Several Blades lay writhing on the pavement. From claw scrapes and fiend bites, an inky substance crept over limbs and faces. Inen curled up on himself, convulsing and groaning. Fiend venom, already spreading from the bite in his neck, had sealed one of his eyes shut and was working its way over his mouth. His other eye stared, crazed and unseeing.
He started to rise, but three Blades rushed forwards to pin his arms, holding him down. He tried to punch one and struggled to throw off the other. He screamed at them, a strange wailing tenor warping his human voice.
Adeya grimaced at the sound.
Gennen looked grim, gripping the hilt of his blade with white knuckles.
Another scream joined Inen’s. Wynne’s voice—yelling profanity. She wrestled with two Blades trying to restrain her from chasing the fiends down the stairs. She yanked herself this way and that in their grip, her voice ragged and hoarse in its curses.
Hefting his white blade, Gennen started towards Inen, but Adeya put a hand on his arm to stop him.
Kyen was already moving forward.
With a shove, Inen sent one of the three Blades sprawling. The other two threw their entire weight on his arms to keep him down. He roared at Kyen when he stopped beside him. The darkness had covered more than half his face.
Taking an arcstone from his pocket, Kyen held it up on his palm. He closed his eyes. Six wings of white fire suddenly blazed into life around him. All the Blades gasped and backed away. Those holding Inen stared up, open-mouthed. Gennen’s eyes widened. The wings spread, the lowest pair brushing over Inen, the highest pair rising to point their wingtips towards the sky, the middle enfolding and shrouding Kyen. With a flash, they transformed into ribbons and leapt out. One ribbon dove towards each of the downed warriors.
The men holding Inen jumped back as the nearest ribbon pierced the bite wound on his neck. He jolted as it struck. The five others also spasmed as the ribbons slammed into the fiend-poison seeping through their bodies.
The ribbons pulled taut and, as they did, tendrils of darkness ripped from all the wounded Blades. Some cried out, some convulsed, some beat a fist against the ground. All but Inen.
He arched his back and screamed when the ribbon piercing him jerked. But it didn’t come free. Again, it snapped upwards, harder. Out with it dragged a shred of darkness like a bit of tattered cloth. Inen collapsed back, huffing, clear-eyed, restored skin and limb and face. Seeing Kyen standing above him, his eyes grew wide. He dragged himself away.
The six ribbons floated together, pulling the dark swatches with them. All the shreds latched together into a mass that exploded. It blasted the ribbons of light to pieces and burst out into a thousand dark tendrils. All of them stabbed for Kyen.
His brows furrowed, and he bowed his head.
A flash of light bounced the tendrils off the air in front of him. The ribbons reformed and lashed around them. They looped and swirled until the dark, seething mass disappeared into its white knot.
All six ribbons jerked tight in different directions. The knot constricted. With one last yank, they crushed the mass out of existence then came apart. A faint shimmer like white sparks faded in the air where the mass had been. The ribbons dematerialized into a haze, disintegrating backwards along their length to disappear at the point where they’d been anchored in Kyen.
He lifted his head, taking in a sharp gasp like a man who’d been underwater too long. The hand holding the arcstone dropped limp to his side. The crystal crumbled from his loose fingers like crushed glass.
In the silence that followed, every Blade stared at Kyen. Inen checked his hand forward and backward then rubbed his cheek—the one that’d been covered in the dark poison. He accepted an arm from a nearby Blade who pulled him to his feet. They both stepped away.
“Kyen?” Adeya approached.
He swayed a little, looking out of it.
Gennen lingered behind her, his brows furrowed, an intense glint in his pale eyes.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
His gray gaze shifted towards her, but no recognition broke through his dazed expression. He looked pale.
“Kyen?” She put a hand on his shoulder.
With another breath, sharp and deep, his eyes suddenly refocused on her. “I’m—I’m alright.”
Turning, he wandered away. The Blades parted around him, giving him a wide berth, eyeing him with suspicion. Even fear.
Adeya watched as he walked slowly towards the ruins. Gennen came up beside her; he wore a deep scowl on his face as they watched Kyen together.
“Was that what I think it was?”
“An arcangel,” Adeya told him. “Kyen’s been hiding it. That’s why the fiends attacked.”
“How long?”
“Since before the Black War. I’m not sure how long before that,” she said.
Matherfel swooped over their heads. He veered to Gennen, and alighted on the arm he offered.
“Gennen!” Oda ran up. “Gennen, the golem is gone!”
“Don’t be an idiot,” he said. “The golem is bound by oath to that spot.”
“But it is,” said Oda. “Go look, if you don’t believe me.”
With a frown, Gennen marched away towards the steps. Adeya followed him. From the top of the stairs, they both looked down towards the canyon. Its dark mouth, where the golem usually piled itself, yawned open and empty
Gennen’s scowl deepened. “Set double guards, Oda. Go on, get!””
“Okay, okay!”
“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered under his breath.