23 Tunnel

Though a teleportation hub is essential to any major city’s infrastructure, nowhere is it closer to being a city’s lifeblood. It is theorized that the Composer likely started creating the city using Passage as a major fulcrum, bound to Integrated Earth. After all, even if this is the personal realm of a goddess and her protected peoples, it cannot be disconnected from baseline reality per the laws of spatial relativity. It needs to remain tethered by some means or some strands of access.

This, more than the constant stream of logistics and the traffic of her people, is why Passage is so essential. If the right thread gets cut, potentially everything that the Composer has built might be unveiled—cast back into the prime dimension of Integrated Earth, or cast back into the Abyss, where she, as the newest and least developed of the Five Faiths, finds herself vulnerable to attack from all sides. And so, Weave’s great transportation hub also stands as an open vein.

Some say, however, that Passage is a false target—that the Composer has her own thread leading back into reality, to a place on the surface where none of the other Abyssal Nations can reach her. Others claim that the severing of Passage is fated, only a matter of time, and that Weave, as a great city and a faction of the Five Faiths, is doomed to an early demise.

Yet this begs the question: if it were so easy to bring down an empire or to lay low the youngest goddess in existence, then why hasn’t it happened? With so many enemies, with so many schemes, plots, and elder empires seeking her demise—why hasn’t the Composer fallen? Why does her song still play on? Sometimes, a long-unanswered question becomes an answer in itself…

-City of the Hidden Song

23

Tunnel

“Finally,” Adam said, as he equipped the final piece of his Legendary armor. His body was now clad in dense plates of polished blue. It was the color of a clear sky captured in the matter of a crystal, and when the Young Lord moved, the slats crenelating his armor made his body appear as if it were a gentle ripple on a lake’s surface. The pointed heads of twin hawks jutted out from his shoulder, and his open-faced helm only further emphasized the aesthetic. “Properly protected. And I no longer look like a clown.”

Uva wrinkled her nose at him, but Shiv noticed how she eyed the armor with something bordering on curiosity—or envy.

“Now,” Adam continued, tilting his head to look into the darkness. “I suppose the next pressing question is who takes point.”

“Me, probably,” Shiv grunted. Several Weaveresses and Umbrals looked at him in surprise. He didn’t get why. “I’m the only one that gets to come back if things go wrong.”

“Can you see in the dark?” Adam asked.

“No. Can you?”

The Young Lord grinned. “My senses are beyond mere sight.”

“Another skill.”

“Adept-Tier,” Adam boasted.

Shiv nodded slowly, pretending to be impressed. “And how’s your Toughness. Or Physicality? What evolutions do you have for those two?”

The Young Lord knocked his armored knuckles against his chestpiece. “My durability is far beyond yours right now—” His expression flattened into one of reluctance. “Even if you do have some… style.”

“I can practically hear the bile rising in your throat,” Shiv said, smirking. “But the armor isn’t going to save someone from overpowering and twisting your limbs out of place, is it?”

Adam scowled at that reminder. “Oh, and you have the Physicality to fight someone off?”

“Yeah,” Shiv said. “I’m an Adept there too as well. I got Might of Mass. It helped quite a bit when I was pummeling that elemental golem into submission. But hey, I’m sure the ten crows you killed were more impressive.”

“Might of—” the Young Lord did a double take.  “What? How? That skill should only be something that those of the Wrestler or Laborer Paths get after years and years of constant—-”  He narrowed his eyes at Shiv’s partially exposed torso, and his lips twisted into a sneer. “Is… is that why you look… you look…”

“Bigger?”

“Fatter,” Adam hissed.

“What are they doing?” the young Umbral asked, nudging Uva.

“Picking an unfortunate time to be men,” she said, narrowing her eyes in disappointment.

Shiv grinned as he continued. “Yeah. You can say I’m a bit harder to move now. Like an oak. You… really should eat more, Adam. Don’t worry, though, Young Lord. I’ll make sure you get all the protein you need. Soon, and with enough nutrition, you’ll be able to look like a… smaller version of me.”

