“Finally,” I groaned as I came within the city limits. Jetpacks are fast. But not that fast. And I had lost the dropship several miles back. I forgot how hard it is to swerve away from incoming trees with afterburners on. Thankfully, the thing was undamaged, but it was stuck. “Well, it’s not my problem, it’s Gears’s,” I chuckled nervously.

  “Rasil?” a soft voice said on the comms, “Is that you?”

  “Hi, Sophia,” I said, relieved that Gears wasn’t the welcome committee instead. He doesn’t like me crashing his dropships any more than he likes me disabling my comlink. Sophia just had the power to banish me, whereas Gears would actually do it.

  “Your beacon came online a couple of minutes before you entered comms range. Did you turn it off?” she asked, knowing my mischievous ways as only a sibling would.

  “Yeah, it wouldn’t quit beeping,” I said.

  “Rasil, that’s a signal that you’re passing through a danger zone. Please just leave it on in the future, okay?”

  “You got it,” I said.

  I flew lower towards the ground as I neared the castle, which is where I live. Even in the year 3212, having royal lineage still gets you a castle.

  Needless to say, the fortress itself was an amazing sight. Its banner was flying in the wind. Its towers rose over the city, the sunrise glaring over the cliff it rested upon. The sprawling city of Embershard is built across a crater by the ocean. Which was a perfect spot, when you think about it.

  The land there is clear and fertile, so we planted crops. The nearby mountains are rich with ores, so we mined metal. The forests are filled with animals, so we caught food. We had empty space, so we built a city. And finally, we had an enormous empty spot right next to the cliffside, so we looked at it and tried to figure out how to use that too. It took a while before a decision was reached.

  Honestly, most would look at that cliff and say you could fall and die. But those who first settled this planet were men after my own heart, and said, ‘Heck, let’s build a freaking castle on top of it!’ I thought with a smile about the conversation that must have resulted in that decision.

  The gate that led inside loomed ahead as I came in for a landing. My jetpack’s wings stayed deployed, and I glided downward. It was a good thing that most people stayed inside in the evening, because I have trouble stopping quickly. I skidded across the ground with my boots before coming to a stop right in front of the gate. I gave a look at the guards, who know my landings well, and they let me in.

  Going straight ahead to the central keep, I walked into the throne room and immediately saw Sophia. She was doing her duty of being Queen Sophia for the time being. Three of her advisers were standing with her, along with General Jason Farkal. Whatever they were saying, she clearly wasn’t happy about it. Her usual smile had dimmed, and she was sitting sideways on the throne, trying to bite her fingernails, though that’s somewhat difficult with silk gloves. Her brown hair fell over her shoulder in a neat braid, while her actual bangs were a bit messy. Seeing her like this, one could pick up on our similar behaviour, but as far as twins go, we look nothing alike. She smiled again when she saw me. “Matthew!” she said joyfully, addressing me by my actual name instead of Rasil.

  “Rasil,” I said instinctively. I cherished the nickname I had been given by my father, and I would not let it go unused. Even if it just referred to my red eyes in the Aljian runic language, it had a nice ring to it.

  “Rasil, then,” Sophia corrected herself as she stood up from the throne. She was always polite, even when she forgot. I noticed, however, that she didn’t currently have her staff. Jason was holding it for her, so it wasn’t doing any good.

  That was when everything went downhill. Sophia ran to embrace me, and Jason ran to catch her. Sophia’s legs had never worked consistently; it was just the way she was born. Something about nerve issues, though she was tight-lipped about the details herself. So, sure enough, she tripped and fell before Jason reached her. As usual. But to her credit, she promptly pulled herself off the ground and kept going. I hugged her while Jason handed over her staff.

  “Jason just told me what happened with the satellite,” she said while leaning against the staff. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was a bit worried.”

  I laughed and responded, “Please, you know I’m untouchable.”

  It used to be a common myth throughout the city and even the kingdom at large that it was impossible to touch me because I would just dodge out of the way. Such a myth was, unfortunately, completely false, but pretending it wasn’t brought it closer to reality.

  “Jason,” she said with a smile, “escort Rasil personally to the lab. Gears had something important to say.”

  Jason looked at me, realizing the joke, he played along, saying, “Escort him? Overkill, I would reckon. But sure.”

  “Overkill?” she remarked sarcastically, “He seemed pretty angry.”

