Chapter 9
The Wandering Monk
When I finally succeeded in gathering up my tools, I returned to our campsite only to discover that Sam was gone. I had to believe he'd betrayed his promise and knew that I was a demon. Still, I was dead tired. I made it a few miles, and sewed Godchaser back inside of my cloak, conceding to use the mark on my brow for light.
I found a place off the road which seemed safe, and slept surprisingly well.
The first thing I saw when I woke was a pair of young soldiers dressed in the colors of the Ravenous Winds. My heart skipped a beat, and I stared up at them in horror. My first thought was that they were about to kill me.
"You all right?' The first soldier wondered. She was short and squarely built with sandy blond hair and a nose that would have been oversized and unattractive even on a boy. Her weapon of choice appeared to be a very fine northern war ax, as meticulously maintained as the blue lamellar armor she wore. A single shiny silver pin was fastened to the stark white collar of her gambeson. She was just barely an officer, and obviously very proud of her station.
"We almost didn't see you in that bush. We thought someone might have beat you up and left you for dead," the young man beside her added. He had the look of an Earth Aspect Dragonblood, and he was also an officer, just slightly outranking his companion. He carried a pair of swords that I did not doubt were family heirlooms. A Dragonblood outranking a mortal was to be expected... although he did stand slightly behind the girl, as if he were inclined to let her have her own way.
"Oh no, I'm fine. I was just sleeping. You startled me, that's all," I lied.
Clearly, they didn't know who I was... which meant that they hadn't been sent by Sam. I could only hope that he hadn't told anyone what he'd witnessed yet.
"Well, I'm Fanglord Natsume Cheng and this is my first officer, Wara Isha," The Dragonblood gestured to his companion. "We serve Mnemon Rai Jin."
"He calls us "Hack" an' "Slash". I'm "Hack". Cheng's "Slash"," Isha explained. "I suppose you've seen a lot of us Winds on the road these past few days, eh?"
"A few," I admitted.
"Well, you ought to see a lot more. We've all been called up!" Isha proclaimed.
"I suppose there must be something big going on," I observed, saying nothing.
"Is there ever!" Isha laughed. "Y'see, Cathak Lo..."
"Isha, that's enough!" Cheng scolded, cutting her off. "You can't tell everyone we meet about our orders!"
"It's really none of my business," I paused, trying to disentangle myself from our conversation. "Thank you for making sure I wasn't hurt. But I should really start walking." I admitted. I did notice that Isha had very nearly told me about the same officer that Sam had also sung the praises of, Cathak Loren. Whoever he was, his contingent of loyal followers that very nearly bordered on a cult.
I picked up my things.
"Are you going to Chio?" Isha pressed. "We're going to Chio."
I didn't have time to work out a lie. Cheng observed the expression on my face effortlessly. He laughed. "We're not trying to give you trouble. It's just that you obviously don't belong out here. What's your trade?" He gestured to my toolbox.
"I'm just a tinker," I replied. "And while I appreciate your concern, I don't need your help."
"It isn't safe to travel alone," Isha observed. "Not on these roads. We may still be on the Blessed Isle, but we're really out in the sticks. Snow Owls, Smoke Clan, bandit monks... you name it. You ought to come with us before someone really does rob and kill you. You can ride on the back of our supply wagons!" She volunteered.
"I can't impose," I protested.
"It's not an imposition," Cheng replied. "Us Winds don't like to leave a trail of dead travelers in our wake while we're marching. Old Thunderstormer won't stand for it."
It was obvious that whatever I might have said fell upon deaf ears, and before I could change my destination, I was back on the road accompanied by Isha and Cheng as well as a twenty other young soldiers, all members of Cheng's Fang.
They said nothing all day about any Anathema, and an awful lot about Cathak Loren, whom I gathered was Isha's favorite person outside of Cheng. I wasn't able to sort out what sort of relationship the young Fanglord and his first officer actually had until after dark.
The Winds insisted that I camp with them for safety, even going so far as to make space for me in one of their tents. I found out very quickly that I was not liable to get any sleep, however... not with all of the noise that my rescuers were making nearby. I waited until all of the camp was asleep, with the exception of one drowsy sentry, and then decided to make a break for it.
Fleeing along the road would only get me caught again, so I made my way out into the rice fields that ran along the river. After about two hours of walking, I suspected that my escape had succeeded.
"I don't know if I can keep up with this outrageous amount of running. And who knew that the Blessed Isle was so damned big?" I sighed heavily. "At this rate I'll be in the best shape of my life by the time we get to Nexus!"
There was no response. I immediately checked Godchaser's hearthstone. She seemed to be in working order, but she gave no sign that she heard me, despite the fact that no one else was present to overhear us.
That was when I remembered the last conversation that we'd had.
"Godchaser, I'm sorry," I paused, waiting for her to respond. She had definitely heard me, but she seemed to hesitate.
"I'm sorry too," Godchaser sighed. "I don't want you to get hurt, Maker. But it makes me so sad that you think you're like they say. You're not a demon!" She protested.
"I wish I could believe that. But you don't know what the world is like now, Godchaser. You've been asleep for 1,500 years! Everything is different now," I told her.
"Not everything! You're still..." She didn't finish her sentence but I could guess what she''d been about to say. One of my forbidden words for certain.
I looked out over the rice paddies. Several of them were not faring as well as they should have been. Though I didn't know anything about farming, I suspected there was something wrong with the irrigation system. Sure enough, the water level was much lower in the paddies that were starting to turn brown.
"These rice paddies are drying out. They're not getting water for some reason," I mused. I'd meant to talk more with Godchaser, but the condition of the rice paddies was distracting. "There must be a problem somewhere around here."
"So find it and fix it!" Godchaser sighed. She seemed pleased that I'd changed the subject, and I got the impression that she didn't have the energy for a difficult conversation.
"It's too dark, I can't see anything," I replied.
"Then fix the dark!" Godchaser sighed.
"Fix the dark?" I smiled slightly. "Godchaser, how do I "fix" the dark?"
"Ugh! Maker, I can't say what I want to say, because the words I need are on your stupid list!"
"Excuse me?" I demanded, smiling slightly despite myself.
"Stupid list!" Godchaser repeated.
"Well, I'll take a quick look," I paused, feeling around in my pockets to see if I was still carrying anything potentially useful. I had a file handy, which meant that I wouldn't have to dig through my currently disastrous toolbox... or risk losing anything in the rice paddy.
Ignoring Godchaser's cheerful humming, I removed a few of the boards beneath our feet with my file and peered into the irrigation ditch... using my mark to "fix the dark" just long enough to pinpoint the source of the problem. It took me only a few moments to remove the moldly old rice sack that had been blocking the flow of the water. I closed everything back up as if I'd never touched it at all and the water began to run again.
