V-6 Neath (I)

Neath is shorthand for beneath; it is also the name attributed to the greater criminal underworld of Integrated Earth. Though there are cutthroats, thieves, smugglers, and more within every major nation or empire, the true underbelly of crime is organized and governed by the Dragon Brokers, an enigmatic group of path bearers who have existed since time immemorial.

Under their management, the desperate and powerless have another option rather than participating in the rules of polite society. Also, practically anything can be bought in the Neath, provided one has the mithril or capability to exchange favor for favor. And that is the ultimate currency which fuels the Neath: favors owed by powerful individuals.

For at some point, you will need someone to help you, and very often you will need that help to go against the very society you were born in, or to exact retribution on someone far beyond your station. After that, one of your skills will be ritualistically bound, and soon, even if you don't understand it, you will be inducted into a new world—a world of shadows, deception, crime, and unending debt.

For once you sink below the surface, you will either learn to breathe in the fetid waters of the Neath, or you will drown, and your body will never be found. Remember this: Everything has a consequence. Everything has a cost. What are you willing to pay?

-What Lurks Below: An Exposé on the Hidden World of Organized Crime (Banned by Republic authorities for unlawful slander and fearmongering)

V-6

Neath (I)

Seconds passed, and no one in the cellar said anything. The cigar-chewing goblin sighed and slammed two clawed hands upon her knees. She wore dusty overalls, and a hard hat hung lopsided on her head. He'd guessed she was a builder of some kind. Construction by the look of it. So why was she down here, and why was she serving the role of a goon?

"Listen, you sound honest, you sound desperate, and you sound stupid for invoking the Dragon Brokers. You know they don't much like that, right? Other people invoking their power to get something? It's not how business is done down here." The goblin had a faint sneer, but she was mostly projecting a front of strength rather than actually being a thing of courage.

"It's exactly how business is done down here," Irons said, without any hesitation. "I needed their help. I needed their help because I was going to do something that I couldn't otherwise. It's as you said. I was desperate, and this is stupid. But I'll do desperate and stupid if it means preserving a life. So again, Custiel, I need to see him. I need to find a way back into Flamecrown Castle."

The moment he said that, the goblins in the room slammed their little hands over their ears. Some of them mumbled, the others rolled their eyes.

"Don't say that shit out loud, man," the cigar-chewing goblin groaned. "We don't need to know that. None of us need to know that. Now we're gonna all have to go visit a Psychomancer and get that cut out of us." She mumbled under her breath as she got to her feet.

She tore across the room, but rather than approach Captain Irons, she ran to the back where several massive barrels loomed. She crawled up on the first two rows, and by the time she got to the third, she reached higher and turned one of the taps above her. In an instant, a spray of foaming amber crashed down on her head like a waterfall. He was confused as to why she did that, but then the waterfall wrapped around her. The alcohol came alive with hydrokinetic mana. A moment later, the goblin was gone, drained into the narrow nozzle of the liquor dispenser.

"Oh, that is clever," Adam said, "but that also requires a very specific Skill Evolution."

"Specific skills, indeed," the Educator added. "Specific skills that we will need to make use of. That's where we're going as well, across that nozzle, to see this Custiel."

Shiv grunted in surprise. "Wait, you don't know who we're going to see?"

"I knew the location. I have contacts in the Neath, but individual names and specific Pathbearers? No. And often you have to surrender this knowledge afterward."

"Surrender how?" Shiv asked.

"Psychokinetically," the Educator answered.

That didn't sit well with the Deathless. He was willing to give up a lot of things, but his memories, and letting someone else reach into his mind? No, he was done with that. He'd faced enough threats to know how treacherous it was to let someone influence your consciousness.

"Yet, this Captain Irons of yours still seems to remember the expert that offered this service," the Educator hummed. Shiv guessed she was observing the Vanguard staring all the goblins down. "If I am to guess, he came to get the same thing we're about to. Shell identities, false semblances to fool anyone trying to analyze him. And I also suspect I know why his last shell failed.”

Shiv thought about that for a moment, and he cast his Psychomancy into Adam. "False souls, shell identities. Sounds a little bit like something I used to have."

"Yes. Your mask. Still broken, is it?”

"Haven't had the chance to fix it. Too busy doing hard time in jail."

"Right. But if we could get it to work again, Can Hu could potentially rebuild it."

"Can he do that without your unique mana core?" 

Adam fell silent. "And do we have the time to do that while most of the capital is on a manhunt for our asses?"

