A cold hand of dread closed around my heart. I knew where this conversation was going, and I didn’t like it.
“You want me to be one of your agents,” I said. “Because of my veil.”
Anxiety welled up inside me at the thought of working so closely with the elders. The veil had hidden my core from others, which was the only reason no one knew I was an Eclipse Warrior.
But if I had to work side by side with elders, I wasn’t sure I could keep the truth from them. They were decades, maybe centuries older than I was, armed with skills I could scarcely imagine. They might figure out how to crack my veil. Or I could lose control of my Eclipse nature and reveal myself in a moment of stress. This was an incredible opportunity that was incredibly dangerous for someone with my secrets.
“Yes,” Hirani said. “You can be a great help to us all, Jace. The anti-Flame activists threaten the very fabric of Empyreal society. We’ve kept the worst of their actions out of the public eye, but if we don’t find their leaders and stop them, soon, things will spiral out of control. We need your help to stop them, Jace. It will be dangerous, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But your work will save lives, and there are other, more tangible rewards, as well.”
Every eye in the room was fixed on me. My core stirred, restless as a nest of hungry serpents. Even the amount of food I’d shoveled down my gullet couldn’t calm it when I was so anxious. My Eclipse nature worried this was a deadly trap that would expose it to others. Neither of us wanted that.
“I need some time to consider it,” I said. “This is a big decision.”
“Of course,” Sanrin agreed. “We don’t want to rush you into anything. Take your time, Jace. When you make your decision, tell Hagar and she will convey your answer to us.”
“Thank you, honored Elders,” I said. “I will.”
“I must also remind you that you are bound by a geas not to speak of this meeting to anyone other than Hagar,” Elder Sanrin said. “We look forward to working with you, Mr. Warin.”
And that was the end of our little meeting. Sanrin waved his hand in my direction, and the world dissolved into darkness.
The Arts
IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON when I returned to the cottage on the lake. My bedroom was empty, and when I called out for Clem, there was no answer. Not that that was much of a surprise. She’d probably gone down to get some lunch for herself.
That left me with a few hours until dinner to occupy myself. I looked around the room for inspiration as to what to do next and spotted a scrap of paper on top of my laptop.
“Sorry! I borrowed some of your notebook,” I read to myself. “I got too hungry to wait anymore. Come find me when you get back from your meeting. I want to hear all the gory details!”
I chuckled at Clem’s enthusiasm and boundless curiosity. Then I grimaced when I realized I couldn’t tell her anything about what had happened. My expression deepened into a sincere frown at the thought of how Clem would respond to more secrets. She would dig and dig at whatever I didn’t tell her until I’d want to scream.
It would be awesome to not have to carry around a bunch of secrets.
The fact that I was an Eclipse Warrior.
The fact that what had happened in Singapore wasn’t exactly self-defense.
The fact that the Shadow Phoenixes served the Empyrean Flame as covert operatives.
And, of course, the fact that my clan wanted to recruit me as one of their secret agents.
Those dark thoughts churned up dark worries from my Eclipse nature and set me to pacing the confines of my tiny bedroom. That wouldn’t do. If I didn’t calm down, soon, I’d spend the rest of the day fighting dark urges. It was time to center myself.
I crossed the room, opened the closet, and pulled the Manual of the New Moon off the shelf. I hadn’t had access to the Internet the entire time I’d been on tour. The trainers and handlers hadn’t thought it was a good idea to clutter my mind with current affairs or social media, so I’d spent my nights reading, hanging out with Hank, and working out. I’d been dying to do some research about Eclipse Warriors, and now I finally had a chance.
It took me all of ten minutes to reread what I’d been able to understand from the Manual. Most of the book was just indecipherable to me, and I wasn’t sure what would let me understand more of it. Armed with what little information I had about the Eclipse Warriors, I turned my attention to the quantic laptop.
The computer was far more advanced than the crappy desktops I’d struggled to use in the labor camp schools. My worry that I wouldn’t understand the operating system turned out to be baseless. The laptop instantly joined with my core when I laid hands on it, and my vision shifted to show me a dark background littered with icons. I mentally selected the browser symbol, and the whole World Wide Web was at my fingertips.
With the sparse information I had from the Manual of the New Moon as a guide, I was able to research some more information about the Eclipse Warriors and the Utter War. The information I could gather was scattered all over the place, and it was hard to verify how much of it was true, but one thing was obvious: the Empyreals had been terrified of the warriors they’d created.
I finally found a report of a battle involving a small squad of
