Akari and the others walked eastward along the coast. Relia had a spring in her step the entire time, and who could blame her? She’d survived! If the theories were right, then krustoplegia was meant to prepare her body for an Aeon soul. Now that she had it, her condition would never threaten her again.

They’d already celebrated this news once, back when they’d learned about Relia’s bloodline. Still, a shred of doubt had hovered above their group like a storm cloud. A chance at life was better than nothing, but it was still just a chance.

Now it was real. Relia had advanced, becoming both an Artisan, and an Aeon. And when Akari used her Silver Sight, she saw two souls inside her friend’s chest instead of one. A well of mana, and a crystal shard.

On top of that, they hadn’t seen a certain flying dragon since Relia’s advancement. Elise had maintained her dream Construct for the first few hours that day, but she’d eventually dropped it when the dragon didn’t come back.

The raptors hadn’t returned, either. Come to think of it, her group hadn’t seen any life around the northern coast. That set off some alarm bells, so they kept their distance from the coast itself. Although tidal waves probably weren’t a concern with those hundred-foot cliffs.

They walked for miles, using Akari’s portals whenever they needed a boost. Overall, things weren’t half as bad as they’d been the day before. Relia had even stopped wearing her parka, claiming she wasn’t cold anymore.

Akari thought back to the forests of Arkala, and the first time she’d seen Relia fight the mana beasts there. She’d been in awe of Relia that day, but she’d closed the gap in the months that followed. For a short time, they’d both been Apprentices. And while Akari couldn’t beat Relia in a fair fight, she could at least hold her own against the other girl.

Today, that sense of awe returned in full force. As an Artisan, Relia would rank among the Artegium’s top students. These new Aeon powers might even give her an edge over the third and fourth years.

Thank Talek she’s on our side.

They found the research base later that evening—a small cluster of buildings on the western horizon. By now, the mana storms had picked up again, and Akari’s portal brought them within a half mile of the base itself.

“Hey shoka,” Arturo said with a weary voice. “Don’t suppose you could squeeze out a second portal for us?”

“Maybe.” Akari squinted her eyes at the distant structures . “But no one knows what we’ll find here.”

“Wait,” Elise said. “I thought this place was friendly.”

“Unless it’s overrun with mana beasts,” Akari said. “Or cultists. Or the Sons of Talek.”

“She’s right,” Kalden said. “That portal’s our only escape if things go wrong.”

Relia grinned as she turned back to the others. “Don’t worry. Akari and Kalden are just a little paranoid. We have this same talk before we go to parties—almost word for word!”

The base grew closer as they walked, and a man crested a short ridge nearby. Like Relia, he only wore a few layers of clothing. In other words, he’d dressed for an ordinary winter, rather than negative bullshit degrees.

“Hey!” The man waved at them as he jogged down the hill. His face looked Cadrian, but his accent sounded more Espirian. Akari took a quick peek with her Silver Sight and found an Artisan-level soul inside his chest.

“You’re Elend Darklight’s students?” the man asked.

Relia waved back at him. “That’s us!”

“You’re right on time,” he said. “We have a portal ready to send you home.”

Akari’s shoulders sagged with relief, and most of her teammates mirrored her reaction. They’d only been gone for two days, so that gave them two more days to recover for their admissions exam.

The researcher stepped forward, encasing the group in his Construct. The temperature rose several dozen degrees, and the wind grew quiet, as if he’d just shut a massive door on its face.

“You must be Relia,” he said after a short pause. “Congrats on your advancement.”

“Thanks!” Relia struck a victory pose, putting one hand on her hip and extending the other toward the sky. “Feels good to be an Artisan!”

“Do people train here often?” Kalden asked.

“It happens,” the researcher replied “ But most groups bring at least one Master for safety. Never seen a group like this before.” He held up his hands. “Not that it’s any of my business how Grandmaster Darklight trains his students.”

Thanks for that, Elend.

Of course, she’d never complain about this to his face. She, Kalden, and Relia had all gained over seventy mana points in two days. Even with soulshine and constant training, they’d be lucky to squeeze out that much in a week. Not to mention the resistance training they’d received for their Artisan bodies. To call this trip a success would be an understatement.

They were walking toward the base when Akari caught a flash of light on the northern horizon. It looked like lightning, but slower. More like a massive mana technique. She stared for a few more seconds, and then the flash happened again.

“What is that?” Akari asked the researcher. He’d shared his name a few minutes ago, but she hadn’t been listening.

“Some anomaly in the storm,” he said. “Started happening just this morning.”

“So it’s not normal?” Kalden asked.

“Nope. Never seen anything like it.”

