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February 11 - February 17, 2025
His tone was full of conviction, but it didn’t stop Davian from seeing the dark, smoke-like tendrils escaping Wirr’s mouth.
Davian can see lies
It had been only recently, though, that he’d realized that never being able to see Asha again was far and away the worst of them. That their friendship of the past couple of years had developed into something more, at least for him.
“So you don’t serve Shadows?” The butcher gave him a withering look. “No self-respecting shopkeep would, and fates take me if I care what they do up in Ilin Illan. I may not like you Gifted, but this is a business and I’d be a poor man if I only traded with those I liked. Shadows, on the other hand…” He looked around as if trying to find somewhere to spit. “I’ve been hearing plenty about them and this Shadraehin fellow that everyone’s talking about. The types of things, the evil things that their kind get up to…well,
“Most are only Shadows because they weren’t strong enough to pass their Trials—they didn’t actually do anything wrong. It’s just that the Tols won’t let them stay on as Gifted, and the Treaty doesn’t allow them to go anywhere else until their ability is completely blocked. They’re just…unlucky.”
“Administrators and townsfolk both. Why do they hate us so much? The war ended fifteen years ago; I had nothing to do with it. Those boys—I doubt they were even born back then!” He took a deep breath. “I know, we have to accept the Treaty, live with the Tenets. It just doesn’t seem fair.”
They broke us once, and now they worry that if they don’t keep at it, we will rise up again and exact vengeance.”
Everyone called it “the war,” but everyone equally knew that the bloodshed had been mostly one-sided.
Most of us who survived were like me—smart enough to realize that aside from direct skin contact, the Finders could only detect you while you were using Essence.
Every school in the country overrun, everyone who had lived there butchered. A time when things were worse for the Gifted, when they had leaped at the chance to sign the Treaty, submit themselves to the Tenets.
“I don’t care what the Treaty says. The Loyalists burned half our knowledge when they destroyed Tol Thane. We can’t let the other half just evaporate through cowardice.”
“So they didn’t oppress anyone?” Ilseth hesitated. “I don’t think they ever meant to…but at the end, when they realized their visions were no longer accurate, they panicked. Didn’t tell anyone what was happening at first, not even the Gifted. Covered up the worst of their mistakes. Refused to cede any authority once people found out, and instead tried to create stricter laws and harsher penalties for any who opposed them—which they then tasked the Gifted with enforcing.”
Davian closed his eyes for a second, capturing the image: sitting with his friends high above everything, his troubles for just a moment held at bay. It was perfect. A perfect farewell to his friends, his life. He would remember this and always think of better times.
“The Boundary is weakening, Davian. Failing. We know how to fix it, but it was created by the Augurs…and without the Augurs’ powers, we can’t do anything about it.” He rubbed his hands together, a nervous motion. “Devaed is long dead, of course, but there have been…incidents in the north. People disappearing, or dying in the most violent ways imaginable. Sightings of creatures that match the description of dar’gaithin, eletai, shar’kath—horrors that haven’t been seen since the Eternity War.” He shook his head. “We think some have already made it through—things that no one alive today is
...more
“It’s not too late for you to turn back,” he observed. The corners of Wirr’s mouth curled upward. “You won’t get rid of me that easily.” Davian just inclined his head in response. Tearing their gazes from the familiar lines of the castle, they continued along the derelict road and into the shadowy forest. Neither looked back.
“Becoming a Shadow is not so bad,” Ilseth said quietly. “It is quick, and you won’t remember the pain. In fact, you won’t remember anything since you woke up this morning. Almost a blessing, given what you’ve seen today.” He stared into her eyes. “Regardless, I can’t risk anyone realizing that Davian got away. I would ask you whether he foresaw what I was planning, or whether he saved your friend through sheer dumb luck—but I doubt you know.
Poor Asha
“I have killed my brethren here to save your worthless lives. Two skilled Hunters for two stupid gaa’vesh. Tell Tal’kamar that the debt is repaid, a thousand times over.” She paused, looking as if she was going to be sick. “If I see you again, I will kill you.”
“If Administration finds out about you, they will assume the worst—that you’re a conspirator, allowed to live because you had some role in the attack. You’re not protected by the Tenets anymore, Ashalia. If they get hold of you, there will be nothing stopping them from trying to extract information any way they see fit.”
“I must go.” He leaned forward. “I ask only one thing of you. When the time comes, do not let Vhalire suffer.”
If she is a threat to this person why not just take her out?
Davian settled in, focusing. It was meant to be a game of skill, in which a person’s ability to bluff was key. He wasn’t sure how successful his own bluffing abilities would be, but as for the others, he knew they had no chance.
The protagonists make money gambling
From the rage on Gorron’s face, Davian had no doubt the man was going for a killing blow. Still seated, he snatched Slayer from the table, desperately putting it between himself and the leaping Gorron.
“There’s four Tenets. Let’s take the first: no use of the Gift with the intent to harm or hinder non-Gifted. Why is that so bad?” “Because we can’t defend ourselves,”
“The Second Tenet: no use of the Gift to deceive, intimidate, or otherwise work to the detriment of non-Gifted. Problem?” “We can’t steal things.”
“So let’s say the Third Tenet stays, for our own protection if nothing else—that Administrators and Gifted can do no harm to one another, physical or otherwise.
“As long as the other three are in place, I see no reason why we should be forced to do what the Administrators tell us all the time. We don’t need keepers.”
