26 Victory

I have seen once-hopeless Advanced Pathbearers become reborn through the completion of a quest. And I have seen Masters fall and shatter from the consequences of failure.

There is something every Pathbearer learns during their life: the system abhors the weak. The system abhors defeat. And the system wants you to struggle, to fight, to crawl at the lid of your casket even as it is closing to reach one more level, to slay one more foe.

And every now and again, when the stars align and fate’s ugly face sneers down upon you, you will find yourself bestowed with a quest through the divine or—in the most remarkable of circumstances—the system itself.

And the rewards you get from the system are staggering as well. For each person, it often creates something they need—or something that drastically boosts the effectiveness of their Path and skills. Even if they don’t realize it. These items can rarely be found naturally, unless purchased from a dedicated crafter. Or the reward can be an awesome flood of skill levels—enough to break someone’s bottleneck or send them into a new threshold after years of languishing.

But that is if you succeed.

When it comes to failure, the system rarely focuses on punishing you specifically. But it does punish you. It punishes you by changing something in the world, or upending a certain status quo. Because change invites conflict and that, more than anything, is what the system thirsts for.

War.

-Memoirs of a Master-Tier War Mage

26
Victory

Harkness’s Psychomancy spell was a shapeless, colorless thing. It looked like a transparent net manifesting around her hand, and Shiv felt his dread spike. But then another spell smashed into Harkness’s first. The owl’s shape shattered into fragments, and she glanced upward for a beat, smirking at the one who did it.

Uva launched spell after spell of her own, even as her face turned into a mask of blood. Shiv’s stomach twisted. His shadows were forming, but it wouldn’t be fast enough. Harkness casually traced a few quick spells before launching them at Uva. The Umbral cried out with effort and strain, but Shiv felt something break somewhere, like a tremor of a falling vase rushing past his feet without the accompanying noise.

The other magi tried to support her, unleashing all they had on Harkness. But the owl continued as she did before with Shiv, focused on a singular individual, her face awash with shifting expressions. “Hm. Good, good. Very thorough. How extremely skilled for an Adept—detail-oriented.” She created a large spell that expanded around her head like a crown. She slammed it down on the world—and for a moment Shiv felt the urge to kneel and obey.

Then, with a defiant cry that built and built, a counterforce impacted the crown like a falling axe. The oppressive urge to submit vanished as the crown shattered. Uva snarled as she burst another of the owl’s spells. But the way she blinked, the way she swayed told Shiv she was long past spent. Even he hadn’t strained his mana field to this extreme before, and if she kept going.

Uva, stop! You did enough! Run! Get out of her! Shiv called out to her mentally.

“No,” she replied without hesitation. And there was a resolve in her akin to cold steel. “I will not abandon you. I will not abandon my mission. I will not. If this is to be death, then so be it. But if you can do it, then I can too.”

Then a memory from her brushed his mind. It was a memory of terrifying pain and bitter-sweet. It was of him as he endured within the teleportation anchor, sacrificing himself to keep her and the other Umbrals protected from the purification process. Before that moment, she was fascinated by him, attracted to him, amused by him, but with that sacrifice, a part of her was in awe of him. Was enamored and wounded by him.

Now she wanted to see if she held the same strength inside her. Because what Pathbearer didn’t?

“And yet you stand,” Harkness chuckled and gave a slight bow at her Adept rival, indifferent to the other mages. “You trace a pretty little weave of thoughts, girl. You’re a seamstress as well, aren’t you? I recognize that thought process—that thought pattern. That, and I also took a peek at your surface thoughts while you were struggling to undo my workings. So much frustration. So much pain. So much yearning to find out if your mother was slain by someone like me.”

The owl smirked. “I might know, but I’ll keep you in suspense. Maybe I’ll inform you after I finish shackling your mind.” She looked at Shiv’s breaking shell of shadows. “It’s fitting. Two promising soldiers for the price of all my current forces. The system gives. The system takes. But I am always generous.”

Revenant > 4

Shiv burst out from his shadow cocoon, preparing to strike his enemy from as many directions and through as many methods as he could. She could be distracted and overwhelmed. She could be bled. He could kill her—as long as he was willing to die over and over again. But before the broken remains of his skeleton armor could reach him, she cut into him using her true blade: her Psychomancy.

