- 10 hours ago
What the Angels Cast Out - Came Back as an Abyssal Lord
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00:01the war between angels and demons shattered my light core three years ago my body never fully
00:07healed i was once the light of the radiant holy order now my wings were broken and my name was
00:12barely remembered on the eve of the celestial trial lyra the junior i had once protected
00:17knelt before the grand inquisitor and the assembled high knights weeping that i had
00:21stolen her archangel elixir before i could speak an enforcement novice produced the empty vial
00:25from my quarters ren whose life i had once saved steal from your own comrades you don't deserve
00:30to call yourself an angel calder beyond i had left from afar stood beside her if you needed elixir to
00:35heal you could have come to me but you should never have touched lyra's things even eldrick who had
00:40trained me since childhood moved to cast me out of the order i looked at the empty vial i couldn't
00:45help but laugh behind me my broken wings stirred steel a visceral flame roared to life around me
00:51my shattered wings darkening in its fire i fell a long time ago that trash elixir of yours
00:58even my hellhounds wouldn't lick it three years ago there was a war between angels and demons the
01:06beast sovereign's killing strike was aimed at calder's chest i stepped in front of it the impact
01:11didn't kill me but shattered my light core my wings went with them white feathers sheared away the
01:16remnants dragging on the ground behind me i spent three months unable to stand up straight the order
01:21called me the light of the radiant holy order grand inquisitor aldrick announced a formal ceremony
01:26of commendation calder held my hand and told me he would never forget what i had done that was three
01:31years ago now it was the morning before the celestial trial and lyra was on her knees in the main
01:36hall
01:36weeping with the kind of precise photogenic grief that takes practice to achieve i don't want to believe
01:41it was her but the evidence an enforcement novice walked in holding a white porcelain vial lyra's
01:47willa leaf crest was carved into the glaze everyone in the hall recognized it immediately the vials was
01:53discovered beneath vesper's pillow this morning residue of the archangel elixir remains inside i was
01:58standing at the far end of the hall in the shadow of one of the stone pillars i looked at
02:02the faces around
02:03me marcus who had been unconscious and bleeding when i carried him out dela who had been so frightened
02:09that day she couldn't speak for a week afterward they were all looking at me the same way
02:16lyra lifted her face if you needed the elixir because of the injury you took for us
02:20you could have just asked i would have given it to you freely the hall murmured in agreement before i
02:27could speak calder stepped forward vesper if your body still hadn't recovered you should have told me
02:32the order would have found resources for you you didn't have to do this i looked at him his posture
02:37the slight angle of his body toward lyra in the valley of ten thousand beasts he had grabbed my
02:42sleeve with both hands please i don't want to die vesper please i have one question grand inquisitor
02:49aldrich looked up from the head of the hall the archangel elixir is divine zeer concentrated energy
02:55my light core was shattered three years ago if i drank that elixir my vessels would rupture from the
03:02inside and i would be dead in under a minute i let that sit so tell me what exactly was
03:09my plan here
03:12to steal medicine that would kill me
03:16the hall went quiet a few of the novices exchanged looks the logic was obvious maybe she didn't want to
03:23use it maybe she just didn't want lyra to have it she's always resented how fast lyra has advanced
03:29she's deflecting the proof is right there in the vial aldrich closed his eyes the celestial trial
03:36begins tomorrow if we fail to uphold the code now the code means nothing vesper since you refuse to
03:44show remorse i will revoke your standing in this order i heard the words i felt nothing he reached
03:50toward me with the formal gesture his wings spread slightly as he raised his arm an unconscious display
03:56of authority the posture of a judge passing sentence then lyra's voice soft as a knife wrapped in cloth
04:03grand inquisitor please wait i watched her perform mercy her wings were half lowered the posture of
04:10humility but the angle was too precise to practice vester sacrificed herself for all of us once
04:16i haven't forgotten that exile feels too final too harsh calder frowned he was genuinely moved riah
04:25she did this to you you're still defending her i can't help it i think what if we use the
04:33judgment
04:33spikes instead 68 of them painful yes but it leaves her alive and it would purge whatever residual elixir
04:40again it she remains in her system that way she can stay in the order and i i can feel
04:44at peace about
04:45all of this the novices nearest to me went pale a few wings tightened against their backs they knew
04:52what the judgment spikes were everyone who had trained in the order for more than a season knew
04:5668 iron spikes each one carved with condemnation runes front to back they didn't damage the physical
05:02body enough to kill it they bored through the soul instead slow continuous without interruption days
05:08into weeks into months of the same grinding pain while the body remained intact and the mind wore
05:12down to nothing the order reserved them for things they considered beyond redemption i tilted my head
05:17and looked at lyra directly for the first time since entering the hall 68 spikes soul shredded
05:24body intact i'd be fully conscious for all of it unable to die unable to heal crawling in front of
05:31you
05:31every morning to beg for a leniency you'd never grant i'm reading that correctly vespa
05:38i just don't want to see you destroyed completely how considerate grand inquisitator i want to carry
05:45out the sentence myself granted and you grand inquisitor do you think this is right the rules are
05:54the rules so that was what 18 years of training meant in the end i was about to say something
05:59then a
05:59voice came from outside the hall she didn't do it i saw everything
