“Something’s wrong,” Raven said gently. “What is it, Rue?”

  Alone in the courtyard of the Sleeping Devil, he faced the Chevron Chrysalis with his friend’s body trapped inside. The amber egg glowed with particular warmth, as if greeting him in anticipation. Sheeharu’s face reminded him of a dream, the gentle sweetness only a child could relay.

  “I’m afraid,” she finally admitted.

  “I will see this through to the end. You have nothing to fear.”

  “That’s not it. I’m… going to miss you, Raven.”

  He nodded sadly.

  “You’re the only friend I have. The only light in my torment. You’re all I’ve ever known.”

  He placed a hand on the cocoon. “That will change when your soul reunites with your body. Your memories will be restored.”

  “That’s what scares me most. What will happen to me? My family is long gone, and no one exists who ever knew me. What will I do?”

  “You didn’t think I would leave you with nothing and nowhere to go, did you?” He smiled warmly. “Provisions have been made. You will never be alone.”

  “Thank you, Raven. I should have known.”

  “I suspect your memories will feel rather old. Your soul has matured over these long years. Your youth will remain, but your mind will retain a hundred years of experience.”

  “I just hope I remember my mother and father. I have been looking forward to knowing who they were.”

  He nodded. They said nothing for a while as they pondered these last few moments together. Rue had been Raven’s companion for so long, he wasn’t sure what it would feel like to no longer have her there, keeping him accountable. Keeping him sane.

  “Raven, I know we have to do this, and I know you will succeed, so… will you just promise me one thing? One last request.”

  “Anything,” he replied, holding up her pandora.

  “Promise me… one day we can be together again.”

  He looked away for a moment before braving a smile. “I promise.”

  Van, Valentine, and the six masters appeared in the courtyard in that moment. Van held a long, metallic stake propped over his shoulder, about ten spans high. Master Czeslaw took front and center with a grave look of determination. The others fell in line behind him.

  “I am putting a stop to these challenges,” Czeslaw announced. “This has gone on long enough. The masters of Nine Star collectively admit defeat here and now.”

  “Excuse me?” Fanny countered, indignant.

  “Shut your mouth, Fanny.” He pointed at Raven, voice wavering. “Step away from the Sleeping Devil. We will not allow you to release that demon to destroy our city.”

  “You won’t ‘allow me’ to?” Raven repeated with a tilt of his head.

  Rue floated out; her power ignited, slamming him to the ground. The other masters backed away in fear. Czeslaw remained on his back, groaning as Rue’s mildest pressure assailed him, pinning him steadfast. Raven knelt, looking down at him with disdain.

  “Do you know why I’ve treated you and the rest of the masters so poorly this year? Can you wager a guess? I’m sure you must have pondered it.”

  Czeslaw groaned against the building pressure, terrified as it slowly compounded, pushing into his burly chest.

  “It’s your fear,” Raven continued. “Your precious school reeks of it. As if you’d all forgotten what world existed outside of your snowy bubble here in the mountains. Surrounded by tyranny and death but oblivious to it and unwilling to admit otherwise. It sickens me. Cowering at the mere utterance of the Titan and his vile rule. Happy to call him master so long as he turns away his foul gaze. And so, I came as a herald, an angel of warning. And my message was announced with this great horn.” He indicated to Rue floating above him, pulsing with light. “She issued a sound of judgment on this city, a warning to those who dwell in the cold and forgot the light. But it also serves as your condemnation, for you did not see the child in her… only the devil.”

  “What are you saying?” Bastille asked in surprise.

  “This pandora, Rue the Day, is the stolen soul of Sheeharu Rendan, the one you call the Sleeping Devil.”

  The masters gasped. “Explain!” Master Turngood demanded.

  “I shall expound no further. Instead, you shall bear witness to a miracle. It will serve as a mirror to this academy and its learned, to reflect on weakness, and perhaps…” Rue relented, leaving Master Czeslaw gasping for air. He took her pandora. “Perhaps, her revival will serve as the foundation for a brand-new curriculum.”

