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“I was going to say, I can point out the location on a map,” Trissiny commented, her breath misting on the air as she peered around at the snow-covered mountainside and the old temple complex just up ahead, “but I see you already know exactly where the First Legion is headquartered, for some reason.”

“I’m not just a pretty face, Trissiny,” Zanzayed said primly, adjusting the collar of his heavily embroidered robe.

“The Conclave has been careful to keep abreast of world events,” Ampophrenon added, inclining his head respectfully toward her. “It was formed in large part to overcome the broad tendency of our kind to fail at so doing, General. I apologize if this seems intrusive; we saw no indication that the First Legion’s headquarters were meant to be a secret.”

“It isn’t, don’t worry. I was just surprised,” she assured him. “I see you even picked us a prime landing spot! Far enough out to give them forewarning without making for an inconvenient winter hike. Very deft, Zanzayed, almost as precise as Professor Tellwyrn’s.”

“Almost,” he huffed. “You see how she talks to me! Me, her own some-number-removed cousin, whom she has met exactly twice! No respect, this new generation.”

“Indeed,” Ampophrenon agreed mildly while they strode forward toward the complex, “I am impressed by how quickly she has picked up the art of handling you, Zanzayed. I have had the honor of working with many Hands of Avei, and hold them in the highest esteem, but it must be said that most have not been so…socially adroit.”

“Now, that’s something I don’t often get called,” Trissiny remarked.

The headquarters Rouvad had assigned to Locke and her upstart Legion was an old temple complex high in the weathered mountains of Viridill, which had been mostly abandoned due to sheer inconvenience, even among the various Avenist facilities perched in the highlands, like the Abbey itself. The sole access to this remote spot was a single steep, winding flight of weathered stone steps carved right into the mountains which made large-scale supply deliveries all but impossible, and would have been absolutely suicidal to climb currently, while covered with ice.

It was an impressive complex, built across four small peaks with deep ravines between them and connected by stone bridges, two of which had fallen at some point. Currently, the First Legion HQ looked somewhat eclectic, having clearly been quickly renovated; ancient granite temples had been hastily (but apparently carefully) repaired with patched walls of wood, brick, and metal, and the two broken bridges were spanned by similar constructions. All of the paths were cleared of snow, and there were even greenhouses and a number of smaller outbuildings of uncertain purpose appended to the existing structures, one of which was topped by an exhaust antenna along which occasional crackles of electricity arced.

Zanzayed had set them down on a cleared-off, round stone patio at the head of the treacherous stairs, and separated from the temple campus proper by an arched stone bridge which, to judge by its weathered state, was part of the original construction but still evidently sound. Beyond it was a half-ruined structure which had been a gatehouse once before the archway collapsed and was later cleared out of the path; of the original gate, there remained no trace. The half of the building which still possessed a roof now also had an improvised metal stovepipe emerging from an upper arrow loop and puffing out wood smoke. As the three of them crested the arch of the bridge, the gatehouse door opened and a very small figure emerged.

“Zounds,” the gnome exclaimed, waving eagerly. “General Avelea, what an honor! Please, come on in, make yourselves at home. And you brought dragons! It’s Lord Ampophrenon and Lord…Zanzayed, aye?”

“Our reputation precedes us,” Zanzayed preened.

“Gnomes are always well-educated,” Ampophrenon replied.

“Thank you,” Trissiny answered the gate guard, “Mr…?”

“I’m Bonkers, ma’am,” he said, grinning. “It’s me moniker, not me condition, never fear.”

“Nice to meet you,” Trissiny said with the merest hesitation, while Zanzayed snickered outright and Ampophrenon gave him a disapproving look. “I need to speak with Captain Locke immediately, if you would conduct us to her.”

“Ah…” He winced, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not to leave me post, ma’am, no disrespect intended. Thing is, I’m alone on watch just now, as me partner already went to fetch the captain soon as you popped in. Reckoned you’d wanna talk with ‘er, an’ the other way ‘round, as well.”

“Good thinking, then,” she said, nodding. “Ah, and speak of the Dark Lady. That was quick.”

The door of the nearest temple structure, one occupying the same peak as the gatehouse, had opened while Bonkers was speaking, and three figures approached them rapidly, the first two gliding rapidly over the frosty stone paths (being elves) while the third picked her way more carefully along behind.

“I’m willing to bet ‘Dark Lady’ isn’t even the worst thing you’ve called me, though not usually to my face,” Principia called as she trotted up. “Trissiny, welcome! And Lord Ampophrenon, what an unexpected honor. What’d you bring him for?” she added, pointing accusingly at Zanzayed.

“Seriously?” he exclaimed. “I’ll have you know I am literally the only member of this party who has contributed materially to it so far!”

“He’s right, Locke,” Trissiny agreed, “and just because he’s family does not mean you get to insult visiting Conclave delegates while in uniform. Keep a civil tongue in that head.”

“Oh, so it’s only okay when you do it,” Zanzayed huffed at her.

She winked, unrepentant. “That is how rank works, yes.”

“You really belong in this family,” he informed her.

“Hey, now,” Trissiny exclaimed, “I don’t think that kind of language is called for.”

“Below the belt, Zanza,” Principia added reproachfully. “People do have feelings, you know.”

Zanzayed threw his arms up in the air and turned away in a dramatic sulk.

At Principia’s side, Nandi Shahai cleared her throat pointedly. “Perhaps we could conduct our visitors indoors and provide some refreshments?”

“Actually,” Trissiny said more seriously, “it’s good that you two came out in particular. I need to speak with both of you alone. But Lord Ampophrenon has expressed an interest in what you’re doing out here, and I for one would be very glad to hear his thoughts about the Legion. If our guests could have a tour of the facilities…?”

“Perfect!” Principia said brightly. “Iraa, you know the sights. Please show our guests around, and make sure you swing by the mess hall and fix Zanza up with some bacon.”

“Uhhh… I mean, sure, Captain,” the third woman with them replied, clearly nonplussed. Though she had the broad shoulders (and twice-broken nose) that tended to come from Legion service, her manner of addressing her commanding officer contradicted that impression.

“I don’t suppose that bacon comes wrapped around shrimp?” Zanzayed asked with almost childlike hope.

“Zanzayed, this is a military facility hundreds of miles inland,” Principia said patiently. “Why would we have shrimp?”

“Well, why have you got bacon, then? How ‘bout that, huh?”

“We are grateful to be accommodated, Captain Locke,” Ampophrenon interjected courteously. “We would not dream of asking any special treatment.”

“You’ll be in good hands,” Principia promised him. “Sister Shay Iraa here knows the place inside and out, and is delightfully plain-spoken, I think you’ll find.”

“Stop, I’m gonna blush,” Iraa replied, deadpan. “Well, then! If you’ll come this way, uh…my lords? Let’s get you started at the bunker, grab something to nosh.”

“Now you’re talking my language!” Zanzayed said, following the priestess up the path toward the next bridge.”

“I am surprised you have room in a place like this to train in adventurer activities,” Ampophrenon added as the three headed off.

“Oh, this is just the topside, there’s old tunnel networks to all kinds of interesting places. We got caves, a nice clearing behind that peak over there, a patch of pine forest, the ravine floor under us… Most of ‘em show signs of being used for military training before we moved in.”

Trissiny turned back to the two elves as Iraa and the dragons vanished over the bridge’s arch. “So! I guess congratulations are in order, Captain Locke. You must be the most rapidly-promoted officer in centuries.”

“Not even in the top fifty, according to Nandi here,” Principia replied cheerfully. “Though apparently I am something of a record for an officer in peacetime.”

“War tends to create career opportunities in the most unfortunate way,” Shahai agreed solemnly. “The command post is over here, General.”

“So, I have to ask,” Trissiny added in a lower tone as they moved off, glancing over her shoulder. The gatehouse guard had already discreetly retreated to his post, shutting the door behind him against the winter chill. “Bonkers?”

“We have everyone vetted by our top fae and divine casters for hostile intentions,” Principia assured her. “Aside from that… These are adventurers, not soldiers, and a good few of ‘em are here at least partly because of the amnesty. I’ve made it policy not to pry into anything we don’t explicitly need to know.” She grinned at Trissiny. “This ain’t your grandma’s army, General.”

“Well, no, I’m clearly not happy about it,” Principia said, one short but thorough explanation later when the three of them were ensconced in her office with its late-model arcane heater. “I went to a lot of trouble to get Nandi into my squad in the first place, and she’s been invaluable in keeping this place shipshape, what with all the large personalities we’ve got here. But I’m also not an idiot, and… It’s the right call, Trissiny. I saw firsthand how she performed as Bishop, and it’s exactly the approach this situation needs. You are definitely gonna be missed around here,” she added directly to Shahai, “but I can clearly see the sense in it. The Sisterhood right now has more need of you there.”

“I wouldn’t presume to proclaim myself the best woman for any task,” Shahai said almost diffidently, “but given your general pattern of interactions with the High Commander, General, I consider the fact that you are both in agreement on this to be an adequate endorsement.”

“Also, you know,” Trissiny said dryly, “orders.”

“Of course,” Shahai replied with a wry smile. “I will go wherever Avei requires me, no questions asked. Your pardon; after five centuries of service I’m afraid I’ve become prone to speaking my mind.”

“Well, Rouvad and Locke both think you’re worth it, and I’m inclined to agree.”

“So, about the other thing,” Principia said more seriously, getting up from her seat and crossing to open the door, “I believe I know just the right backup for you. Hey, ELWICK!” she bellowed down the hall outside. “Get in here!”

“I had an uncomfortable realization yesterday when dealing with the Purists,” Trissiny admitted while Principia returned to her chair. “With you and the squad no longer in the Temple, I have no personal connections there, aside from Rouvad herself. Being able to pull rank is nice, but it’s also useful to have access to a view from lower on the chain of command. Fortunately, I managed to strike up an acquaintance with Azalea Hsing that I think will prove positive.”

“Oh, that’s an excellent choice,” Shahai agreed, nodding. “Sister Azalea is clever and far-sighted, and good at gathering Legionaries and novice Sisters under her wing.”

Casey Elwick appeared in the doorway, saluting. “You squawked, Capt— General Avelea!”

“Come in, Sergeant Elwick, and shut the door,” Principia ordered. “Congratulations are in order. I’m giving you field command of the First Legion’s first-ever active deployment. You’ll be operating directly under General Avelea, but mostly on your own, like we’ve trained.”

“Thank you,” Casey all but squeaked, then swallowed and controlled her voice. “I will not let you down, ma’am! What’s the mission?”

“The General will brief you fully when you’ve assembled your team,” Principia said, nodding at Trissiny before the latter could answer. “The short version: urban counterintelligence. Go gather up, let’s see… McGraw, Jenkins, Iraa, and Bandi Avelea.”

“Sister Shay is still escorting our other guests around the campus,” Nandi reminded her.

“Right, so find her last. You’ll be moving out with the General and Shahai in one hour, Sergeant, and you’ll need time to get everyone briefed before departure. Let’s make it sharp, the General’s time is valuable.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Casey barked, saluting again. “I’m on it!”

“Dismissed,” Principia said, and the young sergeant rushed out so rapidly she almost forgot to shut the door behind herself.

“I have to admit,” said Trissiny, “I’m a little surprised at how well this place is shaping up. It’s a strangely appropriate outgrowth of your little oddball squad. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had all turned to disaster. No offense.”

“None of us would’ve been surprised,” Principia said ruefully. “But the real test is coming; apparently you’ll get to see it firsthand. Oh, but speaking of!” She suddenly straightened up in her chair, grinning. “My squad had a secondary mission in Tiraas that I’ve quietly continued out here. While everybody’s getting rounded up and packed, General, you wanna see something cool?”

“A rifle?” Trissiny asked, turning the blocky device over in her hands. “What does that mean?”

“Refers to the rifled barrel,” Billie Fallowstone replied from the other end of her underground workshop, where she was affixing a strong shielding charm to a training dummy. “The long hollow bit there, it’s got spiraling grooves on the inside, to stabilize the projectile in flight. Can’t take credit for the notion, it was Locke’s idea!”

“I love taking credit,” Principia added, “but truth be told, that one was actually Rouvad’s.”

“Aye, ye get surprisin’ bursts of insight from folks with no actual engineerin’ skill,” Billie agreed with an irrepressible grin, trundling back over toward them. “Some distance from the problem helps, I guess. Let’s see it, then, General.”

Trissiny carefully handed the weapon back to her and watched as the gnome briskly opened a hinged panel in the top of its squared midsection and slotted in a tapered metal object she picked up from a nearby table, then shut and latched it again.

“Here now, what’s that?” Principia demanded, peering down at the procedure. “What happened to the metal balls? I thought we agreed shaped projectiles were too farfetched—”

“You agreed that,” Billie said scornfully, “an’ you were right, insofar as yer eyes were too big fer yer belly, as usual. All that fancy talk o’ spiral-shaped projectiles an’ aerodynamic fins was pie in th’sky, but a cylinder with a cone on one end fits neatly in the barrel and is stupid easy to cast. I can whip up a mold me damn self usin’ scrap I’ve got layin’ around, an’ any foundry can crank out thousands of ‘em by the hour if we go inta production. The shaped bullets’re a good seventy percent more accurate than those fool balls the dwarves were usin’. Here, General, care ta do the honors?”

“Sure,” Trissiny said warily, accepting the loaded weapon back. “The ammunition goes in that top compartment, there? Seems awfully inconvenient; you can’t have much rate of fire that way.”

“Aye, yer dead right. That li’l girl ain’t a production model, I’m still prototypin’ various features. I got me a much more efficient magazine design in progress over there.” She waved at a miscellaneous pile of tools and scraps on her workbench which might have been anything at all, as far as Trissiny could tell. “Now, use the rune there to prime it.”

Trissiny touched the rune, and the arcane device obligingly hummed to life. A thin slot revealing the power crystal lit up with a blue glow on one side, just behind the ammunition compartment.

“Now, be sure ta brace the big ‘eavy pommel against yer shoulder, good an’ solid,” Billie said seriously. “There’s a good reason I made it that way. First model I tried was built along the standard battlestaff model, with the butt tucked under yer arm. An’ that’s the story o’ how I discovered this thing’s got about ten times the recoil of a lightnin’ staff. Damn well shot outta my grip across the room backwards.”

“Duly noted,” Trissiny said, carefully holding it as directed. She had fired battlestaves, of course, but not often, and the different shape of the rifle made it a somewhat awkward grip, but it seemed to fit well enough. Moving carefully, she took aim at the target dummy, which now stood behind the blue glow of a military-grade shielding charm. “Ready?”

“Whenever you are,” Principia said with an anticipatory grin.

Squeezing the clicker produced a flash of blue light from the power crystal’s slot and also from the tip of the barrel, accompanied by a thunderclap almost exactly like the discharge of a battlestaff, which was nigh-deafening in an enclosed space. The rifle did indeed try to jerk right out of her grasp; Trissiny found herself nearly aiming at the ceiling a second later when it was back under control, the end of its long muzzle smoking faintly.

There was now a gaping hole in the center of the dummy’s body. The shielding charm, rated to stand up to sustained staff fire before failing, had been snuffed out like it was never there.

“Nice shot!” Billie crowed. “Yer a natural! Aye, the toys Locke was tinkerin’ with used an explosive charge like the dwarven original, which seemed t’me needlessly cumbersome an’ askin’ fer trouble. An arcane acceleration charm’s way too power-intensive, but you can cobble up a real efficient contained explosion that uses less power per crystal than the standard staff shot, an works beautifully ta fire th’projectile. Also won’t blow yer arm off if ye light up a cigarette.”

“Why didn’t the dwarves refine it this much?” Trissiny asked, still frowning at the slain target dummy with the smoking rifle in her clenched hands. “You’ve only been at this a year or so, and they’re rather famous for engineering.”

“There are a million possible answers to that, and we don’t know enough to guess which might be true,” said Principia. “Such things usually come down to social or economic factors rather than the technology itself. What do you think of it so far?”

“Shield-breaking utility aside,” Trissiny said softly, “this thing would do terrible damage to a living body. Different damage than a lightning bolt, but… I’m not sure if better, or worse?”

“I’ve tested that girl’s older sisters on pumpkins an’ melons,” Billie said seriously. “Yer right, it is not pretty. Makes a fair neat little hole goin’ in an’ a honkin’ big terrible one comin’ out the back. Ye hit somebody in the right spot with one o’ these an’ I reckon the best healers would be stymied.”

“There’s also the matter of escalation,” Principia added. “I talked about this with Rouvad. The first battle in which these weapons are used will be an absolute rout, but immediately after that tactics and devices to counter them will begin to be deployed. The projectile weapon itself is enough of a jump forward that there’s no telling how far that arms race will run before it settles back into any kind of equilibrium. I suspect the Svennish are aware of the same thing. The base concept is pretty clearly aimed at negating the Tiraan Empire’s military capabilities, but it can’t be a coincidence that we took the original from an intelligence agent while their soldiers have never been seen with such weapons.”

“It’s a big improvement over battlestaves in range, accuracy, an’ stoppin’ power,” said Billie, “but can’t match ‘em for rate o’ fire or economy. An’ the ammunition situation is actually a step back from arrows. Metal projectiles are smaller, but about as ‘eavy an’ more expensive to make.”

“Well,” Principia snipped, “maybe if you used the original spherical ones—”

“Blow it out yer arse, Captain. This ‘ere’s my workshop, an’ I’ll not be party to the deployment of inferior technology!”

“I need to think about this,” Trissiny stated abruptly, bending to hand the weapon back to Billie with great care. “Don’t get me wrong, ladies: you’ve done fine work here. This is extremely impressive. But I can’t help having the sinking feeling you’re about to unleash something horrific on the world.”

“Aye,” Billie said solemnly as she accepted the rifle into her arms, “we’re not blind ta that, General.”

“What it comes down to,” Principia added, “is that we didn’t invent this technology; we’re just refining it. The knowledge was out there, and bound to be used sooner than later. So the issue becomes one of whether it’s going to be our people who get ravaged by its first deployment, or someone else’s. That is a damn ugly choice to make, Trissiny, but I don’t see how we could make a different one.”

“You’re right about that,” Trissiny murmured. “What’ve you come up with in terms of countering this, Billie?”

“So far?” the gnome hedged, wincing. “Me best notion is armor. Made o’ materials which do not, at this time, exist. Got meself a couple ideas fer alchemical treatment o’ wood an’ ceramic, but that’s not me field of specialty. An’ I’ve not even tried scalin’ the tech up to a cannon-sized siege engine. I’ve frankly no idea what ye even could do against that.”

Trissiny inhaled deeply and then blew the air out in a huff. “All right. Thank you for bringing me up to speed on this; I very much fear it’s going to be relevant far too soon. For now, I think we’ve still got a little time before I need to brief Elwick’s team and have Zanzayed bring everybody back to Tiraas. Changing the subject, Locke, where is Khadizroth?”

“In his own chamber, pretty far underground,” Principia answered. “You need to talk with him, too?”

“I was actually hoping to,” Trissiny said thoughtfully, “but that was before Ampophrenon invited himself along for this visit. I’m not sure we’re ready for that confrontation to unfold.”

“Yikes. No kidding,” Principia cringed. “But you needn’t worry; Khadizroth knew it the second two dragons arrived on our doorstep and warned me even before Iraa came to do likewise. Then he went to hide himself away.”

“Ah, good,” Trissiny said fervently. “Damage controlled, then. Still, it seems a waste; I was taking advantage of a rare opportunity to make sure it was Zanzayed he met with first, and under my supervision. We can’t keep him away from the Conclave forever, but I’d rather not start with its cannier members.”

“Do not underestimate Zanzayed,” Principia warned her. “I have twice seen him directly cooperating with Imperial Intelligence, and Quentin Vex does not associate with fools. Zanzayed is thousands of years old and has survived brawls with Arachne and Kuriwa. He wouldn’t be the first person to downplay his own intelligence for strategic advantage.”

“Aye,” Billie agreed, grinning. “You actually study under Admestus Rafe, right? Same principle applies.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Trissiny said with a pensive frown. “Well, then. I guess I have no other pressing business here. Let’s go get everybody caught up and then move out. Not that I’m not enjoying the visit, Locke, but the real trouble’s unspooling in Tiraas as we speak, and I don’t like leaving it out from under my eyes any longer than necessary.”

“There’s always trouble out from under your eyes, Trissiny,” Principia said. “You can’t plan for everything. The best you can do is stay flexible and learn to think fast and react smart.”

Trissiny sighed softly. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that impression. I just hope I can learn fast enough.”

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16 – 25

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“I have not brought any of these concerns to you before because, as much as the circumstantial evidence has piled up, it remains only circumstantial,” Toby explained. “Veilgrad, Ninkabi, Puna Dara, all these events are linked to Justinian, but not through evidence that could be asserted in a court of law. Even as Trissiny has gained access to the testimony of Khadizroth the Green about the Archpope’s activities… I’m sure you can imagine, Grandmasters, why the dragon’s word could be dismissed. I have deemed it best not to act in haste, especially when a careless tongue could provoke a hostile reaction from the Universal Church, or at the very least create political waves that would affect Omnu’s faithful.”

“It is wise to respect the power of words, and to be reticent,” Grandmaster Niontu stated, nodding his head once in a ponderous motion. “We have observed how the Sisterhood of Avei has been affected by its rash actions toward the Church.”

“Actions to which you were party, Tobias, if I am not mistaken,” added Grandmaster Eshii. “Perhaps you learned something of the dangers of interfering in others’ affairs from those events?”

“Excuse me, Grandmaster Eshii, but the opposite occurred,” Toby said, turning to her with a respectful bow of his head. “The handling of Bishop Syrinx was an internal Avenist matter, in which the Hand of Avei requested my help. I of course rendered it, as I deemed the cause just, and I would hope she would do likewise were I forced to call upon her. It was the Archpope who chose to insert himself forcibly into Avei’s business.”

“Viewed in that light, the whole matter with the Church and the Sisterhood changes color,” Grandmaster Mueller commented. Alone among the Grandmasters of the Dawn Council, she lounged in a half-sprawled position on her assigned cushion, while the rest sat serenely in lotus posture. “If the Archpope presumes to punish a major cult of the Pantheon for failing to bow to his wishes, he’s clearly getting too big for his boots.”

Grandmaster He made a series of motions with his hands in the silent language in which he communicated; standing behind him and to his left, his attendant bowed and interpreted aloud. “Hand of Omnu,” she said, her tone respectfully soft as always, “your tale of adventure at Vesk’s behest is a different matter. You gained both firsthand observation and the testimony of a god of the Pantheon that the Archpope has dabbled in forbidden powers toward selfish ends. Why have you only now brought this to the Council?”

“We should be mindful of how the thirty-year silence may have affected our perceptions of paladins,” Grandmaster Srivastariphan interjected before Toby could reply. “Especially after the protective role we have played in young Tobias’s early training. If he is deemed mature enough to journey on divinely appointed quests, he does not require oversight. It is our duty to provide guidance, administration, and a moral example to the faithful. The Hand of Omnu’s duty is to intervene directly where Omnu deems intervention needful. Ours are separate spheres.”

Eshii tilted her head slightly, causing a soft rattle of the beads hanging from her long ears. “And yet, when the Hand of Omnu comes before the Dawn Council, the order and relevance of events of which he tells us is clearly material to the subject at hand.”

“It can be taken as given that the Hand of Omnu need not update us on everything he has done, or discovered,” said Niontu, who represented the Cultivator sect which had raised Toby and formed the vast preponderance of Omnist belief on the Tiraan continent. “We are grateful that you have informed us of these things, even as this very information begs the question: why have you come before us now?”

They were a disparate lot, the Dawn Council. Unlike most of the Pantheon religions headquartered in Tiraas or at least on the continent, they were a truly centralized administration for the faith, whose reach was worldwide. Depending on the cult, the local leadership might be a true global authority in name only; most were simply that, the local leaders, whoever had risen to prominence here in the Tiraan chapter of their faiths. The Dawn Council, by contrast, comprised the elected or appointed figureheads of all seven formally recognized denominations of Omnism, several of which had scant presence in Imperial territory aside from their Council representative. As such, they came here from the world over. In the Dawn Council’s current composition, it happened that there were no Tiraan at all, and only Grandmaster Niontu of Onkawa and Grandmaster Mueller of Stalwar were even from the Empire. There were other sects within the faith, but smaller ones, which did not seek a role in the running of the cult. Omnists in general liked to be unobtrusive.

Under the combined weight of their serene scrutiny, Toby indulged in a moment to center himself, inhaling and deliberately drawing in the peace of Omnu’s presence with the air. From here, the conversation would increasingly demand every shred of his own inner calm. Not unlike the unshakable serenity through which he had suborned Omnu’s own will in Ninkabi, he must remain inwardly harmonious while imposing his desires upon others. Here, at least, the act would have much less frightening implications.

Even with the force of their attention upon him, the Chamber of the Dawn was an environment which made it easy to calm and center oneself, by design. The center of its domed ceiling held a disc of crystal, one of the faith’s most sacred artifacts, which concentrated sunlight and streamed it into the room. Regardless of the weather outside, at any point between dawn and dusk, the Chamber of the Dawn was filled with warm beams of concentrated sunshine, a particularly precious commodity here in Tiraas. The seven members of the Council sat on cushions on the floor along the lip of stone encircling the chamber. Directly inside that was a circular trench in which water ran, softly gurgling and making the lilies and reeds planted in it bob gently. Toby stood upon the central stone island, where anyone seeking to address the Council was positioned. He still wasn’t sure what the source was of the soft breeze that made the climbing vines and small potted trees decorating the wall between Council members rustle. Doubtless something magical.

“I have come, honored Grandmasters,” he stated once he was certain of his equanimity, “to urge you to take action in response to this threat.”

“Do not be hasty, Tobias,” Grandmaster Eshii chided gently.

“Our way is peace,” Grandmaster Vadyevitch agreed. “We do not impose our beliefs upon others, least of all the Church.”

“He suggested neither haste nor imposition,” Grandmaster Mueller said with clear exasperation. “We’re talking about responding to a corrupt Archpope imposing himself upon us, not to mention everyone else in the world.”

“The honored Grandmasters should ever recall that peace is not passivity,” Grandmaster He’s attendant translated his rapid signing.

So far, about what Toby had expected. Mueller spoke for the Briars, the smallest sect represented on the Council, whom outsiders to the faith sometimes derided as “vegetarian Shaathists.” There were no more than a handful in the Empire, most concentrated in Stalwar, while their largest populations were in Glassiere and a few other cold climates. The Briars were survivalists, their lore more interested in foraging wild food than cultivating crops; they mostly traveled, helping people and small rural communities feed themselves in lean times, and providing aid to other wanderers on the roads. Grandmaster He wore the red and gold robes of his own order, the Open Hand, who were concentrated in Shengdu and were the originators and leading practitioners of the Sun Style martial arts.

