Sesako seethed with hatred as the other slowly ascended the volcano, Kisiko’s corpse cradled in his hands.

Burn the parasite. Burn him away from his mind.

They had a chance to end the war, to destroy the island, to even kill the emperor. And he’d spat in the face of their every hope for victory.

The other wearing Sesako’s body followed closely behind the emperor — oh, if only Sesako could have kept control of himself through that second, then the whole purpose of his life would have been fulfilled!

The emperor killed.

The Great Ones saved.

Duty done!

Takue followed in the bottom, slowly struggling. Her breathing labored, her face gray, pale, and sweaty. She looked desperately ill. Sesako ached to help his old mentor.

But he couldn’t, for the traitor coward still controlled his body.

The damned emperor.

The emperor led them up, solemnly giving signals to the hundreds of his warriors that they passed that they were not to be interfered with.

When they reached the top of the cone, the battle in the skies had nearly ended.

Fitzuki had broken through the nets holding his army, but during the battle the bulk of the emperor’s army had attacked the nearly undefended city. They had descended upon it in a great horde, taking what remained of the insufficient defensive positions, and forcing the few defenders left behind to flee.

The bulk of the Yatamo, high in the sky, had not sought to take the city back from forces that outnumbered them two to one in purified cores, and which had the better position. Instead, they retreated towards the mountains, to towers which were yet fully defended.

When the little group reached the surface, Sesako perceived that the other’s control over his body had weakened to the point that he could seize it back and hurry to defend the city once more.

For what purpose?

Hinete had fled deep into the tunnels with the others who were not part of the fighting forces before the battle started, and the battle was lost no matter what he did. They’d sent out the bulk of the valuables into the tunnels and scattered them in the countryside already.

Even as he watched the last few fighters were — as they had long trained to do, abandoning their positions to flee to the mountains. Fitzuki had broken free and clear of the imperial cultivators who had sought to trap his army, and they were followed cautiously at a distance of about half a mile by the emperor’s forces.

At that range, there was a great array of crossbow bolts being shot between the armies, but they only were intended to slow down the movement of each army and force them to expend magic to stop them. Nobody would be killed by an exchange of fire from such distance against unbroken defensive arrays.

Even as he watched the emperor’s forces pull back farther, until there was a distance of a mile between the two armies that floated five miles high in the sky.

The emperor pointed to the army led by Fitzuki, and said to the other who controlled Sesako’s body, “My darling, go with Kisiko’s honored body, and tell Fitzuki — do I assume with correctness that he has been the one who made the pretense of being you? — tell Fitzuki of the ceasefire I have given — my commander has already been informed. No one else needs to die today, though it is a thought of grief to me, for I know that many more shall die before this war is completed.”

Sesako could have grabbed control of the body.

He could have spit at the emperor.

He could have followed Kisiko’s lead and tried to use his third core as a weapon. No… the other would have seized control back if he planned to commit suicide.

Damn, damn, damn him.

Sesako knew what the other’s success in wrestling control at that moment had meant: It meant that he wanted to be a coward more than Sesako wanted to be a hero.

Damn myself.

After nodding at the emperor, the other leapt into flight — Sesako saw that the vile parasitic cerebral worm liked the emperor, like he’d decided that he liked Kisiko.

Though he had been right about Kisiko.

Takue followed, with every appearance of severe illness in her. She did not speak to the other, and that was well, for he did not deserve to be spoken to.

As they approached the army, Fitzuki settled his forces back onto the ground in the high mountain above the city. The defensive towers here could not safely be directly attacked while the whole army was there to support them.

A new bombardment would be required for the emperor to destroy the towers, and then open up the pass so he could force his army through. This bombardment would take far less time and preparation than the one which had been gradually blasting the city’s defenses to bits.

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

That siege would not begin for a week.

There was a look of exhaustion and despair on every face, as they looked down the mountainside towards the devastated city. There were many wounded, and the clothes and armor of Fitzuki’s forces were often burnt. Sesako felt how they were drained, empty of power, magic oozed out from the cores, full of a sense of defeat and devastation.

But the army was not much smaller than it had been when it had set out. The other did not pause in his movement, and Sesako could not take a detailed count, but at most one in twenty had died —likely less.

That skill in command which achieved such a result had been the reason they gave Fitzuki command.

They were in the high tree line, forests of pines and needles. The ground crunched softly under Sesako’s feet as he walked up to the standard of the commanders.

At least Kisiko was the only one of the seven to die, though Dairuke sat on a stone, with his arm and shoulder shattered from where it had been struck by a purified core. Three healers stood next to him, their own hands glowing purple as they worked to staunch the bleeding and pull out fragments of the shattered bone.

Despite his wounds, Dairuke appeared more cheerful than Sesako had ever seen the generally dour and dedicated man. He grinned at them with sparkling white teeth as he saw them coming. The grin faded away when he saw that Kisiko was dead.

Wounds from being struck in such a way by a core never fully healed. But he had been lucky to have avoided being struck closer to the body.

If the impact point had been more than a few inches above the elbow, it would have been fatal for Dairuke.

Kisiko’s body was still cradled in their arms. It was when he stood a few feet before Fitzuki that Sesako found himself once more in control of his own body.