“As if I want that Skill Evolution,” Adam shrugged, though Shiv caught the Young Lord eyeing his improved physique. “My strength will work in tandem with my speed. Fluidity and flexibility is where true power lies. I will achieve Kinetic Overdrive for my Skill Evolution—jump that skill straight to Master-Tier. That’s a truly worthy advancement in my eyes.”

“So. What you’re saying is that you accept the fact that you’re going to be smaller and weaker than me, and that you surrender to fate? Great. Good talk. I’m going in the front.” Shiv walked right past Adam as the Young Lord’s mouth dropped in offense.

“How developed are your Reflexes?” Adam snapped from behind. He practically had his head pressed against Shiv’s neck. “And do you have a Portomancy Skill? Because we are dealing with spatial magic here. You’ll get lost, blind and ignorant as you are.”

A Weaveress cleared her throat. “Honored guests, I think that we, warriors of the order—”

“No,” Adam and Shiv said at the same time.

“They boiled me alive,” Shiv growled. His bone drill trembled in the air and stabbed at the darkness. “I’m going in first. I’m going to rip the bastards apart.”

“And they tried to ambush me—tried to kill me,” Adam sneered. “This will not go unpunished. Nor will their bending a non-combatant to their whims by kidnapping her child!” The Young Lord’s outrage was genuine with the last part. Shiv was almost surprised.

Well, I can’t say he’s not his father’s son…

The Weaveress fell quiet and looked at her comrades. The Umbrals blinked. The youngest member looked back and forth between Adam and Shiv with a glow of excitement to her eyes. She was enjoying their posturing.

“You know what, Adam? How about this: I’ll walk in ahead of you like a shield. You can be right behind me and tell me where the threats are coming from and which way to go? This way, you can fire your arrows from behind the safety of my immensely muscular body, and I can fight off anyone who seeks to overpower your nubile body.”

Adam’s mouth opened and closed several times as he processed how outraged he should be.

“Shiv. In countless nations I have been, what you just said to the Young Lord constitutes grounds for a duel,” Valor chuckled.

Finally, Adam shut his jaw and hissed: “Fine. But don’t expect me to go rushing into the darkness to save you if someone drags you off. I might not have the strength to lift someone of your weight.”

“Mass,” Shiv replied.

“Call it what you want,” Adam finished. “Just start walking you… meatshield.”

The Deathless snorted as he shook his head at Adam. The Young Lord kept glaring, but allowed Shiv to take the first steps into the crevice. Before he pushed into the spatial passage, he shot a look at Uva, and she nodded at him.

“I will make sure our minds are defended,” she said. There was a slight coldness to her thoughts. He wasn’t sure if it was because they were preparing for combat, or if she felt offended by his secrets. Whatever the case, he trusted that not to be an issue right now. They were martial Pathbearers right now, and there was a crisis to stop.

“Man, this place is dark as shit,” Shiv muttered. He kept his bone drill moving ahead of him—swinging it from side to side so he could keep track of the walls. That proved to be unnecessary, as he sensed some grains of organic material in the webs. I’m really lucky that damn high vampire killed me so many times. Don’t know where I would be without Biomancy. Maybe I would have some other magical skill…

As he continued shuffling through the darkness, he Uva touch his mind again. Instead of sending him a message this time, he felt a weight settle into his thoughts. “Tethered,” was all she said.

Tethered? Shiv thought.

Behind him, Adam flinched and went still. “What did you just do to my mind, elf?”

Uva didn’t answer, behind, Shiv could see the members of the Arachnae Order filter in behind them, keeping ample distance between in case of a magical attack. They took on a formation with two martials in front of and behind a dedicated mage while the Weaveresses prodded at the webs.

“They’re dense,” one of the Weaveresses said. “They won’t let me through.”

“Tether complete,” Uva cried from the back. “Confirm status!”

“CONFIRMED!” A deafening chorus rushed through Shiv and Adam’s minds at once. Both of the surfacers jolted, and they looked at each other.

