“It was Mae-tsu. It has to be,” Connor whispered to Olanna in the early predawn grays that filtered through the windows of the Temple of the Wave.

Beside him, the elf’s eyes narrowed as he saw a spasm of anger and pain cross her features. She nodded just once. The pair had gotten up and moved to crouch at the open door to the inner courtyard garden. Dargan was still snoring heavily under his blankets.

“She said she would get me. Get us,” Connor nodded. He looked out over the dark plants just starting to blush with green and purple as the sun began to rise. Elsewhere, the sounds of the city were starting to wake up, with the peal of bells and the barks of dogs. Connor couldn’t help but feel that there was something muted about the city air, as if the terrible events of last night had left an indelible mark.

“Fenwalker said that he was trying to get the City Council to listen about Annwn,” Olanna whispered.

“These people don’t care about Annwn. I’m not sure that anyone but us even knows about it.” Connor shook his head. “You saw the soldiers last night. They all think that it’s the elves behind everything.”

“Then we make them listen!” Olanna pointed out. “We present our evidence.”

“What evidence, Ari?” Connor burst out, before lowering his voice as a light came on across the other side of the courtyard. Some of the Brothers of the Wave were apparently waking now.

“All we have is the proclamation in the inn and the words of that the faun—Finbar,” Connor pointed out. “Who’s going to believe that?”

There was a moment of silence, and their eyes moved out across the garden to see that more lights were coming on. The robed brothers were starting their daily chores, which consisted of a lot of sweeping from what Connor could see.

“The other players,” Olanna hazarded. “They’ll have heard of Annwn. They’ll have seen the proclamation.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Connor shook his head. “You remember what both Finbar and the proclamation said. We need to go through the Six Realms if we are to find our way out. I think we should go straight for the Aviatrix’s Tower, today.”

Olanna winced. “Experience, Connor! We need experience for a quest like that. And that means finding a Guild, getting a profession, kill-and-fetch quests, leveling up . . .”

Connor’s tone was heavy. “And just who is going to employ us now, when half the city thinks that we’re in league with the elvish empire?”

“There must be someone!” Olanna said desperately. He saw her open and close her mouth, trying to find a way to make this situation work—but Connor already knew that there wasn’t. He saw the realization settle over her face at the hopelessness of their situation.

“Maybe we could go into hiding,” Olanna breathed, but Connor could tell that even she didn’t really believe that would work.

“I fear that the young half-elf is right,” said a voice, surprising them both. Stepping toward them through the garden, not making any sound on the gravel path, came Brother Yuri. He wore a large dark jacket over his more traditional russet-and-ochre robes, and it looked as though he had been busy already.

“Brother Yuri!” Olanna said, surprised, as she and Connor stood up.

There was a sudden commotion behind them. “What? What? What is it!?” Dargan grumbled and coughed, rolling over with a thump as he woke up.

“The half-elf is right,” Brother Yuri said once again, leaning against the stone wall that led out from the hall and into the garden.

“I have spent the night talking to friends across the city, and I fear that the worst is already coming to pass—or nearly so.”

“What do you mean?” Olanna asked.

“Here.” The monk presented a scrap of parchment, a poster with what appeared to be their own likenesses inked in on the cover.

WANTED

AGENTS OF THE ELVISH EMPIRE

LED ATTACKS AGAINST THE CITY LAST NIGHT

“But—we didn’t lead anything!” Dargan snatched at the poster and held it up to morning’s thin light, squinting. “And that doesn’t even look like me, look—this fella’s frothing at the mouth!”

“You should see yourself eat,” Connor mumbled, earning a sarcastic snort of laughter from the dwarf.

“There have been attacks up and down the Lack and here, in this city, by elvish warriors looking like you,” Brother Yuri said, nodding at Connor and Olanna.

“Those are the Fey,” Connor insisted, remembering the pair that he had met. “They’re in service to this Lord Pwyll of Annwn. They’re not the elves, and they’re not us.”

“Whoever they are, the council has not heard of Annwn and is blaming it on the elves. I fear that you three will have to leave the city, at least until I can make the council see sense.”

Connor looked across at Olanna and Dargan. They already knew what he was going to say.

The half-elf raised his eyebrows. “The First Gate,” he offered.

“The First Gate?” Brother Yuri frowned. “You mean to go through the First Gate.” He was already shaking his head.

Connor felt the eyes of his companions on him, and he knew that it was now or never.

“It won’t do us any good to hide out here in this city or anywhere else on this world,” Connor addressed his companions.

“You remember what Finbar said. That Annwn was taking over. Was merging with this place—that it was already takiong over. That there were more of his kind like the Pirry Dancers and the Fey arriving all the time as the realms joined. Things like this . . .” Connor nodded to the poster.

