The feast continued for quite some time. Conversation eventually turned away from alliances, marriages, and even Chul’s appearance and lineage. Politics was abandoned in favor of rousing tales of history and legend. All up and down the long table, phoenixes laughed with leviathans and basilisks with dragons.

But I was not able to release the tension I carried.

We must move the entire world toward the necessary future, relieving the pressure on the aetheric realm and satisfying the aetheric entity called Fate. Dicathen needs to be shielded from becoming the next civilization to fall at Kezess’s whim. Epheotus has to be stabilized and prepared for the inevitable dissolution of the aetheric realm. Now we have to worry about Alacrya collapsing in some kind of mana vortex.

‘Yeah, that about sums it up,’ Regis said, again lying in front of the roaring fireplace, his senses turned toward the conversations happening around the table. ‘Easy peasy.’

Sylvie, who had been drawn into a conversation with Myre, shot me a quick glance from the corner of her eye. ‘At least we know what we have to do, and what we’re up against. Mostly.’

Mostly…

I let my mind drift back to the keystone, but without King’s Gambit active I couldn’t effectively concentrate on those memories. Only a blurry, headache-inducing muddle occupied my brain, like a wad of string that only the godrune could sort out.

A tap at my shoulder forced me out of my own head. I looked up to see a young man, visually near my own age. He had the dark hair, red eyes, and horns of a basilisk, but unlike the Vritra, he also had an easy smile and pleasant manner.

“Some of us were planning to retire from the dinner and speak more conversationally,” he said, his voice tight with nerves. “We were hoping you might join us? We can’t have the great lords hoarding your time all to themselves, can we?” As an afterthought, he added, “Lady Sylvie, Lady Eleanor, Lord Chul, you would be welcome too, of course.”

‘Chopped liver again,’ Regis thought.

By asuran standards, I was only a youth myself, and engaging with the younger asuras was something I’d been hoping to do. And the casual company offered by younger lords and ladies would be a balm for my pressured mind. Still, not sure of decorum, I looked to Veruhn. He only smiled and gave a very shallow nod, almost like he was dropping off to sleep.

I excused myself, and my companions and I followed the young basilisk deeper into the fortress. He seemed to know his way around, suggesting that he’d spent a fair bit of time with the phoenixes.

“Riven, by the way,” he said, shaking my hand as we walked. “Riven of Clan Kothan, eldest surviving son of Lord Rai Kothan.”

“Surviving?” Ellie asked, fidgeting and looking around every corner nervously.

“I had an elder brother and sister. They both died fighting the Vritra clan,” he announced proudly.

“A worthy cause to give their lives in service of,” Chul said solemnly.

We arrived at a richly appointed sitting room where several other youthful asuras were already talking and laughing over glasses of deep red or golden liquid. Seated on plush couches or deep lounge seats in greens, golds, and yellows, the asuras all jumped up eagerly as I entered behind Riven.

I was surprised to see Zelyna already there. She was speaking to Vireah, daughter of the dragon noble, Preah. Unlike everyone else, who wore fine clothes suited for a royal banquet, Zelyna was dressed in tight leathers that made her look more like she was preparing for battle. Which, I supposed, in a way she probably was.

There was a mad rush of introductions. Naesia, Lord Avignis’s daughter, introduced herself for the second time, and I also met two of her sisters. Riven, it turned out, had two sisters as well. Chul briefly became the center of everyone’s interest when Vireah commented on his eyes. The phoenixes in particular were fascinated to hear everything about him, and I was forced to redirect the conversation. Thankfully, they were just as eager to talk about themselves. Chul’s interrogation was blessedly short, and no one seemed to notice the inconsistencies in our stories.

Wearing her amused half-smirk, Zelyna said, “We were just discussing something fairly relevant to your arrival, Arthur.” I noticed that, while among her peers, she acted younger than she had before. Instead of feeling dour in contrast to their excitement, she seemed almost goading. “It isn’t every day so many leviathans, dragons, phoenixes, and basilisks are able to come together.”

