Just inside the broken gate Ember rejoined December and May, who decided to simply wait it out in light of the mild superiority the Pomerelians enjoyed over the castle defenders. Truly, the three of them were the idle heroes Gdańsk deserved. July was fighting on the battlements alongside Ui, who Ember watched with great care for any sign of devious or underhanded behavior. At one point July produced, via a Gesture, a grass-green version of one of those translucent geometric barriers even though there was no pressing need for it. Maybe there really wasn’t anything odd about his wanting to impress and protect a pretty girl, even if she wasn’t, well, real.

Eventually the Pomerelians won final victory and the trio continued to wait in the courtyard for Ui to assemble her remaining knights and soldiers in a parade formation. There were at least 70 of them left, 30 of which were knights. The sun dipped below the wall of the castle, throwing the courtyard into a shadowy twilight. July grinned to Ember like a fool, and pointed at Ui slyly. Ember returned a wan smile. He just seemed to be having fun, more than anything, playing dress up and saving the princess.

“Well done, travelers.” Ui said, and smiled at them, “As you can see, there are not enough men here to defend the castle. We have information that forces from Brandenberg desire to take the city. To aid in the defense, we have hired a contingent of Teutonic Knights.”

The paradoxical news inspired a period of reflection in the Yellow Team.

“Whaaat?” May said, the first to break the silence.

“The event is repeating.” December said quietly to her, “It begins with the Pomerelians inviting the Teutons in, and ends with them being put to the sword by their own mercenaries.”

“They’re just going to fight the same battle again and again…?” Ember trailed off.

“Let’s blow this popsicle stand.” May mumbled, mirroring Ember’s thoughts. She turned to Ui and raised her voice.

“That’s unfortunate, but our original agreement was to be shown the way forward after defeating the Teutonic Knights. We’ve delivered on our end.”

“Darlin’,” July said, “These people are in trouble. I’m stayin’.”

Ember exchanged a worried glance with May and December, then turned to him.

“July? These aren’t people. We’re the only people here. They’re going to fight this battle forever.”

“Sir July has made his wishes clear.” Ui insisted gently, turning her pale blue eyes on Ember.

July nodded, and Ember noticed that there was no particular objection to being Sirred this time. So much for ‘never will be.’

“So he has. We’ll continue on without him.” December said. Ui gestured behind her to an archway set into the side of the castle, now open into a black void.

“We can’t just leave him here. He’s obviously been… bewitched.” Ember said, pointing to July, who had a look of aloof confusion about him, not quite comprehending what the fuss was about.

“I have no desire to come between a Don Quixote and his Dulcinea.” December whispered to her, “Not when we have so little to spare.”

“July! We need you. Can’t you see what’s happened?” Ember addressed him directly. Her words must have penetrated, because he looked conflicted upon hearing them and turned to Ui with knitted brows.

“Supposing you all come with us, help us defeat the guardian. Then we’ll come back and defend this place…” July said. Ui heaved a sigh of reluctance.

“July, you know the two black blades to be selfish and wicked. It is their nature. Would you go with them, instead of us noble Pomerelians, who only wish to defend the good people?”

“Naw, but…”

“But September.” Ui turned to September, “I know something of her that you don’t. Dark deeds which have heretofore escaped the reach of justice. She isn't even a white-blade, which you yourself can see. All is visible here.”

Ember felt her throat tighten and her heart pound. July turned to her with a look of disappointment.

“That true, Ember?”

“Everyone has secrets.” she admitted.

“What, if you don’t mind, was it you did?”

Ember remained silent. Never. July turned his back on her.

“The black blades alone may go forward.” Ui said, looking to May and December. Unfortunately she had chosen the right moment to drive a wedge through the team, and December and May gladly took the opportunity to leave her side. Ui was silent until they passed through the arch, whose double doors clapped shut behind them. A silent Ember raised her hands in surrender as a company of Pomerelians simultaneously drew their swords. There was a long pause as Ui looked at July, then turned back to Ember.