06:08he slid on the stone floor and barely caught himself still clutching the broom he dropped to
06:14his knees and pressed his forehead against the floor hard enough that i heard the impact from where i
06:18stood his wings small gray the feathers dull and frayed pressed tight against his back as if trying to make
06:25himself smaller asher 15 years old three years ago he had been scheduled for expulsion no talent
06:32no potential nothing measurable i had been walking past the expulsion board on my way to a training
06:38session and handed him a low-grade restoration potion without breaking stride it bought him a
06:43place in the order as a sweeping boy that was the ceiling for someone with no light for potential
06:49he swept corridors and tended to the outer courtyard and wasn't allowed inside the main hall
06:54get out mortals don't enter this hall asher staggered his arms shook he stayed on his knees
07:02two nights ago i was sweeping the east corridor after the evening bell i saw her come out of the
07:07storage ammect carrying something wrapped in cloth i followed her i watched her go into vesper's room
07:13i watched her push a white porcelain vast under the pillow he's lying she put him up to this is
07:19that
07:19right did she offer you something there is a crack on the bottom of the potion bottle
07:26mira knocked it against the doorframe in the dark you can check right now turn it over
07:33the chief adjudicator picked up the vial he turned it over and held it toward the light the crack was
07:39there one second of silence calder's eyes move across the room reading the shift calculating
07:45arriving at a conclusion he walked toward asher and raised two fingers the energy between them
07:51coiled into a tight point the soul lance technique focused enough to pierce solid stone calden stop
07:59you want a bargain here's the offer kneel in front of lyra three formal bows accept the 68 judgment
08:05spikes without resistance do that and i'll let the boy leave with his body intact i looked at him for
08:10a long moment then i looked at aldrich aldrich did not meet my eyes grand inquisitor a boy told the
08:17truth in this hall is your judgment that he should die for it this attendant demonstrated poor judgment
08:23in entering a formal proceeding uninvited he cannot remain in the order calder released the strike
08:31the soul lance hit him midward the force hit him across the hall he hit the far wall and came
08:37down
08:37badly something fell out of his jacket on impact wild fruit from the upper ridge small and dark slightly
08:43tart he washed them before he brought them he always held them out with both hands these took me all
08:50morning to find the energy in them is natural
08:55you need to eat more now they scattered across the floor around him his blood reached them in
09:01seconds turning them red one by one something in my chest made a sound i didn't have a name for
09:06behind me my broken wings the remnants i had kept folded and hidden for three years spread open for the
09:13first time the air in the hall thickened the temperature dropped then the pressure came not a
09:23technique not a deliberate release but the ambient weight of what i was surfacing for the first time
09:29without the filter i had been maintaining for three years what what is that aldrich stood up from his seat
09:37too slow everyone in the hall remained locked in place by a pressure they couldn't identify or counter
09:43i walked to asher first slowly one step at a time i crouched beside him and picked up one of
09:49the
09:49blood-stained fruit put it in my mouth sour warm with copper
09:57three years ago the beast sovereign said something to me as he was dying he said i was born with
10:02a
10:02demon's heart that the abbess was already inside me the injury just gave it a door i started walking
10:09for three years i watched all of you divide up everything i had built the resources i negotiated
10:14the alliances i maintained i watched lyra move into my chambers i watched called and stop remembering
10:19my name unless he needed something i watched aldrich decide i was a lizability i had decided to let it
10:24go
10:24a debt repaid my years here against the order's investment in me i stopped and looked at asher's body on
10:30the floor
10:38she's stalling she's been empty for three years he tried to move toward me he couldn't neither could
10:45anyone else i held out my palm hellfire bloomed in it black at the core violet at the edges burning
10:52cold 68 judgment spikes came at me from every direction all at once they dissolved before they reached me
11:00i became an abysmian lord a long time ago that trash elixir you all treat like a treasure
11:06even the hellhounds in my abyss wouldn't give it a single look my old robe caught in the hellfire
11:12and remade itself my hair came loose my eyes finished changing violet deep and cold behind me
11:19my broken wings regrew from the ashes i stepped onto the dais and sat down in aldrich's seat
11:26i lost my light core what i rebuilt in its place doesn't have a name in your scriptures
11:32i raised one finger the force calder had used on asher reversed itself multiplied and drove into both
11:39his legs he screamed and folded since there isn't a clean soul in this room you all burn
11:48the first one to break was the chief adjudicator his ceremonial rod was in two pieces on the floor
11:54he was on his hands and knees this was lyra's doing she came to me six weeks ago and said
11:59she
12:00needed leverage over you i raised concerns she had documentation of certain financial irregularities
12:05in my administration i had no choice i was deceived your excellency thoroughly deceived she's been
12:12saying for months that vesper's reputation was inflated that the sacrifice in the valley was
12:21exaggerated for political capital ren who had sneered at me not 20 minutes ago pointed at calder with both
12:27hands he knew he helped plan it he told mira which path to take so the night watch wouldn't see
12:35her
12:35calder's face did something complicated on the floor both legs broken one hand against the stone
12:41for balance he looked at lyra it was her idea don't you dare she ate the elixir herself three weeks
12:45ago
12:46it didn't work she couldn't break through she needed a reason for it to be missing that didn't
12:50involve admitting she had failed she said the only person whose ruin would be believable was
