Chapter 1244: Between the Folds

The barrier crackled and hummed as my mana penetrated deep toward its core. It wouldn’t be long until I’d finished analyzing it and could find a way to take it down. With nothing more to do, I cast my idle thoughts back to the Divine Throne overhead.

Things were quiet now that Korra, Gayron, and Fable had finished their battle. Too quiet. I pursed my lips, an anxious shiver traveling down my tail. Where were Luke and R’lissea?

I searched the stars throughout my aura, which extended beyond the city-like sprawl of the Divine Throne and into the plains beyond. There were Cinderis, Zefras, Bethiv, and a dozen others of the strongest Fatesworn. I could sense the apostles, too: Evla fighting a group of paladins, Constance battling at the head of a legion of fire demons, but no Luke.

My hand flew to the Soul Binder, and with a gasp, I realized it was cold. I could feel Luke there, vaguely, his heartbeat pulsing as though he were a million miles away. I pressed my palm over the ring, squeezing my eyes closed and concentrating, but there was nothing, not even through the True Nexus. The threads that had bound me to them were shattered, though at what point I couldn’t guess.

Just how far could they have gone, and why would they get out of range of my spells? This had to be a trap set in place by the Church. I couldn’t imagine any other reason Luke might leave this battle behind.

No longer merely curious, I diverted some of my mana into my aura, willing the fabric of fate to unravel its records. They resisted, of course, but quickly caved beneath the weight of my ninth-level soul. In just a few heartbeats, I was gazing at the Divine Throne as it had stood twenty minutes before, when we’d begun our initial assault. The grounds were eerily quiet, and though soldiers patrolled the walls, most of their attention was focused outward, on the infernal horde and Fatesworn massing along their borders.

I directed my focus to the mage grounds, and a few moments later, a rift appeared. One by one, my friends and companions spilled out, their auras rippling across the courtyards. Soldiers screamed as the pressure caused the weakest among them to collapse. Even the strongest trembled as they tried to rally themselves against the eighth- and ninth-level terrors that had emerged.

My gaze locked onto Luke immediately, and despite myself, I couldn’t help but smile. He looked rather brave and heroic, his dark cloak rippling around him as he flew into the skies over the courtyards. His gaze was domineering and cold, and yet there was something different about him from the Luke of my memories. The hatred in his gaze had softened. It still simmered beneath the surface, but it no longer dominated everything. His aura was just as strong as it needed to be, and his sword moved with purpose.

It was enough to make my heart flutter, and I had to shake my head, reminding myself to focus. Korra, Gayron, and Fable split off, attacking the mage grounds directly, while Luke and R’lissea flew over the courtyard walls and headed deeper into the Divine Throne.

They were intercepted quickly by three beings glowing with brilliant light, the feathery wings of archons spreading behind them. One was ninth-level, while the other two were eighth. Two of them were attuned to sun magic, and the third wielded the attribute of earth.

Their battle began with fury, but Luke quickly overwhelmed the sun archon, absorbing every one of his attacks with Adaptive Resistance and draining his mana with curses until his own attacks began to break through. R’lissea did her best to support him, but she was easily outclassed by the other two archons, leaving the battle on equal footing. As strong as she’d gotten, she was no match for immortals who had trained for war for thousands of years.

The battle continued for several minutes, throwing absurd amounts of residual mana into the Divine Throne. It would have leveled any other city, but the powerful enchantments of the walls and grounds absorbed it without faltering. The mortals who got too close to their battle weren’t as lucky, often ending up on the ground, spasming and coughing blood as their organs ruptured.

Suddenly, their auras vanished, and I gasped, my heart skipping a beat. I’d been focused on the carnage and had almost missed it. Luke had gone in to land a finishing blow on one of the eighth-level archons. At that moment, another archon hidden on the ground had unleashed an eighth-level spell. The spell itself hadn’t done anything beyond activating an artifact in his hands, a strange, fluted wand. At that instant, all five in the sky had vanished.

