Nia knew this was probably a trap. It was a little convenient that Azazel had shown up just as Strix lost sight of Zeke. And Atasaiah shouldn't have even known Zeke was out here in the first place. The details didn't add up. Something felt off. And Nia had spent enough of her life on the run to learn when to recognize that feeling for what it was. Right now, she was running head-long into an ambush.
But at the moment, she didn't really care. These people were after Zeke. They could come at her with as many traps as they wanted, but it wouldn't make a bit of difference. She was going to destroy everything that got in her way. She wouldn't let anything stop her until she knew for certain that he was safe.
"Hold up," Strix said, putting his hand out as they neared the entrance to the tunnels. "Something's off."
"Doesn't matter," Nia said, shoving past him. "Zeke comes first."
"The tunnel entrance is gone," Strix said. "Gonna be hard to get to him without it."
Sure enough, the entrance Kalarau had opened was gone. Smoothed over with fresh stone, as if it had never even existed in the first place.
"Open a new one, then," Nia said, drawing her sword.
"Sure, I'm just saying, this was intentional. Maybe we should—"
"If you won't open it, then I will," Nia said, stepping forward and raising her sword. The moment she swung, however, the ground beneath her feet opened up, forming a large fissure that threatened to swallow her whole.
But she knew something like this was coming, and she reacted accordingly, digging her sword into the wall to keep from falling in. Then she swung herself back up and over the edge just before it snapped shut behind her. The moment she got clear, she manifested a second sword and swung it down, intercepting a series of spikes as they rose to meet her. Then, before the ground could give way again, she shot a large jet of water out from her dress, propelling her into the air and back toward Strix. He'd drawn his spear, but otherwise he didn't seem to be taking any action.
"Can you see them?" Nia asked, crouching down next to him and drawing out more water, just in case. Behind her, Nal disappeared in a cloud of ice, running off to take up a flanking position or whatever it was she was going to do.
"No," Strix said. "And I only know one guy good enough to pull this off at that range."
"Atasaiah," Nia guessed. She glanced around, as if that would reveal some clue to the location of their attacker, but if he was outside Strix's visual range, then that was wasted effort.
"He's not that far," Azazel said, powering up his arm cannon. For a moment, Nia expected him to aim it at them, but instead, he pointed it toward the wall. Then, will one well-placed shot, he blew open the tunnel entrance to reveal a man standing just behind it.
He barely even flinched as the wall in front of him exploded. Instead, he just strode forward, using his power to dust himself off and condense the rubble into a large spear.
He was a towering figure, almost twice Nia's height and covered almost head to toe in plates of Titan armor. His Core Crystal was a mangled, black mess, and it didn't seem to resonate with the surrounding ether. It must have, on some level, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to control all the stone around them. But Nia couldn't feel a thing from him. No driving resonance, no weapon resonance, nothing. Just a big, empty void.
That was curious. Maybe even a little unsettling. But right now, it wasn't her concern. This man wasn't important right now. All that mattered was getting to Zeke before they hurt him.
"Strix, make sure the battlefield stays stable," Nia said, drawing out a second sword from the water. "I'll deal with this one."
"Which one?" Strix asked. "What are you talking about?"
"You can't see him?" Azazel asked. "What are you, blind?"
"What do you think the bandages are for?" Strix asked. "Of course I'm blind! I see with the fucking ether, and… Ah shit."
He took a step back and leveled his spear in the vague direction of the towering man.
"What?" Nia asked.
"I can't see anything beyond about twenty peds in front of us. It's just like when Shieldwall hit us. They brought another fucking Crone."
"That doesn't change a thing," Nia said. "Just keep the ground steady, and I'll handle the rest."
"It's going to be pretty hard to do that if I can't fucking see anything," Strix noted.
"My ether disrupts theirs," Nal said, her voice echoing from somewhere nearby. "Give me a minute, and I'll have this sorted."
"Then you'd better work fast," Strix said, planting his spear into the ground and drawing up the rock around him. It spread out in a semi-liquid state, twisting up his legs and rooting him in place while he worked his ether into the surroundings.
"Are you done deliberating?" the man called out. "I would prefer to get this over with quickly, if it's all the same to you."
"Atasaiah!" Azazel called out, floating toward him with his cannon at the ready. "You liar! This isn't what you promised me! You said my family would be safe!"
"I promised you freedom, and I will grant it," Atasaiah said. "All I ask is a mote of patience. If you cannot even muster that, then I fail to see how this is my fault."
"Save it," Azazel spat. "I'm done listening to you."
"Pity." Atasaiah sighed, shaking his head. "I had hoped you would see—"
Nia shot forward, swinging her sword for his neck. She didn't have time for this back-and-forth nonsense right now. If they wanted to argue, they could do it after she rescued Zeke.
Atasaiah drew up a wall of ether to defend himself, but Nia projected a jet of water along the length of her blade and sliced right through it. With her other sword, she tried to slice his neck open, but he raised his spear to block the strike. Then he raised a wave of spikes around her, forcing her to throw up a shield to defend herself.
As the spikes broke against her shield, Nia ducked to the side, drawing her sword up again and casting out a blade of water at Atasaiah's chest. He stepped to the side and raised a second spear to block the attack, but the moment he did, Azazel hit him with a blast of ether from his cannon, forcing him to step back.
With a sigh, Atasaiah drove both spears into the ground and erected a wall in front of the tunnel entrance, once again sealing it off. Nia tried to charge it, intent on breaking it down, but he raised another series of spikes in her way before she could. As she jumped back, the ground beneath her began to turn into muck, threatening to trap her in place.
"Strix!" she called out, throwing out as much water as she could to prevent the rock from hardening. As she pulled herself free, he wrested control of the surrounding ground from Atasaiah and raised his own wall, cutting Atasaiah off from Nia.
"Not helping!" she called out.
"I'm fighting blind here!" he shouted.
"Perhaps it would be better if you stood down," Atasaiah said. "I would prefer to talk things over in a civilized manner, if at all possible, and this wall is a great impediment to that."
With a wave of his hand, Atasaiah took control of the wall and lowered it, putting himself face-to-face with Nia once again. She lunged for him, and he stepped back, blocking the strike with a spear while simultaneously erecting a wall to shield himself from Azazel's next blast.
"Please," Atasaiah said. "There is very little need for this. I've no doubt we could come to an arrangement that would satisfy all involved."
"Where is Zeke?" Nia asked, glaring at him. She only stopped to draw out more water, which she began spreading out in either direction in preparation for her next attack.
"He's inside, as you've no doubt surmised. And he's unharmed, for the moment. Am I correct in assuming you would prefer things stay that way?"
Nia paused for a moment. She was face-to-face with the asshole who'd been behind all the attacks in recent months. The man who'd ordered Zeke's death on more than one occasion. She should have beaten him within an inch of his life. But if he was holding Zeke hostage, then she didn't have much choice. She'd have to play along until she could get him back safely.
"Fine," Nia spat, lowering her sword a fraction. "What is it you want to talk about?"
"Excellent," the man said, smiling the emptiest smile Nia had ever seen. It was the smile of a man who understood the expression was a method of conveying emotion but lacked any understanding of what that emotion actually was. The smile of a man who had long since forgotten what it was like to be happy, if he had ever known in the first place.
"You are aware of the world's fate, yes?" the man asked.
"You're talking about the ether?" Nia asked. "We're aware. It's not a problem we intend to ignore, but we've got enough time to come up with a solution that doesn't involve butchering the world's Titans."
"They will die either way," Atasaiah said. "When the Cloud Sea inevitably dries up, they will shortly follow. And then the Blades. And finally, the anomalies like us. The great cycle that sustained Alrest will come to an end, and without the Blades or Titans to rely on, human society will contract significantly. Without the energy of the Core Chips to sustain them, they will not recover."
"Killing Titans makes that problem worse, not better," Nia said. "The more of them you destroy, the less ether there will be to go around in the long-run."
