“Try not to die first.”

  Aziza’s high-pitched laughter echoed as I ran down an endless corridor.

  A flash.

  Tetora roared, furious that I had stumbled over his tail. Before I could turn and apologize, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Everything blurred.

  “I cannot continue to follow you any longer.”

  Aleph’s back shrank as he disappeared into the shadows beyond.

  A loud bang.

  “Vernie’s gone!”

  Nora grasped at my hand, only to recoil as the snake I had concealed bit her. With a startled gasp, she faded away.

  Glass shattered from somewhere unseen.

  “I will not abandon you.”

  Relias struck the ground with his staff, lighting up the darkness.

  The moment my eyes flew open, Relias’s voice greeted me. “Joyous blessings this morning, Dear One.”

  Still half-asleep and painfully aware of the gunk in my eyes, I turned away.

  At least my nightmare wasn’t a subtle one.

  “Morning,” I mumbled as I sat up. “Wait. Why are you in my… Oh…”

  I was not in my temporary quarters but the infirmary, apparently spending the night on a cot. As I rubbed at my face, I vaguely recalled I had been able to hold back my ugly crying until I had stumbled inside late last evening. After both trying to dismiss them and begging them not to leave like an overtired toddler, Nora and Relias had assured me they would stay close.

  “Where’s Nora?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

  “Briefing Captain Sonea,” Relias answered, absently rubbing his cheek with a hint of guilt. “At least, on what can be disclosed. We’ll need to requisition some of her soldiers to relay word to Chairo and the other Orders.”

  “What are we officially sharing then?”

  Relias inclined his head, his expression grave. “The Mistress has truly mastered the art of stealing and utilizing amity, and I fear she will not be satisfied until she has claimed all that she can. Worse still,” he murmured, “her faction’s command over portals far surpasses that of the General. With command of his troops, I suspect that the moment we strike down the King, she will make her move against humanity–anywhere and everywhere.”

  He stood up slowly from his seat, his staff twisting into the floorboards with a squeak as he rested his weight on it. “I’ve asked that Master Landon, in collaboration with Father Irijah, act on my behalf to coordinate with the Black Order in restoring the teleportation circles across Speranza.”

  For an angry moment, I forgot exactly who I was talking to. “Are you saying Fast Travel has always been a potential option for us? What, did someone in the General Assembly just not want to invest in public transportation?!”

  I would never have had to walk or ride halfway across the world!

  With my found family…

  That I betrayed…

  “I had long feared their misuse, knowing his Majesty alone among the demons understood their workings and protections. But now, necessity outweighs caution. We must see them restored, for they may soon serve as our strongest means of mobilizing our forces.”

  I shook off my thoughts. “So moving forward…”

  As he saw my eyes widen, he coughed. “I’m not about to turn them all on quite yet, Dear One. But I will ensure they will be ready when the time is right.”

  “And… you can use them too?”

  “With Lady Nora’s help, yes,” he conceded. “Though again, the connections to Chairo must be restored first.”

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  The door slid open, and Nora stepped in, taking a deep breath as she closed it behind her.

  “Captain Sonea knows we’re not telling her everything,” she advised. “Thankfully, she’s much too polite to dig about it.”

  “You speak on Captain Lightbringer’s behalf,” Relias reminded her with a sad smile. “It would be improper to question her communications. However, we should all mind our bearing at this juncture. She is keenly observant, and even the smallest gesture may speak louder than words.”

  It was all I could do to keep my shoulders from slumping. “So, we’re just going with the idea that the three of them left for Chairo, then?”

  Nora nodded. “I told her it was urgent and confidential.”

  The Orders had messengers who were probably even faster than the trio. We trusted her with our safety, so why wouldn’t we trust her with our secure communications?

  If I were in her position, I’d be suspicious of us, too.

  But jumping straight to ‘everything terrible that’s happened over the last decade is the dirty-dealing hero’s fault’ level of suspicion? That was a bit much, even if it was the truth.

  “I’ll be sure to look cryptically gloomy if she asks for more information,” I assured them, stretching as I stood. “That should be enough to make her think twice.”

  “Um…” Nora hesitated, looking me up and down. “You might want to try being the opposite for the moment.” She pumped her arm. “Confident!”

  “Oh…”

  “I believe demonstrating your new ranged attack would serve to bolster the troops’ morale,” Relias suggested, his gaze thoughtful. “However, it may be wise for us to refine it in private first. Perhaps after breakfast?”

