The evening mist crawled through Duskholme's streets like something alive, turning everything gray and uncertain. Which was fitting, considering Eneji's life had gone to complete shit in the span of about six hours.
He crouched behind a pile of rotting thatch, Mira's weight warm against his chest. The kid was still unconscious, but her breathing was steady. Whatever the Rift pulse had done to his Starweave, it had worked. She'd live.
Assuming they all survived the next hour.
The Covenant enforcers moved through the village like they owned it. Which, technically, they did. Six of them, just like Lira had said, their brass armor plates catching what little light filtered through the mist. The sound of their boots on the muddy cobblestones was rhythmic, mechanical. Clank, squelch, clank, squelch. Like clockwork soldiers marching to war.
The one in front had more brass than the others. Plates covering his entire torso, arms encased in articulated metal sleeves that hissed with each movement. Steam rose from vents in his shoulders. His face was hidden behind a mask with glowing red lenses that swept back and forth, scanning.
"Anomaly readings are strongest here," the enforcer said, his voice distorted by the mask's speakers. "Sector seven, subsection four."
Eneji's blood went cold. Sector seven, subsection four. That was where Thane's hut stood.
"Confirmed, Captain Voss," another enforcer replied. This one was smaller, less armored, but the crossbow strapped to her back looked like it could put a bolt through solid stone. "Multiple witnesses report strange lights and sounds emanating from the healer's dwelling."
Strange lights. Fucking perfect. His Starweave must have been more visible than he'd thought.
Eneji shifted his grip on Mira and tried to think. The hut was three blocks away, but he could see it from here. The single window glowed with candlelight, and shadows moved inside. Thane was still there, probably grinding more herbs like nothing was wrong. The stubborn old bastard.
Where was Lira?
As if summoned by his thoughts, his sister appeared at the edge of his vision. She was pressed against the wall of Hedrick's bakery, maybe fifty feet away, her dark hair blending with the shadows. Smart girl. She'd found cover.
But not good enough cover.
One of the enforcers, the one with the crossbow, turned her head toward the bakery. Those red lenses swept across the wall, and Eneji saw the exact moment they locked onto Lira's hiding spot.
"Movement. Northwest corner."
Shit.
The crossbow enforcer raised her weapon, the mechanical string drawing back with a sound like breaking bones. Lira tried to run, but her boots slipped on the wet cobblestones. She went down hard, scrambling on hands and knees.
Eneji was moving before he consciously decided to. Mira's unconscious form made him clumsy, but he managed to reach the corner of the nearest building without being seen. From there, he could see everything.
Lira on the ground, mud streaking her face.
The crossbow aimed at her head.
Captain Voss approaching with those steam-powered steps.
And Thane's hut, door suddenly banging open as the old healer stepped into the street.
"Leave the girl alone," Thane called out, his voice carrying across the misty air. "She's done nothing wrong."
Captain Voss paused. His red lenses fixed on Thane, and the steam from his shoulder vents increased. "Master Kellan Thane. Unlicensed practitioner of Starweave manipulation. You're under arrest for violations of Covenant Code Seven-Seven-Alpha."
"Unlicensed." Thane's laugh was bitter. "I was healing people before your Covenant existed, boy."
"Resistance noted." Voss gestured to two of his enforcers. "Secure the subject."
They moved toward Thane with mechanical precision. But the old healer wasn't done.
Thane raised his staff, the cloudy crystal at its tip suddenly blazing with Starweave light. Not the weak trickle Eneji was used to. This was real power, controlled and focused. The mist around him swirled, forming patterns that hurt to look at directly.
"You want to see unlicensed Starweave?" Thane's voice carried a note Eneji had never heard before. Cold. Dangerous. "Allow me to demonstrate."
The crystal flared. One of the approaching enforcers stumbled, his brass armor suddenly too heavy to support. He crashed to his knees, servos whining as they struggled against some invisible force.
But there were still five others.
Captain Voss raised his right arm, and Eneji saw the gauntlet for the first time. Not brass like the rest of his armor. This was something else. Black metal inscribed with glowing runes, steam hissing from joints that moved like living things.
Just like the one that had killed his mother.
The gauntlet's palm opened, revealing a cluster of crystal spikes that hummed with stored energy. Thane's eyes widened.
"Starweave Disruptor," the old healer breathed. "You bastards actually built one."
Voss fired.
The beam that erupted from the gauntlet wasn't light, wasn't heat. It was absence. A lance of pure negation that punched through Thane's Starweave defenses like they were made of paper. The old healer's staff cracked, its crystal focus going dark.
Thane collapsed.
"No!" Lira screamed, trying to get to her feet.
The crossbow enforcer adjusted her aim. "Target acquired."
That's when Eneji's scar exploded with pain.
Not the warm tingle from before. This was agony, like someone had shoved a red-hot poker through his palm and twisted. The burn mark on his skin flared with golden light, so bright he could see it through his closed eyelids.
The Starweave in the air around him didn't just respond. It sang.
Power flooded through him, more than he'd ever felt, more than he'd imagined possible. It wasn't the pathetic trickle he was used to. This was a fucking river, and he was drowning in it.
Mira stirred in his arms, her fever-flushed skin suddenly cool to the touch. Around them, the mist began to glow with faint silver threads. The Tapestry, he realized. He was seeing the actual Tapestry, the cosmic lattice that held everything together.
And it was beautiful.
Also completely terrifying.
The crossbow enforcer's finger tightened on the trigger. Lira was still on the ground, still in the line of fire.
Eneji didn't think. He reached out with his newfound power, not sure what he was trying to do, just knowing he had to do *something*.
The crossbow bolt fired.
And stopped.
Just... stopped. Halfway between the weapon and Lira's head, the bolt hung in the air like it had hit an invisible wall. Silver light crawled along its length, and then it simply dissolved. Not destroyed. Unmade.
Every enforcer in the street turned toward Eneji's hiding spot.
"Starweave anomaly detected," someone shouted. "Class Seven energy signature, unknown origin."
Captain Voss's red lenses swept across the buildings, searching. "Find the source. Now."
Eneji pressed himself against the wall, still clutching Mira, his scar burning like molten gold. The power was fading already, draining away like water through a sieve. But the damage was done. They knew he was here.
They knew what he could do.
A shadow detached itself from the mist behind the enforcers. At first, Eneji thought it was just another trick of the light. Then he saw the way it moved. Too fluid. Too wrong.
The shadow had a face. Sort of. Features that shifted and flowed like smoke, but unmistakably predatory. And in its hands, if you could call them hands, was a scythe that gleamed with its own dark light.
Bladewraith.
Eneji had heard stories. Covenant assassins that weren't quite human anymore, their bodies infused with Anomalous energy until they became something else. Something that could phase through walls, move like living shadow, and kill with surgical precision.
This one was looking right at him.
The scythe's blade caught the light from his still-glowing scar, and for a moment their eyes met across the misty street. The Bladewraith's face was beautiful in the way that poisonous flowers were beautiful. Deadly. Mesmerizing.
It smiled.
Then it began to move toward him, scythe raised, cutting through the mist like it wasn't even there.
Eneji clutched Mira tighter and tried very hard not to panic.
He was probably going to die tonight.
But first, he was going to save his sister.