Once they’d finished, Brod shook his head in slow amazement. “Any other time and place and I'd have tossed you out. Your story seems impossible.”

“And yet, here we are,” Angel said, tugging back some of the bandages around his arm to reveal the metal beneath. “But it’s not like we truly need to prove anything to you. I trust the information we shared will be helpful.”

“More than,” Brod agreed. “And frankly, you could tell me you were a god incarnate and I wouldn’t care in the end. We need every single advantage we can get against the Reawakening.”

“As do we,” Angel said. “And the faster we move, the better – just as long as we’re truly ready for it. Lives are on the line, but the desert is at stake. We can’t rush in here.”

“Like what you did to save your students?” Brod asked, his eyebrow quirking up. “And that particular action resulted in the Reawakening getting their hands on some artifact that they supposedly want very badly.”

Angel grunted. “You’re not wrong, but I’d do it again. I haven’t told you all of the atrocities the Reawakening has done, and I’m only human. There are things worth taking risks for.”

“If it had been my kids, I might have considered doing the same,” Brod said, giving Angel a nod. “But luckily, they’re far from this mess. Sending them to Ainhold was the smartest damn thing I’ve done in years.”

“So what about making a plan to attack the Buried Gods?” Lilian asked. “We’ll be happy to work together with your troops, and we’ve got the ability to take down the Buried God if it has any form of power source beyond human sacrifice. You can’t do that without us.”

“I’ll be discussing with my subordinates immediately after this,” Brod said. “But I can say it won’t be today, as much as I hate to admit it. I’ve got a fair number of men scattered throughout the city, and we’re going to need every damn hand we can get if we want to have a chance of storming one of those things. You haven’t outright said it, but I know what you’re asking for. You want my men to cause a distraction, drawing the fire and attention to themselves while you sneak into one of the Buried Gods and destroy it, don’t you?”

“We do,” Angel confirmed. “And, if possible, they should try to get to the other Buried God and free any people stuck inside it. The Reawakening soldiers aren’t that much of a problem, so that only leaves the three in the magistrate’s mansion and the two head members, Shield and Mind. Reave is off somewhere, likely with the tinkerers from your city and the artifact he stole.”

“You’re asking me to kill my men to buy you time,” Brod said flatly. “If we cause a distraction big enough for you to get onto one of those beasts undetected, it’s going to be a damn big distraction. A lot of good people will die, just to buy you a few minutes.”

Angel pressed his lips together. “I know. Perhaps there’s some way you could do the distraction without putting them directly in the line of fire?”

“Do you know of one?” Brod asked.

“No,” Angel admitted. “Not off the top of my head.”

“Then you and I have all day to think. I’m still not convinced you’re our only shot against these bastards, and I won’t be sending my men to their deaths for a sliver of hope. There’s a lot I need to take care of with the new information you’ve provided us with. Go find an unused building and get some food and water if you want it. Tomorrow, we can speak again. For both of our sakes, I hope one of us can come up with a better idea than what you’ve offered.”

“Likewise,” Angel said, rising from his chair. The others moved to follow him, but Brod raised a hand, stopping Jonas in his tracks.

“Stay here,” Brod told the large soldier. “Prison escapee or not, I can’t spare you your duties. I need every man I can get. I trust you’re largely uninjured?”

“As much as can be, sir,” Jonas said, sitting back down. Brod waved the rest of them on, and they headed out of the building, leaving Jenny and the two soldiers behind.

“That went better than expected,” Alison said. “I half expected him to throw us out.”

“I can’t imagine he’s the biggest fan of what Angel suggested,” Tilly said. “But I can’t blame him either. I can’t imagine bringing myself to order people under me to…”

She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

“That’s why you’re not a guard captain,” Silver said as they walked through the camp, heading towards a group of unlit buildings near the edge. “But I do genuinely hope we can come up with something at least a little better than what we have now. I like winging things, but this is a bit much, even for me.”

“Do you have a better idea, then?” Angel asked. “We know far too little. The only facts we have are that there’s at least one of the Reawakening members here, along with a whole bunch of stupid clones and three strong ones. The Buried Gods appear unpowered and are likely running from human sacrifice, and Reave kidnapped a bunch of tinkerers that could be anywhere. Barren, he could be anywhere. There’s no real way for us to know he’s not just waiting in the sand for an ambush.”

“That’s not his style,” Lilian said. “Especially now. He’s more unhinged than I’ve ever seen him. I suspect it’s because we’ve been running out of artifacts to feed the relics powering us for years now, and his Magitech is the most battered out of all of ours. Considering his powers are already agony to use, he must be in a constant state of pain that only gets worse with every passing day.”

“Good,” Tilly said, glaring. “He’s an evil, detestable psychopath.”

Lilian adjusted her audio collar with a grimace. “I’m not disagreeing with you, Tilly. It just hurts to see a man that I once trusted and called a friend reduced to this. I’ve lived for over six hundred years, and only six other people have been constant throughout that time. Of those six, three are dead and one would be better off dead. Could you imagine watching that happen to your family and friends?”

“They’d never do anything like what the Reawakening did,” Tilly said defiantly, crossing her arms. “Are you saying that Alison and Angel would turn into murderers if they lived long enough?”

“I notice you’ve left me out,” Silver observed. Nobody responded to that.

“Your moral compass erodes with time. When you see thousands die in wars for magistrates that don’t even lift a finger, life starts to lose its value,” Lilian said, shaking her head. “And I don’t know how much of the men and women I once knew is even left in the other Reawakening members. I was spared, partially because of Angel fixing my Magitech and partially because my power lent itself very well to maintaining my mind and body. The others had no such luck.”

They arrived before a house and Angel peeked inside. Finding nobody within it, they sat down in some chairs at its front. The lighting within the house was so bad that it wouldn’t be much good for anything but sleeping.

“It almost sounds like you’re going to suggest that we should try to have Angel fix them,” Alison said.

“No.” Lilian shook their head. “They’re long gone, now. I didn’t realize it because I spent so much time in the field, but there’s precious little left of the people I once knew. It’s not worth sacrificing any of you to try to regain who they were. The risk is simply too great. Now, the only thing I can do for my old friends is put them to rest before they hurt too many more people.”