Sai strode into the courtyard of the Shadowed Citadel with his head high, clad in the tlahuiztli that Coatl-ome had crafted for him, its armored top crafted with scales from countless drakes. Gugalan waited there as he had before, kneeling against his planted greatsword at the center of the courtyard. "Must we do this again?" the hulking minotaur asked.

  "I was kind of hoping you'd left by this point," Sai admitted.

  "Go back inside, little orc," Gugalan said. Just as before, Gugalan sounded more bored than threatening. "Our Master has commanded that I not let you pass this way."

  "No," said Sai. "I'm coming through, and you can't stop me." He frowned. That was the exact same thing he'd said the first time. His raptor even growled the same growl from behind him.

  The déjà vu continued as the minotaur shook his head and picked up his shield from the ground beside him. "I can," the minotaur said again, "though it saddens me that I must." He reversed his grip on his sword, stood up to his full height, and yanked the sword from the ground. The metal of his shield and pauldron still gleamed with the not-light of the stars.

  But Sai refused to let the outcome of the fight repeat itself as well. He forced the raptor to remain still, activated the Shadowed Voice, and pointed at Gugalan. "You will let me pass," he commanded.

  Gugalan lowered his sword. "I see you've reclaimed our Master's voice, Harbinger," the minotaur said.

  Sai's arm faltered. "Syn is not my master," he said, returning to his own voice.

  "Saying it does not make it true," Gugalan said. He slid sword into the side of an open sheath strapped to his back. Again his movements reminded Sai of Gretchen. Then the minotaur waved towards the southern gates before fastening the top of his scabbard. "Go. You are free to pass unchallenged. I will hinder you no more."

  Sai blinked. "What?" he said. "Why would you do that? I thought Syn commanded you not to let me through."

  "That's true," Gugalan said. The minotaur looked to the starry sky. "And I am Gugalan, the Nightmare's Enforcer." He sounded as if the fact would drive him to tears if would he let it. He looked down at Sai. Sai could not read the emotions in his bovine face. He looked angrier than he sounded. "But you have decided to reclaim our Master's voice. You are yourself no longer. You are again a creature of the Eternal Nightmare."

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  "No," Sai insisted too forcefully. "I stole this power. Syn has no hold over me."

  "So you say," said Gugalan. He turned his back on Sai and the raptor and trudged towards a small wheelhouse that stood between the arches of the two southern gates. "Go on, Harbinger," he called over his shoulder. "You have more important things to do than argue with a fellow child of Syn."

  Sai glared after him. "I'm not a child of Syn!" he called, but the minotaur ignored him. Sai turned to his raptor. "I'm not."

  "Grrr…" said the raptor.

  Sai started to head out the gates and into the farmland to the south of the Shadowed Citadel but paused as he reached the wheelhouse. He frowned at the door Gugalan had disappeared into. Something about the minotaur's demeanor bothered him. And being allowed to pass just because he had managed to reclaim Syn's voice struck him as far too convenient. Setting his jaw, Sai followed Gugalan into the wheelhouse.

  The ceiling inside was high, but the walls were close. The door opened between two rooms divided by a short wall. Sai suspected they had once been stable stalls. One side appeared to be Gugalan's bedroom, with a crude bed that seemed too small for the enormous minotaur, a large table, and packed bookcase. The outer wall on the opposite side was covered in gears and levers and other machinery. At the back were two battered stone pillars standing on either side of a pit. Syn's stars winked at him from within the darkness.

  "Thanks for visiting me," said Gugalan. The minotaur leaned against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed over his chest. He still wore his armor, but his sword and shield hung on a rack beside the bookcase.

  Sai started at Gugalan's voice. "You're…" he began to say, almost out of habit. He stopped, but decided to continue. "Welcome?"

  The permanent anger creasing Gugalan's brows seemed to soften. "It grows lonely waiting for our master's campaigns to progress," he said. He glanced at the pit between the pillars. "The gods do not operate on mortal timelines."

  Sai followed Gugalan's gaze. "What is…?" Sai began to ask, but he felt the answer before it came.

  "Have you come to pay your respects at my shrine?" Syn asked. The darkness of the pit seemed prepared to claw its way up into the space between the pillars. The raptor growled.

  "A shrine?" Sai asked. "To you?"

  "I am one of the gods of Serinor," Syn replied. "And I can grant power that rivals the gifts of any of my so-called peers. But you already knew that." Sai sighed, and the darkness laughed. "Do come back," Syn said, and the darkness in the pit was still.

  Sai and Gugalan stared at the Shadowed Altar in silence for some time. Eventually Sai glanced up at the minotaur. He looked angry again. "I think I'll just go," Sai said.

  Gugalan snorted but said nothing more as Sai and his raptor hurried out of the wheelhouse and south through the gates of the Citadel.