The first thing I heard was the voice of Loi. "We don't have time for this," she snarled. "Either this attack is real, or it isn't, but we have to do something. There is a panic in the city."

"Patience," urged Ulia, her voice was drowned out quickly.

"There is nothing to be patient about! We have to do something. The city is already tearing itself apart, and there are no enemies." I recognized after a minute that Xechi was holding me up and had been shaking me like a doll; my neck hurt, and I had a headache.

The headache, of course, was probably not because of anything on this side.

I made the choice, as I woke up, of trying to stay as calm as possible. I wanted to do something--anything. Right now, my blood was surging, as my power struggled to contain a surge of new energy, and as the two Keys struggled to either merge or coexist within me.

So I raised a hand a placed it on Xechi's arm. "I'm sorry that took a while," I said. "I know it's a bad time."

"You're damn right it is!" Loi had her giant two-handed sword in one hand, pointed at my chest, in a flash, even as Xechi dropped me to the ground. "What the flying fuck is going on around here?"

I looked around--everyone else was gone except the five candidates... and Muir, Xechi's childhood friend. I chose to take a gamble, straightened up a bit, and looked Loi in the eye.

"The Goddess of Blades is dead." The silence that came was deafening, and I raised my hands and backed away a step, realizing that I had just gotten a surge of new power... specifically from taking in the remains of another god. When I took a step, Loi, almost on instinct, stepped towards me, keeping me at blade point. "Before she died... she was planning on making one of you her successor. She asked me to help. It wasn't supposed to happen this way, it was supposed to be later, but... she was killed by an enemy."

"How?" Loi edged the sword closer again, and I backed into the bell, which didn't ring... but also was no longer silenced.

"Murn was not a Vicar," I explained, trying to stay calm in the face of a very much more powerful person than me threatening me with death. "She was the goddess--one of several bodies. So was Pal'lud, and the High Priestess. They were all the same person--all Ciel'ostra. But she was attacked by a necromancer--Murn was. They killed not only Murn, but the goddess."

The six women around me were dumbstruck by the news, and finally, Loi let her sword drop. "She is... dead?"

"It is worse than that. The... her true body is in the temple, and the Necromancer is coming here, to steal it and become a god ...herself." It felt weird to call the Necromancer a woman, but as I recalled, someone had said she was in passing, and I trusted that. "She will use the power she stole from Ciel'ostra to carry their whole army to this city, tonight, soon." I felt my face fall. "Without Ciel'ostra... they will win."

"What can we do?" Chibal, always level-headed, seemed to be turning the problem over in her head. Miana, in her own way, seemed lost in some other problem. Xechi was trembling, and I could tell she was on the edge of losing it. Ulia... was overwhelmed, pure and simple. Loi, as far I could tell, was just in shock.

"One of you must become the new Goddess of Blades." I said this, quietly, in a tone that seemed to wake all five of them from their reverie. "But... you will not be ready to fight, not against a power that could kill the Goddess. We must flee this place and hide until you have regained your strength."

"Flee!?" Ulia shrieked at the thought. "This is our home!"

At that moment, to the south, I could feel an enormous tide of soulflame opening up a portal, and we all spun around at the same moment to look at it. On a hill nearby, well within the outer defenses of the city, a black portal opened up, one that gave off no light in the dark depths of the night, and yet it was starkly visible, hidden from nobody. The five behind me flinched and backed up a step, but more than anyone, I was the one who was scared.

I was running out of time, and this was all on my shoulders.

"Listen," I said, "this is important. Whoever becomes the goddess has to run. She alone cannot, must not, stand and fight. There is a safe place, a sanctuary; I will lead the goddess there myself, but the rest of you must guide whoever you can, protect whoever you can, and lead them there on foot. You will not have the strength of the Goddess to protect you, but..." I hesitated, then made a promise not knowing if I could keep it. "...I can hide you from the Necromancer, and from the Army. But we have to do this, and you must decide among yourselves."

"Who are you?" asked Muir, the midget friend of Xechi's, and I realized that she had a throwing-knives version of the linked swords I had seen Chibal using--and several were hovering, pointed at me.

So I tore off the bandage covering my eye and forcefully healed the wound beneath. I knew that in the darkness of the night, the flames I was using would be visible, and probably very creepy. "I am the God of Eyes," I replied. "And I am an ally of the last Goddess of Blades. I would be an ally of the next, if we survive this."

The six of them suddenly were overcome with an urge to kneel, which was not what I wanted. I shook my head, but put what authority I could into my voice. "Come on. We need to get to the High Priestess' chambers, and you need to make your choice."

"I'm staying," said Xechi, with a tone in her voice that brooked no argument. "This place is my home, and I will die defending it."

I refused to stand around while having this conversation, and moved past all of them. As they scrambled to follow, I wanted to suggest that someone else lead, but... decided it would be wiser to just spend a small bit of power finding the way myself. If I was going to play the part of an ally of the last Goddess, I couldn't act like I'd never been here, not now.

