"Come here," said Naial, turning her head toward Senn.

Senn hesitated. He hadn't had time during their ride up to the Fortress to make peace with the idea of suddenly being a father. And now here he was, standing in front of a boy he didn't know, one who would be an adult soon. He glanced at Mirai. He had been the closest thing to a son for him for many years. He had taken the boy when he was a little younger than Brand, in one of his first raids. Mirai had clung to him and, unknowingly, taken a place in his heart that started to scab over the pain of leaving Naial behind. With every thought directed at Naial, he had started to tell himself a new story about her. That it must have taken little time for her to find a new man. That those things happened all the time in the Hub. That the child may not even make it out of her womb. That if he did, he would not survive long. That Naial might not survive either. That no matter how many times he went back to the Hub, he wouldn't find her alive. That if he did find her, she wouldn't go with him. That there would be nothing for him to save.

And day by day, he had started to believe it. His memories had been buried under a building erected over them, one in which his responsibility, his shame, and his love could be buried too. And now a storm had razed the building and his memories were free again.

Mirai didn't know about all that. Senn had never mentioned Naial or his child to him. And, still, he nodded at him.

"Go to them," said Mirai.

Senn took one step. The boy was burying his face in Naial's chest. She was still looking at Senn with tears in her eyes. There was no reproach in her eyes. Only a deep need that had waited for a long time and was now about to be filled. Only Senn could fill it. The main part was done. Her son was with her. And with just one simple action, Senn could heal what he had broken so long ago. She was giving him the chance he had no right to ask for. He knew that she would forgive him. She would finally, in the deep recesses of her heart, forgive him. Until now, since they had been reunited, she had seemed to be free of the pain of him leaving her all those years before. But Senn knew it would still be there, no matter what she said. He could heal her of that and maybe heal himself too.

So why did he hesitate?

He hadn't exactly been a father to Mirai. He had been there, certainly, he had helped him along and taught him what little he could. He had hugged him once, probably, when the boy had gotten a fever and Senn thought he would die. He had denied it, but it was a kind of love. He had been close to a son to him. But Mirai had never asked him to be one. He had never expected love from Senn.

What would this boy expect of him? Naial could forgive him, but why should this boy? He had left Naial, but he was just someone she had loved for a time. He had left his son behind and Senn knew how hard it was to live in the Hub without parents. And then he had been taken to the Fortress, to a place that would have turned him into a tyrant.

He hesitated because he was afraid. Afraid the boy would hate him and push him away. Because he knew he should have done that, because he himself would have done that if he were in his shoes.

Naial read what was going through Senn's mind.

"Don't be afraid," she said and extended one hand toward him.

He took that final step and knelt by his son and embraced them both.

He knew he should have been crying, that maybe Naial would expect that of him, but he was too confused. He looked at his son's face, streaked with tears. He saw himself in there, a lot of him. He resembled him more than he resembled Naial, but his eyes were hers. And then he looked at the scars on the boy's back, the marks of the whips and the marks where the Leash pressed against his neck. It was a closed collar, not an open torq like the one Senn and Mirai now wore, to signify they were free men. He had abandoned the boy to that. To a life like the one he had when he was a child, and then worse.

He put his hand under his son's chin and lifted his face.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry for not being there. I haven't been your father until now, but if you let me, I'll be your father from now on."

That's all he could manage to say. And the boy could only nod.

"Well, I don't want to cut into this moment, but, you know, we are in a Fortress surrounded by enemies," said Mirai. "We may have to hurry."

Naial nodded and lifted her son along with her.

"Do you remember your name?" she asked.

"They call me Brand," said the boy.

"You had another name, the one I gave you. I… I will tell you about it later. Now, let's get out of here."

"How will we do that?" he asked.

"We got in when their host left," said Senn, regaining his composure. "We had to take a few of the remaining guards out. The way out should be clear. We left our mounts hidden. You should be able to make it back."

"Back where?" asked Brand. "There's nowhere to go."

