“Home?” her grandmother echoed. “This was never your home, Akari Zell-er.”

  By now, a small crowd had gathered on the beach around the wooden throne. Akari spotted dozens of Corded Grandmasters in their ranks, along with a handful of younger Masters, closer to her own age. The music had stopped, and the waves crashed like thunder against the nearby mana wall.

  She faced her grandmother again. “Do you remember Zell Emeri?”

  Zell Kira’s eyes widened in a mix of surprise and recognition. Their enemy had erased all signs of Emeri’s existence when she’d gone to the Archipelago, but that technique wasn’t perfect. They’d proven that time and time again.

  “Emeri was your daughter,” Akari said, loud enough for the crowd to hear. “Your daughter. Born in 831. After Zell Korin, before Zell Marek. She left your clan twenty years ago. She got pregnant with me two years later.”

  Akari spun to face the crowd, hoping to see one of her uncles in their midst. Korin was apparently serving as the governor back in Yutakai, but Marek could still be out there.

  “Now you’re Kenzo Trengsen’s pet,” her grandmother said. “What makes you think I’d want you back? What makes you think you’re worthy to join Clan Zell?”

  Heat flared in Akari's chest. Wherever she went, she heard the same old story. From the Archipelago, to the Artegium, to Kenzo’s fortress. They all said she wasn’t good enough. Now her own family had joined the club.

  “You want me to prove myself?” Akari asked. “Fine. What’s it gonna take?” She waved a hand over her shoulder in a casual gesture. “Want me to beat your best Master in a duel?”

  Glim said.

  ‘,’ Akari replied. She’d never been much for big speeches; for all she knew, this crowd didn’t even speak Espirian. But they clearly valued strength, and strength needed no translation.

  Kira laughed. “Don’t be a fool, girl. My best Masters were Corded in the Storm Garden. You might as well challenge .” She surveyed the crowd with her sharp eyes. “Zell Kaito, step forward!”

  Akari's gaze locked on a bare-chested Master in his early twenties, with a strong jawline, close-cropped black hair, and blue markings on his stern face. He stood taller than Kalden, but not quite as tall as Zukan. And unlike the other warriors, he had no Veilcord wrapped around his arms.

  “Defeat my grandson,” Kira said. “If you can.”

  “That’s it?” Akari asked. She’d been hoping to fight rather than talk, but she hadn’t expected that challenge to work.

  Kira hunched forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Don’t misunderstand me, girl. This earns you another ten minutes of my time. Nothing more.”

  “Deal.” Akari didn’t know much about Shokenese politics, but this move was clear as glass. Her grandmother wanted to talk, but she couldn’t give away that talk for free. Not without looking weak in front of her whole clan.

  “Good.” Her grandmother sat back with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You will fight until one can fight no longer. No lethal blows, no armor, no weapons. Just you and your mana.”

  As she spoke, several Artisans used their spears to carve a circle in the sand. The ring was barely fifteen yards in diameter—much smaller than a regulation-sized dueling circle back home.

  Akari stepped out of the ring and set her backpack on a flat piece of coral. Then she cut off the mana flow between her hoodie and her channels. It shouldn’t technically count as armor that way.

  Her cousin appeared to be barefoot, along with the entire audience. Shoes were more versatile, but not ideal for this terrain. So Akari yanked off her boots and socks, feeling the cool sand between her toes. However, she kept her mother’s watch on her wrist. That wasn’t technically armor, or even a weapon. Just a tool.

  With that done, she strode back to the center of the dueling ring, feeling the eyes of the crowd on her back. The Storm Queen raised one weathered hand, and a dome of pure mana snapped into place around them.

  Zell Kaito gave her a shallow bow. Akari bowed back, matching his angle exactly. After that, she never took her eyes off him. Duels back home always started with a countdown, but she had no idea what to expect here.

  Worst of all, she knew nothing about her opponent or his aspect. His soul was like a brick wall, even to her Master senses. Meanwhile, footage of Akari’s techniques could be found all over the internet.

  “Begin!” her grandmother shouted from beyond the dome.

  Kaito's hand moved in a blur. The air split with a crack that made her ears ring.

  Akari flared her spacetime Cloak and watched the attack in slow motion. The energy expanded from a single white bolt into a dozen. A cage of white fire filled the dome—enough power to destroy a small city.

  She could work with that.

  Akari wrapped her body in a shroud of overlapping portals. The portals caught her cousin’s attacks from every angle, venting them straight back in a single point.

  Kaito held his ground, scattering the attack back around the arena. His mana never shattered, not even when it struck the dome or turned the sand to glass. Instead, the power kept building. Ozone filled her nostrils. Her skin tingled and burned. Every hair stood on end.