"That is a sensible conclusion," Atasaiah said. "Or it would be, were it not built on a faulty assumption. You believe this is a problem that can be solved at all. I am not so naïve."
"So, what then? You think the problem's unsolvable, so the only thing left to do is burn everything down? Is that really what you're here to tell me?"
"Not precisely. While it is true the problem cannot be solved, that doesn't mean the problem cannot be avoided. At least, for a select few."
"I don't like where this is going," Nia said, raising her sword again.
"It's a simple calculation, really. Everything will die eventually. This is an ironclad law of reality. But what if you could escape death, free yourself from this farce, for only the small price of a few lives? Lives whose deaths are already inevitable? Wouldn't you make that trade?"
"No," Nia said. She didn't even have to think about it. "Even if it's finite, a person's life isn't such a trivial thing that you can just throw it away on a whim. No matter what sort of prize you think is waiting for you at the end of it."
"The outcome is the same either way," Atasaiah said. "Why get so hung up on the specifics?"
"You're talking like what you've proposed is even possible. But like you said, death is inevitable. What kind of moron would waste his time hastening it?"
"And this is where we come to the crux of the matter, Banshee Queen."
"Do not call me that," Nia said. "You haven't earned the right."
"Apologies." Atasaiah gave her a slight bow. "As I was saying, it is not strictly true that death is inevitable. This may be true for our mundane reality, but there are powers far, far beyond this meager existence. I believe you've beholden such a thing for yourself, once upon a time. The Zohar."
Upon hearing that name, Nia instinctually tensed up. Very few people even knew the Zohar existed at all. Only those of them who'd been to the World Tree and back had even seen it, and now that it was gone, there wasn't much point in spreading rumors of its existence. So how did this man know of it?
"You shouldn't know that name," Nia said. "Only a few of us ever saw it, and even then, only in visions. I only know one woman who was ever face-to-face with the thing, and I doubt she'd tell that story to someone like you."
"I saw it too, once. A long time ago." He tapped his Core Crystal. "When I earned my namesake, I became… Unstuck, for lack of a better word. No longer tethered to the system. I became witness to that which I should not have seen, and in the process, I came into contact with it. The great cross of light from beyond the world. The true power of the divine that sundered the world. But before they used it as a power source, the people of Elysium thought of it as a gateway. A door to infinite possible realities. And if we can harness its power, that door will serve as our escape from death itself. We can go to a reality where such petty concerns as mortality no longer hold any meaning."
"The Zohar is gone," Nia said. "It disappeared along with the rest of Alrest. You're chasing a fantasy."
"Not so. While the Zohar may have left, there is nothing to stop it from returning, if properly motivated. According to the scientists of Elysium, a sufficient concentration of energy is all that is required in order to induce its presence. And with a device capable of converting the Titans directly into raw ether, I will have access to all the energy I could ever desire. Once I have the Eye of Genbu, summoning the Zohar will be a trivial matter."
Nia could hardly believe what she was hearing. He spoke as if he'd conversed with the inhabitants of Elysium directly, but Nia knew that was impossible. This man was only as old as the Aegis War, and Elysium had been a wasteland long before the Architect formed Alrest in the first place.
But, nevertheless, he seemed to believe every word that came out of his mouth. He was fully, utterly convinced that his plan would be able to give him the Zohar. And that somehow, he'd be able to harness and control it.
He was willing to burn the whole world for such an utterly ridiculous idea. She didn't even know what the Eye of Genbu had to do with anything, considering all it could do was control the Cloud Sea. But this wasn't exactly the most coherent plan in the first place, so what was the point in questioning it?
"Come here to boast, then?" Nia asked.
"I've no need to boast. What will it matter once the plan is complete, anyway?" Atasaiah shook his head. "No, Nia, I am here because of you. I need insurance against the Thunderbolt Prince, should he choose to pursue me."
"Scared of Zeke, are you?"
"He is powerful. As are you. But he represents a unique problem for me because he can control the Eye of Genbu unaided. If he were to interfere with my work, it could cause considerable delay. I would rather avoid this possibility. Of course, it would be simplest to kill him. But doing so would undoubtedly incur your wrath, and then I would need to kill you as well. And then those that follow you, and so on and so forth, until I have bled this land dry. It would be counterproductive, to say the least, to make enemies of a whole nation just before I set my plan into motion."
"I think the ship has sailed on that one," Nia said.
"Not necessarily," Atasaiah said. "I had hoped you would see reason on this matter and help us both avoid pointless bloodshed. The Thunderbolt Prince will undoubtedly be furious and unwilling to cooperate. But you are an intelligent woman. You understand the magnitude of what is at stake. All you have to do is convince the Thunderbolt Prince and the rest of your people to avoid seeking retribution for what has happened here today, and we will leave your country in peace."
"Not going to offer to make us immortal?" Nia asked.
"If you've changed your mind, then by all means, the invitation is open. But something tells me you've already made your mind up on that front."
True enough. Even if this nonsensical plan of his had any chance of working, the idea still disgusted her.
"If you understand that much, then you also know I'm not going to let this go," Nia said. "And things didn't turn out so well for the last guy who tried to slaughter the world's Titans on my watch."
"I would think over your position carefully," Atasaiah said. "After all, I would hate to see any harm come to the Thunderbolt Prince."
She was really tired of listening to this guy talk. He acted so high and mighty now, with Zeke trapped somewhere in the tunnels, but she saw through his whole act. This was all bluster. Buying time while the Crone did whatever it was doing. That was the real threat. And Nia needed to put a stop to it as soon as possible.
Luckily, Nal appeared on the ridge above Atasaiah and flashed Nia a thumbs up. So it appeared that everything was finally in place to do just that.
"Zeke," Nia spat.
"Pardon?"
"His name is Zeke. Have some damn respect."
"That hardly seems like the most germane issue, to me. If you refuse to back down, I will kill him. Perhaps you should consider this more thoroughly?"
"You aren't going to leave him alive," Nia said. "You don't care how many people die for this plan of yours. And you know better than to think appealing to our selfishness or sense of self-preservation will get you anywhere. You know we won't let this go. You know we'll come after you no matter what. So you have to kill us both here, or else you risk your whole plan coming apart. So all of this?" Nia motioned between the two of them. "Just a means to buy time until whoever you brought with you finishes the job. And I am not waiting around for that to happen."
Nia whistled, and on cue, Nal unleashed her ether, flooding the tunnels with a mass of icy wind and displacing whatever the Crone had left behind to disguise its movements. Immediately, Atasaiah lunged forward, swinging his spear at Nia, but she didn't even flinch as she deflected his strike to the side.
Before Atasaiah could initiate a second attack, Nia stepped forward and struck him in the chest, knocking him back several steps. Immediately, the ground around him surged up to form a large cocoon, and Strix rushed forward to grab it at the base. It took intense strain, but Strix managed to hurl the cocoon high up into the air, separating Atasaiah from the ground.
"I've got eyes on Zeke!" he shouted. "But we'd better move fast!"
"I'll hold him off," Nal said, drawing her guns as she appeared next to the two of them. "What do you say, blondie? Up for a teamup this time around?"
"Whatever gets me another shot at him," Azazel said, priming the barrel of his cannon. As the two of them readied themselves, however, a series of stone spears began to rain down across the battlefield. Atasaiah had transformed the cocoon into projectiles, and he hurled them one by one as he descended. Then he hit the ground, throwing up a massive wave of debris that nearly knocked Azazel from the sky.
"Move!" Nia shouted, grabbing Strix and shoving him into the tunnel. She needed him to get her to where Zeke was, and she needed to get there before Atasaiah did. As much as she wanted to deal with this bastard here and now, Zeke came first. Until she could be sure he was safe, she'd have to leave dealing with the Titan Eater to the others.
A moment later, however, he burst through the tunnel entrance, hot on their trail and dragging Azazel along the wall next to him. The man's cannon was unleashing raw ether at full-blast against the Titan Eater's chest, and it was barely even slowing him down. Thankfully, Nal appeared in front of him, erecting a massive wall of ice, and that seemed to hold him for a moment. But as Nia and Strix rounded the corner, she heard the ice shatter as Atasaiah charged forward once more.
