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Chapter Text

-Unity-

A cloud of stones and dust flowed like water in a void darker than night with pinpricks of light and a raging ball of fire making the cloud glow and sparkle with a thousand colours. A god floated above the cloud, his hands of Investiture moving like a thousand thin fingers, he pushed the stones together and brought Unity , the cloud formed into a ball of rock and he breathed some of Honor’s Investiture into the rocks. 

Good, I can create planets now with a sliver of life in them. I cannot afford wasted Investiture in the war that is coming.

He breathed the Investiture back from the small planetoid which cracked open like an egg and crumbled back into dust and small chunks of rock. He turned his mind towards Scadrial, towards Harmony and he could see Waxillium Ladrian returning to Elendel. 

Time for a Conduit to be sent as my hands, I cannot see much on Scadrial without effort. I am not a Scadrian Shard.

He turned his mind back to Roshar.

-Tlik-

He could hear music in his ears, the Rhythms of Roshar and the Pure Tones of Unity. The music told him where everyone around him was and who they were and their lives, their secrets. He was a Conduit, well that was the title that the ignorant peoples called him and his brethren but Unity usually called him his analogue interface but Conduit was just as accurate.

The music changed and Tlik knew that Unity was looking towards him properly as normally the music was just automatic but the music changed the moment he looked towards Tlik with his full consciousness to being far more ordered instead of the constant chaotic orchestra. 

Unity told Tlik in the music, “ Go to Scadrial, Tlik. They need you and I will guide your path. ”

Tlik bowed his head slightly and Lashed himself upwards and towards the Thaylenah Oathgate. Below him he could see the sprawling city with the streets having been widened with the help of Stonewards and Lightweavers. Cars powered with Stormlight were driving throughout the city. The people walking in the streets below looked up at the blue-black Light glowing form of Tlik. He dropped onto the platform and summoned his Blade, a long, thin sword with glowing black, gold and blue runes, ‘Avatar of Unity’ they read if you knew the language of the symbols. He walked into the control room and waved his hand at the gemstones that filled each of the lamps, they were all dun as a security precaution but as he waved his hand Warlight flowed into just enough of the gems so that the control room would be able to transition it into Shadesmar.

-Jasnah-

She read a book from Sel, a history book from Fjordel, it had become her newest obsession learning about histories of the lands beyond Roshar and trying to find the secrets between the lines, the truths behind the lies, rumours and misunderstandings. 

She was still technically among the highest ranked officials in the government of Alethkar but she wasn’t needed anymore for handling the country, peace had been strong for the last six years. She had returned to her old studies though the goal had shifted to different lands as the powers that Nazan held remembered too much about Roshar for her research into the history of her homeworld to be worthwhile.

The sun set as she read and wrote her theories, she cross-referenced the book with a dozen other history books from other sources, Elantris, Teod, Svorden, the Rose Empire, Silverlight among others. Jasnah felt a tug on her emotions, like someone was pulling her emotions to the surface. She felt a small smile grace her lips as she looked up to see Nazan leaning against the door as if he had always been there, though she knew he had only appeared when her emotions were Pulled on.

She felt the smile disappear when she saw his expression, cold, hard and his eyes glowing ever so slightly golden. Jasnah could see him acting nonchalantly but she had known him for far too long not to read him with ease. Storms, bad news, last time he looked at me like that was when he was having that perfect gemstone holding Mishram broken. That was a chaotic day.

“Nazan, what is it?” Jasnah asked.

He hesitated, “I will be distracted for a while, my mind will be focused on Scadrial.”

“Why? You don’t need to monitor your Conduits constantly, they can handle themselves for the most part.”

“There’s a darkness over large parts of my future sight, I worry that if I don’t keep my eye on Tlik that will be the exact moment, one of my enemies will take advantage of it. Mishram will keep an eye on Roshar for me.”

“Are you sure?” She asked, her eyebrow rising, “She isn’t loyal to you.”

“She is loyal to me now. Mishram is powerful, she spreads across the entire world uniting all Lights and spren. She has earned my trust, thank the Sixteen.” He seemed to change who he thanked every single time, he usually would return to thanking the Sixteen.

He walked over to her, his eyes stopped glowing and pushed a stool beside her sitting down. His expression softened as he put his hand on her cheek and pulled her face closer.

-Ba-Ado-Mishram-

Mishram was a woman of neither human nor singer but something in between; her skin was covered in black, red and white swirls but no carapace, her eyes were human with whites and an iris of glowing gold. She floated above a sea of beads spreading across the whole of the sub-astral but she also stood on the sea of beads in thousands of places and also looked down from the Everstorm as it slowly moved across the entirety of Roshar.

An old singer appeared in the sea of beads not solid but slightly transparent, he was dead. She put her hand on the dead singer comfortingly.

“I am sorry but you are dead. Do not be afraid, this is not the end but just a stepping stone towards a new journey. Your body will return to Roshar allowing new life to be born, your Investiture will be United with the Spiritual Realm and your soul will go Beyond to a new adventure.”

The old singer had tears in his eyes, grief for himself and Mishram pulled him into her embrace as his soul was pulled slowly into the Beyond.

Within minutes he was pulled into the Beyond completely and he was gone. She felt Passion rush around her, Unity was focused on her and was manifesting. She turned herself around to her liberator, she knew he didn’t really trust her, he was right to even if she had no plans to betray him for the time being. She had all the power she needed, she was among his greatest lieutenants, his nine Conduits were lesser than her but Sja-anat was greater than her in authority.

“Thank you for doing this duty for me, you are always much better at comforting these dead souls than I am.” His voice vibrated with his Pure Tone. “I have work to do, away from this world but Roshar needs to be watched.”

Ah, he rarely gives compliments to me but he needs me to do something.

She simply nodded and Unity’s eyes flashed brightly with golden Light.

“Good.” His form seemed to be pulled into the sea of beads and was returned to the Light of the world.

She was his, she knew that if she tried to take control, Unity would deal with her with near complete ease. After her freedom she confused, tried to attack Unity and he nearly Splintered her even further. It was better to be on his side as he had a plan, she could tell, it was complex and everything slid naturally towards his goal. Even Cultivation was blind before his plan, she was doomed, she was being strangled slowly over years and she was nearly out of time. Unity was being careful not wanting to waste even a sphere of his power. It will be sad to lose my aunt but this was always inevitable, no matter the Odium.

-Saoene-

Saoene, Lady of Urithiru and Guardian of the Oathgates stood on the top platform of the tower-city looking down at the Everstorm that was passing slowly below the city and watched as eight of the ten Oathgate Control Rooms glowed in unison as eight of the nine Conduits chosen so far transported to Urithiru, the only two Oathgates that didn’t activate were the Thaylen Oathgate and the Akinah Oathgate.

So, Tlik was sent straight to Shadesmar, that makes sense. Thaylenah is closer to Scadrial than Urithiru is. Tlik is the most capable, he doesn’t need to practice his Surges. Tlik is strangely skilled for one so young but I suppose he is even more Connected than an average Conduit to Nazan. 

Ilan nudged Saoene not so gently causing Saoene to almost stumble over the side of the platform. Saoene breathed a little Stormlight and stopped herself from going over the ledge. 

“Ene aren’t you going to check on those kids?” Ilan said her voice tinged with amusement, “Instead of looking down on the platforms hundreds of metres up.” 

“Yeah, I was just thinking.” She gave Ilan a soft smile before jumping right off the tower in a dive, tapping a few Aons on her shirt slowing her mid dive.

She landed on her feet right in front of the eight Conduits, half of them were singer and the other half were human. Nazan had made sure that his Conduits were as balanced as possible between the two species though he had left a slot open for someone he was hoping to recruit from Scadrial.

“Let’s train kids.”
-Aster-

Aster breathed in a little Stormlight subtly, as she looked over an Alethi child. The child had an illness, they were coughing so hard that trace amounts of blood came out. She quickly grabbed some herbs and crushed them, taking the liquid and putting it into a bottle.

“Rhy, put three drops of this in a glass of water twice a day. If symptoms don’t improve within the next three days, I’ll call in an Edgedancer for you from one of the larger towns.” She said handing him the bottle, and applying a little bit of Regrowth into the kid to give him a boost.

The kid thanked her before running out the surgery room. Aster smiled and walked into the front room coming face to face with Liss.

“Sister? Didn’t expect you today.” Aster said, the question obvious, why are you here sister?

“I have gotten word, the others are ready, the plan is ready. Time for us to get into position.”
“Well, I am already in position. Why else would I be in Emul?”

“Good. I’m ready too. We’re just waiting for the others to get here and then we’ll have vengeance.”

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

He fell through the Scadrian sub-astral, the liquid mist of the northern continent, the music had changed as he had changed worlds, no longer did he hear the Rhythms of Roshar but something different in an indescribable way though he could still hear the Pure Tones of Unity. He could hear a new pair of Rhythms, those of Preservation and Ruin they were opposites but still somehow paired; one seeming to pull everything into safety while the other pushed everything towards destruction and they were all in Harmony with each other.

The Rhythms told him that he needed to slow down as he had almost reached the perpendicularity that he needed to use to slip back into the Physical Realm, he listened to his God and removed two of the three Lashings that he was using to travel as fast as possible then Lashed backwards resulting in him being practically weightless only air resistance slowing him down. He travelled at a high speed but he was used to it, he had been a Surgebinder of the Surges of gravitation and abrasion as well as a Steelrunner long enough to be able to keep track of his surroundings while traveling at speeds that few humans could even hope to survive much less thrive at.

The music warned him that the perpendicularity was only a hundred metres away and he Lashed directly downwards slamming into the ground, his body shattered but the Warlight pulled him back together as fast as he died. He picked himself back up and dusted himself down quickly, his clothes soaked in blood and he touched the blood Binding the Surge of Division spliting the blood, the water evaporating from the heat and a small amount of metallic dust fell off his clothes.

He walked over to the glowing pool of Investiture and slipped from the Cognitive Realm and into the Physical Realm. He stood in a cave and saw crystal stalagmites and stalactites like a forest.

He summoned his Blade at the sound of Unity’s music warning him of something, Tlik didn’t recognise what he was being warned of.

A shadowed man walked out from the forest wearing a black robe. He moved silently like the shadows he seemed to be wrapped in. Tlik knew his eyes were glowing blue-black as he summoned the powers that he had been granted by his God. The glow showed the face of the man and Tlik realised what the Rhythm he heard, Inquisitor . The man had spikes through his eyes, tattoos around them and bumps in his robe. 

The Rhythms changed and it relaxed him instantly, the Blade slipped out of his hand and it turned to mist. His body slowly stopped glowing and the Inquisitor shifted slightly.

“Hello Conduit, I am the last Inquisitor and I am the representative of Harmony.”

Unity seemed uncomfortable with the presence of the Inquisitor, the Rhythms played out shakily. His God provided instructions on what to say and Unity immediately followed the instructions.

“I am Tlik, Conduit of Unity and Guardian of Thaylenah. My God remembers you, he witnessed your liberation from Ruin’s control.” Tlik smiled as he spoke regally.
Marsh flinched, the blunt reminder of the horrors of the years he was bent to a dark god.

Tlik remembered the day he was taught of the final days of the old Scadrial and when the story of Marsh’s domination from Ruin was told even a boy who grew up on the streets found it horrifying beyond belief. He knew it was cruel to bring up something like that but his God never said that he was kind.

“Well, I don’t remember him.” Marsh shrugged off.

“My God was a child at the time though he already had an Inquisitor’s blood on his hands when he witnessed you.” Tlik responded as casually as possible.

Marsh hesitated before responding, “Really, a child killed an Inquisitor?” Disbelief coating his words.

“My God was a Full Feruchemist and Inquisitors are arrogant creatures with a number of weaknesses that can be exploited by a sudden attack.” Tlik explained as he walked out of the cave.

He nodded towards Marsh and the Rhythms heightened in volume focusing his mind. Warlight burst from every pore and he Lashed himself towards the sky. He was hidden in the mists flying into the clouds, the Warlight pulled itself back into his body being contained within the gemheart that he had grown when he had fully accepted Unity and swore his Oath. His gemheart was much larger than the other Conduits which his God believed was because his Connection was much deeper than the others.

A few hours later he floated far above a sprawling city, it was strange to see a city like that. He had seen much advancement on Roshar over the last few years but this city was strange even to him. Thousands of specks of light were spread across the city, the buildings were tall, not as tall as Urithiru but they were significantly larger than any building he had seen though that was changing back in Roshar. Unity was encouraging the development, giving ideas and nudges to push society to new heights. The Rhythms boomed with Passion and the mists were pushed away from him, Unity was roaring in joy like he had returned home, which is true, these lands are those that he was born in.

Tlik dropped downwards switching his Lashings quickly so that when he landed on the roof of the tall building there wasn’t a sound. He dropped down the rest of the way into an alleyway, a quarter Lashing slowing his fall. His vision slipped slightly into the Cognitive Realm and he grabbed at a ball of mist and willed it to change from the open front vest that he wore till it became a shirt with a tie and jacket.

“ Now, Tlik let’s get to work on recruiting your newest sibling. ” 

At those words coming from the Rhythms, Tlik smiled and walked out of the alleyway towards the Tetris Village in the fifth Octant.

He arrived quickly, Conduits were naturally enhanced even without Warlight suffusing their entire body. Three Brutes stood in Tlik’s path.

“Stop, you are in the Village, get lost.”

Tlik rolled his eyes and repeated what his God instructed him to say, “I am of Terris, I have every right to be here.” He tapped the steelmind bracers and walked forward with inhuman speed arriving in the face of the head Brute.

He took papers from his bag which was written in Terris. He handed them to the Brute who quickly read through them nodding slowly.

The Brutes let him past and he walked through the trees. He found a quiet area and sat on a large tree root. His hands clasped together and the Rhythms became soft, almost mournful. His God was remembering his past on this sphere.

He found a small cluster of roots that formed a clunky chair and sat comfortably down. His eyes closed and he fell asleep with the Rhythms beating in his ears.

-Wyrn-

A God’s mind pressed down upon him, Jaddeth touched his mind and he knew he had a purpose. He had become Wyrn five years earlier after the previous Wyrn died suddenly from a sickness, well that was the official story, really the power he had been wielding to see glimpses of the future had been taken from him and while he was exposed Jaddeth struck him down.

A skaze floated in front of his kneeling form, the skaze looked like a floating orb of darkness that pulled light in and a circle of misty symbols orbited the creature, the threat was clear. If he failed to follow Jaddeth’s commands, the skaze would kill him and a new Wyrn will be chosen.

“ You will work on converting Duladel, Arelon and Teod. I want them as my newest lands. ”

Wyrn nodded, “My lord, what about the Elantrians? They have stopped the Dakhor and our armies every single time we have attempted to take their lands. They have refused to be converted for centuries.”

“ Do not fear, when the time comes for you to strike down Elantris, I will rip AonDor’s power from them. They will be made weak at precisely the time you need them to be weak. ”

Wyrn nodded in acceptance, he might not understand how Jaddeth planned to break Elantris but he still accepted that it meant that Wyrn would succeed. The skaze floated so close that Wyrn couldn’t see anything but the black orb, he was almost completely blinded by it’s darkness.

Jaddeth stopped pushing on Wyrn’s mind but the skaze had its own presence that seemed to dominate his mind. Kreon was the overlord over all the skaze ever since he had ascended to Wyrn status and he had power enhanced by Jaddeth.

Kreon seemed to be satisfied with whatever it saw in the Wyrn and it floated away through the glass dome ceiling. 

Elantris would fall and all lands on Sycla would be under his dominion, Jaddeth would be dominant and Wyrn would survive his God’s wrath.

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

He walked into the ZoBell party with tin bracers around his lower arms near his wrists. The Rhythms beat against him telling the stories of the people in the party telling him their sins, their loves, their kindness, their grief and their hates. He slid through the party with the grace that only an Invested individual could move, as if he could hear the heartbeats of every person in the room and feel every imperfection in the floor and moved accordingly. 

He flowed from conversation to conversation letting Unity guide his words and focusing on maintaining the correct accent; North Scadrian, noble and from New Seran. These conversations are drivel, is this seriously what rich folk talk about?

The Rhythms pulsed like laughter and eventually he had managed to move to standing close enough to the governor that if a fight broke out he could act but not close enough to be noticeable. He felt the warm steel of his metalminds on his upper arms contrasting with the cold tin that he was leaving exposed. Let them think that I’m just a Windwhisperer so I can surprise them with a burst of speed at the right moment.

Wax was talking to the governor warning him that he was still in danger from an assassin. Unity told him that Wax hadn’t noticed him and that Bleeder had just spoken into his mind, and that in moments Tlik would have to move. Tlik felt his gemheart fill with Warlight ready to make him like a raging storm when needed. The Rhythms pulsed with restraint as Wax shot after a waiter and a small scuffle ensued then he Lashed straight at the window the waiter jumped through.

Tlik flew and he readied to bind the Surge of Division when necessary. 

Waxilium Ladrian looked confused as he jumped after me, “Who are you?” He shouted.

“I was sent to help you out, we’ll have some more help soon.” 

“Harmony sent you?” He asked as they flew after the waiter.

“Kind of.” He let his street Thaylen accent into his voice. “Well, not at all but it would be simpler to do that.” 

They dropped onto a cab and Tlik divided the door in half ripping at it with one hand. He poked his head into the cab and the Rhythms reverberated confused. ‘ This one isn’t her. ’ 

He shook his head at Waxillium who nodded back. Tlik asked a few questions and they both jumped and flew in the direction the driver pointed out. They flew into Tage street and dropped to the ground looking around for Bleeder.

The Rhythms screeched just as a warehouse door opened up and a hail of bullets came through. Tlik shoved his palm out and a wall of steel formed into existence as he Soulcast the air. Tlik jumped and used a quarter Lashing upwards to make the jump much greater then he pulled a handgun out of his jacket and fired three shots. The bullets took three of the men in the head. He dropped back behind the steel wall, Waxillium was clearly shocked by the Soulcasting but he acted. He shot at the men coming from the sides with steel pushes boosting each shot. Tlik slicked the air and ground then tapped steel and moved like a gust of wind. He grabbed hold of another thug and threw him into another, infecting the two of them with a Soulcasting, they each turned into salt and crumbled into dust. He jumped at another and bound the Surge of Division with a single touch his throat was burned off.

He stopped tapping his steelmind and the Rhythms warned of a kandra, then the Rhythms shifted, MeLaan. He ignored her and tapped his hand against the steel wall which transformed into air. A massive gust of wind rushed out of the space the wall had been, Tlik Lashed towards the ground and put one hand onto the ground. The thugs were all sent flying back from the air wave and Tlik fired his handgun at each of the thugs.

Waxillium Ladrian stopped Tlik in his step with a hard look, “Explain. Who are you?”
“I was sent by my God to hunt a mad immortal.” His voice shifted to include a hint of Azish vizier, “My name is Tlik, First Conduit of Unity, and I have been given a sacred duty to stop the kandra known as Bleeder.”
-Unity-

Tlik was acting his part so perfectly it was honestly wonderful. The other projects on Scadrial were not going nearly as well, Paalm is far more dangerous than I think anyone believed, not even Harmony. When I read the book I saw her short term threat level but compared to any enemy bar perhaps Ruin himself there was not a single character in the whole of Mistborn capable of action that could influence such a large scale as effectively as her. I can’t see her, I thought that her cloak was against Harmony in particular but that isn’t true. She had one weakness and old Sazed exploited it to hell and back. Cruel bastard, Ruin is a bad influence on him. Though now that I understand Investiture better, she can’t be using just one spike to have access to both the Metallic Arts and the ability to insert thoughts into other Hemalurgists and the mad but then how was she found with only one in her? 

He watched as Tlik flew towards the Survivorist church with the dead priest.

Ohhh that could be it, how long has she been at work on this? I won’t ask Harmony, that would be unveiling my hand too early. I always forget how much I hate Survivorists, everything about them makes me angry. 

Tlik landed at the door into the church and pushed it open looking at the spiked priest.

I suppose it’s mainly because of their ridiculous worship of Kelsier. Well, Bleeder, I don’t have to be able to see you properly to know who you are and so I’ll just watch the people around you. 

He noticed something on a canal boat coming into Elendel.

Finally, it's about time.

-Marasi-

Marasi stared up at the corpse, which had been nailed to the wall like an old drapery. One spike through each eye. Blood painted the man’s cheeks and had soaked into the white ceremonial robes, forming a crimson vest. Almost like a Terris V. Blood stained the wall on either side of the corpse as well, smeared there by thrashing arms and fingers. Marasi shivered. The priest had been alive as this happened .

Though constables poked and prodded at the large nave of the church, Marasi felt alone, standing before that corpse and its steel eyes. Just her and the body, a disturbingly reverent scene. It reminded her of something out of the Historica, though she couldn’t remember what.

She heard the doors behind her slam open as a young man walked through, he looked a couple of years younger than her. He looked at the dead priest and she could see his mouth moving, shock? No, he came here deliberately.

Captain Aradel walked over to her, “Who are you looking at? Oh.” His expression darkened and he walked over to the man.

She followed close behind, curious, “Who are you?” Aradel asked annoyed.

“Above your paygrade constable.” The man said with a noble accent, “So, has anyone checked to see if those spikes are charged? No, I don’t see any Coinshots or Lurchers, I’ll check.”
She remembered where she had seen him before, at the party, he jumped after Waxillium. He jumped into the air and seemed to float for a moment in front of the priest then he dropped to the ground and shook his head.

“What?” She asked, “Are they hemalurgic spikes?”
“No Constable Colms, they just reminded me of Inquisitor spikes but they are just spikes.” He stopped for a moment and cocked his head like he was listening to something, “I’ll be seeing you constables, I have places to be… wait, constable check the priest’s robe, he has something on him. It’s small and metal.”
Marasi looked at Aradel who just nodded sharply though he looked completely bewildered by the man. She stepped on a small ladder and fell into the robes and pulled out a thin steel plate with writing on it, ‘I take your eyes’, the young man read the plate and cursed.

“Storms! Constable figure out where that steel plate came from please. It might help locate Bleeder. She didn’t want Harmony to be able to read it directly.” He spoke with a strange accent, it sounded like a street accent but not one Marasi had heard before. That’s his real accent, he isn’t a noble but a street kid.

He left the church just as quickly as he had entered and Marasi took another glance at the plate then looked up at Captain Aradel who looked at the plate too.

“Yes, go if you think it would help.” Captain Aradel ordered, sounding tired.

She walked off quickly, checking a notebook from her bag for the locations of every steel foundry in Elendel then removed every single one owned by large reputable foundries and she located a small foundry known for providing allomantic steel to blackmarket dealers. She took her motorcar to the foundry which was three Octants over and it took very little pressure to push the night watchman to allow her access to the ledger. No. No. Definitely not. Very suspicious. Definitely that one.

The address was back over to the Fifth Octant, the order had large amounts of steel and a not so small amount of duralumin which was the suspicious part. She made sure that she had cadmium swallowed ready to be burned then checked that her rifle was ready along with her handgun.

She abandoned the motorcar a street away and then walked head down till he was right outside of the warehouse. She pulled out a small set of lockpicks and in a few minutes the door was open. She walked in and quickly lit a match lighting a candle she took from her bag. The small circle of illumination revealed ground painted with red, she felt a cold feeling of discomfort. She lifted the candle upwards and she saw a body nailed to a wall with a hole through the chest then she saw another then another then another then another.

She gasped in horror at the sight and then she flinched at the loud popping sound of a gunshot dropping the candle on the ground. She immediately flared the cadmium in her stomach and she spun as the bubble popped and the bullet veered into the ceiling. Four gunmen came into the large room, three of them held revolvers and the one in the back held a shotgun. Marasi drew her handgun but another gunshot flashed and she felt something hit her. She shot her handgun right at the closest man before she glanced down at her shirt which was becoming red around a small hole.

Oh rusts.

She fell to the ground and she saw the man she shot dropping to the ground. The other men came up to her smirking.

“The Set sends their regards.” the closest of the men said pointing his gun at her head.

