Elion watched Keyla as she pressed her hand against the mechanism which powered the door lock. A half hour earlier, the main lights had been turned out, partially so that people could try to rest before the attack in the morning, partially to conserve energy. Cloaked in shadow, this corner of the room covered their activity.

  Kasm bounced nervously on his toes behind them.

  “Stop,” Elion hissed. “We don’t want to attract attention.”

  Kasm planted his feet on the ground and began swinging his arms. Someone snored nearby.

  “You’re making me nervous,” Elion whispered.

  “I’m scared,” Kasm replied. “And excited.”

  “Just stop fidgeting please.”

  Keyla’s eyes glowed, and teal sparks crackled from her fingers. Elion felt a pulsing of energy through the air, coming from her. The door lock mechanism powered up, and she unlocked it.

  The light from her eyes winked out, and she eased the door open. The three of them slipped out of the tower and into the darkness of the night.

  Elion and Kasm crouched behind a large rain barrel, and Keyla slowly closed the door behind them.

  “Remember, don’t lock it,” Elion said through the gap in the door.

  “I know.” Keyla let the door close slowly. When only a sliver remained, she whispered through the crack. “Good luck.” Then the door clicked shut, leaving Elion and Kasm alone.

  Elion scanned the road ahead of them, checking the dark windows of Domas’s house across the street for any signs of infected. He saw none. Someone had left the garage open.

  “Let’s go,” Kasm said, shifting anxiously.

  “Wait,” Elion placed a hand on Kasm’s arm, restraining him. “Not yet. Just watch; see if anything moves.”

  They waited a while longer, but detected no movement in the darkness.

  “Okay,” Elion said. "Now.”

  The two of them ran across the road, the moonless night hiding their movement. They reached Domas’s house, and slipped inside the open garage, scanning for scavengers.

  Across the street the tower loomed, windows dark, protected by the defensive shutters. Elion imagined Gorman noticing his sealed, damaged door. The man would break through it and discover the pilfered safe. He’d know Keyla had glitched it out. Who else could do that in Aterfel?

  Would he believe her lie, when she said I forced her to do it? Elion wished she’d just let him cut the safe open. He pressed his hand against his pocket where the Ascendency stones were. Should I give more of them to Kasm?

  “Back here,” Kasm whispered. Elion followed Kasm through to the back of the house. They peered through a window, scanning the yard. A trail ran from the back of the house, up a slope to the hollow where Elion had first landed.

  “Looks clear,” Elion said, starting to move.

  “Wait,” Kasm hissed, pointing.

  A light flickered along the ridge, then a dark figure moved, silhouetted briefly against the night sky. “They’re watching from up there,” Kasm said.

  Elion watched, but didn’t see any further movement. The position provided a relatively good view of the town; it wasn’t a bad place to keep an eye on the tower.

  “I hope they didn’t see us crossing the road,” Elion said. They watched intently, looking for any other sign of movement.

  Across the yard Elion spotted the grave marker. A large stone, blackened by the night, part way up the slope of the ridge. “It’s in plain view to anyone watching from above,” Elion said. “Are you sure that’s the right place?”

  “I’m supposed to plant the stone in a special place,” Kasm said. “My mother’s grave is the most special place I know.”

  Elion groaned, scanning the yard. “It’s risky,” he said.

  “I know. But I want to help.”

  “If you get hurt or killed here, you won’t be able to help anyone.” Elion said these words, feeling like a hypocrite. If I get hurt or killed, what will happen to Liora? Have I endangered her by distracting Zev? What happened to prevent Zev from coming back after twenty-four hours?

  “It’s worth the risk.” Kasm did not waver in his resolve.

  “How long will it take?” Elion asked.

  Kasm shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Okay.” Elion ran a hand through his hair. Nobody but Keyla knows about the gems we stole from Gorman. If Kasm suddenly reaches level five and starts healing people, Gorman will know. But I could give him three Skillstones and tell him they’re Keyla’s. “If this one works, then we’ll give you more of them.”

  “It’ll work,’ Kasm said. “Give it to me.”

  “Fine. You go there, plant the stone,” he said, pulling an Aurelian Tear from his pocket. “I’ll cover you from here. I have a good angle out this window. If you can crouch behind the gravestone, you’ll have some cover.”

  Kasm reached out for the gem. Elion held the stone in his hand, wondering if it wouldn’t be wiser to keep it for himself.

  “This will really help you level?” he asked. “You managed to get an experience point?”

  Kasm nodded. “I have been practicing a lot,” he said.

