“What is the meaning of all this mess, Riven?” Glaven asked. His voice tried to be commanding, but it came out halting and slightly choked. How long had it been since his brother had spoken? How much did he even remember? This all had to be extremely confusing and disorienting for him, and considering all that, Glaven was handling it admirably well. Though as Riven met his eyes, the panic hidden just beneath the surface there was quite obvious. “Explain yourself, little brother.”

“Do you trust me, Glaven?” Riven asked.

“No.”

Riven stared. Glaven didn’t change his answer. “Well, you’re going to have to change that because you see all this?” He pointed at he wound on his thigh, and that gave a new and surprising cast to Glaven’s face. A cast of fear, a mask of unease. “I got this trying to save your comatose behind. The least you owe me is your trust.”

“Comatose…”

“Yes. We were fighting a Deadmage, remember? One that was using wind?”

Comprehension dawned on his face. Riven’s mind was racing, trying to think of how he’d woken up all of a sudden. Could it have been Riven’s Essence again? He didn’t get much time to think on it.

Pendle growled. “How did you wake up?” he asked. The air swirled greenish-yellow around him, threatening to shoot out at any moment. “No matter. You’ll die here anyway.”

With a yell, Pendle blasted his whirling air at Riven and his brother. Riven was about to make his shield collapse closer, but Glaven was faster. Somehow he was standing beside Riven—when had he even moved? A gold star popped over his shoulder then dived into the approaching ball of air. It spread out, tinging the whole pocket of air with a light, golden sheen.

“Return,” Glaven said as though he was commanding a firing squad.

The pocket of air had frozen, and at Glaven’s command, it rammed back the way it had come. Pendle had no time to react. The twisting air caught him, throwing him back against the wall. He fell to the floor, clothes ripped to shreds and exposing his hairy body, skin bleeding at too many places to keep track.

Instead of waiting, Glaven pressed his advantage as he shot another little ball of sunlight Essence into the metal tray table. It jumped at Pendle, who tried to fend it off with his Tremor. The greenish-yellow Essence flickered around the metal tray, and it all splintered into dozens of metal shards. Air rippled around him, and the metal shards shot forward. Riven had his shield up in moments, and the shards struck off and hit the floor in a rain of light clinks, though the golden air keeping Tam’s Puppets at bay started fading immediately.

Another star bloomed over Glaven’s shoulder but then it fizzled out and died. He stared at Riven. “Don’t you have any Sept?”

“I ran out.”

Glaven vented out a frustrated growl in his throat. His right hand gripped the air near his waist as though he was picking up an invisible gun or sword. But he found nothing and started, eyes widening in momentary surprise before settling into a scowl directed at Pendle, though Riven got the feeling it was meant for him just as much.

“That shield thing yours?” Glaven asked Riven.

Riven nodded, still keeping his eyes on Pendle and the air whipping and whizzing around him. “It is.”

“Good. You can protect yourself.” Glaven placed an ominous hand on Riven’s back. “Now go steal Pendle’s Sept.”

“Wha—”

Riven was thrown forward. Pendle shouted in surprise, throwing his twisting corona of air at the onrushing Riven, but he had his shield up, the pressure shooting out golden lines as he came close enough to Pendle’s Sept. He had been thrown with far too much force that one man who had just woken up from a coma should have been able to possess.

Pendle’s air struck Riven’s shield, rippling along its auric surface to leave a webbing of light fractures before dissipating to nothing. Riven had survived, though his leg was clearly trying to saw itself off if the pain was to be believed.

No time to waste on grumbling complaints. Riven prevented himself from falling to the ground and dashed forward, charging straight at Pendle. He was too close for the brute to start another smothering blanket of charged air. Riven rammed his shoulder into Pendle’s guts. There wasn’t any armour, and Riven still hurt his shoulder at least as much as he must have hurt Pendle’s belly.

The big Essentier didn’t fall, didn’t even stagger. Pendle grunted, then hammered Riven’s back with his fists, clubbing him to the floor. He lay there, tiles smacking him in the face, but his grin was wide and stupid. Riven held Pendle’s pouch of Sept in his hands.

