Lines of omena stretched across the snow covered land, reaching through everything like a great tangled web. Joshua smiled to himself as he waved his hands across the lines. They faded and reappeared just at his touch.

  “It’s beautiful,” he whispered.

  With but a twist of the strands, he could draw an element forth. He could drain life, imbue it and silence it forever. This was true power, not the trifling magic of the Tower. This was what he had been searching for.

  Perhaps he should feel some regret, but who would care about their old lives with such amazing beauty shifting before their eyes. This was something that was worth any cost. It could change all of Nelim.

  The soft whispers of the savod echoed in his mind. The savod was right, he did understand. He might not know their entire plan, but he could see it now. The savod wanted to regrow their world.

  “Your first plan was simple,” Joshua said. “You invaded our world because you were chased from yours. It must have seemed a simple choice at the time. The sylvestrians were more than you expected, especially after you lost so many to Sarrack.”

  “Sarrack is truly a ferocious god,” Joshua said.

  His hands were shaking. He was scared. The memories of the savod came to him again. The connection was stronger than before when he just received the visions. This time, the memories were his own.

  “I see what you want from our world,” Joshua said. “Our magic isn’t like your own, not completely. We have a raw power hidden here that you did not. You really think that will be enough to defeat Sarrack.”

  “You were right, savod,” Joshua said. “I know what you say is true, I know what your people have seen and the monstrosity that consumes worlds. I know that if he was to come here, as we are now, we would be destroyed.”

  “I will work with you,” Joshua said. “We have to prepare the world for his coming.”

  Joshua shuddered, but he could not deny what he saw. Someone needed to pull together the disparate kingdoms, to mold men into a mighty war machine. There was no doubt for him; he would be the one to do it.

  “So, where do we begin?” Joshua asked.

  “No,” Joshua said.

  “No,” Joshua said again. “Either I maintain control, or I will destroy us both. If we are going to do this, we are doing it my way.”

  Joshua turned his gaze westward. Waves of omena flowed out from there; he wasn’t sure how he didn’t see it before. He reached out a hand to touch the floating black tendrils, and ecstasy shook through his veins.

  He could see across the distance, as if his eyes were a part of the magic. He knew where he needed to go. With a simple twist, he drew open the Veil, and the blackness rose up to consume him.

  It was but a breath of cold on his skin when he crossed back to Nelim. He was not fatigued. The omena that flowed through him from the crystal never wavered or dropped. Joshua opened his eyes again as he rose out of the black.

  He was on an open lake, standing on the ice. Only sparse animal footprints crossed the light snow that covered it. He was deep inside Abfall now, but he couldn’t be sure exactly where he was.

  That didn’t matter, he thought as he turned his gaze west again. He could see the tendrils in the air, far greater in number than he could count. The further west he moved, he realized, the greater the concentration of the omena.

  “Savod,” Joshua said. “Tell me more about the seal. How was it made? How are we going to break it open?”

  “I will take control of them, I think,” Joshua said. “It is only right that I act as the representative for Nelim.”

  “You know my conditions savod!” Joshua yelled. “Unless you think you can find another host easily, you will do what I say.”

  Joshua took the savod’s silence as acquiescence. He concentrated again to the west, and followed the strands of magic with his mind. He could see it, a black stone keep surrounded by high walls. It was a fitting place to conduct the final war of man.

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  Joshua opened a hole to the Veil again, and stepped through into darkness. In one breath, he crossed into the dark. In the next, he rose again in the middle of the black walls. He breathed in the cold air and smiled as he looked around. He was at the keep.

  The tendrils of magic were almost a maze as he walked forward across the snowy ground. Like a great yawning beast, a clear path led up to the main door of the keep. The broken door lay open, waiting to devour him.

  Joshua walked in without hesitation.

  It moaned and groaned as the new person entered. Shadows surround Joshua. Only small streams of light from the roof illuminated the inside of the keep. Joshua walked forward through dust and ruin.

  He started up what would have once been an imposing staircase. Whispers of the dead followed him, though surely any remains would have long turned to dust. At the top of the stairs, he came into what would have been the king’s court.

  Tattered rags hung down over the ceiling struts up above him. There, Joshua saw some remnants of the actual people of Abfall. On the throne sat a skeleton topped with a simple silver crown. A sword rested across the tattered cloth on his lap.

  Joshua ignored it. It wasn’t what he was looking for. He continued past the hall and deeper inside. The tendrils led him to a spiral staircase that went down beneath the keep. That was where he wanted to go.

  “This must be it.” Joshua conjured a flame in his hand to illuminate the steps.

