“There is no cause for concern,” Commander Nunziata said, sitting in the first touring car heading for the fountain. Malou recognized the woman’s rich auburn hair from the articles she’d read. Among all the grey leather uniforms, it stood out like a spot of blood.

The commander’s speaker-amplified voice followed Malou even as she raced back inside Ehlers. “I am Commander Fiorenza Nunziata of the Revernais Crowned Navy Sea Legions Team 8. We are here to perform an annual inspection of Tousieux University on behalf of the Crowned Consul His Royal Majesty Alissander Elizalde. Stay calm and where you are. We are not here to hurt you.”

What lies. The only truth Commander Nunziata had spoken was her name.

Malou went straight to the door to the Room of Antiquities and used her father’s silver to open it again. She hurried down the stairs. The Sea Legions were here for the Teir, and they’d capture as many Libertines as they could find while they were at it to justify their presence. How much time did she have before they inspected Ehlers? Maybe she could convince Zeynel that his plan was wrong before they found this room. She’d head straight to his office from here.

“Malou,” Laure said as she rushed to the section of the bookcase where she saw Zeynel come from earlier, “a platoon of Sea Legions are rushing to Ehlers. It might be possible that they know about the Room of Antiquities. You need to leave.”

Malou glanced to the cabinet. Zeynel wouldn’t make it here in time to keep the Teir from the Legionnaires. Haddou said she could steal it back, but what if that didn’t work? They’d killed every professor who’d tried protecting it, so they’d surely do worse to someone trying to steal it. The only person between Revern and the Teir was Malou.

Laure called her name again, this time sounding as if she were frantic. “They’re heading for the door, and I don’t think it’ll take more than a few minutes for them to find a way in."

“Can you use the key?” Malou asked and planted herself in front of the cabinet. “Is there a way to turn it off until the key is used to turn it on again?”

“No,” Laure said, “the key only disrupts the connection between the lenses and a paired device within five paces. Outside of that range, the key is rather useless. Seems like an exceptionally large failure of the design if you ask me. Are you leaving now? I don’t think it’ll be much longer before they’ve opened the door.”

Why had Zeynel given her the key if not to use it? The only way to use it was within close proximity, and there was only one way to stay that close to it.

Although Malou didn’t want to think it was possible—given Zeynel’s penchant for not telling her his plans ahead of time—she had to consider whether he’d meant for her to steal the Teir before the Legionnaires. For that to be true, Zeynel would’ve had to know she’d get near enough to the Teir to learn the key’s true function. She hadn’t been necessarily discreet in her handling of Haddou’s letter, so he could’ve guessed she’d try to eavesdrop on the meeting.

That didn’t explain his conversation with Haddou, though. Or did it? He’d said we’re done and there’s nothing more either of us can do. He may have been meaning the two of them, the Onzena Nit, or the Blind Collective, but that didn’t include Malou. He’d said it was too late to do what they’d always done, which was take it off campus to hide. It wasn’t too late for Malou to steal the Teir before the Sea Legions.

Or maybe that was all wishful thinking. As much as she wanted to be the one to protect it, what if she was the absolute wrong choice? Not even her father could protect it.

“Malou,” Laure said.

“The cameras didn’t catch me coming back into Ehlers, right?”

“Of course. Stupid question to ask right now. Will you just leave already?”

Just for now—she’d hold onto just for now. Malou’s hands shook as she opened its glossy doors. The Sea Legions would assume it’d been hidden somewhere or with someone, but they’d never suspect it’d be with an unassuming student like her. If the worst-case scenario were being found with it, at least she could turn it off and pretend it wasn’t the Teir.

There was no alternative, it had to be Malou, and it had to be now.

Her fingers fumbled with the doors and drawers, then finally wrapped around the Teir. Her hand pulsed with its magic as she attached the silver box to her chatelaine, stuffed it in her breeches pocket, and closed up the cabinet as quietly and as quickly as she could. To be safe, she even took a handkerchief from inside her coat and wiped everything clean as she went.

“The Teir is syncing again,” Laure updated her. “Please tell me you’re leaving now.”

