Daniel smiled at Edico’s shocked expression from the cloak of invisibility. “Didn’t see me, did ya? No. I suppose you still can’t. I’m not sure what’s behind this…” he stomped on the ground, paying homage to the spell that hid the tunnel, “but it’s fan~cy.”
Rokus pulled his son to his chest, and Darius unsheathed his sword.
“Stand down,” Edico said. “Let’s talk this—“
“Let’s not get the wrong idea,” Daniel interupted. “I saved your life—but it wasn’t personal. And it doesn’t matter if I’m right or wrong, good or bad, or well-intentioned—‘cause nothing’s gonna change how this’s gonna go down. So let’s keep on track: Rokus here knows where Kyritus is, and he’s gonna tell me. Then I’m going to leave and go there. No one’s going to die. The only thing that’ll change is the amount of torture involved, and I assure you… you will tell me. So that’s what’s gonna happen. And it’s going to begin, right about—“
Darius shot forward.
Daniel snapped his fingers. “Now.”
A series of paralysis arrays activated around the group, freezing them in place. Daniel’s real body materialized out of thin air. Then, he picked up one of the array discs he put on the ground and showed it to Darius, who tried to speak but couldn’t open his mouth.
“It was a nice tunnel,” Daniel whispered to Darius. “But it kinda told me exactly where you’d show up.” He clapped the man’s shoulder twice, strode forward to Rokus, and stopped. Then he paused to make his presence known. “Listen to me, Rokus. I know in this life that Sara’s probably like… some queen… or something to you. Larger than life. A scary broad. Whatever. But that’s not how it used to be. In your last life, you two were best friends. They used to call you the Hero’s Giant…. It was cute…. I guess what I’m trying to say is that she would be devastated if she learned your kid died for your honor.”
Rokus’s eyes widened, but he couldn’t move. So everyone’s eyes followed Daniel as he took a dagger out of his cloak, holding it with the key to the paralysis array tattooed on the back of his hand. Then he lifted the blade to the kid and stabbed—
—stopping a centimeter above the kid’s right eye. Then he took a step back, listening to the group’s distressed breaths, each sounding like broken bike pumps, wheezing and gasping and getting nowhere.
“So she would feel worse if you didn’t give up her location.” He stopped in front of Rokus’s face. “Trust me. You’d be the trauma that broke the camel’s back. Then…” Daniel put his fingers index and middle against his temple, cocked his thumb back, and said, “Boom…. So do the right thing.”
Daniel stopped and pressed his thumb against the array on the back of his hand. Then their voices returned all at once like a subway suddenly passing in an empty terminal. Before anyone could adjust or speak or react, Daniel put up his hand, and they fell silent, taking sharp, fearful breaths in their frozen states.
“Now listen…. You have your voice back—and I suggest you use it correctly. If you’re Rokus—you’re gonna tell me what I want to know before I kill your child.” Then he turned to the rest of them. “The rest of you will remain silent. Break that rule—and I’ll kill you. Let’s begin.”
2
Edico couldn’t hear anything but the sound of blood pumping in his temples. Daniel had activated arrays—but in preparation for that, Edico wore boots that had array nullification arrays on the treads and soles. He had them made after Aelia suffered the same paralysis array years before. So when the spell activated, he had to keep still on purpose. It was nerve-wracking, and he thought that Daniel could see through it, but then he remembered—
—the area they were standing on made it impossible to see mana. Daniel was blind. Edico had a chance to end all of this, so he waited… watched… prayed for the right moment to strike. It would probably kill him—but he would take Daniel out.
Daniel turned away from Edico, looking at Rokus. “So? Are you going to tell me where they’re at?”
Rokus took sharp breaths.
“Just tell him!” his wife said.
“Shut up,” he said.
“No!” She burst into tears. “Save our son….”
Rokus took a deep breath, swallowing. He glanced at Edico and then back. “He’s…” he whispered.
“He’s?” Daniel leaned in. “Where?”
Edico watched his exposed back, wondering if he could draw his switchblade fast enough.
“He’s…” Rokus whispered. “Far south….”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I know. Where?”
Edico activated a pressure sensor on his palm, and a dagger hidden in his sleeve shot out. Daniel turned immediately and lifted his hand to block. Edico dropped down, catching him by surprise. He grabbed the blade off its rack and plunged it into Daniel’s side.
