in your valley, but everybody I met tripped all over each other to see who could stab me in the back first. Guess you taught him right, because he’d twist himself inside out before he turned on me. If my core popped tomorrow and I was no better than a Copper, he wouldn’t leave me alone until he found a way to put me back together.”
The room was very quiet except for Orthos munching on firewood.
“He could have set himself up like a king in some corner of the world. Could have scooped you three up, set fire to Heaven’s Glory, and left. But he stuck around for people who treated him like their least-favorite whipping boy. Don’t know who he was before, but that’s who he is now.”
Her Goldsigns twisted again, and she coughed. “That’s what I contend, anyway. In my view. Might be I’ve polished him up too much.”
Lindon finally understood what Dross meant. Not long ago, Yerin would have been too embarrassed to say any of that.
But Ruby wouldn’t be.
Red eyes moved to his, and she gave him a shaky smile.
He couldn’t return it. He stared into her, thinking about how she saw him. He wasn’t as great as she described.
But he wanted to be.
She saw through him, and her smile became more genuine.
“Heavens above,” Kelsa muttered. “I should have left too.”
When they landed and left the cloud fortress, there were even more people flooding out of Sacred Valley. With the Akura cloudships gone, the number of people seeking refuge seemed endless.
Many of them had given up on the cloudships and now ran out into the world themselves, crossing the mountains and foothills east of Mount Samara on foot or in whatever vehicles they had brought with them.
Lindon wished them luck. There was no way he could go after them himself; he was going to have enough trouble with the people waiting for rides.
Hopefully, none of this would end up being necessary. Malice would drive off the Wandering Titan, and there would be no further damage to Sacred Valley or the other mountains.
If the only problem Lindon had to deal with in the aftermath of a Dreadgod attack was locating everyone who ran and bringing them home to rebuild, he would thank the heavens.
As their fortress began to fill up, he received another piece of good news: Mercy flew in unharmed, bobbing on her staff and waving eagerly to him.
When she reached him, she began to speak before she finished drifting to a halt. “So…who called my mother?”
“Don’t know why I needed to,” Yerin said. “I’d take it personal if a Dreadgod stomped around my back yard.”
“At least she came! But don’t be too grateful. She wouldn’t have shown up here if there wasn’t something in it for the family.”
Mercy leaned against the base of their cloud fortress, which she sank into like a giant pillow. As she did, she surreptitiously pushed something into the ground with the heel of her foot.
Without Dross, Lindon might not have noticed. The object she’d buried wasn’t easy to sense; it felt entirely mundane, with only lingering traces of spiritual power, so it was probably some scripted tool.
But around it, the world felt…thin. Like the invisible indentation Lindon had pressed on to create a portal.
“What was—” he began, but Mercy cut him off.
“The Li clan wasn’t as bad as you said they’d be,” she reported. “They wouldn’t listen to me at first, but once I impressed them a little, they did whatever I said.”
Dross materialized onto Lindon’s shoulder, frowning at Mercy’s foot. [You’ll have to do better than that to hide something from me. If you’re hiding something. If you’re not, stop acting like you are.]
Lindon sent his thoughts silently to the spirit. I don’t think we’re the ones she’s hiding from. Stop drawing attention.
Mercy gave him a wide-eyed plea, and Lindon nodded. He understood. Yerin looked between them, glanced at the ground, and then stretched out her arms. “Sounds like we’ve got more people to load. No time to stand around flapping our lips.”
Dross was still staring obviously at the spot under Mercy’s foot. His one eye couldn’t be open any wider, and he was slowly drifting closer to the ground.
“Dross,” Lindon said aloud.
[Yes?]
“We need to get back to work.”
[Okay, yes, of course, let’s go.]
He didn’t hide his staring at all.
With his Remnant arm, Lindon seized the spirit and spun him to face another direction. Dross’ eye swiveled to stay where it was.