I was already tired of the politicking that was clearly going to happen.

  Xera did almost all the talking, which was for the best for a lot of reasons. For starters, she seemed to know who a lot of these people were, or at least could recognize their status from…something. I couldn’t figure out what.

  They all looked the same to me, but she rattled off titles the second people got the courage to speak to us, and did a much better job of the whole affair than I honestly would have expected her to, which I said to her. “That’s not an insult. I’ve just never seen this side of you before.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s another skill I learned over the years. It’s mostly saying vaguely nice things and then agreeing with whatever the other person says, but in an interesting way. The whole goal of the game is to make them go away, but make it seem like their idea, and that you don’t actually want them to go away.”

  I had to laugh. “Sounds exhausting and too much like humans for my liking. At least they’re not all as pompous as the Ascension.” While these people were clearly the peak of society or whatever, and they did seem pretty full of themselves, they weren’t jam-packed with the arrogance and casual disdain that every Ascendant I’d ever met was. Speaking of which… “So, where are all the King’s advisors, anyway?”

  “They mostly turned tail and ran when it became apparent that we could defend ourselves again. Once the Deep flow was cleansed and the city’s construction started, they held on for dear life for a little while, seemingly convinced they could still browbeat us like they had been, but it only took a couple incidents before the truth became apparent. Even then, they still hung on for a while. Some of them, at least. But I doubt they could stand living here knowing they weren’t completely superior to us in every way. Bastards. And as for spies? A few people have been rooted out, I’m told, and imprisoned, but it’s unclear what to do with them, because they truly believe they’re innocent.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. It’s an ongoing problem.”

  “I’m surprised the Hallowed Horde hasn’t descended on this place.”

  “Well,” she said, looking around for what turned out to be the drinks table, “it looks like the King really is mainly interested in leaving Oolis. Once it wasn’t easy to push us into submission, I think he stopped caring. Or that’s my guess, anyway. Besides, if they did descend on us, we’d bash their stupid faces off. Or at least enough of their faces that it wouldn’t really be worth the effort.”

  We mingled for a while after that, people coming up to us once it was clear our conversation with each other had waned. Depending on the situation, I smiled brightly, stood completely emotionless, or glowered for all I was worth when someone wouldn’t take Xera’s hints to finally go away. It was kinda fun, but only for a time. I hardly said a single word during the entire debacle.

  When the food arrived, it was preceded with loud and jarring music, happening so suddenly that I wholly lost my composure and let my emotionless mask slip. However, we’d only been talking to the equivalent of a minor noble, so it was fine.

  We took our seats, me in the center of the entire room and Xera at my right. On my left was an elderly woman with a kind smile but shrewd eyes that we’d spoken to very early on in the evening. I forgot her name. She probably ruled the entire city. I mean, there was a Council, but she was the head of it or something. I’d really tried to pay attention to Xera’s explanations, but there was just too damn much.

  Thankfully, one of the waiters said her name aloud, which was Matriarch Yula. Doubly thankfully, she only made inane smalltalk with me. I called her Yula and she called me Ian, no honorifics, and I became extremely sure that she was on to me as the dinner progressed. We talked about the food and the weather — both were very nice — whether I liked my clothes or not — I did — and a host of other vacuous things, but all the while, her eyes were boring into my soul.

  It was so hard to keep from grinning like an idiot under that gaze, like when a friend is trying to make you laugh and you’re doing your best to remain composed. Whenever I slipped, she got a small smile of her own and looked away, letting us reset the game.

  I didn’t really mean to, but I stuffed myself. Dessert came, and I stuffed myself even more. I sat back in my chair, fighting the wave of nausea that was threatening to overwhelm me. I’d eaten way too much dessert, and didn’t want to completely screw up all my hard work of the evening by loudly vomiting over the nice table because I was a moron who didn’t know when to stop.

  Yula side-eyed me and I could see her smiling widely, but she kept facing forward and didn’t attempt to talk to me anymore.

  Finally, once I was feeling much less vomity, I leaned over to Xera and said, “So, this has been a nice diversion, but I can’t help feeling massively guilty that we’re sitting here being the guests of honor at a lavish feast while Sarin’s stuck dealing with the shit in the Spire.”

  She nodded and patted my hand. “I know how you feel, but you might be doing the right thing by just stepping away from the situation for a moment. You could go ask her if she wants your help instead,” she said with a wide grin.

  “Uh, yeah. Maybe you’re right. And maybe she’ll have cooled down a little when we get back. Oh, and please don’t tell her about any of this, okay? We went back to the mansion and fell asleep, right?”

  “Nothing but,” she said, still smiling.

  Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave just then. Once dinner was over, it was time to make various speeches and toasts, all in honor of the exalted. Luckily, all I had to do was sit and listen to how great I was for restoring the Limit — or at least making it better — since I wasn’t about to tell anyone that Reka was still alive and we weren’t even sure we were going to kill her. I could just imagine how that would have gone over. It was probably going to come out eventually, but tonight wasn’t the night.

