Chapter 11: Later

Millbrook didn’t sleep at all that night, and someone rolled out a keg of ale, and then two more, and Widow Hesk brought out a pot of stew big enough to fit a grown man inside. Harl and Bram dragged tables down to the beach, and the whole village packed around them to watch the dock burn. Every few minutes, somebody slapped Kai on the back and pushed another ale into his hand, and he lost count somewhere after four.

[Your blood alcohol content is increasing]

"That’s the idea," Kai slurred.

[You are becoming intoxicated]

"I was never that coordinated to begin with," Kai slurred.

[That is true]

Kai leaned back and dug his toes into the cool sand, and for once, nothing was trying to kill him, arrest him, or eat him. Someone had found a fiddle, the younger villagers were dancing in the firelight, and Tobin was telling everyone about the biggest fish he had ever caught, which got bigger every time he told it.

On the other side of the table, Wren was asking Garrick question after question about his hammer. He answered her with single words, and she smiled at every one of them like it was the wisest thing anyone had ever said.

"Is Wren flirting with Garrick?" Kai whispered.

[Her heart rate has been elevated for the past 53 minutes. Garrick’s heart rate has been elevated for the past 52 minutes. He noticed one minute after she started]

"Of course he noticed," Kai whispered. "How many points do I have now?"

[You have 13 divinity points, and you have unlocked several new skills. I also want to tell you something]

"What?" Kai whispered.

[When you are not drunk]

"That doesn’t sound good," Kai whispered.

[It is not bad. It is just important]

Dagna sat down across from him with a fresh mug, her hair loose around her shoulders for once, and without the gaff hook she looked younger, even if she still looked like she could kill a man.

"You’re drinking too much," Dagna said.

"Then why did you bring me another one?" Kai asked.

"Because you deserve it," Dagna said, and she held up her mug. "To Tam."

"To Tam," Kai said, raising his.

"I’ll fix your pants again tomorrow," Dagna said. "You tore a hole in the knee when you slid down that dock."

"You don’t have to do that," Kai said.

"I want to," Dagna said. She reached across the table and brushed some sand off his shoulder, and she left her hand there a little too long. "Someone has to take care of the god, since he can’t take care of himself."

[Her heart rate is elevated]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[Her faith is at 19% and climbing]

Kai had no idea what to say to that, but luckily Garrick jumped up from the bench so fast that Wren almost fell off it.

"Kai," Garrick said. "You need to see this."

Garrick headed down to the big gutter maw at the waterline, and Kai stumbled after him with Mira and Dagna. The fire had burned holes through its pale skin, revealing a thick band of iron bolted around its body, so old that the skin had grown over it.

Garrick knelt down and wiped away the soot with his thumb, revealing a tower with a crown on top, surrounded by a chain, engraved into the iron. Mira gasped when she saw it.

"That’s the Draven crest," Mira said.

"It’s Draven’s iron," Garrick said. "The same iron as your shackles. I’d recognize it anywhere."

"Why would Draven put a collar on a monster?" Kai asked.

"You don’t put a collar on a wild animal," Dagna said softly. "You put a collar on something that belongs to you."

Kai could still hear the fiddle and the laughter behind them, but it all felt very far away now.

"He’s breeding them," Mira said coldly. "He’s breeding them in his mines and letting them loose through the drains."

"Why would he do that?" Kai asked.

"The villages on this river sit on land that doesn’t belong to Draven," Garrick said. "And that land is worth a lot, because there’s iron under the hills around Millbrook. If all of the villagers died or ran away, that land would be free for Draven to take."

"And the Radiant Church sent us a priest who blessed the water and did nothing," Dagna said. "Because they were paid to do nothing."

"You don’t know that," Kai said.

"Don’t I?" Dagna asked.

Kai looked down at the crest and thought about the fake letters written in a dead man’s handwriting, and about a priest who took their money and ran.

"No," Kai said. "You’re right."

"That’s not all," Dagna said, without taking her eyes off the collar. "If he wants our land, he needs workers to mine it. Tam didn’t drown. We never found his body. In all these months, we haven’t found a single body."

"You think they’re alive," Mira said, looking up at her.

"Draven needs miners," Dagna said. "And my brother is strong."

