Viriya hadn’t been joking when she had said she’d drive. Nivi had given them permission to use one of the research facility’s private cars, though they didn’t have any drivers they could spare. They didn’t have any drivers at all, Nivi had confided in secret, out of earshot of the other researchers. Apparently, it was a sore point for them.

Since this would be a long journey, they had set out the day after Riven’s training.

No problem. Viriya was on hand to do the driving. Riven wasn’t sure that was such a good idea though. They were as much off the road as they were on it, and Viriya took advantage of the fact that these were wide, open country roads with absolutely no other traffic. They drove so fast, Riven’s back was pressed into the seat for the entire ride, and it was too difficult to open his mouth and warn Viriya that this mad dash towards death in the car could never be called driving. He was sure at one point they hit a crack on the ground, and the car had gone airborne for several heart-stopping seconds.

“You’re going to kill us!” had been one of Riven’s exclamations when he could talk.

Viriya had almost laughed, and that had frightened him to the point of nearly fainting.

When they finally stopped, Riven kept muttering his thanks to the Scions over and over again like he’d turned into a devout parrot. Hadn’t he said he’d do a proper Monastical or something like that when he got home? When had he said that, though? Well, every time probably, just as he was promising to do so now. He’d be sure to forget when he did get home.

“This looks promising,” Viriya said. She seemed to be in high spirits after their stampeding bull of a car ride. Or what passed for good spirits in her case.

Riven peered at their destination. “All I see is a village.”

It wasn’t even much of a village at that. This far east in Severance Frontier, the climate got windier, and the architecture reflected that. Most the faded-white walled buildings had flat roofs, the few gables resting in the shade of several other buildings. Though, there weren’t that many buildings in the first place. Riven could count the ones he saw with his fingers.

He did so. “One, two, three—”

“Sop counting the buildings Riven,” Viriya said, her lips pressed into a thin line, like she wanted to scowl at him but also wanted to keep her good mood intact.

“Fine. What’s the plan?”

She led him towards the large building in the centre. Like the buildings, there weren’t many people here, which was good in the sense that Riven didn’t have to deal with staring strangers. Two Essentiers in the middle of nowhere would have drawn the local crowd like honey drew bees.

The wizened village foreman, mayor, high roller, or whatever title the local person-in-charge preferred, came towards them. “Essentiers? What business do you have here?”

“I see your hospitality is tremendous,” Viriya said.

The man bowed his shaved head. He wore the overall of a factory worker, but his clothes were clean. “It is unfortunate, but we aren’t very welcome to strangers. State your business, please.”

“We’re looking for a demon. Big, purple, flying. He may have passed overhead about three weeks ago.”

The man frowned. “I recall seeing nothing of the sort.”

“You couldn’t have missed him. He was about twice again as tall as you are, white horns coming out of his shoulder blades and long glowing tentacles waving in the air.”

“I assure you, Essentier, I’ve seen no demons now, or anytime in the near past.”

Viriya wasn’t satisfied with the answer. “Perhaps, someone else in your village can tell me something? Who’s the most watchful person you have over here?”

“I am afraid that won’t be possible. If anyone had seen such a momentous thing as a demon, they’d have told me. And I’d have sent out the warnings and properly followed Deathless protocol.”

Viriya looked around. Riven did the same, noting the empty streets and the shuttered windows, none of which revealed any sign of life. There had to be people living here, hadn’t there?

“Thank you,” Viriya said, then turned and left.

Too sudden. Riven spent a while staring at the little village, before settling on the man, who looked back as though glad to see the back of Viriya. Something was going on here. Something that itched at spots inside Riven had no hope of scratching. But Viriya was already at their car, waving at him to return.

With a final glare at the man before him, Riven got back to the car and entered.

“We’re leaving?” Riven asked.

“Yes,” Viriya said, shifting the big gearstick to reverse the car and turn it around. “We need to find actual answers.”

“But you saw what the village was like, what that man looked like. He was hiding something. There’s more going on here, I just know it.”

“Most villages are like that.”

“Rattles wasn’t like that.”

“Discard your tragic, rose-tinted glasses and you’ll remember that Rattles was like this too. Less so, and less noticeable.”

“No it wasn’t! They had people.”