I wound back time a second, and my eyes widened slightly. A gate had appeared, swallowed them, and vanished again, taking Luke and R’lissea into the unknown. All that remained was a slight seam in the folds of fate, like a bag that had been sewn shut.

A spatial gate of some sort. Had he hidden them in a dimension like Haven? If so, that was the worst possible thing that could happen. We were prepared for a fight in Enusia, with the laws of a mortal realm, but in a pocket dimension, anything could happen. Curses might not even exist there!

There was nothing I could do, not when I was deep underground unraveling the barrier. That meant summoning a remnant was out of the question. Many had descended and were fighting alongside the Fate’s Horn outside the Throne, but even they were only a fraction of their full selves, using what power they could siphon from my aura and Adaptive Resistance. Calling one in its true form would jeopardize everything I was working on, and our entire plan as a whole.

Maybe once, it wouldn’t have mattered to me. I hadn’t even thought twice about saving Elise at Western University, even when it ruined everything. But I loved my friends too much to endanger their lives now, just because I was scared, even if the one I was scared for was the one I loved.

But what would Luke do?

If he couldn’t do it himself, he’d find someone who could. I cast my will through the Primordial Mark, sending out a call. It was answered almost immediately by an eagle-like screech, and a stream of soul-speak connected me to Borealis. He was fighting at Zephyr’s side, crashing through the Church’s skyships at the head of the Astral Fleet.

He retreated immediately and sped toward the golden barrier around the Divine Throne. He passed through it with ease, for it wasn’t meant to keep demons out, though he immediately took his condensed form, as the suppression was so great that it stopped his mana before it could leave his soul. Turns out having a hundred-and-fifty-foot wingspan was almost impossible unless you had an eighth-level soul to support it.

He didn’t need to fight, though, and he streaked through a rain of arrows and spells, passing over the fortifications and reaching the pocket of sewn space.

I linked the bird into the True Nexus, passing the Oracle of Eternity on to him. I had refrained from sharing this with my companions. It was simply too overwhelming, but for a fate demon, it was practically second nature. He spied the hidden realm immediately and dove toward it, sheathing himself in fate mana. Like all fate demons, he wielded fate by instinct, and now that instinct was supercharged by the power of a divinity. I couldn’t say exactly how he did it, but he vanished, disappearing between the folds of fate.

I retreated from my visions, for there was nothing more I could do. Borealis had lost the Oracle the instant he left our realm, but he would be able to find his way back. I just prayed Luke and R’lissea were all right and able to accompany him.

With my full attention back on the barrier, I soon reached the center of the formation. The entire spell wielded an immense amount of power, so much so that I had no trouble believing Jessia’s claim that it would bring the entire Divine Throne down if anything went awry. The Church, however, had given me too much practice dismantling large-scale wards. From the heart curses of Brithlite to the world barrier in Darkreign, there were enough similarities for me to see exactly how it was all connected, and even more importantly, how to break it.

I waved my hand, sending a single thread of mana through the seventh magic circle to a single small, flickering rune. The entire formation was solid, but dozens of mages had contributed to its casting. They were the best of the best, but one of them apparently had been a little lazy.

The little thread of mana sank into the rune, and it flared briefly, overloaded. That was all it took. A cascade of exploding runes shot through the entire array like fireworks, severing the connections between each circle. The runes blew outward in waves, causing the ground beneath my feet to quake and tremble, straining even Adaptive Resistance.

"Xiviyah!" Verity cried, catching my arm. "What happened? Did it go awry?"

Even as she spoke, the magical palpitations suddenly ceased, slowing to gentle ripples. The circles stopped spinning, dispersing into mana that sank into the ground, flowing back toward the Shard that had supplied it.

Almost immediately, the weight of the barrier ceased, causing my aura to surge. Stars filled the air, as thick as fog, and I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I could feel the warmth of my realm surrounding us, bleeding through my aura, just as it should.

"Haven," I said, dismissing my staff. "Take us to the library."

Verity blinked. "What? But how--"

The world twisted, whisking us away. When it steadied, we stood before the grand doors of the Library of Light.