When I finally came back to myself, Hector was casually pulling out scrolls and sorting them into three different piles.
“Feeling a little better, Thresher?” Hector said.
“Why did you kill her?” I asked, “She was on your side.”
Hector laughed, “She was on William’s side, not mine.”
“You’re a traitor?” I asked.
“I prefer the word spy, personally.” Hector said, “I’ve never betrayed any of my darling Vermin.”
“You’re on Sandy’s side?” I asked.
“By definition, any side I choose is Sandy’s side.” Hector said, “It’s nice to properly meet you in the flesh, Thresher.”
The doors slammed open, and both Matches and Snow stormed into the room.
“Let Hector go, Sandy.” Matches snarled.
“Ah, how touching.” Hector smirked at Matches, “Unfortunately, you’ve still got it wrong. Have you figured it out, Snow?”
“You were never on our side, were you?” Snow asked.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Hector said, “But I was never on William’s.”
Matches hurled a matchbox at Hector, but it failed to do anything.
“Ah, no violence within the borders of an activated Sanctuary.” Hector said, “It wasn’t actually hard to get the wards set up here. I have been, functionally, in charge of logistics for almost a decade now. It made embezzling for the Vermin horrifically simple. Nearly everything we have is stolen from you. Technically, even our lives are.”
“We can just break it.” Matches snarled.
“It’ll take you at least five minutes. How many of the angels can Thresher free before then?” Hector said, “Thresher, if I say to, please start unbinding the Angels. Since it’s not violence, you will be able to do that.”
I nodded. I wasn’t actually certain I wanted to be on Hector’s side in this fight, but Snow and Matches had almost killed me once today already. I certainly wasn’t going to stand up for them right now.
“In the meanwhile, let’s talk.” Hector said.
“You betrayed us.” Snow said, “You betrayed me.”
“Come on, Snow.” Hector said, “Don’t pretend you weren’t already considering quitting. Besides, I’ve hardly lied to you.”
“You let me think you were Hector.” Snow muttered.
“I am Hector.” Hector said, “‘Sandy’ is somewhere between an alias and a title.”
“Was William really dissecting innocents?” Snow asked.
“Yes.” Hector said, “And criminals, and folks who were only monsters in their myth. But innocents too.”
“He’s been lying to us this whole time.” Matches said, “Don’t fall for it.”
Hector sighed, “If I told you the truth, what would you have done?”
“Gotten my revenge on Eris.” Matches said, “She killed Kai. I don’t care if she’s right and if William’s evil, she has to die for that.”
“Do you still have that analysis gift, Matches?” Hector asked, “The one that lets you understand powers?”
“Yes.” Matches muttered.
“Watch carefully, then.” Hector said, “Thresher, tell me honestly, who is the Princess of Hell?”
“K Mandatory.” I said. As always, [Shared Insight] activated, revealing that I was telling the truth as I understood it. I normally didn’t think about the activation. I preferred to just leave it on and forget about it. Evidently it was actually relevant right now, however.
“She’s a taleborn, isn’t she?” Hector asked, “Whose story was she born from?”
“She’s born from Kai, from the tale of the Snow Queen.” I answered.
“Matches, did you catch that?” Hector asked.
Matches’ face was pale and furious.
“Thresher, keep answering questions.” Hector said, “Who killed her the first time?”
“William, the Judge of Paradise.” I said.
“Who brought her back?” Hector asked.
“Eris, Steward of Corrupted Cruelty.” I said.
“Do you think Eris would invade paradise if she could?” Hector asked.
“No.” I said.
“Do you think she could?” Hector asked.
“Maybe.” I said, “I don’t think she could do it quietly, but I don’t know if she could.”
“See?” Hector said, “I mean, Eris could be good at lying, Thresher could be wrong, but you know William’s a liar. Why is it impossible to think he lied about this? You know he’s a monster. He’s got ice in his blood, and not just literally.”
“How did you-” Matches started, then cut herself off, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“You’d lose.” Hector said, “Even if you managed to arrange a coup, even if you had the full support of the people. William has Angels and the Flame of the Monarch. No revolt would triumph over him, he’d just use us all for materials. Even an assassination ploy wouldn’t be sufficient, at least not within the boundaries of my sight. Today, though, he’s not here, and Thresher has an answer to the Angels. We can beat him without having to fight him.”
