Waking up suddenly, Aren shot to his feet. He dismissed his blurry vision with a quick vitalic spell. Sadly, he could do nothing about his strained soul from the backlash he had received prior to going to sleep.

  He cursed that he had decided to take normal sleep instead of meditating as he summoned his combat outfit onto himself. His ward woke him up, but he lost precious seconds getting prepared.

  In his mind’s vision, he saw a powerful signature of holy energy flying straight towards their camp. Not wasting any more time, he speedwalked towards where he sensed Marie. It seemed she had also sensed whatever it was and took a central position in front of Crina’s tent.

  It was early morning, and the sun would rise soon. The camp was already in the process of waking, but no one moved with any urgency. Deciding to leave the decision to Marie, Aren approached her.

  Her face, lit by the early morning light, didn’t look worried. What he saw instead was impatience with a slight tint of annoyance. So, basically what he was used to, and he couldn’t dismiss the possibility that the latter feeling was directed towards him.

  “Whatever it is will be here in a minute and twenty seconds at the current pace,” Aren said hurriedly.

  The exemplar nodded, “I know.”

  “Oh well, good then,” Aren calmed down. “What are we expecting?”

  She did not answer. Instead, she raised her arm and released a beam of light towards the sky from her hand. Aren squinted his eyes, but he was starting to get used to getting randomly blinded every time something holy happened.

  “I will follow plan E, variant one, then,” Aren said and settled next to Marie.

  The holy warrior turned to him with an exasperated expression. It led Aren to wonder if maybe she hadn’t yet had time to fully read through his preplanned strategic responses. He wasn’t about to dictate to the woman how she should run the operation, but he could provide her with what he would do in case of emergencies.

  “Plan E is…”

  “You standing around and doing nothing unless something happens,” Marie said, massaging the bridge of her nose with her free hand. “Do you really need to waste paper for something like that?”

  “I wouldn’t call being aware of everything in all directions for leagues doing nothing,” Aren pointed out. “I just want to ensure we have proper responses to each possible situation. It also helps prevent future misunderstandings.”

  She did not answer.

  Instead, the two of them watched as the shining object rose just above the horizon. It carved its way across the sky, leaving a glowing golden trail in its wake, like a comet, if smaller. Wherever its passage brought it near clouds, they evaporated instantly.

  When it got closer, he witnessed the object in full. It was a large metallic sphere, its smooth surface adorned by the sun’s eye symbol. He tried to penetrate it with his senses, but its holy energy rebuffed him, so he turned to waiting patiently.

  Suddenly, the holy energy within the sphere spiked, and as he wondered what it was doing, a golden beam of energy shot towards him. Aren raised his eyebrow and, instead of defending, jumped back. With this amount of forewarning, he was more than fast enough.

  The golden energy slammed against the sand and melted through it. Two more beams followed, and he jumped to the side again, glaring at the exemplar, who watched him with amusement.

  “You tried to see what’s inside it. It has protocols to defend against that,” Marie informed him.

  Finally, when the sphere got close enough for his visible eye, he didn’t have enough spare time to dodge the attacks. He raised a fifth-circle barrier and was surprised when his bracelet vibrated for no apparent reason. Still, his defense held strong. Sparks of golden light reflected off the transparent barrier and melted the sand where they landed.

  The object, twice Aren’s size, stopped right in front of his barrier. Its golden surface radiated a gentle glow, a sign of being made from pure solith. The amount of the rare material that must have been used for its construction would easily bankrupt most cities.

  A cold, emotionless voice resounded through the waking camp. “Magical incursion detected. Mage, you violated the law. The punishment for breaking code one hundred twenty-six is death. Stop resisting and prepare for execution.”

  “Sun Watcher Six, exemplar’s order, stand down,” Marie said calmly. “Invoke code six hundred.”

  The sphere halted, and the amount of energy leaking out of it fell to near zero. It rotated until its eye faced the exemplar. “Sun-Six ready for orders.”

  Aren lowered his barrier now that he was no longer being attacked. “I’ve read war records that mentioned those things. It contains quite a lot of energy. I’m guessing it can do more than what it just showed.”

  Marie inclined her head to Aren. “Report the reason for your late arrival.”

  The sphere glowed for a second before answering. “Reporting: due to malfunction, no other units have been available until now. Exemplar Galia released Sun-Six from service, and it is currently assigned to Exemplar Marie.”

  “Malfunction? What happened to the four units at the peaks?” Marie asked, confused.

  “Details unknown. All unassigned units were discovered by maintainers empty of energy shortly after the Holy One issued public orders,” the sphere responded. “Analysis suggests an eighty nine percent chance of sabotage.”