That was when I discovered that I had an audience. I heard a cough behind me.
I turned slowly and at first didn't see anyone... but then my eyes came to rest on a tiny little farmer with an inordinately large, potato-shaped head carrying a bag of rice twice the size of his body.
His eyes reflected the light of the moon and looked a bit like a pair of undercooked eggs. I knew what he was instantly, although I'd never actually seen a little god up close before.
It was no secret that there were many thousands of gods in Creation, but precious few of them were ever seen on the Blessed Isle. In an attempt to root out dangerous peasant cults that ran the gambit from dancing for rain spirits to making blood sacrifices for demons and fair folk, the Immaculate Order enforced a state of religious uniformity called the Perfected Hierarchy. In the Hierarchy the Immaculate Dragons occupied the supreme position, and all of the little gods were below them, each one accorded a certain feast day but prevented from gaining too much power.
Little Gods were capricious, and it was dangerous to let them believe that they deserved too much. I was suddenly very glad for the snippets of Old Realm that I'd learned from Godchaser, because the God of the Rice Paddy seemed very intent on speaking to me. He was obviously convinced that I could understand his Old Realm, and I felt embarrassed that I didn't.
"Godchaser, what is he saying?" I asked.
"I can't tell you!" She protested.
"Oh, I know you can! He's speaking Old Realm! Tell me what he's he saying!"
"No, I can't tell you! Because of your stupid list!" She argued.
"Forget my list! I've never met a God before! I want to know what he's saying! Tell him to start at the beginning, and go slower!" I ordered.
As Godchaser translated my words, I committed what she had said to memory. Now that I had seen firsthand that Old Realm truly was the language of the Gods, I was much more eager to learn it. And of course, the first thing any student of a language learns is how to say "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" and "Would you please slow down?"
Godchaser sighed. "All right, this is what he says. But you're not going to like it," she paused.
"His says his name is Mochi, and he is the God of the Rice Paddies on the South Bank of the Silver River. He greets you. Specifically he says "Thank you, great Lord of Creation." Then he says that he knew a Twilight Caste had been reborn not far from here, but he did not expect a mighty Solar such as yourself to take such interest in his humble fields. He apologizes that he did not recognize you until he saw you illuminate your Caste Mark. If he had known you were coming, he would have greeted you earlier, and also summoned all of his friends. Also, he is sorry to see that you have mud on you, Sun-Chosen, because one such as yourself should not be covered in the humble dirt of his insignificant rice paddy. He thanks the Unconquered Sun, the greatest of the all gods, for sending you to aid him in his time of distress. He wishes for you to always have plenty of rice on your table. And..."
"And?" I pressed.
"There are two more places where the water is not flowing. He'd be most honored if you would have a look at them," Godchaser finished.
"He wants me to fix something?" I wondered.
"That's pretty much the gist of it," Godchaser sighed. She sounded annoyed, but I was intrigued. As much as I didn't like hearing so many grandiose words of praise heaped upon me, I was too intrigued by the little god to simply return to bed.
"That's great! Tell him to show me where!" I replied.
I ended up working most of the night for the God of the Rice Paddy as he came up with project after project for me. I wondered what the poor farmers would think when they found my handwork and suspected that poor little Mochi would probably get a few more heartfelt prayers than usual. I caught a few hours sleep just before dawn, and awoke to discover two tiny rice cakes wrapped in white linen lying beside my tool chest. It was a small gesture in light of all the work I'd done, but considering the size of the god who had left them, I didn't think it was right to complain. In any case, they were the best breakfast I could have wished for.
Traveling along the river was slower than taking the road, but I saw fewer soldiers which was a tremendous relief. I was not stopped passing through the city gates of Chio. A cart carrying a heavy load of hay had lost a wheel in the middle of the street, and the city guards were also preoccupied with what looked like the aftermath of a tavern brawl. It was almost as if some unseen force had engineered a distraction to coincide with my arrival. The word "Sidereals" stuck in my mind, and I walked faster.
Though I desperately wanted a meal and a bed, I needed a new pair of shoes badly, and those would cost me money I didn't have. I laid my blanket next to a toothless old peddler selling glass baubles and set out the pieces I had made. It was very nice to finally sit down.
"Is that all you have?" The old peddler asked, eying the two pendants. Though they weren't perfect in my eyes, they were still quite elegant, especially considering that they had been made from poor quality coins. Then again, I had shaped them using Essence. The silver didn't really look like silver anymore. It carried a beautiful, unusual luster that made me think of white gold.
"I'd like to make more," I admitted. "But I'll need money for supplies."
"You make those?" He blinked in surprise. "Do you make anything else?"
Godchaser giggled. Fortunately, the old peddler was nearly deaf and didn't seem to notice.
"No. Nothing... significant," I shrugged.
"Maker!" Godchaser gasped.
"Shut up!" I hissed.
"What'd you say?" The old peddler wondered.
I coughed twice and tucked my cloak behind me, sitting on Godchaser's mask. She yelped and cursed at me in Old Realm, but the blanket muffled her voice. I ignored her grumbling and sighed in relief as a bard with a flute threw out his cap and started playing nearby. He was not a very good musician, but he was loud, and that was a blessing.
"Well, if you don't sell em' today, I'll buy em' from you," the old peddler offered.
"Very kind of you," I replied, though I did not expect that he could offer me much.
"Hm. I haven't seen you around here before," a voice observed.
I looked up. Staring down at me was a noble lady, very well-dressed in a scarlet and gold kimono. Her long black hair had an unusual reddish sheen to it, and her eyes were yellow and catlike. I would have guessed her for a Fire-Aspect Dragonblood even if I hadn't noticed the jade ornaments in her hair. Two men walked several paces behind her. They looked like bodyguards.
The lady examined my pendants with a critical eye. I studied the very fine bracelet around her wrist myself. She obviously had an eye for quality. She hadn't even glanced at the gaudy trinkets the old peddler next to me was selling.
"My lady," I bowed respectfully. It was very difficult for me to keep my composure. I didn't have any reason to suspect that she was hunting for me, but the mere fact that she was a Dragonblood made it seem possible.
"Is this your work?" She asked.
"Yes," I replied. Belatedly, I realized that I probably should have lied about that. Most street peddlers sold things that other people made.
"Why don't you have a shop?" She pressed.
"I like to travel," I lied.
She surveyed my appearance and snorted. "Well, it would seem that travel does not favor you. You look like you've been run through a clothes wringer. And you smell like a dung heap."
"If I sell my pieces, I hope to have a hot bath tonight," I replied.
She seemed amused by my response.
"The one on the left. How much?" The lady pointed.
