“You can say no and end up eaten by your little enemies.

You can hesitate, and cook more, making your smell too appetizing.

Or you can say yes, see your little enemies devoured, and be honoured by us.

Now, what do you say, little angel?”

Book of Rö, last chapter.

“I can’t do it.”

Nay let down her arms, then her fingers rose to firmly pinch the bridge of her nose. Her grimace served as another testimony of her fleeting patience and her nerves growing restless.

For once, Trinne wasn’t there to encourage her. She had gone hunting that same morning, and as the sun was barely reaching its zenith, it would be hours before her friend came back.

Or she would appear right this instant.

The Legio was a bit surprised when she felt the Rreico of her friend emerge inside her bubble of perception. A few seconds later, the Duchess came into view, getting closer to the entrance of the Canyon of Sables.

The gigantic scar in the Unbroken Ones had stayed frozen in time, even after ten years. The steep peaks were cut in half by the gigantic wound, the result of thousands of years of erosion through the torrential waters, making it seem like a trap of pikes and natural edges destined for giant monsters the size of mountains. During this season, the Canyon was not underwater, but it was already filling with snow. Which explained the large fireplace in front of which Nay was sitting. It wasn’t freezing yet, at least not according to the Legio’s point of view, but she estimated that it would only take another month before the road through the mountains became untraversable. It wouldn’t be the diluvian waters that blocked the path then, but the Hi blizzards that would condemn anyone who dared to adventure inside the Canyon. Anyone, except maybe the angels.

Nay and Trinne had brought together everything they knew about the creatures, so they could intercept and trap the abominations coming to their encounter as effectively as possible.

The Legio wasn’t certain that the angels even used the Canyon to move around in the Unbroken Ones, but even if they managed to use the same routes as the Leïns in the past, they would always have to pass through here, at the end of the Canyon.

After all, she had created a door of Rö to get to the edge of the Canyon of Sables, brightly showing off her power to all those that could perceive it. Saying clearly and loudly, ‘I’m here’.

According to their calculation, the beast or beasts, should arrive at a minimum in three days, and at a maximum in two weeks. They lacked information to dare tighten their estimations, and if after two weeks no creature appeared, it would either mean that the catastrophe on the Ducal plateau was a one-time thing, or that the monsters had ignored the magical signature of Nay when she had created the door to bring them to the Canyon.

Which would mean that the angels had ignored them and skipped them to get to Gite, which was the worst result possible for the city.

As such, the tensions were high. Trinne and Nay had only arrived here three days prior and had already fought two times. The last time was this morning when the Legio had been angry at her friend afterTrinne had ruined some of their rations in a very unsuccessful attempt at cooking. Once her anger had fallen, Nay had felt bad about it.

“Nay.” The Duchess announced as she crossed the last few meters to their camp.

“Trinne.” The Legio answered automatically. She inspected her friend for a short instant. Her winter equipment was covering most of her body, but at the same time, that was making her perfect face even more prevalent. The large wool cap hiding her beautiful red hair though, was in Nay’s opinion, almost heretical on her friend. The Duchess had a new rapier, a good one, but not perfectly adapted to her build. It was in the former sword’s scabbard, and she was also carrying a bow on her left shoulder. On the other one were hanging three mammals, big rabbits that still had a lot of fat, showing that the winter had not yet hit them.

The tent, the weapons, the clothes, and rations had all been given to them through Ra’fa. Nay and Trinne had had to go back to Gite to prepare for the terrifying wait.

With the exception of Lisana, no one had known of the two women’s brief return to the city. Which was for the best. Nay’s mom had initially held her tongue about it but had finally caved into Trinne’s questioning. The Church was in deep crisis, with the Legio’s status going from divinity to be venerated, to false prophetess to be judged by Vanni and punished with Lebe’s worst miracle. The ones debating the second option were being brought to the heel by Archbishop Defin, but it was slowed down through Commandare Birrebus’ efforts, who was supporting that the Duchess and Nay were monsters and mages and that they were responsible for the Day of Night. The Emperor’s official support would, according to Ra’fa, reduce all the hopes of Quar to ashes, but because Jarl could not influence or control the Church publicly, he was unable to settle the affair once and for all. Lisana, fortunately, was spared of the religious eye, at least mostly, because Defin had completely removed her from discussions. In counterpart, he was visiting Lisana almost every day, asking strange questions like ‘what would your big sister want?’.

