"I can't help but think there are things going on I'm glad I don't know about." Deebee arched her back and stretched, scratching shallow gouges into the stone with her enormous claws. "I spent centuries right in the thick of things, you know. For the last twenty years, it's become even more hectic, but this past year... Well, let us just say it's been eventful enough that I'm a little relieved to be afforded a respite." Deebee laughed softly. "But don't tell your mother I said that, my darlings. I'll deny everything."

She traced her claws over the hardened shells of one of the clutch. This one would hatch first. Deebee could sense it. This would soon be none other than Anura the Paladin, and Deebee was more anxious than she'd ever been to meet her and her siblings. She could already smell something of Kimpo in their daughters, and also a little of herself. It had been Deebee who spent the most time curled over the clutch. She'd have been angry if a touch of silver didn't rub off on the hatchlings.

The nests were fashioned from coins— gold marks, naturally. Deebee and Kimpo melted them down and formed them into molten mounds. Gold made for the most desirable consistency as it melted over the eggshells, and it conducted the heat of the flames surrounding the two nests nicely.

Each egg was small. One was about the size of a mortal's torso, and they felt absolutely tiny when she wore her truest form. She felt like she was cradling chicken eggs half the time.

"Which isn't to say I'm not sick with worry over everything," Deebee assured her children. "No, my darlings, I refuse to make the same mistakes again. I'm going to be honest with you about everything, even if it doesn't show your mothers in the best light. The truth is, I'm heartbroken. I lost friends, recently. Dragons I've known since I was little older than you, mortal knights I've come to respect, and..." She sighed. "It's a crime you won't be privileged to know Rippling Moon. You especially, Anura. I rather think your mother named you believing you'd become the bonded dragon to the next Lord or Lady Karst.

"Furthermore, I will admit right now that I wish I could've been there, because maybe there was something I might've been able to do. I wish I could be with your sister, because the things I'm told she's getting up to are enough to take the shine out of my scales. But don't you worry, my darlings. As much as I might wish to be with Enfri, I know where I'm needed most. Right here with you, and as far as responsibilities go, this one is the most enjoyable one I can imagine."

Deebee held her breath when she thought she heard a rustle coming from the clutch. It may have been one of the hatchlings stirring within the shell— they were very nearly old enough to start squirming about. It was also just as likely to be Deebee's wishful thinking getting the better of her.

"But let's not dwell on sad things. I was telling you a story, wasn't I? You'll find that I'm rather good at it, if I don't say so myself. This story is something of a favorite of mine. I hope you don't mind my using you all to practice the wording, because I haven't had the chance to tell it to anyone else just yet. I've a feeling this one will get repeated all across the Continent for many years to come, so please bear with me. I want to get this one right."

Deebee rubbed her snout against Anura's egg, then against Dayja's, then Darja's, and finally Sooji's. The Paladin, the Cavalier, the Lancer, and the Hero, respectively. Kimpo had chosen the names for all four of their young ladies, and Deebee was glad for it. She didn't think she had it in her to give a warrior's name to such sweet-natured little girls. If Deebee was the one doling out names, there'd be red dragons cursed with titles like the Primrose or the Starlight. Poor things would probably be unable to show their adorable faces to the other fighting dragons.

And no, it wasn't strange at all that Deebee already had a firm picture in her head of who her daughters would be. Absolutely not.

"Drat," Deebee muttered. "I really ought to have put more thought into the rookery, girls. Yes, that's right, Mama really ought to have. I can't quite reach your brother from here."

She stretched out the tip of her tail towards the second nest of molten coins in the rookery. If she strained a tad, she could just barely reach and tap the tip against Shaia's eggshell. Deebee would've very much liked to be able to snuggle with his egg, too. Unfortunately, to guarantee a male hatchling, the fires about his nest had to burn exceptionally hot, and his mother's body was built to absorb heat. Therefore, Deebee spent much of the day curled around her daughters to ensure they didn't get too warm over the flames.

