Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward into the deadly magic.

  Nothing happened.

  “Oh, thank God.”

  Stepping closer, the portal flared to life and took me to a short, twenty-foot-long corridor with two doors on the left and two doors on the right. The corridor led into a twenty-foot-deep by thirty-foot-wide room with a small adamantine portal on the center of the far wall. My heart was still racing as I considered the area. This must be it! It was one of very few adamantine portals I’d found, and because of its construction, it had to be important. Out of curiosity I took a look in each of the little rooms beyond the doors in that corridor and found them to be full of clothes, personal items, small chests of coins, gems, and jewelry, and such things. There were so many items on shelves that I couldn’t even take them all in. They may have been mementos from Mordon and Ismaera’s long lives, so I didn’t touch them even though some of them were obviously magical in nature. I turned to the adamantine portal. As I drew closer, the helm showed me it was protected by a very deadly spell that looked like it would burn a person to ash when they stepped close enough. The helm should protect me, but I was still sweating from the last one and didn’t want to consider having to guess about something like this again. Death magic was not something to play with. But I liked my odds. I pressed on.

  The portal flared to life as I approached, and thankfully not with the deadly protective magic. The portal took me to a place like nothing I had ever seen before. I was standing on a smooth crystalline floor in a place that was so brightly lit that it took my eyes a minute to adjust. When they finally did, it looked like I was inside a giant diamond. The walls and ceiling were all covered by huge, sparkling diamonds projecting a foot or more into the chamber. Even wearing a helm with a smaller field of vision, I had to use my hand to shield my eyes. The source of the light was a single huge diamond. It was about five feet in diameter, and it hovered a few feet off the floor in the center of the room, slowly spinning in place. It had twenty sides, and I knew without a doubt that this was the Icosahedron, the source of all magic within the twenty-one worlds. Gems this size didn’t exist naturally, nor did they burn with the kind of immense power that I could feel inside it with my higher senses. My mouth went dry as I considered it. It was too much for me to take in all at once, and by some instinct, I took off Mordon’s helm with a sense of reverence. It was overwhelming.

  I remembered what Lord Warsong had said about the High Magi being able to channel more power because of their attunement with this artifact. I thought of the trials I had already been through, and I knew that I was inadequate for the tasks ahead. I opened myself to the Icosahedron, but I was too small and insignificant to channel more magical energies even though I was standing right next to it. The pain I felt was like fire through my whole body, and I stopped immediately. I thought of myself as tough enough to handle anything, but I was wrong. I had the distinct feeling that it would consume me if I were foolish enough to touch it.

  Calm approval

  What was that?! It was like a feeling was put into me. Like it was someone else who was feeling that, but it was me who was feeling it. I didn’t know such a thing was possible. Though the feeling was only that of approval, that fact didn’t make me feel any better. I was terrified.

  Grim approval

  “What is this? What’s going on?!” I asked.

  Sanctity

  The Icosahedron didn’t change in any way. It kept glowing. Slowly revolving.

  “Are you alive?”

  Certainty

  I took a step back. Whatever this was, I didn’t want to be too close to it.

  “Can you talk?”

  No response. I didn’t know whether it couldn’t talk to me or if it didn’t want to.

  Superiority

  Somehow, I knew that it wasn’t me that was superior. This thing had its own intelligence, and it was probably a lot greater than mine. There was no way to read this being’s face, and I only knew what it wanted me to know. The fact that it could manipulate me so easily was a giant warning to me, though. I suddenly felt like I was intruding in its home unbidden, and I knew I should be extremely careful in my dealings here.

  Contentment

  I was right. “Um, I’m really sorry that I intruded in your home. I didn’t know what was behind the portal.”

  Forgiveness

  “I’m not sure if you know this, but I don’t have anyone to teach me anything, or I probably wouldn’t have come here.”

  No response.

  “Is there anything you can tell me about how to proceed? What do I do?”

  No response.

  “Is there anyone who can teach me?”

  Solitude

  I was quiet for a little while, thinking. Giving the Icosahedron a chance to communicate something. But there was nothing. It looked like I had to figure this crap out on my own, and it pissed me off.