It was without saying that Nay was very reserved about his behavior.

After those events, Trinne had risked her life by telling Ra’fa her plan, but instead of killing her, the tall chef had ultimately decided to bring them everything they would need to survive in the Canyon of Sables.

Nay had briefly asked herself if that was the last time she saw her family. It would be, if she couldn’t control her phantom miracle.

“Nay!”

The severe voice brought her out of her reverie.

“What?”

“Give me a hand with my haul. I didn’t empty the bladder but I did clean the fur in a hurry.” Trinne informed her in a very pragmatic fashion, her tone entirely different from the one she had used previously.

But Nay, suddenly realizing something, did not move.

“…Did you seriously manage to hunt three rabbits in only one morning?”

“I had to redeem myself after my fiasco.”

The Legio didn’t say anything else. She examined the face of her friend, bluish due to the cold. The red-haired young woman crouched in front of the flames of the campfire, raising an eyebrow towards the one with cloudy eyes, as she was warming her hands by placing them closer to the fire.

“What?”

“You never hunted in your life.”

“Oy! I trained at the Academy, like you! But true enough, I’ll admit I was lucky. I found them very easily.”

“Those animals are some of the easiest to scare in the world.”

“Stop.” Trinne gave her an angry stare. “Are you going to get to the point or are you just going to continue to insult me with Tertia subtlety?”

A few memories were brought back to the Legio. When the Imperatrix had tried to assassinate Trinne, the Duchess had already started to dodge backward, an almost instant reaction, at the exact moment when Nay had realized that the Rreico of her godmother was weird. Then again, Trinne hadn’t expected the trap of Vahamut’s right…no, even Nay barely understood the man’s Rreico at that moment. And then, there were so many moments where Trinne had reacted to the Legio’s contained emotions.

“Trinne?”

“Are you going to spill it? Yes or no!?” Her friend was losing her patience.

Nay focused, and unsheathed Bubble in a lightning-quick move.

Trinne didn’t even react, even when the blade stopped barely a hair away from her neck.

“Uh uh? I know you hate wasting food, but really? That bad?”

Nay lowered her dagger and put it back in the leather around her belt. Then she scrunched up her eyebrows. All of her focus had been on her friend’s Rreico, and it had been very clear.

“Hani. Why didn’t you dodge? You knew I was serious.”

“You obviously weren’t, or I would be dead.”

“Sure, but you felt that I was. That’s how you perceived it.”

The Duchess of Gite shrugged. “I’d rather take a dagger in the neck than one in the heart.”

The Legio refrained from punching her.

Trinne gave her an annoying smirk. “Quite violent today, aren’t we?”

Nay clenched her teeth. “Hani. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You can’t know that I wanted to hit you right now.”

“Of course I could, it was written on your face. I am starting to know you, you know?”

The master Legio sighed. “No Trinne. You didn’t see anything. But you did feel it. Are you continuing the Rreico exercises?”

“Every day. Nothing changes.”

“Let me doubt that.”

Trinne’s expression darkened. “I am not lying to you.”

“It’s not what I said.”

It only took a second for the red-haired woman to understand.

“You…I…?”

“Let’s skip the fact that you didn’t even try to defend yourself when I attacked you, for now.” Nay continued. Her grimace slowly transformed into a large smile. “You have my congratulations, Trinne, you are a Legio.”

“R…Really? But…I don’t feel anything different and…”

“That is my responsibility. My lack of experience. To perceive Rreico is to perceive something deeply personal, and my manner of explaining it most likely did not resonate with what you were feeling. Because of that, I think you’ve always misunderstood the perception of Rreico with your natural ability to deduce and analyze a situation. I should have seen that it was strange months ago and taught you how to differentiate the two. But, I am now certain that you are a Legio. You can feel the Rreico. Congratulations!”

“I…Woohooo!” And in a very unusual reaction for the duchess of Gite, she started jumping in the air with an expression of childish joy and excitement.

Nay smiled and laughed with her for a few precious minutes.

But quickly, her mood plummeted.

“What is it?” Her friend finally asked.

The Legio sighed. “I won’t manage to control my miracle in time. I can feel it in my bones. Jormun told me as much. Those…ghosts of the night…they listen to me, or more like they are me, but they are a version of me without guilt, doubts or notion of good and evil.”