  The slick wet stone slapped against his boots as he walked down the steps. If he rushed down, he was sure he would fall until he was lost in the deep chasm. The green light of his flame led the way as he followed the tendrils down.

  Cold gripped his heart as he stepped down from the stairs to the room below. Ice clung to the ceiling above him and water dripped down from the heat of his flame. As Joshua walked forward, his boots clicked upon an embossed circle.

  Joshua knelt down, letting the flame illuminate the circle. There were at least a hundred different runes etched inside the circle, none of which he recognized. A five-pointed star connected the edges of the circle, each section containing its own rune.

  “Interesting,” Joshua whispered as he examined them.

  “It can wait.” Joshua shook his head. “Some of these are familiar at least partially to me. It’s amazing how similar their runes are to ours.”

  “How do you want me to make the gate then?” Joshua threw up his arms, extinguishing the flame. “Are we to make it from stone or wood? Do you have nails?”

  “No, a thousand times no!” Joshua yelled. “Just tell me what I need to do, and stop with your incessant nagging.”

  Joshua did as he was told, taking his staff and striking down on the seal’s center. The omena surged through his arms and into the staff. It shot out through the seal and reached out to two points outside of the seal.

  With a grunt, Joshua called the stone to rise, sending two pillars streaking into the air. They curved until they met above his head, creating an arch. The ceiling above him shook and sent ice shards scattering down with the force of their contact.

  “You want me to remake that crystal from before,” Joshua said, looking down to his hands. “Doesn’t that mean I will lose all of this power?”

  “Then I guess I know how to do it.” Joshua grinned.

  He formed the image of the crystal in his mind and stretched out his hand beside the gate. The magic left him, stretching out from his fingers. The air shimmered as the crystal, as tall as he was, hardened in a perfectly symmetrical hexagonal shape.

  A line of omena remained, touching the heart of the crystal to his heart. The magic was there, only muted. He hadn’t lost the power, but he wouldn’t be able to draw it out as easily. Joshua leaned on his staff as he turned to the gate.

  “I understand it now,” Joshua said. “I don’t think I need you anymore, savod.”

  “I disagree,” Joshua said.

  The savod assaulted the walls of Joshua’s mind. Joshua pushed back against it, but he still wasn’t prepared. That didn’t matter, because he knew what he should do. He did not face the savod. He merely retreated.

  The savod’s mind rushed through his own like a tide, implanting itself and sending him to the dark. Joshua wouldn’t allow it. He had a berth in which to hide. He imagined the tower, protected from everything and hid himself inside.

  Darkness washed over him, but the tower did not falter.

  He waited until the wave of darkness passed, until the savod was sure of its victory. It was when the savod relaxed that Joshua counterattacked. He exerted his will as a green flame, washing it over his body and purging the savod from his mind.

  A scream of anguish rang out through his thoughts, and he knew that he had won.

  His body ached, but the constant flow of omena did much to staunch the drain. He looked down to his right hand, but the darkness was still there. Even his face was still halfway covered. Getting rid of the savod was not enough then.

  Joshua didn’t care. It didn’t matter anymore how he looked. Soon all of Nelim would be the same. He took his staff and raised it up above his head, stepping closer to the gate. He reached out with his mind as he did, searching across the Veil.

  “There you are.” The familiar touch called him closer, and he forged a link.

  Green light raced in a whirling circle inside of the gate. The burning light pulled his robes forward as wind flowed into the portal. Joshua gasped as the light flared and churned before his eyes.

  Reaching out from the storm, a black claw gripped the stone.

  Elise and Nell marched up the temple’s grounds together. Elise noticed that the camps were missing, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. Nathaniel had been working on his solution for a long time. He must have enacted it while they were away.

  Elise’s stomach lurched at the thought, but she suppressed it.

  She didn’t always agree with Nathaniel’s decisions, but she was smarter than Elaine in that regard. Only a fool would talk back to a man with that much power. She didn’t fancy going down that path.

  “He’s going to be very angry,” Elise said, gripping the hilt of her sword.

  “You will face more of that than I,” Nell said with an even tone. “You are the captain after all.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Elise said, grimacing.

  Was the power worth it? She had to wonder if it was. She had betrayed Elaine to gain her position, casting aside all ties forged in battle to gain the power that was rightfully hers. She didn’t regret it, but she didn’t like where it left her.

  She looked to Nell. The woman could just as easily do the same as Elise had. It was no great skill to seed doubt into Nathaniel’s mind. Nell wasn’t the only one either. How many of her subordinates coveted the captain’s rank?

  The doubt ate at her soul.

  She couldn’t let it stop her. She had done so much to take her position. She would not give it up easily. She opened the tall doors of the temple with a strong push and stepped in with her head held high.

  She would not fall without a fight.