Aric tapped the hilt again, then shook his head. “That’s exactly the point, though. We have to trust the Broken Lord, he doesn’t have to do what seems to make sense to us. It makes sense to him and that’s all that matters.”

  Sophia frowned and shook her head. That could justify anything, even the most ridiculous nonsense. She’d heard it before, though usually said as something more like ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ It didn’t make any more sense to her now than it did then. It was an excuse to not question, not a reason. “Whatever. Look, are you done?”

  “I guess so,” Aric admitted. “Unless I use the rest of my Wisps to increase my Level and try again. I’ll think about it while you try.”

  Sophia shook her head. “No need, I’m happy with my Sphere.”

  Aric took the long step that was needed to reach Sophia. “Oh, come on, everyone wants a better Sphere. I know you’re not happy with yours; that’s why you’re spending all that time in the Library!”

  Sophia shook her head. “No, really, I’m fine.”

  Aric talked over Sophia’s objections. “The Broken Lord’s Hallows are the best Spheres, he always picks really good, strong Hallows. I know you don’t want to be disappointed but come on, you’ve got to try!”

  With that, he grabbed one of Sophia’s arms and pulled her forward. She wasn’t expecting that at all; she stumbled and tried to catch herself.

  With her hands.

  On the waist-high cloth-covered surface that held the pieces of a sword.

  Sophia bumped one of the sword fragments. It wasn’t much, just a tiny piece that had probably broken off the hilt, but it was enough. There was a moment where she felt the malignancy that was the energy collected around the weapon with her hands, then mana was yanked out of her through that connection.

  She was pretty sure that it was supposed to fuel the sword somehow, but that wasn’t what happened. Instead, it shot into the air as colored lightning, hit the ceiling and returned back, striking over and over again as Sophia stumbled backwards. It probably should have been blinding, but it was both slower and dimmer than real lightning. It was also far quieter, more like a series of snaps followed by distant thunder than the deafening noise of being near actual lightning.

  Sophia stared for a long moment as her mana fought with the remnant energy in the sword and seemed to wash away some of the reddish taint. She couldn’t tell which was going to win.

  “Hallowed,” Aric breathed from his position beside Sophia. “I didn’t really think I’d ever see…”

  Sophia started to turn towards him, but words appeared in front of her vision before she could figure out what she wanted to say.

  Your Patron greets you!

  Sophia!

  This is not what I meant when I said to watch out for the Broken Lord's followers!

  It's too late to entirely hide now, he knows you're here and so will his followers, at least once they see the mana storm you've triggered. Your mana is the wrong color to pretend to be one of the Broken Lord's followers.

  You need to hide from them, because there's no way you can fight them off.

  TAKE THE FRAGMENT YOU TOUCHED WITH YOU. If you leave it behind, they'll be able to trace you. They'll be able to trace the fragment, too, but there are a lot of the Broken Lord's followers not too far from you; they will confuse the search.

  Good luck.

  --The Wanderer

  Sophia read the Wanderer’s message twice. For a moment, she thought that maybe he was wrong; maybe she could bluff her way out. Aric certainly didn’t seem to realize anything was wrong.

  A quiet click made Sophia glance over her shoulder. One of the two armed attendants, the one on the exit side, was now on this side of the curtain. Another click made it clear what he was doing: he was trying to quietly free his ax from its carrying position.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Aric might not realize anything was wrong, but the attendant clearly did.

  Sophia turned back to the broken bits. She wasn’t entirely certain that she’d only touched one fragment of the sword; they were close together and she could easily have brushed a second. That meant she needed to take all of them, preferably without touching them again. She didn’t take the time to think; she simply flipped the cloth that covered the front of the display over the sword and scooped it and the metal bits up.

  The moment the cloth closed on top of the sword, the bright display and noise stopped.

  She had enough time to glance down and see that yeah, it was just an ordinary wooden table, before she dodged around it and plunged straight through the curtain behind it. It wasn’t until after she was on the other side of the curtain that she realized it might have concealed a wall instead of a way out.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t a wall behind the curtain. Instead, there was a roughly ten foot deep continuation of the corridor with three doors, one ahead of her and one to either side. The one in front of her was the widest, which might make it easier for enemies to come at her, but Sophia hurried straight forward anyway. That was the direction of the cliff, so it was the best option she had.

  The other side of that door led onto a balcony, but it wasn’t the sort of balcony you’d see on Earth. It was made of stone or more likely concrete, flat with a nice rough surface, and it extended a good twenty feet out from the Temple’s back wall towards the cliffside. There was no railing at the rear, either. If anything, it looked like the perfect place to take off and land, since there was a sheer drop where the balcony ended.

