“What are you doing here?” Riven demanded. Now? Damned Rio had to appear now of all times, when Riven had a bullet in his leg and had to get Glaven out of here to boot? The Scions had to start showing him mercy one of these days. He wasn’t one of their damned Chosen after all.

Rio looked past at Tam’s body slumped just beyond. “Did you kill him?”

“I don’t think so.”

“You should have. He’s a git.”

“The Chasm are you doing here, Rio?”

Rio grinned. Or tried to. There was an unnatural edge to the languid twist of his lips, like he was trying to force himself to remain calm in a situation that was anything but. “We need to get you out of here. That wound looks serious.”

“Rio. Tell me. Why are you here?”

Rio’s grin disappeared. “Fine. If you want to be all business, then so be it.” His eyes danced from Tam, past Raven, lingering on Glaven’s room before staring back the way he had come down the corridor. “I wasn’t lying though. We need to get out of here before everything goes to shit.”

“That tells me nothing, you know.”

Rio grabbed Riven under his arms and hauled him upright. He winced as his thigh spasmed, pushing put more copious blood. Chasm, it hurt like a nearly-melting rod trying to poke a hole straight into his bones. “Orbray is on the offensive. He’s already sent out his own Essentiers specifically targeting the Providence Demesne Essentiers. Sort of like a hit job. A mass assassination if you will.”

Riven froze as Rio tried to drag him away. “And you’re here to kill me?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Rio actually laughed. “You’re small fry.” He glanced down and poked at the silver badge on Riven’s shoulder. “Or you were for a while. I’m not sure now. But the point is, I’m on your side. I’m not here to kill anyone, at least not anyone on Rosbel Morell’s side.”

Riven wanted to doubt that. Wanted to ask where in the Chasm he’d been the last few days if he was so devoted to Father. Wanted to demand what in the Chasm he’d been doing inquiring after that demon they had spotted when they’d first met before he was supposed to know it even existed.

But his leg hurt too damn much. Damn Tam to the lowest Realm of the Chasm. Didn’t matter that Riven had expected to be shot, had wanted it if he was being honest, but did he have to blow out Riven’s leg like that?

“We need to take Glaven with us,” Riven said through gritted teeth.

Rio looked like he wanted to argue, but one look at Riven’s face was enough to forestall anything he might have said. So he directed Riven towards Glaven’s room.

Finally. He was done. Riven could get Glaven and get the Chasm out of this place. Maybe Riven ought to worry about Father, but he ought to be fine, right? He was gathering the rest of his Essentiers to him, after all.

But damn, Glaven had better appreciate all this when he woke up. The last time he’d helped his brother like this was years back when they’d still been children, when Father had locked Glaven up in his room for fighting and he had tasked little Riven with sending messages to his friends all over the city. Riven had spent most of the day outside, hopping from one home to the next like the door-to-door salesmen who had recently started to plague Norreston’s streets.

“Why’s Orbray attacking outright all of a sudden?” Riven asked. “Wasn’t there going to be a war on the Deathless. He can’t be seriously considering eliminating an entire Demesne’s worth of Essentiers if he actually wants to win.”

“Well, I mostly meant he was rounding up the Providence Essentiers outside of Providence for now,” Rio replied. “At this point, I think his people have already confronted Rorink and your sister. The Invigilator and his Essentiers here will be their next target, but all I know it’s a direct neutralization. I can’t tell if that means killing everyone without any warning, or capture and interrogation and then a trial, or a confrontation to force everyone to cooperate, or what. But whatever it might be, It won’t be pretty for your father or anyone involved with him.”

“Did he order you to come here?”

“He asked me to sabotage Orbray’s operations, which led me here.”

“To help me?”

“No. To stop Pendle.”

Pendle. Right, there was an Essentier from Ascendance who was stationed here under Orbray’s orders, though that didn’t explain what Rio was doing at the hospital. Riven would ask but they had finally managed to enter Glaven’s room and stop beside his bed.

His brother was still sleeping peacefully as ever. Despite the commotion outside, he hadn’t stirred once. Hadn’t shifted in his bed at all from the position Riven had seen him in a few weeks back. Scions, if all that hadn’t woken him up, how was Riven going to get him off this bed? In his current condition, Riven couldn’t have carried away the pillow Glaven was resting his head on.

“In case you were wondering,” Rio said. “I came here after I saw people running away from the place. Thought Pendle had started something here. Imagine my surprise when I found you and Tam having a little spat.”

