147 (II)

Confessions

"But—" Adam began.

Uva cut him off. "That doesn't mean he speaks the exact truth. The Master-Inquisitor strikes me as a zealot, and not nearly the one in charge of this entire affair. But Adam, he is absolutely convinced that your father seeks to become something of an Ascendant. A false Ascendant, perhaps, but still a divine being. He is also genuine in the love he holds for the Republic. He does not want to see Blackedge entirely destroyed, if he can help it. But above all, he wants Roland Arrow's body, and he wants Starhawk's Perch."

The Psychomancer paused. "And most worrying of all, he believes that everything he said about the Abyss and Great One is true as well. He truly thinks that Roland Arrow intends to bring the Perch down to the depths and perform some kind of ritual."

"That's just bloody madness," Adam spat. He gestured wildly at the Inquisitor. "The Perch—it's an entire castle. How is—it—this makes no sense. Maybe he believes this, but he is likely mad."

"Maybe," Shiv said. "Maybe he's missing some stuff. But we have no idea what the hells is going on between the Starhawk and the other Ascendants. From what the Educator said, it's like the Starhawk is trying to end their collective godhood or something. I don't know. Sounds like a big godsdamned mess to me."

The Gate Lord took everything, and he let out a long and shuddering breath. "Then we need to reach my father first. We need to start evacuations as soon as possible. And, we probably need to capture and speak to Lord Stormhalt, somehow, to learn more about what's going on from him. This Ascendant civil war gets more and more confusing the deeper we go. Katherine, the Songbringer, is no Ascendant of war. I cannot believe she would reveal such deception to the Master-Inquisitor."

Shiv grunted. "We don't know it was actually her, Adam. I mean, the Master-Inquisitor might believe everything he said, but he also seems to have a few screws loose up there."

Adam nodded, but both of them were avoiding some other possibilities. One being that the Master-Inquisitor wasn't wrong at all. That Roland genuinely intended to become a new Ascendant to fulfill whatever scheme the Starhawk had going. And what did that mean? What if Roland Arrow became an Ascendant?

Shiv's main concern there was that it might take a little while longer to get powerful enough to punch him in the face. But for Adam, for the Republic, what did that exactly mean?

"There's also the matter of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing," Valor said. Everyone turned to regard the Legendary Pathbearer. "The Master-Inquisitor seems in the dark about multiple things himself. He is following orders. Yes, he leads his own army, but he seems to be a zealot operating at the instructions of another: Stormhalt. And of a specific Ascendant. That, and his description of Roland Arrow bringing the Perch down to the Abyss is inconsistent with the lore of the Ascendants."

"Yes. I noted that." Uva let out a quiet hum. "Legend claims that they reached the Great One, but there is no detail about them giving specific offerings."

"Well. Can someone refund stored divinity or something?" Shiv asked. Everyone stared at him. He cringed. "Okay. Maybe kind of a stupid—"

"No," Valor said. "There might be something there. Refunded divinity… Or restored divinity. But this is not something we can be certain about. It is also not something the Master-Inquisitor knows. I am personally more concerned about Katherine. It seems all that has happened is tied to her directly. There is every possibility that this is a personal feud between two Ascendants, with the others drawn in."

"It can't be just her if we're entertaining the Ascendants being rogue," Adam said. "City Lord Stormholt is favored by Halsur, the Endbreaker. Halsur is married to Katherine, so perhaps they stand against the Starhawk for some reason. The Educator said a great many things, but… some aspects still don't make sense."

"Like how the Republic isn't just rushing for Blackedge if Roland was actually doing something like that," Shiv commented. "This is probably extreme heresy or something. And the Starhawk trying to remove the divinity of the other Ascendants should have them all trying to finish him immediately, right? But it feels like they're just dragging things out."

"Yes… Or not unified on how to resolve the matter." Adam frowned. "I suspect the Ascendants are not of one mind. This might be why only a small group of the Republic is operating against Blackedge. Right, perfect. So. There might still be a few Ascendants that aren't entirely evil. But we might have to fight Kathereine and Halsur…"

"Well, if we do, you can just shoot me with a Necromantic arrow," Shiv said, half-jokingly. Then he paused. "Actually, Adam, maybe if they are, we can literally just send one of my Vitae golems, then you can shoot it with Necromancy. It lit up the thing controlling the Educator. Might work on the actual Ascendants."

The Gate Lord stared at Shiv for a moment. "Do you understand how much collateral damage that might cause?"

"That's why we blow it up in the right place. Or, I don't know, you figure out a dimensional pocket. Then we blow it up inside there."

"A dimensional pocket that can trap a god," Adam said flatly.

