The law tower's doors swung open, and Alex stepped out into a world that felt entirely new.The first thing he noticed was the light. It wasn't different; the sun of Starlight Base still shone with the same steady radiance it always had but his perception of it had changed. He could see the layers within the light now, the way it bent around corners and pooled in shadows, the way it carried traces of spiritual energy that he had never been sensitive to before. Every color was richer, every shadow deeper, every beam of sunlight a cascade of information that his newly awakened senses drank in without effort. He raised his hand and watched the light play across his fingers, marveling at the way it seemed almost alive, almost aware.The second thing he noticed was the silence. The perimeter around the law tower, usually bustling with guards and servants and the endless comings and goings of palace life, was empty. No, not the empty but cleared. He could sense the cordon that had been e

The celebration began that evening, and it was not a small affair.Word had spread across Starlight Base within hours of Alex's emergence from the tower. The fourth generation of Roshar royal had broken through to the immortal realm. The celebration began that evening. It was not a small affair, not a quiet dinner with family, not a subdued acknowledgment of achievement. The Roshar kingdom had been waiting for this moment, and when word spread that their prince had broken through to the Immortal realm, the response was immediate and overwhelming.Fireworks lit the sky over Starlight Base, bursts of crimson and gold that painted the artificial dome in the colors of the Roshar sunburst. Banners bearing the family sigil hung from every building, their fabric rippling in the breeze that carried the scent of spiritual energy and celebration. Music played in the streets drums and flutes and stringed instruments that Alex didn't recognize and people danced and sang and raised their glasses

Alex found Diana in the garden.It was their place, the spot where they had shared a hundred conversations, a thousand quiet moments. The stone bench by the fountain, where the water murmured and the flowers swayed in the breeze that carried the scent of jasmine and lightning. She was sitting there now, her golden hair loose around her shoulders, her amber eyes fixed on the dancing water.She looked up when he approached, and something in his expression made her own falter. "What is it? What happened?"He sat beside her, taking her hand in his. The words were heavy in his throat, but he forced them out. "The trial will take three thousand years."Her face went pale. "Three thousand Alex, that's… ""There's a time distortion in inheritance space." He squeezed her hand, willing her to understand. "Three thousand years in the trial is three hundred years here. Diana. Not three millennia."The color returned to her cheeks slowly, like dawn spreading across a winter sky. "Three hundred yea

The portal swallowed Alex in a flood of silver light so absolute that for a heartbeat, he ceased to exist. There was no sound, no sensation, no thought, only the cold, infinite void pressing against the boundaries of his consciousness. Time stretched and folded, and Alex floated in nothingness, suspended between the world he had left and the one that waited."The transmission is quite powerful," he thought, words forming slowly. "As if it is taking me to a very far distance farther than the Stargate, farther than anything I've ever transmitted through a portal.”Then the light returned, sudden and absolute, shattering the void like glass. Alex felt his body reform, solidity rushing back with a force that drove the air from his lungs. He stumbled, boots hitting ground that echoed in sudden silence, his hand flying to his sword with warrior's instinct. But there was no danger. Not yet.He straightened, and what he saw stole his breath.The plain stretched before him like a vision from

The staircase stretched endlessly upward, each step a hundred meters wide, the risers rising a full meter beneath his feet. The stone was warm, almost alive, and with every step Alex felt a faint pressure against the edges of his mind testing, probing, measuring the depth of his understanding like a master examining a student.“Law comprehension is the core of this trial,” he realized, pausing on the forty-seventh step to catch his breath. The pressure here was still light, a gentle hum rather than a weight, but he could feel it growing denser with every rung. “The ladder isn't just testing whether I know the law. It's analyzing how deeply I understand it. The surface knowledge that got me through the Law realm won't be enough here. I need to go deeper. Into the essence.”He knelt on the warm stone and pressed his palm flat against it, closing his eyes. The law fragment on this step was to fire a pattern of heat and transformation that he had mastered long ago. But mastery was not the