It was past midnight already, but Kaia was still awake, sitting up in bed as her eyes scanned the pages of yet another hefty tome on water magic. Next to her, Awa mumbled something in her sleep and turned over restlessly. Kaia took a moment to shoot her fellow water magus a smile and run her fingers trough the girl’s long, messy curls. Awa made a contented little noise and settled back into a deep sleep. As Kaia returned to her reading, she noted with a frown that her vision was starting to blur, and the words were getting all jumbled up inside her head. With an effort of will she started circulating water magic through her body, flushing out all the biochemicals in her bloodstream that made her feel drowsy and tired and encouraging the production of ones that would make her feel awake and alert. Soon a sort of nervous, jittery energy began to fill her, and she refocused herself on her task. A small voice in the back of her head started making worried noises about the effects of sleep deprivation, but she ignored it. “I’ll knock myself out after second bell.” She muttered to herself. “That will give me a good four hours before Awa wakes me up. That’s plenty of sleep.” Jarak burst into Albert’s office, covered in weird stains and smudges and stinking of sweat and smoke and ash. His face was covered in soot and dried blood, and he was carrying a huge cloth bundle. Before Albert could protest, Jarak dumped the bundle on his desk, causing it to split open and spread scraps of paper and flakes of ash all over the place. Albert shot him a questioning glare. “Jarak! What the hell is this supposed to be? Where have you been?” “I killed the people who wanted to hurt my friends. These are their papers.” “The people… You mean the cultists? The ones with the pendants?” “Yes, those people. I killed like a hundred of them. Maybe a hundred and fifty. They were hiding in a basement. These are all the papers they didn’t have time to destroy.” “A hundred… Sun above! For a gathering of such size to take place right here in the capital… Where was this?” “In a secret basement underneath warehouse B 36 in the warehouse district. But there’s not much left there. Just ash and corpses and a big altar that’s a little bit melty. You should figure out what’s in those papers so I know if I should be killing more people or not. Now, I’m going to go sleep for a bit.” Albert just stared at Jarak as the boy sauntered out of his office. With a small groan, he looked down at the mess of sooty papers that spilled out across his desk. “I swear, that boy is worse than his grandfather…” With a small sigh, Albert sent for his chief of intelligence. He needed someone to figure out what was in these papers as soon as possible, not to mention cover up Jarak’s little massacre in the warehouse district. If this cult was large and well organized enough to host such an enormous gathering right here in the capital, there was no telling what else it might be capable of. Mora was flying again, pushing her magic to the limit as she shot through the open sky like a falling star. She felt so free up here, like nothing mattered. Down there, the presence of so much earth and stone brushing up against her senses felt deafening, but the higher she flew, the less she could sense the earth below her. Every day since she fell for the tower, she had pushed herself further and further, escaping higher and higher into the sky. She pushed through a bank of clouds, the wet air biting cold within her lungs. But the rest of her body was perfectly comfortable, her stony skin protecting her from the biting chill. She emerged from the clouds with a smile on her face, and an entire landscape of white and grey tufts and banks spread out beneath her, completely hiding the land below from view. With a start, she realized she couldn’t feel the earth and stone of the world at all. The only stone she could sense was her own skin. Up here, there was only her. Up here, she was finally, truly alone. For the first time since the attack, Mora began to truly feel like herself again. She was so caught up in this sensation that she didn’t even notice how thin the air was getting. Her lungs were heaving, desperately trying to supply her body with enough oxygen from the thin, freezing cold air around her. The cloudscape grew blurry and indistinct as her eyes began to waver and grow unfocused. As the chill of the air started to spread from her lungs into the rest of the her body, Mora’s eyes rolled back and her consciousness began to fade, the relieved smile still plastered on her face. Willow and Miriam watched from a balcony as Awa and Kaia left for the laboratory. Awa’s steps were irregular and nervous, and she kept sending worried glances Kaia’s way. Every so often she’d turn to ask Kaia something, and the other girl would give a short response. Not a rude or hostile one, but always brief and to the point. Kaia walked with an even stride, back straight and head held high. But Miriam could tell that she was constantly casting her gaze about from the way her head occasionally twitched left or right. As though she was scanning every deep shadow or potential hiding place for danger. “Did you notice it?” Willow asked. “The way she keeps looking around?” “That