"You are obviously a connoisseur. I'll sell it for whatever you think is fair," I replied. I might have named a price, but the lady didn't seem like the sort who wanted to haggle. I suspected that she actually commissioned most of her clothing and jewelry, sparing no expense. I passed the pendant up for her examination. She took it from my hand, and held it up to the sun.
"It feels so warm," the lady observed, smiling slightly. "What is it made of?"
"Silver, my lady," I replied. "A single old coin."
"Well. A coin for a coin, then? Do you think that's fair?" She asked.
Taking a single coin from her purse, she deposited it in my hand.
I almost protested... but then I realized I was holding jade. The lady had paid me enough to buy a horse! My shock certainly registered on my face, and the old peddler sitting next to me spit wine all over his wares.
"You are much too generous," I said.
The lady smiled. It was not precisely a nice smile, but she was a Dragonblood. She expected to be praised, and she evidently liked flaunting her wealth.
"How long will you be staying in Chio?" She asked.
"Not long. I'm only passing through," I admitted.
"Mm. But you'll be here tomorrow?"
It was not really a question.
"I don't have anything else to sell," I informed her.
"Then I suggest you make something," she replied.
As soon she was gone, the old peddler seized my cloak. I almost hit him, thinking he was trying to steal Godchaser, but then he grabbed the collar of my shirt and shook me furiously.
"Do you know who that was?" He hissed. "That was Ragara Sephora!"
Ragara was a Dynast's surname. I'd already guessed that the lady was rich and powerful, but it was nice to have my suspicions confirmed.
"You'd better not disappoint her," the old peddler warned. "She's a dangerous woman."
"I'm not a fool. I don't start fights with Dragonbloods," I replied, prying his hands off of me.
I picked up my second pendant, folded up my blanket, and donned my cloak. It seemed like a good time to make myself scarce.
"You don't start fights with Dragonbloods?" Godchaser snickered.
"Never intentionally," I replied. "It's not my fault that they don't like me breathing." I rubbed the jade coin between my fingers. It had been more than five years since I'd last been paid in jade, and the feeling was immensely satisfying, even if it did come with strings attached. I mentally congratulated myself for outwitting Cathak Chiron and escaping the entire Abbey of Mela, the Snow Owls, and whoever else had been assembled to bring back my branded head on a pike.
While I still wasn't entirely reconciled with the idea of being Anathema, I'd had a remarkable success in orchestrating my escape so far. Perhaps I would make it to Nexus after all. And in a far-off city, I could easily start a new life for myself.
After breaking my jade into smaller coins and finding myself a decent pair of shoes, I picked out a tavern near the waterfront. It was the only one that didn't look especially dangerous or extremely expensive. I was just about to walk through the doors and inquire about a room and a bath when I heard the sound of a horse trotting up behind me.
"Hey, Copper! Copper Spider!" Sam shouted.
The moment I heard him speak that sobriquet, my rosy little vision of the future was shattered irreparably. He'd called me "Copper" from the time of our first meeting, but had not been in the habit of adding "Spider". I felt like I'd been called out.
"Yay!" Godchaser exclaimed, obviously overjoyed to hear that sobriquet. A sailor eyed me suspiciously, but no one else seemed to notice my cloak cheering.
I turned around slowly. Sam dismounted from his horse. The other two young soldiers that I had met, Cheng and Isha, were right behind him. They all seemed surprised to see me, and Cheng looked nervous. Sam was obviously bubbling over about something, and I gathered from the expression on his face that he was about to tell me what. I hadn't seen my suspicious traveling companion since the night he'd discovered Godchaser, and I frankly hadn't expected to see him again at all. "You came from the north, right?" Sam asked eagerly. It was as if nothing had changed between us.
"North-ish," I replied, saying nothing.
"Did you hear about the Anathema?" He asked.
"Anathema?" As apprehensive as I was becoming, I hoped I still sounded surprised and not nervous.
"Oh, everybody is talking about it!" Isha said. "And we're going to hunt it down!"
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so eager to face a demon," I reprimanded her.
"Well, we'll be promoted if we can kill it," Isha added.
I twitched slightly. I didn't want to react badly, but I really didn't like what I'd heard so far. What kind of madman told children to go slay demons?
"And if you can't kill it?" I demanded.
"We can! Our Winglord has destroyed more Anathema than anyone alive," Cheng informed me, as if that was something I didn't know.
"All right, that's true. But aren't you afraid?" I pressed.
"Terrified!" Isha laughed. "It's a legendary monster!"
I'd been Anathema for only two weeks, and already I was legendary?
I held my tongue.
"They say it's one of the Unclean," Sam whispered. "Back during the war, Dragonlord Chiron found its lair. He took all its treasure, and he blew up half a mountain so that nobody else could ever get in. But now the Anathema has come back from the dead!" Sam explained.
"For revenge!" Isha added.
"Ridiculous! Nothing comes back from the dead!" I protested. "Well, ghosts and undead. But not Anathema!"
Sam's story was nothing like what Dragonlord Chiron had told me. Of course, I'd suspected that the Dragonlord was lying from the very beginning. I gritted my teeth.
Those barbarians! They'd destroyed my manse!
I hadn't felt so angry in a very long time, not since I'd been locked in a cell awaiting my mockery of a trial.
"Maker?" Godchaser whispered, almost inaudibly.
Cheng gave me a worried look. Sam and Isha didn't notice my reaction. They were still trading rumors.
"The Anathema is completely unstoppable! It can fly!"
"It incinerates anything it looks at!"
The two obviously loved the sound of a good fight. I felt certain that Isha's enthusiasm would land her on the front lines of some horrible battle sooner or later. I was no expert on military matters, but I'd heard something from Abbot Manu once that had stuck with me. There was no such thing as a zealous old soldier.
"You don't really believe that kind of nonsense do you?" I demanded. From the sound of things, my story was already too big for me to stop. The least I could do was discourage the Winds from spreading it further.
"Believe it? My cousin is a monk! He saw it!" Sam protested. "He saw that Anathema fly out a window, and cast a spell in midair! It's so powerful that it was able go inside of an Immaculate monastery! Although my brother did say something about it being on fire after it blew the whole roof off the Abbey of Mela! He also said it has a spider for a head!"
Godchaser laughed, and I forced myself to laugh louder, hoping no one had heard her.
I felt marginally better knowing that half of the Realm's soldiers were looking for a demon with a spider for a head. Perhaps I was safer than I thought, particularly since Godchaser was disguised as a simple gray cloak.
