Then, Lessa bandaged the worst of the wounds.

  Jace began, “It really isn’t necessary⁠—”

  “Yeah, but what happens when we’re up against the next Sentinel in a few days, and these still haven’t healed, and you get more injuries?”

  “Well, most of these should be healed by then.”

  “And we’re making them heal faster,” Lessa insisted.

  “Technically, bandages don’t make anything heal faster.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He tilted his head. “Uh, I’m pretty sure it’s true, though.”

  “Then why does it make everything feel better if I cover it in a bandage?”

  Jace shrugged, then winced when she tied a tight knot. “You know, it doesn’t actually make me feel better at the moment.”

  LeeKay clicked and rattled a few times.

  “Okay, I’ll accept that an antiseptic makes my Vitality work less hard against infections,” Jace replied. He turned back to Lessa. “Ooorrrr you just wanted an excuse to pat me down and be close to me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It’s not exactly a bad thing.”

  “Ah, so it’s true!”

  Before she could say anything else, LeeKay warbled out a warning, and they both jumped to their feet.

  Three darklings were prowling across the land, approaching the gull. They were racoons, but they had to be about the size of a regular wolf, and as usual, their fur was ripped and seeping black liquid. A few eyes had gone missing, and they had curled ram horns atop their heads.

  At first, Jace’s heart picked up, and he raised his hands into a fighting position, but then he reached out with his senses (which he should’ve been doing earlier, but Lessa had been a bit distracting).

  The darklings were only the equivalent of Foundation One. They were low-tier, like the beast’s head first fought when he arrived in this galaxy.

  For a moment, he considered grabbing his Whistling Blade, but he wouldn’t need it. “Are you ready, Lessa?” he asked.

  “Just give me one sec…” She hopped up to her feet and shut the medkit, then turned around and ran back to the Gull, then climbed up onto the top. “There we go. A better vantage point. Do your thing.”

  He nodded, then patted LeeKay on the head and said, “Stay here.”

  After triggering [Radiance], he used a [Hyperdash] and shot forward, appearing between two darklings. He struck the first with a fist, aiming for its head. He expected the blow to just knock the beast aside, but its brittle bones shattered and its skull imploded, and it fell dead on the spot. Its body turned to black ash and floated away in the wind.

  One leapt at him, but with [Radiance] active, it felt comically slow. He gripped its jaw and twisted until its spine snapped, and it died in a flash.

  Finally, the last darkling approached. It went for his leg, but before it could latch on, he kicked, reducing it to a pulp before it even began to disintegrate.

  Their swirling cores all dispersed in a puff, and a wisp of golden light surged into his chest. He barely felt anything, and his advancement progress didn’t increase by even a fraction of a percent.

  “Did you see what you needed?” he asked.

  “I…I think so. But any chance you could do it again and try to spread out the kills so their bounties don’t all intake at once? Give me a few more chances to study it.”

  “I can give it a shot,” he replied.

  Jace waited for more darklings to come. After the first few minutes, when nothing raised its head, he reached out with his senses and cast his attention up to the sky. A flock of birds with glowing wings flew overhead, and a few shooting stars flew past.

  “It’s such a different sky…” Lessa said. “Something about being in a different galaxy just makes it so much better.”

  “I’m glad to hear it’s pretty.”

  “It’s dark. No ring, no swath of stars, but what you do see is wonderful.”

  As they watched, a tendril of golden light washed across the upper atmosphere, almost like an aurora, but distinctly more Split-y. Northern lights this far south weren’t common, he was pretty sure—as it was, they were incredibly uncommon at the ranch—and they were never yellow-gold like that.

  After a half hour, his senses flared up in warning again, and this time, a bear and a few ram-wolves approached—all darklings, of course. Jace watched them carefully, but they behaved like any other darkling, and they were no stronger than the racoons had been.

  “Ready, Less?” he asked.

  “Ready,” she confirmed.

  Jace went after the bear first, but it didn’t last long. His fists and [Radiance] did the trick, but he used a [Hyperdash] to escape the two wolves before they converged. A tiny puff of golden sparks flooded into his chest. When it stopped, he turned back to face the wolves and attacked one at a time, making sure to destroy the two darklings with enough spacing that Lessa could analyze exactly what the Split was doing.

  When he returned to the Gull, she exclaimed, “Got it!”

  “Awesome! Is it something we can mess with?”

  “I think I have an idea,” she replied. “But we’re going to need a card. Specifically, your forging card.”

  Jace concentrated and manifested the card, then unsocketed it.

  [Technique Card: Channel Net]

  Grade: Legendary

  Type: Forging

  Compatible Classification: All

  Compatible Aspects: Light

  [Once every two minutes, creates a mesh of forged light-aspect Aes along Split capillaries in the air. Strength of the forged Aes scales with the user’s Vitality.]

  “I’m not sure how this will help us,” Jace said.

  “It won’t until we modify it,” Lessa replied. She grinned. “First things first, we need to align it to your aspect. And then next, I’m going to use the forging base card for a neat trick. I should be able to use it to enhance your Aes intake. Hopefully.”

