"I don't know what you are or what you think you're doing, but it ends now," Baka growled. By a slight glint at his throat and the distortion of his voice, Inro realized he wore strings. A Dynast wearing strings struck Inro as absurd for a moment, but the fresh memory of Ruja banished such thoughts instantly.

"I'm Inro," he replied, wiping hard at the Limn paint on his face so Baka could tell it was him. "Returned from involuntary exile to set things to rights."

"Inro?" Baka shouted, then laughed. "Involuntary? Thought you holed up in Sunset on purpose. Then thought you were dead."

"I thought so as well many times since the fall of Sunset."

"You came a long way to die then," Baka said, glancing at the battle raging across the Second Tier. "Rega always said you'd have to die when we took over. Thought we'd already gotten that crossed that off the list, but time to do it again I guess."

"I never thought you were warrior enough to be worth the trouble," Inro said quickly as the thrumming began to build up in Baka's throat.

The sound died with Baka's mirth. A desultory came across Baka's face as he look up and down Inro's naked, painted form. "I'm not stupid enough to face you in combat with that shadowblade of yours in play."

Inro unstrapped his belt and held it high for Baka to see it then slowly set it down as he backed away from the base of the ramp. "I'll put it down if you take off those strings. You've tried to take my place here in Ziggurat as High Commander of the Legions, but all I've heard in Sunset is rumors of your incompetence. Can't imagine your skill in battle fares much better."

Baka growled, ripped the strings from his throat, and tossed them aside. As he stormed down the ramp, a frail-looking, braille-dotted, shaven-headed man in robes followed close behind him. "What orders, Dynast? We can dispatch a wyre to Rega and the others to be sure-"

"Tell them I'm about to kill Inro again. Tell them he'll stay dead this time, Svalius." A cheer went up among the beleaguered Legionnaires as they saw Baka descend the ramp. He motioned for stillness and Inro called for the same in the language of the Origin. Within a few moments, the fighting died down and both sides formed an uneasy circle about the two Dynasts.

Arca stepped to Inro's side with his sword bared and bloody, but Inro planted a hand on his friend's chest.

"This one is for me."

With only a slight pause, Arca nodded, flicked the blood from his precious sword, and handed it back to Inro. "Need this to fight that then."

Realizing what the sword meant to his friend, Inro squinted back tears as he took it. "Thank you, my brother."

"Anyone interferes, I kill you myself," Baka shouted to his men.

"Tell everyone this is between me and him," Inro echoed to Arca, swinging the sword about to loosen up his shoulders.

"One Tribe should finish battle now. Winning. Wait lets more gather to fight at gates."

Though Baka played the dumb brute, Inro was sure the point Arca just brought up went into the giant Dynast's calculation to throw away his strings. The man had to have seen the effectiveness of their sling stones; holing up in the First Tier would likely simply turn it from tower to tomb as they focused their explosive attention on it. Perhaps he'd seen how Ruja had fared against them as well and decided against tempting the same fate.

"We kill him, we don't need to fight at the gates. And if I fall, all the forces here will be amassed at the Second Tier gates while our forces come up from behind. Gave orders for Hadrien's men at the Third Tier to destroy the gate mechanisms there so they can't close it on us."

"Kill this one quick, either way," Arca said, placing his hands lightly on Inro's shoulders so as not to smear his Limn.

Inro nodded as Arca stepped back, only to have Cairin step in front of him.

"How many painty tribals do you need to kiss and snuggle before we can do this?" Baka whined.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Madness," Cairin said, her eyes boring into his with ferocious intensity. "We just kill now. Win. Over."

"No," Inro said. "I told him I would face him without shadow blade. So I said, so thus must I face him."

"Flesh lasts. Words die the moment they born."

"Not these ones," Inro said, gently pushing her aside. "I need to do this alone. I gave my word of honor."

"Inro's word, not Cairin's," Cairin said, storming off. "Inro genius and idiot both."

"True," Inro said wryly as he looked at the sheer mass of Baka.

"We ready finally?" Baka said, yawning exaggeratedly.

"Let's end this,"

The scribe Savalius returned to Baka's side. "I think we should dispatch- Yaa!"

Baka picked Savalius up with one hand and hurled the man at Inro with the same motion. Caught off-guard, Inro failed to move from the path of the wailing scribe. They crashed into the ground. Limn helped absorb the impact, but the blow still rattled Inro. Struggling to disentangle himself from the flailing man proved difficult and, ultimately, unnecessary.

