I still have the old versions of these stories, but I am uploading the second drafts with formatting and grammar corrections. I am not sure if all of the changes improve the story or not. My reason for updating these old stories is in response to comments and criticism. Also, I have been writing lots of subsequent stories and want to keep the continuity as clean as possible from beginning to end. I really do appreciate critiques and I am sorry about inconsistency with spelling. I really like comments and critique, so please send me more!
It is best to read this story AFTER "Alexander the Great", "Godchaser", and "Shadowsbane". It may also help to have read "Pandora's Box". The events in this story precede "Heaven Sent Sword".
I've been asked for a list of characters several times. Here are the main players:
Cathak Loren/Alexander Faeslayer - The son of Dragonlord Cathak Chiron, now a Dawn Caste Solar. The "boy scout" of the Nexus circle of Solars, Loren is a good guy whose compassion often gets him into trouble. His previous incarnation was a survivor of the Primordial War and infamous for drawing a line across the edge of Creation which the fae were forbidden to cross. He wields a Daiklave of Conquest given to him by the Unconquered Sun. Amira Heartsblood (Changing Moon Lunar) is his mate and also his Achilles heel (bond of 5). Loren's best friend is Roach (a mortal) whom he trained as a soldier.Roach has stated before this story begins that his relatives are Murqai - heretic bandits (Cult of the Illuminated), which explains why he has no qualms tagging along after a known Anathema.
Veritas "Recluse" Ilumio/Perfect Mechanical Soul - Formerly an exclusive jeweller in the highest Dynastic social circles, Veritas was framed for a crime he didn't commit by Himitsu (Chosen of Endings Sidereal). He spent five years in an Immaculate monastery atoning for his sins before Dragonlord Cathak Chiron brought him The Godchaser (an intelligent, quirky, Sidereal-hunting construct created by his previous incarnation) to repair. Fixing "Godchaser" led to his Exaltation as a Twilight Caste Solar. He is one of the few individuals in Creation well aware of the existence of Sidereals, which makes him look completely crazy by most people's standards. His previous incarnation controlled a massive floating fortress and factory cathedral which is presently buried under a mountain south of Nexus - and it has been implied that around the time of the Usurpation, she may have been plotting to tear Creation in half (and this may well have been within her power). Veritas is romantically involved with Windswept Rhapsody (Zenith Caste Solar, traveling bard, and folk hero).
Sapphire Indari/Stefan Shadowsbane - The daughter of a God-blooded prostitute and granddaughter of Burning Feather, the Goddess of Intoxicants, Sapphire is a former archaeologist turned vigilante. She is a Night Caste Solar and a member of the same Circle as Loren and Veritas. She is close personal friends with The Emissary. She has been fighting monsters spreading out of the Wyld in the Firewander District for five years at the time this story begins. In addition to her relationship with the Emissary, Sapphire is also involved with several of Nexus's disreputable characters including Emerald Viper (Changing Moon Lunar) who runs the whorehouse, bar, (and hideout for Celestial Exalts) called "Anathema's".
Timeline: Basically, these stories all take place 40 years after The Scarlet Empress vanishes. I've tweaked canon just a little to say that the Solars have only been reappearing since she The Scarlet Empress vanished, with the exception of Windswept Rhapsody. As the reincarnation of Queen Merela, Rhapsody escaped the Jade Prison first, and was the first Solar to reincarnate 126 years ago.
Loren (Alexander the Great) explains that he was born in the year that The Scarlet Empress vanished. Four years later, the Realm (due to a series of complicated events involving Windswept Rhapsody - and Sidereals) actually succeeded in temporarily subjugating the Gens of Lookshy. The Realm did not really conquer Lookshy completely, but the battle was made to look very important in order to help place Dragonlord Cathak Chiron in a better position for the Scarlet Empress's throne. Loren Exalted as a Dawn Caste ten years before "The Well of Udr".
The end of "Alexander the Great" leads directly into Chapter 1 of this story.
Five years before "The Well of Udr", the first events of "Shadowsbane" take place. The end of "Shadowsbane" leads directly into Chapter 6 of this story.
One year before "The Well of Udr", the first events of "Godchaser" take place. The end of "Godchaser" is about three weeks before Chapter 1 of this story. It seems longer for Veritas, however - thanks to Sidereals. (**You know, because we can just blame Sidereals for everything.)
Thanks for reading, and I PROMISE I will finish "Heaven Sent Sword"!
- Emerald Viper
Chapter 1 – The Factory Cathedral
By nightfall Amira, Roach, and I had escaped Mnemon Rai's remaining men and were on a road headed toward Nexus. The Winglord certainly could have caught us if he'd tried, but despite the fact that killing a terrible, powerful Anathema would have bolstered his reputation, he gave up pursuit after we entered the forest. Taking no chances, Amira still covered our tracks.
Some hours before dawn, Roach declared that he would not move another step. He hobbled his horse near a little stream and collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Amira decided to make sure that we were not being followed and promised to return before Roach woke. She was gone for several hours. Waiting for her to return, I watched the sun rise. The moon and stars slowly faded from view as the horizon turned a pale lavender color touched with rosy gold. I expected to feel the tug of destiny, something to tell me that I'd chosen the right path, but there was no consolation there for me… just a very pretty morning sky.
It was around that time that I started to feel sick. I'd never been in real trouble before and suddenly I was a wanted fugitive! I'd always thrived in an environment built upon rules. You might laugh to think that I was the sort of child who alwaysasked before having a second cookie… but that was how I was. How would I survive with no orders to follow?
There was Amira, of course, but the more I considered how I'd come to know her, the more I began to suspect that her plans for our life together were probably quite different than my own. And as for Roach… if I wasn't certain that I could protect myself from my lover, then what hope was there for him?
I considered running away before Amira returned, but then I scoffed at myself. Amira would surely find me wherever I went, and Roach would literally follow me into Malfeas. There was no sense in hiding and pretending that nothing had happened. I'd singlehandedly cleaved my way through hundreds of goblins and slain a faerie queen. I could leap over tall buildings and easily wield a sword so heavy that a Dragonblooded couldn't lift it. Thousand year old treasures from an age beyond memory came to life with my touch. And as Mnemon Rai had professed, many people seemed inclined to follow me wherever I led, as if I had a sign on my head that said "I am in charge".
In a way, I supposed that I did. I held my sword in one hand and watched my reflection in its golden blade. The mark on my brow was still burning bright, but it no longer terrified me as it once had. I knew that I was not a demon. The battle I had just fought had made that much clear to me.
