“Phew!” Clyde sounded, wiping the sweat from his brow.

All the rest were similarly tired. They had carried nearly fifty jars of water, wrapped in dim glow-tree sheets all the way to the top of the wall.

“We aren’t done yet, Clyde,” Korman said.

“I know, I know,” Clyde said. “But can’t we just take a slight break?” he pleaded.

“No we can’t,” Aura answered. “We’re running on a tight schedule. Besides, as a kindred, you shouldn’t have such measly endurance.”

“Enough with that answer, Aura,” Clyde said. “Not all of us are blessed with two anathema.”

“What?” Syllis blurted out immediately. Clyde had just shared entirely new information, important info. “Aura has two anathema? How have they enhanced her bond?”

“Damnit Clyde,” Aura said, irritatedly. “That wasn’t yours to share…” She sighed.

It was not especially surprising that Aura had two anathema. Syllis had long noted the gap between Aura, Clyde and Korman. Though she assumed the difference was solely due to how long her anathema had been growing before it was transfigured within her. What was surprising was that she had not revealed this until now, Syllis felt conflicted.

“Sorry, I wasn’t even thinking,” Clyde apologized.

Aura did not accept the apology. She lifted up a jar and turned around. Then, she began to walk towards the abyssal stairs. Her footsteps grew distant as she moved further away.

Clyde stood, picking up a jar of his own. “We should follow her. Our time is limited, after all.”

Syllis followed suit, picking up a jar of her own. She did not mind the labor of moving each jar from their residence, to the wall, and now to the foot of the wall. It was calming in a way. Besides, it was great for conversation. Though she was not at the level of a noble, trained for their whole life, it felt like she had returned to the level of social ability she had as a child.

This ability gradually dwindled while she was on the outskirts of Asanoch. Years of having maybe a couple conversations every day—and with mostly criminals and addicts trying to rob her—had dulled her ability to socialize.

As Syllis followed Clyde, Korman approached her from behind. He gently tapped on her shoulder—a signal they had invented to make one fall behind, so as to avoid the prying ears of the elmannise. The fact he had used it now with no elmannise in sight made Syllis uneasy.

“What?” Syllis asked after slowing down enough for Clyde to be out of hearing range.

“Aura never told me about her second anathema,” Korman said.

Syllis turned, scrutinizing the man behind her. She blinked a couple times in disbelief. She had been worried there was someone listening in on them. Yet, this was merely the ramblings of a man in love.

While Syllis did not exactly understand how Aura and Korman’s relationship had grown over the last couple months, they had at least gotten much closer.

“We have more important matters to worry about,” Syllis said. “Why do you care if she told you or not? We were constantly told that anathema are deeply personal—intimate—she doesn’t need to let you know.”

“Clyde knew though…” Korman said, dejectedly.

Syllis sighed before facing forward again. She picked up her jar that she had set down. There was no point in holding the heavy tank of water if she was standing still. It illuminated a couple steps ahead, despite how dim it was. The light of the suns’ flame fighting at the entrance to the chasm did not extend so close to the wall. Then, she began to walk forward again.

“There’s any number of explanations, Korman,” Syllis said as she continued to walk forward. Korman followed. “Let me tell you a secret, Korman. But you have to promise not to tell Clyde or Aura.”

Korman nodded in an acknowledging manner out of habit. “I promise,” he said earnestly.

“Back when I was first contracted by Clark, a room in their estate caught my interest. It did not have any wired lighting despite the entirety of the base and upper floors having it. Even the basement was nearly entirely hooked up to electrical lighting, so the room was bizarre.

“Anyways, eventually I investigated and realized it was a room for conducting rituals with anathema—and perhaps otherwise. There were three stone slates, one depicted each of your bonds. This allowed me to roughly grasp how the rituals occurred, in greater detail than the ritualistic teacher in Lurgica would disclose.” Syllis finished her lengthy ramble.

“What does that have to do with her telling Clyde and not me?” Korman asked.

“Right!” Syllis said. She had forgotten the entire point of her story by the end. “The point is that each of you have had your anathema transfigured within the confines of that room. Naturally, the Boorne family oversaw Aura’s second ritual and told Clyde.”

Korman walked in silence for a moment before speaking. “You have a great sense of adventure, don’t you?”

“Well it wouldn’t make much sense for me to confirm or deny that myself—I’m biased. But it is true that during my many years on the outer ring, finding and comprehending the connections of many groups of thieves was a hobby of mine. That and swimming to the surface.”

“Thank you, Syllis,” Korman said.

The both of them walked in silence the rest of the way down. The only sounds that pierced this shroud of hush were the crackling of the suns’ flame at the chasm’s entrance and the brief thuds of their boots against the willed staircase.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Syllis once again thought about Aura’s second anathema. It made sense to her why Aura had been so irritated at her loss against the secare nymph. It was not solely because of her disdain for Anahita which bled into a disdain for her. It was also due to her having an extra anathema—there was no way anyone on the outer ring could have had more than one.

‘Maybe I would have freaked out the same way if I was in her position. She was never as unreasonable as I made her out to be…’ Syllis smiled, walking the rest of the way in peace.

Eventually, they reached the bottom.

“Took you two long enough,” Aura said. She was clearly still irritated from Clyde’s earlier words.

“We had a heart to heart,” Syllis said, grinning as she turned to face Korman.

“Something akin to one…” Korman agreed.

“Let’s keep going!” Clyde said. “We only have how many, forty jars left?”

The four of them continued, moving jars from the top of the wall, all the way to the bottom. As the time passed, they wondered if they were going to make it in time, before the researchers left. Technically they could leave afterwards, but that would involve questioning.

