Idelle quickly navigated her way back outside and started down the street, the cobblestones cold against her bare feet. She passed quickly between buildings, a row of wooden two-story homes whose former inhabitants must have been wealthy. Her eyes scanned the buildings intently as she moved, making out everything she could under the light filtering through the streets from the burning horizon.

The city streets were empty, now. The panicked shuffle of people crowding them had fled already. Anyone still remaining this close to the fire had something important to do.

Maybe they had someone to find, like Idelle.

She turned another corner. The buildings were stone here, worn and weathered by decades, or maybe even centuries of sun and rain. They certainly looked old-fashioned enough for it. Idelle kept going, not stopping to examine closer. She was getting closer.

Her eyes flicked up. She had heard a shout and the clash of metal. It had come from the next street over, and Idelle quickly darted into an alley to follow. She came out into the street just in time to see a figure in a familiar uniform rush through a doorway, a few hundred meters away. She broke into a sprint.

A moment later, she ducked through the doorway after him. The building was dark, but the ever brighter glow of the fire was just enough for her to see a short hallway. A door at the other end was open. She cursed, and stepped forward, bringing her sword up. There wasn’t enough room to swing it, in here. Idelle bared her teeth. She’d have to make do.

A blade slashed for her face as she stepped through the door, and she almost reflexively batted it aside. A figure, in a hood and dark clothes, as best she could tell. The figure swung again and she stepped back, nearly tripping on a body lying on the floor.

Another swing came for her, taking advantage of her mistake, and she barely deflected it, her sword catching on something hanging from the ceiling. She panicked, trying to regain her guard, but —

“Wait!” The voice was familiar. A young woman’s voice.

The figure in front of her paused, blade at the ready. Idelle desperately stepped back but hesitated before striking, looking around the room. “Cecilia?”

A small light sprang into being. Idelle flinched back against the wall as she realized that a second hooded figure had been behind her, with a blade ready to plunge into her back. But a moment later her gaze stopped on the fourth figure in the room, the source of the light. She was wearing a long cloak with another hood, but the freckles and blonde hair peeking out from under it were easily recognizable even in the dim light.

“Idelle? How did you find me? Why are you here?” Cecilia’s words came out in a rush.

“I, I...:” Idelle struggled for words before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small, black comb.

Cecilia stared at her, disbelief on her face. “Y-You found me with that? After — no, that’s impossible. No one should be able to track anything right now.”

That was right, Idelle realized. The strange twisting beacon in her magic-sight wasn’t here, though it was closer than ever. She could still perceive it, even now. “I heard fighting, I guess. Saw a soldier.”

She looked down. The soldier she’d seen was lying dead on the floor with several others.

She looked up at Cecilia again. The two black-clothed figures had moved to flank the princess, blades still held at the ready.

A long moment passed. Cecilia’s lips moved without speaking, surprise and dismay apparent in her expression before she forced it into a stiff semblance of calm.

Cecilia met her eyes as she finally spoke. “...You remember that favor I mentioned? I guess I’m calling it in sooner than expected. You never saw me here, all right?”

Idelle felt ice cold. She looked at the sword in her hands, the beautiful, expensive sword with the other girl’s crest on the pommel. “What are you even saying?”

“I’m saying that you never saw me here. Do you understand, or not?” Cecilia’s voice was clipped and harsh, the ball of light shaking slightly as she spoke.

“No, I don’t understand! I don’t understand anything...” Idelle’s voice rose as she stared at the princess. “You killed them! They’re dead. Meat, rotting on the ground. Why? Tell me why you killed them!”

“It’s complicated, all right?!” Cecilia almost screamed the words at her before controlling her voice back into that horrible harsh monotone. “You weren’t supposed to be here. I don’t have time— I’ll explain later, just promise that you won’t tell anyone that you saw me here.”

Fury pulsed through Idelle at the words, cold and hard. Promise her? Cecilia had the gall to talk about promises? Like she would just ignore this while Clovis and the rest were dead. “You’ll explain now. Or was that another lie, when you said you’d explain what was wrong, next time we met? Oh, let me guess, you were feeling guilty about the murder you were plotting.”

Cecilia flinched at the words, her expression lost in the cloak’s shadow. “That’s not... I didn’t lie to you— “

Idelle cut her off, the words pouring out of her in a torrent. “That’s not what? Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I can’t figure out what’s going on here? You think I can’t tell that you were trying to mislead me, to manipulate me? I’m holding your expensive bribe right here in front of you, or are you going to lie about that, too? I won’t be an accessory to whatever horrible, violent madness this is!”

