Mana flowed like a river from Relia’s upraised hand, and she strained against the rising flames.

Can’t … hold … on.

Her technique failed a second later, and her head struck the asphalt road. That potion had let her focus for a few minutes, but now the pain returned in full force. Her vision grew dark around the edges as she stared up at the sky, watching it fill with clouds of black smoke. Even the enemy’s Missiles echoed faintly in her ears.

Kalden’s whole plan had been insane. Who blew up an entire van just to make a pill? Elend would have approved, though, assuming it worked. How long until she knew her fate?

The next few seconds passed like a fever dream as pain tore through her body. Her mind struggled to stay focused, breaking down the crystals and healing the damage they’d left behind.

It wasn’t a fight she’d ever win. She could only survive.

One more minute.

She’d been telling herself that ever since the fight in the hotel.

Blue light flashed through Relia’s eyelids. She opened them to see Kalden kneeling above her, holding a glowing capsule in his hand. Her body sighed with relief as he passed it between her lips. The bitter flavor danced through her mouth, sharp as a twisting blade. She’d always hated these pills as a little girl. Now, it was the best thing she’d ever tasted.

Kalden held a glass bottle to her lips that smelled vaguely of mint. Pure liquid mana. Relia took a small swallow to get the pill down.

No sooner had Kalden given her the bottle than a Missile struck his chest. The impact sent him flying backward, and he hit the edge of the bridge. Relia turned her head and saw Akari lying a few feet away, bleeding out from several wounds.

The pill shifted forms inside her, passing from her stomach to her soul. She cycled it through her channels, and it went to work dissolving the crystals. This normally took several minutes, but she didn’t have that long. Her enemies were closing in, and her friends had bet everything on her.

So Relia bore down with all her mental might, driven forward by the light at the end of the cave. The crystals shattered one at a time, turning back to their natural form. The pain subsided, and her breaths grew deeper. It felt like she’d been drowning for days, and now she’d finally emerged from the depths.

And as the pain faded, her ordinary senses came back in a rush. She felt the cool evening wind on her cheeks, and the hard road beneath her head. She curled and stretched her fingers, and then her toes.

But this wasn’t over. Footsteps clattered on the road as the enemy soldiers drew closer.

Relia cycled her mana, letting the currents flow freely through every limb. How long had she gone without cycling? Probably just a few hours, judging by the sun. But her whole body felt like a clenched fist as she stretched it back out. Life mana gushed out from her left hand, forming a green and gold cloud around her friends. It pierced their bodies, and she breathed a second sigh of relief as it healed their wounds.

This spurred the enemy soldiers into motion, and they struck with a volley of bullets and Missiles. But Relia had predicted that too. She threw up her right hand and released the technique she’d been gathering there. A dome of pure energy formed around their group, nothing like the hasty Construct she’d cobbled together before. This was sturdy and solid, breaking the volley like raindrops against a brick wall.

Relia sprang into motion after that, planting both feet in a wide stance and stretching out her arms to either side. Her mana reached a crescendo inside her, and she unleashed two volleys of her own.

The soldiers raised walls of metal and ice. She tried to weave her mana through the gaps, but her enemies weren’t idle. While half of them had raised the defenses, the other half unleashed a second wave of attacks.

Relia gritted her teeth as her own mana smashed against their shield. This was the problem with being outnumbered. You couldn’t attack and defend yourself at the same time. Even the Martials had nearly overwhelmed her this way. But at least their attacks had been weak. Half of these soldiers were Apprentices like her.

She switched to her aspect without a second thought, taking cover in the van’s remains. The mana gushed out from her hands in a colored mist, and she wrapped that mist in spheres of pure mana.

Before, it had always been a struggle to manifest life mana’s opposite. To truly command an aspect, you had to understand it as intimately as your own reflection. But she’d taken dozens of lives on Arkala, and she’d held countless more in her hands. Each one gave her a deeper understanding of death and the power she wielded. She’d also walked that line herself this last hour, clinging to life, knowing any mistake might be her last.

In that moment, despite the day’s hardship, Relia was stronger than she’d ever been before.

Mana bombarded the van’s remains, tearing through the sides like wet paper. She endured their attacks with both Cloak techniques, along with the strength of her Apprentice body. She’d spent years tempering this against her own condition, and their techniques were nothing compared to the crystals that ripped through her.

A dozen blue spheres formed around her, and she hurled them forward against the enemy lines. Their shields held, and Relia strained to keep her techniques together as she pulled them back.

Her friends tried to get up as if to help.

“No!” she shouted at them as attacked the group behind her. “Stay down.”

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Again, she pulled her mana back and struck the first group. This continued until the spheres moved in a Circuit technique shaped like a figure-eight. Relia stood at the neck of that shape, while her enemies stood caught in the loops. Her own mana moved faster than a tornado now, knocking hundreds of enemy techniques from midair. Her vision was a blur of light as they collided.

Eventually, her mana carved a gap in the shield wall. A single gap was all she needed. It took skill to break someone’s skin with pure mana, but human bodies had evolved to let healing mana inside them. Now, as the green and gold clouds filled the enemy dome, their bodies accepted her attacks like a peace offering.

Pain would follow, and they couldn’t help but flare their Cloak techniques when it did. But cycling only made it worse. No matter where her mana touched, their channels would carry it back to their hearts.

