Shias took a breath, grateful that his plan had worked. Countless hours of study, private training, and experimentation had led to this.
Mirrors. Dozens of mirrors, materialized from magic, all of them drawing in, reflecting, and focusing light onto their target: Sen.
Sen recoiled, and then fully fell back, quick steps bringing him all the way back to the dark entrance to this forbidding stone chamber. The light was too bright, too intense for him.
But it could not slay him.
Well, I didn’t expect it to go all the way. Though that would have been nice.
Altair nuzzled Shias’ leg, and Shias spared a glance downward to see the blue pup gazing up at him. He could feel Altair’s thoughts, could feel the power of Support Magic flowing into him and enhancing his abilities.
He could feel the pride Altair felt in him. Pride that undoubtedly echoed Shana’s heart.
“Thanks,” Shias said, smiling. “But we’re not out of this yet.” He looked up, and let the mirrors vanish — and with them, the powerful beams of light that had pressed Sen back.
“More to you than shields and defense, I see,” Sen said. He kept his voice even and composed, but Shias didn’t miss the strain there. He also didn’t miss that Sen remained in the dark entrance, not returning to the room just yet.
“More than shields, yes,” Shias said. “But that was just another form of defense.”
Sen raised a questioning eyebrow, but said nothing. Shias didn’t elaborate, either. There wasn’t any point in disclosing the details of his abilities to his foe.
But he was, like Altair, quite proud of himself.
The first field test of the Mirror Wall, and against the toughest foe of them all. And it’s a success.
When he’d first heard the stories from Shana about the Library of Solitude, and about the living Darkness… he’d had a feeling. A feeling that the Darkness would be the real foe at the core of it all. And from that day on, he’d not only been refining his Guardian and Divination Magic and the simple but highly effective techniques he’d used for so long. He’d also begun devising a new technique to add to his arsenal.
Not an attack. The Mirror Wall wasn’t an offensive technique, for all that it looked like. It was built on the same fundamentals that drove Shias’ Guardian Magic, that kept him focused on his shields.
Deflection. Repulsion. Read the foe’s movements, and push them back. The Mirror Wall wasn’t going to destroy Sen — though a small part of Shias had hoped it would, he hadn’t expected it. But it was going to serve as a very effective secondary defense.
And it also, in Shias’ mind, couldn’t be classified as an attack, because its core was quite simple: Guardian Magic, and Divination Magic. His two specialties, realized in a brand new way. Mirrors, after all, reflected light. Reflection was easy to realize through Guardian Magic. And Divination Magic helped him to see what there was beyond normal human perception.
It helped him find the light.
Locate, arrange, capture, reflect. Four stages. Locate the light, arrange the mirrors, capture the light in them, then reflect — in concentrated, focused beams — the light where I need it to go.
“A new trick will not save you,” Sen said, taking his first step back into the room. His eyes were narrowed into slits, and he blinked frequently, clearly still dazzled by the light. “Only delay the inevitable.”
It’s not a trick. I don’t do tricks.
And delaying is fine. Time is all I need. I don’t have to slay you.
I just have to keep you away from Shana long enough. She’ll do the rest.
Wordlessly, Shias readied himself. Beside him, Altair crouched, growling softly, and Shias felt the familiar warmth of Support Magic — of Shana’s magic — course through him.
Sen took another step, and then charged at full speed. But Shias saw it coming, was ready for it, and brought up the Mirror Wall to force the dark knight back once again.
As he did so, a sudden light-headedness seized him. He swayed, staggered, dropped to one knee. Sen surged, trying to capitalize on the opportunity, but Shias warded him off with shields and then forced him back with another Mirror Wall. Altair whined softly, nudging Shias’ leg with his nose.
“I’m all right,” Shias said, pushing himself to his feet.
I’m nowhere near done yet.
I can buy time. As much time as you need. So Shana… don’t worry about me.
——
Outside Alexandra’s home, the fight against Valgwyn raged on. Adelaide took the lead alongside Camellia and Botan, engaging the winged archer directly.
Hayden stayed out of the fight. He was focused on his own objective, perhaps the most important part of this fight: burning out the seeds of Darkness that Valgwyn’s arrows were planting. The source of the interference blocking communications between the various teams fighting so hard to turn the Key of the World and stop the Endless Night had to be eliminated. While none of them had made it to that moment of truth, none of them were ready to turn their Key yet, when the time came, they needed to be synchronized.
