“Come out, Valor. Come out and let me give you a death worth putting to song. This city is lost. There is only one end. Your cause is finished. Come out and face me so I can give you peace. Know that I fight the itch inside me in saying these words. Know that I resist my urge to torture to speak with you so plainly. I have left the alphite’s daughter and son untouched. I have endured and fasted from cruelty. For that is how highly I regard you, Legend Thann. My lust to hear you scream is outweighed by my admiration of your most valiant defense. Come out. Let me offer you the only gift I can, Legend to Legend.”

  “Hm. I think not, Culturist. I need no gifts from your like. And Legend? It is wasted on a beast like you. A beast that will always be crippled and reduced. Held back from experiencing the full spectrum of emotional majesty. I would pity your kind, but one cannot pity a weapon. Instead, I will tell you to come forth. Unleash your forces. Show me your skills. You say this city is lost, and the Canis are doomed to be bloodied flesh upon your tongue for the butchery to come. I say not. I say there is blood indeed, but blood to be shared. You may breach these walls, but you will die here in the streets, your blood wetting the stones of this city. In the end, your deaths will baptize this place anew. I have given the dog men my oath of honor, and I will see your demise cement the weight of my promise.”

  “Well spoken. And enough said. I sound the drums and play this song to the end. Show me, Legend Thann. Show me the Slayer of Cul’Ananther, the Goddess of the Unseen Blade. Show me the one that drove the Heliokites to Extinction, who severed the light and cast the Twelve Worlds of the Burning Chain into Darkness. Show me He Who Stills Eternity.”

  “Come forth, and I shall. Bring your gray tide. Bring your finest monsters. Bring them, and learn that Legend is not an equal title; that we share a Tier, but only in the System's crude eye. Come, and learn that some Legends are still a league beyond.”

  -The Culturist and Valor Thann

  264 (I)

  Beyond [I]

  Something changed inside Jessica with the Educator's presence. Something opened inside of her. Before, she was shriveled, partially hidden from Shiv. But now, there was an active union, a willingness to engage. And engage she did; respond she did when she spoke to the Educator. Shiv had never seen her even half as animated, not even when they'd fought the Tarrasque.

  It was strange how different people acted with each other.

  For Shiv, the Educator was an impediment at best; a potential enemy he needed to deal with eventually. His history with her was one of mere subjugation and violence. But here, there seemed to be a matronly quality to Maia, and Jessica played along with her as if she were an old family friend—a familiar figure she wanted to trust but was slightly apprehensive about.

  As the Educator and the Giantsbane went over what needed to be done to see the slipgate pushed to an early completion, Shiv and Adam gathered the rest of their motley crew. Before anything else, they needed to take in the morale of their group, and more importantly, make clear who was willing to accompany them on their trek across the Tutorial and the defense of Blackedge.

  “Alright, I know I promised some of you that you're going to be free from the Ascendants," Shiv said, facing the other Legends more than he did his orcs. He knew the grayskins were game for any violence, but he also didn't exactly trust them right now, especially with the Culturist on the horizon. He suspected he was due to be tested severely, and soon. “We've only partly achieved our goal. We're still stuck in the capital. And before we can finally leave, we got something to ask."

  Shiv looked towards Adam and let the Gate Lord take over.

  "We are all bound by common circumstance," Adam said. "Bound by desperation. Perhaps not true allies. We are all driven by different things, and I will not lie and claim I trust you all completely. I think you would all say the same for me. However, right now, we have proven to be effective together. We've survived encounters that have slain other Legends. We have avoided the gaze of the Ascendants so far. But what lies ahead, before that final precipice of freedom, is no easy path to walk. For reaching my Gate Piety and fully escaping beyond the grasp of the Republic requires us to venture through the Tutorial."

  Kura scowled at these words. "Wondrous. Not only do we have to deal with the gray creatures here, but we will also enter a place where they fester like fleas on a dog's back."

  The Chronomancer regarded the others with a dark look. The orcs simply smiled at her.

  "Worry not, uh, Chronomancer," Mortar said. He leaned in, trying to pat Kura on the back, but she vanished in an instant, leaving only a temporal afterimage in her wake.

  With a flash of gold, she appeared on his other side, and she sneered at the orc. "Attempt to touch me again, and I will claim your arm, you oversized mongrel."

  Mortar simply laughed jovially. “I know plenty of Chronomancers who'd like to have a tussle with you.”