Grandmaster Eshii was a bit unusual for being the only elf currently on the council. The peoples known in the Empire as “plains elves” actually were called “sun elves” in elvish. If a plains (or sun) elf felt the need to join a Pantheon cult, it was far and away most likely to be Omnism; they had a strong affinity for the sun and favored warm climes, though they practiced relatively little agriculture. Despite their smaller numbers, the simple fact of their lifespans meant elves were often among the oldest and most respected masters of their various traditions, and often found their way to a Council appointment. At some points in its history, the Council had been mostly or even entirely comprised of elves. Unlike humans, for whom membership on the Dawn Council was generally a lifetime position, elves usually served for a few decades and then stepped down.

Toby had expected the survivalist and martial artist to favor action; they generally did. Grandmaster Eshii represented the Radiants, the keepers of Omnist magical tradition, who also tended to cautiously embrace a proactive style, but it seemed elven conservatism won out in her case. Well, it was no great surprise and he hadn’t been counting on her support. It seemed five of the seven were likely to urge caution and complacency, much as he’d expected.

He immediately had to revise that assessment at her next words.

“Please do not misunderstand me,” Eshii insisted gently. “I urge caution, not inaction. In the face of events such as this, it seems to me that we cannot but act. However, haste leads always to ruin. It is essential that we observe and deliberate before committing to any course.”

“Yes, I agree,” added Grandmaster Srivastariphan. “At the minimum, we must gather more information, from as great a variety of sources as can be managed. Not that I doubt the veracity of the Hand of Omnu in the slightest,” he added with a nod toward Toby, who bowed his head courteously in response, “but it is basic practice which must be observed, when the stakes are so high. More information is always better than less.”

He spoke for the Golden Book, which mostly concerned itself with preserving knowledge and lore; this was no more or less than Toby had expected from the next best thing to a Nemitite. The lack of surprises continued with the next interjection.

“I do not agree,” Grandmaster Akili said tonelessly. Sitting in the most perfect lotus posture of any of them save possibly Grandmaster He, she actually had her eyes closed and might have been meditating, had she not spoken. “There are multiple cults within the Pantheon’s aegis which concern themselves with rooting out corruption, and responding rapidly to changing events in the world. The sun rises, the sun sets. The winds blow and clouds pass, but the truth of the sun is unchanging. We are the peace beneath the tumult. To intervene in politics is not our purpose, nor our place.”

“Akili is correct,” Grandmaster Vadyevitch agreed. “You mentioned your cooperation with Trissiny Avelea, Tobias. This, it would seem, is her mandate, not yours. Not ours.”

Mueller let out the tiniest huff of breath, which for a Grandmaster of the Dawn Council was as good as a derisive outburst from anyone else. Toby kept to his own inner harmony, though frankly he was more inclined to be irritated at Mueller than the other two. Her impatience was not going to win any sympathy, and anyway, they had acted precisely as he’d anticipated.

Akili and Vadyevitch, of the Keepers and Preservers, the guardians of Omnist meditative discipline and healers, respectively. Keepers and Preservers could be difficult to tell apart from Cultivators, as they wore the same formal brown robes and often dwelled in the same temples. The difference was they were usually found in the robes and in the temples, whereas Cultivators preferred to be working in gardens or running their homeless shelters and soup kitchens, in work-appropriate attire and saving formal robes for (rare) formal occasions. These two denominations dispersed themselves through the populations of others, concerning themselves mostly with training and ministering to fellow Omnists. They definitely did not shift themselves to take independent action. On anything.

“I understand your frustration, Grandmaster Mueller,” Akili said without opening her eyes. “I urge you to let it pass.”

“That’s your answer to everything,” Mueller retorted, “and a good example of why your voice is but one on a council of seven.”

“As are we all,” Akili replied in utter serenity.

Toby caught a flicker of movement; Grandmaster He had struck the bronze bell sitting near his feet with a lightning-quick jab, causing it to ring as clearly as if hit by a hammer. That explained the purpose of the bell, which Toby had wandered about. Respect for one’s master was a big deal among the Open Hand; his attendant would be extremely reluctant to interrupt the Grandmasters of the Dawn council, leaving him one recourse for interjecting himself into the conversation at need.

“This argument is premature,” the young woman translated He’s signing. “The Hand of Omnu has come here to request action. The Council should hear what action he proposes before passing judgment.”

“This is good sense,” Eshii agreed. “Please, Tobias, share with us your plan. It will be, at the very least, a starting point.”

Toby let the condescension wash off him, bowing to He, to Eshii, and finally to Vadyevitch.

“Honored Grandmaster Vadyevitch is correct to mention the Hand of Avei, with whom I have conferred about this. The plan is hers, but the Hand of Vidius and myself have consulted with her in forming it, and both of us are in agreement. Gabriel Arquin is right now meeting with Lady Gwenfaer to urge the Vidians to take the same action the Sisterhood of Avei is about to commit, and which I ask the Dawn Council now to embrace.”

Mueller nodded and Eshii gestured for him to continue; the others simply waited with unruffled calm.

“I don’t know whether you have been informed of this, but the Thieves’ Guild withdrew its Bishop from the Universal Church immediately after the Battle of Ninkabi, in protest of the evidence of Justinian’s involvement in precipitating that event.”

“Evidence which, as you have pointed out, is inconclusive,” Eshii commented. “The Eserites have succeeded only in marginalizing themselves. A cautionary tale about the danger of acting in haste.”

“Please continue, Tobias,” Mueller said pointedly.

He bowed to her before doing so. “The Eserites are a smaller and widely disliked cult, it is true; it should be no surprise that they have garnered little support for their campaign. By the end of today, however, they will be joined in solidarity by the Sisterhood of Avei. Trissiny and High Commander Rouvad have decided that the Sisterhood shall bypass Justinian’s interference and appoint an Avenist Bishop, who will join Bishop Darling in seeing to their cult’s interfaith relations. Outside the auspices of the Universal Church.”

Grandmaster He signed rapidly, a thin smile cracking above his long white goatee.

“A bold and clever action,” his interpreter translated, “in the best tradition of the Avenists.”

“Best?” Niontu replied, frowning. “I am concerned that this further reflects Trissiny Avelea’s established penchant for extreme violence, taken into the political realm.”

“I am concerned that this reflects the influence of Trissiny Avelea’s violent temper upon our own paladin,” Grandmaster Vadyevitch said solemnly, “a subject about which this Council has deliberated in the past.”

Oh, had they? Interesting.

“You want us to do the same,” Mueller said to Toby, ignoring her colleagues’ commentary.

He bowed again. “The Sisterhood has immense credibility. Their action against the Church will make a powerful statement against Justinian’s ambition and corruption. If all three of the Trinity cults act in unison, that statement will become impossible for the Archpope to dismiss, and difficult for him to maneuver around. More importantly, it will inspire corresponding actions from some of the smaller cults; with careful encouragement, more still can be persuaded to join.”

“You propose a complete abrogation of all spiritual custom!” Grandmaster Srivastariphan exclaimed. “A thousand years of tradition—traditions which exist for good reason.”

“This is a textbook example of what I meant by acting in haste,” Eshii added with a desultory shake of her head that set her earrings to rattling again.

“It’s a good plan,” Mueller said laconically.

“The needs of the moment must never overwhelm consideration for the whole scope of history, past and future,” Akili intoned.

“This is far too bold, Tobias,” Niontu added in a tone of patrician concern. “An appropriate action for Omnists against political ambitions such as Justinian’s would be to gently urge cooperation from the other cults, and a measure of reason and restraint from the Church itself.”

“Such aggression is not Omnu’s way,” said Grandmaster Vadyevitch. “Even in the arena of politics and words, violence is violence.”

“And violence is to be avoided if there remains the slightest possibility of so doing,” Toby agreed earnestly. “Hope and calm will not achieve this, honored Grandmasters. To negate the outgrowth of violence, we must observe the situation carefully to foresee where it may arise, and act gently in advance of events to ensure that it does not.”

Grandmaster He struck his bell again, but rather than signing for his interpreter, when the others turned to look in his direction he bowed deeply toward Toby from his sitting posture. Toby bowed back.

“Rash action is the opposite of forfending violence, Tobias,” Grandmaster Eshii said gently.

“I concur entirely,” Toby replied, bowing to her now. “Thus, it is strategic action which is necessary. That is what I propose. It is the role of Omnu’s faithful, and our highest priority in matters such as this, to prevent and minimize violence. In this situation, Justinian’s increasing ambition and disregard for the autonomy of cults and individuals, to say nothing of the gods themselves, is going to lead inexorably to violence. It’s astonishing that the Eserites have not already begun attacking the Church, but I can’t say how long their restraint will hold out. The Avenists are explicitly martial in nature, the Salyrites have never shied from aggressive action when provoked, and some among the Vidians are well known to be as ruthless as they are subtle. If this situation is allowed to continue spiraling, there will be bloodshed—and that blood will be upon our hands as much as Justinian’s, if we discard our opportunity to prevent it. This explicitly political action to isolate and neutralize Justinian will pave the way for his removal through peaceful means. His removal is absolutely necessary, and any other means are to be avoided if at all possible.”

Grandmaster He spoke with his hands, echoed seconds later by his attendant. “When struck, one must move with the blow. To wait for it to land before deciding upon a response is the path of defeat.”

“Excellent advice for a fight,” Grandmaster Niontu chided, “but this is not one of those.”

“I respectfully suggest, honored Grandmaster, that you defer to Grandmaster He and the Hand of Omnu concerning what is and is not a fight,” Mueller said, deadpan. “They have courteously refrained from lecturing you on how to grow barley.”

“Really, Laura,” Vadyevitch murmured.

“Peace, please,” Eshii implored, raising both her hands. “I believe we have come to a difference of opinion concerning the details of a matter upon which we have broad agreement. The actions of the Archpope, as our paladin have warned us, require consideration, and probable response. We must confer, in detail, and decide exactly what we shall do.”

“Yes,” Srivastariphan agreed quickly. “Due consideration is essential; above all else we must avoid acting in haste, and thus in error. The care such deliberation demands will give us the opportunity to observe unfolding events as the Sisterhood and possibly the Brethren take action. We can learn more from this.”

“We thank you for bringing these things to our attention, Tobias,” said Niontu, nodding deeply to him. “Obviously, we’ll not ask you to stand before us while such an in depth discussion proceeds. Before you take your leave, was there anything else you wished to bring to the Council’s attention?”

“Yes.” He inhaled again; this was the moment. Only by retaining serenity in the face of what was about to happen would he remain in control of the situation. “Doubtless, honored Grandmasters, you are aware that the role of paladins has always involved the gathering of their own allies and resources from outside the faith. I am glad to say I have been blessed in this area, and have many connections upon which to call. In particular, influence with several noble Houses and newspapers under their control, as well as connections in other cults, will be of use in spreading this message. While you confer, honored Grandmasters, I shall ensure the world knows that I, speaking as Omnu’s mortal representative, reject Justinian and his Church, and will urge all who are faithful to Omnu or any god of the Pantheon to join me.”

“Tobias!” Niontu exclaimed.

“Haste, young man,” Eshii said, more sharply than she had spoken to him yet.

“You must not act in advance of the Council!” said Vadyevitch. “You risk issuing a statement which contradicts our decision.”

While they reacted volubly, Grandmaster Mueller’s eyebrows shot upward, but she remained silent. Grandmaster He watched Toby closely for a moment, and then deliberately smiled and nodded his head once.

“I appreciate your zeal,” Eshii said in a more soothing tone, “but Tobias, you must not pursue such an action.”

“Indeed,” Srivastariphan agreed, nodding emphatically, “you must wait for the Council’s decision before taking a public stance, young man.”

“The fact that you would suggest such a thing demonstrates exactly why,” Vadyevitch added. “You do not comprehend the ramifications such an action could have.”

“Forgive me, honored Grandmaster, but you are mistaken,” Toby said politely, bowing to him. “I understand precisely. I ask your pardon for the presumption, honored Grandmasters, but I do not ask permission.” Straightening his back, he let the beams of the sun crystal bathe him and met each of their eyes in turn. “I am the paladin of Omnu. It is my duty to act, to do what I judge is necessary. The Dawn Council does not have the authority to countermand me, nor does it have the power.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Grandmaster Eshii demanded, aghast. “Such defiance risks creating a schism within the cult!”

“You should be aware, honored Grandmasters, that plots are afoot to engender exactly that, within both the Sisterhood and the Thieves’ Guild. I expect similar attacks to occur within any cult which takes a stand against Justinian. There will be a schism among Omnu’s faithful. By acting in advance, with strategy and forethought, I will enable you to predict where and how it will form, and thus minimize the damage inflicted.” He turned to Grandmaster He and bowed deeply. “As we were just reminded, when one is struck, one must move with the blow.”

“That is nonsense,” Niontu insisted. “You could easily avoid the existence of such a rift by not taking this action!”

“Yes,” Toby agreed, serene in the face of their displeasure. “But since I am going to do it anyway, you now have advance notice that it will form. Now, while the Council deliberates, you can decide whether you wish to damage your credibility and authority by setting yourself at odds with Omnu’s mortal representative, or flow with the motions as you were all taught in the martial arts. I deeply apologize for this presumption,” he repeated, bowing again to all of them, “but the storm is coming, honored Grandmasters. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to be soaked while you debate whether to go inside. If this means giving you a push, so be it. In the end, we will all be judged for our actions. In my case, they will be actions, not passive intentions.”

All seven of them stared at him in silence. Most appeared stunned, but Mueller and He both regarded him with small smiles of approval.

“I thank you for your time, honored Grandmasters,” Toby said diffidently, bowing a final time before turning to go. “You have many important matters to discuss; I should not distract you any longer.”

So declaring, he turned and walked out of the chamber at a serene glide.

Hopefully they would decide to join him in repudiating Justinian. If not, their Bishop was going to land in hot water with the Council; he had met with her first, and attained her agreement with his plan. Whatever they decided, the Omnist Bishop would shortly be joining the Eserite, Avenist and hopefully Vidian in rejecting Justinian’s reign.

That, they did not need to know until it was too late for them to stop.

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Finding herself already in the Embassy District, Trissiny opted to summon Arjen and ride the relatively short distance to the compound held by the Conclave of the Winds. This neighborhood, accustomed as it was to the presence of august personages from the world over, afforded her relative freedom from the gawking and pointing she usually got in public while wearing the silver armor that enabled her to walk into embassies and get unscheduled meetings with ranking personnel; even the police officer of whom she’d asked directions had been polite but not fawning, or even visibly impressed. There were also a good number of foreigners about, for obvious reasons, and so she was the subject of some whispering, but Trissiny could live with that. She was altogether more bothered by the cold. Having left the Svennish embassy around midmorning and found the day unexpectedly sunny for Tiraas, she had to dourly admit that this was probably as warm as it was going to get all day.

Embassies were at least easy to identify, even for one unfamiliar with the neighborhood, as they obligingly bedecked themselves in flags. The Conclave’s multicolored hexagon encircled by a wing-like glyph on a white field was displayed as prominently as any, enabling her to zero in on her target as soon as she was on the right street. The dragons had set up a towering flagpole to fly their colors notably higher than any of the others in the area, which was exactly the sort of petty posturing nobody was going to call them down for. Because they were dragons.

She rode Arjen past the guards at the open gate, neither of whom attempted to stop her, dismounting midway up the path to the palatial embassy proper and leaving him with a pat on his velvety nose to return to the divine plane as always. Again, she was not impeded—a paladin’s uniform opened many doors—and in fact, the two guards bracketing the embassy’s door came to attention, one opening the door for her.

“Thank you,” Trissiny said politely.

“Ma’am,” the guard replied in a crisp tone.

She slowed, indulging her martial upbringing in casting a critical eye over the soldiers—which, to judge by their discipline, they were, rather than civil guards. The Conclave kept its troops in metal armor, lined with white fur, but in addition to sabers they carried battlestaves and had wands holstered. They were also, every one she’d seen so far, women, and notably more attractive than soldiers needed to be.

Dragons.

Trissiny repressed her instinctive antipathy. There was no suggestion any of these women were here against their will, which made it none of her business.

Inside, the sight of the embassy’s great hall caused her to stop and spend a heartbeat just taking in the view.

Apparently the Conclave had been hastily granted this compound by the Empire on the day of their very sudden appearance at the capital, and moved into the then-empty palace left behind when the Syrrinski delegation had relocated themselves to a smaller structure at a more trafficked intersection. However make-do the initial habitation had been, the Conclave had since had ample time to make the embassy their own.

They’d stripped the walls to reveal bare stone, covered the windows with heavy drapes, replaced what had probably been a marble floor with gray flagstones, knocked out the fluted columns which would’ve matched the embassy’s exterior to install heavy square pillars of fieldstone, and disabled all the fairy lamps. All the illumination now came from a selection of braziers and standing lamps, all holding fire rather than magical light, and at least some clearly augmented with smoky incense. The relative dimness served to accentuate the furnishings, which were a mismatched collection of carved luxury woods, pricey fabrics, gilt and silvered limbs, and intricate carpets. Everything was visibly expensive, most of it clearly antique, and absolutely nothing matched.

Evidently the draconic aesthetic was tasteless opulence against a starkly rustic backdrop.

No dragons were immediately in evidence, though there were more humans about than Trissiny had expected, including a servant tending to braziers and several individuals crossing the great hall at a businesslike gait with stacks of paperwork in hand. More soldiers were stationed about, rigidly at attention with a discipline she could not fault; all were female, and all remarkably pretty of face.

Where were they getting these women? How did they recruit them? The Sisterhood kept tabs on the Huntsmen’s eternal campaign to entice women into their ranks; surely someone would have noticed had dragons been doing the same. Trissiny had heard nothing to that effect, however.

“General Avelea! Welcome!”

From the large desk set up across from the entrance now approached a tall half-elven man, smiling broadly. Trissiny noted that the dragons also had classical sensibilities when it came to garbing their servants; in addition to the old-fashioned armor on the guards, most of the other personnel in the room wore sweeping robes, like wizards and clerics in old adventuring parties were often depicted. This fellow, though, was actually in a doublet and breeches, which was somehow even more anachronistic, but he had the lean frame to pull it off.

“Good morning,” she said. “I apologize for intruding on you without warning…”

“Not at all, not at all,” the steward hastily reassured her. “I can only imagine how unforgiving a paladin’s schedule must be. It is an honor to have you in our embassy, General! What can the Conclave of the Winds do for you?”

“Actually,” she said mentally preparing herself for an argument, “I need to speak with Zanzayed the Blue.”

“Of course, General,” he said, to her surprise. Snapping his fingers, he turned to point at another young man still waiting behind the desk. “Ivan, notify Lord Zanzayed he has a visitor. If you would, General Avelea,” he said, turning back to her with a bow while the youth dashed off toward one of the room’s curving staircases, “please make yourself comfortable here. I will have refreshments brought.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said hastily. “I don’t mean to take up any more of your time than I must.”

“Please, General, the hospitality of the Conclave couldn’t bear to have you mistreated under our roof. At least something to ward off the chill of the day?”

He snapped his fingers again, beckoning, and a new figure approached from behind the desk—in fact, from a door behind it obscured by a curtain, hence why she had not noticed them before. This was a woman—young, as pretty as any of the guards, and considerably more underdressed, to the point the tray of steaming mugs she carried seemed like an imminent threat to her expansive cleavage. She glided forward with surprising grace considering her burden and executed a deep curtsy, smiling up through her thick lashes in an openly flirtatious manner.

Apparently they didn’t entertain many Avenists here.

Trissiny was spared having to come up with a polite response to this by the sharp sound of a battlestaff being thunked twice against the stone floor, followed by the voice of one of the soldiers ringing through the great hall.

“Lord Ampophrenon the Gold!”

Instantly every human in the room knelt and lowered their heads, including the serving girl, still holding up her tray, leaving Trissiny standing alone.

“Please, rise,” pleaded a deep baritone from above, and she turned to spot the tall humanoid form of the dragon in his famous golden armor descending the stairs, just in time to catch his embarrassed-looking wave as he urged everyone back to their feet.

Interesting. Then did the other dragons insist on this obeisance that Ampophrenon did not care for, or perhaps did he just like to put on a show of modesty while also soaking up the reverence? The latter was a cynical thought, but consistent with the reputation of dragons. Trissiny was deliberately trying to get in the habit of teasing out social and political currents like this, though so far the effort had mostly just revealed how little frame of reference she had for it.

Ampophrenon’s featureless golden eyes had settled right on her, and he descended the stairs in a rapid glide, quickly crossing the floor in a few long strides. “General Avelea, welcome to our embassy. It is an honor to finally meet you!”

“Likewise, Lord Ampophrenon,” she answered, bowing. To her surprise, he bowed back as soon as he was close enough, one casual gesture sending both the steward and the waitress backing away from them.

“I feel I still owe you an apology for my absence at Ninkabi. It is shameful that none of our Conclave learned of the attack in time to assist in the defense—for me, in particular.”

“As suddenly as it happened, I hardly think anyone who wasn’t there can be blamed,” she demurred. “The paladins only made it in time because Xyraadi came to find us.”

“Ah, yes, the Sisterhood’s old khelminash ally,” the dragon said, his expression growing intent. “These times grow more interesting with each passing day. I am given to understand that you have struck up a friendship with none other than Vadrieny the Ravager?”

Ah, yes; this particular dragon had a history with her, didn’t he?

“I have,” Trissiny stated, holding his gaze firmly. “And she is as good a friend as any I’ve ever had. I’m not sure how much you’re aware of Vadrieny’s situation, Lord Ampophrenon, but having one’s entire history and identity erased changes a person. She has little resemblance to the Vadrieny of history. I suspect you would scarcely recognize her.”

“That is a relief to hear,” he said, nodding. “Especially after this morning.” Trissiny blinked in surprise; Teal and therefore Vadrieny had been with her all morning, until they’d dropped her off outside the Svennish embassy less than an hour ago. What could they have possibly done? Fortunately Ampophrenon continued. “The papers are full of the account of her terrorizing a city street yesterday, here in Tiraas.”

“Huh,” Trissiny grunted, frowning in annoyance. “Well, I haven’t seen the papers, but I personally helped clean up the aftermath of that. A pair of thieves attempted to abduct her pet dog. There was some incidental property damage, for which the Falconers are of course being financially responsible, but Vadrieny stopped the criminals. Without killing them, which to be quite frank was more restrained than I might have been.”

“I’m very pleased to learn that,” the dragon said with a smile, “and most especially to have a firsthand account. A drawback of the modern proliferation of information is that relatively little of it seems accurate. The picture painted by the newspapers has been…rather more dramatic.”

“Oh?”

“For heaven’s sake, Puff, can’t you get your own visitors?”

Belatedly, the sergeant at arms thunked her staff twice on the floor. “Lord Zanzayed the Blue!”

“Yes, yes, everybody calm down. As you were,” Zanzayed said impatiently, causing the various dragonsworn in the room to abort their descents, only a few of them having made it to a full kneel, and straighten back up. He crossed the room from the staircase at a rapid glide that caused his fancifully embroidered robes to fan behind him like the train of a peacock, grinning broadly and spreading his hands in welcome. “Trissiny! What a delight to see you again! You look much better as a blonde. What brings you to my humble abode?”

“Humble?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “Actually, never mind that. Hello again, Zanzayed, I’m sorry I haven’t found time to visit before. The truth is, I need to ask you for a favor.”

“Yep, this is what it’s like to have family,” Zanzayed complained to Ampophrenon. “You never see them unless they want something.”

“Right,” Trissiny retorted, “so should I assume that since you haven’t visited me either, it’s only because I have nothing you want?”

The blue dragon burst out laughing. “Now that’s the way to do it! That’s perfect, Triss, you’ve got your mother’s wit, plus the knack for not being such a bitch about it. I can see the benefit of Arachne’s training! All right, all right, I do like to josh but seriously, I don’t mind at all doing you a solid. Whatcha need?”

“It’s a pretty prosaic thing to ask of a dragon, sorry,” she apologized, “but I need to get to the First Legion headquarters in northern Viridill, gather up some people, and get back here to Tiraas, as quickly as it can be arranged. Only teleportation will be fast enough to suffice.”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” he said, unimpressed. “I do respect the sheer gumption, asking a dragon to be your personal taxi service.”

“Well, if you’re busy, I certainly understand,” Trissiny said with a deliberately false smile. “I was in the neighborhood, is all. I can head down to the Wizards’ Guild and spend the Sisterhood’s credit—”

“Now, now, I didn’t say no, did I?” he interjected.

“It certainly wouldn’t be the least dignified thing you’ve done lately,” Ampophrenon agreed. “In fact, General Avelea, if you intend to visit your adventurer legion, I wonder if I might prevail upon you to come along? I’m certain Zanzayed doesn’t mind doing such a minor favor, after all,” he added pointedly to the blue. “It’s not as if he has anything more important to do.”

“You should stop helping before I’m forced to refuse on principle,” Zanzayed retorted. “Long as this one restrains his urge to henpeck, Trissiny, sure, I’d be glad to give you a lift. I did the same for Arachne not long ago, and at least you’re polite.”

Trissiny found herself hesitating, glancing rapidly between them. Ampophrenon’s presence had not been part of her plan. Zanzayed’s insistence on coming along, despite his expected complaining, had borne out her theory: the Conclave would very much like to have a look at the First Legion, or specifically, one individual in it. More than a few commentators had suggested it was formed at least partly due to the actions of Khadizroth the Green, in whom they remained deeply interested. Hence her intention to make Zanzayed the first point of contact between them, under her own supervision; he was noted to be the least versed in the art of political maneuvering, mostly because he wasn’t known to care about much of anything beyond his own immediate interests.

Ampophrenon the Gold was a different matter entirely.

But could she refuse his presence without overplaying her hand? And would that even create a problem if she did? Moments like this made Trissiny keenly conscious of just how much she still had to learn about this kind of maneuvering. And it had all been going so well before Ampophrenon involved himself…

“Actually,” she said slowly, “if you’re interested in seeing it, Lord Ampophrenon, I’d be glad of your presence. Captain Locke is trying to resuscitate a dead tradition; I’d love to hear the observations of one who was an expert in adventurer strategy when it was an active force.”

“The honor would be mine, General,” the gold dragon assured her with a courtly bow. “I shall be only too glad to be of service, in light of my failure to do so at the Battle of Ninkabi. I’m sure Zanzayed doesn’t mind one extra passenger.”

“Well, you could stand to lose a few pounds, but we’ll make do,” Zanzayed snipped, holding his arms wide and calling up a rising sparkle of visible arcane magic that Trissiny knew for a fact was entirely unnecessary for a wizard of his skill. He’d even modulated the characteristically unpleasant buzz of the arcane to a three-tone harmony. “Stand clear, everyone!”

Well, she reflected as the three of them disappeared in a gratuitous flash, you couldn’t win them all.

“It’s just such an absolute delight to see you again, Gabriel!” Lady Gwenfaer nattered on. “Let me get you something. Tea? I have some lovely chocolates from Glassiere, I’ve just been waiting for someone to come along worth sharing them with. Oh, please, do make yourself comfortable! Sit anywhere you like. And get out of that heavy coat! I do so want you to feel relaxed here.”

He felt anything but relaxed here, and the fact that she both knew it and knew exactly why only fed his tension. Gabriel deliberately kept his posture calmly and as un-tensed as he could make it, cultivating a mask of aloofness which did not even try to suppress the suspicion in his eyes. Obviously, he did not take off his coat.

