Krayson created an apotheosis. That much power in a spell was like taking hold of a single thread in the spider's web and striking it with a hammer.

    The roar of flames filled Father Ranton's solar. As the spellfire leapt from Krayson's hands towards Prince Vintus, they turned from orange to blue. Loose papers on the end tables burst alight, and the wooden furniture began to char. The rugs smoldered, and the air wavered with heat-refracted light. Krayson thought he could see a grinning visage in the flames, perhaps the Ember King himself.

    Vintus' wards withstood the spell, but only for a moment. Spellfire struck with as much concussive force as it did with heat, and the blast broke through the assassin's ward and flung him back through the open doorway of the solar. Fire washed over him, and Krayson heard Vintus hit the wall opposite the door with a resounding crack. The spellfire dissipated, leaving behind black burn marks on the stone around Vintus. The scent of burning wood and paper hung within the air.

    Vintus collapsed to the ground, unmoving. The black iron rivets studding his armor were smoking where they touched leather, and a few still glowed red. Cracks traced along the wall where he'd hit, and Krayson imagined that Vintus' body hadn't held up much better. An impact like that would have killed an ogre.

    No time for admiring my handiwork, Krayson thought. The others are just outside.

    He didn't dwell on the fact that he'd just assaulted the Highest King's brother. Nor that he'd done so in front of a coterie of royal assassins. He was more concerned that Princess Maya Algara threw herself into the solar, sword in hand and teeth bared.

    "--Raise the stones before me!--" Krayson shouted.

    The floor between Krayson and Maya exploded with shards of granite. Blocks in the floor blasted upwards, forming a wall that reached nearly to the ceiling. As he spoke his incantation, Krayson formed a second spell with his hands. Two-point single somatic, kinetic and friction essences. He touched the newly formed stone wall, and it hurtled forward as if kicked by a giant.

    Krayson turned and ran for the stairwell leading to Father Ranton's chambers. He heard the crash of stone behind him, but he doubted that it had done much to Maya. He'd had his witchsight when she came in, and he saw the ether infusing her. Her stores were flush and vast, holding almost as much ether as a hierarch. Krayson had known she was powerful, but he'd never have guessed the magnitude. That he could detect her reserves at all meant that she was summoning some spellcraft of her own. Unlike other arcanists, sorcerers used magic as an extension of will, and there wouldn't be any somatics or runes to warn him of what she was doing.

    Wards wrapped around him as he hurtled down the stairs. He found that his altered hands were perfect for swift and precise execution. Now that he was more accustomed to them, he could fire off spells twice as fast as before. He muttered incantations at the same time, layering himself in defensive magic at an even faster rate. He reached the bottom of the stairs.

    Krayson was grateful that a lightning ward had been his first choice when Maya's astramancy blasted after him down the stairs. It struck the black, stone wall in front of his face, cracking the spellwrought masonry and leaving a scorch mark the size of a horse.

    The light dazzled his eyes, and his ears rang painfully as the thunder struck. The bolt had gone wide of him. It hadn't deflected off his ward. Maya must have been casting blindly, or maybe she had just missed. Whatever the reason, he took advantage of it.

    "Tarnak."

    The damaged wall gave way to his earth spell and burst outward. Wind howled through the opening. One step, and the ground would suddenly be a hundred levels beneath him. Krayson didn't hesitate and flung himself through the breach.

oOo

    Maya watched the blood runner leap into the open air. She'd almost been able to smell the fear coming off of him, and she might have taken a little more pleasure from his reaction than she should have. Nonetheless, her deception had worked. No one, not even the Krayson, suspected that she'd just saved his life. He likely believed that her lightning bolt had weakened the wall by chance and not by design.

    Esra and Tion had raced down to the floor below as soon as the Krayson began casting that fire spell. Whatever trickery he'd used to make it look like he could use both incantations and somatics wouldn't have saved him. He would have been cornered and eliminated just like any other contract.

    "Winds take that boy." Vintus came back into the solar and rolled his neck with audible popping sounds. He jogged to stand next to Maya at the top of the stairwell. "Where's he gone?"

    She pointed towards the hole with her sword. She dipped the blade, following the sensation of the apotheosis that thrummed in her mind. Though a few other apotheoses hung within the Sanguine Tower, the Krayson's was by far the strongest and most recent. Casting that powerful of a spell had been a foolish move on the blood runner's part. It would make him that much easier to home in on.

    Vintus grunted as he focused on the ringing pressure. Strange, that he hadn't picked up on it sooner. It seemed that the blood runner's spell had rattled Vintus harder than he wanted to let on.

