Many thanks to @BeaconHill, @Assembler, ShadowStepper1300, and @fabledFreeboota for betareading.
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The hammer fell upon the anvil like a church bell tolling a funeral. The heat of the forge was oppressive, and the red light of the fire suffused the little workshop, casting it in an eerie, bleak light. Soot choked the air, scattering from the burning forge and filling the air with a shadow. If there was a Hell, I imagined it must look something like this.
It reminded me of a dream I'd had, not long ago. It felt like home.
Again and again I brought the hammer down. Slowly Búrzashdurb came into its true shape. The blades were formed, ground, beveled, and sharpened. The haft was ground to shape and wrapped with a leather grip. These components I forged together carefully, occasionally augmenting the fire and the hammer with a scrap of Song.
The work took a few hours. It felt like decades. The fire, smoke, and sound seemed unending. It was as though I was going under in a sea of heat and darkness, never again to emerge.
At length, Búrzashdurb was finished. It glinted darkly in the light of the forge. I swung it through the air experimentally. It whistled as it passed in a low, angry sound, like the buzzing of a million bees.
There was a mirror hanging on the door of the workshop. I approached it and considered myself.
My armor had been stained black with soot. Only the faintest hint of silver gleamed under the darkness. It matched the mace in my hands almost as well as the polished platemail had matched with Narsil.
My mace, however, was clean. The soot failed to cling to it, seeming to billow around it without ever marring the black galvorn. The long haft was tipped with a hefty weight, and it was crowned with a ring of fierce, heavy blades, black and vicious. It was heavy, it was powerful, and it shone jet in the red glow.
This was the weapon that would crush Heartbreaker, and everyone else who stood in my way.
-x-x-x-
"Wards!" I said, my voice loud and clear in the silent barracks.
I was answered by a startled shriek as Missy sat bolt upright in her bunk, breathing heavily. She blinked at me for a moment. "What the—Annatar?"
I gave her a nod. "Vista." I suddenly remembered her screams the night before as Histeya was ripped from her. "You up for some revenge today?"
She grinned mirthlessly. Her teeth flashed in the dark. "Absolutely."
"Then get up and get dressed. We have a lot of work to do." I glanced at the bunk beside Vista's. Amy was looking at me with an odd expression of mingled fear and concern. "Something wrong, Panacea?"
She hesitated, glancing at Bύrzashdurb on my belt. "Haven't seen that weapon before."
"It's new. I'll explain later. Get up and get ready." I looked over at the last bunk, where Sophia was watching me expressionlessly. "You too, Shadow Stalker."
Sophia nodded and threw the covers off herself as I strode out of the room, closing the door behind me. Then I turned on my heel and strode down the hall towards the boys' barracks.
The base was empty of activity, save for the occasional PRT trooper on patrol. They saluted me as I passed, and I gave them nods in return, smiling at the awe and occasional fear in their faces. It was about 5:30 in the morning. The sky outside was just starting to brighten from the dark of night to the grey of the early dawn. Soon the sun would rise, bright and terrible, a red fire in the eastern sky, and I would rise with it, out of this base and into the city.
There was work to do, and I was at last ready to do it. I was the cleansing fire of the eastern dawn, and I would not stop until my enemies were reduced to ash and dust.
I tried the handle of the boys' barracks. Locked, of course. I opened my mouth and whispered a scrap of Song to the lock, shifting the reality of the workings until they were no longer blocking my passage, and then opened the door.
"Wards!" I shouted into the darkness.
"Crackerjacks!" exclaimed Chris incoherently, falling out of his upper bunk and down to the ground.
I blinked at him for a moment, then shook my head. "Get up," I ordered. "There's work to do, and I don't plan to wait any longer than I have to."
"Annatar?" Sam asked blankly, sitting up and staring at me. "What happened to your armor?"
"It's just soot," I said, rubbing my gauntleted fingers together and holding them up as the black powder floated down. "No big deal. Now get up, get dressed, and meet me in the common room in ten minutes. We have work to do."
