Chapter 5 - Fair Play

I ran most of the night, and when the sun rose I went to hide in the forest so that the patrols of soldiers thundering down the road towards Windfall wouldn't find me. Since Dove had all of my supplies, traveling was as unpleasant as it had been when I'd first come down from the mountains.

After two days with very little sleep and nothing in my stomach but some foul-smelling deer berries, I worked up the resolve that I needed to return to the road where I might barter for a good meal and a warm blanket. The Imperial City was still miles away, much further than the distance between the lands of the Snow Owls and Chio. If I managed to find passage in the tiny river port of Uzun, I could make it in seven or eight days. If I had to continue on foot the entire way, it would likely take me two weeks or even longer.

As long as I'd been on the road already, I wasn't intimidated by the prospect of walking but after what had happened in Chio, I was certain that Ragara Sephora had raised the alarm and probably conscripted all the Ravenous Winds currently assembling in her city into her own private Wyld Hunt.

The list of those who might come to kill me was growing by the day and yet somehow, I was much less afraid than I had been. Although I didn't doubt the resolve of Dragonlord Chiron and his Scarlets or the Abbey of Mela, I was no longer sure that any of them could bring me down. In a fair fight, I'd certainly lose... against an army, but I had no intention of fighting fair. Running... or "flying" away was a much better option.

Making it to my destination would still be the mother of all gauntlets, however. The only way I could survive was to lie low and not use any Essence whatsoever, a feat that I was beginning to believe was thoroughly impossible for an Anathema. Not long ago, using Essence had been as mentally and physically draining for me as running five miles in a strong wind... but since I had changed, it had become as simple to me as any other tool and more comfortable than most. It had always been a habit of mine to stay up very late tinkering and with all of Godchaser's persistent troubles I had no shortage of problems to solve.

More than once I worked until almost dawn and was forced to keep to the forest all day because I was sparkling somewhat. I spent much of my time in meditation, trying to conserve my energy with as little food as I was eating.

I continued on towards Uzun and occasionally stopped to chat with travelers along the road although I avoided showing my tools or volunteering my services unless I was in desperate need of food. I gave Godchaser as much Essence as I dared each evening after sunset and used none at all throughout the day.

On my fourth day after leaving Windfall, I discovered an overturned trader's wagon in the forest that had given me some raw material to work with, mostly tin and copper but also a small amount of silver gilt that hadn't been previously scavenged. I hoped that the wagon's unfortunate owners who had abandoned most of their possessions had at least escaped with their lives. I tinkered a little as I walked. I knew I'd need something for trade sooner or later, and one good piece of jewelry could buy me a week's worth of food. Still, I kept my focus on the road. There were no shortage of dangers in the wilderness, wild animals and bandits as well as fae... which were infinitely worse than either.

I had never actually encountered fae before, but I knew some of the ways to detect their presence. Strange wispy lights that drifted through the trees after dark were sometimes called "fairy lanterns" and hungry goblins were not above tearing apart wildlife in particularly gruesome ways. Any place touched by fae taint behaved unpredictably. Flowers took on unusually brilliant hues, the normal sounds of the forest changed, rivers flowed the wrong directions and other impossible, cacophonous things occurred all around.

As I neared the river port of Uzun, I began noticing every sign of Wyld taint that I had ever been warned of, and my heart very nearly skipped a beat when I saw an enormous tree standing completely upside-down, its topmost branches barely touching the ground and its roots reaching into the sky. There was something in the air that made my skin prickle.

"Fae." Godchaser whispered, venom in her tone.

At first I'd suspected that I had been misinformed about fae, given how so much that I'd thought I knew about Gods and Anathema had been proven false... but Godchaser despised fae even more than Sidereals, which left me convinced that they were as bad as all the stories made them sound. And powerful too, by the looks of things. I stared at the upside-down tree for a full ten minutes before I decided to keep going. Of course, the moment I turned away from the spectacle, I heard the sound of a silver flute. And so I turned back to see where it was coming from.

"No, Maker! We should go!" Godchaser protested. "Now!"

"In a minute." I retorted, following the music that was wafting through the trees like a man possessed. It was impossible to resist. Evil as the fae undoubtedly were, they were said to have an appreciation for those who were especially clever and I was curious to learn how a tree so enormous had been completely uprooted and made to stand on its own branches without breaking under its own weight.

Not far from the large upside-down tree was a grove of slightly smaller trees all similarly suspended in midair. Sitting on the roots of one such tree was a fae nearly the size of a man. He was dressed in leaves and had goat hooves for feet, long pointed ears, a crown of stag horns and eyes of pure, liquid green. The fae was undoubtedly the musician I had heard, and as I approached him he smirked at me, his unnaturally broad grin marked with a pair of wicked little fangs.

"My apologies." I said. "I didn't mean to interrupt you. I suppose you're the one who turned these trees upside-down?"

