V-24 Gaslight

There are two words you must never say to someone who is deep in the throes of rage. Those two words are "calm down." "Calm down" to an angry person is like saying that their mother deserved to die in that demonic raid. "Calm down" is telling them that their suffering was their fault, that they should have been stronger.

Listen to me. Listen very closely. In this class, we need to use the anti-logic. What is anti-logic? It is the logic that goes against logic. This might be a bit harder for the automata students here, but I need you to think. Think very carefully.

In a vacuum, some things make sense. Yes, it would be most optimal if we simply didn't feel and we operated to the utmost benefit of ourselves and our communities, but that's almost never the case for everyone. In fact, it's rarely the case. So you understand that you have to be careful about what you say to certain people. You have to understand their personalities. If someone is easily enraged or already sad or mentally fragile, telling them that something is their fault or putting more pressure on them will only result in more damage and no gains.

Even if it will bother you, even if it might make you mad, it is up to you. And I mean you specifically. You took this class for a reason. You have imprinted this responsibility on yourself because now you know, now you understand the value and the weaponization of empathy. You must be the one that masters and uses your own emotions, because most other people can't.

They're not trained to. Vanguards are not trained to use their emotions. They're trained to hit things, to break things, to be vicious, furious, to draw on their rage in times of desperation. But there are many different kinds of desperation, and sometimes the desperation starts at the heart. Sometimes someone is just hurt and they don't know how to ask for help.

So in this course, you're going to listen very carefully. Because "I'm in pain and I need help" never comes out as "I'm in pain and I need help." Most people are not honest, least of all to themselves.

So do not say "calm down." Instead, the magic words are "that sounds terrible, tell me more," or some variation thereof.

-Master-Professor Vrong McGill, DIPLO-312

V-24
Gaslight

"Wait, Shiv, what are you planning to do?" Adam reached out from behind the Deathless.

As Shiv finished fastening the towel around his hip, he folded a mask of stolen paths from his cape and placed it on his face. Immediately, his Perfect Semblance activated, and he assumed Marcus's guise once more.

"It's simple, Adam. I'm going to stop time, I'm going to strangle all of them unconscious, and then I'm going to dump them somewhere else."

The Gate Lord sputtered, "Is that your solution to everything? Stop time and strangle someone unconscious."

"It's the easiest thing I can do," Shiv said.

"And what about the girl?"

"What? Oh, the one that was following them? The pregnant one?"

"Yes, the pregnant one," Adam hissed. “You think strangling her is wise? Are you trying to get a miscarriage-based feat or skill?”

Shiv blinked. “You think there’s something like that.”

“I—you—” Adam’s face changed color.

“I’m just asking!”

“Don’t ask something like that! You’re not bloody strangling the girl.”

“Alright. Shit. Fine. You’re right! But—”

The banging outside intensified. "Marcus, we know you're in there! We can feel you. Don't bother hiding. Your scent has been claimed by Master Magnolia, and she will never lose your trace again!”

Shiv sighed. "Okay, I guess that explains how they found me. One of them has some kind of tracking skill."

"Tracking mixed in with Awareness, perhaps," Adam theorized. "Having one's scent… That’s quite wolf-like, I would say." Just then, Adam sniffed himself, and then he licked his lips. "Ah, of course. She's a Shifter."

Shiv paused. "A Shifter?"

"She’s a member of the Republic's Shifter Clans. They live in the sparsely populated regions of the Yellowstone Republic, usually deep in the wilderness or on the borders. Most of them are imbued with blessings from a patron spirit, and that allows them to have certain skills that are usually only developable by an animal, or a specific kind of monster. When they get stronger, they are also rumored to have a hybrid state, but that could be just an advanced Biomancy spell known only to their tribe.”

"It's also pointless," Helix commented with a roll of his eyes. He pulled his glasses off and began cleaning it using his coat. "Taking divine energy into yourself so that you can shape your body halfway into an animal. It's cheap. It's shoddy work. It's best that you understand the animal and surpass it. Being like a dog or a wolf," he nearly spat in disgust. "I can make my nose so refined that I can taste the sweet smell of a bug's droppings from 1000 kilometers away."

