The blade in Zoe’s grip was formed completely of [Mind’s Eye Incision]. She solidified the psychic energy into a long thin needle like the end of an ice pick. A barbaric thrill raced up through her as she jammed the needle into Trinch’s brain. There was nothing delicate or precise about a frontal lobotomy, but Zoe had learned how much she reveled in being an instrument of blunt force.

She laughed as Trinch’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. The chains crashed down around her but Zoe blasted them with burning Time. She had spent so long entrenched in the moment, that she never really examined what was happening to her. No, that wasn’t right… she examined — and she’d wallowed — but she never sat outside the moment to truly see the arc of her growth.

From the surgeon imprisoned by anger to the fighter consumed by rage.

She sliced through cobwebs of shadowy Skein as she mused.

Was the change good? Was her development good? Was good even something she could apply to people?

ding!

Stop! Please stop.

“Enough from you,” Zoe said as she sliced through the chains around Trinch’s neck.

Lengths of chain fell limp in the mud as the Black Star’s wordless scream echoed through her mind like a wasp nest on fire.

She wondered, as the chains cringed in pain if she was the villain. Was it true that she held the Black Star, and her friends, in place? The technique in her heart proved her darkness to some, but a technique born blindly, born of fear and misunderstood desire, should not encapsulate a person. Perhaps the Mirrored skin of her sister-clone that she wore as armor showed her to be the villain.

Or was it her desire to spit in the face of fate and burn it all to the ground? Her will to destroy everything until she and her friends had a world of peace?

All of this was arbitrary. For there to be a villain, there needed to be a hero, and Zoe refused to believe that anyone who would allow the incorporation of Earth could be anything but a monster.

Moth fluttered across her heart and Zoe nodded with conviction.

“You’re right,” Zoe said.

There was only one way to express ultimate power.

Zoe withdrew her technique from Trinch’s mind. [Mind’s Eye Incision] collapsed completely into her hands. She relaxed the burning of time as Trinch gasped for air. His eyes rolled in his head as violent shudders shook his body. The Black Star fell limp around them, but the slight rattling in the links told her they weren’t dead.

Trinch stared up at Zoe with wild eyes.

“What… did you do to me?”

“I severed your last connection to the Witch. You’re free now.”

“I…”

“Think of all the things I could have done.”

And probably should have, she thought to herself. Moth fluttered, and Zoe grinned in agreement.

“Do you still want to fight me?” she asked Trinch.

Trinch glared up at her.

“You killed me.”

“You killed Princh.”

His eyes widened slightly.

“Who?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Zoe gripped him with [Our Hearts Toll as One]. She read his heartrate and wrapped fingers of Skein around the erratic muscle.

“I could kill you,” she said.

“Arrogant.”

Zoe laughed.

“Maybe I should kill you after all, but I’ve wasted enough time here,” she released Trinch and floated up into the air above them.

Her Willpower spread like wings to hold her aloft as she gazed down at the mess of chains in the crater. Trinch lay in the center, his gaze sharp even as his body lay bloodied and limp.

The chains twitched and lifted into the air. Trinch’s fingers twitched as he recovered. Whether it was the Witch’s interference over the last hundred years, the influence of the labyrinth’s essence, or both, Trinch was one tough bastard.

“Do you think that’s enough to take me down?” Trinch shouted. “Do you think you’re enough to change any of this? We’re jokes to them. We’re little playing pieces pushed around.”

Zoe folded her arms.

“I’m going to take down the Witch, want to help?”

“Do you hear yourself?” Trinch said. “That’s them talking…” he scratched his head. “You really cut them out of my head. I thought the Black Star separated the Crimson Armada but they just wanted me to think that.”

ding!

Of course, I took you away from that big meanie.

Trinch shook his head. His mouth worked, but no words came. He brushed his long furry fingers against the chains fused into his skin and soul. Zoe shuddered with recollection. The cold metal flowed as though it were warm and alive. It lifted Trinch off the ground and he hung like the deadweight body of a long-legged spider.

“I don’t want to fight you,” Trinch said.

ding!

Zoe hurt us. She’s a meanie.

Zoe floated closer.

“I don’t want to fight,” she said. “It all feels machinated.”

“Like a child slamming dolls together.”

“You played with dolls?”

“I’m a person,” Trinch said with a roll of his shoulders. “I had a childhood.”

His wings buzzed and lifted him from the ground toward Zoe. The chains trailed behind like a coat of octopus. Broken links littered the ground. They glinted even under this lightless sky. Though the Black Star and Trinch acted undamaged, Zoe knew the truth.

She felt it with [Our Heart’s Toll as One].

They would operate like they were fine until their battery ceased and they died completely. With shock, she realized it was the same with her. Trinch’s heart felt alien. The wrong number of chambers packed full of tubes, but there was a familiarity.

His tiny heart felt too much like the dark hole in her chest.

She recognized the power that warped them both. The subtle touch of the Witch. A confluence of Skein as her future collapsed into her present. Destiny folded into a crossroads.

Trinch floated at her height, the chains dangled beneath him, and they stared at each other as the gods flashed and fought in the background.

Zoe was the first to break the silence.

“I despise both of you, but you’re strong. Help me defeat the Witch.”

He nodded slowly.

“The Witch isn’t the true enemy, is she?”

“No.”

“So what is your plan, Zoe Chambers?”

“I’m going to burn Fate’s web.”

“What if that destroys the universe?”

“Then I’ll rebuild from the ash.”

“Arrogant,” he said but his tone held more respect than derision. “How do I know you won’t stab me in the back?”

“You’re not worth the time,” Zoe said. “Search the clarity of your mind. Your thoughts are free of the Crimson Armada, what do you truly desire?”

Trinch sighed, and despite his fresh body, age creased his face.

“I want it to end.”

“Then help me end it.”

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

“I don’t forgive you, I just want your help.”

She flew up and away. The spires of the labyrinth extended through the sky, a twisting grid of architecture painted a pale blue by the distance. Fate said that the goal was to reach the center, and while Rue and the Witch fought each other, Zoe would achieve that goal. If Trinch came with her, then whatever obstacles occurred inside the labyrinth could be crossed.

She didn’t trust him, but power meant she didn’t need to. They could be friends instead of fighting, that was the true display of strength. The open hand, rather than a fist. Her knuckles clenched as Moth brushed across her heart. The urge to incorporate faded. She hadn’t gained any essence, but she felt something else expanding, deepening, beneath the surface of her Skein.

To call it enlightenment would be to place her finger upon the bubble, but as she flew toward the labyrinth, as Trinch followed, she felt lighter, stronger, and faster. Faith spread wide on wings of light, and Zoe raced through the air toward the maze.

ding

I’m happy we’re friends again.

We were never friends, Zoe thought to herself, we simply moved in the same direction. That’s what you call friendship: momentum.

“So am I,” Zoe said. “Let’s go take care of the biggest meanie of them all.”

ding!

Ok!

But no chains slipped onto her soul. It seemed the Black Star learned that lesson from her.

They flew up toward the labyrinth until they hovered above an arching bridge. The end of the bridge entered a chamber that twisted away into tunnels.

“You incorporated the labyrinth,” Zoe said. “Do you have any special understanding of which way to go?”

“You’d think we can fly around, but the only path to the center is through,” Trinch rubbed at his furry chin with furry fingers. “Once we’re inside I should be able to guide us.”

Zoe nodded, with no time to waste — though was there any time in this game of Fate? — she flew along the bridge and entered the labyrinth’s chambers.