It was the sign of a bishop of Faith, of the priests of Ansborn. The sign that represented the Faithful.
"The sign… it's the mountains of Ansborn – Center, with clouds below and the Gods' realm above," said Father Inmil. He didn't sound sure.
"Not according to this," said Luca. His voice sounded strong, and he realized he was hiding behind the façade of a professor – a teacher who, by his very office, could not be afraid of knowledge because his job was to pass it on. "According to this, the sign is an inverted tree."
"What does the tree itself mean?" asked Mother Maci. Her voice sounded like his: her own retreat from fear to cold analysis.
"I don't know yet," said Luca. His expression cracked. Fear pushed through his pretense of nonchalance. His next words were hard, but he sensed they must be said. The job must be done. "I'll keep looking."
He took the book and bent over it, turning to the next page.
The others mimicked him. Only Father Inmil did not look down at the Old Book he had been studying. "I wonder," he said in a quiet, dreamlike voice, "I wonder if the lands are also upside-down."
"What do you mean?" said Brother Scieran. His voice was steady. He was a brave man.
Braver than I'll ever be, thought Luca.
But Father Inmil's words shook even Brother's Scieran's confidence.
"I wonder if the Gods' realm isn't above. If it's below."
Everyone looked up. They shared glances of worry, confusion.
Fear.
Then they all – even Father Inmil – returned to their studies.
Answers were here.
Answers to everything. To where they had begun.
And, perhaps, to how they would end.
3
This was the second time Phoenix had mentioned a new enemy. The second time he was apparently trying to stop violence from beginning.
Sword didn't understand.
She didn't understand why the winds surrounded the castle. She didn't understand why or how Tiawan appeared to know Phoenix. She didn't understand what "enemy" Phoenix kept ranting about – or why he was suddenly acting as though she were a friend instead of an foe.
Her sword was in her hand. Pointed at the ground, the flame illuminating a bright circle below her. She wasn't going to fight – not yet – but her discomfort was so great that she couldn't seem to let go of the weapon. The sword was her defense, and her fear refused to let it go.
We react to fear with violence, and that violence breeds only more fear in its turn.
(let go of the sword)
But she couldn't. She could only face the darkness that beckoned with the light of the weapons she held.
Tiawan saw her sword. He settled down – not crouching, exactly, but leaning slightly forward, his armor shifting and grinding as he lowered into a stance that could bring him to full action in less than an eyeblink.
La'ug followed suit. She climbed onto Wahy's back and hooked her fingers around his throat. Her other hand held the woolly. She whispered to it, and it stared at Sword with bright, angry eyes.
Phoenix – the misshapen, ancient, strange version of him – limped between Sword and the others. "Stop," he said. His voice was hoarse. Old, yes, but also strained by the simple force of his plea. "You are not enemies. You are not the enemy." He looked at Tiawan. "This is not why I gave you the jewels."
Sword took a half-step back, surprise shoving her bodily. "You… you gave them the jewels?" she said. She said it mostly to herself, working out the rest and saying it, as well. "You changed them. The jewels changed them from a Smith and a Strong and a Critter to…." Her voice fell to nothing.
Phoenix nodded. "Yes. My first Greater Gift. My power to create stones that would change people. Would make simple Gifts into Greater Gifts. That would change them into something related to their first magic. But greater, stronger." He looked at Tiawan and the others again. "And terrible."
He shifted his gaze back to Sword. He pulled up his shirt. The movement was slow, his broken body barely allowing this simple motion. But he managed to pull the hem up high enough for Sword to see the jewel in his chest. Like the others, it had been cut into the sign of Faith. Like the others, it glowed yellow – though she noted his jewel was not set over his heart, but was much lower on his body; and it seemed to hold a far greater light than did the jewel in Tiawan's and the others' chests.
"And when I tried it on myself," continued Phoenix, "it changed me, too."
