I stared at the old woman, my mind struggling to comprehend what she was saying. “S-succeeded?” I stammered. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you did everything I expected,” she laughed. “You took a bad situation and made it worse. Soon, the plague of corruption will cover this world, and when it does, their little idea of the Wheel will grind to a halt. Their souls will be free to be collected at last.”

I stared at the woman. “You – wait, you wanted the Earthly Fires people to succeed?”

“I did, yes.” She walked over and ran a finger along Wim’s shoulder almost caressingly. “And you helped them do just that.”

“I – no, I stopped them,” I stammered. “I killed the cursed they were going to unleash on the city, stopped Banisher of Waves before he could perfect the process, and alerted the other sects to the danger!”

She laughed loudly, shaking her head. “This is why I love working with mortals,” she chortled. “They have no idea what they’re doing, or what the consequences of their actions are. They just do what they think is right, never realizing that they’re making things worse with every action.”

She walked over to Jing and examined the woman, her lips pursed. “You know, I expected you to end up with her, not Shi Lo,” she said thoughtfully. “She would have slept with you if you asked.”

“I – I didn’t…” I stopped and took a deep breath. She was trying to derail me, and it was working. “How did I make things worse?”

“You tell me,” she said. “It’s always more fun when you mortals realize your mistakes yourselves. Think about it, John. How did you make things worse? Where did it all go wrong?”

My mind raced as I looked back on the steps I’d taken so far. Everything seemed to be moving me forward. I’d found the cursed encampment in the quarry and realized the nature of the world’s imbalance. I came to the city, investigated, and discovered the lab hidden below the school. I’d killed Banisher of Waves and rescued Bai Ren…

I froze. I’d killed Banisher of Waves. Suddenly, I recalled the man insisting that spreading the condition to others by touch was impossible. Yet, the Earthly Fires managed to work out how to do it in less than a week since his death. How could he have believed that it was impossible when it was obviously easy to do…?

“You’ve got it,” she laughed at me. “Go ahead, explain it to me, John.”

“Banisher of Waves…he was working against the school the whole time, wasn’t he? Working to slow their progress, to keep them from doing…” I gestured around. “All this.”

“Precisely,” she purred. “He foresaw what would happen if they succeeded, so he worked to keep them from succeeding. He worked slowly, producing cores at a fraction of the speed he could have. He destroyed his notes to keep them from being found. He even made his creations weaker than they might have been, so they weren’t as enticing to the Inner Elders.”

She reached over and patted my cheek. “And had you not come along, it might have worked,” she purred. “You’ve helped this happen right along, John, right from the moment you and Jing attacked the quarry.”

She turned and walked back to the woman. “When you killed those three – what do you call them? Cursed?” She laughed. “Such a sentimental name. Do you know why your SARA translated them as ‘vermin’ to you?” I shook my head. “Because the word in Kuan for them indicates something that is unwanted, underfoot, and best unseen. Like rats – or vermin. It’s the closest English word to it, really.”

She touched Jing. “When you and this young woman invaded the quarry and killed the vermin so easily, your friend Strider realized that the creations Banisher was making were too weak.” She laughed again. “Of course, you burning her face didn’t help matters. She was angry and looking for someone to blame. Banisher of Waves made a perfect target.”

“So, she demanded his knowledge,” I guessed slowly. “She wanted to see why his creations were so weak.”

“Correct! And he gave it to her, but he made sure it was incomplete. He’d learned how to temper the bestial side of the cores he’d created. He left that part out. He knew that the Inner Elders would kill him when they realized he’d been holding out on them. He hoped that without his tempering, their creations would either die or turn on them, and they’d abandon the idea altogether.”

“They didn’t, though. They embraced that aspect of their creations, didn’t they?”

“Yes, they did, John. They created a horde of corrupted cursed, intending to unleash them on the Outer City. That, they hoped, would draw attention away from the Inner City, where their true strike was happening. Of course, that diversion wasn’t needed, was it?”

“I’d already drawn attention to the Outer School,” I said, feeling a wave of despair flood over me. “We thought we were ahead of the Earthly Fires, that we’d draw them into a hasty attack…”

“But instead, the sects left the very heart of the city vulnerable to a greater attack,” she laughed. “And now, the City of the Sunrise Moon has fallen. Within days, the corruption will spread throughout the city. In a year, it will have spread to other cities, then to distant lands. Eventually, the entire world will be corrupted, and the Wheel will grind to a halt.” She walked back over and patted my cheek affectionately. “Just. As. I’d. Hoped.”

“Why?” I asked in disbelief. “Why doom a world to this?”

