PreCursive

  With a trembling hand, I reached up to touch my colr. I found that it was only loosely hanging onto my neck. Gripping it, I slowly took the colr off of my o cradle it in my palms. Gazing down at it, I found I had to suppress involuntary tears. God..

  We’d do.

  Right now, every sve in Addersfield had no doubt just noticed that their colr had e loose. I had no doubt that many were celebrating, even a little, in the midst of this chaos.

  Speaking of celebration.

  Violently, Bleddyn reached up and yanked off his own colr and flung it as hard as he could away from him with a howl of victory. It spun end over end before embedding itself in the wooden wall of the now dead Orinbar’s office.

  Bleddyn turo look at me with bright, fervent eyes. “Freedom!” He nearly hissed at me. He was trembling from pent-up emotion.

  “Y-yeah…” I said breathlessly, just letting myself revel in the feeling for a moment. I shook it off, though. I took a deep breath. “We’re not dohough,” I said to Bleddyn. “We still have something to do before we get the hell out of here.”

  Bleddyn smiled viscously at me. “Magnus.”

  I him in anticipation. “And the wards. This town…these people…they’re going to get what’s ing to them.”

  ………………………………………

  This time while we were rag through the manor, we didn’t bother being quiet. With our cone, I don’t thiher of us were very scared of the manor inhabitants any longer. As far as I khe only person that could even threaten someone as strong as Bleddyn was Stonebreaker. And hell, the two of us might even be able to take him. Stilnt Bde might not be able to break s, but it could still break defenses.

  I, uh, retained enough presenind to realize that was a bit reckless. But the high from breaking the tablet was to. I felt like I could fly from the adrenaline pumping through my veins and lighting up my brain. Even though I wasing myself as Bleddyn and I dashed through the halls to the third floor, I could feel my heart pounding a mile a minute.

  We weren’t quiet as we dashed dowhird-floor corridor. It hadn’t ged since my st infiltration. There were still only two huge doors. The one on the right was Magnus’s, while the one on the left led to the Ward Stone. For a moment, I was sorely tempted to deal with Magnus first, but as much as I wanted him dead, he wasn’t as important. Yet.

  “Left door,” I breathed to Bleddyn as we flew down the hall. He sped up, throwing a grin as he passed me. I watched as he reached the door, and without stopping lowered his shoulder and blew it in with a tackle. The doors nearly exploded in a massive crash. Wood shards flew everywhere.

  Well.

  If there was anyo in the mansion, they sure as hell knew where we were now.

  As I reached the door, I didn’t slow down as I reached behind my bad drew the Ward Breaker. I charged through the ruined door with the oversized fork held in a stabbing position in my right hand, passing Bleddyn who had stepped off to the side. He had an eager grin on his face.

  No pussyfooting around with this.

  With the Ward Stone in sight, I lu it. I stabbed down at the brilliant shinione floating above a plinth. With a shriek of metal oohe Breaker slid into the stoopping its spinning i the same time, I pressed down oivation rune.

  The stone exploded instantaneously.

  I’d been warhat this would happen, so I’d already thrown up an arm to protect my face. Good thing too, as I felt stone shards lodge themselves in my forearm. I hissed at the pain, but I disregarded it a moment ter and lowered my arm. I’d felt something in the air.

  I don’t know what I was expeg when the wards didn’t just fall, but overloaded. But it wasn’t this. I could see a pulse expanding out through the air inating from the position that the stone had been spinning at. Somehow, I could also feel something shattering, just out of phase with the material world.

  It was a damn odd feeling. But I reveled in it.

  Bleddyn must have felt it too, from the wild grin on his face. I smirked back at him, satisfied. It looked like my weeks of work had paid off. But we still were done.

  Speaking of, I heard a crashing noise from the room behind me. Magnus’s room. I felt my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He was still in there? Even with the fire devastating his town? I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. But of course, Magnus wouldn’t lift a fio actually help anyone else. He’d probably been sitting on his baly sipping wine or something, enjoying the warmth of the fire.

  But he was going tret that soon. He’d just told me where he was.

  Still, I’d had an idea while we were sprinting up here. I motioned Bleddyn closer, causing him to approach me eagerly, eyes hungrily watg Magnus’s door behind me. I was going to have to let him down, unfortunately. I reached behind me and exged the Ward Breaker with the Bond Breaker. Taking Bleddyn’s hand, I put it in it.

  “Sorry man,” I said to Bleddyn, actually a little apologetic. I spoke quickly though, aware we likely only had seds. “I think you should get out of here.” Bleddyn looked at me quizzically, but I spoke before he could. “Colrs are gone, but the rest of the sves are still bound. Take that, puncture the skin with it, and press the ruhey’ll have their Statuses again, and we’ll hem to fight our way out of here.” I smirked at him. “I’ll deal with Magnus.”

  Bleddyn’s face fell at my words, and indecision warred on his rugged face for a momeually, he me i, reizing the truth of my words. He id a hand on my shoulder. “Tell me how it happens ter.”

  I expected him to exit out the way we both came in, but that wasn’t what he did. Instead, Bleddyn turned around and broke out into a sprint directly at the rge, shadowed window on the far wall. My eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets at what he did .

