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“It is only a shard of Ur-Durik that lives inside your mother. Such a small piece that the demon probably does not even know what has happened.”

“So where is the demon now? Where is the creature that was inside Harok? When the demon left his body, I saw it connect with those statues in the shrine somehow and rush through a tear in the world. I don’t know exactly what happened.”

Doroth Zain nods, “The details of those events were not in the prophetic writings we have. We knew from them that Ur-Durik would rise before the end of the 200th year since Sarelik Darek took power in Azuria. But the shard inside your mother allowed us to discover what Ur-Durik has done. It was as you saw. Diazuul, Ur-Durik used you as a conduit to connect those statues and emerge in Selim’s private shrine in the Rose Palace. I believe he meant to take possession of Selim, a devout believer he had been preparing to be his new host for years. His intention was always to create an empire that worshiped him and then take control of it. But before he could possess Selim’s body, Selim was killed, assassinated in his shrine by your brother Lukas. Instead he entered the body of Atticul. Who will ascend as Emperor. He is already acting as such. I have received communication to that effect. Ur-Durik rules in Azuria, as was always his plan, although not through the host he intended. Thanks to Lukas. But he has his empire, devoted to his worship. His power will be unmatched.”

“Because Diazuul is Zai,” Tobi says, feeling almost unwell to say such heresy in a Bride House. And to Doroth Zain.

But Doroth Zain simply nods.

“And you know all this because of my mother?”

“We have many sources of knowledge. The fae, Perlash-zeren-ai was charged to defend the world from Ur-Durik by his father. A prophet and philosopher. We have some of his writings which told us much. We have discovered more in the Rose Palace, that we are working to translate from Old Magaar. But the Shard is our greatest source of knowledge. Your mother has a connection to Ur-Durik. A true deep connection that is very valuable. Through her we can track what the demon does. The Shard also knows the location of all of the reborn fae princes, including you. We can keep track of you all, through her.”

And then Tobi realises what Doroth Zain is saying to him. He glances over at Harok, still standing beside his mother, his big body outlined in the light from the window. “You need her like this. This madness is valuable to you?”

Doroth Zain simply nods.

“When you discovered the cause of what was happening to her, you did not try to cure it, did you? You simply used it in your battle?”

“What we battle is unimaginable horror, leaving it in place isn’t a choice anyone made lightly.”

Tobi looks at Harok. In Ambolk he says, “Diazuul inside her give information to them. They want her madness.”

Harok nods. “To have the demon inside you. It will cause problems for the mind.”

Tobi looks back at his mother. His mother who does not know him, her fingers still buried in Baby’s fur. “You have to take it out,” Tobi says in Artemian.

Doroth Zain shakes his head. “Ur-Durik reigns in Attar. We need the Shard. If we take it from her it will be lost to us.”

Tobi swallows a sour taste in his mouth. “But you could take it out. You know how.” He looks at Harok again. Demonica glints on his back. Tobi remembers Harok’s chamber in Urynwud, holding that sword to his chest. Could he use that sword to free the shard of Diazuul from his mother? “You left a shard of a demon inside her while it broke her mind.”

“Tobi, we did not have a choice. There is no reason to think that removing it would even help her now.”

“But you know how to take it out.” Tobi looks up at Doroth Zain. Doroth Zain is a head taller than Tobi. But Tobi puffs out his chest and pulls back his shoulders.

He can feel himself shaking as Harok comes over and touches his back, then slides his arms around Tobi’s body. Harok’s strong arms don’t feel like a comfort in this moment, as they usually do, the turmoil and rage inside him are too strong. He glances at his mother by the window, stroking Baby and staring quite peacefully at nothing at all. “Take it out of her.”

“It would doom the world. You would trade one woman’s mind for the lives of all men?”

“My mother’s mind,” Tobi says, but his voice is shaking now. Doroth Zain is right. There is no real choice here.

“Suskara?” Harok says.

Tobi turns to Harok, eyes blurring with tears. “They will not help her,” he says. “She tells them what Diazuul plans. If they took the shard out of her they would lose their connection to the demon.”

In a calm, low voice, Harok says, “Can they take it out of your mother and place it in another?”

Tobi stares back. Realising with a sick flip of horror that there is a choice after all. And a far worse one. “Irgorye no,” Tobi whispers. Harok only freed himself from the demon a matter of days ago.

Harok turns to Doroth Zain. In heavily-accented Artemian he says, “Take demon out mother. Put in me.”

“I don’t know if that is possible,” Doroth Zain says, sounding quite shocked to hear Harok speak to him in Artemian.

“He cant do it,” Tobi says to Harok in Ambolk.

“He can,” Harok says. “Tell him to do it.”

“I won’t.”