Elend reached out with his dream mana and took in every detail of his surroundings. Books and board games filled the shelves, while a mountain of stuffed animals covered one half of the bed. He recognized most of these things from Relia’s old apartment on Chapel Street.

  But the room hadn’t always looked this way. A stack of cardboard boxes sat near the closet; half of them lay open and empty, but others remained sealed in a dramatic last stand.

  She’d resisted Moonfire for months, treating this space more like a prison cell than a bedroom. She’d lasted more than two hundred days, then something shattered inside her. She’d begun giving ground and making compromises. She thought she was resisting her captors, but her actions told a different story.

  Elend stepped over to the dresser and picked up a glass jar, inhaling the vanilla scent from its open mouth. Relia would never use these things as a coping mechanism, no matter how bad things got.

  Not the Relia he knew.

  The desk overflowed with restricted books and piles of handwritten notes. One particular sheet caught Elend’s eye—the same revelation written over and over in frantic handwriting: “I train to do what’s right. I train to do what’s right. I train to . . .”

  The last iteration trailed off mid-sentence, the pen dropped carelessly on the paper.

  Elend looked past the surface of the room to the underlying clouds of mana, emotion, and intent. It lingered here like a scent, building up in layers over the past few months. There was a foundation of pain, loneliness, anger, and grief. Then a layer of numbness, where she felt nothing at all. That would be the dolorphins, smoothing down the sharp edges.

  Finally, thick clouds of resentment covered the land like a toxic fog. Relia had always been self-righteous, but she’d tempered that with compassion. Now, her father had taken that trait and spun it toward the world like a weapon. That included Elend, Irina, and the rest of her team

  ’ Glim said in his mind. ’

  ‘’ Elend strode across the hall where Akari was searching another bedroom. He could have walked to the basement, but time was their most precious resource inside this time bubble. They only had five minutes left, and they’d searched less than a quarter of the palace grounds

  Akari made him a quick portal, and they appeared downstairs an instant later. The basement smelled like old paper mixed with the sharp scent of preservation mana, not so different from the Artegium library. But he also sensed a layer of fear, thick enough to taste.

  Across the basement, Glim appeared in her blue Missile form. “Over here.”

  Elend and Akari jogged across the stone floor, following Glim past a cluster of unused office furniture and stacks of folding chairs. They took a sharp left at the end of a long hallway, and Glim hovered near a section of brick wall between two filing cabinets.

  “Security?” Elend asked.

  “Disabled!” Glim said in a cheerful voice.

  He nodded. “Let’s get it open.”

  Glim vanished between two bricks, and the hidden door slid into the wall. There weren’t any tracks, so it must be powered by force and gravity mana.

  The safe room was larger than he’d expected. Rows of simple cots lined one wall, along with steel shelves of emergency supplies. At least twenty people huddled inside—all Apprentices and Artisans. Kitchen staff in their white coats, maids in black dresses, and office workers clutching their tablets. Still no sign of Relia or the last two Honor Guards.

  “It’s okay.” Elend pulled off his black helmet and met their eyes. “No one’s going to hurt you. We’re looking for Relia.” He avoided using her clan name; calling her Dawnfire would just confuse the group, and Moonfire felt wrong.

  Predictably, the whole room stayed silent. Elend could have changed his features and concocted some clever story, but there wasn’t time for that. Instead, he filled the room with a cloud of invisible dream mana, touching each of their minds in turn.

  “Please.” He poured sincerity into his voice. “This is important.”

  The staff exchanged looks, and Elend saw the questions and excuses forming on their lips. Was this the same man who gave the speech in Mystic Square? Who was that masked woman standing behind him? One of the Soul Reapers? What did they want with Relia?

  But Elend didn’t have time for questions, so he pushed harder with his dream technique, bordering on compulsion. That first technique in Mystic Square had felt strange after several decades of abstention, like flexing a long-dormant muscle. But this one came easier—almost as if he’d never stopped.

  his father used to say.

  Several staff members rushed forward, practically tripping over themselves to speak. “She’s in the control tower,” one of the office workers said. “With Master Serrano and Master Drexel.”

  “Thank you,” Elend said as he turned around.

  Akari brought them back to the base of the central spire, then she left to retrieve Kalden and Irina. Another portal brought them to the top of the elevator shaft, and they gathered in the antechamber outside the control room.

  “Time?” Elend asked Akari. He wasn’t worried about eavesdroppers up here; Glim had already flown ahead and destroyed the cameras.

  “Three minutes,” Akari replied. “Maybe less.”

