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What--?

There was a cry behindstreaked across my vision like a co fire like blood Shiny

Dateh uttered a rattling hiss, raising two of his stolen arht, sickly mottled, dripped from his hands like oil and splattered the floor of the E

The small bubble winked out of existence between otten, I ran to where Shiny lay, not so shiny now, and notHe was alive, I found as I pulled hiedly But crossing his chest from shoulder to hip was a streak of darkness, an obscene obliteration of his light I touched it, ic, either

Then I understood: whatever it was that od’s life-essence, Dateh had found a way to channel it--or perhaps this was simply the culod whose very nature wasShiny back into an ordinary man, piece by piece And once that was done, he would tear Shiny apart

"Lady Oree," breathed the thing that had been Dateh I could no longer think of it as a man Its voice overlapped upon itself: I heard hier It wheezed as it lus, or whatever godlings shaped within their bodies to simulate breath

It said, "We are the last of our kind, you and I I rong, wrong, wrong to threaten you" It paused, shook its massive head as if to clear it "But I need your power Join me, use it for me, and I’ll do you no har at once

I did not, dared not, trust the Dateh creature Even if I agreed to its plan, its sanity was as distorted as the rest of its forardless, I was certain--permanently, irreversibly What would happen to the universe if one of the Three died? Would this god-eating , I clutched at Shiny, a bulwark against fear He stirred under ht had begun to fade But he was not dead Perhaps if I stalled for time, he could recover

"J-join you?" I asked

Dateh’s forain into the ordinary, mortal shape that I had known in the House of the Risen Sun It was an illusion I could feel the warped reality still present, even if it had found a way to fool my eyes Dateh was like Lil, safe on the surface, horror underneath

"Yes," it said, and this tiestured behind itself, toward the corpses I kneere there "I could train you Make you st-st-strong" The Dateh-creature paused then, eyes unfocusing for a ain, the outwardfor an instant The effort needed to hold thatNo wonder the Dateh-creature hesitated to devour ht be too roaned, and the creature’s face hardened "But you ed I choked back a sob It spoke with Madding’s voice, gentle and persuasive Its hands flexed froht he had no true ic, but now I see I underestimated him"

My vision blurred with tears as I shook my head, and I reached across Shiny’s body as if I could somehow protect him "No," I blurted "I won’t let you kill him, too No"

"I want you to kill hi at Dateh,from Dateh’s to Duods," it said "I need proof of your co power for your own When you’ve done it, you’ll understand howall over I barely heard myself "I can’t"

The Dateh-creature s’s "You can Your blood ork, if you use enough of it" He gestured, and a knife appeared on Shiny’s chest It was black, shiiven form "I will have your power one way or another, Lady Oree Eat him and join me, or I eat you Choose"

You may think me a coward