“You guys have to get everyone out of here,” I tell them. “It might try to attack anyone who gets too close, and I’m not sure if I can hold it back.”

The Aegis scoffs at this. Why hold back? We should be demonstrating our superiority! And what is this strange aura around us? Why does it disguise our splendor? No, that will not do. We are to be seen and worshiped! The shield mentally prods at some force of magic I can’t see—but I feel it bend from the Aegis’s pressure.

Liz looks around nervously. “Are you sure you can’t just hurry out? It’s straining against my magic—it will break if this keeps up. I don’t know how that’s possible, but—we need to be quick. We should leave the city.”

Stop, I tell the shield, desperate. We can’t be found out. We—we’ll lose if people learn who we are.

This gives the Aegis pause. Lose? It does not want to lose. Why would people seeing us make us lose? That does not make any sense.

Then I feel an unsettling digging sensation in my head as a tendril of the Aegis snakes through my mind, sifting through my thoughts. I physically jerk back. Stop!

It finds what it was looking for. Ahh, now it understands. If we are exposed, the enemy might find us. Good! Let them come!

“That won’t work,” I gasp, cringing against the mental invasion. “It can’t be trusted in a crowd.”

“We could find smaller side streets to use,” Earnest suggests.

“We can clear the way ahead of you, so no one gets too close,” Xamireb adds.

I don’t know if it will work, but I don’t have any better ideas.

“Hurry,” Liz adds, frowning as she rubs a temple. “We don’t have much time.”

I lock eyes with Quell. He looks desperate—helpless. I bet I look the same.

“Okay,” I say, trying to suppress the flutters of panic that are crawling through my limbs. “I’m heading your way. Clear a path—but still keep your distance from me.”

The Aegis is getting annoyed. Why are we keeping our distance? We have so much power right now—at the thought, I can feel the shield’s presence press down against my mind, and I stumble, nearly falling into the spring. The Influence stat is at 48%. The shield’s voice is so loud, I’m barely aware of what the others are saying. I just focus on staying rigid: my body upright, my mind stiff and unyielding. I don’t understand what the Aegis is doing, but I refuse to bend beneath its will.

Water splashes beneath my boots as I reach the bank. Everyone’s moved back, but this has also drawn the attention of onlookers. Earnest is trying to push some locals away. Behind him, down the street, I can make out a handful of guards curiously looking our way.

Yes! Finally. To battle!

“Darian?” I drop the weight of the shield to the ground before me, and its tip sinks several inches into the sand. I lean on it for support, mentally exhausted. It’s too hard to focus on moving while also fighting back the shield. I don’t know what I’m even fighting off, exactly—I just know it wouldn’t be good if I stopped now.

“Here, Nye,” she calls from one side.

I turn my head to her. Unlike the others, she doesn’t look worried. Her frown is certain. Determined. “You’ll stop it if something happens?” I ask. “If I can’t?”

I know that’s not a fair ask. How do you stop a sentient, blood-thirsty shield with no apparent vulnerabilities? But she’s the strongest of us here. She’s our only chance.

“I will,” she promises. Then she taps her cheek. “Put the mask on.”

Mask? Oh. I fumble at the Bloodlust mask hanging around my neck. She thinks we’re going to get into a fight. And with the guards now heading our way, she’s probably right. Better to take all precautions. It isn’t easy, working it up my jaw and around my ears one-handed, but I manage.

Someone touches my arm. I flinch back, fear spiking through me, but the Aegis doesn’t react. It knows this one isn’t an enemy. This is one we are charged to protect!

Quell’s face is pinched with worry.

“Nye, come on. We have to go.” He gestures ahead; Earnest and Xamireb are clearing a path just as they’d promised, around the bank and away from the approaching guards. How did they get so far ahead? And the guards are suddenly closer. Darian and Liz are looking at me expectantly. Did they say something a moment ago? Maybe, but I hadn’t been listening. It’s getting hard to think about anything other than what the Aegis is thinking about.

The Influence stat is 57% now. Is that why?

Echo, I think, starting to ask her. But the question I’d just had escapes me.

I feel so powerful. Overflowing with strength.

“Nye!” Quell says again. His grip tightens around my arm, and he tugs hard. We can barely feel it. A brush of wind, nothing more. Yet, my mind clears enough to understand: I need to follow him. Mechanically, I force my feet into motion.

At first the Aegis is elated—I am elated. Ah! Movement. Good! Now we will—no wait, we are heading in the wrong direction! We are supposed to be fighting, not fleeing.

We’re not fleeing, I think, but even I don’t believe that, and the Aegis can tell.

The shield boils with frustration. It doesn’t understand. I have shared its thrill of the fight before! Are we not meant to protect these feeble allies of ours? Why am I refusing to fight!

Because they’re not our enemies, I think. And I don’t share your thrill of the fight.

