The rift was not a natural feature of Tiran. Like much of the terrain of the north-out arm, it had been shaped by the Shard War. A stray blast of kinetics had burst a seam along Tirannenmoordenaar’s corpse, exposing a many mile trench of rough stone and veins of metals to Zonneshin’s light. The resulting earthquake did almost a much damage to the land as the widespread disruption of true names by the combatants.

            The centuries had softened the floor of the trench as dirt accumulated, washed down into it by the rain. The floor created was remarkably uneven, resulting in separate systems of rivers and streams pouring into seven different lakes. The company found that the accumulation of salts and minerals from the rain washing down the cliffs had left the lakes too toxic to drink, although the plentiful streams kept them well supplied with fresh water.

            For reasons that eluded the Prince and his people, few dangerous creatures had moved down into the rift, allowing the company over a month of pursuit with no serious encounters. Snows fell into the rift but melted almost immediately, conquered by the floor’s proximity to Knud’s flames. The most difficult thing they had encountered was the third lake, which had filled the rift from one sheer wall to the other, forcing the company to cross on makeshift rafts of wood and proxy.

            Colonel Rafe maintained discipline in the camp despite the peaceful interlude. When the thief’s path was not too far from the rift’s wall, he directed the company to make along the base to reduce the possible direction of approaches by any enemies.

            One evening, past the fourth lake, they found a shallow canyon branching off the rift. The traces suggested the thief had passed it by without stopping, but night was falling on the company and the Colonel decided it would be an ideal place to make camp. Only a minimal guard would have to be set to protect the mouth, allowing most of the company to get a real rest.

            The air in the canyon was stifling. The temperature was oppressive on the floor of the rift despite being close to the start of firerise. Still, the breeze that swept along its length keep the rift from suffocating them. The canyon, however, held the air still, making an uncomfortable camp in the early evening. Most of the gold masks managed to drop into sleep anyway, grateful for a chance to indulge themselves.

            Rank allowed the Prince to be better rested than his soldiers. Unfortunately, that also meant he was not tired enough to ignore the heat. He tossed and fidgeted on his bedroll for an hour before giving up. He shoved on his boots and sword and wandered out to the mouth of the canyon to get some fresh air.

            “Miserable heat,” he snarled to no one in particular, trying to catch a bit of breeze.

            “Just think of how bad it must be at fireheight,” Celeres noted from his position near the stone wall.

            “No, thank you. This is bad enough. So, how have you been holding up, little thread?” Prince Emhyr asked, mopping his brow.

            “Fine,” the blood knight said.

            “The Colonel’s been impressed with your growth.”

            Celeres grunted noncommittally. “What do you think we’re doing?”

            “Pardon?”

            “More is going on than chasing a simple thief, I know that much. I’ve picked up a bit more from Katchen and Rafe than I knew at Nguyen, but I still don’t know everything you’ve dragged me into.”

            “You’re asking a lot there, little thread,” the Prince laughed.

            “The Firstborn are trouble. How am I supposed to protect you if I don’t know what I’m facing?” Celeres demanded, pulling at the necklace chained around his neck.

            “Improvise,” Prince Emhyr smirked.

            Celeres snorted in disgust.

            The Prince laughed again. “You know, the yellow of your skin suits you. You should have been born a noble.”

            “A commoner worthy of being noble? Maybe you’ll remember that next time you decide to cut short a loose end. We rarely get to choose our starting point.”

            “It’s a big world. Where you end up is the most important part.”

            “Agreed, but I suspect we would prefer different endings.”

            The Prince leaned against the wall and peered up into the sky. “There are those that fear I’m too much like my uncle, that I’d take over the Empire if I could. They don’t realize there are larger games than that.”

            “Tiran,” Celeres guessed. “You want to rule the entire world.”

            “Maybe not, although that is the prize I’ve been promised. Coordinating the affairs of all the humans on Tiran has a certain appeal, and burying myself in the details would be satisfying. Still, there are larger things in the world, and measuring myself against those is a true challenge.”

            “What’s in the Isole?” Celeres asked, his stomach knotting.

            “Power, although only a fraction of it is usable by someone limited by being human. The Firstborn could use it for far more. Since the dawn of the first universe, they have been limited to just this here and now. The contents of the Isole would give them enough strength to break free.”

