"They're closing in, Kristen."

Rinoa Gruger's voice betrayed her fatigue. Her chin throbbed from where Kommora Haigh had struck her with some blunt instrument and what felt like a hammer and nail slammed incessantly against her temple. It was all she could do to drag herself into the palace for safety after what Haigh had put her through. She flexed her fingers. The connections with magic was still almost non-existent. Damn that bitch. She had no idea what she was fighting against, the greater enemy.

"You've seen better days," commented Jarsdel, appearing strained.

"You're looking pretty shot yourself," she grunted back.

"Kristen's holding up the barrier, so I took him over."

Rinoa glanced at Kristen Harred. Magic continued to flow from the glowing rune at her feet, through her body, and out via her hands. It was some amalgamation of complex magic she had never seen before.

"How long will that be for?" she said, gesturing at Kristen. Kristen didn't answer.

"We're drawing in the girl," said Zor.

"We're retreating?" Rinoa said in disbelief. "What happened to our deal with Hanna? Kommora Haigh is on a rampage out there. If we don't crush them now, we're going to lose."

"We'll have our chance later, Rinoa."

"One life is of no significance, Zor." She was just a child. How their entire mission could hinge on her was laughable. "Let her perish if that's the path she chose. We need to crush them all now. The rune will be ready soon."

"I thought I told you to ready it already," said Kristen at last, her voice low.

"I tried. Kommora Haigh got in the way with a nullifier. My magic's no use right now." Rinoa's teeth clenched. "It'll have to be you or Karis."

"We have time to complete it. We just need a bit longer to draw her in."

"We don't need her, Kristen! This is a new world. She'll never see your views."

"I gave you one job, Rinoa: exile Seiren Nithercott." Kristen's words were crisp. Rinoa flinched. "And yet here she is. If you cannot get a simple job like that done, you should not contribute to the discussion. Whether she'll see it my way is not a decision for you to make."

Kristen lowered her hands, her back still.

"We need to withdraw. The state mages breached the wall."

"How?" That was not possible. Kristen Harred's organic shield was meant to be impenetrable.

"Tahir Portendorfer's flash magic is quite formidable," Kristen said in a soft voice.

"They managed to get that monster to work with them?" Zor said.

"He's a loose cannon. He doesn't fight for anybody. This will turn back on them quite quickly, I imagine."

"Then our time is even shorter." Rinoa stepped forward. Sure enough, Kristen's magic shield was receding. In the distance, three figures marched through the debris that was central Benover directly towards the palace. "We need that rune finished now."

"And we shall. After we get Seiren Nithercott."

"This is madness. We're balancing the future of a new country on an eighteen-year-old?"

"If you do not finish that rune, Rinoa," Kristen said, turning at last with a dangerous gleam in her eyes, "we cannot access the full potential of the celestial magics. We will never reach the prophesied powers. You really don't want that on your watch."

Rinoa stopped, affronted. She shot Zor a glance. He kept his hand on Pollin's back and didn't acknowledge her concerns. She swallowed a response. Zor wanted to support Kristen. Any goal of Zor's was Rinoa's goal as well; she'd sworn that many years ago. And so it was with reluctance, she gritted her teeth and withstood the throbbing from her injuries, saying nothing.

"We move deeper into the palace," said Kristen, flexing her fingers. "Karis can catch up with us. We have more than enough power to kill the state mages if necessary, but let's keep them alive for now. Their magic will be useful when the time comes for us to activate that rune; I don't want all that potential to go to waste. Zor -- go get Domic and get rid of the excess baggage. Rinoa, I won't ask again: finish the goddamn rune."

****

Kommora's lips curled in triumph as the familiar throb of power flowed back in again. That also meant Rinoa Gruger would be getting hers back soon, too, but that couldn't be helped. Remembering the sensation of Pollin's fingers in her hand, she squatted in one of the abandoned shops beside a cleared-out dusty glass display and sketched a tracker rune before infusing that sensation into it. The rune glowed violet.

Rumbles of explosions dislodged showers of dust from the wooden panelling above her. Distant shouts and screams were punctuated by the shrill of flash magic. The country was going to the pits, and it was all the king's mages' fault. Gritting her teeth, Kommora infused more of her magic in. She needed to track down Pollin, and fast.

To her surprise, the path her tracking magic took led not solely towards the palace. They branched out, as if seeking a greater source. She sat down properly, wincing as her knees and back cracked with the motion, and placed both palms flat on her tracker. The magic flowed in her mind's eye, allowing her to visualise their paths. They stretched and stretched, suddenly hitting an apparent wall on the capital's border.

Pollin wasn't magical, though... She frowned, watching the tracker curve its way around the peripheries of the city. It was definitely tracing the marker she'd detected in his body; there was no doubt about that.

A complex shape formed in her mind as the last of the magic fell into place. Intricate overlapping shapes, eight prolonging symbols, a focus area in the centre that would concentrate all the power the rune evoked... Kommora sucked in a breath.

