I kept a lid on things as we stalked back through the city streets. Avira glared ahead stonily, managing a polite nod toward any who noticed us. That was a storm I didn’t want to disturb, so…I followed in her wake, fuming more than a little myself.

Only when we stepped back into her chambers and I slid the door shut did she let out a snarl, banging one fist against the window frame. “Can you believe them?” she snapped, making a rude gesture toward the distant silhouette of the palace. “He trots me in there like I’m a show beast, tries to strongarm us into foolishness.”

“If there really are fiends there, though…” I began, but trailed off. Nella leaped to Avira’s desk with a chirp, looking between her and I for someone to offer scratches. I obliged, but my eyes never left Avira. “I don’t know. That’s a problem that needs to be addressed, is all.”

Avira groaned, turning away from the window. “Aye. That’s a whole other mess.” She sank down into her seat, leaning heavily on her elbows. Before, she’d looked incensed. Now, she just looked…tired. “I’ll be honest, lad, I’m not too sure what to make of all that.”

“You think they were lying?” It would be a bold move to make up a story like that, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

Avira shook her head, though. She leaned her cheek against one fist, eyeing me sidelong. “No, no. I don’t think they’d be so brash as that. Not lying. But…you heard it from their own lips. They’ve never seen a fiend before. Right now?” Her lips squeezed tight. “They’ve seen something they believe is a fiend. Perhaps it is. Or perhaps it’s something else entirely.”

“But even if it’s something else, we might be the best shot at dealing with it.” I shrugged, sitting opposite her. “I don’t know. We’re still short people.”

“Indeed,” Avira mumbled, wrinkling her nose at the stack of papers alongside her. “I’m afraid it’s…not as simple as wanting to aid them or not. If we’re to send them any aid at all, even to instruct their soldiers…” She grimaced. “We will need to find a way to stretch our hunters farther in the short term. Recruitment won’t send a team back with them this month.”

I nodded. How had things gone so south so quickly? I’d signed up to slay fiends—and here we were, trying to manage staffing shortages. It was just like being back in the Root, only now, we were responsible for keeping the place afloat.

If we needed more contracts getting fulfilled, by fewer hunters, then we needed to get more work out of each of them. I leaned forward opposite Avira, chewing on my lip. “They won’t like it,” I said finally, still staring into the desktop. “But…We could…”

When I didn’t immediately continue, Avira looked up. “What’s that, now?”

“Well, we need to make them more efficient,” I said. I smiled, a bit apologetically. “We could do that, if we started handing out contracts directly.”

Her eyes narrowed further. “You don’t mean-”

“We’ve got their profiles,” I said, tapping the aura-plate I’d claimed from the front desks. With it, I could pull up guild data on any hunter I wanted. “We can match them together, when a fiend needs a team to bring it down. Make sure they have the strength they need, but that we’re not wasting bodies. And for the rest, um.” I nodded toward the little mound of contracts that would no doubt be mine to handle this afternoon. “Well, you said it. We’re getting slammed with a bunch of little stuff. No need for each hunter to take one or two. We start handing those out in bulk, especially to the wood-tags, and we can reclaim a bit of our strength.”

Avira arched an eyebrow, fixing a baleful look on me, and chuckled under her breath. “Well, well, my little zephyr. Are you suggesting we order contracts upon hunters?”

“They’re not exactly unwilling,” I said, folding my arms. “They’d still be earning absolute heaps of coin. But, uh. Yeah.” I made a face, looking down. “They’d absolutely hate it. Probably won’t work.”

“No, no,” Avira murmured, giving a wry smile. “I’m sure they’ll appreciate it none at all. But that does not necessarily mean the suggestion is bad.” She laced her fingers together, then, leaning on the desk more heavily. “It…will be something to consider. It is an option, and we have precious few left of those.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “Avira?”

She looked up, her yellow eyes grave. “Yes, Trellin?”

“What in the three hells is going on out there?” I knew it was a stupid question. But…I’d seen fiends that morning doing something I’d never seen before. And now, another country starting to spawn them…I was shaken. More shaken than I really liked to admit.