"You'd best be listening from over there," Deebee called to Shaia. "I don't want this story to grow stale because I tell it too often. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. I remember this day because it was the last time I visited your sister before she learned everything. Pay attention everyone."

Deebee cleared her throat and hugged her daughters' eggs close.

"The wind was cold as it blew out from the desert. Enfri stood and..."

A loud crash boomed from elsewhere in the lair. The clamor of collapsing stone and rubble echoed all around. Deebee's first instinct was to shield her eggs, but she knew every inch of her lair, and that sound came from too far away to be of an immediate threat to them. It came from the entrance.

"Please wait a moment longer, my darlings," Deebee said. She rose gingerly to all fours and bared her teeth into a fearsome snarl. "That's right, no need to worry. Mama will take care of this. To ribbons, you say? Well, I suppose if I must, I must."

She pounced away and fell into a sprint. Before she left the rookery, she used somatics to place a ward that would do something particularly nasty to anyone fool enough to approach her eggs. Immolation was among the kinder fates that awaited interlopers.

Deebee ran at a sprint through her lair. Even as she charged towards the entrance in a fury, she was mindful of where she placed her steps, because not all the traps she'd built into the lair were magical in nature. There were enough pressure plate triggers and clockwork mechanisms that Jin had raised an appreciative eyebrow over Deebee's thoroughness.

When she burst into the antechamber with its cloud-like stonework, Deebee stood tall on her hind legs and let flames lap out between her teeth. She loosed a deep growl from deep in her chest, and smoke billowed out from her mouth.

"Who dares trespass within the Storyteller's lair?"

Aha, that was a fine challenge. Deebee made a mental note to remember it to add into one of her tales when she needed a dramatic embellishment. She was so proud of her entrance that it almost came as a disappointment when she realized there wasn't about to be a climactic battle waged in defense of her nest.

Deebee dropped to all fours at once and let her fire recede back down her throat. She gaped in astonishment at the truly enormous figure that now lay collapsed at the stairs leading to the surface. His scales were silver, but they were awash with scarlet blood and black char. "Winds take me. Varn?"

Her granduncle stirred, and he let out a quiet moan of pain.

"Winds and flames!" Deebee shouted. She dashed to Varn's side but didn't touch him. Her claws hovered over his injuries. There didn't seem to be an inch of him that hadn't been battered or torn.

Varn was barely able to fit through the passage down into the lair. He was over a thousand and a half years old and easily twice Deebee's size. His venerable age, old even by dragon standards, might have diminished his power, but he remained stronger in magic than almost anything else alive.

"What's going on?" Deebee asked breathlessly. "Winds, Varn, what did this to you?"

"My Storyteller," Varn panted. He raised his head up to look at her. One of his eyes was torn out, and the empty socket was a blackened ruin.

"Easy now," Deebee said. "You know I was never all that good in restoration, but I can start patching you up until I can summon one of the oranges." She took another look at his injuries. "Maybe two. Three, even. The legion's not far."

Varn shook his head as he tried to rise. He fell back to his belly almost immediately. "No time," he said, his voice weak. "My Storyteller... you all need to be warned..."

"Of what? Flames, what's happened?"

"All hope is lost," Varn said. He lay his head down as his breaths became erratic. Winds, he was weeping. "We failed. We failed you and all the world. My Storyteller, I'm sorry. If only I had seen the truth before it was too late, but the enemy is more insidious than we ever imagined."

A sensation like ice ran down Deebee's scales. "Tell me what's happened, my Librarian."

He faced her again, and the look in his remaining eye held such sorrow. Such horror.

Hopelessness.

"We have been betrayed."

oOo

All places were an equal distance from all others.

Krayson had been trying to wrap his head around that simple fact of the spirit world since he arrived, but it still gave him a headache. It wasn't a world of order, of rules to be obeyed. The Ethereum was a chaotic realm in constant upheaval, every stone and blade of grass impermanent, and subject to something as mercurial as perception. What little order the gods and the Law of Five instilled within the spirit world amounted to tiny points of stability within a primordial dreamscape serving as an alien reflection of the physical realm.