  Her portals caught more lightning, but no defense was perfect. Meanwhile, Kaito stood unharmed in the eye of his own storm, neutralizing the energy with a defensive Cloak.

  Akari couldn’t play defense for much longer. If she did, then her opponent would just build more power until he overwhelmed her.

  Instead, she dropped her portals and opened her Aeon soul.

  The storm unraveled in midair, pulled into her soul like liquid fire rushing down a drain. Her chest burned like hot knives as she drank it in. Her bones shook as the mana demanded to be used.

  Akari could have formed Angelic blades, but that would be overkill for a duel like this. One wrong slash could take off a Master’s limb, and she couldn’t count on the camp’s healers to patch him back up. Besides, she wanted to join this clan and gain their trust. No sense in embarrassing Kaito by winning too quickly.

  So Akari stretched out her hands and unleashed the Angelic mana in a burst of raw power, strong enough to shatter a mountain. The shockwave filled the dome, giving Kaito nowhere to run.

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  But her opponent held his ground, meeting blast with equal force.

  One second, she was on her feet. The next, her own attack hit her like a charging drake. Her spine slammed into the edge of the dome, then her chin hit the sand. Her vision went white, then dark, then white again.

  Glim said.

  Akari deadpanned.

  She climbed to her feet and spat out a tooth. Her right shoulder screamed with burning pain—probably dislocated. Sand clung to the blood on her lips.

  Her cousin stalked forward, crunching shards of glass beneath his bare feet. “Do you need a break, Zell-er?” His Espirian was perfect, just like the Storm Queen’s. He also managed to say her name as if it were a curse.

  Akari gritted her teeth and grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, pulling the arm across her chest. She gave it a sharp yank, and the joint popped back with a wet crunch

  “I can wait while you get your computer,” Kaito said. “Maybe it will tell you how to win.” He mimed typing on a keyboard as if it were the silliest thing in the world. The crowd laughed from beyond the dome.

  “Or maybe you can ask your boyfriend for help,” her cousin said. “He can make you a pill. Or a potion.”

  Akari narrowed her eyes. If she were Artisan, these insults might have made her sloppy. But her Master brain was sharper, grabbing her anger by the reins and pointing it straight at her opponent.

  A storm of golden Missiles flew from Akari’s hands. Each one stretched into a Construct that filled the entire arena—one on top of the other like layers of an onion.

  Kaito adapted to the threat at once. A cage of lightning formed around his body, shattering the time bubbles as they formed.

  But Akari was quicker. Deep in the currents of her spacetime Cloak, she saw her cousin’s movements before they happened. A ghostly image of his future self turned left, and she formed her next Construct on his right. Whenever he got too close, she teleported herself across the dome.

  Kaito could have stopped an ordinary time artist, but Akari’s aspect let her work twice as fast. Even her mother couldn’t have matched this pace. What’s more, the quantum computer had refined this technique to perfection; not a single molecule of mana went to waste.

  So despite her cousin’s best efforts, a time bubble snapped into place around them. A thin layer of transparent gold beneath the shining blue dome.

  Kaito kicked off from the ground, almost as fast as his attacks. Sand and glass exploded beneath his feet, leaving a deep crater behind him. A whip of pure mana formed in his hand, and he rushed to break the technique.

  Akari seized the distraction, opening a portal behind her opponent. She emerged from the hole an instant later, armed with two blades of pure mana.

  Her cousin spun to face her. His whip struck like a serpent, arching around her weapons toward her unprotected flank.

  Akari hurled her blades forward and trusted her Cloak to keep her safe. The world spun in a blur as space folded around her once again. Then she appeared above her opponent’s head, coiling both legs around his neck and squeezing with all her might.

  Kaito struggled to escape, but he couldn’t get a grip with her spacetime Cloak. Akari squeezed with enough force to shatter a boulder.

  Her cousin kicked off from the ground with a flash of lightning. He did a partial backflip so his feet faced the sky, threatening to crush her in the sand beneath him

  Akari never gave him the chance. A portal split the ground at the last second. She and Kaito flew through it together, emerging at the apex of the dome. Kaito raised a hand behind him, gathering more lightning in his palm. Akari grabbed his wrist and redirected his blast at the last second. Her other hand conjured a blade and drove its tip through his shoulder.

  Space warped again as she reversed their positions, forcing him to hit the ground first. That fall wouldn’t hurt a Master like Kaito, but it should set up Akari’s next move. She just had to—

  A burst of blinding white swallowed her vision. Heat flared across her skin in a single flash. The scent of burning hair stung her nostrils.

  Every muscle in her body seized at once. Her bones rang as if someone had struck a high-pitched gong inside her soul. Her channels went dark. Her Cloak faded.

