SEAL OF FATE

The chamber of the Arbiter. It’s luxurious, full of soft surfaces, servants, plenty.

CYUNN

I haven’t completed my current mission, Arbiter. Why have you brought me here?

ARBITER

I need you to perform another task. It won’t take long, but the need is greater than chasing errant Aeon Priests.

CYUNN

Your need, you mean.

ARBITER

My needs are Ancuan’s needs, Cyunn. Don’t be impertinent.

CYUNN

Ancuan needs you to have more cushions? More draperies? Another servant to feed you?

ARBITER

Don’t mistake my occasional indulgence for softness, Cyunn. Beasts can have fur…and teeth.

CYUNN

What do you need of me?

ARBITER

Vitarus.

CYUNN

What of him?

ARBITER

He’s returned to Ancuan.

CYUNN

No. He wouldn’t be that stupid. He knows the consequences of ignoring a judgement of exile.

ARBITER

And yet.

CYUNN

He was a noble Entun Glaive, Arbiter. He fought many battles for Ancuan. Saved many lives, including yours. He was a hero here.

ARBITER

Once. He made his choice, Cyunn. Just like you.

CYUNN

I can chase him out of Ancuan. Teach him not to forget his exile a second time.

Interrupting

ARBITER

And make me look as weak as you think I am? No. He made his choice. Bring him to me.

CYUNN

Arbiter-

ARBITER

Need I remind you of the choice you made? Of the circumstance that brings us here?

CYUNN

I live it every day, Arbiter. You know the pain.

ARBITER

It keeps you at heel, Cyunn. You made it necessary — now do not make it worse. Bring me Vitarus.

At the Asylum

CYUNN

Of all places to hide, you choose the Asylum?

VITARUS

I thought you’d appreciate the pun.

CYUNN

A place so full of madness and desperation, hopelessness. This is where you make your final stand.

VITARUS

“Final” is up to you, Cyunn. And this place isn’t hopeless. There’s help here, sometimes. Shelter. Mercy.

CYUNN

Disease.

VITARUS

You’re here to take me to the Arbiter.

CYUNN

Why did you force my hand? With all the lands to choose from, why did you come back here?

VITARUS

You are hardly one to speak of bad choices. How bad is the pain today?

CYUNN

Manageable.

VITARUS

I’ve been so many places. I’ve seen the use others make of the numenera: building, healing, restoring. But the mighty Arbiter of Ancuan employs hers for punishment.

CYUNN

My pain is my business.

VITARUS

You made a bad bargain. How long will the urrwire burrow in you? Forever?

CYUNN

Until my debt is paid.

VITARUS

And when is that, Cyunn? A hundred bounties? A thousand? How many times will you do her bloody bidding before you’re released?

CYUNN

And how are you helping to relieve my pain? By coming back here? Defying the rules of exile and forcing me to bring you in? Why didn’t you stay away and at least spare me this?

VITARUS

It’s time to make the facts known. We never had a chance to tell our story – to tell the truth.

CYUNN

Of course. This again.

VITARUS

I have to try. It’s been a long time, Cyunn. Tempers have cooled, pain turned to hazy memory, youthful self-righteousness has given way to mature reflection.

CYUNN

You really do belong in here if you believe that.

VITARUS

You’re telling me no one is ready to hear us?

CYUNN

“Us”? There’s no one here but you and me, Vitarus, and I have nothing more to say.

VITARUS

Not even to save my life?

CYUNN

Nothing we could say would save you. We killed our commanding officer. We can’t prove our actions were anything but the treachery they appeared.

VITARUS

What if we could?

CYUNN

What? How?

VITARUS

Did you really think I’d come back here empty handed? Eager as I’ve been to see my twin sister, I’m not so big a fool as that. Take me to the Arbiter.

CYUNN

Whatever you have up your sleeve better be good.

VITARUS

Why look so worried? You’re fulfilling your duty and bringing in the bounty. You have nothing to lose.

Walks away, whistling.

CYUNN

Nothing but a brother.

The chamber of the Arbiter. The sound of a bag of coins being shaken.

ARBITER

I confess, I am startled that you’re taking the money for bringing in your own brother, Cyunn. I underestimated your avarice. But have a seat next to Vitarus. Eat! I assure you the food is better here than at the Asylum.

VITARUS

The company is about the same.

ARBITER

Tread lightly, Vitarus.

VITARUS

Why? I already know you plan to kill me.

ARBITER

True. It is the penalty for defying exile. But who kills you and how long it takes are still to be determined.

