Lilian’s body rippled as she returned to her normal appearance. Angel unwrapped the scarf from his metal arm. Jonas looked between them. As the adrenaline coursing through their veins started to recede, he let out a shaky breath.

“Buried Gods. What in the Barren is going on?” he asked. “I’m not as young as I used to be. I don’t think my heart can handle much more of this. A few days ago, I was thinking about what to buy for breakfast. How did everything fall apart so quickly?”

“At least you’re no longer in prison,” Lilian said.

“I owe you a great deal of thanks for that,” he said, inclining his head. “I thought I was going to die in there.”

“It’s no problem,” Angel replied. “Anything that inconveniences the Reawakening, even a little, is worth our time.”

“Not that we’d object to payment,” Silver said. “Gold is always good. How much would you say your life is worth?”

Jonas snorted. “I’m afraid you saved the wrong man if you were looking for a payout. I don’t have much coin beyond what I carry on me, and those Reawakening bastards took all of it. I plan to get it back, though. Right after I kill every last one of them.”

He spat on the ground. “Your shapeshifting lady told me about the remaining members of Blackstone’s resistance. Where are they?”

“We were hoping you could tell us that,” Angel said. “A little girl apparently knows where they are, and she wouldn’t tell us unless we found you.”

Relief washed over Jonas’ face. “That has to be Valerie, my niece. She’s alive, then?”

“Last we checked she was,” Silver said with a shrug. “You’re surprisingly calm for finding out that you got saved to be used as a bargaining chip.”

“Saved is saved, and I’ve been a prisoner before,” Jonas said with a shrug. “I don’t complain about good fortune when it passes me by. Frankly, so long as those masked fools didn’t kill me in the prison, I suspect I would have escaped anyways. Their security was horrible, and they had too many prisoners. It was just a matter of time. It baffles me that such buffoons managed to take the city.”

His stomach grumbled and Jonas winced. “I haven’t eaten in days. I hate to ask for more, but do any of you have food? I might not need it, but I’d kill to taste something other than blood or my dry mouth.”

Silver dug around in one of his pockets and pulled out a strip of jerky. It was bent and more than a little squished, but Jonas devoured it without a second of hesitation.

“Aren’t you thirsty?” Lilian asked, nodding at the water running at their feet. “You said this was fresh.”

“Relative term,” Jonas said with a dry grimace. “There are filters further down the line. I’m not desperate enough to drink this stuff, and I’ve got a few more days before I’ll need any water anyways. I can make it to a safe spot before quenching my thirst. I’m just glad to be out of my own city’s damn prison.”

“We got lucky that everything went as well as it did. I shudder to think about what would happen if their guards were even half competent,” Angel said.

“I was thinking about that,” Lilian said, adjusting the artifact at her neck to raise her volume. “I think I know why the clones are so ineffective. It’s because of Shield.”

“Explain?” Angel asked.

“I was thinking there were more clones than normal,” Lilian said, scratching the back of her head. “I don’t recall us ever having more than around one hundred, although I’m sure a fair number were scattered around for various tasks. But what we’ve been seeing recently – they’ve got to have numbers in the thousands. Maybe Shield is lowering the quality of the clones he creates in exchange for making more of them.”

“So if we kill this Shield, their entire army vanishes?” Jonas asked.

“It’s easier said than done, but exchanging quality for quantity would explain a lot,” Angel mused. “Lilian, what level was Shield when you last saw him? I also think you mentioned something about him somehow using clones to make himself stronger. Does that mean he’s weaker if he made all of these?”

“If I’m right and he isn’t somehow using some artifact to make himself stronger, then that’s very likely,” Lilian said.

“And you’re certain about this?” Jonas asked. “If you are, all we need to do is kill Shield and we’ll be able to break the siege on the city.”

“Don’t forget about the buried gods,” Silver reminded him. “We’ll have to take care of those somehow as well. They don’t need too many people to run them, so as long as the Reawakening has your people to sacrifice, they’ll be able to run them.”

“They’re doing what now?” Jonas asked, his eyes widening. “Sacrifice?”

“Maybe we can fill you in on the way back,” Angel suggested. “Do you know where a boy called Aaron lived?”

“A few blocks from my house,” Jonas said with a nod. “The channel will put us out a short distance from there. Follow me.”

He set off and the others followed him, the echo of their footsteps splashing through the dark tunnel. Angel filled Jonas in on the Reawakening as they walked, giving him enough information to understand the situation without sharing any of his or the others’ secrets. The channel was largely a single large passage. Every street or so, a thin branch broke away from the main area and headed into the shadows.

After a few minutes, they came across a fork in the channel. Jonas turned down the right path without hesitation.

“Have you traveled these before?” Angel asked. “You seem to know where you’re going.”

“I’m a private in the city guard,” Jonas replied. “We had drills using the channel in case of an invasion or an attack from a monster too large for the city to handle, but I never thought I’d actually be using what we learned.”

“Do you think the rest of the rebellion is down here as well, then?” Angel asked.

“It’s very likely,” Jonas said with a nod. “There’s a reservoir near the center of the mountain that has some heavy defenses. It was our regroup point if anything went wrong, so I’d assume that’s where they’ve gone. It’s in the opposite direction from where we’re heading, though.”

“That’s fine,” Silver said. “We’ve got to regroup anyways. Half of our group is back at the house.”

“Are they all…”

“As handsome as I am?” Silver asked. “No. Not even slightly.”

“They’re talented at what they do,” Angel said, rolling his eyes. “We’ve all got our purposes. Silver’s is to distract the Reawakening while the rest of us do the real work.”

Silver snorted. “Like you don’t thank every god you know that my blade is on your side.”

“Only as long as we’ve got the coin,” Angel pointed out.

“Nah, I figure those blokes have some real expensive shit,” Silver said. “You’ll notice I haven’t asked you about coin recently. I’m tallying up the work I’ve done and I’ll be taking that out of their loot – with interest.”

Jonas shook his head in disbelief. “I’d think you were all full of bluster if you just hadn’t broken me out of a high security prison. Even as incompetent as those guards were, you’ve got some skill. But can you really go against the Buried Gods and the leads of the Reawakening?”

“We’ve done it before,” Lilian said. “They might have power, but not as much as they’d lead everyone to believe. Without the Buried Gods, they can die just like any man. You just need to smash a little machinery in the process.”

“And avoid getting fried by a barrage of plasma or crushed under thousands of clones,” Silver grumbled. “Don’t undersell it. I’m fully expecting some payment for liberating Blackstone, and nobody pays well for an easy job.”