Chapter 2274

Over the past few weeks, the way that the Nether Heralds and potent Tier 6 and 7 Nether Warriors looked at Enmya had changed. Their eyes flicked lower, their postures no longer straightened by respect, their faces tight and tense. When he gave orders, there was a steadily widening delay between understanding and action.

Still Enmya led them, marching across the countryside toward his goal. The army stretched behind him like a massive snake. Although he had lost many other things, he still remained the Sovereign of the Breathless Vigil. In terms of manipulating Nether, none here could rival him. The heavy weight of their expectations constricted his windpipe, but it did allow him to drag them like the bloated tail they were.

Part of the migration of loyalty was due to the loss to Nether King Hungry Eye. That loomed heavily in all their thoughts, Enmya could tell as he churned his legs forward, leading the army on his mad dash west. Because not only had he lost, but because Lowanna had given the order to leave Nether King Hungry Eye alone, after a fashion. He had failed doubly. It made Enmya’s jaw clench with bitterness, the fickleness of the people.

Without him knowing it, he had been made into a sin-eater.

Despite the Nether Arbiter’s order, they had nipped at his heels, willingly supported him in his crusade against this aberrant being, Nether King Hungry Eye. Because they had resented the freedom, feared the escape from the carefully constructed structure of Phaea. And when he had failed, their feelings turned. Suddenly they whispered behind their hands, accusing him of perverting the orders of the Nether Arbiter, of letting her remain captured, where ever she might be.

The scope of the failure devoured their own hateful thoughts. Now they could point the figure, denying their participation. It had been him. Enmya had done it. One more burden for him to carry.

So Enmya walked and walked, until one day a little before noon he arrived on a hill and looked down to see the flat and dusty plains of the Badlands. In the distance, the shimmering bubble of Homewell’s Lifeseal pulsed with energy. Almost immediately, one of the central Nether Warriros overseeing the Forward Teams appeared by his side and surveyed the view.

The Nether Warrior gestured to the left, Southeast of their position. “Due to the others lollygagging, we arrived just a bit too late to cut off Homewell from reinforcements. Cheh, lazy bastards. We broke them before, but Cerulean’s main force recovered and arrived but hours ago. Whatever those damn Fates do, it’s working. They camp just there, ready to reinforce the city, if we attempt to pincer it with Deganawidah’s host.”

Enmya grunted and sniffed the air. His instincts whispered he was close to her, although he couldn’t quite figure out where to go from here.

The Nether Warrior folded his armored limbs across his chest and clicked his mandibles together. “Shall we prepare for the assault? I cannot imagine that Deganawidah would wait much longer. Heh, and little do they know, but his focus is entirely on that fool Cerulean; he will ignore Homewell entirely until he has finished his vengeance for his student. The army will probably buckle before the city’s defenders have even spilled a single drop of blood.”

“Prepare the Warriors,” Enmya whispered. His lips were strangely dry. He took a few steps forward and then cleared his throat. “Wait here for my signal. I wish… to get a sense for the enemy.”

“I can gather-” The Nether Warrior began, but Enmya already moved, slipping well away from his subordinate’s awareness.

Enmya streaked over the hills, his heart pounding in his chest. He heard the familiar rustle her shift, heard the delicate clinking of her immaculate manacles as she poured tea into a cup, felt the rhythmic echoes of her steps, thundering through the ground with all the force of the energy she carried. Enmya couldn’t be sure of where, but Lowanna, the Nether Arbiter was here-

He whipped around and began to rush directly toward Homewell. His eyes crinkled in fury. So the bastard

Turtlelines

had been the ones who-

His gait slowed until he stopped. His certainty vanished just as quickly as it had arrived. Wind blew large grains of dirt that bit at his ankles as it flowed past. Lowanna… was not in this direction. He sucked on his teeth, annoyed with himself and frustrated. And oh, oh so tired. Enmya pivoted slowly and began stumbling across the rolling hills.

