At times like these, Riven forgot what it was like to not have his heart hammering like  a woodpecker boring a hole through a tree trunk. Peace seemed a distant dream whose tattered edges were all he barely remembered, contentment a ghost that had faded to the faintest of impressions, safety a myth long-forgotten and spoken of in hushed tones so as not to give rise to false hope. With Glaven stepping forward, an insane grin stretching across his face like he was a bloodthirsty demon, things were about to get a lot worse. Better in the sense of Riven not having to fend off two Essentiers by himself.

But worse since everything was about to break into too much chaos.

Glaven turned his manic grin to Riven. “What is it with you dragging me into one Realm of the Chasm after another, little brother?”

“It’s because I love you so much, Glaven,” Riven said. “I know how much you enjoy situations like these where you can be your true, beastly self.”

“Heh. When we’re done here, you realize you’re going to pay for all this mess?”

“If we get through this, I’ll pay whatever you demand.”

“Don’t be stupid. Of course, we’re going to get through this.”

Their enemy came closer, cutting off their banter. Riven had shut off his Essence, but the last bit of his golden glow revealed their fearless faces. Glaven’s return had given them next to no pause.

Weathering laughed. “Well, well. I was wondering where you were in the car since you seemed to be… not there when I looked. I wasn’t expecting you to pop out of its arse.”

“Fitting really,” Olsten said, laughing along with his beloved Firstmarked.

Glaven’s grin turned feral. “Don’t worry, you’ll both know what it feels like soon enough when I shove your corpses in there.”

“Well, someone’s out for blood,” Weathering said. She waved her sword, red Essence flickering all around her as though her blue Coral blade was slicing up the world. “What’s wrong, someone set fire to your balls or something?”

Glaven shook his head. “You’re here to kill us, aren’t you? All because your puppet-master Orbray told you to. Idiots. You’re nothing but worthless pawns in this senseless game of politics.”

“Well see, I hate losing games. And if victory means you have to die, then so be it.”

“As if he’s going to actually succeed with his silly plan.”

“As if your silly father can stop the High Invigilator. I mean look at you.” Weathering pointed at first Glaven, then Riven, with her sword. “You’re both nearly dead already, running from one place to another because you have nowhere to go. You don’t even know who your friends are, or where the very people you’re fighting all this for are. You’re not trusted to know any of that. You’re the ones being used to run around on some wild goose chase, and you’re out here calling me a pawn?”

Glaven took a deep breath. The grin he’d held onto for so long had disappeared. “Do you really think you know what Orbray’s plans are? What his true intentions are?”

“Deathless eradication. The summoning will pull all Deathless towards a designated area, and there, they’ll all be slaughtered. We’ll finally be rid of their infestation. No more demons kidnapping people, no more witches attacking settlements, no more ghosts scaring the living daylights out of everyone.” Weathering’s voice rang with conviction, her words ringing even when she paused to take a breath. “We’ll finally be free.”

Glaven scoffed. “I doubt that’s all there is to it. But we’ve talked enough, I believe.”

“We have.”

Glaven and Weathering approached each other. Riven glanced between the two of them, heart suddenly beating faster than ever before. If Glaven could hold off Weathering, was he supposed to fight and defeat Olsten? He turned to the Secondmarked Essentier, face settling into a tight grin. Of course. He could do it. Riven had done it before. Chasm, Olsten would be dead now if it hadn’t been for Weathering’s interference.

Riven’s brother cut short all thoughts of any individual effort though.

“Riven,” Glaven said, still approaching Weathering. “Stay absolutely still and don’t fall off.”

“What are you going to do?” Riven asked, unable to help how fearful he sounded.

In answer, golden stars popped from Glaven’s back. Most rose slowly into the air, trailing lines of red, blue, and violet, but one rushed high like it had been shot out of a gun. It froze, then thumped down with twice the speed it had risen, sinking and disappearing into the ground. Weathering had taken on a defensive stance, sword bared in front of her and held horizontally to ward off any blow.

