Sixty-seven. It was the amount of people he’d murdered under the command of a woman who wanted him dead. A woman whose life he had ruined. Sixty-seven souls, and though they were far from innocent, it turned out his soul wasn’t any cleaner from ridding the world of theirs. Far from it. In fact, it seemed as if he’d taken on the blackness of their souls into his own. Yet here he was again, preparing to muddy it even more. It was as though he had become numb to it all. An improvement, if there ever was one.

“I’ll go in and do the talking. Don’t come in. At all. Don’t even let them know you’re close. It will only put my identity into even more jeopardy,” Lucius said, straightening the collar of his stolen military uniform. It turned out his new identity was actually not new, and it was instead stolen from a soldier in the Premier Aristocracy’s army who had died mysteriously in a Bug raid weeks ago. For their purposes, he’d escaped the aliens’ clutches, and feeling let down by his force, he was instead looking to share his new intelligence with the Enchanters’ Guild.

To Ryu, the whole thing seemed thin. Lucius, however, assured him he could pull off even the most desperate of lies. And the identity did not have to last long. They only needed to set the Guild in the right direction, after all.

---

Lucius hurried to the gates, striding with the rhythmic gait of a man used to marching. His uniform was stiff and pressed, his boots were polished to a nice shine, and his arm was held to its side as if injured. He was supposed to be a man escaped from death’s clutches, after all. Even with healing, his limbs would still be stiff and sore. So he shifted his march to a controlled limp, keeping the dour look of a soldier on his serious face.

The Premier Aristocracy was a strange force, all things considered. It did not share a single government like the Third Republic, nor did it share a single culture like the people of the Fourth, a Ring that had once been a colony of criminals. No, the Aristocracy was a flimsy alliance of self-important busybodies, dandies, and warmongers. Luckily, that made them easy to impersonate.

If there was one quality of his worth preserving, it was his ability to lie. He had danced in the ballrooms of the First Ring, argued in the courts of the Second, and played songs for the people of Third. He had lived as a hundred people, lying as each one.

“Halt!” called one of the four guards in front of the main gate into the Enchanter’s Guild private compound. The executives had tightened their defenses, it seemed.

“I have news,” Lucius barked. “Take my weapons, lock my Skills, do whatever you have to. The executives need to hear of this treachery. My name is Captain Andromedus, formerly of the Premier Aristocracy.”

The guards exchanged looks. “Get word to one of the executive’s staff,” a broad man said, adjusting his helm with an annoyed look.

“Yes, captain!” one of the guards- a man with a youthful face and a helmet that looked like a pot- trumpeted. He ran through a small door in the wall beside the gate.

Lucius clenched and unclenched his fists as he waited. It was a mannerism he had watched Ryu do, and he had to admit it seemed very… brutish. Which was what he wanted. The thought made him think of the troubled man. After their experience in the dungeon, Lucius had intended to go his separate way and never see the dangerous Climber again. His boss had a different plan, however. Oh, she was lucky he loved her.

A rough voice brought him back to the present. “Boss says he’ll see you,” the captain grunted, waving Lucius towards the open gate.

The Enchanters Guild had taste, he had to admit. When it was not being raided by a murdering lunatic, the compound looked more like a palace than the “business” headquarters it was supposed to be. The lawns were manicured, the cobbled paths were swept clean, and the building itself had the pointed arches and large stained glass windows that seemed to dominate the Sixth Ring.

As a servant ushered him through a pair of large doors, he tried his best not to sort the decorations by value. The key word was tried. He saw a painting worth at least five hundred medium Qi crystals. Then a pair of golden candlesticks he could have pawned for ten or twenty mediums a piece. The ribbed ceiling arched high above, and he snapped his gaze back to the servant’s smiling face like a good soldier.

“And you are to see Executive Chambers, sir?” a woman asked, her curly brown hair tied back. Her uniform was neat and ironed, but he had to suppress his groan at the bland black and white. Not even the Enchanters Guild was immune to cliche, he supposed.

“Yes, ma’am,” he forced out, straightening his back as if coming to attention.

The servant smirked at his display. “Right this way, sir,” she said, turning to the hallway that led from the entrance chamber. What followed was a maze of halls and rich decorations that Lucius struggled to memorize. He was finally led to a door, one that opened to reveal a large study. A bald man in a poorly-tailored suit stood to greet him.

“Mr. Andromedus,” the man said, holding out a hand across his imposing wooden desk. “Please make yourself comfortable.”

Lucius nodded curtly, returning the handshake. “Executive.”

“I’m told you are a soldier of the Aristocracy. What brings you here?”

“Former, sir.”

“What was that?” the executive asked.

Lucius swallowed his annoyance. “Formerly part of the Aristocracy, sir.”

“Oh, right. My apologies. Still, what brings you to the office of an Enchanters Guild executive? I’m afraid we are not a military and can offer you no positions.”

