The Dark Lord returned to his throne room and dismissed the spies. Then he reached out through the dark energy that connected him to the Demon King, establishing a secure communication channel. The Demon King's face materialized in the air before him, his burning eyes gleaming with their usual cold calculation."The pocket dimension sealed itself," the Dark Lord said without preamble. "My spies report that both the Roshar boy and the Illusion King are trapped inside. But I have doubts. I want to send another team to verify."The Demon King was silent for a long moment. Then he spoke, and his voice was different, flatter, more cautious. "We should stop the attacks on him. Pull your people away from human territory. Especially from Roshar territory."The Dark Lord's silver eyes narrowed. Something was wrong. The Demon King was not the type to retreat. He was aggressive, ambitious, hungry for conquest. If he was suggesting a withdrawal, then something had frightened him."Has something h

The inner zone stretched before Alex like a wound that refused to heal, its corrupted landscape pulsing with the residue of dark energy that had been woven into the fabric of the Stargate over millennia. He had been traveling for a day , moving deeper into the wilderness than he had ever gone before, searching for the territory of the Luminal Court. It was a place that few humans had ever seen, a hidden sanctuary, protected by layers of spatial camouflage and the ancient power of the Oracle herself.He had expected to search for weeks. He had expected to follow faint trails and solve spatial puzzles, to prove himself worthy of entry into the Court's hidden domain. But when he crested a ridge overlooking a narrow valley, he found someone waiting for him.Veyra stood at the bottom of the valley, her starlight hair gleaming in the dim light of the inner zone, her silver eyes fixed on him with an expression that was both amused and expectant. She wore the same armor she had worn when th

The dome rose from the heart of the Luminal Court's capital like a smooth pearl nestled in the palm of a giant hand. It was not built from stone or crystal or metal at least, not any material that Alex recognized. Its surface was a soft, iridescent white, shifting through faint hues of blue and silver as the light of the planet's sun played across it. There were no windows, no doors, no visible seams. Just a perfect, seamless curve that seemed to grow from the ground itself.But it was not the architecture that made Alex pause.It was the law radiating from it.The moment he came within a hundred meters of the dome, he felt a presence that pressed against his senses like the weight of a mountain but he didn’t feel too much. It was the same feeling he had experienced in the Law Tower on Blue Star, the same resonance of ancient comprehension that had been woven into the very fabric of the building. But this was different. The law that saturated this dome was not the work of a single c

The Oracle's words settled over Alex like a heavy cloak, each revelation adding weight to the burden he already carried. The golden light of the dome swirled around them, casting long shadows across the smooth floor, and for a long moment, neither of them spoke. Alex was still processing what she had told him about Seraphina's teacher, about the path he was expected to follow, about the war that was coming. And now, there was more. There was always more."Your future teacher," the Oracle said, breaking the silence, "does have the strength to handle a great many things. His power is immense far beyond anything you can imagine. He has fought in wars that reshaped the cosmos. He has trained warriors who became legends. When the enemy comes, he will be one of the first to stand against it. And he will fight with everything he has."She paused, her golden eyes growing distant. "But he lacks compassion. That is one of his greatest weaknesses. He cannot make decisions based on emotion, on l

The golden light of the Oracle's dome swirled around them like living dust, casting long shadows across the smooth floor. Alex stood beside the Oracle, his grey eyes fixed on the ripple that had appeared in the air between them. The distortion shimmered and pulsed, widening slowly, and then a figure stepped through.Seraphina looked exactly as she always did ancient and beautiful and timeless. Her silver hair cascaded down her shoulders in waves that caught the dome's golden light. Her dark eyes swept across the chamber, lingering on Alex for a moment with an expression that held a mixture of pride and something else, something that looked almost like an apology. Then her gaze settled on the Oracle, and her expression shifted into something more complicated.The Oracle was the first to speak. Her voice was calm, but there was an edge beneath it, an old wound that had never fully healed. "Sister. It looks like you finally wanted to meet me. I thought you would never see me again."Ser