  I raised my glass over and over, doling out smiles and waves like it was going out of style, and finally, finally, we were able to excuse ourselves once enough toasts had been made. We were played out with fanfare and escorted all the way down to the subterranean reaches of the city, and when we closed the door of our mansion behind us, so much tension flowed out of my body that I collapsed right there on the floor. “Shit,” I said, after a long, deep breath. “That was an unexpected evening.”

  Xera wobbled on her feet but remained standing, holding out a hand to help me up. We stumbled into the bedroom, stripped off our finery, and fell into bed, pulling the covers over us. We snuggled up together, and despite everything, our hands began wandering, and I found a reserve of energy and motivation that I would have said was impossible.

  The lovemaking was slow and measured, neither of us able to do much more, and there was as much kissing as there was thrusting and riding. I was on top for a while, then she was. It was nice, slow, and quiet in the dark.

  Afterwards, we stumbled to the bathroom and back, falling into bed, fully and completely spent.

  As we laid there in the dark, thoughts that I’d been pushing away slowly started to creep in, now that I had some time to think. I must have grumbled or something, because Xera rolled over and asked what was wrong.

  “Oh, well…”

  “Is it Sarin?”

  “No, but I haven’t stopped feeling bad about that. I’m not looking forward to going back, although maybe she really will have cooled down.”

  “Yeah, probably,” Xera said in a completely unconvincing manner.

  I laughed softly. “Well anyway, what I was thinking about this time was our fight with the King.”

  “And how great it went? Although we did live, so there’s that.”

  “Yeah, actually; that was what my thoughts were stuck on. We barely made it out. How are we actually going to fight him? Hell, that time, all his minions held back and watched, and we still almost got our thoughts rewritten. Can you imagine when the real fight happens and they all join in? I don’t know. For a lot of my time on Oolis, I’ve been assuming Sarin would know what to do, but really taking the fight to the King? I’m not sure how we’re supposed to win.” There. I said it all out loud, the thoughts I’d been pushing away, which had really been easy, given all the distractions. But after saying them, I felt a little better. Not more hopeful, but less doom and gloom.

  She sighed. “Yeah. I understand exactly how you feel. It was so easy for him to put those thoughts in my h—” She paused and sat bolt upright in bed.

  Uh oh. “What?”

  There was just enough light for me to see her turn slowly towards me, her eyes as wide as they could go. “If he could put thoughts in my head that easily…surely he could…take them out, too.”

  It was my turn to sit up in terror. “Oh shit. He could know—”

  “—everything we know.”

  4

  There was the barest second before we leapt out of bed, fumbling around in the dark, trying our best to put our crumpled clothes on, falling over and swearing the entire time.

  “Wait…wait…wait…” I said. “Hang on.”

  “What!?”

  “We’re concerned he knows about the Spire, right?”

  “Of course!”

  “But…where is the Spire?”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, her voice about as high-pitched as it could go.

  “Do you know where, on a map, the Spire is?” I could see her tilting her head at me, with what must have been an impatient, incredulous look in her still wide eyes.

  “Well…” Her whole body relaxed, just a little. “I, uh…no?”

  “Neither do I. He might know about the collector, but would he know where it is? How would he even search for it? Viluna wouldn’t know either. Or Reka. Or…OH SHIT!”

  Moth would know.

  Xera was right there with me, and we resumed our panicked dressing, throwing our clothes on and sprinting out the door, leaving random, bewildered Golreq in our wake.

  I channeled towards the portal before we even got to the room it was in, and we shoved open the door and dove into it.

  We stumbled and landed on the Spire’s metal floor, and I immediately tried to stand, listening for sounds of battle. When there were none, I helped Xera up and we kinda smiled at each other.

  “Maybe we got a little ahead of ourselves, huh?”

  “Yeah. I’ll bet we have a little time before—”

  Sarin’s scream echoed throughout the Spire, just like the time I accidentally snuck up on her; it came from everywhere and nowhere all at once. This time, every single light that could come on came on, all of them directing us out of the room.

  “No! He’s here!” we both yelled in tandem as we ran out of the room, following the lights that were going berserk.

  This was it; our worst fears were coming true, because we were too dense to think things through after the battle. We went out and had a feast while our biggest enemy gathered his forces. We fucked while they made their way down under the ground, surrounding the Spire and putting an end to any threat to the King’s reign.

  “Get out!” Sarin screamed, her voice echoing from each and every wall, “Get out get out get out!”

  It was over.

  Damn it! The fuck it was!

  It wasn’t over until we were dead!

  The lights led us ever upward, towards Sarin’s real body, I knew. We took the elevator, and while it was worlds faster than the stairs would have been, it didn’t feel like it as we stood there, dancing from one foot to the other, watching the floors go by way too slowly.

  We reached the top and resumed our panicked rush, and I thought that perhaps I should have gone to the armory first. I barely survived the King with my armor; how was this going to go without it?

  Too late for that.

  Sarin’s massive and heavy door was wide open, and it sent more terror flooding through my body than anything else on Oolis ever had. I summoned my omnis, which was always with me, forming a primal blade and hoping it would be enough, somehow.

  Xera had a dagger out. I didn’t know where the hell it’d come from, but it was an exalted-forged weapon, so it wasn’t useless.

