Alexandra strode purposefully down the halls of the Grey Tower, uncaring that her robe billowed open, exposing her naked body. Her guards hurried to keep pace with her long legs and soon found themselves jogging to maintain their position. Past labs and living chambers and lecture rooms and artifact closets and alchemy stations, Alexandra strode without looking one way or the other. Normally, she would have taken pride in the bustle of the magi, her magi, as they went about their chores and lessons.

She had taken over an order adrift and timid, nearly destroyed by the Royals and forged it through determination into the current force it was. The order’s numbers swelled from a few dozen to more than a thousand magi in the tower alone with many thousands more spread throughout the Empire of Azadora’s islands. All were in thrall of her. Ready to die at a moment’s notice. A force more powerful than any army or navy the Empress could muster would leap into action at the twitch of Alexandra’s finger, yet she was suddenly nervous.

“There’s been an eruption,” a magi said breathlessly as she emerged from a set of heavily guarded double doors ahead of Alexandra, the clockwork watchers on either side of the brass boxes flanking the door turning to stare at her watchfully. Gears whirred within their metal bodies; blades of sharpened steel ready to attack at any sign of trouble.

Within the brass boxes lay deadly, razor-sharp wheels. Each ready to slip out of their housings at any sign of intrusion and carve anyone foolish and fortunate enough to make it to the top of the Grey Tower and seek entrance to the chambers beyond into ribbons. The light housed above the door prepared to erupt into a deadly sheet of energy, preventing anything above the size of a fly from slipping past.

“Yes.” Alexandra didn’t bother stopping or even slowing down as she brushed past the magi and into the most sacred and important section of the Grey Tower. The Astrolabe.

Once used by the astronomers of the long dead Phaedithian Empire to study constellations in the night sky, the Astrolabe had been repurposed, reforged, and re-imagined following the Despair Wars. The huge globe stood within the centermost area of the top floor of the Grey Tower. The great height of the edifice scraped through the lower layer of clouds, the glass dome surrounding the Astrolabe chamber was dark, misty, and wet, but the Astrolabe itself bloomed with light.

Catwalks circled the globe with robed magi walking earnestly here and there, checking tablets, verifying information they’d seen on the Astrolabe. Where once the constellations had been laid out was now a globe of the Empire. Each of her thousand islands, each farm and dale and pond and hamlet magically rendered in intense detail in glimmering bronze. While the spear of the Grey Tower was the visible manifestation of the strength of the Order, the Astrolabe was the true heart of their power.

Lights of purple, white, yellow, red, and blue spread across the surface like a vast field of glimmering flowers. Some flickered weakly, others beamed with blinding intensity. These dots, magical beacons the Astrolabe divined and displayed, represented every female in the empire possessing magic. New lights would flicker to life as a girl’s power awoke or fade out if a girl died or had her power leeched away from her. This was the power of the Order of the Magi, the essence of the Archon’s mastery and the engine which drove the Empire of Azadora forward.

The girls represented by these lights powered the Despair batteries fueling the lights glittering on in the homes and streets of Bastion far below. These glowing embers on cold bronze generated the push needed for the Allicereum carts to take their noble riders to and fro. These girls employed their talents as alchemists, healers, warriors, spies, Order agents and Imperial special forces.

They were also the fire powering the Order’s meteoric rise to power. Here on the Astrolabe the Order found new girls and could track those whose power had already manifested. The Imperials had their ways of hiding their agents, but nothing was forever and eventually the Astrolabe would find them. Families hid particularly powerful girls, but no one could hide from the Order’s watchful gaze as long as the Astrolabe continued to spin inexorably in its brackets.

Everything the Empire was or hoped to be, was tracked, and studied and intercepted on the surface of the bronze globe. In power, just as in business, it was a matter of supply and demand. The demand was inexhaustible, and the Order controlled the supply. There would be no Empire without the Order, and while that dynamic held true, the Order controlled the levers of authority.

“Where?” Alexandra demanded, climbing the stairs to a platform above the gleaming globe and peering down. The robed magi near her glanced over at the mostly nude Archon in fear and confusion for a moment before quickly consulting the tablet in her hands.

“Uh…th-the River District,” she finally stammered, gesturing to the far side of the globe. Alexandra brushed past her wordlessly and quickly found the spot she’d indicated.

The light shone like an emerald flame, so bright it hurt Alexandra’s eyes to stare too long. She reached a long, thin finger out and brushed it against the cold surface of the globe. So, she thought, the Soul Render had come again. What did it mean? What way would the power manifest this time? Who was the new Render? How was it possible given the circumstances? So many questions and, for once, the Archon had no answers. Her heart pounded in her chest as it hadn’t done in years. Exhilarated? Frightened? Both? She needed to know. With a sigh, Alexandra realized she would have to visit the shrine.

She despised the trek and despised the Priestesses of the December Muse even more. Being so far outside of Bastion, they failed to show the Order the proper deference, yet she was forced to grudgingly admit they were right more often than not. Running one hand through her hair, she crouched down closer to the globe, keeping her finger on the brilliant emerald light.

This changed nothing, she decided. It had been two centuries since a Render had appeared and everything had changed in that time. She was no longer the frightened, intimidated apprentice she’d been. She was no longer in awe of the power the Render possessed. She had power enough on her own, and unlimited reservoirs should she require more.

Still, she couldn’t risk the Render falling into the Empress’ hands. Green light filled her fingertip, shining through her skin. No. The Empress controlling a power of that magnitude could give the little blonde bitch delusions of parity and sway the council in her favor. She needed a hunter squad immediately, and there was only one hunter she trusted with a job of this magnitude.

“Where is Valkyrie?” Alexandra demanded. One of the nearby magi jumped in surprise before hurriedly consulting her tablet.

“Err…” the girl’s finger trembled under the pressure of the Archon’s demand, “Sh-She’s in Crowfall, A-Archon.”

“I want her back and at the location tonight,” Alexandra ordered.

“B-Bu-” the girl began, freezing as the Archon’s steely eyes found her face. “Y-Yes, Archon.”