With the Howling Defier crashed, it didn't take a genius to guess what had caused that break in the woods. Nexxa and I didn't bother pushing past the crowd of Tethered around the portals, my sister following me into the air.

I regretted not taking the time to slot in any of my third tier spells but it would've been more of a delay anyway.

Instead, Nexxa blasted ahead of me while I followed behind.

It was a matter of minutes to arrive at the crash site, and I was glad we hadn't taken the Waygate. It was far enough from the Waygate the others weren’t even halfway to the crash site despite the Tethered’s high speed amongst the trees.

The sky remained clear as I joined Nexxa in the broken clearing. An idle thought noted that the ship crashing had exerted enough force to smash the massive trees, though it wasn’t my focus. The ship had mostly held together, though that ‘mostly’ was rather rudely ruined by the fact it lay in two separate pieces that had broken apart, each of them leaving their own furrows in the forest floor.

In those furrows lay dozens of people, thrown free in the crash.

I curled my hand into a fist as I saw a boy Bevel'd been playing with not two weeks earlier lying still among them. Thoughts of my own failure and arrogance passed through me, the foolish belief we could build something to fly the skies safely… I set them to the side.

Pained moans proved that there were people to help.

Despite his still form, I sent a Restore Form through the boy. Yet we were too late. I drew a hand over him, closing his eyes. While the boy was beyond my spells, most of the others weren't. I even managed to save a man who had a spike the size of my arm protruding from his chest. Somehow, it'd only nicked his lungs and avoided anything more vital.

If we’d been even a minute later, he would’ve drowned in his own blood.

The last woman I revived, lurched to her feet, casting her gaze about. When she spotted the boy, she pushed me to the side as she rushed over to him.

She slapped his cheek, trying to get him to rise. I spent precious seconds watching her, wishing she’d have success where I failed.

Instead, she clutched him to her chest, her voice raising in a wail that rattled me to my core.

I squeezed my hand into a tighter fist and focused on helping those I could. We’d addressed those thrown free, but that still left inside. I nodded to Nexxa as she entered the far section as I took the closer.

Inside, I found a larger man and one of the Tethered, a young man I recognized, but couldn’t quite recall the name of. They were glaring at each other from across opposite sides of the ruined control station.

"Tresla?" I asked, fearing the worst, despite having seen her with Inertia only hours earlier.

The Tethered man started at the sound of my voice. He seemed to be cradling his arm, and he refused to look away from the large man. "Not here, Magus. If she had been, this one might not-"

"Was my right!" the large man spat, struggling to his feet, one leg clearly broken, his attention turned away from the Tethered man. "You are a lord, yes? You understand. By the laws of the golden lady, my conquest of the ship means it belonged to me!"

"Just because you killed all my friends by having your men stab them in the back after we offered you aid, doesn't mean you conquered a single knot," the man spat, his face twisted up in rage. "We were helping you! Gavis was helping…"

My stomach dropped out at their exchange. We'd been trying to keep this sort of thing from happening. But we only had so many people, and the camps were always getting bigger. Most of the Tethered weren't fighters, barely two dozen having joined the sentries. Gew of the refugees from Spellford were either.

And we'd already seen what happened when we let the refugees from the west police themselves.

"He'll be put to the nets," I said, keeping my eyes on the man as I approached the young Tethered, a name finally floating to my lips. "Vayin, are there other injured inside?"

The large man opened his mouth, as if to protest, but a Spark to his face shut him up instantly. There was a chance it had killed him, but I couldn't find it in myself to care.

Vayin nodded, a grimace replacing his scowl as the healing of Restore Form ran through him. A second later, he was on his feet. "I don't know if you can save them, Magus, but he was bragging about the others being made to suffer."

That gave me a touch of hope as I quickly set off down the broken hallway. "Tie him up, then join me."

The first Tethered man I came across was beyond saving, his guts plastered across half the hall. Across from him was a man missing half his face, his eyes torn out.

Past them I found a Tethered breathing heavily, dagger still protruding from his back when I found him. Restore Form wasn't gentle, but it was effective, leaving him gasping. Vayin had already caught up, knots being something the Tethered could tie with their eyes closed in the middle of a full on Howl. As I moved on, he was moving to kneel next to the man.

I felt awful as I pulled Vayin along behind me instead of letting him see to his friend. "I need you to make sure I don't heal the traitors."

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He nodded, his gaze shifting to the Tethered man who was still adjusting to the fact the pain had suddenly disappeared. I didn't have time to talk him through it.

For every person I saved, two were already dead, refugee and Tethered alike. Most had seemingly died fighting, the Tethered not letting the betrayers take them down without paying a price.

There was only one of the traitors left alive, though I was too weary to do anything other than hit him with Spark, knocking him unconscious.

After, we gathered the survivors and prisoners, I moved to the other wing, but Nexxa had already cleared it. She had a grim look on her face as she and the survivors emerged.

"I'm so sick of people pulling Riftwaste like this," Nexxa said with a heavy sigh. "I took one day off. One day where I wasn’t vetting people and this happens."

I shook my head. "Wasn't just you. I should've made it so they couldn't make an attempt on the controls. A locked cabin at the very least. We could’ve delayed the flights for a day, now that no one’s in danger of starving. There's just so much to do."

"Always," Nexxa agreed, looking at the people behind her. It seemed she'd had more luck than I did, since there were nearly half a dozen Tethered standing there with three times that in refugees.