Shiv heard Uva scream his name as she was forced out. His protective shroud cracked. Lady Harkness pried. It felt like someone was ripping his brain open down the middle. The mind pain nearly drove him insane. It wasn’t anything like physical pain—it didn’t last nearly as long, but the hurt ran so deep that it was beyond words to describe. Shiv still managed another step before he felt her full presence bear down on him. In that moment, he wanted to hate Psychomancy as she tried to pluck through his personal history, but he failed. What he actually hated was the fact that she had this power while he mostly didn’t.

Magic was bullshit. And Shiv wanted more of that bullshit for himself. Even now.

“Get… out…” Shiv said, clutching his skull.

“Hm. Resilient. Unnaturally resilient. You seem to be absolutely devoid of genuine trauma. How curious. You have the mind of someone that leads a charmed life—but yet that is most assuredly not who you are. And what’s this in the shallows? A building affection for… him?” And she looked up at Uva—the Adept Umbral Psychomancer pulling at her Master-Tier adversary to no avail, like a mouse trying to move a mountain. “Oh, how sweet. The seed of unblossomed want and affection.”

There was nothing mocking in Harkness’s tone, she genuinely sounded happy to discover this. “You might not believe me, but I’m really quite the romantic. But alas, this life of mine doesn’t allow anything beyond impersonal moments of the flesh, so make due sometime, vicariously. Perhaps you two can start something terribly taboo and forbidden when I leave you at Aviary. The instructors will hate it too.”

She lifted a finger and made a gesture. Four Weaveresses promptly collapsed behind her, their invisibility cloaks flapping about as they started clawing at their skulls and writhing. She pointed again, and other members of the order cried out as well, wailing as she took their minds. And then, she looked at Uva. Uva, the Adept Pathbearer was still struggling against her, practically the last woman standing. The Umbral looked on the verge of unconsciousness, her eyes rolling while her body shook. But then she bit down and two final spells before collapsing.

Shiv felt her body with his Biomancy and her skull felt like it was on fire—and so much blood was rushing out from her. He wanted to try and heal her, but he knew that his touch would only ensure that she died. Godsdammit all! She felt alive but—

But his thoughts were his own again. Shiv realized that after a beat. A gap had formed in Harkness’s attention. It was like she was momentarily blind to him. Shiv snarled as he rose. He drew on his Biomancy and Might of Mass once more as he slammed into Harkness. To their shared surprise, he managed to pick her off the ground in a brutal takedown. To his continued surprise, he found himself on top of her, slamming elbow after elbow into her face as she blinked, frowning at the impact.

Whatever Uva did, it somehow made the Master-Tier Pathbearer blind to his presence. She carved out wildly—her glowing blade ripping whips of blood out from Shiv’s now bare torso from the quantity of her strikes alone. Shiv snarled and continued raining blows down on her while using his Biomancy to bludgeon her Magical Resistance. Right then, Shiv was willing to die for good if it meant taking his enemy with him, and with each of his punches, his Momentum Core climbed.

Soon, he was dodging and parrying some blind strikes—at least angling his body and inner organs to avoid taking a fatal wound. Harkness summoned more clones, their blades flashing out. Shiv felt several strikes punch clean through him, parting essential veins and arteries. He was a dead man again, but he was going to make this death matter.

Just as she started shaping a new Psychomancy spell, Shiv roared as his Momentum Core hit capacity. He wrapped his Biomancy around his body, straining his field so hard, blood erupted from all his orifices—uncaring if it killed him. He used that to accelerate every part of himself in tandem with Might of Mass as he emptied his Momentum Core via a descending elbow that he landed against the owl’s jaw.

Momentum Core > 61

Might of Mass > 68

Striking Proficiency > 23

Grappling Proficiency > 39

Diamond Shell > 76

This time, her head snapped back, and he heard it—a distinct gasp of discomfort from her even as both his spirit and body practically came apart with the blow. He used everything he had, and death claimed him instantly. His reward was a front-row seat to the absolute destruction that followed.

His corpse deformed and warped into a horrific shape as his elbow impacted Harkness’s jaw. The air completely ignited this time—not just a brief combustion. A wall of force and flame swept out—and it was only thanks to the Umbral magi that most of the order wasn’t killed as well. Adam was flung off his feet and sent flying against the mana bomb—The mana bomb he hadn’t shot yet.

