“Tame it!” Aza warned, but David didn’t want to.

  Or perhaps he couldn’t. He still couldn’t glean what he felt or the source of it. The sensation grew steadily, increasing every time he thought it had stopped. David looked down at his hands, expecting to find blisters of peeling skin. But he was alright. He touched his face, confusion masking the pain he felt. He reached out, trying to spread his perception, but he felt nothing, as though he’d been blocked from within.

  “Wh…” he groaned, bowing slightly as fresh fire lit up in his throat, his head ached, but the pain was different from any he had felt before. It was a slithering invasion of agony. Something writhed within him, lashing at him from the inside.

  They are blocking you, Ignis growled. The dragon’s rage was a splash of lava in David’s chest. He tried to breathe. But the harder he tried, the more he sank into the well of anguish. It was feeding off his panic. Whatever it was. That was the question he wanted answered. He couldn’t sense anything anymore. Not the ones that guided him to the light, or the ones who spoke and now watched him in silence as he suffered.

  He felt nothing, heard no one. And he tried, searching for a physical anchor to hold on to. He willed the Questioner to speak again.

  All David found was the endless, probing tentacles of pain. It pierced into him, searing every inch of his body. And it seemed to thicken in potency, becoming worse as David adjusted or attempted to.

  He saw no end to it, and in that realization, he despaired.

  “What if it is not that you are being blocked?” Aza asked. His voice was smaller in David’s mind—as if the fragment was smaller than Ignis when the opposite was true. David listened, his legs trembling as his body struggled to hold up.

  “Let him figure it out himself, Aza,” Vith said. She sounded irritated or bored. David didn’t have the mind to interpret her mood. “If we help him all the time, he’ll stay weak.”

  What do you speak of? Ignis asked, just as confused as David. The fragments were silent for a breath’s length of time. David felt the gush of Aza’s concern. Vith had a wall that blocked off whatever she felt. But they watched him.

  He might die, Ignis growled. And David knew the dragon wasn’t wrong. He had somehow lost any idea of time. How had he been suffering? What was the pain? And why was the burning making his body heavy?

  “You are asking the wrong questions,” Vith said with a tired sigh. “And the dragon is right. You might die. Or you could just kill this arrogant Questioner.”

  “No,” David growled. The light above him had brightened even more, and with it, his anguish increased.

  “Then approach the problem like what you are,” Aza said, his voice soft. Vith let slip a mild flush of annoyance that David would have laughed at if he weren’t dying from the inside.

  “Wh…at?” David asked. He couldn’t even decide what he was anymore. King? Nigh-God? Ascender?

  “Human,” Aza answered for him. “What do you know? And what can you understa—”

  “You will die if you hold the truth,” the Questioner said, cutting through Aza’s words. David latched on to the voice, even though he still couldn’t tell where it was coming from. There was no essence here. He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he tried to focus.

  “I have told you the…” he took a breath, exhausted. He was tempted to let himself fall to the ground. His feet were weak already.

  The whisper of a thought filled his mind briefly—all he had to do was swing his sword once, and this place would be destroyed, and with it the Questioner. He banished the thought immediately, expressing so much anger at the suggestion. Vith withdrew from him. David wanted to pull her back, but that lasted only a moment.

  “Why hide the truth?” The Questioner asked. He was young, or perhaps that was part of the magic, too. David wondered if this was the power of a young Questioner; what would a first-tier Questioner be like?

  “Focus!” Aza barked in David’s mind, the fragment’s voice carrying the power of Chaos. David’s head snapped up, and his eyes opened. His heart raced violently in his chest, and he felt something warm trickling down the side of his face. Tears? David wondered, but he knew it wasn’t.

  “The truth will bring you into the warm embrace of Lady Ishkar. You will be saved and redeemed. You will find the love of her protection, her motherly forgiveness. But only if you confess: If you unburden yourself of the devilish intents you have been yoked with. Tell me, traveler, who do you serve?”

  David sighed, deciding there was no need to listen to the man. Pleading wouldn’t work either. The Questioner was sure of his righteous work. David wasn’t sure why, but the Questioner seemed to have no doubt that he was sent here by an enemy.

  The warm, trickling thing rolled down his nose to his lips. He tasted his blood, and the taste made him shudder. Whatever the spell was doing to him, it affected him physically, too. It made his blood bitter.