  “And I have no interest in facing them in whatever struggle they wish to provide,” Kura hissed. She directed her glare at Adam. "You're saying there is no other way out? That this is our sole means of extraction? Can this gate not be attuned to another frequency? Must we venture through the Tutorial?"

  Adam briefly glanced at Shiv and winced.

  "Not exactly," the Gate Lord admitted. "We can place you somewhere else if you want. And though it will be difficult for us to continue on our own, that is an option we are willing to offer in exchange for everything you've already done. However, we must ask—no, we must beg—that you help us now, for we face a Legendary-Tier orc and also the eldritch beings besieging Blackedge. I understand you have no history with my town, and you don't wish to involve yourself in this struggle. But because of what's at stake, and because of the risks posed to Shiv and me… you have to understand we can't release anyone until after we've had a chance to clear out from the coliseum. We cannot risk someone tracing us back here. The die is cast. Also, eventually, there's no avoiding this. Someone's going to come for our heads.”

  Shiv cleared his throat. “Earth's Ambient Mana Threshold is going to go up one way or another. Either someone takes my life from me completely, or I end up causing an Incursion. And that’s not getting into the shit with the gods and the Great One. There's a big fight on the horizon. Even if you start running, I can't promise you'll be able to get away from it anyway."

  The escaped prisoners eyed each other, sizing their fellows up to see if anyone would prove themselves a coward first.

  "I confess that I have no urge to be part of this fight," Kura said. "I have my own vengeance to take, my own grudges to fulfill. And though there has been honor treated and blood spilled between us," her eyes were on Shiv specifically, "we are not companions. We are not kin." She sighed with discomfort, and her voice turned hesitant and slight. "But you have proven to be more trustworthy than most I have fought alongside. You have stayed true to your bargain and your words thus far. More than most in this accursed land."

  Sage of the Enkindled Heart: She doesn't want to trust. She has been wounded before, but part of her is desperate for allies in this strange and distant place. She has her own conflicts. Her own struggles. And having you along with her might make her revenge much easier to complete.

  “I will never set foot in a place as wretched as the Tutorial,” Kura continued, “and you cannot make me. However, I will send my clones across in support. But know this, I will not stay to see myself struck down if things are to take a turn for the worse."

  "No promises, and things plainly said," Shiv said. He gave her an understanding nod. "That's all we can ask from each other."

  "Gone?" Adam asked. "What say you?"

  "I'm staying; got no one waiting for me," the goblin replied. And that was all she said.

  Part of Shiv wanted to ask why, but he let Gone keep her deserved silence. She had been nothing but helpful during the escape from the well, and thus far she hadn't complained at all. In fact, among all the Legendary-Tier prisoners present, Gone was the one he trusted the most. But that wasn't saying much, considering the moral and psychological states of her competition.

  Candles snickered under his breath. "Sooo, you're saying that if I stick with you guys, we'll be off to burn lots of really interesting and cookable critters? I’m in this shit to the hilt.”

  He was dimmer than usual, and faint embers danced around his body. He sounded as deranged as he always did, and the twitches of his body made Shiv think of someone going through drug withdrawal. Compared to Kura and Gone, Candles had proven to be much less well-adjusted, likely thanks to whatever the Ascendants had done to him in the Rubix Well, but he was predictable. He wanted to burn things. Adam promised him things to burn. Candles held on to his self-control—barely—and eventually, Candles set something on fire that someone had to put out. Compared to the orcs, he was practically a saint.

  "Considering there's a chance I'm gonna have to fight the Culturist and some of the orcs probably want you to burn them, well, I think you're in the right place." Shiv’s words were meant to placate the Pyromancer—but it was frankly hard to tell what was going on in Candles’s head.

  One shuddered to imagine what inhuman thoughts lay within those flames.

  Candles's laughter grew positively hysterical, and he threw his head backward, howling his joy to the ceiling. This went on for a disconcertingly long time. So long, in fact, that Tulveg and Gone began backing away from him.

  Five, meanwhile, stayed close. The wolf-man of Aviary was utterly indifferent to whatever dangers his fellow once-inmates may have posed. He simply huffed. "Well, you know I can't leave. Not without a prize to bring back to my handlers back in New Albion. I must say that having a gate to retreat to is most useful. But you cannot rely on yourselves in such a condition, since we're already accepting aid from the Neath." Five paused. "Something that you should have included me in, since I am naturally much more inclined toward negotiations and could have—"

  Shiv cut him off. “Five. Don’t take this the wrong way. Or do. Doesn’t really matter to me. We don’t trust you that much. You’re a Raven. Every single experience we had with a Raven has turned out to be a shitshow.”

