Advos sat in his bed with his stomach in knots. His head rested in his hands, his auburn hair hanging down into his face. It seemed impossible for him to escape his anxiety anymore.

“I could have killed him” he began thinking to himself.

“He would have deserved it, but that doesn’t make it right, at least I don’t think so.”

It had been a few days ago, but the altercation with Corvin was still very fresh in his mind. Corvin had been trapped in the wall for a little over five hours. It had taken that much time for Major Lisla Tisen, the ambassador to the Maladonian Collective, to travel from Bontai, the capital, to Egica. Advos had been useless during the entire ordeal. He paced back and forth for hours, panicking and having no clue how he was supposed to fix anything. Lisla spared no time freeing Corvin from his prison, upon her arrival. Advos played the scene over and over again in his head when Corvin’s listless body slid out onto the floor. Corvin had been rushed off to the hospital, and Advos was sure at the time that he was dead. Advos had collapsed to the floor at that point, and even now he could still feel the empty feeling of despair that had consumed him. It wasn’t as if he was particularly fond of the bully, but the idea that someone had died by his hand, even if indirectly, was too much for him to shoulder. It wasn’t until the medics had tended to Corvin and confirmed that he was alive, that Advos began to let the guilt and terror recede from his mind ever so slightly. But it was short-lived Major Tisen had started to explain to him how his life was about to radically change.

It wasn’t just the events with Corvin that had rocked him to his core, Major Tisen had told him to be ready by tomorrow for his transfer to the Citadel. The Citadel as she described it was the base of the Padrins of Ishira, more or less located in the middle of nowhere on a habitable moon of a massive gas giant. She had tried to convince him how beautiful it was and how much he would love it there, but the only thing he could think of was the fact that he was being taken from the only home he’d ever known and his family. The most traumatic event of his young life had just occurred only a few days ago, and rather than having time to process and recuperate, he was busy packing his belongings. Advos slowly tilted his head from his hands to look at the case sitting by the door. He had been told it would be years before he could even visit them, and even then he would never be able to stay for long. His heart sank into his chest again. It wasn’t as if he had any friends, his family was all he had, his only real attachment to this world, and they would be ripped from him as unceremoniously as taking a petal from a flower. He was going to a new place halfway across the galaxy where he knew nothing and no one, to be some sort of mercenary soldier. Sure the major had explained things about his powers and the culture of the citadel, but he didn’t want to be a soldier, he didn't want to leave his home. They had all collectively cried for days leading up to this moment, as the thought of maybe never seeing each other again sunk in for every member of the family. Advos could still remember the look of visceral sadness on each of the twins' faces when they found out, and he once again began to cry. Crying had happened so much; lately, Advos was almost surprised he even had any tears left. Advos laid down on his bed, letting the mild catharsis he was getting from sobbing wash over his weary mind.

Just a week ago his biggest problem was finishing school and figuring out what he wanted to study for a career. Now his whole life was being decided for him, and he had no say in any of it. He raised his hand to look at the stacked brick-like brand, so realistic it was hard for even him to tell they weren’t real stones and began to wonder if he had made a massive mistake. He questioned if this was really a gift Ishira had given him or a curse upon his life and if so what had he done to deserve such a fate. Advos began to sob even more heavily as all of this seemed to hit him at once. He cried for hours until exhaustion and sleep overtook him.

Corvin used his father’s power and influence as the mayor, to garner the sympathy of other high ranking officials. They were outraged over the event at the school and were demanding that Advos be punished. They wouldn’t allow something like this to happen to their children, they ran this city and how could anyone dare to threaten one of their own. No, this low born whelp had to be made an example of, Ishira be damned. In no time at all police, angry officials and even soldiers of the Maladonian army had surrounded his house and were demanding that he come out. Screams of retribution echoed from the crowd.

“He’s a menace!”

“Lock him up!”

“We demand justice!”

Advos looked from the window in terror, the mob was massive, and they were there for him.

“Should I give myself up?” He thought “But what would they do to me?” the mob was so massive and so angry hysteria began to overtake him.

“They’ll kill me… They’ll kill us all!” He thought as the anxiety and dread established a firm foothold in his mind and logic was thrown out the window.

He had to protect himself, he had to defend his family, he couldn’t let these people harm them. He willed his power to protect them. He prayed for Lady Ishira to save what he held so dear to his heart. Then there was a loud screech sounding like metal scraping against a stone and a massive tremor spread in all directions. Advos fell from his bed, landing hard on the floor in a cold sweat. Disoriented and alarmed, he looked at the clock on his wrist, and it was barely past midnight.

