Chapter 82 * Weaver’s Road *

Salov sat at the long dining room table, a mug of chocolate tea in his hands. Though it had been another long day, he was still restless and hoped drinking the tea would relax him enough to go to sleep.

“Salov,” came a soft voice.

Salov turned to see Lizzy, tousle-haired and bleary-eyed, walking into the room wearing a set of pink pajamas. He smiled as she plopped down in the seat beside him and stared longingly at the chocolate tea. After a few moments, he passed the mug to her without a word. She gave him an uncertain look, but his smile seemed to reassure her, and she started to drink.

“Something wrong?” he asked finally.

She shook her head. “No…it’s just too quiet,” she admitted.

“It has been a busy couple of days. I guess it does seem rather quiet now, especially in this big house. I still haven’t had time to hire anyone to tend to the manor. This place is far too large to take care of on my own.”

“I can help,” Lizzy offered.

“I know, but we’ll still need more people than just the two of us, or we’d be doing nothing but keeping this place clean,” he quipped. “There are fifteen bedrooms alone, and that’s not counting all the other rooms and the servants’ quarters in the basement.”

“Wow, why so many?” Lizzy asked.

“This is a family home, so it’s often used for gatherings. The Stokenshires are a rather large clan.”

Lizzy pondered this as she drank. “I can’t imagine that many people in one place.”

In that instant, there was a flash of golden-yellow light that filled the room. Salov jumped up immediately, thinking that his house had somehow been infiltrated by an unknown threat. He pushed Lizzy roughly behind him as he glanced around at the crowd of people that appeared, but he relaxed a moment later. “Wayne?”

Wayne also looked disoriented as he looked around, realizing he was in a familiar setting but not understanding how he got there. Before he could think to answer, he saw Ashley lying on the floor in front of him, unconscious, clutching the Sun Stone.

He immediately dropped to her side. “Ash!” He rolled her over and saw to his relief that she was not injured. Pathos moved forward to help, but before he could, Wayne put a hand on Ashley’s head. “Mittius Resepco Ashley.”

He was so focused on his friend that he missed the confused look the three guardians gave each other.

Ashley’s eyes fluttered open, and she smiled. “Wayne…did it work?”

“I don’t know what you did, but we’re all at Salov’s house,” Wayne said as he helped her to her feet.

Ashley looked around hesitantly. “Good, everyone’s here. I picked Salov’s house because it’s the first place I could think of that would be safe.” She turned to the tailor. “Sorry to just drop in on you like this.”

Salov gave a brief bow. “It’s not an issue. I’m still a little confused, but if you needed a safe haven, I’m happy to oblige.”

“Ashley, how did you do that?” Becky asked.

“Yeah, it was like you quickened us but…different,” Henry added.

Ashley picked up the now-dormant Sun Stone. “It’s this. I never told you guys, but when I was in the Waiting Room, Ester talked a little about the Sun Stone and what it can do. I can teleport anywhere with it. I don’t think Davron knew, or he’d never have let me touch it.” She swayed unsteadily and almost fell, but Wayne caught her reflexively and helped her to a seat. “It took so much out of me though, I’m still a little dizzy.”

“It’s most likely because you had to access supernal energy to make that happen,” Franklin said, stepping forward. “I must admit, I never knew the Sun Stone had that kind of power.”

“Uncle Frank?” Salov said, still looking confused.

Franklin beamed. “Salov, my boy, it’s good to see you. Her Grace has told me what a help you’ve been to her.”

Before Salov could think of a response to this, Ashley turned to face the rest of the group. “Everyone, I’m sorry,” she said stoically. “I couldn’t let Davron have the Sun Stone. It just didn’t feel right.”

“Why are you sorry?” Alyson asked with cheerful bravado. “You saved us. That was awesome. I wish I could see the look on their faces after we just disappeared on them.”

“Yeah, but now,” Ashley said softly, “Davron’s going to come after us. He’ll probably try to kill us. We could’ve gone home but—”

Wayne put a hand on her shoulder. “You did the right thing. We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

“Right now, I think the most important thing we need to do is contact Fantasma,” Pathos said. “He needs to know what’s happened so we can regain control of the mountain.”

“How? We have no idea where he is.” Karmandrian said.

“We’ll just have to call every quickener we have a connection to, maybe one of them will answer,” Alice said.

“I’ll lead you to the closest gate,” Salov offered since the only way they could reach any quickener was to go outside the city walls, which provided a quartz barrier for Weaver’s Road.

