Akari’s chest tightened, and her fingers turned to ice. No, no, no. This was too soon. They’d lost their first interschool match, and the later matches were postponed. Her team never got a chance to redeem themselves or show how much they’d improved. She’d never had her chance to shine on the world stage.

Kalden must have noticed her unease because he reached over and squeezed her hand. Right, stay focused. Sozen had said it was time to advance. Artisan and Aeon were a packaged deal, especially for people like her and Kalden.

She drew in a deep breath and met Sozen’s eyes again. “This means the Solidors picked me? To become an Aeon?”

“It’s too soon for promises,” Sozen said. “They want to meet you before they make their decision. But yes, assuming that goes well, then Lady Solidor will perform the ritual today.”

“But that’s just a formality? I mean—they’ve seen my matches, right? They know who I am.”

He considered that for a moment. “The Solidors come and go from this world. Even when they’re here, I don’t think they watch much TV.”

Seriously? What the hell, Elend? He’d made her think the Solidors were watching these matches, judging her every move. She’d spent all that time stressing over the outcome. Now none of it even mattered?

But no . . . Elend had just told her to take her new role seriously. She’d assumed the rest on her own. In hindsight, this made far more sense. The Solidors were immortal beings. They’d ascended from their own world, and their power rivaled Mystics. Why would they bother watching some silly school matches on TV?

Furthermore, Relia claimed that the strongest Aeons could see into a person’s heart, the same way a dream artist could. That would explain the importance of this in-person meeting. But what if they looked at her and didn’t like what they saw? Her aspect and techniques were her best qualities. Without a chance to show those off . . .

Akari took another deep breath and brought her thoughts back to the present moment. “Any idea what they’re looking for?”

“From this meeting?” Sozen asked.

She nodded.

“Just be yourself.”

Great. She could have gotten that advice from a Talekday morning cartoon.

Sozen held up a hand. “I know, I know—it sounds like a useless answer. But Lady Solidor will know if you lie to her. You’ll never succeed at being someone else, so you might as well succeed at being Akari Zeller.”

“What about my mana counts?” she asked. “I can’t fill the gap in one day.”

“Your numbers are within acceptable margins,” he said. “The soulshine has already prepared your body for massive gains in a short time. Lady Solidor can force the remaining mana through your soul and trigger the advancement.”

Akari blinked. “You can do that?” She’d heard of Aeons advancing quicker than ordinary people, but she hadn’t realized they could use that technique on others.

“It won’t be pleasant,” Sozen said. “And it’s certainly not sustainable for an Apprentice. But yes, one hundred and fifty MPs should be fine.”

Kalden cleared his throat from beside her. “The Mystics are fighting Storm’s Eye today. I’m guessing that’s no coincidence, either?”

“It’s not,” Sozen confirmed. “Most Mystics want to see my patrons dead. Either that, or they want a piece of the power for themselves. But Koreldon City is undefended right now. We’ve gone to great lengths to arrange this moment, and we might not get another chance.”

Just then, someone knocked on the front door. Sozen cycled his mana and snapped his head toward the foyer.

“I’ll get it!” Glim hollered from across the house.

“Expecting someone?” Kalden asked his brother.

“The Sons of Talek,” Akari guessed. He’d just called the city undefended. Anyone else could take advantage of that.

Sozen straightened his back, but he didn’t drop his guard. “They’ve been more active these past few weeks. They’re planning something, and we think it involves this region.”

Footsteps echoed from the foyer as Elise stepped inside. She was breathing hard, and a layer of sweat covered her face.