"Why are you smelling bug droppings from a thousand kilometers away?" Shiv said mockingly.

"It was a metaphor."

"Shitty one," Shiv grunted with amusement.

Helix rolled his eyes so hard, some of his blood vessels popped. “Perhaps under my tutorship, I can instill you with highbrow humor.”

“I beg the Challenger that doesn’t happen,” Whisper murmured. “Hopefully he just kills you instead. You’re about as funny as Male Pregnancy after the joke is overdone, Helix.”

As Marcus's murder party continued trying to batter down his doors, Shiv could hear other people gathering outside, other doors clicking open.

"Hey, I'm trying to study here. I don't care if this Marcus guy knocked up your sister, your mother, your dog, or you. I got a report due next week, so can you please take this family drama back to whatever rat nest you guys came from?"

"You dare call the glorious mountain holds of Old Brunswick a rat nest?" a new voice bellowed. Shiv guessed it was probably one of the other boys in the group. Maybe that guy with a goat tattoo over his eye.

"We're not leaving," one of the boys called again. "We're not leaving until Marcus comes out, and he faces a trial on blood at our hands. For what he did. For everything he did."

A new voice joined the fray. This one deep and rumbling. Shiv remembered hearing this one. It was the ogre in the communal kitchen earlier. "Hey guys, if you keep making a ruckus like this, I'm gonna have to call campus security."

"Get away from us, you monster."

"Monster.” The deep voice sighed. “Okay. Very, very mature. I'm gonna go back to the kitchen, and then I'm going to signal security. You guys have fun battering down the doors and cleaning out all the latrines next week. We'll be sure to leave you an extra special gift after holding it in for two days."

Shiv felt the ground shake as the ogre stomped away. He began pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright, Adam, if I can't choke them out, what do you suggest? Because we’re going to need to deal with campus security soon, too. Just great. Can’t even finish washing myself in peace. Fucking, come on.”

"I don't know, how about opening the door and pretending to be Marcus? And then you can just, just speak to them. Calm them down with your psychology."

"Yeah, I don't think they want to be calm, Adam. I think they want to kill Marcus. And if they try, their weapons or their fists are going to break against me. And then I'm going to have to answer several questions. Such as, why is this Adept-Tier student seemingly indestructible? And with Magnolia being there with them, she's definitely going to notice something's up. She's Master-Tier. And if she gets pissed enough, take a swing at me using one of her axes. And boy did she come close earlier."

“Well, you didn’t help things much then either.” Adam winced as he remembered that too. He'd been monitoring Shiv all this while, so the Deathless didn't need to recount his encounter with Magnolia. “Maybe it’s best that you don’t speak with them. Alright. So how about you just come over this dimensional pathway and wait for things to blow over."

"Yeah, I considered that," Shiv said. "But they're probably going to keep waiting outside. And they're never going to stop hounding me. No, we need to find a way to finish this and finish this for good. I can't be running away from them every time I try crossing the campus grounds. I’m not doing that shit. The entire point of a Perfect Semblance is being able to operate freely in the capital. This isn’t free.”

And then a cunning plan formed in the back of Shiv's mind. "Helix!" the Deathless called out. "Can you add some meat and, uh, other tissues to my face and ears right now?"

"You want me to apply bits of flesh to your Perfect Semblance and disguise you as someone who looks slightly different from Marcus. Is that it?" Helix sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Uh, yeah," Shiv said. "Something like that. Maybe I'll be able to pull something off. They'll come in, they'll think I'm Marcus, and then I'll tell them they found the wrong guy. And after that, they'll not come back around here anymore."

"She has your scent, though," Adam stressed.

"Scents can be wrong," Shiv waved him off. "I just need them to be convinced that—"

"Shiv, the Analyze skill!" Adam all but snarled. “Think!”

"Godsdamn it!" Shiv forgot that the Analyze Skill was a thing. He barely used it, and most other people couldn't get much use out of it against him thanks to his Non-Sequitur Skill Evolution.

