Erio and Tharn looked absurdly out of place in the apartment common area. Their crystal skin—and the armor they refused to take off—stood out against the simple cloth-spun garments everyone else wore.

  They weren’t unwelcome, however.

  A pair of young children stood and bounced excitedly as the Valorcryst passed their table. They clapped their hands lightly and whispered furtively to one another while their parents quietly chided them. One child reached out like they might touch Tharn’s armor—then thought better of it.

  It made sense, Kar supposed. Erio and Tharn were legends and tall tales walking in the flesh. Well, crystal.

  Tharn stopped in front of Kar and crossed his arms. They were eye level with one another now. That hadn’t been the case when Kar first encountered the pair in the second trial of the Vault beneath the Archives. The Essence he’d consumed in the trial basins had made him grow in more ways than one. It was odd being so much taller now.

  “Where is your sister?” Tharn asked. “The trial results will be revealed soon. We have come to escort you both to the Enclave.”

  “She’s coming down,” Kar said. “I think.”

  The three of them stood in silence for a moment. Kar felt awkward. Erio and Tharn could probably go days without moving and not be bothered in the slightest.

  “So,” Kar said at last, forcing himself to speak, “how has the Enclave treated you two? Feels like I’ve hardly seen you since we got to the Upper City.”

  “It is… mostly as we remember it,” Erio answered. “Although, it was surprising to see the damage done to the mountain—and the city. I did not expect the scale of the Rift.”

  That’s right. Supposedly, Erio and Tharn had both been ordinary, human Guardians before they entered the Trial Vaults centuries ago.

  Tharn rumbled a dissatisfied grunt, “The current Guardians are ignorant of many things, however,” he and Erio shared an odd look. “And not all of them are eager to be informed.”

  Kar hadn’t had much opportunity to speak with anyone since arriving. The Guardians hadn’t seemed to know exactly what to do with them while Nat’s trial was ongoing. Granna had situated them here in this apartment, close to the Enclave, and visited most days.

  Today, all of that was supposed to change—for the better.

  Kar wasn’t so sure.

  “Do I have time to eat anything?” Isa asked from behind him.

  Kar hadn’t had much of an appetite himself, but he’d grabbed bread and fruit for his sister. He turned and held it out.

  “We’d better get going,” Kar said. “I’m hoping we get a chance to see Nat beforehand.”

  Out on the main boulevard, Tharn took the lead while Erio hung back a way. Even here where it should be safest, the two were always watchful. They hadn’t spoken directly about it, but Kar suspected the pair had taken it upon themselves to watch over him. The Source and its designs were an open-ended mystery in his mind. One he hoped to delve into when he got the chance. The Trials had brought he and the Valorcryst together. There had to be some purpose to that.

  “So did you two live here in the city, before?” Isa asked.

  Tharn laughed—the rumbling expression drew the attention of nearly all those on the walkway around them. “I was born and raised in a distant land. I was brought to the Enclave once they discovered my Affinity to the Source. Erio and I met at the Enclave Academy here and then spent most of our life fighting in the Bores and out among the Hub Realms.”

  “What about you, Erio?” Isa asked, turning to look back at the tall Cryst.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Erio grunted, his lance perched against his shoulder, eyes constantly scanning the windows of the structures towering to either side of the boulevard. “I’m from Iridess, but not the Upper City here. This was always the cleanest part. I’m from further south. Grew up in the Shadowmount District, right on the slopes. Where they used to be anyway. Looks like all that got swallowed up by the Rift.”

  Kar tried to picture how the city must have looked back then. When everything had been whole. When millions had called Iridess home.

  Carts passed by along the roadway on their left, going either direction in a steady stream. Kar was eager to explore and see everything. Granna had asked them to stay put in their apartment up until this point, however.

  “You must miss how things used to be.” Isa said softly. Her words were almost drowned out be the bustle of everything happening around them. This close to the Enclave most of the ancient structures were inhabited.

  “We had our share of problems, even then,” Erio responded. “and I am sad to see what has been lost.”