Daniel gasped, stumbling back, grabbing him from the back of the neck. Edico stood strong, lifting him up as Daniel gasped and wheezed, gripping the back of his neck tightly.
“Sorry, kid,” Edico said. “I don’t know what went wrong, but… I haven’t forgotten the good you did.”
Daniel’s lips twisted in a twisted smile, filled with pain and malice and raw force. “While he stabs me….” Suddenly, his hand suddenly gripped the back of Edico’s neck with surreal speed. “The war would’ve gone so much smoother with you here,” he hissed.
“Edico!” Darius yelled.
Denise followed. Rokus and his family came in last, screaming at him. Edico was already on it, as he could feel an array burning itself onto his neck. Within only a second, he hit Daniel in the jaw and yanked his neck free—
—but it was too late. The back of his spinal cord heated up, and he felt a tumor growing there. It ballooned. Edico cast one last glance at Darius, mouthing the word, I’m sorry. Then his neck ruptured, and he lost consciousness.
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3
Daniel’s body spasmed as he tried to heal the wound in his side—it wouldn’t heal. Elesakan? he thought, speaking of “magical poison,” which prevented magical processes from interacting with the soul record. How the fuck could he even move? He kicked over Edico’s corpse and saw the array on the bottom of his boots. Probably multi-layered with the key in the sole….
“Fuck! God fucking damn it! Fuck!”
Daniel hadn’t killed anyone but the guard—and he certainly wasn’t going to kill Edico, of all people! Daniel’s whole body was on fire; he couldn’t walk properly, he couldn’t heal himself, and the wee little bit of humanity that was acting as his mental support barrier had been blown sky-high, and all he could hear was the sound of people screaming.
“SHUT UP!” Daniel screamed. “You would’ve been fine! You would’ve all been… fuck! If you don’t want to die, you shouldn’t fucking stab someone!” He looked at Rokus’s kid, who was screaming in terror, and listened to Darius yelling and snapping and cussing, making wicked declarations of murder that no child should hear. All of the sounds and screams and feelings of agony swirled together in a mental tumor that made it impossible to think. Unable to process the situation, physically or emotionally, he grabbed the rings off Edico’s hands and rushed into the forest, mind blurring and getting as far from the sounds and yelling as he could.
Edico fucked him up something savage. He needed serious help—immediately—or he’d die.
4
Sara, Emma, and Raul streaked across the sky like shooting stars, watching rocky terrain blend together. In front of them was a large expanse of white that stretched as far as their eyes could see.
“Is that snow?” Raul yelled over the sound of howling wind.
“No!” Sara yelled back. “That’s sand!” It was hard to believe, but it was true. The Stralla Desert had sand as white and polished as bleached coral—and they were approaching a sand storm. “Let’s stop for tonight!”
The group nodded and descended to a rocky bluff—the last solid ground they would see for a long time.
Sara washed her face at their campsite. Then they started a fire and ate ready-made food. Once she ate and prepared herself, she checked her mail. There were none from Edico. When Sara learned why, she fell silent for the next three hours, refusing to speak or interact—because if she spoke, she’d have to admit the terrible and twisted things she had planned for Daniel Winters.
5
Daniel weaved in and out of consciousness in the woods, traversing the line between the waking and dreaming world. He was probably dying of sepsis… or whatever people die from after they get stabbed in their… whatever he got stabbed in. It wasn’t good. No stabbing is. In fact, the myth that you could get as stabbed and shot as you want as long as you missed vitals is quite remarkable, considering that 80% of the human torso has vital organs, and the rest will indirectly kill a person if they’re punctured. And even if they weren’t, they fucking hurt. God… where’s a staple gun when he needed one….
Daniel stumbled against a tree. He needed to move and get away from Lemora as fast as possible. So he headed to Sayon’s Teleportation Network, which was designed to move north from the southern tip of the Middle Continent to Drantal, allowing supplies and armies to move at remarkable speeds. Fast travel. No thought. Slow communication networks. He could get to his safehouse in Lemca it would be fine.
6
Raul had seen Sara in countless flavors of taxing rage and depleted darkness, but he had never seen her cry like that. He wanted to give her space, but he couldn’t. Not with Emma balled up. “What’s going on?” he asked.
