Kael watched clouds drift past the moon before dissolving into darkness. He glanced over his shoulder.
Velthoria was nothing more than a distant flicker of light now, barely clinging to the horizon as Kael stood thousands of steps away on Lake Yunara.
After deciding the bench was no longer safe for black market meetings, he had chosen a new point instead. Exactly four thousand steps north across the lake. The darkness offered cover, but it also left him exposed. Still, with the Weeping Eye active, Kael could see farther than any normal Luminaire ever could.
The silence stretched.
Then came the sound.
Flop.
Flop.
Flop.
Wet footsteps scraped against ice.
Kael turned.
A Pale One staggered toward him, strips of flesh dragging and sticking to the frozen surface as it moved. His eyes narrowed.
Wild animals avoided Lake Yunara entirely. Beasts did too. They refused to set foot on it, as if the ice itself would swallow them whole.
'What's that doing here?'
Even mindless, Pale Ones retained scraps of instinct. They could walk. They could turn. But they should not step onto the lake.
It limped closer.
Five steps away, it suddenly dropped low and lunged.
Kael's eyes widened for a fraction of a second.
His arm snapped up.
Fingers closed around its throat with crushing force. Kael pivoted, using its momentum, and drove the Pale One straight down into the ice.
The impact boomed.
'It's not acting normal.'
The creature flailed wildly, arms scraping uselessly across the frozen surface.
Kael reached out and flicked its forehead gently.
The world answered.
A ground-shaking roar thundered across Lake Yunara, followed by a violent crack as the ice fractured outward in a spiderweb pattern, spreading hundreds of steps in every direction.
The Pale One's head ceased to exist.
Matter exploded outward in a brutal cone, spraying blood, bone, and pulp across the ice as the body collapsed, twitching once before going still.
'Someone is controlling it.'
As if answering the thought, a face appeared beneath the ice, directly behind the corpse.
The figure below drew its arm back.
The lake erupted.
Ice exploded upward like a ruptured vein, shards screaming into the air as a fist punched straight through the surface. Kael took several measured steps back, watching without urgency as the frozen sheet collapsed inward.
A man hauled himself up through the opening. Water streamed from his clothes, pale strands of hair clinging to his shoulders as he rose. He straightened to his full height, planting one boot atop the Pale One's ruined body.
"May you find your worth in the waking world, Solian Serane."
The words were spoken plainly. Almost reverently.
Kael clasped his hands behind his back.
'So… someone managed to solve it at last.'
The man nudged the corpse with his foot, sending it sliding into the dark water. He watched as it sank, swallowed whole until the moonlight could no longer reach it.
"I don't appreciate you sending a Pale One after me," Kael said, tilting his head slightly.
The man swept wet hair from his face, revealing deep blue eyes and a neatly kept beard.
"My apologies, Solian," he said, sincerity threading his voice. "I had to take precautions."
Silence stretched between them.
"Besides," he added, glancing back at Kael, "it seems you had control of the situation."
His gaze drifted outward, following the spiderweb of fractures radiating across Lake Yunara.
"No matter," Kael replied evenly. "What's your name?"
The man slipped his hands into his coat pockets.
"Adam."
Kael scoffed inwardly.
'So there's another Adam.'
"What do you need refined?"
Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded wet piece of paper.
"These are the ingredients."
He tossed it across the ice. Kael caught it without looking.
"I managed to secure the most difficult ones." Adam produced a pouch and slid it toward him. "I didn't have time to gather the rest."
Kael unfolded the paper, scanning the list in silence. After a moment, he straightened and took a step back.
"You're expecting me to collect the remaining ingredients myself?"
His voice was cold.
Adam's gaze sharpened.
"I'm willing to pay three hundred mindstones up front."
Kael folded the paper once and tucked it away, then picked up the pouch.
"It's a deal," he said after letting the silence stretch. "But you understand it will take longer."
Adam turned away and lifted a hand in dismissal, before tossing another pouch containing mindstones.
"That's fine. Just make sure it's done before the war."
Water burst upward as Adam leapt back into the hole, vanishing beneath the surface without hesitation.
Kael watched the water settle.
'Perhaps I need a mote for breathing underwater.'
He hadn't anticipated an approach from beneath the ice. A clear miscalculation. If someone dragged him under, he'd be at a severe disadvantage.
Tsk.
'I'll need to change the location again.'
—
The morning sun washed over Kael's face as he sat in the library, eyes tracing the note Adam had given him.
