“This looks a great deal like the wreckage that I salvaged Viper and my armor from,” Xian said as he regarded the command bridge of Arx Maxima. Progress has been made on the upper side of the Plate in our absence, and dirt now expanded far from the spire and as far as I could see onto the horizon. For miles around the spire grass, trees, and the basics of nature were being sown by the power of Arx Maxima.

The crystal above the primary console had grown in size, as had the one that floated over my shoulder. Whatever had been within the fragment of Arx Maxima that I freed from Alrik’s corpse, it had provided more of a power boost to her than even the Darkstar Cores had.

Miyuki had accompanied us to the spire, and the Kitsune, like the Urmahlullu seemed to be taken with the advanced nature of the command deck. She kept running her fingers over the seats, the consoles, highly interested in the strange tactile sensations of materials seen so rarely outside of the remnants of the Stellarae Enclave.

On the far horizons, the chaos storms still danced wildly between the tangled strands of light that connected to realms as they were drawn to Monados and caught in the polarity of chaos. I thought that part was especially beautiful, but all of my companions seemed to avoid looking at the chaos storms as much as they can.

“So, we recruited Xian, and even gained an extra hand with Miyuki. What’s your plan to save Etienne?” Remy asked me.

I didn’t know how to answer him, and nearly panicked. I didn’t have anything approaching a real plan. I took a deep breath and swallowed my pride.

“I don’t have one,” I admitted.

“Good, a plan made in solitude is rarely a good plan,” Miyuki spoke up cheerfully, her reassuring smile somehow eased the sting of guilt and failure I expected to feel.

“Yeah, you’ve only been through the gates of a Castle once, you don’t know most of the defenses. Remy and I have been through them hundreds of times,” Claire bragged.

“Oh, hundreds, eh Claire?” Remy teased the young scout.

“Fine, you’ve been through them hundreds. I’ve been through them like, thirty times. Happy?” Claire glared at the mage.

“Is there no chance of stealth entry?” Chrys inquired. She sat at one of the consoles, the screen full of gibberish as far as I was concerned. Arx Maxima was teaching Chrys something, but I felt like my inability to even recognize anything on the screen meant I’d embarrass myself if I asked for details and understood none of her answer.

“No,” Remy said flatly with a shake of his head. “The only way into the True World is through the gates, and their protected by a lot of wards, enchantments, and squads of Horizon Guardians. We’ll have to fight our way in. The Horizon Guardians won’t be our only enemies, the Castle of Havenstone itself will oppose us. To make matters worse, the Horizon Guardians have teleport circles set up at every Castle and will reinforce as necessary, potentially including the High Pyroclast and the Knight-Commander.”

“How dangerous is this High Pyroclast and Knight-Commander?” Xian asked, his voice filled with excitement at a proper challenge.

“The High Pyroclast is a Citrine like me, but the current Knight-Commander is an emerald.” Remy shrugged.

“That is the extent of their strength?” Chrys asked, surprised.

“You’re underestimating the power of the Castles. They complicate matters. They strengthen the Horizon Guardians dramatically, and weaken others, and actively resist powers that aren’t magic. Any mist-originating ability functions at reduced efficacy in the True World,” Remy sighed.

“We still need more strength, don’t we?” I asked.

“Some of the other Adventurer’s might be convinced to assist us, if you gave them land in your city-to-be,” Claire suggested. “You’ve got me, Remy, and you were from Solarias too. I don’t like the idea of attacking home, but a lot of people are tired of being second class citizens compared to the true believers.”

“Some, sure. But there is a big line between fighting Horizon Guardians and making distractions,” Remy didn’t seem to have as much faith in other adventurers as Claire.

“You have other allies, do you not?” Xian asked me.

“We do,” Arx Maxima spoke from the command console. “Corvusol, Hecate, and Dagan.”

“Will they launch an attack with us, or maybe on another Castle to force Solarias to split their forces?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes,” Arx Maxima said. “But they have a condition.”

I grimaced, expecting bad news.

“They demand you to take a true Mist Lord with your party, while Hecate’s champion strike Thornwall.”

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“Why?” Claire asked suspiciously.

“Your goal is to free an Avatar of Mithras from his control. They do not believe that a Topaz with Emery’s inexperience is capable of exorcising Mithras, despite my assurances. Should you fail and Mithras fully inhabits Etienne, it will be the Mist Lord’s duty to strike Etienne/Mithras down.” Arx Maxima didn’t try to break the news gently, and I deflated a little.

If I failed, it would be bad enough, but if someone was over my shoulder with the power to take on a full avatar of Mithras and win, well, there would be no chance at saving Etienne then. For some reason, the majestic stance of Xian, and the little grin of Miyuki made me realize I simply had to get it right the first time. If I succeeded, then the Mist Lord didn’t need to kill Etienne. Simple, right?

“Who do they want to go with us?” I asked Arx Maxima.

“Hecate proposes you take Nyxara, the Shadow Weaver. Dagan suggests you bring Asher of the Blue Waste, and Corvusol’s suggestion should be quite obvious,” Arx Maxima seemed almost amused at the last.

Red eyes glimmered through my mind, and the fragrant scent of roses filled my nose.