And then there was Harkness. The webs beneath her tore as the spatial stability of the entire cavern broke. It felt like the chamber was tilting at an angle and waves of pressure began to pry everyone present toward one of the tunnels leading out from this place. But despite getting hit with a blow hard enough to snap even hyperdense weaver webs serving as the foundations for an entire cave’s worth of spatial magic, all Harkness sported was a split lip and a scowl.

Yet, Shiv didn’t walk away empty-handed.

Biomancy > 44

Might of Mass > 69

Diamond Shell > 79

Momentum Core > 63

Skill Gained: Psychomancy 1 (Advanced)

Shiv felt a third mana field expand around him—this one mainly encompassing his mind. He also had the displeasure of sensing how colossal Harkness’s field was compared to his. If he was a flea, then she was the entire sky. Her mana stretched beyond the point he could see—and Shiv wondered how Uva could contend with this monster at all.

But then he sensed another thing: there was a dense layer of magic coloring his mind, and he realized he was camouflaged within Harkness’s own field. Shiv’s astonishment at Uva’s feat grew as he turned to regard the Umbral. Her field was huge too, encompassing the cavern they were fighting in, but he could still see the edges. She was ridiculously dwarfed by the owl as well.

Shaking off his admiration, Shiv reached down and started draining his enemy again. He tried to use his Biomancy field as a weapon again, but it felt raw, like a flayed limb. Every time he moved it, he writhed in spiritual agony. I can’t be using that until it gets better, Shiv thought, and he focused on draining his adversary’s vitality.

By this point, Harkness knew something was wrong, and she adapted with rapid efficiency. Once more, she formed a Psychomancy spell—this one larger and more complex than the others. It shaped, twisted, and writhed, creating a rounded pattern that circled itself faster and faster until it seemed to move like a solid sphere. Then it slammed down on his field, rippling across it.

Shiv felt it hit his mind like a tidal wave flinging a small boat into the air. Suddenly, the coloring that hid him within her own mind was broken. He emerged, a small dot, and as she pressed in on him, he struggled back. It was feeble, it was hopeless, but he still struggled—because that’s who he was, a pillar, even if that pillar was going to break.

Once more, though, Harkness stopped. She observed him, blinking rapidly, as she licked the blood from her lips. “You. I forgot.” Her mouth fell open once more as an expression of sublime delight spread over her features. “Well, well,” she smirked in the direction where Uva once stood. He saw other Umbrals dragging her away to safety, and his gut tightened even more. “I must have that one, and I must have you.”

The owl let out a breath as his resurrective husk began to solidify. “In the beginning, I thought you were just a reckless—albeit fearless—child, willing to die for whatever lies or glory Valor filled your mind with. Then I understood you have something special: something to do with your soul. Maybe you were an Animancy experiment. Now, I don’t know what you are at all, Deathless—but I am so very keen to find out.”

His small field of Psychomancy mana flexed outward for but a flickering heartbeat—before she overwhelmed him, like a hurricane dragging away a singular raindrop. Shiv prepared himself to experience the inevitable pain of a mental attack. Yet, before Harkness could do anything further, a notification appeared in his mind, just as he resurrected for a second time.

Quest Complete: Stop New Albion from bombing Passage and damaging Weave’s critical teleportation anchors.

Just as he did, the divine sigil flared over his adversary. The owl’s face became solemn and sour. “But, how… She said the bomb would go off even if—”

A third voice joined the fray, interrupting Harkness. An agitated, aggravated, but ultimately triumphant voice. “Well, I discovered why the quest was still ongoing,” Adam said. Most of his face was swollen, but he still managed that scowl he liked so much. He chucked a threaded, spherical mechanism onto the ground. Shiv couldn’t recognize what it was. Behind Adam, a panel beneath the mana bomb was folded outward, bearing the indentation of the Young Lord’s body.

Both Shiv and Harkness shared a look of mutual confusion as Adam advanced on them. “This,” he said, pointing at the now smoking spherical device, “is a Spatial Frequency Amplifier. I didn’t recognize what it was at first, since I only saw devices like it in the manuscripts. Not until someone”—he glared at Shiv—“launched me into the damn mana bomb. And then, I got a look under its proverbial hood.”

“Oh, you’re fine,” Shiv muttered, looking Adam up and down. “That armor’s the stuff of legends. And nepotism. It’ll keep you standing.”

“You’re a godsdamned bastard, Shiv.”