“I understand your reasons. I’m not going to forgive you.” Matches said, quietly.
“I didn’t expect you to.” Hector said, “I hope Snow will.”
“I need proof.” Matches said, “Take me to K.”
“I can’t actually see where she is.” Hector said, “You know my powers have limits. But Thresher will be able to point us to her, if we get her back to earth.”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Fine.” Matches huffed, “Thresher, you might as well get to unbinding the Angels.”
I did, but I listened to their conversation.
“You killed Marie, didn’t you?” Snow asked Hector.
“I did.” Hector answered, “She’d killed people too, you know.”
“So have I.” Snow said, “That’s not why you killed her, is it?”
“She wouldn’t turn away from William.” Hector said, “Not in time, in any case. If she didn’t die, innocents would. I liked her, but not enough to accept that.”
“Were you lying when you were being Sandy?” Snow asked.
“What?” Matches asked, “When did you run into Sandy?”
“Nobody ever ran into Sandy.” Hector said, “I talked from a distance exclusively, and would-be fakes were dealt with. Yes, Snow, the letter held the truth. If you’d gone far enough from Matches, she would have died. You’d die first, but I thought the other point was less traumatic.”
“Once is unfortunate, twice is carelessness.” Matches said, “I wouldn’t forgive William for being careless.”
“It would have to be either carelessness or malice.” Hector agreed, “But you wouldn’t win, even with all your clever tricks.”
“Wouldn’t it have been more advantageous to let me die?” Matches asked, “Then you’d have near-complete control over the Luminaries.”
“Do you want the full answer, or the emotional half?” Hector asked.
“The full truth.” Snow said, before Matchescould answer.
“I justified it because I could turn you.” Hector said, “I didn’t know if your replacement would be willing to betray William, and I didn’t want to keep having to kill them off until I got someone as likely as you. A coup would be so much less bloody than having to overthrow him alone. That’s the logical half.”
He paused, drumming his fingers on a shelf.
“The emotional half is that I didn’t want Snow to die.” Hector said, “I love her, in the same way you do, Matches. She’s the only person who made this work tolerable.”
“Swear it.” Snow hissed.
“I, Hector ‘Sandy’ of Troy, swear that I love Snow like an Uncle, and like I understand Matches dos. I have not knowingly lied to her, through omission or statement, save for if the true knowledge would put her continued survival at risk. I swear this on my current name, on all my future names, and on the names of my past.” Hector said. I believed the oath was binding, but I knew very little about Taleborn besides the gifts.
“Thank you.” Snow said, “I’m going to need to process, but this helps.”
“It does?” Matches asked.
“You love her.” Hector said, “She knows that. She knows she’s not a replacement.”
“That would mean a lot more if you hadn’t been lying to me for as long as we’ve known each other.” Matches said, “But it’s good to know.”
“Come on.” Hector said, “I’ll take you to meet K again.”
---
[You have freed 246 Angels! The Global Quest Wrathless Virtue has awarded you 2460 Moonlight Shards!]
---
It wasn’t quite that simple, but it was surprisingly close. Helen had been healed to the point where she was both stable and no longer visibly damaged by the time we left. She was still unconscious. I hoped she’d been unconscious the entire time, because the healing must have hurt terribly.
Hector had prepared a stretcher to put Helen on, and we’d carefully maneuvered her out of the base. With Matches with us, and hopefully on our side, there wasn’t any actual trouble getting out. She had to talk with the guards for a bit, but in the end, they let us pass through without difficulty.
The rift was actually in one of the bunkers that the vermin had previously been staying in, and the skyrail let us arrive there without any issues. Once we’d moved the stretcher into the rift, we all sat at the rear entrance of a dungeon.
“Matches and I are going to handle the fighting.” Hector said, “Snow, you and Thresher should get to know each other.”
“Will you be safe?” Snow asked.
“Of course.” Hector said, “Besides, this is a chance to meet someone new. You complained about not having any friends, didn’t you?”