“And? It’s an issue if we have humans in front, but we’re here to fight an angel. Jormun was wrong on pretty much everything concerning magic, he said you would never be able to use it! And here you are able to replicate the phantom miracle of the strongest touched of Ja in history.”

“It’s different. I believe that, intrinsically, my power isn’t meant to be controlled. Just like Rö could create doors to travel anywhere instantly, I’m creating shadows of myself, inhuman echoes following my desires without taking my values into account. And even if I managed to unleash them against the angel…they won’t fight. I’m too scared. They will take me and you, and force us to flee.”

Trinne didn’t hide her shock. “That…that’s a problem. What do we do, then?”

“I was hoping for you to tell me.”

The Duchess sighed. “I admit, I’m out. Trapping the angel was already a last resort, and if you tell me that you think that it won’t work… Only sacrificing myself to…”

“No.”

“…Right. We can hope that only one comes and that you can manage to kill it singlehandedly. With its sixteen claws as sharp as Bubble and Lake when fully enchanted. You do understand that this strategy is more than stupid though.”

“Well, is it dumber than attacking Vahamut Shroediker’s ship on our own?”

“It doesn’t even come close. My plan was logical and sound. If Vahamut and his men hadn’t decided to organize their meeting well before it usually happened, the situation would not have gone as awry as it went.”

“And instead my power massacred everyone.”

“Nay. That is wrong. True, the warship was wiped out, but that’s basically well deserved. They tried to kill me! And on the beach…only those that continued fighting were attacked, and even then, most survived. They can only blame themselves.”

“Trinne…you’re not fooling me. I can recognize fallacious logic when I hear it. I am responsible for the death of hundreds of soldiers, and not all of them were Carradins either.”

The red-haired woman rose her head.

“And you saved thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives in exchange. But yeah, right, the exchange is unjust, no one should ever have to make such a choice, the one where you need to exchange lives. But you’ll have to overcome this. You’re not perfect, and neither am I. We can only try our best. I’m not proud of some of the things I had to do either. But think about Joanna, and the things she had to do to survive. If she managed to rise up and become a Ducal guard apprentice, then the devil take me if I’m not going to do at least as much.”

“To become a Ducal guard?” The Legio gently mocked her.

“Nay. You understood.”

“…I did. And thank you. Joanna…she always got back up.” Nay remembered the first time she had met her friend, this girl, no, this woman, who always got back on her feet, despite the hits she took. “I knew that already, but I guess I needed to hear it again.”

“Happy to help. Still, we are still in a precarious position.”

Nay put her chin on her friend’s head.

“Hey!” Trinne shouted, falsely outraged.

But the Legio was thinking. “You think that we’ll face multiple angels this time?”

“Mhhhh. Instinctively, I would say no. After all, if there are so little of them, and the intelligence of their whole species depends on how many there are, to invest many seems very risky. But, that’s on the basis that they think like us and have the same priorities. Maybe they don’t care about being able to have complex thoughts, maybe they only desire blood and intestines.”

“I remember…what she was saying when I was hidden in one of the grottos of the Canyon…I’m afraid they could be like that…”

Trinne put a hand on the scar on her cheek, barely visible.

“Sometimes, when the angel was just above the tunnels where we were hidden, when we witnessed the claws piercing the ceiling, not to attack us, but just because that was what happened when it walked around, still deadly for anyone foolish enough to be standing…sometimes we could hear it talking. But what it was saying… it was as if a tertia had been given the ability to speak. It sounded like a little boy, promising that we would all die. It was enjoying the hunt, annoyed that it couldn’t devour us over and over again.”

Nay hugged her. “In the end, you won.”

“…It didn’t feel like that. Even today, it doesn’t.”

The Legio closed her eyes. A minute later, she opened them again.

“Jormun…Jormun said that Redrick would have been able to kill one if he had time to prepare. I thought he was talking about mobilizing the army and other Ducal guards but…what if he was talking about Murasama?”

“His sword?”

“Yes. It is an enchanted sword, like Lake. But I never realized until they told me, it was always empty, as there are no God-Touched in Gite. With an active enchantment…”

“Nay. The Commandare was a monster, but even he would not be able to win against a creature able, in one second, to attack you as if you were surrounded by sixteen soldiers equipped with Vorcan’s best swords.”

“He would win. He killed twenty Bhanis alone.”

“What? Nay. You’re not seriously considering fighting an angel on your own.”

The Legio smiled. “No, I wasn’t thinking that at all.”