He turned over to face the room. Pendle stood over him, the air twisting once again, readying to tear Riven apart just as it had done to Rio.

Not if Riven could help it. With a shout, he threw the pouch at Glaven who snatched it out of the air soon as it came close enough. Riven’s brother hadn’t moved an inch from his spot. Maybe he was still reeling from his sudden awakening.

Pendle stomped down on Riven. He’d been too busy watching Glaven and basking in the glory of his achievement to notice that Pendle’s whipped-up air was gone, and so was Riven’s shield. But the brute’s rage hadn’t dissipated one bit. The stomp landed right on Riven’s stomach and he howled as though he’d swallowed lava. Scions, that enormous boot was going to tear a hole right through Riven’s guts. He lashed out with his fists, Pendle’s legs were about as movable as tree trunks.

The boot lifted off, and Riven focused past the pain to suck in a breath. His relief didn’t last long. Pendle’s boot hammered down again, this time landing on Riven’s shoulder.

Was that a snap? Must have been. Riven felt as though he’d been struck by a mace and even that didn’t do the pain justice. Pendle growled down at Riven, but he hardly saw it thanks to the tears blurring his vision. The massive boot ground down, Riven’s shrieking rising to a whole new pitch, and his struggles were as futile as battering a cliff.

“Hey!” Glaven’s shout pierced Riven’s fog of torture that clouded everything else. “That’s enough.”

“Make one move,” Pendle yelled back, “and I’ll kill him.”

“And then I’ll eviscerate you. You don’t want that to happen, now do you, Pendle?”

“Like Chasm I’m going to trust you, Morell.” Pendle’s boot squeezed down even harder, and Riven’s shriek rose even further before choking to a halt. Holy Scions, he didn’t even have enough breath to express himself. “Give me back my Sept and I’ll consider sparing this runt.”

“You’re pushing this too far, Pendle. If there’s any permanent damage, I’m going to tear you apart limb from limb.”

“Give it back to me, now!”

Riven ceased his pointless struggling and lay flat, letting Pendle’s abuse wash over him. Why wasn’t Glaven attacking the brute yet? Was he really afraid Riven would die from another stomp? How careful of him. But the stupid bastard needed to realize this current agony was going to be the death of Riven soon enough.

“Why aren’t you attacking him, Tam?”

Oh. Glaven’s shout made Riven twist his head to the side, the film of tears making Tam look like he was swimming underwater with his pink-webbed Puppets in tow. So that’s why his brother hadn’t attacked yet. A distraction for Tam to do so. Of course. Glaven had no idea Tam wanted Riven dead.

But did Tam want Glaven dead too?

He was hesitating, head turning from Glaven to Pendle and back again. His Puppets were trembling at his feet. Riven’s agony was still clawing him out, but he nearly laughed. Tam didn’t know. Tam hadn’t thought farther than killing Riven. This was a conundrum he hadn’t foreseen.

“Your loyalty belongs to the High Invigilator, Tamallow,” Pendle said. “Rosbel Morell is a traitor. Show your true devotion and courage, and the High Invigilator will reward it.”

“He’s right, Tam,” Glaven countered. “Show your true devotion. Who’s the man who showed faith in you and your potential, who gave you an opportunity to make something of yourself, who took a chance on you and raised you to where you are? Rosbel Morell. That’s who. Remember Tam?”

Pendle growled, his boot digging deeper into Riven’s shoulder if that was even possible. Riven, of course, couldn’t scream any harder even if he’d tried. “Don’t listen to his lies. You know what is right so make the correct decision. Your life depends on it. Chaos on one side, power and glory on the other. And you know where that lies, don’t you.”

Really, these two idiots were focusing on stupid Tam while Riven was dying? Someone needed to give Riven a trumpet so he could get things moving again. At least when the fighting and whatnot restarted, he wouldn’t have to suffer being stomped on for Scion’s sakes.

