Not all evil is obvious.

  The clever sort is rather difficult to spot. A merchant who buys up shares of some critical resource to gouge prices. A lord who foists his burdens on his bastards, forcing them to toil terribly out of desperate hope of one day being legitimized.

  Still, despite knowing that, I found myself panning the room in relative sheepishness for my earlier fears.

  It was not at all like Barion's basement.

  In fact, what I saw on first glance was arguably more civilized than even Whitefall's own dungeons. There were no reservoirs or grates carved into the ground to redirect blood or other fluids, no implements of torment left out or framing the walls. No remains of children, living or otherwise.

  What was there felt more alien than anything else—ten strange cylinders that spanned from the ceiling to the ground, wide enough to fit two to three people depending on size.

  A great deal of machinery, pillars and squares sporting an endless array of knobs, levers, and buttons.

  "Touch nothing." Thoth called over, her voice heavy with effort as she dragged one of the now unconscious and brutalized ghouls towards a glass cylinder.

  "What the hells is all this?" I asked, unable to tear my eyes from it.

  The uneasiness still weighed heavily, as if I'd never taken the first step down the stairs.

  "Something that should not be here. And so far as I'm aware, never has been." Thoth grunted, rotating the ghoul and setting it against the tube. She pressed her fingers against the glass, leaving five bloody imprints as a hatch appeared, slowly spreading open, gap large enough for a man to step through. "I've utilized mechanisms like this before—typically when a great deal of arcane power is needed amid a dearth. These twits—" She shook the ghoul for emphasis, before tossing it into the opening where it landed with a jarring thud. "—are dryer than a nun's snatch. Hopefully, it's enough."

  "To what end?" I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to hear the answer. Because the longer I stared, the more familiar the device seemed. Different from the last time, nearly a decade before. Crosshatched iron had given way to glass. But the wiring, runes, and layout were too close to be a coincidence. "This looks like Barion's work."

  "Astute. Annoyingly astute. I realized it too. But I've seen a great deal more of his 'work' over the iterations than you have." Thoth agreed, wiping her hands on her armor and glancing it all over. She twisted her head back to look at me, a small smile on her lips. "Couldn't be him, though."

  "Barion was a revenant." I murmured, suddenly stricken with a terrible thought. "They are not known for dying easily."

  "So he came back to life, traveled to Whitefall, set up shop beneath your feet, all while dodging the most oppressively complete network of spies and gossips in the land?" She scorned.

  "Mockery does not change the fact that the similarities are undeniable."

  Thoth gave the equipment another look. "True enough. And you're not wrong about revenants being difficult to kill. Difficult to confirm dead, anyway. Which is why I went to the trouble of searching the grounds to confirm it. His phylactery was well hidden, but I was not the first to find it. Shattered. Which makes Barion very dead. Exceedingly expired. Made sure there wasn't a spark of life or mana left in the wretched little shit." She eyed me. "What I should have done to you."

  Phylactery?

  "I don't understand."

  "Then put that squirrelly little mind of yours to work and figure it out. Barion, deader than a widow's husband. A piece of technology bearing his signature has somehow made its way to Whitefall, and in the meantime appears to have been iterated on. Significantly."

  As I stood there, barely breathing, she dragged another ghoul from the pile to the same cylinder, shoving the second inside atop the first.

  My mind raced. Anger radiated from my core, warming me from the inside as it finally clicked. "There… were rangers all over that cabin. Crimson Brand later. Had to be, once word of a revenant spread. If a monster relies on a phylactery, it would function similarly to the liches of legend? As a means of resurrection?"

  "So it wasn't you that broke it." Thoth raised an eyebrow.

  "No. Someone else, someone who came to the cabin after."

  "More likely the Brand, rather than the rangers." Thoth gave a half-shrug. "As fun as it would be to blame the latter on your ignorance and stupidity, very few people in this world know that revenants draw their immortality from a physical object. That it's stayed relatively secret is the only reason they're not extinct."

  "To what end? Why would the Crimson Brand want a method of awakening? They're greedy esoterics who loathe expanding their numbers, withholding secrets from members for decades, sometimes longer. Especially considering it doesn't even work."

  "Ah. Seems Morthus's meddling didn't fall on deaf ears." She nodded. "Mostly correct, though the full truth is… complicated. It's impossible to torment a soul enough over the course of a single lifetime to trigger an awakening. Even working with an old soul that is on the verge. Still, if you know what you're doing, it's trivially easy to use a similar process to different ends—Stop standing there like a fool and help me with these."

