The car thundered along the road faster than a stampede. Riven kept a tight hold on the overhead handle, trying to look anywhere but at Viriya. The way she was driving scared him—she had taken on her habitual chaotic driving style, running the car far faster than it could safely go—but her expression frightened him even more. It was as if all their enemies had lined up on the road and she was charging right through with the car, just as Riven had run over Tam.

Riven’s grip tightened. He’d killed more than enough already, and this was no time to entertain doubts. Rose was in serious danger of being executed, and if killing was what it took to free her, then he couldn’t hesitate. Not for one second.

Thankfully, the road wasn’t too bumpy. No, this was the road that led straight to Ascension Demesne, and they couldn’t have it be a rough ride, now could they? Orbray would never allow that.

Yet he’d let himself be torn apart by the Deathless he was pulling in.

“You sure we have enough Sept in the tank?” Viriya asked.

It had been Riven’s duty to check the car before they departed. Aross had assured them that she had provisioned the car fully. There was supposed to be enough powdered Sept, as both fuel and for their personal needs, plus food and drink aplenty, a change of clothes, extra guns and boots and Coral knives too. The whole works. Riven had been grateful, but really, he’d been impatient to get started.

He hadn’t even bothered to check what Aross had done to the messenger. Was the woman still there in Rennervation city? Was she and Aross now discussing how best Rennervation and Ascension could renew their former relationship and end this enmity?

Drats, he should have taken some assurances from the Invigilator before leaving. Not that her word was supremely believable., but in front of witnesses, she’d be more hesitant about lying.

“There should be enough,” Riven said. “If not, we have the extra.”

“Extra Sept, you say.” Lacelle leaned forward from her spot in the back seat, eyeing Riven like he had said dinner was ready. “You wouldn’t be able to spare some for me, would you?”

“No,” Riven replied.

“Oh, come on. Just a little bit. I promise I won’t hurt any of you.”

“But you’ll run away.”

“Well, yes. But we can come to an agreement!”

“Not this again?”

Lacelle was undaunted by Riven’s scepticism. “I’m serious! I can tell you everything you need to know about everything you want to know. All you need to do is free me in return.”

Riven sighed. From the moment they had started off on their journey, she wouldn’t stop bringing up her stupid idea of a deal. It was as if the idea that she was a prisoner just wouldn’t register in her mind, as though the concept of being imprisoned was so far out of her understanding, she couldn’t ever apply it to herself.

“Lacelle,” Riven said with the patience of a mountain weathering a thunderstorm. “For the last time you can’t negotiate your way out of this. You’re a prisoner and you need to tell us what you know.”

“You can’t make me tell you anything, Morell. We both know this.”

She was expecting him to torture her or something like that. Damn it, she was right too. Riven couldn’t go around poking bloody holes, pulling off fingernails, or crushing thumbs all in the name of getting what he wanted. It seemed barbaric. He’d had enough of blood to last him quite a while.

“Maybe,” Riven admitted. “But your refusal to reveal anything will put us all in grave danger. Either Orbray hasn’t told you everything he intends to do, or he doesn’t know himself what the real consequences are.”

“Oh really? See, I don’t believe you. All you want is some leverage to move the High Invigilator, and you think what little, fantastical tidbits you learned in your little visit to the Beyond might be enough to give him what you want. It won’t work. He knows what he needs to now, and that’s enough for him.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong. You don’t know what’s really going on like I do. You don’t have the same perspective. If you did, if you believed it, you’d be stopping your precious High Invigilator too.”

Lacelle laughed mirthlessly. “Stupid Morell. Trust me, we all know enough to be prepared for what we might have to sacrifice.” Her voice went low, but the weight behind them seemed to triple. “We’re ready for what’s coming.”

Riven stared out into the wilderness, cursing the fact that there was nothing at all to see. Just empty, broken land, dotted here and there by Coral tress and carpets of thorngrass. Did Orbray really know that he was messing with a war between the Scions, and had he told his Essentiers? It seemed a long shot, and Riven couldn’t be sure.

But then, how much did Father know about it all? Orbray seemed to have some sort of connection to all this—Knightforger had to be a damn Scion’s Chosen after all—but what was Father’s source of information? If he even had any to begin with.

“I’ll do it,” Viriya said without taking her eyes off the road. She did glare at Lacelle for a second through the overhead mirror though, her deep green eyes reflecting the same brutality as when she had faced and killed Wenster. A monster. “Riven doesn’t have to when I’m around.”

