So I got one uneventful day in the city where I got time away from Adaline to do what I needed to do. When I came back, the practice dancers were gone and Mages with small amounts of power were walking through the city lighting the streetlamps with a gentle, yellow glow.

  I had walked back to the river quickly, hoping I wasn’t running suspiciously late.

  I found Adaline sitting on the stone wall by the river where we had parted earlier that day. As I approached, I realized I wasn’t the only one. A woman with long, dark hair braided down her back and pale skin, wearing a soft blue dress short enough to be practical, approached Adaline from the other side. When she was close enough to see her hazel eyes, I could tell her gaze was fixed on Adaline in wonder.

  I slowed, watching Adaline turn and see the other woman. Her entire body went still as she was engulfed in a huge hug. Then her shoulders began to shake, and she embraced the woman in turn. They held each other tight for a long time as I slowly walked up. When they finally let go Adaline, turned to face me with tears of joy in her eyes.

  We’d found Sarai.

  Their hands were splayed out next to each other as they sat together, only just touching. There was hesitancy and reverence with each touch they shared, an awareness of our public space. It was fine here in Amdriel, probably, but then I could see the ingrained habits of secrecy and danger impressed on them by the cult. It still couldn’t overcome the joy and awe in their eyes as they studied each other’s faces, and I wondered how they could have ever kept their love a secret if they looked at one another like that.

  Adaline grinned at me when she finally noticed me standing there, still sniffling. Sarai studied me curiously, glancing over at Adaline with an unreadable expression.

  “Sarai, this is my brother Izak,” Adaline announced, and there was actual pride in her voice. I had to stop short and breathe in sharply, tightening my mouth and holding in a sudden wave of tears. A family member announcing me with pride like that… I’m not sure it had ever happened to me before.

  Sarai reared back and Adaline had to catch her to stop her from falling into the river. She looked furiously between Adaline and I.

  “What- how-” She stumbled over her words. “You have ANOTHER brother?”

  “Let’s not talk about it here,” I said. “Do you have somewhere safe?”

  Maybe I could have been more wary of Sarai, but one glance at Adaline’s face told me that she’d be telling Sarai everything no matter what I did. We might as well do it in private.

  Sarai nodded, her face clearing. “Follow me.”

  She led us down a series of streets before finally taking us to a brick boarding house. Adaline had eyes only for her, and they talked the whole time, mostly about inconsequential things. They chattered about dresses and the styles of different regions and the weather. It was clear that they had practice acting casual and frivolous from living in the Heirs, to get people to dismiss them.

  I was skulking along behind them, trying to act the part of a little brother dragged out on a shopping trip. Still I was jittery, glancing around everywhere. All the anxiety of the day seemed to have caught up with me.

  Sarai led us to a boarding house, then up three flights of stairs lit by steady light from lamps gray with dust, up to a simple flat with a fireplace. I shut the door firmly behind us, and set the three different locks before Sarai even told me to. Meanwhile Sarai herself activated warding sigils she’d set up on the floor.

  It was a small place, a table with two chairs, a couch, and a tiny kitchen all shoved into one room with a couple small doors leading off to what I assumed were a bathroom and bedroom. But it was cozy, with wood decorations and a couple pieces of sparse art in bright colors on the walls.

  “Oh, Ada,” Sarai said, flinging her arms around Adaline. “I thought I’d never see you again! But who is this, really?” She pulled back to gesture over at me.

  “This really is my brother Izak!” Adaline said.

  “I was the one taken by the Mage Division as a child,” I said. “I’m a transgender man.” I felt like I should just get it out there.

  “Oh, I understand that, there’s someone at Wolf Ears- Oh! I’ll have to tell you about Wolf Ears, and-” Sarai paused. “Did you get a note about Wolf Ears Inn?”

  Adaline and I exchanged looks of confusion. Adaline asked: “Sarai, what are you talking about?”

  “I’m almost surprised,” Sarai said, glancing between us. “You two look exactly like young Republic Mages who ran as soon as the Mage Division gave you your first assignments.”

  “Surprised?” I asked. I crossed my arms and uncrossed them, trying not to be tense and failing.

  “Wolf Ears Inn is a stop in the Magical Underground, they try to direct refugee Mages there.” Sarai took off her coat, set it on her chair, and then walked over to the empty fireplace. Adaline joined to help her start the fire, and I hovered behind them as Sarai turned her head and tried to explain.

  “They’re an organization that helps Mages leave countries like Scorchstal and the Republic of Westrion,” she said, “and helps them get set up in countries like Amdriel. Actually, they usually funnel Mages further South or off the continent, but some of us stay to help.”

  “Us?” I prompted.