As the three guardians followed Salov out of the manor, Henry had a sudden realization. “Oh no, Sharanel! I think she’s still in the mountain.”

* Fantasmal Mountain *

Sharanel was headed down to the conference room where Jandor’s group was meeting when she saw it: a pog lumbering out of one of the rooms. She almost screamed but stopped herself. The pog hadn’t seen her, so she quietly slipped into the closest room and kept the door cracked.

Soon, several pogs and soldiers in uniforms she didn’t recognize were congregating in the hall.

“That’s every room. There’s no one left on this floor,” one of the soldiers said. “Let’s go to the next one.”

Sharanel held her breath as she moved away from the door. All of the conference rooms were individually lined with quartz to facilitate private meetings, so she knew that she was shielded in the mentant realm. All she needed to do was stay quiet.

The heavy sound of footsteps continued down the hall toward the translift and she breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t detected her. The question was: what were pogs doing in the mountain?

She peaked through the crack in the door again, making certain the hall was clear before she stepped out of the conference room. She quickly headed toward the translift and opened its door hesitantly. Seeing that it was empty, Sharanel stepped inside and tapped her quickener staff against the poll that would take her to the topmost level of the residency.

Because the floor was restricted, Sharanel hoped that the raiding party hadn’t yet gotten there. Only specific people could open the door beyond the translift on this floor, which meant until Davron’s troops found a staff member with appropriate access, they would be locked out. Sharanel pressed her thumb against a small pad near the door. It opened with a soft click, and she slipped inside. As she’d hoped, the corridor was empty.

Heart pounding, she ran down multiple halls until she reached the one with the hidden door at the end. She pressed a sweaty palm on the wall, and it Immediately slid open to reveal the core access room. As the door shut behind her, she stepped up to the podium and put her hand on the quartz tablet. Her surroundings went white, and she was once again faced with the semi-transparent image of a young, olive-skinned girl in an ankle-length white dress.

“Access Granted, Sharanel Quicksilver, Fantasmal Quickener,” Lexi said with a serene smile. “What command would you like to initiate?”

“The mountain is being invaded; we have to stop them,” Sharanel said frantically.

“Fantasmal Mountain can be put on lockdown when under imminent threat of invasion. Would you like to execute a full lockdown?” Lexi asked.

“What does that do?”

“All translifts and quickener caves used to enter the mountain will be sealed,” Lexi explained.

Sharanel thought about this. “No, they’re already inside. Isn’t there a way to get them out?”

Lexi shook her head. “The supernal power of dimensional movement is only available to the Daughter of the Sun.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Sharanel said more to herself than the projection. “Is there anything I can do to help the people in the mountain?”

“There are 550,467 registered persons currently within Fantasmal Mountain, including all guest pass holders.”

A diagram of the mountain appeared to Sharanel’s left. Red dots indicated the location of registered people, with the overwhelming majority being in Teedmount.

“Is there a way to somehow get them out of the mountain?”

“The supernal power of dimensional movement is only available to the Daughter of the Sun,” Lexi said with an almost stubborn expression on her face.

“Curse the rocks!” Sharanel groaned. “Oh, how about this: can I lockdown certain areas of the mountain?”

“A master seal is available for the Fantasmal Libraries and the core chamber. Warning: once activated, the master seal can only be undone by the Fantasma, the Daughter of the Sun, or an epouranal mage.”

“Why just those two areas?” Sharanel thought aloud.

Unhelpfully, Lexi had no answer.

“Okay, can you activate the master seal on both places?” Sharanel asked.

“Warning: master seal cannot be activated on Fantasmal Libraries while occupied. Would you like to set the master seal to activate as soon as occupancy reaches zero?”

Sharanel wondered who could be in the libraries. Maybe Franklin? Regardless, if they caught him, she didn’t want him being forced to access the libraries. There was too much within them that could be valuable to Davron.

“Yes, do that,” Sharanel decided

“Master seal activated on the core chamber. Pending command accepted: master seal will be activated on Fantasmal Libraries when occupancy reaches zero. Would you like to initiate another command?” The young girl asked serenely.

“If I can’t completely seal off other parts of the mountain, can I revoke access to secure areas?”

“Yes.” Lexi nodded happily. “However, your authority extends only to civilian personnel. You cannot alter the access of military personnel or guardians.”