Tam took a deep breath and glared at Pendle. Riven would have considered it a good thing if Tam didn’t hate his guts. He’d attack Pendle ruthlessly, uncaring if his Puppets tore Riven apart long with the brutish Essentier or if his intentions made Pendle stomp out poor Riven’s life. Damn it. He was screwed either way.

Then Tam whirled around to face Glaven, shouting an angry, unintelligible cry. His Puppet army charged forward, scratching and scrabbling along the tiled floor as they all rushed at Glaven. Damn bastard had thrown his allegiance to Orbray. Oh he was so dead when Riven got back up.

Which looked likely. Tam’s decision had taken Pendle by pleasant surprise, and the weight of his foot on Riven’s shoulder relaxed a little. He still continued trying to wheeze out his screaming though. No need to let Pendle know the brute was slacking in his Riven-killing efforts. A little more, and he might just be able to squeeze out.

Credit to Glaven, he didn’t look alarmed as the carpet of Puppets rushing at him flooded the whole room. He jerked one hand over the mess, then yelled out another Command. “Snap.”

Golden stars had formed over his shoulder like tiny suns, glimmers of red and blue sparkling the air around them. One of them shot into the floor. The golden shimmer disappeared, a web of crimson, sapphire and lilac where they crossed, spreading across the ground. It wobbled, throwing Pendle and Tam off balance and crashing down before the centre broke off the ground and rose to snap against the ceiling faster than thought. All the Puppets Tam had corralled into the middle of the floor to attack Glaven all together was caught in the rising mass of the bricks, cement, and iron rods, all getting sandwiched and crushed between the tiles and the ceiling, splinters of rocks, metal, and wood raining down on everyone and everything.

Riven forced himself to his feet. Every cough incited by the cloud of dust filling the room made his leg throb, his shoulder twinge like it was trying to twist itself off, and his guts coil like he had eaten a burning viper. He stumbled away from the enemy Essentiers, trying not to trip over the debris and the broken floor as he made his way to his brother.

It was safest with Glaven. Safest, since he could use his Essence there, taking part of the Sept he had recovered.

“Do you have Tam’s Sept?” Glaven asked when Riven erupted from the gloom of the dust hanging in the air.

Riven jerked to a halt. Poor decision. His thigh shook as spikes of fire shot up around the wound, and he nearly stumbled to the ground again. Glaven caught him before he fell. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t take Tam’s pouch that held his Sept?” Glaven made that same frustrated growl in his throat that he’d done before, like he couldn’t believe Riven was that dumb. “This stupid fight would be over if you’d just stolen the damn thing.”

“I was trying to save myself, all right. Didn’t realize that was a damn crime.”

Glaven glared at him, but then turned away, another frustrated growl bubbling in his throat. Riven bit his lip from saying anything else. Why in the chasm had he bothered to help this arsehole in the first place?

The dust cleared, revealing that both Pendle and Tam had vacated the room. They had to be lying in wait in the hallway outside, waiting to spring some stupid trap as soon as Riven and Glaven went outside the door. Idiots forgot Riven had his shield. No matter what they did, neither he nor his brother would be hurt.

But Riven never got a chance to break through Tam and Pendle’s trap outside. Glaven took a deep breath, then shouted, “Shatter!”

One of his stars sank into the far wall that held the door. Red and blue lines streaked everywhere like someone was drawing on it. Then the wall obeyed his Command.

It exploded outwards, throwing bricks, plaster, and rods of iron into the hallway like a cannonade. The shooting debris crashed into the corridor’s opposite wall with the sound of a landslide smothering an entire town. Dust bathed everything in gloom, the few pieces and chunks shooting back towards Riven and Glaven bouncing off the shield Riven had thrown up in front of him.

The dust swirled, revealing Pendle with his own shield of green-yellow Essence and turbulent air. It was larger now, protecting both him and Tam. Riven held back another little laugh. So obvious. Just like him, Pendle was keeping Tam close so they could use the same Sept.