Not for the first time, I wondered why Sam wasn't more suspicious of me. Of course, I was already in plenty of trouble with the Ravenous Winds, the Abbey of Mela, and Dragonlord Chiron on my trail. I thought about what the old peddler had said regarding Ragara Sephora. The last thing I needed was another angry Dragonblood to deal with, particularly when I was so close to escaping the Blessed Isle.
"You think that's funny? Anathema are serious business!" Cheng protested. He was looking at his second officer, not at me.
Isha giggled. "I know, Cheng! I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine someone with a spider for a head! It's too ridiculous!"
Sam laughed. "Hey, tinker! My cousin is waiting on us right now. He's not a very good monk and he likes to get drunk when he comes to town. You should come hear his whole story from the beginning!" He jerked his thumb at the doors of the tavern I'd been about to walk into.
"While I appreciate the offer, I'm actually on my way to meet someone," I lied. I certainly didn't want to cross paths with anyone from the Abbey of Mela. Even a junior monk would recognize me immediately. "Good luck with your mission. Stay safe!" I added.
Though I should have considered the three young soldiers to be my enemies, they were so blissfully oblivious that I almost envied them. Since my trial, I'd had a difficult time believing in basic human decency... and my current predicament had left me convinced that Heaven was also cruel.
"Take care!" Sam was grinning from ear to ear, as pleased to meet me as he had been upon our first encounter, as if he remembered nothing of what he'd seen only two nights ago. Not for the first time, I found myself hypnotized by his peculiar yellow eyes. He slapped me on the back, missing one of Godchaser's tendrils by less than an inch and I winced, gritting my teeth. "I hope you find what you're looking for! And enjoy your journey!" He advised.
"I'll try," I promised, waving goodbye to Sam as Cheng shoved him roughly into the bar.
I kept walking until I'd nearly left Chio. While I still planned to earn my passage to Nexus by working on board a ship, I wanted a bath, a decent meal, and some more coin first. Ragara Sephora had given me a significant amount of money, but she'd also made it necessary for me to leave town very quickly. She was clearly not the kind of woman who took "no" for an answer, and if I continued to refuse her offer of employment, she would eventually find out why.
If I used it sensibly, the jade she had given me would buy me a week, and if I traded my services for food and lodging, I could get myself enough silver to make a dozen pieces of jewelry. I stopped at the sorriest looking teahouse I could find, and immediately volunteered to work in exchange for something to eat.
The owner of the teahouse had me repair a stubborn window, and then a door prone to blowing open in the wind. Satisfied with my efforts, she fed me a substantial supper, and then sent me across the road to her neighbor's inn, recommending that I ask him for more work and a place to sleep.
Although dodging my would-be patroness and her retainers was not easy, doing repairs in various businesses kept me off of the street. I also had different accommodations every night, and whenever my employer did not already know my name, I used a new alias. Of course, I still slipped up quite a few times and introduced myself as "Recluse".
After I had been in Chio for several days, rumors were beginning to spread about a "tinkering spider" that Ragara Sephora was hunting for. I'd already purchased myself a change of clothes and all of the supplies I would need to for my voyage. I'd also arranged my passage to Nexus by selling my second coin pendant. The merchant I sold it to was on his way home to Gem, and he decided that I could repay him for his generosity with as many pendants as I was able to make during our voyage. Of course, I did not tell him that I'd crafted the piece he was so enamored with in less than an hour while riding in the back of a rickety wagon.
Godchaser had been remarkably quiet since our arrival in Chio, partly because her hearthstone was still failing. Whenever I worked somewhere without supervision, I would seize the opportunity to give her a little Essence, but she still spent most of her time dozing off. Sometimes I had to say her name several times before she would respond. Sustaining her with my own Essence was becoming very difficult.
In retrospect, I should have set out for Nexus sooner than I did, but I decided to take on one more job when I heard about an interesting challenge at an inn called the Spitting Demon.
"So you want to see the Demon?" The bartender laughed.
"I've heard it's some kind of artifact," I admitted.
"Could be. All I know is that it makes hot water, and it's probably old as the Shogunate. The damn thing's been making a racket and leaking like a sieve over fifty years," the bartender explained. He had a peculiar accent that made me suspect he might be from the West, and a glass eye that didn't focus on anything besides the ceiling. Everything about him seemed to suggest that he was a disreputable character, but I ignored my own instincts. He was still human, after all... and that was more than I could say for myself. "You can't fix it," he informed me. "And I won't pay you to try."
"But you'll let me try?" I pressed. I'd already heard what the offer was, but I still wanted to hear him confirm it.
"I'll let you try. And if by some miracle you do tame the Demon..." the bartender pointed to a glass case mounted on the wall behind his counter. There was a golden wrench inside of it. "There's the prize."
"Is that gold?" I asked. It looked like gold, but it was difficult to tell through the dusty glass.
"Demon gold," he corrected.
Orichalcum.
I tossed my pack near the bar. "I'll take your wager, sir."
The bartender rolled his eyes and led me down to the basement. He gave me a lamp, and I nearly doused myself in kerosene as we sloshed through the puddles of stagnant water and stepped over broken, molding furniture. There were several rows of slimy old kegs set up on wooden supports a few feet above the floor. Evidently someone had thought to protect them from the flooding that "the Demon" caused, but I still wouldn't have felt comfortable drinking anything that came out of them. Though the inn was not very large, the cellar was fairly impressive, and a door on the opposite side of the room suggested that it was shared with a different building.
"What's in there?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Nothing," the bartender said, in a manner which convinced me that there was most definitely something behind that door. I wasn't going to pry. I stared at "the Demon" instead. It was an enormous boiler, at least a century old, and it looked like it belonged in a bathhouse.
It smelled like the bowels of Malfeas. I had the strangest feeling that I had, in fact, smelled Malfeas before. The memory was rather fuzzy in my head, and mostly consisted of me standing on the railing of a flying ship and lobbing Old Realm insults at an angry, shapeless being the size of a continent. I rubbed my temples and grimaced.
"So what do you think?" The bartender asked.
"What is it doing?" I stared at the boiler. It was silent, and cold to the touch.
"Right now, it's not doing anything. I've never seen it quiet for this long before. Usually it just floods the room, and then heats right back up again and gets to hissing and howling."
"I see. Well, I suppose I should get to work then," I decided.
The bartender snorted. He didn't believe I could actually fix the boiler, and I wasn't surprised. I smiled slightly. It would be very funny when I won his wager.
"So where did you get that orichalcum wrench anyway?" I asked as he turned to walk away.
"As far as I know, it's been here as long as the Demon has," the bartender shrugged. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that thing was built by Anathema," he remarked. "It would explain why it stinks so bad."
I didn't respond, but I discreetly sniffed the sleeve of my own shirt. As far as I could tell, I didn't smell at all. I waited until the bartender went back upstairs, and closed the door behind him.
