Syntera’s Sky-Skiff rocketed upward toward the ceiling of lava with the Demoness at the helm and Kaden gripping Ashi with one arm and the mast with the other. Ashi had activated her Hover spell and it was more keeping her attached than carring her.
Chains of bone hung from Diggus’s island, massive bone links formed from skeletons, and the undead clung to it, climbing ever higher. Synterra wove between the chains, singing at the top of her lungs. “Isn’t it romantic? A battle to the death! Someone else’s death!”
The skiff tipped upside down as she crested the top of Diggus’s island, and then settled down atop Diggus’s Sky Villa. Below them, Walking Graveyards held Diggus on his knees, while Necromancers stood in front of him.
Ashi leaped off the ship, activating Hover at the last moment to land in front of Diggus.
Kaden followed, landing on top of Diggus but still managing to stay on his feet. “Duggarn! Stop!”
The Necromancer Centurion looked at Kaden with surprise. “You want to do the honors yourself? I gave him a chance to give them back.”
“Great Necromancer, I am Asha Vanter Opton Rahm.” Ashi bowed her head. “I come on behalf of the [Fate Weavers]. I ask you hear me before you act.”
Duggarn crossed his arms. “Fate has nothing to do with our ask. I saw the notice. Oberix has done something, but our ask—our demand—is for Diggus to return the twins.”
“Serta is dead,” Kaden said. “A gnome blew her head off. Her spirit is driving Skully and killing all the guards. All of them. But Diggus couldn’t give the twins back because Diggus didn’t have them. Did you? Oberix had you get them, but Oberix is the one who arranged all the cargo. Oberix is the one who built the FarPortal rail they were on.”
“And your war?” Ashi asked. “It was nothing but a distraction. A means to an end. Oberix cares nothing for your twins. She cares nothing for your skulls. She means to break free of the Fate assigned her.”
Kaden could have heard a skeleton lose its grip on the bone chain and plummet to the market in the silence that followed.
Duggarn spoke, his voice quiet as the grave. “Is it true? You don’t have them?”
“Yes.” The broker dropped his head. “I owe Oberix. Without her [Prophecy] I would have failed as a Broker centuries ago. But your demands, even at the cost of my life, can’t be met. I don’t have the surviving twin and I don’t know what Oberix did with him.”
“Focus!” Ashi said to Duggarn. “Illusion! Distraction! What is your purpose? What is meant to be that is not? This war was mean to keep you from your duties. You hold back the Blight, it is your destiny to fight it all your life!”
Duggarn GraveBreaker was not an easily frightened man, from what Kaden had seen. A devotee of the god of death, he opened rifts to the god’s domain regularly. And now he looked frightened. “The blight is not surging. We would know. Our [prophets] can tell…”
He paused for a moment, whispering.
Hundreds of shadowy shapes rushed out, dropping over the edge. Duggarn spoke to Diggus. “You are not forgiven. When we are done with our duty, we will decide what to do with you. For now, I will find Oberix. I will—”
“I’m here!” Oberix shouted in a cheerful voice. “Oh, look at all the weapons! Look at all the undead! I couldn’t miss this moment. Who gets to kill Diggus? I know it’s one of those two. I can’t wait to see which one.”
Oberix came with only two guards.
Low level guards.
Oberix’s hair was pulled back in a pony tail and makeup adorned their face, and they carried a familiar knife on her belt as she headed toward Duggarn. “Well?”
“Where is Sevin?”
“Oh. Drat.” Oberix said. “This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. You weren’t supposed to find out until the Blight Surge was covering Omnor. You two—wait, who is she?” Oberix’s gaze locked onto Ashi. “Where’s the girl with the snakes coming out of her back?”
For the second time ever, Oberix sounded truly confused.
Ashi spoke again, this time in a language Multispeak didn’t even touch. It reminded Kaden of when Ashi’s mother spoke to him, where words were less sounds and more intention, though Ashi had only a fraction of the power.
“Too little, too late,” Oberix replied. “Fate is broken and I am finally free to weave my own. It will be harder without a [Thread of Fate] but I have thousands of years experience. And I could kill everyone here if I wanted to. But I think I’d rather play a game.”
Kaden looked to Ashi.
She looked as confused as everyone else.
“The time for games is past,” Duggarn said. “Where’s Sevin?”
“Life is a game we play. Do we not level? Do we not loot? Do we not strive for the endgame and then wonder what more there is?” Oberix disregarded how the Walking Graveyards surrounded her. “You are so obsessed with Death you don’t know how to live. A game. I’ll tell you where Sevin is, on one condition. We go to my ship. I gathered all my employees there to keep them safe, of course.”
Duggarn motioned to the other Necramancers.
The chains binding Diggus’s Sky-Villa rose up and stretched out, clamping into the distant ship. The ground groaned as the chains relentlessly dragged the two together, until they shuddered, crashing together. Duggarn looked to Oberix. “Where. Is. Sevin.”
