I stared at the strange, jagged sliver of magenta crystal in shock. All around me, the members of the expedition whom I had brought along to the meeting jumped from their chairs to get a better look at it, gasping in shock all the while.

  Even the Captains weren’t immune to the disquieting sight. Gustave had jumped from his seat to gape at it as well, while Bella had the exact opposite reaction. The pirate Captain had instead chosen to retreat from both her chair and the desk, skipping back several feet as she did so. I was only slightly aware of how she stared at it, as if the frozen, corrupted lightning were a snake rearing up to strike at her.

  And I didn’t blame my former lover for the response.

  I could feel the crystal from where I was, through my Aetherial senses. It was, in a word, disgusting. The sensation of the sliver was simultaneously as greasy as it was electrifying, if that was possible. Every time my senses reached out for the object, it was as if my hand was being dipped into a pool of crude oil that had been electrified. A burning, tingling, slick sensation that left me physically shuddering.

  It wasn’t only that, of course. Where had this thing come from? When you looked up at the sky and saw the frozen lightning bolts streaking across it, I had never really considered whether they were actually solid. I had just thought they were frozen in place, not actually materialized. They were too far away to really see, stretching far up and into the atmosphere.

  Was Vereden actually, physically caged by this…material?

  I remained in my seat as I tried to make sense of the crystal, and I noticed Nyx had done the same. Over the strangely hushed rabble from my subordinates, I could hear the narrow-eyed Sculpted woman muttering something under her breath. It almost sounded like…prayer.

  What an odd moment, to realize she was a religious person.

  I was startled out of my focus by the feeling of a cool, familiar hand setting itself on my shoulder. I followed it up to find Sylvia staring down at me with a worried expression on her fair Mythrial features. This time, though, I don’t think she was worried for me.

  So much as everyone.

  I took a deep breath before standing from my chair. “Enough. Enough!” I said loudly when my first command didn’t penetrate the shock. My second finally did, and everyone remembered that they were either part of a paramilitary organization or flat out in the military itself. I gazed around at their slightly shamed faces and nodded sharply. “Everyone but the Captains, out. Return to the expedition and help facilitate the prisoner exchange. Sylvia,” I said, reaching out to briefly squeeze her hand. “Will you coordinate this for me?”

  My lover studied my face for a moment before nodding. “Of course,” She said softly, before abruptly firming. In only seconds, the room had been cleared but for five people. The last thing I saw before the door shut behind my people was the firm sapphire gaze of Sylvia, and the worried one of Walter staring over her shoulder.

  And then it was just Olag, Nyx, Bella, Gustave, and me in the room.

  Alone with the Florens Captain-General, I motioned for my fellow Captains to return to their seats. When they had done so, some more enthusiastically than others, I met Olag’s eyes and frowned. “Well, it’s done,” I said, half-sarcastically. “You succeeded in clearing the room. Now everyone is going to know you have that…thing. Was it worth it?”

  Olag just snorted in a strangely familiar manner. It almost disturbed me to see a gesture I recognized so easily from my best friend. “Oh, it’s not as if it’s a secret, Marshal. This little abomination,” He said, picking up said horror. “Is being given out to every fighting force and mercenary company from the northern Avino mountains to the Barren Forest, if they promise tangible support for the Principality in this time of crisis. Specifically, by the Savoy. Not the Principality, not Luminarans, and certainly not the Venier. The wretched Savoy control the supply of these...things.”

  I frowned at the implication of those words. “And this crystal is what allows you to survive the corruption of the Skyfall? How?” As Olag’s bare painted eyebrow rose in response to my unwittingly sharp tone, I calmed myself with my Middle Lattice. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

  “I do not,” The Dwarf responded, an amused note in his voice. “Point of order, however. Here in the Principality, our glorious rulers are not referring to the event as the ‘Skyfall’. They are calling it the Tribulation, a time in which the Dwarven race must unite, by force if need be, in the face of both great danger and the ravening hordes who wish to conquer us. Accompanied by our new allies the Elves, of course,” He said with a sneer. “Well, most of them. But we can come back to that. You asked how it functions. Alas, the answer is…not well. Observe.”

