Tif turned right and left, but of course there was no way to see between her shoulder blades without looking into a mirror.

“A...seal?” She knew she had some Death ris--she had watched it appear on her body--but it shouldn’t be enough for a whole seal.

In her quest to put eyes on her back, Tif ended up facing Rof. His face was stoic as usual but there was something else in the look he gave her, something that made her stop.

“You don’t have Gold ris anymore,” he said. “You’re no longer a citizen of Lercel.”

Rof’s words sent Tif’s mind spinning, trying to figure out how she had lost her Gold ris. Thinking back to her fight with the spidra only moments before, she clearly remembered feeling a burning on her forehead and then her back--it was what had finally made her give up her hold. That must have been her Gold ris melting away to make room for the Death. The fact that she could overwrite ris with her Blood theft ability was a heady revelation. However, it was a trade she never would have made if she had known it was happening!

Tif fingered the hem of her shirt nervously. Without Gold ris she wasn’t a citizen of Lercel, just as Rof had said, and if she wasn’t a citizen, she would be denied entry into the city. How would she get to her parents then? It’s not like she had enough flats to buy her citizenship back at the gates. Maybe...maybe she’d find a way to make some money in the Blood Plains?

“We are heading back to Lercel,” Udaru announced.

Tif’s heart popped into her throat. “But...I…” she stammered.

Bes and Yuu appeared just as surprised by this order as the one to attack the Death Tribe, but like before, they didn’t argue. They dropped to the ground in near unison, sitting with their knees touching instead of back-to-back. Tif might have wondered why the change if she wasn’t continuing to nervously sputter, which Udaru didn’t seem to notice at all.

“Shouldn’t we be leaving right away?” Rof asked, still standing. He leaned forward onto the balls of his feet as if he was ready to sprint all the way home.

“We fought a Death patrol, not a camp,” Udaru answered him. “With them gone, this space is safer for a time than anywhere else nearby. Use the chance to recharge, not read.”

Tif saw Rof’s cheeks heat at the chastisement, and he took up a seat beside the other two knights, making a half circle, instead of going off on his own like usual.

She joined them, trying to sit quietly to give her Blood and Death ris a chance to restore itself, but Tif couldn’t stop thinking about her newest problem. Awt had said there was a way into the city without going through the wall guards, and as a member of the underground, Plumya should know where it was. But what if the fairy never used it because she could just fly over the walls? And if she did know it, could Tif trust her after Plumya had led Death troops right to them? What if one of the knights had gotten killed? It would have been Tif’s fault as much as the fairy’s for the secret she was carrying around.

Tif took a calming breath, which only half worked. She still felt an unpleasant numbness in patches across her body, but maybe that was just the feel of her new Death ris. She held up her hands, seeing only the barest hint of grey tattoos threaded through gaps in her Blood. She remembered Jer marking someone during the Challenges and mimicked the movement, touching her thumb to her forehead and then surreptitiously sliding it across the air in Rof’s direction. No one seemed to notice since they all had their eyes closed in meditation. Nothing happened though--at least not that Tif noticed. Her Death ris must be completely lacking in power at the moment.

While the four of them sat in a loose circle, Udaru ported around the site of their skirmish. Tif wasn’t sure exactly what he was doing until she heard him call out, “Who killed this one?”

Tif turned and saw that it was the human who Rof had made bleed from his nose and ears. She looked back at the young keshe, but, oddly, he didn’t reply. He did however glance briefly at her, and seeing her looking, his jaw tensed and he closed his eyes again. Why wouldn’t he want the credit? Continuing to look at him, Tif noticed that the luster of most of his Tears was gone, which struck her as odd, too. He had been low, of course, but during the fight with the spidra he hadn’t ported at all, so why would he have less now than before?

“Probably me,” Yuu-Fen called to the aquaros, and when Tif looked the knight’s way, he gave her a wink. “Hard to keep track.”

“Of six opponents?” Bes-Ahl said, rolling her eyes.

There was silence after that for a time, until Rof shifted, the greenery beneath him scritching as he did, and he cleared his throat. Tif wasn’t sure why he had waited to speak, but was glad that he was coming clean.

“For some of the spidra I attacked,” he said, slowly, “my shots didn’t work.”

That wasn’t what Tif had expected him to say, but it was something she wondered, too. Interestingly, she saw Bes-Ahl ready to answer before he even finished the question.

“Their second seal allows them to transfer damage they’ve sustained to someone they’ve bonded with.”

“They can bond with people?” Tif asked, thinking how similar yet different that was from her Blood ris.

Yuu-Fen nodded. “Three spidra, three bonds. We were lucky. Their warlords are often bonded to twenty or more people, giving them more lives than a cat.”

