“It should have an automatic installation process,” Lessa said. “If we attach it to your wrist, there should be a one-time-use utility card that activates.”

  Jace and Lessa sat on the couches in the Luna Wrath’s main hold. LeeKay held out the Masker with a manipulator arm, standing on the holo-projecting table. Finally, there was Kinfild, pacing back and forth behind them (they were in hyperspace, now, and they didn’t need Kinfild to fly the starship). Both Ash and Perril sat in the cockpit, talking softly. They were supposed to be coming up with a plan to keep the Watchmen off Jace’s back while he was at the academy—they didn’t need anyone recognizing him.

  “Did you disinfect it?” Kinfild asked.

  “Yes, LeeKay gave it a cleansing spray,” Jace said.

  “And you trust the kyborg?”

  “I also used a disinfectant wipe from the med-pack,” Jace said. “Both on the masker, and on my arm.”

  This was probably going to hurt, he knew, but there really wasn’t much of a choice. He needed to get that Masker embedded and active.

  “Just go for it,” Lessa hissed.

  “It’s too small to house a Splitling,” Kinfild muttered. “But…”

  Before Kinfild could come up with any other complaint, Jace said, “LeeKay, now,” and held his arm out toward the small kyborg. The bot chittered, then plunged the Masker device down, screen up.

  It pressed into the skin of Jace’s inner wrist, first only as a pressure and a shock. LeeKay moved with surprising precision, and the moment an Aes-conducting wire stabbed through one of his channels, he filled it with mana. A circuit activated, and it triggered the technique card. All at once, the wires and mechanical components sticking out the bottom of the Masker writhed around, locking onto Jace’s bone and inserting themselves into his channels.

  He extended his senses to the card, and now that it was closer to him—a part of him—he could feel the proper card that was triggering the main function of the Masker. Clenching his teeth against the pain of the Masker attaching itself to him, he concentrated on the card’s function, and with a push of intent, called up a golden sheet. The description read:

  [Technique Card: Modify Aspect (Legendary) (Utility) (Compatible Class: All) (Compatible Aspects: All)]

  Jace blinked his eyes against another burst of pain. Kinfild complained, but Jace was still tuning him out, and Lessa said, “I’ll get the first aid kyborg.”

  There was no sense trying to get the first aid kyborg to install the Masker, because its programming was too limited, and it wouldn’t do anything it saw as unnecessary, out of its scope of training, or outright harmful to the person it was treating. But it would fix any of the damage, and make it look like Jace hadn’t just installed the Masker to a human looking on.

  Once the device stopped moving inside him, he analyzed the technique description:

  [Technique description: When activated, modifies any Aes that travels through it and infuses a non-functional band of masking Aes into any technique the user uses. Can only stay active for thirty (30) minutes, and has a thirty (30) minute cooldown. Induces extreme strain on the user’s spiritual channels.]

  Jace held out his arm, and he barely registered the first aid kyborg cleaning up the wound, injecting him with a stim shot, and using a manipulator to fold his skin and seal it around the implant. Finally, it injected him with a painkiller, allowing him to concentrate more on the device.

  The implant’s screen lit up, projecting a simple watch dial. It was white and orange, with twenty-four hours on it, and a simple lettering system. It needed to pass as a watch implant, first and foremost.

  “How do I activate it?” Jace asked.

  “There’s probably a code,” Lessa provided.

  “You didn’t get the activation code?” Kinfild demanded.

  “Well, we kinda stole it,” said Lessa.

  “You are responsible for most of my grey hairs, miss,” Kinfild said, pointing a finger at her.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Ah, well, you’ll get over it. You’re a Wielder.”

  Kinfild shook his head and turned away. Jace, however, could only stare at the Masker, hoping it gave him some sort of clue. Obviously, it couldn’t be too easy, or anyone would figure out that it was a Masker. But he had no idea.

  Finally, LeeKay let out an excited chirp, then clanked something in Mekanik.

  Jace tilted his head. “Tap twice on the top edge, then three times in the center fast?”

  “Four times in the center,” Lessa corrected.

  “Whoops, sorry.”

  LeeKay nodded, then hopped in a circle. With a hesitant hand, Jace gave it a try. Immediately, the screen went blank, then shifted, showing a simple display. On one side, it asked for an input Aes, and on the other side, it requested an output. Jace hunted through the input list until he found ‘light,’ then snuck into the sub-categories and sifted through the list until he found ‘hyperspace,’ and selected it.

  For the output, he selected fire, and the sub-element of plasma. Immediately, the screen shifted, returning to the clock dial. Jace tilted his head. “I think it worked. How’d you know what to do, LeeKay?”