CYUNN

Slide your eyes at me again, Arbiter, and I guarantee there are two dead at this table.

She gasps with pain. Vitarus bolts up from his chair

VITARUS

Cyunn!

CYUNN

Sit. Down. I can manage.

ARBITER

There’s more than one way to cause you pain, Vitarus. Now eat, both of you.

Sounds of spoons in bowls, etc.

ARBITER

Tell me, where have you been in your time of exile?

VITARUS

Here and there. More there than here, obviously.

ARBITER

Obviously. I heard tell of you in the Datasphere…is that true?

VITARUS

After a fashion. It’s not a place one “goes,” in the traditional sense.

CYUNN

Are we really going to sit here eating and making polite chit chat?

VITARUS

My sister is still a savage, I see.

ARBITER

It’s what made her such a powerful warrior. And such a valuable bounty hunter.

CYUNN

You say that as if you expect thanks.

ARBITER

I’d never be such a fool, Cyunn. All I expect from you is a knife in the ribs someday.

CYUNN

Here’s hoping I don’t disappoint.

VITARUS

Cyunn! You disrespect our host.

CYUNN

A host who keeps her guest in chains. You came here because you have something to say. Say it and save me the misery of more wasted time.

ARBITER

Something to say?

VITARUS

I had intended to save it for dessert…

CYUNN

Now. I’m done breaking bread and making nice.

VITARUS

This is my sister “making nice.” Arbiter, that day in Aian when we fought-

Arbiter stands, Cyunn follows, weapons are drawn

ARBITER

Stop. There’s nothing you can say to me that will save your neck, Vitarus.

CYUNN

And there’s nothing you can lose by listening. Sit. Down.

She cries out in pain

VITARUS

Stop it!

ARBITER

If you care for your sister at all, tell her to sheathe her weapon. That urrwire will never allow you to hurt me, Cyunn. Threats only increase your debt to me.

VITARUS

Both of you, sit down. Leave her be. You’re going to want to hear this. My life isn’t the only one in the balance.

ARBITER

Talk quickly.

VITARUS

Listen closely. The Entun Glaives were told we went to Far Brohn to quell an uprising. We were told that a unit from the Pytharon Empire was using the Sadara River to cross into Milave, that they had allies in Aian who would sneak them in. That we had to kill them as they emerged from their boats, to stop them from any manner of mischief in Milave.

CYUNN

We saw them with our own eyes, brother.

VITARUS

No. We saw what we were supposed to see: Empress Challadien’s soldiers being hauled from boats and taken into Aian. We thought it was an advance scout.

ARBITER

And what, in your fanciful imagination, did we actually see?

VITARUS

A prisoner exchange. A collection of idiot do-gooders had gone to the Pytharon Empire to attempt to negotiate peace. They were captured, of course, and would have been killed, only one carried a seal from Archbishop Slemtar. Once the body parts started arriving at the Archbishop’s door, an exchange was hastily offered.

ARBITER

Illegal but not uncommon. Why would the Entun Glaives be brought in?

VITARUS

Because someone saw an opportunity to start a war. No more minor skirmishes at the border — we would see them killing an emissary of the Order of Truth; they would see us attacking Challadien’s people on a peaceful, humanitarian mission. Neither side would endure such an insult.

ARBITER

Next you will tell me how Commander Proditor stood to profit from such a war, and that only your treachery saved us. Say it, Vitarus, and I will see you swallow your words along with your own tongue.

CYUNN

Proditor had a stockpile of numenera weapons, Arbiter. You know that.

VITARUS

Weapons he meant to sell to the highest bidder.

ARBITER

Lies.

Cyunn gasps as the pain increases

CYUNN

Stop, Arbiter. Listen. You were a fair woman once, who knew the truth when she heard it.

VITARUS

I have proof.

ARBITER

Show me.

VITARUS

Release her.

The pain increases

VITARUS

Cyunn!

CYUNN

I’m all right. Finish it.

VITARUS

When they brought the prisoners to Aian, the one with the Archbishop’s seal was among them. Proditor killed him. He took the seal to show the Archbishop, meaning to feed her rage to the breaking point.

CYUNN

Vitarus heard the whole plot from a drunken lackey who’d snatched the seal for himself. We were coming to tell you, but there wasn’t time. Killing Proditor destroyed the plan because those who followed him were too cowardly to carry on without him.

VITARUS

But then his death and the deaths of the prisoners were piled on our heads. You know the rest.

CYUNN

Show her.

VITARUS

Here.

ARBITER

The seal. You’ve had it all this time.