            “And Zonneshin has promised you all of Tiran if you get it for him,” the blood knight said doubtfully.

            Prince Emhyr laughed. “On the condition that he actually gets free. I’m not sure how much I believe him. He was a little vague about how exactly I would assume power.”

            “What if something goes wrong? It did already, once. You’re putting the entire universe at risk.”

            “If not me, then they would have chosen someone else. At least I’m aware of the possibility of a double cross.”

            “They? It wasn’t just Zonneshin?”

            “All the Firstborn want out. The only difference among them is how. You’ve met one of Zonneshin’s allies, actually, at Whisper Point.”

            “Thacker,” Celeres said.

            “That’s the challenge, little thread. There is nothing greater than surviving a game played with creatures of that magnitude. Anything else is merely mortal.”

            The blood knight shook his head in disgust. His response was diverted by a commotion back in the camp. He and the Prince turned their attention back into the canyon, where they could see the gold masks scrambling out of their bedrolls. A scream of pain ricocheted around the canyon, drawing the Prince at a run. Reluctant to abandon his post, Celeres walked closer while trying to keep an eye on the mouth of the canyon. The blood knight could see something moving along the walls of the canyon, but the night hid its details.

            An attack from above put an end to his caution. A rubbery limb snapped down, wrapped around his torso, and lifted him into the air. Celeres squawked indignantly.

            His captor headed back up, shaking the blood knight back and forth as he went. Celeres twisted around to whack at it and got his first good look at the company’s attackers. A dozen rubbery limbs extended from a tear shaped body, flicking out to latch onto cracks and outcroppings on the stone wall. Scrubby hairs covered its skin, scratching Celeres where they rubbed against him.

            The blood knight wacked ineffectively at the squid thing with his staff. Frustrated, he shifted his grip and drove the end into its body like a spear, hoping to break the skin and release the energy within the wood. The staff rebounded harmlessly but did get the creature’s attention. In retaliation, it bounced Celeres against the wall a few times, hoping to subdue him. Strengthened by his hirudin blood, the knight came away from the slamming only battered and bruised. With grim satisfaction, he tasted blood on his lips trickling down from his nose. Celeres scrubbed his hand across his face and slapped the blood onto the staff. The wood turned to ice in his grip.

            Grinning viciously, Celeres laid into the squid. The explosion from the staff ripped its flesh in two and threw its captive into the air. The blood knight twisted around and landed on the ground in a deep crouch.

            He dashed into camp, trying to sort through the chaos of battle. Only a double handful of gold masks remained on the ground, ruthlessly hacking apart more of the tentacled beasts that had had the misfortune to have fallen off the wall. Katchen stood in their midst, plucking a squid and its gold mask captive off the cliff face with her proxies and directing them to the ground where Colonel Rafe waited to free the prisoner. Prince Emhyr was partway up the wall, deftly slicing another gold mask free from its captor while shrugging off the beast’s retaliatory strikes.

            Celeres looked up, grimly following the progress of the tentacled monsters as they swarmed up the canyon wall, gold masks struggling futilely in their grasp. Almost two-thirds of the company was in their clutches, heading for Zonneshin knew what fate.

            Celeres scrambled up after them, hardly aware of the strain on his fingers and toes as they gripped the stone. As he closed in on the nearest beast, he ruthlessly shoved his staff into its belly, ripping it apart. The gold mask it held slid free and tumbled headfirst for the ground. The plummeting man screamed. Cursing his own recklessness, Celeres caught the gold mask by his ankle, stopping his fall. Celeres slid his way back down the wall and dropped his prize in an ungraceful heap. In a flash, the blood knight was on his way back up.

            He approached his second rescue with a bit more caution, securing a grip on the gold mask before slaying her captor. Balanced precariously on his toes, Celeres glanced despairingly up. The closet squid were already two-thirds of the way up wall. If the blood knight dropped down to safely release the gold mask, the monsters would easily make the top with a dozen of the company, changing the fight in ways he could not properly anticipate.

            “Drop her, boy! I’ll catch her!”

