"Do you even understand the stakes on ground?" Unison said while he made one of those faces that Unity had figured meant he was 'serious' or something ridiculous like that. The man went on talking but Unity simply looked around the bedroom for something far more important to focus on. That was a bit hard though, what with the fresh ache throbbing all around his neck..

"You're not listening are you?" Unison sighed, and Unity felt genuinely impressed he’d finally pieced two and two together.

He rolled his eyes. "What's that? Sorry I couldn't hear you over the sound of my crushed windpipe."

The words, he had to admit, lost some of their witty sting when his voice croaked through every syllable.

Unison took a soft deep breath, pacing around with a poise which gave him a remarkable resemblance to a powder keg seconds away from explosion.

"Do..." He looked to Unity who just stood in place and waved. "Do you even exist in the same world as the rest of us?"

"Look, all I'm saying is you could at least take me out on a date first before you choke me next time."

Unison continued as if Unity hadn’t even spoken, and try as he might he felt his smile drop from his face. Something about the Fable was different today. There was a dangerous edge to his anger this time, something he hadn’t seen before.

"First you let everyone watch you needlessly betray your allies in the sieve, then you antagonize Gemini Menza and Karma Alabaster. Do you know what will happen if the public perception of you doesn't change? Worse, do you know what'll happen to you if you don't get into the Gilasev institute?"

"No, I've only had it repeated to me a thousand times could you remind m-"

"You'll be discarded."

"Shocker."

There was a long moment where Unity thought Unison might actually kill him. Just give up on doing his job and face whatever consequences came of slaughtering his ward. Instead the Immortal continued to speak in a strained tone.

"Alabaster has likely informed her people of your actions and word has probably gotten to the faction leaders of your performance in the sieve. We will need to do some damage control."

Unity narrowed his eyes. "Like what?"

"Like sending a formal apology to the Faction Leaders." He said matter of factly.

Unity laughed.

“Nah, fuck that. I’m not apologising to either of them, I wouldn’t even be at this stupid event if it weren’t for you.”

Unity was well used to the sight of Unison’s anger, Immortal as he was; it was such a frequent occurrence that even the instinctive terror such a powerful being induced had faded some time ago. This, however, was different. Unison was not seething with rage, he wasn’t struggling to contain his emotions or on the brink of snapping. He was calm. Unnaturally so.

"It seems you've forgotten your place." The Immortal sighed, voice completely level. "Fortunately I was assigned the task of watching you because I have the particular skill set to remind you of it."

Unity didn’t fully take in the man’s words, he was far too preoccupied with the sinking realisation in his chest. He’d gone too far this time.

Unison stepped forwards, and suddenly Unity felt a great pressure. As though the air had suddenly become a dozen times heavier, its previously inconsequential weight now clearly felt pressing down on his body. He struggled to inhale, his ears popped and he smelt a strange scent on the air- a sulfuric tinge, the smell of burnt gunpowder. The smell of magic.

He suddenly had the overwhelming urge to drop to his knees as Unison approached, the distance between them now only one or two paces. The Immortal seemed a lot bigger this close up. After a few seconds, the pressure sustained through all of them, he spoke- face as blank as a statue’s and with a voice to match.

“Do you know why I was given the task of babysitting you, Unity? You probably assumed it was because I pissed off someone high up. It wasn’t. I was given the position because, in terms of keeping unruly subordinates- or rather children- in line, my choice of abilities is uniquely suited.”

Unity considered asking, in fact he tried quite hard. However his attempts to force words from his mouth fell short, stifled first by the dryness and trembling in his throat and then by the unspeakable sensation he was overcome by.

Pain racked every part of his body, an unbelievable, hot agony enveloping every bone, organ, blood vessel and other meaningful collection of tissue both inside and out. Unity fell to the ground, not even able to kneel any longer. He thrashed wildly as desperate spasms overtook him. He didn’t know why, one couldn’t really struggle against pain, but for some strange reason he couldn’t quite help himself. His throat hurt, and Unity realised he was screaming. Interesting, he couldn’t hear the sound, not really. The whole world seemed almost phantom esque to him, as though the sheer magnitude of his pain somehow made everything else less real by comparison.

More pain. Far more pain. Unity couldn’t remember anything coming even close to this agony, not even when he’d broken bones- not even when he’d had flesh charred from parts of his body. And it was everywhere. His lungs burnt just as much as his throat now, and Unity felt himself hoping he’d pass out- hell even die. Death had always terrified him, become nothing, not even capable of existing within his own mind- he’d thought nothing could be worse. He’d been wrong. This was worse. This was worse than anything.

And then it stopped. For a moment Unity thought he’d simply grown accustomed to it, then he realised there was only one reason Unison would ease up his torment when his lungs forced oxygen into themselves without his noticing. Two breaths in, two breaths out, and then it started once more.

