46 - The Bleeding Phoenix

Contrary to his every expectation this last year, things had gone so well for Lindon.

By fighting at roughly half his capacity, he managed to lull Jai Long into a state of underestimation. The Truegold hadn’t immediately gone for his throat, instead aiming for punishing blows, giving Lindon room to activate all the best constructs that he could.

In a pregnant moment of upset, three things had happened to Jai Long almost at the same time. Lindon had opened a wound on Jai Long’s arm using a launcher binding of a sword Path, released his blood Remnant just in time for it to immediately latch onto that wound, injecting itself into his body, and then while Jai Long wrestled for control over his body, Lindon had struck him with a full-powered punch from his Burning Cloak-enhanced body.

The blood Remnant had forced Jai Long to stand still, forcing him to take the entire blow head-on.

The punch lifted Jai Long into the air, stunning the madra control out of him. It was like an Empty Palm, but with none of the subtlety. 

Jai Long landed on his side, writhing as the Remnant plied its nasty trade, wreaking havoc inside of his body. Jai Chen shrieked in fear. Lindon tried his best to ignore that sound, but he knew it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

“You cannot imagine the pain I endured,” Lindon said, standing over Jai Long’s broken form. “The sacrifices I made to my conscience, so I could stand here and win.” He couldn’t decide if the worst of it was during the Blackflame Trials, having to kill those heinous criminals one after another, or having to learn under that cruel spearman. This entire year had been nothing but misery, with only a few isolated pockets of comfort.

Jai Long’s Truegold madra blazed, counteracting the Remnant. Lindon wouldn’t make the mistake of giving him time to get up. He charged up a Dragon’s Breath. He would take an arm. That is what Jai Long would have done to him.

And Jai Chen did not deserve to lose any more brothers. She was wholly innocent in this.

And then a wave of spiritual pressure forestalled all of them. Lindon immediately turned to the direction of the impression, and saw a portion of the sky along the horizon red as blood.

His stomach fell.

It was happening.

He looked back at Eithan, who was wearing a grave expression. Naru Gwei’s eyes were fixed on the horizon. The Jai Truegold as well. Only Jai Chen’s focus seemed torn between his brother and the reddening horizon.

Jai Long had burned out the Remnant from his body using his spirit, but he was still writhing, unable to gather the strength to stand up. Perhaps that Burning Cloak strike had been entirely sufficient in disabling him? Lindon knew what it could do to anyone’s body, Truegold or not. He had been paranoid to think that a Dragon’s Breath was even necessary at this point.

He took a step back, still keeping an eye on Jai Long’s agonized form.

He had won.

He looked at his right hand. It was still attached.

The Jai Truegold elder cycled the Flowing Starlight, bands of light covering his skin in the same way that it did to Sky, only these patterns were far less all-encompassing, straight lines in place of comprehensive swirls.

He was headed towards Lindon.

“Gwei!” he heard Eithan roar.

Time seemed to stop as Lindon took in several things at once.

Eithan stood frozen in place.

Gwei stared wide-eyed at the Jai Truegold. He had one hand directed at Eithan.

The other was pointed at a man standing on on a blood-red Thousand-Mile Cloud. Lindon didn’t get a good look at him. He returned his focus to the Jai Truegold, who was standing a mere ten feet away, spear swinging, the blade coated in searing bright light.

A pulse of pure madra tore through the man’s core, instantly shattering his spirit and disabling the Star’s Edge technique.

Instead, it was a purely mundane blade that sliced clean through Lindon’s forearm.

000

Eithan had seen Longhook coming for the fifteen minutes it took for him to fly here from the red light in the horizon. Immediately, he took Little Blue into his soulspace. Violence was imminent.

“We have an interloper, Gwei,” Eithan said. 

“Don’t distract me,” Gwei replied. Eithan’s eyes widened as he turned to Gwei.

“There is an Underlord on the way,” Eithan said. “Can’t you sense it?”

Gwei, for his part, did stretch out his senses towards where Eithan had indicated. He did find a spirit making its way to their location. Determining their advancement was… practically an impossibility for him. It wasn’t that it was impossible in general. Gwei just wasn’t skilled enough.

“How do you know it’s an Underlord?” Gwei asked.

“I recognize him,” Eithan said. “He’s… Redmoon Hall.”

Gwei glared at him. “Is this your doing?”