The bonfire crackled, and all of a sudden, Kai didn’t feel drunk anymore.

[Kai, this is bigger than one village]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[This is what happens when you tell people you are a god. They expect you to be one]

"I know," Kai whispered.

"We can talk about this tomorrow," Garrick said. "When everyone is sober."

"When he’s sober," Dagna said, pointing at Kai.

"I am very sober," Kai said, and immediately tripped over the gutter maw’s tail.

The music went on until well after midnight, and one by one, people went home or fell asleep at the tables, until the dock was nothing but a blackened frame still glowing red.

Kai walked down the beach to let the cold river air clear his head, and he found a rock near the water and sat down on it. A few minutes later, he heard footsteps in the sand behind him.

Mira walked over with her boots in one hand and sat down beside him, and since it wasn’t a very big rock, they ended up close together, watching the water in silence.

"You said later," Kai said.

"Yes," Mira said.

"Is it later?" Kai asked.

Mira turned to look at him, and the glow from the dock lit up half of her face and made her silver hair shine.

"You’re a liar," Mira said quietly. "You’re a thief. You bought me with rocks. You have no shame and, most of the time, no pants. And your plans never work."

"Is this leading somewhere good?" Kai asked.

"You threw yourself in front of death for me twice in two days," Mira said. "No one has ever done that for me. Not even my father."

She leaned in, and Kai leaned in too, close enough to smell the smoke in her hair and the ale on her breath. She laid her hand flat on his chest and felt how fast his heart was beating, and Syraphim could feel it too.

[Your heart rate is elevated—]

"Not now," Kai whispered.

[I cannot help it] Syraphim said, and she sounded strange. [Kai, something is happening. The faith. There are thirty-one of them, and it is—]

They were an inch away from kissing when a golden light burst out of the space between them and knocked them both clean off the rock. Kai landed flat on his back in the sand, staring up at the sky, and there was a woman floating above him.

She was see-through and made entirely of light, with long platinum hair that drifted around her as if she were underwater. Her eyes were white, with a thin gold ring spinning inside each one, a gold collar circled her neck, and two golden rings hovered above her head like a halo. Even her dress was see-through, made of the same soft light as the rest of her body.

She looked down at her own hands, and then at Kai.

"Oh," Syraphim said.

She wasn’t speaking inside his head anymore, but out loud into the night air.

"I did not mean to do that," Syraphim said.

"SYRAPHIM?" Kai yelled.

"I think the faith from the villagers allowed me to take a form for a short amount of time," Syraphim said, turning her hands over. "I do not know how to control it yet. I just— You were about to— And something inside me just—"

She stopped talking and looked down at Kai in the sand, and then over at the other side of the rock, where Mira was lying in the sand too.

"I think I interrupted," Syraphim said.

"YOU THINK?" Kai yelled.

Mira propped herself up on her elbows and stared at the glowing woman floating above them.

"Who is that?" Mira asked.

"That’s Syraphim," Kai said. "The voice in my head. My system."

"The voice is a woman?" Mira asked.

"I TOLD YOU SHE WAS A WOMAN!" Kai said.

"You didn’t tell me she looked like that," Mira said.

Syraphim kept studying herself in wonder, and Kai realized that she had never seen herself before.

"You asked me what I would want to look like," Syraphim said to Kai. "I did not know. I suppose it decided for me."

Her body started to flicker, and the light around her began to fade.

"I cannot hold it," Syraphim said. "I am—"

And then she was gone, and the beach went dark again except for the dock still glowing red in the distance. Kai lay there in the sand, staring up at nothing.

"Syraphim?" Kai asked.

[I am here] Syraphim said, and her voice sounded muffled inside his head. [I have a lot to process]

Mira stood up, dusted the sand off her dress, and picked up her boots.

"Later," Mira said.

"Later?" Kai asked. "Is it still later?"

"Later, when there aren’t three of us," Mira said, and she walked away up the beach.

Kai stayed in the sand for a long time after she left.

[Faith gained. Mira Vallen: +2%.]

"Why?" Kai whispered.

[Jealousy. I am learning about jealousy]

She was quiet for a moment.

[I think I am jealous too]