Many thanks to themanwhowas, Assembler, frustratedFreeboota, and skyrunner for betareading.

Many thanks to MugaSofer for fact checking.

Wards were discouraged from patrolling alone in the dangerous parts of town. As a rule, we tended to travel in pairs. I had not done much patrolling in my brief stint as a Ward—and even then, I had almost always been accompanied by one of the others.

Today, I walked the streets alone.

The crowd of capes had dispersed, and the waterlogged city was deserted. The shelters were still being opened, and the all-clear had yet to be sent out. Every so often, I passed a civilian or family scuttling towards some ruined home to see what could be salvaged, but for the most part people were avoiding the Docks.

The pavement grew less stable as I walked down the long slope towards the shore. Cracks ran ever deeper, and the even surface was marred by pits and jutting protrusions. Rubble was scattered along the sides of the streets, and in several places alleys had caved in entirely. Leviathan's passage had been keenly felt, here.

I enjoyed the solitude. There would be time to comfort Dean through his survivor's guilt and crushing grief. There would be time to help Missy come to terms with her horribly mixed feelings over Vicky's death. There would be time to help Chris and Sam deal with their nerves, their understandable fear at being thrust into the limelight. There would be time to support Aegis as he took up the task of representing the Wards to the world.

But not now. Not yet. There was more to do first.

I was startled by how calm the sea looked, once I had reached it. The midmorning sun shone merrily over the temperate waves, lapping gently against the ruined shore. Only the faintest wisps of cloud remained to tell of the storm which had blocked out the sky mere hours ago.

I rested a hand on Narsil's hilt and looked out for a moment, allowing the sea-breeze to gently run through my hair and kiss my lower face. Then I turned and began walking along the shoreline, heading north, toward the ruined boardwalk.

The fractured mess of timber had mingled with the rubble from the surrounding buildings, until what remained of the heart of Brockton Bay's stunted tourism industry was barely worth calling a ruin. I picked my way through narrow paths, surrounded by sharp splinters and shattered concrete slabs.

I was not the only one who had lost trinkets today. Broken watches, twisted pieces of jewelry, and other oddities mingled with the rest of the debris—relics, I expected, of the storefronts that had lined the boardwalk, or of the apartments atop those establishments.

At long last, I found what I had come for. Aeglos was upright, its tip embedded sharply into a piece of stone. The burnished wooden haft pointed into the air like a monument, catching the eye even among the forest of jagged timbers.

I took it in both hands, bent my knees slightly, and pulled up. The spear came free with only token resistance.

I swung it in my hands a few times, testing the weight in cuts and thrusts. Unchanged. Aeglos emerged from the battle from Leviathan as flawless as the day I'd forged it.

For a moment I considered the blue blade at the end of the spear. A faint coating of frost lingered on it, like skeletal fingers stretching across the metal.

"Aeglos," I murmured. I was on the cusp of something, I could feel it. "No icicle could have held back the sea undamaged. You are no icicle."

And, with the insight of a composer realizing his next melody, I understood.

"Iphannis, I name you," I said, and the blade shone brightest blue. "Permafrost. May you be ever as unyielding as you were today."

The sun was warm, and beat down pleasantly upon my armor—but as Iphannis grew ice-cold in my fingertips, it was all I could do to suppress a shiver.

My solitude was broken when I left the boardwalk. As I emerged from between the shattered woodwork, I saw a speck high above. It sped towards me like a falling star. As it drew closer, it took on form: that of a man wearing a blue and white costume.

"Annatar," said Legend.

"Sir," I said with a cordial nod. "You need something?"

"First of all," he said with a slight smile, "it's just Legend, please."

"All right, Legend," I said, though it was no large change. A name like that, with the weight it carried, was little better than a title.

"Your team is looking for you. Clockblocker said you disappeared from the hospital. They're out looking for you."

"I told Lady Photon I'd be back," I said.

He nodded. "Yes, but you're also alone in a city that'll very soon be in chaos. Your team is worried."

"And that warrants the leader of the Protectorate paying me a personal visit?"

He chuckled. "Well—no. Not really. I wanted to talk to you."

I set Iphannis against a crumbling wall and clasped my hands behind my back. "All right. What is it?"

"Your team faced Leviathan alone today," he said. He lowered until his feet touched the ground, so that he was now only a few inches above me, rather than a few feet. "The eight of you held him long enough for Strider to get Bastion and some of his group to the hospital, to protect them from the tidal wave. You were a part of that."

"Well, I'm part of the team."

"You know what I mean."

I nodded. "It's an open secret at this point," I said. "I give out Rings of Power. My team has a set."

"Can you tell me about them?" he asked.

I found myself smiling. "I could," I said, "but it depends on what you want to know."

"What can they do?"

"It depends on who's wearing them. Parahumans get their powers enhanced, but even a normal human would get several benefits. Strength, speed, senses, the works."

"There has to be more than that, though." Legend was shaking his head. "You eight faced down Leviathan. And you were key in getting the other capes motivated, keeping their heads in the fight—don't think I didn't notice. A boost to strength and speed wouldn't do that."

"No," I agreed. "It's a lot more complex than that. I'm afraid I don't know how to put it into words, though. Charisma is part of it. We Ring-Bearers tend to be able to express ourselves and win over others better than we otherwise would. But there's much more to it."