I had always desired the ability to create a better world even when I had lacked the power to do so. I had always held myself to a standard that others scoffed at. But now… the impossible was possible. Anything was possible. For the first time in my life, I would not have the luxury of following orders or deferring to a higher authority. If I used the power I possessed, it would transform all of Creation. And if I made a mistake… well, the thought was positively terrifying!
Over the past ten years I had dwelt continuously on all the things I might have done wrong. I'd become obsessed with understanding why I'd been cursed so terribly. Perhaps I was not spiritually enlightened enough to have been honored by the Dragons, but I could think of no shortcomings that put me in the same company as the mad, murderous Forsaken. But if I wasn't a demon at all, then perhaps I had asked myself the wrong questions all along. If I had been Chosen to bring back the glorious lost world that I remembered so clearly, then what had I done right?
Heaven help me. I don't deserve this.
"Deep in thought?" Amira teased. She slipped up behind me, making no more sound than a mouse. I suspected she had been a mouse, but her shape-changing still unsettled me and so I said nothing of it.
"I'm afraid I can't help it." I admitted. "I have a lot on my mind."
"You're still glowing a little." She kissed the top of my head.
"Am I?" I laughed uneasily. "Should we move further away from the road?"
"Oh, most people wouldn't even notice." Amira replied. "You glitter in the sunlight, that's all. Like some absurd, pining lover in a pretentious bit of court poetry."
"Was that a compliment?" I wondered.
"After a fashion." Amira smirked.
"That's very sweet of you." I replied, in a tone that I suspected she would take offense to.
"I do try." She leaned her head on my shoulder. Her right hand traced the stitched pattern on the leg of my breeches and I noticed for the first time that she was wearing a little orichalcum ring. I touched my own hand reflexively, but of course… there was nothing there. "I never found it." Amira admitted, touching my palm with her fingertips. "I did look."
"It would be strange to wear someone else's wedding ring." I admitted.
"I suppose you're right." She paused. "But sometimes when you look at me… I swear that it's him I'm seeing. You're impossible, you know that, don't you? In the space of one conversation you went from cursing at me and calling me a demon to… rowr." The sound she made was definitely not a human one.
"I know, I know!" I cut her off a little more sharply than I'd intended to. "Three days ago I was about to get the promotion of my life! Now I'm a target for the fae, a traitor to the Realm, dead to my family, a God to my best friend and…"
"Playing naughty late-night games with Anathema?" Amira winked.
There was nothing I could say in response to that.
"And the worse part is, I still don't know if I'm finally doing what's right or completely destroying all that's left of myself!" I finished, sighing heavily and burying my head in my hands. "Maybe this was all a mistake."
Amira slowly pulled away from me. "A mistake?" She demanded.
The pain in her eyes reminded me of the stray dog I'd tried to befriend when I was a child. I'd spent weeks offering the poor creature scraps of food and almost convinced it to take some meat from my hand. But when my cousins saw me trying to feed it, they all started throwing rocks until they chased it off. When my father scolded them for what they had done, they claimed that they were afraid that I might get bitten. I still remembered the look the dog had given me in the moment before it ran away. It hurt so much more than I had ever hurt in my entire life. While it may sound crude to compare an undeniably brilliant, powerful woman to a garbage-eating mutt, I had begun to wonder how much of Amira was really human, and how much was… something else. Like the dog from my childhood memory, she was looking for kindness in a world that had been unimaginably cruel to her… and if I started throwing rocks in her direction, I realized that I would probably never see her again.
That thought cut straight to my heart. When my brother Jaret had first called me "Anathema" the word had burned through me like white-hot fire. How could someone who I cared for so much hate me with such passion? And when I considered Amira leaving forever, such a possibility had seemed equally inconceivable to me. I didn't trust her. But for some reason, I loved her anyway.
"Ever since Jaret's death, I've been having these… dreams." I began, slowly trying to work out the words that I wanted to say. "I remember so much of Alexander's life that sometimes I wake up and wonder where I am. Sometimes when you call me Loren, it doesn't even sound like my name. But I still have my own memories. The house I grew up in. My first post. My teachers, my cousins… my father! I feel like I'm trying to be two people at once, two people who can't possibly coexist in the same world, let alone in the same body!" I paused. "Right before I came back to the Scavenger Lands, I spent some time meditating. I thought maybe it would help me separate myself from Alexander… but if anything, it did the opposite. I saw what happened when the Dragonbloods rose up. I was so nervous I almost attacked my cousin." I hesitated for a moment. "Now I can remember the battle like it was yesterday. But I still don't remember you being there."
"I was running late for the Calibration party." Amira paused. "All because of a silly little bit of girlish drama. My dress didn't fit the way that I wanted it to and I couldn't decide if I should change it or change myself. By the time I ran out the door to meet you… Perfect's manse was already on fire. I knew you were in danger, but I didn't know what to do. I'd only taken Heart's Blood five or six times and the Charms I knew were all silly ones, worthless in a real fight." She paused. "The truth is, I was too young, and I was terrified. I convinced myself that you were invincible..." Tears welled up in her eyes. "And I ran away." She whispered.
"I can't imagine you running from anything." I paused, a little uncomfortable, considering what I had just learned. I could tell from the expression on her face that Amira had been torturing herself over her failure for an impossibly long time. How could I express to her that by saving herself, she had done exactly what I would have wished of her? It had been a mercy to die believing that Amira was far away from those who intended to kill her simply because I loved her so much. But I could tell from the expression on her face that she did not feel the same.
"When I heard you were dead… I can't tell you what that did to me. At first I tried to kill myself, but Silvermane caught me. He told me that you would be reborn… and that I needed to be waiting for you, just as you had waited for me. And so I waited. But so many centuries passed and not one Solar ever returned. Silvermane and I escaped into the deep Wyld. It was the only place the Dragonbloods wouldn't follow us. They couldn't survive it." She sighed. "I almost didn't. Half of the oldest Lunars in Creation are completely insane now. The other half are angry and still looking for someone to blame. But the truth is, we failed. If I had…" She trailed off into silence. "If we had been there, not just in the end… but if we had done more, all along…"
"Amira, you didn't know what was happening! You can't hold yourself responsible for not preventing the Usurpation!" I argued.
