67 (II)

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“I know, Marikos. I see your honor,” Valor said quietly. “We depart for Gate Theborn soon.”

“Theborn?” Marikos snarled. “Ah, yes—the slave-running gates. Babel. Filthy dogs. Parasites feeding on the Great One’s power. For what? Foul means. We should have seared them from this world long ago.”

“And for once, we agree,” Valor said.

Marikos regarded his fellow Legendary Pathbearer and sighed. He seemed like he wanted to say something else, but he stopped himself. “This traitor is no longer your concern. Give the Composer my appreciation and well-wishes. If I prevail against you eventually, I will seek a noble end at her hand. If nothing else, we will be joined in the afterworld. If there is one.”

“She won’t give it to you,” Valor said. “She has no interest in killing you, Marikos.”

Marikos shrugged. “I shall insist upon it. No will surpasses Sir-Legend Marikos Valdemar’s.” He raised a fist to Shiv. “Fight well, Master Shiv, and remember my offer. I would be honored to call you a brother.”

Shiv chuckled. “How about we discuss it over dinner sometime?”

“Ah—you cook?”

“Yeah, I cook pretty good,” Shiv said.

“Then I look forward to our next meeting. For now, let me carry this creature of sin and shame away! Lances! RETURN!”

But before Marikos rose, he casually backhanded the traitor. The two dragons who’d been holding him upright jumped out of the way in the last second, seemingly having anticipated this move. This time, Shiv was blasted off his feet by the shockwave and barely stopped himself from being sent flying further. When the dust cleared, the traitor lay limp, barely breathing. A new crater stretched out for a full kilometer.

Shiv blinked. “He just… flicked his wrist!” he gasped mentally. “That’s all!”

“I had to do that,” Marikos said, exhaling. “My honor demanded it.”

He picked up the traitor by the chains and exploded up into the air. Shiv blinked as Marikos soared, dragging the massive Dynamancer behind him like it weighed no more than a feather. “Farewell, friends—farewell! You fought with honor on this day—farewell! Come, brothers, sisters, join my song!”

As one, the dragons sang a hymn about honor and Knighthood, and they blasted off toward the horizon. Their collective acceleration was jaw-dropping as well. They were all of them Master-Tier in terms of Reflexes.

From everywhere, Weaveresses groaned. Adam thrashed beneath a massive pile of rubble, and Can Hu was half buried in the dirt, though the automaton was quickly digging itself out with its Geomancy. Inside Shiv’s mind, Uva sighed. “Okay, I understand why you cursed Sir Marikos now. We are facing an angry child in a body that can break the world.”

“Well,” Shiv said, “I think we should go back to Weave and inform the Composer about what we got done.” He looked to Valor. “And there might be a few other things we should talk about.”

Valor met his eyes, then nodded. “There might be.”

“I won’t force you, Valor, but that between you and Marikos… Do we need to worry about more people holding grudges against you?”

“It is rather common,” Valor said with a slight sigh. “It happens when you live long enough. But the Animancy Core… I would tell you more but…” Valor hesitated. “Let us be away from here first.”

After his magic recovered enough, Shiv healed the Weaveress and Adam. Liquid Serpent didn’t seem to mind having only a single limb too much, so she came last. When that was fine, everyone prepared for a long walk back—until Adam spoke.

“We’re not doing that,” Adam said, nocking an arrow. “Not when I can make it a straight shot back.”

Shiv laughed as he realized what the Young Lord was about to do. “This was almost worth getting my ass kicked by all those dragons.”

“What do you mean, almost?” Adam smirked. “It was part of the reward for me.”

Then he loosed the arrow, and a rupture formed.

They made it back to Weave within five minutes.

***

The Composer’s song echoed all across Weave, welcoming their return. Its notes were high, victorious, valiant, joyous, and also sorrowful, but the music came fast—like the notes of a heroic ballad.

As they arrived at the Symposium to inform her of their success, the Composer proclaimed Shiv, Adam, Uva, Can Hu, as well as the Weaveresses and automata involved in the mission as heroes all across the city. A magical song was composed, commemorating the names of the lost, and a declaration of grand revelry was to follow. The city descended into wild celebrations for the next two days as the Composer declared another crisis thwarted, and advances to have been made in relations between Weave and the Descenders Union.

