed upon final death?”

I deflated. I had forgotten. “Oh,” I exhaled, bowing my head as I realized what she was getting at.

“Ghost cannot survive without the Cloak,” Adriel went on, unrelentingly, her every word as sharp and unyielding as stone. “When you died, her spirit vessel would’ve vanished, and she would be just as dead as you were! By going alone, all you were doing was subjecting her to—”

“Enough,” Safyre ordered. She threw me a sympathetic look I was not sure I deserved. “I think he gets the idea.”

Adriel shook her head despairingly. “I’m sorry, Michael. I don’t mean to beat you with this, but the risks you took…” She shuddered. “They were unnecessary.”

Safyre nodded in agreement. “We can’t afford to lose you, Michael,” she said softly. “Not now, not ever.”

I sighed mournfully. “I’ll admit leaving Ghost behind was a mistake.” I raised my head. “But what I did—entering the rift—is no different from other things I’ve done. It’s the way I’ve always played the Game, you both know that. And if we’re being brutally honest, it’s the way I have to keep playing if we’re going to survive in the long run.” Someone had to take the unconscionable risks, and for more reasons than I could recite, that person was best me.

Adriel’s jaw tightened and she looked ready to argue further, but Safyre waved her down. “It’s done,” she said quietly. “And he’s back. Let’s move on.”

Nodding reluctantly, the lich addressed me again. “Tell us what you’ve discovered.”

“Gladly,” I replied, eager to move the conversation on. Leaning forward, I proceeded to lay out in exacting detail what I’d found.

✵ ✵ ✵

“Four harbingers,” Safyre murmured when I was done.

“But there’s likely only one that we’ll have to contend with,” I pointed out. “The other three are too far away to affect the outcome of the battle.” Or so I deemed, but my knowledge of the harbingers was incomplete, and I needed Adriel’s expertise on the matter. “Am I right about that?” I asked, looking at her sideways and with more than a little trepidation.

But the lich’s earlier ire had vanished, and in the wake of my tale, she was calm and composed again. Her brows furrowed. “You’re worried about their netherstones?”

I nodded.

Each harbinger carried a black stone inside them—like the one Ceruvax had harvested from the harbinger we’d killed in the Reach—and it gave the stygian Powers the ability to jump from sector to sector without the aid of a rift.

But would they be able to do so in this instance? That was the crucial question. “Will the shield generator stop the harbingers from opening a gateway between the two nests?” I asked aloud.

The lich took her time replying. “It should—theoretically.”

I grimaced. Adriel’s answer lacked the unyielding certainty I was seeking. “You care to expand on that?”

The lich pressed her finger to her lips as she gathered her thoughts. “Now that the shield generator is in place—and well done to you, Saf, on getting it set up so quickly—this sector should be completely cut-off from sector 30,199.”

“Except for the rift,” I pointed out.

“Except for the rift,” Adriel agreed. “But the rift only allows physical passage between the two sectors at predefined points. What I was getting at, though, is that the shield generator should prevent the harbingers from ‘seeing’ this sector’s coordinates and portalling into it.”

I rubbed my chin. “Why only ‘should?’”

Adriel sighed. “It depends on whether the three creatures in question have already visited this sector. In that case, they will already ‘know’ its coordinates and be able to assault the shield from afar.”

My brows rose. “Assault how?”

“With magic,” Safyre replied succinctly. “I know for certain that there are aether spells that would allow such an assault.” She bit her lip. “And I can only assume that similar nether magic spells exist too.”

“Right,” I muttered. “So… assuming the harbingers are able to attack the shield, how long will we have before it falls?”

Adriel and Safyre exchanged glances.

“There is no straightforward answer to that,” the lich said, answering for the duo. “Unlike a mage’s personal shield, the sector-wide shield generated by the Aether Cloaking Device is a channeled spell, and mana must near-constantly be poured into it.”

I nodded, recalling witnessing Xrex and Ishita’s other Sworn doing the same for the shield they’d placed around the wolves’ valley. “Go on.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Because of the mana flowing into it,” Adriel continued, “the shield around this sector is constantly being repaired. So, not only will the three harbingers have to damage the shield, they will have to do so at a rate greater than its repair rate.”

“I see,” I mused. “Then we can control the outcome by feeding the artifact with more mana?”

“Exactly,” Safyre replied. “At worst, we should have a few minutes’ warning before the shield collapses.”

Adriel nodded. “And in the best-case scenario, the harbingers will not be able to bring enough force to bear to overcome the mages we have operating the shield generator.”

I looked curiously at Safyre. “Who is manning the shield generator at the moment?”

“The forsworn from the emporium,” she replied. “Ten of the eleven I brought back are mages.”

I blinked. “You brought back eleven forsworn?”

Adriel chuckled. “Not only that, she has already convinced all eleven to become her followers. Our dear Safyre can be quite persuasive when she wants to be.”

Safyre blushed. “I hope you don’t mind,” she said, keeping her gaze fixed on me. “They’re all Forcesworn, and seeing as they don’t know you, I thought they would be more comfortable with me leading them.”

“I don’t mind,” I said firmly. “Not at all.” I paused. “But do you trust them?”

“Unequivocally,” she replied just as firmly. “I’ve known all of them for years, and although some of us may have started out in rival factions, that’s all well in the past now. Becoming forsworn changed who we are, and now we are bound more tightly to each other than we ever were to our former Powers.”

My gaze drifted to Keros. The scarred warrior was still where I’d first encountered him, standing stiffly at attention and staring at nothing. I had a better inkling of the source of his dislike now. I’d intruded on the close bond the forsworn shared, and worse yet, I had taken Safyre away from them.

It’s a good thing I didn’t have to bind him as my follower.

