Web of Chaos - Chapter 25: Haste

“How’d she look?” Elend asked as he stepped through the open portal. His dark gray armor bore the scars of battle—not just dirt, but scorch marks, and the craters from enemy Missiles.

Akari scrambled for the right words to describe Relia, but came up short. She looked . . . normal, but definitely not in a good way. Almost like Kalden after he’d lost his hand and fingers in Creta.

Glim followed Elend through the portal in the form of a blue Missile that darted around the room like a hummingbird. Then she floated over to the nearest mirror and took the shape of a young woman. “That bad, huh?”

“Yeah,” Akari muttered. Her other teammates stayed quiet.

“Could you be more specific?” Irina asked as she followed her husband into the loft. Her Second Brain floated around her body in rings of transparent gold mana.

“Her soul was at the peak of the Artisan realm,” Kalden said. “Her expressions looked too mechanical. Her eyes were clear, but empty. She talked to us, but she didn’t seem happy to see us.”

“Total opposite from last time,” Arturo said in a grim voice.

Elend just nodded as if he’d expected this. “Classic signs of mental conditioning. Exactly what I was afraid of.”

“But what’s that mean?” Arturo leaned forward in his desk chair. “Moonfire’s controlling her now?”

“No.” Elend scratched the gray stubble on his chin. “Control fades quickly with time. It’s too crude for his long-term goals, whatever those might be.”

“What about an Aeon soul bond?” Kalden asked.

“Aye,” Elend said. “That’s certainly the best tool at his disposal.”

“Okay.” Arturo’s brows knit in confusion. “And that different from control . . . how?”

“All depends on how you use it, lad.” The hardwood floor squeaked beneath Elend’s boots as he paced back and forth. “In the wrong hands, it’s as crude as a Novice’s dream techniques. In the right hands . . .” He trailed off for a moment, then shrugged an armored shoulder. “Relia wants to be a good person more than anything else. If I were in Moonfire’s place, I’d use that against her.”

“How?” Kalden asked. “She knows exactly what he did, and she’s too stubborn to go along with it.”

“Aye,” Elend agreed. “Even the best dream artists can’t make you go against your nature. They make you more of what you already are. Integrity becomes self-righteousness. Compassion becomes self-destruction”

Irina gave a solemn nod as she stared out the rain-streaked window. “He never had to win Relia over. He just needs her to isolate herself. Then he wins by default.”

“Shit,” Akari muttered. This was even worse than they’d thought.

“So we need to escalate our timeline,” Kalden said.

Elend shook his head. “No one’s twiddling their thumbs here, lad. If anything, you two have progressed even faster than we’d hoped.”

“We could still go ramp things up,” Akari said. “We’ll drain more mana if we fight humans. Lena said so.”

“Humans?” Elend raised an eyebrow at that. “Got someone particular in mind, lass?”

Akari nodded, and she told them about their run-in with the police outside the apartment. Two hours had passed since then, but her hands still shook whenever she imagined Trask’s smug face or his fallen victims. This was a chance to kill two birds with one Missile—to save Relia, and the innocent people of Koreldon City.

“We’ll wear disguises.” Her words picked up speed as the plan formed in her mind. “We’ll use our Aeon techniques instead of our aspects.  We’ll go out at night, then suck out the souls of any cops we find.”

“Holy shit, shoka.” Arturo threw up his hands. “Dial back the blood thirst a few dozen notches.” He gestured toward the tablet on his lap. “More than thirty thousand people work for the KCPD. And that’s over sixty precincts.”

“So?” In all honesty, she had no idea what a precinct was.

“Thirty of those precincts refused to enforce the mayor’s mark mandate.”

“Oh.” Akari did, in fact, dial back her blood thirst. “Wait—how do you know that? Don’t they all have the marks?”

“They posted about it online.” His index finger made a sharp sound as he tapped the glass screen of his tablet. “Said they’re busy with real problems, and not to bother ‘em with useless phone calls. ”

“The others could be doing the same,” Zukan rumbled from his spot in the corner. “Just more quietly.”

