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I grinned, turned, and set about doing s The potency of the ritual rose, the three of us working in a harht possible until the Gestaht It was even better today Beautifully unified power flowed between Mzatal andease and adaptability He traced sigils with a keen efficiency that would have likely leftif I’d been able to spare the attention

With a torrent of arcane power, the patterns ignited, flowing through s and dispersals ove the suht it kind of superfluous and weird before--to name a blade like it was a sentient creature--but not now that I could sense it With the first touch I felt it, knew it: Vsuhl Gooseflesh crawled over an to infuse the ritual, and I s within therove reached me as a new harmony within the pattern "Rhyzkahl coWe’d known this would likely happen, and Mzatal was prepared to hold him off until I had Vsuhl

Mzatal’s face went to the intense, unreadable h the patterns to exit the diagrarove activated again, and I nearly fu in shock "Wait! Mzatal, it’s not just hiet a better sense of as happening "Oh, fuck"

Mzatal reached the outer edge and turned as soon as he was fully out, already tracing new protections "Who?"

Cold seared through rove "Rhyzkahl, Jesral, Amkir, and Vahl" Four! There was no way in hell we could stand against four Maybe they’d play by their own rules and only engage one-on-one? Aht, so I had a measure of hope In any case, it was far too late to shut down the ritual and make a run for it

Mzatal’s eyes narrowed, but otherwise he displayed no reaction "Idris, lay pure defense with a support core" His voice dropped to Scary-MoFo intensity "Kara, these chekkunden have already gone far down a dangerous path and the stakes are high They er flared in his eyes, and I sensed it was directed at least partly at hi this level of treachery

Crap "What do we do?" I asked, doing my best to keep my cool

He turned back to et the blade," he stated "With Vsuhl and Khatur, we can hold against theo now" He lifted his chin "You knohat you need to do I will ut "Boss, be careful"

A whisper of a smile curved his mouth "And you, zharkat" He turned away and took up a position about twenty feet froan to lay a ils around hi to dihtness of it

The bellows of ht The odd truers Fuck The galance to Idris in the support diagra "Kick ass, Idris!" I said, giving hirinned He was pumped full of adrenaline Probably had no idea how bad a direct coet, and I wasn’t about to inforood defensive position with his diagram Plus the pattern here not only mirrored the one at the nexus on the beach, it also linked fully to Idris’s support diagram in the unique way developed by Mzatal and Idris We were a kickass unit I could only hope it would be enough

I continued to trace and work the ritual This hat I needed to do The blade was close, but I knew I didn’t have tis and e Mzatal But I did have ti before those assholes made it to the courtyard

With the fullness of the ritual and the light rove, I felt Rhyzkahl in the tree tunnel He rove with a speed thatwithin those leafy walls since nearly being crushed by that power I s

A few minutes later, Rhyzkahl rounded the base of the west tower, striding with arrogant confidence, badass and beautiful in full-blown potency Behind him Jesral stalked with contained precision Vahl trailed theh the connection with Mzatal, I sensed Ae door

Why Vahl and not Kadir? I wondered Kadir was one of the Four Mraztur, as Seretis had called the with Kadir any ht with a curl of my lip That actually made sense I couldn’t help but feel a shimmer of disappointain, he didn’t seem all that fired up to be here

Rhyzkahl’s eyes locked onto trace, and I also pulled rove power We were fucked I had no doubt about that Best I could do was keep on doing what I was doing