It made getting from one place to another incredibly frustrating.

So much for being able to go instantly to somewhere you know, Krayson groused to himself. He'd lost track of how long Vintus had been leading them through the spirit world. He couldn't tell if it'd been minutes or weeks. Time itself had lost all meaning.

However long it'd been, Krayson was certain it was longer than his body should've been able to keep going. No one else seemed to be having the same difficulties, but they had the endless wellspring of ether all around to replenish themselves. Even the Teulites, who didn't have a single arcanist of note among them, benefitted from infinite ether. But Krayson, sealed by sorcery, was left in a state that felt worse than death. He was sure that if it wasn't for the sustaining spells woven into his blood, he'd have already keeled over.

I'm going to eat my own weight in bacon and eggs when I get out of here, he promised himself.

Progress towards Kumo's prison was maddeningly slow. He wasn't sure if they'd made any progress at all. The landscape was no longer the strange forest. They'd left that behind a long time ago and found themselves in a desert more barren than any ever found in reality. At one point, Krayson thought he spied a ruined city far away on the horizon, but the moment his eyes fell on it, Vintus had ordered the group into a run that sent them leagues far away in just a few footsteps. Whatever lay out there, Vintus was afraid of it, and if the blessed saint of demons was afraid of something, Krayson was of a mind to give it the respect it warranted.

After the desert came a rolling meadow that stretched as far as the eye could see. Once on the grass, Krayson had looked behind him to find no trace at all of the desert they'd just left. After the meadow was a blackened mountainside with rivers of molten rock and steaming hot springs. Next was a field filled with glowing mushrooms the size of trees. Then an idyllic beach. A tundra. Canyons. Onward until they now walked under the tangled boughs of a steaming jungle.

And through it all, the forgotten god followed.

Krayson lost sight of the entity often, but it always returned. Vintus had stopped paying it any attention, though it always managed to catch Krayson's eye when it was close. Sometimes, it was right on top of them. Its stone-carved feet the size of a cottage plodded along behind them as if it were a lost puppy. Other times, Krayson only saw it far off in the distance, just its upper body appearing above the horizon.

He wished he knew what it was about their group that caught its attention. As soon as he figured it out, Krayson meant to banish that part of himself just to dissuade the divine corpse from following. The forgotten god didn't disturb him quite as much as it did Maya, but he felt it wasn't a large difference.

"We must be close by now," Maya said. "Uncle, the Teulites won't wait patiently much longer."

"They will wait for as long as they have to," Vintus replied. He didn't deign to look Maya's way as he spoke. His eyes were busy scanning the horizon. "They don't get what they want until after we take Fate from his web. Until then, they can just enjoy the scenery."

Maya rolled her eyes while Vintus' back was turned. "I thought you said we can travel instantly to anywhere you've already been. Haven't you scouted the prison before?"

"Of course I have," Vintus said irritably. "I also said the prison is guarded. The Lord of Bones has no choice but to make it difficult to locate. Don't worry, Maya. We're close. I can feel it."

Maya glanced towards where Krayson and Moon rode on their aged horses. She spared a brief but concerned look for Krayson's increasingly obvious fatigue, but she was more concerned for Moon's wellbeing. Krayson couldn't help but wonder why Princess Maya Algara, of all people, would be so concerned for a goblin. From everything Krayson had ever seen from her, he wouldn't have expected her to have a soft spot for pregnant women. Then again, she might've just taken a fast liking to Moon. Krayson wouldn't have blamed her if that was the case. Moon was as endearing as they came.

Of everyone in the party, Krayson thought the old nags he and Moon rode were having the best time of it. They moved more easily, as if their aching joints and tired muscles felt better than they had in years. Krayson thought that when it came time to make their escape, he'd do the animals a kindness and leave them here to live out the rest of their days feasting on spirit grass and feeling like foals again.