“Because their damned Wheel binds their souls to this world, John,” she hissed.

“You said that before. Why do you care about their souls?”

“Souls are all that I care about,” she said, and a strange light gleamed in her eyes. “They’re all that any of us who signed the Pact care about, in fact. Souls are currency. They’re power. The more I have, the stronger I become, and the more of the Doorverse I control.” She took a deep breath, seeming to savor the air around her. “You’ve given me a whole world of souls, John. Your actions destroyed the balance of this world, and since you’re my agent, I gain the lion’s share of the souls you’ve freed.”

“You lied to me,” I said as understanding grew in my mind. “You never wanted me to restore balance. You wanted me to upset it completely.”

“True. I lied to you. I told you what you needed to hear to enter my service. I fed you a story about redemption and righting wrongs.” She shook her head. “You should have known better, in all honesty.”

“Why?”

“Think, John. You were at death’s door. Did you really think some angel of redemption would appear? To you?” She shook her head. “I told you that the Pact allows us to reach out to mortals under specific circumstances. What sort of being would reach out to someone like you?”

My eyes grew wide. “You…are you the Devil?” I gasped.

“Something along those lines, yes,” she laughed. “I’m the person who would have gotten your if you’d died at least. Instead of taking such a potent and powerful soul, I was able to exchange it. I gave up some power to make you an Inquisitor, knowing that you’d reap me a greater harvest of souls in the long run.” Her grin turned predatory. “And I was right. You’ve succeeded beyond all expectations.”

I looked around at the frozen figures. They’d trusted me, and I’d delivered them into the hands of someone like this! I couldn’t imagine a greater betrayal. “I – I didn’t mean to,” I stammered.

“You of all people should know that intentions are meaningless, John. Only actions matter. Did your parents intend to push you into the person you became? Did the army intend to create a killer without remorse and without allegiances? Did Skye intend to spill the beans about that last hit and doom you?

“None of their intentions matter. Only the results do. And for your amazing results, you’ve earned a reward!” She walked over a touched a door, opening it. I saw a white, sandy beach beckoning beyond. The surf crashed in the background, and trees filled with low-hanging fruit shaded what looked like an abandoned bamboo house.

“This is the world of Celestia,” she told me. “It’s literally a world of celestial cultivators, where the sun never sets. This island is unknown on the world; it once held a cultivator who ascended to immortal status, and he wanted privacy, so he built a shield around it that keeps everyone else out. You always wanted to retire to a sandy beach somewhere, right? Well, now you can!”

I stared at the scene, my eyes narrowing. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch. Walk through this door, and you can spend the rest of your life cultivating. Once you’ve gotten strong enough, you can use Wader’s trick to move about and explore this new world. You can even find portals to other Doorverse worlds, if this one gets boring.” She laughed. “Hell, John, if you reach the Immortal ranks of cultivation, you’ll even avoid the fate that’s waiting for you when your soul comes back to me. That’s the closest you’ll ever get to redemption, trust me!”

“And all I have to do is walk through this door?” I asked.

“That’s it. Leave Kuan behind, and enjoy a possible eternity without worrying about anyone but yourself.

I was tempted. I was sorely tempted. This was the retirement of my dreams. I could turn my back on Kuan and just go rest. I’d come a long way in a short time with my cultivation; with Sara’s help, I bet I could reach that immortal stage in no time. And all I had to do was let the old woman have all these people…

“I’ll have them either way,” she answered my thoughts. “This way, though, I’ll only have them. You’ll still have a chance to escape my clutches. A slim one, but a chance. I suggest you take it.”

I looked over at her as the suspicion in the back of my mind bloomed into certainty. “You’re afraid of what might happen if I stay, aren’t you?” I asked quietly.

She snorted. “Nothing of the sort. However, if you go and get yourself killed, what good are you to me? Go and retire, and if I need you again, I’ll come find you. It’s as simple as that.”

“It’s not, though, is it?” I took a step toward her. “You know, it occurs to me that you could have done all this yourself, easily. You could have killed those cursed in the quarry and slaughtered Banisher. It wouldn’t have even been an effort for you. So, why didn’t you?” She didn’t respond, but I didn’t need her to.

“It’s this Pact, I’m guessing. It prohibits you from directly interfering. That’s why you couldn’t just do all this yourself. It’s why you need people like me – and why you can’t just make me go through that door. It’s all about free will.”

She still wasn’t speaking, but I was certain that I was right. “And you’re offering me this now because if I stay, there’s still a chance I could make this right. There’s a chance I could help fix things, isn’t there? You’re afraid to give me that chance.”

“Go through the door, John,” she said quietly. “You don’t want to piss me off, after all.”