  "And so it falls doubly to me to correct these ill experiences, and show you that allying with the Stolen Throne might yet be most fruitful."

  Shiv cast a thought at Adam. “You know, if this one left, I might feel more comfortable.”

  “Agreed,” the Gate Lord replied.

  Tulveg ultimately didn't need to say anything. The vampire gave Shiv a look, and that was all. He was staying here until they managed to claim Hawgrave's grandson, which was going to make things awkward, considering they were temporarily allied with the Giantsbane.

  That made him start mapping out potential conflicts within their group, and that immediately gave him a headache. Beyond Tulveg's coming clash with Hawgrave, there was Uva and Hawgrave, there was Hawgrave and Roland, there was Shiv and Hawgrave, there was Shiv and the Educator, the Educator and everyone else. Five was a potential mana bomb waiting to go off. And then there were the orcs, who were planning something messed up. Shiv could feel it.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  And that’s not even getting into whatever the hells Udraal is doing. Holy shit, I’m in a rat-nest of danger…

  Ultimately, the only people he could truly rely on were Adam, Uva, maybe the Starhawk, and, begrudgingly, Roland Arrow.

  Right. Gotta include my own clash with the Town Lord. I still need to kick his ass at some point. Don’t want to kill him, but we need to get that fight out of our systems. No point in leaving this grudge unsettled. We’re both going to be facing worse shit real soon…

  So far, that seemed like everyone. But then Shiv winced as he realized they still had a few people trapped within the Educator's Tome. He couldn't reach Rebis, didn't even know what his actual condition was, and Threshold was out of his reach as well, not that he had any idea if his strange half-sibling would be willing to offer them any sort of assistance. And then there was—

  “HEY, GUYS!”

  A large shadow blanketed Shiv and Adam. Both of them spun on their heels, expecting an ambush.

  What they received instead was a crushing hug delivered by a convergence of twelve massive hydra heads.

  "Boys, oh boys," Solzimort said cheerily, his many heads wriggling with passionate affability against Shiv and Adam. "It's been too long. We've been super busy, but we finally managed to get our pranks done for all our orc friends.”

  The Legendary 12-headed monster was still partially submerged in the ground, and Adam choked as he was pressed closer against Shiv. The Deathless blinked, uncertain on how to react. He slowly patted one of Solzimort's heads. "Yeah, nice to see you too. Wait, Solzimort, where were you? What did the orcs have you do?"

  "Nothing, really," the many heads said at once. "We just moved some money from one house to another, or maybe from five houses to eight. It's very confusing. We stole a bunch of little things."

  "What?” Adam wheezed, forcing both word and wind out of his compressed lungs. "What little things?"

  "You know, like trinkets and lockets and safes and pictures from dead people’s boxes beneath those nice buildings. Then we dropped them in other dead boxes. And people got really mad trying to get them back. They got into lots of fights with each other. They tried breaking into each other's houses, and they were very mean."

  "Very mean?" Adam was still confused, and Shiv wasn't sure what the hydra was talking about either.

  This was when one of the orcs broke; Tequila doubled over, slapping his left knee as he began to wheeze with laughter. "It's incredible. You'll love this, Insul. Just wait—just wait for him to explain! Tell him, Solzimort. Tell him what we told you.”

  Solzimort nodded passionately. "So, you know how humans like to be put into holes with things they owned when they stop living?"

  "Uh-huh," Shiv said slowly, unsure if he was going to actually like where this was going.

  "So, we reached into their holes, and we took some of their armor, paintings, a bunch of stuff that I just told you about, and we moved them to other holes in other houses. And then the people there got super angry at each other! They said the things belonged to their houses. And then they started accusing each other of, uh, grave robbing? And then they started killing each other." Solzimort let out a slight whine. "It was very distressing. We got away after that. We don't understand why it's really that funny, though. Maybe we are simply not smart like the orcs."

  Shiv was speechless for a few moments. "They had you steal a bunch of heirlooms from the private mausoleums of nobles and switch them between specific noble houses to start blood feuds and house wars?"

  Adam was gagging. The orcs were nearly on their knees from laughter.

  "The amount of death in the past few days, it was incredible, Insul. I can't believe you didn't notice at all." Tequila was wheezing with laughter so hard he began tearing up. Huge tears rolled down his ugly orc face, and even Whisper was having a hard time staying upright, clutching his stomach as if he had sustained a severe wound.

  "Anyway," Solzimort said, bumping Shiv and Adam even tighter together. "What were we talking about?"

