“Before I let you on your way, I will share with you something my countrymen would rather see buried - Pateiria is not nearly as united in matters pertaining to Ikesia as you might think. There are quite a few who think the Emperor no longer possesses the Mandate of Heaven, that his misbegotten conquest of this land comes from petty, earthly grudges.”

He let go. The dial spun back, and the elevator doors closed shut before him. Even as the cabin began to descend, he spoke again.

“Wherever Lingering Smoke is found, so too are those loyal to the homeland above the figurehead.”

The hub floor soon fell deafeningly silent.

Even as Alcerys found the elevator to the mayor’s office, finding its doors to be open and a key hanging out of the slot beneath the operating lever. The words “You’re Welcome - L. S.” were smudged onto one of the inner panels.

Its steady rise through the floors, the sound of the elevator’s workings, was soon cut through by the sound of two voices arguing in Pateirian. The man sounded irate, while the woman exuded a vitriolic sort of calm. Her voice was distorted, but somehow, even amidst the distortion Alcerys felt a pang of familiarity.

Much of the argument she couldn’t make out, not until she could already see her destination was she close enough.

“What do you mean we can’t call on reinforcements?! They’re only a few days away!”

“We can’t. The Grekurian Statehood has already contacted us regarding their intent to reclaim occupation of the city in light of the recent followup attacks, and our claim to the city was already anchored purely in lack of pre-existing Grekurian presence. If our present forces are lost, so will our claim to Rigport.”

“They planned this shitshow. I just know it. Filthy fucking kiddy-diddlers, should’ve solved the Grek problem once and for all when we had the chance.”

“How can the Statehood and Ikesian holdouts be behind the attacks at the same time?”

Even from inside the lift, Alcerys heard the smugness behind that question. The woman asking it already knew the answer. As the ride neared its end Alcerys bent the First Arm behind her back to conceal it, gripping the Eye in her palm and mentally preparing so she could have the phantom limb lash out at a moment’s notice.

“Isn’t there some Grek ex-hunter playing provisional governor for one of the holdouts? Could be them.”

Before the woman responded the elevator reached the office, its cagelike safety door sliding out of the way and leaving Alcerys faced with two figures.

One was Cao Hu, standing next to the pushed-aside mayor’s desk, already staring right through her, brow furrowed and face scrunched in indignation.

The other was the Lady in Red, calmly leaning up against the old throne.

“I knew it. I told you it was some Inquisitor fuckup!” he proclaimed, still in Pateirian, turning to the Lady in Red briefly.

“Let me guess, they sent you to kill me. What’re you supposed to be in the first place, some failed Inquisitor?” smugged the general in Grekurian, slowly walking from the mayor’s desk.

“Nothing so glamorous, I’m afraid. Your ill-conceived attempt at a redo of the Colonies was doomed from the start, I was merely sent to act as a catalyst for its going up in flames. This isn’t Pargona, and I don’t have to act with diplomatic appearances in mind.”

“Couldn’t the pederasts in your joke of a government at least muster one proper gasmask freak? This is just insulting,” the general emitted a laugh that belied a bubbling cauldron of fury. He gestured with a hand, and an elaborately decorated cold-iron sabre flew out of a sheath that had until then been concealed behind the throne. It floated just over his right shoulder with a thin Fog umbilicus connecting it to its wielder, while it pointed at Alcerys. “Or- Wait, I must be getting it wrong. They sent you to die, to dispose of a liability and create a diplomatic martyr in one move, is that it?”

“You would do better to avoid projecting your own sins onto others, general. It only makes the truth all too obvious,” Alcerys spat back in perfect Pateirian, stepping off the elevator. “That you really got cursed for screwing nubile Scorchlander slave-boys, I mean. Or, perhaps, is even the supposed blood curse just a cover for your extensive collection of venereal diseases?”

The muscle beneath his right eye twitched, as did his fingers. Now was her chance. She was certain that the Halo could stop his blade at least once, and if she landed a decisive strike now, it would irreversibly throw off his equilibrium.

It rocketed forward, zigzagging through the air and trailing Fog, its movements already having accounted for any conceivable fencer’s counter she could’ve brought to bear with Emberthorn.

Simply letting the Eye fall out of her hand was enough to drive her counter. The incomprehensible influx of divine fury magnified her intent to such a degree as to send the First Arm ripping through the air, with such velocity even Alcerys didn’t see it before it slammed right into Cao Hu’s stomach and sent him flying backwards.

Like a phantom gunshot carrying enough Ignis to make a grown man pop like a balloon, which she knew would barely have a meaningful disabling effect on Cao, and only once before his body acclimated to the shock.

His Flying Sword had threatened to slice her head clean off, had her halo not whipped it from the air, even if doing so was nearly taxing enough to make it demanifest, its flames flickering and sputtering.

“You need to understand that I am something far worse than an Inquisitor. I am the Third Renegade, I am Alcerys, the Charred Judge,” she said for perhaps the third or fourth time that day, and she reveled in saying it that time the most of all, neither able nor willing to stop the grin that grew on her face. She moved quickly whilst speaking, her speech partially intended to divert Cao Hu’s attention, to let her to reposition and refocus, and it seemed to be working. From the perspective of the elevator, Cao Hu now stood to the left of the throne, whilst Alcerys stood to the right.