“But you are aware of this. Even if you were as simple as you seem, the cognition enhancement construct of the Eight-Man Empire would not allow you to leave so much of your mind unused. You have a goal of some kind.”
“If you’d placed that bet, you’d be getting paid right now.” She slammed Netherclaw into its sheath and leaned her shoulder against a Grazer’s shaggy hide. It paid her no attention. “Let’s lay out the map. There’s two halves of Redmoon Hall: one half wants the Phoenix as a mother hen, and the other half just wants to squeeze every drop out of it they can get.”
The Blood Sage waited for her to finish, but not patiently. The Grazer on which he was perched had begun stirring in its sleep.
“I’ve got a goal myself: gut the Phoenix and use its soul in a shiny new sword. Tell me if I’m wrong, but I’d say your half of Redmoon Hall would be the ones walking away rich if we could make that happen.”
That was her plan?
“We lack the time for me to list how many ways ‘slaying a Dreadgod’ is not a viable option. It is far beyond our current means. Do you even know—”
He stopped. He began chewing on his thumbnail.
“…you explored the labyrinth. You encountered Subject One. You must be aware of how the Dreadgods may be killed…and in such a scenario, the Monarchs could not necessarily monopolize the materials of the Phoenix. You could potentially take its core binding and leave the rest of its materials to us.”
Red Faith was relieved, and somewhat impressed. He had assumed she was talking about killing the Bleeding Phoenix without a plan to rely on, but he should have known that Eithan Arelius’ apprentices would have their own means. “How do you intend to remove the Monarchs from Cradle?”
Yerin’s red eyes were wide. She blinked twice, slowly.
“Few things just snapped into place for me,” she admitted.
Red Faith’s expectations crashed back down to earth.
“If you didn’t know, then you were speaking too boldly out of youthful ignorance.” He spat out a piece of thumbnail and continued chewing. “I suppose Lindon was the one to discover the truth, and one of the Monarchs made him swear secrecy.”
“Monarchs must have trusted you like a brother if they didn’t make you swear.”
“I was one of those who proved the entanglement of the Monarchs and hunger aura in the first place, though it was an established theory long before me. I swore my secrecy to Monarchs of the previous generation, and it was their oversight not to consider I might outlive them.”
“So…the Monarchs…”
“It’s their presence on Cradle that allows for the existence of the Dreadgods.”
Had Ozmanthus truly explained nothing to these adopted children?
Yerin spat on the grass. “Bleed and bury them, then. Wait, does that mean I can’t make it to Monarch?”
“Not if you wish to both stay here and remove the Dreadgods.”
“That’s the road we’re walking, then.”
The Blood Sage would say this for Yerin; she adjusted quickly. She took that news in stride and continued.
“All those sharp and shiny weapons you said Redmoon Hall has? I want ‘em. Let’s go get ‘em.”
“That’s not a plan.”
“Never said I had one. If you can’t come up with a plan to take over your own sect when you’ve got a Sage in your back pocket and an Overlady who could advance to Herald any second, then might be you’re not the biggest brain in Cradle like you think you are.”
Yerin patted the shoulder of the Grazer, but her red eyes were locked on his. He had been inside her head, felt her insecurities and her fears. How they drove her. She watched him now with the reckless bravado of the very, very young.
But she wasn’t wrong.
The Blood Sage reached once again into his void space. This time, he pulled out a syringe filled with a shining violet elixir. Yerin shied back from it, but it wasn’t for her. He had to be sharp for this.
He plunged the needle into his own arm.
11
After Mercy left, Lindon and Dross waited a few moments for her to grow distant. Cold wind blew beneath the dark skies of Moongrave. He watched glowing flower petals drift by on the wind and clutched Suriel’s marble tight.
Guide me, he whispered silently. He didn’t even know if Suriel could hear him.
Maybe Eithan could. That was both disturbing and somehow comforting.
When he sensed Mercy was far enough away, Lindon turned toward a seemingly empty corner of the roof. “Reveal,” he commanded.