They'd be safe, he was sure, because while the Ethereum was the strangest place Krayson could imagine, he was yet to see anything dangerous. There were bizarre creatures, sometimes even spirits, but they all were usually content to turn away and vanish. Denizens of this realm seemed to make a point of staying out of everyone else's way, which made the forgotten god tailing them all the more annoying.

The jungle trees around them began to change as they pressed forward. First there'd be one or two, then a whole copse of them at a time. The trees they passed were more frequently desiccated, dead things. Before much longer, everything was withered and dried up. No leaves hung from the canopy above them, and the only sound was the grating of wind through the barren branches.

Vintus let out a sigh of satisfaction. "Finally. We're here."

Jak'm rode his fangblade near to Vintus. "A long journey, Althandi."

"You needn't worry, Your Greatness," Vintus said. "The journey back won't be more than a step or two. You'll receive your passage soon enough."

"I did not come here for a pilgrimage," Jak'm growled. "If you mean to deliver on your promises, now is the time. Send one of your assassins to show us the second convergence in Gaulatia, but I will not spend one more moment in this place than I have to."

Vintus smirked. "Don't tell me the Tiger King is afraid."

"No," Jak'm said. "I have no fear of this place. That is what worries me."

Vintus looked down his nose at Jak'm. "You surprise me. That may be the wisest stance towards the Ethereum I've ever heard."

Jak'm scowled.

"So be it," Vintus said. "Dhewyn!"

Another of the battlefield coterie, a younger man with a square face, rode up on the prince. "Yes, Highness?"

"Show His Greatness the way to the Gaulatia convergence. After he is satisfied, give him my well-wishes for his future endeavors, then wait for us at the Senwood passage. We won't be long."

Dhewyn saluted. "At once, Highness."

As the Teulites formed up to depart, Jak'm's eyes found Krayson. There was no reading his expression, so Krayson endeavored to keep his own face just as inscrutable.

"Are you certain I can't persuade you to see what we came for?" Vintus asked with a smirk. "It may be the last chance you have to see your boy in action. He has long odds of leaving the Ethereum by any route other than through the veil."

Jak'm didn't look away from Krayson. "I see no Teulite boys here."

Krayson felt a pang of something he thought couldn't hurt him anymore. He looked away.

"I see a man who bears the name of my mother's tribe," Jak'm said. "His blood runs red as the steppes, blood of the Joshuan and of the Kraysons." Jak'm threw back his head and laughed. Once he was finished, he looked on Vintus with a wild grin. "I have no need to watch what you aim for, Althandi. One such as you cannot kill a man of the Horde."

The rest of the Jak'm began to laugh as well. Deep laughs, from the pits of their stomachs, and loud enough to hammer in the ears. That laughter continued until they vanished into another place within the Ethereum. Dhewyn vanished along with them, but even then, their laughter hung in the air like fading echoes.

Vintus snorted. "Didn't stop me in the past. I've killed more men of the Horde than that fool's seen sunrises."

"You killed their bodies," Krayson said quietly. He felt numb, nothing but the thunder of his heart. "Their names live on so long as their tiger lord breaks bread in Shattered Fang. Teulite men have no names but that of our tribe, and that's something you won't ever kill."

He noticed Moon staring at him. Her nostrils flared, and she smiled.

"Well, in that case," Vintus said, "I'll just have to be sure to tear Shattered Fang down to the bedrock the next time I pass by that way."

"Aren't you allies with the Horde?" Krayson asked with a sneer. "Seems you turn on your friends easily."

"Allies?" Vintus chuckled. "Your inbred father has a role to play in this arja game, but not one he'll enjoy. Every decent strategy requires a sacrificial pawn."

"You say that as if it's supposed to hurt me." Krayson leaned forward in his saddle and met Vintus' eyes. "If the Tiger King sides with the likes of you, I hope you sacrifice him early in the match."

"Soon enough, Blood Runner," Vintus promised, "but not before his riders flood the lowest levels of the Spired City with blood." He addressed the remainder of the party. "We've delayed long enough. The prison of Fate is just ahead. Keep your eyes open and your ears clear. We are in the domain of creatures who've held watch over this part of the Ethereum for centuries. Ready your osteoforms, and be prepared to fight for your lives."

