“Oh Karalinde… what has happened to you?”

  The sound of Ember’s voice brought unexpected tears to Kar’s eyes.

  “It’s good to see you, Ember,” he whispered.

  “I was worried I would not sense you again, Karalinde. It is all I have thought about this past week. If I had only noticed that woman with her fire…”

  Kar found himself laughing. That’s right, it had only been a week for everyone on the outside. The last time he’d been able to talk to the Prism had been outside Morrow’s workshop.

  Kar moved to wipe the tears from his face, then remembered he couldn’t, not with his left hand gone, and he didn’t like touching himself with his Voidcryst one.

  “Ember, I need your help.”

  “Of course. What do you need?”

  Kar’s stomach churned. He needed Energía. Which meant he would have to Absorb it. But the thought of using that ability on his friend felt wrong.

  His right arm twitched. Kar sensed its desire. Its fear. All bundled together. Ember was an anomaly. Able to quell the shadowcryst with just its presence…

  Near the Prism, Kar felt calmer. As if he were standing in the shallows, enjoying the warm ebb and flow of water as it caressed his skin.

  He breathed in deeply, wanting to experience that more fully, and something flooded into him. Energía, but not as he knew it. Kar reacted instinctively, embracing Ember’s power. It swirled within him, as if one last piece of himself had been missing, and now he’d found it.

  “Oh. I did not know you could do that,” Ember said softly. “That is an… odd sensation.”

  Kar closed his eyes, allowing this new kind of Energía to flow freely. It pooled into the stump of his left arm of its own accord, and something started to grow there.

  It was eerily similar to the process of shadow forging, only—softer—not violent. Not a hungry rush to fill an insatiable void. It was wonder, growth, and exploration. A counterpart to the shadow of the void. A counterweight.

  New weight coalesced where Kar’s left arm should be. His eyes remained shut, but he heard gasps from those nearby.

  “You are making something, Karalinde,” Ember remarked in an awed tone. “That is wonderful.”

  When it was done, Kar slowly opened his eyes. The power flow from Ember had slowed. It was as if, Kar’s body was a vessel that had been filled. His dark, right arm had gone entirely still. Perhaps for the first time since it had formed.

  Where his left arm and hand had been, Kar now saw something new. Not flesh. Not Voidcryst. A different kind of crystal, a replica of what he had lost. It hummed harmoniously, a wellspring of potential.

  It responded to Kar’s commands, just as a hand should. He slowly reached over and gently grasped Ember with it. Then sat up.

  Kar had seen crystal like this before. There was a name for it, at the edge of his memory. A name his father had told him.

  Encryst. He recalled suddenly.

  An image of vast sheets of it splayed across the floor of a great chamber flashed through his mind. He’d seen it much more recently than that, he realized. In Ember’s ship. In the rings and staff he’d taken from there.

  A shiver went through Kar, and his eyes widened. He stood, his mind racing.

  “Are you alright, Karalinde?” Ember asked.

  Kar nodded, blinking rapidly. “I…” He didn’t know how to answer that.

  He looked down, first at his right Voidcryst arm, then his left Encryst one. His stomach turned as he recognized how mutilated he had become. Throughout these trials, he had just been trying to push through. They’d reached the end… but he didn’t feel relief. Isa was free, somehow. Nat was here.

  But Kar had been irreversibly changed. Everything he had done had seemed necessary. But all he felt now, looking at the crystal jutting from his body, was a conflicted sense of unease. He was some kind of half-cryst, half-human hybrid now. He couldn’t hide from it any longer. This was his reality now, and there was no going back. He felt a terrible pang of loss, of longing. He wished now he had never left Riftwater.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Kar?” Lore’s hand touched him gently, laid across the crystal of his left fore-arm.

  He met her gaze. The concern there was palpable. Not revulsion. He wasn’t sure how she could look at him and not feel disturbed, but he was grateful she, at least, could.

  “I’m okay. I’m good,” He lied.

  She nodded slowly, wide-eyed. Not entirely convinced, he could tell. He smiled back at her. Then stepped over toward the others gathered around Aldwin.

  It was still dim here, in the chamber. Kiya hadn’t relit her flames, but was sitting back, scowling. Kar grasped the new Energía swelling within him and tried to Focus it, to create an illuminating flame of his own. Nothing happened.

  That was disappointing. He had hoped to be able to Focus it normally. Did this new power from Ember work more like Dark Energía then? He would experiment later. For now, he simply held the Prism forth to bathe the others in its soft radiance.

  Isa was trembling, feverishly working over Aldwin. He was pale, newly filled in scars crossing his chest and abdomen where the shadowcryst had raked him, which had been healed by Isa. His eyes remained closed.

  “I… I don’t know what else to do for him.” She said.

  Natalie held one of Aldwin’s hands tightly, while Derek grasped the other.

  “What can you sense?” Kar whispered to Ember.

