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    The three of them emerged in a square surrounded by low buildings of white-colored stone. Common cobblestones paved the road beneath their feet. At the end of the long road was a building that appeared to be a combination of defensive keep and a luxurious manor.


    Puzzled, Sarien asked, “Did I send us to the wrong place?”


    He expected something different. The village looked like any other in Maydian. The street was filled with laborers and merchants going about their business. No one seemed surprised by their sudden appearance and Sarien expected they wouldn’t if they lived amongst Wayfarers. Children ran back and forth in play. One fell, scraping his knee and a woman rushed to soothe him.


    “This is Nexus,” Ein said.


    Kax spun on his heel, making a full circle. “What a letdown. This is the opposite of amazing.”


    “The Wayfarers and Gatekeepers, and the few Slayers who live here, need food and services as much as anyone else.”


    The crowd didn’t take notice of them, but more and more people streamed into the square and they soon found themselves in a throng.


    Ein directed Sarien and Kax out of the way. “I don’t like this. Let’s keep moving.”


    Kax elbowed his way between two laborers then stopped suddenly. “Uh oh,” he said. “We’re too late.”


    A spearhead appeared in the air between two children fighting over an apple, and another over an old lady’s shoulder. Sarien spun as more spears materialized, then gasped as the men and women in the square vanished.


    Soldiers appeared in their place. They closed in until their spears were close enough to jab into Sarien’s body. Bright sunlight gleamed off the sharp edges and blades.


    “Shall I kill them?” Kax asked, his tone light.


    “Seize him,” the order came from a man pushing his way past the front ranks.


    Ein spun to face the man, who was middle-aged with a short cropped white beard and long hair tied back to a topknot.


    “Karmel, you have some explaining to do!”


    Karmel ignored Ein. He wore a white tabard, with the Wayfarer’s emblem over plate armor polished to a shine. A sword hung in a scabbard by his hip. Two men and three women followed close behind him. They all wore a uniform of regular pants and tunics colored black, with the Slayer’s emblem emblazoned on their chest. The same black on white emblem found on the dead guards by the prison.


    “You have been found guilty of trespassing into Nexus and, as such, it is within my stated authority to execute you immediately.”


    Fire blazed in Ein’s hands, but Karmel did not appear impressed. He nodded to a soldier who stabbed Ein in the arm with his spear, slicing into cloth and flesh. To Ein’s credit, his fire didn’t even flicker.


    Kax sprung into motion and Sarien summoned his gray flame. It flickered ominously. The soldiers’ eyes widened, as did Karmel’s, but they held their ground.


    The Slayers advanced, each of them holding a pulsating sphere of darkness. Even with Kax’s speed, he could not outrun the void.


    Kax’s eyes widened as darkness enveloped him. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. A fist-sized, obsidian black cube rested in one of the Slayers’ palms.


    “No!” Sarien shouted, reaching for it with his gray flame. The Slayers tried to stop him, but their combined power was nothing but a nuisance next to his own, and he battered them aside.


    Before he was able to grasp the sphere, pain lanced through his shoulder, and he cried out as cold metal pierced into him. His gray flame flickered, but he held on desperately. He felt the spear twist deeper into his flesh.


    A woman’s voice called out. “Hold!”


    Sarien yelped as the cold metal suddenly withdrew, tearing his flesh further.


    “Captain, what do you think you’re doing?” A woman appeared by Sarien''s side. She stood tall, towering over Sarien like Hart used to, and she was almost as wide as his former friend in the shoulders. The similarities ended there when he took in her young and handsome face and short-cropped blond hair.


    “Apologies, young Sarien. If you would please follow me.”


    Karmel shoved a finger in her face. “What do you think you’re doing? Trespassers fall under my authority! Go back to your own duties, captain!”


    The woman reeled back her fist and punched Karmel in the face. He crumpled to the ground. Soldiers and Slayers shifted awkwardly, glancing at one another as if uncertain what the appropriate protocol was when one superior rendered another unconscious.


    “These three are under my protection. Give way at once!” the woman barked, and the surrounding soldiers stepped back and parted as she walked.


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    “Ein, you coming?” she asked.


    Sarien’s father gritted his teeth but nodded for Sarien to follow. As they walked past the Slayers, Sarien grabbed the cube in which Kax was imprisoned out of the Slayer’s open palm. The woman who’d rescued them stopped, turned, and held out her hand.


    “I am afraid I will have to hold on to that for the time being. It is not safe.”


    “It’s the boy’s friend, Sofia,” Ein protested.


    The soldiers and Slayers scurried away, leaving them alone with the tall woman. That did not seem to bother her in the least.


    “I promise I won’t hurt him.”


    “Why do you want it?” Sarien asked.


    “Where we’re going, they’ll take it from you and there will be nothing I can do about it then.”


    “Sofia,” Ein repeated. It sounded awfully close to a whine, and Sarien glanced to his father in surprise.


    “Be silent, little brother,” Sofia said, holding out a finger to Ein.


    Sarien looked between them. “Little brother?”


    His father shrugged. “Sarien, meet Sofia. Sofia, meet Sarien, your nephew.”