Defeating him was going to be more challenging than she'd initially assumed. But Nal and Azazel didn't have to defeat him. They just had to distract him long enough to buy Nia the time she needed. Once Zeke was secure, she'd be more than happy to stomp the Titan Eater into the ground. And he seemed to know that, too, because after a moment, she heard him crash through a nearby wall, tearing his way to Zeke with no regard for what was in his path.
Quickly, Nia pivoted and ran after him, leaping up to drive a sword into his back before he could get very far.
She was not going to let him hurt Zeke. She was not going to lose someone else that she loved. Not when she could do something about it.
Zeke had been through this before. During his stay with the Praetorium, he'd spent a few weeks in Sthenos. Officially, the Titan was supposed to be under Praetorium control, but there had been a string of disappearances around one of the marshes near the Titan's tail. Amalthus was concerned about possible insurgent activity, or perhaps a gang of Blade poachers running their operation right under the Praetorium's noses, so Zeke and Pandy had gone to investigate. But the truth turned out to be significantly more harrowing.
The culprit had been the Crone of Aingrom, acting at the Titan's behest to remove the Praetorium influence by whatever means necessary. It had hunted them through the marshes for days, during which they managed to work out most of its weaknesses and turn the tables on it. But after they got away, Zeke decided not to report it. Unlike his work against the Blade poachers or Shieldwall, fighting the people of Sthenos didn't feel justified. It was one of the first hints he got that Amalthus wasn't as kind-hearted and forgiving as he liked to appear. Back then, he had considered his run-in with the Crone of Aingrom an important life lesson.
Now, facing the same enemy all these years later, he found himself without the means to fight back. No Blade, no Core Crystal, no Eye. There was nothing he could do to turn the tables in a situation like this. As much as he liked to pride himself on his ability to scrape through any situation, he truly had no idea how he was going to get out of this particular predicament.
If a Crone was here, then in all likelihood Strix wouldn't be able to see them. Kalarau had taken his earpiece, so he couldn't call for backup. Rex was currently lying at the bottom of a giant hole. Kalarau has probably lied about Qadar being out here in the first place, in order to draw them out to somewhere more remote. And nobody really knew where they were. Eventually, someone was going to realize he was missing, but it was going to take them a while to actually find him. And Kalarau would likely be done with him long before then.
Still, Kalarau could have killed him at any time. If his only goal was the Eye, then killing him kept him from trying to get it back. So they needed him for something. He just had to figure out what. If he could leverage that, then maybe he could talk his way out. Or at least delay things long enough for Rex to get back on his feet and climb his way back out of the hole.
"What's taking so long?" Zeke asked, glancing up at Kalarau with his good eye while the machine attached to his Eye did its work. "I would've figured you'd just kill me and be done with it."
"Why are you complaining?" Kalarau asked. "It means you get to live. What more do you need to know?"
"Just curious." Zeke tried to shrug, but Aingrom's spell was still binding his movements, so he did his best to look disinterested instead. "There's not much else to do while we wait for this thing to run its course."
"I honestly hadn't figured it would take this long," Kalarau said. Then he looked at Aingrom. "You have any idea when this thing is going to finish?"
"By what means should I know such a thing?" Aingrom asked. "This machine's unholy witchcraft is foreign to me. I have no knowledge of when it will finish its task. But if it does not do so soon, then I think I will take the Princeling up on his offer. I would rather not let someone privy to our secrets live."
"He's off limits," Kalarau insisted. "And besides, you've let me live this long. I think you can stomach one more."
"Another offense I sorely desire to correct," Aingrom muttered. Nevertheless, it withdrew its hand from Zeke and began pacing the ground next to him, clearly looking for any excuse to kill him.
"Smart move," Zeke said. "From what I hear, this thing's pretty old. I'm not sure how reliable it's going to be, and if it can't give you what you want, then I'm the only other guy still alive who knows how the Eye works. You wouldn't risk killing your only fallback, would you?"
"It'll work," Kalarau insisted. "That's not really the problem. But if you die, then Nia is going to stop holding back. And from what I hear, the last time she got that angry, she leveled the capital of Gormott and killed the empress of Mor Ardain. I'm not really eager to have that kind of firepower breathing down my neck."
Zeke didn't buy that excuse. Not entirely, anyway. Atasaiah clearly saw Nia as a threat, but not an entirely insurmountable one. He wouldn't have tried to hire mercenaries to kill her if he thought she was unkillable. But still, it was something to work with. So Zeke got to work.
"I hate to break it to you, but the ship might have sailed on that one already," Zeke said.
"Y'know, normally someone in your position would try to convince me to keep you alive. That doesn't sound very convincing, to me."
"Then you're not really thinking very far ahead, are you?" Zeke asked. "Killing me doesn't stop her, but sparing me won't either. The only thing that's going to stop her from beating you within an inch of your life is me. You let me go, you turn yourself in, and I'll convince Nia to stay her hand. We'll have a hearing and leave what happens to you up to the community. Seeing as how you've made a fair few friends in recent weeks, I feel like you'll get off with a pretty light sentence."
"Sthenos is not concerned about the Banshee Queen," Aingrom said. "I could take your life here and now, if I so chose to."
"I'm still confused as to why you're here at all, Aingrom," Zeke said. "What does Sthenos get out of working with a guy who calls himself the Titan Eater?"
"None of your concern," Aingrom spat.
"Immortality," Kalarau said.
"Immortality?" Zeke asked. "Is that what he promised you, too?"
"I'm not interested in that. I've lived too long as it is. True immortality would be hell. No, the Titan Eater is going to give me justice. But as I understand it, his promise to Sthenos was to make it immortal. Untether it from the Titan-Blade cycle entirely. I'm not really clear on the details of how."
"Oh, that one's easy," Zeke said. "There is no how. He's lying."
Kalarau didn't react much to that, but Aingrom sure did. It stepped forward and struck him on the shoulder, causing him to roll over onto his back.
"Your tongue is as blunt as ever, Prince Ozychlyrus," Aingrom spat. "We will not be swayed by petty words."
"Come on, Aingrom," Zeke said, giving it his best winning smile. "You know me. You know how I can't lie to save my life."
With a sigh, Kalarau bent down and rolled him back over onto his stomach.
"You don't need to do this," Kalarau said. "We're going to let you live anyway, so the least you could do is not be so annoying about it."
"You attacked me and put a machine in my head," Zeke noted. "I think I'm allowed to be a little annoying."
"Be grateful to your wretched companion," Aingrom said, pointing a finger at Kalarau. "It is only thanks to his insistence that you continue to draw breath. I would advise you exercise the proper contrition."
"He's no companion of mine," Zeke said. Strangely enough, that seemed to get to Kalarau, if only for a moment. He was quick to hide it, but Zeke noticed all the same. That had hurt him, just a little.
Maybe he'd found more kinship with his fellow Blade Eater than he wanted to admit. Maybe that was the real reason he was letting Zeke live.
Still, if that really was the case, then he didn't think he could count on such a tenuous bond to guarantee his safety forever. He had to keep pressing this.
"And if anyone should be grateful, Aingrom, it's you," Zeke said. "I'm about to save Sthenos's life."
"Amusing," Aingrom said, without a trace of humor in its voice.
"I'm serious," Zeke insisted. "Because I've actually seen the Titan Eater's plan. Or a part of it, anyway. I'm not sure whether he's really after immortality or not, but if he is, it certainly won't be immortality for the Titans. He's planning on turning them all into pure ether. The only reason he wants the Eye of Shining Justice so bad is because he thinks it can control them. Make it easier to subject them all to his death machine."
That seemed to give Aingrom pause. It probably wasn't going to suddenly take his side, but it was duty-bound to protect Sthenos by whatever means necessary. Part of that duty included considering every possible threat. And now that he'd introduced the idea that Atasaiah might be a threat, it would have to act accordingly. At the very least, it wouldn't be able to kill him until it could get more information out of him. So that guaranteed his safety on some level until this was all over.
