by Kalyn Crowe
Without thought, I said, "I saw no other way. I was younger and more stupid back then." I caught myself but added, "Even still, I don't regret Thirteen's existence."
A tear dripped down Ansgar's cheek. He knew what I did — everything, this body, the deaths I condoned.
"It's a wonder you had time to set such a scheme up. I was very meticulous." He pulled a dagger from Ansgar's belt. "It seems you were as well." He pressed the tip near his throat.
Panic churned my stomach.
"If only he had not helped you, he would not be here. Everything would be in its right place." He sighed.
I reached forward. "Please don't do this."
"He could have let go of those vows and held you instead. He chose duty over you then, only in the end did he change his mind. Why protect him?" The hand with the dagger shook.
Something seemed wrong about what he said, but confusion and disbelief could wait. I replied, "Your mother chose a life you didn't like, so you took it and your sister's. I wouldn't force another's choices to align with mine."
He pressed the dagger tip and cut a short, shallow line. "Choices, like the one you must have given the thirteenth the eve of your arrest?"
The blood drained from my face. I showed my weak spots, and Travere went for them.
"The thirteenth must have been there. It is the only explanation for how you still exist, to how fourteen received your soul. Her cooperation with you explains the arrest scene perfectly. I saw her outside. Enormous as she is now, she disappeared into this place. Summon her at once."
My heart raced. I couldn't look away from the dagger. "I asked a terrible burden from Thirteen years ago, and from Ansgar, and even lied and hurt Sybil." Finally, I stared back at him behind Ansgar's eyes. "Thirteen isn't mine to control, and she would never bend, just as Ansgar still fights you."
"Everyone bends or dies in their attempt not to." He regripped the dagger.
I steeled myself and stood up straight. "If you kill Ansgar, I'll jump. It won't matter you know where this place is, because it will disappear this time. Maybe even Thirteen and the rest will cease to exist, all that work, almost what? Thirty years for this plan?" I didn't know if I lied or not.
He squinted as a trickle of blood came from Ansgar's neck. "Tell me where the thirteenth is, and I will free him. Surely you will trade her for Ansgar and your new little band."
"No." I didn't budge. "You need me alive. You need me to pull your mother's soul out of the disk you shoved her in, and to tell you where I hid your sister."
The dagger fell from his hand. A metallic echo marked the end of its descent through the chamber.
Now, I smiled. "You want your mother back, but you hate your sister, is that it? You blame her for your family's ruin?"
"What would you know about 'family'?"
"I know I didn't go mad because I don't have one."
He scowled. "Any Weaver could free my mother if I had the thirteenth to control and imbue the soul."
"If you could find one. Philomena made the profession quite scarce, as I have learned. Even if you did find another, can any Weaver make her a body?"
"Perhaps not, but I could use the pretty one with the dark hair from the tunnel."
I glared.
"Yes, yes. The one with the Voclain's scroll. Such a handy thing you brought along for me to follow."
"Yet, you're still lost." I crossed my arms.
Kepi wrapped her tail over my shoulder.
"Am I? Do I need you to guide me?" He looked up at the portal to Apex. "Is it not such a wonder? You may have forgotten, but I taught you the ability to move souls with Woven nets. I nudged the Voclains in the right direction to learn how to imbue them. Beautiful, forgotten, arts."
"And after you framed them and later Philomena."
He smiled and steepled his fingers. "Yes. The Order is so eager to maim over any mention of Abyss. It was easy to have them believe you three would fall to its influence, working so closely with the creatures. It felt almost too simple."
"Perhaps it was." I raised my arms a little from my sides. "I'm still here, and your mother is in a prison of her own son's creation."
He let his smile fade into a disgusted scowl. "My mother will live forever in her slumber. That is until I find a way to awaken her, with or without your cooperation. She will love me then." Travere regained his sly composure. "My sister's disk was empty, so I assume she is already somewhere in this world. Will she thank you for putting her in some mortal shell when this world drowns, I wonder?" He scanned the Counterbalance cone. "I think that loose end will take care of itself in time enough."