As Moon sniffed the air, Krayson looked around the desiccated forest. His eyes fell on something far in the distance, a speck of green in the sea of brown. It appeared that there was a small clearing of lush greenery off their path, one with a still pool of water at its center. A figure in white stood beside the pond, a feminine figure with incredibly long hair the color of blood. Krayson blinked, and when he opened his eyes, the figure and the lush clearing she stood within disappeared as if they'd only been a trick of the light.

He felt an itch between his shoulder blades. It wasn't like feeling the multitudes of eyes that came with drawing the attention of the Great Spider. This was different, a single watcher, but one whose gaze carried the weight of the world. It felt cold, but a soothing sort of cold. Like a gentle winter of rime-coated stone and snow that fell slowly through the branches of evergreens.

A hand gripped on Krayson's arm, startling him back to himself. Maya was alongside him. Her eyes glared, and her lips were curled into a sneer.

"This is where you come in, Blood Runner," she snarled. Her tone was harsh for Vintus' benefit.

"What makes you think I'll do as you ask?" Krayson said, meeting her venom with an equal measure of his own. "You're sending me to die. I'd rather die right now than help demon-worshipping fools."

"Mind your tongue." Maya jumped down from her horse and dragged Krayson out of his saddle. She still held him by the arm and pulled him in Vintus' direction.

The other assassins of the battlefield coterie dismounted, all except Vintus. Dashar One stood at the ready, his red eyes keeping a close watch on every move Krayson and Maya made.

"I'm not doing anything you bastards ask of me," Krayson shouted. He struggled against Maya's grip. "I won't hand you what you're looking for."

"We don't need him, Your Highness," Esra said. "Let's just kill him."

Maya smiled darkly. "As you wish."

As she drew her sword and pulled it back for a strike, Vintus cleared his throat.

"Niece, that's quite enough."

She brought her blade down anyway.

"Maya!"

The sword stopped just before it sliced into Krayson's neck. He imagined he could feel a chill where the steel hovered over his flesh.

Krayson glared up at Maya and felt a bead of sweat drip from his brow. He stood in place as if frozen. For a brief moment, he hadn't been certain she meant to stop herself. Thunders, but there was a part of him that yet wondered if it was him and not Vintus who was getting played.

"He's a Krayson, Uncle," Maya said through gritted teeth. "His house allowed my brother to be murdered."

"The Kraysons responsible for Roan's death died a long time ago," Vintus said evenly. Almost soothingly. "I understand your anger, Maya. I share it."

"Do you?" Maya demanded, turning her face towards him. "Weren't the Courtesans acting on your masters' orders?"

"Ah," Vintus breathed, nodding. "Ah, now I see. This might surprise you, Maya, but I'm pleased to hear this. This is what I've been missing from you."

Maya scowled, and she was yet to remove her sword from Krayson's neck.

"You are conflicted. You say you will follow me if it means Jin will be spared, but you were never one to be bought by such simple promises. You blame me for Roan's death, now that you know the truth of whom I serve."

"I'm not conflicted," Maya replied. "I don't care about the old masters."

"What do you care about?"

"My family. Always, my family." Her furious eyes slid back towards Krayson. "I will repay everything done to those I love."

Vintus dismounted his horse. He stood with arms crossed, but Krayson noted how his dominant hand wasn't far from his sword hilt. "Repay me, too? Because you're right, Maya. I was the one who tempted the Kraysons to open the palace to the Courtesans. I did it so that they would kill you. It wasn't my intention for Roan to be killed by mistake, but he died nonetheless. You were the only child meant to die that night."

Dashar took a slow step closer to Vintus' side. Esra and Maltus flanked Maya and openly bared a few inches of their blades. The final two members of the battlefield coterie, the two brothers born of Cathis and Vintus' cousin, circled behind her.

Krayson felt Maya's grip on his arm tighten.

