By the afternoon after the battle, all of the survivors had been brought back down to the encampment at the plateau, where Arjun and the other healers worked to save as many lives as they could. It was fortunate that the allied troops had already been in full retreat from the blood orbs that Ractia had summoned, and that they’d had Kaija’s wall of ice between them and Liv’s archmage spell.

The wall had been utterly destroyed, sending splinters of adamant ice flying away from where the falling spears had hit the ground. Some of those splinters had been driven into armor, or even into flesh - but Kaija and Miina assured Liv that was better than what would have happened if the blood emanations had managed to get in among the troops.

One such splinter had taken Kaija in the shoulder, driven straight through her armor by the force of the successive explosions, and she currently wore a sling to support her arm. That didn’t stop her - or half a dozen of Liv’s least injured guards - from accompanying Liv back up to the rift.

They passed Silica on the way. The wyrm remained where she’d fallen, both because no one had any desire to try to move her enormous body, and because both Liv and Arjun had pointed out that being immersed in the mana of the shoal could only help to accelerate her healing.

“How are you?” Liv asked. She ended up having to swing down out of Steria’s saddle to approach the wounded wyrm; no matter how well trained, the mare simply had no interest in getting anywhere near a predator that large.

Silica’s good eye opened, and fixed on Liv. “The word of healing is the only reason I am still alive,” she admitted, her voice rumbling through Liv’s bones. “Twice over, now. Everything but the eye will heal.”

“I’m sorry,” Liv said, reaching out to place one hand on the wyrm’s face. She was wearing most of her armor, just in case one or two of Ractia’s cultists had managed to both survive and to avoid capture, but she’d left her gauntlets to hang from Steria’s saddle. As a result, she could feel the way the sun had warmed the great wyrm’s scales. “Do you want help getting back to the desert?”

Silica stirred her wings, revealing that, while the rents had begun to heal, they would not be capable of supporting her in flight any time soon. “I am not certain even you could lift me on one of those platforms,” she admitted. “What would be helpful would be someone to deliver a cow or two, occasionally. Only until I am ready to hunt again.”

“I wasn’t going to use Aluth,” Liv told her. “Once we’re done here I can invoke a tether back to Feic Seria. As long as I’m touching you, you’ll come along... though,” she realized, with a wince, “I think you may be too big for the room the waystone is in.”

“The thought is kind of you,” Silica said. “If your hunters can keep me fed while I heal, that will be enough.”

“I’ll see to it,” Liv promised, then removed her hand from the wyrm’s scales. Silica closed her eyes again, muttered an invocation to direct Cail’s effects throughout her body, and settled back down to rest.

Liv left her to it, walking back over to Steria and swinging back up into the saddle. They continued up the mountain slope, over the pitted and blasted ground where Liv’s spell had destroyed Ractia’s army of blood orbs, and then through the small village where the cult had lived. She reined the mare wide around the bloodstained altar where the blood-letters had made their sacrifices, and was pleased to see that the bodies of their victims had been removed.

“They’ve been collected,” Kaija assured her. “They’ll be given the same funeral rites as our soldiers. Bryn Grenfell is seeing to it, actually; she can make the flames hot enough that not even bone is left behind.”

“Good.”

They left their horses tied to a stake just outside the open double doors - another thing that Liv wouldn’t have thought of herself, but Akseli had not only brought one, but a hammer to drive it into the earth, besides. One of the human guards stayed to water the horses and give them each a helping of oats. While they’d all been making great strides in the Elden method of circulating mana safely, Liv thought it best not to bring anyone but Eld down into the depths.

The Eld, and those who weren’t susceptible to the effects of mana density. Ghveris and Wren were already waiting for them, down at the base of the shaft, along with Aira tär Keria and the surviving elders. Aatu, rather than being burned in a mass pyre, was to be taken back to the Hall of Ancestors, along with the enchanted lance he’d taken back from those who’d betrayed his house.

“What do we know?” Liv asked, as she strode into the control room of the rift.

“She broke the waystone, for one thing,” Wren said. The huntress turned away from whatever she’d been speaking to Ghveris about, found herself an empty patch of wall, and leaned back against it. The sight was comforting - a sign that things were back to normal between the two of them.

“Not just broken,” Aira said, tapping her thorny crown from where she sat next to a shattered glass control panel. It was an odd sight, without brightly colored sigils scrolling across the surface. “She’s wiped everything, Livara. There are no waystones connected to this place, no records of where she might have gone. Every Antrian is gone, every vein of mana stone connecting to their docks or to the waystone chamber severed. They’ve taken everything they could rip out of the rooms, and anything left behind they destroyed as best they could. The wind turbines off the summit were ripped out of the bare rock. They even broke the mechanisms to receive power from the ring. I expect this rift will wither and die, with no remaining source of mana.”