"I have to! There's no one else to blame!" She replied stiffly. "I used to think that Luna listened to me, but I haven't felt her presence in so long! She's taken away her favor and now these tattoos are all that's holding me together. And I'm not the only Lunar who's almost been lost to the Wyld. People I'd looked up to, idolized even… they became monsters. We put them down before they killed us all! We didn't have a choice! And then we had to find a way to save ourselves before it was too late. It's not easy to repair the work of the Incarnae. Could you imagine waking up one day and suddenly being Twilight Caste? I was a Waning Moon! I was something, and now I'm nothing and everything all at once! I could break at any moment, just like the others." She finished, desperation in her voice.
"I don't know what to say." I replied. The words sounded helpless as I spoke them.
"But now that you're with me, things will be different." Amira decided. I was more than a little afraid of her certainty, but I didn't say so.
That was when Roach woke up. He yawned and rolled over onto my foot. "Where to, Boss?" He asked, looking up at me.
"Well, Amira suggested that we should go to Nexus. And then maybe south from there?" I suggested.
"I'm in favor of that plan." Roach replied, slowly rising to his feet. He seemed to have a bit more energy at the sound of those words. I wasn't exactly surprised, considering that Roach had been thinking about one day returning to his homeland for the better part of the last ten years.
"But we do need to stay far away from my family's holdings and the Ravenous Winds. I don't want to be in a position where I might have to hurt some of my own men." I added.
"We should probably follow the river then. Find a small town, trade whatever we've got for passage?" Roach suggested. I glanced in the direction of Roach's pathetic horse. The ill-tempered animal made it possible for him to keep up with the breakneck pace that Amira and I naturally moved at. I wondered if we could survive parting with it.
"I might have a better idea." Amira grinned wickedly. She gave a sharp whistle and the wind whipped up around us. I thought a storm was approaching until I caught sight of a single gray cloud moving towards us at an impossible speed. As it broke through the trees, Amira lept onto it.
"What isthat?" Roach demanded, staring at Amira poised atop her little cloud.
"A Cirrus Skiff." I replied, recognizing the spell Amira had cast. "Sorcery. You've never seen one?" I glanced at Roach suspiciously.
"I thought only Dragonbloods could do that." Roach admitted.
"Anything they can do, we can do better!" Amira replied in a sing-song voice. "All right, set your horse free and hop on!"
"Oh, I don't think so!" Roach protested.
"Relax!" Amira laughed. "I know exactly what I'm doing!"
"That's the part that worries me." Roach replied.
"Honestly! Loren, have I ever steered you wrong?" She pressed. "Besides, I bet neither of you have ever ridden on a cloud before. It's really fun!"
When neither Roach nor myself responded, Amira knew she'd won. "That settles it then! Let's go!"
I very slowly climbed aboard, knowing that Roach would follow suit. The cloud felt cold and soft but somehow solid underneath me. Out of curiosity, I gave it a bit of Essence and blinked in surprise as I realized suddenly that I could actually see the structure of the spell that moved and shaped the cloud. I could feel the energy flowing through it. Did that mean I could work sorcery myself?
It was a reasonable enough assumption, but I'd never considered such a thing before. Even if I had Exalted as a Fire-Aspect, I would have been a soldier. Perhaps I would have served in my father's Scarlets instead of with the Ravenous Winds, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined studying at the Heptagram. I'd always thought of sorcery as a messy and manipulative thing. I'd never considered before that it might be inherently logical, like mathematics or engineering.
It took Roach a long while to undress his horse and muster up the courage to climb aboard Amira's cloud. When we did finally rise up into the sky, I was so shocked I almost fell off. You see, it's one thing to know what's going to happen – it's another thing entirely to prepare yourself for it. The sorcery Amira had worked did not sit well with me. Though I didn't think it right to critique, the entire spell felt vaguely unsteady. Despite her bravado, sorcery was clearly not Amira's forte. Not for the first time, I found myself worrying about her. I gave some more Essence to the Cirrus Skiff, wondering if Amira would notice that I was trying to help. She smirked in my direction and I began to suspect that I was being played yet again.
Roach buried his head in my cloak and looked about ready to faint. I didn't push him away. I remained as stoic as I could, not wanting to give Amira any cause to make fun of me. A few hours later, the cloud we were riding on deposited us on the ground and then dissipated into nothingness. The scenery hadn't changed much... in fact, I rather suspected we were in a different part of the same forest.
"How was that fun?" Roach coughed, obviously glad to be back on his own two feet. "I think I've still got bugs in my teeth and I feel like I've been wrapped in a carpet and beaten with a broom for the last three hours!"
"How very Southern." Amira replied. "Oh, he's cute! Can we keep him?" She demanded, elbowing me with a mischievous wink.
I glared at Amira. She had a tendency to treat Roach as if he were a servant or a pet, just as many of my Dragonblooded relatives did. I'd always hated it when they lorded their status over me. That behavior was not something I planned on picking up. "Where are we?" I asked. Whether I was about to admit it or not, I did feel a little like Roach myself, disoriented and out of my depth.
"Look around." Amira pointed. "See anything familiar?"
I turned slowly in the direction she indicated and stared. Half-sunken into the ground and covered in vines was a solid lump of orichalcum about eight feet square with no visible markings of any kind.
"It's a box." I observed, absolutely certain that I'd seen it before.
"This is the secret entrance of a factory cathedral which once belonged to a woman called Perfect Mechanical Soul."Amira recited. "She was one of the craziest, scariest sorceresses of the First Age, right up there with ol' Bright Shattered Ice. By the time of the Usurpation, Perfect was the last Twilight you'd ever want to tangle with, surrounded by machines and totally obsessed with controlling the Wyld. And I feel compelled to tell you this, but my friend Silvermane? He was her Mate. Let's just say I know things about miss "Perfect" that no one should!"
Roach laughed slightly. He still looked uncomfortable and I didn't blame him. I said nothing about what I remembered. The Perfect that I had known in my life as Alexander was nothing at all like Amira had described her. I would have called her obsessive, perhaps… but not insane. I knew that Solars in the First Age had formed Circles, a kind of sworn brotherhood, and that Perfect and myself had been members of the same Circle. I wondered if the "others" that Madame Marthacine had spoke of were the present incarnations of Alexander's companions. I was sure I'd seen Perfect's work in Nexus, and ever since I'd stumbled upon her water purification machine, I'd felt certain that we would soon be reunited. It was about time.
"All right. So why are we here?" I asked Amira.
"Well." Amira grinned. "This box has toys inside!"