            Celeres looked down and saw the Colonel waiting, arms outstretched. He released the gold mask and took off after the nearest beast without waiting to see how the woman landed. As he climbed, he spotted Prince Emhyr far to the left, nearly at the lip of the cliff. The Prince had abandoned fighting the creatures on the wall in order to face them at the top. The red gem against Celeres’ chest burned strong, forcing him to abandon his chase and instead try to reach the top to help the Prince.

            The blood knight zipped straight past his original prey, ignoring its swipes at him as safely out of range. He crested the lip and spotted the Prince leaping between two squid and using his sword to keep them from climbing over the edge. He did not see a third tentacled monster rushing him from the tree line.

            Celeres hefted his staff like a spear and threw it as the monster plowed into the Prince. The third squid hit Prince Emhyr and pushed him forward, but the human spun away from the edge before he would have fallen off. Using his distraction, the Prince’s other two opponents rushed over the edge and made for the tree line with their prisoners. The thrown staff slammed into the squid threatening Prince Emhyr, blowing the creature back into the canyon. The Prince deftly reached out and snagged the weapon before it suffered a similar fate.

            Back by Celeres, the monster he had passed on the wall came up, eager to escape with its prize. With the Prince safe, the blood knight turned and leapt at the squid, slamming into it before it could properly get on firm ground. Entangling itself around him, he took advantage of its laxness by hurting it the only way he could without his weapon. He took one of its rubbery limbs in his hands and bit into it.

            Pain washed in with the blood that spurted across his teeth. It felt like a vice had been set across his gums and crushed the roots of his teeth. Nevertheless, Celeres found he could not release the bite.

            Across the distance, Prince Emhyr threw the staff, perfectly threading the confused mass of human and alien limbs. The blast tossed the combatants around, but the beast had moved far enough from the edge that the two humans landed safely. The squid, having received the bulk of the explosion, flopped down dead. Separated by the blow, Celeres retched its blood out onto the grass.

            Finally, the pain subsided to a burning throb, allowing the blood knight to reorient himself to his surroundings. The gold mask he had just rescued had risen and was running toward the tree line. Celeres spotted Prince Emhyr disappearing into the forest, chasing after the fleeing monster. The burning of his stone forced him to his feet. He picked up his staff and sprinted after his liege.

            Even in the dark, the Prince and Celeres were enhanced by the hirudin blood in their veins and quickly outdistanced the gold mask. The monsters were even faster, swinging from tree to tree and leaving the duo far behind. So intent was the blood knight in keeping up with the Prince that he missed the growth of a familiar sensation within him. Even after they slowed, he did not notice it until Prince Emhyr pointed it out.

            “Do you feel that?” he asked.

            Winded from their sprint, Celeres just shook his head.

            “There’s someone gifted near.”

            It was true. In addition to the familiar sensations the blood knight associated with Prince Emhyr and Colonel Rafe, there was a third hirudin presence. Still, something prompted Celeres to argue, “No.”

            “You’re right. It isn’t, quite,” the Prince agreed. “It’s grown far too quickly to be one of us.”

            “What is it? Are those tentacled things related to it?”

            “I don’t think we can assume they weren’t. That staff of yours still explosive?”

            “Usually takes a couple of hours for it to settle down.”

            “Good thing. Let’s run.”

            Making no pretense at sneaking, the duo dashed through the trees. The presence grew larger, blotting out their sense of Colonel Rafe back at the canyon. They slowed again at the sound of a ruckus ahead of them. Hooting calls responded to a deeper rumble. The duo made no effort to hide their approach, concentrating instead on watching for guards or ambush.

            Apparently, the tentacled creatures felt safe enough not to bother with them. Looking over their home, Celeres found it hard to blame them for their confidence. A bowl had been carved out of the forest floor and stained black by the offal of the inhabitants. Hundreds of squid swarmed across the area, bouncing off one another in the crowded field. A glint of gold in the mass revealed the captives being dragged deep into the swarm. Other squid moved across an artificial hill they had built in the middle of the bowl. Around the top, they scooped a yellow jelly out of huge translucent sacks that ringed the hill and shoved the matter into a small mouth in the fat end of their bodies.

            Those creatures nearest to the duo noticed them and moved tentatively toward them.

            “Maybe we should get Katchen and the others,” Celeres said.

            “I doubt our people would live long enough,” Prince Emhyr said, pointing at the hill.