The old, malformed body shimmered, and now Devar stood before her. "Changed me from a person who could merely give greater power to others, into someone who could also steal that power from others, and make it my own."
Sword saw shock cross Tiawan's face, and even La'ug's depthless rage seemed to break for a moment when Phoenix changed. "Vrisha?" said Tiawan.
Phoenix – still looking like a young man in his late teens, perhaps as old as twenty Turns – nodded. "It is I my friend." He took a step toward Tiawan. "And I beg you… please stop. Please wait. Don't attack the castle. Don't kill the Emperor."
Tiawan's features hardened. The surprise was still there, but alloyed with cold determination. Death flared in his eyes. "You are the one who gave me the poison. You are the one who explained it all to me, Vrisha. You are the one who told me that those in control must die that the rest might choose their own path. Who convinced me that it was better that they die in chaos than live in slavery, and that the strong and the deserving would survive and make this land what it truly should be."
Sword's mind reeled. Tiawan's speech in Fear, his words about letting people die and how that was better than having them live under the Emperor… she had thought they sounded strangely rehearsed, as though they had been given to him by someone else.
But those words had come from Phoenix?
It made no sense. For those words could result in only one thing: the destruction of the Empire. Not just the government, but the entirety of its existence – perhaps every single person who lived there.
She had thought all Phoenix did – the destruction of the Grand Cathedral, the killing of much of the Army, the hunt for the Cursed Ones and every other revolutionary who challenged him – was in order to consolidate his power. To remain the secret force that truly controlled Ansborn.
Now she saw that could not be. He didn't want control. He wanted complete destruction. He wanted….
"Madness," she whispered.
Phoenix looked at her. "No," he said fervently. "Not madness."
"You're trying to destroy everyone."
"No, you fool girl, I'm trying to save everyone." He hesitated, then added, "Or as many as I can."
Marionette spoke. Sword had nearly forgotten about her. "But not too many. Enough will die for me to play with." She held up her doll in front of her face, moving it as though it were the one that spoke the next words. "I'll have many friends soon."
The words chilled Sword. More so because she saw Phoenix's face when she heard them. Saw his downcast eyes and knew Marionette spoke truth – they had always intended many to die. Had always known death was coming.
But, for some reason, Phoenix was… he was sad about that fact.
"Enough," said Tiawan. "I don't know why you've changed, Vrisha. And I don't care." He nodded at the swirling winds. "I am –"
"You will kill us all," roared Phoenix. "The clouds below hide our doom!"
That stopped Tiawan. He didn't look so much surprised as simply confused. "What?"
"We came from below the clouds," said Phoenix. "The First Emperor was one of those who dwelt below. He brought his followers here for a purpose. The people below created the five mountains, and Eka and his people came, and the clouds covered all beyond, and Ansborn was born." He closed his eyes. "And I thought if I could kill the Emperor, if I could bring war so great that none but the most powerful – the strongest Gifts – would survive… I thought that if I could bring a plague targeted to the unGifted… I thought I could fulfill that purpose. There would
only be Gifts, and they would breed, and create the stronger Gifts that were always Ansborn's purpose and its aim. But when I went to the Strongholds, I saw it had begun."
Phoenix opened his eyes, staring at Sword and Tiawan in turn. "I thought I could create the Culling, and fulfill Ansborn's purpose, and buy us time." He looked mournfully at Sword. "I hoped you would help. I was angry at you for getting in the way of my plans, but I always did like you, Sword, even though you killed me. At first I thought you were nothing but a hindrance, but eventually I came to understand that you might be Ansborn's best hope." He shrugged modestly. "Other than me, of course." Then the look dissolved from his face, replaced by an earnestness Sword found completely off-putting. "I hoped that you would come over to my side if you knew. That was why I gave you the book – so you would find out the truth. So you would help me save Ansborn.
"But instead the Gods have already come. Too early, they have come. I saw it at the Strongholds – they have come and will destroy us all unless we can stop them." He clenched his fist. "Unless we can band together – all of Ansborn – and destroy them."
