Elion knew he needed to talk to Keyla. They hadn’t spoken to each other since she had confronted him about his intentions.


    But Elion needed her insight. He didn’t fully understand what he had seen in Gorman’s safe. The man had a hoard of Ascendency Stones; Aurelian, Artefin, and another strange kind Elion could not identify.


    Could it just be a coincidence that they look like the Shard?


    He had seen that color somewhere else before, too; in the machine at the top of the tower. The Threnody Core glowed the same pale yellow-green, with its strange glass tubes filled with beating hearts. Perhaps the Threnody Modules had something to do with the strange Ascendency stones, and both were totally unrelated to the Shard.  Seems unlikely.


    Elion also reconsidered his initial judgement that Gorman had stolen his first Tear. Perhaps Gorman had one of his own already. In his heart, Elion doubted this, but he had no real evidence otherwise.


    Gorman did have more than enough Ascendency stones to level Kasm well past level five. He pretended he did not; made no hint or suggestion of this fact. Maybe it was within Gorman’s rights to withhold his own wealth, not offering it up to support their plan.


    Then again, how could Gorman pretend to be on their side, helping them, when he held the key to their success hidden away in his safe?


    Elion found Keyla just outside of town, lying on a rock. Her rifle rested on a bipod, its stock pulled into the crease of her shoulder as she peered through the scope. She shifted slightly, adjusting the aim of her weapon.


    The sun set behind them, leaving the sky to the east a coruscating blend of midnight blue firmament and sunset shards of the Celestial Sphere. Elion tried judging Keyla’s attitude based on her movements; would she be cold and silent to him, or would she be willing to talk?


    He thought about how he would feel if there was a chance of seeing his mom again. That made him think of Liora, and how she was out there somewhere, as Dorian’s captive.


    “Keyla,” Elion said softly, unsure which version of the girl would greet him. Keyla did not react, so he moved closer. “Any sign of her?”


    Another moment of silence. “No,” Keyla said. “She’s not there.”


    “She could have been swept a long way down the river,” Elion said. “It could take her several days to make it back here.”


    “I hope so.” Keyla did not look at Elion, but continued searching through her scope. Elion waited as light faded from the sky. In his hand, Elion held the shard he’d stolen from Gorman’s safe. He gazed across the river at the large, pale yellow-green crystal, and knew that the two objects must be related.


    Soon it was too dark for Keyla to see anything, and she lowered her rifle.


    Maybe I’m wrong about this.  Elion didn’t want to make a false accusation.


    “Is there any reason that Gorman would have an Aurelian Tear?” Elion asked. “Maybe Prator gave him one?”


    “I doubt it,” Keyla said, still facing out across the river. “They’re very rare. Prator bought cends from people when he was here. That’s one reason nobody has any of them anymore.”


    Elion sighed.  Here goes nothing.


    “Then I found it,” Elion said.


    Keyla snapped her attention to Elion, her head turning quickly.


    “Where did you find it?” Keyla asked. “Did you go back to the Altar? I had a feeling we didn’t search the ground there closely enough.”


    “No,” Elion said. “I found it in Gorman’s safe.”


    Keyla’s brow furrowed. “What were you doing in Gorman’s safe?”


    “He offered to keep my other Tear there,” Elion said. “He said ‘that’s where I keep  our  Skillstones.’ Not ‘Keyla’s Skillstones. So I started wondering. This afternoon when we were training, I asked him what a Skillstone looked like and he wanted to show me one. While he was getting it, something went wrong with the power.”


    Keyla grunted. “The Shard has been flickering strangely today,” she said, half to herself. “I wonder if the distortion field has gotten stronger and is interfering with the Threnody Core. But I haven’t noticed it affecting anything else. Did he fix it?”


    “I assume so,” Elion said. “While he was gone I snuck into his room. He didn’t close the safe all the way when he ran to fix it. He already had a Tear in the safe.”


    “Why?” Keyla asked, voice tinged with disbelief. “Why wouldn’t he tell us?”