"And if I did?" The fae replied. His voice was like his flute, liquid, silvery, and impossible to ignore.

"Oh, I'm not looking for trouble. I'm actually rather curious as to how you did it." I admitted.

"I couldn't explain in any way that one such as yourself would understand." The fae laughed. "Now tell me, traveler... what are you doing so very far from the safety of the road?"

"The road isn't safe for me." I replied honestly.

"Odd. You don't look like someone who ought to be on the run." The fae observed.

"That's a very silly thing for you to say." I smiled slightly.

"Why so?" The fae wondered.

"Well, because you don't look like someone capable of turning large trees upside-down." I retorted.

That remark did draw a chuckle from the fae. "Well played, traveler! Have you a name?"

I saw no reason to lie. "Ilumio Veritas." I replied. "Or Recluse, it's all the same to me."

"Ilumio? That's Rivertongue, a Merchant House if I'm not mistaken? You're from the Scavenger Lands?" The fae wondered, raising an eyebrow in my direction.

"Only by birth. I was raised in the Imperial City." I replied.

"Still, an interesting name." The fae observed. "I'm rather surprised you gave it to me so readily. Most would try to use an alias. You're not afraid that I might use your name to ensnare you and bind you into servitude?"

"I wouldn't recommend that." I smiled slightly.

"Why, is that a veiled threat?" The fae gaped at me. "Who do you think you are, taunting a Knight of Cups?" He demanded, leaping down from his tree. He approached me slowly, sniffing me like an animal, obviously oblivious to the concept of personal space.

His eyes widened in disbelief as I brushed him away. I'd repaired my cloak as best as I was able to, but I'd had to cut apart some of the inner liner for patches which meant that from certain angles Godchaser's tendrils were actually visible, particularly when I lifted my arms.

The fae took a few hesitant steps back, watching me carefully. "Ah. On second thought, I seem to remember hearing a magnificent story this morning about a golden demon kidnapping a girl in Chio." He paused. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" He pressed.

"Kidnapping!" I gasped, too shocked to pretend that I didn't know what the fae was talking about. "I didn't kidnap her, I rescued her!" I protested. "She was going to be sacrificed!"

"Oooh!" The fae exclaimed. "I was going to write a song about the whole debacle, you see... but I'm beginning to think that you must have a much more interesting version of the tale. Would you care to share it with a fellow monster?"

I gritted my teeth as he spoke those words. "Don't call me a monster! I'm nothing like you!" I protested.

"Of course you're not. I know that. But the world sees no difference between us, does it?" The fae taunted.

I sighed heavily and buried my head in my hands. The fae cackled gleefully and my face burned. He was right, and the thought was utterly humiliating!

"Graces, I'd almost forgotten how pathetic you Solars can be! Can you help but carry the weight of Creation on your shoulders? You love all those little mortals, don't you... even as they curse you! Those wretched Incarnae may believe that their favor is a gift, but when was the last time any of them actually set foot in Creation? Believe me, I've no intention of adding to your burden, it's already beyond absurd. Do rest assured that not one of my kind will ever call you brother. And you will find that no self-respecting demon will make such a mistake either."

The fae paused. "But I do dearly love a good intrigue! So tell me what really happened, if you will... and perhaps we will be friends?"

I sighed and sat down on a nearby tree... not one of the upside-down ones, but one that looked to have been felled by natural means, probably a lightning strike. The fae crouched directly across from me on a boulder that I was certain hadn't been there only moments before. It appeared to have risen out of the ground as he desired a place to sit.

Not knowing where to begin, I started with how Himitsu had framed me for a crime I hadn't committed and how Abbot Manu had taken me in when I was destined for execution... or to lose one of my hands as a thief, which was worse than a death sentence from my perspective. I told the fae everything about how I had met Dragonlord Chiron and discovered Himitsu posing as his servant, of how the Dragonlord had given me Godchaser and what I had done to fix her. I confessed all of my own private thoughts and realized as I began describing how I'd met Dove that there was something very wrong with me.

Try though I might, I found that I could not tear myself away from the fae's soulless green eyes.

"How dare you!" Godchaser shrieked suddenly. Shocked by the shrillness of her voice so close to my ears, I immediately pulled away from the fae, staggering to my feet. My head was spinning.

The fae looked very surprised to hear Godchaser speak, and even more shocked as she flew off of my shoulders and directly into his face. She couldn't really hold him down, but her fiery eyes were narrowed. If she had hands, it was obvious that she would have used them to strangle him.

"My Maker is protected!" She snarled. "Maybe the Unconquered Sun is too busy with the Games but you should know that the Weeping Maiden is always watching! Do you realize what you've done?"

The fae's eyes widened in horror. He gibbered some sort of apology and fled without a backwards glance, his upside-down trees crashing to the ground with his sudden departure and his boulder sinking back into the earth. Unsteady as I was on my feet, I clung to Godchaser who hovered firmly in place despite having my weight upon her.

