This was a different Roarhaven to the one she had visited. It wasn’t a town any more – it was a city. As she was driven through it, Tanith glimpsed the old drabness still present in places, but this only made the newer buildings appear all the more glorious.

When she was here last, the Sanctuary had been a low, charmless, circular building. Now it was a palace. It had towers and steeples, a brightly-lit beacon to keep the darkness back. The inside was just as glorious, even though she was escorted through it with a ring of Cleavers around her.

Once the doctors had determined that there was no Remnant present, her shackles were removed and Tanith was taken to a quiet room for debriefing. She was brought a coffee. She drank it while her stomach rumbled. She waited for whomever they would send.

The door handle rattled and Valkyrie burst in.

“Oh, thank God,” Tanith said, actually laughing. “I was getting worried for a—”

She didn’t get a chance to finish. She didn’t even get a chance to stand up. Valkyrie wrapped her in a hug so tight it was hard to move.

“You’re alive,” Valkyrie whispered.

“You sound surprised.”

Valkyrie hugged her tighter. “I saw you yesterday. You were covering my escape.”

“I helped you?” Tanith said. “Even when I had a Remnant inside me?”

Valkyrie released her and stepped back, smiling. “Even then,” she said.

Valkyrie had changed. She was taller, for a start. Stronger. Tanith had felt it in the hug, and now she saw it in the shoulders.

“You look great,” she said.

“It is so good to have you back.” Valkyrie ignored the chair and sat on the corner of the table.

“I’m going to take your word for that,” said Tanith. “To me, I only saw you a few hours ago. Val, Sanguine said some strange things. I know a lot has happened since I’ve been gone, but some of what he said was pure nuts. He said you were Darquesse.”

Valkyrie took a breath. “He wasn’t lying.”

“But … but then what—?”

Valkyrie half smiled. “Funny. I’ve just had this conversation with Melancholia.”

“Melancholia … The blonde Necromancer? Annoying?”

“Who later became the Death Bringer,” Valkyrie said. “Darquesse was my true name, but I couldn’t handle the power. It took on a life of its own, a personality of its own. Now it has a body of its own – my reflection.”

“You’re … You’re the one all the Sensitives had the nightmares about?”

“I was. Now she is.”

“And Sanguine said I worked for her? For Darquesse?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Valkyrie. “The Remnant in you glimpsed the apocalypse that Darquesse would bring about. You’ve been helping her.”

“And Sanguine was my partner?”

“Is that what he said?”

“He said we even had our own gang at one stage.”