Sora’s mind came back to her like a sudden spray of sparks, then settled into a single flickering candle flame in a sea of darkness. The thin etheric thread wrapped around her senses vibrated in the dark expanse, and she could feel something on the other side, or perhaps two somethings. The coiling spool of fear and dread building on the other side of the line slowly coaxed her back to wakefulness.

In a sudden burst of frantic panic, Sora’s eyes snapped open, and she gasped, filling her lungs with air. Her ears rang, her skin burned, and all around her, the world spun in her vision, making her feel nauseous. She puked on the floorboards and. Sitting back up, Sora became aware of people shouting, somebody crying, and the sound of steel on steel ringing through the small study.

The sound of fighting washed away the last dregs of dizzy delirium clinging to her mind, and Sora sprang to her feet, or rather rose slowly on sore legs. It didn’t take her long to find where the fighting was. Leahan and Botaran were engaged with an oversized caterpillar-looking thing with four arms, spinning blades in two of its spindly limbs.

Bursts of white light shot from the thing's other two hands, occasionally forcing the two jah annan back a step, explosions tearing the room apart with deafening force wherever the light landed. Sora reacted on instinct, whirling around to search for her weapons.

She was a bit startled to find the prince’s steward lying unconscious against the wall behind her, blood running from a cut in the girl’s forehead, but Sora didn’t have time to worry about that. Luckily, she was on the side of the room where she’d stripped down for the ritual. Unluckily, her sword staff had been snapped in two, leaving only half of the haft still attached to the blade, ending in a mess of splintered wood.

Sora scowled, but it would have to do. She snatched the weapon from the floor and sprang toward the caterpillar creature. Leahan and Botaran paused as she moved between them. After only a moment, they snapped out of their shock and followed after her.

The caterpillar’s antennae twitched atop its head, the thin feelers segmented at four joints moving at seeming random. Sora thrust forward with her blade, aiming directly for the creature’s thick head, but the caterpillar twisted around the jab and raised one of its glowing hands.

On reflex, Sora pulled her offhand from the haft of her broken staff and raised it to meet the insect’s. Her palm began to glow with a purple-black light, and the creature immediately flung itself away from her touch, tucking into a ball and rolling away and across the hardwood planks.

Sora didn’t so much as pause to think about what she was doing, she simply pressed the advantage, springing after the caterpillar. She brought her hand back to the swordstaff, the purple glow disappearing, and snapped a quick overhead strike towards the insect.

It deflected her blow with both of its shorter blades, using the motion to push itself aside. It raised both of its other arms, hands glowing with white light. Sora twisted the staff around, following the moment of her redirected strike into an upward slash.

To her right and left, Botaran and Leahan burst into action, swords and mauls a whirling blur of death as they struck down on the creature. The caterpillar creature caught Leahan’s weapons with its two blades, shifted itself to avoid Botaran’s blade, and took a glancing strike from his maul, but Sora’s blade struck true.

One of the insect’s two lower arms flew away as her blade sliced cleanly through the thing’s carapace. The creature let out a loud screeching wail and threw itself backward, tucking into a ball again and rolling away.

As the three moved to chase, one of the caterpillar’s arms shot out, glowing bright white, and it touched the floor. Where the thin hand met wood, it left a sickly white line which quickly became a semicircle as the insect rolled on.

Leahan moved to try and cut the thing off, but it simply barreled into his legs before he had time to react, knocking him to the floor within the half-finished circle in a sprawl of limbs. Botaran tried next, throwing himself into a roll and springing towards the creature fast as any mountain cat. His saber was a blur as he swung towards the caterpillar, and a chunk of black fuzz-covered carapace went flying, but the thing continued rolling, its glowing circle nearly complete.

As Sora tried to make her move, something latched onto her ankle, and she tipped forward, snagging the edge of her black cloak off the table beside her as she fell, flailing to catch herself. She hadn’t even realized they’d already made their way back to that side of the room.

