Ghostwater (Cradle, #5)

by Will Wight

The honest admiration in the question cracked through Enkai’s suspicion. He swelled with pride; it was about time someone asked him that question.

“It’s mine!” he shrieked, and even he wasn’t sure whether he meant the egg or the town. “You don’t get—” Enkai froze, throat locking up. Something had changed. The stranger stood with his eyes widened in horror, mouth half-open as he stared at the blackened holes burned in village walls. He looked like a man watching his own home burn. But he felt like a monster.

“Once they had taken the greatest treasures, they departed, but they added one more restriction to their agreement. Every ten years, each could send a promising student to hunt for treasure themselves.”

He raised one leg, tapping Lindon's stomach with a claw. “That is the spirit that flows through you. She is two realms above you? Good. You need at least that much of a handicap to make it a challenge.”

“Some believe that hope is the strongest force in the universe,” Dross said. “Although that is objectively untrue.”

No one with any knowledge had ever reevaluated the principles of pure madra; why would they? No one advanced without harvesting aura. As a result, the children used inefficient techniques. Now, his principles would revolutionize how the sacred arts were taught to the least disciples.

The aura was only Truegold, but it carried such fury and destruction that his spirit trembled. It surprised him; he hadn't thought any Truegold could be a threat.

“Underlady,” he said, “believe me when I say that I am no one at all.”