“I…”
She laughed again, the sound slightly forced. “Scorio, grow up. We’re both young, both over our heads, and we’ve come to care deeply for each other. Correct?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then it’s natural that the moment would get carried away. That… the physical intensity of that fight, the way you were using your aura on me…” She glanced away. “It was just a… think of it as a physical reaction. Reflexive.” Her gaze cut back to him. “You’re not exactly terrible to look at, and confidence is… well. Attractive.”
Scorio felt his cheeks burn. He studied her intently. Was she telling the truth? Lying? Lying to herself? He wasn’t sure. Wasn’t sure which version he wanted to be true.
“So I say we just put it behind us.” She raised her chin and glared at him defiantly. “There’s too much on the line right now for us to, what - start acting ridiculously around each other? Let’s pretend it never happened and just move on.”
“Are you… sure?” His words sounded weak in his own ears, and he realized he felt relieved. Not simply relieved, but conflictedly so. He wanted to cross to her, sink his hands in her thick hair, tilt her face up to his… but also dreaded what might come of such a move.
Why? Why was this so complicated for him?
She didn’t answer him immediately. Her gaze was sharp, piercing, and only after a drawn out pause did she smile mockingly. “Of course I’m sure. Now. Where were you? Did I miss anything important? Don’t tell me you swore a Heart Oath to the Iron Tyrant while I was gone.”
“No,” laughed Scorio, but he still felt shaky. “No, Alain came through. And oh - I ran into Lianshi in the dining hall. Juniper’s back in town, and suddenly things between her and Leonis are upside down.”
Naomi’s eyes widened. “Juniper? Oh.” She flushed again and gave a shaky laugh of her own. “See? That kind of nonsense is the last thing we need. She didn’t ask you for advice, did she?”
“Oh, come on. I’m not a complete idiot.”
“So you didn’t try to help?”
“No, Naomi.” He glared at her. “I told her to actually talk to Juniper and see how it felt. See who she’s become. She’s been fighting these past two years for Plassus against the Blood Ox. Lianshi needs to match her memories to reality before making any decisions.”
“Well.” Naomi brushed her hair back. “Not the worst advice, I’ll grant you that. And, ah…?”
“I did mention our…” What should he call it? “Our… you know.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Not what he should have called it, then.
“Our kiss.” He shrugged, as if that should have been obvious. “And she was, you know. Very understanding.”
“Very understanding. Of what, exactly?”
The ice under his metaphorical feet creaked ominously.
“Of how ridiculously attractive I am. She didn’t blame you. She’s just surprised -” Naomi’s eyes narrowed to slits, so Scorio laughed and raised his hands. “What? You just said I wasn’t absolutely terrible to look at.”
“There’s a difference, Scorio, between - you know what? Never mind. Did she give you any… advice?”
“Yeah.” Scorio blew out his cheeks. “She said I should say my goodbyes to everyone I care about, because -”
Naomi went still and the tension in the room rose sharply.
“Kidding! Haha. Jokes. You know? To, ah, break the tension?”
“You’re doing a wonderful job of it.”
“She just said we should talk. Which we’re doing. So: advice followed. Thanks… Lianshi?”
Naomi shook her head. “What am I doing wasting my time with you?”
“Ah… can’t help you with that one.”
Naomi closed her eyes for a moment as if composing herself, then adopted a polite expression when she opened them. “You said Alain came through?”
“Queen Xandera, right.” And he told her everything he’d learned.
Naomi’s attitude melted from stiff self-consciousness to genuinely fascinated. “Everqueen? That’s… incredible. So every other queen she birthed was… herself?”
“Right. Not a daughter, not a sister. Her exact self. If I understood it, all the spires in this complex here, in the Fury Spires, were ruled by copies of herself. But the other dynasties fell for the Iron Tyrant’s manipulations and helped slaughter her followers.”
“And now she’s alone? No Ember Council, nothing but dumb Titans and drudges?” Naomi shook her head. “She has to be incredibly strong to have lasted this long under Bravurn.”
“Who, it turns out, has a really disgusting obsession with her.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Naomi made a face. “The more repressed a man appears to be, the greater the monster he’s hiding under the surface. Shall we go kill him now?”
Scorio opened his mouth to respond but didn’t know what to say.
“I’m joking, Scorio.” She forced a smile. “I know how to do humor.”
“Right. I can tell.”
“But seriously, we should go kill him.”
Now Scorio did laugh. “Alright. I’ll ask him to step away from the meeting with the other Blood Barons and we’ll put him down.”
“Good. Now?”
“Soon. How about we go find Nox while everyone else is still busy?”
“I’d have thought you’d want to go sniff around all these powerful people and watch them eat.”
“I’m all grown up, what can I say?” Scorio stood. “Come on. Nox is great and all, but even his patience has a limit.”
“He’s still below?”
Scorio closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He forced his attention outward, sought out that sense of weight, and then there it was, almost directly below them.
“Yes. He’s as here as he’s ever going to be.”
Naomi rose smoothly to her feet. “If it’s him. We don’t know that for sure.”
“True. One way to find out.”
“Then let’s do it.”
She walked around the rotunda, joined him by the door, and gave him a tight smile. “I’m glad we cleared that all up.”
“Me, too,” he said, abruptly feeling helplessly at sea once more.
She watched him with an inscrutable expression, then led the way out into the hall.
They descended rapidly. The spire felt emptied of Great Souls. Everyone had to be attending the ceremonies or dinners or whatever was going on. Scorio fought the urge to break into a jog, and they walked down mostly in silence. He kept insisting to himself it was a companionable silence, but every once in a while he’d catch Naomi watching him, which would cause her to immediately look away, only for her to force herself to look back and either raise an eyebrow or smile.
Great.
They descended into the base chamber and passed into the maze of freestanding walls, and this time Scorio realized that they weren’t a maze at all, but instead set up in intersecting spiral curves like the face of a sunflower. He studied the patterns on the walls with renewed interest as they passed; the serpentine intertwinings of iron, obsidian, bronze, and other substances was fascinating and complex. There was no repetitive pattern to them, but rather an endless interweaving such that no section appeared to be duplicated.
And everywhere along their length were holes and demolished sections where no doubt the gems and gold and silver had been torn out by Great Souls.
They passed through this outer band of hallways and reached the low-ceilinged area filled with natural columns. Activating his darkvision, Scorio led the way till the first of the Titans came into view.
“Here we go,” he whispered, and palms raised, he advanced.
This time, the Titans reacted not at all.
Carefully, slowly, Scorio and Naomi passed between two of them. The floor continued to slope ever more steeply, and the heat here became oppressive, so baking hot that Scorio felt his eyes dry out if he didn’t blink often enough, his mouth and nostrils grow parched.
“Question,” said Naomi softly as they proceeded slowly. “Why are all the Titans facing outward if they’re here to defend against fiends from the center?”