To Burn All Belief (Dance of the Sibling Suns Book 2) by Joshua Scott Edwards

Author:Joshua Scott Edwards [Edwards, Joshua Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Archefire Publishing LLC
Published: 2024-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-one

Arche Nothing

Please reverse my last command regarding mages no longer attending the boilers. Their efforts are needed to keep the lights running. I give to you my apologies for the oversight.

—Delivered by a Nerve to the Organ of Boiling

No, no, it could not be him. Nor him. Perhaps her? Rank four, a uniform of the old, deeper green. No, I decided. We had not shared rum before.

I eyed each of the Fingers gathered around me in the common area, dismissing them as I decided against their help. Grim told me to pick someone I trust. Fingers in that exalted category were as hard to find as unoccupied land in the Stinbine Isles. Only the more so now that Garret, Lorelay, and Sentyx no longer remained Fingers. Did they remain Fingers?

I pondered that for a moment. Grim never explained to us the new rules of his Agency, as he saw them. Instead, he left everyone to figure them out on our own. Sometimes it was as though he wanted to behave like Ulken. By the abyss, he frustrated me like no other.

He still called us his Hand from time to time—and the Head of the Agency could be part of a Hand, Ulken had made that plain in Reed’s Woods—but we no longer fought Benefactors. Or, we did, but in an entirely different way. That was to be expected, as Benefactors had become entirely different themselves since Grim’s resurrection.

Resurrection by Archedark. It still perplexed me. It was impossible. Yet, I had witnessed it with my own eyes. My friend lay dying as I wept over his body, and in the tear-filled blink of an eye, he suddenly returned. If I were a religious man, I would say he was the Lightmother’s will incarnated. Or the Darkfather’s.

Alas, I was not a religious man. It was Archemagic, plain and simple. Archemagic that had broken all the rules. And I no longer possessed the ability to decipher this new knowledge.

I flexed my phantom hand. It still pained me, like a thousand tiny crows pecking the end of my stump. If it were half as useful as it was painful, I would still be the strongest Archemage in the Bright Empire. A shame.

“Umm, sir?” Trellan said and coughed. He exchanged glances with an Ayeiri Finger I had just hired.

“Golzo. That is your name, yes?”

The meek Ayeiri nodded eagerly, his long black hair bobbing like a rustling bush. He swept aside his sand-brown coat and bowed. “Yes, sir. I am honored you have remembered my—”

“You can go,” I said. He was too new. I needed someone for my escort with experience. “Trellan, bring to me Quinne.”

“I…” Trellan cleared his throat. “I’m not sure where he is, sir. A new assignment from the Head, perhaps?”

Unlikely. “Find for yourself a Heel, tell to him to give to a Nerve your message. The Nerve will find him. He should meet me in the courtyard, and quickly. It is a command from the Head. There is for us no time to waste.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.