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

Kess made towards the hallway with Rowan, her thoughts churning. They were nearly to the exit when a Council member's voice echoed across the room, stopping them both in their tracks.

"Aside from nominations, tonight is a night of celebration," the man said. He was elderly, and though Kess held a distinct sense of distaste for the Council, this Seat seemed like he could have been a benevolent grandfather on any other day. He was familiar, though Kess was fairly certain she'd never seen him before. "For we have brought home an opposing Seat finally, after all these years."

A low hum of conversation broke through the room, and Kess and Rowan paused, looking at each other sharply. There had never been an additional Seat. She'd read about opposing Seats in history texts, but there had only been one Seat powerful enough to justify a built-in counter—her own.

"Mariel's Seat," the man continued, "has long been a source of trouble for us. Our goal is to keep Fulminancy controlled and beneficial for the population, but too often, the Seat of Mariel has dealt out its own form of justice. The violence you've witnessed these past few months is one of many examples—this Seat, regardless of who it is held by—is corruptive by nature. To counteract this, our Founding Council created an opposing Seat—one which would balance and temper Mariel. The Seat of Faleas."

The room was silent as Kess searched it for some sort of clue. Who would the Council bother putting in opposition to her? What good would it do them? Thirty feet away, she met Niall's gaze. The humor was gone there, and he looked away, dismissive. Her grip tightened on Rowan's arm until he placed his other hand over hers, loosening the grip slightly.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. The man at the front of the room continued.

"We regret that it has taken us so long to find Faleas. Unfortunately, the Seat's powers were being abused by someone who had no business using them. Because of the bravery of our Blueblades, this person has been caught, and those powers taken away." The crowd clapped politely and appreciatively, but something in Kess's gut soured. The only person she knew with Fulminancy as powerful as a Seat was Rae, and with her gone—

"Now that he has been restored to his rightful state, we present to you our guest of honor this evening—the new Seat of Faleas!"

The man spread his arms wide, and from a side door appeared a face Kess knew like her own. Ash-brown hair, boyish features for his age, eyes so familiar.

"Oliver," she whispered. Her knees threatened to buckle beneath her, and Rowan steadied her slightly as she stared at her brother from a distance. Kess had spent months imagining him tortured, beaten, and coerced, and yet here he stood, healthy and happy, the honored guest at a Fulminant Seat nomination ceremony. He was working with them, Kess thought, stunned. All this time he was working for the other side.

He waved at the crowd, letting some of his powers crackle into his hands—a distinctive lilac lightning that Kess knew as well as her own—Rae's Fulminancy. Rowan frowned at it, recognition in his eyes.

"Is that—"

"Yes," Kess replied. Her brother had willingly accepted someone else's powers—robbed the woman of the very thing she loved so much. For Kess, Fulminancy had always been a curse, but for Rae, it was life.

Kess started towards the stage, but Rowan pulled her back, bringing his mouth to her ear, his arm around her waist. "We're in a very dangerous situation here," he whispered, teeth clenched. "We need to regroup."

Kess didn't struggle against him as he led her towards the hallway they'd initially spotted. He was right, though it pained her to admit it. To make a scene here would be to lose her brother forever. They would have to find a way to talk to him. It's a misunderstanding, she told herself. It's a trick he played for survival. There's a logical explanation behind this—there has to be. Oliver had simply done what he needed to for survival's sake. She couldn't begrudge anyone that—she'd done the same.

Arm still around her waist, Rowan led Kess through the yawning doorway into the darker hallway beyond. The amber lamps were dimmed to discourage partygoers from congregating, as several servant halls emptied into the main hall. From the corner of her eye, Kess saw the guards move from the main entrance towards the door they'd just entered.

Rowan and Kess kept walking, eventually breaking into a light jog, Kess stumbling along in her dress. She didn't know where they were going, but they certainly couldn't go back the way they'd come without alerting the guards.

After several hallways confirmed that they weren't being followed yet, they paused at an indoor plaza lined with benches and sat. Kess put her head in her hands, thinking.

"We need to go back," she said, staring at the floor. Beside her, Rowan sighed.

"We can't, Kess."

