Chapter 428 (1/2)

Chapter 426: Hoping | Patreon

18-22 minutes

ARTHUR LEYWIN

Aldir looked uncertainly at the iridescent stone in my palm while Mordain sucked in a shocked breath Avier shuffled across the top of the portal frais’s attention honed in on the others, sensing that there was so that we lacked

Behind the others, Wren Kain whispered so rock throne, absentlyabove his curled hand

“This is old ic,” Mordain said, unable to take his eyes off the stone “Do you have any idea what it is that you carry?”

“I know Sylvie is inside this stone, and I’ve been slowly bypassing a series of…locks, I suppose My hope is that, when I’ve finished, she’ll coerly toward Sylvie’s egg When ers instinctively curled around it, he blinked as if waking froend—a myth really—told as a bedtime story to our children that described a pheno rewarded to the brave and genuine That, though the body may perish, our mind and soul will mold themselves into a physical form and be reborn”

Wren Kain scoffed as he floated closer on his s orld-altering abilities still ic? It'sup a bedti for help, not to be tucked to sleep”

“Bedti between the two ancient asura “Regis can inhabit the egg, and I can feel that it’s her And it just…appeared, after she…” I trailed off, not wanting to relive the moment of her sacrifice “Somehoas transported fro came withfell still as the asuran artificer’s face wrinkled in thought

Mordain took a shaky breath “Some members of the phoenix race have learned to control their own rebirth, guiding the soul into a new for else A recreation of body, aze traced fro in my palm up my arm to my torso “The draconic aspects of your body…she destroyed herself giving them to you, didn’t she?”

I could only nod, unable to speak past a sudden lump in my throat

“And does Lord Indrath know of this?” Mordain asked innocently enough, but there was an intensity in his burning eyes that suggested some deeper context to his question

“He does,” I adive norance by asking too avethe sahter will be reborn…” He trailed off with a shake of his head “I will have to think on this But do not let the s of an old man hold you back fro? What, exactly?”

Instead of answering immediately, I stepped up beside hiht erly to the portal fra Avier to leap off and fly to Mordain’s shoulder Mordain took a step back, watching ary interest as the motes flowed into all the cracks and crevices The portal fra turned back before our eyes In moments, the last cracks had sealed and the final loose pieces of stone were drawn into place

A dim, purple portal hule a as if he could burron into its core and see the asuran spirit resting there “I will do what is needed”

As concisely as I was able, I explained the portal and the Relictomb’s relationshi+p to the “aether realht, I told theh into that place, accidentally discovering it I was careful not to give them the impression they could use this technique to breach the Relictombs itself, however, whether it could be done or not The djinn had chosen to keep even their phoenix allies out of the Relictombs for a reason I wouldn’t be the one to kick the door in for theerous to uard “You did what you had to last time, but it sounds like you nearly couldn’t escape”

“That was because I was fighting an asura hell-bent on keeping ,” I shot back

“Even still” His baggy-eyed gaze turned to Mordain “In all the years you sheltered djinn, no one ever told you about this?”

Mordain stepped up to the portal and reached out to it It responded by projecting a repulsive force, like a ainst another of the same polarity “No, the phenomena Arthur has described was never explained or, to e, used by the djinn who came to live in the Hearth”

Avier hopped up onto the top of the portal arch “Perhaps they didn’t tell anyone because it could be dangerous For the travelers, the Relictombs, even this world”

“Thank you! Finally, so sense,” Wren said with a scoff “It sounds like breaking soon or member of the Indrath Clan, I can tell you that, when it coenerally pretty bad”

“It is equally as likely that they kneas too ie from Lord Indrath to trust even us with it,” Mordain countered thoughtfully “Asuran lives are very long, and the last surviving djinn had every reason to expect the worst of the future”

“You’re all assuis said frouys were, the djinn were idealists to the point of silliness They definitely didn’t understand everything that they created We’ve seen that with our own eyes”

I recalled what the last djinn re at the end, too, I think The Relictombs is…a dark place Out of character with the way the djinn attempted to live—and the way they chose to die I think they definitely had a pretty grim outlook on the future of our world, based on what I’ve seen Enough to poison their trust even in their only allies”

“Perhaps it is for the best that we’ll never see their creation,” Mordain said, stepping away frohtened again “I know you are eager to proceed, so I won’t press you any further, except to ask how long we should expect you and Aldir to be gone?”

Regis joinedintonear my core We hadn’t discussed if he should co hi just beside me He was expressionless, neither tense nor placid Despite er with him, I couldn’t help but appreciate his fearlessness in this situation

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I answered

With an understanding nod, Mordain rested a hand on Aldir’s shoulder They exchanged no words and yet still co very clearly between them, even if it was unreadable to the rest of us When this moment passed, Mordain ain flew to his shoulder Together, they watched in silence

Wren Kain suddenly drifted forward “Listen, there is no reason to rush this without a better understanding That stone or e to expire Lady Sylvie isn’t going anywhere You’re being stupid”

My brows rose, but Aldir clapped Wren Kain on the aro doing noe may lack time for in the future?”

Wren Kain shrank further into his floating throne “Well, if you rip a hole in the fabric of the universe and wipe out this continent, I guess that’s on you two” He focused on Aldir “Whatever Just get this done and get back here, all right? If Indrath is sending dragons to Dicathen, we need to prepare”

“You know I didn’t bring you here to fight a war, old friend”

Wren Kain blinked and a soe of his lips “Yeah… but I was kind of hoping you had”

Aldir returned the sober s the other’s forearm, we stepped closer to the portal and immediately felt the repulsive pressure h the portal’s boundary Aldir’s vicelike grip clenched down hard enough to hurt, and we both leaned into the portal

It wavered, bending away fro half-step

The stone of the arch shook, and the purple energy of the portal’s surface flexed farther, tre forces within the portal atte Aldir, but I kept his arm clamped in mine as we took another small step

My sto point, like I had stepped on a rotting board in a bridge

The portal ied the two of us inward, and the world dissolved into fractals of interdimensional connective tissue For just the barest instant, I recognized the network of aetheric pathways that I sahen activating God Step, then everything went dark