  “Is it going to break the card?”

  “Not if I do it right.”

  “Well, you’ve never screwed up a card before,” Jace replied. Their entire success also hadn’t hinged on her successfully finishing a card before, either, but he kept that to himself. They didn’t have a choice.

  “First things first, we’re going to do a simple enhancement,” she said. “I’m going to align it with a hyperspace and make it scale with Resistance. That way, you can use it whenever. And then after that is when the real fun begins.”

  “So I take it you’ll need me to run a few Vaults in the meantime.”

  “That would be much appreciated.”

  20

  VEINS OF THE UNIVERSE

  After clearing out the third Vault, Jace was beginning to wonder if they had the wrong idea. He could just stay in Vaults for the next few weeks gathering Aes, and hopefully that would do the trick.

  He numbly used a [Hyperdash], launching up to the elite darkling’s head—it was an enormous undead alligator on a swamp world—and split it with a slash of his Whistling Blade. Black brain matter spewed across the boggy ground. It quickly turned to dust, and Jace was whisked away out of the Vault.

  He’d put off the fight with the elite alligator for as long as he could, instead opting to clear out as many lesser beasts from the swamp as he could, but eventually, he ran out of fodder and had to go in search of the elite darkling.

  Apparently, the Vault wasn’t just a source of endless Aes, even for him.

  When he left the third Vault, it was nearly morning, and he checked his status. It had only climbed up to fourteen percent advancement progress. It was nowhere near fast enough.

  Vaults themselves weren’t the solution, then. But once he emerged, Lessa exclaimed, “I’ve got it!”

  Jace turned to her. They both had massive bags under their eyes, and she yawned. She powered down her soldering and engraving needle and said, “Take a look at the card. It’s not where it needs to be just yet, but I’m about halfway done.”

  She handed Jace the new [Channel Net] card, which he analyzed:

  [Technique Card: Veins of the Universe]

  Grade: Legendary

  Type: Forging

  Compatible Classification: Hyperspace Hunter

  Compatible Aspects: Hyperspace

  [Once every one and a half (1.5) minutes, fills Split capillaries with forged hyperspace Aes, solidifying them into a mesh. Strength of the forged Aes scales with the caster’s Resistance and Vitality. Grants all light-aspect Wielders in a forty-foot (40) domain 10% increased Resistance and Strength, and slightly enhances soul-inclination with the Caster’s class.]

  She’d updated the language, reduced the cooldown, and added a bunch more effects that had to be building toward something. The buffs were nice, of course, but the soul-inclination was interesting.

  “What is soul-inclination?” he asked. He’d heard it before, but didn’t really know what it did.

  “It’s how it sounds. How aligned your soul is with your Class improves it. It’s how some Wielders end up enhancing their Class and evolving it further later in life—like you did at Nascent Soul.”

  “And that can just be…changed?”

  “Truly, the card messes with your soul-circle slightly, making the Split think they’re more aligned, and granting the bonuses.”

  “Does it do anything?”

  “It’ll make your Aes bounty stronger.”

  He nodded. “That’s a good step, then. But how much?”

  “Maybe five percent at the moment,” Lessa said. “But I think I can go higher. What we need is to reforge it and hope for a hidden property to come out from the card.” She paused. “I know what you’re thinking, and I promise it’s not just ‘cause I’m tired. At the Academy, we learned a way to reforge cards that not only guaranteed a hidden property, but allowed us to guide the Split toward what we wanted it to be. I think I can figure it out, but I just need the time and resources.

  Jace glanced down at the card. “Yeah…about that. We don’t really have any material to reforge it with. We have the spare card, the passkey from Crimsonhaven, and nothing else.”

  “There was my next problem. We need to find the next Sentinel and kill it slowly.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s made of arcane material. Which I need to reforge the card. But if you just kill the Sentinel, everything but its core fades away into dust.”

  “So I cleave off arcane material while you use it to reforge the card?”

  “Exactly.”

  Jace grimaced. It’d be harder to kill a Sentinel if he couldn’t count on Lessa’s help, but once they had the card ready, none of that would matter. He was up for the challenge—he just had to delay the Sentinel until she could finish the card. “I think we have a plan, then. Any idea where the next Sentinel would be?”

  She shook her head. “We can either hope it creates a massive storm around itself, or maybe we could use the scanners to find it. Or…[Questforger].”

  “Or we could ask someone,” Jace said. “We might be able to narrow it down with some rumours. The scanners weren’t particularly useful before.”

  “I have no idea where to even start.”

  “I think I can find something,” Jace said. “It’s back aboard the Gull for us.” He yawned, then added, “After a quick nap. I think we’ve earned it, considering we stayed up all night.”

  Their nap took them until mid-afternoon, and as soon as they woke up, they got the Gull in the air again.

  Jace flew slightly northeast. Since it seemed like most lines of communication were out, and since the next Sentinel was likely on a different continent entirely, it didn’t make sense to ask around for hints inland. He just had to hope that people were still shipping cargo across the ocean and would’ve heard stories.