"You could just wait for security to arrive," Whisper said. He used one of his knives to pick at his nails. Utterly nonchalant about the whole affair. "They will have to be removed for causing this disturbance, and then it won't be your matter. Or, I can help you make them vanish—”

“No!” Shiv and Adam both cried at the same time.

"Yeah, but I just don't want them to come back," the Deathless sighed. "I just—" And then he paused as he looked at Adam. His cunning plan took a sharp turn. "Adam, we can disguise you. I can hide in your cape and telepathically tell you what to say!”

"What? No, absolutely not," Adam said. "This dorm has been assigned to you, and if I expose myself, people here might recognize me."

"That's why we disguise you," Shiv said, emphasizing the words. "Helix, get on that. Here, Adam." Shiv removed his cape and placed it on the Gate Lord's shoulders. "You just need to convince them to piss off, and you tell them that this room is your room, and that they made a mistake."

Before Adam could reject the idea, Shiv was already moving. He fastened his cape around the Gate Lord's neck, and Adam hissed as bits of Biomancy crashed against his face. His nose grew a little bit longer, and his ears a little wider. Patches of white meat were added to his cheeks, and it made him seem positively cherubic rather than lean and handsome.

"You owe me for this," Adam seethed at Shiv.

"I owe you for a lot of things, Adam," Shiv patted him on the shoulder. "You're a great guy. I'm going inside. I'll cook something for you later. Chicken wings or something. Here.” Shiv wrapped his towel around Adam’s body and fled into the cape.

***

Adam stammered under his breath. "I can't believe I'm doing this." He looked down and realized he was still clad in his Legendary-Tier armor. Shiv’s towel barely masked anything. “Ascendants, this…” He shaped a sheen of water over himself using his Heroic Skill and growled. “It’ll have to do for now.” He looked behind himself. “Orcs. Stay here. Don’t kill anything.”

“Do we answer to you now?” Helix asked.

Adam grunted and responded by whipping the Biomancer in the face with a tendril of water. Helix gave a squawking cry of pain as he tumbled back. “Very mouthy for a non-martial in slapping distance.”

Whisper and Tequila laughed.

“The bird’s finding his cock,” Mortar called from the other side.

He stumbled out of the restroom, but after that, Shiv saw nothing anymore. Instead, he dove toward the forest of alloy, where his void-mantic armor was still waiting.

Adam couldn't believe he was doing this shit. But compared to letting Shiv just choke these people out, or come up with another harebrained scheme, let alone whatever atrocities the orcs might inflict, this might be for the best. Taking a deep breath, he centered himself, and commanded his heart to calm.

“Relax, Adam,” Shiv said psionically. “Just tell them you’re another student or something. Make them think they’re in the wrong place—oh, shit, get the bed. Make it seem like you live here.”

Adam immediately sprinted for the bed. He made it seem messier than it had been a few moments ago. He flipped the sheets and left the pillow askew. He also pulled the chair out, and grimaced as he realized Shiv didn't have any belongings. No books, no tomes, no anything.

Adam placed his rapier on the table. For now, using it as a distraction. If someone came in, he could say he was trying to tinker with his family heirloom. Keep it away from their prying eyes if they try to analyze it or touch it.

As another set of bangs followed, Adam bit his bottom lip and pulled the door open. "Yes, yes, what, what?" he shouted his annoyance into the robe-covered chest of an absolutely massive student.

The Gate Lord did a double take. This one was practically Shiv-sized. He had a bit more meat on his face than the deathless did, but they were both closer to being small buildings than they were men. “How do they feed these people in Old Brunswick?” Adam thought to himself. “They’re in the damned harshlands.”

“I kind of want to know too,” Shiv breathed.

As the angry band of students gathered to murder Marcus Unblood took in the sight of Adam Arrow, he looked back at them with a gesture of pure frustration. "So who are you fine overfed gentlebrutes? Who is this Marcus? And what brings you to my dorm in the middle of the night?" He waved behind himself wildly, gesturing at the rest of his room. "If you can't see, I'm in the middle of something here, tinkering with equipment. Very intensive work. Also distracting all the other people in the dorm."