            Celeres watched as one of the beasts dragged a panicked deer to the base of the hill. The hill snapped open and a long, red tongue snaked out and wrapped around the animal. It drew the deer into the hole, where ragged teeth crashed down on it, spilling its blood. Repulsed, Celeres realized the hill was alive.

            “That thing is the not quite a hirudin,” the Prince said.

            “So, what do we do?”

            “I say will kill it before it kills us,” the Prince said, flashing his sword to keep the approaching squid at bay.

            “Aside from the several hundred beasties, how do you propose we kill a hill?”

            “From inside. Let it swallow you and use the staff to kill it.”

            “Just like that, huh?”

            “Well, it does seem to be the larger threat,” Prince Emhyr said, chopping a limb free from a particularly aggressive squid and chasing it back into the pack.

            “So, we let these things capture us and drag us to that hill beast?”

            “The ones with our people have a head start. We’d never make it through this mess fast enough to save them like that.”

            The creatures nearby had pulled back to consider their options. It was obvious to Celeres that it would not take them long to decide to rush the intruders.

            “So what are you suggesting?” he asked, eyeing the monsters nervously.

            The Prince swept his arm from Celeres to the hill, indicating that the blood knight should clear a path.

            “You’re kidding,” Celeres said flatly.

            “Consider it an order. And hurry, please, before they decide to come to us.”

            Gritting his teeth, the blood knight responded to the urging of the gem on his chest and leapt at the squid. A single sweep blasted aside three of them. Celeres stepped into the gap and reversed his swing, knocking aside another two.

            He quickly discovered how much faster than the squid he and the Prince were with their hirudin blood. Without tree branches to swing from, the beasts could not come close to their speed, allowing the blood knight to crush a path through the mass of monsters. Behind him, Prince Emhyr’s sword flashed in sheets of silver lightning, severing any tentacle that came too close.

            The squid responded aggressively, first by trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. When that failed to penetrate Celeres’ whooshing shield of wood, several tentacled beasts tossed one of their number over it. Without breaking rhythm, the blood knight raised his weapon and caught the monster with the wooden tip. The resulting gore rained down on them all. Celeres could feel the burn of its blood where it splatter across his lips.

            Behind him, the Prince cursed, “Drop me! These things have hirudin blood!”

            Celeres was far too intent on his attack to respond. The squid where lobbing clumps of muck from the ground at him. The blood knight puzzled at the tactic, as the muck slapped against his body without hurting him. Then one pied him in the face, blinding him.

            The knight stumbled but kept his head. He shifted into a defensive posture, spinning the staff in front of him while trying to wipe his eyes clear against his shoulders. Still, the squid penetrated his defenses, reaching in from the sides to wrap his limbs in a dozen tentacles. The monsters began to pull, trying to rip the blood knight apart.

            Prince Emhyr swept his blade down one side of Celeres and up the other, severing the alien limbs holding him.

            Vision clear, Celeres rushed forward, killing the squid closing in on him. The blood knight almost tripped as he broke through and found himself facing the hirudin hill. If the giant had been impressed by the destruction the duo had inflicted on its minions, the expression on its face did not show it. Celeres was surprised to recognize it as a face, even at this close distance. At either end of its enormous, lipless mouth resided humans eyes that regarded him with contempt. A nub above the center revealed its nostrils as it opened its mouth to feed upon the intruders. Celeres watched in disgust as its tongue unfurled from the very back of its throat past a field of randomly arranged teeth that resembled stalactites and stalagmites more than the neat rows of teeth normal creatures had.

            Seeing no use in waiting for the tongue to draw him in, Celeres dived into the gaping maw. Holding the staff horizontally before him, the blood knight cleared a space for himself. The hill rumbled in distress as the blasts tore away his lower teeth. Its tongue slithered past Celeres back into its mouth. Mistaking its intent, he struck at the stringy muscle, taking a gouge of flesh out of it. Ducking the resulting shower of blood, he almost missed seeing the plummeting teeth from above. Hastily, he swung his staff up, trying to remove the fangs above him. The mouth closed too fast for him to make a clean sweep, and a single tooth escaped his shortened strikes. It ripped through his calf, dizzying him with the pain.

