Beyond?

“More! More! Give me more! It isn't enough!”

-The deformed Sage.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

The youngsters were brought to Tri and are plaguing my parents now. It's better this way, so their presence won't hinder us in the coming fight. I sullenly watch the horizon from the royal palace's battlement. Stella and her parents are also present.

It's late and the air is starting to get chilly while the sun is setting on the horizon, dyeing the sky red. On another day it would be a beautiful sight to behold, but today it's foretelling the spilling of blood.

The approaching fleet is clearly visible in the distance. The small black ships are being chased by four of our fully equipped fortresses. Thirteen more are hovering around the capital, waiting for the enemy. So far the invaders used their speed to avoid any contact with our forces.

But that wasn't really a concern of ours, as it was very clear that their target is Nict's capital. Therefore we concentrated as much forces as possible and evacuated the civilians. “I wish I knew what they are hoping to achieve by invading us like this. Do they think that they can take the capital and hold it while ignoring the rest of the country?”

“This is an outrage! For this to happen during my reign!” Helen calls out, shaking her fists at my side. “I've been governing Nict for seventy-nine years! We had eight major wars with the southerners during that time and they never got even close to seeing our capital!”

Squinting my eyes, I turn towards Helen. Did I just hear correctly? She slipped a hint to her age? Normally a mage doesn't mention his or her age. It's some sort of taboo in our society.

She doesn't look that old though, even if you take her slowed ageing process into account. So she is cheating a little with her appearance? And Lucas isn't a strong mage. So there is a huge age gap between them? I found out something interesting.

“Don't stare!” Stella pulls at my cheek, just in time for me to avoid Helen's furious gaze.

“Calm down dear.” Lucas takes Helen's hand and smiles at her. “It's only a matter of appearances. Wherever they strike, they always have to face Nict as a whole. It doesn't change anything. They don't stand a chance after having lost the major part of their invasion fleet and we have all big cities covered by an adequate force of flying fortresses.”

“I am not concerned about that.” Helen shakes her head, pointing to her feet. “If they have no hope of conquering the capital, then they came here to either cause destruction, or to steal something of importance. And the only thing which justifies wasting such a force is the Emperor's Vault. It's also the only thing of which they can be sure of that we can't carry it away.”

Lucas stiffens. “That may actually be a real possibility. We should prepare ourselves for this event.”

“There isn't really anything more to do. I already declared the palace as the structure of uppermost importance.” Helen answers.

It may be the right moment to get a little more information from Helen. “I think you mentioned that the vault is hidden deep in the palace's catacombs? And that there are traps? How hard is it to reach? Which traps?” Crossing my fingers behind my back, I pray for a little more useful information. I don't want to sound too interested in this place. It's after all some kind of dark, family secret and I wouldn't want anyone searching through my cellar either.

Helen licks over her lips. “I was down there only once. It's actually very hard to reach and it was my late mother who took me there. We had to use our ability in order to create short cuts and avoid certain passages. The catacombs are essentially a sealed labyrinth, filled with traps like pitfalls and poison darts. There are also magical guardians and curses. Taking the direct route is a path with many thorns.”

I stare at her for several moments. “If it's that heavily protected and that important, then why didn't your ancestors simply bury everything under tons of stone? They had the ability to do so.”

Helen presses her lips to thin lines and doesn't answer until Lukas takes my side. “The situation may deteriorate into something undesirable. Isn't it better if a few more people have the necessary clues to solve the riddle? Restricting information only to yourself and shouldering the entire responsibility isn't the right thing to do right now. Our opponent probably knows all the essential information anyway.”

Helen takes a deep breath and curls a strand of her hair around her finger. “I really don't know why my ancestors acted like they did. The only thing my mother said to me was to never close off the catacombs completely, so that air doesn't stop circulating. Somehow that point was very important to her.” Her expression turns dark.

Stella furrows her brow, looking at her mother. “Why would they want air circulation in a place which should have only dust and a few bones?”

“Because the guardians are alive?” I offer, scratching my head. Actually I already have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the vault. There were plenty of hints on the Shield. The biggest of them all the ability to influence mana streams with its magnetic field. Then there's the strange connection between this world and my old one through the portals. Subconsciously I reach for the multi-tool on my belt.

If I am right, then the old Emperor used my old world's sun for a really sick experiment in order to reshape the paths of the mana streams on this world. No wonder that we couldn't find a natural reason for the darkening of our sun. The reason wasn't natural at all.

They most likely created a portal to our sun and drew power from it to alter this planet's core.

They had the technology to bridge the distance and a space ship. Choosing a star which is far, far away is also logical. You don't want a star close to your homeworld going nova if something fails.

The only thing which I don't understand is why someone would want to influence a planet's mana stream. A planet's mana streams are created by its magnetic core and the forces which act on it. It's like a gigantic dynamo and the mana streams normally stay close to it. They should have gotten far more energy from that sun than they can harvest from their planet.

To project a core's mana streams that close to the surface you have to reshape the core permanently. Maybe the shape of the streams is important? I visited all our cities and there are streams under all of them.

At first I thought that they are only used to power the City Gates, but what if there is more behind it? The Cities are forming a huge pentagram. Is it some kind of ritual? What would a ritual on such a scale be used for?

Lucas interrupts my train of thought by grumbling frustrated. “Then why would you use living guardians instead of simply burying everything under tons of stone?”

Stella gives us the most obvious answer. “Because the thing which you wanted to protect needs air... and something which needs air is most likely something that's alive?”

***Free City States of Nict, Capital, The Emperor's Flagship***

***Elora***

“I don't like it.” I grab Serenzar at his clothes and pull him away from his priests and military advisers.

“Elora! What are you doing here? How did you follow me?” He takes a look around and the people around us wisely feign ignorance. “I said that you should stay at home to manage our internal affairs!”

I cross my arms in front of my chest and tilt my head. “Managing your affairs while taking care of the abomination which you are calling a palace isn't my idea of fun. I already took care of revealing the corrupt elements in our government. Besides... do you have any idea when you showed your face to me last?”

Serenzar starts gesturing at his subordinates. “Who knows? Can't you see that we are currently conducting an important military operation?”

“Four weeks ago!” I look down and play my secret card. Tears! “Do you really think that I like it to sit at home while my most important person is playing war?”

He starts fidgeting. “Urgh... how about talking about this after I took a look at my heritage? It's a unique chance to find out and-”

“You want to say that you don't even know? One more reason not to let you risk your life.” I scowl, shaking my head.

“Yes. No! You don't understand. My brother knows what's inside the vault. I was driven away before I could find out. It has to be something important and I waited for ages to return!” He gestures at the impressive city in front of us.

“Fine! Then I'll come with you!” Turning him around I push him towards his advisers. If I am with him I can keep him under control. And I'll use the first dangerous situation to teleport us back home.

.