But after that fight with the dragons, all Shiv wanted to do was cook and then… Well.

As soon as they were dismissed, Adam flew back to the apartment and told them not to bother him for at least a day as he slept off his pain and exhaustion. Uva and Shiv, on their part, experienced a lot of cooking and some other delights besides.

After two days of respite and recovery, a small gathering of people found themselves in Uva’s apartment.

Can Hu was the first to arrive, carrying itself via Geomancy, and constructing stone limbs to help Uva tidy her rooms. The Umbral claimed it wasn’t necessary, but the automaton wanted to be of service in exchange for being invited. It also loudly promised to reinforce the walls at some point, in case Uva and Shiv did some more “impromptu sparring” in the living room.

Both of them just coughed in response.

Meanwhile, Shiv cooked. He cooked a full course of different meals. He cooked joyously. He cooked with a carefree heart and a feeling of building excitement in his veins.

They had just beaten a Lance of dragon-knights—a rogue Lance, but a full Lance nonetheless. It took the lives of almost two dozen Weaveresses. It took him dying to achieve this victory. But Uva and Adam and he… They all prevailed. Can Hu prevailed. Valor gained an arm and a soul fragment back, and they were stronger than ever. And now, rather than the gate seeming like an insurmountable challenge, it was a place for Shiv and his companions to wreak havoc and unleash their new power.

Confriga wasn’t going to know what hit him.

But that was the challenge to come. For now, they indulged in a breath of leisure as Uva’s team arrived thereafter, followed by Adam, the Slayers, Siggy, Valor, Fel, a few more of Uva’s sisters, and Still Water and her team.

The apartment grew alive with activity.

Off by the side, the Young Lord told Uva’s team and the Slayers about his fight with Tarlow, making light of how desperately he struggled, how close to death he came. By the door, Uva argued with Fel about something or another, the other Umbral chiding her about being unreachable for two whole days—that she had to find out Uva was a Hero from a public announcement. Can Hu and several of Uva’s sisters debated over the best aesthetics across the pre-Integration periodicals.

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And through it all, Shiv’s joy only climbed. Despite everything he suffered, despite all it took to win, he was the happiest he’d ever been. This place was more than he could have ever dreamed of.

“You seem quite happy, Master Shiv.” Shiv laughed as he turned to stare at Valor. The skull was hovering, the ghostly outline of a man just barely visible. No longer was his Necromantic power activated, but his limbs still hovered in the right place. His right arm was dormant—its power held back, and for good reason. No one needed to experience what happened when Shiv came into contact with Necromancy.

Shiv flipped a fish over and began to do its other side. It was going to be pretty well fried, crispy, but that was just what Ikki liked. And Shiv was going to make the girl a very, very well-fed Umbral by the end of tonight.

“You know something, Valor?” Shiv began. “When I was hunting lesser vampires all those years in the ruins, there was a dream I had a few times. I experienced it some nights when I hid in the buildings, looking up at the moon’s fragments. It was of walking the world. I’d go all across the land as a Pathbearer, not bound to anyone, not condemned by my own weakness, by my own inability to advance my skills, not damned by Roland Arrow.”

As he said Roland’s name, Adam briefly looked at him, but he quickly went back to his conversation. “That was the extent of my dream. I thought it would make me the happiest person in the world to be free and powerful, to answer to no one.” Valor hummed, nodding thoughtfully. “I thought I might start a wandering kitchen of some kind once I got strong or rich enough.” Shiv laughed. “I do love cooking, about as much as I enjoy fighting things.”

Valor nodded. “But you’ve found something else now.”

“Yeah,” Shiv said. He gave everyone in the room a brief look. “I think you don’t realize how lonely you are until you aren’t anymore.”

Valor laughed. “I had the same realization as you when I was about…” He paused. “Well, when I was forty years older than you are now.”

He stared at Valor. “You were alone for that long?”