“Why would anyone agree to that?” Rof snorted.

“Why did you agree to be a knight?” Bes-Ahl countered.

“That’s different..”

“Is it?” the keshe asked, her head cocking to the side. “You risk your life and for what? A little extra pay? Some notoriety if you make it back to Lercel alive? I imagine it’s much the same for them.”

“You don’t know?” Tif said.

Bes gave her a sardonic grin. “I have yet to be involved with someone from Death. When I manage that, I’ll let you know.”

“Not on my watch,” Yuu-Fen said, leaning far enough to the side to pull his fellow knight in for a kiss.

Rof looked on sourly, but Tif smiled at their affection for each other. Absently, she touched the soft bracelet on her wrist, which, somehow, she still hadn’t removed. She had left Awt in a poor position--partly of his own making, of course--but Tif hoped he was alright.

The two knights separated and Rof huffed, “Aren’t these things you should have taught us about Death before we had to fight them.”

Bes-Ahl’s smiled at Yuu and then switched to a flat look for the young keshe. “We almost never engage with Death if we don’t have to.”

“Why not?”

“There’s no value in it. We can’t sell the dead bodies back to them, and keeping live ones to trade with Life are more trouble than they’re worth.”

“What about their armor and weapons?” Rof asked, sounding like he had found a hole in their reasoning.

Yuu-Fen shook his head. “They melt the black powder that colors them into the mold, so everyone knows it for what it is, and no one will buy that metal. Their tribe doesn’t even use money.” He spit to the side. “Savages.”

“So, why did we stay to fight them?” Tif said. She knew that the knights had been low on their Tears ris charge, but still, she thought that they could have hopped at least a bit away.

“Enough,” Udaru said. “Quiet so you can recharge and then we must go.”

Everyone did as he ordered, closing their eyes to meditate, even Tif, but behind her eyelids her thoughts bounced from what Rof was hiding, to seeing her parents, to confronting Vak-Lav, round and around again--so much that she barely noticed when it was time to go.

They stayed the night at the same outcropping they had used before, though this time it was an uneasy sleep as the knights found marks from someone else, or perhaps multiple someones, who had been to that camp. There was no attack, but whether that was because of the double watch the knights used or because the intruder had moved on, no one could say. Either way, Udaru had them depart when there was only the barest spray of sunlight over the horizon, and none hesitated to obey.

When they reached the city of Lercel, much to Tif’s relief, they ported her right over the wall, just like when they had left. That didn’t solve her problem if an Aspect spotted her, but hopefully if she was with a knight, they would make an exception.

Tif thought the division would go straight to the Archon to report, but instead they stopped at a nice inn in the mids. Rof left almost immediately, porting away with his new ris, while she was given some time to clean in a room all to herself. A maid even brought her a new outfit to change into--her second in less than a week! She and Pep were chatting about the fit of shirt and pants, made from a rougher cloth than her last and baggier but still comfy, when she heard a knock on her door. Tif expected it to be the maid again, but it turned out to be Udaru, his wounds wrapped and clothes neater than before.

He stepped inside, closing the door behind himself, which made her think that his ris must be low from their trip.

“It is time for you to go,” he said.

“To see the Archon?” Tif asked, hopefully. She had been worried that they might leave her behind.

“That is where I travel next, but not you,” Udaru said, much to her dissapointment. If that was the case, she wasn’t sure why he had come to see her at all. “Yuu-Fen spoke true the other night. During your time with us, you have proven yourself unique, and I believe, worthy of the ris you carry.”

“But…,” Tif said, even more confused now. “I barely did anything.”

He hacked a laugh. “The fact you think that proves what I say. You never once complained about your plight, instead trying to learn. You came back to us when taken in Sah’Sah, and when faced with Death tribe, a spidra no less, you joined the fray when you could have chosen not to.” He looked down his long snout at her, the fire in the hearth played off his scales and the shine of his ris making him almost seem to glow with blue-orange light. “Lercel’s challenges are not what make a warrior. Your heart, actions, and will to do what must be done are.” He poked her in the chest with one of his long claws. “All things you possess.”

Tif blushed. It felt like she must be imagining this, hearing such complimentary things from a division leader.

“Thank you,” she said, but then frowned. “So why can’t I go with you to see the Archon?”

“Because I am letting you go.”

“Go? Now?” she said. Udaru nodded, and her heart swelled, thinking of getting to wrap her arms around her parents, to finally know that they were safe. Even so, she hesitated. “But what about the ris I owe the divisions?”

He chuffed another laugh. “Selfless to the end. They have plenty of power here. Make your way in another city. I do not know what brought you to Lercel, intentions more honorable than mine to be sure, but turn your attention elsewhere. Home, or perhaps Sah’Sah. I can write your a letter of introduction if you choose to return there.”