“Have you found Gavriel?” Malou asked, moving to the door Zeynel had used to arrive. Fear tickled the back of her neck as she searched for a way to open it. For all she knew, it only opened with Zeynel’s silver. Could she use magic to open it?

“No, and I’ve been actively looking. I can only conclude that he’s still in the tunnels, which is where you should’ve been two minutes ago.”

“I know,” Malou said under her breath, putting her hands against the bookcase where she’d seen the door before and closed her eyes. “I’m leaving now.” Whether she knew what she was doing didn’t matter, this just had to work.

With magic fiery on her hands, scorching up her arms, she thought back to how the hidden door had slid away from the bookcase as if a book being pulled from the shelf. She imagined it doing the same now under her touch, closing behind her and sealing shut as if the door had never been there before. When the bookcase pushed back against her palm, she opened her eyes and pulled back as the door slid to the side.

“The Teir’s synchronization rate increased significantly,” Laure said a ricochet of steel-toed boots echoed down the stairs. “I should be fully synced with it in the next fifteen or twenty minutes. What just happened? Are you hidden yet?”

Malou headed into the secret passageway with her heart racing, retrieving her rodona light as the door slid closed behind her just in time. “Used magic,” she answered and headed in the direction that would most likely take her to Alloula and Gavriel. Something urged her to quicken her pace. “Did it just jump for a few moments?”

“That’s right,” Laure said. “What does that mean?”

“Perhaps the Teir is meant to function optimally with more latent magic available.” Malou would have to spend more time thinking about it later when she had a clearer mind for it. “Have you seen Gavriel yet? What’s happening in Alloula?”

“No, I haven’t. Seventeen Sea Legions just arrived in Alloula Library, though. As well as the libraries of six of the larger colleges. They’re attempting to crowd control, as many students seem distressed at their presence. Would you like me to relay what they’re saying?”

Malou scoffed. “No, it’ll all be bullshit anyway. Just make sure if you see him that there’s no security footage of it. Do the same for Rupa and Professor Haddou as well. And Zeynel, if he’s not already on top of that.”

“That’s rather protective of you,” Laure remarked. “I like it. Much better than being a stalker. Where there were fewer students to calm down, the Sea Legions have started ushering them outside in small groups for processing. Unfortunately, they are on a private network, but given Commander Nunziata’s warning yesterday, I believe it is very likely they will be looking for anyone in relation with known Libertines.”

At least there would be fewer students around if the Libertines decided to show. Given her mother’s warning, the Libertines could’ve known in advance that the empire would come here looking for them. They may have already left campus, but if the Sea Legions registered all the students they found during their so-called inspection and compared their list to the university’s records, then those who left would be labeled suspicious.

Truthfully, if the Libertines on campus were students, all they needed to do was blend in with the student population as they would normally. However, given their record, she doubted they’d lay low.

Laure continued to give Malou updates. "There are people wearing animal masks coming out from the secret tunnels at each of the libraries the Sea Legions have entered. These are Libertines, correct?”

"At Alloula, too?" she asked, her mind circling back to her mother just as she found a section of the passages she recognized.

"I said at each. Are they Libertines?"

Had her mother been worried about the Sea Legions or the Libertines? What did either have to do with Grandfather Claude’s death or her family’s safety? While Malou suspected her grandfather had been poisoned by a political enemy inside the government, the Legionnaires operated under the direction of the Crowned Consul, who had shown up at the funeral when he didn’t have to and when others hadn’t even made the effort. It seemed more likely that Grandfather Claude’s political enemy would be an enemy of the Consul as well.

While it could be possible that the Consul wanted the Teir to use against that political enemy, it didn’t make sense then for Commander Nunziata to request the Teir to use against the Libertines. That made it seem like the Libertines had murdered her grandfather, but they would’ve then been killing one of their few allies in the government. His policies often reflected the Libertines’ general agenda to secure more autonomy for each of Revern's five provinces.

If the Libertines had nothing to do with her grandfather’s murder and the Consul hadn’t ordered the Sea Legion’s inspection, then who was after the Teir, what was their true agenda, and why was her mother running from them?

