“Who do you think we are?” Mercy asked curiously.
“You’re…aren’t you…exiles from the Wei clan?”
In the woods, techniques flashed as the other Heaven’s Glory sentinels attacked Ziel.
Lindon grabbed the front of the boy’s outer robe and forced him to meet his eyes. “You were attacked by exiles from the Wei clan?”
He waited for the boy’s furious, desperate nod.
“When?”
“Two…no, three? Three days ago!”
An old man’s commanding voice split the air. “Release him!”
Lindon looked up to see Elder Rahm, keeper of the Heaven’s Glory School’s Lesser Treasure Hall, facing them with his chin raised and his back straight. He stood with the vitality of a younger man, though he had to be at least eighty.
Four oblong security constructs floated behind him, a pair over each shoulder. Their tips shone with gold as they kindled their Striker techniques.
A jade badge hung on his chest, showing off a scepter emblem. A Ruler.
Lindon glanced behind the Elder to see Ziel’s increasingly distant figure shrugging off a barrage of Iron-level techniques.
Lindon released the Iron disciple, taking a few steps closer to the Heaven’s Glory Elder. He pushed his fists together, white knuckles against those of flesh, and dipped his head.
“Greetings, Elder Rahm,” Lindon said. “It has been too long.”
Rahm’s eyes crawled from Lindon’s face down to his badge before realization dawned on him. It quickly turned to disgust.
“Unsouled. I would take your hand for robbing me, but it looks like someone stole that pleasure from me.”
Lindon wanted to be offended by that, but he probably deserved it. While the Heaven’s Glory School had worked against him, Rahm had not started as an enemy himself. But Lindon and Yerin had robbed him anyway.
“How did you contact the other exiles?” Rahm continued, the constructs behind him growing hotter. “Or do they give you your orders?”
“I understand you’ve suffered from an attack, but we’re not here to hurt you. We’ve actually come to help.”
Elder Rahm’s jaw slowly dropped. He looked as though he had just heard the most stupid statement he could possibly imagine.
“I was too lenient on you before, Unsouled. I’ve since learned better than to expect honor from a Wei.”
He triggered all four of the launcher constructs. They began gathering light and heat into points as the Striker bindings within them cycled power. There was a delay of only about a quarter second between Rahm triggering the constructs and their techniques activating.
In that gap, a finger-thin bar of Blackflame sliced all four of the weapons into pieces.
Four explosions echoed behind Elder Rahm before his eyes had a chance to widen.
Lindon closed the distance between them in a blink. He didn’t use the Burning Cloak. He didn’t need it.
“Tell me about the Wei clan exiles.” Lindon said. He kept his voice quiet and firm, but he didn’t want to sound too threatening.
The threat was already clear.
Elder Rahm’s eyes moved to the others behind Lindon. “Did you really come from outside without knowing anything?”
“Apologies, Elder,” Lindon said, “but answer my question.”
Rahm’s wrinkled face melted slightly, into an expression that was one degree below a smile. “The heavens hate you. Perhaps I was right all along to pity you.”
“Clearly we’re wasting our time,” Eithan said with a sigh. “He has a soul of steel. We will never get any information out of him. We’ll have to search for clues on our own.”
There came a squawk and a handful of screams as Ziel pushed over a tree with one hand, sending the Irons hiding in its branches falling to the ground like overripe fruit.
Elder Rahm stiffened and gave Lindon a hateful glare. “Kill me. My Remnant will—”
“Oh, what great fortune!” Eithan cried. “A clue!” He was peering into the trees, shading his eyes with one hand. He leaped away, trusting the others to follow.
Mercy and Lindon both turned back to Yerin, who looked from one to the other. “Not at my peak, but I’m not really made of glass.”
[Hey Mercy, why don’t you keep her company?] Dross suggested, without letting Yerin in on the conversation. [Lindon can carry the old man. Oh no, wait, I’m sorry he’d rather carry Yerin. Of course, that was stupid of me. You take the wrinkly one.]
“I’ll take him,” Lindon hurriedly insisted, tossing Elder Rahm over one shoulder. Rahm struggled and protested, but he was a Jade. He’d be fine.
“Then I’ll—” Mercy began.
Yerin vanished in a flash of white light.
Her Moonlight Bridge could take her almost anywhere, but Lindon sensed her only a little ahead. She’d used it to catch up with Ziel.
“I really want one of those,” Mercy sighed.
They caught up in seconds. Once they did, Eithan and Ziel stopped holding back and picked up their speed toward the Heaven’s Glory School.
In only a few more minutes, they arrived. Yerin appeared in their midst at the center of a bright white light. She was breathing heavily, but using that Divine Treasure to transport shouldn’t have been so tiring. There could be restrictions to using it while in Sacred Valley, but Lindon moved that question to the back of his mind.
Elder Rahm had shouted almost the entire time as they moved at speeds greater than he’d ever imagined, but now that they had come to a stop, he was quiet.
Lindon remembered the Heaven’s Glory School—at least the part he’d seen—as a collection of smooth rainstone buildings that always glistened as though slick with water. Each living area was next to a small garden with a tree and a few colorful plants.
All of that…had been here, once.
Someone had treated the Heaven’s Glory School like the Dreadgod had treated Sky’s Edge. Buildings were sheared in half as though by massive swords, rubble was scattered around by explosions, and great gashes had been torn in the ground. Lindon didn’t see a single garden that hadn’t either been burned completely away or at least scorched.
Heaven’s Glory apprentices with copper, iron, or even wooden badges scurried everywhere, in the middle of construction projects. Some stood on ladders to repair rooftops, others filled in holes with dirt, still others patched up windows or carted away debris or re-planted trees.
And every one of them froze as Lindon and the others emerged abruptly from the woods.
One long pause later, they all screamed and ran, scurrying every direction and shouting for fighters to protect them.
Eithan walked casually up to the street that ran through the center of the school, gesturing to the debris around him. “Lindon, what’s your take on this?”
Lindon unceremoniously dumped Elder Rahm from his shoulder. The old Jade twisted and landed in a crouch. He tried to dash away but ran straight into Yerin’s outstretched hand.
Weakened she may have been, but Rahm was still no match for her. Her fist tightened on his outer robe, but she remained stone-faced. As he recalled, she didn’t have the same grudge against Rahm that she had against the other Jades.
What do you think, Dross? Lindon asked.
In Lindon’s vision, piles of debris and some of the streaks on the ground glowed purple. It took him a moment to sort all the information Dross was sending him, but once he did, Lindon began to speak.
“Heaven’s Glory was pushed back to this point. Their barrier was halfway made of Forged madra, and not all of it has been reduced to essence yet.” He gestured to a pile of what looked like golden glass shards. “The rest was stacks of wood, half of which was cleared away, but the rest is over there.” A pile of charred wood rested against a building to their right.
Lindon pointed down the street, to a building that was completely ruined. “The attackers got whatever was in there, then tried to force their way through this direction, but were forced back by Heaven’s Glory defenders.”