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The Land Warden sighed, over and over. "So be it. Since your mind is made up, I'll pass what remains of my divine power to you."
Following the Land Warden's lead, the other water folk of the Rivers did the same, one after another.
Feeling the steady stream of spirit-power flow into my body, I looked at them all with gratitude.
"For a kindness this great, thanks are not enough."
Cloud gathered beneath my feet and carried me up. They waved after me, reluctant to let me go.
"Larkin, this is all we can do. You have to see your vengeance through, and come back safe."
I reached the Ninefold Heaven, masked my breath, chose my moment, and struck.
But the War God was, in the end, the War God.
In no more than thirty moves he had beaten the blood from my mouth, and every layer of my disguise shattered, baring my true face.
"Larkin?"
When he saw it was me, a flicker of surprise crossed Norman's face, then his expression went cold again.
"Back for revenge already? Are your wounds even healed?"
He gripped my chin, looking down at me from above.
"Didn't I tell you? Go home to the Rivers and stay there. Stop coming here to shame yourself."
I was covered in blood, and every small movement set me shaking hard.
Still I lifted my eyes, cold.
"Norman, don't forget I still haven't found where my father, my mother, and my sister are!"
"Even if it kills me, I will never give up my revenge."
This blood feud that could not share the same sky under it, I would carry to my death.
Norman gave a short, scornful laugh and let me go, careless. "You really are stubborn to the bone."
He seemed to feel my blood had dirtied his hand. He drew out a handkerchief, wiped it clean, then threw the cloth onto my face in disgust.
"Larkin, for the sake of what once was between us, I won't hurt you."
"But if you keep on like this, refusing to know what's good for you,"
"then don't blame me if I take your inner core too, to nourish Moira Sullivan."
Norman dropped the words coldly and turned to leave.
I watched that blood-stained handkerchief drift to the ground, and it had even gathered a trace of demonic air about it.
The year we pledged our love, I had embroidered it myself and given it to him.
Now an embroidered pouch made by Moira's own hands hung at his waist, and this handkerchief no longer meant a thing to him.
My heart clenched all at once. I closed my eyes, and with everything I had, I caught hold of the hem of Norman's robe.
"Please. Tell me where my father, my mother, and my sister are."
Norman stopped abruptly and turned back, frowning.
"Larkin, your parents are of a cultivator clan."
"Even without their inner cores, ruined, it doesn't matter."
"Given time, if fortune finds them, they can cultivate their way back to immortality. If you truly went looking, you might even find them."
"Moira said she spared their lives and cast them down to the mortal realm."
But we are bound by blood, and I felt it clearly. It was not that simple.
They were telling me to go to the mortal realm and search for my reborn parents and sister.
But I had long since sensed it. They were no longer in this world at all.
Even if they had been reduced to mortals, or fallen all the way to the Underworld,
so long as a single breath of life remained in them,
I could never be as I was now, unable to feel them at all.
"Norman, that's a lie!"
I stared hard at the War God Norman. "Look me in the eyes and tell me. Where are my father, my mother, and my sister now?"
"You call me your betrothed at every turn. You're the War God. Have you ever once protected the people standing behind you?"
Norman's face went pale, anger stirring at the bottom of his eyes. "Larkin, how dare you. You dare insult this War God!"
I spat at him, cold.
"Norman, you hold your post and do nothing, you conspire with the demon clan. You disgrace the name of War God!"
"Silence!"
Norman lost his temper and grabbed me by the collar.
"Larkin, do you really think this War God dotes on you, cherishes you, and won't dare do a thing to you?"
Dotes on me. Cherishes me. Well.
Enough to take the very lives of my father, my mother, and my sister, and then do everything in his power to stop me from avenging them.
"Oh? Norman, a guest again?"
Moira's coy voice came from behind me.
Dressed all in pink, she came toward us with slow, mincing steps.
"Moira, didn't I tell you to stay at the Jade Pool? Why have you come?"
At the sight of her, Norman shoved me away and his tone turned gentle as he went forward to meet her.
"I heard someone had come to assassinate you. I was so curious I wanted to see for myself."
"I never expected another old acquaintance."
Moira looked down at me from above.
"So you're Norman's betrothed, Nerissa's little sister, Larkin?"
I turned my face away in humiliation.
She smiled, all provocation, even sticking her tongue out at me, then leaned in close and sniffed hard, letting out a satisfied sigh.
"Mm. So fragrant."
"Get away from me, you demon witch!"
I snatched up the thousand-year divine sword from the ground, but before I could bring it down on Moira, Norman had his foot on my wrist bone.
He bore down with all his weight, and the bone ground with a cracking, grinding sound.
But I clenched my teeth and refused, utterly, to let out a single cry of pain.