12:54someone everyone had already started to forget the hall had fully reorganized thirty people who
13:01had spent the morning performing certainty about my guilt were now performing equal certainty about
13:06lyra's lyra looked at me the tears were gone what was underneath them was older and harder you're
13:10going to let them do this i'm not doing anything this is all you calder lurched toward her he couldn't
13:16so he moved on his arms lower body dragging his hands found her throat before anyone could react
13:22you told me the vesper i remember it was gone i built you into something from nothing and you used
13:30it to destroy the only person i lay her nails across his face you embezzled from this order for two
13:38years to impress me don't perform nobility now she broke the grip and drove a palm strike into his chest
13:45calder and lyra on the floor of the hall center tearing at each other with everything they had left
13:49i watched from the high seat aldrich hadn't moved he was in his formal chair both hands flat on the
13:55armrests eyes closed he had reinforced his personal barrier the moment the hellfire appeared and hadn't
14:00released it since a perfect sphere of holy energy around himself he hadn't tried to help calder he
14:05hadn't tried to stop he hadn't said a word to him he was waiting to see who survived calder drove
14:11a
14:11sword fragment into lyra's stomach she pulled it out and used it on him
14:18enough one word calder's hand was still moving when the sound stopped he finished the motion in
14:23silence then he went still too like a puppet whose strings had just gone slack i looked at aldrich he
14:28had not moved to save a single person in this room i thought it would take some effort to dismantle
14:35a
14:35place like this i looked down at the bloodstained fruit still in my hand apparently not i walked to
14:41asher he was cold but not entirely gone there was a thin thread of something still moving in him
14:46not holy power he had never had that something else come with me asher i pressed two fingers to
14:53the center of his forehead and opened a channel his chest rose once slowly then again the bruised
14:59color in his face withdrew his lips lost the gray his skin shifted towards something luminous like
15:04light seen through deep water then his body started to change abyssal energy remakes what it
15:09enters especially in someone with no prior light core his spine lengthened his shoulders broadened
15:14from his back two wings pushed through
15:18the broom was still in his hand when his eyes opened violet a shade lighter than mine he took in
15:23the wreckage of the hall then he looked at me he let the broom fall he moved to one knee
15:30i serve you my lord i held out my hand he took it and stood you are the first commander
15:36of the abysmal
15:38dominion he straightened to his full height several inches taller than calder had been relieving i had
15:44already sent the messages before today three days ago the messages were simple the radiant holy order
15:49is fracturing from within i sent copies to the order of ten blades the serpent veil and the gale academy
15:54as as
15:57catching the last light of the hall before we passed into open sky i could already see the first response
16:03on the horizon dust rising on the eastern road more than a scouting party would raise the order of ten
16:08blades moved fast i had anticipated that
16:21below me the main hall was a quiet ruin the novices would spend the next hours trying to organize a
16:26response then the outer words would signal the approaching forces then the debate about whether
16:31to fight or negotiate would begin i had also left one specific piece of information out of all three
16:36messages i had not mentioned the nine dragon cauldron in the archive basement i wanted to see which
16:41faction found it first and what the others did when they found out asher fell into step behind me
16:46not as a trailing follower but the way a second in command moves we left the light behind and went
16:51into
16:51the dark three years past the order of ten blades claimed the mineral veins within the first month
16:57the brood of the serpent took the herb garden two months after that the gale academy moved on the
17:02archive district and stripped it down to the foundations calder lost the use of both legs
17:06permanently one eye gone then the other lyra survived the hall technically but she had tried to
17:11do what i had done convert her power by force into abyssal energy her soul was too corroded for it
17:16the result was something that barely qualified as a person
17:22meanwhile the abyssal dominion grew i had shaped the palace myself on the first night glacial ice
17:27from the deep sea fused with thousand-year thunder oak the whole mountain range locked behind wards
17:32that consumed any uninvited energy on contact i sat on the throne with my legs over one armrest
17:37watching a small flame dance from finger to finger my six black wings hung loose behind the throne
17:43relaxed at home three years had changed everything about what i was three years had changed almost
17:48nothing about what i felt my lord something moved the outer wards not the usual attempts this is
17:56something else calder he's been kneeling at the mountain gates for three days he has someone on his back
18:04i raised an eyebrow and lyra he didn't bring his favorite person
18:12she's here too you may not want to look at her directly calder came in the way things come in
18:17when they have already lost everything they were protecting both legs destroyed three years ago never
18:22properly healed he moved on his hands the lower half dragging with a sound that was quiet and awful
18:27his face was layered with burned stars grand inquisitor of the radiant holy order who had
18:34sat at the top of the highest seat in the past judgment on everyone below him he was lashed to
18:39calder's back now with a strip of cloth the order is almost gone the ten blades broke through the last
18:45defensive war four days ago they're processing the remaining novices the women the juniors they're
18:51being used as they were your people once were they you trained with them you knew their names i knew
18:59their names that's not the same thing i know why i'm here is too late i know there's nothing i
19:05can
19:05offer but every night for three years i close my eyes and i'm back in the valley i see you