  Tharn shifted to look back, “What I have yet to get a straight answer on, is how we lost the battle for the Bores in the first place.”

  Erio’s eye facets glinted sharply, “Yes… I would like to know what went wrong there as well.”

  They reached a large plaza then. The cloud-towers that dominated the upper city’s skyline ended abruptly on the western side of it, and on the opposite end, stood a curving archway and a wide and rising array of steps. Those steps curved in line with the rising slope of the Mountain, which towered up and up in a gentle rise to a suddenly sharp peak in the shrouded heights above.

  Guardians stood posted along the lower tiers of the stone steps, their presence turning the plaza into something halfway between a temple and a fortress.

  Isa bumped into Kar’s back as he slowed, marveling at the flapping banners hung along the elegant archway.

  This was what he had imagined the city to be like as a child. Or perhaps it was how some part of him remembered it.

  Being back here was strange… he and Isa belonged. It was their birthplace, after all. And yet… now he felt like an outsider. He was nervous to go any further.

  Erio clasped Kar’s left shoulder and leaned close to speak into his ear.

  “Don’t forget who you are, Kar. Who you’ve proven yourself to be. This place may be intimidating, but remember—you’re not alone. Tharn and I are here to support you. We are not beholden to these Guardians, only the Source. And the Source has Marked you.”

  The words were exactly what Kar needed to hear just then.

  He wanted to get to know Erio better. The Valorcryst had more than lived up to his name within the Vault, displaying Valor and selflessness against overwhelming odds. Kar knew he could count on both him and Tharn.

  Kar nodded his gratitude and followed after Tharn as the Valorcryst set out across the plaza.

  A pair of Guardians stepped forward to greet them. They wore shimmering robes and arcing, elaborate helms of white metal. Focus-forged, from the look of them.

  “Elder ones,” the lead Guardian said, bowing along with his companion to Tharn and Erio.

  He straightened and regarded Kar with clear distrust.

  “We will escort you to the Enclave.”

  He turned and gestured toward the rising steps.

  Erio and Tharn stepped aside, allowing Kar and Isa to move ahead. Then they followed as the Enclave Guardians led them beneath the archway.

  A shudder passed through Kar as they did so, memories of the Causeway intruding into his thoughts. His right arm twitched.

  Or was he imagining it?

  He forced himself onward as they began the climb.

  Isa was the first to show signs of fatigue, though there was no shame in that. They had been climbing for nearly half an hour—one ancient stone step after another, each worn smooth by centuries of ascents just like theirs. When Kar looked back now, he saw they had risen above most of the cloud-towers behind them.

  It was a fitting name the locals used.

  Morning mist clung to their skin now, drifting along the mountain’s slopes and curling around the tops of the towers behind.

  “Can we—take a breather?” Isa pleaded, huffing hard, her face flushed red.

  The two Guardians slowed, sharing annoyed looks with one another.

  “I should have brought a drink or something,” she prattled on, oblivious. “Surely they had an easier way to get up here way back when?”

  The lead Guardian looked offended.

  “The Cloud Steps mark transcendence,” he said stiffly. “They are intended to impress a sense of humility and reflection on all who approach the Enclave—and the Source within the Mountain.”

  “Well,” Isa said, wiping sweat from her brow, “all it’s impressing on me is the need to get more exercise.”

  Kar cringed inwardly and stepped up beside her.

  “Did Morrow show you how to Imbue yourself?” he asked quietly. “You can re-energize if you have a shard on you.”

  Isa shook her head skeptically.

  Kar took her lightly by the arm and drew a thread of Valoría from the shard in his pocket, Imbuing it into her.

  Her eyes widened and she inhaled sharply.

  “Whoa! That does the trick.”

  She sprang back to her feet, suddenly energized.

  A few minutes later the steps finally leveled out, ending at an ancient gate set into the mountainside. It blocked any view of what lay beyond. More Guardians stood watch here.

  Kar, Isa, and the Valorcryst were examined closely. Then the heavy stone doors were drawn open. They groaned open slowly, revealing the Enclave beyond.

  What greeted them was far older—and far more expansive—than Kar had anticipated.