Mora did her best not to sigh as Willow and Miriam fussed over her. They’d come to see her the moment the doctors decided she was well enough to receive visitors. It was nice of them, she supposed, but in all honesty she would probably have preferred to be alone. Not that she was going to tell them that, of course. She didn’t want to hurt their feelings. “But you’re sure you’re all right?” Willow asked for the fifth time, and Mora bit back the urge to give a scathingly sarcastic response. “Well, I’m not exactly in top shape…” She finally replied. “I still can’t stand up without getting dizzy. But I’m getting better. The healers can’t exactly do much because of… you know… but they’ve given me some medicine, and the scans they were able to take don’t show any signs of internal bleeding. It really was just a concussion, even if it was a pretty bad one.” “Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Miriam said. “Just tell us if there’s anything you need, understand?” ‘Please go away.’ Mora thought, but she didn’t say anything. She felt like she should be grateful that these two came to see her, but she really just wanted them to go away and stop fussing. She supposed Miriam holding her hand was sort of nice. The fire magus’s hand had a deep, gentle warmth to it that penetrated even her stony skin. But Willow’s hand gently stroking her arm might as well have been rubbing at a statue. She could see his hand touching her skin, but she felt nothing at all. Kio brought Sunflower in for a landing, the sturdy, dappled mare touching down with surprising grace given the sheer bulk of muscle on her body. The pegasus snorted happily, still giddy with glee after the impressive twists and turns the pair had pulled off in the airspace over the castle. A month ago, Kio would have scoffed at the idea of flying a hauler like Sunflower. But despite her bulky build, Sunflower had proven to have an insatiable appetite for daring stunts and high-speed flights, and with the help of Kio’s powerful wind magic, she flew faster and turned sharper than any hauler had ever done before. Kio sighed wistfully as he patted the mare on the side of the neck. “At least you’re happy. Guess entertaining you is all I’m good for right now. I can’t believe that old bastard still won’t let me fly a mission. Unacceptable risks my ass. If you and me flew solo there’s not a thing in these skies that could catch us. We could get a load of fancy new gadgets from here to the front lines before that old goat could blink!” Sunflower nickered softly and nuzzled him with enough force that he had to brace himself to keep her from knocking him over. He laughed as he gave the dappled mare another pat. “I know, I know. He’s got his own problems to deal with, and he doesn’t want to take any risks. Especially not with Mora in the hospital and everything. I just wish there was something useful I could do!” He sighed deeply and leaned forwards, putting his forehead up against Sunflower’s. “And Willow and Miriam are still getting on my case about Kaia. But I did what I had to do!” Sunflower whinnied a little reproachfully as he raised his voice. “Sorry, sorry. I just…” He sighed deeply. “I just hope she’s going to be OK.” Sunflower didn’t reply, because she was a pegasus and she had no way of knowing what he was talking about. But she did understand that he was sad and worried about something. So she snorted and pushed him hard enough to send him tumbling backwards onto the deep, soft straw that covered the floor. Because that always seemed to cheer him up. Kaia was reading in bed again, her mind awhirl with information as she tore through the books she had borrowed from the library. Next to her Awa was fast asleep and snoring gently. With a fond smile, Kaia reached out and gently placed a hand on the girl’s throat. Pushing a tiny bit of water magic into Awa’s body, she tried to diagnose the cause of the snoring. After comparing what she felt to what she’d read in her studies, she realized there was a tension in the jaw muscles that had pushed the girl’s jaw into a poor position which served to partially obstruct her breathing. With a simple application of water magic, Kaia eased the tension in the jaw and grinned as Awa’s snoring gradually cleared up. It was a clear sign that she was progressing well in her studies. But it wasn’t enough. She was still a long way away from solving the problem of the imbalance. The answer had to be somewhere in these books, she was sure of it! With a determined frown, she returned to her studies. But less than half an hour later, she found herself having difficulty focusing her eyes on the pages. At first she thought it was simple drowsiness, but as she blinked her eyes and looked around she realized her left eye was refusing to change its focus properly. She felt a tear rolling down her cheek and reached up to wipe it away, only for her hand to come away slick with blood. “Well… That’s not great…” Channelling her magic, Kaia started repairing the damage to the eye and the muscles surrounding it. But it wasn’t good enough. She could feel the wear and tear on the tissue around the eyes, muscles and blood vessels worn down by the extreme amounts of water magic she’d been using to keep herself awake and alert since the attack. The human body simply wasn’t designed to handle that much magic… But maybe it could be… With the new idea burning in her mind, Kaia started flooding her eye with magic, trying to scan and memorize every aspect of the eye, down to the last detail. Then, she started deconstructing it, her magic breaking down the eye into its component parts. She ignored the strange flashes of random colour she perceived as her optic nerve was partially