The towering boy was briefly at a loss for words, but then he clenched his jaw and tried pushing Adam aside. Large as he was, though, there was one critical difference between them. Adam Arrow was a Heroic-Tier Pathbearer, and he wasn't going to be brushed away by the lowest of adepts in terms of physicality.

The large boy shoved. Adam didn't move at all. An irritated frown grew on the gate lord's face, and he simply folded his arms in mimicry of how Shiv would when he was unimpressed with someone.

"Move aside!" the large boy growled.

"I think not," Adam replied. He drew in a bit more moisture as the large boy threw his entire body into the effort.

Adam looked over his shoulder and took in the rest of the group. The other two boys were clearly related to the first one, probably brothers. One had a stag or a goat or something, and the other one had an eagle tattooed over their eyes. They Shifter clan too? Adam wondered to himself. They don't seem to be, I can't tell. I'm not getting any of those animal smells from them, not like with Magnolia.

Speaking of Magnolia, the older woman loomed in the background, her face masked beneath dark shadows of fury. She was like a storm lurking just over the bend of the horizon. And even more than the boys, she was on the verge of doing something violent and stupid.

Of everyone present, Adam understood why she was here the most. Marcus had impregnated her daughter—her daughter who died. She also seemed to despise the crippled boy for other reasons. Those were reasonable justifications to hate someone. Adam couldn't fully judge, especially considering his past with Shiv. But he'd never tried to kill the Deathless, not even when he was the Omenborn.

Magnolia was a different story altogether. She was inches away from a mental breakdown or an attempted murder. And looking at her posture right now, she wasn't any better in terms of mood or intention.

“She’s fragile,” Shiv said.

“What?” Adam replied.

“She’s not just angry, she’s terrified, too. I can feel her fear. It’s heavy. Be careful around her. She’s in worse mental shape than I thought.”

The final member of the group stood a few meters away. She held her midriff and there was a slight bulge there. Adam had a hard time looking at her. The Gate Lord had heard that underage pregnancies were quite common among the low tiers and the poverty-stricken. But with the life Adam lived, he didn't much associate with those low-tier or poverty-stricken.

There were underage pregnancies in the nobility, of course. But those were usually handled by means of quiet delivery, followed by a hush adoption or a deposit to an orphanage. In other cases, an application of Biomancy could see the pregnancy resolved quickly as well. The nobility didn't wish for their bloodlines to be sullied, after all. Especially since a great many of them still believed in such things as genetic dynasties.

But for such unfortunate matters to occur among the nobility meant that either one or both parties were being unwise. Contraceptive enchantments were quite common in the Republic by this point, especially for those of sufficient wealth and privilege. Pair that with the fact that Pathbearers who had too much of a physicality tier difference usually had issues copulating successfully, and then bringing a child to term thereafter, you were faced with what most demographers within the Republic called the Descending Slope of High-Tier Fertility.

As the bear-eyed boy let out a final rasp of effort, he reached up, jamming his hand and his fingers against Adam's eye. The Gate Lord turned his face away, and the first flickers of genuine anger crawled up inside of him. But his anger was a calculated thing. It wasn't explosive, and he didn't hurt as a first resort. These were simple boys, and they were wounded inside. 

He was a Gate Lord and a noble of Blackedge, and he had a responsibility as Pathbearer to administer justice and rightful judgment for those weaker than him and those who couldn't protect themselves.

He reached up and used his Hydromancy to pull the boy's hand away. Adam wrapped the bear-eyed student’s hand in a dense weave of water magic. “Stop…”

The bear-eyed boy growled and tried to strike Adam with his other hand. His fist moved at the speed of a slug crippled by salt after it was stomped on. The Gate Lord moved and sighed. The punch missed. He pinned the bear-eyed boy’s other hand as well.

“Bastard!” the eagle-eyed boy cried out. He and the goat-eye joined in, barreling into their brother, trying to add their strength to his and push Adam aside. Adam still didn't move. After all he'd faced over the past months, after the nightmare that was the umbral wilderness, the Recollector, the Tarrasque, the prison, this was practically a vacation.