“Zelyna of the Eccleiahs has just challenged us to a great clan hunt,” Naesia continued, biting her top lip. Her cheeks were flushed, and sparks seemed to flash and flare behind her eyes.

Chul’s eyes burned with internal light, and he gave me a grim smile. “A great hunt in the lands of my forebears? An excellent way to prove the might of my—um, of our—clan!”

I bit my tongue, watching for any reaction to his near-slip. When no one seemed to notice, I let out a relieved breath and said, “It would be, Chul, if only we could. I’m afraid such things will have to wait for a later time. Perhaps the next great hunt.”

“Oh, but you have to participate!” Riven said, clapping my shoulder. “To hunt beside four other great clans? This isn’t a chance that comes often! And…” He paused, smiling sheepishly. “Well, we’ve all desired to see what you can do. A lesser among the asura—a new race! Surely you can understand.”

Naesia smirked as she kicked her feet up on a long, low table and rested her hands behind her head. “A chance to get out from under the beaks of these stuffy old lords and ladies for a few days, too.”

Vireah plucked at a strand of her long, pink hair thoughtfully. “You know, since Lady Myre is here, we may even be able to secure the promise of a boon from Lord Indrath to the winner. It is a rare occasion, as Riven said.”

There was a great deal of excited chattering and cheering at this, and Riven quickly fetched a handful of mugs and glasses for my companions and I.

‘A boon?’ Sylvie said directly into my mind. ‘That could be useful, considering.’

‘Maybe, but how big a favor could we really earn just by knocking around a few baby asura?’ Regis thought back from his place near my core.

This boon is unlikely to change things, but as one of the great lords myself…

The thought trailed off as I considered the potential implications, knowing that both of my companions were equally correct in their thinking.

Ellie, who had taken a seat in one corner, out of the way, smiled up at the basilisk as he handed her a drink, but as soon as he turned away, her face fell. She stared down into the mug with a distant frown. When she caught me looking, though, she brightened. My question must have shown on my face, because she said, “Boo’s grumpy that he’s been resigned to some kind of barn outside. He doesn’t trust all these new smells.”

Shouts immediately interrupted her, and our attention was drawn to a sudden wrestling match that had broken out between two of the basilisks. Vireah only just saved her drink as an end table was toppled to peals of laughter.

“Come, my brother!” Chul boomed, wrapped up in the energy and excitement. Conjuring his weapon and raising it over his head, he practically shouted, “We cannot turn down such a challenge!”

There was another round of cheers and applause at that.

“Your ward is right, Arthur. Tradition dictates that you, as the youngest clan, can’t decline a direct challenge,” Zelyna said, standing and brandishing her glass like a sword. “Clan Eccleiah demands you honor your place among us. To refuse would be to diminish both our clans.” Her eyes shone with the light of victory.

What are you up to, Zelyna? I wondered to myself.

A thought clicked into place, connecting everything together, and I twisted the dimension ring on my finger, considering what was held within it. “It seems I have no choice but to accept, then.”

The room erupted into cheers, and the young asuras hurried to speak over one another as they began to explain the rules.

***

Although the sun shone warmly, the thin mountain air was cold enough that my breath became visible with each exhale.

I climbed near the rear of our hunting party. We were high in the mountains, already many miles from Featherwalk Aerie, and had been climbing a nearly vertical rock face for half the day. The wind howled, tugging at me constantly, like a beast waiting for my grip to give out so it could drag me down. Aside from the occasional huffing of breath, the hunting party climbed in silence.

It was one of the many rules of the hunt that the ascent was made without the power of flight, at least “in mixed company,” as Riven had explained. Had the phoenixes been challenging only each other, they would have prowled the skies in their transformed bodies, but in the presence of dragons, leviathans, and basilisks—and archons, I reminded myself—they challenged themselves against the mountain as their most distant ancestors would have.

Riven, Naesia, and the others had wasted no time organizing the venture. The other great lords had been amused at the turn of events but had sanctified the hunt nonetheless.