"Godchaser?" I whispered.
My companion did not respond. I sighed heavily, set her on a table, and knelt down in the water. It was cold and felt greasy. When I was finished with my work, I would have to take my new clothes to a laundress, but that was a small price to pay for a large piece of orichalcum. I could use it to replace some of Godchaser's damaged parts.
The lamp the bartender had left me was utterly useless, not that I cared. I could make my own light. Doing so had actually begun to feel very natural to me. The more often I illuminated the mark on my brow, the more difficult it became for me to think of it as an ugly scar cut by a demon. Godchaser referred to it as my "Caste Mark" and seemed to think it was like an extra eye that allowed me to see the world in a more complete way.
"The Demon" was severely cracked from top to bottom. The damage wasn't easy to see in the darkness of the basement, and it was hard to tell where exactly it was leaking when the whole room was filled with water. The whole monstrous thing would have to be drained before it could be fixed properly... at least by any mortal craftsman. Using a pair of pliers, I picked pieces of tar out of the crack. I always disliked mopping up other people's shoddy work, but I reminded myself of the prize.
When I had finished cleaning, I laid my right hand upon the boiler and concentrated. I'd already used Crack-Mending Technique once before, but I was still not sure how it would feel to invoke it again. Feeding Godchaser raw Essence was very different than deliberately altering the shape of Creation.
Fine strands of golden Essence flowed from my fingertips as I worked my Charm, filling the cracks in the metal. The light faded from my repairs as I pulled my hand away, and the iron appeared seamless. No one would be able to tell what I had done unless they looked very closely, and even then, the quality of the repair would surely baffle them. In all likelihood, the section of the boiler that I had fixed would remain long after the rest of "the Demon" rusted into oblivion.
Though I'd grown to appreciate how useful the power I possessed was, the ease with which I accomplished preposterously difficult tasks still left me feeling very strange. Even when I'd been the darling of Dynastic social circles, I'd never noticed so many eyes upon me, watching everything I did in bewilderment and wonder. Lately, I was doing more work with Essence than I was actually doing with my hands... which meant that I wasn't really a "tinker" anymore. I wasn't a jeweler either.
Godchaser was right. I was a sorcerer.
My goal accomplished, I sat down to meddle with Godchaser. The boiler didn't rumble to life right away, but I knew it would start working again soon. For the time being, I had to pretend I was still busy. Fortunately, I had plenty to do.
I worked for about twenty minutes until I felt satisfied with the modifications I was making. As the boiler filled up with water, I started to gather my tools and then realized that I'd actually left my pliers on the table near the boiler.
I instinctively uttered a few words I wasn't sure I knew, and swept my left hand in the direction of my toolbox. It opened without me touching it. The box, which had become a bit of a jumble, immediately sorted itself. My pliers leapt into my grasp.
I blinked in surprise. The Charm was called Every Tool in its Place, and I knew it just as I had known Crack Mending Technique. I realized that I knew other Charms as well, hundreds of them... but my memory was so foggy that I couldn't speak the right words or perform the gestures correctly. It occurred to me that, like any martial art, one probably had to practice Charms in order to perfect them. But in my case, I wasn't trying to master something new. I was trying to recall something I'd forgotten.
"Ooh!" Godchaser exclaimed as she woke up. "I detect Essence! Is someone using Charms?"
I laughed. If anyone had been close enough to hear us, I would have scolded Godchaser for talking, and for using words that were on "the list". Though I wasn't going to admit it, I'd begun to miss her incessant chattering. I'd also been repairing her as she slept, and I was eager to see if any of my efforts had been successful.
Finally, Godchaser noticed the work I'd done. Her eyes grew very wide.
"Maker! You're fixing me!"
"Well?" I prompted.
My companion slowly rose up from the table where I had set her. She flew erratically and seemed to be burning up an enormous amount of Essence... but she was moving under her own power.
"Hooray!" She exclaimed. "I can hover!"
I nodded, feeling a little smug. My skills were improving at an alarming rate. Obviously pleased with my efforts, Godchaser twirled in a circle. "Oh, if I had arms, I would hug you!"
"I'm not building you arms," I replied. She often asked me to build her hands, and though I toyed with the idea of designing something so wonderfully complex, I knew that I couldn't do such a thing without access to magical materials.
"I would hug you!" She repeated.
"Tempting, but no!" I heard a sniffling sound nearby, and for a moment I thought that Godchaser was making a nuisance of herself. "And don't cry, you ridiculous machine!"
"I'm not crying!" Godchaser replied flatly.
That was when I heard it again, the sound of a faint, muffled sob. I put my ear on the wall and followed the sound to the locked door on the opposite site of the room. I pulled on the rusted lock, and remembered another Charm. Taking the lock in my hand, I closed my eyes and concentrated. It began to feel warm in my grasp, and then it pulled itself apart, every screw, gear, and plate separating out from the whole. For a moment the pieces hovered in the air like a three-dimensional diagram, suspended on a current of Essence.
Dismantle.
My concentration broke, and all of the pieces fell to the ground. For a moment, I considered what other skills I might be able to pull from my previous incarnation's repertoire, but then I remembered that someone was in trouble. As I began to open the door to the mysterious room, Godchaser dove in front of me.
"I'll go first!" She said, swooping into the darkness.
"Godchaser!" I protested. I was already beginning to wish I hadn't fixed her hover function.
"Um... Maker. This is bad," Godchaser paused. She sounded very worried.
Steeling myself for whatever she had found, I followed her into the dark. The light that surrounded me burned the shadows away. Circling around a crumbling dirt wall, I saw Godchaser hovering in front of a large table. The room looked like a butcher's shop or mortuary, packed to the ceiling with old books, melted candles, and foul-smelling herbs. There were stains of blood on the walls.
"We need to get out of here. Now," Godchaser ordered.
"Wait! We both heard someone crying!" I argued.
"No," Godchaser protested. "Dragonbloods are coming. And if you're not going to fight them, we'd better run away."
"Fine, you go! I've got to find out what's going on here first!" I protested.
"Maker! I can't go without you!" Godchaser argued. She swept over my back and clung to my neck, her mask hidden, but tucked into a position that would allowed her to peer right over my shoulder. "Everyone would see me hovering!"
That was when I found the source of the sound I'd heard. Underneath the central table was a box with a lock on it. I might have called it a coffin if it had been longer, but not even a small person could have been laid out straight inside of it. When I put my ear to the lid, I could hear breathing inside.
"Hello?" I whispered in Low Realm.
There was a muffled sob in response. It sounded like a girl.
"There's someone inside!" I gasped.
"So? Better them than us! We have to go!" Godchaser argued, as if she could say nothing else. "Now!"
