Soren set down one of his glass tubes carefully and looked at Clyde. "Come and see me tomorrow. I will teach you how chemicals work and how to use them in combat situations."
Clyde nodded. "Thank you, Soren."
He patted down his shirt and trousers to brush off whatever dust had gotten on him from the floor, then stepped out of the alchemy chamber. The door swung shut slowly behind him with a soft click.
Inside, Soren stood alone, wiping his glasses with a cloth. His amber eyes still glowed faintly in the dim lab light, the interlocking triangles cycling slowly in his irises.
He survived a direct divine stare, Soren thought, setting his glasses back on his nose. I sensed something off about him earlier. But not to this extent. Not even close to this extent.
Clyde walked the streets of Cristae with his head still fuzzy from everything that had just happened.
Divine realm. The Alkahest God. An amber planet with one eye looking right at me.
He pressed two fingers against his temple.
This completely destroyed my understanding of how the world works. Is there something beyond the cobalt sky? Something actually living up there beyond the cloud cover?
A thought struck him. He stopped walking right there in the middle of the lane.
Can I see it? If I activate the Hollow Eyes and look upward, can I actually see through the sky?
He tilted his head up and opened his Hollow Eyes.
CRACK.
A sharp fracture shot through his vision like glass breaking. He slapped his hand over his right eye, stumbling slightly, the pain brief but very specific, the kind that came from inside rather than outside.
He stood there for a second, blinking, hand still pressed against the side of his face.
My Hollow Eyes fractured. Is this the backlash from looking at a god?
He pressed his hand flat against his chest and closed his eyes.
The inner world opened.
He was standing in the void, the familiar dark surrounding him on every side. Behind him, a purple glow. He turned and found his Astral Card floating where it always floated, the horizontal infinity turning slow, the four-pointed star at its center, the single remaining chain wrapped around it.
But now something was different.
Over the chain, overlapping it, wound tightly around the whole card like something new had been added while he wasn't looking, were amber chains. Heavier looking than his own. Covered in the same interlocking symbols that had been cycling in Soren's irises.
Right. So I was correct. These are from the god. Backlash for staring directly into his domain.
He stared at the amber chains for a moment.
How do I get rid of these?
Before he could think it through further, his heart lurched hard in his chest. One loud, heavy thump that pulled him straight out of the inner world.
THUMP.
He opened his eyes. Back on the street.
A student was walking past him, moving up ahead, not paying Clyde any attention at all. But Clyde's Astral Card was thumping again, louder, in the specific urgent way it thumped when the Hollow Star was trying to tell him something.
A vision hit him without warning.
That student. That exact student, face unchanged, clothes unchanged, but the body behind it wrong, the form behind the face shifting and cracking and becoming something that a human body was never supposed to become.
A Howling. That student is a Howling.
He exhaled slowly, watching the student walk further up the lane.
Can I take it alone? No. My Hollow Eyes are fractured. I can't confirm anything properly without them, and without them I can't track it properly either. This has to be Marcus. The shapeshifting Howling Aldric warned us about.
I need to report this right now.
He turned and ran.
Knock knock knock.
The principal's office door rattled under his knuckles. He was still catching his breath.
A deep voice from inside. "Who is it?"
"It's me. Clyde."
"Oh, Clyde. Come in."
He pushed the door open. Aldric was in his chair with a newspaper open on his lap and a cup of coffee steaming on the desk beside him. He looked entirely unbothered, the way Aldric always looked entirely unbothered.
"So." He took a slow sip. "What brings you here?"
"It's Marcus Nox Veylor."
Aldric set the coffee cup down.
"What did you find?"
"He is out on the streets right now. I saw a vision through my Astral Card. I can confirm he is a Howling."
Aldric stood up from the chair in a single, unhurried motion. "Alert Aurelian and Eira. I will go ahead first."
"Yes sir."
Clyde turned around and immediately froze.
Wait. Where do they actually live? I've never had to send them a letter before.
He stood in the corridor for approximately three seconds in a quiet panic.
Then he saw Marlowe.
Just walking by. Calm as always, book under his arm, silver eyes forward.
"Marlowe." Clyde stepped in front of him. "I need you to deliver letters to Aurelian and Eira as fast as you can. It is urgent."
Marlowe said nothing. He simply looked at the letters Clyde was already pulling out, took them, and was gone.
Whoosh.
The corridor was empty.
Clyde stared at the space where Marlowe had been standing.
That fast. Every time.
He shook himself and ran back out into the streets.
Aldric was nowhere.
Clyde scanned the lane in both directions, checking doorways, checking the market stalls, checking anywhere a man in a brown suit and round hat might have positioned himself.
Nothing.
Do I just shout his name? No, that's going to make things worse—
A hand came from directly behind him and covered his mouth.
He went completely still.
"Don't blow our cover," Aldric's voice said, very quietly, directly beside his ear.
Clyde nodded once. The hand came away.
He turned. Aldric was there, composed, eyes already tracking something further down the lane.
"What is the situation?" Clyde asked, keeping his voice low.
Aldric produced a pair of field glasses and pressed them into Clyde's hands. "We wait for the mechanical night. When the lanterns go out, his true form will be harder to conceal. I need your Hollow Eyes on standby to confirm the moment it slips." He paused. "Can you do that?"
Clyde laughed. It came out a bit wrong.
"About that," he said. "My abilities are currently sealed."
Aldric turned to look at him properly.
"Sealed. How."
"I looked directly into the eyes of the Alkahest God."
Silence.
Then Aldric said, very carefully, "You survived that."
"I am still standing here, so I am going to say yes."
Aldric was quiet for another second, processing this with the particular expression of someone encountering something that does not fit neatly into any existing category.
"You need to perform a mysticism," he said finally. "It is the only way to ease the wrath of a god and break that kind of seal. Go to Soren immediately."
"Yes sir."
Clyde handed the field glasses back and ran.