Chapter 47: What Must Be Done

Before dawn, Hilo watches Wen sleep, then departs with Anden. As they drive to the Ayt mansion, Hilo reflects on age, mortality, and Anden’s counsel that only one path remains. They arrive unarmed at Ayt’s gates.

Flashback: Years earlier, Lan confided a proposed alliance marrying Shae to Tanku Din to tie No Peak to the Mountain. Fearing subjugation and believing Lan’s future depended on bold action, Hilo decided Tanku Din had to die. With the Maik brothers, he provoked Tanku at a Mountain bar, feigning drunken recklessness to secure a clean-blade duel.

In the alley duel, Tanku’s superior jade and blade skill battered Hilo. After absorbing punishment and hiding his Channeling, Hilo spat in Tanku’s face and struck with a sudden Channel to the chest, then slashed the femoral artery and finished the kill. He seized the jade and escaped, earning severe punishment from Kaul Sen but cementing his fearsome reputation. The killing also created a mortal enemy in Tanku Ushijan—later eliminated by Ayt Mada when she seized the Mountain.

Back in the present, Mountain guards bring Hilo to Ayt. He demands privacy and informs her that the Faltas captured Shae in Shotar, freed Wen as a ploy, and already killed one of his Fists. Hilo accuses Ayt’s alliance with the Matyos of emboldening the Faltas. He asks for her help, arguing the kidnappers expect Mountain protection.

When Ayt contemplates killing him, Hilo counters: if he does not leave alive, Anden will publicly reveal that Shae once saved Ayt during the Janloon bombing, and that Ayt repaid it by letting Shae die. He stresses the Koben family’s growing influence and Ayt’s need for unshaken authority. Ayt wavers but warns the Matyos may not obey.

Accepting that only she can coerce the barukan, Hilo kneels and swears a life-for-life: if Ayt helps bring Shae home alive, he will withdraw No Peak from Shotar for as long as he is Pillar, settling that debt even if their rivalry continues.