Riven pulled himself free of Rio’s hold. Helpful as it was, he was getting tired of leaning on the other Essentier. “Yes, much appreciated. You came just in time to see me getting shot and then finishing the fight.” Riven stepped closer to Glaven’s bed. It made him wobble, the pain arcing up his legs as though he was conducting lightning bolts. He winced. “Help me with him.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I have no idea. Just need to get him out of here because apparently I’m the only one who cares about his wellbeing.”

“You could—”

The whole hospital shook as though there was an earthquake. Lights flickered, lamps swung, and the chair and metal tray beside Glaven’s bed rattled in place. The window and door banged against the wall, glass panes falling out and shattering on the floor. Riven gripped the bedframe tight. The tremors shot up his leg, the bullet lodged in his leg seeming to quiver as if it was coming to life. Scions, spare him. He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his lips down tight to prevent himself from screaming out. Riven was going to faint any moment now.

“Oh, shit,” Rio muttered as the shaking died down.

“You—” Riven had to stop to take in a quick breath and steady himself against another jolt in his thigh. “You know what’s going on?”

“Pendle.” With that lone warning, Rio shot back towards the corridor. “Get your brother and get out of here. You’re no match for him in your current condition.”

“And you are? Isn’t he a Secondmarked?”

Rio didn’t answer Riven, instead jumping into the corridor and facing forward. Riven tried to focus on his brother—even if he managed to pick up Glaven’s useless weight, how in the world was he going to get out of the hospital on his injured leg with the only exit down the corridor blocked by an enemy Essentier—but he didn’t get much time to think on it. There was a shout, and Riven turned to look as his heart pole-vaulted in his chest.

In the corridor, Rio had activated his Essence. Purple lines shot out in every direction, drawing in the broken debris littering the hallway. Then he vanished. Riven blinked. One second, Rio had been there, the next, he’d been thrown back by some invisible force, his yell of surprise lasting bare seconds before there was a painful thud.

Riven froze for just a moment before hobbling towards the door. He hesitated before the doorway. Decency dictated he step out and make sure Rio was all right, try to help him stop Pendle from killing them all or whatever else Orbray’s brute had planned, but should he even trust Rio? He still knew nothing of what Rio was truly after, or why he had supposedly aligned himself with Father when he was an Essentier from Ascension Demesne. Nothing of what really drove Rio. He helped. No doubt about that, whatever else he had or hadn’t done, he had stepped up when needed. But he had disappeared too. With the Infernal at Coral Fort, with the Deadmage they’d been hunting together, with the demon that Viriya was desperately looking for.

Riven cursed, then limped out of the room. Only to be faced by Pendle.

“Well, well, who do I find here?” Pendle said, voice grating like boulders cracking against each other. “Aren’t you supposed to be gone, little Morell?”

“You must be Pendle,” Riven said, taking a step back into Glaven’s room. He glanced at the wall to his left as he did so, where Rio was rising slowly.

Pendle laughed. Calling him a brute didn’t do him justice. He was large as the very boulders he sounded like he was chewing, his neck thicker than a bull’s and his round head bordered with short, bristly hair. The navy Essentier uniform he had on was stretched tight over his body as though this was the largest size they’d been able to find.

He took a step closer. “You’re under arrest, Riven Morell. Surrender, and I won’t have to hurt you much.”

Riven frowned. “You’ll still have to hurt me a little if I don’t surrender?”

“Well…” Pendle looked at the hole in Riven’s thigh. “I don’t think I can help it.”

“I decline.”

“You decline? You wish to be hurt?”

“I don’t think you can hurt me. You have any idea what my Essence is, Pendle?”

“Whatever it may be, it cannot last long against mine. Do you have any idea what mine is?”

“I do not.”

“Tremors. I take hold of anything and give it enough force to tear itself from within.”

Riven didn’t get a chance to express his amazement. Purple lines shot in, a tangled mess that latched onto everything around Pendle, including the brutish Essentier himself. Bits of the wall broke off and was tugged along the length of Rio’s Essence, and with them went Pendle’s clothes, strands tearing off to snake along the magenta lengths stuck to him like long, glowing leeches.

That didn’t last long. Before Riven could turn around and jump back towards his brother, greenish-yellow Essence flickered around Pendle like tiny fireflies glowing on and off. The air rippled and the ground cracked. Rio’s Essence lines tore and dissolved to nothing, Pendle turning far faster than his bulk should allow.

Rio might have kept his distance, but Pendle’s Essence was still boiling around him, making the air thrum like an engine. The cracks in the ground were growing deeper, and every step Pendle took towards Rio created new craters.

