The kick landed on Ryn's ribs and the alley turned sideways.He landed on top of the gravel, it bit into his palm and for a split second there was nothing but the white flash behind his eyes and the taste of copper filling his mouth. He pushed him under his hand. Pushed. His arm shook and gave out.The man above him said, almost bored, "Stay down.,”Ryn's vision was clear enough to see his form, which was broad chested, faint blue shimmer curling off his knuckles where his Concept had struck. Two others had pinned him against the wall of the alley, its stones slick from old rain and worse things. The little leather bag containing all the Marks Ryn had collected in the previous four days was sitting a few feet away, half-filled with water.Everything he had. Lying around in the dirt like garbage.He tried to get up again.The man's boot landed on his ribs again and this time Ryn remained on the ground, his breath sawing through his teeth.“Smart,” the man replied. He crouched, picked u

Ryn braced for the attack.It didn't come.The woman stood right where she'd been a moment ago, hands hanging at her sides, watching him like a puzzle. “If I wanted you dead, the soldiers below would be shooting you now," she said, "you'd be dead before you could turn around.”"Who are you?""Eris." She tilted her head in an almost nonchalant manner as if reading something only she could see. "Come with me.""No."She didn't push. She said, "What did you end?”The question landed strangely, precisely where he least expected it. Ryn's jaw tightened. "I don't know."“You don't know what you did? Or you don't have a name for it?”"Both."The look changed in her face, it was not happiness, so much as something settling into place inside her. Confirmation.“That is the issue," she said. "Every awakened person has a Concept they can perceive but not control. Yours doesn't work like that. Yours doesn't create anything; it interferes.” She studied him. “That makes you unpredictable. And unpre

The chamber split apart.The pressure behind his ribs didn't stop. It grew, like a hungry, searching animal, until the last of the restraints scattered, dulled metal clattering around his wrists. The walls groaned. Frostblooms spread across the ceiling like cracks.The door burst open.Restraining fields and binding light lit up the doorway, a dozen abilities firing simultaneously to suffocate him before he could move. Vanguard soldiers poured through the opening.END responded independently.When END reached them, one Concept after another simply went out, like candles in a gale. Ryn was no longer sure how his own body worked. He wasn't reaching for the power. It was moving through him on its own."Stay back!" Half of the room was already falling, support pillars were cracking, the ceiling was dusting in sheets and alarms were screaming above the noise of stone cracking.Ryn pushed his way forward, hands up, in a desperate attempt. “I'm not trying to—” He couldn't go on any longer. “

The training chamber sat beneath the safehouse, built from raw stone that swallowed sound the moment the door closed. There were lanterns hanging from the ceiling, casting long shadows on the floor, and stillness filled the air, making Ryn's heartbeat seem louder than ever in his ears. On this occasion, there were no weapons waiting for him. No opponent. Only a few objects arranged with purpose: a metal weight hanging from a chain, a lamp burning low and steady, and a third shape he couldn't identify, wrapped in cloth.In the heart of the room, Veyr stood, his hands behind his back, unmoving, like stone.“End one thing” he saidRyn looked about the room, and waited for further instructions, but none were forthcoming. "Which thing?"“This is what we are trying to determine.”Ryn took a deep breath and faced the hanging weight. He reached inward, past the flat, numb pain left over from the day before, and called END forward, not out of fear this time, but with intention. The movement of

The man was lying on the examination table and his breathing was regular, slow and shallow, his eyes were open and staring at the ceiling. His hands shook, his fingers opened and closed like they were in search of something that they had lost, and they couldn't recall what. He looked awake. Alive. Utterly, unremarkably ordinary.Ryn stood at the foot of the table, not knowing how to process what Mira had just told him.The small instrument had stopped glowing the instant she set it on the floor, she said, "His Core's intact. It doesn't seem like anything is wrong with the aether level, it's normal, textbook. No damage anywhere I can see in the body.” She stopped and a strange look appeared on her face. “His concept is just......GONE.”“No way,” replied Ryn. “Concepts never go away.”“No, they shouldn’t,” said Orr, arms folded, his attention focused on the man like he was trying to read something that was written under his skin. "A Concept is not an object in a person's chest waiting t