LIGHT

The room filled with light completely blinding Marasi but she could hear screaming. She blinked away the spots in her vision as the light faded and she saw a woman striding into the room, red hair like fire down her shoulders, a dress that was made of metal that seemed to glow and her pale skin seemed to be glowing pure white. She lowered a long sword that was glowing blood-red and stepped over a body that was bisected, the split on both halves was cauterised as if cut with a hot blade, Marasi realised with a small gasp that all three of the remaining men were in the same condition. 

The woman rushed over to Marasi just as Marasi’s vision darkened.

Chapter Text

Marasi woke up in the back of a motor car, she could hear a woman speaking in the front of the car. I don’t understand her, what language is that? More importantly, who is she?

She found her bag in the foot well with a small glance, she could see her handgun in it and the rifle beneath it. 

She grabbed the handgun and pointed it at the back of the woman’s head.

“Stop driving now.” Marasi instructed with a cold voice.

The woman spoke calmly, her voice almost melodic, “Constable Colms, please relax, I am just taking you to the meeting with Waxillium Ladrian, Wayne, MeLaan, she’s a kandra by the way and Tlik.”

“Or you could be lying and you are Bleeder or a member of the Set.” She kept her voice calm, “So stop now.”
“Why would I be taking you if I was Bleeder, she would just kill you and take your bones after spiking your Allomancy from you? I just saved your life, remember?”

She could remember a little though it was foggy, “Who were you speaking too?”

“A friend of mine, they told me where you were.”

Marasi looked around seeing nobody else in the vehicle, “Where did they go?”
“Marasi, they aren’t exactly physical, more spiritual, less mortal, more… divine.”

“Harmony sent you?” Marasi asked sceptically. She had realised this woman was not afraid at all, definitely Metalborn then, a Bloodmaker?

“No, a different god sent me.” She said, “Anyway you haven’t asked who I am yet Constable.”
“What’s your name then?”
“I am Shallan Davar, Master Lightweaver of the Unseen Court.” She said with a regal accent.

“Huh?” She lowered the gun slightly. A blast of white light slammed into Marasi with the force of a tackle.

She slammed against the back of the seat and the gun fell from her hand, firing, the sound echoing around the vehicle making her hands slam around her ears. The car screeched to a stop throwing Marasi straight into the back of the driver seat.

She felt someone grab hold of her and push her back into the seat, finally she blinked away the spots from her eyes and she saw woman Shallan out of her seat with a hand pushing down on Marasi’s chest. Her throat had a hole in it like from a gunshot but as the seconds passed the wound reknit, her expression was hard. 

How is she so strong? What was that light? Is she glowing?

She was, her skin was glowing slightly with a blue light, her hand covered in a metal, a gauntlet with glowing symbols.

“I could crush your chest with a small push, or I could take that gun and shoot you.” She said with a dark look glinting in her eyes, “but I am here to help.”

Shallan smiled brightly and jumped back into her seat with inhuman grace. The motorcar started moving again and Marasi settled back waiting to catch her breath before asking more questions. She could see a large bag on the seat beside Shallan which Shallan put a hand on briefly as they drove towards the meeting place.

-Tlik-

The Rhythms beat against him, Shallan was coming soon with Marasi and he was waiting for Waxillium while MeLaan and Wayne were having their belching contest. Shallan walked into the pub with the deadly grace of Veil, Constable Marasi stepped in behind her looking tired.

Tlik stood up and walked over to Shallan, “Hey Shallan, been a while hasn’t it?”

“Kiddo, it’s been only like a year since I last saw you. Anyway, we need to hurry up don’t we?” She laughed, slapping him on the back, “We have to stop this city from being lit on fire by a mad kandra.”

“Hey, Marasi. Sorry about that.”

She looked puzzled at him.

“I sent you into a firefight, it wasn’t on purpose but sorry.”

Marasi spoke, “Don’t worry about that kid. You couldn’t have known and your god sent help.”

They walked over to the burping pair and sat down. Tlik waved at the barkeep for whiskey.

“Who are you?” Wayne asked before burping for a good few seconds.

“Tlik, immortal Conduit of a god at your service.” Tlik let his Warlight burn in his eyes as he looked at Wayne.

Shallan let out a loud snort, “You’re making it sound like you are older than twenty years old, kid you’re immortal but you’re not older than anyone else here.”
“Oh Shallan you ruined it, I was trying to be super intimidating but whatever.” He drank the whiskey in one go as Shallan spoke.

“I’m Shallan Davar, Master Lightweaver and the person who is going to try and stop this city from lighting itself on fire while you are dealing with Bleeder.”

Waxillium finally arrived and he discussed with MeLaan on Paalm and the nature of kandra. When a lull in the conversation arrived Unity spoke into Tlik’s mind.

“None of you get it do you?” He spoke quietly

“Get what?” Waxillium asked.

“Paalm is more dangerous than you think. My god, he didn’t see until I took a closer look but Paalm is dangerous on a level you simply can’t imagine.” He took a deep breath, “She is so far above anything you have faced that you are like a cremling before a mountain, the only reason you aren’t dead Waxillium is because she has allowed it. My god fears that Harmony has underestimated the threat she poses.”
“Can Harmony do that? Underestimate someone I mean?” Waxillium asked.

“Of course, no god is omniscient and Harmony is young and very inexperienced with the larger scope of things. The point is you cannot defeat her, you cannot trick her and there is no buying time, she will never ever stop as long as she lives, as long as she hates Harmony she will not stop regardless of the cost.”
“Then how do you propose we stop her?” Waxillium asked sharply.

“Figure out what she cares about more than punishing Harmony and then find a way to leverage that long enough to let me give her this.” He dangled a small bracelet with a gold gemstone, and a heliodor attached to it with a slight glow of Stormlight coming from it. “This should act similarly to a spike just without the exploitable cracks in the soul, hopefully making her calm down a little so we can steer her in a more constructive direction.”

“What in Harmony’s name is that thing?”

“One of my god’s artefacts and no you can’t have it. I’ll go with you Marasi, Shallan can you come with us?”

“Yeah, I need to see what the constabulary around these parts look like anyway.”

-Marasi-

They entered the offices of the Fourth Octant precinct, Tlik kept glancing around, staring at random people for long moments as if he was seeing something no one else could. Shallan on the other hand seemed to be completely comfortable, head held high though Marasi could see her hand was sitting on the top of a knife. 

MeLaan trailed after her looking around the room with interest. The voluptuous kandra drew glances. And, well, stares. It wasn’t often that a gorgeous six and a half foot tall woman strode into the constabulary offices clad in trousers and a tight shirt. She seemed to like the attention, judging by the way she smiled at the men they passed.

Of course she likes the attention, otherwise she wouldn’t have chosen a body so exquisitely proportioned. Though it’s strange, Tlik had never met MeLaan before tonight but he has never, that I’ve noticed taken a single glance at her any differently than he looks at anybody else even though he’s like nineteen years old.

“I didn't expect to find women in uniform here,” MeLaan noted. “I’d assumed you to be an oddity.”
“The constabulary is very egalitarian,” Marasi said. “The Ascendant Warrior serves as a model for all women. You won’t find as many of us here as in, say, the solicitors’ offices, but it’s hardly considered an unfeminine profession.”
“Sure, sure.” MeLaan said, smiling at a young lieutenant as the two of them made their way to the back rooms, where the records office was. “But I’ve always found humans to be rather sexist. A natural result of your sexual dimorphism, VenDell says.”
Shallan laughed, “MeLaan if you think people around these parts are sexist you need to take a trip to my homeland, I’m pretty sure we set records in our sexism. Though that is starting to change now.”
“Really?” MeLaan asked surprised, “Huh, I’ll ask Harmony about that sometime.”
“And kandra aren’t sexist?” Marasi said, blushing.

“Hmm? Well, considering that a male kandra you’re talking to today might decide to be a woman tomorrow, I’d say we have a different perspective on all that.”
“Marasi blushed further. “Surely you’re exaggerating.”
“Not really. Wow. you blush easily, don’t you? I’d have thought you’d find this natural, considering that your God is basically a hermaphrodite at this point. Both good and evil, Ruin and Preservation, light and dark, male and female. Et cetera et cetera.”
“Harmony’s not my god. I’m a Survivorist.” She said turning to hide her blush which put her nearly face to face with Tlik. 

She gasped slightly seeing his eyes burning gold, an expression of the deepest hatred across his face.

“Do you know why I rarely come back to my birth land?” Tlik’s mouth moved but the voice was of a very different man, old, Terris and hateful, “It’s because of this strange obsession with the Survivor of Hathsin. He failed, that’s the funny thing. His story isn’t that of a man who succeeded, he needed a seventeen year old who had only trained with her powers for a year to finish his life’s work and yeah, he got over being dead but even then, who stopped Ruin? It was Vin, she sacrificed literally everything to save this world while Kelsier held onto everything he could until they broke from his hands. Do you want to know what Kelsier is? Just look outside at the city when it begins to burn because that is who your Survivor is.”
MeLaan and Marasi had stepped backward from the hateful vitriol Tlik was ranting while Shallan seemed unsurprised if a little bit exasperated. Tlik’s eyes stopped glowing, returning to the dark grey and suddenly he dropped to his knees, shivering. Shallan grabbed him, stopping him from crashing into the ground and pulled him back to his feet. Marasi could see his pupils were wide like he’s on some sort of drug.

She realised that he was smiling  and she realised the reason he had dropped to the ground was some sort of wave of pleasure from whatever just happened.

“Sorry about that.” Shallan said, “Old Unity doesn’t particularly like Kelsier as you can tell. Neither do I for that matter but Unity hates him on a level unmatched by anyone I’ve ever met.”

MeLaan snarled, “Did Tlik get taken control of by his god?”

“It doesn’t work like Ruin, MeLaan.” Tlik said, still grinning, “I have to consent for him to act through me and it feels amazing.”

Suddenly he tilted his head to the side and frowned, “Really, okay I have to go. I have to check something out. I’ll find you later.”
He walked over to a window, opened it and jumped out, disappearing into the darkness.

Well that was terrifying.

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

The chosen of God flew on Lashings but felt like he was floating on a cloud of Passion. He felt the burning flames of rage and calming waves of happiness. It was like a drug, it was stronger than any physical drug and far far more addictive. Every time He took control over Tlik’s body, Tlik felt the flames of Passion burning through every single cell. It was better than any pleasure, better than sex, better than any fight, better than the Light that enflamed every Passion he had.

Tlik was following the instructions of the Rhythms on instinct, unable to see the world normally as the Passion still burned through his soul and mind and body. He felt the air rushing past him and he slowed as his senses started to return to him, vision restoring itself and he could hear the wind.

Tlik dropped onto a rooftop and looked across the city. The Rhythms commanded calm in his soul and saw the people beginning to crowd in larger and larger crowds. 

‘ They’re starting to storm inside. They will riot if things don’t change quickly. You need to find Paalm soon or DODGE! ’

Tlik jumped to the side and hit the floor at the shout, not even thinking and a bullet flew through the empty space that he had been in not a second earlier. In the next second he shoved his hand out and a wall of steel appeared in the air Soulcast and another bullet hit the steel with a loud bang. He jumped up from the roof and put his hand to the side, calling into the depths of his spirit. A Blade formed out of mist and dropped into his hand, he dodged at the whim of the Rhythms and slapped the wall with his other hand. The wall turned into smoke and he pushed it away from him and slashed the Blade to the side through the chest of a man who was swinging a club at him on instinct. He fell to the ground his legs were dead at the same moment that the Blade came out on the other side and tried to grasp at Tlik’s legs, Tlik stepped on his hands and heard a crunch.

Must be a pewterarm and at least one sniper.

Tlik spun on the spot and cut at a sword coming down on him from a woman, whose arms were covered in ironminds. The sword resisted the Blade, it was an ironmind too one filled to the brim with charge. She had one disadvantage in this fight, she was wielding a sword and swords are not the same thing as Shardblades. Tlik pushed back and as she swung her next strike, he peered into the Cognitive Realm and ordered the air to coalesce into a block of stone around the sword. The woman held the sword as it crashed into the ground under the sudden increase of weight, he could hear her arm crack and her eyes widened in shock. Tlik stabbed the woman through the chest and she fell and he was expecting to hold her up for a few moments but she was far heavier than she looked. Rusts, a Skimmer!

He dismissed the Blade and jumped off the rooftop, Lashing in the direction of the sniper. He dove in the direction of the gravitational pull and he heard the crack of a gunshot. His head cracked and the Warlight pulled it back together, he slammed through an open window in the tall building where the sniper had been firing from. The sniper was a man holding a rifle and was swiping with a glass knife at Tlik, Tlik grabbed the knife and the knife turned into smoke. He grabbed the rifle from the sniper and then kicked him to the ground, planting his foot on the sniper’s chest.

“Who are you?” Tlik hissed, letting his eyes glow a blackish blue from the Warlight.

The sniper stayed silent so Tlik took a small spike from a pouch in his jacket, it was wrapped in aluminium and he unwrapped the aluminium and plunged the spike into the sniper’s shoulder. The sniper’s eyes widened as the hemalurgic spike came into effect and he clenched his jaw as tears of pain started to well up.

“Do you want the pain to stop?” The sniper hesitated, then nodded slightly, “Then tell me what I want to know.”
Tlik pulled the spike out and waited as the sniper breathed heavily trying to pull himself together from the burst of enhanced pain.

“I am the first to strike against you and your false god.” The sniper growled, “But I will not be the last, we will never ever stop. You cannot win. You will be Splintered. We are as endless as time, it doesn’t matter how many of us you kill eventually we-”
He stopped talking, as a Blade pierced through his head and his eyes burned out.

‘ Finally, he shut up. I was getting bored. He was sooooo cliched, but this was a Metalborn team, a Pewterarm, a Skimmer and a Tineye, and they were in position to attack you either there is an army spread throughout this city or they had access to Fortune. We need to locate Paalm quickly so we can focus on this lot ’

Tlik nodded and swung out of the window, Lashing down the street and fell towards the Second Octant and the Governor's Mansion. 

-???-

The man was lying on the floor of a cage inside a warehouse, he was tossing and turning in his sleep. His clothes were filthy with dirt, blood and his own waste. There were fifteen more cages but only three of them had other prisoners at the time being. He woke up to the sound of a door banging and he jumped and crawled backwards into the back of his cage in panic. His breathing became hard and fast, his hand started to scratch at his shoulder.

Three hooded figures walked into the warehouse and they looked at each of the occupied cages until they saw the man awake and scratching his shoulder. The figures walked to the cage.

“Please no, please!” He begged to deaf ears.

The lead figure pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the cage door. The other two figures walked into the cage and pulled the man to his feet. He started struggling but one of them just punched him in the gut. As they pulled him out of the cage he suddenly roared with an inhuman sound and rammed the figure that had punched him into the cage bars then pounced on the other figure and bit him in the throat!

The last figure grabbed the man with one hand by the throat and slammed him into the ground ignoring the figure who had fallen to the ground choking in his own blood. The figure’s hood fell back revealing a woman with a wicked smile on her lips and she choked the man as he struggled and fought, unbothered by his nails tearing at her arm. Eventually he fell limp, unconscious and the woman glanced at her arms and could see scratches bleeding all over her arm. She touched a pewtermind bracer and her muscles bulged blocking the bleeding and flared pewter to stimulate heightened healing.

“Well, finally a success. He’ll be happy with this news. We should have captured that rusting kandra, she has knowledge that we could really use to speed up the project.” 

She sighed, shaking her head and picked up the unconscious test subject with one hand and carried him on her shoulder. She waved at the other figure who had just picked himself off the ground and they left the warehouse as silently as they had entered, the only indication of their exit was the sound of the doors closing behind them and the empty cage with the dead man’s blood pooling beneath him.

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

The Rhythm pulsed through Tlik’s body turning him towards the centre of the city, he Lashed himself ten times towards and canceled the Lashings transporting him towards the Governor's mansion. He slipped into the Originator Tomb with skill that was not his own but his God’s. The constables were talking to the caretaker making it easy to drop into the shadows behind them. He snuck into the caverns and he heard a growl and a gun cock.

Tlik Soulcasted the air into a torch and lit it on fire using the Surge of Division bringing light around him. He waved at TenSoon and Waxillium who looked suspiciously at him.

“I’m not Bleeder, if you want TenSoon can search me to see if I have any spikes in me. Or I can show off all my abilities at once for you.”
Tlik Lashed upwards and tapped a small stone as he fell, turning it into steel. He dropped the Lashing immediately upon his foot brushing the ceiling and landed back on the floor of the cave.

“What even are you?” Waxilium asked.

“I told you, I am the Conduit of Unity, I am his chosen upon this rock. I am here to save your small city from the destruction Bleeder will bring. So, let’s go.”
They walked through the caverns, Wax asking TenSoon questions about the Homeland while Tlik listened to Unity’s explanations on the details of TenSoon and the Kandra. They eventually reached a small chamber that had pages of the Words of Founding with bloody writing scrawled over it.

‘Lies, lies, lies’

Waxilium and TenSoon discussed Paalm’s motivations but Tlik was just listening to the Rhythms which had shifted from the teaching style to the combat warning style. Something unexpected was coming, something dangerous. TenSoon and Waxillium were discussing what they were going to do and suddenly a shrill howl echoed through the corridor and with it came more howls each as conflicting with each other as much as possible. A roar overcame the sound of the howls and they started running as fast as possible towards the exit when Tlik stopped half way down the corridor.

“I’ll cover your retreat, these are just beasts, I can handle them. Run and stop Paalm.” He said not looking at them. “Don’t argue, I’ll catch up later.”

He summoned his Blade and held it in a basic guard waiting for the constructs to catch up as Wax and TenSoon escaped behind him.

A creature arrived seconds after Wax and TenSoon continued to run. It was like a naked man but the proportions were wrong, a slightly too long of a neck and arms that seemed stretched longer than they should have been and in its hands was a club that no regular man could lift even a Pewterarm would need to flare their metal just to hold it but this creature lifted it with practised ease. He only had a second to examine it before it was close enough to attack and he did a quick slash with the Shardblade to test the creature. It stepped backwards just as quickly as Tlik had attacked and then as Tlik settled back into a guard it lifted the club and tried to slam it straight down at Tlik’s head. Tlik grabbed the club with one hand bracing with a Soulcast stone pillar and the club started to burn to the Surge of Division. The creature pushed down harder with the club ignoring the flames that burned on it. Tlik pulled more Warlight into his gemheart to heal faster and strengthen his body but eventually he heard a loud crunch and the club pushed down onto his chest.

He kicked at the creature and Lashed it directly away from him with a burst of Warlight. The creature fell backwards straight into another creature, one that moved on all fours with joints bent the wrong way and a more canine body structure with pure black eyes. 

Tlik threw the Blade straight at the creatures, the one that he had Lashed pushed off the other one out of the way of the oncoming Blade which pierced the quadrupedal monstrosity, the eyes of which smoked and burned. Tlik dismissed the Blade and summoned it again as he watched the creature gripping the wall and climbing up it towards Tlik, ignoring the Lashing  by pushing his fingers into the wall.

Smarter than I expected but not smart enough.

Tlik touched the wall and Soulcast the outermost layer into oil and created a quick spark with the Surge of Division. Flames rushed across the oil and burned the creature who fell backwards again following the Basic Lashing. He turned to leave and the Rhythms suddenly roared and he ducked to the ground as a large rock flew right where his head was a second before. The creature had smashed it’s foot into the rocky ground to stop itself from falling further away and had pulled a rock from the ground. Tlik jumped tapping the ceiling and Soulcast the supporting sections to smoke letting the corridor collapse as he tapped his steelmind and ran. Minutes later he was back in the fresh air, rushing towards the Governor's Mansion.

‘ I thought so, Bleeder was warned that I was getting involved and brought a new construct that could cause problems even for you or perhaps one of our enemies dropped in an experiment into the Pits. ’

In the air he caught up to Waxillium who just nodded at him as they dropped into the mansion’s porch as lightly as a pair of feathers. They pushed inside Waxillium giving the passphrase to Marasi and they walked to the door to the governor’s office. Waxillium put his weight against the door and burst it open walking through, the governor turned around in surprise.

Tlik took a chair and sat down beside the door while the governor and Wax exchanged passphrases then talked about the governor’s almost suicidal disregard for his own safety.

He had filled his gemheart with Warlight ready to be used for the fight ahead and rested his head against the wall pretending to sleep. He heard Waxillium spinning and Bleeder leveling her gun at him and Tlik raised his head as Bleeder pointed a small pistol at him. He raised his hands above his head in response and stayed as relaxed as possible.

“I don’t want to deal with an aluminium bullet in my head Paalm. I’m just here to try and stop this city from being burnt down. Personally I don’t care if Harmony loses his power over here.” Tlik said, far too relaxed for someone with a gun pointed at his head.

Bleeder scowled at Tlik before focusing back on Waxillium. “Damn it, Wax just a few minutes more and I’d have had this. You see too far. You can always see a little too far.”
Wax hissed out slowly and whispered, “You knew the passphrase, but of course you did. I gave it to you. When did you kill him? How long has the city been ruled by an imposter?”
“Long enough.”
“The governor wasn’t your target. You think bigger than that- I should have seen. But Drim… He was in the safe room when you entered below. Is that why you killed him? No. He’d have known you were gone.”

“He knew all along,” Psalm said. “He was mine. But tonight, I killed him because of you Wax. You’d shot me up…”

“You had on the governor’s clothing underneath the cloak,” Wax said. “Rusts! I’d bloodied you. So you needed an excuse for why the governor was covered in blood, an excuse to pull off your shirt and staunch a wound.”

Wax yelled for help and Tlik jumped straight at the kandra who fired at him but he had already moved his head out of the way of the bullet and it slammed into the wall behind him sending splinters everywhere. Tlik Lashed himself and Bleeder through the window as Wax jumped to the side avoiding being crashed into. Tlik felt Bleeder stab him over and over with a dagger into the side but he kept pushing more Light into the Lashings until they had hurtled hundreds of metres away from the mansion. He dropped the initial Lashings and Lashed the two of them leftwards for another hundred metres before the pain from being stabbed repeatedly, healing the wound then getting stabbed again overwhelmed him and he dropped the Lashings and the two of them crashed downwards into the streets.

Paalm tried to run away and Tlik Soulcast the ground right underneath her into tar. Tlik walked up to her while she was unable to run and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Relax, Paalm. I honestly just want to have a chat with you.”
She raised an eyebrow, “Seriously, you just want to have a chat with me?”
“Well, technically it’s my god who wants to have a chat with you.” Tlik laughed and he heard his God ask a question.

-Paalm-

Paalm looked at the young man who had powers that even she had never witnessed before though unlike most others in Elendel, she had heard of these Surgebindings from her new allies. He’s not lying about not being of Harmony but it doesn’t matter by stopping me, he gets in my way.

She could feel her mind being distant as if there was a block between her and parts of her mind, she had tried to compensate using her knowledge of Hemalurgy but there was only so far a single spike could be stretched. It was so difficult to stay focussed, she was fraying at the edges, she had to win soon and escape from this sphere so she could get another spike inside far from Harmony and his influence.

The young man’s head twitched to the side like he was listening to somebody, his god.

“Yes of course, I’m your Conduit after all.” The man said, his voice soft and submissive.

He trembled slightly and a pinprick of gold light appeared in the pupil of each eye that expanded till his eyes were a solid glowing gold. He shifted on his feet and his expression shifted becoming controlled but his eyes were tense and almost excited.

“Nice to meet you Paalm. Bleeder. Or perhaps would you rather that I called you Lessie?” His voice was pleased, proud and curious.
“Do. Not. Call. Me. That.” She hissed anger bursting through the small channels Connecting her to her mind.

“Okay Paalm. I’m sorry for that, I was wondering how you’d like to be addressed.” He said that apologetically, “Anyway you shouldn’t be so worried about how things are going with your plan. You can’t affect how it will go anymore, either the plan will succeed or fail on its own merits now.”