Senn put his hand on his son's shoulder.

"There's always a way out. You need to know that. Trust me, even if you don't know me yet. I've done it. Your mother's done it. This guy, Mirai, he's like another son to me. He's done it too. We've all escaped. Now it's your turn."

Naial stared at Brand, and then back at Senn. Something was nagging her.

"You? What did you mean with 'you should be able to make it back'?" she asked.

Senn turned toward her but kept his hand on Brand's shoulder.

"I meant that I'm going ahead to free the rest of the children. There are more of them, right?"

Brand nodded.

"Then I have to do this. I can't leave them behind, but it's too big a risk for you to take, Naial. You just regained your freedom. Brand deserves to escape this place."

"You can't do it alone," she said. "You need help. You have no powers."

Senn grinned.

"Darling, I have done this kind of thing all my life. And I only had those powers for a brief time. If I can't make it on my own, there's little you could do to help."

Naial grew pale, but Senn turned serious and grabbed her hand.

"But you can take our son out of here and make him a free man."

"Why do you need to do this?"

"Because it's the only way it will be over. As long as they have the children, as long as they keep turning more of us into Chainkeepers, it won't be over. I need to get them out."

"It's not because of revenge?"

Senn thought about it. He wasn't sure.

"No, it's not. If I find the Forever King, I'll kill him. If I don't, but I get the children, that's enough. The Hub is probably lost to him by now. And without the children, he will have nothing left."

Naial squeezed his hand. He avoided looking at her. She was so strong it made him feel weak by comparison.

"Mirai will take care of you," he said instead.

"No, I will go with you," said Mirai.

"Please. I need you to do this," said Senn. "I will get it done. I will come back to you. But you need to get out of here."

"And go where? We can't go back to the Hub or to Lordstown."

"You know where. The place with the trees," said Senn. It took a second for Mirai to understand, and then he nodded.

"I will get it done, then," said Mirai, and then put his hand on Senn's shoulder.

"Good. I'll catch up with you there as soon as I can. It may take me a while but I'll get there."

"You'd better do it," said Naial. "I won't say goodbye to you."

"I never gave you the chance. I'm sorry for that. I won't say goodbye either."

They stood there for a few seconds, Senn's hands holding Brand and Naial, Mirai holding onto Senn.

"All right, let's do it. Let's go be free," said Senn.

* * *

Senn watched from a rampart as his family slipped through the gates. He kept watching until they were out of view, praying they wouldn't be seen by anyone else. He knew Mirai could keep them safe. He knew how to survive out there, how to travel and find food and water where others would have died. He had done one good thing in his life and that was to make sure that boy survived. So now he could be sure that man would keep his other loved ones safe.

He turned around, sighed, and stepped into the room where they had met Brand. He rummaged through it until he found a weapon. Then he took a few more: a knife and a hook and chain. He didn't care if he was about to face a King or a God. He would finish it.

Brand had given him some directions to find the area in which the children and their mentors lived. He reached a flight of stairs leading up and down. Down were the servants' rooms. He could go there and free them too, but he knew how futile that could prove. Some would flee, but most would want to remain out of fear. He had seen it many times during the Bleeding. The tyranny was too ingrained in most people. Some would fight him tooth and claw instead of accepting the gift he was handing them. But the kids could still be saved and the damage undone. If he could do that one thing, the Forever King would be bereft of the fear that kept him in power.

He went up the stairs, looking for the children's rooms. He was careful not to make any noise, but he had to hurry. He was surprised when he got to the top of the stairs and saw a man leaning against the railing, looking into the courtyard and smoking a pipe. He could tiptoe past him, but he would have to deal with him on the way out. He took his knife out and approached the man. He was a few feet behind him and ready to stab him when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. A boy, sitting on the railing, looking at him. A boy with blue eyes that burned into him.

Oh, all right, you win.