"What was that about?" I wondered uneasily.

"He was trying to ravish you." Godchaser replied.

"I... I think I know that now." I grimaced, rubbing my temples. "But who is this Weeping Maiden that he was so afraid of?"

"I don't remember exactly." Godchaser admitted. "I just thought for some reason that any fae should be very afraid of her, and that she... I can't say."

"Spit it out." I sighed, knowing she had stopped on one of her forbidden words.

"The Weeping Maiden likes Twilights. She protects them. I don't know why." Godchaser explained.

"She protects me?" I wondered uneasily.

"Oh no, she hates you! Or at least she did hate you, when you were still Perfect. You were always one of Autochthon's favorites, and his sort are far too orderly for the Maiden." Godchaser laughed. "But that fae, he wouldn't know if you were one of the Maiden's Twilights or not. So I made him think that you might be."

"You lied?" I smiled slightly, despite how dizzy and awful you felt. "You're brilliant!"

"I am as you made me." Godchaser replied smugly.

Still feeling nauseous, I headed in the direction of the road, finding myself a somewhat sheltered place to sleep. For the first time since I'd changed, my thoughts were raw and jumbled. I couldn't focus for more than a moment or two and the last thing I consciously remembered was Godchaser hovering over me and repeating something incoherent in Old Realm with a nervous expression on her face.

When I awoke, I was tied to a tree. It was sometime after sunrise but not yet midday. A fire burned very close to my feet, but not close enough that I could kick a piece of wood out of it. Fortunately, whoever had tied the gag around my mouth had not done a very good job about it. I spit out the dirty piece of gray cloth. "Help!" I shouted, not sure if anyone could actually hear me.

There was no response. Even Godchaser was nowhere to be seen.

I struggled to release myself from my bonds, but whoever had bound my wrists knew how to tie a good knot and my tools were on the opposite side of the smoldering fire pit. Someone had obviously rifled through them and probably taken the jewelry that I had made from the my metal scraps. I couldn't guess who my captors were, though I somewhat doubted that they were members of the Scarlets or the Ravenous Winds, mostly because I was bound and not dead.

I'd been awake but still bound for nearly an hour when I noticed a ghostly gray figure floating through the trees near the road. "Help!" I shouted again, not caring that I would make myself a very tempting and easy target.

Godchaser hovered to a stop before me and looked down on me in a particularly condescending manner. I smiled and shrugged slightly. I couldn't move more than a few inches and even when I pulled as hard as I could, the ropes around my wrists did nothing but cut into my skin. Godchaser hovered around me, surveying my predicament. "This." She remarked dryly. "Is exactly why you should make me hands."

"Cut it out. I know you want me set free!" I sighed heavily. "What can you do about the rope?"

"Nothing." Godchaser replied. "I need Essence."

"I'll bet you do. How long have you been hovering?" I wondered.

"Not long. We aren't very far from where they took you. I waited until I was sure that they were gone, and then I had to wait some more so that no one would see me crossing the road." She explained.

"Good thinking." I nodded. "So what now?"

"Now you make up a plan. And quickly too, because the ones who tied you up are coming back!" Godchaser informed me. I sighed heavily and she faltered slightly. She looked ready to say something else but then the light went out of her and she collapsed to the ground without another word, just a few feet in front of me. At first I thought that she'd exhausted herself... and then she winked at me mischievously. My captors had returned, and part of whatever plan I was supposed to formulate clearly involved Godchaser being mistaken for an inanimate object.

I evaluated the four men as they approached. An inexperienced eye might have called them monks, but I knew better. They were bandits, dressed in the simple fashion of the Immaculate Order solely so that they might subsist off of the charity of the ignorant between raids.

"Ah, it looks like our unfortunate traveler is awake!" The first bandit, obviously the leader, cackled.

"What's the meaning of this?" I demanded.

"Nothing personal. Easy pickings, that's all." He replied with a smirk. "Ravaged by fae, were you?"

I said nothing, but the bandit leader clearly knew that he had guessed right. "They save us a tremendous amount of work." He remarked casually. "It's almost a pity, really. Haven't had to draw my sword in months and still doing a brisk trade in slaves."

"And there's nothing at all in your black heart that tells you you've no business selling another person, least of all one in such a delicate state?" I demanded.

"You sound awfully lucid for running into fae." The second bandit observed.

"I'm a hard nut to crack. The fae succeeded in exhausting me but my faculties are perfectly intact." I replied. "Really, it would be better for you if you were to let me go."

"Huh, big words for a man tied to a tree." The leader snorted.

"Wait. What is this?" The third bandit wondered, reaching for Godchaser. "Dragons, it weighs a ton!" He exclaimed in shock as he picked her up and dropped her. I twitched slightly despite myself. The bandits laughed... that is, until their leader kicked Godchaser. My sloppy stitching came undone as she rolled over and light fell on her orichalcum carapace.

"Is that gold?" The leader stared in disbelief.