    Nonetheless, it was unsurprising that Vintus hadn't been put out of action by the spell. Fire wards were a manifestation any assassin could perform as second nature, and Maya had seen Vintus take his daily oren before they entered the tower. He'd be able to shrug off blows that would kill a normal man outright.

    Vintus all but gnashed his teeth. "We don't have time for this. Go cut off his escape. I want him dead and us gone immediately."

    Maya narrowed her eyes behind her cowl, and cocked her head to the side in question.

    Vintus noted her lack of compliance and frowned at her. "One Dashar was more than enough, girl. Take Josy and get ahead of the blood runner!"

    A curt nod served as Maya's reply. She made a show of rushing to obey. Before leaving the anointed father's solar, she looked behind her to see Vintus jumping through the hole after the Krayson. Maya slowed to a casual walk. She scowled as she considered the situation.

    Vintus was in a hurry. As far as Maya could tell, he was behaving as if on a timetable. Also, there'd been that slip he made. She was unsure if it was a simple turn of phrase or if there was something more behind it. Vintus said the Krayson had a talent for taking advantage of chaos. Maya could only assume that meant Vintus believed chaos was coming.

    After reading the journal Josy had shown her and learning the truth of what happened in the south, Maya still knew too little. It appeared that joining Vintus' coterie wasn't enough to be taken into his confidence. Even Duke Falthis hadn't known much beyond that Vintus was working against the king. The old traitor had assumed Vintus meant to usurp the throne.

    Falthis had always been an incompetent fool. Grasping and conniving, he'd been retired from the assassins and sent to liaison with the Altieri royal houses. That must have been why Vintus found him so easy to manipulate, but even there, Falthis had proven useless. Altier Nashal was destabilized as intended, but Vintus counted on Lord Rodrik Karst attacking Althandor. Why remained a mystery. What worried Maya more was what Vintus had as a backup plan. And what he intended for Kiir.

    Vintus had been pushing Father to name Kiir as the crown prince again, and Maya still couldn't reason out why. The failed rebellion in the south had been intended to kill Dashar almost as much as to bring the Altieri Legions to the Spired City. A lot of this seemed intended to put Kiir on the throne. As a puppet perhaps, but if that was the case, why wouldn't Vintus just seize power for himself? He had a strong claim, and even Gain might accept Vintus becoming crown prince if it was presented right.

    Maya found Josy waiting for her outside the solar. Josy's face was lowered, avoiding the cowl's eyes.

    "Did he get away?" Josy asked.

    Maya shook her head and turned towards the steam lift.

    Josy fell into step alongside her. "I can sense the apotheosis and the bloodsong. He's heading downward a little too fast for me to think he had a plan when he jumped outside."

    Maya shrugged. She was loathe to admit it, but the Krayson struck her as competent. A little thing like a plunge from one of the tallest spires in the city wouldn't be too terrible a trial for a blood runner, would it? Popular legend suggested they did that sort of thing often.

    The three anointed fathers still in the tower stood at the mouth of the hall, their postures communicating indignation. She gave them and the Red Clerics guarding over them as much attention as she believed they warranted. Which was to say she ignored them entirely.

    "Your Highness, I must protest these actions," one of them said. A tall, reedy man with a trace of crimson in his graying hair and an Altieri accent.

    Maya kept her eyes and momentum forward.

    "Your Highness," another squawked. This anointed father was a woman. It offended Maya that the Order only acknowledged a woman's power once she discarded her gender for another. At least the noble houses were honest about their reasons when they denied women rights of inheritance.

    The third master dared to reach out and touch Maya's arm. She stopped in place and looked at him. Now they'd gone and gotten her attention, and she doubted they would enjoy the experience.

    "Please, Your Highness," the elderly man said. He was the one from before, the Father of Wizards. "Brother Joshuan would never betray his contract. You must believe me."

    The old man's eyes were frightened, and Maya realized that it wasn't fear of her or of anyone else. It was fear for someone. It seemed even a boy from House Krayson could have one or two people who cared about him.

    Maya put her hand over his, gently taking it and pulling it off of her. She gave him a nod before stepping onto the steam lift.

    Josy offered the masters a murmured apology before joining her. She threw the lever once inside. The steam engine sputtered to life, the lift jostled, and they began to descend the Sanguine Tower.

    "That could've gone better," Josy said quietly.

    Maya didn't reply. After getting the whole story, rather than more of the lies Josy had been peddling since returning home, Maya had half a mind to drag her into the throne room and force her to confess everything. If not for the inevitable consequences, she might have.