  "We were talking about if anyone wanted to leave before the actual struggle started," Adam managed. He was on the verge of choking, his face was red, and Shiv pushed back against Solzimort to give his friend some room.

  "Leave? Why would we?" Solzimort let out an even louder whimper. "Have we been bad?"

  "No," Shiv said. "No, you haven't. Frankly, Solzimort, I think you should stick closer to me and Adam now, you know, just to make sure you can have more good influence."

  “And that’s you?” Mortar asked. “Insul. Maybe you can say that about your little hawk, but you are no angel either.”

  “But I’m not an orc,” Shiv said, baring his teeth at the heavyset brute. “I choose my cruelty. Can you ever say the same thing? Can you ever dominate your own nature?”

  And suddenly, the orcs’ collective amusement lost some momentum as they all shared a contemplative look.

  Sage of the Enkindled Heart 115 > 117

  Once more, he wasn't sure why a Legendary-Tier Hydra had the naivety and the intelligence of a particularly small child. Shiv was quickly moving towards the 'because the Ascendants experimented on Solzimort in a fucked-up way' explanation more and more.

  “Alright, now that we're clear on who's going and who's staying, then I’m going to ask you all to get ready for a few things. Some of you might be asked to enter a Temporal Gate. It’s not a trap—though we’re going to have to risk trusting the Giantsbane. We’re currently doing a deal with her. Can’t say there aren’t any risks, but I don’t think we’re getting out of the capital quarantine without her. As for the rest of you, get ready for a fight. We’ll probably be heading into the Tutorial soon. I’m going to have to deal with the Culturist first—and before you ask, no, I got no clue how that’s going to go.”

  “Aw, Insul, stop pretending to be coy in front of the soft meats.” Mortar guffawed. “Of course you know what’s coming. Of course you do. The Culturist will be interested in trying you out. And there’s always gonna be blood when you try out. But we’re sure you’ll find a way to amuse the old Extro. We got faith in you.”

  “You guys are going through the gateway first when we head to the Tutorial.” Shiv scoffed. “And Candles will be right behind you in case anything funny happens too quickly.”

  Candles began seizing from sheer ecstasy. “Uhhghghh, ohahhha, burning orcs. Love the scent. Loovvvvee…”

  “System and all the pieces of the Broken Moon,” Adam breathed. “Why does it sound like the idea is getting him—”

  “Don’t felling ask questions we don’t wanna know the answer to, Adam,” Shiv muttered. “Right. We’ll get ourselves across to Gate Piety first. Then, we’re getting the orcs together so we can hit our next stop—the Outside.”

  “The Outside,” Kura gawked in horror. “Our destinations are one nightmarish hell and then another. Can we not visit a supple world of gentle fields, pleasant waters, and easy victims?”

  “Well, we’re going to be chucking a talking chunk of bread back into the Summer Court eventually, so you can look forward to a trip over to the Fairwoods.”

  If there was an expression for someone having second thoughts, Kura's face was exactly that.

  "Hey, Deathless and dipshits," Jessica called out. “You too, Lesser Roland.”

  “Don’t call me that,” Adam hissed.

  Jessica ignored him. "You guys done? Finished with your pep rally out here? If you are, come back in. We're gonna need a Chronomancer, just in case. Maybe one of those two." Jessica waved her sword at Kura and Gone. "Doesn't matter, one of them anyway, just so that we can stabilize the gate’s internal temporal mana. Once we decide on that and the Enchanter gets himself a new pair of pants, we’ll be able to get this time gate thing going.

  ***

  "Alright, so, this is how things are going to go,” Jessica announced. “I don't need to cut things out, I'll just make Rusty big enough to swallow the entire room. Everything will fold into the gate, and that's where they'll stay until things are done or someone wants to come out."

  "And you said there is an Avatar of Maiden inside there?" Five asked, sounding dubious about the whole plan. "Are we certain that she remains inactive?"

  "Nope," Jessica said immediately. "My guess is that she’s probably not active, since Maiden hasn’t contacted me, and she usually does that when her Avatar with me wakes up. But who knows with her? And that's why I think one of you Legends should go in—one of the Chronomancers, anyway. You'll be able to disable and break the Avatar before it actually becomes a problem. Maiden’s a lot of things, but a warrior she is absolutely not."

  "This plan tastes more sour than poisoned blood by the moment," Kura muttered, grimacing.

  Shiv regarded the elf and took on an inquisitive expression. "Actually, Kura, I think you should go in."