Drowns? He held not only Ansgar as ransom but the country, maybe even the whole Natural plane, too. I said, "You can't destroy the Capstone, you can't unleash Abyss on this world. It would destroy everything."
"Is that right?" he said and gestured upward. "Does not each puzzle piece have two sides? The Concordances for peace with the East, the Sleigh, both products of the war. One can turn disharmony over to find beauty." He motioned toward Apex. "And vice versa."
Kepi whipped her tail behind me.
I remembered Thirteen's words that magic was different here. Maybe I underestimated him.
"Our interpretations of our religion tell us Apex is lofty and good with its giving, preserving nature. Called superior to the draining, dissolving ways of Abyss." He held his hands together and paced to the far end of the stone. "I disagree." His eyes fell on me. "Balance is beautiful."
I waited.
"Scrolls from the North tell stories of Abyssist healers who worked with Formists to draw out diseases. The council will not deign even to study these documents. They agreed to, and even took credit for, the Chimeras from want for their lives, their stature, their worshipful populace. Normally their fear is such they only let Abyssists work to remove imbuements and other menial nonsense." He rubbed his forehead.
I said, "And they force Spiritist to become Inquisitors and not therapists."
"Yes. Just as Formists are bloodhounds, not architects, and we barely tap the capabilities of our Conductists. We use Resistists to hold on to what is instead of innovating. Look at the impossible High Hall or even the Sleigh, these wonders could be everywhere, but we mustn't have that. No. Such is the council. Greedy. Only allow what serves, fear anything powerful, cage any you can. So I served, and I bowed, like my weak father, even after they took my happiness, my home. I will show them the true breath of the Animas, the power of balance."
"By force."
"They leave me no choice." He said, "You do not owe anyone anything. Please give me the thirteenth for my mother. In return, you will have the freedom you so desire, the respect you deserve. I can give you a place in the Invoker Arm, the High Weaver position in a reborn Order. Remember, you have those stolen hands because I swayed the council to use wards instead of silencing or dismemberment. Eda still lives because I supported Conrad and Matilda's motion for her freedom."
Kepi wrapped her tail around my neck and flicked her ear.
I swallowed. My hands were clammy, not even my own. "I can't disagree."
Ansgar's face twitched.
The well of old anger opened up. "But did you vouch for the use of wards so I could help you no matter who I was?"
His neck muscles tensed, and the expression on his face contorted.
I took it as a sign Ansgar's grip could tighten. If I pressed Travere, I could pull Ansgar forward. I could reach for him with something familiar, but I didn't know what yet.
I stepped forward and pointed. "How about Eda? Did you save her only to follow her around in hopes the Voclains hid your sister with her?" I lowered my hand and remembered his smug face from the disk's memory.
He drew Ansgar's mouth into a thin line.
"You hate your sister only because your mother chose her and not you." I breathed heavy. "Even if I agree with you that the world could be better, how we do it matters. I won't trust someone so self-centered to lead change."
"You do not understand." He forced Ansgar to reach out to the Apex cone. A red glow came from under his shirt. No invocation, but it must have been the Form imbuement he used to track Leyla's scroll. Only why had he activated it again?
His arm muscles jerked, and his fingers grazed the edge of the seal in sparks.
Travere couldn't draw Apex power from the cone. That much Apex pulled through Ansgar would kill him.
"Stop."
The golden threads' pattern shifted where he touched. They grew brighter before they frayed and snapped. If Travere dispersed the cone here, it would destroy the Capstone Seal back in Pinnacle.
Ansgar's muscles strained, and an uncontrolled growl slipped through his teeth.
His face suddenly calmed, but his hand didn't lower from absorbing my seal. His fingers shook.
"He's already sick."
Travere said, "Indeed, Thirteen could do this with much more ease."
