Elion hardly noticed the turmoil around him. A creeping elation pierced through his panic and distress, a sense of relief welling up inside of him. He was going to be rescued; he was going to see Zev again.

  Keyla panicked. “The Threnody Core!”

  Elion’s relief evaporated. I’m going to have to abandon Keyla. Aterfel is collapsing and Gorman is losing control.

  A flaring light shone through the windows, brightening the room like flashes of lightning. “You’ve damaged it!” Keyla exclaimed.

  “What?” Elion asked, jumping up, stumbling across the garage in the darkness.

  “We overdrew power from the Threnody Core,” Keyla said. “That light; it’s from Threnody Modules breaking apart. There’s no way Gorman won’t see it! He’s going to come back here, what do we do?”

  “Can you fix it?”

  “No! Gorman was using Festrin power to make it work, remember?”

  Elion sprinted up the stairs, Keyla following after him. He slammed his weight into Gorman’s door. The solid metal door held firm, not budging from the blow.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled.

  “Gorman’s already not going to be happy with me,” Elion said, rubbing his shoulder. “So I’m going to get my Ascendency stones back.” And steal his, while I’m at it.

  He activated his power. After training with Gorman over the past few days, he no longer needed to talk aloud to Praxis. Like pulling a lever with his mind, he channeled his intention, flipping through the menu and activating ‘Manifest Armaments.’

  “Wait!” Keyla shouted, as power condensed around Elion. His clothing vanished, replaced by his golden loincloth.

  Elion’s knife reformed in his hand. He felt energy surge through him, his muscles hardened, strengthened by the magic. Slamming into the door again, he felt it give slightly.

  “Wait, stop,” Keyla protested. “Are we sure about this? What if we’re wrong? Shouldn’t we talk to Gorman first?”

  “You can,” Elion said. An image flashed through his mind, something he must have dreamt: Gorman, bent over Keyla’s body, grinning as he pulled her heart from her chest. The idea made him sick. “But I’ve seen enough. We need to get away from him.”

  Elion bashed into the door twice more, feeling it bend. Keyla hovered nervously in the hall beside him.

  “You’re going crazy,” Keyla said. “What did Zev say to you?”

  “He’s coming to get me,” Elion said. “What’s a skyskimmer?”

  Keyla’s face fell, and Elion could see the accusation. You promised to help us.

  “It’s an airship,” she said. “A fast one.”

  “Go check out the window for Gorman,” Elion said, grunting as he slammed into the door once more.

  Keyla ran to a window, looking out toward the bridge. From her vantage point she would be able to see down the road leading into town.

  “Elion!” she cried out. “Something is happening at the Shard! It’s glowing.”

  Elion took a running start down the hall, lowering his shoulder as he collided with the door again. The door buckled, latches pulling away from the frame, and Elion staggered into Gorman’s room. He ran to the safe. It still sat on the ground beneath a table.

  Elion grabbed it and tried to shift it. About the size of a microwave, the safe did not budge as he tugged on it. A closer look and he realized that the safe was bolted to the ground.

  He started hacking at the bolts with his knife, the magically sharpened edge biting into the metal. But not enough. It would take him ages to cut through the hardened bolts.

  “He’s coming!” Keyla yelled from the other room. Elion could hear the distant rumble of an engine. He began sawing at the bolt with renewed vigor.

  "Um, Elion,” Keyla said, entering the room. “The Shard out there, it’s… growing larger.” She saw what he was doing.

  Elion grunted as the head of one bolt popped off.

  “Let me do it,” Keyla said, pushing Elion aside and placing her hand on the front of the safe. “I might be able to glitch out the panel…”

  Elion watched. Teal sparks crackled between her fingers, then the safe popped open.

  Keyla stepped back, a satisfied look on her face. “He taught me that,” she said. “I bet he’ll be furious when he realizes.”

  Elion pulled the safe open. “Nice,” he said. He grabbed all the Ascendency stones from the safe. He dropped his two tears into the pouch with the Skillstones, then slipped both bags into a pocket. The sound of Gorman’s engine grew louder. People outside were yelling, and the splatter thumps of laser rifle fire sounded.

  “What are they shooting at?” Elion asked, pushing the safe closed, but Keyla was gone. He ran to the nearest window, and saw what Keyla had been talking about.

  Against the dark night sky, the Shard crackled and glowed, a pale green-yellow. An appendage of the crystal had grown, extending itself across the ravine, forming a new bridge to the island. Black figures moved across this crystalline arch; loping pemalion and running scavengers.

  Townsfolk ran from their homes toward the commotion, rifles in hand. Teal streaks of light seared Elion’s vision, leaving glowing afterimages.