She recognised the pattern, although she'd never seen it in its full form. Textbooks had spoken of it when she was at King's: the first rune created by Karma, the human progenitor of modern rune, burst, and flash magic. She, when reaching the end of her life, decided to share her magic, the unlimited celestial powers, across the land in hopes of making peace with her twin sister, Hanna, after their decades of conflict. The subsequent generations manifested to varying extents her ability to utilise the celestial energies from the universe. This was a replica of the rune she'd cast across the two lands, but it was a reversed design. And on closer inspection, the magic signature was Kristen Harred's, not Pollin Miracle's. Kommora hadn't recognised it initially.

The tracker got weaker, but Kommora could see it edging out of the city now. The rune must encompass the entirety of Karma. All the mages with their manifested magics. All the citizens. And Harred had the power to do it, no doubt about that, with the reserves in all the king's mages combined. Kommora suspected the rising death toll outside could act as the catalyst. Perhaps organic magic was not dissimilar to chaos magic. Everything had gone as they planned, despite Kommora having manipulated as much as she could at her end.

The revelation left Kommora's blood cold. The fact that they retreated deeper into the palace must mean either their preparation was complete or they felt threatened by Kommora's side's advance. And somehow she didn't think Kristen Harred, with her arsenal, would find them a threat.

Was it the promise of power that convinced Pollin to abandon his principles?

But Kommora knew where she must go now. The centre of that circle lay in the complex within the palace. That would be where the king's mages hid.

"Kommora." Maura appeared at the door, out of breath. "The area is cleared. Southwark and Ashworth are here."

"Good." Kommora straightened up, her heart heavy with dread. "I need you to do something for me, Woodbead."

Maura's eyes widened after hearing Kommora's plan.

"A nullifier across the entire city? You're joking," said Maura. "You might as well ask for the moon."

"It's a back-up. If the magic ends up turning on us all -- and trust me, we are in deep shit if it goes as the king's mages planned -- we need that to even the playing field. That rune of Harred's must not be activated. What's the matter -- is that too tough a request for you, Woodbead?"

Maura snorted. "I have my limits. But I like a challenge."

"Exactly."

"And pray tell: what after? Punch our way to victory like some cavewoman?"

"I won't be averse to that."

"You're mad, Kommora Haigh."

"Better mad than dead, Woodbead. Come now: a bit of anarchy not to your taste?"

"That's something I expect the Nithercott brat to come up with, not someone like you."

"Sometimes the young ones have the best ideas."

"It's unorthodox for a Woodbead to approve of a coup d'etat, you have to admit." But there was a smile on Maura's face as Kommora got to her feet. "But extraordinary events call for extraordinary measures."

"I'm glad to hear that. And when that's prepared, we need to take down all the king's mages. We cannot let Kristen Harred activate that Karma rune."

Maura shook her head. "Unbelievable. If what you're saying is true... those textbooks were withdrawn by the time I enrolled at King's--"

"I wonder why."

"--but if she, or anyone, gains access to Karma's potential, the limit on burst and flash magic, even runes, get lifted. There is no limit to the user's potential."

"At the cost of every life in Karma, including every single mage. I suspect that's why she's gone into hiding all these years. Creating a rune on this scale across the entire country would have taken an incredible amount of energy and planning, and she couldn't have done that under public scrutiny. This allowed her to move out of sight."

"I hope your plan works, then, Kommora."

On cue, Seiren Nithercott showed up, no longer a pathetic crying mess, grim determination on her young face, reminding Kommora vividly of Kristen Harred in her younger days when she fought for mages' rights and opposed the heavy control from the Council and monarchy. "You're ready to join us, Nithercott?"

"Zor Jarsdel will pay for that night," Nithercott said, voice trembling with fury rather than fear. Kommora nodded in satisfaction. She would come in very useful.

"Maura, you go with Southwark and Ashworth as we said. Felora and Peron--" She gestured at the personnel standing a little further behind. "--you two will act as back-up for Nithercott and me. Stay out of sight. You won't stand much of a chance against the king's mages unless you have the element of surprise. Nithercott and I will track down Pollin."

"You're taking Nithercott with you?" Maura sounded aghast. "Surely having someone with more experience or the right type of magic for combat is a better idea? A burst mage, at least?"

Kommora shook her head. "This will work out just fine. I expect you three to join us as soon as you're done, however."

She needed to take down Kristen Harred. Taking her down meant there shouldn't be anybody else who could activate that country-wide magic the way she could. In combat, Kommora probably would not be able to hold up against her, but judging from what she'd heard about Nithercott's fight against Ashworth in Iwade and then her little stint in Benover harbour, she had faith in the brat. Especially if given the right circumstances.

She sketched a new rune, altering a few of the shapes to finely-tune the tracker. The magic she'd sensed in Pollin's body ended up being Kristen Harred's, but it didn't feel the same as it did when Kommora had broken into the Room of Records. Indeed, the symbol swirling in the centre of the tracker was not wholly Harred's, but a mixture. There was another source of magic. Harred's magic was everywhere; tracking her would be near impossible currently. That must be deliberate. Kommora altered the rune to track the remaining source and recognised it at once.

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