  Marie bit her lip unconsciously. “If they have supporters this deep…”

  “We already knew they had backing from your high families,” Aren said. “This only tips their hand a little more.”

  “Indeed, the number of people who could have accessed the location where watchers are stored is limited,” Marie let out a breath. “This may help us root out the corruption, but it leaves Exemplar Galia without help.”

  “Did they participate in the meeting?” Aren asked.

  “Exemplar Galia is the one dealing with the queen scylla,” Marie said offhandedly.

  “She seemed like a fair person,” Aren said. “Queens are slippery and cunning monsters.”

  “She is, and she is strong enough to deal with the threat, but I regret having to trouble her again,” Marie said with a complicated smile.

  “So what is this thing?” Aren said curiously, motioning towards the sphere that continued to float silently.

  “Sun Watchers are infused with the Sun’s power, shaped by the Prophet-Kings. On their insides, they are inscribed with all the holy laws, and they execute the Sun’s will no matter the cost,” Marie shared with a reverent tone.

  Aren did his best not to grimace at the explanation that told him nothing and turned to look around. The commotion had fully woken the camp. A small group of onlookers had gathered by now, and Marie clapped her hands together, causing a loud sound. “Prepare for the morning prayer. We are moving out soon after.”

  Crina was in a good mood. Aren smiled with satisfaction at the idea working. Lan and the rest had managed to investigate the first city they visited and were successful. The main issue, which proved easy to deal with, was that the local priesthood did not offer their miracles freely, requiring donations.

  Or rather, that was the misconception of the common people that neither the ruling family nor the priests did anything to correct. The rather old and minor city had been comfortable following the old ways despite the changes happening in the sands. Crina reasonably asked the head priest to have priests visit citizens’ houses and nearby villages to share the Sun’s miracles as the Prophet-King ordained.

  Otherwise, the city seemed idyllic in its archaic stillness. It had avoided plagues and famines for centuries. It lacked anything to stimulate economic growth, but thanks to a strong purified core and a relatively low natural mana density for an urban area, it had been spared the attention of truly powerful monsters.

  There had been a few other minor issues, including reports of monsters that the elderly governor had promised to deal with. One larger concern was that a few of the underground water channels required renovation, as they were beginning to collapse and could potentially cut off some villages from fresh water for months.

  “Are you sure about donating half of the sum required for those qanats?” Aren asked.

  “We still have quite a sum thanks to the sale of the cores,” Crina said, perusing a scroll of holy text. “It’s not like I will need funds once we reach the sanctuary.”

  “I’m not sure I agree,” Aren said, causing a set of bright eyes to look at him questioningly. “Just because you will be unable to leave due to your duties doesn’t mean the rest of the Sands will forget what you did.”

  Aren took a sip of herbal tea, letting what he said sink in. “Your voice will still carry weight, even if it can only reach others through letters. Or possibly those communication methods you use. Money always helps influence do its work.”

  “I have not thought about that,” Crina said silently. “I always kind of imagined that it will be the end when I reach the veil, but I will have the other twelve hours a day to myself.”

  The young woman straightened in excitement, then her posture slumped with worry, “How should I prepare for that?”

  “Well you could always find someone to operate your finances, that’s what I did,” Aren proposed.

  Crina looked confused at him, and Marie opened her eyes. “We don’t have bankers. Money is controlled by the Sun’s Treasury under the guidance of the Prophet-King and his advisors. We found that loaners often led to a self-propagating culture of corruption and abuse.”

  “That sounds like a radical solution, but we can work around that,” Aren said thoughtfully. “You still have merchants. Maybe you can find a trustworthy one to invest in, help them grow, and in exchange own part of their business.”

  “I don’t know… it doesn’t sound fair. I shouldn’t own anything when I’m not doing any of the actual work,” Crina said reluctantly.

  “It will be your funds that enable them to expand,” Aren said. “And they could always end up losing that money. You are rewarded for the risk and faith you put into them. It will always be up to you how to deal with them in the end. You could just ask for a percentage of the earnings or services.”

  “There are some merchant families that support the Luminous Light,” Crina uttered the name with slight embarrassment. “They should be worthy of both the risk and faith.”

  “I would say those are solid foundations, although it would be good to investigate their scope, dealings, and growth trends,” Aren said cautiously.

  “Well, once I reach the sanctuary it will be difficult to do that, but I doubt it will be possible until then. It would be too dangerous for everyone if I stopped somewhere for long to do that,” Crina said.

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  “I’m sure we will be able to devote some aid towards you, Luminous One,” Marie once again spoke. “At least I’m sure that many of the members who joined the Luminous Light would be willing to help.”

