What would she do with this?
“You’re only now telling me?” Wax demanded.
“I contacted you a year ago,” Harmony said, “when I was first blinded. You … still did not want to speak with me. And I was trying to respect that.”
Damn.
“But Wax,” Harmony said softly, “it is time again. I need a sword.”
A sword. That was what he’d been when he’d killed Lessie the second time. Cleaning up God’s mess. Executing his rogue kandra driven mad by lack of spikes.
“I know you’ve changed,” Harmony said. “I heard you earlier. I know you’re happy. I know you want nothing more to do with my works.”
“But my sister,” Wax said, “has the power of a god. Rusts. Marasi and Wayne — does she know what they’re planning with this sting? Are my friends in danger?”
“I wish I could say,” Harmony replied. “So far as I know, the enemy knows nothing of their plan. But … I’m blind, and your sister is extremely dangerous. Wax, I have tried to handle this in other ways. I have failed. And so, I come back to the one weapon I’ve always been able to rely upon.”
Wax took a deep breath. “Tell me what you know.”
“Are you agreeing?”
“First tell me what you know. About my sister’s plans, about this god. Anything relevant.”
“I’ve shared most of it,” Harmony said. “You should know, perhaps, that each of these powers — these Shards — has what we call an Intent. A driving motivation. I bear two: one driving me to preserve and protect, the other driving me to destroy.
“Autonomy is driven to divide off from the rest of us, go her own way. She pushes her followers to prove themselves, and she rewards those who are bold, who survive against the odds. She respects big plans and big accomplishments. I presume this is why your sister has persuaded Autonomy not to destroy our planet outright. Or at least to delay doing so.”
“Telsin is still planning something catastrophic,” Wax said. “She’s trying to destroy Elendel. But what does that get her? The other cities will revolt against such a terrible act of destruction; she can’t think they’ll follow her if she kills so many.”
“She’s desperate,” Harmony said. “Your sister has set up in Bilming. You’ll find her there, building a new empire. She must know that her god is still eager to wage war on our people and annihilate them. So, she is trying what she can. If Telsin destroys Elendel, she can try to take control of the Basin and prove to Trell that she is capable of ruling this planet. I do not know if this is her true motive, but it is what seems most likely.” Harmony glanced to him. “I’m sorry. I had not realized she would go this far.”
Wax looked away, but it was difficult to blame Harmony. Wax himself had been blind to Telsin for years — and he didn’t have the excuse of a divine shroud. He’d always assumed that he of all people knew the real her. Until he’d found himself just another pawn in her games, shown a false face. Made to feel an idiot. Why had he thought she would play everyone except him?
Because a part of him had loved his sister. Right up until the moment when she’d pulled the trigger and he’d known the truth. Family was nothing to her but a powerful cord with which to bind and manipulate.
“If what you have discovered is true,” Harmony said, “we might not have much time for me to free myself from my shroud. Autonomy mobilizes an army from offworld to invade and destroy everyone on this planet. Telsin moves to circumvent that. Both plans are catastrophic to us, and both are in motion.”
Damn. Wax took a deep breath. “You had me make a second earring. That’s what finally convinced me to talk to you. Why?”
“I hoped that would work,” Harmony said, a hint of a smile on his lips. “A good mystery is the best invitation.”
“And? What do I do with it?”
“When Vin, the Ascendant Warrior, was resisting Ruin, she didn’t realize that the little earring she wore linked her to him. It let him get inside her head, speak with her. Connect to her.” He nodded to Wax’s earring. “With a trellium spike, you will be Connected to Trell’s avatar — much as you now are to me. She will be able to sense you, and you her.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Wax said, shaking his head. “Whenever the two of us meet, she gets the better of me. I shouldn’t try to play her games.”
Harmony smiled. A faint smile, from one too burdened to be eager about the emotion. He actually seemed to do it on purpose, with effort. “As you wish. It is a tool for you to use. I’ve lost games over and over against Autonomy, but I still have help I can send you. Some do not realize I was behind their mobilization. Yet I did not know the urgency of our task. I did not know their bomb might be ready. I am caught flat-footed. That was their goal, I think. So I must ask. Will you be my sword again, Waxillium?”
“It is absolutely necessary?”
“That depends,” he said, “on how you feel about the prospect of your sister taking my place as this planet’s steward.”
“That’s … actually a possibility?”
“Yes.”
“Damn.”
“Disrupt Telsin’s plan, and Autonomy will abandon her. That is our best bet.”
“And the army Autonomy is bringing?”
“We will have to hope we have time to stop them after your sister’s plan is subverted.”
It didn’t sound like much of a strategy. He looked to Harmony, and saw something different this time. Not the vastness of the powers, or even the figure of legend. But a man. Thrust into a war that none of them had been ready for, playing catch-up to learn powers that others had presumably spent millennia mastering.
He’s doing his best, Wax thought. And struggling to avoid being crushed by the opposing powers he holds. He needs help, and I’m all there is.
When Wax had run to the Roughs, it had been to escape — but he’d stayed because people needed him.
He’d found peace in Elendel. He wouldn’t return to the field because he wanted it or needed it. This time, he would go because he was needed.
“Final time?” Wax said.
“I promise,” Harmony said. “Final time.”
“All right,” Wax said, and felt a weight settle onto him. “I’ll stop Telsin. But you’re going to have to deal with this Autonomy.”
“Buy me time,” Harmony said. “Time to recover. Time to build greater alliances in the years to come, so we can face her as a unified planet.”
“I still don’t know how bombing Elendel gets Telsin what she wants,” he said. “It’s too extreme. She’s more rational than that. She’s got to be planning to threaten us with it until we bend. Maybe she intends to … I don’t know, detonate one in an Ashmount to cow us?”
“Perhaps. I do not know her ultimate plan. I’m sorry.”
A mystery then. With terrible stakes. Wax met Harmony’s eyes. “Is there anything you’re not telling me?”
“Many things,” Harmony admitted.
“Will any of them hurt, like what happened with Lessie?”
“Not on purpose,” Harmony said. “But I cannot promise you will survive this. Or that if you do, it will be without pain. I can’t promise much these days.”
Wax made a fist.
“Do you trust me, Waxillium?” God asked.
“No,” Wax said honestly. “But I trust her less. I’ve already said that I’ll help. But I’m not only a sword, Harmony. I’m a lawman too. I’ll find out what Telsin is doing. I’ll answer the questions you cannot. I’ll stop her that way.”
“Thank you.”
In a heartbeat, Wax was back in his penthouse. He’d never left, not physically. Steris knelt beside him, worried.