“We’ll go with Amaranthine,” I said, without taking anyone else’s input.

“Why her?” Claire demanded immediately, but Remy had already nodded.

“The Dustwalkers will cooperate with us if she’s on board, and she’s the only one of the suggested Mist Lords who’s proven she can take out a Castle on her own,” Remy defended the fey.

“We aren’t trying to take out a Castle, though. We’re just going to save Etienne!” Claire hissed.

“Claire… You know you don’t have to join us, right? Anyone who helps us is never going to be allowed back into Solarias. The Horizon Guardians don’t fight to subdue, they strike to kill. People are going to die, and if you come with us, you’re not going to get to see your friends and family again. You’ll be stuck in the Gossamyr with us.” My own mind had shied away from the dark truth that people I knew growing up would die to save Etienne from Mithras, but I was willing to make that sacrifice. I had the same threat looming over me that Claire did.

Would Mom, Dad, my favorite teacher at the Academy Ms. Jane, or any of my old associates side with me against Mithras and Solarias? I didn’t know, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

“I know that you idiot,” Claire said with only a slight quaver in her voice. “I can’t stay there, I never could. The Gossamyr, the mists, that is where I want to be. That doesn’t mean I want to see any harm come to where we grew up, or the people we grew up with, though.”

I nodded, but I had resolved myself to hurting people who got in my way.

“Why does it have to be Amaranthine? Why does she keep coming up and ruining my life?” Claire’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and the hurt in her tone shocked me.

“What do you mean? How has she ruined your life?” As far as I knew, Claire had never had her life ruined by anyone, so I was genuinely confused.

“My Mom was from Edgehold? My grandpa was the Adventure’s Guild leader there. He and most of mom’s family died when Sadow attacked. Then she corrupted my party, stole you, and I’m just supposed to be okay with it like none of those things happened?” Claire dropped into her chair, desperately trying to control her tears and her anger.

“You never told me about your mom’s family?” I said gently.

“Claire, us Dustwalkers weren’t corrupted by no one. We joined Sadow because she gave us power that the Church enkindlers wouldn’t. She opened a path to prosperity for us that went beyond Mithras’s little kingdom, and we took it. If you want to blame someone for us, you’ll have to blame Hector, Marius, Blaise, Glint, and me.” Remy answered softly, but his words seemed to reach Claire to some extent. The sobs and tears slowed.

Claire looked at me.

“The mists took me, Claire, not Amaranthine, and I’m right here, aren’t I?” I felt a loss for words and felt a stab of jealousy for Remy and his ability to communicate emotions so clearly when he wanted too. I lacked that skill, like I lacked so many others. I was bad at handling emotions, someone else’s or mine, it didn’t matter. I spent so long feeling subpar, isolated, and useless that I had buried a lot of my feelings down deep because they felt impossible to realize when I lived in Havenstone.

In Monados, and the Gossamyr, anything felt possible. A friendship with a Gneissling lady, a heart to heart with a Kitsune warrior who really made me wish she were my aunt instead of Mom’s sister, Stacy. I know I literally just met him, but Xian already felt like the older brother I’d always wished I had growing up.

This wasn’t about me, though, I reminded myself. This was about Claire. The girl who’d always been so confident and strong willed, who couldn’t be chained down and rode the winds of fortune as she wanted to, not as others told her too.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, uncertain where or how to start.

“Oh, stop it,” Claire snapped at me. “I’m fine, really. It was just a moment of weakness.”

“There is no weakness in love,” Xian commented, his deep rumbly voice seemed to fill the command deck. “It is strength to love your friends and family, and to care about them.”

The Urmahlullu walked behind Claire and ran his hand through the air. For a brief moment, all of us could see a multitude of different color chains that ran from Claire to each of us, and off elsewhere into the Gossamyr. Chrys gasped when Xian briefly materialized the chains, but moments later they were gone, purely spiritual, or whatever the hell they were, again.

“Just so we’re clear, I don’t love you romantically. Sure, I thought about jumping your bones on the kobold run, but I’m glad I didn’t. You’re like a cousin, maybe, but a dumb one, and you totally took a bite out of that duck guy and I’m never letting your mouth near me after watching that, holy crap, how sharp are your teeth anyway? You chomped off half his arm!” Claire babbled in her discomfort and laughed with a high-pitched manic lilt, and everyone looking at her had a hard time not laughing awkwardly with her.

“I love you too, Claire,” I laughed, and she gave me an awkward smile, glad I stopped her stream-of-consciousness rambling, and crazy laughing. I didn’t need to specify as friends, we both knew that. There was a hint of recrimination, accusation, that I let her babble so long before intervening, or she was thinking about what started the whole conversation.

“I have invited Marchioness Sadow to the Spire, she will arrive in three hours. Please prepare yourselves to receive foreign dignitaries,” Arx Maxima doused the awkward good cheer with a bucket of cold water.

“Are you going to be okay with Amaranthine?” I asked Claire seriously.

“I will. The worst I have to worry about is her being my cousin-in-law, right?” Claire laughed and walked towards the elevator, while I stood there, feeling like someone had kicked me in the stomach.