"Yeah, you know, just think back to one of your classes at the Chicken Academy. They must have taught you god-trapping. Or did you skip that one?"

The Deathless and the Gate Lord just stared at each other. Then Adam cracked. He hid his smirk as he punched Shiv in the arm. "You irreverent bastard. Alright, well, I suppose we'd best keep him here for now." Adam hesitated. "Maybe it would be good if I—"

"No," Uva cut Adam off. "We don't want him to know you're here. You are Adam Arrow. He wouldn't have revealed half as much to us if he knew you were here. The only reason he revealed so much just now is that he thinks we are Compact. He thinks that we do not have a direct stake in this struggle. That we are merely an aggrieved third party."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that was why you were doing the whole misdirection thing," Shiv said.

"Indeed. It would be best if we left the inquisitor in his cage for a while. Let him recover. His mental state is fragile as is. I will resume questioning some other time. Meanwhile, we should pursue other avenues of intelligence gathering and proceed with the liberation of Blackedge as soon as possible. I suspect that with the destruction of the Expeditionary Force, the bulk of City Lord Stormhalt's army will be moving on us."

"It's not a small army," Adam said, "but the orcs outnumber them many times over."

Uva hesitated, biting her scarred lip. "I managed to glean something else from Sijik's mind. I think they have a Legendary Pathbearer with them."

Adam stopped breathing for a moment. "A Legend."

"Correct," Uva said. "I only managed to get a faint glance into his memories before I was pushed back. No names. Sijik's mind is too well shrouded. But… the person I saw resembled a rather small human girl bearing an extremely large sword."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Was the sword rusted?" Adam immediately asked, his pupils dilating.

"I… Yes. I do recall some rust. Why?"

"Ah, shit," Adam muttered.

"Do... do you know who that is?" Shiv asked.

"Yes. It's Jessica Hawgrave. Titansbane."

Shiv paused. "The hells is a Titansbane?"

Adam stared at him, incredulous. "You've never heard of Jessica Hawgrave? Wait, do you not know her husband? Jackie Hawgrave? Mad Atlas? The martyred hero who died guarding our Eastern Seaboard? Who carried an entire city to safety on his back during the Jotunn Invasion? The author of the Memoirs of a Master-Tier War Mage series?"

Shiv stared.

The Gate Lord closed his eyes and almost scoffed. "Godsdammit, father. We could have had an educated Omenborn at least."

"Oh. Now you're bothered on my behalf?" Shiv muttered.

"Yours? I'm annoyed on my own behalf!" Adam snorted. "I need to explain everything to you. It's exhausting. But—look; simply put, Titansbane is a True Legend that has been known to crush Jotunn and fae cities flat with her sword. Or her foot. If she's actually on the field, we might be felling—" Adam squinted. "No. We might have someone to sic on Sullain. If we can engineer a proper clash between Stormhalt's forces and the Necrotechs."

"I don't know, Adam," Shiv said. "Sullain doesn't seem like someone that anyone can take alone."

Valor chuckled at that. "Shiv. Sullain is known to be a comparatively harmless Legend."

The Deathless went still. "Comparatively harmless?"

"Yes. Sullain is a soft-willed scholar more than anything. His genius brought him far, but his lacking fortitude has always laid him low." Valor let out a breath. "Always a paradoxical Pathbearer, that one. He should have never become a Legend in my opinion. And I should have never saved his life from the Semper Paragon. I wish I could remember why I did these things…"

As Valor trailed off, Adam bit his lip. "Shiv. The orcs. Are they ready for another task? We will need some of their Shadows and Psychomancers to engineer something between the Inquisition and Necrotechs as soon as possible. There are multiple objectives we need to accomplish. We need to save Blackedge, repel the Necrotechs, capture Stormhalt, and figure out just what in all the hells is happening between the Ascendants. And I think we can achieve all those goals at once if we can make sure all the key characters are in the same place."

"The orc Psychomancers are already planning to do some shit with the surviving inquisitors they decided to keep, so I think they're ahead of us on that," Shiv said.

"Good. Then—wait, did they finish the other Inquisitors? And what about your talk? How did that go?"

"Yeah, so about that," Shiv coughed awkwardly. "Look, I managed to get the orcs to agree to something, right?"

"Right," Adam said, waiting for the other shoe to fall.

"But, uh, well, they did kill the Inquisitors. Reasonably ethically. Sorta. And they told me they won't hurt anyone who isn't a Necrotech or a vampire. Mostly." Shiv continued tumbling through his excuses, and finally decided, "Look, Adam, they bribed me. And, uh, yeah, I might have gotten influenced by the orcs. Realized that when Valor talked to me after. The orcs still agreed to some stuff. But, uh… Yeah. Talk was really more of them influencing me instead of the other way around."

