Nona Grey

**Nona Grey** is a peasant girl, currently a novice at the convent of Sweet Mercy. She has three bloods, hunska, marjal, and quantal. Due to this fact, she is considered by many to be the Shield of the Argatha. She is skilled in fighting and walking the Path.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Nona is very pale, with the traditional hunska traits of dark eyes and hair. When she was younger she was unusually small and skinny for her age, likely from life as a poor and malnourished peasant. This changed as she got older and joined Sweet Mercy. Due to this new diet and regular training, she is strongly muscled and even taller than some of her fellow novices. She wears her hair short, which is noticeably thick and unruly. She has developed two distinctive features during the events of Red Sister; Hereyes are entirely black from taking the Black Cure antidote and she has no shadow due to cutting it off during her attempt to save Hessa.

### Personality

Nona hates to feel fear, both for herself and her friends, and this is one of the main motivators for her when fighting enemies. She is extremely loyal to friends to her very core, due to having never been unable to connect to anyone as a child. She would sacrifice her own life to save a friend, and due to this loyalty she is more vulnerable to emotional turmoil. An example of this is Clera's betrayal, and people such as Sister Kettle have noticed this and warned her about it. Nona is quite impulsive, very driven, and has a tendency for astonishing violence. She usually kills only when she absolutely has to, but sometimes her anger decides her actions, such as when she tried to kill Raymel Tacsis during the Caltess Forging and when she managed to kill Thuran Tacsis near the end of Grey Sister. At the same time, she can forgive others she considers her friend remarkably easily. She bares Clera no grudge for her betrayal and doesn't end Giljohn's life despite him attempting to shoot her with a poison arrow.

## Abilities

Nona is eventually revealed to be a very rare three-blood, something not seen in the three centuries, since Aran the Founder who carved out the Empire from the chaos of wildmen and petty kingdoms. She is a Hunska fullblood with undefined amounts of Quantal and Marjal. As a Hunska, she is blindingly fast to the point that she describes the process as slowing down time instead of speeding herself up. Her Marjal abilities have not been widely explored, because after losing her Shadow in an attempt to save Hessa, she cannot Shadow-Work; the most common Marjal ability. However from her Marjal traits, Nona has a rare talent to produce Flaw-Blades from her hands, six-inch long invisible blades able to cut chailmail with ease. During the Academy Trial, she also used them to cut her opponents Shadow, when she uses a highly dangerous Rending Shadow against her. Her Quantal abilities are very powerful. Although Nona long struggled to reach The Path initially, by the end of the *Grey Sister* she was able to reach The Path twice in the same day. This is virtually unheard of and would normally kill even the greatest of the Holy Witches. Nona was helped by the proximity of the Shipheart and perhaps by the Thread to her Shadow which is now trapped inside.

## History

### *Early Life*

Nona Grey was born in a nameless village in The Grey, where the land is poor and the people even poorer. Her mother was a weaver of baskets, and her father died on the ice when she was young, while hunting the tunnels for artifacts of The Missing. She had a difficult childhood, shunned by the children of the village, because her parents were outsiders, having migrated from the ice fringes. Her Marjal traits showed early. At just four year old, a boy called Billem tried to bully her, and Nona cut him with her Flaw-Blades and showed her bloody hands to her mother.

When Nona was eight years old, a juggler named Amondo came to the village, and quickly befriended her. Amondo however had secretly been hired by the emperor’s sister Sherzal to help kidnap the talented child. In the end, the juggler seemingly decided not to betray Nona and left the village. However, when her mother found Amondo gone, she blamed Nona, apparently having taken a shine to the man. So Nona followed him into the Rellam forest, where they were both caught by Sherzal’s soldiers. With blinding Hunska speed and her Flaw-Blades, Nona brutally killed all the soldiers, prompting her first ever friend to flee in terror.

