The night wore on, and Riven’s horse was slowing down. Their tiny pause at the Guard post should have been greater but it was a trade-off. The longer they waited, the greater the chance that the local Essentier would go missing forever. But it wasn’t fatigue that was slowing his horse.
No, it was the Frontier itself.
On the surface, the area of Severance Frontier this close to the Sundering Pit was little different from the rest of the land. The ground was still cracked as ever, dotted with little spots of dirty water strewn with the fading remnants of old Sept. No vegetation, though. No sign of any Coral plants and no hint of any thorngrass anywhere. Bits of the land flaked off wherever the horses’ hooves fell, dust filtering into the air as though threatening to retaliate against the sky for dropping Sept everywhere all the time. It was empty, devoid of anything that could be said to have life. No colour, no sound, no space for anything living to exist.
The onrushing dusk only made things worse. Rio had already taken out his Sept light, flashing the light everywhere even though the violet staining the sky was nothing more than the littlest of lines on the horizon behind them.
They had been riding for hours now, and Riven’s frustration at the Guards refusing to do anything about the missing Essentier was fading fast. Maybe the eerie atmosphere stole it away. His eyes flickered everywhere, noting the little rock that might have moved on its own, or the ripples spreading in that pool at no apparent disturbance, or a crack snaking across the ground of its own volition. Scary yes, but also, he couldn’t help but smile. It was silly to be so spooked.
“Are we there yet?” Riven asked, grinning at Rio. His demeanour was a little off-putting and somewhat scary. He had never seemed like a worrying sort, yet as soon as the gate had shut behind them, he had transformed, his smile disappearing and his posture tense as though he was ready to leap of Lightspeed’s back at the slightest need.
“Haha,” Rio said. “Very funny and mature. Just keep an eye out for now.”
“You look a little uneasy. Distracted?”
Rio laughed a little but it sounded forced. “Yes, by your prattle. Got to focus for now.”
That shut up any attempts at conversation. Riven would have turned to Viriya but she was her usual self, all quiet, reserved, out here to take care of business and nothing more. All immaculate in her uniform, her hair in a topknot, one hand on the gun at her waist and the other on her mount’s reins. That moment he’d spent at her apartment seemed so far away. A dream. A vision Riven was likely never going to witness again.
“What are you staring at me now for?” Viriya asked, glaring flatly at him for a moment before she reverted to looking around again.
Riven scratched the back of his head. “Er, sorry. Just not sure what I’m supposed to be looking for.”
“Anything strange.”
“I have a feeling our definitions of strange might differ a little.”
Her little side-eye meant she didn’t miss the jibe. “You’ll know a demon when you see one.”
“What do Fiends look like?”
“I just answered that, Riven.”
“All right, Viriya. What exactly do they look like? Do they have horns, fangs, claws? Scions forbid, wings? I’m not sure I want to trust my old schoolboy stories.”
Thought of schoolboy stories reminded him of Mother, which wasn’t good. Twilight had always been Mother’s favourite time, and now that he thought on it, Riven could almost see her everywhere, her eyes and hair the same darkness that was taking over the land.
“They look like that!” Rio shouted.
Riven jerked his head to where Rio was staring, heart hammering in his chest finger tight on the reins. Viriya had stepped her horse as well, staring into the pool of Sept light illuminating a huge swath of land broken by a deep crater a little farther off. Even as they watched, a long, white tail whipped at them before slithering into the darkness beyond. Rio twisted his light around, and Riven caught another flash of white, all spikes and scales before whatever it was vanished into the darkness beyond the light’s range.
“Was that a Fiend?” Riven’s voice was higher than normal. Well, it was normal given the situation.
“Most likely,” Rio said. “Come on.”
He led his horse away, and Viriya kept up. She had brought out her gun. Riven swallowed, and followed, back of his neck itching. Chasm, he was at the back of their party and thus was at the greatest danger of being picked off from behind. He tried to urge his horse to insert itself between that of his companions’ but they were moving too fast. A Deathless had been spotted and now they were duty-bound to confront it. Did Essentiers have to deal with this creepiness all the time?