    “They’re valuable?” Elion suggested.


    Keyla shook her head, her braid bouncing. “But… He can’t spend them! We’re cut off by the Shard!”


    “I also found this.” Elion extended his hand, revealing the crystal. It glowed with a sickly aura in the dying light. “Gorman mentioned taking samples from the Shard when it first appeared, so I thought it might simply be that. He had a whole bag full of these. But they’re Ascendency Stones of some kind.”


    Keyla took the crystal from Elion, holding it up, inspecting it. Her face twisted into a scowl. “Ascendency stones,” she muttered. “A bag full?”


    “He’s got seven Skillstones too,” Elion said. “Enough to level Kasm to seven or eight, if I did the math right.”


    Keyla held the shard in her hand, still staring at it. She glanced up at the larger structure across the river. She stiffened.


    After a long moment, she wiped a tear from her eye.


    “I knew it,” she said, her voice quivering. “I knew something was wrong. It’s the Threnody Core. All along he claimed that his abilities with the human body were due to a flash of insight, seeing how bodies functioned like machines. It felt wrong to me, but—”


    “What do you mean?” Elion asked.


    “What Gorman is doing, with people’s bodies and with the Threnody Modules, I don’t think it’s Artefin power.”


    “Gorman is using the power of another Sentinel?”


    “A false Sentinel,” Keyla said. “These cends are not from any of the Seven True Sentinels.”


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Elion shook his head, blinking. “False Sentinels?” he asked.


    “Saint Hendreston calls them ‘the Tephalian Simulacra,’ or ‘the training grounds.’ Unlike the True Sentinels, which give us skills and gifts and abilities to improve our lives, the False Sentinels imitate the Tephalians. They prepare us to fight against the invaders.”


    “Who are these ‘Tephalian’ guys anyways?” Elion asked. “Why does everyone keep talking about them?


    Keyla’s eyes widened, and she stared at Elion. “How do you not know about the destroyers? The invaders? Where are you from?”


    Elion started to lie to Keyla, remembering Gorman’s counsel not to share his story with anyone.


    Gorman hasn’t exactly been honest with me. Why should I trust what he told me?


    “I’m from far away,” Elion said. “Another planet. It’s a long story.”


    “From the outer colonies?” Keyla asked. “What’s it like? You don’t worry about the Tephalians there?”


    “Something like that,” Elion said. “Let’s just say that I was sheltered.”


    “I can’t believe you never heard of Tephalians,” Keyla said, rubbing her temples.


    “What are they?”


    “The Tephalians are monsters,” Keyla explained. “They came from the darkest void of space, and have powers that tear apart the fabric of reality. We’ve been at war with them for centuries, and only stand a chance because of the powers of the Seven.”


    “So they’re like aliens,” Elion surmised. “But then where do the false Sentinels come from? They’re alien creations?”


    “Hendreston says they are a gift, created by the Sentinels to test and try us, preparing us for the true fight.”


    “So they’re like practice dummies?” Elion asked. “Why is that so bad?”


    “Because,” Keyla said, “they also sift our souls. They appeal to the corruptness within our hearts, the weakness that needs to be purified. If Gorman has truly begun following a False Sentinel, then he must be stopped. We have to do something.”


    Elion sat down on the rock and pressed his forehead into his hands, trying to take in everything. He dangled his legs over the edge, listening to the rushing water far below.


    “So that Shard over there…” Elion said, “It’s… imitating Tephalian powers? Or is it really a Tephalian Probe?”


    Keyla held up the pale green Ascendency stone that Elion had given her. In the darkness, its feeble glow matched that of the Shard, looming over the chasm beyond.


    “I don’t think that Shard is Tephalian,” Keyla said finally. “I doubt it even fell from the sky.”


    “Why?”


    “Once when I was little, a meteorite fell. It passed through the sky nearby. I’ll never forget the sound; a boom and then a whistling roar. And the the whooshing of the wind, stirred up by its passage. The Shard didn’t do any of that.”