broken down, and instead focused on everything she had learned about anatomy and magic. Carefully, with extreme precision, she used the components swirling around in her eye socket to construct a new eye. A better eye. An eye that could hold up under the extreme magical pressures she was subjecting it to. She blinked a few times as she adjusted to the new eye. It seemed to be working fine. In fact, it seemed to be working better than the old one had. Its vision was sharper, it refocused quicker… But there was something else. Some kind of strange glow to the world that she couldn’t quite make sense of… At least, not until she looked over to Awa and saw the soft blue glow emanating from the girl. Focusing on her own hand, she saw the same blue glow surrounding it. Experimentally, she called on her magic to condense droplets of water from the air, and gasped as she saw the blue light pouring out of her, suffusing the air and contracting into little pinpricks as the droplets formed and hovered in the air before her. Going up to the window and looking out across the city, Kaia was stunned by the things she saw. A glowing yellow streak cutting through the air as a pegasus courier on an overnight delivery used wind magic to propel their mount through the sky. Flickering flares of red from the central market as a street performer used fire magic to entertain the crowds emerging from the closing bars. Little twinkling lights of pure white from magical engines and devices all across the city… “Now this could be very useful.” With renewed determination, Kaia began to reconstruct her other eye. Mora lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. She was tired, but she just couldn’t seem to get to sleep. She could feel the stone of the hospital all around her, pushing against her senses, boxing her in. And all around it, she could feel the entire city, stone and earth and gravel and concrete stretching on and on for miles. She hugged her pillow to her chest with a soft whimper, but she couldn’t even feel it against her stony skin. Anything softer than a rock simply couldn’t budge her hard exterior… Something about that thought made her pause, and after a few moments of indecision she called for a nurse. It took a bit of arguing to get the nurse to agree to fetch a large stone for her, but after good thirty minutes the nurse finally relented, leaving briefly before returning with a burly orderly carrying a sizeable paving stone. Once the nurse and the orderly had left, Mora looked at the stone thoughtfully. It was nothing special, just a block of rough-hewn granite, about a foot long and six inches wide and thick. But she could feel every aspect of it resonating in her mind. With an effort of will, she started pushing more and more of her magic into it, suffusing it with power until it almost glowed. And then she started to reshape it, the stone flowing almost like a liquid as it twisted and contorted into the shape of an arm and a hand. Directing the stone appendage with her magic, she made it brush against her cheek and run its fingers through her rock-hard hair. The friction of reshaping the stone in such a way had heated it up, not enough to glow, but enough that it would burn most people who touched it. But through Mora’s rocky skin, it just felt pleasantly warm. She nuzzled into the stone hand with a soft sigh, using her magic to make it stroke her face soothingly. As she finally started to relax, she felt a wave of exhaustion washing over her. With an effort of will, she reshaped the stone arm into the shape of the stuffed bunny toy she had when she was little. Snuggling the stony facsimile of her old toy to her chest, Mora gradually drifted off to sleep. Albert glared at the mess of papers in front of him, as if his withering gaze would somehow change what was on them. The sun was slowly rising outside his window, but even after trying to disprove his own theory all through the night he could come to only one conclusion. He had realized almost instantly that these cultists weren’t just purchasing supplies at normal retailers. Most of their purchases came from wholesale suppliers, the kind that generally only did business with retailers and large companies. That was troublesome in and of itself, since it suggested the cult either had the necessary skills to set up shadow companies as a smokescreen or had enough highly placed members to sneak these transactions into the business done by existing companies… But further investigations had revealed something even more troubling. These transactions were indeed being concealed among the business done by a different company, and it had been done so skilfully that Albert doubted anyone could possibly have noticed without having the cult’s receipts in hand to compare. This sort of thing couldn’t happen without the assistance of several highly ranked executives within the company. And that bothered Albert more than a little, because the company in question was Steiner Holdings, and it belonged to his own family. The Steiner family could trace its ancestry back to both Queen Maya of the Sunlit Kingdom and Prince Sven of the Starlit kingdom, and throughout the years Steiners had held both the position of sunlit magus of earth and starlit magus of earth more than once. As a result of this, Steiner Holdings, the company that handled the Family’s financial interest, was traditionally divided into two, the Starlit Branch and the Sunlit Branch. Albert was the current head of the Starlit Branch, but all these transactions had been handled by the Sunlit Branch, which was currently run by his sister. Albert would have loved to be able to say that something like this couldn’t have possibly gone