The villagers and her mother knew that Sherzal would seek revenge, so for her own protection, they gave Nona to the Giljohn the Child-Taker. In Giljohn’s cage, Nona met Hessa, Markus, Willum, and Chara, as well as Saida who she formed a particularly strong friendship with. They eventually arrived in Verity, where Giljohn sold both Nona and Saida to Partnis Reeve, the owner of the Caltess Fight Hall. These young novice ring-fighters lived in the attic and were tasked with doing chores. One day, Saida was cleaning the room of Raymel Tacsis, a famed ring-fighter and member of the Sis nobility. When she accidentally broke a vase, the enraged giant began assaulting her. Hearing the uproar, Nona rushed to the room, and warned Raymel to leave her friend alone, but he ignored her. So Nona attacked him, climbing the huge man and slitting his throat with her Flaw-Blades. For this offense, Nona and Saida were sent to Harriton Prison and condemned to death.

### *Red Class*

As Nona is waiting for her execution, Abbess Glass arrives at the prison. She tricks the guards into letting her take Nona away, and enroll her as a novice in the convent of Sweet Mercy. At first, Nona struggles to settle into convent life. She resents the Abbess for not saving her friend Saida as well, who was hanged. She has no belief in worship of the Ancestor. Furthermore, another novice called Arabella Jotsis seems to take an instant dislike for her, after Nona accidentally takes her training belt and she is punished. That night, Nona finds a dagger in her bed seemingly put there as a threat by Arabella. Much later, it is revealed that the dagger was actually thrown by a Noi-Guin assassin who had been hired by Thuran Tacsis to kill Nona, in revenge for mortally wounding his son; Raymel in fact survives through the talents of Academy mages.

Things begin to change for Nona, when a circuit judge and Lano Tacsis arrive at the convent to re-arrest Nona. Abbess Glass refuses to hand her over, insisting that her conviction was corruptly bought by the Tacsis family, and that she is now under the Church's care. Nona starts to respect the Abbess for protecting her, and begin to settle into life in Red Class. The meals are the best she's ever had, and there are new luxuries such as the bathhouse. She enjoyed her classes, especially Blade-Class, and learns to read and write thanks to extra classes with Sister Kettle. She becomes very close friends with Clera Ghomal, and meets Hessa once again who is also a novice. One night during the Focus Moon, Hessa and Nona sit outside and Hessa uses Threads to show her what happened when Giljohn sold Markus at the cathedral in Verity. When the mule Four Foot bit High Priest Jacob, he insisted on buying the animal and beating it to death. This experience establishes a Thread-Bond between the two novices, who afterwards regularly share dreams.

Soon afterwards, High Priest Jacob himself arrives at the convent along with the four Archons, intent on bringing the full weight of Church law against both Nona and Abbess Glass. The corrupt primate is in the pay of the Tacsis family, and has an old personal grudge against Glass. Jacob tries to rush through the trial and conviction of the pair, but the Abbess puts up a strong defense, arguing that Nona’s conviction for killing Raymel was corrupt, and that any nine year old girl capable of killing a famed Gerant ring-fighter would surely serve the Church well. The four Archons are convinced, concluding there is no case to answer, but High Priest Jacob overrules them, and proceeds to the sentencing. Seemingly desperate, Abbess Glass now claims that Nona is the prophesied Shield of the Argatha, and agrees to take an archais test to prove it. She must hold her hand over a candle until her testimony is believed. During the long minutes of the test, the Abbess roars in agony as her palm burns, but the High Priest is utterly determined to have his way. In the end, Nona stops the test, and agrees to instead take the ordeal of the Shield Test.

At the Shield Trial, High Priest Jacob takes sadistic glee in insisting that Nona must protect a person, and asking for a volunteer. Just when it seems that no one will step forward, Hessa steps forward. This comes as a shock to Nona, who hadn't realised that the pair had actually become close friends. Through her Hunska speed and flaw-blades, Nona amazingly survives the trial against three deadly projectiles: a spear, a throwing-star, and an arrow. The High Priest accepts defeat with bad grace, but before he can depart, Abbess Glass accuses him of having sold himself wholesale to the Tacsis family. Jacob tries to brush off the accusation, but all four Archons agree, voting to strip him of his office. After Jacob storms off, Archon Nevis is elected the new primate of the Church of the Ancestor. While both Nona and the Abbess are recuperating from their injuries in the Sanatorium, Glass explains that Thuran Tacsis has now sworn to Emperor Crucical that he will no longer seek revenge against Nona. She also admits that the prophecy of the Argatha and Shield is fake, created in order to give hope to the people as the ice continues to close. Nona realises that the cunning Abbess had actually orchestrated the whole affair in order to get rid of the corrupt High Priest.