But Glaven’s move wasn’t one that could be blocked. “Rise!”

The ground rumbled for a moment, then rose all of a sudden. Riven wobbled, but sank to his haunches to keep his balance. A thick column of rock had shot up as fast as Glaven’s golden star had done, almost making him fall. This high up—two dozen yards at the very least—the drop would have been fatal.

Riven wasn’t the only one who had risen. Glaven stood straight on a similar column, his stars revolving around him as though he was their centre of gravity. All around the two of them standing far above their enemies, more spires of rock had shot up too, all thin as spears and sharpened to stakes at the tip.

The only unharmed area was around their car, which Glaven had mercifully spared. Though that raised a good question on whether he could lift it up on a dozen spires of rocks too. It held all the Sept, and they’d need it when Riven’s magazines were spent.

Careful so as not to tip himself over the edge, Riven stared at the ground far below, where the other Essentiers appeared smaller than his fist. Weathering and Olsten were caught in the forest of rocky spikes, trying to navigate them and get closer to the two columns Riven and Glaven stood on. They were sitting ducks like that. Riven brought out his gun to shoot, though he didn’t fire. What would be the point? They still had their Essence to protect them.

“Weathering’s Essence is Slowing, and Olsten’s is Exchange,” Glaven said. “Shoot.”

“What? But they have their Essence to protect them.”

“I said shoot. And shoot the Firstmarked, not her lackey.”

Loathe as Riven was to waste a precious Sept bullet, he fired at her anyway. Weathering heard the blast and immediately shot out a flare of her crimson Essence. Riven’s glowing bullet slowed to a stop in the cloud of red Essence and fell harmlessly to the ground.

Alongside Riven’s bullet, the rock spires started falling too.

Riven blinked, unsure what was happening. Why were the rock spires Glaven had brought up toppling too? His brother didn’t look troubled. In fact, he was grinning widely, watching with obvious, immense satisfaction as they fell around where Weathering stood.

They didn’t seem to strike her. Her red Essence cloud stopped the first before it hit her, and more fell on top, colliding and breaking apart to form clumps of dirt and dust. It didn’t stop her. Weathering rushed out from under the path of the falling debris, heading straight for Glaven’s column. He made no move to defend himself, only looked to Riven. Oh, right.

Riven focused and a golden shield went up around the base of Glaven’s column. Weathering stopped short, then hammered away at it with her sword. The rest of the forest of spiky rocks began to crumble as they toppled against each other, and Olsten got lost in the dust and falling debris.

“Shoot her again, Riven,” Glaven ordered. “But let go of your shield, first.”

Safe. Riven was safe up here. With a moment’s focus, his golden shield disappeared and Weathering charged forward, taken by surprise. Riven fired his gun before she could recover, aiming straight for her head. But she was aware of the bullet. Her Essence flickered into being, a blanket of red that covered her like a tarp, and Riven’s bullet slowed as it hit the floating crimson. It fell to the ground, harmless.

“Spike!” Glaven shouted.

One of his stars descended into this column, then spikes shot out everywhere. Enormous needles of stone erupted from the column’s base and Weathering jumped back, though not before she’d been perforated in several places by the rocky spikes, blood dotting and darkening her unform in several spots.

“Shoot now!” Glaven shouted.

Riven did so, shouting out his curse at Olsten who was ramming through the debris towards Weathering. His bullet never hit the Firstmarked from Ascension Demesne. Olsten was too close, and his teal Essence made the bullet still, Weathering staggering back even farther at the shift in momentum.

Glaven cursed, then jumped. “Defend!”

Riven screamed at him. What was the stupid bastard thinking, falling that far to break himself apart?

But one of his stars gathered the air around it into a miniature maelstrom and it descended right on top where Glaven was supposed to land, cushioning his fall. Then the air burst outwards, lashing Olsten and Weathering with gale-force scythes at and throwing them both back. Apparently, Olsten’s Essence couldn’t protect him from the wind.

