13-26. The Only Way
A week later, Elijah dragged himself back through Ithalon’s gates. Despite crashing through multiple buildings, his injuries hadn’t been serious. As a result, it had only taken a few hours to return to full health. However, his failure hung from his shoulders like a lead cloak. It took a few days for him to recenter himself before he returned to the city.
When he did, he found it far more secure than when he’d first arrived. The whip-wielding guards in the fields were twitchier, and the ones standing sentinel at the gates were much more attentive. Thankfully, their lacking levels meant that Elijah had no trouble entering under the Guise of the Stalker.
Once inside, he found a population on edge. Men and women hurried through the streets, their shoulders hunched as they sought to avoid drawing too much attention. And rightly so – the members of the Emerald Guard traveled in packs, and they weren’t shy about punishing anyone they deemed to have stepped out of line.
Elijah gritted his teeth as they saw them beating a slightly built woman with a vestigial arm growing out of her shoulder. They were merciless, and their cudgels fell with thudding authority. Each hit broke bones, and they didn’t stop until the woman had fallen unconscious.
Even when she’d gone limp, one of the guards chose to kick her a final time before spitting on her collapsed body.
That was the first instance, but it wasn’t the last. The beatings weren’t always so thorough. Many stopped well before doing lasting damage. But they were ubiquitous.
And they were Elijah’s fault.
He knew it, too. If he hadn’t tried to invade the Envoy’s domain, things would have kept going like normal. Maybe their lives weren’t great, but there was a world of difference between being poor and getting beaten to within an inch of death.
The Emerald Guard’s increased activities weren’t the only consequences of Elijah’s failed infiltration, either. Men and women, all clad in white, flitted from one alley to another. Most of the residents didn’t even know they were there, but Elijah felt them searching. And when they found something suspicious – even if it had nothing to do with Elijah’s activities – the red-robed Priests came to burn it out of existence.
The smell of smoke hung heavy throughout the lower levels, evidence of their fervor.
It was disgusting and damning, and though Elijah tried to push it out of mind, he found himself dwelling on the consequences of his actions.
So it was with a foul mood clinging to his thoughts that he returned to the brothel and found Naika in the back. She was sampling the business’ wares in the form of a lithe young man when Elijah revealed himself.
The young man skittered away, naked and terrified. Elijah caught him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. Not hard enough to hurt him, but enough to convey his anger. “If you speak of my existence, I will destroy you. Do you understand?”
He nodded, gasping for air.
Elijah released him and focused on Naika, who’d not moved more than a few inches after her initial reaction. She clutched blue sheets to her chest, embarrassed and glaring.
“Why have you returned?” she demanded.
“Why did you give me bad information?”
“Do you know who that was? That was Ko’rien. The Hollow Voice. The Envoy herself!” she half-shouted. “You are lucky to be alive! You can’t be here!”
“I am here,” Elijah stated evenly. “And right now, I’m thinking that you set me up.”
“I didn’t! I swear!”
“You said it would be clear.”
“I said it would probably be clear!”
Elijah frowned, trying to recall her exact words. It had only been a week before, but he had to admit that he couldn’t remember. Not surprising, considering how being so close to his goal had affected his mindset. He’d been reckless. Inattentive. He had made a grave mistake.
“Tell me everything about the Branch and this Ko’rien.”
Naika did, and she didn’t hold anything back. At first, she just babbled, jumping from one subject to another without much form or reason. Fear and adrenaline sometimes did that to people. But over the next few minutes, Elijah got a decent picture of how things worked with the Branch.
Most of it – like the rotations of the guards – was irrelevant to him. But there were a few interesting tidbits, like the fact that Ko’rien – the demi-god Envoy of the World Tree – very rarely left the Arbor Crown.
“Rarely? That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”
“She has needs.”
“And? Explain.”
Apparently, Ko’rien had an ongoing love affair with Lurien, the Flame Warden. There was a backstory there – something about youthful love and family restrictions – but Elijah didn’t care about any of that. Nor did he care that she was married to Daelith, her staunchest ally, and the demi-god known as The Stillborn. To avoid her husband’s suspicions, she often left the Arbor Crown under the cloak of stealth.
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“And you think she’s vulnerable in transit?”
“She is a demi-god. They are never vulnerable,” answered Naika, pushing a lock of dark hair behind her ear. It was slightly misshapen.
“Let me rephrase that. Does she take guards?”
Naika shook her head. “She doesn’t trust them to keep her secrets.”
“And she will be outside of her domain?”
She nodded, adding, “But only until she reaches the Cinder Spires.”
Elijah frowned again, scratching his chin. “I can just enter the Arbor Crown and access the Branch when she’s gone.”
“No. You can’t.”
“What? Why?”
“Her domain remains active,” Naika said. “If she feels your presence – especially now – she will teleport back to the Branch. And I assure you, you will not survive a second time.”
“I’m pretty durable.”
“She was curious before. Now, she is furious. She will not show you mercy. She will not hesitate. The second you step inside that domain, you will be crushed like an insect.”
Elijah wasn’t so sure about that analogy, but after what he’d felt before, he definitely didn’t believe he’d make it through unscathed.
“So, what do you suggest?” he asked. “I need to access that Branch. And soon.”