"Why try to have me killed?" she asked. "Was it because I'm the Eidolon?"

"Do you even know what that means?" Vintus asked, his voice still calm. "Are you capable of knowing? It shouldn't be possible; you lack the most important requirement to become an Eidolon. Yet you still appeared on the board, dangerous to all sides. You are, without a doubt, the greatest element of instability the world has ever seen. Regardless of how it happened, the first of the ideal beings Lord Nalthorio wishes to create was born into my family."

Krayson could feel Maya trembling.

"I understand, Niece, if you should hate me for what I did. I am responsible for the death of your brother. Will you now attempt to repay the sins committed against your family?"

Maya's grip on Krayson lessened. The sword pulled away. "Aren't you my family, too?" she asked.

Vintus uncrossed his arms. "I am. Whatever else you may think, I am."

"They never tried again," Maya said quietly. "The Courtesans never came back."

Vintus shook his head.

"You stopped them."

He nodded.

"Why?"

"Because we're family, Maya," Vintus said. "I mourned Roan just as I would have mourned you. I refused to sacrifice two of my brother's children, so I begged my lords to alter their plans to include you."

Maya narrowed her eyes. "You still ordered Jin's death."

"She's not a child anymore," Vintus said, entirely unapologetic. "Nor are you. You're both old enough to choose life or death for yourselves. You have the right to choose which side of the board you play for. Jin chose the enemy, but she was never so great a threat to our plans that I can't make room for her in the victor's circle. You, however, are among the most deadly mortals in the world, so I can't afford mercy if allowing you to live proves to have been a mistake." He held out his hand. "Are you with me, Maya?"

She stared at the offered hand. She didn't spare so much as a glance for the assassins surrounding her. Not even for the doppler. She only looked at Vintus' hand.

With a shove, Maya pushed Krayson towards Vintus. She turned her back on them and went to Moon to get her out of the saddle.

Vintus held tight to the hood of Krayson's half-robe and watched Maya for a moment. He then gave a small gesture to the coterie, and they dispersed.

"I'll take that as acceptance, Maya," he said.

"Take it as a promise," she said without turning towards him. "I will do whatever I must to save Jin."

"Consider her saved," Vintus replied. "Once we're done here, I will tell you everything about what the Eidolon is. There are things about yourself, about what you were taught of magic, that you deserve to know. For helping me secure Fate for our lords, I will repay you with the truth hidden from you."

Maya gently set Moon's hooves down on the ground, then turned to Vintus. Her expression was pensive, the rage gone, and she gave a nod.

I can't tell, Krayson thought. I can't tell what she's thinking. Either Maya bought into that filth, or she's a better actor than Garret ever was.

He only needed to look at Moon. She stood beside Maya, and he saw how her hand reached out, unseen by anyone not intently watching her, and held Maya's. The princess and future queen of Althandor might've had Krayson, Vintus, and a coterie of thralls convinced, but she hadn't fooled one goblin blue for a second.

While Vintus gave orders to Dashar One and the coterie, Krayson felt his brow knit together in bemusement. The look being exchanged between Maya and Moon was lasting a good deal longer than it should've.

No, Krayson thought, skeptical of his own gut feeling. No, that's crazy. No way in the deepest cavern of Hell is that actually happening. I clearly don't know enough about this subject if I think there's something going on between those two.

Moon and Maya were whispering, too soft and far away for anyone to overhear. Maya had almost certainly placed one of her subtle privacy wards. Moon looked as if she were suddenly growing emotional, and even Her Highness appeared distraught. What in the name of the king was going on between them?

His attention was rudely yanked away when Vintus spun him around and shoved him in the opposite direction.

"Your destination is that way, Blood Runner," Vintus said. "Don't try stepping away. We're in the realm belonging to the Lord of Bones, and the only way to leave his domain is by his permission. Interlopers won't receive it."

Krayson wrinkled his nose. He didn't believe for a moment that one of the gods would take their divine duties so far that it would help demons. Even so, he didn't dare try proving Vintus wrong. He could escape, but he'd already had several chances since coming to the Ethereum. Escape was no longer the plan.

