But for some reason, Kest didn’t immediately side with us.
“You don’t have a way to prove she’s working for the Technols, though?” she asked.
“Were you even listening, Stumpy?” Warcry snapped. “She mowed down the artifact team and tried to take us with them, and she brought the bleedin’ artifact here. What about that don’t shout ‘incriminating evidence’ at you?”
“It’s possible that she’s got bigger schemas in the works that you’re not seeing.” Kest frowned off toward the encampment. “When you’re playing both sides, you have to do a lot of things that make you look guilty. The artifact would be the perfect means to ingratiate herself with the Technol Emperor, and the Dragon deaths would be seen as proving her unwavering loyalty to the Technols. If getting close to the Technol Emperor is important enough, Takeshi would write off the artifact team as acceptable losses.”
“That’s total bull,” I said. “So three more guys who’re just doing what they’re told go down as collateral damage?”
“You haven’t heard the half of it.” Rali sounded excited to finally have someone on his side of the argument. “I’ve been watching this tangled drama play out for almost a month now. It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Kest leveled a flat stare at him. “You don’t understand the politics of the situation.”
“Believe me, I don’t want to,” her twin said.
“Politics doesn’t change right and wrong,” I insisted.
“See?” Rali pointed at me. “The Death cultivator gets it.”
A flash of pain crossed Kest’s face. “I thought you of all people would get it, Hake. Sometimes what someone outside the situation might see as wrong actually isn’t.”
I raked my hand through my hair. “I get that, but...”
But Valthorpe, Smoky, and Unu didn’t deserve to be Sanya’s sacrifice play. Even the Technol death squads on the trail and in the temple deserved better than being sent to die like redshirts. These weren’t pawns Sanya was playing with, they were lives.
“You didn’t see it,” I told Kest. “Sanya’s got to answer for what she did. If the Emperor’s in on it, then he does, too.”
“Too right,” Warcry growled, flames licking across the crown of his head and down his shoulders.
Kest’s dark brows lowered. “And you think you two are the ones to make them? Are you out of your minds? It doesn’t matter how much stronger you’ve gotten lately, you’re not a match for a Ketsu. All three of us together wouldn’t come close. Maybe if Rali’s Spirit sea was healed and at full strength—”
“Nope,” Rali said cheerfully. “Not even then.”
“She’s powerful at sowing dreams, she’s not a brawler,” I said. “Back on Earth, we called that being squishy.”
“Here we call it having the power to melt your brains to slag,” Kest said. “And that’s not even taking into account that we still can’t conclusively prove she’s a traitor. If she is, then why didn’t she immediately crush both of your minds like empty Coffee Drank cans when she took the artifact?”
Warcry sneered. “She probably reckoned filling us full of bullets and sawblades would give her the same results with less effort.”
“A double agent can’t risk leaving potential loose ends,” Kest said. “She would’ve made sure you were dead. The only way it all makes sense is if the Emperor told her to give you a shot at survival. Takeshi probably thought that if the two of you couldn’t get yourselves out of a massacre, you didn’t deserve your ranks.”
I scrubbed at my eyes, suddenly exhausted. “We already confirmed the Emperor’s Spirit type is Relentless Justice. How would that translate to letting one of his cronies stab a bunch of guys who never did anything wrong in the back?”
“I suppose that depends on whose definition of Justice you’re using,” a familiar female voice said.
Out in the grass halfway between the ruins and us, Sanya-ketsu shimmered into visibility the same way Sushi shimmered in and out. Sanya pulled a rubber-gloved hand from her pocket and beckoned us to come closer.
“Why don’t the four of you come out here so we can converse like civilized folk?” Her eyes crinkled, letting us know there was a smile under her surgical mask. “Better to make an informed decision about whether you’d like to take your chances on fighting someone who could... How did you put it, Metal cultivator? Melt your brains? Apt description.”
Showdown on the Clifftop
WARCRY AND I SHOT EACH other a look as we stepped out of the shadow of the boulders and into the field. Wordlessly, he and I fanned out, widening our grouping across the waving grass. Based on what we’d seen from the Sown Dream cultivator already, she probably wouldn’t go for a physical attack, but if she had hooligans backing her up, they would have to split up and pick us off rather than take us all out at once.
The spacing had the added benefit of dividing Sanya-ketsu’s attention. We weren’t standing close enough together that she could look at all of us at once now.
“Very good, boys.” She gave a slight tip of her head, acknowledging the play. “Clearing those ruins seems to have taught you a thing or two.”
“How does the bracelet fit?” I asked.
Her rubber gloves squeaked a little as she pulled the iron Heartblood Crown out of her pocket with her fingertips.
“I haven’t tried it on yet,” she said. “Immortality is too valuable to waste on a 002-rank. The Emperor will decide who gets the honor.”
“Which one?” Warcry sneered. “Technol or Dragon?”
“Why not Contrail?” she asked. “Or Jianjiao or Holy Body Cult? While we’re at it, why not the head of the CPA? I imagine immortality would go a long way toward getting him reelected.”
Kest’s head cocked, then she nodded. “You’re going to sell it to the highest bidder.”
Sanya pointed at Kest like, Bingo.
“Are you bleedin’ mad?” Warcry snapped. “You want to betray a Big Five Emperor for credits?”
“Two Big Five Emperors,” Sanya said, nodding at the Technol camp.
“They’ll kill you before you can get your first