too, but I was talking about the glow.” “What glow?” “Just watch when they pass under the arch.” Miriam frowned and narrowed her eyes as the two stepped under the massive stone archway that held the main gate of the castle. When Kaia walked through the shadow of the archway, Miriam could just about make out a faint blue glow surrounding the girl’s entire body. “My goodness. Is that…?” “Water magic. Enough to be visible to the naked eye.” “But the kind of focus she’d need to constantly use magic at that level…” “I know, I don’t like it either. We should talk to Kio.” The two of them threw one last worried glance at the two water magi before the girls turned a corner and walked out of view. “The hell do you mean you’re grounding me? You cannot be serious!” Albert sighed as he watched Kio pacing angrily up and down the length of his office. “Look…” He began in conciliatory tones. “Recent evidence suggests this… Cult or conspiracy or whatever it might be is far wider-reaching than we thought. Until we can guarantee there won’t be another assassination attempt, we can’t afford to put you back in the air.” “And just what do you expect me do to, then? Sit here and push paperwork around? I’m not a bureaucrat like you and Miriam. I’m a soldier. I’m useless in here.” “You are the sunlit magus of wind, and I expect you to perform your duties to the best of your abilities for the good of the twin republics.” “What abilities? I can fight and I can ride. Those are my abilities. I trained as a front-line soldier, not an officer. And certainly not a paper pusher. I can’t do anything if I’m stuck in this castle!” “You got Kaia back on her feet when none of our counsellors could even get a response out of her.” Kio scoffed. “I didn’t help that girl, and anyone who believes I did is just being naïve. I helped our cause at her expense. And any soldier with their head screwed on straight and big enough balls could have done the same thing.” “Kio…” “No, I’m done listening to you! Keeping me here is a waste of resources, and until you realize that I have nothing to say to you!” Albert huffed out a sigh as Kio stormed out of the room. “I swear, these boys will be the death of me. And where the HELL is Mora?!” Mora let out a small whimper as she gradually came back to consciousness. Her eyes began to flicker open, but she almost immediately regretted it. Everything was too loud and too bright, but she still couldn’t hear or see anything properly because of the deafening ringing in her ears and the strange flashes of colour and light flickering in her vision. Her whole body hurt, but her head felt like it was on fire. She tried to get up off the stony ground, but the slight jostling this caused was enough to make a wave of nausea roll through her body, and she let her body go limp once again with pained whine. Before long, she saw a person rushing up to her, though she couldn’t seem to focus on their face. Whenever she tried to focus her eyes, the headache redoubled, and her eyes began to move aimlessly, making her vision blurry and wavering. The figure looking down on her said something, but Mora couldn’t make it out over the ringing in her ears. Then the figure held out a hand, and Mora could just about tell it was holding up a number of fingers, but she wasn’t quite sure how many. She tried to tell them this, but her tongue wasn’t quite cooperating, and Mora didn’t know if she managed to say anything intelligible. The figure was shouting something now, and before long a number of other figures came into view carrying what Mora guessed might be some kind of improvised stretcher. The figures grabbed hold of her aching body, but the jostling motions was enough to make Mora retch. Fortunately the figures were able to hold her and guide her so she could throw up without choking on her own vomit. Once her stomach was empty and the nausea receded a little, the figures gently placed her on the stretcher. It took all four of them to carry her, and the stretcher groaned and creaked under the weight, but they just about managed to get her to the road where they loaded her into the back of a vehicle. As the high-pitched whine of a magical engine assaulted Mora’s ears, she gradually started to slip back into unconsciousness. Kaia’s magical senses were stretched to their utmost limit as she stood next to Awa, looking out across the bustling laboratory. She could feel every experiment, every device, every mage that wandered through the building. The water magic stood out to her the most, of course, but she was starting to get a sense for other magic as well, registering it as an odd tingle as it interacted with or disrupted the water magic in the building. Some researcher was currently discussing something with Awa, but Kaia didn’t care much about what was being said. She was too focused on keeping watch. Awa was worried. Not about the project, which was moving ahead at a rapid pace now that the broken testing chamber had been repaired. She was worried about Kaia. After Kio spoke to her that day, Kaia had gotten out of bed and gone back to her various projects. Studying water magic. Keeping watch at the laboratory. Giving Awa lessons in swordsmanship. But she felt… Different. She moved and spoke with