Syllis doubted that Vernim had informed the researchers of their imminent departure. He likely wanted to create as many barriers as possible to their leaving. Especially with the appearance of the first ‘behemoth’ earlier that day.

‘That’s for them to deal with, we aren’t responsible.’ Syllis kept on telling herself, every time she thought of the behemoth. She did not want such a creature to wipe out the wall, but they needed to leave. They could not linger for much longer or the suns’ would split while they were still crossing the chasm.

If that happened, the suns’ would eat away at the abyssal pockets at twice the speed. There was even the potential that it could cut clean through the abyss. It was like two thieves, each pulling a side of a rope. If they were evenly matched, the match would drag out for a long while. If one of the thieves suddenly weighed even fifty percent more then he would win the match almost instantly.

Though, logic was not most dependable in this fable. The twisted ways of this world could even help Syllis and her companions if they managed to abuse it in just the right way.

After setting down their sixth jar each, the four of them sighed before making their way up the staircase once again. What greeted them at the top were some familiar faces.

“I didn’t think you four would be leaving this quickly?” Hiolo said, sounding somewhat confused.

“Then why are you standing at the top of this staircase?” Clyde asked. “You were waiting for us.”

Hiolo threw his hands into the air. “You caught me, but I had no faith. Honestly, it was Hvenn who told me that you would be leaving tonight.”

“He does have a sort of sixth sense for things, doesn’t he?” Korman said from behind.

“I do,” Hvenn answered. “Really, you were planning on leaving without saying goodbye?”

“There was no time,” Clyde answered. “Besides, was our great fight against that behemoth not enough of a send off?”

Syllis had told everyone about her theory shortly after the battle. That the behemoth had been the amalgamation of all four titans that merged shortly after the researchers left. She had even pushed it a step further, noting that the fusion of four titans could have signaled a decline in taran invasions. It appeared to be a sort of desperate attempt to break the wall.

“It was fine,” Hiolo said. “But Syllis and Korman dealt all of the damage. I was somewhat disappointed in myself. I will regain my lost confidence now.

“We are going to help you bring these jars of water down.”

Every other member of the elmannise group turned to face Hiolo with a tense expression. It was apparent that he had not consulted with them before his great exclamation.

With a great amount of reluctance they did indeed help move the jars to the bottom of the great abyssal staircase. With nine people total, they only took three more trips to bring all of the water down.

“Thank you for your help, everyone,” Clyde said. The others followed suit, expressing their gratitude.

“No problem, we’ll follow you to the entrance.”

With the help of Hiolo’s group, they would manage to leave and be well on their way before the researchers headed out. In fact, the flames that crackled and flickered at the edge of the abyss had begun to slow and fade away into the dead of night.

Aura invoked her bond and opened two large, green-hued rifts. They tore at the abyss and two large crows emerged from them.

Syllis then invoked her own bond and conjured a couple of large baskets. Then, she willed two icy-blue shackles into existence around the necks of both of Aura’s ephemeral crows. These crows shook slightly and cawed violently before Aura soothed them.

“Your people’s bizarre abilities never cease to surprise me…” Hvenn remarked. He stood in awe of the somewhat disturbing crows.

Then, the nine of them loaded the jars of water into the icy-blue baskets. They had been melded to the shackles with intricate chains. They were tricky for Syllis to form, particularly with how they intertwined. It had taken her more time than she had initially believed.

Syllis and her companions—along with Hiolo and his group— followed behind the ephemeral crows to the—now quiet—entrance to the sky chasm.

“This is where we part,” Clyde said, a tinge of sadness behind his words.

“Indeed,” Hiolo said.

Everyone exchanged sad goodbyes and parting words. They hugged each other and reminded them of the times they had spent together.

Afterwards, Syllis and her companions each mounted a crow. Clyde and Syllis sat on the first and Aura and Korman climbed onto the second one. The slight ebbing of flames from the tips of both crows’ ephemeral bones caused slight discomfort. But it was nowhere near hot enough to burn through their clothes. Even if Syllis held her hand against the flame for an hour, it would not have burned her hand at all.

Inwardly, Syllis thanked Aura’s ability to control the intensity of her ephemeral fiends’ flame. ‘If only those damned suns could do the same…’

“To your escape!”

“To your escape!”

“To your escape!”

Each of the elmannise cheered, sending off the once outsiders—turned family—off on their journey into the openness of the sky chasm.

“To our suicide!”

“To our suicide!”

“To our suicide!”

Syllis and her companions all cheered as they left, heading off into the field of brimstone, ash and sorrowful glow-trees that stood solemnly under the violet sky that swirled with different hues.

“May you thrive underneath the flames of the four hells!” Hiolo cheered. But by then, their merely human hearing did not suffice.

Syllis looked forwards from on top of the ephemeral crow. She took in the scene. The hills, formed of ash and rock. The large spires that curled inwards and cast great shadows on the ground below. The pits of brimstone that burned blue flame, radiating a disgusting smell.

Then, she glanced down at herself, covered in the same filth. Slight remnants of the pink guts of taran. Black tar and dirt, caked into her hands and face. She was far from the pristine condition she had arrived in. Her gloves had been entirely torn and her jacket charred across the bottom of it. Her original shirt and pants were gone, shredded and had been replaced by old and ragged clothes of the elmannise which were made for someone much larger than even herself.

Now, she was not much different to anything else in the fable rift. Indeed, she would only be able to cleanse herself of this filth once she escaped. If she could escape.