“Relieve her of her Eos and all her possessions and imprison her in the dungeon,” Ui said, and thought better, “…no, the tower.”

A stone-faced July walked over and slid Ember’s Eos out of the rail holster and powered it down. No Cell Defense from sleeping SOFI, naturally—not that it would have been wise in that situation anyway. Ui wisely put a stop to his further involvement with Ember’s detention and led him away by the arm into the keep. Ember was dragged to her feet by a pair of knights and more-or-less carried away into the tower. It was a square room which the chill wind desperately wanted to break into from the sounds of the clattering windows. Ember chanced a look out of the sun facing one to watch it dip below the horizon. One of the Knights took his helmet off, revealing the pockmarked face of a black-haired man in his late forties.

“Let us know if you need anything.” he said. It was nice that they spoke English. In the real 1308 not even the English spoke English. Ember didn’t reply, and frowned over at the jailer. “Not much of a talker, I see.”

She waited for him to leave. When he finally did, she spit out the ostracon in her mouth and cracked a window, opening it up and putting the potsherd up to the wind to dry. It was hard to be that close to a drop off, but since the window was a couple feet off the ground she managed. Then the door burst open without so much as a knock, causing her to drop the ostracon out of shock. It clinked onto the brick of the sill and then tumbled out the window. Before she realized it she nearly jumped out of tower in the attempt to recapture it. After she saw she was hanging out of a window six stories up, she launched herself backwards into the room and scrambled against a wall, clutching her hands to her chest and heaving with post-facto panic. Her frightened eyes looked up to see the same knight from before remove his helm. He stalked over to the window she opened and closed it brusquely.

“No opening the windows.” he warned, and then stepped out again. When he had been gone for a couple minutes she opened up her hands to reveal the precious clay fragment to herself. As luck would have it she found that one of the glass panes was loose enough to shimmy out of place. She placed the small pane under the covers of the bed and brought her elbow down on it, muting the sound of it cracking into dozens of pieces. One of them was just the right size to serve as a stylus. She thought long and hard about the possible messages she could send, and then scratched into the clay: “Imprisoned in #Gdańsk tower in Tow. Will join you.”

#

Over the next hour Ember would have preferred not to dwell upon the thinness of her odds, but she had nothing else to do. The most likely outcome was that someone would show up expressly to kill her for her bounty. Her best hope was that December and May would collectively suffer a personality bending aneurysm and decide to head back for her, or that the Mandate guardian had a peculiarity that would require use of her remaining power. Of course, if December did bust her out, it would be his team after that. That would’ve been the case even if she’d progressed with them through the archway instead of challenging Ui. So she waited.

A knight, substantially shorter than normal, stepped through the door after knocking. Ember sensed that between these two things, she was not dealing with a veteran. The ‘knight’ raised a single finger to where the lips would land on its bucket helm. The figure then tore off the helmet and tossed it in the bed next to Ember. She couldn’t say the identity of her rescuer was the last one she expected, because the woman was not among the list of expected people to begin with.

“mi—” Ember started to say in shock, then missfaun—the girl from the front desk who she had earlier induced a crisis in—clapped a gauntlet over her mouth. Ember quieted, and missfaun pressed an orange sock puppet with red button eyes into her hands. She was confused and a little disappointed to find out her rescuer appeared to be sort of bonkers. missfaun donned one on her own hand and started flapping its mouth in time with her speech.

“Don’t say my name. Remember Tow is a panopticon; everything spoken or written is recorded and potentially monitored. All the socks do is make it seem like someone else is talking. Be careful with keywords.” missfaun said. The mousy librarian girl could not have been less appropriately dressed in the suit of armor she wore. Ember furrowed her brow and couldn’t help but smile at the absurdity.

“Why did you come for me?” she said, remembering to work the mouth of the sock puppet. missfaun removed her own puppet and drew a Gesture on the scabbard at her side. After the Cellblade hilt materialized, she put the puppet back on her offhand and produced a knightly sword with the pale glowing edge straight on. Evidently the girl had been promoted to Superuser.