As with the previous time she had entertained him, Gwenfaer met him in her private chambers, an inner sanctum deep inside the underground temple complex beneath Imperial Square. It was actually ironic and a fine example of the cult’s prized duality; the innermost chambers were obviously sacred spaces, arranged for prayer and religious ceremonies, and then past the final door was this cozy little apartment, in which the mortal leader of the Vidian faith was now puttering about a small kitchen, making tea.

Also as before, she herself was wearing a robe that was clearly designed to resemble a disheveled housecoat, despite the immaculate condition of its silken skirt and wide sleeves. It revealed an excessive amount of pale cleavage and in fact seemed perpetually on the verge of sliding off her shoulders, and yet remained firmly fixed in place, exactly where she wanted it. Gabriel himself was a bit more worldly now than on their previous encounter, enough at least to respect the artifice that went into such a garment. As well as the way her blonde hair evoked the tousled aspect of just having slid out of bed, and yet was glossy and flowed down her back like the carved mane of a marble sculpture. And while he still knew very little about cosmetics, he knew that his own failure to spot them didn’t mean they weren’t there—and that nobody just woke up with their lips or eyelids colored that way.

While the tea kettle was heating, she came bustling back carrying a plate on which fancy-looking chocolates were artfully arranged, and Gabriel did not miss the unnatural way she held it—close to waist level, the better to accentuate her bust, in a posture absolutely no one used for transporting food.

“Please, Gabriel, do sit down,” Gwenfaer chided gently. “Come, I think you’ll enjoy these.”

“I hear you’ve been making trouble for the Archpope,” he said, not moving to do any of what she suggested. “To the point he’s called poor Bishop Raskin down on the carpet a few times. From what people tell me, it’s starting to seem like you’ve set the Brethren to impeding Church activities just for the hell of it. Or maybe just to see how much you can get away with?”

She sighed with almost childlike peevishness, making a little pout which belonged on someone half her age at the absolute most. It was downright creepy how well the woman pulled it off. Shaking her head, Gwenfaer bent to set the plate of chocolates on the low table between her couches, deliberately positioning herself so that the motion gave Gabriel a view straight down to her waist.

He immediately averted his eyes, then clenched them slightly in annoyance. A better action would have been to look, without allowing his expression to be altered in the slightest. All this flirting was blatantly a power play, not anything sincerely romantic, and he’d just ceded her at least a measure of that power. It wasn’t as if he needed a reminder that he was way out of his depth, trying to play these games with this woman.

“Really, right to politics?” she asked in coquettish disappointment, straightening back up and giving no indication she was even aware her posture had had an effect on him—which, somehow, only emphasized how in control she was. “Honestly, Gabriel, it’s not that I mind, but there’s a reason civilized people try to soften up such talk with pleasant little amenities.”

“Yes, thank you for showing me the amenities, they’re magnificent as always,” he said sarcastically, and the smile of amusement she gave him at that was the first expression he’d ever seen on her face that looked genuine. “The curious thing about it is apparently you’re the reason there’s an Archpope Justinian at all. The way I heard it, when the last one retired, you were one of the leading contenders for the position until you nominated him. So, what gives? Do you back Justinian or not?”

Gwenfaer sighed and gave him an indulgent smile, looking up through her eyelashes. “Would you please relax? Whatever’s set you on the warpath, I’m sure between us we can settle on a strategy to deal with it. Come, have a seat.” She patted the spot next to herself invitingly, and with her other hand picked up a chocolate, holding it out as if she intended to feed him with her fingers.

Gabriel held her gaze for a moment, then deliberately drew the gnarled black wand from within his coat. It extended to full scythe form in his grasp and he planted the butt against the floor, the impact muffled by her thick layers of carpet.

Gwenfaer’s eyes cut to the divine weapon and then back to him, looking not the least bit perturbed. Mildly inquisitive, at most.

“I would appreciate your help with something, Lady Gwenfaer,” he stated. “Well, several things, in fact.”

“Of course, I’m—”

“To begin with, yourself. I am in a completely intractable position with regard to you. We need to resolve that before moving on to more pressing matters.”

“Why, Gabriel,” she said in wide-eyed concern, “whatever have I done to impede you?”

“That,” he said, pointing at her. “You have to be aware that I’m not here to do run-of-the-mill Vidian stuff. Vidius has told me in so many words I’m here to straighten out the cult, and clean out some of the rot. The only reason I haven’t so far is I am still working to get a sense of who’s who and what’s what, and the fact that this place is a constantly-writhing nest of snakes at the best of times does not help. I’d like nothing more than to count on your help, Lady Gwenfaer. I can’t think of anyone better positioned to direct me.”

“It goes without saying, Gabriel,” she said sweetly, making sure to gaze up through her lashes to emphasize the double meaning. “Anything I can do for you, you need only ask.”

“And that’s why it’s such a problem,” he said with open irritation, “that you keep working so hard to make yourself completely impossible to trust.”

He’d more than half expected her to make another playfully flirtatious comment in response, but instead, she carefully set the chocolate back down on the plate and folded her hands in her lap.

“Are you under the impression, Gabriel, that I’ve been…unusually disingenuous toward you?”

“In point of fact, no,” he said, drawing his eyebrows together in a quizzical expression. “I actually asked Tarvadegh. He insisted you treat everyone the same way. Also, he seemed exhausted just by the memory of being in a room with you.”

“Val, you gossipy fishwife,” she huffed, and once again, the real amusement in her tone seemed like an unaccustomed flash of genuine emotion through her constant facade. Of course, Gabriel couldn’t afford to trust that, either. “That observation is quite apt, Gabriel. The Doctrine of Masks may be something you are learning to use, but to me? It is a way not merely of acting, but of being.”

And just like that, her entire aspect changed. She leaned back against the rear of the couch, stretching both arms across it, and while that pose could have been interpreted as sexy, her expression was even and sharp, eyes fixed on him as if analyzing him like a specimen under a magnifier.

“Does this make you feel more at ease?” Gwenfaer inquired, and while her voice was no less throaty, the subtleties of her inflection were knowing and detached, nothing at all like her little-girl coyness of before.

“Yes, thank you, that’s a start.”

Gabriel finally stepped forward around the other couch and seated himself directly opposite her. Still holding his eyes, she raised one eyebrow.

“I’m not sure why. Surely, you have to be aware that I am no different, and definitely no less in control of how you perceive me.”

“Sure, but nothing was ever gonna change that.” He kept one hand on the haft of the scythe, resting its butt on the floor between the couch and table. “It would be pretty stupid on my part to let my guard down with anyone in this place, don’t you think? But at least as long as you’re not acting like a showgirl, I can at least feel like you’re taking this seriously. Trust is earned, and that takes time. Meet me halfway, and it’s only fair I give you a chance. Right?”

“You make a peculiar kind of sense,” she said with a knowing little smile. “Well then, if I have earned a measure of your tolerance, you were asking about Justinian, yes? I wonder what’s set you after him suddenly.”

“I wonder where you stand with him,” Gabriel shot back. “You as good as put him where he is, but now you seem to be trying to hamper him?”

“That’s not so contradictory as you make it sound. Yes, I played my role in making him Archpope. At the time, Gabriel, I was angling to rise through the ranks, and at a crossroads where I could have pursued the office of Archpope for myself, or the leadership of the Brethren. In that situation? My decision was the strategic one. I avoided a pitched power struggle between the other Bishops, and by positioning myself such that it seemed to my fellow Vidians the papacy had been mine to give away, I leveraged myself into…” She made a languid gesture with one hand. “Well, where you see me now.”

“I see you now, but not so much what you’re doing. Why help Justinian become Archpope if you dislike him so much? Was the power that important to you?”

“I can’t honestly say whether it would have been,” she said, leaning forward and folding her hands in her lap again. Gwenfaer’s eyes narrowed, still fixed on his own in an expression of open displeasure. “Though I lean toward the belief that had I understood Justinian better, I would have fought him. The matter at hand is that I had no idea what kind of creature I was climbing into bed with. You don’t know what it was like, then, Gabriel; this was before you even discovered girls, I think. Justinian Darnay was the Izarite Bishop, which in and of itself was a courtesy post nobody took seriously, least of all the Izarites. He was so likable, such a friendly non-entity. Handsome and slightly interesting due to having done some actual adventuring, during what must surely have been the last time anyone did that and was willing to admit to it. Until this year, of course. Basically, he was a living portrait of the ultimate bland, no-name, nothing politician. I’m not by far the only one who thought Justinian’s papacy would be a serene, steady time in which we could all carry on with our various maneuvering under the nose of everyone’s favorite mild-mannered uncle.”

There was silence for a moment. Gwenfaer’s eyes cut to the side, and she worked her jaw once as if chewing her tongue.

“Wow,” Gabriel said at last. “That did not go the way you expected, huh?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I respect his maneuvering tremendously,” she acknowledged, focusing back on his face. “It was an utterly brilliant ploy. Nobody knew exactly what we were putting in power when we voted him there. And then he was in place, and slowly began putting things in order the way he liked them. The Church was just…interfaith cooperation, before he came along. Now the thing is an actual religious institution in its own right. Its cathedrals were spaces for any Pantheon cult to use, but not only do they have unique Church services instead, now, he’s got chapels in every town on the frontier and working into older cities across the Empire and beyond. And with its own private guard force, research projects, countless methods of exerting political influence…” She shook her head, looking equal parts impressed and angry, and causing Gabriel to marvel at the control she had over her expression. “And all because the Bishops were so certain we’d just installed a hapless figurehead under whom we could go about business as usual. Can you imagine, playing harmless at that level for that long, and using it to attain ultimate power? I don’t think I could have pulled that off.”

Lady Gwenfaer paused, letting the silence hang heavily for a moment before continuing.

“And that, I hope, explains the apparent contradiction to you, Gabriel. I am, in large part, responsible for Justinian being where he is. And his ambitions have grown to the point where I deem it no less than my obligation to impede him. I held aloof for years because I couldn’t discern any end goal behind his maneuvering. I still can’t, but whatever else he is doing, he is centralizing power and authority under the papacy to a degree which for very good reason has not existed since Sipasian’s day. Anyway,” she added in a deliberately more glib tone, once again lounging back against the couch. “That’s why I have made it a point lately to interfere with him. I gather you would not have come here to sound me out unless something beyond the usual run of Church politics had moved you. So I’ll ask again, Gabriel: why are you suddenly so concerned with Justinian?”

He studied her thoughtfully for a moment before replying. She just gazed back, a vision of patience.

“Vesk sent us on a quest this summer,” he said at last. “All three paladins.”

“Vesk did? That sounds annoying.”

“You truly cannot imagine,” he agreed. “I think he had multiple goals, and I suspect I don’t know the half of them. But at least one was to ensure we learned that Justinian has somehow gotten access to ancient machinery of the Elder Gods that was involved in their final destruction, and the Pantheon’s creation. And that he has been using it to try to affect the gods themselves.”

Gwenfaer’s expression did not change by a hair, but very slowly, she straightened up until she was sitting as rigidly upright as a soldier.

“You are certain of this?” Her voice was quiet, and devoid of apparent emotion.

He nodded. “I’ve seen the evidence, incredible as it is. There are also indications, though they’re only circumstantial or you would have been hearing about it already, that he had a hand in what happened to Ninkabi. And the chaos event in Veilgrad before that. In addition to his political ambitions, Justinian is messing with magic nobody needs to touch, and seems to be very interested in how godhood works. I’m sure I don’t need to spell out for you what that equation adds up to.”

She nodded mutely.

“So, yes, we are in agreement,” Gabriel continued. “Justinian needs to go. And I am here, now, because while politics are definitely not my strong suit, Trissiny is heading up an attack on that front and needs our help.”

“Ah, Trissiny,” Gwenfaer said with a vulpine smile. “I like that one. Laressa’s knack for political theater, Sharai’s capacity to smite big old honking demon lords, and the ruthlessness to waterboard aristocrats in public. And still just finding her stride! She’ll go down as one of Avei’s finest, mark my words. What is she up to now?”

“I’m sure you already know the Thieves’ Guild cut ties with the Church in protest after Ninkabi. Bishop Darling has been serving as their interfaith conduit directly with the other cults, rather than going through the Church’s organization.”

“Ah, yes, poor Antonio,” she said solicitously. “He’s been running himself quite ragged.”

“As of today,” Gabriel said, watching her closely, “the Sisterhood of Avei is going to join the Guild in solidarity. Justinian has been refusing to confirm their Bishop candidates, so the High Commander will be appointing one to fill the role regardless, and will also withdraw from the Church. The Avenists have a lot more credibility and influence than the Eserites; this alone may be enough to get the ball rolling with the other cults. But to make it a definitive push, they need the other two Trinity cults to join them.”

For a moment, Gwenfaer just stared at him with her eyes slightly narrowed. Then, slowly, a smile blossomed across her face, a grin that by the second grew wider as it grew more overtly malicious.

“Oh,” she breathed, pausing to lick her lips once in a truly predatory gesture, “I like it.”

This time, he fully believed her.

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The winter wind carried a particularly bitter chill just after dawn, when the sun was only barely up, not that it slowed them down. Ingvar naturally kept an eye on the trainees, but what they lacked in acquired skill they made up for in sheer grit, which only made sense given where they’d come from.

It was a sizable group, for what amounted to a standard patrol party, but it wasn’t as if the woods of western Tiraan Province needed much patrolling; the greater part of the purpose in being out was to help the newest Shadow Hunters get accustomed to woodcraft. He had brought November, a spirit wolf, two pixie companions, and three of the Harpies who were just along for the experience. Of them, little Mittsin, who at thirteen was the youngest of the entire group to be treated as an apprentice rather than one of the children, was by far the most intent and seriousness. Ingvar could relate, remembering well what it was like being that age and having so much to prove. The others, a woman in her late twenties and one who had to be pushing fifty, both tended to break into snickers any time they glanced at one of the fairies or the wolf.

It was the names, of course. Ingvar couldn’t begrudge them having a chuckle at Zap and Flicker; the pixies preferred simple, evocative names like that, and rather than being offended seemed pleased when humans found amusement in it. Now, though, he was starting to wonder if giving their wolf companions Stalweiss honor names had been a good idea; only people raised in the traditions of the Stalrange would even be able to interpret them, but he would have expected any such to take them seriously. There was a reason such names were seldom translated for the benefit of outsiders—exactly the same reason the Empire had made sure Heshenaad was remembered by the Tanglish version Horsebutt, where he was remembered at all. So now here he was, in the woods with a cherished packmate and two women who both knew that Nirtaath literally meant “nice bitch” and couldn’t seem to stop giggling about it.

“Really?” November demanded sharply, turning to give them a flat look at the latest round of snickers. Both of them quieted, having the grace to look abashed. Ingvar tried to take a gentler tone with these women, given what they’d been through, but he couldn’t deny that November’s razor tongue had its uses. Mittsin gave them a matching look of disapproval, which fortunately for her they weren’t positioned to see.

“Sorry,” Hilden muttered. Illia nodded agreement, keeping her mouth shut.

“I don’t get it,” Flicker whispered loudly, drifting over by Ingvar. “What’s funny?”

“Nothing is funny,” November stated, turning back around, “and some people should keep that in mind.”

“This is one of those things,” Zap added.

“Ohhh.” Flicker bobbed once in midair, chiming in acknowledgment. “Got it.” The pixies in general were remarkably sanguine about social dynamics which they recognized their failure to understand, once they recognized one of those was going on.

Ingvar cleared his throat, pointing off to the group’s right. “Look there, in that clear area between the trees. What do you see upon the snow?”

“Animal tracks,” Mittsin answered quickly, her voice slightly muffled by the scarf wound over the lower part of her face. She and the other two Harpies trudged forward through the snow to get a closer look, stopping only when Ingvar held out an arm to forestall them. Both pixies floated closer; Nirtaath glanced in that direction, then turned to survey the nearby woods, her ears pricked.

“Specifically, a story,” said Ingvar. “That’s one of the best things about tracking, in my opinion. It’s far more than recognizing when something has passed this way. Once you know how to read them, the signs of the wild are as clear as text on a page. Can any of you tell what this one says?”

“They just…end, suddenly, up there,” Illia answered, pointing. “Look, it’s like a bit splash.”

“But there are no tracks leading away,” Hilden added. “Did the animal just start flying?”

“It did indeed,” Ingvar said gravely, “but not on purpose. Those are a hare’s tracks. Look, follow the progression of events. It starts out from within those bushes, see? Hopping this way and that, in no great hurry, likely foraging. But then, suddenly, the tracks are deeper and much farther apart; it suddenly started running.”

“Something scared it,” said Mittsin.

“Exactly,” he said with an approving nod. “Look how it zigzags; the hare was dodging back and forth, trying to evade something.”

“I don’t see any other tracks, though,” said Illia.

“But you see the splash, as you called it. That disturbance is where the last struggle happened. Look at those shallow, wedge-shaped marks to either side of the crater. What do you think of that?”

They were silent, all three squinting at the spot in puzzlement.

“Wings!” Mittsin said suddenly.

“Wings,” Ingvar agreed, grinning. “Looks like a hawk; none of the owls that live around here are big enough to eat a hare. That one’s journey ended right on that spot.”

“Aw. Now I feel bad for the bunny,” Flicker chimed.

“All life exists by consuming other life,” Ingvar explained, more for the benefit of the three apprentices than the pixie. “We hunt to sustain ourselves; so do hawks, and wolves, and every predator. Animals exist within the balance and are intrinsically part of it. It’s only humans who learn to hunt, consume and destroy without respecting what they take, and what they take it from. Our duty as guardians of the wild is to understand that balance, so that was can protect it. We kill, but with respect, and gratitude.”

Suddenly Nirtaath growled softly, and he turned to follow her gaze. She was staring through the trees in the other direction from the hare’s tracks, ears forward.

“What’s the matter?” November murmured, kneeling beside her.

Ingvar didn’t speak, just following the wolf’s gaze and scanning for signs of anything amiss. Those who had undergone the fey transformation, human and wolk alike, had gained an instinctive understanding of one another’s communication. Nirtaath obviously didn’t speak Tanglish and it was debatable how much actual language she grasped, but she picked up on intent very well. He and November could read her lupine signals just as clearly; something was amiss in that direction, something she did not expect to find in this forest, but not something that alarmed her.

“Is…is something wrong?” Hilden asked.

All three of the other women gasped when the light swelled around November and she changed, standing beside Nirtaath in the form of a golden-coated spirit wolf with white wingmarks gleaming at her shoulders. She lifted her head, scenting the air for a moment, then shifted back.

“I smell magic,” she reported. “Fairy; not hostile, but it doesn’t belong here. And something else, underneath it, almost wiped away. A scent I don’t recognize. Almost…reptilian?”

“Zap, Flicker,” Ingvar said. “What do you think?”

Both pixies fluttered forward, drifting back and forth among the trees in that direction. Zap’s blue-white glow could be difficult to spot against the snow, but Flicker was a fiery orange and easy to follow. She was the first to come back, bouncing in midair in excitement.

“Wind magic!” she reported. “Something made a strong breeze blow through here last night. Right through here. Definitely magical, it wasn’t part of the normal air.”

“Hey, yeah!” Zap chimed, shooting back to join them. “I think it was covering tracks!”

“He’s right,” said November, shuffling forward in a crouch. “Look, the snow here’s more windblown. In a straight path through the trees, there. Something used a fae wind spell to wipe tracks and blow away most of their scent.”

“What kind of fairy would do that?” Illia asked nervously.

“I don’t know of any,” Ingvar mused, staring through the trees with a frown. “The few fairies that bother to cover their tracks either obliterate them with no trace or just use mental magic to deflect attention. This is more likely to be a witch.”

“Elves?” Mittsin asked.

“If an elvish shaman didn’t want their tracks to be spotted, we wouldn’t have spotted them.”

“It was more than a shaman,” November added. “Look how wide the area covered is. Could be…ten people walking abreast, and no telling how many deep.”

“Hm.” Ingvar looked back at his three charges, rapidly thinking. All three met his gaze and matching looks of stubbornness fell across their features; he decided not to bother trying to send them away. This was no time or place for an argument, and anyway, they had to learn sometime. “Neither November nor Nirtaath smelled a threat. Still, per our arrangement with the Duchess, we are responsible for these forests and this is something we need to investigate. Illia, Mittsin, Hilden, you three stay behind us and keep a sharp eye out. Flicker, would you please head back to the lodge and let Aspen and the others know we found something?”

“You got it!” the fire pixie chimed, swooping around him once and then shooting off through the trees, back the way they had come.

Ingvar rested a hand on Nirtaath’s back. “Let’s go see who our visitors are.”

“So, can…can you smell hostility?” Hilden asked as they proceeded slowly after the obscured tracks, Nirtaath at the head of the group with her nose to the ground.

“It’s debatable whether ordinary canines can pick up on things like that,” Ingvar replied, eyes ahead. “Our wolf blessing is fae in nature, and fae magic is excellent for discerning emotional states. Let’s proceed quietly, now, we don’t know who we’re approaching.”

“It goes right for that big ridge,” November said, pointing. “Look how rocky it is; do you think they could have climbed it? Or turned aside?”

“Depends on who it is,” he murmured.

Nirtaath growled very softly, but kept going, and her ears remained up. Ingvar patted her fur once again, continuing to creep through the snow.

“Oh,” Hilden whispered, peeking over November’s shoulder. “It’s a cave.”

“So it is,” Ingvar agreed softly. “Big one, too. All right, you three, remember never to do what I’m about to when you’re first out on your own. A cave in the winter more often than not means a sleeping bear. Stop here, stay alert, and if I shout to run, you run, straight back to the lodge. Look after your own survival first; I can take care of mine.”

He left them, trusting November and Nirtaath to keep them calm despite how alarming that last instruction must have been, creeping forward until he passed gingerly below the rocky overhang into the deep depression beneath the ridge.

At first, Ingvar’s eyes could discern nothing, accustomed as they were to the white landscape outside under gray dawn light. Then Zap floated up by his shoulder, casting a dim but helpful bluish illumination into the underground space.

The cave was much bigger than he would have expected, broad and so deep there was not even a hint of the back visible, but that was not what commanded Ingvar’s attention. In the pixie’s glow, hundreds of tightly-packed red eyes glowed back, all staring right at him.

At least Kheshiri got to disguise herself. Natchua would have preferred the comfort of a disguise charm, given how much attention she drew even at this pre-breakfast hour of the morning. There was only one resident drow in Veilgrad and she had been a well-known figure even before everybody wanted to hear her opinion of the new Elven Confederacy. Unfortunately, making herself known was the point of this excursion. She just had to endure the cheerful attention of passersby who weren’t the people she wanted to encounter.

“Nothing?” she grumbled aloud as the two of them paced through a still-sleepy residential street, where for once nobody was around to approach her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think these jackasses didn’t want attention.”

“Well, aside from the relative likelihood of finding traces in any given disused warehouse or empty lot,” Kheshiri said reasonably, “the prospects of finding them in one of those at all is a coin toss. The odds are not in our favor, mistress, not taking this approach. To be really thorough we’d need to investigate influential people with whom they might have ingratiated themselves. That’s a Wreath standard, and usually preferable to skulking in squalor, for a whole host of reasons.”

“I don’t fucking have time for that,” Natchua grumbled, tapping the thick folder she carried against her thigh. “Anyway, it’s not like we’ve got a reasonable chance of finding them no matter what; the idea is make it easy for them to find me, the way Mogul seems obsessed with doing. You really think they’ve wormed their way into Veilgrad society?”

“You have to remember, mistress, the warlocks who know dangerous secrets are only a fraction of the Black Wreath, by the numbers. They’re the only fraction that’s important, but for every one of them there are a hundred cretins who’ve just learned a secret handshake so they can get off on how naughty they’re being, dabbling in Elilial’s business. Mostly that’s just the true Wreath’s recruitment pool, but it does provide them with connections to hide in places with indoor plumbing, when they need to. There are bound to be at least a handful in a city the size of Veilgrad.”

“Huh,” Natchua grunted. “After Ninkabi I bet they’ll be relaxing their recruitment standards.”

“They do need to replenish their numbers,” the disguised succubus agreed. “But they may actually find that harder after the truce. Elilial’s no longer as eeeeevil. That takes away a lot of the appeal.”

“I really want to insist that nobody’s that stupid,” she said with a sigh. “But we know the truth, don’t we.”

Kheshiri grinned maliciously. “Everybody’s that stupid, mistress.”

“I’d like to think I’m not. Hopefully, most of my personal friends and acquaintances aren’t.”

“Actually, you’ve got yourself a pretty good group, yeah. But statistically everybody.”

“Oh, Kheshiri, ever the pessimist.”

“Finally!” Natchua exclaimed, stopping mid-stride and turning to face the man who’d suddenly spoken from right behind them. “You took your damn time. Is this it, today? Oh, don’t tell me, everybody’s still at breakfast.”

“Now, now, the Black Wreath aren’t stray dogs,” Embras Mogul informed her, stuffing his hands into his pockets and slouching indolently against somebody’s front gate. “You’re generally not gonna get results with a ‘come hither’ as pitifully obvious as this one. If this is your idea of a trap, Natchua, I’m not impressed. And are you aware who this succubus is, exactly?”

“What succubus?” Kheshiri asked innocently. “I am a pure maiden from a good family of—”

“Don’t bother,” he said curtly. “As tempted as I am to just let you try to control this creature and suffer the consequences—”

“I’m not gonna take any sass on the subject of Kheshiri from the jackass who went and let her out of her bottle in the first place,” Natchua interrupted. “And for what, to try to cause trouble for some rando Eserite? Shit like this is why nobody takes you seriously when you start ranting about how the Wreath actually protects the world. Now listen up, I’ve already wasted enough time on your lollygagging today.”

“I feel I should remind you,” he said with a brittle grin, “that you should always worry less about the Wreath you see than the many you do not. Whatever you planned to spring today, Natchua my dear, I highly suggest—”

“Yes, all right, shut up.” Natchua calmly tossed the folder at him; by simple reflex alone, he caught it, his grin disappearing. “You’ll note I added colored tabs to the pages. The green ones are fairies and the black ones possible chaos events; I recommend you steer clear of those, or at least approach with care if you won’t take my word for it. The orange ones are infernal, that’s what I want you to focus on. If you get done with those, maybe have a look at the black tabs; undead problems aren’t exactly your purview, but if there’s one thing infernomancy is good for it’s breaking shit and you usually can’t go wrong just destroying zombies.”

“I beg your god damned pardon,” he said, clearly affronted.

“Every entry has a rough map and a serviceable description. Have a look at the kraagthshnorik entombed up in the hills,” Natchua advised. “It’s been there at least a couple hundred years and might hibernate forever, but being asleep it’s an easy target. It’s a place to start, anyway. The hedge warlock who’s camped out by the northern lumber camp probably just needs a scare put into him; I’d appreciate it if you approach that circle of imp summoners in the city with more care. They’re stupid teenagers and probably just gonna kill themselves, but they all have rich parents and I don’t need you stirring up the whole city. I was just going to collect evidence on them and turn it over to the Empire.”

“Are…are you… Are you giving me homework?” Mogul demanded incredulously.