I rolled my eyes. "Toys" was Amira's way of describing ancient artifacts of any kind. She was inordinately fond of them and always got excited when her eyes lit upon something from long ago.
"All right, I'll believe that. But I don't see any way in." Still a little uneasy, I reached to touch the smooth golden surface of the box. There was something about orichalcum that I found irresistibly attractive. It beautiful by any standards and very difficult to view as something forged by demon hands.
"Give it some Essence." Amira suggested, sounding impatient.
"Why don't you do it?" I demanded.
"Because I can't, numbskull! I shouldn't have to tell you this, but orichalcum only responds to Solar Essence. And Perfect never liked Lunars much, not even her own mate. She considered us to be insufficiently sophisticated." Amira rolled her eyes.
"This thing is dangerous?" I pressed. "You think there's a trap, don't you?"
"We won't know until we open it." She replied.
"That sounds a bit reckless, don't you think?" I demanded.
"I'm with Loren on this one, lady." Roach added. "I'm all for staying out of the demon box."
"You're no fun at all." Amira pouted. "Fine, let's start walking to Nexus!"
I sighed heavily and glanced back in the direction of the orichalcum box.
"Boss..." Roach began.
Very deliberately, I placed my hand on the smooth surface. I focused for a moment... I knew instinctively how to fuel Essence into something. I'd done it when Amira had thrown me my sword on the battlefield, when the three of us were riding on Amira's cloud and once, ages ago, when Roach had tossed me that little golden ball.
Standing so close to Amira's "treasure box", I immediately thought of Roach's "killer bug".
Or...Resplendent Whirlagig? Had that been one of Perfect's inventions?
I put a mote of Essence into the box. It seemed to respond, and so I gave it more, as much as I guessed it would take. It wasn't until I saw a familiar flickering beginning around my hand that I realized how long I'd been standing where I was, staring at the thing and feeding it my Essence. I pulled away.
"What?" Amira demanded. "What's wrong?"
"I'm... flickering." I couldn't think of a better way to put it, and was a little annoyed when she laughed at me. It felt very strange to touch the mark on my brow when there was Essence bleeding from it. Such a gesture made me even more acutely aware of the fact that I carried a spark inside of me that did not originate anywhere within Creation.
Celestial, I suspected, was the proper word for it. This must be how Gods feel all the time. I thought to myself, but I said nothing.
Amira groaned, gesturing to the trees all around us. "So?" She demanded.
"Look, whatever you want me to do – it's not working!" I protested, gesturing to the box. "This thing is probably broken!"
"Yeah, and it might explode." Roach quipped.
"You're not helping." Amira snapped.
"Well, what else do you want me to do?" I demanded. "Wave my arms in the air and say "Stupid box, I command you to open!"
There was a sudden crunching, grinding sound behind me. I didn't have to turn around to see what it was.
"That'll do." Amira smirked. Roach stared with his jaw dropped as she bounded past me and disappeared down the dark stairs. After a few minutes, Amira poked her head back out and gestured in the direction of the two of us. "Come on, slowpokes! Don't you want to see what's inside?"
Roach hesitantly followed her when he saw that I was right behind him. The moment I stepped through the door, it closed behind us.
"I want to take this opportunity to remind the both of you that I thought this was a bad idea from the beginning." Roach announced. "So that when we all die horribly, I can at least say "I told you so."
"No one's going to die horribly!" I sighed. Roach turned slowly and stared at me as though I were a stranger. The only light on the stairs was coming from the mark on my brow, and though Roach had known what I was since before our battle with the Red Queen, he still didn't seem entirely comfortable in my presence. "Look, the door closing is probably just some sort of automated thing. There used to be doors like this everywhere." I clarified. "I'm sure Amira knows how to fix it."
"More light, Loren." Amira ordered. I didn't see what she was poking at.
"I... can't you?" I demanded.
"Remember what I said about Perfect not liking Lunars much? I'd better not do anything unless I absolutely have to. If there is a trap here, it was probably set for Silvermane. Which means it could be activated by my Essence!" Amira replied, as if there was nothing particularly unusual about Perfect attempting to kill her Mate. "What isy our problem anyway?"
"You obviously don't understand and I'm not going to explain." I snapped, a little more sharply than I'd intended. "Let's never talk about this again."
"Ooh. Soft, squishy feelings hurt?" Amira poked me.
"You're horrible." I informed her, and she beamed as if she'd just been given a compliment. Just as I'd instinctively understood how to fuel Essence into an object, I also knew that I could do other things with it myself. With little more than a moment's concentration, I could know the precise time of day, make a light bright enough to read by... or glow brilliantly enough to momentarily blind anyone standing too close to me. I hadn't tried to do such a thing before, precisely because it was so ostentatious and undeniably Solar-like, but with Amira's nose in my face, I decided to give her exactly what she'd asked for. Amira shrieked and almost fell flat onto Roach, who shielded his eyes and stumbled down a few stairs. I walked directly past them both. Even after ten years of being what I was, it still felt odd to me, descending into the darkness without a torch or lantern.
"Yikes, that's bright!" Roach grimaced.
"I know! And so pretty! See, I knew you could do it!" Amira chirped.
"Are you making fun of me again?" I glared at her.
"You're an easy mark." She retorted, swishing her tail at me.
"Well, it doesn't look like there's much of anything up here." I observed. "Guess we should go down further."
I lost count of how many flights we went down, but it took us more than two hours to reach the bottom of the stairs. I knew without a doubt that I'd come to a place that I had visited before, and felt a little twinge of nervousness. Immediately, I muted the glow around me as much as I could.
"Little more light, Loren." Roach muttered, tripping over the last step.
"No, I'm trying to stop glowing!" I argued.
"Why?" Amira demanded.
"Well, because if there's someone down here, I don't want the first words I hear from them to be "Aaah, Anathema!" I protested.
"What makes you think there's someone down here?" Roach wondered uneasily.
"I don't know. I just sense it." I admitted.
Amira snorted. Obviously she knew something herself, but she wasn't exactly being forthcoming with information. The three of us stood before a massive orichalcum door. Like the outer surface of the box, the door was seamless in its construction, appearing like a massive golden mirror set into white marble foundation. It had five symbols on it that I recognized immediately. They were the marks of the five Solar Castes.
"I don't like this." Amira muttered.
"It was your idea to come down here." I reminded her, reaching out and touching the Dawn symbol. The door opened with a whisper.
