‘By the decree of the Tower Castellan, Hollowoc Tower is hereby sealed to Hativa Quarter.’

Angelico had barely finished reading the notice when Lieran snatched it from his hands.

Lieran gripped the notice as he read, evading everyone trying to grab it off him.

The paper crumpled with a crunch when he clenched his hands into fists.

Lieran screamed.

He tore the notice in half and ignited it with spellfire. Then he hurled it into the courtyard firepit where it roared into a blaze.

Neeno went to Akiyoh and guilelessly held out a hand.

Akiyoh pulled an identical envelope notice out of his own inner robe pocket and gave it to him, before he brought it to share with the others who hadn’t read it yet.

“These were at the entrance Gate of Stocross Mountain,” said Akiyoh. “They will likely be distributed throughout the Quarter from tomorrow morning.”

Lieran stalked towards Akiyoh with a glare.

Angelico instinctively intercepted him.

Lieran struck out at the porch post hard, and somewhere the structure audibly splintered.

When he stiffly extracted his claws from the wood, they were twitching from a rage he could barely contain.

“So what are we supposed to do now?” He said.

Laoceng said, “You can read, can’t you? None of you are allowed at the Tower. That’s that.”

“That’s that? Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?”

Everybody had read the notice now and they all gathered before Akiyoh and Laoceng to say their piece.

“Look at this dump that we live in. This is a place for animals, not Aven.”

“Every day, all we did was train.”

“We never took any breaks.”

“What do you think we ate?”

“What was it all for?”

“What happened to Caritas? Aren’t they supposed to look after us?”

“What’s wrong with Hollowoc Tower? What’s wrong with Hativa Quarter?”

Lieran went to the firepit and wailed at it like everything was its fault. “Why can’t they just do what they say they’ll do? I’ll tear the Tower apart. I’ll tear this Quarter apart!”

“That’s good,” said Akiyoh. “Very good. An excellent show of fighting spirit.”

He hadn’t lost an ounce of composure in the face of everyone’s outburst. “If something as irrelevant as a Tower decree could shake you, truly, it would have been disappointing.”

“Because there is another way.”

“What? How?”

Akiyoh took a decrepit book from his low desk and flipped through it, finding the page.

“It’s an arcane law, though certainly still in effect. Hollowoc Tower is open to challenge.”

“What does that mean?”

“If an Order captures the Tower according to the rules, they may install a new Castellan to govern that Tower.”

“You mean you?” Said Lieran.

Through his veil, Akiyoh levelled Lieran with his dark eyes. “Yes.”

“If your Chief becomes the new Castellan, he could appoint you as Hollwoc Tower’s eyas Order,” said Laoceng. “All of you would automatically be permitted into the Inner Sky.”

“Now we’re talking.”

“What’s the catch?”

“Issuing a Tower challenge isn’t something that’s done lightly. Should the challengers fail, they are sentenced to Suffusion. Your spiritus would be sealed and you’ll never fly as high as you do now without suffering altus sickness. Which as you know, to some, is fatal.”

Akiyoh adjusted his veil.

“Additionally, the ticket to issue the challenge can only be prepared in a spiritus ritual by an Archasaur, or an exceptionally enlightened Sorcerer.”

Laoceng gloated. “What can I say, my boss is kind of a big shot.”

“It sounds as if you already have a plan,” said Kennia.

Akiyoh nodded. “In six weeks, a monsoon will break over Hativa Quarter . In the time until then, you will all prepare to become capable of taking a wingfight against Hollowoc Tower.”

“The eyas guards there are all below concern. The true danger is with their commander, the Captain of the Guard. Hativa Quarter adores him for a good reason.”

Laoceng scoffed. “His name is Haisuh. We’ve met before. And I can’t say we get along.”

“Very few worthy raptors come out of Hativa Quarter,” said Akiyoh.

“Haisuh has never ascended out of Hativa Quarter,” said Laoceng.

“So the same as you?” Said Akiyoh.