  We stormed into Sarin’s room, frantically looking around for the enemy.

  …No one was there.

  “Where is he!?” I screamed, brandishing my sword back and forth, expecting the attack to come from wherever I wasn’t looking.

  Sarin’s true body was still laying there, and although she wasn’t moving, I didn’t think she normally did.

  “Where is he!?” I repeated, still dancing around, trying to look everywhere at once.

  “He!?” Sarin replied, and although she was as panicked as I was, I was overwhelmed with relief to hear her speak. “What are you talking about?”

  “The King!” I mean, duh. Who else would I mean? “Where is he!? What’s he done?”

  The entire world paused, and then Sarin said in a somewhat more reasonable tone, “The King? What are you on about? It’s her!” A few colored lights circled around a bright form in the top corner of the room, nestled among the swirling Luminous flows that were always present there.

  “I’m sorry!” Moth wailed. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know! I’m sorry!” She huddled in on herself, her black eyes as wide as they’d go, which was often their default state, really.

  “Wait, Moth? Where’s the King?”

  “What the shit are you talking about, Ian!?” Sarin yelled. “She appeared in here, just now!”

  “I was curious!” Moth moaned. “There’s so much Luminous magic in here! I wanted to know what it did! I thought it would be okay!”

  Holy shit. Holy shit. I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. It seemed rude and out of place, but this was the stupidest thing, just the dumbest set of events that had ever lined up in the universe.

  Everyone looked at me like I’d just gone insane. Maybe I had, who knew? I think it was really the intense relief that washed over me, the emotional roller coaster of thinking we were all dead and our war was over, straight into a dumb little misunderstanding instead.

  “I can’t believe this,” I muttered, and after a bit, Xera started laughing a little with me, apparently feeling the same relief I was.

  Sarin and Moth were decidedly not amused.

  “Okay,” I said, trying to keep the mirth out of my voice. And failing. “Okay. Moth, please come down. Sarin, stop the light show.”

  Neither of them wanted to do what I said, but Sarin did turn the flashing lights off.

  Shortly after, Moth started floating down from her corner, warily eyeing everyone.

  “So,” I said, “this is Sarin’s private room, and she feels very vulnerable here, Moth. I’m sure you can understand that.”

  “...Yeah.”

  “And Sarin, let’s give Moth the benefit of the doubt here, okay?”

  “...As long as she leaves, and doesn’t come back. Ever.”

  “Sounds fair enough. Moth?”

  “Okay. Sorry. It’s just…the magic’s so interesting here.” She wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes, and her arms were curled around her body.

  “Great!” I said. “That’s taken care of.” It wasn’t but it was good enough for now. “So, back to the other thing.”

  “Other thing?” Sarin asked, her voice dripping with disdain.

  “Yes, there’s another thing. And it involves Moth.”

  Moth flinched.

  I stopped myself from groaning. I really hoped we could reach some level of trust with each other, but it was going to be an uphill battle it seemed. I quickly explained the situation, the reason Xera and I had bolted back here, and the other two listened without comment until the end.

  “Oh, that’s not a problem,” Moth said.

  “It’s…not?” I said, my hopes rising in my chest.

  “The King wasn’t able to influence me. My magic kept him at bay. Although…he was able to restrain me, as you saw. He could infiltrate my mind, I’m sure, given time…” It was probably the most I’d ever heard her say out loud at once, and once again, relief washed over me, keeping the emotional roller coaster of the last half hour going.

  “Hmm…” Sarin said, which I did not like the sound of. “We’re not in any immediate danger, I don’t think. However, you both know of a Luminous collector, so he likely knows as well.” When we didn’t all gasp, she went on, “You know? Luminous magic? The reason he wants Moth? If he finds this collector, he won’t need her; he’ll just take the power from here, probably make himself into the god of two flows, and abscond out into the universe!”

  Moth made a small squeaking sound.

  “Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” Sarin said. “Tell him about it somehow, and he’ll leave you alone, right? You think he won’t want to dissect you just to make sure he knows how to ascend twice? Or rewrite your mind to make you his willing, Luminous slave, who knows how to make Luminous tech? And no one else does, as far as I know.”

  She squeaked again, a little higher pitched.

  “Now, will you please leave this room and never come back.”

  In a flash of white magic, she was gone.

  Sarin’s doll appeared at the door, and her voice began coming from it. “And if you two would please leave as well. I don’t like having this door open. Not that it matters much now…”

  I wasn’t about to argue with her, so we left, waiting outside to watch the door ponderously close with a lot of whooshing and heavy clunking. When it was done, a little bit of the tension fell out of her shoulders. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I’m not sure that I…well, the situation might have escalated swiftly without your intervention. However, in light of the new…difficulties you’ve brought up, which I’m loath to admit I also hadn’t thought about, we’ve a new goal for now: dissembling the collector in such a way that the King can’t reverse engineer it.”

  “Can we even do that?” Xera asked.

  Sarin sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Maybe. I’m not sure. I’m familiar with the functioning and minor repair of such things, but I can’t build them; that’s beyond my understanding.”

 

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