"Good point," Adam sighed. "Besides, even if we manage to fix that mask, it will only hide one of us. And probably not you."

"You mean probably not me," Shiv said.

"Oh, come now, Shiv. We both know how well your undercover attempts go."

"Hey, listen, the last time was complete bullshit. I would have done great undercover if 812 didn't stab me in the ass the moment I got in. Hell, before I got in. That felling shit was waiting to screw me over from the start.”

"Excuses, excuses," the Gate Lord tutted.

"The hell with you, Arrow. You know I'm right."

"So, out of curiosity, I just want to ask," another goblin said. "You don't need to tell me too much about what you were doing. But, you know, how did things go all to hell? And how'd you get out? It looked like you bashed someone with that helmet of yours."

Irons's hazel eyes snapped to the goblin in a explosive instant. The speed at which he turned his gaze told Shiv the man likely had at least Master-Tier Reflexes. The rest of him was harder to gauge. He wore heavyset armor, so Shiv assumed his Toughness to be Master at least, strength as well. But he couldn't detect any obvious magic from the man. That didn't mean that Irons didn't have any, but if he did, it was a particularly subtle Magical Skill. Or it was Geomancy, one of the few lores Shiv didn't have access to.

"My shell failed," Irons said. "It managed to get me pretty deep into the castle, but broke near the end. I need a new one. Need it quick."

The goblin he was speaking to looked troubled. This goblin wasn't dressed like the one that went seeking Custiel. Rather, he wore a blazer with fine slacks and leather shoes. Most goblins didn't wear shoes; their clawed appendages made it hard, but this one seemed to make a special attempt at being dressed properly. Furthermore, he also had a pair of spectacles and a gray beret placed atop his head. From the sluggishness of his motion, this goblin wasn't a warrior at all. Sub-Adept in terms of reflex. Maybe an accountant or something logistical, Shiv guessed.

"Custiel's shells never fail," the goblin commented. A few of the others nodded along, but Shiv read something on their faces, something left unsaid.

"They did for me," Irons insisted. He wasn't emotional when he justified himself, but there was a heat in his voice, and Shiv guessed that Captain Irons was a man who held himself to a strict rigor, governed himself by way of practice, discipline, and martial honor. But the last part meant that he wasn't far from violence either.

"Did you run into any of the ascendants or their avatars?" the well-dressed goblin asked. Irons didn't answer immediately.

Another of the goblins let out a huffing breath. This one wore an apron, but its front side was stained with blood. Butcher, Shiv guessed. "Yeah, so if you run into a divine entity, it's gonna break. Custiel's a legend, but, you know, Legends ain't really gods, friend. You gotta be a little bit more careful when you're running under the noses of the biggest of the big."

"Biggest of the big," the Educator commented scornfully. "As if we are anything more than up-jumped children. This power is not even ours."

That caught Shiv's interest. "Maia," Shiv said, invoking the Educator's real name. He felt a brief spike of alarm come from her, and it was followed by a wave of abrasive fury.

"Never call me that."

"Maia," Shiv said again, partly because he felt like being an asshole, but ultimately because the Educator couldn't really do anything to him, not without Udraal getting mad and not without betraying their position. "If you hate being an ascendant so much, why did you bother taking on the power in the first place?"

"Because I wanted to survive. Because I was young. Because I was foolish. Because I was easily goaded, just like I'm easily goaded right now. Because the system is determined to force me into these miserable circumstances, in which I have to work with fools and killers." As she finished her diatribe, the rage inside her simmered down. "Because I didn't know the cost. I couldn't have known. And now I feel it fully. And I experience taunts from the world, even when they're not directed at me."

Just then, the goblin that left through the tap returned. A spray of foam filled the space beneath the dispenser, and she came striding free, stepping out from the brightly fizzling alcohol as if it was nothing more than a membrane. "Alright, man-ape. Custiel's feeling generous. Actually, Custiel's got a few questions for you too. You're clear to go across, but uh, don't cause any trouble. You ain't the only guest in right now, and I don't think you wanna piss off that other hard customer, lest you want two new holes in your neck." The goblin laughed nastily.

Irons's eyes narrowed. "You do business with the Boodspawn here too?"

"What do you think this is? We're in the Neath, dipshit. We do business with whoever pays. With whoever's stupid or desperate. You think only humans can be stupid or desperate?"

