The backroads winding through Verweald's hills were quiet in the late evening. Thunderstorms once more threatened the seaboard, leaving a slick shine of dew upon the sage bushes and brush. Darius drove my car, his hands creating permanent dents in my steering wheel whenever he clenched his fists. I didn't care. I was simply relieved we had escaped Techie-Goods before it collapsed on top of us, and that—by some miracle or twist of fate—had escaped the police line before it cinched shut around us.

I cradled my wounded hand against my chest, wincing whenever the muscles or bones shifted. I had bit quite deeply despite my lack of serrated teeth or fangs. The skin was bruised and the bite itself was inflamed, leaving the cut red and irritated. My thumb hurt from where the overlarge pistol had recoiled and wrenched it backward.

Darius saw me grasping the injured limb. "I'll retrieve Saule in the morning," he said, disturbing the hush that had settled within the car once the red and blue cruiser lights had faded. "I do not think I am capable of looking upon a witch at the moment, let alone asking one for her assistance."

I watched the hills undulate beyond the guardrails, rising and falling like waves of pebbles and earth lapping at the roadside. "It's fine," I told him as I lowered the hand to hide it from the Sin's observation. "I'll visit Saule in the morning—if she's willing to treat me. If not, I can go to a hospital for something small like this." As I talked, a thought abruptly rose from my subconscious. I laughed, startling the Sin.

"Sorry. It's just, I used to ask for my sister whenever I went to the hospital. You're not supposed to, technically, but I did anyway. She was a resident, you know. She had already been published in journals, and people would call her a prodigy." I stared at my bruised knees as my smile died. "She was perpetually busy with work and patients, but she would always make time to take care of my checkups when I went to Verweald General."

I sighed and eased farther into my seat. Tara. The hospital was undoubtedly missing her by now. I wondered about that from time to time. I wondered what arrangements Darius had Danyel set up to ensure Tara disappeared without any problems. "I was just thinking...she would have been fascinated by blood witch magic. She spent years and years of her short life studying how to better people. I think she would have been utterly thrilled with the prospects magic opened up. She would have found a way to integrate it into her own work." I simpered as I recalled the way Tara's eyes used to sparkle when she was discussing medicine or science. She would speak with animated hand motions, whacking innocent bystanders. "She and Saule would have been good friends."

Darius shifted to ease one hand from the damaged wheel. "Aren't you and Saule...friends?"

"No. Saule's terrified of me." She had admitted as much when she had crafted my mana ampoule. "You can't make friends with people who are terrified of you."

The Sin snorted. "The irony of your words is lost upon you."

I frowned as I tenderly rubbed my aching hand. "Darius..." I began, averting my gaze out the dark window. There were no streetlights here, no signals, and seeing that this highway didn't circumvent travel times to and from Verweald, it had very little traffic. No oncoming headlights crossed our path. Soon we'd crest the hills and be able to see the airport, and perhaps the beginnings of Evergreen Acres. "Do you think I'm...evil?"

"Evil?"

"Yeah, evil. I killed that man. I don't feel remorse over that. I don't feel remorse over any of their deaths, whether I was guilty of them or not. I'm still filled with so much anger. So much hate. This cold feeling of loss and the desire for vengeance sit upon my heart and I cannot dislodge them. You've known far more people than I ever will and have seen more evidence of human nature; shouldn't I feel remorse? Isn't that the normal response? Shouldn't I feel sorry for what I've done?"

Darius had been watching the road, but as I spoke his eyes narrowed, and he abruptly jerked the car onto the shoulder. Startled, I grabbed the door handle as the tires crunched over the loose gravel. "W-what are you doing?" I asked—but Darius was already out of the vehicle and rounding the hood. He rapped his knuckles upon my window before gesturing toward a dark hillside.

"Follow me."

I did so, though not without my fair share of griping about irascible Sins and their sudden need for midnight hikes. The brambles and bracken scratched my bare ankles, but I ignored the underbrush—though I listened for the tell-tale rattle of Western Diamondbacks or Sidewinders. I was aware they weren't as active during the night, but it would be my luck to step on a rattlesnake while tromping through the hills with a demon.

We stopped at the crown of the rise where the harsh southern California winds had scoured the cliff's face clean of any foliage. Verweald stretched beyond the foothills, gloating with its dark, sinister beauty like a serpent still wet from slithering out of the morass. To the northeast, I could see a helicopter hovering above Greenwood, no bigger than a fly at our distance. Darius swept his hand outward to indicate Verweald and all its grim splendor.

"What do you see, girl?"

"Is this a trick question?" I snapped, panting from the trek as I eyed the precariously sandy edge of the cliff. "I see Verweald."

