Chapter Four

Rhylix

As I ran out of the tower, the scene I’d left behind kept playing out in my mind, mostly in sound.

“Nyl, where are you?” Raimie dazedly said.

A barely audible whine filled the room, but by the time I’d leaned through the doorway, it had stopped, and Raimie was roughly shaking his head. I relaxed, thinking everything was fine.

A few moments later, he said, “At the moment, what Raimie would or would not want does not matter. He is not here right now.”

And I froze, knowing I’d stumbled onto something important. Unfortunately, knowledge of it got pushed away when Nessaira started howling in pain. By the time, she’d stopped, falling unconscious, black lines had faded from under her skin, and I ran from what that meant.

I was still running from it, but much as I might like it to, that strategy wasn’t working. So, I stopped short, completely out of breath, and considered what I’d seen.

Nessaira was an Overseer, a Kiraak who’d been afflicted for long enough that her blood lust no longer controlled her. Even beyond everything that had happened during the recent battle, I'd verified that fact when infiltrating this fort, months ago.

And yet, if I returned to her cell now, I wouldn’t find a trace of Daevetch on her.

Which meant she was no longer a Kiraak. Raimie had… cured her.

Gods, I’d be sick.

Forever ago, when I’d still had hope of breaking free from the cycle’s curse, I’d aspired to do what Raimie had accomplished. I’d desperately wanted a fix for the monsters Doldimar always created, had spent so many years looking for one, but as time had gone on, that desire had gradually faded, slowly retreating before my growing hopelessness, until the cycle had come when I’d broken. During that one, Doldimar had been around for centuries before I’d shown up, much like in this cycle, and the things he’d done…

He'd nearly won that one, and after it had been over, I’d just… given up. For centuries upon centuries, countless cycles passing me by, I’d gone through the motions, unable to do much else until Raimie had given me hope again. My wish to help the Kiraak had died back then too, and until now, I hadn’t examined what my long-ago surrender to the inevitable might mean, both for the Kiraak and for myself.

How many of them had I killed, thinking nothing could save them? With what Raimie had done, how much blood now stained my hands, or- or… had it always been there, unseen by a man too oblivious to notice it?

Gods. I couldn’t consider that idea, couldn’t carry the weight of it. Not alone.

So, I scrambled for another problem to occupy my mind. Like… like…

Like, what had Raimie meant earlier, saying he ‘wasn’t around’? He’d been standing right there. Had the pressure of the task he’d undertaken made him fracture from himself, even if temporarily? I’d seen that happen often enough in times of war and other such horrors.

If so, what did that make the ‘Nyl’ he’d mentioned?

“You… oh, no. Eriadren, you should pay attention to your surroundings. Now.”

Creation? What on earth was the splinter doing-?

Sharp pain in my head jarred me out of my thoughts, and as I pitched forward, I tried to figure out what had hit me, as something obviously had. I hadn’t had much time to do that before I’d rolled onto my side, curling protectively around myself.

A softly harsh voice poked through the haze of my pain.

“Remember. We can only do things that a fall off the wall could cover up.”

And even as another blow landed and another, I was silently sighing to myself because I knew what this was. I’d been anticipating it since first revealing myself as a primeancer.

That made it no less painful. As these judgmental assholes proceeded to beat me to death, I did my best to protect vital areas, wrapping my arms around my head and pulling my legs to my stomach. Logically, I knew I should just let them kill me. Dying and subsequently reviving would spare me a lot of time and pain.

But I couldn’t help fighting to survive.

When a kick to my kidneys had my body spasming open, I struggled to curl up again. When that attempt failed miserably and a foot connected with my groin, I tried to roll away from the blow, even with how hazy I’d already become.

At some point, there was a pause with frustrated voice saying something about how annoying it was that I wouldn’t lose consciousness—they could thank Ele’s persistent attempts to keep me in perfect health for that—but I couldn’t acknowledge that, save to use it to pinpoint my attackers. Once I had, I gathered Ele to me, ready to both shoot it at them and propel myself away.