“Villagers who were beaten down as well. Maybe not in the same way as these people here.” Viriya paused. She looked as though she was struggling with something. Maybe wrestling with her conscience if she wanted another insane ride that would scare Riven to near-death. “Either way, we’re going to spend some time thinking. And training too, of course.”

#

Riven had assumed that the day they looked around for a demon would be an off day regarding training. No such luck. Viriya was an impossible taskmistress, and it was starting to feel like she enjoyed seeing Riven struggle with his poor stamina and roll up in exhaustion. That settled it. Viriya had to be one of those weird sadists who slavered over the pain of others.

“Stop letting yourself get flipped over,” Viriya shouted after she’d sent him flying over her shoulder. Yes, it was completely his fault he was airborne more than he was on his feet on the ground.

“Stop twitching and jerking so much.” Viriya made the slightest movement towards him, a tiny jerk, and that was all it took for Riven to raise his hands in a futile defence. “You need to stop being so afraid. Wait to see if a blow is actually coming or not. Don’t just stare at my fists or my face like some moonstruck vagabond, keep an eye on my whole figure. The posture, the shift in stance, they can tell you more about the kind of impact you can expect.”

“Stop hitting back like that!” She punched him in the face—in the face! Unbelievable! When had she been last punched right on the nose? It hurt—and he had lashed out with his fists, over and over in a flurry that a part of him had thought would be a good idea to overwhelm her with. Stupid, in truth. Viriya simply jumped back and evaded them all. Then punched him on the nose again. “You need forms. You need to recognize your opponent’s stances and follow an actual style of defence and attack. Jabbing away like a flustered aristocratic ladies is well and good in dumb street fights, but it’ll only get you killed against an Essentier.”

“Stop thinking you can run!”

“Stop trying to escape.”

“Stop trying to trick me.”

“Stop pausing to think of how best to trick me.”

The whole thing had been less training and more Viriya relishing her ability to point out every little mistake Riven made. Which was a lot, truth be told. Would have been disheartening really, but he was getting too angry to think of giving up and letting her taste victory.

She was just pissed that he’d beaten her yesterday.

“Stop.” Viriya stepped back. “No seriously, stop. That’s enough for now. We’ll take a short break, then get to working out where to head to next.”

Riven had assumed she had a solid plan, the whole route for the day mapped out in her head or something like that. He was too exhausted to point it out though and plopped down on the ground. His whole body was trembling. Sweat had drenched his clothes, though they had thankfully had the foresight to remove their jackets before sparring.

Demon. For some reason, Riven wasn’t sure he wanted to find out more about that damn demon. He had his Sept crystal with him after all. As much as he wanted answers, what if the demon wanted it back?

#

They travelled farther east, and found much the same thing as they had in the last village. There were more people here, but they had all directed Riven and Viriya to talk with the leader. The old woman had said the same thing as her counterpart in the first village had. No sign of any demons, and if that was all Viriya wanted, then she had better leave.

Riven had peered close at the old lady, enough to actually disconcert the crone. She had frowned at him. He didn’t pay her much attention. Was it him, or did this older woman look too much like the first village’s leader?

“It’s you,” Viriya said when they had gotten back to the car. Another unsuccessful village. “We better go. There are more spots we need to check. We only have today, after all.”

It didn’t look like today would be enough.

They stopped next at a large greenhouse which housed rows after rows of rice paddies. The guard keeping watch was inside, and Riven was struck by a blast of humidity and warmth when he and Viriya entered.

“Ain’t seen nothing of the sort,” was all the guard would say when asked about the demon.

Viriya hounded him and pestered him, eking out every little detail of what he’d been up to at the time, and what he’d seen. None of it had any hints of a demon or some other thing.

“Another dud,” Riven said when they came back outside. Scions, he was going to drown in there without even submerging. “Do we keep going?”

Viriya was staring at the horizon as though it was still beckoning her, luring her in with the promise of some hint about her quarry. Lies, all lies. Riven didn’t see how they could find any news of the demon, especially after it had been so long.

“It might have gone this way—if it even came this way—during the night.” Riven got into the car, closing the door. “Face it Viriya, this isn’t going to be as easy as walking up to random people and hoping they might have an answer.”