“I was troubled for that long,” Valor said. “You are… I’ve told you this before, but you are remarkably well-adjusted for everything that’s happened to you, for everything you continue to suffer. Strangely so.”

Valor paused. “You… you are sloppy at times, Shiv. Careless. Perhaps you don’t think certain things through, and you have tunnel vision when you fight your enemies. You are raw, you are primal, guided by instinct more than rationality sometimes. But you are not stupid. There’s an animal cunning to the way you act. And there is also a hidden hand of control inside you. Like you are a…” Valor paused as he searched for the words. “Like you have a pillar that stops you from doing anything too drastic.”

Pillar.

And there was that word again. Georges would be pleased, Shiv thought.

“Yeah,” Shiv said, pressing his lips together as he searched for his own words. “I think that it’s my way of taking revenge on the world.”

“Revenge?” Valor asked.

“I’m kind of a petty bastard too,” Shiv said. “I thought about it after I got out of Theborn. I don’t let things go. That’s why I had so much trouble with Heather and Tran. That’s why I nearly attacked them while I was inside the gate. Because I was angry. The Orcish Skill just made it worse.”

He finished the fish and placed it on the plate. It glistened. It shone. “When Ikki eats this, she might be able to lift a whole house on her back once the benefits hit,” Shiv mused.

Valor chuckled, but he knew Shiv wasn’t finished yet. “I decide who I am,” Shiv said. “And I don’t want to be a bastard. I don’t want to be a War Priest, just a coward that hurts the weak. I don’t want to be Roland, who can’t seem to make up his mind. I don’t want to be a Slayer that’s just stuck in a backwater town, stuck in place. I want to live my own way. And I want to be stronger than anyone who’s ever doubted me, who’s ever tried to hurt me, or has hurt me. I want to go further and see it all. Live it all.”

“And you have lived up to this dream?” Valor asked.

Shiv paused. “Sometimes it’s a work in progress.”

“It is always a work in progress,” Valor said. “My history with Marikos… I should have told you at some point sooner.”

Shiv shrugged. “Adam might be more bothered about that than I am. It is a hidden danger. The last thing we need is to run into one of your old enemies. And frankly, I don’t think a fight between me and Marikos would end very well. I might get more than a few levels from it, though. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to fight Marikos. But I just don’t think it’s going to be much of a fight.”

“Not right now,” Valor replied. “Give yourself a century. Maybe a few decades, if you are truly favored by the System. Marikos—He is quite powerful. I do not dare say I would certainly prevail against him in a direct duel.”

Shiv chuckled. “I still can’t believe he blasted me off my feet by slapping someone else. It made me feel like Adam.”

“Shut up, you bastard,” Adam shouted from across the room. People laughed. Shiv chuckled.

“Broken Moon,” Shiv said. “You Legendary Pathbearers are on a whole other level, huh?”

“Yes,” Valor said. “We are… capable of great things. But it is more than that. There are legends beyond legends. And there is something beyond Legends. And you understand this more than anyone else. When you first got your first Master-Tier Skill, what was that like? What were you like then? And who are you now?”

Shiv paused. “If I fought myself from back when I just got Momentum Core, I’d tear myself to shreds in half a second.”

“Exactly. The title of Master is more of an acknowledgement than a full and complete measurement. But the truth is, the more skills you have at higher tiers, the more everything about you compounds. Think of your Deepest Edge Skill. It would only be merely dangerous on its own. Combine it with your other skills, and you can cut a mountain in half within minutes. Frankly, sometimes I think we should do away with the measurement entirely. A five-skill Master is more dangerous than a one-skill Hero, after all—especially if that skill is not in combat.”

Shiv considered that for a moment. “Maybe. I think it depends on the situation.”

“Ah, and there you see another problem with the measurement. Someone like you, I would drop onto a battlefield and tell you to rip and tear and look away. But Adam—Adam would win me the war.”

Shiv smiled. “So you have an all-seeing, long-shooting dimensional archer; an unkillable, undying monster; and a body-jumping, mind-breaking Psychomancer with long reach. And then there’s also Can Hu, who’s got us covered with crafting. I don’t know about you, Valor, but between us and a gate, I’ll bet on us. I’ll bet on us against a thousand enemy Pathbearers.”