The shields flicked out on both sides, and they all died coughing and screaming.

Relia wanted to pull her senses back—to drown out their pain and pretend she hadn’t caused it. but she remembered her first master’s lessons, and the days when she’d first aspected her mana.

“No one should have to pass a death sentence,” the older woman had said, “but life isn’t fair. If you’re going to swing the executioner’s sword, then you owe it to your enemies to look them in the eye.”

So Relia stood her ground and watched. Like the crystals inside her, this was another pain she could never fight or ignore.

As the sounds of death faded, her friends climbed slowly to their feet. She’d healed their wounds, but you could never tell by looking at them. Blood covered their skin, and metal mana had shredded their clothing.

Relia stumbled toward the group, feeling suddenly dizzy. For all that, her smile was genuine as she met their eyes. Back home, her aspect had kept her alive, but it had also stopped her from living a normal life. Her peers would barely talk to her at school, much less risk their lives for her. Elend and his wife were the exception, but that wasn’t the same as having friends her own age.

“I’d give you all a hug,” Relia said. “But I’m kind of a hot mess.”

“No worries.” Kalden raised a hand with a grin. “We’ll wait for you to shower first.”

Akari nodded her agreement, but she’d probably sneak away when it was hugging time, anyway.

Relia turned to Hector next, and he looked ready for a fight.

“You’re a cultist,” he said through gritted teeth.

Relia lowered her eyes. She’d been so focused on her relief, she hadn’t realized what they’d seen her do.

Hector cursed a string of Cadrian words under his breath. “I risked my life for a Death Artist.”

“It’s not death mana,” Relia said.

“You were holding back,” Hector said. “The first time we fought together.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t ask for these techniques.”

“Bullshit,” Hector said. “I saw what you did just now. That move would take years to learn.”

“Elend made me learn it, but I never wanted it. I chose this aspect for my condition. I did it to survive.”

“All the cultists say that,” Hector said. “They all have excuses.”

“What would you do?” Relia shot back. “What if the world decides fire mana is evil? Would you stop fighting just because it bothers them?” Her words jumbled together as she spoke, and tears formed at the edges of her eyes. She liked Hector, but she’d been smart enough to keep her distance. This always happened when she got too close to people—when they saw what she really was.

Kalden and Akari were the exception to that. They’d always seen her as Relia Dawnfire. Not the other lives she’d left behind.

More sirens blared in the distance, and she spotted a pair of helicopters on the eastern skyline.

“It makes sense now,” Hector muttered. “You did those techniques on camera. That’s why they chased us so hard.”

Relia slumped her shoulders. “We need to get off this bridge.”

“You can’t go back to the Unmarked,” Hector said.

“I’m not your enemy,” she said. “The dragons are.”

“Everyone is your enemy,” Hector retorted.

“Screw you!” Akari stepped up beside Relia, glaring at Hector. “You can’t stop her from going back.”

Azul bless that girl and her bloodthirsty heart. Relia didn’t want to fight Hector, though. She could probably win, but not without her life mana. Especially not in this state.

Hector ignored her as he ran a hand through his black hair. “You’re gonna start a war.”

“You’re already at war,” Kalden said.

Hector pointed a finger at him. “You’ve been here for two weeks, shoko. Don’t pretend to understand us.”

He stared back at Relia. “Innocents will die because of you. We’ll lose support all over Creta.”

Relia held out her hands. “We’d all be dead if I didn’t defend us. What else do you want from me?”

The helicopters grew louder as they approached.

“Can we talk about this later?” Kalden pointed toward the gate that a group of soldiers had guarded before. “This bridge has catwalks underneath, right? This might be a way down.”

“Do whatever you want,” Hector said. “But I’m done.” And with that, he headed toward the building Kalden had indicated.

She should have been used to people turning their backs on her, but it never got any easier.

They followed Hector toward the booth, stepping around the bodies that littered the street. Like so many other guard stations around Tureko, this looked like a repurposed toll booth. A wall of protection mana separated both sides of the road, preventing anyone from coming or going.

An open door greeted them inside the booth, and a hole of smoldering metal remained in place of the handle. The scent of fire mana hung heavy in the air.

Relia and the others followed a rickety steel staircase down onto the catwalks below. She’d half-expected Hector to sabotage their path, but at least he hadn’t done anything that petty.

Yet.

The catwalks offered an unbroken view of the river below, more than a hundred feet beneath their shoes. By now, the sun had started to set, and the bottom of the bridge was cloaked by shadows and metal rafters.

Hector was long gone, but that was no surprise. The shore was only a mile away, and most Apprentices could sprint that distance.

They walked in relative silence for the better part of twenty minutes, clutching the rails as the massive bridge swayed in the wind. Kalden and Akari exchanged some words behind her, and Relia caught bits of their conversation.

Apparently, Kalden had synthesized his memories with his past self. This had brought his soul to the peak of Gold, and given him the skills to finish Relia’s pill mid-battle. Akari followed with a hundred questions, sounding equal parts jealous and determined.

The catwalk ended as they reached Unida’s territory, and they climbed a second staircase toward the bridge’s surface. No sooner had they crested the top than they found a group of Unmarked soldiers waiting for them.

“Dawnfire?” one man called out.

“Yep,” Relia said with a weary sigh.

“The Artisans want to see you. Now.”

Azul’s ashes. This can’t be good.