Divine Energy poured into Nate and even as he felt himself become more in tune with Reality, the feeling was already leaving as the energy found him an unsuitable container. Splitting his mind four ways as he maintained the rune, he tried to direct the Divine Energy out of himself. The first tugged the energy, using his intent, towards the Skill he was maintaining. Conceptual Runic Mastery was, in many ways, a cornerstone of how he fought, crafted, and created art. However, having seen a previous Divine Skill evolution, he knew it would only impact one part of the Skill, and while it would have been nice to focus on the Conceptual power behind his runes, there was something to be said for raw Stats. Kiri’s speed had proven that. So it was to the Magic Power enhancement of the Skill he tried to direct the energy.

  The second part of his mind tried to capture a few specks of the energy in his Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist as he activated the Skill. He had a reason for doing so, and that related to the third path he tried to force the drips of energy he managed to direct from the stream of Divine Energy flowing out of him. Those last drips he tried to push into what he believed to be the Sigil on his puzzle box. If it was a Sigil, he wanted to see what it was. It would, after all, be his first Divine Sigil.

  While he couldn’t hold onto the Divine Energy, his efforts to direct a small amount of it bore fruit and a notification appeared in the corner of his vision. He would deal with that in a moment, as he only had eyes for the puzzle box as the Sigil lit up and the box folded open in four separate pieces. As it did so, Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist let him see the Concepts in play and Conceptual Insight activated to assist him. He almost wanted to bang his head on the desk at the simplicity. There was a Sigil on the inside of the puzzle box as well and it was the opposite of the outside. The outside of the box had been the Divine Sigil for Open and the inside one, even without Divine Energy, whispered in his sight for the few seconds he had. Close. It was Close. He had not one, but two Divine Sigils now, and they were literally Open and Close. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it but was too caught up in everything else that was happening.

  Finally, Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist told him what lay before him, kept a secret by the puzzle box and its inner layer of divine materials. There had to be something inside the metal of the puzzle box itself, because it had never screamed at touching reality the way it was now. On a bed of velvet lay a smooth yellow and red stone egg did.

  Fossilised Egg of a Solar Dragon (Divine)

  The fossilised egg was pressing against reality and the room was already heating up and brightening merely by its presence. Looking at the opened puzzle box he realised he couldn’t close it again without more Divine Energy. The Divine Sigils only responded to Divine Energy and Nate didn’t have any left to direct. Instead, he quickly put the egg into his Runic Gallery, but immediately sensed it having a similar reaction. Unwilling to let it damage his paintings, he set to work on erecting a Barrier around it to contain light, fire and mana. The latter was because the egg seemed to be influencing the mana in its surroundings, attuning it to light and fire. Even after he had the barrier rune erected and carved into the floor of his Runic Gallery, he still found the egg was degrading it and was forced to link the barrier to constantly draw mana to fight against the undirected presence of the egg. He’d need to come up with a better solution in the future, but for now it would do as a stopgap. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to burn down the room or his Runic Gallery, he finally looked at his notifications.

  Conceptual Runic Mastery 56 > 61

  Conceptual Runic Mastery (M) is ready to evolve.

  Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.

  Skill Evolution Options:

  Conceptual Runic Mastery (Divine)

  As a Runic Artist you have emphasised your deep connection with the Concepts of reality. The truths of the universe are yours to mold and through runes you tame these truths and make them your own. This Skill is the ultimate expression of what it means to create runes and runic arrays. This Skill allows the user’s runes and the Concepts and Sigils involved to aspect the mana of any runes projected. Mana aspecting will increase the power of any runes created. Mana aspecting is equal to 10 plus Skill Level multiplied by 1.5% resulting in an equivalent increase in the rune’s power. Mana Cost for rune creation decreases by 2% per Skill Level. The user of this Skill may permanently imbue a number of Intents in any rune they create as well as adding additional Subconcepts to the rune. Number of intents able to be imparted to dynamic runes is equal to Intellect divided by 8. Number of intents able to be imparted to any permanent runes is equal to Intellect divided by 16. Number of additional Subconcepts that can be added is equal to Intellect divided by 100. Increases Intellect by 1% per Skill Level. All runes created gain 10% of Dexterity and 20% of Creativity as Magic Power. Dexterity and Creativity to Magic Power conversion increases by 1% per Skill Level. Additionally grants 15% Creativity. Concepts embedded in runes increase the power of the rune by 10% plus 0.5% per Skill Level.