The shadows beneath her eyes only deepened, though. Slowly, she shook her head. “I don’t know. I wish I did.” She sat back, taking a deep breath, and lay her hands flat on the desk. “But all we can do is persevere, Trellin. And so…would you-”

“I’ll handle these,” I said, recognizing where she was going. I grabbed the stack of minor contracts from the mound, stepping toward the door. “Don’t worry. We’ll find an answer.”

She nodded, her expression softening again. “Aye. Thank you, Trellin.”

“Come on, Nella,” I murmured, starting to walk for the door. I heard claws scratching against wood, then silence—then the slam of a weight hitting the back of my head. Hard. I lurched, groaning, as she scrabbled her way down to my shoulder. She was getting big fast. “Damn it, girl, can’t you-”

Avira laughed. Long and slow, still filled with exhaustion, but laughter all the same. “Myra have mercy on us,” I heard her say, when she found air.

I grinned, the ache in my chest easing just a little. Times were hard, and in a way we’d never expected, but somehow, we’d get through it.

So out I went, starting the long trudge back to Linead’s gates.

—--------------------

“Oh, I needed this,” I moaned, pausing for another moment before setting back into the haunch in front of me. It was from one of Linead’s street carts, much to my regret, but I just hadn’t had the time or the energy to cook something from scratch after handling all of Avira’s chores. However necessary they were, I was just stone-tired. Savoring the surprisingly-complex blend of spices and herbs, I swallowed, reaching for my flagon.

“It’s not just you,” Korinn said. She leaned back against the wall, her legs folded on the floor. “Sabbas is at his wit’s end, I swear. Not that you normally see him smile, but Aethir’s dick, you don’t normally see him like this.” She snorted, shaking her head. “The gate guard tried to search him for other weapons after he handed his axe off, and I thought he might rip the poor bastard’s head clean from his shoulders.”

Kevin and Myles chuckled, but more nervously. Both of them had met the enormous silver-tag hunter before. The threat was not an idle one.

I just sighed, trying to force myself to relax. I got only mixed results. This had become a nightly ritual of ours—Myles wasn’t in Linead’s cells after his attacks on us, but he wasn’t allowed to leave the quarters in the gated, restricted section of guild headquarters Avira had assigned him, either. It wasn’t safe for him to walk around, and none of the other silvers were really sure they trusted him yet, either. House arrest in a guild property was her answer, and he’d obeyed.

Avira hadn’t trusted the usual clerks with delivering his meals, so, well, that job had fallen to me. Only, it got a bit depressing just dropping food off and leaving him there all alone, so I’d taken to eating there, too. Kevin had heard about it, and liked the chance to have more up-close time with Nella—and once the three of us were meeting, well, the secret could only stay a secret for so long before Korinn found out.

Once she had, the tradition had been complete, and here we were. Considering how crazy the world had become, I’d come to relish these few hours of calm.

“You said you saw these fiends yourself?” Kevin said. Nella sat in his lap, and as he spoke, she thumped her head against his jaw. He chuckled, grabbing another chunk of meat, and tossed it in the air. She snapped it up, a wave of happiness radiating through her bond with me, and he looked over once again. “The issachi. You-”

“I saw them, all right,” I said, shaking my head. “Never seen anything like it. And that delegation today, the one from Talmarn. If they’re right, and there are fiends there too…”

Kevin let a low whistle slide out. “Something’s really wrong,” he whispered.

“Like what?” Korinn said, looking between us. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t look at me,” I said, holding my hands up. “I don’t know. Kevin?”

The gangly man jumped as our eyes all locked on him. “I-It’s a bit too early to say. Um. I…” He hesitated, looking over to me again. “All I can say is this. The creatures you call fiends are…” He paused, making a face. “You can say they’re created by Aradhen’s region cores.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense,” Korinn said. Myles nodded along, but his face was impassive.

Kevin groaned. “I know, I know. It’s like…Okay. So you’ve got the different areas of Aradhen, right? We’re in the Cliffs of Linead right now. Those.”

“Sure,” Korinn said. “I’m not a child. I know about that. But then-”

“Imagine that each of those regions has a heart,” Kevin said. It was funny, I realized, watching his whole demeanor start to change. Kevin always seemed like a bit of a fop, but when push came to shove, he could be serious, too.

He cupped a hand, as if containing something. “That heart regulates what happens within its domain,” he said. “When fiends are born, when they evolve, when they spawn, it’s all because of that heart.”