“Did you hear that?” Adam whispered. “What did your bloody girlfriend do to us?”

“We are all synchronized,” Uva answered. Suddenly, Shiv received a burst of brief images from her perspective. She was looking at the back of a Weaveress, and the young Umbral and two others were to stand guard at the entrance of the crevice to ensure they wouldn’t be flanked. “All surface thoughts and details will be filtered through me and can be transferred to another member of our force. This way, we will all be aware of each other’s situations—and what’s coming ahead.”

Adam shivered. “Mind mages,” he muttered. “They terrify me. I can’t believe the Composer doesn’t have them running a curse.”

“Honored Guest Adam,” Uva said, her tone like hardening ice, “keep all non-operation related thoughts quiet—and to yourself.”

“Well, how do I felling do that when you’re already deep in my head,” the Young Lord complained. He somehow realized Shiv was grinning at him from behind his skull helmet. “Oh, keep walking, meatshield. And don’t stop until you stick yourself on a blade. Broken Moon, I really need to develop a Magical Resistance soon…”

“Aye, Young Lord Arrow,” Shiv replied. He understood the Magical Resistance part, though. It would be a convenient skill to have. But then, there was the other question of if Magical Resistance would stop him from using his Biomancy on himself. I’ll ask Valor about that later if we get out of this intact.

The synchronization proved to be invaluable as they continued on. Every few steps, Shiv would get a snapshot of what the tunnel looked like from the perspective of someone who could see in the dark. The webs here were corded and dense, practically all bunched over each other in knots. There was also an ambient pressure in the air—that faint lurch of spatial magic pulling at his body.

“Hey, Adam,” Shiv sent. The Young Lord grunted from behind, signaling that he received the thought. “Can someone be torn in half by spatial magic? You said you had the skill earlier, so…”

“Torn in half? How? That doesn’t even make sense.” Adam scoffed.

“I don’t know. I don’t have the skill, nor did I go to a proper academy. That’s why I’m asking you. I can tear myself in half with Biomancy, so I was wondering if someone could maybe shift the tunnels around somehow and flatten us or something.”

“Biomancy is the manipulation of biology and life, yes,” Adam said, his mind taking on a tense and frustrated tone. “What is Portomancy? The manipulation of spaces—and the first step toward the Skill Evolution of Lesser Dimensionality, but that’s—”

“Just the question, thank you. I don’t want a lecture before I head off into battle,” Shiv answered.

Adam sighed. “No. Because space cannot naturally tear you in half. You exist in a space. It’s like a pocket or a patch of occupiable area. When a portal collapses, one gets displaced along with the spatial bubble they’re in. Which means that if this collapses, we’ll likely all get launched out from one crevice or another.’

“Good to know. The spatial bubbles… that’s why I feel a pressure.”

“Yes. That is one of the few things that can kill us here. A High-Tier Jump Mage tactic is to open a portal that leads to the bottom of an ocean or some other disastrous environment. Or to dump you into such a place. But reaching such a place requires an especially developed Portomancy Skill—or more preferably, Dimensionality, because that allows you to create and carry a minor dimension inside yourself. Like one of those aforementioned oceans.”

Shiv blinked, and connected these details to the automaton raven he killed earlier. “So that’s how it managed to summon the elemental golem so easily—it was always there… in a minor dimension.”

At the same time, Adam let out a gasp as he flinched. “You—Broken Moon, you weren’t lying. You did beat an elemental golem to death with your fists! And your own bones!” The Young Lord let out an incredulous laugh as he reactively slapped Shiv on the shoulder. “You’re bloody mad!” Then, he seemed to remember who he was talking to and pulled his hand away. “Well. I would have done it without dying at all.”

“Without your Legendary armor?” Shiv taunted.

“Yes. Without. Because I’m not a plodding, slow flat-foot like you.”

Uva cleared her throat mentally. Both of the surfacers quieted their minds. But only for a second.

“Still,” Adam said out loud, shaking his head. “A bone drill.”

“It’s awesome,” Shiv insisted.