“No, I don’t,” I admitted. “You scare the hell out of me, lady. But – no. No, I can’t do it.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?” she hissed. “When have you ever cared about anyone but yourself, John? Of course, you can. You’ll even forget them, eventually. You’ll move on, the way you always have. Your entire life has been about putting painful things behind you and keeping them there! Why do you think I picked you for this job?”

“That’s why I can’t,” I said firmly. “You may not have meant to offer me a chance at a second life, but you did, and I’m taking it.”

The lady didn’t move, but suddenly, she was in my face. Her eyes glowed with deep black power, and heat radiated from her body. “A second chance?” she growled at me. “You think there’s a chance at redemption for you, fool? You died, John! Your life is over. Your chance to change and make things better is gone! It doesn’t matter what you do; when you die, you’ll come to me!”

“I don’t care, lady. I don’t care if there’s no redemption. I don’t even give a shit what happens when I die. I just want the chance to live a life I’m proud of. You gave me that, and I’m not throwing it away.” I smiled at her. “After all, intentions don’t matter, right? Only results do.”

I stepped back from her. “In other words, lady, get bent. I’m not doing what you want. I’ll find a way to fix this, and if I’m stuck in this world, so be it. I’ll make my life here a better one than my last. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

The old woman’s jaw dropped, opening wider than any human’s should, plummeting all the way to her chest. Her skin flashed from lightly tanned to ashen gray, and her hair turned jet black and whipped about her head like a nest of serpents. Her eyes turned utterly black and bulged out of her face, and when she straightened, she towered over me. Wind whipped from her body, battering me to the ground, reeking of death and decay.

“You think you can cast your defiance at me, mortal?” she screamed, and the sound seemed to echo across the entire world. “That you can spit in my eye and walk away? No one refuses Menogra the Black, John Gilliam, and none escape my wrath unscathed!” One of her whiplike hair tendrils lashed at me, slashing across my chest. A blue flash exploded in the night, and pain tore through my body, agony that burned down into the depths of my soul. I screamed and fell to the ground, writhing as the torment rippled through me.

“You could have served me eternally, John Gilliam,” Menogra screamed overhead. “But now, I will hunt you, wherever you go! I will shatter your mind and your soul, and I will destroy all that you love!”

The pain still tore through me, but as the woman spoke, it gave way to something deeper, something greater. Fury erupted in me at the thought of this woman toying with Jing and Shi Lo, hunting Wim and Dif. Of her luring Skye into the same trap she snared me in. Of her showing up at my parents’ door, or snatching my brother’s kids.

Those were my people. I hadn’t always been there for them, but I’d never abandoned them either, and I wouldn’t now. I wasn’t giving them up to some hell-queen. “You want to fuck with me?” I gasped, struggling to my feet despite the pain. “Bring it, bitch. I can take whatever you’ve got. But you want to fuck with my family?” I took a step toward her, calling up my qi and cycling it through my body.

“Not only no, but fuck no. You hunt me? Guess what, bitch? I’m gonna hunt your ass right back. I’ll take this Doorverse you’ve shown me, and I’ll use it. I’ll get stronger, and when the time’s right, I’ll find you. I’ll find your fucking Nexus, and I’ll kill you in it. I’ll kill you and anyone else stupid enough to come after me.”

I took another staggering step toward her. The pain doubled in me, but I ignored it, embracing the rage that poured through my body. “I’m John-fucking-Gilliam, the Faceless Man!” I roared at her. “No one escapes me! No one! And I’m coming for your ass!”

The woman stared at me, and her gaping jaw curled up in a grin. “So be it, John Gilliam,” she whispered, stepping back toward a door that swung open. “But when you die in your foolish pursuit, I’ll have your soul to play with for all eternity. And I play very, very rough.”

“You want my soul?” I growled at her. “Come and get it. Otherwise, get the fuck out of my world, and don’t let me see you again.”

She screamed once more, then stepped back into the door, somehow seeming to be sucked through it. The door slammed shut, and time unfroze. I staggered as my rage slowly cooled, and the pain flowing through me faded to a dull ache in my chest. I glanced down and saw the Inquisitor’s Seal there, the glowing blue octagon and inverted triangle, with the black eye in the center. A slash of red now crisscrossed it where the woman’s tendril struck me, red that pulsed and glowed fitfully.

“Xu Xing?” Jing asked, rushing to my side as I nearly fell. “Are you well?” She stopped and touched my chest. “You are bleeding! What happened?”

“I’m okay, Jing,” I smiled at the girl. “It’s nothing. Now, let’s go free this city, and end this once and for all.”