“But other places have regions too,” Myles said, shaking his head. “I remember that much just fine. And other places don’t have fiends. So-”

“Right,” Kevin said, rallying valiantly. He pointed to Myles, jabbing his finger with vigor. “They don’t. And that’s because of the matriarch. I think.”

“Wait, what?” Myles said, furrowing his brow.

“Because she was an entity?” I said. “Is that it?” Over the last few months, I’d learned a lot—about the way that the rest of the realities tied to ours viewed magic, and about the primal, unpredictable beings that dwelled within each of the worlds. As it turned out, the matriarch was ours. Or how it presented itself, in any case.

I tried not to worry too much about it. Nothing changed just by calling the thing a different name. The matriarch…was the matriarch. That was all.

“There’s no ‘was’ about it,” Kevin said. “You killed it, but it didn’t go away. It’s still sleeping under that island—and, my suspicion is that while it’s reached an equilibrium with your world and bonded with the region core anchored in Deldynne, appearing as one of your native fiends…” He shook his head. “Its presence could have, um. Effects, on the other region cores. Long-term ones. Ones that we might be seeing rear their heads now.”

“But why is it now?” I whispered. “We didn’t do anything. We killed her, sure, but that happens every Crown Challenge. It isn’t unusual. We didn’t change anything, so why-”

I froze, my words choking off. We…We had changed something, though. A small change, but a change nonetheless.

Kevin smiled grimly—and, gently, stroked the tiny scales along Nella’s neck. “I need to do some research,” he said, his voice soft.

“Yeah,” I said. My voice cracked. “Yeah, that’s-”

“What, now?” Myles said, looking between us. “Wait, you don’t think it’s-”

“It can’t be Nella,” Korinn said. She sat forward, shaking her fist at Kevin. “She’s so small. And the envoys from Talmarn were from Talmarn. That’s halfway around the world. How could she possibly have done something to make fiends spawn all the way over there?”

“I’d have to agree,” Myles said, which made Korinn grin. He sighed, though, lifting his cup to sip. “Even still…this is a mess.” His eyes flicked over to meet mine. “How’s…How’s she managing?”

Avira? I arched an eyebrow, stifling a laugh. “I mean, she hasn’t killed anyone yet. And she’s had provocation to. Samriel set her up in front of those Talmarnans, sands take him. What he’s asking for is- it’s totally unreasonable.” I gestured toward the single window in the tiny apartment set aside for Myles, wrinkling my nose. “We can’t hardly keep all the contracts we’ve already got. I don’t know how we’re going to keep up, if we’re having herds of issachi prancing around Linead. Do we look like we have enough hunters to send a bunch off to patrol a different continent?”

“I know you won’t like it,” Myles began, but Korinn smacked his shoulder.

“Oh, leave off,” she said.

He leaned back, spreading his hands wide. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to say Mistress Avira should just take the help, weren’t you?” Korinn said. She nudged his knee with hers. “I’m not stupid.”

Myles shrugged, making a face. “It…It is an option,” he said. “People would get their help. Would it be so bad if-”

“It would be something we can’t undo,” I said quietly. “That’s what she says, and I…I think I agree with her.” I looked up at them again, glancing between them. “I’m not saying everything should always stay the way it is now. But.” I grimaced, taking another gulp. “I just don’t think we should be pressured into making a snap decision. It’s not right of the crown to take advantage of a…” I gestured rudely to the window again. “An Aethir-damned natural disaster. All to get us to do what they want.”

“I did say they would try this,” Myles said, his voice going sympathetic.

I rolled my eyes. “You never said they’d-”

“Okay, not this specifically.” Myles glared at me, tolerant weariness filling the look. “But they would play games. They wanted Avira to play along. She isn’t, so-”

“So they’re going to try and make her,” Korinn said. “Really great people.”

I glanced to the door, as though expecting to see someone standing there. There wasn’t, of course. I knew we were alone, and yet…This was the royal family of our own country we were discussing. I didn’t think we’d be arrested or anything, but it just…didn’t seem smart to push things.