“Same thing happened in Creta,” Arturo said. “Half the Unmarked troops were ex-police or ex-military.”

Akari glanced around the room and found the others all staring at her. Okay . . . so maybe sucking out the souls of thirty thousand people was a bit extreme. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and she shuffled back next to Kalden.

“He’s right, lass.” Elend crossed his arms and stepped forward. “The KCPD isn’t perfect, but most of them won’t hurt innocent people.”

“And what about the rest?” she countered. “What if we catch them in the act? Someone has to stop them, and we need their mana to advance.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Elend said. “All it takes is one Master—”

“Then we’ll run,” she said. “My portals have a ten mile radius. That’s enough to clear the city if things go south.”

“You should run now,” Irina said. “Things are getting worse here everyday, and our plans don’t require you to stay. The police will come after the Artisans next.”

Kalden cleared his throat. “That’s exactly why we need to stay.”

Akari blinked. She’d honestly expected Kalden to agree with the Darklights on this one. There were plenty of contested forests out there, and it would have been far more practical to hunt mana beasts.

“People die all over the world,” Irina said. “Every single day. If you want to put yourselves in danger to protect them, then you might as well join Elend and me on the front lines.

“This wasn’t just anyone,” Akari said. “It was our neighbors.” Her hands shook as the images flashed through her mind’s eye. Her mana cycled on its own, demanding to be used. “We could have saved them tonight, but we just walked away.”

Kalden was right before; she knew that deep down. If she’d fought Trask without a disguise, then they would be forced to flee—not just from Koreldon City, but from Espiria itself. That really would mess with their long-term plans.

Still . . . that choice would haunt her forever if she backed down now.

“It won’t work,” Irina said. “Disguises are meaningless if either of you use your aspects in battle. All it takes is one slip-up.”

“The Cult of Solidor has specialized armor for that,” Arturo said. “It hides your mana from Silver Sight, and contains the slippage.”

“But that won’t work on a Master,” Irina said.

“Sure it can,” he retorted. “The armor uses Angelic mana as a power source. They have specialized sigils that pull it straight from an Aeon soul.”

Irina blinked, clearly not expecting that. “It’s still too risky. We all want to save Relia, but it’s not worth losing the rest of you.”

“With all due respect,” Kalden said. “It’s been a long time since you’ve seen us fight.” He kept his face carefully blank, but Akari felt a hint of a smirk through their soulbond.  Kalden was implying they could survive anything the KCPD threw at them. Not just their Artisans, but their Masters.

“I’m not saying we’re invincible,” he clarified an instant later. “I’m saying we could survive long enough to escape if it comes to that.”

“Plus we still need our Master,” Akari said. “School obviously didn’t help with that. Neither did hunting mana beasts around town.”

She braced herself for a lecture from the Darklights. Elend would give them a stern look and tell them not to get cocky. Irina would perform some calculations in her second brain, then quote their exact odds of success.

But nothing came.

Instead, Elend turned toward Glim in the nearby mirror. “You’ve seen them fight this year . . .”

Glim nodded to his unspoken question, then turned to face Akari and Kalden. “These two are freaks of nature now.”

Akari felt a sudden warmth in her chest. That might have been the best compliment anyone had ever given her.

Elend shared another look with his wife. “I still don’t like it,” he said. “You two might have the combat skills, but I’m more concerned about the KCPD’s knowledge artists. They’ll use tricks you haven’t considered. Traps you don’t see.”

Akari’s grin faded as she remembered what happened in the library several weeks ago. Her team had prepared for every outcome, but they’d still set off a silent alarm in the restricted section. Their enemies had marshaled with surprising efficiency after that.

Elend scanned them both with his eyes, possibly opening his Silver Sight. “I see you’re both under eight thousand points. I suppose a little more haste couldn’t hurt.”

Akari glanced back and forth between the Darklights. “So you’ll help us?”

“Aye,” Elend said. “But once we cross this line, there’s no turning back.”