  “He was joking,” Jason laughed back.

  “But Rasil may still require protection, right?”

  “Your word is my command-ish?” he laughed. I was trying not to laugh myself. Jason was the youngest person to ever make the spot for general, favored by my father and able to put up with my antics; he was always training for this. His innate pyrokinetic abilities didn’t hurt. The ability to harness the heat of power crystals to create flames and magma solely by channeling his energy was as impressive as it was mysterious, a mutation his family had struggled to explain. Nobody was surprised when Jason was granted this position, equal parts “general” and advisor, but due to his age, he still had his sense of humor.

  Then again, we were all young anyway...

  “I agree,” I said absently, my mind was drifting back to finding where the energy beam had hit.

  “Then you’d better get down there before he gets angrier,” Jason answered. We started towards the lab, walking down the staircase into the lower level beneath the castle. Jason piped up and said, “The place has been a lot quieter without you around.”

  I was taken aback, but responded, “I do try to liven things up. But I didn’t know it worked.”

  “It certainly did,” he said.

  “Did anything important happen while I was gone?”

  “If by that you mean anything that you should feel guilty for not attending, no.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “That’s not an answer, Jason,”

  “Fine,” he sighed, “there was a racazoid skirmish.”

  My cheery attitude vanished as I tensed with worry. “Details?” I whispered. There was a momentary silence as we stopped walking.

  “We handled it, Rasil,” he assured.

  “How many casualties?” I asked. With the racazoids on the offensive, the war was becoming harsher, and I was always concerned about the losses. I had never formally finished my training, and I relied solely on the skills I had so far. I couldn’t help with everything, nor be in every place at once. Whatever my guilty reasoning for it, I always pressed Jason for the reply to this question.

  “None,” he said, resting his hand on my shoulder.

  “Good,” I breathed with relief. I had expected a far worse answer.

  We resumed walking and, heading down another staircase, reached the Basement. I stepped through the large doorway and looked into the dark. The Basement is a masterpiece to look at every time. A building five times the size of the keep, all underground and safe from harm. It expands so far that a good portion of the harbor sits a mere ten feet above, so far that you can’t see from one end to the other. Of course, with such a metropolis, the military lives and works there without a worry. A military that includes my best friend, Gears.

  “Rasil!” Gears yelled from his lab, which was right next to the entrance.

  “Yes?” I said cautiously. I knew he was mad, I just didn’t know when he would show it.

  “I need to talk to you about something,” he said. I began to walk inside the small lab, but stopped when I saw Jason wasn’t following me. He was talking to Helios. The thought of talking with Gears faded away. This was a bigger priority.

  “Helios!” I called, “What are you doing within city limits?” He stopped talking to Jason and looked at me. This sent chills down my spine, as Helios is not a human. Rather, he is a robotic hawk that I've been trying to get rid of since he first showed up. His eyes glowed a sapphire that illuminated his silvery grey body. If you spotted him in the dark, he looked like a ghost. Fitting, considering the kinds of trouble he causes.

  To give the context, Helios had first appeared maybe four years ago. And the first to meet him were some engineers working in the downtown section of Embershard. They were rather bored and started talking casually, until Helios learned how much money they had. Having a supercomputer for a brain, he easily persuaded them to share basic information, which enabled him to quickly infiltrate their computer systems and commit identity theft. In this move, Helios obtained a sum of money equivalent to 500,000 U.S. dollars. Afterwards, He used the stolen information, including classified military files, for blackmail.

  Helios kept hidden copies and gleefully spread the documents to influential people, continuing this pattern in a loop and manipulating government officials hungry for power. By the time authorities caught on to what he was doing, he had amassed a web of influence that Sophia had to rewrite the law to eradicate. We were fortunate that it was a black-and-white situation, though. Since then, he had just been flying around in random places trying to pull his tricks on anyone he could talk to.

  I stepped between them and glared into Helios’s blue metallic eyes, saying, “I don’t know what you’re doing this time, but I'm not going to tolerate it in here.” I was speaking using an authoritative tone I hadn’t used in a while. The situation demanded it.

  Jason said to me, loud enough for the guards to hear, “Helios is trying to get one of the old weapon blueprints out of here.” Troopers surrounded him and raised their rifles.