19:09step in
19:10front of the beast sovereign's killing blow hear your light core shatter i tell myself if i had died there
19:14instead none of this would have happened he pressed his forehead to the floor i told myself i saw you
19:18and lyra i convinced myself i was protecting the order's future i know what i deserve i'm not
19:25arguing for mercy then what do you want i just wanted you to know i remembered i was the one
19:31who
19:31sent the intel to the ten blades he went very still and the brute of the serpent and the gale
19:39academy
19:40three days before the proceeding in the hall i sent each of them a detailed map of the order's
19:45vulnerabilities i told them the timing i told them where the reserves were kept everything that has
19:51happened to the order over the past three years i planned it not as a reaction to what happened in
19:56the hall i had already set it in motion before you ever raised a finger against asher you knew what
20:01lyra was planning i suspected a week before the proceeding i found traces of unauthorized entry in my room
20:11i recognized mira's power signature i knew what the vice would look like when they produced it
20:20i was going to leave anyway three months earlier i had already decided but leaving quietly would have
20:27been wasteful calder said nothing for a long moment take aldrich and go whatever's left of the order is not
20:34my problem the sword tassel i made for your 15th birthday you were wearing it when you came in you
20:42can keep it they brought lyra in half her face had rotted through the left cheekbone was exposed white
20:48clean against the blackened tissue dark corruption veins ran up her neck and across her scalp where the
20:53hair had died and fallen out her right eye still tracked the left was clouded and fixed
21:00she didn't walk in she pulled herself across the floor on her hands her wings were gone not folded
21:06not broken gone just two ruined stumps on her back where they had been torn out probably by her own
21:11hands she stopped in the middle of the floor and looked at me i did everything i killed mira when
21:17she
21:17stopped being useful i drained half of aldrich's power while he sleep i broke every limit the order had
21:24placed on me i converted i rebuilt i did everything you did no i followed the same path you followed
21:33the
21:34shape of what i did you didn't do what i did she went quiet i fell into the abyss because
21:40i had to survive
21:42i rebuilt myself in it because i wanted to exist on my own terms every decision i made in the
21:51dark
21:51i made it for myself i crouched in front of her why did you convert to become stronger than me
21:59yes
21:59still for me you've spent your whole life measuring yourself against me every choice you've made has been
22:05a response to something i am or something i have you never had a self to rebuild you had a
22:10grudge
22:11and the abbess doesn't run on grudges she stared at me from the good eye a long time then what
22:17do i do
22:21i don't know that's your first genuine questions in 20 years the answer is yours to find i stood up
22:30i'm sending you to the thornwood what's there others like you things that tried to take abyssian energy
22:39without building a self first some of them have been there for years some have dissolved some have
22:47found something if you're going to become anything worth becoming it'll start there not here not in
22:57front of me and if i don't survive it then you don't i turn to the guards
23:05drop her at the edge of the thornwood don't escort her further
23:11vespel i hated you from the day i arrived at the order you were everything they said i was supposed
23:17to be i know that's probably the most honest thing you've ever said to me the guards took her out
23:25the
23:25sound of her movement faded down the corridor and was gone i stood in the hall for a moment then
23:30i went
23:30back to the throne aldrich moved calder had gotten almost to the door making the slow effortful progress
23:36across the stone floor aldrich still lashed to his back aldrich burned the last reserve he had left
23:41he didn't aim at me he brought his hands together and sent everything at close range calder dropped
23:48without a sound he had no spine coming here to beg i trained you for 18 years 18 years of
24:02resources
24:05instruction protection you were supposed to be the order's legacy and you burned it to the ground
24:13and watched us get picked apart by wolves he was trying to push himself upright his eyes shook you owe
24:20us
24:22you owe me i looked at him i thought about the evening they brought me back from the valley
24:28the way he had been standing outside the medical quarters the relief on his face you saved them all
24:37i'm proud of you the hand on my shoulder i had believed that completely for three years after my
24:43light core shattered whenever the pain made it difficult to think i had held on to that memory
24:48i wondered now how much of it had been real and how much had been a man maintaining the investment
24:52he'd
24:53made in a novice who was supposed to represent his legacy you trained me because i was useful
24:58i saved the order because i thought it was worth saving we're even asher moved from my left side in
25:05one motion one palm strike clean and final aldrich came apart like smoke and wind the hall settled into
25:12quiet asher returned to my left without comment he looked at calder's body for a moment focused
25:18making sure something was finished then he looked at me orders leave him
25:26i looked at the sword tassel on his jacket dark horde three braided strands with a small carved token
25:31at the end i had made it badly i was 14 my handwork was terrible the token had been carved
25:36crooked he
25:37had worn it anyway he had worn it while he stood beside lyra in the hall he had worn it
25:41during whatever
25:41came after he had worn it crawling across the floor on his hands for three days to get to a
25:46gate he
25:46didn't know if he'd be allowed through i didn't know what to do with that information vesper i don't
25:51know he sat down on the step below the dais below me slightly to the left you cared about this
25:57place
25:58once that doesn't disappear just because what it became didn't deserve it the caring is still yours