The bandits muttered to one another and then the leader turned back to me. "Where did this thing come from?" He demanded.

"I don't know." I lied. "It was here when I woke up."

He frowned at my sloppy bluff. "You'll speak or I'll kill you." The bandit leader warned.

"Loosen these ropes a little and I'll speak." I retorted.

"I loosen them and you'll escape." The second bandit interrupted. From the fancy work on his belt, I suspected he was the one who'd tied me in the first place. "Don't think we need whatever it is that you think you're hiding. Someone in Uzun will pay us good coin for that metal."

"Not good enough. Not nearly what it's worth." I replied truthfully. "And that's only if you can find someone capable of taking it apart." Though orichalcum looked like gold to the ignorant, it could not be worked so easily, requiring frightfully high temperatures or a large amount of Essence. "Someone will certainly swindle you if don't know exactly what you're trying to unload."

The leader of the bandits mused over what I'd said and then motioned for his knot-tier to loosen my bonds. "Right then, if you're so smart... what is it?" He demanded.

"She is a Ninefold Harmonic Essence Tracking Teleportation Device, third prototype. The Godchaser." I replied.

"The Godchaser?" The leader eyed me warily.

"Yes. She chases Gods and other beings by tracking their Essence. And she can teleport after them when they discorporate, so it's quite impossible for them to escape." I explained.

"Escape from what?" The leader demanded.

"From me." I replied, slipping my bonds and slowly standing.

"Clever!" The leader pointed his sword at me, chuckling slightly.

"Those were good knots. Until your friend here loosened them." I smirked. "I'll be going now." I informed him.

"You can't just walk out of here!" The second bandit snapped.

"Yes, I can." I retorted.

The third bandit, thinking he was being stealthy, came up behind me and I dropped him immediately with a backfist. With a hoot of savage glee, Godchaser leapt into the air and chased the leader of the bandits directly into a tree.

The fourth bandit ran without looking back, leaving only the knot-tier staring at me in disbelief. Seeing that he was alone, he attempted a very nice strike at my throat which I parried easily and then a clean sidekick that struck my chest forcefully enough to send me staggering a few feet back. I caught his next punch and he responded with a maneuver that made me suspect he had a good amount of training in some Immaculate style.

Possibly, he would even beat me... if I didn't have one more weapon at my disposal. I let him bar my right arm and force me to my knees, pretending that I was beaten. It hurt as he twisted my wrist almost to the point of breaking, but the moment he stepped around to look down at me, I saw my opening.

With a slight smirk, I glanced up at him over my left shoulder and flared my mark.

"Anathema!" He gasped, releasing me as if he'd just been burned. I reversed his maneuver and dropped him at the foot of the tree where he'd tied me. Using the same rope I'd been bound with, I tied him up first and then took care of his two unconscious companions.

"You tie a damn good knot, demon." The knot-tier observed.

"Can you get out of it?" I wondered.

"Our friend will cut us free when he returns." The knot-tier informed me.

"Do you honestly think he's coming back?" I sighed, my hands on my hips. The knot-tier hung his head in defeat.

"He's going as far as Uzun, where he'll tell everyone you three were eaten by demons and then drink until he can't stand." I informed him.

"Why didn't you kill us? The knot-tier demanded, glancing at his unconscious companions.

"No reason to. Incapacitating you was easier." I replied. "Strictly speaking, I don't believe in killing anyone. Your Water Dragon Style is not bad, by the way. Have you ever thought about actually becoming a monk?"

The knot-tier snorted. He was trying to seem nonchalant, but I could see that he was already worming his way free of the bonds I'd put on him.

Searching through the bandit's gear, I helped myself to all of their ill-gotten coin and then found an old sword with a particularly flimsy blade. While I didn't have what I needed to bend the metal in my toolbox, I had discovered that when I lacked a particular physical tool, I could do something quite spectacular. If I understood something inherently, I didn't need tools at all. I could simply use Essence to work the metal as I needed to. Of, course, crafting without physical tools made it very obvious what I was. Essence flared around my fingertips as I touched the metal and it obediently bent into the shape I desired. The knot -tier watched me work, awestruck and then grimaced as I fit him with a good pair of freshly forged shackles made from the blade of his own shoddy weapon. "That is still a sword you're wearing." I informed him. "Struggle too much and it will cut you."

"So you're leaving us to rot then?" He demanded. "Or be eaten by fae?"

"Do you think you deserve better? But no... as I've already told you, I don't kill people. But I don't let people who victimize others escape without punishment either. I won't come back this way, but I'll send the authorities to find you when I reach Uzun." I informed him. "In the meantime, I suggest that you start considering a career change. Before you're put on trial, get someone to send a message to the Abbey of Mela." I advised. "Ask for forgiveness and sanctuary."

"The Abbey won't take us in!" The knot-tier protested. "They won't believe we can be reformed!"