“I have my reasons.” missfaun said, with a smile, and revealed the blackness of her sword by turning its flat towards Ember.

With some trouble missfaun managed to kneel in her clanking, bulky armor and present the sword to Ember hilt-first. When she grasped the hilt the blade flickered for a moment and then reverted to her colors—orange with a yellow edge. She hadn’t gotten it at first, but besides the edge color everyone she’d seen did have white or black on the flat of their blades, corresponding to their Cells. All the Superusers she’d seen had white or black blades, but their edges were always pale gray. Endusers had all sorts of color on their edges, but still only white or black on the flat. How odd it was to have a colored flat, or what it meant if anything, she couldn’t yet say.

“You missed the chance to say ‘I’m here to rescue you.’” Ember said, looking down at her with half of a smile. missfaun raised her eyebrows.

“Oh, no, I’m not here to do that. All I wanted to do was give you a fighting chance. I’m leaving, so, please don’t follow me too closely.” missfaun said.

She put her helm back on and hustled down the stairs leading out with a lot of clanking, closing the door behind her. Ember looked after her with an odd expression, then gave the one-handed knight’s sword a few test swipes. It shared a few characteristics with her own Scottish broadsword. When she heard her unarmored jailer hustle up the steps a minute later, she held the sword behind her head with the blade pointing down her spine. She put her other hand behind her head to make the pose look more natural, like someone who was relaxing. The man looked around, checking to see that nothing was wrong, and then drew forward to say something to her. He made it halfway through a syllable by the time an overhand swing from Ember split his head straight down the center, a gruesome act about which she had to cover her mouth and pace around for a spell to get over. The other ones she’d killed had the decency to render themselves faceless. Eventually she convinced herself that they were basically the same as the enemies who populated computer games and their dispatch was ethically no different. It was still really gross.

Her new lease on life and the sense of empowerment from the sword sent her charging down the narrow and dark stairwell with no small amount of fear. On the way down she encountered another knight, whose swipe she easily kicked aside. She then thrust her blade between the top of his chestpiece and his neck, forcing it deep into his torso and yanking it out. He collapsed and fell backwards with the echo of clanking metal. A textbook case of the advantage of the high ground.

“That’s what you get for putting me in the tower.” Ember said, even though the fellow wasn’t listening. She met no more resistance on the way down and made two discoveries outside of the tower, one of which was fortunate and one less so. Less fortunate was that in the full dark the torch-lit courtyard was still dotted with dozens of Pomerelians. The fortunate one was that missfaun was kind enough to leave Ember’s bicycle leaned up against the brick facade of the tower. Rather than contend with them she tucked the sword through her leather belt and hopped onto her trusty steed. She could easily make to the archway to rejoin December and May. That would be the wisest course of action.

A few awkward gear-shifts to get the bike out of high gear and then she was flying towards the open door of the keep where July was being held. She threaded between confused Pomerelians and mantled the low steps with the sturdy bike. There was a single unarmored lancer at the door who went to dismount her. She yanked the brakes and he swung early, not anticipating the short stop. She dismounted and socked him in the face with her offhand—literally with a sock, having forgotten to remove the puppet from earlier. After picking her bike back up she rode it right into the throne room, where she found Ui seated with July at her right hand. There were a line of Pomerelian knights standing behind the throne who frantically stacked up in front of it in defense. She slid the bike into a skidding parallel stop, as if it were a motorcycle, and rang the bell at them with a threatening stare.

“Ember, what are you doin’ here?” July yelled.

“I am,” Ember yelled, and waited for effect, “Here to rescue you.”

She threw the sock puppet on the ground at the feet of the line of seven knights. They actually backed away a step, wary, as though it might’ve been a spell or device.

“Can’t say I’m in need.”

“I have thrown down the gauntlet. Fight me in single combat. Isn’t that a chivalry thing?” Ember said. July pressed his brows together.