"I said I'd jump."
"Do it then."
My bluff called, I pulled on Abyss and spun a sword length navy blade.
He lowered both hands, slow, measured.
I ran forward. I would tear Travere from Ansgar. Then I would rend him from this world.
Travere snarled and forced Ansgar back, off the stone.
I reached out and fell to my hands and knees at the edge.
A platform rotated below and caught him. His armored leg twisted around his thigh, and he collapsed. The impact didn't make him flinch or even grimace.
My breath caught in my throat as the body mechanically stood, adjusted the false leg, and looked upward.
32 - Confluence
The stone moved too far for me to follow on my own. I scooped up Kepi and said, "Let's finish this."
She held tight and gusted us forward. She countered it with another wind, and I landed square on Travere's stone.
I charged again, filament sword in hand, and swung.
Travere pushed Ansgar into a blur, and a solid backhand knocked us down.
No pain.
Not only down, but we slid backward.
The Abyss blade disappeared.
I held only one corner of the stone. Ageless dust slipped under my fingertips as I clawed for a better grip.
Kepi held on to my sleeve with her front talons. A streak of black dripped from the side of her head. She bled, but not Apexial gold.
As fast as I could, I let go of the stone with one hand and held her.
Her little eyes flickered white and then closed.
"I've got you," I whispered.
She still drew in tiny breaths.
Travere towered over us in Ansgar's frame.
I sucked in a breath and tried to pull us up, but couldn't.
Ansgar's hands reached down but then retracted. His hands shook and became Travere's once again.
He was alive.
Travere tilted and twisted Ansgar's head a few times side to side.
He reached down, grabbed my wrist, and hoisted me above Ansgar's head.
I held Kepi close.
He jerked my arm hard.
Pain shot into my shoulder. My vision fogged, but I would never let go of her.
He leaned his head to the side — tears in one of his eyes. The other hand wrapped around my neck. "I won't make the same mistake twice."
Quiet filled my lungs instead of air.
Then a pull came from within, one more heinous and horrible than any I had ever felt — my Attunement. The Form imbuement was to find it, in the seal, or this body.
If Travere found a way to use it, I had handed him the tools and the body to complete his plan.
I couldn't have failed like this.
He said, "Yes. You know what I want now. If you refuse to give me time to find it within the seal, I will take it from this stolen body. You no longer possess the wisdom to use it. I hoped if we spoke, you would see reason."
I couldn't speak.
Travere pushed Ansgar's lips into a twisted grin. "This way, I need not destroy your precious Capstone Seal or this place. You should be happy. Let this happen." A yellow glow came out of his mouth and eyes. "Worry not, Ansgar is such a large man. He can hold my influence and your Attunement long enough."
The Form glow still showed around his neck.
"Go on, pull Abyss again."
I gasped what air I could and considered it, but no. It would let Travere sort through me for my Attunement with ease.
I gripped his wrist and stopped my struggle. Through my teeth, I managed, "I didn't come back."
Ansgar blinked.
Everything grew dim. "To say goodbye."
His hands shuddered, but the grip around my neck and wrist eased.
I slipped free and fell.
He shouted in a mix of the two men's voices.
I locked my arm around Kepi. My memory disk was within reach. With a fingertip, I touched it.
The surge shot through every shred of my body and glowed white through my veins.
I reached down with my free hand.
Like a crack of blue lightning, a single filament of Abyss shot from below. It rushed through my hand and attached itself to the Apex cone.
I drew in length and zipped upward until we hung eye to eye with Travere.
The effort so minimal, I felt invincible.
His eyes went wide.
Through my grit teeth, I said, "I will find you." In an instant, I called four Abyss filaments upward through his skull.
I stepped onto the stone. The filament I held spiraled away like a ribbon in the wind. The others dripped with an amorphous golden glob of air and misery.
Travere's voice whispered incoherently from within the disembodied imbuement.