  “Gorman told me that it can take a month of dedicated practice to gain experience. You’ve had your power for what, a week? Isn’t that kind of fast?”

  Kasm shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never done it before.”

  “I just want to be sure. Keyla says your first stone will only get you one experience point, so if you didn’t already earn one, you’d still be at level zero.”

  “I did,” Kasm hissed. “Give it to me.”

  “But you’ll be able to help heal people at a higher level.”

  “I know,” Kasm said.

  “You could help more people if you used more Ascendency stones.”

  “I wish we had more,” Kasm replied. “But even with Keyla’s three, I wouldn’t be able to get to level five.”

  “But it would still mean you could heal more people. Even if you didn’t reach level five?”

  "Obviously.”

  The eerie silence around them weighed heavily in the darkness.

  Elion wondered if he should give Kasm more cends. Liora is in danger. I need to level myself up if I’m going to help rescue her. I could support Zev. Elion felt the other cends in his pocket, the ones he had stolen from Gorman. Kasm could heal more people at a higher level.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  What about me? Without these cends, I’m literally useless. Do I owe these people anything? Liora is my sister. Heck, she’s heir to the Throne. Aterfel is going to be better off if Zev and I can thwart Dorian’s plan.

  “Elion,” Kasm hissed.

  Maybe I shouldn’t even give him this one, Elion thought. It’s dangerous. If we were going to do this, we should have done it before the scavengers attacked.

  Elion released the cend, dropping it into Kasm’s hand. He did not retrieve any other gems from his pocket. Kasm might be able to heal infected if you give him four more right now.

  “If they spot us, come back,” Elion said, moving his hands away from his pockets. “We’ll have to run back to the tower before they can close in on our position.”

  Kasm nodded, then slipped out the back door. Elion moved, setting his rifle on a counter and aiming it toward the ridge. He could barely make out Kasm moving through the yard, a dark splotch against the ground. Hopefully the scavengers wouldn’t notice him at all.

  As he watched Kasm sneak away, Elion groaned. Stop it. You made the right decision. You need to use the cends to level yourself.

  Kasm reached the edge of concealment provided by clutter in the yard. An open stretch of ground separated him from the grave stone. Elion scanned the ridgeline, watching through his scope, searching for enemies.

  He checked for Kasm again, but couldn’t find him at first. Then he spotted a movement, a shadow as Kasm dashed up the hill. Elion held his breath.

  Kasm reached the gravestone and crouched behind it, not moving. Elion searched for scavengers or pemalion. He could barely make out Kasm’s shape against the dark gravestone.

  “Come on, bury it,” Elion muttered.

  Somewhere in the house, a door squeaked. The hair on the back of Elion’s neck stood on end, his chest tightening. Someone in the house, or just a phantom door pushed by a draft?

  Elion’s ears perked up, his other senses dulling as he listened for the merest whisper of a sound. Should he Manifest Armaments? He tried to remember if any of his buffs improved hearing.

  Is there a way to armor up without glowing? That would definitely attract attention.

  He heard a faint scuffing noise, like the sound of a shoe brushing against a floorboard. Elion moved, creeping across the room so that he could keep the entrance to the room in his vision.

  A green light blossomed outside, radiating from the tombstone, casting harsh shadows across the ground. A pemalion howled somewhere in the distance. That’s not good!

  Elion felt the air in the room change before he saw the man. A dark shadow stepped through the doorway, crossing the room quietly, stealthily, catching the last glimmer of green light through the window.

  He stood with his back toward Elion, staring out the window. Stay there, Kasm, don’t come back yet, Elion thought.

  The man wore the dingy, damaged clothes of an infected scavenger. A faint odor of sweat and dirt wafted across the room.

  Elion slowly raised his firearm, aiming directly at the man’s back. Were there more of them in the house?

  Through the window Elion saw Kasm’s shadow picking its way back down the hill. The watching scavenger chuckled to himself, a quiet, rasping sound. A long blade flashed in the man’s hand, and he crouched, preparing to ambush Kasm when he entered the room.

  Elion realized that he’d been holding his breath. He carefully exhaled slowly through his nose, as quietly as he could manage. It felt wrong to shoot an unsuspecting man. But this scavenger was waiting to stab Kasm.

  The flash of light from Elion’s rifle would attract more attention. Did he have another option? Maybe the scavenger would just decide to leave.

  Another howl from outside, and Elion spotted the outline of a Pemalion on the ridge above Kasm. Three more of the creatures joined the first, and they scrambled down the hill toward the house. Kasm sprinted across the yard.

  Kasm reached the door, starting to pull it open. The scavenger lunged. Elion’s rifle flashed, blinding him. The door slammed, a man shouted, and something heavy hit the ground.

