“Run!” I shouted and broke into a mad dash down the steps. My feet skipped and slid across the gritty sand that leaked from cracks in the ceiling, threatening to send me crashing down the stairs into the pile of dead warped below me. This was no time to slow down, though. I pumped jinsei into my legs and ran as fast and far as my body could manage.
“Stop them!” my mother shouted from behind us.
The sounds of battle grew louder. Grimaldi had lost a lot of soldiers in my mother’s surprise attack, and the survivors had responded with every heavy weapon at their disposal. Automatic weapons pounded out deadly rhythms, and the eerie sizzling crack of jinsei beam weapons cut through the din. Men and women screamed and shouted as they fought for their lives. The ruins themselves groaned as explosions rattled the ancient structures that had stood motionless for millennia.
I resisted the urge to glance back to see who was winning the fight. It didn’t matter. The important thing was to get to the Umbral Forge and finish the quest before my mother’s forces caught up or Grimaldi’s men shot us to pieces.
Shadows swallowed the sunlight from the holes in the ceiling before it reached the cavern’s floor. I summoned a ball of jinsei, and its silver light drove back the darkness that had barred our path. I’d fully expected to unveil another wave of monstrous warped ready to devour us, but my lantern showed me a clear path between the buildings.
I hesitated, unsure of which way to head. The sprawling maze of buildings, some still intact, others crumbling into blocks of sandstone, stretched out in every direction. It would be easy to get lost in there, and even easier to find ourselves surrounded by enemies.
“That fight won’t last much longer,” Eric said. “Pick a path and go.”
The Umbral Forge’s power thrummed through the soles of my feet. It was close, but I had no idea in which direction. We could find it through trial and error, given enough time.
Unfortunately, time was the one thing we were very short on.
“Abi,” I said, “do you see anything?”
My friend strained his eyes to peer into the darkness beyond the circle of silver light. After a moment, he nodded.
“It’s complicated, but it reminds me of the portal network.” He pointed off to our right. “The biggest conduits head off in this direction.”
“Then lead the way.” I put my hand on Abi’s shoulder. There was no way to be sure if our friend was right, and I didn’t have time to second-guess him. “I’ve got faith in you.”
Abi shot me a grin then took off like a shot. The rest of us chased after him. We wound through the ruins, dodging around fallen buildings and avoiding those that seemed on the verge of collapse. Dust devils danced in our wake, spinning with the force of our passage.
The sense of great power built as we ran. Sparking trails of jinsei crawled across the faces of buildings and traced glowing patterns on the floor. The Forge was close, I could feel it.
“Jace,” my mother called, her voice a nearby whisper. She must have already defeated Grimaldi. “You don’t have to do this alone. Let me help you. Together we can do so much more than apart.”
The echoes of footsteps were closing in around us. If we stopped, the heretics would encircle us. If we kept moving, we might run into an ambush.
Of those two options, I’d take my chance on the ambush.
“Don’t stop,” I growled to Abi. “Get us to the Forge.
“You can’t stop me,” I shouted in a jinsei-boosted voice. “If you get in our way, we will cut you down.”
It felt strange to say those words to my mother. The warning was more than words. It sliced through the last thread of hope that I’d held onto. I no longer had a mother, just a mortal enemy who would try to kill me, just as I’d do my best to kill her if our paths crossed again. And I didn’t feel a pang of guilt over it.
A wave of relief washed over me. I’d hoped my mother and I could reconcile. I’d prayed that she was misguided, that she’d lashed out at a world that had betrayed her. My dream was that she’d listen to me, that we’d work together to unravel the web of chaos she’d woven around the world with her Machina. All those dreams had been like a millstone around my neck.
Drawing a clear line between us hadn’t hurt at all. It was a relief. I was free of the accident of birth that had tortured me these past few years.
The heretics’ footsteps were closing in, but that was okay. They were fanatical maniacs, sure. But they were just people.
And, despite our wounds, despite everything we’d been through so far that day, I didn’t believe there was a single person on Earth who would survive if they stood in my friends’ path.
“Jace!” my mother shouted. “Don’t do this. Don’t turn your back on me.”
The city changed as we ran. The buildings loomed taller, and their walls became more substantial. Scrivenings covered their faces in a riot of silver threads that were impossible for me to decipher as I sprinted past them. They looked like nothing I’d ever seen before, both more complex and more primitive than what we’d studied at the School of Swords and Serpents. They were primal, more powerful than any workings dared by living men or women.
A pair of heretics hurled themselves from one of the buildings ahead of us. Gleaming silver coronas surrounded their bodies as they plummeted toward us like shooting stars. Their cores glowed with power, and I sensed darkness and destruction in their auras.
“Go through them!” I shouted.
Abi, Clem, and Eric put on a burst of speed and dashed ahead of the falling cultists. I slowed, though, eager