“You Elilinists always make such noise about your mandate to protect the world from demons, right? Well, I went and found a bunch of demons for you. There they are, go nuts.”

“Listen here, you preposterous knife-eared wench,” he hissed, his usual facade of conviviality fading away, “the Black Wreath are not your fucking lackeys.”

“Here’s how it is, Mogul,” Natchua stated while Kheshiri grinned in insane delight. “I don’t know what you’re up to around here except that what you’ve told me you’re up to is a load of nonsense. And you know what? I officially don’t give a shit. I have things to do and no more time for your hogwash. The next time you want my attention, you can come to the Manor and knock like a civilized person. As long as you’re not bringing me hostility I will guarantee you safe passage. But if you want my attention, you’ll bring proof that you’ve done something to help protect Veilgrad or you will be directed to fuck right off. If you’re going to hang around my city, you will make yourself useful. That is all.”

“Now, you listen—”

Rather than listening, however, she snapped her fingers and shadow-jumped both of them away, cutting off Kheshiri’s howl of delighted laughter and leaving him glaring at empty space, holding the folder of local threat assessments.

Breakfast and the dining room of Madouri Manor was a cheerful affair reminiscent of the cafeteria at the University, despite its opulent surroundings, mostly due to the familiar company.

“I really wouldn’t want to put you out,” Toby assured Teal. “It’s fine, all three of us have mounts!”

“Toby, for heaven’s sake,” Teal replied in exasperation, “it is freezing out there and it’ll take you an hour to get to Tiraas on horseback. Let us give you a ride.”

“But weren’t you going to teach Shaeine to drive later? I mean, a big multi-seater coach can’t be the best vehicle for that…”

“I would like to think I thrive in extremely minor adversity,” Shaeine said primly.

“Is this that thing again?” Fross asked, floating over Toby’s plate. “The one where you’re so determined to take care of everybody you won’t let us do the same? I thought we talked about this.”

“Shame Raolo’s spending the winter break at his grove,” Iris added. “Raolo can always make him behave.”

“Hey, that’s a point!” cackled Ruda. “Maybe we should get him! Is there a scrolltower near his folks’ place?”

“Please don’t interrupt Raolo’s vacation,” Toby exclaimed.

“Yeah, there’s really no need,” Trissiny agreed. “This’ll blow over as soon as he realizes he just volunteered me and Gabe to freeze our toes off all morning.”

Toby halted mid-interruption, his mouth open, and then leaned back in his chair, groaning and covering his face with both hands.

“We love you too, bro,” Gabriel assured him, leaning over to drape an arm around his shoulders.

“It is seriously fine, Tobes,” Teal chuckled. “If it helps you, we’ve got a new truck model my dad would be delighted to have me show off in the capital. Heated rear compartment and everything. You’d be doing us a favor.”

The dining room door opened, admitting Yancey pushing a cart stacked with small envelopes.

“Ah, good morning, Yancey,” said Ravana, setting aside her teacup. “How is—good heavens.”

“There is no cause for alarm, my Lady,” the Butler assured her, bringing his cart around the table to park near her chair. “These are social invitations, sent by Duchess Dufresne to each of the individuals here.”

“Malivette?” Trissiny asked, blinking. “Us?”

“Oh, that’s right, she never really got to know me, did she?” Gabriel mused, accepting a card with his name in neat calligraphy from Yancey. “Only reason I can imagine why a noble would invite me to a social event.”

“Pursuant to that, my Lady,” Yancey continued while continuing to pass the invitations out around the table, “the Duchess reports that Natchua has acquiesced to her and your suggestion. The social event in question is meant to be the formal announcement of the Houses’ agreement. As protocol dictates, every ruling House and the minor Houses of Lower Stalwar and Tiraan Provinces shall be invited to attend.”

“Natchua?” Gabriel paused in the middle of opening his envelope, looking up with narrowed eyes. “At a social event? With Malivette? Ravana, what did you do?”

“Why does everyone always assume I did something?” she demanded.

The crackle of silverware and paper around the table fell silent as everyone paused in eating and opening cards to stare at her.

“Yes, all right, point taken,” the Duchess acknowledged with a wry little smile.

“One day is extremely short notice for a social event requesting the presence of such dignitaries,” Shaeine observed.

“Yes,” Ravana agreed, “I rather expect Malivette’s intent is to learn who is morbidly curious enough to show up despite the implied insult. One way or another, it promises to be an interesting evening! Was there anything else, Yancey?”

“Yes, my Lady,” he said, handing the last card to Iris and gliding back to her chair, where he folded his hands behind his back and stood at attention. “There appears to be a situation in the west of the province. This morning the Manor received an urgent signal from Sheriff Ingvar. I took the liberty of dispatching Veilwin to the lodge to collect a report.”

“Really? It’s not even eight in the morning,” Ravana said, raising an eyebrow. “I am most impressed that you managed to get her up.”

“I have found that Veilwin’s hangovers respond well to topical hydrotherapy,” Yancey said diffidently.

Gabriel frowned. “What kind of therapy?”

“He dumped water on her,” Ruda said merrily, still tucking into her pancakes. “Works on my Uncle Raffi, too!”

“It seems,” Yancey continued, “Ingvar has discovered a large group of lizardfolk attempting to surreptitiously cross the province, concealing their movements with fae magic.”

Once again, quiet fell over the room as everyone processed that.

“Lizardfolk?” Ravana demanded. “Why? How many?”

“The Shadow Hunters are still attempting to take stock of the situation, but Ingvar has ascertained so far that they are an assemblage of multiple tribes from the entire region of lizardfolk population, extending from Viridill to Mathena and the northern desert. They claim to be going to Tiraas in pursuit of some prophetic vision. The Sheriff has not obtained a thorough headcount, but Veilwin estimates there are at least five hundred of them.”

Ravana blinked twice. “…Trissiny, you grew up near tribal colonies in Viridill, yes? Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

“Uh…” Trissiny was still holding her knife and fork, apparently forgotten in both hands. “Based on what I knew, lizardfolk never live in groups of more than a hundred and usually less than half that, rarely approach human cities, have no organized religion, and hibernate in the winter.”

“Well, of course,” the Duchess said fatalistically, forgetting her manners to the point of placing one elbow on the table and leaning her face into her hand. “Because why should the high elves be the only race of people to suddenly abandon millennia of tradition in my backyard? I don’t suppose Ingvar happened to mention to these nomads that I am on vacation?!”

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The door wasn’t locked, so she went right through without hesitation. Hesitation, even so much as looking around at the apparently abandoned storefront or tugging experimentally at the door itself would have sent an unconscious signal to anyone watching that she was up to something surreptitious, and Lakshmi was far too good at what she did to make such a rookie blunder. It was late and Lor’naris was dim, but the relative lack of fairy lamps was because the drow residents preferred it darker, and by the same token, the street was about as busy as it would be at noon. Even if she was a stranger here, though, people would instinctively ignore someone going calmly about their business and betraying no furtive mannerisms.

Inside, the abandoned state of the old shop was even more obvious. Mostly cleaned out, it still contained some of the detritus of a space which had been vacated by owners who didn’t care to pack unnecessary freight: a few miscellaneous wooden boxes, a half-broken chair, two mops propped in one corner. Mostly, though, it contained dust and cobwebs. There was a fairy lamp, but a small handheld portable model, not installed in the shop itself. A thief’s special, it projected a weak and carefully directed light that would be difficult to spot through the windows assuming it was properly handled.

He was already there waiting, sitting on one of the crates rather than the suspicious-looking chair. Sweet, uncharacteristically, didn’t look up immediately, and even in the dimness Lakshmi got a good look at the fatigue in his posture, though the meager light didn’t reveal much about his expression.

“Ah, Peepers!” the Bishop said cheerfully, bounding to his feet with all his customary verve as if that glimpse hadn’t happened. “Glad you could make it. I am sorry for dragging you out in the middle of the night, but I promise I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t important. Any trouble getting a sitter?”

“Sanjay’s plenty capable of looking after Padma for a few hours, especially at night,” she said, pacing carefully toward him through the dusty gloom. “Being an uncle’s done wonders for his sense of responsibility. Being real, Sweet, if I’m not gonna get any sleep anyway I don’t mind the chance for it to be out in the fresh air for once, but even so this had better be good. Dagger emphasized hard that it was urgent, otherwise I wouldn’t have shown up at all.”

“Quite right, quite right,” he said, bending to pick up the shaded lamp. “Let’s not waste any more of your time, then. This way, if you please!”

He led the way through the ratty curtain covering a doorway into the back of the shop, and she followed, hesitating for a moment only when she saw that he was guiding them down a narrow flight of stairs into a basement.

Upon first coming to Tiraas, she had been somewhat starstruck by Sweet and particularly grateful at the chance to play a role in his schemes; he was a master of her own specialization, not to mention a former Boss of the Guild who’d earned even more respect by voluntarily stepping down just when he could’ve been getting comfortable with power. Peepers had looked up to him. But that was before…everything. For an information and connections guy, Sweet sure did like to get hands-on and didn’t shy away from danger, not to mention that he courted bullshit both magical and political that was way out of her league. She had learned to be exceedingly cautious of anything he wanted to drag her into. Had his former apprentice not heavily emphasized that this was extremely important, Lakshmi would likely have brushed off the invitation to meet. She now had two younger souls to protect, and no more patience for Sweet’s over-the-top escapades.

The basement, at least, was more brightly lit; there were four fairy lamps, all portable lanterns but of a much greater strength, and laid about atop the old crates that were strewn against the walls. In the bright light, the labels still visible on the boxessuggested that this shop had previously dealt in alchemical reagents. There was an audible squeaking as an uncomfortable number of rats scattered at the humans’ arrival, but Lakshmi didn’t pay attention even to that.

Standing barely a yard from the wall farthest from the stairs was a wooden gateway that looked ostentatiously witchy, being cobbled together from fresh branches—several still with sprigs of leaves attached—and affixed by braided twine and twists of enchanting-grade copper wire. Several miscellaneous crystals, feathers, and other fae-looking doodads were wedged into gaps in the wood along its length.

“Sweet,” Lakshmi said in a tone of warning.

“Okay, yeah, this is some weird shit,” he said frankly, stopping in front of the gate and turning to look at her. “But I’ve been researching this stuff carefully for a good while now and I’m confident it’s safe as long as we both follow some necessary safety rules. When we get to the space beyond the gate, it’s important above all else to stay calm. And the second anything even smells like it’s starting to go wrong, we come right back through.”

“The fuck I’m going through any magic gate, have you lost your mind?” she exclaimed. “Have you forgotten the last time you hauled me into your bullshit? Or the time before that?”

“Peepers,” he said, expression totally serious, “I am not here to haul you into anything. All of this is about you, not about me. You and your family are in danger you need to know about, and this nonsense, as crazy as it clearly is, remains the best I can do. I promise I’m going to explain everything, but I can’t do it until we go through the gate.”

She folded her arms, adopting a mulish expression. “Can you at least explain why you can only explain inside the gate?”

“Yes, I can,” he promised, “And I intend to. Inside the gate.”

“You are an asshole, Sweet.”

“Correct,” he agreed with a grin. “But I’m on your side, Peepers.”

Lakshmi held his gaze for a few drawn-out seconds during which he maintained an earnest expression. In fairness, the danger he had always posed was just the caliber of stuff he was into, and how that tended to pan out for ordinary people like her. Sweet had never deliberately misled her and always moved quickly to protect her when his shenanigans put her at risk. Which, apparently, was happening yet again.

With a heavy sigh of ill grace, she shook her head and stomped forward. “All right, fine. I’ll hear you out. Where the fuck does your magic doorway go, exactly?”

“Right here,” he said with a smile, “just in a different dimension. That’s why I chose this basement. On the other side it should just be another empty basement.”

“Uh huh,” she grunted. “Fine. After you.”

He made an elaborate bow, at which she sneered, then turned and sauntered through the improvised doorway. In the middle of it, he appeared to suddenly slide sideways out of its frame, and vanished from view.

Lakshmi grimaced in distaste, giving very serious thought to just turning around and buggering off. The same instinct of self-preservation that warned her to stay out of Sweet business made her hesitate, though. If she was already in this business—which meant it would be yet more fallout from one of his previous debacles—then he was right. She needed to know, to be prepared. There’d be no other way to protect her family.

Cursing under her breath, Lakshmi stalked forward and stepped into the doorway too fast to be able to talk herself out of it.

Immediately she had the very bizarre sensation that in the process of taking a single stride through its flat dimensions she had abruptly turned ninety degrees and set off to the side, and then she had to come to a stop to avoid running into the back wall of the basement.

“There we go!” Sweet said cheerfully from behind her. “Now, we can talk in peace.”

She stepped around the gate, carefully not moving back through it, to rejoin him in the middle of the basement, peering critically around. Immediately, Lakshmi could see what he’d meant about this being another dimension. Superficially, it looked exactly like the dingy underground room they’d entered via the stairs, but clearly the rules here were subtly different. A diffuse green glow lingered around the wooden gateway itself, and the four fairy lanterns now appeared surrounded by little wisps of blue light, as if they’d summoned arcane fireflies. Also, she noticed, the clearly-printed labels on the old crates were no longer in Tanglish. Lakshmi couldn’t tell what language that was; the spiky glyphs gave her the odd feeling they weren’t actually meant to be read.

“So… What dimension is this, exactly?”

He spread his arms, beaming, as if the shabby and now eerie basement space were a museum to be shown off. “Welcome, Peepers, to the dimensional insulation layer! Also known as chaos space.”

“God dammit, Sweet—”

“Now, now!” He held up one hand to forestall her very reasonable protests. “Remember what I said? It’s vitally important to stay calm. This place has innate defenses; it’s not safe to be here for long. It’s fine over the relatively short term, but the longer we’re here, the closer we come to getting a reaction we do not want. We’ve bought some extra time by being underground; being unable to see the sky will protect you from some of the unease. But getting upset will only shorten the time before somebody notices we’re in here and comes to do something about it, and we want to have our chat and be gone before that happens, trust me.”

“What the fuck does seeing the sky have to do with anything?”

“That’s one of those things where knowing will only make it worse,” he assured her. “Remember, Peepers, compose yourself. You’re about to hear some shit that is going to seriously upset you. Please concentrate on keeping an even keel.”

She folded her arms again. “You’re not doing a great job of selling this to me, Sweet. Why do we need to be in a creepy-ass netherworld in order to have this particular conversation, exactly?”

“It’s a little trick I’ve picked up,” he said, seating himself on a nearby crate. “There are certain very potent magical effect that will inform the caster when a breach has occurred, anywhere in the world. The Silver Throne uses one of these, powered by a fairy geas, to protect some of its secrets; once something has been Sealed to the Throne, if anyone outside the seal learns of it, Hands of the Emperor know right away and can send agents to quarantine the breach. Unless said breach occurs here, in an extradimensional space created specifically by the Elder Gods to block magical effects.”

He had the effrontery to grin at her.

“I’m about to tell you a couple of things which are Sealed to the Throne, Peepers, and I’d just as soon not be immediately hauled away for treason.”

“Oh, fuck no,” she exclaimed. “That’s exactly the kind of bullshit I want to stay out of! You know how much I love learning secrets, Sweet, but not the goddamn Emperor’s! That shit’s more trouble than I can handle.”

“That’s the problem exactly,” he said, his expression immediately sobering. “You are already in the trouble, Peepers. Listen, I fulfill a lot of different roles and have to be a different man in different situations. Some of my loyalties are inevitably tested against each other, and this is one of those times. In the end, I am first and foremost an Eserite, and that means this time I’m siding with you, hence all this rigamarole.”

“Why?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

“You’re Guild,” he said, meeting her gaze. “More to the point, the Imperial government—actually, the Emperor in particular has screwed you over. You’ve always played straight and done the right thing, Lakshmi, and in return you’ve been conned and put in danger. I’m not having it. So I’m gonna tell you what you need to know to protect Padma and Sanjay, but I’m doing it carefully. There’s no sense in us both getting in trouble with Imperial Intelligence, not when I know a spiffy magical workaround.”

The very bad feeling in her gut intensified the longer she talked.

“All right, all right, enough backstory. The suspense is starting to get to me, Sweet. What the fuck does the Imperial government want with me?”

Sweet hesitated, drawing a shallow breath and letting it out, which of course only alarmed her further.

“Okay. Awhile ago, there was a plot within the Imperial Palace that forced the Emperor to go into hiding, briefly. I assisted with that, and arranged for him to be stashed for a few days in the absolute last place anybody would look.”

Lakshmi’s stomach plummeted as intuition notified her she should be terrified in advance of her logical mind actually putting together what the danger was.

“The man you knew as Danny,” Sweet said, still holding her eyes, “was… Well, it was short for Sharidan.”

“No,” she whispered.

“As in,” he continued, relentlessly, “Sharidan Julios Adolphus Tirasian.”

“No no no no,” Lakshmi babbled, raising both hands to clutch at her hair.

“Which means,” Sweet continued in a gentler voice, “Padma is the rightful Princess of the Tiraan Empire.”

“You SON OF A BITCH!” Lakshmi shrieked, hurling herself across the room at him with clawed fingers outstretched. Sweet caught her wrists deftly, which was probably for the best as she wasn’t a fighter and didn’t really have a plan here. It was cathartic to struggle with him, even if the knee she tried to aim at his crotch only impacted painfully against the edge of the crate. “Why would you—how could you do this to me!?”

“Okay, whoah!” he snapped, still gripping her arms and forcing her back a step despite her struggles. “We’re here because I have a role with this and I feel responsible for looking out for you, but let’s keep in mind exactly who did what! I asked you to open your home to the guy, Peepers. Open your pantry? Sure, you could argue that was implied. Your heart? Not relevant, but debatably a logical side effect. Legs? That was entirely on you!”

She went rigidly still, glaring at him and breathing heavily.

“And remember,” Sweet continued in a more even tone, still holding her arms, “you probably just shaved a good chunk off the time we’ve got here. Calm, Peepers. As justified as you are in being upset, you need to control it. Okay?”

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, and then she finally drew in a heavy breath and took a step back. Sweet released her arms, and Lakshmi used them to straighten her hair.

“All right,” she said, pleased with the evenness of her tone despite the panic-induced rage pulsing at the back of her throat. “Who else knows this?”

“The problem is I’m not sure,” he said frankly. “I haven’t told anybody and won’t. Cloak and Dagger know, but I trust my life to their discretion and I promise you can too. At issue is whether Sharidan knows. Keeping tabs on you after I removed him would be a possible course of action Quentin Vex might take; if he did, you can bet he’s followed up and knows the truth. If you’ve got access to good enough magic, there are ways to verify paternity without the subject even knowing it.”

“Wouldn’t…” She had to pause and swallow before continuing. “Wouldn’t they have done something if they knew?”

“Maybe, but possibly not,” he said, frowning. “You know about the Tirasian Dynasty’s lack of an heir and the pressure that puts on the Throne. At issue is that you’re Guild, and I know. If the Silver Throne seized the child of a member of the Thieves’ Guild for any reason, then all the intricate politics of the situation would suddenly cease to matter. The Boss would have to go straight to war over something like that; doctrine and everything we stand for demands it. If they know, they’ll want to play this smart.”

“And of course,” she said bitterly, “just asking me isn’t even a prospect.”

“The fact they haven’t makes me suspect they don’t know,” Sweet said. “It would be a likely action. Likely, but not inevitable. They’ll also be thinking in terms of security and necessity, and might just be waiting and watching to see what happens. I don’t know, is the thing. But you deserve to be aware this is hanging over your head and what might result from it, Peepers. I’ve got your back; if the Throne makes a move on you, then I will bring the Boss in and we’ll act. It’ll destroy basically all of my work over the last ten years, not to mention causing massive trouble throughout the Empire and beyond, but… That simply can’t be tolerated. The way Sharidan deceived me and used you was plenty bad enough. The Throne doesn’t get to do that horseshit. Not to a member of the Guild.”

She nodded once, curtly. “What if he gets another heir?”

Sweet heaved a deep sigh. “That’s where it gets even more complicated. This is also classified, but it turns out there was some kind of magical effect over the Palace preventing anyone there from getting pregnant, which is why of all the women that guy takes to bed, you were the first to catch it: you were outside the effect. I dunno exactly what it was, but what I’ve been told is that it was disabled and should fade with time. And he does keep a stable of his own girls, so hopefully, he’ll get a more acceptable heir soon enough. Once that happens, you should be more or less in the clear. The Throne isn’t going to want an Eserite-raised Punaji heir if they’ve got any better prospects.”

“That fucking asshole,” she hissed.

“Calm,” he reminded her. “You are goddamn right, but remember: calm. Once we’re out of here you can beat the shit out of a training dummy, that always helps me. But keep it firmly in mind, Peepers, because I haven’t told you the bad part yet.”

“The fucking bad part?” She paused, deliberately breathed in and out, and rolled her shoulders once. “Right, I know, calm. How, I calmly ask you, was that not the bad part? How the fuck is there a worse part!?”

“This is also Sealed to the Throne,” he said solemnly. “About three years ago, Elilial took human form and infiltrated the Palace.”

Lakshmi heard herself squeak embarrassingly.

“Specifically,” Sweet continued with a grimace, “she got herself a position in the Imperial harem. As the Emperor’s favorite. And because magical sterility whammy doesn’t work on goddesses, she got herself a demigod heir as the firstborn child of the Emperor.”

Lakshmi staggered backward and sat down hard on another crate.

“I’ve done my research on demigods since then,” Sweet continued, “and it’s all frustratingly vague. There are basically no rules; it’s not a biological process, the deity involved seems to choose how it goes down. For all I know, she’s still carrying, or the kid might’ve been born the very next day. That really doesn’t matter, legally; primogeniture is not a factor in Tiraan inheritance. The heir to the Silver Throne does have to be a blood descendant of the current ruler if one is available, but among the prospects, the Emperor or Empress can designate whichever they think is the best candidate, regardless of who was born first.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed and finding nothing to say.

“I know you’re sharp enough to connect the dots on your own,” Sweet said gently, “but I’m gonna spell all this out just for the sake of thoroughness, because we need to be on the same page. What this means, for your purposes, is that Elilial and the Black Wreath are clearly trying to put their own heir on the Silver Throne. So they do not want any alternates to exist, and the Throne itself very much does.”

Lakshmi slumped, lowering her head to stare at the floor.

“The good news,” he offered, “is that Elilial definitely doesn’t know about you or Padma. And there’s no reason she should find out; everybody already in the know is highly motivated to keep it from her, especially Imperial Intelligence, if they’re even on that short list.”

There was silence in the room. Out of the corner of her eye, Lakshmi noted one of the rats coming out of hiding. Viewed from across the dimensional barrier, it looked washed out and wavery, as if she were seeing it through water or smoke.

“You okay, Peepers?” Sweet asked softly.

She raised her head to stare at him. “Am I okay? Is that even a fucking question?”

“Fair,” he agreed, nodding. “I just wanted to make sure you’re still with me. I know this is a lot to lay on a person.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do about this?” she whispered.

He sighed again. “I…seriously thought about not telling you, to be honest. Because it’s an absolute motherfucker of a thing to have hanging over someone’s head, and there’s just not much you can do except live with it. I didn’t do this to be cruel, I swear…”

“No.” She shook her head. “No, you’re right. I’m an Eserite, and an information gal. Knowledge is power; above all else, I hate being in the dark. But god dammit, Sweet.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “I’m glad to hear that. What decided me is that there is something you can do, if it comes down to a confrontation. If Imperial agents take Padma, you come to the Guild. We may not be able to get her back, but we will fucking well make them pay for it.”

“And if they take me?” she asked bitterly.

“I’ll be watching for that,” he said. “As will Cloak and Dagger. If you disappear and then suddenly there’s a Princess, we’ll know what’s up. If they wanna be really thorough, Intelligence might be able to nab me, but they won’t get the elves, I promise you that.”

“Which leaves…”

“The other antagonists,” he said, nodding again. “It’s hard to say where Elilial stands in all this, with most of her plans in shreds and now her truce with the Pantheon in effect. The Empire isn’t a signatory to that, but… There’s a lot of uncertainty there. If she or hers come at you, you may not get the luxury of much time to react. In that event, Peepers, you just start saying some of this out loud.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What would that— Oh. It’s still Sealed, isn’t it?”

“Exactly,” he grinned. “You stepping back into the real world with this info in your head won’t trigger the effect, but you telling anybody will. So, absolutely don’t do that. Unless you get cornered by the Wreath, in which case, start babbling. Imperial agents will be on you as fast as they can teleport, and they will immediately side with a human against demons or warlocks even if they don’t know the situation. And if they do, they’ll protect you and Padma against whatever.”

“Which would leave us in the other situation…”

“Yeah,” he acknowledged. “It’s not perfect, Peepers. But it’s what we can manage to do. And remember: there is a very real possibility of all of this blowing over. Once Sharidan sires some heirs of more conventional parentage, Padma becomes much less interesting to House Tirasian, and said other heirs will be Elilial’s foremost problem. We all just gotta keep our heads down and hope for the best. And if we don’t get the best… Do what we can.”

“You are a real bastard, you know,” she said. “The pisser is how you can completely wreck my life but still mean so well.”

He sighed. “I’ve got your back, Peepers. That’s the best I can do. In my defense, even given some of the stuff I’ve brought you into, I could not reasonably have predicted this. And, again,” he added with a touch of asperity, “I did not tell you to sleep with the guy!”

Lakshmi shook her head, then got to her feet. “Don’t think this is settled, just because…”

She trailed off, the sound first coming too vaguely to interrupt her, but very shortly she could no longer ignore it. The deep groaning echoed through the very bricks around them, not unlike the noises made by old buildings settling, except it was not a sound made by any building. It was a voice. A deep, enormous voice, moaning in apparent pain.

“What the f—”

Sweet jumped to his own feet in alarm as crimson rivulets of blood began to seep out of cracks in the brickwork all around them.

“Time to go,” he stated. She was already moving toward the gateway.

Almost not fast enough. With a rumble and a roar, a veritable deluge of apparent blood came pouring out of the stairwell, rushing toward them.

“Go go go!” Sweet pushed her ahead as they both charged at and through the magical gate. Moving at that speed, the sideways sensation of passage was even more jarring, though less so than both of them smashing against the wall on the other side, especially as he hit right on top of her.

At least this wall wasn’t bleeding.

Behind there came a loud crack, and Lakshmi squirmed out from under Sweet—who was still trying to bodily protect her, she noted almost fondly—to find his two elven proteges in the room in the process of beating the wooden chaos gate to smithereens with cudgels.

“You cut that close, Sweet!” Fauna exclaimed.

“We are about to go in there after you,” Flora added.

“Well, damn, I didn’t mean to worry you,” he said, peering warily at the wreckage. “Wait, were we just in there too long? Or did something happen on this side?”

The elves exchanged a look.

“There was…a ripple,” Fauna admitted, glancing at Lakshmi.

“A chaos effect,” Flora added.

“Very slight,” Fauna said hastily. “It probably wouldn’t have affected anything except an open gateway to the chaos dimension.”

“Wait,” Lakshmi interjected, “so when you said bad shit would go down if we were in there too long and drew attention, you didn’t mean…that fucking nightmare?”