After Nona is released from the Sanatorium, she is called to the Path Tower to meet with Sister Pan, along with Arabella. The two novices are to choose their names as nuns together, since they are reputed to be the Argatha and the Shield, a prophecy that may one day help protect them. When Nona struggles to choose a name, Pan suggests she think of home or some place safe. Nona, who never felt accepted at home, thinks of Giljohn’s cage, and thus choses her name; Sister Cage. Arabella in turn choses the name Sister Thorn. This brief time together makes Nona realise that Arabella is actually rather likable, and the pair gradually become friends.

### *Grey Class*

After two years at Sweet Mercy, Nona graduates from Red Class. A Gerant novice called Darla considers herself top-dog of Grey Class, and gives everyone joining the class a beating. However, she meets her match in Nona, who, though getting badly injured herself, breaks some of Darla’s finger and toes. Nona vicious treatment of Darla was in part revenge for beating Hessa when she joined the class. Nevertheless, Nona doesn’t hold a grudge, and some days afterwards helps Darla up when she slips on the ice, beginning an unlikely friendship.

One day, the emperor’s sister Sherzal pays a visit to Sweet Mercy, wanting her ward Zole to be trained at the convent. Not trusting Sherzal, Abbess Glass tries to refuse, but High Priest Nevis insisted. The emperor’s sister also asks to see Nona and Zole fight. Both are Hunska primes, and the fight ensues at lightning speed. However, Zole has knowledge of moves that Nona doesn’t, beating her down and then proceeding to rain kicks on her prone opponent. With no one seemingly willing to end the fight, Arabella steps forward having walked The Path. Ordering Zole to stop, she shows her power by destroying one of the practice dummies. The High Priest is not amused, and orders Arabella punished. However, Sherzal gleefully makes her own suggestion, that Nona as supposedly the Shield should take the whipping, a practice common among The Sis. Despite her injuries, Nona agrees. Tied naked to an iron ring set into the wall, she is whipped twenty times with a wire cane. As she endures it, Nona’s anger rises, and she sees The Path, making a glancing step. She then pushes the power into the wall, which explodes. As she's led away to the Sanatorium, Nona flashes Zole a bloody grin, and sees in her eyes something that might be respect.

Afterward, Sister Pan takes a new interest in Nona because she's been proven to have Quantal traits. She and the other novices with the traits (Ara, Hessa, and Zole) are often taken to the secret rooms within the Path Tower, to practice their talents while protected by sigils. Yet Nona struggles with Path, finding Pan’s cautious approach unnatural. Another person who takes an interest in Nona, is Zole’s bodyguard at the convent, a renowned Ice-Tribe warrior called Yisht. She warns Nona that unless she keeps away from Zole, she'll hurt her friend Hessa. Meanwhile, Abbess Glass seems curiously tolerant of Yisht’s often strange behaviour around Sweet Mercy, apparently afraid that otherwise Sherzal would take away her extraordinarily talented ward. Yisht proves herself a wonder as well, defeating all twelve novices in Blade-Class, when Sister Tallow asks for a demonstration of her skills; seemingly Yisht is able to foresee whatever an attacker will do.

When the annual Caltess Forging comes around, Nona, Zole, and Clera win a place. The Sweet Mercy novices are to fight novices and apprentices of the Caltess. On the first day, the novices fight a long succession of trainees, none of whom put-up much of a fight. The second day is given over to the older novices adept at blade. On the third day, the novices battle the Caltess’ apprentices, hardened by dedicated training. Nona first faces Regol, who she remembers as the former sardonic top dog of the attic children. Regol points out Raymel Tacsis in the audience, who has recovered from his mortal injury, and warns her about her next opponent. This doesn't stop him brutally beating her in their fight. Afterwards, Sister Tallow intends to take the injured novices back to the convent, but Partnis Reeve asks to see Nona fight again. Tallow is reluctant, but Nona agrees, not wanting Raymel to see her fear. It quickly becomes evident that her opponent, a massive Gerant called Denam, intends on crippling Nona, having been bribed by Raymel. As Nona feels her Hunska speed waning, she uses one of his clumsy lunges to climb the man, and launch herself from the ring at Raymel. She tries to cut his throat with her Flaw-Blades again, but Raymel is left unharmed, seemingly protected by the Demons. The whole incident looks like a bizarre accident.