“Hey,” Akari said. “What’s wrong?”

~~~

Elend stepped forward, passing through a portal with a dozen other Masters and Grandmasters. Irina stood by his side, along with Trish Sterling, and the rest of his squad. Palm trees thrashed in the wind overhead, and the sky grew dark with storm clouds. Blue painted the sky to the east, and he knew Storm’s Eye was close.

Trish immediately vanished through the portal behind him. As a Grandmaster space artist, she’d be in charge of moving the other Masters into position. Ashur Moonfire was here as well; he’d be moving the Mystics to the front lines.

“Darklight,” a voice called from across the town square. “Everest wants a visual.”

Elend nodded as he cycled his dream mana. Irina did the same beside him, and they raised their hands skyward, forming their techniques as one. A pillar of violet and gold formed above their heads, and Elend got a bird’s eye view in his head

Puerto Crescento was a small city on Vaslana’s southeast coast. Well, the city was small by Elend’s standards, but it actually filled several dozen square miles between the mountains and the Inner Sea. The Mystics had gathered closer to the bay, amid the towering skyscrapers of the commercial district. Meanwhile, the support squads waited farther back in various neighborhoods.

Elend’s squad had emerged in a historical part of town, with old stone buildings and cobblestone streets. Space was tight up here, and most of the houses were close enough to jump between rooftops.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He extended his senses outward and found more Master squads gathered in a loose ring around the bay. Like Elend’s squad, they’d placed themselves several miles back from the coast.

His thoughts merged with Irina’s, and he felt the effects of her Cloak technique. This let him see the battlefield on a deeper level, past the rooftops, and into the buildings themselves. This confirmed what he’d already known: the city had been empty for days, with all the civilians relocated to nearby towns.

The technicians set up a device behind them, and Elend and Irina cycled their technique back into the sigils. This would link up with a larger web of knowledge throughout the city, and Mystic Everest would use it to build their battle plan.

They turned their gaze toward the eastern horizon, past the bay, where the storm clouds gathered in the distance. As always, the clouds spun around a focal point—a single source of power and mana. The spirit drew closer over the next few minutes, slithering through the skies with its massive, serpent-like body. Elend watched it through the safety of his technique. It didn’t normally attack from this distance, but his job was to watch. The more he saw, the more the Mystics would see.

More portals opened around the city, and more Masters and Mystics joined the battle. Elend had fought in wars before, but he’d never seen so many powerful mana artists in one place. This whole year had spiraled out of control. One day, they’d all been going about their daily lives, and then Storm’s Eye appeared out of nowhere, and they’d been fighting it ever since.

And still, after all this time, no one knew why. Was the spirit acting on its own, or did a human mind guide its actions? Elend leaned toward the latter theory himself. Glim was technically her own person, with her own needs, goals, and desires. Sometimes, she even disagreed with Elend’s plans and refused to follow them.

For all that, Glim still followed a set of rules—the same rules he’d put in place more than fifty years ago. Elend had also spent a good portion of his life researching mana spirits, and most historical accounts were the same. They all needed a host to survive and maintain their sentience.

Storm’s Eye was more than just a force of nature. Somewhere, a human mind steered its course. Maybe that mind lived deep within the spirit itself, or maybe it controlled it from afar. Regardless, they faced a human enemy with human goals.

Elend had shared his theories with the Mystics, but he couldn't prove anything. Besides, the truth wouldn’t change their plan: Storm’s Eye was a threat to civilization, and they needed to stop it.

And so they gathered here in Puerto Crescento, luring the spirit into a trap. Despite all the unknowns, one thing remained clear these past few months: Storm’s Eye was a force of chaos, like the mana storms themselves. And chaos mana always flowed toward knowledge mana until it reached equilibrium.

With that in mind, they’d analyzed the spirit’s patterns and drawn it to this specific spot. A city filled with mana artists, surrounded by mountains and water on all sides. He’d even heard whispers of Etherite shards among the Mystics’ ranks, but no one would confirm this.

The minutes passed by as the spirit drew closer to the city proper. Lightning flashed on the horizon, and the clouds blocked out the morning sun. The wind blew fiercer than before, and debris flew through the empty streets. The elements raged harder until the air itself came alive with the storm’s mana. Even from ten miles away, Elend felt the weight of its power.

The officers shouted more commands and hundreds of mana artists prepared their techniques across the city. Elend saw the sea of colors in his mind’s eye, and Irina’s Cloak fed him data about their power and aspects.

Trish formed another portal for the nearby squads, ready to give them a possible retreat if they needed it.

The spirit passed an invisible threshold, and walls of pale blue light rose from the ground and the sea. These formed a dome of protection mana around the battlefield, stretching from horizon to horizon. Nothing could pass through this barrier, save for the portals they’d already put in place.

Storm’s Eye froze at the edge of the barrier, surveying its opponents with its massive draconic head. Elend had seen the creature through Glim’s memories, and he prepared himself for a blast of blinding light.

Nothing came.

The Mystics shot techniques of their own, striking from every angle at once. Some were as big as airships, and they moved too quickly for Elend's eyes to track. The Missiles shattered against the creature's body, and he felt the sounds and shockwaves a heartbeat later. Still, the creature hovered above the sea, neither attacking nor defending itself.

Come on . . . what are you waiting for?

Something bright blue formed on the horizon, but it didn’t come from Storm’s Eye. Rather, it came from deep below the water’s surface. Elend followed the threads of Irina’s Cloak, and the truth hit him like a Missile.

“That’s a portal.” He turned to face his squad. “One of ours?”

“It can’t be,” Trish replied “That’s too big. Even Moonfire couldn’t make a portal that size.”

As they spoke, Storm’s Eye dove into the water with shocking speed. Hundred-foot waves broke over the surface, heading straight for the shore.

“It’s escaping,” someone said from farther down the street. “But how?”

‘It’s like your vault,’ Irina’s voice said in his mind. ‘Storm’s Eye couldn’t make that portal through the wards. Not without help.”

She was right. Someone had betrayed this army, and they both knew who.

‘Where does the portal lead?” Elend asked her.

‘Working on it,’ Irina said. ‘It looks like . . . oh no.’

“We need to leave,” she said to Trish. “Now.”

“Where?” the other woman asked. “Where’s it going?”

“Koreldon City.”

