They regrouped with the Solidors later that day, and Rosintar made them a portal to the cult’s safe house. It looked like somewhere in Northern Espiria, judging by the snowcapped mountains on the horizon. The buildings also had a log cabin aesthetic that reminded Akari of the Hunter’s Guild back in White Vale.
She sat with Kalden on a wooden bench near the dojos, relaxing in the cool mountain air. By now, they’d showered, changed their clothes, and spent some quality time with the cult’s healers. It still felt strange to get healing from someone who wasn’t Relia, and she hoped they wouldn’t make it a habit.
Arturo and Zukan were back inside the house, probably watching the news with the others. Akari could have joined them, but what was the point? The Solidors had driven Storm’s Eye from the city, and that was all that really mattered. She didn’t need to hear more bad news on top of that.
She surveyed the rest of the scene, along with the short mana wall that surrounded the property. This part also reminded her of White Vale, and the sights brought a strange wave of nostalgia. The Archipelago had been a dark time in her life, filled with constant stress and uncertainty. For all that, the good memories overshadowed the bad in her mind. Traveling with Kalden in a strange new city. Meeting Relia for the first time, and hunting mana beasts in the forest. Learning about the outside world, and glimpsing powers beyond her imagination . . .
“Hey.” Kalden reached out and touched the back of her hand. “We should talk about what happened.”
Akari winced as her mind settled back into the present. “I’m sorry, okay? You were right. I never should have gone up in the sky.”
He paused, clearly choosing his next words with care. “You’ve been a lot better this year—putting the team first, being less impulsive. I think we all agree you were a good captain”
A small laugh escaped her lips. A few weeks ago, she’d accused Kalden of never saying anything positive, and this was obviously his attempt to fix that. She’d always liked that about Kalden, though. Most people went through life as if they were dreaming, never truly watching or listening to what happened around them. But Kalden understood problems, and he was always solving them as they emerged.
Her smile faded an instant later when she remembered how much they’d lost today. Losing Elise was bad enough, but Relia had been with them from the start of their journey. The three of them should have been together right now, and the sense of wrongness clung to her like a wet jacket.
“And I’m not worried about who was right,” Kalden said. “I know you and Relia weren’t thinking straight. Neither was I, to be honest. I just want us to do better next time.”
“You mean the next time one of our teammates dies?”
“Maybe, If it comes to that.” He gestured to the dojo where the Darklights were talking with the Solidors in private. ”We’re not kids anymore. and we’ll be even stronger after this ritual. That means our choices will carry more weight. We have to do better, even when it’s hard.”
“Any ideas?” She’d known it was stupid to attack Valeria, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself in the moment. Clearly, her powers were growing far faster than her prefrontal cortex.
Of course, maturity wouldn’t solve everything. Stronger mana artists faced the same struggles, and they reacted in the exact same ways. Valeria had clearly regretted her choice to come here, and Moonfire would soon realize that he couldn’t keep his daughter locked up forever.
Then again, only a true psychopath could unleash Storm’s Eye against a city of civilians, so maybe Moonfire would never regret his actions. Especially if he got away with this.The other Mystics must know about his involvement, but would they retaliate? Did they even care? No mere mortal could answer those questions.
“We’ll figure it out,” Kalden said. “We’ll make a code phrase or something. If one of us says it, the other stops. No matter what.”
“Last Haven,” Akari suggested. That had been the biggest mistake of her life, and she could have prevented it if she’d trusted her parents.
Kalden frowned, but he didn’t contradict her. “Do you think Moonfire was the one who attacked our sect?”
“No,” she said after a short pause. “I thought about it, but it doesn’t fit. Whoever did this wanted to be anonymous, but I saw Moonfire in that diner. Why would he censor his own name from me?”
“Could be a distraction,” Kalden said. “Hiding in plain sight puts him at the bottom of the suspect list.”
“It’s simpler to hide the whole trail.”
“It’s also more difficult. Not to mention the mana cost.”
Akari gave him a frank look. “His technique alters memories and records all over the world. Now he cares about saving mana? How would a space artist even do something like that?”
“He’s also an Aeon,” Kalden said. “They break the rules all the time.”
“Do they?” she countered. “Aside from Angelic mana, don’t they follow the same rules as mana artists?”
“They can absorb other types of mana. Even crystals, and enemy techniques.”
“So can we,” she said. “They just do it ten times better.”
Kalden nodded as if conceding the point. “But Moonfire’s an Aeon Mystic. That’s unprecedented.”
Akari opened her mouth, then closed it.
“Even regular Mystics keep their techniques a secret,” he pressed on. “So we have no idea what Moonfire can do. No one does.”
