Warder Jaxx Maximillius needed two things urgently. Ammo and Supplies. His metal soled shoes clanked down on the concrete floor. His ascended guard footsteps followed his. The warder turned a corner, and ascended technicians and warriors scurried out of the way. If his footsteps hadn’t warned him of then his breastplate embossed with Maximillius star did the job. Or was it his sword?

The Heir of the Legion. One of the hundred thousand gladiuses created by planet Roma. Bathed in blood of anathemic creatures and traitors of the Light until it awakened its soul, The sword chimed every time it hit his knee.

Bleep.

The warders comm stone chimed and the voice of the Spire Keeper filled the silence.

“Lord Maximillius. Iver here. We have a problem.”

Jaxx rolled his eyes. Problems were popping out left, right and centre across the trials. And none of them seemed like they were going to go away anytime soon.

“Be more specific, spire keeper.” Jaxx responded.

Iver voice was perturbed as he spoke “That’s the problem warder. I can’t be. There is a garbled mix of multiple shards that my scanner are having a difficulty parsing through. My diviners are telling me that three entities who have begun to fight over the city.” Iver paused and them came back in rush “Wait, two of them disappeared and one is heading towards us at speed.”

“Where?”

“Near the portal you sent the raks through.”

Jaxx looked back to the corridor he had just walked through and began walking towards the portal. He looked at the line of gently glowing portals and then his eyes settled on the turbulent ones at the end.

“Ash and sand. Warder Maximillius, someone just entered the same portal at speed.” Iver’s hurried voice came through the comm stone.

Jaxx’s shards flared, and he moved. His ascended were trained well. They quickly got out of his way as he used his charge ability to shoot to the end of the corridor. The last few he took was without the use of potentiality as he came to stop in front of the whirlpool of water standing vertically next to the wall.

His eyes darted around, cataloguing everything. The shards of shattered glass on the ground. The wind gushing through the large window. The ripples on the surface of the whirlpool. The sound of thunder and the smell of lightning coming at him.

Jaxx Maximillius turned around with his sword in his hand. The legion of Roma was not a simple sword and whoever was heading towards him would learn that fact today.

The mad woman’s raging voice from the middle of the storm ordered “Flip off skirts.”

What in the eleven hells was this creature thinking? Didn’t it know what it was dealing with?

Jaxx flared his shards to announce himself, raised his sword and in a calm but menacing voice stated “Stop, or I will cut you down.”

The creature in the storm jolted to a stop. It’s eyes locked to him. Good, it wasn’t completely mad. It at least recognised the threat he posed. Then the thing shook her head and shouted, “Get out of my way, gladiator.”

Gladiator. Gladiator? Did this strange creature think he was a simple duellist or worse did it think he was slave. Whatever it thought, the words were insulting. Nevertheless Jaxx would give it one last chance to submit.

“I am not a gladiator. I am Jaxx Maximillius. Warder Shiang under Kel Maarut Randrus. A son of Roma and the sword of the light.”

Instead of quickly retreating the creature in the storm dismissed him from its sight and looked at the portal ““Good for you. Now flip off!”

Jaxx’s hands tightened on his sword and he ordered “You. Thing. Kneel and live. Defy me and die.”

Sheetal eyes locked back on to the pompous warder “Didn’t I tell you to buzz off skirts?”

Jaxx’s sword took on steely glow “Very well. Remember, you asked for this mortal.”

Sheetal felt potentiality gather just above her. She glanced up and saw a steely sword forming above her head. Sheetal thoughts converged and focussed on the fight. The sword taking shape over her head was the same one in Jaxx’s hands. She did not know how he was doing what he was doing, and she did not have the time to figure it out.

Jaxx brought down his sword. And the sword overhead fell upon Sheetal like a streaky grey beam.

This time Sheetal was ready. She wasn’t going to get ambushed, stopped or delayed by anyone. She needed to get to Ash and she wasn’t going to do it quickly.

“Bind.” Sheetal murmured.

A ripple ethereal ripple invisible to eyes pulsed out of Sheetal’s body in a sphere. Sheetal reached out with a finger. The sword overhead stopped. Sheetal moved her finger. The sword turned back towards its owner. Sheetal flicked. The sword shot across the distance. The warder brought up his buckler. A shield of light popped out to protect him. He ducked.

Crunch.

“NOOO!” Sheetal screamed and the storm shot out streaks of lightning everywhere.

Jaxx blinked rapidly to clears his eyes after the lightning had blinded him. His eyes went from his shield to the creature who had missed its target. He looked at his sword. The storm had somehow redirected his attack towards…

The portal. The portal was sparking. The energies inside it had gone from resembling a churning whirlpool to a drain. The portal’s fail safes had been activated. It was shutting itself down. The reason was his ethereal sword sticking out from its metal rings.

“No! No! No. No. No.” The storm overhead was subsiding revealing a young woman holding her head in her hands.

Jaxx’s ascended guard finally caught up and created a wall of shield in between him and the mad creature.

Jaxx’s eyes went back to his sword. Its control gem was cracked. He couldn’t use it to volley attacks from it anymore, but he could still swing it.

Jaxx snarled “You!”

The woman shouted back “Shut up!” and continued “If you wouldn’t have gotten in the way…”

“I am going to cut you into pieces.” Jaxx cut Sheetal off with his threat.

Sheetal ignored him and shouted at the portal “Ash, you dumb sum of a ditch, stop laughing!”

Ash felt like a vibrator in its box. He was covered head to toe, with a layer of glyphs that were supposed to protect him from incoming attacks but were acting like packaging snuggly holding him tight. And whatever this portal was, it didn’t want to let him in. It tried to push him back. That made the repelling glyphs exert all the force back. The result was that he was vibrating so hard that he could feel his bones shake.

Honestly if he was a normal man, he would have been paste.

Even before that asura had shot him out of his time bubble like a canon ball, he knew he should have been dead. The forces, involved in propelling him through the sky should have broken his back and neck and turned his brain and innards into soup.

Instead, his forces shards saw the incoming jolts and lit up with excitement. They, no, he began to drink up all the forces exerted against him. And that wouldn’t have been possible if his new body wasn’t build the way it was. He needed to understand himself better. Sheetal did that by reading numbers and shards on that spreadsheet thing, he did by pushing himself.