He swallowed. There was no doubtting Viriya. She’d take thumbscrews, scalpels, heated knives, and pokers, and plunge them all into Lacelle without too much thought or worry. Unlike Riven, she wasn’t suffering from a weak constitution.

Lacelle knew that too. “Yes, of course. But are you willing to take the chance and free me?”

The car jereed to a halt. Viriya got out and walked over to the back seat, pushing herself in as the other two watched, frozen. “Take the wheels, Riven. We don’t have time to waste.”

Riven glanced at how pale Lacelle had gone. “Viriya, I don’t think—”

“Trust me.”

Two words. Two, damnable words that silenced Riven more than anything could. He needed to trust her, needed to have faith the same way Mother always said to have. Scions, he hadn’t had a letter from her in so long. Hadn’t sent one either. What a great son he was.

“Fine,” Riven said as he got out and went over to the driver’s seat. He restarted the car once Viriya had settled in beside a petrified Lacelle. “But don’t kill her.”

“There are many things worse than death.”

That sounded like an awful promise, but Riven didn’t pursue it. Faith, right? He focused on driving the car, fast as he needed to go to reach Ascension Demesne without feeling like he’d be too late, but not so fast that he’d lose control of the car if it went awry thanks to some hidden bump or hole.

“Don’t worry,” Viriya said. Her voice was quiet as she leaned towards Lacelle, but it carried, jumping into Riven’s ears after bouncing off the car’s chassis walls. “I’m not going to be using any Essence right now because I don’t have Sept on me. We’re not that stupid, that we’d allow you to accidentally use any.” She pulled out her Coral knife. “No, we’ll do it the old fashioned away.”

Riven couldn’t help himself. His eyes betrayed him, shifting from the road to the mirror to his left and above. Lacelle had leaned away from Viriya, back pressed against the car door and trying to reach the door handle despite having her wrists cuffed with metal links. Viriya had raised a magenta Coral knife, bringing it slowly closer to their captive’s face. Lacelle went even paler.

Then she froze. “All right! I’ll talk, I’ll talk. Just get that thing away from me.”

Riven blinked. That had been quite easy. Apparently Viriya thought so too. She didn’t move, nor did her knife. “I’m going to see if you’re lying or not. One whiff, and you’re dead.”

There was silence then, and it took a moment for Riven to realize that Viriya was done. She had created the platform for him to stand on and ask his questions. He cleared his throat and tried to bring up his best interrogating voice. Damn but he had so little practice.

“How does your Essence work?” he asked.

Lacelle stared at the Coral knife, part angry, part fearful. “It forms an interstice in the world. A little mini-dimension.”

“Yes I know that. I mean, how does it connect to the Beyond?”

Lacelle looked like she was doing her best not to shrug. “It’s Essence. Some people say Essence is linked to the Scions, and through them, to the Beyond. I discovered that it was linked a long time ago, but I never dared venture there. My mentor warned me against it, vociferously.”

“You’ve… never talked with any of the Scions or anything?”

“What?”

“Never mind,” Riven said quickly.

Viriya and Lacelle both glanced at him sharply. Before Lacelle could interject with a question of her own, or even think too much on what Riven had let slip, Viriya barged in with her own question.

“What did Orbray tell you about what he’s doing in Ascension?” she asked.

Lacelle swallowed. “The High Invigilator is setting a trap for the Deathless. He intends to draw the ones on this side of the Frontier wall to Ascension Demesne, where his armies will eradicate them.”

“And do you know how he intends to draw them to Ascension?”

“Bait. He’s sent out a lot of Essentiers as bait to draw the Deathless in. And it’s working. We’ve had reports from the other Demesnes that Deathless movement has been spotted all over. Lots of Spectres, but there’s also been a mention of a few armies of demons coming down from the Frontier itself.”

Riven started at Lacelle in the mirror while the road went straight. How could she say it all so calmly? He had seen the Spectres who had been heading towards the distant Septstorm along with Mhell, and he had faced the demon army in the Frontier in question. Lacelle was severely underestimating the Deathless. There was no telling what sort of preparation Orbray had done to guarantee victory.

“What’s Orbray’s plan to deal with the Deathless?” Riven asked. “Does he mean to wage direct war, or does he have some secret way of dealing with them all together?”

