Lintellant was waiting for them with open arms.

It was just as Riven had left it last time, when he had come to it alone in his beat-up car that had gotten destroyed in the subsequent fight. Well, basically alone. Glaven had been there, stuffed in the trunk so that nobody could see and ask stupid questions. But he had been out cold, so that didn’t count.

Riven wasn’t alone. There was Viriya with him—and he couldn’t imagine her staying knocked out for any extended period of time, but then, he hadn’t expected Glaven could have been either—and the two Aross. Plus all the soldiers from Ascension Demesne that they’d brought along. No, Riven had come with company, and very powerful company to boot.

But the town of Lintellant was dark even as morning rose to greet them with bright sunlight. Riven had gotten some sleep under the soldiers’ careful eyes, and had been jerked awake at dawn.

They had arrived.

He would never have said they had arrived though. Dawn’s first light was still pushing against the horizon, and Lintellant was closed. Doors were barred, windows shuttered, and the streets empty as though they had been ravaged by some plague. Or that they were the plague carriers in the first place. Riven wouldn’t have been surprised.

“Where are the rebels then, Mother?” Kowlen asked.

He and his mother had gotten out of the stuffy truck and were enjoying the crisp morning air. Riven had asked if he could join, but he had been ignored. Really, even a polite rejection would have been all right. Wilful ignorance was a sin after all.

“As I said,” the Invigilator said, “I do not know. I am not affiliated with them in any way. But I do suggest that you send out search parties to make contact.”

“Or wait for an ambush.”

“They aren’t so lowly as to kill all of you. It’s good you followed my advice to keep some of your soldiers back and send some over to Ascension to tell Orbray what is happening. We may need all the help we can get.”

“We’ll be picked out one by one at this rate. We’re spread out too thin.”

“We need to make them think we’re spread out too thin when we really aren’t. Your troops can return at a moment’s call, after all.”

Kowlen sighed, acceding that his mother was right. Riven listened with rapt attention, though the constant yawning made it a little hard. His jaw creaked every time he opened it out wide, and he had no doubt he would eventually split it somewhere at the rate he kept stretching it.

“You need to send out the rest of them too,” the Invigilator said.

The other cars and trucks were waiting behind the one Riven was being held in. They were all filled with alert soldiers, most of whom looked like they’d much rather be asleep. But tension rose off them like a horrid stench, and Riven had to agree with the Invigilator.

The sooner those troops acted, the sooner the rebels could come out.

“That’ll spread us out even more,” Kowlen argued. “We need a certain strength to combat them.”

“We do, yes, but you are an Essentier. You can handle yourself better than any of those soldiers ever could. We also need to alert the other people Orbray stationed here. They can keep watch in their districts and take the necessary action if something happens. We wouldn’t want them to be caught off-guard, now would we?”

“I suppose not…” Kowlen looked over to the cars, then waved one of the soldiers forward. She stopped a yard away and saluted smartly. “Tell the contingent captains to come and meet as fast as they can.”

The soldier saluted again before running off. Riven looked at Viriya, who still hadn’t woken up from her sleep. She must have been exhausted after her day, even worse than Riven. If only there was something to eat as well. She had to be famished too after they had gone through his meagre stores and finished them sometime yesterday before the fiasco at Tollisett.

In moments, the soldier had returned with three more. All of their insignia on their shoulders indicated they were captains, and Riven had to give them credit for seeing so many of their soldiers through the battle against the Spectres. The last battle at Welmark had seen a lot more dead.

“Captains,” Kowlen said, trying to sound greater than his youth wanted to allow him. “You’re going to disperse and head to the other towns and districts to warn the troops stationed there about what we have learned. Namely, that there are rebel factions all over Rennervation Demesne, and that they might strike us at any moment. You’ll need to leave immediately.”

“Sir, is it wise for us to separate at a time like this?” one of the captains asked.

“Not at all. But I don’t want the others to remain unprepared for any fiasco.”

“What if they strike here with force?” asked another captain.

“That’s a risk we’ll have to take. Besides, I’m an Essentier, remember? We may have trouble taking down Deathless, but these are only people. Let that thought buoy you as you head out. Good luck.”

