I fly adjacent to Avarice, keeping my distance and staying a bit above him. The Leverii are said to live in tunnels dug into the earth so it is not likely Avarice wouldn’t look up, not that he expects to be followed.

Addanc joins him eventually, I startle but quickly realize he hasn’t spotted me either. But, just to be safe, I lag a bit behind and rise a big higher. Then I see it, a gargantuan mud hill, Leverii fluttering around it in a jerky dance.

I land in a nearby pine tree, watching Avarice and Addanc tackle Leverii out of the sky. I turn away as Addanc rips one clean down the middle with a sickle, before I have to watch it’s innards fall from its stomach. Forcing down the vomit threatening to soil my shirt, I scan the mound.

I find what I'm looking for too quickly but I can find anything better so I hop between the trees, making my way toward the unguarded entrance to the mound. A giant maw opened up wide to swallow me whole.

I’ve made it maybe two steps in, my eyes not quite yet adjusted, when a hood is brought down on my head. I thrash, trying to shake the hands from my arms but they’re strong and I'm tugged forward. The ground becomes rocky and uneven, sloping downward. I stumble more than once.

When the hood is removed I’m assaulted by dim light and a haze of smoke.

“A bird from Cloud Spire...” The figure regards me curiously from their throne, eyes reflecting the dim firelight. “Never has such a creature wandered into my tunnels. What brings you here, boy?”

I glance at the girl twisting at the cords binding her by the wrists to the ceiling. “You.”

“With a sword? Do you wish to kill me?” The Monarch stands and descends the shadowed dais, taking a javelin from one of her knights. Massive butterfly wings, the colors of fire, sweep the ground like a cloak. “How very bold and very stupid of you.”

“Wait! I’m not here to fight you.”

“Then what do you want from me?”

I hesitate. I did not think this through, Stars, I should have thought of an answer to something like that.

That hesitation is all it takes for the guards to lunge at me. I launch into the air at the last second, causing them to collide below me. Examining Noodles’ situation, that rope is far too thick for me to slice straight through it, not before the guards are upon us at least. If only Noodles we’re heavy enough to put actual strain on it...

I brace myself against the wall behind me. Kicking off, I grapple the rope as I pass it, swinging around it, twisting it as tight as it will go. Gritting my teeth against it’s pull back, digging my heels into the ceiling, I saw hard and fast. Unraveling strings snap my cheek painfully. At least once, I almost let go but I push on.

A Leverii knight grabs hold of my wing just at the last fibers are severed. I let the rope take me with it in it’s fall, feathers are ripped out but I’m free.

Ricocheting off the walls, I dodge the swinging blades of the Leverii, twisting around to grab Noodles mid-fall. Tucking into a roll as my back hits the floor. She’s quick to rid herself of me, snatching up rocks and chucking them hard at the incoming Leveriese’s wings, dropping them like flies.

“Kill the little one but leave the Niceaon!” The Monarch shrieks, aiming her javelin for Noodles who’s too distracted stealing the knives off fallen guards to worry about her surroundings.

I grab her by the back of her dress and rip her out of the way.

She’s livid at first until she sees the javelin protruding from the dirt where she was just standing. “Good reflexes.”

“We need to divert their attention from us.”

“Hmm,” Noodles searches the room and her eyes light up. “We’ll smoke ‘em out.”

With that she takes a running start, winding up to kick a brazier of hot coals onto the Monarch’s silk draped dais.The Starving flames devour the entire structure in seconds and I’m stunned, watching the leverii dart around in panic.

Noodles catches me by the hem of my shirt when she passes, dragging me with her. We stop outside the throne room, neither of us have any idea which way to go. Noodles breaks off from me to run down a child.

With the boy effectively pinned, daggers to the throat, she says. “If you want to keep your fingers little man, you’ll show us to the surface.”

“Stars, is that really necessary? We could have just followed a draft.”

“This is faster.” Noodles replies cheerfully. “Now, lovely, would you mind showing us the way out?”

He squeals and Noodles draws a few drops of blood.

“Choose quickly.”

They yield to that. Noodles lets them up and they start off in some direction with us up close behind, Noodles digging the tip of her stolen dagger into his back.

Everything looks the same. I wouldn’t have been able to navigate this place with or without the hood I was dragged here in. Even Addanc’s tunnels had some sort of system to them, plus they had a better draft.

Arriving at one of the hill’s many entrances, we encounter a guard. “Ho! Halt prisoners, you may not pass-”

Noodles ignores the guard’s warning, tossing our captive aside and changing headlonga at the Leverii blocking our escape. She releases a sharp hiss, not giving him the chance to dart away before burying a dagger up to the hilt in his kneecap. However, he doesn’t howl until after she bites down hard on his hand. She jerks away, taking the dagger with her and letting her victim fall.

Noodles spits out a few, small, worm-like things. Are those fingers?

I scrunch up my face in disgust but she only smiles back. She is not the flower, she is the snake underneath it and I'm going to keep my hands to myself from now on.

When we arrive in Ecrye, I leave Noodles on Addanc’s doorstep and pick my way through the cities, too tired to fly. I’m passing an alleyway when a woman with a wild mane of black tangles barrels into my side. Flailing my arms she seizes me by the shirt collar.

“The world forgets the gods of the surface, at least until it comes to claim them but by then it’s far too late to repent. The power of storms may be misbegotten but the sea will make sure you’re forever forgotten.” The enthusiast drops me and I scuttle back. “You cannot always rely on your wings to lift you!”

Adrenaline carries me all the way to the Fallen’s abode. She barely spares me a glance when I walk in, winded. It takes me a moment to remember what I came here to do and even longer to catch my breath.

“Did you know that the Leverii just attacked Lezabel in her own home?”

The Fallen promptly drops the glass in her hand, letting it shatter at her feet rather than catching it with magic like she normally might have done. “Oh Stars, they found her? Is she alive?”

“Yes, thanks to her brothers, but you need to do something to stop this. You say you’re cursed to stay so what will set you free?”

“My sword. As you know, I was sealed away in this cave for my affair with Zorzallaz, and my sword was shattered in the battle between me and my sister. The elder gods took the shards and scattered them, Zorzallaz found all but one. The sword will not cut through the seal unless completely repaired, trust me I’ve tried to escape many times.” The Fallen drops her chin into a slender hand. “My sword could cut through mountains if I willed it but without that last shard, I can’t even break out of my own prison.”

“Well, what is it supposed to look like?”

She turns away, deliberately tapping the floor every few steps. She stops suddenly, laying her palms on the ground. The sound of shifting sand breaks the momentary silence as a glass case rises from the floor with The Fallen as she stands. I peek inside.

The shards of flickering metal remind me of puzzle pieces, they fit perfectly into the shape of a sword. Except a fragment in the middle ensures it’s next to useless, especially since it appears that the enchantments are malfunctioning. The missing fragment is, as expected, familiar to me.

“I know where the last shard is.” I say under my breath.

The Fallen’s eyes bulge, her aura sparking to life in an instant. “Where?”

“Cloud Spire.”

“Oh… I could send-”

“No, I'll go.”

The door flies open. Avarice is standing there, his demeanor is heart-shatteringly crestfallen.