Aether was aether.
If Light could fade to Shadow, Shadow could grow into Light. Night into day. Dusk into dawn.
You are the master of your fate, Arken. You always have been.
That hum of power beneath my skin surged as I smiled at the memory, those encouraging words from my mentor. Warmth pooled in my chest, gentle and familiar. I could almost taste the sunshine and the fresh forest air on the exhale, and then suddenly, the Hall of the Seeing was illuminated by pure, blinding Light aether.
Holy Hel.
I did it. I actually did it.
A delighted, somewhat childish peal of laughter escaped my lips in shock as I opened my eyes and saw what I had done. Orbs of shimmering Light aether were floating overhead like makeshift constellations, the glow of those tiny stars permeating through heavily conjured Shadow like it was nothing at all. Without instruction or tools, I had used arcana. Not my Resonance.Arcana. I had cast aspell.
Even the most impassive of the nineteen Elders before me had their eyes raised to the ceiling, some of them even looking slightly surprised.
“Most impressive, young Conduit,” Elura murmured, still looking towards the Light above.
Conduit?
I blinked back the tears that had already started to well up in my eyes as she spoke the words that forced them to spill forth regardless.
“Welcome to the Arcane Studium, Arken Asher.”
Chapter Six
Kieran
I woke abruptly to three sharp raps at my door. Blinking slowly and still disoriented, I realized that I had fallen asleep at my desk for something like the third time this week, poring over the latest reports after my early morning indulgence. Sometimes even the best distractions weren’t quite enough.
While the Jerricks case was the first kidnapping we’d seen in Sophrosyne proper for the last fifty years, the other territories had been experiencing an alarming uptick in similar crimes. Always children or teens. Always relatives of people in power—noblemen, merchants, or even Atlassian Court leadership. And they were always Conduits.
If it were simply a matter of missing Conduits, the answer would be painfully obvious: blood cultists. There were stilla number of them left in Atlas, convinced that they could unlock the power of the gods if they consumed enough aether directly from the blood of a Conduit, or even a Resonant human. It wasn’t common knowledge, for obvious reasons, but sometimes their reckless experiments even worked… but only for a moment. The fleeting power gained was always of little consequence, as they died quickly, and they died screaming.
The next series of raps at my door became louder, more insistent—and I recognized the cadence immediately.
Shit.
“Vistarii! I know you’re in there. Get your ass up.”
I groaned as I rose from the chair and made my way across the room, opening the door to averydisgruntled looking superior officer.
“Morning, Commander Ka!” I offered cheerily, with what I hoped would be a disarming smile.
“What have I told you about sleeping here, Kieran? It’s your day off, for fucks sake.”
“I know, I know. In my defense, I hadn’tplannedon falling asleep here, we just had a long night with the suspect last night and—”
“I’m electing to ignore that,” the commander said, his eyes flickering from my face to the blood spattered sleeves of my coat.
“Then, by the time I wrapped up a few other dalliances, there were more reports to review…”
Hanjae Ka scowled and then sighed heavily—clearly he was already over my shit.
“Anything of note?” Hanjae inquired. Loath as he was to admit it, my commander was an enabler of bad habits when it suited his own needs.
“Two missing in Samhaven. One in Ithreac. No signs, no calling cards, no ransom demands. All we’ve really managed to gather so far is that they seem to be targeting particularlytalented Conduits, or precocious Resonants. The last two taken were Shadow Conduits as well, and Markus and Theia have expressed serious concerns over the security of the Astral & Umbral Isles the next time Theia makes her way to Sophrosyne.”
“They can get in line. Vindyrst is breathing down our fucking necks about the Jerricks boy, and the rest of the Atlassian Courts seem to be waiting on the Elders to come step in and solve this for them,” Hanjae groused.