Rian was standing in a pale, faintly glowing expanse of nothing. He could barely make out shapes that appeared to be made of fog, but he couldn’t tell what those shapes were. He felt like he wasn’t entirely there, as though he was also somewhere else. The pain had gone. Rian looked at his hands and arms, which were no longer skeletal. He reached up and didn’t feel Trivius’s horns, only his own short, messy black hair.

“All is not lost…” the raspy woman’s voice said, sounding far away.

Rian looked at the mist all around him, but he seemed to be alone.

“You will always be the Speaker of the Dead,” a man’s voice said, another voice of the dead. He sounded just as distant.

Rian searched inside of himself. He felt his magic as a necromancer, but was that all? There was a flicker of something else in there. Dread clenched at him. The magic of the Speaker of the Dead was still there, even if only a little. But how could he be the Speaker of the Dead with Trivius gone?

A person appeared in the fog, coming toward Rian. He stopped not far off. Rian stared at him. What was this place? His short black hair wasn’t as messy as Rian’s, and the two had the same dark green eyes. Arwel’s eyes were no longer pale grayish red or faintly glowing.

“Arwel?” Rian asked.

There was sadness in Arwel’s eyes as he stared at his brother. “I hadn’t thought we would meet again here so soon. Your time hasn’t come. Your soul hasn’t entirely lost its connection to your body.”

“Is this the land of the dead?” Rian asked.

“It is,” Arwel said. “The true land of the dead, where Mortua can’t reach us. This place will always exist, even without Trivius.” That sadness was still in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Rian, for what happened. You weren’t supposed to be dragged into this.”

“I would have been anyway,” Rian said.

Arwel sighed. “Maybe, but I was wrong to trust Norris.”

Rian heard whispers in the distance, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Was it the voices of the dead, of Trivius’s priests?

Arwel looked out at the fog, as though he heard them too. He frowned. “Quidvis and his children have been lying to the world for a very long time.” He was fading away, the fog swallowing him. “Be careful, Rian. Do not trust him.”

Rian was alone in the fog again. He felt something pulling on him, then he woke up back in the graveyard of Derwen, lying on the burial ground. At first he breathed wildly, frantically, then he recalled what Quidvis had told Halbert before.

“You don’t have to breathe,” Quidvis said quietly. He was kneeling beside Rian.

Rian stopped breathing. The energy of burial ground wasn’t flowing into him. Something was stopping it.

Quidvis stood, turning to face the others. “I pulled his soul back into his body. He will be alright.”

Rian heard them talking, their voices distant. What was Quidvis up to? How could he be too weak to defeat the gods he created if he had the strength to defeat Trivius? Even if Trivius hadn’t been back to his full strength. Rian and Halbert hadn’t been cursed by Trivius. That was a lie, but what had Quidvis done to them? Rian still felt the flicker of the magic of the Speaker of the Dead inside of him. Why did it remain even without Trivius?

Rian came back to the moment. He and Halbert were alone in the graveyard. Halbert sat against a nearby tree. Rian got unsteadily to his feet and sat beside Halbert. Rian had lost his cloak at some point. He shivered as a cold wind blew through the graveyard. He let himself stop feeling the cold night air, relieved he could still do that.

“Where did everyone else go?” Rian asked.

“To speak to the king and queen,” Halbert said. “The undead knights have fallen without Trivius and Ruari. Ransey went to find a butcher shop. His hunger was getting too strong again.” He frowned hard, seeming to avoid looking at Rian, then he looked at him. “I failed you. I promised Andred I would protect you, and I failed.”

“You didn’t,” Rian said. “There was nothing you could have done about Ruari.”

“I should have known it wasn’t you,” Halbert said.

“He was very convincing,” Rian said. He never wanted to feel how he had when Ruari had taken over his body. He had been entirely unable to do anything against Ruari.

Halbert sighed. “We were in more of a position to stop him than you were.” He hesitated. “Trivius is gone. Quidvis destroyed him, by himself.”

“Quidvis is stronger than he let us believe,” Rian said. “He’s up to something.”

Halbert nodded slowly. “For now, Quidvis is our best chance of the Sancta and the gods not killing us, and I don’t think he would let us escape easily.”

“What now?” Rian asked.

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“The people of Derwen know the Sancta is keeping things from the world,” Halbert said. “They know Trivius was more than a being that claimed to be a god. They also aren’t happy with what the Sancta did to the Ectu. The people of Haren aren’t happy about it either.”

Rian thought about this. “Do you think the countries will turn against the Sancta?”

“We can’t count on it,” Halbert said, “but at least the countries are no longer so blindly loyal to the Sancta as they once were.”

The two sat in silence awhile. Rian thought of that expanse of fog. That probably wasn’t what the land of the dead looked like, he just hadn’t been able to see it because he wasn’t fully dead.

“I saw the land of the dead before Quidvis pulled my soul back,” Rian said. “Arwel was there.” He didn’t know why he didn’t mention the voices of the dead. Maybe he just desperately wanted that to be over, for the magic of the Speaker of the Dead to stay gone. “He said he was sorry.”