    "What will we do now?" Josy asked. "It... It might be time to speak with your father."

    Maya gave a sharp shake of her head.

    Father might listen, but it would only serve to cement his paranoid madness. Vintus would be forced to take action, and Maya was uncertain of which other assassins might be on his side. Father had managed to alienate everyone to some degree over the past six months. It was entirely possible that even those who weren't in on Vintus' schemes would side against Cathis. House Algara would tear itself apart, and the Five Kingdoms could very well fall with it.

    Maya needed more proof. She needed to learn how deep the treason against the Highest King went. Then, she would rip it out by the roots.

    "He didn't send Garret after Jin, Maya," Josy whispered. "That's just what my father made me tell you. I'm sorry."

    Maya frowned. Her anger towards Cathis hadn't lessened, only changed. It forced her to accept that her rage came from another source. Cathis the Algara, Highest King of the Althandi, Lord of the Five Kingdoms, and One True Sovereign of the Continent had failed. Father had failed. He hadn't protected the house, the kingdom, and he hadn't protected Jin.

    Where Cathis failed, Maya would succeed. She would kill Vintus and any who sided with him. She would free Jin from the sky woman, bring her home, and put an end to Shan Alee once and for all. Maya would at last fulfill her promise to Dashar. She would seize the throne from failures and traitors as the Highest Queen.

    And spirits show mercy to anyone that stood in her way.

    Her anger at Josy was at least proving short-lived. It had only taken a moment of reflection to understand the position she'd been forced into. Josy had been wholly unaware of what her father was up to, then she'd been caught up in the middle of it. What Garret did had threatened to break her, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that she'd do as Vintus said. It was Josy's attempt to cling to a semblance of stability.

    But more than that, even when Cathis had all but accused her of murdering Dashar, Josy had protected Jin with her silence. That, apparently, hadn't been what Vintus had told her to do, and he couldn't refute her. It would have risked placing doubt on everything else she said.

    For that alone, Maya could forgive her cousin.

    Vintus has plans for Garret, Maya thought. Even with everything else he's doing, how could he consort with that man after what he did to Josy? Going so far as to force her not to accuse him.

    Well, Maya could play along with this act, but only to an extent. If Master Deveaux showed his face to her, Maya would castrate him and damn the consequences. Then, Garret's punishment would truly begin.

    Josy was talking, more to herself than to Maya. "The battlefield coterie is loyal to my father," she said. "He must have someone with Heron. I don't think it's Tarlus, but I'm not sure where my brother stands."

    Maya glanced at her, but Josy was watching the clockworks spinning on the side of the lift and didn't see.

    "He has to have others helping him," Josy continued. "Falthis' journal didn't explicitly name anyone, but it said Uncle Fen was an obstacle."

    King Fen, more properly. Maya's great-granduncle had been installed as the king of Nadia after House Teranor was removed from power. It had become something of a running joke that the old sack of sawdust was still breathing, and that was before he reached his hundred and tenth year.

    Maya shifted on her feet, and the motion drew Josy's attention. She gave a pointed tilt of her chin towards the upper levels. Winds, but how did Dashar manage to get what he was thinking across? He'd made it seem so effortless that even the blustering sky woman had started to understand him by the end.

    Josy looked up where Maya indicated. She furrowed her brow in confusion, then her lips parted when she understood. "The blood runner?"

    Maya nodded.

    "Father's obsessed with killing him, but I'm not sure why. Something about the Merovech's heir, I suppose."

    Maya grunted in frustration.

    "Oh, you meant... I don't know what the Krayson did. I tried to get a read on him with my ethersight, but it was strange. The ether was coming off him in two streams. It was like he was two people."

    Maya huffed.

    "Just tell me then!"

    "He didn't die," Maya croaked.

    "That was the general idea of coming here, wasn't it? Stop my father from doing the Krayson in?"

    Maya made a gesture like snapping a twig between her hands.

    At last, Josy caught her meaning. "You mean when the osteomancy didn't work? Didn't you have some of his blood to counteract what my father did."

    Maya shook her head.

    "You... mean to say you didn't stop Father from killing him?"

    Staring straight ahead, Maya pressed her lips together. When Vintus revealed the vial of blood, Maya had believed she'd failed. There was nothing she could do, and she hadn't been about to do something overt and risk her infiltration of Vintus' coterie for the sake of a Krayson. Yet he'd lived, and the Krayson seemed to think it had to do with him being a... twinborn, whatever that was.