  Nausea still roiling in my stomach, I helped move the rest of the ghouls into the chambers. Always two apiece, though there were enough chambers for all of them.

  Commenting as much earned me nothing other than another cruel smile.

  Once four of the chambers were occupied, Thoth approached the first in the line. A mote of violet flame appeared on her fingertip, so close to the surface it darkened. The reaction from within was immediate. Both ghouls roused, one shortly after the other, teeth gnashing as they slammed against the interior of the chamber, bloodied foreheads slamming against it so viciously I worried it might break.

  One shoved the other out of the way, and they set on each other like starving wolves, sprays of crimson lashing across the surface, bloody imprints left behind by tattered flesh and rotting clothes.

  Before I could so much as react, she did the same to the next cylinder, and the next, until the din of ravenous ghouls was almost deafening.

  I winced, cringing as a skull-rattling hum increased in volume, and a spiraling coil, previously invisible, glowed white at the bottom of the chambers, beneath the floor the ghouls squabbled on.

  At first, nonsensically, I thought they were being burned. But instead of blackening or turning to ash, they slowed, vicious blows becoming sluggish as they flagged, eventually clinging to each other for support.

  "What's happening to them?" I asked, my mouth dry.

  "Our guests have decided their aimless lives would be better spent in sacrifice on our behalf. Isn't that right?" Thoth rapped on the glass, then relit the fire at her fingertip, driving the ghouls that had fatigued the most back into a frenzy, grinning in delight.

  Maybe it was because the ghouls hadn't always been monsters. Or simply because this was the happiest she'd seemed since our encounter after the world's end.

  Whatever we were getting out of this, whatever the point was, I couldn't imagine it was worth it.

  "This… is wrong."

  As it so often did, Thoth's mood flipped, elation oscillating to rage within seconds. She snatched a small phial from one of the chambers, thrusting it into my face. A glowing blue liquid radiated from within, its glow purple in the surrounding light. "Recognize it?"

  "No."

  "Of course you wouldn't. Because you've taken nothing but losses since the day you were born. This is a windfall. Pure, processed mana, almost entirely free of the toxins that complicate absorbing its ambient counterpart directly. A paltry amount, but with any luck, enough to sustain the annoyingly mana-dependent for months. Maybe longer."

  "This doesn't…" I stopped, the rest of the question unnecessary.

  Because of course it didn't give her pause. Thoth killed innocents on a lark. Murdered once-allies and enemies alike simply because—if I was understanding correctly—their existence so much as had the potential to compromise a loop. She was a rake of suffering, dragged over any and all foolish enough to come near. Moralizing was pointless. She was so far past the point of mortal qualms around violence, she probably couldn't even remember what it was like to have them.

  Nothing that happens here matters.

  "… seem like nearly enough to do all that is claimed."

  Her head tilted. She tossed the vial up, then caught it again. "Every time I grow certain you are exactly what you appear to be, something happens to give pause. You have no objections to using this?"

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "Why would I?" I shrugged, giving the still aggravated ghouls a dismissive glance. "They're our enemies. Perhaps all we have left. More to the point, if they actively hunt anything with a pulse and mana pathways, that includes animals, yes?"

  "Yes." Thoth said, still watching me like a hawk.

  "Then we are in competition. Their fates do not concern me." My eyes traced to the machinery. "What I'm more interested in is why this is here, and what it was used for."

  "In that we are aligned." Thoth finally seemed to refocus, attention shifting to our surroundings and away from my reaction to them. "Use is no mystery. It would be a boon to practically any sort of mage willing to indulge the practice. Of great use to an alchemist or artificer. Anyone looking to gather a great deal of arcane power."

  "And for those intent on destroying a ley line?"

  "It would be a boon, yes." Thoth slowly nodded. "It's impossible to say with confidence what the purpose of this place was without seeing the rest of it—whatever was vaporized. But judging from what we can see alone, this was a small-scale undertaking. Well within the capabilities of a single person to manage. Though I question whether or not that was the case. Sourcing the resources would be difficult, unless you had a passage that led here from outside the castle." She paused. "As I said, for how old the veins of this world are, they're not particularly resilient. The right application of prepared mana, intended for disruption, could cause such a volatile reaction. If that's what happened, it should be fairly obvious once we get down there. At least, if you're as practical as you seem."