Shit. They’d been aiming to be the first Aeon Mystics, hoping to gain an advantage over their enemy. But what if he’d beaten them to it?
The dojo’s wooden door slid open behind her, and Elend stepped outside. “They’re ready for you now.”
The two of them got to their feet, and Lena Cavaco appeared behind Elend in the doorway. “You both have empty stomachs, right? And you’ve used the bathroom?”
They nodded. After training for months in Elend’s pain machine, they knew all the rookie mistakes.
Lena ran through the risks one last time, reminding them how no mana artist had gone through this ritual without permanent soul damage. Relia and her father didn’t count, since they’d technically been born Aeons.
Lena had gone through this as an Apprentice, and she’d trapped herself at that rank forever. Sozen Trengsen had done it during his Artisan advancement, but even he’d lacked the right preparations. By the time they’d realized that, it was too late.
Either Akari and Kalden would be the first real success story, or they would cut their journey short.
Despite the risks, she forced herself to step forward. If Ashur Moonfire wasn’t the Mystic from her dream, then he served someone even stronger. Either way, they would need this power to defeat him.
The dojo had the same log cabin look as the rest of the compound, with rough walls covered in a web of intricate sigils. The Solidors stood near the room’s center, and Thane gestured to a pair of dark brown mats on the floor.
Akari and Kalden lowered themselves to the floor, resting their heads on the pillows. Elend and Irina stood a few paces back, while Lena prepared several pieces of equipment.
Kalden removed his t-shirt, folding it up neatly on the floor beside him. Akari took off her glasses, then her hoodie. Her tank top hung low in the front, so they could access her soul without her stripping down completely.
Relyn loomed above them, holding the Etherite collar in her outstretched hand. “Good news,” she said in a cheerful tone. “This shard is big enough to make two souls.”
Akari let out a breath of relief, sinking deeper into her pillow. Elend had seemed confident about the collar’s size, but he hadn’t been sure.
“This should give you a head start with your soulbonds ,” Lena added.
“What?” Akari asked. “Really?” They’d talked about Aeon soulbonds a few weeks back, but she barely remembered the benefits. Something about advanced telepathy and shared techniques?
The older woman nodded. “A soulbond is just two pieces of Etherite with matching crystal patterns. Most Aeons will alter these patterns over time to form bonds with one another, but that can take months.” She gestured back to the collar in Relyn’s hand. “These patterns already match, so you’re more than halfway there.”
In other words, the collar was even better than the cuffs for this ritual. At least one thing had worked out in their favor today. But she shuddered to imagine how close they’d come to missing this chance. Glim hadn’t even known Ashur Moonfire was a Mystic when she stole back the cuffs. She and Elend might never have attempted that if they’d known the truth.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Alright,” Thane said. “Let’s get an MP reading on Akari.”
Lena knelt on the floor and pressed a mana watch to Akari’s chest. “Three thousand seventy-two over three thousand seventy-four.”
Thane nodded and met Akari’s eyes. “I’m going to force the remaining mana through your soul and bring you to the peak of Apprentice. Relyn will make your Aeon soul at the same time. Any questions?”
“You’re going to force over a hundred and twenty mana points into her soul?” Kalden asked. “How long will that take?”
“Not long.” Relyn knelt on the floor beside Akari. “Your soul has walls to stop it from advancing too quickly, but the brain controls those walls. It lowers them during combat, and dream techniques can achieve the same result.”
Just like that? Her tone was surprisingly casual, considering the enormity of that task. But it was easy to forget that the Solidors were older than they looked. Older than Elend and Irina, even.
Footsteps echoed against the wooden floor as Elend stepped forward. “Relax, lass. The hard part is behind you now. This will be the easiest advancement you ever have.”
“Okay,” Akari said. “What do I do?”
“Breathe for me,” Relyn said. “Inhale as deep as you can. Fill your stomach, then your chest.”
Akari did so.
“Now inhale again,” Relyn said. “Without releasing the breath.”
That seemed like a contradiction since she’d already filled her lungs. But Akari did it anyway, taking an even deeper breath than before.
This went on for several more rounds, and Relyn spouted some stuff about the parasympathetic nervous system. Akari had studied biology, but she didn’t know half as much as Relia and Kalden. And things got even weirder when you brought in the metaphysics of channels and souls. Your mana existed outside your body, but the brain grouped it with your heart rate and breathing.
“This will feel strange,” Relyn said. “Just try not to think too hard.”
Akari released her last breath, and every muscle in her body went limp. She tried to tense them again, but she couldn’t. Then her limbs moved on their own, shifting their positions in small ways. It felt like Akari’s idea to move them, but another part of her brain knew it wasn’t happening naturally
“Good,” Relyn said. “Now you need to hyperventilate—deep inhales, and shallow exhales. This prepares your body to go without oxygen.”