“Guess it is. I don’t wanna do this, but if you’re gonna up and challenge me like that in front of everyone.” July said, and drew his sword. Ember flipped out the kickstand and stood in front of her mount. July brushed aside the line of knights and stepped before them, and looked at her with concern. The orange sock was still at his feet. “You want a shield, armor, anything…”

“This is who I am.”

July nodded and went into a combative stance. He strode forward and swept his sword, testing Ember’s defense. She met his blade with her own in defense. In the past she’d been too nervous to notice, but when two Cellblades met there was a shower of sparks animation drawn on the interior OLED panel, emanating from their point of contact.

“I fell in love with a boy once. Early in middle school. He’s the one who got me into archery.” Ember said when she had a moment to speak. She suspected he would relax his guard and try to listen to her, so when he did she counterattacked to keep the fight going. “Then a new girl moved to town and started to play with us. I was happy at first, until his attentions turned to her.”

“What are you sayin’. This is serious.” July said. To emphasize his point he attacked with a quick thrust. Ember jumped backwards, and nearly tripped over her own bicycle. It clattered against the polished stone floor.

“As they got closer and closer, I got farther and farther away. I tried to accept it, but it ate away at me. I wanted to get back at her.”

July was starting to become genuinely angry at her.

“What kinda school-age girl thinks like that!” he said, flush with offense. It was four furious exchanges, and some tense dodges and parries on her part, before Ember got an opening to speak again.

“Lots of them. I don’t expect you to understand—just look at you. So when I found out she’d gotten pregnant once before, I unleashed the rumor: she used to be a slut! Unfortunately, girls at school started looking into her past. Then they found out—where she’d moved from, she’d been the victim of abuse.”

For a moment it seemed he was too angry to fight, and then he struck. Ember tried to block it, but it was such a heavy blow that it sent a ringing all the way up her arm. She was only saved when she jumped backwards over the fallen bike, which armored July was unable to match. They rotated around it briefly until he sent it sailing away with an angry kick. That was the kind of strength she didn’t want to be on the other end of.

“They broke up, of course, but she found herself isolated and fell into despair. I tried to comfort her, and that only meant I was the first to find the note. She planned to kill herself.” Ember said. July locked swords with her and shoved hers aside with his pure force, then grabbed her sweater and tossed her bodily into one of the support pillars of the throne room. After thudding against it she fell limply to the ground. Ui watched coolly as Ember struggled to her feet without the benefit of any healing from her Cell. July waited patiently for his opponent to recover, like what he imagined a knight would do.

So she continued.

“I got there first. I didn't want it become a big thing, for my own selfish purposes. So I tried to talk her down, but she wouldn’t come away no matter what I said. Then I told her the truth: I started the rumor. That betrayal was the straw. She disappeared off the cliff's edge on impulse, and that was that. I know I should have told someone. I know that now!”

July easily knocked the sword out of her hands and Ember held up her palms up in defeat and sank to her knees. It was never her plan to throw the fight, but being slammed into the pillar had really put a damper on her desire to continue. Ui was now standing up in front of the throne, one gloved hand clenching the other with concern.

“July,” Ember said, “you said there’s only one princess in your life, and that’s your sister. The only people who deserve your shield are the ones you love. Kill me if you think justice would be done, but either way: your princess isn’t in this castle.”

July clenched his fist, then released it after a period of quiet frustration. He sheathed the Cellblade and turned to Ui.

“I’ll... be movin’ on after all, m’lady.” July said in a low but audible tone. He leaned down and offered the orange Cell to Ember, unable to meet her eyes. She took it gently between her thumb and forefinger. When she reactivated it, it went through its normal start sequence, which lasted at least a minute. July cast onto the stone floor in front of her what he’d taken from her pockets: a business card, and a Chit, then stood up to face Ui.

“Go, then. Take the girl to the archway in the courtyard and I will see you off with a kiss.” Ui said.