Viriya’s knife edged closer to Lacelle’s neck, and her eyes were glued to the magenta Coral blade. The Firstmarked swallowed before looking back at Riven. “I don’t know if there’s any truth to the idea that the High Invigilator has some secret weapon or power to defeat them. You’ve been listening to too many wild stories and rumours. All that’s been planned is an eradication war. The combined forces of Ascension Demesne and all other Demesnes will wipe them out. Well, all the others who were kind enough to look beyond their own ego and selfishness and work together. It’s just specialized tactics, like hit-and-run, higher-ground manoeuvres, and so on.”

Riven looked at her for a while, trying to tell if she was lying while still keeping an eye on the road. There was nothing on her face to indicate as such. Lacelle held his eyes without a quaver, without any twitch in her mouth or faltering on her lips. Even Viriya was holding her knife still. The Firstmarked was telling the truth.

The truth that she knew.

Riven exchanged glances with Viriya. There was no further point in interrogating Lacelle.

“What are you going to do?” Lacelle asked. “You might think this is none of my business, but friendly advice, don’t think about going in there guns blazing and hoping to bust your sister out like some monstrous Cataclysm or something.”

Viriya frowned at her. “I don’t recall asking for your strategic opinion.”

“Why do you say that?” Riven asked Lacelle. Viriya glared at him, but he ignored her. Couldn’t hurt to hear what the Firstmarked had to say, right? Besides, he had never been intending to fight in the first place.

“I understand the urge to go and fight, I really do,” Lacelle said. “But you’d just end up getting slaughtered. Three of the Fabled Five are there, all of them willing to face you and kill you. Besides them, Orbray has the other greatest Essentiers of not just Ascension there, but the other Demesnes as well. You won’t even make it into Ascension city.”

“Who told you we were going to fight?”

“We are going to fight,” Viriya said.

This time, Riven couldn’t ignore her glare. “We can’t fight, Viriya. Lacelle is right, we’re too outmatched. It’ll be us against thousands.”

“And what makes you think that frightens me?”

“Well, it frightens me.”

“Perhaps you should have some faith—”

“I’ve had enough faith in everyone and look where the fuck that’s gotten any of us?” He had raised his voice, but he didn’t care any longer. Vorellick dying flashed in his head, the bullet wound spurting blood like a small fountain. “You can’t fight all the time, Viriya. You can’t beat everything, no matter how strong you become. Some things are just not things that can be beaten down with your Essence. There’s such a thing called diplomacy and negotiation.”

“You’d talk with the enemy? With the people torturing your sister?”

“That’s what negotiation and diplomacy are for. It’s not like you’re supposed to negotiate with friends, right?”

“So much for putting more trust.”

“Trust in what?” The car jerked as he lost a little control, but he pulled it back quickly, heart hammering a little. Scions, it was hard when rage smothered everything like a smoky cloud. His sense of judgement was too busy coughing to function. “In Father, who’s disappeared off the face of Severance Frontier? In Aross, who used us to free Rennervation from Orbray, and now won’t lift a finger to really help apart from one old car. In you, drunk on your power and wanting to only kill and kill?”

Ugly silence followed. Fetid, making Riven feel like he would choke at any moment. He wasn’t built for this. He had never intended to get angry. But he was sick and tired of killing, of fighting, of nearly dying in an effort to beat back the next insane Essentier he was coming across.

“The Invigilator is coming,” Viriya said, her voice quiet. “We need to join up with your father and then do a concerted assault.”

“Be my guest. I don’t have time. My sister might end up dead tomorrow.”

“You ever thought you might be being manipulated by Orbray? That you’re dancing to his tune?”

“It doesn’t matter. So long as she’s still alive. So long as I can free her.”

“And if you can’t? If it’s a lie? If you fail, what then?”

Riven had no answer. He didn’t need one. Failure wasn’t an option. Rose would live.

He’d make sure of it, or die trying.

“What’s that?” Lacelle asked.

Riven stared out, frowning at the figure in the distance. Then he gasped. No way. What in the world was he doing here?

“Daynom!” Lacelle exclaimed, like she’d returned home to be met by her favourite pet.

Daynom’s voice cracked over the area like booming thunder. “Rorink and Morell, I order you to stop your vehicle in the name of High Invigilator Orbray. Halt, or we will use force to make you halt.”

Riven heaved out the hugest sigh of his life. Then he slammed his foot on the brakes. The car screeched to a stop, the figures becoming clear and distinct as they neared.

Daynom was there, clearly the oldest person present, and he was surrounded by a small platoon of Ascension soldiers with rifles against their shoulders. There were no other Essentiers. Understandable, given what his Essence could do and how powerless Riven and Viriya had been against it Providence.