She thought about that and she realised that it was true, the governor not appearing might make them just as angry as if I gave that inflammatory speech.

“What do you want? Who are you?”

“I am Nazan, Vessel of the Shards of Odium, Honor, Devotion and Dominion which have united in me to become one Shard, the Shard of Unity,” He spoke with a voice that seemed to echo, “and I just want to have a chat with you.”

She pulled on her mind which was fraying more and more, she knew that she needed to escape or she won’t be able to concentrate on any idea for any time and her memories would start to leak away into the Beyond.

“A chat about what.” She said her accent slipped from the governor’s back to her own one.

“About the wars to come, about those who tried to harm my chosen, those who would have me dead and our future together.”

-Shallan-

“That is definitely a problem” She said staring through the hole where the window used to be.

Waxillium had flown through it after calming the guards down after Bleeder and he hadn’t returned yet. They needed a governor and that governor was currently dead and his bones were being worn by an insane kandra who was currently somewhere in the city probably trying to run away from the Conduit of a god.

Nazan, you couldn’t have given me some warning? Fine then. 

Marasi was panicking while MeLaan seemed to be calm though she was tapping the desk repeatedly. Shallan sketched, in a small drawing pad she always had in her pocket, a drawing of the governor’s face.

“Don’t worry Marasi,” Shallan said, breathing in a small amount of Stormlight, “I have a plan. I am a Lightweaver after all.”
“I don’t know what a Lightweaver is.” Marasi said.

“This is a Lightweaver.” She waved her hand and Marasi froze her eyes widening.

MeLaan snorted, “Well, that could work.”

She attached the Lightweaving to Pattern who was currently attached to her collar with enough Stormlight to last a couple of hours.

“Time for me to calm an entire city with a single speech. Marasi, I have a job for you.”

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

Tlik examined a small spike of a silvery metal with a red cast and red spots similar to rust. On the table next to him were blood filled glass tubes with spikes in an aluminium box. 

Paalm was gone, through the perpendicularity hidden in steel bones that let her appear like a simple worldhopper. She would go to Roshar to be prepared for the wars to come then be given freedom from all chains.

He put the spike back into its blood tube and dropped out of the hide room. A room hidden in a building created through Soulcasting and the Surge of Division with a simple illumination fabrial generating a continuation of the same surface hiding the fact that it was gone. He fell towards the Ladrian mansion which his hide room was close to. Shallan should be there helping plan the political future of the Basin. There needed to be a hunt for the enemies of his god, they must have a Hemalurgical laboratory as well as a base of operations in Scadrial, probably somewhere in the city. 

That creature in the Homeland was… disturbing… it was far too similar to how Oryx appears even if it lacked intelligence.

He hurtled over the fence of the Ladrian mansion and dropped the Lashing then Lashed directly downwards sending him quickly to the ground. He walked right to the mansion’s doors and opened them. A doorman came over and Tlik introduced himself, he escorted him to a meeting room in which Marasi, Waxillium, Steris, Shallan and Wayne were already talking. 

“Hey, everyone, how are you all?”

“Where’s Bleeder?” Waxillium asked, ignoring the hook.

“She’s gone, she won’t be coming back to the Basin for a long, long time.” Tlik said, “I’m not here to discuss the kandra, I’m actually here to talk to Marasi and Shallan.”
“Why do you want to speak to me?” Marasi asked, blushing.

“You saw that warehouse, it was filled with dead bodies, each one had been spiked. Were they not Bleeder’s victims then?”
Tlik shook his head, “There were far too many from what you described to be Bleeder’s and she seemed to just kill them at home instead of dragging them to a warehouse. Unity thinks it was a Hemalurgical slaughterhouse and the spikes have probably been transported to a laboratory for… experimentation.”

Waxillium, Marasi and even Wayne looked sick as they realised what that meant.

“Shallan did you find anything while you were there? To help us locate the actual laboratory?” Tlik asked.

Shallan took a bite out of a biscuit and slowly chewed and swallowed it before shaking her head, “No, I didn’t find anything.”

Tlik frowned as the Rhythms slowed becoming a depressed melody. Shallan’s eyes seemed to sparkle and a small smirk appeared on her face.

“Testament is on the collar of an escapee.”
The Rhythm hurried in excitement and Tlik chuckled, “You mean you let one of them go. Good, call her back please.”

She nodded and put her hand out and closed her eyes. 

“What is she doing?” Waxillium asked, “Who’s Testament?”
“Quiet, Shallan is focusing.” 

In a few moments a Blade formed from mist in Shallan’s hand, the Blade was short for a Shardblade as if it had been first summoned by a child. Shallan nodded like she could hear someone talking.

“So? Where are we going?” Tlik asked as Shallan dropped the Blade back into mist.

“I’ll show you, it’s in the Third Octant but I think we’ll need some help, according to Testament there are a lot of people and it's messy.” Shallan grimaced.

At sunset, Waxillium, Wayne, Marasi, Shallan, MeLaan and Tlik stood with two dozen constables surrounding a warehouse and another dozen covering the back side of the warehouse. The windows were small and covered with shutters hiding what was inside. There were only two ways in, a single door at the back and a large door for transporting machines in and out. The Rhythms were nearly completely silent as if his God was solemn but the beats were telling him one thing, this place was filled with death.

“Constables, we don’t know what is going to be in there but it’s going to be horrible,” Waxillium said, “Worse than any of the murders we have seen in this city in a long, long time. When we go in we can’t stop, the people in there won’t hesitate to kill us, and then they will butcher your families if they have the chance. Let’s not give them that chance.”

Shallan summoned both of her Blades and Tlik felt his drop into his hands, the two of them walked towards the large door with the others following behind. Shallan held one hand up with all five fingers up and slowly lowered one finger at a time.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

They plunged the Blades into the top of the large door and cut the hinges. The door fell inwardly with a large slam. The inside of the warehouse was dark, only a little light coming from the outside revealing dried blood across the floor and a smell, the smell of dried blood, rot and human waste. Shallan threw a ball of glowing light into the warehouse revealing… horror. Tlik could see sixteen small cages, all of them holding a person except for one. Tlik was only guessing that these were people but… they were Ruined. Their bodies were twisted, their bones ripping out of their skin. Blood dripped from the bones, some of them seemed to no longer have skin, others had tails that looked like scorpion tails but they all shared the look of abuse with their own waste covering them. All of the raid party froze at the horrific sight as the monsters and each one turned and started to wail.

Their voices were inhuman, animalistic and the sound of it made Tlik cringe. He walked over to the closest cage whose occupant stopped screaming but they instead started to mumble.

“What is it, my poor, poor friend?” Tlik said softly.

“ KIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLL MMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! ” The creature howled and Tlik pushed the Blade through the neck of the poor Ruined creature.

“I’m so sorry, child of Harmony for what the enemies have done to you.” He put his off hand on the bar and whispered, “But, I will destroy them all for their crimes against you and yours.”

He turned to Shallan who nodded and took the other side of the room. They sliced each of the poor souls with their Blades as the rest of the raid party pushed into the next door. Tlik heard the Rhythms rise in volume, his God was furious at the abhorrent use of Hemalurgy.

“ Move, time to slaughter our enemies. ”

Tlik and the rest of the raid party pushed through a door and he heard a gunshot. Tlik looked down and saw a hole in his shirt, blood spurt out of the hole in a second. Tlik breathed as he called his Warlight from his gem heart to heal the wound but he hesitated as the wound failed to heal.

“By the third Storm! Aluminium!” Tlik hissed and forced his nails into the wound.

He curled his fingers around the bullet and pulled it out as more gunshots rang out. The raid party dropped to the ground out of the way of the guns and Tlik could finally feel the wound heal as the aluminium bullet was out of the way. Shallan was glowing with enough Stormlight that she could Soulcast a small building with ease.

Shallan touched the air like it was solid, her eyes flickering and a steel barrier appeared in the way of the gunshots, she cut bullets out of her own skin using a small obsidian knife while the constables used the barrier as cover to fire from. Shallan stood up and pointed her Blade in the direction of the gunshots and a beam of bright light ran down the Blade before shooting right at the gunmen. Tlik stood up and unholstered his pistol, he started to shoot at the wall that had gun barrels pointing out of holes in the wall. The people on the other side of the wall were screaming and stopped shooting.

The corridor split in two and the raid party split up, Tlik turned left with Wayne and Marasi while MeLaan, Shallan and Waxillium turned right. Tlik dodged as he opened the door as a creature jumped at him. The creature was large it’s skin stretched tight but it’s spine tore out of it’s back with large bone-like protrusions, the elbows had a bone spike pushing through the skin and a spike covered in blood piercing through its heart. It’s eyes were glowing red and it’s lower jaw was completely gone with long fang-like teeth.

This creature is being controlled by another Shard, probably that one.

Tlik stabbed at the creature who dodged with little effort and grabbed the Blade with one hand before trying to stab him with it’s elbow. Tlik grabbed the elbow and Surged with Division, the creature’s elbow began to smoke and rot. The creature tore the Blade out of Tlik’s hand, turning to mist then it tried to slice him with it’s other elbow forcing Tlik to avoid it and drop his hand from his other elbow. Tlik summoned the Blade and cut through the creature’s legs in a flash, the creature fell to its knees and howled in horror.

Tlik pulled the Blade back ready to stab the creature through the head and like a bolt of lightning the creature jumped into his legs sending Tlik flying back into the wall. Tlik could feel his spine break against the wall as the creature stood back up on it’s legs like they weren’t just killed by a Shardblade moments before then it moved to slice his throat with it’s elbow spike. Tlik felt the Warlight beginning to repair his spine but far too slowly as the spike came quickly to his throat then in a blur a staff came smashing down on the creature’s skull. Tlik saw the creature try to stand back up but he grabbed at the spike and pulled it out of the creature’s heart.

“Thanks Wayne for the assist.” Tlik groaned as his spine finished repairing.

The constables shot at a few more gunmen who came down a staircase while Tlik summoned his Blade again. They rushed up the stairs, Tlik let himself start glowing with enough Warlight that it made the corridor glow dark blue.

His god told him to keep going straight until they found a door and he pushed inside to see a man at a wooden desk writing. The man looked up, his eyes widening comically and he stood stumbling back into a window. Tlik stepped to the desk and snatched a bundle of paper and quickly scanned it letting his god access the information.

“Who are you?” Tlik asked.

The man’s face smiled creepily as his eyes glowed crimson, “ We are the Division, We are many and We are the doom of Unity. ”
Tlik finally saw the bumps under the man’s clothing and the Rhythms started to beat to the beat of Allomantic steel. Tlik jumped backwards grabbing the nearest constables and knocked them backwards as a wave of force Pushed at every single piece of metal. The room exploded and Tlik’s body was cut to ribbons crashing dozens of feet to the ground.

Black.

Darkness.

“ Return ”

Breath.

Tlik could feel his body again as new bones, organs and skin regrew around his gemheart. He stood up in the ruin of the warehouse and saw that most of his part of the raiding party had survived unlike him, some even were unharmed but most of them had clearly broken bones or superficial injuries. Shallan dragged a man whose legs were completely sheared off and was cauterised.

“Here’s a gift Tlik for Nazan, a living member of our enemy faction to interrogate.”

The man’s eyes were glazed over in pain but for a single moment they were clear and Tlik heard a crunch and the man shook, foaming in the mouth.

Chapter Text

-Paalm-

She walked on top of a sea of beads, one spike of steel inside an aluminium bone and a golden bracelet with a glowing heliodor around her wrist, her mind clear to her fully for the first time in a year. She couldn’t hear the voice or feel the touch of any Shard on her mind or soul. She could understand the theory of the bracelet, it Connected her Identity and mind with her body through the usage of just a little bit of Investiture. It was similar to how she was able to insert thoughts into the mad or Hemalurgists while still having access to an Allomantic or Feruchemical ability.

The beads were barely being pushed away by her footsteps, she was unbothered by the guarding voidspren as she entered the domain of Unity, they had clearly been warned about her arrival.

She had finally found a perfectly square pool of glowing blue-gold Light around it were walls of black stone, the beads disappeared as a floor of silver metal spread around the pool. She stood onto the metal and whispers, quiet ones, thousands of whispers, tiny but they were to a beat that Paalm couldn’t hear. She walked closer and closer and the whispers became louder and louder but for some reason she couldn’t hear the words. She reached the glowing pool, knelt and put her hand into it.

The whispers stopped and her vision was tinged with a gold light when she took her hand out of the pool. She stood up and looked round, behind her was a Terrisman in a large glowing suit of plate armour, each piece had a different glowing symbol varying between a sapphire blue, whitish blue, gold and amber. No helmet was on his head and he had a small smile on his face.

“Hello Paalm, welcome to my domain.” He spoke casually but she could see his eyes completely focused on her. “Now let's get down to business.”

“What do you want in return for what you’ve offered me, really?”
“For the time being I want you to protect part of my domain, eventually though I will send you on important missions.” His expression turned serious, “If you accept my offer there is no turning back, I won’t force you to stay by my side but you will never be able to walk among those people the same way again. When you walk with me you will not see people and buildings, you will see the battlefield, the Connections formed between everyone, the war never stopping across the whole of the Cosmere happening in the shadows of every planet in every village, town and city. You’ve seen it already as Bleeder, haven’t you?” 

She nodded slowly, “Yes, in my war against Harmony, I could see it, the real war.”

“Good, I don’t need a Paalm, the Cosmere doesn’t need a Paalm nor a Lessie. I don’t need a new hand, I have nine good hands already, what I need is a surgeon, a Bleeder. Someone willing to do what needs to be done, willing to cut out the rot from the Cosmere even when it is unpleasant.” He put his hand out, “So what do you say?”
-Tlik-

He stood outside of the Survivorist church waiting for Waxillium to arrive for the wedding of his. He saw Wax drop down from the sky and push his way into the church with a shotgun on his shoulder which prompted the guests to start filing in behind him. Tlik slipped into the church and stood in the antechamber waiting to speak with Waxillium.

Minutes later a slender man in a brown suit came into the antechamber and his face grew dark when he saw Tlik. The Rhythms told Tlik that the man was a kandra, which explained why he looked so angry, the kandra and Harmony had found out about Bleeder’s recruitment and they were not happy with Unity about it.

Tlik kept a confident smile on his face while the kandra marched up to him.

“How dare you,” the kandra hissed, “Showing your face on our sphere after what your god did.”
Tlik pushed the kandra back a few steps, “Remind me what did my god do?”
The kandra looked like he was about to start shouting but Waxillium came into the antechamber and the kandra froze. Tlik turned to Waxillium and Steris and pulled a package from his coat.

“A wedding gift for you from my god and me.” Tlik tilted his head to the side, “Congratulations, I hope you enjoy the ceremony.”
Steris frowned, “Are you not staying for the ceremony?”

“Afraid not, I have a very important meeting that I cannot miss. I’ll see you when I’m finished.”

Tlik bowed and walked out of the church calling Light into his gemheart Lashing upwards. He dropped onto a rooftop and sat down as he felt Unity’s touch on his mind calling him into a vision.

He finds himself on a plateau on the Shattered Plains, Bleeder only a dozen metres away from him glowing with Warlight. 

“So, you’ve accepted his offer. Good.” Tlik summoned his Blade into his hand in the vision and Bleeder put her hand out and a small curved sword with glowing gold runes up the Blade, formed from mist into her hand.

-Unity-

I want those Bands under my control, Tlik will get them for me. Bleeder is mine now, I am the only one that will give her what she wants.

He turned his eyes from Scadrial and turned to look at Sel, pressing his mind against his avatar. It was like a snake coiled around the entire planet, its amber coloured body moving between the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms, it’s head bowed when it felt Nazan’s gaze upon it.

“ So? ”

“ Master, the Fjordell and the Derethi have begun to subvert Duladel and have begun to send Arteths to the Rose Empire for you. ”

“ When Arelon stands alone in Opelon, prepare the Dahkor and the armies and then rip from the Elantrians their magics. ”

Dor nodded and Unity waved him away as he changed his focus back to Scadrial and his Conduit.

-Tlik-

He slammed one of the bandits into the wall of the train with enough force that he could hear the crunch of his bones. He swung round summoning his Blade slicing through another bandit then dropping the Blade. He unholstered his pistol and aimed it at another bandit who was wearing a dark hood and held a crossbow pointing it at Tlik standing at the other end of the train car.

The bandit started to clap slowly, “Well done, that was truly impressive.” The voice was feminine and unafraid, “Anyway, I must leave, I’ll see you soon.”
The bandit grew larger and more muscular as Tlik started to fire the pistol at her. She jumped to the side and smashed through the train’s wall, Tlik dashed to the hole and saw her rolling on the ground. She stood back up and did a quick shake scattering dust and small rocks to the ground then started sprinting away.

Tlik dodged and dropped behind a seat as he heard a gunshot first from the Rhythms and half of a second later from the actual gunshot. He summoned the Blade and stabbed through the chair into the bandit. He looked out the hole in the wall again and he couldn’t see the bandit anymore.

“ She was no bandit. She was a Hemalurgist I could feel her mind and passions. You will be seeing her again before you reach the Bands. ”

He had been relaxing when the bandits attacked the train after spending a good few hours sparring with Bleeder in the vision space and she hit a lot harder than he was expecting.

His god wasn’t focused on him so the Rhythms only warned him when the bandits were already on the train. He searched the train for more bandits but all of them that he found were dead or unconscious until he caught up to Waxillium and Marasi who had caught a small group of the bandits in a Pulser bubble.

“There you lot are.” Tlik said frowning, “These bandits, how many Metalborn have you seen among them?”

“One, a Leecher. Why? How many have you seen?”
“One, as well, Hemalurgist and, I think, a Compounder for pewter.” Tlik said before he listened to what his god was saying, “My god isn’t sure if she’s a natural Compounder or not, something is strange with her mind.”
“In what way?” Marasi asked.

“It’s difficult to explain, it’s like she wasn’t human, her hemalurgy has completely twisted her up inside.”

Marasi and Waxillium both looked disturbed at the revelation and Tlik joined in with tying up the bandits. When the train pulled into the station, Waxillium went to talk to the constables and Marasi helped the passengers off the train. Tlik took his time getting off the train and the Rhythms told him that Steris wanted to speak to him so he stopped until she caught up to him.

“What do you want with the Bands of Mourning?” Steris asked bluntly.

“My god doesn’t want the Set to get them, that will give them a powerful weapon against us. There’s a war coming, Steris, a war the likes of which has never been seen before and we cannot afford to lose this war or the entire Cosmere will fall back into the stone age.”

Chapter Text

Tlik sat comfortably in the penthouse suite, listening to the hotel owner, who had insisted that she was to be called Aunt Gin, with one ear while focusing more on his god talking about the Southern Scadrians.

“With this suite and the others, you’ll basically have the entire top floor to yourselves.”

“Awesome. Now, an important question.” Tlik smiled, “Do you mind if this floor at some point turned to smoke?”
“WHAT!?!” She shouted.

“Brilliant, I’m going to seal up my room, see you all in a moment.”

Tlik walked into his room  and threw the set of drawers to block the window, transforming them into metal then using the Surge of Division to weld it into place. He dropped his bag beside the bed before leaving the room bag to the main room while Steris was talking to MeLaan.

“... of an improper question, MeLaan,”

“You’re just jealous because you can’t take yours off to go for a run,” MeLaan said. “Hey, where is that bellboy with my things? I swear, if he drops my bags and cracks any of my skulls, there will be fury in this room!” She stalked away.

“Did she say skulls?” Aunt Gin said.

The door slammed, “Aha!” Wax said, lowering his hand. “There it is.”
Marasi approached and wrapped her arm around the elderly lady’s shoulders, leading her away. “Don’t worry. It won’t be nearly as bad as they make it seem. Likely nothing will happen to you or your hotel.”

“Other than Wax rippin’ your windows apart,” Wayne noted.

“Other than that,” Marasi said, giving him a glare.

Tlik opened the door to his room and attached a fabrial crossbow trap to the wall. The fabrial was set to fire on any individual who opens the door other than the team or Aunt Gin.

“Reminds me. Would you order me something to eat? A nice hunk of aged meat.” MeLaan said, her head sticking into the main room.
“Rotting, you mean,” Wax said.

“Nothing like the odor of a nice flank after a day in the sun.” MeLaan said, ducking back into her room as a knock came at the other door. “Ah! My bags. Excellent. What? No, of course there aren’t corpses in these. Why would I need bones with the flesh still on them? Thank you. Bye.”
“It’s true actually. Rotting meat can be nice.” Tlik said, everyone turned to stare at him, “What? Have you forgotten that I was a street kid? Sometimes I had nothing to eat but rotten meat.”

MeLaan came  into the room, bare-chested and now she had a masculine chest, “I solved the problem,” MeLaan said. “I’ll go as a fellow. That will probably be more covert anyway. Just have to choose the right bones.”

She had sculpted her face too, giving herself masculine features. Steris’s eyes were bulging.

“You’re... “ Steris said. “You’ll become a…”
“A man?” MeLaan asked. “Yeah. It’ll look better when I’ve decided on the right body. Need to settle on a voice, too.” She looked around the room. “Um, is this a problem?”

Tlik shrugged as everyone else looked at Wayne. Tlik went back into his room and grabbed his suit from his bag. He changed into the suit quickly then they left to go to the party.

-Navani-

Navani worked on a fabrial with her team of scholars, this fabrial would detect all Investiture that would grant sentience, or as Oryx put it the fabrial was a lifeform detector, it could detect spren, humans, Singers, Sleepless and animals, it could even detect of what species they were. It should even be able to tell if someone is a Radiant, a Fused or a Regal which was useful as more and more Radiant Spren were coming over to the Physical Realm with little care for where they were supposed to go for bonding Radiants. It was only going to get worse with random Shardbearers becoming Radiant with Adolin’s project with the deadeyes returning them to their true forms.

The fabrial was almost finished, just a few more days and they would have a finished prototype then they would have to streamline the design and make it easier to use and carry. She left the room to go to the Gate that would send her to the secret project with a second shadow pointing towards the light.

“Why are you wasting our time on a project so far beneath us?” Oryx asked his voice like nails on a chalkboard, it used to bother her but now she found his voice almost as comforting as Dalinar’s, he had grown out of her second shadow. He looked like a person with wrong proportions, arms slightly too long compared to his legs and his skin was stretched thin across his bones, metal plates covering his neck, arms and legs. “We should be focusing on completing our real project, with that no one will ever forget us.”
“I can't just focus on the projects that I care about, I need to also work on smaller but just as important projects, like the life form detector.” Navani said exasperated, feeling like she was talking to Elhokar when he was a child.

The thought sent a pang of pain to her heart that made her flinch. She had still not properly gotten over Elhokar’s death and every time she was reminded of him she struggled not to cry. Oryx put one hand on her shoulder, strangely caringly. 

Most people didn’t understand that Oryx was actually very empathetic, he cared deeply about her and always comforted her when she was upset or coping with her grief again. She leaned against the wall of the corridor and breathed in heavily as she thought back to the first time she held Elhokar.

Oryx wrapped his arms around her, far more solid than any other spren she had ever seen outside of Shadesmar, feeling like he had the weight of a human behind him. He whispered softly beside her ear but she could barely hear it while her heart pounded in her ears. A few minutes passed before she managed to get her emotions back under control.

She stood back up straight backed, breathing in a sphere of N-Light to provide some strength and speed. Oryx released her from his embrace and returned to his natural hunched over posture. They continued down the corridor till they reached a room with six disk like platforms of a silvery metal with a wall of that metal coming from the back of each of the platforms with a hole in the centre with a large amethyst fused with the metal.

Navani summoned Oryx who melted into a pool of metal and grew over Navani, up her leg and spreading down her right arm until it grew over her freehand forming large metallic claws over her nails. She plunged Oryx into the hole in the closest platform and activated it.