The Gate Lord just stared at Shiv. Uva facepalmed her helmet. Shiv swallowed as he prepared to get chewed out again.

But that wasn't what happened.

"This is my bloody fault." Adam sighed. "I should have seen this coming."

Shiv blinked. "I could have just said no. Been more—"

"You have no true Social Skills besides Intimidation," Uva cut in. "Your Silver Tongue is underleveled. Your Psychology is underleveled. You have no concept of what a Social Skill might do to you. We should have been there. Adam is right."

"Yeah, well, you were surface-sick, and Adam was getting mind-gamed by the orcs too."

"Yes," Adam agreed distastefully. "Which is why I should have been there. If they can influence me, it should be no surprise that they could compromise you easily. Which was their strategy. To unnerve me enough so that I leave you alone."

"It is never too late to seek a new patron…" Uva's voice sounded from inside her helmet, a melodious inflection to the words. Everyone turned to stare at her.

"That was the Dreamtaker," Uva said under her breath. "Ignore her."

"Think of my colors."

Adam shuddered. "Well. We can figure this thing out. But no more talking to the orcs alone."

"Yeah," Shiv agreed. "I got that from Valor. But. Look. I'm—uh. I'm scared." He grunted with discomfort at the admission, but he pushed through. "I'm scared shitless that the orcs might hurt you guys and that I won't be able to, you know. Yeah. So." Adam and Uva shared a look. Can Hu's optics flashed at Shiv. "I get that we can't avoid risking our lives—that the System will keep coming for us. But the orcs will use it against me. I'm certain of that."

"Then we will need to prove too dangerous for them to target," Uva said coolly, putting a hand on her hip. "But… do tell me more about how you worry for us. I like hearing it."

"I worry about some more than others," Shiv noted.

"It's not a weakness either," Adam said. "The orcs don't care about each other. They won't respond when one of their own is in danger. We stand together. We can make up for what the other lacks. They will always stand apart. But more importantly, I think… your fear can be used to our advantage. As bait for their cruelty, and a means of punishing them."

"How?" Shiv asked.

"The orcs have a crippling weakness too," Adam said. "They need to be cruel. They need to scratch. They cannot resist it for long. So. We just need to ask ourselves what the most cruel thing they can do against us is. And then we prepare accordingly."

And already, Shiv felt a bit less worried than before. It's good to have people behind you.

"They bribed you," Uva said, turning to him and tilting her head curiously. "With what?"

"Please don't tell me it's mithril," Adam said with a wince. "Shiv. If you did it for money—"

The Deathless pulled the Husk of the Voidmantid out of his cape, and both Uva and Adam cocked their heads, Uva doing it in the opposite direction as before. Can Hu took two steps forward.

"Is that organic armor?" Adam said, squinting.

"Husk of the Voidmantid," Uva commented.

"Master-Tier," Can Hu noted with disgust. It looked up at Shiv. "You sold yourself too cheaply, Pathbearer. I was also unaware that you were seeking a new chassis."

Shiv winced. "I—uh, Can Hu, look—"

"It will serve for now," Can Hu continued. "But not forever. Time. Time is my ally. I will recover thanks to you. And the armor will break and die because of you. And I will still be here."

Shiv did a double-take as Can Hu started making him nervous. Shit. If I knew getting a new piece of armor would make Can Hu act like a jilted lover, I would have thought twice.

"It's still damaged, though," Uva said.

"Good enchantments for Shiv," Adam muttered. "Regeneration. And a lot of Awareness-boosting abilities. Finally. He won't be near-blind on the battlefield anymore."

"Thanks, asshole," Shiv replied. "Helix said something like that too. But in a real salesman kind of way."

"Helix?" Adam asked.

"The relatively small orc with the glasses," Shiv explained. "I was going to go see him after we finished here. So I could continue my Biomancy training and fuse this armor with what I'm wearing right now."

"A fleeting act," Can Hu whispered.

"Yeah… Sure, Can Hu… Anyway. Helix wants me to get a Crafting Skill through Biomancy. Maybe I might be able to make more organic armors of my own in the future. Or weapons. Something like that."

Adam nodded slowly. "Well, then. I suppose we should all pay Helix a visit."

"We?" Shiv asked.

"Yes, all of us," Uva said, voice bright and cheerful. "Together. I, too, am suddenly interested in Biomancy."

"So am I," Can Hu hissed.

"I love learning," Adam commented. He slowly grinned. "I very much love learning. Let us all get educated together."

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