Elithira turned her head as far as the blade in her back allowed.
Pain made the motion small. Pride made her finish it anyway.
"What do you hope to gain from all of this?"
King Griswald’s eyes went flat. The old warmth he used for councils, feasts, and speeches had left him. What remained looked tired and convinced.
"Peace," he said. "For everyone in my world. I have seen the true powers moving beyond this kingdom, beyond this planet, and beyond every little border men like us keep drawing on maps. I know how quickly everything I have worked for can be snapped away."
He twisted the blade.
Elithira’s fingers dug into the stone beneath her. The sound that left her mouth was small, but it still left. She hated him for earning that much.
"Even this is not enough to kill you," Griswald continued. "Erebos made sure I understood that. Your bloodline is inconveniently durable. But it will do enough for his next phase."
Elithira gripped the edge of the blade behind her hip. She could not pull it free without tearing herself open worse, and she could not leave it there without letting Griswald keep control of her next breath.
"And what might that be?" she asked.
Erebos stepped close before Griswald answered.
He took Elithira by the chin and forced her face upward. His fingers were cold in a way flesh had no right to be. When his red eyes met hers, the strength in her arms faltered. Fear was only part of it. Something in the look pressed against the inside of her skull, searching for a latch.
"You always ask the correct question too late," Erebos said.
Above them, the sky broke.
It began as a line through the clouds, thin and white, then widened with a sound like glass being dragged across stone. Cracks branched outward. Light bled through the gaps in uneven sheets. Far above the palace, pieces of the barrier peeled away and vanished before they reached the ground.
Erebos looked up and smiled.
"So," he said, "they are already breaking the barrier."
Elithira forced herself to breathe through the pain. The crack in the sky looked larger than a signal and deliberate enough to ruin the idea of weather. Whatever had begun outside the kingdom had reached them at last.
Griswald saw it too. For the first time since stabbing her, doubt touched his face.
Erebos noticed.
"Do not become sentimental now, King. You already paid for the lesson."
Griswald’s hand tightened on the blade in Elithira’s back. He had the posture of a man trying to convince himself that every terrible choice behind him had become a road instead of a hole.
Elithira saw that and stored it away.
If she lived long enough to stand, doubt would be the first place she cut.
{Scene Break}
Nana and Sanguina left the kingdom’s castle through a side gate that still smelled of smoke.
Sanguina carried Todd over one shoulder as if he were a rolled carpet instead of a sleeping giant. His arms hung down her back. Every few steps, one of his hands bounced against her side.
Nana kept looking at him.
"You are sure you can carry him?"
Sanguina glanced back. Her eyes still carried a faint red glow. "He is not as heavy as he looks."
"I do not know about that," Nana said. "I think you might just be insanely strong."
"Both can be true."
The answer came without playfulness. Sanguina was already looking past the outer wall, past the road, past the farms beyond the city. Her mind had left before her feet did.
Nana lengthened her stride to keep up. "So, Ms. Grand Lady, where do we go from here?"
"South. About fifty miles."
"And you know that because?"
"The King used another person’s ability to move them. During the briefing after we took the Dragoon’s book, we signaled Erebos as instructed. He made it clear that the Demon King’s daughter had to be separated."
Nana’s stomach tightened.
"Why?"
Sanguina’s eyes darkened another shade. "I do not know."
That answer was worse than a lie. A lie would have meant Sanguina was protecting a plan. Ignorance meant Erebos had kept even his useful pieces blind.
Nana hated how familiar that felt. Every new truth around Erebos arrived with a missing center, like someone had handed them a map after cutting out the destination.
"Damn it," Sanguina said. "We need to get there now."
A few guards followed at a distance, unable to decide whether the group counted as nobles, prisoners, or disasters. Nana understood them. The castle behind them had stopped feeling like a seat of power and started feeling like a room everyone was escaping in different directions.
General Mattison came after them with his sword at his side and fury in his stride.
"I am coming with you," he called. "I need to know what is happening. There are too many strangers appearing, vanishing, and leaving damage in their place."
Sanguina looked him over and gave a short laugh. "If you can keep up."
"Come on, Nana," she said. "No more walking."
Red energy gathered around Sanguina’s legs. The stones under her feet cracked. She bent once, braced Todd’s head against her shoulder, and launched herself into the air.
Nana stared up after her.
Sanguina had turned travel into an altitude problem.
How am I supposed to keep up with that?
She put one hand beneath her and pulled energy down to her feet. The feeling was ugly and unstable, like holding a sneeze inside her bones.
This is either going to work really well or go really, really bad.
She snapped her fingers.
The blast kicked the ground apart and threw her upward. Nana shot after Sanguina with a shout that started as fear and became excitement halfway through.
Mattison watched both women vanish above the wall.
"Damn it," he muttered. "If Armond Zaraki were here, we could use one of our combo moves."
No one answered him.
The nearest guard looked ready to ask what a combo move was. Good judgment saved him. Mattison already had the expression of a man prepared to make physics file a complaint.
He turned to the guards. "Stand by. Keep the gate sealed, keep civilians away from the cracks, and send a rider if the sky worsens. I will follow and confirm what is unfolding."
The men snapped to attention.
"Yes, sir!"
Mattison drew his blade and held it before him. Red and black light ran along the steel. The glow swallowed his hand, then his arm, then the rest of him.
In the next breath, a crow with red-black feathers burst from the light and climbed into the sky after Nana and Sanguina.
Smoke rolled across the stones after he left.
The guards drew back, coughing. The smoke smelled like old ash and burned sugar. A voice spoke from inside it, smooth enough to make the nearest soldier raise his spear.
"Things sure are getting interesting here."
No one saw the speaker.
That made the voice worse.
High above the road, Sanguina cut through the cold air with Todd still over her shoulder.
Todd groaned awake when the wind slapped him across the face.
"Who turned on the cold air?" he mumbled. "Why do my shoulders ache?"
Then he opened his eyes.
The ground was far below. Very far.
"Oh, what the hell is this? Where am I?"
Sanguina tightened her grip on him. "We are going to pay Erebos a visit."
"In the sky?"
"It is faster."
"Faster than explaining?"
"Also yes."
The land below blurred into green fields, brown roads, and broken shadows from the cracking barrier above. Todd swallowed hard and tried not to look directly down.
He failed once.
His stomach immediately voted against the whole mission.
"You sure you are fine holding me up? I know I can be heavy."
"You are all good, big lug. I have carried much larger."
The words came out softer than Todd expected. Not proud. Remorseful.
He shifted enough to look at her face. "I see. Well, where exactly are we going?"
Sanguina kept her eyes on the southern horizon.
"Wherever Erebos thought we would arrive too late."
Todd stared past her and finally noticed the split in the clouds. The crack stretched wider with every passing breath.
"Then maybe fly angry," he said.
Sanguina’s grip tightened.
"I already am."