  “So, I’ll never have a teacher? I can only rely on myself? Well, thanks for nothing!”

  Indignation

  “Oh, spare me your indignation! You seem to be able to make me feel things, but have you ever thought of how it would feel to have to hide so you’re not put to death?! What about my parents? What do you think they feel? My whole family could be put to death if I’m discovered!”

  Caution

  Whether it was urging caution for me in dealing with it without making it angry or whether it was urging caution in my dealings with the authorities, I didn’t exactly know. I suspected it was warning me not to make a nuisance of myself right now. But I pressed on anyway.

  “How am I going to defend myself if I don’t learn anything? How can I help anyone or do any good if I don’t even know what I can do?”

  Determination

  “Well, why does it have to hurt so bad, anyway?!”

  Perseverance

  Humility

  That actually made a lot of sense. Power isn’t given to just anyone. How do you keep those special people who do get it from becoming tyrants? By making it hurt. By making magic the last resort rather than a weapon to be used against everyone else. No one would learn any kind of perseverance if they used magic for every little thing, either. Those lines of thought calmed me down quickly.

  Approval

  So, it could read minds. Great. If I was about to think of some way to trick it for some reason, I could throw that right out the window.

  Mirth

  So, it did have a sense of humor. That was actually encouraging. It probably wasn’t evil in nature. It might be a force for good, in fact. Maybe it was put here to help people.

  “Look, you know I’m all alone against whatever evil is in this world. Monsters. Ogres. Goblins. Fellton. Kromwell, and jerks like him. Xerith. I want to do right by people. Is there anything you can do to help me?”

  Renewal

  That was sobering. On some level, I knew it was coming, too. In order to be renewed, you have to be spent. There was almost never any way to help people in a meaningful way without it costing something. Whatever took out Mordon and Ismaera had to be formidable. What would it take to overcome it?

  “What do I have to do?”

  Sacrifice

  This wasn’t something I’d do lightly. Sacrifice was almost always unpleasant. I thought about it for a long while. I had a lot of doubts. Nora and Dortham didn’t raise me to be selfish, and the idea of risking everything to help others was infinitely preferable to hiding under a rock all my life. No one would benefit from that, and I’d probably end up dying a curmudgeonly old grump in the bargain.

  “I want to help people. I’ll do what I must.”

  Beckoning

  I drew close and reached out my hand. For good or ill, this was it. I touched the Icosahedron with my right hand. Immediately a huge surge of power blasted through me, excruciatingly painful in its intensity. I would have fallen to my knees, but my muscles were locked in place as the power rushed through me. My entire life flashed before my eyes, even the smallest moments, and I had the feeling that I was being judged. My memories were seared into my brain, displayed more vividly than I remembered seeing them the first time, even to the smallest detail. I could feel the magic changing me in ways that I couldn’t even describe. Then I couldn’t see anything but the flare of white light and I felt as though I were on fire. It was so much worse than any pain I’d ever felt, and I felt it in every part of my body. I felt like I should scream with the pain, but I couldn’t.

  Somehow, the Icosahedron was remaking me.

  Through all of the pain, on some deep emotional or spiritual level, I felt approval, calm, and peace. How I could feel those things in that instant I had no idea. They may not have even originated in me. I couldn’t tell. Suddenly the barrage to my senses ended.

  I stood still until I could see again. When my vision cleared, I was still standing in the diamond chamber with the Icosahedron spinning slowly in front of me, but my hands were at my side. I had dropped Mordon’s helm at some point, so I picked that up. I concentrated on what my limbs were feeling, and I realized I felt fine. All the aches and pains I had were gone. The magical power reserve I filled daily and kept about me was magnified a hundredfold at least, and it was completely effortless. I now had a deep, constant, and personal connection to the Icosahedron that I knew could never be taken away, and I wore the magical power like a mantle.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Or maybe the magic wore me now.

  I knelt on one knee and bowed my head. “I’ll do my best.”

  Approval

  On an instinctual level, I knew all the things I could do with magic before now were like a charlatan’s card tricks compared to what I could do now. The only problem was that I had no idea what I could do beyond the obvious things I used to be capable of. I was like a titan with the understanding of an infant, and I would have to be careful if I wanted to live. More importantly, I had to be careful for the sake of the people around me.

