Page 12 of No Greater Sorrow

She ran past empty market stalls, overgrown gardens, and a hunter’s cabin outside of which hung butchered animals like stuffed toys stripped of their innards. Though the corpse was slower, it knew the ruins. It weaved around a toppled log pile, hopped over a mess of mummified vegetables, and then veered left as the ground became too muddy to traverse. As the corpse barreled forward, it shed bits of skin and clothing, as if the still air of its cabin had been the only thing to keep it from disintegrating.

They headed to the bay, which reeked of rotting kelp and sea salt. Garm was already crouched and growling on the bridge ahead of the corpse. The corpse’s skin may have been sagging and brittle, but the two dark eyes that stared from its skeletal face were exactly like Aleja’s own. It glanced between her and Garm before returning its attention to the red shard of glass in its hands.

“I hoped this day would never come,” it said in Aleja’s voice.

Aleja pulled herself out of the mud. “What do you mean?” she asked.

The corpse regarded her with sad eyes. “I am the last vestige of…you. The first you. The person you were before you knew of the Knowing One and his Dark Saints. Before you were a soldier, then a High General. Before you took another person’s punishment as your own, so you could die and be reborn.”

Garm flattened himself against the bridge. In this body, he was not nearly as intimidating as he had been, but Aleja would take an ally where she could get it.

“If I hand this to you, it’ll mean I’m well and truly dead. No one remembers me, Aleja. I lived in a kingdom by the sea. I hunted hares while my husband went to train in the war camps so that our people could fight an enemy on behalf of a king whose name we hardly knew. I loved the color red and the stray dogs that wandered into town from the ruins on the hilltop. I despised the taste of fish so much that I taught myself to hunt. If you take this from me, all of that will be gone forever.”

“People remember,” Aleja said quietly. “Your husband remembers. I remember.”

“You’re wrong,” the corpse said with a ghoulish smile. “You relinquished your human lives to become Dark Saints, and later, him, the Knowing One. Nicolas is no longer the husband I once had. The one who learned to pluck my quails, even though he hated poultry, and who shook with fear when he was conscripted into the army, but did his duty anyway. Did you know that all he ever wanted to do was draw?”

Aleja swallowed. Her throat burned.This isn’t real.The Second is testing you. Take the shard and survive, and make sure Violet survives with you.

“You’re just a dream,” she told the corpse.

“Of course I am. I am you without war, without betrayal, without lies, without death. The last dream of your true self. Take this shard, and you will never see me again. It is the price the Second demands if you want to cross this bridge.”

“And if I decide to get around you instead?”

“Try,” the corpse said. The smile remained on its face, but with the skin sagging around its mouth, the expression appeared more like a grimace.

Really? said her inner voice.Take her shard and run, Aleja.This is an illusion.You just said so yourself.

I don’t think she’s going to let me.

Why would you say that?

Because if I were her, I’d want to survive.

Aleja readied herself, and Garm sprang to his feet, sensing the mood had changed. A sphere of flame engulfed her hands, but the corpse watched, unbothered. It wasn’t until she sent her first torrent in its direction that Aleja understood her real test.

There was so much pain.

The corpse grinned behind the wall of fire because it was already dead and could feel nothing. But Aleja’s nerves—usually dull to her magic—were withering. She was on her knees before realizing she’d fallen, screaming into her hands as Garm circled her.

“I’m not gone yet,” the corpse laughed. Aleja forced herself to look up, barely perceiving the scene in front of her. What hair the corpse had left was burned away. A chunk of white bone gleamed beneath scorched skin.

Prove yourself. It’s only pain. There is nothing to fear, only to endure.

Aleja forced out another wave of fire, and it felt like there was a great rose bush blooming inside her. Sharp thorns pushed through her organs, her limbs, her boiling eyes. The touch of tears against her cheeks was unbearable. She could hear herself screaming, though the sound was distant.

It was a wonder she heard the corpse laugh, “One more time, Aleja. Destroy your old self completely.”

The words were spoken by something skeletal, hollow, and colorless, except for the red shard it held in its hand.

“I can’t,” Aleja whimpered, slumping to the ground. Every pebble digging into her was a new torture. Garm growled wildly at the corpse, but she couldn’t see him through the tears in her eyes.

Are you really going to fail your first Trial?This is your easiest challenge.

She forced herself to raise her hands. They shook so much, she knew she wouldn’t be able to aim, but it didn’t matter. What remained of the corpse was directly ahead of her.

Aleja let her magic go.

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