    "Winds and storms," Josy murmured. "Winds and blustering storms. What is he?"

    Maya didn't know, but she had an idea of who to ask. Before she got ahead of the Krayson and provided a gap in the assassins' net for him to slip through, there was someone who might have some of the answers she was looking for.

    Vintus had called her Lady Starra.

oOo

    The wind battered at Krayson's hair and robe as he plummeted face-first from the Sanguine Tower. The roar in his ears drowned out all other sound, and he could hardly open his eyes. Mists obscured his vision of what lay below, and he had already lost track of how far he had fallen.

    Each level in the Spired City was equivalent to roughly ten stories, or one hundred feet. And he'd already been falling for more than ten seconds. He'd like to think he was halfway down by now, but the mathematics running in the back of his mind told him that he had a long way yet to go. Krayson forced himself to count off the seconds through the panic that attempted to strangle him.

    There was something else, like an urgent voice whispering in his mind. His thoughts were racing and unable to focus on it, but he felt as if a distant thought was telling him what to say.

    When his count reached forty, he shouted an Aeldic couplet at the top of his lungs. He'd never heard it before-- the Order discouraged untested incantations-- but Krayson wasn't in a position to worry over procedure.

    "--Steadfast lord of the eternal fortress. Beckon your petitioner unto unfettered ascent.--"

    The incantation finished as Krayson brushed his hand against the stone rushing past him. The earth god he beseeched took a large portion of his remaining ether in trade. The Deep One was a reliable spirit, firm and unyielding, and his temples were found throughout Nadia. It was his power that temporarily severed the connection between Krayson's imprint and that of the ground, then placed that connection against the stone of the tower.

    The world seemed to lurch as what was 'down' became 'behind'. Unfortunately, Krayson's momentum hadn't changed along with his orientation, and he tumbled down the side of the tower in a rolling, flailing mess until coming to rest against the side. He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. His knees trembled as he stared wide-eyed around him, complete shock turning his thoughts numb. His desperate incantation had cast a spell like none other he'd ever seen.

    Gravity essence. An aspect of the lost schools of magic. A spell that could bend the rules of gravity hadn't been used since the fall of Shan Alee. Mortals had forgotten how to do this, and Krayson had stumbled upon it by accident.

    Not forgotten, the urgent voice said to him, only misplaced. Now you must run, mortal. You will not receive my intervention again.

    Krayson checked his head. He must have gotten a bad knock while he was skidding to a stop. That might have also been why his shoulder blades were itching as if a thousand eyes were staring at him.

    Curiously, Krayson's clothes behaved as if they fell towards the tower as well. The shared imprints with possessions must have transferred some of the spell's power. Regardless, Krayson felt like he had to wrestle his eyes into submission to come to grips with this new perspective. The tower wall was down. The sky was ahead. Up was somewhere south.

    He vomited, the changes proving too much for his stomach to handle. The remnants of Krayson's last meal were unaffected by the magic and fell as normal. He turned his head to avoid upchucking over his clothes.

    He'd barely recovered his breath when a dark shape hurtled past him. As if in a frozen moment of time, Krayson locked eyes with Vintus. The prince stared at him standing on the side of the tower in surprise before shooting by and getting swallowed by the mist. A strong spell echo flared from that direction, but Krayson couldn't tell what Vintus had done.

    "Figures he's not dead," Krayson grumbled. "As if I could be so lucky."

    "You are full of surprises, Blood Runner," Vintus called from beyond the mist. He'd stopped his fall somehow. "I doubted I had much to gain from killing you besides a day's amusement, but I've changed my mind. I'll need to puzzle out that spellcraft before I allow you to expire."

    Krayson searched with his witch sight, but saw no sign of Vintus. Though his eyes could perceive traces of ether and pierce shadows, it was a poor substitute for a sorcerer's ethersight. He didn't know which way to go, down the tower where Vintus was waiting in the mist or back up towards the rest of the coterie.

    One assassin is preferable to half a dozen.

    Krayson ran towards where Vintus waited. Immediately, spellfire burst up from the mist and was pushed aside by his fire ward. As the distance between them closed, Krayson saw Vintus running towards him on all fours. It was confusing at first, but then Krayson understood what he was looking at. Vintus was using spells of adhesion on his hands and feet. He wasn't running, but climbing with powerful leaps up the side of the tower.

    It was then that Krayson realized how much of an advantage he had. He ran another few steps and leapt forward to dodge any ranged spells. Vintus followed his flight and shot more spellfire. He anticipated Krayson to fall towards the ground, not back into the wall. The spell went wide of its target, and Krayson landed a mere two feet from the assassin.