"I've been looking for him for a year, Rowan. I'm not leaving without him."

"Kess," Rowan said gently. "He's part of the Council now. He's not leaving."

"It's a mistake. It has to be."

"He has Rae's Fulminancy, doesn't he?"

Kess paused, clenching and unclenching her fists as she sat there, trying to make sense of it all. "Yes."

"And to do that, he would have had to—"

"I know how the process works, Rowan. He wouldn't have done that willingly. He was tricked, or blackmailed, or…" she trailed off, hesitating. She didn't think her brother would stoop to something so low, but how well did she really know him? They'd spent most of their lives apart, Oliver living a relatively normal life with their aunt and uncle while Kess spent her time Uphill with their parents. Was it possible that she didn't know him as well as she thought she did?

"I agree that we should see if we can talk to him," Rowan said, "but the guards present a different issue entirely. They're not following, which makes me think there isn't an easy escape route this way. How are we leaving?" Kess shook her head absently.

"We have to find Rae first. We're going to have to fight our way out anyway." The knife sat against her arm, warm and heavy. She was glad, at least, to have that. Channeling Fulminancy from long range was a skill she'd never quite mastered, though she was fairly certain that other Seats were able to.

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Footsteps echoed down the hall, and Kess shot to her feet, Rowan not far behind. Kess grabbed for her dagger, and Rowan kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, but as the steps drew closer, hurried and confident, Kess realized it was just one person. She lowered her hand briefly, then raised it again as Niall came around the corner.

"Niall," Rowan said, genuinely relieved. "We—" He froze, looking between Kess and Niall. Kess saw the hostility on Niall's face and knew hers didn't look any friendlier.

"Did she forget to mention our little run-in the other night that involved dozens of dead guards?" Niall snapped, watching Kess as he spoke. "Or were you a little distracted with your own problems, Rowan?" Fulminancy crackled in his hands, and Kess, for her part, didn't mind dredging up her own. If he wanted a fight, he could have one.

"The garrison and its involvement in criminal acts was mentioned," Rowan said carefully. "You were not."

"Ah, well, I hope you'll excuse my hostility," Niall said. "I'm no longer sure what side, if any, she belongs to, and as such, I have to follow precautions."

"Did you turn us in?" Kess asked, voice flat. Niall didn't break her gaze, but his Fulminancy flickered just a bit.

"No. Not yet. What you did the other night was unforgivable, but what the Council plans might be worse." After months of dancing around Council plans, of course now was when Niall came forward with information. Kess tightened her grip on the dagger.

"Then why are you here?" Rowan asked. Niall shifted his gaze to Rowan then, sighing as his Fulminancy flickered out.

"One last favor. For you, if not for her." He looked left and right then, as if calculating. "They have guards posted at every obvious exit. Unless you two have knowledge of the palace that I don't, you won't make it back out. The Council plans to capture and identify you both as Mariel and her Champion, then execute you both."

Kess saw Rowan pale.

"Execute us? For what?"

"That list of serious crimes your father brought up during the nomination," Kess said, chewing her lip. They were mostly actions of self-defense, where Kess had defended homes, businesses, and people from Witchblades with orders to seize assets and Fulminancers, but they were crimes to the Uphill all the same. Niall nodded, eyes hard but grave.

"Actions have consequences, my dear," Niall said, watching her. Kess turned away. She wasn't afraid to face consequences, but Rowan had played no part in anything she'd done. But that wouldn't matter to the Council. Just like when they'd seized her parents all those years ago, they knew where to strike to get at Kess. Only this time they were done pretending to cooperate with her.

"I can get you out, if you're willing to trust me," Niall said. Kess met Rowan's eyes and saw the same thought in his head. Do we have a choice?

They followed Niall down the dark corridors.

Niall led the two of them through the darkened palace, the halls mostly abandoned at this time of night. In fact, Kess found it odd that no one was around, and she shot Rowan a worried glance. One look at his face told her he wasn't certain about this plan either, but what could they do? If nothing else, Kess wanted to keep an eye on Niall.

He led them into a small library, fully furnished and stocked with books—some of which Kess recognized from the Archives. She stared at the titles, thinking about what they'd risked to get their hands on them, when so many had been here all along.