“Malou,” Laure interrupted her, bringing her back to the cold darkness of the tunnels. The pub ahead was dark and deserted as if even the staff had been rounded up already. “The ones in the masks are Libertines, correct?”

Finally, Malou reached the entrance to Alloula’s basement. Littered nearby, she found two rapiers in decent shape, a mechanical crossbow with an empty magazine, and a half dozen animal masks. A wolf, a lamb, a deer with antlers, a lion. Or maybe the pub's staff were Libertines.

“Yes,” Malou answered and picked up the deer mask. Her chest tightened—painfully like when she’d heard that her father had died —and she didn’t know why. Everything in her wanted to race out of here and find Gavriel. “Gavriel? Do you see him?”

“I would’ve told you if I did,” Laure said. “You’re not thinking of going out there to look for him, are you? Wouldn’t that be too dangerous? They are fighting. It doesn't look safe.”

She should stay in the tunnels. Haddou had told her to hide and wait for her. She had the Teir, and if she were apprehended by the Legionnaires, it was possible that they’d know what it was. The Teir was safest down here where, even if the Sea Legions found the secret passageways, there were still places Malou knew they couldn’t find her. Perhaps Gavriel was already hiding in one of them.

Something in her knew that Gavriel wasn’t hiding anywhere, though. Not to mention, if they didn’t find her, that might make her suspicious to them. If she were caught, she could just use magic to hide the Teir or use the Valois family name to decline a search of her person. They were obligated by law to contact the head of the house when patrician families like hers were involved, and her grandmother would surely claim her. Gavriel wouldn’t be so lucky, but she could protect him if she were with him.

Along with the deer mask, Malou grabbed the better of the rapiers. She couldn’t be seen with the either without the risk of being labeled a Libertine, so she concentrated magic into her hands and imagined them both invisible as she’d done so many times recently. The more she did it, the easier it seemed to be to do it again. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to use either, but the dread curling in her gut told her that danger awaited her.

When she stepped up to the first floor, screams erupted around the library—shrill, terrified—and they didn’t quiet. The cacophony threatened to sweep her up and overwhelm her. It was immediately disorienting, and her senses couldn’t figure out where to concentrate. She could smell and taste perspiration and urine. She could hear and feel frantic footsteps thundering down from every floor and rumbling all around her.

It would’ve been easy to turn back, but she’d decided to come here knowing it’d be discord and disorder and despair. She steeled herself, tightening her grip on the invisible mask and rapier, and focused on one necessary detail at a time.

The hidden basement door led into the Lower Reading Room and the library’s stacks of current periodicals, popular science, and reference books. Students huddled behind bookcases and under study tables, wailing instead of talking, pinching earrings to call their families to tell them what was happening. There were probably students on every floor frightened for their lives.

The far side of the reading room ended in a grand staircase and the near side opened to the main atrium. The Libertines must not have waited for the Sea Legions to spread out too much before they’d come out from the tunnels because the fighting was mostly contained in the atrium. All Malou needed to do was see if Gavriel had been caught up in it. She forced her feet forward.

Near the clearing in the middle of the library atrium, chaos enveloped her in panic-thickened air that vibrated with the sound of fighting—of fists into faces, of bodies hitting the ground, of quivers sinking into flesh, of metal scraping against metal. The Libertines had far more people but far fewer weapons. When one went down, another jumped in ready to fight. Those without weapons attempted to steal rapiers and grappled for mechanical crossbows. The Legionnaires forced those they’d managed to catch onto the floor and against tables or bookcases, elbows digging into cheeks and spines, until a different Libertine threw them off by any means necessary.

Her heart thudded painfully in her chest when she caught a glimpse of Gavriel’s long black hair in a bun at the back of his head as he wrestled a Legionnaire off a weaponless Libertine and put them in a chokehold. He wore a fox mask, but Malou didn’t need to see his face to know it was him. She rushed toward him before she knew what she was doing, noticing almost too late a lone Legionnaire a few steps away from Gavriel aiming a mechanical crossbow at his back.