The room we had entered was enormous and like nothing I had ever seen before, at least not in my current life. The ceiling was as high as the stairs we'd come down and the shadows above us looked like some great birds of prey, roosting undisturbed for so many centuries. I knew what they were immediately... warbirds, they were called. There were tools that I didn't know the names of scattered everywhere and in the center of the room was a massive furnace, burning brilliantly and filling the air with the smell of... was that liquid orichalcum?
That was when I heard a faint "click" sound and realized that there was a weapon pointed at the back of my neck. The air was filled with the smell of ozone and I recognized the distinctive crackle of a lightning spear. Mnemon Rai had acquired one some centuries ago and while he never fought with it on the field, he liked to show it off when people asked why he was called "Old Thunderstormer". I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender. Amira growled, looking slightly more wolf-like than usual and Roach went for his sword. I turned around very slowly.
There was a man standing behind me. It wasn't easy to tell how old he was in the strange forge light that filled the room, but I suspected he was somewhat older than I was, perhaps by five or six years. His clothing was disheveled and covered in stains, his short red hair stuck out in every direction and his eyes were hidden by a set of peculiar glasses with several different-colored lenses. The beautiful First Age lightning spear he held was certainly an intimidating-looking weapon, but it was overshadowed by the aura of gold that surrounded him, emanating from a very distinct, unmistakable mark on his brow.
He was a Solar!
"Anathema?" The word escaped me before I realized how bad it sounded. After so many years of serving in The Ravenous Winds, I suspected that it was going to be very difficult for me to purge such terms from my vocabulary.
"And you'rein my manse!" He retorted. The Twilight pointed his weapon at Roach, who seemed about to draw his sword. "Don't touch anything!" He warned. "Both of you where I can see you, right now!"
Both of us? He obviously meant Roach and myself. But where was Amira? She'd disappeared without warning.
"Now who got you in here without tripping my alarms? Are you working for those damned Sidereals?" He demanded, using a strange word that was definitely familiar to me. I glanced to Roach who only shrugged. I searched the room with my eyes for some sign of Amira, but she'd disappeared completely.
"Calm down, we don't want any trouble!" I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Yeah, the Boss was just looking for treasure!" Roach winced, realizing belatedly just how bad that sounded.
"Nothing I have would be useful to you, Dragonblood." The Twilight snapped. "Even if you did miraculously become "Enlightened" with advanced knowledge of Wyld Cauldron Technology."
I was still dressed in my lamellar armor and though I lacked good breeding, I wasn't entirely surprised at the Twilight's mistake.
"I don't know. You might be surprised." I smiled slightly and purposefully illuminated my own Caste Mark.
For a moment there was something like a spark of recognition in the Twilight's eyes. He smiled slightly. "Well now...that changes everything!" Without a moment's hesitation, he whirled around and shot a burst of energy from his weapon into the ground so close to my foot that I felt the heat through the leather of my boot.
"You almost shot me! Are you insane? What was that for?" I demanded.
"I don't like to kill people, generally speaking." The Twilight replied. "But you've just proven to me that you're not a Sidereal trying to sneak into my good graces. I've learned that they can impersonate Solars, you see, but it's exceptionally difficult for them and they can't keep up the deception if you startle them."
"But what if I'd moved? You could have killed me!" I protested.
"Please! You're Dawn Caste, aren't you? You're not going to go down unless I shoot you in the head, and even then I'll probably have to do it twice!" The Twilight smirked.
I did not bother to protest. I knew a few things about my own durability. He was not exaggerating. Roach seemed ready to leave, but after being shot at, I wanted some sort of explanation or at very least an apology. From the way I'd seen things in my dreams, I'd started to believe that if the Solars were all returning to Creation, they would at least treat one another with a little respect. "Have you considered that shooting at your visitors is a very good way to convince people that you area mad demon who needs to be put down?" I scolded him.
The Twilight hesitated. He looked a little unsettled for a moment, the expression on his face immediately reminded me of what my Aunt Garel used to call "someone walking over his grave."
That was when I caught sight of Amira. Only her yellow eyes were visible in the light of the furnace. She was in her largest wolf-form, bigger than a horse at the shoulder with a thick mane of moonsilver spines covering her shoulders and back. Her tattoos glowed, making her look exactly like what I had once believed that all Lunars were... what Amira had admitted that she feared she was becoming.
A monster.
The Twilight dropped his lightning spear and cursed incoherently as Amira flicked her tail across his shoulder, giving away her location. He almost fell over when he did see her, grinning toothily at him. "You shot at my Mate. I should rip your head off your shoulders." She whispered, the tone of her voice making it very obvious that she would be willing to carry through with her threat.
"Your Lunar?" The Twilight glanced nervously over his shoulder in my direction.
Amira chuckled.
"All right, who are you? What do you want with me?" The Twilight demanded, not sounding nearly as sure of himself as he had before.
"My name is Cathak Loren." I replied automatically, before I realized that I probably should have used an alias.
I definitely noticed the Twilight's reaction to my name. He'd heard of me before?
"I'm Roach." Roach added, jerking his thumb in my direction. "I'm with him."
"They call me Heartsblood." Amira grpwled. The Twilight paled. Of course, he was pale already, probably from spending so much time in his cavern of a workshop, but his skin lost the little color that it had possessed. Amira held her teeth bared only a few inches away from his neck until he was obviously sweating. For a few minutes I wasn't entirely sure what she planned to do with him myself. Even though he'd already shot at me, I felt that letting Amira kill the first Solar I'd ever met was probably a bad way to start my new life. "Boo!" Amira shouted.
The Twilight jumped a foot in the air and Amira began giggling uncontrollably. Somewhere in the middle of her fit, she changed back to her human self, still rolling on the floor like a hyperactive child who'd just consumed enough sugar to bake a dozen cakes. I sighed in defeat, knowing I should have expected as much. Though I did not doubt that Amira was capable of cruelty, she had a mischievous streak a mile wide. "You started this!" I informed him. "I certainly had no intention of making trouble for you and you attacked me before I had the opportunity to tell you why we came to this place!"
"Save it. I already know why you're here!" He snorted. "Sidereals, Lunars, Dragonbloods... it's always the same story! Why go through the trouble of making something when you can steal it instead? Go ahead, take whatever you want!" The Twilight dismissed us.
"I told you already, we're not here to rob you. What's your name?" I asked.
"I don't see how that matters." He retorted.
"Well, what I want is information!" I paused. "Where are you from? How long have you been a Solar? Do you remember things about the First Age?" Questions simply poured out of me. If it wasn't for Roach's blank stare, I probably wouldn't have stopped talking until I was blue in the face.