“Well, that’s better than nothing.” Sharanel said before lapsing into thought. It was likely all of the guardians and high-ranking military were out of the mountain already, so perhaps she could deal a blow to Davron’s invasion. “Can you disable everyone’s access—no wait—disable access to all secure areas but only for civilian personnel currently in the mountain. Can you do that?”

Lexi seemed to contemplate the request for a moment before concluding, “Yes.”

“Great, do that,” Sharanel said triumphantly. “That should slow them down.”

Even if Davron tried to force staff to open doors for him, he would still be locked out of any area considered secure. It was possible that some areas could be brute forced into, but this was the best option available to her. Plus Fantasma, Honsmordin, General Rockwall, and everyone else who was outside the mountain would still have access when they returned.

“Please stand by; mass rights revocation being performed…Command complete. Would you like to initiate another command?”

“Yes, I need access to Echo Cavern so I can contact Fantasma,” Sharanel said. Perhaps if she could get him and a few other key people into the mountain, they could stop Davron.

“Access to Echo Cavern is restricted to all but the Fantasma except in emergency situations,” Lexi said in her childish voice.

“Yeah, I know; this is an emergency,” Sharanel said, annoyed.

“Override cannot be accepted, your last access to Echo Cavern has not been validated by the Fantasma.”

“Seriously?” Sharanel almost screamed. “How am I going to get out of here then?” She’d been counting on using the cave to quicken. After a few moments of thought, she asked, “Can you connect to one of the transportation corridor translifts?”

“Unfortunately, all transportation corridor translifts are offline due to an unknown error,” Lexi said apologetically. “There has been significant damage to the transportation corridor.”

“They must have destroyed the translifts,” Sharanel said pensively. Her only option now was one of the quickener caves. Hopefully, there was still one intact. “Is there anyone in the transportation corridor?”

“Occupancy unknown due to significant damage to the transportation corridor,” Lexi said.

She decided to risk it. Sharanel took her hand off the quartz tablet and the real world came rushing back to her. She then put her hand on the door, and it slid open, revealing an empty hallway. Quickly and quietly, she ran to the translift. Even though she knew it was highly unlikely that someone made it past the sealed door, she was still careful. She entered the translift and tapped her staff against the poll that was connected to the transportation corridor.

When she arrived, she quickly made her way down the large staircase that led to the myriad of translifts and quickener caves, but halfway down she froze when she heard voices.

“I don’t know what happened; suddenly, we can’t get through certain doors,” someone was saying. “We were forcing the staff we captured to open them at first, but it’s like everyone was randomly locked out. It could be some kind of security override.”

“We can still get in and out of the fort since Lady Ellonous overrode the security down there,” another added.

“Maybe she can do the same for some of these other doors we can’t get through. Where is she?” came a third voice.

“Last I heard, she was with Lord Davron in the libraries.”

Sharanel slowly snuck down the staircase, keeping close to the wall as she did. When she finally got far enough down to be able to see into the corridor, she realized it was filled with soldiers and pogs. There was no way to get past them. Silently cursing her luck, she slowly started to walk backwards up the stairs. She’d have to think of another way out.

“Hey, there’s someone here,” one of the soldiers called.

A pale faced young man ran to the bottom of the stairs. “Hold it right there.”

Sharanel turned to run, but she tripped and toppled down to the closest landing. Multiple soldiers were running up the stairs to capture her. She scrambled for her staff and tried to run again, but she felt something grab hold of her. They were using mentus to bind her. She tried everything to fight against it, but she couldn’t move. It felt like more than one of them were working together to hold her in place.

Desperately, Sharanel closed her eyes and focused on her staff, wanting more than anything to sense a way out of this predicament. There were no markers she could access. The only thing she could sense was her connection to Henry, but she couldn’t quicken to him from where she was. That’s when a new possibility dawned on her. She poured mentus energy into her staff, triggering the newest piece of her core. Before the soldiers could wrench her staff away, she disappeared.

***

Tabatha was throwing a tantrum.

For several minutes after Ashley and the others disappeared, she unabashedly raged, throwing books, chairs, and a myriad of devices around in an attempt to quell her boundless fury.

“We had them! We had them!” she screamed. “I can’t believe it! We were so close!”

Davron and Gamdon did nothing to try to calm her, choosing to let her run out of steam on her own.

“The amount of power that she released from the stone, it was far more than I expected,” Gamdon said as he watched Tabatha’s tantrum impassively.