on under his sister’s nose, but he knew that simply wasn’t true. Adelaide Steiner was a brilliant woman, but she generally focused her attention on magical research and the occasional spot of inventing. She never had much talent for business, nor any particular interest in finances, so she mostly just let the company run itself. Albert groaned tiredly as he got out of his chair. “Stars above, Adelaide! Why do I always have to deal with your messes?” Awa kept shooting glances at Kaia as the two of them went about their work in the laboratory. She couldn’t help but feel like there was something different about her today. But it wasn’t until the two of them went to get lunch that she finally figured it out. “Your eyes!” She shouted, rather startling everyone else in the university cafeteria. “Awa, indoor voice.” Kaia reprimanded with a slight wince. “Sorry, sorry.” Awa muttered sheepishly. “But seriously, your eyes! They’re so blue.” “My eyes were always blue, Awa. Pretty much the first thing people tend to remark on when they see me is how blue my eyes are.” “Yeah, but not like this! They’re almost glowing. What happened?” “All right, fine, I’ll tell you. I noticed I was having trouble with the amount of magic I was running through my body, and it was making my eyes get blurry and start bleeding…” “They WHAT?” Awa shouted in alarm. “Indoor voice, Awa.” “Don’t you ‘indoor voice’ me! Not after pushing yourself so hard your eyes started bleeding! What were you thinking?” “It’s fine, Awa. I took care of it.” “Took care of it how, exactly?” “I used my magic to disassemble my eyes and rebuild them better. They won’t start bleeding from magical strain again.” Awa just stared at her slack-jawed. “…What?” Kaia asked, feeling a little awkward at the stare. “You disassembled your eyes?” “Well, yeah, so? I was pretty sure I knew how to put them back together again.” “Pretty sure!?” “Look, it worked out fine, ok? In fact, it worked out better than fine. I can actually see magic now.” “…Really?” “Yes! It’s like colours swirling in the air. Just imagine how much help this will be to the project!” “That’s fascinating! I wonder how… No, stop trying to distract me! No matter how amazing your new eyes are, breaking apart your eyes like that was unbelievably reckless! You need to stop pushing yourself so hard, Kaia. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” Kaia looked away sheepishly, but she didn’t answer. Because she understood the feeling all too well. She certainly didn’t want anything bad to happen to Awa. And if she had to tear herself apart to make sure it didn’t, then so be it. Mora stood up and walked around the room a few times. She was still a little dizzy, but the healers had declared her well enough to leave the hospital, as long as she was careful and made absolutely sure not to jostle her head. But before she left, there was one more thing she needed to take care of. Slipping out of her hospital gown, Mora turned towards the packages lying on the bed. She had placed the order first thing in the morning, and thanks to her connections in mineral trading she had received it just after lunch. A large amount of jadeite, malachite and nephrite, along with some emerald and green tourmaline for decoration. None of it was of the highest quality, but the price tag had still been rather hefty. But it would be worth it. With an effort of will, she started pouring earth magic into the stones, suffusing their internal structure with so much magic they started visibly glowing with power. At her command, the individual stones started merging and melding together, flattening into wide sheets of stone that rippled and shook as she directed the power held within them. Using the traditional silken garb of an earth magus as her inspiration, Mora shaped the gleaming green minerals into an elaborate outfit decorated with glittering gemstones. To anyone else, the magic-infused stone would be utterly unyielding and nigh indestructible, but to Mora’s touch it bent and flexed like the cloth it sought to emulate. With a triumphant grin, Mora got dressed in the heavy stone garments. She could feel them moving and resting against her skin, much like cloth had felt to her before the change. These stone clothes, laden with powerful magic, felt real and present in a way cloth no longer could. Stepping into the bathroom, Mora looked herself in the mirror. And for the first time since her transformation, she didn’t see a statue looking back at her. She saw a person made of stone. She saw Mora. “Well now…” She muttered approvingly to herself. “That’s more like it!” Jarak was not a particularly clever person. He didn’t like complicated things, and he wasn’t the best at making plans. Nor was he the most reliable person. He often did things on a whim for no other reason than to see what would happen. But he was a very determined person. When it came to protecting his friends, there was nothing in the world that could stop him. And even more than that, he was a dangerous person. Possibly the most dangerous person who had ever lived. He was, in fact, the worst possible person to make an enemy of. But up until recently, he’d never really had very many enemies. And the few he did end up with never lasted for very long. But this was different. Now there was a whole group of people who had showed that they wanted to hurt his friends. They’d shot at Kio. They’d tried to blow up Awa and Kaia. They’d attempted to poison Miriam and Willow (and Albert, but Jarak didn’t particularly care about Albert). And they had even planned to hurt his orphan friends. That was more than enough to make the whole lot of them his enemies. If Jarak had known a way to burn them all to ash