High in the rafters of the Broken Horn, the air was so cold that every breath Nyx took formed a silver cloud. A strict, and almost frantic, focus ruled this room. The space felt like a living brain. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with complex diagrams and calculations. Jet black ink was scrawled over her old posters with extreme precision. The cheerful colors of the anime girls were now just stains beneath the cold logic of geometry. The smell of burnt copper and ozone filled the air.
Nyx did not earn the title of The Architect by accident. Her magical seals allowed her to tap into a deep well of knowledge that went far beyond her own mind. On her desk lay the massive Encyclopedia of Lunar Secrets, which was a book bound in human skin with pages that vibrated with a low hum. Nyx was only twelve years old, but she had spent hours solving the ultimate code, which was the fusion between the vibrations of Tesla and the gravity of the moon cycle. Her small fingers were stained with silver dust and black ink.
“The sine wave is not aligning with the tidal acceleration,” she hissed through her teeth, and her voice was rough with exhaustion.
With silver tweezers, she guided a thin thread through a crackling magnetic field. Glass flasks exploded into a thousand pieces every time she tried to move the air mass too quickly. The room filled with a thick blue smoke. Only on the thirteenth attempt, when she combined a mysterious verse about the False Horizon with a formula for subatomic pressure, did it happen. A heavy lead bullet began to float.
But it was not just floating. The object pulled the shadows of the room toward it like a hungry black hole. The candlelight was literally bent toward the bullet and swallowed by the unnatural gravity. Nyx wiped an ink smudge from her forehead. Her pupils had changed into silver slits. She was no longer a child. She was the Architect rewriting the basic laws of reality.
In the deepest parts of the cellar, far beneath the feet of the drinking mercenaries, Bones knelt in the black dust. His hands shook with pure respect as he took care of the wounded wolf. Toji lay there as a giant piece of ancient power covered in battered felt. Bones dabbed the deep wounds of Toji with a silk cloth dipped in an ointment of crushed moonstone that shined like gold in the dark.
“Rest now, Great Traveler,” Bones whispered in a tone that felt like worship.
Toji opened one eye, which looked like a pool of liquid silver and stardust, and let out a deep growl. The sound was so deep that the glass bottles on the racks vibrated as if an earthquake was coming. Bones looked up at a hidden space in the wall, where behind a heavy velvet curtain hung his holiest possession. It was an ancient painting from the time before the Great Wars. The canvas showed a giant wolf identical to Toji standing on a mountain of skulls. He was surrounded by kneeling dwarves, elves, and humans who worshiped him like a god. Beneath the image was the name Toki.
Toji was the companion who had always been there and the eternal guardian who had returned to serve the Liberator. As Bones petted the wolf, he felt the ancient power moving through the fur. Toji was not here by accident. He was the shadow that guarded the sun.
In the rusted and smelling insides of Sector Null, the blind monk Kaelen stood like an unmoving statue of muscle and scars. The purple mist was so thick here that it burned the lungs. Suddenly, three Federation hunters came down from the smoke. They immediately activated their devices that created an unbearable high frequency noise.
For Kaelen, this was a death sentence. His sonar, which was his only way to see the world, was completely blocked by a wall of white noise. He staggered as the hunters surrounded him. Silarias was held to the ground by glowing gravity chains that burned his skin with special runes. The hunters raised their thermal blades to kill the helpless monk.
Then, a sharp and cutting sound broke the noise. Sato struck a hard and dissonant chord on his Shamisen instrument. The music was not for fun. It was a targeted frequency creating an invisible net of vibrations in the air. For Kaelen, it was as if the world lit up again in his mind. The vibrations of the strings of Sato became his new eyes.
“Thank you, old friend,” Kaelen muttered with a cold smile. “Flesh Bearer Style: The Vertebrae Lash!”
His wooden staff burst open into a whip of living bone and sinew that cut the air with a loud crack. He moved like a whirlwind. At the same time, Silarias activated his Sol Sonar. He saw the weak spots in the chains through the echoes of the music of Sato. With a loud roar and a massive explosion of the Sun Lion, he broke the chains and rammed his glowing fist through the thick armor of a hunter.
At the end of the day, the famous launch took place in the courtyard. Nyx was determined to prove what she had learned, and she casually walked to the front of the table and started tapping rhythmically on the edge.
“Then you do this, and if all goes well…” she said as she tapped the back of the table, but the heavy oak table shot through a thick stone wall like a rail gun. It got stuck there because of her Lunar Tide Lock.
“STALKER! FEDS!” Ren shouted, and within a second everyone disappeared into the shadows. Only Silarias remained, and he was confused by the impact with a huge clay bowl of soup on his head leaking over his shoulders.
The heavy iron doors of the tavern flew open with a force that shook the whole building. A thick jet black smoke rolled out from the dark. Then came the heavy metal stomp of boots.