  Testing my limits, I used the magic I possessed to conjure a shield against projectiles. The magic snapped into being, stronger than ever before.

  And it didn’t hurt.

  In that moment, I was so happy. And thankful. I didn’t have to endure pain anymore when channeling magic! In fact, it felt glorious! There was a feeling of euphoria when channeling magic now. I remembered feeling a tiny amount of that underneath the pain when conjuring all the fire to destroy the undead under the Surekeel house, but now the pain was gone. Suddenly, I felt hope again.

  “Thanks.”

  There was nothing left to say. I donned Mordon’s helm and left the diamond chamber. I wasn’t sure if the protective spells in place would hurt me anymore, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way. Now that I had finally found some success, what I really needed was knowledge in how to use my new gifts. As I moved through Mordon’s suites, I noticed a spring in my step that I didn’t have before. I jumped a bit and was surprised to find that I had risen four feet off the ground. I could jump a lot higher if I wanted, too. If I was now that strong, I’d have to be careful not to hurt people I come into contact with. As I left Mordon’s bedroom, I walked into his study and put his helm back on his desk as he had left it. I then walked to the one place I was sure I could find knowledge in this castle, the library.

  As I stood outside the library doors, which were just outside Mordon’s chambers where the golems stood guard, I remembered the whole reason I went into Mordon’s bedroom to begin with. I shook my head in disbelief that I hadn’t thought of this earlier, then went to the kitchen down the hallway close to the throne room. Inside I picked up a good-sized pot and headed to the throne room. I was thinking about collecting the coins, and somehow I used magic to form a spell that scooped all the coins up from the floor and put them into the pot mentally by an intentional thought. I stopped for a moment in wonder. How did I even know how to do that? I practiced a little bit with a couple of coins, moving them here and there with my mind. I grinned like a little kid as I ended the spell.

  I picked up the pot of gold and took it to the room at the end of the hall at the opposite end of the corridor from Mordon’s rooms, then set the pot inside the bedroom in a chest at the end of the large bed. I went back to the corridor outside my new suite and to the right through the double doors that led to the library. Inside were the concentric rings of bookshelves with a walkway through the center that led to double doors on the opposite side of the huge room close to Mordon’s chambers.

  I read a few of the spines of the volumes close to the corridor and found they had nothing to do with magical instruction for beginners. There were thousands of books here and I wondered how I was going to find anything useful as I wandered over to the circular desk in the center of the room. I leaned against the desk for a moment to steady myself as I looked up. The ceiling was about forty feet up, and every bit of it was holding shelves of books. I looked at the desk as I thought about it and noticed that there were a couple of pictures carved into the surface. There was a square with a picture of an open book in one corner and a closed book carved in the opposite corner. I could sense a little magic there, so I ran my fingers across the open book carving and suddenly a book appeared. I looked at the title of it, and it said, “An Introduction to Magical Forces.” Smiling, I was astounded that this just happened. With the rest of what I had experienced today, I don’t know why that surprised me, but it did. I touched the closed book picture just to see what would happen, and the book disappeared. I touched the open book picture and it appeared again. I picked up the book and took it with me, intending to take it back to my new study and read it. When I got to the library doors, the book disappeared from my hand. Of course.

  I walked back to the desk and summoned the book again. There had to be chairs or sofas around here somewhere, so I walked to the outermost ring of books and followed the wall. Sure enough, I found a twenty by twenty-foot room with desks and armchairs in it. Choosing an armchair, I sat down and opened the book to read. Thankfully, it was written in terms that even an idiot like me could understand. It may have been around noon at the time, but I wasn’t hungry. I read as quickly as I could, which was a lot faster than I used to be able to read. My mind absorbed the information within the book with perfect recall as time went by. Finally, I was making progress.

  -----

  I spent some time reading the book. In time my stomach started growling. The Icosahedron was no joke. There was a part in the book that stressed greatly that the Icosahedron could not be attuned to an unworthy person. In cases where selfish or dishonorable people had tried to become attuned to its power, the Icosahedron had instantly incinerated them. Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t know. It worked out well in the end, I guess, but that lack of understanding could have gotten me killed, and I’m not sure I would have tried to attune myself to the source had I known the consequences.