In a burst of Light, she appeared on a matching platform inside of a cloud. She put her hand out and pressed a button. In a moment the cloud was pushed outwards revealing that the platform was sitting on a rocky surface, about seven, eight metres wide, with a fabrial workstation a few metres away with boxes filled with gemstones and metal. Navani walked to the edge of the rock and looked straight downwards at the Shattered Plains below. Oryx peeled off her returning to his normal form and looked downwards as well, crawling under the rock to check the gemstone powering the fabrial keeping the rock in the air.

-Tlik-

Tlik stood in the party, dancing with a Seranish noblewoman listening to her prattle on about all of the gossip that she had heard recently. The only reason he was able to stay charming was because his god was constantly whispering into his mind, telling him the secret passions of his dance partner and everyone else around him. The secrets that they wouldn’t tell even their closest friends or family members, the passions that guided every action they took even without their knowledge.

He suddenly noticed Waxillium being pulled into a dance by a woman, a woman that Tlik only recognised from a vision, she was dark skinned with braided dark hair that had streaks of grey. Khriss, that scholar from Silverlight. He pulled out of the dance, passing the woman over to a man who had been waiting for a chance to cut in and walked towards Waxillium who was still talking to Khriss. Khriss saw him and her eyes widened almost comically and she slipped away.

Waxillium turned and saw him approach, “What was she talking to you about?”
“She just asked about my metalborn abilities, why? Do you know her?” Waxillium seemed so confused by the conversation he just had.

“I’ve never met her but my god has and she recognised me. I think she’s scared of me, or maybe it’s guilt for never helping with important issues when she could.” Disgust was dripping from Tlik’s voice, he took a deep breath before turning away from Waxillium, “Anyway I’ll return to my investigation, if anything goes wrong don’t wait for me. I’ll catch up in my own time.”

Tlik could feel his god pull the anger from his mind returning him back to calmness. He found a new dance partner and talked with her about what she had been hearing. It turned out she was a very low ranking noblewoman, so low ranking that she hadn’t been threatened or blackmailed by the Set. Her name was Netri Rovi and she wasn’t comfortable with the rumblings of civil war. She was short with facial features that reminded Tlik of Jasnah though she was much younger, only a year older than Tlik himself.

“A friend of mine has heard about a building project, northeast of the city. She saw the transporting of large supplies and direction of a large number of people, including at least two known allomancers, both Seekers.” Netri kept glancing around herself and keeping her voice soft, “I’m getting out of here soon, I’ve been storing up plenty of money and my friend has been preparing as well. She needs to move her family as well.”

“ I like this one, she feels intelligent, passionate and cunning. Offer assistance to her, any that she needs. ”

She isn’t a Survivorist, she says she’s a Pathian but that doesn’t seem right to me.

“ Perhaps she hasn’t been given a better offer. Maybe, it is your duty to provide one for her. ”

“The entire Basin will be strangled by this war soon, Netri. I can help you if you wish.” Tlik spoke even softer than Netri but she could clearly still hear him. “I was wondering, you’re a Tineye aren’t you. That’s why you are trying to escape. You’ve been hearing about strange disappearances of metalborn.”
She nodded subtly in the middle of a twirl and they continued to dance until she flinched at the sound of a gunshot.

“Well, I suppose the war has started a bit early, my lady.” He tugged softly on her hand towards a balcony and she followed, “Let’s have a true dance, my lady. Let’s dance in the winds.”

And with that they jumped off the balcony.

-Wax-

Waxillium was getting worried, he hadn’t seen Tlik since the party and they were only a couple of hours away from Dulsing. They were riding on horseback towards it avoiding the roadblocks. It had been almost a full day of travel without sight of Tlik and they had all slowed down trying to give him time to catch up.

Marasi rode up beside him, “What’s taking Tlik so long? He should have caught up by now. Flying is way faster than horses or carriage.”

“I don’t know, I’ve been thinking about it. It could be he got distracted or pulled into a fight.”

Marasi went quiet and they could hear the rush of wind. A blast of light erupted from in front of them with a thunderous crash! Wax flew into the air flaring steel and storing weight as he saw a figure step out of the cloud of dust and another came out behind them, the first was Tlik his eyes glowing blue-black a ridiculously smug smile on his face and, the second was a woman with a noble-bearing though she was in trousers and a mistcoat.

“Hi, everyone! Sorry for making you wait but my friend here needed a change of clothes.”

She giggled for a few seconds before putting her hand over her mouth, “Sorry, Tlik but you were so overdramatic. Nice to meet you, Lord Ladrian, I am Lady Netri Rovi.”

Wax ignored her turning back to Tlik, “Why did you bring some random Seranish noblewoman with you?”
“My god likes her and she needed a safe place to go to avoid the war.”
“This is safe?” Marasi asked incredulously.

“Of course, Marasi, you have clearly never seen a war.” Tlik said, sighing, “I have and running into a probable firefight is far less dangerous.”

Several hours and a couple of firefights later they sat in an airship flying above the clouds with a masked stranger getting closer to the temple where they expected to find the Bands of Mourning.

Chapter Text

-Nazan-

He watched from the Spiritual Realm as his Conduit, his interface with the world played his role to perfection on an airship that was the peak of technology on this small world governed by a small god. Soon, Roshar will be reaching out across the vacuum of space under my hand to the edges of the Cosmere with technology that makes these airships look like children’s toys.

“ Keep an eye on the sister, I can sense the corruption in her soul, dangerous Passions indeed. Be ready for some betrayal, my chosen. ” He whispered into his Conduit’s mind as he sat with his legs dangling off the airship. “ The Bands won’t look like how they are imagined, don’t tell anyone to the right time ”

He moved time forward faster to hurry the journey and now the airship was finally almost at the bastard’s temple. 

Well, Bastard of Hathsin, you lose this battle.

-Tlik-

He jumped at a lurch and spun to see Marasi trying to talk to Alik by wearing the medallion of Connection and failing.

“Clever, but it won’t work on you.” Alik said.

“Why?”

“Because that’s not how Connection works.” Tlik said as he sat beside the pair, “Connection isn’t some sort of language translator.”
“What is it then?” Waxillium asked intrigued.

“Connection is the power of gods, all things are Connected, people, places, ideas and yes, even gods. Alik while wielding the Connection in that medallion becomes Connected to the place he is within, which makes him speak in your language. If we were in the South, we would have to wear those medallions.”
“How do you know so much about Connection?” Marasi asked.
“Back home, in my lands there were once people known as Bondsmiths. They were able to control Connection in it’s most deep and complex ways, there is a lot of information that you can find if you look in the right places.”
“What happened to these Bondsmiths?”
“They died or had their power torn from them. They were too powerful with few checks on their abilities. These medallions are to the Bondsmiths like throwing rocks compared to using a rifle.” Tlik stretched his arms, “Bondsmiths are more dangerous than any Hemalurgist or any Metalborn. The original ones broke their world with their powers.”

“What do you mean, they broke their world?” Waxillium asked.
“It’s too complicated, I don’t really understand it myself but they left their world burning.” He looked out towards the temple, “Those Bands down there might be your world’s Bondsmith, an artifact that could lead to this world being cracked and returned to the ash.”

-Steris-

Alik was preparing to land beside the temple and had warned that the landing was going to be rough. She sat beside Waxillium who had went quiet after Tlik’s explanation of Connection. She was feeling at a gold coloured gem that almost seemed to glow black gold that had been implanted into a bracelet of metal that she had noticed was split into two different types which both touched the gemstone. There was a second on her other arm, they were the wedding gift from Tlik and his god but Waxillium let Steris have both bracelets.

I wonder… I remember Waxillium describing a device that Tlik had as looking similar to this. I’ll think about this later.

Alik began to land and they were knocked back and forth as they slammed into the snowy mountain. They slowly got out of Wilg and Tlik grabbed her by the shoulder just before she was pulled up by Waxillium.

“My god says the answer is yes.” She raised her eyebrow at him, “You’re close enough to me that he can hear your thoughts. Don’t worry, he doesn’t tell me what you’re thinking.”

-Tlik-

Netri was looking down the mountain as the group moved up the stairs towards the temple. A massive statue of a man in a long coat holding a spear to his side and a spike through his right eye stood in the centre. They walk into the temple with Netri staying back to watch for the Set.

They walked past the murals of the ‘Sovereign’ into a tunnel with corpses on the ground impaled with wooden spears. Wax started talking but Tlik couldn’t hear anything.

The world was silent as if the entire Cosmere had just gone silent, had died in a single moment. No Light came at his command, only a small amount was in his gemheart. Tlik could hear his heart beating like a drum. Boom! Boom! Boom!

The world looked so much darker than it had appeared in over five years. He felt so cold like the warmth of the world had been drained from it. He realised that Marasi was in front of him trying to get his attention.

“Tlik! What’s wrong?” Her voice sounded so quiet.

“What’s wrong?” He repeated her words, his voice monotone, “Can’t you tell? How can’t you see? Or hear? Or feel it?”

He put his hand out to the side and a long thin sword fell into it. He felt his will return, he could hear the Rhythms roar back into existence. His rage burned in his blood and he pointed the Blade at Telsin’s throat who’s eyes widened in shock.

“What. Did. You. Do?” He said through clenched teeth. “I was willing to play along with your obvious lies. Did you not pay attention to what I said to Steris. Your mind was available to my god from the beginning. Now stop whatever you are doing or I will kill you.”

Telsin sneered, “I’m not doing it. It’s probably because of our ally from the Division.”

“Then die please foolish mortal. Today is your last day breathing.” He pushed the Blade towards her throat and she flew backwards just before the Blade pierced her throat. He felt himself get pushed backwards from a Steelpush on a metal button on his shirt. She started to run but Marasi pulled out her pistol from her holster and shot Telsin in the leg.

Wayne stepped in the way of Tlik while Wax walked over to his sister who screamed from the pain of the gunshot wound and put his foot down on the other leg.

“Let me pass Wayne, I’m going to force her to turn off whatever it is that’s doing this.”

“No mate, can’t let you do that. She’s still Wax’s sister.”

“Do you think you can stop me, little man?” Tlik stepped closer looking down on Wayne, the cold of this silent world infusing his skin and into his soul. “You think messing with time or healing could stop me from pushing right past you.”

The two of them glared at each other until a shout came from the entrance of the temple. Tlik pushed past Wayne in the direction of the entrance where Netri was shouting.

“Someone’s coming! Surrender flag!” She had a rifle pointing outwards into the blizzard.

Tlik felt like he was blind and deaf without his god being able to contact him. Shadows seemed to move in the blizzard like wraiths as silently as the movement of the moons. He kept his Blade pointing towards the ground, cutting through the stone like a knife through butter as they waited. Moments later the shadows coalesced into two figures; one a round-faced, stocky man in a suit and the other, a woman in a dark hood, tall and muscular with a mace tied to her belt.

The woman was smirking smugly as they walked closer to them. Tlik raised his Blade in the direction of the woman, his soul feeling frozen without Unity.

“You.” He hissed, “You were on the train, little Hemalurgist.”
“Now, now, now, you shouldn’t do that, after all you are surrounded by Allomancers and Feruchemists and these people will be slaughtered if you attack me.” She spoke in a strange way, each word sounded slowly and deliberately, not an ounce of fear was in her voice or manner.

Tlik pounced and stabbed straight at the woman, in a blink of an eye, the mace blocked the Blade. Tlik sliced sideways into the woman who dodged and tried to slam the mace into Tlik’s head. He pulled a tiny amount of Light to make him move faster like the flicker of shadow and he slammed the Blade downwards with all of his weight and strength. She blocked the Blade again with her mace, STORMING ALUMINIUM! DAMNATION! DIE! YOU! ABSOLUTE! ABOMINATION!

His fury burned like an inferno, roared like the Third Storm and he felt something crack as he slashed at the woman who was growing larger with muscle and gunshots rang out around their duel.

LIFE
RAGE

ODIUM REIGNS

He burst with Light lighting the mountain as if it was day and the sun sat on the mountain peak! Life returned to him, the Rhythms beat louder than ever before, his eyes glowed a burning gold with pinpricks of red Light in the center of each eye and he was ascendant again.

-Steris-

Tlik fought like a demon against the woman but the rest of them weren’t doing so well, Marasi was hiding behind a rock glancing outwards to shoot any of the Set soldiers who came closer to the temple steps, Lord Waxillium was using his Steelpushes to fly above the battlefield fighting other Coinshots and blood was dripping from the air as he flew around. Wayne was running and creating a Slider bubble in a blur of motion an enemy would drop to the ground not moving. Alik was inside holding a gun to Telsin’s head and Netri was using the statue as cover for herself and that was where Steris was looking on the battlefield from. 

One by one she saw them fall, Waxillium fell first still moving but barely, then Wayne got knocked to the ground and pinned with a spear through his spine, then Marasi got grabbed and punched in the stomach.

Tlik said “that the answer is yes” so that must mean… 

She touched the gemstones on the bracelets and felt a power rush into her body, she felt strong, stronger than ever before. Then a voice spoke into her mind and told her something, something very helpful.

-Netri-

You told me that you were going to protect me. Seriously? I’m about to die quicker than if I stayed home and waited for the war.

Netri kept shooting, when her rifle ran out of bullets, she threw it to the ground and unholstered two pistols and started firing at the incoming soldiers. When they ran out of bullets, she threw the pistols to the side and pulled out a knife and prepared to go out swinging when she felt herself get knocked to the ground from behind.

When she looked up, she saw Lady Harms step past her and was glowing bright blue. Lady Harms waved her hand and a vine grew from the ground and grew around the incoming Set soldiers, restraining them in seconds. A smaller vine grew around the spearhead from the statue then shrivelled, pushing the spearhead off, dropping it into Lady Harms’ hand.

“I’m afraid that I must suggest to you all that you should leave. Now.” Lady Harms spoke calmly but firmly.

The Set soldiers who hadn’t been incapacitated by the vine fell into chaos, most running but some tried to grab the others on the ground as hostages but Lady Harms in a blur of motion knocked them right off their feet. She glared down at one at her feet with disgust before throwing the spearhead to Lord Ladrian, who managed to get his fingers around it. 

Tlik had finally knocked his opponent to the ground and had smashed her legs with her own mace immobilising her. Lord Ladrian stumbled to his feet with his fingers still wrapped around the spearhead.

-Tlik-

What happened god?

“ I got blocked off, someone has been forming an Avatar here and with you as my only Connection here, the Avatar just had to get between us to stop me from intervening. ”

How did you return to me?

“ I hold the Shard of Odium, remember? Your anger reinforced our Connection letting me break back in. ”
What is Steris?

“ Holder of a… pseudo Honorblade. Those bracelets Connect her to me while she’s using them and allow her to access the Surge of Progression. I gave her some…  tips on how to use it to deal with this situation. ”

He focused on the Hemalurgist tied to a chair that he had quickly made using Soulcasting.

“Who are you?” He asked softly.

“I am of the Division. We are many. We are the doom of Unity.” She didn’t say it like the guy who self-destructed using his Allomancy, it sounded mocking.

“I didn’t ask for your job title, your name.” He kicked her broken leg and she yelped in pain.

“Fine then. I’m Moraine, head of the Hemalurgic department in the Division.”

“Interesting and, that reminds me, your spikes. What do they grant you?” He asked, feeling the spike going through her left shoulder, it was made of iron.

“Strength, the physical sort. Makes me strong enough to fight any Metalborn or even a Radiant but clearly not you.” She spat the last word at him.

“Good, good, you understand the arrangement we have here. Now, let’s move onto the important details, what’s hiding your mind from my god?”

“I have my own god protecting me.”
“Now this is interesting, which god is it?”

Her eyes suddenly glowed crimson, “ ME! DIE BASTARD! ”

She kicked out with her broken legs attempting to knock Tlik who calmly moved to the side. Her eyes started bleeding and her neck snapped in a single jerk of her head. The glow in her eyes remained for minutes before starting to fade back to the stormy grey.

Tlik cut straight down with his Blade feeling furious, her body falling to either side in half off the chair. The flames in his blood, becoming an inferno and then… nothing.

Calm yourself, my child, I will hurt them for you as I have always done to those who have hurt you. Remember, you are the chosen of Odium, of Honor, of Dominion, of Devotion. Now, we have work to do, remember?

“Fine then. Time to finish our task. Steris, can you pass me the item?” He looked towards the others who looked disturbed and almost scared.

Steris nodded and handed the Bands to Tlik. No one will ever have this weapon, I will destroy it forever.

He Surged with Light and began to impose his will upon the Bands to transform it into glass. Minutes passed before the metal became perfectly transparent glass which he dropped. The glass spearhead shattered on impact with the stone ground.

“Why did you do that?” Marasi asked and shouted in complete confusion and anger.

“As I told you, the Bands were dangerous, they couldn’t be allowed to exist or this world would be doomed.” Tlik said in a bored voice, “Anyway, why would I let you have a weapon that dangerous and you would never let me take it away from you so I destroyed it.”

They recovered the surviving members of Alik’s crew and dragged both Suit and Sequence onto the Hunter’s ship. When they were part of the way to Elendel, Tlik and Netri dropped out of the ship with a Basic Lashing.

Just a little bit more work then it will finally be time to go home.

Chapter Text

-Varian-

Varian jumped across a plateau and landed with a small surge of red lightning bursting from his feet. He turned and summoned his Blade, a massive, slightly curved Blade with glowing blue, black and gold runes up it. The Blade cleaved upwards as a tall woman with a Blade of her own followed behind him. She jumped through the air as if gravity was greatly reduced but as she reached the plateau she dropped downwards with a sudden burst of acceleration.

Varian felt the force of her strike slamming into his Blade knocking him back several feet. He grew his carapace to form a shield from his left hand and threw Light onto the ground creating a Full Lashing in the woman’s path as she rushed him. She rushed over the Full Lashing and tripped crashing into the ground. Varian stabbed downwards but as the Blade came down the woman’s flesh pulled away and he stopped his stab by dismissing the Blade.

“You are still not used to the abilities that don’t mirror those of the Metallic Arts. You should have been staying in the air, the ground is where I dominate.” He put his hand out to help her up, “You are just as powerful as I am, you need to learn how to take advantage of your power Bleeder.”

-Saoene-

Saoene clashed Blades with a man glowing with Stormlight and in a flash of movement forced both of their Blades out of their hands and sliced the man’s throat open with a sleeve made stiff and sharp through the Surge of Tension.

In another flash of movement she spun on a woman, who had moved like the ground was ice and slid silently behind Saoene, stabbing with speed that Saoene only saw from Steelrunners or Edgedancers. Saoene slapped the Blade with one hand and it was knocked right out of the woman’s hand before Saoene summoned her own Blade and cut off the Edgedancer’s leg.

Arrogant, she shouldn’t have used her Surge on her Blade, she made it so easy to force out of her own hand with the lack of air resistance.

“You two, get up, breathe in more Stormlight and try again.”
They got up and were back on the ground in moments. They got up again and were again on the ground in moments and again and again and again. The sun had been high in the sky when the two Radiants had entered the dueling arena and when they left it was setting once again.

“You could have held back a little, couldn’t have you, my dear?” Ilan asked to a relaxed Rhythm as Saoene walked over to her. Ilan was in workform as was her habit most days.

“No, Ilan. I couldn’t have held back, my brother has warned me that there will be battle soon and if these child Radiants are not ready, they will die and so will all they care about.” She spoke quietly, so only Ilan or a Tineye could hear her words.

“Is Nazan sure?” Ilan said just as quietly.

Saoene nodded once grim faced.

-Nazan-

Nazan looked down upon his world and saw marvels, the world had recovered from years of war with relative ease thanks to his guidance. New technology was being developed at speeds unmatched.

How could these people who have fought each other for thousands and thousands of years achieve peace and progress technologically so quickly, when in my world, which in comparison was a peaceful place, progress was slow and fraught with conflict? The only advantage I see is me but the future is splintering more and more and more as if every second that passes more decisions are being made that lead to even more decisions. I see victory though and I must seize it, no matter the cost.

He looked down on Urithiru and he saw Navani returning through her Gate back to the tower city. 

Closer and closer to the future, soon the Cosmere will orbit around Roshar and Roshar orbits around me. Navani Kholin, you will engineer the future that I will rule.

He felt Sja-anat call for his attention, “ Hello Sja-anat, how are you? ”
“ You have secrets for me, don’t you Nazan? ” Her voice was beautiful as if she had Ascended to her own form of divinity.

He chuckled and spoke his secrets, new and ancient all at once to the holder of his secrets.

“ Anyway, tell me how your children are doing? ” He asked, honestly interested.

“ They are- ” She was broken off in a moment, something ripping them apart and all he heard was a scream of agony that broke off a second later.

Urithiru blurred over, not gone, just impossible to see. War had come to Roshar once again. The future began to set in stone, piece by piece.

Oh no.

-Navani-

She wrote to Dalinar using a spanreed, her husband was in Aimia acting as an ambassador with the Sleepless. She couldn’t spare the time to be in Aimia with her research taking up so much of her time but she always made sure she had an hour each day to speak to Dalinar. Oryx was lying on the small bed that she had in her office pretending to sleep though he both didn’t need it nor could he sleep at all.

She was updating him on her smaller projects and being vague about the larger projects in case of their communications being read by spies.

Oryx jumped up as Dalinar began telling her about how negotiations with the Sleepless were going and felt the ruby vein in the wall of the room.

“NAVANI! We need to go, breathe in some Light. NOW!” Oryx melted into a pool of silver metal and wrapped up her leg and over her chest, like armour and down her arms forming Shardblade claws.

She didn’t ask why, she just breathed in a large volume of N-Light just as the spanreed stopped writing. She looked and saw that it had just stopped mid sentence as if the Stormlight had stopped powering it.

She picked up a painrial forcing N-Light to corrupt the spren inside and grabbed all of her notes and blueprints for her fabrials, stuffing them in a bag. She ran out of her room and ran towards the Gates.

“Oryx, what is happening?” She asked not feeling winded thanks to the N-Light

“ The tower has been invaded and I think the defences have been corrupted. ” His voice sounded small and like the child he truly was underneath the arrogance and power.

She rushed to get to the Gates, they were unknown to most especially in comparison to the Oathgates so they should be still open for her to use. I need to make sure people know what is happening here. We need reinforcements and I can’t afford for anyone to get access to these blueprints. 

She was almost at the Gates when she saw men in unfamiliar clothing marching down the corridor, two dozen strong, Can we take them, Oryx?

“ No, they are Invested just run and hide. We’ll plan when we are safe. ” Oryx’s voice was harsh in her mind, the monster in him expressing itself in the words he was speaking into her head.

She sprinted as the soldiers began to point and charge at her with spear and sword. Navani screamed with her mind and a wall of spren that looked twisted appeared around her, with a single command they formed into a wall of silvery metal blocking her pursuers path. She rarely used the usual applications of her Surges, she had mastered the spren that Oryx had Taken.

The wall would only hold for a short time but that was all she needed to be lost in the labyrinth of tunnels that made up Urithiru.

-Saoene-

She drove her Blade through the heart of a man in a blue uniform with a broken disk badge on it. The badge had a disk that looked like it was broken into sixteen pieces each white. His eyes burned in their sockets and he fell to the ground limp.

He wasn’t a Pewterarm but he was still strangely strong for a human. Hemalurgist, surely.

Saoene sliced through three more with a single slash and Ilan fought behind her with her Aonic sword, every cut released black smoke from their flesh being Ruined.

“Sao, we can’t keep fighting forever, we must retreat now!” Ilan shouted her body had shifted into warform when the fighting started.

Saoene felt herself nod and tap an Aonic tattoo on the back of her hand that glowed sapphire blue. The soldiers all of the way down the corridor that she pointed her hand in the direction of froze. Her breath steamed in the air and the soldiers fell to the ground dead, frozen from the inside out. Ilan and her began their escape down the corridor. Ilan sliced through the pursuers before Saoene used her Stoneshaping to pull the stone above her head in front of them as a blockade.

Saoene tapped another Aonic badge on her trouser leg and she moved far faster with Ilan rushing beside her. A Taken windspren appeared in front of her, it’s colours were inverted, it was like a pinprick of darkness surrounded by a silver outline.