He covered the last few steps in a blur and grabbed the guard in a complex chokehold, his arms slipping under the man's arms, raising them and then locking hands behind his neck, effectively immobilizing him. Then he kicked the man's feet from under him and straddled him. He had done that many times, so fast that his captive couldn't even shout. He buried the man's face against the ground so he couldn't call out, muffling him.

"I'm going to give you a gift," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, whispering into the man's ears. "A gift I have given a select few. I'm the leader of the free men of Lordstown. I have freed thousands and killed hundreds. It doesn't matter that much to me now if you fall into one group or the other. But I'm trying to be a better man, so… you can choose. I can set you free. The way out of the Fortress is clear. You could find a canid, some supplies, and leave. Go to the Hub where my free men are destroying the last of the Chainkeepers and join them in death. Or you can join the free men. Anyway, you'd be free, for as long as you manage to survive out there. Or, you can try to fight me and die swiftly."

The man relaxed and stopped resisting him. Senn kept up the pressure. He knew how people would fake fainting to get you to relax your hold on them. He tapped the man's forehead against the ground just to see if he was awake, then he continued talking.

"But I'm hoping I won't have to do that. I would have stabbed you until a few days ago. Now, I'm giving you a choice. Be free or die. It's a very simple one I had to make a while back. Dying is far easier, believe me. I know you're more scared of being free than of remaining a slave, than you are of dying. But I'm sure you've dreamed many times of being free. We all do. Now is the time to prove if you want that or if you're just a coward like most people."

He took some pressure off so the man could lift his head and speak.

"F…"

Come on, you can do it.

"F… uck you."

Senn sighed and looked up, but the Godchild wasn't there. It was better that way, so he had no one frowning on him as he slipped the knife across the man's throat.

What a fucking waste.

He stood and walked away from the man, not bothering to clean his hands of the blood.

You can't save everyone.

He wasn't sure if that was his own voice in his head or the Godchild's. He was tired of talking to gods. That man back there could have been his son. And thanks to a tyrant god, he was dead now because he had been kept from even entertaining the idea of being free. He had to make sure he was the last one. He had to be.

No one else stopped him. He found the area Brand had described, where the children would be. He stepped into a dark corridor.

* * *

The children's rooms were empty. The doors were open and from what he could see, they hadn't run out in haste. Their beds and clothes were in order. So they hadn't left. They had to be there somewhere. Maybe they had brought them to the lower levels along with the servants to make it easier to control them with fewer guards?

He walked through one of the rooms. He didn't know if it was boys or girls who stayed there. It wasn't like growing up in the Hub. In the Hub, there were few possessions, but the children still found time to play. They made crude toys and balls to kick. The only thing in these rooms were the beds. They had a few pieces of clothing and a cot. It was harsh and Senn was sure they had to pay for it dearly. But comparing one form of suffering to the other led nowhere. They were all victims. The only difference is some of them, like him, were destined to grow but remain victims. The kids in the Fortress were destined to become their tormentors. But they were the same.

He felt anger at seeing those rooms. Anger that must have been boiling inside him since he had seen the scars on Brand's back. He didn't realize it then, but the brand itself… it had been given to him when he was still a baby. They had plucked a baby from his mother and branded him like a canid, then thrown him in a place with other children and their tormentors.

The tears that hadn't fallen from his eyes when he had met his son fell at that moment. He might not have been able to stop it from happening if he had remained in the Hub. He knew that logically. But he was the kid's father. He felt he would have been able to stop it somehow.

Focus. Find the children. And if you can't find them, find the son of a bitch.

He wiped his tears and slapped his face. That wasn't the time get distracted by feelings.

He realized that the corridor where the children's rooms were located was on a slope leading up. He decided to follow it. There seemed to be nowhere else to go. If no one was there, he would go to the lower levels and see if they had hidden there. But he guessed that someone had to be left in charge. The King himself probably wouldn't leave on a raid.

There was no one else in that dark corridor. It seemed to go deeper into the mountain and there were no lights but a few light shafts that were too few and far between. It seemed like walking into a canid's mouth. He was afraid to see a glint in the darkness and a row of teeth falling on him. But he dismissed the notion and pulled out his knife in one hand and the hook and chain in the other. Whatever did find him, he would be ready for it.