  To my alarm, Olag reached out with a single finger and held it only centimeters from one of the splayed splines that jutted from the spine of the crystal. A small magenta spark of lightning leapt from the tip of it and struck Olag’s finger. A visible shudder rolled over the Dwarf, then. “Ugh, truly revolting,” Olag shook his head in visible disgust, as if to clear it, before meeting my eyes. “There. I am now protected from the ravages of the Tribulation, for roughly…five hours or so. Very roughly. Our testing has shown that it is sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. But inside that window, we are safe from the corrupted Aether…that likely originates from this piece of trash in the first place.”

  Stunned silence stole back over the room again, as the Captains and I absorbed that bit of knowledge.

  Five hours…that explained a lot.

  “Then, all of your soldiers that attacked us…” Nyx said slowly.

  “First needed to receive the same ‘blessing’,” Olag said, actually making air quotes as he did. “As the Savoy dogs who gave it to me call the effect, from this crystal before they departed. My scouts…were operating on a five-hour schedule. I would meet them at the gates, and then go down the line with the crystal in hand, giving the protection to each of them as I did so. It is a very inefficient process, as you can imagine.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  I’d say so. That sounded like a nightmare.

  “When that period of time passes, the protection abruptly drops, and whoever it was on must retreat to the safety of a ward scheme. Or else they will develop a sudden onset case of death,” Olag chuckled grimly to himself, before sighing. “Thus, my forces and I are stuck here in this drab little mining town. Because that’s what it is, of course. The name gives it away, of course. There’s a spinel mine below us, still functional, and somehow in the middle of a forest. I do not wish to remain here when I could return to the city of my ancestors. I am hoping we might come to an…accord, of sorts, seeing as you and your forces appear to have developed an alternative method to safely travel in the midst of this crisis.”

  “Hold on a second,” I said, holding up a hand to stop him. “We’ll…come back to that. First, are these things how the Principality is getting around? How they’re transporting their troops east to assault Rhoscara in the first place? That sounds…”

  “Impossible,” Nyx finished for me bluntly. “Their forces must be thousands strong if they wish to attack the Red City. It’s infeasible to be constantly reapplying this protection to so many soldiers on a constantly rotating five-hour basis. And how did you come by this crystal in the first place? Were you under contract with the Principality?”

  Olag merely smiled at us. “I’m more than willing to answer your questions, of course. As I already informed the Marshal,” He nodded at me. “I was previously under contract with the Principality. Not by choice, of course. When the onset of the Trib-Skyfall occurred, my forces and I were contracted to the Mayor of this town. We were providing protection for them, as there had been strange reports of Elves gathering in the area in numbers that were unusual for the pointy-eared beasts.”

  Hmm.

  That sounded…suspicious. We had been looking for Elves in the first place, before Olag’s forces had jumped us.

  Said Dwarf continued speaking while I contemplated the issue. “When it came, we were trapped here, with no method in which to venture beyond the wards. The only bother was the increase in those strange, mutated monsters that now gather beyond the wards of this town. However, considering the high walls of Valle Spinetta, as well as my forces, they’re not an issue. However, some three weeks ago, we were terribly surprised to receive a visitor. And from our most illustrious government, at that. Only…we were not dealing with some stuffy Convocation bureaucrat. It was a quite arrogant Savoy middleman, escorted by a platoon of mixed Principality soldiers.”

  “What did they want?” I heard Gustave breathe. Looking over, I could see the younger man almost looked spellbound by the tale Olag was weaving.

  “Why, to save us, apparently,” Olag said, breaking his decorum with a surprisingly bitter sarcasm. “Because there was something unusual about this fop. He carried with him a staff, whose capstone was a chunk of this crystal, and called himself a ‘Deliverer’. According to him, he was capable of casting much longer Spells of protection, blessed to do so…by a god.”

  I sighed at the implications of that statement that rang in the room.

  “So. The Principality really is working directly with the Mad God, then.”