After ten minutes of wandering, he felt her presence in the brush of air across his skin. He whirled around, confident this time his instincts weren’t mistaken. The density of her Nether wicked away from her like thin trails of smoke and he would never mistake that feeling for anything else. He crested another hill and this time he found her, the woman who had altered his life.

She was the loveliest creature Enmya had ever seen, from the first time they met to now.

The Nether Arbiter kneeled in the dirt in a small valley next to another woman and dug her manacled hands in the dirt. They were gardening, completely absorbed in their task and their conversation.

“Honestly, I picked up the habit from Randidly.” The first woman continued speaking while Enmya trembled with the force of his emotions, seeing Lowanna there, so casual and obviously

happy

. “He very rarely gardens for the pleasure of working with the ground, but that’s because it’s almost too easy for him. You should see the way my tomato plants perk up when he stops by! The leaves pivot like satellite dishes. It’s infuriating.”

Lowanna was nodding, a small smile on her face. “He possesses plenty of Skills related to plant growth, yes? And also his image-”

The other woman waved her hand in irritation. “Oh, yes, he does have those, but I can understand that. Having the essence of Origin Beast woven into his Nether Core is fine as well, releasing a pulse of life into the surroundings that all creatures respond to, not just plants. No, what drives me insane about him is that he doesn’t understand- well, I’m sure you’ve experienced it. He has a particular way of looking at you and very visibly giving you the whole of his attention. And because of his mental acuity and strength that feeling within his person-”

“It’s intoxicating, yes.” Lowanna paused and straightened. She looked up toward the hill and saw Enmya. They held each others’ gazes for several seconds, him unable to compute the Nether Arbiter’s current situation, still half suspicious about this other woman, who his instincts warned possessed more power than it appeared. Then Lowanna turned back to her. “It’s almost silly that the plants can sense it too.”

The other woman sighed. “His attention breathes

mental

life into the object of his attention, in a way that’s different from all the other gifts he has gained along the struggle under the thumb of the System. He can just believe in something, just from a look, know its essence, and trust it to be the best version of itself, the imagined, dramatized version of itself. It’s his greatest gift but I don’t think he even understands how it works.”

“Isn’t that the way? It is so hard to value our greatest talents as we should, precisely because of how easily they come to us.” Lowanna brushed off her hand on a leather apron. “Well, that is probably enough chat for today. It appears I have a visitor.”

“And the peace in the surrounding fifty miles is about to shatter,” the other woman nodded in agreement, never looking up at Enmya. Then she stepped forward with enough suddenness that Enmya lurched forward to defend his precious Nether Arbiter. Yet instead of an attack, the other woman embraced Lowanna. “Ah, I’m going to miss you. This was fun. I very rarely find someone so gifted at chess.”

“All moves are just borrowed currents,” Lowanna said, a familiar refrain from her own frustrated efforts to teach Enmya to enjoy different strategy games, yet she smiled so widely his heart ached to see it. “It has truly been a pleasure, Neveah. I hope… well. I hope all our work hasn’t been for naught.”

Enmya’s mind spun. All this, all the effort he had poured into the last month of his life, was to rescue her. And it all seemed so… pointless, to look at her now. Like she hadn’t needed him at all.

“Definitely, we’ve accomplished something. The study of Nether bonds will have a concrete result.” The woman, Neveah, took a step back. “You haven’t been around us long, but truthfully, you just learn to have faith when fighting with him on your side.”

“Everyone believes they are the exception until they realize they are not,” Lowanna's smile faded, an old scar revealed in her hollow eyes.

Yet the other woman chuckled. “All moves are just borrowed currents, Lowanna. When you don’t like the way your story is going, change the game you are playing. Spend some time talking about other shapes and patterns.”