“Look,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on. It’s just a lot. And Avira doesn’t need it.” I shook my head, rubbing at my eyes, and masked a yawn a heartbeat after. “And…I just-”

“Ashes,” Korinn said, laughing. She kicked at my leg, then clambered to her feet, grabbing our plates—which she thrust at Myles, looking back to me. “Go home, Trellin.”

“What?” I mumbled, looking up again. “I’m-”

“You’re about to pass out,” Korinn said. “How long have you been up?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head, blinking rapidly to wake myself back up. “A while. There are a lot of little contracts, and-”

“And you’ve been handling all of them, no doubt,” Korinn said with a sigh. She grinned, nudging me with her foot. “Go home. Sleep, Trellin. And tomorrow, tell Mistress Avira to slow down a smidge. You can’t single-handedly keep the guild afloat, you know.”

“They all need doing,” I muttered. I stood, though, gesturing to Nella. She leapt into my arms, curling up around my neck and promptly closing her eyes.

Kevin grinned up at me, clearly jealous, but kept his mouth shut. He stood, nodding once to Nella. “Um…do you think tomorrow, I could see her? I need to poke around about the region cores. If you’re not too busy, that is.”

“I’m sure I can find time,” I said. “Otherwise…” I grimaced. “We’ll figure something out.” Normally I’d just leave Nella with him. She loved the researcher. He spoiled her when I wasn’t looking. He thought I didn’t know, but I did. Kevin would do fine handling her for a day. The problem was the guild—and Linead’s leaders. They were uneasy enough about having a fiend living in their walls. Letting her out of my sight was strictly forbidden.

As we strode for the door, though, I paused, looking back to Myles. Still sitting on the floor, he seemed…smaller, now. The apartment dwarfed him, even alone.

“Avira is still working on the tribunal,” I said, locking eyes with him. My brows furrowed. “Sorry. The elders are…resisting the idea.”

“Verrick was very well-liked,” Myles said, his voice mild. His eyes were dark, though, almost…wistful. “He has a way of ingratiating himself to you, if he needs something from you.”

“He didn’t seem like much of a charmer to me,” Korinn muttered. I was forced to agree with her take, personally.

Myles shook his head, though, looking away. “Right. Yeah. I…I know. But you were just…children, to him. The guild elders were different, and they would’ve seen a very different side to him.”

His lips pressed together. I stared for a moment, trying to see things from his perspective. Something told me Myles had seen Verrick like that. Hells, I’d seen a piece of it, in the hallway of the headquarters. Right up until he’d poisoned me, Verrick was a pretty nice guy. I supposed at the end of the day, I could see what Myles meant.

“I guess,” I said. “But…the point is, she hasn’t forgotten about you.” I smiled, even if my eyelids were getting heavier by the minute. “We’ll get you out of this apartment soon. I promise.”

“I’m not upset,” Myles said, holding his hands up helplessly. “I understand. She’s doing what she has to.”

Considering it was this or Linead’s prison, I could imagine he was still pretty thankful—even if this whole process had been going on for way, way too long. The sooner we could get Verrick in front of a guild council, the sooner we could unearth the true crimes here, and clear Myles’ name. We’d wanted it to be prompt. The fact the elders were balking at the idea of calling a council at all just meant Myles had to suffer here, awaiting a trial that was starting to feel like it’d never come.

So I nodded, tearing my eyes off him. “Yeah. I know you’re not mad. But I did want to make sure you knew. We really need the help, you know.”

“I appreciate the thought,” Myles said, smiling. That sadness was there again, though. “But I’m fine here. I’ll wait.” He shrugged. “I’ve earned as much.”

“I guess,” I mumbled, turning back to the door. With a final wave, we filed out into the steady-cooling darkness, splitting off down our own paths out of the restricted district. I meandered off on my own, chuckling as Nella whuffed in my ear. The path my feet followed wasn’t logical, but I didn’t mind. I needed some time to clear my head anyway. Myles’ final statement rang in my ears, refusing to fade even as I wandered farther and farther through the streets.

Did Myles deserve it? Part of me was still annoyed with him. He’d supported Verrick’s ideals for so long. The man had probably saved his life, according to what I’d heard, and that did count for something, but…even still. There were limits.