Lucius snorted in his head. Yes, the Guild was officially an organization dedicated to the study and trade of enchanted devices. Off the books, they sponsored a great number of Classers, both combat and otherwise. “I ask for nothing, save for a sympathetic ear. You see, I was abandoned by the cowardly men I knew as my unit in a Bug raid, and while my problems with the Aristocracy remain my own, the information I have regarding the Lord’s Faithful is a problem for all of humanity.”

“Is that so?” the executive said. Lucius suspected the sympathy in his voice and posture were false.

“Indeed, sir. For days, I was trapped behind enemy lines. I must confess that it was even by luck I stumbled upon what I did. In my escape, I caught a glimpse of a man in white robes talking with one of the damn Bugs.”

The executive thought for a moment. “That hardly incriminates the Faithful.”

Lucius nodded. “I thought much the same,” he said. “So I followed them, best as I was able, and sure enough, the man identified himself as someone called Priest Thimble.”

“I know of him,” the executive said.

“So you agree they’re traitors? They’re working against our very species!”

“I never said that,” the executive said. “In fact, we can’t prove what you’re saying. Any man could say what you have.”

Lucius knew the man was convinced, however. Before he had arrived, the bald man would have received a packet of information that incriminated the Faithful in Ender’s killings. Ryu had not been pleased with that, but well… Lucius was not one to ask for permission. Or forgiveness. Besides, a seed of doubt was all he needed. The rest would come later.

“Sir, I don’t put my name to anything I don’t know for certain,” Lucius said.

“So you say,” the bald man said with a sigh. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say “I’m not sure what you want from me.”

Lucius growled. “We can’t just let them get away with this.”

“This isn’t the Aristocracy,” the executive sneered. “You don’t come in here and demand things of me. I’ve listened to you, and I will talk it over with my associates. You are dismissed.”

Lucius stood and turned, hiding the smile that threatened to creep on his face. This man was not the true executive, just a man paid to stand in his place, but Lucius’s words would reach the heads of the Guild all the same. Then they would send out their spies- or more likely, contact the spies they already had present- and find out the truth of it. Or rather, the truth Lucius had planted.

A servant led him from the building and past the gate, where Lucius let the smile break across his face. He had started a war of subterfuge, but it was necessary. The one that came after would be much less forgiving.

---

Ryu leaned against the cold stone of a shop, head tilted to look up at the sky above. It was a nice day, nicer than he deserved. The sun dominated the sky with no clouds to contest its luminescence, and people bustled along the street in front of him. Unlike the Fifth Ring, noncombatants and children were common in the Sixth, having followed the wealth of the major forces. The wealth had not stopped there, however; the war with the Bugs had left the Sixth rich in Quests, Qi, and opportunities. And death, too, though he supposed the masses before him thought little of such things. Despite its wealth, the city was as stained as any he had seen, a symptom he had grown to associate with humanity.

He watched a man buy goods from a stall and then switched his attention to a plain woman pushing around a stroller. What wastes of potential, Ender spat in his mind.

“I sort of envy them,” Ryu thought back to the devil.

Then you’re weak, too, Ender said.

“Suppose there’s a sort of relief in being ignorant of violence. Doubt many of them have trouble sleeping at night.”

And what happens when they’re threatened? What is a lack of sleep in the face of death?

Ryu had no response. He had seen the mercy found in the hands of armed men, and he knew it to be wanting. His path was settled, anyways. The easy life had abandoned him at much the same time as a happy one.

An excited murmur ran through the crowd, and the men and women in front of him split to allow a procession through. It was a group of Classers, one led by a woman with raven black hair. Ryu cursed under his breath, turning away from the group of armored adventurers. A hand caught his back as he turned to leave.

“Why’d you come back here? Do you want me to kill you?” the woman, Ash, said. Her voice held no bravado or bluster, giving only the feeling that she was weary.

He flared his aura and converted a portion of his Qi into mana, the power used to activate Techniques. “Didn’t realize the Enchanters’ District was closed off from the rest of us,” he said.

“It isn’t for most, but for some odd reason, murderers who attack our compound aren’t given the same privileges. Strange, isn’t it?”

Ryu gritted his teeth. “Let. Me. Go.”

The hand on his shoulder heated up. “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she said.

“People will die. Innocents.”

The grip tightened before letting go. “Then leave,” Ash Malan, Ranker of the Sixth Ring, said. “And please, stay away. I have no wish to kill more than I already have.”

Ryu grunted and walked away, ignoring the many eyes that landed on his back. Lucius had been right. He should have stayed inside. His feet carried him to their safehouse, his mind wandering off to places best left alone.

Bonny. She was never far away from his mind over the past few days. Too often, he had wondered where she was and what she was doing. He wondered even if she would soon find another to comfort her. The thoughts made him feel like an insecure teen, and that, too, made him think. He knew the world had no special grudge against him, but gods, were there days that it felt like it.

