The village of Rattles was aptly named. Its buildings were ramshackle and threadbare, it’s streets as much dirt as cobblestone, and the people inhabiting it were the shabbiest of all. Riven, Viriya, and Rio had ridden to Rattles on a freight train for this, like Welmark, was too far to host any passenger trains for any good reason. A freight train only came so far because of the nearby mine.
The same mine the last Deadmage used to work at when alive.
Riven breathed out a long sigh when they left its cracked grey walls and droopy gabled roofs behind. If they were lucky, they’d find and capture the Spectre by the end of tonight and get on the freight train back to Providence before daybreak. Staying here was not a good option. Even as they passed through, Riven had a hard time ignoring the looks. The downtrodden stares, the defeated glances. All the faces of those barely eking out a life in this desolate wasteland. How in the Chasm was Riven supposed to help all of them?
“How much farther to the Frontier?” Rio asked. Since the question was directed at no one in particular, no one volunteered to answer. “If you tell me how far we are from the Frontier, I’ll let you know a little secret. Namely, how close we are to Rennervation Demesne.”
Riven jerked his head towards Rio. He was still riding Lightspeed after they had all brought their respective horses with them on the freight train. “Rennervation is close?”
“Close is subjective, Riven. What’s close to me is an epic migration that lasts generations for an ant.”
“We’re what… two, three leagues from Severance Frontier?” At least, that’s what Riven recalled form his last quick perusal of their map. “Now, how far is Rennervation?”
“Seventeen leagues further east of Rattles. Curious name by the way, don’t you think?”
Riven stared left. Seventeen leagues further east. Not a good idea to head off. The horizon was a bleak nothingness apart from the distant high ridges of the Sundering Pit. Closer at hand, the ground was speckled with cracks and craters, a delta of fractures covering everything near and far like the land refused to allow him to even think about heading towards Rennervation Demesne, much less actually start on the journey. No, not a good idea. Not with the sun on its downwards trend, giving way to the wings of dusk spreading its purple cloak over the land.
Seventeen leagues wasn’t that far off, though. Two or three hours ride on horseback, at most. So close. The Sept research was just beyond reach.
“Distracted?” Rio asked, pale eyes a mirror of the fog seeping into the area.
Riven blinked. Wouldn’t do to let them know where his mind lay. “Er, no. Just anxious. Yes. Never been to the Frontier itself before, you see.”
“It’s not as great as it’s cracked up to be, trust me.”
“I didn’t know it was that great to begin with.”
“Then what in the Chasm get you anxious?”
“Isn’t this Deathless territory? The closer you get to the Frontier, the closer you get to Sundering Pit, the more Deathless you come across.”
“Hmm.” Rio’s lips twisted like Riven had said exactly what he’d expected. “And how many Deathless have we come across, Riven?”
“…not a one.”
“Exactly!”
Riven ignored Rio’s smile. It gave way to a flash of teeth, bright as the Sept crystals embedded on his horse and the gems studded on his rings, all glittering in the light of the sinking Septillion sun.
“Doesn’t matter,” Viriya said. “The Frontier Guard do a good job of patrolling and keeping things under check. It is great though. The Frontier was the first great accord between Resplend and Vedel Arn, after centuries of war, mistrust, and lack of faith.”
“I think you have the war and faith bits in the reverse order of severity,” Rio pointed out.
Viriya ignored him. “Do you know it’s history Riven?”
“Er, I know some of it,” Riven said “History was never my strong suit but I know the war only stopped because of the meteor. The one they call the Great Revealer. That’s what created the Sundering Pit, and opened up all those Sept mines, making all the land that was being fought over basically inhospitable.”
“Right. Ignoring the fact the huge number of death and casualties both military forces suffered, there were lots of changes brought on by the Severance. The Sundering Pit revealed all those mines of Sept that needed to be excavated. Too much Sept. That’s why both nations were happy to call a truce and get as much as Sept as they could, and even over two hundred years later, we’ve barely scratched the surface what’s down there.”
“And all that Sept led to everything we have now.” Cars, trains, lights, even the mail. All powered by Sept. All dependent on Sept. “No more need for war.”
“Yes.” Viriya whipped her horse’s reins and it plodded a little closer to Riven, who was in the middle of their little company. “With Sept literally falling out of the sky, there was no need to fight over it anymore.”
