Feydrum’s investigator credentials do more than just allow him and Vanessa’s entourage a private visit with Smith, Tendo, and Galihend.

  They also grant him permission to free the prisoners for “questioning” so long as he remains with them.

  He also makes use of those credentials to send away Vanessa’s guardsmen, or rather, the council’s informants.

  Smith can’t help but take a moment to marvel at the power a few pieces of paper give a person before their mind shifts back to more urgent matters. “So you’re just going to send me to this prison to kill Adamus? It can’t be that easy, can it?”

  “There’s a very good chance it won’t be,” Vanessa says as Dyndra locks the door to the meeting chamber. “That’s why Evelyn will be going with you.”

  The Lungoza hovers over their sibling. Smith can tell that Evelyn is annoyed after being stuck in the morgue for so long. They were forced to stay there just in case another Martian might have wanted to run an autopsy on the supposed corpse of Cassandra Soryu.

  That frustration shines through on their orb body, and it continues to shine through as they speak, “I’m your backup skinny. If Adamus runs off or escapes, all I have to do is turn into something that can get close enough to slit his throat.”

  “What would you turn into?” Smith can’t help but ask.

  Evelyn chuckles, “Well, it would be fun to turn into his Father and pretend to be back from the dead, but that probably wouldn’t work… Say, Vanessa, does Adamus like boys or girls?”

  Vanessa rolls her eyes, “Girls. Ones with rge breasts, as he was sure to tell me.”

  “It seems I have my form then. Human men are already stupid enough to fall for anyone who's nice to them, but being their type certainly helps as well,” Evelyn snickers.

  Feydrum taps the table to gather the group's attention. Galihend is the only one in the room who doesn’t look at him as he clears his throat. “It seems that we’re all in agreement on what to do with Adamus, then.”

  Vanessa pnts herself beside Feydrum at the head of the table so everyone can look on her as she says, “Why yes, of course, we’re all in agreement. The boy needs to be disposed of. He’s a threat to everything I seek to build. I had hoped that the creature inside of him would have done the bastard in by now, but it seems that Gelmidas was right about its abilities. The boy is like a ratroach. He refuses to die, no matter how many times you stomp him.”

  “On the subject of the creature.” Tendo moves to the head of the table, but sits instead of standing with the others.

  “It will activate once Adamus is killed, or once the boy has gone a certain time without releasing it, one way or another, it is going to come out. Gelmidas told us as such when we first saw Adamus release it.”

  Smith is far from pleased by the idea of Adamus being immortal, but from what they’ve seen, that may very well be the case. However, there is one thing that gives them hope for their vengeance. They are sure to state that hope, “Ryomen Kaga said he wants the creature, not Adamus. Is it possible that the two can be separated?”

  Vanessa does not know who this Ryomen Kaga is, but the concept of separating the beast from Adamus is enough for her to like the man already.

  Tendo, on the other hand, feels very differently. “It may be possible, yes, but I’m not entirely sure what the creature even is and—”

  “It’s the Rusting,” Smith expins, “Gelmidas Atheneum used the heads to bring Adamus back to life and also wished all metal to be destroyed. Whatever entity or force grants the wishes of the heads is inside of Adamus now.”

  Tendo ughs, “Who has filled your mind with these insane leaps in logic? How could a wish like that become its own creature?”

  “Maybe the heads were their own creatures?”

  “Well, there is no doubt about that all the Mystics have wish-granting heads, but—”

  “What the fuck are you two even going on about?” Mitika asks with their tentacles disguised as hands over their head and their face pnted on the table.

  Smith pays them no mind. They’re still processing what Tendo previously said. All the Mystics have wish-granting heads? Why didn’t Mystic tell me that? They wonder, Did she not know? Or did she just think that it wasn’t worth stating?

  Feydrum tries his best to expin the topic solely from what he’s gathered from Smith and Tendo’s accounts, “So you two are both Machinists, and some of you Machinists have magic heads that were used to resurrect Adamus after he died once and was brought back to life by a wish that caused the Rusting. And somehow this wish became the creature living inside of him?”

  “Yes,” Smith says. “No,” Tendo says.

  The pair gre at each other.

  Tendo states his piece first, “There are various Machinist sites throughout the universe. Some of these sites contain or once contained the severed heads of the Mystics, which can grant wishes. Gelmidas somehow got his hands on two of these heads, which were once in a temple on Terra-draxus. He used those heads to make the Rusting and bring Adamus back to life after—”

  “After he was burned alive in a fire that Gelmidas started,” Smith cuts in, “You are right, Tendo, but somehow this creature did come into existence because of the heads…” They pause, feeling the need to ask, “I know about the temples. You said earlier that after you left the Forge, you found answers to something?”