I’d gotten halfway to doing that when a loud crunch filled my ears and mind. I had half a second to process that noise before an oscillating storm of sharp pain and a dull ache radiated from my jaw. Cold air brushed against body parts that should never be touched by it, and my teeth loudly pulsed in their sockets.

Ah. They’d switched to using weapons, then. Great.

Another snap filled the air, followed by a fiery spark in my foot, and another and another and-

I lost any tenuous grip I’d had on Ele, cursing it all the while. Gods, I was going to die again, and because of the curse that primal energy had placed on me, it wouldn’t be quick. Of fucking course.

I didn’t know where I’d found the energy to be angry about that.

As if to echo that whisper of emotion, someone familiarly welcome roared.

“That is not allowed!”

There was a whistle and a thump, and when I managed to crack an eye open, I was greeted by the sight of a strange man, sprawled on the ground with a clean hole bored through where his heart should be.

Rescue. Hopefully, it hadn’t come too late.

Two more bodies fell to the earth, and feet thudded toward me.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” someone harshly whispered. “Raimie will kill me.”

My friend collapsed into the dirt between me and the man he- he’d killed—I hadn’t thought Raimie could even hurt someone in his new ‘family’—but instead of reaching for my broken body, like most people would, he clenched his hands in his lap, running his eyes over me.

“Where does it hurt worst?” he asked. “And- and may I touch you?”

Oh. He did want to help.

Why had I been certain for a moment that he wouldn’t?

Groaning, I started getting to my feet… or trying to. My first attempt only landed me flat on my face again.

“Don’t bother with that,” I panted. “Just… get me somewhere hidden. Please.”

No one could see what would soon happen to me. No one but Raimie.

As I pushed myself onto my elbows, my friend slowly offered me a hand, refusing to move until I’d taken it. Then, he hauled me upright, throwing my arm over his shoulders, and even with pain screaming through my mind, I noticed how he shuddered when our skin made contact.

What-?

“Where should I take you?” he asked.

Why was he asking me that? I could barely think, let alone-

“The tower,” I surprised myself by saying. “Hopefully, we can-”

-make it. That didn’t seem likely, not with how much Ele was already glowing under my skin. Those… men might not have inflicted fatal damage on me, but with how many things Ele needed to heal and had already healed in my body, I didn’t- I didn’t know if…

“Hey, stay here, please,” my friend said. “It is difficult enough, dragging you along half-conscious. I do not think I can manage anything more.”

Right. Yes. I couldn’t think about what was happening in my body or the energy that Ele was sipping away…

Had to- had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Had to reach the tower—

Safety.

—before anyone came to investigate the commotion.

Was anyone coming? Or would I die, alone and uncared for, again?

“Rhylix,” my friend hissed. “Please. Gods, it is- it is too much for-”

My friend. He was helping. Or trying to. Bless him.

I didn’t think it would be enough.

As expected, we were within a couple dozen paces of the tower’s entrance when Ele’s healing process sapped the last spark of energy from my body, and I wilted. Grunting, my friend fought to support my body weight, but that was beyond him.

I watched from both my own eyes and a point above us as he lowered me to the ground. I noticed the full-blown panic in his gaze, how not there he seemed.

Consumed by his fear.

“It’s ok, Raimie,” I mumbled. “Will be back soon.”

And hopefully, no one else would be here to observe that.

To my distant surprise, I noted that my words hadn’t comforted my friend as I’d expected. With panic still running wild in him, he jerked his head up, glaring at me with his lips peeled from his teeth.

“I am not Raimie,” he growled.

Wha-? He wasn’t making-

“What’s going on?” a strange voice called.

Shit.

As my friend whirled away from me, I fought to stay in my body, desperate to keep my curse from discovery, but it didn’t matter how much I struggled. The world pulled away from me—

—and I was floating in the black. There were voices on every side, and it was all so familiar, and I’d just been somewhere safer and yet more dangerous than here. Which was it?