"They'll take you in. And if they don't believe you can be reformed, you'll just have to prove it to them." I replied. "There are things you have to give up to be a monk, but it's an honest life, and a good one. Better than starvation or living on this damned road."

"How do you know so much about monks, demon?" The knot-tier demanded.

"Until very recently, I was one." I informed him. "My name is Veritas Ilumio. Remember it. You're going to be hearing it a lot."

"I take it you'll be blazing a path of death and destruction?" The knot-tier glared.

"Actually, I'm saving Creation from bastards like you!" I replied with a smirk. "Well, have a nice night! And I do hope it rains!"

Whistling a little to myself, I walked away. I made it about two miles when I decided that it was time to attend to Godchaser. I gave her some Essence and did as much sewing as my tired fingers would tolerate before finding myself a little copse of green where I could spend the night. I considered saying a prayer to the local rain Gods, just to see if they would arrange a nice cold drizzle over the heads of the bandit monks I'd just humiliated.

From the top of the hill, I could see Uzun. It wasn't likely that I would make it to my destination before dark and I didn't want to play twenty questions with the porters who closed the gates after nightfall. Once the sun was down, the gates of the city would only be opened for honest and upstanding local residents with believable reasons for arriving home so late. After rescuing Dove, I'd felt considerably less confident about my own invincibility... and so I'd begun to do something that I hadn't done since before Dragonlord Chiron had arrived at the Abbey of Mela to find me.

I'd begun to pray.

When I'd still been a monk, it had been my habit to recite sutras in the early evening, but the words that I had formerly sought comfort in had begun to worry me. I wondered if there was some danger in praying to the Dragons as a demon and then decided to say a few words to the local Gods of each place where I camped instead.

My experience with Mochi had convinced me that the little Gods would not condemn me for what I was and would gladly aid me if I asked them to. Since leaving Windfall I had met two more rice paddy Gods, the God of Deer Berries, the God of Moss, and their mistress, the Goddess of The Silver River. All addressed me with the same sort of flowery antiquated language as they asked for small boons that I was only too happy to grant. With their aid, I had successfully evaded all of my pursuers, a pack of wolves and even a pair of goblins who were fighting over a sorry-looking duck. The little Gods had protected me from everything save for the powerful tree-uprooting Fae who'd tried to devour my mind and the four bandits who'd found me lying in a ditch afterwards, both things that I suspected were beyond their power.

Godchaser was not at all pleased with my new devotion, although she grudgingly admitted that the little Gods were proving to be useful. She referred to them often as "meddlers" and "upstarts" who ought to know better than to manipulate a Lord of Creation. If I wanted to pray, she informed me, it ought to be to a suitably powerful God, preferably the Unconquered Sun who had "Chosen" me.

Of course, because I had added the word "Chosen" to my list, Godchaser hesitated to say it. She annoyed me with her waffling until I demanded that she tell me everything that she was thinking, at which point she launched into a very long lecture concerning the duties of Solars. According to Godchaser, it was absolutely necessary for me to stop berating myself for what I might have done wrong and embrace the fact that I was not Anathema, but an Exalt of the highest caliber.

I didn't want to admit to Godchaser that I was beginning to believe everything she had said. I'd met more than a few despicable monsters in my travels so far and could not see myself turning into one. If anything, I'd been suffused with a kind of righteous fervor that told me I was meant to stand against evil, whether it reared its ugly head in the form of a Dragonblooded sorceress, a fae trickster, or a bandit monk.

I waited until Godchaser was asleep and then left her sitting on a rock where I could still see her out of the corner of my eye. I took off most of my layers of clothing and put all of my tools away, wanting nothing that might distract me too close at hand. Leaving even my shoes behind, I stood on the edge of the cliff and watched the sunset. After a few moments meditation, I felt ready to pray. The words which came to me were in Old Realm and I barely understood some of them... but they flowed out from me as if I had recited them daily for all of my life.

"Sol Invictus, powerful and wise,

bestower of great gifts who cherishes and nurtures,

through whom we live and draw the breath of being,

I offer and accord you the highest thanks.

Please hear and aid me, and help me out of my misfortune.

Grant me peace, safety and good health.

Show my eyes the truth, place only kind words upon my tongue,

Guide my actions to the betterment of all.

Protect me as I..."

I hesitated. The words which came next stuck in my throat.

The sun rested on the horizon line, cut thorough its center by distant fields of rice. In that moment of rare and perfect symmetry, the sky was unusually spectacular, gold and ruddy orange surrounding the red half-circle of sun itself and a corona of blue and purple bleeding into the black of the night sky.

Such radiance was positively terrifying, but at the same time, I recognized the presence I felt. I picked a small piece of copper wire out of my pocket and twisted it into a circle. The wire needed my hands to give it shape and purpose. It became something when I crafted it, something necessary and beautiful. If I could take a piece of broken wire and transform it into a work of art, why couldn't a great and powerful God do the same with a man?