  Crina smiled at that, but she didn’t look relaxed. Thinking of one’s future when it was fraught with dangers never felt peaceful. When the young woman tried to return to dutifully her scrolls, he interrupted her.

  “Want to play a card game?” the young archmage asked. He needed to take care of his friend’s mental health.

  “What?” two voices responded to his query: one confused, the other cautious and tinged with irritation.

  “It’s no use being all doom and gloom all the time,” Aren said. “Every adventurer knows that. If you can’t relax from time to time, you will break.”

  Crina’s eyes sparked with curiosity, and he stood up and outstretched his hand to help her up.

  “We should get more people too. Card games are always better with more.”

  “It’s not proper,” Marie protested, ready to stop him.

  “Neither are many other things that you two do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be targeted from what you said. This tent is as safe as the rest of the camp,” Aren retorted. “Come, we can ask Mar’tei to join. You have not spoken in a while, and she promised she would rest before tomorrow, but I would rather make sure of that.”

  Crina outstretched her hand, and while Marie still hesitated, Aren grabbed hers and pulled her up. Within moments, they stepped outside the tent and walked under the scorching sun. The holy warriors kneeled upon seeing Crina, though they looked surprised.

  He let her hand go, and she joined him at his side. She looked around the camp carefully, as if seeing it for the first time from this perspective. Many of the warriors were still training, aiming to grow stronger. He had healed two more chi deviations that the healers had been unable to help with over the last few days.

  “They look tense,” Crina said.

  “The warriors have been training hard to improve. Their devotion to you, Luminous One, is radiant,” Marie joined them swiftly.

  “With their leaders training every day, no doubt they do,” Aren said, taking in the camp. Some of the warriors looked ragged and on edge. “Although I’m not sure that it is a good thing.”

  “They shouldn’t have to tire themselves out that much,” Crina said, worried again.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Aren said. “Life practitioners grow through relentless practice, same with holy warriors, it builds convictions. But this lowers our effectiveness if assassins attack suddenly. If half our force is dead tired and unable to fight properly, the loss of life will be higher than what was preventable.”

  “That’s true…” Marie admitted.

  Aren saw Louis watching over his warriors’ workout and stopped by him. “Louis, you have experience with assassin watchouts. How likely do you think it is that they are trying to keep us on edge until our guard drops?”

  Louis turned around, and his eyes widened upon seeing the two religious figures in front of him. He quickly dropped to one knee. “Luminous One, Holy Exemplar!”

  “It’s fine,” Marie said, calming the large man. “Answer the question.”

  “I would dare not presume in giving advice, but I believe it’s possible,” Louis answered. “When assassins once targeted Governor Bar, it did happen.”

  “I think the camp deserves a break then,” Aren said.

  “We can’t have everyone enjoy themselves, that would leave the camp open for potential attack,” Marie rebuffed him. “But that’s true. We will do it in rotation, so that every few days the warriors get to rest. I will plan this with Donnavan tonight.”

  Aren nodded, then turned back to the man. “Want to join us? We are going to play cards.”

  The man’s jaw dropped. He quickly lowered his arms in denial. “I wouldn’t dare…”

  “Mister Louis, you don’t need to worry about that. You deserve a bit of rest too,” Crina said carefully, her voice softening with dismay. “I have no experience myself, though, so I’m not sure if it will be any fun to play with me.”

  “I…” Louis hesitated, but the nearby exemplar did not say anything. “I would be honored to.”

  From the outer edge of the camp, Donnavan approached Marie and bowed to her. Marc followed behind him, and despite paying respect to the exemplar, his glowing red eyes never left Aren.

  “Honored Exemplar,” Donnavan reported for duty.

  “Nothing is happening, Donnavan,” Marie calmed him. “Just a bit of unusualness.”

  Crina approached them and spoke with hesitation. “Donnavan, Marc, you two have been working hard since the start of this journey. Maybe you will join us. We will play cards.”

  The two warriors looked at her with surprise, but Donnavan, stoic as always, quickly spoke. “We are not worthy.”

  The young woman’s face fell. “I see, but remember to take a break.”

  “I will do it,” Marc said, surprising everyone. “I would not dare spurn Luminous One’s goodwill.”

  Donnavan raised an eyebrow but nodded stoically. “You speak wisely. If we won’t bother you, we would wish to join.”

  “Thank you,” Crina smiled. “Should we invite Protector Rati too?”

  “Protector Rati is recovering,” Donnavan informed them. “She strained her prana in sparring and required healing.”

  “Is she okay?” Crina asked.

  “She will be,” Donnavan said. “It happens when a prana user tries to incorporate new concepts into their techniques.”