“Among you are the future of your clans, races, and all of Epheotus,” Myre had said as she led the procession out of the city, Lords Avignis, Kothan, and Ecclieah with her. Many other members of the clans followed behind, though this procession was almost somber compared to the cheering crowd that had greeted our arrival.

I understood why.

An asuran hunt was not a casual sporting event. Like the people of Epheotus, the beasts were starkly powerful. When an adventurer delved into a dungeon within the Beast Glades, they knew they were risking their lives. An asuran hunt was no different.

The young asuran nobles marched solemnly in their lords’ wake as Myre spoke. “Five of our nine great clans are represented here in friendship and trust. Always, though, the asura have fostered healthy competition between us. The challenges that we have faced build strength and cooperation. As Epheotus grows more tame, hunts like these ensure the long traditions of our people—both as many and as one—continue to fortify that strength.

“Put each other to the test, but most of all push yourselves. In honor of your journey, the victorious clan may ask a boon of Lord Indrath and myself, but more than that, I hope you will each fight for the pride of winning such a challenge against such noble competitors.”

Her gaze had lingered on me for a moment longer than all the others.

Our ascent had begun a few miles outside of the city. There, the phoenixes, surrounded by blazing ceremonial signal fires, had again sung a wordless long. We waited in silence as the song built, growing fierce and raucous. The other teams had come to life within the embrace of that song, bursting with energy and light and a lust for glory.

“May the greatest of these great clans strike the killing blow!” Myre had called out, her voice ringing across the mountainside and enveloping the phoenix song.

With a chorus of battle cries, the asuran hunters had flung themselves up the sheer cliff at incredible speed.

Now, we moved slower, a steady climb instead of a wild clamber.

Ahead of me, Ellie made efficient use of her mana, cladding her hands and feet and then pushing the mana into the cracks and folds of the rock, securing herself firmly. She glowed with inner radiance, her mana more potent and responsive to her will than I’d seen before.

Sylvie climbed just ahead of Ellie, setting the path and showing her where to place her hands and feet. Chul brought up the rear behind me, the absolute image of concentration.

Each clan required four hunters. It had been an open question whether Regis was considered an individual in his own right or a manifestation of my power. In the end, Vireah and Naesia together had decided he was something like the guardian beasts of the titans, a part of me, and as such didn’t count against the number from my clan.

Instead, my sister was necessarily the fourth member of Clan Leywin’s hunting party.

“Are you sure?” she’d asked when I first told her my intentions. “You’ll just spend the whole time looking out for me…what if we lose because of that?” She had huffed and fidgeted in agitation. “I just wish I could, you know, help you. You’ve done so much—given me so many opportunities—to train and get stronger, but I’m still just this thing you have to protect.”

“‘Winning’ means surviving, so focus on that. You've earned a place here, and I want these asuras to see how unique your mana techniques are.” My expression softened. “And maybe they'll be able to help you get even stronger in a way that I can't.”

“You do realize you’re likely one of the strongest mages of your age in all Dicathen?” Sylvie had added, taking Ellie’s arm.

“Which still makes me the weakest person in Epheotus,” Ellie answered grimly. She’d slapped herself on the cheeks and fixed herself with a determined expression. “But I’m not trying to throw myself a pity party. You’re right. I’ll do my best.”

Still, even with our words of encouragement, Ellie had stared down at the shimmering bead of condensed power in her hand for several long moments before finally popping it into her mouth. Her eyes had bulged almost out of her head only a moment later when the effects of the elixir hit her.

It had been the memory of Windsom’s elixir, the one that had ended up saving Tessia’s life from the corruption of the elderwood guardian, that had spurred me to seek out Novis. The phoenix lord had been gracious, hurrying to procure an elixir that would do what I needed.

In Dicathen, wealthy mages regularly used elixirs to speed the purification of their cores over a long period of time and practice. This elixir would do little to speed up the clarification of her core, but it had filled her with a tremendous amount of highly purified mana that would give her a big power boost, at least until the entirety of the mana wasused up. Combined with her ability to condense and store mana in core-like pockets throughout her body, it acted as a temporary buffer to help bridge the gap between her and the rest of the hunters.

