“The worst feeling is waking up after a brutal shift and feeling like your own body no longer belongs to you. And then there was the hum.”
I sat up in bed, and the world swayed for a moment. Lumon immediately brought a data grid before my eyes: coolant temperature, Heart charge level, outer perimeter status. Everything was green, everything was normal. But the smell of ozone clung to my senses, refusing to fade no matter how hard I rubbed my nose
"At it again," a grumbling voice rang out.
Albert stood in the doorway with a tray. Instead of breakfast, there was a large mug of something brown and steaming on it.
"Drink. It's a brew from Elyria. And don't look at me like that."
It tasted like moss mixed with the bitterness of old bark. But a minute later, warmth spread through my body, and that stupid vibration in my temple subsided a little.
"Is Cassian still alive?" I asked, wiping my lips.
"What would happen to him? He's sitting in the basement. Walter wanted to 'shake' him a little, but I didn't allow it. A man in such exhaustion will simply die from the very first blow."
"You did the right thing. I'll go visit him."
The basement was the only place in Dornheim where I intentionally had not routed lighting from the Heart. Half-gloom reigned here, dispersed only by rare oil lamps.
Cassian sat in the cell, entangled by Elyria's runic ribbons, which sucked any magical spark from the air.
A rumpled robe, disheveled hair, shifting eyes.
When I entered and sat on a stool opposite the bars, he didn't even raise his head.
"Come to gloat?" he rasped. "You think because your toy fired into the sky once, you've won?"
"I didn't come for that, Cassian."
I activated Lumon, sharpening my perception.
"Tell me about the tuning frequency of the ether crystals on the flagship," I said calmly. "On what harmonic do your shields operate?"
Cassian smirked crookedly.
"Do you seriously think I will betray the College? I'd rather die."
"Why would I kill you?" I leaned closer.
"Cassian, right now I see your pulse, feel the temperature of your skin, know when you are lying, because your body reacts to a lie before you have time to open your mouth."
I touched the tabletop with a finger.
"If you lie, I will see it. If you stay silent, I will simply spend an extra half hour to calculate the frequency by trial and error."
"You're bluffing..."
"4.2 megahertz?" I threw out a number at random, closely watching his reaction.
His pupils constricted. His pulse jumped.
"Too low," I stated. "8.5?"
Cassian looked away, his breathing became ragged.
Lumon issued a graph: "Reaction confirmed. Range 8.2–8.8."
"You are a monster," he whispered.
At that moment, the door to the basement opened noiselessly. Noah stepped out of the shadow. He simply walked up and placed a small leather bag on the table in front of Cassian. I knew what was in there.
Personal belongings found on the mage's retinue: letters from home, a golden medallion with a portrait of a woman and two children.
Cassian's hand trembled, reaching for the medallion, but he pulled it back in time.
"The College does not forgive weakness," Noah said quietly. "When their fleet begins to fall, they will declare you a traitor. Your family in the capital... it will not be easy for them."
Noah looked at the mage.
"But if you help us minimize casualties, if we just run their ships aground instead of blowing them up...
Iron can guarantee that your 'death' in captivity will look like a heroic demise. And your family will receive protection."
Cassian closed his eyes. His shoulders slumped.
"8.64," he finally exhaled. "The carrier frequency is 8.64 megahertz. But the flagship has a backup circuit. While charging the 'Silencers', they switch to reserve.
At that moment, the shield on the stern drops by thirty percent. It is only ten seconds while the switch is happening."
I nodded, quickly entering the numbers into Lumon's memory.
"Ten seconds. That's enough for us. Thank you, Cassian. You just saved a couple thousand lives."
When we exited the basement, the sun was already leaning toward sunset. People stood in the streets, looking south.
I climbed to the Town Hall tower, where Darwin and Elyria were already finishing the installation of additional capacitors.
"Iron!" Elyria flew up to me.
"We adjusted the roots. They are now like a living braid, holding the temperature of the lens. But what about the frequency?"
"8.64," I approached the control panel. "And we will have a ten-second window when their flagship begins to deploy the 'Silencer'.
Darwin, retune the right sector of the mirrors. We need to focus the impulse into a point, not strike across an area."
"Will do, Master!" Darwin rushed to the winches.
I leaned my hands against the parapet of the tower. The horizon suddenly darkened. At first I thought it was clouds, but Lumon immediately issued a thermal outline.
Twelve huge shadows slowly sailed out from behind the ridge of hills.
Huge cigar-shaped hulls, bound in dark steel, surrounded by the scarlet glow of magical shields. The flagship moved in the center—a real flying cathedral, bristling with decks and magical guns.
"Beautiful," Elyria whispered.
"Beautiful," I agreed, feeling the prosthesis begin to vibrate. "But impractical. Too much energy is wasted on illumination."
I ordered Lumon to begin a full diagnostic of the systems.
[HEART CHARGE: 98%. SYNCHRONIZATION WITH "THUNDERMAKER": ESTABLISHED. TARGET: FLAGSHIP "GOLDEN EYE". DISTANCE: 15 MILES]
"Everyone to your places!" I commanded.
"Darwin, monitor the cooling. Elyria, hold the resonance of the roots. Noah, Walter—prepare the militia on the walls. If any of them do land, they must not get past the gates."
I remained alone at the console. The city below began to go dark—I was turning off the street lighting block by block, redirecting every free watt into the tower's capacitors.
Dornheim plunged into darkness, and only the top of the Town Hall glowed with a blue light.
I placed my palm on the main contact.
In the sky above us, the first scarlet beams of enemy searchlights struck the city walls.
Lumon whispered: [OBJECT IN STRIKE ZONE. AWAITING COMMAND].
"A little more," I whispered to myself. "Let them get closer."
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