The battle was over by the time Riven and Rio made it back to the site. At least, there was no sign of any living demons among any of them, where even the dead demons had crumbled to deader Sept dust. Most of the Guards had survived, though several had suffered grievous wounds and some were lying dead. A real shame, as Captain Wilsall put it. Riven disagreed, but he was still a little too spooked to express it.

“Are you sure all the demons you engaged are accounted for?” Viriya asked. She was fine, mostly. A few scratches and tears, but otherwise unharmed.

“Well, no.” Wilsall looked around like he wanted to be anywhere but here, grilled by Viriya. His face bore an ugly bruise on the left cheek, his bleeding right arm was encased in bandages, and he walked with a slight stoop in his right shoulders. Dislocated shoulders probably, which made Riven wince. “There were a few who ran off, but it’s best not to pursue with the night deepening. They’re very good at ambushing, as you have found out.”

Viriya sighed. “That means there are a lot of them still out there.”

“We’re heading back for now though, right?” Riven asked. He needed to rest. And get a grip on his damned Essence. Stupid thing had been utterly useless with the demon.

“I recommend it,” Wilsall said. “Further exploration would be dangerous at this point, and we have found our goal.” He stared at the dead Essentier a bit back. “I was afraid he’d be dead, but this turning into a demon business sounds insane.”

Viriya shook her head. “Our goal hasn’t been met yet. We came to search for the missing Spectres from Welmark, remember. But you’re right in that it’s far more dangerous than we had assumed. Best to regroup and replan our operation for tomorrow.” She looked past Riven. “Dorvhaes! Come on, we’re leaving soon.”

Rio didn’t reply. He had been looking everywhere feverishly as soon as he had arrived, interrogating everyone and everything about every little thing that had happened since he had left. Even now, his questions seeped into the cracks, cajoled the dust and the dead Sept, and poked into Riven’s ears. What had turned him so insane about all this? Riven had got the impression he was a little bent out of shape when it came to demons, but this was ridiculous.

“Rio,” Riven said, walking up to him. “Hey, Rio!”

Rio turned, scowling. “What?”

“Did you hear? We’re leaving.”

“We can’t leave now. Those bastards are still out there. You have any idea how much valuable intel they’ve gathered from us. They’re making more plans now, something heinous and dangerous that we need to get to the bottom of.”

“What we need is to get out of here.”

Rio stared at him, eyes wide. “Are you insane? We can’t leave them alone!”

Riven took a deep breath, closing his eyes to calm himself. Getting heated wouldn’t help. “Look around you, Rio. There’s nothing but darkness everywhere. Do you really think it’s a good idea to go out there all alone when they could be crawling anywhere? Especially alone? Because I can assure you, no one else is going along. No one.”

Rio glared at him for a few moments, then let go of a long breath. He smiled, though his lips shook under the strain. “You’re right. I need to calm down.” Another long breath. “All right, let’s get out here.”

“Everything good?”

“Fine.” His smile got back a little bit of his usual humour. “Don’t get so uppity, young Essentier. You’re still new to the business. Someone had to save your arse, remember?”

Riven grinned, which turned into a grimace as Rio walked past. He took his merry time getting back to the others. Damn, but what use was his Essence if it refused to be there when he needed it most? Even when he’d been at the very precipice of death, flat on the ground with the demon and his lightning fingerbreadths from his face, his Essence had refused to activate. Maybe Viriya was right in that he needed training.

“Riven,” Viriya called. “Come on.”

Riven jogged up to join them. The Captain graciously provided the horse of a soldier who had fallen in the battle. Riven had been as skittish as the mount itself about riding an unfamiliar horse, and a dead man’s to boot, but the eerie atmosphere hemmed him in from all sides and he’d all but vaulted onto horseback. They rode off together. The group’s demeanour was subdued, the dead soldiers piled three to a horse, while the wounded rode behind their uninjured comrades. But more than that, no one wanted to make any unnecessary sound, albeit the thunder of horse hooves made that a moot point. The demons surely knew where they were.

Just a matter of time until they attacked again. For all anyone knew, they might very well be riding into another ambush.

Nothing of the sort happened. They reached the fence without any more mishaps. An inordinate number of Guards had stationed there, probably because the Captain riding off to the rescue was an unprecedented event in the fraught and frightened history of the Frontier Guards. They all cheered when the gate opened to let Wilsall and the ones he’d rescued inside. There was a little dip when the dead became obvious, but it remained steady until everyone had come in.

