Screams rippled off stone and voidcryst formations. Lore was being dragged along the ground by dark hands toward the gaping maw of the open Causeway. Kar tried to run to her—to grab hold with outstretched hands—but he was too slow.

  A hooded figure stepped in front of him and slowly pulled back the covering concealing their face. It was Old Set—cackling—eyes alight with an inner purple glow.

  Kar swung at the man. His hands were his own, normal skin and flesh. They passed through the image of Old Set, a mirage that faded and scattered like smoke.

  Alone now, Kar was left wondering who he had been chasing. He turned in a circle. Thunderclaps erupted all around him as hooded Heralds appeared out of thin air, forming a loose circle that hemmed him in.

  Cowering, Kar reached up to cover ears with hands that were now cold, hard Voidcryst. He looked down at his body and saw that all of him was made of that same obsidian crystal.

  The surrounding Heralds knelt and whispered deferentially in unison to him. The whisper became a chant, and Kar felt power flooding into him. Brilliant light began leaking from cracks forming across his body. The Heralds bowed lower.

  “Master,” one of them breathed.

  Pain lanced through Kar—and he burst apart—

  Kar sat upright, warm and clammy. His shirt and sheets were soaked with sweat. He shivered, remembering fragments of his nightmare. There hadn’t been a night without them since he returned to Valor.

  Shaking his head, Kar untangled himself from his bedsheets and staggered out of bed and toward the open window. A light breeze touched his face and moonlight glinted off his crystal skin. He flexed stiff Encryst fingers, then clasped hold of the sill and peered out over the ruins of the Upper City.

  They didn’t look like ruins.

  Everything on this side of the Rift was neat and orderly. The streets were clear, buildings repaired or torn down. Rubble and old materials had been repurposed where possible—to shore up structures or build anew.

  It was the middle of the night. Kar breathed deeply, letting the brisk air clear his head. The nightmare was already fading, a faint recollection now of scattered images. But the feeling remained. The fear that one day the Void would consume him.

  One other image stuck with him too—Lore’s fearful face as she was dragged away.

  He missed her, even though it’d only been a few weeks since they parted. She was still at the Archives, last he’d heard.

  Streets below were empty, save a pair of Enclave Guardians on patrol. The Upper City was far smaller than the lower Ruins Kar had seen up until coming here, but they were still expansive. Yet, the Guardians kept watch over all of it, from the Riftside district overlooking the Lower City, to the eastern shore of the old river that fell into the rift basin where they intersected.

  The window of Kar and Isa’s apartment faced away from the Rift, but on Kar’s right loomed the split and fractured silhouette of the Mountain. The Rift originated there, in its shadow. Spawned from its heart.

  The Upper City rose steadily along the mount’s western base, then stopped. Further up its flanks sat the Enclave. Kar felt nervous about it. He and his little sister would be visiting there for the first time today. Nat, Ember, and the woman Saya were already there. Had been, ever since they’d first arrived more than two weeks ago at the Guardian rift outpost and bridge.

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  Today wasn’t just he and Isa’s first visit—it was Aunt Nat’s judgment day.

  Turning, Kar looked back to his bed. There was no use trying to get more sleep. He’d never fall back asleep. So he lowered himself to the middle of the floor instead, and took a cross-legged position where rays of moonlight slanted through. He closed his eyes, concentrated as his Granna had shown him, and practiced.

  Since coming to Iridess, Kar had been transformed—in every way. His body was half cryst now, he’d learned how to fight for survival, and a host of abilities had been awakened with him.

  Abilities he still didn’t fully understand.

  Powers swirled within him—different types of Energía. He could distinguish them clearly now. Valoría surged. Potentía pooled serenely. And Sinistía… coalesced inside his right arm—sealed away by Encryst, for now.

  A dun shard sat heavy in Kar’s hands. He took a breath, then started his practice session by Imbuing it with Valoría. It flashed from dull to glowing blue.

  A smile curled up the corners of Kar’s mouth. He still remembered the first time he’d attempted this, back in Morrow’s workshop. It had hardly worked at all, to the point Morrow had described his efforts as practically useless. Kar knew the only reason he could perform the Imbuement properly now was because of the amplification that came with directing the Imbuement through his Encryst fingers.