“Sprerereread sheshesheet.” Ash was blind but he could still see the ball with his ribbons.

His hud opened.

Warning.

Portal access denied

Please contact the warder keeper for access.

That explained why he was stuck. Ash read that notification and dismissed it. His eyes focussed on the next set of notification.

Mission Received

Scatter The Heard

Fight of the Rakshasa in the warder spire and make them retreat.

Mission Type - System Rank 1

Rewards

1 Favours of Light

Stat points - 2

Warder Storage + 2

Merit + 100

Failure Penalty – None

Accept – Yes / No?

Ash’s hud pulsed and his potentiality bar flashed. It was already down to fifty percent. What had Ghost said? Potentiality is potential of anything to be itself. It is the potential of a rubber ball to bounce. It is the potential of a wind to be a breeze or a storm. It is the potential for you to be you. And Ash knew what it felt like when he used up all of his bar. It felt like he was empty, hollow and a step away from fading away to nothing.

Ash’s eyes went to the mission in a panic. He needed to get out of here. He needed to regain his potentiality. In a panic Ash hit yes and hoped for something to change. Nothing happened and he kept vibrating. Finally, without any way to free himself he reached out to Sheetal.

“Sheheheheh?”

Ash felt an explosion of emotions hit and wash over him. Anger, relief, concern, annoyance and ither ones he had no names for.

“Its love and pride you moron.” Sheetal explained and added “I am coming wait.”

“Gegegegetetet, Ahahahahahyayayay…”

“What?”

Ash closed himself out from the world and focussed “She, get Aaya and the others. Don’t come in here.”

Ash felt She’s mind focus on something else and she said “Why is this annoying skirt guy blocking my way?”

Ash looked at Sheetal confront the roman soldier and muttered “He looks like a gladiator.”

“Gladiator, right. Hold on let me handle him.” Sheetal huffed and within seconds things broke down.

The roman warder attacked and Sheetal retaliated. In shock Sheetal stopped and looked at the sword lodged in the rim of the portal.

A sigh escaped Ash’s lips “Didn’t I say, some day you are going to kill me with your aim.”

“No. No. No. NO!” Sheetal said rapidly.

Pressure from all side began squeezing Ash and his potentiality started going away in chunks. Ash responded in grunted words “She. Go back. To the Seven.”

“No.” Sheetal cried.

“What?” Ash felt something pushing at him from behind and then he was moving.

No, not just moving. He was speeding…

A jumbled mess of sensory inputs assaulted Ash and he shot a steady stream of potentiality into his speed shards to make sense of what he was experiencing.

Surprised rhino faces, metal shields, blood misting into the air, and a barricade bouncing up into the air in a spin. Images began to form in his mind. Ash tried to stabilise himself. It sorted of worked. Now instead of him spinning his glyphs began to spin in his place with him in the middle.

Crunch. Bang!

Ash gasped. He had just gone through a building. A very surprised and a very dead rhino were turning into Ash behind him. By the brief look he got, they looked important. He didn’t have time to turn around and look, he was still climbing and Ash knew he wasn’t going to survive the fall.

Speaking of which, how had he survived uptill now?

At his thought his hud popped open and his bar flashed in the darkness.

Potentiality – 66%

His bar was climbing?”

Potentiality – 70%

But he was using it to power his glyphs and all four of his speed shards.

Ash almost smacked himself on the forehead. There were two ways of gaining potentiality. One was to sit quietly and regenerate it, and the other way so to take it from his enemies. He had been fighting for so long in that silly dream world that he had forgotten how to use potentiality the way it was supposed to be used.

Potentiality - 79%

Ash grinned. This was more like it. He shot a trickle of potentiality into his time shard and heard a click followed by the thumb of his second heart. He wasn’t Kapasura. He couldn’t create a bubble of time around himself. And even if he could, he wouldn’t. That was useless. Instead, he slowed time.

Ash only had three seconds of real time. But as soon as he shot potentiality into his time shard, those three second became three minutes. Even so he worked quickly. He pressed his hand on this body and channelled potentiality from both of his hands into the glyphs on his skin. The invisible glyphs that were spinning all received a much-needed dose of potentiality and began stabilising. As soon as they did, they started glowing and sputtering. This was bad. His glyphs, almost all of them were so broken, that he did not know how he had survived.

Ash wiped the blood trickling down his eyes and used his speed shard to create new ones. He had stopped himself from spinning violently earlier, now the slow spin he was in assisted him to quickly drain of the potentiality in the glyphs to replace them with non-intersecting feeding lines, transference curves, power spirals and other multidimensional shapes that guided pure potentiality into the glyphs. For anyone else this would have been impossible. They would need a mirror to replace the glyphs at the least. But Ash had strands that let him see twenty feet around him. And his ambidextrous hands worked in blur to complete the task.

Ash only stopped when all his broken glyphs, which were most of them, were replaced. Now that Ash had a fighting chance, he looked around and took a breath. He flinched when he saw stones, spears and sharpened bones flying up at him. And relaxed when he noted that they were heading to him slowly. Almost as if they were trapped in honey. Past them were a dozen scattered shards and souls winking out of existence.. He took a moment to piece together what he was seeing. The problem was that he was mostly blind but together with the scenes form earlier he began to piece what had happened and an image started forming in his mind.

Ash had shot out from the portal faster than he had entered it. Covered in glowing glyphs, he had ploughed through the guards or maybe they were soldiers? Whatever they were, he had killing them instantly. Then he had impacted a stone wall or maybe a barricade. He remembered that one, the pain from that impact and the sizzling burns from the sparks of the glyph exploding were seared into his memory. But apparently it had sent shrapnel into the air too, because he remembered two very surprised pair of souls disappearing in an instant. Then he had flown into a tower. He remembered that vividly. He had reacted instantly shooting all his potentiality in the spiralling glyph pool just under his lungs when he saw the two raks aura explode with potentiality. It hadn’t been enough. Ash had been moving to fast. And his glyphs had been exploding. He was just grateful that his power pool hadn’t exploded. If that would have happened, he would be blue bloody mist in the wind. Anyways he remembered the raks turning into, well, ash before anyone could react.