A shitty one.

"That's enough," Adam said. He slowly turned the first boy's hand, and he let out a rasping gasp. He watched as the boy turned his hand into something made of stone, but then the stone crumbled away as he failed to concentrate long enough on his geomantic spell. Terrible focus, Adam chided internally. Undisciplined, lacking in practice.

The Gate Lord started to bend the first boy's left pinky. His eyes were on Magnolia now. "I'm not going to break his finger, but please get him away from me, him and everyone else."

The master-tier shifter lifted her head and observed him quietly. "Who are you?" she asked. "You are no first year."

"Oh, but I am," Adam replied, swallowing. His mind spun as he tried to come up with something.  "I'm a first-year under… special request."

She blinked twice and understood what he was saying. "Under special request" was usually a subtle way of declaring oneself for the Inquisition. And now Magnolia was starting to look worried, for in their hunt to avenge themselves on Marcus, they wandered into the den of a beast that was far larger than they.

“Holy shit,” Shiv breathed. “Yeah… Yeah, I think we can work with this. Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Because people talk and even hinting that I’m a Inquisition plant might actually draw actual Inquisitorial attention to us,” Adam sighed.

"Kareth, Murad, Kenneth, back, back, he's not here, back." Magnolia grimaced.

"But you said—"

"Back!" she barked, and all three boys flinched away from Adam.

Standing in the hall nearby, Adam noticed the large green arm of an ogre. He poked his head beyond the rim of the door, and he saw the green-skinned student looking on, scooping spoonfuls of what smelled like chili from a massive bowl. Adam slowly pulled his head back in.

“That’s fine,” Shiv said. “He heard you. He’s probably going to keep his mouth shut. No one wants the Inquisition on their ass.”

“Or tell everyone,” Adam replied.

As all three boys huffed and puffed, Adam regarded them with indifference. Instead, his main focus remained locked to Magnolia and hers to him. "I apologize for interrupting your evening," he said.

"But—" she hesitated, and she didn't leave.

"However," Adam helped her so that she could continue on with this farce, and they could get this thing concluded. “Keep going. You have something to say, citizen.”

"However, we were hunting someone, someone who's done our family a grave wrong. I followed his scent here using—"

"I know what you are, Shifter." Adam cut her off before she could go into a long explanation. "And I know who you're looking for. He's not here right now, he is temporarily in questioning."

Magnolia's mouth fell open. "I do not understand."

"You don't need to," Adam said with all the severity of an Inquisitor. "We understand that you have already had an encounter with our suspect, and we don't care for you to have another encounter like that."

Magnolia's surprise only grew, as did her trepidation.

“Yeah, keep pressing on that,” Shiv whispered in the back of Adam's mind. “She's getting pretty scared now. You go down this angle, and maybe you'll be able to make them apprehensive about approaching Marcus for good.”

"What you need to know is that we have a few things to ask Adept Unblood. It does not concern your expedition specifically, but it does have something to do with his quote-unquote miraculous resurrection."

"I didn't smell the taint of Necromancy on him," Magnolia said, trying to seem helpful to Adam.

"Oh, you didn't smell that," Adam replied with a sneer. "How wonderful, how glorious. I suppose that the Inquisition is no longer necessary. Every Risen can be detected by your nose, after all. So what's the point of this?"

"That's not what I meant," Magnolia defended. "You understand—"

"I understand nothing," Adam said, taking a step forward. Everyone before him stumbled back. "Nothing at all."

“In fact…” the Gate Lord looked each of them over. He hesitated. “In fact what, Shiv? In fact what?”

“Bring them in for questioning.”

“What? Where? Inside the room? Inside the room? Yeah. I want to know why they want Marcus dead so bad. It can't just be because he knocked a few people up, right? They’re basically causing a scene right on academy grounds for this. It’s a lot of noise for something that should be handled quietly.”

“I don't know, Shiv. These are Shifter clans and Wilderfolk. They treat family honor like nothing else.”

