The Last Knight (An Awakening the Lightforged Novel)

Chapter 7: Lightforged

Estingai studied the door for a moment, then frowned as her Auroramantic senses registered a change. The number of signatures had decreased. Only one was active now. Blacknodes like her own, sensing for anyone nearby using Auroramancy. Estingai's use would be concealed by Sila's onyx gemcrest. Samjati shrouded, Natari revealed.

Estingai almost told Sila to dim his gemcrest so that those on the other side of the door wouldn't be as surprised when she knocked. She hesitated, though, and brightened her orangenodes again, just long enough for one last peek into the past. Her hands barely shook at all this time.

When she saw Nightstone members filing orderly into the room, hurried, but not panicked, Estingai dimmed her orangenodes again. Only a small amount of Auroralight remained in her pair of orangenodes. Maybe a twelfth of their full capacity. She didn't transfer it to her other biogems. Depleting her orangenodes always left her with a foggy recollection of anything that happened until she restored light to them.

Taking a deep breath, Estingai turned back to Sila and signaled for him to dim his blacknodes. She kept her own bright. Stepping up to the metal door, she knocked, wincing at the metallic echo that bounced off the stone walls, then shouted the code.

"Phantom's balls."

Kozasana snorted, the sound barely audible over the echo of Estingai's voice.

Estingai turned to her friend, and found Kozasana with a wide smirk splitting her full Natari lips.

"You're joking."

Estingai shrugged, managing a bit of a smile. "I helped Raima come up with it. I have yet to hear of a situation where he wasn't an asshole."

The others laughed, and some of Estingai's tension left her.

If they can still find laughter in a place like this, maybe...

Estingai shook her head and straightened her shoulders. It wasn't time for that right now.

No one had answered, and the Auroramantic signal on the other end hadn't changed.

Estingai waited a moment, frowning, then knocked again and shouted the code louder.

Once the echoes died and there was still no answer, Estingai brightened her clearnodes and pressed her ear up against the cold, smooth metal.

Nothing.

That seemed wrong to her, but these doors were thick, and she realized she didn't have a frame of reference for how well she should be able to hear through a few inches of titansteel and aluminum.

"I don't like this," Sila murmured.

Estingai didn't either. It was up to her to make sure the others didn't panic, however.

"I think I need to rip it off," she said.

Kozasana looked at her wide-eyed. "How? We don't have any greyarms."

Estingai shrugged. "The stone around the door. I can move that."

"Shouldn't it be built to withstand something like that?" Farykas asked.

"There's only so many precautions we can take," Estingai said. "Plus, that works as a failsafe if there was a malfunction with the door or the generators. That's probably what happened here." She looked around at her team. "Just cover me. I can't imagine they'll be expecting someone to tear open their door."

As her companions formed up to either side of her, Estingai fell into a horse stance. She extended one arm toward the door, and the other toward part of the stone wall opposite the massive slab of malfunctioning metal.