Kalden sat in his lab, putting the final touches on Relia’s shardbreaker pill. He’d already refined the herbs, which was arguably the hardest step of the process. Those sat in the refrigerator now, waiting for the final two reagents.

  The solvium and helocite had to bond at fifty-five degrees over three hours. A few degrees higher, and the solvium would dissolve. Any colder, and the helocite would solidify. Fortunately, the Unmarked had several alchemy-grade thermometers in the lab, and he’d attached those to the water well that held the inner pot. The system basically regulated itself from there.

  He’d been nervous about this project before—far more nervous than he’d let on to Relia. For all his years learning alchemy, the stakes had never been half this high. He’d struggled to care about his projects on Arkala, the same way he’d struggled to care about his dueling career in Last Haven.

  He’d risked his parents’ disappointment in his past lives, but that hadn’t been a worthy goal. Somehow—despite making this exact pill before—his mind knew the difference.

  These last two days, his brain fell into a flow state as he worked, the same way it did in battle. Maybe alchemy had never been the problem? He hadn’t been any happier as a champion duelist. His whole life had felt mechanical in those days, and he’d dealt with it by—

  The glass door swung open, and a man stepped inside the lab. Short and stocky, he had close-cropped hair and a neatly trimmed goatee. “Phone for you, Trengsen.”

  Kalden blinked. He’d never gotten phone calls here before. Why would . . .

  Oh no. He sprang up from his stool and crossed the room in three quick strides, taking the phone and pressing it to his ear. “This is Kalden.”

  “Hey,” Arturo’s voice said from the speaker. “The girls got attacked.”

  “What?” Kalden squeezed the phone closer to his ear. “How?” They’d agreed they wouldn’t split up anymore.

  “Wasn’t my fault!” he said. “It happened in the bathroom. Relia lost her mark and four Claws attacked her.”

  “Are they alright?” His voice came out surprisingly calm, as if his mind hadn’t fully grasped the situation.

  “Akari got hit bad. Unconscious for a few minutes, but she’s up now. Relia can’t walk. I got them both to the car and we drove away.”

  “Good, so get the hell out of there.”

  Static muffled through the phone as Arturo pushed out a breath. “Not that easy, shoko. They smashed Relia’s pill. Her mark won’t stay put.”

  Kalden’s blood froze at that. Without Relia’s mark, they’d never get past the security checkpoints. Every road was either guarded or blocked, and walls surrounded the city to keep out the mana beasts.

  “And she killed those soldiers on camera,” Arturo said. “Unida’s out for blood.”

  “Is there any other way out?” Kalden asked.

  “Bridge is our best chance, but they’ve got half a dozen guards. I can’t fight them alone, and Shokita here can’t even drive the car.”

  “I said I’d try!” Akari's voice snapped from the background.

  "She says she'll try." Arturo’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “We need Relia’s new pill.”

  Kalden had to lean on the table to steady himself. “It’s almost done.”

  “How long?”

  "The solvium has to bond with the helocite—"

  “That’s all gibberish to me, shoko. How long?”

  “Another hour.”

  “What happens if you rush it?”

  Kalden almost laughed at the suggestion. “Raw helocite explodes when it touches pure mana. She’d be dead the second she swallowed the pill.”

  “Shit,” he cursed under his breath. "Can you bond them on the boat?"

  Kalden glanced back at his water well where the reagents waited. The weather was cooler than usual today—probably low seventies. He could transfer the reagents to a portable container and keep them cool with ice cubes. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work if he watched it closely.

  “I’d also need an oven,” Kalden said. Heat was always the final step in alchemy—it welded everything together and made it work as a single unit.

  “Sure, we can find an oven.”

  “An alchemy oven,” he clarified. “Two thousand degrees minimum.”

  “We can do that with fire mana. I’ve got some potions in my bag.”

  "You're serious right now?"

  “Dead serious, shoko.”

  Kalden balled his hand into a fist. “It’s a hell of a risk. No second chances if I mess up.”

  “Look . . .” Arturo lowered his voice. “Shit’s about to hit the fan down here. I’m out if you can’t make the pill on time. Akari's free to come with me, but I can’t save everyone.”

  Damnit. That seemed cold, but Kalden couldn’t blame him. Relia would die without her pill, regardless of how hard they fought. She also wouldn’t want the others throwing away their lives for her.

  “Alright,” Kalden said. “I’m on my way.”

  “We’re parked near Encanto and Avendo Primo. Know where that is?”

