Page 101 of The Sundered Realms

She didn’t hesitate, but she did say, “We need to go now.”

“You said two was debatable already, and I’m not leaving you here without your escape.”

Nysia frowned as she realized what he meant.

But Vhannor had already turned away from her and fixed his burning gaze on Liris. “What’s the fewest symbols in Thyrasel you can use to convey strength or power?”

Liris pulled out her pad and quickly sketched out three options.

“The second one will map right. I’ll add limiters to the appropriate points first, then write directly above them.”

Princess Nysia said, “Vhann, Shry is up there, we don’t have time for limiters—“

Liris interrupted her this time, following Vhannor’s lead in editing the spell. “With the demon portal open, we need to make sure there will be enough ambient magic left to use once we’re up there.”

That surprised the princess quiet.

Vhannor lifted his pen and fixed his gaze on her. “You haven’t cast in the field for too long.”

“Let’s fix that,” Nysia said, gauging the distance and direction and filling in the variable, and activated the spell around them.

The air around them wavered, like looking through flickering heat, then all at once firmed in a translucent shield.

Liris was standing on air.

Then they rocketed toward the Gate, far faster than the cable car would have taken them.

In the meantime, the demons had grown. Shry was a blur of motion between them, but they were closing in.

“Liris, watch for signs of an avalanche,” Vhannor’s voice broke through her anxiety. “Choose your first spells now. Shry can hold her own if we keep them from converging on her.”

Wind, rocks, fire—gods, what did she have that didn’t trigger avalanches?

“What are you using?” she asked. Maybe she could balance him, and together—

“What I’m fastest at and have the most of prepared. We don’t have time for nuance here.”

Well, in that case.

Liris flipped her pad automatically toward the ones she’d been practicing with most, albeit at a smaller scale, hoping he wouldn’t regret that advice.

“Nysia—“

“I’ll do what I’m best at,” she snapped.

Liris didn’t have time to ask what that was, because when they reached the Gate, the sphere dissipated around them and they fell the few feet to the platform.

They hit the ground rolling, and Vhannor was first to hit the back of a demon with a precisely calibrated fire spell.

It roared, shifting enough for Liris to see the positions of the other two surrounding Shry, scribble, and activate her own spell.

Lightning cracked from the tip of her pen, arcing around Shry and striking the one on the opposite side of her even as Liris sprinted to Shry’s position.

That lightning spell had two variables to fill in: one for the target, and one for the bolt’s shape, so she could bend it around targets she didn’t want to hit.

The next spell on her pad was target-only, and Liris fired.

Shry took the opportunity to launch herself at the remaining demon, leaving Liris alone with hers.

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