Tif smiled at the aquaros’s kindness--and he said she was the good one. Udaru understood her in ways she didn’t even see herself, but in others he was completely off the mark. This was her city, she was never going to leave it. However, he was giving her the chance to go straight to the underground. The sun was near setting, and this inn was close to the lows where barely any Aspects roamed. That meant she could probably make it to the same hideout as before without being spotted by anyone who would make a stink about her lack of Gold ris. Maybe Udaru would even port her closer before going to see the Archon.

That all sounded good, but then what? She would give her tattoos to Vak-Lav, and assuming he kept his word, she’d get her parents back. And then they’d, what, go back to living on the streets like nothing had happened? They’d be even worse off than before. Sure, she’d have some Death ris but that was more likely to make her an outcast than anything else, especially without her Gold ris. People might even think she was Death tribe.

Tif raised her eyes to the flat, brown wood above her, so different than the bamboo in Sah’Sah, and thought back to when she had last seen her parents. They had finally trusted her, believed that she could do this. And Udaru believed in her, too. What was she doing with their trust if she went crawling to Vak-Lav?

She looked at the aquaros. “Will you tell those things to the Archon?”

“What?” he asked.

“All those nice things you just said to me. Will you say them to her? And maybe recommend me for a knight?”

Udaru’s tail twitched behind him. “Though it may seem otherwise, I hold little sway here. She will more likely order me to take you to the Blood Plains for your debt or simply banish you.”

Tif thought on that and then shook her head with a smile.

“Nah,” Tif said, “she wants to play me again in das. She’ll keep me around if you give her a reason to.”

“You’re sure?”

Tif peeked down at Pep who grinned back at her. “Absolutely.”

***

Udaru ported them up the mountain, following the line of the lift but from a good fifty feet above it. She hadn’t told him the whole truth behind her request, which she felt a bit bad about, but piled atop the big secret she had been keeping from everyone, it wasn’t that much more weight. Besides, Tif was soon distracted by the view. In the wilds, the land below had been a medley of greens, but in Sah’Sah that color was only occasionally. Instead, there where the brightly painted tops of shops, clay tiles for the roof’s of homes, people in their myriad of outfits with glints of gold, and of course the grey stone of the mountain that lived between the paved roads and buildings.

They reached the Archon’s palace a few ports later. The large structure sat atop the mountain, made of white marble and a shining yellow metal that Tif thought must be bronze or brass, as it couldn’t possibly all be gold--could it? The palace had three main spires, the one in the middle by far the highest, stretching up through the clouds that floated around the peak. Tif was glad for the long sleeves her new shirt had, but even so it was much colder up here than it had been in the mids. It also felt like she needed to take more breaths, as if the air here was harder to get.

Broad steps, the width of five houses, led up to a doorway so tall and wide, Tif thought it must have been built with cyclops in mind, or Aspects, one of which stood nearby. The golden creature in the form of an overlarge keshe immediately latched onto Tif, watching her with unblinking eyes. Tif moved closer to Udaru as they approached it and the doorway, but the Aspect didn’t stop them as they walked through the already open portal. Inside was a large entryway, with halls leading off to the left and right, and twin curved stairs ahead. Directly in front of them was a podium made of the same marble of the building with an older male keshe behind it, a clerk of some sort it seemed, his stretched earlobes so long they touched his shoulders. The floor they walked on to reach him was polished to a sheen so bright Tif could see her reflection in it, and she heard Udaru’s clawed feet clicking with each step.

“We are here to see the Archon,” Udaru told the keshe when they were within a half dozen feet.

The ancient clerk kept his rheumy eyes on them, flicking a long nailed hand at the two much younger attendants who stood at the base of the stairwells behind him. The one on the right took off at a sprint, making no noise as he raced up the lushly carpeted steps, a deep red, and then disappeared into a doorway on the second level.

“Has the Archon been doing okay?” Tif asked the clerk. “Healthy and all that?”

The old keshe turned slowly to regard her, tracing her from head to toe. Seeing no tabard across her shoulders or other mark of station, he apparently decided that she wasn’t worth his time and began writing something with a large peacock feather quill.

They stood there waiting, listening to the sound of his scritching, until a new attendant eventually appeared from the right hallway and made their way to the elderly keshe. Tif thought for sure it was about something else entirely, but after the two finished conferring--which they did so quietly; she didn’t catch so much as a syllable--the clerk turned to them.

“Her luminescence is taking a bath and will see you when she finishes. Please wait until then.”