  Elend nodded as he stepped forward. Three minutes should be enough time to neutralize two more Masters, assuming they didn’t need any restarts. If they did, they’d resort to Plan B: grab Relia and retreat. Elend could always find more Masters to drain, but there was only one Relia.

  The steel door swung inward with a whisper of air, revealing the control room beyond.

  The Aegis dominated everything, stretching above them like an artificial sky. Its light poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrapped around three sides of the room, bathing the space in a pale blue glow. Banks of monitors lined the walls, flickering with feeds from all over the palace. Most focused on the lobby where his team had fought the Honor Guard. Others revealed empty hallways, courtyards, or the occasional group of huddled staff members.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  And there, at the very center of it all, stood Relia.

  She wore a simple flannel shirt and jeans, with her long red hair in a tight bun. The shifting patterns of the Aegis danced across her pale face like sunlight through water. Her green eyes were as hard as the palace itself.

  “Relia.” Elend took a slow step forward, stretching out with an invisible cloud of dream mana. He didn’t bother searching the room for traps at this point. The others had their jobs, and Elend had his.

  “Looking for my other guards ?” Relia’s eyes flicked toward Akari and Kalden. “Let me guess—you were hoping to drain their souls and become a Mystic?”

  “We came here to save you,” Akari said as she pulled off her dark helmet. Irina and Kalden did the same, letting her see their faces.

  “Aye.” Elend drew in a deep breath as he processed the feel of her emotions. Moonfire had wound everything in a tight knot, and Elend couldn’t unwind that knot in the next few minutes. “I promised you I would.”

  “I never asked to be saved,” Relia’s voice was eerily calm. “And I never asked you to wade through a river of blood to find me.” She gestured toward a row of security monitors on her right, showing paused footage from the palace lobby.

  Elend turned toward the footage that showed the guards’ unconscious bodies. Some were missing limbs, and dark pools of blood gathered on the marble floor around them. But it would take more than blood loss to kill a Master. “They’re still alive. We made sure of that.”

  “You shaved decades off their lives,” Relia retorted. “They weren’t bad people, you know. They were just defending me.”

  “Are those your words?” Elend asked in a gentle voice. “Or his?” He recognized the self-righteousness, but she’d never been this naive. Relia had traveled all over the world, from the mountains of Northern Espiria to the jungles of South Cadria. She knew no battle was perfect, especially when you judged it through a small screen.

  But if no one took action, this world would never change. Tyrants like Moonfire would reign for centuries, and people would have no choice but to fall in line.

  “Does it matter?” Relia stared down at her hands for the space of a long breath. “Maybe I don’t even know what’s true anymore. Maybe I never knew.”

  Elend raised his chin. “Then let’s start with what you know. The day before he kidnapped you. What did you believe then?”

  “Was I really free?” Relia’s eyes snapped back up. “I was supposed to help you advance, wasn’t I? That’s why you took me in. You knew that someday, I could help you become a Mystic.”

  Elend paused, choosing his next words with care. “Utility and care aren’t mutually exclusive. The same is true for me and Irina. Kalden and Akari. We’re all a family, and you’re part of it.”

  “My father said the same thing.” Tears of frustration glistened at the corners of her eyes. “He calls it love. You call it teaching.”

  “Ashur Moonfire orchestrated the deaths of thousands to seize power,” Elend said. “He brought Storm’s Eye here to create chaos and remove the whole line of succession. You must have realized that by now.”

  “How many people have killed?” Relia shot back. “Where’s the line? When’s it wrong to use people?”

  “It’s wrong when the people don’t have a choice.”

  “Like that crowd you rallied with your speech?” Relia gestured toward another paused monitor that showed Mystic Square. “Did have a choice?”

  Elend hesitated. He hadn't killed anyone directly with that speech, but he'd known the consequences. That mob would march on the Palace Prime, and there would be bloodshed on both sides of that battle.

  Those people had already been prepared to fight. If they hadn’t, Elend never could have rallied them with a single technique. But his enemy could make the same argument; some small part of Relia had always doubted Elend.

  She pressed her advantage. “My father has Storm’s Eye, and you have the Soul Reapers. What’s the difference?”

  Waves of anger flowed between Akari and Kalden as she spoke. They couldn’t understand why she would defend her captor after all this time. To them, it must seem like madness—maybe even betrayal.

  Elend knew better, of course. He’d spent years studying interrogation techniques during his time in the Espirian military. When a skilled dream artist bore down on someone from a lower realm, that person broke. It was just a matter of pushing the right buttons.

  “You might not see the difference now,” he said. “But we’re going to take you away from here—”

  “You mean kidnap me.”

