“This could work,” Kalden said as he re-focused his mana. If Irina sacrificed her soul, then Elend and Glim would both advance to the next realm. Two Mystics against one.

  Of course, Elend still had the advancement itself to contend with. Could he face that challenge in the heat of battle? Would it leave him exposed?

  . Irina was right: this was their best chance to escape. Their chance. How had Kalden missed it before? What else was he missing?

  He split his mind into two pieces—a technique he’d perfected over countless hours with his aspect. One half focused on the future, while the other half looked toward the past.

  Moonfire had been inside the Aegis all along, and his dramatic entry was all showmanship. But why? He already controlled Relia, and he could have destroyed the time bubble from the start. So why would he sacrifice those eight Masters in the lobby? Why wait so long to reveal himself?

  Their enemy had begun this fight with every possible advantage. Nothing but total victory should have sufficed. But what did victory look like for Moonfire? What did he actually want?

  Another stray Missile flew across the rooftop, closing in with impossible speed. Akari saw it coming in her spacetime Cloak and teleported them both to safety.

  That Missile had been fast, but not as fast as the ones he’d aimed against the Darklights. Almost like he wanted to keep Kalden and Akari alive.

  He’d been trying to recruit them all along. It started when Relia invited them to the Palace Prime. When that didn’t work, he’d sent three members of the Honor Guard to capture them at the Solidor’s safe house.

  , not kill.

  What if the Honor Guard opposed their new prime minister’s rise to power? Or what if Moonfire wanted to use their deaths for propaganda?

  No, that was thinking too small. More likely, he wanted Kalden and Akari to be complicit in their own capture, just as he’d done with Relia. He wanted them to feel their potential before he ripped it away. Then he would sell it back to them piece by piece, promising them everything they wanted.

  The parts of that plan were in motion. Kalden felt it in the way their enemy fought—always pushing, never crushing. How could they use this against him?

  He turned to Akari, and a new plan took shape in his mind. It seemed crazy, but what if they’d approached this fight backwards?

