Alex materialized in the private chambers of the Roshar family's residential wing with a whisper of displaced air. The room was modest by royal standards, a sitting room with comfortable chairs arranged around a fireplace that crackled with spiritual flames, its mantle decorated with small portraits of family members. The windows looked out over the artificial gardens of Starlight Base, where the flowers that had been imported from a dozen worlds still bloomed in careful, colorful arrangements. Someone had been maintaining them. Someone had refused to let the war take everything.Mia was sitting in one of the chairs near the fire, an infant cradled in her arms. She looked older than Alex remembered, sixty years of marriage and motherhood had added lines to her face that hadn't been there before, soft creases around her eyes and mouth that spoke of laughter and worry in equal measure. Her hair, once dark, was now streaked with silver. But her eyes were still sharp, still kind, still

Alex studied the being for a long moment. He had learned to read deception during his three thousand years in the trial, the subtle shifts in spiritual energy that accompanied a lie, the micro-expressions that betrayed hidden intentions. But Thalassar's aura was steady. Its words were sincere."Alright," Alex said finally. "I'll hear what you have to say. But if this is a trap, know that I've killed things far more powerful than you."Thalassar smiled a strange expression on its alien features, but not unfriendly. "Veyra said you would say something like that. She always spoke highly of your caution. She said it was one of the things that made you worth helping."Thalassar reached into its robes and withdrew a small object, a pearl, perfectly round, glowing with a soft, internal light. It was no larger than a marble, but Alex could feel the power radiating from it the moment it appeared. Layers of law essence, carefully woven and bound together, pulsed within the pearl like a heartbe

The sky over Sector Nine was the color of bruised flesh, a permanent twilight cast by the corruption seeping from the monster portals that dotted the horizon like open wounds. The air was thick with the stench of blood and ozone, the constant thunder of spiritual cannons, a background rhythm that Miara Roshar had long stopped noticing. She stood at the edge of the outer wall, her silver hair pulled back in a tight warrior's knot, her grey eyes the same grey eyes that marked every member of her family fixed on the distant glow of the next wave gathering in the darkness.Sixty years of constant battle. She had been fighting on this wall for sixty years.She had arrived as a young woman who barely had any combat experience of this level, her hands trembling on the hilt of her sword as she gave her first real combat orders. The soldiers had looked at her with doubt in their eyes the youngest Roshar, the baby of the family, sent to command a sector while her older siblings took the more

The command tent was quiet when Miara entered. The tactical displays showed the aftermath of the battle, the Ravager's corpse being harvested for materials, the wounded being treated in the medical bays, the defensive lines being reinforced for the next assault. Everything was as it should be. Everything was under control.But Miara was not under control.She sat down heavily in the chair behind her desk, her body aching from the battle, her mind churning with the same questions that had haunted her for decades. She had killed an Immortal General monster. She had faced one of the deadliest creatures in the Stargate and emerged victorious. By every objective measure, she was strong enough to break through to the Immortal General realm.And yet she hadn't. And she di

Aegar Roshar stood at the center of Sector Three's command post, his arms crossed over his chest, his grey eyes scanning the tactical displays with the cold precision of a man who had spent sixty years learning to read the flow of battle. He was the eldest of Alex's siblings, the first to break through to the Immortal General realm, the one everyone looked to when the fighting was at its worst. His aura blazed with the power of the peak stage, a sun contained in human form, barely held in check.But the peak stage wasn't the end. It was just another threshold."I can feel the next breakthrough," he said quietly, his voice carrying the weight of command. "The Immortal King realm. It's close. Closer than it's ever been. But it's not going to come from sitting in a command post."Thomas, who had been assigned to Sector Three as an advisor, raised an eyebrow. "You're thinking of going to the front lines yourself?""I'm thinking of leading the next counterattack. The monsters are massing