“My… My husband stayed… to slow him down.” The woman’s voice shook when she spoke. Her hair was disheveled and her gown was torn. Eeluk squatted down on the crates to talk to her.

“My lord!” Eeluk stood when he saw me approach.

The courtyard has cleared out since I saw it before, but people were still resting in the passageways. Goblins brought bowls of water to the injured, spilling drops like footprints as they waddled over the tiles. Down one corridor, a faint blue light caught my attention. Erhi wiped the sweat from her brow, sipped her water, and then turned back to a man lying on the floor.

“My lord!” Eeluk hopped off the crates and jogged to meet me. “My lord, I’m certain you are aware—”

“Of the situation in the upper district? I’m aware.” I held up my arms. My scars caught the sunlight. “I was dealing with it.”

“Not well enough apparently,” a man grunted. He crossed his arms and spat. His tunic was singed on one side, but he looked uninjured.

Eeluk brushed past me. “This is the lord of Karak—”

I put up a hand. “He’s right.”

The man’s posture relaxed.

“I didn’t deal with the threat yet,” I said. “But I will. You, your name?”

“Nergu. And I live in the 37th District, behind the butcher, just in case you want to send your thugs to teach me some manners, rough-like.” He glared at Eeluk and spat again. “Shaa.”

“Tsusaar gaaj, sugaa teneg.” I stepped forward and crossed my arms in front of his. His skin brushed against my scars. “I think your manners are fine. They’re the same manners my mother raised me with.”

He chuckled, his stomach bouncing underneath his tunic. “I’ve never heard of a lord with a mouth like yours, Eternal Blue Sky.” He shook his head and his arms fell to his side. “If my wife heard me speaking those goatmilker words, she’d finish the job that that fire bastard started.”

“Fire bastard?” I stepped back a little. “Black fire?”

“All kinds of colors. He started out with black, then down to blue and white and ordinary-like.” He shrugged. “Burns all the same.”

“Was he looking for anything?”

“He was clawing at us. My wife says he was thirsty. All that fire must’ve made him real thirsty, she says.” He laughed. “Me, I think he was hungry.”

“Did you offer him a salmon?”

“Trout, actually.” He paused, then laughed again. “His taste was more… unholy. He clawed at us. That’s how I got this…” He turned, revealing the rest of the singe on his tunic. It was shaped like a hand.

“37th District?”

He nodded.

“Don’t mention my tongue to your wife,” I said. “Wouldn’t want her to come break down my door and beat me with a ladle.”

I started walking. The man returned to a group of men, said something, then they all laughed.

Eeluk jogged after me. “What did you say to him?”

“You must’ve heard,” I said.

“I mean… that language. That’s the old language, isn’t it? I didn’t think anyone still spoke it.”

“In the cities? No. In the villages and smaller towns? I didn’t go a day without hearing shaa or gaachi.”

“Are they some sort of greeting?”

I laughed. “No. They’re really closer to… goodbye. Shaa is, well, ‘fuck off’.”

Eeluk stopped. “What did you tell him?”

“That’s better left up to your imagination.” I turned to Eeluk. “It didn’t really matter what I said. It mattered that I said it like him. Now, there’s a man burning his way through Karakhorum. Shall we?”

Eeluk started walking again. “What should we do?”

“You need to get your men to evacuate the 37th through the 41st Districts.”

“As you wish, my lord.” Eeluk waved over some men.

“And set up as many scouts as possible around the courthouse. If he’s going into populated areas, piling all our people into this place will only make it more tempting for him.”

“My lord, our ranks are thin. I’ll try to cover as much of the courthouse as possible, but I can’t cover all the Districts and scout the courthouse effectively. Not to mention the work to be done here. I need more hands.”

“Evacuate the Districts first,” I said. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t consider heading for the courthouse.”

Khulan peeked out of the storeroom we’d been hiding in. Eeluk must’ve noticed me see her, since he turned around.

“I’ll take care of her, my lord,” he said. “I thought one guard would have been sufficient for her, but—”

“She knocked him out?”