With a roar, Baka leapt into the air and swung his axe spike down. The metal blade punched all the way through the scribe and deflected off Inro's Limn. Even with the paint on Inro's torso flaring and negating the worst of the blow, Inro still felt like he'd been kicked in the chest. The now-screaming Savalius became Baka's issue to deal with while Inro scrambled free and found his sword.

By the time Inro rose to his feet with weapon in hand, Savalius' body was crashing into a watching press of Legionnaires and Baka's axe hurtling towards Inro's head. Inro ducked the blow and lunged in to stab with his sword, but it scraped harmlessly off Baka's armor. The huge Dynast didn't bother to block or recover from his swing, instead driving his plated knee into Inro's ribs.

Savalius blood must have smeared some of the paint away from where Baka struck, for this time it felt more like being pummeled by a sledgehammer. Inro's blade scraped across Baka's armor again as he flew back and rolled to his feet, but his cut merely drove a bright scratch across the polished steel.

"You follow this pathetic old Dynast?" Baka shouted at the One Tribe, pointing at the blood-splattered, gasping Inro with his axe. They all stared back, silent and blank-faced. "You deserve to be slaughtered when I'm done with him!"

Inro's panting was overplayed to hopefully create just such an opening. Mid-gasp, he launched into a sprint to cover the few paces between him and Baka, feinting towards the man's exposed face then redirecting towards an exposed bit armored only in leather at the knee. Not only was Baka huge, but he was fast and trusted his heavy armor implicitly. A quick pivot scraped Inro's sword across Baka's greaves instead of drawing blood, then he was ducking the axe again.

They went back and forth for what felt like an hour, Inro using every trick he knew. He couldn't land a single, telling blow anywhere that might do real harm. Like Baka, he'd trained with his heavy armor, learned to trust it to take blows then counterattacking while the enemy was overextended. While the Limn was lighter and allowed him to move faster, it cushioned the impacts differently and, for all its advantages, he'd spent centuries training with a different kit and fighting style.

As blood, sweat, and repeated impacts began to wear the Limn off his body, Inro knew he'd have to end it soon or he'd be naked truly, then dead shortly after. While Baka bled from a cut to the cheek and a shallow gash across the ankle, the giant seemed not to have noticed.

In a desperate gambit, Inro snatched up a broken spearhead left lying nearby from the earlier battle, hurtled it Baka's head, and rushed towards him. Rather than dodge, Baka simply dropped his chin. The spear clattered off his helm. Inro was already committed, driving his sword full force towards Baka's hip. This time Baka deflected it with his axe haft, the redirection driving Inro's whole body aside. The axe's butt whipped around, came up, and caught Inro under the chin where the beading sweat had smeared away most of the Limn.

Inro landed flat on his back. Training and the Limn helped soften the fall, but did nothing for the spinning, ringing that was his world. A moment later, immense weight planted on his chest. He groaned as Baka put all his weight on the foot planted on Inro's chest.

"You trained and prepared for all those centuries to die like this?" Baka snorted.

Inro tried to move, but the weight was too much. He couldn't breathe much less remove the giant's leg from his torso.

"Over now," Baka said, whipping his axe up with one hand.

All those years preparing. All that certainty that he would prevail, come down to this. Faces of all those who had died under him flashed through Inro's mind as the axe descended, then suddenly pieces of Baka's face splattered on him as Baka's head exploded.

The huge corpse fell backwards like a felled tree, the axe arm tumbling free as shoulder and head disappeared in a shattering, rocky explosion.

Inro gasped for air as the weight lifted. He sat up slowly, his eyes falling on Cairin. Her sling whipped about her hand, already loaded with another Limn-painted stone.

"Not my words," she said, glaring at him as if daring him to say something. "And Inro not alone. Not have to do anything alone again. One Tribe, not one man."

"One Tribe," Inro agreed, groaning as he rose to his feet. Locating his sword, he toed it towards a grinning Arca, then turned to the mute Legionnaires standing in wary ranks looking at their fallen Dynast with dismay. Shouting and sounds of combat rang from the gate house.

"I raised dozens of Legions during the Reclamation. Led more soldiers than I can even remember since." He looked among them as he spoke, wiping sweat from his head with one hand. "I suppose we could keep fighting and dying for nothing here or we could end this war against each other and do something about the true enemies of the Book. The Aj and Imminent who, together, murdered my mother, holy Ebon."

He picked up his belt, drew the shadowblade, and waved its faint wispy form about for a moment.

"Well?"