South of the Sin-Amuhhu Institute of Military magic was an enormous place of worship. A temple of the One Faith. Unlike the cathedrals and chapels devoted to the Patriarch, which featured soaring architectural design and complex decorations, the One Faith temples were austere and almost simple in their design.

Members of the One Faith, or Monadites as outsiders called them, believed that worship was a solemn affair of study, reflection, and prayer.

The temple itself had a pulpit, a host of pews for congregants, plus back rooms and chambers for burning candles or incense, private sessions of worship, and storage of church supplies.

It was Restday, and as a result, the pews in the main chamber were full. A congregation elder stood behind the pulpit, giving an encouraging sermon about showing love.

There were private rooms that overlooked the area of worship, which were set aside for use by important members of the congregation. Archon Shabadras sat in one such room, but wasn’t paying attention at all to the sermon. Instead, his mind spun with all the latest news.

Next to him sat a guest. Purattu from Ku-Aya, who only a few months ago was someone Shabadras knew only as a name on a list of One Faith members in lower starisles.

Purattu was a strange character as far as Shabadras was concerned. He was so blunt as to toe the line of arrogance, which, coupled with his sharp mind, made him the type of person many would immediately dislike. But Shabadras didn’t dislike him. What was more, Shabadras could tell that Purattu was a true believer. Many members of the One Faith attended services and offered prayers because they were raised that way, and not because they had faith. Purattu was different, and Shabadras liked that.

“Why isn’t the news spreading faster?” Purattu asked quietly.

Shabadras’ mouth twitched into a grim smile. “You think they want word spreading of a full-scale Abhorrent invasion? There would be chaos in the streets.”

“I doubt it. Granted, it’s a terrifying thought that some Abhorrent got out of the Nightmare Cove. But their activity is limited to Stricken starisles. Why would people up here care about that?”

Shabadras shrugged. “Head Mage Muna didn’t explain the rationale behind the decision. Besides, the order likely came from the Annunaki, and it’s possible they didn’t explain it to her.”

“It probably doesn’t matter. It’s only a matter of time before rumors spread.”

“You’re right.” Shabadras looked down at the One Faith congregation and sighed. Everyone sat quietly in the pews listening to the sermon, occasionally nodding. He spotted a young one, a girl of no more than four or five years old, sleeping on her mother’s arm. There was an old couple in the back holding hands. His chest tightened. Closing his eyes, he prayed, Monad, you must do something about this. Hasn’t the time come to reveal your power and put the rebel Annunaki in their place?

“What of Jehannemid and Black Jackal Company?” Purattu asked.

Shabadras opened his eyes. “There’s been no word. But we know that Hannemid is lost. Nos is also gone. Two of the starisles subsidiary to Humusi have been outright destroyed.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Shabadras saw Purattu’s hand clench slowly into a fist.

“I liked some of those kids,” Purattu said. “If we just sent them all to their deaths….”

“Based on the information we have, both Hannemid and Nos fell to the Abhorrent a week ago. We have no evidence to indicate Jehannemid is under attack.”

Purattu made a sniffing sound. “Please, Archon. Don’t play word games with me. Having ‘no evidence’ is meaningless.”

Shabadras didn’t reply, as he knew Purattu was right.

The two mages sat together for a few minutes as the sermon continued.

Shabadras tried to decide what to tell Purattu. Being a member of the Mage Parliament, Shabadras knew more than the vast majority of human beings in existence. Head Mage Muna ran the parliament by the book, and would never reveal information the Annunaki had forbidden her to reveal. That meant that whatever she said in the parliament meetings were things the Annunaki did want them to hear. But of course, parliament meetings were confidential in general.

Should he tell Purattu that Annunaki patrols had encountered strange anomalies throughout the starisles subsidiary to Sin-Amuhhu? Evidence that the Abhorrent weren’t limiting their activities to the Stricken starisles like Jehannemid? Clues that hinted the Abhorrent might be in Deeply Clouded, Clouded, and Unclouded starisles? Should he reveal that Head Mage Muna had vaguely implied that, though unlikely, it was conceivable that the monsters had even reached Sin-Amuhhu, a Flourishing starisle that was considered one of the cornerstones of the empire?

Should he explain that Head Mage Muna worried the invasion wasn’t about the Gateway Key at all? That the Key itself was likely a feint within a feint, designed to distract them from the true purpose of the incursion?

Should he reveal that, with no explanation, the Annunaki had ordered the League of Martial Adepts to be brought to Sin-Amuhhu? Although it could mean many things, Shabadras worried that it indicated the Annunaki feared Abhorrent violence on Sin-Amuhhu itself. After all, martial adepts didn’t follow the path of magic, which made them less desirable targets for recruitment by the Eternal Father cult. What was more, they didn’t have melam reserves, which made them virtually invisible to the Abhorrent.

Below, the congregation stood and began singing songs of praise to the Monad.

Purattu also stood. “If there’s nothing else, Archon…?”

“There is,” Shabadras said. “Sit.”

Purattu looked at him and sat back down.

