Dallen stood in the shrine for a long time, the death warrants gripped in a hand so tense he could no longer feel anything. Navia had returned to her mansion hours ago. He felt relief at the temporary freedom allowed him.
The possibility of running occurred to him and, just as quickly, was dismissed. He'd never been to the Realm. One of Navia's Resplendent Destinies was the Master of the All-Seeing Eye. Even an Outrider couldn't avoid detection in the biggest city in the world...and he'd never get across the ocean unseen unless he swam.
Was she right?
No, she couldn't be. Dallen nodded once to himself as he stared at the statue of the Maiden, sword forever creasing her throat. "I can be that hard." He smirked. "Captain Thallen taught me that. But he taught me that there's some things a man can't live with. And Navia's crossed that line."
His smile widened as he watched the statute of a Maiden not his. "Soldier against soldier, anything goes. I'll kill military targets any way I can, when their back is turned, when they're asleep, by poison if I have to. They put themselves there by making the choice to pick up a sword and hurt others."
"But I'm not a Chosen of Endings or Secrets. Mars Chose me." Dallen looked skyward and caught the dim flicker of his Incarna. "You made me a soldier for You. Well, I'll soldier for you but there's some things I will never do. I won't kill people who have nothing to do with a fight, who didn't ask for it. And nothing Navia says will ever change that."
"Good for you."
Dallen whirled and snatched his starmetal daiklave out of its Elsewhere Point tucked in the back of his waistline. The blade stopped to point accusingly at the man lounging against the far hedge wall. With twenty feet between them, the sword wouldn't do much good but Dallen had no doubts of his ability to track the man if he tried to run.
"Put the fucking sword down before I snap it over your face, kid."
"Who are you?" Dallen demanded.
"Who wants to know?"
Dallen studied the muscular man as he advanced down the garden pathway. The power in the stranger's arms was obvious, even with a long-sleeved button down shirt and a dark red vest for warmth. His boots looked much sturdier than they needed to be for city-living yet he wore a short-brimmed hat that was decidedly unpractical beyond fashion. Dallen looked as a sniper looked and spotted the bulge of knives tucked beneath the wide scarlet sash at his waist, the two up his sleeves and the four in his boots. No armor, though. Interesting.
"Call me Dallen Andair." Not like he'd remember the name anyway.
"Call me Elated Fury."
"You're Elated Fury?" Dallen lowered his blade and stared wonderingly at the Lunar who stopped just outside the shrine entrance.
"Navia's talked about me, has she?" Elated Fury smiled grimly, a predatory flash of white teeth. Dallen saw the sparkle of yellow-blue in the man's eyes, the inhuman cast of a wolf lurking inside. It helped that he knew what to look for. "She should, the bitch. But I'm not around to talk about her. I want to talk about you, kid."
"What do you want?" Dallen asked. He couldn't help but notice the way Elated Fury paced the outside of the shrine, as if he couldn't enter. Come to think of it, he probably couldn't without tripping an alarm at least. Clever Lunar. Of course, he'd have to be to survive this long on the Blessed Isle.
Dallen remembered the first time he'd read a reference to the Silver Anathema. He'd been in Navia's office, filling out paperwork for his own, when he'd spotted a 'Wanted' poster on the wall, one of the Division of Endings Proclamations of Doom upon some individual. He'd thought it strange to see one here and then he'd noticed how old it was. Asking around hadn't been hard. It was well known that Elated Fury had killed Navia's last Dragon-blooded pupil and tried to kill the man who became her husband. Somehow, he slipped the Sidereal who'd caught him and no one had ever caught him since.
The rogue Lunar didn't look centuries old. He didn't look much past his late 30s actually. He certainly didn't look like the only man Iselsi Navia appeared to have a vendetta with.
"Your help."
"You're serious. Why? What makes you think I can? What makes you think I will? Why should I trust you?" Dallen chuckled, feeling fairly safe. Navia wasn't far from this garden and she wouldn't leave a death warrant on her family unprotected.
"Enough with the fucking questions!" Elated Fury shook his head, took his hat off and scratched his shoulder-length brown hair. The gesture inexplicably reminded Dallen of E'lial, the fellow Chosen of Battles he'd only met once. "Let's put our cards down, kid. I fucking hate your kind. And I've every reason to believe your kind hates me. The thing of it is, you're the first man I've ever met who hated Navia as much as I do. What'd she do to you, anyway?"
"That's none of your business, mister."
"Fine by me, kid. I'm not here to trade secrets. I'm here to fuck Navia over the way she fucked me over. You have something I want. And I bet I have something you want."