  “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about," Helios hissed at him. Another chill ran through me as I spotted the small computer drive in Helios’s claw. I looked Jason in the eye and nodded. Helios smiled and started to fly away, but one guard fired a warning shot past his wing.

  “Hand it over," I said. Helios flew back and, with a growl, waved it just above my hand.

  “Helios," Jason warned, now igniting his magma blade. His eyes glowed with an orange light as his pyrokinetic abilities activated. Helios lowered the drive into my hand. With a gruff look at Jason, I said, “Put this in the vault, and don’t let him near it.”

  Helios swung his talons at my face without warning. Jason jabbed his magma blade in the way and blocked the strike. Helios hissed again and launched over the blade to bite me, but Jason saw it coming. He lifted the blade with both hands in a rising strike. The edge impacted Helios’s face and sent him flying thirty feet away. “I didn’t defend Rasil for years just to lose him now," Jason said.

  Helios, whether noncommittal or scared, was already flying towards one of the external air vents. Jason quickly ordered the ducts to be locked down and sent me on my way, which was fine by me. Neither of us expected to catch Helios, but he held no real power to interfere with our other priorities.

  “Rasil!” Gears called again. I turned away from Jason with a nod and walked into the lab. I refocused my mind on what had happened earlier. Whatever Gears had to say, I hoped he had the same bad feeling about such a powerful blast of energy getting shot from a satellite to who-knows-where; finding out where it hit was important.

  Once in the lab, I was surrounded by various desks and shelves. Experiments and research files piled on them. Gears stepped toward me, his fists clenched. He looked furious and a little disappointed. “Rasil,” He said grumpily, “you lost my dropship.” There was a small pause as we looked at each other.

  That was what he was mad about? Not the explosion, or the city’s worth of power surging out of the satellite? I burst out laughing, but Gears clearly wasn’t amused. I tried to stop laughing, but for a solid minute, I couldn’t help myself.

  “Are you done?” Gears asked. There was another pause as I came to my senses. He WAS justified in wanting his equipment returned safely.

  “Yes, I’m done," I replied.

  “Why was that so funny?”

  “Because,” I said, “I called the repair crew on the way here.”

  “Really?” He asked with a shocked expression.

  “Yeah. It should get here in an hour. I didn’t permanently wreck anything.”

  “Oh, then there’s no problem," he said sarcastically as he gestured towards the lab window. I looked at the window and then at him, confused. He pointed again, visibly distressed. Jason was still there, watching for trouble. I understood after several moments and said, “You should go now, Jason. Sophia needs you a lot more than I do.”

  With that, Jason left, and we walked into the back room of the lab. The topic was clearly important, as we only went in here to avoid eavesdroppers. It was a small room, compared to the central workspace, and one of the few spots with no security cameras. Gears hastily locked the door and said, “The ship disappeared from radar.”

  I was curious as to why this was a problem, spotty signals being an occasional issue on a planet filled with intermittent energy pulses, so I asked, “What does that mean?”

  “Several other systems crashed when it did.”

  “So?”

  “And the screens flashed purple, plus, the physical controls froze up.”

  “So?” I pressed him for the real point.

  “And as radar connection goes one way, which means it’s impossible for something like that to affect this end.”

  He said resolutely. We sat looking at one another. I was almost glad that Gears noticed these things, as I never did. I also realized he had an excellent point. Although it seemed like a trivial matter, I had no explanation. I sighed and broke the silence. “Okay, so something crashed your systems, here, at the same time, something that shouldn’t be possible. What’s your theory?” I asked.

  “Since the system shut down and the onboard electricity stopped, there should be an extra two minutes completely unaccounted for—standard error, no problem—but after the systems rebooted, clocks and timers here in Embershard rewound two minutes to compensate, on their own.”

  That was bizarre. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that you wanted to discuss this in private?”

  “I think the Shadowbane Amulet is in play," he said doubtfully. I almost laughed again, but then realized he was serious.

  “Okay,” I said, “In the absence of logic, look to legends. But even if that thing exists, it would need to be activated manually.”

  Gears stared and said, “I’m aware of that, Rasil.”

  “And where would someone find the electricity required to power it up?”

  Gears didn’t seem angry anymore. He slowly responded, “Perhaps, from an entire energy relay satellite overloading and firing its charge directly into the planet?”

  I let out a long breath, realizing my fears of it activating something were warranted. Gears just muttered, “Good on you for being worried about the same thing for once.”