“Insanity,” Councillor Lassikhio said. “Wherever thy intentions may lie, thy judgment is impaired.”

  I had known the draconic Councillor would be a pain in the ass about my idea. Not that I didn’t understand where he was coming from. Half of everything I had said would probably sound batshit insane to me too, if I wasn’t the one talking.

  “I’m not lying,” I said, unhelpfully echoing every liar across time. Not a single person could see the blackness leaking out of me. Worse yet, considering how the story of my vision made me sound like a lunatic, I couldn’t exactly talk about my Path Evolution either. “The Blight Swarm came from the Nether Vein. We can use it to draw them back.”

  “Even if that was true,” said the guard commander, yet another person I absolutely wasn’t surprised about not being on my side in the matter. “What you’re suggesting might bring even greater disaster on our heads.”

  Councillor Lassikhio’s wings looked like they wanted to open wide so he could take off. “To unseal the Nether Vein beareth an exceedingly great peril, one that may well bring forth a calamity far worse than that which now besets us.”

  “May,” I said. “Key word right there.”

  I looked around at my backup. Councillor Wargrog was unsure, though not disapproving, thankfully. Kostis, who was a surprise attendant at the meeting, looked thoughtful, like he was weighing the pros and cons against each other. Se-Vigilance, though, looked even more resolute than I did, a rigid, unshakeable statue geared towards one purpose.

  The only reason I’d been able to get into a meeting like this was once again because of the pull I had with others. Specifically with Councillors Wargrog and Se-Vigilance, as well as the surprising addition of Kostis, whom I expected to be already gone by now.

  That he hadn’t made me even more certain that the Nether Vein had to be the real answer to the Blight Swarm.

  “It is a risk,” Se-Vigilance said. “But if Interpreter Moreland can be believed, and I like to think he can, then it may be a risk worth taking. My own research in the matter has led to proof of an undeniable link between the Nether Vein and the Blight Swarm. You yourself have seen it. The Netherthreads have been assailing us since this invasion first started.”

  “Thou art but beguiled by the tale that he hath, in sooth, beheld a Se-Targa Ascendant within his dreams.”

  “Vision,” I corrected, then received a slit-pupiled glare.

  “Actually,” Se-Vigilance said. “I am taken in by the fact that he has been rather reliable in the past. In the recent past, might I add.”

  “Opening the Nether Vein will open up a lot of adventuring possibilities,” Guildmaster Kudva said. “Think of the economic benefits if we can harness the energy and output of a super dungeon!”

  The guard commander scowled. “Not now, Kudva.”

  “Yes, now! The many benefits outweigh the risks. In fact, they can help us mitigate the risks if we use all that we can gain correctly.”

  The guard commander just grumbled.

  “Look,” I said. “I know it sounds insane, but the links are there. We don’t have a lot of other choices anyway. I don’t know how much you all on Ring Three and higher can take, but Ring Four will be overwhelmed after another assault like the last one. We need to end the Blight Swarm, not just let it regroup, recover, and let it hit back even harder.”

  I could see the first cracks in the draconic Councillor’s bearing, but he was a stubborn old lizard. “Thou knowest not the horrors that lie waiting within a Nether Vein. For good cause did we labour long to bind it shut. Should that which abideth therein break its bounds, then woe betide us all …”

  “It will not,” Kostis said. “I intended to go in from the beginning, regardless of the Council’s approval.”

  All the Councillors, and everybody else too, looked at Master Kostis with no small amount of shock. I just felt proud of my master. Pleasant old Kostis was obviously not going to abide by silly rules that would hold him back.

  Of course, he wasn’t so irresponsible as to open the Nether Vein himself, if he could even do so. There would be consequences, no doubt.

  But I had a feeling that a Scalekin of Kostis’s talents would have been able to get in without causing a major fuss anyway.

  “That’s right,” I said, laughing a little. Laughter was good. It kept the weird, mood-dampening effect of the leaking black energy—that no one else still saw—at bay. “No horror is going to have time to get out of the Nether Vein when we’ll be sending in a horror of our own from Zairgon.”

  “Please, my dear boy. You’ll make this old snake blush.”

  “Snakes don’t blush, master.” At least, when one wasn’t a half-Scalekin like Sreketh.