  If she had time to worry, Sophia’s worries would have been positively overwhelming. As it was, she didn’t have time for that; she just started running and leapt forward as she reached the end of the balcony. She didn’t even have her wings out, because she actually wanted to fall a bit; if she could get out of sight before she rose, she might have a better chance.

  That didn’t mean she could wait long. Her head was still above the floor level when her wings manifested and snapped open to turn her plummet into a more gradual descent. It was just as well, too; about twenty feet down from where she was, the cliff bowed outwards enough that she might have hit it if she’d just kept falling.

  Behind her, Sophia heard a thud and a cry of pain. She managed to glance backwards just long enough to see that the second attendant was on the ground. Aric stood just to the side and kicked something over the edge of the cliff.

  Sophia blinked at it in surprise. The falling object was a crossbow. Had Aric really just protected her from a Templar? Did he think she was Hallowed by the Broken Lord or did he actually know what was going on?

  The crunch as the crossbow hit the cliff below pulled Sophia’s attention back to her surroundings. She needed to find a good landing spot where she could hide for a minute or two then disappear into the crowd. There weren’t any good options for both; the best she could manage, really, was that spot on the cliff below her as a temporary perch. There was a more or less flat spot, or at least a spot where she could stand if she was careful. It would have to do.

  The moment she touched down, Sophia dismissed her wings. They were a bright advertisement of where she was, but that wasn’t the reason they had to go. They also got in the way of her backpack and Sophia absolutely had to get into her backpack.

  The first silk-lined enchanted isolation pouch Sophia came up with was far too small for the whole bundle; it would hold any of the pieces, but the brightly colored cloth was too large. The second one was even smaller; it would only handle the tiniest of pieces. The third one in the stack, however, was one of the two she thought of as “laundry bag sized.” It would do everything she needed it to.

  With a little luck, it would even prevent the Templars from tracking her using the broken sword’s mana. It depended on how they did it; if the tracking was looking for the sword’s mana, it wouldn’t work. If there was another method, like using other bits of the original sword and the sympathetic connection they had from being originally part of the same object, neither the silk nor the enchantments was likely to be enough. It might help, but Sophia couldn’t count on it to cover everything.

  On the other hand, there was probably something in the notebook her father sent with her that would cover everything. It sounded like the kind of thing he’d prepare, most likely as a runic inscription. Sophia’s father really liked using runes for things like that. Creating the inscription would be a pain; more importantly, she couldn’t exactly do it here. It would probably take a few hours and she was out in the open in a spot that was all too easy to find if the Templars had anyone who could fly.

  Sophia stuffed the cloth holding the fragments into the back, pulled it closed, then stuffed the isolation bags, full and empty, back into her backpack. Manifest Wings took a lot of mana to use, but it was worth it; she couldn’t stay here.

  She glanced up towards the Temple. There didn’t seem to be anyone following her, not yet. It also hadn’t been long. She wanted to check on what was happening back up on the balcony, but it would be better if she didn’t; if she could see them, they could see her. She doubted she’d totally lost them, but she still had a chance.

  Sophia summoned her Echo, then sent the little feathered dragon off to attract attention from a distance. With luck, they’d think the Echo was Sophia herself, as long as they only saw the colorful wings from a distance. Sophia’s wing coloration was more vivid, but it should be fine. It wasn’t like she’d given them time to see her wings.

  Sophia waited for a long moment while the little dragon flew up, towards the magical crystal in the roof of the cave. She wasn’t sure it worked until she saw one of her Echo’s feathers separate, clearly hit by something from the platform that held the Temple.

  Sophia grinned to herself and glided down to the top of one of the buildings below her. She had no idea what this part of Izel was; it was a part of the city she hadn’t visited yet. Right now it was far more important that the streets were nearly deserted, it was out of view of the Broken Temple’s balcony, and no one was looking up. This was the best chance she was going to have to land without anyone knowing exactly where she came down.

  Meeting back up with her team might be a little more difficult. She didn’t think she could count on not being spotted if she went to the apothecary’s where Dav, Amy, and Taika were; too many people saw her enter the temple. More importantly, even if Aric didn’t say who she was, both of the attendants saw her on the way in. She was certain they’d remember her silver horns if nothing else.

  That made it time to do something she really should have done earlier, now that she thought about it. She reached out mentally. “Dav? I, uh, think I may have messed things up.”

  Somehow, I don’t think Sophia feels all that guilty about leaving Aric behind, even if he did try to protect her at the end…