“What do we do when we find it?” Riven asked. Thank the Scions his voice was returning to normal. “If we’re fighting, shouldn’t we make a plan?”
“We kill it,” Rio answered.
“What?” Viriya asked.
“We kill it.”
“Why?”
“Wh—” Rio stared back at Viriya for a moment, nose pin glinting the way his eyes were in the dying light. “Why do you need to ask why?”
“We need to capture the demon. Killing it serves no purpose.”
“Are you crazy? It’s a demon. You don’t consort with their kind, you don’t trust anything it can ever say, you don’t interrogate a demon for answers.” Rio shook his head, disbelief at Viriya like a light bulb blinking fast over his head. “When we find it, we kill it. You can ask your questions to your Spectres.”
“No. We’re going to capture any demon we find.”
Rio pulled Lightspeed’s reins and it stopped, letting loose a small neigh as though to tell them not to argue. Riven looked between them. Really, now wasn’t the time for getting into stupid quarrels. He’d never have suggested planning if he’d known those two would be at loggerheads. Being an Essentier surely meant prioritising the mission over any idiotic personal grudges.
Thankfully, and frightfully, a demon flashed by in the distance.
“What in the Chasm was that?” Riven asked, pointing off into the distance, fingers trembling a little. “I think I saw another demon.”
“Or maybe the same one,” Rio said, following his finger.
“This one was black.”
Viriya and Rio both stared at him, eyes growing hard. They all whipped their reins and rode harder, Rio’s Sept lamp flashing everywhere like the searchlight of a lighthouse. The clacking of their horse’s hooves spurned a trail of dust behind them, a tail that wound up like a huge signal for all to see. Here be a group of young and naïve Essentiers! Come see!
They couldn’t slow down though. Up ahead, the demon was waiting.
“What the—” Rio pulled hard on his reins, Lightspeed jerking to a stope and rearing with a wild neigh. The Sept horse stepped backwards as Rio stared down.
“What is it?” Riven asked, as Viriya rode ahead for a little bit then pulled back too.
His question didn’t remain unanswered for long. Near Lightspeed’s feet was the missing Essentier. Dead.
Viriya jerked her head around. The demon seemed gone. Well, either gone, or hiding in the shadows rapidly conquering the world as the sun sank beneath the horizon.
Rio jumped off Balustrade, and Riven joined him, leading his horse by the reins. The dead Essentier had no wounds on him save for the bands of blue and red ringing his neck. Crushed throat. His Essentier uniform was untouched, his sparse grey hair almost untouched, and even his weapons were in their proper place. The gun hadn’t been brought out and the Coral knife was still stuck at his waist.
“A snapped neck,” Rio said. His eyes were far away, hands reaching into the darkness. “It’s like he didn’t even get the time to struggle. Just—” He clenched his hand “—snap.”
“Keep an eye out,” Viriya warned. She was still on her horse, looking everyone with her gun ready to shoot the shadows. “Don’t forget we just saw at least two demons.”
“This is why they need to die. This brutality. This death.”
“But why did they have to kill him?” Riven stared at the body slumped on the ground. That flopped posture made his skin crawl. It was almost as though he’d dropped dead all of a sudden with no warning whatsoever. That made no sense. “He must have found something. Something these demons didn’t want anyone else knowing.”
“Exactly,” Viriya said. “That’s why we need to capture them. Haul them back to civilized lands and interrogate them. Whatever tricks and lies they may or may not come up with are irrelevant if we can even get a hint of the truth.”
Rio didn’t appear to have heard them. He patted Lightspeed, then headed into the shadows, Sept lamp swinging its brilliance ahead of him. “I know you’re out there. Come out. Come out, and I will give you a chance to talk. Perhaps even allow you to live. Make it difficult for me, and I will eviscerate you.”