The coward was too frightened to even make his own report of his cowardice.

“We failed. We failed like failures.” Sesako did not hesitate. “The coward who the dragon tied to me so that I might survive proved himself unworthy once more. He failed us — every sacrifice,” Sesako gestured to the destroyed city, to the body in his arms, and, in a way, to himself. “Every sacrifice wasted, spat upon, made worthless. We are defeated, and the great ones shall die due to my failure, for in an instant of weakness I gave him the chance to take control, and I did not wrest it back from him, even though he is weak of will, while I still could make a good end to all our struggles.”

Fitzuki stared at Sesako.

He looked calm, serious and unruffled, even though half his hair had been burnt off, and there was a new deep scar along his cheek that dripped blood. The cloak that he’d worn that had been imbued with Sesako’s celestial power was gone, his dragon scale armor was blasted, blackened, and the chest plate was pitted.

Sesako fiercely stared back at Fitzuki, daring the great general to question Sesako’s essential worthlessness.

The warrior groaned and pressed a hand over his forehead. “Just what happened — details Sesako, details. None of this nonsense about sacrifice, high flung words and all. You got splattered with shit. That’s battle. Details.”

Sesako said, “We entered the throat of the volcano easily enough. Went down to the bottom, and found the source of heat and power, but the emperor was there waiting for us, and —”

“Goat fucker! That goat fucker!” Fitzuki shook his head, as though in annoyance. “It was the basest stupidity for me to ever imagine that he would actually be in Sadbia — always where he is most frustrating. Clever old fellow — how did you escape, and how does that other fellow in your head come into the story?”

“Kisiko sacrificed himself to let me get close enough to the source of power to destroy it. The other had deduced that if I attacked it in a particular way, it would create an explosion large enough to destroy the entire island, almost certainly killing the emperor as well, but when I drew my fist back to win the battle, he took control, and negotiated with the emperor our passage out.”

“Hmmmm.” Fitzuki looked upon Kisiko’s body, and he tenderly took it from Sesako’s arms, and laid him upon the ground. “He used his core to attack him in the end? Brave, brave eld friend! May the fates speed you to a farmer’s second life, for you have no desire to live in the warrior’s heaven to which your soul belongs — he’d told me he might do so, and that was why he wished to accompany you.”

“The emperor wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Fitzuki shrugged. “The emperor is oft where he is not supposed to be — I had not expected this to happen, but neither am I surprised.”

“We have been promised a ceasefire of a week’s time, the time required for us to bury Kisiko upon the mountain heights, and so that we can perform the burial rights with proper ceremony.”

Fitzuki’s eyes snapped back onto Sesako. He laughed. “That old goat fucker. Ha, ha, ha. Always trying to be as clever as he can. Three stones at once — if we accept, we are honor bound to not strike him as he settles neatly into the city. I’ll bet you anything, a thousand imperials, or ten thousand, that he’ll find time in that week to actually fly across to Sadbia to truly show his face, cow them all, and return.”

“But that is two thousand leagues.”

“How fast can you fly now?”

Sesako realized he was not sure.

“He was never one to flinch away from a difficult journey —” Fitzuki continued. “However, we cannot do anything but accept. The benefit to us is greater than the benefit to him. Without this ceasefire I would have needed to counterattack within the next two hours, merely to force caution on his forces. But this ceasefire is worth something…” Fitzuki shrugged. “Your other was not prepared to die for us all? I won’t blame him. You will do enough of that. Besides, I’m not even certain — damn, we all have sworn our lives to the protection of the Great Ones, but he never did.”

“He is a coward.”

Fitzuki sighed.

“Everyone who died in this battle. Kisiko’s death. The hopes of this whole nation. We all fought and died, in vain. He threw away every sacrifice and spat in our faces.”

“The king of Parleia also didn’t fight with us. I don’t feel very spat on by him.”

“I had chosen to die. I was ready, and I —”

“And you were ready to kill — maybe murder? — this partner of yours. And well you could be. I’ve killed men who had no wish to be involved with my quarrel. I would have sacrificed his life in an instant to save the Great Ones. I would sacrifice your life, and my own. But I have never blamed someone who I murdered in the name of greater causes of state and war for twisting aside to avoid my blow. I have never thought that a man who refused to die when I tried to pin him against a wall with my spear was a coward who had spat in my face and in the face of all that is noble.”

Takue spoke from where she’d been laid down on the ground by healers who worked to aid her in recovering from that terrible sickness, she had gained from time in the cavern of power deep within the island, “You haven't seen it. Fitzuki, you were not there. We had our chance. And Kisiko had died, and then he betrayed us.”

Fitzuki shook his head. “Neither of you have killed enough men who were weaker than you, and desperate to escape. Your other is a combination of an artisan and a scholar. He acted his nature —that is all anyone ever does. I know what the dragon spoke to you both: You must cooperate, lest disaster come. If you despise him as a traitor because he had enough self-love to not kill himself, you’ll not be partners. That is all I have to say on the matter.”

Fitzuki leapt into the air, and flew away, traveling to where a high banner of one of the clan chiefs floated.