  “Thou jest for such a grave matter,” Councillor Lassikhio growled.

  “Then let us end on a serious compromise.” Se-Vigilance looked at each of us without blinking. “Those who wish to assist Interpreter Moreland and Ring Four’s endeavour with the Blight Swarm and the Nether Vein may do so. And those who do not… will simply ensure that they do not stand in his way.”

  I met the eyes of everyone at that gathering, looking at all of the strongest people in Zairgon. “Just you wait. Ring Four is going to end this once and for all.”

  Of course, the meeting wasn’t going to end then and there. If my plan was going to work, then we needed to prepare. We had to decide how exactly we were going to drag the Blight Swarm to the Nether Vein, what were the contingencies if that failed, how we were going to ensure the bugs would act as we wanted them.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  And of course, how we were going to make sure the Nether Vein actually took care of the Blight Swarm.

  “I can take care of opening the Nether Vein,” Se-Vigilance said. She had been a little ecstatic to learn about my insights, which was one of the reasons I had even been able to secure the big meeting. “There are very old maps of the Nether Vein by bygone explorers that we can rely on to get to certain landmarks.”

  We were back in the little room that she had used to interview both me and Khagnio. I paced back and forth. “But the question is whether we can keep the Blight Swarm there…”

  “The only reason we believe the Blight Swarm is seeking the Nether Vein is because your insight suggests that was where they originated, and that they’ve been targeting you excessively because of the Netherthreads affecting you.”

  “As I can attest,” Khagnio said. I had pulled him into our meeting too, considering the fact that he was just as affected by the Netherthreads as I was.

  Well, maybe not as much as me anymore…

  I looked askance at how the black energy—still invisible in sight and all other senses to both Se-Vigilance and Khagnio—was gathering on my shadow, slowly turning it more and more solid. I’d have been extremely alarmed, and I was, but I had more pressing matters to distract me than whatever weirdness my Path Evolution was causing thanks to the Nether Vein’s influence.

  That was good because I needed the distraction. The thickening shadow was trying to mess with my headspace, dragging on the convoluted mess of sad memories I obviously tried not to think about too much. What in the world was this thing?

  “Those cursed bugs have been targeting me like I knifed their mama in bed,” Khagnio said. “And honestly, I Pits-kissing would if I had the chance.”

  Se-Vigilance wasn’t satisfied. She was free to show that dissatisfaction now, when she was here with just us two, instead of at the bigger meeting with everyone else. I didn’t blame her. We were working with footing that was shaky at best.

  “If you can take care of opening and guiding us through the Nether Vein,” I said. “Then Khagnio and I can coordinate and make sure we’re dragging the Blight Swarm towards the Nether Vein.”

  Khagnio scoffed. “I’ll just kill the monsters!” The Councillor and I both stared at him with raised eyebrows. He grouched, then sighed with a hiss. “Fine, fine, I’ll lead them to the Nether Vein.”

  “Thing is,” I said. “It’s going to need a significant amount of coordination. I know you said to do a compromise with the rest of Zairgon’s defence, but if we want to drag the Blight Swarm into the Nether Vein, we can’t have the bugs distracted by other battles everywhere.”

  Se-Vigilance’s eyes sharpened. “You do understand, Prophet Moreland, that asking everyone in Zairgon to abandon what they truly believe in and cooperate with a seemingly baseless plan isn’t just difficult. It’s impossible.”

  I rolled my eyes at prophet. “It doesn’t have to be everyone. That’s the real compromise, Councillor. Not how many people are willing to help us. But how much we can hold off the Blight Swarm from destroying Zairgon while we lead them to the Nether Vein and ensure they stay there. It’s the staying part I am unsure of.”

  “There are records of the Ascendants you mentioned. Ancient, hardly reliable, but they still exist. In fact, I suspect the Nether Vein itself holds certain records of them. One such location is where we must guide the Blight Swarm to. And if your vision indeed proclaims that the connection to their originator is what the Blight Swarm really seeks, then it might be our best hope.”

  I nodded resolutely. It was nice to have the Se-Targa Councillor believe in me like that. Admittedly, I didn’t need to convince her as this was originally her idea mostly. My Sacrifice-driven vision had just provided Se-Vigilance the proof she needed to crystallize her plan.

