This was the Wei clan. No one would take him at his word. They would investigate his claim, but that would take time.

Patriarch Sairus made a doubtful sound. “You must have mighty friends indeed, if Heaven’s Glory respected them enough to allow you to pass.”

Lindon met his eyes. “Yes, Patriarch, I do.”

Before anyone could react to that statement, Lindon turned to the First Elder and dipped his head again. “A monster known as a Dreadgod comes for you. It is called the Wandering Titan, and the shaking in the earth you feel now is the least sign of its coming. If it passes through Sacred Valley, it will notice none of us, but its very footsteps will bury us all. You must leave.”

The First Elder’s white eyebrows climbed into his hair. “You have proof?”

“Dross,” Lindon said aloud.

They had practiced this on the way.

On cue, Dross projected Lindon’s memories into the minds of everyone in the room.

His first sight of the Wandering Titan sleeping face-down in the bay outside Sky’s Edge, its black shell the size of an island. The close-up view of its hand, each finger like a collapsed tower, as Lindon reached out with his Remnant arm to touch its rocky skin.

The feeling of overwhelming strength as it woke, the slashing of its tail kicking up waves, one cycle of its madra knocking a cloudship from the air.

With that, the memories cut off.

Every Elder exclaimed differently. Many of them had risen to their feet. Some demanded Lindon repeat his technique. Others were simply impressed, or in shock.

None looked more shocked than the First Elder. “Where did you train the Fox Dream?” he asked in disbelief. He glanced down at Lindon’s badge. “We can find a Ruler badge for you.”

That warmed Lindon more than he had expected. Even though he hadn’t been the one to use the technique, and he had passed beyond the understanding of Sacred Valley’s ranking system long ago.

Even so, this was the man who had once given him the badge declaring him Unsouled.

“You can’t expect us to take an illusion as proof, no matter how carefully crafted,” Patriarch Sairus said.

“Pardon, Patriarch,” Lindon said, “but I didn’t.”

Then he unleashed the full might of his spirit.

He had been drained down to roughly Gold, but his pure core was mostly full, so it was stronger than his Blackflame madra. Exerting spiritual pressure on someone had better results the greater the power difference and the more sensitive the receiver’s spiritual sense. It could be used on those under Jade, but its effects were blunted.

The senses of these Sacred Valley Jades were dull, but fortunately the gap in power was wide.

Everyone in the room collapsed to their knees, gasping for breath, as a great weight settled on them. Everyone except Lindon, Yerin, and the First Elder.

Lindon took it easy on him.

“I know more than most what power the words of the strong have over you,” Lindon said. “Let this represent the weight of my words.”

Patriarch Sairus struggled to speak, but Lindon continued. “I have strength beyond anyone and anything you have ever encountered.” A moment later he added, “…in this life.”

They had all seen Li Markuth and Suriel, though they had died for it.

“If I wanted you to suffer or die, I would not need to deceive you. I could have that now. If I wanted revenge, I could have it. I could have leveled the Heaven’s Glory School, but I did not. I do not want your lives. I want you to keep your lives.”

He released the spiritual pressure, and as they gasped and raised themselves, he bowed to the room in general. “Please, listen to me. We have vehicles prepared to take you to safety. Though I have not been here for several years, I do not want my own clan to fall.”

The various elders all had their own opinions, from apologizing for treating him so rudely to demanding that he apologize for treating them so rudely, but he was listening only for the Patriarch’s words.

“What would you have us do?” Patriarch Sairus finally asked. His voice was sore.

Lindon lifted himself from his bow. The Patriarch looked surly, but he should back down before superior power. At least when there was another way out that could benefit everyone.

“Contact everyone in the Wei clan, and anyone living in the wilds that you can. Bring everyone to the Heaven’s Glory School. We will use their pathway to the outside.”

“When?” the First Elder asked.

“Now. My allies are waiting just outside the walls to help.”

The room was quiet. All of them felt the floor vibrating beneath them.

The Patriarch seemed to struggle with himself, but finally he turned to the First Elder. “Call them.”

Relief flooded Lindon’s chest. He had been afraid he would have to carry the Wei clan elders to Mount Samara on his back.

A grieved expression crossed the Elder’s face, but he didn’t protest what he must have heard as the order to leave the only home he’d ever known.

The First Elder nodded to the Patriarch and swept out of the room…but not before placing his hand on Lindon’s shoulder.

“Welcome home, Lindon.”

11

It didn’t take the Wei elders long to whip the entire clan into action.

The Path of the White Fox was excellent for sending messages, at least compared to the other Paths of Sacred Valley, and the commands of the Patriarch spread all over Wei territory over the course of the day. The Akura Golds spread out as well, shipping small families or individuals back to Heaven’s Glory on personal clouds.

As the sun began to set and Samara’s ring started to shine, families in white and purple flowed east in a river. They took hand-pulled carts, Remnant-led carriages, wardrobes floating on clouds…anything they could use to carry their belongings away from home.

Lindon could hardly believe it. From his Thousand-Mile Cloud floating high in the air, he watched people filter out from buildings and choke the road, but he couldn’t convince himself that it had worked.

He was sure something would have gone wrong.

Have you heard from Eithan? Lindon asked Dross for the fifth time.

[I don’t remember hearing from Eithan.]

Dross had sent a message to Eithan telling him to prepare for the coming of the Wei clan, but they couldn’t be sure their transmission had reached him. The first waves of the Akura clan hadn’t returned yet either, so for the moment, they had to guess that Eithan had heard them.

They had also contacted Orthos at the Fallen Leaf School, but Lindon was certain that had worked. Orthos grew slightly closer by the minute.

Yerin braced herself on Lindon’s shoulder to lean out and watch the people beneath them. “It’s going to take them a year and a half to get out.”

That was one of Lindon’s concerns. Would the clan have enough time to escape before the Dreadgod arrived?

He opened his aura sight. Jagged veins of gold moving through the earth throbbed rapidly now, and the ground pulsed to the regular rhythm of a heartbeat.

While he couldn’t feel the Dreadgod with his spiritual sense yet, it only took his eyes and ears to know the Wandering Titan was close.

They still had monumental work ahead of them if they wanted to evacuate everyone in Sacred Valley, but between the Wei clan sending out messages, the Akura Golds providing their assistance, and Mercy and Ziel visiting the other clans in person, it should be possible. They only needed a few more days. Surely they had that long.