Udaru nodded, pulling Tif to the side while she tried to figure out how in the Aspect the various halls and rooms of the palace were connected. There was a large fire roaring beside each staircase, and Udaru took her to the one on the right. A few chairs had been set up around it, but Tif’s eyes went to a table that had a bowl of dried plums and a plate of cinnamon cake slices. The warmth from the fire on her face and soft cake stuffed into her mouth made her sigh in delight.

She turned to Udaru, taking a large bite from another slice. “If you were going to let me go--”

His eyes grew wide, and he took two clicking steps to stand close beside her. “Quieter..” he said.

Tif swallowed the lump of cake down. Of course, he wouldn’t want her to say something like that in a place like this. What had she been thinking? It was probably just the excitement of getting to see the Archon again, that’s what it was.

“...why did you bring me back to Lercel?” she finished with a whisper.

Udaru turned to the podium, but the old clerk didn’t seem to care about them in the slightest, continuing to work on whatever he was writing. In addition, the attendant who had delivered the message had left the same way they had come and the other hadn’t returned yet, so there was no one near this stairwell or fire.

“I made the decision after you faced the spidra,” Udaru said, voice as low as the crackle of the hearth. “And I didn’t want to leave you among their bodies. Here, you can rest first and then choose your path.”

Tif nodded at the sense of that, then asked, “May I try something on you?”

Udaru looked at her. “I suppose.”

“Great!” she said, dusting the cake crumbs from her hands. Then, she attempted the move for marking with Death again, pushing the numb sensation from her body toward the aquaros as she slid her thumb through the air. Unlike the last time she had tried, a smokey grey line snapped into existence, stretching from the center of her chest to the aquaros’s. “I did it!” she said, to which she heard a loud sniff she didn’t have to turn around to know it was the clerk. Surprisingly, not a moment later, a red line snapped up beside the grey one. “Huh,” Tif said, not sure how or why her Blood would join the Death.

“I believe you are taking my ris,” Udaru said, holding up a scaled hand. The blue tattoos there were certainly losing their luster, and now that Tif wasn’t focused on the lines hovering in the air, she did feel a trickle of energy coming through her chest. Not as much as a full contact, but definitely present. There was something else there, too. A feeling of where the aquaros was. She swore she could close her eyes, spin around and point straight to him. And that wasn’t all. If she traced the feeling of him further, she thought--

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Tif?” Udaru said.

“Sorry!” Tif said, abashed about the situation and getting distracted. She quickly made the motion with her thumb again, but the grey and red line continued to hover between them. She didn’t remember Jer doing any extra gestures after the challenges to break the command. Maybe just thinking it was enough.

She gave that a go and when it didn’t work either, she started saying it aloud, “Ris, stop. Quit it! Now!”

“Young lady,” Tif heard the clerk say from the podium, his tone heavy with reproach. She turned to look at him and saw that the depth of his frown had bunched nearly all the wrinkles on his face together. “This is the palace of the Archon, may her glory shine forever. Compose yourself.”

“Sorry,” she said, lifting her Pep hand in apology.

As she was doing that, Udaru ported, and the two lines vanished into the air like smoke. Tif spun around to find him and discovered that the aquaros had just gone behind her.

“That’s all you have to do to break a Death mark?” she asked.

Udaru shook his long head. “Only untrained Death ris users believe they need to see an opponent to keep a mark on them.”

“Oh...” she said, but then brightened. “I’m glad you found a way to stop it. And to think I can use Death and Blood together like that.” Tif almost shouted the last part, but remembering the admonishment of the clerk, she kept her voice low--or at least as low as she could.

“Another reason for you to consider keeping your ris intact,” Udaru said. “Stay here until my audience is done.”

Tif shook her head. “Not a chance.”

“As you wish,” he said with a sigh.

The wait continued after that. Tif wanted to experiment with her ris but she also didn’t want to create any more problems, so she ran through what she planned to say to the Archon. It was pretty simple though, so she ended up spending most of her time munching on the treats and walking around the entryway. She considered going down one of the two halls or up a staircase, but whenever she got too near any of them the clerk would start to hack and grumble, so she confined herself to the main room. During this time, Udaru rested. Just like the chair’s were keshe tall, they weren’t made with the aquaros tail in mind, so Udaru sat back in the same meditative pose Tif had seen him use while traveling, leaning on his tail, breathing in a soft hiss through his teeth.

When she ran out of food and had done four circuits of the room, Tif's thoughts began to drift to unpleasant places: would the Archon really let her join the knights? Did Vak-Lav realize she was back? And if so, how would he react to her going to see the Archon before him? He couldn’t have known that she had the option to leave the knights unless he had a spy at the inn or the fairy had been outside the window listening? If so though...what might he do with her parents because of it? She had been so sure when talking with Udaru before, but now with each second creeping by, all Tif could think about was how she was in Lercel and not going to save her family. If she didn’t believe that the Aspect outside the palace would point her lack of Gold ris out for all to see, thus getting her promptly thrown out of the city, she probably would have left.

