He needed to get home.
The Silver Step was an Enforcer technique with Striker elements, meant to help mobility in a short-range fight. It was the only movement technique he knew, and all but useless over long distances…but he used it anyway, kicking off the ground and leaving a silver ripple behind. The technique launched him forward with speed that pushed the limits of what a Highgold should be capable of, but it was only one step. His madra might burn out before he reached his home, leaving him helpless.
He stretched his web out toward the bone tower in the distance, trying to get a glimpse of his family, but it was like trying to find someone by running house to house and peeking in keyholes.
His wife was strong, even on an imperial scale. Stronger than he was. Jing would survive.
But there was always someone stronger…
His Silver Steps carried him down into the streets, which were already choked with combat. He rushed past Arelius servants defending themselves with swords and spears, with claws of ice and arrows of fire. He ignored whips of blood and slipped around toxic mists.
It wasn’t just Arelius family members dying tonight. The Jai clan were reclaiming their territory with ruthless efficiency. They targeted those in Arelius colors, but anyone who got in their way, or resisted, or looked like the slightest threat…they were blasted apart by regimented ranks wielding white light.
Only the Redflower family was untouched, as expected: a pair of Jai clansmen escorted a group with flowers on their chests away from the chaos of the battle. The Redflowers grew food for the Empire, and if one of them died, the Skysworn would come down on the Jai clan like a hammer.
His wife’s family should be exempt too. If a Naru were caught in this crossfire, the Emperor would make the Jai clan pay for it.
But he could see the Redflowers, safe and escorted away by the Jai warriors. He couldn’t see anyone with the green wings of the Naru family’s Path of Grasping Sky.
Until he saw Jing, he couldn’t relax.
He looked up at the tower through a haze of smoke, and something slammed into his forehead with the power of a kicking horse. He flipped backward, his own momentum turned against him, and only years of training let him stumble to his feet.
Blood was in his eyes.
He gripped his sword, though he didn’t remember drawing it.
The tower of yellow bone filled his vision, closer now, but still so far away.
Three Highgolds from the Jai clan closed in on him, spears wet, faces tense. Six more were spearing a Truegold Remnant to death nearby; that explained why so many of the Jai clan’s mid-level fighters were together.
That couldn’t have been an Arelius Remnant; none of their Truegolds were in the city. Someone had tried to intervene.
There were nine enemy Highgolds, most of them with spirits as strong as his own. Nine.
Head still ringing from the blow, thoughts fluttering like a cloud of butterflies, Cassias took one staggering step forward.
A white light crashed into him, but somehow his sword had knocked it away, filled with enough madra to break the technique. A flash of silver and white exploded.
“Highgold,” one of them said. “Yellow hair. Arelius?”
“Could be dyed,” someone else said. Blearily, Cassias focused on her face.
He recognized her. He knew most of the famous people in the Jai clan. Jai Yu, that was her name. The two hundred and sixty-fifth strongest Highgold in the Empire.
Out of the hundreds of thousands of Highgolds, she was considered to be among the top three hundred. Strong. A strong opponent.
Cassias focused his awareness on the bone tower, desperately sweeping for a glimpse of his wife’s face.
A man poked him in the arm. Cassias couldn’t get his silver bracer, his Goldsign, up in time to block, and blood spurted. He didn’t feel the pain, but his arm gave a spasm and his sword clattered to the bricks.
“There are only two bloodline Arelius in the city,” Jai Yu said, “and our Truegolds have them both. If he’s an unregistered blood relative, we’ll turn him in for the bounty.”
“No crescent,” the man said, inspecting his clothes.
A crash came from two streets over, and Jai Yu muttered something under her breath. “Forget it. I’m not carrying him around.”
Light gathered on her spearhead, and Cassias’ breathing sped up, because he still hadn’t found his wife. The ringing in his head had sharpened to a scream. He poured all his madra into his detection web, scanning the tower from top to bottom, racing to see that his family was safe.
Then…he saw her.
She wasn’t in their rooms, but at the base of the tower, on her way to a shelter with more Arelius family employees. Black hair streamed behind her, and her left eye was dark and furious. Her right was an orange globe of madra, a construct to replace one she’d lost in battle years ago. Her wings spread—one the natural emerald Goldsign of her Path, and the other a matrix of sunset-colored energy. Her second prosthetic.
She was safe. They were both safe.
That was all he needed to know.
…before his mind cleared and the ringing in his ears faded. He thrust his palm into Jai Yu’s spear, sending up a pulse of sword madra and slicing it in half.
He opened his eyes afterward, letting the spearhead fly over his shoulder. “Jai Yu. I’m disappointed you didn’t recognize me.”
Her face paled.
White lines began creeping over her skin as she prepared her Flowing Starlight technique. “We…I’m sorry, we didn’t…we thought you were…” She swallowed, and then yelled, “Run! Everyone run!”
Two of them took her advice, but one of the more distant Jai fighters gripped his spear as though ready to join the fight. “What is it?”
Jai Yu shouted back while fleeing. “It’s Ca—”
Silver Step.
The technique rang like a bell under his foot, launching him behind Jai Yu. He drove his hand into her back, and silver light pierced her heart.
Another Silver Step, and he stood beside the Jai clan Highgold who had asked the question. Cassias hadn’t bothered picking up his sword.
The spearhead pointed in his direction quivered. “Number…two…”
Cassias placed a palm on the man’s head, and sword madra blasted through his skull and into his brain. He died silently.
Nine Highgolds would have been too much of an opponent, even for him. If they had cooperated. But splitting up and coming at him one at a time…
There was only one Highgold in the Blackflame Empire who could fight with him face-to-face, and she was carrying their child into a shelter.
Naru Cassias Arelius, former heir to the Arelius family, had been allowed to marry into the Naru clan for three reasons. First, the recommendation of his family Underlord. Second, the personal feelings of Naru Jing, star of the clan’s young generation.