After closer examination, I noticed the wall was solid. There was no opening to exit the courtyard; the space was enclosed on four sides.
Sitting in the center of the gate, on the ground, was a figure.
It was Dex.
He was wearing a black robe with runes that matched the ones on the Torii gate. He opened his eyes as I approached, and stood with a grunt. He gestured and formed a large sausage, placing it on the ground in front of my shameless hellhound, who proceeded to chomp on it.
“Ach, took you long enough,” Dex said, bending backward and twisting his torso. “This is a young mage’s work. I’m getting too old for this shite.”
“Nice to see you, too?”
“Enough with the pleasantries,” Dex said, waving my words away. “We have work ahead of us—and by we, I mean you.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and nodded.
“Where are we?” I said, taking another look around and ending on the immense gate in front of us. It stood nearly forty feet in height and about half as wide. The black stone thrummed with power I could feel in my lower abdomen, like a bass beat. “Where is this place?”
“Everywhere and nowhere,” Dex said. “You understand the concept of a mind palace?”
“Vaguely?” I answered, fearing we were entering brain-melting territory. “Are we in your mind?”
“Don’t be daft,” Dex said. “This place is a construct, a doorway.”
I looked around, not seeing any doors leading anywhere.
“A doorway…right,” I said. “Shouldn’t a doorway contain—oh, I don’t know, a door?”
“This place is like a mind palace, in that it’s based on a mental construct,” Dex answered. “There is no time here.”
“We’re running out of time?” I asked, confused. “Where is Monty?”
“Not running out, boy,” Dex answered curtly. “Here, in this place, we are in stasis. It was the only way to hide Monty from Evers during his schism.”
“If there’s no time, that means my curse…?”
“Is inactive in here, yes,” Dex said. “For someone with your particular condition”—he glanced around—“a place like this can be fatal.”
That didn’t sound ominous at all. Dex was looking at me with a heavy dose of stink-eye. I figured he was upset about Monty and was having difficulty processing the schism. I know I was.
“Where’s Monty?” I asked, not exactly enjoying Dex’s tone of voice. “I don’t see him.”
“We’ll get to that in a second,” Dex said, his voice serious. “Tell me how you became untangled.”
I shared about my last meeting with Kali, and how she took matters “into her own hands” with my bonds the totem, and the enso pendant. I left out the exciting parts, like the excruciating, mind-numbing pain.
“Doesn’t sound like it was a pleasant experience.”
“It wasn’t,” I said. “She redefined the concept of pain and took it to new heights for me.”
“Pain is good for you,” he said. “Helps you focus.”
“Sounds like you two would get along just fine,” I said, before handing him the card. “I got your message. You wanted to see me?”
He glanced down at the ring on my finger.
“How many uses does the totem have?”
“Three.”
“That’ll do,” Dex said with a nod. “Do you know how to use it?”
“No,” I said, looking down at the ring. “I’m supposed to channel energy into it, but I missed that lesson, apparently.”
“What do you understand about it?” Dex asked. “This is important.”
Rey’s words came back to me: You have to invert that thought process. The source of energy is all around you. All you’re doing is aligning to the flow and channeling it, not storing it in your body.
“I’m not a mage,” I said after a few seconds of thought. “I have to view the energy around me differently.”
“So far so good. Differently, how?”
“The energy is all around me; all I’m doing is aligning to the flow and channeling it,” I said. “Like jumping in the ocean and splashing around. That last part is a little sketchy, though.”
“I don’t know about any ocean,” Dex said, “but the first part is close enough. You’ve done this. Remember Rene’s plane? The Strix?”
“You mean the one that ended up in little parts after the orb I made punched a hole in it?” I asked. “The orb you suggested I practice?”
“Yes, that one,” he said with a grimace. “You recall how you formed the orb?”
“Yes, you gave me a new word of power: ignis…”
“What are you doing?” he asked, cutting me off. “I didn’t say to form the damn thing.”
“You asked me how I formed the orb. I was showing you how.”
“I didn’t say show me this exact second,” Dex snapped. “You do remember the right word, right?”
“Yes, it’s…ignisvi…”
“Stop,” he said, suddenly, cutting me off again, this time with more force. “Not yet, and that’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?” I asked. “That is the word.”
“I asked you how you formed the orb, not the word you used,” Dex said. “”Do you recall how you formed it? The orb…not the word.”
“No, I just said the word and it happened,” I said. “You were there. You said it tapped into my life force. Since I have an abundance, it appeared. Doesn’t make sense, but little does in my life.”
“Tapping into your life force isn’t the same as you having control over the energy,” Dex replied. “Don’t you understand that yet?”
“I’m starting to get it, yes,” I said, concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“My nephew is fighting for his life, and the only person who has a chance of helping him has no grasp of the basics of energy manipulation.”
“What are you talking about? You’re here,” I said, still confused. “You’re much better at this than I am.”
“You haven’t been paying attention,” Dex said. “I’m keeping hidden, not just my nephew, but the entire damned Golden Circle.”
“I’m hearing the words, but they aren’t making sense,” I said. “How are
