With a hurricane of darkness, Raven lunged towards Shin.

Eisha intercepted her in the same breath, a dagger held in reverse grip above her head. The collision sent a tremor through her arms and drove her heels into the ground, but she held.

Northern didn’t move.

He could have. He saw Raven clearly, read the killing intent before she’d even shifted her weight. But he let it play out. He wanted to see what his mother would do, what his father was worth to the people around him when the bill finally came due.

Eisha held on, her arms shaking against the force of a Paragon. She pierced Raven with a glare that could have cut glass.

Raven leaned her weight into the clash, pressing down. Glaring back.

"What are you doing? He committed the sin of giving birth to me. It is only right to be punished by death. If anyone would defend him, let him defend himself."

Eisha gritted her teeth. The power of a Paragon was not something she could simply shrug off the way she had before. Raven’s strength bore down on her until her wrists trembled and her grip turned white on the dagger’s handle.

She looked up through the strain.

"I’m his wife. I have every reasonable right in this world to stop you. As much as he has been a wretched fellow, deserving of death, yes. But he is my husband and the father to my children." Her voice dropped. "You will not lay a finger on him."

Raven tilted her head. Her pupils dilated, something cold and disturbing settling behind them.

"But you let him get beaten just now..."

Sweat glistened on Eisha’s face as Raven pressed harder.

"He was not my business." The frown on her face deepened. "But you... you are my business."

She shoved Raven’s blade to the side and let it fall away. Raven barely followed the momentum before she was standing upright again.

And Eisha was standing between her and Shin, her dagger at her side.

"If there’s anyone that you’ll kill, then let it be me."

Raven’s brow furrowed.

"I have no business with you. Get out of the way."

Eisha didn’t move. Her dagger stayed ready, her body blocking Shin completely.

Raven’s frown deepened.

"Get. Out of the way."

Eisha did not move.

Raven bent slightly and raised her sword, but before she could take another step, a cold voice cut through.

"Raven. That’s enough."

She stilled and turned to Northern.

The frown that climbed her face was almost disbelieving.

"You’re going to stop me?"

Northern regarded her without expression.

"Isn’t that the right thing to do. That’s my mother and father there."

He paused, then added plainly.

"I’m not going to ask you to be forgiving to them, but I’m also not going to let you kill them. To be frank, I don’t want to have to kill you, but if that is what it’ll take for them to be alive, then I will kill you without hesitation."

His eyes sharpened.

"That is how resolved I am. So... yes. I will stop you."

For a long moment, Raven was silent. Her gaze dropped between her sword and Shin on his knees, then Eisha standing in front of him like a wall that had no right to be standing.

Something in her expression flickered, a brief consideration of fighting Northern. It came and went in the space of a breath.

She turned to him, biting down on her lip before speaking.

"If this was what you were going to do, then why bother with all of this? You brought me here only to tell me that I’m not allowed to have vengeance?"

Northern raised his head. His expression was the coldest it had ever been.

"Yes. Because they are my parents."

Raven clenched her teeth and turned her face down. Her hand tightened on her sword until it trembled.

She knew what fighting Northern would mean. There existed a level of strength where the concept itself changed shape, where the individual no longer simply possessed power but bent the course of the world around them.

Northern was one such person. Against him, she was going to lose. Without question.

"I do intend to share the knowledge about advancing to a Luminary with you, though..."

Her head snapped up.

"Is that it? That’s the compensation I get for being denied my vengeance."

Northern raised his brows.

"Compensation? No. It’s a kind gesture..." He extended his arms to gesture at the space around them. "If you do decide that killing me is what will satisfy you one day, I and my army shall be waiting for you."

Raven released her grip. Her sword dissolved back into her soul.

She turned to the Patriarch, who was also on his knees, chuckling at something on the ground. Then she turned away and faced Northern.

"Show me out of here."

A swirling portal opened beside her, its surface churning like a whirlpool.

"That’ll take you straight to the Tower of Trammel."

Raven nodded and walked towards it. Before she stepped through, she stopped and turned back over her shoulder.

"You can keep the knowledge. It’s a prize too low for the vengeance that I deserve for how wretched my life has been."

Northern watched her disappear into the portal without a word.

Then his shoulders slumped.

He let out a long breath and turned to his mother. Eisha’s expression was full of something she couldn’t seem to put into words. Guilt, maybe. Or gratitude that felt too heavy to carry.

She hesitated.

"W—we are sorry."

Northern shook his head.

"There’s no need to be... the world is a very unfair place. It’s only reasonable that we use our unfair advantage to get what we want." He looked at Shin, then back at her. "It’s not like I’m going to watch her harm my father, even though it’s the right thing to do... I’m not going to let her." Something quiet passed through his eyes. "I wonder if that makes me... us, into people far more wicked than he is."

Eisha had nothing to say to that.

Northern wasn’t expecting her to.

"You can go on with father. I wish to stay alone for a moment."

Eisha bent and helped Shin to his feet. His face was barely recognizable beneath the blood. Still, he managed to speak, even though his words were fracturing apart.

"Wh—what ar—are you goi..ng to do... Suho."

Northern glanced at the Patriarch on the floor. What he wanted was to kill him and add him to his Myriad of Echoes. But given who the man was to Shin, that would be difficult.

"I’ll send him back to his territory. Don’t worry."

He nodded at both his parents, and another portal opened, carrying them out of the cave, out of his Soul.

Northern sighed and turned casually, looking at the man now standing behind him.

"Any reason why you decided to sneak up on me?"