Eithan held back his exasperation. Things weren’t exactly unsalvageable at this point. Just… needlessly difficult. He hated when things were made difficult needlessly. “Suppose that I’m not out to burn the Empire to the ground for one minute, Naru Gwei. Can you do so? Let us join hands and make sure this interloper doesn’t ruin your perfect adjudication streak.”

Gwei scoffed. Eithan didn’t understand. Lindon was doing well. Well, he was going according to plan, which was to downplay his ability and wait for a perfect opportunity to strike. Unfortunately for Eithan, that in effect did make him look like he was losing.

Eithan turned around to give Longhook his full attention, and was about to pull out a Thousand-Mile Cloud to meet him mid-air. Then the wind aura held him still. “Where do you think you are going?” Gwei asked.

“Doing your job,” Eithan replied sunnily. “Now if you would kindly remove this Ruler technique before I do something you will deeply regret, that would be splendid!”

“You stand there,” Gwei said, one hand held towards him. “And I’ll deal with the new one,” and then he turned to Jai Rigan, “And anyone else willing to try something.”

Diplomacy was futile. 

And so he fought. He warred against the Ruler technique with all his might, and Naru Gwei returned to him that focus in full. Longhook came closer and closer. Once he was in range for his own blood Ruler technique, he cycled his madra, and Gwei looked at the Underlord desperately. He threw his hand out to freeze Longhook as well.

During his struggle, he had seen Lindon execute a perfect reversal, striking Jai Long head-on with the Burning Cloak while the blood Remnant distracted the young Truegold.

At least that was taken care of. “Gwei!” Eithan shouted desperately, hoping beyond hope that Gwei would see sense and release Eithan now that the fight was clearly finished.

Instead, the old Underlord held him still while Jai Rigan charged up the Flowing Starlight technique, pure hatred in his eyes. The man had lost everything. His Patriarch had gone mysteriously missing, only to turn up a broken and battered corpse at his Serpent’s Grave estate. And now he had been forced to parade out their clan’s very last hope for a needless duel that would win them no honour and reputation.

And now that self-same duel had cost them that last hope.

Eithan shattered the Ruler technique holding him and ran to intercept Gigan. Unfortunately, he was over halfway towards Lindon.

Eithan threw a Striker technique instead, a pulse of pure madra that would in the future form the basis for the Hollow King’s Spear.

The attack struck true, shattering the Truegold’s core in an instant.

And yet his hatred could not be doused by that. He would lose all his strength, speed and the weapon Enforcer technique, but what use did he have for those when he was already in range of a gobsmacked Lindon, right arm raised to defend himself, spear mid-swing?

The attack didn’t kill Lindon.

It fell short, thanks to Eithan’s timely intervention.

Instead, it took his arm.

Three things ran through Eithan’s mind in that moment.

One, Sky’s predictions were so entrenched in whatever twisted form of fate that he read, that even this many deviations could not change things. Rather, it was as though the universe itself bent to have this occur once more.

Two, he was going to hurt Gwei for this.

Three, he was certainly going to hurt Longhook for this.

Eithan scooped Lindon up to his feet before he could fall, kicked Jai Rigan out of the way, breaking several of his bones in the process, bent over to haul Jai Long over his shoulder, and scooped Jai Chen up as well, running away.

Gwei would deal with the Redmoon Hall emissary. It was the least that the hateful man deserved. In the meanwhile, Eithan needed to fetch Gesha, so they could truly finish beating their retreat.

He activated a communication construct keyed to Sky’s Mercy, advising them to turn back to Stormrock.

000

We all followed Cassias to a Brightcrown hospital where a steady stream of people were being admitted. Orthos stood right in front of Cassias, pressing through the crush of bodies, letting us walk in his wake while we made our way to the hospital.

Shit.

Shit. Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. FUCK!

I wanted to kill something.

That wouldn’t make things better. It would just give me an illusion of control. ‘Can’t fix shit, might as well ruin something else,’ that kind of thing.

The trick was to not get taken into those thoughts.

Lindon had gotten hurt, and there was no amount of killing that would fix that.

I had failed.

Finally, we arrived at the Skysworn wing of the hospital, far less busy. From there, we lightly jogged all the way to Lindon’s room.

Yerin practically tossed me out of the way to get in as quickly as she could. I followed after Orthos, while Cassias stood outside, looking deeply disturbed.

Gesha was standing next to Lindon, an array of Remnant limbs sitting on a table nearby.