  Then the world snapped back into focus

  She hit the sand hard, flat on her spine. The wet ground felt cold against her skin. Her vision returned in fragments—a bright blue dome, and a flicker of movement

  A blade pierced her stomach before she could even draw a breath. Kaito loomed over her, clutching the mana-forged weapon by its hilt. A triumphant smile split his face.

  ‘’ Glim replied. ‘’

  But her cousin was unharmed. Storm artists could resist lightning, but only with specialized Cloak techniques. How had he—

  The answer struck her at once. Kaito had woven multiple Cloaks together. One to create the lightning mana. One to neutralize it inside his own body. Akari took the same approach with spacetime Cloak, but she hadn’t expected that level of competence from her opponents.

  Glim suggested.

  She’d always been a shitty grappler, and Kaito was far stronger than he should have been.

  Akari cycled mana to her mother’s watch and rewound time. The last few seconds of the fight played in reverse. Kaito yanked his blade from Akari’s stomach. The lightning flowed backward through her body.

  This continued for five more seconds until the moment she’d attacked Kaito.

  This time, Akari unleashed a swarm of spacetime Missiles. They surrounded her cousin like golden hornets, and a cage of portals formed around his body—the same technique she’d used against Eduardo Dain at the Solidor’s safe house.

  But Kaito reacted faster than Dain. His Cloak pulsed beyond his body in a field of crackling energy, destroying her portals as quick as they formed. Then his whip flew forward, straight for the boundaries of the time bubble.

  That wouldn’t do at all.

  Akari cycled more mana to her watch and began her third round.

  She hit her cousin with a second golden swarm, opening a ring of portals around him. Each one formed three paces away—too far to break with his Cloak technique. Then she watched his future self spin toward his left as a ghostly shadow, preparing to destroy the portal with his whip.

  Akari appeared directly behind him. A blade of pure mana formed in her outstretched hands.

  Lightning flashed around Kaito as he whirled to face her. Akari plunged the blade into the small of his back

  But that didn’t slow her cousin down.

  Kaito hurled another burst of lightning at her face. Space warped as her Cloak dodged the attack. Then two wind techniques slammed into Akari from either side. One hit her legs. The other struck her face.

  Everything spun in a whirlwind of mana and sand. Her spine slammed into the edge of the dome, then Kaito hurled a storm of lightning at her face for good measure.

  Akari rewound time before it was too late.

  What the hell were they feeding this guy? She’d stabbed him twice, but the blade didn’t go half as deep as she’d hoped. It felt more like stabbing a Mystic than a Master.

  In that moment, she had to admit a grudging respect for her cousin. Zell Kaito was one of the toughest Masters she’d ever faced—lightyears ahead of Trask, Nightfang or even the Honor Guard.

  Still, she’d gotten close with that last attempt.

  Akari formed another portal ring around her cousin, and they followed the same dance as the last round.

  This time, she conjured a blade of Angelic mana that glowed like a transparent blue crystal. Three feet long, it cut through her opponent’s body like butter—in through the back and out through the belly button.

  She’d expected Kaito to collapse on the ground in pain. Instead, he kicked off with a burst of lightning and retreated ten paces across the ring. His skin shone with bright blue mana as the muscles and skin reknit themselves.

  Akari reached out with her Silver Sight and Master senses. Her cousin wore no special gear—she would have sensed that at the start. The same held true for potions.

  ‘’ Glim said in her mind. ‘?’

  That was true, but those tattoos weren’t sigils.

  Glim noted.

  This was something else. Probably one of Clan Zell’s secrets.

  Should she rewind time again? Or should she keep fighting from here? Healing or not, that wound should slow her cousin down.

  This was never about winning. Three days from now, Kaito would be in the Storm Garden, earning his Veilcord alongside Akari. She might even need his help to succeed.

  Would the Storm Queen go for a tie?

  Akari broke the time bubble in a shower of golden mist, merging the pocket world with reality once again. Her grandmother would see everything. That included the time bubble and how she’d voluntarily broken it.

  But Akari didn’t look at her grandmother. She just conjured two more Angelic mana blades and prepared for the next round.

  Her gamble paid off an instant later when the Storm Queen’s voice cut through the silence.

  “Stop,” she ordered from her wooden throne. “I’ve seen enough.”

  The mana dome faded around them. Kaito rounded on his grandmother, shouting something in Shokenese.

  “I never said you couldn’t keep fighting,” the Storm Queen replied in Espirian. “But she held her own against you. That’s good enough for today.”

  Then she glanced back at Akari, beckoning her forward with a weathered finger. “You want to talk, girl? Fine. Let’s talk.”

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