“Do you have what you need?” Liv asked, from where she lay on the bed. There was little to do but stare up at the ceiling, or close her eyes and try to think of what else she needed to get done before the Godsgrave expedition would be ready. Sakari - she needed to contact the former ambassador. While she had a member of House Iravata at the college, there was no way that Liv would take a first-year to the most dangerous rift in the world.

  Keri’s hand settled over her own, where they were crossed over her belly. She turned to look at his face, and saw that his eyes were fixed on the pane of glass, where colored V?dic sigils scrolled, winking in and out of existence. Liv could see a colored outline of her body, there, which Arjun and Elder Aira crouched over.

  Her friend and the elder exchanged glances, expressions carefully set in the sort of bland neutrality that healers seemed to think their patients would find calming. Liv recognized it from her classes with Professor Annora at Coral Bay, and even earlier in her life, from when she’d followed old Master Cushing around the Lower Banks. She’d even done her best to mimic it, when she’d helped him treat his patients.

  “You haven’t been in any rifts, lately, other than Bald Peak?” Arjun asked

  Liv shook her head. “No. In fact I was away long enough that even with the array Sidonie and I cooked up, the headaches were starting to come.”

  “Nor eaten another dead god, child?” Aira asked, leaning around the pain to examine her. “Have you noticed your mana capacity expanding?”

  “I haven’t had it measured since before the war in Varuna,” Liv admitted. “And Caspian Loredan seemed to think there wasn’t much left that could grow my capacity.”

  “But have you noticed anything?” Arjun asked.

  Liv closed her eyes again and felt at herself, at the power that rested inside her. Keri and Arjun had insisted on activating the waystone for her, so that she would be completely full for the measurements. “Perhaps the smallest bit,” she decided, after a moment. “A ring. Two, at most.”

  “When did it happen?” Aira demanded.

  “I don’t know.” Liv shrugged. “Sometime while we were in Coral Bay, maybe? It wasn’t enough of a change to pay attention to. I don’t think I even noticed until you said something.”

  “Any change, after so long stable, is worth noting,” Arjun told her, with something of the tone of a lecturing professor. “Nightfall Peak didn’t increase your capacity, but something you did while you were away from Whitehill did. You don’t have any idea what that might be?”

  “We may need to examine these enchantments she slept in,” Aira muttered. “It could be there’s something wrong with them.

  “It isn’t those,” Keri stated. “Otherwise I’d have felt something, too.”

  Arjun and the elder stared at him, for a moment, rather than Liv, and she felt a blush come to her cheeks.

  “What I mean is, I helped to set them up,” Keri continued, after a moment. “I was inside for a bit while we tested them. My son came in, as well.”

  “He’s right,” Liv said. “It was hardly as strong as the shoals of a lesser rift. That can’t have done anything.” She turned her hand, wrapped her fingers around Keri’s, and squeezed gently. “I think it was the night at the Seastone Tower.”

  “I’d like you to tell us what happened,” Aira said. “Because according to these readings, your body composition has passed the halfway point. You’re now closer to being one of the V?dim than either a human or Vakansa. Your bones are thoroughly saturated, more than the casque of any mana beast I’ve ever seen. There’s no part of your body that isn’t infused with it.”

  Liv’s hand had tightened on Keri’s before she’d even realized it, squeezing with all her strength. Had she crossed some invisible line, when she’d saved herself from Milisant? She felt like a boulder rolling down a mountain slope, gathering speed until it was completely out of control, unstoppable. How long until she’d never be able to leave a rift again?

  It was a good thing that Keri was able to tell the story, because Liv could hardly bring her thoughts together enough to even listen. It was like listening to a conversation across the room at an inn, half-heard through the clink of wine bottles, plates and knives, the low hum of voices and laughter.

  “Ractia used Princess Milisant to set a trap for Liv, while we were in Freeport,” Keri explained. “She demanded to see Liv before she’d answer any questions. She was imprisoned at the top of the tower, bound in enchantments to drain her mana and keep her from absorbing any more. We brought guards, Archmagus Loredan, Kaija, myself - we thought it was safe enough.”

  “I did,” Liv said. “I’m the one who insisted, while you all warned me to stay away.”

  “It isn’t your fault. None of us knew what she would do,” Keri said. He lifted their hands, together, and pressed a gentle kiss down on her knuckles before continuing.