“The Archon is willing to receive you now.”

Hearing those words made Tif feel like she had taken her first breath in much too long a time. She had to nudge Udaru awake, which she felt bad doing considering his wounds. He yawned when she did, cracking his long jaw so wide, she swore she could have stuffed a baby goat in it. After that, he pushed himself up, the scales under his tail making a rasping shh sound as they slid across the marble floor.

Udaru led her down the hallway to the right, which she wasn’t too surprised by since that’s where the return attendant had come from. The walls there were made of the same stone as the entryway but intermixed with lacquered wooden images of keshe, and even some humans, marked in gold fighting against spidra and other races. With the aquaros’s pace, Tif didn’t have a chance to look at any particular picture, but she liked the wooden pieces nonetheless. They did a nice job of breaking up the white marble and giving some added warmth to the otherwise foreboding construction.

They turned to the left, which brought the end of the hall into view down the way. Two knights guarded the doorway, their black tabards with a gold star in the center of a triangle marking them as inner division. Tif didn’t recognize either of them, but there was a discernible shimmer around both, indicating the strength of their shrouds. Between was a hanging wall of purple beads, which, with a nod from the two, she and Udaru stepped through. Tif felt a freezing bite as she did, bone deep cold that was there and gone so quickly she thought she imagined it.

Past the stone curtain and the unexpected chill was a room even more opulent than the waiting chamber they had been in: ochre-colored wall tapestries draped a good thirty feet long, and an enormous chandelier was suspended from the ceiling, bigger than a cyclops, and made from row upon row of intricately fashioned crystal that pulled at the eyes with their beauty. Tif attention, however, immediately went to the Archon, seated on a gem-inlaid chair against the far wall with a back so tall it had to be a dozen feet high. On both her right and left stood equally tall Aspects, but Tif was surprised that there weren’t more inner division knights in here, too.

The absence of people made it easy to see the mosaic floor tiles that made up the first half of the large room and then a shallow pool of water that made up the rest. Tif saw colorful fish dart to and fro in the rectangular pond, some clustering around the Aspects feet, which were partially submerged in the water. The Archons chair was on a raised dais, so neither her shoes nor her pristine white trimmed yellow clothes trailed in it. Tif wondered a moment how Jer’s ma had reached the chair without getting wet and then remembered how she had departed the challenges--a half foot of water would pose little difficulty for her.

“Udaru,” the Archon said, her perfect voice making the air in the room instantly worth more than any object on display. “A hot bath is truly one of this world’s finest pleasures. You will forgive me, but I couldn’t leave without indulging in a final soak.”

The aquaros dipped his head in respect. “Of course, your radiance.”

Her shaved head turned toward Tif and so did the Aspects, as if they were all three connected. “And my das opponent. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, my dear. Still covered in Blood ris and now Death, too, are we? I’m sure there is a story there and that Udaru had a purpose in bringing you.” She looked back at the division leader, but the Aspects continued to stare directly at Tif just like the one outside had. “But those are things that I will no longer need to concern myself with, will I?”

“I suppose…not,” Udaru answered. As usual, his voice had no tone, but his halting way of speaking conveyed his doubt to Tif--doubt Tif shared. Why wouldn’t the Archon want to know more? “Death is amassing in the area,” he continued. “Much more than was previously thought.”

The Archon frowned, the straight lines of her golden tattoos bending some above her brows. “Information you could have sent instead of coming to see me in person. Why are you telling me this?”

“I thought it too important to trust to parchment,” Udaru said and then motioned to Tif. “I also wanted to speak to you about this one’s debt.”

The Archon stared at the aquaros as if having trouble comprehending what she was hearing. “Are you saying…that today is not the day?”

Tif didn’t know what to make of that, but the “Ah,” Udaru croaked made it obvious he did. He followed it with a dip so low to the ground his snout nearly touched the tiled floor, as if he was guilty in some way.

“I am afraid not.”

Tif could never have guessed the effect that the words would have: the Archon’s flawless face fell. The sight struck Tif as utterly wrong, like seeing the sun wilt. The leader of Lercel sat that way for a time, and both she and Udaru stayed as quiet as the Aspects.

“They say that those with Tears ris experience emotion more keenly than others,” the Archon finally said.

“That is true,” the aquaros answered, the sameness of his speech making it sound…solemn Tif thought, which she was glad for. Anything to help Jer’s ma recover.

“How do you do it, Udaru?” the Archon asked, tilting her head toward the high ceiling. “Continue to go through the motions of life bereft of those you were meant to share it with? Perhaps, even with your ris, you do not feel the loss as deeply as I do. Perhaps that is how you are able to stand there and speak to me of such trivialities.”

