“Some tea?”

“Oh, thank you.”

“So, this Trinne of yours?”

Nay scratched the back of her head. Where to begin with that?

“She was a, well there is no other way to say it, she was a pain in my arse, a Jivynn, when we were younger. Even now she can still act like one on occasion, I’ll admit she is very…confident about herself. She and another of the kids…” Nay paused, thinking back on Massimo and his tragic end on the Plateau. “…well they were my self-proclaimed rivals. Massimo especially, Trinne mainly just wanted to humiliate me and show me how better she was than me. Or maybe she wanted to show off.”

“Was she bullying you?”

“Pretty much. Even though it was mostly her underlings and not her personally. In any case, time passed, and I realized that if she acted like that…well, it was because of her father. She acted better than everyone because he only saw her as some object in his possession. She wasn’t recognized as human in his eyes. She wanted to be recognized, and when I did, we became fast friends.”

“That’s…quite atrocious. If I could just find this father of hers and hit him a bit…”

Trayx interrupted Doria. “Oh, you can. He is here, after all. Nay killed him. Well she, Trinne and Yaesha.”

“I won’t hit a soul!” Doria exclaimed, scandalized.

“What’s the difference, by the way?” Nay asked. “Between a soul and a spirit?”

Trayx drank some of his tea before answering. “The first is the purest form of the intrinsic someone, void of good or evil, it is what constitutes a person, what he was, is, and could have been. All his actions, whether good or bad, have been cleaned by his death. The second is the remains of a human that has abandoned his humanity. His actions cannot extract themselves from his soul, they continue after his death, preventing him from entering this place. It is a monster, a result chosen deliberately by the spirit, to stay between life and death.”

Conversation in the centre of an apple tree orchard.

“You slept with your sister.”

“Erm?”

Trinne smacked her forehead and closed her eyes. “You sleep with me, you slept with your sister. Or at least, you were very close to her when you slept. Maybe your power is, I don’t know, relaxed, when you sleep? It becomes a power, and not your power, free to touch others? That’s the best explanation I’ve got.”

Nay and Trinne were having breakfast in their tent. The daylight was entering, but it was barely there considering the thick jungle, they had had to turn on the oil lamp to have enough light.

“Ah. That’s what you meant. Well, yes. If it was just people close to me, there would have been more infected.”

“You’re not a walking plague Nay. Many people would be very interested in gaining powers and…well, almost everyone would, actually. Biach, biach, biach.”

“I’m not counting to get in anyone’s bed. And I suppose one or twice is not enough, or my parents would have been infected as well.”

“Most likely.” Trinne nodded. “I barely have a sliver of magic, despite having been with you for a year now. But there are people who wouldn’t hesitate to…I am especially glad you are the best swordswoman in the world.”

“I am not the best swordswoman in the world.”

Trinne put her two elbows on the table, stopping from eating for a second to think. She had already gone through most of the jungle mushrooms scrambled eggs that Nay had prepared, and there was a very decent baker in the encampment that made grain bread that perfectly accompanied Nay’s dish. The Legio was happy to see her friend with appetite. She herself felt still a bit woozy after the miracle of the Door she had created the day before.

“The biggest issue is Hyn. And Valassian, albeit not as bad. You showed your phantom miracle to everyone, it won’t please our esteemed ex-Sovereign.” She had finished her sentence with a biting tone.

Nay raised her fork in opposition. “About that, I don’t believe they realized I was responsible. The jungle is known for doing weird things, we just have to say it was a random event.”

Trinne shook her head left and right. “That is way too suspicious. But…if we mix it with the truth, it could work. Valassian understood quite well that I was Touched, so we’ll confirm it. Then we’ll add that yesterday’s darkness was created because of the jungle, but in reaction to my power. Many miracles have strange effects inside the jungle. Well, that’s what we’ll tell Valassian but…my first mission is a failure, though…” She sighed. “I’ll have to go to the Cathedral immediately.”

“You really think you’ll be locked up there?”

Trinne pierced the soft eggs with her fork.

“Mhh. I would say it’s a fifty-fifty chance. If my efforts paid, I could use this to my advantage. In any case, we still have the issue with Hyn. No way we could lie to her, she won’t be fooled. She knows about Lisana, then me…”

“Well, what if we did nothing?”