“Will you grace us with your presence for a while?” the Captain asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Viriya said. “We need to rest up and plan for tomorrow.”

“We have space in the garrison, never fear.”

“We reserved rooms in the tavern, and I’d hate to leave my things all alone for a whole night, regardless of the tavernkeeper’s assurances.” She glanced back at Riven. “Well, I’m going, though I don’t dictate what my companions do.”

“I’m going too,” Riven said. He had nothing against the Guards. In fact, he was grateful, and their surprise reinforcements had been extremely welcome. Reinforcements Riven had never counted on after Wilsall’s act when they’d entered the fence.

Rio said nothing.

“As you wish,” the Captain said. “We can spare Guards if you think it’s necessary.”

“We do not,” Viriya assured. “If there’s no outstanding business that we can’t discuss tomorrow—and I assure you, we’ll stop here in the morning before going in—we’ll be off for now.”

The Captain gave a little bow from horse back. “Thank you for finding poor Loritt. And I promise we will assist however we can tomorrow.”

Viriya nodded, then whipped her horse’s reins to set off. Riven and Rio set off after her. There was no light on the roadside so Rio kept his Sept lamp out, training it as much on either side as on the road ahead. Riven couldn’t blame him. His shoulders itched. Couldn’t the darkness hide any number of demons waiting to strike at them from the shadows? Preposterous, given that they were outside the Frontier now, but it wasn’t impossible.

They passed the greenhouses still guarded by those morose men from before, though there was no sign of Suthmeer or the children. All the better. Hopefully, they were all safely back home and not demon victims out there somewhere in the gloom.

Riven’s shoulders finally relaxed when Rattles came into view. Lights. Warmth. Life! All the things he had missed.

The streets were mostly deserted but Riven hadn’t really expected any different. This late at night, most rustic people were always indoors. Anybody spotted outside was regarded with open suspicion from then on. Well, anybody who normally resided in the village. Essentiers had to be be exempt from that, right?

Viriya led them to the tavern. Riven had been having a little trouble with the horse the whole ride. It was higher than the one he’d gotten used to over the last couple days, and he felt light on its back like he’d be sent flying if the horse jumped even a little. Good thing there was an ostler boy at the tavern. A little extra money was worth it, so long as he didn’t have to accustom himself to a horse he wouldn’t even be keeping for more than a day to two.

“Good workout?” the tavernkeeper asked when they entered. Olrice was a paunchy man with little hair on his round head. “Lookin’ famished too. Let me grab some grub for ya.”

Most of the tavern was empty, the night’s last guests trickling out with calls of gratitude for Olrice, who wasn’t too busy with preparing their meal to respond. Despite that, Viriya led them to a table at the very front.

Riven hesitated. “Can’t we get a more secluded spot?”

“Why, what’s wrong with this?” Viriya asked.

“It’s not secluded enough.”

“Just take a seat.” Rio’s yawn seemed a little forced. “I want to eat and get to bed.”

Riven shut his complaints, though he couldn’t hold off his grumbles. A man was drinking away his sorrows at the counter not too far from them, and he called Olrice for a refill. The tavernkeeper obliged, bringing in their food at the same time. Steaming mugs of tea alongside bowls of rice, smoked ham, fried eggs, and a tiny pot of gravy. After half a day of no eating, this was gastronomical heaven.

“What’s our plan for tomorrow?” Riven asked around a mouthful of gravy-smothered rice.

“Can we not discuss tonight, please?” Rio asked. He swallowed, took a sip of water. “Tomorrow can wait until tomorrow. I want my mind to recuperate alongside my body.”

Viriya frowned, but she stayed silent. Silent acquiesce. That was probably the best she’d give after their little argument back in the Frontier just before the Demons had been killed.

But Riven wasn’t satisfied. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think some things can wait.”

“What things?” Rio asked.

“Well, first off. Why in the Chasm did you go berserk over there?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb. You were bent on killing the demons, like they killed your pet dog.”

“See.” Rio tried for an easy smile, but it was too lopsided. “I’ve never had any pets. The very idea is repugnant. Told you I had no idea what you were talking about.”

“You sound like the demon,” Viriya said.

Rio blanched. Riven peered closely. Viriya was right, he had been twisting words just as that black demon had. The same black demon Rio had killed with no hesitation.

