Ian stared down at Zilverna’s body, the young man’s chest slowly rising and falling. Judith’s corpse lay next to him, her eyes still open.

With a sigh, Ian closed her eyes and stood up. He gave the two bodies a final contemplative look before shaking his head and kicking off the ground. The bat constructs, bone chain, and Bluebird followed him. As Ian sped over the dunes, he sent the bones into his void storage while keeping Bluebird on alert for other assailants.

“Ian!” Euryphel’s thoughts came through over quantum channel.

Guess I exited the area of disruption, Ian noted. “Eury, I dealt with the assailants. How long did I take?”

“Too long. I...” The prince trailed off for a moment. “You weren’t answering me for a solid five minutes. I’m glad nothing happened to you.”

“Me too, though I think we must’ve caused a stir. There are definitely going to be authorities investigating our battle over the desert, but I’m already a mile away from the battlezone. They won’t find me before I hopefully disappear.”

“Good. I don’t see anything bad happening in the next minute.”

Ian flew forward for three more minutes before Euryphel stopped him. “There are some people up ahead; stop using Death energy.”

Time to switch to the mannequin, Ian thought, pulling out his void storage and withdrawing the necromantic construct with a huff. Like before, he settled his head in the crook of its neck and wrapped his arms around its torso as the wooden figure took off low to the sands.

When Ian wielded raw Death energy to fly, his practice shone like a torch to anyone with vital vision. In contrast, the mannequin wouldn’t show any outward Death energy signature at all. From a distance, nothing about Ian would seem suspicious while riding the construct, other than the fact that he was a single person in the middle of the desert at night in the freezing winter chill.

Not going to lie, that sounds suspicious, but thankfully I’m just about to cross into civilization. A random person walking around town is much less likely to garner attention. Sure enough, after only thirty seconds, Ian encountered a cluster of houses and a hovergloss rail.

With Euryphel’s assistance, Ian evaded detection all the way to the coast. He rode the mannequin over the ocean until the buildings on the shore were difficult to distinguish. Once Euryphel gave the go-ahead, Ian swapped the wooden construct for a slimmed-down bone wyrm, his arms bracing against the bone ridge behind its neck. He sent the wyrm speeding forward like lightning, employing Bluebird to make a small energy shield to diffuse the wind.

After what seemed like an eternity of Euryphel telling him to slightly adjust his trajectory, Ian finally spotted a small boat that was uncannily similar to the dinghy from the Infinity Loop. Given its location on the open ocean, the vessel had clearly been delivered to its present location by a larger craft.

In one fluid motion, Ian disassembled the wyrm and spun forward, landing lightly on the ship’s floor and causing it to just barely rock.

Euryphel blinked, seemingly unfazed by his arrival.

“Hi,” Ian said blankly, his breath condensing into a pale cloud.

The prince shook his head and took in a deep breath, his tied hair flailing behind him. “Ignatius Julian Dunai, you are late.”

“Sorry.”

Euryphel’s expression twisted. “Ian, today has been a very bad day.”

Ian nodded. “Yes.”

The prince turned away and gazed down at the dark water. “I’m worried it’s only going to get worse.”

The boat was small enough that the prince was already within reach. Ian pulled him into a side hug.

“Thank you,” Ian whispered. “You chose the path of most resistance, all to save someone who’s bound to disappear. There’s little I can give you.” Ian let out a rough chuckle. “I’m undeserving, but I’ll take it.”

Euryphel shrugged out of his embrace, his expression severe. “You...you’re so...” The prince groaned. “You’re an idiot. A smart idiot, but it’s fine.”

Ian raised an eyebrow.

Euryphel gave him a knowing look in return, pointing to a small black bag on one of the boat’s plank seats. “We’ve dallied enough. You need to put this on.”

Ian grabbed the bag and unzipped it, peering inside. “It’s dark; what do I need to do, exactly?”

“There’s a wetsuit with an in-built pressure regulator as well as a breathing filter,” Euryphel explained, tugging down his jacket to reveal a sleek, black material covering his chest. “No expense was spared to send us safely to the rift. There’s supposedly a heat vent that would pose a problem for a more conventional oxygen tank approach, and the extreme depths of the trench required...”

“What?”

“You’re not even listening,” Euryphel said, sighing dramatically.

“Look, I’m going to put the equipment on and dive into the water. I trust you that it works.”

Euryphel grunted. “Fair enough.”

Ian disrobed, shivering terribly in the winter cold. Euryphel had the sense to shelter the boat from the wind, but Ian was beyond thankful when he finally pulled on the last of the skintight suit.

“It’s on; now what?”