Find the Great Spider, Krayson thought. Find Kumo, and somehow stop Vintus from reaching him.

He didn't know how Vintus planned on controlling Kumo's powers over fate, whether by coercing the god or by somehow stealing the ability. No magic Krayson knew of could force a deity into submission, and he was skeptical that any such spell could possibly exist. The first step in thwarting a plan was understanding it, and Krayson didn't have the slightest clue on where Vintus meant to begin.

"Make certain the way is clear," Vintus said with a smile, gesturing onward. "You'll know one way or the other very soon."

Krayson grimaced. "Torn apart by dragons or I walk into a godly dungeon."

"I almost hope the other arjapieces moving on the board have been delayed," Vintus said. "I adore seeing one enemy get destroyed by another. Nothing compares."

"If I go," Krayson said, "give me your word you won't harm Moon. You won't harm my child."

Vintus stood straighter and affected a serious manner. "Very well, Blood Runner. I can admire the need to protect one's children. You have my word, and I have never once broken a promise I've made."

Krayson nodded and hid his sudden urge to give the most epic rolling of the eyes Vintus had ever seen. He turned to face away from Vintus, looked into the depths of the desiccated forest, and started walking.

Of all the emotions Krayson's blood magic slowly drained away, fear was the only one he thought was truly untouched. He'd resented that in the past, thinking it would eventually turn him into a coward when there was nothing but his fear left. Krayson had begun to see fear differently than he used to. It wasn't all bad. Fear kept him alert, prevented complacency. It stopped him from taking stupid risks. A healthy capacity for fear was thundering vital to survival, so Krayson was actually comforted to feel his pulse quicken as he pressed on into the woods.

As if drawn by his fear, shadows flitted along the ground at his feet. The Ethereum never stopped presenting new things, after all. Krayson would've been willing to bet gold marks that those shadows were truly spirits of fear.

Some are, a thought whispered in Krayson's mind. But not all. You will find that both Fear and Courage take the form of shadow. Both are spirits of darkness, neither capable of existing without the other. Two sides of the same concept. You draw both unto you, mortal.

"Kumo," Krayson muttered. "I presume, at least."

I am they

"You told me a while back you wouldn't intercede on my behalf again."

I do not come to you, mortal. You have come to me. As was foreseen.

Krayson frowned and kept walking. He glanced over his shoulder. Vintus and Dashar One watched his every step. Moon and Maya, also. One pair seemed more concerned for his well-being than the other. Krayson faced forward.

"I must know, have you ever actually predicted something that came true? Every time someone says Fate's done something, it's after the fact."

I am the mortal belief in Fate, and nothing more. I do not see what will come within my web, only what may come.

"Do any of your possible futures include dragon fire sometime in my next ten minutes?"

The old forms must be heeded.

"I don't know what that means."

It means you have not yet paid for the answer to your question. I am not my counterpart. I do not grant foresight and insight without consideration of consequence. Nashal does not see the damage her gifts may bring should she be proven wrong. It is a failing as damning as my own. This is why I must exact a price for my answers, for I realize how delicate Fate truly is.

"What price?" Krayson asked. "Do you need shiffs? Because the last charlatan I bought a fortunetelling from only charged a scub."

For this question, I will only ask for silence. You will receive your answer in a moment, and the answer to questions you have not yet asked immediately thereafter. After this, we shall reach our accord, mortal. Either you will rescue me from this prison, or the old master will claim victory.

"You certainly have a high opinion of your importance," Krayson muttered. "The world's done well enough with you locked up for the better part of a millennium."

Done well? Kumo asked. It carried a note of amusement. Perhaps the children of Karst are more pervasive than I was aware, because if our two worlds are not on the cusp of doom, then I must be incredibly off in my prognostications.

It rubbed Krayson the wrong way that a god could be sarcastic. Then again, he felt a glimmer of pride that his mouthing off inspired a god to sarcasm in the first place. Someone somewhere should write that down for future accolades.