But they had grown since then. They’d fought, they’d killed, and they had become far stronger.

Viriya was the first to exit the car, warning Lacelle to stay put as she slammed her door shut. Riven followed out quick enough. He was trying not to panic. His broken Coral longsword was with him, but he had very little Essence after he and Viriya had decided to keep as little with them as possible to minimize the danger posed by Lacelle.

“Greetings,” Daynom said, nodding at Viriya and Riven equitably. “It’s been a while, and you’ve both… changed since then.”

Riven grunted in agreement. “You haven’t, though.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Daynom looked no different from what he had appeared in Providence. Sure, it had been just over a week since then, and he had the same dark hair flecked with copious amounts of grey, the same warm, brown eyes ringed by creases of age everywhere.

“What are you doing here, Daynom?” Viriya asked. Her hands were on the butte of her gun, her face set and eyes jumping from one soldier to the next. “This wasn’t on the cards.”

“We decided on an impromptu meeting.”

Riven frowned, and he started feeling cold. Strange, since the sun was shining hard. “Impromptu?”

Daynom nodded. He had a kindly, little smile, but Riven wasn’t going to be fooled again. That bastard was, well, a bastard. Him and his damn Essence.

“What’s this meeting for then?” Viriya asked.

“One moment, Viriya,” Daynom replied. “We’re just waiting on the last participants to arrive.”

“Do you think I’m a fool? We’re not going to wait for more of your reinforcements to dawdle in and make things even worse.”

“Well, before you leave hastily, you may want to hear who the guests we’re waiting on are.”

Viriya had half-turned to walk back towards the car, but the promise in Daynom’s voice made her stop. She turned, eyes heading straight to the horizon where a small cavalcade of vehicles were growing larger. In moments, three cars drew up and halted, the chugging of their engines too familiar after the hours Riven had spent in his car.

Invigilator Aross got out of the lead vehicle.

“Welcome, Invigilator,” Daynom said, smile growing wider. “It’s great to see you join us!”

Aross nodded, a little smile tugging on her lips as well. “Daynom, it’s been a long time. How are you?”

“Quite alright. Yourself?”

“Better than ever.”

“As expected.”

“Of course.” Daynom cleared his throat when he spotted the rest of everyone present looking at him strangely. “Are you ready to make your decision regarding these two?”

Riven stepped forward, inserting himself between the old geezer and the older crone. Well, they weren’t that old, but the streaks of grey in their hair and similar runnels on their face made them almost seem like some Scions-forbidden couple. “I’d like to know what in the Chasm is going on here?” He looked from Daynom and Aross. “What are you doing here? And what’s this decision you’re talking about?”

“Don’t you get it Riven?” Viriya asked. When he looked back, he saw her hands had clenched to fists, a steely mask back on her face. “We’ve been betrayed.”

Riven went cold. He whirled back to face Aross, throat suddenly clenching on its own. A part of him understood her motives for choosing to stay behind and wait for a better opportunity to strike, but all that went out the widow at this.

“No need to jump to dreadful conclusions, yes?” Aross said. Her smile had disappeared as she surveyed Riven and Viriya. “What are you hoping to accomplish going to Ascension all on your own?”

“We’re going there to free my sister,” Riven said through gritted teeth.

Aross nodded. “I suggest you come with me. We can go there together, and I can vouchsafe safe conduct and a proper platform for negotiation. Orbray is unlikely to take into consideration the feelings of two… not-yet-adults. For let’s face it, you run via your emotions instead of cold deliberation.”

“So what, you’re going to be our escort?”

“In a manner of speaking. I’ll need you to trust me to handle most of the talking and I will also need you to surrender yourselves to me. We need to show that we’re ready to put our trust in Orbray before he can do the same for us.”

“That sounds like a load of bullshit to me.”

Daynom coughed slightly. “If I may interject, I can assure you that the High Invigilator’s priority is destroying the Deathless. He has no wish to prolong this conflict between the Demesnes. Only by working together can we defeat the hordes of Deathless about to assault us.”

Riven considered for a second. He wanted to get back to Viriya and ask her thoughts, but she wasn’t in the right state of mind. She’d decline out of hand and maybe even try to kill Daynom while she was at it.

Betrayal, she had said. Viriya had already judged this to be nothing but a betrayal.

“And you swear that you’re going to help me free Rose?” Riven asked Aross.