Sweet drew in a breath and let it out in a huff, running a hand through his hair. “No, that was… Well, would you look at that. Once again, life gets just a little more complicated.”

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The spectacle they’d made in the sanctuary sufficiently distracted everyone that Trissiny and her entourage were able to make a relatively discreet withdrawal, leaving behind an agitated temple filled with exited visitors, distraught Purists, and Legionnaires rapidly moving to ensure the crowd remained under control. The paladin glanced back once just before stepping through a rear door of the sanctuary, and locked eyes just for a moment with Sister Magden, who had knelt to wrap her arms around the weeping Lanora’s shoulders.

Then they were moving through the relatively quieter halls beyond, the whole group sorting into rough columns of two abreast and making for the deeper temple where there would be fewer people.

By mutual contrivance, Rasha and Zafi ended up near the back of the troop, between Sister Azalea’s two priestess friends in the front and the other three Eserites trailing along behind them.

“Well, that…was altogether a hell of a thing,” Zafi finally said softly after they had walked for a minute to only the sound of their combined feet and the muted conversation between Trissiny and Azalea up in the front. “Mission successful and all. I’m glad those turkeys got dealt with. Dang, though. I did not get up this morning expecting to be in a room with Avei.”

Rasha opened her mouth and hesitated, fumbling for a suitable response to that. She had to pause and clear her throat for time, only belatedly murmuring, “That particular experience was a first for all of us, I think. But you get used to it, hanging around with a paladin. Expect the unexpectable, or be trampled by it.”

“I dunno whether to write this off as over my pay grade, or try to see if I can’t finagle a more permanent position around the General,” Zafi admitted. “I dunno, I think I’d make a pretty good lackey. I guess I’ll just have to hang around you a while longer and see if I don’t get the hang of it,” she added, giving Rasha a playful little sidelong smile. “After all, if I can’t pick up some secondhand poise from my lady of mystery, I guess that’d make me completely hopeless.”

There came a gagging sound from behind them, followed by the muffled thump of someone’s fist impacting someone’s midsection. Neither of them turned around.

“I think I can spare you some poise,” Rasha mused. She trailed off, frowning, then drew in a breath. “Look, Zafi, this coy back-and-forth is fun, but would it spoil the illusion if we talk frankly for a little bit? Between you and me, I’m a little wrung out after the day I’ve had.”

“Oh, thank the gods,” Zafi said, exhaling in relief. “Yeah, I honestly don’t know how much longer I could’ve kept it up. Not that I was trying to misrepresent myself, I just… Well, I gotta flirt at maximum strength before you realize how out of my league you are, is all.”

Rasha glanced at her, unable to repress a smile, and found the soldier staring forward with her cheeks flushed. The unexpected boost to her own ego brought back some of her well-trained smoothness, despite the fatigue of the day.

“Straight talk, then. When are you off duty tomorrow?”

Zafi didn’t quite stumble, but her stride hitched as if she’d had to remind herself how to take a step in the middle of one. “Uh, I, ah… Early shift. I’m free at three.”

“Perfect. There’s a Glassian cafe called La Chez just a few blocks from here. I will see you there at four.”

“I, um.” Zafi swallowed heavily. “Rasha, that place is a little out of…”

“My treat,” Rasha assured her. “And I’m not throwing money around; the owner is a friend of my sponsor. She got him his business license when he immigrated here. After that, we’ll see if we want to start traumatizing each other with the sorts of places soldiers and thieves actually like to hang out.” She glanced over at the Legionnaire again, and subconsciously bit her lower lip. “I’ve got a feeling you’re worth the effort.”

Zafi’s answering grin was clearly out of her control. “I…will not disappoint.”

“You haven’t yet.” Rasha winked at her, then subtly shortened her stride, fading backward such that Darius meandered up to take her place as smoothly as if they’d practiced the maneuver. Which, of course, they had.

Zafi was still grinning like a fool, but coughed and made an effort to marshal herself before glancing over at him. “Right. So, this is the part where you explain how much you’ll break my legs if I mistreat your friend?”

“Whoah.” He held up both hands as the two priestesses in front of them shifted their heads to look backward while walking. “As the resident dude-type person, I’m gonna delegate this conversation. Ladies, if you would?”

Another deft Eserite maneuver ensued in which he fell back and Layla and Tallie smoothly sidled up to flank Zafi on both sides, despite the fact they’d turned into a narrower hallway which made this a little cramped.

“First of all,” said Tallie in a pleasant tone, “we never issue a threat in front of witnesses. That’s proof of premeditation, which greatly raises your chance of being convicted if prosecuted and automatically increases your sentence.”

“Second,” Layla continued from her other side, “we don’t issue redundant threats. You are clearly aware of the perils of offending Eserites; making a production of it would just make us look petty and foolish.”

“And most important,” Tallie finished, “Eserites handle their own problems. If you ever hurt Rasha, you will answer to Rasha.”

“We’ll just be sitting on the sidelines, laughing and throwing coins,” Layla added smugly.

Incongruously, Zafi grinned again. “Y’know what? You girls are all right. Actually you remind me a little bit of my sergeant.”

“I do believe I approve of this one,” Layla declared.

At the head of the double column, Sister Azalea broke a lull in the softer conversation between herself and Trissiny to say, quietly, “Thank you for everything you did today.”

“Just my duty,” the paladin replied. “And there are already parts I wish I’d handled better…”

“Obviously, I’m grateful for the help you rendered to the Sisterhood, Trissiny, I don’t mean to minimize that. But I meant personally. It may be routine for you to commune with our goddess, but a simple priestess like myself can expect to spend her life without ever being in her actual presence. It was… Thank you.”

“Ah.” Trissiny smiled faintly at that. “Well, then, you’re welcome.”

The priestess gave her a pensive look. “You are dissatisfied with the outcome?”

“We still need to find the source of the Purists’ funding and equipment, as well as who organized them,” Trissiny said with a dour expression. “Based on your intelligence it seems Sister Lanora is the only one who has that information, and now… I rather doubt she will be inclined to be helpful, and since she is no longer part of the Sisterhood, we no longer have the legal prerogative to detain her. I might be willing to risk it anyway, but something tells me there would be immediate and voluble legal challenges if we tried, accompanied by press coverage of the Sisterhood’s ham-fisted abuses of power. All conveniently untraceable, of course.”

“Hmm.” Azalea narrowed her own eyes in thought. “Undoubtedly the goddess acted as she did for good reason. I must trust this will lead us to the course of action she desires.”

Trissiny indulged in a soft sight. “The consciousness of gods is…not entirely like our own, Sister. As Professor Tellwyrn once put it, Avei the deity can be influenced to do things which Avei the mortal strategist of the Elder War would have known not to. Calling upon her so dramatically, in public, may have been what led to this outcome. Well, anyway, recrimination is useless even when not focused on inscrutable deities; we have the next moves to consider. Sister Azalea…” She hesitated, studying the priestess sidelong for a moment. “Are you still interested in the office of Bishop?”

“I will of course serve Avei in whatever capacity I might,” she said diplomatically. “Surely that is less likely now, rather than more? We have probably just further affronted the Archpope, even if we cannot prove it.”

“I’ve spoken with High Commander Rouvad about this. We plan for the Sisterhood to appoint a Bishop unilaterally, who will be responsible for directing our interfaith relations, without going through the Universal Church.”

“I…see,” Azalea said. “That is a bold move. And now that I think on it, exactly what is needed.”

Trissiny nodded. “My next destination was going to be Viridill, to retrieve Nandi Shahai for that role. But you are here, Sister, and clearly more than capable… The position isn’t mine to appoint, of course, but I think my recommendation carries some weight with Rouvad.”

“I’d be honored to take on the task if the Commander wishes,” Azalea said seriously, “but if Shahai is another prospect, I’d encourage you to ask her first. She has served Avei for five centuries in a surprising variety of roles, and has exactly the web of long-standing connections this task requires. Thank you for thinking of me, however,” she added with a smile. “As these events have demonstrated, I think I am still valuable to the Sisterhood where I am.”

“Very much so,” Trissiny agreed, smiling.

“Then there remains finding and proving a link between the Purists and the Archpope, if possible. I dare to hold out hope that Lanora will still cooperate, but it is true that she now has ample motivation to obstruct us…”

“Well, we’re not entirely out of tricks just yet,” the paladin murmured, eyes straight ahead and narrowed in thought. “Actually… First thing tomorrow, I’m going to call in a favor.”

The door stood slightly ajar, emitting a slice of the clean glow of a fairy lamp, so he pushed it wider and poked his head in.

This wing was in the Manor’s most refurbished section, a hallway lined with bedrooms directly above the kitchen and dining room where the house’s residents spent most of their time. Thus, the room was clean and repaired, with new glass in the windows and modern fairy lighting, but starkly empty, lacking drapes, carpets, or even wallpaper. That had given Natchua plenty of room to lay out her various props.

She had hung maps of Veilgrad and Lower Stalwar Province on one wall and marked them heavily with both ink and pushpins. On the floor were no less than four now-inert spell circles, and another sprawling map of the city held down by a selection of chess pieces, silverware, and coins.

Natchua stood in the center of the room, slowly turning her head back and forth to study the various maps and tapping her lips with one fingertip, a characteristic tic of Professor Tellwyrn’s which she had begun unconsciously using in recent months.

Jonathan cleared his throat. “Planning an invasion?”

“Everybody talks about how dangerous and mysterious Veilgrad is,” she said without looking up. “I never really paused to consider what that actually means for people. It’s one thing to note that a steady trickle of people just vanish around here, every year. Sometimes entirely… Sometimes turning up later, in pieces. That’s continued happening as usual while we’ve been living here. While I was gallivanting around the city, getting my face in the papers and doing nothing about any of it. Every one of those statistics was a person, who left grieving people behind.”

He stepped the rest of the way in and pushed the door almost closed behind him, not quite to the point of latching it. “None of that was your responsibility, Natch.”

“Not specifically, no,” she murmured. “Aren’t we all at least somewhat responsible for doing what we can, for who we can, where we are? That seems like one of the basic necessities of being a decent person. Considering who and what I am, I really need to think about stuff like that.”

Stepping carefully to avoid disrupting any of her workings, Jonathan approached her and gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind. She immediately leaned back against him. “What brought all this on?”

“Work,” she said sighing softly. “I’m not just up here flagellating myself, Jon. For tomorrow’s planned project I needed a list of targets around the city. And holy shit, there are a lot. Mostly fairies, which I can’t do a whole lot about. I did find a good handful of demonic activity, which is what I was looking for. Oh, also, I’ve accidentally solved Veilgrad’s central mystery.”

“Well, that’ll be a relief to a lot of people,” he observed.

“I think I’d actually better keep it to myself,” Natchua said, closing her eyes and resting her head against his collarbone. “There’s not really anything to be done about it and knowing will just scare everybody. Turns out there’s an abandoned drow city very close to here. Well, abandoned except for the divinely-created undead monstrosities it’s full of now. Themynrite magic was used in their creation, and the resonance between that and the native fairies is what keeps giving rise to necromantic events, despite the fact that none of them are related.”

“Well… Surely if you know where that is, the Empire can go in and clear it out?”

“Bad idea,” she insisted. “If a Themynrite city is abandoned, it’s because it was breached by Scyllithenes. That would be why it’s full of zombie monsters now. You should never open a path for them. And if the Scyllithenes haven’t managed to break through them in thousands of years of trying, those zombie monsters are not to be fucked with. Might be too big a mouthful even for the Imperial Army. Better to leave it alone, and start being more vigilant about undead events in the area.”

“Hence, all this.”

She nodded, opening her eyes to look up at him. “And this is just what I was able to find. It’s a start, anyway. Xyraadi is much better at divination than me; infernomancy doesn’t lend itself to the art.”

“I notice you’ve got your djinn bottle out,” he said in a neutral tone, nodding at the artifact still sitting in the center of one of the inert spell circles.

“Yeah… I don’t call on Qadira lightly, but at least I got what I needed.”

“You found the Wreath?”

“No, they’re not nearly so easy to track. They’re not what I was looking for, anyway. Kheshiri and I will still be chasing them down tomorrow. Given the established pattern, they’ll probably find us once we’re alone. And now I have what I need to be ready for them.” With another quiet sigh, Natchua reached up to grasp his hands and squeeze them momentarily, then pulled herself out of his embrace. “Fortuitously, both succubi are in another room down at the end of this hall. I’ll go brief her real quick.”

“Good idea,” he said with a smile. “And I’m sure it has nothing to do with wanting to break up whatever those two are doing in a room together.”

“Vanislaads are generally not social with each other,” Natchua agreed, leading the way back out into the hall. “Mel and Shiri are pretty focused and they both have plenty to do; I’m not hugely worried about a feud brewing, but still. Doesn’t pay to take risks with their kind.”

“I’m right with you on that.”

She reached one door, grasped the latch and pushed it open. Then both of them froze, staring into the room.

Melaxyna was on all fours on the floor—actually, upon a closer look, she had all four of her limbs bent double and then bound with leather straps, calf to thigh and forearm to bicep, forcing her to balance painfully on her knees and elbows. Her head was mostly obscured, between the gag, the blindfold, and the pair of felt bunny ears leftover from the last spring festival. Both her wings were splayed out to the sides and actually nailed to the floor.

Behind her stood Kheshiri dressed in a formal ballgown with the addition of a broad leather collar from which dangled a cowbell, busy feeding the other succubus’s tail into an old-fashioned laundry mangle they’d somehow dragged up to this room.

Both their heads turned to the door.

“Do you knock?” Kheshiri demanded acerbically.

Natchua and Jonathan jerked back out, yanking the door shut, and simultaneously pressed their backs against the wall to either side of it.

“On the other hand,” Natchua decided, “I could just brief her in the morning.”

He cleared his throat. “Um, I note that it was the significantly more evil succubus in the advantageous position over the more trustworthy one. Should you actually…?”

“In fact, no, it wasn’t; that was Shiri in the…restraints. They’d swapped appearances.”

Jonathan covered his eyes with a hand. “Okay. Somehow, that’s the kinkiest part, and I can’t even articulate why.”

“Well, hell, this is good,” Natchua said, pushing herself off the wall and taking him by the arm. “If you keep two Vanislaads together, they’ll either go at each other like strange cats, or… Go at each other like bunnies. And two Vanislaads getting busy usually means the kind of play that would kill most people. So, it beats the hell out of the alternative. Now let’s go turn in. Suddenly I find I would like to make love slowly in the missionary position with the lights off.”

It was past dark when Trissiny returned to Madouri Manor, though not by much. She found the rest of her class still up and gathered in the front sitting room of their suite, with one exception.

“Trissiny!” Teal exclaimed upon her entry. “There you are, we were starting to worry. Is everything okay?”

“It’s been…a day,” Trissiny said wryly, striding forward and flopping into an unoccupied armchair. Teal and Shaeine were perched together on the loveseat, Gabriel and Toby lounging in smaller chairs, and Fross as usual floating overhead. F’thaan lay curled in front of the fire, though he looked up at her arrival and his tail thumped against the floor. “Are you two okay? You got everything squared away all right?”

“Once F’thaan was rescued, our afternoon was much more tedious than harrowing,” Shaeine assured her. “The authorities were not pleased by Vadrieny making a display of herself in broad daylight in the middle of the city, but we had ample legal representation.”

“Also, it helps that we were in the right,” Teal added. “Vadrieny’s actions were fully covered by the statutes governing defense of self and property. Except for some, ah, incidental damage to the pavement. The magistrate was persuaded to levy a fine and the bill for repairs, rather than anything more serious.”

“As it ever was,” Ruda drawled, gesticulating with her bottle of rum. “What’d get a factory worker jailed gets a factory heiress fined, in an amount that won’t even dent her allowance.”

“It does seem like people with money live under an effectively different set of laws,” Fross chimed.

“C’mon, doll, you know I love you,” Ruda added in response to Teal’s scowl. “But you exist in a context. There’s nothing gained by denying your advantages in life.”

“I’d like to see a factory worker make a Vadrieny-style crater in the street,” Gabriel remarked.

“I apologize that we were not able to drive you back here as planned,” Shaeine said to Trissiny.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Trissiny said quickly, “it ended up being Avenist business that kept me occupied most of the day. I wouldn’t have been able to take you up on it anyhow. I’m just glad to see you and F’thaan are back safe. Did June turn in already?”

“Actually, she’s spending the night up at Ravana’s hunting lodge,” said Toby. “With her sister, and the rest of Brother Ingvar’s group.”

“Yeah, you missed the big news of the day,” Gabriel added. “Ravana has effectively hired the whole sect to serve as the new foresters and game wardens for the province.”

“Really,” Trissiny said, leaning forward. “That’s…a peculiar move. Wouldn’t that get her in trouble with the Huntsmen?”

“Oh, but that wasn’t the big news,” he replied with relish. “There was a whole public announcement today while you were off in the capital. House Madouri has formally recognized Ingvar’s splinter group as the official and legitimate faith of Shaath.”

“Which means,” Toby added, “that legally they are, in Tiraan Province.”

“What?” Trissiny exclaimed. “She can’t just… Wait, why would she do that? It makes her an outright enemy of the orthodox Huntsmen! Not to mention probably the Universal Church. There’s a reason the Houses stay out of religious politics. The risk/reward calculation is never in the favor of people trying to meddle.”

“Well, like I was just saying before you came in,” Gabriel replied, “there’s a good chance of this getting her in good with the other cults. Pretty much nobody actually likes the Huntsmen.”

“And like I was just telling him, it doesn’t work that way,” Ruda retorted. “People who’ve got power and privilege want to protect those things above any other concern. The accepted thing is that nobles don’t meddle in cult business. If this becomes a precedent, the cults will be losing influence to the Houses. All the religious leaders are going to come down on her, or try to.”

“Ravana isn’t reckless enough to do something like that without considering the angles,” Trissiny mused. “What is she up to?”

“Uh, pardon me, but isn’t she kind of explicitly exactly that?” Fross objected. “I’m not denying that Ravana’s sly, but just from the stories I’ve heard it seems like her whole problem is a tendency to go on the attack without accounting for the broader context.”

“Oh, I think she’s considered the angles, all right,” Ruda drawled. “Question is how carefully she’s considered ‘em.”

“Well, that’s as good a segue as any,” Trissiny said with a sigh. “Gabe, Toby, I think we need to take a page out of Ravana’s book.”

“Well, sure,” Gabriel said lightly. “But where are we going to get a mag cannon and a team of assassins at this hour?”

“I see that verbal diarrhea still hasn’t cleared up,” Toby said. “You need to eat more fiber, Gabe. Triss, which book did you mean, specifically?”

“The part where she’s making this a working vacation. I have spent my day preemptively shutting down an attempt by Justinian to induce a schism within the Sisterhood of Avei, and encountering growing evidence that he’s trying to do the same thing within the Thieves’ Guild. That,” she added, turning to Shaeine and Teal, “is probably why they sent a couple of hapless goons to try to abduct F’thaan.”

“I wondered,” Teal murmured. “They never had a realistic chance of getting him. It does seem like the Guild was deliberately setting itself up for failure.”

“In response,” Trissiny continued, “the Sisterhood is dropping its attempts to get Justinian to confirm a new Bishop. Tomorrow, if the arrangements can be made fast enough, Commander Rouvad is going to appoint one without his approval, and have her take over our interfaith operations, as Bishop Darling is currently doing for the Guild.”

“Risky,” Ruda said, her expression intent. “You’ll either end up freezing the Universal Church out of the only thing it actually does, or being frozen out by the Church. It all depends on how many other cults you can get to sign on with you.”

“Exactly,” Trissiny agreed, nodding and turning back to the boys. “The Guild hasn’t been having much luck, but they’re nearly as unpopular as the Huntsmen. Joined by the Sisterhood, things will change. And if all three Trinity cults take a stand…”

“You realize we don’t actually have the authority to do that,” Toby said seriously. “I’m not refusing you, Trissiny. In fact, I wholeheartedly agree and I’ll back you on this. I saw what a danger Justinian is as close up as you did. I just want to warn you, whatever relationship you have with Commander Rouvad, it’s likely more productive than any attempt I could make to get the Dawn Council to… To do anything.”

“Same goes, sort of,” Gabriel agreed. “I like the idea, Triss. But Lady Gwenfaer is the scariest person I’ve ever met, largely because I suspect she’s the smartest and I don’t actually have any idea what she thinks or wants. I walk in there asking her to go to war with the Archpope, and the only certainty is she’ll find some way to profit from it.”

“I think I see an inherent risk in this,” Fross added. “So, Justinian’s closest backers are the Huntsmen, right? And thanks to Ingvar, they’re split and effectively neutralized, right? So now, a few months after that happened, the two cults that have most openly defied him are having internal divisions he’s fostered.”

“Yeah, that’s about the time frame it’d take to set up something like that,” Ruda agreed.

“I see where you’re going, Fross, and the same had occurred to me,” said Trissiny.

Gabriel chuckled. “Well, hell, I almost hope he does try to instigate a schism inside the Vidians. Let Justinian get a taste for dealing with real schemers.”

“Once again, Arquin, not how it fucking works,” Ruda said with clear exasperation. “A group that’s already prone to politicking and infighting is more vulnerable, not less. There may be elements in it that are too good for Justinian to fuck with, but there are also a million other cracks he can wedge his fingers into. Only takes one little grip for him to start pulling the whole thing apart.”

Gabriel sighed, his smile fading. “I see your point. Man… Bishop Darling suggested I pick a faction and commit to them, but… Val’s been trying to coach me on the intricacies of Vidian politics, but it’s like the web a spider would make after you dunked it in coffee. I still don’t even know where to start finding a group of allies who can stand up to him and hold the rest of the cult together if he attacks it.”

“Actually,” Toby said pensively, studying him, “I think you know exactly where to start, Gabe. You just won’t like it.”

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Sister Lanora approached to within three yards of them, near enough to close the distance at least somewhat and define a smaller space for their conversation than the entire grand sanctuary. The four priestesses of her escort trailed along deferentially but without any display of military precision, staggering to a stop when she did and milling into an uneven formation that didn’t even presume to match the two wings of mixed Avenists and Eserites flanking Trissiny.

The leader of the Purists hesitated, then nodded deeply in a gesture which slightly shifted her whole upper body, approaching but not quite becoming a bow. Trissiny inclined her head fractionally in acknowledgment.

An expectant silence hung, in which a constant soft murmur of speculation filled the temple, coming from both the mixed crowd of visitors and the Purist priestesses themselves flanking the opposite side. Lanora herself paused again, watching Trissiny closely as if uncertain how to proceed. The paladin just studied her, eyes roving across the unique attire of the Purists.

Finally, Lanora straightened her shoulders and opened her mouth, drawing breath to speak, but before she could form a syllable Trissiny cut in, her voice projected loudly enough to echo through the sanctuary despite the close quarters.

“Where did you get those swords?”

Sister Lanora was visibly surprised and hesitated once more, having to change track mid-thought. “They are one of the unique markers of our order, General Avelea.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to be evasive,” Trissiny replied in perfect calm, prompting a general increase in the surrounding murmur that caused Lanora to glance irritably at the crowd. “I assure, you, Sister, I know what a longsword is, and I can plainly see the role they are assigned in your uniform. I asked where you got them. Swords are not mass produced outside of the Five Kingdoms or the Silver Legions, and those are standard equipment for neither. The Sisterhood has not funded your activities. So much good steel, made to matching specifications, requires significant financial backing.”

“We…do have financial support, yes,” Lanora replied after another awkward pause.

“From whom?”

“Excuse me, General, but I know your time here is limited, and I wished to discuss matters of a more spiritual nature.”

“Certainly, once you demonstrate willingness to discuss in good faith. This attempt to conceal the source of your funding does not reflect well upon your intentions, Sister.”

More muttering at that, accompanied by a few audible chuckles. Lanora’s face tightened, and all four of her accompanying priestesses looked either troubled or annoyed.

“I’m sure you have noticed that our commitment to pure interpretation of Avei’s law is not popular,” Lanora answered in a strained tone. “Like most who have the resources to engage in philanthropy, our backer is vulnerable to political currents and prefers to remain anonymous.”

“Ah,” Trissiny nodded, “clearly you cannot disclose a name in public, then. So I assume, naturally, that you have disclosed this backer’s identity to the High Commander, in accordance with Sisterhood doctrine and custom.”

“That isn’t required by doctrine,” Lanora said testily.

Trissiny raised one eyebrow. “That’s a ‘no,’ I take it.”

“We receive communication via lawyers and bankers,” the Purist said, now in open annoyance. “They are quite determined to ensure their privacy. There’s nothing I could disclose.”

“And you did not find that at all suspicious?” Trissiny asked sardonically.

“On the contrary,” Lanora shot back, “I was gratified at the evidence that our devotion has supporters even outside the Sisterhood itself. If, indeed, our support is from someone other than an Avenist. Frankly, I suspect she may simply be using anonymity to move free of the Sisterhood’s politics. After all, Avei’s faithful have always been well-represented among the legal profession.”

“Gratified,” Trissiny said, still projecting from the diaphragm but lowering her voice as if speaking to herself, a useful trick she’d picked up from Style. “Yes, I’m sure you were.”

Lanora scowled at the titters which ensued from half the sanctuary at that. “With that out of the way, General, I have concerns of my own that I—that we—wish to discuss with you.”

“That’s mostly a dueling weapon, isn’t it?” Trissiny said, lowering her eyes to the sword at Lanora’s waist and nodding her head once. “There are formation fighting tactics which incorporate use of the longsword, but they aren’t Legion standard these days. I am impressed, Sister, that you’ve accumulated this many specialists in exotic weaponry to your cause. Especially since your unifying philosophy doesn’t appear to have anything to do with a specific fighting style.”

“You seem strangely fixated on my sword, General Avelea,” Lanora exclaimed.

“Is it so strange?” Trissiny rested a hand on the hilt of her own short sword, her armor rasping softly as she shrugged. “It seems you have gathered to pursue a fundamentalist interpretation of Avenist doctrine. So, naturally, of course, you would never do something so disrespectful to the goddess of war as affect weapons you cannot effectively use as…some kind of fashion statement.” Her lips curled up in a wintry little smile which did not approach her eyes. “Therefore, you must all be highly skilled in the use of those unusual blades. Which, again, seems unconnected to your dogma. That is a powerful coincidence, Sister. Is it truly odd that I would take note of it?”

The muttering had grown ever more fervently anticipatory, and there was more muffled laughter now. This time, more of the Purists than otherwise looked openly uncomfortable, quite a few clutching the long hilts of their swords as if for comfort. Sister Lanora’s expression had gone rigid, and she had to pause and swallow before answering in a tight voice.

“Yes, well, we view them as…as a symbol of an older, more pure era of Avenist worship. We Purists gather like-minded women and teach the sword—”

“So you do train in longsword fighting?” Trissiny interrupted.

Lanora’s eye twitched, but she managed to answer in an even tone. “Of course, General.”

Trissiny’s sword rasped as she drew it from its scabbard. “Show me.”

Her escort backed up, the Eserites and Zafi grinning in anticipation. Lanora and her fellow priestesses also stepped backward, suddenly looking alarmed.

