Relia stepped down the airship’s metal ramp into the jungles of Gravago. This was a smaller nation on Cadria’s eastern coast. South of Creta and Vaslana, but north of Crocan. The same place where she’d gotten her aspect five years before.

  Her father was still hunting her, so they’d kept their distance from the Espirian mainland. Instead, they’d flown around the continent’s western coast, refueling at smaller islands along the way. These islands were still part of the Espirian Republic, but they weren’t official states. That meant lighter security than the mainland.

  Captain Cassius met with the Border Guard each time, providing them with a false story about a test flight for some wealthy family. It worked, as far as Relia could tell. She and the others stayed hidden with their mana veiled, and that was that.

  Someone might still recognize the vessel and report back to Ashur Moonfire, but that wouldn’t matter in the long run. Arturo’s parents planned to travel south of Vordica for the return trip. From there, they could fly along the east side of the Shokens and enter the Zekuro Province from the north.

  The jungle’s air felt like bath water on her skin, but the sun was a welcome relief after the mountains of North Shoken. Not to mention all those hours cooped up in the airship.

  Arturo and Lena stepped down the ramp behind her, and Glim floated several inches off the ground.

  “Okay.” Relia put her hands on her hips and took several seconds to orient herself. “Pretty sure the hideout is that way.” She pointed toward the southeast horizon where the jungle pressed up against the ridge. “Maybe five or six hours if we walk fast.”

  Arturo raised an eyebrow. “That far, huh?”

  She gave an apologetic shrug. “The trees are pretty thick. Not a lot of places to land an airship.”

  “What about the hideout?” he asked. “Can my parents pick us up when we get there?”

  “They have a landing zone. But they also have anti-air turrets. Better to smooth things out first.”

  “Fair enough.” Arturo stepped aside and gestured toward the tree line. “Lead the way, spira.”

  They set to it. Glim made everyone disguises as they walked, using dream mana to hide their most distinguishing features. For Arturo, this meant hiding his weapons, armor, and jetpack. For Lena, it meant hiding her eyepatch and braids.

  Glim also changed their features in more subtle ways. Arturo grew two inches taller, with smaller eyes, longer hair, and more fat around his cheeks. Lena grew a longer nose and a softer jawline.

  Relia’s disguise was the most drastic by far. Not many of the locals had pale skin or bright red hair. So Glim gave her a dark Cadrian complexion, with rounder features, and a thick black braid.

  Fortunately, their disguises proved unnecessary. After three hours of walking through the jungle, they still hadn’t run into another group of humans.

  Mana beasts were another story. They could barely walk ten feet without some predator stalking them from the shadows. From jaguars and raptors, to basilisks and drakes. Relia could have unveiled her soul to scare them off, but that was a double-edged blade. Once her mana was out there, then any Master within a hundred miles could track her down.

  Besides, none of these creatures dared to attack her. Years of evolution had sharpened their instincts, and they’d never pick a fight they couldn’t win.

  “Hey, spira.” Footsteps trampled through the undergrowth as Arturo caught up with her. “You’re really at home out here.”

  Relia nodded as she stepped around another web of thick vines. “Lyraina and I did this walk more times than I can count.” Her eyes fell toward the undergrowth, and she grinned at the memories. “It was way harder as a Novice. I was always a sweaty, itchy mess by the end.”

  “Nice to come back to a familiar place,” Arturo said. “Makes you realize you’re not the same person.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “True. I love Akari and Kalden, but . . .”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Takes a special kind of crazy to keep punching above your rank.”

  She nodded again, surveying their surroundings. “This was a good idea.”

  “What?”

  “This.” She gestured from the underbrush to the canopy above. Afternoon sunlight speared through the leaves, casting patterns of golden light around their feet. “Most days, I still feel like an Apprentice. But coming back here, I feel more grown-up. More like Lyraina.”

  He chuckled at that. “You’ve always been grown-up, spira.”

  “Really? Have you seen my stuffed animal collection?”

  “Must’ve missed that tour.”

  She shrugged. “I guess that’s in the past now.”

  “Doesn’t change anything,” he said. “First time I met you, you were defending Costa Liberta from those Grevandi. Then you took Akari’s beer because she had a concussion.”

  “That’s right.” Relia felt a piece of her smile return. “She called me a mother hen that night.”

