261 (II)

  Bargain#

  “I told you earlier,” Shiv said.

  “Well, tell me again. When did you first know she was there, how did she get there, how did she come out, and how can you do it again?”

  “She showed up after we got attacked by a Forgotten Ascendant. She tried to make me evolve a specific Diviner-adjacent skill—I couldn’t. Ended up turning it into a Unique skill. Rose came with the skill and was tied to my soul. She got there because of some shit Udraal did, and like I said earlier, I have no idea if I can do it again, but I most probably can, since Udraal plans to use me as some kind of resurrection incubator.”

  “Great. So. There’s a lot of 'I don’t knows' here.”

  Shiv shrugged. “Yeah, listen, if you want to know the specifics, we’ll probably need to beat the specifics out of Udraal. That, or maybe he’ll just tell you. Could go any way with that felling maniac.”

  A brief vibration rushed through Jessica. Shiv’s Gardener of Doubt activated.

  Gardener of Doubt: She is considering something traitorous. Something extremely treacherous. Watch her.

  “You got a way to reach him?” Jessica asked.

  “I—” Shiv stopped himself from saying no. “I don’t know where he is, but if we want to find him, we might have a way. The Educator. She’s working with him. She might be able to carry a message for us. Or put you in touch.”

  “And this Educator, you're saying she’s some kind of former Avatar? Why can’t I remember her?”

  “She's not an Avatar, she is—was, I don't know—a full-on Ascendant, and she paints vessels she can use as Avatars into existence and pilots them. That’s what I’m guessing she’s doing, anyway.”

  “Holy shit,” Jessica breathed, rubbing her temples. “Fuck. The twelve drinks back at the Eunuch weren’t enough. Why the hell is everything such a godsdamned mess with you, kid? What the hells even is your life?”

  “We ask ourselves that practically every day,” Adam answered on Shiv’s behalf. “Legend Hawgrave. Please. I understand that you have history with my father—that there might even be a justifiable enmity there, but the survivors of Blackedge have suffered enough. My mother has suffered enough. And with the Ascendants degenerating, the Republic itself is at risk. We need access to the Temporal Gate not for our personal desires, but to do the right thing. And it is best that we gain access through you.”

  Jessica sighed. “Because you got something I might want. Because you got some measure of power over me.”

  “No,” Adam replied, vehement in his passion. “It’s because you care about the Republic too, and you can ensure that the Republic remains protected no matter what happens when the slipgate is used.”

  “Slipgate?” Jessica repeated.

  Hymn squinted at the Gate Lord. “Letting an awful lot slip prematurely, aren’t we, Young Lord Arrow?”

  “She’s already here,” Adam all but hissed. “What’s the point of holding any of these details back? Springing the orc surprise on her at the last minute seems unwise, I think.”

  “Orc surprise?” Jessica muttered. “What are you talking about?”

  “Yeah, so, we’re going to need to plan a rescue mission for Blackedge, right?” Shiv said. “Well. Since they’re under siege by the Stranger’s offspring, we can’t just pull the town across. We need to hold it until the survivors get through, and that means we need an army to hold the Fingerlings back.”

  With that, Jessica put things together. “You’re a Vaketh-Insul. That's why there's orcs in your cape. Not because they're mercenaries; you did the Challenger’s ritual.” She blinked. “And this Slipgate thing… that lets you access and connect any two Gateways if you know their dimensional mana frequency… which means you can theoretically reach the Outside from anywhere… or the Tutorial.” The implications slammed into her at full force. “Oh—oh, fuck no! This is what you guys are planning to do? To let an army of orcs across into the Republic? No! No, are you guys snorting the blue stuff? No! What the fuck!”

  She spun to face Hymn, turning her full ire on him. “And you’re letting them do this?”

  “I’m practically funding it,” Hymn corrected, grinning.

  Jessica almost choked on his words. “You—are you fucking insane—right, forgot who I was talking to.”

  “We all do that sometimes,” Hymn replied, nodding in understanding.

  “Fuck you, Hymn,” Jessica snapped. "I can't believe this shit. I should just bring you all over to the Inquisition and be done with this mess."

  "That would be most unwise," Uva said. Mists of the Umbral’s thought tensed around Hawgrave, curling like tightening claws. The Giantsbane simply rolled her eyes at Uva.