He found a few doors to left and right and put his ears to them. No sound came from within. He knew that no amount of children could hide and be that still. He moved on, just in case there were guards within. And then he found the end of the corridor and a big door. He hadn't realized it upon seeing the other doors and the children's beds, but they were made out of actual wood. The most you could get for privacy in the Hub or Lordstown were curtains. Wood only came from bushes in the form of sticks and it was a waste of fuel to use it otherwise. These doors were made from wood the like of which Senn had only seen on the island. So they had to have come from there, or from another place in the midlands or outside it.

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It was a mystery for another time. He was stalling so he wouldn't have to open the damn thing.

He pressed his ears to the door but heard nothing. He cursed himself for all the decisions that had led him to that door, and opened it.

* * *

"Who are you?" asked the man sitting in front of the table. It was a long, polished wooden table with lots of things on it. The man looked like one of the record keepers such as the ones Senn knew from the Hub. Someone who counted grains or people as if they were of the same kind.

Senn looked both ways before closing the door behind him. The room was round and huge. It had been carved out of the mountain and had a big rectangular skylight that filled it with warm light. A small fire burned in a corner to make it even warmer. Senn was reminded of one time when he had visited the Mediator in his house and drank his warm rice wine. This man seemed similar. An unsavory type, but a smart one that you could talk to and drink with. Not a brute, not a violent man. Just a cutthroat merchant.

Senn mulled these thoughts over as he roamed the room, looking for weapons or another entrance. There wasn't one. They were alone. He put the knife away and left his hook and chain on the floor.

"I was about to ask the same thing of you," said Senn.

The man didn't get up, so Senn approached him slowly and leisurely. He glanced at the rugs on the floor and then at the map covering one of the walls. It didn't seem any more thorough than the crude maps they had at Lordstown detailing the main features of the midlands.

"You haven't done a good job, have you?" said Senn, tilting his head toward the map.

"I'm sorry?"

"You know just as much as we do about the world. I would have thought you would have more knowledge. More power. More of everything, since you people had ages to get it right. But then, if you had done it, we wouldn't have been able to take it all away so easily."

The man leaned back in his chair and crossed his fingers.

"You're one of them," he said.

"I thought that much was obvious. I'm certainly not one of yours."

"Excuse my thick-headedness. I've never seen a rebel up close. I thought no one would be able to get in here."

"Well, you're excused. Your guards didn't think so either, but here I am."

"And you are…?"

"In a hurry. And curious. I expected a throne room, not a merchant's room."

"Why did you…? Oh," said the man, as if suddenly realizing something. Then he smiled.

Senn snorted.

"So… I'm looking for two things. Your so-called King and the children you keep imprisoned here. I want them."

The man leaned forward and pointed toward a chair.

"Why don't you sit? Let's discuss these matters."

It felt weird for Senn to sit down, but the man seemed straightforward and he didn't feel like fighting over such a small thing. He was intrigued by this man, sitting here in a Fortress, assailed by an enemy and yet remaining so calm in spite of it. There had to be a few things that Senn was missing. And anyway, he would be just a lunge away from Senn's knife. He sat.

"Since you haven't introduced yourself, I'll do the proper thing. I'm the Head Keeper of the Fortress. I keep all the records and organize the work for everyone out here and in the Hub. It's difficult work, but I'm quite good at it. The best one, that's why I got this job."

"So you're a glorified grain-counter. That much I gathered."

"You could say so. And you must be a glorified murderer, then."

Senn would have killed the man for that just a few weeks back. But he wanted to hear what he had to say, and he had said it in a way that wasn't exactly accusing him. More like stating the facts.

"You could say so too, I guess," admitted Senn. "A rebel and a murderer. And the one who freed his people."

"Are you the one they call the Herald of the Lord of Greed? Truly?"

"Yes. I didn't know I had a reputation."