“No touching.” Ember said, pointing at Ui threateningly. The handshake was probably how she charmed July to begin with.

“I will see you off, then, Sir July.”

“Told ya. I’m no Sir. Now get me out of this junk. I feel like a walking car.” July said. The illusion had been broken.

Ember waited with the bicycle outside the arch while July got back into his normal clothing. Without thinking, she sheathed the knight’s sword into her Eos. The process briefly awoke SOFI, whose voice came echoing out of the phone, too pleased and bubbly for the mood.

“A new sword. I’ll download it! Judging concept of its creation. Imagining skill of its construction. Analyzing materials involved!” SOFI said, then after a beat, “Reticulating splines.”

Another pause, and then a ding sound rang out, like the timer on a toaster oven. Done. Ember opened the Cellblade app and saw that she could now select between two swords: her Scottish broadsword and the sword missfaun gave her.

When July rejoined her he regarded her suspiciously, and stayed silent for a time as if he wasn’t going to come along.

“I don’t know what you’re waiting for.” Ember said at last. The unfortunate truth was that she no longer felt viscerally bad about what she did. It had passed into the cool realm of academic wrongness, where she had it safely under glass and would occasionally examine it and move on. She could pretend to frown and sulk, but the gravity of the issue seemed to preclude that kind of chicanery.

“You want me to feel sorry for you or somethin’?”

“No.”

“Don’t see where the justice comes in.”

“July, I’ve learned something valuable today.” Ember said, lowered her voice, and leaned towards him in earnest, “On a fundamental level, to a degree I never realized before… sock puppets are really funny.”

July gave her a look which fused annoyance, disappointment, and disgust in equal parts. In reality she could’ve told him many things which would soften her image, and mend the rift between them, but doing so now would be tacky and pointless. The bed was hers to sleep in.

When Ember went to open the archway, she discovered with some surprise that it was bricked over. She turned around and saw Ui standing alone and unarmed in the dimness of the courtyard. The Pomerelians had cleared out earlier to feast in the great hall, so the three of them were the only ones present. Suddenly all the elements of a confrontation were in place, and Ember loosed a question which had been in her quiver for a while.

“You’re the guardian, aren’t you?” she shouted. She’d was surprised when Ui let them go from the throne room, since she expected the revelatory moment to occur right after she saved July. Instead, Ui had chosen to confer them to an open space.

“I protect the Mandate of Glass; the power to reveal all secrets. All locks would be broken and their keys tossed aside. You’ve earned the right to face me.” Ui said. Ember’s mouth hung open—all secrets?

“So if I have the Glass Mandate and win the game, I can render all information public? Anyone could read anyone else’s email and the like.”

“Just so.”

“Oh, my God.” Ember said, “I can’t imagine what a nightmare that would be. Is that what you want?”

“I have no will. What would be a nightmare?”

“I mean, what if I read my Mom’s messages and she said I was a disappointment?” Ember said, stammering to envision the real implications. They were too huge to fathom at scale, but surely among them a thousand tiny life-breaking vignettes like that.

“Something you would want to talk to her about, to be sure. Do you look in her underwear drawer, as well?”

“That’s just the tip of the sword. People would die.”

“Having one’s illusions shattered is a painful experience. If the contents of your private correspondence would undo you, maybe that’s cause for reflection.”

“I don’t know. It just sounds like madness.”

“That’s not an argument.” Ui said, and regarded her with a serene expression, “And besides, we aren’t here to argue.”

“You’re gonna fight us?” July said, sounding surprised.

“Just so.”

“With no sword?”

“Yes.”

“Alone?”

Ui tilted her head at July. She held her arms wide and, simultaneously with that gesture, her armor broke into hundreds of puzzle-shaped pieces, each inscribed with its own character. A flash of bright light invited the two of them to turn their eyes away momentarily, and when they turned back they found a much larger shape was taking form. The small puzzle pieces the armor had momentarily become had transformed into the armor of a house-sized creature, a classical dragon with pure-white scales.