Riven did his best not to let the darkness get to him. Evening had evolved into true night but he didn’t want to call a halt to their search. Two important reasons why—Viriya was unlikely to be resting and the Deathless behind them were just as unrelenting in their pursuit.

“I think we need to stop for now,” Captain Rett said for a certain distance. The Sept-lamp in her hand glowed like caged fireflies.

“Not yet.” Riven looked back, though it was hard to tell what was front and what was back in the gloom. “You can’t seriously believe we’ve gotten away from the Deathless already, can you?”

“I didn’t know we were running from your friends.” Rett’s words confirmed her teeth were gritted, but she was perfectly audible. “If you’d told me we would be running from Deathless, I’d have prepared myself and my soldiers accordingly.”

“You’re always running from Deathless. How’s it any different now?”

Not the best thing to say. Rett muttered some unsavoury curses, but she didn’t reply. Riven sighed. He needed them to focus on finding Viriya, not on their misery and self-pity. Weren’t soldiers supposed to be made of sterner stuff?

“Captain, I found something!” one of the soldiers in the distance called.

Riven, Captain Rett, and the Ascension soldiers had been looking for Viriya for at least two hours now. The Captain had suggested they look around the freeway that Viriya must have taken going by where she had left Riven and the others yesterday. In all honesty, Riven knew it was one Chasm of a chance to find Viriya somewhere along this path any time soon.

Worse, the Deathless were coming. Rett had set a watch, a scout staying at the back of the company to keep an eye out for new arrivals. He had spotted Mhell and the Deadmages before all light had died and dusk stole over the land. Difficult to tell where the Deadmages were now, but Riven suspected they had to be closer.

“A skid mark,” the soldier said excited, pointing at a dark streak on the dusty road.

“What did you say the model of the car was again, Morell?” Rett asked.

“You know what car this skid mark belongs to?” Riven asked, slightly incredulous. He was more or less knowledgeable about cars, but even he had no idea how to match a tire to its car just by using its tracks.

“Yes.”

“Hmm, well. The one we were riding was an old Falcon.”

“The ones with triangular hood?”

“Yes exactly!”

“Then this is it.” Captain Rett looked down the road, where the darkness hid Ascension city in the distance. “She’s on the road. Or was at least.”

Riven had explained who he was searching for and why it mattered to him. She had reacted with a frown at Viriya’s name, which officially confirmed that Viriya’s reputation was now preceding her everywhere. She was infamous.

“Then let’s get going,” Riven said.

They went down the road, trying to find more clues. There was hardly anything to be found neither Riven nor the soldiers got discouraged though. It had taken them well over two hours to get to this sole clue on the road, so the next one might well be another couple hours away.

Which wasn’t the most calming of thoughts. Mhell and her new Deadmage friends had to be closing in. Every step of the way, Riven was trying to determine how best to take care of them. Three Phantoms were one thing, a very bad thing, but three Deadmages was wholly another.

If Mhell could take down Phantoms with such ease, he was sure she could take him down without much trouble too. And he wasn’t even going to start on the fact that she had two more Deadmages trailing along with her.

“Do you see that?” Riven asked no one in particular. A tiny glimmer had caught his eyes in the distance, a winking light like a star that had dropped to the ground.

“What in the world?” Captain Rett sounded nonplussed.

“Captain,” one of the soldiers at the front shouted back. “It’s the car.”

Riven sprinted the rest of the way, only stopping once he’d reached close enough to discern what exactly they were looking at. The car that he and Viriya had been gifted by Aross now lay on its side. There were scratch marks on its exposed sides, grey dents that robbed the vehicle of what little beauty it had possessed. One of the tires was missing, and the engine was smoking from the open bonnet. Even the windows had been smashed to bits, one of the doors bent inwards as though it had suffered a punch of tremendous force.

“She was attacked, the Captain deduced.

Riven took a tiny tour all around the car, noting the damage done all over. Rett was right. Viriya had been attacked, and viciously so. For a second, he stopped again There was blood in the driver’s seat where Viriya must have been sitting, but his search turned up nothing useful. “You’re right. And she’s no longer here.”

“Where would she go, Morell?”

“I don’t know, to Ascension city maybe? That was the last we talked about where we wanted to be at the end.” Riven paused, looking over the wreckage, his heartbeat rising in intensity with every passing moment. He really needed to look away. Viriya wasn’t here and he was stressing himself out for no reason.

