Skylar's mind raced. How much can I tell her? She knows about the Kalativa, and seems to know some things about the event loops that even I don't have confirmation of yet. But that doesn't mean she can be trusted... He grunted with pain as the pressure on his fingers increased; she's got a grip like iron. "I need to close the loop," he gasped, fighting the urge to fall to his knees. "A future version of me did some stuff here in my personal past, and I have to catch up..."

  "A future version of you? So you're not the furthest point forward..." The pressure on his hand eased as her mad one-eyed gaze turned contemplative. "Interesting. So very interesting..."

  Oh. Guess it's my turn now; did my followers give me anything good?

  Okay, so that guy's not gonna be any help...

  This could be useful, at least. "How do you know about the Kalativa?" he managed, grunting with effort against her increasingly ruinous grip. He started to ask a follow-up question, then thought better of it when he considered her probable reaction.

  "Oho!" Her gaze lit on him again like a vicious moth; he had to steel himself to keep from cringing. "Conniving even now, huh? Well, in your position, I suppose you must... prioritize." Her evil smile widened as she watched him gulp in fear. "You told me, obviously. My past and your future, remember?" Skylar grunted in annoyance. Drotz, wasted that question. "Now, my turn again..." -- he yelped as the pressure on his hand resumed, along with a cruel tilt to his wrist that made the bones start to grind together -- "...what is your goal as an Incursor? And don't spin me any corfsmot about not being one; I know all your secrets, Skylar Kass." She leered down at him, driving him down to the ground as her wrist-lock sent lances of pain all through his body.

  "Ngh...!" Skylar squealed like a stuck pig as torment excoriated him. "I don't... gah... a new life!" Wretchedly, he watched himself spill his guts in gibbering terror. "I killed myself in my old world to escape here! Start over! Is that what you want to hear, that I'm a pathetic coward?"

  "Oh, Skylar." Without transition, she had him in her arms like a child; with incredible strength, she swept him up and held him close, crooning into his ear as he gasped at the sudden cessation of pain against her shoulder. "I already knew you were a pathetic coward." She held him silently for a moment, then chuckled and held him at arm's length to look at him appraisingly; the madness in her eye receded a little. "We're not doing a very good job getting new information from each other, are we?"

  "No," Skylar agreed ruefully. He thought about asking her to let him go, so they could talk more normally, but immediately decided against it; She knows me too well. I wouldn't trust me not to run off at the first opportunity, either, so this is better; if she feels like she's in control, she'll let her guard down. "But maybe I can help. What's your objective here? Why are you helping the Professor destroy this place?"

  "The... destroy?" Her gaze became clouded with confusion for a moment, then opened wide in understanding. "Oh! Oh, you're very uninformed. Well, let me be of use to you then." She smiled evilly, holding him up higher so he dangled like a rag-doll from her fist. "The Professor, as you call him, is not here to destroy Gavispar; he comes to rule it, to take of its wealth and food and divide it amongst the nightspawn, who starve in the wilderness and live like beasts. And I... I am his general."

  Skylar groaned. "Of course you are." If this was an RPG world, I'd be getting a message right now about 'Skill Unlocked: World's Shittiest Luck.' "A bunch of freedom fighters, banding together in the post-apocalyptic world to sieze the wealth of the privileged few in a righeous quest." He sighed. "And I can't even blame you." It was all luck of the draw. If nightspawn had found me in the swamp, I'd be with them instead. Totally random.

  Unfortunately, however, this seemed to be exactly the wrong thing to have said. "You pity me?!" she roared, slamming him to the ground with a bone-jarring impact; Skylar grunted as his breath whooshed out of his lungs and stars danced before his eyes, only saved from serious injury by a reflex to tuck his chin before impact. "You of all people -- Skylar the craven, Skylar the weakling -- you dare to pity me?! I should break every bone in your body." She siezed him, hands around his throat, and began to squeeze as an enraged grimace twisted her face, drool falling from her clenched teeth between her full lips. "I should kill you. I should kill you...!"

  "Wait," Skylar choked; his hands were free, but he couldn't even attempt to fight back; knew it was pointless to even try. Instead, he did the one thing he somehow knew would stop her; painfully, and with careful deliberateness, he raised his right hand to where she could see it and extended one finger. "Last... question...!"

  For a moment, he thought she would strangle him; blind with rage, he saw his doom in her mad orange oculus. But slowly and by degrees, she mastered herself; sucking in wheezing breaths between her clenched teeth, she unlocked her hands from his throat a finger at a time, then hurled him away to pant in the darkness. "Ask," she mumbled, chest heaving in a way that distracted him even through his suffering and dread. "Ask your korskak question."

