The Northern Peaks were a savage, ancient landscape of granite and perpetual ice, shrouded in Aether-storm clouds. The highest peak housed the ruins of the Old Cathedral of the Sky-Weavers—the birthplace of Ascendant magic, and now, the hiding place of the Nullifier Blade.
Lyra brought the stolen interceptor down hard in a sheltered, snow-filled valley, far from the sacred peaks. They were dangerously close to Veridia, and the air was thick with Solstus surveillance magic, which the Aether-damping cloaks only partially suppressed.
Elias and Lyra prepared for the final, arduous climb. The air was thin and frigid, the cold immediately seeping into their bones.
The climb is too exposed, Lyra projected, her hands pulling on thick climbing gloves. We need to take the internal path. The Sky-Weavers built a series of geothermal vents that run up the inside of the mountain to the Cathedral.
"Geothermal vents," Elias muttered, loading his pack with climbing equipment. "Unstable, narrow, and likely sealed."
"Sealed, but not warded," Lyra corrected, her intellectual curiosity shining through her physical discomfort. "The Sky-Weavers protected their shrines with physical barriers, not magic, to deter the High City's technological aggression. I have the schematics."
They located the entrance to the geothermal vent—a narrow, barely visible fissure in the rock face, perpetually emitting a low hiss of hot, mineral-rich steam. They clipped their lines and began the vertical ascent, moving slowly and painstakingly through the cramped, scorching heat and biting cold of the mountain's core.
The climb was exhausting, compounding Elias's shoulder injury and Lyra's lack of physical endurance. The shared pain was a constant, low-level burn in their minds.
Halfway up, they entered a vast, subterranean geode chamber, illuminated by massive, naturally formed Aether-Crystals—the untamed, raw source of the planet's energy. The air was charged, and the Binding flared violently, absorbing the raw Aether.
Lyra staggered, gripping the rock face. The energy is too intense! It's overloading the link!
Elias felt the immense, terrifying rush of raw, uncontained Aether washing over his mind, blurring the lines between their thoughts entirely. In the midst of the overload, another shared vision slammed into them, stronger than the Memory-Crystal's echoes:
They saw an ancient man—a Sky-Weaver—forging the Nullifier Blade. But the vision continued, showing the Blade not as a neutral tool, but as a weapon of ultimate separation. Using it would not just sever the bond; it would sever their memory of the Binding, erasing their shared life, their intimacy, and their love.
The choice isn't just separation, Lyra realized, her voice trembling in the bond. It's a form of profound, necessary death! We lose everything we gained!
The realization was a shockwave that nearly unclipped Lyra's safety line. Elias immediately pulled himself closer to her, securing her harness with his own, pressing his body against hers to stabilize the surge.
"Fight it, Lyra! Focus on the now!" Elias commanded, the physical contact grounding them both.
The terror of erasure was profound, but the raw, physical connection—the desperate embrace on the rock face—forced the emotional wave back. They were bound, and that bond was now fighting for its own existence.
They emerged from the vents hours later, exhausted and shaken, onto a high, icy plateau. Before them stood the ruins of the Cathedral—a breathtaking, broken monument of polished black granite and crystalline spires.
As they moved toward the ruins, Elias felt a cold, familiar wave of professional paranoia—a sensation that wasn't Lyra's. He stopped short, pulling Lyra into the cover of a fractured wall.
Kaelen, Elias projected, his mind suddenly icy cold. He tracked the interceptor's signature. He's here.
Kaelen hadn't been defeated by the ion cannon; he'd been given a direction. He and a small team of his most fanatical assassins had anticipated Elias would go for a weapon capable of neutralizing Ascendant magic.
Peering around the granite, Elias saw three figures moving toward the Cathedral entrance, equipped with high-powered climbing gear and disruptor rifles.
"He's ahead of us," Elias whispered, pulling Lyra close, his mind racing. "He knows the Blade is a threat to any established power. He wants to either claim it or destroy it."
Lyra clutched his coat. "We have to beat him, Elias. We can't let him destroy our only means of stopping my father, and our only means of..." She couldn't say "freedom."
"We will," Elias promised. "He won't expect us to be this close to the Ascendant heartland. We take him from the air."