"You're certainly nosy." The Twilight snorted. He seemed to have relaxed somewhat, but he still evaluated me with a suspicious glare.
"I can't help it. This is all new to me." I admitted.
"Ah." The Twilight observed. "Just Exalted, eh?"
"Oh yes, ten years ago!" Amira rolled her eyes.
"What?" The Twilight blinked in disbelief. "Ten years? You've been Exalted for ten years and they haven't caught you yet?"
"You mean… the Wyld Hunt?"
"The Wyld Hunt? Oh, if it were just the Ravenous Winds, things would be easy!" He threw his hands up in the air. "But no… I'm talking about the gods-damned Bureau of Destiny!"
"The Bureau of what?" Roach asked.
The Twilight sighed heavily. "Sit down. You're going to want to sit down for this."
I did as he recommended. Amira and Roach stood behind me. Neither of them looked impressed, but I gathered that was because Roach had absolutely no idea what was going on and Amira already knew everything but had neglected to warn us about any of it. I could not take my eyes off of the Twilight. The longer he ranted, the more certain I became that I had known him in my previous life.
"I don't know if you've heard this already or not, but we Solar Exalted are the rightful rulers of Creation. It was given to us by the Gods, which is why you will find in all the oldest texts that Solars are referred to as "Lawgivers". It's why our government was called The Deliberative. The Dragonblooded were bred to be our soldiers, to fight in our armies against the enemies of Creation. But they rose up against us and destroyed everything that we had built." The Twilight paused.
"Why?" I wondered, an uneasy feeling in my stomach as he spoke those words.
"All the usual reasons! We were corrupt, they were oppressed!" The Twilight continued. "It's irrelevant now. What is important is that with the help of certain ambitious Sidereals, the Dragonblooded conspired to kill us all and hold our Essence in something they called the Jade Prison. This is why, for many hundreds of years there were no Solars. But about fifty years ago, the prison was discovered to be cracked. The Sidereals themselves don't even know when exactly it happened or who did it. The point is, our souls were free to return to the cycle of reincarnation and now we're all coming back. And while most of the other Solars that I've met so far still think that the Realm is our biggest threat, that's only because they've no idea how dangerous Sidereals can be. They're everywhere, and they watch us constantly."
"How can you tell if you're being watched?" I asked. I didn't like what he was proposing at all, but it felt true to me.
"Well, it's almost impossible." The Twilight replied. "Sidereals can look like anyone, you see. They might be some insignificant person following you all day, trying to sell you trash or trinkets. The bartender at your favorite tavern. Your lover. Your lackey." He gestured to Roach. "The only way to be safe is not to trust anyone. Or you can submit everyone you meet to a very invasive, sophisticated Essence scan. Sidereals really hate that." He added, as if he were an authority on the subject.
"Wow. You're sure paranoid." Roach observed.
"Feh." The Twilight snorted. "Just because you're not doesn't mean they aren't out to get you! But I am curious. If you're from the Imperial City, what are you doing way out here in the Scavenger Lands?" He asked. "Are you on the run?"
"It's complicated." I admitted. "Ten years ago my brother and I went to investigate some Fae attacks on mines that our House has a stake in. I tried to save my brother from the fair folk and then… he ran his daiklave through my gut." I gestured to my scar like any soldier would. It was good form to show off an old war wound. "Of course, I didn't understand what had happened to me, not at first."
The Twilight nodded. He didn't seem precisely sympathetic, but he had calmed down quite a bit and put down his weapon. He sat very casually in an enormous ornate chair across from me and folded his hands under his chin in a distinctly condescending fashion, as if he believed that he was far more intelligent than anyone in his presence would ever live to be. I was absolutely certain that I knew him then. He was Perfect!
"I was supposed to return to the Blessed Isle, and so I went. I tried to pretend that nothing had happened, but I kept having these… dreams." I paused.
"Dreams?" The Twilight frowned.
"Dreams of the First Age." I clarified, gesturing to Amira. "I remember so much now that sometimes I expect to wake up in Meru! Or Luth or Calypsis… all places that don't exist any more! I started teaching myself things that I used to know. I spent a lot of time meditating at my father's hunting lodge. I thought that would keep me from going completely mad. If I hadn't been sent back here and met up with Amira… maybe would have entered a monastery. Aunt Garel always said that I should have been an Immaculate."
The Twilight shrugged. "I don't have any real problems with the Immaculate Order, except of course... that they're completely manipulated by Sidereals."
"Were you a monk?" I asked. He didn't answer me, but the expression on his face led me to believe that the answer to my question was "yes".
"Well, I was a soldier. But after yesterday, I've got most of my former Wing coming after me." I admitted. "And when Mnemon Rai gets back to Nexus, there'll be a full-fledged Wyld Hunt. Not to mention those fae."
"You're in trouble with the fae?" The Twilight raised an eyebrow in my direction.
"Let's just say we killed a lot of them." Amira replied. "Including the Alabaster Duchess."
"How?" The Twilight pressed, seeming to recognize that name.
"Well, I've got to admit, having this does help." I tapped the hilt of my daiklave. It was still wrapped in canvas and must have looked a little silly strapped to my back, but I felt a lot safer having it within my reach.
"Hm. An artifact?" The Twilight observed. "It must be, or you wouldn't bother hiding it. May I?
I set the blade before me and slowly unwrapped it. In the red light of the plasma furnace, the orichalcum glittered even more brilliantly than it had in the sun. The Twilight immediately took a step back.
He cursed aloud in Old Realm, using a word I didn't remember the meaning of... and then he smiled. "I thought so. You're Faeslayer?"
"I… well, I guess I was." I admitted. "And I sort of… am. That's what I was trying to explain about my dreams."
"And you actually remember the First Age? As if you were there?" He pressed.
"Yes, I do. I don't know why or how, but I do." I felt an odd, unfamiliar little prickling as I spoke those words. Amira growled and the Twilight turned to her with a very condescending expression.
"You're telling the truth." The Twilight observed. The way he spoke made it very obvious that he was not asking a question, that he'd used some kind of Charm on me to determine my motivations. "But if you are Alexander, that means that you… why, you're part of my Circle!"
Of course, that word "Circle" was something I knew very well from my dreams, and it did not sit easily with me. The Twilight's demeanor completely changed in that instant. A moment ago he'd been shooting at me… and then suddenly he brought me a chair. In fairness, what he actually did was snap his fingers and command a chair to move in Old Realm. It came trotting up behind me and I slowly sat with some trepidation.
