It hadn’t been so long, Gem knew, since she had seen her father. But it felt like years. He’d not been with her when Simona ruined her ribs, nor when she’d been hailed for boiling the girl beneath a curtain of fire. The world had changed without his presence.

And yet just seeing him again seemed to bring a touch of normalcy back to it.

“I don’t care how much interference you received.” Her father growled, cyan eyes affixed just as forcefully against the wall as his magic. “You are the leader of the Udrebam militia, and more than that you were entrusted as the city’s defender. The first damned thing you ought to have done when the resonance tower was destroyed is take measures to receive outside help, not ignore the organisers on some flimsy pretext and hunker down in your bunker.”

Gem didn’t pay any attention to the response, barely even glimpsed the man her father chastised as his broad, bulbous face flashed on the wall. His excuses lasted only for seconds before Gilasev cut them off.

“No, no. Here is what will happen. You are going to pit every single one of your men to the task of providing aid and relief in the wake of this attack, contact Lord Molsey for a guide on how I’ve ordered that to be done exactly. Then you are going to direct your funding into doing so- followed by a quarter of your own personal wealth. If I find out that you have failed to do any one of these things I shall make a visit to your home and turn you into a red puddle, good day.”

He sighed as the wall’s glow faded, face disappearing, magic ebbing, plaster and brickwork once more the only display it had to offer. Gem studied her father while he took his seat, seeming more irritated than exhausted.

“Will you really liquefy him?” She asked. Gilasev grinned.

“It’s good to see you again, Gemini. I’d missed you.”

He said it so openly, so straight, that Gem almost let his words sink in. And then she thought of Simona and her resonance stone.

“You left me.” She answered, cold. “For weeks. I contacted you countless times, almost every day. With the resonance stone you gave me, and you ignored me.”

To her horror, tears had started to well as she spoke. Gem silenced herself to stifle them, turning away from her father while he eyed her with an unreadable look.

“You’re right.” He said at last. “I did promise to contact you, and I lied. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t fucking apologise!” Gem snapped. “Don’t you fucking dare insult me by apologising, we both know you don’t mean it.”

Her outburst didn’t so much as move the Deity’s eyebrow, merely left him still and staring. Gem suddenly realised she was panting with her anger, forcing herself to let a long, steady breath free. To calm herself as much as was possible.

“Why didn’t you contact me?” She asked at last, control threatening to split just with those words alone. Gilasev seemed unmoved as ever.

“I was chasing a mystic. A… Fuck, might as well. I was chasing the God Hunter. I thought that my chances would be best without any distractions, including from you. Didn’t catch them anyway.”

“The God Hunter.” Gem echoed. It didn’t take long for the obvious to rear its ugly head. “Wait, there was an assassination here weeks ago, an Immortal died. Did-”

Gilasev interrupted with his usual light, irresistible tone.

“The God Hunter was in Arcane killing an entirely different Immortal when that happened, unless they’re fiendishly cleverer than even I think. Which is… infuriatingly possible.”

Her father seemed truly irritated at that, yet more with himself than the world as a whole. It was a strange sight to see Gilasev Menza caught on his own failings.

“So who killed Tamaias?” She asked, eager to distract from it. “The Immortal who attacked me? The… one you killed?” The question earned her a shrug.

“That woman couldn’t have given Tamaias so much as a nosebleed. No, unfortunately I’ve no clue who our true culprit was. And this newest attack has likely erased any evidence that might have left answers. By now they’ll be long gone from the city, likely shitting and giggling as they go. Lots of Immortal schemes I’m failing to unravel, these days.”

His soured irritation was back, but this time Gem could think of no diversion to halt it. She merely sank into her own annoyance, eyes falling and thoughts straying. She remembered the Immortal grabbing her, and yet found no fear at the memory. Only the warming touch of her father’s presence.

One day she would be as powerful as him. It was her birthright. The sum of her talent and his age, an equation merely one quarter unfinished. Yet until that day came, Gem knew she would forever have his protection. A warden stronger than the world itself.

Gem thought of Simona, at that. The first to see what she might bring her power to do when tested. A shudder ran through her.

“Dad.” She whispered. “I have something to tell you, about something that happened in one of my tasks.”

Her voice must have betrayed fear aplenty, for his eyes shot onto hers with a frightful speed. It almost halted Gem’s voice as she recounted the events.

