Ashes Unwritten: Oblivion's Heir [Volume 1 Complete!]

"Did you find anything out?" Kess called over the storm. Only Fulminancy kept her hood anchored near her face, and even so, her clothes were soaked through. She would have been cold if it wasn't for the constant burn she now felt. Beside her, Rae scowled under her hood.

"Only that I'm a very lonely woman, Kess, and yet I'm too intimidating for the average man."

Kess rolled her eyes, feeling Fulminancy gather in her boots as she jumped to a nearby roof. In the weeks that followed the Archives incident, Rae had agreed to help Kess find more information on the Council, and by extension, her brother's whereabouts. Rae had her own business with the Council, of course, and had been ready and willing to help Kess out, but they hadn't had much luck—Rae had never seen a man matching Kess's description, and Kess, for her part, couldn't figure out why her brother would tuck himself away in the first place. If he was free, why wouldn't he walk in the open? Why wouldn't he make another play at attacking Kess?

Kess hoped she would discover something soon. With Wyatt's family spying on them, she would at least have eyes and ears in the palace, even if she couldn't be there herself—though she had considered that prospect at least.

It was something she would save when she had exhausted all other options. With Rowan still recovering and her own strange issues with her Fulminancy, it seemed foolish to rush the very place where her enemies slept. Mariel or not, Kess would have trouble with the entire Council, though her skills grew by leaps and bounds each day. There's an explanation, she told herself. There has to be. Oliver wouldn't work for them without a very good reason. The thought seemed hollow in her head.

Kess and Rae dropped unceremoniously from the ceiling of the Stone Market, through one of the few access windows that wasn't boarded up. Kess threw back her hood as she landed with the sound of thousands of droplets leaving her clothes from the force all at once. She left a wet imprint on the ground as she scanned the market.

Already, Fulminant guards were leaving, their faces pale. The storm might kill, but it was clear they had orders to face the storm rather than cause an altercation with Mariel herself. Kess let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding while Rae sighed in a long suffering way, her face petulant.

"Well, that was easy," she said, the disappointment evident in her voice. Rae loved nothing more than to fight. It had been invaluable in the last few weeks with patrols increasing Downhill and a constant need to help Downhill citizens keep their Fulminant family members safe, but sometimes Kess found it hard to satiate the woman. Rae rolled her eyes and gave Kess a little wave, making her way towards one of the stalls.

The Stone Market was relatively crowded, all things considered. The lower stone roof was stable enough for destructive Drystorms, so most people assumed it would hold against the tempest outside. Kess hoped they were right. Like most of the Downhill, it was connected to the underground and all manner of homes hidden from street view. People could make their way to the market in peace, provided they didn't run into any Witchblades.

Kess trailed up to an older woman's stall decorated with jewelry. She eyed the jewelry somewhat wistfully. With the Ashfall and Rowan's injury, they'd been unable to attend any festivities Uphill recently.

As it was, Kess was a little worried about the state of her anonymity. She kept a thin layer of Fulminancy crackling around her features when Witchblades were around, but it seemed impersonal when dealing with Downhill citizens, so she often let it drop. The Downhill didn't often mix with the Uphill, but someone who straddled both worlds might spell death for Kess.

She missed the galas. It seemed like a small thing, with everything that had happened, but the gowns and Stormclap games had given her a tiny thrill of joy. Still, while Kess now felt fairly capable of defending herself with her powers, Rowan was another story entirely. They'd both agreed to only return Uphill when absolutely necessary. The fewer chances the Uphill had to connect Kess to Mariel, the better.

She looked at the old woman and smiled, but the woman avoided her eyes. Kess frowned, then searched the woman's face again, remembering something. "Didn't I save your granddaughter the other day?" she asked. The woman met her eyes then, wary.

"You did, lass. I'm grateful." Kess waved her off, examining the jewelry.

"I don't mean to fish for gratitude," she said, picking up a necklace and turning it over in her hands. "You just seemed familiar."

"Well, you're certainly down here enough to recognize me," the woman said, looking tired.

"We have to be, with Witchblades showing up so often," Kess said, putting the jewelry back down. "If people don't feel safe to shop, we'll have bigger problems. And it's happening more frequently these days." The old woman nodded, her eyes grim.

"It's not just frequency," she said. "It's severity. They're more aggressive now that Mariel declared open war on the Uphill." She met Kess's eyes, something hard in them. Kess shook her head.

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"I didn't declare anything."

"Actions have consequences, dear. You left them with a crater where their precious Archives building was. To us, it's some paper. To them, it's an act of war." She waved her hand dismissively. "Whether you intended to or not is irrelevant. At the end of the day, people down here only care if they can eat the next day, and with the weather the way it is, and our relationship with the Uphill so poor, we won't have the trade relations to feed the lower city, eventually."