None of the debris Glaven’s little display had thrown at him had struck. Pendle’s personal pocket of air must have deflected them all.

Riven’s spine shivered, his skin erupting in tiny goosebumps all over. His leg throbbed, and though his stomach was quieting down, his shoulder was still a mess. Despite that, a smile tugged on his lips. This was an unprecedented confrontation—two teams of two Essentiers facing down each other, ready to fight to the death—and Riven’s heart thumped like a hummingbird’s wings at the prospect of the battle. Maybe he shouldn’t be so excited, but damn it to the Chasm, after everything first Tam and then Pendle had put him through, his knuckles itched to connect with their jaws. Bastards didn’t deserve to keep walking after their horrendous displays.

But where in the Chasm was Rio? Riven tried to look down the corridor through the corners of his eyes, keeping the enemy Essentiers in his sight. No sign of that lanky bastard anywhere.

Glaven started off the battle. More little stars popped out over his shoulder and he sent one straight at the floor near their enemies’ feet. Pendle and Tam both dived away in opposite directions as Glaven’s Command rang through the area.

“Crumble!”

The floor did so. Red, blue, and purple netting spread all over the ground, and an entire swathe of it disappeared, fracturing apart and falling to the first storey. A huge gap had opened up between Pendle and Tam. They couldn’t work together now.

Not that it stopped them from trying. Pendle charged forward with a shout. Riven hunched his shoulders, noting that most of the colour had returned to the big brute’s face. He hadn’t thrown his twisting air, likely afraid Glaven would turn it back against him as he’d done to the last one. Apparently, holding it close his body prevented Glaven from taking control of it with his Commanding Essence.

Glaven didn’t bother trying to disprove that notion, though Riven had to wonder if his Essence could be used to control other people as well. No time to ponder. Pendle was still charging forward fast as a bull whose every step made the ground quake and crack apart. Glaven shot another star into the bed, the glowing ball of Essence leaving a faint trace of it behind it like a rapidly-fading comet tail.

“Attack!”

The bed obeyed, outlined by a red and blue light along its frame. It hurtled towards the onrushing Pendle, and the brute jerked to a stop. The bed never hit him. It got caught in the aura of twisting air and space around him, breaking under the strain of Pendle’s Essence.

Glaven wasn’t done. Another star rose into the ceiling with the speed of a rocket. “Sink.”

A wide circle of the ceiling broke off and fell on Pendle. The brutish Essentier stopped twisting the bed into the shape of a dead spider, and jumped back. All the rocks crashed to the floor, Riven throwing up his shield just in time to keep himself and Glaven safe from the crash. The ceiling had fallen far enough away but tiny pebbles and splinters of the debris still came flying them.

Though they weren’t the only things to fly at them. Tam’s pink-webbed Puppets shot out of the dusty gloom and jumped. They didn’t strike their mark, of course. Riven’s Essence was strong now with all the Sept at his disposal, and the shield held without even any scratches.

“Take care of Pendle,” Glaven said, turning to face their remaining opponent who hadn’t dived away like Pendle. “I’ll make sure Tam sees reason, or dies.”

It was said so matter-of-factly, Riven could almost see the outcome. A dead Tam, a subdued Pendle, and finally, a defeated Orbray.

But Pendle wasn’t done. He was lying on the floor still, but apparently not from agony or exhaustion. Instead, his arm waved slowly in the air. The floor cracked, and the fractures spread faster than a plague as greenish-yellow Essence flickered. Riven jumped back, shouting a warning at Glaven. His brother rolled back as the cracks encompassed most of the floorspace. A second later, it too crumbled down to the floor below, just as Glaven had done in the corridor. Really, how were any of them expecting to fight if there was nothing to step on?

Not that it mattered to Glaven. His stars had enormous range, and he shot one towards Tam in the distance. Red and blue lines possessed the snake Tam had created and Glaven’s Command rang loud and clear. “Club.”

The serpent swung, batting away the rest of Tam’s Puppets and shattering them against the walls.