Riven hefted his gun, aiming to cover Glaven from on high. His brother didn’t engage Weathering, instead jumping at Olsten with his wind swirling around him. The Secondmarked tried to protect himself but the wind broke apart his flimsy defence and his scuffle with Glaven lasted bare heartbeats before the former Municipier of Providence had thrown him back, a small blade flashing in his arms.

Weathering was done waiting. She charged in, her own red Essence twisting as though it was a storm as well. It collided with the storm Glaven had Commanded into existence, cutting a swathe straight through the air as she aimed her sword straight for his heart.

Glaven turned, Coral knife in his hand flashing in the crimson light. Knife met sword with a wash of sparks and the combatants danced away for a second. There was Riven’s chance. He didn’t hesitate, shooting his gun at Weathering, whose Essence made it drop harmlessly to the ground. Drats. That wasn’t going to work.

They resumed, the fight a horrid splash of cavorting sparks. Glaven swiped, but Weathering danced away, keeping him at a long reach where her sword could slice him without the danger of suffering a hit from his knife. Glaven was good with the knife, weaving it expertly through the air to block his enemy’s repeated jabs and slices, but he didn’t get a chance to get close enough to strike her directly. Even when Glaven burst past her guard a couple times to ram in his knife, the red Essence slowed him enough for Weathering to regain distance from him.

No, knives weren’t going to harm Weathering. She was too good with her sword, and when that failed, her Essence mitigated any weak spots. Meanwhile, the air swirling around Glaven wasn’t letting Olsten get up and take part in the fray. The rest of his stars still swirled around him, faster now as though they couldn’t wait to be used.

Riven shot her a few more times every time she and Glaven fell away from each other, but they never struck her. Her Essence was an impenetrable shield and the bullets fell to the ground with harmless clinks. Bullets too weren’t going to pierce her shield.

But their glowing in the dark gave him a perfect spot to focus his Essence on.

As Weathering charged in again, Riven focused on the bullet near her feet. Survival meant making sure his brother survived. The pressure shot out too fast to register, the golden lines coagulating at the bullet and forming a sphere around it. It wasn’t much bigger than a helm, but that was big enough.

Weathering’s foot caught on the shield and she stumbled.

Glaven took his chance, jabbing his knife into her unprotected opening. Her Essence was still swirling around her and Glaven slowed as he touched it, but one of his stars shot into the fray. It possessed Weathering’s sword.

“Stab!” Glaven shouted.

Cunning bastard knew too well how to use his overpowering Essence. Against Weathering’s strongest efforts, the blue Coral sword turned against her and jabbed itself straight at her heart. Her swirling red Essence disappeared, reappearing just a heartbeat later over her heart to slow down the sword. But that gave Glaven the exact opening he needed.

There was a gunfire blast from a little to the left. Olsten had crawled out of the stormy air, and his gun was out and smoking. But it never made its way in. Glaven’s swirling air threw the bullet off-course, and it never struck him.

Good for Glaven for he was too busy contending with Weathering, and good for Riven too. He was too enthralled by the fight between the two Firstmarked.

Glaven charged in now that he was free from the Slowing effect from Weathering’s Essence. He stabbed his knife at her guts, but she let of the sword she couldn’t control anyway and grabbed onto Glaven’s wrists. There was little else she could do. They broke into a more furious struggle.

Riven couldn’t pay it too much attention. Olsten had freed himself from the twisting air, and he aimed his gun straight at Riven, who stood tall and uncaring. Let the other man shoot. He, Riven, had his Essence.

Olsten shot all right. But instead of aiming for Riven, he fired at the column Riven was standing on. No matter. Riven closed his eyes and focused, throwing up a golden plate-shaped shield in front of the base. It disappeared as soon as the bullet struck, though that didn’t stop Olsten. The other Essentier fired straight at Riven next, then followed up with a return shot at the base. Crap. Riven protected himself using his Essence, which left the column’s base wide open.