VITARUS

No. I found the lackey in Qi, living like an emperor on the strength of that seal. With the help of a young friend, I “liberated” it from him.

ARBITER

I see.

VITARUS

Release my sister.

Cyunn gasps in relief as the pain subsides

CYUNN

You know it all now. The truth. My brother and I aren’t traitors, Arbiter. And I owe you no debt.

ARBITER

I don’t believe it. Any of it! Proditor was a soldier, an Entun Glaive! A hero!

CYUNN

There’s one more thing. Empress Challadien didn’t trust Proditor any more than we would trust one of their number. The night of the attack, he was going to hand over one of us in tribute. He would give the Empress a slave to prove his intentions.

ARBITER

Don’t say it.

CYUNN

It doesn’t mean he didn’t love you, Arbiter. Only that he loved money more. Much more. Enough to have you in chains for the rest of your life.

VITARUS

That’s enough, Cyunn. Remember you are an Entun Glaive.

CYUNN

Was. Until a blind, besotted fool stripped me of my status, planted an urrwire in my body, and sent me to do her bloody work. I’m a bounty hunter now.

ARBITER

It’s not true. I’ve no reason to believe any of it. Here’s what happens next: each of you will have a room in the darkest dungeons I can find. And every day, I will hack a piece off of you and feed it to your twin.

VITARUS

When Proditor died, you inherited his stockpile of numenera weaponry. It’s where the one in my sister’s body came from. I’m guessing you knew most of the plot, just not the last piece.

CYUNN

And here’s the piece neither of you knows. Archbishop Slemtar knows the whole story. I’ve had spies following Vitarus since he stepped out of Ancuan. That’s not the real seal; it’s a fake, and any tradesman would know the difference. You should have taken the real one when the servant first showed it to you, Vitarus.

ARBITER

I thought you a fool for returning to Ancuan, Vitarus, but using a forged seal to back your pathetic tale? Well, it provides me a good excuse to prolong your execution.

VITARUS

I assure you this is real! The servant could not have been flaunting it about Qi, the seat of the Amber Pope, had it not been authentic. It would have been quickly discovered, and he’d be imprisoned somewhere beneath the Durkahl.

CYUNN

That is true, brother, but after your visit with him, my spies took the real seal and had a fake one made. Had you left well enough alone I would have already secured our freedom by the time you found out. I never thought you’d be stupid enough to come here with it yourself.

VITARUS

Then what of the real one? You have it then. Show the Arbiter.

CYUNN

This is what I’m trying to tell you: I took it to the  Archbishop. Along with the servant’s story, the seal was enough to prove what really happened in Aian. With that she freed me from my debt. And you from exile.

VITARUS

I am not exiled any more! I’m afraid you’ll have to give the Arbiter back her bounty, Cyunn.

CYUNN

The story isn’t quite finished. The Archbishop immediately put a bounty on your head, Arbiter. As we’ve been eating this delightful meal, your servants and guards have been quietly slaughtered by her agents.

ARBITER

No. You’re lying. GUARDS!

VITARUS

Cyunn, what are you doing? Put away your weapon, it’s over. What’s happened to you?

CYUNN

No one is coming to save you.

ARBITER

There’s still the urrwire!

CYUNN

Ooo. Ouch. Please stop. You’re as stupid as your slack jaw makes you look, Arbiter. The Archbishop was kind enough to have it removed.

Sounds of a struggle between Vitarus and Arbiter

ARBITER

I’ll kill him. Drop your weapon or he’s dead!

VITARUS

Arbiter. Let me go. My sister has won. There’s nothing to gain by killing me.

CYUNN

For years I hated being a bounty hunter. I was once a warrior in the true cause. But then came Aian, and suddenly I was a traitor, captive to a debt, with an urrwire tunneling through my bones, enslaved by the burden of a brother who could be slaughtered at the whim of those like this one here.

VITARUS

That’s over, Cyunn. You’ve won.

CYUNN

Have I? Even now, someone holds you hostage, demands my cooperation, dictates my actions for love of you.

ARBITER

Drop your weapon and kneel.

CYUNN

Never again.

VITARUS

What are you doing?

Cyunn stabs him. Stunned, Arbiter lets his body drop.

ARBITER

You killed your own brother?

CYUNN

Love is a prison. I bought my freedom.

Stabs and kills Arbiter, then drops her weapon. The Archbishop’s guard rush in.

CYUNN

She killed my brother. I tried to stop her, but it was too late. Tell the Archbishop the Arbiter of Ancuan is dead. And she owes me a bounty.

THE END