  “Apparently,” Olag grimaced. “This was when I learned our nation had seemingly allied itself with our ancestral enemies within the Barren Forest. I…did not care much for it, of course, but I rationalized the decision that in the face of a near apocalypse, it was better to seek new allies to survive it. And then the fool dangled hope before us in the form of that,” He gestured disgustedly towards the malevolent crystal sitting faux-innocently on his desk. “If my company were to perform a small task for our nation, we would be granted a lesser form of protection under lease from House Savoy.”

  “What’d they want?” Bella asked sourly. I couldn’t help but notice the pirate had taken out a flask during Olag’s story and was nursing it quietly.

  I didn’t blame her, honestly.

  “Strangely enough…the same thing we were here for in the first place. He wanted us to use the crystal to track down a ‘splinter group’ of Elves in the area, rebelling against the newly dubbed ‘Confederation of Lasgach’ and the authority of their god. We accepted, of course,” Olag said, holding up his hands and clucking his tongue. “What else were we to do? With the contract signed, we received that benighted thing and have been scouting the surrounding forests for this splinter group ever since. In… five-hour shifts, of course. I sometimes venture-ventured out with our scouts in search of them, as the crystal is tied to me, and I am the only one who can use it. That was the only way we could ever make headway on our task.”

  “And did you?” I asked, leaning forward. “Make headway, that is. Did you find these Elves?”

  It seems I finally made a mistake, because Olag’s eyes sharpened with triumph. “Oh? Interested in what we found, are you? I was wondering just why you and your forces were traveling through this region, Marshal Hart. The main roads are a far easier and far quicker way to reach Rhoscara if you were rushing to the aid of House Florens. Could it be…you’re searching for this group?”

  I allowed a grimace to cross my face.

  Damnit. I’d given him leverage.

  “Perhaps we did,” Olag said leadingly. “We’ve had little else to occupy ourselves, and maybe I would be willing to lead you to them…for a price.”

  “Let me guess,” I sighed, reaching up to massage my brow. “Your price is that you want to join us on our way to Rhoscara.”

  “Yesss,” Olag hissed, leaning forward himself. His face twisted with a snarl, only accentuating his war tattoos and making them seem even more demonic. “Let us join you, Marshal. The idea that these Savoy led dogs would dare to even think they could raze Rhoscara to the ground is enough to slaughter them all. I want nothing more than to be the one to crush Anguis Savoy’s serpentine skull beneath the heel of my boot. We will not be a burden, I assure you. The Raven’s Beak has its own methods of transportation and its own supplies.”

  I exchanged a glance with the other Captains at his…fervent words, lingering when I met Nyx’s, as neither Bella nor Gustave seemed like they had objections to the idea. Nyx’s was the opinion I trusted most in matters like this. The Sculpted woman had displayed good judgment in the past and had the longest career in military matters among us.

  Not that that was saying much, considering how young the Sculpted were in general, but it was at least something. And I trusted her more than I did the absent Marcel.

  The decision was ultimately up to me, after all, as the overall leader of the expedition.

  In response to my questioning gaze, she grimaced, but eventually nodded.

  I sighed, still a bit reluctant, but…

  It’s not like we had much choice. Kierla’s ‘finding stick’ wasn’t exactly accurate. It could only point in a general direction. A more concrete location would cut down on a great deal of wandering, as we searched for Alveron and his contingent. And considering the time limit we were on, if we wanted to reach Rhoscara before the Principality forces did...

  We didn't have a choice.

  I met Olag’s eyes and reluctantly nodded. “As the leader of the Herztalian expedition, I am…provisionally willing to allow you and your forces to join us. Provided that you bring your own supplies and accept my leadership. Do you agree…Captain Olag?”

  In response, Olag smiled widely, displaying far more teeth than I was comfortable with. “Of course, Marshal,” He nearly purred. “I greatly look forward to working with you.”

  I shelved my doubts as I stood from my chair to shake Olag’s hand, the Dwarf’s broader palm nearly encompassing my Human one.

  I really hope I don’t regret this.