The teal-and-gold coloured bullet heading for Riven never struck him, but the other one hit the column, then fell harmlessly to the ground. With it fell Riven’s column. The bullet imparted its momentum onto the rocks, which blasted out from the base, making the whole pillar topple.

Riven shouted out, wavering on the top for a moment as his heart tried to shoot out of his chest in any direction it could. Then he jumped. Crashing meant dying, so the need for survival made the pressure blast out of him like water gushing out of a dam. He was enwreathed in his Essence armour, shining bright and golden enough to light up the whole area. For just a second though.

In the next moment, he crashed into the ground.

Nothing broke, thankfully. The armour absorbed the brunt of the impact, the ground cracking and forming a Riven-shaped depression. It left him groggy, though. He got up on wobbly legs, noting the fractures snaking away from his outline at the point of impact. They looked suspiciously like the cracks everywhere else. Seemed silly, but maybe all the cracks he’d seen were formed by people crashing into them.

He had only a moment to note Glaven and Weathering still fighting like crazy, blades crashing into each other with a blizzard of fiery sparks. The air still stormed around them and Weathering’s Essence still flickered red. There was little else Riven could make out. But that was enough. Glaven was still fighting so he couldn’t be dead.

Olsten didn’t let up. Another teal-gold bullet rushed at him, propelled by the thunder of gunfire, and Riven barely managed to throw up another shield to stop it. His armour disappeared.

Just what Olsten was apparently looking for. He charged in, gun held at the ready to shoot again if Riven resurrected his Essence armour.

Crap, one of these days Riven needed to figure out how to use his Essence in multiple locations. He stepped back, but Olsten was rushing in too fast, his hands clenched into tight fists as though prepared to ram right through Riven’s head and burst out the other side. Riven wasn’t as good of a fist-to-fist fighter like Olsten was, and maybe that was what the other Essentier counted on to beat the crap out of him. But Riven had other options.

He focused for a second, and a small shield cropped up on one of the Olsten’s bullets on the ground, still glittering teal and gold. It was right in Olsten’s path just as it had been in Weathering’s. He was rushing in too fast to swerve past it, but he still didn’t trip like weathering as he jumped.

Damn it, Riven hadn’t foreseen that. He lunged forward. Olsten fired, but Riven already had a shield up to deflect it. When his bullet didn’t work, Olsten lashed out with his feet, still in the air, but Riven dodged it easily. He rammed his shoulder into Olsten’s guts, throwing his enemy to the ground, the gun clattering down and rolling away from him.

It was Riven’s turn to not let up. Even as Olsten tried to reform his weak shield of teal Essence, Riven was already up, easing his boot past the Essence that only blocked hard momentum and pressing down on Olsten’s neck.

Olsten didn’t struggle this time. His hand shot out, and the pouch from his waist punched Riven in the face.

Riven staggered back with a curse, blinking against the sudden pain over his eye. Chasm, it had to have turned purple all around, and he blinked away tears. He pulled out his own gun as Olsten charged, blasting away a shot at the other Essentier. The bullet struck his teal Essence and dropped, but its momentum pushed Olsten back. Riven shot again, pushing Olsten back even further. More and more he fired, and the other Essentier cursed Riven and his entire line to every Realm of the Chasm as he was shoved back yard after yard.

When Riven had to reload, Olsten charged in again. Stupid fool. Riven focused, and his Essence formed spheres around the bullets on the ground, one after another in random. Olsten tripped on one, but righted himself to charge in again, though he was forced to step with more care this time.

Riven had to make use of the opportunity. He charged at Olsten this time, aiming to re-enact their little suffocating match. All he had to do was make that damn Essentier stop struggling, pin him down again so he could only focus on one thing.

Olsten, though, grinned as soon as Riven came close enough. Riven’s heart was able to skip a beat for just a bare second, before Olsten’s teal Essence flared. Then he was thrown back as though he’d been blasted by a cannon. He’d have broken his back if he’d struck the ground like that, but his pressure shot out to form the Essence armour again, and the impact left no lasting damage.