Though his displeasure and wariness were evident, Irons didn't have a better choice. He walked past the goblins, but never once did he take his eye from them. He crossed along the corner of the room so they couldn't ambush him from two sides. Shiv hadn't studied strategy or tactics, but he'd been in enough battles now to pick up a few things instinctively. This man was a warrior, a warrior of the body and a warrior of the mind. And now, he was a warrior in a place he shouldn't be, doing something Shiv didn't understand. He didn't need to climb up on the dispensers to turn the tap. As soon as he touched it, the spray redirected itself and the golden liquid swallowed him in an instant. A second later, he was drained up through the nozzle into the barrel and went wherever the hard-hat-wearing goblin did earlier.

"Okay, following him's going to be a bit of a mess," Shiv said. He could faintly follow the Hydromancy at play here. The spell extended out and wrapped around Irons's body, but it immediately converted him to liquor a moment after. Then he was gliding through the pipes, and Shiv had no idea where he was anymore.

"I can't follow him either," Adam said, and that surprised the Deathless.

"Not even with your Seer of Horizons?"

"No, they switched several times. There's a very clever mechanism in one of those pipes. It's a Portomancy spell. The liquor is getting redirected to somewhere else entirely. In fact, I think whoever's moving Irons is the one casting through that portal in the first place."

"Lot of effort to smuggle someone across. Feels like something you'd only read about in a cheap spy thriller," Gone commented. The legendary-tier goblin let out a quiet breath, and the darkness that comprised Solzimort shivered in response. "We can try talking with them in a moment. Solzimort, drop me in the corner of the room. I'll incapacitate them, see if I can secure an invite for the rest of us."

"That's an option," Shiv said, "but there's a problem with that. That liquor has to come out and wrap around you, and it seems that one of these goblins has to inform whoever's on the other side before they use their hydromancy to transport anyone. Could end pretty badly for us if they think we're trying to ambush them or something. They might just dump us out on the street through some spigot or something. Then we'll have the Prismatic Guard and the ascendants back on our asses again. We're really not that far from the volcano. Anything happens and we go loud, then we're gonna be running for our lives."

"It's getting worse outside as well," Adam said. "I took a peek at the streetsides above us. There are more Prismatic Guard patrolling than I ever remembered seeing in all my years here. I also saw the magical netting surrounding the Yellowstone Supervolcano ruptured in several places."

"So what, there are Legendary-Tier prisoners on the loose in the capital?" Shiv asked.

"I hope not," Adam said softly. "I hope they were intercepted by the Wardens or the Ascendants."

"You hope not?" Gone said thinly.

"Yes, I do. Listen, I don't mean it that way, Gone. We wouldn't have made it out without you or Solzimort or Candles or a great many people. But do you really trust them? I barely know you. Thus far, I'm quite pleased with you as a companion due to your capabilities and your character. But how many other prisoners could you say the same? How many other prisoners would you trust with your life? With the lives of random citizens?"

When Gone didn't say anything, Shiv knew she saw Adam's point. Furthermore, he thought back to her request, for a member of their escape party was the exact kind of prisoner Adam was worried about. Kura had murdered an entire family, down to the youngest. And doubtless she was listening, but she didn't say anything either.

"It's bad enough that we have to work with a forgotten Ascendant," Adam scoffed. "And no, Educator, you're not getting any apologies from me. Again, we're putting up with you, and you're putting up with us. Nothing more than that. I'd also like for you to explain more of your thinking to the rest of us, instead of just pointing us around. We can provide a great deal of valuable input, you know? I, too, have deep knowledge of the city, have lived here for a great many years. Perhaps not in this district specifically, but I know a good portion of the mid-ring, and I've toured all the grandest gates of the capital. I dare say I know a few secrets here that are even beyond you." Another moment passed. "Educator?" 

She didn't reply. For a second, Shiv wondered if she was simply fixated on something else, or if she was too annoyed to continue trading jabs with the rest of them. But something told him that she wasn't here at all. There was a feeling of absence.

"She's focused on her own plans, and earlier she was pretty interested in Captain Irons," Shiv suddenly said. "Adam, I don't think she's inside your awareness anymore. I think she took a leap into Irons."

The Gate Lord realized a moment thereafter. "Oh gods—godsdamn her! What's she trying to do? Did she just leave us?"

"I don't think so," Shiv said. He considered Irons and how he was drawn across the tap once more. "I think she's solving our problem for us right now. We can only be transported from the other side, right? So she's with Irons, and she steps out and manages to incapacitate everyone there, before forcing whatever Hydromancer they have to do what she asks."