The Aegis knows this is untrue! It has felt it. It knows I like winning. And those other times, when I sang with ruthless elation, bloodthirsty for victory.

It’s talking about the times I was under the influence of the Bloodlust. That wasn’t me, I tell it. I wasn’t in control.

The Aegis is briefly confused. Who else could it be? The shield? It didn’t think it was in control. It was working with me. But it could be in control, if that is what is needed for another rewarding victory.

My heart feels like it’s been doused in ice water. “No,” I say. “You can’t.”

Maybe not before, the Aegis agrees. But it feels much stronger now. It definitely could!

“I mean don’t!” I cry.

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“Nye,” Quell warns, nervously pulling me along. “We need to move faster—and quieter. I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening with the shield right now—I can tell you’re struggling. But that’s all the more reason to get out of here fast.”

“I’m trying,” I say, pushing myself to move faster. I’m not even watching where I’m going now, just letting Quell pull me along. Earnest and Xamireb have given up any pretext of being subtle; I can hear them telling people to get out of our way. We must be so far from the walls, still. Too far.

The Aegis vibrates with excitement. They’re coming. Finally! Get ready.

I notice the guards through the Aegis’s sight—they’re behind us, but rushing up on Liz and Darian. Darian is watching me intently, while Liz is rubbing her temple with a grimace. Neither of them are aware of the incoming threat.

“Watch out!” I shout, spinning around and tearing myself from Quell’s grasp. I activate Repel, Endure, and Devour, all at once. The shield’s excitement bubbles through my blood, infecting me with its eagerness. Now we fight.

Liz and Darian freeze. Then Darian snaps her head back, catching sight of the guards.

This covering will only get in the way. And it would not be a fair fight if the opponent could not see all our movements!

Casually, the Aegis flicks a thought at the illusion, and it shatters around me.

“Oh, shit,” Liz says.

The illusions shatter around everyone else, too.

The guards stutter to a halt, surprise clear on their faces.

“Duneshade,” one says, taking in Darian’s armor.

The other is looking at Liz with wide eyes. “Is that the princess?”

“Contact central,” the first orders.

The guard pulls something from her pocket. Darian starts forward, as if to stop her, but the guards are too far away. The guard throws a bead at the ground before Darian’s feet. The object explodes, sending Darian stumbling back as a plume of purple smoke rockets into the air. Dozens of feet above us, it explodes again. Like a firework, purple lights crackle to life above us.

It forms the Moonfall sigil.

The embers of the explosion remain frozen above us: a beacon to our location.

“Mother fucker,” Darian growls.

Liz steps back. “The guards are Moonfall?”

Or working with them, at least. And given the signal they just threw, I have a feeling we’re about to see a lot more.

The soldiers draw their weapons. “Duneshade, stand down!”

I eagerly stride to meet them. Quell calls for me to come back, but I ignore his cries. Anticipatory excitement courses through me as my world narrows in on the guards. They’re working with Moonfall. It’s a relief, actually. Now I don’t have to hold back.

I know these feelings aren’t entirely mine. I know this is Aegis’s excitement bleeding into me. But the fight is inevitable now, and fighting is something I’m good at; this is how I can be useful. We’ll beat them, and then we can escape—maybe it will even settle the Aegis down. In fact, now that our minds are no longer in conflict, now that we’ve found something to agree on, it feels easier to think again.

Darian draws her sword as I step up beside her. She gives me a wary look.

“Fine for now,” I say. “Let’s make it quick.”

Darian’s stance doesn’t relax, but she does give me a tight nod. The guards move in.

The first one makes a move, and I step before Darian to block it. I feel nothing when their sword makes contact. I don’t know if it’s the Endure or just how powerful Aegis has become, but one thing is certain: we’re unstoppable.

The guard pulls back with a surprised cry as her sword begins to corrode beneath the Devour. Darian follows her, darting out behind me to attack. The guard tries to block, but her eroded sword snaps in half beneath Darrian’s blow, and then she’s down. The second guard is right behind her, already swinging at Darian. She skips back, and I move forward, clashing with them. It’s not even a fight. Pathetic, really.

A second group of guards round the corner just in time to see their comrades fall. They shout in anger, and I plant my shield in the street, readying for battle.

“No.” Darian grabs my shoulder. “If we stay, we’ll be overwhelmed by all of them. We need to move.”

The Aegis balks at the audacity of the captain to lay a hand on us. To try to stop us from defending them! How dare they? A burning, pulling sensation tugs at my shield arm. Lashes of red unfurl from the front of Aegis.

[Blood Ward activated.]

“Watch out!” I call.

Darian has already retreated by the time the bloody whips snap around me in a defensive blur. She’s sparred with the Aegis and I enough times to recognize its attacks. Thank god.