Lindon was on the bed. Around his right elbow was a scripted bandage. The stump underneath it already looked half healed, reddish and orange skin mixed with healthy, unmarred skin.

“What happened?” Yerin asked. Her voice was worried, but I could detect a hint of relief from her. He could have walked away with far worse.

Lindon, contrary to my expectations, just… smiled. “Greetings, Yerin. Sky.” I gave him a nod of greeting in return. “I… I won, actually.”

“You’re pulling my chain,” Yerin said. “You won?”

Lindon nodded proudly. I tried to match his grin, but then I caught sight of his stump. “I’d hate to see the other guy,” I joked.

Lindon’s expression darkened a little. “This… wasn’t Jai Long. This was his… guardian. Or whoever is next in line for leadership of his clan. Right after I defeated Jai Long, the man attacked me. Gwei held Eithan back from doing anything else but saving my life.” Daishou hadn’t shown up? What the hell was Eithan up to?

Also… “Hmm,” I said, giving his words a nod. “Gwei did that?”

Just like that, I found the first person I would smack the shit out of once I became an Underlord.

“Let it go,” Lindon said soothingly. 

I… I didn’t understand. Why was he so calm about this? I turned to Gesha. “How has he been?”

Gesha wrinkled her eyebrows. “The boy? He’s been happy. I don’t see what he could possibly be happy for.”

“I won,” Lindon repeated, and he gained a dumb smile on his face. His expression was so soft, like he had been drugged. Perhaps he had. 

“We need time,” Gesha said. “You all need to leave right now. Even you, Yerin. And I mean it! Give us room to breathe. He just came out from a fight to the death against a Truegold and survived.”

Yerin laughed even as she appeared saddened, overwhelmed by the dual emotions of relief and sadness. “You did good, Lindon. A mile better than I feared.”

“I’m proud of you,” I said to him. “You’ve definitely outranked me now.” With any luck, Chon Sasha would start focusing her ire on him.

Then again, he wouldn’t stay a Lowgold for long enough for her to harass him. And also, she wouldn’t be able to challenge him unless she beat me. And I wasn’t about to let that happen.

Lindon chuckled. “Thank you.”

With that, we left the hospital. Yerin still wasn’t saying anything to me, and I was afraid to say anything myself.

Eventually, I did. “I wish it didn’t happen this way again.”

Yerin cast me a glower that killed my confidence. I didn’t say anything the entire way to the Skysworn dormitory. I tried to find Chiara in her room, but there was no one there.

With nothing else to do, I went home.

000

Eithan fed Jai Long a Thousand Suns of Life Pill. Each one went for about a hundred thousand scales on the open market, and boasted an incredible potential for healing. Everything short of death was the tagline. The only reason why he didn’t give this to Lindon was because it would not be able to heal dismemberment.

Unfortunately for Lindon, it was impossible to reattach the limb perfectly now that his stump had healed over, a consequence of his Bloodforged Iron body. The medics would have to cut off more of his flesh to create a better fit, and they would not be able to ply their trade without the limb healing badly with false connections of blood vessels, nerves and even muscle fibers. For an Iron body so well-versed in self-healing, it did manage to play havoc on many different modes of medical treatment.

Jai Long took the pill while he was still unconscious, sleeping in a Brightcrown hospital bedroom, Jai Chen seated beside him. He was no longer wearing his scripted bandages, though they were on the nightstand next to his bed.

Green life aura flashed in his chest and torso area where Lindon had crushed several bones and completely splattered several of his internal organs. Jai Long would have died if not for this medicine.

He woke up with a start, sitting upright and panting, looking every direction. He saw Jai Chen. Then he focused on his own body, which he patted down for injuries.

Then he turned to Eithan, and his eyes widened dramatically. “You.” He snarled, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Then he caught himself, and closed his lips.

“Me,” Eithan grinned. “How are you enjoying your new lease on life?”

Jai Long seemed to internally debate on whether to be rude and blunt, or respectful. Caution for his sister’s life won over as he chose the latter. “I am grateful for the opportunity of continued living. May I ask why I was saved?”

“You may!” Eithan replied. “You are leaving the empire, correct?”

Jai Long furrowed his eyebrows. “My duty is to the clan.”

“Yes, yes,” Eithan said, “But Daishou is dead. You swore the oath to him. Why continue to obey it? Can’t you sense it yourself?”