“You are cute when you’re angry. Why don’t you try that [Mortis’s Grip] on me so you know it doesn’t work? Come along, children. That’s all of you.” Oberix waved as they stepped past [Walking Graveyards] which didn’t so much as move.
“Oberix!” Duggarn shouted. “That’s—”
“Decide.” The androgynous Broker turned on him. “Decide what you really desire. You say it’s that prattling boy but your actions don’t match your words. So—you.” Oberix turned and pointed at Kaden. “You get to make the decision he just lost. Your desires are so very clear.”
Kaden shook his head. “I’m done playing your games.”
“I’m a thousand times better at understanding [Prophecy] than you are. But even you know that’s not true. Or you will, in about three, two, one—”
A stream of images hit Kaden. Blood and gore. Screams and the smell of his own burning flesh. Ashi’s grip on him kept Kaden upright but didn’t stop the sounds and smells that left him unable to speak.
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*Find yourself amidst this madness. I will not allow you to be lost.* Ashi’s mind speech held the exact commanding tone her normal speech did.
It took longer for Kaden to figure out he still had lips and a mouth. And even longer to decide. “You give me Fate Breaker? How?”
Oberix began to laugh. “That’s what you got out of it? But I see I have your attention. Come, Diggus. Or should I say, ‘Patrick?’ You too, Duggarn. You wish you were named ‘Patrick, don’t you?’ Let’s go have a seat and have a meal and I’ll explain how you get your boy back. If you leave, you’ll never see him again.”
*Follow my lead. I’m not the best liar but Oberix doesn’t have the slightest idea what I saw.* Kaden walked beside Ashi.
“How long have you seen [Prophecies?]” Ashi asked
Kaden considered how many people surrounded them. “A few times Never like what just happened. Aren’t [Prophets] wildly unreliable?”
“They are. You would be wise to remember this.” Ashi kept her grip on his arm as they crossed Oberix’s island. Her Sky Vault was staffed at skeleton levels (not actual skeletons). The staff who waited on them had the look of doomed men who knew they would not survive.
“Food?” Oberix asked. “Who’s hungry? I am! You don’t look like you’re in a mood for a banquet, but I’ve never passed up a meal of desire ever. Here’s how our game works. Everyone want to hear?”
Duggarn made a motion and a blast of pure black energy exploded outward. It arced eight different directions before slamming into Oberix. Who blew on their nails. “Anyway, now that you’ve got that out of your system. It would have been you. But now it’s him. Kaden, all you have to do to get me to surrender and give these fine folks their boy back is convince my employees I should.”
Kaden waited for the catch. “How do I do that?”
“That’s up to you. At any point, you can call a vote. Once and only once. You vote first. If everyone agrees on what I should do, I’ll do it. I swear this before the System. But if even one disagrees? I’ll have the Necromancer killed. Alternately, at any point, you can give up. Come out. I’ll give you the [Fate Breaker] but no matter what these men do, I won’t give them what their boy back.”
Oath heard and acknowledged. Oberix will return Entity [Sevin] and surrender if the vote is unanimous. The knife [Fate Breaker] will be yours if you give up.
“I can kill you,” Duggarn roared.
“Oh, maybe at one time, but I’m a [Fate Changer]. And the Fate I’ve worked the hardest to change is my own. The Blight drips from the cavern ceiling, Kaden. Drip, drip, drip. What will you do?” Oberix didn’t seem to care at all about the dozens of Necromancers surrounding her.
“I want more.” He wasn’t confident, but he could pretend. “If I win, I want [Fate Breaker].”
“Done.” Oberix offered him a handshake. “Come, come, they’re right here. You too, Duggarn, Patrick. Syntera, I can’t tell you how much this pleases me, but I don’t need to. Why don’t you watch?”
What Kaden had taken for a Skeleton morphed into her platinum blonde form. Syntera winked at him as she joined Oberix.
The doorway to the hold of the gigantic ship opened to a stone stairway that stretched downward far further than could have possibly been inside the ship.
It opened to a room with a crystalline wall.
Beyond it sat confident, happy employees in Oberix’s geometric design smocks, and heavily armed and armored adventurers, and more [Mages] than he’d seen in one place.
Oberix pointed to a round circle with runes on it. “Step in and you’ll be transported inside. When you give up—and you will—step back on it. We’ll watch. We’ll listen. I’m rooting for you!”
“I go with him,” Ashi said. “There are thirty of yours in there. If they turn on him, even Kaden will be hard pressed to survive.”
“We both know that’s not going to happen, [Fate Weaver]. Yes, I know what you are. You were granted emergency training, just enough for the profession, but watching [Fate] is the first step. So watch.” Oberix said it with smug satisfaction.
“You are more clever than I expected. I suppose I will stay.” Ashi’s tone was off. Kaden had heard it before when he’d made a critical miscalculation and she was waiting for him to fail.