“Indeed, it appears that she was able to essentially teleport everyone away, some sort of dimensional movement,” Davron said, completely ignoring his wife as she attacked one of the large bookcases. “It would make sense considering how it was able to stabilize the rift.”

“You’re right,” Gamdon agreed. “I suspect if we had the stone, not only would you have unlimited power to create monsters, but then you’d also be able to send them anywhere around the world in an instant, which would explain how in the various chronicles of the Great War, it was said that the creatures appeared everywhere within a matter of hours.”

“There’s no telling what other powers that stone could give her,” Davron said. “It’s definitely not something I want in the enemy’s hands. It was foolish to let her touch it.”

“Then we get it back!” Tabatha shouted as she stomped toward them. “We find Ashley, and we get the Sun Stone back, and if we have to kill her to get power over it, so be it.” Tabatha’s eyes looked manic and bloodshot.

“Is it really a good idea to go after the Daughter of the Sun when we don’t know the extent of her power?” Gamdon asked calmly.

“It’s the perfect time to go after her,” Tabatha insisted, her eyes still wide, though she was talking more normally now. “You didn’t see what I saw when she pulled that little stunt.”

“What do you mean?” Davron asked.

“That stone may be powerful, but Ashley had to use a large amount of her own adimus energy to activate it,” Tabatha revealed. “She won’t be able to pull off anything big like that for a while. We have to strike while she’s weak.”

“If that’s the case, then wouldn’t the stone prove useless for us?” Gamdon asked. “How would we take advantage of it if it costs large amounts of adimus energy to use?”

“Once it’s out of her control, I should be able to manipulate the energy within it just like I did with the seal. I’ll be able to draw out its power for us to use,” Tabatha said confidently.

Davron nodded, a pensive expression on his face. “It’s possible with her abilities, especially if she uses the techniques I’ve taught her.”

“Then let’s go!” Tabatha shouted, storming out of the destroyed research room.

Davron and Gamdon followed a pace behind. “One question though,” Gamdon asked.

“What!” Tabatha barked.

“Where exactly are we going? We have no idea where the Daughter of the Sun took them.”

“Oh, I know exactly where she went,” Tabatha said darkly.

* Jadon *

The Fantasmal Forces translift network connected the fort to dozens of strategic points around the world. The locations of those translifts were top secret and sealed so that no one could enter them. Because these translifts were used to move troops and supplies, they were massive and could hold hundreds of people at a time. Once such translift in use that night was located in one of the mountains that formed a barrier between the southeast and northeast halves of Candovia. It allowed soldiers to be deployed south into the desert or north to reach any of the independent cities or small countries that occupied the northeast half of Candovia.

Thousands of soldiers had been deployed using this translift and were now waiting at the outskirts of Jadon, in the southernmost part of the Kingdom of Polotan. It was a fairly new country established only five-hundred years ago and constantly having disputes with its various neighbors. After examining all the potential targets, General Rockwall deemed this to be one of the most likely points of attack since the countries in northwest Candovia were constantly at war and would probably be easy to overrun.

Confident in his general’s assessment, Fantasma setup his base in a hastily made quickener cave near the translift. From there, they could track everything that was happening with the various deployments all over the world and make decisions at a moment’s notice.

“It’s over an hour past midnight in Gilmore,” Isabelle said as she leaned over the large, semi-transparent communication crystal. “There’s been no sign of an attack anywhere. Maybe Foy was just making it up to spite us.”

Fantasma was standing at the mouth of the cave, looking out into the distance. Though he couldn’t see with his physical eyes, mentantly he had a view of the entire valley before him, where thousands of troops were waiting for their orders. It was clear that he was deep in thought.

Honsmordin stepped up beside him, tapping his scepter on the wall. “It could be that it’s not Gilmore’s midnight we’re waiting for. It would make more sense for him to move based on the time of the place he’s planning to attack.”

“Which would rule out here,” Fantasma said, frustrated. “Could he be going for Ellenon or even perhaps Sunnin Mountain, or maybe he really is headed for Sunntondra. Marshroot is an easy target.” He turned back to Isabelle, who was the only other person in the small quickener cave. “Perhaps we should change our base then? We could move to the camp closest to Marshroot.”

Isabelle nodded. The only thing in the makeshift base was a stone table constructed with mandamus, a large communication crystal, and the marker hanging from the ceiling.

Just as Isabelle was preparing to quicken them all away, Martinson, a young, civilian quickener, appeared suddenly within the cave, his bushy-brown hair looking windswept. “Sir, there’s an urgent report.”