  Though the book wasn’t filled with very specific information, as it’s kind of difficult to describe what a person’s magical senses are telling them, I needed time to process what the book described. The writer seemed to know what they were talking about, so trying to ignore their methods and do things my own way seemed like a bad idea. After returning the book, I thought about it as I left the library and took the portals to the roof. When I appeared there, I saw that the sun was low in the western sky. It was definitely time for dinner. I made sure the portal was closed safely and teleported into my room in my family’s home. I could hear them chatting below, and I was so excited to tell them what had happened that I took the stairs two at a time.

  “Look out!” Mira yelled out. She jumped out of her chair, knocking it over behind her, and grabbed her knife, throwing it at me the instant I came around the corner at the bottom of the stairs. She threw it hard, too.

  I was a bit surprised, but this was hardly the first time Mira had thrown a knife at me. My shielding spell came up and deflected the knife purely by reflex. All those times that Mira had playfully popped out of nowhere to throw something at me when we were growing up had really paid off today. Of course, I knew the difference between Mira’s playful toss and a deadly throw, and I was very surprised that she actually tried to kill me just now. The knife clattered to the wood floor and spun twice before coming to rest.

  “Whoa! Hey! It’s just me,” I said with my arms partly extended and palms up. “Why all the pointy stuff?”

  Mira actually looked afraid. She was wide eyed and tense and had already drawn another knife from somewhere and held it pointed at me. Everyone else was patting at themselves with their napkins to wipe up whatever they were consuming when Mira startled them.

  “Jeron?” Mira asked.

  “Yeah, who else would it be?” I asked.

  Bandit peeked around the table leg, looking at me with wide eyes. She still had half of a chicken wing stuck in her mouth, and she didn’t look like she would give it up without a fight.

  “Um. Sorry,” Mira said.

  Blushing, she put her knife away and sat down quickly. She looked away but kept giving me sidelong glances. The way her shoulders were tensed, I knew she was on edge still, but I didn’t want to disturb anyone further by telling them about my day, especially with the little ones present. I picked up her thrown knife and returned it to her.

  “Thanks a lot,” Bran said to Mira, giving her a dirty look and wiping the gravy off of his shirt.

  Everyone took a moment to calm their nerves. They all looked to Mira, then me, wondering what the problem was, so I tried brushing the incident off.

  “What’s this? No one thought to wait for me before eating?” I asked in mock incredulity.

  Dortham looked up from his plate. “You snooze, you lose, pal.”

  There were grins at that as I sat and helped myself to what was left. There was still plenty of food there. Looking around at some of the empty plates, I saw that my brothers could have helped themselves to a second serving but didn’t. Once I loaded my plate, there was a free for all for the best things still available. Bran sure didn’t waste any time snatching a serving spoon.

  “Thanks for leaving me some,” I said to everyone. I dug in.

  “We waited a little while, but the food was getting cold. Where were you, dear?” Nora asked.

  “I was reading and lost track of time. Sorry about that,” I said with my mouth full.

  “You’re different,” Mira said simply. She looked a little scared and concerned at the same time, if that makes any sense. Her shoulders were still very tense.

  I nodded a little. When I regarded her, I could sense her ability to use magic. It felt like a little flower she was holding. Maybe she could sense something similar about me. I finished chewing.

  “I’m all right, Mira,” I said reassuringly. “Big news for later.” I gave a sidelong glance at my little nephews for emphasis.

  Mira paused for a moment, then gave me her news. “The prince wants us to transport goods to and from Mithram for the next few months, just as Mr. Smith thought. He’s going to pay me two hundred gold royals per trip, and he’ll be assigning our talon as guards on the ship.”

  “Hey, that’s good news,” I said. “Two hundred gold coins is a lot of money for a four-day trip.”

  “I sure thought so. Maybe we can make a business out of this,” Mira suggested slyly.

  I smiled. “Sounds great. Travel the world. Couple of B.U.M.M.s to do our loading for us. We’re starting off with a big client, too.”