"Stop saying that! We can't leave anyone like this, it's inhumane!" I argued. Once again, I closed my fist around the lock and ordered it to shatter, using my new Charm. Then I went back for my lamp. I almost couldn't stop my Caste Mark from flickering, but I didn't want the poor girl inside the box to see some predatory Anathema hovering over her. I couldn't imagine what she'd already been through.
I opened the lid of the box. Inside, almost completely naked and streaked with blood and grime was a very petite young girl, probably no more than fifteen years old. Her thin blond hair was matted and her pale skin was covered in fine, cruel scars. Someone had been torturing her for an unthinkably long time, long enough for her wounds to heal completely and then be opened again. She had a few fresh marks too, all made by that same ruthless knife. One of them looked badly infected.
Though she was bound hand and foot, she thrashed her neck like a wild horse when she saw me.
I put a finger to my lips. "Quiet!" I warned.
"Get me out of here!" She begged, the moment I cut the strip of cloth that she'd been gagged with. "Please!"
"I am getting you out of here," I replied, cutting the bonds on her wrists and ankles. "What's your name, girl?"
"Dove," She replied, nervously watching me as I worked.
"Well, you can call me Recluse. Like the spider. Can you stand up?"
She nodded and I helped her to her feet. Immediately, she tried to run for the door. I caught her as she stumbled and fell.
"No, no! Wait until you can feel your legs! And put this on!" I added, giving her my shirt. Dove was practically naked. Small and frail as she was, my shirt almost looked like a dress on her.
"Now where's your family?"
I immediately regretted asking that question. The expression on Dove's face was awful. What had her family done to her?
"Port Calin," she replied.
"Heh. I thought that was a Rivertongue accent you have. Well, you're a long way from home. I was born in Nexus myself," I paused. I switched to Rivertongue, knowing I was about to ask another question that the poor girl wouldn't want to answer. "Dove, how did you end up in this box? "
She said nothing.
"I need to know. If there are bad people coming..." I began.
"Recluse, there are horrible people coming! We need to go now! I don't care where! I don't have any family, I don't have anything at all! I'm a slave! My father sold me to pay his debts! The man who bought me wanted me for his bed and when his wife found out, she was so angry that she gave me to Ragara Sephora!"
I knew that name all too well.
"That's who put you in there?"
Dove nodded. "She pretends to be so wonderful, but she's a monster! She's going to sacrifice me! She's going to kill me tonight! We have to go now!" Dove tugged on my arm.
"Dragons, this is unbelievable!" A string of curse words escaped me, about half of them in Rivertongue and to my surprise, the rest in Old Realm.
"Maker! Now!" Godchaser hissed, speaking in Old Realm herself. Dove looked very confused, probably wondering where the voice was coming from and what strange language it was speaking.
"I..." I immediately picked up Godchaser and then stopped short, hearing the sound of footsteps on the stairs. There were people coming!
I offered Dove my hand. She didn't hesitate to take it, although she definitely stared at my "cloak".
"Your cloak is talking," she observed.
"I promise I'll explain later. Stay behind me!"
Hearing the creak of a nearby door, I shoved Dove in the direction of the boiler, covering her mouth with my hand as I crouched down beside her in the shadows. The two of us waited there like a pair of trapped rabbits. I only hoped we wouldn't be seen before we could make a break for the stairs.
Two very large men came into the room, followed very closely by a richly dressed woman I recognized immediately.
Ragara Sephora stared at the lamp that I'd left on her work table.
"Search the room!" She ordered. I cursed under my breath.
"The lamp!" Dove gasped.
"Oh, Maker! You should have just used your..." Godchaser began. She never actually said "Caste Mark". That was when Dove, unable to take the strain of waiting for a moment longer made the mistake of bolting for the door.
"Dove, no!" I shouted, leaping to my feet.
But it was too late. Dove shrieked and kicked as one of the bodyguards seized her and lifted her off the ground, his arms wrapped around her neck.
"What's this? How did you escape?" The Dragonblood demanded... and then caught sight of me. "You?"
I was surprised that she recognized me. It had only been a week since I'd sold her the pendant she was wearing around her neck, but I'd taken a bath and changed my clothes. After much deliberation, I'd decided to dress in a monkish fashion. It seemed like the one thing no Dragonblood would be expecting, and I wanted to be wearing something that would not interfere with my martial arts if I had to defend myself.
"I was fixing the boiler," I explained. "That is, at least until I heard the sounds of someone being tortured through the wall. What you've done here is reprehensible! You may think you're immune because you're Dragonblooded, but no one gets away with sacrificing people! I'm reporting you to the authorities!"
"Report me?" The sorceress laughed. Her tone convinced me immediately that I'd missed something very important. "To whom? Fool, I own this town!" She snarled. Fire blossomed up all around her.
Sephora must have expected that I would immediately drop to my knees and apologize for insulting her when she flared her anima. The glare she gave me would have been enough to make me beg for my life... if I hadn't seen what I'd already seen.
I didn't care if Sephora was the Scarlet Empress herself. That didn't give her the right to torture and murder anyone, not even a slave girl with no surname, sold by her own parents and apparently sharing her master's bed. I wouldn't fool myself into thinking that Dove was innocent of any wrongdoing... but nothing she could have done would have made her deserving of the fate that Sephora had planned for her.
"Now what do you have to say for yourself, you meddlesome tinker?" She demanded. "Well?"
"Let the girl go!" I replied. "Now."
"You presume to order me? How dare you!" Sephora tried to slap me.
I caught her wrist. As she pulled free of my grasp, she called up her anima again, searing the palm of my hand. I'd been kicked around by Dragonblooded at the monastery more than once, but I'd never actually been burned by a Fire Aspect's Essence before.
"Ow! That hurt!" I grimaced.
Sephora narrowed her eyes. She obviously didn't like the fact that I wasn't cowering before her. "On your knees, mortal... and I may leave you the use of your legs!" She ordered.
"No," I replied without hesitation.
"What?" She hissed.
"You heard me. No! I am not going obey you, and you can't make me!" Speaking those words felt wonderful, and I realized belatedly that I had just behaved exactly like an Anathema, spitting on the Perfected Hierarchy and telling a Dynast to go to Malfeas.
I saw Sephora move, and I easily sidestepped her first attack. She countered with a sweeping Fire Dragon Style kick that I knew very well. Though I'd never been able to block the move before, a sufficient cushion of Essence kept it from actually hurting me. The fact that I was still relatively unscathed prompted the sorceress to redouble her efforts, and I continued to fend her off without striking her outright. The two bodyguards held Dove and stayed back, looking impressed with their mistress who was burning brighter and brighter. I was a little singed myself, but not about to back down.