  Elion blinked and saw the figure of the scavenger sprawled out on the floor, a sickly sweet stench of burned meat filling the room. Kasm stood in the doorway, stunned.

  Grabbing the boy, Elion pulled the door closed as pemalion charged into the yard. He jerked Kasm into a shadowy corner and hid there with him.

  “What—” Kasm started, but Elion shushed him.

  “There might be someone in the house still.”

  They stood quietly, listening, Elion covering the entrance to the room with his rifle. Pemalion growled in the yard. One of them scratched at the door with its claws.

  Without warning, two more scavengers burst into the room. Elion fired his rifle twice, and was rewarded with the sound of two bodies hitting the ground.

  Elion breathed heavily, his whole body trembling. He listened for other movement in the house, but only heard pemalion moving in the yard.

  “Did it work?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Kasm said. “It worked.”

  More lights flashed along the ridge line, and Elion saw human shapes moving down the hill toward them.

  “We caught their attention,” Elion said. “Let’s go!”

  They made their way through the house to the open garage, then sprinted across the street back toward the tower.

  Something loud rumbled overhead, and a large black shape flying low to the ground soared over them. Kasm stumbled, sprawling onto the road. A scavenger rifle cracked behind them as a bullet whirred past Elion’s head.

  “What was that?” Elion asked, helping Kasm to his feet.

  “A skyskimmer?” Kasm said. “Who is it? Why would one come here?”

  “Crap,” Elion said. Scavengers filled into the street nearby, shouting.

  “Run!” Elion pushed Kasm forward, turning to stare at the sky in the direction the skyskimmer had gone. Kasm sprinted for the safety of the tower.

  Elion fired a few times toward the infected scavengers, sending them scrambling out of the road. When Kasm reached the tower, he turned and ran back toward Domas’s garage. He was not going to miss his ride out of here.

  Sprinting back toward Domas’s garage, Elion hoped he wasn’t causing more trouble for the people of Aterfel. Just inside the garage, Tael’s dirt bike leaned on a kickstand. Elion jumped onto the vehicle.

  “How do you start this thing,” he muttered, pressing buttons on the handle bars.

  He found the right switch, and the bike hummed to life. Elion hit the throttle, shooting out of the garage and nearly wiping out on the gravel. A pemalion sprang past him as bullets whizzed by. Elion sped down the road and around the edge of the tower, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.

  The bike whined in the night, its electro-magically powered motors quieter than an internal combustion engine, but by no means stealthy.

  Elion found the switch for the headlights and shot away down the street, heading out of town in the direction the skyskimmer had gone.

  “Manifest Armaments,” he said, and felt the cool shifting of fabrics as his outfit swapped; one set of clothes were replaced by his ‘armor’ set. Golden light flashed around him, lighting up the streets around him like a beacon in the night. He sped down the dirt roads, doing his best to avoid potholes in the darkness. The occasional scavenger took a shot at him as he whipped past.

  A lucky shot clipped off his right arm. His ability deflected the bullet, but drained strength from him. Better not get hit too many times. Or hit a pothole and crash. Passing out from Ascendency fatigue would probably be the same as dying.

  As Elion cleared the town, he saw the skyskimmer hovering in the sky ahead. The ship was oval shaped, and lights flickered around it like a UFO. Elion hoped that this was actually his ride. Would someone else have sent a skyskimmer to this island? He would hate to roll up into the waiting arms of Dorian.

  His pace slowed slightly as he worried about crashing. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger around, so he disarmed, saving his ability. He kept following the track that would eventually circle the entire island. He drew near to the turnoff that lead down to the drawbridge.

  Several bright flashes of light from the skyskimmer caught his attention, and he watched as the craft began descending.

  As he came closer, he realized he was going to have to turn off the road; the craft was landing in the woods. He continued driving until the road started leading him away from where he thought he skyskimmer landed, then pulled his bike over, shutting it down.

  Driving through the woods without a path seemed dangerous. He didn’t have a light with him, but maybe that would be safer because he’d be less likely to attract attention.

  He dropped his bike on the road and started into the woods. He hadn’t made it a dozen feet when he remembered Snickers. The last time he saw his cat, Snickers was curled up in the tower, sleeping. Elion almost started back, but that was a stupid sentiment. Keyla would take care of him until Elion could come back.

  Elion pushed through the trees, trying to walk in a straight line from the road. He spotted lights after a moment, and worked his way toward them. In the darkness he stepped carefully, not wanting to turn an ankle.

  Then the trees thinned, and he saw the ship.