Neveah left, leaving Enmya on the hill and Lowanna looking down at the dirt and tufts of leaves in front of her. He didn’t move until she was ready, looking up and beckoning for him. “Come, Enmya. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve-” Enmya jumped with enough force to sunder the hill behind him. He crashed into the space next to the garden, careful not to ruin the places Lowanna had cultivated. His heart pounded as he stumbled the last few steps and stood in front of him. “You- I thought that maybe- I couldn’t-”

“I know. It was hard on you. I didn’t leave any word, I sent you away knowing what would happen that day. I thought I would be saving you from what was to come… I thought I knew everything. That fate would flow downhill until my death and that my choice that day would spare you most of the suffering. Spare our people.” Lowanna reached out and brushed a finger across his cheekbones. She shook her head. “But I was wrong. I can’t read the future, I can only

convince

myself I could. So… So I’m sorry. I’ll be honest with you from now on.”

Her familiar presence, the pulse of her Nether, now somehow even more overwhelming than it had been previously, relaxed some deep tension in Enmya’s body. He smiled at her, forgiving her, just glad she had returned to him. His emotions remained chaos, but he tried to focus forward. “Well, your presence changes things. This war with Aether- there is no longer even a chance of our loss. We can crush them all, for the crimes they committed, for the slaughter of our history. The Aether people-”

“There’s something else, Enmya,” Lowanna interrupted. “I… will not fight. You know I cannot risk it. But besides that, there is a more important issue than revenge.”

“What can be more important than the loss of our past?” Enmya gasped. Just as he tried to create a new channel for his negative emotions, she shattered it.

Lowanna pressed her lips together. “Our people’s future, Enmya. This, everything we see around us, is a powerful projection. Done by a being who has reached the Aether Pinnacle and captured a moment. We are the echo of that moment, hurtling toward our curtain call. But beyond that moment- well, I am not familiar with the details, but our people are butchered in the wars to come. I want to help Nether King Hungry Eye revive-”

“What? That’s impossible. We will

not

be butchered.” Enmya gestured around. “Do you see the host we have assembled? Although the old factions will need to be taught a lesson, the forces we have gathered cannot be rivaled. We march under a single banner, full of righteous vengeance! The Aetherlands will collapse into a memory-”

“They will not,” Enmya could see Lowanna squeeze her hands into fists. “I know this. I have been shown this. Nether King Hungry Eye explained the essence of this place, and after some investigations-”

“Nether King Hungry Eye.” Enmya’s eyes widened. Suddenly he understood. He looked Lowanna up and down, nearly disbelieving. Now that he knew what to look for, he could feel the strange, dark-haired man’s essence all over this place. His eyes narrowed “

He

is the one who took you!”

“No, Enmya-”

“I cannot believe,” He clenched his jaw, unable to comprehend the whirlpool of aggravation and certainty he felt. His head pounded. “I didn’t see it before. That this whole time, Nether King Hungry Eye has been intent on perverting the structure of the Netherlands. And you have

allowed

him to! I had assumed- did you even care when Wyndaos burned? When the children were slaughtered and left to rot amongst the silver sands?”

“Enmya, listen to me,” Lowanna reached out against, but Enmya took a reeling step back, still trying to process. Her eyes crinkled at the edges as she slowly lowered her hands. “Our Nether, the figurehead of the Arbiter, all of it was

designed

to trap us. We cannot continue like this. All our power, our creative spirit, is locked-”

“That has always been your problem, Lowanna,” Enmya gritted his teeth. “You have seen naught but the shackles in the bonds between us. But the grace and restraint- the discipline and temperance you wield- why can you not understand the only prison in which you sit is your own mind?!?”

Lowanna stilled. She raised her head and looked at Enmya with hollow eyes. “And what you have never understood, oh great Sovereign of the Breathless Vigil, is that it takes more than enduring hunger to live.”

She spun on her heel, graceful and lovely, even as his stomach dropped out of him. He watched her for several seconds before he cleared his throat. “So you run? Only hours before the greatest battle of the age?”

“The legacy I leave behind will not be a bloody tally during battle.” When Lowanna spoke, her voice thrummed with so much vast Nether Enmya flinched and took a step back. She glided away, vicious and intent. “If nothing else, I will find the words to say one true thing about the Nether people… although it might damn us all for me to succeed.”