  Divine Bonus I: Multiply Magic Power provided by four. Cost: 1 Divine Energy. Duration: 15 seconds.

  You have evolved a second Skill to Divine Grade while your Class remains Mythic.

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  The Skill had not changed much due to the evolution. The only change had been the conversion for Creativity to Magic Power when working with runes. The initial bonus had changed from ten percent to twenty percent. It wasn’t much, but then, he’d had the same sort of response in his previous Divine Skill evolution. Then there was the new Divine Bonus. A similar power to Kiri’s it seemed, though apparently his would last longer. He wasn’t sure if that was because his bonus was lower or because it only affected one Stat, unlike Kiri’s three. Either way, it would be useful for improving the Magic Power behind his dynamic runes in the future.

  Satisfied that he had achieved everything he set out to, and unsure what to do with the fossilised egg of a solar dragon, he returned to his runecrafting. After all, if he finished early, he could start coming up counters to some of the other members of Bordain’s retinue. Technically, if his current idea could counter Bordain, then he had two members covered already. He smiled thinking about what Luc’s reaction would be.

  Four hours later, Kiri showed up to call him to the Guildhouse. Princess Morgane had arrived and they were planning their assault on the Palace. With an uneasy sigh, he gathered up everything he had been working on and checked in with Frick on his progress, before teleporting across the city with Kiri. While doing so, he made sure to lean heavily on his Obfuscated Space rune as he didn’t want Thierry Crozier to detect his use of space, just in case the man was back in the Capital.

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  The upper floor of the Guildhouse was packed when they arrived and more than a few heads turned to see who the newcomers were. Morgane was sitting in discussion with Aisling. A few nobles, including Baroness Olithia, huddled around them while Evindal and Deverell stood with Aisling. Nate’s sphere of awareness found Luc and he made a beeline for the man, who was leaning up against a wall talking to Hildi, or Nate supposed, in Luc’s view, Avery.

  “Come on. Was it just you, or did you and the Princess share?” Luc was asking with a playful smile on his face.

  “I guess you’ll never know,” countered Hildi, her body language betraying her interest in the flirtation. Though given she was an assassin, Nate had to acknowledge she could just be acting.

  “Hmm,” Luc commented, looking between Hildi and Morgane. “Her body shape does look familiar… and my apprentice did say you could physically change your shape… could go either way. I’ll need to try both to be perfectly certain, though. How about tomorrow? In the ruins of the palace? I bet you know some great, little hidey holes.”

  Hildi playfully smacked Luc on the arm as Nate approached and he couldn’t help but shake his head at Luc’s antics.

  “Apprentice now? I thought we were business partners?” he interjected.

  “The relationship is fluid, Nate. And what is friendship but a sharing of your heart with someone? I’m working on another friendship right now, as it were. Trying to broker a sharing of…” Luc replied, his mouth twisting into a salacious smile.

  “Don’t finish that sentence, you irredeemable pervert,” interjected Kiri as she walked over to join them, favouring Luc with a punch in the arm.

  Nate could tell she had held back consideringly but Luc still rubbed his arm in faux pain.

  “Nate, Kiri, good to see you again,” greeted Hildi. “I would say I hope you kids have been keeping out of trouble, but the word around the Guildhouse is that you helped kill four Platinums. Though no one seems to know who destroyed the training grounds. Or if they do, they’re not talking about it.”

  Kiri ignored Hildi’s fishing and looked around the room, taking in all the bodies present, and Nate suspected, like himself, sensing the presence of those below on the other floors of the Guildhouse.

  “How are we looking?” asked Kiri, her tone turning serious.

  “We think we have the numbers,” Hildi hedged. “Morgane’s spy network was second to none, and so we know the names of the big players, and we know they’re all in the Capital.”

  Kiri gave the Illusionist-Assassin a pointed look and Hildi smiled, shaking her head in chagrin before continuing.

  “Bordain has at least twelve Platinums left amongst his forces. Those closest to him go buy codenames… gem names, if you can believe the temerity of the man. Obsidian, or Thierry Crozier as you know him, is Bordain’s Space Mage. He mostly specialises in long-distance travel and moving people or things, as far as we can tell, but Luc has assured me he’s no slouch in battle either.”