Then he shot his Essence. Or rather, the space of tremors, for though his Essence faded as it left his vicinity, the twisting, rippling air only grew in strength as it charged at Rio.

He was prepared this time. Using his purple lines, Rio propelled himself into the air and was up there in a second. The bubble of charged air twisted past him and struck the wall, leaving a crater full of cracks on it. Rio didn’t come down. Even as Pendle charged up more air with his Essence, Rio’s lines latched onto the ceiling, pulling him up to avoid the next blast Pendle launched. Another blast of distorted air, and Rio jumped back down to the floor.

Not the brightest move. Pendle’s blast missed him but shattered the ceiling, and huge chunks rained down into the corridor. Rio rolled away from the impact, safe from harm.

But not from his opponent.

Pendle saw his opportunity, and rushed forward as the chunks fell, the air blurring around him as he charged it with his greenish-yellow Essence again. As Rio came up from his roll, defenceless in his surprise, Pendle crashed into him. His purple lines had pulled in bits of the walls and ceiling to provide him with a flimsy layer of armour, but it all broke apart and he was thrown back again. He didn’t hit the wall, but he didn’t have to. Pendle’s Essence had left jagged lacerations all over his body.

Rio tried to rise, but Pendle stepped closer. Riven’s breath had paused n its way to his lungs. Rio would die without help.

Riven grabbed the nearest thing at hand, which turned out to be a ceramic plate on the metal tray beside Glaven’s bed. Just as Pendle reached Rio, the greenish-yellow Essence tearing apart the floor and twisting the air into a stormy riptide, Riven threw the plate.

It sailed through the air and shattered on the big brute’s head. Pendle whirled around, rage flashing in his eyes. He shot a frothing blast of pressurized air at Riven, and he instinctively dived out of the way, the realization of what that meant sinking in as he thudded to the floor, hitting him harder than the ground.

He’d left Glaven unprotected.

As it wasn’t his own survival, his Essence wasn’t so forthcoming as it normally was. Even if it had been possible, he had no Sept with which to power his Essence. The pocket of swirling air rammed into Glaven and upended his bed. Riven’s brother tumbled to the floor, the pillow and mattress falling on top of him as the bed lay on its side.

Despite his leg shooting more fire up his spine, Riven crawled to his brother. His peripheral revealed Rio trying to resume his attack, but Pendle swatted him away with little thought. Not that Riven was paying much attention. His brother was nearly dead at the brute’s hands. He cradled Glaven’s head, trying to check if he’d suffered any serious injuries. Thank the Scions there was no bleeding, though internal injuries were a concern.

Riven’s face was flushed with uncomfortable, prickly heat. That damn bastard had struck his defenceless brother. He’d aimed to kill a comatose man who had nothing to do with any of this. What sort of monster was Orbray keeping in his leash?

Pendle walked into the room. If there had been any notion of mercy previously, it was now gone. Riven’s thrown plate had left deep cuts on his head, and his hair was tainted with his blood. Some of it had streaked down his face and seeped into his beard as well, forming tiger stripes that made him look even fiercer than before.

“Time for you to die,” Pendle announced, voice holding back his suppressed fury.

“Rio!” Riven shouted, thumping his hand against the mobile metal tray. “Shoot your gun here.”

Thank the Scions, Rio heard him. Thank them even more that he didn’t question, instead throwing himself in front of the doorway and diving to the floor to avoid the blast of crippling air that Pendle sent rushing over his body. He had brought out his gun, and before Pendle could react again, he fired.

Pendle jumped, then stared agog as the shot went wide of him. But Riven grinned. The bullet hit the metal tray and lodged into the hole it carved.

Seasoned Essentier that he was, Pendle’s surprise didn’t last long. He faced Riven again, the air whipping into a fury around him. But Riven was ready, rage white-hot as the sun in the desert. He shouted, the pressure bursting from him faster than thought, golden lines deforming the very air Pendle was trying to twist with his own Essence, compressing it into that golden armour that Riven had been using.

Then it clasped around Pendle’s head. His whole body twitched for a second, then he went berserk. He clobbered the golden armour encasing his head with his clublike fists, but they hardly left a scratch. Pendle jumped around in his panic, fell to the ground and tried to prise off the helm so hard, his arms turned red as beets. When all else failed, he ran into the wall, banging his head over and over again until the first cracks started to appear.

The whole performance was so insane, Riven’s eyes were glued to the Essentier who had gone mad. His Essence had cut off Pendle’s breath. Any moment now, the brute was going to suffocate and die. His lungs had to be clawing at him from the inside, the need to breathe eating him alive, letting no thought settle, turning him into nothing more than a mutt who’d gone rabid. And rabid mutts needed to be put down.