What happened now? Did I stay here? Did I move on? How did I both know and not know the answer to those questions? Why was this place so loud and—

—familiar?

Like where I was now.

Dazedly, I swayed in place, barely staying on my feet, and scanned a flat, green landscape with a blue sky overhead.

Alouin’s world.

Slowly, I pieced together what had happened. I’d died—obviously—and slipped into that place full of only black, the space between realities. I always went there after death, if only for a heartbeat or an eternity. I could never tell which.

Compared to there, this green-and-blue place didn’t usually keep me for as long as it had today. I was typically here for a breath, sometimes gaining a glimpse of Alouin before getting shoved back into my body. Why was I lingering this time?

“Hello, Rhylix. Would you mind moving? You’re blocking my view of the sky.”

Speaking of which.

As I stepped to the side, I glanced down at Alouin, raising an eyebrow. He was sprawled comfortably across the grass with his hands folded on his stomach, which was… different.

“Shouldn’t our positions be reversed, what with me just dying?” I said before lowering my voice. “Not that you’d care.”

As expected Alouin had no reply for that, merely blinking at me with a sardonic grin, so I huffed and rested my hands on my hips.

“Any idea why I’m still here?” I asked

Alouin shrugged.

“The balance has shifted, perhaps irrevocably this time,” he said. “Some aspects of your Eternal War are sure to have changed as a result.”

…Greeeeeeat. Yet another complication in my already complicated life.

It would help if I knew what Alouin was talking about. What ‘balance’ was he referring to?

Glancing at me, Alouin snorted a laugh.

“Ships, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to confuse you. Yet again.”

Sighing, he closed his eyes before giving his body a shake and settling back into a relaxed position.

“And don’t worry. If I’m right—which I usually am—you’ll be rejoining the living soon enough,” he said. “In the meantime, would you join me? I… could use the company.”

At that request, I hesitated. I might not hate Alouin as much as I had when he’d first forced me into this life, but our relationship still couldn’t be classified as good. Why would he ask someone like me for company?

What did it say about him that I was his only choice in the matter?

Ultimately, that was what had me sinking to the ground beside this god-like being. After a few heartbeats of watching him and his unfocused stare, I shifted in place.

“What’s got you so distracted?” I said. “I know I haven’t seen you much this cycle, but usually when I die, you give me all of your attention. Should I be jealous?”

Even as I voiced the idea, I laughed at it. Much as Alouin tended to help me along in my visits here after death, giving me hints and the like, I’d never enjoyed seeing him.

He didn’t react to what I’d said, though, continuing to vacantly stare instead, but after an agonizingly long wait, he pointed at the sky.

“I’m considering everything that represents,” he said.

After following the line his finger made to the sky, I winced. A pinpoint hole lay at the sky’s apex, containing a storm of illumination and darkness. In the midst of this, a humanoid figure was hanging from an unknown support, visibly twitching from even this far away, and the apparent source of his distress, the pinpoint’s storm of light and dark, funneled into him.

As always when viewing this, I recognized the hum, ever-present in this place, as the drawn-out and thready scream that it was, and half-unwillingly, I looked away once more, catching sight of Alouin’s rapt gaze as a result. Why did he find that horrifying image so captivating?

After another beat of quiet, he licked his lips.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It’ll be my turn again soon,” he whispered. “I won’t survive this time.”

And I could only blink at him.

“What?” I said.

That seemed to break Alouin’s reverie. He slapped his cheeks a few times before sitting up.

“I shouldn’t burden you with that,” he said. “You’ve got enough on your plate.”

As he stood, I joined him, leaving me unable to pull away when he took my hands.

“There are some things you should know then. A few warnings,” he said. “From this point on, I might seem different, Rhylix. At first, you might find me a little… unstable, but then, I’ll go cold. Be careful of yourself when that happens. I don’t know what my intentions for you will be after that. I don’t have that piece.”

At my uncomprehending stare, he made a face, releasing me.