Laoceng’s reply to that was a mirthless smile.

“What about you, Chief?” Said Darakan, who had taken the book. “It says here that you have to participate.”

“Yes.”

“But six weeks isn’t long enough for you to recover, is it?” Said Angelico. “Last time it took you six months.”

Akiyoh held up a hand. “Let me handle my condition. It won’t be like what you think it will be like.”

Akiyoh sighed and brushed back his hair.

“Of course, this isn’t what we originally agreed. If you find what I’m proposing to be disagreeable, you’re under no obligation to stay.”

“I will reconvene with each of you tomorrow about your intentions,” said Akiyoh. “Give it some thought.”

---

On an evening almost six weeks later, Laoceng slapped the last of his reports on the only empty corner of  Akiyoh’s desk.

Akiyoh sitting there ignored Laoceng, absorbed in the landscape he was painting.

Laoceng studied the Master of the eyas of Jawbone Manor, seated at his low desk in the dim light.

Akiyoh’s impression was somehow both exceedingly bland, and exceedingly refined.

He was younger than Laoceng was, in his mid-thirties, but his manners and habits were deeply old-fashioned, as if he had been raised by someone from the distant past.

And the outdated way he covered half his face with a veil; sometimes just his eyes, other times just his mouth and nose, was so amusing and bizarre.

No matter the reason for hiding his face, his cover-up was only drawing more attention.

“You know,” said Laoceng, “when the boss assigned me here, I didn’t expect to be playing teacher.”

Akiyoh rinsed his paintbrush. “I didn’t ask you to teach them anything. I asked you to evaluate them. I was teaching them just fine all by myself.”

Under Laoceng’s reports were Akiyoh’s own: a separate codex for each of his eyas, detailing their individual training plans, health conditions, and particular interests.

Laoceng had never heard of an Academy run by just one Aven.

“I couldn’t help it,” he said. “They have a lot of potential.”

Among all living beings, Aven were unique in the Eyrie. For them, there weren’t that many ways to leave a legacy behind.

Akiyoh added the last of the painting’s finishing touches with a flourish, then rinsed his brush again and hung it on its rack to dry.

“You’re really quite good at that, you know,” said Laoceng. “Ever considered the quiet life of a sponsored artisan?”

“If I could be satisfied with that,” said Akiyoh, “I would be a completely different person.”

“I know,” said Laoceng. “The only thing you care about is the state of soarplay in the Inner Sky.”

Akiyoh hummed in agreement. “If I wasn’t going to fly, I would cut my wings off myself.”

Through Akiyoh’s open windows came the sound of something crashing down, followed by a few different voices yelling.

Akiyoh poured two cups of tea and began to sip one.

Laoceng went to the window to check someone hadn’t died in the courtyard firepit. “Are you as crazy as them, or are they as crazy as you?”

Akiyoh joined him at the window and handed him a teacup. “You’re not scared, are you?”

“Of course not. I’m curious. I want to see what happens, since they’re eyas of Death Sorcery, after all. Part like you, part like me.”

“Death Sorcery isn’t a part of them,” said Akiyoh with a frown.

“Maybe.” Laoceng shrugged. “Did you tell them there was a possibility that your original plan with the purification rites wouldn’t work? If that violence is all their own, they could be exorcised, and it wouldn’t quench their bloodlust.”

Reflected in Laoceng’s eyes was the light of the fire the eyas were nursing in the courtyard, as it  threw embers up into the dark sky.

“Only once they taste the blood of the ones who wronged them, will they be satisfied,” said Laoceng.

He downed his cup of tea in one gulp. “Good thing you’re taking them to the Hollowoc Tower Crown.”

The flimsy veil over Akiyoh’s eyes fluttered in the soft night breeze. “When are you leaving?”

“You wound me, Akiyoh. Aren’t you worried I’ll never return?”

“Aren’t you worried your boss will skin you alive?”

Laoceng put the pendant that was his totem into Akiyoh’s hand.