    “Nice to finally meet you, Sarien.”


    “I have an aunt?”


    “Two, actually. On my side.”


    “I’m still not giving you Kax. I’ll release him right away.”


    Sarien stoked the gray flame inside him and used it to prod the void prison that held his friend. Stunned, he pulled back, dropping the cube to the ground.


    “He’s not in there. It’s empty.”


    “Impossible.” Sofia enveloped the cube with her power, and Ein did the same.


    “Impossible,” he whispered.


    Sofia let her hand drop. “He’s right. It’s empty.”


    “What did those Slayers do to him? I saw them take Kax!”


    People were slowly gathering around the square once again, but they all kept their distance.


    “I saw it too. And more importantly, I sensed him inside the cube. I cannot tell you where he is now but know that what has happened here today was not by my design.”


    “As relaxed and warm as always, sister,” Ein said. He grabbed her arm and ignored the glare she gave him in return. “Now tell us, what madness has grown here since my leaving for Maydian?”


    Sofia shook him off. “Much has happened in your absence. You have been gone for a long time.” She hesitated for a moment, then continued in a low voice. “It is most dire. You have been summoned by the council, but perhaps we still have some time.”


    “Time enough for what?” Sarien asked. He stared at the cube in Sofia’s hand. His shoulder throbbed with pain and his shirt and coat was soaked through with his blood.


    “The Gatekeepers?” Ein asked.


    Sofia’s face hardened. “The Gatekeepers are dead.”


    Sarien’s stomach dropped. “Mother?”


    “Anja?” his father asked at the exact same time.


    “She lives.”


    They breathed a collective sigh of relief until Sofia continued, “Anja joined the Council as the lowest ranking member. She and that fool Uyn betrayed the Gatekeepers and, in so doing, brought about their fall.” A procession of white-robed figures quickly approached from the direction of the keep in the distance. Sarien saw they wore white masks that hid their features.


    “We are out of time. Do not trust the Council. Do not let their venomous words poison your way of thinking.”


    Sofia turned sharply to face the new arrivals and saluted. “Your guests, delivered as promised.”


    “The task was assigned to Captain Karmel. We must see to it that he understands the consequences of failing in his duties.” The voice coming from behind a white mask was rough and nearly indistinguishable. Sofia said nothing in return and was dismissed. She gave Ein a meaningful glance, then walked away.


    “Welcome. Please follow me,” the man said, starting back the way he’d come.


    It wasn’t until they began to follow that Sarien realized his aunt took the cube with her. He was stunned at what had happened to his friend, what the empty cube represented, but forced himself to focus on his current ordeal. Sarien turned to Ein and whispered, “What do we do?”


    “There will be no talking,” the white-masked man ordered.


    Ein shrugged and followed, holding on to his injured arm. Sarien tested his own wound and was surprised to find it didn’t pain him as much as he’d feared. His father pulled the torn fabric of Sarien’s tunic aside.


    “Almost healed,” he whispered, approvingly.


    The sigh from the masked man was audible, but he said nothing more.


    Sarien was impatient for news about his mother. Sofia stated that Anja was a traitor and was working with this new Council. But she also said that the Council could not be trusted. It seemed that the barrier in place around Nexus did not protect them from upheaval from within.


    His mother still lived. That was all that mattered at that moment.


    Nexus appeared like any other city in Maydian, perhaps cleaner than Fyrie and Tyralien. The people looked like Eldians except for their muted gray hair and eyes. Sarien noted that gray hair was not only exclusive to the elderly, but young children possessed the same shade of gray locks. He wondered if their coloring had something to do with living and working around Wayfarers and Slayers.


    Diedra would have been able to tell him. He wondered if the old woman had made a clean escape.


    When they reached the keep, the massive front doors were open but guarded by a handful of men in armor and white tabards. Some appeared like the image of discipline, while others were unshaven and stank of stale beer. Sarien glanced up to the parapet where archers trained arrows on him and his father as they walked below.


    A woman with long hair streaming out from behind her white mask rushed out toward them, her arms outstretched with hands clad in white gloves.


    “Ein! Sarien! You’re finally here!”


    Ein stopped dead in his tracks. “Anja?”


    Sarien’s breath stopped in his chest.


    “Mother?”


    When the woman embraced Sarien, he nearly jolted back. With her face obscured by her mask and her entire body clad in a white shapeless fabric; her true appearance was hidden from him. Sarien stiffened as she wrapped her arms tighter around him and he awkwardly returned her embrace. A faint aroma lingered about his mother, a sweet and almost sickly scent that he thought he recognized from somewhere, but he couldn’t quite place.


    After releasing Sarien, his mother embraced Ein. Unlike Sarien’s own awkward hug, his father and mother held on to one another tenderly.


    “You left me,” Ein murmured.


    Anja whispered something in his ear, then spoke a little louder. “You’re here now. Please come with me.”


    Her eyes met with Sarien’s and he saw kindness and warmth in them behind the white ornamented mask with streaks of silver. She beckoned them to follow. He thought his mother would lead them to a secluded room where they could speak in earnest. He was wrong.