After this experience, Nona begins to feel sick, and becomes convinced she's somehow been poisoned by Raymel. She convinces her friends to help her steal the ingredients for an antidote called the Black Cure from Sister Apple's stores. While searching the caves beneath the convent for the stores, Nona hears the noise of a pick on stone. Following the sound, she finds a cavern where Yisht is secretly digging a new tunnel, with another new shaft leading down from the guest-quarters. Perplexed, Nona retraces her steps, and eventually finds the Poisoner's stores. She then brews the Black Cure, but balks for now at taking the dangerous antidote.

Nona has another excursion from the convent, when Sister Pan takes her to The Academy along with Hessa and Ara. The Sweet Mercy novices are to face-off against Academy students, among them Chara, Willum, and Markus from Giljohn’s cage. Nona’s contest is against a Shadow-Weaver called Luta. Feeling sick and with only Serenity trance to protect her, Nona doesn't feel confident. As the test begins, Shadows stream from Luta trying to fill her with fear, but Serenity prevails. However, Luta becomes enraged, redoubling her attack with a dangerous Rending-Shadow. As the Shadow creeps towards her throat, Nona uses her Flaw-Blades to cut the Shadow away. Nona recovers in another room where Sister Pan and two Academics begin arguing about what happened, with Pan suspecting that Luta had been emotionally manipulated. They ask Nona how she fought-off the Shadows, and Nona demonstrates her Flaw-Blade, an incredibly rare Marjal trait. They realised that Nona is a Three-Blood, something not seen in a hundred years. This also explains her sickness, caused by the Blood-War.

Nona eventually realises what Yisht is doing to in the undercaves; she's trying to steal the Sweet Mercy Shipheart. Despite Hessa urging them to tell the Abbess, the novices decide to deal with Yisht themselves. Nona lies in wait for Yisht in the Shipheart cavern, and when she descends from her room, tries to dose her with Boneless poison. Yisht however is able to predict the attack, and a fight ensues in which Nona is almost throttled before the poison finally knocks the deadly ice-triber unconscious. The novices then drag Yisht out of the caverns, stuffing her in a convent wine-barrel, and have her shipped to Durn.

On seven-day, with no family to visit, Nona often spends the entire day practicing Blade-Path. However, she finds the slow and careful approach everybody uses simply doesn't feel right for her, much as it doesn’t work for her in Path-Class. On one particular occasion, after a day of frustration, she has an epiphany. Instead of putting tar on her feet, she covers them with grease, running headlong at the Blade-Path without reservation. For the first time it feels right, and she successfully completes the entire path in just 30 seconds, a record for any living nun.

Throughout Nona’s time at Sweet Mercy, Clera has been her closest friend, a connection that has great meaning for Nona. There are even hints that Clera wants to be her lover. Yet Nona eventually realises that Clera can be selfish and cruel to anyone who is not her friend. Meanwhile Clera’s behaviour becomes increasingly suspicious. She makes money on her visits to Verity, upgrading the copper coin she habitually plays with, first to a silver crown and then a gold sovereign. When Sister Apple tests her later with Truth-Serum on Clera, she admits she was given the gift of a throwing-star by Partnis Reeve, a man close to the Tacsis family. She also takes some of the stolen poison ingredients from under Nona’s bed. The explanation is finally revealed during the annual Ranging.

On the Ranging, the Grey Class novice must cross open country alone from Harran Fens to the Kring; all except Hessa who remains at the convent due to her crippled leg. With Yisht missing, Zole is accompanied by her new bodyguard, Tarkax the Ice-Spear. After the novices become split-up in an ice-storm, they realise that the region is full of men who seem to be Durnish raiders. After spending the night huddled with some sheep, Nona wakes to find a group of dead raiders nearby. Following some tracks, she finds Sister Kettle, wounded with a knife in her side from a fight with a Noi-Guin, the same assassin who had failed to kill Nona years ago. Kettle has been secretly following Nona to protect her, with Sister Apple following Ara. She also admits that Zole is in fact the Chosen One, a confirmed Four-Blood. Nona forces Kettle to call Apple for help, threatening to hunt down this Noi-Guin if she doesn't.