“Trust me. I know that seems like babble right now. It’ll make sense eventually,” he said. “Now. Would you like me to speed along your trip to the living?’

When he lifted a hand, I nodded.

“Considering what I left behind, that would be helpful,” I said.

Maybe if I got back quickly enough, Raimie and I could pass my death off as something else, sweeping it under the rug.

And maybe I could also figure out why my friend had been acting so strangely tonight.

Resting his finger on my forehead, Alouin paused instead of shoving me backward.

“I wish you luck on your journey, Rhylix,” he said before sadly smiling. “Goodbye.”

He pushed me backward, and as I fell, his words and face swirled in my mind until—

—I jolted into my body and went still.

Where was the danger? Were potential hostiles around me, or had Raimie gotten me somewhere private before the damage had been done?

When I was greeted by only silence for several heartbeats, I started breathing normally, slowly opening my eyes. Cautiously, I scanned what little of the room I could see from my prone position, and after seeing no one with me, I sat up. Clinging to the edge of my cot, I simply stared at my feet for a while, letting everything that had happened over the last few hours wash over me.

I’d died again, and yes, I should be used to this after countless experiences of it. Yes, it should perhaps be as nothing to me.

But this time had been different. This time, I’d died only a few hours after another death, and this time… this time, I’d been murdered.

I didn’t know why, but that made it feel so much worse, even if the circumstance had been expected. What was it about me that made others want to end my life so badly and so often? I knew some of that was a side effect of the life I led but the rest…

Was I really that distasteful to other people?

But then, I remembered Raimie and how hard he’d worked to save my life, or tried doing that at least. I didn’t care how strange he’d been acting both before and during those awful moments. He’d been there for me. I hadn’t been alone while Ele had wrung the last drop of life from me.

Isolation while dying was quite possibly the only experience worse than death, in my experience. Thank the gods it hadn’t happened this time.

Still. Where was Raimie? I’d like to know what had happened after I’d died.

Given, he wasn’t the only one who might answer my questions.

“Creation?” I softly said. “Are you there?”

“Of course.”

The splinter was standing beside the door, carefully watching me, and given how obvious their presence was, I wondered how I could have missed them.

“Do you know what happened?” I asked. “Besides the obvious, I mean.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Creation softly said.

When I shot an incredulous stare at them, they shifted in place.

“I know you died, but after that happened, I lost my anchor to this plane of existence,” they said. “I’m not sure what happened here for the time you were gone.”

Yes, that made sense. That was how it had always been.

But.

“You couldn’t have asked Raimie’s Order splinter for details?” I said.

Creation’s lips tightened.

“They had nothing to report,” they said.

“Nothing to… what’s that supposed to mean?”

But Creation refused to reply, and I knew I’d get nothing further from them about that.

Shaking my head, I said, “Fine. Do you at least know why things went the way they did this time? I spent much longer than usual in Alouin’s world.”

“That’s… a difficult question to answer,” Creation said.

And I narrowed my eyes at them. How had that been difficult?

Before I could ask that question, though, the room’s door cracked open, letting a voice spill through it—

“I’m telling you, sir. Nothing’s changed.”

—and I froze with all of me going stone cold. Someone was about to encounter a living, breathing me after a possible exposure to my dead body.

How many times had I been in this position before? And every time… every time…

“Well, that was obviously a failure,” Reive says with a grimace. “Still, how fortuitous for me. It’s good to know I’ll survive that type of poison once we reverse engineer you.”

He turns to his assistants.

“Let’s move on, shall we?”

Someone grabs me by the hair, and dazed as I am, I can’t fight back as they drag me to a nearby bucket and shove my head underwater.

Frozen in place, I watched as the door finished swinging open. In its entrance, Oswin stopped short with his mouth falling open, and when he dropped the apple he’d been holding, the sound of its roll across the floor was deafening to me.

Gods, I wanted to push myself away from him until my back had hit the wall, curling on myself once there, but I couldn’t move. I was stone.

Still, I made my lips move.