“You’re right. I’ll return with the ticket. You have my guarantee.”

Laoceng crossed the the room, and took off from the windows there.

Akiyoh listened to him leave, but didn’t turn around. He rolled the obsidian pendant Laoceng had left around in his hand.

---

Later, when Priestess Neary arrived at the Jawbone manor, it was the dead of night.

Angelico was in Akiyoh’s quarters, sitting quietly with him on floor, holding his limp hand, fingers on his pulse.

The Master had fallen asleep at the window. Neary and Angelico hauled him to his bed.

All the movement started to wake him up.

“Why don’t you go get some sleep, Angelico? You’ll put your Master in a sour mood if he finds out you were fussing.”

“I’ll go,” said Angelico.

Then he held up an obsidian pendant to the Priestess. “Master Akiyoh had this in his hands. I’ve never seen this one before, but he already has something like this, doesn’t he?”

Neary examined it.

This totem was engraved with tiny star-shaped flowers, nestled in a ring of horned holly leaves.

“Yes,” said Neary. “I’ll take care of it now. Good night.”

Angelico left Akiyoh’s room and shut the door with a quiet clack.

Neary put the totem of the Sorcerer’s commissary on the desk and began to gather up Akiyoh’s paintings.

Lately, he hadn’t been painting that one in particular that Neary collected.

“I received your message,” said Akiyoh, lying in bed. “Someone from the Inner Sky will be sojourning at Hollowoc Tower.”

“Yes,” said Neary. “This timing… It must be an official weathering a political fallout. To be in Hativa Quarter during the monsoon, they obviously don’t want to be found.”

“You haven’t confirmed this official’s identity?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“I don’t suppose it matters. There are very few officials who can interfere with a Tower challenge.”

“If anything, Captain Haisuh and the Castellan will be preoccupied with protecting them, giving us an advantage.”

“You intend to challenge the Captain of the Guard?” Asked Neary.

“I will reveal myself and join the fray if it becomes necessary.”

“Akiyoh, you have never planned to show yourself, and you haven’t taken a wingfight in years. Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I see now that to achieve our goal, everything necessary must be utilised. Including me,” Akiyoh said. “I know it seems I’m as ill as I was a year ago, but I can already feel the poison dissipating.”

Neary nodded. What could she do but believe him?

Death Sorcery was deeply mysterious, but the Eyrie homed many Sorcerers, and none of them had been able to help him.

Whatever poison Akiyoh was afflicted with; it was perhaps the most mysterious poison in the world.

“This is the greatest gamble we’ve ever made,” said Neary.

“Do you remember when we first found them? These eyas?”

Neary nodded. It was unforgettable. In the aftermath of the barge fire, they had been covered in a carnage they could barely understand.

“I have been all in with my life since I offered them refuge that night,” said Akiyoh.

“You’ll never tell them what it cost you, to save their lives?” Said Neary.

“Why would they ever need to know? Once they have their own lives, they should forget about me. That would be for the best.”

Akiyoh offered his wrist to Neary and she reached out and checked his pulse.

Even though Angelico had doubtlessly been holding Akiyoh’s hands for a long time, they were still so cold.

How curious and how painful it must be for the pair of them, thought Neary, to look upon the face of a completely different Aven, and find it to be so alike their own.

---

A few days later, Laoceng returned with the Tower Challenge ticket.

Using the ritual materials, all the Jawbone eyas inscribed their name, and Akiyoh sealed it with his blood.

Together, they left the swamp, and made the trip to Stocross Mountain.

With a monsoon closing in over Hativa Quarter, the sky was dark all day.

After nightfall, Lieran and Angelico flew up to the Stocross Mountain entrance Gate.

They threw the challenge ticket into the cauldron of spellfire there, triggering the mechanisms of the Gate, as well as those on Hollowoc Tower.

Deep bells sounded, and spellfire in the Tower lanterns ignited.

The challenge was about to begin. Everybody in Hativa Quarter was going to see what these eyas from the Jawbone could do.