If they’d had a shred of wit about any of them, Riven or Rio would have emptied their bullets and be done with the mess, but they were too enthralled. Or maybe Rio was just too beaten up, while Riven was wrestling with himself within.

Pendle’s struggles to get himself breathing again continued, but it was slowing down. The air he’d held in his lungs was about to run out and his brain had to be shutting down soon. He wasn’t going to last much longer. Riven would have his first kill soon enough. Riven would become a murderer. He’d seal his fate. That was what was needed right now though. It was only self-defence. Pendle had come with the intention of killing, not subduing, probably with orders straight from Orbray to do so.

That arsehole had started a war all right. A civil war with his own subordinate Invigilator. Fine. If war was what Orbray wanted, Riven would bring all the wrath and fury that the High Invigilator deserved.

Rio screamed. He’d pulled himself to his feet, but a gleaming rocky serpent had attacked him and he was trying desperately to keep it away with his purple lines. But he was failing, falling back under the assault. His Essence had grown weak.

How? He hadn’t been fighting for as long as Riven had, had he? Then again, Riven had no idea what sort of obstacles Rio had to overcome on his journey here. Maybe he’d had his Sept drained on his way.

But then the real reason his Essence was growing weak made itself known.

Tam stood in the doorway, one hand throwing up and catching a little pouch that certainly wasn’t his, for Riven had emptied it and thrown it away. No, that one had to belong to Rio. He must have used the very last bits of his Essence—maybe one of his own bullets that had to be lying on the floor after hitting Riven’s armour earlier—to create a creature that had stolen Rio’s stash of Sept. And now he was back, an army of his pink-lined creatures swarming behind his back, half his face masked in blood, twisted and broken after that punch.

With a growl, Tam jerked his fist forward. There was no place to hide or take cover, and Riven would be swamped in seconds with that many creatures attacking him. He jumped forwards as the first of Tam’s Puppets charged into the room, landing on Pendle’s prone body that had slumped to the floor.

Riven didn’t have to find Pendle’s bag of Sept. He was close enough already.

As the first creature jumped at him, he shouted, his panicked heart trying to burst free of his ribcage in a desperate bid to survive. Survive. The pressure shot out, his Essence shooting up a golden shield that covered the whole area.

Tam’s creatures flung themselves against it, shattering on impact, but they left dents and cracks on the shield. There were many of them. Wave after wave of creatures shattered against his shield, white cracks lining everywhere like it was growing a nervous system. It wasn’t going to hold. Not like this. He couldn’t keep it up. Even Pendle’s stash had to be dying.

With a yell, Riven focused, and the flow of pressure exiting his body doubled. His Essence shot outwards like it had done the last time he had been faced in such a situation. The golden shield blasted outwards until it was on par with the doorway.

Tam and his minions had been thrown back. But for how long? Even as Riven filled his lung with he air he’d held back, more cracks burst on his shield as Tam’s minions struck out. Damn it all, what was Rio doing there outside. No, he couldn’t remain sitting like a helpless duck. He had—

Riven was jerked back and thrown, his head bouncing off the bedframe. He shrieked as the back of his skull seemed to rip itself apart at the impact. Through a film of tears, he saw Pendle rising ponderously, colour slowly returning to his rather blue face. His big, blue, and brutishly enraged face.

Great. Just what Riven needed. He was royally screwed now.

The air swirled and twisted around Pendle again, his greenish-yellow Essence flickering in and out of view. Now way would Riven survive another blast of pressurized air that his Essence of Tremor created.

Riven tried to stand. He ought to at least face his death head-on, upright and facing his enemy down. His leg denied him the chance to do so, protesting against any movement at all. He’d been able to forget the pain from his wound while on the ground, but throwing himself up meant he’d had to rest on his feet for a bit.

He pushed past the agony clawing up his leg and forced himself to stand. It seemed the Scions had drawn the end of the road for him here.

Pendle froze all of a sudden. His eyes widened, then he stepped back. One step, then another, his body closing in on itself as though he was getting ready to defend himself. Sudden and surprised fear swam on his wide mug of a face. It was only then that Riven realized Pendle wasn’t looking at him, but behind him.

Riven turned, then froze too. Impossible. What he was seeing couldn’t be right.

Glaven was standing, eyes wide open, face set in a deep scowl as though he’d just been shaken awake in the midst of experiencing one of his most pleasant dreams ever.

His brother was awake. Glaven was back up.