Riven nodded, though it felt a bit too sagely. The war had started in the first place because expansionist tendencies from both Resplend and Vedel Arn to grab as much land as they could, all to gather the next pile of Sept from somewhere. His lessons had left him with the bare facts of the matter, and how the past enmity still leeched into matters even today. Too much blood had been shed. So much that even over two centuries worth of time had been unable to wash away.
Though none of it had given him any stories. What had the people been like back then? What had their thoughts been on the constant war? For all the technological progress, Riven had a feeling those haunted eyes and defeated stares hadn’t changed much over the centuries.
“And all that Sept also made the shit ton of Deathless we now have to deal with,” Rio said.
Shit ton. “Oh crap.” Riven looked at Rio and Viriya, both of whom had glanced over at the tone of his voice. “You mentioned lots of death, Right Viriya? If so many had died, all in the presence of Sept, then I think shit ton is a quite an understatement about the amount of Deathless they might have had to deal with.”
He could imagine then, all the chaos. A battle raging and in its midst, an enormous meteor blasting open a sinkhole in the ground. All the Sept floating and wandering everywhere, all the death caused by the impact and the battle itself.
And all the Spectres rising from their deceased bodies.
What had their reaction been to it? How had those men and women all those years ago felt as they stood witness to an event that far exceeded anything ever seen before.
“Well, we won’t have to ponder about the Frontier for much longer.” Viriya leaned forward on her saddle a little, pointing up ahead. A distant grey line was slowly growing larger. “Severance Frontier isn’t far now.”
It was still farther than any of them had expected. That distant grey line wasn’t growing any larger anytime soon. Riven maligned the fact he never thought of bringing a watch to these forays, but it had to have taken at least another hour until the Frontier became clear.
Their route took them by the farms that fed Rattles. Two greenhouses stood on either side of the road, houses of glass built upon a skeleton of steel that protected the precious crops from the Sept that threatened to rain down everywhere. Purple Coral tree clumps dotted the area around the greenhouses. Two bored-looking guards glanced tiredly up at them as they passed, but they got no further reaction. Maybe groups of Essentiers weren’t an uncommon sight over here.
A little further off, a man was teaching a clump of children.
“How do you define the number ‘five’, Alin?” he asked.
One of the children raised her hand and splayed all five fingers. Her nails were caked with dirt, but her smile was bright enough to blind the unwary. “Five!”
“Yes, that’s right!” The man clapped, and seeing him, the other kids started to join in. Even Alin, surprised for a moment, before slapping her hands together hard enough to sting. “Settle down now, we still have the last lesson to cover.”
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The other children jostled, giggled, and did other children things before returning to their respective positions on the ground.
“Today’s last lesson,” the man continued once his charges had sufficiently quieted, “is our moral code. We don’t need to jump into a list of all the things we should and shouldn’t do. I can trust you to know and understand it, once we’ve covered the baseline. And that baseline is kindness, compassion, a simple line of thought—how can what I do help this person. We must remember that all the time, and—”
“What’s going on here?” Rio called, jerking Lightspeed towards the man.
The children squawked at Rio’s sudden interruption, jumping behind the man’s back as one. They regarded the approaching Rio like rabbits watching a hawk.
“Hello sirs, and ma’am.” The man bowed his head, eyes lingering on their uniforms. He was careworn and shabby everywhere—hair looking more silver than golden, face creased and burned by the sun, eyes sunken in dark craters of sleeplessness. Riven sighed a little. Seemed everyone here was as desolate as the land they lived on. “I am Suthmeer, the teacher for the local children. Well, some of them at least.”
“Out here? In the middle of nowhere?”
“This little spot is called the Glass Stand, sir. Cause of the greenhouses, you see.”
Rio’s habitual smile had disappeared. “Yes I see, and no, that’s not what I meant. You ought to get out of here before you cause undue harm to those children.”
“Harm? I’m only teaching the children here.”
The man was drawing himself in as if preparing for a fight. What in the Chasm was Rio doing? Riven was about to pull Rio back, but he caught a little warning shake of the head from Viriya. He frowned at her and was about to ask, but she rode on, jerking her head at him to follow.
Riven caught up to her, Rio’s admonishing of Suthmeer growing no less quiet despite the distance they were putting from him. “What in the Chasm is going on?”
