“You arrogant little plaguepit,” Nicomidi spat. “You have no idea what you’re interfering with.”
Maya looked to Beq, who’d rolled onto her side. She was speckled with blood all over, with a large patch on her thigh, and she had her hands pressed against the wound. When Maya’s eyes found hers, though, Beq gave a fierce nod. Maya raised her haken and stepped up beside Tanax.
“Fine, then,” Nicomidi said. “Come and die.”
They attacked. The Kyriliarch’s speed was unearthly, his weapon shifting from side to side like a snowflake on the wind, but it wasn’t enough. Maya and Tanax moved automatically to either side of him, without a word exchanged, forcing Nicomidi to retreat or be surrounded. He lashed out with deiat, and they parried and pushed back, bursts of flame and twisted space pressing rapidly inward against a line of crackling concussions. Nicomidi’s panoply started to flare in blue-white bursts as one of Maya’s blows scored, then one of Tanax’s. A blast of flame slipped through his defenses and caught him full in the face, and when the searing light faded, the Kyriliarch was on his knees.
“Jaedia!” His voice was hoarse. “Will you control your fucking student if you want her so badly?”
And then, at last, Jaedia turned. Maya’s throat went thick at the sight of her face, framed by the fur-lined hood, calm as ever, wearing a slight smile. She came forward, stepping lightly, not reaching for the haken at her side.
“You seem to be in difficulty,” she said to Nicomidi in her lilting, musical accent.
“We cannot fail,” Nicomidi grated. “Not here. Not when we’re so close.”
“I agree.” Jaedia caught Maya’s eye and winked. Maya fought a desperate grin. She’s on our side, this has all been some plan, we found her in time—
“Then do something,” the Kyriliarch shouted.
Jaedia stepped up beside Nicomidi, laid one gentle hand against his cheek, and turned him inside out.
He barely had time to scream. His skin split wide open, bones cracking audibly, as his body twisted in ways it was never meant to. His viscera dropped away, making a bloody puddle on the rocks, and his muscles wove and knotted themselves into new patterns. Limbs, with broken ribs protruding from them like spikes. Plaguespawn.
“I’m afraid his company has grown-grown quite tiresome lately,” Jaedia said. Her voice was pleasant, but with a strange tic, as a word repeated in a different tone as though someone had stitched two parts of a sentence together. Maya’s mind went back to a basement under Bastion, a lifetime ago. The realization must have showed on her face, because Jaedia smiled and pulled down her hood. Something squirmed at the back of her neck, a black spider with its legs wrapped around her throat and its fangs buried in her flesh. “I told you we’d meet-meet again, little sha’deia.”
“Maya?” Tanax said, staring at the pulsing, bloody thing that had been his master. “What the fuck is going on?”
“That’s not Jaedia,” Maya said, retreating a step.
“To be more precise, it is Jaedia’s body-body.” Jaedia stepped forward, her head moving with a sudden jerk as she looked from one of them to the other. “Jaedia’s mind, Jaedia’s mem-memories. Jaedia is just no longer in charge.”
“Who are you?” Maya whispered.
“I am nothing. A copy. An instrument.” Jaedia put her hand on the fleshy mess at her feet and stroked it lovingly. “A better question is, who are you?”
“If you have Jaedia’s memories, you know that,” Maya said.
“Ah, but do you?” Jaedia smiled wider. “You-you have no idea of the trouble you’ve caused, little sha’deia, or the lengths I’ve had to go to keep-keep you alive when you insist on sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. And you do like to interfere, don’t you? In Bastion you forced me to ruin a perfectly good body. In Deepfire you kept the Core Analytica out of my hands. You can’t leave-leave well enough alone.”
“What is a sha’deia?” Tanax said. “Why would you want to keep her alive?”
“She is an experiment,” Jaedia said. She tapped her chest, and Maya followed suit automatically with her free hand, feeling the hard lump of the Thing. Something flickered in her mind, shredded flashes of a dream, and her eyes widened. Jaedia went on. “An experiment that has-has not yet produced a result, and preserving that has some value. However. I think-think it has reached the end of its usefulness.”
All at once, the mass of muscle and bone that had been Nicomidi twisted and sprang, long tentacular limbs hurling it up toward Jaedia. It opened, more bones cracking, and wrapped itself around her torso like a suit of armor, two extra arms of coiled meat extending from her shoulders. Blood sprayed and spattered, coating Jaedia’s clothing in crimson.
Tanax brought up his hand, sending a wave of twisted, shredding force at the Jaedia-thing. She spun lithely aside, and one long tentacle stretched. He slashed down at it with his haken, and it wove out of the way of the blade, rippling muscle whipping it into his stomach in a blow strong enough to send him spinning away and rolling back over the stones.
Maya raised her haken and charged, and another tentacle lashed out at her. She ducked under the blow, blood spattering her hair, and carved through the thing, closing with Jaedia. Her mentor, still grinning, shifted and lashed out at Beq with a second tendril. Maya checked her attack and threw herself sideways, haken cutting down to sever that limb too, but the tentacle reversed course and slammed into her, making her panoply flare. She coughed, winded, and reached out with deiat, fire blooming around her in a tight spiral. Flesh crackled and charred, but not fast enough—the groping tips of the tendril wrapped around her right hand, prying her fingers apart and prizing the haken from her grip. With a flick, they tossed it away, and the flames winked out.
“This is the problem with you-you centarchs,” Jaedia said. Her tentacle lifted Maya by her wrist before her, the tips of her toes dangling inches off the ground. “Your strength, ultimately, comes-comes from the outside. For all your power-power, it leaves you vulnerable.” Jaedia brought Maya up to her, face-to-face, and raised her real arm to touch her cheek. “I learned that more than four hundred years ago.”
“Jaedia.” Maya’s voice was a croak. “Don’t … do this. Please.”
“Oh, dear. Begging for your old-old master. How tragic.” Jaedia ran her finger down Maya’s cheek, and Maya could feel the muscles jumping and twitching in its wake, as though eager to rip themselves away from the bone. “Perhaps next you’ll cry for your mother.” She shook her head. “This experiment has gone-gone on long enough. You are not the one I am looking for.”
“Jaedia.” Maya stared at the bright green eyes. “Please. Stop this.”
“I told you to give up,” Jaedia said. She pressed her hand against Maya’s temple. “I was going to stop your heart first, out of respect. But now I think I’ll keep you alive while I … repurpose you.”
Please. Maya had no more breath, but her lips formed the word.
Jaedia held her palm against Maya’s skull, and a long moment passed. Slowly, the vicious smile faded from her lips.
“No-no,” she muttered. Her head jerked one way, then the other. “Not-not-NOT possible.”