26:05even if the place wasn't the report came in the next morning asher read it to me at the throne
26:11the
26:11order of ten blades had claimed the nine dragon cauldron the gale academy had formally protested
26:17and mobilized a response force the brood of the serpent had used the distraction to absorb the last
26:22two unaffiliated settlements on the order's eastern border the three factions were now an
26:27act of conflict over the secondary wards and the remaining training grounds
26:34the order of ten blades holds the strongest position but their supply lines from the northern
26:39territories pass through land the booth of the serpent just annexed if that route closes they'll have
26:45difficulty maintaining the garrison on the main peak they'll know edit they'll negotiate probably
26:55unless the grail academy makes them a better offer joint custody of the primary training grounds
27:01in exchange for guaranteed archive access me the pavilion has been trying to acquire those records for
27:09thirty years if they take that deal the ten blades gives up their dominant position for stability
27:16which makes the brood of the serpent the new threat
27:23yes and the brood of the serpent knows it they'll either preempt or approach the ten blades directly to cut
27:29the grail academy out entirely and the grail academy will have anticipated that and already reached
27:34out to the independent factors i believe so i smiled how long before it fully resolves the conflict
27:43three years minimum possibly five each resolution creates a new imbalance and each new imbalance creates
27:53the next conflict the order spent a hundred years maintaining balance through institutional
27:58authority and controlled resource distribution that's gone they'll spend the next generation figuring
28:03out what replaces it it'll be very educational for them
28:10three years later asher handed me a fruit from the abyssal grow cold smooth with the particular
28:16sweetness that grows in the dark he peeled it himself the same way he always did and set it in
28:21my hand
28:21do you remember the ones you used to bring me the ridge fruit yes i was thinking about them earlier
28:28they were terrible half of them were under ripe because i kept picking them too early
28:34i didn't know how to tell they weren't terrible they were not as good as what i bring you now
28:38no they weren't but they tasted like something effort maybe the specific effort of someone who had no
28:48reason to bother except that they decided to i had every reason to bother you kept me alive i handed
28:54you a potion while walking somewhere else i wasn't thinking about it and then you let me into the hall
28:59when no one else would have and then you walked to me first when you could have walked toward anyone
29:05i know what i owe you i'm not performing loyalty i just know what happened i held it for a
29:10moment i put
29:11the fruit in my mouth cold sweet clean better than anything from the ridge missing something anyway
29:18tomorrow the eastern sea you mentioned that i've already asked the forward unit to clear the coastal
29:24approach the eastern sea pulled back at low tide leaving black rock slick with kelp i sat where the
29:32spray could reach me salt and cold nothing here knew what i was asher came down the slope without asking
29:38he sat not at the respectful distance that commander keeps beside me close enough that his shoulder cut
29:45the wind from mine the hellfire at my fingertips had been to a violent thread out here with no court
29:51to
29:51watch no faction to weigh there was nothing for it to burn you're tired
29:59i don't tire
30:02the fire says otherwise i looked at my own hand he was right when i rested
30:08truly rested the flames dimmed to near nothing i had never let anyone close enough to notice
30:15how long have you known that since the night the order fell
30:24you stood on the wall after he'd been watching me when the war ended not the burning city me i
30:30let
30:31the threat of violet died completely in my palm and watched the dark water instead the wind kept
30:36off my left side where he sat we stayed until the tide turned the sea climbed the rocks one foot
30:41at a
30:42time asher pulled a strip of dried fish from his coat broke it held half toward me without looking i
30:48took
30:48it we ate like two soldiers on a long road not a lord and her death god
30:55first time i saw the ocean i was nine
30:58something all is inelmenats you thade sweeping the temple steps a pilgrim told me it went on
31:05forever it doesn't a small smile the violet of his eyes was darker in the gray light almost
31:12human i know that now
31:16we ride at dawn the dominion won't hold itself
31:21it holds because you let it think it might fall true i said nothing he'd understood my methods
31:28before i'd explained them he always had when the cold finally found me i didn't summon the hellfire
31:34to fight it i let myself feel it sitting there beside him and for one tide's length i was simply
31:40a thing that could be cold the dominion's war room smelled of frost and wax my scout knelt head down
31:46a sealed report in his offered hands speak the order of ten blades they've stopped mapping your
31:53movements my lord they map his i broke the seal maps routes times all of them traced asher
32:02his patrol paths the gate he favored the hour he trained along in the lower yard they've identified a
32:08weakness they believe so they name him the lever that moves you asher stood at the wall
32:15arms folded reading the map over my shoulder they're not wrong about the watching they're wrong
32:22about the lever are they he didn't answer that smart of him
32:30i set the maps flat and pressed one finger to the inked line of his morning route the ten blades
32:35had
32:35decided that to wound the abyssal lord you cut the one thing she would not let die it was a
32:40clean
32:40strategy i would have used it change nothing walk your routes train in the lower yard at the same
32:46hour bait you object no i just like it noted that i noticed noted he went out before the maps
32:55could
32:55cool i learned the rest from the bodies a ten blade scouting unit six strong had set their ambush at
33:01the pine gorge where his route narrowed they knew his hour they didn't know him the snow told the story
33:07when i rode out at dusk six dark shapes one of them still steaming footprints his light never still