“Please,” I said. “Don’t hurt me.”

For some reason, this made Oswin blink at me instead of sneering, but I didn’t get long to ponder that. As if summoned by the sound of my voice, a source of safety came into view.

“Rhy! Thank the gods.”

Pushing past Oswin, Raimie hurried to me.

“I’m so glad you’re ok.”

He grabbed my shoulder, probably meaning for it to be comforting, and I barely kept from flinching. This was Raimie. My friend.

I was safe here.

“Yes, you are,” Creation softly said from their corner. “No one’s going to hurt you right now.”

Maybe not, but even still, the fact that Oswin was still standing in the doorway, staring, didn’t bode well.

I couldn’t let him see how much this bothered me.

With difficulty, I turned to Raimie.

“What happened?” I asked.

Wincing, Raimie curled in on himself.

“A few soldiers attacked you,” he said. “It was bad, Rhy.”

Nodding, I said, “I know that. I was more curious about what happened… afterward.”

Although I did still have some questions about what had happened during my death, most especially about Raimie’s behavior. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure I could ask any of them with a spy hovering over us.

When was that man planning on coming into the room?

“Well, after you… you know,” Raimie said before vaguely waving at me, “Oswin and I dragged you here.”

So, at the least, the spy had seen me dead. That had seemed obvious, given his reaction on coming into the room, but the confirmation of my suspicion was nice.

“And what exactly have you told Oswin to keep him from… discarding me?” I said.

Had my friend told the spy my secret?

Shaking himself, said spy finally shed his shock, letting the door fall closed behind him as he leaned against the wall.

“Raimie said that sometimes, Ele does a magic… thing to people like you,” he said, looking mighty uncomfortable as he did so. “He said that when you’re close to dying, it puts you into a death-like state, there to preserve your body for a time. The hope is that a healer can reach you before that time runs out. Does that sound about right?”

Oh, thank the gods. Raimie hadn’t shared my secret. Given how often learning about it had hurt people in the past, I was fairly unwilling to let that piece of me get out.

Seriously, though? He’d blamed my curse on Ele’s healing ability? That wasn’t at all how that technique worked, and Raimie knew this. On seeing my side-eyed glare, he gave me a slight headshake, almost as if he hadn't wanted Oswin to see it.

Which of course, the spy had. That man had probably been trained to spot even the smallest of changes in body language.

But in answer to his question.

“That’s… a sufficient explanation, I suppose,” I said. “Is that it, then? I almost died, and the two of you got me into hiding before anyone else could see what happened?”

If that was so, had they also been able to clean up the bodies we’d left behind? Gods, how was Raimie planning to fix that complication?

Wincing, my friend half-closed one eye.

“Unfortunately, no,” he said. “Um… you’ve actually been ‘dead’—”

There, he made air quotes.

“—for a little over a day. And before Oswin caught up to help me with things, several soldiers ran across me and your supposed corpse. I’d be surprised if rumors of your death haven’t spread through the ranks by now.”

…Great.

Sighing, I leaned back on my hands with my eyes closed. This cycle kept getting increasingly complicated. It was starting—and I did mean starting—to worry me. How long would I be able to manage this chaos? Could I do that, long enough to reach my end goal at least?

Did that matter right now?

With my eyes still closed, I said. “Then, Rhylix is dead. That’s fine. I can work with it.”

Across from me, Oswin coughed out an aborted laugh.

“And how do you mean to do that?” he said.

Frowning, I snapped my head down to stare at the spy. I wasn’t sure how I’d made a poor impression on this man, but the bad attitude he’d always had while in my presence was starting to bother me. Maybe it was time to show him I wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

“Simple, really,” I said.

Getting to my feet, I fixed Oswin with a cold smile.

“I’ll become someone else.”

I started with my cursed height. To this point, I’d never bothered with correcting that horrible aspect of my body, but if daily magic use was to be forced on me, I might as well make myself comfortable. Yes?