Still, he didn't like the idea of spending the next few days or weeks as a Sthenosi prisoner. It was doable, but that would mean letting Atasaiah have what he wanted. And Zeke knew by now that that would be a very, very bad idea.
He needed to do something to stop them from taking the Eye, even if it put him at risk.
"And what is it, exactly, that he promised you?" Zeke asked, turning to Kalarau. "Justice, right? Justice for what? You don't care about Qadar or her rebellion anymore, so I doubt you much care about the Praetorians. And Judicium's gone, too. Even if you really did think of us as their successors, I don't think you much care one way or the other about us either. Which only leaves us with one option. Your old Blade. The one who died and set you on this path in the first place. You're here to avenge her. And who, exactly, were the ones who killed her?"
The look on Kalarau's face told Zeke he was right on the money. Kalarau might have given up on fighting Qadar's enemies, but he still had his own. And the animosity between him and Aingrom was a dead giveaway to who those were. He was Sthenosi, but if he had served in Qadar's rebellion, that meant he'd joined the Judician army at some point. Which likely made him an exile. And Sthenos didn't take kindly to exiles.
"You have no right to speak about her," Kalarau spat. "You have no idea what I've been through."
"Thanks to your friend the Titan Eater, I'm about to be the only other Blade Eater in the world besides you," Zeke said. "I'm the only person who knows what you've been through. Which is why I have such a hard time understanding why you're now working with the people responsible for her death."
Slowly, Aingrom turned from Zeke to Kalarau, and ether began gathering in its hands.
"He speaks true," Aingrom said. "Your hatred of us—of me—is deeper than any other. What justice is it the Titan Eater has promised you, that you would be willing to side with the homeland you spat on and abandoned?"
Kalarau looked back at Aingrom, unable or unwilling to answer. But before it could press the issue again, Zeke felt a sharp pain in his Eye as the chord connecting to his retina finally disconnected, and slowly the machine slid out of his Eye socket.
"Looks like it's finally done," Kalarau muttered. As he bent down to pick it up, however, Aingrom reached out and grabbed his wrist.
"Answer the question," it spat. "What has the Titan Eater promised you in exchange for your cooperation?"
Kalarau sighed. Then he glared at Zeke, the hatred in his eyes clear as day.
"I was this close," he said. "All you had to do was keep your fucking mouth shut, and we'd all get what we wanted. I'd finally have some damn retribution, and you'd get to walk away from this with your life. But if Qadar can't hold up her end of the deal, then why should I?"
Qadar? What was that about Qadar? Was she working with Atasaiah too?
If she was, then…
Fuck.
"Answer the question!" Aingrom insisted.
"I don't feel like it," Kalarau said. "Now are you going to let me do my job, or are you going to get Atasaiah angry at the both of us?"
"I will not ask again!" Aingrom shrieked. "If you intend to threaten the safety of Sthenos, then I will kill you where you stand! Now answer! What did—"
Suddenly, an icy wind flooded the tunnel, washing away Aingrom's ether like a cool summer breeze. It stepped back in disbelief, clearly confused, and in so doing took its hand from Kalarau's wrist. But he didn't pick up the Eye. Instead, he just stared at Aingrom, contemplating something.
"Fuck it," he said. "Now or never."
Before Aingrom could react, he lurched forward and grabbed its head. Immediately, ether began to pour from his hand, overwhelming the creature in a bright, scalding light. It shrieked, clawing against him, but with all the ice around them, it couldn't muster any ether to fight back with. Slowly, its skin began to burn away, overflowing with light. A few moments later, the Crone of Aingrom was scoured from the inside out. And as its body burned away, Kalarau absorbed its ether, clawing what remained of it out of the air before it could return to Sthenos to be reconstituted.
Zeke hadn't thought it was possible, but someone had killed a Crone of Sthenos. If he had the time to think about that, he probably would have been horrified. Even if it was a Crone, it had been human once. But right now, he had much bigger priorities.
He'd stalled for time long enough that his Core Crystal had recovered from Kalarau's scrambling. And with Aingrom out of the way, the spell no longer kept him bound in place. So while Kalarau was distracted with his vengeance, Zeke lunged forward and grabbed the Eye.
There was, unfortunately, still the matter of the machine currently wrapped around it. And through it, he realized. The thing had weaved its tendrils through the casing and wrapped around the blue, cross-shaped crystal at its heart. And if it was anything like Esrafil, then he probably wouldn't be able to get it back out without a fight. But he didn't really need it out in order to work the thing. He just had to make a connection.
Hastily, he drew the chord out of the back of the machine and connected it to his palm, letting the Eye dig into his flesh and re-anchor itself. But after a moment, it detached, slowly drawing the chord back into itself. Then the machine lashed out at him with one of its tendrils, trying to force him to drop the Eye.
Apparently, so long as this thing was bound up inside it, the Eye of Shining Justice wouldn't be listening to anyone. So how did Atasaiah plan to get around that? Zeke doubted even he had the capacity to get this machine out. The only person he could think of who might be able to was Tora.
Was that why he'd recruited one of the Watchers, then? Was he planning to blackmail Tora into helping him? Did he even know this was going to be a problem in the first place?
Before Zeke could consider the question further, Kalarau lunged up at him, swinging another fist-full of ether for his Core Crystal. But Zeke wasn't going to let himself get caught off-guard by the same move twice. With a burst of ether from his core, Zeke moved around it and drove a punch into Kalarau's chest.
He expected the man to collapse then and there. By his own admission, Kalarau wasn't much of a fighter anymore. But he apparently held onto enough of his former strength that he managed to take the hit and keep going. He hooked one arm around Zeke's, to keep him from disengaging, before thrusting a leg between Zeke's own, trying to knock him off balance and throw him to the ground.
Zeke leaned back, throwing out his free arm to catch his fall, but that forced him to drop the Eye, and immediately it started rolling toward the nearby giant hole. Instantly, Kalarau abandoned whatever he was attempting and instead lunged for it. But Zeke manifested a shield plate right in front of his face, and he slammed into it just before he could get his hands on the Eye.
Zeke immediately pivoted around and scooped it back up again, ignoring Zedekul's best efforts to get him to drop it. But before he could stash it somewhere in his coat, Kalarau slammed his shoulder into him, sending them both tumbling into the hole. Zeke manifested a shield plate beneath one foot, barely managing to catch himself, but Kalarau apparently cared more about getting the Eye. He snatched the machine from the air before Zeke even remembered to grab it.
But Zeke wasn't going to give up so easily. Just before Kalarau fell beyond his reach, he grabbed the man by the collar and jumped, pressing off the shield plate he'd summoned and sailing clear over the giant hole. As they hit the ground on the opposite side, Zeke slammed Kalarau into the ground, trying to knock the fight out of him as painlessly as possible.
But for a man who'd abandoned all his convictions, Kalarau was damn persistent. As Zeke lifted him up, preparing to slam him down a second time, Kalarau lashed out and struck him across the face. He stumbled back, and Kalarau tried to follow up, swinging at his face with a fist full of ether. But Zeke anticipated the move and grabbed Kalarau's hand with his own. Quickly, he absorbed as much of the ether as he could and instantly channeled it into electricity. Then, with one touch from his other hand, he sent a massive shock through Kalarau's system, forcing him to his knees.
For a moment, Zeke thought he was out of the fight, but a moment later, he lurched back up, light spilling from the Core Crystal on his chest. Zeke took a step back, shielding his eyes, and Kalarau tried to lunge at him again. But he was predictable enough that Zeke swept out a leg just as he did, knocking him off balance and finally forcing him to drop the Eye.
Immediately, Zeke turned and lunged for it, trying to grab it before Kalarau could. Kalarau twisted around and swung his fist of ether up at Zeke, but Zeke anticipated that, stomping down on his wrist and driving his hand into the ground before he could. Then, while Kalarau fumbled around with his free hand, Zeke snatched the Eye out of midair.