"Protect me as I work in your name." I finished.

Though I'd denied it at first because the truth was so overwhelming, I understood then that I had been raw metal myself, and Chosen from all of the useless little pieces of slag in the world. My weaknesses had been cut away. My strengths had been sharpened with terrifying precision. I hadn't been possessed by a demon! I'd been forged into a tool fit to be wielded by the Unconquered Sun!

The moment was exquisitely beautiful. I had to tell someone how I felt, and I knew exactly who would appreciate the confession that was bursting out of me.

"Godchaser!" I shouted, racing back to where I'd left my companion. "Godchaser, I've had an epiphany!"

She did not respond.

"Godchaser?" I whispered fearfully, carefully lifting her up. Her hearthstone, black and lifeless, fell into my hand.

I worked furiously all night. Although Godchaser had likened her hearthstone to my heart, I understood enough about how she actually worked to know that her death would not be permanent if I kept enough Essence flowing through her. Her hearthstone allowed her to regulate Essence like a living being, but it was the Essence itself that kept her alive, not the stone. Unfortunately, the more active she was, the more quickly she burned through her reserves. In the end, I decided to stabilize her in the only way I knew how. I made sure that she would stay "asleep" until her hearthstone was working again.

I wouldn't have her help or her companionship, but maybe that way she would survive the long journey to Nexus and my so-called manse, a place that I had never seen in any time that I could remember. The feeling that came over me when I finished doing what I could was something akin to sitting at the bedside of someone seriously ill. On one hand, I knew Godchaser needed to rest. But I also hoped that I would have the opportunity to speak with her again, at least one more time if I couldn't save her. I needed to tell her that she'd been right from the very beginning!

I said a dozen prayers to the local Gods and then several more to my new patron so that he would not be offended. Dwelling on the subject of death did bring an uncomfortable question to mind. Was there an afterlife for beings like Godchaser? Did constructs have souls?

When the sun rose, I went down to Uzun. I gave a filthy little boy a handful of the bandit's gold and instructed him to tell everyone that three bandit monks had tried to rob an Anathema who'd left them tied up in the forest not far away. Such a strange story immediately drew most of the local authorities out onto the road heading west and helped me slip through town undetected.

I found the first ship that was headed in the direction of the Imperial City and paid for passage with the remainder of the coins I'd taken from the bandits without bothering to haggle down the absurd price.

It departed at noon and that was all that mattered to me. I did not want to stay in one place any longer than I absolutely had to. I sat nervously in a corner of the deck, avoiding everyone's gaze until the ship was loaded and leaving port. It would be difficult to hide on such a crowded vessel, but it would only be a few days until we reached the Imperial City at which point I would be able to look for better, more private accommodations for my voyage to Nexus.

I'd have to be careful how I plied my trade, particularly since I was still being hunted... but a few well-placed inquiries would probably find me some of the jobs I was really looking for, the ones that were exceptionally difficult and high-paying.

On the evening of my first day aboard, I dozed off near the ship's galley and was woken abruptly several hours later by the shrieks of two mischievous children who'd spotted a rat. Their mother groaned and gathered them up, muttering an apology to everyone who'd been sleeping. I almost nodded off again, thinking it best to rest while I had the opportunity... but then someone sat down beside me.

The young woman was deeply tanned with beautiful, unusual cerulean blue eyes. She was dressed in simple, serviceable indigo linen, a dark leather vest, breeches and the kind of soft acrobat's shoes that Westerners often wore when they were hopping from ship to ship. Obviously an experienced traveler, she alo carried a very fine sword on her hip and a battered old case which I suspected contained an instrument. It was obvious that she had a weakness for gold jewelry, though everything she wore was cheap and not very well-crafted. There were a number of bracelets on her wrists and beads of varying sizes braided into her unruly mane of wine-colored hair.

"Hello." She said with a disarming smile. "I'm Ping." I did not respond, pretending I hadn't heard her.

"So... what's your name?" She pressed.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" I demanded, turning away from her and digging through my meager possessions for the little paper I had left. I should have bought more in Uzun, but it hadn't occurred to me that I was running out until I'd begun poking through the ream of plans in the bottom of my tool chest.

"Busy? You were asleep a minute ago!" Ping informed me.

"Well, I'm busy now!" I replied. Taking out a drawing that I'd fumbled with before, I sharpened one of my pencils and began to work, hoping that Ping would get the message that I didn't want to make friends with anyone. Lovely as she was, I felt compelled to get her as far away from me as possible. Though I wasn't a monk any longer and not technically bound by any vow of celibacy, being anywhere near to me was bound to be dangerous and I could not justify putting someone so obviously friendly and well-meaning at risk.

Worse still, she was far too attractive for me to pretend that I thought nothing of her. I could only think of one reason a woman like her would be interested in someone like me. Like Sam, she had to be one of those meddling Sidereals.

Whatever they were.