“I’m stronger and faster than a regular person. I can do the work of several men each day, then tap my Reserve at night to do other things rather than sleeping. All being well, I’ll live twenty years longer than most people, maybe more.”
Then he groaned, twisting the box in his hand a few times, vainly hoping he was mistaken. “What is it?” Wirr asked. Davian bit his lip. “It’s pointing back the other way.” “Towards the soldiers?”
“After a few centuries without so much as a sighting, though, a lot of people began to think that Alchesh’s foretelling must have been a result of his madness—that not even a powerful Gifted like Devaed could still be alive after so many years. The opinion became popular enough that the Old Religion eventually struck Alchesh’s visions from their canon and declared the Eternity War over.
“You can put your trust in something that’s obvious, that’s measurable or predictable—but that’s not faith. Nor is believing in something that gives you no pause for doubt, no reason or desire to question. Faith is something more than that. By definition, it cannot have proof as its foundation.”
“Because it strikes me that a man needs to know what he believes before he can really know who he is.”
“Two thousand years our people have waited for justice. Two thousand years of survival, of struggle, of sacrifice. But our time has finally come! We have broken free of our prison. We are at last ready to face our ancient foe, and you who have passed through the ilshara unscathed are truly worthy of this fight.
High Darecians could live. They did all this because the city was, in fact, a weapon.” “The entire city?”
“It tears a rift,” replied Malshash seriously. “It allows someone to leave time itself, to step outside the stream of time and shift themselves elsewhere along it. Forwards. Backwards. Whenever they wish.” He shook his head. “They built it so that they could go back, to before the Shining Lands were destroyed. They wanted to warn their people of what was coming. To perhaps kill the man who destroyed them, before he could do it.”
He would learn these abilities, and find a way back to his own time. Do his best to stop whatever was going on with the Boundary. And after that he would seek out Ilseth Tenvar.
“You are unworthy,” said the creature holding the sword. Its voice was rough, deep, and knowledgeable. “You have come for Licanius, and so may not have her.”
“Then we all started doing it. All at once. Those of us who didn’t have a knife went and found one from one of the tables. None of us made a sound, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t agony.” He touched his cheek absently. “Davian just stood there, watching us, the blood pouring down his face and neck onto his shirt. I could see it, though. He was doing it. He was controlling us, somehow.”
Wirr processed what Taeris had told him. It made sense. Davian’s Augur powers had saved him, somehow. Taeris, believing the boy was meant for something more, had taken the blame.
Elocien had tried to be discreet about ordering the arrest of two other Shadows straight after her arrival, someone had still made the connection. The rumors had been everywhere within a day—the Shadraehin had attacked one of his own, kidnapped the only Shadow in the city who held a position of relative power. Proof positive that he had no intention of ever trying diplomatic means to help the Shadows.
“You don’t have a Reserve, Davian—in itself, not so unusual for an Augur. Beyond that, though, your body generates no Essence. Not just no excess. None at all.”
Davian felt a chill run through him. “You mean…I’m dead?” “No, no.” Malshash gestured impatiently. Then he hesitated. “Well…yes. In a way. You are just as alive as anyone else. Your heart still beats, your blood pumps, you need food and sleep. But…differently, I suppose. I meant that at some point, your body expired.
“What happened?” he asked. “You took the life force from the tree,”
“Prepare yourself, Davian,” he snarled eventually. “You leave this place today.”
Davian ends his training by reading his trainer’s memory. The memory is of his wife being killed.
“Unless the king changes the Tenets, the city can fend for itself. If they don’t want our help, we’ll do what is safest for us—which is to stay behind these walls. If the invasion succeeds in taking the city, then we will negotiate.” Haemish stared Taeris in the eye.
“You think it’s the armor giving them these powers?” “I’m sure of it.” Caeden had already had some time to think about this. “Slowing your passage through time like that is an Augur ability; those five men couldn’t all have been Augurs. Combine that with the way their armor absorbed Essence…”
“General Parathe has been reporting to my father that they have started to just…take days off. Drinking and carousing, presumably. One day they fail to report for duty; the next day they just turn up and act like nothing is wrong. Parathe disciplined them at the start, but the problem is so widespread now that he cannot afford to. If General Jash’tar cannot stop the Blind, we will need every man we can get.”
When one Augur dies, another is born within a few years; that is the cycle. So we knew that on that night, when the war began, new Augurs would soon be brought into the world. We have been vigilant ever since.”
Hail, king of traitors! We who knew you mourn what was lost. Only a shadow remains: A whisper where once a shout, A pond where once an ocean, A flickering candle where once the sun itself. Hail, king of corruption! We who serve you despair for what is to come. You will break the Oath, You will shatter the Path, You will sing the Song of Days as a dirge. Your people will weep tears of ice and blood And only the fallen will know peace.
Ghash nodded. “So be it,” he said. “Hear the tasks I would give you: first, to find a subject worthy of your kingship; second, to find a man worthy of your friendship; and third, to find a woman worthy of your love.”
The first two are failures when men give into temptation. The third failure happens when the love is not brought before Ghash. The failure becomes a conquering general.
There were only a few survivors.” There was a stunned silence. “How many is a few, General?” Wirr finally asked. “Four hundred or so,” replied Parathe.
The army with no character plot armor is destroyed
“The message is that Tal’kamar is going to take Licanius to the Wells.”
“He really murdered the other Augurs he found?” asked Fessi, distress evident in her tone. Erran gave her a sad nod. “Four of them. One was eight years old.”