  David closed his eyes and sighed. His body trembled violently. He couldn’t stop it, but he didn’t need to. He reached out again. Trying to expand the perception that he’d come to trust since he started the journey up Amareth’s tower.

  Nothing. Not even a slight vibration of essence. The place was empty of the power David had expected to fill the room. Not a flash of light, or weaves of essence. He tried harder, digging deeper within himself, as much as he could with the hum of endless burning under his skin.

  Nothing.

  The emptiness was terrifying. Never, since he stepped into the towers, had he felt so empty. So powerless. Human. The realization made him want to recoil.

  You have not been human for a long time, Ignis prod. And if you give up here, what will be of your family? Your friend?

  “He didn’t say he was giving up, dragon,” Aza said. David grinned. It was a mystery how these voices in his head knew him and didn’t at the same time. They were linked to him, closer than anyone else in the world, and yet in that moment, he felt he was alone, standing at the top of a mountain, and around him was the white grip of cold.

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  Perhaps it was the despair, or maybe the emptiness he felt when nothing reacted to his will. But he finally understood Aza’s question. And he recalled Vith’s question earlier.

  “Vith,” David called, his voice a scattered thing.

  “Is that who you serve?” The Questioner asked. David sensed the hope in his voice. The celebration of victory. “Who is this Vith? What is it? Is it the world thief? What is your quest here? To destroy us?”

  David ignored the rambling man. Instead, he sent what shred of his battered will remained to the stubborn fragment. She was there, silent, offended.

  “Vith!” David yelled. And their connection grew so suddenly that David felt a jolt, so different from the pain he was already experiencing.

  “You don’t have to wail,” Vith said. David sensed Aza’s amusement. But it was not time to laugh. He still wasn’t sure that he was right. But he didn’t feel wrong either. “What do you want?”

  “Can you feel a power in the room?” David asked. “If they are not blocking me from using essence, that means there is no essence here. I have been thinking about it all wrong.”

  “What do you mean?” The Questioner asked.

  David ignored him. It would be better to send his thoughts to the fragments within him, but talking distracted him from the pain. It didn’t lessen his suffering, but it kept his mind occupied.

  “You are slow,” Vith said. “But yes, you are right. There is something here. You simply forgot something.”

  David nodded tiredly. “This is a different world. They don’t use essence. It won’t work here.”

  He wasn’t sure about that last part. And it gave him another idea that wasn’t important at the moment.

  “You're not completely right,” Aza said, his voice taking an aged lilt—like a teacher trying to lead his straying disciple. “Essence is but part of a stronger force, a chunk, like Vith and I. And what are you?”

  “Why are you smiling?” The Questioner asked. David frowned. He hadn’t even noticed he was smiling. He had been so focused on Aza’s voice and his mind’s working that he hadn’t sensed anything else.

  Master of all, Ignis said, his voice empty of fear now.

  [Your connection to Vith (Essence) has increased!]

  [Your connection to Aza (Chaos) has increased!]

  “That doesn’t help me, though,” David said, staring at the messages. He shook his head to dispel the ring in his ears, but it stayed. “But, I think I can try something.”

  Hands reached out of the darkness, breaching the light to hold his head. They were thin hands, almost bony. A dense crop of dark hair covered the arms. They seemed to exist by themselves, cut by the light from the darkness. The fingers felt cool, dousing some of the searing pain he felt. Relief made him shudder, almost crumpling.

  Those hands held him up by his face. David moaned as the pain slowly faded until he felt none of it.

  “There,” the voice said. Softer, kinder. “All of it is gone. You don’t have to fight anymore. You are safe.”

  The voice cooed. David felt himself being pulled closer, cradled. Whatever spell the Questioner was using, it made David want to snuggle close and close his eyes.

  “Tell me,” the voice probed, gently though. “You can trust me. I will protect you from those you are bound to serve unfairly.”

  “No,” David groaned, relishing the freedom from torture. His eyes, heavy-lidded before, were staring at the darkness, where he assumed the man’s face should be. “I do not serve anyone, and you can’t protect me from my enemies.”

  The Questioner flinched, perhaps shocked that David hadn’t fallen under his spell. David grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the light. He thought of summoning his sword—that should work—but the man’s shocked face made him stop.

  The Questioner stumbled into the light, his face covered in a thick beard. His hood hid his eyes just as the rest of the robe hid his thin frame. He weighed almost nothing.

