“What are you doing here?” he asked, voice flat but the clipped enunciation gave him away.
He was furious.
“I… I needed to see with my own eyes what happens beyond the Veil,” I said, breath still unsteady.
Only then did I take in our surroundings.
We stood inside a concrete tower rising high above the western cliffs, the wind howling through the steel platforms that cantilevered from its core to form the open fighting terraces. This tower was only one of many. A reinforced shaft anchored each post, with steel bridges radiating outward like a web to connect it to dozens of others perched along the cliffside. Together, they formed a defensive ring before the Auroric Veil, each tower a lone sentinel watching the edge of the world.
We were on the top terrace of our tower. From here, I could see the Veil shimmering pink and orange behind us, its light rippling over the dark, churning shore. Far below, blue-green waves crashed against jagged rock, the sound echoing up through the steel. The towers stretched nearly a hundred feet above the sea, a barrier of stone and metal between the island and whatever threatened it.
The last line of defense before the Veil.
Before the wildweavers.
Before the dragons.
And every Dragontail here was preparing for war.
Real war.
Not drills.
Not simulations.
This was war.
Lorik stepped closer, his voice was a low growl.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
I met his eyes. My pulse was finally steady.
“Why? Because I am a Solenhart?”
His jaw tightened, a flash of anger he didn’t bother hiding.
“No. Because you’re not trained,” Lorik said, gaze flicking toward the horizon as though expecting something to break through it. “You can’t even control your emotions in the Hall of Mirrors. How do you expect to survive an actual battle? You’re reckless. Did you even think twice before jumping through my portal?”
Heat clawed up my throat. He was right, but I refused to admit it.
“You’re also a student,” I snapped. “And I can help. I wield flame better than any Sunheart.” Before Lorik could fire back, a deeper voice cut clean through the air.
Ugo.
“A student who passed the Dragontail Trials,” he said, stepping into view. “You haven’t. And you still can’t control your flames in a fight.”
Before I could answer, the low thrum of drums rolled from above. Then another from the far tower, then another, echoing across the fortress. My stomach dropped.
Ugo’s voice hardened, sharper than I’d ever heard it. “Enough. Both of you. We don’t have time for this, the Auroric guard has already spotted them.”
I swallowed the taste of fear and fire thick on my tongue. The Auroric guard, posted on the highest terrace, gifted with enhanced sight, were the first to spot approaching dragons, wildweavers, or worse. If they’d raised the alarm, that meant the enemy was near enough that every tower could feel it.
That was why the battle drums were sounding. A deep, rhythmic pounding echoes across the wooden beams, traveling through the steel, rattling the cliffside.
“Damn it, Solenhart.” Lorik raked a hand through his unruly hair, then dropped it, frustrated. “You are going to be the end of me.”
He exhaled sharply.