“There’s a lot I can’t tell you,” Shabadras said. “Suffice it to say, I also grew attached to some members of Black Jackal Company. And if Jehannemid is facing circumstances similar to what happened on Hannemid and Nos, then both they and the Gateway Key are in great danger.”

Purattu looked down into the crowd below. “So the time for subterfuge is over.”

Shabadras nodded. “The Mage Parliament is worried about bigger issues. If the Abhorrent have ways of traversing the stars without Gateways, then it probably doesn’t matter if they have a Gateway Key.”

“Archon, with all due respect, you sure can talk without saying much. What do you want me to do?”

“Go get the Gateway Key. At this point, our previous suspicions about the Key being at the center of some complicated ambush seem unfounded. But it’s still important to keep the Key out of the hands of the Abhorrent and the Cult. Get in there. Retrieve the key. Check on the Black Jackal mages and try to get them back to safety.”

The singing was over, as was the final prayer. The members of the congregation were now engaged in conversation, making their way to burn candles, or leaving.

“Just the mages? What about the Unsighted?”

Shabadras waved his hand. “A few hundred Unsighted troops aren’t worth much. Do with them what you will. If the situation merits, you can use mage speed to get back to the Gateway complex and leave Jehannemid.”

Purattu stood again. “Can I leave now?”

“Of course. Be careful, High Mystic. We live in perilous times. I expect you back within a week.”

The stocky mage turned to the door, but didn’t open it. “A quick question, Archon.”

“Yes?”

“I did a lot of research before I went down to the Humusi starisles. I read something I found very interesting.”

Shabadras turned his head to look at Purattu. “Oh?”

“I encountered a passage in a book that gave me the impression there could be more than one Gateway complex on some planets in lower starisles. Especially Stricken and Barren.”

Shabadras had so many more important matters to consider that he didn’t feel like wasting time on such a dull topic, so he said, “It’s true. Pathways become less stable the deeper you go into lesser starisles. Some of it is because the stars aren’t static in the starsea. They drift about. Occasionally, an unstable Gateway will be demolished and a new one built in another location. It’s rare, though. The type of thing that happens once in ten thousand years.”

“I see.”

Shabadras didn’t bother following up with anything else.

Purattu opened the door and left.

Once alone, Shabadras sank back in the chair, steepled his fingers in front of him, and thought.

There was so much at play. So many things changing. So many schemes to consider. For instance, the identity of the traitor. Unbelievably, the clue provided by the bumbling students from the Institute had actually born fruit. With the physical description of the visiting speaker that they’d provided, Shabadras’ agents had managed to deduce his identity. Using his arrival paperwork at the Sin-Amuhhu gateway, and pursuing further clues, Shabadras had identified two possible suspects, both in the Mage Parliament. At the moment, it wasn’t possible to deduce which of the two was the traitor. But he was certain that one of them was indeed working for the Eternal Father Cult.

“It’s only a matter of time,” he murmured. “Everything’s coming together.”

“Is it?” someone said.

He jerked upright in the chair and looked over to see someone sitting where Purattu had been sitting moments ago. The voice was soft and feminine, but this person wore a voluminous cloak that made it impossible to make out any identifying features.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The private worship chamber wasn’t secure, but it was in an area that ordinary members of the congregation weren’t supposed to access.

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” the woman said. “I came for you, Shabadras. You’ve been doing a lot of meddling, and the time has come for that to stop.”

The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he slowly moved his left hand toward the component pouches at his belt. Given the cramped room he was in, casting a spell wouldn’t help much if this woman had come to hurt him. As a Buhhu Archon, he could summon stage five and six juvenile Abhorrent to do his bidding. Except, even the smallest such juveniles were as large as the largest mammals, and the big ones could reach sizes that no ordinary living creature could possibly match.

Before he could come close to touching a component pouch, he saw a blur as the woman reached out and clamped her hand onto his wrist.

His heart leapt into his throat. Acting on pure instinct, he tried to send mage touch down to free himself, only to realize that his mage touch wasn’t working. Nor was his mage sight. In fact, he couldn’t even sense his chambers of melam.

Shit.

The woman’s hand was as pale as a corpse’s. And when she turned, and he looked into the deep hood of her cloak, he saw that her face was similarly colored. Her skin looked like that of a maggot, and she had eyes of pure black.

He tried to jerk his hand out of her grasp, but failed. “What…?”

“Hush,” she said, smiling. “I can see you realize who I am. What I am.”

It made no sense. This woman was an Abhorrent? There were no records of purely human-shaped Abhorrent this small. Besides, they never looked this human.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Many things. And you’ll tell them to me. The question is how. Will you cooperate? If so, you could continue to live for a long time. I might even help you become an Annunaki. Or you could resist. And in that case, you’ll experience a lot of pain before you die. A lot of pain.”

Shabadras looked down into the emptying church and thought to issue a cry for help. Except, when he tried to open his mouth, he failed. It was bound shut with invisible bonds.

The female Abhorrent tsked. She stood, keeping her grip on his hand, which forced him to stand with her. “None of that will do any good,” she said. “Let’s go. I have a lot to show you. And many, many questions to ask.”