“Maybe he just wants them to be safe?” Viriya offered.
“But there’s the two guards over there. Granted they don’t look like much, but…” Riven looked back. Rio was berating the Suthmeer from horseback now, the children all cowering behind the man’s back. “He’s going off a little crazy.”
“I don’t see any difference.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Rio eventually joined them, his ever-present smile and the glimmer in his back as though that little episode was nothing out of the ordinary. “Sorry about that. It’s just so silly of them to be carousing about with Deathless running in the loose everywhere.”
Riven scratched a persistent itch on his neck. He’d have pointed out Rio had been tense since their conversation earlier about the Deathless, was taking his frustration out on the hapless local inhabitants, and several other flaws Riven would have had no trouble digging up, but they were nearing their destination. The grey line resolved into a large fence, a line of iron spikes embedded deep into the ground, wrapped in barbwire and studded with spikes on top. The fence stood well over twenty feet high, the iron bars thick as thighs. No one was getting past that without artillery.
Or stupidly broken powers the kind some Essentiers and Deathless possessed.
The guards Viriya had mentioned rode up on black horses to accost them, a half dozen men in black coats, trousers, and tall, cavalry helmets. Just a handful for such a vaunted legion, though that added to whatever mystique Viriya had cloaked hem with.
“Greetings,” the leader said, jutting his left shoulder a tiny fraction ahead of the other to better emblazon the stripes of his rank at them. He was a short, bald man nearing his middle years. “You must be the Essentier company that I was warned about. I am the Captain of this local area. Wilsall.”
“Warned about?” Rio asked, his smile taking a slight edge.
“Apologies. I meant no offence. My phrasing turns poor when I get a little stressed.”
Viriya rode ahead of Rio and Riven. “And I assume we’re here to assuage your stress by taking care of the stressor.”
“Yes. But first, won’t you join us for some light refreshments, please?”
“No time. Best get on with business as soon as possible.”
Wilsall looked relieved. The Captain couldn’t have reached his middle ages but lines of worry dug deep grooves in his forehead and his helmet didn’t hide the grey hairs staining the sides of his head. Even his eyes were permanently moist. What in the Chasm had happened here? Didn’t look like a few scary Spectres were the only problem.
“I am terribly sorry for being so uncouth and savage, but to business then.” He turned his horse around, as did the other Guards with him, and he beckoned them to follow. “Though first of all, what may I call you all?”
“I am Viriya Rorink,” Viriya said. She pointed at Riven and Rio, naming them respectively. “Riven Morell. Escario Dorvhaes. Essentiers on business.”
Wilsall nodded. “To business, then. We’ve been hearing rumours and news of rising Deathless activity in the rest of the Demesne, and honestly, we’ve been growing more and more afraid. Things hadn’t been much worse than normal around here or anywhere else near the Frontier so far as we could tell. As you can this was perplexing, and worrying too.”
“But…?” Rio prompted.
Wilsall had paused, perhaps trying to find the best words to express. His grimace at Rio’s poking was obvious at the set of his shoulders. “We’ve spotted Fiends the last few days. More than normal. Lot more. The only Essentier we had on duty near Rattles decided to investigate and he hasn’t returned yet.”
“When did he leave?” Viriya asked.
“Almost two days ago.” The Captain brought out a pocket watch, a nice little thing, the metal casing gleaming in the sunlight. “About thirty-two hours from now, to be exact.”
“Shit,” Rio muttered. “You mentioned Fiends. How many were there, and where?”
Riven stared at him. His demeanour had changed all of a sudden. He sat tense and rigid as a plank on Lightspeed, hands clenched on the reins and smile vanished. Even his eyes had gone cold as ice. Why was he so worried about these Fiends? They were common enough around the Frontier, as all Deathless were. A part of Riven was afraid the Spectres would turn out to be some random ones from the village, ones who had nothing to do with the Deadmage back in Welmark. But then, hadn’t Rio been there with the other demon when he’d first met Viriya as well.
Wilsall frowned a little at his intensity. “Er, there are always a handful in the distance. We haven’t had any engagements. Just our regular watches and patrols have spotted a greater number of them moving about than usual.”
Rio lapsed into silence, unease waving off him like a bad stench. What in the Chasm was he seeing into the Captain’s statement?
