I had it all figured out.
Gods.
How long had it been since I could say that?
There were a few inconsistencies left, a few things that didnt quite sh, but I felt such palpable relief at the idea of the end of the road being in sight that I couldnt bring myself to ponder them.
I held out a hand towards the chasm, fingers reaching out into the dark.
My friend. The first real friend Id made in such a long ti. She was down there. Ti would finally begin to move forward again, and I would finally, finally be able to see her.
Maya.
I didnt bla her for telling the wrong person. In many ways, that it was divulged at all might have saved my life in more ways than one. The fact that the enemy knew my ability likely caused them no end of logistical problems in getting rid of , made the whole thing much more difficult and complex, required them to remove themselves from the picture entirely.
My chest tightened, and I forced myself to breathe. It was almost over. I just had to stay strong for a little longer. A mory nipped at my consciousness and my back and my arms flared uncomfortably, hot and itchy.
I pulled the aquamarine mory orb from my chest pocket and focused mana into it, feeling a dull suck on my forehead as the mory was copied. Id taken Erdoss advice. Viewing the more traumatic mories without relieving them helped fight down the episodes.
I saw Ozra, vigilant in the background as a shadowy demon held a scalding brand against my cheek. There was no sound, only images.
It wasnt that bad, I told myself. Just a couple of burns. Theyd done far, far worse before that nightmare was over. Then I found my mind drifting to those worse things, and closed my eyes, trying to prevent the downward spiral that would lead to.
You are lucky. I said it to myself, over and over. You are lucky.
I would not let the things that happened to change who I was.
My fist holding the mory orb slamd against the tal of the bench with a loud clang. Passing faces turned to look my way, then hurried along on theirs.
I was close now. So close.
There was no point in lying to myself. Things were going to get worse before they got better. But if I did it all perfectly, tid it all perfectly, this would finally be over soon, if not this ti, in one more reset.
Just one more.
Drying the sudden moisture that dampened my gaze, I stood. There would be ti for rest soon.
I went ho. Ralakos had posted additional guards, and I was surprised to see a small group of Guemons green. Ralakos must have talked to him. I hugged Kilvius and Nethtari. They were relieved, I think. The way Id been acting lately, I probably seed like an entirely different person.
For the first ti in over two months, I volunteered to put Agarin to bed and told him a story. He giggled and cooed as the fairy cleverly outwitted Sir Gantry, and this ti, he did not fall asleep until the end.
----
I sent a runner with an official invocation to Ephira the following morning, stating urgent matters. It was sothing I hadnt done since we hamred out our first deal in the early days of removing the blockade.
Bemusedly, I compared that etingwhich had been all cookies and teawith the rather unsettling eting from the previous restart. The woman knew how to treat her friends and her enemies, and I had to be one of the few people unlucky enough to have seen both sides.
I wondered, almost blandly, which version of Ephira I would et.
The summons went unrecognized for a few days. I spent them relaxing and studying magic. My left hand was mostly bandaged and immobile, so I hadnt faced the reality of the loss yet. There was a tranquility to those days that was native to my earlier ti in the Enclave, a ti Id nearly forgotten.
I studied the asmodials in greater detail, learning as much about the hierarchy and culture as I could stomach.
The arch-fiends of a given legion were fiercely territorial amongst themselves. But rarely, a leader would erge, one capable of aligning the infighting warlords towards a greater goal. This was almost always preceded a major uprising, not unlike the one stirring within the Enclave.
It confird, in my mind, that this was a big deal. I wouldnt be surprised if so version of this had happened in my first life. The violence itself had been long in the making. Soone was just using it for their own personal gain.
I took Jorra along with to harvest the rest of the garrote caps and gave him half the profits. His eyes bulged out of his head when Casikas gave us the final normal, and he stuffed the purse deep in his rucksack and sprinted ho.
It took a lot of experinting and a lot of funds, but I eventually ca up with what I wanted. A very specific, very weaponized version of the mages bane. With so effort and adjustnt, Id managed to reduce it to a concentrated powder form, making the taste of it far more subtle.
I couldnt tip my hand too early. That was crucial.
----
I received my summons to et Ephira at a little caf she owned in midtown. It appeared I was getting the tea-party Ephira, rather than the mind-gas Ephira. That was good. However, decent sceo was, I had no intention of eating it again any ti soon.
She had selected a private room within the cafes isolated upper level, one far from prying eyes. A single guard was posted outside the room and opened the door to let in. I nodded to him in appreciation.
Ephira was dressed in light pastels. She stood and curtsied as I entered the room, and awkwardly, I bowed in return. The contrast was stark.
Cairn, I was delighted to hear from you. But less delighted to hear about your she glanced at my bandaged wound. Misfortune.
I smiled weakly. Its alright, councillor, I have eight more.
Too true, too true. You know, the alabaster elves of the Nalore Tundras used to teach their children about frostbite by exposing them to it at an early age. It wasnt uncommon for them to lose a finger in the process Ephira poured us tea and prattled on for a while in that over-animated manner socialites use to remind everyone else how worldly and interesting they are.
Try the tea. Its to die for.
She was completely open and unguarded.
Without knowing it, Erdos had played his part exceedingly well.
It felt like such a huge, terrifying step to take.
I opened my mouth and spoke the words.
You know, the last ti I lived through this, you werent nearly this friendly. I dare say you were borderline hostile.
Ephira froze in place, and her eyes glazed over.