  Luc ground his teeth in response but said nothing and Nate reminded himself to pull his mentor aside for a moment and give him the gift he’d been preparing.

  “Then we have Sapphire, real name Lionel Mazet, son of a Baron in the North of Etrua. He was a criminal thought to be executed. I won’t go into his crimes, but let me just say he likes women, whether or not they like him back. Etrua’s so backwards he probably would’ve been able to keep doing what he was doing so long as he kept his crimes to targeting the peasants. Instead, he decided to direct his attention towards a Count’s daughter. The Count demanded he pay for his crimes and we all thought he was dead. That was almost ten years ago. Seems he has been in Bordain’s service ever since. Based on the reports from his battles with the Asmuisillan First Army, he seems to be a melee-style Mage that uses some mixture of metal and ice.”

  “Next is Topaz. We don’t have a real name for her, if she even has one anymore. You’ll remember her from our own encounter when she nearly killed me. She’s a Shapeshifter like myself, but where I can only do humanoid forms, she seems to only do monstrous forms. We think there might be a limitation around it as she was often absent from the battles when Bordain moved to intercept the Asmuisillan Third Army and she was only seen using the same form a couple of times.”

  “Malachite, or First Sword Joran, Head of the Royal Guard, is next. Not much to say. It was an abject failure on my part not to learn of his duplicity. Like all Royal Guards, he follows a path that focuses on self enhancement, durability and the sword. Speaking of, the sword he carries is a Legendary artifact.”

  “Then we have Amethyst. She’s from Gashana and of all Bordain’s supporters, is probably the only one with an actual claim to the name she was given. She’s not a Gem-Ranked individual, she just seems to be some kind of gem or crystal-based Mage. From what we have learned, she seems to be an accomplished Enchanter and uses her ability to manipulate and create gems and crystal structures to control the battlefield and create on the fly enchantments.”

  Nate’s eyebrows went up slightly and Hildi nodded, “Yes, Nate. She is somewhat like yourself in that aspect and the true power she can unleash is likely going to be dependent on her crafting capabilities. She is easily the most diverse and adaptable, but given that she isn’t a pure combat Classer she is also the weakest of the bunch… as long as we don’t give her too much time to set up.”

  Nate quickly sent a question to Frick, “You haven’t sensed anyone else down there have you?”

  “No, Boss, but I’ll keep an eye out.”

  Nate suddenly got a mental image of a gigantic blue eyeball floating around and tried not to roll his eyes at his Familiar.

  “That brings us to the last two of Bordain’s inner circle. First, Headmaster Verian Thavian Mazet.”

  Luc cursed off to the side

  “What is it?” asked Kiri.

  “He’s probably the closest to a Gem-Ranked left in the Kingdom, and a very dangerous Elementalist.”

  Hildi tilted her head in agreement, “Exactly. He’s been missing for a little while, and we we’re hoping he fled the country, but if not, he is likely the most dangerous member of Bordain’s retinue, after Bordain himself. Verian’s been the Headmaster of the Royal University for over three decades. He likely has more spells in his pocket than any Mage in Etrua or Asmuisil. Maybe a few of the Gashanan Mages could match him, but basically, he’s incredibly dangerous. Especially since his Elementalist Class boosts every elemental magic type we know of. It’s just a rumour, but I also heard he has some esoteric affinities that make him a nightmare to deal with. Old rumours mind you, and maybe played up by the man himself, but if you two participate, and I know Morgane is hoping you will, promise me if you encounter Verian, that you will run?”

  Nate just shrugged noncommittally. While the information they were learning was interesting and hearing about the diversity of the Paths and Classes out there in the world was fascinating to him as someone with a Conceptual Embodiment, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be involved in the attack on the Palace. He was preparing, just in case, but if Aisling decided not to assist, neither would he. Unless Kiri went, of course, but he hoped she would follow his lead this time.

  “Finally, that brings me to Garnet,” continued Hildi, accepting Nate’s shrug of indifference.

  “And that’s where we come in,” interjected a girl approaching him from behind.

  Nate turned to see two girls with very different appearances approaching him, with Flash following the one on the left.

  “Long time no see, Nate,” greeted the Edgedancer with a tight smile.

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