Elion and Aerean crept through the dark forest. Carefully sneaking around the camp of the brotherhood of Alen had taken too much time for them to build another camp and sleep. Instead, they had decided to keep walking for as long as they could. The moon high above them meant that midnight would soon be upon them.

  Then, Elion smelled smoke. The wind had turned. All night it had been blowing from them in the direction of the city, masking the scent of the large fire that had broken out as part of Randan’s mission. Aerean smashed her two bracelets together, focusing on the sounds coming from the city. She couldn’t focus on anything specific, but she noticed sounds of general distress and chaos. There was also a fight going on somewhere, blades clashing against each other as both men and women yelled out of pain and exhaustion.

  Then a monstrous roar came from the city. Elion felt his entire body shake at its power. Some branches fell down around them and Aerean fell down to her knees – screeching as the sound of the roar overwhelmed her. She had, after all, still been using the gem awareness to focus on sounds coming from the city. Elion kneeled down by her side, ripping her wrists apart to break the effect of the gem.

  “Aery, are you alright?” he asked, still wondering if he was alright himself. He was still ever-so-slightly shaking. The roar had filled his mind with terror, similarly to the effect of the abyssal tendril down in the catacombs.

  Aerean stared into the distance, her eyes focused on what little she could see of the city. Now that they knew, the faint orange aura of flames flickering against the dark night sky was unmistakable. Something was going on in Nyth’Aren.

  “I have to go there,” said Aerean, still shuddering uncontrollably.

  “What? No way! I won’t be able to come with you,” Elion responded. He wanted to come with her to help, but a part of him – perhaps the majority – just didn’t want to be left alone in the forest. Not when the source of that roar was still out there.

  “I can’t just stay here when our friends might be in danger, Elion. When Tallioth might be in danger. You will just have to hide out here until I come back. Or keep walking and we’ll meet you on the other side, I don’t care right now. I just have to get going,” Aerean insisted. Elion tried to hold on to her, but she broke free from his grasp and ripped off her necklace. Her transformation into her mighty avian form was immediate as she absorbed the staff with the gem of strength in it right away. With powerful wings she flew up into the sky, heading for the city and leaving Elion behind.

  She rose up high above the trees, triggering the gem of awareness – both halves of which were now also absorbed into her body and could be activated at will – to get a better understanding of the situation in the city. Off to her left she saw the Brotherhood mobilising as well, an entire squadron of warriors making its way to the southern gate. They were led by Inga, that mechanically enhanced warrior Aerean had spotted the night before.

  Aerean smashed her way through the magical barrier, feeling the magic trying to figure out whether or not there were any enchantments cast upon her before the passive effects of the gems prevented any further consequences. It would have sucked to be thrown out of her transformation of might right now. Without it, she would never stand a chance against Inga – although she didn’t stand much of a chance with it either. For the time being, Aerean simply hoped to avoid entering into a fight. First, she needed to know more.

  As she approached the city, she noticed there was one specific area of it that was burning – what appeared to be the slums. The rich houses towards the north and the more industrial area towards the west were both untouched by the mass of flames. She also noticed masses of civilians roaming the streets in the upper-class area, all brandishing torches or improvised weapons. From the looks of it, this was an uprising.

  She noticed a cart rushing through the main street, carrying vats of – presumably – gunpowder of some sort. These vats were being lit and seemingly thrown into or onto government buildings. What surprised her was the person throwing them – Tallioth.

  “What did they get themselves into?” Aerean wondered. She could see no trace of neither Randan nor Aly until she heard a loud crashing noise coming from the middle of the city centre. Randan flew up into the air.

  “Oh shit!” he yelled out as he started falling back down towards the spiked towers of the church building below him.

  Aerean picked up speed, using her aerodynamic figure to glide across the heavy winds kicked up by the fire illuminating the dark and managed to pick him up with her talons just in time.

  “Oh, oh bloody hell. Thank you, strange winged creature,” Randan said before realising it was her. “Wait a second,” he continued, “Aery?” Aerean looked down at Randan, who was now holding onto her legs to keep himself from slipping.

  “Damn! It is you! Did ya think we couldn’t handle a little rebellion without ya or somethin’?”