But damn it, Riven was getting tired of feeling groggy so much. His head was turning around and in on itself like his mind had become a kaleidoscope, though thankfully he was spared the crazy colours.

Olsten charged in again, his teal Essence flickering. Riven shook himself, pushing out his shield around him. It didn’t stop whatever Olsten did. Like before, Riven was sent flying, shield and all. He crash-landed again without suffering any injuries, pushing himself up as fast as he could, mind whirling at what in the Chasm Olsten could be doing with his Essence. Exchange, Glaven had said. It was obvious that teal Essence exchanged momentum specifically, but this throwing back without any contact made no sense, since every instance had proved he needed some kind of contact to impart momentum. Riven hadn’t been hit by any bullet or suffered any other kind of contact from Olsten. So how in the world was he being thrown back?

Olsten’s teal Essence flared up again. Riven’s eyes roved over him everywhere, noting the Essence pooling on the ground around where the other Essentier, stood. It was sinking into the earth, just as Tam’s had done. Tam, who Riven had killed. He shook his head. No, now wasn’t the—

Riven went flying again, and once again rose as quickly as he could, suffering nothing but more irritation at having been thrown in the first place. The earth. That had to be it. Somehow, Olsten’s Essence was using the very momentum of the world to throw Riven back, maybe using the tectonic shifts or perhaps the rotation of the planet itself.

Swallowing, Riven stared. How in the ever-living Scions’ names was he supposed to combat that? It seemed impossible to counter. Bastard had been holding back all this while.

It happened again, and Riven jumped, knowing nothing about what else he could do. Olsten’s teal Essence glowed bright as aquamarine gems, ready to throw Riven back again as soon as he touched the ground.

Not if Riven could help it. He focused. The pressure shot out and formed a plate-like shield he used to block Olsten’s bullets, but parallel to the ground now so that his feet landed on it, half a yard above the earth. No contact, which meant he wasn’t going to get thrown. Riven smiled at Olsten. Bastard couldn’t throw him now.

Olsten noticed, and then looked around. Shit. Riven dashed forward, jumping from one golden shield to the next as the previous one disappeared, keeping himself off the ground. No way was he letting Olsten shoot at him again. Riven himself fired as he charged forward, the momentum imparted onto Olsten pushing him back. Anything to keep him from reaching his gun again. Thank the Scions it was night. The darkness provided a sure cover, and Olsten was clearly panicking in his effort to find his firearm.

He found it anyway. Olsten dove to the ground and snatched up his pistol, whirling around to point it at Riven. But too late. Riven grinned as he jumped off his last Essence shield and formed a new one in a sphere around himself. With all his protected weight he landed right on top of Olsten. Contact with Olsten’s shield of teal Essence only worsened the impact as there was no way Olsten could be pushed except down further into the ground.

But that wasn’t what Riven wanted. Before Olsten could react with some other trick, he made his golden Essence vanish and fell to the ground. Olsten stepped back in surprise and jerked around to face Riven head-on, his teal Essence flaring. Riven was faster, his golden Essence coming back out quick as a blink, encasing both him and Olsten in a shield.

So much for throwing Riven away again.

“One of us is dying now,” Riven growled. His Essence Sphere was absolute and there was too little Sept-and air—for the both of them to keep using Essence for long.

Olsten saw that after staying frozen for just a second. “You’re insane!”

“There’s a very faint line between ingenuity and insanity, or so I’ve heard.”

“Go die in the Chasm, you arsehole!”

With that perfect premonition, Olsten started fighting. He struck the shield instead of Riven though, hitting it over and over as he looked to break free.

Riven punched him. Stupid bastard’s teal Essence wouldn’t let Riven punch him, but no matter. He pushed his hands forward, reaching through the bright bluish-green aura to grapple Olsten directly. The other Essentier cursed, then struggled against Riven’s grip on his neck. At least his attention had been pulled away from the first hints of cracks on Riven’s shield.