So Adelaida fought with all she had. She took heart at the reliable allies beside her. Camellia managed to limit Valgwyn’s movements with clever, pinpoint archery of her own. Adelaida and Botan then closed in, focusing less on slaying the Son of Night and more on keeping him from setting another arrow to his bowstring.
It was no easy task. The only damage that Valgwyn had sustained, the only damage that didn’t heal itself, had come from Hayden’s fire. Hayden was clearly the tip of the spear for the trio, the powerhouse that led the way, supported by Botan and Camellia. When he’d attacked Valgwyn, he’d almost made the monster seem weak, even frail. With him out of the fight, it was frightfully clear just how much power Valgwyn could still bring to bear.
His powerful wingbeats blasted back Adelaida and Botan time and again. When Adelaida’s staff struck hard against a block from Valgwyn’s bow, the shockwave that resonated through her staff made her arms shudder and went up from there, rattling around in her head and making her teeth ache. When Valgwyn did manage to loose an arrow with his strange, deceptive slowness, even if one came within a few inches of Adelaida sent a shock through her body, a revulsion that twisted her stomach involuntarily.
And Valgwyn was fast. Camellia locked him down into a sort of invisible dome, but she had to cast a wide net, and that gave Valgwyn plenty of room still to maneuver. With neither Adelaida nor any of the Paladins capable of flight, and Botan particularly dependent on close-quarters combat, it made combat a touch-and-go affair.
And exhausted Adelaida and Botan’s legs.
While Adelaida could cast chain whips from her staff and thus at times attack from a distance, Botan didn’t have that luxury. He had to jump, and jump, and jump again, great, powerful leaps sometimes dozens of feet into the sky. He was an incredibly strong, incredibly muscular young man — and also a very large young man. Even with magic fueling his efforts, even with the extensive training and conditioning he’d had for years upon years, it was still tremendous work launching his muscular body high into the sky over and over again, and landing properly each and every time. He put on a brave face, kept his composure, but the sweat shining on his face and the heavy, gasping breaths he took whenever he got a breather were telling. Even Adelaida, much smaller and lighter than Botan, was feeling muscular exhaustion setting in, and her lungs were beginning to burn from the effort.
They couldn’t keep this up forever.
Valgwyn got off three arrows in quick succession, capitalizing on an opening in their assault. He didn’t strike any of them — Adelaida, Botan, and Camellia each deflected the arrow that came for them — but that didn’t matter. Deflected arrows found purchase somewhere, took root, and extended the interference on the coordination team.
“I was almost finished, too!” Hayden said. There was a hint of mirth in it, though, a subtle teasing that Adelaida did not appreciate.
Botan and Camellia did, however. Clearly, it was some kind of shared sense of humor, a part of their teamwork that Adelaida wasn’t familiar with. If it helped them, if it raised their spirits, then that was enough.
“Get finished now,” Camellia said, launching a pair of arrows that trailed spiraling torrents of water in their wake. Valgwyn was forced to block, and then Botan leapt to the attack, while Adelaida supported him with her chain. “Once you’re done, you can put an end to him and regain your self-confidence.”
“My self-confidence is fine!” Hayden said, but there was a sour note that betrayed his true feelings.
Botan landed with a grunt, then glanced over his shoulder at Hayden, a smirk playing at the corner of his lips. “A Paladin should be the one to put an end to a Son of Night, right?” he asked. “Finish up those arrows and then burn this guy to cinders.”
Ah. Right. Adelaida repressed a roll of her eyes as she threw forth her chain, wrapping it around Valgwyn’s draw hand and yanking it away from his quiver, where he’d been about to draw an arrow. Chelsea was the first to leave lasting wounds on Valgwyn — almost killed him, even. And she isn’t a Paladin.
Competition must be a natural instinct for Fire Mages.
“Almost there,” Hayden called.
“This is foolishness,” Valgwyn said. He pulled free of Adelaida’s chain and reached for an arrow. “I cannot die. None of us can.”
“I’m sure Kaohlad felt the same way,” Botan said. He leapt with sudden force and fury, crashing into Valgwyn with a thunderclap. Cobalt-blue lightning crackled and sparked outward, and Botan pummeled Valgwyn a dozen times before gravity’s inexorable pull tugged him earthward. Valgwyn was dazed, but when he recovered, there was cold fury in his eyes.