  “Right, so that’s what they have gotten themselves into.” Aerean nearly dropped Randan to the ground, frustrated as she was. She should have expected them not to be able to simply walk through a place. Barely a day and a half and they had already gotten themselves involved in a plot to overthrow the local government. Tallioth had tried to do the same thing in other places many times. A true radical, that one. Aerean had reminded him time and time again that they could not safe everyone. Clearly, Randan and Aly disagreed with her on that.

  “Screw it,” she thought. “Why shouldn’t we be able to help everyone?”

  She set Randan back on the street right outside of the building where he had been thrown out of – through several floors, ceilings, and about a hundred metres into the sky – before thinking about what could have done such a thing. It was at this point that the Gutter broke through the wall and charged at the two of them.

  Instinctively, Aerean flew back into the air to avoid the strike. Randan – whom she now noticed was holding a weapon – shifted his blade into a large two-handed shield to block the creature’s mighty swing. Despite the shield preventing him from any slicing damage, the attack still threw him through the street and Randan was thrown into the side of another building a good distance away. The Gutter now focused on Aerean, who was starting to realise – very quickly – that the inhuman roar she and Elion had heard before could only have come from this thing.

  Its arm melted and transformed from a large cleaver into a spiked ball-and-chain that it swung towards her. Aerean dodged the huge silvery spike aimed directly at her left wing, but in doing so got hit in the face and subsequently thrown to the ground by the heavy chain. The monster wound its weapon up again and swung a second time, the ball headed straight for her skull this time. Aerean managed to recover and barely avoided the killing blow before spreading her wings wide and screeching at the monster – hoping the threatening display would perhaps scare it off. At least make it hesitate before it went in for another attack. Her intimidation tactics did neither of these things. Instead, Aerean got hit in the back of the head with the chain as the monster yanked its weapon back. A hit from the spiked ball would have been the end of her, but the chain most certainly managed to discombobulate her for a few seconds.

  The Gutter roared back in return with its own threatening display, swinging the heavy ball-and-chain above its head before rearing it back for another attack. Before it could land one however, it was rammed from the side and smashed into the building it had smashed through just a few moments earlier. Still shaken from the attack and the frightening roar of the beast, Aerean had been unable to identify whatever it was that had managed to knock the Gutter back. She found out when Tallioth – in turn – was thrown through the same wall he had smashed the Gutter into.

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  Tallioth quickly returned to his feet and started summoning a storm of fire around him, chanting incantations and whatnot to try and frighten the creature. Everything was still blurry from Aerean’s point of view, but she could see Randan darting past her and hacking at the Gutter as it slowly and steadily walked through Tallioth’s firestorm. Its blue skin burned away and was immediately replaced with metallic scales similar to Tallioth’s in structure and apparent fire resistance. Randan’s cuts and slices had no effect on it anymore, his weapon deflecting off of its hide no matter what he transformed it into. From the building – which was now shaking on its foundations – came another figure; Aly.

  She charged at the Gutter from behind, trying desperately to skewer it with her rapier while Tallioth threw balls of fire and Randan was hitting it with everything he had. Aerean finally recovered, just in time to watch the already weakened wall of the church administrative building cave in. The entire side of the building threatened to topple over and crush all four of them – she had no doubt that hideous monster would be able to survive the impact. She wanted to charge in and save her friends, but knew that there was nothing she could do except close her eyes and give up.

  And then, it stopped.

  Everything froze. At first, she noticed that all the sounds had stopped. As she opened her eyes, she saw Randan still clinging to the back of the Gutter’s neck, Tallioth standing right in front of it as his flames slowly dissipated. Aly had apparently been thrown off the Gutter, but was now suspended in mid-air. Even the building that had threatened to crush them all was just hanging over them menacingly.

  Then, a dark figure descended from the sky. Elion, his hand clenched around a hundred tethers at once, floated down towards her. His one purple eye brighter than ever.

  ???

  As soon as Aerean had left him, Elion started to panic. He didn’t know what to do, whether to chase after her and join her or try and stop her. Maybe he should do what she told him to do and just hide or keep going. Nothing seemed like the right choice. After walking around hyperventilating with his hands in his hair a burst of loyalty and fearlessness fuelled him to run after her towards the city. He sprinted through the trees carelessly. He had no idea how much sound he made or if anyone noticed him – he didn’t care.

  Ahead of him, the faint blue glow of the anti-magic barrier carved a line through the forest. A fallen tree blocked his path, but Elion jumped over it – crossing the barrier mid-air. As soon as he hit the barrier, a flash of white blinded him and he fell to the ground. As his head hit the forest floor, everything turned black.