"And you don't know how to explain it?"

"Not in general." I shook my head. "If you asked me to tell you about a specific Ring-Bearer, I could tell you what their Ring did for them, but that wouldn't help you much in predicting what it, or any other Ring of Power, would do for someone else."

He nodded. "I understand. They're a bit like powers, I guess."

"I suppose so."

He considered me for a moment. "As I understand it, you have twenty Rings you can make?"

"Yes," I said. "Although I only plan to make nineteen, in the end."

"Why?"

I hesitated. "The twentieth Ring has powers that… I'm not comfortable with."

There was a brief silence, broken only by the shrill cries of seagulls, returning at last after being driven off by Leviathan.

"Will you answer, if I ask you what kind of powers?"

"I—" I didn't honestly know. "I'd… prefer not to."

His lips were pursed. "If, hypothetically, you made it—would it be a threat to the Protectorate?"

I swallowed. "…Yes."

He sighed. "I had a feeling."

Was this it? Was I going to be captured, now? Had I overextended at last, and lost the good graces of the Protectorate, lost their protection?

"You know we won't hold that against you, right?"

I blinked. "What?"

He grinned suddenly. "This has really been worrying you, hasn't it?"

"Well…"

"Look," said Legend, crossing his arms and leaning against the ruined wall. "I work with Eidolon on a regular basis. I know that, if he wanted to, he could probably kill half the capes in this country without breaking a sweat. That doesn't stop me from working with him. I even consider him a friend."

"It's not the same."

"No," he agreed. "Eidolon isn't much of a master."

I froze.

"But it's close enough," the man stressed. "That's what I want you to understand, Annatar. We're not your enemies—no matter how scary your powers are."

Was he just talking about Vilya? Had they figured out what I could do, if I chose? How much did they know—and how did they know it?

I said the only thing I could think of. "Thank you."

He nodded and, probably seeing my discomfort, changed the subject. "Do you have any plans to distribute your other Rings any time soon?"

"Not the Nine, if that's what you're asking." I shook my head to clear it. "I haven't really seen a group of nine who really seemed to fit."

"I can only think of one group of nine, off the top of my head," admitted Legend, "and I suppose I should be very glad you don't think they're fit to get upgrades. But you're avoiding the question. If not the other nine, what? The Wards have seven, you have your three—"

"They're not my Three," I corrected. "They're the Three."

He blinked at me. "Wasn't swapping them out at will central to your combat style?"

I sighed. "Yes. But—there are other people who are suited to them, in a way I'm not. I'm not going to deny that. I can't."

He considered me. "Who are you planning to give them to?"

"I—" I shook my head. "No. They're an ally, I promise you that, but I don't want to tell anyone before I talk to them. They might not accept it. I'm only planning on giving one away, for now."

"But they're an ally?"

"Yes. I swear. I'm sorry I'm keeping so many secrets."

He shook his head, and for a moment I saw something dark pass across what little I could see of his face. "We all have secrets." Then the moment was gone. "All right. Keep me posted, if you can. And you should return to your team, soon."

"I will," I said. "I just—I need to do this first. Can you tell them to stop worrying?"

"All right," he repeated, his tone reminding me of my dad, "but hurry back. And be careful."

"Of course."

With that, he rose into the air and was gone. As soon as he had passed out of easy earshot, I pulled out the Jewelry Box and opened it with a whispered command.

Off came Narya, and on came Nenya. The Ring of Adamant was cool on my finger, and seemed to vibrate faintly in anticipation.

I sighed. "All right," I murmured. "You've served me well—and long enough. It's time you were passed to someone more fit to you."

For what would be the last time, I brought my lips to the Ring of Water. "Okay. Show me the way."

And, in a flash of crystalline insight, I knew where I needed to go.

With Nenya, I could have run. I didn't. I took my time, on this last stretch with the White Ring. Together we walked up ruined streets and through flooded alleys. People had started coming out of the Endbringer shelters, now, and they stared at me as I passed. I ignored them all.

Nenya guided me downtown, past the PRT building, into the heart of the city. Many of the skyscrapers had been damaged or destroyed by Leviathan. A few of the taller ones creaked ominously, as if they might crumble at any moment.

It was to one of these that I was drawn. I took the fire escape, climbing slowly up flight after flight of iron steps. It took some time to climb the fifty floors, but I felt no fatigue—not with Nenya on my finger, here at the end of my stewardship. Here and now, for the last time, I was unbowed.

No. Nenya might go to another bearer, but I would never forget what it had given me. Never again, perhaps, would I be able to feel the heady rush as the Ring of Water bolstered me, but I was Annatar, Ring-Maker and Gift-Giver. Unbowed I would remain, now and forever.

At last I came to the last flight. Above here was the roof. My shaking fingers closed over Nenya and, for the last time, I pulled it off of my finger.

"Edro a adlenc," I whispered to the Jewelry Box. Out came Vilya, but Nenya did not return in its place, and never would again.

I found that my eyes were wet. I wiped at them with a cloth I'd taken to carrying—it paid to do so, when I couldn't depend on sleeves.

Then I took a deep breath, and ascended the last flight of steps.

"Panacea," I said. "We need to talk."

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