An instant later, pain erupted through his stomach, and he looked down to see Kalarau gripping a spear of twisted steel. No… Not a spear, an arrow. Up until now, Kalarau had always manifested his spears out of pure ether, but this one was physical.
Kalarau hadn't lost his grip on the Eye, he'd dropped in on purpose. And the fist of ether had been a distraction. A predictable move he'd used time and again to make Zeke think it was the only thing he had up his sleeve. And he'd been too focused on recovering the Eye to see what was really happening.
With a look of grim satisfaction on his face, Kalarau forced himself to stand and ripped the Eye from Zeke's hand. Then, with one foot planted on Zeke's shoulder, he grabbed the arrow and ripped it out of his stomach. As Zeke slid back, Kalarau put the Eye away and manifested his bow again. Then he nocked the metal arrow, slowly filling it with white-hot light as he aimed it at Zeke's head.
Zeke wasn't down for the count, though. He immediately began gathering ether in his core, preparing to shift into high gear and take Kalarau by surprise. Doing that with a wound like this through his stomach was risky. He'd probably lose a lot of blood. But it was better than taking an arrow to the face.
"It didn't have to come to this," Kalarau said. "If you hadn't gone and stuck your nose into things, we all could have walked away, and Sthenos would be none the wiser to the vengeance I'm about to mete out. But you just had to play the hero. And thanks to you, I might not get what I came here for. Which means I've got no reason to hold up my end of the deal."
"That won't be necessary," Qadar said, appearing as if out of nowhere behind Zeke. Slowly, she floated forward, and he tensed up, half expecting her to betray him too. If she was making deals with Kalarau, then he had to expect the worst. But she barely even acknowledged that he was there at all. She just floated forward, eyes fixed on Kalarau.
She was frowning, he realized. It was probably the first time he'd seen her express such a negative emotion.
"I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up," Kalarau said. He didn't relax his bow. "For a moment, I thought this was all some sort of elaborate ruse."
"You know me better than that," Qadar said.
"So what happens now?" Kalarau asked. "Do I get my revenge? Do we win? Or is this all just another part of your twisted scheme?"
"Honestly?" Qadar asked. "I don't know. This is as far as I've ever made it before. What happens next, whether or not you find what you're looking for… That's entirely up to you. But if you want to kill me, then you know my price."
Kalarau stared at her for several seconds, and Zeke slowly realized what was going on here. She wasn't working with them. She'd offered herself up as a sacrifice to keep Kalarau from doing… Something. Something crucial to Atasaiah's plan, from the way she was talking. But if she was really willing to go that far, then…
No. He couldn't allow it. He wasn't about to let someone else sacrifice their life for his sake. He'd had just about enough of that.
But as he tried to stand to his feet, Qadar held a hand out to stop him, and she looked back at him with enough conviction to make even him waver.
"There is no other way," Qadar said. "I have fought this battle a hundred times, and the result is always the same. There is no way forward that does not require a sacrifice of some kind. And I am not willing to watch you throw yourself upon death's claws again. Not when you still have so much work left to do."
"You really think they have a shot at anything?" Kalarau asked. "You really believe they're going to succeed where we've failed?"
"I have to believe it," Qadar said. "I am not willing to let what happened to us happen again."
"Don't you fucking dare," Zeke said, pushing himself to his feet. "You're still a Caretaker, and you have a responsibility to the Gardens. We might have a lot of work left ahead of us, but you signed up for that work too. If we want anything to get better, then we all have to do our part."
"I have done everything I can," Qadar said. "But I can't save the world alone. This is as far as I can go. It's up to the rest of you to finish what we started."
With that, she took another step toward Kalarau. She drew out her chain and let it drop to the ground, and he took that as some sort of sign. With a sigh, he switched from aiming at Zeke to aiming at her.
"I guess we have a deal, then," Kalarau said. Qadar nodded.
Immediately, Zeke unleashed his ether, trying to push her out of the way before Kalarau could fire. He wasn't going to sit back and watch someone else die. But as he did, she spread her wings out behind her, forcing him back.
Before he could reach her, Kalarau's arrow pierced her chest, shattering her Core Crystal into a thousand pieces. She was dead before she even hit the ground.
As Zeke pulled himself toward her, he realized she was smiling. She probably would have wanted him to take some sort of comfort in that. That she'd chosen to go out like this. That she was at peace. But all that did was make him even more furious.
It was the same smile Pyra had given them just before she annihilated the world tree. The same smile his mother had given him when she'd tasked him with saving the world. To him, all that smile did was add another burden for him to carry. And he was very, very tired of carrying the torch for other peoples' crusades.
With a scream, he tried to lunge forward and punch Kalarau in the face. But he'd lost a lot of blood, and shifting into high gear only made him more unsteady. He missed his mark, and Kalarau struck him to the side with his bow.
"Moron," Kalarau muttered. "She just gave her life for you, and already you're trying to throw it away again? Don't you have any sense of self-preservation?"
"Nope," Zeke said, barely able to form the words. He spun around and struck Kalarau back, hoping to force him to drop the bow or give him some advantage he could press. But before he could get in close and follow up the attack, his legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees.
Slowly, Kalarau drew himself back up and manifested another arrow of light, aiming it squarely for Zeke's chest.
"Going back on your word so quickly?" Zeke asked. "I thought you were supposed to let me live?"
"I hated that woman with every fiber of my being," Kalarau spat. "I don't give a shit what she wanted. You're more trouble than you're worth, so I'm putting you down. Plain and simple."
"Do it, then," Zeke said. He was just guessing, at this point, but he didn't think Kalarau was going to shoot him. He didn't really have a reason why. Maybe he was lying about how much he hated Qadar. Maybe he didn't want to kill a fellow Blade Eater. Zeke didn't know. But whatever it was, there was something in the look Kalarau gave him that told him he wouldn't go through with it.
The two of them stared each other down for several seconds, until finally Kalarau relented, dispelling his arrow and stepping back.
"Wouldn't be worth it," Kalarau muttered. Then he started walking down the hallway, leaving Zeke leaning against the wall with a giant hole in his stomach.
Before he made it very far, however, the wall just across the hole exploded, and a giant man covered in Titan-scale crashed through, followed closely by Nia. She had two swords drawn, and a wave of water rushed in behind her, catapulting her up to eye-level with the giant. She swung, and he raised a spear to block her attack, but it shattered beneath the strength of her assault, and she drove him back into the far wall.
Before she could follow up, however, Kalarau stepped forward and fired an arrow of light, striking her off the giant and knocking her down the hallway. Immediately, the ground beneath him exploded, and Strix came rushing up, driving his spear into Kalarau's stomach. Kalarau managed to block the attack, but only barely, and Strix forced him back another step as the two of them traded blows.
Clinging to Strix's back as he emerged was Rex, and while Strix engaged Kalarau, Rex immediately rushed for the giant. One of his shoulders had been dislocated, and his arm was a mangled wreck. To compensate, he held one of his scythes in his teeth, screaming incoherently as he leapt across the gap and swung the weapon in his good arm down at the giant.
Without any ether in his weapons, there wasn't much damage he could do, but he did serve as a distraction long enough for another figure to emerge from the hole. Azazel, the defector. Zeke thought for a moment that he was here to back up Kalarau and the giant, but instead, he turned his cannon on the latter and unleashed a massive blast of ether. The giant pushed through it and swung his spear, knocking Azazel from the air, but immediately Nal manifested at his feet. She unloaded half a dozen rounds into his chest before he knocked her and Rex to the side, and the ice began to rapidly expand across his body. He pulled himself forward, trying to shrug it off, but he didn't make much progress until Kalarau managed to get off a blast of light, soaring past Zeke and shattering the ice.
