Kelser stood there for ten seconds.
Then he said:
"Bullshit."
Elara nodded. Like she expected that answer.
"I know."
She sat down on the dirty stone step. Pulled a crumpled pack of cheap cigarettes out of her coat pocket. Lit one. Passed another one to Kelser. He took it automatically. He did not even smoke.
Nobody said anything for another minute. The sun came up slow and grey over the roofs. Somewhere a rooster crowed.
"I was born for this", Elara said finally. She blew smoke out at the sky. "All of us are. Every three hundred years. They pick twelve children. Raise them. Teach them. Send them out to watch the next candidate."
She tapped ash onto the symbol drawn on the parchment.
"You were the candidate this time."
Kelser still had not said anything. He was just holding the unlit cigarette in his hand. Staring at her.
"All of it", she said. "All of it was the game. The poison. Tomas. The dead girl. Tian's army. Every single bad thing that happened to you in the last six months. None of it was real. None of it had to happen. They just needed you to hurt. They needed you to get angry. They needed you to hate enough that you would open the Path."
She paused. Her voice cracked a little.
"That is all the Asura King ever was. Not a god. Not a monster. Just a very hurt very angry man who someone pushed too far. And they have been doing this same exact trick for ten thousand years."
"Why?" Kelser said. His voice was very quiet.
"Because the world breaks if he does not come. And the world breaks if he does. It does not matter which side you pick. You always lose. The game is rigged. It always has been."
"And you?" Kelser said. "You were one of them."
"Yes."
She looked him directly in the eye. She did not look away.
"I was sent to make you angry. I was sent to make you love me. I was sent to die in front of you. That was the final push. You were supposed to watch me die. And then you were going to burn the whole world down."
Silence.
"What changed?"
"I fucked up", she said. And she laughed. It was a small broken sound. "I fell in love with you. That was not supposed to happen. Nobody ever does that. Nobody ever breaks the script."
"That is why you saved me in the sewer."
"Yes. I was supposed to stand there and watch you die. Or help you die. And I couldn't. I broke all the rules. I broke the game."
Kelser finally lit the cigarette. He inhaled. Coughed. He still did not smoke.
"And Tian?"
"He found out three months ago. He was the candidate last time. They did the exact same thing to him. He lost. That is why he knew. That is why he came here. He was trying to warn you."
All the pieces fell into place. All of it. Every stupid confusing thing that had happened for the last six months. All of it made perfect sense. And none of it mattered at all.
They had all been dancing on strings. And none of them had even noticed.
A twig snapped behind them.
Jian stepped out of the shadow. He had been standing there the whole time. He had heard everything.
He did not yell. He did not draw his knife. He just looked at both of them.
"Shit", he said.
That was all.
Nobody argued. Nobody disagreed. That was the only correct thing to say.
They stood there for another five minutes. Watching the sun come up.
"So what do we do now?" Jian said finally.
Kelser dropped the cigarette on the ground. Stepped on it.
He thought about all the dead people. He thought about Tomas. He thought about the baker. He thought about Dona Mara and her scissors. He thought about two hundred and eighty seven men on the wall.
He thought about ten thousand years of the same stupid game.
"They want me to get angry", Kelser said. "They want me to break. They want me to become the Asura King."
He looked up at Elara. Then at Jian.
"So lets not."
Just then Mina rounded the corner. She had a bag slung over her shoulder. She was cleaning her nails with her dagger.
"I heard all that", she said. "I got three hundred and twenty sticks of dynamite from the old mine. Dona Mara said she wants to come. She said she got something to say to the old men on the mountain."
She stopped. Looked at the three of them.
"You guys coming or what?"
Kelser looked at Elara. She smiled. A real smile for the first time in six months.
He held his hand out to her.
She took it.