Splinter Angel Chapter 163 (Patreon)

“Stacy! Stacy, it's time to gooo!” cheered Amise, one of Sadie's friends and colleagues from the brothel, her hand on Ana’s arm as she bounced with excitement. “Gods a-bove you’re going to love Ellsthal!”

She might have acted differently if she knew who Stacy actually was, but no one but Sadie and Braggie had any idea. Sadie had told them only that Ana was one of the Stolen who’d be joining them, which wasn't a complete lie, though the part about Stacy possibly joining them as a colleague was an unnecessary fib, in Ana’s opinion. The Courtesan had even put in the work to make sure that they’d be twelve girls from the brothels in the group, giving them a full Party. That way Ana and Braggie had a good excuse for why they couldn’t join, which was standard procedure for pretty much any group of young women going out to have fun.

Instead, Braggie was in Ana’s Party. She was carrying Ana’s pack, and while Messy had the most important of Ana’s possessions among her own stuff—like the guns and her money—Ana wanted an easy way to track Braggie down if they got separated. Very few things were irreplaceable, and those that were weren’t all that important in the grand scheme of things—she could live without tampons and wetwipes—but losing all her clothes and the majority of her other stuff would be a major headache.

When Amise expressed her excitement, Ana copied her new friend without thinking. Honestly, it didn’t take a whole lot of acting; seeing the Waystone implode and turn into the most massive rift she’d seen had been breathtaking. Still, she was Stacy right now, and Stacy didn’t hold back when she was excited. She didn't bounce quite as much—Amise was a fair bit more full-figured—but her wordless, excited squeal was second to none.

Simultaneously she asked the Wayfarer, Are we all clear?

There are a few more guards than normal, the goddess replied. They all appear to be regular town guards, though. Not a Summerland livery in sight, nor any Ascenders.

And the rift? The portal? Is it safe?

No bastard will snatch your soul on the way through, if that's your worry.

Alright. Thanks, Ana thought, and the goddess’s presence withdrew. And then, for everyone else’s benefit, she went up on her tiptoes as though to see over the crowd and whined, “Come on, what’s the hold-up? Why isn't anyone moving?”

“Right, fine, almost time to go. Mistress Thair has to make the announcement first,” Amise explained. “Then the officers will go through first, to announce us, kind of. And to make sure everything’s alright on the other side, what with the whole Ascender that got killed and all.”

“Oooh! Got it,” Ana replied. She’d already known that, of course. She also knew that some of the officers' party would be prepared to leap back through in case things suddenly turned ugly, which was also why pretty much every Delver in the Splinter was there, armed and ready. Everyone wanted to trust their guild. But four months ago they’d thought that they could trust the Sentinel, and they’d all seen how that turned out.

It was also why Pirta wore her armor and carried her glaive. And seeing her like that, Ana was comfortable with the assessment she’d made to Peter Belov and Sidney Liu some time ago: if there was anyone in the Splinter she’d hesitate to go against in a straight-up fight, it was Pirta.

The crowd stirred, then hushed. Before the rift Mistress Thair raised her hands and turned to face the waiting people in every direction as she called out, “Fellow members of the Bluesky Guild! Guests! Despite some irregularities, the cycle has ended as it should. The way is open!”

The cheers were loud enough to rival those Ana herself had received from time to time. They quieted faster, though, and Thair continued. “If you are remaining in the Primes for more than a night, remember: the rift will remain open for three days and nights, give or take an hour or two! After that, there is no telling how long it will be before a large enough group has been gathered to make sending them through worth the effort. You may, if you’re unfortunate, have to wait as long as a full cycle! If you intend to return here, be half a day early if you can, to be safe.”

She paused to give everyone a few seconds to consider that.

“Thank you. Without further ado, then: captains, the way is open. Safe travels.”

With that Thair stepped aside, and the first group approached the rift. Its core was the two captains, Marra Falk, Drisa, and Touanne. With them were Tellak and Jancia—the Lumimancer was in white leather armor and wearing a hood—as well as Haytham Talleh and three of his remaining mercenaries. Among them, surrounded but showing no sign of wishing to run, was Karti the Grand Summoner.

Ana still couldn’t quite believe that the cult leader would just cooperate. At the same time she didn’t trust that he’d actually face anything resembling justice, but forgoing vengeance against the man whose fault it ultimately was that she was even here was the price she’d paid for peace with Talleh and his mages. And if she were to be honest with herself, she was less and less upset about being abducted from outside that London nightclub. Sure, she regretted Nic’s death. She missed her comforts. But she was more alive here than she’d ever been in her old life, she had more people she considered friends than she’d ever had at once, and she had Messy. Messy alone made it all worth it.

Speaking of her girlfriend, Messy was across the square with the rest of the Party, holding hands with Aaspiyah and looking her way. Ana gave her her best Stacy smile: the coy yet smouldering one she’d used to make all of Nic’s friends gnaw their own livers with envy. Even at the distance between them her Perception let her see the blush that started at the tips of Messy’s ears and travelled all the way down to her neck.

Ana’s smile turned into a grin. God, it was good to be able to be able to tease and know that she wouldn’t mind if Messy called her on it.