Tumbling to the floor, Sora twisted around far enough to see Jotaranell, his hand gripping her ankle, a manic grin spread across his usually scowling face.

“Wha..?!” Sora cried as she fell but was cut short as she kept falling after she should have hit hardwood planks. Where the floor had been moments before was a hole, ringed with white, a quarter the size of the study. She twisted again to see an unfamiliar canopy of green trees at least a dozen meters below.

Sora yelped as she was jerked to a sudden halt, the stargazer somehow managing to keep both himself and her from plummeting into the forest below. Sora heard screaming somewhere nearby and glanced up to see Leahan and Botaran twisting in the air, falling towards the forest below, the caterpillar floating above them with a broadsheet of what looked like thin white cloth.

“I’m not letting you get away from me, girl!” Jotaranell said, cackling madly.

Sora scowled at the man. “Let go!” She yelled and kicked at him. He grunted at the kick hit his side, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.

“I’ve waited too long for this!” The stargazer roared, an edge of panic in his voice. “I’ve spent lifetimes toiling towards this day, girl! I won’t let you and some inbred princeling take it away from me! The star breaker will be mine! You and he will be my sword, mine and no one else’s!”

Sora kicked at him again, scowling when it did nothing. A cold breeze blew across her bare skin, and she shuddered. “Just let go already!” She yelled up at him. “You can’t pull us back up on your own like that!”

Before Jotaranell could retort, the circle of white light made a loud cracking noise. The stargazer looked back up, sudden panic on his face just as the ring suddenly collapsed, squeezing shut with a loud crack that split the air.

Sora’s stomach jolted as she suddenly found herself in free fall, and a shriek tore itself from her lungs. Above her, Jotaranell howled, in fear or pain, she wasn’t sure, nor did she care. Sora hit the canopy, and the branches snapped beneath her. Sharp twigs sliced up her body from head to toe, splinters lodging themselves in her skin, and then she was beneath the canopy, falling towards hard mossy ground.

***

Kaeto stared in horror as the changeling finished drawing its circle and the study’s floor vanished, replaced with an aerial view of an unfamiliar forest. He watched as Leahan and Botaran tumbled through the whole, Sora stumbling in as a suddenly revived Jotaranell grabbed her ankle and fell over the edge after her.

Kaeto struggled to lift himself off the floor, grabbing the rough brick wall beside him to try and leverage himself up. It took him several terrible minutes to get to his feet, and by the time he’d made it, the circle suddenly shrank, snapping shut with another deafening crack.

The sound knocked the prince back off his feet, and he slumped against the wall, drained, dazed, and too tired to do anything more.

“Adarelle,” he managed to say, voice hoarse and heavy with exhaustion. His steward didn’t reply, still slumped in silence against the far wall. He called to her again, and again he got nothing in return.

Closing his eyes, the prince let out a ragged breath. Somewhere in the citadel below, another explosion sounded, shaking the entire tower. It was without a doubt the haetnellians.

Something scraped against the wood floor nearby, and Kaeto opened his eyes to find Keros dragging himself forward towards the prince.

“What are you doing?” Kaeto asked, but the katori man said nothing, just dragged himself closer. Kaeto didn’t ask again, too tired to try, and just watched as the man drew nearer, moment by long torturous moment.

It felt like an age passed before Keros reached him, all the while the sounds of battle below grew in volume and frequency. Kaeto was beginning to fear the astrologian’s tower would collapse.

Kero’s reached one hand towards the prince, pressing it gently against the prince's head. Suddenly the silverglass in the northerner’s ears began to glow as he drew on the kar in his blood, and the haze in Kaeto’s mind began to clear.

Pain washed through him like lightning as Keros healed his wounds one by one, but by the end of the healing, Kaeto managed to stand without difficulty, his breath weary with exhaustion but clear of any damage.

“Thank you,” he said to the katori, and Keros simply let his hand fall back to the ground, breathing heavily as more blood flowed from his ears.

After a moment's thought, Kaeto reached down towards the man, then paused as he saw the stumps at the end of his arms. He sighed, then shook his head. A problem for later that was. Thanks to Keros, they didn’t even hurt.