The view from one foot down was… disconcerting. Any extreme change to my body was like that, of course, but with this one, I got a good view of Oswin’s shocked surprise and Raimie’s wry grin.

Next came my hair. Slowly, I shifted the green in it down to my eyes, muting its red color to a darker shade, and once that was done, all that was left was to modify smaller items, like softening my cheekbones and shifting my eyes closer together. Little changes to perfect the painting I’d become.

Once everything was finished, I released a breath while shaking out my arms. Over the next few days, I’d have to find time where I could practice my sword forms, getting used to the change in my reach, but that should be simple enough to accomplish.

“We’ll have to pick a new name for me too,” I distractedly said. “It should be something similar, otherwise the change might have one of you breaking my disguise. Ryvolim, maybe? I haven’t used that name in a while, and he was one of the few times I’ve been happy in life.”

Turning to Raimie, I raised an eyebrow.

“What do you think?” I said. “Is it human enough?”

Snorting, my friend nodded, but he got interrupted before he could say anything else.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Oswin shakily said. “You can change how you look? How have I never heard about this before? And… is this another application of Ele or something else?"

“It’s Eselan magic,” Raimie said with amusement.

Smirking, I added, “It’s called shape change, and of course you’ve never heard of it. We Esela keep this magic type under wraps, only sharing it with the Audish royal family in recent years. Humans tend to get fussy once they realize that the ‘inferior’ race can look like them.”

For a moment, Oswin was speechless, simply shaking his head, but soon enough, he was snorting with laughter.

“Alouin, that must be a useful skill to have,” he said. “I can’t even… it would help so much with what I do.”

“It has been rather handy, especially when I’ve had to infiltrate an enemy’s ranks in the past,” I said.

Chuckling, Oswin said, “I’ll bet.”

A knock on the door jarred us out of whatever strange sense of camaraderie had been forming, and at Raimie’s nod, Oswin moved to open it. For a heartbeat, I panicked, needing to get behind the door, before I remembered that I’d already assumed a shape change. Whoever was about to come through that door wouldn’t know who I was and subsequently, wouldn’t freak out about the dead-man-walking that I’d become.

I really needed to address that anxiety of mine at some point.

A nameless soldier soon came inside, scanning the room as he did. His eyes briefly lingered on me, but considering how quickly he moved on to his king, I assumed he’d been merely curious about the stranger in the room.

“Excuse me, sir,” he said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I have the report you requested.”

Report? Report on what?

“Oh, good!” Raimie said. “Please, tell me what you’ve learned.”

“First, we’ve finished debriefing this fort’s former Overseer,” the soldier said. “Someone’s writing those proceedings up for you, so you should have the information we learned soon.”

Shifting in place, the soldier took a breath before pausing. He looked away, swallowing a few times before he could speak again.

“Second, the incident from last night has been contained. The three men who attacked… your friend were working on their own. For the moment, no one else is acting like they want to hurt him, although I suppose that doesn’t much matter now.”

As this man had been speaking, I’d had to hold myself perfectly still, hoping to disappear in the room. Drawing attention to myself right now would be bad.

Was this how Raimie had chosen to address the issue of the men he’d killed while helping me? By turning what had happened into a crime so he could investigate it?

It made sense, of a sort. Those people had assaulted me… I supposed. Unfortunately, I was so used to that sort of thing happening that I was surprised others might consider it a crime.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” Raimie said, “but come. You shouldn’t feel-”

Jerking his head up, the nameless soldier blurted, “Forgive me, sir, but I was wondering if I could make a request of you.”

Raimie blinked for a moment before nodding.

“Of course you can.”

His easy acquiescence seemed to have made the soldier uncomfortable, given how much the man was shuffling in place.

“During the battle on the beach, I was one of the people who served as a distraction for our main cohort,” he said. “I… or rather we—those of us Rhylix saved—would like to know what you’re planning to do with his- his body. If you mean to hold a memorial for him, we want to be there. He deserves to be honored.”

I could swear my breath had been knocked out of my body. How…? When had the world changed around me?