  “No!” the man yelled as he stumbled into the light. Immediately, he froze. His eyes snapped up at David, carrying a mix of emotions—fear, rage, and shock. His hands came up to shield his eyes from the light, but something was already happening to him. David took a step back from him as his eyes bled. His skin was paper-thin, and his cheeks jutted out sharply.

  That light, Ignis began, but David had guessed the same. The light had a strange power, and it affected the Questioners differently.

  David staggered back into the dark, and an overwhelming chill made him shiver. The Questioner’s body trembled, and yet he couldn’t look away from the light. David stared as the man suffered, worse than he had experienced. Or perhaps this was exactly what he experienced.

  “No!” The man wailed, blood coloring his teeth. “Forgive me, Lady Ishkar. I am unworthy. Forgive me!”

  The Warden did not forgive. The Questioner continued to suffer. His face and robe were covered in blood. Yet, he didn’t fall to his knees. He trembled on his feet until David decided he’d seen enough. He carefully reached into the light and pulled the man out roughly.

  The Questioner staggered out, falling. Soon, he heard slow sobs that grew into a loud wail. David stared at the man for a moment until he saw the door open, and the guard from before looked in.

  “I guess I passed,” David said, walking over the body of the crying Questioner. The guard, Hadrien, seemed confused as David got closer to the door. The Questioner’s loud cry echoed in the room, filling it. Yet, Hadrien didn’t step in to help or see what happened. Only when David reached the door did he ask.

  “He stepped into the light,” David said, and Hadrien recoiled from him, reaching up with his thumb to touch the air, and then placed it on his tongue.

  More religious nonsense, Ignis mocked.

  “How many nations and tribes called you a god?” Aza asked. David ignored them. He was tired and confused. So much about this place didn’t make sense.

  “Will you help him?” David asked, nodding back to the crying man. Hadrien shook his head sadly. They gazed into the dark room for a moment before the guard locked the door, muffling the sound.

  “He needs the grace of Lady Ishkar now,” Hadrien said. “Only she can help him. It will be either mercy or the Hand of Penance. And tainted Questioners rarely get our lady’s mercy.”

  “Tainted?” David asked as he was led out into the main hall with the doors.

  “Those blessed to be Questioners must not stand under the searching gaze of our Lady. Even the smallest of sins are laid bare and judged. And the Questioners are not known to be free of sins.”

  “Harsh,” David muttered. He was going to ask some more questions, but he found Captain Iliana waiting for them. She looked from Hadrien’s worried face to David’s.

  “What happened?” The Captain asked. Hadrien shuffled, trying to decide how to tell her.

  “My Questioner got into the light,” David said.

  Captain Iliana gasped, her eyes slowly widening, her mouth too. The moment stretched and snapped when she realized she wasn’t acting in a way befitting her status.

  “Who?” she asked, staring at Hadrien.

  “Polak,” Hadrien said. Captain Iliana nodded, as though she’d expected the name. She regarded David again.

  “Your friends are waiting. I will take you to Lord Riggins. Perhaps our Lady will smile kindly on you.”

  “I doubt that,” David said as he locked into step behind her. “She just fried the brain of her own servant.”

  “Polak wasn’t the fairest Questioner,” Captain Iliana said. “He enjoyed his task a bit too much.”

  “I know,” David said, recalling the torture. They walked out of a different door leading out of the Questioner’s wing of the structure.

  They walked a brief walkway with short, carved columns leading to a different part of the structure. At the end of it, David found the others.

  Zoey was pacing beside Gis. His sister was angry. Gis looked sickened or crying. She had her head in her hands. Elisha stood opposite them, a stoic, dark sentry. Carlos sat on the floor like Gis, leaning against a column.

  Zoey stopped when she saw them coming. David quickly slipped forward to stand between Captain Iliana and Zoey. The captain froze just as David caught Zoey’s fist that was aimed at the captain’s face.

  “You had no right!” Zoey barked. “I should have killed that snotty moron. But you, you knew what they were going to do. And you let us walk in there.”

  “Zoey, calm down.”

  “No! They… David, they tried to loo…” her voice faltered and her eyes softened. “You are bleeding.”

  “What?” David reached up to touch the blood on his face. He had completely forgotten about it. Zoey turned an intense glare on the captain again, but she didn’t swing.

  Iliana seemed untouched by Zoey’s fury; she stood like a rock splashed with water. Unbothered.

  “You should talk to Gis,” Zoey said. David nodded.