But if she wasn’t here, then where in the Chasm was she?

“We need to spread out and look,” Riven said.

“In the dark, in Deathless country?” Rett left no allusions to what she thought of that idea. “We’ll be picked off one by one, my company whittled down to nothing until we’re the only ones remaining.”

“What makes you so certain we’ll be the ones who are spared until the end?”

“That’s not the point!”

Riven shook his head. “We need to cover more ground, but you’re not wrong. So you have a spread-out formation or something where the company covers as much ground as possible while everyone can still keep eye on everyone else?”

Captain Rett looked confused for a moment so Riven took a little time to explain the formation the Frontier Guards Captain had used. She understood quickly enough after that. It took a little longer to get the soldiers organized properly, and Riven’s foot was tapping away at the dusty road all the while. Before they left, he used his Essence to craft golden armour over all of them again.

Eventually, they were ready. The soldiers had spread out far enough that the farthest ones with heir Sept lamps looked little more than distant pinpricks of light in the gloom, stars dotting the expanse of the darkness around them. Far from Riven, but not too far from those nearest to them. The closest man was half a dozen yards from him, the Sept lamp making his golden armour shimmer as though it was made of gems.

Riven looked everywhere. Not just to find clues on Viriya’s whereabouts, but also to make sure none of the soldiers disappeared without anyone noticing. Not that he’d be able to tell. Too many of them were at the edge of darkness, and if one Sept lamp went out, he’d be hard-pressed to tell if there was a difference.

They didn’t find much. Riven, Captain Rett, and the rest of the company kept up their search for hours on end, but found no other trace of Viriya’s existence anywhere. It wasn’t surprising. That they had found the car in the huge expanse of Ascension Demesne was a miracle, an unbelievable stroke of luck, and there was little chance it would repeat.

Not that it stopped Riven. He was going to look through the night if that was what it took.

Captain Rett had other ideas. “We need to stop.”

“Do we?”

She jerked her head at the soldiers near them. One of the men moved sluggishly, another woman was staring but obviously not seeing anything. Decorum decreed that they give no overt sign of their fatigue, and if such signs escaped them anyway, then at least they ought not to complain. Which they hadn’t. Stupid professionals.

Which twisted Riven’s heart all the more. He was the one pushing them onwards after journeying and fighting for their lives the whole day. These soldiers needed rest.

But Viriya had to be found as well.

“If we take a break, she’ll end up even farther away,” Riven argued. It hurt him to bring up his real fears, but there was no other way to convince Captain Rett to go on. “I can’t stop. She might already be dead, and the Phantoms run off with something that could change the whole course of this war.”

“So you’d have us run ourselves to the ground?”

He looked away. All he saw were lights bobbing in the distance, tired soldiers only standing because their duty prevented them from falling. Riven swallowed. “Fine. Do as you want. But as I said, I can’t stop.”

Rett wasted no time blowing out a shrill, whistling pattern. The soldiers came in so fast, it was as if they had all been Locked to their Captain by Viriya. Riven growled to himself as Rett ordered them to find an area to rest. Why did his head have to keep torturing him with thoughts of Viriya and what might have happened to her?

Reluctantly, Riven started following the soldiers. They settled down at the foot of another ridge, and Captain Rett set a few watches on the rise above them.

“It’ll go better if you sleep,” Captain Rett warned him.

She was settling down, armour and all after Riven had refused to remove his golden Essence from any one of them. There was no telling what would happen if the Deadmages found them. Another reason hadn’t wanted to stop. Stubborn bastard soldiers.

“I won’t run away,” Riven assured her.

She settled down and went to sleep. It made her look younger for some reason. Maybe that was it. Maybe she and the rest of the soldiers here just wanted some reprieve from their insane day, letting sleep wash them away to a land where they weren’t in mortal danger every second of their lives. Where the stress didn’t make them look twice their real age.

Sighing, Riven sat down as well. He’d be damned if he went to sleep and wasted hours upon hours longer than what he already had, but he’d be lying if his eyelids didn’t feel heavy as though there were weights attached to them.

