"Give me the Diamond," Garret said. His voice growled next to Reyn's ear, no more than an inch between them. "They were meant to be ours until the sweetling's ancestor bolluxed it all up. You can't use it without killing yourself, and even if you had the courage to spill your lifeblood over it, you're not strong enough to control the power."

    Reyn wouldn't open her eyes. She couldn't look at him. She couldn't! "I am not afraid to die."

    "And why should you be?" Garret mocked. "Anything you left behind would be better off for being rid of you. Maybe that's what you want. Do you want to die before I kill more of the filth you love? Is seeing that that not something you enjoy? I'd never have guessed from how often it's happened."

    Reyn shook her head in denial, even as it made the pain from Garret's intrusion surge.

    "Poor, suicidal selkie," Garret said, his voice oozing with contempt. "Do your friends a favor. Make those passive tendencies a little more active. Spare them the horrors of being loved by a creature like you."

    The pain remained. However, Reyn began to understand that it would never grow worse than this. If it truly was Reyn's self-hatred that kept Garret from succeeding with this diabolic spell on her, there was an irony present she couldn't ignore any longer.

    Through her agony, Reyn started to laugh. Tears ran from her eyes even as her mouth widened into a maddened smile. She opened her eyes and glared into those of Garret.

    "Is that the best you have?" she asked.

    "If you want more pain, I can..."

    "No, you cannot," Reyn snarled. "You have nothing to say to me I have not told myself, over and over again." She laughed again. "I am worthless. A monster. I bring ruin to everyone I care for. Please, if you are going to try to drive me to kill myself, at least be original about it."   

    Garret's eyes widened, furious at her defiance.

    "I have a demon of my own inside me," Reyn said, "and mine is far more terrifying than the gremlin in you."

    She braced a hand against the floor and forced herself to her feet. Garret rose alongside her, and they stood nose to nose as Reyn scowled.

    "I told you before, Master Deveaux. I have weathered hatred all my life. Yours is nothing special. Mine is stronger in every way." The fractal imprint of her amulet began to shine. "You have always been more pleased with yourself than you warranted. How many times must you stab yourself with that undeserved sense of accomplishment before you learn this lesson? Your arrogance will be the death of you one day, and I will be there to tell you this. I am still alive, and you are not."

    Garret's eye twitched. "I'm going to make you suffer."

    "Before I am through, that pathetic imp inside you will have nightmares of me. I truly hope Carinae is as generous as you claim, because I very much want you to share in them." She gripped her amulet and thrust it towards Garret. Reyn slowly shook her head and gave him a look of the deepest disappointment. "What sort of idiot tells his enemy how his spell works, anyway?"

    Light essence melded to mental projection. A translocational ward with just the slightest modification would be enough to send Garret away, but Reyn couldn't be satisfied with a mere preventative measure. Runes lit and vanished from her sigil in rapid succession, crafting a spell no other scrivener in the world could replicate. A fifth-tier rune appeared at the center, and it remained steady as the other runes flashed around its twenty-five lines.

    Shoveth.

    Garret clutched at his chest. His pained grimace trembled, and he shot Reyn a furious glare.

    "You are a child of Ku, yes?" Reyn asked. "All the same strengths. The same costs. I cannot hasten the deterioration caused by your elder magic, but I can do the next best thing."

    Garret's irises went pale. Where they had once been black, they became a light gray, and even the pupils turned white as clouds formed within his eyes. Garret stumbled down to one knee, an expression of utter shock and absolute terror blooming on his hateful, handsome face.

    "The thing about imprint connections, Master Deveaux, they go both ways. If you were half the arcanist I was, you would never have opened yourself to a scrivener of my ability." She leaned closer to him and bared her sharp, selkie teeth. "Did I not tell you I would be the last thing you ever see?"

    Garret screamed and clawed at the flesh surrounding his eyes as his projection wavered and vanished.

    The light of Reyn's amulet went dark.

    Once Garret was gone and the last fading echoes of his screams followed his image into oblivion, Reyn let out a sigh of relief. The pain receded, but beyond that, Reyn felt a hollowness she hadn't felt since Rosewater. She'd exacted a measure of retribution on the man she despised more than any other, but no amount of vengeance could ever satisfy her hatred.

    Garret wasn't her true enemy. He may have opened the wound that allowed this demon to reside within her, but Garret wasn't its source. It came from within, everything about Reyn of Rosewater that she despised. The secrets, the lies, the heritage, and the cowardice. Reyn hated herself. She was ashamed to be her.

