eeks of hardship had taken their toll on Mog and he surrendered to exhaustion. The steady rocking of the cart lulled him to sleep and he went there willingly, wanting to escape his current situation and his sorrows. They stopped a few times but did not trouble Mog when he refused to rise and join them. A few times Ronan insisted that he take water and a few bites of goat cheese or cured pork. Not until nightfall could he be coaxed from his resting place. They had arrived in a tangled woodland and there was a tent and a fire to ward them from the host of biting insects that dwelt among the trees. Akemi came for him then, gently urging him to enter the tent where she had laid out blankets for him.

He ate the bowl of stew she brought him in silence, aware that she was watching him expectantly. Finally he laid it aside and relaxed on his bedding.

“I suppose you wished to have a word alone with me,” he said after a while as he stared up at the dun-colored cloth that formed the ceiling.

“I wasn’t certain what to expect. I imagined you would be angry. I also imagined you would have a few questions.”

“I suppose I do. Where are you taking me would be a favorite, followed by why.”

Akemi nodded.

“Fair enough. We are taking you to an old temple complex in the Maguuma jungle. It appears to be dedicated to Lyssa and we believe we have found a sealed door to an inner sanctum.”

“You think I can open it?”

“Yes.”

“Everyone else has failed?”

“Right.”

“And the reason you want in is because you suspect there is an ether well.”

“Correct.”

“I’m guessing this has to do with your friend, Maziba.”

Akima looked uncomfortable and nodded.

“I guess I decided at some point since you were not coming back and our work together was done, it was time for me to find a new partner. Of course, I cannot choose another until you are gone and Maziba grew increasingly angry and jealous when the rites we attempted together failed.”

“You told him you were Tenebrae?”

Akima nodded, her face flushing with shame.

“I made a mistake. I feel so foolish and I guess you see why I no longer rage at you for abandoning your vows. My sin is the greater. While you chose to withdraw and salve your wounds, I put dangerous and sacred knowledge into the wrong hands.”

“Whose side is he on?”

“I wish I knew. The best thing I could do at this point is kill him so that the secrets die with him.”

“But you still love him.”

She nodded again and for the first time Mog saw the faintest glimmer of tears in her dark eyes.

“The first time I saw him take the form of Lyssa I felt it was a sign from her… she who has been silent all these long years. I loved him… I worshipped him. He gave me purpose.”

Mog sighed angrily. All the years that they had worked together she had criticized him for not being dedicated enough, but he had never even contemplated revealing the secrets of the Tenebrae’s art.

“I became convinced that he did indeed know the will of the gods,” she continued in an attempt to make him understand her fall, “He is so devout. He gives himself up for their use so freely, sometimes fasting and meditating for days when he senses they wish to move through him. One day he became convinced that the gods meant for him to restore the old temple in the heart of Maguuma.

“As you can imagine, I was stunned when he brought me there. It was thick with vines and the stonework was sleeping under a blanket of moss, but still the statue of the goddess glowed in the darkness making it plain that this was a holy place. We explored for many days, uncovering the ruins of cloisters and sanctuaries. And then I found the emblem of the Hallowed Gate. I tried to pass, but I knew that I required you, Mog, for you were the key and the opener of doors.

“Maziba did not understand at first why I needed you. I explained to him that you and I shared a special holy bond that made us capable of passing through barriers. Still he would not accept this explanation. In a moment of weakness… to please him, I revealed the truth. After that he had to have that door open and that meant he had to have you. After all, imagine the power this would give us in our fight against the White Mantle? If you and I could open a door to anyone who had committed a terrible sin against the gods, we could wreck havoc on their entire order in a matter of days.

“It sounded so perfect, as if Lyssa herself had come forth to bless us and give us exactly what we needed to defeat the White Mantle. The only problem was that it meant that we needed to find you.”

Akemi fell silent, staring at her hands as she wrung them guiltily upon her lap.

“You used rites that are known only to our order to draw me to you,” Mog said angrily, “Those rites were meant to guide me back to you in the event we were separated WHILE PERFORMING OUR DUTY!”

Akemi did not flinch as he sat up and roared in her face. He was quivering with anger. For the first time in his life he wanted to beat her until she was a bloody pulp.

“I admit I was a fool. I see now that this has harmed you in ways that I cannot begin to imagine. I apologize.”

“By Lyssa, how could you do something so short-sighted and blasphemous?”

“I know it was wrong, but after I had set the working in motion, Maziba no longer needed me to maintain it. I did not see until that moment how driven he was. I felt your anguish and I knew it was blasphemy. I told him that you did not wish to come but he believed that when you gave yourself to Lyssa, you had no choice.”

“Leave me,” Mog said with barely contained rage. Akemi nodded, her eyes averted as she withdrew and left him alone in the tent. Thanks to her mistake Maziba could draw him back at will. He could not leave so long as the working was active, so long as Maziba was alive.

“Damn you,” he snarled at the tent flap. The words opened a floodgate of grief and rage, tearing an animal howl from his throat.