a sort of steely sense of purpose and efficiency, and rarely spoke more than necessary. But she also seemed twitchy and nervous beneath it all, like she was constantly expecting another attack. Awa wanted to help her, but she didn’t know what to… “Are you listening to me, magus?” Awa stifled a sigh and refocused her attention on the man in front of her. “I understand your concerns, Dr. Tolbryn, and I’m sympathetic to your worries. But what you’re suggesting would delay the project by weeks, possibly months. We don’t have that kind of time.” “And if that attack had succeeded, it would have delayed the project indefinitely! It is clear and apparent that the security measures on this laboratory are completely insufficient for the type of work being performed here. For the safety of materials and staff alike, it is imperative that we give the lab a complete redesign to eliminate the possibility of mass chain reactions.” “In other circumstances I would agree with you, Doctor, but the safety of the world is literally at stake here. The project simply must go on. If you feel that you cannot bring yourself to work in these conditions, then as much as it would pain me to lose your competence in the field of magical interference mechanics, I have no choice put to replace you. I hear Dr. Laurent at the Sunhome Technomagical University has expressed interest in joining the project.” Dr. Tolbryn’s face darkened. “You would replace me with that hack? Now you listen here, girl…” Dr. Tolbryn reached out to grab Awa’s shoulder, but before he could reach her there was a flash of silver, and suddenly there was a blade interspersed between him and Awa. The blade was practically humming with water magic, and Dr. Tolbryn swallowed nervously as he felt the intense cold radiating from the blade and saw thick frost forming across its surface. “There will be no physical confrontations between the magus and laboratory staff.” Kaia said in cold, even tones. “You… You can’t treat me like this! I’m…” “I don’t care who you are. If you threaten the magus or the success of the project, you will be removed. By any means necessary.” Dr. Tolbryn broke out into a cold sweat, cautiously backing away from the freezing blade before turning around to flee. Awa shot Kaia a worried look. “Was… Was that really necessary?” “Better safe than sorry.” Kaia replied as she sheathed her sword. Mora slowly woke back up again. She was in some sort of building, looking up at an unfamiliar white ceiling. She thought she was in a bed, but it was honestly hard to tell with her stony skin muting her sense of touch. The ringing in her ears had subsided a little, and it was a bit easier for her to focus her eyes, although the sharp medical smells filling the air were almost enough to make her retch. She heard approaching footsteps, and before long an old woman dressed in white came into view. “I see you are awake. How are you feeling?” “Awful. But less awful.” Mora replied, her speech only a little bit slurred. “My head still hurts, but the rest of my body feels better, and the ringing in my ears has gone down a little. But I still feel nauseous, and there are little lights flashing in the corners of my eyes.” The woman nodded solemnly. “That is all to be expected. I suspect you are suffering from a severe concussion. I have done what I can to help you, but your rigid skin made it impossible to manipulate your body, and it seems to absorb any healing magic I attempt. We managed to give you some medication by inserting a tube through your nose, but that is all we were capable of doing. We are currently arranging for a transport to take you to the central hospital in the capital. Hopefully, they will have the resources to give you better care.” “I see. Thank you.” “You don’t need to thank me. I’m simply doing my job. But if it’s all right with you, I would like to know how you ended up in this situation. The men who brought you in said it looked as though you had fallen from the sky.” “I… I did. I was flying.” “Flying? On a pegasus, or some kind of device?” “No, I… I’m an earth mage, and I realized that I can use my magic to lift my stone skin into the air.” “That’s remarkable, although I suppose having a skin made of quatrite is quite remarkable in its own right… Please, continue.” “Well, I was flying, and I went higher and higher and higher, way above the clouds… But the air was so thin up there. It was hard to breathe…” “Then why did you fly so high?” “I… I wanted to get away. Ever since… Ever since I changed, ever since I got like this, I haven’t felt… right. I feel like I’m not myself. Like I’m not real. And I can feel all the earth and stone all around me all the time and it… it’s just too much. I can feel it now, pushing up against me. And it feels like I’m a stone. Just another stone in a world of stones and I… I can’t…” The woman placed a hand on her shoulder. It was probably meant to be comforting, but Mora couldn’t feel it at all. “It’s all right. Try to remain calm. So, you flew up into the sky to get away from the things you were feeling around you?” “It was so… so peaceful up there. So empty. Just me and the open skies. I felt like me again, just a little bit.” “I see…” The woman looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m not a counsellor or mind healer. My work is with the body. And I can’t really imagine what you’ve been through. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I don’t think anyone has. But… I don’t think the problem is in the world around you. And I don’t think running away from it is going to solve anything.” Mora didn’t say anything. “The medical transport will be here soon. I have to go and prepare your file for when they arrive. But I want you to think about what I said.” The healer left the room. Mora simply stared up into the unfamiliar ceiling. “Kio! There you are!” Kio spun around and was about to snap at Miriam, but bit back his retort at the last second. He was still fuming, but the two magi walking up to him weren’t the targets of his ire, and he had enough discipline not to go around shouting at unrelated people just because someone had pissed him off. With an effort of will, he schooled his features into something approaching neutral. “Miriam, Willow. Inseparable as always, I see.” Miriam frowned. “Are you all right, Kio? Your voice is rather strained.” “I had a bit of a disagreement with the old bas… Sorry, with Albert. He has foolishly decided to forbid me from flying. But enough about me. What was it you wanted?” “We want to know what you did to Kaia.” Willow said bluntly. “I fixed the problem.” ”That’s impossible.” Miriam argued. “She was almost catatonic! The counsellors couldn’t get so much as a response out of her! There’s no way you could have fixed problems that severe in a single evening!” Kio raised an eyebrow. “I never said I fixed her problems. Of course I didn’t fix her problems. Soldiers get a full year of basic training just to make sure they can handle the trauma of their first live combat situation or their first kill. Kaia just went through both at the same time with no such training. It would take months to properly address that kind of trauma. Months that we simply don’t have.” “Then what did you do?” “I solved our problem. Kaia’s mental health is her problem. But Kaia being useless is our problem. I didn’t help Kaia. We don’t have time to help Kaia. There’s no quick fix for someone who’s that badly broken. But if you understand what the problem is, you can take an already broken person and break them in a different way. A useful way.” “That’s horrific!” “It’s necessary!” Miriam was about to argue further, but Kio held up a hand to silence her. His neutral mask slipped for a second, and he simply looked very, very tired. “Look, I’m not a monster, OK? I’m not proud of what I did, but it needed to be done. Besides, it’s not like I’ve sealed her doom or anything. When a person breaks the way Kaia is broken, they either burn themselves out, or they power through it. I’m from a military family. I’ve seen plenty of examples of both. And Kaia… I didn’t think much of her at first, but the more I get to know her, the more I respect her. There’s a real strength there. And she’s got people she cares about. That she’s willing to fight for. I’ve decided to put my faith in her, and I suggest you do the same.” Kaia was up late once again, circulating water magic through her body to keep her tiredness at bay as she studied text after text. Awa slept beside her, and the girl’s soft, even breaths provided a soothing background ambience to her studies. A pair of crimson droplets splattered against a paragraph on genetic manipulation, and Kaia frowned as she realized she was bleeding again. Without looking up from the text, she reached out to grab a tissue and wipe the blood from the tough resin page. The coppery taste of blood blossomed in her mouth as she reached up to wipe her face. With a small sigh, Kaia turned her focus inward. She had learned a lot about healing through water magic, and it was a simple matter for her to lower her own blood pressure and encourage the damaged blood vessels to heal. But it was a temporary fix at best. With a thoughtful frown, Kaia pondered how to reinforce her own body to handle the constant magical pressure better. Albert frowned as he studied the first report from the task force handling the cult papers. He definitely hadn’t expected a group of violent extremists to be this thorough. Among the different sets of papers, the task force had identified almost two dozen different ciphers, only one of which they had managed to crack. And the few bits of paperwork that weren’t encoded were mainly just receipts and budgeting related to basic supplies like food and other consumables… His frown deepened as he ran his eyes over the content summary on those financial papers one more time. There was something about the items purchased and where they were purchased from that stood out to him, somehow. With a huff he got up to find a copy of the city tax records, flipping through them until he got to a particular page. He briefly compared the numbers on the two documents, before glancing at a few of the decoded pages from the cult… “No… It couldn’t be…” But the more he looked into it, the more likely it seemed. With purposeful strides he started making his way to the room where the intelligence task force was still hard at work. If he was right about this, they had bigger problems than he’d thought.