Cliffs of Litori, North of Triah
SAY WHAT YOU WILL about tiellans, but these Rangers know how to travel, Kali thought as she leaned forward and patted her horse. She’d named the animal Garex, after nothing in particular, but she remembered how Nash always hated to not give an animal a name, and that thought had dug into her and wouldn’t come out. And Garex wasn’t half bad a horse, it turned out. He’d brought her all the way from Adimora to Triah, and much faster than she had expected.
Their group emerged from the wooded forest atop the Cliffs of Litori. They had taken a longer road at the end of their journey, directing their steeds to this vantage point rather than approaching directly from the east. The small settlement of Litori stood less than a radial to the north of them.
Kali dismounted and left Garex to content himself with a nosebag. She passed a group of the tiellan engineers Winter had recruited from Adimora. The majority of their force were Rangers, those skilled in battle, but before leaving Winter had sent out a call for any tiellans with skill in carpentry and engineering. And, just moments ago when the tiellans had arrived at Litori, Winter had ordered the engineers to begin procuring wood from the nearby forest and any other materials they needed. It was clear Winter intended to make war machines with which to besiege Triah. Kali did not see the point; first of all, the cliffs were far enough away from the city that no conceivable siege engine could damage anything important; they might be able to bombard the outer circle with a few well-made trebuchets, but the Legion would care little for such attacks. A trebuchet would have to be truly massive to reach any important targets, and the trajectory from up here would make it impossible to hit anything with any accuracy.
Walking to the cliff edge, Kali finally got a full view of Triah, far below her. She breathed it in, but even that act left a bitter taste in her mouth. She breathed in through tiellan lips and throat; she looked on her city with tiellan eyes.
“How does it feel?”
For all the talk of her being a queen, Winter looked more like a warlord. Kali had played her part there—thank the goddess the girl didn’t wear those silly tiellan dresses anymore.
“It feels like shit,” Kali muttered.
“Are you still upset about that body? I thought you’d do just about anything to get out of the Void.”
“I would,” Kali said quickly, “and I did, but that doesn’t mean I’m content. I could still… improve my situation, if you would just—”
“No,” Winter said flatly. She had expressly forbidden Kali from procuring a new lacuna to inhabit.
Kali had once held the power in their relationship; she had held the knowledge, she had held the faltira, and the experience and skill with acumency. Her student’s acumency skills now exceeded her own. And Winter had plenty of faltira, too, after reclaiming Mazille’s stolen stash. She wasn’t remotely dependent on Kali any longer. If it had just been a battle of acumency, Kali might be able to stand toe to toe with Winter, but Winter also had access to telesis and clairvoyance. If it came to a fight, it would be short and with a foregone conclusion.
“I could at least find a woman,” Kali said. She was sick of being a man. One too many dangling parts.
But Winter wasn’t listening. Her gaze was on the city below them.
“I never thought Triah would be like this.” Her voice was almost reverent.
“It is an impressive sight. Once you get down there, you find out it’s a stinking, overpopulated shithole run by a pseudo-noble class that pretends to champion the interests of the people, but the city itself—”
“It’s something special.”
“It is that.”
“Do you want to go down there?”
Kali stood very still. “Are you serious?”
“I am,” Winter said. “You’d be in a tiellan body, so I don’t know how easy things would be for you down there, but if you wanted to visit Triah, I would allow it.”
The excitement welling up within her faded. “And what is the catch?” she asked. “You want me to do something for you down there?”
“I do. So you can choose whether it’s worth it to you or not, but… I need to know about rihnemin in the area.”
Kali nodded in understanding. The few rihnemin landmarks she was used to seeing near Triah had been removed—she imagined the Legion or the Nazaniin, or perhaps both, were behind that move. They certainly didn’t want the Chaos Queen to have a rihnemin readily available with which to assault their city.
“I’ll go,” she said. “I’ll find out what I can.” Her old contacts might know what had happened to the local rihnemin. If those didn’t work, there was an old Nazaniin rumor that might be worth following up on.
And, most importantly, she wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to revisit her city.
“Good.” Winter handed something to her.
A Voidstone.
Not just any Voidstone, Kali realized, but… this was the companion to the Voidstone she and Nash had given Winter, so long ago.
“How did you—”
“The emperor’s Reapers took what you and Nash left behind back in Roden, when you…” Winter didn’t finish the sentence.
When I killed Nash, Kali remembered, and when Lathe— Knot—killed me.
“Before I left Izet,” Winter went on, “I asked for your things. I figured this might be of use. I never thought I would give it back to you.”
Kali ran her thumb over the rune.
“Keep in touch with me through that,” Winter said. “Don’t linger too long in the city. It may not be safe for you.”
It may not be safe for me, or it may not be safe for anyone? Kali wondered. But Winter had given her enough.
She was finally going home.