The shadows swirled, thicker than ever with the sun nearly beneath the edge of the world. Rio repeated his threat, but there was no sign of any demon. Riven’s hair started to stand up on is own. None of this seemed right. None of it made sense. How long had the Essentier been lying there, dead and waiting for his corpse to be discovered?
Then the darkness moved. A deeper mass roved within it in the distance, a hulking figure coming slowly closer and growing larger every moment. Rio swung his light, and Riven gasped, taking a step back towards the horses. His skin crawled, and he whirled around. He sighed. No one was behind him, thank the Scions. It wasn’t a damn ambush with some silly distraction. No, Riven was just being paranoid.
“Oh look! More visitors.”
The unfamiliar, sibilant voice made Riven turn back forward again. He swallowed. The demon was speaking. It was humanoid, dark skin covered with thick scales with the larger scales forming armour-like ridges and plates over its whole body. The head was a man’s, the only difference being the mouth and nose jutted forward a little as though trying to form a snout but baulking.
“Demon.” Rio’s voice was tight. “I will give you one chance to answer me. Why did you kill this Essentier?”
The demon sighed. Riven had expected a growl or snarl, or something bestial, but its voice was rather calm, nearly reminiscent of the windchimes back in Viriya’s home. “I killed him? Hmm, if you say so.”
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“You didn’t kill him then?” Viriya asked.
“You say that I do, though.”
“Answer me, yes or no. Did you or did you not kill the dead man?”
“Yes or no.”
Viriya sighed, then pointed her pistol at the demon. “Last chance, Fiend. Who killed the demon?”
“I will hazard a guess this is far from my last chance.”
Purple light flashed. Short lines of lurid violet encircled Rio like needles launched from a cannon. “This is why you don’t talk to a demon. You kill it. It’ll never answer you. It’ll never give you what you want. Trust me, even after you’ve beaten them to a deadly pulp, they’ll never surrender.”
“Admirable spirit,” Viriya said. “But you’re forbidden from killing it.”
“What?”
“You heard me, Dorvhaes. No killing without my say so.”
“Screw you, Rorink.”
Rio was about to charge forward but then froze. Viriya had trained her gun at him. “I said, no killing.”
“Or what,” he growled. “You’re going to blow my brains out? You’re going to shoot me? Hah. I dare you to.”
Riven took a deep breath and tried to interject. “Now, no need to argue about this. There’s a demon right in front of—where in the Chasm did it go?”
Viriya and Rio, glaring at each other all the while, twisted back to face front. Riven hardly noticed. There was nothing where the Fiend had stood moments ago. Only darkness, sitting steady.
“Hey!” Rio shouted into the dusk. He stabbed his light everywhere, even up at the sky as though the demon might have had wings they’d missed. “Come back here you monster. Come out nice and slow, and I’ll promise not to kill you.”
“Yes, that’s very convincing, Rio,” Riven said. He brought out his own pistol, though the idea of shooting was unappealing. Better to reserve the Sept bullets for his Essence. That way, he could remain protected while the others took care of the threat.
Rio kept shouting, threats giving way to obscenities, but not for long. The darkness shifted again. This time, it was everywhere. Riven’s heartbeat spiked to thumping levels, hammering against his ribcage. So many. Holy Scions, so many.
The demons came out from every direction. They encircled their party, forming a closed barrier as Riven and the others drew back, closer to the horses and to each other. The mounts nickered in fright, even Rio’s brave Lightspeed, all of them pawing at the ground and ready to bolt. Riven’s eyes jumped from one demon to the next. They were all Fiends it looked like, all similar in size and appearance to the black one they had met just moments ago, though their colours were never the same. One was bright vermillion, another a gaudy paste and golden mixture, yet another whiter than snow. Apart from the colour, little features kept them distinct and individual—one had a spiral horn in the middle of its head, one had chitinous membrane poking out of its back like wings.