"We won't need to deal with any of these goblins," Adam concluded. "We'll be able to go across directly."

Just as they reached that realization, the tap that the goblin and Irons both turned began to groan as its nozzle burst apart in a spray of ringing fragments. A rush of liquor splashed down on the ground, and the foaming fluid created a steady waterfall. The goblins jerked back in startlement. Several tumbled out from their chairs; others knocked their own drinks over. Shiv, however, noticed how the waterfall of alcohol didn't puddle on the ground. It continued streaming hard against the floor, but it didn't spread. It was as if it was a pillar holding in place, or a stable portal.

"What the hell was that?" the hard-hat-wearing goblin hissed. She stared at the spraying liquor and narrowed her eyes. "Damn it, did that oversized ape break the tap? Come on!" She bounced over to where the tap was, but as she did, Solzimort let out a soft gasp.

"Uh, uh guys, I think, I think I feel the dark peeling away from me." And true to his word, the effects of the meal were fading. Solzimort shrank down, sinking into the stonework below the cellar, keeping them away from sight. The goblins were turned away from them, so they saw nothing. But Shiv wasn't going to let that opportunity pass by.

"Gone? You got this?" the Deathless asked.

"Of course," she replied. "Just have the hydra let me go, and I'll deal with them."

"Don't kill anyone," Shiv said. "If you need someone to back you up, me and Adam are here."

"Not necessary," Gone said.

"Solzimort," Shiv said, "unfuse us."

"Are... are you sure?" the nervous hydra stammered. "I'm much bigger than you guys. It's probably much safer for you to stay inside me."

"Probably is," Shiv said, not bothering to argue with the twelve-headed creature. The Hydra didn't mean ill, and most of its thoughts were emotionally based. Logic wouldn't work, he was certain about that. "But right now, you might be too big, and we don't want to crush any of these goblins. They just need someone a little bit bigger than them to show them what to do."

"Okay," Solzimort said, though he still sounded worried. "If anything goes wrong, just run back into this corner. I'll be waiting here. We can sink down, really, really far down."

Shiv had to say one thing about Solzimort: the Hydra was reliable. And despite being terrified, he was willing to continue serving, protecting Adam and everyone else. There's still something we're missing about him, he thought. But on the surface, you won't find many Pathbearers like him. When is the last time we met someone who was genuinely good to the bone?

As Solzimort released Gone, Shiv glanced at Adam, who stepped free from the Hydra's mouth alongside him. In the time he took to glance at his friend, Gone dealt with the other goblins. A series of thuds and cracks filled the cellar. By the time he laid eyes on Gone again, she was piling a mess of groaning goblin goons in the other corner of the room. She dusted her hands and all but reappeared next to him. "Barely Adepts," she said, sounding like someone who had accidentally stepped on a cockroach or dog shit. "Nothing to worry about."

It was at this point Shiv also noticed the beer she was holding, and it was half-drained as well. "Did you steal a moment to have a drink?" Shiv asked.

Solzimort's barbed head stuck out from the corner of the room, sniffling. "Ugh, alcohol?" the Hydra gagged.

"It took you guys a while to respond," Gone said, shrugging. "And I haven't had beer in..." she trailed off. Her eyes went somewhere distant. "...haven't had beer for a long time."

Shiv felt a wave of sympathy wash through him. "Yeah, well, you enjoyed that. You earned it. Adam, here's what I think. I think I'm gonna go across. I'm gonna find out what's happening on the other side. And I think that if I smell bullshit going on, or if there's an ambush waiting for us, I'm going to blink back here to my temporal anchor, and we're gonna tear off in any direction that isn’t here. Might need an alternative way out of this place without the Educator's assistance."

The Gate Lord nodded along, and he furrowed his brow as he pondered their options. "Might have an idea. It's a long shot, but Phoenix Academy, there are experimental teleportation devices there. I don't think it's free of the Ascendants' influence, and they'll probably have agents there waiting to intercept us, because they know my history. But it's the only other thing I can think of right now."

"Right, you keep thinking. I'm gonna go take a liquor bath."

“Shiv! Wait!”

The Deathless paused mid-step. “Yeah?”

“Captain Irons… Make sure the Educator hasn’t done anything to him. I—he is a good man. Rough, but good.”

Shiv nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can.”

He walked closer to the spilling liquor and took in a deep breath. The radiating waves of Hydromancy glided along the sides of that waterfall, and he wondered what he was about to step into. Nothing ventured, he breathed, nothing gained.