  Sarai sat back on her heels as Adaline took over coaxing the beginning of the sparks they had in the fire. “They helped me when I first came to Amdriel. I honestly have no idea what I would have done otherwise, I didn’t have any of the local currency or real job experience, or even legal paperwork! They set me up with a job at a local apothecary making medicines and doing the odd healing, and they helped me get this apartment.”

  “Is it a good job?” Adaline asked.

  “Similar to working with Maggie,” Sarai said with a shrug, “except we never worry about people being put down if they’re not useful enough. So better.”

  Adaline and I both flinched at the open discussion of the Heir’s culling practices. I felt a little bit of bile rise in my mouth. I hadn’t heard of that before, though it was utterly in line with the Cult’s ideology. But I needed to refocus.

  “Do they know anything about the Hands of Humanity?” I asked.

  “They try to keep an eye on them,” Sarai said. “Those terrorists are a danger to everyone. But the Underground doesn’t have the resources of groups like the Hands of Humanity or the Heirs of Empire. They’re not backed by a country like Scorchstal or Horasta.”

  “Oh, so the Heirs are funded by Horasta,” I said. Horasta was a Mage oligarchy that always made it clear it had preferred the days when it was competing against another Mage oligarchy, not some filthy human-run Republic.

  Sarai glanced with amusement at Adaline. “You didn’t tell him? It’s practically an open secret.”

  “I was focused on getting out,” Adaline said. “It wasn’t easy. If we were re-captured it would be better for him to know as little as possible.”

  I frowned. “That’s not your decision.”

  “As both your older sister and the one with the information,” she said, “it was.”

  I was going to reply very sharply to this, but Sarai cut me off.

  “What happened?” she asked. She stood up, looking between Adaline and I. “How did you get away? Why do you want to know about the Hands of Humanity? Are you looking for Theo?”

  “The Hands of Humanity is holding my friend captive,” I said, then launched into a shortened version of the tale.

  Sarai listened thoughtfully, and I could see her holding her questions to the end. Even giving a shortened version, my breath came harder and tears threatened as I described imprisonment with the Hands and my fears for Nalei. I had to speak as woodenly as possible, because I knew the moment I let any feeling into my words then I would come crumbling down.

  When it came to how the Heirs attacked the Hands and cgrabbed me, Adaline took over the telling. I let her do so gratefully. At some point during my story I had collapsed into a chair at the little wooden table. I felt so stretched and worn. The weight of my body felt both physical and mental, with the pull of gravity augmented by the temptation to just collapse here. To just stop.

  I reached somewhere that finally, finally felt safe and my body wanted it to be over, wanted to stay. I was afraid that if I let myself collapse then I wouldn’t have the strength to get up again to try to rescue Nalei. The knowledge of her captivity had dragged me this far, but it had always been underscored with my own personal danger.

  It was peaceful here. I half-listened to Adaline’s version of the story and her discussion with Sarai. The fire crackled and warmed the small space quickly. Sarai made green tea for all of us and sat on the little couch with Adaline. I passed the cup from hand to hand, letting it warm me as I tried to follow their discussion.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The two didn’t need me to contribute to the conversation, really. Sarai was already onboard with rescuing Nalei. It’s what she did here now, aside from working in the apothecary shop. She helped heal Mages and the magically talented people that poured in from Scochstal and the Republic, giving them tinctures before they moved on. She had this firm dedication to what she knew was right that reminded me of Adain. I could see why Adaline liked her.

  I blinked slowly at them, the conversation beginning to blur in

  “I’ll have to bring the Underground into this,” Sarai was saying to Adaline. That jerked me awake, out of my comfortable stupor.

  “NO,” I said. The other two flinched from across the room, looking over at me for the first time in an hour. “You can’t, it’s too dangerous, the Hands are too powerful. Mages and magic users need the chance to escape Westrion. What the Underground does is too important to risk.”

  “What the Underground does,” Sarai told me, “is save magic users in need. It sounds like Nalei is in grave need, and we won’t abandon her.”

  “Izak has a point,” Adaline began to say, “and if you’re involved the whole operation of the Underground might-”

  “What I do,” Sarai interrupted, turning to Adaline, “is help save magic users in need. We couldn’t do anything to truly help anyone in the Heirs, Ada. I’ve helped Maggie euthanize people under Drianthenes’s orders. Helped kill them. I’m never going to turn my back on someone who needs help again.”

  I blinked. That didn’t fit the saintly image Adaline had crafted of Sarai. Adaline herself looked down in shame.

  “You only kept them calm,” she said softly, “to make it easier on them. Maggie could have done it without you. You just wanted to make it easier for them.”

  “And I was still there as they died, Ada,” Sarai said. “I’ve euthanized Theo’s friends and he screamed at me for it, and he was right. I’m going to be a better person. I’m going to see if there’s anything I can do to help him be better now. I’m sorry.”