  "Yeah, go for it. You're not the first one who tried. I'm wearing Inertium Armor. The moment you do anything..."

  "She won't," Shiv said. He looked between Uva and Jessica. "She's not going to go to the Inquisition, and we're not going to hurt her. We got what she wants. She's just venting right now."

  Shiv's words were confident, and his gaze was flat. After everything he'd observed, he was pretty sure they had Hawgrave by the metaphorical balls. It was like Rose said earlier: If she was going to leave or do anything, she would have just done it. There wouldn't be a conversation, wouldn't be complaints. She wasn't someone who hesitated. Right now, she was just working through her frustration, but she'd already folded. He knew she had.

  "Listen, I'm gonna let you keep complaining for a while," Shiv began, "but when you're done, we need to talk about that Temporal Gate. Do you want to save Blackedge? Do you want to see your husband again, or any chance of that? Then you're going to need to be with us. Now, you might be thinking about several other things. Like, ‘maybe I can just capture this kid, deliver him back to Veronica, and see if we can figure out how to resurrect my husband that way.’"

  Shiv shook his head. "That's not gonna work. Mainly because you don't understand how I function as much as Udraal does. There's no way he's going to sit by and wait for you all to make your move while he does nothing. Hells, that's half the reason why I think he's hiding. He's trying to bait Veronica out, and she is waiting in turn so that he doesn't take control of me. The endgame is a great one."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Jessica grimaced. "So, what? That means I should just go along with you? That I should let you do whatever you want?"

  "No," Shiv said immediately. "I think that you should come along with us because that's the only way you'll get a say in things. You specifically. You personally. If you don't do that, then you're going to hand over your ability to choose to Veronica and the Ascendants. You wanna keep being her dog or actually do something that matters for yourself?”

  Jessica scoffed. "She already has control over everything. Hells, from what you said, she has control over you. The only reason you managed to break out of the prison was that she let you."

  "No," Shiv retorted. "The only reason I broke out of prison is that she wanted to play against Udraal, and I'm the thing they both leverage. I could have tried to make a straight run out. I could have just gone directly for the mana core. I could have committed myself to Udraal fully, but I didn't, because I want to keep my ability to decide for myself. And so, I used both the bastards against each other. Right now, I'm telling you, if you come with me, if you decide to help us here, you're not betraying the Republic. We have no interest in bringing down the Republic. We have no interest in destroying the world. The only thing we want to do is save Blackedge, deal with this Ascendant bullshit, tell Udraal to piss off, and after that, we can spend some time trying to figure out how to bring your husband back."

  "And you won't get the same choice with the Councilwoman," Uva added. "You know you won't. You know. Why would she ever let one of her finest warriors go uncontrolled and unleashed? You are currently addicted to her control. The only true satisfaction you experience in your life is what she offers you. But if your fantasy is made real again, then why go to her? Why submit to anyone's will? Why be anybody but who you wish to be?"

  Jessica met Uva's gaze and frowned as she noticed something. "Did I hurt someone you care about?" she suddenly asked. Uva didn't reply. "Was it your mom, your dad, your brother? I know that look, girl."

  "Not you, but one connected to you by blood," Uva said simply.

  It took Jessica only a second to realize what Uva was insinuating. "My grandson. Because of what he did down in the Abyss... Oh. Umbral. Okay, yeah, I think I get what's going on here." The Giantsbane gave a humorless laugh. "You know, this is the weirdest pitch. Half of you people have grudges against me, I have grudges against half of you people. We're probably going to get bloody and try killing each other later. You're pitching me a literal invasion plot that has you working alongside a race of bloody psychopaths, and in exchange, I might possibly get my long-dead husband back. Might possibly not."

  "Certainly," Uva said. "You want to know something, Giantsbane? That vampire you saw when you walked in? The one who wouldn't stop sending you those ugly looks? He probably would have ripped your grandson apart if he had actually been at the hospital.”

  “I didn't want him to do that,” Shiv chimed in, meeting Uva's gaze from the corner of his eye. “I was going to try to take him alive. Because Uva here deserves a measure of revenge too.”

  "I'm not just going to let you guys kill my grandkid." Jessica laughed, but it was a vicious kind of laughter, the prelude to genuine, bone-deep violence.

  Shiv responded by smiling back in kind, his own feral nature revealing itself. "We haven't decided if we're going to kill him yet, but isn't that the same thing between you and Roland? Didn't you lose a kid to him? Isn't this personal for you as well?"

