Chapter 51.4: Playing With Magic
“Penny, it’s an admirable approach,” Jinkke said, looking around the scattering of golemite parts and pieces, “but there are only two remaining reservoirs we haven’t divested, and he’s already tapping one of them. Your theory likely necessitates a source large enough to guarantee…”
Chapter 47.1: The Gang Back Together
Minkus panted as he dashed down the final corridor. He could feel his rejuvenation returning, but he’d pushed himself to active exhaustion after putting so much effort into healing Yissa. His thighs burned, and his lungs couldn’t get air fast enough to keep up. It had been some time since he’d channeled this much focused magic continuously.
Chapter 46.1: The Value of Field Testing
Chapter 45.4: Inevitable Confrontation
Jindel was the first to find her words. “Sergeant, we— appear to be clear, at least for now.”
Everyone took in their surroundings, processing what had just happened. Penny noticed Minkus in particular, though. He frowned curiously at the ceiling. “Does anyone else hear that, or rather not hear that?”
Chapter 45.3: Bombs Away
Shaking her head clear, Penny tried to process their next steps. If they were all going to get out alive, they needed to get Ventyr’s staff into his hands. Penny had never understood why the thing made him stronger, but the carrot swore by —
Chapter 45.2: Entering the Labs
Well inside the eastern building now, Penny, Jindel, Jinkke, and Yult held as tightly as they could to Minkus, who swept through the halls as if trying to escape them. He was, of course, only interested in reaching Ventyr and Yissa as quickly as he could, a fact he apologized for over the sound of the still-blaring alarm every few steps.
Chapter 45.1: Comakk Reacts
The courtyard was in unadulterated chaos. The alarm had been confounding enough, bringing all efforts to a halt and throwing Kikka into a rage at everyone in sight. But now the introduction of human attackers had turned all Kikka’s innumerable death threats into a sudden and disjointed reality. Any krewe members who weren’t running found themselves at the wrong end of various human-made weapons as the bandits cut their way through the hectic crowd.
Chapter 44.2: The Courtyard
“I say we go.” Fjornsson all but growled the words, looking down his thick nose at the two humans and asura. “If any of those big-eared dwarves want to stop us, we just cut through them.”
Chapter 44.1: Adapting the Plan
“But why did you open them all to begin with?” Ventyr asked, scanning the room. “Simply opening my chamber and Scholar Yissa’s would have been enough.”
Chapter 43.3: The Human
Christoff ran across the courtyard as quickly as he could with that sandbag of an asura slung over his shoulder. Vadd wasn’t big per se, but his uneven, flopping weight had been threatening to pull the man over from the very moment he’d left the testing chamber.
Chapter 42.3: Containment
Kikka and her companion continued toward them, and there was literally nowhere to go but past them. Even if there had been another side room to drop into, Minkus wasn’t certain Wepp could manage lateral movement; it was taking everything in him just to put one foot in front of the other. Wepp was doing a good job of keeping his eyes off Kikka, though, letting them wander from point to point on the ceiling or along the glossy floor-stones. Minkus too avoided too much eye contact with the pair. Jinkke, or even Penny would have chided him for shying away from eye contact with someone who didn’t even know him, but Minkus could feel Wepp’s anxiety creeping in beneath his own skin.
Chapter 42.2: Incursion
At the other end of Thaumacore’s eastern wing, Minkus stepped out of the sunlight, through the daunting front doorway, and into the main corridor of the complex. He tugged at the collar of his stolen Inquest uniform. Starched stiff and fitted to the slender guard he’d taken it from, the whole outfit pressed in on him like a crunchy, woolen sausage casing.
Chapter 42.1: Who We Follow
Comakk stood still, letting all the busyness of lab Delta’s teams stream past him. Team members moved crates, applied final calibrations to the expulsion units, and tried desperately to stay out of Kikka’s line of sight. They were useful, even talented, but they were all cowards.
Chapter 19.1: Final Preparation
Chapter 18.3: Christoff's Pail
Chapter 14.3: Schemes and Surprises
Chapter 13.2: A Business Proposal