in an instant without hurting any of his friends, he would have done so. But he didn’t. So he had to settle for simply hunting them down like the despicable vermin they were. That was why Jarak had taken to prowling the streets, keeping out of sight while sending little tendrils of warmth out to search every passer-by for the amulet his enemies tended to wear. He didn’t find many. In fact, he suspected many of his enemies had stopped wearing them for fear of being discovered. But every so often, he managed to find someone wearing the bronze amulet with the gauntleted fist and the sun and star symbol. And when he did find it, he made sure there was nothing left of the wearer but ashes on the wind. Kaia was sitting awake in bed once again, although this time it had taken much longer than usual for Awa to fall asleep. Kaia suspected that the girl had been trying to keep an eye on her. But alas, Awa’s many talents did not include staying awake late into the night, and just before midnight she had dropped off into a peaceful slumber. But tonight, Kaia wasn’t reading. She was contemplating her body. She had already done some more work on it since last night. Strengthening blood vessels, repairing tissue damage, reinforcing her heart. Things to make her less susceptible to damage from magic overuse. But in the end, she knew it wasn’t enough. Because ultimately, none of it really mattered if she couldn’t do the same for her brain. She couldn’t help but feel apprehensive. Sure, briefly stopping her own heart so she could work to improve it had been rather nerve-racking, but since she had already figured out how to use magic to push her blood through her veins, it hadn’t been a huge risk. But her brain was different. Her brain was the very centre of everything that made Kaia who she was, and she was worried that if she started messing around with it, she would stop being herself. Looking over to the girl sleeping peacefully by her side, Kaia’s expression hardened. Awa was still in danger. It would be nice to think that the worst was over after the attack at the lab, but Kaia knew better. The cult would be back sooner or later, and even if they weren’t, this entire world was still at risk. Awa needed protection more than ever, and things would surely get worse before they got better. Steeling herself, Kaia focused on her magic, sending tendrils of energy flowing through her body and into her brain. But the very moment the probing energy touched her brain, it was as if her mind lit up with an uncontrollable, torrential flood of thoughts and images. Every memory, every thought, every feeling, dream and nightmare seemed to assault her mind all at once. And right at the centre of it, overshadowing everything else, was the sound of First River sliding through flesh and bone and the sight of blood and innards spilling across the laboratory floor. Awa awoke to a shrill scream. Looking around, she spotted Kaia thrashing and shaking wildly, screaming her lungs out as a torrent of water magic roiled around her and a brilliant blue light shone from her wide open eyes and mouth. Panicked and confused, Awa tried to grab at the girl, hoping to hold her still long enough to figure out what was wrong. But Kaia had an athletic build, and despite her recent brush with exercise in the form of training with her sword, Awa was still mostly built like the weedy little bookworm she truly was. Try as she might, there was no way Awa could possibly hold Kaia down for more than a moment. Scared and confused, Awa did the only thing that popped into her head. She lunged forward, planting her lips against Kaia’s in a clumsy, desperate kiss. And the moment she did so, a pulse of water magic leapt from Kaia’s body, grounding itself in Awa’s head. For a brief moment, the two of them were perfectly connected, feeling each other’s feelings and thinking each other’s thoughts. The pain and fear and guilt and nausea surrounding the memory of the woman’s death in the laboratory stood out to Awa like a beacon, so she did the only thing she could think of. She took as much of those memories as she could into herself, stealing away the guilt and the fear and hiding them inside her own mind. Almost as quickly as it had appeared, the roiling storm of water magic vanished, leaving the room silent and dark. Well, mostly silent. As Kaia gradually returned to her senses, she realized Awa was sobbing gently into her chest. With a trembling, uncertain hand, she started petting the girl’s hair, trying to calm her down. “Hey, now. It’s OK. It’s all going to be OK.” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Awa mumbled out between sobs, her words muffled by the fabric of Kaia’s nightshirt. “You’re sorry?” Kaia said incredulously. “What on earth are you sorry for?” “I saw it…” Awa sobbed. “I saw how awful you felt. How much it hurt. And you did it all to protect me. I’m sorry, Kaia. I’m sorry you had to hurt so much for my sake.” “Sssh… It’s OK.” Kaia said gently. “It’s not your fault. You don’t have anything to apologize for, OK? You didn’t do anything wrong.” “But… But…” “No buts! Yes, I wanted to protect you, but that was my choice. And I’m going to keep protecting you. Because that’s what I want to do. So stop crying, OK?” Awa’s sobs gradually grew quiet. But once she had stopped crying, she looked up at Kaia, her bloodshot eyes narrowed with determination. “Then I’m going to protect you too!” “Awa, you don’t have to…” “Yes I do!” Awa interrupted hotly. “I don’t want you getting hurt for my sake. Not now, not ever. So from now on, I’m going to protect you!” Kaia considered arguing, but in the end she just smiled warmly. “All right, you win. From now on, we’ll protect each other.”