“I… General, this is a sanctuary. I really don’t think this is appropriate.”

“Devoted as you are to purity of doctrine,” Trissiny replied with a pleasant smile, “I’m certain I needn’t do anything so condescending as remind you what Avei is goddess of. I have doubts about your intentions, Sister. Showing me that you treat the martial aspect of our faith with due respect would help a great deal in putting them at ease.”

Lanora swallowed visibly. “I… Obviously, I am not a match in martial skill for the Hand of Avei.”

“Don’t worry, Sister, I won’t hurt you.”

This time, a few of the laughs came from Silver Legionnaires, to judge by the snap of a sergeant calling them back to order.

Seemingly left with no response to that, Lanora finally swallowed again and drew her sword. Trissiny saluted her in the Avenist style, right fist over her heart with her blade held vertically alongside her face. Lanora started to do the same, then changed tacks and simply bowed. She then adopted a ready stance, longsword held before her in both hands at an angle.

Trissiny stood in a relaxed posture, sword at her side in one hand and with her shield still on her back. Quiet had fallen in the temple as the two squared off, their respective escorts backing further away from the incipient duel. Several heartbeats of silence passed.

“Well?” Trissiny asked finally.

Lanora pressed her lips together and took a step forward, raising the sword over her left shoulder. She strode into the diagonal swing she directed at the paladin, putting her whole weight behind the blade’s arc.

Trissiny’s entire body tensed and uncoiled like a striking snake; starting from an apparently loose stance, she shifted and met the descending longsword in a sweeping horizontal slash at head level. The colliding blades rang loudly through the temple and the force of it sent Lanora staggering past and to one side. Trissiny stood calm and relaxed again, sword already lowered before the priestess managed to regain her footing and turn.

The loudest chorus of open laughter yet followed, at least until Trissiny suddenly turned to face the non-Purist side of the room with a frown.

“That is not appropriate conduct for a temple sanctuary. Sergeants at arms, you may clear the room if due respect for Avei’s holy ground is not observed.”

Embarrassed silence ensued.

Trissiny turned back to the increasingly frustrated Sister Lanora, inclining her head. “Excuse me, Sister. Please, continue.”

Lanora’s mood did not seem improved by the apology. This time she came forward with less hesitation, switching to a one-handed grip and launching into a series of jabs and parries. Trissiny sidestepped and deflected, allowing the longer reach of Lanora’s weapon to push her in circles of constant retreat. Despite being strictly on the defensive, there was no question to the onlookers that she was not in control; she remained relaxed and upright in posture, using only desultory motions of one hand to respond.

“Enough,” she said finally, lowering her blade and not appearing to be bothered when Lanora’s descended to within inches of her face before the priestess could rein in her strike. “You disappoint me, Sister. That is just the Eagle Style short sword form. You seem competent enough, but that style is not at all suited to the weight and reach of that weapon. Have you truly not trained at all in its appropriate use?”

Lanora was red-faced and out of breath, though by the look of her at least as much from frustration as exertion. “We…are a spiritual order, General.”

“Mm.” Trissiny stepped back, turning to sweep her gaze across the line of unhappy-looking Purists on the other side of the temple, then abruptly pointed her weapon at one of them at random. “You. Step forward.”

The woman, a Westerner apparently not much older than Trissiny, widened her eyes and looked rapidly at each of the Purists standing to either side of her. The one on the left deliberately stepped away.

“Yes, you,” Trissiny said patiently. “Show me what you can do.”

“I…” she squeaked. “But, General, it’s…”

“It’s all right.”

“Does it really seem wise to duel bystanders with live steel, General Avelea?” Sister Magden interjected.

Trissiny gave her a sidelong look. “We are surrounded by divine healers, Sister, and a formal practice between skilled martial artists is far less dangerous than having over a hundred untrained incompetents walking around with deadly weapons they don’t know how to use. Indulge me as I reassure myself that the latter is not the case here. Come, Sister, time is passing.”

The hapless young priestess swallowed heavily, but finally obeyed, stepping forward and drawing the sword at her side. She adopted a ready stance like Lanora had, then in a deliberate motion that was practically telescrolled in advance, shifted grip to hold it sidelong at her waist and stepped forward in an attempted stab.

This time, Trissiny flowed smoothly into the attack, hooking her shorter blade behind the longsword’s large crosshilt and spinning in a maneuver which both yanked the weapon entirely out of the Purist’s grasp and evaded a bodily collision between them.

The sword flew two yards and clattered loudly to the temple floor, leaving it’s owner to stagger in a different direction.

“That was pitiful,” Trissiny said with open disdain. “Anyone with rudimentary Legion training could have avoided that.” The young woman hunched her shoulders and seemed like she wanted to collapse in on herself as she scurried to retrieve her fallen blade. Trissiny turned in a half-circle to again sweep her regard across the faltering ranks of the Purists. “Let’s try something less random, then. Who among you is the best duelist? Please, someone show me something slightly impressive.”

The Purists shuffled about uncertainly and Lanora opened her mouth to make a retort, but before she could, Sister Magden stepped forward, drawing her blade in a smooth motion and settling into a ready stance that looked more practiced than either performance thus far.

Trissiny shifted to face her, and nodded once.

Magden flowed forward smoothly, launching a series of rapid jabs and shallow cuts that made deft use of the blade’s greater length, immediately forcing Trissiny to retreat and defend. Her performance was better than Lanora’s by far; the paladin was actually compelled to take a balanced stance and put her whole body into her movements. For half a minute it looked as if Magden was beginning to prevail, but then Trissiny suddenly swatted a thrust aside with a powerful parry and darted forward.

Grabbing Magden’s blade near the hilt with one gauntleted hand, she held it aside and stepped right up to the priestess, pressing her short sword against her neck. Magden froze in place, her eyes going wide.

Trissiny relented a second later, stepping back and nodding to her. “Now, that is much more impressive. Sister Magden is to be commended for her competence with your chosen weapon. For the rest of you, I cannot say the same,” she added sharply, again dragging a glare across the shame-faced Purists. “It is unacceptable that this is the best your entire order can do. It’s clear to me that far more of you than otherwise have absolutely no business carrying those blades. A sword is an implement of death, Sisters. Its sole purpose is to end lives, or thwart others who have swords in doing the same. To treat a sword as an accessory or trinket is a shameful display of disrespect to Avei’s principles.”

“We are a spiritual order,” Lanora repeated loudly, still flushed. She stepped forward as Magden retreated, now going so far as to point accusingly at Trissiny. “Ours is a goddess of multiple aspects, and we have made no secret that we are dedicated far more to womanhood than to justice or war. The Purists have formed and come here to address the seeping corruption encroaching upon the Sisterhood of Avei! And it is clear to me that our arrival is not a moment too soon, when even our own paladin stands in the Temple itself accompanied by Eserites!”

“I’ve noticed that some misconceptions about paladins have set in during their thirty year absence,” Trissiny replied, sheathing her sword. “Hands of all the gods, but most particularly Avei, have always been accompanied by comrades of other faiths, or even sometimes of no faith. It is reckless naivete to attack large scale problems with only a single, specific set of skills.”

“And you find the Thieves’ Guild to be better company than your own sisters?” Lanora exclaimed.

Trissiny half turned and looked very pointedly at Sister Azalea, Zafi, and the two other white-robed priestesses who had accompanied her in. Rasha covered her mouth with her fingers, not quite concealing a smirk.

“I’ve become quite familiar with the Thieves’ Guild in particular,” Trissiny said, turning back to address the room at large. “As well as making friends among Salyrites, Vidians… Even, to my own surprise, a Shaathist. About the Guild I can tell you that Eserion’s faithful include a few of the best people it has ever been my honor to work alongside, as well as several of the most irredeemably despicable. In the end, none of us are cloistered orders. We are called to act in the world, to protect people, strike down evil, and do what we can to make the world a better place. I will proudly stand alongside anyone who serves the Pantheon’s mandate to aid the people of this world. I will, if I must, tolerate the opinions of people with whom I disagree spiritually, so long as their actions do not flout Avei’s sacred principles or bring harm to the vulnerable. And this is what I expect every one of you to do, if you would call yourselves followers of Avei.”

“It is ever more clear,” Lanora grated, “that our arrival here is timely, General Avelea, if you are so obviously swayed by Eserite beliefs.”

“Perhaps you can point out to me exactly which part of what I just said is an Eserite belief, Sister?” Trissiny suggested with a wry smile. She paused a second for pure effect while Lanora stammered and the muttering and tittering began again from the onlookers, then pressed on before the Purist could regather her composure. “Or is the issue here that you think the Hand of Avei requires your personal oversight? The goddess watches my steps and has corrected me in the past. Do you believe you know better than Avei what she requires of her paladin?”

Lanora flushed even more deeply at that, going so far as to clench her fists, but this time she had a good enough head to steam to retort without having to gather herself. “Then perhaps you can tell us what Avei intends to do about the Sisterhood’s corrupt practice of aiding mentally sick men in the delusion that they belong among us?”

“Avei has never turned men away from her service,” Trissiny replied, her composure a stark counterpoint to the Purist’s rising agitation. “Did you know that before the Silver Legions as we know them today existed, their predecessor, the League of Avei, incorporated soldiers of both sexes? It would seem that what you seek is not a return to historical form, but the imposition of a newer one.”

“That doesn’t justify abetting delusional males in trying to transform themselves into women!”

“And who do you think you are, to decide who gets to be a woman? Your sheer presumption is astonishing.”

“Nature itself dictates that! We only seek to protect our Sisterhood from those who would twist its very foundations awry!”

“I didn’t really make the connection until you started ranting about nature,” Trissiny said, shaking her head regretfully. “If you truly believe the sole definition of womanhood is between your legs, I could almost think I was talking to a very confused Shaathist.”

Gasps rose from all around the temple, notably among the rows of Purists. Sister Lanora, previously flushed with anger, went absolutely white, stiffening her spine and widening her eyes in an expression of pure rage.

“But clearly, you are not going to heed any statement from me,” Trissiny continued, drawing her sword again. “Perhaps it is just as well. Even if I cannot settle this myself, I know who definitively can.”

The paladin knelt in place, reversing her grip to rest the sword point-down upon the temple floor and placing both her hands upon its pommel. As she bowed her head, a golden glow rose around her, quickly coalescing into the spreading wings of an eagle.

And then, the rising tide of voices was snuffed out as an overwhelming psychic presence descended upon the sanctuary. The light blazed to fill the room entirely, and within its deepest intensity, centered upon the kneeling paladin, the towering shape of a woman was barely discernible. To the eyes, at least. To the mind, Avei’s manifest presence was like the pressure of the ocean at its deepest part.

Every Silver Legionnaire in the room snapped to attention; almost everyone else sank to their knees in awe. Even the Eserites backed away, wide-eyed and entirely without their customary aggressive nonchalance.

“Purity is a nonsense concept.”

Avei’s voice was Trissiny’s, layered with harmonies as if a dozen iterations of the same woman were speaking, and filling the chamber with a physical weight.

“The very idea of purity has never been anything but a pretext for egotism. It is an excuse for the weak-willed to single out targets for their condescension, because to scorn a perceived lesser individual is an easier path to self-gratification than the hard work of becoming a greater person. Through cries of purity, the corrupt in positions of power distract their followers from their own offenses by directing justified anger against harmless and helpless targets.

“Worse, the slander of impurity has ever been a weapon against womankind. In every land, across the whole scope of history, weak and frightened men have called women impure for one specious reason after another. For their bodies, for their minds, for any expression of sexuality, simply for bleeding, for any excuse, men in undeserving power have declaimed that women are impure. They create preposterous rules, demanding that women remain pure by adhering to absurd strictures which deny them vital aspects of what it means to be alive. It has never been anything but a pretext for unearned domination. Purity is a lie.

“And you take purity as the very name of your beliefs? It is a fitting description of your utter failure of character. You who declare yourselves Purists are engaged in nothing but gatekeeping. You presume to castigate others for the imaginary offense of being unlike yourselves. You try to place yourselves above those who should be your sisters, simply because you are too insecure and frightened to see any more valid way to respect yourselves than by disrespecting others. This pale shadow of a spiritual doctrine is pathetic. But that you possess the hideous gall to pronounce the calumny of purity in my name is disgusting.”

The goddess paused, and through the bell-like tone of concentrated magic that sang in the background of her address, the sound of several women quietly weeping could be heard in the temple.

“I will not suffer this,” Avei stated. “Lanora Taveraad, in addition to your moral failing, you have made of yourself and your followers useful idiots to the enemies of your Sisterhood. Your presence here is nothing but a disruption and an invitation to division, at a dangerous time when above all your sisters require unity. Worse, you prove through this failure that you have no comprehension of the reality of war. Your entire career is a demonstration that you have no place among my people.

“The so-called Purists will disband and disperse. You will abandon your foolish doctrine, return to your disparate homes, and devote yourself to repentance. You will educate yourselves about the realities you have tried to deny. Perhaps, eventually, those of you who possess the spark of true character beneath your arrogant self-delusion will rise to become Sisters of Avei in more than name.

“But you, Lanora, I cast out of my Sisterhood. Let your fate be a warning to all who dare to perpetrate either evil or foolishness in the name of Avei. I will tolerate neither.

“All of you: cultivate courage, intelligence, honor, and compassion toward each other. Let there be no more talk of purity. She who preaches purity seeks only to control, and to deceive. Scorn and shun her.”

She fell silent, and over the ensuing few seconds, the overwhelming pressure of the goddess’s presence retreated, followed by the distant tone of bells, and the golden light. In its final departure, there was relative quiet in the temple as Trissiny rose slowly to her feet. Quiet, but not silence, as Lanora hunched where she had knelt in the center of the floor, clutching herself and sobbing.

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“So the smoke clears, and the first thing I see is her being held to the wall by three Legionnaires,” Tallie said, gesticulating energetically as she often did when telling a story. “Me, I was on the ground before I even knew what was happening, but it took three of ‘em to pin her, and it looked like she’d roughed up half a dozen in the process. She did that blind!”

“Damn,” said the less stiff of the Legionnaires guarding High Commander Rouvad’s office, the one willing to talk while on duty. Her counterpart on the other side of the door was staring at the hallway’s opposite wall with a sour expression, but hadn’t seen fit to intervene. “I mean, it stands to reason. You don’t get to be the Hand of Avei without being able to kick maximum ass. And you really didn’t know who she was?”

“Not for months!” Tallie replied, grinning broadly. “That’s why I laugh at people who say Avenists are no good at subterfuge.”

“Nobody ever accused us of bein’ quick on the uptake,” Darius added, winking at the second soldier when her gaze fixed on him. That didn’t seem to improve her mood. He was slouching against the wall doing coin tricks, as if deliberately seeking to provoke attention from the soldiers.

“I think we can be forgiven for not catching on to that one,” Layla protested. “Sure, it made sense of a lot of things in hindsight, but really. Who expects to find out they’ve been hanging around with a secret paladin?”

“Yeah, you don’t tend to think of paladins being able to brew iron-dissolving acid on the spot out of random household cleaners,” Darius mused, watching the doubloon flash as he rolled it across the backs of his fingers. “If you go by the old stories, that’s wizard stuff. More impressive than brawling with soldiers, anyway.”

“You and I have different recollections of that brawl,” said Rasha. “Remember, I was the one on watch up there.”

“Yeah, good job on that.”

“Up yours,” she rejoined, grinning. “I’m serious, though, I was being wrestled to the floor before I knew anybody was even there. The Silver Legions aren’t hapless thugs, let me tell you. It was like being ambushed by freaking elves.”

“That would’ve been a scout squad,” the more talkative of their new acquaintances said, nodding. “Probably a Squad One of their cohort. Yeah, elves might be putting it a little strongly, but those ladies know their work. No shame in losing to that kind of skill if you haven’t had the same training.”

“Part of me wants a rematch,” Rasha admitted. “I’ve been improving my own skills.”

“Keep committing crimes and you’ll get your wish,” the other Legionnaire said woodenly, staring into space next to Darius’s head.

“Don’t be rude to the paladin’s guests, Alivedh,” her counterpart retorted.

“So only you can talk while on duty?”

“It’s not against regs and you know it. Quit being a—”

“Rasha?”

Everyone turned their heads to look up the hall, where another Legionnaire had appeared, staring at them with wide eyes.

“Zafi,” Rasha said quietly, falling into a serene demeanor in which Glory had schooled her. “Hello again.”

Upon speaking the name, her fellow apprentices also adjusted formation, Tallie ceasing her pacing to come stand behind her left shoulder and Layla gliding across the hall from Darius’s side to take up position at her right, chin up and eyes frosty in an expression of cool disdain only a noblewoman could have pulled off. Darius made the coin disappear up his sleeve and subtly adjusted his posture, bracing his feet in readiness to shove off from the wall at an instant’s notice without adopting an openly hostile stance.

Both Legionnaires flanking the office door stiffened and went silent, sensing the change in mood.

Zafi ignored all of this, coming forward in long strides. “Thank the goddess you’re here! Are you okay, Rasha?”

“Am I okay?” Rasha raised her eyebrows. “Quite, thank you. Were you concerned?”

“Of course I was concerned!” Zafi came to a stop a couple of yards distant, finally glancing at the other Eserites and seeming to intuit that she shouldn’t approach further. “Practically the minute you were out of the temple, rumors started going around and the next thing I heard was that you not only got ambushed by Purists but I walked you right into it!”

“Ah,” Layla said icily. “That occurred to you, as well, did it?”

“I’m so sorry,” Zafi babbled, clasping her hands, “I would’ve escorted you all the way to the door if I had any idea that would happen. Everyone said you got out of the temple just fine, but I’ve heard like five versions of the story and I didn’t know— You’re sure you’re okay? They didn’t actually do anything to you, did they? So help me…”

“I’m quite well, thank you for your concern,” Rasha said, bemused. “I am far from helpless, even in actually dangerous situations. And this is the Temple of Avei, possibly the safest place in Tiraas. They were never going to do anything more than strut and crow at me.”

The friendlier of the Legionnaires guarding the door cleared her throat. “In theory, sure, but it pays to be careful around that lot. I haven’t heard of them actually attacking anybody, but they want to. You can see it in their eyes.”

“Yes, what she said,” Zafi agreed, nodding fervently. “We don’t get many fanatics in the Sisterhood, but damn, when we do they’re as barmy as Huntsmen. If they’d drawn steel on you, I can’t help feeling like it would’ve been my fault.”

“Do you have some pressing reason to be outside the High Commander’s door, Private Gossip?” the other soldier asked sharply.

“I am obviously not on duty, Private Alivedh,” Zafi retorted. “Can you try not to be a tremendous prig for once in your life? I was worried about my friend.”

“A friend, Alivedh,” said the other Legionnaire helpfully, “is a person who enjoys your company and voluntarily seeks it out. Next time we’re assigned to the Temple of Izara, one of the priests there can explain—”

“You keep forgetting I know where you sleep,” Alivedh snapped.

All three soldiers, on duty or no, snapped to attention when the High Commander’s door opened. Trissiny stepped out, her eyes landing on Zafi as she pulled the door gently shut behind her, and then turned a questioning look on the apprentices.

“Trissiny,” Rasha said, gesturing gracefully, “this is Zafi.”

“Ah,” Trissiny nodded, turning back to the soldier. “The one who walked you into the Purist ambush?”

Zafi kept her eyes forward, but didn’t quite succeed in suppressing the miserable expression on her face and swallowed hard.

“I suppose,” Tallie said in an ostentatiously grudging tone as she inspected her fingernails, “there’s no reason to conclude she did it on purpose. I mean, it’s suggestive as hell…”

“But the other interpretation holds up, too,” Darius added. “Shit happens. Maybe she legit did walk Rasha to the door, except not all the way for some reason.”

Zafi opened her mouth, then clamped it shut again.

“Mm,” Trissiny murmured, studying her face. “It’s Private…?”

“Private Zafiyah Medvidaar, General!” she barked on cue, her voice an octave higher in pitch than normal.

“Apparently,” said Layla, “known about the temple as Private Gossip.”

“Is that so?” Trissiny said thoughtfully. “At ease, Medvidaar.”

Zafi gulped again, and settled awkwardly into parade rest, though nothing about her posture could have been described as “at ease.” She chanced a glance at Trissiny’s face and then averted her eyes, her cheeks darkening.

Trissiny glanced rapidly at each of the Eserites, meeting their eyes in turn and settling finally on Rasha, who hesitated and then inclined her head fractionally.

“Private Gossip, is it,” the paladin mused, prompting Zafi’s right eye to twitch. “You’re fairly up to date on comings and goings in the temple, then?”

“I, ah…” Zafi snuck a quick look at Rasha, then gulped again. “I’m pretty good at making friends, General Avelea. I don’t…pry into other people’s business.”

A tiny, nearly inaudible sound emerged from Alivedh’s throat. Trissiny shot a fleeting look at her before focusing back on Zafi.

“What do you think about these Purists, Medvidaar?”

Zafi hesitated. “Um. Permission to speak freely, ma’am?”

“I request it specifically,” Trissiny said, nodding.

“I don’t associate with those women,” Zafi stated, a frown of disapproval emerging through the unease in her expression. “More people than otherwise in this temple don’t care for them. Their doctrine is nothing but straight-up bullying, and even apart from that, they’re not… They are just not likable. Even Huntsmen can put on the charm when they’re recruiting, the Sisters warn us about that. These Purists can’t even manage that much. They think anybody who’s not one of their group is just not smart enough to agree with them, and you can’t be in a room with one and not have her make it known.”

“So they’re not having much success recruiting here, then?”

“I don’t know of anybody who’s signed on with them, General. I guess some people probably have, there’s always one or two idiots who… Uh, that is, I don’t think they’re here to recruit. They keep trying to bother the High Commander and senior members of the Sisterhood and the Third Legion, not low-level grunts like me.”

“Hummm.” Trissiny shifted again, looking speculatively at the other Eserites.

“So!” Tallie said, jerking her head toward the office door. “How’d it go in there?”

“Commander Rouvad and I are of one mind about what needs to be done,” said Trissiny. “Depending on how many factors we can line up quickly, I hope this matter can be put to bed tonight. Private Medvidaar, are you on duty?”

“No, ma’am!” Zafi answered, a little too loudly.

“I won’t order you about, then. I would, however, welcome your participation, if you’re willing to help me with something.”

“I—yes! Uh, yes ma’am, I mean. It’d be an honor,” Zafi stammered.

Trissiny smiled faintly. “I appreciate it, Private. Do you happen to know where the leadership of the Purists can be found?”

“Um… Not at this time of day, General. I could point her out if I saw her, but… That is, they move. The lot of them have taken over a stretch of Temple housing and I could take you there, but I wouldn’t know whether Sister Lanora might be present. Or what she does all day, aside from try to lean on other priestesses. There’ll probably be a good few of ‘em there, though, at any hour.”

“I think I’d rather not walk into a whole nest of them just yet,” Trissiny murmured, her eyes narrowing and going unfocused as she pondered. “Do you know what would be the best place to find, say… One or two, preferably highly placed in their sect?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Zafi said eagerly. “I don’t really know what kind of hierarchy they’ve got, but the Temple’s main library is in this wing, three floors straight down. For the last couple weeks I’ve usually seen three or four of ‘em in those gray tabards there, either studying or having discussions. Can’t speak for this myself but a few of my friends have said it seems like some of ‘em go there, check in, and leave. Almost like the regular discussion group gives out orders.”

“Yes, that’ll do nicely,” Trissiny said with a thin smile. “Thank you, Private.”

“Ma’am!” Zafi said, saluting. “Um, can I ask— I mean, permission to speak— That is, to inquire, uh…”

“Just ask, Medvidaar.”

Zafi hesitated again, then blurted out in a rush, “Are you planning to get rid of the Purists, General?”

“I intend to deal with them decisively,” Trissiny replied. “Without, ideally, exercising force. The last thing I want is violence between Sisters within the Temple itself. I think we all got more of that than any of us wanted to see during Syrinx’s…departure.”

“I ask because I do know people who can help with that,” Zafi said eagerly. “Like I said, nobody around here enjoys having the Purists in the Temple, but most only grumble about it. There are some Sisters and Legionnaires more interested in doing something. I know somebody you should really talk to, ma’am.”

“I see,” Trissiny said, giving her a long, contemplative look. “Good to hear, Private. Right now there’s a plan in place, but… Yes, I think I’d like to speak to your contact. First, though, there’s a ball I need to get rolling before any more time elapses. C’mon,” she said to the expectant Guild apprentices, “let’s hit the library.”

It was no Nemitite affair, but the main library in the Temple of Avei was of respectable size; no religious organization could function without a healthy appreciation for its own lore and history, let alone one like the Sisterhood to which topics ranging from civil jurisprudence to siege engineering were spiritually relevant. Rectangular and one story tall, the library was stark and as orderly as a barracks, lined precisely with plain wooden shelves laden by books kept in scrupulous order, each arranged with its spine exactly one inch from the edge of the shelf.

The Purists were immediately in evidence, though at present there were only two of them. The main doors to the library opened onto a cleared space with a reference desk to the left of the entrance and reading tables set up directly in front, surrounded by neat rows of shelves. One table had clearly been taken over by the Purists, who had a large collection of volumes there; both women were hunched over open books, scribbling notes onto parchment sheets of which they already had a respectable stack nearby. At the moment, the only other person in evidence was the priestess behind the desk, who despite her white robe and golden eagle pin looked passably Nemitite, between her rectangular spectacles and the disapproving stare she had fixed at the two Purists.

Entering with a Legionnaire and four un-uniformed youths, Trissiny immediately commanded the attention of all those present. Both Purists stared in shock for a second, then one practically leaped to her feet, shoving her chair back with a loud scrape.

“General Avelea!”

“Is that an appropriate volume for a library, Sister?” Trissiny asked, quiet enough that she was barely audible over the librarian’s accompanying hiss.

Both of them boggled at her for a moment, the one who had spoken seeming unsure where to look; her eyes fixed on Trissiny, then Rasha, then the scowling librarian, her expression rapidly changing throughout.

Rasha slipped over next to Trissiny and leaned in to murmur right in her ear, “The blonde one was one of those who tried to jump me.”

Trissiny nodded once, then stepped forward, deliberately moderating her pace to minimize the noise her boots made on the carpet.

“I, ah, my apologies, General. Sister.” She bowed to the librarian, who just pursed her lips in silence. “You took me quite by surprise. I didn’t expect to meet you so…suddenly. I am Sister Magden Roloff, very much honored to make your acquaintance.” Her eyes cut to Rasha again, though this time she did a better job of suppressing the hostility from her expression. Better, but not perfect.

Trissiny nodded, keeping her voice appropriately soft. “Well met, Sister. I understand your order has been looking for me. Do you speak for the Purists?”

Once again, Sister Magden glanced at Rasha before focusing on the paladin. “I…imagine you have heard a biased and probably deeply inaccurate account of—”

“I make it a point not to form any judgment based upon only one account,” Trissiny interjected, forcing Magden to stop talking in order to hear her quiet words. “Some people are liars; few people are in any way objective, about anything. Anyone who views the world from only a single point of reference dooms herself to delusion.”

Tallie repressed, barely, a snicker, earning disapproving looks from both Purists.