“Yes, damn you, it is. I admit. But still. Do you not feel… disturbed? Bothered by your deaths?”

“No. It makes me better. It shows me my mistakes. It can only be good.”

Adam scoffed. “You’re cracked in the—” The Young Lord froze and held up a hand. “Wait!” Their entire convey went still. Then, Adam did something strange—he closed his eyes and just stood there.

“Adam?” Shiv asked.

“Quiet,” The Young Lord snapped. “Give me—” Then, Adam opened his eyes again and his head snapped between several directions. “Shit! Everyone! Down!” 

And then, as everyone instinctively dropped, Adam Arrow once again became an echo of his father. A cluster of watery limbs branched out from the Young Lord’s back, but rather than all repeatedly loosing shots from the same bow, he formed new bows and fired what felt like four separate streams of azure death. Fluid arrows screamed through the air like comets. This time, with all the levels he gained for his Reflexes, Shiv glimpsed the exact trajectory of each arrow and realized they were all being adjusted mid-flight.

Broken Moon, Shiv blinked. The amount of focus that took must have been colossal. And the speed at which Adam shot was absurd. Shiv couldn’t even follow the Young Lord’s blurring hands.

A full second after his call for everyone to duck, the crows came—bursting out from the dense webs when the Weaveresses of Shiv’s group couldn’t. They arrived with gleaming blades infused with spell and skill—only for all of them to receive a swarm of arrows through their eyes, throat, heart, and joints at the same time. Shiv guessed there were twenty crows in the ambush. None of them managed to do anything but die.

As they slumped and fell, some Umbrals stabbed at them—only to realize their enemies were already slain.

“Condition check!” Uva said, her mind racing. 

A chorus of “optimal” and “uninjured” came from everyone in the group. Shiv meanwhile, found himself gaping at Adam. The Young Lord dismissed his Hydrokinetic limbs and bows before regarding Shiv with a smug grin.

“How the hells did you know that was going to happen?” Shiv asked.

“Oh, I heard them. They were quite loud.” Adam wiggled his eyebrows, taking pride in this moment of victory.

“Loud?” Shiv barely felt anything—he only sensed a few of the crows with his Biomancy when they burst in. “Your Awareness must be ridiculous.”

“Yes, well, not everyone can come back from the dead,” Adam shrugged. He eyed Shiv with a look of exaggerated disdain. “Some of us need to be—”

The webbed walls beside the Young Lord burst open. To his credit, he turned and unleashed an absurd amount of shots into the approaching figure. Unfortunately, most of his arrows exploded against the already mutilated corpse of a Weaveress—a corpse that slammed into and knocked Adam against the opposite wall. Just then, a thick metal arm reached out with a mechanical whine.

It closed around the Young Lord’s neck and started pulling him toward the ambush rupture with reckless ease. And Adam would have been dragged across and through if not for Shiv gripping the assailant by the arm.

“No,” Shiv growled. The enemy stopped dead and tried to pull hard. Shiv clenched his teeth as his Might of Mass grew, allowing him to match strength against strength. For a half-second, they were at a stalemate while Adam gagged. Then, Shiv ended the contest by boosting his strength with a surge of Biomancy. “Get your own Young Asshole!”

Instead of Adam getting yanked into the gap, Shiv ripped the final crow into the tunnel and swung them around. The automaton crow struggled and slashed at him with a nightglass dagger—Shiv blocked with his own blade. Chips of bone flew off Shiv’s dagger as edge met edge, but that was as far as the crow got before the bone drill arrived.

Two meters of diamond tipped bone was called back with a reshaping of Biomancy mana. It punched straight through the automaton’s chest before twisting upward and tearing out the enemy’s insides. The mechanical crow shuddered—and then Shiv seized the crow by a gap in its neck and tore, flexing Might of Mass and Biomancy at the same time.

A horrible noise sounded. Steel, glass, plastic, and more came asunder. Coolant sprayed and sparking wires whipped through the air. The Deathless dropped the two halves of his enemy and turned to pull the stunned Young Lord back onto his feet. 