  The kyborg clanked and rattled a few times.

  “...Yeah, sorry, I didn’t understand that,” Jace said.

  “He said he looked inside it and assessed the opening code while we were running away, because he wanted to be of use to his new master,” Lessa translated. “So he saved the code for the right moment.”

  “Alright,” Jace said. “Well, thanks, bud.” He patted LeeKay on the head. “When we land, I’ll give it a test, and see how it works.”

  His abilities, which used hyperspace, wouldn’t really work if they were currently in a starship travelling through hyperspace.

  LeeKay gave an excited chirp, and Jace grinned. “I think we might just pull this off.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “So what’s your story, again?” Ash quizzed them.

  “We’ve been over this five times now,” Lessa groaned. She leaned back in the radioman’s chair and looked back at Ash, who stood in the hallway to the cockpit, holding onto a bulkhead. The Wrath’s shudders became more and more violent as they approached Sevencore and prepared to leave hyperspace.

  “Just one more time,” Ash said. “Please. For my sake, if nothing else. I need to know that you know.”

  “We’re both plasma-aspect Wielders from the middle rim,” Jace said, fiddling with the collar of his uniform. For men, it was a double-breasted jacket with long tails. Most of it was black, except for the crest of the school above his heart, and the deep purple lining and trim. Beneath, he wore a tie and a white dress shirt. It felt incredibly formal, but it had been fitted just right, affording him an excellent range of motion almost effortlessly.

  There was also a holographic projection of his rank, which was mandatory to leave on. It displayed his tier: Soul-Circle Blending Stage One.

  Lessa wore a similar uniform, except instead of pants, she wore a skirt and tights, and the tails of her coat weren’t nearly as long. Though her exo-suit was visible, they’d designed the uniform to fit over it.

  “From Thirmann Prime,” Lessa added.

  It was an out-of-the-way planet, with a small population of only a few million, known for making plasma-art. Not much industry, not much promise, no reason for anyone important from Sevencore to ever visit.

  “I’m a local,” Jace said.

  “And my family moved there only a few years ago,” Lessa added. “But we met in school.”

  “Good,” Ash confirmed. “And the exo-suit?”

  “I was in a repulsor-bike accident a few years ago, and the leaking engine fluid gave me serious nerve damage. I need help moving my arms and legs. The rifle is a replica for me to channel my Aes through.”

  “And your Paths?”

  “That’s our business,” Jace said. Wielders would be secretive about their Paths, especially when they had specialized Paths handed to them by generations of the galaxy’s most powerful Wielders.

  “We’re arriving,” Kinfild announced from the pilot’s seat. “Strap down.”

  Jace climbed into the copilot’s seat and fastened his crash harness. Ash and Perril retreated to the main hold and took seats on the couch.

  With a shudder, the Luna Wrath emerged from hyperspace. Being in the galactic core, clouds of dust and stars hung all around, making the void seem twice as dense as normal. The largest light, a bluish-magenta star, cast an eerie glow throughout the star system.

  At first, Jace couldn’t see Sevencore. There was only a rippling blue physical shield in a planet-sized sphere, and above it, a shimmering orange anti-hyperspace shield net. Kinfild pressed a button on the console, then activated a card and broadcasted a clearance code. A hole opened in the shield ahead, allowing the Wrath through, and only then did Jace see the planet below.

  It was a sphere of pitch-black obsidian with crevices of dark purple rock. Glassy black mountains rose miles in the sky, and oceans of dark liquid shifted under deep gray storms. Jace blinked. He’d never seen a planet like it before.

  The transmitter on the console buzzed to life, and a voice rippled through. “Welcome to Sevencore, Light Freighter Luna Wrath. You seem…awfully worn down.”

  “Lord Gremble prefers his children to earn their own keep,” Kinfild replied. “They don’t use the family starship.”

  “Ah, academy dropoffs. I’ll send over the coordinates. Please don’t linger too long, and remember: Sevencore is not open to sightseeing.” Then, the transmission cut out.

  Jace would claim that he was the son of ‘Lord Gremble.’ If no one pressed him on it, he wouldn’t elaborate, but if asked, Lord Gremble made his fortune selling plasma-art, and though not a lord by blood, he calls himself one. Lord Gremble wasn’t real.

  “You’re not leaving, are you?” Lessa asked.

  “We’ll linger around the system,” Kinfild said.

  “And we’ll leave you a wireless telesignal,” Perril said. “In case you need to call for assistance, aye.”

  “Now, enough of that,” Ash said. “We’re entering the atmosphere, and we shouldn’t say anything that we don’t want being overheard or sensed by a powerful Wielder.”