Tiawan shook his head. "I don't understand what you're saying," he said.
Sword heartily agreed with that. Phoenix's intentions had been to destroy everyone but the strongest Gifts? She saw how, if that were true, he had certainly taken the right steps: the Imperial Army had always had few Gifts in its ranks, and Phoenix had destroyed much of it when he had Malal cause the eruption at the Acropolis.
But why try to take over the Silver Seat? Why spend decades destroying the Empire from within?
But she already knew. Wasn't that what Sword and her friends were working so hard to stop? They were trying to avoid a change in power from the thousand-year dynasty of the Silver Seat to some new leader. How much worse would it be if there was a complete and utter collapse of all government, brought about after a hundred years and more of carefully fomented corruption?
Trees whose branches rotted could be pruned and saved.
Trees that rotted from within eventually just dissolved and were simply… gone.
And after he failed with the Emperor, Phoenix has tried to breed the same purpose in Tiawan. Increasing Tiawan's power – the power of a man who hates the Empire – and encouraging him to destroy the leadership of Ansborn. Corruption from within, destruction from without.
Anarchy.
And only the strongest – the Gifts and Greater Gifts – could possibly survive that storm.
It made sense in its execution. But it was senseless in its purpose. Why would Phoenix do that? Why would he spend years – decades – fomenting corruption in the government, and then providing threats and disease to kill almost everyone in a single, swift moment of near-extinction?
But what changed his mind?
He had mentioned the Strongholds. That was where the tanks that had attacked the refugees in Fear had come from. So he had seen something there. Something that convinced him of… what?
That the Gods have come.
She still didn't understand what that meant. The Gods lived in the Heavens, but Phoenix seemed to be saying they were ascending from below the mountains to destroy Ansborn? Why?
And why, if Phoenix wanted to stop that destruction, would Marionette have commanded the undead in the tanks to fire on the refugees?
To stop Tiawan. To kill him before he could finish what he started.
The thought chilled her. And then another, much worse thought: Or perhaps so Marionette could have more dead to raise. If Phoenix wants to band together to destroy some unseen enemy, then what better way to fight than with an unkillable army – an army that has already died?
All this went through her mind in less than a second. The thoughts left her equal parts illuminated and more confused than ever.
She wished that Arrow were here. He always saw the meaning of things. The paths people had taken, the reasons behind their choices.
Arrow. Was he even alive? Sword realized with a sudden chill that among his staggering, nearly nonsensical flurry of words, Phoenix had said he found something terrible at the Strongholds… and that was exactly where Arrow had headed.
A new fear crept over her. Arrow had become, in a very short time, the most important person in her world. Her confidant, her friend. The man she loved.
Tiawan had stopped moving as well: obviously trying to understand what Phoenix was talking about the same as Sword had. Then his helm enveloped his head.
The armor was cold, but not as cold as his voice. "I don't understand what you're saying, Vrisha – or whoever you are. And I don't care."
The fires at his back erupted, and he flew a few feet skyward.
"The Empire falls today," he said.
4
Sword still didn't understand all that Phoenix had said. Not all of it. Not nearly enough.
So it was a strange relief to see Tiawan shoot skyward. To realize he was going to try to burst through the strange swirl of wind and debris. To know he intended to kill the Emperor – if he wasn't already dead – and perhaps the hope of an Empire.
It was a relief because, for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Sword knew what to do.
She had to stop him.
Only she had no idea how to do it.
Tiawan took to the sky, and in only an instant he was well out of range of any whip or rope she might cast. She could throw a spear, perhaps. But what would that do? Tiawan had been a Smith, and knowing that she understood why her weapons barely functioned against his magic: Smiths worked metal, and they controlled air and flame with their Gift to do so.
The metal suit Tiawan had created had surely been forged in magic flame. It had undoubtedly been created with the aid of the strongest air.