He should be getting up, not lying down. Viriya was waiting. He really needed to find a way to find her but damn his yawn was huge. Darkness was everywhere. He wasn’t going to find Viriya in this gloom, no matter how hard he tried. It was a stupid idea. Sleep sounded good. Sleep was normal Sleep—

Riven jerked. His eyes blinked, his face feeling as though someone had used it as a seat. A wide yawn burst free and just as he stretched, he froze.

Shit. He’d fallen asleep. Fuck.

Then he heard the noise. There was scuffling in the distance. Someone shouted. The alarm took a moment to register, but when it did, Riven shot to his feet. His head wobbled, his whole body following suit, but he did his best to find the source of the disturbance anyway.

It was a tiny bit lighter thanks to the smudge of gold and pink that lined the edge of the horizon. Dawn. Not that it helped to locate where the noise was coming from. Most of the soldiers were sleeping, including Captain Rett, and Riven found nothing for a while.

“Wake up,” he shouted.

Some of the soldiers stirred. Rett seemed to have passed out. Dumb, lazy arses.

“Wake up!”

That did. Several of the soldiers shot up from where they lay, though most were too bleary-eyed and sleepy to make sense of anything. It was stupid of Riven to expect them to stand up like tin soldiers ready for action. He shouted at them a few more times before they got the gist that there was some disturbance and started them collecting themselves into a semblance of order.

“What in the Chasm is going on?” Rett asked. Riven’s golden armour had preserved itself over her ad the rest of the soldiers, and himself too, but her face and dark hair were still dishevelled.

“Don’t you hear it?” he asked. Riven pointed out into the gloom but his hand dropped. There wasn’t much noise, but he had heard something right? He’d seen something too. Riven was sure of it.

The Captain’s face grew livid, dark eyes flashing. “Morell, did you just—”

“Oi!”

The shout grabbed everyone’s attention. Riven whirled, as did Rett and the soldiers around him. He peered forward, unsure of where the shout had come from, heart thumping so hard he was certain it intended to jump right out of his mouth.

Another shout. A gunshot blasted through the quiet dawn air. There was a flash of green, and one of the soldiers in the distance fell.

The whole Chasm seemed to break loose. Captain Rett shouted orders faster than a hail of lightning, and her soldiers obeyed with a similar speed and alacrity. Riven shouted too. He knew that green flash. Knew exactly who that belonged to.

Viriya.

But the soldiers weren’t intent on listening, only surviving. Scions, if Viriya had killed some of the soldiers, he had no idea what he was going to do. Curses. A thousand years of curses on him for not telling Rett to be careful, for not describing what Viriya looked like and what her Essence did.

More gunshots went off in the distance, followed by more flashes of green. The darkness hid a lot, but the screams that erupted at the edge of the company weren’t heartening.

“Stop!” Riven shouted. “It’s her, stop!”

They didn’t hear over the noise. Or they didn’t listen, maybe. Who could tell? Riven ran on and focused, letting the pressure within him carve out Essence and cloak him in the golden armour. Then he focused on himself, inhaling his Essence within himself such that his fatigue disappeared. His legs were no longer heavy and his arms swung with renewed strength. He was ready to face down Viriya.

Shouting further did nothing. He was only wasting his breath. Riven had to focus on Viriya, and Viriya alone. If he took her down, the soldiers would stand down as well. Well, should stand down.

He raced past the soldiers, most of whom had stopped to draw their rifles. Perfect. Every soldier he passed, Riven made sure to spill a little bit of Essence and upend them, usually creating tiny plates or spheres before their feet that made them trip when they moved again. Little efforts, but they added up. Every soldier not firing at Viriya was another chance of her not dying by turning into Sept bullet pincushion.

Riven didn’t get to do much. Viriya was right up ahead.

Another green flare went up barely a dozen yards ahead of him. A soldier went flying back. But all Riven had eyes for was Viriya standing tall just ahead.

“Viriya!” Riven shouted.

She didn’t hear him, busy fighting like the soldiers who surrounded her. Riven grimaced. She didn’t look good. It wasn’t just the fact that she was riddled with wounds all over and her clothes were dirty and damp. There was a feral look on her face. A wild, savage impression that promised she was out for blood.

That she wasn’t going to be stopped no matter who stepped in her path.

“Viriya, it’s me!” Riven’s shout had next to no effect.