  He stood. “I am going to release the Sleeping Devil and restore her soul. The ritual I am about to undergo is extremely dangerous. The masters will now retreat back to the Ilias Drome.”

  “That wasn’t the challenge,” Czeslaw protested weakly, slowly getting up. “Master Turngood’s challenge was that you destroy her!”

  Raven pointed Rue’s pandora at him. He fell silent.

  “I suggest we follow his instruction,” Master Cooley said, turning to leave. Czeslaw, Smith, and Turngood sullenly followed.

  “You’re going to get us all killed,” Czeslaw growled before leaving.

  Fanny came up to Raven. “You do know what you are doing, right?”

  “Continue to have faith in me,” he replied.

  She smiled and joined the other masters in retreating from the courtyard. Van and Valentine waited in the wings as Raven watched them go.

  “And now it comes to this,” he finally said, turning to his companions. “You have been my friends, Vanyard and Valentine. Your service has been mighty and your spirits true. But for now, we must part ways.” Valentine began to protest, but he held up his hand. “Please… you must also continue to have faith in me. This is the final act.”

  Van turned over the metal stake to him, which he placed on the ground before handing Van back a slip of paper. “These are my final instructions,” he said. “Complete this last task for me now, and then flee. As far as you can go. Through air, through shadow… it matters not. But you must flee Roespeye.”

  They stood in silence, overcome with gloom. “Did we do enough, Raven?” she asked. “Did we do enough to help you kill the Titan?”

  He smiled warmly and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “You have both been a godsend. Your efforts will be written in the annals of Fallowreyk’s history one day. This, I promise you. Now go. Act quickly and flee.”

  They hurried off, and Raven didn’t relent in his smile until they were gone. But when they were out of sight, a severe sadness inflicted his spirit.

  “Do you think they will miss me?” he asked.

  “I know I’ll miss them,” Rue said, sniffling.

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  He turned, steeling up his heart. This day did not exist for sadness, but for resolve. He produced his pandora pen and drew a deep breath. The real work now began, and it would not be a stroll in the park. In order to restore Sheeharu’s soul, three separate processes required administering, all at the same time.

  First, destroying the Chevron Chrysalis trapping her body. According to Shrale’s tome, the amber cocoon’s ritual had been self-formulated. The creation required a complex seal within a seal – what he referred to as the Seal of Chevron. The seal borrowed from the concepts of other protective-type seals with heavy use of Zal-Zal-Saph inner seals. But the difference between them could not have been more colossal, because the outer seal utilized the unnamed tenth rune. Shrale wrote that “he dare not attempt to label the rune with a designation from his own tongue.” The tenth rune strengthened the chrysalis to a magnitude of ten times ten. In other words, the cocoon was unbreakable, and only undone by the same seal.

  The seal was not particularly complex, but it required outrageous amounts of Hydra to construct and deconstruct. This led to the second process – the Seal of Enhanced Draw. Shrale again re-formulated a well-known seal. Through careful experimentation, he discovered that replacing the inner runes with the holy tenth rune allowed for safe and uninhibited extraction of Hydra from other sources at the cost of just a fraction of one’s own Hydra. In this case, Shrale exploited the seal to leech power from Rail Roespeye for his experiments, including both the Chevron Chrysalis and Soul Decoupling. The seal had been drawn onto the wall in his hidden study, but he had erased the runes before dying, and now Raven understood why.

  Finally, the third and greatest challenge facing Raven: reverse engineering the Decoupling of Sheeharu’s soul and contending with her devilish power until her soul could be restored. This would serve as the true contest. As he drew up the Seal of Chevron on the cocoon, he dwelled on the dangers facing him now.