The older Lunar's yellow-blue eyes caught the moonlight, gleamed in a suddenly monstrous way. Dallen remembered Sae'ril and how she did things. For some reason, he didn't think Elated Fury did things the same way. "Like you said, let's put our cards down. What do you want from me?"
"What you're holding."
Dallen looked down at the sword in his hand...then looked at death warrants still clutched in the other. "What? Why? They won't do you any good."
"You let me worry about that, kid."
The Chosen of Battles shivered in the cool spring night. For all that the Sidereal were supposed to be the secret spymasters of the world, at the moment he knew a deeper game moved around him. Elated Fury wanted to use him as a pawn. Then again, so did Navia. Who to trust? A Lunar he knew nothing about or his Sifu?
...actually, he did know something about Elated Fury. Navia hated him.
"Let's say I'm willing. What are you offering?"
"Your girl." Dallen stared at the Lunar, suddenly suspicious. "Shit, I haven't kidnapped her, kid." Elated Fury looked disgusted. "I can get her for you, though."
"You mean like...a message or her in person?"
"Message would be easier...but I'm pretty sure I could swing getting her here." Elated Fury inhaled sharply. "And those other people you're worried about. Your commander and your fellow soldiers."
Dallen thought about it. "And I'm supposed to trust you? Like you said, my kind hate you and I know you hate my Sifu. I give you these documents, you can walk off and disappear. But I have to trust you to uphold your end of the deal...and I don't know why I should believe you will."
"If you know anything about me, you'll know I deal squarely." Elated Fury straightened, tugged on his vest tightly and gave Dallen a serious look. "I believe a man is only worth their word. I couldn't do business without the trust that comes from keeping that word. You have my word, kid. It's up to you if it's enough. I want what I want and you want what you want. And we both hate Iselsi Navia, no matter who she says she is this time. You in?"
Dallen stood there for a long, agonizing minute. Elated Fury let him be, seeming to implictly recognize the internal conflict. For Dallen had to admit, he felt conflict. He didn't know what Elated Fury wanted with death warrants he couldn't use...but there was no question the Lunar hated Navia. No question Navia hated him too, given what he'd already done to her.
Which was the problem. Elated Fury had killed Navia's pupil, a daughter of the Scarlet Empress. He'd already tried to murder Da'nashay once. Dallen didn't doubt the man would follow through if he had the chance to do it again.
And Dallen couldn't permit that.
The Chosen of Endings trembled once, the pain of losing Velessa to the other side of the world burning anew with this poisoned hope. He could see her again...if he sold out one of the finest Generals of the Scarlet Empire, a man of honor and courage. For all the difference that birth and age made, Da'nashay could be Captain Thallen Keo's brother. They were that much alike. And Colonel Da'nashay Rhiann had some of Chen's stately reserve mingled with a hint of Kestrel's warmth. She was a soldier of valor who certainly did not deserve to die horribly, a sacrificed pawn in the struggle between an elder Sidereal and Lunar.
"I can't do it."
"This isn't some fucked-up Sidereal loyalty, is it?" Elated Fury sniffed, rubbed his nose and shrugged. "Guess not. I respect you, kid. Can't say I like it going against me but I respect a man who sticks by his principles."
"So what now?" Dallen said.
"Now?" Elated Fury glanced skyward and tugged his coat closed. "You go back to training with a Sidereal you hate. I go back to getting shit done, the way I always do it. Maybe someday we'll have a little more trust. So let me make the first move." The Lunar reached into a pocket and pulled out a black signet ring. He gently set it down on the ground, just outside the shrine entrance.
"What's that?"
"What's it look like? It's a fucking invitation." Elated Fury smiled again, a feral baring of teeth that seemed equal parts threat and amusement. "If you change your mind...if you want to trade for information or do business, you bring that to the Eleven O'clock Owl. You show it to the staff and you can find me."
Dallen stared at the black signet ring and slipped his sword back into the Elsewhere Point. "That's a lot of trust."
"Could be. Could be a trap to fuck you over too." Elated Fury chuckled and backed up. "The choice is still yours, kid. You can trust me or not...but I've made the first gesture. You change your mind, come find me. But leave the bitch at home. If I ever see her, I'm afraid I'll have to bust her fucking teeth in and I don't want to do that to a woman." He tipped his hat. "Be seeing you, Corporal."
Dallen watched the Lunar go. He watched long after the Exalt had disappeared, longer still until the sky began to lighten. Stiffly, he moved from where he'd stood during the night and carefully tucked the Heaven-Wrought Parchment back into the hand of the Maiden. Then he headed for bed.