Ash began to laugh. Not only had he survived, he had killed the rhino raks?

“Ash, you dumb sum of a ditch, stop laughing!” Sheetal snarled into his mind.

Ash couldn’t help it. With shaking hands, he began to draw more glyphs. When he had made his glyphs in the null room, he was limited to the only potentiality stored in his body. He had drawn out three clusters Repel pressure, Block attacks, and Disperse force. And he had placed them all over his body connected to a spiralling pool of stored potentiality just under his lungs. He needed to increase that pool if he wanted it to sustain the new glyphs.

Ash took in a breath to begin and groaned in pain. Now that the adrenaline had worn off. The pain from his injuries came crashing in. His expanding lungs had touched broken ribs. Making him groan and then one by one all his injuries began to make themselves known. His arm that was dangling uselessly from its socket, his forehead that was leaking blood, his elbow throbbed but the worst one was his toe. It was broken and the pain from it almost debilitated him. Toe injuries sucked.

Ash whimpered. He couldn’t do anything but let potentiality coarse through him to repair his body. And with the amount of potentiality he could feel gushing in he did not have to worry. Instead, he turned his mind to way to use it. After all, these bloody horn nosed grass eaters had hurt him, they had made him bleed and made him whimper. And whimpering wasn’t awesome. He needed to get some revenge. But could he make it fun?

Ash began by drawing a glyph. Burst. It was one of the most complicated glyphs he knew and needed precise control. Made out of two layers of zigzagging lines with a dot in the middle, he usually used both of his hands to draw it. But the way his arm was starting to glow, he knew he could use two hands. So, he took it relatively slowly while watching the souls and shards converge on him. He would soon drop down on them. Use his brurst glyphs to send rampant potentiality at them, hopefully killing on or two and use his other glyph, Bounce, to escape.

This one was simpler, it was a box of simple potentiality that overlaid a surface. And when he would come down it, he would channel potentiality into his legs to retreat. He looked at his repairing toe and grimaced. It would hurt. It would break more of his toes and maybe his feet, but it would let him escape.

He was about to finish when the ball in his vision angrily buzzed momentarily distracted him. It had been doing that a lot. Ash didn’t have time for this but he couldn’t get distracted in the middle of the fight, so, let it in.

Congratulations Warder.

By understanding the world around, you have taken a step towards a higher level of understanding.

Glyph Acquired – 8/5

Number of Glyphs Acquired - 2/5

Trace

Hold

Pool

Repel

Block

Disperse

Burst

Bounce

Glypher – Rank Novice Achieved

Rewards – Ability

1. Copy Cluster – Perfectly copy a glyph cluster on a surface.

2. Project – Project a glyph for teaching purposes

3. Create – Create a glyph from memory on any surface using potentiality.

Ash scanned the options. The teaching one was out. He didn’t have any use for that. And he didn’t see the use of the cluster one at all. Each cluster needed to perform a specific function. He did not know why anyone would just copy a cluster. So, he picked create. He was doing that already right?

The answer to that was no. He was drawing glyphs not creating them. This allowed him to create any glyph he knew with a touch. Ash’s mind exploded. He… He… He needed to revaluate his plans. He needed to…

His hud buzzed.

“Aaah!” Ash screamed in frustration.

Next Glypher Rank – Apprentice

Glyphs required – 8/10

Collect and reproduce ten perfect glyphs to get a rank of Glypher apprentice.

Ash stopped. He could do that. He could that easily. He knew many more than ten glyphs.

“Wait.” Ash grinned evilly. Could he do what he was thinking of doing? The sense of growing horror from Sheetal just made him grin even more.

This was going to be simple but oh so effective. Ash’s hands blured again. He wiped of the bounce glyphs and began adding others. Burst. Splinter. Shatter.

Congratulations Warder.

By understanding the world around, you have taken a step towards a higher level of understanding.

Glyph Acquired – 10/10

Glypher – Rank Apprentice Achieved

Rewards – Ability

1. Mould – Mould a glyph to perform a specific action.

2. Stamp – Stamp a glyph on a hardened surface.

Ash picked mould and he began to laugh “Mould. Mould!”

He didn’t have much time but if he could mould his glyphs he would have to slowly increase the pool. He had four channel shard. One for every limp. He looked down at his feet. One of his shoe was missing it’s top anyway. He used his feet to take them of and gen his work.

Bounce. Mold. Bounce. Mold. Bounce. Mold.

He spammed the bounce glyph and moulded and in between the bounce glyphs he began adding Burst, Shatter, and Splinter.

A sharp pain started building in Ash’s mind and soon he couldn’t concentrate. Instinctively he knew that his brain was at its wits end supplying potentiality to his time shard while working on everything else. He couldn’t hold on anymore. But he needed just two more seconds. He powered through. He couldn’t use Create to will a glyphs into existence. The migrane in his head was making his eyes watery but he could draw a feeding line and a simple box to create the last glyph. Bounce.

It was right over his power pool. It wasn’t the best shielding but it could atleast bounce of an attack.

Click.

The time shard deactivated. And Ash knew he could activate it anytime soon. His mind and body recoiled at even the thought of using it. Though, with it deactivated relief stated spreading through his overworked head and Ash almost slumped. Then he released where he was, and he shot out a finger and shouted “Bounce.”

Short snout was confused. Something had come out of the cursed portal. Killed two of its herd and crashed into the tower of the long horn. Short snout was quick. He had trained his eye on the invader and thrown his spear. And that is why he was surprised when that small creature with a sputtering hide turned into a glowing ball. The ball hung in the air for a long moment letting short snouts spear catch up. And then as it was mocking him. It hit Commander Sharp Tusks building and bounced back towards them without doing any harm.

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The herd looked at the glowing ball in awe as it bounced back towards them. One bold female even reached out with a spear to deflate the strange ball.

Boom.

Short snout found himself on his rear. He groaned and pushed something off himself. It made a squelching sound as it flopped next to him. It was the spear wielders head. It blinked one last time and turned into Ash. Short snout looked up with horror filled eyes. The ball was coming down again. This time on a building those humans had made.

Crash!

The building turned into rubble and the ball bounced up out of the dust a debris travelling towards another building.

