It was good Riven was falling with his back facing the ground far below. For one, staring down at just how high he was plummeting from would have killed him before he even hit the bottom. For another, the position meant his breath was no longer being stolen away by the rushing wind, and that was great from cursing Viriya to the ends of the Chasm’s lowest Realm and back.

She had thrown him on purpose. Of that, he was sure as the sun rising. Viriya had been pushing the idea that they needed to separate to make the most of what time they had left, and she had taken matters into her own hands when Riven had hesitated.

Not that it was that dangerous. He had his Essence after all.

One little glance back downwards through the corner of his eyes meant Riven had all the fear for his survival that he needed. He didn’t even need to focus much. The pressure roared out of him, golden lines shooting everywhere to form a spherical shield of compressed air. It didn’t block his vision, thankfully. He could still see the flashes of brilliant green and burning orange flickering at the top of the wall. That was good. A clear sign Viriya and Lacelle were still fighting, which meant that Viriya was still alive and doing well enough.

Riven turned, and his heart tried to claw its way out of his chest. Damn the Chasm, how had he fallen this far already? The ground was rushing up to meet him, a flat expanse of buildings, roads, and a handful of people rising to slap the life out of him.

There was no way his shield could survive that kind of impact.

Desperate, Riven let go of his Essence. It was difficult, for how was he to justify he’d be safe when every iota of him claimed otherwise? He tried to throw his mind back to when he had fought that demon in Welmark, the one that had killed Bartle and kidnapped Darley. Riven had never seen the Fiend again—it had probably been in the battle against the Frontier Guards—but the fight was going to live on his mind forever. But more importantly, he had used his Essence in a way he hadn’t since.

With a little focus, Riven sent out his golden lines in tiny amounts. Instead of throwing it all out in the hope it would form a strong shield against whatever came next, he let out just enough that the air was compressed to the consistency of thick honey, not a brick. It formed a shield again of course. Not a stout one that would protect him from blows, but an expanse of gold-tinged air that was thick as cold broth. Riven splashed into it, fall slowing down. He was still sinking rapidly, shooting straight for the ground fast enough to splatter on impact.

But it wasn’t that bad this time. When Riven was past the thickened air, he focused again, removing his Essence from overhead and recreating the golden shield of extremely condensed air around himself. Thank the Scions most of the people nearby had gone. He crashed down into the street, with enough force to make his shield crack all over, but he survived.

Riven was still alive.

Damn it, but he was all alone though. Far above, Viriya was still fighting with Lacelle, going by their endless green and orange flashes. What had been her plan regarding the other Essentier?  Did she even have a plan? It still felt wrong leaving her like that, but Riven was now several hundred yards below the fight. There was little to nothing that he could do. Even if he somehow found a way to climb all the way back to the top of the wall, evading the guards that surely had to be everywhere within it, the fight would be over by the time he reached them anyway.

No, Riven was better off doing what he had to. Putting his faith in Viriya and taking care of the rest of the city.

Alone.

#

It wasn’t as hard as he’d assumed it would be. Well, not at first. They had both shucked their uniforms before setting off, getting on regular clothes to better merge into the city and its people. But every step made Riven worry that something about him would give him away.

He was trying not to act like he was a stranger in Rennervation city, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead despite the urge to take note of everything that he passed. The streets and buildings were more active here at least. People weren’t about their business more or less how they might have when things weren’t so topsy-turvy, though there was an edge about them as though they were prepared to bolt if they got even a hint that something was about to go wrong. They’d all turned into skittish deer.

Thankfully, they didn’t pay him too much attention. Riven had memorized the map he’d been given by Aross. In fact, that had been one of the reasons he hadn’t talked the whole thing out with Viriya much—they were too busy trying to recall where every street went and which roads were likely to get them to the Invigilator’s Office to talk about all that had happened.

At least it was helping now. Riven turned corners carefully, making sure there weren’t too many soldiers who’d be on the lookout for strange faces, and certainly no Essentiers. Had word come down from the roof that there were infiltrators?

A rail-carriage baring a couple of Essentiers trundled down the street. Riven kept his face down but his steps purposeful, giving his best impression of a man going about his soul-crushing business. He paused once they had passed him. His and Viriya’s duty was to sabotage the defence efforts within Rennervation city and the best way to do that was to find where they stored their weapons, Sept, and so on. Something to ruin so they had nothing to defend themselves with.