  “This is the incident that cost Harold his leg,” Arjun said. “He was hesitant to speak of it - said she turned into some kind of horror.”

  Keri nodded. “And the first strike was aimed at Liv. She managed to halt it -”

  “I’d been practicing how to make a stasis bubble with Miina,” Liv explained. “But that just left me trapped, watching the rest of the fight. And it didn’t save me. It left me with a spike of blood, mana and what looked like iron, just touching my chest.” She raised the hand Keri wasn’t holding to touch her sternum. “I sat there trying to think of a way out of the trap, and wishing I could do what Wren does - just turn into blood and let it splash through.”

  “And?” Aira asked.

  “Then I thought about how what was left of Celris took the form of a storm,” Liv explained. “And I decided that if he could do it, so could I.”

  “It was like watching her entire body just fall apart in an instant,” Keri recalled. “It was terrifying. Like her skin and bone flaked off into white powder, tumbling on the wind.”

  Aira tapped her fingers idly on the pane of glass where an outline of Liv’s body was displayed. “I suspect that was the trigger, then. One of the characteristics of the V?dim was that their physical form was mutable - I suspect because it was almost entirely made up of mana. I only ever saw a few of them do it, and the expression was different for each. In my mother’s case, she could turn into pollen on the wind. It was incredible, really - she could fertilize an entire valley, a hundred different kinds of plants, in an hour.”

  Keri nodded. “Celris could dissolve into snow, Keria into pollen, Ractia into blood -”

  “Which is probably how she built that capability into Wren’s people,” Arjun said. “And her other servants. The precise magic she used probably isn’t important at the moment, but I imagine pushing yourself to use the capability is what triggered further changes, Liv.”

  “Will it get worse if I do it again?” Liv asked. “Because I don’t have to. Actually, I’d be happy to put it aside forever. It was terrifying, like I might never come back.”

  “The only way to know that is to take measurements,” Arjun said, with a sigh. “Preferably, we’d let your mana capacity stabilize for a few months, and you wouldn’t do anything that could expand it. And then once we were certain all growth had stopped, we’d have you take this other form, and then we’d spend a few weeks measuring again to see if there was an effect. But we won’t really be able to do that until after Godsgrave.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Aira huffed. “If any rift in the world is going to push your capacity, it will be the depths of that place,” she muttered.

  Liv closed her eyes, and then opened them. She let go of Keri’s hand and sat up, spinning herself around so that her legs hung off the side of the table. “Could the two of you give me a moment alone with Elder Aira, please?”

  “Of course.” Keri slipped an arm around her just long enough to offer a bit of comfort, and then followed Arjun out of the room.

  “You can always tell when it's new and fresh,” Aira observed, once the door was closed. “When you can’t keep your hands off each other.”

  Liv swallowed. “That’s what I wanted to ask you about, actually. What’s happening to me - would it stop me from having children?”

  Aira shook her head immediately, without the least bit of hesitation. “If anything, it will make the process easier,” she stated. “The V?dim designed us to be compatible with them. More compatible with them than each other I think, sometimes. You’ll need to learn the same technique your sister did, to control how much mana the child is exposed to. And for the Trinity’s sake, don’t do it until after you’re back from Godsgrave. The last thing anyone should be bringing into that place is a new life.”

  ?

  Wren returned with her cousin, Soaring Eagle, and Blossom even more quickly than Liv had expected. Six days after the huntress had left for Varuna and the Clear Water Cenote, the waystone at Bald Peak flashed red to warn anyone nearby they needed to get clear, and the four Red Shields had arrived.

  Liv had spent that time settling back into the routine she’d kept during the time between the council at the Hall of Ancestors, and when she’d left to visit Lucania. She began the day by dining in the great hall of the keep atop the mountain, with her personal guards, the Eld who manned the walls of the fastness, and her friends and companions. She taught her course in advanced magical combat, which was often one of the most relaxing parts of her day.

  Aura, the Elden warrior who’d lost one eye fighting at the pass, functioned as her assistant, though she also had Keri, Arjun, and even Sidonie stop in as ‘guest lecturers’ from time to time. Semila Teller, who’d been so infuriated with Reginald Teck that she’d left Coral Bay to come north, was part of that group, as was Rande, Sir Randel’s son. Both of them had the benefit of nearly an entire year of training over the most recent arrivals, Bhodwin Crosbie and Karina K?n Iravata.