Short Snout trumpeted his anger out. Other kin followed his call. They were about to charge when Short Snout stopped them with grunted “No. Bring out the metal hide and the metal horns.”

None of the kin liked to wear the metal hide or carry the heavy weapons the humans made. Humans were food and it irked them that food made weapons for them. But they would take this indignity because whatever this thing was, they would need the metal hide to fight it.

“I came in like a wrecking ball.” Ash sang inside the glyph ball.

Splinter.

The rhino underneath Ash broke and died as soon as the glyph ball touched it. And then Ash created the bounce glyph on its surface. The ball touched down and he was shot in the air again. He gritted his teeth at the jolt that passed though his body but the potentiality from a class one enemy dying send a wave of pleasure through him.

“I came in a like wrecking ball.” Ash began singing again.

“You insane mother trucker.” Sheetal screamed in Ash’s head.

“She?”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Uhh… I am on African hunting safari. I hunting rhinos.” Ash answered hesitantly look “I came in like…”

“Shut up!” Sheetal shouted over the sound of potentiality bursting all around.

“Whaaay?” Ash whined.

“Don’t you know any other lines?”

Ash kept silent.

“Oh, for fudge sake.” Sheetal grumbled and continued “Ash you need to get away and hide.”

“No. I can do this.” Ash said while coming down on a hut.

“Ash, you are one twink. They are an army.” Sheetal shouted.

“Hey. I am an awesomely cute twink.” Ash protested.

“Ash, just run. Please” Sheetal begged.

Ash sighed “I am blind, She. I see only souls and shards twenty feet around me. Without you, I don’t even know what is front of me.”

Sheetal suddenly realised how Ash always knew where to look and walk. He was following her lead

“Gods.” Sheetal whispered.

“Relax. I can’t see but I can kill. All of them.” Ash chuckled.

Sheetal paused and then muttered “Stay alive please.”

Ash snorted “Nope. I am staying awesome.”

Sheetal laughed “You, stupid moron.” And opened her eyes to look at Roman soldier.

He was hiding behind his men trying to swap out something from his sword hilt.

“Hey diet Russel Crowe. Fix that portal.” Sheetal pointed at Warder Jaxx.

Jaxx stiffened. What the hell was this creature. First, she charged in like a monster. Then she destroyed the portal and his sword. And finally, she dropped into a stupor. Mumbling words to herself. And just when Jax was getting to replace the control stone on his sword and take her down. She wanted him to fix the portal?”

“Do I look like a magical technician to you?” Jaxx didn’t know why he was speaking to this creature. She had only shown a limited sentience.

The creature looked at him blankly and then turned around. A transport slowly hovered down just behind the blue skinned monster and Jaxx got ready to move. He would distract her while his men would warn the sentients inside the transport away.

The transports door slid open, and a green hued woman glared at the monster.

“Girl, twenty-five minutes.”

Sheetal looked at Aaya blankly.

“That how long you have been out of my sight. And you are fighting the warder spire?” Arbiter Aaya asked in a stern voice.

Sheetal worked her jaw and then blurted “Kapas, Ash, portal, skirts, ball…”

Aaya held up a finger “Sheetal. I am not your brother. Get in the transport and formulate your thoughts into words.”

“But…”

“Sheetal, look down.”

Sheetal did as she was asked and saw a crowd looking up at her and pointing “Uh. What the…”

“You are making a scene.” Aaya said with gritted teeth making Sheetal flinch and then pointed “Get in the transport.”

Sheetal quietly floated into the transport passing Aaya with her head hung.

“Arbiter Aaya. What is the meaning of this? Your pet elemental attacked the warder spire.” Warder Jaxx growled.

Aaya slowly turned her glare at Jaxx and the warder for the first time felt the full weight of Aaya’s power and he realised. This was not the soft-spoken woman who had been on his ship. This was not the woman who he had sat down and eaten food in the cafeteria of his ship. This was not the woman his arbiter was scheming against. This was the true Aaya Aaranyaani. The Iron Banyan Tree that sheltered warders in the Blue Moon War. And now she was looking at him as if he was a bug.

“Warder Maximillius. That is one of my warders. Your words are offensive enough but then you also attacked my warder. This is not the time of words. This is the time of swords and magic. Come to the lobby and prepare to duel. Or come with gifts and apologies. The choice is yours.”

Before Jaxx could respond, the door of the transport slid shut and the bulky transport flew down to the base of the spire.

Aaya sat down in front of Sheetal, the look in her eyes softened when she saw the worried look on Sheetal’s face. She finally asked “Okay, what happened and where is Ash?”

Sheetal began to relay the whole story, from the time they had left the ship, to the ambush, to her face off with the roman warder and Ash’s predicament. When she had finished, Sheetal looked to everyone for support.

“I see.” Aaya said softly and added “For now he is safe, let’s take that as Light’s blessing and work to keep him like that. Sheetal you will need a full set of shards and anathema. We will get you registered with the spire, get you used to those shards and the anathema. And raise you to a class one.”

“But… But… That will take too long.” Sheetal began to protest.

“Sheetal, a moment please.” Theory stopped Sheetal “You said Ash is killing the raks. And having fun while doing it. He even called a hunting expedition or something?”

“Yeah, what’s your point Theory?” Sheetal asked in a hurried voice.

“What happens when he starts getting bored?” Theory asked.

Sheetal and the seven took in a sharp breath.

“I need to get sharded up.”

“We need to get your sharded up.”

Sheetal and Needles spoke at the same time.

Needles began giving out orders “Theory, figure out what’s going on. T, JJ you are on protection detail and when we reach Ash. Sheetal, JJ and T you are on the get the crazy bugger out of there detail.”

Theory raised his hand “I can do that.”

“No, you will join him.” Needles shot Theory down and continued “Clipper, stay with the transport. Keep it ready to take off.”

Needles turned back to Theory “Theory, you will not leave Ash’s side after we have reached him.”

Needles turned to look at the arbiter “Arbiter Aaya. Arbiter Olimani. What will you be doing?”

The arbiters looked at each other but kept silent.

Sheetal hurried “Aaya, we need to hurry.”

Aaya looked around and nodded “Before we proceed. Everything about both the warders link, species and shards is classified under the orders of Solace.”