“Excuse me,” Riven asked an old fruit-stand seller. “Can you tell me where I can find the authorities? I need to report something serious to people so they can do something about it.”

“What’s this serious business you talking about?” the man asked, looking down at his fruit as though nothing could have been more serious than that.

Riven got his meaning. He handed a dozen seals to the man and took a bag of apples in return. “Something’s going on at the top of the wall, and I need to report it to the Essentiers.”

“Eh?” The wizened little man looked over at the wall, eyes screwing in an effort to see clearer. “I don’t see nothing.”

“It’s difficult to see from this far out,” Riven said. The man was looking in the wrong direction too, but Riven wasn’t about to point that out. It was a huge risk letting him know there was trouble but he needed directions and help. Aross had given him a map, but he needed a bit of authenticity too. A little truth to back him up. “But it’s there, and I need to tell them about it.”

“Eh well, go down Rotten Street, then take a left at Missile Way and you’ll find them to the left of the next intersection. It’s a big warehouse so you can’t miss it. You understand?”

Riven nodded. “I do, thank you.”

He hurried away. A warehouse sounded perfect. Aross had said that most supplies would be stashed in local offices and warehouses spread all over the city rather than being held in the Invigilator’s Office. It made sense from a strategic point of view. Spreading them out would allow Orbray’s agents to retrieve them from the point nearest to where they needed to be while also making sure any insurgents wouldn’t be able to destroy them all in one go. There were several such spots all over the city, but no matter. Riven would get to them one by one.

The blocky, wooden warehouse wasn’t very well guarded. Riven hid behind a tall Coral tree, trying to see if there was a way for him to sneak into the building without alerting the two guards at the front door. There! A few boxes and crates were piled on the left side, forming a small mountain. But how to get there, across the street, without them seeing him?

Taking a deep breath, Riven focused on the old car parked to the right of the warehouse. His Essence rose up, sending golden lines flying to the car. They attached to the headlights, forming tinny shimmering coverings. It was getting easier and easier to make his Essence do whatever he needed without needing to perform overly insane mental gymnastics to convince it that he needed to survive. A simple thought—he’d be spotted by the soldiers if his Essence didn’t do as he said—and it obeyed his will.

The distraction worked. Both soldiers turned to stare at the car, the headlights seemingly lighting up on their own. Perfect.

Riven ran while trying his best to make as little noise as possible. He crossed the street and reached the boxes, not pausing until he was hidden behind the left-hand wall of the warehouse. Scions, no one had better be looking down from one of the windows. Though those were too dirty to see through, if Riven was asked.

After taking a moment to catch his breath and making sure the soldiers weren’t so flustered by the case of the living headlights that they were making a ruckus about it, Riven climbed the tower of boxes. Terrible defending. Who left boxes like this piled up on the side of the road for any old thief to use and get into the building? Good lessons for when Riven might need to protect his own warehouse in some distant future.

The window he’d have to use was a little too high from even the topmost box. Riven had his Essence though. He focused, golden lines forming a plate in the air a yard above him. He climbed onto it, the windowsill now level with his shoulders.

Riven wiped the grime away and peered inside. The corridor that held the window was dark and empty. So easy. The shutters were locked and the window bolted tight, but that shouldn’t be too hard to get past.

With a little more focus, Riven held onto the windowsill so as not to fall as he expanded his shield until it was a sphere around him. He pushed it out further, making it expand even more. The golden Essence reached the window. Riven paused, taking a breath before focusing harder. More Essence seeped out, making the shield expand even farther and push against the window, the shutters and panes bending under the pressure. Riven pushed. Just a little more.

There was a crack, and Riven stopped, freezing. His heart thudded loud. Had the soldiers heard? Were they coming to check?

No, there were no other sounds. Maybe they hadn’t heard, or maybe they had and didn’t think it was worth investigating, but the point was that Riven wasn’t going to have to scramble. He pushed aside the shutters and climbed in.

He was in.

There was no time to waste. Riven hurried away, not daring to raise his boots too high above the floor in case he made some noise and alerted someone on the floor below. The first door was locked. He considered breaking through using his Essence again, but the potential noise was a deterrent. Thankfully, the next was easy to open.

Jackpot. There was a lot of exactly what he’d been looking for. Boxes filled with small pouches of Sept. Crates full of guns and ammunition. A stack of standard-issue Coral knives hanging on the wall.