Viriya joined him, starting up the engine and shifting the gearstick to start the car moving again. “We still have time. Better to use and keep looking than waste it for nothing.”

Riven said nothing. It wasn’t his place to argue. If she could sacrifice everything to help him with the Deathless family, fighting to give Arrilme and Franry a safe place to stay, then he could shut his complaints and help her look for her demon too.

#

“Come on, Riven,” Viriya barked. “Don’t die so easily.”

Riven glared at her, but he didn’t have anywhere near enough breath to tell her he wasn’t dead yet. Damn her. Making him run a complete circle around a huge field that had to be at least a league long end to end. Of course he’d plop over and not get up, hardly breathing since he didn’t have enough energy to heave his chest up and down and force his lungs to inhale.

“I can’t keep going on like this,” Riven finally gasped out.

“Of course you can. Do you see me trying to dig my own grave? This is the bare minimum all Essentiers are supposed to be capable of, so you’re going to have to shape up, and fast. You just need to get used to it. So stop squandering all your time on complaining and start getting ready for the next lap.”

“Can’t you just kill me?”

“No fun in that.”

“You don’t do fun.”

She smirked a little, the corner of her mouth twitching up at his naivete. Curses on the Chasm, his exhaustion was making him stupid. All this was Viriya’s idea of fun. When had torturing Riven become such a wonderful pastime?

His next task was no less difficult. Viriya found a small hill and a boulder in the middle of nowhere, ordering Riven to roll the ball of earth uphill to the summit. He had taken a few moments to blink at the place. There was no sign of any green anywhere, but his fingers twitched at the notion that Viriya had made this whole area, including the hill and the boulder, using her Essence of Locking things together.

Nevertheless, Riven bent to the task, failing successfully each time he tried. Every time he pushed the boulder halfway up the hill, his exhaustion got the better of him, and he had to push himself out of the way lest the boulder crushed him on its way back down. Then he repeated the process.

It was impossible. Wasn’t there a story about the impossibility of such a task somewhere?

It came to a point that Riven gave up, so empty of any energy, both mental and physical, that he fell to the ground in the middle of pushing the boulder uphill. Let it crush him. No way he’d feel any pain when he was this tired. He couldn’t even feel any part of him, or anything at all for that matter.

But the boulder didn’t come rolling back down this time. Didn’t even move. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but that confirmed it. Viriya was using her Essence. To torture him.

“You dead yet?” Viriya asked, nudging his back with her boot.

Oh the shame. The humiliation. Being kicked while he was down, and being unable to respond to the ignominy in any way at all. If only Riven could even move.

“What’s this?” She crouched over him now, the midday sun behind her turning her face into a silhouette. A mask of shadows, where the eyeholes were filled with glittering emeralds. “I’m going to have to carry you away? Fine.”

It wasn’t really carrying. Well, not carrying at all. Viriya grabbed his wrist then pulled the rest of his body along the ground. Riven’s clothes were stained with dirt and flooded with sweat, but at least a good washing would have made them good as new. This dragging would leave irreparable tears.

That’s it. He was definitely taking a cut from Viriya’s next paycheque.

#

Their next two destinations were no more fruitful than the previous. Another village, another pointless waste of time where the only people willing to talk said they had seen nothing of the sort. The place after that hadn’t even had anyone to speak to. A lone building that looked like a barn—though Riven couldn’t even begin to guess what a barn would be doing out in the wilderness on its own—was empty. Viriya had spent nearly an hour poring over every little spot only to come to the conclusion that it had lain empty for a few years at least.

Riven had bit off his reply. Shouting of course wasn’t going to help. Instead, he urged Viriya to check the next place.

Which was different from the rest that they’d been to so far.

A military encampment welcomed them in once they’d proven that they were Essentiers. It wasn’t as out in the middle of nowhere as Riven had first assumed when he’d seen the barracks and wire fences surrounded by nothing but ground marred by pits and cracks. The Captain had said they were stationed between two of the largest cities in Rennervation Demesne.

“You’ve seen no demon,” Viriya asked.

“No, Essentier Rorink.” The Captain took a sip of his tea, his oily face glistening in the low light. He had invited them into their communal cafeteria to have something to eat while they talked. “Have the rest of you seen anything like that?”