  “Good news,” he told her. “You’re fighting the Mystic after all.”

  ~~~

  Akari raced along the edge of the palace roof. Golden threads flared in her wake, burning bright against the stone rubble.

  Kalden and the others couldn’t start working yet—that would be too obvious. So Akari formed a new time bubble to draw Moonfire’s attention.

  Sure enough, his eyes locked with Akari’s across the field. His intention cut through the air like mental daggers.

  She had him.

  Moonfire stretched out his hands, and a hundred portals opened across the rooftop, no bigger than coins. Spatial blades emerged from the rifts, gleaming in the light of the Aegis. They fell in a silver rain, each one moving faster than sound, leaving white contrails in the air. They flickered in and out of existence, teleporting mid-flight to strike from impossible angles.

  Akari dropped her time bubble and poured mana into her spacetime Cloak, seeing the ghosts of Moonfire’s attacks before they landed. She dodged the blades, caught some in her own portals, and displaced her body. He was a Mystic, but she moved in ways he couldn’t comprehend, bending spacetime like a second skin.

  Then Akari launched her counter-attack.

  A flurry of darts shot out from her wrist launcher, weaving through the stone rubble and silver rain. Each one landed just beyond the reach of Moonfire’s Cloak.

  Explosions followed. Fire. Ice. Lightning. Blades. Each aspect erupted from her pocket dimensions, raw and wild, ripping through the air like Storm’s Eye itself. The palace trembled beneath their feet. Chunks of stone flew skyward, struck the Aegis, and rained down in glittering shards.

  Moonfire stood at the heart of the storm, unharmed in the tempest of his Cloak. She hadn’t hurt him, but that didn’t matter. The others had retreated deeper into the palace, and Kalden had begun draining Irina’s soul.

  Akari unleashed the rest of her darts, holding nothing back. Arturo had helped her craft these pocket dimensions in the days before the battle, and each one was like facing a Grandmaster. She could have leveled an entire city with these weapons.

  But that still wasn’t enough to stop a Mystic.

  Moonfire vanished from the fray. Akari’s spacetime Cloak bloomed with a dozen ghostly images, striking from every angle.

  Akari tore open an escape portal—too slow. Space folded sideways, and the portal snapped shut. She tried a second portal, but it felt like dipping her hand in a jar of syrup

  The Mystic loomed over her now, less than three paces away. She saw her own reflection in his bright eyes.

  Angelic blades formed in Akari’s hands. They shone like translucent crystals, even brighter than the shielded sky above. Moonfire lashed out with his spatial blades, and their weapons met in a clash of silver and blue. Shockwaves rippled out across the rooftop, blasting piles of stone rubble. Akari’s bones shook from the impact, but her weapons held.

  For one perfect moment, she fought a Mystic in earnest.

  More clashes followed in a deadly dance. Her opponent was everywhere at once, flickering faster than she could blink. He struck from the left, the right. Above her, behind her. But Akari saw him coming in her spacetime Cloak. She dodged and parried each strike an instant before it came.

  Moonfire had more experience, but she had Kalden’s aspect. Centuries of blade artists lived inside her soul, forging her techniques and guiding her movements.

  That kept her alive for now.

  No, who was she kidding? She’d be dead right now if Moonfire hadn’t held back. But Kalden was right: he wanted them both alive.

  Her opponent stretched out his hand and launched a single blade of spatial mana. The blade multiplied in midair as it flew. Once, twice, three times. The silver tree surrounded her, striking from eight different angles.

  Akari cycled every free drop of mana to her Cloak, knocking the branches off course by milliseconds. Space bent and time slowed, but it still wasn't enough. One blade cut through her left thigh, shredding her armor and spraying blood on the concrete. Another pierced her right shoulder like a massive insect.

  She was halfway through her escape portal when Moonfire grabbed her by the front of her armor. His grip was iron as his fingers dug through the titan steel. Space inverted as he spun her around. His palm glowed with pale blue mana, then a blast sent her crashing through the floor.

  Concrete shattered from the impact of her body, followed by splinters of glass and wood. She crashed through four levels of the palace until her spine struck the foundation. Thunder followed. The shockwave shattered the surrounding walls. Load-bearing columns crumbled to dust. Furniture and rubble fell from the sky, burying her alive.

  Her own heartbeat echoed in her ears. Every nerve screamed as the darkness closed in.

  "Get up!" A voice cut through the pain like a blade. It was Glim, hovering beside her in the form of a blue Missile—the only light source in that dark coffin.

  “Come on!” Glim repeated in a panicked voice. “He’s going for the others! I can’t hold him alone.”

  “Shit,” Akari muttered through a mouthful of blood. That last battle felt like an eternity, but it couldn’t have been more than a minute. Two at most. Elend would need more than that to advance. “Where are they?” Her bond with Kalden had gone dark a few minutes ago, and she couldn’t summon the strength to reform it.

  “The northeast garden.” Glim sent Akari a mental image of the spot.

  Akari closed her eyes and opened a portal beneath her body. She fell from the sky an instant later, twenty feet above the courtyard. She slammed into the ground, legs buckling against the cobblestones.

  Kalden worked in a corner of the garden, face tight with concentration. Pale blue mana flowed from his hands in careful streams, pulling power from Irina's soul and channeling it to Elend. Irina sat perfectly still, her face serene despite the loss.

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  Moonfire stood a few paces away from the trio, breaking down their defenses.

  Akari ignored her wounds and launched herself at her opponent.

  Elend could fix everything once he advanced.

  Moonfire’s Cloak stretched more than ten feet around his body—a sphere of twisted space that shredded anything it touched. Akari never could have broken through on her own, but Kalden’s aspect raced through her mind, combined with Glim’s mental models. This revealed patterns and weaknesses, not so different from Akari’s own technique.

  Angelic blades erupted from her palms as she clashed with the silver tempest. She blended the blades with her aspect, seeing the patterns in her mind’s eye, carving a path. Space mana met spacetime in a thousand tiny clashes. Reality groaned under the strain, and spacetime won.

  Moonfire rounded on her. He was impossibly fast, but Akari saw the future. He tried opening portals, but her own techniques swallowed them before they formed. He tried to dodge, but blasts of pure mana shot from every pore in her skin, guiding her toward her target.

  Time slowed as the Angelic weapon carved through the air, leaving a trail of blue-white fire in its wake.

  Crystal met flesh, and she opened the Mystic’s throat with a spray of blood.

  ~~~

  Kalden watched Akari land her first true hit against their enemy. The Mystic’s eyes went wide in sudden shock as the blood spilled from his windpipe. For one impossible moment, he almost looked human.

  Akari flickered away in her spacetime Cloak, appearing behind Moonfire an instant later. Her blade sang as she cut through the air, angled for another blow.

  But something changed in that moment, like the air itself had grown teeth.

  Their enemy was done holding back.

  Tendrils of raw power shot from Moonfire’s hands—not the blades he’d unleashed before. This was something primal and raw. Total control over space itself. It bent around Akari like folded paper. Her legs snapped off the ground. Her spine bent backward, farther than any human should bend.

  A crack like thunder echoed across the courtyard.

  Then she was backward. Folded in half the wrong way. Blood sprayed from her body in a crimson arc, painting the grass and stones beneath her.

  Moonfire released his hold, and she crumpled to the ground like a doll. Her legs splayed wide. Her head struck the cobblestones with a wet sound. Lifeless eyes stared back at him.

  Kalden felt everything through their bond. The white-hot waves from her broken spine. The lungs that failed to draw breath. The heart that couldn’t beat.