I jerked my chin toward the player in question. “I presume he is the non-mage?”

Safyre nodded. “Correct. Keros has little magic, and what few spells he does have, are all geared towards enhancing his melee combat abilities.”

“He’s guarding the teleportation point, I presume?”

A smile flickered across Safyre’s face. “He is. Keros is very… martial in his disposition and he insisted we not leave the teleportation point unprotected.”

I grunted. So, he’s paranoid too. That, though, was a mark in the windknight’s favor. “How did he ever manage to pass for a merchant?”

Safyre laughed. “He didn’t. Keros never left the vaults. In fact, he served as guard commander there.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” I paused. “What about the other forsworn? Are they all his rank?”

Safyre shook her head. “Not all. Five are elites, while the other five range between rank fifteen and nineteen.”

“A force to be reckoned with,” I noted, impressed. Especially with Safyre to lead them.

The aetherist simply nodded. “Do you wish to meet the others?”

I waved aside her offer. “Not tonight. Tomorrow, perhaps.” I turned back to Adriel. “Getting back to the harbingers… we’ll have to come up with a plan for dealing with them in case they manage to break through the shield and into the sector.”

“That we will,” she agreed.

“What about the other sector—30,199?” Safyre asked.

Adriel glanced at her. “What about it?”

“Can the harbingers portal directly from the mature tree’s nest to the rift, bridging the gap between the two points instantly? Do we need a contingency for sector 30,199 too?”

I frowned. The possibility Safyre was raising had not occurred to me. If the harbingers could do as she was suggesting, the consequence for any force we sent to the far side of the rift would be… ruinous.

Adriel’s response, though, quickly set my mind at ease.

“No, they cannot,” the lich said emphatically. “Two netherstones are needed to open a portal from one nether destination to another. Not only that, to do as you suggest, the caster must simultaneously be at both the target and start locations—a physical impossibility.”

“And thank the ancients for that,” I muttered. “So, we can safely assume the force attacking the far side of the rift is unlikely to face more than one stygian Power.”

Adriel inclined her head. “We can.”

“Which brings us to the next question,” I said. “The composition of the warband we send to sector 30,199.”

Safyre leaned forward. “I have news on that front.”

I glanced at her in surprise. “You do?”

She nodded. “Kesh reports the brotherhood is amenable to your proposal.”

I stared at her. “You went to Nexus?” I asked slowly. “I thought it was the emporium vaults you were visiting?”

“I did go to the vaults,” Safyre replied, “and no, I didn’t visit Nexus.”

I shook my head. “Then I don’t understand. How did you speak to Kesh?” The old merchant was confined to the Nexus safe zone and couldn’t leave even if she wanted to.

Safyre smiled. “I used an aether spell to talk to her.”

My eyes rounded in alarm. I knew some of what aether magic could do, of course. Most mages—like Adriel—merely dabbled in it, investing only enough in the skill so that they could open a portal. Safyre, though, was a specialist aether mage. Her entire Class was built around the skill, and she had given me a rundown of its capabilities many times already.

Although primarily a non-combat skill, aether magic was essential to any large organization in the Game. It facilitated not only the transfer of goods and people across sectors, but communication too.

The problem, and the source of my alarm, was that aether spells that reached between sectors were loud and noisy—Safyre’s words, not mine—and the ley lines they formed could be tracked. This applied equally to those used for transport and communication. Now, ordinarily, no one would bother attempting to trace the source of some random ley line.

But of all the sectors in the Game, Nexus was the most watched.

The Triumvirate was fanatical about tracking all incoming and outgoing traffic in Nexus. It was why Safyre had not risked contacting Kesh directly before, and why we still shunned remote contact with the merchant. And it was why I’d not teleported directly to the city either. A portal opening in Nexus from a previously undiscovered sector would be sure to raise eyebrows.

Seeing my expression, Safyre’s smile faded. “The risk was minimal,” she explained. “Communication between the vaults and the emporium offices in Nexus is commonplace. One more message would have gone unremarked, and just to be certain, Kesh and I kept our conversation short and vague.”

I nodded in recognition of the precautions she’d taken. “Alright, so what’s this about the brotherhood? Have they agreed to our terms?”

Safyre shook her head. “No. Their huntmistress hasn’t gone that far yet. She won’t commit until she’s met you.”

I sighed. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. “I’ll head off to Nexus tomorrow then.” I’d planned on doing so already, but it would’ve been nice if I could have avoided the trip.

But Safyre was shaking her head. “Not necessary. The huntmistress is waiting for you in sector 45,104—that’s the brotherhood’s home sector. I have the coordinates and can teleport you there directly.”

“Ah. Thanks, that’ll make things easier.” I paused. “I still have to go to Nexus, though.”

She looked at me questioningly

I grimaced. “To shop.”

Surprisingly, Safyre smiled again. “Also not necessary.”

My brows rose.

“You remembered I said I brought eleven forsworn from the emporium?”

I nodded.

“Well, I brought one who is not forsworn—a civilian.”

My eyes widened. “A civilian? Why would you—” I broke off as realization hit.

Safyre smiled. “That’s right. He’s a merchant, and he, too, has pledged himself to the faction.”

I rocked back. “Oh my. That’s great,” I murmured, already mentally rearranging my plans for the next few days. At the very least, Safyre had saved me a day of travelling back and forth to Nexus. And while at some point, I would still have to visit city, that day was not today. “How does your merchant’s wares compare to Kesh’s?”

Safyre’s eyes twinkled. “That’s where it gets even better. Sedgwick—that’s his name, by the way—is still in Kesh’s employ and has full access to the emporium’s vaults. You’ll no longer need to visit Nexus to shop. You can do it all from here.”