Halbert frowned. “Norris used him, but it was Arwel’s choice to follow him.”

Rian nodded. “I know,” he said quietly.

Would he ever be with his family in the land of the dead? If he couldn’t die unless someone removed his soul, would he ever see the land of the dead again?

“There you are,” Quidvis said, stepping into the archway of the graveyard, with Eiva and Ransey close behind. “I told you that you shouldn’t linger on burial ground.”

Rian and Halbert said nothing to that.

“The sword has been taken from the Grove of Sacrifice,” Quidvis said. “We must leave for the grove tonight.”

On the way across the plains, Eiva walked beside Rian.

“How are you?” Eiva asked. “I know what happened must be rough, having someone take over your body and use it.”

“I’m fine,” Rian said, surprised to find he actually was. “Ruari is gone.” He looked at Eiva. “Are you alright?”

Eiva smiled, but it was a tired smile. “I’m fine too. I faced Korva, and I realized something. I won’t ever be like her, because I don’t want to be. This magic I have is different from hers, something that is my own. Now I can wield it to protect those I care about.” She frowned a little, glancing at Quidvis where he walked at the front of them. She said nothing more, but Rian could tell she too was worried about what Quidvis was up to.

They passed Scutch in the morning. Soon they were in the forest between Caerulis and Virida. They weren’t headed for the border of Caerulis, but off to the left, toward the shore. It was night when they reached the clearing of the Grove of Sacrifice, the Forgotten Grove. It didn’t have the thorns at the edge of the forest how the Grove of Thorns did. There was nothing there but grass.

“Ilidu remains sealed for now,” Quidvis said. He turned to face the rest of them. “We must return the sword to the grove, or Ilidu will escape. We must weaken the Sancta by going after the gods.”

“We’re going to fight the gods?” Ransey asked.

“We are,” Quidvis said. “We will start with Dienia, who was weakened by Mortua.” He frowned a little and looked at Ransey. “Once Mortua is gone, your curse will be gone, but you cannot return to being human. You will die when Mortua is defeated. Your soul will go to the true land of the dead, along with all the souls in Mortua’s land of the dead.”

Ransey looked relieved.

Rian hesitated to ask his question, but Eiva asked it for him.

“And Rian and Halbert?” Eiva asked.

“Mortua’s death will not affect them,” Quidvis said. “They may currently be less cursed than before, but they are still not alive. They will not die, but they can choose to move on at any time.”

Then someday Rian could see his family in the true land of the dead, when he was ready to go. He tried not to be too relieved yet. It wasn’t time to let go. Halbert was smiling. Was he thinking of Beth, his wife who was in the land of the dead?

“We will go to Veron and use Knowledge Unending to reach Dienia’s Sanctum,” Quidvis said. “First, we will return to Derwen. We need allies, and the world is turning against the Sancta because of what they did to the Ectu. The incident with Trivius will make Derwen the easiest to fully turn against the Sancta.”

They left the Grove of Sacrifice, going back through the forest. It was morning when they neared Scutch on the plains of Virida. Quidvis stopped. A group of four Sancta Knights was hurrying toward them across the plains. The knights had already seen them.”

“Run!” Quidvis said.

Rian and the others ran across the plains. The Sancta Knights were closing in, giving them no choice but to turn and fight. Quidvis drew his sword. Ravens called out above, echoing Eiva’s call that sounded just like a raven. Her eyes were yellow with no visible white. Black feathers had come through along her arms, and she had talons, much like Korva’s.

Suddenly Eiva was gone, a large raven hovering in the air in her place. The ravens attacked the Sancta Knights. Rian and Halbert stayed back, as they didn’t have swords and couldn’t use their magic. Rian felt useless standing there. He didn’t like the trapped feeling of his magic, held back by what Quidvis had done.

Ransey bit into a knight, tearing a chunk out of the knight’s shoulder. The knight screamed, a horrible, wild cry. The four knights fled toward Virida. Ransey wiped the blood from his mouth, frowning hard. He turned away from the rest of them. The ravens flew away, other than one, which landed on the ground and became Eiva again. The feathers and talons were gone, and her eyes faded back to their usual color.

“Are you alright?” Halbert asked Ransey.

“That will have given Mortua more power,” Ransey said, still not looking at any of them.

“Try to avoid doing that again,” Quidvis said, “or it will be harder to defeat Mortua.”

Rian knew it wasn’t just giving Mortua more power that bothered Ransey, it was what he’d just done. The group continued across the plains.

“We need swords. Something to defend ourselves with,” Halbert said.

Rian nodded, trying not to worry about the distant feeling of his magic, or that flicker of the magic of the Speaker of the Dead. It was getting stronger.

“Be wary,” Halbert whispered to Rian. “I can no longer stop my senses, or see in the dark. I feel…wrong.”

Quidvis glanced back at them, with no expression, but his golden eyes narrowed. Had he heard?