All of which Riven needed to destroy.

He bent to his task. Riven spilled the Sept from their pouches after bagging a few for himself. It felt wrong in some fundamental way to waste all this Sept but this was his enemy’s storage. He was duty-bound to ruin everything. Once the Sept had been thrown everywhere, flecking the walls, dusting the boxes and crates, and glittering all over the floor, he bent to the knives and guns.

This was harder work. Riven took the knives and used to gash away at the rifles. It seemed ingenious at first to strike two birds with one stone—he was wearing down the Coral blades while ruining the guns and turning them useless—but the effort was exhausting.

Riven wasn’t even halfway through when he heard the dreaded sound. Footsteps. Someone was coming up some nearby staircase, then heading this way.

Swallowing and trying to still his hammering heartbeat, Riven pressed himself back against the wall. Now? They had to come now? The footsteps came closer, and his heart rose into his mouth as they stopped right in front of the door Riven had shut after entering. Chasm, he’d be screwed if there were too many people, though the footsteps suggested otherwise.

Just the one. The man opened the door and stepped in. He paused, probably shocked at the sight of the ruined Sept and weapons. Riven gave him no time to express his surprise. With a moment’s focus, he had a shield all around the man. He stepped out from his hiding place against the wall and stepped in front of the newcomer. A soldier by the looks of him. If only Riven could interrogate him, but that held the risk of him shouting and Riven couldn’t afford that.

So he waited. The man waited for a moment too, then his eyes went wide. He started hammering on the shield, then kicking it, then pulling out his knife and trying to cut his way out. Nothing helped of course. Minor cracks popped up here and there but Riven was able to fix those easily with more Essence. The sound wasn’t a problem. Riven had crafted his golden shield thick enough to stop the noise from going too far.

Eventually, the soldier’s struggles ceased as he ran out of air. He slumped in the shield and Riven waited a bit longer. It was unlikely that it might be a trick, but best to be sure.

A few moments later, Riven pulled away his shield and searched the man, taking away his knife and going over everything else he had. There wasn’t a lot but he did find a set of keys.

No time to waste. Riven bent to destroying as much as he could, this time not caring what noise he made. Someone would likely come up to check on the unconscious soldier soon enough. He stood in the centre of the room and expanded his spherical shield again, pushing the soldier out through the door, caving in the floor and ceiling, and breaking the guns, Sept pouches, and knives as they were crushed between his Essence and the walls.

The keys helped him get into the other rooms. Riven unlocked the doors and went in, using Essence to crush everything stored inside  and umping out the Sept everywhere. It was rote and tiring work, but at least he was being productive. Some of the rooms were empty, and a few held documents Riven stuffed into his shirt to check later, and he was soon done.

Onto the next floor beneath. But as he had suspected, someone came to check on the soldier he had knocked out. The woman standing at the top of the stairs shrieked as soon as she saw Riven, and he cursed. His cover had been blown. Great.

Riven created a shield around the woman, belated though it was. Once she was down, he’d get out of here. He had done enough after all. Forget the next floor, he’d find the next warehouse and take care of things there.

More people rushed up the stairs though. Half a dozen newcomers seemed to appear out of nowhere at the top of the stairs beside the gold-encased woman, all with their guns pointed straight at Riven. They fired at him. Drats. Riven had to pull his Essence away from the woman and protect himself instead. He blocked off the shots. Well, almost all. One of the bullets glowed violet and burst through his shield like it was made of paper. It missed him as it zipped over his shoulder, thankfully, but the force was such that very air that went turbulent at its passage ripped right through his shirt and scored deep gouges all across his shoulders.

Riven cringed, muttering out curses. Whatever that Essence was, he wasn’t going to be able to stop whatever it propelled. Just as the next shots came in, Riven dived through the open doorway beside him and slammed the door closed, the room lit up by the glittering Sept he had spilled everywhere.

Steps thundered down and approached the door as the shots stopped flying down the hallway. Riven looked around. No windows, or other doors. No escape routes. He was trapped. Perfect.

Riven pulled his long sword out of his trousers. Well, if there was one good thing about being attacked, his sword was now free from its cramped, makeshift sheath and he could move more freely. The Coral blade caught the low light and glimmered as though happy to be out. Riven pressed himself against the far wall and kept his profile low, waiting as the soldiers and Essentiers neared the room. Soon. They’d reach him soon. To their detriment.