He didn’t know how long he remained like that, thrashing around on the floor like a dying animal, but he did know that somewhere around the third or fourth reprieve for breathing he was given, he broke down and did the one other thing he thought he’d have preferred death to. He begged. Unison kept the agony coming for a while afterwards, but lifted it all the same.

Unity gasped as he lay there. He was drenched from head to toe in sweat, every muscle in his body ached from the strain of his convulsions and- oh great, he’d soiled himself. He glanced up at his torturer and wasn’t remotely shocked to see through tear-blurred eyes that the man’s face hadn’t even changed a fraction.

Unison spoke.

"I cannot believe the faction founders sacrificed their lives for your creation. They're gone and all that's left of them is the failed artificial before me. Now as much as I want to hurt you and I swear to the Teary eyed God I want to fucking skin you alive like the waste of magic that you are, I can't. But I can find other ways to cause you pain and I just want to make sure that we both have that mutual understanding. Now tell me, do we?"

His words were filled with the biting hatred Unity had come deemed to be near synonymous with authentics who spent a long enough time with him. "Do we have an understanding?" He asked again, and against his every instinct Unity nodded.

***

Karma Alabaster walked across the stadium as though it were her home. She wore some strange white clothing which hung from her shoulders and hips, jewelry adorning her as rings and bracelets. Crow realised her hair wasn’t just black, it was impossibly so. As though she’d plucked a piece from a shadow and draped it over her head. She had a curvy figure, incredibly curvy. Though he hadn’t much experience with Olympians, Crow knew that their feminine beauty was renowned as being wide hipped and large chested- if that were so then he supposed their Princess was the perfect example.

It was around the time she reached the centre of the arena, when Crow noticed how vibrant her auric eyes were, that he realised the difference between them was far too close for him to see the details he did. He turned to Astra and asked her about it, only for her to wave away his question and mutter something about a magic screen in front of their boothe.

“HELLO UNIX!”

The booming voice caught Crow completely by surprise, snapping his attention back to Alabaster. She must’ve been using something to increase her volume, because her words carried as though they were spoken by a crowd rather than a person. The mass of spectators met her words with more cheers and she needed to wait a few moments before continuing.

“MY NAME IS KARMA ALABASTER, AND IT’S MY PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE ALL OF YOU TO THE SECOND STAGE OF THIS YEAR’S SIEVE!”

Crow stared transfixed at her, noticing the genuine beaming smile she wore, the way her eyes lit up like pools of molten gold and how she stepped from side to side so carelessly it seemed she was completely unperturbed by all the eyes on her. She seemed to say the perfect thing to get the watching rows of people to react. When they were causing a ruckus she opened her mouth and hesitated before speaking, making it clear they were cutting her off and stifling their cries. When the background energy became too low she’d discreetly bring up a famous Immortal who was present, or even one of the larger names taking part. And everytime Crow felt his attention was completely on what she was saying, she began to give details about how the Sieve would function- as though she could somehow sense exactly how much everyone was concentrating on her.

A few glances to the side showed his sister was more transfixed and excited than most of the other watchers. In fact Crow found himself leaning away from her and grimacing once or twice as she called out in excitement.

The second stage, he learnt, would operate very differently compared to the first. For a start all competitors would begin in a pre-decided team of five, however they would not be guaranteed to start next to their teammate. Secondly, passing the second stage depended on whether or not they were able to collect enough credits- which would be earned by defeating enemies. Weaker enemies gave less credits, stronger enemies gave more. And there would be a single A-class target worth five thousand, Crow assumed that meant most of the others were worth a lot less. There was also a time limit, which meant that the competitors would need to find a balance between searching their teammates, allowing them to dispatch enemies more quickly, and focusing on combat, allowing them to spend longer doing the dispatching. Frankly it made his head hurt, and even more it made him hope he lucked out again and ended up being on a team with someone smart.

Granted he wasn’t sure how much of that the rest of the audience caught. As good at playing the crowd as Alabaster was, it seemed her reputation as Olympus’ sweetheart had made her a little bit too popular. Even the patches of the crowd wearing colours signifying nations other than hers were practically cutting open the air with their uproar. Crow could’ve sworn someone screamed something about her showing him her feet in the stands below.

The orientation couldn’t have lasted for more than ten minutes before Alabaster bid the stadium a good night and turned to leave, much to the chagrin of the people watching. Crow had just stood up to walk away when Astra grabbed his arm and gestured for him to sit, and when he looked back into the middle and saw it slowly filling with rather well dressed actors- he realised that the hordes of people hadn’t scrambled for seats just to hear the rules of the second stage.

Crow was in for a good night.

***

Karma sighed as she walked back through the curtains, almost bursting into laughter at the relief of that insipid crowd’s rambling suddenly being muted by the cloth at her back. She’d spent the last five years of her life being thrust in front of one after another, and yet practiced as she was swallowing that many people staring and heckling at her would always hold a special place of dread in her heart. Still, it was over now.

