Herald turned and found a young woman leaning against a stone pillar. A dagger rolled over her knuckles in a silver blur, catching light from the windows while her eyes studied him beneath a bored expression.
"So, my dear Herald, do you remember me?" she asked. Before he could answer, her mouth curved. "Am I still your first love?"
Fancy’s head snapped toward her. "What?" she said, and whatever concern he had seen vanished beneath her grin.
"Keep dreaming, Culpa." Fancy folded her arms, while Culpa pushed away from the pillar and kept the dagger moving as though its edge were harmless.
"There she is." Culpa stepped close enough to pat Herald’s shoulder. "Don’t worry. Your memories will come back eventually, and then you’ll remember I was always your favourite."
"You just told him you were his first love." Fancy’s fingers tightened against her sleeves, while Peril turned away with shoulders already shaking.
"Those things aren’t mutually exclusive." Culpa lifted a shoulder, pleased with herself.
"Culpa." Fancy’s warning finally broke Peril’s restraint, and his laugh escaped into a hand.
"Fine, fine." Culpa raised both palms, the dagger somehow already gone. "You can have him for today."
Fancy stared at her. "What does that mean?" she asked, but Culpa only tilted her head.
"Whatever you think it means." Fancy repeated her name with less patience, and Herald found himself laughing with people he could not remember.
The sound surprised him. For once, the blankness in his head simply sat there while their voices filled the space around it.
Peril tried explaining one childhood memory until Erudite cut in beside the deployment scroll. "Explaining it will not improve it," he said, prompting Culpa to make the story even longer.
Fancy drifted closer to correct every detail Culpa twisted in her favour. For several breaths, the strain left her face, until her sleeve brushed Herald’s arm and she shifted one step away.
Herald remembered her trembling hands after the ritual. He kept his attention on the argument and said nothing.
A cool current touched his cheek despite the packed hall. Herald turned and found a tall man at the edge of their group, his dark cloak stirring while the banners above them hung still.
"Ludicrous?" Herald asked. The man acknowledged him with a nod, and Culpa leaned toward Herald.
"Don’t expect much more." Her whisper was not quiet enough to be polite.
"I can hear you," Ludicrous said. His flat voice only widened Culpa’s smile.
"Good." She produced the dagger again, but a short gust knocked her wrist aside when its edge drifted too close to Peril.
"I had that under control." Culpa stared at Ludicrous, who barely glanced at the blade.
"I know. I like Peril more." He returned to silence while Peril pressed a hand against his chest in triumph.
A woman carrying a heavy medical satchel approached before Culpa could answer. A red strap mark crossed her shoulder, but her attention went straight to Herald.
"You’re pale." She stepped close enough to examine his eyes, and the faint scent of crushed herbs rose from her satchel.
"Hello to you too." Herald leaned back, but she followed the movement.
"Exhaustion?" she asked. Herald glanced toward Erudite, who offered no help.
"Long morning." The woman finally stepped back, visibly unimpressed.
"A useful diagnosis. Madam Althea." She tightened the satchel strap. "If any of you get hurt, I’ll try to return you with the same number of limbs."
Culpa looked toward Ludicrous. "Does that include him?" she asked, and Althea let the question hang.
Another woman arrived with a bow across her back. "I’d rather make sure none of us need her help," she said, and Althea introduced her as Lanthea.
Lanthea gave Herald a brief nod and tested her bowstring twice, the taut twang disappearing beneath the hall’s noise. Althea noticed, but Lanthea’s flat "I know" ended the matter.
Facade joined them shortly afterward, with Ketu, Raka and Dhurv following as backup Pathway holders. Facade took his place beside Erudite, while the three backups remained just outside the main formation.
Erudite raised a hand, and the group quieted without needing another order. Peril stopped talking, Culpa’s dagger vanished, and even Ludicrous turned his full attention toward the commanders.
"Our objective isn’t glory," Erudite said, rolling the assignment scroll against his palm. "The Asuras need to be contained, but civilians are still beyond the walls gathering jadibutis. We find them first and bring them home. Until they’re safe, we hold the line."
His gaze settled on Peril. "You’re our strongest fighter. If the formation breaks, you become the point everyone else moves around. Don’t chase anything."
Peril’s grin disappeared as his hand closed around his spear. "Understood," he said, all trace of joking gone.
"Facade will survey the battlefield before we commit. Althea stays protected, while Lanthea and Culpa remain close enough to support the formation." Erudite glanced toward the reserve trio. "Ketu, Raka and Dhurv remain in reserve as our backup Pathway holders."
The three acknowledged him, and Erudite looked toward Ludicrous. "And don’t outrun us." Culpa leaned toward Herald.
"He has to specify that." Herald almost smiled.
"I’ve noticed." His voice stayed low, but Ludicrous still turned his head enough to show he had heard them.