  Adaline’s face twisted, but she sighed in defeat. “No. Don’t be sorry. I don’t truly want to kill Theo anymore, not if he’s sorry. I know the death of our mother was an accident, really. But I don’t know if I can ever help him. Or forgive.”

  Sarai leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I understand.”

  Adaline reared back, blushing, glancing over at me in reflexive fear. I raised my hands open-palmed to her and smiled. Even with my own bitter grief in the background, it was good to see something nice in the world for once.

  “So that’s settled,” Sarai said. “I’ll call the underground in the morning. Now, we should get some sleep.” She spoke so briskly and stood up so quickly to start preparing the apartment for sleep that we didn’t even have the chance to protest.

  Sarai gave me some blankets and pillows to make up the couch like a bed, apologizing for not having a real bed.

  “I wasn’t supposed to have to host anyone else here,” she said. “Adaline can sleep in my room.”

  “On a pallet,” Adaline said quickly, and I didn’t even have the energy to wiggle my eyebrows at her.

  Even though the couch was barely big enough for me and there were gaps between the cushions for my skin to dig into, I fell into a deep sleep almost immediately. It lasted for many hours.

  I woke up to daylight steaming through the window blinds and plates clinking in the nearby kitchen. Soft voices were talking, one I recognized and one I didn’t.

  I managed to drag my eyelids open and squint across the apartment’s main room.

  Sarai was in the kitchenette, cooking something that smelled like meat, eggs, and butter. A woman was sitting at the table chatting with her, cradling something in her hands. I managed to prop myself up, and the woman glanced at me. The first thing I noticed was that she was a moderately powerful Mage. She had dark hair and the distinct eyes common in people with Mondaisin descent, but she spoke the Westrion language with only a slight Amdrielan accent.

  “Look like this one’s awake,” she said. “Izak, is it? I’m Yuen, pleased to meet you.”

  Sarai turned away from cooking for a moment to speak to me.“I reported to the Underground last night. Yuen’s here to verify your story and learn more.”

  “And eat breakfast,” Yuen said. “Come and join us, Izak.”

  I clenched my teeth, my heart beating hard. “You know, I’ve been a prisoner to two different groups recently. I’m not interested in becoming a prisoner to a third one.”

  Sarai paused cautiously, but Yuen didn’t react at all except for her eyes growing sad. The orb in her hands swirled to a clear, shining blue.

  “No one’s going to imprison you, Izak,” Sarai told me.

  “But you are going to interrogate me!” I objected. “What if I don’t agree to be interrogated? Am I allowed to leave?”

  “You will be allowed to leave,” Yuen said, “and we’d try to give you some resources and contacts to help you on your way. But we cannot throw our organization into a rescue mission without knowing the details, and that we can trust you. It could be a trap.”

  “I don’t need your help, then,” I said, feeling my heart beat harder. “Adaline, Sarai, and I can do it on our own.”

  At that second sentence the ball shifted colors again, the blue swirling quickly into purple and then red. I gritted my teeth. It was an Orb of Truth. A classic enchantment that came up in both history books and the modern day for its simple usefulness. They weren’t commonly used by the Mage Division, though. It was one of the least intrusive options to use magic to interrogate someone, to put the mental magic on an artifact instead of into a person’s mind as Drianthenes had, but it was affected by everyone in the room. The person you were interrogating couldn’t lie, but neither could you. And of course, lying wasn’t the only form of deception.

  I still didn’t like it. I actually had the beginnings of a plan, and I didn’t want the Underground involved. It was a good thing that the Underground existed, and I didn’t want to be the one to get it destroyed.

  “You likely cannot,” Yuen observed, turning the ball blue again. “You know what this orb is.” It wasn’t really a question. “We aren’t interested in deceiving or imprisoning you. We actually try to help people, if you can believe that.”

  Her tone on the last sentence was sardonic and maybe bitter, but not mocking. She knew as well as I did how many organizations claimed to help.

  “Maybe,” I said, crossing my arms and looking down. “Anything’s possible.”

  Adaline opened the bedroom door on my words, yawning. She’d borrowed a nightgown from Sarai and her hair was an absolute mess. Even in the wilderness she’d compulsively kept up appearances, but being here with Sarai finally seemed to have loosened something in her.

  She started when she saw Yuen, stepping back behind the door. “Who’s this?”

  Sarai gave more introductions and Yuen showed off the Orb of Truth and gave her reassurances. Adaline disappeared back into the bedroom to become presentable.

  “Any preferences for breakfast?” Sarai asked. “Bacon?”

  “Anything but bacon,” I said. “Adaline and I have been eating magically extended bacon supplies for a week.” There was also any fishing or foraging we could use to extend the supplies, but bacon was a main component of every meal and I found I wasn’t as fond of it as I had been before.

  “No bacon for me, either, you know I don’t eat meat,” Yuen added.

