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PREVIOUSLY...
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Azura and Captain Vasio fought, Azura having to rely on her newfound flame powers, but Vasio used sygils to shield himself. In his confusion, Azura made her escape and in her exhaustion from using her magic, fell and shattered her arm. Azura relied on her senses, listening to a distant call and following it to a courtyard where she encountered heavy resistance from Sharlik soldiers. Escaping them, she stumbled into a room and came face to face with an old man.

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Blood patters on the ground, a steady noise in the silence of the room. I stare at the old man who sits at a desk, withered and brittle like a twig in winter, clinging to what's left of its life.

I grip my side, my clothes soaked through with blood, uncertain about which of it is mine but aware it could be most of it. I don't have a lot of time left.

"Where's the emperor?" I manage through gritted teeth.

The old man gets to his feet, standing tall with his head held high. "I am the—"

I raise my hand, cutting off his words as I jab a finger at him and approach him. "Don't lie to me," I hiss with a curl of my lip, too tired to even think about playing these worthless games anymore.

He glowers at me, light blue eyes flickering with shadows from the candle on his desk. "Who are you?"

I step before him, putting us nose to nose, and swipe up the letter opener from his desk. I put the dull blade to his throat. "Where's the emperor?"

"You think you can threaten me, girl?" he sneers, leaning forward into the edge of the harmless blade that I'm certain I can make harmful.

I look over him, at his draping crimson robes, the glinting jewels on his fingers, the fine plait of his silvery hair, and I begin to believe that maybe this man isn't a liar. "Palmira sent me to kill you," I inform him, lifting my chin, but he doesn't baulk under my black gaze.

"With a letter opener?" he drawls and my teeth grind together.

"I guess so." I reel back and plunge the blade into his throat. But my eyes widen and my breath stills in my lungs as the steel crumples against his skin like it's nothing more than paper. "What?" I stumble away from him, touching the ruined steel. It's hard and unyielding, yet...

"I thought Palmira and I had moved past simple assassins," he continues, brushing his fingers against his throat like he's merely flicking away a fleck of lint.

I drop the letter opener, my breathing quickening.

I can't kill him. I can't assassinate the emperor. Did Palmira send me here just to die?

"Why do you look familiar?" the man is asking as he circles me, assessing me.

"Maybe because you've tormented me my whole life," I snarl but he just snorts and shakes his head.

"Me? Not likely. What use would I have of a little girl..." His words trail off as he stops talking. I see it in his eyes as they widen and dart to my hand, something clicks within him, at the same moment that something clicks within me.

Assassinating the emperor will tell you what they do. My markings. Erasmus told me to use them on the emperor. I didn't understand then, but I'm beginning to now. If his skin can't be pierced by any normal steel, then there must be something else that can wound him.

I lift my hand, clamping my teeth on my glove to yank it off, shove it in my pocket, and reveal the golden glow of my markings.

"You're real," he whispers and I scowl at him. "Palmira wasn't bluffing."

I wiggle my fingers at him and his eyes bulge as he scampers away, now nothing more than a scared old man as he raises his hands before his face.

"Please," he begs, his eyes beseeching me as I tilt my head. "Please don't kill me."

"So, this can kill you?" I ask, looking down at the markings, every question I've ever hurled at them pushing to the surface.

"There are stories about them, I'd hoped they were a lie."

"What stories?"

"Please," he whimpers, dropping to his knees.

"What stories?" I demand again, my voice rising. Then a thump comes from the barred door and both of our gazes dart to it. Soldiers shout from the other side, trying to barge their way through the doors. It won't hold for long. "Tell me everything."

"That would take an awfully long time," he argues, hope flaring in his gaze as he looks to the door.

A feral growl rises in my throat. "Fine, I'll kill you now then." I step towards him, raising my hand, not even certain what I'm supposed to do with it.

"Wait, wait!" He throws up his hands again, cowering behind his gnarled fingers.

"I was sent here to kill you, you're meant to be giving me reasons why I shouldn't."

"Please," he simpers.

"I didn't say beg, I said give me a fucking reason."

"It wasn't me!" he shouts over the banging on the door, scrambling away from me until his back hits the wall. "Whatever you think I did, I swear it wasn't me."

I laugh, a cold and vile thing. "So, you didn't send soldiers to the Order and kill my friend?"

He shakes his head.

Rage burns up my throat and I drop to the ground before him, pressing my hand closer to his face, the glow making the sweat on his skin glisten. "Then who was it?" I ask, my voice low, like the rumble of distant thunder, an echo of danger and death.