Our fight worked its way out of the sorceress's room and we came to a momentary standstill in front of the Demon boiler, between two rows of wine casks.
"Last chance, mortal! Yield and live!" Sephora warned.
"I'm not going without the girl," I replied.
"This is not a negotiation!" She snarled.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" I shot back. Even though Sephora was a Dragonblood, I realized that I could probably beat her if our fight wore on much longer, which was undoubtedly why she'd given me so many opportunities to surrender. But I did not have to cower before her or anyone, not anymore!
Of course, I already knew that I held a distinct advantage over those who could not use Essence, but I hadn't expected to be faster and stronger than a Fire-Aspect. As I considered my next move, an all-too familiar feeling came over me. If I fueled any more Essence into my Snake Style, my mark was going to start burning whether I willed it to or not.
I grimaced. I wanted to beat Sephora fairly and berate her for what she'd done. I wanted her to learn what it felt like to be in an inferior position. Still, if I didn't end the fight as fast as I could, everyone would see that I was Anathema. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a solution.
I threw a wild, sloppy roundhouse kick at Sephora's head, and as she swiftly dodged my incoming leg, I switched my target, landing a strong jumping back kick on the central support of the rack that held up the kegs. As the rack groaned and swayed, the kegs fell off one by one. Some broke on the floor and the rest rolled over the sorceress and her bodyguards. While they were distracted, I grabbed Dove and raced for the stairs.
"How did you do that?" Dove gasped.
"Mathematics!' I replied, seizing my toolbox.
As we barreled out into the bar, I saw my pack where I'd left it next to the counter. "Grab that bag!" I ordered, and weak as she was, Dove still managed to catch hold of it. "What's in here?" She demanded.
"Food and clothes. You're going to need both," I informed her.
"It's too heavy! We don't need anything! We're going to die! " She protested.
"We're not going to die!" I shouted back.
The bartender who'd given me the job to fix the boiler stared at the two of us in disbelief.
"Your boiler's fixed," I told him. "Thanks for the orichalcum!"
Despite the alarm I knew it would cause, I invoked my new Charm and seized the orichalcum wrench from its display. It leapt right into my toolbox, and the box closed like a turtle snapping up a fish. My Caste Mark started to flicker.
The bartender swore incoherently and stumbled, knocking over several bottles of liquor and a dozen empty mugs. The drunks sitting at the bar turned to one another, wondering if they'd really seen what they thought they had.
I followed Dove out onto the street.
Of course, that was when Sephora exploded out of the tavern's basement. Flames roared all around her and her wine-soaked, badly bruised bodyguards followed just a few steps behind, their bare swords glittering in the light of her anima.
Dove managed to keep pace with me as I lead her towards the river. We couldn't run from the Dragonblood indefinitely, which meant that I needed a plan.
Preoccupied as I was with my own impending doom, I almost didn't notice Dove tugging on my sleeve. Much more forcefully, she grabbed hold of Godchaser who yelped in protest, and shoved the both of us into a blacksmith's shed. Seizing a piece of bent iron from the workbench, the girl quickly barred the door. I wasn't sure which one of us was actually breathing heavier.
"This isn't going to work!" Dove whispered fearfully, still staring back in the direction of Sephora and her lackies. "They're going to be here any second, and that bar won't stop them!"
She was right about that. It would take a divine act to get us out of the mess we were in... and if the gods or the Dragons weren't going to have mercy on us, then I had no choice. I'd have to produce a miracle myself.
"All right. Throw bricks, light a fire, something! Buy us time!" I ordered, taking off Godchaser. I opened my tool chest and took out my best pliers.
"Maker?" Godchaser wondered innocently. I didn't respond, tearing a hole in the fabric that concealed her chest plate. "What are you doing?"
I could hear a large crowd forming outside, following a safe distance behind Sephora and her men, who'd definitely found us. The bodyguards set to hacking at the door immediately. The Dragonblood was doing something else, something that looked very familiar to me.
She was working sorcery!
"They're getting in!" Dove cried. As I'd asked her to, she was pitching bricks out the window with impressive strength for her tiny frame. The cursing I heard from Sephora's bodyguards suggested that her aim was also commendable.
I glanced briefly over my shoulder and grimaced, catching sight of the sorceress starting her spell. Fire whipped all around her. I had only one plan, and in order to accomplish it, I'd have to work fast. First, I opened Godchaser's hover circuit.
"Do something!" Dove cried as the blade of a sword tore partway through the door. "I'm running out of bricks!"
"I am doing something!" I shot back. Taking a deep breath, I carefully lifted the tiny panel of strange silver metal that protected Godchaser's most sensitive system, the one which controlled her ability to teleport. It was a dizzying blur of little gears that moved and changed shape as I tried to catch hold of them. I took the gold wire I'd gotten from the actress and carefully wrapped in around one of the gears, making just enough of a knob so that the orichalcum wrench I'd stolen could connect her "teleport" and "hover" circuits. The gold would conduct enough that I could probably get Essence to jump between the two. I had no idea what kind of results that would get me, but I was willing to try anything. As I picked Godchaser up, a two foot section of fabric fell from her back, a piece I'd torn a little too zealously.
If I survived, I'd need to find myself another cloak.
Dove gasped. "What... what is that?"
I smiled slightly. Dove's first reaction to seeing Godchaser was not any different than Sam's or my own had been. She was certainly impressive.
"Ready to fly, dear?" I asked.
"Ooh!" Godchaser exclaimed, suddenly noticing what I had done. "That's new!"
"Do you think it will work?" I asked.
"I'm going to need lots of Essence!" Godchaser said.
"Take as much as you need," I replied. I took a deep breath and started pouring as much Essence into Godchaser as I could. Her usually dormant tendrils came alive like a dozen angry snakes, making my cloak appear to billow around me.
Dove stared up at me. My mark wasn't just visible... my whole body was burning like a torch, but she still didn't seem to know what to make of me. I decided not to give her the opportunity to sort things out. I grabbed her arm and pulled her close so that she was somewhat protected by the folds of my cloak.
"Trust me," I whispered.
"What are you?" She whispered fearfully.
"Right now? A big damn hero!" I replied.
I shielded Dove's head. For a moment, all the Essence I had didn't seem to be enough, but just as Sephora's men tore the door down, we shot up through the roof of the shed and into the sky.
The force of our take off was terrifying, and I'd severely underestimated how high and far my temporary linking of Godchaser's "teleport" and "hover" would send us flying. To make matters worse, Dove was screaming her lungs out in terror the entire time, and Godchaser was cheering like a lunatic.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" She cried, as we reached the high point in our trajectory and started falling at a speed I knew I couldn't hope to control.