Myles hadn’t been the aggressor, though—and the fact he’d been willing to turn on Verrick, along with the things he might say, were probably the only pieces of evidence that even stood a chance of convincing most hunters in the guild to take the accusations seriously. So…even while I was a bit miffed still that he’d attacked me in the Deldeian jungle, I did appreciate him.

I strode along in silence, lacing my fingers behind my head. Nella nipped at my fingertip, and I yanked it back, laughing. Her teeth were razor-sharp, but small enough still it didn’t hurt too badly. “Come on, now,” I said, flicking the tip of her nose gently. “We don’t bite.” I didn’t mind a nip now. But with how she was growing…I was worried about what a nip might look like a year down the road.

Inevitably, though, my thoughts turned back to the fiends as I trudged back up the slope through the guild’s gardens. About the issachi, and about Talmarn.

And about Nella.

“It can’t be right,” I mumbled, glancing sidelong at Nella. “Right? You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re just…existing.”

She puffed a ring of smoke from each nostril, laying her head back down on my shoulder. Her golden eyes flicked shut, totally unconcerned about my question.

I rubbed a hand through my hair, laughing nervously. “Y-Yeah. It’s not you. Like Korinn said. It’s half a world away.”

Except it was the only thing that was different, now. If the matriarch was one of these strange, primal creatures, and Nella was her child, then…what did that make Nella? I reached over, tweaking the tip of her nose, and she twitched in her sleep.

I swallowed hard, smiling at her, and looked down. If this was really happening because of her, then…she’d be gone. That was all there was to it. I didn’t want to, but…could I really choose to keep Nella, when her existence was causing death and destruction on continents I’d barely even heard of? Even if I wanted to, it would never be allowed.

Kevin would figure this out. I nodded, taking a deep breath. He’d find the solution. He’d figure it out, and Nella would be safe, and everything would be fine. We’d stop the fiends from rampaging everywhere, and things would go back to normal. Until then…Well, until then, I just needed to focus on getting through.

I brightened, slowing, and leaned against the railing at the side of the path. Linead spread beneath me, glowing with lantern-light.

Getting through, eh? What we really needed were more bodies—and we had one sitting around doing nothing. Maybe I could talk to Avira about Myles running contracts with me during the day. He’d be supervised, and if that wasn’t good enough…maybe we could find a way to track him, or something. With him and I working together, we could crunch through some of the actual contracts, ones that weren’t just petty chores.

I nodded, settling more heavily against the cast-iron railing. It would make my life easier, which I appreciated, but it’d also get Myles out more. I was starting to think he needed that, even if he wouldn’t protest. I…should probably run it by him, though, before I got Avira to agree to the arrangement. No nasty surprises, and all that. I chuckled to myself, casting my gaze back across the cityscape toward the block where his quarters were. He’d probably protest at the very mention of it. The guy just wouldn’t take a favor.

No matter. If he wouldn’t listen, I’d make him listen. With a last snort and a glance toward the sprawling shape of his rowhouse, I pushed off the railing and-

And stumbled, looking back across the district. This high up toward the tall terrace of the guild headquarters, I had a good enough view to see straight across Linead. It was no problem at all to look down onto the brick rowhouses the guild owned.

There was someone there, all the way at the end in front of his building. My brow furrowed. I grasped the railing, my thoughts of moving on forgotten. Nella leaned forward, stretching her wings wide, and squawked her displeasure at still being here. I ignored her.

Surely it was just a neighbor, I reasoned. Someone else housed there. Only…that was Myles’ door, I was quite sure. I’d been there often enough to recognize it, and he was the last apartment in the row.

It was fine. Right. Only Avira and I had keys to Myles’ quarters, so-

The door opened. The man vanished inside, the door closing innocently behind him. In the span of a few seconds, it was as though he’d never been there at all.

But he had. My pulse roared, blood rushing through my ears. I stared for a moment longer, dumbstruck.

And then I lurched away, racing for the stairs that’d lead me back down into the district. My thoughts shrieked at me all the while, fading into a white-tinged haze of panic. Someone was there, where no one should be. He was there now.

My aura exploded to life. My energy bar gleamed yellow-green. I’d be making a spectacle of myself, I knew. Hunters did not fire their auras inside the city walls of Linead. Right then, I didn’t give a damn.

I should have seen it coming.

Leaving the headquarters behind, I took off running back into the restricted section.