He could, obviously, and was only lying in order to throw Eithan off his trail.

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Eithan said. “I’m not here to kill you or hurt you. I’m here to make a deal with you. One enforced by a soul oath as well. A simple service on your end, and a cure to your face as well as a clear path to Underlord will be given in return.”

“Thank you,” Jai Long said, clearly not believing him. “But I believe it is better that we return to the clan.”

“Did you ever ask yourself why you found a Copper strolling around in the Five-Faction Alliance?” Eithan asked. “If you had correlated this phenomenon to the stories you heard, of this place that you two are heading towards, you would be blown away by the coincidences.”

Jai Long’s eyes widened. “You mean…?”

“Wei Shi Lindon hails from the Sacred Valley. It is a land where the sacred arts are suppressed to Jade. Anyone visiting from outside will be temporarily suppressed to Jade for as long as they are there. Meanwhile, the inhabitants within may never advance past Jade. Interesting, is it not? And unfortunately for you, it is not the utopic land without sacred arts that you envisioned it to be. They are still sacred artists. Just… weaker.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Jai Long asked.

“Well, this is where I get a little harsher,” Eithan said, “You did threaten to kill my disciple after all, and the pill I gave you was quite costly. So! In return for a less serpentine face—though I do not see anything wrong with you the way you are—as well as a clear path to Underlord, I want you to go to Sacred Valley, like you had originally planned. And I want you to reinforce some agents of mine and help rescue Lindon’s mother from captivity, as well as protect his family. In the process of fleeing his valley, quite a few unfortunate things befell his family, you see. Since you were already heading there, I assumed you would be amenable to the task.”

Jai Long sighed. Jai Chen looked frightened. “Are you sending me to die, Underlord?”

“I am not. Why would you think that? If I wanted you dead, it would be far easier for me to orchestrate that than in this way.”

“Forgive me for interrogating the motives of the man that sent his Lowgold disciple to fight a Truegold.” He obviously had a great estimation of Eithan’s willingness to torture someone in creative ways. At least this time, he could plausibly deny that this duel was just an elaborate form of torture.

“That Lowgold ended up winning, did he not?” Eithan said with a grin. Jai Long almost lashed out, but closed his mouth before he could say something he would regret.

That truly burned him, didn’t it? For all his talk of hating the way sacred artists did things, he truly was no different from any of them. It had been his idea, after all, to use the labor of captured enemies of the Sandviper sect in order to make a profit.

“Tricks and cheats,” Jai Long said. “Nothing else.”

“Well, be that as it may,” Eithan said, “It is in your best interest to leave as soon as possible. You see, while you were unconscious, it turns out that a Dreadgod had awakened.”

It took thirty more minutes for Eithan to secure an oath out of Jai Long. This one was far laxer, and allowed him an out for as long as he truly felt that his life was in danger.

Before Eithan disappeared, he said one last thing to them. “If you one day find a giant black turtle in the valley, try not to fight him. He is family.”

Then he left.

And headed straight towards one place, dodging past every layer of Skysworn security as he did as he climbed each floor of the Redflower hospital.

After throwing something down the hallway to get the Skysworn guarding the door to investigate, Eithan quickly snuck by, opened the door, and stepped inside Gwei’s hospital room.

The old man’s eyes widened into saucers. 

His body was bandaged, and underneath were salves to cover up a wide array of slashes. An arm had been broken. Unfortunately, no limbs were missing. His armor had protected him well. A detoxifying bullfrog’s tongue was attached to his forearm, pumping blood through it with every croak. 

“You know, I wish this was enough to make me feel better,” Eithan said. “You definitely got off far too lightly. Needless to say, the ranking board will hear of this lapse in adjudication. The emperor as well.”

“You left me to die!” Gwei shouted.

Eithan laughed now. “Do you really think I care, Gwei? After I pleaded with you to see reason? Do you really think I would sit back and fight alongside you after you refused to let me save my disciple? You talk about my flaunting imperial law, but you do exactly the same when it suits you, chasing a one-sided vendetta.”

“Is this really how you want to do things?” Gwei said. “The Bleeding Phoenix has awakened, and you still want to fight me? Does it not occur to you that we have bigger things to worry about?”

“Incredibly convenient, is it not? You get to wrong me so blatantly, and I must simply set it aside for the greater good? Is this really how the world works in your head, Gwei?”