They kept walking until the horizon flashed again, even brighter than before. The ground shook this time, and tidal waves flowed out from the source of the blast.

Everyone stopped and stared at the scene, and the ground shook again when the waves hit the coast. They’d seen their share of bad weather during this trip, but this was something else entirely. This power had a weight that pressed on her soul, far stronger than the dragon they’d faced before. Stronger than Elend, Irina, or any of the Grandmasters they’d ever met.

Akari cycled spacetime mana toward her palms as the sense of doom grew stronger. “We need to go. Now.”

She was about to shoot a Missile toward the base when a massive form emerged from the storm clouds. It was solid blue, the exact color of pure mana. It had the body of a massive serpent and the head of a dragon.

The creature slithered through the air for several heartbeats, and the storm clouds swirled around it in a perfect circle. The movements looked slow and measured, but it grew impossibly large as it closed the distance. One minute, it was a tiny speck on the horizon. The next, it appeared to be several miles wide, dominating her vision.

Akari froze at the sight. Her mana stopped moving, and her legs threatened to give out beneath her.

Finally, the creature opened its mouth and unleashed a torrent of blinding mana. The technique was impossibly large, like the creature itself. It headed straight toward the research base like a blazing meteor.

No, not at the base. It headed straight for them.

Relia raised her Moonshard Construct, the same way she had that morning. It didn’t make a difference, of course. The creature’s technique hit the land, and the ground itself flowed like a tidal wave, knocking them off their feet. The mana closed in around them, and the world faded to white.

~~~

Akari opened her eyes and stared up at a pale blue sky. A few ordinary clouds floated there, untouched by storms or mana. Snow dusted the surrounding pines, and the air felt far too warm. Her heart pounded in her chest, and sweat covered her skin beneath her layers of clothing.

Shit. This wasn’t the afterlife, was it? The question forced her to sit up, and she found her teammates lying on the ground around her. Kalden and Relia. Zukan, Arturo, and Elise. Everyone was here, and apparently still breathing.

Akari scanned her surroundings, and she recognized the Darklight’s backyard. But how? How did they get back?

The door to the house slid open, and Elend rushed out in a blur of motion. He knelt by their side a second later, holding out his hands, and absorbing mana from the air. He hadn’t even bothered to put on his shoes, much less a jacket.

“What happened?” Akari asked. Her voice sounded strange without the storm pressing on her ears. By now, most of the others had sat up, and they all looked to Elend for an explanation.

“I sent Glim with you.” Elend continued pulling mana from the air without looking up. “She triggered a displacement technique to bring you back.”

So, they’d actually been there in Vordica, but they’d never been in real danger?

“What was that thing?” Kalden asked.

“Is Glim okay?” Relia spoke over him. “What about the researchers?”

Elend stayed quiet as he cycled his mana. Finally, he pushed a technique into his cupped hands, and Glim appeared in her Missile form.

“Her thoughts are a jumbled mess,” Elend said as he pushed more mana into the spirit. “Something happened to her in those last few minutes. She almost didn’t trigger the displacement in time.”

Glim tried to speak from Elend’s cupped hands, but her voice came out in a small whimper. Talek. She’d known Glim for half a year, and the spirit always spoke with absolute confidence. Now, she sounded scared and broken.

“That thing was a Mystic,” Akari said in a low voice. She hadn’t been sure before, but what else could do this kind of damage? She met each of her teammates' eyes, and no one contradicted her.

“No . . . ” Glim’s voice grew more stable as Elend fed her mana. “Not a Mystic. That was Storm’s Eye.”

Elend gave a slow nod. “I believe you.”

“What?” Akari blurted out. “That’s real?”

The center of the Sea remained unexplored, and people had invented all sorts of myths about the place. Many of those myths involved a giant mana spirit, causing the very storms that raged there. Some called this spirit “Storm’s Eye.” Others called him the “Child of the Angels,” or the “Guardian of the Inner Sea.”

But those were just stories, weren’t they? Her teammates voiced similar objections, but Akari couldn’t make out their words. Everyone spoke at once, and her own heart still pounded in her ears.

“I’ve seen it.” Elend murmured. “Glim’s memories are getting clearer now.” He sat down in the snow, looking speechless. Akari had never seen Elend look this way. Not in Creta, when he’d worn those cuffs that restricted his mana. Not even on Arkala, when they’d faced the Martials.

“What happened to the researchers?” Arturo asked.

“They’re gone,” Elend said with a quick shake of his head. “I suspect we’ll see something on the news very soon.” Then he got to his feet and headed for the house.

“Wait,” Elise said. “The whole base is gone? That can’t be true.”

Akari glared at the girl. Hadn’t she been paying attention?

“I mean, I know what we saw. But what are the odds?” Elise glanced at Kalden and Arturo. “You said that base was there for decades. What are the odds of something destroying it right when we showed up?”

“I agree,” Elend said. “It was no coincidence.”

Elise shot Akari a look, as if this was all her fault. And what if it was? She’d pissed off plenty of powerful people this past year, and they'd already tried to take revenge. But no . . . this seemed like using a bomb to kill an insect. Who could even control a creature like that?

“It’s my fault,” Relia said. “I used Angelic mana this morning. What if that drew its attention?”

Elend’s face softened, and he stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever happened down there, it wasn’t your fault. I put you in that position. I forced you to advance and use that specific technique. If anyone’s to blame, then it’s me.”

Relia rubbed at her eye, then gave him a deep bow.

“I knew you could do it.” Elend held her gaze for a brief moment, then looked up and surveyed the group. “All of you. You’re stronger now than you were before. No alchemy or technology can replicate the training you’ve endured these last two days.”

He let go of Relia’s shoulder and turned back toward the house. “Now, I need to consult my peers. There might be cities to evacuate. We’ll talk later, I promise.”

Cities to evacuate? What the hell was going on here? Relia had advanced to Artisan, built an Aeon soul, and cured her condition for good. That should have warranted more than a thirty-second talk.

Akari had heard of Storm’s Eye, of course. He was the antagonist of several movies, and even her favorite coffee drink was named after the creature. But this couldn’t be real, could it?