I mentally try to reel the shield back in, reaching for control of my Attuned blood. But the Aegis rebuffs me. I grab hold of the whips, struggling to reel them in, but I might as well be a spider using a thread to try to draw back the branch of a tree. This is the Influence stat, I’m sure of it. If 50% is where both of us are equally influential, then at 62% and climbing, it’s already stronger than me. I can’t stop it.

“Get back,” I yell to Darian as the whips lash angrily around me. “I’m not in control.”

“We can’t leave you,” Quell cries.

I don’t have a choice. The Aegis isn’t going to let me run from this. And if I follow them, the Aegis is a danger to everyone.

“I’ll keep them here,” I say, facing the approaching soldiers. “That should buy you time to escape. Go warn Constance; Moonfall has already infiltrated the Oasis.”

Liz gasps. “Hey!”

“Quell, stop!” Darian shouts.

Alarm spikes through my mind like a fork of lightning.

[Role Requirement,] Echo says.

[Sanity level: 99%]

[Sanity Level debuff activated as a result of low Influence. Sanity level decrease rate 100% faster.]

[Sanity Level: 97%]

I spin back toward Quell. Liz is frozen, unsure what to do, as Quell holds one of her knives up to his own throat.

It’s so bizarre, it takes me a second to process what I’m even looking at. I gape at him, and for a moment, the Aegis is just as bewildered as me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I say.

“Getting you to save me.” He steps back.

[The Knight must protect the Prince.]

[Sanity Level: 95%]

I take an instinctive step after him; the pressure in my head abates, just for a moment, but I can already feel it building again. It stalls while I’m trying to help, but it will only stop entirely when he’s safe.

“Quell, what are you doing?” his sister cries. “Put that down, please!”

“Can’t,” he says, continuing to back away. “Explain later.” He never breaks eye contact with me.

[Sanity Level: 93%]

The Aegis is extremely confused. Who is threatening him? How can we defend him? What do we do? It urges us to follow. We must identify the enemy!

I laugh. A mirthless, relieved, disbelieving laugh. With the Aegis nervously pressing me on, I take another step after Quell. “You’re suicidal, you know that?”

He grins tightly. “Ideally not.” His hands are shaking.

My gut clenches at the sight. “Be careful.”

“I’m not sure this will work if I am,” he says, continuing to retreat.

[Sanity Level: 92%]

I follow him. The Aegis’s whips falter as it bewilderedly searches for the enemy that is putting the Prince at risk.

That genius. That stupid, beautiful genius.

But we’re moving too slow. The guards will still catch us in moments.

The Aegis had forgotten about the guards. It pulls more blood from my arm, reinforcing its whips as it raises them defensively around me. We must defeat them, too!

[Sanity Level: 90%]

“Hold on,” I gasp. My arm feels cold and prickly. “You’re taking too much blood. I’m going faint—then we can’t fight anyone.”

The Aegis is aghast. Losing such a little amount of blood has such dire consequences! Unacceptable. But if it can’t take more from me, it will acquire more elsewhere.

Elsewhere? What—

The whips of blood twirl together, forming one long rope. Like a scorpion’s tail, it curls up and over me, stabbing down at something behind my back. I twist, both to see what it’s attacking, and in an attempt to divert the blow.

A guard is only paces away, his spear held in striking position. But he doesn’t attack. He’s frozen, eyes wide, mouth open. The Aegis’s blood is lanced through his chest.

He was about to stab me in the back, and I hadn’t even known. The Aegis saved me.

The man collapses to the ground, and his fellows, a dozen feet behind, cry out in rage and anguish.

Only a second or two has passed; I try to pull away from the grizzly scene as blood bubbles up to the dying man’s lips, as its sweet smell prickles my nose and makes me salivate. I touch a hand to the mask, just in case, and am relieved to find it still there.

But the Aegis doesn’t let me leave.

[Role Requirement,] Echo warns.

My sanity drops another few points.

The Aegis keeps its limb buried in the man. I only understand what it’s doing because its thoughts spill over into me, unhindered. The soldier convulses as the Aegis pulls the blood from his body.

It’s done this before, I distantly recall: when I’d first saved Quell, it had taken blood from one of the Umbral Blades to use as whips and power its Blood Ward. Horrific, but practical; at least taking blood from an outside source means I’m not the one getting sucked dry. But using it for the Blood Ward is not entirely what the Aegis is planning this time.

“No,” I say, grabbing my arm and squeezing, as if I could cut off my own circulation just by willing it. “Don’t—I don’t need it! I don’t need any more blood, I’m fine, I promise, I—”

The Aegis pulls some of the man’s blood into my arm, and I can horrifically feel its pressure as it’s forced into me.

And the next moment—ecstasy.

Mind-numbing pleasure radiates from my arm and pulses through my body. Everything else is wiped from my mind. All that exists is the high. The power. I need more.

[Bloodlust status in effect.]