The pair jogged out of the training room, the six blocks of ice left behind, and down the quiet halls.

  “Where is everybody?” El asked as they passed another empty intersection.

  “Most of you were sent north for the battle,” Sol explained from beside her. “Just the academy cadets were left, but if what you said was true…”

  “Then we need to hurry. We’ll go to Felps’s lab… but, burn it, we won’t be able to get past the security doors. If only…”

  “El!” a voice yelled from behind her. A familiar voice.

  “Lhogan?” El asked as she stopped and turned around. Sure enough, the man stepped out of a door on the side of the hall, surprise at seeing her clearly written across his face. That door though, it led to… a broom closet?

  “You made it back?” he asked. “Does that mean we won?”

  “Yes. No,” she answered the questions in order. “But why were you in a closet?”

  Lhogan’s head swiveled left and right down the hall. “Bad things are happening here, El. Bad things. There’s a wing of Firestorm, and the burning Ignitio, roaming around collecting up anybody in a uniform.”

  “Do you know what for?” El asked, though she had a pretty good idea.

  “No, but none of them have come back. I saw them beat the Blaze out of a friend of mine an hour ago, and I only got away through dumb luck. Been hiding ever since. Who’s this?” Lhogan asked, and looked at Sol.

  “He’s… a friend of mine,” El said. “Sol, Lhogan. Lhogan, Sol.”

  “Sol? The Sparkless guy?” Lhogan asked, then shook his head and held his hands up. “Sorry, that didn’t come out right. I might as well be Sparkless for how weak my Spark is. Sorry,” he said again.

  “No offense taken,” Sol said. “El, we should go.”

  “We should, and Lhogan is coming with us,” El said, turning to the man. “We need your help.”

  “Help to do what?” Lhogan asked, looking up and down the hall again. He really was nervous about Oril’s wing and the Ignitio finding him.

  El took a breath. Should she explain the problem to him? Yes, probably.

  “Felps’s golem,” El said. “I saw something like it up in Guld. It uses the Sparks of sacrifices to power it. I think that’s why the Ignitio are gathering up anybody in a uniform. They’re being used to activate that golem.”

  “So, maybe we should be going any way but that way then?” Lhogan asked and turned in the opposite direction.

  “We can’t, Lhogan. We need to stop it. And we need your eyes to get us past the security measures,” she finished.

  Lhogan froze. “My eyes?” he asked, half turning.

  “Preferably while they’re still in your head,” she said, then tossed him a wink. “They’re kind of cute, after all.”

  “I’m not sure if I’m scared or flattered right now,” Lhogan said, but turned back to face her. “Can we still save the people the Ignitio took?”

  El glanced at Sol, but he didn’t say anything. If he could already sense the golem’s growing Spark, that meant at least some people had been sacrificed. But, maybe they could save the others? Burn it, even if they couldn’t, the golem needed to be stopped.

  “I don’t know,” El admitted. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we need to go.”

  Lhogan wavered, his feet shuffled, and he looked back down the hallway away from Felps’s laboratory.

  If he rabbited, El would have to go after him. He was there way in… conscious or not.

  “I’ll let you buy me dinner again,” El said as Lhogan took a step away from her.

  He paused, then his shoulders rose and fell, and his head tilted forward. Was he crying or… chuckling?

  “Shouldn’t you be the one offering to buy me dinner?” he asked without turning. Definitely chuckling.

  “Are you kidding? I can’t afford the place I’m planning for you to take me,” El responded.

  “Ah, burn it,” Lhogan said, and turned to face them, a nervous smile on his face. “Let’s go before I smarten up and change my mind. Felps’s lab?”

  “Felps’s lab,” El agreed. “Same way we went last time. Can you get us in?”

  “Yeah,” Lhogan said, then jogged down the hall. “But you better keep me safe!”

  “Who would buy me dinner if I didn’t?” El asked, then turned to Sol. “Let’s go. This is our way in,” she said, then jogged after Lhogan, Sol close at her heels.

  The three ran through the halls, not meeting a single other person, and got to the door to Felps’s lab almost ten minutes later.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I’ve never seen it so quiet,” Lhogan said, his voice barely above a whisper, and opened the door to the lab where El had tested Felps’s weapons. Darkness greeted them from behind the door.

  “Where are Felps and the others?” El whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Lhogan answered. “Should we go a different way?”

  “You tell me,” El said.

  Lhogan seemed to think about it, then shook his head. “No, this is probably the fastest route. And the least likely to run us into Ignitio. Felps!” he called, and stepped into the dark room. “Felps, you in here?”

  “Do you hear that?” El stepped in behind Lhogan. Sobbing, somewhere far in the room. And the smell… like barbequed meat. “Is there a way to turn on the lights?”

  “Yeah, should be right around here somewhere,” Lhogan said and walked into the darkness. His boots shuffled on the floor as he moved along the wall, and then suddenly the encased torches flared to life. “Got em,” he said.

  “Felps, is that you?” El called loudly. “Are you okay?”

  No response, but the crying was definitely coming from back behind the blast shield where they’d studied El’s readings from the test.

  “Come on,” she said to the other two, scanned the room quickly for obvious threats, and then went over to the blast shield. Sure enough, crouched behind it, was a young man in an orange lab coat, his shoulders rising and falling in time with the quiet sobs. An older man, Insulad, lay sprawled out on the floor nearby, a charred pit where half his chest should be.

  “Felps,” El said gently, and put her hand on the man’s shoulder. “What happened?”