  And then the bond grew cold and dark. It was like having his heart carved out with a spoon.

  Akari was gone.

  He heard a voice shouting through the haze. But the words were meaningless noise. Nothing mattered except the broken body lying just out of reach. Nothing mattered except the deafening silence where their bond used to sing.

  Kalden cycled his battle mana and fell back on his training. He’d prepared for this moment after they lost Sozen and Elise last spring. He told himself he wouldn’t freeze if it happened again. He’d rehearsed it over and over in his mind, etching it like a technique on his soul.

  Akari wouldn’t want Kalden to grieve for her. She would want him to .

  Sure enough, his body never stopped working. The structural mana flowed from Irina’s soul, passing through Kalden, and filling Elend with its power. Just a few more seconds now.

  Elend had to advance. He was their only hope.

  ~~~

  Elend tried to help Akari in her final moments. He tried wrapping her in dream mana and forming a shield around her body. He tried sending Glim to keep her safe. He tried .

  But everything wasn’t enough. Now he’d lost another student. And Moonfire wasn’t done.

  A silver blade formed in the Mystic’s palm. Not the wild techniques from before, but something precise and perfect. Like all Moonfire’s techniques, this blade stretched impossibly thin, warping space around it.

  Irina raised her head, meeting Moonfire’s eyes without flinching. Her Second Brain had already calculated the trajectory, running through thousands of possible futures in the space between heartbeats. She knew what happened next.

  The blade flew, passing between Kalden and Irina in a single motion. The pale blue stream of mana died between them, flickering out like a flame.

  Kalden’s hand slipped from Irina’s shoulder. His eyes went wide for an instant, then empty. He fell sideways onto the cobblestones, one arm stretched toward Akari’s fallen body. Blood pooled beneath him, staining the stones and the surrounding grass.

  Irina remained upright a moment longer. Her Second Brain dissolved into golden mist. Then she crumpled forward, her body folding over Kalden’s.

  Elend lost the connection in the same moment. Irina had given everything, but they’d run out of time. He was still just a Grandmaster, powerless against what came next.

  Moonfire rounded on Elend. Spatial mana gathered around his fingers like liquid mercury, condensing into another blade. The technique leapt toward Elend like a striking serpent.

  Then time stopped.

  Mana froze all around the courtyard. Moonfire’s blade hovered in the air halfway through its killing arc. The mist of Irina’s Second Brain froze like a golden cloud. Even the blood on the cobblestones had ceased its flow.

  The world went dark a second later, and Elend found himself back in his old bedroom. Not the master bedroom of the Darklight’s estate; his childhood room.

  Everything was exactly as he remembered from fifty years ago. His old bed with the blue comforter. The wooden floorboards that creaked with every step. The dresser against the far wall, where they’d once shattered his parents’ photograph. The full-length mirror where he’d first created Glim.

  Was this . . . the Mystic advancement?

  “No.” Glim appeared in the closet mirror, taking the form of a young woman with a blue dress. When she spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper. “It’s just me.”

  Elend stood there for several heartbeats, feeling the weight of those words in his chest. Irina was gone. His wife of forty-five years, killed with a single technique.

  And his students . . .

  “Kalden was wrong,” Glim said. “Moonfire didn’t want them alive.”

  “No.” Elend pushed his grief aside and cycled his dream mana. Glim hadn’t truly frozen time; she’d just sped up Elend’s thoughts for a few precious moments. He couldn’t waste them. “Kalden was right. But he underestimated our enemy.”

  “But . . . they’re dead.” Glim’s form flickered in the mirror.

  “They are,” Elend agreed. “But don’t forget our enemy’s name.”

  Moonfire still had a chance to get everything he wanted—to kill Elend and take all three of his students. Perhaps he would take Glim as well. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d tried.

  Elend closed his eyes and felt the shape of his own soul. He’d absorbed most of Irina’s power, and he stood on the very precipice of the Mystic realm. The mana pressed against the boundaries, ready to burst through with the slightest push. A few more seconds, and he could have advanced. He could have fought Moonfire as an equal.

  But their enemy was too quick. Too cunning.

  “There’s another way,” Glim said. “Use me to advance.”

  “That won’t work.” The words came out harsher than he’d intended.

  “It will! I ran the numbers.”

  Elend blinked the world back into focus, meeting her pale blue eyes in the mirror.

  “My soul’s not as strong as a human’s,” she said. “But that doesn’t matter. Irina got you most of the way there. You just need one last push.”

  “But you’ll die,” Elend said. Humans could rebuild their mana with time, but Glim her mana.

  “You’ll beat Moonfire,” she countered. “He took everyone we love.” Cold flames burned behind her eyes. “Killing him is all that matters now.”