Tif couldn't help but be stung that the Archon viewed her as trivial. But when the Archon’s gaze dropped, and Tif saw tears on the keshe’s metallic cheeks, her own worries were quickly forgotten. Jer had spoken of this, about the death of his father, the Archon’s husband, and how she hadn’t been the same since.

“I would like to see how your hurt compares to mine,” the Archon said to Udaru. “If I could have Tears ris I would, just to know.” She laughed, an utterly beautiful sound, completely at odds with her obvious grief. “Of course, if I could do what I wished, then there would be no need for any of this.”

Tif felt like she was falling farther and farther behind. What could the Archon of all people not do?

“I am sorry for your pain,” Udaru said, and Tif saw his frill flutter. “It is vast, and in it I saw a reflection of what I carry. It is one reason I agreed to our…arrangement.”

The Archon chuckled again, and this time she smiled, but Tif wouldn’t have called it a happy expression. “You pitied me,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “An odd trait for an assassin, wouldn’t you say?”

The aquaros’s frill twitched even more, and he cast an eye toward Tif. She had wondered what the aquaros had meant when he said that her intentions in coming to Lercel were more honorable than his. Was that how he had become a division leader, by trying to kill the Archon?

“Teleporting just the tips of your nails through my shrouds,” the Archon said. “It was…masterful.” Jer’s ma sighed, as if she was remembering a pleasant day. “Most others have been closer to suicides than an actual threats to my person.” She leaned forward in her seat. “And you have found no other ways, even with the Gold ris I have given you and all of these months?”

The sudden desperation in her voice made Tif uncomfortable because now she thought she knew what Jer’s ma wanted, something Jer himself had even said.

“There is a plot to kill you,” Tif blurted.

Udaru whipped to face her, and inside Tif kicked herself, not knowing why she had said it. The way things were going, bringing it up wouldn’t do any good. In fact, if she was right in her guess, it might make things worse.

The Archon looked at her with considerably more interest than before. “And are you the perpetrator? If so, you are quite forthcoming but also rude to have kept me waiting this long.”

“N-no, Archon,” Tif said, trying to speak faster than her tongue allowed so she might squash such a wild idea. “I overhead the plotting when I participated in the challenges, but I don’t know who they were.”

“I see,” Jer’s ma said, her brief excitement already fading. “So you are Sur-Rak’s source. I suppose there is some small pleasure in seeing those pieces fit together.”

“Sur-Rak?” Tif asked.

“Yes,” the Archon said with another sigh, though there was no pleasure in this one. “She made the same claims as you. The inner knights have been on high alert ever since. The whole division would be on top of us if I wasn’t keeping them at bay with my shroud.”

Tif shared a look with Pep. The cold they had walked through when entering the throne room, that had been the Archon’s outer barrier. And she could use it to keep that many knights out?

“Hearing of the plot,” Jer’s ma said, “and then that you had come to see me at long last, Udaru, I thought for sure…” She didn’t finish, looking for all the world alone on her beautiful chair.

Tif’s heart went out to the Archon, and if she didn’t have Blood ris up and down her arms, she would have run across the shallow pond that separated them to give her a hug.

“You asked me how I continue forward,” Udaru said, seeming to have recovered from Tif’s surprising revelation--though the look he shot her made it clear that they’d be having words about it later. “It is to protect my people. They are vulnerable to Death and others. I will have my rest but not until I have done everything I can for them.”

The Archon waved the sentiment away. “Death has not mounted a significant attack against Lercel since I crushed them with the Gargant nearly a decade past. My people have no need for me.”

“With these new numbers, they might,” Udaru said, at the same time Tif shouted, “But we do! You inspire us!”

The Archon looked at Tif again. “I inspire Blood, do I? You are truly a curious one, little human. I can see now why my son chose to spend the time he did with you.”

Tif shared another look with Pep. That was it! The Archon had lost her husband, but if Tif explained to her that her son needed her still, she surely wouldn’t want to leave.

“He--”

Tif’s words were cut off by a shout echoing through the chamber, and she turned to see Rof of all people being dragged across the wide floor. At first she couldn’t tell what was forcing him along until she saw a shimmer just past him. It was the Archon’s outer barrier, constricting and pulling him in with it. The shroud flashed past Tif in an icy shock, as the great sphere continued to collapse, and Rof was shoved through the water, fish scattering away from where his body tumbled.

Tif took a step forward to help or speak, she wasn’t sure, when Rof suddenly met another nearly invisible wall, what had to be the Archon’s inner shroud. His body was pressed between the two, and the spheres tilted, lifting him up so that he dangled a good half dozen feet in the air. Tif saw him struggle to move against the barriers, even heard him start to say something, but then there was only a series of cracking sounds as his ribs and other bones broke.