  After fighting each other to a draw on the day they’d arrived - Bhodwin collapsing with a near lethal dose of poison shortly after he’d brained Karina in the back of her head with the pommel of his sword - each of them had insisted on fighting again, and gone on to defeat everyone else who dared to step forward.

  What they lacked in time at the new college, they made up for in familiarity with their words of power: Semila and Randel had only just managed to officially test up to apprentice, and Lia Every had imprinted them each with Aluth herself, after giving the guild oath. Randel had hesitated, until Liv had personally assured him that whatever else Master Grenfell and Archmagus Loredan settled on during their negotiations, there would no longer be a rule banning guild members from inheriting title or land.

  Pandit Sharma shared the report he’d been forwarded by the Church of the Trinity - that the entire Merciful Society of Butchers and Drovers was now being investigated for cells loyal to Ractia. Cultists had been dug up all the way from the southern coast, to the border with Lendh ka Dakruim, to the trading inns and warehouses which surrounded the docks in Freeport, Courland, and Corinthia. Dozens of cultists had been caught and burned.

  “In fact, Eustace has asked me to return and assist him,” Sharma had told Liv, once he’d finished reading the report and set it aside. “He believes the word of truth would help to sort out the guilty from the innocent.”

  “You don’t need my permission,” Liv had told him. “Anyway, we were never planning on bringing you to Godsgrave. If you can hunt out her spies in Isvara, that’s much more useful.” Then, she’d turned back to composing her letter to Sakari.

  She’d also made certain to find time to have dinner with her mother, Gretta, and even Archie. Taking Keri along with her had felt a bit like leaping off the bluff over the River Aspen, on hot summer market days when she’d been a child. It was better to just take a deep breath and leap than to frighten yourself by looking down.

  To Liv’s surprise, the hardest part of that evening hadn’t been questions about her relationship with Keri, but how old Gretta had looked. Rather than help with the cooking, she’d simply sat in a chair in the sunlight, mostly nodding off until someone spoke to her.

  Liv had rolled up her sleeves and stepped into the old woman’s place, helping her mother by rolling out dough for a meat pie. By the time she was finished, she was covered in white flour, and Keri couldn’t seem to keep himself from grinning.

  “What?” she had demanded, wiping her hands on her very fancy skirt.

  “I’ve just never seen you like this before. You look very happy.”

  Liv had made certain to wipe flour on him, too.

  All the while, preparations continued - some with Liv’s direct supervision, but more that she’d entrusted to the people around her. Supply wagons rolled off the waystone regularly, bringing bolts of silk from Lendh ka Dakruim and travel rations from Al’Fenthia. Matthew and Triss used Ters to dry local meat and fruit, preserving it for transport, and Liv was happy to pay the Whitehill farmers who sold them that food - but it wouldn’t do for the Elden soldiers in the army, and so she also had coordinated with House Keria.

  Sakari arrived the afternoon before Wren and her family, and so he was present when, finally, they all sat down to set their plans down on paper. Liv would have preferred her makeshift solar, but they ended up using the great hall, because there were simply too many people involved to fit, otherwise. Blossom and Calm Waters had, after a quick exchange of messengers with Mountain Home, been sent to spend the day there, so that Rei and the little girl could play together. Liv had, however, had to promise that Blossom would be able to meet the new baby in Whitehill, before she’d been willing to go.

  That left Liv with Keri and Soile, who would coordinate the movement of two hundred soldiers from Bald Peak through the jungles of Varuna, along with their supplies; Arjun and Steris, the Elden healer who’d treated Triss during her pregnancy, who would organize a field hospital outside the rift; Sakari, who, Liv hoped, would tell her that they had an option other than simply killing whatever wyrms remained in the rift; Sidonie, who they would rely to understand any still-functioning V?dic machinery; and Soaring Eagle, Wren, and Ghveris, who, as Red Shields, were the ones most committed of all to what they were doing. Thora and Miina stood just behind Liv, while Kaija had made certain that the doors into the hall were guarded. She herself sat by Keri and Soile at the high table, as there was no doubt that Liv’s personal guards would be coming, and that they would need to coordinate with the army.

  Once wine had been poured into a dozen cups, Liv looked out over all the faces gathered around the table, and smiled. “Thank you all for coming. When we first learned that Ractia had left people slumbering at Godsgrave, and that at least some of them had survived the destruction of the city, I promised Wren that we would get them out. It’s been a long road to get here, but I think we’re ready. Now, let’s talk about how to make it happen.”