The captains looked like they wanted to contest that decision further, but Kowlen’s dismissal had been clear. They stuffed away their disquiet, saluted, then marched off to their vehicles and contingents. The trucks and cars started to leave until all that was left was the truck carrying Riven and Viriya and the two Aross.

“Happy now, Mother?” Kowlen asked.

“I am happy you were able to make the right decision.” The Invigilator looked over the emptiness of Lintellant with unfocused eyes, as though imagining the times it hadn’t been so desolate. “And now we wait.”

Riven relaxed back against his seat inside the truck. Looking through the tiny window in the side was quite uncomfortable as it made him turn his head at an awkward angle. He breathed out an easy sigh. This was all in the Invigilator’s hand now. He and Viriya were stuck with no Sept. Even if they caused a small ruckus with what little Essence they could call up, they’d soon run out and the soldiers still here would shoot them enough to turn them to pincushions.

No, it was all up to the Invigilator now. Riven didn’t like it, but at least he had brought her to their side.

They didn’t have to wait for long.

“Hey,” someone shouted from behind. One of the soldiers most likely. “Who’s there?”

More shouts followed, more yelled enquiries about some intruder. Riven jerked his head against the tiny window again, pressing his face against the bars to peer outside. Kowlen Aross was running away towards somewhere behind them and the Invigilator had a knowing look of satisfaction on her face.

Sounds of fighting erupted in the area. Shouts and screams erupted from somewhere behind them. Scions, this must have been part of the Invigilator’s plan. The rebel faction had attacked.

Riven turned to Viriya who had her face pressed against the window by her head as well. “Can you see what’s going on?”

“There’s an attack.”

“I could tell that. Who, though?”

Viriya didn’t answer for several seconds as she seemed to be pondering what might be the right answer. She was absolutely still, entranced by whatever was going on outside. Riven’s heartbeat kept climbing. Those screams grew louder but fewer in number, the shots that had been peppering the area now growing quiet.

“Nivi,” Viriya said.

“What?” Riven was of half a mind to pull Viriya back and see what was going on himself. She would never make a proper storyteller.

The guards who were with them looked agitated now, their guns having dipped as soon as the fighting had started. No doubt they wanted to know what was happening even more than him—Chasm, maybe they wanted to join in—but Aross had said nothing. They were stuck.

“I think you can go and check,” Riven said helpfully. “What’s the  point of guarding us if there’s no one to guard for.”

Sound logic, if Riven was asked, and the guards apparently agreed. They exchanged quick looks, then nodded at each other. The first guard pulled Viriya back by her shoulders and took her place at the window. She looked as though she was barely restraining herself from biting his hand off.

Viriya was smarter than that. She raised one boot and slammed it down on the guard’s foot. He yelped and staggered back, and she grabbed his rifle with both hands. She pulled the gun away with a vicious tug. The guard righted himself, only to have the barrel of his own rifle pointed at him.

It had happened so fast, neither the other guard nor Riven had the time to react. By the time they both looked at each other, Riven cursed. Then lunged at his captor. There was a small scuffle as he struggled to pull the rifle from the guard’s grasp, heaving, cursing, and spitting at each other. They collided hard against the wall of the truck, making it shake. At some point, frustration made Riven ram his forehead right on the guard’s nose, and the man fell back with a shrieked-out curse. Blood splattered Riven’s forehead but he drew back, the rifle in his hand.

Like Viriya, he pulled himself back and aimed the gun at his former captor. Scions, it felt nice to not be quaking at the end of a barrel.

Their efforts were more or less wasted. The sounds of fighting had stopped. Riven looked up as the Invigilator stood up, a look of triumph etched across her face.

“It seems they won’t find you as two fools in need of rescue,” she said. She smiled, mostly haughty but also strangely, a little proud too. Why was she feeling proud? Was she happy that the people who had freed her weren’t so inept they couldn’t even extricate themselves from a simple captivity such as this? “Come outside and leave those two hapless idiots there. They’re nothing to worry over.”