“ Saoene, Navani and I have found a safe place, follow my spren. ” Oryx said in her mind.

-Aster-

She laid her hand against two soldiers who were nearly dead and began to use Regrowth on them. Aster could feel their souls relaxing back into their bodies as their organs and flesh reknit.

Liss was out on the frontlines leading the soldiers against the small remaining guardforce on the higher levels of the tower-city. The other leaders of the Division had tried to convince Aster to fight on the frontlines but she forced them to accept her acting as a healer on this mission.

Aster moved from the newly healed soldiers to the next pair of soldiers, then onto the next pair and onto the next pair for hours on end, before finally Urithiru had been conquered.

“Sister, we need you to help with the Radiants and Fused.” Liss had finally returned.

“Liss, why are we looking after the traitors?” Aster said, feeling irritated, Vedel was being loud in her pit, “We’re just going to kill them anyway after all.”

“You know why, we need to kill them all together and we haven’t gotten the whole supply prepared.” Liss’ eyes seemed to flicker with light and Aster could remember the flames burning her flesh again and again for thousands of years..

We need to destroy his hands or we will never be free of him.

Chapter Text

-Nazan-

Time to fix this, come to me, my Conduits.

He pulled at the minds of all ten of his Conduits; Tlik, Varian, Revizah, Eteru-daughter-Vilah, Simn, Nam, Vatwha, Hnan, Raler and his newest and the eldest of his Conduits, Bleeder. Four Singers, five humans and one Kandra appeared before him as a field of the brightest green formed beneath them.

“ My chosen, I will not beat around the bush. Urithiru has been taken. ”

“How?” Eteru, the Protector of Shinovar, asked in a tenth of a second.

“ They used a fabrial to interface with the Sibling and activated the defences against the Fused and the Radiants. They sent in an army to attack during the weakness. There weren’t many soldiers who weren’t Radiant or Fused guarding Urithiru so it wasn’t difficult for them to take the tower-city. ” 

“We have become arrogant,” Hnan said, tall and muscular with black and red marbled skin. “We should have seen this, the darkness has grown in the hidden places. My lord, I will peer into the future with you.”
“ That will be unnecessary, Hnan I need all of my Conduits to retake Urithiru. You shall group together in Azimir where a force of soldiers, Radiants and Fused will prepare, then you will launch an assault from the skies, shut down the security and open the Oathgate, then I’ll handle the rest. ”

The rest of the Conduits stayed quiet and nodded as the vision unravelled. He started to pull at the fibres of Roshar. He peered into the Spiritual Realm and split his focus between the Spiritual Realm and an uncomfortable conversation.

-Navani-

She paced between the blueprints she had managed to protect and the map of Urithiru that she had sketched, waiting for Saoene to get to the hide away. Oryx was in his physical form and was pacing even more than Navani. A quiet knocking disturbed their pacing and Oryx walked to the door. Oryx opened the door in a burst with his claws growing to a long set of claws and froze mid swipe.

“Oh, hi auntie!” His claws pulled back and he pulled Saoene into the room in a hug.

“Hey kiddo, come on let go. We’re bringing a few people with us.” Oryx dropped from the hug and stepped backward.

Saoene came through the door with Ilan who was carrying an unconscious body. Radiant, his name is…  Adol, he’s a Windrunner, Third Ideal.

“What happened to him?” Navani heard herself asking.

“They hijacked Urithiru’s defences, the Radiants have been shut down except for the few Fourth Ideal Radiants and they have either been killed, captured or are in hiding by now. The same is true for the Fused and Regals.”

Ilan put the Radiant on the floor and more people came in with Radiants of their own in their arms. Saoene grabbed Navani by her freehand and took her to the side.

“Navani, something about this attack doesn’t make sense.” Saoene spoke quietly enough that the others wouldn’t be able to hear, “This attack exposes them too much.”
“What do you mean?” Navani asked, matching her volume with Saoene’s.

“They are rushing, this attack is too big. They have to have far too many of their soldiers locked here. You can’t hold Urithiru with a small group of soldiers, you need at least ten thousand just to cover the area. If they lose here, they’ll lose far too many  soldiers, they would be forced back to the beginning of regrouping.” 

“ Oryx. What do you think? ”

Oryx shrunk down to the size of a chicken and jumped onto the desk beside them, “I think this attack is disguising something big. I have an idea of what their real goal is but I hope I’m wrong.”

Saoene’s face somehow became even more grave, she whispered, “Oh no.”

“What is it?” Navani looked between the two of them. 

Oryx turned into a pool of silvery metal and grew onto her, “ Anti-Light. ”

“Storms!” She understood the terrible truth, “Do they know how to make it?”
“I don’t know but it is a possibility, we know they have knowledge about almost every form of Investiture surpassing that of most.”

“Then we need to rescue every single other Radiant then shut down the defences and reopen the Oathgates.” Navani felt the queen in her jump into action, “If they have exposed themselves with this attack, then we must take the opportunity to make every single second that they are here as difficult as possible.”
Saoene nodded, “We should try and locate the leaders in this operation and kill them then they will find it more difficult to recover from the damage they are going to have after this stupid invasion.”

“Let’s split our forces, I’ll help recover our people while you identify your targets.”
Saoene nodded and walked over to Ilan presumably explaining the plan to her. Ilan looked annoyed and was talking back.

Only Singer I have ever met who acts so much like a human.

Navani grabbed more spheres of Stormlight and infected them with a little bit of N-Light. She went into a different room and changed from her impractical havah into trousers and a black shirt, she then summoned a part of her Plate around her chest, Taken spren formed the Plate then Oryx stretched around it forming the long Blade claws at the end of her fingers. She was ready to try and rescue the Radiants.

-Saoene-

Saoene was in the uniform of the men who had invaded her domain and was walking through the corridors as if she was searching for people to be arrested. She came across a family of humans hiding in a small room with a comatose Fused.

“Lady Saoene!” The woman exclaimed.

“Hush, keep your voices down.” She felt at the Fused’s neck to check his pulse. “You’re doing well but you need to get yourselves and this Fused to level seven and about floor eight. They haven’t reached that high yet, they’re focusing on the lower levels for the moment. If you know of any other families like yours tell them the same thing.”
“Milady, who are these people?” The man asked, his hand on the woman’s.

“Men who are going to die soon, don’t worry this will end quickly.” Saoene said leaving the room.

She moved from the third level down to the second level. She walked with her back straight, a spear in hand. She moved as if she was meant to be walking down the corridor.

She walked calmly past a room which had a large crowd inside, she could see most of them were civilians with one soldier for every four civilians.

She could hear a voice shouting from inside, “I am the Herald of the Common Man, and I am here to tell you of the lies that the false god Unity has been telling you!”

Saoene breathed in a small amount of Stormlight, not enough to start glowing but enough to enhance herself to be even stronger and faster than a normal Elantrian.

No, don’t be stupid. There are far too many civilians and soldiers. If I attack they will riot and hundreds, probably thousands will die and I might get myself killed. Keep scouting.

“SHUT UP!” Shouted someone from the crowd, “Unity brought the Desolation to an end. WHERE THE FUCK WHERE YOU!”

The crowd started shouting and the soldiers pushed their spears towards the crowd forcing them back.

“YEAH! UNITY DIDN’T HAVE TO GET INVOLVED BUT HE DID ANYWAY AND STOPPED THE WAR! HE SAVED US ALL WHILE YOU ABANDONED US!”

Saoene wasn’t able to hold back a smirk from crossing her face at their words before she wiped it from her face and returned to her exploration. Good, they remember who they owe their lives to.

She kept scouting for several hours and finally she located where they were keeping the Radiants and Fused. Hundreds were in a large chamber, not even being given beds, just thin blankets and a hanging heating fabrial.

Wrong glow, so not Stormlight, maybe Lifelight? Something else maybe? Doesn’t matter, wait what’s that?
She just noticed another door coming off from the other side of the room. A handful of guards were in the room guarding the bodies. I need to go into that room and these people won’t just let me through, time to write quickly.

She wrote into the air, Aon Ate with the appropriate modifiers to cover the entire room then Aon Ahe with modifiers to target the guards specifically. She spun into the doorway and tapped the Aon equation and the sound vanished while the guards were grasping at their throats.

What’s wrong, out of breath?

She stepped over the unconscious bodies of the Radiants and Fused while the guards fell to the ground from oxygen deprivation. She left the equation active as she walked through the other door. She found a laboratory with two people and a large supply of spheres filled with Stormlight and Voidlight, she saw that they were making Anti-Light. Slow, so they don’t know how to produce it quickly. Good.

She jumped and they turned at the sound just as she slammed them into the wall. She summoned her Blade and sliced through both of their legs leaving them crippled.

“Sooo, you two are the people that the Division are having create Anti-Light. Well, you were.”
She picked up two spheres of Anti-Stormlight  and two spheres of Stormlight, she smirked cruelly as she forced their hands to go into the ground as she made it as easy to mold as clay then she returned it to solid stone. She picked up two of the Raysium conduits and dropped a Stormlight sphere into the lap of each of the people. She took the other Anti-Light spheres and started directing them into their matching Light. She then attached the Raysium conduits and directed the Anti-Stormlight to flow towards the spheres in the laps of the men.

“No! No! Please!” They started to beg for mercy.

“Shut up! You don’t deserve any mercy, you were going to help murder hundreds of innocent Spren, Radiants and Fused. This is exactly what you deserve.”
She walked out of the room and drew a quick Aonic equation to turn the door into solid steel, sealing the explosion in the lab. She began work on sketching an Aonic equation that would transport all of the Radiants and Fused to the hideout while not trapping them in a wall or inside another person.

She heard a sound from outside the room, footsteps. Damnation! She redrew the Aonic equation that would turn a doorway into steel and aimed it as a guard almost walked into the room. The doorway turned into steel as the guard charged into the room and he was still passing through the doorway as it became steel. He died before he knew what had happened.

She finished the transport Aonic equation just as she felt the room shake from the explosion that was occuring in the lab. She saw a Blade cutting through the steel, and she could feel who it was. Chanarach. I could kill her now. No, rescue this lot then fight.

She activated the transport Aon and in a flash of sapphire blue Light the Radiants and Fused vanished. Saoene summoned her Honorblade and breathed in a large supply of Stormlight, ready to fight the Herald of the Common Man to the death.

Chapter Text

Chanarach, Herald of the Common Man, Traitor to Humanity walked through a hole made in a steel blockade glowing so brightly with Stormlight that it hurt Saoene’s eyes to look at her. Her Blade was in her hand, it was of medium length and had a slit from near the hilt to tip of the Blade.

Saoene stood in a solid stance, her massive Blade raised high. Chanarach nodded and the fight began. Saoene could feel her Stormlight pushing her to move and she let it, she knocked Chanarach’s Blade to the side and did a test swipe. Chanarach parried it with a casual grace and swiped again with disturbing speed, Saoene knocked the Blade with her own. Chanarach moved to the side, her feet not leaving the ground, storms an Edgedancer unbound!

She moved with inhuman grace and speed and Saoene responded with her own enhanced physicality. She avoided being struck multiple times by Chanarach’s Blade and tried to slice at Chanarach herself but Chanarach was just too fast for her to hit.

This kept going for ten minutes, no one else dared to get involved in the fight between a Herald and an Elantrian Honorblade wielder. Damnation! I can’t defeat her, no Aon could directly affect her while she’s soaked in so much Stormlight and I am nowhere near as skilled as her. I’m an assassin not a warrior, I just kill people, I don’t fight them and she’s seven thousand years old and has spent most of them fighting. I need to retreat but how?

She breathed in a sphere of Stormlight and jumped backwards through the wall. She burned through the small amount of Stormlight still in her body in an instant turning the wall practically to liquid as she went through it then turning it back into stone in an instant. Saoene breathed in the final sphere of Stormlight to stop herself from collapsing onto the ground and quickly sketched a basic transport Aon into the air sending herself four levels up into a room that hadn’t been reopened by Sja-anat.

She crumpled to the ground succumbing to exhaustion and she decided to sleep for a few minutes. 

-Varian-

Varian stood with all nine other Conduits on the Azimir Oathgate platform. They had finally all arrived through the Oathgate after half a day. We took too long, how many Radiant spren have died? How many Fused?

All of the Conduits were drawing in as much Light into their bodies as possible. Varian could feel his second gemheart filled so heavy with Warlight that it started to diffuse through his body on its own. Dozens of Radiants, Fused, Regals and two thousand regular soldiers were arranged on the platform, surprisingly Jasnah Kholin was among the army of Radiants. 

Wasn’t she back in Alethkar?

“ Her mother is in Urithiru. ” Unity said with the slightest sign of irritation, “ She isn’t going to leave her mother’s life in the hands of someone else. ”

His god must have been arguing with his partner over her decision, “ I understand why? I just don’t like her putting her life on the line. ”

Varian nodded, then the Conduits separated in twos or threes based around those of them who had the Surge of Gravitation, Bleeder took his hand and he felt the touch of a Basic Lashing on his body. They flew upwards into the air towards Urithiru and the first battle of the war for the Cosmere’s soul.

-Navani-

Navani was in her work clothing, trousers, a black shirt under a leather jerkin and a simple glove over her safehand. She had found a clinic with two dozen Radiants and Fused in that disturbing comatose state and she was never going to be able to carry them all away from the clinic on her own. 

“ We need help, Oryx.”

“ Agreed, I’ll send my spren to bring some helpers. ” She could feel Oryx send a pulse commanding his spren to hunt down people to help, “ We can handle these guards, they’re weak, only human and we are their superiors. Let’s show the world what we can do. ”

Normally Navani would ignore Oryx’s call for violence but… she called on Oryx to become her claws and her Taken spren to become her Plate, thin sheets of glowing silver metal wrapped around her legs, chest then the rest of her body. She walked up to the two guards at the door, they weren’t focusing, just talking to each other and she sliced her claws across both of their throats. Their eyes burned in their sockets and they fell to the ground then she walked through the door to the clinic. Five guards were in the room and they swung their spears up, pointing them straight at her.

She jumped over a bed on which a Fused was lying and cut her claws through the first guard’s spear and tried to plunge her claws into the chest of the guard but he stepped backwards avoiding the claws. Another guard attacked her side and Oryx knocked the spear to the side with a sudden jerk of her arm to hit the spear with her Plate covered arm. 

The other guards came and stabbed at her but she managed to cut through the spearheads with her claws in a sweep of her arms. The guards stayed just out of her reach and kept trying to hit her with the broken spears; she couldn’t attack any individual guard without the others jumping on her.

“ Oryx, let’s change this up, I need more reach. ”

The claws suddenly extended to be the length of an average Shardblade and she ripped straight through the first guard, who’s eyes burned then she swung her arm back cutting through another one. The rest jumped backwards avoiding the sweep of the claws, she screamed in her mind and a cloud of Taken spren appeared around her then she focused and they formed walls of silvery metal between the guards. Navani rushed another guard and stabbed her claws through their chest, she collapsed the wall between the guard and the next. The guard slammed the spear shaft straight into her head, she felt her head snap backwards. She couldn’t breathe for a moment but her spine started to heal immediately at the N-Light influence. Oryx pulled her arm up letting the claws slice up the chest of the guard and she finally felt her spine finish healing.

Where is the last guard?

A woman with a Shardblade in her hands and her skin glowing with Stormlight. “Surrender, Navani Kholin or I will be forced to fight you and you will lose.”
“How can you be certain, you are just one woman?”
“Because I am Vedel, Herald of the Almighty, Patron of the Edgedancers.”
Navani gasped but Oryx stirred her back into action, “ It doesn’t matter, she has no allies, no god, she’s just an Edgedancer. Fight until we are beaten, Navani ”

Navani breathed in all of the N-Light in her spheres and she charged at the Herald calling on her spren to block Vedel’s passage. 

There is no hope if this fight lasts longer than a few seconds, Vedel is far too skilled there is no chance of winning if she has a chance to take advantage of that skill.

Navani struck like a vicious animal, claws slashing straight at Vedel. Vedel stood perfectly still, a small dagger appeared in Vedel’s offhand, it had a sphere attached to the base that glowed strangely and the dagger pierced through the claws.

To Navani, time seemed to freeze and she could hear a scream ripping into her very soul.

-Saoene-

Saoene returned to the central room in the hideout after waking up from her quick sleep. The expression on Ilan’s face was grim, no relief seemed to be on her face and the Rhythm, she was humming to the Rhythm of Anxiety.

“What happened? Where’s Navani?” Saoene asked, avoiding tripping over any of the comatose, Ilan’s expression told her everything she needed to know, “She’s been killed? Captured?”

“Captured by Vedel from what we know, but it gets worse.” Ilan’s Rhythm changed to the Rhythm of Mourning.

“Worse?” Saoene tried to not shout.

“From what I've been told is that… that…” Ilan trailed off.

“WHAT?” Saoene lost her temper.

“Saoene… Oryx is… is… dead.”

Saoene stopped hearing anything, a buzz filled her ears. A lump filled her throat and she felt hot tears falling down her face.

My nephew… he’s dead? No, he can’t be completely dead just scattered, perhaps we can gather his Investiture back together.

She looked back up, “Where is she?”

Ilan smiled, clearly realising that Saoene had pushed the grief to the side, “From what I know, they are both down near the Breakaway. Vedel is acting as healer for the Division and as Navani’s guard.”

“I need to organise my Aonic equations for fighting Heralds.”

Both of the surviving Heralds are here, and they have chosen to contest us. I will destroy them.

-Navani-

She lay broken on the ground where Vedel had thrown her. She had no clue where she was and she didn’t care. There was a hole in her mind where Oryx once filled and she could barely bother to look around. She spiraled back into her memories of Oryx;

Oryx touched a windspren and it bent around his claw, a quiet squeal of pain coming from it. The windspren became a void of darkness with an outline of silver light.

“This isn’t fun anymore.” Oryx growled, his voice scratchy. “I want to Take a True Spren.”

Navani sighed, “You can’t.”
“Why?” Oryx whined. “I want to though.”

Navani stopped herself from laughing, He really is like a child sometimes ,

“Oryx, you can’t do that to True Spren because they are just as sentient as you are.”
“So? Why should I care?” 

Navani put her hand on Oryx’s shoulder and pulled him onto a chair, “Listen to me Oryx. Beings that experience emotion and intelligence like you deserve the same treatment as yourself.” She turned his head so he was looking her in the eye before continuing, “I know you find it difficult to care about other people but just think, ‘what if this happened to me’ before doing anything and if you wouldn’t like it then it is probably wrong.”

He nodded but she could tell he didn’t properly understand just yet. Only a couple of years later he understood what she meant properly.

She cried softly at the side of the wall of the Breakaway but she was able to focus a little bit more. She could see Vedel, THAT MURDERER! She could see Singer guards in Warform around a creature. 

The creature was like a human the same way that a chasmfiend was like a larkin, it was twelve feet tall and three feet wide in the abdomen. It’s arms and legs were thicker than a man’s in Shardplate. The creature was naked which showed the worst part about the creature, the spikes, dozens of spikes of varying metals pierced it’s body, two were going through its eyes and over ten spikes were in its chest with six more piercing the stomach, three in each leg and four in each arm. The creature’s skin was red like the eyes of a Fused or a Regal, black electricity seemed to randomly burst out under it’s skin around the spikes.

“You like it?” A tall man with jet black hair and burns over a large part of his face, his hair was patchy, “It’s just a prototype of our masterpiece but this is enough to kill pretty much anything. It took a lot of effort to make, over thirty people died for this prototype. It can’t fight a Shard but Shards can’t easily affect entities in the Physical Realm anyway.”

She recognised who he was, he was a Ghostblood, “Mraize. You’re back.”

“You know me, Navani Kholin? How nice.” He sneered at her.

She waited till he turned away from her and pulled out a small knife from her boot, which had a glowing Aon on the base of the hilt. She slashed at his ankle and he fell to the ground growling, he pulled out a dagger from his belt. Navani could see that he was already dead even if he hadn’t realised and she blocked an attempted stab from him. Mraize started to cough and looked at his arms, his veins and arteries were black.

“Journey before destination, you bastard!” She hissed as she kicked him back.

She jumped to her feet with the Aonic dagger in hand. The Singer guards rushed towards Navani who stood in a stance ready to fight. 

“Hey stormless bastards! How about you fight a woman with a proper weapon?” Saoene’s voice rang out from behind Navani.

Navani glanced backwards and saw Saoene charging across the Breakaway with Shardblade in hand and Ilan following close behind with her Aonic blade. Saoene slammed into the Singers and sliced through the first few with her Blade. Ilan stabbed the Singers trying to get to Navani around Saoene.

“Get Navani out of here Ilan! I’ll catch up!” Saoene shouted as she cut down more Singers and the creature that had just been standing still turned its head towards her.

Ilan nodded, “Don’t die Ene!”
Saoene just laughed as Ilan pulled Navani into a run away from the fight. Navani noticed something in the corner of her eye, it was a silver speck. She felt hope for the first time since Vedel appeared in that doorway, maybe everything was going to turn out alright.

Chapter Text

-Saoene-

Saoene fought the Hemalurgical construct with the grace of a full Elantrian and the speed of an Honorblade holder filled with the Light of the storms. The creature fought with no speech, no quips, no mind, just power. Navani, without Oryx infusing every cell in her body, failed to see the truth of the creature, it had far too much Investiture for any one being. It was a creature only one step away from Ascending to a pure Spiritual being, those spikes anchored it but all that meant was the power seemed to pull at space, at the Realms themselves, if it had anymore Investiture those spikes would shatter and a perpendicularity would form.

Saoene tapped an Aon just as the creature almost struck her with the simple metal pole and the creature froze, the little moisture in its cells would have become solidified. She stabbed at the creature through it’s heart and the creature moved once more and simply responded by tearing the Blade from her grip it turned to mist. This creature won’t truly die from a simple stab, I have to cut it to pieces, this creature’s internal organs would have been reshaped till they no longer properly work like they once did. The creature’s inside is probably near liquid unable to be destroyed.

She dodged a strike from the pole and summoned the Honorblade into her hand. She sliced the metal pole in half as it tried to attack her again. She turned the ground to liquid under the creature which collapsed into the stone like liquid up to it’s waist and she returned it to solid stone. Hope leapt into her throat. THERE! The union of spikes has been shattered.

Her hope fell when the creature simply rose from the ground, it’s spikes intact and uninjured. She triggered another Aon and a pillar of flames rose up around it then the creature pushed out of the flames in an instant, burns covered the creature and she could see them healing in front of her very eyes. The creature’s weapon had become liquid metal around its hand red hot, at least there’s that . The creature threw a pulse of black energy at Saoene, it was like a small sphere with sparks of black electricity and Saoene cut through the pulse with her Blade. The pulse was absorbed into the Blade, not a scratch was made upon the Honorblade but she could feel a portion of her Light disappear.

She felt herself slow, and she knew what would happen like she was burning atium, she avoided a punch and cut through it’s right arm, which greyed and a second punch landed in her gut and all of her Light vanished as the fist pushed through her stomach making a hole. Blood erupted from the hole and she saw the flesh around the fist turn grey from the Investiture leeched. She knew what was coming, it had happened to hundreds and thousands that she had seen.

… 

…

… 

-Tlik-

He flew and he could see Urithiru close, beside him Eteru-daughter-Vilah and Revizh, his Lashings were what kept his sister-Conduits in the air. He felt his god under his skin burning hot in a strange excitement, nothing this important had happened in years and his god had been getting bored. 

“ Navani is your priority, if you are unable to retake the Oathgates, you are to extract Navani. The rest have their own targets to rescue. Don’t take prisoners, just kill them all this needs to be an example. ”

Tlik understood, this was a challenge and it must be met head on or his god will look weak. He at least wasn’t here to kill anyone in particular, he was here to rescue his people from those who would slaughter them.

Bleeder and Varian went up higher, they were sent to take the top of the tower-city and Simn, Nam and Vatwha went down towards the Oathgate Platforms. Raler and Hnan went to take the fifth level while Tlik, Eteru-daughter-Vilah and Revizh went to take the Breakaway. 