No flame could penetrate it. No air could blow him off course. That was why Cloud's attacks on him had come to naught. And why Sword's weapons were only minor inconveniences.
He was too far overhead to catch. And too invulnerable to her weapons for her to do anything even if she could catch him.
Her heart fell within her. Then she heard Phoenix. "Stop them," he said. Sword realized that La'ug and Wahy were racing toward her. The girl had taken her monstrous shape, and the man had shifted to his berserker self. Sword didn't know if they intended to get into the castle as well, or if they simply intended to kill her.
She didn't care. She would stop them. She didn't know how, but she would.
She was about to say something to Phoenix, but in that moment he disappeared. She heard a metallic shout above, and saw that Phoenix had reappeared in midair beside Tiawan. The rapier that he always carried was buried in Tiawan's armored chest, and Sword felt a moment of hope that perhaps this had ended the fight. But Tiawan bellowed in rage and sent a huge fist toward Phoenix, who was hanging to the hilt of his sword.
Phoenix disappeared. The sword remained behind, and Tiawan's fist slapped into the metal, snapping it cleanly apart about an inch from his chest.
Phoenix reappeared, this time above Tiawan, plummeting rapidly toward the suit of armor.
Then Sword didn't have time to watch any more. She only had time for her own survival as Wahy and La'ug came upon her as one.
La'ug reached her first, apparently too crazed at the chance to kill Sword to have Wahy climb on her shoulders the way she usually did. She leaped at Sword, claws the size of daggers extended toward her.
Sword rolled to the side, her katana slashing as she did. La'ug roared, all ten of her claws falling to the ground with dry-bone sounds. She reared back, but Sword had already changed weapons, the katana disappearing and a spear appearing in its place. She threw the weapon.
Most people chose javelins for long-distance attacks like this. They were slightly lighter than spears, allowing for a longer throw and more accuracy. But Sword's magic allowed her to cast a spear with a heavy head nearly the length of the castle. That was how hard she threw it now, even though La'ug was barely ten paces away.
The spear flew toward
her, so fast that anyone without Sword's magic – perhaps Arrow's – would have seen only a blur. They would not even have realized they were in danger until after the killing blow had gone into and through them.
La'ug shifted, a motion every bit as fast as the flight of the spear. Her huge mouth opened, splitting her head nearly in half. The spear entered her maw, but instead of shooting out the back of her skull or her throat, it simply disappeared.
Swallowed whole? Or simply destroyed by the same magic that had created this seemingly indestructible monster? Sword couldn't tell, and she didn't have time to ponder it.
The monster's great teeth slammed down with a sound louder than the thunder that still clapped within the nearby tornado. La'ug made a strangely human sound: a deep, thrumming chuckle. Foolish girl, the sound seemed to say, can't you see that your doom has already come?
Then Sword sensed something behind her – that same power that enabled her to feel a bullet speeding at her, that let her move fast enough to split it in two. She barely managed to spin fast enough to stop Wahy, though.
(No, not stop him. Just not be killed by him.)
The berserker pounced on her. She ducked and rolled under him, her wakizashi flashing into existence, then slicing Wahy up the center as he passed over her.
He landed. She spun. His insides had spilled through the slash in his shirt, through the underlying gash in his belly. But he didn't seem to care.
He threw his head skyward and howled, a sound filled with pain and rage and madness. But though the wound had hurt him, it didn't stop him.
And a moment later, it was gone.
Sword couldn't see exactly what happened. There was simply a shimmer, a sense of movement. Then Wahy was running at her again, his belly muscular and whole – not even a scar to show where Sword had just opened him to the world. His guts were nowhere to be seen. Just gone.
La'ug was running toward her as well, the monster clearly holding back so that both of them would reach Sword at the same time.
She skipped backward as La'ug slashed a great paw at her – though the claws had been cut off, there were still sharp nubs that rose an inch or so from the monster's fur. And even if the claws had been completely destroyed, a single hit with that huge paw would be more than enough to crush Sword's bones to powder.
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