Ruari lost the others in the forest. He didn’t stop running. He slowed in the morning, but not much. He had reached the plains of Virida, with Scutch up ahead. Ruari avoided the village, heading past it across the plains, toward Derwen. The strap of the bag was across his shoulders. He walked fast, glancing back occasionally. Rian didn’t see the others, but he knew they would be following.

Rian fought against Ruari again, but Ruari forced him back easily, just as the last time. They were going to the Bone Garden. Ruari was going to free Trivius. For a moment, Rian had some hope. Could Ruari free Trivius if Rian wasn’t willing?

“By then your body will fully be mine,” Ruari thought.

Then he didn’t entirely have control. Ruari couldn’t use the magic of the Speaker of the Dead without Rian.

“For now,” Ruari thought.

Ruari looked back again and could barely see three people running across the plains. Ruari ran again, passing Derwen at night, not stopping. The next morning, Brush was up ahead. Ruari went straight toward the forest, where they would find the Grove of Thorns, where he would open the way to the Bone Garden. Rian pushed against Ruari suddenly, giving it everything he had.

Ruari stopped walking, fighting Rian. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead flared to life, red light burning along Rian’s bones and cracking them further. The pain made it only harder to fight Ruari, who shoved Rian back again. The red light faded, but the cracks remained. Ruari continued toward the forest, not saying anything.

When night came, they reached the clearing in the forest. The moon was bright overhead. Ruari moved to the center of the Grove of Thorns. Rian could hear someone coming from back the way Ruari had come. Was it the others? Ruari took the objects from the bag, setting them in a circle on the ground in front of him.

He gathered Rian’s magic, but he still couldn’t reach the magic of the Speaker of the Dead. Ruari muttered words in a language Rian didn’t understand. Halbert, Eiva, Ransey, and Quidvis stepped out of the forest and into the clearing. Deep cracks formed a circle in the ground around Ruari and the objects. A deep hopelessness settled over Rian. They were too late.

“Rian!” Halbert called out.

Ruari finished the ritual. A deep, dark hole opened in the ground in front of Rian. Ruari pushed Rian back further than ever, taking full control of his body. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead roared through Rian’s body. Both he and Ruari cried out.

Ruari had full control, but it wasn’t enough with Rian not willing. It felt like his bones were being torn apart by the red magic burning in the cracks that had become even deeper. Ruari reached up and touched the long, curving horns on either side of his head.

“Stop fighting me, Rian,” Ruari said. “It’s too late.”

Rian had no strength left, but he still fought. Halbert, Eiva, and Ransey were watching Rian with the same hopelessness he felt. Quidvis’s expression was carefully blank. Ruari stepped into the dark hole. There was no feeling of falling, he was just suddenly standing in the vast, dark cave that was the Bone Garden.

The smell of rot and death was thick in the air. Ruari stopped smelling it. He walked among the piles of ancient bones to the center of the cave, where Trivius’s huge skull loomed. A pale light seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere, shining along Trivius’s long, curving horns. A red light came to life in the deep sockets of the skull.

“Ruari,” Trivius said, his voice echoing in the cave. “I see you have embraced your memories, and the full magic of the Speaker of the Dead. Your presence brings me strength.” He still didn’t know that Rian and Ruari weren’t one.

“I’ve come to free you,” Ruari said.

Ruari held out a hand. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead washed over the skull. The ground shook, hard packed dirt breaking apart around the skull. The light in Trivius’s eye sockets was brighter than ever. A huge, skeletal hand pushed its way out of the dirt, then another.

Trivius pulled himself free of the dirt. When he was out, he towered over Ruari. The piles of bones throughout the cave were moving, becoming undead knights with no souls, only the will of Trivius, but the knights had willingly given their bones to their god long ago.

“First, we will take back Virida,” Trivius said, his voice sounding impossibly massive. “Then we will deal with the All-Keeper and his children.”

Rian had no more strength to fight Ruari. Ruari was even stronger with the magic of the Speaker of the Dead on his side, even stronger now that Trivius was back. This was the moment Rian had feared he would bring about, though he definitely hadn’t expected it to go like this.

Ruari and Trivius left the Bone Garden, followed by the army of skeletal knights. Rian didn’t see the others on the way back through the forest. That was good. They would have been no match for Trivius and his army. Hopefully they had gone to warn Derwen, though Rian wasn’t sure how much good it would do now that Trivius was free, and not just inside of someone else.

“You took longer than I expected, fought the truth longer than expected,” Trivius said, glancing down at Ruari, where he walked beside him.

Rian could feel Ruari’s hesitation.

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“Don’t want to admit you let me live?” Rian thought.

Ruari’s brief anger was the only answer, then he spoke to Trivius. “Rian is not me.”

The light in Trivius’s eyes flickered. Was he surprised?