"What is that you're working on?" Ping wondered, undeterred.

"A fountain." I replied truthfully. "I'm an engineer."

"Well, I'm a bard... so maybe I'm not an expert on these things, but that looks like an awfully complicated fountain." Ping replied.

"Engineers get paid according to how complicated things are. The more incomprehensible it seems, the higher the fee." I retorted.

Ping laughed. Her voice was musical and I did not doubt that she was a fine singer.

"It's not incomprehensible, it's just not a fountain!" She informed me. "Okay, "engineer"... what's this part do?"

She pointed to my drawing and I smiled slightly despite myself. "I see you're clever. It's not only a fountain. It's a machine for purifying water." I admitted.

"Ooh! You're the clever one, designing something like that! How does it work?" Ping pressed. She was so earnest and charismatic that it was impossible to deny her anything. I sighed heavily and began to explain, thinking she would probably get bored and wander off sooner or later, but she hung on my every word and seemed to be absorbing all of it. At very least, she asked solid technical questions that made her sound more like an engineer herself than a silly bard.

After listening to the explanation of my water-purification machine, Ping decided that she wanted to see the rest of my drawings. I carefully hid the ones I'd done of Godchaser but shared a few of my more mundane ideas. Upon seeing each one, she lit up like a child opening birthday presents. When I 'd finished explaining everything I'd scribbled out, Ping decided that it was time for some shipboard entertainment. With a mischievous grin, she produced her instrument which turned out to be a lovely antique mandolin and began to play The Ballad of Windswept Rhapsody.

Windswept Rhapsody was a folk hero like The Wandering Monk, a fictional bard who traveled all over Creation outfoxing evildoers and playing pranks on people who were too full of themselves. Ping soon gathered an audience. The songs she played were mostly common tavern fare, but her skill as a musician was very impressive. When an Immaculate traveling with us asked if she knew The Peach Tree, Ping smiled slightly and told a version of the story I'd never heard before, one that was a good deal more exciting than the original. The monk pretended not to be impressed, and after he departed, Ping spun a scandalous, heretical yarn about an Anathema who'd saved a city from a flood. Then she picked up her mandolin again and played The Goblin's Ball.

All of the passengers danced to that tune, causing our ship to rock furiously despite the smoothness of the river. I was even persuaded to get up myself when another passenger took up the song on his flute. Obviously wanting to dance a bit herself, Ping stood over me and held out her hand, refusing to take "no" for an answer. In addition to being a first-rate bard, she was also a wonderful dancer.

The days that made up our voyage from Uzun to The Imperial City felt blissfully short with Ping on board and the Captain insisted upon refunding her the money she'd paid for passage. No one could imagine the trip without her, and hearing Ping's endless chatter kept me from dwelling on the fact that Godchaser appeared to be dead... despite the small amounts of stabilizing Essence that I secretly poured into her every night.

I missed her constant enthusiastic chirping and even her inappropriate comments and snickers I knew could get me into serious trouble. More worrisome was the black spreading corrosion, which I pushed away with small applications of Essence when I knew I was alone. Still I, began to fear that I was fighting a losing battle. If Godchaser wasn't already beyond the point of recovery, she was fading fast and there was nothing I could do about it.

It was cloudy when we finally reached The Imperial City, but that didn't seem to dampen Ping's spirits. As we pulled into port, everyone gathered their belongings and prepared to disembark, but Ping stopped the captain before he could lower the gangplank. It was very difficult to deny Ping anything, and since I had repaired his telescope, the captain was in a good mood. He bowed slightly to our charismatic bard and motioned for two of his sailors to push out a shipping crate for her to stand on.

"Before we all go our separate ways." Ping announced. "It has been my great pleasure to meet and entertain all of you these past five days. I've told you jokes and stories, I've sang songs for you... but there is one thing that I would like to leave you with. If you don't mind, I'd like to say a prayer."

No one objected, not even the Immaculate monk who was always muttering about something being not up to his impossibly high standards. As I'd come to expect from her, Ping began her prayer in fine dramatic fashion, first invoking the Goddess Mercury, patron of travelers, the Gods of the Sea and of Sailing, Ruvia, the God of Roads and all five Immaculate Dragons. She then added some of the Gods that other passengers requested and even said a few words to Luna, who was generally not mentioned in polite company, seen by many as too capricious to be dealt with. Breathlessly, she promised that she was nearly done and wanted only to say a little something for herself.

The Immaculate raised an eyebrow in her direction as Ping lapsed into Old Realm. Although he didn't seem to understand her words very well, I knew them perfectly. I felt my heart skip a beat and I reached out for Ping's hand. She blinked in surprise as I recited along with her the same prayer to the Unconquered Sun that had burned itself into my memory less than a week ago. When we finished, Ping wrapped her arms around me. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. In that moment we understood each other better than words could express.