  "Ugh... drotz, that hurts." Skylar struggled to a seated position and rubbed his throat ruefully. Why does everybody want to beat me up? "Jeez, what did I ever do to you?" he wondered out loud, then froze in stunned realization. Oh, vishnat it. That counts.

  He risked a glance at her, wary and expecting another explosion; but this time she returned his gaze, proud and steel-hearted. "You don't know," she commented, seeming almost numb. "Of course you don't know. You can't know, it's your future. Oh, this must be so confusing to you... the irony. It's delicious and sickening, all at once." Slowly, she approached and knelt down beside him, furious eye boring into his face with a heat he couldn't comprehend. "Some of it I won't tell you. Some of it I can't tell you, I suspect; if you knew, you would recoil from it all." Her hand sought his, found it; he was surprised to discover that her touch was gentle now. "Long ago, when I was young, you found me in a dire situation; saved me, like a hero. Aided me, gave me wealth; supported me on my path of the sword, and even took me as your lover." Skylar gulped, intimidated by what that meant for his immediate future. "And then..."

  With terrifying suddenness, she brought his hand up, but instead of harming him, she forced it around her own throat; Skylar goggled. "And then you broke me. Tortured me. Enslaved my mind, ravished my body." Her own hand gripped his, crushing his fingers against her throat; in horror, he realized she was starting to throttle herself with his hand. "With horrors and madness, you made me fall from Lucia's grace and turn to Gram's darkness; and every act of it, you did as though you were going through the motions. You destroyed my life as though I was a chore for you to defile." Her insane smile widened as more drool seeped through her teeth, running down her face and dripping onto his hand. "And now I see you did it against your own will; because I drove you to it, here and now, by planting the foreknowledge in you. Oh, the pleasure." She moaned, and Skylar was terrified and disgusted to realize she was getting off on all this. "Let's kill each other. Ohhh, let's kill each other...!"

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  Her free hand lashed out, lunging for his own throat; but Skylar was forewarned now, and cross-blocked with his free hand while stepping inside and across with his other foot. With a twist of his hips, he took her balance; and then, before he knew what was happening, she was down and he was on top of her, his left hand still around her throat. He thought she'd twist and fight, but instead she relaxed immediately; laying back, she crossed both of her wrists above her head in a submissive pose and gasped rhythmically as her insane eye squeezed shut. "Yes... yes... kill me...!"

  For a single, crazy moment, Skylar considered it; she wants it. It would certainly solve a lot of problems. But almost instantly, his nature reasserted itself. No, that's stupid. I'm not a murderer; I don't break my tools just because it's convenient. Instead, he held his pose and the pressure level through his grip for five long seconds, neither relaxing nor tightening his grasp; then, slowly, he bent down and gently kissed her forehead. "Maybe next time, Hyrune." She went limp, still panting for breath; cautiously, he released her and stood up, careful not to touch her any more than was necessary. "I'm sorry. If that really has to happen in the future..." -- he winced at the very idea, feeling sick -- "...I'll be as gentle as I can. But I have to go; Aymon and the others are going to need me."

  "Aymon? Aymon... is here?" Her eye flickered open; he could tell she was barely conscious. "He is alive...?"

  "Sure," Skylar reassured her. "Not sure happened before, but he's kinda in charge of this place; an Ilkon of Svata, refused a seat on the council, did his squats and ate his protein. Huge beard. You'd probably be into it."

  "Aymon, alive..." she sank back, her hair shiny with sweat against the filthy stone cobbles of the walkway. "He'll die. He'll fight the army -- my army, hah -- and he'll die... we'll all die. You always fail..."

  "Yeah, yeah, you said that." Skylar took a few cautious steps away, brushing himself off. He paused, looking back at her; something cold and slimy twisted in his guts. "But maybe not you, at least. Rosebud Manchuria."

  Instantly, her body went rigid; with a primal scream, she arched her back and flung her limbs in every direction, howling as something awful shrieked and writhed inside her; Skylar winced, but forced himself to stand his ground. Hypothesis validated. He stayed back until her spasms stilled, then carefully moved forward and knelt by her again; she gasped, breathing worryingly shallowly, and seemed on the verge of unconsciousness for several seconds.

  But then, as he'd hoped and feared, her eye opened; and within her gaze, all the insanity had been replaced by sorrow, ragged and torn like a hopeless flag on an empty battlefield. "Skylar," she whimpered. "Skylar..."

  "I know. I know." Feeling oily and evil, he stroked her sweat-lathered brow. "I'm probably not doing you any favors. This next part was going to be hard enough; now you're going to have to do everything of your own free will, to boot."