Viriya rode head even further, until she was neck and neck with the Captain. The other Guards reluctantly made way, shooting displeased looks at her. “So you need us to investigate this missing Essentier?”
“That would be most appreciated.”
“Have you sent a search party yet?”
“We haven’t made any conclusive decision on anything yet. Sadly, this is unfamiliar waters for me. Protocol doesn’t state what to do…”
Riven frowned. Was this man serious? “You… need protocol to decide if someone is missing and what you should do about it?”
Wilsall turned, likely more at the tone of Riven’s voice than at his actual accusation. He was frowning, but his frown could go to the Chasm for all Riven cared. “I am afraid I cannot disrupt the structure of the Guards even for extraordinary circumstances such as this. This is why require assistance.”
“Well, that’s bullshit.”
“What about the Spectres?” Viriya quickly asked as the Captain’s frown deepened, scoring more grooves on his temples. “While we aren’t opposed to helping, our primary objective is capturing these Spectres.”
“The Spectres were spotted yesterday by one of our tower watches,” Wilsall said. He tore his gaze from Riven and stared ahead at the building they were approaching. “We use a system of telescopes during the day and Sept lights at night. The ones we saw were during the day, and I’m sorry to say this, but it was almost a day ago now. I can’t tell where they might be now.”
Rio sighed. “Well, isn’t that just great?”
Viriya stared pointedly at Rio before turning back to Wilsall. “Where did you see them? When, and how many? We’ll need all the details that you can provide.”
“Yes of course.” The Captain nodded at the building they were approaching. “But please, come rest for a little while. You must be awfully tired from your nonstop journey all the way from Providence city.”
The route they were on had long ago turned from any kind of road to a beaten path barely separable from the broken ground surrounding it on both sides. Its only demarcation was the occasional Coral tree growing on the roadside, and the barricade of thorngrass. The ones here were smaller than hose near the village, trunks black instead of purple and branches twisted in place of straight. It led to a small outhouse just in front of the Frontier. The post for the Guards. A tall tower rose from behind it, its top peeking over the spiky points of the Frontier’s fence.
They let the Guards handle their horses as they waited inside with Wilsall. He had another Guard bring in such refreshments as they had to offer—stale biscuits, weak tea, and what looked like curd but no one tasted it to check.
“I have my whole report here.” The Captain handed a thin file to Viriya. “A copy of this is what I sent to the Invigilator’s Office.”
Viriya flipped through the pages pretty quickly while Riven sipped on the tea. Good thing she wasn’t delegating it to him as her assistant. Though, as an official Essentier, surely he had the grounds to refuse.
“These seem good,” she eventually said. “Good enough for us to be off.”
“Finally,” Rio muttered under his breath. He hadn’t eaten or drank anything at all.
She stood up, and Wilsall got to his feet at the same time. “Leaving already? Are you sure you have everything you need? Please don’t hesitate to let me know. I am here to assist in any way I can.”
Riven stood up as well, clattering his cup on the table. The noise got everyone’s attention. “I think you’ve assisted us enough. Thank you for the little break, but we should be off.”
Viriya frowned at him but said nothing otherwise. Then she nodded at Wilsall and strode outside. They took to their horses and were off in moments, the Guards opening the gate with a loud clatter of chains and screeching of disused hinges. It seemed they needed to learn the benefits of greasing.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance,” the Captain said. “I’ve been very stressed about everything. All life is precious after all, and I didn’t want to needlessly squander anyone’s.”
“The Essentier’s life is precious too,” Riven said.
“I am not the ingrate you seem to think I am.”
“Then maybe you could get a search party ready and send them out to look for this missing Essentier?” Riven stared at Wilsall expectantly from horseback, but he made no motion. He didn’t even deign to acknowledge that Riven had spoken at all. “Didn’t think so.”
“We are grateful for what help you provided,” Viriya said.
The Captain only stared for a while, before relenting with a tight nod.
With nothing more to say, they set off, trotting into Severance Frontier proper. Riven tried to relax his shoulders but it wasn’t easy. Rio’s words kept interrupting his thoughts. Not far to Rennervation Demesne. Not far to the Sept research facility. Not far from finding a cure for Mother.
The gate clanged shut behind them, sealing them in.