  “How did that happen?” Elion asked, staring at the pale light of the Shard.

  Realization spread across Keyla’s face. “The Threnody Core?” she suggested. “It’s the same power.”

  “Would overloading the core do that?” Elion asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine. But… maybe some kind of resonance? it makes sense.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Take this,” Keyla said, tossing a rifle to Elion. “Let’s go help.” Elion dropped his knife and caught the rifle. As it fell, the knife dissolved in a puff of golden mist.

  “But Gorman—”

  “Doesn’t know what we did yet,” Keyla insisted, pulling him along.

  They exited the tower and Elion gazed wistfully toward the trees, recalling Zev’s instruction to run and hide. Instead, Elion followed Keyla around the side of the building, rifles raised.

  Zev was about to warn me to watch out for something. Watch out for what?

  A pemalion ran across the street, snarling viciously. Elion raised his rifle, fired twice, missing both times. Keyla’s shot hit home, and the pemalion crashed to the ground, sliding across the gravel.

  “Don’t shoot if you’re going to miss,” Keyla yelled as they ran. “You don’t have unlimited shots!”

  “How many shots do I get again?” Elion asked.

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  “About thirty if the battery is fully charged,” Keyla said.

  “Is it?”

  “Should be,” she said.

  They ran fast, Elion only able to keep up with Keyla due to his enhanced Ascended state. Even then, he started to fall behind. As they reached the edge of the town, the green glow of the Shard grew in the sky. Flashes of teal hinted at the fighting on the other side of the hill.

  At the sound of an engine, Elion turned. Domas sped along the road toward them, Tael and Kasm on board, both carrying rifles.

  “Climb on,” Domas called, and Elion jumped onto Domas’s small transport bed. He crouched there, holding onto the roll cage as Domas pulled up alongside Keyla. She scrambled up beside him.

  “Why are you naked?” Kasm asked, twisting around to inspect Elion’s outfit as they drove.

  “It’s my armor,” Elion said, shrugging.

  “Prator had real armor,” Kasm shot back. “Do you even have a sword?”

  Elion sighed, then summoned his knife into his hand.

  Kasm grinned roguishly when he saw it. “You’re a noob!” he declared. Elion couldn’t help but agree.

  They accelerated along a flat stretch of road, then powered up the hill. Something hissed, and Domas stopped.

  “Everyone off,” he grunted. A strong burning smell stung Elion’s nose. Tael and Kasm ran up to the top of the hill.

  “You okay?” Keyla asked.

  “It’s just the differential,” Domas said. “Hauling too much weight up the hill. I’ll be fine.”

  Elion and Keyla ran up the hill to join Tael and Kasm.

  Below, Gorman and a few members of the Aterfel Guard protected the road into town, blasting infected as they came across the crystal bridge. They had abandoned the drawbridge, coming here to fight against this new threat.

  There weren’t enough defenders to stop the infected from crossing over to the island, but their fire did deter scavengers from the road.

  Instead, the infected ran across the road, disappearing into the woods.

  Elion took a shot at a scavenger scrambling across the crystal bridge, satisfied to see him tumble into the ravine below.

  Tael and Kasm both fired, somewhat recklessly into the charging infected, but Keyla didn’t say anything to them about their accuracy.

  More townsfolk joined them, and steady firing from the laser rifles beat a rhythmic tattoo in the night air.

  But the flood of infected did not stop. Pemalion, scavengers, and smaller, slower creatures came across the new bridge, taking cover in the forest.

  “We’ll never clear them from the forests,” Keyla said, voicing Elion’s thoughts.

  Dark heaps littered the road below, bodies of animals and people. Someone shouted, and a wave of scavengers rushed from the woods toward the defenders, firing their projectile guns as they ran.

  Lasers pierced the air, the smell of burning hair and flesh heavy on the air. Elion raised his rifle. He caught hints of movement as scavengers, dark as shadows scrambled across the slope, but he didn’t dare take a shot.

  He watched as Keyla took three, each finding its mark.

  “What if we’re shooting your friends?” Elion asked. “Your mother?”

  Keyla scowled. “I would have seen her,” she said. “Watch out for her though. Just in case.”

  The assault pushed the townsfolk back. Gorman climbed atop his 4-wheeler and signaled a retreat. “To the tower!” he called. “Defend the tower!”

  Kasm, Tael, Keyla, and Elion ran back to where Domas waited.

  “You can take the weight?” Elion asked

  “Downhill is not as bad,” Domas said. “Jump in!”

  Domas revved his engine and everyone climbed aboard. He zoomed back down the hill and into town.