Sheetal saw everyone but the arbiters jolt with a notification. She watched everyone nod and accept the notification. Aaya nodded with a smile.

“Ascended. You are now Warder Sheetal’s and Ash’s ascended. Everything you do on from here, in the spire and outside it reflects on the two warders. Remember that.” Aaya stated and then looked at Sheetal.

“Sheetal, we will not rush into a fight. Your brother for all his faults knows how to fight and that boy is ruthless enough to win them. What we will do first, is get you trousers. We can’t have people looking up at you flying and getting an eyeful of your white undergarment.” Aaya snarled.

Sheetal floated back a step “Ye…yes.”

“Good. Olimani buy a few pairs.” Aaya looked at Olimani.

Olimani smiled and nodded “Yes lady Aaya.”

“Next, we are going to get you registered with the spire. That will involve a soul scan, a medical scan, and a brain scan. And it will take time. But it will give you the authority you need to rebuild that portal you broke. And then you will have to pay for it. A few hundred Krecks would do. I am sure you have that.”

Sheetal grimaced “I don’t.”

“Then girl, you need to let me help you.” Aaya stated.

“Okay.”

“Good. Then let’s walk. And Sheetal we will move slowly. You are a warder. You will act like one. Not like a teenager throwing a tantrum or like a scared little girl like you are behaving right now. You will hold your head high and your shoulders squared while I walk beside you.” Aaya finally smiled “I am your arbiter. You lead and I follow.”

“But I don’t even know what I am doing.” Sheetal muttered

Aaya let out a chuckle “Most warders don’t. Come on now.” Aaya began moving “Ascended. You do what needs to be done to help the warders. I will protect Sheetal.”

The seven looked at each other for a moment and turned their narrowing eyes on Aaya who held their gaze calmly. Finally, with unspoken whirs their helmets closed over they heads as they wordlessly continued their discussion.

Sheetal did not what she was expecting when she entered the spire but it was not a hotel lobby. And not the classy kind from John Wick but the corporate hotel kind. The white marble flooring, stone slabbed desks and the bright light sharply contrasted with the brown almost muddy exterior of the spire.

As soon as they passed the impressively guarded gate of the building they were approached by a grey-haired gentlemen in a red and black blazer.

“Good day, sentients, arbiters and lady warder.” The man bowed at Aaya and Sheetal while everyone else got a perfunctory nod. The man continued “I am Iver. Eighth generation warder from the Sindri family. I am the spire keeper. I welcome you in the name of the Light, warder.”

Sheetal bowed slightly and repeated the words that Aaya had taught her to say.

“I thank you for your hospitality tower keeper. I pledge in the name of the light to protect the tower while I stay in it.”

Iver smiled “Are you the young woman who was fighting in the portal corridor?”

“Ah…” Sheetal grimaced.

Iver laughed “Don’t worry about it. This is warder spire and warders, which includes me, can be a bit disruptive. Thank the light for our arbiters.” Iver nodded at Aaya with a smile and asked “Now, young lady, how may I help you?”

Sheetal licked her lips “Arbiter Aaya tells me that to trade in the spire, I will need to register first? I would like to do that.”

“Register?” Iver looked at Aaya and Olimani thoughtfully and continued “Yes, we can do that.”

Aaya lips twitched upwards at the tower keeper’s reaction to seeing two warders. She stepped ahead and announced “I will be present when you scan my warder. And I will be classifying all information pertaining to the Lady Warder.”

Iver raised his hands “As you will Lady Aaya. I am just an eighth generation with ten shards. I don’t get involved in politics. Just tell me which family the warder belongs to or what line she is descended from, and I will have the scans prepared.”

Aaya stayed silent for a moment and then responded “You won’t find her line in the banks.”

Iver chuckled “Lady arbiter, I promise you we have all lines stored in our banks. Even the obscure ones. Just let me know and I will have the scan rings prepared.”

Aaya exhaled “Tower keeper, my warder is a first-generation warder.”

Iver blinked and slowly nodded “I see. You will need to run a full set of scans. And that is why you brought her here.”

Aaya frowned “Them. But I will elaborate on that later. And tower keeper, I did not bring them in for your tools. I brought them here because I want you to personally run the scans. I have orders to limit the spread of information. Do you understand Lord Iver Whitepeak?”

“Yes.” Iver nodded. He wordlessly motioned towards the scanning room and said “Please follow me.”

Twenty minutes later, Sheetal was hovering over a platform with thick round bangles on all four of her limbs. Hovering was now natural to her. Hovering not with her own power was unsettling. And being spread out in a tee pose while black, white and grey rings soundlessly whirred around her in a blur was discomforting. And being naked was embarrassing.

The rings, they were the only things which did not make the scanning process weird. They were strange, almost fluid in nature. They soundlessly whirred all across her. And everytime they overlapped, they sent a chiming vibration that tickled her brain. But now her brain scans were done. And now she knew she wouldn’t have to be here for long and then she could go save Ash.

Aaya came back in the spherical room from a door to the side with a stern look. Sheetal knew she had gone to speak to the tower keeper but what was with that look. Sheetal looked at Needles who was leaning on a wall next to her, but she was lost in her thoughts.

“Umm… Aaya is everything okay?” Sheetal asked.

“Hmm?”

“You went to check my brain scans and came back with that look. Is everything okay?” Sheetal asked again.

“Oh, that. It’s nothing to do with your scans. In fact, the scans are done to create an identification that cannot be forged. Even if there is problem which is practically impossible for a warder, these scans won’t help you.” Aaya explained

“Then Arbiter Aaya why are you angry?” Needles asked.

“Because someone forgot to switch off all the sensors and microphones in the scan room.”

Sheetal’s eyes widened and she was about to ask her question when the rings slowly began revolving around her again.

Aaya held up her hand “Don’t worry child. I made them scrub all the data. I will let no one catch you in a compromising position like this.”

“Although I can see the appeal.” Sheetal turned to glare at Needles only to see her checking her out.

“Ni, stop looking at me like that.” Sheetal hissed.

