He nodded, eyes still closed. "Wasn't like that before the Manywar."

"Really?"

"Of course," he said.

He often spoke that way, mentioning things that seemed farfetched to her, yet saying them as if he knew exactly what he was talking about. No conjecture. No wavering. As if he knew everything. She could see why sometimes it was hard for him to get along with people.

"Anyway," Vasher said, opening his eyes. "Did you eat all of that squid?"

She nodded. "Is that what that was?"

"Yes," he said, opening his pack, getting out another dried chunk of meat. He held it up. "Want more?"

She felt sick. "No, thank you."

He paused, noticing the look in her eyes. "What? Did I give you a bad piece?"

She shook her head.

"What?" he asked.

"It's nothing."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I said it's nothing." She glanced away. "I just don't care for fish very much."

"You don't?" he asked. "I've been feeding it to you for five days now."

She nodded silently.

"You ate it every time."

"I'm dependent upon you for food," she said. "I don't intend to complain about what you give me."

He frowned, then took a bite of squid and began chewing. He still wore his torn, almost-ragged clothing, but Vivenna had now been around him enough to tell that he kept it clean. He obviously had the resources to get new clothing, yet he chose to wear the worn and tattered things instead.

"You aren't what I expected," he finally said.

"I would have been," she said. "A few weeks ago."

"I doubt it," he said, gnawing on his chunk of squid. "That tenacious spirit you've got doesn't come from a few weeks on the streets. Neither does that sense of martyrdom."

She met his eyes. "I want you to teach me more about Awakening."

He shrugged. "What do you want to know?"

"I don't even know how to answer that," she said. "Denth taught me a few Commands, but that was the same day that you took me captive."

Vasher nodded. They sat silent for a few minutes.

"Well?" she finally asked. "Are you going to say anything?"

"I'm thinking," he said.

She raised an eyebrow.

He scowled. "Awakening is something I've done for a very, very long time. I always have trouble trying to explain it. Don't rush me."

"It's okay," she said. "Take your time."

He shot her a glance. "Don't patronize me either."

"I'm not patronizing; I'm being polite."

"Well next time, be polite with less condescension in your voice," he said.

Condescension? she thought. I wasn't condescending! She eyed him as he sat, chewing on his dried squid. The more time she spent with him, the less frightening she found him, but the more frustrating. He is a dangerous man, she reminded herself. He has left corpses strewn all over the city, using that sword of his to make people slaughter each other.

She had trusted Denth too quickly. She wouldn't make the same mistake with Vasher. Still, there was a better feeling about him, now that she was coming to know him.

Or does he just want me to think that?

She'd considered running from him on several occasions, but had eventually decided that she'd be a fool to do so. She could find no fault in his efforts to stop the war, and his solemn promise in the bas.e.m.e.nt that first day still stuck with her. She believed him. Hesitantly.

She just intended to keep her eyes open a little wider from now on.

"All right," he said. "I guess this is for the best. I'm getting tired of you walking around with that bright aura of yours that you can't even use."

"Well?"

"Well, I think we should start with theory," he said. "There are four kinds of BioChromatic ent.i.ties. The first, and most spectacular, are the Returned. They're called G.o.ds here in Hallandren, but I'd rather call them Spontaneous Sentient BioChromatic Manifestations in a Deceased Host. What is odd about them is that they're the only naturally occurring BioChromatic ent.i.ty, which is theoretically the explanation for why they can't use or bestow their BioChromatic Invest.i.ture. Of course, the fact is that every living being is born with a certain BioChromatic Invest.i.ture. This could also explain why Type Ones retain sentience."

Vivenna blinked. That wasn't what she had been expecting.

"You're more interested in Type Two and Type Three ent.i.ties," Vasher continued. "Type Two being Mindless Manifestations in a Deceased Host. They are cheap to make, even with awkward Commands. This is per the Law of BioChromatic Parallelism: the closer a host is to a living shape and form, the easier it is to Awaken. BioChroma is the power of life, and so it seeks patterns of life. That, however, leads us to another law-the Law of Comparability. It states that the amount of Breath required to Awaken something isn't necessarily indicative of its power once Awakened. A piece of cloth cut into a square and a piece of cloth cut into the shape of a person will take very different amounts of Breath to Awaken, but will be essentially the same once they have been Invested.

"The explanation for this is simple. Some people think of Awakening like pouring water into a cup. You pour until the cup is filled, and then the object comes to life. This is a false parallelism. Instead, think of Awakening like beating down a door. You pound and pound, and some doors are easier to open than others, but once they're open, they do about the same thing."

He glanced at her. "Understand?"

"Uh..." she said slowly. She'd spent her youth training with the tutors, but this was beyond even their methods of teaching. "It's a little dense."

"Well, do you want to learn or not?"

You asked me if I understood, she thought. And I answered. However, she didn't voice her objections. Better for him to keep talking.

"Type Two BioChromatic Ent.i.ties," he said, "are what people in Hallandren call Lifeless. They are, in a way, like Type One ent.i.ties-only with some very large differences. They only require a few Breaths to Awaken-anywhere between one and fifty, depending on the Commands used-and they feed off of their own color when being Invested. They don't present an aura when Awakened, but the Breath sustains them, keeping them from needing to eat. They can die, and need a special alcohol solution to remain functional past a few years of Awakened status. Because of their organic host, their Breath clings to the body, and cannot be withdrawn once Invested."

"I know a little about them," Vivenna said, "Denth and his team have a Lifeless."

Vasher fell silent. "Yes," he finally said. "I know."

Vivenna frowned, noticing a strange look in his eyes. They sat for a few moments. "You were talking about Lifeless and their Commands?" she prompted.

Vasher nodded. "They need a Command to Awaken them, just like anything else. Even your religion teaches about Commands-it says that Austre is the one who Commands the Returned to come back."