    And Reyn understood something. She always would. No matter what she did, Reyn would never be rid of this loathing.

    She cringed and touched a hand to her face. With Garret gone, she grew aware of the Highest King's presence and what he now saw. Her human visage was gone. The mask was pulled away, and he could see her for the demon she truly was.

    "Minister," Cathis said.

    His voice was low as he came to stand beside Reyn. His looming presence felt like the shadow of House Algara she'd feared for so long.

    His hand brushed her shoulder. "Are you well?"

    Reyn shook as she turned her head to look at him. She felt her knees threaten to give out on her, and her eyes kept darting to the sword in his hand.

    With a swift motion, Cathis slid the blade back into its scabbard and caught Reyn in his arms as she began to fall. He looked over his shoulder. "I don't know what magic this is, but I... I believe the worst has passed."

    Reyn looked beyond the king to a pair of figures that had arrived while she was preoccupied with Garret. One of them ran towards her. Before another thought could form, Reyn was taken from the Highest King and held in the tight embrace of a princess. Her voice nearly failed her, but Reyn managed to speak. "My lady?"

    "I told you not to call me that anymore," Pacifica whispered. She hugged Reyn around the waist, her cheek pressed against Reyn's chest. Pacifica was trembling, and when she spoke, her voice was on the verge of breaking. "I was so afraid I'd lose you. I couldn't bear it. I'm selfish when it comes to you."

    "How?" Reyn asked. "How are you here?"

    "Nothing could ever keep me away from you." Pacifica pulled back though she kept her arms around Reyn. She looked up. Her cheeks had tears flowing down them, and the puffiness around her eyes spoke to how she'd been crying for some time. Perhaps for as long as it took her to get here.

    Even when weeping, she was beautiful.

    Reyn shuddered and closed her eyes, unable to look Pacifica in the face. Not as she was. Not as a shifter. Reyn felt abhorrent to someone so pure.

    Pacifica's hands cupped Reyn's cheeks to stop her from turning away. "Don't you ever look away from me," Pacifica said. "Never feel like you have to hide. I've seen everything there is to see in you, and I've seen nothing you should be ashamed of."

    Reyn didn't believe that could possibly be true. There was so much of her she'd never revealed to Pacifica. "If you knew..."

    "I would still love you," Pacifica said.

    Shaking her head, Reyn cried.

    "Give everything you are to me," Pacifica said. "I'll give you everything I have in return. I will hold you to my heart for the rest of my life. I'll love you past the Beyond. I'm yours, Reyn of Rosewater."

    Reyn slowly opened her eyes just in time to see Pacifica rise up on her toes to kiss her. She expected a light kiss, a chaste kiss, the sort she understood and accepted was the only manner of kiss they would ever share. What she received couldn't have possibly been further from that.

    It startled her. Reyn tried to pull back, fearing that her own feelings and carefully hidden desires had caused her to take more than was being offered. Pacifica's arms around her neck held her in place, delicate fingers ran through Reyn's hair, and her lips pleaded to be kissed further.

    Reyn felt as if she were melting. This must have been a dream. It couldn't be real. Fate would never be this kind. It was far more than she ever hoped to deserve.

    "Where is she?" Starra's voice exclaimed from outside the room, approaching fast. She barreled in through the door with her skirt hiked up well above her ankles. "Forgive me, Your Grace, but you can't just say my dear one is being assaulted and leave it at... Oh! What in the... Oh!"

    Pacifica broke the kiss, and a look of apprehension came into her eyes as she let go of Reyn and turned towards Starra. "Master, I... Waves take me, I'm so..."

    "Bloody marvelous!" Starra shrieked. She clutched her hands over her heart. Her red eyes were wide with delight, and Reyn had never seen her smile so broadly before.

    Starra rounded on the king, who looked terribly awkward as he attempted to shield his face from everyone else in the room. His second-hand embarrassment was almost palpable.

    "I think it's rather obvious Reyn's a willing participant," Starra said. "I certainly wouldn't call this an 'assault'. Bloody hell."

    Cathis let out a half-hearted sputter that never truly formed into a coherent response.

    Starra's eyes darted from the king to Reyn's undisguised face, and she grew wary. "No, something else happened. As Moon would say, what is black?"