  “Two blocks south of the ferry,” Kalden replied. “See you in an hour.” And with that, he ended the call and began packing his things. The herbs went straight into a cooler, and he transferred the solvium and helocite into a sealed container, submerged in a steel water well. Three separate thermometers stuck out from the top, just to be safe.

  With that done, he filled his backpack with pill casings, a miniature cauldron, compressors, and every other tool he could think of. He also grabbed a few grenades he’d made the day before, along with several bottles of potions and liquid mana. These items weren’t his to take, but he could always return them if he didn’t need them.

  And if he did need them . . . well, theft would be the least of his concerns.

  ~~~

  The ferry was still running when Kalden arrived, and he found a nice cool spot below deck. The other passengers shot him strange looks as he dropped ice cubes in his water well, but most people didn’t look twice. Honestly, he’d seen much stranger things from alchemy students back home.

  The ferry took its time pulling into the eastern shore and Kalden was already waiting by the ramp when it docked. The last two reagents had finished bonding. Now, he just had to add the herbs with an emulsifier, mix them in a cauldron, and blast them with heat.

  Kalden schooled his features as he walked down the sidewalks, passing an unusual number of Grevandi. A crowd gathered around a restaurant as one dragon stood on a raised balcony, shouting something in Cadrian. Kalden didn’t catch it all, but one particular phrase stood out to him: artista muerta.

  Death Artist.

  How long before they locked down the city? Even the Unmarked might turn against Relia once they saw that footage.

  The bystanders grew wilder as the Grevandi spoke, and Kalden avoided the denser parts of the crowd. Fake mark or not, he hated being a foreigner at times like these. Angry mobs made people stupid, reverting them back to their tribal instincts. Either you agreed with them one hundred percent, or you represented everything they fought against. There was no middle ground, and no chance to discuss things rationally. It was the same narrow-minded thinking that had caused this war in the first place.

  “Kalden,” a voice whispered from behind him.

  He spun to see Akari poking her head around an old brick building. Her glasses looked like they’d been broken and taped back together in the middle, and her right lens was shattered, revealing a black eye beneath. A trail of dried blood ran from her right nostril, and other spots marked her cheeks.

  A part of him wanted to drop his things and pull her into a hug right then. But of course, they had bigger things to deal with, and Akari was already leading him back down the alleyway.

  She stopped when they reached a brown conversion van, big enough to seat seven people.

  “Where’s the other van?” Kalden asked as he stepped inside.

  “No good,” Arturo said from the driver’s seat. “The cameras saw us leave the hotel.”

  In other words, they’d stolen this one.

  Kalden turned his gaze to the back bench where Relia lay on her back. Sweat covered every inch of her body, all the way to the strands of her red hair. Her eyes widened with hope as Kalden settled on the floor.

  Damnit. Why hadn’t he woken up an hour early today? If he had, the pill would already be done. Kalden shook his head as he unloaded his supplies. There’d be time for reflection later. Now, it was time to focus.

  The solvium and helocite had bonded into a blue, gel-like substance, and Kalden poured them into his miniature cauldron. Akari hovered nearby as he worked, clearly anxious to make herself useful.

  “Hold this still.” Kalden gestured to the base of the cauldron. “Don’t let it spill.” It would probably be fine, but no alchemist ever ruined a pill from being too careful.

  She grasped the base with both hands as Kalden added the rest of his reagents. Blue mana flashed between them as they touched. So far, so good.

  A sound of pain escaped Relia’s lips in the back, and Arturo drummed the steering wheel.

  “How much longer?” he asked.

  Kalden fought down his annoyance and began stirring. There were too many variables here to make a guess. He’d seen this take as long as twenty minutes, or as little as two. But of course, no one wanted to hear that. “Ten minutes,” he said. “Maybe shorter if it’s quiet.”

  Arturo didn’t take the hint. “Then you’re ready for the fire?”

  “Right,” he replied through gritted teeth.

  The next few minutes passed uneventfully, and the mixture shone like a blue flame as it boiled. Kalden kept stirring with his right hand, using his left to feed extra mana into the battery.

  Akari perked up, staring at something out the van’s back window. “Oh, shit.”

  Kalden followed her gaze and spotted the flash of red and blue sirens on the street behind them. Several soldiers approached on foot, surrounding their van. One shouted something in Cadrian, but he couldn’t make out the words.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Shit,” Arturo agreed. “You better be ready, shoko.”

  “I’m not,” Kalden said. The process had gone well so far, but he needed at least five more minutes

  “Fine. Then hang on tight.”

  Kalden had barely processed the words before Arturo slammed the pedal to the floor. The van flew forward, and mana flashed around them as the soldiers attacked.