“That sounds like a wise policy, General Avelea,” Magden replied. “You’re quite right, the order would like very much to address you. I ought not presume to speak for us, however. If I could beg you to wait here, I can bring Sister Lanora to you in a matter of minutes.”

“Not here,” Trissiny demurred, half-turning to nod apologetically to the librarian. “I believe we have already disrupted the library more than enough.”

“Ah, yes, of course. I’ll gladly escort you—”

“I will only be in Tiraas for a short time. With apologies, I haven’t the luxury of a relaxed schedule in which to keep numerous appointments. Kindly have your order assemble in the Temple’s main sanctuary in one hour. I wish to address all of you.”

Magden paled. “All of… Excuse me, General, but I believe a more private discussion would be appropriate for a first—”

“I have already gone out of my way to seek you out,” Trissiny said, quiet but implacable. “It is only by happenstance I knew you had gathered in Tiraas at all, much less that you desired my attention. This is all of it that I can spare; Avei’s business is done on an unforgiving timetable.”

“But…”

“One hour,” she repeated, “in the sanctuary. With everyone. I’m afraid if we miss this opportunity, there will not soon be another. I will see you then, Sister Magden.”

“But—if—please—”

Trissiny turned her back and strode toward the doors, nodding once more to the librarian, who smiled thinly in response. Her various escorts followed, after giving the Purists a series of smug and mocking grins, and the six of them departed the library, leaving both frustrated priestesses still stammering behind.

“That was very neatly done, as you describe it,” Zafi’s contact said, nodding. “It shows a good strategic mind.”

“I’m never gonna complain about heckling stuck-up jerks,” Tallie said with a grin, “but what was strategic about it? We just told them when and where to be.”

“We, of course, meaning the paladin,” Darius corrected. Tallie swatted his shoulder without looking at him.

“Ambushing your target in a location in which they did not dare put up a fight,” said Sister Azalea, deftly extracting folders from the file cabinet behind her desk as she spoke, “compelling them to meet upon ground of your choosing, leveraging the one thing you know they want: access to our paladin. And on a timetable which caught them flat-footed and leaves them with barely the time to assemble as ordered and almost no wiggle room in which to make arrangements of their own. Yes, it was quite neat indeed. Forgive me, General Avelea,” she added, setting a neat stack of folders upon the desk and then bowing to the paladin. “Based on what I’ve heard of your exploits thus far, I pictured you as someone with little patience for politics.”

“That’s pretty accurate,” Trissiny said ruefully, “but politics doesn’t go away just because I dislike it. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes rather than repeat them.”

“Most admirable,” the priestess said with an approving smile.

“Actually…” Trissiny narrowed her eyes in thought. “Wait, I think I recognize your name, Sister. Yes, the Commander put forward an Azalea Hsing for the Bishop’s office a few months ago.”

“Yes, that was I,” Sister Azalea replied with a wry little smile. “I’m afraid his Holiness found me an unsatisfactory candidate.”

She was a woman in early middle years with the first streaks of gray through her black hair and the beginnings of smile lines around her angular eyes. Though her Tanglish was impeccable, Sister Azalea still spoke with the distinctive accent of her homeland. It was likely that the given name by which she called herself was a translation of the original; that was a common practice among the sizable population of Sheng immigrants of her generation who had settled in Tiraas and other Imperial port cities after fleeing the civil war. The Empire tended to gather up unfortunates from the world over, due to its ascending economy and the Tirasian Dynasty’s philosophy that anyone who could work and pay taxes was worth taking in.

“You probably don’t need me to tell you this,” said Trissiny, “but I’m positive it was nothing personal. Justinian seems to have taken umbrage at my treatment of Basra Syrinx and is determined to punish the entire Sisterhood for it.”

“I suspected that subtext,” Sister Azalea admitted, seating herself behind the desk and moving the top folder off the pile to open it, “but to say it outright seemed…presumptuous. All I know of the Archpope’s mind is that it is quite skillfully opaque to everyone but himself.”

“I know a great many things that are not in public circulation,” Trissiny said grimly. “In my opinion, with the Truce of Ninkabi in effect, he is now the primary enemy of the Pantheon cults.”

Azalea stared up at her, hands having gone still upon her papers. “A dire statement indeed, General. I’m deeply interested in hearing what you know about this matter.”

“Wait, the Archpope?” Zafi asked, blinking. “Really?”

“It’s…a long story,” Trissiny said with only a trace of hesitation. “The timetable I put the Purists on doesn’t give us much leeway, either.”

“Yes, quite,” Azalea said briskly. “To the matter at hand. I am very glad Private Medvidaar brought you to me, General. This is not the first time I have found her ability to network extremely useful. It is largely thanks to Zafiyah that I have been able to gather as much intelligence on the Purists as I have.”

Zafi tried to look modest, which lasted only until Rasha gave her a warm smile, at which point she flushed and opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it with an audible snap of teeth.

“Good to know,” Trissiny said, also shooting Zafi a smile which only seemed to undo her further. “What kind of intelligence do you have?”

“At this time, nothing actionable, or I would have acted,” Azalea answered. “All of it is of course at your disposal, General. Understand that I have not done this simply because I find the Purists’ ideology detestable; the Sisterhood is large enough that its many doctrinal factions inevitably produce some terrible ideas. My concern is the abruptness with which this scattered fringe group is suddenly highly organized and equipped. I suspect an outside hand at work. Given the effect their presence is having on the running of the Temple, one which means the Sisterhood ill.”

“That was exactly my thought,” Trissiny agreed.

“What I would like, obviously,” Sister Azalea continued, “is to find the source of this funding. If I can prove it comes from outside the Sisterhood, I can provide the High Commander with everything she needs to punish their leadership and disband the rest of them. Thanks to Private Medvidaar and other like-minded priestesses and Legionnaires whom she has directed to me, I have collected a respectable file of reports of misbehavior. Minor infractions trending more toward rudeness than sin, but still… It’s possible I will have gathered enough of that to demonstrate that their presence is malevolent before I can prove who is behind this. The structure of this faction is…frustratingly difficult to infiltrate. Despite those sharp uniforms, they are wholly disorganized, with only a single leader, a few informal yes-women she keeps around, and no real chain of command. They also seem not to be recruiting, which is strange for a religious sect like this. I have a few trusted women playing at being receptive, trying to work on several contacts within the sect, but it is almost as if they don’t want to spread their doctrine.”

“It’s like I said,” Zafi chimed, “they try to work from the top down. Purists only seem to have time for officers and senior priestesses.”

“None of whom, I am glad to say, are anything but annoyed by the attention,” Azalea added with a wry smile. “Unfortunately, this leaves me stymied in my efforts to gather information.”

“Hmm.” Trissiny stared at the wall of Azalea’s office for a moment before returning her gaze to the priestess’s face. “Let me change subjects for just a moment, Sister. You seem observant and connected—as do you, Private Medvidaar. Have you noticed anything strange about the Guild presence in the Temple recently?”

Azalea and Zafi exchanged a glance.

“Indeed,” the Sister answered slowly. “The amount of friendly Eserite attention since the Syrinx incident has been unprecedented. And not entirely welcome by the majority of Avenists, but the consensus seems to be that as long as they have shared interests and behave while on our grounds, they needn’t be cast out. In just the last few weeks, however, there has been an escalating pattern of annoyances perpetrated by the Guild’s intermediaries. Actually, the Purists are the main reason nothing to speak of has come of that. The Sisters and soldiers here are more focused on the greater nuisance, and you and I are far from the only ones to note that the Purists’ sudden degree of organization is suspicious. Eserites are expected to misbehave; people are less likely to take note of that than Avenists doing the same.”

“Heh. Well, she’s got us there,” Tallie chuckled, elbowing Darius.

“I ask because I’m curious what you think of me bringing my friends here along for what’s next,” said Trissiny, turning to smile at the group. “They’re reliable and smart, and I feel better with every additional pair of competent eyes on this. But I’m also concerned about…perceptions.”

“Would it help if I wore my tiara?” Layla asked sweetly. “I do own one, you know.”

“It’s in your room in Mathena, you knucklehead,” said Darius.

“Doesn’t matter. I still own it.”

“The true tiara is within you,” Rasha said solemnly.

“Is your intention,” Sister Azalea asked pensively, “to encourage or discourage cooperation between the Guild and the Sisterhood?”

“Encourage,” Trissiny said, nodding. “Very much so. With the Church untrustworthy, we need to be building our own connections with the other cults, especially those who will back us up if a schism forms. The Guild seems to be having similar issues, I suspect arranged by the same backer of the Purists. Putting that in order will be my next priority after resolving our problem.”

“Then, if you trust them to conduct themselves properly, I encourage you to make a public show of bringing them along,” said the priestess, nodding in return. “The sight of our paladin defending the Sisterhood’s interests with the aid of Eserites will make for powerful political theater. With luck, enough to offset the recent…incidents.”

“Hear that, gang?” Darius said brightly. “Make sure you look extra Eserite when it all goes down.”

“What does that mean, exactly?” Zafi asked, visibly intrigued.

“Oh, you know,” Tallie said with a grin. “Thuggish and smug.”

“I can do vampish and smug,” Rasha offered. “I’m afraid I’m not dressed for thuggish.”

“Perhaps,” Azalea suggested gently, “you could refrain from the byplay in public, however.”

“Yes, better that they get it out of their systems now,” Trissiny agreed. “All right, Sister Azalea, I have good news and bad news. The bad is that if all goes as planned, you will have wasted a great deal of time and effort.”

“Let me see if I follow,” said Azalea. “That means the good is that you intend to put an end to the Purist nuisance within the hour.”

“That is my intention, yes.”

The priestess carefully closed the folder, set it back atop the stack, and leaned forward with an eager little smile. “Consider me enthusiastically in, General Avelea. What is your plan?”

Despite the waning afternoon light, it was still within daylight hours and thus the sanctuary of the central Temple of Avei was decently busy with a mix of its own personnel and petitioners from the world over. Thus, the addition of over a hundred Purists in their distinctive chain mail and gray tabards made for an uncomfortable crowd, especially since the Sisters overseeing the public space had evidently interpreted their presence as a sign of brewing trouble and summoned two entire cohorts of Silver Legionnaires. Intentionally or not, the crowd had segregated itself, with the Purists thronging one side of the room and everyone else instinctively gravitating to the other. That was likely the only thing which had prevented scuffles or worse from breaking out, and even so, the muttering and glares being shot back and forth across the room suggested it was only a matter of time.

Trissiny and her companions entered at a swift pace, counting on the power of surprise to carry their entry, and once through the doors swiftly organized themselves as they had planned in advance. The paladin herself was front and center, with the rest fanning behind her in a neat V formation. Rasha paced at her left shoulder, Azalea Hsing at her right, with Zafi, the other three apprentices and two more sympathetic Sisters of Avei Azalea had gathered up completing the phalanx. Even with Darius, Layla, and Tallie not having any insignia or uniform aside from scruffy casual clothes, they did indeed manage to present themselves as Eserites. What Azalea called “political theater” was very much practiced by the Guild, and taught to apprentices, particularly those studying under politically minded tutors such as Glory. Their predatory grins and rolling gait might not have been especially meaningful to many of the Temple’s guests, but most urban Avenists knew exactly how to spot a Guild thief who was making a point of their presence.

The murmuring changed tone at Trissiny’s entry, first rising in pitch and then beginning to taper off when she planted herself in the center of the sanctuary’s broad aisle, directly before the towering statue of Avei.

One of the Purists, a stately middle-aged woman, detached herself from the throng and glided forward, one hand on the hilt of her longsword. Sister Magden walked alongside her, along with three others.

“That’s her,” Azalea murmured under cover of the last fading mutters of the crowd. “Sister Lanora.”

“She was leading the trio who pounced on me,” Rasha added in the same tone.

Trissiny nodded once, her eyes fixed on the leader of the Purists. “Right. Time to put an end to this nonsense.”

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“What the hell, Tricks?”

“Oh, don’t ‘what the hell’ me,” the Boss retorted scathingly. “What’re you suddenly so squeamish about, huh? The Falconers aren’t any of your business, Sweet, and just because you’ve got a paternal streak for Thorn doesn’t mean the Guild owes her so much as a say-so when planning jobs in her vicinity. I dunno what you’re getting so worked up over.”

Sweet stared at him, finding himself at a loss for words. Not for the first time in his life, but it was a very rare condition for him.

“You don’t…know. What I’m worked up over.”

“He’s not that worked up, Boss,” Style rumbled, regarding Tricks sidelong from where she stood against the room’s door. The counting room was busy at this hour, and this was no business which merited the use of Eserion’s inner sanctum, so they were speaking in the map room just off the central training pit.

“Whose side are you on?” Tricks demanded, giving her a grin that took any rebuke out of the question. Style, for once, didn’t respond to it, just studying him in silence.

“Okay.” Sweet held up both hands. “Okay, forget about the politics. Forget the Falconers, Duchess Madouri, Tar’naris, and all the delicate ongoing plots we have with each of them that might’ve been upended by this scheme.”

“Y’know, Sweet, there’s no point in saying ‘forget the politics’ if you just go and recite them all.”

“Trust me, that was the forgetful version; we could go into each at length. But seriously, never mind that. Boss, you sent two of our people to piss off fucking Vadrieny as directly and personally as they possibly could short of playing grabby hands with her wife. And you didn’t warn them she was even a factor! So yeah, I will goddamn well say it again: what the hell, Tricks?!”

“Just because I’m stuck doing desk work now doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about planning a job,” Tricks retorted. “Everybody I send out knows exactly what they need to. Teal Falconer is the kind of annoying pacifist who— Well, did you know she was actually bullied as a teenager? Girl could’ve had someone killed using just her allowance, and she let the children of her father’s employees push her around. That demon is as good as housebroken and has been for years.”

“Jasper is in the goddamn hospital!”

“Oh, you know Jasper pretty well, huh?” Tricks asked, grinning humorlessly. “Get up to Madouris a lot lately, do ya?”

“What the fuck does that have to do with—”

“Just that this is the Thieves’ Guild, Sweet. If I plan a job that puts somebody in the hospital, you ever consider that maybe they ought to be put there?”

Sweet stared at him for a moment, then pointed at Style. “Isn’t that her job?”

“I cannot fucking send Style to smack every head that needs it, much as she might prefer that.”

“I just…” Sweet rubbed at his temples. “Tricks, you don’t send Guild members into horrific danger without warning them what they’re in for! A job they’re not fully prepared for is gonna fail, that’s basic—”

“Sweet,” Tricks said flatly, taking a step closer to him, “I give you a lot of leeway, because we both know you’ve earned it and you’re worth it. But and the end of the day, you had your turn as Boss. You don’t tell me what to fucking do.”

They stared at each other in silence, Trick’s face expressionless while Sweet frowned in consternation.

“Right,” Style drawled after a few tense moments. “Should I call the twins in here to grow a tree for you two to piss on?”

“Look,” Tricks said in a softer tone, stepping forward again. This time, though, he reached out to grasp Sweet by the shoulder. “You do remember what the job’s like, Sweet. Sometimes you gotta keep people in the dark. There are things I have to do that I can’t explain to people, and the role of Boss sure as hell comes with hard choices to be made. That’s all right there in the job description. I get how you can feel left out of the loop sometimes, I do. But I do what I gotta do, and ultimately? You either trust me to do the job, or you don’t.”

He paused, then lowered his hand.

“Go ahead and take your time deciding which it is, Sweet. I wish I had time to hang out here all day chewing the fat, but just like every day I’ve got a thousand fucking things to be doing right now.”

Tricks turned and strolled toward the door, his gait for once free of the tension he usually displayed. Style stepped aside without comment and the Boss slipped out, leaving the door ajar.

“Style,” Sweet said quietly, staring after him, “is he…”

“Is he what, Sweet?” she asked, a hard edge to her tone.

Sweet frowned at the cracked door for a second longer before focusing his gaze on her face. “Is he okay?”

She worked her mouth once in a chewing motion, then turned her head to glare at the map of the Empire on the far wall. The muscles in her jaw clenched, and then the head enforcer shoved the door closed again with one hand.

“Sweet, what kind of shit did the Big Guy have you do, when you were Boss?”

“Very little,” he admitted. “The Guild more or less runs itself if you prioritize looking after the people doing its business. At least, that was my approach. I know we’ve had this conversation before, Style.”

“Yeah, and I know you know it isn’t like that for Tricks. He’s got… I dunno, Sweet, the Big Guy’s stuff is Boss’s ears only. It’s been like that ever since he took over. I’ve kinda gotten used to him making calls I thought were odd, but they always either worked out so I could see the point in hindsight, or nothing apparently came of ‘em in the end. And nothing ever crossed…this kind of line.”

“So it’s not just me?” Sweet asked almost plaintively. “I know I’m not crazy. This shit is seriously over the edge.”

“Well, he’s not tagged Tricks because he likes to do stuff the straightforward way. The man’s more than earned my trust, Sweet, and I’d like to think yours too.”

“Are you forgetting who put him forward to be Boss in the first place?”

She nodded once in agreement. “If he does something I don’t get, I can live with it and trust it’s going somewhere. He’s never done anything like sending a pair of goobers like Rake and Jasper up against a fucking archdemon, though. And…that last bit at the end, there. That is not the Boss I know. ‘Fuck you, I do what I want’ is not part of his personality. Hell, his vocabulary. At least… I wouldn’t’ve thought so,” she added, scowling deeply.

Sweet heaved a sigh, running a hand over his hair. “Fuck. I don’t like the way this feels, Style. Doing shit behind his back…”

“What shit?” she asked, her tone deceptively mild. “We’re just chatting.”

“Yeah.” He locked his eyes on hers. “You up for chatting about anything else the Boss has done recently that seemed…off to you?”

Style narrowed her eyes very slightly. “Didn’t you say you ran off and left Thorn in charge of a delicate political negotiation? Fucking Thorn?”

“That baby bird’s gotta get pushed out of the nest sometime. Thorn’s got it in her to be as sly as Keys ever was, she’s just spent her life being discouraged from developing that skill. Well, she needs it now, and nobody’s got time for her to practice on small fry. I think we’ve got something just as urgent to focus on here.”

“Yeah, well, that’s as good a starting point as any,” she said, grimacing. “You’re the people guy, Sweet; can you think of any reason for the Boss to send Ninetails to handle relations with the Avenists at a time like this?”

Sweet’s eyes slowly widened. “…why the fuck don’t we keep chairs in here? I gotta sit down.”

“So I hope you’ll understand if I am a tad out of sorts with the Guild right now.”

“I don’t understand at all,” Trissiny murmured, slowly pacing back and forth in front of High Commander Rouvad’s desk. “Ah, not you, Commander, your position is wholly reasonable. I just can’t make sense of this pattern. Now of all times, interfaith relations deserve both careful handling and a high priority.”

“Yes, I would have thought so, myself,” Rouvad agreed, her expression severe. “Nonetheless, here we are. I get more or less the same content from various Guild messengers, but in the last few weeks Bishop Darling is the only one who brings me anything slightly useful. And I could live with empty platitudes, but I am less amused when they come from people who try to start fights with my Legionnaires or generally behave in my presence like feral animals. Are you acquainted with this Ninetails character?”

“Not personally,” Trissiny said, shaking her head and not pausing in her pacing. “I’m not personally familiar with every thief in Tiraas, obviously.”

“Well, I would take it as a kindness if you’d inform Tricks that my patience is not limitless. It’s a delicate political time for the Sisterhood internally, to say nothing of dicey relations between cults and with the Church, and being seen taking a conciliatory stance with disruptive thieves is only going to cost me face within my own cult. Exactly when I can least afford it.”

Finally, Trissiny trailed to a halt, staring at the wall for a moment, then turned to face the High Commander directly. “This may be premature, but I am suddenly starting to see a pattern I don’t like.”

“Do tell,” Rouvad said flatly.

“I was privy to the aftermath of another strange Guild action today: two thieves attacked my friends Shaeine and Teal and tried to steal their dog.”

“Oh,” Rouvad snorted, lowering her eyebrows. “You mean their demon.”

“Hellhounds are from the same plane as the Rhaazke,” Trissiny said patiently. “They are infernally stable and lack the aggression characteristic of demon species native to Hell proper. F’thaan is, for all intents and purposes, a dog with unique magical traits. And for the record, he is a good boy. I’m only bringing this up because it parallels the situation here. There are all kinds of reasons for the Guild not to antagonize them; they are connected to Falconer Industries and House Awarrion directly, and less directly to House Madouri, all institutions with which the Guild has established relationships that should rule out such an aggressive action. And according to the actual suspects, they were ordered directly to do this by Boss Tricks himself. Bishop Darling is off verifying that with the Boss right now, which is the only reason he didn’t come here with me.”

“Where are you going with this, Trissiny?” Rouvad asked, her tone quieter but more serious.

Trissiny held her gaze, eyebrows drawing together in concern. “It may be too early to draw conclusions, but I have a sudden worry. I think… Tricks may be compromised, somehow.”

“Compromised,” Rouvad intoned. “By whom, exactly?”

“Do we really need to keep dancing around this? The cult most solidly behind Archpope Justinian’s agenda has been split by a major religious schism since Ninkabi, and all but neutralized as a political force because of it. Now, we have the first hints of similar schisms brewing within the two cults most directly opposed to him. Do you truly imagine that’s a coincidence? First these Purists, who have obviously been getting significant financial backing and organization from someone, and now an abrupt pattern of squirrelly behavior from Boss Tricks himself exactly when the Guild can least afford it.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Rouvad asked quietly. “An accusation like that, against a sitting Archpope, is not a small matter, Trissiny.”

“Do you believe it’s something I would say lightly?” Trissiny stepped forward and planted her fists on the desk, leaning toward her over it. “Commander, this is not something I just pulled out of my butt this afternoon. Justinian is pursuing an agenda of his own, which is not in alignment with the Pantheon’s, much less any of the member cults. Just this summer, a god of the Pantheon sent all three paladins on a mission to ascertain this fact, and we received aid from several others in the process. We learned definitively that he has been tampering with Elder God artifacts and attempting to affect the nature of the gods themselves. The man is an enemy. Or did you really believe he’s spent an unprecedented span of months blocking the Sisterhood from having Church representation out of personal pique?”

“Do I need to remind you,” Rouvad replied in a near-growl, “that you incited this entire dilemma by going behind my back to uproot Bishop Syrinx?”

“Do you really want to play that game?” Trissiny shot back. “Syrinx was an asset of Justinian’s and for numerous other reasons a major problem for the Sisterhood. We can discuss who caused that problem and who solved it, or we can put it behind us and deal with the situation we are in right now. I know which I’d prefer.”

Both women stared at each other in silence for five heartbeats.

Then, slowly, Rouvad leaned back in her chair. “You realize the story you’re telling me is incredible, Trissiny.”

“It’s more incredible than you can imagine,” she agreed. “You’re only hearing about it; I had to live through the whole thing. I have seldom been so rattled.”

“And rightly so.” Rouvad paused, pressing her lips into a line, and then shook her head. “You are not unstable, or a fool, or a liar, and clearly well within Avei’s good graces. Obviously I have no choice but to believe you, no matter how insane this tale sounds.”

“I appreciate your trust, Commander,” Trissiny said, straightening back up.

Rouvad shook her head again. “I do not care for the way you’ve gone about certain actions, Trissiny. But obviously, the same is true in reverse, or you wouldn’t have done it in the first place. It’s worth reminding ourselves that we are on the same side.”

“And allowing ourselves to forget that is doing the enemy’s work,” Trissiny agreed, nodding.

“That being the case, what is it you suggest doing about this? If being frozen out by the Church is truly a malicious action meant to harm the Sisterhood, outside the usual run of politics…”

“In general terms,” Trissiny said, taking a step back, “the course I’d recommend is to turn the tables on Justinian: freeze him out instead of letting him do it to us. Bishop Darling has been attempting to rally support with the other cults against the Church. It’s not gone well; the Eserites have always held themselves somewhat aloof, and obviously the cults are reluctant to sacrifice their footing with the Church. Matters will be different if we lend the Sisterhood’s weight directly to the same cause.”

“Take our interfaith relations back into our own hands,” Rouvad mused. “Truthfully, I like the notion. My patience with Justinian’s waffling is even lower than my patience for Trick’s antics, and that was before I learned of… Well, this. I already see an issue, though, Trissiny. If the Guild is suddenly a notably unreliable ally, we’d only be isolating ourselves further.”

“Which is exactly why it’s important to bring as many other cults into alignment with us as possible. In the meantime, the Guild’s internal issues are going to have to be dealt with, just as we ourselves need to nip this Purist nonsense in the bud. I’ll work on that if I can; in the meantime, I can get you information on who within the Guild can be trusted. Bishop Darling, for one, and you can reach out to Tamisin Sharvineh for both a steady hand and widespread connections. If you’ll extend a little patience, Commander, I will get you more to work with as soon as I’m able.”

“Mm,” Rouvad grunted. “We’ll see. And you said all that was general terms.”

“I do have a suggestion,” said Trissiny, nodding. “Appoint a Bishop.”

Rouvad barked an incredulous laugh. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the past five months? And didn’t you just declare that trying to do business with the Church is effectively useless?”

Trissiny shook her head. “You’ve been trying to work with Justinian—whose goal is obviously to waste time and hamper our movements. I’m saying, cut him out of it entirely. Appoint a Bishop, unilaterally, to take charge of the Sisterhood’s interfaith relations, and the Church be damned. What exactly is he going to do about it? Procrastinate harder? Taking action to render the Church’s voice in our affairs irrelevant is a decisive move that will turn the tables and marginalize him.”

The Commander was silent for a long moment. Then, finally, a smile cracked her reserve. Just as quickly, it faded back into an expression of contemplation.

“It figures. Just as the mission of Squad 391 become urgently applicable, they’ve been shuffled off to Viridill to train adventurers. That kind of mandate… I have to say, it calls for a different skill set and personality than a standard Church Bishop. I’ll have to begin reviewing personnel files anew to find a suitable candidate.”

“Actually, it seems to me an old candidate would be better than a new one. Nandi Shahai did excellent work as Bishop, during her brief tenure in the role. Can you think of anyone better suited for this iteration of the job?”

“Hmm.” A small smile continued to twitch at the corners of Rouvad’s lips. “You’re not wrong about that. Locke won’t like it at all, of course. She relies heavily on Nandi to keep her new band of rabble in line.”

Trissiny folded her hands behind her back, raising her chin and settling unconsciously into parade rest. “I apologize if this smacks of me suggesting how to manage your troops, Commander, but in my personal opinion, Locke’s development as an officer can only benefit from regular reminders that there’s a chain of command and she will obey orders.”

That brought an outright grin from the High Commander, but it faded quickly back into seriousness and she leaned forward again, staring intently at her paladin. “You do know, Trissiny, what happened the last time there was a major split of cults against the Universal Church.”

“This isn’t the Enchanter Wars,” Trissiny said softly. “Archpope Sipasian was a fool who let Magnan the Enchanter lead him around by the nose. Magnan did the same to the Emperor, and the head of the Collegium. Justinian is anything but a fool; he knows precisely what he is doing, and in my opinion, it’s just as urgent that he be stopped. More to the point, his power-grabbing has antagonized enough established powers that there are plenty of allies against him just waiting to be rallied. The Silver Throne would love nothing more than an excuse to push hard against him. We have only to plant a flag and gather others to it.”

