“All I want is the Icosahedron back,” the hooded figure said to Prince Eleazar, using his own voice.

  The rift had been waiting for them when they exited the black tower, their eyes trying to drink all the details of that strange new world.

  Necessity could be seen through the tear in the air, sitting on an unadorned throne-like structure.

  He was standing in the middle of the empty Hall of Immortals. The fates of whole universes had been decided in that very same building.

  “We no longer have it, as you well know,” Eleazar replied over his shoulder, not even bothering to look at him. The Imperials were a fierce people, even in the face of death.

  Especially in the face of death.

  “Governance gave it to you, and then you had him killed. Now you intend to do the same to the rest of my people. I don’t know what more you could take from us, but you can go to hell for all I care.”

  Prince Eleazar was a proud representative of the Empire. Originally human, he had undergone seven successful Progressions that transformed both his body and mind, taking him far beyond his original potential.

  He had chosen Organizing and Ending as Intents, rejecting all others and evolving solely along those lines.

  His slender metallic limbs had an almost insect-like quality, and while his face retained a mostly human appearance, the mind behind his steely eyes had long surpassed anything humanity could produce.

  Eleazar was a creature of precision, grace, and lethality. His evolved senses had already identified seventeen different ways to kill the being that appeared beyond the spatial rift in front of him. They had also warned him that Necessity was not afraid of him at all. It knew Eleazar would not dare to lose the last hope for his people.

  “First, I didn’t have your father killed. He no longer appears in the Compendium log. There is only one possible explanation for that: Exile. He probably committed a Breach of Form, and Limbo reclaimed him,” Necessity explained, using the tone of a teacher addressing a particularly uninspired student. He seemed indifferent to the fact that he was speaking to a son who was mourning his father and king.

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  “Second, if you follow the instructions I left him, you will receive a second chance at the Icosahedron. All I ask is that you return it to me afterward.”

  “And how are we supposed to achieve that?” Eleazar replied, unimpressed by Necessity’s nonchalant attitude. “Only an Omega can return the Icosahedron to the Coven. Our progression bars are frozen. None of us can become an Omega.”

  “Do what I say, and I will unfreeze those bars for you. All those of you who are present will have the opportunity for their tenth Progression. Those gathered here will have the chance to become Postulants, and one of them will become Immortal, hopefully with better luck than Governance.”

  “Only those present?” Eleazar asked. “What about the rest of my people? What about those we left before entering this damned tower?”

  “They will perish,” Necessity explained coldly. “If I could have extended this opportunity to all of your people, I would have. You will have to choose between total extinction for your race or a new beginning in another place for the best among you.”

  Eleazar looked at the representatives from the various factions: the finest warriors, poets, crafters, and assassins of the Old Empire were all here, their forms shaped by the Progressions they had undergone.

  Necessity presented him with a choice, but they all understood it was no choice at all.

  Damn that hooded freak, Eleazar thought. It’s as if he knows me better than I know myself.

  “I accept,” he finally said, feeling as if he could die of shame. He was dragging his father’s name through the mud to appease this godling, but his first duty was to his people.

  “Good, with that out of the way, let me grant you a present. It was intended for your father, but he left us before I could give it to him,” Necessity said.

  Necessity threw an exquisitely ornate key through the rift. “You may open the coffer now,” it said. Governance had taken the coffer with him from Nowhere. It was the first part of his payment for helping Necessity. The rest of the payment was the key to open it.

  Eleazar opened the coffer with trembling fingers. It was filled to the brim with beautiful jewels, each the size of a quail egg.

  “These are dungeon seeds. I will tell you how and where to use them, and you will regain your Progression bars.”

  Eleazar looked for the first time at the hills of his new homeland. He knew he would not see the old one ever again. But he was the Emperor now, and where the Emperor went, the Empire would follow.