Her eyes lingered on him for a second, then flashed past, taking in the soldiers of the company. Of course she didn’t recognize him. He looked little different from everyone else, all of whom wore the same golden armour. Was she wondering why they all had his Essence around them? Scions, that couldn’t have painted him in a good light. A bullet flew past him, landing right on her shoulder, but it didn’t draw blood or cause any sort of pain or discomfort that he could see. Her green Essence flared to long spikes at the point of impact, and the Sept bullet fell to the ground, flattened to a disc somehow. What in the world?

No, this had gone on long enough. The soldiers were crying for their own blood, furious at the fallen lying at Viriya’s feet. Not dead. Couldn’t be. Best not to dwell on it for he couldn’t change what had already happened.

Instead, Riven shook his head and focused on the fallen bullet. There were many near her boots, a pool of glittering Sept waiting to be used. Riven threw his Essence on one, focusing onto that tiny spot until it started to glow even brighter. The soldiers screamed as one. Viriya made to charge.

Riven let go, his olden Essence snapping out into a huge sphere that slapped Viriya backwards. The shield kept on growing, hitting the soldiers nearest to her too. The fallen ones were shoved back and the ones who stood close were thrown off their feet, landing on their backs and behinds several yards away. Hopefully, Captain Rett hadn’t been anywhere close.

Riven stepped forward, cajoling his Essence to form a spherical shield that contained only him and Viriya. He’d had enough of brutish soldiers and a crazy Essentier, none of whom were willing to apply their common sense.

He hadn’t counted on Viriya being up so quickly, though.

She snapped up. Not standing, or using her feet and hands to push herself to her feet, or any other way that might have been natural or normal. She was simply lying flat one second, then her Essence flared as though her body had been Locked to a place just above it, and she was standing again. Insane.

Riven didn’t get much chance to admire or wonder what in the Chasm she had done. The next second, she charged at him.

“It’s me, you idiot,” he shouted, which had absolutely no effect on her.

Viriya punched Riven right in the face. He had only the time to take one breath before his armour shattered as though it was little better than flimsy glass. Her fist smashed into his face, and he tasted blood before he hit the ground.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he shouted, wiping the blood from his split lip. Scions, it stung bad. He was going to be touching it with his tongue every single waking moment now, he was sure of it.

“It is you!” Viriya had a wild mask of bewilderment, fury, and plain exasperation on her face. There was no telling which won out when her expression finally settled. “What the fuck is going on here, Riven?”

“Can you calm down?”

“I am calm!”

Riven sat up, wincing as his mouth stung horribly. His eyes found the fallen soldiers, and he had to stop himself from pointing at them. It was obvious Viriya had been a little crazy, and she saw it too the way her face twisted when she followed Riven’s sight.

“They attacked first, all right,” she said.

“So you decided to kill them where they stood?”

“They’re the enemy, Riven. Unlike you, I don’t collaborate with the enemy. If I hadn’t defended myself, you think I’d be alive to talk with you right now?”

“We were looking for you, your numbskull.” He forced himself to stand, dusting himself off in the process. “Don’t you think I’m your friend here?”

“A friend of an enemy can’t ever be a friend.”

Riven gave her flat stare. The sky was growing lighter, and he could make out more of her face now. What he saw confirmed that this conversation wasn’t going to be easy. She was hurt—her shoulder was bleeding, chunks of her hair missing to show wounds on her head, and she held one arm at an awkward angle to her body. Her grey jacket was torn and hanging unbuttoned, revealing the black shirt underneath, which was now coated in enough dust and grime to look more brown than black. One leg of her trousers had been torn to make it look as though she was wearing shorts, both boots caked in blood.

“Can we talk?” Riven asked.

“What in the Chasm have we been doing so far?”

Riven looked at her critically again, at the way she stood with her back bent a little, at the way her hands were still clenched to fist, at the tension thrumming off her like heat from an oven. “We’ve been trying not to restart the fight.”

Viriya blinked, then made a visible effort to relax. There was the hint of guilt on her face, though her eyes were sharp as daggers. “Fine. Let’s talk. I’ve a feeling we both have long stories to tell.”

Despite the situation. Riven laughed a little. “You’d think it’s been two weeks instead of two whole days.”

Viriya didn’t laugh. There wasn’t even that ghost of a grin at the corner of her mouth, which made Riven’s heart sink. He took a deep breath to prepare himself for the sordid tale. Then he told her everything, from the moment Daynom and Aross had dragged him away, to this point when he’d met back up with her.

