Laryn snapped backward in time, five seconds into the past. He pulled his blade through an arc and rolled onto the balls of his feet. Flame stance. Two steps to the side as he fired his water dart into the exposed flank of the voidlord. This time, he didn’t trip.

  The [Dart] smashed into the chink in the voidlord’s armor. The massive mantis bellowed as it weaved unsteadily. Laryn slammed in, flame stance blade a flurry of blows. Bits of carapace flew through the air as he pressed the advantage.

  Shifting to life stance for more precise striking, Laryn stabbed into weak points at joints, and then slashed across the softer underbelly of the void lord. Like the huge bug it was, it quivered and rolled on its back, legs curling as black ichor dripped from its wounds.

  Laryn grinned, leaning for a moment on his sword as he caught his breath. The roots and vines shifted more urgently beneath his feet, like the voidbloom knew what had happened. Wiping his brow, Laryn turned to the bloom.

  He strode confidently across the uneven ground, growing more accustomed to the random shifting beneath his feet. It was like walking on a ship’s deck in choppy water, in a way.

  A thick stalk connected the bud to the rest of the void… creep? Laryn didn’t know what the growths covering the ground were called. He stared up at the huge bud. The stalk was so thick, he couldn’t have wrapped his arms around it.

  He didn’t think that killing the voidlord had hurt, or even stopped, the bloom. He had to destroy it before it could spawn anything else. He was still trapped inside this arena.

  So he started hacking at the stalk.

  The keen blade bit deep into the soft, woody substance. After six hacking blows, the weight of the bud overcame the weakened stalk. It crashed to the ground, splitting the calyx.

  Everything around him withered. Roots shriveled, vines and stalks dried and crumbled to dust, and the walls of the arena collapsed.

  Shining black carapace sepals sparkled in the light of the setting sun. Laryn started turning away from the bud, disgusted by the destruction wreaked on the land.

  “What is that?” Adi asked.

  Laryn looked up, surveying the scene for anything he missed. Adi was looking at things through his eyes, but she might have focused on something he’d glossed over.

  “Inside the void bud,” Adi said.

  Laryn looked at the black bud, lying in the ashy soil. Black and hard, the bud was larger than Laryn’s torso, and might have weighed almost as much as he did. Round and swollen where it connected to the stalk, the bud tapered toward one end, where the sharp tips of the sepals were just beginning to flare out.

  He prodded it with his sword, rotating it as he tried to see inside of it.

  “What do you mean, inside?” he asked. He couldn’t see anything in the bud.

  “Through the cracks,” Adi said.

  “There aren’t any—” He stopped, as he realized that the calyx of the bud had cracked. Not hair thin, hard to notice, micro fractures, but large, obvious cracks. Laryn scratched his head, wondering how he’d missed them.

  “That is weird,” he said. “I didn’t notice that at first.” He shrugged, and turned away from the bud.

  “I said there’s something inside the bud,” Adi urged. “Go see what it is!”

  Laryn shook his head and blinked, confused. He turned back to the void bud and peered inside the dark cracks of the bud shell. A physical resistance pushed him away. The sensation reminded him of voidclaimed hextile influence working against him.

  He pushed through it, examining the bud. Something blacker than black hid inside. He forced his fingers into a crack, and pried away hardened outer sepals of the bud.

  Beneath, the petaloids of the bud were tender and sticky, not yet having hardened into their final form.

  Laryn cut flesh away from the plant, and discovered a midnight black chunk of obsidian stone nestled in the center of the bud. About the size of his two fists, the black rock reflected no light, but, paradoxically, sparkled around the edges. It looked like a hole in reality.

  Someone whispered something in his ear.

  “What did you say?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” came Adi’s reply. “I didn’t say anything.”

  He stared at it for a moment. “Something is strange about this,” he said. “It’s so… beautiful.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed.

  Laryn grabbed the black stone. The instant his fingers brushed the cool, glossy surface, the world around him faded.

  He floated in a pool of thick, oppressive black. Whispers assaulted him from every direction, thousands of voices speaking an incomprehensible language.

  Beautiful rainbows of light blossomed in the darkness. Choirs sang, a glorious melody of awesome power and joy. His soul vibrated with ecstasy.

  He felt the pure intent of the void, and longed for it.

  “Laryn!” Adi shouted, her voice distant. “Something’s inside your head!”

  Sharp pain bloomed at the base of Laryn’s skull, where he was connected to Adi. She pulled on him, tearing him free from the bliss of the void. He nearly snapped their connection right then, longing to dive back into the swirling emotion.

  “Laryn are you okay?!”

  He opened his eyes, trembling slightly, and pulled the void heart from the sap and ichor of the bloom.

  “Void heart,” Laryn whispered, looking at the black hole in his hands.

  “What was that?” Adi exclaimed. “I… I had to pull you out of it, like you’d fallen into some kind of swamp!”

