Ral - Accumulator / Empire

          Even so. He looked down at his creation and smiled, closing the last compartment on one side. Gingerly, he picked it up and slid his arms through the straps, letting the weight of the thing settle on his back. A pair of gloves hung off it from long, insulated cords, and he slipped them on, flexing his fingers and feeling the faintest crackle of energy.

          It needed to be charged, of course. But even empty, the accumulator gave him a feeling of power. The energy of Ral's magic came from the storms that raged overhead, and so his strength had always waxed and waned as unpredictably as the weather. Not anymore. Now he would carry his own storm, in leather, ceramic, and steel.

***

          "And your best is quite extraordinary," Bolas said. "Stranded here, without a penny to your name, bleeding out in an alley. And within ten years, here you are. Master of a tidy little empire, with a dozen inventors bowing and scraping for the privilege of assisting you. You didn't even have to kill very many people to do it." Bolas grinned, his teeth white and very slightly sharp. "Not that that would necessarily be a drawback, of course."

***

The Gathering Storm, Chapter 16