Juro stepped out. He wore his heavy blood stained overcoat and the glow of his pipe was the only light on his dark face. He looked like a legendary warrior who had seen kingdoms fall. Without a word, he broke the soup pot on the head of Silarias with his bare hand.
“Look at me, baboon,” Juro hissed. “For four years I have tried to control that wild sun in your chest. And what do you show me? That you still have the discipline of a puppy.” He grabbed Silarias by the collar. “Control is everything! Without control you are just the next monster! Get that table out of the wall, baboon, or I will mop the cellar with your face! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!”
Two hallways away, the air was heavy with tension and smelled of sweets and cold sweat.
“DO NOT WATCH ME!” Jane screamed at Ren. “Do your job!” She turned him around and sent him running.
Aurelius appeared in a blur of motion. “The mentors have their drinks. We have ten minutes. START!” Ren called upon his Beast power. “VASNIR appear!” Out of the dark of his shadow, a winged orb appeared and slowly changed into a small limping creature. It shook itself out and looked at Ren. A silent understanding passed between them. Vasnir ran across the floor toward the feast. Kael took his stance, but a loud snap from the corner stopped him. Nyx entered and looked at the scene.
“Now what is all thi…”
“Three minutes!” Jane panicked. “Nyx, it is for the good cause! The coast is clear and the cakes are sitting ducks!”
Nyx did not hesitate. “Understood. Cake. Now.” With a sharp clap of her hands, she whispered, “Tide Lock: Zero G.” Instantly gravity disappeared for the objects in the room. The children climbed around and grabbed the floating cakes from the air like stars. Ren climbed on Aurelius and Kael jumped on Jane. Nyx attached a magical thread to the leg of Jane and in a flash of light they were gone, while leaving only the hum of moved air.
A few moments later, Nyx saw how Silarias was struggling and stepped out of the shadows. “I will do it.” She focused her eyes. “Tide Lock: Zero G.” The table lost all its weight and slid out of the wall like a feather. The angry look of Juro immediately softened. He blew out a cloud of hundreds of cute smoke animals. “Ehh, just tell me it was her next time. I cannot be angry with her.”
But Silarias was still shaking from the speech and he wanted to set the table aside. Forgetting the thing was now weightless, he used his full solar strength. He threw the table away with huge power. The oak moved at extreme speeds and slammed with a hard crash directly into the back of the walking Juro.
The table exploded into ten thousand splinters on impact. Silarias grabbed the hand of Nyx. “Thank you so much, Nyx, a thousand times, I promise!” he said and ran away. Juro turned around very slowly and his face was full of rage. “OH HELL NAH! STILL A BABOON!”
Later that night, Nyx walked through the hallways of the Broken Horn. She was boiling with rage and every step left a thin layer of ice on the floor. She reached the oak doors of the Great Hall and kicked them open.
“Silarias! I hope for your sake you have a very good explanation for that huge crash because I swear by the moon I will…”
The words died in her throat. The hall was changed into a dream world. Thousands of copper wires were woven through the beams, from which recycled magical lights hung, while spreading a warm gold light. The smell of fresh bread and roasted meat filled the room. The whole guild was there. “SURPRISE!” they shouted as loud as they could.
Silarias stepped forward. His face was covered in flour and he carried a heavy and imperfect cake he had clearly tried to bake himself. There were thirteen uneven candles on it.
“Thirteen years ago they found you in that basket, Nyx,” he said softly. “You did not count on this one, did you? But I knew, I knew you would forget this.”
The mask of cold logic that Nyx wore fell apart. Her hands shook. Jane placed a rough hand on her head. Aurelius gave her a small wooden box. Inside was a moon pin made by hand from pure silver.
“As long as I breathe, Nyx, you never have to write your formulas in the mud again. You are the Architect of our home.”
Nyx completely broke down and began to cry while making deep and liberating sounds. Vespera took her tenderly in her arms. “They bullied me for years in the palace,” Nyx cried. “They called me a monster because I saw the stars. And now, now everyone is here for me.”
In the doorway sat Toji. He looked at the crying Nyx and the proud Silarias with a look that had lived through centuries. He gave a slow and wise nod as a greeting to his masters who had finally found their place.
The tavern below had finally become quiet. In the small room shared by the Nobody and the Architect, the air was thick with the smell of dead candles and the cold of the barracks.
“Sil?” Nyx whispered, and her voice was soft while losing its usual proud tone. “Are you still awake?”
“Hm?” Silarias muttered, and his voice was heavy with sleep.
“No, I just wanted to say thank you. For seeing me today.”
Silarias smiled in the dark and it was a small and genuine smile. “Of course, dummy,” he said softly. “I will take care of you.” His sentence ended in a deep breath of satisfaction as he fell asleep. Nyx pulled her thin blanket up to her chin and giggled very softly, which was a sound that did not belong in a hard place like this. “Sleep well, Sil.”