Tif thought she would sick up all the cake and plum pieces she had eaten. Had Rof just been killed?

“Archon!” someone called out from behind, and as fast as it had appeared, the Archon’s outer barrier whooshed past Tif again, but she was numb to the chill this time, watching as Rof’s body fell into the water with a splash.

He didn’t move.

“Leave us!” Jer’s mother shouted, and Tif managed to tear her eyes away from Rof’s body long enough to see one of the knights who had been standing guard pushed out of the room by the shimmer. The hanging beads rustled and were eventually still, as the cries of the knight grew further away--the Archon must be shoving them down the hall.

“How did he get in here?” Udaru croaked.

“A servant’s entrance,” the Archon mused, “which is why I let him pass.”

“But why was he here?”

“Obviously trying to kill me,” the Archon said. “Otherwise my shroud wouldn’t have reacted. And like so many before him, doing a poor job of it--”.

The rest of what the Archon was saying was lost to Tif as she finally managed to move. A few steps and she was in the shallow water, splashing over to where the young keshe boy lay. Rof, Rof was the assassin? She landed in a crouch beside him, trying to assess his injuries all at once. His body was crushed, from his nose smeared across his face to his feet bent in line with his legs, ankles broken.

She saw that his chest still rose and fell though and heard air wheezing in and out of his body.

Her crest. She could use it to heal him like she had her fa. Tif reached forward to initiate the transfer, but her hand stopped inches from his exposed skin. He already had four seals: two of Gold and two of Tears, which meant she could only give him one more. And one seal of Blood wasn’t enough to heal.

Stymied, Tif looked back at his face and saw that his eyes had fixed on her. They had a wild, wet glint, and he began to say something, but it was too quiet for her to make out.

She leaned closer, putting her ear next to his lips.

“The Archon didn’t end the Life Trade…she…started it.”

It was like Tif could feel each line that made up Pep’s face thrum with the same shock she felt. Tif immediately pulled back so she could see the lie in his eyes. His words must be false. Everyone knew that the current Archon had ended the Life Trade, not begun it.

“What do you mean? Rof?”

He coughed wetly, splattering blood on the hand she had placed on his chest in the hope of offering some small comfort. He coughed again, a horrible, rattling thing, and as the sound of it faded, so too did his connection to the flesh, eyes fixing in death instead of trembling and his body eerily still. The Gold and Tears ris went with him, slowly disappearing as if their charge had been fully spent.

Tif continued to stare down at him, unmoored and unsure what to do next. That was until she noticed that the blood on the back of her hand was shrinking. Thinking she must be seeing things, Tif blinked, but refocusing on the bizarre happening didn’t change the fact that the rest of the red wetness was sinking into her, like water into dry earth. Where it settled new dots and lines appeared, making the Blood ris on the back of her hand even denser.

“Pep?” she wondered aloud, more than a little afraid. She could take blood in as a sacrifice like an Aspect? What had this crest turned her into? She looked around. There wasn’t any blood from him in the water either.

Had Udaru or the Archon noticed? If so, they would undoubtedly have questions for her--hard questions at that.

“--you know the technique?”

Udaru and the Archon had been talking this entire time, but Tif hadn’t been able to pay attention to them while trying to help Rof. There was something in the Archon’s question though that tugged at Tif. Hope?

She turned to see that Udaru appeared uncomfortable, frill flat to his body and long head tilted down and to the side. Unsurprising considering that his newest squire lay dead a short distance away.

“I saw him studying a scroll of it, yes,” the aquaros admitted. “It was the same technique he used during the first day of the challenges. One of great expenditure I was unfamiliar with. I believe he paired it with his Tears ris to kill a Death tribe warrior by porting Gold ris into their skull.”

Tif looked back at Rof. “That’s what you did?” She remembered the technique that Udaru was describing all too clearly, where Rof would use an entire arm of Gold ris in a single strike, much more than anyone she had ever seen before. As for the warrior, she remembered the human, dying as blood fountained from his nose and ears. Tif wasn’t sure whose death had been worse, the warrior’s or Rof’s.

“If such an attack exists, why was this not the first thing you told me?”

Tif could hear the anger in the Archon’s perfect voice. The emotion didn’t sully the sound, but seemed to round it out, making it fuller and more alive.

“Gold ris is unstable when moved with Tears,” Udaru explained. “I have done many tests.”

“And yet this boy,”--Tif looked over and saw the Archon flap a hand in the direction of Rof’s body--“by your own admission has figured out a way to make the combination work?” The Archon dropped her head into her hand, looking utterly frustrated. “It seems I should have let him live instead of you.”

