The Hrumi fanned out, engaging arms with the Soul Eaters that guarded the doors while Alize stole inside. The hot air within stank of smoke and blood as everywhere swords clashed and their bearers shouted. The Kogaloks wielding weapons within were the Soulless, their dead obeying the commands of whoever had eaten their souls. They could fight until all their limbs were severed and never notice.

At the head of the hall, two Deku flanked a man whose collar twinkled with diamonds. As Tamer’s Sargons tried to reach him from the main floor, Tamer struggled against his assailants. He was losing.

And Alize darted forward, colliding with a woman pressing towards the door. A woman dressed in gray robes. When Alize glanced behind the gray lady, she saw four other Magi, each one pointedly ignoring the bloodbath rising around them.

“Magi,” Alize blocked their path. “You cannot leave while they massacre the government of this province! Help us!”

The gray lady’s face changed from astonished to amused. “Surely, Alize, you don’t believe we have abandoned our creed. We do not involve ourselves in politics.”

“This isn’t politics, this is humanity!”

The gray lady laughed. “Humanity is politics.”

“What good is your power?” Alize screamed.

“Power,” the Mage laughed, “is never good. Now let us pass or you will not live to raise your sword.”

Digust raced through Alize, but Sosje caught her wrist.

“You can’t change other people’s minds for them,” Sosje spoke in her ear. Alize had not noticed her protecting her back. “All fruit ripens in time.”

“Some just rots,” Alize said bitterly, “Come on.”

Alize stabbed through five Soulless as she fought her way forward. The room was packed, teeming like maggots on a corpse, but Alize caught sight of Kell and Davram. She ducked and maneuvered and kept getting pushed back while she tried to reach them. Around her, other Hrumi had moved into the hall, their blades piercing through Soulless hearts. The beating hearts of those long dead.

Kell did not see her until she struck down his opponent. Wide-eyed, he lowered the candlestick he’d been using to defend against the blows.

“I thought you said the Kogaloks would fight against the Deku,” he yelled.

“We were wrong!” Alize shouted back.

“So what’s the plan now?”

“The plan?” Alize tossed him the Kogalok’s sword, “You flatter me!”

Davram appeared next to him. “They will kill Tamer and Greer!”

Alize opened her mouth but in that instant the air changed. It began drumming, the pressure terrible on her ear drums. All the fighting faltered as the living covered their ears and even the Soulless paused.

“Silence!” A Deku yelled from the podium.

And Alize nearly vomited. She knew that voice.

Viken.

“We seek no blood spill, good countrymen,” Viken announced. “Your souls have no value in death.”

Alize felt numb. Beside her Sosje whispered. “You are stronger than they are. Remember Hesna.”

“Hesna?” Davram’s voice cracked. “Who is Hesna?”

Alize opened her mouth to answer, but ended up blocking another blow.

“SILENCE!” Viken screamed again.

This time the reverberation in Alize’s ears was nearly unbearable. She stumbled, jostling a chair before falling to the ground. She opened her eyes to see Davram grimacing on the floor beside her.

“Nocturne,” he murmured, blinking his eyes shut.

And Alize remembered he had greater reason to fear than anyone in the hall.

“The world now belongs to us!” Viken roared. “Yours is the first province to be liberated, but the Deku will have all of them! For centuries we have confined ourselves to a single family’s salvation, but with them wholly sanctified, salvation is possible for anyone!”

Alize covered her mouth with her hand. So that was the Deku plan – soon they could use anyone’s soul to grant them immortality, not just the Ginmae.

Her eyes met Davram’s. His soul was the only thing that separated all everyone else from that fate. She gave Davram her hand, pulling him with her as she staggered to her feet.

“They won’t know you here,” she assured him. “You are still hidden.”

Alize anticipated Davram’s fear, but his gaze held her, intent, deliberate.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Alize,” he uttered, “who is Hesna?”

But before she could answer, Greer screamed. She fought towards the front of the hall. There an ornately dressed man stepped forward, his eyes cold and blank as oblivion. But his limbs worked, albeit with painful rigidity. He unsheathed his sword.

Before him, the Soulless held the limbs of Prince Tamer fast. The prince struggled against their grip as his death shuddered towards him.

“Brother,” Tamer yelled to the bejeweled man, “the Deku cannot bring life to Parousia! They cannot know what life is! We must-”

But Tamer words turned to death cries as Prince Nadar brought his sword down in a swift thrust that impaled his brother. Tamer buckled forward, falling to kneel, then collapsing altogether. His body soaked crimson as he died around the blade. His blood seeped under his brother’s feet.

Alize could hear Greer screaming.

“Your prince is dead!” Viken exclaimed, “Surrender to Nadar and all will be forgiven.”

“The free shall never surrender to the condemned!” A female voice shouted.

Alize turned to see Benay. The clan leader twisted a knife blade and hurled it across the hall. It whipped so close to Nadar’s face that his temple began to bleed.

The last prince had not flinched.

Alize watched the automatic way he walked, his movements perfectly coordinated with the Soulless. “That’s not Nadar,” Alize whispered to the Sargons.

Next to her Sosje nodded. “He’s a Kogalok now, a Soulless.”

At the front of the room, Viken’s eyes swept over the Hrumi.

Alize felt like she had been kicked in the gut. She knew Viken. He demanded absolute submission even amongst members of his own family. The broad punishments she had witnessed had encompassed a pathetically narrow spectrum of infractions.

How will Viken respond to Benay? To us?

“Hrumi,” Viken greeted Benay, “Now this finally becomes interesting. You pitiful creatures.”

