It is also, more rightly, the name of our Dyad, a sort of formalized rendition of the names my motes assumed when they bonded. I also answer to ‘hey you.’”
“My pardon. Triss, meet Vala, Stel, and VoS, collectively the Dyad Valor of Steel.”
Stel nodded, which was as much of a bow as could be managed in her present position and condition. Vala waved. The Meld repeated both gestures, somehow making them distinct from the originals.
“VoS, Vala, Stel, this is Triss, my familiar, and one of the finest Shades ever to grace our world of Gram.”
Triss tipped his wings back and bowed from the waist. “I’m very pleased to finally meet you all. I’m sure that Aral and I will be able to help you recover the Kothmerk.”
“What!” Vala spun half around, her hands reaching for the empty wand sheaths at her hips.
“How did you know about that?” demanded Stel, half drawing her fighting rods.
“Very clever.” VoS turned Vala back around and resheathed Stel’s rods. “You’re going to have to tell me how you know about that.”
“I’ll trade you,” I said. “You tell me how you realized who and what I was, and the story of how you ended up here, and I’ll tell you what I know about the Kothmerk and how I learned it.”
“Deal.” The Meld nodded both of her heads. “Oh, and in case you hadn’t guessed. You’re hired.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me how much I cost?”
“No. This is a matter that touches on the honor of the Archon. If we recover the Kothmerk, my government will pay whatever is necessary. If we don’t, it will be because we’re all dead. In which case, money is
really
no object.”
I chuckled. “I’m glad you’ve got such confidence in my dedication to your cause, though I’m not sure how you arrived there.”
“Start with the Shade, then,” said the Meld. “And with my half of our exchange of notes. A few moments ago, when Vala mentioned that we’d come to the Gryphon specifically to find Aral the jack, your shadow moved of its own accord. I didn’t register it at that moment, since I was too busy watching your expression and posture. But later, when you showed such confidence in the face of what seemed overwhelming odds, I knew that you had to be much more than you seemed, so I replayed all our memories of you.
“The movement of your shadow then was the clue I needed to make sense of the chaos at the Gryphon when my motes somehow lost track of you. You didn’t
seem
to vanish then, you did vanish, and without using magic. Therefore, you had to be a Blade.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “But it still doesn’t tell me why that makes you trust me so much.”
VoS looked at me like I was speaking a language she didn’t understand. “You are the Kingslayer, Blade of Namara, the living hand of Justice. And our cause is just. What else could we possibly need to know?”
She said it so simply and with such conviction that it felt like I’d taken a knife to the heart. My eyes burned with unshed tears as I remembered what it felt like to have that kind of unalloyed faith in the goddess and the cause I served. Not to mention in myself and my fellows.
That was all gone now; my faith in all things godly had been swept away by the Emperor of Heaven’s murder of Namara. Its remains were buried in the ruins of her temple by the Emperor’s chief priest, the Son of Heaven. My faith in my fellow Blades had gone into the grave when I found out that some few of my companions lived on, having cut a deal with the most abhorrent of new masters, that self-same Son of Heaven.
My first impulse was to tell the Dyad that, to warn her that we who had once been Blades were just as broken and betraying as anyone else, but somehow I couldn’t do it. She had a faith in me and my kind that I had long since lost, and I couldn’t bear to take that away from her. Not when I knew how much its loss had cost me. Perhaps because of that, I found myself wanting to help them more than
“My pardon. Triss, meet Vala, Stel, and VoS, collectively the Dyad Valor of Steel.”
Stel nodded, which was as much of a bow as could be managed in her present position and condition. Vala waved. The Meld repeated both gestures, somehow making them distinct from the originals.
“VoS, Vala, Stel, this is Triss, my familiar, and one of the finest Shades ever to grace our world of Gram.”
Triss tipped his wings back and bowed from the waist. “I’m very pleased to finally meet you all. I’m sure that Aral and I will be able to help you recover the Kothmerk.”
“What!” Vala spun half around, her hands reaching for the empty wand sheaths at her hips.
“How did you know about that?” demanded Stel, half drawing her fighting rods.
“Very clever.” VoS turned Vala back around and resheathed Stel’s rods. “You’re going to have to tell me how you know about that.”
“I’ll trade you,” I said. “You tell me how you realized who and what I was, and the story of how you ended up here, and I’ll tell you what I know about the Kothmerk and how I learned it.”
“Deal.” The Meld nodded both of her heads. “Oh, and in case you hadn’t guessed. You’re hired.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me how much I cost?”
“No. This is a matter that touches on the honor of the Archon. If we recover the Kothmerk, my government will pay whatever is necessary. If we don’t, it will be because we’re all dead. In which case, money is
really
no object.”
I chuckled. “I’m glad you’ve got such confidence in my dedication to your cause, though I’m not sure how you arrived there.”
“Start with the Shade, then,” said the Meld. “And with my half of our exchange of notes. A few moments ago, when Vala mentioned that we’d come to the Gryphon specifically to find Aral the jack, your shadow moved of its own accord. I didn’t register it at that moment, since I was too busy watching your expression and posture. But later, when you showed such confidence in the face of what seemed overwhelming odds, I knew that you had to be much more than you seemed, so I replayed all our memories of you.
“The movement of your shadow then was the clue I needed to make sense of the chaos at the Gryphon when my motes somehow lost track of you. You didn’t
seem
to vanish then, you did vanish, and without using magic. Therefore, you had to be a Blade.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “But it still doesn’t tell me why that makes you trust me so much.”
VoS looked at me like I was speaking a language she didn’t understand. “You are the Kingslayer, Blade of Namara, the living hand of Justice. And our cause is just. What else could we possibly need to know?”
She said it so simply and with such conviction that it felt like I’d taken a knife to the heart. My eyes burned with unshed tears as I remembered what it felt like to have that kind of unalloyed faith in the goddess and the cause I served. Not to mention in myself and my fellows.
That was all gone now; my faith in all things godly had been swept away by the Emperor of Heaven’s murder of Namara. Its remains were buried in the ruins of her temple by the Emperor’s chief priest, the Son of Heaven. My faith in my fellow Blades had gone into the grave when I found out that some few of my companions lived on, having cut a deal with the most abhorrent of new masters, that self-same Son of Heaven.
My first impulse was to tell the Dyad that, to warn her that we who had once been Blades were just as broken and betraying as anyone else, but somehow I couldn’t do it. She had a faith in me and my kind that I had long since lost, and I couldn’t bear to take that away from her. Not when I knew how much its loss had cost me. Perhaps because of that, I found myself wanting to help them more than
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