“He was banished,” he spat, “removed from our Father’s protection. Destroy me, and I return to Darkness to be reborn once more.”
“How long does that take?” Hayden asked. “I’m guessing a long time, right? And without the Lord of Night, you Sons of Night don’t manifest physically at all.”
Valgwyn sneered down at him, wings spread wide against Sunset Square’s fiery sky, cutting an impressive, foreboding figure. “The Lord of Night lives, and is undying and omnipotent. Rebirth will be as an eyeblink if you strike me down.”
“Something tells me he doesn’t live up to your lofty impression of him,” Hayden said. “He didn’t even heal your burn scars. And he’s a bit too preoccupied right now to bring you back once I put an end to you.”
“The scars are a reminder of the painful lesson that fire-witch provided,” Valgwyn said, fury rising in his voice. “And your pathetic friends will barely last a moment against our Father’s awesome power.”
“He does the arrogant villain speech pretty well, doesn’t he?” Hayden asked.
“And you do the annoying banter thing even better,” Camellia said, firing off half a dozen arrows, forcing Valgwyn to defend rather than fire back. “Are you ready yet?”
“All set,” Hayden said, stepping up beside Adelaida. His forehead shone with sweat, and fresh dark circles hung under his eyes. But even as the hand that held his scarlet sword trembled, a grin spread across his face. “Time to finish the lesson Chelsea started. The only being that rises from the ashes is the phoenix. Everything else, well…” He twirled his sword once. “It just ceases to exist.”
Adelaida didn’t even see Hayden leap towards Valgwyn. It all happened so fast, and more than that, it was as if a scarlet comet, not a person, arced up towards the Son of Night, whistling sharply in its staggeringly speedy wake. When the comet that was Hayden crashed into Valgwyn, it exploded in such a bright, dazzling sunburst that Adelaida, Botan, and Camellia all had to shut their eyes tight, and even then, they still needed to cover their eyelids against the brilliant glare. Heat washed over the city in a wave, scorching, yet somehow kind, comforting.
The only dangerous heat was reserved for the center of that magic-born supernova, a concentrated inferno with one purpose:
To end the Darkness.
A sudden burst of sound, a delayed explosion, set Adelaida’s ears to ringing. And in that explosion also came a high, shrill, desperate shriek. One last broken cry of agony in the face of annihilation.
When the brightness faded, Adelaida lowered her hand, opened her eyes, and still had to blink at spots in her vision. When her vision cleared…
There was Hayden, hovering in the air where he’d had his final clash with Valgwyn, wreathed in a scarlet, fiery aura.
Alone.
Ash fell like snow, dancing in the air, floating gently to the ground, where it broke apart, turned to dust, and then vanished entirely. In a few moments, even that tiny remnant of what had once been a Son of Night was gone.
Valgwyn was no more.
Hayden floated down to the ground, landing neatly. His sword glowed a moment longer in his hand, then swallowed up the fiery aura around Hayden, and with a final flash of fire, vanished. Hayden let out a breath, looked up, and smiled at his friends.
And then, his eyes fluttered closed, and he fell.
Botan and Camellia were there in an instant, the pair of them catching him before he hit the ground, cradling him gently.
Adelaida let out a sigh of her own, and smiled, too. Even as the pair checked and acknowledged that Hayden was alive, she already knew. Overexertion from magical use, even such a brilliant display, could never kill someone. He’d given it his all, and now gained a well-deserved rest. There might be some lingering aftereffects, some injuries that took extra time and attention to fully heal. But he would live.
Adelaida raised a hand to her earpiece. “My Lady?” she asked. “Valgwyn is defeated. The arrows and their corruption are purged. Has the interference subsided?”
“It has,” Alexandra responded. But there was hesitation in her voice. Adelaida’s heart sunk. So this one victory couldn’t even be properly enjoyed.
The danger and darkness were far from defeated.
——
“The interference here is gone, at least,” Deirdre said, standing over the wide, shallow pool that was supposed to be their coordination station. A specialized blend of Hikarescence filled the pool, attuned to each of the different teams sent off to put a stop to the Endless Night.
But the pool was still rippling wildly. It still wouldn’t show solid images, still wouldn’t give her a clear view of any of the teams for long.