    "I am..." Reyn swallowed and almost felt like she could throw up. "I am afraid His Grace has become aware of my nature, mon trésor."

    Cathis couldn't even look in her direction. "Winds and storms. If a vampire hasn't shaken me, do you really think a selkie would?"

    Reyn looked to Starra, who returned her a shrug and arched eyebrow.

    "He's quite right, dear one. Or have you not noticed I've been forgoing a veil?"

    Reyn opened her mouth to answer but didn't have anything she thought she could say to that. It hadn't occurred to her, possibly because she was so used to Starra not hiding herself.

    Starra let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, with all I've been piling on His Grace about his brother and demons and dooms, shifters are somewhat low on the list. Some perspective, dear one. I do think the king's recent actions have proven he's not so petty as that." Starra crossed the room towards her and Pacifica. She lay a hand on each of their shoulders. "Now, what has gone wrong? His Grace sounded halfway to a panic, and I won't believe that came from a bit of overdue snogging."

    Pacifica turned beet red.

    "There was fell magic at play," Darian said. Reyn about jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice. She hadn't noticed until that moment he'd been lurking in the shadows of the room. He now approached her with hesitant footsteps. "There were essences like I'd never sensed before."

    "What are you doing here?" Reyn gasped in shock.

    Darian offered her a little smile. "If you wouldn't mind, please don't tell the Espallans."

    "It's my doing," Pacifica said. She looked to the ground, almost seeming ashamed. Something terrible weighed on her, more than simply bringing Darian. "Reyn, there's so much I need to tell you, but not now. What can we do to help?"

    Cathis eyed Darian and his vintage uniform. "And who is this?" he asked, sounding like he was purposely keeping suspicion from entering his voice.

    Darian's spine went stiff as a board.

    Josy entered the storage room. She passed between Cathis and Darian without giving either so much as a glance. "A Sapphire crewman, Uncle. He's some Nadian ruffer the Aleesh picked up in Drok Moran. Don't ask about his get-up. It's a long story."

    Cathis nodded, willing to leave it at that with everything else that was going on. "As you say."

    Once the king's back was turned, Josy looked to Darian. "You owe me," she mouthed silently.

    Darian covered his heart and bowed his head to her.

    "The Rampart's joined up with Uncle Gain to guard the manor," Josy reported. "The armada's closing in. Maya and the others can't hold them back for much longer. Whatever it is you're doing, we need to be done with it soon, or we're all dead."

    Cathis backed away from them all. That awkwardness of his returned, as he clearly had no desire to be part of any of this. "If the minister is seen to, I should go assist my brother."

    "As you say," Reyn said. "And... Your Grace?"

    Cathis paused before exiting the doorway and looked back at her.

    "Thank you."

    The Highest King smiled for her and inclined his head. "No, Minister. Thank you."

    Starra blinked as Cathis left the room, then she returned her attention to Reyn. "Progress?"

    "Perhaps," Reyn said. She wiped at her brow and returned to her human face. "I may have failed to negotiate a treaty with the Jade Empire, but perhaps Her Majesty will accept one with Althandor instead."

    Pacifica's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

    "I am seldom otherwise, my lady."

    Josy snorted. "Said the sky pirate."

    "We are not speaking of that debacle," Reyn snapped.

    "Don't be that way, Legs." Josy said with a smirk. "Your girls should know how dashing you are at the helm."

    Reyn did her best to ignore Josy and the befuddled looks Starra and Pacifica were giving. "It was Garret," she said to draw them back to the matter at hand. "He's..."

    "A demon," Pacifica said. "Yes, Cathis told us most everything while you were... indisposed. What did he do?"

    Reyn fumbled with her sleeves and pulled out the Imperial Diamond. "He wanted this."

    "Stones take me," Darian said softly. He looked at the stone in Reyn's cupped hands with awe. "You found it."

    "And no small amount of bother it's been, I assure you," Starra said. She tightened her hold on Reyn's shoulder. "Are you alright, dear one? He didn't..."

    "I sent him away," Reyn said. "He will not soon forget the price of getting on my bad side."

    "Now what?" Pacifica asked. Her eyes narrowed as her seldom-seen anger appeared. "Will you use the Diamond to finish him off? Maybe there's a way to kill that human filth and the demon inside him at the same time."