  Bleddyn bodily jumped straight through the window with an enormous crash and fell out of sight, plummeting to the ground. I lurched, nearly running to che him before I stopped myself. He…probably knew what he was doing anyway. Yeah. Anyway, I didn’t have time for that anyway, judging by the stomping noises I could hear from across the hall. I could feel my blood pressure spike.

  Magnus.

  I o get into position.

  Swiftly, I backed up and fttened myself against the wall o the door. Food measure, I also activated Thorn Cloak. It might have bee for stealth in a forest, but it couldn’t hurt.

  I also drew my main dagger and held it in an underhand grip.

  Seds ter, I heard the door across the hall crash open. Magnus came sprinting through the door wearing only a pair of pants, ung about the shattered remains of the wooden door underh his bare feet. He stopped to gape for a moment at the empty plinth.

  “What the hells happened?!” I heard Magnus say before he spotted the shattered window. He raced over to stand in front of it and leaned over the windowsill to look out of it. He hadn’t see all.

  Now.

  For the first time, I activated my new skill.

  Sylvan Vigor.

  I felt a wild grin spread ay face at the surge of incredible strength that I felt surge through me. You know, now that I think about it, Bleddyn had given me an idea. I o hurry though, as I could tell that this was going to be temporary. I braced a foot on the wall behind me and unched myself at Magnus’s back. As I flew across the room, I readied my bde and my skill.

  The Stilnt Bde.

  Magnus must have seen or felt something, because he tried to turn around in the milliseds before I impacted him. It was too te though.

  I tackled him out of the window, and at the same time, I felt my bde slide into pce. As we sailed out of the window, it felt as if time slowed to a crawl. I could see for miles around us. Over the top of the burning trees, I could just barely make out of the epiter of the fire that Azarus had set. In the ter of the clearing where Azarus’s house had rested, the bze seemed to be burning hottest. Even now, all that was left of the house I’d spent months living in were fractured timbers and shattered bricks.

  The fire had engulfed nearly the ey of the town at this point. There were still scattered attempts by the guards to extinguish the fmes, but for the most part, it seemed like they had given up. Most of the popution of the town seemed to have fled to the rge fields oskirts of the town proper instead, where most of the residential areas y. It didn’t seem peaceful in that area though, as even from this distance I could see fights breaking out among the dwarves.

  In town, Van’s shop was nothing but ders by now. So was the coach-house that Gren owned. Instead, it seemed as if there was a long line of wagons f just outside of the wide-open front gates. There was fighting happening there as well, but it seemed to be a small group against several squads of guards. I couldn’t make out any more than that.

  But what was happening in the forests surrounding Addersfield were the most important of all. Shadows were gathering all along the tree line, as if something was only waiting for a signal to strike.

  Time sped up.

  Magnus and I plummeted through the air, with me riding his back to break my fall. In seds, we smmed into the ground at the foot of the manor, causing my vision to white out momentarily. When I came to, I was still clutg my burning dagger, embedded into Magnus, and slumped over on his bloodied back. I fought my way through my disorientation. I o see where I had gotten him. Looking down, I felt an unhinged smile crawl ay face.

  My dagger had punctured straight through his left side at an upwards angle, no doubt bursting a lung and hopefully his heart. A killing strike.

  My practice with Azarus had paid off.

  He wasn’t dead yet though. I could hear Magnus gurgling in his own blood beh me, face down in the dirt.

  Good.

  I wasn’t doh him yet.

  I leaned down until my mouth was level with his left ear. “Cease your caterwauling, blood bag,” I hissed to him, in his dying moments. “Be grateful you only get this much.” Wreng him onto his back using the dagger as a pivot point, I leaned nus, letting the light of the fire illuminate my face.

  I saw realization steal across his face, pale from rapid blood loss. Slowly, a noise began to escape him. Though it was mangled by the sound of him drowning in his own blood, I could still reize it.

  Laughter.

  I stayed there, leaning nus, as he ughed himself to death. I never let go of the dagger. Eventually, the light left his eyes.

  I wasn’t prepared for what happened .

  Deep inside myself, I could feel something happening. Against my will, I felt something intrinsiy very soul begin to resohrough the resulting panic, I was actually able to pce the feeling.

  It was my racials. They were reag to something.

  First, I felt The Stilnt Bde intensify in strength, causing the bde in my hand to fre brighter. It grew sht that I could see the outline of my dagger inside Magnus’s still, dead chest. , I felt Dream of the Infiivate. I had no idea it even had an active portion. The wrew hazy, and I began to physically see a pulse all around me. I reized it as the pulse of Aether that I felt during a meld, only actually visible to me this time. Finally, I felt Hidden Amidst the Spheres e alive.

  Only, this time it was different.

  It wasn’t activating like it normally would, when I pulled up my Status. The well of strength that was intrinsic to the skill was building up, in a way that I had nearly fotten it could do. But it didn’t stop and fizzle out like it had when I had first discovered it could do this. No, this time, it tinued, and began to do something else.

  It started to draw in the surroundiher.

  Slowly, I could see the Aether around me bend to yer over my form. I tried to yank my dagger free of Magnus, somehow aware that it was the initiator of this event, but I couldn’t. More and more, Aether spilled from the enviroo accumute o an unseen signal, all of the gathered Aether surged to the point of tay bde with Magnus’s corpse.

  I felt it, when something shot up from that point, and infiltrated my Status.