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PREVIOUSLY...
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Ari began teaching Azura how to read. Azura realised she has more to live for and informed Palmira she won't assassinate Emperor Ulric, but Erasmus told her that she'll only receive the answers she seeks if she does this job, and that only she can assassinate the emperor but she must somehow use her strange markings. To begin gaining her trust, he revealed he knows where Jile is hiding, offering Azura a chance at the revenge she was deprived of.

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Warroll is the same shithole that I remember. It still reeks of mud and sewage, drunks still stumble from the lopsided tavern in the centre of town, trudging with the pigs through ankle deep filth. On the other side of town, separated by the canal that leads to the ocean, are the mansions with their glass and marble glimmering in the rain. A whole different life is across that canal and everyone within its shadow feels the same bitterness I once did.

I crouch on the edge of the roof, the wood slick, but it offers a decent vantage point, which I'll need if I have any hope of finding Jile. He's a rat in a maze, but I've been given a map. He won't stay hidden for much longer, not if I have anything to say about it.

I squint through the rain and pressing fog, peering at the shabby buildings that make up the town. Erasmus told me where he's hiding. Jile slunk away after his failed alliance with the Empire when they didn't capture me. And now he hides from both me and them.

I skirt down the drainpipe, boots splashing in muddy puddles as I walk through the alley. My face no longer dots the walls of Warroll, like the Empire has forgotten their quest to capture me. After the lengths they went to before—slaughtering the street rats and staging two ambushes—I'm surprised they've let me go so easily.

I stop before a brick wall, one I know too well. Pieces of my soul lay within.

Let the past go, little flame, it will not help you.

I can't, brother. I can't.

I slide the brick from its place, revealing the hollowness behind it. I use my body as a shield from the rain as I grab the objects within. The old pamphlet is crumpled from my travels, but it's as familiar to me now as my markings. Jadira's flowers and herbs. What were you to me? Why was this the only thing I had when my brother found me?

I take out the chain, the bloodied tag dangling from it. It belonged to the soldier who killed Dax and now that I'm in Warroll I can finally look for the answers about who sent them.

The other items are from my time with my brother. A small wooden carving of a tree that he gave me for a birthday. A smoothed rock from a shore to the Blood Ocean. Other pieces lay in the dark but I leave them all behind. I drop the brick on the ground, stuff the pamphlet and necklace into my pocket, and leave the space open for whatever street rat takes interest in such items.

There are some things I don't need to cling to.

I turn to the end of the alley, eyeing the darkened streets. Dawn hasn't broken yet, but it won't be far off as the sky turns a dark grey and the last of the drunks stumble back to their hovels to catch what hours of miserable sleep they can.

Life in Warroll was simple. We all knew our places and most didn't try to claw their way from the gutters. My failed robbery is a prime example of why. The consequences for ambition and dreams are dire.

I walk forward, trying to keep the memories buried of the last time I was here. But they claw and rage, begging for attention. Dax is there, giving me the last of his food, screaming as Jile used him, hugging me when I saved him time and time again, only for him to die because of my foolishness.

His death will not go unanswered.

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The rain has soaked through my sweater and filled my boots by the time I reach the squat home on the edge of the canal. It's a sad little thing, run down and layered with moss from the damp, and crumbling wood from its age. Water streams through a gaping hole in the roof where a branch from an overhanging tree has crashed through it.

This is where the rat hides after he abandoned the warehouse to the Empire, after he gave up his throne. And this is where he dies by my blade.

A light, flickering glow comes from within and I palm my blade, and swipe my tongue over my teeth.

I approach the door, not even bothering to find a less conspicuous way to enter. I kick open the rotted wood, the hinges screeching. Then I step into the glow of the candle with my blade raised and my eyes settling on Jile who leaps from his seat and stumbles back against the slick wall.

"How far you've fallen, Jile," I sneer, a smile curving my lips as the colour drains from his face.

"You..." It's the only word he can utter and my chest bubbles with satisfaction.

Yes, me.

Born a monster. A killer. A murderer.

We do what we have to in order to survive.

I step towards Jile, savouring the moment, savouring the way his hands scramble for a weapon on his desk and how they tremble as he raises the shiv.

"You shouldn't have betrayed me, Jile."

"Yeah, well, the bastards didn't even pay me for what I did." Jile's lips twist and he's already trying to regain control of the situation. He straightens his shoulders and sends me a withering look. "So, are you going to kill me, or what?"

"I have questions first," I tell him and he spits on the ground between us.

"You expect me to answer them? You're still so damn stupid."

I leap towards him and have the blade pressed to his throat before he can utter another word. My gaze travels to the line of blood I draw from him as his throat bobs. "I'd consider your words very carefully, Jile. I didn't come here with mercy in mind, but I could be convinced."

The sneer on his face is the exact one I remember, the one that haunts me as he cut my throat and left me to die.

Except I didn't die, and Jile has lived every moment of his life since then regretting not killing me.

"Their names, Jile. Who did you meet with to organise the ambush? Who got into contact with you?"

Jile leans into the blade and I have to pull back before the edge punctures his throat. "You're gonna go after them?" he asks.

"I'll kill them all for what happened to Dax."

Jile leans back, thumping his head against the wall as he rolls his eyes. "You were always suicidal." He sighs and shrugs. "His name is Captain Vasio. But everything we did was kept quiet, like he didn't want his own men to find out about the ambush, only some he trusted."

"Makes sense. Those types of things spread fast and I doubt he wanted me suspecting anything."