"We do know a lot of things. Your actions and your 'Lord' have intrigued me for quite some time, I must admit. You've managed to achieve a lot of things. You deserve some credit for that. No one had escaped and managed to thrive anywhere else."

"I'm a survivor. It's what I do."

"Survivor, Herald, 'freedom fighter', raider… you are many things."

"I am a murderer too, don't forget that."

"And why have you come here?"

Senn smiled.

"I already told you that. I have come to cut the head of the snake. To kill your so-called 'Forever King' and free the children."

"Right. But tell me, why do you want to do that? What do you hope to accomplish?"

Senn's smile vanished. He felt like a child being chided by an elder. He didn't like the feeling.

"The Lord of Greed's army has taken the Hub. Your Chainkeeper detail will arrive too late. The city is his. And now the Fortress will be his too. So your dominion is over. There will be no more Chainkeepers, and to make sure of that, I'm here to take the children away. Killing your King is just an extra piece of meat on the soup, let's say," said Senn with a slight grin.

The Head Keeper leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"It's a shame it's come to this. I'm afraid we've let this situation get out of hand. I need to explain some things to you."

Senn's grin disappeared.

"Go ahead."

The Keeper stood up slowly, looking at Senn as if asking for permission. He walked up to the map on the wall. Senn followed him and stood behind his back, ready to stab the man if he made any move.

"I'm afraid you've misunderstood the nature of the Keepers and that of our King. It's not your fault, it's ours. We focused too little on helping everyone understand and too much on keeping a tight leash on things. And now that desire for control has born these entirely logical consequences. I tried to sway the Forever King on these matters, but he's quite... adamant."

"Hurry up with your argument, my knife hand is getting twitchy."

The Keeper turned toward him and smiled.

"The thing you're missing, Herald, is that the purpose of our organization has been to keep humanity alive for the past centuries. You don't know this because no one taught you that, so as I said, it's not your fault. We should have done a better job at that so we wouldn't have this rebellion now. What we've been trying to do is keep you alive."

"You can tell that to a lot of dead people I know. To the ones who starved to death or were lynched by your men. They would find it difficult to believe."

"But it's true. You just don't know the context. But this world was once very different. We're in a very small and secluded part of it that just happened to survive a great disaster. A Cataclysm, they called it. The land was left almost barren and the seas and clouds unmoving. It started to rain less and less. The pockets of humanity that survived were starving to death and killing each other for scraps. It was then that the Keepers formed. Our purpose was to make sure humanity survived. We rounded up everyone we could except for the most violent ones and put them to work extracting what we could from the land, making sure at least some would survive. But we had to make a lot of hard choices. We couldn't feed everyone. We couldn't heal everyone. So our organization had to turn harsher and harsher. Do you know what watching the world end can do to people? It did something to us, too. We had to be harsher than nature. We lost thousands to famine and plague, but we saved hundreds of thousands. We did our job. We had to do it the hard way. We had to put leashes on everyone and force them to work until they dropped. People died, but humanity survived. You can hate us all you want. You've had your entire life to learn to do that. But you're an adult now. You've led men. You know all about making hard decisions to keep your people alive."

Senn took a step closer to the Keeper, standing so close he could see there wasn't even a twitch in his eyes that betrayed a lie.

"Even if all of that is true, as you said, you had centuries. And all you did with that time has been to turn into bigger tyrants. You never tried to improve life for us. I did more in just a few years. I got my people out. I helped them find new ways to survive and we did so as free men. I think some of what you say could be true, but you've been lying to yourselves the rest of the way. You could… you should have found a better way by now. Humanity survived, but then what? You made us slaves and decided to keep things that way because you enjoyed having the chain in your hands."

The Head Keeper smiled with sadness.

"What you say is not entirely wrong. The Forever King's ways are strict. It's just his nature and we can't argue with him."

"Maybe I should be having this conversation with him."

"But you are."

Senn took out his knife in a quick movement and pressed it against the man's throat.

"Are you him, then?"