  Memories of Morrow hurt. Kar missed his quiet presence, his kindness. The way he’d eagerly pushed his spectacles back while instructing or guiding Kar’s attempts to Focus. Kar still blamed himself for the man’s death, for making an orphan of his daughter Caroline.

  “Are you having trouble sleeping again, Karalinde?” Ember’s voice called out inside Kar’s head.

  Nodding, Kar kept his eyes shut. “Nightmares again,” he mumbled.

  Valoría flowed back into him as Kar Absorbed it from the shard he’d just Imbued. His right arm twitched as he used the Void ability. Kar resisted the urge to Convert the power to Sinistía. Part of him felt compelled to. The part sealed within his right arm.

  “How is the woman doing?” Kar asked softly. It must look like he was speaking to an empty room. Or himself.

  “She has been sleeping a lot. And she still has not spoken to me. But I can sense her using my power. She creates Fields like I do. I can feel them pushing against my own.”

  Kar wondered how that worked. It wasn’t something Granna was familiar with; her abilities with Potentía seemed to be confined to Melding—the conversion of the power into Encryst and manipulation of that crystal.

  Energy surged through Kar as he Imbued the Valoría he’d pulled from the shard into himself. He wasn’t injured, but it energized and vitalized him nonetheless, washing away his fatigue like icy water.

  “At least she seems to be recovering. Keep working with her. I’m hoping she knows more about what you are—and that she’ll know how to fix you.”

  “I think my crack may be filling in on its own,” Ember protested. “It seems smaller to me.”

  “Still,” Kar said, setting down the shard and Forging a sphere of white Encryst in his palms. “I’d feel a lot better if she knows what went wrong and can explain things to us.”

  Ember was silent for a moment. “I wish I could stay with you, Karalinde. I had thought that once we rescued you from that Vault, we could be together again.”

  Guilt swelled within Kar. He’d thought the same, but with his voidcryst arm—and what it had done to Ember… Kar still couldn’t remember that moment, only the aftermath, when the Valorcryst Melisdra had wrenched the Prism away from him, cracked and bleeding Energía.

  “I know Ember. It just doesn’t feel safe for me to be close to you right now. At least we can still talk to one another.”

  Ember made a noncommittal noise. “At least we have that. I will let you concentrate, Karalinde, Natalie is awake now and is trying to talk to me too.”

  “Talk to you later.” Kar whispered to the room. Ember was already gone.

  Kar kept cycling and practicing different abilities. He struggled the most with Melding—manipulating already formed Encryst into different shapes and forms—but he kept at it.

  All the while, his voidcryst arm twinged and writhed faintly, a constant reminder for Kar of the darkness that was a part of him now. Now and then he thought he heard it whisper too, in the corner of his mind…

  With the sun’s rise, Kar showered, dressed and crossed the hall to knock on the door to Isa’s bedroom.

  She opened it blearily eyed, her hair a tangled mess. “Why are you up so early?” she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes. “And why did you wake me up?”

  Kar smiled at her and laughed. “It’s not that early, and we need to get ready and go. Nat’s trial is today.”

  Isa’s eyes cracked open wider. “Oh. That’s right. Just… give me a little bit.”

  “You’ve got time to shower and everything, that’s why I’m waking you up now.”

  She shut the door, almost glaring at him.

  “I’ll be downstairs!” Kar called out to her, hoping she wasn’t crawling back into bed.

  A short while later, Kar stood down in the food hall on the bottom floor of the apartment complex.

  He was glad for the long sleeves of the shirts that had been given to them when they were placed here. They covered up his crystal arms at least. His hands still glinted brightly. He really needed to find some gloves or something. The other residents tended to stare at him, and it made him uncomfortable.

  At least they stared more at Erio and Tharn.

  “You’re awake.” The taller of the two, Erio called across the rows of tables from where he and his partner stood by the entrance.

  Kar waved feebly at the odd pair, feeling his cheeks burning as they strode his way.