They dropped like stones and split to take control of different sections of the massive Breakaway. He knew his god was able to see into the parts of Urithiru around the Conduits and soon Eteru would shut down the device that was hacking into the defences of Urithiru then his god would see everything around the tower.

Tlik summoned his Blade and cut through a dozen soldiers in three heartbeats. He pushed further through and saw a creature, he knew that it was Hemalurgical before the Rhythms could even change to tell him but it was worse than that. The creature was shimmering like heat off a road but it was like if all three Realms were bending around it. It was filled with more Investiture than even a Bondsmith at their peak though nothing like someone wielding a Dawnshard but then Tlik saw something on the ground and for a moment he couldn’t understand what he had saw.

“ No, no, no Saoene, NOOOO !!! ” His god roared with so much fury that he no longer sounded like a human being, more like a monster from the Spiritual Realm, “ KILL IT, KILL THEM ALL! ”

Tlik felt a wave of fury turning him from a scalpel to a hammer of hatred and he attacked the creature. Blasts of dark energy flew at Tlik but he didn’t care, he dodged with the grace of an Edgedancer and turned the air to fire around the creature’s head. It burned then he cut the Blade through it’s left arm and caught a punch with his hand that he transformed air into rock around. The rock disintegrated and his hand snapped backwards as his Warlight was leeched from him. He realised something about the creature, it had grown brighter and the Realms bent around the beast even more.

“ Make it change, let it feed. The creature will Ascend into a being of pure Investiture and I will destroy it. For Saoene. ”

He called in even more Warlight into his gemheart and filled it through his body as the creature grasped hold of Tlik, leeching him further and further until it’s hands went through his chest. Tlik kicked away as the creature stumbled and it’s skin started to rupture as Light burst forth, the spikes shot out of it and finally it disappeared in a flash of Light showcasing Shadesmar for a brief moment.

God roared in his ears in unbound wrath, the fury of a god killing a man who had defied him, the violence of a brother destroying the man who had murdered his sister. Tlik realised that all of the Conduits could hear this roar and they became his extensions of his hatred. He hadn’t noticed that he had already started to move and butcher, dozens of the soldiers were on the ground, not cut with a Shardblade but ripped apart with the Surge of Division. 

-Liss-

Liss was fleeing with Aster by her side, they had left the moment that Navani had been rescued. They knew that Saoene couldn’t survive against that creature and when Urithiru was retaken, Unity would not be kind to anyone who he could blame for her death and that would be everyone in Urithiru who wasn’t loyal to him. Her sister and her would not let themselves be taken into the hands of a Vessel of Odium ever again.

They stopped at the bottom of the mountain and stared upward at glowing figures flying towards the tower. Liss sighed and brought out a small cube and whispered “Connect to the Survivor.”

“Hello, Liss and I am guessing Aster?” Kelsier spoke as kindly as usual. “Why are you contacting me of schedule?”

“Urithiru is being taken back now and Unity is going to be very angry now.” Liss said, Aster had been quiet for a while, lost probably in memory of war and pain.

“Why?”
“Because-”

“ BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR ORGANISATION HAVE KILLED MY SISTER! ” Unity interrupted Liss, “ I HAVE TRIED TO BRING PARADISE BUT YOU HAVE REJECTED IT! SO I WILL BRING DAMNATION INSTEAD AND YOU WILL DIE IN PAIN ABOMINATION OF HATHSIN! ”

“You would have to catch me first, Nazan.”
“ You think that you can run from me, if you try to hide from me there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice, where I cannot find you. You think you know pain? I will make you long for something sweet as pain. ” Unity’s voice was no longer raging but calm and cold and terrifying. “ I suggest you tell your pets to run and hide because I am going to kill every single member of your Division and make every moment stretching between death and the Beyond infinitely painful. ”

She pushed Aster into a run as she shouted at the seon in the box to cut off the connection. They couldn’t stay or they would definitely get captured. It felt like they were getting stared down at by the monster from above, she forced herself not to look back every few seconds.

Please let the plan work Almighty above. Please.

Chapter Text

-Nazan-

RAGE
HATRED
DESPAIR
RAGE
HATRED
DESPAIR
H̸A̴T̶R̷E̵D̶
H̸A̴T̶R̷E̵D̶
H̷̰̀̂̊͐Ā̴̪̉̚Ṫ̴͙R̸̡̬̯̐͑͛͝Ȅ̵͎̓D̸̡̤͙̪̈́̎̎
H̷̰̀̂̊͐Ā̴̪̉̚Ṫ̴͙R̸̡̬̯̐͑͛͝Ȅ̵͎̓D̸̡̤͙̪̈́̎̎
H̷̰̀̂̊͐Ā̴̪̉̚Ṫ̴͙R̸̡̬̯̐͑͛͝Ȅ̵͎̓D̸̡̤͙̪̈́̎̎

He burned with hate, he needed to break something

He needed to break everything

HE WANTED TO BREAK EVERYTHING

H̴̥͚̒̒Â̷̙̊͌̕T̵̿̒̈̅Ι͇͔R̸̛̬͎E̵̲̯̤̋̾͗Ḑ̴̙̆̓̃͝

E̴̛̺̻̬̊̂V̷͎̦̽̑͝Ȅ̷̖R̴͓̐Ȳ̷̮̩̳̌T̵̨̰H̵̖͇͖̕I̸̤͌͋̆N̴̥̞̄̈́G̸̟̳͌ ̴̧͒̈̕M̵̧̼͉̅U̶̥̇ͅS̸͉͒T̶͈́ ̷̬͙̬̃̊͝Ḅ̷̭̦̈̉̿E̵̛̮̓͒ ̸̪̲̜̀̆D̶͔̜̆̎Ê̶͈̾̈Ṣ̵͎̳̽͝T̸͕̉͝Ỏ̸̧̤Ŕ̷̪̫Y̸̢̊E̷̲͠D̸̤̙́

H̶͎̥̥͛̿͐O̸̺̟̲̒̓̍͒͜W̶͉̮̝͗̈́͆̄̄ ̵̧͔͖͔͐͊̽D̴̮̀̉͋̔Ä̷̛͚̰̭͔͎́̾͑̓R̷̻̄̋̕É̷͈͕̺̻̙ ̷̹͔̭̓̓̊͑͝Ṱ̷̠͊͛Ḧ̷̥̳͇́̓̌̎E̶̳̳̪͎̓̍̇͘Y̸̡̫̐̚ ̸̣̦͒̅L̵̮͈̒͘Ĭ̷̦̠͓͆̈́͜V̸̨̜̹̠́͒͂É̶̠̺̭̹ͅ ̸̬̃͋̚̕Ẅ̵̥́͆Ĥ̷̱̹̹̀͐͝Ę̷̤̲͇̖͂̿͐͗͝Ņ̸̘̦̄ ̴̨̭̒̂̚S̵͔͑̈́̽A̷͎͑͘͝͠O̵̝̲̲̞͓͒̃̀E̵̹̙̤̖͑͑N̶͍͚̪͔͑̏ͅE̸̯̯̠̭͠ͅ ̴͚̻͐̓͒͠Ĩ̷̤̞̦̗̭̊S̷̮͚̖͉͔͂ ̶̲̦̯̙͛̆D̴͕͖͔̜̞͋E̷̖̙̱̾̌͒͛͘A̸͓͛D̵͔̗͍͕̅

STOP! YOU ARE MINE! I AM NOT YOURS TO CONTROL!

He forced the Shards’ influence back and took a few mental breaths. He felt calmer and focused on guiding his Conduits on the hunt and split his attention to Jasnah who was waiting for the Oathgate to send her to Urithiru. 

She was mostly relaxed, he could tell that even though she still had her perfect posture. He whispered into her mind to make her go into the Oathgate Control Room and then he manifested himself inside the control room.

“Hey Jasnah.” He could tell that his voice sounded hoarse like he had been shouting or crying recently.

Jasnah’s body tensed, “What’s wrong Nazan?”

“Saoene… she’s… they…” 

Jasnah quickly grabbed him and pulled him into a hug as he felt himself start to cry and shake. She kept putting her fingers through his hair as he cried for minutes on end, eventually he managed to get a handle on his emotions enough to pull out of the hug.

“What are you going to do?” Jasnah asked.

“I am going to destroy them.” He heard the coldness in his voice, “I am going to tear them down, and everything they love. When I am finished, the Cosmere will never forget what happens to those who think to get to me by targeting the people I love.”

Jasnah looked at him with wide eyes and he realised he had shown far more rage than he had meant to.

“Sorry, Jas. The Shards are making this even more intense than normal.”

She nodded and relaxed slightly, “What about my mother?”
Nazan forced himself to smile, “Navani is safe to my knowledge.”
Jasnah fully relaxed and nodded as Light flashed all around her and the Oathgate transported her to Urithiru.

-Lift-

Lift skidded down the street with her Slickness under her feet, she hadn’t been asked to help with taking back the Tower, she didn’t really understand why. She used Wyndle as a stick to control her sliding. She stayed in Azimir since this new war was being managed mostly from there so all of the wounded would probably be sent. 

She saw the Oathgate activate to send the army of Radiants and Fused to Urithiru and she skidded into an alleyway. She climbed up the side of a building and walked softly along the rooftops until she was above a restaurant. She looked down at a small balcony above the restaurant and dropped down onto it, rolling then crouching.

Time to steal some food.

She wasn’t actually hungry, she had gotten far too good at conserving her Lifelight even when she was constantly using her awesomeness to need more food, but she was bored so she decided to steal some food. 

Okay, Gawx or that Fused Prime will give the restaurant some money to pay for the food I’m stealing but who cares.

She snuck into the kitchen through a small opening that was used to vent the hot air from the kitchen, most thieves wouldn’t be able to use that opening while they were cooking as they would suffocate. She wasn’t most thieves though, she was Radiant and awesome in her own way. She just used her awesomeness so she didn’t need to breathe then held her breath as she crawled down and she stayed just above a boiling pot. She watched two cooks and when both were turned away she summoned Wyndle as a hook and used him to pull a plate of what looked like fried axehind closer. She threw a seed just behind the plate with a small amount of her awesomeness so it would grow pushing the plate close to her.

One of the cooks turned and yelled as she snatched the plate off of the vine and crawled up, Slicking herself so she couldn’t get stuck and she was out of there. She jumped from the balcony across the street, plate still in hand, onto a roof. She sat down and stuffed her food down.

“Oh mistress, you should be more careful.” Wyndle started to whine, almost a full day without him complaining, “You were right above a boiling pot, you could have fallen in.”
“Yeah right, Voidbringer, I have literally fought in a Desolation, I think I can survive falling into a pot of hot water.” She belched and smiled, “That was good food, I must go there again.”
She got comfortable looking down on the street and flicked an emerald sphere from her pouch at the balcony of the restaurant, she could see it roll into the room. She stood up to run to the clinic as her shift for healing would be coming soon. She felt the air move and she dropped to the ground just as a crossbow bolt flew through where her head had been only a fraction of second before.

She glanced behind her and on another rooftop was a man holding a crossbow with a few more soldiery looking people jumping onto her roof.

She glanced between them and then smiled, time for a chase. She sprinted the other way and jumped, Lifelight burning in her stomach, she could hear the soldiers curse and she laughed. 

Storming fools! You can’t catch me in my city! 

Wait, why are they trying to kill me? Is it just me or…

She could see on the streets more of those soldiers attacking Regals and Radiants who hadn’t been taken on the mission to take back Urithiru.

Storms! I… I can’t save them… I need to fight. Damnation! 

-Navani-

Navani and Ilan returned to the Breakaway after hearing the Conduits had fought their way past their hiding place and found… Saoene. Lying on the ground. Not breathing. Skin grey.

Ilan was frozen, then ignoring the dead smoking bodies all around her, rushed over, dropping to Saoene’s side and tried to shake her body like she was expecting her lover to wake up.

“No. No. No. Wake up Saoene. WAKE UP SAOENE!” She started off quietly then screamed at the body, no Rhythm in her voice, just grief.

Navani lowered herself beside Ilan as the singer started to cry. Navani put her arm around Ilan ignoring her own grief and guilt about Oryx and being the reason Saoene was dead.

If I was better, more skilled, smarter, I wouldn’t have been captured and Saoene… she wouldn’t have had to rescue me.

She felt something touching her mind, she recognised the feeling from descriptions by Jasnah and the Conduits as being Nazan trying to speak to her, she let him come closer to her mind.

“ It wasn’t your fault. ” Nazan spoke into her mind softly.

Yes it was.

“ It wasn’t your fault. ” His voice hard, “ It was the scum that my Conduits are killing and the Abomination of Hathsin, who are to blame. Look after Oryx’s child please. Teach him well. ”

I was right, I’ve lost Oryx but he has left a portion of himself to me to raise.

She started to stroke Ilan’s back as Ilan sobbed into her shoulder, I have some already to look after for now.

-Tlik-

Tlik stabbed his Blade through the last soldier on level four, his God’s fury still burning in his soul. Tlik jumped off the balcony dropping towards the Breakaway ignoring the Radiants and Fused who had come and were securing the Tower. He couldn’t be bothered to use a Lashing to slow his fall so he slammed into the floor of the Breakaway and his legs snapped as his Light healed him almost as fast as he was injured. 

Navani and Ilan were sitting beside Saoene’s body, HATE! RAGE! Hate! Ilan was weeping into Navani’s shoulder while Navani kept stroking her back, whispering soothingly. Tlik sat down on the ground beside her body again then his God pushed Tlik away from the control of his mind.

He could feel his God putting his hand on Saoene’s head, the grief was flooding from his God into Tlik’s mind. Tlik was crying while his God wept through Tlik’s body. He felt somebody touching his shoulder and Unity turned his head slightly, Jasnah pulled Tlik to his feet as his God retreated. Jasnah nodded as he knew the glowing solid gold in his eyes would have disappeared too.

The Rhythms shifted, sending Tlik into a run towards the Thaylen Oathgate, the Rhythms told him that the rest of his sibling-Conduits were running towards their own Oathgates.

The Division is seriously invading every Oathgate city? How stupid are they? This must be a distraction… but for what?

“ Doesn’t matter. You have a duty, take back your city. I have a theory on their real plan but I can’t know till they make their next move. Now save your city and make sure no one else important dies. ”

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

Thaylen City was burning from the docks to the Royal Palace and from the North Ward to the South Ward. Tlik called on more Warlight as he summoned his Blade, he heard in the Rhythms the approach of a dozen enemy soldiers. Tlik slicked his shoes and slid straight into a fight, a man with a hammer tried to strike him in the ribs and with the slightest push of his feet he dodged to the side of the hammer. Tlik slapped the man sending him flying into the air with a Basic Lashing and then cut through another man who tried to dodge with the speed of a flared pewterburn. The man’s eyes were burnt out of his sockets and he collapsed. Tlik sliced through the next two enemies then flew into the air.

I can’t waste time fighting these idiots, I need to restore order to the city by stopping the fires.

He noticed that some more of the Division’s soldiers were trying to slip into the Oathgate control building and he dropped straight at them like an arrow in flight. He cut through them with less effort than a knife through butter.

He needed to reorganise the people of his city into groups ready to deal with the flames. He flew on a Basic Lashing upwards to the Royal Palace and Soulcast the air into water to push the flames back.

This is going to take time, time we don’t have to spare.

-Varian-

Narak was in ruins. Not all of it but several of the buildings were destroyed as if… bombs, they must have detonated them across the city to make it easier to control, they can’t afford to fight for every building and street so they needed to remove as much from the field as possible before beginning the fight.

Varian sent a burst of red lightning at a group of Division soldiers, most of them died in the blast but one moved out of the way in a burst of speed. Steelrunner? Good, it is time to bleed your Division.

He hummed to the Rhythm of Destruction as he tapped his pewterminds and grew in size, his Shardblade dropped into his hand, a massive Blade with a slightly curved edge, his carapace grew from his offhand into a shield just as the blur of a Steelrunner slammed a sword into it. He felt the Steelrunner trying to pull the sword out of his carapace but before they could Varian sprayed the ground with a Full Lashing trapping the Steelrunner then he ripped the sword out of the Steelrunner’s grip. Varian grabbed the head of the Steelrunner and squeezed until it crumpled, the skull caving inwards until the brain started to leak.

He readied for a long, long battle between him versus the Division, regrouping his people along the way. He felt a sharp pain in his back and something burning around his gemheart.

-Raler-

Kholinar was on fire and he could see the bodies of Regals and Radiants, he felt the urge to fight burning through his blood. Raler tapped his electrummind and felt his mind becoming more manic. He flew into the air on a Basic Lashing and nearly crashed into a flying Division soldier, Coinshot seriously? How many Scadrians are working for the Division?

He grew his bones out of his arm and into a bone sword and the Coinshot threw a nail at him. He used the Voidish Surge of Transportation becoming a red stream of light moving above the Coinshot and reformed right beside the Coinshot. Raler pushed his bone sword into the Coinshot’s back and kicked him downwards, his bone sword coming out of his back.

He dropped to the ground of the city streets and summoned his Blade in his other hand. Raler shoved his bone sword through another Division soldier then sliced through another two soldiers with his Shardblade.

Raler could hear Unity pushing him forward, he needed to retake his home, reinforcements were going to come from Urithiru to help hold the city but he needed to push the Division away from the Oathgate. He saw a Fused covered in cuts and bruises then turned into a stream of red light in an instant he stood beside the Fused. He checked the Fused who looked exhausted then he saw something that made him halt for a moment. The red eyes looked…  different. Something was wrong and before he could react he felt a knife in his gemheart and it shattered!

-Bleeder- 

Akinah was… fine. A Sleepless formed in front of her, Nikliasorm, the youngest of the swarms on Roshar, he was very distinctive.

“The Division tried to attack us, the traitor swarm tried to attack us but we managed to force it back into the sea.”

“Good, Unity was worried, Akinah cannot be taken or this war will turn bad for us.” 

My former allies are far too bold, this war is exposing them too much. They must have some sort of strategy. So far they have done no real damage to Nazan, they’ve killed his sister but all that has done is make him less forgiving than usual.

“Take me to the Vault, I need to make sure the items are safe.”
Nikliasorm collapsed into a swarm of hordlings and Bleeder followed as they led the path to the Vault. They activated a fabrial opening a stone door to a flooded tunnel and swam down it for several hundred meters through a maze of flooded tunnels till they reached a door with hundreds of glowing symbols across it. Bleeder touched sixteen of these symbols, hundreds of large hordlings swam around Bleeder and Nikliasorm as the stone door slowly opened outwards.

Within the Vault sat three swords; one short and thin, another a saber glowing with a strange violet light from within an aluminium sheath and another long, thin and straight with a black hilt in another aluminium sheath.

“ How is Nazan? ” Nightmare asked her inserting it’s thoughts into her mind.

“ Are we going to destroy evil today? ” Nightblood asked doing the same.

“ Take Nightmare, leave the other two. Punish the Division. ” Nazan ordered. “ STORMS! PROTECT AKINAH! ”

-Nazan-

He saw everything and felt everything else. He knew his mind was spread far too thin, looking at ten different cities at the same time was stretching things even for him. He was only a tenth of a man in each of the cities, normally that was enough. Not today.

He felt as six of his Conduits were killed in stealth strikes, their Cognitive Shadows returning to the Highstorm ready to regenerate their bodies as it travels across the continent. Only Tlik, Bleeder, Hnan and Eteru had survived and they were busy saving their cities.

He realised that the Division were moving in for another attack on Akinah though on a second look, they were still a good week away by ship. He then felt something… tear away from him… a lot of somethings. 

Did something tear at my Connection to… my spren. Not all of them just… a lot of them, the spren were…

He looked around Shadesmar and saw Celebrant and it was empty as if the spren inside of it had just vanished into thin air. He could see a lot of overturned furniture. There was definitely a struggle but it happened across a few minutes while Nazan had been distracted. That is impossible! Right? No, Hemalurgy could enhance a Slider enough to cover a very large area before… side effects became a problem but not an entire city, there aren’t enough Sliders in Scadrial for this sort of activity so maybe two or three with a small army of metalborn could do it in that sort of time period. It doesn’t matter. What happened to my spren?

He looked around the area of Celebrant and something massive in Investiture was pushing through the sea of beads. The entity was glowing so brightly that Nazan couldn’t even see what was inside the Light. He saw that on the Physical Realm the ground was shaking from the beads in Shadesmar being disturbed. He tried to pierce the Light to see more of the entity, it was almost one hundred feet tall and he saw the Light was coming from spikes on some sort of creature, it might have been humanoid but he wasn’t certain.

So, that creature in Urithiru was a prototype, this is the final product, and all they needed to complete it was the butchery of thousands of spren. Where is it going? The future is too dark but I’m still me and I don’t need magic to predict someone’s actions. It is going towards Lasting Integrity, they have a high population and are a military population, it is going to try to absorb the entire population and if it can get absorb them it will Ascend.

Chapter Text

Nazan summoned his power preparing for the battle ahead. He took back Investiture from Dor, weakening the Avatar but the Selish Investiture users wouldn’t notice, he had still left enough for them to use their arts without issue. 

He turned his mind from Sel to the Stormfather, well what’s left of him. The Stormfather was once a glorious being the size of a continent, riding every Highstorm and glowing with the power of Honour. Now, he still rode the Highstorms but he was like a Drab, something was missing from him, he was only a storm with the barest traces of intelligence and emotion… but he was still a storm with no equal, outside of the favourites from the Unmade, Mishram and Sja-anat were both more powerful but they were too important for risking in this fight. I can’t lose Sja as well, better to throw the Stormfather into this battle. Anyway he’s better suited for battle than either of them. Mishram is a strategist and commander while Sja-anat is backline support, better to keep them up my sleeve. That reminds me.

Nazan turned his mind towards Ba-Ado-Mishram and she turned her own mind to him, “Lord, what is going on? I can’t look towards the south of Shadesmar and Celebrant is empty of spren.”
“Can I trust you Mishram?” Even he could tell his voice was cold without his Pure Tone.

He saw the discomfort in her being as she spoke, “Yes, I swear that you can trust me, I am yours till our deaths.”
“Good, I need you to be ready for something. I’m not sure what precisely yet, the future is hidden from me but I know that the creature that has been released to challenge me cannot be all there is to the enemy’s strategy. One entity of moderate strength has no chance of a true victory against me. Merely wasting a bit of my time. It feels too much like bait but I might have to spring the trap to counter it.”

“What sort of creature is it? Mishram asked.

He froze thinking, what is it? It's Hemalurigcal, it’s like that prototype in Urithiru, just more advanced. That prototype when it absorbed too much Investiture Ascended but it was too weak to survive me for longer than a second when it was on my level. This though is a completed version, it already has far more Investiture than the prototype had at the end. FUCK! BY THE SIXTEEN FUCKING SHARDS! STORMS AND RUST! It’s an artificial Shard. Only about four percent of a true Shard but even that is enough to persist and to be a problem and it hasn’t Ascended yet, how much Investiture does it need to do that? Well the limit of any particular thing for quantity of Investiture is at most fifteen percent of a Shard’s Investiture before they Ascend or start becoming like a planet with their own gravitational pull.

“I have theories but no concrete information but it doesn’t really matter what it is. I need you ready for the fight ahead.”
Mishram nodded and her golden eyes glowed brighter as she summoned her own strength. He returned his focus back to the Stormfather and voice vibrating to the Pure Tone of Honour spoke the command to order the Stormfather to fight. The Highstorm that the Stormfather was riding accelerated in its course; it was originally still three days away from Celebrant, now it was going to catch up to the creature a half of a day away from Lasting Integrity in about a day’s time.