  I resisted the urge to scowl at her. It was irrational, but I felt she was intentionally trying to come off as too perfect and kindly somehow. I knew it was irrational, because it was often how I felt about Adain, and it usually said more of how I thought of myself than him. Which was extremely annoying.

  “Eggs and pancakes it is, then,” Sarai said.

  The room was beginning to smell delicious in spite of my bad mood. Adaline came back out soon, wearing a simple dress and with her hair in one long braid. Adaline ended up sitting at the table with Yuen while Sarai and I ate on the couch. The food was a good distraction and I ate it savagely, which also gave me an excuse not to talk.

  There were only a few questions that Yuen insisted that I answer. A few questions I couldn’t avoid.

  “Are you spying on the Underground?” she asked.

  “No,” I said. That was the truth. The orb glowed blue on the breakfast table.

  “Are you an agent for the Mage Division?” she asked.

  I hesitated at that one, looking down at my hands before answering. “I was an agent for the Mage Division, an agent for the Mage Division Enforcers even, but I don’t want that anymore. I tried to be a part of the Mage Division, tried to be proud and powerful within the Division, but it didn’t make me happy. I was still trapped. I didn’t even realize how trapped and unhappy I was with the Division until I met Adaline and saw how much she reminded me of myself. Now that I’m free, now that I’ve escaped the Division and the cult and the Hands, I want to stay free from all of them.”

  After speaking down to my hands I finally looked up, finding Yuen’s dark eyes reflecting the orb’s blue light. I looked away quickly. I felt gutted admitting it, my feelings still a painful mess around all of it. I didn’t want to say any more. I didn’t know if I could.

  But Yuen simply said, “I see” and left it at that.

  Unfortunately Adaline gave the whole story. I couldn’t stop her. There was nothing I could say that would sound logical or reasonable. So I mostly just ate, though I did chime in at the end.

  “I think we should go in with a small team,” I said. “We need to get Nalei and get out. We won’t be able to take them all on in their own headquarters.”

  “I’m worried about this anti-magic machine too, though,” Sarai said. “It sounds horrible. I think we should try to destroy it if we could.”

  “Even if we did, they’d still have the plans for it,” Yuen said. “I think Izak is right, we need a small initial mission. In that mission we’ll try to take Theo as well. We’ll use any information he can give us to plan a larger strategy to deal with the Machine.”

  I felt some relief sag my shoulders. I could work with this.

  “That part is bothering me,” Adaline said with a frown. “Why kidnap a whole team of Mage Headquarter magic users to test their machine? Weren’t there easier, quieter targets they could pick?”

  Yuen and Sarai exchanged dark looks.

  “They might have started with more vulnerable targets,” Yuen said. “We’re in contact with several Mages and magic-users who live in these mountains. Some prefer the solitude. A few of them have gone missing in the past year, more than usual. The mountains can be a dangerous place to live on your own, but there weren’t any serious storms or anything like that to explain so many magic users going missing in one year.”

  “They might have been trying to test it against many different Mages and magic users with different kinds of training,” Sarai said. “The kidnapping can’t be the end of their plan.”

  Yuen nodded in agreement. “They’ve been lying low for awhile, but the Hands of Humanity like to do big, explosive things and make statements. Quiet kidnappings aren't their style. They’re working up to something bigger.”

  Sarai looked down at the empty plate of food in her hands. “Theo knows about the Interdimensional Equinox. If their plan is to get rid of all the magic in the world, that’s their best chance to do it.”

  I saw Adaline jolt in her seat. “Is that actually possible? I thought you needed Mages to channel the power. It’s magic, how can they use it?”

  “Enchanted devices use magic all the time,” Yuen said. “There’s magic on the telephone lines and magic in devices designed to detect magic, devices that the Hands are happy to buy and use. They only care about Mages and magical people. If they can make their Machine channel the power of the equinox…”

  Sarai had obviously already told the Underground about it, because Yuen wasn’t asking any questions.

  “Is that possible?” I asked. Everyone around me exchanged concerned, unsure glances.

  “Not that much is known about the Equinox,” Sarai said with a shrug. “It comes about once every thousand years. There’s records of some scholar using it millennia ago, which is how Raxolas might have found it. But we still don’t know much about it.”

  With that the room fell silent. I looked down at my own empty plate and tried to breath through the queasy feeling in my gut. It might be even worse than the plans of the Cult, everyone being subjected to that horrible sucking Machine. And what would happen, without magic? Maybe this was the vision of starvation and warfare I’d seen in the Machine. Maybe this was the future.

  “Gods,” I muttered and Adaline let out a sharp sound that was almost a bitter laugh.

  “There’s not much we can do about it now,” Yuen said briskly. “Finish breakfast. We’ll start by grabbing Nalei and Theo, and see what we can do from there.”