But this was no time for that. She nodded to Messy, then turned away to join in the excited chatter of her own group. Stacy was one of the Stolen, an energetic young woman who’d never been in a Delve. She was equal parts excited and nervous, and the group of brothel girls—and two guys—did their absolute best to play up the excitement and soothe the nerves, telling her that she wouldn’t feel a thing, and that her shawl would be plenty warm enough in the late mountain spring they expected to walk into. At worst they may have to run for the nearest shelter if it was raining.

“Oh, I hope it’s morning or noon!” Sadie said as the crowd began to move. It wasn't. It was early in the evening and nearly cloudless—Ana had asked the Wayfarer. But there was no way Stacy could possibly know that, so Ana didn't comment as Sadie continued, “The market in Ellsthal is amazing! Not as good as the ones in Castra, of course, but you have to be realistic, right? And compared to here? I mean, I’d still rather go to Renvi for jewellery, but that’s about it.”

There was a chorus of agreement from the group. “Oh, he must be who you got those studs from!” Amise said, shaking Ana’s shoulder. “And they’re so good on you, by the way. Perfect match for your eyes.”

“I suppose,” Ana replied, not missing a beat. Maybe she should have taken out the thunderstone studs that Messy had given her, but she almost never did. And there was no point deflecting. Instead she leaned into it. “There was a woman working there when I got them, though. Really pretty, incredible eyes, um… elfin, I think? Is that the word?”

“That would be Mes-ten-di,” said Noal, one of the two guys in the group. He stressed each syllable and gave Sadie a long, meaningful look as he said it. “Renvi’s assistant, though I hear she’s some kind of combat Classer now. Our Sadie here was sweet on her for the longest time.”

“Who wouldn’t be?” Sadie replied, her eyes flashing the briefest apology to Ana as she grinned. “Like Stacy said: those eyes, man! And she’s really nice when you get to know her.”

“Well, yeah, we figured,” Amise said, bumping Sadie with her shoulder. “That, or she was just that good.”

Sadie flashed Ana another apologetic look, but Ana just giggled along with everyone else. And it wasn’t an act—not entirely. Not the lack of jealousy, at any rate. She’d wondered if she’d be jealous, but as it turned out, she didn’t care one bit about who Messy might have slept with in the past. She suspected she might not care if Messy slept with someone else now, for that matter, though she’d rather not put it to the test. And Messy didn’t seem like the type, anyway.

The officers' party was through by then, and Ana quickly checked with the Warfarer if anything was happening on the other side. But no, they’d simply appeared, being greeted as normal by a representative of the Ellsthal city council. And when no one came back through to the Splinter, and no one raised the alarm, the next group started through. This time it was Yildim and the others from the Exchange, presumably gone to handle some kind of business with the larger branch in the city on the other side. Then came everyone else. A steady stream of singles, pairs, groups, and Parties marched through the rift. Ana’s own Party—Messy and the others—went through with Aaspiyah at the front looking like Ana’s reflection in a slightly warped mirror. She’d even had her hair done in a fair copy of how Ana’s had been. The color wouldn’t last, but it didn’t need to. And Aaspiyah wasn’t the only one, either. Quite a few other women, and a few men, had done the same; among them was Jancia, though her hair was already a pale blonde and didn’t need coloring.

Of course, anyone who looked for Ana by her hairstyle wouldn’t be fooled for long. An Inspection or a few more details was all it took. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to make them waste time checking all those people while Ana slipped by, practically unrecognizable.

At least that was the plan. And as she and her company stepped up to the rift, Ana playing up her fake nerves while Amise coaxed her forward, she hoped that it’d work. It would be a terrible look if the first impression she made on a Bluesky city was spoiled by her leaving a trail of broken bodies in her wake.

It was only when Sadie and Noal were already through, and Ana was only two steps from the rift, that it truly struck her that this might be it. It was possible, even likely, that she’d never see this Splinter again. She’d been here for a hundred and forty eight days, by Drisa’s records. She’d been through a lot; a lot of pain, physical, social, and emotional, but a lot of good things, too. Against all odds, between the hard times, she’d felt a lot of joy here, and comfort. This Splinter, which they’d now gone and named for her, had become home. And now she might never see it again. How strange, then, that she didn’t feel more than she did.

With Amise’s hand on her back gently pushing her onward, Ana stepped into the rift…

…and found herself floating in a shapeless void.

She wasn't even surprised. She'd expected something to happen, no matter the Wayfarer promise. Whatever happened when someone stepped into a rift, it was clearly a golden opportunity for any deity with more time than manners to snatch her out of regular existence. At least the Wayfarer had the decency to give her a body and an environment. The Sentinel didn’t even bother with that.

Although… this wasn’t quite what she’d experienced with the Sentinel the last time he grabbed her. Then she hadn’t even been able to so much as think about her lack of surroundings. All she’d been able to do was to listen. Now it was more like she was actually floating in an unimaginably vast white room—soft, not stark, blinding white—and while she didn’t have a body she could look down at, it felt like she had one. Not in the sense that she had a full complement of limbs and digits, or that she experienced any kind of pressure or temperature or anything like that, but she had a sense of self, of there being more to her than a receptacle for some deity’s will, and that was an enormous difference. She didn’t like what was going on, but she was, on some level, grateful that she still had the ability to not like it.

