The officer stopped at the end of the aisle, turning to face Kalden’s group. He was a broad-shouldered man with a blue uniform and a jagged scar that ran across his left cheek. “I found something,” he said in a low voice. “Aisle Seven.”

  Boots clicked against the marble floor as another man circled around to the other end of the aisle. The first man pulled a grenade from his leather belt pouch and pulled the pin with a distinct click.

  “Now!” Kalden shouted.

  Arturo pressed a large red button, and his electromagnetic pulse tore through the room. Kalden braced himself for a sense of vertigo, but this was nothing like the anti-mana pulses he knew. Every bulb flickered out, casting the room in sudden darkness. The only light came from the small chamber on the north side. The same door Trask had opened a minute before.

  Their attacker tossed the grenade with a practiced flick of his wrist. It bounced and rolled against the polished floor before settling inside the camouflage device.

  “Stop cycling!” Kalden told the others. He ignored his own order and leapt forward, trying to kick back the grenade. It was only a few feet away. If he could reach it in time . . .

  Too slow. The anti-mana pulse stripped his channels bare. His senses failed him, and his knees struck the marble floor. Worst of all, the pulse broke through the team’s Constructs and armor. Their attackers would see everything. Not just Kalden and his teammates, but the dream tablets they’d lined up on the floor.

  Pale blue light cut through the darkness as an ice Missile surged toward Kalden. He saw it coming, but he couldn’t stop it in time. Not without his mana.

  A pure Construct formed around his team, and the Missile slammed against its pale blue surface. Kalden glanced over his shoulder and saw Akari with her arms outstretched, blocking attacks from both directions.

  Arturo still sat on the floor beside her, eyes focused on the golden craft mana that flowed between the dream tablets.

  Good. They couldn’t afford any mistakes at this point.

  Kalden recovered from the pulse and refilled his own channels. Battle mana flowed to his brain and sharpened his thoughts. At the same time, he cycled pure mana into his camouflage armor, restoring its light-bending effects.

  Only a few seconds had passed since they’d lost their cover, and darkness shrouded the room. Maybe their opponent hadn’t gotten a good look at them, after all.

  The nearest officer launched a second wave of attacks, and Kalden responded with some pure Missiles of his own. These weren’t sharp enough for a lethal blow, but they would keep his opponent busy.

  ‘We need to spread out,” he told Akari through their bond. ‘They can’t know we’re defending this aisle.’

  ‘Working on it,’ she replied.

  He and Akari could have made quick work of this fight with their aspects, but they couldn’t give anything away. Even if Glim memory-wiped these guys, that effect could be reversed by another dream artist.

  More techniques flashed through the narrow space, and stacks of dream tablets clattered like falling dominos on the marble floor. The scent of ice mana stung Kalden’s nostrils—cold and electric like the air before a winter storm.

  He aimed his next Missile straight over his opponent’s head, arching it back to hit him in the spine. The man spun to deflect the attack, and Kalden seized the distraction, charging straight down the aisle.

  His opponent hurled several more Missiles like flying chains. Kalden dodged and deflected each as he closed the distance, then he slammed the pocket cell into his opponent’s chest.

  The man vanished in the blink of an eye, sucked into the pocket dimension. The air rushed to fill the empty space, but the sound was lost in the chaos.

  ‘One down,’ he told Akari.

  ‘Make that two,’ she replied.

  ‘We’ll surround Trask,’ he said. ‘I’ll make a diversion, and you—’

  ‘Too late. He found me.’

  Mana flashed like lightning behind him, followed by a cloud of icy mist. Kalden tried to sneak up behind Trask, but the man’s senses were too good. He immediately sent a burst of raw power into the floor and vaulted over the nearest shelf, his trench coat billowing behind him.

  Kalden and Akari followed him to the north side of the room near the open chamber. More mana soared between them, but Trask kept them at bay with his thick cloud of mist. Ice crystals grew on the floor like living frost. Kalden felt the chill creeping through his armor.