"Yeah, maybe," he says but he doesn't believe my words.

"What do you think was going on?"

"To be honest with you, Az," he says with a savage grin that displays his blackened teeth, "I don't really give a fuck anymore."

"Very well," I reply and take a step back. "May the Watch forget to send your body on the barge so the demons can feast on your corpse." I lift my blade, taking a moment to relish the way it glints in the light of the candle. I bring it slashing down.

Jile jerks and then there's pain, bright and blinding. But...

I look down at the blade between my ribs and my brows draw together.

Pain is a valuable teacher.

"Jile," I say through gritted teeth, meeting his dark gaze. "Did you not learn from the last time you tried to kill me?"

"Oh, I learned." He drags the blade out and I gasp, but it's familiar, like home. It reminds me of my brother and all the things he showed me in the Midland.

A simple blade won't kill me, but Jile already knows that.

"The blade is laced with demon blood," he tells me as I stagger back, my own weapon slipping from my grasp as something races through me, trickling into my blood. "Not as effective as their venom, but easier to get."

"You... poisoned me?" I press my hand to my side, blood warming my sweater where the rain had made it so cold.

"Nothing ordinary can kill you, Az."

"I'll..." I gasp as light bursts behind my eyelids like exploding stars.

"You'll what, Az?" He shifts towards me, or at least I think he does, everything is beginning to blur together, like it's all melting wax with flares of light and pockets of shadow.

"I'll kill you," I answer, stumbling over uneven floorboards, trying to keep my feet under me.

"Like you killed so many to save Dax? You let me rape you for him."

Cold drenches me, the ice closes over my head, thrusting me into water that numbs and strips me bare.

"But he died anyway."

"Shut up!" I try to scream but the words sound strange in my ear. They echo and bounce back to me, repeated over and over until I press my hands to my ears, shaking my head to try and dislodge the noise.

I trip, something catches on my boot and then I'm on the wet ground, slats digging into my shoulder-blades and I can't seem to stand.

Ice creeps under my skin, freezing my blood in my veins, causing my teeth to chatter. I'm so cold. Why is it so cold?

"You think you're special, Az? You're nothing." Hands grip my wrists, pinning them to the uneven floor.

I blink up at Jile, trying to distinguish between the overlapping visages of him. Which one of him is real? Which is the tangible one I can punch? My vision wavers, the poison swaddling my brain like a blanket.

"You've got more shit in your head than the rest of us, but you still think you're better."

"No!" I cry out, trying to twist my hands from his grip. Panic swells like the rising tide, drowning me, consuming me. I try to lift my head again, but it feels like it weighs a tonne, like all that crap filling it has become palpable. It drops back down and the pain as my head thuds against wood is a faraway echo, seeming unimportant as my limbs become sluggish, like wading through mud.

"You're just a scared little girl, Az," Jile sneers, his voice disembodied, fragmented and broken. "Just like you were when I took your innocence."

My mind focuses for a brief flash, narrows to this moment, and I wish it hadn't. I catch a glimpse of Jile, leering over me, his rotted teeth making up a demented smile as he pins me to the ground with his weight.

Dax, I'm doing this for Dax.

Doing what?

I don't know. Why am I here?

He came to me with his food, asked me to help him. I have to sell myself for him, win him a place in the warehouse. I'll use my body if I have to.

No!

No, I don't want this.

He caresses my face, tells me I look pretty with fear in my eyes.

What are these scars, Az?

You don't have the right to know.

I buck against him, I spit in his face, I laugh at him, anything to make him hurt me, to take me to a place that's familiar. Pain is home, pain will save me.

"Alastor!" I scream. My brother will save me, he'll come for me, he always does.

"We're the same, Az." Jile's voice is in my ear, his hot breath against my neck.

Is this now?

Is this before?

"You don't know anything about me," I sob. No one does, no one can.

"I know you can't stop having nightmares about me. I'm always going to be inside your head, Az."

The wound will fester. It will never heal.

Leave her alone!

Azura. Azura. Azura!

That's not my name. I don't want anything in my head anymore.

I'm so cold.

The voices, they cry and scream. Some light and sorrowful, others are a rumble in my ears and it's too much noise, too much chaos.

Little flame.

"Get out!" I scream and then I'm not cold anymore.

It comes from within me, dragging from the very essence of my being to burst forth like a dam being cracked open. A flood of flame, a wall of red and orange, the scent of the fire fills my nose and it smells like life, like being reborn, crafted anew. The inferno is louder than the voices, drowning them out, and I relish in it.

Someone is screaming, but it's not the voices. The sickly sweet stench of charred flesh clogs the air, making me retch. The screams stop and the pounding in my head fades.

I open my eyes, ash and embers floating around me as the decrepit home crumbles around me, blackened and broken.

Am I dreaming?

A raspy laugh slips from my lips as I lay sprawled amongst the fire and ash.

They broke me. I knew they would eventually.

I sit up, clumps of ash tumbling from my clothes.

This isn't real. None of this can be real. I don't have magic.

But my gaze settles on Jile's body, a charred lump curled in the corner of the destroyed hut, trying to escape the fire.

Shouts reach me, distant but coming closer. I stumble to my feet with wide eyes, breathing in the ash.

No, this can't be real. I didn't...

I spin in a circle, trying to make sense of it, trying to understand why I'm surrounded by blazing fires and floating embers.

Little flame. Run. Survive.

I do. I run before the people of Warroll can find me.I leave behind Jile's burnt body and sprint away from the chaos, but it followsme everywhere I go.