The deadline for Earth’s excisement was fast approaching. He needed to get home so he could help. Even if that help was only contacting Kirlissa so she could transport his grove and Ironshore to the Empire of Scale. That wasn’t what he wanted, but if that was the only option, it was one he would take.
But he needed to get back before anything could happen.
“If you have a few years, we could slowly integrate you into –”
“I don’t have that long.”
“Then…I don’t know. Unless you can kill a demi-god, then –”
“I’ve done it before.”
“What?”
“Killed demi-gods,” Elijah said, latching onto the idea. Then, almost to himself, he added, “I could ambush her.” Looking up, he raised his voice and asked, “What happens if she dies?”
“Another Envoy will take over, but not immediately. There will be a conclave before they choose…are…are you serious? Do you truly intend to kill the Hollow Voice?”
Elijah shrugged. “Like I said, it won’t be the first time I’ve killed a demi-god. Just tell me she deserves it.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“I’ll probably still do it,” Elijah admitted. “But I’ll feel bad. So, does she deserve it?”
“They all do,” Naika stated. “Everyone who lives on the surface deserves to die. The Synod more than anyone else. They grind us into the dirt, threatening to cast us out if we disobey. A single person? Out there in the world? We would die in hours. And if groups try to break away, they’re hunted down and executed. Some make it,” she admitted, hanging her head. A whisper escaped from between her lips, “Not enough. Never enough.”
Elijah already knew some of that from Zek’s recounting of his own flight from Ithalon. And yet, with the old hunter, it was a faraway and distant memory. For Naika, it was much fresher. Ongoing, even.
“I’m sorry,” Elijah said, letting out a deep sigh. “I shouldn’t have come in here like this.”
“No. You shouldn’t have. I’m going to have to wrangle poor Olan, now. He knows what’s at stake, but…”
Elijah nodded. After that, he had very little to say to Naika, and there wasn’t much more she could tell him, either. So, it wasn’t long before he shifted back into the Shape of the Scourge and squeezed through the door. By the time he reached the end of the hall, he’d once again adopted Guise of the Stalker.
For the next day, he rested and observed, though he quickly discovered that the lifts had been shut down. He watched as most people were turned away. Only a scattered few were allowed to travel to the upper levels.
Which created something of a problem for Elijah. It wasn’t until the second day after his meeting with Naika that realization struck him. Looking back, he felt like a bit of an idiot that he hadn’t thought of it sooner, but in retrospect, it shouldn’t have been that surprising that it had slipped his mind.
After all, with everything that had happened – and the state of Ithalon – he’d been a little rattled. Now that he had his full wits about him, the solution to his problem seemed obvious.
That was how he found himself climbing the side of the plateau. With his strength and Absolute Grasp, he had no issues trotting up the vertical wall. However, when he reached the lip, he found his way barred by a transparent shield that he could feel but not see.
He pushed against it and found that it was entirely solid.
So, he deployed his Mantle of Authority, which caused the shield to briefly flicker as he pushed through. It was only a second of deactivation, but that was enough to allow entry.
It didn’t go unnoticed, though.
In only a moment, a squad of Emerald Guardsmen rushed into the area. By that point, Elijah had already climbed to the top of a nearby building. From that perch – more than thirty stories up – he saw them inspecting the site. But clearly, they had no idea what had caused the glitch. They even brought a woman in to inspect the nearby ritual circle, but she was incapable of providing any answers.
One of the soldiers backhanded the gaudily dressed woman.
Elijah gritted his teeth, but he didn’t otherwise react. He couldn’t allow something like that to distract him. For all his power, he couldn’t fix systemic corruption anymore than he could cleanse the planet of the abyss’ influence.
But he wanted to.
Desperately.
After a couple of hours, the guardsmen seemed to accept that the system hadn’t been compromised. Elijah had no idea what reason they concocted for the glitch, but he could imagine that they pegged it as a one-off occurrence.
Still, he remained in place for more than a day before he dared move.
The following trip through the city showed him more of the same. The nine-ring system might have kept the taint of the abyss at bay, but more mundane corruption still plagued Ithalon.
From Naika, he’d learned Ko’rien’s preferred path to the Cinder Spires. However, he had no way of knowing the timing. For all he knew, it would take a month or more for her to make an appearance. That he had as much information as he did was just a testament to how well-informed Naika was.
Zek had told him that she was something of a revolutionary who helped people escape the city, but Elijah still hadn’t expected her to know so much. Now, he realized just how necessary such knowledge was. In a place like Ithalon, where her actions could see her put to death, information was the only thing keeping her alive.
Elijah planted himself along the route, then settled in to focus on Soul of the Wild. It was the only way he could ever hope to detect Ko’rien.
And he waited.
Days passed into weeks, and still, she didn’t show. Elijah used that time to work on himself. He’d found an abandoned room in one of the buildings along the route, so he wasn’t forced to maintain stealth. That allowed him to study his notes on runes and glyphs while mapping out his intended path of soul cultivation.
It was on the third week that Elijah finally felt something. A woman. Stealthed and following the path he’d been given. And she felt strong. She was a demi-god.
Elijah rose, already shifting into the Shape of the Scourge.
It was time to kill a real demi-god.