    "Tarnak," Krayson said in a calm voice.

    The stones quaked and broke. They didn't burst outward, spellwrought stone was inherently difficult to break, but it was enough for Vintus to lose his grip. The prince dropped, and he was saved by slapping a hand against the tower and sliding another several feet away.

    Krayson smirked. He and Vintus both saw who held the upper hand in this contest.

    The rush of air was his only warning. Krayson threw himself to the side and tucked into a roll. A sword missed his neck by less than an inch. Krayson reset on his heels and saw a second assassin plunging past where he'd been standing a moment before. She touched the wall and jerked to a stop, hanging by one hand.

    A soft grunt sounded behind Krayson, revealing a third assassin. Vintus and the woman were below, one of the men above. While he recast his wards, Krayson turned about to watch them clamber along the sheer wall to surround him.

    The apotheosis, Krayson thought angrily. Between that and the bloodsong, they can sense exactly where I am.

    The assassins felt his presence within the Weave like spiders sensing the struggles of a moth in their web. The way they climbed along the walls heightened the comparison. He'd been confidant when it was just him against Vintus. The arrival of the other two dropped his chances of survival.

    Vintus didn't give him time to come up with much of a plan. He hurtled upward, propelled by magically enhanced muscles and a conjured gust of wind. Krayson threw up a barrier ward to shield himself, and Vintus' sword deflected off of it. He turned just in time to block the strike of the man dropping from above, then again to thwart the woman's attack. She attached herself again to the wall just as Vintus' next blow came.

    They were attacking at a rapid pace, one strike coming immediately after another. They sprang around him with slashing blades, pyromancy, and blasts of kinetic force. Krayson had split seconds to block one attack before the next came at a different angle. Barrier wards demanded a lot of ether, and each blow put further drain on his dwindling reserves. He needed an escape.

    Thundering fool, Krayson berated himself. The tower is down.

    He used the strikes against his barrier to push him along the wall. His feet tread on the stone, and Krayson angled his retreat until he stood on a window. After Vintus lunged past him again, Krayson purposefully fell and landed flat on his back. The window shattered beneath him, and he fell into the room on the other side.

    A trio of initiates cried out in shock as Krayson barreled through their dormitory and slammed against the inside wall. Krayson rolled along the wall-- to him a floor-- and pulled up to open the door. Taking a bracing breath, he slid over the door jam and into the hall. This time, he managed to land on his feet and broke into a run.

    Initiates and brothers leapt out of his path, crying out in shock at seeing a man dashing along the wall. Their startled shouting redoubled when Vintus and his comrades burst into the hall and chased after him.

    Krayson came to an intersecting hallway, leaping over the gap. As his feet touched stone, an better idea came to him. He leaned backward and fell into the intersection. He let his altered gravity pull him into a plunge down the long hallway. He angled his body to let the wind resistance keep him more or less in the center of the passage. His speed kept increasing, the doors and surprised faces becoming a blur. Vintus and the assassins were left far behind him.

    All well and good, but how do I stop?

    The wall rapidly approaching at the end of the hall promised that he would, in fact, stop. It was more of a matter of not dying when he did.

    "Lothya," he shouted to summon wind to slow his flight. Meanwhile, he used somatics to increase the air pressure, making it thicker and more resistant. Tapestries ripped from the walls as the gale swept through the hallway, and Krayson held his arms and legs out wide. He slowed to a near halt a mere three feet from the end of the hall. Krayson released the spells and fell the last span. He hit with a grunt of pain, but he believed he'd come out of it better than he could have expected. Finally, he unlocked the incantation changing his gravity.

    His vision swam as the world reoriented around him. It might have been a better idea to get his bearings before releasing the magic, because once normal gravity took over, it dropped him on his head. Krayson moaned as he got back to his feet. He swayed from both the blow to his skull and the drop in his ether. By his estimation, he had a fifth of his stores left.

    That should be enough for several regular spells, but he would need to avoid anything greater if he wanted to avoid keeling over from ethershock.

    "Vintus," he murmured, then turned to look back down the hall.

    Krayson saw the assassins at the other end. They stood there, scowling at him with murder in their eyes. Vintus snarled a command, and they ran around the corner and out of sight.

    What in the embrace of hellfire?

    Krayson took a step and winced. Somewhere in all of that, he'd twisted his ankle. He couldn't summon the ability to care at the moment. He tried to think of a reason why Vintus would abandon the pursuit.

    That was when Krayson heard the roar of a dragon.