I splayed my fingers.
The filaments ripped apart Travere's imbuement into nothing and then snaked back into Abyss.
Ansgar crumbled to his hands and knees.
I knelt beside him with Kepi still cradled, my jacket a wide arc behind. "Ansgar?" I touched his back. "You beat him."
The stone which carried us continued in its lazy circle around the seal.
Kepi cooed small and weak.
He groaned and held his head but looked up and coughed. "We did. Lady Tempest, and," he blinked and shook his head, "old friend, what have you done?"
"You asked that at the HQ attack. I thought you spoke to Conrad then."
He winced and pushed himself to a knee. "I distanced myself from you," he drew a deep breath, "as you asked, but I saw Philomena in those eyes when we met again. I couldn't dare consider I was right." His hands trembled. "Yet, I'd know your Weaving always, so beautiful. Then, moments ago, you said some of my last words to you."
I took his hand and noticed the unsteadiness in mine as well. The light changed in the chamber.
He coughed. His lips blended into his cheeks.
"You have spell sickness from the possession."
"Do I?" He smiled. "I wouldn't know, but I am not long for this world. I can tell this much."
"No, hang on. You have to get out of here."
He furrowed his brow.
"You have to go back to Pinnacle and tell the council and Bora. Travere has to pay, and we have to save Conrad and the others. Exonerate the Voclains." I dug around my collar. Bruises lined my jaw already. "Rhys, one of the apprentices in your Arm, is outside of this cave with." I paused. "With Thirteen. They can take you back." I pulled out Kat's necklace. "This can save you."
"Why not you? I've lived my life." He collapsed to his hands again and chuckled at himself.
I helped ease him to his back. "I've learned I have as well." I put the necklace in his hand. "Even a Spiritist couldn't make people believe this face's story."
He deflated and laid his head on the stone. "True."
"But you, you can set this right. I've already asked so much, but I need you to do this."
His upward gaze grew more firm and less distant.
I finally dared glance up, too. The seal still hung t
here, but its damaged part glowed as if no longer mine. The edges around the portal frayed, the pillars grew long and less defined. "I have to do something about this."
Ansgar matched where I looked. "He injured the Counterbalance. You will try to save it?"
"I can't tell what might happen if I don't. It doesn't look as if the portal is closing, and I don't know how to move the orb. The Capstone might dissolve and not the Maw."
Kepi made the tiniest flick with her tail.
"But, I can save the Capstone from here."
He looked at our hands, the necklace, and then me. "You brought this for you."
"It was a gift. I'll do with it what I want."
He coughed out another laugh.
"Say 'Vivify,' and it will give you enough strength to get out of here." I let go of him.
He snapped out and took my hand. "Vivify." Light filtered through his fingers. His blood lit up like sunlight through curtains in the morning. It then shot into me, and over Kepi.
My hands steadied, and Kepi opened her eyes.
He closed his and breathed easier before he pulled himself up to stand. Sick still, but when his eyes met mine again, I knew he'd live.
I smiled. "Have you always been so stubborn?"
"You must not remember everything." He handed me the necklace. "I have been weaker than this and still lived."
I let go of my smile and said, "Keep it."
He placed it over his head and picked up the Form charm Travere used. "Proof for a Formist. I intended to tell Conrad that day." He sighed. "When Travere requested to recharge my sword, I visited him in his office. He told me he planned a short trip, one to settle an old issue in the south. It seemed strange he mentioned a direction, the same one where Conrad sent Meredith." He tucked the Form charm away in his pocket. "Let's right this together, like we should have before you had to die for it."
I pushed a piece of hair from my face. "Phase is a strange place. Something tells me it's too dangerous for you to wait for me here. We can't risk it. You have to get back. For Travere, and to secure the Maw if I can't. You'll need to convince the others of the same thing I'm afraid."
He sighed and nodded. "Promise me it won't take another twenty years to see you again."