“Yeah, alright, alright. Just let's figure this out so that we can try to make it right. Or at least put it to an end.”

"Come inside," Inquisitor Adam said. He gestured for them to follow. And this time they didn't. They all lingered outside. The boys seemed petrified. Their faces were pale. Magnolia was frozen to the spot.

Adam looked over his shoulder and scowled. 

“You tell them that it's not a request, it's a statement,” Shiv suggested.

“Oh,” Adam said internally, “that sounds damned vicious. I think I'll use that myself sometimes.”

“Yeah, feel free to.”

"That's not a request," Adam said with as much venom as he could muster. "That was a statement."

At that, a slight breath of terror escaped Magnolia as she filtered in along with the rest of the group. Quiet sobs came from their rear as the girl tried to keep herself composed. She felt bad. Adam felt bad. They felt bad together. It seemed no matter what they did, someone was going to suffer for it a slight bit today.

"Inquisitor," Magnolia began, waiting for Adam to give her a name. He realized it was wise of him to take up the guise of an inquisitor. A good recommendation on Shiv's part, but he was also quite young looking, and so trying to sell the image of a full inquisitor was likely folly.

"Interrogator," Adam corrected. "And that is all you are getting. We are not here to be friends. We are here to discuss why you are so intent on pursuing my suspect. My suspect, who is currently undergoing interrogations at the hands of my colleagues."

"Good," the bear-tattooed boy hissed. "I hope you make him suffer."

Adam eyed him briefly until he wilted before his glare and stopped talking. The gate lord sat down on the chair and regarded the assembled group with a disdain that only a high-tiered noble could muster. "Well, who wishes to begin their account of grievances? You've already stumbled into my operation, so you're going to be included in the report."

Magnolia trembled.

"If you have nothing to hide and your grievances are valid, then you will have nothing to worry about. We are here to protect you, citizen, from all dangers, including yourselves."

Magnolia's jaw was clenched tight, but the bear-tattooed boy was on the verge of exploding. "It was his fault!" he blurted out. His fists were clenched, and roiling waves of stone crawled across his body. His geomancy was uncontrolled. He wasn't a well-trained mage, but he was powerful for his age.

Powerful for his age, Adam thought to himself. Who knows if he's actually even younger than me? And what is compared to me? System… It’s like we’re not even the same species anymore.

As Adam stared into the rageful eyes of the Brunswick boy, he saw some hardship there, but there was also a softness as well. That was the kind of softness that came with youthful arrogance, with the assumption that they knew enough of the world, and that through will and the strength of their arm, they could chop down any foe.

That softness had died in Adam. Sometime after his encounter against the Dragon Knights, sometime after the Recollector and that eldritch madness. Both times he came so close to death that he could practically feel the void pulling at him. When he returned, a part of him was missing, and a part of him had been kissed by the emptiness that waited beyond. Adam would never know that feeling of invincibility again, that assumption he was special, untouchable. That war was a ballad, and he was the hero in the lyrics.

"You think you've been wounded," Adam said, speaking from the heart.

The bear-tattooed boy was surprised. "I—"

"You don't know what lurks beyond, do you? You think the frost giants are the worst of it. You think because you lost a few people that you know pain. Do you know what it's like to watch millions burn? To know that the people you trusted were liars and that everyone you counted on was a fraud, and that someone you assumed to be a monster became your closest ally and friend in dark times?"

The Brunswick boy said nothing. Neither did Shiv.

Adam shook his head. "It's beyond you. You don't understand. But you can help me understand. Why was it all his fault?" The Gate Lord gestured at the girl behind the group. "Is she his fault?"

"No, she's my sister, Caradah. She was deceived. She was seduced and impregnated by a vermin! A lout!"

"Is that it?" Adam said, sounding utterly bored of the whole matter.

"It's not just that. It's not just what he did to her and Opal. They… It was wrong. It was beyond wrong.”

And suddenly things changed a little bit for Adam. He leaned in. "Was any of it unwilling?"

"I—" The bear-tattooed boy began.

