45th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle

"Big brother?" Newt knew he was delirious. Dandelion gripping his arm and helping him stand straight was a figment of a dying man's imagination.

"Our timing is quite fortunate."

"Yes… Impossibly fortunate. Destined even." Gatemaster Greenthorn dragged out the words, glaring at Dandelion, but the man ignored it.

Am I dead already?

"Esteemed exalt, I have done my part. Please take good care of my little brother for me, and thank you for saving his life. If I may be so bold, I would suggest you take him to the Summersweald with the scant few minutes we have left. It would be better if such a cataclysmic event happened where others will have a difficult time connecting the incident with your order. Whatever disturbance you may cause won't affect the onslaught, and the rampaging saurians might even obscure your actions."

Dandelion then looked at Newt and gave him a sad smile. "Take care, Newstar. Should you need me, I will be busy protecting Hailstown."

Air whipped Newt's hair before he processed the words. The fantasy seemed so real. His stomach lurched, and the wind picked up, slamming into Newt with the force of an unbreakable wall as the world changed from a blur to a nauseating nebula of colors.

Then, just as abruptly as it started, everything came back into focus. Newt went limp, but the gatemaster held him tight.

"I can't rush too deeply into the Summersweald. I have already triggered the onslaught, and if I travel too deep once more, an exalt manabeast will start a rampage. Besides, this is far enough from prying eyes."

The gatemaster released Newt who slumped to the ground and looked up, then burst into laughter.

"Thank you, gatemaster, thank you. Even if this is a dream, I am eternally grateful and in your debt."

"Stop speaking nonsense. You fought bravely for the order while I was held up in the imperial capital, but we will discuss everything later. Now, the time is nigh. Take off your clothes."

Newt doubted the words he had heard, which confirmed he really was dreaming. With nothing to lose, he undressed. The gatemaster stored the robe into his spatial pouch, but Newt hardly paid him any attention.

His skin smoldered, the air around him dancing in a haze.

Maybe this isn't a dream? Newt thought, then blacked out. A moment later, he opened his eyes and found himself in a familiar bed in a familiar room - his own bedroom back at the Salamandra clanhold.

He turned his head to the side and saw the gatemaster sitting in a similar place as in previous years - in a chair, right next to his bed.

"Did you see anything?"

Newt stared blankly.

Am I alive?

"Did you have another vision?"

Newt considered the matter. Everything hurt. That probably meant he had miraculously survived. Deadman's muscles couldn't be sore, nor could a dead mind and body suffer from such exhaustion that he was ready to collapse despite lying in his comfortable, fluffy bed. Usually, such basic comfort wasn't worth mentioning, but after the hellish moons of stifling doom even a soft mattress felt like a blessing.

After confirming he was in fact alive, Newt focused on the gatemaster.

"I apologize, I don't know what you said." He smiled awkwardly, while the gatemaster pointedly didn't take a deep breath.

"Shock, I understand. Let me repeat my question - did you have another vision?"

Newt focused and considered the words. During the prior solstice incidents, he had seen parts of Magmin's life, but when he tried to focus on those fragments, he found nothing.

"I apologize, I don't remember anything." Newt's heart sped up. He had probably missed an important hint or something. "I was running for weeks, moons without stopping. I got lost in the jungle, and everything turned out wrong."

The suppressed terror and despair crashed down on his skinny shoulders, crushing him, making his veins feel hollow. Before he knew it, his cheeks were wet, his breath rapid and shallow.

I'm embarrassing myself.

Newt staggered out of the bed, then moved to bow, but a rush of air gently lifted him and placed him back into his bed.

"Thank you, Gatemaster, thank you."

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"You're welcome." The man seemed unfazed by the outburst. "What happened? Where did you get such an impressive spear and that scar on your forehead?"

"Well, almost as soon as we entered the airship…" Newt explained everything he remembered in as few lines as possible. The entire Summersweald trek was barely worth three sentences.

He didn't know whether the group was incredibly lucky or cautious enough to avoid all the manabeasts along the way. The secret realm they had stumbled upon deserved more details as Newt told the story of Coldsteel of the Claw clan, including when and how the ancient blacksmith had died.

Newt paused and gave the gatemaster an expectant look, but the man just shrugged. "Never heard of him, nor the clan."

The rest of the story was boring. With a solid weapon in hand, and outside the area controlled by fifth realm manabeasts, Newt ran in a straight-ish line, slaying any manabeasts which appeared in his way until he left the jungle.

"How did you find me?" Newt asked after finishing his telling.

"Your friend, Dandelion, showed up in the order one day, some eight moons after the attack. He requested an audience and offered to help me find you. He examined the tracks and guessed where the airship was headed. Just so you know, the slightest change of course or imperfection translates into an error margin calculated in miles by the time you crossed the sea, but he deduced the likeliest direction in a matter of minutes, and we headed out to search for you."