    Reyn ran her fingertips over the gemstone, feeling the etchings of sigils over its surface. They were too fine and delicate for her to read with the naked eye, much like her amulet. "I do not know if that is possible," she said. "It may be that binding himself to the Ku Dynasty has opened a vulnerability in Carinae even as it gives him power, but I do not know a way to exploit it. If only I knew what Krayson needed from me."   

    It was hard, but Reyn forced herself to look at Darian. He held himself a pace away from her, watching her every move.

    "I am sorry, Darian. I am sorry I blamed you."

    He dropped his gaze a moment before meeting her eye again. "No apology needed."

    "I should not have doubted you. From the start, you never gave me cause."

    Darian winced. "Were that it were true, dove. I have given cause. I just never let on."

    Reyn furrowed her brow.

    He gave her a sad smile. "Enough about me. I'm just a late arrival to this war and willing to do my part. Say the word, and I'm at your disposal."

    Looking around at all of them— Pacifica, Starra, Josy, and Darian— all of them people with whom she had at one time or another fallen in love, Reyn came to a slow realization. It was a realization that was long... long... overdue. They all loved her back in their own way.

    The demon inside her would never die. It would always be a part of her. But with their love, she felt it wither. Loving easily opened her to heartache, but the strength it gave her could defy the darkest evils the world had to offer.

    Perhaps it would be alright if she loved herself a little, too.

    Reyn felt a tear run down her cheek, and in the same moment, she felt a pulse from within the Imperial Diamond. Almost as if it echoed her own heartbeat, yearning for the life flowing in her veins. She would've thought it to be her imagination if the others didn't all look sharply to the gemstone in her hand.

    "Did that happen?" Josy asked, pointing a finger at the Diamond.

    "How many bloodsongs are stored in there?" Darian asked.

    "Lots," Josy replied.

    "How many are 'lots'?"

    Josy raised her eyebrows and held her palms a wide distance from each other. "Lots."

    "Several thousand," Reyn muttered.

    Pacifica gasped, horrified, and Darian let out a low whistle. When Pacifica shot him a dirty look, he held up his palms.   

    "No one had to die to fill it with bloodsongs," he said defensively. He paused and struck a thoughtful pose. "Making it, however... Yes, a theurallurgic artifice like the Imperial Diamond would've cost several hundred arcanists their lives, at least."

    "They died," Reyn whispered, touching the Diamond again. "The bloodsongs... the people they were taken from died."

    Starra looked at her with concern. "You can tell?"

    "I can," Reyn whispered. The more she stared at the Diamond, the more certain of it she was. It was a ghoulish jewel, born from so much death. The ancient Aleesh paid a terrible price to create the Diamonds, and an even worse price to use one.

    The more she stared, the deeper she saw. The more she listened, the more she heard. Every bloodsong held within the Imperial Diamond cried out with its own voice, an echo of the life it once held.

    "Essence of all spirits," she murmured. "I know what we have to do."

    "Do tell, dear one."

    Reyn looked to Starra, then to Pacifica. "We have to remind them."

    A chorus of silence answered her.

    Reyn shook her head. She didn't think she could explain, not if she had all the time in the world and a stack of arcane diagrams. Ever since she was a little girl, she'd had a talent for puzzling through magical quandaries, and this was little different. Reyn would never call herself one aloud, but she was an arcane genius who could create and utilize fractal imprints. Manipulating the Diamond's sigils would be rudimentary in comparison. This wasn't only possible, it was exactly what needed to happen to throw a massive wrench into the clockworks of the old masters' strategy.

    "Darian?"

    He stepped forward. "What do you need?"

    "You were my first love. Much of what I have become, I owe it to you."

    He glanced sheepishly around at the others and blushed.

    "You are my foundation. I will rely on you. Unison link with me, and focus on the Diamond."

    "And do what?" Even as he asked, he placed his hand over hers and the gemstone.

    "I need your elder magic." She winced. "Sorry. And everyone here will promise not to spread word that you are a geomancer."

    Darian shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I sorta let the cat out of the bag myself when the empress tried to kill me."

    Reyn blinked.

    "Long story, dove. What next?"

    Reyn turned to Starra. "Mon trésor, you are my protector. My dark guardian angel. From the moment you barged into my life, you have been there for me. Join the link, and shield us from the blood magic."

    Starra placed her hand over Darian's. "Bloody hell, I love it when you talk like that."

    "Keep me safe a little while longer. I must still meet your father." Reyn looked away from her. "Pacifica?"

