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“How’s the extraction coming?” Cornelius asked me, and I turned to see him making his way back into the vault.

He’d had to leave ten minutes ago to welcome Warlow home, wherein the two of them had then checked in on their houseguest, Velra Nox, to see how she was doing and if she was comfortable. He’d also been using aholoscreento keep an eye on his love until he’d arrived home. He was being extremely protective after what had happened up at the Guardian Compound. No fucking wonder.

Before I left here, I aimed to have a word with Velra about that piece of shit, Sorin Tenebris. I also had a few questions about Cassius. I knew Ariana was trusting him more so now with their every passing training session, but his very presence on this plane was still concerning even if he actively wasn’t trying toharm her or force her submission. It was a concern that V and I shared in equal measure.

As Cornelius joined me opposite the marble worktable that was rather similar to mine, aside from its elemental makeup, I gestured at the fragments of True Celestial magic—gold and white sparks—floating in a field of my rose-gold magic. “We’re almost there.”

“Excellent,” he said, as he called his magic and hovered that silver glow over the gauntlet, preparing it and infusing the blood that we’d dripped over it.

He was halfway done when he suddenly jolted, his magic sputtering out.

He cursed and stumbled back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, stilling my hand movements and leaving my magic and the Celestial sparks levitating in a motionless state.

He clutched at his chest. “Something is wrong.” He grimaced, before a grave look played on his features. “There’s… I felt a disturbance to the balance.”

“What sort of—”

I hissed as my left wrist burned like a bitch all of a sudden.

I hastily shoved up the sleeve of my leather trench coat and looked to see the spelled band I’d created recently blazing with a mixture of my power and Vorzyr’s.

Before Vorzyr had left, I’d quietly created a Nexus Band, linking his wellbeing to me, so that I could detect if he was in danger. While we did have the mind-link, there were times when that wouldn’t be practical to employ—like if he was in significant physical pain, where mental clarity would be compromised. Or if he was in battle or embroiled in a mentally taxing situation.

“I… fuck, I have to go,” I told Cornelius.

I grunted as the band burned deeper and harsher.

“Now,”I uttered, a moment before I teleported out.

Vorzyr was in horrific danger.

Hold on! Just hold on!

26

~Ariana~

“All light is shaped by will. Yours must be absolute.”

I took Cassius’ words in as I continued with my shadow weaving.

Unfortunately, I’d had to shut everything else out, even my connection to my men and everything else on this mortal plane in order to focus fully on it. Thankfully, although I’d been worried about doing that, I’d reached out to Kai and he’d reassured me that he and Nyx had everything under control, and that they were monitoring Vorzyr as well. So I could at least rest easy there.

I blinked back to the immediate moment, those thoughts filtering in, making my weaving shake a little.

Focus fully.

“Weaves are visual, spatial patterns made of thin threads of Celestial light,” Cassius spoke, his voice drawing me back to the moment, to our latest training session. “We are focusing here on you learning how to control thread intention irrespective of interference from the Celestial Plane, which is what I believe you were experiencing before when you couldn’t consciously draw said threads or even remember to later interpret them.”

“I’ve got it,” I said, as I continued to smoothy and freely draw my threads of light through the dark night sky of Meforian Forest all around us. “Tell me more about Celestial lore.”

“The most sacred Celestial laws were never forged in magic—but in will. Oaths were once upheld through unwavering intent, not enforced by spells or wards."

Hmm, that was actually really interesting.

He went on, “Celestial oaths began before the codification of magic. They were forged between beings of immense will—what the Plane once viewed as a divine trait.”