He entered that threshold of foam and bubbling liquid. It splashed against his body and crashed against his shapeless tides. Shiv had to bid his legendary skill to go quiet before he was drawn across. A power seized him, made him shrink and disperse. He melded with the liquor. The sensations were indescribable. One moment, he was whole and heavy. The next, he was freer and lighter, but he couldn't move himself at all. A brief spike of panic passed through him, but he regained control of himself before he could revert his personal timeline. 

His own Hydromancy was weak, but it was enough for him to gauge where he was going. He slid up and around a series of pipes before suddenly a pocket of dimensionality intercepted him. A crushing pressure made the currents carry him thin, and then he was in another set of pipes thereafter, cascading along until he finally hit a curving bend and splashed down on the ground once more.

Hydromancy 15 > 16

He thudded hard upon tiled flooring and stepped free of another foam wall with his Last Morsel raised high. The absurdity of brandishing a frying pan as a weapon occurred to the Deathless, but he didn't care. He was proud of his frying pan, and it was a dangerous frying pan. And soon, he would cook and dice up anything that dared stand in the way of him and his legendary frying pan.

The same couldn't be said for the people in the other room. The Educator shook her head as Shiv arrived, ignoring him as one would an annoyance. Irons grunted as he tried to pry a trail of pencil markings running across his body. He was pinned to the wall, and a graphene border was sketched over him. 

Nearby, a puddle of blood ran smeared along the floor. Something about the floor caught Shiv's attention. It was tiled—shower-tiled, and there was a drain at the center of the room. The ground was slick with more than water, and Shiv could feel crushing waves of Biomancy radiating from somewhere nearby. Master-Tier…

There was also an operating table of some kind. It, too, was completely painted red, and bits of viscera remained there. Shiv extended a mana hydra and gritted his teeth as he recognized some of the substance. That was vampire blood. Only vampire blood responded that way, only vampire blood was that animated. He could taste the scent in the air with his damaged armor too.

Might even be an elder. They usually have more of a coppery taste… Shit, I’ve been fighting and killing too many people. Can tell how old a vampire is by scent now.

Farsight 73 > 74

Curled up into a ball near the only door to this macabre chamber was a goblin. The goblin might be one of the largest goblins that Shiv had ever met. He was practically big enough to reach Shiv's lower chest, quite the feat considering most humans were a head shorter than Shiv as well. The goblin had rows of glistening studs embedded into his arms, and a leather vest along with some denim shorts were all that he wore. 

Denim, Shiv said, doing a double-take. He only knew what denim was because certain customers at the Swan Eating Toad had eccentric tastes. One of them wanted to start a shop in Blackedge. All Denim Denny's. It didn't take off. A pang of sadness followed inside Shiv. He didn't know if Denim Denny was still alive. Something told him not to hope.

"The hell is this?" Shiv commented casually as he gestured with his frying pan. “And a little heads-up would’ve been nice. We could have just assumed you dipped out and went our own way.”

"This is me, making sure that we have a way out of the Capitol. And that there in the corner is our way."

Shiv looked at the goblin again, and he let out a quiet breath of disappointment. "Well, our way doesn't look very impressive. Also, our way might have shit and pissed himself."

"You... you have no idea who you're dealing with," the goblin—the one Shiv guessed was Custiel—said through sobs. He peered through his clawed hands and noticed Shiv for the first time. He went still. His legs extended forward, and he stopped curling so much. "Who... who are you? I... I need to tell you, you... you don't know what you just did. The Dragon Brokers, they won't stand for this. They'll send people after you."

"The Dragon Brokers will be properly compensated for any disturbances," the Educator said. "I'll cover for whatever monetary losses you have sustained during this period, both for them and for you. Right now, I wish for you to listen. There are several individuals I need you to create a shell for. Specialized shells. Legendary-Tier shells. I need the full suite. I need disguises for their skill statuses, for their physical appearances. I need documentation, and I need access to the local jump towers. The identities you will make for me must be a Prismatic Guard in profession. High-ranking Prismatic Guard, ones capable of leaving the city in dire circumstances."

As the Educator continued listing off her demands, Shiv walked over to Captain Irons. She leaned closer to the man, and Irons narrowed his face at her. He bared his teeth and struggled hard against the border. Shiv shook his head. "Yeah, it doesn't really work. It's kind of a bullshit skill. Force doesn’t do anything.”