Eeluk nodded. “He’s still unconscious.”

I waved Khulan over. “She’s no longer a prisoner.”

He nodded.

Khulan approached me. “Kublai, I should help.”

“You said it yourself. You can’t just walk up to Oktai.”

“No, I mean I should help with…” She glanced around at the injured, then turned to Eeluk. “Captain, your orders are to—”

I nudged her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled to Eeluk. “How can I help? What… are your orders?”

Eeluk raised an eyebrow, then looked at me.

“You wanted more hands.” I shrugged.

I turned and strode through the court’s passageways. The light from the courtyard sunk behind me as I approached the courtroom door. The murmuring of the men of the court echoed into the passageways. I put my hand on the door and felt the vibrations of their shouting. I didn’t have time to explain the situation to them, so I jogged toward the courthouse exit. I had to act.

I slipped through a side door which led me out the side of the steps leading up to the courthouse. The domed roofs of the Karakhorum’s houses caught the sunlight like a gentle pond, but not everywhere looked so gentle. Smoke streamed from the district near the river that cut through the city.

The 38th District. I pulled out the map instinctively, but hesitated. If I was lucky, I could use the map once or twice more until the Spirit Realm would erode my body. I put the map away. I’d have to be smart about it, or find a new way to use the map.

I broke into a sprint. I leapt over the patches of grass outside the courthouse and landed on the stones. I kept running. The force of my gait tore the weeds out from between the stones and sent shudders through the little carts parked in the main streets. The few people left on the street parted for me. I still had some spiritual energy coursing through my veins; hopefully enough to deal with Oktai.

Whoosh. The sound came from the direction to my right. I darted into an alleyway, breaking through a stack of wooden chairs. I slipped from alleyway to street to alleyway, but it wouldn’t be fast enough. Karakhorum wasn’t designed for diagonal travel.

That never stopped me before, however. A woman struggled with the bolt on her window, her eyes frantically jumping from me to the lock. Crates and old bricks had been piled outside her window.

I jogged over to her. “May I?”

She scurried back and gripped a knife on the table. After a moment, she nodded.

Her window was stuck open just a little. I pressed and it snapped shut. It wouldn’t do much to stop Oktai, but if it made her feel safer…

I stepped onto the mound of rusted metal, bricks and rotting wood outside her window, one foot at a time. It seemed stable enough to support my weight, but could it support the force of me jumping?

I braced myself and leapt for the roof. Karakhorum’s courthouse wasn’t tall – its homes were just shorter than other cities, so I landed on the roof as easily as if I’d walked up a staircase.

Flashes of light pulsed in a northeasterly zigzag. The source was moving, and screams followed it. The moss-covered bricks on the rooftops of Karakhorum were slippery, but I kept my momentum. I jumped from roof to roof. Streets raced by beneath me, my shadow catching the attention of passersby.

The smell of smoke cut through the air. The crackle of fire became louder as one home collapsed. The buildings in the 38th through 41st Districts were flimsier, older than the others; their roofs were made of thatch and their bases of wood and tarp, the style of the early First Empire. Oktai would tear through them and anyone still left in the area.

“Hurry!” A guard shouted, waving women and children through an alleyway. Bodies slammed into one another as they tried to get through the tiny opening. The fire had cut off the other paths off, and it crept through homes and toward them like a snake through grass.

A wall shattered at the end of the street, and I dashed immediately. Batu rolled out, his clothes singed and his skin black with soot. He clung to a half-melted blade. Oktai stepped out from the house, the remains of its wooden frame around him flaking off into ash. The tarp curled and darkened from his heat. A sphere spun above Batu, poised to strike, but Oktai’s head turned sharply toward me.

“Brother!” Batu got up to his feet.

Oktai hesitated, then turned and ran.

“You’ve looked better,” I said.

He shrugged. “Well, I didn’t fight that thing to make myself pretty. What’s he looking for?”

“People, apparently.” I glanced back at the crowd escaping. “But I’m not so sure anymore.”