“We have to get our own house in order before we can step into that role,” Rouvad warned. “Are you certain the sudden rise of the Purists is Justinian’s doing?”

“I can’t see any other explanation, but no, there’s no definitive evidence yet. I intend to acquire it in the course of removing them as a factor.”

“I’m not one to advocate for inaction, but you need to be careful. This is no time for another outburst like your performance in Calderaas this summer.”

“I agree wholeheartedly, Commander. In fact, I think this has been arranged to capitalize on just such an act, if I repeated that mistake. That’s why I am taking an entirely different approach.”

Rouvad raised one eyebrow. “But no less decisive?”

“If anything,” Trissiny said with a grim little smile, “much more so.”

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“Well…this changes matters.”

Darling nodded, staring ahead across the street with a slight frown. Though they were clearly the subject of attention, standing in front of a police barracks with Trissiny in her silver armor, they enjoyed the slight privacy of distance; passersby in Tiraas were generally adept at minding their own business, and few people anywhere would be eager to approach a paladin with that look on her face.

“I gotta check with Tricks, obviously,” Darling said abruptly after a loaded pause.

“Okay,” she agreed, but slowly. “And…if he…?”

“Everything we do next depends on what he has to say,” said the Bishop, finally turning to face her. “If Rake was on the up and up, I doubt Tricks will deny it. If he does… Well, that’ll have implications that we then have to deal with. In the likelier outcome, I’ve got enough pull to demand to know what he’s thinking with this. Tricks doesn’t do things without good reasons, Thorn, and we better know what the hell they are before charging ahead.”

Trissiny nodded. “Sounds like sense to me. I guess…this means we split up, for now.”

He emitted the tiniest huff of almost-laughter. “Yeah, ‘fraid so. You don’t have much say with Tricks and he’s not likely to appreciate being questioned with you in attendance. And your business at the Temple had better not wait any longer.”

“Gotta wonder if this isn’t exactly the play,” Darius commented from where he was leaning indolently against the station’s wall in a manner that would have him immediately picked up by the first passing soldier had he not been with Trissiny.

“Surely you don’t suggest Tricks works for…you know who,” Layla objected.

“I bet lots of people who don’t work for you know who end up doing his dirty work, regardless,” said Tallie. “Without knowing it, or even against their will.”

“Let’s not get too deep into speculation,” Darling warned. “Big mistake, to form theories when you don’t have the facts yet. Then, when the facts come, your brain’ll tend to try to fit them into your theories rather than the other way round. You may not be wrong, though,” he added, nodding at Darius. “Eyes and ears open, kids. We can’t be paralyzed by indecision, but don’t forget there’s some real shit afoot.”

“Shit afoot, nice turn of phrase,” said Tallie, grinning. “Sure does look like we’ve stepped right in it.”

“I know Sweet’s off on Guild business, and I’m not the boss of you,” said Trissiny, turning around to address the apprentices, “but I would appreciate it if you all stuck with me for now.”

“You want us at the Temple of Avei?” Darius demanded, raising his eyebrows. “Wow. I thought you were just humoring us.”

“No, Darius,” she snapped impatiently, “you were just pretending to think that because it gives you another excuse to act huffy. If what you want is to be left behind, keep that up, because I haven’t got time to hold the hand of a big boy who shouldn’t damn well need it.”

“Tooooold yoooooouuu,” Layla sang sweetly.

“The issue,” Trissiny continued more evenly, “is that Rasha’s presence is going to be necessary for the plan, and I may have to spend some time squirreled away with the High Commander or elsewhere that I can’t bring her along. After what happened last time, I’ll feel better with someone else on hand to watch her back.”

“I can take look after myself, you know,” Rasha pointed out. “I managed last time.”

“Yes, and you can do it better with friends behind you,” Tallie replied, patting her shoulder. “Thorn’s right; this isn’t a dig at you, it’s basic sense.”

“Not that I encourage you kids to pick a fight in the Temple,” said Darling, “but it is true that bullies like these Purists are much less likely to try to ambush someone moving in a group. Any predator will try to isolate prey before striking. All right, let’s burn mileage before we burn any more daylight. I’ll swing back by Glory’s this evening and hope to catch you so we can compare notes.”

“Right, same goes,” Trissiny replied. “If either of us can’t make it, Glory can make sure everyone’s up to date.”

“Now, remember, Sweet,” Layla said sternly, “as with most nights, Glory is having company this evening. Scruffy characters like you had better come in the servants’ entrance.”

“Just for that,” he said, winking, “I’m gonna take the sewer access, wipe my boots on the carpet, and tell her you told me to do it. Don’t try to sass the master, princess. All right, kids, work fast and stay safe. Catch up with you as soon as I can.”

They separated, heading in opposite directions up the sidewalk toward their respective next confrontations.

Kheshiri was still laughing after half an hour, though at least her initial hysterics had subsided to intermittent giggle fits that allowed the rest of them to converse. A look into her aura had informed Natchua that, while the initial outburst of hilarity was purely genuine, by this point she was just being deliberately annoying. That, Natchua was inclined to indulge. Enabling the Vanislaads to make pests of themselves helped take the edge off, reducing the risk of them doing something truly disruptive.

“It’s the weirdest damn thing,” Jonathan commented, gazing abstractly into his cup of tea. “After all the weird shit we’ve stumbled into and through since this summer, seems odd that this would be the thing that gives me pause. But…here we are.”

“This really bothers you more than all the…well, everything?” Natchua looked pointedly at Kheshiri, currently rolling about on the floor in front of the fire like a cackling dog, and the much more laid-back Melaxyna, who stood behind Sherwin’s chair, massaging his shoulders and cradling his head against her chest.

“The thing about demons,” Jonathan mused, “is that they just are what they are. They don’t get a choice, and can’t reasonably be any better. And even despite that, some of them choose to be better, and succeed.” Staring into space now instead of his tea, he reached to one side without looking, and Hesthri took his proffered hand. “As incredibly hard as it is for ‘em, they do. Nobles, now… Nobles are pretty much the opposite, in every respect.”

“Your point is well-taken, but that’s a little more grim than the reality,” said Melaxyna. “Nobles, like most mortals, are as good or bad as their upbringing and the choices they make. At their worst, they are no more monstrous than any mentally defective violent criminal, just more destructive due to their power. But the good ones are potentially enormous forces for good in the world, by the same token.”

“Honestly, Jonathan, I am inclined to see it the way you do,” Natchua said softly, stepping over to crouch by his chair. He finally focused on her at that, smiling, and she leaned her head against his knee with a sigh. Jonathan had more than a little Avenist in him and had initially been uneasy about the symbolism of having a woman he cared for sit by his feet, but Natchua found comfort in the position and had eventually brought him around. Even if she was still obviously the one with the power here, it was a relief to feel protected for a little while. “From everything I’ve read, Narisian nobility may not be any worse than the Imperial kind, relative to the two societies… But that just means they’re twice as vicious and underhanded on average, Tar’naris being the festering pit it is. Every instinct I have bridles at the idea.”

“I don’t want you to make a decision like this on my account,” he said quickly, setting his tea down on the table to stroke her hair, and then letting his hand rest lightly on the back of her neck, the way she liked.

“You are going to be a big part of any decision I make,” she replied. “Not the only part, but you matter a lot to me. I want to know how you feel before I do anything important.”

“I feel…wary,” he admitted. “Having had a few minutes now to think about how I feel, I’m starting to realize that much of my unease is due to the fact that I think you’d actually be a better noble than most. And as selfish as it sounds, it’s a little alarming because I have no idea how I would fit into that.”

“Well, look at it this way!” Sherwin said brightly. “You two could get married, and then you’d both be nobles. And hey, then Gabriel technically would be, too. I bet a paladin could get a lot of political use out of that.”

Everyone turned to stare at him except Kheshiri, who set off on another round of cackling, actually slapping one hand against the floor. Sherwin’s smile faded under their scrutiny and he shrank slightly in his chair, pushing his head back into Melaxyna’s chest as if to hide in her cleavage.

“Sherwin, honey,” the succubus murmured, squeezing his shoulders, “it’s a bit inconsiderate to put that kind of pressure on someone else’s relationship. Especially in public.”

“Oh, uh,” he stammered, “I didn’t… That is, I’m sorry if…”

“This is one of those things that you’ll only make worse by trying to fix, Sherwin,” Natchua said, not unkindly. “Hesthri, you’ve been quiet.”

The hethelax stepped closer, folding herself down to sit cross-legged practically on top of Jonathan’s feet, close enough to Natchua to reach out and place a hand on her knee. “That’s because I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to say.”

“And when has that ever stopped you?” Natchua retorted.

“When the matter is serious,” Hesthri said, gazing at her without reciprocating her levity, “and your feelings are on the line. I think it’s good for you to be regularly knocked off your high horse, Natch, but I never want to be the cause of real upset, not over something important.”

“I care what you think, too,” Natchua said, reaching out to clasp the clawed hand Jonathan wasn’t currently holding. “If it’s something important enough to worry you, I definitely need to hear it. I can take a rebuke, Hes.”

“Then I think you should do it,” she said frankly.

Natchua blinked once, then closed her eyes and turned her face slightly so that it was half-buried in Jonathan’s thigh. “Why do any of you think I would be good at this? I mean, specifically, why? I am not fishing for compliments or validation, here, I just don’t get it. I am just so very Natchua. It’s inconceivable to me that I would be good in this position. Am I really the only one?”

“I suspect,” said Hesthri, squeezing her fingers, “because all of us here are as suspicious of aristocracy as you are, for one reason or another, and that makes the very fact that you’d be such an unconventional choice comforting. But it’s not like I’d suggest any old fool off the street should be thrust into that position, even if I loved that fool as I do you. I think that Malivette hit the nail on the head, lovely. You would be good for Veilgrad, and Veilgrad would be good for you. Both those things have already been the case; this is really just formalizing it.”

“It’s because you’re such an apex asshole, mistress,” Kheshiri interjected suddenly. She had rolled herself around and was now stretched out on her belly facing them, chin propped up on her hands and grinning in continued glee. “You make your decisions based on pure principle, and your principles amount to protecting people from abuse if you can, and avenging them if you can’t. Your preferred strategy for doing this is always something so irrationally conceived and convolutedly executed that nobody ever manages to stop you. That, mistress, is precisely the profile of a reformer who comes along to burn all the bullshit out of a crooked system. ‘Natchua the Noble’ is one of those ideas no sensible person would think of on their own, but once it’s presented, damn if it doesn’t make an eerie kind of sense! It’s a classic Natchua idea, in other words.”

“That…is…actually quite well said,” Jonathan said slowly, studying Kheshiri, who winked up at him. “Puts my thoughts into words much better than I would have.” Hesthri nodded.

“That’s what succubi do,” Sherwin chuckled. “Well. Among other things.” Melaxyna bent forward to kiss the top of his head.

Natchua regarded Kheshiri sidelong, taking in her delighted expression and the magical signature which revealed the actual mental state it hid. She was in this habit for the obvious reason of trying to head off resistance and defiance from the succubus, but more and more lately, Kheshiri had regarded her with ever-increasing warmth and attachment. Something about that was even brighter and fiercer, now. Natchua couldn’t quite put a label to the demon’s feelings toward her, but they were intensely positive. Somehow, that was more unsettling than if the Vanislaad had meant her harm.

“Well,” she said aloud, “I have more thinking on it to do. Vette and Ravana want to move fast, for the sake of political shock value, but I am at the very least going to sleep on it. I’m interested in hearing more from all of you, too, if you have thoughts. For now, that’s not the only crisis brewing. Shiri, I have work for you.”

“Ooh!” Kheshiri executed a deft gymnastic maneuver by which she flowed from a lounging position to sitting upright without ever fully straightening up, the furor of delight behind her eyes only increasing at the attention. “I’m all yours, my mistress!”

Natchua winced at the phrasing, on purpose. Letting the succubus needle her and get reactions helped scratch that itch. “I’ve got the Black Wreath sniffing around me, and so far I can’t tell what the hell they actually want. They said revenge, but their actions don’t make sense in that context. You’re the Wreath expert, here. The way I heard it, you actually took them over a century ago.”

“Ah, good times,” Kheshiri said reminiscently. “I miss Onkawa. But yes, mistress, I recognize the pattern you’ve described. It’s a standard ploy: they are keeping you both in the dark and under pressure. The goals are variable—could be just trying to see what you do when stressed and confused, or they might be trying to weaken you in preparation for the real play.”

“I see,” Natchua murmured. “It does make more sense in that light. So as long as they retain the ability to move about mysteriously…they retain the upper hand. Even trying to figure out their movements slips me deeper into the trap. Hm. How would you suggest defeating a plan like that?”

“Now, just a moment,” Jonathan interrupted. “Not to doubt your expertise, Kheshiri—or reproach you for asking advice, Natch, that’s a very good habit to be in. But remember what we were just discussing about you and your plans? The Wreath are legendary schemers; facing them on their own terms seems like a bad idea. Better to retaliate with something they wouldn’t and can’t expect. If there was ever a time for a Natchua plan, this is it.”

“Yes, it is,” Hesthri agreed softly, but with a mischievous fervor in her expression.

“I do have insights, if you wish them, mistress,” Kheshiri added, “but I like the direction of Jonathan’s thoughts here. I would be delighted to see how you’d screw with Mogul and his crew.”

“How I would…” Natchua trailed off, frowning into space and barely feeling Hesthri’s gentle squeezing of her hand, or Jonathan subtly massaging the back of her neck in his grip. “So the game is to create confusion and pressure, then? You know what, I kind of love it. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”

She snapped her eyes back into focus, finding Kheshiri grinning at her with a level of glee that verged on the psychotic. For once, Natchua found the expression, rather than alarming as usual, exactly what she wanted to see.

“First thing tomorrow, Shiri, you and I are going to have a prowl around Veilgrad with our respective knowledge of Wreath tactics and Elilinist magic. I don’t need to know what they’re planning, just where they’ve been and might be again. And then… If Embras Mogul thinks he’s pissed at me now, he’s about to learn how much worse things can always get.”

“All these…are not skilled enchanters?” Magister Danoris asked, visibly aghast. He did not go so far as it lean over the catwalk’s railing, but clutched it as if it were holding him up as he gazed down at the factory floor below.

“Well, yes and no,” Geoffrey Falconer answered in the same energetic tone with which he’d been playing tour guide since their arrival. Though in many ways he lived up to the stereotype of the absent-minded intellectual, Falconer was as intrigued as any expert in arcane magic would be at meeting high elves, and always pleased to show guests the workings of his factory. “Naturally we do employ quite a few enchanters by specialty, but the whole point of the assembly line is to make production as efficient as possible. We’ve set it up as best as possible to minimize the need for magical expertise; fully seventy percent of the positions along the line are manual. Some of those do require an application of magic, but using the standard inks and dusts—which we of course manufacture in house, from our own mana turbines. That increases the available hiring pool. We pride ourselves on paying well here at FI, but unskilled labor is still much cheaper than employing enchanters.”

“And these…laborers…will produce self-motivated vehicles?”

“Twenty an hour,” Falconer said proudly.

“How sophisticated are your horseless carriages?” Danoris demanded.

“It depends; we have a range of products. The higher-end models have more features, obviously, but they also require more specialized attention from enchanters and other artisans. This assembly line happens to be producing our most basic model, the FI-320. Full seating for four passengers, weatherproof wheel charms, maximum speed of forty miles per hour, and fully rechargeable power crystals—”

“I wish to inspect one of these vehicles.”

“Of course,” Falconer said, his good cheer seemingly undiminished by Danoris’s abrupt tone, though his fellow Magister shot him a reproachful look which he did not see. This was not even the first such grimace Ravana had observed, simply by hanging back and studying her guests as intently as they did the factory facilities.

Magisters Danoris and Talvrin had accompanied her on the tour while Veilwin systematically drained a bottle of wine in the lobby, along with two of their Highguard escort, leaving the other two soldiers and Magister Eveldion to oversee proceedings back at the Manor. So far, Ravana hadn’t teased out any differences in rank; Danoris and Talvrin had the same title, and while Danoris generally took the lead, that might just reflect the differences in their personalities as there had been no giving or taking of orders between them. Talvrin let him talk, but did not show much in the way of deference, preferring to walk somewhat apart and study their surroundings on her own time.

“What is a mana turbine?” she now asked.

“Ah, those are actually the very foundation of Falconer Industries,” Geoffrey said animatedly. “Also called mana wells, they are essentially just electrical generators situated on a ley line nexus, which produce steady quantities of the raw dust which can then be refined into various grades of enchanting powders, and further mixed with alchemicals to make enchanting inks that can be used to inscribe enchantments on spell parchment. We both use these in house on our own products, and sell the raw materials directly through outlet shops. FI started when the Enchanter’s Bane shifted ley lines enough that a major nexus formed on real estate my family owned; our activities here tugged them further so that there are now two smaller nexi nearby, which we also control. There are turbines on each. In fact, the nearest is just at the other end of this factory! Would you like to see it firsthand?”

“Yes, we would!” Magister Danoris snapped. Again, Magister Talvrin cast an irritated glance his way. This time, she caught Ravana’s eye. The Duchess gave her a bland smile.

“Right this way!” Geoffrey said, leading the way along the catwalk.

Their course took them to the end of it, down a metal staircase to the factory floor, and through a door at its end. The hallway beyond extended past the building itself, well-lit by both fairy lamps and broad windows which revealed the domed structure to which it led, some fifty yards distant.

Ravana let herself fall to the rear, studying her guests as they strode along, and only deduced halfway down the hall that the Magisters were engaged in conversation the whole time. They spoke in the minutest exhalations that only an elf could hear, but the argument irritated Danoris enough that he turned his head to scowl at Talvrin, enabling her to see his lips move.

She made a mental note to learn to read lips. Somehow it had never come up, but in the moment, Ravana could only castigate herself for overlooking such a clearly useful skill.

The door into the mana turbine was both locked and guarded, though of course the factory’s owner was not impeded by these things in the slightest. He led them through, and into the huge round chamber beyond.

They emerged onto another catwalk surrounding the circular pit dug fully ten yards into the ground, where the machinery of the mana well itself whirred ceaselessly, its mechanical arm spinning and filling the very air with static.

“This chamber is bristling with both conventional lightning rods and the best grounding charms available!” Geoffrey practically shouted over the noise as he led the way around the perimeter of the room toward the glass-walled control booth. “There is basically no chance of electric shock, though with the turbine running at this capacity there’s obviously a lot of static! This way, please, the booth is charmed against both the noise and the electricity.”

The elves were visibly grateful to be shut inside the calm and quiet of the control booth, even the two soldiers. Two enchanters in hard hats and coveralls embroidered with the FI logo gawked at their guests; their employer and even Ravana they knew by sight, but the high elves were well worth staring at even among dignitaries. They seemed both reluctant and relieved when Mr. Falconer himself asked for privacy in the booth, taking his seat before the runic control panel as they slipped back out.

“Is it always so…extreme?” Danoris demanded once the six of them were again alone, fingering one of his long ears.

“Actually, no!” Geoffrey said brightly. “This turbine is the smallest and oldest still in service, and borderline obsolete. We’ve perfected a method of producing much higher-grade mana powder which will enable the creation of far more sophisticated and powerful enchantments. Well, actually, we already have the capacity to make those enchantments, but dedicating a new turbine to mass-producing that quality of dust will finally make them economical and thus more widely available. But it’ll require completely dismantling the turbine and building a new one, which will of course seriously cut down our production while it’s being done. So! We’ve installed heavy-duty safeguards in here to ensure there won’t be any kind of magical event when the machinery breaks, and are running it round the clock at four hundred percent capacity to build up a backlog of dusts. Once it gives out, we’ll replace it with the upgrade.”

Both Magisters looked distinctly alarmed at that.

“Ah, but I don’t mean to sound boastful,” Geoffrey added with a wry grin. “Obviously, none of the magic we’re doing here is anywhere near on a par with what you’re used to back home.”

“Obviously not,” Danoris said dismissively, even as he frowned in clear worry through the noiseproof enchanted windows at the overworked turbine. This time, Talvrin didn’t bother to express disapproval at his rudeness. She was also frowning at the same sight, though more pensively.

Ravana looked rapidly between them and chanced a glance at the Highguard who had each positioned themselves to cover one of the booth’s doors; both were likewise studying the mana well. This, she decided, was the moment to strike.

“Naturally,” the Duchess stated in a light and airy tone, “our magical capability itself is not the source of the Magister’s worry.” Danoris whirled to glare at her, but she just carried on speaking with a blithe smile. “Rather, it is the fact that he came here expecting to see fur-wearing primitives in stone castles, with scarcely one individual in ten thousand an arcane user. And before the Enchanter Wars, that might have been the case. Tell me, how much has Qestraceel changed in the last hundred years? The last thousand?”

All the elves were staring at her now, Danoris in open anger, Talvrin with eyes narrowed intently. Geoffrey Falconer also watched her with a knowing little smile. Ravana quite liked Geoffrey, in large part because he liked her. Not that she craved his approval in and of itself; he had been present when she’d finally gotten rid of her father. While Teal had been deeply unnerved by that event, Geoffrey took grim satisfaction in the unmaking of the Duke who had caused him so many headaches over the years. Ravana respected pragmatism, and his appreciation of revenge.

“Young woman,” Danoris began.

“It must be quite a thing,” she said sweetly, “to be winning a race by default, and only realize you have competition when you feel its breath upon your neck.”

Danoris did not like that at all, and it showed all over his face. Talvrin remained thoughtfully focused upon Ravana, though for the moment, neither spoke.

“It seems to me,” she mused aloud, stepping forward to look out over the mana well herself, “that we have a great deal more to offer one another beyond today’s specific business. Clearly, your unparalleled mastery of the arcane makes your people a font of wisdom from which mine would be both honored and delighted to learn. And even if we can reciprocate little along the same lines, it is obviously advantageous for you to have a weather eye upon the state of human advancement.”

“That,” said Danoris, recovering some of his hauteur, “is hardly worth the—”

“You are by far the most inept politicians I have ever seen,” Ravana informed him, causing the Magister to stammer in incoherent offense. “You control your emotions no better than children. Every thought you have is displayed far in advance of expressing it. Were we truly at cross purposes, your transparent predictability would render the briefest conversation a strategic victory for me. How fortunate that I am not ill-disposed toward you!”

“Most fortunate indeed,” Magister Talvrin said quietly.

“If this is the way even the ranking dignitaries of the Qestrali comport themselves,” Ravana continued, staring aimlessly out the window, “it goes without saying that the Narisians have taken you for a ride in every negotiation between your peoples thus far. I am, as you have cause to be aware, on unfriendly terms with certain factions in Tar’naris; I’ve had cause to grow adept at handling them. I should be delighted to assist my new friends from Qestraceel in getting the better of any further dealings with the drow. And while I am a loyal and devoted subject of the Silver Throne, I would not consider it to be against the Empire’s interests to assist such valued comrades in mitigating the utter spanking your delegates are undoubtedly receiving in Tiraas even as we speak.”

Danoris physically swelled up, which was downright comical given his thin build and the way his ostentatious hovering shoulder armor shifted with the motion. Less amusing was the way his fingers twitched hungrily; for a moment, Ravana thought he might cast some spell at her out of sheer outrage. The much more composed Talvrin turned her head to stare at him.

After a few seconds, however, the Magister composed himself with a visible effort. It took him another heartbeat to put on a small and insincere smile, but he managed, for the first time, to direct a shallow bow toward Ravana.

“Perhaps,” the elf said with obviously strained courtesy, “there is potential for…useful intercourse between us after all…my lady Duchess. Once this day’s work is settled to everyone’s mutual satisfaction, I should be…willing…to discuss further…business. With you.”

Ravana regarded him sidelong, thankful she’d taken the risk of annoying Natchua earlier in the day to press her for details of her encounter with the Highguard squad she had disabled. There were political differences between them, and in fact, they apparently had formal means of addressing these in the field. It was time to take the second risk.

She turned to face Magister Talvrin directly and inclined her head. “It would be my pleasure, not to mention and unmatched honor, to develop a direct relationship between House Madouri and the Magistry of Qestraceel. For such a privilege, I should naturally do my utmost to be as accommodating and useful a friend as I am able. On one condition, of course.”

“Oh?” Danoris grated, further aggravated at being given the cold shoulder.

Ravana pointed at him with one hand, keeping her gaze fully on Talvrin. “This individual is never to be in my presence again. I am certain that so ancient and graceful a civilization as yours must have countless members who are able to conduct themselves appropriately in the presence of a Duchess. I therefore see no reason I should be subjected to the company of those who do not.”

“Now, see here!” Danoris barked.

“Such a trifling request is more than reasonable, Lady Madouri,” Magister Talvrin assured her with a broad smile. “I can only apologize for any offense my colleague has caused you thus far. I shall be glad to ensure that you see only the better face of our society henceforth.”

“Talvrin!” he exploded.

Geoffrey had turned his back to all of them by that point and was pretending to be absorbed in the dials and levers of the booth’s runic control panel.

“I mean no offense,” Ravana said pleasantly, “but I am honestly curious how such an obviously sophisticated civilization ends up with such boorish individuals in positions of power.”

Danoris had gone scarlet in the face; it was the first time she had seen an elf do that.

“Qestraceel all but runs itself,” Talvrin explained. “Manual labor is done by autonomous constructs—what you call golems. More physical functions than otherwise are performed by fully automated enchantments. The city’s functions need maintenance more than they need actual oversight. Even much of the necessary decision-making is handled by intricate and permanent data processing spells running sophisticated algorithms. In addition, our culture prizes above most other concerns its ancient and direct lineage; our society began immediately following the Elder War and more than a few Qestrali elves remember that time. Thus, political power tends to accrue those who have seniority and magical aptitude, rather than…people skills.”

“Magister Talvrin!” Danoris shouted shrilly. “The Magistry will hear of your divulging of our secrets to outsiders!”

“And then,” she shot back, whirling on him with a fierce scowl, “they will hear about how you made a spectacle of every weakness we possess before Imperial nobility, and the measures I was forced to take to keep said nobility positively disposed toward us and disinclined to hostility! You have rendered your presence diplomatically offensive, Magister Danoris. It would be appropriate for you to absent yourself from further engagements, or at the very least, remain silent.”

“Witnessed,” both Highguard stated, in unison and with audible satisfaction. Falconer’s shoulders quivered and he hunched further forward over the console.

Danoris looked as if he might vibrate through the floor.

“After all,” Talvrin continued, turning back to Ravana with a gracious nod, “the Duchess impresses me as a pragmatic woman who would rather benefit from our friendship than initiate needless friction.”

“Oh, very much so,” Ravana agreed brightly. “Revenge, as the Eserites say, is a sucker’s game. I look forward eagerly to a bright future. As friends.”

Eventually, she actually would have to teach them some of the sly circumspection a politician absolutely needed to survive on the surface; it wouldn’t be long after that before they adapted their own. But for a while, at least, there was much more candy to be taken from these babies.

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