  Elion found himself back in his mindscape – the infinite black manifestation of his divine powers. A cloaked figure stood before him. As the figure turned around, he noticed the two bright purple eyes – Artoris.

  “I don’t recall inviting you,” Elion said.

  “A deity of my calibre does not require an invitation,” Artoris replied – bluffing. If Elion had not carelessly ran through the barrier, strengthening his connection to Artoris by a millionfold instantaneously, Artoris would have never been able to break through.

  “Besides,” he continued, “I come in peace. There is no need for you to allow me here any longer than you wish. Although, I do have an offer.” With a flick of his wrist, Artoris filled the endless void with his vision of a possible future.

  Elion saw the city of Nyth’Aren in ruins. Buildings disintegrated, craters spread across the city, his friends dead in the streets. Death and destruction had fallen upon the city.

  “This, my child, is what will happen if you continue without my guidance. Within you, you have the power to create amazing things. However, the power to create inherently comes with the power to destroy. You wield my strongest ability – the Tether. However, you cannot control it. I taught myself how to shape reality in the midst of a sea of chaos. There were no true consequences until I had already mastered the art of order.” Artoris’s voice bellowed through Elion’s mind. Every word had a magical charisma behind it that made Elion want to trust him, to fall within his arms and weep. He wanted to worship the deity that stood before him, but managed to retain control over his actions. He realised that it was just a trick. A type of passive mind-control similar to what he had been forced to use on Aly towards the start of their journey.

  “Child, I wish to offer you guidance,” Artoris said. “I wish nothing more than to help you. Simple bestow control over your body onto me and I will save your friends. They are in horrible danger, I know you can feel it.” With another flick of his wrist, the scenery around them changed again. Instead of the potential destruction Elion had wrought, he now saw his friends fighting the Gutter. Aerean lying broken on the ground, Tallioth and Randan desperately fighting for their lives as Aly approached from the crumbling building. They didn’t have a lot of time left.

  “Let me in and I can save everyone. Refuse, and you will wake up with all that power coursing through your veins. Trust me when I tell you that you will regret not taking my offer. The loss of a loved one…” Artoris waved over at Aerean, who was struggling to get back up – blood flowing from a gash on the back of her head. “…can truly break someone.”

  Elion looked around him, confronted with the scene of his friends fighting an unwinnable battle – one that he knew he could win if he gave Artoris a chance. He was conflicted, unsure whether to trust his gut, his head, or his heart. However, one more look into Aerean’s desperate eyes was enough for his heart to gain the upper-hand in the discussion.

  “I accept your offer,” Elion said. Suddenly, the scene around him disappeared and he found himself back in the forest. He rose to his feet, but Elion was no more than a passenger in his own body. Artoris was in control.

  “It feels good to be here,” he heard his own voice say. “Even if it is in this… frail vessel.”

  Elion could see all the thin white cords, connecting everything to everything. However, with Artoris behind the wheel, they looked… different, somehow. More distinct. Instead of white, they all had different colours. Elion instinctively knew the colours signified material strength, but how he knew this he could not describe. The thickness of the tethers was also a lot more pronounced, with heavier objects having far thicker tethers than lighter objects. Contrary to when he used his powers in the catacombs, the tethers seemed to listen to Artoris. They came to him when he commanded, and he could lengthen or shorten them at will – using the power effortlessly to move space around him.

  From the outside, it would have looked like he was flying. From Elion’s perspective, Artoris was moving the entire world around him without moving himself in the process.

  “Do not worry, my child. It is completely safe. After all, I control all of this. Although… you might have to worry about my brother sensing it. I dare say he will not be well-pleased,” Artoris said with a grin on Elion’s face.

  They floated through the sky towards Nyth’Aren, where a legion of different tethers rose up into the sky. Elion could see his friends in the middle of the city fighting for their lives, witnessing the same scene Artoris had shown him.

  “Safe them, please,” he thought. Artoris grinned even wider.

  “Oh do not fret, my child. I will save them. I am a Lord of my word after all,” he said as he floated towards the fight. He grabbed a handful of tethers from the sky, commanding them to stay absolutely still. With that, the entire scene froze, and Elion floated down into the streets of Nyth’Aren.