“Martinson, what are you doing here?” Isabelle said curtly. “You’re supposed to be with the troops in northwest Sunntondra.”

“I just received word from Elder Ernwood. Davron’s forces have invaded Fantasmal Mountain.”

“What!?” Fantasma, Honsmordin, and Isabelle all said at once.

Isabelle quickly tapped the communication crystal with her staff. “All units, return to base immediately. All troops in all locations, return to base. Fantasmal Mountain has been breached by hostile forces.”

“How could this have happened?” Honsmordin said in dismay. “How did he get inside?”

“I suspect Foy had something to do with it.” Fantasma turned to Martinson. “Take me back to the mountain immediately.”

“Sir, I no longer have access to any marker in the mountain,” Martinson revealed.

“Curse the rocks!” Fantasma shouted in frustration.

“Sir, use the translift,” Honsmordin pointed to a tunnel at the back of the cave.

Fantasma had created it using mandamus to give him direct access to the translift from the back, as going to the main entrance would have been a much longer walk around the mountain. It seemed the shortcut he made would now come in handy.

“You can take all of the troops that are on standby in the translift cave with you,” Honsmordin added.

“Isabelle, tell Rockwall what’s happened,” Fantasma called before sprinting down the tunnel.

“Martinson, take me to the civilian basecamp,” Honsmordin ordered

Martinson tapped his staff on the ground and he and Honsmordin disappeared.

Isabelle quickly finished sending her emergency communication and then quickened herself out of the cave to Rockwall’s side almost a mile away.

“Sir, we need to get everyone back to the mountain, Davron has invaded,” she said without preamble.

“What!” Rockwall blurted in confusion.

“Fantasma is already headed back with the reserve forces. We need to head out now to join him,” Isabelle explained.

Rockwall sent mentus communications to his colonels to start marching their forces back to the translift. Because it was thousands of troops, quickening was not an option.

As the soldiers started moving, Rockwall began planning a strategy with Isabelle. “Once we’re back, we need to focus on securing Teeedmount so that the civilians can’t be used as hostages, then I want to—”

A huge explosion rocked the area so forcefully that large chunks of multiple mountains cascaded down to the valley floor.

“What in Alaman’s name…” Isabelle said in awe as a plume of smoke rose up from between two of the mountains.

“That’s where the translift is,” Rockwall said. “Isabelle, we need to hurry.”

Isabelle tried to transport them back to the quickener cave, but she couldn’t find the marker mentantly, which meant the cave was most likely damaged or destroyed. She shook her head in dismay at the general, and he immediately took off running, enhancing himself with mentus. He only had to run for five minutes before encountering soldiers coming from the opposite direction.

“General Rockwall, sir, the translift exploded, it was some sort of massive mentus bomb. Around a thousand people were inside when it went off.”

“Oh no,” Rockwall said as realization dawned. “Isabelle!”

Isabelle immediately appeared at his side. “Sir—”

“We need to contact the other sites before they try to use their translifts,” Rockwall said before she could get more than a word out. “This has to be some sort of sabotage.”

“Sir, the communication crystal was in there, and—”

“Then quicken to each camp—” Rockwall said hastily.

“Sir!” Isabelle almost shouted. “Fantasma was in there.”

Rockwall momentarily froze in shock but then rallied. “We need to organize search teams,” he told the soldier in front of him. “Go tell Colonel Wright.”

“Yes sir,” the soldier said before running off.

“Isabelle,” Rockwall said in a soft but determined voice. “You have to try and get in contact with as many camps as possible. It’s highly likely that all the translifts are sabotaged.”

Isabelle seemed to come to herself. “Right, of course sir.” She tapped her staff on the ground and quickened to the next closest deployment site.

Unfortunately, it was too late. All around the world, thousands of soldiers, civilian workers, and even guardians were caught up in massive explosions in their attempt to transport back to Fantasmal Mountain. The size of the caves allowed for the mentant bombs to be exponentially more destructive than the previous one in the governance translift, and this time it was Tabatha who had created them using her melder abilities, which made them far more precise.

The translifts located in the fort itself were spared from the feedback of the explosion as Foy had already connected them to the network they used in the Lumarian Mountains, effectively cutting off access to the mountain from the Fantasmal Forces, and giving Davron’s army a fully functioning, massive, worldwide translift network that only his people knew about. They would soon be putting this new resource to good use as Tabatha prepared to attack Weaver’s Road.