It was one of several truths I was stretching.

You can't protect them, whispered the voice in my head that I recognized as the ancient goddess. You don't have that power.

No, I replied, not entirely certain that she was listening, but gambling on it. I need your help.

I got the sense that she bristled in response, but whatever connection there was between us was so faint and distant that it might have been only what I wanted and expected. Why should I help you?

I considered that question as we marched through the Temple. When we weren't all that far from the restricted area belonging to the High Priestess, I finally answered. Maybe you shouldn't. But do you really intend to spend the rest of your life only doing what you should?

I got a sense of naked confusion from the woman, but tuned it out. Bia'nella's guards were already at attention, and both readied their weapons when the seven of us approached. "Hold! Men are not permitted here!"

"High Priestess Bia'nella is dead," I replied, deadpan. "Confirm it if you must, but it is urgent that we get inside."

One of the guards lowered her halberd in shock, but the other didn't waver. "Stay back."

I sighed and turned to look at the others. "Anyone?"

It was Miana who stepped forward, without drawing her weapons, right up to the point where the guard's halberd was against her throat. The two stared at each other for a moment, and then with a small sigh, Miana simply said, "I'm sorry."

Within instants, both guards were disarmed, and the more aggressive one had been smashed into the side wall, a blade hovering at her throat. Xechi pushed her way past me and forced the door open into what was, by all accounts, the private rooms of the High Priestess.

It was... frankly, kind of palatial, even in the dark of midnight. The floor was smooth, clean, and fresh, there was no scent, no trash, nothing out of place. The front room was a long office, with a desk where a woman might have been sitting, if she were alive. Instead, the body there was already falling to pieces, her flesh decaying into the air as we watched, and I felt a lingering black miasma, although no sense of black flame itself on the woman's remains.

Xechi rushed to her side, but stopped well before she could touch the woman. I got the impression that although she couldn't see the Key of the goddess, she sensed it was there.

"She is dead," Xechi confirmed, as she looked at me. "But what..."

"It is time you made your choice." I strode up to the desk, using a bit of power to move the Key without contacting it myself. Just... to humor them, I guess, I also spent just a trickle of power to make it visible, if only as a vague point of brilliant white light. "One of you must run away and live with the shame of it forever. The others fight and maybe die to protect the people."

The four--Xechi stepped back immediately, as she'd said she would, and Muir moved over to her side--exchanged glances. After a moment, Loi shook her head. "I don't think I could handle it," she said finally. "You know me--I'd run off and do something stupid, forget my duties. I just don't have it in me to be responsible all the time."

Ulia backed out next. "I am honored that the goddess considered me," she said, "but I do not wish to live forever. Already I have enough regrets for this life, and after today I will have more. Too many."

That left Miana and Chibal, and to my surprise, Chibal turned and put her hand in Miana's back. "This task is for you, my sister" she said. "You have the wisdom that a goddess needs, the strength of will to carry yourself forwards. It is up to you to guide us, now."

Miana studied the woman in return, and then--I thought she seemed a bit numb--she turned and moved in front of me.

"Please, God of Eyes," she said to me, "help me save my people."

I moved forward and pushed the Key into her body, as I had just recently transferred my own key from one body to another. I felt her body react--badly, but not too badly--to the foreign energy, and she struggled not to pass out for a moment.

I nodded to the others. "Go. Get the others moving. Our destination is to the Southwest, in the mountains. I will guide you once we get away from the Necromancer." They nodded, leaving me alone with Miana, who squeezed her eyes shut like some serious pressure was inside trying to get out.

With us low on time, I used a bit of godly power to teleport the two of us to the center of the Great Hall. There, surrounded by weapons, I sat Miana on a table and took her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me.

"Listen to me--this is important. Your name... is Ciel'ostra."

Miana looked at me, and then nodded. "My name... is %!~%%[email protected]" She shook her head, and I sensed her spirit taken briefly to the Council, but she was back within moments, panting. "My name... is Ciel'ostra. I am... the Goddess of Blades."

"Ciel'ostra." I stood before her, then knelt and bowed my head. "You are my friend and ally, and I will do what I can to see us through this."

Miana gave me a look, then nodded. "Xethram... you have protected my people, and I will protect you and yours in turn."

I stood up. "Call to the Records of the Fallen."

And Miana's expression changed subtly, as she understood where we were and why I had brought her here. There was a sense, one that she was only now aware of, that every blade in this room was waiting for the words to come out of her mouth. As she really began to understand what it meant, her expression became a lot less subtle.

"Protect my people," said Miana, her voice shaking, as tears fell from her eyes. "Protect the City. Protect... your children. Your family. Your home."

The weapons in the hall glowed and floated into the air as if on their own, and I took Miana's hand and teleported us away.