The Invigilator nodded solemnly. Behind her, the other Essentiers of her retinue had come forward—Mirren was there, and that man who had been with them at the balcony then again at the meeting. Riven couldn’t read Aross, but there was a tension about the Rennervation Essentiers, as there was with the soldiers the Invigilator had brought. Maybe it wasn’t what Viriya suggested. Maybe they were all on edge since only yesterday, Daynom was an enemy out to kill them on sight.

“I swear,” Aross said. “As you can already tell, I have no wish to quarrel with anyone, so long as I have what I want. It’s this mutual wish for a peaceful resolution that will allow all of us to come to an accord that will benefit everyone. I believe in it. I just need you to believe in it too.”

It seemed to good to be true, but what choice did he have? He was not going to go to Ascension all up in arms as Viriya had suggested. There was no way to win, no way to even survive, through violence.

“Was this your plan all along, Invigilator?” Riven asked. “Did you always plan to come to this accord after taking back Rennervation?”

Aross shrugged. “Will you join me, or not?”

“If I say no?”

“You’ll be free to do as you wish, but one wrong move, and Orbray will annihilate you. I can make sure that doesn’t happen. The decision is in your hands now.” She looked past his shoulder. “Yours, and Rorink’s.”

“I accept.”

Scions curse Riven, but he wasn’t sure he could do this on his own. He needed the help. Desperately. If Orbray had even a fraction of the power he’d had in Rennervation, then he and Viriya could never win on their own. Could never have anything with which to bargain Rose’s freedom.

“Good.” Aross gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Then we shall—”

“I do not,” Viriya said.

Everyone turned to her. Riven’s heart was skipping and jumping like it was trying to set off a minefield in his chest. What in the Chasm was she thinking?

“Are you sure, Rorink?” Aross asked. “Do you truly hold such faith in yourself that you’re certain your way is the right way?”

“Think this through Viriya.” Daynom took a step forward. “I don’t have any wish to harm you, you know that. Like the Invigilator, I can also promise safe conduct in Ascension, and I will do my utmost to free your Municipier. It’s the first step to peace, and that’s all we want. That’s all everyone wants. We need to focus on the Deathless, not on each other.”

“Peace.” Viriya took a deep breath, and she looked like she was about to spit, but thought better of it. “You take your fake peace and screw it up your arse. I can tell this is a ploy, Daynom. Even if you’re not lying, even if you and the Invigilator think that you’re doing me a favour, I know Orbray has no such intentions. I can tell. I’m not buying this for one second.”

Riven shook his head. This was going to the Chasm’s last Realm. He took a step forward. “Viriya, please. We need to talk it out, see how things stand. We can’t fight all the time. We can’t. You know it. Is it that hard to give up for once and trust me?” He swallowed his sigh.  Scions, look at him, extolling about belief and faith. What had he become? “Just for once, put aside what you believe and take my way. Is it that hard?”

She shook her head, stubborn and belligerent as ever. “My orders Riven. My orders were to protect you, and to never stop fighting until we stand at the top. And I’m not about to renege on them. I’ve put my faith, and I’m not withdrawing it.”

Father. She had put her faith in Father. Those orders to protect him and keep fighting, no matter what happened to throw things in disarray, were no doubt from the Invigilator of Providence Demesne.

“So you lied?” Riven asked. Scions, it was so hard to get the words out. “When I asked who you’d choose if it comes down to it, between me and Father, you said you’d pick me.”

Viriya stared at him, and for a moment, her face dropped. That dreadful mask she had pulled on washed away, leaving her vulnerable, sad, and lost. Oh so lost.

Then the steely resolve returned and she headed back to the car.

Lacelle squawked and protested as Viriya threw her out of the car. They all stood still as statues, watching as she got in. The Ascension soldiers with Daynom moved to rush forward and apprehend her before she got away, but the old Firstmarked raised his hand. All the soldiers halted in their tracks. Riven was hard paying attention anyway.

His eyes were focused on Viriya. On Viriya, and the car she was driving away, growing smaller and smaller on the solitary road to Ascension Demesne.

“Shouldn’t we go after her?” Aross as ked.

“I would—”

“Sir!” One of the Ascension soldiers pointed to another car coming down the road that the Daynom and his troops had taken.

The car stopped with a jerk. A woman hurried out, not even bothering to close the door behind her. “Sir.” She jerked to a stop, then smartly saluted at Daynom. “I’ve got an urgent report.”

“What is it, Scout?” Daynom asked.

“Demons. There’s an army of demons headed this way.”