Trinne looked at the girl with cloudy eyes. “What?”

“She can’t do anything, can she? It’s not like she’ll realize how I share my power, she’ll most likely deduce it is linked to the Rreico training we share. Maybe she’ll try to reduce your freedom, but there isn’t any real reason to do that. Your phantom miracle isn’t exactly dangerous, except for your own safety if you get run down on a road. But I am there, and I just need to touch you for it to stop.”

“You just need to touch me, eh?”

Nay grimaced, throwing a piece of bread towards her face, but the redhead easily dodged it. “I am being serious here.” The Legio said.

Trinne sighed. “And I’m hearing you. It isn’t a bad idea, you’re not wrong. Well, except on one important point.”

“Ah?”

“I am extremely dangerous with this power. If I use it, I could give the Carradin assassin a run for his money. Let’s skip the irony of me, the charismatic, beautiful duchess of Gite, obtaining a power to make myself invisible. Except it’s much more powerful than that. I could write something on a piece of paper, hit someone, no one will notice. The one that got hit will simply hold his cheek, wondering why it hurts. That’s how bad this is. I tried it all.”

Nay lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“Shut up. In any case, it is the perfect power for an assassin. If anyone dies in a mysterious fashion, I’ll be first on the list of suspects. Hyn could easily blame me for any murder, anyone, really. That is quite the hassle.”

“But…you can’t control your phantom miracle! It’ll take you years to begin to…” Nay countered.

“I may not be able to choose when I become invisible, but it’s quite easy to say that I just waited for the right moment to occur. You just have to make sure that I don’t have an alibi at the time of the murder.”

Nay didn’t answer this time. Of course, even if she stayed with her friend, no one would believe her word. Right now, her friend’s power was hindering her.

“Can’t we just…no. Valassian would have guessed the nature of your power. Ahhh…just like you said, biach.” The Legio swore.

Trinne finished her meal for a few minutes before finally continuing. “It isn’t that bad, only a minor issue, I would say. I just need to have alibis. It is extra work, that I really would have liked to avoid, but I can handle it. In any case, I am a Touched, and we have short-term solutions for what happened yesterday. Now, you. What happened in the jungle?”

Nay bit down on her bread slice before starting her adventurous tale through the jungle and the calm sea of Trayx.

“And you’ve never seen the third place before? A church in the middle of the snow?”

“It was a Hi Blizzard, I’m sure of it. And no, I’ve never gone there.”

Trinne hummed in thought.

“Marke and Vestigio died in the two first…Is it the death of a Legio master?” She thought out loud.

“That’s what I concluded too, and if it’s…”

Trinne raised a hand to stop her. “And how is that important? A Legio dying has happened quite often in the past, why do those two events differ from the ones before? Because that’s what Trayx said, right? That his power lets him see places where important events occur.”

Nay opened her mouth, then closed it back again, deep in thought.

“…Because they were the last Legios?” She tried.

Trinne shook her head no. “There should be four locations then. If you die in the third, what about Lisana? She can perceive Rreico already, she’ll become a master Legio. Also, that would imply that I’ll never become a master Legio as well, and I’d rather bathe in Gite’s moats than accept such a thing. I didn’t spend a year to train for nothing.”

The corner of Nay’s lips rose.

Trinne continued: “So, it isn’t related to the death of Legios. There is a second common denominator, a bit obvious, but I don’t see why it would be important either.”

“Ah?”

“Well…you. You were at those places.”

“Oh.” Nay blinked, a bit taken aback. This was something the two first scenes had in common, but why those specifically? Because they had been determinant for the young girl with cloudy eyes? That would mean that things that were important to her, were as important as an event like the end of the Firante war. Nay didn’t really believe that. “No, that doesn’t make sense.”

“I agree. I think we’re missing something. In any case, you shouldn’t worry about it. He said it himself, whatever it is, we can’t avoid it, and that’s in the case you’re linked to those places in the first place. Really, maybe we’ll never even be in this ice cathedral.

“With a Hi Blizzard outside? It’s a church in the Unbroken Ones, that is linked to the Legios somehow, and I won’t be there?” Nay believed that even less.