“In other words,” Liv’s great-uncle Eilis said, “she’d planned to pull out of this place before she ever fought us. All of this would have taken days - weeks - maybe even months of preparation. She let us grind our forces down against their defenses, all the way up the mountain, and threw away most of her forces, but she was never going to let us pin her down here.”

“You must feel at least somewhat relieved,” Liv pointed out. “You told me there was no confluence here, and now we know why.” Clearing up the mystery didn’t make her feel any better, though - it only made her feel like they’d wasted the lives of hundreds of good men and women for nothing.

“It’s a small comfort,” Liv’s grandmother admitted. “But it is something.”

Eilis nodded. “Better this than the idea that we might not be able to sense anything because she is a Vædim. This will make it easier to track her down, at least.”

“Easier, but not easy. Quite difficult, in fact,” Ilmari pointed out. Liv still wasn’t entirely certain where she stood with Keri’s father; while they hadn’t had another argument, she also didn’t get the impression he was one of her supporters.

“I’d like to bring Sidonie in,” Liv said, after a moment. “To study whatever she can find here. Maybe some of the more advanced students to help her.”

“I suspect there is little enough left to learn,” Aira admitted, “but it is worth scouring the place for every clue we can find. We can send a few people with the word of stone to reconnect the veins of Aluthet’Staia; that may help, somewhat.”

“And what else, in the meanwhile?” Elder Veera of Soltheris broke in. “Our enemy remains at large. She could strike anywhere with a waystone, at any time. How can any of us be safe so long as a single one of the old gods walks the world?”

“We start by checking in with every waystone we can,” Liv said. “Every place that’s held by an Elden House, or a Baron, or the ksatriya in Lendh ka Dakruim. We compile a list, and mark off every location confirmed to be safe. Anywhere that doesn’t respond, or that reports an assault - well, that would tell us where to begin.”

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Aira met her eyes. “You’ve seen the map on the ring,” the old woman said. “You know there are many waystones scattered across the world in places that no one watches.”

“Most of Varuna,” Ghveris said, with a hiss of steam and a rumble. “Especially west of these mountains.”

Liv nodded. “We’re going to have to send teams to check every waystone in the world,” she said. “No matter where they are. Until we find some sign of where she’s gone to.”

“And all the while we search for her, she will have the time and space to continue whatever it is she is doing,” Elder Taneli, of House Asuris, pointed out.

“Some kind of machine,” Eila said. “That’s what Karis told you, isn’t it, Liv?”

She shook her head. “He said he needed to take mana capacitors back to her, from the Tidal Rift,” Liv explained. “It was the Red Shield hunters Wren captured that told us she was making a machine. Looting parts from rifts all over the world. But they didn’t know what it was supposed to do - and it clearly isn’t here.”

“We’re in a race, then,” Wren said. “It comes down to whether she finishes this thing before we find her.”

Ghveris raised his enormous gauntlet, spread out his articulated fingers, and shook his hand, parallel to the floor. It was a disconcertingly human gesture from such a massive, armored figure. “If she is taking components from rifts across the world, she may not yet have everything she needs,” the war machine pointed out. “We may be able to catch her servants looting other rifts. Stop them from taking what they need.”

“She’s certainly sacrificed enough of her pawns,” Ilmari admitted. “It will leave her with less people to send on these retrieval missions. But there is still too much we don’t know. In the meanwhile, we need to get our wounded soldiers back to their homes to recover.”

“Not only the wounded,” Veera said. “Our warriors have been away from the north too long already. They all need time to rest and recover - to see their families again.”

“You want to split the army up?” Liv asked, frowning.

“There’s no foe to fight,” the elder from Soltheris pointed out. “Until we know where she is, there’s no point in keeping an encampment all the way out here. It’s an enormous drain on our resources to support an army in the field like this, and if it isn’t going to be used, then yes, our soldiers need to come home.”

“Not to mention,” said Ilmari, “that our warriors will be better used defending our own waystones, now.”

“We only have a chance against her when we’re all together,” Liv said, pushing back. “Ask the elders who fought her.” Because, of course, the ones who were proposing this had been the same elders left to guard the other waystones that they’d worried Ractia might flee to.

“And if you knew where she was, we would not be saying this,” Ilmari said. “In any event, this is a thing for the elders to discuss with your father, Livara. He is the one who is in command of our forces.”

She bit her lip, but remained silent. Liv didn’t want to fight with Keri’s father, but she also couldn’t help but feel this was the wrong decision. They’d built an alliance and won their victory - two victories, between the battle against Lucania and then the battle here at Nightfall Peak. Together, they’d proved this could work. To let everyone just splinter now, when they knew their enemy was still out there - it seemed, to her, short sighted.

“Understood,” Liv said, however. “I’ll get a team here to study these ruins, then, and take another group up to the ring to see whether we can learn anything from there.”

“You will have a short time to set things in motion,” Ilmari told her, “but plan on coming to the Hall of Ancestors in a month. We will judge Nighthawk Wind Dancer there.”