Harkness blinked several times, her mouth opening and closing as if she couldn’t process what was happening right in front of her. “But the bomb—she said it would still work if…”

“The bomb is the bomb,” Adam explained. “I damaged its containment unit earlier, which I thought was enough to ruin its activation—especially since I blew some of the wires connecting it to the surrounding spatial tunnels apart. But the Umbral you kidnapped knew her science well. She had an interior containment cell as well to ensure for spell stability in case the outer casing was damaged. But that wasn’t the important part. This is.”

Shiv looked at the Spatial Frequency Amplifier again. “This thing?”

Adam continued. “Absurd, isn’t it? Without this little device, the bomb wouldn’t work all that well. Sure, it might deal some lasting—incredibly substantial—damage to the entire building, and still kill us all. Except for the Omenborn.” He glared at Shiv. “Not for long, anyway. But it won’t be able to knock out the teleportation network completely. Not with how well-shielded and warded each of them are individually. Frankly, you would more likely destroy everything but the teleportation anchors. And that’s why the mana bomb has so many spells running inside it—to overload the internal mana fields stabilizing the teleporters.

“But this wouldn’t work without precision. You knew that. Because as a Master, you know what it takes for you to break one of these anchors through raw force. But even that might take some time for you. So. What you needed was an overwhelming and complex layering of countless mana types to strike all the teleporters at the same time. And that’s why there are so many tunnels around us that seem half finished. They’re not really connected to any of the other teleporters. Yet”

“I… you… how?” Harkness looked truly baffled.

Meanwhile, a few brave Umbrals dashed nearby to drag the comatose Trapdoor Weaveresses away. Harkness barely even noticed them, still trying to process the abruptness of what just happened.

Shiv, meanwhile, continued staring at the magical symbol that burned over her head. As he regarded it, the system offered him insight into what it meant.

CURSE: ABSOLUTE EXPOSURE

Why does that mean? Why does she have a curse now?

“Because of my Awareness,” Adam sneered. “The echoes coming from them sound different from the one we arrived from. Like there is a dead end. Now, you might be Master Pathbearer with a great many marital and magical skills, but those aren’t the skills that matter when it comes to making a mana bomb. Or collapsing a teleportation network. To build a stable bomb of this size? Craft a Spatial Frequency Amplifier so small? I can barely conceive of this. She has to be a Master of both Spatial Theory and Practical Dynamancy. Nothing less will suffice. And I don’t think you’re a master in either of those things.”

Both Shiv and Harkness stared. She looked at him for answers, and for a surreal moment he just shrugged. “I don’t get it either. He’s the one that went to an academy.”

Adam continued, ignoring Shiv. “As for why it’s necessary? Because you won’t be able to reach the other teleportation anchors without it. Because Yunni likely mapped these tunnels close enough in spatial relativity to all the teleportation nodes—and when the bomb detonated, the amplifier would draw on the excess waste mana, resonate with the surrounding spatial tunnels and thus expand them to overlap with the anchors, and allowing the blast to strike practically every teleportation chamber at once without ever needing to connect with them. That was her plan, wasn’t it? What was what you and your people have been working on for months—no, years.”

Harkness just stared—baffled. The sigil overhead grew brighter and brighter. Shiv looked at the growing curse again, and a weight hit him.

Foreshadowing: And the Composer opened her eyes, and suddenly there were so many vermin within her web. They weren’t there a moment before, but now the system betrayed them. The system told her where they were. A quest had been failed—a quest even she was unaware of, granted to Aviary, of New Albion. Within Passage, no less.

The Composer hated liars. She despised them. And so, she would make them hear the volume of her displeasure. Threads drifted in from the webs of her Symposium, and she began to play.

All over the city, her people heard the music, and found themselves delighted.

But for the vermin she could now sense… they heard a very different tune—a fatal melody that no mortal could endure…

Foreshadowing > 

A deafening note shook the tunnels. It was the sound of a lyre plucked by divine hands, by wrathful hands, by hateful hands.

The melody swept through Shiv and he suddenly felt refreshed. Nourished in mind, spirit, and body. But as Harkness heard the noise, she flinched as blood poured out from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. 

For the first time, Shiv saw genuine fear in the owl’s eyes, saw true pain writ upon her face, and saw the desire to flee resound in her body language.