"No," said the Keeper. "But you are having this conversation with him, in a way. He's always there with all of us. He hears everything. We don't call him the 'Forever King' because he's immortal… he is, but not in the way you think. He's not a king or even a leader. We call him that because he's the one ruling over us for as long as history stretches."

"I don't understand."

"The Forever King is Tyranny. He's the first God. When the first men found they could subjugate others, they created him. And when the remains of humanity banded together to survive, he took over and ensured our survival. He's always been here with us."

"If he's like the Lord of Greed, he should have a body by now. Belief powers the Gods I know and gives them shape."

"You know some of the others, then? You're starting to understand… it's a shame. But you're right. I didn't say the Forever King didn't have a body. I said he is here with us. It's just a different kind of body."

"What do you mean?" asked Senn.

The Keeper smiled and raised his face toward the skylight to let the warmth wash over him.

"Think about it," he said. "It's like a riddle. How can a God be with you all the time but also have a body?"

Senn's mind raced to the solution and found it almost instantly. But he kept going back and forth, thinking there had to be another answer.

"It can't be…"

"Yes, it can. The Forever King knows the hearts and minds of men better than anyone. He didn't want a body that resembled a human, like your Lord of Greed did. That one wanted to experience what you experienced. The Forever King didn't want that. He didn't want to lose his ability to be everywhere and anywhere at once. So instead of fashioning himself a body, he chose to inhabit this mountain. Specifically, the…"

"The kingsmetal. Son of a bitch…"

"Brilliant, isn't it?" said the Keeper with a wide grin. "That way, he got the best out of his limitations. Even Gods have them, but he found a way to influence the world directly while still doing it indirectly."

"So he's in our Leashes. He's always been there, watching and bending our minds?"

"You could say so. And in the Chainkeepers' chains, in your weapons, everywhere. His body extends as far and as wide as civilization does. So when you started taking people out of the Hub and settled on Lordstown, you only extended his influence. I can see you never took out your Leash," he said, pointing at Senn's torq. "You kept them and reshaped them. You thought it a matter of pride, of remembering where you came from, right?"

"Did he put that thought in there?" asked Senn, suddenly very aware of the torq's weight upon his neck.

"Possibly. There's no way we can be sure unless you ask him."

"Can I talk to him directly, then? Just talk out loud and he should hear me?"

"He usually doesn't respond. He's not an especially talkative god. But when I have a question or a doubt, I usually ask that in my mind and I find the right solution quickly. I think that's his influence. But he's only rarely used his voice to tell me something. He's a God that trusts us to do the right thing."

Senn shook his head and laughed without mirth.

"That doesn't speak well of us. He's a tyrant that doesn't need to tell us to become tyrants. He trusts we will get there on our own."

"And he was right," said the Keeper. "You probably didn't need too much influencing to replicate tyranny in your Lordstown."

"We live as free men," said Senn, clenching his jaw.

"But there's different types of tyranny. There's the hook and the chain. And there's the tyranny of the ones who own a lot against those who have nothing. The tyranny of the army commander. The Forever King is satisfied in any case. That's why he didn't stop you. War and strife are no strangers to tyranny. They're the midwives, you could say. With more conflict, his grip will become tighter."

"So he wins whatever we do, right?"

"Yes. That's why it doesn't matter if your men took the Hub, or even this Fortress. The Forever King will always win because men will always want to rule over others."

Senn took a step back and a long, deep breath. He knew that the Keeper was telling him the truth. He grabbed both ends of his torq and pulled with all his might. Kingsmetal did not bend easily. He strained until his veins popped up in his face and neck, but he managed to open it enough so he could slip it out. He looked at the thing. It was a simple, ugly thing. He had never thought much about it since he had always worn one type of collar or another. The Keeper was right in that he had kept it out of pride. He and his men had only cut the Leashes into torcs to signify they were free, that they could get out of their chains. They hadn't gone all the way and taken them out because it was also… familiar. It was ingrained in them. And the Forever King counted on that.

