The Second Death of Locke

Hand Captain Grey Flynn of the Scaelan army, who serves as the “well” (source of magical power) for Captain Kier Seward, feels Kier summoning her through the magical “tether” that connects them. She urgently crosses the rain-soaked Mecketer military encampment and enters Master Attis’s command tent, where Attis and her own Hand, Mare Concord, brief them on an urgent mission. Grey and Kier must intercept a convoy from the nation of Luthar, retrieve the convoy’s unidentified resource, and achieve complete decimation of the enemy forces, as ordered by Scaela’s High Lord. 

Attis orders Kier’s full company to deploy, raising concerns about risking the army’s wells during the current shortage of magical power. When Kier asks what the Luthrites’ resource is, Attis refuses to answer, saying only that he will recognize it when he sees it. As they depart, Grey recalls treating Mare two years ago; the injured Hand had warned her to escape military service before it destroyed her.

In their tent, Kier expresses unease about the High Lord’s direct involvement in the mission. He confesses to reading a classified document indicating Luthar’s belief that the resource can generate new wells and restore the world’s waning magic. Grey suggests that such a thing would only be possible if they found the lost heir to the destroyed Isle of Locke.