Erudite looked at Herald last. "You stay where I can see you," he said, and Herald frowned.
"That’s my assignment?" Herald adjusted his grip on the Yama Danda.
"You awakened an unknown Pathway earlier today and have no idea what it does." Erudite’s expression made the argument difficult to fight.
"When you say it like that, it sounds reasonable." Herald shifted his weight.
"It was supposed to." The hint of humour vanished before Erudite continued. "If a retreat is ordered, we retreat. I don’t care what you think you can save, who you think you can reach, or how close victory appears."
His gaze moved across the unit. "No heroics. We bring those people home, and we come back with them."
Peril tightened his grip on the spear, Culpa stopped smiling, and Althea rested a hand against her satchel. Nobody tried to turn the warning into a joke.
A massive horn sounded outside Divyabhawan, vibrating through Herald’s ribs. Stone groaned as Vishishtarajya’s gates began to open, and desert air pushed through carrying dust and the dry taste of sand.
The first formations moved without cheering. Armour clicked and sandals scraped as the columns tightened toward the gates.
People had gathered along the streets to watch them leave. A woman straightened her husband’s collar, while a little boy raised both hands until one warrior lifted his spear in reply.
An elderly man stood outside a shuttered shop beside a brass lamp whose flame bent in the hot wind. He touched two fingers to his forehead as each unit passed, and nobody asked when the soldiers would return.
Herald wondered whether people here had learned not to ask. Peril interrupted the thought by tossing something toward him.
Herald caught it awkwardly against the Yama Danda. "What is this?" he asked, opening his hand to find dried mango.
"Food. I’ve fought hungry before. Never again." Peril barely finished before Culpa reached for the pouch at his side.
"I forgot mine." She reached across Herald this time, forcing him to lean away.
"Sounds like a personal failure." Peril tucked the pouch farther from reach.
"Sharing builds character." Culpa stretched again, and the smell of dried fruit briefly cut through the dust.
"So does starvation." Lanthea’s dry voice came from behind them before Culpa could answer.
"Before battle, or always?" she asked. Althea covered a laugh, while Peril looked betrayed.
Erudite’s voice carried back through the line. "Keep formation," he ordered, and the pouch disappeared while the laughter thinned beneath marching feet.
Herald watched Erudite as they approached the gates. The man who had argued about doors was still there somewhere, but now his attention stayed on the road and his people.
When one section drifted too quickly, Erudite corrected it without raising his voice. When Althea’s satchel snagged against another soldier, he shifted two people around her before the line could bunch.
Herald kept watching until Erudite noticed. "Something wrong?" he asked without slowing.
"No." Herald straightened almost before he realized it.
"Then eyes ahead." Herald obeyed, earning a grin from Peril beside him.
"There he is," Peril murmured, and Herald glanced sideways. "Who?" he asked, while Peril’s grin widened.
"Commander Erudite." He finished before Erudite called his name without looking back.
"Peril, quietly." The warning carried over a shoulder, and Peril leaned toward Herald as the gate’s shadow swallowed them.
"He missed me." Herald bit back a laugh, though Peril looked entirely serious.
Fancy had remained nearby throughout the march without ever walking quite beside him. When the column narrowed beneath the enormous doors, the crowd pressed them closer until their shoulders nearly touched.
Fancy shifted as though she might move away again. Herald opened his hand instead and held out the remaining dried mango.
"Mango?" he asked. Fancy looked from the fruit to him.
"You’re offering me Peril’s food?" Her mouth twitched despite herself.
"He gave it to me. That makes it mine until he notices." Herald lowered his voice, and Fancy finally took the piece.
"He’ll still consider it his." Her fingers closed around it.
"Then eat quickly." A reluctant smile touched her face, loosening some of the tension in her shoulders.
Herald did not mention the distance she had kept since the ritual, and Fancy did not explain it. For the moment, the quiet between them felt easier than a question.
The column carried Herald several steps forward before he realized Fancy had stopped beneath the gate. He looked back and found her standing in the immense doorway, the piece of mango still between her fingers while the crowd flowed around her.
Their eyes met across the widening distance, but neither spoke before the formation drew Herald beyond Vishishtarajya and sunlight replaced the gate’s cool shadow. He had crossed this boundary before somewhere inside the memories stolen from him, yet this was the first time he remembered standing outside Vishishtarajya.
Earlier that day, Erudite had told him what might have happened if no Pathway had answered him. The mark could have vanished with the shraap, and Herald might have crossed these gates and kept walking.
Instead, the Yama Danda rested in his hand while hundreds of marked wrists moved around him. Kurukshetra waited ahead, and behind him the gates of Vishishtarajya began to close.
Herald faced forward and kept marching while the last strip of shadow slid from his shoulders. Behind the column, stone met stone with a groan that followed them into the desert.