The sun finally peeked through the clouds as if he had heard his name invoked and we all disembarked from our ship. Ping followed on my heels at a steady clip. Her legs were shorter than mine, but her curiosity was insatiable and there was no way she was going to let me go without knowing where I'd learned that ancient prayer. I was curious as to how she knew it myself, but being a bard and well-versed in folklore, I suspected she might have heard it anywhere. There were a fair number of people who considered the Unconquered Sun their patron and though they were all considered heretics by the Immaculate Order, they were not all Anathema.

"Recluse, where did you learn my prayer?" Ping demanded.

Of course... once again, I'd slipped up and used my nickname instead of a better alias. I'd discovered that I had terrible trouble answering to anything else, so I suspected it couldn't be helped. When I made it to Nexus, there would be no harm in adopting my actual name, if not my tainted surname. I was certain that there was more than one "Veritas" in the Scavenger Lands where Rivertongue was the most commonly spoken language.

"Where did you learn it?" I echoed, not turning to face her.

"I've always known it!" She replied.

"Well, so have I." I paused, evaluating the busy streets before me and trying to make up my mind where I wanted to go. Though I desperately needed supplies and money, I was somewhat reluctant to leave area around the docks. It was more likely that I would be recognized in the nicer parts of the city, particularly not since Dragonlord Chiron, Ragara Sephora, the Immaculate Order or any one of my other pursuers might be lurking around my old haunts... thinking that I might try to make contact with someone wealthy and influential who still had a soft spot for me.

I considered going to see Sesus Nakira, but then decided against it. Although she had been my most outspoken defender at the time of my trial, she was also devoutly religious and would have to know what had possessed me to run from the Abbey of Mela. And because she had always been so kind to me, I did not have the heart to lie to her.

"Where are you headed?" Ping demanded.

"I'm going to Nexus." I replied, seeing no reason to lie to her.

"You're not going to stay around here for a few days?" Ping wondered. "But this is The Imperial City? Center of the world!"

"Hm. Well, I'm not exactly impressed by it." I admitted, noticing a tavern with a door that refused to stay closed in the wind. "Why are you following me?"

"Because I want to. Because I like you." She replied.

"Don't you have some business to attend to?" I pressed.

"Oh, I'm just here to make enough money for passage to Great Forks." She admitted. "Perhaps we'll travel together again?"

"I think we should probably part ways now." I paused, not wanting to admit how tempted I was by her offer. The prospect of a three month sea voyage was much less daunting if Ping would be along for the trip. Yet at the same time, I already had a weakness for her and couldn't imagine how much more difficult it would be to continue deceiving her if we spent much more time together. She wasn't just smart, sweet and endlessly entertaining. She was also a powerfully beautiful woman and more than once I had to bite my tongue and keep my hands to myself when she tousled my hair and kissed me playfully on the cheek.

"Why?" Ping demanded. "I thought you liked my company!"

"Ping, I like you very much. But I have my reasons." I shook my head heavily.

"You don't trust me?" She frowned.

"I don't trust anyone." I replied.

"And that's why it's so obvious that you're on the run." She sighed, her hands on her hips.

Her response floored me. I turned very slowly and stared at her. She folded her hands and glanced at me with an expression that spoke volumes. There was no use in denying it.

"I'm not going to ask you the reason you keep looking over your shoulder every time an Immaculate passes us by. I don't care what you did." Ping paused. "I just want to help you if you'll let me."

"Why?" I wondered.

"Because I feel like you need my help." She replied without hesitation. "I don't think you deserve whatever punishment it is that you're running from. There's no justice where Dragonbloods are involved. Not for us mortals anyway."

I sighed in defeat. As usual, Ping was right. And yet at the same time, I wondered if letting her "help" me would get me in as much trouble as Himitsu's "little job" had. Then again... I had no proof that she was a Sidereal. I'd simply gotten into the habit of suspecting anyone who seemed too interested in me.

"It'll be easier for us to find passage if we're together." Ping explained. "People tend to be more suspicious of folks who are traveling alone."

"I can understand that." I nodded.

"So I'll be your wife." Ping looped her arm around me.

"What? No, no!" I protested. "You're too young to be my wife!" I argued, trying desperately to hide how red my face had gotten at that suggestion.

"I'm too old to be your daughter. You can't be more than thirty-five!" She replied, very matter-of-factly. Truthfully, I was forty-three but I said nothing... pleased and a bit surprised to learn that I looked so much younger than I was, particularly from the perspective of a beautiful woman.

"Honestly, how young do you think I am?" Ping demanded.

"Twenty?" I suggested, hoping that she was at least of legal age.

Ping burst out laughing. "I don't know if I should be flattered or crying!"

"You're older than that?" I wondered uneasily. "Older than twenty-five?" I guessed.

"Oh, I'm well past thirty!" She rolled her eyes.

"How old exactly?" I asked.

"Old enough to be your wife!" Ping replied with a mischievous wink. "And it's not polite to ask a lady her age!" She added, punching me in the shoulder.