"We would've been fine if not for that flash," Vayin said, shaking his head before spitting on the large man he’d tied up. "We knew they were dangerous. That blue man, Hash told us as much. Suggested we might want to wait for…"

"Wait for one of us," I said, motioning between me and Nexxa.

He nodded, swallowing. "I thought… well, you do so much for us already, I thought that we could do at least this much for you. Gavis said we shouldn't, but I…" his composure broke, unable to say the words. I gave him a moment, pulling a flask of the blue fruit booze from my storage pendant and offering it to him.

He took it, making a face at the bite, then smoothed his features as he glared at the large man. With a ragged sigh, Vayin turned away, continuing, "When that flash hit, it sent the Defier into a lurch. I caught it quick enough, but in the chaos…" He glared at the large man. "Him and his men attacked us. I almost had him, but he stabbed the console with a knife black as a starless night sky."

"Where's this knife," I asked, moving over to flip the large man onto his back. I suspected the Tethered had already searched him, but it was his face I was looking at. I recognized him, though I couldn't say from where.

"Fronting Rift," Nexxa swore as she stood next to me. "He's been at the fort since you were there. Came in with the second wave. I just about threw him off the mountain the first night he was there."

"You should've," Vayin said, spitting the words with vehemence.

I nodded, unable to disagree.

"Little late for that now, but I can still take care of him," Nexxa said, her hand crackling with lightning.

"He's to be tried on the nets," Vayin said, stepping forward and grabbing her arm, before suddenly releasing it as he seemed to remember who she was. "I mean, if it pleases you, Magus Protectus."

Nexxa let out a long sigh, shaking her head. “None of this pleases me.”

Behind us, the sound of the Tethered slinging their way closer between the trees stalled any further conversation as they came to a stop at the edge of the broken clearing.

The next few minutes were busy as we organized the survivors and my two prisoners. Busy enough to distract from my failure. At least until they'd all departed, and we were left standing amongst the remains of the broken ship.

"It's never easy," Nexxa said, her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah," I said, nodding as I continued to gather what I could of the Tethered and refugees who'd died. “This… you’ve been seeing worse, haven’t you? In the villages and vales?”

She was silent as she gathered the traitors into a pile. Only after she flicked her wrist, incinerating them, did she answer. “Much worse. When I was with the Gardeners, I thought I’d seen horrors. Yet what these warlords do… I wish I could identify them with a glance.”

“That… might be possible,” I said, thinking of the scanners. They were capable of detecting any Ascension changes. And these warlords all had at least awakened their physical.

When Nexxa looked towards me, I explained the materials we’d need for a proper analysis scanner. And what we’d probably need to do to set up a pair of goggles with the enchantment included.

“Something for later then,” Nexxa said, her eyes shifting to the sky where the clouds were still hesitant to return. There were a few in the distance, but whatever had ripped the clouds away had really done a number on the storm and the accompanying mana.

I nodded, returning to the process of readying the fallen for transport.

When I was done, I waited for the next wave of Tethered to return, to begin the process of setting the dead to rest. By the rope, lowered to their eternal rest, if Tethered, incinerated and returned to the sea for those from Spellford and… I didn't know how the new refugees handled their people. Hopefully not burial. The Frigid Peaks weren’t great for that.

That was how Inertia found us, both of us staring at the results of our failure in silence. She landed in a roar of clanging metal and hissing steam, Tresla astride her back.

"Inertia offers her apologies," Tresla said even as she slid down. "The next one will not fall so easily."

"The next one?" I snapped, turning to face them my fists squeezed so tight I was drawing blood. "Is that all you can think of?" Before either of them could respond, I held up my hand. "Sorry. I… that wasn't called for. I just…"

Inertia let out a long series of hisses in response. Tresla nodded slowly, before stepping towards us. "Inertia apologizes once more. She too is distressed by this loss, and takes it as a personal failure. She meant to reassure you, not dismiss your feelings."

"I…" I didn't really know what to say to that. For all that I considered Inertia my friend, it surprised me that she could feel distressed. My surprise saddened me.

"Thanks," Nexxa said while I was still processing the second apology. "But it's not her fault. The idiot who did this used a Breaker Blade." At her words, she held up the black knife that Vayin had described earlier.

It's inky black depths reminded me of the door to the Repository within the Final Rest.

“A breaker blade?” I asked, staring at the dark material. It looked more like a broken shard of stone than an actual blade.

“It disrupts weak enchantments. Struggles with anything above the second Order, but it can be used by any idiot who can hold it,” Nexxa said, slapping the blade into my hand. I could feel a tingling in my hand as I held it, the mana almost seeming to ‘hiccup’ around it.

Inertia took half a step closer, before arresting her motion and looking to the bodies arrayed at our feet.

Before we could say anything, the other Tethered returned, Myris alongside them. She let out a grunt when she saw the bodies, but they were soon wrapped in sheets and carried away.

"You're right," I said as we watched them take the bodies of our people away.

Inertia turned towards me, as did Tresla and Nexxa.

"We'll make sure the next one won't fall so easily," I squeezed my hand into a tight fist again, thinking back to everything I'd discovered so recently, about my own growth. And how easily, I could empower the Tethered, with the right materials.

The face of the boy flashed in my mind once more. The distant gaze, so much like my friend Ethan's had been. Taken by the same sort of man as my old man.

"And I don't mean the Fronting airship."