“I think I know why,” Gerick said. He stood before an easel, using its canvas and a brush in hand to do things Deirdre hadn’t even realized were possible with magic. The Enchanted Dominion truly was a marvelous place. “Valgwyn didn’t only come here. This was merely his last stop.” He lowered his brush, turning the easel for all to see. On it, he’d painted a rough chart of the Enchanted Dominion, all three Sectors and their various Locations, as well as unconnected Locations and Locations that were locked in place. Several of these Locations, a few in each Sector, were shrouded in a messy blotch of black paint — black paint that was spreading, bleeding out towards neighboring Locations.
“Targeted interference,” Selphine said, eyes wide. “With each of those Locations… and how it will spread…” She shook her head. “I’m afraid he’s locked us out. We won’t be able to reach them through the Hikarescence.”
Deirdre turned her attention back to the pool. While those around her bowed their heads or muttered soft despairings, she put her mind to work.
My children are still out there, still fighting. I will never stop fighting for them.
A tiny hand grasped hers, and Deirdre looked down to see Addie gazing up at her. Gazing up at her with curiosity, without a shred of hopelessness. “Why does Darkness block you from talking to them?” she asked.
“Because we’ve used the Hikarescence to link all of us together,” Deirdre said. “It’s a solution that uses the Light itself, across all realms, to facilitate communication and observation. If the connections are blocked by Darkness, then we cannot see. And when the way we communicate is linked to the method we use to see…” She trailed off, gazing across the room at nothing in particular.
“You just had an idea,” Addie said, a smile forming on her lips.
“I’m starting to,” Deirdre murmured. She closed her eyes, all the better to focus her thoughts, to consider the possibilities.
Light. Blocked by Darkness. That shouldn’t be possible. Light pierces darkness, light illuminates darkness. Darkness is, ultimately, an absence of light, not — but you’re getting off track, that’s not the same as the living Light and the living Darkness. No, get back to that idea, what you were starting to see…
Using the Hikarescence. Scrying, essentially. Watching them from afar through the same liquid that helps do the same between Bastions. And the earpieces, the comm devices, linked to that same method, following that same pathway to…
“We bypass,” Deirdre said, opening her eyes. She looked down at Addie, and smiled, too. “We bypass the Darkness entirely.”
Selphine overheard her. “But how?” she asked. “The Hikarescence follows the Light, and if Valgwyn has cast shrouds of Darkness over the pathways we formed…”
“We don’t follow those pathways,” Deirdre said. “They anticipated how we would try to communicate and coordinate. But the Darkness is more limited than we are. We do need the Hikarescence if we want to see them, yes. But to just communicate, to just talk to and listen to each other, there are other ways. Like those little robots, Core and Lore, that Jupiter told us about. Mechanical systems follow mechanical logic. We have to find a pathway to communicate. Valgwyn blocked off our main pathways. We’re likely blinded, no matter what. But we could still find a bypass. A mechanical solution, rather than a magical one. Something they can’t block.” She strode to Gerick. “Can you explain these connections to me? How exactly is this arrangement of Locations being used to block our sight in its entirety? He hasn’t planted arrows at any of the Locations where our teams are located.”
Gerick walked her through it. Locations throughout the Dominion are all linked, with bonds tight and loose, strong and weak. Valgwyn had exploited those connections to spread this blinding shroud over all possible pathways for the Hikarescence to tap into.
“But what about other connections?” Deirdre asked. “Light isn’t all that binds the Locations together, is it? And Hikarescence isn’t the only way for people to communicate between Locations. Correct?”
“Correct,” Gerick said, his eyes widening a fraction, understanding dawning. He pulled out a pencil, better to draw fine, careful lines with, as well as label those lines with notes. “For each Sector, there is a pulse of sorts. All of the Sectors move in a roughly spiraling fashion. That pattern forms lines, lines that, due to the Spiral Dragons themselves, have been dubbed by some as ‘Dragon Lanes’.”
“That’s right,” Maxwell said, coming to join them, his eyes alive with sudden hope and understanding. “They mark the paths that the Dragons take. And communication can happen along those Lanes. Starlight Spires was one of the first places to create what they call an Enchanted Network — inspired in part by a Human invention, the internet. The Enchanted Network isn’t as sophisticated or widespread as the internet, but it was the first time there had been any ability to communicate in real time across Locations that weren’t Daylight Bastions — and it was all thanks to using previously undiscovered but preexisting magical connectivity between Locations, Lanes that allowed the transmission of signals of varying types.”