Nona eventually catches up with Clera and Ara, and they make for a narrow gorge called Aemon’s Cut. There, they find Darla, Zole, Ruli, and Jula gathered in a cave with Tarkax for protection. Nona insists on joining them, although Clera seems strangely reluctant. Tarkax explains that the armed men are actually Tacsis soldiers disguised as raiders. The cave is eventually surrounded by twelve soldiers. As Nona and the others are preparing to fight, Clera reveals herself to be a traitor. She poisons Tarkax, Ara, and Zole before the others novices manage to subdue her. Nona was poisoned also, but had taken the Black Cure beforehand, having grown suspicious of Clera. Although Clera believe the soldiers want Arabella, in fact they're loyal to Raymel Tacsis who still wants his revenge on Nona.

Despite their losses, Nona still insists on fighting. However first, she is pulled through the Thread-Bond to Hessa at the convent. Yisht has somehow returned to steal the Shipheart, and Hessa determines to try and stop her. Hessa attacks the ice-triber with Thread-Work but lacks the ruthlessness to kill her. This gives Yisht the chance to collapse the cave with her Marjal Rock-Working skill. Nona cuts away her Shadow and sends it through the Thread-Bond to help Hessa, but even so feels her friend fading as she dies. The death of Hessa fills Nona with the rage she needs. Using a combination of her Hunska speed, Path energy, and Flaw-Blades, she hurls herself at the soldiers and tear them apart. Some soldiers try to retreat for safety into the cave, only to meet their deaths at the hands of Darla, Ruli, and Jula. With the novices exhausted, Raymel Tacsis himself suddenly appears, swathed in scale-armour. The four novices attack the giant Gerant, but the Demons inside him make him virtually impregnable. Even when the barely recovered Ara walks The Path and pushes the energy into him, it barely damages his flesh. In the end, Raymel gets hold of Nona, and seems certain to crush her to death. However, Nona uses the Amulet of Negation that she found on Yisht, and at last is able to killl him.

### *Mystic Class*

For the last two years, Nona has been possessed by Keot, one of the four Demon that had been inside Raymel Tacsis when he died. The Demon claims that the pleasure Nona had taken in killing her enemy had let him get under her skin. He speaks to her and urging her to violence, which she struggles to resist. He moves around inside her and can be glimpsed on her skin, but generally keeps well hidden from others.

Nona is the first of her friends, other than Darla, to graduate from Grey Class. Upon joining Mystic Class, Nona immediately gets into a feud with another novice, Joeli Namsis, whose family are close allies of the Tacsis. One day in Blade-Hall, Joeli mocks Nona's failure on the Blade-Path, and accuses Hessa of helping Yisht steal the Shipheart. When this doesn't get a rise, she goes on to claim that if Nona really cared about her dead friend, she would search for clues to avenge herself on Yisht. Nona almost loses control, pinning Joeli to the ground, but allows her friends to drag her away. Afterwards, Joeli brings Nona up on charges of brutally attacking her before Abbess Glass and the other nuns. Zole is brought in as a witness, but insists that there was no brutal attack, despite the fact that she didn't see the whole event. It seems that Nona and Zole have slowly become friends; Zole later promises to help Nona learn to live on the ice during the Ice Ranging. Meanwhile, the Abbess also wants to defend Nona against Joeli, but won't do so openly. Instead she nudges the proceedings towards her desired outcome. She raises suspicion about why Joeli didn't visit the Sanatorium, which eventually leads Sister Apple to figure-out that Joeli has used Ulhen's Ointment to fake her injuries. The charges are dismissed.