“He was still alive when I entered his body when he was born,” Ruari said. “Barely alive. I thought his soul would never recover, so I let it remain. But it did recover, perhaps even because of my presence. I tried to reason with him, but it didn’t work, so I had to take over.”

Rian was certain Ruari would have taken over even if he had agreed with him.

“You’re wrong,” Ruari thought. “We could have worked together.”

“You shouldn’t have left him alive,” Trivius said.

“Perhaps,” Ruari said, “but my presence is not what made him the Speaker of the Dead. Maybe the magic led me, told me to keep him alive because my time as your Speaker had ended.”

Rian didn’t know what to think of that. He would have been the Speaker of the Dead even without Ruari’s soul?

Trivius laughed quietly. “Yet an unwilling Speaker is of no use to me. At least now you have control of the body and the magic.”

They walked in silence for a little while longer. Trivius walked surprisingly quietly, considering how tall he was. He wore the same ragged armor as his knights.

“Quidvis has come to Ivrua as an Ectu,” Ruari said, sounding amused. “He said he’s been weakened.”

Trivius really did laugh now. “He won’t be much of a threat if he is so weak he’s taken such a small form. Quidvis was never fond of the Ectu. We will take back Virida, deal with the weak gods, and put an end to Quidvis and the Sancta.”

They reached Derwen the next night. The Knights of Derwen were on the walls, waiting for the attack. Halbert and the others must have gone to Derwen to warn them. This was little comfort. How much good would the walls of the city do against a giant? The battle began. Knights of Derwen shot arrows from the city walls, but the arrows did nothing against Trivius’s already dead army. Trivius tore the gates from their hinges. The knights faced the army head on. Trivius stayed back and watched, with Ruari at his side.

“Go to the graveyard,” Trivius said. “You have been away from burial ground for too long.”

Some sort of magic flowed into Ruari. He looked up at Trivius but didn’t ask the question. Trivius said nothing about why he had just given Ruari a bit of his magic. Ruari made his way through Derwen, through the back alleyways, and finally to the graveyard. Rian was just as relieved to feel the energy of burial ground as Ruari was. The cracks in his bones healed slowly.

“You are as much the Speaker of the Dead as I am,” Ruari said out loud. “Perhaps even more so as the magic chose you. My soul is a part of the magic, not fully suited to what I must be. Trivius needs the true Speaker of the Dead, and that is no longer me.”

“It’s not me—” Rian thought.

“It is,” Ruari said. “Your denial will not change that.”

They both went silent when they felt it. It was like a terrible blow, but there was nowhere it could have come from. Rian felt it in his bones, possibly even in his soul.

“Trivius…” Ruari gasped. He turned sharply toward the archway of the graveyard. “Impossible. Only another god could have finished him so quickly. And not one of those lesser gods Quidvis created.”

“Then Quidvis isn’t as weak as he wanted us to think,” Rian thought.

“He’s up to something,” Ruari said. “And he’s killed Trivius.”

Rian knew he shouldn’t be surprised, but Ruari was truly sad that Trivius was gone. Ruari took a step toward the way out of the graveyard, but only one before Halbert, Eiva, Ransey, and Quidvis were standing in the archway.

“You killed him,” Ruari said, glaring at Quidvis. At least, he would have been if he had eyes.

Quidvis stared back with a hard, blank expression. “I did. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead won’t stay much longer with Trivius gone. And there’s hardly anything left of you that isn’t the Speaker of the Dead. You won’t be keeping Rian’s body.”

“If you were as weakened as you say you are, you couldn’t have done this,” Ruari said.

Quidvis smiled briefly. “You underestimate me, Ruari of Derwen.” He glanced around them. “Fitting that your end should be here, in the city you came from.”

Quidvis came closer, closing the distance between them before Ruari could move. Ruari stepped back quickly, but it was too late. Rian felt a flash of Quidvis’s presence, then a terrible heat burrowed into him. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead flared bright red. Ruari and Rian both screamed as Quidvis’s power swept through them. Ruari dropped to his hands and knees.

Rian watched as skin and everything under it returned to his hands and arms with a feeling like he was being ripped apart and put back together. Rian could feel his lungs, struggling to get enough air in. He had forgotten how to breathe. His breath came in ragged gasps. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead burned brighter under his skin.

Deep cracks opened in his skin, red light spilling forth, along with blood. Ruari was holding on, trying desperately to keep a hold of Rian’s body. Quidvis knelt in front of Ruari, frowning hard.

“What’s happening?” Eiva asked quietly.

“Let go of him, Ruari,” Quidvis said. “Or both of you will die.”

“Don’t trust him,” Ruari thought, his voice strained. “Our magic has a purpose. It is not a curse. You will always be the Speaker of the Dead.”

The magic of the Speaker of the Dead ripped its way out of Rian, taking Ruari’s soul with it. In those last moments, Rian felt Ruari’s soul falling apart as it was separated from the magic of the Speaker of the Dead.