Idelle stared at Cecilia, her breathing fast and jagged.

When the princess finally spoke, her voice was low and utterly calm. Like an executioner asking for someone’s last words. “It’s awfully hypocritical of you, of all people, to claim that having secrets is the same as lying.”

Idelle felt her heart jump, skipping in her chest. “...What are you trying to say?”

“You know perfectly well what I’m saying. Hypocrite. Or is murder only acceptable when you’re the one tearing someone’s throat out with your teeth and fleeing into the forest?”

Idelle stepped back as if she’d been struck. Her hands shook. “You — How?”

“Stop acting stupid, we both know you’re not.” The venom in Cecilia’s words was palpable. “No one competent would just ignore a soldier being attacked like that. A horseman arrived with the news a few days before you did. You were lucky that the guard who recognized you was one of my troops, you know. Duke Wyrlet would probably have executed you on sight. But I risked covering it up, and what do I find?”

Cecilia stepped forward as her voice rose. Idelle found herself involuntarily taking another step back in response. This was all wrong, everything was horribly, violently wrong. Clovis was dead, Cecilia was... Why was it all so wrong? No answers came to her, Idelle couldn’t think straight; her thoughts seemed to scatter like a startled flock of birds as she reached for them.

Cecilia’s tirade continued. “A girl with more magic in her blood than I’d ever seen in my life, a girl who I know for a fact killed someone, acting like a confused lost puppy.”

Another step forward. “Seriously, what is wrong with you? Do you not understand how much of a risk I took? Or do you just not care? I can’t get a grip on you at all. Sure, there’s the puppy act, but I see how you smile, sometimes. Like everyone around you is just insects for you to trample over to get whatever it is you want. Like they’re not even real people, just meat like you said.”

Her voice dropped back down, back to that horrible, deadly calm. “So, sure. I’m a liar; if that’s what you want to believe. You’re right, I didn’t keep my promise. Now answer my question. Will you tell anyone about this?”

Idelle couldn’t meet the other girl’s gaze, she found herself staring at her sword instead, her reflection barely visible as it stared back at her with wide eyes. When she finally spoke it was barely a whisper. “I… you killed him. Why’d you kill him. What’s wrong with you. Why?” She wasn’t even sure who the question was supposed to be addressed at. Her voice sounded distant in her ears. Like it was coming from behind heavy walls. Her heart pulsed, painfully loud behind her eyes.

Cecilia’s gaze stayed fixed on Idelle, the princess’s red and puffy eyes barely visible under the hooded cloak. One of the black-clad warriors next to her leaned over and whispered something, and Cecilia shook her head. “You’re right. I don’t have the time for... this.” She stepped back through the doorway, the two silent figures flanking her. “Collapse the building on her. If she’s lucky enough to survive, she won’t be able to dig her way out until long after we’re gone.”

Idelle glanced back up at her as the words filtered their way through the pounding fog in her head. “Oh. Trying to murder me too, then?”

“Would it kill you! To just say—”

Cecilia’s words were cut off as the girl with the greatsword exploded across the room, her sword smashing through the chandelier it had gotten caught on earlier like it was glass as it tore through the air in a vicious swing. The rightmost figure in black reacted instantly, deflecting her sword, but the force of the blow sent their weapon scattering into the wall.

She was already following up, her sword thrusting forward, but an instant before it could connect the light flashed out, replaced by a hurricane. The torrent of wind that filled the room felt like a giant punch to the chest, lifting her off the ground and slamming her against the wall. She screamed in frustration, and reached out for the flickering air, clawing at the magic, scraping at it with her will; she would shatter it even if she couldn’t shape it herself.

“I said to collapse the building! Hurry! She’s fighting me!”

She tore harder as she heard the words, her frantic hands grasping uselessly at the air. She wouldn’t die here. She couldn’t! She felt the wind lessen, the iron will she was fighting against on the verge of losing control as she desperately struggled, and she pushed herself forward. She’d lost her grip on her sword but she still had her teeth and claws and…

She heard a sharp crack and an inexorable rumble of rock, and a moment later something smashed into her back, crushing her to the ground like an ant. She screamed, in agony this time, something in her chest felt horribly broken, and for a moment she thought she felt herself falling before a great mass slammed into her face and everything went black.