Shiv chuckled. Shiv laughed. Harkness tried to run, but he drained her momentum. His Reflexes surged as her acceleration slowed. Once more, his Momentum Core was filled to the brim. Another note from the Composer passed through the tunnels. The Master-Tier enemy gurgled and vomited blood out from her mouth—just as Shiv discharged his core and sailed into her. In her weakened state, she failed to evade—and her protective bubble didn’t arrive to stop Shiv from grabbing her by the neck and slamming her down against the ground. He increased his mass as he dragged her all the way across the cavern, spearing her hard against the mana bomb.

Grappling Proficiency > 40

The bulbous construct cracked and deformed as Shiv burned away the final bits of his kinetic charge. A prismatic flood of light and chaotic mana cleaved out from rents and gaps. It was beginning to tremble, beginning to destabilize. Harkness clenched her teeth as she formed her bubble, pushing back against him. She was far weaker than before, but even so, Shiv felt like he was wrestling with a giant.

“Adam! Run!” Shiv roared. He needed them gone—and he wasn’t going to miss out on an opportunity to end Harkness if he could. “Get everyone out! Seal the teleportation anchor and keep moving.” He saw that most of the Umbrals and Weaveresses had retreated. Good. He just needed Adam to get out as well.

“No need,” the Young Lord said with a snarl. “There’s a quicker way out.” He nocked an arrow at the frequency amplifier. This arrow wasn’t one of glowing blue, however. Its tip left spatial distortions in the air, and Shiv remembered getting hit by this on Blackedge. But what was Adam doing?

A teleportation arrow? What is he—

“‘Two pockets of space can’t exist at the same time,’” The Young Lord said, sounding like he was quoting something, as he loosed the arrow. It struck the amplifier, and a pocket of what seemed like nothing expanded. As it did, every spider web it touched untangled and came apart. A pressure pulled at Shiv like a riptide, drawing him out to sea. He saw Harkness’s eyes widen as she felt the pull too. Space around them was collapsing. Shiv tried to slam the owl against the bomb one more time, but her bubble flung him off.

He felt her Psychomancy collapse in on him again—but her focus broke and so did his as they were sudden dragged away as what felt like the very borders of existence crashed into their sides.

The world twisted and tumbled in a whirlwind of snapping webs and displaced space. Shiv’s senses went haywire, and he couldn’t make out where he was or what was around him. Everything felt distant and close at the same time. Faintly, he felt something wrap around his exposed torso and cling to him. It didn’t feel like any fabric he knew. As he tried to peel it off, his hands slipped through as if he was trying to grip smoke.

Then, suddenly, a chasm of light appeared ahead of him while a deafening blast sounded from behind.

Shiv found himself squeezed out from the tight crevice from which he entered the tunnels, and the pressure promptly vanished after that. As he staggered back into the teleportation chamber, he saw Adam and a few Umbrals in the room with him. But he didn’t see Harkness anywhere. “Where’s—”

Awareness > 6

He got his answer as he heard a breath from behind. Shiv turned—but not nearly fast enough. The owl drove her blade into his back, but Shiv blinked with surprise as he felt no hint of pain. For a moment, both he and Harkness stared at each other, confused. Then a flash of surging devastation came from behind her as the mana bomb detonated completely deep in the collapsing spatial tunnels.

As a flash of light washed over both Shiv and everyone else in the room, he noticed that the thing wrapped around his was of no material composition at all. Rather, it seemed like a patch of shadowy darkness stuck to a weaver’s web. What baffled him further was how Harkness’s rapier vanished into his cloak without striking his body.

Almost like there’s a… extra pocket of space.

Quest Reward Received

Equipment Obtained > [Cloak of Midnight’s Kindred]

Tier: Adept

Condition: Stable

Composition: Spatial Magic

Enchantments > Minor Dimensional Pocket; Portomancy 1; Shadowsense 30

Equip Item to Back?

Shaking off his surprise, Shiv equipped his first quest reward with a thought. Immediately, he got a notion of how much space there was within his new cape, and the darkness of the tunnel beyond didn’t seem so impenetrable anymore.

Harkness thrust her blade back and forth as she continued trying to kill him. All the blood pouring out from her eyes and ears must’ve left her senses impaired. Shiv stole this opportunity and drained her momentum again. He shouted for the others to flee as he struggled to hold her in place—long enough for the mana bomb to consume them both. He could see a coruscating stream of annihilation coming for him, and he could feel just how much mana there was with his paltry Pyromancy field.