The footsteps stopped outside the door. They weren’t coming in, and Riven’s heart pounded loud in anticipation. The Chasm were they doing outside?

Shots blasted in. They all fired their guns right through the little room’s walls. Riven cringed down even further, the pressure from within shooting out and forming the Essence armour all over him, encasing him in glowing gold. Several of the bullets hit him and lodged into his armour but the majority went well over his head. They thought he was still standing like some idiot. Hah.

Riven glanced up and then jumped before the bullet holes in the walls grew big enough for them to see through. He let go of his armour, reforging his Essence into a plate near the ceiling that he grabbed and hauled himself onto. If there was one place they weren’t shooting at all, it was the ceiling. Riven wasn’t a spider after all.

The storm of bullets ceased. Smoke drifted all over the room, and a second later, the door opened. The soldiers drifted in, cautious as ever on their feet and trying to see through the haze they had created. They paused. Evidently, they’d learned Riven was nowhere to be seen.

Jut the signal Riven was waiting for.

He focused and let go of his Essence momentarily. Then he fell.

Before he touched the ground, Riven focused and redrew his Essence into the armour around himself. He landed with a loud thump right in the soldiers’ midst. No point in giving them time to react. Riven swung. It was like wading through a pool of bushes. Every swing downed soldier after soldier as Riven took off limbs, stabbed through hearts, twisting and turning too fast to give them any chance of defending themselves much less trying to fight back.

In less than a handful of heartbeats, the soldiers nearest him had died. It was good Riven had no time to focus on what fatal wounds he had inflicted. The survivors had fallen back, their guns and swords raised as they pressed themselves against the wall. They fired at him but the bullets hardly left a dent in his armour. Pathetic.

But which one of them was the Essentier with the crazy powerful bullets?

Riven was about to charge in when one of the soldiers looked at the door and shouted, “Shoot him already!”

There was only a second to realize he was screwed before Riven threw himself backwards as fast as his feet could. Another shot blasted through the wall, this time making the entire left-hand side of it collapse into a cloud of dust and rubble. The bullet cannoned through with the purple Essence powering it like a comet, barely missing Riven but hitting his Coral sword. The blade flew from his grip as his arms were wrenched to one side by the incredible force of the Sept bullet.

Sept. There was so much Sept everywhere. Scions, Riven should have used them up already.

Riven threw himself to the door, focusing as hard as he could before the Essentier in the hallway outside fired their gun again. His pressure rose like a volcanic eruption, powered by every little bit of the Sept that was lying all over the room, and Riven’s armour expanded like a bomb going off.

One second it was constrained to just over his skin, the next it had shot outwards in a spherical shape in all directions. Riven didn’t even hit the ground before his Essence hit his adversaries, ramming into the soldiers cowering near the wall and knocking them out and breaking through what was left of the wall to strike down the Essentier in the hallway.

Riven thumped down onto the floor, but that had been caved apart and when he rose, he was standing on the golden surface of his shield. He had sunk somewhat into the floor beneath. Half of him was still looking into the carnage of the floor he’d been on, while waist-down he existed in the first floor, legs dangling from the ceiling like some insane chandelier. The soldiers had been nearly crushed between his Essence and the wall, their bodies bloodied and looking quite misshapen.

To his left, the Essentier had been rammed through the wall itself and was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, he was either dead, or too incapacitated to do anything.

Riven looked down. Oh shit. He hadn’t realized he had accrued an audience. Men and women were watching with wide, avid eyes from below. He jumped back into the second-floor room he had nearly dropped through, shutting away his Essence so that he could land on the floor. Or what remained of it. There was no need to look back. Riven had no idea how many there were exactly, but it was easy to tell there were too many and he needed to move. Fast.

He charged into the corridor and thundered down the hallway, heading straight for the window held broken in through. Couldn’t be far, right? Just a few more twists and turns—

The floor fell away just ahead of him. Blue Essence flared, and the wooden boards fell away as though all support had disappeared. Riven barely managed to stop himself before he tipped over the edge and fell. The fall itself would be fine but the sheer number of people waiting for him downstairs meant he would not be having a good time.

Riven jumped across. It was too far, the diameter of the hole too long, and he was never going to reach the other end with one bound. His enemies knew it too for they all cheered as he sailed through the air. Arseholes thought he was doing it for their entertainment.

With a little focus, he drew out his Essence and formed a level plate in the middle of the hole, suspended on nothing and floating in mid-air. He landed on it, and the enemies below were now cursing him to the Chasm.