    “What happened? Did you see it?”


    “Gorman was the only one who saw the Shard appear. We heard a terrible noise, like thunder and the earth splitting apart, and people ran to the bridge and saw the Shard. When we got there, Gorman was already on his way across the plains toward it. He came back, telling us how he had seen it fall to the ground, how he had gathered samples of it, and how it must be a Tephalian probe.”


    “But he was lying,” Elion guessed. “I wonder if he had something to do with it appearing.”


    “I don’t know,” Keyla said. “But if you really found this gem in his safe…”


    “Why does he want to blow it up? If it is really the result of some false Sentinel power that Gorman was using, then didn’t he want it to come?”


    “Maybe it was a mistake. Perhaps he didn’t realize what power he was dealing with?”


    “But the Ascendency stones,” Elion said. “He has a few of them. I thought you got them for completing quests, or showing excellence?”


    “You’re right. In either case, he had to have known what power he was using.”


    “So he’s not an Artificer?”


    “He is. He must use both powers. It’s rare to walk the path of more than one Sentinel, but not impossible. I don’t know how it works with False Sentinels.”


    “I am in big trouble,” Elion muttered. He recalled overhearing Gorman talking to someone through the transmitter about him. “I’ve been ignoring it, but I think he might have told Dorian where to find me.”


    Keyla’s eyes widened. “Why would he do that? Prator lived here for a year. Gorman was glad when he left because he didn’t want warlock attention.”


    “Does Dorian offer rewards for turning in Aurelians?” Elion asked.


    “No,” Keyla said hesitantly. “He works with Aurelians sometimes, he’s not trying to kill them all. Why do you ask.”


    “I overheard Gorman talking on the transmitter. He mentioned something about a reward. I’m pretty sure he was talking about me.”


    “A reward for you? What makes you so special?”


    “It’s kind of a long story. I told you that my uncle kidnapped my sister.”


    Keyla nodded.


    Elion shifted uncomfortably on the rock where they sat. He pulled his legs up and tucked them underneath himself.


    “Well… My uncle is Dorian.”


    “Your uncle is Dorian Starholder?” she said, mouth hanging open in astonishment. “Are you the lost heir to the Golden Throne?”


    “Er… I might be…”


    “Start at the beginning,” Keyla insisted, leaning in closer, her eyes locked on his. “I don’t care if the story is long, tell me the whole thing.”


    So Elion started at the beginning. He told her everything, about Earth, about Liora, about Liora’s no-good stupid boyfriend Keith. He told her about his parents, about how he’d felt when they died. In detail he described the night Dorian appeared on his front lawn, ripping Liora from the house, and how heroic Zev had been as he burst from his truck.


    Occasionally he had to stop and explain specific things that didn’t make sense to Keyla, weird, pointless earth things like how an xbox worked or what a dachshund was. When he protested that the details didn’t matter to the story, she punched him playfully in the arm.


    “I want to know,” she would say, and Elion carried on. He talked about Zev not coming back. How he was the only one in the world who even knew Zev and Liora were in trouble.


    He talked about the Walkers, about what a brat Cara could be, and how Cathy enabled her. He talked about how envious he was of Kyle’s popularity, and normality, and how he hated himself for being envious about it.


    He explained how he stole Cathrine Walker’s butter knife, and how the Aurelian Altar had accepted it as his sword.


    Keyla gazed at him, her brow furrowed. The fading light from the sky reflected off her lightly freckled cheeks. A strand of hair, escaped from her braid, hung down over one eye. She didn’t seem to notice it.


    “You’re really the lost heir,” she muttered.


    “And there’s no way off this island,” Elion said. “I was so relieved to find out that Zev was here on Kylios, in Erod, but now I’m afraid that he might be a captive. If I’m still the only hope that they have… It seems like an even more impossible undertaking now than it did from back on Earth.”


    “So what are you going to do,” Keyla asked. “You really can’t stay here.”


    “I need to call Zev,” Elion muttered. “Find out if he’s a captive. He would know what I should do.”