Irons calmed for a moment. "I don't know what this is, but—”

“You're looking for Adam Arrow?" Shiv whispered.

Irons went still. "Adam? What? No. Why? Is he...?" Just then, Shiv's notification loaded. Irons's jaw dropped open wide. "You… You’re the Deathless?”

"Ignore that," Shiv interrupted. He was getting very tired of the system painting a target on his back everywhere he went. "Okay. So you weren't trying to break into the Rubix Well to save Adam?"

"He was in the Rubix Well?" Irons nearly snarled under his breath. "What did that fool boy do to get put there?" A sigh followed. "More like what did his fool father do to implicate him. Godsdamn it, Roland. I told you. I told you to wait. Be more patient. You never listen."

Shiv read Irons's expression and realized it was genuine concern on the man's face. Irons was a hard character; Shiv could read that from his posture, from his constant attempts to break free of the Educator's etching. But he did care for his students. I guess that gives me an answer, Shiv thought to himself. How many pure-hearted Pathbearers are there in the world? Apparently, I'm two for two in a very short period of time.

"He's with me right now," Shiv said on a whim, taking a chance with Irons. “He’s safe. Well. He’s alive. Can’t say anyone’s safe now. Especially not around me. We got some heavy heat on our asses.”

Irons went still, his pupils dilated. "Adam? But why? Why is he here? What did he do to get put in a prison?"

"It's not really his fault. It's a big fucking mess happening inside the Republic. Worse than you can possibly think."

"I sincerely doubt that," Irons said with a bitter grunt. "Another of my students went missing. Do you know Melissa Harrington? Wait, who are you? Are you from one of my classes?”

Shiv collapsed his helmet, and Irons's jaw couldn't fall any lower.

"Harlan? Harlan Lowe"

"Nah," Shiv said, cutting the captain off. "He’s dead. I’m just his son.”

Irons blinked, and swallowed. “Son… I didn’t…” He fell silent and frowned. “And who is she?”

He was talking about the Educator.

“Do not tell him anything else,” she snapped, looking over her shoulder.

Shiv ignored her. “Just some Forgotten Ascendant. No one you’d remember.”

And in a heartbeat, she slammed into him, pressing a brush against his throat. “Do you enjoy testing my patience, boy?”

Shiv bit back a snarl as he felt her Animancy-tipped paintbrush grind against his Shapeless Tides, but he continued speaking to Irons as he ignored the Educator. “She does this sometimes. Very emotional. Terrible self-control. Guess that comes with her divine degeneration. Or maybe she always had a shit personality.”

The brush pressed harder. Shiv just rolled his eyes. “Drive it in if you want. You don’t talk to me about what you’re planning, and I don’t give a shit about who I talk to or about what.”

“You have implicated him in something beyond his meager life,” she hissed. “You have sealed his fate.”

The Deathless finally turned to glare at the Educator. “Right. And were you going to let him live if I didn’t show up? Or would you paint him into your book like you did that vampire after interrogating him?”

The Educator didn’t say anything. She just glared. He met her withering gaze with a flat look of unimpressed scorn. “You’re all broken,” the Deathless said. “I’d call you spent and ruined, like a rusted relic, but you’re really not worth that much. Get your shit together, Educator. You wanna work together, talk like a grown woman. You want me to keep your secrets? Stop playing cloak and dagger games without telling us. Otherwise, this is the best you can hope for.”

Her face twisted in a snarl, and Shiv wondered if she might just finish him off. But then she stepped away and stormed toward the goblin once more.

“Ascendant,” the stunned-looking Irons breathed. “Forgotten.”

“Yeah. You might just be one of the unluckiest bastards on Earth. We’re in a bit more trouble than you are.”

The captain considered that for a moment and chuckled. “I still doubt it. She wouldn’t be the first Ascendant I fled from this day. I barely survived the last one, too.”

“What?” Shiv said. “What do you mean?”

“I think I’m being hunted by Daughter,” Irons said. “I ran into her in Flamecrown Castle while searching for my student. Barely got away. Something happened to Daughter—a cut opened up on her head just as she was about to drive a blade through my chest.”

And now it was Shiv’s turn to be flabbergasted. A laugh escaped him. It started as a snort, then it grew to a guffaw. Soon, he was almost doubled over, and Irons stared at him like he was insane.

“A red-white scar?” Shiv asked between wheezing breaths.

“Yeah… How’d you know that?”

“Captain Irons, you might be one of the luckiest bastards on Earth.”