The gatemaster looked out the window.

"I followed his directions and sneaked through the jungle while he waited outside. I found the crash site on the second attempt, and I must admit I was impressed. It still seems impossible. The initial patch of broken trees was the only clue he had to calculate your location, and you have veered off course. Right, he had one weird request — I needed to conclude my investigation of the jungle and return to him in thirteen days or fewer."

The gatemaster shifted his gaze back at Newt.

"Is he psychic? Can he see the future? The way he warned me, it sounded like something horrible would happen if I stayed more than two weeks in the jungle. I was starting to get nervous. We had only twelve days left before the summer solstice when I found the crash site. I was tempted to ransack the jungle in search of you, but your friend insisted I should return as soon as I found any clues of your whereabouts. And do you know what he said when I returned?"

Newt shook his head.

"He first told me to relax and calm down for an hour. I mentioned the tightness of our deadline then, told him about the heavenly punishment, but he nodded, saying he already knew. I'm guessing you told him?"

Newt tried to remember whether he had discussed his problem with Dandelion. He did not. He was almost certain. Dandelion certainly knew about Magmin's realm, but he had no way of divining Newt's curse.

Unless he actually divined it.

Newt looked at the gatemaster and wondered whether he should lie to cover for Dandelion, but there was no point. The gatemaster would catch his lies, and that would only make matters worse.

"I've never mentioned my curse to anyone."

The gatemaster nodded.

"After sitting and thinking for a while, your friend stood and said you must be heading back to your clan. I've never seen such calm conviction, that's why I thought he could see the future. The only mistake he made was about the first potential crash site, since you weren't there."

Maybe he guessed I was planning on entering Magmin's realm to escape the solstice? Newt considered the matter. It seemed likely. If Dandelion had known that the sun was smiting him, and that secret realms had no sun, existing in separate pockets of space, that made Magmin's realm an obvious hiding place for Newt.

"You know the rest. We found you, and I protected you. Fortunately, the heavenly punishment seems to be weakening; this one was even easier to handle than the previous one, and my power was enough to protect you. You have suffered grievous injuries, but I brought a collection of pills and potions, just in case, and managed to stabilize your condition before bringing you here."

Newt could feel the gatemaster's story was just as rushed as his, bare of meaningful details, but considering the difference between their statuses, the man owed Newt no explanations, let alone wasting time to search for him.

"Gatemaster, I am eternally grateful," Newt said the same thing for the third time, "I really am. I just have a single question."

The gatemaster smiled and motioned him to speak.

"Why invest so much in me? I think the Blood Cult's attack happened because of me. I interfered with their plans and summoned misfortune to our order."

Gatemaster chuckled. "You did what was right. If everyone feared the consequences of standing up to the demons, they would have destroyed the world already, or whatever their plan is. Our order received imperial bounties for slaying the cultists, and the imperials compensated us for our losses. While manarium can't make up for the lives we lost, it more than covered the material damage we have suffered, and the rest we will use to further the order's growth. Others weren't as fortunate."

"Others?"

"The Four Cults attacked across the empire, striking multiple targets at once. Two dozen medium and small families wiped out, or worse sacrificed in hellish rituals. Three more orders suffered attacks, two repelled them, but the Order of the Guiding Light was eradicated. Two dukes perished, and the Tidebreaker king and queen are missing, presumed dead."

Gatemaster stopped talking and looked towards the Summersweald.

"I have so much more to tell you, but there's little time. My little trip to the depths of the Summersweald has caused ripples, and a saurian onslaught is upon the summer kingdoms. What you need to know is that you are worth saving. Each solstice reforges your body a little, making you just that much stronger. Even though you are at the third realm, your body is already at the fifth. You have the potential for a glorious future, and that future will benefit the order as long as you remain loyal to us."

Newt watched the kind smile and burned with shame from hiding his secrets from the gatemaster.

"I will do everything in my power to repay your kindness and meet your expectations." Newt said with a steely look. After the whole Blood Cult incident, he owed the order more than he owed his clan.

"I know you will. You're a fine young man, upright and responsible."

Newt suddenly remembered something he had missed in his account of what had happened during the Blood Cult's attack.

"Gatemaster, someone sabotaged our ship. That's why we flew so far into the Summersweald."

The gatemaster's face turned grim. He gave a sharp nod.

"Your airship wasn't the only one. Another airship crashed into the sea shortly after taking off, and Rexheart slew an outer disciple who had infiltrated their airship. But I must depart, lest I invite a calamity. I will send reinforcements. They should arrive in ten days or so. Hold on until then; this will be one of the most savage onslaughts."

With that, the exalt disappeared.

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