33:15theirs heavy scattering a blade snapped clean in two against a rock i found asher sitting on a fallen
33:22trunk wiping his sword on a dead man's cloak his left sleeve was dark and wet six they came in
33:29a wedge
33:29wedges have a soft point you're bleeding one of them was fast i crossed the snow took his arm without
33:37asking the way he'd sat beside me without asking the cut ran deep along the forearm you should have
33:43called the hellfire from the gate stones i'd have come then they'd know it works better they think
33:49they almost had me he looked up snow in his black hair blood to his elbow and that dry calm
33:58that never
33:59broke it's bait that bites back isn't that the plan i pressed violet fire to the wound until it closed
34:06he didn't flinch he never did for me back in the war room i drew the strategy on the slate
34:13strike the
34:14ten blades eastern supply line while they licked their wounds cripple them before they regroup no i looked
34:20up no one in the dominion said that word to me he said it the way another man might say
34:25good morning
34:25explain hit the supply line and you prove the scouts mattered they'll send a hundred next time
34:31not six let the gorge stand as an accident a bad ambush six fools who overreached keep them guessing
34:40whether i'm a weakness or a wall i had been lord of the abyss for longer than his bloodline had
34:45names
34:45i opened my mouth to end it and i didn't he was right i should have been angry we hold
34:52the eastern line
34:55we do nothing
34:59doing nothing is the hardest order to give
35:03i know you presume to know my mind no i know how much you hate to wait instead i erased
35:10the
35:10slate and drew his plan in place of mine
35:16the board shifted while i waited the brood of the serpent and the gale academy had hated each other for
35:21two centuries blood feuds poisoned wells a war that had outlived everyone who'd started it
35:27now their banners flew from the same wall my informant in the veil brought the news pale and
35:32shaking a coalition both factions joined against the order of ten blades who had grown too fat too
35:38fast on the radiant order's corpse i had arranged for the ten blades to grow fat i had not arranged
35:44for
35:45my two old enemies to remember they were stronger together who booted it a woman she walked into the
35:55val's high hall and walked out with an alliance in a single night a single night that was not luck
36:01that was someone who knew exactly which old wounds to press someone using your own method against the ten
36:06blades or against me i stood at the great map and watched two pieces i thought i controlled snap
36:13together into a shape i hadn't drawn recall the eastern patrols recalculate i traced the new line
36:21of it with one cold finger the careful war i'd built had just grown a third side i didn't own
36:26the coalition moved fast within 10 days the serpent gale banner had taken three ten blades border courts
36:32the ten blades bled and snarled and pulled their lines tight abandoning the supply route i'd been
36:38tempted to strike if i had struck it i'd have walked into their retreat asher had been right twice
36:46i stood over the map past midnight moving carved tokens and he came in with two cups of the bitter
36:52black tea the kitchens kept only for him he set one by my hand the coalition will turn on us
36:59when the ten blades fall or sooner whoever brookered it isn't done you think it's the same hand that's
37:07hunting you didn't offer it he drank watched the map the candle threw his shadow long across the
37:13carved mountains of my dominion i think someone learned how you play
37:19and they're playing back i lifted the tea still warm he timed it to be warm when i noticed it
37:25not when he poured it when this turns to open war stay at my left i always do the wind
37:32off the
37:33glacier hummed in the high windows two cups one map two enemies becoming one the reconnaissance trip
37:39took us into the foothills just the two of us riding light to read the coalition's southern flank
37:44the storm caught us in the open not snow a black summer storm lightning walking the ridge line rain
37:50like thrown gravel we took the only shelter a shallow cave the size of a closet and crowded
37:56in with the horses tethered below there was no room to keep distance his back to the stone
38:01mine to his side the rain a gray wall and arms length away
38:07lightning lit the cave white in the flash i saw his face close to mine water running from his hair
38:12eyes open watching the storm watching the dark between flashes sleep
38:21i'll wake you you don't sleep no then neither do i he didn't move away couldn't wouldn't i think even
38:33with room the warmth of him bled through my armor where our shoulders met the hellfire in me had nothing
38:39to burn and lay quiet thunder shook the stone the horses stamped below i had stood at the end of
38:45the
38:45world and not been moved i sat in a closet of rock with rain in my boots and was aware
38:50of every breath
38:50he took when the storm breaks we ride i know neither of us slept neither of us pretended to the
39:02assassin
39:03reached the palace on the third night after we returned i felt the wrongness before i saw it
39:08in a corridor i had walked ten thousand times a shadow fell against the lit wall at an angle no
39:13torch should make i followed it toward the lower yard toward asher he trained there at the same hour
39:19as ordered bait i'd set him out and forgotten that bait does not get to choose the day it's taken
39:25i came through the arch as the shadow detached from the wall and became a man a blade already falling
39:30fast faster than the gorge scouts a true killer stroke aimed for the back of asher's neck
39:37asher turned into it not away into it he took the blade through the meat of his shoulder rather than
39:43his spine and drove his own short sword up under the assassin's ribs they fell together i crossed the
39:48yard in a breath of black fire tore the dead man off him asher was on his knees hand clamped
39:54to the wound
39:55blood between his fingers breath ragged slow he was don't talk
40:04he came from inside
40:08past the gate past the wards i had already understood the wards i'd set could not be passed
40:15not from outside someone inside my palace had opened the door i pressed both hands to his shoulder