  With that, their odd group continued towards Mar’tei’s tent. In front of it, they found the rest of the adventurers resting from a training session. They were wiping sand from their skin, clearly from tumbling more than once along the sand. Upon noticing the uncommon gathering, Wes and Lan dropped to their knees, and Bar’tik straightened.

  “At ease,” Marie said, having given up on the idea of stopping what was occurring.

  Aren walked forward and looked into the tent. As expected, Mar’tei was reviewing the papers she had been working on for the past weeks.

  “I told you to rest,” Aren said. “Drop them. You are coming to play cards with us.”

  The young mage dropped the papers in surprise and scrambled to pick them up. She raised her head, and upon noticing the strange assembly, confusion crossed her face. Aren ignored her protesting eyes and turned to the three adventurers.

  “You guys want to join too?” he asked.

  They looked surprised, but upon noticing Crina’s hopeful and excited expression, Lan agreed for them. Wes looked at his brother with exasperation but didn’t dare to say anything when their Luminous One smiled happily.

  Somehow, the ten of them found themselves facing each other around a large wooden table Aren had brought out from his storage and placed inside Mar’tei’s tent. His new muscles let him do it with ease, he remembered he had to use magic before to move it.

  Aren pulled out a deck of cards from his sub-space. It was a custom-made set that could endure casual pressure from a seventh-stage warrior. He started shuffling the deck as he began speaking.

  “Since we have ten people, we can play a variation of the game where we play in pairs,” Aren said.

  “I’m not going to play. My focus is on guarding the Luminous One,” Marie said seriously.

  “Marie…” Crina said pleadingly.

  “My wards are up. Nothing will get close without me knowing,” Aren said with a smile. “Unless you worry that you can’t keep your guard up while playing a simple game.”

  The exemplar looked at him with annoyance, and Marc with pure hostility. Still, when Marie’s gaze landed on Crina again, she huffed and sat down.

  “What are we playing?” the holy woman asked.

  Aren nodded and quickly explained the rules. In this version, one person was the attacker and the other the defender, using cards to create combinations with different effects. He used a simpler variation of the rules to avoid overloading Crina.

  “Sounds like bastardized solflare,” Marie commented.

  “Well, this has a mage in it among the figures,” Aren said. “We call it powersplay.”

  “How should we form the pairs?” Crina asked.

  “We can split by age,” Aren proposed, aiming to pair Mar’tei and Crina together.

  While his ploy for that worked, and he ended up paired with Lan, other pairs looked at each other awkwardly. Wes ended up paired with Marc, while Louis paired with Donnavan. Bar’tik sat next to Marie, respectful but still holding lingering resentment over the attempt to put his sister under geas.

  Wanting to ignore the awkwardness he knew was building up, Aren told Lan to start, as he was their attacker. In the first game, Marie and Marc attacked their pair relentlessly, and Aren quickly found himself observing as Louis used the momentum he had been allowed to build to demolish the rest of the table. The grizzled man looked dismayed at winning over the two religious figures at the table.

  Instead of wallowing in the loss, Crina called for the next game, and it was quickly forgotten. Louis delegated himself to the defender role. Still, he and Donnavan won most of the rounds, the older duo proving more than adept at the game. Marc kept attacking Aren, and Marie tended to finish him whenever she saw an opening, so he often found himself just watching the table.

  Despite the losses, Aren did not mind. Looking at Crina and Mar’tei chatting happily as they discussed their moves, he felt he had achieved the goal he aimed for.

  Marie smiled after forcing Aren to lay down his cards for the fifth time, and he caught Crina laughing quietly at the table. Even Donnavan seemed caught up in the game, but Aren hardly noticed. Only Marc’s constant, intense glare kept him from relaxing. Still, he didn’t mind, as long as Crina got a few moments free from worry.

  Mar’tei carefully inspected every part of the formation she needed to cast while guiding the flow of mnemonic mana into her core. She sat within a runic circle that would prevent any of the energy from escaping once the process started.

  The archmage who made the circle watched her from the outside. She had been informed that he would not interfere if she made a mistake unless there was potential for lasting harm. It both unnerved her and calmed her down. Still, one of the best mages in the world was helping her perfect her formation, she would not stumble here.

  Aren kept his promise and produced a jar that radiated mana she came to recognize the resonance of. The mnemonic energy filling the container came from a single large crimson eyeball with a yellow pupil. As the container was placed in a space in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel it was observing her.

  “Good luck,” Crina cheered for her.

  Mar’tei smiled and nodded to the young woman. Exemplar Marie also accompanied her Luminous One as always, but she looked disinterested in the procedure Mar’tei was about to perform on her core.