  The third seal Shrale innovated possessed a mere fraction of the stability compared to the first two. The Seal of Decoupling also required the user to stand inside the seal to serve as a catalyst. According to Shrale’s written instructions, he did not believe this would normally be necessary, but in order to extract Sheeharu’s soul, a substitute Hydra was required, since her special ability resisted the outside influence of other Hydra. Normally, she should have been untouchable, but through the combined power of Rail Roespeye and the Seal of Decoupling, he discovered he could extract her soul if he substituted his own Hydra in the reaction. This explained why her pandora design matched Valius Shrale’s.

  In order to reverse the process and restore Sheeharu’s soul, the seal had to be drawn up in the inverse, and Shrale theorized it would require three times the Hydra. Of course, this meant little when the source of the Hydra was the Rail. Raven had long been stymied by how Valius had been able to extract a soul when he wasn’t Provotian, but the inner seals of his discovery wove a fascinating tale. Through complex interweaving of the tenth rune through the inner seals, he found places to reach where only a cleric of Provote could normally touch.

  Raven was still incredibly angry at Valius, but it was hard not to be astounded at the man’s supernatural intellect. In truth, it was difficult not to be distracted by all the other amazing discoveries the man had made and recorded in his tome that now resided solely in Raven’s mind.

  Due to the uneven ground around the tree stump holding the Chevron Chrysalis, Raven carefully drew up the inversed Seal of Decoupling to float just above the ground. The seal was made wide enough to completely encircle the cocoon without interrupting the path of the seal lines. All was nearly ready. He just needed the power, but preparations had already been made. He retrieved the long, metal stake Van brought with him. The pole featured a white-painted, circular sheet of metal attached at one end.

  Carefully stepping inside the Seal of Decoupling, he drove the stake into the ground next to him. Rue applied pressure to drive the stake deep enough until the metal sheet was level to his height. He drew up the Seal of Enhanced Draw onto the blank surface, and then carefully placed his palm against it.

  The moment the seal activated, he gasped. Power unlike anything he’d ever felt welled up with him, dense and unstable. Hydra seeped from the Rail deep underground, flowing into him. The pure clout of Panka’s artifact coupled with his first use of the tenth rune threatened to overtake him. His lone eye churned with green fire as he clenched his fist.

  “It’s time, Rue. Prepare yourself!”

  “I’m ready!”

  She floated before him, glowing white hot. Raven snapped his fingers, and the Seal of Chevron activated. A violent buzz echoed in the wide, deserted courtyard, followed by an ear-splitting crack. A thin line formed in the amber cocoon, followed by another. More and more cracks penetrated the egg, slowly reaching for Rue’s body trapped inside.

  “Raven, I’m scared!” she screamed. “Something bad is happening!”

  “Hold, Rue! I need you to be brave!”

  The cocoon exploded. Shards of hardened amber burst in all directions. Rue prevented the splinters and shards from assailing Raven’s body, but the pure force nearly staggered him. A long, menacing shriek filled their hearing. Rue’s body appeared from the haze, floating in the air. The child’s arms were outspread, as if to embrace the world, and her long hair floated about her as if she were drifting through the calmest waters.

  Unholy shadow crept up her legs and arms to surround her. Her eyes opened for the first time in a hundred years. Green and red light radiated from her eyes, casting wicked shadows across her face. Raven grasped his heart as it pounded viciously. The sheer weight of the Sleeping Devil’s presence was immeasurable. It felt like Rue’s pandora at her mightiest heights, coupled with pure murderous desire.

  The child’s gaze fell on Raven, and a glare replaced her blank stare. She raised her hands higher. Purple and black energy, like bubbling muck, poured from her arms, blasting out like cannons. Vines turned to ash and the stone walls of the abandoned building crumbled. The foundations of the courtyard quaked as her force expanded, threatening to overtake the whole school. A crack split Tower Five down the middle, and the entire building groaned. Stones crumbled and beams were crushed.

  Rue rushed to intercept the outpouring power, countering with her own pulses. The Sleeping Devil screeched again. She then directed her hands toward Raven.