Euryphel reached behind his head and tugged a loose part of the suit over his head. As he did so, it began to change shape, covering even his eyes and mouth. He grabbed a small ovular apparatus from a black bag of his own, placing it over his mouth. Ian thought it looked a bit like a pacifier, but a moment later it, too, began to change shape, seeming to melt and reform around Euryphel’s jaw.

“You can’t speak with this on,” the prince explained over quantum channel. “That won’t be a problem for us, thankfully.”

Ian nodded and reached back behind his head for the wetsuit hood. Soon he was fully outfitted and ready to dive.

“Shall we?” Ian asked, gesturing his head toward the water. “What’ll happen to this boat?”

The prince nodded. “Into the depths. Both it, and us; it’s set to fall apart in two hours.”

The prince tensed his legs, then dove off the side of the vessel, torpedoing himself forward with a gust of wind. The boat rocked violently, Ian nearly falling overboard.

Way to make it a competition. Ian launched himself into the water...and conferred with Bluebird.

“Hey, can you help me go faster underwater?”

“Why of course, Iggy!”

Without further warning, Bluebird slammed into Ian’s back and began to push him in the direction he was pointing–down.

“Hey, wait a second!” the prince protested. “Using a glosSword is totally cheating.”

Ian changed his trajectory, circling back up to Euryphel.

“Hop on,” he said. “Bluebird will make room.”

Euryphel swam over; Bluebird disengaged from Ian’s back, allowing Euryphel to hug Ian’s shoulders.

“You ready?” Ian asked.

“Ugh, now that I know what’s going to happen, yes.”

Ian snorted inwardly and gave Bluebird the signal, the glosSword sending out an anterior jet of energy to boost the two men forward, crushing Euryphel against Ian’s back.

“This...is uncomfortable,” Euryphel transmitted.

“We’ll get there faster this way,” Ian said.

A few minutes passed. Even with Bluebird assisting they moved slower in water than on land. The deeper they went, the greater the pressure the duo felt, the pressure-regulating function of the suit straining.

It probably doesn’t help that we’re descending so fast, Ian thought.

“Bluebird, that’s all for now. We’ll take it from here.”

They proceeded onward at a much slower pace, but the suits seemed to be able to handle and adjust to the pressure and changing oxygen levels much better. Ian hadn’t even noticed that he’d been growing light-headed from lack of oxygen until they slowed down.

“It should be close,” Euryphel said, a blocky, ultra-tough-looking glossY held in hand. Instead of creating a shallow projection against the surface pane, it had an inset screen that allowed them to see a clear image even underwater. The screen currently showed their current depth and coordinates along with the rift’s supposed location.

They descended another fifty feet before Euryphel stopped them. “There’s a heat vent just below; follow me exactly, it’ll destroy your suit if you get caught in it.”

“Following.”

They skirted around the vent, the ambient heat perceptible even through the insulated suits. Only a few feet further and they saw it: an opening of iridescent blue-green darkness, nearly invisible in the lightless fathoms. The aperture was about as tall as two men and twice as wide.

“This is it,” Ian observed. “Ready?”

“I can’t see...” Euryphel murmured. “We’re going in completely blind, wonderful. Y’jeni, what an exciting day we’ve both had.”

“Should I go first?”

“No–together.”

The two practitioners swam forth, standing just before the entrance. With a shared nod, they both kicked forward...and entered the rift.

—

Maria sighed into her glass of sparkling wine. The festivities were in full swing since the SPU accepted surrender just over five minutes before, but she knew their celebration was premature.

Until we get Dunai, it’s not over.

She understood why the other ministers wanted to mark the moment with celebration–what was one lone practitioner against the entire might of Selejo, especially now that they had the SPU’s cooperation?

It was Euryphel’s abdication and subsequent disappearance that really put her on edge. The former Crowned Prime wouldn’t have acted without a plan. He wouldn’t throw away his own life and future if Dunai was a sunk bet...which gave Maria the impression that she’d overlooked something.

Suddenly, Judith’s voice came through over quantum channel, saying, “We’ve got him.”

Maria jolted in place. Already? “Judith, where are you?”

“We’re just outside Gredecko Bay,” she replied.

Maria’s hands trembled. So he was in Gnoste.

Judith continued: “We’re setting up a perimeter of the anti-communication arrays you gave me. We’ll be in the dark once they activate, but Dunai will be at a much greater disadvantage without the Crowned Prime feeding him commands.”

“And Zilverna...?”

“He’s still with me. He’s helping to set up the perimeter as well. Don’t worry about us; we’re not planning to engage Dunai directly, just slow him down until reinforcements arrive.”