Needles instead of being abashed, grinned “Sheetal. Have you looked yourself lately? You are impressive. I mean I knew you would be because you are warder. Your genetics would be perfected with every step of your ascension but now that you are out of those pods and your body isn’t wrinkled everywhere, I am… You look…”

“I agree. She is appealing.” Aaya said from the other side.

Needles snorted “Yeah when she is not screaming, shouting, and cursing. Seriously if I wasn’t straight…”

“Tell me ascended healer. What are the beauty standards that appeal to the young these days? And can our warder surpass those standards?”

Needles looked at Sheetal with a critical eye. Sheetal could feel her gaze moving up and down her body and noting everything. And she caught Aaya doing the same thing.

“Stop looking at me both of you.” Sheetal said in embarrassment.

Needles ignored Sheetal and turned to Aaya “Surpass the beauty standards? No. But should she? I mean, how many people have blue skin. Even when it fades, she will always have a blue hue to her skin. She will always look, stunning.”

“Fade?” Aaya asked.

“Yes, she is like your kind. Her skin will fade as it withstands the elements.”

“Hmm… So, she is a baby.”

“Baby? Maybe to you. She is a fully grown adult arbiter. Her skin is just new.”

“I am not a baby Aaya.” Sheetal was flustered and the tingling sensation on her skin had her skin popping out in goosebumps.

The two women looked at her with matching smiles on their faces.

“So, what do you think we should start with?” Aaya asked.

“The eyebrows of course. Those bushy things need to be taken care off. Her hair, that braid is not working at all. I think she will look much better in a bun. She needs mascara under her eyes. Something dark, maybe charcoal to break the blue. Also, she needs dyes on her cheeks and down her chin. That will pop out that red on her cheek bones and match the spots running down her neck to her cleavage.. Speaking of which, do you want her to look good with clothes or without them.”

Needles shot a teasing wink at Sheetal. She was enjoying this. Sheetal was going to kill her friend as soon as she got out of these restraints.

Aaya smirked back “Both. She is a warder. Sooner or later, and no matter how shy she is, she will take some one to her bed. I need her to be the best sight the man has ever had.”

Needles responded instantly “Then we need to get rid of that fuzz in between her legs and the follicles all over her body. We will also need to widen those hips. I know she doesn’t really walk and that is why they are narrow compared to her top but men like round hips. Also, how do you feel about piercings?”

“I don’t mind them. Ears? Or nose?” Aaya asked.

“Nipples. Look at those things. The way they are popping out.” Needles chuckled.

Sheetal gritted her teeth trying to ignore the pickling sensation from the rings that whirred all around her “It’s the rings. They are irritating me and...”

“Irritating?” Needles chuckled “Girl, they don’t look irritated.”

Aaya shoulders shook slightly but her voice was still dry “I think the word she is looking for is excited. What do you think Ascended?”

“I agree. And they will be ever more excited with a man.”

Aaya smirked “So they are red. We will put a blue stud on them.”

Sheetal looked at one woman to the other with horror in her eyes. She had thought having two women with her would be comforting. She was wrong, this was not only embarrassing but horrifying.

“You are not piercing my nipples. Don’t you even try. Honestly when I get out of this thing…”

Needles snorted “Sheetal, you are no fun.”

Sheetal blinked “Wait? That was a joke?”

Aaya laughed. She had a surprisingly nice laugh. Sheetal relaxed. And then she said “Maybe. But we haven’t discussed your lower bits yet.”

“It is surprisingly good looking.” Needles nodded with an impressed look.

Aaya wasn’t that impressed “I have seen better. Should we get surgeon to make it smoother?”

Sheetal crossed her legs and growled “Stop it both of you. This is not funny.”

The two women grinned and looked like they were going to continue when the tower keeper interrupted them “Lady Aaya. We are done with the body scan. Should we proceed with the soul scan?”

Aaya nodded and spoke into her ring “Proceed, tower keeper.”

A almost instantaneously shot out from the rings. It went through Sheetal skin, muscles and bone and found something deeper. And shook it. Sheetal almost blanked out then and there. A second later another pulse made her scream.

“Stop the scan. Stop the scan!” Sheetal heard Aaya order.

It was too late because a third pulse made Sheetal convulse and the last thing she heard was Ash scream from the other side.

“Aaah!”

Ash came down on a roof with a bone shattering crash. He coughed out a lung full of dust and groaned.

“What was that?” Ash asked the empty room full of metal blades and hammers.

Another sharp pulse of pain made him double over. The third pulse made him drop to his knees and look for the source of pain.

He found it and shouted “She!?”

Bang!

Something crashed down at him and bounced off.

“Dang it.”

Then something else came down at him and Ash’s muddled sight picked up the shape of the rock before it flew to the side. The stupid rhinos were trying to bury him. The problem was that without his focus, his broken glyphs were flickering away. He needed to redo them soon. But right now he felt like he was dying. And he knew it. Because Sheetal’ soul was pulsing violently and her orb looked like it was one step from rolling away into the darkness.

Ash couldn’t let that happen. He wasn’t going to lose Sheetal. He reached out his hands and in his mind his ribbon unwrapped from his orb and reach out towards Sheetal’s soul. Slowly, oh so slowly, he coiled it around her pulsing and flickering soul once, and then twice.

“She?” Ash asked.

Sheetal didn’t answer.

Ash didn’t know what to do. He did the only thing he could do. He shot a stream of potentiality at Sheetal trying to wake her up.

Fate Link Upgraded

Rank 2

You may freely share potentiality amongst linked sentients.

“She!” Ash shook her soul with his ribbon.

Thud.

Ash ignored the impact that almost broke his glyph ball and looked Sheetal’s flickering soul “Say something. Call me stupid, silly, or an imbecile. Just say something you bossy nerd.”

Boom!

“AAAHH!”

Something large and heavy hit Ash’s glyphs and broke through. Ash looked down and saw a spike in his thigh. Then he realised it wasn’t he who had cried out.

“What the heck was that?” Sheetal complained.

Ash looked at the spike jutting out from his thigh to Sheetal’s stabilising soul. He understood that the pain transmitted through their link had jolted Sheetal awake but still he couldn’t help but yell “Seriously? After all that you are nagging about the pain I felt?”

“What? Ash…” Sheetal’s croaking voice made Ash look back inwards “What happened?”