  ~~~

  Akari clutched the base of the pot as they tore through the alley. Missiles struck the back windows, and the van shook from the impact. Nothing had broken yet, but the protection sigils wouldn’t hold for long.

  “Hang on!” Arturo repeated. They left the alley a second later, taking a sharp right and spinning into the evening traffic. Akari and Kalden slid across the floor, but they didn’t let go of the pot.

  Kalden kept stirring with his head down, using his other hand to adjust the dial and feed more mana into the battery.

  Talek. He wasn’t kidding about this taking his full concentration. For a second, he almost looked like his old self with that cold, unshakable gaze.

  Akari craned her neck to look out the front window. It wasn’t easy with her glasses half-broken. Arturo wove against traffic, and several more cars collided as they scrambled to dodge. Her heart raced as she felt the full weight of their situation. This wasn’t just about saving Relia anymore; they’d all die without her help.

  Three squad cars blocked the road up ahead, and their drivers reached out from their windows. Ice mana flew from their outstretched hands, forming a ten-foot barricade.

  She braced herself for a crash, but Arturo spun the wheel at the last second, pulling them onto the sidewalk. Pedestrians scrambled away as the van squeezed through the cobblestone path. Soldiers followed on their motorcycles, sirens blaring in a high-pitched song.

  More mana flashed around them, and the back window shattered. Arturo squeezed the van between two palm trees, merging back into traffic with another sharp turn.

  “Shokita!” he shouted. “You’re on defense!”

  A truck slammed into their van, shattering another window behind Kalden. Mana flashed from Akari’s hand as she formed a domed Construct over their heads. Shards of glass ran down the sides like rain from an umbrella, clattering on the floor around them

  Kalden raised his head with a grateful smile. For a split second, she saw some of her own fear reflected in his eyes. It vanished just as quickly, and he gave her a firm nod. “Go,” he said. “I’ve got this.”