Without anything standing in his way, the giant lunged forward, the ground rising to meet him and carry him across the hole to Zeke. He drew a spear from the wall and hurled it, and Zeke forced himself to stand and meet it. With a swing of his fist, he knocked the spear to the side, and he attempted to summon a blast of electricity in his other hand to counter. But before he could, Kalarau slammed into him, knocking him to the side.
As the giant bore down on him, however, Kalarau twisted around and drew another arrow, placing it against the giant's blackened core just before he could drive his spear through Zeke's chest. The giant stopped, and everyone else rapidly closed in on them. They all had weapons drawn at the ready to tear these two apart, but they waited, watching as Kalarau seemingly turned on his partner.
"We don't have time for this," the giant spat.
"We have what we came for, Atasaiah," Kalarau said. "I'm tired of all this pointless bloodshed. Deliver me what you promised, or I'm putting an end to this, right here and now."
Atasaiah stared at Kalarau for several seconds, trying to make up his mind. But whereas Zeke could see the hesitation behind Kalarau's eyes, there was nothing behind Atasaiah's. Nothing at all. The man was prepared to kill Zeke with all the consideration of someone about to squash an insect.
But before Atasaiah could figure out how to get past Kalarau and do what he'd come here to do, Nia rushed forward, striking him from behind and unleashing a wave of water. It picked Zeke up and lifted him away from the fighting as Nia clashed with the Titan Eater again, and that seemed to make up his mind for him. The ground around him exploded, and as everyone was forced away, Atasaiah dove into the opening, dragging Kalarau and the Eye of Shining Justice with him.
Strix opened his own hole and leapt in after them, but Zeke got the sense that it wouldn't matter. Atasaiah had gotten away. And now he had the last thing he needed to get started with whatever his plan was.
Though, at the moment, Zeke didn't really care. As he laid eyes on Nia again, he was just happy to be alive. All the fight went out of him, and he leaned back against the wall as she rushed up to him, immediately stitching his wounds shut.
"Zeke!" she shouted. "Stay with me!"
"I'm not going anywhere," he muttered, reaching up to cup her cheek in his hand. "How many times do I have to tell you that before you start believing me?"
She shook her head, tears running down her face, and he almost pulled her in for a hug. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that she was currently still patching the hole in his stomach.
He'd been such an idiot. He never really gave much thought to his own life, but what would have happened if he had died? Pandy would've been gone too. Kora and Electra and everyone else in their lives would have been devastated. And Nia…
He couldn't imagine the pain Nia would have gone through if he hadn't made it through this. Especially just after fixing Dromarch. And yet he'd kept pushing himself further and further, trying desperately to save the day no matter the cost. He hated watching other people sacrifice themselves for his sake, so why did he think it was somehow more acceptable when it was him doing the sacrificing?
He needed to stop this. If he kept going down this idiotic road, then sooner or later, he was going to die and leave Nia behind. And that would mean breaking his promise to her.
Well, he was done breaking promises.
"You moron," Nia muttered, shaking her head as she repaired him. "How did you even manage to get yourself hurt this bad?"
"Well, you know me," Zeke said. "I do anything for attention. So I figured, what better way to get you to wait on me hand and foot than to get myself beaten within an inch of my life?"
He flashed her a stupid, cheesy smile, letting her know everything was alright, and she stared at him in disbelief. Then, abruptly, she laughed.
"You're really making jokes at a time like this?" she asked.
"If not now, when?" Zeke asked.
Nia shook her head and picked him up, cradling him in her arms and carrying him out of the tunnels.
"Be careful what you wish for, Shellhead," Nia said. "You just might get it."
"Looking forward… to… it…"
Slowly, Zeke's vision began to fade, and he flashed her one final grin before the blood loss knocked him unconscious.
Nia was so immensely relieved that Zeke was alright. She'd been so hyperfocused on trying to get him back that once she finally got him into a bed in the infirmary, she nearly collapsed from exhaustion. But it was a good feeling. Zeke was alive, and he was going to be okay. Somehow, they'd managed to pull through.
But after the relief ran its course, the rest of reality crashed into her, and slowly it was replaced by a creeping dread. Qadar was dead. Kalarau was a traitor. Mikhail was on death's door. Zeke had lost his Eye. And now Atasaiah had everything he needed to enact his psychotic plan to slaughter the Titans and summon the Zohar. Even if they'd avoided the worst outcome, things were still bad. And they were bound to get worse before this was over.
For the moment, Nia was taking refuge in sitting next to Zeke's bed, watching him sleep. But after a while, Dromarch came and found her, and she knew that it was time to address the situation. Whether she wanted to or not.
"How is he?" Dromarch asked.
"Asleep," Nia said. "He lost a lot of blood. But he should be fine in a day or two. He just needs rest."
"Some good news, at least," Dromarch said. "We'll have to be grateful for that."
"It's probably the last good news we're going to get for a while," Nia said, standing up. "I assume the others want to talk?"
"They're up in the meeting hall," Dromarch said. Nia nodded and, reluctantly, left Zeke's side. A rather somber atmosphere had settled over the Gardens in the wake of the day's events, and most people who weren't busy helping the refugees were gathering in the courtyard for a vigil in Qadar's honor. Despite how much she kept to herself, she was still a Caretaker. She had been with the Gardens longer than almost anyone else, and her loss had affected the community rather deeply.
Nia wanted to be there with them, lighting candles in her honor, but right now she had more important matters to see to. They would have to organize something more official once all this was over. Though there was a good chance Mikhail would be dead by then, so another memorial ceremony was practically inevitable by this point.
When Nia made it to the meeting hall, the mood among the Caretakers wasn't much better. Akhos and Patroka both seemed distraught, and Nal and Strix were furious. Azurda and Cole were both their usual selves, but they'd been through tragedies like this time and again, so perhaps they were just more numb than most.
Nia didn't really know what to feel. She was sad and angry and relieved and terrified all at the same time. But none of those things were going to help them prepare for what came next, so she pushed all that emotion to the side and took her place at the head of the group.
It took a moment for her to figure out the right words to start things off with.
"What's done is done," Nia said, looking at each of them in turn. "We lost one of our own today, and another turned traitor. I'm not asking any of you to forget that happened. Or to forgive. But Qadar always favored quick and decisive action. So to honor her, that's what we're going to do. We're going to take action. We can all grieve later."
"Sure," Strix said. "So what's the plan?"
"First things first," she said. "Azurda? We didn't expect you back for another week. What happened?"
"I've been suspended from the Coalition Council," Azurda said. "Officially, it's a reprimand for the Gardens failing to commit troops to the Leftherian campaign. Supposedly it's only temporary, but I don't trust that they won't move to make it permanent."
"They're trying to cut us out," Akhos noted. "Why am I not surprised?"
"We knew this could happen," Nia said. "But until they formally expel us, we're still beneficiaries of the Elysian Treaty. So long as relations don't deteriorate further, then Spessia is still the primary threat."
"So what are we doing about it?" Strix asked.
"Arming up. Azurda, I want you to accompany Azazel back to the capital. Make sure he can contact his family and get them out safely. Then I want you to head back to Leftheria and touch base with Mòrag. Let them know what's happened and see if they can spare anyone to help us defend against future attacks."
"That I can do," Azurda said, agreeing despite the fact that he'd only just gotten back from the capital a few hours ago.
"Nal, I want you to go to Duthract and let Rosa Luxien know what's happened. They need to be on alert and ready to respond if anyone makes a move against us."
"Escalating things like this will spook the Coalition," Cole noted.
"Who gives a shit?" Nal asked. "Spessia practically just declared war. We gotta be ready to defend ourselves."
"I can attempt to speak with the council," Azurda said. "Alert them to the situation."
"No," Nia said. "If we publicly disclose our alliance with Duthract, they might use it as evidence of treason on our part. Tell Rosa to avoid gathering troops along the border with the Coalition. Make it clear she's defending against Spessia. That should avoid suspicion on the part of the Coalition. And it should let them know Spessia's alliances are breaking. Since we're on bad terms with them for the moment, it's better not to provoke them. Their attention should be on Spessia while they rebuild the forces they lost in Leftheria, and so long as that lasts, then we'll have a common enemy. We can rely on that to keep them from attacking us in the short term."
