The archangel Misery speaks to hir companion seraph through the connection they share. Instructions given without the use of words. The seraph will bait the Heretics while the archangel Misery wakes the jump gate. No longer shackled by the vise of the siegeships, the confection of carbon fiber and holy bluestone is once again free to admit vessels of the Faithful. Perhaps even an entire banquet.

The two units split, their paths diverging. The seraph surges toward the slowly forming knot of siegeships, drawing its blades as the enemy brightens with alarm. The archangel Misery pulls a cloak around hirself, hiding from the Edgeless Blade’s view the same way the Edgeless Blade is trying to hide from hir view. But the archangel Misery is better at it. Zie will not be detected.

The seraph’s blade slices through the belly of one Heretic ship as it sails past. A single touch, surgically applied over hidden points by a knowing hand. By the time the Heretic ship realizes what happened it’s already splitting apart, stonecores melting, heat and light bursting through the incision. Then there’s no ship but a ball of furiously expanding holystone shrapnel, a light in the void. But the seraph has long moved on. It seeks out a second target, a third. It is more powerful than its pilot can imagine.

The archangel Misery comes into the vicinity of the jump gate, parked at the periphery of Monkglass’s jurisdiction. Even at top speed the journey has taken too long. The archangel longs to join the fight. To wet its blades with the bile of the Heretics. But no—backup is needed. After all, there are thirty-six enemy siegeships, and only two of them. Plus, zie wants to save the finishing blow for Ono Red-2. The archangel Misery wakes the ring of holy bluestone with the lightest touch, and hir soul shivers in resonance with the jump point as it inserts itself back into the universe-spanning network. Home at last, proud and glowing and blue. The archangel Misery sends a message through the portal, directed at the jump gate by Angelsteeth. Come now. We are discovered; the Throne and the Lady Storm have betrayed us. We must destroy them all.