I hadn’t thought my actions over this cycle had been enough to overcome people’s typical fear and revulsion of primeancers. With those feelings so deeply entrenched in the world’s populace, changing them was usually impossible, and yet, here was proof that maybe this time, I’d been wrong.

With a gruff voice, Raimie said, “You’re right. Rhylix certainly deserves any honor that you would like to bestow. But!”

Moving forward, he rested a hand on the soldier’s shoulder.

“I won’t be in charge of his memorial. That job will fall to Ren, his sister, and anyone else she wants to include in the process,” he said. “In fact, the man who will be transporting Rhylix’s body to her is with us now.”

As he waved at me, I fought off a shiver of appreciation. That had been a masterful manipulation of the truth.

“Honestly, though, my advice is for you to honor Rhylix in whatever way you think best,” Raimie continued. “You don’t need a body for that, not when he wouldn’t be in it. For now, Rhylix exists here—”

He nudged the soldier’s forehead.

“—in your memories.”

Coughing, the soldier had to clear his throat a few times before he could reply.

“Thank you, sir. We’ll do just that.”

With a grin, Raimie patted his shoulder.

“Whatever you and your friends end up doing, make sure you invite me,” he said. “I’d love to join you.”

“We- we wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise,” the soldier said.

“Good!” Raimie said, clapping his hands together. “Now. Was there anything else? I should finish briefing Ryvolim here about what’s needed from him. Given how little we have on hand for preserving bodies right now, he has quite the task in front of him if he’s to reach Ren in time.”

…What-?

“No, no. That was all,” the nameless soldier said. “Except… as you’re probably aware, the Zrelnach’s commander, Gistrick, arrived earlier this afternoon. He asked me to tell you that he and his people are ready to take over here. Something about you—and I’m quoting here, sir—‘getting on with the next phase of this ridiculous plan’.”

At that, Raimie huffed.

“He would put it like that,” he said. “Thank you for letting me know, Dravenik. If there’s nothing else, you’re dismissed.”

When he heard his name, the soldier’s eyebrows shot for his hairline, and he hurried to salute.

“As you say, sir,” he said.

But then, he left the room, moving so fast that it had Oswin chuckling.

“I don’t think they like you knowing their names,” he said.

Making a face, Raimie said, “Well, that’s too bad. I can’t help learning them, and if my soldiers insist on calling me ‘sir’ and ‘Your Majesty’, they can deal with me using their own damn names.”

“I’m sure they’ll get used to it soon enough,” I said. “Can we go back a little, though? You mentioned something about preserving bodies a minute ago, presumably in reference to how quickly they tend to rot. And what was that about Gistrick arriving earlier today?”

So far as I’d been aware, he shouldn't have arrived until tomorrow morning. Had I missed something?

Shifting in place, Raimie and Oswin exchanged an uneasy glance before my friend made a face.

“It’s like I said earlier, Rhy. You were ‘dead’ for a little less than a day, which means it’s almost nighttime again,” he said. “Remember? I did mention that, right?”

He looked to Oswin for confirmation, but I barely registered the spy’s nod. Turning on Creation, still hovering in a corner, I lifted an eyebrow.

“A little less than a day?” I said.

That was an unprecedentedly long time for Ele to keep from Restoring my body. Unless a delay like that was planned way ahead of time, I was usually back on the physical plane within a couple of minutes.

Shrinking on themselves, Creation said, “There have been some problems with… things recently. In the whole, I mean. I’ve been meaning to tell you about it for a while now but…”

Trailing off, they shrugged, and I narrowed my eyes at them.

“Yes, that seems like something I should have known about,” I said.

If I was unaware of shifts in the Eternal War, no matter how slight, then my ability to accomplish Ele’s purpose for me got compromised. I doubted the primal force wanted that to happen, meaning Creations should have already told me about these supposed ‘problems’.

They seemed to know what I was thinking because they shot a hand up to stop me from speaking.