When she was done, Gilasev seemed thoughtful. But not worried. Gem wasn’t sure whether to take comfort in that, or ever greater uncertainty.

“What you did was understandable.” Her father answered, slowly. “The girl tortured you. Unprovoked, for her own amusement. None would fault you for giving her a taste of her own medicine.”

Gem knew very well how little she’d be falted for it, she’d seen the reaction her retaliation had earned first hand. Even her own teammates hadn’t seemed to care. And yet…

“They don’t know how much I enjoyed it.” She whispered. “What do you think they’d do if they did?”

Her father stood, making his way across the room and placing a delicate hand down on her shoulder. Kneeling before her as he did, eyes locking onto hers with a smoldering warmth.

“It doesn’t matter.” He answered, almost as quietly. “Most of the people who’d judge you haven’t been where you were when you did that. They couldn’t hope to understand, and their condemnation would express no more than presumption and ignorance.”

“And the people who do understand?” She asked. “How would they react?”

“They would consider it a mark against you.” Gilasev answered. Gem’s heart fell, but he continued even as she broke their eye contact. “Everyone has one, Gem. Pit, everyone has at least a hundred. If you’re despairing to learn that you aren’t perfect then I can only tell you there’s a lot more despair waiting ahead. All we can do is try to be better than we are. Make our mistakes, learn from them, grow from them. Then make new ones to continue improving.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She chewed on that. Took the implications and ran with them.

“Are you more perfect than you were six centuries ago?” She asked. Her father smiled.

“I like to think so.” He grinned. “Though that’s hardly an achievement, I was a horrible cunt for most of my life. You, however, are not nearly so bad as I was at your age. That’s the gift of children, a chance at making someone better than we are.”

Gem was more touched by that than she’d expected, and she felt the words moving her dangerously close to tears. Instead she feigned awe, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Wow.” She breathed. “You’re being all wise.”

Her father laughed..

“Alright smart-arse, no more wisdom for you then. That is, assuming you’re all satisfied and have enough food for a few days of thought?”

Gem had missed having her thoughts mirrored so exactly.

“I am.” She grinned. “Thank you, dad.”

Whatever answer he would have made was interrupted as a knock rang out against the door. Gem eyed her father, asking silently whether the intrusion was expected. His answer was a confused shrug.

“Enter.” Called the Deity, stepping back from her. The door swung wide soon after. Gem’s first thought at the sight of Lavastro was joy, then the emotion was poisoned by remembrance. The woman was tall as ever, though hunched over crutches and a bound leg. Scrapes and bruises marred her pristine flesh, seeming to take nothing from her haste as she hurried across the room.

Gem had barely managed a single word when Lavastro’s arms wrapped around her in a great hug, strength still enough to nearly squeeze her airless even through the woman’s wounds.

“Thank goodness you’re okay.” The Taik whispered.

So help her Gem had planned on answering flippantly, like her father might. Remaining cooler than any emotion could thaw. Instead she felt tears touch her eyes and returned the hug, murmuring something similar in answer.

When they broke apart, she got a better look at her friend. Finding herself a shade disconcerted by the state of her. Karma looked drawn out, worn thin.

“It’s good to see you again.” Gem managed, not being entirely truthful. “You’re looking well.” She added, lying outright. Karma grinned.

“You’re a liar, but it’s good to see you as well, Gemini. I’d heard my bodyguard arrived in time, but still wanted to check myself.”

It was then that Gilasev cut in.

“That pariah was yours?” He asked, eying the woman disconcertingly. “Then I owe you thanks, he saved my daughter’s life. At least long enough for me to get there.”

Lavastro smiled, then turned the expression to a wince as her bound leg buckled beneath her. The curses lasted barely an instant before Gilasev spoke again.

“Ah, where are my manners.”

Gem’s ears popped as the air shifted, the touch of a Deity’s magic seeming altogether too great for such a small room. Then her father gestured at Karma, almost lazily. Gem could see the power wrapping around her leg, feel it even more keenly. It took only a moment to expire, yet all of the Taik’s pain seemed to move away with it, her face left clear and confused.

Karma’s relief was exceeded only by her surprise.

“You healed me.” She gasped. Gilasev smirked, and nodded.

“I did, no need to thank me.”

“Excellent.” She answered, turning back to Gem with a face of jarringly clear skin. “Gemini, I will be leaving Udrebam soon. And I fear it will grow harder for the two of us to speak, with… Well, anyway communication will grow more difficult. Nonetheless, I would like to apologise for our last talk, and say that I hope you’ll keep in contact.”