  Akari sprang into motion, hopping over the bench where Relia lay. She threw open one of the van’s back doors and found more than a dozen squad cars in pursuit. Then she fell into a combat stance and cycled her mana.

  ~~~

  Kalden forced himself to ignore the chase and keep his eyes on the cauldron. This last part was more of an art than a science. The temperature might be perfect, but other changes affected the bonding process. Things like air pressure, humidity, and ambient mana. That meant you had to rely on your other senses. How thick did the mana feel against the spoon? How fast was it changing colors and emitting light? Did it still smell earthy and sweet, or had it become sharp and bitter?

  Many alchemists would measure things perfectly up to this point, only to fail when the numbers ceased to matter. It was hard enough in a lab, much less a car chase. He’d taken a mental enhancement potion to stay focused, but those effects waned with every second.

  Shards of metal mana cut through the wall opposite him, and the door flew off its hinges. A squad car appeared in the opening, and someone hurled a flurry of Missiles toward him.

  Kalden raised a pure mana shield, protecting himself and the cauldron. He hurled own technique at the driver, but the back passenger deflected it.

  Akari leapt back over the bench, launching two more Missiles out the broken door. The back passenger blocked those too, but Akari raised a gun in her left hand and pulled the trigger.

  Was that the same gun she’d taken from Frostblade? He’d forgotten she had that.

  She launched a second Missile straight at the driver. Kalden didn’t see the impact, but the enemy car spun off the road.

  They reached an intersection, and Arturo took another sharp turn. Kalden’s backpack slid across the floor.

  “Grab that!” he shouted.

  Akari grabbed the bag’s strap just before it slid out the open door. Time slowed to a crawl, and Kalden watched the compressor and pill casings fly out the top pocket. The wind caught them both, and they flew away.

  Oh no.

  Akari deflected more mana with a mix of Missiles and Constructs. She passed Kalden the bag, and he glanced in the open pocket, hoping against hope there was something else there.

  He had one mental enhancement potion, one bottle of pure mana, and one bottle of space mana. Plus, he’d still have the extra solvium and helocite in the smaller pocket, along with the grenades he’d taken from the lab. That was all. No pill casings, and no compressor.

  The reagents shone brighter in the cauldron, and Kalden failed to quench his rising panic. Even if Arturo made a fire, how would he hold the pill together? How would he finish this?

  Kalden pressed his back against the wall and took a deep breath through his nostrils. He ignored the flashing mana, and the way his body slid around the floor. Should he take his last enhancement potion? No. Potions like that helped you focus, but that focus came at the expense of creative thinking.

  Alchemy had existed for thousands of years, long before modern tools. How would the alchemists of old have solved this problem?

  They would have used their mana arts.

  Was that possible? Not at Kalden’s level. He needed more mana, and more control. Relia could have done it, but she was too busy surviving her crystals. And Arturo focused more on weapons than techniques.

  Kalden’s past self could have done it, though. He could have used his mana arts to shape and compress the pill. But he wasn’t that person anymore.

  “We’re on the bridge,” Arturo hollered

  Kalden glanced out the front window. Sure enough, the urban maze had faded, replaced with open sky and water. They would reach the blockade soon, and they’d have to fight their way through.

  “You ready for me, shoko?”

  No. He only had one viable solution, but no one to execute it.

  Not yet, at least.

  Kalden’s thoughts raced even faster than the van. It seemed too soon to advance. He’d only just begun dreaming of the past, and all his plans were vague and unformed.

  But this was necessary. It had to be now.

  Besides, what else was he waiting for? He felt like he needed more information, but what difference would it make? Kalden already understood his past self—he’d filled entire notebooks, analyzing his personality and his desires.

  Or rather, his lack of desires.

  “Talk to me, shoko!”

  “One minute,” Kalden shouted back.

  “You’ve got ten seconds.”

  Kalden took another deep breath, sinking deeper into his own mind.

  His past self had trained to appease his parents, with no goals of his own. He’d never stood up to them in those days. For all his fighting in the dueling rings, he’d never uttered a single word in his own defense.

  He thought about the mental enhancement potion. His past self had been like that all the time. He’d known how to follow rules, but not how to improvise. He’d only started doing that on Arkala, after his brother had left. Since then, he’d yearned to follow in Sozen’s footsteps—reaching for something more.

  His past self had been predictable. Everything had been mapped out for him, from his training schedule to his career path.

  No . . . not my past self.

  Me.

  Those memories weren’t ancient history, buried in some vault. They were an active part of him, suppressed by the same force that had sent them to that island.

  He remembered Akari’s words from outside the high school—the day he’d refused to defy his mother.

  “I’m spineless,” Kalden whispered as he stirred the cauldron. But his soul didn’t react to those words; being spineless was a symptom, not the cause. Besides, he hadn’t been afraid of his parents. It was more logical than that. His parents had been Grandmasters with years of experience. He couldn’t win that battle, so he’d retreated deeper into himself.

  “I don’t think,” Kalden whispered. “I only train. I do my duty as a member of Clan Trengsen.”

  His mana stirred. Kalden felt a pain in his soul as it tried to open wider. So close.

  “I only fight for my parents.”

  That was closer but it still wasn’t right. He hadn’t truly cared about his parents’ wishes, either. He hadn’t cared about anything. He’d only worked to fill his purpose.

  The words came to Kalden’s mind, and he spoke them aloud. “I’m a machine.”

  Mana exploded through his soul, racing through his channels. He tasted it in his mouth, smelled it in his nose. It prickled his skin, and he saw blue in the corners of his eyes. It even flooded his thoughts, carrying a thousand memories from his past life.