  Of course, [Questforger] would also help, but when the tracking needle simply pointed east, it didn’t guide them much. He needed more of a hint.

  “So…where are we going?” Lessa asked.

  “I’m not looking for a massive port,” Jace said. “We could go to New York, but that would be too big. And I don’t even know who I would ask. We’d have better luck in a smaller port. I’m going to aim for Philadelphia.”

  “Ah. I don’t know what either of those places are.”

  “It shouldn’t take long. About a half hour.”

  He kept the Gull low as they raced over the landscape. He did his best to avoid any major centers, relying mostly on the scanners, but every so often, they shot over a small town. The thrusters roared, but they passed in a blink, and the people of the town would probably only have heard a sonic boom.

  Philadelphia was the first large city Jace had seen since returning to Earth. He’d never visited it before he left, so there was really nothing to compare to, and he didn’t even know where he was going. First, he overshot it, reaching the coast before circling around back toward the city.

  As soon as the towers breached the horizon, he flew down to a patch of land with nothing but autumn trees. He couldn’t tell if they were new or old. Some of them seemed larger than a normal tree, but that could’ve been his mind playing tricks on him.

  Regardless, when they had hidden the Gull away, they trekked to the nearest highway and walked along the shoulder. There were a few vehicles rushing down the road. Most were pickup trucks full of wood, crates of food, or jugs of water. Lessa pulled on a cloak, hiding her tail and horns, and hopefully no one was paying too close attention.

  There were a few military humvees as well, and a few tanks the closer Jace got to the city. They reached a makeshift gate along the highway, which a cluster of soldiers blocked. A few armoured vehicles and a tank waited beyond the entryway, aiming at any potential attackers. All the soldiers were armed, and a few of them had blood splatters on their uniforms. They were stopping every vehicle that passed through.

  When Jace and Lessa reached the gate, one of the soldiers stepped in front of them and asked, “What’s your business here?”

  “We’re looking for work,” Jace said. He inched to the side, getting out of the way so a humvee could pass through, then leaned against a concrete divider. “We came from out west. A crack swallowed up our farm.”

  “This your girlfriend?” the soldier asked, tilting his head toward Lessa.

  “Mhm,” she said, nodding.

  The soldier narrowed his eyes. “Bulky hood.”

  “She gets cold easy,” Jace said quickly.

  “Hm.” The soldier tapped his finger on his rifle. “Well, you don’t look like the bad sort. But if you cause problems—you know the governor declared martial law, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir,” Jace replied.

  “Not lenient toward trouble makers. We have enough problems without other humans causing issues.” The soldier stepped aside. “Be careful.”

  “Thank you,” Jace and Lessa both said as they passed.

  They continued along the road, passing through old suburbs and crossing a massive rift that had opened up in the ground and filled with river water. They crossed over a rickety wooden bridge—one of many—and continued through the city, keeping away from the main downtown area.

  By now, the sun was setting, and people lit candles inside. A few electric lights were still functional, but those were few and far between. There were still plenty of people outside, though, walking the sidewalks or standing outside and smoking. Although it was autumn, it wasn’t terribly cold.

  Jace was expecting it to be more chaotic, but the military presence had to help. The real question was how long it would last for. It was only going to get worse, and though it seemed like a slow apocalypse, everything was changing. Once more and more people discovered magic, the entire world would be flipped on its head.

  The sky was orange when they reached the port, and Jace stopped to look out over the river. He couldn’t remember what it was called, but it led out to sea along the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. There were a few cargo ships in port, but the biggest attraction of all was the corpse of a kraken in the river.

  There was nothing else it could be. It had hundreds of fifty-foot thick tentacles splayed out through the water, and some reached out to land. Cleanup crews were still sawing and harvesting the meat, and they’d dug a channel through its main, eye-covered body—large enough that ships could pass through.

  “That’s new,” Jace said.

  “I thought you hadn’t been here before.”

  “I hadn’t. But I know we didn’t have monsters like that before I left.”

  “Your world sounds boring.”

  Jace chuckled. “Well…looks like someone or something fixed that. Let’s just find ourselves a bar or something. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of sailors near the port who know something and can help us.”

  21

  A HINT

  Jace didn’t realize how hard it was actually going to be to find a bar or tavern or something until he actually tried.

  They spent a few minutes asking around the port, which gave them a few dirty stares. There were plenty of homeless people, and not all of them looked like what Jace had expected. Which…he didn’t know what to expect.

  The docks also didn’t ever sleep. The main port, where everyone worked, was fenced off, but the night shift was just beginning, and dockhands shuffled around shipping containers and loaded them on ships. Other teams sailed out into the channel on small boats for shifts cutting up the kraken offshore.

  As Jace watched, a cargo ship sailed into port, escorted by a small, rusty military destroyer that looked like it had come out of a museum. There was a chance it had been a museum ship, given how desperate people must have been for military equipment. Helicopters circled overhead, and men in hazmat suits rushed over to check the ship for any kind of contamination.

  It was after that that Jace noticed the sickness. There were plenty of people coughing with what seemed like the common cold, but others with star-shaped boils on their faces, eyes leaking puss.