With a sigh, Rio put down his spoon. “See, this is why I wanted to leave talk like this for the morning. Those demons did hurt me personally, and that might explain my overreaction as you out it when you look at all psychologically or whatever, but I shouldn’t have to delve into my personal matters just to satisfy your need to know everything.”

Riven grit his teeth. They deserved an explanation after what had happened, didn’t they? But Rio had a point too, and maybe Viriya recognized that and said nothing for the same reason.

Rio scraped his chair back to get up, and Riven had just worked up the courage to apologize and perhaps approach the matter with a different tack, when the drinking man snorted loudly. Then he burst into even louder sobs.

“There, there, Bartle.” Olrice hurried over and fussed around the crying man like a mother hen. Riven would have laughed at the ridiculous image of a potbellied chicken with that round head with its sparse hairs, but the other man’s sobbing squeezed his heart. “Don’t cry, old fellow. I’m sure she’ll be back. Children, ya know. They get themselves lost all the time and I’m sure she’ll find her way back home soon.”

Bartle only continued to sob harder than ever before.

Riven pushed himself from his chair before the tavernkeeper made things worse with well-meaning discouragements. “What’s going on? Is his daughter missing?”

Bartle’s sobs took on a whole new pitch at “daughter” and “missing”.

“That’s right.” Olrice patted Bartle’s back, but with a little too much force. His sobs paused when his face shot forward at a little too hard thump on his back, and crashed into the bar’s counter. At least it had stopped his crying. The tavernkeeper seemed to take that as a win, his words slightly more animated as he continued. “Little Darley went missing last night. She hasn’t been seen since. Everyone’s looked everywhere and no one can find her anywhere. Some people think she fell into the well but there was nobody there, and we checked the cracks all over and nothing was there, and even Suthmeer and the other children seen nothing.”

The man hiccupped loudly, and as though that was the trigger that had returned his temporarily lost memories, he started sobbing again. He buried his face in his hands, which only made it sounds wetter and more disgusting against his dirty shirt sleeves.

“Hey.” Riven nudged the man’s back. “Where did you see your daughter last?”

Bartle’s sobbing stopped as though Riven’s question had turned off a switch. He turned and stared, mouth open, red-rimmed eyes awash with tears, face red as a beet. “You’re gonna help?”

Riven swallowed. He had better not regret this later. “Of course I’ll help. I’m an Essentier. If I don’t help, who will?”

“Oh, bless you lad. May all the Scions bless you for eternity.” He grabbed Riven’s hand then shook it hard enough to make his teeth rattle. Maybe that’s how the village got its name. “I won’t ever forget this.”

Rude as it might have been, Riven pulled his hands free, resisting the urge to massage his wrists. “No problem. Now, where did you see your daughter last.”

Bartle sniffled, loudly just like everything else he did. “Er, playing behind the house, some time yesterday afternoon. Her da saw her a little later comin’ inside to wash up after the day. But then, she never came for dinner. If you want, I can take you to our little house. Not far from here, just down Whisper Way about a dozen paces from this little inn.”

“I thought this was a tavern.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I’m going to finish my dinner fast as I can, then you can take me to your place, all right. Don’t leave.”

“Of course.” Bartle’s eyes shone like pools of silver. “I’m gonna stay right here.”

Riven nodded, then showed the tavernkeeper—or was it innkeeper?—how a real reassuring pat was done by slapping the man’s shoulder in a friendly fashion. He went back to his seat, ignoring the pointed looks from the other two as he resumed eating.

“What was that?” Rio finally asked. “Did you just selflessly offer yourself up for the greater good, forgetting we need to be ready for our mission tomorrow.”

“I’ll get some sleep, don’t worry.” Riven took a sip of water, looking at them both over the rim of the glass. “Although, the search would go faster if you both were involved.”

Of course, they didn’t say anything. Refusing would just show them for the arseholes they really were inside, and agreeing meant committing and potentially losing a whole night’s sleep. A night they needed if they intended to go out in the morning.

“What, are you going to let the poor man’s daughter remain missing?” Riven asked. He jerked his hand behind him. “Lok at him, all doe-eyed and expectant. All his hopes lie on our shoulders—”

“Your shoulders.” Rio said.

“—and I for one will note be letting him down. I’m going to find the girl no matter what.”

With that, Riven let down his spoons, took another swig of water, and went back to the man. Whatever else that might happen in the rest of the night, Bartle’s smile awaiting him made it all worth it.