She made her way down the tunnel leading to the back entrance of the stadium, hurrying slightly to make her leave as soon as possible. She hated the fact that everything looked like it had been polished five minutes ago, as if the people who made it were trying to blind carriage drivers with the sun. She hated the food, all fruit and bread and other tasteless shit. Most of all she hated the fact that the streets were crowded enough that she had to put on her facade everywhere, though that was probably more the fault of the Sieve than the city itself.

By the time she reached her carriage waiting outside, the sounds emanating from the stadium had thankfully died down. Theatre performances hadn’t been Karma’s idea, but she was glad they had been chosen. Nothing made half a million people shut up quite like a play.

One of the Kin stepped up towards the vehicle and opened the door facing Karma, she almost jumped at the sudden movement. Kin had a habit of following their charge in such a way as to make themselves difficult to even remember existing. Karma couldn’t imagine many things which were more dangerous to forget. Gripping the handrail and hoisting herself up, she entered the carriage and seated herself on the rather excessively comfortable interior.

“Lady Alabaster, I trust you did not despise your speech any more than usual?”

The voice came from Pyrhic, Karma’s personal assistant. A young woman with short brown hair and similarly coloured eyes, Pyrhic was a Saint, the weakest of all scales of mystic. Like most Saints she had devoted all of her potency to a single ability, her memory. Pyrhic could hear an hour-long speech a single time and go on to transcribe it in its entirety without the slightest mistake, as such she was rather invaluable. She also happened to be in love with Karma, something that had been extremely difficult but necessary to cultivate- after all any other servant could potentially be used as a spy by Karma’s enemies simply through being offered sufficient money.

Karma smiled slightly as she answered. “I did actually, but only slightly.” Pyrhic was sat opposite Karma, legs crossed and a placid smile on her face.

“That’s unfortunate.” The assistant replied. “However I have something you may find makes up for it. A letter from the Immortal, Unison. Supposedly a written apology from Unity Eden, as well as a request for recompense. His offer is a public meeting between yourself and Zerin Sumi.”

“Zerin… that’s her eighth son, right? About Gem’s age? Hm, that wouldn’t be so bad. The Alliance has been very careful to keep me from getting close to any Sumi kids, this is a pretty desperate offer.”

Pyrhic raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“So shall I tell him you accept?”

“No, not yet. Wait two or three days, I’d like to give him time to sweat.”

“Very well Lady Alabaster.”

If Unison had offered a meeting with a Sumi, he must have approved it with the Faction leaders. Or at the very least Lae Sumi, head of the Zoric Faction. And the only way Lae would have agreed to such a thing, clever woman that she was, was if Unison had drastically overstated the magnitude of Unity’s damage. That was good, it meant he was panicking and thinking irrationally. Karma may well be able to work an even better deal out of him.

“You have received three proposals of marriage since this morning, or rather three which were deemed high profile enough to make it as far as me. I assume you shall be turning all of them down?”

“Yes.” Karma snapped. “Is there anything else?”

She regretted letting her irritation show upon seeing Pyrhic’s face. Marriage was among the few things that really got to Kama these days, something about being asked to allow a random noble to use her as breeding stock just didn’t sit right with her. Thankfully Pyrhic knew this and didn’t seem to take the outburst personally, appearing only slightly put out as she produced a piece of parchment.

“This is the last order of the day.”

Karma took the parchment and examined it. The paper was thick and worn, the kind used for steam powered printing presses. There were none of the usual official markers found on the papers of nobles, only one word. “Bob”, scrawled in shockingly poor handwriting. She turned to her attendant.

“How did this reach you?”

“The same as the others, I was given it by-”

“No.” Karma interrupted. “I mean how did it get as far as you without being thrown away?”

“Ah. Apparently it’s from an Immortal, he gave it to one of the spies you’re employing and demanded it bypass the usual filters and be delivered to my direct subordinates.”

Karma blinked. Someone had walked up to one of her spies and just… handed him a letter?

Utterly perplexed, she read the contents of the paper- feeling the blood drain from her face as she did so.

“My lady, is something wrong?” Pyrhic sounded concerned now. Karma was sure to force the worry from her face as she answered.

“Yes, though… well, maybe not. Something is certainly unusual, and I don’t like things being unusual unless I’m the reason.”

She paused.

“Which one of my spies received this letter?”

“It was one of the ones in East Bermuda, lady.”

That was interesting, East Bermuda was far from anything Sieve related. It was a major population centre, but also the least wealthy area. Half of the thirty or so spies Karma had in Bermuda were located there.

“Select two spies you think are best qualified for pursuit and stealth, I want them following the man who sent this letter. Tell them….” Karma needed to force herself to say what came next.

“Tell them they’re looking for a Butcher.”