    "I'm here, Reyn."

    "I love you." With her free hand, Reyn reached for her. "I have loved you since the day we met."

    Pacifica took her hand and held it to her heart.

    "In Nadia before the Melcians attacked our camp, I promised to tell you something."

    Pacifica bit her lip and nodded.

    "You showed me... I could be better than the person I let myself become. I didn't have to surrender to the darkest side of myself. You made a place for me at your side and let me join you in the light. I have marveled at your strength since then. I have relied on that strength." She smiled. "If perhaps... I have needed to steer it a little to keep it on course."

    Pacifica sniffled and gave a soft laugh. She held tighter to Reyn's hand, like she never meant to let it go again.

    "You are the most powerful mortal wizard in the world," Reyn said. "With you beside me, not even Fate can stop us. We will make a new future for ourselves. Lend me your strength once more, and I will help guide it."

    Pacifica stepped closer and placed a hand over Starra's. She never took her eyes away from Reyn. "Again and forever."

    The Imperial Diamond pulsed. It continued in time with Reyn's heartbeat, as if it could sense it was about to be used. It hungered for release. The bloodsongs within had been trapped for six hundred years, and it was long past time for their torment to end.

    "Duchess," Reyn said, looking to Josy.

    "Aye. Got something pretty to say to me, too, eh?"

    Reyn smiled. "Watch our backs, and try not to do anything stupid."

    "Aww shucks, Legs. That got me choked up all over again." Josy turned around to face the doorway. She assumed her full-body osteoform, ready for anything.

    "You reminded me what it felt like to be alive," Reyn said. "Thank you, my friend. I will never be able to repay you."

    Reyn looked down at their linked hands and focused her ether into the lines upon the Imperial Diamond. She mapped the etched sigils, felt the workings of their spellcraft, and only lit the runes she wanted. It was an artifice of hideous design, dominating and absolute, but Reyn didn't allow the sigils that trapped the entombed bloodsongs to light. Instead, she set the bloodsongs free.

    And she sang.

oOo

    Krayson ran for all he was worth, and even then, he was barely keeping ahead of the cannons. He'd gotten separated from Heron and Tarlus during the bombardment. The assassins escaped the airships' cannons by ducking into a canal and diving into an ancient sewer pipe. Krayson had kept running, because he sensed something new in the air. He couldn't dive underground just yet. He knew what was coming, and the full might of the Jade Empire couldn't stop him from being there to witness it.

    It'd been too long since he last saw a miracle.

    He spoke the incantation for his gravity spell and fell into the sky. Before he left the Algaras he meant to get a better look at Maya's modification to the spell and see if there was a way for him to do the same. Flying seemed so much better than falling in the wrong direction.

    Arching up and over the Imperial City, Krayson could see the extent of the ruins. The Espalla Dunes stretched on in every direction, seemingly forever, until they met the horizon. Krayson adjusted his spell until true gravity began to reassert itself. He fell downward until coming to rest at the very top of the Dragon Emperor's palace.

    Airships approached. Their lookouts wouldn't have missed his flight through the cityscape, but Krayson didn't pay them any mind. Their cannons wouldn't be able to aim at him before this growing power he felt all around reached a crescendo. He breathed heavily through his mouth, almost panting, as magic greater than any apotheosis he'd ever known before began to shake the world.

    Throughout the city, men shouted in fear as the ground beneath their feet started to tremor. Krayson held on to the golden spike crowning the palace and looked to the north. He closed his eyes and distantly heard Reyn's song. He listened and let it wash over him.

    They hear her Voice, Kumo whispered.

    Thousands of bloodsongs clung to a spare memory of life. Reyn's Voice called to them, enflaming what yet remained of their humanity— the lives they led, the dreams they pursued, and the land they loved— before all was cut cruelly short by an emperor who failed to understand the only way to combat the darkness.

    Not with more darkness, but with light.

    As Reyn's song returned the bloodsongs a memory, Starra's soul shielded the others from the damaging effects of blood magic. Pacifica's raw power from the Merovech pierced between the physical realm and the Ethereum, and her elder magic allowed for a new path to be forged within the web of Fate. And lastly, Darian the Teranor and his elder magic provided the final and most critical of arjapieces to the correct side of the game board for this match.

    Darian transformed the Imperial Diamond into a geocryst.