"Navia...what are you doing awake?"
Iselsi Navia turned from the window and glanced back at her husband. Pale streaks of dawning light in the sky illumed the deep purples and reds of her husband's bare chest and arms. The canopy kept his face in shadow but Navia saw the pure emerald gleam of his eyes in the dark. She smiled.
"I was collecting my thoughts." The Chosen of Secrets looked back and spotted Dallen making his way toward the mansion. Her Supernal Awareness sifted through the myriad layers of Essence, separating out his personal Essence from the Elsewhere point on his person. Finding nothing, Navia's senses probed across the mansion's lawn, into the shrine, and past the thousand tiny wards beneath the shrine, painstakingly carved for her by the Mountain Folk. She let out a breath and chided herself for the tension. The Heaven-Wrought Parchment was back in the Maiden's hand.
"You're leaving again," Da'nashay said. The deep rumble of his voice tickled her back when his chest pressed against her shoulders. Powerful arms, honed by decades of service in the Legions, slid around her.
Navia leaned back into his embrace. "Yes, later today. I wish I could stay longer."
"I have always loved your devotion to duty." The Dragon-Blooded husband of the Chosen of Secrets leaned down and kissed her neck. Rough stubble scratched her neck, a reassuring familiarity so distinctly him.
"And I have always loved you." Navia permitted the two tears that fell from her eyes and Da'nashay did not notice them. "No matter what happens, remember that. If you never remember anything else, always remember that." Her hands crept out and clasped his wrists tightly as she cherished the feeling of safety and shelter. "Something important is coming up."
He stiffened behind her, the hard sheathes of muscle beneath his skin tightening as if turning to jade. "I remember the last time something important came up."
"I'm sorry I couldn't find your mother. I tried." Navia sighed deeply, reassured once more by the caress of his hand on her shoulder. He'd never held that failure against her, nor reproached her for not telling him his mother had gone missing until a year later. Da'nashay was a very good man, one of the best. And he loved her. "I may be around more. Perhaps a great deal more this year."
"I would like that."
"I will join you for breakfast in a few minutes, my husband." Navia patted his hand as it squeezed her arm once before withdrawing. Da'nashay silently dressed and withdrew, knowing and respecting her needs.
When she was finally alone, Navia drew a Lesser Sign of Secrets and secured the bedroom against all manner of spying, divination and mischief. In a minute, this part of the mansion might as well have been in the Forbidding Manse of Ivy. The Chosen of Secrets closed the drapes, casting the room into shadow.
She stood for a minute longer, reassuring herself that all was safe. "Sol Invictus, my Maiden Jupiter Chose me long ago but my heart was Yours before any other." The Sidereal bowed her head reverentially. "Hear my sins, Father, and pardon them please." She knelt.
"I put my husband and daughter's life in another's hands yesterday. I did so, knowing that there was a 2 chance of him signing their deaths...and a 49 chance of him giving their fate into the hands of Elated Fury. They could have been sentenced to death, Father, and I confess my culpability in this matter. I place this sin before You."
Navia kissed her fingertips and pressed them between her breasts, against her heart.
"Sol Invictus, hear the sins I must commit and pardon them please." The Sidereal drew a deep breath. "I must keep my husband and daughter in danger and risk their lives again, every time it is necessary. I place this sin before You. I must drive Dallen to make connections in the Gold Faction and bind himself to the Bureau of Fate by Ascending Fire or destroy his love with the Wanting and Fearing. I place this sin before You."
The Chosen of Secrets kissed her fingertips, touched her forehead and then pressed her fingers against her heart again. She took a deep breath and spoke on.
"I must continue to kill Your Children, Father, wherever they rise. I must destroy their agenda, their power and their lives and I must stop them without mercy or honor for they have proven they are beyond redemption, just as I am." One tear fell. "I must continue to sin grievously against You to save the world. I must sacrifice my life and all that I want for myself to save the world. I must embrace wickedness to save the world." Another tear fell. "I place this sin before You. May the world You represent come to be someday...and may it be a place my daughters can live in." Two more tears.
Navia halted, briefly overcome by that vision of paradisiacal hope. "Father, I honor and revere Your name and what You represent. When someday comes...I pray You forgive my sins and make my destruction as swift as I deserve."
Her prayer done, the elder Chosen of Secrets leaned backwards and huddled against the foot of the bed permitted herself the Secret luxury of crying. When she finished, Navia dried her face and put on a dress of finely spun green silk with a gold trim. She studied her reflection in the mirror on her dresser and nodded, satisfied.
Serenity was making peace with the evil you do.