And then it settled in. A grin took over his face. He had found her, finally. It seemed like a mad stroke of luck that Viriya had been the one to find him instead, but whatever the case, they were reunited. That was all that mattered. The Scions were due quite a lot of thanks.

“That’s… a lot,” Viriya said. The fury on her face had disappeared, leaving a thoughtful expression that couldn’t quite hide her puzzlement. It was a lot to take in, after all. “They actually have meetings?”

Riven laughed again. “Trust me, I was too surprised to do anything there.”

Her eyes sharpened again. “And a Chosen. I’d have never figured you…”

He shrugged. “Neither would I. And I’m not sure I believe Mhell either. It sounds—”

“Impossible?”

“Too good to be true. I sure as the Chasm don’t feel like a Chosen.”

“A Chosen in the making then.”

Riven smiled. Chosen in the making. That would have to do for now. “Enough about me, though. What in the world have you been up to. You don’t look very good.”

“What thank you for the compliment.”

“You know what I mean.”

Viriya closed her eyes, screwing them shut so tight, actual wrinkles popped up on her face. Sone ne hammered on the golden shield in the distance. Riven looked up to see one of the soldiers mushing her face against it, her eyes thinned to slits as though to see through. He turned away. Viriya hadn’t even bothered to look up.

“I went towards Ascension city,” she said, her eyes growing far away as though she was losing herself in distant memories, thug they had happened barely forty-eight hours ago. “I was waylaid. There were—are—far too many Deathless everywhere.”

“Far too many,” Riven agreed. “Was it Phantoms?”

“Not at first. There were several Spectres and Fiends everywhere, most just scouts keeping an eye on the road. They all tried to stop me though, even though I was heading away from them all. One thought I was an Ascension spy and so I needed to die. But it wasn’t too bad. The roads became blocked by too many of them and I had to improvise and drive off-road for a while but it was otherwise quite all right.”

“You didn’t see any armies?”

“No, but some of the scouts I questioned said that armies were coming in soon enough. I was heading deeper into Ascension Demesne so I missed them.”

“They’re already here.”

Her lips thinned for a moment. “They’re everywhere. The Phantoms came at me on the second day. I’d have made it to Ascension city by now if they hadn’t destroyed the car. I’ve been fighting them ever since, though I’d been mostly trying to steer clear last night.”

Riven nodded when she finished. Truth be told, he had expected her to be closer to Ascension city by now. But then again, if he’d been through the kind of Chasm with the help of Mhell and the Chosen, who knew what torture she’d suffered all on her own, navigating a land filled with Deathless bent on eradicating the human population.

Someone else hammered on the shield.

“Morell, open up!” came Rett’s muffled call.

Riven sighed, then relaxed. His Essence shield around him and Viriya fell away. She tensed, and he glared at her before she sniffed and did her best to relax.

Captain Rett walked up, a grim look on her face. “This is her? The infamous Essentier from Providence Demesne?”

Viriya stepped up. “And what if I am?”

Rett didn’t back down. “Then you’re an enemy of my Demesne.”

Riven stepped between them before things escalated. “Let’s not do anything hasty that we’ll all end up regretting, all right? We have similar goals in this, and we need to prioritize some things over other at the moment. Agreed?”

Captain Rett and Viriya didn’t look like they were willing to let bygones be bygones, and they certainly didn’t look like they were ready to compromise. But then Viriya tensed, her eyes drifting past them and into the darkness that had yet to be relived. The sun was still dawdling under the horizon.

“Captain,” came a panicked shout from one of the soldiers. He was staring out into the gloom behind them, rifle pointed with his finger trembling on the trigger.

Just as they all turned to where he was looking, one of the soldiers still lying on the ground rose in the air. Riven stared, mouth falling open as the man screamed and flailed his limbs. Captain Rett pushed past them, but Viriya grabbed her arm and hauled her back. No sooner had she done so when the soldier in the air came hurtling towards them as though catapulted forward.

“Riven!” Viriya shouted.

Fuck. Riven focused, panicking and unable to think of anything else. His shield went up, and the man crashed into the golden Essence, striking it so hard and fast, the shield cracked and he splattered into bloody bits. Riven tried not to gag, wishing he didn’t have to see to the remains of the soldier’s body.

Thankfully, the Phantom entering the area stole all attention.