  Akari kept her distance, and Kalden did the same. He could probably withstand the detective’s mind-freeze effects, but that wasn’t their biggest danger. As a knowledge artist, Trask could learn things through his techniques. It didn’t help that he’d already fought Akari once before.

  ‘This isn’t working,’ Akari said through their bond. ‘I’m gonna displace the pocket cell.’

  That sounded risky, but no worse than a drawn-out fight. Trask was far more dangerous than his companions, and time favored him.

  ‘Fine,’ Kalden said. ‘What do you need?’

  ‘Slide some tablets by his feet.’ No sooner had Akari spoken than she sent a volley of blazing blue orbs through the air.

  Kalden seized the distraction and grabbed a handful of dream tablets from the nearest shelf. He slid several across the floor like flying discs, using bursts of mana to increase their speed. Each one skimmed across the icy surface, leaving trails in the broken frost.

  Trask immediately dodged the tablets, recognizing the threat for what it was. But this sent him toward Akari who hurled her own tablets at his feet.

  His muscles tensed for another leap, but Kalden struck the man’s shoulder with a Missile. The impact sent him staggering toward another tablet. Akari swapped that tablet with a pocket cell, and Trask flickered out of existence.

  Sirens wailed in the distance, and red and blue lights shone through the room’s stained glass windows.

  Kalden jogged back toward Aisle Seven and found Arturo packing up the tablets. “Everything good?” he asked him.

  Arturo gave a quick thumbs up as he placed the original tablets back on their shelves.

  “Okay.” Kalden checked his watch and found they still had several minutes to spare. He toward back toward Akari. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “I can’t,” she said in a panicked tone. “That AMP broke my portal.”

  “What? I thought you weren’t cycling.”

  “That’s not how it works.” Arturo ran a hand over the top of his helmet. “The pulse kills your active techniques. Doesn’t matter if you stop cycling or not.”

  “Damnit.” Kalden glanced around the room, searching for another way out. This building would be surrounded in thirty seconds, so that ruled out the front door. “What about the windows?” He gestured toward the outer wall. “Can we get those open?” They’d done it during the qualifying rounds.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Arturo shook his head. “The wards are controlled from downstairs. That maintenance door was the weakest link. And don’t forget, the police chief’s waiting for us back at the Mirage.”

  Kalden cursed again. The police chief was a Master who could read lies as clear as a written confession. He and Akari had to step out from the bathroom as if nothing had happened.

  He rounded on Arturo. “You left some bags back at the Mirage. Can we escape through the spatial delivery network?”

  Arturo had explained this system back in Vordica. Apprentices like him didn’t have the mana reserves to support large pocket spaces, so they outsourced that cost to a third-party service. These services came with a network of portals that let you access the contents your vault, regardless of which physical bag you carried.

  If that was true, then why couldn’t humans travel from one bag to another?

  Arturo let out a long breath inside his mask. “Not that easy, shoko.”

  “Why not?”

  “Each vault has a time bubble. That’s why food doesn’t spoil in there. We’ll freeze if we go in. Dead till someone revives us.”

  “I can stop a time bubble,” Akari said. “My mom showed me how.”

  “Still,” Arturo said. “We’d need to . . .”

  The sirens grew louder and Kalden’s aspect sent him a mental warning. “Either we take the bags or we rush out the front door. What’s it gonna be?”

  “The bag,” Akari said at once.

  “Good. Let’s talk while we work.”

  They set to it. Akari and Arturo managed to stop the first time bubble, while Kalden retrieved Glim from her battery. After a brief exchange with the mana spirit, he released Trask and his friends from their pocket cells. Glim used a single technique to knock them unconscious and wipe their memories from the past hour. She only had a few seconds of power, but a few seconds was all she needed.

  “One last thing,” Arturo held up his bag. “We can’t leave any evidence behind. I hope you have a way to . . . ”

  Kalden cycled knowledge mana to his pouch and produced a boulder-sized bomb. He'd never tested this one, but it probably held enough destruction mana to destroy a small building.

  “ . . . yeah,” Arturo finished. “You still scare me sometimes, shoko.”