Riven was too taken aback to take them all in. Too many. That was all that mattered. There were too many for them to think of surviving.
“A trap.” Rio’s mouth was a hard slash against his dark features. “A fucking trap, and I fell for it. Unbelievable.”
“Great job, demon expert,” Viriya said, one hand stroking her horse to keep it calm. “What’s your plan on getting out of this.”
“Well,” Riven said. “We don’t know what they want yet. You both are acting like they’re here to kill us and maybe that’s not true.”
The answering silence ridiculed Riven harder than any words ever could have. Even the demons were surprised at the stupidity. Their circle eventually broke at one end and the Fiend they had spoken with made his re-entrance.
“Well, well, well.” He paused. The other demons in the press laughed, their voices all light and capering like little bells had learned to talk. “Look who fell for the simplest trap in the book. Really, how dense can you Essentiers be? The fool lying at your feet died before he could even tell us what he was here for.”
“Why do you want to kill us?” Viriya asked.
Another silence followed, then laughter. Loud, harsh laughter, like those bells had expanded to huge proportions and was falling down stairs. The black Fiend had one hand covering his mouth. “Kill them she says. Do you hear her?”
The others answered with more laughter. It quieted but didn’t dissipate, instead becoming the tinkling, low-throated sound Riven had heard so often in functions, ceremonies, and galas he had been forced to attend with his parents. The sound of pure elitism. One that proclaimed the laughers knew the subject’s place was far beneath them.
“We’re not here to kill you, foolish girl,” one of the demons hooted from behind. “Tonight, you lot are going to become one of us.”
Riven went cold, the gun nearly slipping from his hand. One of them. Hadn’t the Deadmage at Welmark said something about dead Essentiers becoming Deathless. “That involves us dying doesn’t it?” A sudden realization hit him like a sack full of bricks dropped right on his head. “The Essentier, the dead one… he’s one of you isn’t he?”
The other demons went quiet at that, though their mirth wasn’t gone. Their laughter had given way to twisted sneers, and on none was it more pronounced than the black Fiend.
“You’re talking to him,” he said.
Viriya pointed her gun straight at his head. “What? You’re the Essentier?” She blinked, incredulous. “How did you turn into a demon? Why are you siding with them?”
“He’s lying,” Rio spot. “No way can an Essentier become a demon. That thing was even talking about the dead one in third person.”
The Fiend’s sneer grew deeper. “That’s because that thing was confused and unsure, deciding that it would be better to become what he had always meant to become out here in the wilderness than cause fright in the Demesne. Go on, why don’t you open his mouth?”
Rio stared from the demons to Riven and Viriya. Riven shrugged. It wasn’t like he had anything to offer. Viriya was about as readable as a cliff. With a little growl of frustration, Rio bent to the body at his feet and pulled open the mouth with no compunction whatsoever. How in the world did he not feel revolted at touching corpse like that?
He staggered back when he had opened up the mouth, the corpse’s jaws gaping like it intended to swallow down the whole world. Riven’s eyes went wide. The interior was glowing, like someone had stuffed a sun down his throat. No, not a sun.
Sept.
What had the rule been? Those who ingested Set turned into demons? The Essentier hadn’t just eaten Sept, he’d been stuffed fit to bursting.
“You force fed him,” Viriya growled, her gun unwavering as it was trained on the demon. “You did kill him.”
The black Fiend shook his head. “I assure you, it was me. That body used to be mine, but now I am free. As will you. As you will all, not just you three, but everyone in this whole land.”
“Not if you died first.”
Viriya’s star shot up in her right hand, an emerald brilliance scaring away the encroaching darkness. Eerie green waves swathed everything, and the demons in the circle stepped backwards in unease.