  Felps jumped at her touch, but El’s fingers snagged his orange coat, and he didn’t go far. When he turned, the left side of his face and neck was badly burned, and his eyes swollen.

  “Felps, man, are you okay?” Lhogan asked and crouched down beside the scientist.

  “Loogie?” Felps asked, blinking, then looked at El and Sol. “Do I know you two?”

  “We’ve met,” El said, but didn’t explain more than that. “What happened here?”

  Felps’s head turned toward the corpse beside him, and he choked back a sob. “How will I ever find such good assistants again?” he asked. “I just had them trained properly.”

  El resisted the urge to punch the man. Everybody dealt with grief differently. That had to be it. Had to be.

  “Felps, what happened to him? To you?” Lhogan asked gently. “Where’s Opena?”

  “Opena? I don’t know anybody by that name,” Felps said.

  “Opera,” Lhogan corrected with only a small shake of his head. “Where is she?”

  “Oh, how could you get her name wrong like that?” Felps asked. “It’s very important to have people’s names right.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lhogan said. “Where is she?”

  “The Ignitio took her. They said they needed her Spark for something. When Insulation tried to stop them, they did that to him, and then they laughed. Laughed while they killed my best assistant and took my second best. The nerve of them.”

  “And your face?” El asked.

  Felps’s hand reached up to his face, and he winced at his own touch. “I was too close to Insulation,” he said.

  But why wouldn’t they take Felps too? Probably in case something about the golem didn’t work. He was the creator after all, they’d need him to troubleshoot any problems.

  “We have to go,” Sol said. “It’s getting stronger.”

  “What’s getting stronger?” Lhogan asked.

  “The bad feeling he’s had all day,” El answered quickly. “Felps, you should wait here until we get back. Okay?”

  Felps nodded. He wasn’t going anywhere in that condition.

  “How many Ignitio took Opera?” El asked Felps.

  “Five? Maybe six?” Felps answered.

  Burn it. Half a dozen of the nation’s most elite fighters? “Sol,” El leaned in close and whispered so she wouldn’t be overheard. “How much can I count on you in a fight here? I saw what you did back in the training room, but these are Ignitio we’re talking about.”

  “I am weakened by the Pyre being so close, and the storm still so far,” he whispered back. “Though, I am sure I can handle five or six troops with little trouble.”

  “Not sure what you two are whispering over there,” Lhogan said, “but there are at least five or six wings of Ignitio running around gathering people up. We might be up against a lot more than the ones who took Opena. And, even if we weren’t… these are Ignitio we’re talking about!”

  El looked from Lhogan to Sol.

  “With that many, I couldn’t guarantee your safety,” Sol whispered.

  “But, do you think you could stop the golem if we got you there?” she whispered.

  He gave a single, severe nod.

  “Right. So, then we need to worry about keeping ourselves safe,” El said, half to herself and looked around the room distractedly.

  Distracted, that was, until her eyes settled on the new personal cannon she’d recently tested.

  “Felps,” she said without looking away from the weapon. “Did you make those improvements I suggested to the weapon I tested?”

  “Yes,” he said. “That’s the new and improved model on the floor. Even Loogie should be able to handle it without much difficulty. Less kick. Dial on the side controls the blast radius.”

  “Even Loogie?” Lhogan asked in a hushed voice.

  “Do you still have the original around somewhere?” El asked, ignoring the man. His bruised ego could wait.

  “On the workbench over there,” Felps said and pointed to the other end of the room. “Why?”

  El met Lhogan’s eyes. “Two cannons. Two of us. Time to even the odds a bit against the Ignitio,” she said.

  “El, are those things even going to work on them?” Lhogan asked.

  “I can make it so they will,” Felps said. “A few small tweaks and it will be like their flame armor is barely there.”

  “You can do that?” El asked, then shook her head. “Sorry, of course you can. You wouldn’t have said it if you couldn’t. How long will it take?”

  “She’s a smart one,” Felps said to Lhogan. “Maybe I’ll make her my new assistant when this is all over. What did you say her name was? Elevator? Unique name, but no accounting for some people’s parents. Anyway, grab me the other PIC and bring it over to the workbench. Won’t take more than a minute to make the adjustments.” Felps shuffled in that direction, the pain obvious in his steps.

  “PIC?” Lhogan asked.

  “Personal Incendiary Cannon,” Felps said without turning. “Now stop asking questions! I thought you were in a rush.”

  “I got it,” El said to Lhogan, and nodded toward Felps. “Make sure he doesn’t pass out.” Lhogan gave her a quick nod, then she ran over and retrieved the PIC. By the time she made it to the workbench, Felps had already finished his work on the first weapon and was handing it to a sheepish Lhogan.

  “Even Loogie?” Lhogan said again to Felps, but the man waved off the question and took the PIC from El’s hands.

  “What are you doing to them anyway?” El asked, watching over Felps’s shoulder.

  “Attuning them to the same ignition temperature of the flame armor. Set just right, the Ignitio’s flame armor should think a blast from the PIC is simply itself activating, and therefore, not activate,” Felps explained.

  “How do you know the ignition temperature of the Ignitio flame armor?” El asked.

  “Oh, that’s easy. It’s the same for all flame armor,” Felps responded.

  El blinked. “Does that mean it’s the same for our flame armor?”

  “Yes, of course it is.”

  “So, if we get caught in the blast radius of the PICs, our flame armor will ignore it too?”

  Felps finally looked at her and sighed dramatically. “So, don’t get caught in the blast radius. Is that so difficult?”

  “I think this is yours,” Lhogan said weakly, and handed El the original, more powerful PIC.

  Great. Just great.