  “Damn kids.” Arturo made his voice sound twenty years older. “No respect for their elders. But who knows? Maybe that’ll be your Grandmaster revelation.”

  “What? The mother hen thing?”

  “Worth a try, right?”

  “That’d be nice.” Relia leapt over a flooded trench to keep her boots dry. “I already reached the mana threshold.”

  “What?” His eyes widened at that. “How?”

  “When we bonded.” Relia gestured back to Glim. “She brought me to the peak of the Master realm. I just need the next revelation.”

  “Which is what?” he asked. “Master was about who you are—why you train. So Grandmaster is . . . what? Why you exist?”

  “Close enough.” Relia kicked a stone into the underbrush. “It’s supposed to be about how your training makes the world better. Your purpose—your goal,” She let out a frustrated breath. “But my Master revelation was weird enough. ‘I train to know what’s right?’ Half the time, I don’t even know what that means.”

  “That’s kind of the point,” Glim said. “You’re still figuring things out. Grandmaster is where it clicks into place.”

  “And if it never clicks?”

  “It will.”

  “Tell that to my mother.”

  Glim didn’t answer that. Unlike the others, she knew how Relia had gotten pulled into her mother’s secret addiction. Her latest advancement had broken her free, but the mistake remained like a permanent stain on her soul.

  Their group fell into silence for several long moments. The jungle pressed close around them, alive with the sounds of insects and dripping water. Monkeys and birds screamed somewhere in the distance.

  “What was Elend’s Grandmaster revelation?” Relia asked.

  “I’m here to spread the truth,” Glim recited.

  That sounded like him. And he’d lived those words, sharing the secrets of mana arts in his dark web videos, and helping Relia and her friends unravel the mysteries of their pasts. Would her own revelation be that clean and simple? Or would it be another vague attempt to organize her jumbled beliefs?

  There was another pause in the conversation while they scaled a ten-foot cliff. Relia made the jump with a burst of pure mana, while Arturo used his jetpack. From there, they found some vines to help Lena.

  “So what made you leave the cult?” Arturo asked Relia as they held onto the vine. “How’d you end up with Elend instead?

  “I needed a change,” Relia said. “I think a part of me blamed Lyraina for my problems. Not my condition, but everything else. I thought I could leave the cult and start fresh—have a normal life. Friends, school . . . family”.

  Relia frowned at her own words. “It sounds so silly when I say it now. Lyraina saved my life with this aspect. But I was young and stupid. And I never would’ve left if I knew she was my grandmother.”

  Arturo offered Lena a hand when she reached the top, then they set off down the trail again.

  “What were they like?” Arturo asked.

  “My grandmother’s followers?”

  He nodded. “I know what the news says, but—”

  “The news isn’t exaggerating,” Relia replied.

  “That’s a first,” Arturo and Glim said at the same time.

  “They’re fanatics,” Relia continued. “They would have done anything for Lyraina. And not in a good way.” She turned back to Lena, who followed a few paces behind. “Sorry. I hope that’s not offensive.”

  “It’s not,” Lena replied smoothly. “The Church of Solidor shares your assessment, more or less. Your grandmother’s followers give us all a bad name.”

  “I know how that feels,” Relia muttered. They were the reason everyone feared her aspect.

  Lena quickened her pace until she walked beside Relia. “I should warn you—the Church of Solidor knew about your connection Lyraina. And if we knew, there’s a good chance her followers know, too.

  Relia hadn’t considered that before. Would they expect her to lead the cult in her grandmother’s place? Finding a lost space artist was one thing, but she couldn’t deal with that much responsibility right now. Not when all her other choices turned out to be wrong.

  “You don’t owe them anything,” Arturo reminded her. “We just need Serrano.”

  They walked for another three hours until they reached the Yaxel Temple on the east coast. The massive stone ziggurat crowned the edge of the cliff, as wide as a city block, and half as tall.

  Relia stopped at the edge of a ridge that overlooked the temple’s courtyard. The humidity had finally broken, replaced by a salt-tinged breeze that lifted the hair from her neck

  “Looks like it’s gonna rain soon,” Arturo said as he scanned the eastern horizon.

  Deep blue clouds swirled in the distance, moving in patterns that had nothing to do with the wind.

  “No,” Glim said in a strangled voice. “That’s not the weather. That’s.”

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