But the Fiend was undaunted. He raised a hand. Rio growled, the purple lines revolving fast as a tornado around him. Viriya had cocked her pistol, holding her green star close to her. Riven meanwhile tried to find a gap between the line of demons encircling them. Fighting was out of the question, whatever his companions acted like. No way they’d beat back this many Fiends. No, what they needed was a distraction, or some other thing that would create an opening.
“Listen,” Riven whispered urgently. “We need to create an opening. Can—”
“Attack!” the black Fiend shouted.
Whatever Riven might have said got lost in the collective roar of over a score of demons rushing at them, screaming bloody murder. But none of them had to raise even a single finger. An answering shout went up from beyond the circle of demons, a harsh battle cry thrumming through the air and land that was followed by a near immediate blaring of a bugle.
Everyone paused to look, the demons turning towards the noise, the identity of which quickly became apparent—the thunder of hooves. The Frontier Guard rode in, Wilsall at the head with his Coral cavalry sabre held high in the air.
The demons switched focus and met the reinforcements in battle. They met with shrieks and cries that tore through Riven’s eardrums and collided with his thoughts. Shots rang in the air, several demons toppling to the ground and bleeding out rapidly fading Sept, while other demons tore down soldiers from their mounts. The Captain was soon lost in the fray.
Riven had no time to worry. No time to think, no real time to properly realize the goosebumps all over his skin and his heart shivering like bee’s wings. Not all of the demons had been enamoured of the newcomers, and half a dozen had charged in straight for them.
“He’d getting away!” Rio shouted.
Just beyond the circle of demons, the black Fiend was retreating. The former Essentier had nearly disappeared into the shadows of dusk.
“Riven!” Rio shouted. “Go after him.”
“No!” Viriya shouted, but her protest died as the demons swarmed them.
A blood-red demon roared at Riven, and he pulled the reins of his frightened horse to draw it back. Chasm, who knew those sibilant voices could turn so thunderous. Rio jumped in front before Riven was forced to shoot. The purple lines shot at the demon, catching it in a web of virulent violet light, and the Fiend froze in place. It started to disintegrate, falling apart into pieces of Sep that the lines transferred to Rio. The Sept faded, but still joined together to form a structure around, like dull grey armour that had never seen the light of day.
“What are you waiting for?” Rio shouted. “Go!”
Oh, right. Riven jerked his reins around, and whipped them hard. His horse shot off into the dark. Dark. Damn it, he’d forgotten about the dusk but he couldn’t go back into the chaos to retrieve Rio’s Sept lamp. That demon would get away for sure.
He closed his eyes, the wind skipping along his face and tugging at his hair. The pressure wasn’t there. Survival. This was Survival, wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t it come then?
Behind him, the sounds of battle faded the farther he went. Riven threw his eyes everywhere, the darkness seeming to swirl like the skirts of Mother’s favourite evening dress. If he focused anywhere too long, he was back home at Norreston, buried in her embrace as she bid him good night. He shook his head. No time for—
The tackle caught both him and his horse unawares. His shout and the horse’s frightened whinny were both lost in the roar that thundered through the area, making the air vibrate painfully and the earth tremble in shock.
Riven was thrown from the saddle, shoulder colliding hard with the cracked ground. He gasped once at the pain, but then shot to his feet. The horse was braying, quiet and morose as blood gushed out of its’ torn midsection. It was dead, or near enough. Damn it, he should have been aware.
He stared around. The demon had to be near here somewhere. Somewhere close. Stupid, so stupid. He hadn’t learned his lesson from the earlier ambush and had ridden right into another one.
And now he was too far from anyone to help.
The Fiend, it seemed, recognized it as well. He didn’t charge in as he had done with the horse, instead walking slowly towards Riven. The predator had caught the prey. No need to hide or hurry anymore.
Riven aimed his pistol at the Fiend’s head. “You killed my horse, you damn monster. Tell me why I shouldn’t blow your brains out.”
“You can’t. Well, you can try. In fact, go for it please, I’m actually curious now on what will happen.”
“Are you working with the Deadmages?”