Riven took just a second to gloat, staring down into the milling press. They were shooting up at him, several of them aiming their rifles, pistols, and other assorted firearms upwards and releasing a volley of Sept bullets. The Essentier at the bottom was also getting ready to throw up his blue Essence as well. Who knew what that did.

But no matter. Riven jumped across anyway, recreating the spherical shield around himself as protection from the gunfire, and the possible eruption of blue Essence.

He reached the other side unharmed, then charged on. His feet flew over the wooden boards of the floor as he ran faster and faster. There had better not be another hidden staircase somewhere, and the other soldiers and Essentiers—the ones who he had seen when he had first sunk through the floor—had better not be using it to climb up and catch him unawares.

Thank the Scions, Riven was only being paranoid. He heard shouts and curses behind him in the corridor, signalling the frustration of those who had come up via the lone staircase he had seen.

Riven reached the window quite quickly. It was unguarded, as it was supposed to be of course, and he pulled himself onto the windowsill. Where he paused, jaw dropping at the sight that had been awaiting him.

More Essentiers and soldiers were waiting on the side of the warehouse where he had gotten up, all staring up at the window as though they knew he was going to pop out of it like a mouse from its hole. Damn it all, he’d been found and caught. There was still time to go back, though, right? He could return the way he had come and hide in one of the rooms, taking them out one by one like the assassin or spy he was pretending to be. He’d be a shadow, an apparition that killed them from beyond their sight.

“Your run is over, spy,” one of the men below shouted. He was waving a gun, the pin glinting on the shoulder of his navy uniform indicating that he was a Thirdmarked Essentier. “No escape. Come down quietly, and I might go easy on you, provided you’re willing to talk.”

Riven did want to come down. Truly. He was willing to descend among them and pull out his sword to recreate that carnage from that little room, running amok between them all, his sword feeling like an extension of his arm but flying like the wind. He’d never felt so attuned in his life before, like he’d finally found the one thing that he’d never known he was missing.

Scions, he had the bloodlust on him. Shit. Not at all helpful for getting away.

Someone was waving at him. Someone far back down the street, so distant that he was hardly more than a speck, but there was no mistaking it. Those arms were definitely for him. He recognized those gestures. They were telling him to step back, to pause, to not do anything rash like giving into his sudden bloodlust and jumping down into the madness below, desperate to take as many of the soldiers and Essentiers as he could before he succumbed to death.

Then the bombs flew in. The first little canister landed out of nowhere with a little thump, right in the middle of the gathered agents of Orbray. They all stared at it blankly for a second before it fizzed. Shouts and curses went up, but that was as far as they were able to react.

The bomb exploded with so much force, Riven, who was at least a dozen yards above ground and at least twice that away from the bomb itself, was thrown back into the corridor. He hurried to the window to look, though.

More and more thumped in before the smoke of the first was able to clear up. Surviving soldiers and Essentiers ran away, charging out of the cloud with smoke streaming off their shoulders. They were lucky to have evaded the first explosion but the next followed behind them. That one threw the subsequent dropping bombs away from the area of the blast so that the explosions spread out in a wide network of detonations. Who in the Chasm had planned to time it so brilliantly?

The distant figure was waving at Riven again, this time waving at him to come quick. They were yelling too, but he couldn’t hear them at this distance.

There was no time to consider. Riven jumped out the window, pulling on his golden Essence shield to stop the impact of the fall. The smoke covered him as soon as he landed. Good, Orbray’s agents weren’t going to see him, especially when they were too busy running for their own damned lives. He charged through the mess, his shield taking the explosions and suffering multiple fractures, all of which Riven papered over with more Essence. Hopefully, he was going in the right directions and wouldn’t end up crashing into some wall.

He was free! Riven burst out of the smoke and found himself on the main street. The woman—he was now close enough to see that it was a woman—who had been waving at him, beckoned him even harder as though her waving was reeling him closer like a fish on a line.

Riven reached her with a few bounds and leaps with no mishaps. “Are you causing all this?” He pointed back at the smoke, more explosions going off even as he turned to look.

“Yes, but there’s no time to explain,” she said, turning away from the warehouse. “We need to get going. I’m Mirren, one of the Invigilator’s loyalists. Follow me.”

Riven did, keeping up with the woman as the warehouse lit up in flames behind him.