  Not wanting to destroy any dream tablets, Kalden led the team toward the open chamber on the north side of the room. The wards here were even stronger than the rest of the library, so it should contain the blast.

  Kalden stopped in the open doorway, and his breath escaped in a puff of white smoke. The room beyond felt as cold as Vordica, and a glass cylinder hung from the ceiling, filled with a complex setup of golden plates, rods, and wires. Several desks surrounded the strange apparatus, complete with monitors and keyboards

  What the hell was that thing? Oh well, they didn’t have time for questions. Maybe they could—

  “Holy shit in Talek’s beard.” Akari followed Kalden into the room, then she rounded on Arturo. “Pass me a bag. Quick”

  Arturo handed her a bag without comment, and Akari unleashed a storm of spacetime Missiles through the room. Portals sprang to life on the floor and ceiling, and the desks fell into the bag.

  “What are you doing?” Kalden asked.

  “What’s it look like?” Akari replied. “We’re taking this.” She formed a portal beneath the strange cylinder, while another technique unhooked the device from the ceiling. “Right as well. They already know someone broke in.”

  The device fell in slow motion, even after she’d unhooked it from the ceiling. It must have an advanced warding system to protect it from sudden movements.

  Footsteps thundered up the stairs behind him, and Kalden closed the chamber door. “Fine. Let’s just go.”

  He set the bomb with a ten-second timer, and the display flashed red as it began its countdown.

  Akari opened another portal in the wall, and the three of them piled into Arturo’s bag.

  ~~~

  Step Six: hide the evidence.

  Zukan stood his ground as the chief stepped through the front doors of the Mirage. The man looked like an older version of Detective Trask with his pale Espirian complexion and sharp features. However, the chief had a more weathered face with creases around his eyes and lines of silver streaking his temples. The two of them might be related, but Zukan couldn’t say for sure. Human faces all looked soft and squishy to his eyes.

  The crowd made way for the man as walked around the outside of the dance floor. Meanwhile, others gathered around Zukan, and a sea of raised cell phones glowed like mana bugs in the darkness of the club.

  For all the good that would do. The chief might not have a warrant, but he wouldn’t need one. His Master level senses would piece those wards like a spear through wet paper. One look, and he’d know the bathroom was empty.

  Zukan shot another glance at the approaching chief, then slumped his shoulders in a show of defeat. He activated his comm device, stepped toward the bathroom, and gave the door a good hard pound.

  “Time’s up!” he shouted over the music.

  Zukan half expected to hear Arturo’s voice over the comm channel. Instead, Akari replied from the other side of the door. “One second! We’re getting dressed.”

  Thank the Angels.

  Zukan felt the chief’s presence like a physical weight on his shoulders, then he spun to face the man.

  “I’m Chief Trask with the KCPD.” His voice sounded bored, as if he’d rather be out killing mana beasts than talking to Apprentices.

  And . . . Chief Trask? Sounded like they were related after all.

  “Zukan Kortez,” he said. “My friends will be right out.”

  The chief studied him with a cold gaze. “What’s the holdup?”

  Zukan hesitated. He couldn’t risk lying to a Master, so he settled for the truth. “They’re getting dressed.” The chief raised an eyebrow, and Zukan made no effort to hide his annoyance. “You’ll see.”

  The bathroom door swung open behind him, and Zukan had never been more relieved in his life. Kalden emerged first, his black shirt partially unbuttoned and his dark hair artfully disheveled. He blinked at the crowd and flashing lights, looking more guilty than surprised.

  As usual, Artisans could rarely deceive Masters—especially trained detectives. But they could hide the truth in plain site, showing their enemies exactly what they expected. Elise had taught them that.

  Akari stumbled out behind Kalden, adjusting the thin straps on her dress. You could rarely tell when two dragons were mating, but humans had all sorts of embarrassing tells. Her cheeks were flushed, and the color spread all the way down to her chest.

  “Oh, hey.” Akari waved at the chief. “We were just . . . um, celebrating our promotions.” She couldn’t look more guilty if she tried. But once again, that was the whole point.

  Several students snickered, and someone actually wolf-whistled through a lull in the music.

  Kalden kept adjusting his hair in his pocket mirror. Akari just put her hands on her hips, looking as proud as a cat.

  The chief strode right past them without comment, searching the empty bathroom. His search must have come up short, because he turned back toward Kalden and Akari with an irritated look. “Are you two carrying any extradimensional items?”

  “Nope,” Kalden said. And sure enough, his belt pouch was gone.

  Akari didn’t bother replying. She just glanced down at her dress with its lack of pockets.

  Another series of questions followed, but each one led to a dead-end. The chief found a few traces of Akari’s aspect in the bathroom, but it wasn’t enough to prove they’d left the building. Most people experienced some level of mana leakage throughout the day—especially artists below the Master realm.

  “Sir.” Marrow approached the chief with a portable tablet. “We gathered video footage from several devices. These two were on the dance floor from eleven thirty until midnight.”

  The older Trask barely glanced at the tablet. “And after midnight?”

  “Multiple witnesses confirm their . . . activities . . . in this vicinity.”

  The chief turned his attention back to Akari and Kalden. “Where were you earlier today, between four and six?”

  “In class,” Kalden replied. “Third-Year Survival with Master Nightfang.”

  “And after that?”

  “Setting up for the party.” Akari twirled a strand of her dark hair, looking more bored than Zukan had ever seen her. “Still not gonna tell us why you crashed it?”

  The chief scanned them with another knowledge technique. Whatever he found, it clearly wasn’t enough. “We’re done here for now” He handed them each a card. “The department might have additional questions. Don’t leave the city.”