Reflexes > 49

Knife Proficiency > 27

“So, how did you miss this one?” Shiv asked, pointing at the bifurcated automaton on the ground.

Adam rubbed his neck and swallowed painfully. “I… I… I don’t know. They were… quiet.”

Shiv scowled. “I guess their Stealth must’ve been more ridiculous than your Awareness.” He looked back at the convoy and sighed. “Uva, I think these rats have been living in your walls for a while.”

A cold and terrible dread followed her reply. “I was thinking the same thing. Composer… Have we truly been so blind? Have they truly pierced our Sisterhood so deeply?”

“Psychomancer Uva, we have a problem.” This thought came from one of the mages in their convoy. She was looking down at an unmasked crow—and the dead woman proved to be an Umbral. At first, Shiv assumed the problem was the revelation of Umbral traitors, but the actual issue proved to be even more chilling. “I recognize her… This is Cherished Sister Gehe. She… she died last month protecting some of our Honored Mothers at an outpost, Compact raiders.”

Shiv felt at the dead Umbral using his Biomancy. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her from what he could tell. But he was still mostly a thug with his magic. Mostly brute force and violence. They needed an actual expert.

“I recognize this sister too,” another Umbral in the group cried out. “Composer—she went missing last year!”

“Shiv,” Valor said, breaking his long silence. “Can you explain to me what is happening? The fighting sounds like it has ended, but what is wrong with the bodies?” Shiv conveyed to the dagger what the Umbrals just discovered, and Valor scoffed. “Ah. New Albion up to old tricks again. They’ve always been intent on getting Umbral bodies for use—and not just any Umbral bodies, but those of the sisterhood. Buying corpses or prisoners from other Faiths is very much in line with their methods of operation. You’ve stumbled on quite a sophisticated operation, I suspect.”

“Yeah, well, they’re throwing bodies at us.” Shiv eyed the walls with paranoia. The gaps the crows came through were closed now. But at any moment, even the ground beneath his feet could see Shiv betrayed… “It would have ended worse for us if Adam didn’t sense them coming.”

“All of them but one,” the Young Lord said, still staring at the automaton crow that nearly had him. He looked at Shiv briefly but shook his head instead of saying anything.

“How many did you just kill?” Valor asked.

“Around twenty or so,” Shiv said.

“Twenty-six,” Adam said, giving a more concise count.

“Hm. Proceed with greater caution. But know that you are close to what they’re trying to hide. Aviary is not afraid to spend the lives of its agents, but doesn’t do so wastefully. The fact that they are throwing these forces at you in such numbers represents a desperation. Or a necessity. Near thirty crows dead is practically decades of careful insertion and tradecraft undone.”

“So, what, we just cleared out a good portion of the spies here?” Shiv asked.

“I wouldn’t call it a good portion, but a not insubstantial percentage of their active warriors hidden at Passage. The bigger loss for them is the exposure of this branch. The crows and ravens are likely assassins, and assassins are not to be seen or known. Now they are drastically exposed. But that also means they believe this operation is something worth sacrificing all their people for. I also know they are unready for proper confrontation because they are throwing lives to stall us instead of setting up any traps—I suppose they hadn’t the time.”

“Then let’s see the rest join their comrades,” Uva said, entering the conversation. There was an undercurrent of growing unease that she channeled into anger.

Shiv studied Valor for a moment, wondering why he didn’t reply, before he realized the dagger can’t hear Uva’s thoughts. “Uva, could you tether Valor too?” he called out to the back of the group.

“No,” she said. “His cage is… it is a prison in more ways than one. The fact that he can be heard is a small miracle already, and a testament to his great power.”

The Deathless winced.

“It is fine, Shiv,” Valor said. “I can hear enough. And I have lived through enough battles to guess that you are very close. Proceed with caution but aggression. But I also recommend using subterfuge. If you can confuse the enemy and inflict a paranoia in them at the heart of their defenses, you will have an easier time getting through.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Shiv said. He looked at the rest of the convoy as they stripped the fallen crows of weapons. One of the Weaveress knelt mourning over the mutilated Weaveress the automaton crow used as a shield to ambush Adam. There was a building tension in the group that matched the pressure in the air. As for the Young Lord himself, he kept closer to Shiv. So close, Shiv could hear the other man’s breath.