“Stab,” came Glaven’s next Command.

Another star descended into the piles of broken debris, all of which lit up with those same hues of red, blue, and purple. The debris rose to float threateningly in the air, then lanced straight at Tam. The moustached Essentier called his Puppets to defend him but they shattered at the impact with the debris, and Tam had to throw himself to the floor to prevent getting skewered by the very bits and pieces he’d used with his Essence.

The serpent was still waving around in mad swings, one of which caught Tam right in the midsection, sending him flying down the corridor with a grunt of pain.

Riven jerked his head back to his own opponent. Damn it, He’d forgotten all about Pendle. He was a terrible Essentier.

Glaven looked like he was out of moves. He was stuck on the other side of the gap, which was too large for him to jump across. Cut off, the brute’s face had started to go red with frustration and anger. Riven laughed. So stupid. Maybe Pendle was the terrible Essentier here.

As though Pendle had heard Riven’s thoughts, he growled and shot another blast of twisting air. Riven blocked it with his Essence shield. What was he aiming at? Or was he—

Riven froze. His bag was dangling from the end of the broken floor. The carpet bag that stored all his belongings, the held the Set crystal, that held—divine Scions, he was an utter idiot—his extra ammunition of Sept, was swinging this way and that, one breath away from plummeting to the first storey.

Without thinking, Riven dove towards it. He had to lean dangerously over the side, but he managed to grab onto one of the straps. The impact made his breath whoosh out of him in a gust. Chasm, he’d been this close to losing the Sept crystal and everything else he needed to survive.

Survive. Shit. He looked up to see Pendle staring down at him, the air twisting and cavorting around him with tiny flickers of his greenish-yellow Essence.

Pendle shot his barrage of convoluted air at Riven, and there was no way for him to dodge that in his current predicament. His shield blocked it easily, though. The wall beside him cracked. Riven whipped his head to the side, gasping as his Essence flickered along the cracks that snaked along the wall, the whole room shaking from Pendle’s Tremors.

“Hold!” Glaven shouted. One of his stars sank into the wall, and Pendle’s green and yellow winked out as the wall glowed red and blue, holding it self together.

“You bastard!” Pendle shouted. Enraged, the brutish Essentier threw shot after shot of his twisting air, all of them blitzing through the air with the speed of cannon fire.

Glaven dodged the first. He was on the verge of being caught by another, but his star shot into before it could connect, and his voice rang out quick as a whiplash. “Defend.”

The glowing golden pocket of space knocked out every other twisting air blasts. It hit them all, bouncing from one to the next like pinballs on a board, and Riven nearly forgot he was barely hanging onto the edge of the floor. He swallowed then hurriedly pulled up his carpet bag. While Glaven kept Pendle busy, Riven could shimmy back onto the floor so he was no longer in any danger of falling.

But the room shook again, cutting short any such intentions. Riven’s teeth chattered in his mouth as he shook with it. He clutched the bag tight to his chest, his other hand wrapping tight around an iron rod jutting out of the plaster and tiles, clinging to dear life.

Riven glared at his brother, silently willing Glaven to end this fight already. He’d shout too, but the trembling made that difficult and he didn’t want to stop focusing on staying on the second storey.

Glaven was still shouting Commands, his Essence rising over his shoulder as he burned through his Sept faster than a train rushing at the speed of light. Little stars popped out over his back and shot everywhere, sinking into everything. Not that there was much to sink into. Still, the stars possessed what was left of the floor, claimed the walls and the ceiling, all of which rose from their regular spots to charge at Pendle.

The brute did his best to shrug them all off. His Essence was blazing around him in a conflagration of green and yellow, the air rippling around in a sphere so large, Riven felt its tug even in his position on the other side of the gap between them.

Riven stared between them. So that was what was going on. They were in a race to see whose store of Sept burned down first.

Glaven’s little minions shattered before they could reach Pendle. Riven’s brother didn’t care. He was determined to use up all the Sept Riven had so carefully preserved for the journey ahead, and just for a moment, Riven considered letting the bag drop to the floor. Did the stupid bastard think his stash was infinite, or that he had no use for it later?