“Still too few,” Valor laughed. “A thousand Adepts for one of you, perhaps. But a team is an exponentially powerful thing. Now you also have me, or what little of me we have recovered.” He paused. “There is something I did not admit to you initially, Shiv. It was not out of necessity, but embarrassment.”

“What?” Shiv asked.

“I have my own pride. I was a Legendary Pathbearer. I had power, Shiv. Power you cannot imagine. Power that you might someday reach, but…” Valor spoke with such intensity and passion that Shiv briefly stopped cooking. “And I lost it. I broke. I was betrayed by my own blood, and for something I…” Valor held back a snarl. “It was my fault. I do not blame my son. I do not blame my son—he did only what I taught him to, only what his heart demanded of him. He did it because I couldn’t… I couldn’t give him what he wanted…”

Valor didn’t finish. Shiv didn’t press.

Valor continued after a second. “But my mind broke too. A great deal of me—my experiences and memories—were scattered along with my power. I didn’t tell you certain things because… I don’t remember anymore. There is so much I cannot remember. My soul is in pieces, and one’s soul… It is all of you, Shiv, you understand? All of you. It is not the same for you, though. You… I don’t think you can shatter. At least, if you shatter, I think that will kill you for good, because your vitality and your foundational soul are so bound together. But… think of it. Think of becoming a Pathbearer and losing yourself. Think of the pain it would cause… The harm it would do.”

Shiv thought of it, and it seemed like a fate worse than death. He remembered Can Hu saying something very similar to him when they first met. “Yeah,” Shiv said, “I don’t ever want to learn what that’s like.”

“Then look at my example, and keep this close to your heart.” Valor pressed a hand against Shiv’s shoulder—not the right hand, not the one with Necromancy, but his hand of bone and gleaming metal. “Think. Think deeper. This world is not a simple one. Rarely does someone do things for a simple, fundamental, primal reason. You are pure and raw, in a sense, right now, Shiv. And you have done things that I did not expect. I did not expect all of you to survive, let alone for the others to reach Heroic Tier so soon. But you must be more. More than who you were, just like they are more than who they were. Do not neglect your mind. You are a good cook. More than a brute. Live it all. Be greater than you dared to imagine before.”

Shiv regarded Valor and nodded. “Right. Think more.”

“You have the mind for it,” Valor continued. “You just need to culture it. You have time. Now give it your focus—just like with your cooking.”

Valor stared down at Shiv’s cooking, and his shoulders turned in depression. “Just like the cooking… I cannot taste. Another thing my failures have inflicted upon me.”

Shiv winced. “We’ll find you a stomach soon, Valor. I promise.”

“I hope so,” Valor replied wistfully.

Shiv looked at Can Hu, seeing the machine jab its tasting apparatus into a piece of steak. Valor turned away before he had a complete breakdown. “The System does not mock only you. Sometimes, being favored means taking the greatest wounds.”

“Valor,” Shiv said.

“Yes, Shiv?”

“You’re kind of dramatic sometimes, you know that?”

Valor stared at him. “I have been criticized that way before.”

Shiv laughed. “You must have been pretty good friends with Marikos once, huh?”

“Yeah,” Valor said, “once.”

Shiv smiled at Valor. “I remind you of him.” Valor paused, something flickering across his expression for a moment. But Shiv continued. “And also, was he the ‘greatest idiot you’ve ever met’?”

Valor’s jaw opened slightly. “How did you—”

“Marikos—he’s different from the other dragons. And it’s not simply a higher level. I can feel it. In everything he does, he’s stronger by far. And that could only mean one thing.”

Valor laughed. “I didn’t mean for you to start using your head so soon, Shiv.”

Shiv grunted. “It wasn’t my head, it was just my gut. And sometimes instinct leads you down a pretty good road.”

“Shivvvv,” Ikki cried. “Fish! I’m going to die from hunger. I’m too young for my corpse to be used for weaver breeding…”

“Coming, Ikki!”

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