He threw the torq at the wall behind the Keeper.

"I thought you'd react like that," said the man. "Now, let's go find the children so you can leave me to my work."

The man looked like someone who had won. Senn wouldn't get to kill the Forever King because there was nothing to kill. Even if he gathered all the kingsmetal and found a way to destroy the mountain, the Forever King had already poisoned their minds. The Keeper was right. Senn had been complicit in spreading tyranny. He had allowed people in Lordstown to accumulate wealth and to use Husks as slaves. Life was better in general in Lordstown than in the Hub and people were free to do what they wanted, in theory. But society had settled into new ways and those ways had an inherent form of tyranny. The tyranny of wealth. He realized then why the Lord of Greed hadn't been in a hurry to defeat the Forever King. They complemented each other up to a point. Greed led to Tyranny. Tyranny led to Greed. But something had changed, something had precipitated things so the Lord of Greed had been forced to invade the Hub. Maybe his Greed had overcome him finally. Or maybe it was something Senn had done.

The Keeper walked toward the door while Senn was mulling things over. He broke out of his thoughts when he saw the man opening the door and he hastened to catch up with him.

"Where are they?" he asked.

"This way. They're close by," said the Keeper.

"This better not be a trap," said Senn, taking out his knife.

The Keeper sighed. "If it makes you feel better, you can put that knife against my back."

"It does make me feel better."

They walked toward one of the doors Senn had passed on his way there. The ones from which no sound had come.

"They'd better be alive," said Senn. "Or I won't only kill you. I'll enjoy it thoroughly."

"Don't worry, they're fine. I just told them to keep quiet."

The Keeper looked at Senn as if asking him for permission to open the door. Senn nodded. He kept his knife at the man's back just in case there were guards inside. The door opened.

* * *

"Hello, children," said the Keeper in a friendly tone.

As Senn followed the man into the room, he saw it was packed full of children. It was a wide room with three rows of beds. They were iron-frame beds with actual mattresses. Probably the guard's rooms. Now it was filled to the brim with children, their ages ranging from six to fifteen. There had to be more than a hundred children there. What surprised Senn the most, besides the amount of them filling such a small space, was how quiet they were.

The children didn't reply to the Keeper's salute. The man clapped his hands.

"You can talk now, children. I said 'Hi' to you."

"HELLO, HEAD KEEPER," said the children, with one booming voice.

"You see, mister Herald," said the Keeper as he walked through the throng of children toward the back of the room. "I had instructed the children to remain here in utter silence while the rest of the Keepers are out on business."

Senn had been avoiding it, but now forced himself to look directly at the children's faces. One by one, he went over them. He hadn't known Brand for more than a few minutes, but he had seemed different from these kids. If he had seen him trapped like this, enslaved to the will of others, he would have thought of his child as he thought now of these children. As thralls. Their eyes remained focused on him. Their gazes didn't wander around. They didn't shift their legs in place as the street urchins from Lordstown did, seemingly unable to stand still for even a second. They almost seemed to breathe as little as possible, as if trained to not bring any attention to themselves.

"They would have stayed here for days, in complete silence, with no food or water," said Senn, not sure if he was asking a question or stating the truth.

"Yes, they would," said the Head Keeper. "They have, on occasion. They're very obedient children."

"At least the ones that survive must be."

"We are quite efficient in the process by now. There are very few losses."

"That's good to know. But that's enough from you. I'll talk to them myself."

Senn took a deep breath. He didn't know what to say to them.

"I've come to free you," he ended up saying. "To take you away from these false teachers and torturers, to take you out of the Fortress. The Chainkeepers have left. This one is the only one left. The Hub, from which all of you came, is now freed too. You will never have to be locked up and tortured by them. We're free to go. I will take you back and, if you have any family left, I'll help you find them. The ones who don't will still have a place to live and be cared for. I promise you this. You don't know me but my son was taken here too. You may know him, I think you called him Brand. He's already free, on his way to a safe refuge. You can be free too if you'll only follow me."