“You really think this grievance is the most important part of this day,” Gwei chuckled darkly. “Delusional as always.”

“Contrary to your estimation of me, I can put this behind me,” Eithan said. “And you will owe me for it. For the good of the empire. What do you say? Cooperation, or more of this,” he gestured towards the man’s injured self.

“You want me to bribe you into compliance?” Gwei asked, disbelieving.

“I’d rather call it reparations,” Eithan said. “For my disciple’s arm. For your lapse in adjudication which ended up seriously injuring a prized student of mine, one that I entrusted onto you, and the emperor specifically bade you not to kill. And it won’t be compliance, either. It will be cooperation. Compliance would imply that I tend to act illegally in any capacity, and that is just slander.” 

Setting aside his unannounced visits to the emperor, that was by and large the unvarnished truth! 

In any other situation, Gwei would continue to fight this. But he knew well that he had been in the wrong. Longhook had explained that to him quite thoroughly through action. The emperor was a fine cudgel to hold over him as well, especially in a time of crisis.

“What do you want?” Gwei growled darkly. He would not forget this. Neither would Eithan.

Eithan gave his demands.

With that business over with, he opened the door to leave just as Li Min Redflower, Underlord of the Redflower family, and the greatest healer in the realm, was about to enter. Eithan gave a polite greeting, and was once more on his way.

Specifically to see his injured student. He had not been conscious during his transport, and he likely wouldn’t appreciate seeing Eithan at this time. Eithan would not run away from this, however.

Still, Lindon seemed… euphoric. Gleeful to have won, leaving no room for anything else. Not even grief at his lost limb. Sky had primed him for this eventuality, but this was a rather dramatic lack of drama in Eithan’s estimation.

Eithan opened the door, hoping Lindon’s good mood would last.

It reduced a little, but he didn’t look at Eithan accusingly. “How are you holding up, champion?”

Lindon’s grin returned. “I could use a hand.”

Eithan chuckled, though the sound was undercut by remorse.

He had foreknowledge that this would happen. He had specifically told Lindon not to worry, promised him protection.

Eithan pressed both fists together and bowed at his waist. “I apologise for my inability to protect you, Lindon. I gave you my word, and I failed you.”

“Gratitude, Eithan,” Lindon said, looking awkward, “But stand straight. I believe you. We were warned that this would happen. We did everything we could. I won,” he said, perhaps his favourite sentence in the world right now. “I don’t feel like you failed me. I just feel… unlucky is all.”

Gesha huffed. “You’re lucky you’re alive, at least.”

“Lucky in some ways, even,” Lindon said. His nervous chuckle gave him the air of a cruel murderer, but his voice was soft. Benevolent. The boy that had been terrified for his life, whose stress levels had prevented him from a solitary moment of reprieve, was completely gone. 

Perhaps he was still intoxicated by his body’s reaction to his injury. The pain had been cut off, so all that remained were the natural painkillers that his body produced. Perhaps those didn’t count as imbalance to his Bloodforged Iron body?

Soon, that bliss would run out, however. Then, there would be far more work ahead of them.

“How is Yerin?” Lindon asked. “I saw her earlier. She didn’t…”

“No,” Eithan said with a grin. “I haven’t had an opportunity to speak with her about it yet, but we prepared her well.” Gesha looked bemused by their words. It wasn’t something Eithan wanted to share openly beyond just his disciples, that they had foreknowledge of the Bleeding Phoenix’s arrival.

It was one of the main reasons why he had killed Jai Daishou. So that even if it was made known that he had seen this coming, no one could have accused him of deliberately baiting Jai Daishou into raiding the Western Labyrinth and summoning the Dreadgod on purpose.

That, and because the Archstone would have far better uses in his hands.

“Well,” Eithan said, “As far as catastrophic failures go, you are remarkably chipper. Speaks to a strong mentality. I am proud of you.”

“When can I attach a new arm?” Lindon asked.

“Bah!” Gesha made to slap Lindon’s head, but stopped herself. “At least let your body recover! You need to be in top shape before we can even consider that!”

Eithan looked Lindon up and down. “How are your channels?”

“Fine,” Lindon said. Eithan produced a superior-grade scale on the spot and flicked it towards Lindon. “This is…?”

“For your pure core, to give you enough to heal the rest of your injuries. I will be off while you recover. Get well soon, Lindon.”