He was a sorcerer. Of course.
"Alexander?" A familiar voice wondered. It sounded like a young woman and I wondered for a moment if the Twilight had an assistant or a lover hiding somewhere nearby.
"I suppose you might as well come out now, Godchaser." The Twilight sighed. "They're not here to kidnap you." From behind the plasma furnace a white cloak emerged, a limbless phantom with tendrils of moonsilver and orichalcum and an ivory mask for a face. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking... not a person, but an extremely sophisticated construct, of the kind that had been rare even in the glory days of the Deliberative. Roach nearly went for his sword and Amira blinked in disbelief.
"Oh Luna's blessed tits! Godchaser?" She exclaimed. "You old tin can! You're still running?"
"Ugh. I thought I smelled wet dog." The construct snorted, sounding extremely put-off.
"We know her?" The Twilight asked his unusual companion.
"Unfortunately." The construct replied.
"What's going on here?" I demanded.
"As you must already know, your previous incarnation was called Alexander Faeslayer. But it's a bit more complicated than that. The spark that makes you a Solar still is Alexander." The Twilight paused. "Just as I still am Perfect. There were only seven Solars who survived the Primordial War. Merela and her Circlemates, with the exception of Desus and Contentious Sword. Tess, Caspian... and the two of us. The Unconquered Sun personally handed Creation over to Merela and gave you the responsibility of defending it until our brethren were reborn. " He finished. "We built the Deliberative! To say nothing of the Three Circles Society!" He said those words as if they were ones I should know and I had to admit that they did feel very familiar to me. Amira already looked annoyed, but it was obvious that the Twilight was not nearly finished talking. "I wish that I could remember the past the way that you do, but most of what I know has come from these old books." He gestured up, and I stared in disbelief at the impossible size of the library which loomed over our heads. "The life I had must have been muchbetter than the one I'm living now."
"Don't bet on it." Amira snorted.
"You'd rather be a woman?" Roach observed, smirking slightly.
"That's irrelevant! We're hunted, you idiot! Everyone thinks we're demons! Do you realize that we bred the Dragonblooded? Like livestock! They were meant to be slaves and cannon fodder!" The Twilight threw his hands in the air. "It's an absolute travesty what's been done to us! History has been completely rewritten! Our whole legacy has been destroyed! Doesn't that infuriate you?"
"My Maker has had a very difficult day-week-month-year-day." The construct quipped, hovering over The Twilight's shoulder. She looked down at him with an expression of concern.
"That's an interesting measure of time." Roach observed.
"It's all thanks to those Sidereals!" The Twilight snorted. "I'm beginning to understand why Silvermane thinks they should have been put in the Jade Prison instead of us!"
"You ought to set them on fire next time!" The construct chimed in, obviously trying to be supportive.
"Oh, I will!" He replied with an expression I knew too well.
"Watch who you bite, Recluse." I replied, speaking in Old Realm. I'd learned the language from my dreams of the First Age but had never had any real cause to speak it before. Even Amira looked surprised, but it seemed appropriate to call the Twilight by his predecessor's infamous nickname. As the Dawn Caste were commonly called "Bronze Tigers" for their battle prowess, the Twilight Caste bore the sobriquet "Copper Spiders" for their artistry and industriousness. Perfect herself had been a very particular kind of arachnid, a normally solitary but extremely venomous one.
My Circlemate grinned very broadly. "Nonsense! I've been provoked!" He informed me, switching to Old Realm himself.
"Oh dear." Amira observed. "It's going to be just like old times, isn't it?"
"So you really actually know this guy, Boss?" Roach demanded.
Recluse ignored him as if he were not even in the room, let alone sitting between the two of us. "Start at the beginning, Faeslayer. What do you remember?" He pressed.
"Battles, mostly." I sighed heavily. "In my dreams I spent a lot of time doing things that I'm not sure I understand. And yet some things are perfectly clear. I recognized Amira the moment we met. And now that you and I have been talking, I can picture what you used to look like." I admitted. "Apart from the physical, I don't think you've changed very much at all."
"Nor have you." Recluse nodded, smiling just slightly. "So tell me, Faeslayer… do you remember hearing about something called a protoscemaic vortex?"
"A what?" I blinked at him in confusion.
"Hm. That was… a rather personal project of mine"." He observed. "What about a woman who calls herself "The Green Lady"? Does that ring any bells? I suspect that she would have appeared towards the end of things, what with how she and Himitsu are responsible for most of this mess."
"If it's the Usurpation you're interested in, you should be bartering with me. I was there." Amira interrupted us.
"Maybe so. But as I see it, you're one of two things… either the real Heartsblood or a Sidereal powerful enough to pretend to be a Lunar. In either case, I don't trust you. At all."Recluse snapped. "If you are Heartsblood you were maybe fifty years old at the time of the Usurpation! You couldn't have been much older that. You were a child, a non-entity! You must know that you only survived because you weren't a threat. Faeslayer was. Like myself… his name was on the top of the killing list."
I was a little shocked to hear such a thing. In all my dreams of the First Age, I'd never gotten the impression that anyone should have wanted me dead. "Recluse, that's enough! There's a lot that I don't remember and you've already admitted that you know less than I do! So let's put this all behind us for now and focus on the problem at hand!"
"Which is?" Recluse pressed.
"We have two armies chasing us. If you can get us to Nexus very quickly, I can get us the help we need. I have friends in town." Amira explained. "And while I could exhaust myself expending all of my Essence to take us there with sorcery, I would prefer to be in fighting condition when we arrive. That's why I'm willing to make you a deal. If you can get us to Nexus ahead of Mnemon Rai, you can pick Loren's brain as much as you want and I won't butt in. You can also ask me anything and I swear I won't use a single Charm."
"Well, I could get you to Nexus in less than an hour, but that would mean taking one of the warbirds. And they still need work!" Recluse protested.
"You haven't fixed one of them yet?" Amira demanded with her hands on her hips. "Are you sure you're Perfect?"
"I haven't been down here very long. Only a few weeks if you want the truth." Recluse paused. "Though with the way Fate has been all mangled around me by those meddling Sidereals, it's beginning to feel like much longer than that." He sighed in defeat and gestured to a warbird a little below the others. Its exterior was well-polished and more than a few tools were resting on the rigging just below its berth. "We'll take that one."
Roach looked skeptical. "It's an airship, then? And you know how to fly it?"