Batu stretched his legs. “Shall we find out?”

“If you’re up for it.”

“Please.” He waved a hand. “The day I’m not up to chasing a walking inferno you may as well bury me.”

I smiled and started running. I leapt through debris and Batu followed. I shielded my face against the flames, but the smoke made it difficult to breathe. Each house had a black spot in the middle of the floor where Oktai had been. I pushed through house after house, frames and roofs collapsing after Batu and I broke out the other side.

“We won’t catch him at this rate,” I said.

Batu huffed air. “Especially not if you think I’m superhuman like you two.”

I nodded down the alleyway. “This way.”

“Already? Can I get a couple—”

“One, two,” I said. “We have to hurry.”

Batu nodded.

I led him through the alley, dodging people as they fled Oktai’s destruction. Stray dogs scurried into the holes in the sides of homes.

“Left,” I shouted to Batu, then turned sharply. “Into the street.”

I cut the corner by sliding over a butcher’s counter, grabbing his cleaver in the same motion. My clothes dripped red. I glanced back. Batu tried the same move, but he got stuck halfway through and crawled off the countertop. He could barely keep up.

Whoosh. Another home went up in flames. The burst of smoke came from nearby, to my right. I couldn’t afford to slow my pace.

“I’m going ahead!” I darted into an alley, then used the tight space to jump off the walls and get to the roof. I was close to Oktai.

I glanced down at Batu. He put his foot on the wall, shook his head and kept running. I went from rooftop to rooftop, but when I got closer, everything went quiet. The area seemed to be abandoned by now, and Oktai’s rampage seemed to halt. The dogs barking was cut off sharply. I paused, scanning the District—”

A black sphere burst out from the rooftop under my feet. Oktai followed it and tried to swipe at me through the debris of the shatter roof, but I’d already leapt to another. He landed in the street below me.

I held up my cleaver. “You should run. I could really use the target practice.”

Oktai chuckled, the black flames receding from his face. He put a hand on a house and fire crept along the wall like spilled blood. “Do you really think that could hurt me?”

“Do you really think I wouldn’t be prepared this time?”

Oktai frowned. The cleaver probably couldn’t hurt him, judging by Batu’s melted blade, but Oktai didn’t know that. If he thought my cleaver could hurt him, I could use it to control how he moved.

“You don’t strike me as the type for preparation.”

“You don’t strike me as the type to take the risk.”

I glared at him, and he at me. His eyes shifted from my cleaver to me to my cleaver. I gripped it tighter, posturing as if it really could do him harm. Our shadows grew long in the setting sun. The house collapsed next to Oktai, but he didn’t move or look away. If either of us made a move, the other wouldn’t waste a second.

Batu turned a corner, his footsteps cutting through the silence. Oktai glared at him.

“Now…” Batu held up his half-melted sword weakly. “I… have… arrived. To put out… your fire. I… no…. Fuck.”

Oktai darted into the street, but he wouldn’t shake me that easily. I chased after him. His footsteps hit the stone with a hiss. He sent a sphere at me, but I leapt over it. He dragged his hand along the stables to his right, setting them alight and startling the horses. A dozen horses were set loose into my path. It stopped me, but not for long. I weaved through and vaulted over them.

A family caught my attention. A mother huddled with her children under a little bridge at the end of the street, pulling together their pots and blankets and trying to bundle them. Oktai glanced at them. I wouldn’t let him go any further. I could feel the spiritual energy slipping, like sand through my fingers, but I had to act.

I threw the cleaver as Oktai tried to go for them. As I released, I picked up speed. Oktai glanced at the cleaver hurtling toward him – but he didn’t seem to notice me. He stopped and changed course, as expected.

I reached him. He’d dodged the cleaver, but he couldn’t dodge my fist coming for his face. The impact made him stagger.

“Run!” I shouted to the family. The mother pulled her children away, her baby screaming.

The cleaver had been lodged into the side of the stone bridge, with cracks spreading out from where it landed.