    The breaches between the physical and spirit worlds, sealed centuries ago, broke open once again. Spiraling out from the Imperial City, etherlight erupted from the land and rose like beacons into the sky. Great fissures appeared and poured out blinding white light. The cracks ran from the ruins to all corners of the dunes, widening and returning their radiance to the land.

    Krayson opened his eyes and raised his hands to the sun. "They heard," he whispered. "They remember you. Save them."

    Within the streams of light pouring out of the fissures, an enormous hand of stone emerged. It found purchase upon the sand dunes and heaved the titanic figure of a forgotten god out of the Ethereum and onto the physical plane. By degrees, the misplaced god stood tall and raised his face to the sky.

    Airships veered away. Their crews cried out in fear. Against the divine enormity of a god, they appeared no larger than toys. His arrival, this pagan entity they no longer understood, awoke a primal dread within the People of Jade. One by one, the airships of the Jade Armada turned their bows west and fled.

    Below them, upon the deep sands of the Espalla Dunes, the true miracle began.

    The first signs of it were how the sands receded from the city streets. Lanes and alleyways that had been obscured saw the sun for the first time since the days of Shoen. Every stone of the Opalescent Road was wiped clean to sparkle in the light.

    Then came the crystal fountains, long dormant, as they sprayed clean and clear water into their basins. From deep beneath the earth, vast reservoirs of water were pulled to the surface by the power of geomancy.

    Krayson turned about on top of the palace, watching the dead land as it came alive. He'd learned from personal experience, what was dead was never truly lost. Not so long as someone remembered. Darian might not have known what to place within his geocryst, but the awakened memories held within the bloodsongs did. They remembered their homeland, and they gave the Aleesh still alive in the world what the old masters tried to plunder for themselves.

    Paradise came to the Espalla Dunes, and the desert was no more. In its place grew a land of vast plains of grass and gentle hills with scattered copses of acacia trees. An inland sea rose from the shattered buildings on the edge of the Imperial City, filling the canals with its clear waters. To the north, rocky canyons teemed with clinging vines and thick foliage. To the west, great fields of wildflowers grew out of thick, black soil. To the south, sparse woodlands spanned for many leagues before they gave way to tundra approaching the frozen south. And to the east, there appeared a savannah so broad that a mortal eye couldn't see the other side of it.

    Shan Alee. A beautiful, virgin landscape once more. Untainted. Pure. As it was meant to be. Waiting for its people to come home.

    The fissures emitting etherlight began to close. The skyward beacons diminished until the breaches between worlds disappeared and became unbroken land all around. While the visible manifestations were gone, the rejuvenated ley lines endured. Krayson could feel his blood drawing in ether at a steady pace. Magic returned to the west.

    The god's stone form blackened and smoldered. Motes of ash the size of dragons fell from his body to reveal cracks of glowing ember underneath. The heat of him felt hot enough to sear Krayson's flesh to the bone. He was a spirit of Fire, but his was a flame that could never bring destruction. The flame of hope was rekindling in the heart of Shan Alee.   

    Call his name, my saint, Kumo whispered.

    "I do not know it," Krayson said. "The name the Aleesh gave him was stolen by a demon."

    Shanothé, the Betrayer, is dead, and the demon Sol died with him. A reborn god, free of the old masters, must have a new name. Give it to him.

    Krayson lowered his gaze. "I once had no hope. I was cast out and alone, and someone held out their hand to me. My father's name. Would that be alright?"

    I can think of none better, my saint.

    Krayson nodded and felt tears in his eyes. At the top of his lungs, he cried out.

    "The Warding Light. Ranton!"

    The god's smoldering form burst. Every ember within him ignited. The Warding Light became a single flame possessing the barest shape of a man. He was blinding, as if a second sun had appeared. Krayson shielded his eyes as he looked on, a broad smile on his face.

    Wait, not that name!

    "What?" Krayson squawked.

    The laughter in his mind that followed really rubbed Krayson the wrong way. Feeling like he'd had half his lifespan scared off of him, he slumped against the spike. "All seven thunders, I hate you."

    Mortals believe me to have a sick sense of humor. The old forms must be heeded.

    "Is it possible to swap which god I'm a saint for? I mean, I named him. That should be a suitable reference."

    Unfortunate for us both, our threads are intertwined. In this life and in your next.

    "Wonderful," Krayson grumbled. "You'll have to excuse me. I need to find my friends, and I'm positive there are a lot of extremely confused scale lions down there."