  Even as she collected two more phials from the chambers of ghouls that had collapsed and began to rummage through stores of equipment in the drawers and cupboards that lined the back of the room, I didn't fully take her meaning until she withdrew a metal-ringed syringe and raised it, taking off the covering and examining the glistening needle in the light.

  "This is not the time for more tests." I breathed the words in a hiss, frustration overtaking fear.

  "You misunderstand..." Thoth plunged the needle into the membrane of the first phial, drawing the glowing fluid out into its crystalline length, about an eighth of the way full, then moving onto the next. "…how close we are to oblivion. By now, deprived of mana as we've been, our organs are barely functioning. Within a week they will fail. It was my intention to allow the infection to claim me, but you insisted and performed adequately, extending my life. This is not a trial. It is recompense." She sneered. "At least, if you're as unbothered as you seem."

  As vile as the premise of placing anything that came from the ghouls inside of me was, I didn't see a way out. Any excuse I offered would be immediately transparent.

  "Fine. Do it."

  "Excellent. Doesn't matter where—we're so dried out it should take anywhere… but..." Thoth scanned me up and down. "Somewhere near the demonic arm should suffice. It should act as a buffer, shield you from the worst of the side effects."

  I pulled my collar to the side, baring the section of shoulder that was still human, just before it turned to chitin.

  The needle was in before I even realized what happened.

  A sharp pinch followed.

  Then, relief. A wave of warmth that extended out and downward from the injection point, so complete and total it was dizzying. Almost immediately, it lessened, as if my body was a sieve. But my mind was clearer, sharper.

  "Gods."

  Thoth laughed. "You seem surprised."

  I was. Even if she was telling the truth, and doing this would benefit us in the long run, I expected the process to be horrifically painful at least. Not like a breath of fresh air after years beneath the ground. "That is so much better."

  "Of course it is. Mana is power." Thoth said, as if the result were to be expected. She drew the contents of more phials into the plunger, then injected it beneath her armor, near her stomach. Relief flooded her features, some of the tension easing, though not all.

  Now that my mind was clearer, another thought occurred to me. "Is this all there is? I didn't spot anything that looked like a branching passage on our way in."

  "It is." Her brows lowered as she trailed off in thought. "All that's left, at least. It's self-sufficient, if extraction is the only purpose, but I get the sense there was more obliterated by the blast."

  "How do you figure?"

  "Complete lack of security measures." Thoth rattled off, taunting the remaining pair of ghouls with a small spark of violet flame, looking vaguely disappointed as they collapsed. "You don't do something like this, here of all places, without making damn sure it goes undiscovered. Beyond that it feels oddly targeted. Preparations were happening beneath your feet, perhaps the entire time you were home. There are only a handful of people I'm aware of that could pull something like this off—and even then, they'd need critical knowledge they should have been lacking. Not to mention a lion's share of motivation. Made any enemies lately?"

  Several ugly possibilities suddenly jumped out at me.

  "The Drephin have been after my head."

  "Drephin?" Her head turned towards me, a quizzical expression on her face. "They're hermitic. Slow to fight for any cause, even when properly prodded."

  "Not my experience."

  "Odd. Yet still unlikely. They'd be spotted easily if the entrance to this place is anywhere nearby. And they'd need to return to their true forms at some point." She said.

  "Why not?" I blinked, thinking back to how easily they'd changed forms. "It'd be a perfect way to ensure no one ever found the entrance. Entering through a rabbit warren, or the hollow of a tree only a bird could squeeze through."

  "Sure." Thoth reached over and rapped the glass of one chamber with her knuckles. "And they'd be getting their victims through a hare-sized hole… how, exactly?"

  Right. The part of this I'd been ignoring, because it was almost too harrowing to think about.

  "Probably human, then." A terrible possibility occurred to me, and I hissed, pulling a hand down my face, aggravation roiling in my gut. "The fucking void mage."

  Thoth's face was perfectly placid. "A void mage?"

  "The void mage. Capable of overcoming the contact limitation. Another shadow haunting my steps since my return. Always just out of reach."

  Likely responsible for the suppression of my sister's magical ability, undercutting me at several points over the last year and an overall constant thorn in my side. And if this place was connected to them, they were a far more active threat than I'd realized.

  "How puzzling." She stroked her chin in an obvious gesture.

  Immediately, she had my full attention. "You know who they are?"

  "What does it matter?"

  "Peace of mind."

  "Boring. That line of rationalization only goes so far."