Relyn must have been speaking for Akari’s benefit because her lungs filled and emptied on their own. She fell into a rhythm for several dozen breaths, then Relyn forced all the air from her lungs, and her body lay still.
“Ready,” Relyn said to Thane.
“Forcing the mana now.” Thane placed a hand over Akari’s chest and unleashed a torrent of power into her soul. Panic flooded her mind as the mana stretched the opening far beyond its limits. It felt like forcing a storm into a bottle, and one wrong move could turn that bottle into a glass bomb.
Fortunately, Relyn’s dream technique kept her body loose and relaxed. Her heart slowed to a crawl, and her lungs sat peacefully empty. Even her channels remained as still as a frozen river. The dojo swayed around her, and her fingers and toes went numb. She felt like she was floating off the mat, leaving her body behind.
The crystal collar vanished from Relyn’s hand, and Akari felt another explosion of pain. This was far stronger than Thane’s mana, and it felt like a machine of spinning fire and blades. Akari looked down, but she couldn’t see her chest from this vantage. Even so, she half expected to see blood gushing out from her sternum.
Her vision darkened, but Relyn kept her from passing out. The pain spread to the rest of her body, from the bottoms of her feet to the tip of her skull.
But this was the best kind of pain—the feeling of all her cells breaking down, bathing in mana, and rebuilding themselves anew. The pain of advancement.
The sensations subsided with time, and even her burning crystal soul receded to a dull ache. Akari’s new body had healed the damage, and only the echoes remained in her mind.
How much time had passed? Five minutes? An hour? She couldn’t say. But eventually, Thane and Relyn dropped their techniques and stepped back. Lena placed more devices on Akari’s chest, but her words sounded faint and distant as if they were deep underwater.
However, one word stood out above the rest, and it came like a breath of fresh air as they resurfaced.
“Success.”
She opened her eyes and stared up at the dojo’s wooden ceiling. The details were surprisingly sharp, considering she’d removed her glasses before they started. She’d spent some time training without them this year, but she hadn’t known those efforts would bear fruit.
Elend handed her the glasses a second later, and she placed them on her face. The world turned blurry at once, which meant she’d probably need a new prescription.
Nice. Her new vision wasn’t perfect, but it was a huge improvement over what she’d had before.
“How do you know it worked?” Kalden asked from his mat beside her.
Lena held up her mana watch. “This detects micro points. Both your numbers are rising as you cycle.”
Akari got to her feet, and no one told her to take it easy. Her legs practically launched her into the air, and she landed with perfect balance. Talek. She hadn’t felt this good in . . . well, ever. It felt like she’d been living whole her life in an exhausted state, and now she’d finally gotten a good night’s sleep.
All her senses came alive. She heard her breath in her nostrils, and her hair brushing against her shoulders. She inhaled the dojo’s wooden scent, with undertones of mana from past battles. She felt the shifts in the air as the others moved around her.
It was almost too much. How was she supposed to focus when her brain took in everything at once?
Elend placed a hand on her shoulder. “Aye, it’s a lot for the first few days, but your brain will adapt. Then you can sharpen your senses at will.”
Akari nodded. Brains always took longer to adapt than physical bodies. It was the same reason your pain could linger for hours after you’d been healed.
Kalden got to his feet next, and Akari barely recognized him. He looked like he’d aged several years, with more prominent cheekbones, and a straighter jawline. His eyes looked more serious than before, and his beard looked like it might come in thicker if he stopped shaving. Akari’s eyes drifted downward, and all his muscles looked more defined, from his chest down to his abs. Akari wouldn’t mind doing a more thorough inspection in private.
Kalden grinned when he caught her staring. “You look good, too.”
“Really?” Akari felt at her jaw and cheekbones, but she couldn’t feel any changes. “Anyone have a mirror?”
That was probably a dumb question. Some dojos had mirrors, but that would ruin the whole log cabin aesthetic. And it wasn’t like anyone carried around a—
Elend snapped his fingers, and a full-length mirror appeared in front of her.
“Oh.” Akari took an instinctive step back, blinking at the dream mana Construct. “Thanks.”
Her eyes widened as she finally took in her reflection. Seeing herself without her glasses was weird enough, but her facial structure had changed, too. Not as much as Kalden’s, but the change was there all the same. Everything looked leaner and more contoured, which was a welcome improvement. It was hard to look like a badass mana artist when you still had the face of a sixteen-year-old.
“The books never talk about this stuff,” Akari said as she touched her face. If anything, most people looked younger after their Artisan advancements.
“Aye.” Elend chuckled. “There’s a reason for that. Most people reach Artisan in their physical prime or older. No one does it in their teens.”