He scanned the surrounding area with his aura, going so far as to scout the surrounding roofs. Not a soul in sight, save for the inhabitants of the nearby homes and buildings. It would have to do. He opened the stiff wooden door to the small, two-story home. Although the Sixth was dominated by elegant spires and stone cathedrals, small homes of chipped wood and plain stone were not uncommon amongst the elegant architecture. Not everyone wanted a palace, after all. Just the majority.

“Couldn’t stay away, huh?” Lucius chided. The shapeshifter had changed his form into that of a plain, unremarkable man with brown hair.

“Felt useless sitting here,” Ryu said, sitting into a plain, wooden chair in the nondescript, white room.

“Ah, got a lot on your mind?”

“If you’ve got something to say, then say it.” Ryu’s hands were clenched by his side, and he could feel Ender stirring with his anger.

Lucius tittered. “Just trying to make small talk, my friend.”

“Friend.”

“Aye,” Lucius said. “It looks like you could use one.”

Ryu straightened his expression, content to sit in silence. They had to wait for Lucius’s spies to get back to him, and until then, he was stuck with the smiling man.

Three long, awkward hours passed before the knock interrupted the thick silence in the room. It was a distinctive knock, three hard raps followed by two taps, and when it pounded at the tension that cloaked them so, the two stood, sharing a single glance. Ryu believed he had never heard a greater sound.

Lucius opened the door, waving in a woman in a long cloak. Once the door was closed behind her, she pulled the hood from her head, revealing a mousy face and the hints of a maid’s uniform.

“A bit on the nose, ain’t it?” Ryu said, nodding towards the heavy cloak.

“Not at all,” Lucius said, taking the folded paper from the woman’s hands. “You see, there’s a certain point where being so overtly suspicious seems to be not suspicious at all. Besides, Ria, here, has little to lie about, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, sir.” The woman’s answer was greeted with a heavy pouch of Qi crystals, and then she was gone, out into the streets once more.

Lucius’s face seemed to grow grimmer as he read the paper. “Seems we need a change of plans.”

“Care to explain?”

Lucius sighed, handing the paper to Ryu. “Bureaucracy at work. Damned Enchanters, I knew I should’ve started with one of the other forces. Hells, even Alistair would’ve done something, and he’s a bloody crime boss.”

“So what now?” Ryu asked. The Guild, it seemed, was content to wait for someone else to start this crusade. “I think it’d be easier if I just killed her.” He hated himself for even saying the words, but it was true.

“And then what? You’ve been killing important people for two years. Have any of their power structures crumbled? Have any of their deaths made a lasting impact? No. Bad organizations just replace bad men with bad men who are better at their jobs. It’s not enough to kill Keira. She’s planted her seeds. We’ll have to burn her whole cult to the ground.”

Ryu shook his head. “Why? Like you said, they’ll just be replaced by another cult.”

“Yes, one that can be manipulated. By me. The Faithful are hard to convince due to their beliefs. They’re a tool that’s ill-suited to the work needed to be done, so we must replace them with another,” he said, rubbing his forehead.

“Who are you and your master to consider organizations- and beyond that, human lives- as tools?” Ryu was angry now and growing angrier by the second. He almost missed Lucius’s response, though whether it was from the blood pounding in his temples or the softness of the man’s voice, he did not know.

“Pray you never have to find out, my friend.” He seemed almost weary, but then the expression was washed away as if it had never been. “But like I said, Plan B.”

“And that is?”

“Direct infiltration. I’ll need your help, however, so what’s it going to be? Money, Qi, whatever. Just name it. Hells, I’ll even tell you where the redhead is.”

Mask’s were easy to crack and hard to repair, and Ryu took a moment to think about what the crack in Lucius’s had exposed. “What is your end goal? What does your boss want from all this?”

Lucius worked his jaw for a moment. “Fuck it. Shouldn’t be secret information anyways, but greed is often ignorant by design. So you have the Genesis, right? Humans come to the Rings, get Classes, fight monsters and each other, and then at some point, they just kind of… stopped. This was a few generations in, and by that point, Qi had become a currency comparable to gold. Yet the powerful are tired of fighting at this time. They want more Qi, though. Everyone does. So they set up their businesses and their governments, and eventually, we’ve discarded the entire notion of ever moving up the Rings. My boss is one of the few who has never forgotten what our real purpose is here. ‘Ascend the Rings to win peace.’ That was the first Quest anybody ever received in this world.”

Peace is a lie, Ender snarled in Ryu’s mind. He was inclined to agree, but then a thought stopped him. Peace might be impossible, but if they never worked for it, then what? Such a thing was even more hopeless than an unobtainable peace, so Ryu buried his doubts and patted the ground they rested under. Bonny had claimed him a man to struggle with peace. He would rather be a man who struggled for it.

“Tell me of your plan.”