  "What? Are you planning to remove me? To trap or slay me? Is that it?" Kura sneered at the Deathless, but he could see the naked fear spilling out from behind her eyes. Her paranoia was brutal, and it made her Chronomancy erratic. Golden aura flickered around her as the beginnings of a chrono-clone began to form, hinting at her readiness to escape if necessary.

  "No," Shiv said. "I just think you have the best odds against Maiden in a fight. You can tear her apart with an army of clones. Also, the gate apparently doesn't stop mana from passing in and out, so you might be able to send clones out across the gate while staying inside. That lets you break contact with whatever the hells we might encounter in the Tutorial or the Outside, and lets you stay useful as well. It’s not great, but frankly, it might be the safest place we got if things really get bad."

  The ritually scarred elf still seemed dubious, and her body vibrated with the essence of doubt. Shiv decided to counter that with raw honesty.

  "Kura, if I was going to kill you, I'd tell you straight, and I'd try to end you directly. We've already gotten bloody before. I don’t need to use a scheme to finish this. If we’re going to get violent, I’ll do it properly. And you’ll see me coming.”

  All at once, her vibrating doubt ceased, and her jaw hardened. She remembered how she'd tried to take his life, how he'd spared her. And she gave him a resolute nod. "So you say. Fine. I will heed this suggestion of yours, Deathless. But if anything should happen—”

  “You can take it up with me. Directly."

  There was no fear in Shiv, and the elf stood defiant as well. He had nearly taken her life once, and another confrontation would likely be in his favor once more, but she could have learned from their battle. She could have a new strategy. She was far more flexible than he was in terms of what her skill could do, but she lacked offensive capability. If she couldn’t breach his Pillar of Orichalcum and Shapeless Tides, she had no hope of victory.

  Magic was not an easy solution against Shiv anymore.

  "Gonna be her then," Jessica said, casually waving her blade at Kura. The elf ducked out of the way and cursed something Shiv couldn't parse at the other legend. The Giantsbane didn't even seem to care. "Unless she has second thoughts later. I'm not their owner. It’s up to them."

  “Uh,” a meek voice squeaked from behind Jessica. Shiv saw Merrielmel slowly approaching them, taking shuffling footsteps to drag out his approach. The bald elf was sweating so much that his tassel-like robes were slick with dripping liquid. A few of his drones hovered around his body, blowing air onto his face, offering an extended straw while holding a cold beverage, trying to keep him calm and sedated.

  "We have also come to a decision." Merrielmel fidgeted with his hands and tried to find a comfortable stance. He failed. He grimaced, swallowed, and then swallowed again before swallowing a third time and coughing weakly.

  "Holy shit, you are one anxious guy, aren't you?" Jessica muttered. "Just get it out. I'm not going to kill you. Or I might, but you won't be able to stop me anyway."

  Merrielmel began to shake again. His eyes were wide, and Shiv could practically taste the ironclad chain of fear snaking out from him, burrowing into Jessica.

  "Hey, Giantsbane," Shiv said, slightly annoyed at Jessica's bullying. "He already wet one pair of pants. If he does another, you're giving him your pants.”

  She leaned over backward to glare at him upside down. "Really? Are you going to make me?"

  "No, you're going to do it willingly because you're not a piece of shit. Stop treating people like garbage. You're a Legend. That should mean something. The hells is wrong with you, treating him like he’s some kind of bug?"

  "He's with the Neath," Jessica said, scoffing. "Why do you care about what happens to him?"

  "Because he's not with the Neath. The Neath is using him, just like the Neath is using me, just like the Neath is using all of us. It's not up to him. He's trying to find his brother. He's in a bad situation. Get off his back."

  And suddenly Jessica's body rattled as well. A surge of doubt crawled through her, and she seemed to sober up. "Ah, shit." She shook her head. "Sorry about that. I guess I got carried away a little." She paused, looked down at the ground, seeming actually ashamed. "Hey kid" Jessica stared at him. "Thanks, that's… I probably needed that adjustment.”

  "You're welcome," Shiv replied awkwardly. He didn't expect things to turn out that way. Jessica was taking his criticism with far more maturity than he expected. Usually, when he challenged another Legend, there was a lot more cock-waving. Maybe Maia’s presence was influencing her even more than he'd thought.

  Gardener of Doubt: She's heartbroken, unbalanced. This is not how she usually acts. This is how she asserts control over a situation to give herself some comfort. She misunderstood who Merrielmel is as well, but she's coming to know who you are. And she might be coming to appreciate it.

  She wasn't the only one. Adam clapped Shiv on the back and leaned up. "Good going," he said.