~~~

She and the others took it easy for the next two days, and not by choice. Thirty-six hours of hard training had strained her channels, and cycling her mana felt like rubbing sand paper on her insides. This wasn’t the kind of pain you could push through with grit and determination.

In hindsight, they never would have lasted more than two days in Vordica. Elend and Glim had calculated her team’s exact limits, even accounting for the raptors, and Akari’s portals.

Irina also checked them over for wounds the first day, just to make sure they’d suffered no long-term damage from the trip. Everyone was fine, including Relia with her new Aeon soul.

“Why didn’t you send us there sooner?” Akari had asked Elend the night they got back. “Why wait until the last minute?”

“That trip wasn’t easy to set up,” Elend said. “Grandmaster Sterling worked day and night to maintain those displacers, and I still owe her a favor. Besides, the dangers were real. Glim could have made a mistake and triggered the displacer too late. Or too early. You had several close calls, even before the mythical mana spirit showed its face.”

Akari gave a slow nod as the events played back in her mind’s eye. A Master-level mana beast had attacked her team within the first few minutes. One wrong move in that first battle, and the whole thing would have been ruined.

“And you knew Storm’s Eye was real?” Akari asked. Elend had seemed surprised by Glim’s memory, but not nearly as much as the rest of them. He’d also been quick to take action and alert his fellow Masters.

Elend lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “Few things will surprise you once you’re a Grandmaster, lass. Not because you’ve learned all the world’s secrets, but because you realize how little you knew in the first place.”

“So what’s gonna happen?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Mana storms have destroyed plenty of human settlements, but we’ve never seen anything like this. Better to prepare for the worst, I think.”

~~~

Akari spent most of Hansday on her computer, catching up on her studies and researching Storm’s Eye for herself. Apparently, there had been dozens of sightings over the years, especially from boats that ventured too far into the Inner Sea. There were even some photos of the giant mana spirit, but photos weren’t worth much in a world of Dream Artists.

No one knew exactly what he was, but she found hundreds of theories online. Some people said he was part of the storm—a fluke, where the mana had condensed itself into a spirit with some self-awareness.

Others claimed he’d been created by the Angels to protect something at the center of the Sea. These theories ranged from hidden continents to portals that let Mystics advance beyond this world.

And then there were the Markists, like the dragons in Creta. These groups believed that all storms were caused by Mana Artists who let their mana get out of control. In their eyes, this spirit was a natural consequence of that.

Some theories seemed more plausible than others, but no one had a definite answer. Not even Elend or Irina. And despite seeing the spirit with her own eyes, it seemed like something from a training session or a dream.

But then Akari stepped into the Darklight’s living room on Hansday night. The evening news played on the TV, showing footage of destruction along Cadria’s eastern coast. Mana walls were broken, water flooded the streets, and buildings lay in ruins.

The footage switched to Mystics and Grandmasters, lining up to defend their lands from these attacks. All the while, the words “Storm’s Eye” scrolled across the bottom of the screen in bold white letters.

Clearly, this world was about to change.