He sped time up from his perspective, he couldn’t wait, he needed this to hurry up. I’m so done with these irritants. If the Stormfather fails to destroy the entity then I’ll do it myself and then I’ll move onto the others… 

The sky in Shadesmar above the entity began to shimmer in every colour across the entire visible light spectrum as the Highstorm crashed across the Physical Realm and the Stormfather struck at the entity with spears of Light.
The entity crashed backwards and kicked outward releasing a wave of black rippling energy that made the Stormfather move backwards in pain. The Stormfather sent another spear of Light at the entity who released another blast of that black rippling energy which canceled out the spear. Fascinating, that energy is the Investiture of Ruin, it must have been accessed by a combination of Hemalurgic spikes. The entity punched the Stormfather and the Stormfather roared in agony as his Light was drained into the entity which glowed even brighter than before. The Stormfather retreated backwards, while the Highstorm held still in the Physical Realm at Nazan’s command, to stay out of the creature’s reach. The Stormfather wasn’t very skilled at fighting, he mostly just created spears of Stormlight but the entity wasn’t skilled at all, it was like an animal it knew what it could do but it didn’t understand how to use it’s abilities to maximise the effect.

The Stormfather and the entity fought for hours trading strikes one after another. The Stormfather was fast enough to avoid most blows but the entity was able to take far more hits especially as every successful strike on its part led to it absorbing Investiture and recovering from its wounds. The entity suddenly burst into swift motion grabbing hold of the Stormfather and it began to glow brighter and brighter and brighter while the Stormfather grew dimmer in Light.

Nazan snarled and smited the creature, it exploded backwards losing grip on the Stormfather who escaped in the released Highstorm. The entity stood back up and swung at the being of golden energy surrounded in a blue-white aura, Nazan put his hand out and the fist froze in the air. He flew close and punched the entity so hard that it flew into the air and crashed back into the sea of beads half of a mile away. He followed right behind and the creature seemed to expand just as he was about to launch an attack.

He saw the creature attack with a strike that just seemed to instantly cross the distance as if it was Shard attacking him. He felt something burning in him, Rage.

He threw an attack with the full force of his hatred. DIE! BURN! SPLINTER!

He caught himself before he could fully spiral into Odium and maintained his onslaught of attacks that stopped the entity from responding with attacks of his own. The entity was definitely a pseudo-Shard, even if it was far weaker than a full blown Shard, it was able to act on the same level as a Shard, able to force it’s Investiture to hit an enemy Shard directly without specifically striking at the exposed Vessel like with Nightblood.

The entity was able to hit Nazan again and the pain reminded him of something he had made himself forget and he screamed in his mind, NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! He crushed the entity with the full power of his four Shards, Dominion breaking the power of the creature and Odium channeling his own power directly into the entity. 

It couldn’t hold itself together as the spikes broke apart and stopped anchoring the entity to its body. The entity expanded into the Spiritual Realm where the only thing that had real power were Shards and he held a quarter of them. He forced the soul of the poor man who was forced to become a slave god into the Beyond releasing the Investiture of the poor Spren from Celebrant that had been used in the spikes. 

He felt sore from fighting the creature but he also felt a rush of excitement and pride ignoring the cold feeling the hit from before had produced. He stopped paying attention to what was going on on Roshar itself as he enjoyed the feeling of the rush which had been amplified by his Shards. Which was why he didn’t see the attack coming that sent his mind flying from the east of Roshar all the way to the opposite side of the planet! 

The attack held the strength of a full Shard, it hurt worse than anything he had experienced since he had Ascended. His instinctive defences pulled up as his attacker appeared in front of him, he could feel the strange feeling of being separate from everything coming from the woman as if she lacked Connection to the Cosmere, the woman herself was dark skinned in a white desert robe with a white mask over her face. He knew who she was, Bavadin, Vessel of the Shard of Autonomy and patron Shard of the Division. He knew that she was the patron of the Division ages before, obvious really, their goal is to break me down into smaller Shards and they want to separate people into autonomous groups.

Autonomy attacked again and Unity blocked the attack as the true battle for Roshar began.

Chapter Text

-Bleeder-

Bleeder knew that something was wrong with the world. Nazan wasn’t there in her mind anymore, he never forced her to do anything, well except for that one time but he didn’t seem to know that he was doing that. It was nice though with him constantly speaking describing everything and everyone around her, but now… it was silent, even the Rhythms didn’t sound right like something had changed after the roar from Nazan telling her to protect Akinah.

The sun seemed to jump randomly forward in the sky as if time was no longer working normally around Roshar, sometimes she would be patrolling around the coast and a moment later she would be on the other side of her patrol route like she had been Transported or she had lost track of time. The Sleepless and the humans now living in Akinah were experiencing similar things, no spanreeds were working but the Sleepless said that the further east across Roshar people travelled the more extreme these events were. Time and space was breaking and she didn’t know how to stop it. She couldn’t leave Akinah to seek out whatever was doing it or she could just make things worse, I need to trust that Nazan will deal with this on his own and I will protect Akinah.

She stood at the Akinah docks, Blade in hand as she saw three ships coming towards Akinah from the horizon. She reshaped her eyes to enhance her vision and… the sailors were Division soldiers but they didn’t look victorious, they looked just as scared as the civilians in Akinah. Whatever is causing the disruption in time and space must have not been common knowledge among the Division ranks or maybe they didn’t expect this to happen? If so they are trialing a new weapon on the field that they don’t understand and they are arrogant fools. Though, it could be that this is part of a plan of a faction within the Division given how they are just a bunch of allied groups seeking the destruction of Nazan who would normally try to kill each other. Are they already trying to sabotage each other? Doesn’t matter, I have my job.

She summoned Warlight into her gemheart and it seemed sluggish as it flowed into the gemheart. Bad sign.  

Bleeder Lashed upwards and flew towards the closest ship, wind rushing through her hair. The sailors on the ship’s deck pulled out swords, clubs and spears and stood in combat stances. Bleeder dropped downwards with a Basic Lashing and slammed her Blade into the man closest to the prow of the ship. 

To their credit, these guys are brave…  or foolish. Fighting a Surgebinder with no Invested abilities or weapons, completely insane.

She pierced the heart of another sailor then grabbed hold of another’s spear turning it to dust in her hand, the Surge of Division forcing it to crumble at the axial level. Bleeder sliced through the next two but then she felt something very hard hit her in the back of the head. Her skull cracked inwardly and her Light started repairing instantly but she didn’t need an intact skull to keep fighting. She turned her shoulder and grabbed the club before it came down again and felt it crumble to ash in her hand. 

She kicked backwards Lashing him into the sky and unsheathes Nightmare, driving it into the deck of the ship, ignoring the horrors flashing through her mind. The deck turned grey around Nightmare, the grey spread outwards second by second, the sailors who were standing on the parts of the deck that had turned grey started to turn grey themselves. They tried to run from the dying deck but the deck started to crumble and they collapsed through it. 

She sheathed Nightmare and felt herself breathe again as her Warlight came back in force. She Lashed herself up into the air as the ship fell apart below her. Bleeder scanned for the other two ships which were still in the same place as before and the ships were empty. She looked for the sailors in the water but the only ones in the water would have been from the ship that she just sunk; where are they?

Then she heard a roar and spun around to see a massive Hordeling fighting what looked like a flock of birds, her improved eyes showed that they were soldiers floating upward and downward with spears. She looked to the docks where enemy soldiers were fighting smaller Hordelings and Bleeder felt something, her Connection to the minds of the people around her was unique, no other Kandra had ever managed to insert even a single thought into the minds of others, they hadn’t even imagined that they could. Only she had dared to imagine. Only she had dared to cross the boundary to true harmony between Ruin and Preservation not the impotence and hypocrisy of Harmony.

She could sense the presence of foreign minds in the tunnels leading to the Vault and she flew at top speed over the top of the battle towards the entrance to the tunnels. She suddenly felt something torn away.

She crashed into the middle of the docks as her Surgebinding failed. What happened to Unity?

-Nazan-

Nazan fought Autonomy over Ashyn, the burning planet, the closest planet to the Rosharan sun. He had pulled the fight away from Roshar itself to reduce the collateral damage. Autonomy knocked him around with disturbing ease and avoided his counterattacks just as easily.

“ Unity, did you think that just holding Shards somehow made you capable. I fought alongside Rayse to Splinter Aona and Skai. You killed Rayse by cheating but you don’t have that option here. ” Autonomy sounded far too confident in her chances against him.

She slammed him against Ashyn and he felt her grip his Connection to his Conduits and she started to choke it. He tried to choke her with his own power but she seemed to effortlessly step back out of reach.

She began to pummel Nazan into Ashyn; he could feel Ashyn cracking even more under the pressure of being used in a grudge match between Shards. Nazan split his mind and pushed back against Autonomy with one section of his mind while the rest of it gathered power. He felt his mind straining against the damage of Autonomy’s attacks and he released a wave of force knocking Autonomy across the entire Rosharan system to Braize. He followed behind and the battle continued over the frozen and barren world, with Autonomy injured but still more intact than he was. I need one opening to make Bavadin vulnerable, she’s focused on me, I need to cheat in this duel but how?

A plan formed in his mind as Autonomy brought him crashing down onto Braize. Good, I have a chance, a very slim one but a chance.

Chapter Text

Nazan, Vessel of the Shards of Odium, Honor, Devotion and Dominion, Unity, King of the Voidspren, Lord of Yggdrasil and the Memory of the Progression of humanity was getting his ass kicked across the Rosharan System. He could feel his Investiture being torn from him, his Connections to his Fused, to his Conduits, to his Unmade being blocked by Bavadin, Vessel of the Shard of Autonomy. He summoned his power and knocked her back long enough for him to shift in space, he now floated above the sea of beads that was Roshar in the Cognitive Realm. Bavadin was in front of him immediately and a blast of Investiture crashed him into the sea of beads.

Almost ready for the final move, I just need to keep her focused on me.

He finally called on the Shard of Dominion and punched Bavadin with the full force of the Shard which answered his call with even less effort than normal.

VENGEANCE FOR THE VESSEL!  

The Shard seemed to scream as Bavadin was tossed across half of the continent from the strike, and Nazan slammed her into the sea of beads with even more force as his Shards seemed to merge in purpose, in their hatred of Bavadin, even the Shard of Odium which had once been allied with her seemed to burn with hatred towards her. Passion such a fickle mistress.

Nazan saw hairline fractures in Bavadin’s soul and he brought down another strike of four Shards acting in concert but she vanished and he got knocked to the side by a strike of her own breaking his focus for a moment and she knocked him into the beads again.

FUCK! WHY IS SHE SO MUCH BETTER AT THIS THAN ME?

She slammed him again.

I’m dying.

And again.

I can’t.

And again.

I won’t.

She brought down her power in an attempt to crack him open.

NO!

Odium responded and Autonomy was forced back by a wall of force, of rage.

“ NO! YOUR TURN! YOUR TURN TO DIE! ” He roared through all three Realms and Autonomy was knocked backwards again and again by waves of the power of Odium.

She blocked strike after strike after strike but he could smell her fear, she was going to retreat, regroup, recruit other Shards.

I think not.

Autonomy sent a spear of power through as he sent another strike at her, the spear cut through Odium. He felt Devotion repairing him and the sense of peace from it broke his focus. Bavadin hit him again as his defences weakened for a second and she kept hitting Nazan.

“ MISHRAM NOW! ” He roared through the tiniest wisp of a Connection to her.

He slammed his own power into Bavadin, forcing both of them into a contest of raw power, Bavadin could easily escape if given time but it didn’t matter.

Bavadin screamed as wires of Connection formed from her Shard to something behind her. Nazan pulled at Bavadin and the Cognitive Realm started to shake around him, time seemed to freeze as the Spiritual Realm merged for a moment with the Cognitive and Physical, as Bavadin, Vessel of the Shard of Autonomy for over ten thousand years was torn asunder from her Shard!

-Bleeder-

Bleeder was fighting a small army with no Light, no Invested Art, just a Shardblade against dozens of Allomancers and hazekillers. She kept moving, not letting herself get cornered, she needed to push past these, if they got Nightblood, she was doomed, no one could beat Nightblood if it was used as a weapon. It was strange, from what Nazan said about how it was created, it couldn’t be truly replicated so there was, for the time being at least, only one weapon that could kill a Vessel of a Shard while in the hands of a Physical entity.

Well, if I can’t use my Surgebinding then I must use something else.

She grabbed with her left hand a small crystal tube, the crystal wasn’t able to be broken, it had Light in it, Warlight specifically, a Shardblade wouldn’t easily cut through it and the crystal was highly durable as well, the tube was filled with blood and floating inside it was a spike of Trellium. Under her shirt was a steel band around her shoulder that held a significant amount of Feruchemical speed and she poured the spike onto hand, throwing the Blade at an enemy. The spikes were pulled into her flesh and she summoned her Blade into her other hand.

One heartbeat.

Two.

Three.

Four.
Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

POWER! Bleeder felt her steelmind full of power and she tapped it with her old instincts seeming to come back like she was tapping a coppermind. Harmony thought that she only gained access to Allomancy and Feruchemy relatively recently. He was very wrong… she was loyal before Wax but she always knew that she couldn’t leave herself exposed if he lost control over his Ruin and became corrupted. She wasn’t the best at any particular Allomantic ability nor any particular Feruchemical ability but during the time of the Final Empire she wielded two abilities at a time thanks to her Blessing. Now she wielded only one, her favourite and so she became a blur of death.

Her Blade cut through her enemies in between seconds and even if any of them were Steelrunners they didn’t have any time to start tapping. Bleeder stopped tapping and shifted to a small speed increase, only four percent faster than normal. She rushed towards the tunnels, she had lost track of the thieves during the fight and the loss of Connection between her and Nazan. Now they seemed to be swimming back and she inserted her thoughts into the closest one’s mind.

“ Who said you could enter my domain, worm? ”

Bleeder could feel his mind panicking but he kept moving. They obviously weren’t able to breathe underwater, they were probably using unsealed cadmiumminds and they were probably almost out of breath. Bleeder stood ready to attack them and suddenly she felt a presence on the edge of her mind as they got closer.

“ Hello Bleeder! Are you here to destroy evil? ”

The tunnel seemed to explode with black energy, dark smoke spreading everywhere! She stepped backwards and was suddenly nearly fifty metres away, she had instinctively tapped for a large amount of speed. Nightblood was unsheathed. A man in soaking wet clothes, his veins were black and his skin was grey, Nightblood was feasting off him, he must have escalated too fast in his usage of Nightblood.

His mind must be like steel if he’s able to control himself while holding Nightblood unsheathed. What is he feeding Nightblood? Rusts, obviously a metalmind. I need to avoid Nightblood but if I have to I will die to stop him from getting Nightblood into a position to attack at Nazan. I need him alive to bring down Harmony.

She steelran behind the Nightblood wielding fighter but he turned as she ran following her movement. Is Nightblood enhancing his physical abilities? Maybe we don’t know the full capacity of what Nightblood does to it’s users, afterall most users either die in minutes or are highly Invested to the point they have physical enhancements anyway.

Bleeder felt her Connection with Nazan burst back to life and Warlight surged into her gemheart. She Lashed into the air and the Nightblood wielder jumped into the air after her. He wasn’t flying but the leap was clearly powered by incredible strength, Bleeder quadruple Lashed to the side avoiding the Nightblood wielder with ease but she could feel the air resistance becoming so high that her flesh started to hurt. She dropped the quadruple Lashing and swung her Blade in the path of the Nightblood wielder. 

Nightblood slammed into her Blade and her head exploded with pain as a wave of black energy exploded from where the Blades met! Bleeder slammed into the rocky ground, her original Lashing disappeared as her mind seemed to split from her body, she could see a sea of beads for a moment. Her mind pulled back together again and she could see Nightblood piercing the chest of the man who was wielding him, no longer feeding at least for the time being. She couldn’t see anyone else nearby the battlefield so she let herself rest for a few minutes before standing up, locating Nightblood’s sheath and carefully pushing Nightblood back inside it then she went to return it to the Vault.

-Unity-

“Do you know why I always win at games, Bavadin? It's because I can always force people to choose the strategy I want them to.” Unity said, taunting the prone form of Bavadin, “You chose to fight me head on. I win. You couldn’t bring yourself to ally with any of the other Shards so all I had to do was hit you one time for every four times you hit me. Well, if you were a fully healthy Vessel, but let's be honest you were stretched very thin. Really all I needed was one hit for every ten hits to equal you. All you needed was one healthy Shard to keep me from ever getting a good hit on you but now, your Shard will fall into my control and none of the other Shards will seek to avenge you, most of them couldn’t be bothered to deal with Rayse and the others would agree that I was right to kill you after you came into my domain. I knew that you would never ally yourself with any of our fellow Shards.”

Unity put his hand on Bavadin’s head forcing her to face him and then squeezed till she gasped in pain as his hand pushed into her Cognitive essence, “I could do things to you that would make you beg for mercy, or more likely your mind would shatter, I know almost everything Rayse did and he was a master at torture by the time I drove Nightblood through his chest and took his Shard from him. Which reminds me.”

Unity stood up and turned towards Ba-Ado-Mishram who held floating between her hands a sphere of Light, the size of a medium sized koloss, about nine feet tall and nine feet wide, the Light was golden, paler than the Shard of Odium’s burning gold, this was more the gold of a sandy beach. The Shard of Autonomy was held in Mishram’s hands.

“Give the Shard to me, my dear.”

She was looking at it as if she couldn’t hear him. There in her hands was probably the only Shard that a Splinter like her could take that wouldn’t just absorb her into it but instead it would be a spren with the power of a Shard and she wasn’t a normal spren anyway which would make it even easier for her. With one action she could become a god and his new enemy. Unity stared her down pushing through their Connection the urge to comply with the instruction.

“Ta-take it for your-yourself.” Bavadin coughed from below him.

Mishram was considering it then Unity shoved his heel into Bavadin’s gut and her Cognitive Shadow seemed to fuzz for a moment. Mishram looked at him and Pushed the power toward him.

As the power floated in front of him he could feel it, the power pushed at his very soul it wanted to be alone, away from him especially. It wanted everything to be separate from it and each other, from the axons to the people to the Shards and planets. He shoved his hand into the Shard and became Autonomy, a brand new Shard rushed through him, the urge to be alone contrasting with his urge to dominate but then he forced it into line, into Unity. It saw his vision and it became his, Unity could see every plan Bavadin had, all her knowledge, all her avatars, it was all his.

He turned back to Bavadin and grabbed her by the neck and pulled her to her feet, “Thank you for the gift, in return I will let you die with no further punishment.”
He forced down upon the last remaining trace of Bavadin, the original Vessel of the Shard of Autonomy his full power and she instantly became vapour and was dragged into the Beyond.

“Mishram, I will remember that you controlled your nature enough to remember your loyalties.”
She simply bowed her head and he expanded, no longer focusing himself into any particular place in Roshar but simply being everywhere.

The war is over, time for pest control and then the execution of my vision.

Chapter Text

-Tlik-

He walked in a small town in Emul hunting for two women, two highly dangerous women who had challenged his God openly and now could not be allowed to live. Unity had allowed them to survive the deaths of their peers among the Heralds as they hadn’t dared to interfere with the path of the True Desolation but now they declared war. Tlik had a divine duty, he was furious, he wanted to slaughter them, they killed Oryx, they murdered Lady Saoene. 

Tlik wasn’t showing off like normal, he looked like a homeless man, somebody that wouldn’t be noticed by anyone except for the other homeless and only for the sake of not being caught by their rivals. He had his head down, like he was battered down by life, he was wearing incredibly worn clothes, trousers ripped open, shirt covered in dirt, more dirt on his skin and his hair knotted with crem. Tlik had introduced to himself parasites that would slowly kill him to give him a way to find Vedel. Rhythms beat in his mind letting him know where every single axon around him was and where they were going.

He let himself stumble and fall to the ground coughing, his god had made sure that healthcare would be free for all, resources provided by Soulcasters and healing by Edgedancers and Truthwatchers, so this would either lead to the public clinic that would take records so wouldn’t have Vedel or a private clinic that wouldn’t have records and would cater to the poor or the criminals who wouldn’t want any solid records on who they are. Like any normal criminal isn’t already known by Unity.

He felt someone grab him, “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” A concerned Emuli voice rang out.

He twisted his expression in ‘pain’ and hissed out in an Emuli accent shifted to sound like an uneducated street kid, with just a hint of the man’s own accent aged younger to make him seem like a child, “Pain. Heart. Help. Me.”

The man sounded panicked as he shouted for help, he was lifted into the man’s arms and Unity was right beside him, his god’s mind watching very closely. The man rushed with Tlik in his arms but to a Conduit, the man was moving uncomfortably slow. Tlik was impatient for the first time in years, he just wanted to find the Heralds and kill them.

He heard a door get pushed open, “Help him. You’re the miracle worker aren’t you? The one that heals anyone and everyone from everything?”

“Yes, put him down here. NOW! What happened to him?”
“I… I don’t know.” The man sounded unsure.
“What were his symptoms?” A woman’s hands were on his body, prodding, Tlik let his body react naturally as if he was unconscious.

“He collapsed in the middle of the street, coughing…  and he said something about a pain in his heart.”

“Go, come back later, I will need silence for this. He’ll live.” The woman sounded Alethi with the barest hint of Emuli.

The moment he heard the door of the clinic slam closed, he summoned a flood of Warlight and smashed into an Alethi woman’s body, grabbing her by the throat as he slammed her into the wall of the clinic. Tlik felt himself grinning with spiteful glee as he knew that his appearance was back to normal.

“Well hello Vedel, Herald of the Almighty, Patron of the Edgedancers. How are you?” Tlik couldn’t stop himself from mocking her, he slipped a knife from his sleeve and pointed the knife at her heart.

The knife held at its base a glowing gem of emerald, it was a damaged glow, it was as if the air seemed to warp around it drawing in light rather than emitting it. To an untrained eye it would seem like normal Sto

rmlight but to both Vedel and Tlik it was clearly Anti-Stormlight.

“Unity wishes to speak to you Vedel. I hope you don’t mind.”

A Blade appeared in Vedel’s left hand and Tlik casually slammed the hilt of the knife into her wrist forcing the Blade to fall from her hand back into mist.

“My name is Aster, you fucking bastard!” She grunted through her partially choked throat.

“I. Don’t. Care.” He stabbed the knife into Vedel’s heart.

The Herald began to spasm, and Tlik held her still. There was a stench of burning flesh, and the skin blistered around the wound. The Herald screamed, her voice like a dying animal then her eyes turned milky white. She went limp, and Tlik could see smoke escaping her lips.

Tlik pulled the knife out of Vedel’s chest and her corpse fell to the ground. Tlik turned her corpse into smoke and walked out of the door as Unity exulted in the back of his mind. No Honorblade, so the theory was correct, Antilight destroys Honorblades that are bonded to the person that was stabbed if it wasn’t summoned. Good, we can’t have any more of those lying around anymore.

-Unity-

Vedel was held suspended in the instant between death and the Beyond, her soul belonged to him, to the Shard of Honour which cloaked the Shard of Odium inside of Unity. He felt a rush of spite and glory, if he was still capable he would have been surrounded in that moment with a storm of gloryspren. 

Vedel was shaking with fear, I suppose even Heralds feel fear when death is at their door or perhaps Vedel is afraid of what I am going to do to her in these last moments. She should be.

“Nice to meet you face to face, Vedel, it has been a while since I have had a conversation with one of your kind. After all they’re all dead except for Chanarach of course. I mean even you’re dead now. Your kind will be extinct soon enough.” Unity chuckled.

“Just let me die, please.” she begged.

He knew she couldn’t see him just feel his presence around her and his presence became choking as fury flooded through him.

“I think not. You are one of the people who got my sister killed. Do you know what I am going to do to you in this last moment of your seven thousand years of life? I’m going to make you wish you never betrayed the Oathpact all those years ago. When I’m done your mind will be destroyed, your soul splintered and then and only then will I allow you to die.”
Vedel screamed.

-Tlik-

Tlik followed a small fabrial van that was driving through Bavland, the driver wasn’t who he was hunting but his god understood the specific mechanism being used by the Heralds and the other members of the Division to cloak themselves from his eyes. Now, Tlik was the predator not the prey in this conflict. The woman was inside the van with a few of the Division’s remaining soldiers. There is probably only a hundred or less left in the entire Cosmere. Time to remove a few more.

