Sakura stood in front of the generator that powered Puppet Town’s Dome with a frown on her face.

  Although the magitech device seemed to be working properly and she couldn’t detect any sign of tampering, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong—a pervasive unease that had only grown stronger as time went by.

  She had already shared her concerns with Dialla and Earl. While both leaders promised to remain vigilant, no one had been able to find anything out of the ordinary. The refugees were still in quarantine, and no one had reported any problems other than the day-to-day issues that came with managing a settlement of this size.

  It had all started a few days earlier, shortly after a bull broke loose from its pen in the hunters’ district. It led the guards on a merry chase before being lured back to its corral by a barrel of fresh fruit. While Sakura was watching the peacekeepers chase the young beast—a comical proceeding that had been witnessed by half the town—she felt something strange.

  For just a moment, she thought she sensed a type of magic that she wasn’t familiar with. It had originated in the residential quarter, but the sensation had vanished before she could home in on its location. It hadn’t reappeared, and nothing of note had occurred since.

  While it wasn’t all that unusual to sense novel magic within the town, since people were learning new skills all the time and ranking up the ones they already had, it left her with an ominous foreboding she hadn’t been able to shake. She had failed to uncover additional details—learn who had activated the spell in question or where it had been cast. Even Lore-Weaver hadn’t been able to provide additional insight.

  As a precaution, she had asked Earl to increase the guards around the town’s critical facilities while doubling her own patrols. But after that single emanation, there hadn’t been so much as a trace of unknown magic being used within the settlement. Either the stress was starting to get to her, or whoever was responsible was skilled enough at covering their tracks to evade Sakura’s notice.

  The generators, aether refinery, and Dome are in the clear. I can’t detect any problems with our manufacturing, training, or military operations either.

  Even still, the matter didn’t sit right with her—not with the jailbirds lurking on the Ivory Plains. While she might have been acting out of an overabundance of caution, she decided to take another look at the town’s turrets. Sakura doubted anyone would try to tamper with them given the lethal countermeasures the devices employed, but she would sleep easier after completing a full inspection of the settlement’s defenses.

  She began with the pair defending the south gate. After greeting the deputies on duty, she took a close look at the magitech weapons, going through their assemblies component by component. But even after performing the whole process twice, she didn’t see anything unusual.

  Maybe the Claws are planning to blow up one of the gates or find another way to bypass the wall. As she mulled the matter over, she made her way over to the north gate, then went through the same procedure.

  Once again, Sakura couldn’t find anything wrong with the magitech devices. They were top-grade, and it would take an expert to disable them without the proper passcodes. Maybe it really is all in my head.

  Just when she was turning away, she felt a tiny flash of magical energy—the same frequency as the disturbance she’d noticed earlier.

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  It was just a residual coating akin to a fingerprint, but it sent alarm bells ringing inside her head. Even if the turrets were in perfect condition, someone had tried to access their magical circuitry, and their touch was so light the failsafes hadn’t activated.

  Since there were only three people in town who were authorized to inspect them—none of whom had done so recently—she was certain the magic had originated from someone with less-than-friendly intentions.

  In that moment, her bad feeling crystalized into a clear portent of danger. Sakura didn’t know how, but someone had infiltrated the settlement and was lurking within the walls.

  She needed to report the intrusion, but she wanted to learn more before the trace flows of magic faded away. Although she was reluctant to use them, this situation qualified as an emergency that was worthy of activating one of Lore-Weaver’s ultimate abilities.

  At stage two, the spinner of truth and lies had three Unique abilities, as well as a pair of traits. One ability let Sakura access parts of the System that were normally off-limits, which is how she communicated over long distances via the disabled Guide messaging function. Another helped her deal with enemies who were standing in front of her, giving her an edge in battle—although direct confrontation was always a last resort.

  The third ultimate ability was Analyze, which combined her senses with Lore-Weaver’s to investigate various forms of magical energy and create a model of their function. Analyze had a long cooldown, and her core didn’t like using it, but it had helped her survive emerging threats more times than she could count.

  First, she gathered her concentration and plucked a strand of the web stretching across her mind, alerting the spider to her request. Soon, she felt it skittering in her direction before an alien presence stepped into her inner world. Now that Lore-Weaver was present, Sakura focused on the magical fingerprint and activated her ultimate ability.

  “This is a waste of my talents. But in accordance with our pact, I will acquiesce to your request.”

  She ignored the spider’s grumbling, directing its attention to the turret ahead. When her core’s magic washed over her, Sakura’s senses expanded, drawing her into a trancelike state while sharpening her magical perception to a level few people on the planet could match—even those with innate mana sensitivity.

  As her mind opened like a flower greeting the morning sun, the brilliant colors saturating the magicytes streaming across the plains brightened to electric shades. She could sense the interference patterns flowing through the weave caused by hundreds of skills being used inside the town, and the countless thousands of beasts living in the biome beyond.

  At first, this plethora of information had been overwhelming. But after working with the spider for years, she could shut out the rest and focus on a specific flow. In this case, the tiny print of magic left on top of the turret’s control matrix. She frowned as the energy grew to fill the entirety of her awareness.

  With Lore-Weaver’s assistance, the oscillating flows began to make sense—a sensation like the pieces of a puzzle coming together. Someone tried to override the device’s magic in two different places. First, they attempted to change the targeting parameters so the turret would fire at anyone. When that didn’t work, they tried to overload the power chain running from the generator to blow it up, along with a fair chunk of the wall.

  Whoever did this is remarkably sophisticated and has one of the subtlest touches I’ve ever seen. This isn’t the work of some low-level grunt—it’s an elite technique performed by a professional. It could only mean one thing. The Claws have sent an infiltration specialist, and there’s no guarantee they’re working alone.

  Analyze faded away and Sakura’s senses returned to normal, leaving the world dull by comparison. Her core grumbled at the energy it had expended, although Lore-Weaver stopped complaining when it realized what she’d discovered.

  “I told you something was wrong.”

  “You were right. My judgement was in haste.”

  While the spider moved to the center of its web to sleep off its fatigue, she burst into motion. Whatever the Claws were up to, their efforts to invade the settlement must be nearing fruition to attempt something this brazen.

  She had to find the spy, throw a wrench into their machinations, and take them out before people started dying.

  Sakura crossed the town in a dead sprint, heading to the peacekeepers’ headquarters while sending messages to warn Earl and Dialla. An unknown threat was lurking in the shadows, and they needed to quash it before it was too late.