He led Riven outside into the chill air of the night. Mists were gathering, little white blobs parading down the street like an ethereal procession. Riven shivered. Should have brought a coat, but the pack in his room didn’t have one. No, he should have brought one from Providence. At least he had his gun, and an extra magazine full of Sept bullets.

“Oi! Wait up.”

Riven and Bartle both turned. Rio was hurrying to catch up, and Viriya was behind him, refusing to make herself move fast for anyone’s sake. Didn’t matter. They were here. They had come to assist Riven and the old man, and that was all that mattered. No moon tonight, but Bartle’s eyes went bright enough to make up for it.

His house wasn’t far. A rickety ramshackle little place standing all alone at the end of the road called Whisper Way, where Riven hadn’t heard a single peep. Maybe they were the ones who were meant to whisper.

“Backyard is this way,” the man said.

There wasn’t anything untoward there. Or at least, nothing for Riven’s untrained eye to see. Viriya walked around, inspecting the ground, the shovel leaning against the fence of old wood, the broken lumber on one side. There was no sign of forced entry, no sign of any scuffle or struggle.

“What does your daughter look like?” Viriya asked.

“She’s about yay big.” He held a hand at his waist. “Dark hair, big nose and eyes, a few missing teeth—they fell out on their own. Was wearing the little green dress her father got her.”

“Any ideas where she might have gone on their own? Any favourite places nearby?”

“Er, the greenhouses are her favourite. There’s also the broken fountain near the park.”

Rio looked sceptical. “This place has a park?”

Viriya cleared her throat. “Think it’s time we all split up to look.”

“Agreed,” Rio said with a nod.

“Er…” Was Riven the only one who saw the fact that separating might be a bad idea? That they could be picked off easily one by one if the demons so chose? Or maybe he was just being paranoid. “What if the demons come again?”

“Demons?” Bartle appeared on the verge of fainting.

Viriya gave Riven a flat stare. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll split up and cover more ground, and we’ll hopefully find your daughter before long. It’s possible she might just have gotten stuck or lost somewhere near the areas you mentioned. Riven you go to the fountain, Rio can check the rest of the village with Bartle here, while I go check the greenhouses. Meet back here in an hour, all right?”

She was the first to leave, and Riven got on his way too after sparing a questioning glance for Rio and Bartle. Curious that Viriya had set them together when the man clearly would get along better with Riven. But maybe Viriya was banking on Bartle keeping Rio in line. Smart.

The “park” was little more than a small field dotted with benches, a few grey Coral trees, and blobs of drifting mist. Someone had set dead Sept all over the thorngrass growing everywhere, and it looked as though they were trying to grow ashen leaves. The fountain held more dead Sept than water. That someone had to have a dead Sept obsession by this point.

Having seen nothing yet, Riven was about to head out when he spotted feet sticking out from behind a bench’s backrest, it’s front facing away from him. He hurried over, then froze when he saw the girl. Darley. Dark hair, green dress, and definitely no higher than Bartle’s waist. His daughter was in the park, sleeping on a bench, and no one had found her yet? Riven looked around, skin crawling all of a sudden. Could someone have dropped her here, setting her as a trap, and he had yet again fallen for it? Damn it, his suspicion was always so late.

Riven reached down to check if Darley was all right.

“You’ve come!”

He whirled, gun in hand and heart beating like a battle drum. Mhell was drifting closer like she was just another foggy cloud floating everywhere else, her purple dress billowing like the last trails of evening refusing to give into proper night.

“What in the Chasm are you doing here?” Riven asked.

“I could ask you the same, dear.”

Riven paused for a moment. She wasn’t wrong. “Did you kidnap this girl?”

“I did. Why do you ask?”

“Why?”

“I asked first, my dear.”

Riven took a deep breath and let it gust out in a sigh. “This is the precious daughter of someone from the village. The poor man thought she was lost and missing, maybe for good. So I decided to help find her. Your turn.”

“Well, I was investigating the recent spike in Deathless activity.”

“How… does that relate to kidnapping a little girl, and why are you investigating?”

She shrugged. Mhell stopped a few paces from Riven, the dress pooling at her feet hiding the fact whether she walked or floated. Her white hornlike hair stirred in the air despite the lack of any breeze. “Why, isn’t it obvious? Or perhaps… hmm.”

“What?”

“Did you know that this girl is the daughter of the missing Essentier?”

Riven swallowed, eyes wide. How could Darley be the child of the missing Essentier? No, the dead Essentier? They had met her father, Bartle, in the village. So, how could—

“She had two fathers?” he asked.