As best as I was able, I tried to control our landing so that most of the force would be split between Godchaser and myself. I saw a large hay pile, and aimed for it as well as I could, wrapping my arms tighter around Dove and straightening out my body. The impact hurt, but after my head stopped spinning, I realized that I wasn't injured at all. I should have been, but I'd intuitively used my own Essence to shield myself before I hit the ground.
Both Godchaser and Dove landed on top of me, along with my pack and my toolbox. As I caught my breath, I sat up slowly and realized in shock that I recognized where we were. We'd landed in Windfall, the same small village where I'd met Sam!
We'd flown more than sixty miles in a matter of minutes! That was faster than being shot out from a cannon! Or... had we actually teleported? I wasn't sure.
Dove didn't say anything at first. She only clung to my pack and stared at me as if she expected I would suddenly turn on her like a rabid dog. And she wasn't the only one.
Though it was after dark, more than a few villagers had witnessed our dramatic fall from the heavens. They hid when I turned in their direction. Not that I blamed them. Since my escape from the monastery, I hadn't done anything so undeniably Anathema-like.
A golden flare of Essence was damning in its own right, but I'd discovered that the more Essence I burned, the more color poured out from me. After fueling Godchaser with everything she needed to attempt her maiden flight, I looked like an exploding fireworks factory. When I looked up, I realized that there was literally a pillar of light surrounding me more than a hundred feet high that blazed with red, orange, blue, and gold. I felt tired and strained as I'd expected, but at the same time, I also felt the strangest sense of rightness.
I was meant to be seen. I was supposed to be recognized for what I was. Dark as it was, it looked as though someone had cut a hole in the night sky and poured the sun directly through it. Tendrils of radiant Essence all around me shifted and assumed familiar shapes which reminded me of the inner workings of a clock or very sophisticated artifact. I touched one gold spark that looked like a small gear and it set to spinning as if it were a solid thing. It was definitely my Essence, and yet I could make it behave like a physical object!
I immediately thought of tools. What if I could simply make them out of Essence when I needed them? It was an inspired idea! I almost attempted it right away. That's when I remembered where I was standing, in front of a dozen nervous peasants, the twitchy innkeeper whose business I'd saved weeks ago... and of course, Dove.
She obviously didn't know what to do. I decided to give her a suggestion.
"Do you see that road?" I pointed into the mountains. "If you follow that road north almost all the way into Snow Owl territory you'll reach a little village. The headman there is called Sun Yu. He and his wife are poor folks, but they're good people." Dove didn't pull away from me, but she did squint. I released belatedly that the light around me was so bright that it hurt her eyes, and so I took a few steps back, not that it was liable to do any good. "If Yu asks who sent you to him, you can tell him it was Recluse. That's the alias he knows me by. But don't... please, don't tell him that I'm Anathema."
I turned to walk away.
"Wait!" Dove called out. "Recluse!" When I looked at her, she covered her eyes and turned her face away from me. I guessed that from her perspective I looked even brighter than I did to myself. "What's your real name?" She asked.
"Veritas Ilumio," I replied, not having the heart to lie to her.
"Truth Illuminates?" Dove blinked in surprise, translating my name literally from Rivertongue into Low Realm. "You're the one they're looking for?"
"And they're definitely going to find me if I don't get out of here now," I sighed heavily.
"Did you really used to be an Immaculate monk?" Dove wondered.
"Yes," I sighed heavily and gestured to my head. "As you can see, I'm still recovering from the haircut."
"But you're Anathema!" She protested.
"I wasn't always. It's nothing like they say! I wasn't spawned out of Malfeas! I didn't make a deal with any yozi! It just happened to me, and I don't even know why! I'm just an ordinary man."
"I find that hard to believe," Dove smiled slightly. "You were flying a minute ago!"
"It was fun!" Godchaser giggled.
"And now your cloak is talking again," she observed.
"She never shuts up. Look, go on, you don't have to believe me! Just get out of here! It's only a matter of time before Ragara Sephora figures out where we went! And she's a sorceress, so she'll be here a lot quicker than the Wyld Hunt!" I warned her.
Still, Dove hesitated. "But I don't understand! Why did you rescue me? If you'd done nothing at all, they would have never known that you were..."
"Anathema?" I supplied.
Dove bit her lip. She hadn't wanted to say the word, that much was obvious.
"Dove, I don't want to die, but I'm not stupid enough to think that I don't deserve to. I have a terrible temper, and I've made a lot of poor decisions in my life. I rescued you because it was the right thing to do," I finished.
Witnessing my conversation with Dove, some of the locals of Windfall were getting up the courage to step out of their houses. More than a few of them had weapons in their hands. It didn't look like they were coming after me for sure... more like they were just being careful and wanting to better understand what was going on.
"The right thing to do?" Dove echoed.
"I'm a demon, aren't I? I need all of the redemption I can get," I replied.
Dove wrapped herself tightly in the blanket I had given her and started trudging up the road. If she kept going for two more days, she'd be in Sun Yu's village, probably safe. I could only assume that Ragara Sephora had intended to sacrifice her in order to summon a demon... and would soon give up the chase and get herself another slave.
That thought troubled me. If I was a demon, as everything I'd ever believed told me I was... why did the thought of what the sorceress had planned make me so furious? And not only furious... but also sick to my stomach?
Had I made a mistake in running away from my own reckoning? Had I saved Dove now only to cause the death of another innocent girl like her when I became a monster? I stopped short. I'd been repeating those words over and over and over again as I considered the future and hadn't even considered how illogical they sounded.
What would I do when I became a monster?
I was already a monster! From an Immaculate Perspective, I'd been damned the first time I'd defied the Perfected Hierarchy and refused to accept my natural place within it. All of the suffering I'd endured was of my own making. The Dragonblooded were the rightful Princes of the Earth. They were Chosen, to protect and guide those less fortunate so that everyone might one day reach Enlightenment.
But if that was true... then why was it that everywhere I looked, I found Dragonbloods involved in more despicable business?
Political backstabbing. Wars! Human sacrifice!
I considered something that Godchaser had said, a strange little quip that had stuck in my mind.
People were broken.
But how could broken people be "fixed" when it was the world that they lived in which made them the way that they were? The whole of society would have to be torn down and rebuilt! And even as powerful as I was becoming, I still wasn't capable of simply swooping in like an Immaculate Dragon and fixing everything wrong with Creation!
Or... was I?
The combination of fear and awe in the eyes of Windfall's villagers as I slowly passed through their town left me feeling more conflicted than ever before. I turned to the sign at the crossroads and considered it for a moment. It was obvious there was no way I'd survive going back to Chio. That left me only one choice.
I'd have to find passage in the Imperial City.