“That’s my question. One minute I am bouncing on metal shields and the next moment you are dying, and I am crashing into a building. What happened?”

“First answer me, are you okay?” Sheetal asked back.

Ash looked down at his leg and showed Sheetal the spike “Noooo! Now what happened!? Who did this? And how many people do I have to kill?” Ash shouted the last part.

“I don’t know. Hold on. Aaya is talking to me.” Sheetal paused and then muttered “Ah, okay here is what happened.

Sheetal shared her thoughts, and Ash absorbed all that information in seconds.

Ash took in a deep breath and with an exhale ripped out the dirty metal spike from his thigh. The pain was so sharp that it nearly blinded him. He snarled “I am going to break that machine.”

“Ash, where is all this potentiality coming from?” Sheetal asked as if she was asking about stolen machine.

“Me, of course.”

“How?”

Ash could taste the disbelief in Sheetal’s words “It’s been more than an hour. I have killed a dozen rhinos and started a few fires. Raks are dying She and I am swimming in potentiality.”

Thud. Crash.

Something impacted the wall next to his wrecking ball and blew it apart. Then heat scorched his skin. Ash covered his head and ducked.

“Ash did you hear that?”

“No, I felt that.” Ash grunted.

“What was that?” Sheetal asked in a panicked voice

“You remember when I said I started a few fires. Well, it wasn’t exactly me. It was this rhino. I annoyed him until he started firing fireball everywhere.” Ash responded with a pained chuckle.

“What!? What the heck are you doing out there?” Sheetal asked and then she felt Ash’s burns “Oh my gods. That’s it. You are getting out of there right now.”

“Hey genius. You. First.” Ash grimaced.

“Ash, I am okay. I am okay now. The soul scan. They stopped it. You need to…”

“She!” Ash shouted and stressed every word “Shut up, and ask them why did you almost die?”

Sheetal was silent for a moment and then answered “Aaya is saying that my soul was to week to reflect the pulses back to the rings and I have conflicting shard that...”

Sheetal stopped midsentence.

“She? I swear if you go away one more time I will bite your ankle.” Ash

“Ash, Aaya is telling me to use the stat points.”

“Great use them.”

“No, listen. They are our stat points.”

Ash couldn’t believe this. Sheetal was dying and she was worried about taking the damn numbers. Why couldn’t she just use them so that he could get out of the now burning… Whatever this place was and get back into the fight.

“She, do you seriously think I care?”

“Ash, you don’t get it.” Sheetal began and Ash almost cut her off but then realised that with Sheetal’s soul pulsing dangerously it was better to let her get this out of her system so that he could work on escape with peace.

“They are our stat points. We earned them together. Heck, you did most of the work. And that is not all, they will help you survive in the fight right now.”

“It’s not a fight. It is a battle.” Ash harrumphed.

“Whatever you want to call it Ash. You need those points as much as me.”

Ash sighed “I don’t need a stupid excel sheet to tell me how awesome I am?”

Ash felt Aaya touch encompass Sheetal soul and his ribbon. The mist was subtle, and cool to the touch. It decreased the pressure on Ash’s ribbon when it effortlessly lifted Sheetal. Sheetal pulsing soul calmed and began to settle. Ash almost sighed in relief. And then he looked at the mist. It covered everything around Ash and Sheetal. The size of the thing made Ash gasp and sent a shiver down his soul.

He did not want to get on the bad side of Aaya.

“For fudge sake. Are you even listening to me?”

“Huh? What? No. I was… what were you saying?”

“Ash this happened to me because my soul stats are weak. The same thing can happen to you too if your mind can’t take the pressure. So, just take the stats with me, okay?”

“Fine. Fine” Ash sighed

“I will put three points into my soul, and you take the other two and put them in your mind.”

Ash huffed “I heard you the first time.”

“In your mind.” Sheetal stressed.

“She…” Ash began and just gave up with a “Whatever.”

Ash opened his stupid stat sheet and looked at it.

Name – Ash

Class – 0

Type – Warder

Race – Danav

Type – Floater

Fate Link – 1

Shards - 20-30

Type – Speed* 4, Density*4, Channel*4, Sense*2, Power*2, Force*2, Time, Light

Class – 1

Mind

Intellect – 2

Intelligence – 5

Insight – 4

Body

Strength – 3

Stamina – 7

Agility – 5

Dexterity – 5

Perception – 9

Recovery – 10

Sense – 6

Soul

Inspiration – 7

Id – 10

Will – 9

Merit - Low

Ash groaned “Why is it so long?”

The stat sheet buzzed and shortened

Name – Ash

Class – 0

Type – Warder

Mind Stat.

Intellect – 2

Intelligence – 5

Insight – 4

“Nice. Now be like that while I…” Ash stopped when he felt Sheetal’s soul stop pulsing. A moment later her soul thickened under her ribbon and then widened, loosening his grip around her and then it did again. Now Ash could only coil around her once and he did not like that. He had stat points. So, how could he make his ribbon longer?

“Aaaash!” Sheetal’s growl stop Ash’s line of thought and Sheetal ordered “Put the point in your mind.”

“Ummm… Yeah. Okay” Ash muttered and did as he was asked “It’s done.”

“Where did you put them?” Sheetal asked

“The first option. What’s it called? Intellect. Yeah, that one.”

“Did you put your points in intellect because it was the first option?”

“What does it mat…ter?”

Ash words stopped midway. At first nothing happened and then his mind exploded with stars, spheres, circles, and other geometrical shapes. They danced in his minds eyes and Ash even saw a triangle hit a star into a circle while spheres cheered and changed colours.

Ash swayed back and forth on his feet “Woaw! That was radical dude.”

Hexagons rotated around him agreeing with his statement.

“You flipping hippie.” Sheetal snorted scoffed and looked at Ash’s open sheet through his eyes.

Name – Ash

Class – 0

Type – Warder

Mind Stat.

Intellect – 4

Intelligence – 5

Insight – 4

Ash felt Sheetal retreat and shut his sheet back off. He looked up and prepared escape in a bounce.

Still high from the points Ash chuckled “I am going to bounce.” and then frown formed on his face.