"And what about the long term?" Cole asked. "I don't see a way to deal with Spessia that doesn't involve war, and even if we succeed against them, I'm skeptical that the Coalition is going to let bygones be bygones."
"So long as we have Mòrag on board, then the Coalition can't take any military action against us," Akhos said. "The Leftherian Crisis proved that. They'd have to abolish her whole department to make another move like that, and she's popular with a lot of the military, so for the moment it's a politically untenable move. Even if worst comes to worst and the Coalition kicks us out, they won't have the political momentum to depose Mòrag and escalate things to armed conflict. They might try, but that would take time and effort, and we can deal with it as it comes."
"This all assumes we deal with Spessia in the first place," Adenine said. "What's our plan for that? We can arm up as much as we want, but unless we actually hit back, then it won't matter very much."
"I'm still working on that," Nia admitted. "I don't want to escalate this into a war, but Nal's right that the Spessians have basically already done that."
"Would they even recognize Atasaiah as acting on behalf of the federation?" Dromarch asked. "Everything we've heard about him suggests he was acting in secret. He worked alongside members of Spessia's government, to be sure, but I believe he was using them as much as he was using Azazel or Sthenos. They are allies of convenience, and he will discard them the moment they outlive their usefulness."
"He's been working with them from the beginning," Patroka said. "He was there back when Akhos and I served with them during the Osirian War. I doubt he's going to abandon them that quickly."
"Would've been good to know that earlier," Strix muttered.
"We didn't know who he was at the time," Akhos said. "We only ever met him once, during the assault on Saihate. At the time, we figured he was just some general's Blade, leading the assault on behalf of his Driver. Nobody was allowed to speak to him, though, and we didn't stick around long enough to see what happened to him after the battle."
"We have to assume the worst," Cole said. "Assume he still holds sway over the Spessian military. Assume he's going to send them to distract us or wipe us out. Prepare to defend ourselves accordingly. But more importantly, we need to focus on the man himself. I doubt we have very long before he launches this plan of his."
"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Adenine said.
"Really?" Nal asked. "Because an impendin' Titan genocide seems like pretty fuckin' bad news to me."
"He wants to turn the Titans to ether, right?" Adenine asked. "But the machine he's basing this all around doesn't have arbitrary range. Back during the Osirian War, it had to be physically connected to the Titan it was going to convert, and from what Zeke described, it doesn't seem like that's changed all that much."
"Couldn't he just hit each Titan one at a time?" Strix asked.
"The energy will dissipate too quickly," Adenine said. "It might produce a lot of ether, but the world is a big place. If he doesn't use that energy up immediately, then it'll diffuse through the atmosphere and become irrecoverable. And from what he said about his plan, I don't get the sense that this is something that requires only one Titan's worth of energy. So to get what he wants, he'll need to gather a massive number of Titans in one spot and convert them all in quick succession. There are only two places I can think of that fit that description. The Coalition military command, where all their war Titans are gathered, and here. Either way, if he wants to get this plan of his off the ground, then he's going to need to start a fight. So long as we're prepared, then our best plan is to wait to see who he goes after. And if it's the Coalition, then we need to be prepared to back them up."
"I doubt they're going to extend us the same courtesy," Akhos muttered.
"Which is why we're gathering allies," Nia said. "It's a solid analysis. But we've been wrong in the past, and I don't want to leave anything to chance. We need to figure out where he's going to strike next and intercept him before that can happen."
"Zeke might know," Strix said. "He's a smooth talker. He probably got something out of Kalarau while they were holding him hostage."
"Let's hope he wakes up soon, then," Patroka said.
"What are we doing about Kalarau?" Nal asked. "I know ya' said to grieve later, but I ain't exactly in the mood to just let this shit go, y'know?"
"If he's still working with Atasaiah, then…" Nia sighed. "We do what's necessary to defend ourselves. If he makes us kill him, then so be it. We're lucky he and Qadar never made a habit of resonating with Blades."
"Probably because she knew this would happen," Cole said. "She is the Oracle of Judicium, after all."
"Wasn't she the one who brought Kalarau on in the first place?" Strix asked. "If she knew this was coming, then you'd think she wouldn't have bothered to recruit him."
"There's no use speculating at this point," Nia said. "She gave her life fighting on our behalf. All that matters is that we honor that."
"We're down three caretakers, though," Akhos noted. "And until Zeke wakes up, we're technically down four. We're going to have a hard time defending this place and recruiting allies and tracking down Atasaiah if we're stretched this thin."
"There's not much we can do about that," Cole said. "There aren't any other Flesh Eaters to turn to."
"Not technically true. There's none non-Caretaker in our midst who might be able to take on the role."
"Corvin," Nia said. "You mean Corvin. The man who tried to overthrow us."
"No," Nal spat. "I barely trust him to help with the defenses as-is. I sure as hell ain't trustin' him to help run the damn place. The last time we did that, he tried to get us all killed."
"Kalarau was most likely the spy Atasaiah had in our midst," Cole said. "But he wasn't acting alone. When we tightened the net, Dagas and Azami were willing to take the fall to cover for him. I find it hard to believe that Corvin didn't know anything about that, considering they share a Driver."
"We still don't even know why they did that," Strix said. "They haven't exactly been cooperative on that front. They continue to insist that they're innocent, and at this point, I almost want to believe them. Kalarau was the one who actually found the radio on them, right? How do we know he didn't just plant it there?"
"They attacked us unprovoked," Nia said. "They wouldn't have done that unless they were involved somehow. Even if they weren't doing the spying themselves, they still helped cover up Kalarau's betrayal. The real question is whether or not Corvin was involved too."
"Of course he was," Nal said. "His own fuckin' Driver admits to workin' with Atasaiah. What more proof do we need?"
"This is all speculation," Akhos said. "The fact remains, if we want to fill ranks, he's our only option. And we've extended him a great deal of responsibilities as-is, considering his past behavior. I'm not sure why making him a Caretaker would change much."
Nia understood where Nal was coming from. She even agreed, personally. But Akhos was right. If they wanted more Caretakers on staff, then he was their only option. And they were already trusting him with the defenses anyway. If he was going to betray them, his official position would hardly make a difference.
"I know I don't have the best judgement when it comes to stuff like this," she said. "And I agree with Nal that we shouldn't trust him. But despite that, I want to trust him. I want to believe him when he says he's invested in seeing the Gardens succeed. I want to believe things can get better. So even if he doesn't deserve a second chance, I want to give him one anyway."
"And if it doesn't work out?" Nal asked. "If he ends up betrayin' us just like Kalarau did? What do we do about that?"
"I don't know," Nia admitted.
"Well, I know what I'm doin'," Nal said. "I told ya' when I signed up that ya' needed someone who could do what needs doin'."
Nia should have spoken out against that kind of talk. She should have reminded Nal that they were better than that. But she didn't.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," was all she said.
"I think we're about to find out," Strix said, tensing up. "Corvin's on his way up."
The whole room went quiet, and after about thirty seconds, there was a knock on the door. Strix opened it, and Corvin stepped inside.
"Sorry to intrude," he said. "But there's some trouble brewing between the volunteers and the monks. I tried diffusing things myself, but I've not made much progress."
"We'll handle it," Nia said.
"Gotta ask somethin' first, though," Nal said, casually drawing one of her guns. Nia didn't like where this was going, but before she could stop her, Nal stepped forward and aimed it at Corvin. "Did you know about Kalarau?"
Corvin sighed. Then, for some reason, he looked over at Nia.
"Yeah," he admitted. "More or less."
"Explain," Nia said, stepping forward and lowering Nal's gun before she could fire.