Trinne shrugged. “Who knows. Weirder things have happened. You saw a giant deer walking on thin branches thirty meters above the ground.”

“I think I’ll be there.”

“Me too, but what I mean is that we can’t change it, and that it won’t be the place where you die, almost certainly not. In any case, go on, what did he ask you next? He did say two favours, right?”

Nay nodded. “He told me not to refuse Hyn’s second mission for me.”

Trinne blinked in surprise. “Wha…? He wants you to help Hyn? What does it matter to him?”

“I’m not sure, but, I think he wants the same thing she does.”

“Which is?”

“The second mission will be to assassinate someone.”

Trinne grimaced. “Hyn knows that you’ll never agree to something like that. As a last resort, maybe you would, but to prepare an assassination is nothing like that.”

“I know. But he said I was the only one who could do it, and that because of him, the target, hundreds of souls were hurting.”

“It is a him?” Cogs began turning in the head of the duchess.

“That’s what Trayx said. According to him, the man I’m supposed to kill isn’t even a man anymore. It is a monster that abandoned all of his humanity. He also told me that I didn’t have to finish the mission, just to give it a shot, see by myself.”

“…So Trayx is convinced that you’d kill Hyn’s target if you met him.”

The Legio nodded.

“I do have an idea about who it could be. Three, actually, but one is much more likely than the others.”

“Ah?”

“The devourer seems the most obvious target.”

Nay stopped moving. She had seen what the worst criminal in Empire history had left behind, in this little village of Striavie. More than the image of it, it was the Rreico of the place that had profoundly traumatized her. The devourer was someone who did the worst, and was doing it constantly.

“That…that seems logical. A God-Touched that fell into madness, and used his Jormun miracle to do whatever he wants. Just to know, what would be the two other targets?”

Trinne had an eyebrow raised, looking slightly worried. She knew what Nay had seen, had heard it from her. She took a moment before answering.

“Mh. Captain Harbetouche for one.”

“The Tréchuite pirate.”

“The one and the same. He is destabilizing the region around Mov, Moriana and Shell a lot. And, it is a well-known secret, but he’s the one really in charge of the Trechuite pirates as a whole. To murder him would help to focus all of our efforts against the Carradin invasion.”

“I would never accept such a mission. I won’t let Legios become vulgar Assinis, especially if it is just for political reasons.”

Trinne nodded. “I agree, I don’t think that’s it. The third idea I had is that Hyn would send you to kill Valamut Shroediker, king of Mindor.”

Nay would never have guessed that one. “The king of Mindor? And how would I do that?” The Legio didn’t imagine herself crossing the west Plains ocean to reach Carradinoris, then the Mindor Clan, then Valamut himself, all of that in one piece.

“Yes, I know. But if there was a way somehow, he is a very obvious assassination target. He sent someone to kill the Imperatrix, she does the same to him. But that mission would be way too dangerous, with too many uncertainties. It is an idea, but I don’t think it is a realistic one.

—And…would it stop the war? The Mindor clan is the most aggressive one towards us, but there are other clans that want to invade us, no?”

“True, but without the Mindor clan, there is no Blue Tower.”

“Ah.” Nay had forgotten that it was the Mindor clan that controlled the largest mage academy in the world. According to rumours, there were three times as many God-Touched in the Blue Tower than in the Empire in its entirety. The Legio wiped her eyes. Conversations on geopolitics and military operations were always quickly fatiguing her.

Trinne rose to her feet. “Well, we have a discussion to have with our dear priest of Patrex. I’m combing my hair and we’re off to meet him.”

The Legio nodded before remembering something.

“Oh yeah, you’ve been invited to the calm sea of Trayx.”

The young redhead turned to face Nay, looking at her with a weird expression. “Erm…great? No thank you?”

“Not like that…” Nay shook her head. “…to speak with Trayx and Doria. I talked to them about you.”

Trinne didn’t answer, but her Rreico was full of turning cogs.

Nay waited for her friend to think and prepare, and finished her own breakfast slowly.

Horick Valassian’s Rreico was doubtful, but he seemed more annoyed than anything.

