Ratface’s initial assessment had been wrong. The creatures pulled back.

  It had come after one of them had looked at Abigail too closely and then they had walked away from the alley in a ripple.

  It hadn’t been wholly clean. The breach creatures were still fighting, but even they only did it when they were cornered. The fight was over, for now.

  Abigail didn’t waste the lull. She fished out two healing potions from her armour and chucked them to Mathilde. The orc took one for herself and gave the other to Fulgora. Fulgora’s twitching stopped but she didn’t wake up.

  “She’s exhausted,” said Abigail, “I’m amazed she can channel enough lightning to do all this damage. No wonder why Waterveil didn’t want her there.” She inspected Mathilde’s arm. The orc was moving it as the old woman directed before she even realised. Ratface wasn’t sure if it was the old commander or the old lady in her that inspired that.

  Once the empty had left, the gargoyles took to the sky and flew towards where the Lady had last been seen.

  “They’re both pulling back,” said Ratface. Abigail shaded her eyes to follow their flight path.

  “They’re both getting ready for the final push. My guess is both are consolidating strength. Something changed.”

  Ratface’s first assumption was the change was Abigail, but her eyes kept lingering on the gargoyles flying back. Something about the night sky called to her.

  Wait. There wasn’t any storm anymore, no wind, no clouds, and above all, no lightning.

  “The storm serpent died,” she said.

  “That explains it. The many-faced goddess will be wanting to repair her vessel no doubt,” said Abigial. She sheathed her sword and used it as a cane. Her steps were focused and clear. She was making her way to the Lady. Ratface gestured at the others and fell in with the old knight. Abigail looked troubled.

  “I would have thought you’d be glad to see your Lady,” said Ratface.

  “Under happier circumstances I would be, but she is fighting a god with a vessel, and she’s losing.”

  Ratface frowned, thinking back to how the many-faced goddess had felt more real than the Lady. If the Lady was still planning to fight her…

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  “She’s going to want a vessel,” she said. A vessel would be difficult through, the elf had gone to great lengths to prepare the water serpent and even then Ratface suspected his gambit still wouldn’t have worked anywhere else. Ratface suspected to let something from a whole different world connect, you’d need a much higher level of preparation. A ritual that connected the two completely.

  Her eyes widened in understanding. That was the real reason behind the trail. Preparing potential vessels for the Lady. The favour must work as a sort of branding to her.

  “It has to be you,” said Ratface.

  “That or one of the other favoured.”

  “Then it should be the Champion,” interrupted Anna, “surely, she’s better than some traitor. She wouldn’t leave our cities future to you.” She fidgeted in place and her eyes kept shifting around. It wasn’t the city she was worried about being abandoned.

  It was only for a second, but Abigail hesitated before giving the girl her best grandmother smile.

  “I have no doubt she is on her way; she had to prepare the rest of the city first which is why I’m here.”

  Anna seemed satisfied with the answer. She mustn’t have noticed the faint hesitation. Ratface couldn’t guess the exact lie, but she knew that Abigail was probably all the reinforcements they were going to receive. She had a different concern.

  “You can’t do it,” said Ratface. Abigail smiled, touched at the concern.

  “Not all vessels are like the empty’s. Most aren’t completely lost after being taken over. It will be taxing but not the end.” Her voice was too knowing.

  “You’re talking from experience,” said Ratface.

  “In my trial, the breaches connected to wherever demons come from. They tried to take over the city. The Lady and I stopped them, though it cost us the rest of the trial takers. The added chaos of trial takers always causes some misfortune in the city, but I’ve never seen it this bad before.”

  They’d made good time while talking. The dark of the city touched by the empty had given way to the soft lights of the runes calling to the sky. It didn’t escape Ratface’s how small the area of light was. The empty had already done so much damage. Even if they managed to defeat them, the place was crippled. Was this a side effect or a direct result of the elf’s plan?

  “Ideally, I have no desire to be a vessel anyway,” said Abigail, interrupting Ratface’s thoughts.

  “You would ignore such an honour?” said Anna. She’d gotten over her insecurity and gone back to sneering, maybe it was a coping mechanism?

  “I’m old, this sort of pressure on my body is still dangerous,” said Abigail. She didn’t seem embarrassed by the idea. Ratface had got the impression that Abigail’s age never really bothered the knight.

  It still shook Ratface a little. Somewhere along the multiple times she’d been saved, Abigail had become her knight in shining armour, well glowing blue armour anyway. The idea that something so mundane as age would hold her back was a reminder that she too could fall.

  “There are other ways to channel the Lady. We will have to see if she is open to them.”

  They would see soon. The lights around then had reached an intensity that they hurt to look at as they hummed with power.

  They’d reached the Lady.

  “Well, we’ll see what we can bargain,” said Abigail.

  She sounded like she was talking about the price of fish. Ratface didn’t know if that filled her with hope or concern.