She nodded.

"Understanding the theory of Commands is tough. Look at Lifeless, for instance. It's taken us centuries to discover the most efficient ways to bring a body to a Lifeless state. Even still, we're not sure if we understand how it works. I guess this is the first thing I'd like to get across to you-that BioChroma is complicated, and we really don't understand most of it."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Just what I said," Vasher replied, shrugging. "We don't really know what we're doing."

"But you sound so technical in your descriptions."

"We've figured out some things," he said. "But Awakeners really haven't been around that long. The more you learn about BioChroma, the more you're realize that there are more things that we don't know than there are things we do. Why are the specific Commands so important, and why do they have to be spoken in your native language? What brings Type One ent.i.ties-Returned-back to life in the first place? Why are Lifeless so dull-minded, while Returned completely sentient?"

Vivenna nodded.

"Creating Type Three BioChromatic Ent.i.ties is what we traditionally call 'Awakening,'" Vasher continued. "That's when you create a BioChromatic manifestation in an organic host that is far removed from having been alive. Cloth works the best, though sticks, reeds, and other plant matter can be used."

"What about bones?" Vivenna asked.

"They're strange," Vasher said. "Take far more Breath to awaken than a body held together with flesh and aren't as flexible as something like cloth. Still, Breath will stick to them fairly easily, since they were once alive and maintain the form of a living thing."

"So Idrian stories that talk about skeletal armies aren't just fabrications."

He chuckled. "Oh, they are. If you wanted to Awaken a skeleton, you'd have to arrange all the bones together in their correct places. That's a lot of work for something that will take upwards of fifty or a hundred Breaths to Awaken. Intact corpses make far more sense economically, even if the Breath sticks to them so well that it becomes impossible to recover.

"Type Three Ent.i.ties-regular Awakened objects-are different. BioChroma doesn't stick to them very well at all. The result is that they require quite a bit of Invest.i.ture-often well over a hundred Breaths-to Awaken them. The benefit of this, of course, is that the Breath can be drawn back out again. This has allowed for quite a bit more experimentation, and that has resulted in a more comprehensive understanding of Awakening techniques."

"You mean the Commands?" Vivenna asked.

"Right," Vasher said. "As you've seen, most basic Commands work easily. If the Command something the object could accomplish, and you state it in a simple way, the Command will usually work."

"I tried some simple Commands," she said. "On the rope. They didn't work."

"Those may have sounded simple, but they weren't. Simple Commands are only two words long. Grab Something. Hold Something. Move Up. Move down. Twist around. Even some two word commands can be more complicated, and it takes practice visualizing-or, well, imagining. Well, using your mind to-"

"I understand that part," she said. "Like flexing a muscle."

He nodded. "The Command 'Protect me,' though only two words, is extremely complicated. So are others, like Fetch Something. You have to give the right impulse to the object. This area is where you really begin to understand how little we know. There are probably thousands of Commands we don't know. The more words you add, the more complicated the mental component becomes, which is why discovering a new Command can take years of study."

"Like the discovery of a new Command to make Lifeless," she said thoughtfully. "Three hundred years ago, those who had the one-Breath Command could make their Lifeless much cheaper than those who didn't. That disparity started the Manywar."

"Yes," Vasher said. "Or, at least, that was part of what caused the war. It's not really important. The thing to understand is that we're still children when it comes to Awakening. It doesn't help that a lot of people who learn new, valuable Commands never share them, and probably die with the knowledge."

Vivenna nodded, noticing how his discussion grew more relaxed and conversational as he got into the topic. Still, his knowledge surprised her.

He sits on the floor, she thought, eating a dry piece of squid, not having shaven in weeks and wearing clothing that looks like it's about to fall off. Yet he talks like a scholar giving a speech. He carries a sword that leaks black smoke and causes people to kill each other, yet he works so hard to stop a war. Who is this man?

She glanced to the side, to where Nightblood stat leaning against the wall. Perhaps it was the discussion of the technical aspects of BioChroma, or perhaps it was simply her growing suspicion. She was beginning to understand what wasn't right about the sword.

"Is there a Type Four BioChromatic ent.i.ty?" Vivenna asked, glancing back at Vasher.

He fell silent.

"Type One is a human body with sentience," Vivenna said. "Type Two is a human body without sentience. Type three is an Awakened object like a rope-an object with no sentience. Is there a way to create an Awakened object with sentience? Like a Returned, but inside of something other than a human body?"

Vasher stood. "We've covered enough for one day."

"You didn't answer my question."

"And I'm not going to," he said. "And I advice you never to ask it again. Understand?" He glanced at her, and she felt a chill at the harshness in his voice.

"All right," she said, though she didn't glance away.

He snorted to himself, then reached into his large pack, pulling something out. "Here," he said. "I brought you something."

He tossed a long, cloth-wrapped object to the floor. Vivenna stood, walking over to pull the cloth off. Inside was a thin, well-polished dueling blade.

"I don't know how to use one of these," she said.

"Then learn," he replied. "If you know how to fight, you'll be far less annoying to have around. I won't have to keep pulling you out of trouble all the time."

She flushed. "One time."

"It'll happen again," he said.

She hesitantly picked up the sheathed sword, surprised at how light it was.

"Let's go," Vasher said. "I've got another group for us to visit."

Chapter Forty-Seven.

Lightsong tried not to think about his dreams. He tried not to think about T'Telir in flames. Of people dying. Of the world, essentially, ending.

He stood on the second story of his palace, looking over the Court of the G.o.ds. The second story was essentially a covered roof, open on all sides. Wind blew his hair. The sun was close to setting. Already, torches were arrayed on the lawn. It was so perfect. The palaces set in a circle, lit by torches and lanterns matching the colors of the nearest palace.