Naesia and her sisters led the climb. Tradition dictated that the clan hosting the hunt—in this case, the Avignis, as the mountain was their territory—occupy the position of most honor and danger. Vireah, daughter of Preah of the Inthirah clan, followed with three Indraths close around her. Riven had brought along one of his sisters and his two closest friends. Zelyna and the Eccleiahs climbed just ahead of our own group.

“Only four or five more hours at this pace!” Naesia called from her position at the front. “We will make camp at the dell above!”

I tried to see where the folds and ridges of the cliff gave way to this dell she spoke of, by the gray stone seemed to climb forever.

“Only…four more…hours…” Ellie said between focused breaths.

Almost as if in response to Naesia’s shout, the mountain groaned beneath us. There was a sudden charge in the air, as if a bolt of lightning were about to strike from the clear blue sky. Tension gripped the asuras.

“Move!” Zelyna shouted.

The mountain roared in answer.

A clawed fist of bare rock reached out of the mountainside and grabbed Vireah’s ankle. The claw tore through asuran flesh, sending drops of bright blood raining down from above, then the young dragon was jerked from the cliff face.

One of the Indraths caught her, swinging her back to the cliff and into the arms of another.

Steel flashed, and the stone appendage exploded in a hail of rocks and dust that cascaded down on the rest of us.

“Mountain golems!” a phoenix cried.

To my right, a head, shoulders, and one long arm bulged out of the rock. The golem had no eyes, nose, or mouth, but its every movement created a grinding, hostile growl. The arm swung at me like a club. As I reached up to catch the blow on my forearm, the dark scales of my relic armor feathered over my skin.

An aetheric blade condensed at my side and swung up, bursting through the stone limb before coming back down on the golem’s neck. The figure ruptured, its disparate parts tumbling into the mist below.

I flexed my hand, which stung from the force of the impact. “Stay sharp! These things hit hard.”

Golems were appearing from all around, sometimes it was just limbs, other times it was scrambling humanoid figures of stone that clutched at the asuras and tried to pull them off the mountainside.

Above, the torso of a golem grappled a leviathan, tackling them free of their handholds. They launched backwards, away from the wall, and plunged like a meteor toward the valley miles below.

Sylvie was struggling against a stone fist that was clawing at her throat. She wrapped her hand around the golem’s wrist and bright white light erupted from her. The arm shattered, but not before leaving deep gouges down both sides of her neck.

The cliff ruptured as a waterfall burst from the fissures. The water reached out and wrapped around the falling leviathan. Several darts flew—I didn’t see from where—and the grappling golem burst apart. The waterfall slammed the leviathan back into the wall, and as one, the Eccleiah clan started to climb even faster, overtaking the Kothans.

Beside me, Ellie’s eyes darkened as she activated her beast will. “I can feel them moving through the rock!” She hesitated, then swung aside as a clublike arm broke free of the rock wall and battered at her.

Planting both feet on the curve of the golem’s exposed shoulder, she leaped into the air and grabbed a better handhold higher up. Two orbs of mana were left behind in her wake. Their explosion tore divots in the stone but failed to destroy the attacking limb.

The very next instant, Chul’s weapon smashed against the mountainside, destroying the arm and half the rock it had been protruding from, sending a rockfall tumbling past him down the mountainside. A flailing, half-crushed stone body tore free of the cliff and fell on him, kicking and smashing with what limbs it had left.

A golden arrow of light struck Chul, buffering the creature's attacks. In the next instant, a vibrant purple blade swept the golem off him, and it fell to pieces as it tumbled out of sight.

I glanced up to meet my sister’s gaze, but her focus had already turned toward the stone as she tracked the golems’ hidden movement. Above her, though, the asuras were beginning to outpace us.

Recognizing that my worry for Ellie was distracting me from the wider battle, I sent a quick mental command to Regis.

He sped from my core to imbue himself into the relic armor. As we’d done to contain Sylvie’s power in her first journey to the Relictombs, I dismissed the armor with Regis embedded inside it. He began pulling away from me, towing the incorporeal armor—stuck in states between the raw atmospheric aether and the physical world—toward my sister.