  “We agree that the army is ready to move on about two days’ notice,” Keri said, the first one to break the silence. He nodded to Soilel to continue.

  “That’s mostly moving supplies from storage to the wagons,” the Elden woman explained. “We’re going to run into a holdup with riverboats, however. If it was summer, I’d have our people out on the Aspen in every rowboat I could beg, borrow, or steal, but that isn’t going to happen with half the river frozen over. Instead we’ve got a list of every soldier who’s ever pulled an hour, and we’ll use that to spread them out among canoes. But I simply don’t think we’re going to have enough.”

  “You saved the ones we made when you first came to Varuna?” Soaring Eagle asked Keri.

  “Liv’s father immediately put them in storage at the dam rift,” he confirmed. “I know they use a few for scouting up and down the river, and across the lake there. But we didn’t bring two hundred people across the ocean.”

  “As I see it, the Red Shields need to do three things,” Soaring Eagle said, holding up his hand and counting off fingers. “First, we need to scout the way and blaze a trail from the Airaduin? to Godsgrave. We need to, evidently, make more canoes as quickly as we can, though of course we have our own and can bring them. Finally, we need to be present to receive our people when they wake up. They’re going to be confused, likely frightened, possibly angry.”

  Sidonie’s quill pen scratched on parchment as she took down notes. “It may take time to figure out how to get them out of the machinery, and out of the enchantments keeping them asleep,” she warned.

  “Which means we need to be able to hold a location inside Godsgrave long enough to make it happen,” Liv said. “And then we need to transport them out through the rift. I think we have to assume we’ll come under attack in both cases, which is why I invited Sakari. When my teacher went to Godsgrave, Jurian and his party were eventually overwhelmed by wyrms. Is there a way to handle them without fighting everything?” she asked.

  The former ambassador settled back in his chair, looking down into his goblet of wine. “Possibly,” he said, after some consideration. “If we can bring enough people who are skilled with the word. But I am concerned. By all accounts, three of the old gods died in this place, and one of them was Iravata. The rumors of how you broke the last curse of the Lady of Bones have been spreading through the north, Livara.”

  “It was probably less dramatic than whatever you’ve heard,” she grumbled. “Your point?”

  “Simply this,” Sakari said. “I think we need to assume there will be magic left behind by Antris, Asuris, and Iravata. And if the power of the Lady of Wyrms has - soaked into this place, into these ruins, what might it have done to her children, her pets, over the course of more than a thousand years?”

  here. I am more available there than I am here.

  Dramatis Personae

  Livara T?r Valtteri Kaen Syv? - Guildmage, former scullery maid at Castle Whitehill, the bastard daughter of Maggie Brodbeck and Valtteri Ka Auris. Mountain Queen, and Lady of Winter. Has decided to throw overwhelming resources at Godsgrave. [36+ Rings of Mana, not counting mana stored in items.]

  Aira t?r Keria - Daughter of Keria, grandmother of Airis, great-grandmother of Vari. Called in for a consult. [33 Rings of Mana]

  Arjun Iyuz - Journeyman Guildmage from Lendh ka Dakruim; his jati specializes in healing magic. "Doctor House was right - patients always lie! Grumble grumble." [18 Rings of Mana]

  Inkeris "Keri" ka Ilmari k?n B?lris - A young warrior of the Unconquered House of B?lris, father to Rei. Foot planted firmly in mouth. [20 Rings of Mana.]

  Margaret Brodbeck - Mother of Liv, Former cook at Castle Whitehill. Not an idiot.

  Sakari of House Iravata, Ambassador to Lucania — Imagining horrible, terrible things. [21 Rings of Mana]

  Sidonie Corbett - Guildmage. Official note-taker. [19 Rings of Mana]

  Soaring Eagle - Husband of Calm Waters, father of Blossom. Red Shield Tribe. Has the unenviable task of guiding mountain people through a jungle.

  Soile - A Commander of House Keria, now essentially Liv's general. Has been doing much drilling and training off screen, since last we saw her. [17 Rings of Mana]

  Vivek Sharma - A priest of the Trinity from Lendh ka Dakruim. "No one expects the Whitehill Inquisition!" [21 Rings of Mana]