“Gratitude,” Lindon said, giving Eithan’s back a nod. “This isn’t the end for me. I can feel it.”

A catastrophic loss in the former sequence of events had proven as an invaluable testing grounds for Lindon’s willpower. It had slowed him down in the short term, and propelled him in the long term while he worked hard to recover from the disgrace of his loss.

A victory had its place as well. A newfound sense of pride and confidence would blossom, allowing him to take more risks. Meanwhile, his dismemberment would still remind him of his weakness, remind him to work hard such that no enemy could ever take from him what had already been lost to him.

As far as lessons went, Eithan couldn’t have asked for a better one.

000

Contrary to my utterly baseless expectations, the Skysworn didn’t let me sit on my thumbs all day in a state of emergency. Under the dimming light of the reddening sky, I was immediately summoned to muster in an open field, Skysworn officers doling out dozens upon dozens of emerald Thousand-Mile Clouds. Yerin was a few rows ahead of me, and so was Chiara. The Skysworn Truegolds were giving us the brass tacks, and needless to say, shit was looking bad.

It was mission time immediately. Before I could even reach Chiara, Renfei and Bai Rou grabbed Yerin and I, gave us our own clouds, and made us fly down to some jungle sect to rescue as many people as we could.

The moment we touched down on the entrance to the rocky building surrounded by titanic trees, I sensed blood in the distance.

Distant bushes rustled, and out from them, blobs of madra crawled out. They were about a meter tall, had barely shaped bodies, and two stubby legs allowing them to barely walk ahead. Most of them didn’t even have arm-like protrusions, just legs.

Amogus.

I shook my head violently and refocused on the task at hand, hoping beyond hope that my brief mental corruption hadn’t summoned heavenly retribution.

The survivors were huddled inside the temple, and the concept became pretty clear. We were supposed to pick and choose who was to live and who was to die. Several Skysworn squads loaded their clouds with every child that they could find.

“Hey!” I addressed Renfei. “Will those who left come back with more clouds?”

Renfei frowned. “This place is being overrun. We take whoever we can and leave the rest.”

Yerin left her cloud behind and was already leaving.

I looked to Renfei. “Get more clouds. We’re staying behind, buying time.”

I ran outside before Renfei could stop me. Yerin’s sword arms rang like a bell, and several Bloodspawn immediately collapsed.

I thought about burning the forest with Solar Flare, but that would probably do more harm than good, choking everyone in the temple in acrid smoke. This would have to require surgical precision.

The good thing about the Bloodspawn was that they were slow and predictable. I activated Starfire Surge—now a binding in truth—and Nova Blade with it, slicing up the Bloodspawn and dodging every attack and Striker technique they threw at me.

I fought as near to Yerin as I could, and we made several rounds around the perimeter of the temple. I realized that holding her pace was suboptimal, so I ran around the perimeter faster, taking out as many Bloodspawn as I could, all the while as Yerin made a slower circle around the temple. Still, her slaughter was far more comprehensive.

Soon, an idea started forming. I spotted a concentration of Bloodspawn and shouted after Yerin. “This way! A job for you!”

She looked over her shoulder, and I was scared that she would be difficult. Instead, she just nodded and followed me. I led her to the crush of Bloodspawn and took her place as well.

One thing I was grateful to Bai Rou and Renfei, was that the torturous exercise they had put me under had given me more of a capacity for ceaseless suffering. I had run myself to the bone by the time Renfei arrived with a pair of Thousand-Mile Clouds. Yerin wasn’t doing any better herself. 

Instead of telling us anything, she just grabbed us and hauled us up to the clouds.

“Disobeying direct orders have consequences,” Renfei said, and I was too tired to argue. She had threaded her madra through all our clouds, and was driving us back to Stormrock on her own. “Fortunately for you, I never made a direct order.”

“The people?” I panted.

“All evacuated. Well done, Skysworn.”

I nodded.

“How is your madra?” she asked us.

“Running on hopes and wishes,” Yerin replied.

“Almost nothing,” I admitted. “My channels are killing me.”

“Take a break,” Renfei said. Oh god, was I grateful to hear that.

000

I didn’t return home until I saw Chiara land on a Thousand-Mile Cloud at the staging ground. We ran up to each other and hugged fiercely. It definitely hurt me more than it hurt her.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, still hugging.

“I’m fine. You?”

“Fine,” I said. “Long day,” I chuckled.