There likely wouldn’t be anything of him when the blast hit. He hoped this wouldn’t destroy his new cape before he got a chance to use it, but he would sacrifice a quest reward and himself if it meant killing an owl.

Another note from the Composer passed through the halls of Passage. Harkness let out a ragged cry and spewed blood all over Shiv’s bare chest. He stole the momentum from that too as she collapsed against him. To his surprise, her rapier fell out from her weakened hands, and he felt it drop into his cape, adding to its previously absent weight. 

Despite everything, she laughed and patted him affectionately on the cheek. “Like I said… you’re a mastiff.”

Then, near death though she was, Harkness opened her eyes again and Shiv felt his mind go blank as she speared a single, overwhelming command into his mind.

“Release me!”

But using his own feeble Psychomancy, Shiv defied her for as long as he could. “No… I won’t!”

Psychomancy > 4

He would have lasted a half second—but Harkness decided to slam a Master-Tier kick into between his legs. There was a lot of pain for an instant, and then there was nothing at all. By the time Shiv returned to his senses, he found himself drying heaving on the floor and…

He looked up to behold an awesome sight.

Standing at the entrance of the spatial crevice was Lady Harkness of the New Albion. Blood practically dripped from every pore in her body. Her limbs were shaking. A normal person would be dead seven times over. But she was a Master Pathbearer and as she suffered the fatal melody of a vengeful goddess, she pit her protective barrier against the full wrath of an oncoming mana bomb once meant to devastate Passage.

Destructive spells of countless mana types crashed into her. Harkness let out a howl of incredible effort as she slid back on her feet, as she pressed against the oncoming tide with both hands. Fire singed her flesh. Lightning lashed her body. Frost clung to her very form. The owl slipped back, collapsing to one knee. For a moment, Shiv thought she was finished, that the blast was going to consume them both. But then she gave a final snarl of exertion and twisted.

Shiv heard several of her bones snap from the exertion, but her near-legendary feat bore fruit. She didn’t hold the mana explosion off, but she did divert it at enough of an angle that it started splashing against the wards of the teleportation chamber. The compromised wards hijacked in part by the hidden portal leading to the owl’s hideout.

A stream of concentrated destruction. That was the only way Shiv could describe it. It boiled a hole through the teleportation chamber, through several more walls, and sliced further still until Shiv thought he could hear the city outside. After what felt like a full minute of bending the blast, the last light of mana faded as Harkness collapsed to her palms and knees.

However, a final glowing shape came from the darkness, and it bounced a few times before landing next to Shiv. He blinked at it for a second and judged it to be a molten helmet of some kind. Then, as the heat faded and he saw that it was a melted mix of raven and crow, twisted to be something altogether ambiguous.

Quest Reward Received

Equipment Obtained > [Mask of False Paths]

Before he could reach out to take the mask, he heard Harkness cough. She was still alive, and to his horror, she was slowing rising to her feet. For a few heartbeats, Shiv just stared at her in utter disbelief. He detested this woman. She killed him—intended to enslave him, slew his comrades, and forced an innocent woman into betraying her own people. But her power just now, what she did while wounded, was a feat of epic proportions.

Could Roland Arrow even stop that blast?

“Is… is this what it truly means to be a master?” Shiv asked. He had to know.

Harkness just shook her head as she laughed. “No. And… I am going to really, really think fondly of you, boy. Because if you didn’t force me to do that...” A gust of unseen power flowed out from her. Another note from the Composer arrived, but the sound turned distorted and bent around Harkness’s body this time, leaving her utterly unharmed. “Because if you didn’t force me to desperation, I would have remained bottlenecked at Master. And one cannot flee from death if they wish to be a Legend.”

Shiv understood. And coldness spread through him. But he clenched his teeth and stood, stowing his new mask into his cloak. “Well. Where were we?”

She looked at him. And she chuckled. “You’re precious. But I am leaving before the spider goddess starts playing a heavier tune.”

He advanced on her. “The hells you—”

Harkness flicked a hand at him and snapped all his limbs before pinning him in place. Shiv shouted with agony as what felt like a mountain fell on him. “No more easy deaths for you, I fear,” she gasped as she rose into the air, hovering through the gap she made. She turned her head slightly and looked at Shiv a final time. “Rest assured, though, I will be seeing you again, Disciple of Valor Thann. In fact, I’m already looking forward to it.”

Then, she shot forward and accelerated out into falling dust and the distant light.