  Suddenly, some of the fire inside Jessica went out.

  "Yeah, that's what I thought." Shiv scoffed. "We all got somebody. Seems like we all have some kind of retribution coming our way. Same goes for you, same goes for me, same goes for Roland. But I learned something from being an Insul. I learned that it's best to know where people stand with you. It's best to know and be certain that they're going to try and hurt you at some point instead of always guessing."

  Jessica glared at him. "This really isn't making your bargain sound any better."

  "But it probably does," Shiv said. "With us, you'll get an open deal. However that goes, you know what's coming. I'll be straight with you. We can settle things by way of violence, by whatever else you want to do. Alternatively, if you don't agree, I'll keep coming for him in the dark. Not just me—Tulveg, Adam, Uva. Now you can try stopping us from coming back, but..." He pointed at Rose. "You'll be damning her to an unfortunate fate. So, I'm gonna ask you—and I think you're not that kind of person—are you more of a killer or are you more of a hero?"

  Sage of the Enkindled Heart: You betrayed your nature when you two saved those people in the hospital, and she betrayed hers. You both have each other's measure. She knows the answer to this question, and she hates you for asking it.

  A sneer flickered across Jessica's face, but then turned into an expression of absolute exhaustion. "And there she is again. There she fucking is."

  "Who?" Shiv asked.

  "Who do you think? You are her blood. She does this trick all the time too. She stares at you, she needles her way all the way in, and then she sees it. She sees that little part of you that you hate, and she knows the choice you're going to make because she understands your nature, and she plays with it. She prods at you, and then she backs off. You fucking piece of shit. Try as hard as I want. Looks like there's no escaping the Chandlers for me."

  And now it was time for Shiv to sustain a psychological wound. He let out a long, low breath and kept himself controlled. His Sage of the Enkindled Heart filled up more, and he caught Jessica looking down at his core. She could see his emotional state as well, could see how much fire was inside of him.

  "Oh, you didn't like that much, did you?" Jessica sneered.

  "No," he answered honestly, his voice barely a whisper.

  "You feel better?"

  "No," Shiv replied. "You?"

  "Not even a little."

  He scoffed. "So, now that we've both fucked with each other's heads a little, what do you say? You gonna show us where that gate is? You gonna play with us and try to make your own choices, or you gonna crawl back to the Inquisition and force us to do things on our own? Because we will. Because we're not going to stop. Because you know that a civil war is coming to the Republic, and it's up to you how bad and how long you want it to last."

  A long silence dragged between them. Jessica looked away first, and as she blinked, Shiv could see that she was thinking, that she was considering her path ahead. It didn’t last very long. “Alright. Look. You want access to one of those gates? Well. I got terms and conditions. The first of which is that I’m sticking to you dumb kids like a sword rammed up someone’s ass.”

  “I will felling destroy you someday, Giantsbane,” Shiv said, struggling not to leap over and choke her.

  “Not before I flay your ass from the inside out a thousand more times first.”

  The Deathless sneered. “Fine. I was planning to drag you into my fight with the Culturist anyway.”

  “What? He’s coming here? Godsdamned—You—Can’t believe this shit.” Jessica looked well and truly done with Shiv. “Both of us are going to be pissing blood by the end of this. Alright. Fine.” She sighed. “I got a score to settle with him anyway. Or at least Rusty does.”

  “This time, I will fully detach his head,” Rusty declared with utter loathing.

  Shiv nodded. “Right. Great. Perfect. I’ll even cheer you on. Or help you. So, now. Time Gate.”

  “When do you want to go there?” Jessica asked.

  “As soon as we godsdamned can,” Shiv answered.

  “You’re willing to do this right now? This instant?”

  “Yeah. I—” The Deathless paused, and Adam squinted at Jessica’s dimensional blade.

  “Oh,” the Gate Lord said. “Oh, I see.”

  “Yep,” Jessica said. Something between a sneer and a smile appeared on her face.

  “You have a gate hidden inside your sword?” Uva asked with disbelief.

  “Nah. Off by a magnitude.” Jessica’s smile grew even wider. Suddenly, a new color flared inside Rusty. A golden dawn rose, splitting the black static down the middle. “Let’s just say Rusty is a hell of a lot more than just a Legendary sword.”