  "My own..." Tears leaked from the corner of her remaining eye. "Even your mercy is cruel... oh, Skylar." She closed her eye, tears streaming down her aging cheek. "You keep finding things to take from me. And I can't even hate you..."

  "You can hate me," Skylar disagreed instantly, with a vehemence that surprised even himself. "You have to hate me. Timurus said I was going to suffer for the next two days; we're barely getting started." Cautiously, he tried to stand up; she was heavy, but to his surprise, he discovered he could barely manage to hold her up partially as she woozily regained her footing. "Think. What were you going to do to me before I undid the madness? How were you going to torture me?"

  "Oh, I had quite a few ideas," she responded brokenly; he was relieved to hear at least a little humor in her voice. "Break some fingers. Bite off a few things..." her eye closed, wincing, and then reopened with dogged determination. "Mark you with Aumbrin. Make the troops hunt you."

  "Aumbrin. That's an Art? What does it do?"

  "It is one of the most common Gram bestows. Carve the shadows..." she staggered; Skylar held her up cautiously. Don't want her to hit her head. "Illusions, mostly. I don't have the power to... solid..."

  "Take a rest. You're barely conscious." Feeling sick, he helped her to a corner between two walls and guided her to a seated position; kneeling down next to her, he tried to fathom how everything could have gotten this sorbened up. "If you summon them to hunt me, they'll find you here, right? Get you some help?"

  "Yes... Skylar..." suddenly, she clutched at him. "I won't see you. I won't see you after this... this is the beginning for you, but the end for me...!"

  "You'll see me again," Skylar lied with too much ease. Not an encounter I want to repeat, actually, but she doesn't need to know that. "A general can fight from the back, remember? Slip away if things are going poorly. I'm totally sure we'll meet again."

  "Wait, wait, there's something you have to know..." She was lolling now, on the edge of dozing; he knew she didn't have much longer before she passed out. "It's important..."

  "Later," Skylar promised, which he intended to honor not at all. "Put the mark on me; I'll take care of the rest."

  Long-lashed eyes fluttering, she nodded; gesturing towards him, she mumbled words he couldn't make out. Instantly, a great red mark appeared above his head; he gawped up at it, nearly the size of a house, as it pulsed and flashed with patterns of movement and brightness all guaranteed to catch the eye. It morphed through several different runes that he could read now -- SPY, TRAITOR, THIEF were among the most common -- and he had to chuckle at the irony. Title Equipped! Badge of Honor! "It's all good. I'll catch up with Aymon and the others; I'm sure Levan and Reine will keep him alive until I get there."

  "Levan?!" Her eye flew open again; with a surge of strength, she lunged at him, grasping at his coat tails pathetically; he was barely able to catch her again. "Our son is here?!"

  "OUR WHAT?!" Skylar tried and failed miserably to keep the shock off his face; he almost dropped her again as the astonishment and panic made his bones turn to water. "Levan's our kid!? Are you sorbnek kidding me!?"

  But instantly, he could see he'd get no further answers from her; she was now fully unconscious, eye half-closed and mouth forming only slurred mumbles. In shock, he carefully returned her to the corner she'd been resting in and backed up a few paces; he was vaguely aware of his hands trembling. Skek. Skek, that's so stupid and insane and hysterical. His mouth twisted in sadistic glee. The next time he mouths off to me... oh, incredible. Fantastic. Almost worth it, even.

  Heh. Yeah, I've used Weir on the Professor multiple times, too -- there seems to be some kind of cooldown on it, or something. I haven't actually learned very much about it yet other than through experimentation.

  Food for thought, for sure. If Hyrune started out worshipping Lucia and I "corrupted" her to Gram's worship, there must have been a reason for doing that -- at least, I'd hope there was a reason besides just predestined cruelty. Hopefully I'll live long enough to find out.

  Brooding, he waited until the sounds of the pursuing soldiers approached; he laughed to himself a little. Guess we're getting the show started a little early. At least this way they'll be sure to find her. Once he was certain enough movement was converging on him, he ducked back down the alleyway he had come and jumped up on the little bridge, making sure he was visible from as many vantage points as possible. "Hey, you sacks of crap!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, gleeful to discover he could say 'crap' without being censored. "You all suck! I'm gonna go tell the guards and ruin your plans!" A massive roar of outrage blasted back at him from the depths of the city as thousands of nightspawn set their sights on him; he giggled to himself at the irony of it all. That's the one thing I can't do, of course, since the city has to be unaware of everything until my trial two days from now. Okay, chat, I need to keep their entire army busy for forty-eight hours, by myself, without raising the alarm; surely you guys have some amazing ideas, right?

  WHAT SHOULD WE DO?