“He was skilled, it is true,” Udaru said. “I have only managed to expend a quarter of what he could, maybe less. He must have spent a great deal of his young life training.”

The Archon’s head lifted, her purple eyes almost seeming aglow in this light. “But you can use it?”

Udaru shifted. “I have made attempts ever since seeing the scroll, but with limited effect. I nearly perished when trying to use the technique against a live opponent.”

Tif looked at the bandages the aquaros still wore. That was why he had been wounded when fighting the spidra--he had been experimenting with a new technique. It was also probably why he had ordered the knights to stay and face the Death tribe warriors, to try again or maybe to see how Rof would fight, which he had.

“You are a liar,” the Archon said with a voice as cold as her shroud. She was standing now, glowering down at the aquaros.

Udaru seemed taken aback, his frill fluttering nervously. “I…have only spoken truth.”

“You claim to live for the people of Sah’Sah, and yet you linger here, play acting the part of a division leader. Have you softened and now prefer the protection that Lercel’s walls and I provide, like a fat lizard bathing in the sun?”

“I have a duty,” Udaru said, though his voice didn’t have its usual volume. “To my knights--”

“They humor you because of my command,” the Archon snapped. “They would turn on you with a word from me or any of the division leaders.”

“With more time, I can master the technique,” Udaru croaked. “Perhaps if I had more Gold ris--”

The Archon laughed, but the music of it was twisted, crueler even than Sur-Rak’s had been. Tif knew that Jer’s ma was hurting, but seeing her like this, seeing her hero, the one she had always wanted to become, the one who had maybe started the Life Trade…Tif felt sicker than before, she wanted to help, but like with Rof, she had no idea what to do.

“They thought me mad to give you a single seal and a position of such power,” the Archon sneered. “A squire of your squad lies dead at my feet, and you think the division leaders and council will reward you? The knights have called for reinforcements, I can feel them outside my shroud. My brother will soon arrive and he will not hesitate to break the barrier if he thinks me in danger.”

Udaru looked at Tif and then Rof’s body. “I could port them away.”

“How far will you get carrying two people?” the Archon asked. “Not to mention through walls when you must see where you are going? No, Udaru, we have run out of time, you and I. Either we are both free this day or neither of us are.”

Tif wasn’t entirely sure what Jer’s ma meant by that, but she was sure that it didn’t sound good. “Udaru?”

The aquaros had closed his eyes, but when he opened them, it was the Archon he stared at. “Very well.”

The Archon settled back in her chair. “If you are not fast enough, I will not stop my shrouds this time.”

“I know.” The aquaros didn’t make any threatening gestures, simply stood there, but Tif thought he had never looked more dangerous.

“Udaru?” she asked, more desperate.

Just a portion of his body ported, like Tif had seen the underground leader Ipsol do; Udaru’s scaled arm was suddenly up and pointing at the Archon. Tif thought she caught a shimmer around his hand, but it was gone much faster than normal, likely because he had ported the strike to the intended target--inside the Archon head. Her eyes flew over to where the leader of Lercel reclined, calm and bright in her radiance.

Tif started to relax. She was ok--

A trickle of blood dripped from the Archon’s nose. She lifted a long limbed hand to touch the wetness, and when she felt it she smiled of all things, looking truly luminescent but for the red on her teeth.

“Thank you, Udaru.”

Blood erupted from both nostrils and her long ears, gushing over her golden tattoos as she slid from her chair onto the ground, the clatter of her many golden bracelets against the marble floor deafening to Tif’s ears.

The Aspects stood eerily unmoving on either side of the throne, as if nothing of import had happened.

“What have you done?” Tif heard someone thunder. She turned and saw the Archon’s brother racing into the chamber from a side entrance, joined by Sur-Rak and other members of the inner division.

Udaru ported beside where Tif sat, but before he could touch her, the aquaros was struck multiple times, knocking him back. As he fell, they locked eyes, and Tif couldn’t quite tell what his reptilian expression meant: Regret? Apology? Before he hit the water, he vanished. She heard knights around her shouting, but Tif didn’t see the aquaros anymore. She did however see the felled Archon and without thinking, pushed herself up. Jer’s ma still had her ris, which meant she was partially alive. If Tif could somehow force her Blood seals onto her, like she overwritten her own Gold ris, she could save Jer’s ma.

With renewed vigor she sprinted forward, but before she got more than three steps, her legs were swept from under her, and she landed hard on her side, water splashing into her face.

She looked up to see Sur-Rak standing over her.

“But I can--” Tif started.

The noble keshe’s face was rigid with anger, more bleak than a sky full of hail. “Move again and you die.”