  “He is very weak,” the Prism responded, “and it is difficult to sense him fully.”

  “Can you do anything for him?”

  “I… cannot really do much of anything, Karalinde. Only observe. And give my power for others to use, it seems.”

  Isa stood then. “He’s a little more stable, at least. We should bring him back to the Archives. The Guardians may know what to do.”

  Kar worked to piece things together without asking. Had Natalie gone to the Enclave for help? Is that how Isa was free? Had the Guardians intervened against Destry and his men?

  Nat sniffled, and wiped her eyes. “Good thinking.”

  She and Derek lifted Aldwin together, then headed for the partially opened doorway. Kar noticed two additional figures then. A man and a woman. They wore loose fitting clothing, wrapped around their bodies and legs. They must be Guardians, he realized. Not like Melisdra. The modern equivalent? Just how much did they know about the Source and the Vaults?

  He steeled himself, but Isa led Nat and Derek straight by them without hesitation.

  Erio eased toward Kar, obviously wary of these newcomers. On seeing him, the two strangers bowed deeply.

  “It is an honor… to be in your presence,” the woman said.

  Erio returned their bow, seemingly confused.

  “Aldwin will be alright, Karalinde.” Ember spoke into his head, pulling Kar’s attention away. “These Guardians are very capable. They helped us to rescue you.”

  Lore stepped up and grasped his Voidcryst hand. It moved of its own accord, for the first time since Kar had gained his new Encryst one. Kar tensed up, expecting the shadowcryst appendage to try something, but it settled down immediately. Kar relaxed, relieved.

  Lore had misinterpreted things, however, and started to pull her hand away. Kar grabbed hold of it. “Sorry, it’s not you.”

  She nodded, unsure. “You know, it’s kinda cute, you talking to yourself like this, but it's also pretty strange.”

  “Oh, I… this is Ember,” Kar said, holding out the Prism.

  “You’ve… named it?”

  “Well, yeah, but only because it asked me to.”

  “She is very beautiful, up close like this.” Ember whispered in his head. “I wish I could talk to her.”

  Lore looked dubiously at them.

  “Do you want to try?” Kar asked Ember, wondering how the Prism determined whether someone was beautiful or not.

  Lore misunderstood again, shrugging and reaching out her hand to lay it atop Ember’s rounded surface.

  “Hello there,” Ember said, “I am Ember.”

  Lore’s eyes widened, the glow from the Prism casting elongated shadows across her face. “Whoah, you aren’t totally crazy,” she said, laughing.

  “What are the two of you doing?” Kiya asked, from where she still sat nearby. She went ignored.

  Erio was preoccupied with the two strangers, who had crowded around him and were pestering him with questions, and Kar and Lore were absorbed with one another and Ember.

  “Karalinde found me and gave me my name.” The Prism told Lore. “He is my first friend.”

  Ember seemed to be talking so that Kar and Lore could both hear him. Was that intentional? Or because they were both touching the Prism at the same time?

  “Hi… Ember. I’m Lore.”

  “Are you talking to us both on purpose?” Kar interjected, curious.

  “Oh. I am not sure. I do not suppose that I am.”

  Kar fully handed the Prism over to Lore and withdrew his hand. “Say something to her now.”

  Lore laughed, raising the hand not holding Ember up to her face. “Yeah, he does do that.”

  That answered that. Kar reached back out to touch the Prism again, but something made him hesitate. He turned, and saw Kiya had stood. Something glinted on her finger. It was his focal ring, he realized, the one that had been on his left hand when the elder shadowcryst tore that arm away from him.

  “I’m taking this back.” Kiya said, leveling her hand with the ring toward Kar. “And you’re not going to give me any trouble or try to stop me. Lore and I are leaving.”

  “Kiya…” Lore said.

  “Save it. If those Guardians are here,” she gestured toward the two strangers, “it means Destry is gone, or captured. I’m not sticking around to find out.”

  “What are you going to do, Kiya, fight your way out of the Archives?” Lore asked.

  “We will, if we have to.”

  “Just, wait a minute.” Kar said, both hands extended.

  Kiya had stepped forward, and grabbed hold of her younger sister.

  Lore tossed Ember to Kar, and wrenched herself free from Kiya’s grip. “I’m not going with you this time. I’m tired of you dragging me along from one thing to the next.”

  “You ungrateful brat!” Kiya spat.

  The Guardians and Erio had noticed the tension and turned toward them. They were standing between Kiya and the threshold back to the Archives.

  Kiya side-eyed them, then glared back at Lore. “After everything we’ve been through, all the things I’ve done for you, you’re just going to abandon me like this?”

  “You’re the one making this an issue!” Lore screamed. “And you’re the reason we’re always having to run away after you Rift it all up. I’m sick of it!”

  Kiya snarled, then Focused, a swirling ball of blue fire coalescing in her hand.