  ~~~

  They left the city two hours later. Kalden contacted Master Rosintar, and he transported them to the Solidor’s safe house in Northern Espiria. The same place where he and Akari had advanced last spring.

  This had always been the final step of the plan. Even if they hadn’t gotten caught tonight, they couldn’t risk keeping the copied dream tablets in the loft. Not to mention that strange machine Akari had stolen from the library.

  What was that thing, anyway? Kalden wanted to ask her about it, but he hadn’t had a chance. They had to keep up appearances at the Mirage, and that meant another round of drinking and dancing.

  The safe house was quiet at this hour, and his team stepped through the main living area toward the basement. The whole place had a log cabin feel, with polished wooden walls and snow-capped mountains visible outside the giant glass windows.

  They found an empty office in one corner of the basement, and Arturo began unloading the copied dream tablets on the nearest desk.

  “Did it work?” Akari asked him.

  “We’ll have to test them to be sure,” he replied. “But yeah, as far as I can tell.”

  “Thanks for all your help.” She grinned at Arturo, then turned to face Kalden and Zukan. “You guys, too. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Arturo chuckled. “Sure you could, shoka. Just would’ve been a whole lot messier without us.”

  “And you would have gotten caught,” Zukan added with a rare smile.

  “There’s still time for that,” Kalden said. “Speaking of which, what was that other thing you stole?”

  Zukan blinked. “You took something else from the library?”

  Akari’s shot a spacetime Missile at the nearest wall, forming a blank portal. She formed the second half in Arturo’s bag, revealing the strange glass cylinder with its dense cluster of golden rods and wires. The device seemed to hover in midair, and the surrounding space felt just as cold as before.

  “It’s a quantum computer,” Akari said.

  “Yeah,” Arturo said. “So much for the perfect crime. That thing’s worth about three million espers.”

  Three million espers? How had the school ever afforded something like that? Probably a donation or something. Either way, that wasn’t the most important question right now.

  “Why?” Kalden stepped closer to the oval-shaped portal. “What’s the point?”

  Akari spun around, and he spotted a flash of genuine excitement in her eyes. “Remember our project to simulate Cloak techniques?”

  He nodded. “Glim said it was impossible.”

  “Was.” Her smile widened, and she gestured back through the open portal. “We’re about to change the rules.”

  Web of Secrets Book 1 is now available for ebook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited:

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0D7XSBKH2

  Book 2 (Web of Dreams) is also available for pre-order:

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0DX13PV7V

  Support the story on Patreon and read ahead!

  https://www.patreon.com/davidmusk