It was a smaller source than Hightower should be, and it clearly wasn’t a stationary location, but a person.
Loreli, the founder of the Luminian Order. She was close.
Calder forced himself back to the search because he couldn’t afford distractions, but he was actually glad to feel the Regent’s approach. Loreli was well-known as the one who had struck Urg’naut down originally. If he could stall long enough, perhaps she could take over the battle.
He located Hightower quickly. The headquarters of the Luminian Order was in the greater Capital area, well within the reach of the statue, and centuries of faith and dedication had left a protective aura around the place.
The huge white diamond that sat at the top of the central tower still held Loreli’s Intent, a direct opposite of Urg’naut’s. The Creeping Shadow would not have an easy time encroaching on these grounds.
Calder needed it to do more.
He couldn’t Awaken the giant jewel; even Loreli hadn’t been able to do so, and she had a far greater connection to Hightower than Calder ever would. But if he understood the function of the Optasia correctly, he should be able to increase and direct the diamond’s Intent.
Unlike a steady and stable investment, this effect wouldn’t last long, but Calder wouldn’t need it to. He just wanted to save as much of the Capital as he could.
His vision shot toward the gemstone, which shone like a white sun. That light swallowed his vision.
To protect. To illuminate. To bring peace.
The Intent inside the White Sun of Hightower came from too many thousands of different sources for Calder to pick out specific visions, but the whole Intent was spectacularly unified. Its light was cleansing and penetrating.
The diamond yearned to protect people, so Calder helped it achieve that goal. It didn’t even take much energy; Calder felt as though he was merely directing a wave, controlling the Optasia’s power rather than providing any of his own.
Protect the Capital, he commanded, and the White Sun did so eagerly.
A ray of light shot from the top of Hightower over to the city, a sunbeam cutting through the pall of Urg’naut’s darkness. The black clouds flinched back, and Calder heard a distant sound that suggested one scream coming from a thousand throats.
Suddenly he could feel the Capital through the Great Elder’s concealment, and two things caught his attention.
First, the entire city was filled with wards against the Elders. From emblems of the White Sun carved into doorposts to rings of silver to complex glyphs with forgotten histories, they had all been invested by ordinary people that begged these objects to protect them from Elderspawn.
Perhaps they hadn’t even believed in the Elders—at least, not before recent years, when proof had become more and more obvious—but their desperation had focused their Intent. A baker melted her mother’s jewelry down into a chain and hung it over her child’s crib, hoping the residual Intent would protect against harmful influence. An accountant painted images of the Emperor, hanging them on each wall so that nothing could slip through and take his spirit in the night.
Individually, these objects had almost no effect. An Elderspawn might feel a little uncomfortable in their presence, but it was nothing that would save anyone’s life.
But collectively, they could be something truly powerful. A host of candles that could ward off the darkness.
And the Emperor had not left them undefended.
Beneath the city, the Emperor had left seven giant spikes of iron. Calder was reminded immediately of the nails carried by Watchmen…but these were thousands of times larger and thousands of times more powerful.
They were all Awakened, so he couldn’t add to their power, but he found himself surprised that Urg’naut could even approach the Capital. The spikes were not intended to destroy lesser Elderspawn but were aimed straight at the Great Elders themselves.
While Urg’naut was here, perhaps he could be defeated without the great sacrifices that the battle against him had taken in the past.
Which brought Calder’s attention to the second major thing he’d noticed in the Capital.
Jorin Curse-breaker.
A pair of paper wings spread from the Regent’s back, supported on a wooden frame and decorated with Windwatcher feathers. Thanks to the remaining Intent of the Kameira, Jorin could use those wings to float.
He hovered in the air, his black shadeglasses missing. His eyes were silvery pale, and he stared up at the black clouds. His long coat billowed in the wind, alchemy bottles and invested items clinking against one another and his sword—
Calder had to intentionally blind himself