Oktai spat blood, and it hissed like acid on the ground. His black fire had become patchier, like a boy’s first beard. His face, left leg and right arm were uncovered. “I’m starting to think you’re a problem.”

“Good,” I said. “If I’m your problem, I’m everybody else’s solution.”

Four new spheres oscillated behind him. They were less stable than the ones before – these waxed and waned in size and shape, bloating unevenly and burning a less stark black. They seemed slower too.

Oktai raised a finger to the cleaver and touched it cautiously, then narrowed his eyes at me when the cleaver melted like ice to his touch. “Looks like you didn’t prepare after all.”

“I didn’t say that cleaver was part of my preparations.”

He waved a hand. “Then by all means…”

“I’m not going to show my hand so easily,” I said. “Unlike you, I know how to keep my tricks hidden.”

He raised a hand and the black flames pulsed. “Some tricks don’t need to be hidden.”

I actually did have a trick this time. It was near sunset, and as soon as it was night, I’d whistle for my night-hound. I glanced at the sun as it flirted with the western horizon. Ten minutes. I had to keep him distracted until then.

Oktai raised a hand. A sphere stirred behind him. “It’s time I end this.”

“I doubt you can manage it.” I rolled my eyes. “You aren’t him, after all.”

He frowned. “I’m better.”

“Then why isn’t he trying to imitate you?”

“Imitate?” He narrowed eyes. “Khulan always thought I was just trying to imitate him. I have more at stake than mere imitation.”

“All you have at stake is your ego.” I shrugged.

“Ego!” His flames roared and shifted like a mass of startled cockroaches. “He is the most egotistical person to ever walk this continent. He listens for people speaking of him and punishes them. Punishment! As if he is something sacred. If that isn’t ego incarnate—”

“It is.” I slipped my hand into my satchel. “That’s why you’re so alike.”

He didn’t seem to notice. “I’m concerned for this continent, really. He isn’t. He just sits in who knows where doing who knows what, and look at the mess of this place. Look at the mess you’ve made. And nothing! Not even a strong gust of wind from him.” He shook his head. “True, I did have a certain… admiration for his ability, but when it came down to it, he was too weak to maintain what he started. He let the fools, thieves, and liars run over this continent like fleas on a stray. I, on the other hand, will fix that. I will save this continent. I—”

My hand inched towards the map. “Will burn everyone if that’s what it takes?”

“Some will be spared.” He raised all four of his spheres at once. “Not you.”

The sun had sunken halfway, but beams of light still clung to the abandoned 37th District. Wind howled through the street, slamming shutters and doors.

Oktai sent a sphere arcing over his shoulder. That didn’t work last time, and it wouldn’t work this time either. Another sphere spun wildly from his opposite side, tearing through the stone as it came towards me.

I slipped the first and ducked the second, but I didn’t hear either of them crash. Throwing spheres at me wouldn’t work this time either – and Oktai knew it. I glanced back. The spheres slammed into one another, roaring like wolves biting each other, merging into one larger sphere. It hung in the air.

Oktai dashed. The new larger sphere spun into the corner of my eye. An attack from the front and one from the back.

I only had a few seconds, but I didn’t need the map to dodge it. Well, I didn’t need to open it. I pulled the map out of my satchel and rolled it tightly.

“That map won’t help you.” Oktai reached for me.

I ducked, readying myself to jump.

Oktai swiped for my head, and the sphere came for my legs. The heat of the sphere warmed my back. I jumped and the sphere crashed into the ground, but Oktai saw that coming. He swiped his other hand for me as I rose, but he didn’t see the map coming. I raised it like a baton and struck Oktai in the side of the head.

I completed my jump behind him. “Seems like it helped.”

Oktai fell to one knee. The spheres behind him sunk to the ground. The map was unharmed, as I’d thought. It was charged with spiritual energy, like the rock I’d thrown last time, so Oktai’s fire couldn’t damage it. His bone, however, might dent the carvings.

“You fucking brat.” Oktai launched at me, but he wasn’t thinking.