He might be a warrior, but he’s not used to near-death encounters yet, Shiv realized. Adam was talented—well-trained across a variety of skills and a prodigious Adept-Tier Pathbearer. But he spent most of his time refining himself at an academy and facing enemies in controlled situations. Aside from the attack on Blackedge and the battles he experienced in the Abyss, Shiv didn’t know if the Young Lord had any practical combat experience.

Comparatively, Adam was nothing but practical. One had to be when hunting lesser vampires as a Pathless.

“Just let it hurt,” Shiv said.

“What?” Adam rasped. His throat was bruised. Maybe even swollen. Shiv could feel the inflammation.

“The fear. The tension. Don’t give it any thought. Just let it be a feeling and focus on other things. That’s what always made it weaker for me when I was raiding vampire nests.”

Adam breathed. Shiv guessed he wanted to say something about how easy it was for the Deathless not to fear death, but the example Shiv gave predated his Path. “Why did you do it?”

“Hunt vampires?” Shiv replied, scanning his surroundings. He was receiving mental images from the other members of this force. The Weaveresses kept their hands pressed against the webs now, trying to track vibrations. The tunnel was starting to get wider. A gust of air washed over Shiv, telling him there was probably a channel up ahead.

“Yes. I asked Adept Tran about you after—”

“After you got back.”

“Yeah. He told me that you killed your hundredth. I didn’t want to believe him then. But I knew. Even when I was looking at you. I could smell their blood on your body, and I hated the fact that you weren’t a coward.“

“Don’t get sentimental on me now, Adam,” Shiv chuckled. But the Young Lord didn’t insult him or laugh. Shit. His mental state must be a mess right now. “Hey. Are you good? Can you keep going?”

“Don’t mock me, Lowe! Do not mock me!” Adam almost snarled. Shiv turned to glare at him—partially for using a name Shiv didn’t acknowledge, but also to make sure the Young Lord wasn’t going to turn into a liability when the fighting started up again. The people in the back were beginning to look uneasy, Uva was about to say something, but Shiv responded to her first. “Let me handle this. We don’t need this problem when the fighting starts in a minute.”

“I’m not,” Shiv said bluntly. “No one doubts you but you right now. Whatever you want to say or do with me, we can deal with that after. Right now, I need your shit together. Is it?”

Adam swallowed. Part of him that remained the hurt, traumatized boy from all those years ago during the night of the ritual wanted to continue his building tantrum. Roland Arrow’s heir locked that boy away. “Yeah. It is.”

“Okay,” Shiv said. “I trust you.”

And he continued on. Their trek continued on in active silence for some time. Shiv checked his quest status every few minutes, worried that the failure condition might register. So far, though, it seemed that Yunni hadn’t triggered her bomb yet. Whether that was because of a malfunction or a delay, he didn’t know, but he heeded Valor’s words the most.

“If you rush in and lead the others to their deaths, the outcome will be the same. I have failed quests and come out better for it despite the rewards lost. Do things well before you do them fast. And do everything you can to avoid letting the enemy set the terms of this battle.”

Then, their approach finally came to a halt as Adam called out again. “Wait. Huge—huge clearing ahead. Like the size of a cavern. Five hundred meters of space. Maybe. Close to that. And there are…” He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. “At least fifty people there. Crows. Their footsteps are very light, but their heartbeats are loud. There must be more.”

“Fifty?” Shiv thought. That was… quite a bit more than he was expecting. But his own group wasn’t insubstantial either. They had around thirty Umbrals and four Weaveresses in total. Quite a few full mages in the group as well. “Well, that’s a big nest of rats to clear. Nice job Adam. Any chance your hearing’s good enough to guess their Tiers?”

“Ask me in about a month or so when I become a Master.” The Young Lord noted Shiv’s surprised stare. “My Awareness is, indeed, ridiculous.”

