The oxygen was sucked toward the flame, fueling Kiya’s fire. She released the Focusing at Lore, her face twisted in rage.

  Kar had already thrown himself between them, his Voidcryst arm out-thrust. The Focusing died as it left Kiya’s hand. She cursed, spinning around like a cornered cryst-beast, looking from Erio and the pair of guardians back to Lore and Kar.

  Then she fled. Through the fifth trial chamber, and back into the Hall.

  How could she attack her own sister? He turned to Lore. Her face was flushed, and she trembled, fists balled tightly.

  “Are… you okay?” Kar asked.

  “No, I am not. Idiot is going to get herself killed.” She clenched her teeth, then made to follow Kiya.

  Kar caught her hand, and Lore turned on him. “She wouldn’t have actually struck me.”

  He scoffed without meaning to. “Well. She had me convinced.”

  Lore wrenched her hand free. “I have to talk to her. Alone,” she said, then stalked out into the Hall.

  Kar ran his crystal fingers through his hair in frustration, then turned to Erio, “I’m going to follow them.” He paused, thinking about the portal doors between the trials, and the archives. They were all stuck open, inoperable.

  There was a danger in that—and an opportunity. If Melisdra failed, if the Shadowcryst overwhelmed her and her forces, then they could freely enter the Archives. Into Iridess and Valor.

  Kar shivered thinking about the havoc they would wreak.

  But on the other hand… as long as the way was open, the survivors of Darby here in the fortress still had somewhere they could flee.

  “Erio. I think we should try to get the refugees to evacuate this way. This may be their only chance to escape the Shadowcryst.”

  On hearing that term, the two Enclave Guardians tensed up. “Have you seen shadowcryst?” the man asked.

  Kar nodded wearily. “I accidentally let them in. There’s a battle going on out there right now.”

  The man nodded solemnly. “We need to warn the Elders, then. We will be back with help.” Then he and the woman both turned and dashed back into the Archives.

  “Thank you,” Kar called after them. He started to turn in the opposite direction, Erio limping behind him, but then recalled how he had helped repair Tharn’s broken body all those weeks ago.

  “Here, let me try something…” he said, stepping over to the injured Valorcryst.

  He pressed Ember against Erio’s exposed chest—the crystal there was smooth, almost translucent—and Focused.

  “Oh. I wanted to ask you who this was.” Ember said.

  Erio frowned, confused. “Whose voice is that?”

  “You can hear me!” Ember cried excitedly.

  Kar raised his eyebrows, but otherwise concentrated on the task at hand. He poured Ember’s Energia into the cracks in Erio’s body, and used it to reform the missing chunks and cracks he found. The replacement crystal was a slightly different hue than Erio’s original; whiter, but compatible.

  “Yes, I can hear you. My name is Erio.”

  “I am glad to meet you Erio. I am Ember. I am a Prism. What are you?”

  “A… Prism?” Erio asked, trying out the word. “I am of the Valorcryst.”

  Kar stepped away, his work complete, taking Ember with him.

  Erio straightened, twisting and turning to test out his newly repaired form. “Incredible.” He whispered. Then his faceted cryst eyes widened, and he smiled.

  “He can still hear me,” Ember told Kar excitedly. “Whatever you did, made it so I can sense him even when I am not physically in contact with him.”

  Kar’s eyebrows rose. That could be useful.

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  Ember fell silent as Kar turned and jogged back toward the Hall, to the Hub Realm. Kar presumed it was busy talking to its new friend Erio. A moment later the Valorcryst fell in beside Kar, running easily. “I will bring the people to safety here, while you go warn Melisdra.”

  That was a good idea. Kar nodded in acknowledgement, then looked down and spoke to Ember. “Hey, how’s Nat doing? Can you talk to her from here? Get an update on Aldwin?”

  They were past the first basin now, back into the Hall of Trials. Kar didn’t see any sign of Lore or Kiya. He took off jogging toward the large entrance doors at the end of the Hall, while Erio ran over and picked up his fallen Lance.

  The wheels in Kar’s mind turned. He kept looking at Ember, held in his left hand. The Energia from the Prism seemed to let him do some kind of alternative to his Shadow Forging… what did he call that? Ember Forging? Kar figured that was as good a term as any.

  Kar Ember-forged, creating chain links of white Encryst. He formed a netted pouch of those links, into which he secured Ember. He cinched it tightly against his chest.

  “Can you hear me still?” Kar asked. They were out into the courtyard now, crossing the training grounds.

  “Yes, I can hear you,” the Prism replied. “Natalie has left Aldwin with Isa and the Guardians. She is returning with Derek and some of the other Guardians.”