She led the way back into the sunlight, and Riven and Viriya followed after a moment’s hesitation. It might look as though there was no need to take care of the guards, but Riven’s spine itched at leaving enemies at his back. Nevertheless, he put his faith in the Invigilator and made his way out.

Then laughed at the sight that was awaiting him.

Nivi was there, just as Viriya had said. She smiled when she saw them approaching, the rising sunlight flashing on her dark eyes. For all that she might have been a part of the fight against Kowlen’s forces, there was no indication of any blood or any injuries.

“You’re safe!” she cried, rushing forward.

Riven was enveloped in a surprise embrace, and he felt a sudden flush creep up his neck. She released him soon enough, and then went and gave an embrace to Viriya too, who clearly didn’t want it but was still enveloped by the smaller woman anyway.

“Now that our happy reunions are done,” the Invigilator said, “we can all get going. We have much to attend to.”

“What happened, Nivi?” Riven asked as they followed the Invigilator down the street. There were other people around, men and women in shoddy clothes and drab uniforms. Nothing he recognized, and maybe that had been the point. He wasn’t supposed to recognize it. They had meant to blend in with the city and its inhabitants.

“We attacked them. We were spying on all of you as soon as you came within spyglass distance, and after the Invigilator made them break apart, it was easy to strike.”

“But.. who are all of these people?”

“People from Rennervation city. People who are still loyal to Invigilator Aross and hoped to see Orbray’s influence reduced.” She laughed at his blank look. Riven looked away. She was shorter than her, and that would teach her to make fun of him. Though it didn’t seem like she was in search of his attention. “When you left the research facility, Starls and I argued on where we should go and who we should contact. Then we decided we didn’t need to go anywhere just yet. Lintellant already had a strong, though hidden, anti-Orbray movement and we had strong manpower on our hands.”

“The workers of the facility,” Riven said. The ones who no longer had a job and had almost been killed by Orbray’s soldiers.

“Exactly. We put them all to work, gathering intel as we contacted the movement here and set about preparing a small base of operations. Apparently, the local leader already had word from the Invigilator that they were to begin their attack if she was ever to come here. And she did. Which, I learn, was thanks to you and Viriya.”

“And Mhell,” Viriya added.

Riven nodded at Nivi’s questioning look. “The Deadmage helped us. We couldn’t have done it without her assistance. Well, we don’t know if we could or couldn’t have, but it definitely would have been a lot harder.”

“The Dead—wait, did you say Deadmage?” She lowered her voice at a few nearby curious looks. “I thought she was a Necromancer?”

Viriya raised her eyebrows at Riven. “She… evolved. Thanks to Riven here.”

“What did you do?” Nivi asked Riven.

Riven sighed. “I gave her the Sept crystal that she had been asking about for a while.”

Nivi didn’t say anything to that. It was clear she disapproved going by the little frown that had wormed onto her brows, but it seemed she didn’t want to ruin the mood of victory they had earned.

The Invigilator led them past the last remaining trucks and cars, and into the centre of Lintellant. Riven stared everywhere, expecting to see some more signs of life, but the doors were still barred as ever and the windows were still shut tight. Maybe the people would finally come out when word spread that Invigilator Aross was free. The layout of buildings changed and they grew sparser the farther they went towards the middle. The man walking a couple steps ahead of the Invigilator, who she was in low conversation with, took a small alley and led them to a downtrodden building that looked like Riven could blow away with a strong breath.

It wasn’t any better on the inside. The walls were grimy and the floor caked with dirt. But there were people here, more men and women wearing the same shabby clothes, though all were armed with swords and rifles.

They were in the heart of the resistance in Lintellant.

“You lied to me!” The shout echoed through the room and Riven turned with everyone else to face the man at the man kneeling in a small open space in the middle. Kowlen Aross looked like he had been run over by a stampede of gazelles. His brow was cut, his face squashed, and his arm held at an awkward angle. He probably wouldn’t have been able to stand on his own too. “I trusted you, and look what happened. Another lie!”

It wasn’t hard to find who he was so angry with. The Invigilator walked up to him and reached out with a hand. He drew back as though her touch would burn on contact, but there was a slight relaxing of his shoulders when she placed her palm on his forehead. “Apologies, Kowlen, but this had to happen. You knew this would happen, with or without me.”