“This is an alliance,” Liv pointed out. “Between both humans and Vakansa. If we’re going to put people on trial, both sides of the alliance should have a voice in it.”

“You can speak for the humans,” Veera said, with a shrug.

“No, her request is reasonable,” Aira pointed out. “We permit each house to send three elders. Bring two of your barons with you, Livara, and whoever the three of you need to make a camp. I will see that a place is set aside. Be certain that no one brings any weapons, however.”

After a moment’s thought, Liv nodded.

“I think you’re forgetting something,” Wren pointed out. “My father is not a human, and he isn’t an Eld. If he’s going to be judged for what he’s done, the Red Shield Tribe should have a voice, as well.”

“Three representatives and an encampment,” Liv agreed, the moment her friend had finished speaking. “Just like Whitehill is getting.”

Elder Veera opened her mouth to object, but Aira was quicker.

“Agreed,” the old woman said.

“You can’t be serious,” Veera exclaimed. “The bats are not our allies. They attacked us at Soltheris, completely unprovoked.”

“So did a lot of soldiers from House Iravata,” Liv pointed out. “These would be Red Shields who left Ractia, rather than attack. They’ve had no part in this war, save to help us. Ask my father or Keri, or even Airis ka Reimis - they helped get our people across Varuna to take the bridge waystone. We might not have ever made it through the jungle without them, and if we’re going to be judging their former chief, giving them a voice is the least we can do.”

“Not only their chief,” Veera said. “Wren Wind Dancer, you are summoned to the Hall of Ancestors as well, to stand judgement before the assembled elders for your part in the assault on Soltheris.”

“I thought this was settled,” Liv said, taking a step toward the elder.

“Set aside, until after we’d defeated Ractia, perhaps,” Veera said. “But no, not settled.”

“I have made my feelings on this known,” Aira broke in.

“And yet, your feelings do not dictate the will of the other houses,” Ilmari told her. He cast his glance to Wren, first, and then to Liv, and she thought she saw something soften, ever so slightly, in his eyes.

“Until she stands before the entire council, this will never be finished,” Keri’s father said. “If you truly wish your friend to be exonerated, Livara, this is the way to do it.”

Liv turned to Wren, so that she could look her friend in the eyes, and was surprised to see that the huntress had put a hand on Ghveris’s arm. House Syvä and House Däivi, Liv counted in her head. Aira will bring House Keria, as well. That leaves Bælris, Kalleis, Asuris, and whatever is left of Iravata. If I have three votes, and the Red Shields as well... she liked the math, even if she didn’t like the precedent.

“This will settle things for Wren in the north,” Liv asked, “once and for all?” She met eyes with each of the elders present, in turn, and waited for each to nod. Then, she turned away from them and walked over to Wren. She reached out for her friend’s free hand, and took it in her own.

“Do you still trust me?” she asked the huntress, in a whisper.

Wren nodded. “I do.”

“Then we should do this,” Liv told her. “I don’t want people like Juhani to come after you again and again. Get through this, and then they won’t be able to question you anymore. It’ll be over.”

Wren took a deep breath, and nodded. “Alright,” she said, raising her voice. “I’ll be there in a month.”

“As will I,” Ghveris rumbled.

Elder Veera frowned.

“I am the oldest of my people in the world,” the war-machine continued. “If the Red Shield Tribe will have three voices on a council of elders, there is no one more qualified to hold one of those seats.”

“To say nothing of the fact that whoever the Red Shields choose, or whoever sits for Whitehill, is not subject to the preferences of House Kalleis, or any other house,” Liv pointed out.

Aira rose from her seat, smiled, and put a hand on Veera’s shoulder. “Of course,” the old woman said. “Now. We need to be getting back to our own lands. If we are going to gather our people at the Hall of Ancestors in such a short time, there are many messages that will need to be sent.”

“That sounds wise,” Liv’s grandmother said, extending an arm to Ilmari. “I wanted to ask after your son’s recovery,” Eila said, leading the other man out.

Only Liv’s great-uncle lingered, behind the other elders.

“If you wish this alliance to outlast the current moment,” Eilis said, “It cannot simply be dictated to by the Vakansa. But I imagine you know that, already.” He patted Liv on the shoulder, and then trailed after the other elders.

Once they’d gone, Liv caught Kaija’s eye, and nodded to the door. At the former armorer’s signal, two of Liv’s guards stepped outside into the corridor, to prevent anyone from entering. Kaija herself joined Liv, Wren, and Ghveris in a small cluster at the center of the control room.

“Are you certain about this?” Wren asked.

“I’ve counted the votes, and I feel pretty good about them,” Liv said. “But we’d need to go to this thing anyway. My uncle is right.”

“The last time we thought we knew how people were going to vote, it didn’t go so well,” Wren pointed out.

Liv nodded. “This time, there’s no Genevieve Arundell. And I’ve got a month to talk to people before the voting actually happens. Which means we need to get back to Whitehill, and start preparing.”