  “Rue!” he shouted.

  But Rue’s pandora couldn’t return fast enough. A magma-like discharge raked across his chest and neck in massive bursts. He roared in torment, as it assailed him with burning force. The pain was unreal. The projectiles of poison the Sleeping Devil hurled were barely tangible; rather they soaked to the core of his soul.

  Rue’s pandora rushed to protect him, scattering the poisonous fire asunder. The Sleeping Devil shrieked in protest, wailing in frustration and anger. The creature looked all around, as if fearing more enemies and ready to destroy them all. Rue cowered in fright, but held firm.

  “Raven, are you okay?” she shouted, casting the Sleeping Devil’s renewed attacks on him aside.

  She seemed to gain some clarity, because he could feel her heart sink. “Oh no… you were touched! Is that… the same poison that killed Valius?”

  Sweat poured down Raven’s face as he gasped for air. His skin boiled and bubbled with purple sears where her venom crossed him. His hand shook against the metal plate, and his legs threatened to collapse. He briefly glanced at his arm where he’d been touched.

  Damn.

  “Focus, Rue,” he managed to reply weakly. “Keep her within the seal.”

  “Please tell me you are okay!” Rue cried desperately. “I love you, Raven! Please be okay!”

  He heaved, gasping for air, but he held up his free hand. “This?” he said with a weak smile. “This is nothing.”

  He snapped his fingers.

  The Seal of Decoupling on the ground ignited with burning light. The Sleeping Devil shrieked again as she held up her arms to protect herself. Wisps of black smoke issued from her body, accompanied by red sparks. She turned to flee, but Rue whipped forward to block her path. The child screamed like a demon, hurtling her power toward the pandora, but Rue countered with her own force.

  “You are my body!” she shouted. “I must return to you!”

  Equal forces pushed against each other. The Sleeping Devil screamed again, a demonic victim in the throes of fear and wrath. Rue screamed back. A shout of pain and anger and love. Raven watched in amazement and exhaustion, helpless to do anything except focus on this last task.

  Hold on, Rue… Just hold on for a little bit more…

  Weakness and sorrow consumed him as he watched his friend struggle.

  His dear friend. His dear friend, Rue.

  He knew for so long what had become of her soul. Stripped of her humanity, a person of terrible fear to be called a devil. But nothing could have prepared him for this. To see her in such a state. Her cries of anguish as she suffered and fought pained him. How long had she slept in the darkness with no one to love her? What could that experience have been like? Year after year after year. Tucked away, never knowing why. Not even in possession of her own name. Yet, she remained. Fighting for her life.

  As he watched her in this final, desperate struggle, he remembered. He remembered when he first encountered her as a boy… when he heard her crying. He’d never heard a pandora cry before. And he remembered her gasp when he talked to her for the first time. Her sheer happiness was indescribable. He remembered their talks. Their laughs. Their cries. Times together in sadness and in joy. When she had been there for him… always.

  People called her a monster and a devil. But she was neither.

  Can you… really help me, Mr. Whitesong?

  Call me Raven. I will be the one who helps you, little one.

  Will you really, Raven? Will you help me?

  Yes. What is your desire?

  Will you… be my friend?

  Raven collapsed to his knee as the light finally faded. Gasping for air, he clutched his arm to his chest, leaning heavily on the metal stake. He could feel blood trickling down his abdomen. Leaves, snow, and dust settled as the power finally relented. Was the ritual a success? He scanned the courtyard, desperately searching for his friend.

  But Rue the Day’s pandora was gone.

  The Sleeping Devil also had disappeared.

  Sheeharu Rendan stood before him.

  He slowly stood back up, looking down at the small child he could have only imagined. Bright eyes, filled with tears, looked back at him as she clutched her hands to her chest. She wrapped her arms around him and cried. He slowly stroked her head, quivering from the tender warmth as she squeezed him tight.

  “I am so glad to meet you, Sheeharu.”