He flew above the van and started Lashing directly down multiple Lashings while countering upwards so he wouldn’t come crashing down yet. When he had established the tenth Basic Lashing down he dismissed the ones pulling him upwards and in an instant he came crashing down so fast that he barely saw his fall.  He slammed through the van’s roof legs first, they broke and snapped back into place in the same second. A dark haired Alethi woman jumped to the side and out of the back of the van before his Blade came cutting around in a circle. No one else had a chance to move as the Blade cut through them and the van itself, the roof of the van, came flying off. Tlik leapt into the air dismissing all Lashings but one reducing his weight by a half, the remaining lower part of the van drove off the side of the road crashing into a tree.

The woman came fast towards him skating on the road with nothing but solid boots on her feet. Binding the Surge of Abrasion to reduce friction beneath her feet, she revealed herself to truly be a Herald with that Honorblade in her hand. Tlik parried in an instant with his own Blade, vibrant black-blue Light spilled off his body, he slicked the ground as well.

Her Surges are mine as well, I have another two Surges on top of them. The end of this war is here.

Tlik moved, they skated in a circle around each other and he Soulcast the air above the two of them into flammable oil. The oil fell over the enemies and coating the ground making it slick on it’s own. Now the Surge of the Division had become just as much a threat to themselves as a threat to their enemies.

They dropped their Surge as it had become useless to the two of them. They slid on the oil, Chanarach knocked Tlik to the ground, his Blade knocked from his hand. She had lost grip on her own Blade but she was strong enough on her own to keep him pinned to the ground. She pulled a knife from her coat and Tlik released a single spark using the Surge of Division.

Fire.

Burning.

Smoke.

Tlik pulled his own knife out and stabbed in the direction that the Rhythms told him that Chanarach was burning. He didn’t need to survive this fight while Chanarach did.

Both Tlik and Chanarach died in flames. Chanarach burned from the outside in and the inside out as the Antilight burned her spark of life out. Tlik felt his gemheart shatter and his vision became dark but he still felt warm with his god’s touch.

Chapter Text

-Shallan-

Shallan spoke into her Seon, Ala, delivering a voice message to Kaladin, “Hey Kal, sorry that I haven’t sent any message to you recently, I’ve been so busy that I’ve barely had any time to send messages to Adolin. I’m hunting a few important targets for Unity with a team from Yggdrasil on Scadrial, the world with the mists at night. I’ll be coming home soon, so I’ll come by Hearthstone to see you with plenty of drawings of what I’ve seen in the last couple of years.”

She sent the voice message to be relayed to Kaladin. She sighed and sat backwards, Radiant and Veil were one in her. She had managed to unify them across the first few years after the end of the True Desolation. It was quiet now in her head, not uncomfortable, just peaceful. She lounged on a chair in the middle of a mountain range while Third of the Dark set up several Awakened traps around their camp and Asira and her team guarded the mountain pass on both sides of the camp.

Dark’s Aviar was the key defence against their prey with its ability to hide them from Seekers but she wasn’t really worried, she had Shardplate and two Shardblades along with her Surgebinding to defend herself and the rest of her team were Pewterarms, an Awakener of the Seventh Heightening and a practitioner of ChayShan. The team all had Lashing fabrials, they couldn’t let their prey try to fly away.

He will die, he storming fucked with us too many times, he brought another war to my home and Ruined innocents.

She let herself begin to sleep, she dreamt of a colourful jungle and a beautiful desert of white sand. The dreams shifted, a man dead on the floor, throat marked as if a chain had been pulled tight around it, a spren with a strange symbol for a head with scratch marks in the center and fire everywhere. The dream was so vivid that she could even smell the smoke.

“ No, that’s not right, Shallan, your dreams almost always lack smell so what does that tell you?” An echo of Veil’s voice asked.

“ It means the smoke is in the real world which means the camp is under attack or someone knocked a candle either way you need to get UP! ” Radiant’s own echo shouted.

Shallan leapt to her feet, summoning Plate and Blades, Pattern and Testament appearing in her hands. She saw the lantern that they had set up to give them light had been knocked over, fire spreading out from it and onto someone’s pack. She saw an Awakened trap had been activated, ropes had jumped upwards and pulled tight like a net around a body, nobody was inside. She felt something slam into her chest with remarkable force, cracking her Plate, a coin dropped from her chest, it looked crushed as if hit by a hammer.

She followed the path that the coin must have followed to strike her and she saw someone in a dark grey cloak with dozens of long tassels. He seemed as much part of the mists as he was a solid being wearing that cloak, his arms were covered in metal and his right eye had a spike through it. He threw his hand out and half a dozen coins shot towards Shallan, who shifted Testament into a shield bracing against the spray of coins while she breathed Stormlight from a small nicrosil device that Compounded Stormlight then infused a large topaz.

Radiant Shallan knocked the coins to the side with her shield then pointed Pattern shooting a fine line of Light straight at the Mistborn, barely more than a one percent of an inch wide. So, the target is here, nice to meet you in person Thaidakar, Kelsier Lord of Scars.

The laser wasn’t well aimed, it only hit Kelsier in the ear and Kelsier dropped to the ground, she was forced to stop the laser as it required enough Stormlight that a continuous rush would leave her vulnerable. Kelsier circled around her in a steelpush and watched her hawk-like. Her team were fighting against a force that was disturbingly large, her team was only twenty strong compared to dozens of hazekillers and Allomancers.

Kelsier shot towards her at a seemingly random point in the circle and she dropped Testament into mist then took Pattern in the now free hand; she had long since abandoned covering her safehand. Her perspective had long since changed, she wasn’t Vorin anymore, she didn’t really believe in any god, her belief had been destroyed by her experiences of so many different religions and cultures with few having any similarities beyond the most simplistic. 

She brought her Blade up in a wide arc, Kelsier sped up unnaturally fast but she was fast enough. The Blade smashed into something hard stopping it from bisecting Kelsier but the power of the swing brought him down to the dirt.

Veil Shallan kicked him with the extra strength Stormlight granted her and pulled from her coat a small iron claw like device with a ruby in it’s base. Shallan flew backwards and an explosion of blood and shards of bone. Shallan saw that something had ripped through the coat leaving blood across her coat. Shallan growled as the Stormlight healed her wound, her back smashed against rocks. She Lashed upwards using the fabrial, waving her offhand to Soulcast the next barrage of metal into air as she planned her next steps.

I just need to catch him with this fabrial and the fight is over.

Irritatingly, he seemed to understand that as the moment she tried to move in close the air became filled with coins forcing her back. Her people were on the backfoot pushed closer and closer together as they fought, she needed to help them but Kelsier would get involved too if she did that.

Change of plans, he doesn’t need his legs, or arms for that matter.

She pointed Pattern at Kelsier and Lightweaved to unleash her laser again at his knee, Kelsier in a blur of motion vanished to her left side right before the beam of deadly light was released from the point of the Blade. She stopped when she realised that he had moved and sighed.

Damnation have him! Storming annoying that I need a Shardblade for that. But I can still catch him out. I just need to get close once.

He pulled a handgun out, to her Soulcasting senses it was aluminium. Radiant Shallan could see the advantages of using aluminium for Kelsier but Veil Shallan could see the advantage for her in his change in strategy, less metal in the air. Shallan burst into motion, five Lashings set to expire in one second sent her traveling at nearly fifty meters per second acceleration at Kelsier who was only fifteen meters away. 

BOOM!
Shallan was crushed against the rocky ground but it felt a little too soft like she was on top of somebody. Kelsier. The thought came a moment too late as she was pushed with unnatural strength into the air. Kelsier was on the ground half of his body like liquid on the ground but his head and upper torso was intact. The liquid body pulled itself back to the bones of his legs, she dropped down stabbing downwards with the iron fabrial but as the fabrial went down into his flesh, Kelsier’s head was knocked flying.

Did he seriously just punch his own head from his body just to avoid the fabrial? He must understand what it does, doesn’t matter, he’s out of time.

She sent a bolt of Stormlight ahead of the head turning the air in front of it to tar and Lashed straight toward the tar covered head that fell to the ground. The head began to heal but she was too fast and turned the tar to smoke then lifted the head by the hair. She felt the spike going through Kelsier’s eye then he slammed the iron fabrial through the other eye and the ruby began to glow pure white Light.

Victory! That is for Saoene, for Oryx, for trying to kill Jasnah, for doing your very best to try to kill my friend. Time to bring a gift to Unity.

She pocketed the fabrial then Lashed straight into the fray sweeping Pattern into the Ghostbloods, freeing her team and turning the tide of the fight in an instant. Shallan was finally free of the Ghostbloods and Kelsier’s influence and so was the Cosmere at large.

Chapter Text

-Unity-

Unity crushed Koravellium Avast’s Cognitive Shadow pushing her into the Beyond and they took on the Shard of Cultivation taking on their sixth Shard, uniting another large piece of Adonalsium within them. Victory was in clear sight at long last. Shallan had left a gift at their main perpendicularity, a fabrial made of iron with a ruby in the base that they could see held a glowing entity made of pure Investiture, it made him think of a note held perfectly, never wavering. The majesty of a painting, frozen and still, capturing a slice of life from a time gone by.

Unity formed a puppet of a human body, Terris in a large glowing suit of Shardplate, each piece had a different glowing symbol varying between a sapphire blue, whitish blue, burning gold, life green, sandy yellow and amber. They stood on a floor of silvery metal, walls of black stone surrounding the area of Shadesmar and a perfectly square pool of glowing blue and gold liquid Light.

Unity shattered the gemstone in the fabrial with a sudden bolt of concentrated Investiture and an explosion of mists erupted. Unity didn’t react, just looked through the mists into the figure forming from the mists. 

Kelsier, Survivor of Hathsin, Survivor of Mists, Survivor of Death, Lord of the Mists, Sovereign, Lord of Scars, Thaidakar and Abomination of Hathsin, stumbled free of the mists, not smiling without a spike in his eye. Good.

Kelsier stood himself tall and proud, he looked the puppet in the eye and then pointedly smiled. FUCK OFF!

“ Well hello Survivor. ” Unity made their puppet smile.

 Kelsier flinched, the smile staying locked on his face, Unity knew that their voice must have reminded him of Ruin’s.

“Hello, Nazan.” The grin grew wider.

“ I am Unity, have you forgotten. ”

“Your parents named you Nazan.”
Unity sighed then pushed outwards with their will to make certain no one could eavesdrop on the conversation, “ Do you want to know the truth about me Abomination? ”

“What truth?”
“ I am not from this cosmere. I was born in a very different universe and I died there. After my death I was reborn on our homeworld in Terris and then and only then was I named Nazan but that is not my name. I am Unity, the Shards of Odium, Honour, Devotion, Dominion, Autonomy and Cultivation are held in me. Now remind me, what was it you said to me as you tried to kill me all those centuries ago. ”

“I don’t remember. What do you mean by a different universe?”

“ Doesn’t matter. I. Remember. You told me that we would meet again. And that Saoene wouldn’t be able to protect me. You remember Saoene don’t you? ” Kelsier sprinted at Unity’s question.

“ You run? You think that the Cosmere can hide you? That it is your ally? You merely use the Cosmere, I was forged in the crucible of this Cosmere. No escape for you. ” Unity followed Kelsier to the wall and Pulled him back with a wisp of their power.

Kelsier was sent fast back into the perpendicularity and he hit hard, his form fuzzing  into mists. Kelsier groaned in pain as his form stopped fuzzing, becoming near solid again.

“ Do you remember what I told you last we spoke, when those foolish Heralds of Tanavast fled from the site of my sister’s murder? ”
“You told me that I would long for something as sweet as pain, that you would find me no matter where I ran. And I will not make it easy for you.”
“ Oh, I’m sure. After all, this wouldn’t be half as fun if you didn’t struggle to the very end. ”

“You hate me that much?”

“ You. Killed. My. Sister. ”

“No, I didn’t.”
“ BULLSHIT! YOU THINK YOU ARE NOT TO BLAME? I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT BROUGHT THE DIVISION TOGETHER! AND IT WASN’T BAVADIN! IT WAS YOU! I HATE YOU MORE THAN I HAVE EVER HATED ANYONE! YOU ARE WORSE THAN RUIN AND RASHEK AND RAYSE PUT TOGETHER! AT LEAST THEY DIDN’T SAY THEY WERE MAKING THE WORLD BETTER BY PUSHING IT FURTHER INTO THE ASH! THE LORD RULER WAS BETTER THAN YOU SURVIVOR! ”

Unity shouted in fury and Shadesmar answered, every bead for a thousand miles shook, the ships riding the sea of beads were sent backwards in response to a wave of force rippling across the surface. Their perpendicularity pulled towards Unity’s puppet like gravity pulled at it then as they stopped shouting, the liquid of the glowing pool fell right back into its place.

“ He actually helped Scadrial. While all you did was push it further into Ruin. Your mistakes had to be fixed by a teenage girl. You drove Vin to sacrifice herself to fix your mistakes. She was a good person, and she’s long since dead while you are an evil son of a bitch and still live. ”

Kelsier still stood in the middle of the perpendicularity and he glanced down into the pool as if trying to make it let him slip through it.
“ Kelsier. Kelsier. Kelsier. Do you actually think I would ever have brought you somewhere you could actually escape from? ” Unity stepped into the pool with Kelsier.

Kelsier stepped back, glanced behind himself then launched a punch at Unity. Unity let the punch land and Kelsier hissed in pain as Unity stayed still. They grabbed hold of Kelsier and pulled him closer before shoving their fist into his chest and tore a chunk of mist out. Kelsier doubled over yelling in pain.

“ This was inevitable Kelsier. Do you want to know what your first mistake was? ”

“Not killing you straight away when we first met.”

“ No, that was the second mistake you made. It was attacking me in the first place. If you hadn’t attacked me, I would have disappeared in the river of history without affecting a single thing. I’d have hidden myself in Silverlight but you couldn’t just let me be. I just wanted to be safe from the machinations of the broken gods but you were too afraid of my possible threat to leave me be. You taught me the truth, there is only one way to protect yourself and those you love and that is to attack, to destroy every threat before they can ever damage anything of value. ”

“Well, I took something from you of true value. That sister of yours. I win Tyrant God.”

“ I suppose you did. ” Unity chuckled, “ But then again, you also gave me everything else. After all you revealed every single person that I needed to kill just as I planned. You were so very useful to me. Without you, I might have had to hunt for centuries for everyone of my enemies but now, the balance has been shifted permanently to my side, six Shards mine another will soon be mine and then there is no force that could ever oppose me again. I will turn Roshar into an engine for progress, I will make Sel mine in whole and the rest will fall in line if they know what is good for them. ”

“You planned for my war against you?”

“ There was only one part I didn’t expect. ” Unity abandoned the puppet which vanished instantly, “ But I suppose it doesn’t matter in the end! Everyone dies in the end except for me now! Time for your punishment, Survivor. Hmm… oh I know! ”

Kelsier shivered slightly at those words and Unity laughed inside of themself. 

“ You are the Survivor, you have never accepted death and you hunted for freedom from the gilded cage of your homeworld. I will punish you with an eternity. I will bind you with Honor. You will live and die and live and die and live and die forever. I swear that you will never be free of your punishment until the day a drop of forgiveness enters my soul, I swear no matter what life you are in, you will never be free of those scars on your arms and you will never live past the thirty eighth winter of your body’s life. You will be rejected from every universe you enter at the end of that winter and you will feel the pain of everyone you have ever hurt and killed in your entire life again and again and again. You will be free of the gilded cage, you will be able to go wherever you want but only for a time before you suffer and die again. You will never be free of those scars, everyone will see what you are no matter the world you enter, you will never forget me and I will never forgive you. ”

Kelsier’s scars glowed blue-white and then he was being ripped apart. His Cognitive form of mist fell to pieces, one small strand of mist at a time. He screamed as Unity smiled.

-Netri-

Netri Rovi slammed a dagger into the neck of the creature, it was willowy, with strange red and black skin and glowing amber eyes. She pulled the dagger out and sent it into the creature’s eye. She knocked it to the ground with a pole of iron then slammed the pole through its head and shoving it through the center of its spine leaving the pole piercing it. The creature was just a scout but she could see it already healing without any goldminds or anything she had ever heard of. She couldn’t even see any Light coming off it’s skin as it healed.

Rusts and Ruin, they are getting close at least Harmony showed us an escape route but we’re running out of time.

One month earlier, the peoples to the south were suddenly overwhelmed by a force of creatures, they were unrelenting, killing everyone in their path, hunting down anyone who tried to hide from them. These things usually worked in partnerships, even during the few real battles that happened at the start, each one only worked with one other ignoring the rest of their own army and they sang to a melody no one else could hear. They were inhumanly strong and fast, each member of them was like a Pewterarm flaring their metal, the only way to beat them was to hit them hard before they knew you were there then destroy the majority of its body.

Netri could hear a humming sound from down the mountainside. Ruin! We need to hurry, now!

She ran, flaring her tin, even more. She had been flaring her metal constantly for months, there had been too many problems recently for her to stop exploiting her Allomancy. No matter the cost to herself, Netri had felt herself cracking further open to her power. She had heard of what happened to the Lord Mistborn before the Final Ascension, how he had damaged his body by flaring his metal too much for too long, now she was on the same path but it allowed to fight these creatures.

The creatures were getting called the Singers, she didn’t like the name, it made them sound too nice. She wasn’t going to give them a name, they didn’t deserve one.

Netri could hear the creatures coming closer and she rushed faster, every step sending a burst of pain through her leg. She caught up to the refugee party, barely fifteen hundred men, women and children, one of the kids saw her and tugged on her mother’s hand. In seconds the refugees were panicking and rushing, they knew she was only planning to return the day after unless the creatures were catching up.

The sound of their panic hurt her ears but she kept flaring the tin letting the pain wash through her. The kandra came, Harmony had made it clear that they needed to preserve the Metalborn lines for the times ahead and too many of the purest Allomantic lines were wiped out in the first days of the creatures arriving in the Basin so the kandra were chosen to guard the refugees, they had the best chances of survival compared to everyone else.

“They are climbing the mountain now, we need just a little more time.”

“I know, we’ll give you that time. Now. Run with the rest, they’ll need you.”

Netri gave a quick salute and ran to join the survivors of Scadrial. Tlik, why didn’t you come? I asked you for help just this one time and you didn’t bother even apologising. We’ll survive on our own like usual.

-Unity-

They continued to watch Kelsier slowly and painfully die, their soul euphoric, but their mind split towards Taldain. Let’s play a game with a planet.

Unity laughed as they touched a few minds that seemed sensitive to their touch and began to pull on their strings pushing those weak minds towards Unity’s ends. 

Blood on the white sand. Bodies bleeding out. Puppet fleeing, another puppet arriving, glimpsing the escaping puppet.
Unity strengthened the Connection with the puppet that collapsed in the sand beside one of the dead bodies. Grief came through the Connection from the puppet and Unity sent back rage, hatred, focusing his mind on one idea, revenge.

“ Vey, I am so sorry for your loss. ”

Vey jumped, his head spinning, trying to figure out where Unity’s voice came from.

“ That man’s name is Mastrell Salius and he is a known psychopath, the Diem protect him, he had murdered seventeen people before he killed your family. ”

“What are you?”
“ A god, a new one. I want justice to be brought down upon the sinners in this world. The world is filled with filth and I cannot cope with the world being like this. I am only a few years old but I am weak in comparison to the other one for now. ”

“Can you help me? I will take justice no matter the cost.”
“ Of course, I need you to let me in, so I can form a bond with you that will grant power that will make the sand masters seem like sand in the wind. ”

Taldain shook as a man filled with vengeful fury bonded the Unmade Nergaoul and a new Splinter of Dominion. Taldain would bleed to punish Bavadin for her crimes against Unity and Roshar.

Let’s keep playing with Taldain and Scadrial and all the rest. So it came to pass, that the people of Taldain fell… and Taldain was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion, as God of all, and I thought it… good.

Unity began to reach further out across the Cosmere, towards Threnody and elsewhere, Ambition would be theirs then Valor then Invention then the rest ending with Harmony.

My plan is almost complete. Just a couple more pieces to move.

-Navani-

Navani waited on her floating laboratory for her… guests. Sathona, Oryx’s child, played with a group of Taken windspren that would run and Sathona would chase and catch them before quickly releasing them again. Sathona looked like Jasnah, if younger, her skin stretched thin across her bones just like Oryx. Navani wished she could be as carefree as her new spren but she couldn’t. Not when she was uniting a group against a god.

In a burst of Light, Jasnah appeared immaculately dressed, expression hard, with only the smallest glance at Sathona who had jumped to her feet giving an extravagant bow at Jasnah’s arrival before grabbing a windspren. Jasnah took a seat, her posture perfect like usual.

“Who else is coming?” Jasnah asked.

“Shallan, Marius and Leshwi.”
“What about Dalinar?” 

“He has never trusted Dalinar even without his Surgebinding, if Dalinar came to this meeting it would seem highly suspicious.”

“So, I was right about the goal of this meeting.” Jasnah said, taking out a small Fabrial and turning the gemstone, “Nazan can’t see us and he won’t notice as long as we’re quick with this meeting.”
Leshwi then Marius and finally Shallan arrived through the Gate. Marius was wearing a fine suit and started lounging immediately on his chair, while Leshwi stayed floating in the air thanks to her Lashing, red robe hanging loosely from her body. Shallan was wearing trousers and a tight shirt, no glove on her safehand, and sat herself on a stool.

“Nazan needs our help.” Shallan said.

Marius sighed, “No, he doesn’t. I’ve heard what he’s been doing and is still doing. Yggdrasil remains in existence for one reason to act as a balance against the Shards including Nazan. That’s why Yggdrasil was created. That’s our final duty if Nazan became corrupted by his Shards he wanted us to kill him.

“He’s been hurt by Saoene’s death, we just need to figure out how to pull him back to the right side.”

“That’s not how Shards work, Shallan and you know it. Shardic Vessels don’t recover from being consumed by their Intent, and right now two of Nazan’s Shards have highly aggressive Intents and none of the others balance them. Anyway, it doesn’t rusting matter if we can help him, he’s gone too far.” Marius was on his feet and he knocked over a basket of glowing gemstones, “He wouldn’t want us to waste time trying to do the impossible when he’s already burning entire planets to vent his fury. Shallan for Ruin’s sake Taldain is broken and burning and ruined like Ashyn and he’s unleashed monsters onto Scadrial forcing my people to become refugees! Have you seen those monsters because I was given the most basic description and what I’ve heard has told me one important thing. Nazan has been planning this for a long time, probably since the first few moments of Ascending. You wouldn’t be all talky talky if it was Rayse or Bavadin so why now with Nazan?”

“Quiet, the both of you. Leshwi?” Jasnah asked as Navani watched the argument, Jasnah’s freehand was clenched, her eyes seemed to be glowing violet.

“We have to be prepared to kill him,” Marius nodded, “But, we shouldn’t jump to fighting right now. We have to first at least try to talk to him.”

“I’ll handle the talking.” Jasnah said.

No complaints were made and the discussion turned to strategy for killing the most powerful god since Adonalsium. Jasnah was quiet for that discussion only talking to veto ideas that were unlikely to work.

“So, it’s official, if talking doesn’t work, I’ll kill him.” Leshwi said solemnly.

-Unity-

Unity looked down upon Roshar and smiled proudly. A tower pierced the atmosphere of Roshar allowing travel from the surface of the planet to space with relative ease. Fabrial spacecrafts came and went from the top of the tower spreading to the moons.

Progress at long last, centuries ahead of the rest of the Cosmere. Soon, their technology will allow them to achieve faster than light travel and set up back up plans. I have to create more spren now thanks to the Division butchering so many of the spren in Shadesmar.

Unity felt Jasnah wanting to speak to them but they took some extra time to enjoy the sight of their new future.

Finally, these worlds will be better than the world I was originally born in. Peace and technological advancement, equality made fact.

The Progression was so close to dying at Bavadin’s hands but we overcame her and now the Progression is inevitable.

I win.