  “The temples were the answer,” Tendo huffs, “The Machinists cim to be isoted and cut off from the rest of the universe, but they’ve clearly interacted with it several times in the past.”

  Smith presses on, unable to understand, “So? Maybe we did interact and build temples before we were isoted.”

  Tendo rolls his eyes, “Yes, but they have the severed heads of our siblings, Smith.”

  “Maybe the Machinists who built them knew about that power?”

  “You didn’t. No one else did.”

  Vanessa groans, “Yes, dear, but Gelmidas knew.”

  “I’m so fucking lost…” Mitika mumbles again, nearly ready to give up and walk out of the room for air.

  “Gelmidas only knew because Magnus Ohavim got the heads before he did,” Smith recalls what Mystic told them.

  “Then how did Ohavim know?” Vanessa has to ask.

  “Maybe he did his research…” Tendo mutters to himself before stating aloud, “This talk is getting us nowhere. Smith, if you really need to know, the matter we’re discussing is the very reason why I left the Forge. Even the Mystics didn’t know what the heads are for or why they have them. It's the same with the ancient code. The secret of the universe is not that life is precious, but that life is terrible and full of secrets. When I found those temples and those heads, I didn’t wish for anything but to be rid of them. The dwarves wrote of them long before they went extinct and say that they drove them mad. Something dark is at py here, and it’s something no one should look into.”

  “Did Kaga look into it?” Smith asks, knowing that the answer is a strained, “Yes.”

  Tendo sighs, “Ryomen Kaga is the one who showed me all the temples and all the Machinist secrets. It’s his purpose in life to work within that dark that must not be known. He showed me a temple on Terra-Draxus that held two heads. The same heads that eventually fell into Gelmidas’s possession. Once I recognized their container within that basement, I pced a barrier around it so no one could get inside and peer into that darkness the same way Kaga did.”

  Vanessa raises an eyebrow, “So you protect that which you do not know from falling into the hands of those who seek to know it?”

  Mitika lifts their head from the table, “It’s too confusing. Madam President, please make them stop.”

  Tendo shrugs, “I do think that we should abandon the subject, but the fact remains that Adamus Atheneum has something very powerful inside of him.”

  “We can agree on that much,” Smith nods. That thing inside Adamus does make him a fierce opponent. Smith has fought the creature twice, and it took everything they had to survive both encounters. Even then, that second encounter did prove to be fatal for one of the parties involved.

  The memory reignites Smith.

  That is the reason they need to do this.

  To avenge her.

  “I can kill Adamus,” They promise before saying, “We just need to find a way to deal with the beast.”

  Evelyn floats forward at Smith’s words.

  Their tentacles unfurl from their orb body and extend throughout the dim torchlight of the meeting room. “Jartell was a Lungoza who thought themself unkilble," they ugh, “From what Vanessa tells me, they were the one person in Rome who was able to fight against Adamus the longest. That was their mistake. They let the fight go on too long when they should have just wrapped the boy in their tentacles.”

  Evelyn’s tentacles retract back into them in a fast and violent fashion, “I shall not make the same mistake.”

  Smith squints, scrutinizing Evelyn before turning to Mitika. “Why not send them as well then?”

  Vanessa expins that, “I still need Mitika here in the form of Adamus for the time being. It makes the transfer of leadership, shall we say… easier for the masses to swallow.”

  Evelyn remains at the head of the table as they gloat, “That and my sibling has a weak will. They tend to get far too emotionally involved in work like this. Luckily, I have no such weakness.”

  Mitika shifts in their seat, lifting their camoufged tentacle as if to cover a cough, “That’s fine by me, sibling,” they say with the tired smile of Adamus’s face.

  That face still haunts Smith. Even though it is on a completely different person, they can’t help but picture that face driving that bde through her. The bde of that creature…

  Smith gathers themself, “So I suppose you are more than just my backup then.”

  Evelyn seems to nod, “I suppose so.”

  Feydrum’s bck eyes narrow on Smith. The torchlight reflects across the dark sea of his gaze as he turns back to Vanessa, “So we know how to handle Adamus. What about Cassandra?”

  Galihend points at Smith, “This one was with Cassandra,” she excims, “Saw on Terra-draxus with Qrow eyes before Qrow died.”

  “Is that true?” Tendo coldly asks.

  Smith speaks the truth, “Yes. I was with her and two other Machinists.”