A rapid series of thoughts jolted Ash. What in the heck was he doing? He was a glypher. And he was bouncing around in a ball of light? What was he a stupid turtle or tortoise. With a skinny neck that he was hiding around in a shell. That wasn’t awesome. Also, it hurt his feet. And his knees. And made his butt clench every time he came down. That wasn’t fire.

Fire! It was growing all around him. That wasn’t fire either. Or maybe it was? At least it could be. The raks had stopped throwing thing at him so it worked out for him. All he had to do was not inhale the smoke or burn for a while.

Ash scratched his head. So, what could he do?

Ash’s eyes caught all the metal things all around him and he blinked.

“How could I have missed this?”

Ash could do this. But should he do this? He looked around at the fire spreading all around him and looked up at the sky. There was a large hole from where he had entered and then at the half broken glyph plates all around him. His glyphs weren’t working. Honestly, he hadn’t done much damage. Most of the damage had been done because of the fire balls. The system had just awarded him the potentiality.

So, if this was not working. What should he do. First, he needed a more durable ball. The panes of glyphs he had made were from potentiality. Basically, they were created using light. And they broke easily. Second, he needed a seat with springs on it. Third, and this was the important part, he needed it to be awesome.

Ash exhaled and let the glyphs all around him go. They dissipated one by one turning into sparkling dust that flew into the air. The bit of the building that were pressing against his glyph ball capsized inwards pelting Ash with stones and sand.

The rhinos outside trumpeted their victory, and more fire balls flew at him increasing the heat.

Ash ignored all of that. Instead, he ran to the wall and unhooked a large heavy chain from the wall and dragged it to an empty spot in the middle. He ran in a circle looped the chain links around the middle of the room until he had created a spiral. He needed to capitalise on the opportunity the fire, smoke and dust gave him.

A shot of potentiality to his speed shard had his hands moving in blur.

Collect. Heat. Transform. Charge. Disperse. Particles. Up.

“Ash.” Sheetal who seemed to look in at him at that time said “You are going to ionize the air.”

“Okay.”

“No, you don’t get it. If you exceed five thousand volts you will create electricity. Just limit your charge to five thousand volts. And do something about the O3 you are going to produce.” Sheetal stressed and groaned “You have no idea what I am talking about, do you?”

“No.”

Sheetal sighed “Okay. Let me guess. You are collecting the heat and transforming it into charge to disperse the smoke upwards, right?”

“No. I am trying to make this chain stronger by using the heat and transforming so that I van channel potentiality in it. I am just charging it so that I can vaporising all impurities upwards.”

Sheetal looked at Ash’s work and muttered “Okay, but its not going to work.”

Ash didn’t stop working but still asked “Why?”

“Because if you don’t limit the charge to five thousand volts the friction in the air will create lightning and zap you before you can get it done, you dumbo.” Sheetal growled.

Ash stopped and asked “How do you know this, stuff?”

Sheetal replied in an annoyed voice “I don’t have the time to explain physics and chemistry to you. Just do as I say. Limit the charge and then add a condition to only disperse heavy particles.”

Ash took in a breath and begged “She, I am in a burning building trying to avoid suffocating to death, will you just let me work?”

“I am trying to help you ignorant imbecile. Look at the spiral in front of you. You see the smoke coming at you flowing upwards? That is because you re creating a charge that is shooting it upwards. If you don’t limit you the charge you will create lightning and a vacuum. And then you won’t be able to breathe or think.”

Ash chewed on his lower lip and grumbled “Fine, I can add a few more glyphs but please let me...”

Ash stopped. Had he just heard footsteps. He heard a scuffing footsteps and coughs outside. He slowed his hands to cut down on the scrapping sounds of his work and listened.

“No closer short snout. Too hot.” A voice out of a mangled jaw said.

“Fire snout. That thing. It is dead?” Short Snout asked.

“Yes, looks dead. But we ask warriors to keep fire on. Make sure it stays dead.” Fire snout grunted.

“What was that?” Short Snout asked “What creature make sound like, Sheeee?”

Short Snout imitated Ash in a deep voice making Sheetal chuckle.

“Don’t know.” Fire Snout coughed out some smoke and spat on the ground. He finally answered “But you kill it. With fire. Smart. We go to commander long hoof, I make him give you a large portion of anathema. You grow.”

Short snout trumpeted in glee “Gratitude, Fire Snout.”

“You, do good. You become powerful magic warrior for herd. Come we walk. Long walk to the front. Two hours run.” Fire snout shuffled and turned.

Ash peeped out his head to look at the two large figures. He wasn’t interested in their size. He wanted a look at their souls and shards.

Sheetal laughed “They think you are an animal that screams, Sheee.”

“Hmmm…mmm.” Ash said distractedly.

Sheetal stopped “Ash, what are you thinking?”

“They said anathema.”

“You know they were talking about going to the front lines, right?” Sheetal asked.

“They said they have anathema.” Ash repeated himself.

“Ash, no.” Sheetal could have slammed her foot down if she could.

“Right.” Ash agreed but didn’t hide the fact that he was lying.

“Ash they are an army.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because it is true.”

“Yeah, but I am faster.”

“You are going to get us killed.” Sheetal yelled.

“Not before you get us killed by stepping into a door.” Ash shot back.

“It was a scanning machine, and it was an accident you weirdo.” Sheetal snapped back and then decided to change tack “About your project, what are you planning?”

“I am going to use those U shaped thingies…”

“Horseshoes.” Sheetal corrected Ash.

“Horseshoes? I didn’t see any horses here.”

“Ash, rhinos have hooves.” Sheetal replied in a dead pan voice.

“Oh, yeah.” Ash responded distractedly “So I am going to take those horseshoes, crave out a few glyphs on them. Tie them to the chain here and roll through the army to get us some of that anathema.”

Sheetal groaned “That is your plan?”

“Pretty much.”

“It is a stupid plan.”

“It is not that stupid.”

“Ash, please…”

Ash in an annoying voice sang over Sheetal “Na na… Na na naaaah… Noooot Liiissssteniiiing.”

“Listen to me you…” Sheetal blinked her eyes open. Ash had pushed her away. First of all, was that even something they could do? Second, that was rude and couldn’t help hesrself from screaming in frustration

“I am going to kill that son of a ditch!”