40:21violet flame and cold rage and made a list of every soul who'd had the keys he lived of course
40:28he lived i dragged him back from worse but the wound was deep i was afraid i sat by the
40:34cot in my own
40:35chambers while the hellfire closed the muscle layer by layer he drifted surfaced drifted once his hand
40:42found my wrist and held it not awake enough to know he'd done it i let him by dawn his
40:48color came back
40:48his grip eased you stayed
40:55the wound needed tending a healer could have tended it trust the healers tonight i don't trust anyone in
41:02this palace tonight his eyes found the door then me understanding moved across his face i stood the
41:10traitor's still here
41:14yes
41:15the fear was gone now burned clean into something colder and far more useful someone in my dominion
41:21had unlocked a door for a knife meant for him they were still inside these walls eating my bread
41:26bowing as i passed what will you do
41:31find them open them the way they opened my door i found the traitor by noon not by torture by
41:39the
41:39ledger whoever opened the ward had to know its key and the key was a phrase i'd spoken to four
41:45people in
41:45two hundred years three were dead the fourth was my understeward pel a quiet man who'd served me since
41:52the palace was raised i had him brought to the cold room beneath the foundations chains abound hellfire
41:58not iron asher came arm in a sling and stood against the wall to watch you opened the eastern ward
42:07my lord i would never i let one finger of violet flame touch the stone beside his face
42:12the frost there hissed to steam i burned the man who came through it i have his memory in the
42:19ash
42:21you will not lie to me twice pel broke the way quiet men do
42:27they have my daughter the ten blades they said they said they'd send her back in pieces
42:33who said the new commander he knew things about you about what you were before the wings
42:42the room went very still asher's eyes lifted from the floor to my face
42:47he knew there had been a before he had never asked before he said you'd understand the word
42:55he said tell her the one she left in the fire remembers
43:00i had pel's daughter pulled from the ten blades grip within the day i have my own knives in their
43:05camp
43:05he wept i did not free him a door once opened stays a weakness i sent him to the thornwood
43:12to live
43:12and live small then i sat alone with what he'd said the one she left in the fire remembers there
43:18had
43:18been a fire before the wings before the abyss before vesper a name i had not spoken since
43:25a person i had been when i was still the kind of thing that could be left in a fire
43:29asher came in without knocking he'd stopped knocking weeks ago you went somewhere just now
43:37while you stood there
43:40you left it's an old matter the new commander knows it yes
43:49he didn't ask what the fire was he didn't ask who i'd been he set a chair across from mine
43:55sat and
43:56waited
44:02you don't ask you pulled me out of a body and never asked what i'd wanted to be
44:07seemed fair to return it
44:10i almost told him the whole of it the fire the name the thing that had crawled out of it
44:15with 12
44:16wings the words came up to the edge not tonight
44:22not tonight he stayed anyway across from me until the candle guttered some things you keep
44:28lyra walked into my hall three days later the thornwood had changed her the soft girl who'd
44:34scheme that the old court was gone she moved like cold water now every motion economical
44:39her eyes flat as river ice something in the thornwood had pared her down to bone and will
44:45my lord i bring intelligence
44:49the ten blades new commander i have his marching order his strength the day he means to stop the
44:56hall went quiet lyra's gaze flicked to him then back to me smooth as glass she's not reading the
45:03order she's reading the room counting your guards marking the exits watch her hands lyra's hands had
45:11been folding the report and her fingers had drifted just so to map the distance to the dais i had
45:17not
45:17seen it he had seen it before i did liar he's careful i'd expect nothing less of the violet-eyed
45:27death
45:28god whether the lord of the abyss has grown a heart she keeps on her left side
45:38i'll tell him no it costs me nothing and you've never once been kind to me she set the report
45:44down and left
45:48the formal challenge came sealed in black wax no faction crest just a single line in a hand i
45:54almost knew a duel the new commander of the ten blades me the dead ravine at the border at the
46:01next dark moon winner takes the loser's territory hole asha read it twice and set it down
46:09it's a trap all duels are traps the question is whose
46:17no look at the terms the dead ravine high walls one entrance no air for your wings dark moon your
46:28hellfire shows brightest in dark so he wants you bright easy to track he's not challenging your strength
46:38he's choosing the one ground where your strength is a liability he laid his finger on the ravine's name
46:47he knows you he picked the cage before he picked the fight he was right again the terms were built
46:55by
46:55someone who'd watched me win a hundred battles and cataloged exactly how the one she left in the fire
47:00asher remembers
47:03i'll go vesper you know it's a trap and you're walking in he knows me
47:15that means i knew him
47:18i have to see his face asher held my eyes a long moment then nodded not agreement acceptance
47:25then i walk in with you to the mouth no further
47:32the duel is mine
47:36we rode to the ravine under mel moon et al asher mapped the trap on the way archers in the
47:41high
47:41cracks a second blade hidden to strike if the first commander fell footing fouled with loose
47:47green where my wings would want to land he's planned for you to win the duel and lose the field
47:55the moment you kill him the archers loose then i won't kill him until the archers are gone
48:01that's not a plan that's a hope it's a plan that needs you at the mouth
48:07he understood then what i'd left unsaid while i held the commander's eyes in the cage asher would
48:13climb the cracks and find the archers the hidden blade the man who'd turn a duel into a slaughter
48:19alone wounded shoulder barely healed you're using me as the answer to the trap
48:23i'm trusting you with my back