  “That Mystic who was in Rome? She’s on Terra-draxus with her?”

  Smith nods in response to the question, “Yes, but… they were with Kaga when I was st with them.”

  Tendo’s worry increases. “If she’s with Kaga now, there’s nothing that can be done,” He announces to the room in a harsh tone.

  “Why is that?” Vanessa scoffs, “What value does that girl have?”

  “More than you could imagine,” Tendo scowls at Vanessa.

  She’s never seen him like this. She obviously knows that Tendo feels strongly toward Cassandra. She is his daughter after all. Yet he seems to grow a sudden backbone whenever it comes to the topic of the Machinists, and he becomes especially bold when Cassandra is at stake.

  Vanessa is starting to wonder if she has been wrong to doubt the man all these years.

  Tendo is hers, though. She needs to remind him of that. She ughs. “Really? A piece of street trash like her? Don’t tell me that your precious daughter has inherited your strange magic.”

  Tendo bashes a fist onto the table and stands to confront his wife, “Listen here, human. The only reason I even agreed to your little marriage arrangement when you were browsing us street urchins like livestock is because it was the easiest way to keep Cassandra out of Kaga’s hands. More importantly, keep her out of the hands of the people that Kaga serves. You’ve been nothing but a shield to me all these years. A worthless and delusional one, yes, but a shield nonetheless. And right now you are coming dangerously close to outliving your purpose.”

  Vanessa shrugs, “Alright. None of that answered my question, though.”

  Tendo doesn’t even bother giving Vanessa a look of disgust as he turns away and tells everyone, “Don’t move against Kaga directly. You can’t win a fight with him that way. He’ll send his own people after us, and we’ll all be dead before dawn. Yararum was in his hand. Ask yourself how many others he’s likely to have, and then double it.”

  He marches out the door, only gncing back once to state, “I’ve said my piece. I’m done here.”

  The whole room watches him leave in shock and dismay. Vanessa especially.

  She certainly hadn’t expected such a visceral reaction.

  Did she push Tendo too far?

  No, she thinks, despite herself, this side of him needs to come out more often. I need hands as stern as mine if I am to rule. But after what he said…

  He couldn’t have been pying me all this time, could he? Vanessa coughs to silence her line of thought before it can continue any further.

  “Dyndra?”

  “Yes, Madam President?” The girl diligently rises to attention.

  “I advise you to ignore my dear husband and go to Terra-Draxus. Perhaps don’t move against this Kaga man directly, as he stated, but do at least look for dear Cassandra.”

  “And how would you suggest doing that, Madam?” Dyndra awaits her orders.

  Vanessa smirks, “Why, by doing the exact thing you suggested I do. Extend aid.”

  Dyndra smiles and salutes her President.

  Vanessa can’t help but delight in the girl’s enthusiasm, especially after such an unprecedented reaction from her so-called husband.

  “Well then,” Vanessa cps, “I do believe that we are done here. You all have your orders. Now carry them out.”

  Everyone slowly files out of the dimly lit meeting chamber, save for Galihend and Feydrum.

  Smith stays behind with them, wondering why the pair of Martians haven’t left yet, and also wondering, “Why did you try to kill me in Rome?”

  “Scorched Archer,” Galihend smiles, “Took my sight when I was child. Her arrow sshed across my eyes.” She lifts her blindfold to expose the wide gash not too dissimir from the one she left on Smith’s back and the ones that Kaga’s hawk left on their eyes.

  “Was there to kill Nadeden that day. Vanessa promised me. Couldn’t find her, settled for fighting you instead.”

  Smith clenches their wounded palm, “You did more than that. You killed an innocent person right in front of me and my brother.”

  Galihend nods, “I am not honorable warrior. Nadeden not one either. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have blind me and kill my Father.”

  Smith shakes their head at that. “You’re wrong,” they defiantly state. “She was a great woman. One better than you or me.”

  “Which one?” Feydrum asks with his head low and his arms folded, “Nadeden or the Scorched Archer?”

  What kind of question is that? Smith thinks, They’re both the same person.

  They turn to leave, but Feydrum calls them back.

  A small stained cloth is tossed against their chest.

  “You nearly left it behind,” Feydrum tells Smith as they unravel the bandana.

  Her bandana.

  “Why’d you pick it up?” Smith scoffs as they wrap the fabric around their wound.

  Feydrum merely sighs. “Get going, kid. The others are probably wondering where you are.”

  Smith tightens the bandana against their scarred flesh and leaves the pair behind.