“We can discuss it later,” they said. “When you’re not around them.”

Creation gestured at Oswin and Raimie, who were curiously watching me, and sighing, I nodded.

“Fair enough,” I said before turning my attention to the other two people in the room. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get so distracted.”

“It’s fine, Rhy,” Raimie drawled, cautiously eyeing me. “Given everything that’s happened in the last day, it makes sense that you’d need to discuss things with your splinter. And you know… if you need a moment to just breathe, you can have that too.”

I was a little tense and if that stress was showing enough for Raimie to notice it…

Damn. I hadn’t meant to worry my friend.

“Is that what he was doing?” Oswin said. “Talking to his Ele splinter?”

As Raimie nodded, I sharply glanced at the spy. How much did he know about primeancy? Sure, the fact that primeancers usually had a splinter hanging around them was common knowledge. But still.

And speaking of the spy…

“Now that we’ve established how we’ll handle my apparent death, there’s only one other issue to address,” I said. “Oswin. Can you keep this secret? I don’t want to go through an annoying amount of magic use, along with its associated energy drain, if my cover could get blown by a slip of the tongue.”

Oswin let loose a single laugh.

“You’ll have more of a problem with that from Raimie than me,” he said. “No offense meant, sir. I know you wouldn’t endanger your friend by doing something so careless.”

“No offense taken,” Raimie said.

The spy’s assertion had done little to reassure me, and I had to be perfectly clear on this point. With how hectic life was about to become, I couldn’t deal with juggling another shift in name and personality on top of everything else.

“Are you sure about that?” I said. “Keeping secrets can be-”

“Rhy, stop,” Raimie said. “He’s a spy, remember? Keeping secrets is part of his job.”

And wasn’t that a terrifying thought?

“But if it’ll make you feel better…”

Turning to face Oswin, Raimie glanced back at me.

“Are you paying attention?” he asked.

When I inclined my head, he turned solemn, putting all of his focus on the spy in our midst.

“Oswin. What we’ve discussed in this room, including Rhylix’s many abilities and the way we intend to hide them, is privileged information,” he said. “You should consider it as highly sensitive as the most prized of state secrets. This, your king commands. Understood?”

Oswin snapped into a bow.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he said.

And even if I couldn’t see his face, I knew Raimie was wincing.

“Get up!” he snapped. “There’s no need for that. Let’s move on with the day.”

Rising, Oswin smirked at my friend.

“Of course… Your Majesty,” he said.

“Alouin, your snark knows no bounds, does it?” Raimie said.

He was still rolling his eyes when he faced me.

“Satisfied?” he said.

“Supremely.”

After all, there wasn’t much more I could do to ensure Oswin’s silence.

“So glad my trustworthiness has been established,” the spy drawled.

Which made me wince. Much as I might have needed to draw this line in the sand, for my own safety, it probably hadn’t helped with improving Oswin’s disposition toward me.

“Is that it, then?” he continued. “We cover up a giant internal issue as best we can, and Rhyli… Ryvolim pretends to be human for a while?”

“At least until things have calmed down, yes,” I said. “Maybe once that happens, Rhylix can make a return, but for now, this is the best solution I have for the problem.”

Sighing, Oswin rested his hands on his hips with his head bowed.

“All right. I’ll sell the story as best I can,” he said, “but in the meantime, we all have things to do. Now that Da’kul is secure, we should return to Tiro as quickly as possible so we can get ahead of any rumors that might form, and before we can leave, I’ll need to brief my subordinates about this and their next assignments. I’m sure the two of you have things to do as well.”

“Unfortunately,” Raimie said. “Now that chaos has started back up again, it unlikely to relent anytime soon.”

“Such is life,” I said. “If you’ll remember, I did warn you about this, not too long ago in fact.”

At my friend’s groan, I shot him a silly grin.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said, “but anyway. Let’s get our shit done, and then, it’s time to go home. Yes?”

I didn’t know if I’d call Tiro home but…

“Yes, let’s leave this place.”