“Like audio?” Deirdre asked hopefully.
“Oh, yes,” Maxwell said with a nod. “Aural transmission has proved to be the most compatible signal for the Dragon Lanes to carry.”
Deirdre gestured to Gerick’s chart of the Enchanted Dominion. “Are there pathways — Dragon Lanes — that we could use to connect all of our teams out there?” she asked. “Even Shana in Dreamworld?”
“Well, that’s the best thing,” Maxwell said, adjusting his bowtie and stepping closer to the chart. As he spoke, he indicated lines with his fingers, tracing the Dragon Lanes that Gerick had drawn in, as well as others that he hadn’t yet drawn. “The Dragon Lanes are preexisting, and indomitable. Where the Human internet required a whole new infrastructure created from the ground up, the Dragon Lanes were, and always will be, in place already. And though they follow the Spiral Dragons’ paths, there are also Lanes connecting even those Locations that are not a part of any specific Sector. Which hints at there once being more Spiral Dragons, or them occasionally traveling beyond their Sectors, or perhaps having an interest in —”
“I think you’re getting a little off track, Maxwell,” Gerick said with a gentle smile.
“Ah, right, sorry,” Maxwell said, with a little nervous chuckle. “Right. So, if you wanted to connect us to the other teams anew — albeit, unfortunately, only through aural signals — then these are the Lanes you need to connect to.” He indicated three Lanes in quick succession, then stepped back, as if he was finished.
“You figured out which ones to follow that fast?” Addie asked.
“He has a very speedy brain,” Tock said, grinning as she joined them. “So the next step is to use them… somehow… right?” She looked at Deirdre.
They all looked at Deirdre.
Deirdre didn’t miss a beat. “Maxwell, Gerick, I’ll need you to go over the mechanics of utilizing those Dragon Lanes,” she said. “Addie, I’ll need your help with the devices, and Isla as well. You helped me figure out the original system, after all.”
“We are, as always, ever eager to aid our dearest friend,” Isla said, striding smoothly towards them, Dama pacing alongside her, his ever-changing number of tails swishing with anticipation.
“You need my help?” Addie asked, wide-eyed.
“Absolutely,” Deirdre said, crouching down to look Addie in the eye. She smiled warmly at her. “We don’t have the time for delicate mechanical development, after all. But your special gift lets you make something instantly — once we have the concept laid down.”
Addie’s smile could have lit up the room — it certainly lit up Deirdre’s heart. They quickly set to work, and not just those Deirdre indicated. Selphine, Twelve, Tock, Alexandra, and others joined in, chiming in with ideas and concepts and insights. They needed to work fast, and that’s exactly what they did. Deirdre timed it.
Eleven minutes. That was how long it took them to come up with a new device that would bypass Valgwyn’s Darkness shroud. It was better than she could have possibly hoped for, and even then, she feared it might still have taken too long. Eleven minutes was a long time — but time passed more slowly here in Alexandra’s home. There was some hope in that.
She hoped it would be enough.
It would have to be. They’d done the best they possibly could.
“All set?” Deirdre asked. Addie nodded, then stretched out her hand. In her outstretched palm was a baseball — just a simple item, of about the right size for their design. That’s all Addie’s Birthright Magic, her marvelously unique talent, needed. In a shimmer of light, the baseball transformed, turning into a domed mechanical relay device that came alive in an instant with several blinking lights. Addie placed it on a table, and Deirdre removed her comm device, checking to see that it had connected.
It had. And so had all the rest of them. More than that, a quick use of Divination Magic let Deirdre see that the connections with all the rest of the devices — even her children’s — were in place. She raised her hand to her ear, sent up a silent prayer, and spoke.
“Caleb?” she asked. “Fae? Shana? Shias? Delilah? Do you read me? Am I coming in clearly, or —”
“Mom?”
“Mom!”
“Mom, I hear you loud and clear!”
Their voices came through, one by one. Loud and clear. She could hear them, and they could hear her.
Her heart soared. Tears stung her eyes, and she couldn’t stop smiling.
They were all still alive. Her children, holding on against all odds. And now, they were connected again.
She could fight with them again.
“All right, everyone,” she said, finding her voice through the overwhelming emotions. “Status reports, fast as you can. Let’s finish this.”