            The blood knight struck back, whacking at the roof of the monster’s mouth. More gore splashed down on him, but he pressed on, striking again and again. It desperately tried to escape by opening its mouth again, but Celeres followed it up, forcing himself to his knees and jamming the end of the staff deeper into its flesh.

            Driven mad by his attack, the hill clamped back down, desperately trying to crush him. The blood knight met the charge, thrusting up with all his strength. A river of fluids washed down on him. Celeres gulped what air he could and struck again. The flesh around him shuddered and collapsed down as dead weight.

            Celeres found himself buried inside tons of dead flesh with only the air in his lungs to keep him alive. Frantically, he struck out in the direction he remembered seeing forest in. The blows shook the flesh but allowed him little forward progress. The knight floundered in the blood, slowly suffocating while the staff grew colder and colder in his hands. Still, he thought he felt the detonations from the staff getting stronger. He redoubled his efforts until it felt like the icy power of the staff would burn his fingers right off. The final rending of the hill’s skin accompanied a ground shuddering explosion and the release of a tidal wave of fluid and flesh.

            Celeres flopped around in the back of the freshly carved excavation, sucking in air in great shudders. Futilely, he fought to stop writhing, but the fire in his leg and from the alien blood on his lips made that impossible.

            A figure darted in the opening, picked up Celeres, and carried him out. “Good work, little thread. It looks like that did it.”

            The blood knight looked out over the bowl. The squid were wandering aimlessly, clearly confused. The nearest ones showed signs of being well worked over by the Prince’s blade with severed limbs decorating the ground. Beyond that, the monsters moved slowly and bumped randomly against one another, as if they were unaware of the presence of the others. They ignored the humans completely.

            “How do you feel?” the Prince asked, setting Celeres down on the ground.

            “Leg hurt. Dizzy,” he panted.

            “Yeah, night fighting is always the worst. Here, drink this,” Prince Emhyr ordered, taking a small bladder that hung around his neck and handing it to Celeres.

            The blood knight sucked down its contents, a delicious and cool sensation spreading through his body.

            “We’ll get you some more when we get to camp. Once the sun is up, you’ll feel almost human again,” the Prince said, scanning around. Spotting what he was looking for, he barked out, “Man down! Get your asses over here!”

            The captured gold masks, abruptly released after the explosion on the hill, had been pushing through the confused squid to escape. The call of their liege from the other direction spun them around to find the source. When they finally spotted him, the gold masks waved their acknowledgement and reversed their course.

            “Stay here. I’ll go get your staff,” Prince Emhyr said.

            Celeres nodded weakly and watched the meandering squid in bafflement.

            The little rumble behind him as the Prince dropped the staff caught his attention. “Break me! How did you hold on to this thing?” the Prince demanded, taking off his belt and wrapping a handspan of the wood in leather.

            “Why aren’t the squid attacking us?” Celeres asked him.

            “The hill is dead.”

            “So?”

            “What kind of hirudin presence are you sensing?”

            “Uh-me, you, something faint, and-umm-Colonel Rafe in the distance.”

            The Prince knelt next to Celeres and said, “The something faint was the strong presence we felt from the hill. It dropped down a couple of seconds before your spectacular reentrance. At that same time, the squid went stupid. Their blood tastes like ours, and I suspect the hill’s does too. It sets your mouth on fire. I’m betting both the squid and hill were a single hirudin, before they got changed by the Shard War. The hill was the brain and the squid its hands.

            “Disgusting thing,” the Prince said, looking back at the hill. “An abomination like that has no place in this world.”

            Celeres snorted faintly in amusement.

            “Any significant injuries?” the Prince asked the gold masks as they approached.

            “Mostly bruises. One dislocated shoulder, Your Highness,” the first reported.

            Prince Emhyr’s eyes flicked over them, confirming the report. He pointed to the largest and said, “You carry Celeres. He’s in no shape to walk out of here.”

            Looking at the fluid drenched blood knight, the gold mask’s expression was torn between revulsion and amazement. After a moment’s hesitation, he picked Celeres up and set him across his shoulders.

            “I don’t think the squid will regain their senses, but I don’t think we should stay and find out. Move out,” the Prince said.

            Looking back from his perch at the blasted hill, Celeres thought about the Prince’s words and wondered just which abomination did not belong in this world.