"What you see are people," the Sin stated. "About a million people live in Verweald and its county. Someone is being born out there. Someone is dying. Someone is killing. You tell me I know human nature better than you—and that is true, but take a moment, Sara, to observe. Before you stretches exactly what you seek; evidence of human nature."

I stood next to the Sin and gazed across the hazy valley. I didn't see what he saw. I just saw a city filled with humans, with monsters, and everything in between.

"Do you think I'm evil, Sara?"

I glanced at Darius to find him already staring at me, ignoring the city below. His eyes were clouded with hunger and fatigue, and his skin was sickly pale. I was unsure of what precisely had happened at Techie-Goods, but I knew it had not been prudent for the Sin to unleash such a hell storm. The effort had taken its toll upon his body.

"No," I responded slowly. "I don't think you're evil. I think you do what you have to in order to survive, and I find no fault in that."

"Ah, but I wasn't always like this." Darius splayed a hand above his own heart. "I was not always the monster you see now. Yes, I kill to survive—but don't be fooled. I've killed innocent people on the behest of my hosts. I've taken lives on your behest without hesitation and will continue to do so. I've been cruel to your kind before. Humans have worshiped me as several gods in the past, and I spat upon them all. I didn't take your contract out of the goodness of my heart, out of a desire to see justice done. I took your contract because I was hungry and because I wanted a taste of the vengeance that bred such ugly, fervid rage in your heart—because I cannot find my own.

"Tell me, girl. Don't you think I'm evil?"

I considered his question, unease prickling my neck.

He's going to kill you, Amoroth had said in her office. Don't humanize him.

I didn't need Amoroth's warning. I knew when the Exordium fell, my life would be ended by Darius. I had known it for weeks—and yet I was not panicked, nor did I blame the Sin of Pride and think him a monster. As far as I was concerned, I had died upon the warehouse floor with Tara. Balthier and the Exordium were the ones with my blood upon their hands.

"....No. I don't think you're evil."

Darius sneered and curled a finger beneath my chin, forcing my head upright. "Then do not regret what you have done. You cannot take back your actions. Regret is a worthless emotion, and it would squander all we expended in our endeavor. It would make the lives of those you killed worthless; it would mean they had died in vain. Did they die in vain, Sara?"

"No."

The Sin's hand fell away. "Good and evil are pretty words made up to explain that which humans do not understand. Do not hold yourself to what you believe is the correct version of human nature. There is no such thing. You are more than that. You are more than human."

A coastal wind swept through the hills, warning of the oncoming storm drifting into the valley. It sifted through my hair and laced a chill within my trembling veins. The breeze hardly seemed to touch the Sin, aside from producing a slight wave in his carmine hair. The dry grass hissed about our legs and somewhere further south I heard the sharp, agitated yowl of a hungry coyote hunting for its meal.

"Thank you, Darius," I told him. "That...helps."

The Sin grunted and turned his back toward the city. The tears and blood ruining his shirt became visible. "It means what it means, helpful or not."

We started our return walk to the roadside and my car. As I picked my way among the rocks and jagged plants, I spoke to Darius. "You know, I was thinking as you drove...."

"Yes?"

I stepped over a low stone and nearly slid on the sand. If the Sin saw, he did nothing to help. "I was thinking...we already have what we need to find the cult."

"Do tell." His voice was wry with suspicion.

"The merger documents. I know our copy is lacking—but there is another copy. There has to be. One that would be required to list all the pertinent information, even names and affiliations."

"I assume that copy would be with the cultists and thus beyond our reach." Darius tossed a lazy gesture behind himself to indicate his displeasure. "How does this help us?"

I smirked. "You know, humans have a saying; nothing is certain but death and taxes. Do you know who would be required to have a copy of a company merger? The office of the assessor. Tax assessor, that is."

Darius stopped walking. "I often forget you humans are so particular about money, especially governments. The simplicity of your idea is enticing...but it would not be an easy thing to break into the county assessor's office and peruse their records. Even with a disguise or a mage rune, the security is much higher than anything we have encountered before and I would not be able to coerce every person we came across."

"True." I passed the Sin, allowing my spine to stiffen as a plan formulated in my mind. Why it had not occurred to me before I did not know. I could only assume I had misjudged the value of mundane things amongst the splendor of the supernatural. Mage runes and witch magic were blinding when compared to tax records and acquisitions—but the latter could be far, far more informative. "But we do know a certain Sin who claims to own this city, don't we?"

Darius followed after me. His footsteps were a grim echo of my own—snapping branches, crunching stones as though a very large beast clung to the coattails of my shadow. I could almost sense the weight of his savage, satisfied grin.

The cult had made a mistake when they killed my sister, but they had dug their own graves when they challenged the Sin of Pride. I knew the Exordium did not have long to live.

Neither did I.