“. . . are just going to get worse as more of the Fey arrive. And we—us elvish types—are just going to get blamed. Maybe that is what this Lord Pwyll wants: chaos and confusion, sowing war and discord, making it easier for his forces to take over.”

He heard Olanna gulp. “It all makes sense now. The confusion, the attacks. It’s classic divide and conquer, isn’t it?”

“Half-elf,” Brother Yuri said the words heavily. “Are you telling me that we are at war? That all this . . .” He gestured at the poster and at the city around him. “All of this is really a war between our realm and another?”

Connor stood up and looked at the temple brother. “Yes. I am,” he said.

“The Necromancer we defeated said that it was Annwn that helped him raise the Sleeper King.” Connor then thought of Finbar. “We know from another, a refugee from this Annwn, that they are here and they mean to take over the Six Worlds.”

The half-elf paused and looked at his companions and Brother Yuri. “If we run or hide or wait and cower, then all of this will just keep on happening. It is my belief that we have to press on through the First Gate. That it is our only chance.”

The temple brother was silent for a moment then nodded.

“I knew that there was something about you,” he said, his eyes catching and holding Connor’s own.

“Hold out your arm, half-elf,” the temple brother said.

Connor blinked. “Why? What are you going to do?”

The monk was already approaching, making a slow, circling motion through the air with one hand. Connor saw blue, spectral light flare into existence behind, glittering and shimmering like the waves that the order was named after.

“Your arm, half-elf,” Yuri repeated.

Confused but curious, Connor extended his arm. The monk held his wrist with one hand—the one that wasn’t spilling magic—as the other hovered over his bare forearm and started to lower toward it.

“What are you doing?” Connor tried to pull away, but the monk’s grip was suddenly as strong as iron, far stronger than he would have given the man credit for.

The temple monk’s glowing hand circled once more as if smoothing an invisible material—and Connor saw ripples of brilliant blue evaporating out around his hand. Connor’s teeth ached at the sudden presence of magic.

And then the blue light seemed to fall, gently and without any sensation, over his skin.

In response, his skin started to shine.

“What?!” Connor’s arm jerked back once again—or tried to—but just like last time, the monk held it firm.

It wasn’t all of Connor’s arm that was shining, it appeared. It was only one band, high on his forearm, near his elbow. He could now see a shining, brilliant gold, white, and silver ring.

Or half-ring, Connor corrected. One that was rising into sharp relief around his arm—just like the object that he had once stolen from Aviatrix Tower.

Ring of Tantor

Crafted by the Aviatrix himself, the Ring of Tantor is the key to the lock that is the First Gate. Created from rare moon steel and laced with magic that the Aviatrix alone knew, it brings together the Great Working that separated the Six Realms and opens the first portal. The wielder of this item is empowered to open the First Gate.

“The Ring of Tantor,” Brother Yuri said. “I could detect it on you as soon as I saw you, half-elf. There is no other magic like it in this world.”

“Connor?!” Dargan said incredulously. “Have you been keeping something from us? Because now is the time to tell!”

Connor whispered, “Sorry,” and looked at Olanna, whose eyes were wide with worry. He had told her about his first adventure here in this realm, but he had no idea that he still possessed the Ring of Tantor.

“It rebirthed me back in the game, before . . .” Connor said softly to Olanna and Dargan as the monk appeared to not understand.

“The Fey killed me, but this—this ring—reincarnated me, back at the start.”

“Lucky for you it did,” Olanna whispered. “Otherwise, given the lock-in . . .”

Connor nodded. Lucky for him indeed. He would likely be dead right now if this artifact hadn’t saved his life.

“But I had no idea I still had it!” Connor insisted. “It didn’t show in my inventory.”

“You have its mark. Its aftereffect is imprinted on your soul,” Brother Yuri intoned, releasing Connor’s arm with a air of seriousness and annoyance.

“It means that you have opened the First Gate already,” the monk said.

“The First Gate is open already?” Olanna said. “What do you mean?”

“The Aviatrix designed it like a key,” Yuri explained, pointing to the band of shimmering light on Connor’s forearm. “Once it was claimed, it opened the Gate between the First Realm and the Second. The way is open, and perhaps this is the real reason why the Union Council is in panic.”

“Then—the UnderWorld . . . ?” Dargan whispered.

“Indeed,” the temple brother nodded. “Creatures from that realm can come here, just as we can step through to their world. I do not think many know the First Gate is open, yet. Perhaps that ignorance is all that has saved us so far.”

Connor saw the other faces looking at him, a mixture of horror and fear and astonishment.

In his mind, there was really only one thing to say. “Then the way is open for us. What are we waiting for?”

There was silence across the assembled faces until Brother Yuri said,

“You must prepare yourself before you go through the gate! Spend the day here with me and the Brothers of the Wave. We will train you for your journey.”