“What a horrible nightmare.” He thought. He thought he could hear voices in the distance, but his mind was reeling from the sudden snap back to consciousness. His body felt utterly drained, and he was finding it hard to support his own weight. Pulling himself weakly back into bed, he lay his head back down, and without a second thought, he drifted back to sleep.

Tanus sat at the kitchen table trying to keep his wife from becoming hysteric, panicking was going to do nothing to help them right now. He knew she knew that, but the circumstance of their predicament was pushing her over the edge. Outside the front door and covering every side of the house were large stone slabs angled into a spiral so tight not even a fly could fit between them. They were trapped inside the house, well more accurately within the stone structure around the house, but it was effectively the same dilemma. At first, Tanus thought maybe he could push them out of the way, but when he walked up to the rock face and saw just how vast the slabs were, he quickly realized that would be futile. So now the only option was to wait.

They considered going to wake Advos, but if this were their son’s doing, waking the boy up to fix it would be pointless. After the events with the Peckgray boy, Advos would surely be in such a state of dismay that it would only make things worse. And if it hadn’t been his doing... the alternative that the Legion of Ishira was punishing them for something or attacking them was far worse.No, their only option was to wait for Major Tisen to arrive, if she couldn’t do anything about it he was sure she would know who to talk to. Until then all he could do was try to keep Asani calm and not let the children find out what had happened.

“I’m going to check on the children,” Tanus said placing his had on top of his wife’s. He first stopped at the twin's room. The vile deafening sound from last night had woken all of them up, save Advos, which Tanus had not dismissed, though he was able to get the twins to go back to sleep without knowing what was happening. Kye and Kaley still lay silent in their beds, only the light from the hallway illuminated their unconscious forms, even though it was far past sunrise. Tanus said a silent prayer for them to stay that way until this was all settled before he slowly closed the door backing into the hall. Advos also looked to be sleeping soundly, snoring so quietly it was barely a whisper on the air. Tanus smiled lovingly at his son. He wasn’t sure what would happen with his son, he had heard stories of Padrins overexerting themselves and turning into monsters. He had been relieved so far that Advos looked perfectly fine the few time that he had checked on him, and even seemed to be peaceful, which was a huge surprise and improvement over the last few days of restlessness the boy had experienced. They had all been sad over the discovery that Advos would be leaving to go to the Citadel, but Tanus had been taking it particularly hard. He knew he hadn’t been there much for his son lately, getting much too wrapped up in his teaching work as of late. It pained him that maybe if he had intervened, in the clear issues his son was having with Corvin Peckgray, that none of this would have happened. A pained expression now fixed on his face as he gently closed the door and headed back downstairs.

Major Tisen sat in her car, going over some documents displayed from her wrist when the car intercom came on.

“There is an obstruction in the path to your destination, Please advise!” It bellowed as it came to a stop.

“Oh, what fresh hell is this? What obstruction is this thing going on about,” She thought to herself.

“Door open!” she said, annoyed at this delay in her very tight schedule.

When she got out of the car, her mouth fell agape.

“What by Ishira’s name is this!” she exclaimed standing about ten feet from where the Khlorda’s house should be. Cautiously she made her way to the spiral of rock.

“Where did this come from?” she muttered to herself.

“There is no way that boy did this, hell I would have had trouble pulling this off,” she said as her mind began racing with possibilities. This couldn't be an attack, who would attack him from their own group and what possible reason would they have, plus what kind of attack could this possibly be. As she worked her way around it, she knew this had to be some sort of defense, but again by whom and to protect from what? Something caught her eye in the light, as she leaned in to examine the stone more closely, what she saw made her jump back in fear. If Advos had done this, there was no telling what state he was in, the boy could be dead or even worse a Syndas. She was now very alarmed because not only were these massive walls of stone, but there were tiny razor thin barbs all over them, almost unseeable. If she had touched this her entire hand would have been sliced open. This was not just impressive, but the amount of power and control and attention to detail was unfathomable to her, not without training and an abundance of proficiency.

She steadied herself and moved a few feet back towards the car. She extended her hands to focus her power and willed the wall in front of her to recede. Not more than a minute later she stopped abruptly. She could barely fathom the fact that the wall before her felt like it was actively resisting her.

“What the hell happened here?” She began to panic as her thoughts started to turn to the worst.

Advos sprang from his bed so abruptly it made him dizzy.

“What’s going on!” was racing through his mind.

He couldn’t explain it, but he had a feeling that something was happening. There was someone doing something, he couldn’t explain what he felt, but Advos knew there was something he should be worried about. He noticed that his room was still very dark, he looked at the clock and saw it was close to mid-morning. The lack of sunlight only added to his alarm and confusion. Panic took over, and he rushed down to the first floor half dressed. His parents were standing around the table when a low rumble echoed through the house.

“What the hell is going on!” He screamed.