"No!" the girl cried out. "It was—it was not—I just thought—I thought he cared." She touched her abdomen harder and her eyes grew misted. Brown eyes. Too soft. Too young. Too hurt.

Adam looked away. And he thought of Isabella. His own insides grew twisted with grief at the thought of her. He didn't even know where she was and what he would say to her once they met again, if they met again. After what happened to her father, the ascendants left Blackedge. What was there to say? There was too much to say.

"So, he's simply avoiding responsibility, is that it?" Adam continued.

"It's not just avoiding a responsibility. He's the reason we got attacked by the Jotun." The bear-tattooed boy looked aside and barely bit back a cry of rage. "We think he planned it."

"Planned it?" Adam leaned in. Now he was genuinely interested. "You think that Marcus Unblood planned your ambush at the hands of the Jotun?"

"I know he did," the boy seethed. "How else would they have known we were on that path? How else could Master Magnolia be caught in one of their traps? Master Magnolia, she's... her... she can sense anything. Her senses are so sharp."

Now Adam was looking at Magnolia, but she wasn't looking at him. No. Her gaze fell downward. Despondent. Miserable.

“I think I know what this is,” Shiv said, sounding a bit dour himself. “I think she genuinely screwed up, got some of these kids killed. But then she probably found out that her daughter was pregnant after she died, and she found out Marcus was probably the father afterward too. 

“Now Marcus is suddenly back and alive. The other girl was also attached to him by pregnancy. The boys probably hate him already because of that. He was already cursed, so probably ostracized from the village, and the easier story to stomach is the story that the freak among you who already impregnated two girls, cheated on both of them, was also the reason so many of the expedition died.”

Adam was inclined to agree, though he wasn't entirely certain yet. There were still many pieces missing, but the Deathless had an intuition about people sometimes, and a cruel insight.

“Won't call it cruel, it's just everyone I use my psychology on is practically an enemy.”

“Your psychology was born from orcs,” Adam replied.

That made Shiv wince. “Yeah, it was.”

“It might not be a bad thing right now. I have a feeling that this situation is just as bleak and ugly as it seems. Gods. What a mess. Shoved right into our faces. Fucking system.”

“Fucking system,” Shiv agreed.

The Gate Lord didn't press. He let Magnolia have her dignity. "But you have no evidence."

"I—I—" The bear-eyed boy sputtered as he tried to master his anger.

"He was cursed, Master Interrogator," the other boy with the raven or eagle tattoo over his eye said. "Cursed by the Ascendants themselves. Surely that is a sign of the foulness in his soul."

"I didn't ask you for a theology lesson. I asked you if you had evidence he led the Jotun to attack you. That would be grounds for something else," Adam finished. "If you do not, then how do you wish for me to conduct this?"

"You can put him to the question," the eagle-eyed boy continued. "Break him, and the truth will follow."

"And what do you think is happening right now? And how much do you think a boy with potential brain damage can break? You have to take that into account as well. He's been without oxygen for some time. Actually, what am I doing? All of you out. All of you except for her and her." Adam gestured toward Magnolia and Caradah, as Shiv instructed.

The boys looked uncertain, and even willing to fight. There was a doubt in their body language. They knew they couldn't beat Adam, but even so, they didn't want to abandon their sister or their master.

"Leave," Magnolia said softly. "For now, just leave. Wait outside, please." It looked like she had aged a decade, and she was utterly worn. Caradah, meanwhile, was shivering, as if the room had dropped a good 30 degrees.

The retreat of the three boys was slow, as it was awkward, and as they got to the hallway again, they all looked back. They waited outside attentively, like hounds told to sit and linger by their masters.

The door was shut by Magnolia, and she whispered something to them, just before she closed it entirely. When she turned, she faced Adam once more, and there she stood, reluctant to approach him, fearful of what might follow.

"I want you to tell me, I want you to look me in the eye," Adam said, pointing to his eye, "and tell me that it was his fault, and not yours. Tell me Marcus Unblood caused the Jotun attack, and not your carelessness, not your failure. Tell me Marcus Unblood is the reason for your daughter's demise, and not you."