  “I don’t know,” Laryn muttered. His whole body ached to return to the overwhelming sense of bliss that he’d just experienced. The sensation faded rapidly, though, replaced by a sense of peculiar dread. He probably needed to get rid of this thing.

  “Hey!” Adi said. “You did it! The tile is no longer void claimed!”

  Laryn surveyed the crumbling ruin around him. The body of the void lord had not crumbled like the rest of the void bloom. He looked back at the void heart that he held. A cold maliciousness emanated from the rock.

  “Can I sift this?” he asked.

  “Probably,” Adi said.

  Back at the kingdom core, Laryn stood again in ankle deep water. He held the void heart in front of him, marveling at the way it blocked out light. It whispered to him. He could plunge back into it; lose himself in the darkness of the void.

  Part of him wanted to.

  “Maybe I should keep it,” he said. “It’s beautiful, in a way.”

  “I have never seen one of those before,” Adi said. “But if I had to guess, it’s probably got a lot of essence in it. You said that those plant things—”

  “Voidblooms.”

  “Yeah, voidblooms, you said they soak up essence, stealing it from the tiles they claim?”

  “As far as I understand it,” Laryn said.

  “Something tells me the essence goes into that rock,” she said. “And if you sift it, you’ll get a lot of it back out.”

  “Okay. I’ll try it.”

  He cast the spell.

  The voidheart exploded into a rainbow. Blues, greens, reds, browns, and greys swirled in the air around Laryn’s hand. These rapidly formed into nearly two dozen spheres, which spilled out of his grasp and into the water.

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  Laryn pressed the few he’d managed to catch into the kingdom core, and splashed around in the water collecting the rest of them before they could evaporate.

  “Wow,” he said. “That was a lot. How much essence did I just put into the core? It seemed like most of them were water.”

  “That was twenty-two,” Adi said. “Eleven water, three life, two fire, two air, three earth, and one stone.”

  “Why so much water?” Laryn asked.

  “Probably because it mostly controlled water tiles, that’s my guess,” Adi said. “So, you going to go get that voidlord body now? I bet it’s also worth a decent amount.”

  “That’s going to take ages,” Laryn said. “It’s probably almost as heavy as that bulky voidling I had to chop up earlier, and besides, it’s getting late.”

  “You want to claim more tiles then?” Adi asked. “Regain your strength stat and go for a constitution one? You’ve got ten average influence on your two tiles here.”

  “No,” Laryn said. “That seems like a nice number. I like how ten influence feels. It’s nice for things to feel a little bit easy for once. Besides, you said to learn to feel the difference.” He looked over at the horizon, where the sun had now sunk beneath the horizon.

  He turned to Adi, who stared up at him, brow eyes glittering with excitement. “Thank you for… whatever that was back there,” he said. “I almost lost myself in the void.”

  She blushed and stared at the ground, twisting one toe in the dirt. “I didn’t really do anything,” she said, but her wings fluttered behind her. Catching the light of the setting sun, they shimmered, a dramatic swirl of orange and gold hues.

  “Well, thank you anyway,” Laryn said. He reached out and touched her arm. He felt something; the slightest whisper of a touch on his hand. She stepped into him and embraced him, like a faint shifting, a fluttering against his chest.

  “Oh!” Adi said. Laryn returned the embrace, careful of her delicate wings.

  “You said it’s been a long time since someone had enough influence for you to touch things,” Laryn said, lamely. “I guess ten isn’t enough, but I figured that in a kingdom of only two tiles it would be easier to raise average influence—”

  “Shh…” Adi said. “Don’t talk. You’ll ruin it.”

  Laryn stood quietly, arms wrapped around the ghostly girl until she broke away.

  “Thank you for that,” Adi said. “It’s been such a long time since someone thought about doing something just for me.”

  “Yeah, I mean, I thought it might be nice for you, but I didn’t mean anything by it, you know, just, thank you.”

  She smirked at him. He felt his face redden.

  “I’ve had a long day. I think I’m going to go make myself a bed and go to sleep. Wake me up if anything strange happens.”

  Using some crates and sacks, Laryn made a small shelter on the beach among his supplies. He flattened out a place on the dry sand, and procured a sack of grain to use for a pillow. His skin buzzed from the sensation of being close to Adi. Her substance had been weak, barely a hint of pressure and warmth as she’d hugged him. But he could still feel her form brushing softly against his skin.

  A sense of accomplishment washed over him as he lay down in his improvised hovel. He had survived the day. Not only had he survived, he had defeated the voidlord and destroyed the bloom.

  He wasn’t safe now, not by a long shot. Anything or anyone could come out of the wildlands now. He would have to erect some more permanent defenses. Even some sharpened stakes in a row would be helpful, since influence would make it harder for strangers to dismantle them.