“The Hrumi will save us,” a child screamed. Alize saw Dyala, the young princess, her eyes full of fire like her sister’s. And Alize’s heart fell to understand that Dyala entrusted her salvation to women who had come only for revenge.

Greer caught her little sister’s arm, pulling her close. As if she could protect her from anything.

“The Hrumi?” Viken laughed aloud, “See the strength of Rehsan’s warriors now!”

He raised his hand, his magic erupting forth. It lifted the Hrumi daggers from sheaths and fists of their bearers.

The women gasped in astonishment as the vessels of their souls shuddered above their heads, an iron mass convoluting, the tips shimmering in the garbled torchlight. Alize widened her eyes. She had never heard of this, but fear washed through her. She thanked Rehsan she had not brought her own dagger to this battle.

Viken twisted his hand and the motion elicited screams of agony from the Hrumi below.

“We have learned so much about your magic, old friends. You thought we would never break you, but even the Kogaloks will soon overcome your defenses. We will learn to soultruss you yet,” Viken called, “but in the meantime, it is not so hard to kill you.”

“Wait!” the other Deku spoke, “she is here, in this room.”

Alize’s heart turned to stone to recognize that voice.

Iedaja continued, “Come back to us, Alize. Come back to your true family.”

Alize choked. Iedaja had just revealed her monstrous identity to all the Hrumi and all the soldiers. To Greer.

And to Davram.

The Ginmae prince locked his eyes on her, his features blossoming into an emotion she could not name.

Alize began gasping her breaths.

“Alize,” Davram spoke with an inexplicable settled calm, a boat gliding through battering seas, “who is Hesna?”

“Hesna was my mentor,” Alize wheezed.

Davram jerked forward, grabbing her shoulders. She flinched from him but his grip betrayed no anger, only intensity. “Listen to me. Hesna was the woman who smuggled me out of the Ginmae province when I was twelve. Hesna worked with the Conjurer who tried to save us all. Hesna swore to my parents that she would always protect the Ginmae.”

“Can’t be the same,” Alize stammered, heartbroken for all Davram’s misplaced hopes. No Hrumi would have helped a prince. How had she been so foolish to think that she could help Davram? Now, in a moment of clarity, she realized that perhaps the most harmful thing she had done was convincing him to believe it too.

“She had a companion, Thrasa.”

Alize jolted. She knew that name. A thousand stories of brave Thrasa, who had intimidated even Celillie, before her untimely death. How could Davram know her? “Thrasa was Hesna’s mentor.” Alize regarded Davram in wonder.

“Don’t you see, Alize,” Davram said, his eyes widening, “the reason the Deku captured you after the Temple Battle? You said my mother had another child.”

“No, Davram,” Alize looked at Kell wildly, but he seemed as tongue tied as she felt in the face of Davram’s exuberance.

“Davram,” Kell began.

But the prince did not seem to hear him. He clutched Alize’s shoulders tighter. “You’re a Ginmae, Alize. Hesna took you to the Hrumi for protection. You’re my sister.”

“No, I’m not!” Alize shouted over the agony of the Hrumi as Viken toyed with their souls, trying to coerce Alize from the crowd. Next to her, tears streamed down Sosje’s face.

“Your chances of survival greatly outnumber mine,” Davram yelled, “if it’s a Ginmae soul they want, yours is worth too much. Remember me, Alize.”

“No!” Both Alize and Kell tried to stop him, but Davram had barreled towards the front of the room. “Deku!” he cried, “I am the Ginmae soul you seek. Release these women, and I will surrender.”

The room fell silent around Davram. He stood his ground, unwavering in the face of his nightmares.

“Surely not,” a female voice said. Alize jerked in surprise. Iedaja emerged to stand beside Viken. To Alize’s eyes, she seemed to stand straighter, even as a Ginmae approached her, a test of every truth she had ever told Alize.

“Come,” Viken commanded lowly. His voice grated Alize’s ears more than his magic ever had. A million ideas erupted in her mind as she tried to think of any action that could right this unfurling calamity. Davram was the last Ginmae.

Davram had paled, but he kept his gaze steady.

Alize followed it to Greer. She held her father’s body, nearly engulfing her sister in the folds of her skirt. She met Davram’s gaze, shaking her head. The action scattered tears in every direction.

Under the Hrumi’s flashing daggers, the crowd parted way for him to pass.

Viken’s shroud fluttered as Davram arrived before him. The Deku reached out, gripping the hand of the lost Ginmae prince. Then he began to laugh. “The Ginmae soul we could never have found on our own! My subjects! Your defenses will fall to us, your cities will crumble! And all your people, all your pretty courtiers and your poorest peasants will reap our everlasting harvest!”

Alize pressed forward, but the people amassed too tightly in the room, pushing her back even as her own screams matched her sisters. But from where she struggled, she could see Davram jerk forward, his hand flashing silver.

And he stabbed his own dagger into Viken’s heart before the Deku even registered the Ginmae’s defiance.

“No!” Iedaja screamed.

Viken fell, and with him, the Hrumi daggers.

But as the Hrumi cries ceased they were replaced by Davram’s tortuous roar.

Iedaja’s furious magic held his chest up, his arms extended like a man about to be ripped apart by the earth and sky. Sweat drenched through his clothing, vulgar and visceral, and Iedaja slammed the salt mineral to his heart. Davram fought the soultrussing, but she did not even seem to notice. His soul arched into the salt where it glowed like a star trapped in ice.

The Ginmae prince who lived in fear had succumbed at last.

Davram’s body crumpled to the floor.