"What time is it?" Brian asked, yawning.
"Half past five," I said. "Dawn's coming soon."
"Half past
five?" he asked, staring at me as though I was insane. "What kind—"
My head tilted slightly. He stopped talking immediately. "There's
work to do," I said, slowly and clearly. "Heartbreaker, Valefor, and Coil have the run of the city. That will not be allowed to continue. Move."
I turned and slammed the door behind me.
Sophia, Amy, and Missy were waiting for me once I reached the common room. "Coffee?" Sophia offered from where she stood by the espresso machine, holding out a paper cup to me.
I shook my head. "I'm fine."
"Suit yourself," she said, passing the cup to Amy instead. "Have you even slept?"
"No. I don't need to."
She looked at me with a frown. "Taylor, Heartbreaker will still be around in a couple hours. You need to rest."
"No," I said grimly. "I don't."
"As the resident medical expert," said Amy wryly, "I should probably remind you that—"
"You're an expert in human medicine," I said. "That no longer applies."
Sophia blinked at me. "What?"
Maia.
I looked down at the Ring of Power on my finger. It flashed blue and cold under the fluorescent lights. "I'll explain once the others get here. I don't want to waste my time."
Sophia looked as though she wanted to protest, but instead she sighed and handed a cup of coffee to Missy, who accepted it with a muted "Thanks." Missy, unlike Sophia and Amy, already had her mask on. I couldn't see most of her face, but I could see how her teeth worried her lower lip, how she held the coffee cup close and warmed her hands upon it, and how her shoulders were raised protectively over her small frame.
Losing Histeya had not been easy for her. I would need to channel that pain, that fear, into a drive to destroy the people responsible. I was sure Amy and Sophia had been sympathetic to her, had treated her gently, when she'd returned last night. I would need to show her that I still respected her as a combatant—that I trusted her not to falter—if I wanted her to be both loyal and effective.
"I'm almost sorry I killed Shutdown," I said aloud.
The three Ring-Bearers turned to me. There was a look of something like shock on Sophia's face, and confusion on Amy's. Vista's expression had frozen.
"I would've liked to see what
you'd do to him," I said, smiling slightly at the youngest Ward.
Sophia was staring at me, but Amy's confusion gave way to understanding. Vista's face slowly shifted into a toothy, cold-eyed smile. "Yeah. Me too."
At that moment, Carlos opened the door. "Hey, Annatar," he said with a nod. "What's the plan?"
"We need to debrief first," I said. "Sit down, everyone."
"Anyone want coffee?" Sophia offered.
I sighed at the distraction, but nodded. "And that, yes."
I sat down in an armchair and impatiently tossed Búrzashdurb like a baton, catching it by the haft every time, as the guys got their coffee. Once they were all seated around me, I looked between them. "So," I said.
Where to begin? "I've learned a lot in the past twelve hours. You all know what a second trigger is?"
Everyone froze. "Oh, Taylor," Sophia whispered.
"Yes," I said. "I suffered a second trigger event—a parallel of my first. A betrayal, which led to being confined in a claustrophobic space. But this time, something different happened."
"You exploded," said Dennis weakly. "We saw the results when we got there. What the hell happened?"
My eyes darted to him, and then from him to the others.
How do I approach this? I wondered.
When I had seen my vision of those creatures the size of a world, stretching out in a million impossible directions, I had remembered the first time I'd seen them too. That memory remained. I now knew what the bout of unconsciousness that came with a trigger event was—it was a moment where the mind, the
Fëa, was transported elsewhere.
In that moment, one of those fragments, like the one I'd fought off, would latch onto the host. This fragment, I realized,
was a power.
Vista's ability to warp space was contained within one such fragment. Shadow Stalker's ability to meld into the dark was contained within another. Aegis' resilience, Browbeat's mutability, and Clockblocker's dominion over time were each merely loans to them from these other creatures, these parts of a whole.
Or they had been, until I slipped Rings of Power upon their fingers. Now I wasn't so sure.
But they didn't remember their visions. I'd forgotten mine, and no one had mentioned them. How did I even begin to broach the subject? Where did I start?