  It was a terrible trade, and they both knew it. Until now, they’d only taken mana to fuel Elend’s advancement. They hadn’t taken actual lives, and certainly not the life of his best friend. The only true friend he had left in this world.

  The bedroom faded around Elend, replaced with the garden outside the Palace Prime. His eyes fell to Irina’s body on the cobblestones.

  Like all mana artists, Elend had always sought the path of immortality. To become a Mystic, to face all the ages of this world. But could he face them without Irina? Did he want to?

  “You’ll recover,” Glim said in a soft voice. “You can rebuild. It doesn’t feel like it now, but you will.”

  She was right. Elend knew that deep in his bones. It might take him a year to recover, or a decade, or a century. But he would be a Mystic, and Mystics had all the time in the world. If Elend survived this battle, he would go into hiding. He could make new dreams, and train new students.

  Or could he?

  “Mystics don’t fight the status quo,” he told Glim. “They maintain it. Every single time.”

  “You’ll be different.”

  “Will I? Can I?” His voice grew harder with each word. “You think the others didn’t believe that before they advanced? You think they don’t want change?”

  “But they swore a soul oath to Moonfire.”

  “What if they swore another oath?” Elend’s words came faster as the pieces clicked into place. “What if this advancement comes with more chains? Mazren and Emeri left this world when they advanced. They left for a reason.”

  Glim shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll both die if you don’t use me.”

  “Aye, It seems that way, doesn’t it?” Elend’s gaze drifted toward the edge of the garden where Relia stood frozen in place. She’d been shouting at her father while he killed the others, but her own desperation wouldn’t save her. Moonfire was too deep now.

  Elend blinked, and he was back in his bedroom, face-to-face with Glim. Her form seemed more solid here, more real than the fading dream of reality. “We can still save the kids,” he told her. “We can still win.”

  “No.” Glim’s eyes widened in genuine horror. “Don’t do this. Please”

  In that moment, they each sank into their own small worlds. Hers was a world of denial and outrage. His was cold acceptance and the weight of inevitability.

  “They’re my students,” Elend said. “If I can’t help them, then who can I help? If I don’t act now, then my revelations were lies.”

  “You can’t help anyone if you’re dead!”

  He stared down at the floorboards, studying the grain of the wood around his boots. “The Mystics of this world cling so tightly to their power, but their true aspirations slip through their fingers.” He drew in a deep breath. “I train to be part of the solution. I’m here to spread the truth.”

  And yes, he would die for that dream, even if it was too soon to ascend. Even if it meant giving up immortality itself.

  Glim shook her head, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. “You’re not making any sense.”

  Elend opened his mind to her, laying his thoughts bare. “We’ll do what dream artists do best. We’ll use the enemy’s plan against him.”

  “I can’t help Relia,” Glim said. “Even you couldn’t help her!”

  “This is different,” he said. “You’ll be free from your soul oath when I die. You can bond with any human you want.”

  “I want to stay with ”

  “Bond with Relia,” he continued. “And we can save all three of them.”

  “What about us? You said we’d live forever!”

  “I know,” Elend replied in a low voice. “But there’s only one path to victory now. That path comes with sacrifice.”

  “It’s not fair,” she said. “Relia should have listened to you. None of this should have happened.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered. Moonfire was always here, waiting to make his move. This wasn’t Relia’s fault. Tell her for me—this wasn’t her fault.”

  “She won’t believe me. This is Relia we’re talking about.”

  “You’ll be there to help her. So will the others.”

  Glim didn’t meet his eyes, but they both knew time was running out. “Humans are the worst,” she said in a soft voice. “Why do you have to die when your bodies die?”

  “Aye,” Elend agreed. “It’s a pesky limitation, I’ll give you that. Maybe we’ll fix it someday. But this is real. This is happening right now.” He stepped forward and placed his hand on the mirror’s cold surface. “Are you with me?”

  Glim wiped her eyes with a quick shake of her head. "I’m not like you. I’m not . . . .”

  ‘You’ve always been real,” Elend told. “You’ve always deserved better. And now we’re about to prove that once and for all.”

  She stood frozen for several heartbeats, trembling like a leaf in a storm.

  “Please,” Elend said. “I need you to do this. The others need you, too.”

  Glim wiped her eyes again. Then, with visible effort, she pressed her palm against his.

  The bedroom faded once again, and Elend faced his enemy across the garden.

  “I’m ready,” he told Glim.

  Time flowed once again, and the blade pierced Elend’s heart.

  The pain was immediate and absolute, like being unmade from the inside out. Power exploded from his body, and Glim flew free. She streaked across the garden like a comet, blazing blue against the night, carrying all his hopes and dreams.

  Then she split herself into two pieces. One half became a blade that struck their enemy.

  The other half flew straight into Relia’s soul.

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