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It’s just peeking into Beliel’sto spy on the angels for tiny scraps of intel And here I ao into an enemy’s memories I’ll have my sith me the whole tiainst et it out of ardless of what Beliel has to show o back to the Resistance We’ll find Moe eat norain

And then, after that, we’llsurvive

Alone

I go upstairs to grab Pooky Bear, then walk outside to Beliel He’s lying near the fence post, curled in the exact same position he was in when I left I can see in his eyes that he was expectingyour sword’

I lift ht I have the urge to ask it if it wants to do this But I don’t want to sound stupid in front of Beliel

‘Corab it

I hesitate ‘Do you need to hold it, or can you just touch it?’

‘Touch it’

‘Okay Turn around’

He turns on the dirt without protest His back is roped with strings of dried muscle I don’t want to touch him with a ten-foot sword But I press the tip ofh’ I’h with only the tip touching his back, but he doesn’t seem concerned about it

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly

I feel so in my head

It’s not like the other times when I suddenly found hter, as if I could choose not to go there if I wanted, as if the sword isn’t so sure about this particular voyage

I take a deep breath too Iposition and brace myself for an attack

And then I close my eyes

7

I feel a round

The first thing that hits s

Under a black-purple sky, a chariot is drawn by six angels harnessed like horses Blood and sweat stream down their shoulders and chests where the harness cuts into theiant des of course He could just fly to his destination if he wanted Instead, he rolls slowly through his do he s fla off his sweaty skin

He carries a stick with a circle of shriveled heads at the top On the heads, the eyes blink and thefor air I’ blond hair that flows up and around the heads like seaaving in a current