One of Glaven’s stars shot straight at Pendle, who took a hesitant step back in surprise. The golden stars had been shooting everywhere but at Pendle, and the Essentier looked afraid all of a sudden. It didn’t hit him though. The star weaved around Pendle and his aura of twisting air and burning greenish-yellow Essence, sinking into the floor at his feet.

“Break!” Glaven yelled.

As ever, the floor obeyed. Pendle shouted, trapped on the lone ledge of the floor he’d been on earlier. It broke as the red and blue lines spread across it, and he crashed down, cutting his shriek short as a cloud of dust erupted from the second floor.

“I—is it over?” Riven asked. Pendle and his Tremors might be gone, but Riven’s voice still shook badly. Scions, it had better be over.

Glaven approached the edge of the floor, looking down into the mess that the first storey had turned to. He peered down for a long time, but the dust lay thick and heavy, refusing to part and reveal what it hid. “I can’t tell for—”

The whole hospital shook. Fire flickered everywhere, green here, yellow there. It shot out of what remained of the floor, walls, and ceiling after Glaven had gouged out chunks with his Essence, cracks growing everywhere like the whole hospital had simultaneously decided to crumble to dust.

Riven stared. This was the power of a Secondmarked?

The floor shattered. Riven fell.

He screamed, as much at the sensation of leaving his heart behind where he’d been seconds ago as at the carpet bag tearing out his hand. One of its straps had caught on an iron rod poking out of a still-standing wall. His arms reached out but he’d already fallen too far.

Survive. Fuck, he had to survive first. The pressure shot out of him to form his golden armour over his skin, but there was Glaven to consider. Riven focused and expanded his Essence to a shield as he hit the floor. His Essence saved him.

He couldn’t say the same for Glaven.

“Glaven,” Riven shouted. Damn, there was too much dust, and he saw nothing. “Glaven!”

His stupid brother wasn’t responding. He’d better have saved himself somehow. Riven hadn’t caused all this fuss just to have him die after falling one measly floor.

“Glaven,” he called out again, walking through the dust and debris. Then he froze.

His brother was lying on the floor, blood coating one side of his face, hardly moving. But he was moving. Still alive, still not comatose. Riven shot towards him, then jerked to a halt, as a shadow fell over them.

A tremendous crack sounded, and the wall fell too.

Riven’s shield was up in seconds, absorbing the impact from the falling debris, but then his carpet bag was falling too, and the surprise made Riven lose all focus. His shield crumbled to non-existence, but thankfully, there was not much debris left. He was pelted by shrapnel of the falling wall, and he tried to protect himself from the falling chunks with an arm over his head.

The bag fell, landing with too light of a thump. There was a jagged tear on its side. His Sept bullets and amenities thumped down first, his clothes floating down last of all.

But all Riven really had eyes for was the Sept crystal.

It landed close to Glaven. Too close. Riven’s brother was slowly trying to rise, though he looked too injured to do so by himself. But then the Sept crystal flashed. Riven swallowed, eyes widening. All the stars that were still floating over Glaven’s prone form swooped into the crystal, and a line of light golden Essence stretched from Glaven to the crystal for the briefest moment.

Then it shut off. The crystal stopped glowing, turning totally dark. Glaven slumped back to the ground, unconscious. Or worse.

Riven jumped forward, ignoring his injured leg’s throbbing protest. He knelt beside his brother, trying to check for his pulse. He shook out a breath filled with relief. Glaven’s heart was still beating. Bastard hadn’t died just yet.

But he was unconscious. Well, unconscious, or back in his coma.

The hospital shuddered again, and the dust started to part this time. Pendle walked out. The air swirled about him as it ever did, his green-and-yellow Essence flaring all around him. “Is that all the Firstmarked of Providence has to show for himself?” The brute laughed. “This was far easier than I thought.”

Great. Riven was surely screwed now.