It took only seconds, but each moment was a painful drag on my consciousness.

Ellie let out a clipped scream as the armor coalesced around her, very nearly losing her grip on the wall. Sylvie was quick to reach out and offer a supporting hand on her back.

My sister stared at herself in surprise. The black scales of the armor were unbroken by the golden inlay or white protrusions of bone. It was sleeker, more graceful. The helm formed to cover her head entirely, leaving only her face exposed. Four dark horns swept back from the temples.

“Maybe a little warning next time!” she called out before resuming her ascent. As she climbed, she shouted warnings whenever she sensed a golem approaching through the stone, and we fell into a rhythm, the four of us moving and fighting together as a team.

I had little focus to spare on the asuras above as they continued to move farther away. Their magic crashed and thundered across the rock face, and we climbed through a constant deluge of shattered rubble. At least one was being dragged limply along by the others, but I couldn’t tell who.

“I think we’re nearly through!” Naesia’s voice echoed down to us some time later.

At Naesia’s words, I felt Ellie draw on another one of her pools of stored energy as she redoubled her effort to keep climbing. She hesitated, looking for her next handhold, when the mountain under her hands erupted outward.

A fist large enough to crush her in it clawed out of the crumbling rock. Ellie had already pushed off, flying backwards as she avoided the worst of the attack. Sylvie’s blast of pure mana met Chul’s hammer and my own aetheric blade as we all struck the fist simultaneously, cracking it cleanly in two.

Aether flooded into God Step as I felt for the paths between my sister and me, but a dull explosion of pure mana pushed her back toward the cliff, and she caught herself on Chul, her arms wrapped around his neck. Both of them wore wide grins.

I shot them a glare, wiping the grins from their faces as the mountainside began to split apart all around us.

A streak of blue and green flashed into our midst as Zelyna fell from above, catching herself in the crater left by the fist. I could already see the shape of an arm forming, dividing from the mountainside itself. Far to my right, a second arm split the cliff, sending huge boulders plunging into the clouds.

“The mountain itself moves to test us!” Zelyna yelled, clinging to the bucking rocks as easily as I might climb a ladder. “We need to break free or it will cast us all down!”

I met Sylvie and Chul’s eyes in turn. Both nodded fiercely.

“Hang on,” Chul boomed. Ellie clutched tight around his neck, and we began to throw ourselves up the mountain even as it came alive around us.

“Look out!” Ellie yelled in warning. From our right, another huge hand bore down on us, the wind of its passage stirring up a gale that threatened to pull us off the cliff.

‘Sylvie, now!’

Pressing my feet into the rock, I gathered aether in every muscle, tendon, and joint. The sun vanished as the giant hand obscured it. Sylvie’s aetheric spell took hold, and the world faded to gray, time grinding nearly to a halt.

Stone cracked beneath my feet as I Burst Stepped away from the cliff. An aether blade formed in my hand and exploded toward my target as I followed up with a Burst Strike.

The world dissolved into a stop-motion blur. There was no sound, no heat or cold, only the perfect synchronicity of my aether and body. I was out in open sky, blue above, gray below, and then the rush of wind came back, and the avalanche noise of shattering rock. Turning in the air, I looked back at the cliff face.

The stump of a gargantuan arm flailed, the hand flying away in a shockwave of scree from where I’d struck it. The wrist crumbled and fissures raced up the arm.

I could see the other asura, well above us, leaping, crawling, and fighting around the giant golem’s head like so many ants, their spells and weapons chipping it away bit by bit.

My sister’s voice reached me again from where she clung to the golem’s torso with the others. “Art!”

The giant was crumbling. Soon it would fall away from the mountain entirely, and it would take everyone with it.

The aetheric pathways, lit up by God Step, folded me into their embrace. I appeared back with my clan, my hands wreathed in aetheric lightning as they scrambled for a solid hold.

Zelyna was staring at me, wide-eyed and doubtful.

I matched her gaze. “This thing is about to fall.”