  People were still running from their houses, trying to figure out what was going on. “Defend the tower!” Keyla shouted as they sped past. “Defend the tower!”

  They reached the tower ahead of Gorman and the others. Keyla jumped down and manually pulled the garage open, since the power was out. They pulled inside.

  Keyla ran to the equipment in the central tower and stuck her arm into a socket. Her eyes flared, teal light running from them as the mechanism powered up. She began activating lockdown protocols. Armored shutters closed and sealed over doors and windows. Townsfolk poured in through the open doors, and Elion heard Gorman shouting outside.

  “Keyla,” he whispered, his voice intense. “Gorman will see what we did.”

  Pulling her hand from the central column, Keyla powered down. All the lights turned off. She thought for a moment, then ran up to Gorman’s room. Elion followed. The damaged door still hung open, dented in the middle.

  Keyla pulled the door as closed as it would go, a large gap still exposing Gorman’s damage. She placed her hand on the center of the door.

  Elion’s hair stood on end, and he felt the energy in the room change as Keyla used an Artefin skill. She pulled, her hand sticking to the middle of the door. As she pulled, the door straightened out, the dents disappearing.

  Then she ran her finger along the seams of the door frame, light crackling from her finger as she welded the door shut.

  “Hopefully he won’t try to go in,” she said, examining her handiwork. “But this should prevent him from noticing for a little while.”

  Elion’s eyes bugged. “Cool! You’ve been holding out on me, I didn’t know you could do stuff like that!”

  She eyed him, and he suddenly felt terribly exposed wearing only his loincloth. “Maybe you should find a shirt,” she said, “Or power down, since we’re probably safe.” She headed back down the stairs. They could hear Gorman’s booming voice below, addressing all the people gathered in the base of the tower.

  Adrenaline still coursed through Elion’s veins, and he flexed, feeling stronger and sharper thanks to his Ascended state. He liked how he felt right now. He felt buff. Maybe I should find a mirror and see if I look stronger. Besides, if something were to go wrong, he wanted to be ready for it. He found a shirt, and a pair of pants. He pulled these on over his loincloth, wondering if the shimmery fabric offered any combat benefits or if it was just a style choice.

  When he got back downstairs, Gorman was trying to shut the garage door. Kile, Zayven, Tilly, and a few other members of the Aterfel Guard gathered around him.

  “Leave it open!” Kile protested. “Not everyone is here yet!”

  “They’re swarming the island,” Gorman countered. “We’ll all die if they get inside!”

  A man and a woman staggered in through the opening, pursued by a group of a dozen scavengers. A half dozen rifles fired in unison, killing two of the scavengers and forcing the rest of them to fall back.

  “They got Brynna back there,” the man said between gasps. “I couldn’t help her.”

  A pang struck Elion’s heart. He had hoped she’d be able to make dinner for her son again one day. Maybe she’s not dead. Just infected. Maybe Kasm will be able to figure out a way to heal them.

  Gorman shoved Zayven aside and hit a switch, then pushed power into a nearby mechanism. The door slid shut with a loud clang, and armored shutters slid across the opening.

  “There are more—” Kile started again, but Gorman cut him off.

  “They’re already infected then,” Gorman said. “We can’t help them. I can’t let the infected get to me.”

  Gorman stopped powering the circuits. The lights turned out.

  Darkness covered the room, and people muttered and shifted until someone turned on a flashlight. “What happened to the power?” Zayven asked.

  Several more flashlights turned on, and a few people spotlighted Gorman.

  Gorman turned to face the townsfolk, desperation and panic in his eyes. Gorman breathed heavily, his world spinning out of control. Elion guessed that more than one hundred scavengers had come across the new bridge. Not counting pemalion and other creatures, the townsfolk were easily outnumbered, at least three to one.

  Banging on the panels outside the tower drew everyone’s attention. The room stank of sweat and desperation.

  Everyone watched their leader, looking for a sign of hope, an indication of what to do next. Gorman did not look ready to provide it. Silence fell.

  “We’re under attack,” Gorman gasped. “The island has fallen.” His eyes danced around wildly. “We have to stop them from breaching the tower. I can’t let them take me.”

  He took a few deep breaths, then climbed atop a table, nearly touching the ceiling. Flashlight beams illuminated him from below, giving his face an otherworldly cast.

  “We stick to the plan,” Gorman declared, shifting into his role as leader of the town. “The timeline has moved up. We have no choice but to destroy that Shard now. We have to get the bomb from the bridge. We should be safe here tonight. We have some food, a little water. But tomorrow, we win or die.”