*Stay behind Duggarn,* Kaden sent as he stepped onto the stone. In a flash, it transported him onto the other side. And the wall behind him was solid stone. *Ashi. Can you hear me?*
*Yes. Oberix is most amused.*
That [Mind Speech] worked comforted him. “Hi. I’m Kaden Birch. Any of you who are [Rangers,] my dad was Virgil Birch. Not a lot of [Rangers] in an underground volcano, are there?”
This was terrible.
[Negotiation] at his level didn’t suggest useful strategies. “I want you to vote for Oberix to surrender and return Sevin. It’s the right thing to do. The Necromancers aren’t interested in killing you. You’ll all die eventually and most of you were probably not involved in the kidnapping.”
The group facing him looked confused and afraid. None of them was over level twenty and most had melee classes. A few were shop guards and bouncers, with only a dozen level twenty Adventurers. They wouldn’t be keen on dying for Oberix’s wants.
“If you vote with me, I’ll personally go to the Necromancers. I didn’t attack their homes. I didn’t kidnap anyone and I’m not responsible for getting Serta killed by a gnome. I’ll demand mercy for all of you.” That was a solid offer, according to [Negotiation.]. “Why don’t you talk it over?”
When he turned away, he pulled an [Echo Beetle] and commanded it to fly across the floor and cling to the top of a man’s boots.
He hoped Diggus was watching.
He hoped Diggus knew Kaden had stolen the beetles.
“…but I was in the raid. You push meal carts. I killed two guards,” one man said. “And you know what Oberix said. If more than one of us vote against her surrendering, no one gets a reward. But—”
“We all want it. Their riches. Next you’re going to say we should let you be the one. We all vote for surrender, you vote against and you get everything. We survive.” The woman sounded angry.
“I was one of the ones who set up the cart. You think that won’t come up? You think that Necromancer bastard won’t recognize me?”
Kaden cleared his throat, working off his [Negotiation] prompts. “Sometimes, we need to work through a few rounds. Whether it takes an hour or ten days—”
The thoughts died in his throat. His mouth went dry.
*Ashi. Something’s going to happen. Oberix didn’t mind swearing her oath because it’s never going to come to a vote.*
Ashi didn’t respond, but Kaden couldn’t help the panick. “You need to vote with me. All of you. My mother had [Prophecy] and I have a little bit of it too. Something terrible is going to happen unless you all trust me. I’m trying to save us.”
The workers broke out in roaring laughter.
One man spoke up. “Oberix told us, [Prophecy] isn’t reliable for the first two thousand years. At least. But I see you’re ready to dual-class as a [Prophet]. ‘I’m the only one who can save us all!’ That’s perfect for a starting [Prophecy].”
*Kaden, the Weave of Fate is not stabilizing. Pretash does not know why. You are clever. Be clever. But especially be quick. I believe you are correct. This is meant to stall. To what end I do not know.*
Kaden started over, following [Negotiation] prompts. “Let’s talk about your fears and how I can help. I will swear oaths before the System to help you. Who wants to go first?”
One by one, he began to speak to Oberix’s employees, sorting them into several categories. The help were easy. And they seemed easily convinced as their focus was on surviving the Necromancer’s revenge.
The mercenaries were harder.
These men and women had broken into the Necrosium.
They’d shed blood.
Kaden was less confident with them but still certain he could work out a deal.
Those who had personally handled the kidnapped twins fell into a more difficult category, and the last—four Adventurers would almost certainly face vengeance. And yet they seemed most motivated to make amends.
Adventurers knew how to adapt.
The problem wasn’t convincing any one of them, it was convincing all of them. *Ashi. Any news from Pretash?*
*Destiny is a powerful strand for the weave of Fate, but the threads snap as soon as they are woven, even around you. Quit this game. Take your [Fate Breaker]. I am no [Prophet] but everything here is wrong.*
Kaden went over the counts. *If even one of them doesn’t agree, we lose our chance to save Sevin. I get one vote.* The revelation left him stunned. The understanding that he’d never quite grasped before. And he knew now why [Prophets] went mad. “Please. Swear before the System you’ll vote with me. I’m trying to save—”
“We heard you the first time,” A woman shouted. “You’re trying to save everyone. Now we have to listen to you raise another round of negotiation.”
Kaden hung his head. And made his decision. “My name is Kaden Birch. My father was a [Ranger.] My mother was Trema Birch.”
The crowd shifted uneasily at the change in his tone. “That makes everything better. Now we know what bitch shat you out.”
He understood the vision completely. “She was a [Shadow Blade.] Trema Birch. Butcher Birch. And I am her son. I wasn’t trying to save everyone, I was trying to save you. I’m almost ready to call a vote.”
“I’m been ready. You’re the one who needs us to vote unanimously,” one of the Mages said.
There were no more options.
There were no other ways. He drew a mana regen potion and drank it, the taste as bitter as the regret in his soul, and triggered the Suffering Crystals. “The vote will be unanimous, because I get a vote.” He drew Remembrance and slammed it down, shattering the runeportal. “And I will be the only one voting.”