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I dropped il, in Rhyzkahl’s ritual," I said,"It was directly in front of "

"And it affected you now," he said, pressing slightly with his hand "Jesral’s glyph only?"

I closed my eyes and assessed myself just to be sure "Yeah, that’s the only one that flared," I said, slowly easing "And it’s okay now, like it never happened"

Mzatal re his own assessuess they aren’t just scars after all" Helori had said as much, but denial had been a lot more comfortable

"They are not what they were created to be," he said quietly, "but they are not quiescent, and I do not knohat they are"

"Well ain’t that godda in atop the old I turned around so I could look up into his face, not wanting to dwell on any thoughts of the fucking scars "I’il"

"Aderous and ill-advised," he said "However, in this case, quite useful The adjustments you made were an adaptation for rakkuhr that I did not know, but that resonates hat has been out of sync in the final ring" He gave ht smile "As ih insight to complete the series"

I snorted "Go me!"

Mzatal laughed, placed his hands on my shoulders, then leaned in and kissed me on the forehead "Go you, indeed Now bathe and prepare We will begin the beacondespite hter, I headed off to bathe and prepare But my smile faded as I reached the bath chamber The scars were clearly more than scars, yet no one seemed to knohat the hell they were

I scowled as I slipped into the tub It’d been a big deal just to get my ears pierced, and now I had arcane scarification Fuck you, Rhyzkahl Fuck You

Chapter 39

The sun hung low over the sea in an increasingly glorious display of fiery orange and purple, casting the black sand of the beach in shifting hues that reminded me of the album cover for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon albu the sweat that plastered e flat boulder I smiled wearily That album would be a pretty nifty soundtrack for this particular scene

Rippling waves of power pulsed froram that was set within Mzatal’s nexus point The low crash of surf against rock ely rhythoff

Events ils That afternoon, he’d brought us back out here to create the ritual to seek out the blade This was like a nal, a "Hey, wake up!" to the blade, combined with a way to lock onto it once it was found And then, assu that was successful, ould relocate to Szerain’s palace and create a new ritual--the final one, where, if all ell, I would actually call it into ra andit In between periods of work on the beacon, we trained and studied and prepared for the next ritual And, occasionally, Idris and I grabbed naps on blankets spread on the sand Needless to say, I was damn tired and more than ready to sleep in a real bed I’d hadto ue was the fact that the creation of this beacon required a fair a on my part, since I was the one ould make the final call to the blade I had no probleht to suram for the cut However the a was never ured I’d duram thrummed and flared on the pavilion, and I smiled in weary satisfaction In some ways it was similar to the beacon I’d used to call Tessa’s essence back to her body, though on a vastly larger scale Rhyzkahl gave ram from it, which made it possible forlinificance to the fact that Rhyzkahl had given me the parameters to a beacon similar to this one, but I was far too tired to explore it now Didn’tthe blade for his punk ass anyway

Idris staggered over to the big rock, stripped off his sweaty shirt and dropped it beside him "Shit," he breathed as he watched Mzatal continue to prowl the peri silk pants of deep h his hair remained braided perfectly, as always I watched with tired detachil, tested strands, and added additional potency to the call Back on Earth the moon was near full, ideal for a beacon to call Szerain’s blade while Szerain was on Earth If this part failed or was perforain

My gaze went to where Gestamar crouched, halfway between ain he had my letter to Tessa tucked into his pouch in case he was sue for its delivery