She pulled back from the hug and laughed sadly, tears welling in her eyes. “It’s usually not this busy around here.”

“Hah,” I chuckled. “Let’s go home?”

We held hands as we headed to the dormitory. “How is Lindon?” Chiara asked. “Did he finish his duel?”

“A Redmoon Hall emissary interrupted it,” I said. “That gave the Jai delegate on his opponent’s side an opportunity to… cut off his arm.”

“Oh no,” Chiara looked stricken. She squeezed my hand tighter. “How is he doing?”

“Surprisingly good,” I said, “He won, you see.”

She looked at me in surprise. “Really, now? Against a Truegold?”

I nodded proudly. “The power of dragons runs through his channels. It’s no surprise he won!”

“And Yerin?” Chiara asked. “With the Bleeding Phoenix rising, how is she?”

“She’s doing well, I think,” I said, “Nothing about it seemed to bother her Blood Shadow.”

“Is she still not talking to you?”

I sighed.

I told her what Yerin had told me.

Chiara just nodded. I expected more of a reality check than that, but the silence was almost as damning. 

Once we arrived at her room, she closed the door, and then she etched a script on the doorframe.

I looked at her in confusion, watching her finish. Finally, she turned around and fixed me with an expectant look. “Yerin mastered her Blood Shadow days ago. The Bleeding Phoenix has awakened.”

“Yerin didn’t do that,” I said with wide eyes.

“I’m not stupid, Sky,” Chiara scoffed. “That isn’t my point of confusion. What I want to know is why she did that at exactly that time, why that was your idea. Do you have any idea why the Bleeding Phoenix may have awakened?”

There was no avoiding the truth, now that she had asked me point blank. All I hoped was that this wouldn’t… ruin things. I looked her in the eye. “I saw this coming.”

“How?”

“I’ve seen the future,” I said, “Read about it. It was how I was able to find Eithan, traveling all the way from my homeland like I did.”

She took a moment to contemplate that. I assumed that her trust in my not making light of this apocalyptic situation won her over. “Did you warn anyone?” she asked.

“No one would believe me,” I said. “And once it came to pass, everyone would accuse me of having made it happen. Only Eithan took me seriously.”

She blinked several times. “You can see what the dream readers of the empire couldn’t?”

“The dream readers of the empire couldn’t compare to the ones where I came from,” I replied honestly. “This country… It's weak. But it’s not even just about that, Chiara. It’s the fate of this world itself. It has been completely overturned. The Dreadgods are awakening. Even the Monarchs won’t know what to do. We need to get stronger.”

“This is why,” Chiara breathed. What did she mean by that? She went to a chair to sit down, looking at the floor, utterly shell-shocked. “What happens to the empire?” she asked me. “In your visions of the future?”

“It is saved by the Monarch, Akura Malice,” I said. “Her daughter is here, so I’m pretty certain that’s the only reason why we will be spared. She buys us a few years, and after that it will be on us to grow powerful enough to protect our home.”

“How?” she asked me, gesticulating wildly. Gone was the cool and collected woman I had gotten to know. “We’re just… we’re so small!”

I walked up to her, and crouched before her, hand on her knee. I gave her a smile. “For what it’s worth, I’m confident things will go well for us.”

She tried to match my grin, but she looked almost on the verge of breaking down.

“It’s fine,” I told her. “Let it out. I’m here.”

She didn’t do anything as dramatic as sob. Instead, she just squeezed out some tears and wiped them in silence. I tried to hug her, but she held out a hand to stop me. I tried to ignore the sting of that, rationalizing it away. She wasn’t angry at me.

After minutes of periodically wiping the tears off her face, she fixed me with a stern look. “You can’t be this confident. Not in the face of this.”

‘Reckless to a fault.’

I took Yerin’s pain too lightly. Was I doing the same to Chiara?

“I’m not,” I said, and her expression became even sadder. “I just… dare to hope. It’s all we can do right now. Let despair win, and now you’ve got to deal with that and the Dreadgod. At the very least, try and fight the thing you do have control over.”

It was easy for me to say.

I wasn’t right in the head.

I could pretty that up with nice and beautiful sentiments encouraging bravery and courage in the face of overwhelming odds, but my ‘hope’ was nothing more than a baseless entitlement of power, and my fearlessness was not bravery. It was a mental deficiency.

“You’re right. Let’s… do what we can.”

I nodded. “That’s all we can do.”