'He said he'd gathered the most difficult ones, didn't he?'
Kael set the paper down.
Most of the ingredients had already been secured. Only two remained. And both were difficult in their own way.
The blood and the head of a Dreadborne.
Kael massaged his temples.
"I've only ever seen one,"
he murmured. "Once."
The only Dreadborne he had ever encountered was deep in the Titanwoods, back when he first sought out Torin and his followers.
'Can I kill one?'
He had been extremely lucky during that first encounter. The Dreadborne had been newly born. Naive. Its intelligence still underdeveloped.
Under normal circumstances, any Luminaire below rank four would turn back the moment they realized what they were facing.
The world of Luminaires recognized two kinds of wild threats: beasts and Dreadbornes.
Beasts were already several times stronger than humans. That alone demanded caution. Take the King Wolf Tiger for example. Even though everything had gone right in that battle, it still possessed the power to kill every Luminaire present if fortune had turned against them.
Then there were Dreadbornes.
What were they, really?
At their core, they were the strongest of beasts, but with intelligence approaching that of a human. And that difference alone was enough to make most Luminaires prefer fighting one another rather than facing a Dreadborne.
'I could wait for the wave of Pale Ones to arrive. It's inevitable there would be Dreadbornes among them.'
Kael's gaze drifted toward the bookshelves.
'No. That won't work.'
The Pale Ones would reach the region near the opening of the war. Adam wanted the refinement finished before then, and more importantly, Kael couldn't afford to be weakened if the process failed. A misstep at that time would be fatal.
Kael stood and pulled a book from the shelf.
The Beasts Hiding in the Shadows.
'Couldn't hurt.'
He settled near the window and opened it. Winter days were growing shorter, and after only a few hours the library was swallowed by darkness, the space lit only by flickering candles.
Kael closed the book.
'A Dreadborne…'
He stepped out onto the streets of Velthoria.
Though most ordinary Luminaires didn't understand just how severe the tension between the noble families had become, the strain still bled into the city. It hung in the air, quiet but unmistakable, a shared unease carried in hurried steps and lowered voices.
He fumbled in his pocket before pulling out his keys.
The lock clicked open, and Kael stepped inside.
Mael lay blacked out in the doorway to the bathroom, half her body sprawled across the threshold. A half-empty wine bottle rested beside her, surrounded by a small puddle of its spilled contents.
Kael sighed. He unhurriedly removed his coat and boots before walking over to her.
'The tension must be getting to her too.'
He nudged the bottle aside, then slipped her arm over his shoulder and lifted. He carried her to the guest room and laid her down on the bed.
Kael placed two fingers lightly against her skin, turning her head slightly from side to side as he examined her.
'At least she's not alcohol poisoned.'
He reached over her, pulled a blanket free, and draped it across her body. Then he stepped back, closed the door quietly, and left her to sleep.
Kael's gaze drifted to the far wall.
"A desk?"
He walked over and dragged a finger across its surface. "Mael must've gotten it."
He returned to his seat and closed his eyes.
The world dissolved, replaced by his inner realm.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Clang.
Kael lowered his head.
With visible strain, Point Aegis rolled forward, its cubic mass tipping and slamming against the ground a few steps in front of him. It turned once. Then again. Then a third time, every time it turned, an echoed moved through the inner realm.
Point Blank followed.
The metallic sphere rolled into the cube with a sharp clang, rebounded slightly, then rolled back again, striking Point Aegis once more before settling against it.
They remained there, touching.
After a while, Point Aegis began to move again. It rolled three more times.
Point Blank followed immediately after, crashing into it with another ringing impact.
Kael walked over and crouched beside them.
The motes ignored him completely and continued on their path.
'There's no way you're not related.'
He straightened, then crouched again, resting his hands on his legs.
They rolled away once more, unmoved by his presence.
"Such arrogance!"
Kael nudged Point Aegis with his foot, then watched as it soared through the space back into his river of Will. Then he grabbed Point Blank and tossed it in after, letting it vanish just the same.
Kael walked to the edge of the colossal river of Will and bent forward, studying it closely.
White tendrils swam against the current, winding through the countless Thoughts, guiding them toward their destinations.
'To think the Eye is still this powerful.'
Lately, Kael's vision while wearing the blindfold had improved dramatically. He could function almost normally now, relying solely on the Weeping Eye. At first, he had assumed the change meant the Eye was weakening.
But standing here, looking into his inner realm, the truth was obvious.
The Weeping Eye remained a mountain he had yet to climb.