  I don’t feel like eating.

  “Sure.”

  By mid-morning, it was clear that Nora had assigned herself a new mission: keep an eye on me at all times. Whether or not this was at Relias’s insistence remained to be seen, but I strongly suspected it was a collaborative effort.

  Wherever I moved, she was there. The moment I tried to set aside some food from my plate, she would catch me, wordlessly motioning for me to finish it. If I let myself get too lost in thought during casual conversation with one of the many troops congratulating my return, she would tap my shoulder.

  But it was her eyes that told me everything.

  The moment we were alone, she would ask how I was feeling and what she could do to make me feel better.

  But that wasn’t her job, was it?

  I was the one who got myself into this mess.

  “Relias said to meet him in the last courtyard,” Nora murmured. “But let’s go talk first.”

  “I wouldn’t want to keep him waiting.”

  Nora waved her hand. “He’s playing with dirt. Said he’d be at it most of the day.”

  “He has never, nor ever will, say he is playing with dirt,” I objected.

  “My interpretation,” Nora said with a grin before drawing herself up and imitating him. “I will thoroughly investigate a newly unearthed metal, discerning its possible magical properties and potential applications.” She paused. “But it looked like a pile of black dirt to me.”

  “Oh, the Ereborite sample,” I said with a nod. “Right.”

  Nora narrowed her eyes. “So, you know something about it then?”

  I filled her in about Captain Sonea’s discovery and how Procul wanted to set up mining facilities in the Wastelands for it. Before I knew it, she had led me to her quarters, ostensibly to talk about my feelings.

  Sorry, Nora, but it’s Uno reverse.

  “I can’t imagine what it must have been like,” I started, giving her my full attention the moment she closed the door. “How did you stay so strong during your captivity?”

  Taken off guard, Nora blinked, then tried a few noncommittal answers. “Well, you know how it is… Just act like you’re not afraid of anything. Demons look for weakness, but I didn’t show them any. But enough about—”

  “It’s okay to admit if you were scared,” I said carefully.

  “I wasn’t scared!” Nora replied. “I was brave.”

  Got her attention now.

  “Being brave isn’t the opposite of being scared. It’s being able to act despite the fear you feel. If anything, I think that’s even more amazing.”

  Nora mulled over that for a moment, the slightest smirk beginning to form on her features.

  Diversion successful.

  “Do you have any tricks to share?” I asked.

  “Well…” Nora scratched her cheek. “I know they can sorta pick up on your thoughts, so I thought about… nonsense.”

  “What kind of nonsense?”

  Nora plopped down on her cot. “Like, a bull in a china shop. Did that ever actually happen? How did the bull get in there in the first place? Was it a prank? How would it get through the door? How would you get it out of there? What if it was done for the insurance money? Did they have a specific damage-by-bull clause that paid out more? What if the shop were on the second floor? It’s a myth that cows can’t go downstairs, but it’s also partially true, depending on how narrow and steep the stairs are. At what point would it be impossible for them not to be able to go down the stairs?”

  That was undoubtedly grade-A nonsense, alright.

  “Uh…”

  “And by the skin of your teeth. That’s an old one. But let’s imagine we did have skin on them. We would forever be biting ourselves! Would that skin be innervated? That would be quite painful. I’m glad we don’t have skin on them.”

  I nodded. “And it was hard for them to follow along?”

  “Yeah. Oh… I should have thought about aglets! That’s one definition I always think about, but I can never remember the word.”

  “And you kept that up the whole time?”

  Nora shook her head. “Only when Anhinga was around. The others refused to be alone with me. I think they were afraid of me.”

  “As they should be,” I agreed. “Would it be safe to say… you’re doing alright now, all things considered?”

  Nora straightened and took a deep breath. “No... Because I… Did something bad.”

  “What did you do that you think is bad?”

  “I didn’t mean to teach them anything about teleportation…” she sobbed suddenly. “I tried hard not to think about it. But they kept doing it themselves, and when I thought about how they travel using line of sight, I couldn’t help but relate it to the rules of a certain tabletop game and… then I mentally cross-referenced what I had learned from Master Landon about needing amity and animus to achieve successful bifurcation of form to both take apart and reconstruct, and… Oh, Rae, please forgive me!”

  I scooped her up in a hug, a little confused about why I couldn’t feel anything one way or another about her confession or the potential effects it would have on the inevitable war to come. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Nora. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  I just wish I could say the same for myself.

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