My former maji guide didn't respond when I reached for her with magic, unconscious and fading quickly. That couldn't be right. She was second race, powerful beyond measure, a bottomless well of rainbow magic. And yet, she lay prone and near empty, the barest whisper of her essence all the remained to her.

I poured power into her, gasped for breath as a wash of weariness took me. She felt like the void, the dark space outside the veil, her very ...