Now, mortal, Kumo said, your answer.

Krayson stepped forward, pushing through brittle, low-hanging branches, and wished Kumo would've warned him of what was waiting for him.

He looked upon the broken corpses of the mighty.

Dragons, hundreds of paces long and centuries old, lay scattered upon the brown grass as if they were the tattered remnants of paper kites lost in a storm. Krayson counted at least nine of them, dragons so old that even the smallest of them was twice the size of the Gladiator. And the largest of them, a truly colossal gold whose corpse was as a mountainside, was greater and grander than what Krayson imagined a god to be.

"Mika the Vizier," Krayson whispered softly as he approached. He turned his head to see an enormous blue dragon pinned beneath the Vizier's forearm. He'd died before Mika fell trying to protect him. "Wisp the Shield. Thunders take me, how do I know their names? Kumo, answer me? How do I know this?"

No answer came. As he continued to look around, he knew the names of every fallen dragon he saw. Olku the Ravager, Kasha the Imperator, and many others.

"Varn," Krayson said. "I don't see the Librarian."

The sensation of a vastness beyond comprehension fell upon Krayson in the next moment. It was cold, but not comforting. It was the cold of a winter that promised no end. A chill to burst apart trees and shatter mountains. The cold of the void. An utter and absolute absence of warmth that yet felt like it could burn away flesh and soul until nothing remained. Nothing but bone.

Death arrived.

Krayson couldn't open his eyes. He didn't dare. Just feeling a true god's presence nearby was too much for his mortal mind to bear. He felt that looking upon the Lord of Bones would strike him blind if it didn't kill him.

COME FORTH

Krayson dropped to his knees as pain exploded across his entire being. He hadn't knelt because he'd lost the strength to stand. Krayson fell before divinity because it had been demanded of him.

The words... he'd heard words, hadn't he? He felt as if he heard a command to approach, but there was no sound in the air. No echoes of the booming voice a god must have possessed. No, this was something else.

A god did not require a voice. Only will.

Krayson felt every breath and beat of his heart as if they were offensive to the god looming above him. He gasped as he realized he wasn't the only one on his knees. Vintus was beside him, as were Maya, Moon, the doppler, and the others of the coterie. They were summoned, and so they were here by the will of the Lord of Bones.

CONFESS

Krayson howled in agony. He could no longer see even if he wanted to. Something hot and wet fell from his eyes, tears of blood.

So different from the voice of Kumo. No, it wasn't even on the same level. When a god spoke into a mortal's mind, it manifested as the recipient's own thoughts forming in obedience to a will so unimaginably powerful that the demand couldn't be denied. To hear the true voice of divinity was to be torn apart at the seams.

"My lord."

Krayson panted. Exhausted. Hurting. That hadn't been him talking. Vintus.

CONFESS

Screaming, Krayson fell to his back and futilely tried to cover his ears. He wished to confess every wrong thing he'd ever done. Every dark thought. Every unkindness he ever wished on another. Anything to make it stop!

Within the utter cold of the presence of Death, a point of light and warmth appeared. Krayson felt hands upon him. They took away his pain.

"Blood-scented is not whole," Moon whispered. "Must be... What is black, Krayson?"

With great difficulty, he opened his eyes. Moon knelt over him, and Maya stood behind her. They weren't writhing like he was. Unharmed. Seemingly... unaffected in any way.

Maya frowned as she looked down on Krayson. It looked to be one of worry. Then, her gaze slid upwards, and her frown became a snarl.

Next to her, Vintus held his arms wide. Krayson didn't dare look higher than that, towards the entity Vintus addressed. What little he saw was far too much. Krayson didn't want to believe it. Thunders take Kumo for being right. Krayson had received an answer he didn't know he needed to ask for.

"I have brought you a feyling," Vintus shouted, his voice saturated with the righteousness of a zealot. "I can open the way to the Great Spider and claim Fate for you, greatest of all old masters, Hasanvor the Lord of Bones!"