“This isn’t what concerns me. It’s… it’s your blatant disregard that’s so terrible, Mother. Your ignorance again. Your negligence. You think it’s fine to sacrifice me for what you think is right, but is it really? Is that what being a mother means to you?”

The Invigilator drew her hand back. Her face, sympathetic moments ago, had now gone sharp as a jagged cube of ice. “Don’t make a fool of yourself. You’ve already lost what little reputation you had garnered. I suggest you keep your mouth shut and cause no further trouble.”

Kowlen shouted again, but the Invigilator was done paying attention. She stalked away, going up the stairs in the far corner to what was presumably the main office of the man in charge. Riven followed, though his eyes kept going back to Kowlen kneeling broken on the ground. It was harsh. Very harsh. Riven couldn’t even imagine Mother being so ridiculously hard on him. She wasn’t that sort of person. Hard at times, yes, but never cruel like this.

Father, though, was a different matter. Oh yes, Riven could see him kneeling there and Father walking away as though he was no more than an enemy to be locked away in the cells somewhere down below.

But would Father have that same twisted expression Invigilator Aross did? Would he have looked as though he had left his heart behind with his kneeling son, all colour draining away from his face with every step, the moistness in the eyes the only confirmation that he wasn’t a walking corpse?

It was hard to picture Father like that.

“Now,” the Invigilator said as she settled down on the main chair that had housed the man-in-charge’s arse not so long ago. “To business. Do you have a report, Starls?”

It was then that Riven realized the man-in-charge was none other than Starls. He stepped forward and bowed to his superior. “I do. Here it is, Invigilator.”

The stocky man pointed to a file on the table that bore a strange symbol—a six-pointed star. Must have been the insignia of Rennervation. The Invigilator took it up and perused it quickly. Not quickly enough in Riven’s opinion. The long hours of sitting had made him lose his standing stamina and he looked everywhere for an empty bench or perhaps a nook in the wall. There had to be someplace he could rest, right?

The Invigilator cut into any such foolish thoughts. “It’s clear the situation is direr than I thought. If this is accurate, then Orbray’s agents are everywhere.”

She threw the file on the table in disgust. Several of the soldiers and Essentiers—for what else could the men and women in those shabby clothes be—flinched at it, including Riven.

“What’s your command, Invigilator?” Starls asked.

Invigilator Aross was staring at the door as though contemplating going back to the first floor and meeting her son again. “We fight. We attack. How accurate is this? Or recent, rather?”

“Updated by movements spotted this dawn.”

“I see. Then it appears Orbray believes consolidating his position in Rennervation city will let him control the entirety of Rennervation Demesne. He’s wrong. We will need to move fast and take out his convoys and reinforcements en route to Rennervation city. We’ll strike when they least expect—right in the middle of the road. No consolidating any positions.”

“But Invigilator, they’ll have already started moving into the city. We might not have time to catch up to them.”

“No, it’s too soon. We reached Lintellant after he learned of my son’s detour, but before his messengers or reinforcements could have set out. But he should have sent them by now. Messages via flash post go quickly and they will reach Orbray’s agents soon, if they haven’t already. We need to send our own fast. They can’t be far too ahead.”

“Then we will need to begin our preparations to strike immediately.”

“Yes.” They all stared at her for a moment. Invigilator Aross frowned at them, then barked, “What are you waiting for? Get going!”

All the Rennervation loyalists—no, Aross loyalists—snapped to attention and immediately started getting busy. They rushed out of the room, the soldiers yelling out at their companions and brandishing their weapons, shouting for proper uniforms and to check if their vehicles were ready.

The only ones remaining were Riven, Viriya, Starls, and a handful of other men and women Riven assumed were Essentiers.

“Ah yes.” Aross noted them all one by one. “The crucial separation.”

“I suggest I take one of the Providence Essentiers with me, and Reeler can take the other,” Starls said. “That leaves the rest of us, but we can each take a certain spot and rendezvous with one of the local Essentiers.”