He regretted asking.
7
Daniel barely made it into the teleportation circle and walked through it before he collapsed, bleeding out on the ground. Only God or Delina or even Zeus would decide what would happen. If he died—he died. If he lived… if he lived then it was clear that his path was rightous enough—because there was no alternate universe he could see where he survived.
8
Sara woke early and handed out neon green trasama headwraps (the Stralla Desert equivalent of keffiyehs worn in Iraq and Syria) and taught Raul and Emma how to tie them. No one talked as they did. They just drank water before following Sara’s lead, flying into the desert.
Twice, they got separated in the white sand that spread and blanketed the world for hundreds of miles. They were only saved by using three sets of Divine Eyes, overlapping like triangulation with magical dissonance. They reconnected and moved on.
They flew only three hours before the first break and an hour for the second, landing in dunes with sand so deep it felt like quicksand, wondering if anything had ever grown in the area before. They dressed the silver gliders and watered them liberally, feeling empathy with the bird through the heat alone. They slept under the cold and starry sky, sleeping in a tent reinforced with arrays. They only drank instead of ate, bottomless wells with ice water. They continued on.
The next day, they passed over caravans and traded silver for directions, not too much or too little, ensuring that they weren’t duped for sport or foul play, depending upon the amount. Then they reached the outskirts of the desert—a six-hour ride from Telsenlore—and could see caravan routes riding kelksans, reptiles that stored water like camels and traversed only during the day, burying themselves in the sand by night lest they die. Sara slowed to rest up and get their papers in order. If they flew into the city, they would need to deal with the authorities—something they didn’t have time for. So they rested and prepared themselves, drinking cool water from Sara’s storage ring, relaxing in a tent in preparation with their union with Kyritus and Tiber.
9
Daniel’s fever had broken on the second day. He forced himself to drink water, use anti-bacterial medication, and dress his wounds. Elesakan only prevented a person from interacting with the record, ensuring that they cannot revert back to a healthier period or flush out toxins. However, it didn’t stop topical ointments from protecting—with absolute accuracy—bacteria from getting in. He also avoided shock. The inflammation was bad, but it was doable. Still, he needed medical attention and to reach Kyritus and Tiber fast, lest Sara take them away or return back to the capital. It was his only shot. Luckily, if he made it to them in time, his survival was all but guaranteed. So he forced himself up and walked to the road, collapsing there instead.
By the grace of gods, merchants found him. If they knew who he was, they would’ve let him die. Yet they didn’t, so they proved humanity existed by picking him up and bringing him to an apothecary in Lemca to treat their wounds. He paid the woman gold and asked for a ride to a hut outside of town, offering a reward no sane person could refuse. They took him. He slept.
The next he awoke, he found the key separating between life and death. Inside Edico’s cracked spatial ring, he found a letter from Sara, telling Edico to inform Daniel that she was waiting for him in Telsenlore. That made him bitter, considering that she—indeed—prioritized Rokus’s safety, yet Edico attacked him instead. Either way, he had what he needed.
Daniel pulled out array chalk and went to extraordinary lengths to draw out a massive array—a circle that Sara would notice on sight—one she would never believe him capable of creating—
—a teleportation array.
There is no magic more powerful and convenient and useful for the exploration of the world than teleportation magic, and he made use of it in this life and the last. It was how he slowly chipped away at Halkon’s Crypt and obtained Halkon’s Executioner and other items he needed. It was how he made it to Lemca and how he planned to escape after stealing the sword. It was his ace. And if Sara considered that he created time reversal magic and hooked it up to a summoning array that moved between worlds, she wouldn’t find it strange. Yet, if all was well and the gods accepted, it would bring him victory.
Daniel returned to town when it was over and stole a silver glider, taking a kill-first approach to dealing with the people working in the staples. He didn’t have time or paperwork—and he was dying. So he threw discs and killed them on the spot, taking a glider and flying back to the hut.
He activated an array on the end, and the wood dissolved into dust, exposing the teleportation circle. Then he flew the silver glider into the center and activated it, praying that the general coordinates would take him close to the city. If his estimates were right, she should be approaching within the day. He was running out of time.
Daniel activated the circle—
—and whiteness clouded his vision.