She didn’t need telling twice. The leviathan warrior set the pace, almost flying up the cliff-like body. Although no more small golems attacked, entire sheets of rock began to give way under our hands and feet. Soon we were jumping from one plunging boulder to the next, scrambling for any solid hand or foothold we could find.

We weren’t going to make it.

The scene lurched, again dimming as Sylvie’s aether art clenched like a fist around time. She was sweating profusely and her eyes had lost focus.

Zelyna, caught in the spell with us, looked around in confusion and dismay.

“Go!” I shouted, dragging Sylvie’s arm around my shoulder and hauling her bodily up the cliff as I leapt from hold to hold, Chul on my heels.

It was only when I grabbed onto a ridge that wasn’t moving that I realized we had passed beyond the golem’s body. In the same instant, the light returned, as did the full volume of the sound. The noise was catastrophic, the tumbling and smashing of stone on stone enough to make my ears ring. The air was choked with dust.

Sylvie was pale, her eyes darting, her thoughts struggling to come into line with our sudden relative safety.

Even Chul’s grin had faded. “Is this not the great beast we’ve come to hunt?” He had to shout to be heard over the colossal rockfall.

Zelyna scoffed. “Come, it seems the others have found a place to rest our hands. This hunt is only just beginning.”

We followed her and the others to a narrow shelf of rock just wide enough for all of us to sit or lie down. The other asuras cheered as we climbed up over the edge. Ellie flopped off Chul’s back and lay panting. She had several shallow lacerations across her face, and according to Regis her fingertips were bleeding, but otherwise she seemed well enough.

“Perhaps this would be a good time to start rethinking tradition,” I said to no one in particular. “First, the whole ‘no flying’ rule while ascending the mountainside.”

Riven stood with one hand against the cliff wall, staring out at the endless sea of clouds and mist. “Tradition informs who we are, where we’ve come from. In this case, the challenge is the purpose. The mountain itself agrees with me. It has tested us, and we have passed.”

“And you’re prepared to die for this?” I asked, genuinely curious.

It was one of Riven’s friends who answered. “Death is always a tragedy, but never a thing to fear.” He had his back pressed up against the wall, his face pale and teeth clenched. One of Naesia’s sisters knelt before the basilisk, her hands glowing with heat. Only then did I realize the young basilisk warrior’s left arm had been ripped free at the elbow. The phoenix was burning the wound closed. “How far would any of us ever get if we stayed at home, surrounded by thick walls and nervous guards, terrified of death at every turn?”

“Surely your own path to strength wasn’t walked in safety?” Zelyna asked, leaning back against the cliff with one knee tucked up to her chest, her arms wrapped around it. She cast a glance at the wounded basilisk, but there was no pity in her gaze. “You yourself have ascended much farther than anyone here, as you began so low. You did not do this without desperate challenge.”

I stared down over the edge, remembering a time, a very long time ago now, when I had fallen. “No. My life has rarely been safe. But the challenges I faced were just as rarely optional.”

“So you tell yourself,” Zelyna said. She tucked her legs beneath her and leaned forward. “I may not know your whole story, Arthur Leywin, but I know enough. No fight comes to us that we do not choose to engage in, just as we have chosen to follow the old phoenix ways and climb this mountain by hand. Lives of ease and emptiness could be ours with the whisper of a word, but then how would any of us be ready to lead our clans when the time comes?”

“We would grow soft and slow, and stupid, feasting on the hardship of others while giving nothing in return,” Vireah said. She pulled the tie from her hair, letting the pink waves spill around her shoulders with a shake. One of the Indraths tended her wounded ankle. “In a time of peace, with no wars to be fought or colossal beasts to be slain, it is up to us to forge our own strength.”

“Was…was that not a colossal beast?” Ellie asked.

The asuras laughed, even the one-armed basilisk, and Riven handed her a skin full of some mana rich liquid. She made a face when she drank from it, but then her eyes went wide and she took a much longer drink.

Riven laughed again. “Not too much, or you’ll fall off the mountainside.”

Easy silence settled over the hunting party. As one, we stared out into the infinite expanse, each lost in our own thoughts.