a Vanc

ed down on the landing platfo

vanished from my shoulders. Here, in the independent city-state of mages and scholars, the air

, stopping before a four-story limestone

iary. The exterior appeared modest, but the interior had been retrofitted with reinforced

ard on the heavy iron

washed over me. I stood in the center of the main workshop floor, surro

e where I had to bow my head, but a sanc

sat down at the primary communication console. My f

routed all private royalty streams from Aether Forge-the secret military engineering firm I had co-founded-into a decentralize

rald, I exhaled slowly. Not a single coppe

ilver-framed dragon-cryst

years, it had chimed at designated hours: seven in the morning for Elara's breakfast, two

weet, round face flashed through my mind, followed immediately by her di

ped my chest, ti

oken hostage to her father's court. To be the mothe

placed the steel tip over the tablet's core resonance

olden glow sputtered and died, t

red fragments into

t the rear of the shop, entering a twenty-four-digit numeric seque

schematic plates, and the heavy brass casin

t could amplify or neutralize dragonfire across entire battlefronts. It was

he outer door br

blade into my sleeve before walking to t

wearing a green linen apron, accompanied by an eight-year-o

Chloe. Two years ago, when her shop had suffered a dangerous alchemical fire, I had se

, lowering my gua

a warm smile. "Mistress Vance! It really is you! I saw the towe

r's skirts, holding up the basket. "Good aftern

s I took the basket. The rich, comforting scent of fresh-baked

dam Elara asked kindly. "The street has be

remarkably solid and right on my

ny fresh balm or dried herbs for your fluxes, y

and leaned against it. I broke off a war

e refinement. Yet as it warmed my chest, I realized it tasted fa