“Danefer is the Green Man?”

I couldn’t stop myself from shouting. The thought was too shocking, too absurd. Yes, he had been here, but he’d spoken of these barbaric thugs with disdain. He’d said he was using the Green Men. He couldn’t actually be one of them—he couldn’t be their leader and founder.

Racquel looked mildly surprised. “You didn’t know? I thought you knew. You seemed to know him well enough.”

I said, the excitement and volume not completely quelled in my voice, “No! I didn’t know! How can you possibly know?”

She smiled impishly, though her eyes were dark and serious. “That’s between me and Danefer, now isn’t it?”

I shook my head and retreated to a block of rubble, sinking down onto it. The suit didn’t fatigue exactly, but there was a weariness in me that craved the comfort of just sitting.

Racquel slinked over and sat beside me. I suddenly became very aware of her proximity and of how much I’d been noticing her beauty.

“I hear a lot about you, Lord Bloodsword. They talk about you everywhere.”

“Oh?” I replied.

“Using the Footfield during the Choosing? Taking hold of POWER in the final round? Progressing faster than anyone has ever done in the Choosing? There are those who say you’ll change the fortunes of your city. Poor little Boston has sat over there in the corner of the world, affecting nothing for so long. They say you’ll be a force in a year or two.”

There was something playful, probing, teasing about her words.

When I didn’t respond, she continued, “I really don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

A shock of dismay throbbed inside me at her comment, then a smile sprang to my lips as I realized she was barbing me.

She said, “What level are you, Lord Bloodsword of the Rapid Development?”

“Thirteen... no, fourteen. I leveled during the fight with Danefer.”

Racquel rocked back on her perch, her eyebrows shooting skyward. It seemed I had perturbed the imperturbable.

“If I had Assess, I’d test that claim. Level 14?” she whistled sharply between smooth, full lips.

“If that’s true, then you really are something special. You know I’m level 19? I’ve worn the suit for two years. Do you know how many Griidlords get to level 19 in two years? Nobody. Well, almost nobody. They tell me I’m a prodigy. But you’ve gone to level 14 in what, two weeks?”

“A little longer than that.”

She shook her head, more amazed than disbelieving. “When will you cap out? By the Oracle, Bloodsword, that’s... that’s impossible. I’d call you a liar, except you just don’t have the face for it.”

I blushed slightly, realizing she was actually considering my face.

We sat in silence for a while, the Burghsmen chatting away as they picked through bodies, searching for loot. Two of them were hacking at the locked wooden doors of a small building attached to the large hall. Another band wandered into the hall itself as the smoke cleared. Only minutes before, they had been fighting for their lives, ending the lives of others. Now they milled about as if they were construction workers on a break, roaming the ruins in groups of threes, fours, and fives.

Finally, I broke the silence. “You saved my life, Racquel.”

She smiled. “It was my pleasure. Couldn’t let your pretty face go to waste like that.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I spoke quickly, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. “I’m not taking it lightly; I’m not joking. You saved my life. I owe you for that.”

She shrugged. “Then you’ll just have to save mine someday.”

I said, “Isn’t it madness that we could be crossing swords in a little over two weeks? Am I supposed to fight you? I’m your type disadvantage, Racquel. If our teams meet during the Falling, I’ll be expected to seek you out. Am I supposed to... kill you?”

She flicked her hair and eyed me sideways. “If you think you can…”

“But that’s crazy,” I said, shaking my head.

“It’s the way it’s always been.” Her tone grew thoughtful. “I don’t know you well, Bloodsword, but I like you well enough. I don’t hold anything against you. But if we meet during the Falling, we owe it to our people, our Towers, our oaths, to fight to the last to bring them the Flows they need.”

“There has to be a better way.”

She opened her mouth as if to say something, then paused and seemed to think better of it.

I thought of Baltazar’s vision, to unite the cities, to bring an end to fighting like this. What would become of Griidlords in that future? Would he abolish them? Or could the suits be repurposed, their power used to build things, to save lives, instead of ending them?

Racquel’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Don’t hold back.”

I blinked. “What?”

She fixed me with a steady gaze. “If we meet on the field, don’t hold back. It’s heresy; it’s treachery. I don’t know how much I truly believe in it, but the other Griidlords expect you to do what you can. The priests, the lords, the people—they expect it. If we meet on the field, and you get a chance to put me down, then you have to. Holding back could cost you your suit. You can owe me one, sure; I like being owed favors. But that debt doesn’t extend to the Falling.”

I swallowed hard at her words. Then a question sprang to mind. “What in the Oracle’s name brought you here? This is a long way from home.”

She smiled, almost coyly. “Oh, that? I keep in touch with your man, Dirk. He told me about the plan to come here and attack this place. I didn’t imagine there’d be trouble, but I’m fond of your little Burghsman retainer, so I chose a Griid-train route that brought me out this way—just in case.”

“You abandoned your Griid-train just to make sure everything was okay?”

She shook her head, her voice slower, thoughtful. “Nooo... it’s funny, actually. I was on the main route, a few miles to the north. Suddenly, an emergency waypoint blinked on my HUD—flashing, red. I could see it was in the direction of where Dirk told me this fort would be, so I said ‘screw it’ and came running.”

The voice. It had been so unconcerned about Danefer, even though my survival had seemed doomed. It had summoned her. It could see through her just as it could see through me. I wondered if it spoke to her, too. She was a prodigy; it liked prodigies. It spoke to Morningstar—why not her as well?

“That’s a few miles,” I said, scrutinizing her. “How much warning could you have had? How fast can you go, exactly?”

She bobbled her head with a casual shrug. When she spoke, her tone was nonchalant. “I can break 200 miles an hour on a flat-out sprint under the Footfield.”

I stammered, “Two… two… two hundred miles an hour?”

She smiled widely. “I told you, I’m hot shit. Not as hot shit as you are, apparently, but I’m building my own legend.”

Another silence. It was easy and comfortable. We were both thinking.

She said, “How do you know Danny boy?”

I said, “Danefer? Hmmm, well I guess that’s between him and me as well.”

She smiled, her pupils dilating, her eyes fixed on me. “I can’t stand a mystery, Bloodsword. Maybe when the Falling is done, we’ll spend some more time together. Maybe I’ll get to know you a little better, get to trusting you. And we can share some secrets.”

She said that last with a flicker of something that set my heart racing.

She turned and started to walk north. She glanced over her shoulder, catching my eyes tracking her muscular figure. I quickly averted my gaze, but she smiled with satisfaction, completely unbothered by my lechery.

“And you owe me, Bloodsword,” she said.

I nodded. “I really do.”

She smiled again, and her helm folded back up, taking the loveliness of her face away from the world. She paused just a moment longer, her visor pointed at me. Then she sprinted away under her natural power, moving so quickly it was breathtaking. Just as she cleared the rubble—far too close to be truly safe—I watched as the Footfield took her over. There was a sound like a thunderclap as her motion and acceleration snapped to another level, and then she was streaking down the slope like a bolt of purple lightning.

I watched her go, tracking her with my eyes until she was finally lost from sight.

Then I noticed Dirk standing at my shoulder. I couldn’t tell how long he’d been there, but from the angle of his head, I could see he’d been tracking her movement with no less intensity than I had.

He said, “She’s something special, isn’t she?”

I looked back to where I had last seen her.

“Yeah,” I said. “She really is.”