Shiv groaned and cursed as he rolled onto his side, his limbs flopping uselessly. “Godsdamned… This is bullshit.” He sounded like Adam—he probably even felt like Adam. What she did just now was… It was the thing that every Pathbearer aspired to achieve someday. Shiv hoped that the Composer’s song would cut Harkness down—but something told him hoped for too much.

I’m not the only one capable of growing. That was a real monster. He let out a breath. Well, threats of mental destruction and enslavement aside… Yeah, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again too, Lady Harkness.

“Shiv? Shiv? Are you there?” A voice sounded from the corner of the room. A stone dagger lay discarded, the skeletal armor that once held it now nothing but ash.

“Valor?” Shiv said. “Did you… did you hear that? What she said?”

“Yes… That was… These things happen. In fact, I obtained my first Legendary Skill Evolution in similar circumstances.”

“So, I’ll probably be seeing her again, won’t I?”

“Probably.”

“Great. Wonderful enemy to have.” Shiv laughed. “But I am going to kill her next time. Legendary or not.”

A moment of silence followed. “And I will help you. I will teach you all that I know, if you wish to learn. I just need the Composer to loosen this cage first… And then we will have a proper discussion. About many things.”

“Yeah? Okay. I think I’d like that.”

The doors to the teleportation anchor snapped open and in came Weaveresses, Umbrals, and more members of the order. Behind them was Adam and—he was leaning Uva lean against him. Her face was a mask of dried blood, exhaustion, and relief as she saw him.

“Broken Moon,” Adam gasped as he looked at Shiv. “I… is she dead?”

Shiv shook his head and looked toward the opening. “She sends us her best, though.”

The Young Lord stared through the gap as his face paled. Uva stumbled away from him and battled every step before she slumped down next to Shiv. Her face was crusted in red and her eyes were bloodshot. He probably didn’t look much better. Still, she managed a look of… was that hunger?

“I like the cape,” she managed, sounding absolutely spent.

“I like the fact that you’re still alive?” Shiv replied. “Thanks for… protecting my mind even when… It seems you could do it too.”

“I could,” she said. She placed her now bare hand against his cheek, and he leaned into it. “And I did.”

He stared at her. Was her Psychomancy field larger than he remembered? He tried saying something to her with his Psychomancy. “Hello.”

Uva blinked. “You’re…”

“Yeah. Something good came out of getting my mind shredded over and over,” he said. “I think I’m going to need some more training from you.”

Her surprise faded, replaced by an expression he couldn’t quite read. But there was a surge of heat in her mind. A heat that practically burned. “Then, we should speak. I also want to know how you… don’t stay dead. But only after you make me dinner. And dessert.”

“A promise is a promise,” Shiv replied.

“And thank me for actually resolving that mess,” Adam sneered down at Shiv. “Shoot the bomb. Kills us all and take her with it. No, you bloody, simple madman. I will not join you in your urge to complete murder-suicide with the enemy. But I will complete the quest—even if it’s not mine.” The Young Lord sighed. “I’m assuming that mess of black you’re wearing is one of the rewards?”

“Just wrapped around me as the tunnel collapsed,” Shiv said. “I was wearing it by the time I got out. It’s made of space.”

Adam nodded. “The system forges and delivers its rewards in the oddest of ways. Still doesn’t change the fact that I got felling nothing from this.”

Shiv paused. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“You wouldn’t?” Adam snorted. “What? Are you planning on giving me an item?”

“Yeah. How about a Master-Tier rapier?”

Adam stared. “I don’t get the joke.”

“It’s not a joke. Harkness dropped her sword in my cloak when she tried to stab me. I also have a mask there. We can take a look later. You can pick.”

“Both?”

“One,” Shiv said.

“We’ll discuss the details later,” Adam said, waving him off. The Young Lord looked happier already. “I’m sure the Composer wouldn’t be against showing us her appreciation, too.”

“Probably not,” Shiv said. “Hey. Adam.”

“Hm?”

“I’m really glad you went to Burning Chicken Academy. I still have no idea what you did, but it worked.”

“Yes. Well. You can thank me by pressing the spider goddess so we can get back to Blackedge.” The Young Lord’s expression hardened. “We saved an Abyssal city. Now let’s see us do our own town.”

Shiv nodded. “Sure. Whatever. Right now, I just want my arms to work again. I really need to cook some of this stress off.”