“Hmm? Those magic-wielders?” The Fiend laughed. “I think it’s time you died. You even came so close to the Sept stash I have, so it won’t be a pain feeding them to you. Just try not to struggle, all right. Less pain for the both of us.”
Riven fired. The Sept bullet tore through the Fiend’s head, and he staggered back. Riven fired again, this time aiming for the leg. This one glanced off. Riven’s eyes widened, which was stupid given the demon knocked him off his feet the next moment, the gun clattering from his grip at the impact with the ground.
The Fiend stepped closer. Lightning flickered along his wrist, and he touched the gaping wound on the right side of his face that had blown open his cheek. The wound burned, and the Sept ceased trickling out and fading away. Riven’s stomach churned. Good thing he hadn’t eaten much in a while.
“See? Told you struggling was pointless.” The Fiend leaned down, sparks jumping from the hand that he brought close to Riven’s face. “Now, must I hurt you, or will you accept your fate quietly?”
Riven’s breath came harsh and fast. Death, death was all that awaited him. He tried to say “screw you” but he was blubbering now, and his eyes closed of their own accord. Accepting quietly was impossible in his state, but at least he wasn’t resisting. He could taste the lightning if he could be brave enough to reach out his tongue.
“All right,” he demons said. “Time for—”
He squawked all of a sudden, then swore. Surprising to hear such undignified sounds from such a regals voice.
The heavy presence over Riven disappeared, and the charged feeling of lightning vanished. He shot up, blinking hard at the dozens upon dozens of lines eating away at the demon, who was staggering back and spewing curses with very breath.
“Two can play the stealth game,” Rio said, approaching on steps that made no sound at all. The Sept his Essence had stolen had formed ridges and plates of armour all around him, all wrapped in those purple threads.
The demon roared under the assault. A blast of lightning tore through the violet chains wrapping around him, and he ran.
“Hey!” Rio dashed after him. “Stop.”
Riven was still too dazed to help much. He pushed himself to his feet, but mostly, his eyes were glued to the chase. The Chasm was his gun?
The Fiend was too fast. He got lost in the gloom, but his voice drawled back towards them. “Can’t hit what you can’t see. Not from that far.”
“I don’t need to,” Rio said.
Just as lightning flashed in the distance where the demon stood, Rio fired a gun. The brief flash revealed it to be Riven’s pistol. Damn thief had taken his gun. No wonder he couldn’t find it. The lighting struck Rio, but his armour saved him, cracking under the electric barrage, but letting nothing get inside.
The Fiend fell to his knees, bleeding Sept from a wound near his pelvis. “You knew where to hit?”
Rio answered with more purple lines that wrapped around the demon. He struggled again, more lighting tearing through the violet Essence, but Rio fired the gun and the Fiend’s struggling ceased. The lines wrapped him until he had turned into a cocoon. And it started to crush him, his form growing smaller with every passing second.
“Release me!” the demon shrieked, the desperate words muffled only audible for there was no other sound anywhere near. “Let me go.”
The light didn’t show much of Rio, but what Riven did see was his pale eyes bright as gems under a harsh light. “Die already.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re not going to stop anything with this pointless resistance.”
Rio shut him up with another well-placed shot. The demon’s form crumpled to the ground and the violet cocoon crushed him to nothing. In moments, he was gone.
Riven stood and watched the purple fading to nothing. What great help his Essence had been. So dependable. He ought to thank Rio for stepping in, but the words caught in his mouth.
After a little while, Riven walked up to Rio. “That’s my pistol you’re holding.”
Rio thrust the gun into Riven’s outstretched hand. Then he turned around and started to walk away.
Riven’s eyes fell on his dead horse. Could his horse turn into a Deathless? He had a lot more to ask, a lot he needed answered, but the questions were flung far behind in his mind. Dredging them up to the front seemed like a task too hard. He took a deep breath, then followed Rio.
Back to the battlefield with the demons.