“I don’t understand you.”

Soft and sympathetic, the voice was familiar, though she was used to having it into her thoughts rather than coming from all around.

“You are so tired, so often. The moments of true peace and happiness that you experience are so fleeting. And you choose this, again and again. Instead of simply letting go, instead of finally embracing that peace and that happiness, you continue to antagonize those who are beyond you. You continue to allow yourself to be used as a pawn in a game that does not benefit you. Why? What difference does it make to you if the Splinters fall? Why risk your life and happiness, and those of the ones around you, for the sake of a goddess only concerned with her own pride and amusement?”

“There’s no peace,” Ana replied bitterly. She fell silent, shocked that she’d actually spoken. It had been her first impulse, what she’d wanted to say—she just hadn’t expected to actually be able to say it.

“Why do you say that?” the voice asked, so genuine that it reminded Ana of Dr. Salman, her therapist back in London.

“It can’t last,” Ana answered, still a little amazed that whoever this third player was, she—they? It was hard to tell from the voice—actually seemed interested in what she had to say. “Whatever all this shit is, I’m caught up in it now. I don’t know the Wayfarer well enough to say that you’re not wrong about her, but it doesn’t matter if this is all about pride for her. The Sentinel tried to kill me. He tried to kill everyone in this—in the Splinter, and I was instrumental in stopping him. I killed one of his Ascenders. You think he’d let that go?”

“He might,” the voice answered. “He offered to do just that, did he not?”

He had. That was no great secret. Ana hadn’t told many people, but she’d spoken the words aloud. That might be enough, for all she knew. But she’d rejected his offer, and she stood by that.

“Even if he could be trusted, which I doubt,” Ana said, “I still wouldn’t accept.”

“And that is what I cannot understand. Why? Why put yourself through all this?”

“Why?” Ana snorted, as much as she could without an actual body. The sentiment was there, at least. She was over her surprise, and she saw no reason to show any deference to this voice who wouldn’t even give her a name. “I don’t see why I should tell you a goddamn thing. By the way you keep telling me to give up, and by the way you’re shittalking the Wayfarer, I kind of have to assume that you’re with the Sentinel. But sure, I’ll humor you. Why don’t I just roll over and let the Sentinel do whatever the hell he wants? For Messy. For my friends. For goddamn honor, if that means anything. And frankly, because I don’t have a choice. He burned my whole life to the ground. I don’t give a damn what’s growing from the ashes: he did that to me. Then, when I was finally finding my feet again, he tried to kill me. First by destroying the Splinter, then through his Ascender, and while I can’t prove that he had anything to do with Rill getting possessed, I have a pretty fucking strong suspicion. And if someone is willing to do that once, never mind over and over, there is no reason to think they won’t do it again, whatever they say. I can’t be sure I’ll have any peace until he’s gone, or I am. So you see, I have no reason to stop, and every fucking reason to keep going. Does that answer your question?”

There was a drawn out silence before the voice replied, “Yes. I understand now. One must end. You, or the Lord of Order. And you believe that you might come out triumphant. Fascinating. I will be watching you with interest, Anastasia Cole.”

“WHO ARE YOU?!” Ana roared into the emptiness, but it was too late. The white void collapsed, and Ana’s sandals touched the smooth flagstones of an unfamiliar square, in an unfamiliar city, in an unfamiliar world.

It was evening in late spring, somewhere in a deep valley in a mountain range Ana had never heard of. The air was pleasantly cool and heavy with a thousand scents. There were the perfumes of her companions, of course, but beyond them the soft breeze that caressed her skin brought the smell of flowers and leather and soaps and dozens of kinds of food and other wares being sold by vendors who hadn’t yet packed up for the day, as well as less pleasant odors like the manure of animals. In the distance a dog barked—the first Ana had heard since leaving London. Vendors called out to those who came through the portal, onlookers with nothing better to do gawked at the newcomers, and up ahead, the officers’ group looked like they were in an argument with an official-looking man and his entourage. Jancia had her hood down, looking better in a side-cut than Ana ever had.

The argument looked like it was getting heated, but that was none of Ana’s business. Her role was to go somewhere with her group, thank Sadie and Braggie for their help, and then disappear to join up with Messy and the others. And that was what she intended to do.

“Alright ladies, on you go!” said a softfaced man, waving them forward. “No loitering in the arrival spot. Check-in’s over there.”

Ana shook off the lingering confusion and annoyance of her short-lived spiritual abduction. She’d need to have a conversation with the Wayfarer about that, but later. It could wait. For now, she had a role to play, one that would take most of her concentration to pull off believably.

Surrounded by an excited gaggle of Companions and a Valkyrian Barmaid, Stacy gasped dramatically, gawked at her surroundings, and took her first steps into the Primes.

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Well, friends, we made it. Ana has officially left the Splinter. Her Splinter. For now, at least.

Welcome to Ellsthal.