He swiped, but I batted his hand away with the map, cracking his wrist from the sound of it. His fire growled more intensely. I slipped his blows as if he was a child playing soldier. He tried to grab the map from me, but I pulled it back before he could get his hands on it. His black fire started peeling off of him as he took blow after blow, like bark falling from a rotting tree.

Night fell. I grinned. Oktai kept his distance, huffing from his wasted efforts. I whistled. He narrowed his eyes.

“My night-hound,” I said.

His eyes widened. My night-hound crushed abandoned stalls and small hovels as she rushed to my aide. Her fur sheened with the young moonlight, but most of her was invisible.

Oktai turned and ran, glancing back at Dog rushing towards him. His gaze drifted up as she caught up and cut him off, growling at him. The last of his black fire evaporated, leaving behind the frail old Oktai.

He stood in silence for a moment, then burst out laughing. “I suppose you have me.”

I didn’t let my guard down.

He got down slowly and lounged in the dirt. “What, should I beg for my life?”

“Traditionally,” I said.

He shook his head and suppressed a chuckle. “Why would I beg you for my life when you don’t even know what’s coming? I already know I’m done. You thought I was the last member of the Council of Lords so that meant you would, what, just roll into the throne of the continent like a fat merchant rolling onto the other side of the bed?”

“You’re right about one thing.” I strolled over to him. “Defeating the Council was about as easy as rolling onto the other side of the bed.”

“I’m not finished yet.”

“You look like you were finished years ago.”

He frowned. “My plans are bigger than me. Bigger than you.”

“Your plan of killing me didn’t go very well. Forgive me for not giving this one much credence.”

He looked up at me, then burst out laughing again. “I’m not like him. It isn’t just about me.”

“Who’s it about?”

His laughter died. “Them. I’m not alone in this.”

“I assumed you needed help killing all those people in your cities.”

“Killing them?” He shook his head. “No, I didn’t kill them. I… liberated them, despite what Khulan probably gabbed to you about. She never understood anything, really. Batbayar was dense, but at least he understood enough to stand aside.”

“So you didn’t kidnap—”

“Kidnap? They came to me. They wanted power, so I gave them the means to attain it.” A faint violet light started glowing from Oktai’s mouth and nose. “I liberated them from their weakness.”

Beams of light shot from his eyes, nose and mouth. His skin cracked. My night-hound snapped to attention, growling at Oktai. I jumped back. Oktai threw himself back, into the ground, as if he was trying to go through it.

He didn’t, but his hair dissolved into the dirt. His muscle seemed to deflate. The light pulsed, growing more and more intense. His laugh echoed through the street, but sounded like it was melting with his body. The light spilled out from his mouth and crept along his skin. After it eclipsed his eyes, the pulsing sped up.

“It has begun.” His voice hung in the air.

My night-hound whined and stepped back. I shielded my eyes as the light flashed.

I opened them. Oktai was gone. In his place, an Oktai-shaped silhouette simmered, bubbling a sickly purple. When I stepped closer, it wasn’t just on the stone; it was through the stone. A hole that looked like it went down forever. After a moment, light shot up to the sky – from the hole, and another from the upper district. Another from the wall. Another from the courthouse.

Dog growled.

“Ow.” Batu waved his hands around in the air. He’d just bumped into my night-hound, it seemed. “Why couldn’t you just get a normal dog? A visible one.”

“Took you long enough.”

“I was hoping you left a piece for me.” Batu jogged towards me from down the street. “On second thought, I think I’ll pass on whatever that is.”

“It’s… It was Oktai.”

“Eternal Blue Sky.” Batu peeked over the edge and scrunched his nose. “Couldn’t you just stab him?”

“I didn’t do this. He did. He just… melted.”

“Gross.” Batu bent down and sniffed the edge of the hole. He reeled back and frowned. “Very gross.”

“You might have missed the action this time.” I stood up and stepped back. “But there’s more to come. Oktai said there’re others.”

“Others?”

I looked into the hole, and something looked back.