  Mar’tei wondered if Crina would get to move around the camp more; staying cooped in the tent all day couldn’t be good for anyone.

  Distracted by the thought, she looked at the mage who had turned her life from common adventuring to high-danger escort duty, with the fate of a kingdom on the line. At least it balanced out with the magic training she was receiving.

  Aren was still a mystery. Most of the time he did not behave like she expected an archmage to behave. He seemed more like a carefree man of his age. Maybe he hadn’t been one long enough to change drastically from being an adventurer. But when he spoke of killing monsters or magic, he became focused and resolute.

  Since becoming the Sunbearer, he spent more time with Crina and seemed more involved with the mission, as if it no longer existed solely as a means to an end. After the horrifying event on the plaza, she couldn’t sleep well and focused all her efforts on training her magic. She still remembered how she could feel people melt grotesquely and transform into pure mana. She shuddered at the memory.

  Still, it was good that Crina had found someone who cared about her. Sneaking her out had been the right decision despite everything. That made her remember something Aren had mentioned when they danced that day. She should ask him about it later.

  At least Bar’tik had dropped the whole “making them a thing” idea. She still did not fully understand what he had meant when he warned her that something was wrong with Aren, but he refused to elaborate. Well, a prodigy of this level would naturally have one or two oddities, and she wasn’t about to start dating an archmage, the thought alone gave her a headache.

  Then she realized she had been staring and doing nothing for a while. The two onlookers had been waiting patiently, saying nothing. She took a deep breath. She had been told to let all her thoughts drift through before she started. She would need all her focus for this.

  She reached for her mana and ensured it would remain pure. She was much more used to using her natural elemental resonance, but in this case, any deviation could cause the process to backfire. She began drawing the formation she had painstakingly memorized, down to the last detail.

  The first two circles would ensure that the mana was pure mnemonic resonance and pull it toward her core. The third circle would then start incorporating the mana into her core, while the fourth prevented her elemental resonance from pushing out the foreign energy.

  At the same time, she would need to cast a two-circle mnemonic spell to convince her soul to use the resonance and make it permanent. It was an entry level memory-enhancement spell that required sorcery to fully activate, making it perfect for the task.

  When she finished the spell, the mana moved, and before she could react physically, a stream of pure resonance entered her core, causing her to gasp in surprise. For a moment, everything felt sharper, every memory more detailed. Then, as images of the past flooded her, she lost her hold on her elemental sorcery, and pain filled her chest.

  She nearly toppled over but managed to stop herself and refocused her effort on maintaining the balance. Focusing on two tasks at the same time, she controlled her natural sorcery and felt the new resonance start permeating the structure of her core. It was an odd feeling, something that had felt familiar and natural became alien from second to second, its essence changing forever.

  With her other hand she began drawing the second formation, having to maintain her other spell at the same time took all her focus so it ended up sloppy compared to her usual standard, but when she pushed the new mana into it, it activated.

  She was in a wooden hut, swinging back and forth on a chair as the sweet smell of boiling goat milk and raisins filled her nose. A long, straight raven hair swung back and forth as her mother hummed a happy tune. They were celebrating her first spell cast ever and it had happened on her birthday too, making it doubly special.

  A hardwood bench supported her weight as she watched her village grow smaller and smaller in the distance while her uncle drove a cart away, her brother sitting in front of her. It was early spring, and her brother had decided he wanted to go on an adventure.

  She decided to follow because she worried about him, and she too wanted to see more of the world. Her mother had traveled south when she got an invitation to the academy before Mar’tei was born, leaving her brother with their father. She spoke fondly of those days.

  She was in a cold room. Her father was out hunting with Bar’tik. She should go and add to the fire, but it was cold. She went to check on her mother, who had been sick lately, and their shaman couldn’t bring her back to health. She had told her mother to rest and eat as much as she could. She touched her mother’s pale hand—a warm hand that usually patted her head—so cold…

  Marie’s eyes snapped open as the spell finished. Her eyes felt raw as hot tears streamed down her cheeks. She felt her mana fully, and when she made it follow the pattern her mother had taught her, she realized that, beyond feeling the elements around her more clearly, her memories felt sharper, especially those concerning magic.

  “Are you okay?” Crina asked, her ashen eyes looking concerned.

  “I’m fine,” Mar’tei said, wiping her tears. She had made peace with those memories a long time ago. “I just remembered too much detail at once.”

  “Mnemonic spells can do that,” Aren said. “Selecting what you remember will come with more control over your resonance.”

  “I see,” she said lethargically, though there was a satisfied smile on her face. She turned her face toward Aren. “Thank you.”