~~~

Glimmer Darklight soared through the estate, surveying every inch of the perimeter. Glim was no ordinary guardian; she was the house itself. She felt everything at once, from the inner walls to the property lines deep within the forest. From the old stone foundation, to several hundred feet above the roof.

As a Grandmaster dream artist, she also saw a great deal beyond the property line. She watched over the kids on campus, during their commute, and while they trained with their friends. Glim’s physical form was bound by old oaths, but she and Elend had found many loopholes over the years. In this house, she was stronger than anywhere else in the world, and she was ready to prove it if someone dared to attack.

Akari and Kalden sat with Sozen in the living room, discussing their next advancement. They’d be meeting the Solidors at Emperor’s Cross Terminal, which was outside Glim’s range. That was fine; she and Elend had prepared for this possibility. Kalden could easily store a mana battery in his bag, and Glim could run off of that for several hours. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep them safe.

A silent alarm triggered from the driveway as someone approached the front of the house. Glim sent a part of herself that way and found Elise Moonfire jogging toward the front door.

Strange. Elise had visited this house thirty-three times since last Hexember, and she always showed up in her car—a violet, 871 Ethereal. Glim diverted more attention toward the girl as she approached the front door. Dream artists couldn’t read thoughts, but bodies and faces told a clear enough story.

In this case, Elise wasn’t jogging by choice. Her face betrayed signs of worry, along with some annoyance. She would have preferred to drive here, but that wasn’t an option. Had something happened to her car? No . . . that wasn’t it. Her car was too recognizable. Too easily tracked. She’d come here in secret. Probably against her parents’ wishes. Beneath all this was a spark of determination. She feared for her teammates’ safety, and she’d come to warn them.

Elise reached the front door and knocked a second later.

“I’ll get it!” Glim hollered. She sent a burst of mana into the security pad, and it flew open to let Elise inside.

But in that moment, Glim felt a powerful presence to the east. Almost like a Mystic with unveiled power. While one version of Glim opened the front door, another part of her soared into the morning air, getting a bird’s eye view of the city, and the bay beyond.

There, a massive portal split the sky. It must have been more than a mile in diameter, with several million gallons of water gushing out into the sea below. A familiar form emerged behind the curtain of falling water, and Glim saw the source of the power she’d felt.

The curtains parted as the spirit slithered in midair. The clouds gathered around its serpent-like form, and their color changed from dull gray to mana blue. The creature turned its head toward the city, and Glim felt the weight of its gaze, just as she’d felt it in Vordica.

Even for Glim, there was no time to think. No time to move. Storm’s Eye pulled apart its massive jaws, and the world turned white as it launched its attack.