The other soldiers shook their head, muttering negatives. No one had seen any weird purple things flying in the sky.

“Strange you ask so late,” the Captain commented. “There was another Essentier who was discussing a similar issue a while back.”

Viriya’s eyes went sharp as knives. “What do you mean? Which Essentier, and what exactly was the issue they were discussing?”

“He was from Ascension Demesne. Young fellow, tall and dark, looking a little too thin and weedy to be a proper Essentier, if you ask me.”

Riven frowned. Tall, dark, and weedy… no it couldn’t be, could it?

“Did he have fair hair and eyes?” Viriya asked, voice hushed as though she was speaking a deadly secret.

“He did! You sound like you know him?”

“We are acquainted with one another. When was this, and again, what was the exact issue he’d brought up?”

“Around the time you mention, actually. He was looking for this demon of yours about three weeks or so ago. Well, not looking exactly. More like enquiring and figuring out what exactly we had seen. We had of course seen nothing.”

Riven tried to catch Viriya’s eye, but she didn’t face him, the corner of her eyes refusing to acknowledge that he was staring at her. Had Rio been investigating the demon all that time back? He’d never mentioned it.

But it wasn’t exactly surprising. A demon had been spotted in the Demesne he resided in, so naturally he’d want to find out all about it.

Viriya though, seemed to be thinking something else entirely. “It sounds like he was procuring specific information on what he’d seen, but I need you to remember and tell me if he said he was going to use this information to track down any demons.”

“No, or at least, I don’t recall him stating exactly what he was going to do with what we’d found out.” The Captain took a napkin and wiped the sheen of oil from his face. Disgusted at the napkin, he hid it away before anyone else noticed. “But I think he found what he wanted.”

“How could you tell?”

“I asked him directly. He said he had what he needed and that everything was fine. I’d even specifically asked if we ought to worry about this demon, and he’d said it was taken care of. There was nothing to worry about.” The Captain peered at Viriya. “Is there something we ought to worry about, Essentier?”

Viriya closed her eyes, then stood up. “I’ll let you know when I find out for myself.”

Riven followed her outside. They expressed their gratitude and bid their farewells before departing the military encampment. Viriya got into the car, starting it as soon as Riven joined her in the opposite seat. Without preamble, she turned it around, then stepped on the pedal to start of back the way they had come.

“Do you think Rio knows more about this demon than he’s letting on?” Riven asked. Stupid questions. Of course Rio knew more than he’d said, but it was a pointless inquiry to figure out how he knew any of it. But what Riven really wanted to know was what Viriya intended to do about it.

“He knows everything, Riven,” Viriya said after they’d driven for a while. When she hadn’t talked first for a while, Riven had assumed he’d offended her somehow. “We need to find him one of these days. Soon as this little vacation of ours is over.”

Riven stayed silent. He’d always had a feeling Rio hid quite a lot, but hearing the Captain reveal what had happened, really hammered it home. He had to reserve some choice words for Rio when they next met.

#

It took most of the rest of the day to get back to Lintellant and the research facility there, even with Viriya’s insane driving skills. They had to stop once to refill the fuel tank with more refined Sept, but it was a continuous journey otherwise. It was nearing the middle of the night when they finally stopped at the facility’s gates.

Riven took in a sharp breath as he got out. There were too many people at the facility for a time like this, and the whole building was ablaze with lights. Didn’t these people know the meaning of proper sleep? Scions forbid something had happened while they were away.

Before he could ask, a man came running up to them. He had on the staff unform of the research facility. One of their orderlies, probably. “Essentiers, you finally arrived.” He was panting a little after his sprint. “You’ve been summoned.”

“What’s happened?” Viriya asked.

“Municipier Rosiene just arrived. And she said to call you both back immediately. Urgent news about the Invigilator of Providence Demesne.” The man paused to take a breath. Riven frowned. The sweat glistening on his forehead didn’t appear to have come just from exertion. There was a fearful look in his eyes as well. “Something about some war having started already.”

Riven and Viriya exchanged quick glances. She looked troubled, her brows clouding together into a deep frown. War. Damn it, weren’t they supposed to have some more time before it all started? Riven followed the orderly as fast as his tired legs would carry him, Viriya bringing up the rear.