After Hector and Matches left, Snow and I stood in awkward silence for a bit. I didn’t know what to talk about, and evidently neither did she. Eventually, she managed to break the silence.
“What’s Eris like?” Snow asked.
“She cares.” I said, “She wants to help her people, and to be kind and gentle. She’s ripping herself apart to do it.”
“Like Marie, then.” Snow sighed, “I didn’t like her much, but -”
I said, “I wish Hector hadn’t killed her. But I wish she hadn’t killed them, either.”
“Anyways, what tale are you from?” Snow asked.
“I’m not.” I said, “I’m a human, and a Dreamer.”
“Like the ones in the Outer Sections?” Snow asked, “I wanted to go visit them, but Matches never had time to take me.”
“Well, I’m not dead yet.” I said, “I’m probably like them, but I’ve never met them either.”
“What’s it like, knowing you’ll die?” Snow asked, “I’ve always wanted to ask a human that.”
I said, “You’ll die too, right? Sooner or later, either your tale will be forgotten or someone will slay you by violence. In eternity, it’s bound to happen eventually.”
Snow paused to visibly think about it, “That’s true! But what’s it like knowing the upper limit on your survival?”
“I mean, I know there are ways to cheat death.” I said, “Right now, violence is likely to get me either way, and old age won’t get me before something else does.”
Snow fell silent for a bit at that, staring at the blood underfoot. I used the time to check on Helen again. She definitely felt more alive than previously, but I could feel that she was still damaged. There probably wasn’t a quick fix for having your soul flayed, and that seemed like an accurate metaphor for what had been happening to her and the other prisoners.
Snow asked, “Is Helen your girlfriend?”
“No. I tried to save her, and a bunch of others.” I said, “She’s the only one that survived.”
“And you’re not just leaving her with Hector?” Snow asked.
I said, “I promised to keep her by my side for as long as she wanted to stay. I’ve failed badly enough at my rescue attempt, I’m not going to make it worse. Until she’s recovered enough to decide on her own, I’ll keep my promise.”
“Ah.” Snow said, “I want to offer to take you home with me to keep you safe, but our plane isn’t safe either, is it?”
“Yeah.” I said, “Also, you tried to kill me today.”
“I did.” Snow groaned dramatically, “Today has just been the worst.”
“Nobody’s even tried to kill you today.” I snarled.
“I didn’t know that!” Snow shouted, “It felt real!”
Someone had tried to kill her? I didn’t remember that, but I hadn’t exactly been keeping track of her all day. I sighed, “Fair enough.”
“I’m happy to have met you, Ashlyn, but today’s been rough.” Snow said, “I didn’t like Marie, but it’s still a shock that she’s dead.”
“I liked her.” I said, “I knew she wanted me dead, but I liked her.”
“She was a jerk.” Snow said, crying softly, “She taught me how to stab people. I don’t even know if she liked me, or if it was just because of Matches.”
“She nearly threw her life away to save people, the last time I worked with her.” I said, “But I think she’d’ve died killing people if she wasn’t stopped.”
Snow sobbed again, “I’m not sure she wouldn’t kill me if William’d told her to. I want to believe -”
“Then believe.” I said.
“What?” Snow said.
I said, “If William asked, she didn’t do it. If he didn’t, it must’ve been for a reason. One reason would be that he didn’t think she’d do it. Maybe she would’ve, but it won’t hurt to think the best of her. After all, chances are you’ll never see her again.”
“Chances are?” Snow said, “Do you think she’s not dead?”
“Oh, she definitely died.” I said, “But there are afterlives for everyone. Some of them can even be reached. Some can even be escaped.”
“Do you think she could?” Snow said.
“She seems stubborn enough to try.” I said.
“She does.” Snow said, and laughed. Once she started, she couldn’t stop, laughing and sobbing at once.
I joined her. Marie was dead, and I couldn’t completely regret it, not when she was trying to kill me. But I could mourn her, and the person she would’ve been if she hadn’t been loyal to a monster. She tried to be good, and it was only partially her fault she’d been lied to.
[Due to a lack of other Players among your party members, you have received all intangible dungeon rewards!]
[Due to your insignificant contribution to clearing the dungeon, no potential will be awarded!]
[You have gained 14,580 Net Quanta!]