    So long as Ranton is remembered, hope exists within my web. You have returned him to his land. Now, you must return him to his people.

    Krayson looked up at the great figure of flame standing over the Imperial City. "How do you suggest I do that?"

    If Kumo had an answer, he didn't provide it. Silence returned to Krayson's mind, and he was rather disgruntled about how that only seemed to happen when he wanted answers. Thunders crash on that spider's head.

    He needn't have worried, because before long, the Warding Light began to dwindle in size until he was little more than a single point of light hanging above the Imperial City. The light drifted downwards, falling gently towards Krayson at the top of the palace.

    Krayson held out his hand until a small weight settled upon it.

    A glittering and clear diamond, cut into a teardrop shape, rested in his palm. Within its depths was a flickering flame, no bigger than that of a burning candle. Hope remained a tiny and precious thing, but it was protected. It would never leave humanity again.

    Krayson looked into the flame and felt his throat go dry. If this was all that remained of the Warding Light after the bloodsongs from the Imperial Diamond fled Beyond, there was much left to do. The demons would not stop this near to their goal just because of a reborn land and its god. The war wasn't over.

    In many ways, it was only just beginning.

    He made his way down from the palace on lost magic, cradling the Warding Light to his side. Once on the city streets, he found clusters of Jade soldiers who were abandoned by their armada and sitting in a confused daze. They gaped open-mouthed at the plant life that suddenly appeared within old parks and gardens. There didn't appear to be any fight left in them, and they gave no resistance as royal assassins rounded them up.

    Heron and Tarlus were relieving soldiers of their flintlock weapons when Krayson came upon them. The Algaras seemed little better off than their captives and were forcing themselves to ignore the return of life to the desert and staring at it in turns.

    "Blood Runner," Heron said in greeting as soon as she spotted him. "Don't tell me this was what you were planning."

    Krayson pocketed the Warding Light's diamond and gave it a pat. "More or less. Like I said, nothing was ever certain."

    "You're a madman," Heron said. "You've any idea what this will mean? Ether's coming back faster. That means the People of Jade can use magic as much as we can."

    "And they'll know it," Krayson said. "You and your coterie will make certain they know it. The Glory they revere belongs to everyone now, not solely to their emperor."

    Heron wrinkled her nose. "That's a tall order, orchestrating a cultural revolution in a nation we've never been able to infiltrate before."

    "Garret's elder magic grants ether. It won't be as useful in compelling the People of Jade anymore. It's almost sad how his position just became obsolete so soon after he got it." Krayson smirked. "Almost."

    "A madman and a cruel bastard." Heron crossed her arms and smiled. "I knew I liked you. But unfortunately, it's not just the Jade Empire that's going to go off their nut because of your first minister. All this real estate just opened up, and Law of the Highest King and hostile empires notwithstanding, plenty of folk are going to be flooding west to stake a claim."

    Krayson shrugged. "Change is either slow or it comes so fast it makes your head spin. If only Fate willed it different, but this will cause as many problems as solutions."

    Heron's eyes widened.

    "Yeah," Krayson said. "It's going to be messy. Rogue states and robber barons will start popping out of the woodwork in this new frontier. We may be looking at a new golden age of banditry, but..." Krayson looked up into the sky. "That's what the Arcane Knights are for. I'd bet my last penny that if the Highest King asked, the Dragon Empress would help him make this land a part of the Five Kingdoms. A buffer of sorts between all of you and the demons at the gate. All she'll want in return is Cathis allowing her people to return to their homeland."

    Heron blew out her lips. "That's all above my pay grade, Blood Runner. I just spy on folk." She nodded in the direction of the Moonstone Knight's manor. "Be on your way, Krayson. Unless I'm wrong, there's people you need to see to."

    Nodding in farewell to her, Krayson continued on. As he passed, Heron whispered something to him that wouldn't be overheard.

    "Just make certain I don't have to spy on you. Six centuries of hating each other doesn't vanish overnight. Whatever we may want, Shan Alee and Althandor won't have real peace this easy."

    "I know," Krayson replied. "I had your help before. In the future, can I rely on you to help me keep our kingdoms from each other's throats?"

    Heron looked into his eyes for a long moment. Then she gave a curt nod. "I hate war. Especially with dragons and demigods. You and your friends scare the shite out of me."

    "If I'm being honest," Krayson sighed, "I wish we scared ourselves a little more."