  Elend shook his head. “I’m offering you freedom. freedom. Name any place in the world, and we’ll take you there. No strings attached. You never have to see me again if that’s what you want.”

  Relia pointed at the floor beneath her feet. “What if I want to stay right here?”

  She was testing him. Relia didn’t really want to stay here with her parents—that much was clear in her surface emotions. But Moonfire had wormed his way deep into her head, directing all that anger at Elend and the others. Now she couldn’t remember what was real, or what she truly wanted.

  Elend couldn’t find the right words. His opponent was a Mystic, and the future was clouded. In times like this, he’d learned to fall back on the truth.

  “Anywhere but here,” he told Relia. “This isn’t a real choice.”

  “There it is.” Her voice went as cold as an ice chamber. “I’m free to choose unless I pick the wrong answer.”

  “You want to make your own choices? You need to start fresh. Away from him.”

  “And what if I refuse?”

  Elend shot a quick glance at Akari, and she held up a single gloved finger.

  “My father told me you might attack the palace.” Relia’s voice took on a rehearsed quality. “He said if I wanted to go with you, he wouldn’t stop me.”

  Elend ignored that; it was far too easy for Moonfire to play that card with his claws so deep. The words meant nothing.

  “Let’s say you have a patient,” he told Relia. “She’s bleeding to death and in shock—”

  “Textbook pivot to medical ethics,” Relia cut in. “Page forty-seven of Karran’s Manual of Psychological Operations. And I’d respect her choice. I’d walk away if she didn’t want to be healed.”

  “The patient is in ,” Elend stressed the last word. “Temporarily incompetent. Would you leave that person to die?”

  “You’re a healer!” she snapped. “You say you’ve changed, but I’ve seen you control people tonight with your aspect. And they weren’t incompetent. They just had something you wanted.”

  They stared at each other for a long moment. She was breathing hard, and Elend felt his own heart racing. They’d argued like this dozens of times over the years. Even the subject was familiar territory.

  Indeed, some small part of Elend expected the tension to fade at any moment. They would apologize to each other, or change the topic without another word. Life would go on as it always did.

  But that was just a feeling—a memory of simpler times. This moment was real, and Elend might lose her forever

  He paused again, giving the others a chance to step in and offer their own words. No one stopped him. No one else had a better solution.

  Relia drew in a deep breath. “But it doesn’t matter what I say, does it? We both know your next move.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I hope someday you’ll understand why—“

  “I already understand.” Her voice was steady once again. “You’re gonna control me for my own good. Just like him.” Relia clenched her hands into fists. “Go ahead—use your dream mana. Prove me right.”

  ~~~

  Akari stood a few paces behind Elend, watching the exchange between him and Relia. Things weren’t going well, but they’d already prepared for this possibility. Elend told the team he might need dream mana to counter Moonfire’s influence, and they’d all agreed it might be necessary.

  Kalden said through their bond.

  Elend didn’t want to use mental compulsion on Relia—she got that. But he’d been cutting it way too close. What if their enemy sprang a trap in the last few seconds? Akari couldn’t rewind time if they burned through it in some stupid moral debate.

  Relia’s body went suddenly limp, and her eyes rolled back in her head, showing more white than green. She almost looked like she might pass out, but Elend kept her on her feet.

  Akari reached out to her time bubble in the same moment, preparing to shatter the inner layer between them and the Aegis. After that, she would rewind time in the outer layer to just before they activated the shield.

  But something was wrong. When Akari reached out to her Constructs, she hit a mental wall. No, not a wall—more like a void. An absence where her technique should have been. Someone else had already broken them.

  A portal split the air in front of her team—sharp and sudden as blade mana. Akari felt a Mystic’s power press against her soul. Her vision went dark around the edges, and cracks formed on the surrounding windows, spreading like frozen lightning.

  ‘’ Kalden said.

  ‘’

  How could someone break her Construct? Time moved slower beyond the boundaries. Even a Mystic couldn’t get here that quickly.

  Unless the Mystic was inside the Construct all along.

  This was a trap.

  Ashur Moonfire stepped through the open portal, dressed in full armor from head to heel. When he spoke, his voice filled every corner of the control room. “Step away from her.”

  Web of Secrets Book 1 is now available for ebook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited:

  Book 2 (Web of Dreams) is also available in ebook / KU:

  Book 3 (Web of Knowledge) is available for pre-order: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0FCDKR5ZD?maas=&ref=

  Support the story on Patreon and read to the end of Book 5!

  https://www.patreon.com/davidmusk