  Mira smiled. “It’s only temporary so far. The four of us have an equal stake in the ship as I see it, but Bran and Elle haven’t made their opinions known yet,” Mira said with a significant glance at Bran and Elle.

  “I don’t mind so much one way or another,” Elle said. “I have the feeling that I’ll have other priorities soon, but we’ll figure that out when it comes up.”

  “That sounds ominous,” Mira said.

  “The Xerith are in control of the Church of the Overgod, which sends out the Executors. The business in Seacrown showed us that they plant false religions in other cities, too. When our military duty’s completed in a few months, I’ll be giving that my full attention,” Elle said. She paused a moment and adopted a softer tone. “I couldn’t help but notice that the four of us are very well suited to such a task. Don’t you want to end a corrupting influence in our world?”

  Mira’s face turned red. “Well, yeah. Sure. I guess I never really thought about it.”

  “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, you know. I think we can make the world a better place,” Elle said earnestly.

  Elle was able to channel divine power to heal people of any injury just like the priests of old could. She was instrumental in destroying the churches of the false gods Amagor and Zepha in Seacrown that encouraged people to practice abominable things like sacrificing their children and engage in temple prostitution for “divine blessings.” She was probably the only connection to the one, true God, and Aldon sorely needed that right now, even if we didn’t know it.

  “I’ll help with that, Elle,” I said. “I have a vested interest in dealing with the Executors, as you know. I haven’t found out for sure who Kromwell’s working for yet, either.”

  “Hey, why hasn’t anyone tracked him down yet, anyway?” Elric asked. “He deserves some special attention with a ball peen hammer.”

  “Indeed, he does,” I said. “Right now, Kromwell’s marching to the west with the sad remnants of his army. I‘ve done nothing so far because I want to know who he works for. After we broke up the demon cult, he left with almost nothing. Somehow, he now has an army of ogres and goblins at his disposal. He has to have a patron or master somewhere that made all this happen. We’re playing with high stakes, and I want to know what’s really going on before I act. There were engineers from Fellton embedded in the invading force, so I suspect King Karnas of Fellton may be his true master. I don’t want to create an international incident without knowing for sure, though.”

  “That’s a good reason,” Elric said.

  “I’ve learned recently that Mordon himself was very concerned about something around twenty to twenty-five years ago and that he went to confront it. No one’s seen him since,” I said a little too casually.

  “Mordon? The High Mage? The same Mordon who was commanding the Confederation forces at the time of the Breaking? That Mordon?” Bran asked.

  “The one and only,” I said. I spared a small glance at Dortham and Nora, then looked down at my plate. “I have it on good authority that he and his wife Ismaera are my real parents.”

  I could have heard a pin drop when I said that. Mira’s first reaction was horrified denial. She quickly smoothed her face out, but I saw what she really thought in that instant. I didn’t like what that portended for our relationship. The cat was out of the bag now, though. Everyone else at the table just sort of stared at me, lost in their own thoughts.

  “I’m not sure I want to know any more,” Bran said.

  I looked at Dortham and Nora earnestly. “As far as I’m concerned, I only have one mom and dad. I don’t think my life could have been any better in any other family, and I want you all to know that you’re my real family despite whoever my birth parents are. Except for Bran, of course. He’s one idiot I’d be glad to be rid of.”

  That effectively broke the mood as grins erupted and affirmations of Bran’s general ineptitude were thrown about. We all knew we were kidding, though. Every one of my brothers and my father were very large men and strong as oxen. Bran was good at a lot of things, too. He had the skills to be a fine smith if he wanted to be one. With the abilities he showed as a warrior and the way he could sense evil, I had the feeling that he’d be a very good counterpart to Elle’s priestly calling. Bran was the more militant side of that coin, and he would certainly protect Elle with his life. I believed that Bran carried Vengeance as part of a divine purpose since it was a dream that guided him to it in the first place. His part in all of this was definitely not done yet.

  We all had a good time at the table for a while, but eventually had to break up so Bran, Elle, Mira, and I could report back to the barracks in the first level of Stonekeep Castle. Tomorrow our duties would change substantially, and probably for the better.