Kess exchanged a look with Rae, who had sauntered over to them, posture bored. That was another thing—this storm. Neither Kess nor Rae understood what they could have done to bring it about, or what to do about it. Kess had so far assumed that it was the Ashfall that Mariel had mentioned, but something was off about it. She'd seen the Ashfall in her vision, after all, and this storm, while certainly destructive, paled in comparison to that larger storm. Regardless of its power, it made life difficult for average people. It was one thing, flitting about in it when you were attuned to the element itself, or a form of it, but quite another for plain citizens.

"We'll figure something out," Kess said. "I'll talk to my men about it." Kess bade the woman goodbye and wound her way through the market, talking to as many people as she could. Rowan had at least figured out how to use the rest of Forgebrand, but the men themselves weren't particularly happy with the arrangement. These were men who'd spent their entire lives as underground fighters and muscle. They were a little put out to be a food delivery service, but that's what the city needed right now. Better to put them to work saving lives instead of taking them. It was one less moral conundrum for Kess to worry about, anyway.

She and Rae left the market and ventured back into the howling storm. The clouds were thick and black no matter the time of day, producing small cyclones that would wipe out entire city blocks without warning. Kess wasn't entirely sure that the manor wasn't next, but Arlette insisted that she'd paid good money for the Fulminant wards that now protected the building. Kess didn't know much about protective Fulminant powers, so she was forced to trust Arlette.

Kess flew through the air, the moisture pulling at her clothes and weaving its way into the fabric. She was never dry these days, but at least she could go out. Her feet slammed into a building with a bit more force than she intended, and she squinted at the storm churning around the city. Were those…faces swirling in the storm?

Rae landed beside her with a wet thump, her gray Fulminancy crackling about her in a sinister way. Rae was less sinister than her attacks on Kess would have suggested—but the woman was odd. She cocked her head at Kess questioningly, searching the sky for what Kess saw there. Kess waved her off.

"Go on ahead," she said distractedly. "I just want to check something first." Rae shrugged and hopped up to a nearby chimney.

"More dinner for me," she said, and leapt into the sky, her Fulminancy trailing her so naturally that for a moment Kess swore it was part of the storm itself. She sighed and made her way back through the city, only stopping when she perched on the highest point of the Downhill itself.

Several plateaus over, a massive crater yawned where the Archives had been. Kess remembered very little of that night besides a sense of desperation and the very real threat of death. And yet…Kess had chosen. She'd known what consequences tapping the full extent of her powers would have, and she'd done so anyway. How many men had died there that night? She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

I should be dead, she thought, leaning out over the building. Something had saved her that night—either her own desperate desire to live, or something far worse. She'd made a pact with Fanas before without intent—could she have done the same with that storm?

It seemed her mother had been right all along. Keeping her powers locked away had always been the safest bet. And yet, she'd also saved countless lives in the months since the Archives. She'd killed those soldiers, yes, but she'd kept Downhill Fulminancers with their families. She'd given people safe places to congregate and shop. She'd given taverns freedom to run their businesses for the first time in years, without Witchblade taxes and interference.

The men that night had been nameless guards, employed by the very people who had murdered her family. They were gone, yes, but if that was the price to keep the Downhill safe, then so be it. These were people Kess had dined with, fought with, and shared a home with for the last six years of her life. They were family, and more importantly, they were the underdogs.

The Uphill didn't need her sympathy, nor did the Fulminancers they employed.

Kess took a shuddering breath. She would worry about the moral failings of her decisions later. For now, she—

Kess narrowed her eyes, squinting through the torrent of rain at a smudge of darkness on the streets below—a group of shadows so black she wasn't sure they were real. The blackness was so complete that she blinked, trying to clear her vision. When she opened her eyes, they were gone.

Heart pounding, she perched on the edge of the building and gripped a spire that felt fairly dangerous in the middle of a thunderstorm. She leaned out, watching the city streets, searching for that blackness again.

After moments with nothing but the pounding rain and her own breathing for company, she sighed, rounding the spire to head back home.

That's when she saw it.

Dark, inky blackness reached out to her, pawing for her arm. Kess flinched, squealing, but the thing grabbed the edge of her wrist before she could dodge. A thick tendril of her Fulminancy snaked into the thing, lighting quick.

Kess made to move back from it, pulling away, but a sick weakness flooded into her body, and her foot found thin air as she stepped back. Her stomach dropped into her ears as she fell, losing consciousness.

No, she thought frantically. Not here, not yet. Her eyes snapped back open just in time to see the ground rushing towards her. Gritting her teeth, she held out a hand, willing Fulminancy into it, but it was too late to cushion the blow. Her arm and shoulder crunched into the ground with a snap, and a muffled cry escaped her lips.

She scrambled to her feet, holding her useless arm as she peered up at the building overhead.

The shadow was gone.

Kess ran, thinking that perhaps Wyatt's ghost story hadn't been so off the mark after all.