  "I saved your life. The least you can do is part with the name of a corpse."

  Her eyes flashed. "I've already given far more than you deserve."

  "Okay. Fine." Slowly, I breathed out, letting the frustration dissipate. "It would cost you nothing. Less than nothing. And if it was someone close to me, someone I missed, knowing that would render regret and anguish. But fine. Keep it to yourself—fuck."

  I felt a surge of hatred rising within me and didn't trust myself to mask it, instead turning on a heel and moving back towards the entrance, cresting the stairs again.

  "Where are you going?"

  "In search of air. It reeks of death in here."

  I stopped on the precipice of the sheared-off hall, shoulder against the wall, breathing slowly, willing my heart to steady. Behind, I heard her shuffling around, tinkering with the machinery.

  But I didn't hear her approach. Nor was I aware of her presence until I saw the gilded eye, floating in my periphery. She stood on the ledge beside me and leaned back against the opposite side, her expression thoughtful. "There are few void mages capable of the sort of feats you describe. Really only one. I've known them over many lives. And while their motivations are often murky, and they are, if pushed, capable of great ruthlessness…" She indicated the lab, then the hole beneath. "…this madness is beyond them."

  "He wouldn't do this?" I asked uncertainly.

  She met my eye. "They wouldn't, no."

  "Then why keep it secret?"

  My question was met with an infuriating chortle.

  "Because it vexes. It's an endless source of amusement, watching someone so tantalizingly close to a discovery utterly miss the mark. Especially having known the truth of it for centuries."

  "Great." I gave her a dry look. "Has there been a single moment in the countless years lost between us where you've chosen to be anything other than a sadistic fuck?"

  "It suits me more often than not."

  "But not always. Interesting. I assumed it was a natural state. That by default you range around, ruining any life that isn't yours, grazing on the aftermath and chewing the cud of suffering until the next meal presents itself." I responded, flippant.

  Thoth laughed, her cackling echoing up, ever higher, reaching the curving edge of the crater on the other side and bouncing back again. "How unimaginative." She wiped her eyes. "No. Even I grow tired of the same routine, eventually. It was a common problem among those within the cycle. So much so that it brought about the Quiet Iterations."

  "Quiet iterations?"

  "Cycles we simply elected to let pass. Sometimes because the iterations themselves were botched, but not always. After enough cycles, effectiveness declined, even when we should have been growing stronger. A combination of too much friction and pent-up frustration. Picture a litter of vicious rats, confined in too tight a space."

  "I imagine there was animosity to spare."

  "An obvious connection to make. But yes. Instead of continuing to bash our heads against the wall in an effort to solve obstinate problems unlikely to be resolved through stubbornness, we all came together and put it to a vote. And if the vote passed, we simply fanned out, and went our separate ways for the rest of the iteration. Some spent the time in research and training, others chased luxury and pleasure."

  "Which were you?"

  "Neither. Retired among others who wished to resume the mantle of their normal lives. They did it because it brought them comfort. I did it for the reminder." Thoth crossed her arms, leaning her head back against the rock. "Because no matter how I seethed, and chafed against the rules and protocols that came alongside the iterations, it was so much better than the alternative."

  "Living without chaos and bloodshed."

  She shook her head. "Being ordinary."

  A heavy silence fell between us. It was around that time I started to give up on understanding the way she thought, at least in any meaningful way. The differences were too stark. Power was something I'd never wanted, nor sought. While I understood the necessity better than before, and, on rare occasion, actually enjoyed it, I was fully aware of the downsides. That power often created as many problems as it solved. Sometimes more.

  I didn't have to ask her which role I'd chosen in the Quiet Iterations. Because I longed for it, even now.

  Thoth stepped off the ledge. A floating aegis caught her, burnished orange light illuminating the edges of the crater, blasted smooth from the eruption below. She looked back down the hallway. "It seems our luck has turned. A few of them were surprisingly well fed. This should do for now. Shall we complete what we came here to do?"

  I eyed the aegis, and the abyss that stretched out for ages below it. "And you're sure you have enough to get us to the bottom?"

  "Certainty is for the ignorant. But this should suffice." Thoth smirked, watching for my reaction.

  Taking a deep breath, I stepped out into open air. My boots landed solidly on the magic's surface, swirling rune work rotating beneath my feet, gaps showing the chasm below.

  There was a lurch, then the sensation of movement, as the arcane lift set in motion, lowering us into the dark.

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