It was a lot to be told at once, and Gem realised she’d grown disconcertingly used to swallowing such informational landslides over her time in Udrebam.

“I… will.” She answered, lamely. “But why-”

Already Karma was turning, moving back to the door faster than she’d come through it. Crutches left abandoned as she sprang away on new legs.

“Then I’ll hear from you then.” She called back, disappearing.

Gem stared at the unshifting door for an embarrassing length of time before laughter drew her eyes back across the room. It came, of course, from her father.

“What’s so funny?” She demanded, flushing. It seemed only to feed his amusement.

“You. And her. Really just some magic element that stems from the two of you speaking, it reminds me that there’s only so much blood in a body, and one too many ends for it to fill simultaneously.

That only deepened the burning of her face.

“Shut up.” She snapped. Then, as her father laughed anew, added; “I hate you.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed about.” He sighed, uncontrolled snorts finally dying enough for speech. “Few escape an infatuation like that at your age.”

“Please just stop talking about it.” She groaned, not able to so much as meet his eye. Seeing only out of the corners of hers that he’d raised his hands in surrender. Gem sighed, leaning back as a smile took her. Relieved, suddenly, to be back in her father’s presence.

It didn’t take him long to ruin it with a question.

“What did she do that has you so worried?”

Gem explained, as passionlessly as she could, and Gilasev remained quiet and attentive. It surprised her to find tears wetting her eyes once she was finished, apparently not so adjusted to Karma’s outburst as she’d thought.

“Well?” Gem asked, sneering. “What’s your advice?”

She shouldn’t have been so bitter, not at her father. He didn’t deserve it.

Even if he might have saved me the revelation entirely, by staying by my side.

“It’s up to you.” Her father said at last. Serious again. “Lavastro is your friend, this betrayal was your wound. It’s your choice what to do with it. If you want advice, though…” He sighed. “I’ve done damage by not ending friendships when I should have, and by ending them when perhaps they ought to have continued. How much do you value your tie to her?”

Fuck, but Gem almost wished that much hadn’t been enough to banish her anger.

***

The pariah at Lavastro’s back was little comfort. Had he been a Spadai, she was unsure it would have kept her nerves any calmer. Perhaps nothing would.

She walked, mind ablaze, wits twitching and convulsing at every phantom sound, brain torturing itself in fire as it sought some explanation for what she’d seen. None came, for some time. And nothing good came at all.

Lavastro thought back, as she moved, to the attack. The butchers, and their wide grins. The sound of caving bones, tearing flesh, popping organs. How it had all mixed so toxically with the laughter of her saviours, how it had all mingled so seamlessly with those bottomless pits amid their eye sockets.

She thought of motive, then. Eager for a distraction from the sheer reality of what had occurred, and needing to know all the same. For Danielz, she knew, had not simply saved her out of kindness- that was certainly not the way of a butcher, of any butcher. Least of all him.

Considering Bob Danielz’s way was almost pointless, for his way was Jack’s way, and Jack’s way was… Unknown to her. As was so common among his unknowable kind.

Instead of following that maddening path, Lavastro thought instead of what Bob Danielz had achieved. For he’d shown her much- once the brutality was disregarded. Lifting veins and bulging muscle, swelling magic, impossible power. He and each of his kin had drawn on the same Blitz as Amelia, and that was a secret most would sooner kill than reveal.

But reveal it he had. Why? Lavastro soon had her hypotheses, and it took little time to refine them.

She was in Danielz’s debt, and suddenly aware of a hidden strength to his kind that she was certain no others outside the Alliance did. With Tamaias’ death, tension between Unix and Dewlz would only grow. Bob Danielz must have known that- and yet he’d saved her. Her, heir to Taiklos, a woman with the arcane talent to one day join him among the Immortals.

There would be no advantage in unveiling such a weapon to her, nor accruing such a debt, if Bob Danielz believed the Butchery would remain Alliance-tied. With surgical finality the pieces clicked together in her head.

Lavastro quickened her pace, stifling a flash of irritation at Gilasev Menza’s flawless healing as she walked. Suddenly eager to meet her father anew so she might bring good news as well as finally reach safety.

A war was brewing, and Jack the Butcher, it seemed, may well be flexible in which side he took.