  Laryn was thinking like a [Ruler]. Was he… enjoying this experience? Despite everything that had happened?

  That was ridiculous. His heart still ached at the thought of Keldin, lying beneath the sand on the beach. He couldn’t bear to think of how he’d let his brother down. All the enthusiasm left him. He’d give it all up to have Keldin back. However foolish the thought, he clung to the idea of using the power of the core to rewind time and save his brother.

  To truly build a kingdom, he would need a better location. He needed a coresmith to help him move the core. If he could find someone he trusted to watch over the core, that might make it easier for him to find a coresmith. These lands were filled with goblins, and elves, and the occasional human settlement, so finding a person wasn’t out of the question. Even location a coresmith could be done.

  Perhaps he could find an elven coresmith.

  If he couldn’t find anyone he trusted to care for the core, then what? Maybe he could build up influence, then construct walls around the core. With enough influence, voidlings would struggle to dig—sand would become like bedrock to their claws. And Adi would become more substantial, and could perhaps defend the core for him? If she had a more corporeal form, would voidlings be able to hurt her?

  That could take a long time though. The wedding would be happening soon, back in Eltar. Then, the coronation. Yarin would begin taking over his father’s duties as ruler. Laryn and Keldin were supposed to return in time for the coronation. If the king decided to send someone looking for his sons, he would do it before then. Laryn had to establish himself before that; or risk a fight with his father’s guard and the possibility of being dragged back to Eltar for punishment.

  Father hadn’t been happy with their planned hunting trip, but he understood why Laryn wanted to go, once Keldin had framed it the right way.

  Laryn gripped his sword, lying on the ground beside him.

  Uncertain about the desires of his heart, Laryn tried to think of other things. He muttered a mantra, one for accepting the course of fate like the inevitable flow of a river.

  Whatever had lead him to this point, he was now a [Ruler]. Ruler of a strip of sand in the middle of the river of fate.

  He drifted off to sleep, and dreamed of building a dam.

  Bright sun awoke him the next morning. He groaned, his body stiff with aches and pains. When he rolled out from under his shelter, he found Adi standing there, tapping her foot.

  “Good morning, sleepy head,” she said. “You planning on getting anything done today or just lying around?”

  The sun hung high in the east—mid morning already.

  “I deserve a rest, I think,” Laryn said. “I had a horrible day yesterday.”

  “How long is that going to take?” Adi asked.

  “What?”

  “Your rest? When will you be done resting? I have a long list of things you need to get working on.”

  Laryn grimaced. “Who’s the ruler here, me or you?”

  “You are, silly,” Adi said, not getting it. “I’m the administrator. I’ve been inventorying your supplies, and, while you have a good stock of food and some essentials, you’re going to run short on—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Laryn said, stifling a yawn. He stretched, his bandaged wounds aching.

  “Medical supplies, for one,” Adi said. “If you keep going through them at the same rate.”

  “I think I should have claimed some more tiles last night,” he said, investigating the injury in his side. “I could use the added strength and constitution, I think.”

  “There is a trade-off between claiming more tiles and influence,” Adi agreed. “It was probably stupid to have influence so high just for my sake.”

  “Let me see this list,” Laryn said.

  Adi presented him with a long list of things he could work on, including building shelter, walls, and initial steps for preparing land for agriculture. She held a pad, and wrote on it with a quill, but Laryn could also access the list through his core interface. Whenever she wrote something down, it appeared on his list.

  “What is all this?” he exclaimed. “This is putting down roots! Settling in!”

  “It’s just good kingdom management,” Adi protested.

  “But I’m not going to be able to do most of that!” Laryn said. “I need a population! I need to move the core to somewhere better. Here, in the middle of the river, on the border of Elvandar and the wildlands, with no roads that I can see… It’ll never work.”

  “How? You can’t move the core.”

  “If I can find a coresmith somehow, then I’ll disable the core and bring it with me. If I find an opportunity to pass off stewardship of the core to another who can protect it while I’m away, I will. If I can get to Townshold soon, before my father starts searching for us, I might be able to hire a coresmith. That was the plan you suggested, wasn’t it?”

  “And if we’re too far into the middle of nowhere?” Adi asked. “And you don’t see anyone for weeks?”

  “I’m going to have to go exploring along the river eventually,” Laryn said. “So I’ll have to build up influence and defenses. How high will I need to get my influence to make sand like concrete to any intruders?”

  “Pretty high,” Adi said. “Obviously that is easier if you don’t claim more tiles, but again there are tradeoffs—”

  “Well, that’s my plan,” Laryn said. “I have to get to Townshold within a month. So I do what I can until then. Can you reorder this list for me, so that the things that will be most helpful in the next three weeks are at the top?”

  Adi rolled her eyes. She waved a hand, and the parchment she’d handed to Laryn changed, reflecting the new ordering of tasks. At the top of the list: Sift the voidlord’s body.