Mhell shrugged. “I care not, except for that she is connected to an Essentier, one who has gone missing in demon-infested lands.”

“He’s dead.”

The stirring of her hair stopped. “Hmm. And is he now a demon too?”

“How do you know that? In fact, how do you know any of this?” Riven’s voice had risen, and he had to make an effort to bring it down. He had no wish to deal with a possibly frightened and confused girl. “Do you get some kind of preternatural knowledge, like a prophecy or something, when you turn into a Deathless?”

“Nothing so dramatic as prophetic dreams.” She laughed a little, and the sound stabbed right into his heart. A familiar tinkling. One that reminded him of Mother. “Deathless simply don’t exist fully in the mortal world. Our physical forms are tethered here, but half the time, our consciousness resides in the realm of the Scions. And that is where this preternatural knowledge come from.”

Riven frowned, unable to wrap his head around it. It sounded too mystical. “What do you see? Is it limited somehow? I just don’t understand.”

“It’s like a dream yes, except you are fully present. Well, mostly. You can only experience what is going with all senses, but unable to affect anything at all. Difficult to explain without living it. Take it as though it really is a transcendental experience.”

“Does that mean you saw what the demons were up to here?”

Mhell looked at the ground as though her reply was scribbled on the dry earth. Then she looked up, her white pupils bright against the darkness of her eyes and her cracked face. “Do you really wish to know?”

“All of it.”

“The Fiends, the Deadmages, the Phantoms—all the Deathless—are acting up because they want to become fully initiated into the Scion’s realm. There is a great impending upheaval in that realm and they all wish to be ready for it. But to do so, they must prove their power and reach the pinnacle of their Deathlessness. The ghosts need to become Revenants, the witches Wraithlocks, and the demons Cataclysms. And they believe turning mortals to Deathless is proof of their power for some silly reason, and it really needs to stop.”

“You… don’t support it?”

“Why should I?”

“Aren’t you one of them? But how does having more Deathless help them get more power?”

Mhell shook her head. “I am unaware of the details. I do know, though, that turning others to Deathless has no impact on your prowess. Only way to become stronger, to turn from Necromancer to Deadmage to Wraithlock, is by using their Spirit more.”

“And does that use Sept the way Essence does?”

“No idea.”

Riven sighed. It was a lot to consider, and he took a seat beside Darley’s softly slumbering head. Hard to keep standing after walking for so long. “This upheaval isn’t called the Sundering is it?”

Mhell looked a little surprised, her mouth opening in a small “o”. “I am unsure, but now that you mention it, I have heard it be called that. Again, I don’t know what it is. I’d like to, though, which is why I kidnapped the girl.”

“So you could lay a trap for her father?”

“You catch on quick! Knew there was a reason I liked you.”

Riven sighed, looking away. Bursting Mhell’s bubble wasn’t a problem, but how would he reveal it to Bartle? How was he going to tell Rio he had killed this little girl’s father? “When I said dead, I meant the demon had been killed as well. No one is coming, Mhell. If he even cared anymore.”

Mhell peered closely at him, her eyes bright as the missing moon. “Oh, I have no doubt he cared. No doubt at all.”

“Er, all right.”

“Well, since this line of inquiry has fallen flat, I want to pursue my investigations elsewhere. Are you coming?”

“Wait, with you?”

“Yes, dear. Least you can do after having a hand in my poor Fiend’s demise.”

“I—” Riven stared at Darley. He needed to get her to safety first. But more than that, was he actually considering going off with this witch? Worth a shot. Looking deeply, he hadn’t gotten any answers from anyone so far, but someone on the inside, on the other side, was a point of view that perhaps no one had ever had before. He could learn so much. He already had in such a short time. “I will, yes. But I need to get the girl back home first.”

“Bah, she will be fine. There is no danger from the Fiends yet.”

“Regardless.”

Mhell stared at Riven for a while, head cocked to one side like a different perspective would clear up the puzzle drawn on his face. “As you wish. Meet me at the greenhouses in an hour.”

“All right.”

Mhell smiled. A real smile, one that made the fractures lining her face disappear. “Take care, dear.”

Riven watched her disappear into the mist, a strange warmth flushing him all over. A weird sense of comfort that soothed him and frightened him at the same time. Were all Deathless like that, once they were past the “kill to turn into Deathless” stage? It seemed more personal. More relatable. Familiar.

Riven picked up Darley, gently as he could so as not to disturb her sleep, then padded away into the night.