48:28there's a difference we reached the dead ravine at the hour of no light i felt the place before i
48:34saw
48:35it high black walls one throat of stone the air dead and still a cage built to my measure by
48:40someone who
48:41had my measure
48:45at the mouth asher stopped he looked at me and for once the dry calm wasn't there win and come
48:51back out
48:54that's an order it's a request i walked into the dark alone behind me his shadow peeled off the wall
49:00and went up the commander waited at the center on a flat stone lit only by the violet i cast
49:07he'd burned
49:08half his face old scarring the skin of it ridged like cold wax the unburned half i knew i knew
49:15it the way
49:15you know a room from a dream you don't remember i remember a fire
49:23you remember leaving it i had been someone once there had been a house a fire set by men with
49:29banners
49:30and two of us in it i had clawed out through the flames i had not looked back his eyes
49:35moved past
49:36me up the dark walls toward where asher climbed
49:44i found it he came off the stone fast he was good trained on the memory of how i moved
49:51every
49:51carry built against my style we fought across the dead ground and i said his name the boy from the
49:57fire
49:58in the dark a bowstring sang and cut off short asher had reached the first archer
50:06the duel went fast after that the commander recovered from the name but the perfect defense
50:11had a crack in it now and i am very old and very patient and i do not forgive the
50:16men with banners
50:17he came high i gave him the opening he took it because the boy he'd been would have taken it
50:22and
50:23i closed it with a wing of black fire that i should not have been able to spread in that
50:26dead air
50:27but asher had bought me air up in the cracks blades flashing he cleared the archers one ledge at a
50:34time
50:34i heard each bowstring die with every archer gone the cage breathed a little my wings found purchase
50:40on the dark the commander saw it too saw his trap unbuilding above him archer by archer
50:48the death god you sent your weakness to break my walls
50:56he was never the weakness you were
51:03you built a cage and forgot to ask whether i'd come alone
51:12i took the sword arm at the elbow with a blade of fire he didn't scream the boy from the
51:17fire had
51:18learned not to scream a long time ago in a house while i clawed out without him
51:24he went to his knees above the last bowstring fell silent asher's voice came down through the dark
51:31flat and clear clear all clear the cage was just a ravine now the trap was just two people and
51:39a very old
51:39grief i stood over him with the killing stroke ready and the hidden blade asher had warned of came out
51:46of
51:46the rock behind me i felt it more than saw it a wrongness in the dark low and fast aimed
51:52for my
51:53spine in the one breath my attention was on the commander asher dropped from the wall not climbing
51:58now falling deliberate 20 feet of dark and he landed on the hidden blade man like a stone
52:04his short sword already going in they hit the scree together the assassin's strike meant for my back
52:10opened asher's side instead he'd taken it again the way he'd taken the assassin's blade in the yard
52:16turned into the thing meant for me
52:21i finished it the commander the boy from the fire went out under a wing of black flame
52:27and his last face was almost peaceful as if losing to me was the only ending he'd ever truly planned
52:33for
52:34then i was across the scree on my knees why you were on the wall you were safe
52:42you said win and come back out couldn't do the second part if you were dead
52:49the wound was bad worse than the yard i poured hellfire into it and it drank the fire and kept
52:55bleeding because the blade had been treated of course it had the commander had planned for everything
53:01even his own death even mine even this it's fine it's not first honest thing you've said all night
53:21i carried him out of the dead ravine myself i would not let the soldiers touch him
53:27the poison fought my fire for three days hold on i'm not letting you go vesper it's too late on
53:34the
53:34third night the fever broke even she knew not to speak his eyes opened found me the dry calm came
53:40back into them weak but there did you win the territory i won the territory
53:51worth it then
53:56you almost died to break a trap i walked into knowing it was a trap
54:02yes that was a stupid cost you're the one who keeps me
54:08i'm just the thing you keep
54:12stop me if the things allowed an opinion i had no answer i had pulled him from a dying body
54:20and
54:20given him a second life and he had spent it twice now putting himself between me and the knife there
54:26was no ledger that balanced that
54:32i took his hand he let me
54:40he walked again within the week slower a new scar at his side to match the one on his shoulder
54:45a map of every time he'd chosen me over his own skin we sat on the high glacier wall at
54:51dusk the
54:52dominion white and silent below us the captured eastern territory a new line on a map i'd redraw
54:57tomorrow the commander the fire you knew him he was the other one in the house i clawed out
55:04he didn't i never looked back to see if he had and he spent his whole life building a cage
55:09for that
55:10yes the wind came off the ice i didn't summon the hellfire against it he'd taught me that
55:15without meaning to that the cold was allowed to touch me sometimes
55:19i said his name in the duel the old one to break his defense i heard it worked that's not
55:26why you
55:27told me you said it he was right he was always right about me the one thing in three centuries
55:32that read me clean when i carried you out i wasn't thinking about the territory it was the most honest
55:38sentence i had spoken since the fire i let it stand i didn't take it back didn't armor it didn't
55:45burn it clean asher looked at me didn't reach for me didn't have to i know and i'm here two
55:52words
55:52the gap between us closed one step and we left it there unkissed unnamed true below us the dominion
55:59held above us no moon just the cold on the two of us watching the dark for what came next
56:05and we left the dark for what became next
56:05and we left it there unnamed true closest to the dark for what came next
56:07You
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