"Atasaiah hired us to kill you. And I told you we turned him down, but… That's not strictly true. Bradly told him there was no way we'd be stupid enough to attack the Banshee Queen head on, but he said that he'd be in touch regardless if we ever changed our minds. Then, the night after you defeated us in Leftheria and locked us all up, Kalarau slipped us a message in our food. Said he was working for the Titan Eater too, and that he could get us out if we were willing to help him. So Bradly changed his mind and ordered us all to help. He and Perceval would stay locked up, to keep up appearances, while the rest of us would help Kalarau stay hidden. The idea was to agitate things and cause trouble if anyone ever got close to figuring out the truth. Throw you all off the scent."
"Was that why you staged the uprising?" Nia asked.
"Yes and no," Corvin said. "The uprising was supposed to be my way out. I couldn't act against orders while I was a normal Blade, but Bradly told us to do whatever it took to ensure the plan's success. And part of that included that we couldn't divulge any details of the plan under any circumstances. So I engineered a scenario that fit within the bounds of our orders. The uprising destabilized the Gardens and made me your prime suspect. But it also let me get close to him without anyone around to stop me. I turned myself into a Flesh Eater and escaped his ability to give me orders."
"So, ever since you became a Flesh Eater, you could have told us about Kalarau at any time," Nia said. "Why didn't you?"
"I was angry," Corvin admitted. "Because the uprising wasn't just a way to destabilize things. I was hoping that, once I escaped Bradly's grip, I could oust the Caretakers and open negotiations with Spessia. Exchange you and Zeke for a guarantee that they wouldn't interfere with the Gardens any further."
"You wouldn't have lasted a week," Nal spat. "Spessia would've turned on ya' like they've turned on everyone else."
"You're probably right," Corvin said. "Maybe I was being naïve. Maybe I was just being selfish. Maybe this is all one big excuse to justify the fact that I wanted to take power for myself. I don't know. When you work with a man like Bradly for long enough, you get very, very good at coming up with excuses. None of us would be able to live with ourselves otherwise. But none of that really matters because I barely lasted two hours, let alone a week. I failed, and even though I wasn't bound by orders anymore, I was still pissed that it hadn't worked. I wanted to see you burn. And I wanted to prove that I was right. So I lied about what I knew, and I hoped that Atasaiah would make good on his word and finish you off for good."
"Too bad," Nia said. "I'm still here."
"I know." Corvin sighed. "Like you said, he's turned on us. Didn't hold up his end of the deal. The others might still be holding out hope, but I'm done. I despise Bradly, and I don't get along well with the others either. And now that I'm a Flesh Eater, this is just about the only place I have left to go anyway. So, for better or worse, I'm stuck here. Might as well make the best of it."
"Nah," Nal said. "He's just waitin' to turn on us again. I've seen it before."
"I don't doubt it," Nia said, shaking her head. "I wanted to believe you Corvin. When you said you wanted what was best for this place, I really, really wanted that to be sincere. I keep hoping that if we just work hard enough and make a convincing enough argument, people will come around to our way of thinking. But it's very hard to give you the benefit of the doubt when you're willing to admit to this much betrayal."
"Honestly?" Corvin asked. "I don't think I deserve it."
"That makes two of us," Nal muttered. Strix and Cole seemed to agree.
"I'm not asking for a second chance," Corvin said. "There's no point. I did what I thought was right, and I'm not apologizing for that. I thought that giving up the Titan Eater's enemies would make him leave us alone. But Atasaiah already got what he wanted from Zeke, and that didn't magically fix the problem. No matter what we do, nothing guarantees he won't just come back and demand more. And if not him, then it'll be someone else. Sthenos or the Coalition or whoever. As much as I hate to admit it, Jibril is right. Either we stand together, or we die alone."
"That only works so long as we're facing these threats," Nia said. "What happens after? After Spessia and the Coalition back down and we start trying to make peace again? What are you going to do then?"
"I honestly don't know," Corvin admitted. "War is practically all I know. But I was telling the truth when I said I like the idea of this place. It'd be a shame to see it destroyed. So even if I can't be in charge, I think I'd still rather live here than anywhere else. At least here, you're trying."
Nia studied him, trying to see if he was genuine. She didn't really know what the point would be, though. He'd lied to her before, and she hadn't been able to tell. He could be trying to worm his way back into power to oust them all again. He could be conducting a very long con at Bradly's behest. He could still be working for Atasaiah. And she would have no way of knowing.
But she wanted to see the best in people, even if that meant seeing the best in a liar like him. It was a risk she was willing to take.
"You're in luck, then," Nia said. "Because we're down two Caretakers, and we're likely to lose a third soon. We need every Flesh Eater we can get our hands on. So if you want to defend this place, you can do so alongside the rest of us."
"You want to make me a Caretaker?" Corvin asked. That seemed to genuinely take him by surprise.
"Trust me, asshole, we ain't happy about it," Nal said. "But we ain't exactly got many options right now."
"No," Corvin said.
"No?"
"No," he repeated. "People hate me. Even a lot of the people who joined the uprising don't want me around. If I join the Caretakers, it'll only cause more problems. And if I understand things correctly, the plan is to get rid of the Caretakers eventually, anyway. Even if I would enjoy being in charge, the Gardens wouldn't welcome a ruler."
Nia hadn't expected that. Maybe he was just being smart, telling them what they wanted to hear while he marshalled his efforts. But maybe, just maybe…
Maybe he was being genuine.
"There might be hope for you after all, then," Nia said. "If you don't want to be a Caretaker, then I won't argue. But we'll still need your help with the defenses."
"Sure," Corvin said. "Whatever you need."
"Right now, what I need is to defuse this situation with the Praetorians," Nia said. Then she looked back at everyone else. "You all have your orders. Unless there's anything else that needs addressing, I'm going to call this to a close."
"You're the boss," Nal muttered, putting her gun away. Slowly, she and the other Caretakers dispersed, and Nia turned back to Corvin.
"Lead the way," she said. He nodded, and without a word, he led her and Dromarch to a group of people who'd gathered near the outer wall. On one side were some of the Blades who'd volunteered to help with the defenses. On the other was a pack of monks. Krogane and his Driver were in the middle, trying to keep things from escalating, but some members of the crowd were shouting, and it seemed to be heading in a bad direction.
"Everyone, please!" Nia called out, stepping up between the groups. "Let's be civil about this! Fighting each other won't help anyone!"
"They're Praetorians!" someone on the volunteer side called out. "They don't have the right to be here at all!"
"We go where we're told," one of the monks said. "We do as we're told. Even if it means helping wayward miscreants like you."
Nia sighed. She really wished Zeke was here to help with this. He was a lot better at working crowds than she was. But until he woke up, she was the best they had.
"Everyone has a right to be here," Nia said. "We don't discriminate, even against Praetorians." Then she turned to the Praetorians. "But that only goes so far. We're willing to extend you our help, but we expect you to extend us the same dignity in turn. I should hope the Abbess already explained that to you."
Mentioning Jibril's name seemed to stifle the Praetorians a little, but it was clear that they didn't think of the Gardens' residents as their equals. Without Jibril to hold them back, they wouldn't stay nearly so well behaved.
In all likelihood, that wasn't a solvable problem. Prejudice like that was too deep-seated to uproot with simple gestures. But Nia believed in what the Gardens stood for. What she stood for. She wanted to believe she'd convinced Corvin to see things from their perspective, so with enough time, she might convince the Praetorians too.
It would take a lot more than just words. They'd need to make the Praetorians experience things first-hand, somehow. Find a way to forge common cause between the two groups. But with the threat of Spessia on the horizon, common cause was in ample supply.
So even if it was impossible, Nia set about trying anyway. Because if the Gardens couldn't convince people like Corvin or the Praetorians to see the validity of their way of life, then it didn't really matter whether or not they survived the current crisis. If the rest of the world couldn't come around to their way of thinking, then it was only a matter of time before something like this happened again. And again. And again. Until something or someone finally wiped them out.
Nia was not going to let that happen. So, faced with no other choice, all she had to do was the impossible. If Zeke were here, he would've made it seem trivial. So in his absence, Nia drew on some of that same idiotic confidence and got to work.