"One of the rooms I rent out," Niall explained, leaning outside of the door to check the hallway. "The men I paid to escort us out should be here soon."

"Us?" Kess asked. Niall fiddled nervously with his locket, nodding absently.

"Why, of course. I'm coming with you all."

"Why would you—" Rowan began, but Niall held up a finger and slipped out, his footsteps echoing away from behind the door. Kess leaned against a velvet-covered chair, scowling at the door.

"I don't like it," she said. "What does he possibly have to gain by helping us?"

Rowan watched the door as well, his eyes sharp, but confused. "He's done right by us so far," he said quietly. That was before he watched me murder those men at the garrison, Kess thought.

"All the same, keep an eye on him. Not everyone is as nice as you." Rowan gave her a look, then perked up as steps approached the door again. Kess tightened her grip around the knife under her sleeve, then relaxed slightly as she counted only Niall's distinctive footfall. The man slipped into the room again, still looking nervous.

"It appears they're behind schedule tonight. I arranged for them to meet us after their shift, but their relief hasn't shown up yet." His eyes fell on a book on the shelf, and his face lit up, a picture of the Niall Kess remembered from that Floodstorm night so long ago. He smiled and drifted towards Rowan, pulling a book from the shelf. "In the meantime," he said, gesturing Rowan over, "you might enjoy this particular piece of research I managed to dig up the other day."

Rowan moved towards him, frowning at the book. The man couldn't resist scholarship. Kess stayed just out of Niall's peripheral vision as she crept closer, a skill she had mastered during her years of slinking around in the underground. It had also won her quite a few fights before she'd swapped to throwing them intentionally. Her footsteps were soft in the ball slippers, and Niall never looked up from the book. She simply watched the man as he explained a passage to Rowan.

Momentarily, Kess relaxed. It was just Niall. Months of politics and war had made her, if possible, more suspicious than before. She jumped at shadows, doubted motives, and expected betrayal around every corner. With what had just happened in the ballroom, she wasn't even sure she could blame herself. But Niall would help them. He always had.

That was when she saw a tendril of Fulminancy bubble up in Niall's side, and quick like lightning, spear towards Rowan's ribcage. Kess drew her dagger instantly. She cried out and slammed into Niall, which was the only thing that kept Rowan from being completely speared through the ribs. She leapt onto Niall's back, knife in hand, using her left leg to sweep one of his legs.

Niall was a big man, but he hadn't expected the speed of Kess's attack or the angle from which she hit him. He hit the ground, hard, with Kess on top of him. Snarling, he threw Kess into the bookshelf, and she nearly lost her grip on the knife as several tomes fell and knocked the wind from her lungs. She scrambled back over to the man as he tried to get to his feet, and threw herself at him again, pressing the knife to his throat.

His Fulminancy snuffed out, and he stared at her, wide eyed.

"Don't think I won't do it, Niall," she said, her voice low and dangerous. "You touch him again, and you won't have to worry about which side I'm on." Behind her, Rowan gasped, and it took every bit of determination she had not to check on him.

Niall stared at her, eyes hard, his nose and lip bleeding. "Go on then, Mariel," he said. "Prove to the entire city that you're the monster they say you are. Kill me."

"I'm the monster?" Kess hissed. "You just tried to murder a man who trusted you. A friend, even. How am I the monster here?" She pressed the knife into Niall's throat, and blood welled up there. Her hands shook. Niall simply looked away, resigned.

"There are some things that are better left in the past," he said simply. Kess didn't try to parse through his words.

"Rowan," she said. "Are you okay?"

Rowan walked into her vision, blood blossoming on his shirt, his face wincing as he pressed a hand to the wound. "I've seen better days, but it's not that deep." Relief flooded through Kess. She opened her mouth to speak again, but footsteps echoed down the hall, and this time, it wasn't just Niall. A small smile spread across his face.

"Well, this should be fun to watch," he said. Kess didn't remove the knife.

"What do you—"

The door slammed open. Oliver stood there, blue and silver sash around his waist, his mouth wide open, and an entire contingent of Witchblades behind him. He took one look at Kess, straddled with the knife over Niall, and met her eyes.