Carefully, Kaeto used his stumps to lift the man off the floor and leaned him up against the wall. The prince searched the other man for any real injuries, and besides the blood loss from manipulating so much kar, the man seemed alright.

Turning away, the prince stumbled towards Adarelle, his exhaustion growing with every step. He half knelt, half fell beside the steward, pressing his ear to her chest. To his relief, her heart still beat, and her breath was only slightly shallow.

Pulling her arms around his shoulders, Kaeto used the nearby table to pull himself back to his feet. He involuntarily grunted as her weight settled across his back, then took one shaking step towards the door.

Kaeto paused, then turned towards where Keros laid slumped against the wall, breaths coming in heavy, ragged gasps. “Stars damn me for a fool,” Kaeto muttered to himself and lurched towards the northerner.

As he neared, Keros opened one eye and let out a sigh. “No, boy. Forget about me. I’m… not worth… the effort.”

Kaeto grunted and pushed his leg forward. “Lean on me,” he said through gritted teeth. Keros looked at him for a long moment. “I said, lean on me,” Keato said again. Another explosion rocked the tower, and the other man sighed with exasperation.

Reaching out, Keros grabbed Kaeto’s trouser leg with one hand, pushed against the wall with his other, and slowly rose to his feet. The man careened forward, but Kaeto moved and caught him with one arm, struggling to keep hold of Adarelle.

Keros moved faster than Kaeto thought he’d be able to and repositioned himself, wrapping an arm around the prince’s middle and leaning into him. Kaeto let out another grunt and shifted his arm back to keep Adarelle from sliding off his back.

Wordlessly the two began to make their way towards the door. More explosions rocked the tower, and the fear coiled deep inside Kaeto sharpened, forcing his last dregs of adrenaline through his system, allowing him to push harder.

Thankfully his father and the speaker had left the door open in their haste to escape, so all Kaeto had to do was walk into the heavy slab of wood and push past it. The stairs proved more difficult. Keros ended up wrapping both arms around Kaeto’s middle, unable to lift his feet for the steps down.

Keato’s whole body groaned as he took the stairs one at a time, thin step by thin step, his mind screaming in fear, images of him tumbling to his death with the other two in his arms. He managed to keep the thoughts at bay, focusing on each step, praying to the stars that he wouldn’t fall.

The prince lost track of how long he’d been moving, the smooth spiraling wall beginning to make him dizzy. His steps gradually became less confident, shaking more and more as the moments stretched past and the sound of fighting grew nearer.

Just as Kaeto began to make out the sound of men shouting below, he missed a step and tipped forward, holding his breath as he began to fall. He let go of Adarelle and turned, putting his back towards the stairs, tucking his head in, and wrapping his arms around the steward. Keros’ arms slipped from around his waist, and Kaeto lost track of the man as he fell.

The first steps crunched into Kaeto’s back at an odd angle, sending sharp jolts of pain through his back. It tore a howl of pain from his lungs, but he somehow managed to keep himself curled around Adarelle.

Instead of rolling as he imagined, they slid, each step slamming into his back, one after another, and then he hit the back of his head on the hard tiled floor, knocking the prince out cold.

A few moments later, he groaned and opened his eyes again, surprised to find himself still alive. Adarelle was still held in his arms, and he could feel the girl breathing against his chest. He let out a breath of relief and pushed himself all the way out of the stairwell.

He gently shifted Adarelle’s unconscious form off of him and rolled over, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

“Not dead yet, eh?” a deep rasping voice said beside him, and Kaeto quickly glanced over to find Keros sprawled out beside him, a slight smile on his bloodstained lips.

“Not yet,” Kaeto said. “Got too much to do.” The katori grunted in agreement, and the two fell silent, both breathing hard.

Somewhere nearby, the clatter of steel rang through the corridor, underpinned by the shouting of fighting men. Kaeto pushed himself up with a groan, leaning against the wall. “Watch her,” he said to Keros as he took a step forward, not waiting for the man’s response. Kaeto doubted he could even give one.