One seven-day, Arabella invites Nona and Zole to come with her to Verity, to visit her friend Terra Mensis, with Sister Kettle tasked with escorting them. However, at the bottom of the Vinery Stair they encounter a throng of pilgrims eager to see Zole, who is widely rumoured to be the Argatha. This causes Zole to panic and flee back to the convent. At the Mensis house, Ara and Nona go inside while Kettle waits in the garden. However Safira has infiltrated the house disguised as a servant, intent on kidnapping Zole. Kettle bursts in the room to confront her. The two women fight, which ends with Safira threatening her with Grey Mustard poison. She leaves, claiming that her patron Sherzal is the best hope for The Empire.

Joeli's feud with Nona continues. One day she and four of her friends ambush her outside the bathhouse. Nona puts-up one hell of a fight, injuring the five girls as badly as she gets hurt herself, before Darla breaks-up the brawl. When it's Nona's turn for the Shade-Trial, Joeli is utterly determined to catch her. However, Nona enlists all her friends to help her. First, Nona gets Kelp-Juice, a powerful fertiliser, from her friend Ruli, and applies it to the roots of the Centre Oak to make it easier to hide in. With Nona and Darla on the balcony above the Novice Cloister, Arabella and others rush into the square disguised as Nona to distract the Mystic Class novices trying to catch her. In the chaos, Darla hurls Nona into the Centre Oak. More distractions allow her to retrieve the puzzle-box, but she runs out of time with the bell ringing for class. Nona emerges from the Centre Oak, having opened the puzzle box with her Flaw-Blades, and Sister Apple announces that she has successfully completed the Shade-Trial; the final test being "*Never be so focused on picking a lock that you forget kicking down the door is also an option.*"

Meanwhile, Joeli continues to goads Nona into exploring the undercaves, as well as using Thread-Work to manipulate her. While Nona and her friends are searching for a route to the spot where Hessa died, they encounter a Holothour, a mysterious entity bred by The Missing. The Holothour causes the novices to flee in panic, to dread returning, and even to forget the experience; only Nona is not effected thanks to Keot. She eventually cures Ara and the other novices using Thread-Work, and convinces them to return to the undercaves. In the cave, their Serenity Trance collapses before the Holothour, and they start to flee again. However, Ara falls and this prompts Nona to turn back, refusing to leave her friend, and ultimately defeating the mysterious entity. They eventually do reach the spot where Hessa died, where Nona finds a Thread to her Shadow.

The Inquisition have descended on Sweet Mercy at Sherzal's instigation. Joeli knows Nona has been in the undercaves through Trip-Threads, and raises the incident with Inquisitor Pelter. Pelter brings charges of breaking convent rules against Nona. Abbess Glass tries to defend her, but he insists that convent rules must be enforced. Nona should be expelled, but as a rare Three Blood who could be use against the Church or the emperor, she must instead be killed. However, Sister Kettle manages to sneak Nona out of the convent. Before they part, Kettle tries to make a Shadow-Bond with Nona should she need her help, but it doesn’t work cause Nona has lost her Shadow. Instead, Nona somehow forms a Thread-Bond with her, something that should be impossible since Kettle isn’t Quantal.

### *Expulsion*

Nona decides to go home to her mother's village in The Grey, keeping to the back-roads in case the Inquisition are searching for her. Eventually reaching the villiage, she finds it a ruin with all the people gone. Suddenly Keot warns her of something behind her, and her Hunska speed allows her to avoid a crossbow arrow fired by Giljohn. She locks the child-taker in his own cage, and forces him to answer her questions. He explains that Sherzal’s soldiers destroyed the village because Nona killed her men, and that the Inquisition has put a price-on-her-head which he was trying to claim. Keot wants her to kill Giljohn, but Nona just breaks the bars of the cage with her Flaw-Blades to frighten him and leaves. Nona goes to the Hope Church in the town of White Lake where her mother used to worship. She asks Preacher Mickel where her mother is, and he admits she's dead. But the priest suspicious behaviour makes her think he’s hiding something. She searches the church, and findis a room full of artefacts of The Missing, collected by explorers like her father; supposedly when the Hope comes to save mankind, he will need them. She's eventually thrown out of the church. Wandering the graveyard in shock at her mother’s death, Nona is suddenly hit by poison darts and collapses.