  That must mean Aldwin was stable, at least. Kar breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, tell them to help Erio evacuate everyone out here into the Archives.”

  There was a brief moment of silence in Kar’s head, then Ember responded,“Natalie would like to know what you will be doing.”

  How did he even explain who Melisdra was? There wasn’t time for that. “Tell her… there’s just something I have to take care of.”

  Erio raced past, waving towards the nearest survivors from Darby, while Kar pressed on, through the gate and out into the outer grounds. He saw Kiya then, jets of flame driving her up and over the main gate.

  Where was she going? Darby and the Shadowcryst threat was in the opposite direction, that much at least made sense. Who in their right mind would head towards that?

  No, she was headed back in the direction from which they’d approached the fortress all those weeks ago. Either she was just heading away from danger, or was trying to return to the sky portal through which they’d arrived.

  He spotted Lore, sitting on the lawn, knees drawn up, her back to him. Kar sprinted to her side, worried Kiya had hurt her.

  She was crying, her body shaking softly, but didn’t appear to be physically harmed. Kar wasn’t sure what to do. He finally knelt beside her, wrapping his Encryst arm around her.

  “She really left this time.” Lore whispered, snagging hold of Kar’s ripped shirt.

  Kar stroked her hair, hoping it provided some comfort. There wasn’t sensation in his fingers, not like there should be.

  “If she wasn’t so rifting selfish,” Lore continued, darkly. She reached down and grabbed fistfuls of turf, ripping it up.

  A low rumble shook the ground, followed by a distant roar.

  Kar glanced back in that direction. It had come from Darby—probably the Shade-Titan.

  He needed to tell Melisdra about the trial doors. Maybe Kar could convince her to pull back to the Archives and defend that. He hated the idea of anyone else dying over all this.

  “I’m sorry Lore. About your sister.” Kar stood, pulling her up with him. “She might just need some time to calm down, think things through. Right now though, I need to get you back to the Archives. It’s not safe here.”

  Lore just barked a bitter laugh, then harshly wiped the tears from her face. She let Kar lead her back towards the gate to the inner wall though.

  People were crowding towards it now, and Kar saw Erio there, waving everyone through.

  That roar repeated, louder now, closer. Had it killed or driven off the new Herald Melisdra had mentioned? Kar pushed through the press to reach Erio, Lore’s hand held tightly in his.

  “Stay with Erio!” He shouted to her, handing her off to the Valorcryst. Erio nodded, and Lore shuffled over to him, not making eye contact with Kar. That worried him. He got the sense she blamed him somehow for how things had just gone down with Kiya. Hells if he knew why, but that was something to deal with later.

  “I’ll be back!” He shouted, then turned and pushed his way through the crowd. Toward the wall facing Darby.

  The remaining Valorcryst and their cryst-soldiers were packed along the battlements there, blocks of reservists stationed along the grounds just behind the wall.

  Were they expecting a breakthrough?

  Kar raced past them, his heart beating in his chest. There was a pressure in the air he couldn’t describe. Smoke curled up above the fortress’s defenses, and the sun overhead struggled to pierce through it.

  A Valorcryst in battered armor planted itself at the base of the steps leading up. “Her Radiance gave orders for you to depart, Marked one.”

  Kar struggled not to let his annoyance show. “We tried to, that’s why I’m here. I need to warn Melisdra. Something is wrong with the Source and the trial doors.”

  The Valorcryst didn’t move, eyeing Kar suspiciously, and Ember who glowed at his chest.

  “I need to speak with her,” Kar pleaded.

  It wavered, then relented, jerking its head and hurrying up the steps towards the battlements above. Kar released the breath he didn’t know he was holding, and followed.

  “What is this place, Karalinde…” Ember said softly in his head.

  “Something called a Hub Realm.” Kar told him.

  The din of battle was growing loud now, Shadowcryst screeches mixed with the impacts of javelins and Cylinder blasts.

  They pushed behind the defenders packed in at the top, balancing along the narrow strip atop the wall until they reached the portion of the wall overhanging the gate here. Melisdra side-eyed Kar dangerously as he approached.

  She turned away from the burning rubble of Darby and the host of Shadowcryst pressed up against the wall below.

  “You are supposed to have left, Kar,” She shouted.

  “I only came back to warn you!”

  Melisdra noticed Ember then, and stepped forward, hand outstretched.

  A deafening roar shattered the air, and the Shade-Titan plowed through one of the remaining blocks of nearby town structures.

  It bore down on the wall, directly toward the gate where Kar and Melisdra stood. Toward Ember.

  With a sick realization, Kar remembered what the Prism was, a massive well of untapped Energía. Energía the Shade-Titan—and every other Shadowcryst here—could Absorb.