Maria chewed her lip. The closest reinforcements are probably coming from the ships stationed outside of Godora. They had more agents scattered throughout the East, but not in the numbers necessary to make a difference. Maria wasn’t going to make the mistake of underestimating their foe.

“Judith, be extremely careful,” Maria replied.

“I know. If it gets too dangerous, we’ll abort, but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to stall long enough to nab him.”

“You can try, but prioritize yourselves: Dying won’t help capture Dunai. What will help if you fail to stall him is following him to wherever he’s going, which is a task you and Zilverna should be able to accomplish.”

“Understood.

Maria’s world shrunk to her own thoughts, the party fading to hazy static. She could hear her heart in her ears, feel her pulse in her fingers where they gripped the wine glass.

“They’ll be okay,” Kaiwen whispered, leaning in.

Maria nodded, glancing at the Regret practitioner. “Hopefully this unsavory business will be over by tonight.”

The minutes dragged on. Suddenly, Kaiwen’s form shuddered.

“We should leave,” she said, grabbing Maria’s hand. “Come.”

What!? Maria’s eyes widened, though she fought to keep the panic from her face. Even if she was ignoring the festivities and partygoers, others wouldn’t be ignoring her from where she sat in the dais of honor. She stood up from her seat and pushed in the chair, walking robotically toward a back entrance leading to the restrooms. Kaiwen tugged her through a service door and held her hands tightly.

“Kaiwen...what is it? What have you seen?”

“You’re going to know in a few seconds,” the woman whispered, blinking rapidly.

On the happiest day of Maria’s life, a single carmine arrow sprouted from her chest and plunged into the heart of her child.

Now, before her eyes, that very same arrow just...disappeared. There was no fanfare, no shatter, nothing at all to mark the arrow’s erasure. It was as though the first thing she saw every morning, the last thing she checked every evening...had never existed.

Maria staggered, her eyes welling with tears. She felt as though someone were splitting apart her chest with a crowbar.

“Kaiwen...” she whimpered. “Zilverna.”

Why did I ever send him? Maria wondered. He wanted to go so badly...but I should have said no. She was so bad at putting her foot down, usually because she agreed with her son: He really did need to experience the world, enter combat and face the reality of death. If he was going to rule Selejo one day, he needed to gain that kind of wisdom.

But now...reality hit Maria like a sledgehammer. Who cared if Zilverna took over when she eventually stepped down in old age? She’d gladly sacrifice her current title and all her power if it meant undoing the past and bringing him back.

Kaiwen’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. “Shh...Maria...it’s okay...”

The wetness on Maria’s shoulders belied Kaiwen’s words: She wasn’t the only one who watched Zilverna grow up. Kaiwen was crying almost as hard as she was.

“I would give...anything...to bring him back,” Maria moaned, a terrible heat rising from her stomach to her throat. “Why is this his destiny?”

Suddenly Kaiwen stiffened. She fell backwards onto the floor, stunned. The woman’s lips curled into a grin, her eyes thinning to joyful crescents.

Maria watched in confusion, unable to understand the woman’s change in demeanor.

“He’s back,” Kaiwen exclaimed. “Something brought him back. Just wait, you’ll see.”

Maria took the deepest breath of her life, her eyes welling with new tears of hope. What Kaiwen said didn’t make any sense, but she was willing to cling onto anything at this point.

Maria nearly collapsed when a red arrow materialized in her chest, just over her heart. It was unadorned, lacking the protective oaths she’d placed over it, but she would recognize the arrow anywhere.

She croaked her son’s name. “Zilverna.”

Maria crawled forward and pulled Kaiwen into an embrace, sobbing freely into her shoulder.

“It’s a miracle,” Kaiwen murmured, rubbing Maria’s back. “I’ve never heard of someone coming back once their fate was severed.”

“Me neither,” Maria replied, her mind racing. Could it have been a returned ascendant? But even that made no sense. “If someone intervened to save him...I hope I can find whoever it was and share my gratitude. I...I don’t know what I would have done if he were gone.”

“Judith, though...” Kaiwen sighed, clenching a fist. “Y’jeni.”

Maria nodded. “It’s a grievous loss.” And her family will feel as I did, Maria thought. Along with everyone who has lost someone in this war.

This needs to end. Dunai needs to end.

“The time for celebrating is over,” Maria declared, her face twisting into a grimace. “This war isn’t over until Dunai is dead. Call it all off. I want all the ministers in the eastern hearing room in fifteen minutes.”

Kaiwen gave Maria a curt salute. “Of course.”

Maria took a deep breath and stood up, heading for the bathroom. “First...let’s clean up.”

Neither of them noticed the ends of Maria’s gown go up in cinders, nor the way her passage left the stone floor warped and steaming.