That would explain why Relia’s face hadn’t changed as much; she was already a few years older. Relia was also more conventionally attractive than either of them, so that probably helped.
They eventually thanked the Solidors and said their goodbyes. Akari had expected to swear a soul oath or something, but Relyn just waved that away.
“I can tell your word is true,” she said. “We wouldn’t have done all of this if I didn’t trust you.”
That almost seemed too easy, but Relyn could apparently detect lies as well as any dream artist. And she was right, of course. Akari intended to honor their deal when the time came.
Thane nodded along with his wife. “Just don’t die before you reach the Mystic realm, and we’ll all be happy”
Akari let out a nervous laugh. “Wasn’t planning on it.”
And with that, the immortal Aeons stepped out with Rosintar, leaving this world behind until further notice. It would have been nice to get some lessons—especially when it came to the other half of her mana. Time artists were far rarer than space artists, and good teachers were hard to come by.
Still, Akari understood their reasons for leaving. The Mystics would all be hunting them, and nowhere on this planet was safe.
She and Kalden spent the next hour getting used to their Artisan bodies. It felt even better than she’d imagined. Her techniques formed so easily, as if she’d been shaping mist all her life, and now she finally had access to solid clay.
And the physical changes were even better. They raced through the forest at full speed, and neither of them broke a sweat after three miles. Akari detonated a grenade in her hands, and the explosion didn’t break her skin. It was like someone had cataloged all her weaknesses and fixed them all in a single, glorious moment. Which was, of course, exactly what the Artisan advancement did.
As for the Aeon powers . . . she had no idea how to test those. Relia had conjured a Moonshard barrier within seconds of her own advancement, but she was a special case. She came from an Aeon bloodline, and her grandmother had supposedly given her the technique during her aspecting ritual.
Things would be harder for Akari and Kalden. In fact, Lena had spent years trying to make Moonshard, and she’d never succeeded. Oh well . . . maybe Relia could help them once they were together again.
And yes, they would get Relia back, even if it meant defying a Mystic and fleeing this entire continent.
~~~
The sun hung low on the horizon when they joined the others in the main house. Akari hadn’t wanted to come inside, but Arturo had insisted, claiming that Relia would be on TV soon.
Several of the cultists had gathered around a massive screen and Arturo took his place on the sofa next to Zukan. On the screen, Ashur Moonfire stood in front of a large crowd of people, somewhere in downtown Koreldon City. A cluster of dark-clad mana artists surrounded him, with a web of mana binding their souls.
There was a short pause, then Moonfire’s voice filled the silence. "I, Ashur Moonfire, swear to faithfully serve as the Prime Minister of Espiria. I will defend our Charter of Rights, safeguard our sovereignty, and protect our borders with all my power. I swear it on my mana, and on my soul."
The web of power broke into pale mist, and a silver-haired man stepped forward. “It is done,” he said in a deep voice. “May the Angels smile upon you, Prime Minister Moonfire.”
The crowd cheered, from the Masters and Mystics who stood around him, to thousands more in the street below. Moonfire waved at the crowd, then he stepped back to kiss his wife on the cheek. Relia stood nearby, wearing a formal black dress. They’d obviously forced her to be there, and she didn’t smile or pretend to be happy.
Akari’s heart ached for her friend, but at least this proved she was alright. A part of her had feared that Relia’s parents would lock her away in some dark cell and never let her see the light of day.
Finally, Moonfire approached a dark blue podium, adorned with the prime minister’s seal of office. The camera shifted to reveal his face, while the Espirian flag blew in the wind behind him. The rubble of broken buildings filled the background, and the sky was still gray from the storm clouds
He stood tall and dignified as he spoke into the microphones. “Today, the world’s greatest city came under attack. Aeon cultists brought Storm’s Eye here. Here, into the heart of our great republic. They turned our city into their battlefield, and our civilians paid the price.”
Moonfire pounded the podium as he spoke these words, and he almost looked sincere. “We lost many loved ones today, including my own daughter, Elise.” His eyes fell for a moment, then they hardened with new resolve. “As your Prime Minister, it is my duty to protect our lands and ensure the safety of every Espirian.” He pounded the podium again before raising his fist into the air. “Our response must be swift. We can no longer afford complacency in the wake of these new threats. Therefore, my first act will be a comprehensive security reform to safeguard our republic from further harm.”
Cheers erupted from the crowd.
“And I pledge to you, my fellow Espirians, I will find these cultists and bring them to justice. I will empower the state in all matters of surveillance, search, and seizure. I will strengthen our borders and ensure that Storm’s Eye never comes within a hundred miles of our land again.”
More cheers and applause.
“Thank you,” Moonfire said. “and may we stand strong together.”