They said their farewells and blessings and took their leave as the dark of the night settled. Menquist, Singis, and Agalric veered west toward Isimil while Edmon and Kidu rode directly south toward Banningtown.

“I didn’t think the Seordmeister was ever allowed to be apart from you,” Kidu said.

“Arthero is a loyal, disciplined servant,” Edmon said. “Faithful to me, but faithful the crown above all. There are very little moral spaces for a man like that to navigate. He would have raised trouble in the Smote, as he detests their way of life.”

“Slavery.”

“Yes.”

“Why wouldn’t anyone detest it?” Kidu asked.

“We all do, of course,” Edmon said. “You have to pick your political battles, Kidu. Waging war against evil sometimes means aligning yourself with the lesser evil, until it is the lesser evil’s turn to be purged.”

“Sounds like you have much larger moral spaces to navigate.”

“That perception of me is the burden I bear,” Edmon said. “There isn’t a simple rule book that applies when your actions have consequences that impact so many.”

“The Book of Five is a rule book of sorts.”

“Yes, the Book of Five,” Edmon said. “Is it true what you said earlier? Are you questioning the Book of Five?”

"That's a very personal question," Kidu replied.

"Forgive me, it is. I only ask because Mazi questioned it as well," Edmon said. He saw the look in Kidu’s face. “Oh yes, it’s true. He believed in a greater cosmic mystery, but felt the five gods of your people were just one interpretation of that mystery. I find it either odd or very fitting that here you are, chosen by Menquist to represent your people, and that is the quality you share with Mazi the most."

"My faith is where I am most weak."

"Or perhaps it is the least relevant. It keeps you free.”

Kidu stared at the sky. Some stars had begun to show. "I've…I’ve never really believed the story of the Five. I could have passed all the exams, a long time ago. But that would have made me a Peer, and I would have been a champion of the Five Gods. How could I be a voice of a story I don't believe? How forfeit would my life been then? That's why I never wanted to be a Peer. I stopped trying to pass my exams when becoming a Peer was a reality. I’ve never told anyone any of this. To everyone else I’m just undisciplined, a poor student, an unworthy monk.”

“So when you said earlier that the true gods forsake those who build a house on false premises…” Delger said.

“Yes, and that a life of lies begets only a life of forfeit,” Kidu’s eyes were beginning to water. “I was talking about myself.”

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"I had known Mazi a long time," Edmon said. "From before you were even born, you know. He was a young man who had just become a Peer, and he came to the capital with the other Peers. I was so impressed when first saw him. He was almost my age, and I still felt like a boy. He became a Peer at such a young age he didn't question anything he was taught. It was Rengu who told him to question everything. I think if he had the same doubts you have, he probably wouldn't have become a Peer either. But he was, and he couldn't avoid his responsibilities. He became our reluctant champion. You don't have to be a Peer to be our champion, Kidu."

"I will ask you a personal question now."

"Of course."

"Before we left the soothsayer, you asked for the third vision," Kidu said. "Why did you ask about Mazi's childhood?"

"It seems unfair," Edmon said. "I spent a lot of time with him when he arrived at Lanfrydhall, and our relationship continued as he set out to fulfill his tasks across the world, but I never got the chance to understand how he grew into a man. I never asked him. There were some things about his past…that I needed to resolve. But those things I wish I said to him are things that I can only utter to empty spaces now and pretend that in some afterlife he can hear me. Sometimes when we discover things about those who are gone, their lives seem to continue on. One day there will be no more to discover, and that is when the weight of the dead bears on us. We can only carry them along for so long with the same memories."

"You seem closer to him than any other," Kidu said. "Others admired him but you seemed to have actually known the man."

"I treated him as a younger brother," Edmon said. "I hope he saw that when he was alive.”

“I heard stories of how he died at the hands of the Isnumurti. And then you said that the Isnumurti…wants to eat you? What does that mean?”

“Well, from what we know of them, their religion believes in human purity and that long life is achieved through consuming the blood of other humans. When they captured Mazi, they must have known his reputation. So they must have figured that it was of higher quality, draining him bit by bit, feeding his blood to the religious zealots. They did this for weeks, perhaps months, until he had no more to give. Menquist warned me that they would greatly prize me, as I would always have more to give. You see, I have an ailment where I produce too much blood, which is why I must have I let from me every few weeks. I could be kept alive for who knows how long? More than a few months. A year? Longer? I shudder to think about it.”

“Your blood is also of higher quality,” Kidu said, examining the faint humming glow that was emanating from Edmon ever since the Lady Sefene had given him the gift in the forest of Irmangard. “I can’t describe how I know, but I know this to be the truth. Many of our friends do also. They must all be protected.”

“All life must be protected, not just our friends,” Edmon said. “Everyone deserves a life of peace, free from worry of evil, free to be virtuous, in this life or the next.”

“The Book of Five teaches that in the afterlife there is no consciousness,” Kidu said as if reading. “You become part of that thoughtless stream that returns its mana to things yet to be born. The afterlife is simply a place we return to, and wait. Like now, we've gone to so many places and now we're going back to Banningtown to wait. I'm not sure what any of this has accomplished.”

"Oh, this changes everything," Edmon said. "Singis is leaving to the west. In her absence I become Marshal of the Commission."

"How will you get the Magisters to agree to that?" Kidu asked.

Edmon pulled commission contract out from his breast pocket. “They already did years ago when they signed this document I wrote. Menquist will be true to his word. When he secures Tsetsurg's Red Guard, I will have the three Old Guards under my command. The full strength of the Yghr armies.”

"And what then?"

"And then, Kidu of Angshar House, you will help me overthrow the Aredunian Republic."