  His mind moved halfway into the Ethereal, and he had a choice to make. He’d embraced his past self, but they hadn’t merged yet. Some part of him still rejected that idea. Whether it was his brain or his soul, Kalden couldn’t say.

  And maybe he was right to be afraid. What if he returned to that state of apathy? What if he fell into some dark pit he couldn’t escape?

  Kalden watched Akari as she fired more Missiles from the back of the van. Blood and bruises covered her body. One of her lenses was still a web of cracks, and the middle was barely held together with tape.

  She seemed so fierce, as if nothing could stop her. But that wasn’t true; he’d seen her break in that Martial prison, the night they’d rescued Elend. He’d helped her then, and he knew she’d do the same for him.

  If Kalden’s past self took over, then Akari wouldn’t give up on him.

  So Kalden embraced everything. Every memory, and every thought. The truth became clearer with each passing second. There was no dichotomy between past and present. He’d survived hardships, but he’d changed. He’d become his own person.

  Kalden opened his eyes, and he felt a calm clarity wash over him. Then, almost as an afterthought, he glanced at the mana watch on his wrist. He’d bought this on a whim a few days before, inspired by Akari’s obsession with numbers.

  795, the screen read.

  Five points short of Apprentice. Kalden had hoped he might go all the way, but that didn’t matter now. He knew what needed to be done, and he had the means to do it.

  The van screeched to a halt, and Arturo unbuckled his seatbelt. “You better be ready, shoko.”

  “I’m ready,” Kalden said.

  Akari knelt down beside him a second later, retrieving the bottle of liquid mana from his pack and helping herself to a good long swallow. Kalden glanced out the back window and saw more than a dozen squad cars behind them, forming another blockade. A dozen more soldiers waited in the booth up ahead, armed with rifles, shields and Missile rods.

  He looked down at his glowing cauldron and formed two Constructs, no bigger than the palms of his hands. They started as circular planes, but he pulled pressure from their centers, stretching the planes into two halves of a capsule.

  Kalden understood the shaping, but his eyes still widened as he plunged both halves into the cauldron. Ten minutes ago, he’d barely been able to move his Constructs, much less change their shapes in midair.

  The reagents filled the shell, and he retrieved the pill, grasping it in both his hands, applying pressure from his channels to compress it. At the same time, he pulled his mana from the outer shell to reduce its surface area.

  Their enemies didn’t wait for them to finish. No sooner had Kalden begun compressing the pill than another volley of Missiles struck the van.

  Kalden kicked the bag at his feet. “I have four grenades in here.”

  “Got it.” Arturo unzipped the pocket and pulled out two of the explosives, hurling them out the side of the door.

  Akari threw the other two out the front windshield, following with several pure Missiles.

  Kalden couldn’t see the results, but it must be working because the van wasn’t shaking so hard now. His channels strained as he applied more pressure to the pill. He shook with the effort, and it felt like lifting twice his body weight. His mana might be stronger, but his muscles were barely ready for this.

  Finally, Kalden reduced the pill to half the size of his thumb. Now, he just needed the last blast of heat.

  “Arturo!” he shouted.

  Arturo turned around and began gathering fire mana in his palms. Kalden used his own mana to hold the pill in midair.

  “Two thousand degrees, you said?”

  Kalden nodded. “A few seconds should do it.”

  “No problem. One fire coming right—”

  Another volley of Missiles tore through the back window. One struck the side of Arturo’s head. His technique faded to orange mist in his palm, and he collapsed on the van’s metal floor.

  “Damnit,” Kalden cursed as he turned him over. “Arturo? Arturo!”

  No reply. He still had a pulse, but he didn’t open his eyes. What now? They’d lost their only fire source. Even the grenades were gone. Not that those would’ve worked in the first place. Had they seriously gotten this far just to—

  Stop, Kalden told himself. Think.

  What did they have left? One bottle of pure liquid mana, one bottle of space mana, one mental enhancement potion, and a few vials of solvium and helocite.

  Raw helocite made mana explode on contact. Could he mix that with the bottle of pure mana?

  No. He’d get an explosion, but that would be more kinetic force than heat. Not enough to finish the pill.

  What else?

  Another idea came to him then, crazier than anything else they’d done that day. Unfortunately, it was the only thing that might work.

  “Akari!” he shouted over the battle. “Get Arturo out of the van.”

  “What?”

  Kalden pointed toward the open door. “Just get him out. I’ll explain later." Then he uncorked the mental enhancement potion and crawled to the backseat where Relia lay. She looked even worse than before, but she hadn’t lost consciousness.

  “I need you to drink this,” Kalden said as he brought the glass bottle to her lips.

  Relia swallowed the potion, dribbling the last few drops down her chin.

  “Good.” Kalden used his sleeve to wipe her mouth dry, then he grabbed her upper arms and pulled her toward the door. “Get ready to fight if you can.”

  “I can’t,” she muttered.

  “I don’t need a miracle,” he said. “Just a few Constructs. That potion should help you focus.”

  They gathered in the street a second later, and Kalden filled them in. Akari kept covering fire against their enemies, and Relia made a half-hearted shield around them. Even in her paralyzed state, it was far stronger than anything he or Akari could have done.

  Finally, Kalden opened the van’s fuel tank and poured both vials of helocite through the opening. The pill remained inside the van, and he applied pressure from his channels, letting it float in place.

  “This is it,” he told them. “Get ready!”

  Relia shifted her shield between their group and the parked van. Akari swallowed two mouthfuls of liquid mana and layered her own shield on top of Relia’s. Both girls looked ready to pass out, and Kalden didn’t feel much better himself.

  The van exploded in a burst of fire and broken metal. Even with both shields, the force of the blast nearly knocked Kalden off his feet. But he stood his ground, straining with all his mental might as he held the pill in the flames.