Ada awoke to the ground below her swaying, and her head resting on something warm. It took a few moments for her to realize she was on a swaying boat, with her head in Shiara's lap. She struggled to move, but after a moment slumped back to her resting place.

"Hey there." Shiara put a hand on Ada's forehead. "You had us worried."

Accepting her fate as an invalid for the time being, Ada closed her eyes. "What happened?" She asked not for sake of concern or curiosity, but because of reflex. She was tired, so tired, she didn't have the strength to care.

"We... aren't certain," Shiara tried to lie, to spare her princess the pain for a moment. She found it wasn't in her nature to keep the deception going. "But it's bad. Karana's Sacred City was destroyed, and we barely escaped with our lives."

"We know exactly what happened." Arakash sat up, still wearing his demonic form. Of his pair of large wings, one was ripped and broken, and the other missing entirely. His body wasn't fairing much better, covered in stained purple blood and the tattered remains of his armor. "These two are afraid to tell you the truth."

Shiara glared at the demon. "She is more dead than alive right now. Would it kill you to pretend to have some compassion for five seconds and let her recover?"

With her eyes still closed, Princess Adageyudi forced herself to care. "I want to hear the truth. All of it. Arakash, since you want to tell me, feel free. Celeste, please make certain he doesn't slip in any lies."

"I'm humbled by your trust, Princess. Don't bother correcting that, Celeste." Arakash gave a sideways glance at the Daeva, whose armor and flesh were still in good condition in spite of the fighting. "First important news: your father tried to kill us."

"We don't know for a fact that it was him." Celeste felt dirty giving Sorda even that much benefit of the doubt.

"The evidence is overwhelming," Arakash said. "Someone accessed Ada's magic using a form of blood magic. Which so happens to be Sorda's bloodline. And only a direct ancestor can take control of a descendant's magic like that. If it weren't for your healing, she'd be dead and so would I. You got a better interpretation than 'the bastard tried to kill us' for me?"

Celeste's silence said everything they needed to know.

"You wouldn't know this, but after the first assassination attempt, he gave clear orders that we were to keep marching. Always thought that was odd, now I know why. He always planned to use us as a weapon." Arakash would have enjoyed Ada's shock more if it weren't for the last detail. "Worse, he succeeded, it's just going to take a little longer. Somehow he was able to use you to summon Shadowblight to Karana."

Ada tried to sit, then slumped back down again. She failed to notice that now, Shiara's hand was just a little more firm on her head. "Shadowblight?"

"That's right, Princess. Your daddy brought back the Deathbringer."

"He's too cautious." Ada muttered her halfhearted defense of her father. She, too, thought back to her father's unusual eagerness in sending her on the mission to Karana. "I don't believe..."

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"Liar. We both know were awake long enough to see it crawl out of that hole. Your father used you to end the most powerful empire in history. Millions died in minutes, and sooner or later everyone will join them."

Ada accepted the pain of opening her eyes and looked at Celeste. "Do you believe it's that bad?"

Celeste weighed her words, trying to find the most honest way to express the truth. "Shadowblight was stopped twice before. First by the other Pillars, then later by the Goddess of the Void. It's powerful, but not insurmountable."

"If you know where to find something as strong as the Pillars, feel free to tell me." Arakash gave Celeste a moment, and received nothing. "We don't even have a glimmer of a chance against that thing. I say we focus on Sorda. He struck me as clever, not insane."

Ada found herself agreeing. "I've never known father to lose control of a situation. He must have some failsafe."

"Then he has a way to save himself, or at least thinks he does," Arakash concluded. "If we find out what it is, maybe we can use it for ourselves. Which means we need a way back into Tyras. We also need to break the enchants that let him control your portal magic. Right now he must believe you're dead, and strong magic disrupts scrying so Shadowblight's blinded the world. I doubt we'll have long before that changes, so we must strike now."

Ada considered the question, and what few people she could trust to ask. "Grandpa is our best bet. I think he'd still know most of the defenses of the palace, and with any luck ways to bypass them."

"Do you think he'll help us?" Shiara asked. "It means turning on his son, after all."

"If he doesn't cooperate, I'm sure there are ways to make him change his mind." Arakash looked over at Celeste. "I'm sure what remains of Karana would take in anyone involved in this and give him a trial befitting of crimes against the world."

"He'll help." Ada forced herself to sit, in order to face her demonic servitor and annoyance. "Grandpa Sorin is one of the smartest, most understanding, people I've ever met. He's always been willing to listen to me, before. And if not, he'll listen to Celeste."

"That would be preferable to taking him as a prisoner." Celeste had seen her share of torture in her century of service, but she had yet to grow cold to the suffering of others, even those who deserved it. "But first, we're heading for Isyla."

"Isyla? Really?" Ada regretted her moment of excitement, and went quiet again. "I wasn't expecting to meet... my people... like this."

"With the Sacred City destroyed, Karana's portal network will be useless," Celeste said. "Or, worse, it would put us in grave and unnecessary peril. We need a trained portal mage, otherwise it would take months for us to travel anywhere. Whatever Sorda's long term plans, his first strike collapsed Karana's transport system. We need to overcome that as soon as possible. For that, we need Isylan help."

"Let me know when we get there." Ada slumped down on her side, placing her head back on Shiara's lap. With what little strength she had left expended, she drifted back to sleep.

Shiara put her hand on her princess' head. "Go ahead and sleep, I'll keep you safe." She looked at Arakash, daring him to make a snide remark which never came.

Arakash had other concerns on his mind; he had come up with eighty three forms of torture he would put Sorda through, none of which were fatal. Yet. His eighty fourth idea was a problem, because he'd need help from a healer to make it work.

Shiara broke the silence after she was certain Ada had gone back to sleep. "Poor girl. Her father tries to kill her, then moments after she wakes up we spend our time planning to kill him. Things couldn't possibly get any worse for her."

"Did you forget that Shadowblight returned?" Arakash scoffed at the redhead's priorities. "It can't get worse for any of us. Nothing mortal or spirit is going to survive. They'll fight, they'll fail, they'll die, and no matter how clever Sorda thinks his plan to protect himself from that fate might be, it's going to fail as well. We've already lost."

"Then why bother going after Sorda at all?" Shiara asked. "If you're so convinced there's no hope of salvation, wouldn't it be easier to kill yourself now and avoid the suffering?"

"For the only thing which matters when the world's about to die: revenge."