“So, then, how’d you sleep at the academy?”

“What?”

“Since you can hear everyone’s bowel movements so well?”

“Oh, get tainted, you street rat bastard.”

Shiv laughed. To his pleasure, a few of the Umbrals did as well. The Weaveresses were more reserved—and furious. They seemed to take the loss and disfigurement of their kin on another level.

“Okay, Adam,” Shiv said. “What the hells do we do now?”

The Young Lord blinked. “You’re asking me? I thought you were the leader of this damned expedition.”

“I thought I was just the meatshield. I’m just in front because I’m expendable—and to stop anyone from taking advantage of your waifish physique. You’re the one who went to Flaming Chicken Academy.”

“Phoenix,” Adam growled mentally. The Young Lord sighed before looking to the Umbrals behind him. “You all still can get the webbing to part?”

“No,” a Weaveress replied. “Every time we try, it is like a counter-pressure pushes back against us.”

“Ah. The bastards put vacuum lining along this tunnel. We’ll need a proper team of Jump Mages to deal with that. Or a Master. That also probably means we’re being led along a forced path—into a killbox. Not optimal for anyone but Shiv.”

“It’s not optimal for him either,” Uva added with more than a little heat.

“Well, the rest of us don’t get stronger from dying over and over,” the Young Lord said with more than a little envy. “I suspect we will be trading lives if we make a hard push.”

“Shiv. We’ve stopped. I suspect that means you know where they are?” Valor interjected.

“Something like that,” Shiv said. He held the dagger closer to Adam. “The Young Lord here’s trying to figure out how to make get through without making this a bloodbath.”

“I have a recommendation—though it carries its own risks.”

“Yeah? And what’s your idea, dagger?” Adam snorted. “Stab them in the eyes?”

“No. But I wouldn’t be against it if Shiv did that to you right now if you would listen and let me finish you stupid ugly child!” Adam flinched back from Valor’s outburst. “Now. Have you all looted the crows you slew?”

“Some. Why?” Shiv wondered where this was going.

“Because if they have a mask and cloak, you might just be able to confuse the enemy long enough to let you walking into the middle their nest—especially if you had a prisoner in tow; along with an invaluable relic containing one of their ancient foes…”

Shiv had a pretty good idea where this was going.

“Alright,” Adam nodded, his face taking on a look of appreciation. “That’s not bad, dagger. Not bad at all. But… who’s going to be the crow? And who’s going to be the prisoner?” Shiv grinned at Adam. The Young Lord bite back a shiver of unease as the man wearing his own diamond-shelled skeleton as armor beside him went quiet. “I… I can be the crow. I attended a few acting classes back at the academy.”

“It should be one of us,” Uva said from the back. “They have infiltrated our sisterhood. They might not notice so fast.”

“No,” Shiv said. “Too much risk. And I don’t think the subterfuge is going to last long. Just enough for us to get a gauge on their defenses—and try to break whatever formations they have going.”

“We still haven’t decided who’s going to be a crow,” Adam said.

“Yes, we have,” Shiv replied, patting the Young Lord on the arm. “The victim requires more acting chops anyway. The crow just has to be strong and silent. Strong. That means muscles, Young Lord.”

“I have muscles,” Adam said, folding his arms. And he did. He really did. But Shiv felt like being a bit of a bully.

“Not compared to him, you don’t,” one of the Umbral Pyromancers muttered. “It’s like he’s smuggling my grandmother’s washboard under his skin.”

“Sister,” Uva said, tone tense. “Please focus.”

“I am focusing,” the Umbral Pyromancer chuckled. “I am focusing, indeed.”

As Uva glared death at the Pyromancer from the back, Adam continued complaining about how he wasn’t weak at all, flexing his arms at the Weaveresses, trying to get the spiderfolk to compliment him.

Shiv, though, felt the weight of the moment press on him. He might be Deathless, but the others… I really, really don’t want to see any of these people die.

And so he was going to make damn sure that none of them fell. Even if it killed him. Especially if it killed him.