But the man continues to shake his head, snot and tears mingling on his face as his eyes shift back to the thudding door.

"I'll kill you before they can break through. Look at me, old man, not them." I put my face in his vision, forcing him to look at the promise of death that shines in my gaze.

"I didn't hurt anyone in the Order," he blubbers, tears dripping from his chin. "Please, believe me."

"I don't believe a single word that comes out of your mouth." I bring my hand closer to his face, my fingertips so close to his skin that I can feel the heat of his body.

"Wait!" he shouts again, unable to draw back any further, but he does try. "She... she blackmails me. She's the one who controls the Empire now, not me. I'm a facade."

"Who is she?"

He cries harder.

I stretch my fingers.

"Palmira!" he shouts before the markings can touch his skin.

I freeze, my entire world stumbling to a halt.

He squeezes his eyes shut as he continues. "Elder Palmira. She controls the Empire. Everything we've done, we've done by her command."

"I don't believe you," I sneer, the urge to end his life, to return to Palmira with my vengeance sated and my mission complete, to forget everything I witnessed here, is a rising tide that I begin to let consume me.

"She didn't give me a choice," he stammers. "Palmira had infiltrated every part of my empire. She had spies in all corners and I didn't even know. I learnt of you." He opens his eyes now, looking right at the markings on my hand as my breathing begins to shallow. "I learnt of the girl in Yetok with these marks. I'd heard the rumours of what they could be and I couldn't risk you falling into the wrong hands. I sent soldiers to Yetok, but I didn't know that Palmira had one of her own on that mission."

Something in my head cracks open, blooms like a flower in spring, and I want to crush it. I don't want this. These aren't the answers I want.

They rarely are.

"You were taken from me, and my men were killed by her soldier."

And then I understand. The stench of smoke on my clothes, blood splattered on my face, the dead Sharlik soldiers around me as my brother removed his helmet, his sword dripping crimson in his fist. Only he wasn't my brother then. He was the soldier that had betrayed and killed his men to save me. And a village in Yetok was burning behind us.

"I had no choice to bow to her when she claimed to have you and those marks."

"My entire life..." I whisper, not sure how to put into words the emotions that crash through my chest. There's the familiar burn of rage, but also... betrayal. My brother didn't tell me any of this. He lied to me for years, and now I've fallen into this war without even realising who my enemies are.

"He really succeeded," the old man muses, heedless of my world splitting at the seams around me. "He turned the key into a weapon."

I frown. "This is a key?" I question, staring at my hand with new eyes. "Wait, who succeeded?"

A crack sounds behind us and I look back to see the door beginning to splinter. I've run out of time.

"Do it," he says, lifting his chin. "Let's see if this damn thing really works. Just don't let her use my son like she used me."

I stare at him for a long moment, my lips parting. "What are you?"

He grabs my wrist and I tense at the touch. "This mark was made to kill gods," he tells me, and presses my hand to his skin. It begins as a slow thing, gentle waves of light peeling from my marks and sinking into the man. Then the song sings in my ear, louder than ever, pumping through my blood as the light shines. I cry out, squeezing my eyes shut against the harsh glow.

I see something then, flickers behind my eyes, flickers of a time long past. Of a war. Hoards of demons spilling across the land like a wave of suffocating darkness, bringing forth death and horror. And the angels that stood before them, united in their faith and might. I see it like scratchy images before my eyes, blurry around the edges, never quite in focus. Black wings spread before me, majestic and stunning in their darkness. The angel turns, their features blurry, but I feel the power and rage that surrounds them.

No, not an angel. Something else entirely.

Lucifer. The betrayer.

A god.

They're real.

"Kuhric," he says, his voice firm, clear even though everything else is hazy. "It was not supposed to happen this way."

The images are wrenched from me, torn apart before I can get a true grasp on them. I scramble back, tears wetting my cheeks.

I wasn't supposed to see that. It wasn't for my eyes.

As I blink the tears away, I begin to see the world around me again. The man lays curled against the wall, his mouth open in a silent scream, his skin grey and cracked in some places, like ancient and crumbling pottery. But it's his eyes that I focus on, glazed over and white like mist. He's soulless, nothing but an empty husk.

I've seen plenty of corpses, but none of them have looked like this.

The door bursts open behind me and I jump to my feet to face the soldiers. They observe the scene, the body behind me, and they freeze, blinking in shock. I take that moment of hesitation to run.

Pushing past them, I stagger into the courtyard, leaving the Empire with more questions than when I entered.