  So I’d need to trust that she had the particulars in hand. That would leave me free to take care of my side of things.

  Our conversation turned into said particulars. Se-Vigilance took a bit of time to explain how there was a monument of the exact Ascendant I had seen acting as the one who had “given life” to the Blight Swarm, and it was this monument we’d need to target within the Nether Vein. She didn’t have the exact location, but she was sure one of the old maps held that info.

  We next discussed the measures we could take to guide the Blight Swarm towards the Nether Vein. The exact specifics of me and Khagnio acting as bait to draw the monsters, the various strings all three of us could tug to pull as much of Zairgon into our plan as was reasonably possible, and all the little prep we needed to carry out like what state I was going to leave Ring Four in if I ran off dragging the Blight Swarm.

  There might have been a lot to talk about, but I was feeling relieved by the end of it. The more everything was clarified, the less I needed to worry about the unknown.

  Before leaving, I decided to poke the Councillor’s knowledge about one specific thing I still had no idea about.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked Se-Vigilance after I explained how my Path Evolution was making the strange shadow-being slowly coagulate beside me. It had been a simple leak into the atmosphere before, but now, I felt like there was another presence there. A presence noticeable only by me. “It’s… disquieting.”

  “This dark echo of yours… so far, the only true effect you have experienced is a sense of depression, yes?” Se-Vigilance asked.

  “Yes, Councillor,” I said. Khagnio said nothing, though he was trying extremely hard not to look like I had gone crazy, so I just gave him the occasional glare. “So far.”

  “Then, as you have probably surmised, it’s the effect of the Netherthreads.” Her glimmering eyes sharpened. “You touched the Nether Vein with your mana core. Unfortunately, my knowledge is limited as to what exact effects that could result in. The Nether Vein is seeking to malignantly influence your Path Evolution. I would be wary of it.”

  I tried not to feel too disappointed at the lack of direction from what the Councillor said. It made sense even she didn’t know much about the Nether Vein interfering with a Path Evolution, what with how individual and specific the latter already was.

  Other than the general malignance, that was.

  “I’ll try to remember that,” I said. “Thanks, Councillor.”

  “It’s regrettable that we lack more information about the matter. But, Penitent Moreland, it sounds as though you may have unresolved… issues, you perhaps haven’t truly dealt with as of yet. One cannot lack saddening memories. But one can control the effect they have.”

  She had a point there. Still, I wasn’t exactly open to an impromptu therapy session then and there, so I just bowed to the Councillor, Zairgon style. “Thanks again. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Se-Vigilance turned to Khagnio. “You suffer no such malaise? No dark echoes of your tail?”

  “No, Councillor.” He shook his head almost disapprovingly in my direction, like I wanted this annoying interference from the Nether Vein. Asshole. “Thank the cursed Pits.”

  “Perhaps it’s because it is merely your tail.”

  Khagnio looked so affronted at merely that I had to laugh.

  With that, we concluded the meeting. Unsurprisingly enough, Khagnio and I were once again walking out together.

  “You’re one crazy bastard, you know that, mageling?” Khagnio said. “Even the old coot at Riptide thinks so.”

  “How in the world does he know my idea?” I asked. “And it’s not even my plan. Not really. It’s the Councillor’s. I just provided some proof that it’s going to work.”

  “And yet, everyone’s looking at you to make this work. You’re the Pits-damned lynchpin. You’re the one who’s turned it from a maybe into a real possibility. This all rests on you, mageling.” He had an unreadable look for once. Not that I was now an expert on reading Scalekin facial expressions. “And all that while you’re suffering.”

  I wanted to beg to differ, but also... I did feel responsible. I wanted to make this plan work. “We’re both suffering. It’s not like I lost an arm or a leg.”

  Khagnio just shook his head with a wry smile, looking a little fondly at his tail made of dark threads. “They think they’ve swarmed us, mageling. Like these shitting insects are supposed to stop us. And these Netherthreads.” He scoffed. “Screw that to the Pits.”

  I laughed shortly. “Yeah. Absolutely. Screw the Blight Swarm and the Nether Vein to the Pits.”