The prince made his way down the hall, using the sandstone wall for support, his boots too loud on the stone tiles. He came to a corner and peeked around the side of the wall. Men dressed in the council guards' multi-colored livery fought against black-cloaked jah annan against a wall of haetnellian soldiers draped in blue tabards.

Cursing, Kaeto ducked back behind the corner as a stray bullet hit the wall beside him, spraying him with black dust. How by the stars were the haetnellians inside the citadel already? He remembered his conversation with Jotaranell and swore again.

Undoubtedly, the astrologian had a hand in this, whatever it was. Kaeto quickly made his way back to Keros and Adarelle, doing his best to be quiet. The katori man had managed to pull himself up to sit against the wall and seemed to be breathing a bit better when Kaeto returned, opening his eyes at the sound of the prince’s approach.

“Up, “ Kaeto said. “We’re moving. Towards the council hall.”

Keros didn’t object, pushing himself up the wall. Kaeto knelt and pulled Adarelle back up, wrapping one of her arms around his shoulder. He didn’t have the energy to carry her again, but he could at least drag her away.

They set a slow but steady pace down the corridor, Keros trailing half-dried blood on the wall behind him. They reached the other end, and Kaeto pear around at the intersecting hallway. It was empty, thank the stars.

Kaeto turned left towards the northern edge of the citadel. Thankfully that meant they could keep using the wall as support. It was hard going, Kaeto’s legs and feet burned from the aching pain of overexertion, and his vision swam as exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him, all the while that weeping in his mind grew louder and louder. Even his stomach began giving him sharp pangs of hunger, a consequence of the katori’s healing.

At one point, Kaeto stumbled and would have fallen if Keros’ hadn’t grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. “Thanks,” Kaeto said, and the man grunted. Eventually, however, it was just too much.

Kaeto heard a thud from behind and glanced over to find Keros collapsed on the tile, sweat lines on his red blood-covered face as he gasped for breath. Kaeto reached to give the man his arm but lost his balance and found himself falling backward, the wall the only thing keeping him and Adarelle from hitting the floor.

Groaning, the prince leaned his head against the sandstone wall. Was this it then? What else could he do?

A few moments later, he heard the heavy thud of leather boots hitting the tile from the southern end of the corridor. That coil of fear in his gut wound tighter, and he closed his eyes, not wanting to watch as death drew near. That stranger’s wailing in his head increased in pitch, and Kaeto raised the stumps of his arms to either side of his head and roared in frustration before the last of his energy left him.

“Well then,” a deep voice said from nearby, and the thundering footsteps suddenly came to a halt. “What do we have here?”

Kaeto opened his eyes and wished he’d kept them shut. A tall man loomed over him, one hand on his chin, the other crossing his chest supporting his elbow. He had broad, strong features and hair nearly as red as Kaeto’s. And, he wore a dark blue tabard.

“Just kill us and get it over with,” Kaeto said, voice weaker than he would have liked.

The man barked out a laugh. “Kill you? The varin prince of stars? I think not.” The man snapped his fingers towards a pair of blue liveried men behind him. “Take him and his friends to the general’s tent. Oh, and make sure they aren’t armed this time.” He said the last line in a dry, somewhat haughty tone.

Several men stepped from the column and approached the three leaning against the wall. Kaeto tried to struggle as the men reached towards him, towards Adarelle, but his efforts only earned him a fist to the gut.

“Careful now. I doubt the general will be happy if the prince is too weak to speak,” the man who must have been a haetnellian captain said.

“What about his hands?” one of the regulars asked, and the captain shrugged.

“There isn’t anything we can do about it now. If the one who did this to him is found, rest assured they won’t like the consequences. Now, go. These varin foxes are proving themselves to be smarter than expected. We can't stay here much longer.”

The soldiers saluted, then dragged Kaeto, Keros, and Adarelle away, back towards the southern end of the citadel.