Though that attention wasn’t exactly nice. Olsten’s boot came up and rammed into Riven’s guts, pushing back against the shield. Riven’s grip on Olsten’s neck relaxed, and the other Essentier pulled free, breathing hard. His boot dug into Riven’s stomach, eliciting a loud shriek. Chasm, he was going to compress everything Riven had inside into a mess as flat as the shields that stopped the teal-gold bullets.

Riven blinked past the sudden tears, hammering Olsten’s foot with his fists. The teal Essence let nothing of his blows enter though. All the while, Olsten was striking the shield with his fists, making the first cracks start to propagate.

Damn it. Riven pulled out his gun. Before Olsten could react, he fired at the boot pinning him in place. Again, the teal Essence shielded Olsten’s leg, but the Exchange occurred, the momentum of the spent bullet forcing the leg down.

Free! Riven groaned in a painless breath, then threw himself at Olsten. Not the best move considering the teal Essence pushing Olsten away, but then, Olsten had nowhere to go in this tiny, cramped place.

Riven was having a hard time breathing. His hands pushed past the teal Essence and tried to grab Olsten by the neck again. The bastard wasn’t getting away this time. He made valiant efforts to do so, though. His fists hammered into Riven’s back, shoulders, head, everywhere he could reach, his knees jabbing into Riven’s guts. Pain bloomed at every contact, and Riven had to stop muttering curses after he started losing breath. He kept his chokehold on Olsten, the neck feeling like a coiled serpent under his fingers, tensed and ready to strike.

Something strange happened at his back. His heart wrenched as through trying to collapse in on itself. Riven gasped, breathless though he was. What was hap—

His heart twisted again, and his grip on Olsten’s neck loosened. He tried to get back, but it was the other Essentier’s hands that were stopping Riven now. What? One of Olsten’s hands was clamped on Riven’s chest, the other on his back, both placed as though he was about to crush Riven’s heart. Virulent teal Essence was following all around the area of contact.

Riven’s eyes widened, his heartbeat more erratic ever as his whole chest appeared to spasm. Momentum. Bastard was doing something to the flow of his blood, to the pounding of his heart, turning the momentum back on Riven.

He screamed. His punches didn’t hit Olsten and his knees never made contact. No, no. Riven closed his eyes, focusing past the pain. Sometimes, survival meant he needed to worsen his danger before he could be properly safe, like an illness whose symptoms worsened just before being healed fully.

The golden globe encasing both Riven and Olsten disappeared. They stumbled to the ground, though Olsten kept his vicelike grip on Riven’s chest and back.

Didn’t matter. Just as Olsten hadn’t twisted the heart under his grip to bits, Riven focused. The pressure burst out of him, desperate to save him somehow. Riven guided it around Olsten’s head, reforming the golden orb that cut off his airflow for good.

The surprise was enough. Riven’s heart clenched tighter than ever, and even as he screamed, Olsten’s grip on Riven loosened by a hair.

Enough. More than enough. Riven tore himself away and free, lose from the death grip. He sprawled on the ground, breathing hard and harsh, lungs trying to make up for what his heart was unable to do, trying to cover up the pain wracking his chest. It felt as though Riven had tried to create his shield inside himself. Scions, spare him from the torture already.

Riven tried to get up, but even as his heart tried to settle back into its usual rhythm, Olsten’s Essence flared yet again. A teal tide rose into the air, large as the steaming geysers in far off Elstom to the north.

In the next second, Riven was sent flying.

Not that he’d expected anything too different after he’d dropped his damn shield. This throw was far stronger, far more powerful, than any of the ones before, as though Olsten at least intended to kill Riven before he died. Even as Riven watched, Olsten lifted his head, calm as waveless sea, and rammed his head down into the ground with his teal Essence flaring out everywhere. The golden sphere around his head broke.

Olsten was free. Free, and alive.