The dark of the high Shrine wrapped around them as they entered, and the great storm-being turned its countless points of light toward the eleven who had climbed to meet it. The jade rock still sat on its dark plinth to the left, small and round and faintly green, the slow ember sleeping at its heart.
"You return," the being said, its deep voice settling through the chamber like weight through water. "And you return changed. I can feel it. You have learned to swim."
"We have," Erix said. "We came to break your stone."
The lights brightened, amused. "Then hear the shape of the test, for it is not what you may think. The jade is not broken once, by the strongest of you, for all the rest. Each of you must break it alone. Your own strength, your own hand, no other lending aid. Only those who shatter it earn the right to the task I will set, and only those with that right will share in its reward."
