The Lady was lounging on one of the buildings when they found her. She somehow made it look like a throne.

  Around her, gargoyles were carefully dismantling other buildings and removing their carved runes. They would then alter them and use them to patch the Lady’s injuries she’d taken fighting the many-faced goddess already. Her eyes fell on their small group and her face brightened. Her face curled into a smile which had the gargoyles scrambling to not ruin their work.

  “Well now, little Abigail, this is a surprise,” she said. She leaned down until she was face to face with the knight.

  “You’ve aged.”

  “A privilege my Lady,” said Abigail. She offered the Lady a smile. “I hear you are in a spot of trouble.”

  Ratface frowned. This was not the tense stand off she had expected. Instead, they talked like old friends. The idea that she hadn’t wanted to be a vessel had led her to think they were against one another, but this was casual. The two had kept talking while she thought it through, just catching up.

  In hindsight, it was obvious. Abigail had been using that favour as a shield the entire time she was here, and the Lady hadn’t revoked it even after her betrayal. Ratface had assume she couldn’t but was now forced to consider that she wouldn’t.

  You’d think that it would put Ratface at ease, but instead it got her back up. If it came down to it, would Abigail side with her or the Lady?

  Ox seemed to think the same thing. They tugged on Ratface’s armour to get her attention and led her away from the rest of them.

  “The sky,” they said. They switched to goblin for the word sky and Ratface looked around anxiously. Everyone else was still focused on the conversation between the old knight and the Lady to notice. Anna in particular looked like she was having quite the existential crisis. Yeah, seeing a traitor get on with your Lady would do that, Ratface supposed.

  She looked up at the sky. Ox had used a very specific word for it. It wasn’t just the night sky but something deeper. It made sense. This place was always pulling stuff from elsewhere into it. The word was appropriate.

  She paused. There hadn’t been any breaches in a while. She kept watching the sky until it had been a longer break than she’d experienced. It could just be that the calls came in waves, but she didn’t think that was it. The breaches had stopped.

  “So, have you come to be my champion once more?” asked the Lady.

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  “I have, though not in the way you hoped.”

  “Oh?”

  “Let me be your sword in this battle, I will take care of the vessel myself.”

  “You might die,” said the Lady. The concern was clear in her voice, so why did Ratface not trust her?

  It was the power she realised. The difference between her and Abigail was too great. They could never talk as equals, even now Abigail was asking, ‘let me’ rather than out outright dictating terms to the Lady.

  “Housing you will be too much of a toll on my body.”

  “And fighting it alone won’t?”

  Ratface could see how it would go. Abigail respected the Lady, trusted her. She wouldn’t be able to refuse her in the end.

  Yet Ratface could, after all it was the Lady’s touch that had nearly lost her Ox, the Lady’s people that had caught them in the first place. The idea that Abigail would join with that thing filler her gut with disgust.

  “She doesn’t want to join with you, can’t you see?” she said. She stepped in front of Abigail. The knight tried to stop her, but Ratface shrugged her off. The Lady’s eyes narrowed. Yeah, she wasn’t used to someone being blunt with her. One day Ratface swore she would learn how to avoid annoying powerful beings.

  “The creature that orchestrated our situation, why should I listen to you?”

  Ratface’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t miss the Lady’s phrasing. Somehow, she could see under there helmet and the threat was clear. Step too far out of line and everyone finds out what she was.

  “Because if you don’t, you’ll be trapped here.”

  “A threat?” the Lady asked. Ratface shook her head.

  “A promise. Look at the sky, look at what’s left of your runes.”

  The Lady let her gaze fall across the buildings, the small traces of them still glowing. She reached a hand up to the sky and felt at where the tears had been. The look of understanding on her face was all Ratface needed.

  “If that closes, what happens to you?”

  “Do you really think this is all of me, little thing?”

  Was thing better or worse than creature? Neither of them sounded like endearment.

  “Probably not, but you obviously care about this place. I’ve watched the breaches; it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of creatures coming from the same place twice.” She met the Lady’s eyes. “How long would it be until you found us again?”

  The Lady held her gaze and Ratface looked away first. She wasn’t stupid, for all she was reckless. She didn’t need to be in a contest of wills with the Lady. She just needed her to see sense. The idea that she might lose connection to all these humans would have to be enough. Any more defiance and the Lady might fight just to spite her.

  “Very well,” the Lady said. She reached over to Abigail and ran a finger over her sword and armour. It burned with a deeper blue than usual.

  “Go then Abigail, show this little goddess what my champion can do.”

  Abigail nodded and marched forward, half of the gargoyles joined her in the air while the rest surrounded their lady. Ratface and the rest hurried to join the knight.

  Across the city, the empty pulsed and for a moment silence ruled the world. An irritated flick of the Lady’s hand, and the sound returned.

  Next to Ratface, Ox shivered as the two opposing powers washed over them. Ratface grabbed their hand as the marched forward.

  “Keep out of sight if you can. If it looks like this will fail, run,” said Ratface.

  They eyed her and slowly nodded, but Ratface knew they would ignore her. She could see it in the way a burden settled on their shoulders.

  Just as it was a rat’s way to meddle, it was an Ox’s way to lift the other burdens.

  They wouldn’t leave until they were both safe, so Ratface would have to make sure to survive.