"Well, I haven't done it in a long time, but I'm sure it's like riding a bike." Amira admitted.
"What's a bike?" Roach frowned.
"First things first! We need to talk before we decide on our next move. And I understand that you think you're in a hurry, Faeslayer, but no Dragonbloods are getting in here! They can't use their Essence to come in the way you did, and every other door is welded shut. Not to mention the traps. And Godchaser?" Recluse turned to his construct.
"Yes, Maker?" The construct quipped.
"If any Sidereals should be poking around with that Wyld Hunt that, you have my permission to paradox them!" He informed it. "All the way back to Yu-Shan if necessary!"
"Will do, Maker!" The construct agreed. Humming cheerfully, it hovered off.
Not sure of where to begin, I told Recluse about my brother's death and how I'd Exalted, explaining how my first few dreams had led me to Amira. When I got to the dreams of the Usurpation that I'd had while training myself at my father's hunting lodge, he seemed particularly interested. "I had to find something more challenging. It wasn't enough, just reading about things! I needed to be doing something. Intense focus! Precision! Nobody would play Gateway with me after I beat Ledaal Kes." I explained.
"Hm. You should take up sorcery." Recluse remarked.
"I don't think so." I shook my head, though I immediately thought of Amira's shoddy Cirrus Skiff. "I already have a difficult time keeping my focus on the present."
"Feh! If you're a good Gateway player, then you've got an eye for patterns. And if you're the military strategist that I know you are, you can think quickly on your feet." He laughed.
"What does any of that have to do with sorcery?" I demanded.
"Everything. The Dragonblooded don't understand it, they never have!" Recluse rolled his eyes. "Sorcery isn't supposed to be convoluted and messy! It's more of a science or mathematics."
I blinked in surprise. That had been my thought exactly!
"Spoken like a Devonian." Amira gave a wry smile.
"Guilty as charged." Recluse smirked.
It occurred to me belatedly that there was a reason why Perfect and Alexander had often called each other by the nicknames "Recluse" and "Faeslayer". They, we… had been members of a certain exclusive "club". The term Devonian fixed itself in my mind. I immediately associated it with myself, as easily as I might have claimed the name "Cathak". But what did I remember about sorcery? Less than nothing!
"Sorcery is ruthless, Faeslayer. Those Emerald Circle Spells you've probably seen your Lunar playing with are nothing compared to what you and I were once capable of." Recluse paused. "The first spell I ever cast was every bit as terrifying as it was liberating. Now, well... I'm beginning to understand why there are three Circles of Sorcery." He paused. "Emerald Circle Spells are like the first forms you learn when you're studying a martial art. They're good for building your foundations, and they're excellent for practice… but after a while they're just not hard enough."
"I know what you mean." I nodded, absorbing that little bit of information that was nothing like I had ever believed. I had never thought to associate sorcery with martial arts, and when I did think of it that way, I found that the concept itself no longer made me feel sick as it once had. "I spent years training at Paisap's Stair. I studied Water Dragon and Tiger and bits of anything else someone would teach me. I made two of the Dragonblooded in one of my lessons look like idiot children without even thinking about the consequences. It was so easy for me to learn the techniques that I couldn't understand how anyone would struggle with them."
"Heh. I studied Snake myself. You know, I'm beginning to think that I was wrong about you." Recluse admitted. "You're not quite the ham-fisted sword bunny I expected you would be."
"Is that a backwards compliment?" I frowned.
"Take it for what it is. An invitation for you to come back and talk some more. I'll even open the door for you. The warbird's ready to fly. I had her charged up for when those Sidereals came back. They've been trying to sneak in all week. I'm sure they want to know what I'm working on." He laughed.
"And what are you working on, Recluse?" I pressed.
He gave another wry smile. "Wouldn't you like to know? I am sorry that I shot at you earlier. It's just been a very difficult..." He hesitated. "Day." He decided on that measure of time. "And as I believe I've already explained, I simply don't trust anyone presently. Can't be too careful with all of the Sidereals around here."
He still did not bother to explain what Sidereals were and I decided not to admit that I didn't know. Amira shoved Roach through the hatch of the warbird. She put both of her hands on the hearthstone in the console and the airship roared to life, shaking the whole laboratory. I hopped into the seat closest to Amira. Recluse watched us with a look of grim satisfaction on his face, as if he would not admit that it greatly pleased him to see one of his machines taking to the sky.
"Wait, Recluse! What's your name? You know, in the present?" I shouted down.
He smiled slightly. He glanced around his laboratory, seized a bag off of the nearest table and then effortless leapt up to join the three of us inside of the warbird.
"Wait for me, Maker!" His construct, which apparently had not flown very far away came zooming after him with an incoherent, gleeful squeak. It hovered over his shoulder and watched me with an expression that made me very nervous.
"Well, I don't suspect that you'll be using my name, Faeslayer. No more than I am inclined to use yours." Recluse replied. "But your pets can call me Veritas." He pushed Amira out of the pilot's seat. She pouted.
I can't describe the feeling that came over me as we rose into the sky. Flying in the warbird was far more satisfying than being dragged aboard Amira's awkward Cirrus Skiff. When Veritas finally agreed to give the airship a proper test, even Roach threw his hands in the air and cheered. I remained somewhat more composed, but I did smile the entire time despite myself. Perhaps it was the sheer impossibility of such flight that made me feel so liberated, or perhaps it was only the warmth that I felt with Amira resting her head on my shoulder and Veritas sitting across from me glowing only faintly, his Caste Mark mirroring the design of the ostentatious hearthstone circlet that he wore. As with Amira, I'd only just met him and I already felt certain that we would be fast friends. Tempting as it was to give into such comforts, I was also worried.
I'd learned more than a few things from my dreams about the way Creation had once been, and the longer that I spent surrounded by people who genuinely believed that Solars weren't monsters, the easier it became for me to forget the one thing that I knew to be true. It had taken me a long while to accept that being Anathema did not make me inherently evil – and not only because I'd believed in the teachings of the Immaculates since childhood. I remembered the First Age as I'd lived it, both the good and the bad. With great power came great consequences, and if someone with the gifts that we possessed did not tread lightly...
I watched Veritas. The way his hands gracefully and swiftly moved across the console of his warbird made him look very much like his predecessor.
Of course, when Perfect Mechanical Soul had worked with such focus centuries ago, she hadn't been attempting to pilot a little airship.
She'd been preparing to tear Creation in half.