“No. I want her to be in charge of her own assignment.”

Aross was pointing at Viriya, who stood still for a moment. Her face was bank now that she had pulled her inflectionless mask back on. She was hiding something, but what? When everyone stared at her, Viriya dipped her head and strode forward until she stood right in front of the Invigilator.

“You are Viriya Rorink, yes?” the Invigilator asked.

“I am.”

“I require that you take a head-on assignment for me.”

“Which is?”

“Retaking Rennervation city.”

Starls started. The other Essentiers were similarly surprised, though none of them said anything against the Invigilator. Aross wasn’t one to say anything without deep and careful consideration. Riven got the sense they knew better than to doubt her judgement.

“What does that exactly entail?” Viriya asked.

The Invigilator gave her a little smile. She noted that Viriya hadn’t said no. “The city is surrounded by high walls. Archaic yes, but it is what it is. I believe you can get past them easily with your Essence, for Orbray will have closed the gates and any and all entry into the city. Once inside, you will open the smaller side gates which we will use to enter. But your main task is this—you will liberate my headquarters from whatever presence Orbray has seen fit to install over there. We will provide a suitable distraction of course, but I need you to give yourself a head start so that I can walk into my seat of power without any obstacles when I start my return in a day.”

“I’m sorry, but that sounds like a suicide mission,” Riven said. He didn’t care how everyone turned to face him, and he wasn’t going to wilt under their combined attention. It had to be said. He wasn’t allowing Viriya to be dragged off on this nonsense. “There’s so much you haven’t said, like what sort of defences can we expect or which of Orbray’s Essentiers are guarding it. We need more information. And even then, how can you expect one person to complete this mission by themselves? It’s insane!”

“It is not insane.” The hard glare form the Invigilator meant Riven had done exactly what the others had been careful about avoiding. He had doubted Aross’s fundamental reasoning. “The situation there is a little precarious. I need an external Essentier to handle matters, one who is both powerful and an agent from Rosbel Morell. This will show who really deserves to be the High Invigilator, don’t you think?”

Riven blinked. It was politics all over again. The Invigilator was giving Viriya a platform to succeed just to further Father’s interests, for he saw Aross’s reasoning perfectly. Viriya’s victory over Orbray’s agents would show everyone who held the real power, and thus, who deserved to be High Invigilator.

But that didn’t mean he had to like it. In fact, it made him hate it all the more. They were all willing to risk Viriya’s life like that, all for the political benefit of Father.

“It still seems insane,” Riven said.

“No one required your input, Riven Morell.” The Invigilator shook her head, as if unable to believe Riven had dared to even open his mouth. “Viriya Rorink, do you accept?”

Viriya hadn’t once looked at Riven through the whole exchange. Her stony face was fixed on the older woman before her. He tried to catch her attention but it became evidently clear that she had no wish to meet his eyes or consider his side of the matter.

So much for giving Riven the power to decide on the course of action.

“I—”

Riven cut over her. “We accept.” That made all of them turn to him again, but he didn’t wilt again. No, he was in the right. If anyone had to wilt, it was the Invigilator. It wasn’t much different from working under father again. Maybe the post just attracted arseholes. “We’ll go to Rennervation city and free it for you. We’ll even lay you a bed of roses for your grand return. Or are you going to contest that my presence there is unnecessary?”

The Invigilator shook her head with a little knowing smile. “No, that’s fine. I won’t even ask why.” Aross turned that smile on Riven, and he had a hard time not cursing Aross. “It’s settled then—Riven Morell and Viriya Rorink will be heading to Rennervation city to recapture it. You will leave in an hour. We will supply you with what you need, and you will have approximately another day to succeed. Starls will have more in-depth reports on the city and the specifics you’ll have to deal with. Is it all understood? Dismissed.”

Riven and Viriya nodded. When he turned, Viriya was looking at him with her stony mask still on, though her eyes were burning with a fire the colour of jade. He moved, and she quickly turned to lead the way out. Riven hurried to catch up.

He had no idea how he had offended her, but it was clear he had. Oh well. He could live with it, so long as Rennervation city didn’t kill them both.