Nona comes-to tied and still drugged in a box being taken somewhere by Tellasah, the Noi-Guin assassin who was hired by Thuran Tacsis to kill her years ago. Meanwhile, she's regularly pulled down the Thread-Bond to Sister Kettle who is coming to save her. Nona is eventually released from the box in a prison cell in the Tetragode, where collars are attached to her neck, wrists, and ankles connected to an iron peg. The collar has sigils that prevent her reaching The Path or using her Flaw-Blades. Nona plots her escape with only her Hunska speed to fall back on. She develops a technique of winding the chain around the iron peg at speed, then using the coil to try and turn the peg. Thuran and Lano Tacsis come to see their prize. They intend to torture her, but for the moment they have a party at Sherzal's palace to attend. Thuran gives her a taste of his intentions, using a relic of The Missing called The Harm, which produces excruciating pain. Lano on the other hand likes to leave a mark, scarring her nose with his knife. After the visit, Nona returns to working on the iron pin with renewed determination, and it eventually comes lose. The Lightless and a Noi-Guin storm the cell, but Nona kills them all using the chain as a weapon and a stolen knife. She's left poisoned in the process, but Sister Kettle uses the Thread-Bond to somehow briefly swap bodies and cure her. More Lightless are now trying to breakdown the cell-block door, and things seem desperate until Clera suddenly appears. Clera now works for Thuran Tacsis and his ally Sherzal, but remains Nona's friend. They escape through a secret tunnel.

Clera just wants to get out of the Tetragode, but Nona senses Sister Kettle nearby in trouble, surrounded by Noi-Guin and Lightless. Nona walks The Path and hurls the power like lightening-bolts, leaving the attackers a smoking ruin. Together Nona, Clera, and the injured Kettle reach the tunnel leading out of the Tetragode. Suddenly Nona realises that she can now sense two Shiphearts, the Noi-Guin Shipheart in the Tetragode and the Sweet Mercy Shipheart in Sherzal’s palace. The link to the Sweet Mercy Shipheart is particularly strong because Nona's Shadow has somehow become trapped in the Shipheart. Determined to reclaim the precious artefact, they force Clera to lead them into the palace. In Sherzal's palace, they encounter Yisht, who has been changed by contact with the Shipheart, possessed by dozens of Demons. A fight ensues, with Yisht's ability to predict her enemy proving too powerful. Yisht tries to force Nona to flee by threatening the injured Kettle, first cutting her throat and then holding Grey Mustard poison over the prone nun. But Nona is determined not to leave her friend. This act of compassion forces Keot to leap from her into Yisht. The introduction of yet another Demon inside Yisht, causes her to stagger away writhing, and allows Nona and Kettle to escape.

After patching themselves up, Sister Kettle convinces Nona not to go after the Shipheart, having seen what it did to Yisht. They instead go to meet up with Abbess Glass and the others who are also trying to escape Sherzal's palace. On the way, they stumble into Thuran Tacsis, and Nona can’t resist taking her revenge on him. She kills his guard, drags him into a room, and seal The Harm to his skin with Fleshbind. Clera, Nona, and Kettle eventually meet up with Abbess Glass and the others in the stables, with the way out blocked by Sherzal's soldiers. With her is Darla, who is mortally wounded and dies in Nona's arms. The death of her friend fuels the rage that Nona needs to walk The Path for a second time in the same day, helped by the Thread to Nona's Shadow in the Shipheart.

Ordering the others into a carriage, Nona uses the energy to push it towards the great palace gates. With the carriage moving at a good speed, she sprints ahead of it to deal with the gates. She attacks the hinges, weakening the gate enough for the carriage to crash through, and down the hillside away from the palace, with Nona clinging to the underside. Arabella eventually pulls the brake, bringing the carriage to a crashing halt, and Sherzal's soldiers begin to converge on them. As they prepare to hold the path allowing the others to flee, Nona comes face-to-face with Regol and is embarrassed by her dishevelled and barely clad state. The situation seems hopeless, until suddenly the hillside collapses, obliterating the soldiers and covering the path. From the rubble emerges Zole, who caused the collapse using Rock-Work fueled by the Shipheart stolen for the Noi-Guin. Nona can see that she has become possessed by a Demon.

## Gallery

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