He extended his hand toward a girl who was standing right in front of him. He chose her because her eyes were wavering as if she wanted to go with him. The others remained motionless. He saw some small reactions: quickened breaths, flickering glances… but no one moved. He took one step closer to the girl.

"Come on, please. You just have to take a step."

He didn't even see the girl drive the shiv into his thigh. She had been really quick. Not Sparked-quick, but still too fast for him as he was, tired and unwary, to see.

"You should be more careful," said the Keeper. "My children know how to defend themselves. They're fierce followers."

Senn leaned back against the door. The shiv was small, made to fit inside the girl's small fist, but it still hurt a lot more than it should. He couldn't take it out without being sure if she had struck an artery. He left it there and tried to leave the pain and anger away from his eyes.

"I don't blame you," he said to the girl, but then looked around the room, extending his message to everyone. "You're not to blame. They put you here and made you afraid. Cautious. Untrusting. But the rest of the world is not like that. It's not perfect out there, but some of us are trying to make it better. I just need one of you to trust me and believe. All of you must have wanted to be free some time. Some of you must still remember how it was to walk free under the sun. You may not have been truly free before, but… it's like that, only better. There will be no more Chainkeepers around. No more leashes, no more whippings, no more of any of that. You just need to take a few steps and we'll be out of here. I will protect you."

The girl who had stabbed him hesitated. He saw one of her legs inching toward him and how her breath quickened. But the weight of the room was falling on her. Senn had miscalculated. He couldn't convince them one by one. They were one body, almost one mind. They had suffered the pressure of how others viewed them, how if one of them made a mistake, they all suffered the consequences. They would act all together or they wouldn't act at all.

"You're not going to bring them over to your side," said the Keeper. "They don't know you. They've known us all their lives. They believe, even if they're not aware of it. They believe in our King in their hearts."

"Don't listen to him, kids," said Senn, his words becoming a plea. "You can choose. You're not puppets. You're not like them. They just want to make you like them. But you can be different."

The girl dropped her head and turned around so she wouldn't have to see him anymore.

"Children," said the Head Keeper. "This man wants to take you away. There's only death, hunger, and decay out there. We are the ones keeping that at bay. We are the keepers of the chains that bind humanity together. Are you Chainkeepers?"

"YES," they replied as one.

"Then kill this man."

Senn couldn't react. He couldn't believe the children were now surrounding him. It wasn't supposed to be like that. A group of them was blocking the door now. They were all looking at him. He didn't see any weapons, but they didn't need them. They were too many. He couldn't fight them. He lifted his knife to keep the closest ones at bay.

"You don't have to do this," he said. "You don't have to do anything they say!"

He dodged the first kick aimed at his knee, but another kid was emboldened and kicked him in the wounded leg. He stumbled back but quickly regained his poise. He lifted the knife and pointed it at a boy that was about Brand's age.

You can't do it. You can't kill children.

He realized then that he was doomed. He couldn't fight his way out. He couldn't reason his way out. He had no powers. No god was talking to him. The Forever King was looming over and around him. Whispering in these kids' ears that they were his to follow, that there was no other option.

He bulled his way toward the door, catching the closest boys unaware and making them fall back. But someone kicked him from behind and then another one hit him with a length of chain. He pushed some kids out of the way, but the older ones were rushing him. He bruised a few bones and maybe broke a nose here and there. But he had to pull his punches and they didn't need to. Another knife or shiv sunk into his armpit. He fell back in pain. The blows started falling, but he blocked most of them. Then someone kicked his legs from under him and he fell on his back. He flailed in all directions as the blows kept raining on him, but he couldn't stop them.

Not like this, damn the gods.

A heavy blow hit him in the trachea and a few in the stomach. He was under a mass of boys and girls pressing on him. They had to be hitting each other but they didn't care. They kept punching and stabbing him.

Naial, Brand, Mirai, I'm sorry…

He closed his eyes and surrendered to the black drapes that fell over him.

* * *

END OF BOOK 1