I look back at her to see that Adelynn is holding out a sword for me to take. My sword. The words inscribed on the blade catch in that golden light.

Inventi sumus en fide.

‘In faith, we are found,’ I say, and I get to my feet though my limbs ache and my bones protest and my vision dazzles.

‘Are you ready?’ she asks.

It is a question that Adelynn has asked me countless times since she made a warrior of me. A question that there is only ever one answer to. An answer that I finally find that I can honestly give.

‘I am ready,’ I tell her, and I take up the sword.

Adelynn draws me close and presses her forehead to mine, eyes closed. For a moment, all is still, and I catch the scent of sacred oils.

‘Stand, until you cannot,’ Adelynn says to me softly.

‘I will,’ I reply.

‘Good,’ she says, and she smiles at me. ‘Now go. Finish it, and I will see you when your work is done.’

I nod. ‘At the God-Emperor’s side, Sister.’

‘At the God-Emperor’s side,’ she says.

And then she lets me go.

Ravara

RAVARA

‘You!’

I hurl the word at the sorcerer like a thrown dagger. My muscles strain against nothing, and my skin beads with sweat as I fight to reach for my twin swords.

‘Heretic filth,’ I manage to say, through my teeth. ‘You did this. You led me here.’

The sorcerer tilts his head, regarding me with patient crystal lenses.

‘My name is Amenthas,’ he says, as though offended. His true voice is cultured and softly accented. ‘And I did not lead you anywhere, inquisitor. You came to this ending of your own free will. Just as the priests did.’

He looks down at them, frozen in their weeping. Now that he is kneeling, I see that Castanne wears the penitent’s bonds around his ankles, just as Silvera does.

‘They wanted to protect their world,’ Amenthas says. ‘After the Rift was born they sent plea after plea into the darkness, but received no answer. No aid, from your liar god or His awoken son. But I knew that the Resonance lay here. That given time you would bring the Conduit and the martyr to find it. So I granted the priests protection, for a time.’

‘They trusted you,’ I say, disgusted. ‘Though they knew what you were.’

He shakes his head. ‘They were desperate,’ he says. ‘And in their desperation they saw only what they wanted to see. They chose to ignore the cost. Just as you did, for Sofika and for yourself.’

‘Don’t you say her name,’ I snarl. ‘You did this to her. To me.’

Amenthas nods. ‘I did,’ he says. ‘Because it had to be done.’

He glances at Sofika.