That really put off target. Had completely turned around. Slowly, I opened the parcel in my pocket and reached out for the air, summoning a pocket of breeze to carry the mage-bane to her tea in a rotating funnel. I wanted to move as little as possible to avoiding snapping her out of the fugue, and the process was slow.
For the longest ti, I didnt know what to think. Guemon was the obvious choice. He hated . He advocated to have killed. But the isolation, due to the poisoning, made consider other possibilities. Then you put onto Ralakos. The dead son gave him a solid motive, and the fact that almost everyone who holds one hand out to tends to hold a dagger in the other didnt exactly help matters. I stirred the tea thoroughly, added several scoops of sugar to mask the muted taste. But at the end of the day, that didnt make sense either. It would have been trivially easy for Ralakos to kill I was often alone with himor if he wanted to distance himself, to have Erdos kill any number of tis, either via training accident or so other drumd up bullshit.
I thought through it.
Then Persephone. Gods, if you want to know the real hero of this story, it isnt . Its the little girl who pointed towards Persephone. Who knows how long Id have wandered around looking for the answer before I found Persephone on my own.
I squinted, trying to rember her face. Shed seed so incredibly familiar, yet I still couldnt place it. The few tis Id been near the Thulian district Id kept an eye out for her, but never seen her again.
Persephone points to Mifral. Persephone seems smart. Rational. So, why is she sending soone she just t to rob a priceless artifact? To make you lose face, or at least, that was what I thought. Not to ntion, the gate was cut through with demon-fire. So, Persephone has access to demon-fla, or at least a way to mimic it. Thats huge. World shattering. It changes everything the mont soone discovers it only no one does. Weird, how nothing ever ca up about that. Only it wasnt. Because soone covered it up.
But thats easily explained away as you running interference for . That was still possible. We had an agreent and you nabbed Shear.
But then, the mining facility happened. I was still too focused on Ralakos to notice at the ti, but Persephone was off her ga. Really off. I an, I gave her an award-winning performance the first ti I t her, and she nearly called on it right then and there.
Soone that savvy, that cleversoone perceptive enough to pick up on the slightest shift of an accent suddenly loses her cool so easily when faced with outside interference during a negotiation?
I dont buy it.
She practically chased Mifral into your arms. Only, Ralakos showed up and complicated things. Then the demons killed you, Persephone, and Mifral. And they captured Ralakos.
Gods, that was a close thing.
If Ralakos hadnt recognized , hadnt tipped his hand, this whole thing might have gone very differently.
But he did.
That stumped .
I ran through that scene a dozen tis. Persephone, torn to pieces. Mifral, cut in half. Ralakos captured, and you your throat cut. Compared to the way the asmodials kill, sothing Ive witnessed first-hand dozens of tis at this point, your death was almost civilized.
Only, your throat was cut. The blood should have been bright red, arterial. Not dark.
Nothing really ca into focus beyond vague suspicions until I confird the missing piece with Nethtari: Maya. Maya went to you to beg for a thod of saving my lifethough Im still foggy on the particulars of that conversationand knowing that, it all clicked. She told you then, I think. She told you that I had visions, that I could see the future. That I was worth saving.
And that changed everything.
You had to be careful, Ephira. You had to make sure that my killing couldnt be tied to you even from the grave. In fact, you had to go out of your way to mislead , keep tied up in circles chasing dead-ends until the tir ran out. First Guemon, then Ralakos, then Persephone.
Gods, you really did plan for every contingency.
But you made a mistake. You couldnt control Guemon, and he pushed far too hard at the trial. That tipped off Ralakos, who had n following for my protection from that day onward. I suspect, without that misstep, it would have been much easier to kill earlier on. I think that's why you had Erdos poison him. I've done so research in the interim. It's desperately tricky to poison soone with garrote cap. The slightest miscalculation in dose and you get an organ shredder instead. You didn't want him dead. You wanted him angry and scared of , cornered and conveniently out of the way
In a classic mistake for a despot, you were prepared for everything but basic decency. Erdos was supposed to make sure I died during the ambush. But I saved his n trapped under the ice, after you sent them to die. With that, and the realization youd set them all up, Erdos chose to save .
And Persephone. I dont know all the sordid history between the two of you, but I know enough from what I saw in the mining facility to know Persephones hate for you is not an act. I knew you had to have sothing on her, sothing big, to use her to get in touch with the asmodials and get Mifral to surrender the scepter in ti to use it for the attack.
My guess? You threatened to expose her son.
Im not sure why she wanted him hidden, but she did. And as soon as he was threatened she folded. A hardened duchess of the underworld, undone by the love of her child. Then she told the story I asked her to tell:
The story you tried so desperately to make believe.
The story of how Ralakos had turned on .
Erdos listened in, as I expected he would. Then Ralakoss spies confird he took the story straight to you that very night.
And that brings us here. You, welcoming into a neutral location, with open arms, alone, and practically unguarded. And I know almost everything. The only question left, is why?
I stopped, feeling spent, almost dizzy. Ephiras eyes unclouded, and she stared at in montary confusion.
Im sorry, I lost my train of thought, Ephira said.
You were telling about the tea, I said.
Ah, right. She held it to her lips and took a long pull.
I drank from mine. There were no delusions. This wasnt over. It was probably too late to stop the attack. But Id learned to revel in the little victories, the small things.
And as Ralakoss n rushed in, pressed her down against the table and threw the manacles on; as she struggled, and shouted, and tried and failed to summon, I found myself smiling. Ephira was right.
The tea was exemplary.
----
AN: This has been a long ti coming and there's still more to reveal. Be careful not to spoil your fellow readers on RR and lower tiers :).
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