I decided to skip it all. There would be time to figure out the mysteries of powers and visions and monstrous things in the space between worlds. For now, it was easier to just avoid the whole thing and stick with the basics. "My second trigger unlocked new powers in me," I said. "And new insights. For instance," I looked at Panacea, "I think I can now explain what you saw of my Corona Pollentia and Gemma."
Her eyes widened. "What, really? How?"
"It's a long story," I said, "and I don't know all of it yet."
Maia.
"I'm not a parahuman," I said.
"Wait, what?" said Dennis. "How's that work?"
"I… saw something," I said slowly. "The details are complicated. I saw what gives parahumans power. I didn't get mine that way."
"Okay, no," said Vista. "You can't just avoid the subject—"
"We have two masters and a Ring of Power unaccounted for in this city right now," I said coldly. "I am
not getting into this right now."
"Then what
do you get your power from?" Dean said, staring at me. "If it's not from a trigger or—or a vial, and those are somehow the same, what's different about you."
I pursed my lips. "I'm not a parahuman," I said. "I'm not
human at all."
For a moment there was silence.
"What." Brian's voice was flat.
"I don't know what I am," I said, studying Búrzashdurb in my hand. "Not exactly. I'm starting to remember—flashes, scraps of memory."
Fire, ash, dust, and a golden Ring at the heart of it all. "But I know that where your powers are… given to you, by those parts of your brains that are atrophied in mine, my powers are
inherent. And last night, I unlocked more of them."
"Shapeshifting," said Sophia quietly.
"Among other things," I nodded. Then I smiled. "So, you see, Heartbreaker made a grave mistake in going after me and my Rings of Power. He failed to kill me—and what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger."
They stared at me. Then Chris, in a slightly shaky voice, said, "Annatar, your eyes are—"
"I did say 'among other things,' didn't I?" I asked rhetorically. "Now, to business. I have no intention of letting Heartbreaker escape this. The sun rises in about an hour, and by that time I want to be out there, seeking him out."
"We can't just go off on our own," Carlos protested weakly. "We're
Wards. We need approval, support—"
"Let me handle that," I said easily. "When I get Piggot and Armsmaster's approval, I want Clockblocker, Gallant, and Aegis, possibly with support from the Protectorate, to make contact with New Wave. Inform them of the situation, and get their support."
"I mean," said Dennis, "I'm always up to visit my girlfriend, but—"
"Would you rather she
not know?" I asked, looking him in the eye. "Heartbreaker's presence is not public knowledge. I don't think it's been leaked yet. Would you rather let Laserdream go innocently about her day with no idea of the danger she's in?"
Dennis went pale. "No. All right, you got it."
I nodded. "Fume, you'll work with Browbeat, Vista, and probably Assault," I said. "I need you to make contact with Faultline's crew and, if possible, with Regent. Trickster was the one who broke him out of our custody, so he's likely working with Coil. I somehow doubt he'll be happy to hear his father is in town."
"His… father?" Brian asked blankly.
I raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?" Then I shook my head. "Aegis can catch you up—I don't have time, I need to talk to Piggot. Shadow Stalker," I turned to Sophia, "are you in a position to communicate with the Empire through Oracle?"
Sophia paled. "Uh. No. Definitely not."
"Fine. You, Kid Win, Panacea and I will stay at base until the others return, and then we'll go after Heartbreaker."
"What, today? Now?" Aegis asked. "We don't even know where he is—"
"Leave that to me, the Protectorate, and Dragon," I said. "We will, and when we do, we'll take him out. Yes, today. And in the next few days, I'm going to want us to make contact with the Empire and the ABB."
"Uh," Sam said, grimacing. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Right now?"
"Yes," I said, twirling Búrzashdurb in my hand. It hummed through the air like an angry wasp. "I'm not going to tolerate Heartbreaker in my city any longer, and I fail to see why I should stop there. They will heel, or they will be crushed."
And if they submit, I might finally be able to give out the Nine.
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