“Are you certain that you’ll have to take the train to Leïn today? Miss Diamond, I am fundamentally overjoyed that a God has given you his love, but the changes you brought have improved our worker’s mood considerably. We still need to…”

“I wrote down every improvement I could think of in this…” Trinne interrupted him, pointing towards a little pile of papers she had put down on the large centre table of the old circus tent. A few of the worksite representatives, as well as the chief engineer Lockier, were present with them, but they hadn’t been there when Trinne had explained the effects of her power to the priest, as well as how it had supposedly darkened the jungle as a side-effect.

“…but you know just as well as I do that no one can avoid the law of the Cathedral. I have to go to the capital to begin my training as a God-Touched apprentice.”

Nay didn’t miss the satisfied look on Tarrin’s face. The engineer wiped away some sweat with his yellowy tissue to hide his expression, but he had done that too late. He met Nay’s gaze, and sat down a bit straighter on his chair.

The priest Valassian sighed. “I know. This rule is from a different time. It showed many limits and in many cases brought…”

“I am aware, Horick. I myself have fought for it to be abolished.”

Nay was feeling relieved. Horick Valassian wasn’t entirely convinced by their lie, but it didn’t seem like he cared about the two women’s secrets. He was mainly interested in the good running of the worksite. The chief engineer wasn’t showing so much professionalism. Nay knew she would need to speak to Trinne about it, and report it to the ex-Imperatrix as well.

“I see.” Horick took the pile of papers left by the Imperatrix’ Jewel. “I will read them carefully, miss Diamond.”

“Thank you. I put a lot of effort to write time when…when my phantom miracle came to me. I don’t think all are feasible but I trust you’ll apply those that are the fittest to help.”

Tarrin Lockier raised his voice, looking slightly offended. “Wait, I am this operation’s chief! I should be the one…”

Trinne didn’t let him finish. “Not for long. I and my colleague miss Ruby have decided to make our dear priest of Patrex the next worksite chief. The change should be official a few days after we came back to Leïn, but you may consider your position one of a simple engineer as of today anyway.” The redhead had no pity in her voice at all.

Nay didn’t remember speaking about a decision about Tarrin at any point, but, she was going to tell Trinne to do something exactly like that after the meeting, so she let her friend do her power play move.

“I…I…” Tarrin’s expression fell completely.

“On that subject, you do not have the rank to participate in these meetings anymore, if you could go back to your work, please.” Trinne had said the word ‘work’ with a questioning emphasis. As if to ask, ‘do you have a job here, really?’.

“No! You can’t, I…my family…!”

“Fjörd!” Horick shouted the name of one of the guards in front of the tent. A man in his thirties, void of magic but wearing a very well-maintained armour, entered. “Yes my priest?”

“Accompany engineer Tarrin to his quarters, if you please. We’ll decide about his role here later.”

“You…you can’t…” Tarrin seemed to deflate completely, but he let himself be led outside without more protests.

Nay saw that everyone around the table, some more obviously than others, was expressing satisfaction at seeing the chief engineer get dismissed.

“Thank you, miss Diamond.” Horick nodded at her.

Trinne’s right eyebrow rose. “For what? I am not doing this to please you, or I would have brought him back to Leïn. He has some expertise that could be useful in the work here. You shall make sure he still provides it. Everything needs to be done to finish the construction of the Emperor’s railroad, as soon as possible.”

“It shall be done.”

Nay felt Trinne’s Rreico, and she rose to her feet first, putting herself behind her friend.

“I think our trip here is ending, well before its supposed time, unfortunately. I hope everything will go smoothly.”

Everyone rose after her. “Of course, miss Diamond. I hope your apprenticeship will go smoothly and briefly too. We need all our Jewels for the times that come. Miss Ruby…” Horick Valassian was still a bit afraid of her, but Nay acted as if she didn’t notice it.

“I hope to see you again, priest Valassian.”

“Mh. As do I.” His voice was terse.

And Nay and Trinne exited the tent.

“Next train is in two hours. We need to pack, and I still need to have a word with the chief woodcutter. You?” Trinne asked.

“Just my things. I’ll accompany you to the worksite.”

“You don’t have t…” The redhead paused. “All right, let’s go right now, then.”

Two hours later, they were going back to Leïn. The brown and sombre outside changed into sunny hillsides, then fields of wheat that seemed to never end.

Nay couldn’t wait to see her family again.