Feletis Bannem looked around at the carnage at his feet.

  How the Guild had sent hundreds of thousands of different Were soldiers to the University without him hearing a whisper about it troubled him. Unlike the rest of the Mages on Aethoria, he wasn’t at risk of being turned into one of those creatures that was a slave to the cabal that ran the Guild, the only legal group of Weres in the Universe.

  The elf was over two-thousand-years-old, but if he hid his golden ears, he could pass for a forty-year-old human man. He looked through the hole in the wall of the building that he’d just cleared. On the other side was the woman that he’d raised like a daughter for almost the last three hundred years.

  Despite her age, white hair, and dark skin, owed to her drow heritage, she could pass as a woman in her late teens. Jhyleer Starbrand stood over the bodies of a dozen Werewolves, their blood splattered on her skin that was covered by a torn tank top and jeans.

  The Werewolves had seen a young Elf man and woman and expected an easy fight against young Mages that would end with two new Werewolves for the Guild. They hadn’t been ready for the pair of experienced monster hunters.

  “We could really use Jeru.” The drow tore a bigger hole in the wall with her hands. The stone broke away like it was paper.

  “He’s on an important assignment.” Feletis shook his head. This was a full-on assault against the Elders, of which he headed. Very few beings had enough magical power to challenge him, yet even he was restricted to only being able to project off-world, but the strength of the spell would keep him from being able to get back.

  “More important than this?” Jhyleer motioned around at the carnage. “The Weres are turning more students every day.” She shook her head. “We’ll win, but how many of us will be left when we do?”

  The old Elf started to answer, but a vision slammed into his mind. He saw Krav, the Grim Master Mage that he’d left in charge of Tefira. Grim had an exoskeleton for skin, and their skeletal appearance caused most beings to avoid them, some even labeling them as ‘living undead’, though Feletis knew that wasn’t true. His friend was standing in front of a swirling storm of darkness. At the center of the storm, the only thing he could make out was the tentacled face of the one monster he had been fighting against for over fifteen hundred years.

  Kinwel, the Cthulhu Archdemon, laughed inaudibly at the gathering challengers. There were many different races, but the one that stood out the most was a Camadt, the seven-foot-tall, four-armed, feline-faced, magically immune terrors of the Universe had been sealed away fifteen hundred years ago, but there was a colony of survivors on Tefira. That he would see a Camadt was alarming enough, but what didn’t make sense was that Jhyleer was standing next to the monster, ready to do battle against the Archdemon.

  The vision faded away into dust. Feletis grabbed his forehead as his mind was able to take in what was actually around him.

  “What happened?” Jhyleer helped the old Elf sit down. “Was it another vision?”

  Feletis nodded. “It seems that Kinwel has decided to make more than one move.” He looked around at the destroyed training room. “I thought that Jeru’s mission would be it, but..." He looked over at the young Elf woman. “We’re running out of agents I can send to put out fires.”

  His son had been different a few days ago. The boy had always been strong, but he’d been bursting with power. He had also known things that Feletis had tried to keep from him. Things that would have been very dangerous if it got out, especially to his enemies. Secrets that were known to fewer people than he could count on his hands.

  But despite being different, his son was still the same deep inside. It had been his warning that had saved many lives when they were attacked, and even though Jhyleer was correct in stating that his power would be helpful, Feletis trusted that his son would explain everything once it was all over.

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  “What about the new kid, Kark?” Jhyleer put her hands on her hips. “He’s the strongest Mage I’ve ever seen. Why don’t we bring him in?” Shadows danced on her fingers. “Or you could always let me go finish Warden.”

  “You know why we can’t tell the boy and leave Warden alone.” Feletis shook his head. The leader of the Ogres also led the minority faction of the Dark Masters, the group that opposed the High Elf Alliance and likely the ones who funded the assault on the planet.

  “I know…” Jhyleer straightened and tried to mimic giving a lecture. “In order to decrease collateral damage, there needs to be balance.” She shook her head and pointed at the dead Werewolves. “Does that look like balance to you?”

  “You remember what things were like before the Dark Legion. I’ll figure out who is behind this, and if it’s Warden, then I’ll let you go after him.” A memory of a botched assassination attempt on the undead Ogre tried to force its way out. Feletis stuffed it back down. He’d been against it, but the Congress had given the green light, and there had been war for hundreds of years because of that decision. He didn’t want to be the one who lit that spark. Feletis had brokered peace three hundred years ago, and he was confident that he could do it again.

  “I know…” Jhyleer swung her arms as she paced around him. “I’m just not good at waiting.” She stopped and looked down at her father figure. “Are you okay? You look... tired.”

  Feletis chuckled. Tired was a good word for it. He’d been trying to hold the universe together for almost fifteen hundred years. In all that time, he’d never found anyone who could take over the reins. Some had come close, but none had ever been strong enough to shoulder such a burden.

  The old Elf brushed himself off. “I need you—.”

  “No!” Jhyleer spun around. “You’re about to send me off while you stay here.” Her black eyes bored into him. “You know you need me.” She pointed south towards the main campus. “Name one other person who can be out here with you that doesn’t have to worry about getting infected!”

  She had a point. While the two of them were immune, any pure-blood Mage could get infected by as little as a scratch.

  “I’ll be fine.” Feletis tried to believe the words that he knew were false. Aethoria had already fallen; it was just a matter of how many Elves he would be able to get out. “The Congress has promised—”

  “You know exactly how useless the Congress is!” Jhyleer punched the wall. “Let me guess, Exir wants something in return.”

  “Dumas is handling it.” The old Elf didn’t want to rehash the history between Jhyleer and the Speaker. “And if things get bad enough, you know I have other women I can call on.”

  Jhyleer glared at him. “If either of them sets foot in Elf territory, it’ll be civil war.” She shook her head. “Send Lyst on the errand instead and let me stay here.”

  Before he could open his mouth, an image flashed in his mind. All of the people in the last vision were dead, with Kinwel standing over them.

  Feletis shook away the image. “No, it has to be you.” Visions and prophecy had never been his thing, with his specialty being in fulgurmancy, but he did have prophecy in his blood. The visions had started recently and had been getting stronger and clearer every time. The one thing the old Elf knew was that if the visions were being this insistent, he needed to follow through.

  A destination that he’d never been filled his mind. A place that wasn’t Tefira.

  “Here.” He started casting the spell that would punch a hole in the anti-projection field. Feletis could already feel the alarms he was setting off. In minutes, there would be an army of Weres on him. “You need to go. NOW!”

  Jhyleer stopped in front of the portal, then turned back to the man who’d been her father figure for the last three hundred years. “You better not die before I get back.”

  Another image crossed his mind. One that gave him hope but also promised that he’d be lying.

  “I won’t.” He pushed her into the portal and felt his power drain away as she vanished.

  Howls told him that he was about to have company. He brushed a tear from his eye and touched the wall where the woman who’d been like a daughter to him for over three hundred years had vanished. “I will see you again, though.”

  Feletis set his jaw and called on his magic. A good fight was just the distraction he needed.

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