“Do you think they heard that?” Drava asked, a worried expression on her face.

The grenade had been the conventional kind, and the explosion hadn’t been subtle. The great mood they’d gotten from defeating the golem disappeared, spoiled by the possibility that they might have failed the job.

“We’ll have to assume they didn’t,” Slick said, voice somber. “This level of the crypts should be deep enough to have muffled the sound, but even if it didn’t, we can’t abandon the mission.”

“But–” Drava began.

“The mission continues,” Slick said, his voice clipped. “Understood?” He seemed to grow larger, but Juniper knew it was just her imagination.

A shiver went up Juniper’s spine. Gone was the jovial team leader she thought she knew–replaced with something much scarier. Juniper suddenly understood why the twins had died, even after her warning–Slick would have forced them to continue, even through their complaints.

But who was he to inspire such fear in everyone? And more importantly, what was so important in that vault that he’d throw away all their lives?

Without a word, the group resumed their positions, but now there was an undercurrent of unease. Slick was no longer the one protecting their back–he was the one blocking their escape.

The stairs went on for longer than Juniper expected–enough that Slick was probably right, and nobody above had heard the explosion. When they reached the top, though, they were met with a new surprise.

“More golems,” Hester whispered, motioning for everyone to lay flat on the stairs. Some half a minute later, she said, “They’re gone.”

Juniper breathed out, realizing she’d been holding her breath the whole time.

“A patrol?” Slick asked as he made his way to the front.

“Seems that way,” Hester confirmed. “I saw two, but I can hear more clanking coming from the other side.”

“Do you want to blow them up?” Drava asked.

“No,” came Slick’s instant reply. “We’ve already pushed our luck once. We’ll sneak past.”

“Uh…” Hester said, “you and I might be able to, but there’s no way these three can pass by undetected.”

“We’ll clear a path for them,” Slick said. “Herd them, distract them, bait them out of the way.” He paused. “We’ll figure a way. But first–Juniper, do you see anything?”

Juniper peeked over the stairs. “Same circular ward pattern right in front of us, but other than that, no.”

“So, it’s a similar layout,” Slick mused. “Might be tricky.”

“How are you going to bait them away if I can’t go with you to keep you clear of wards?” Juniper voiced her concerns.

Slick’s face fell. “I didn’t consider that.”

“Incoming,” Hester said, and everyone ducked again. “Clear. They’re going in circles, it seems.”

“Can we hide in the nooks?” Adar asked. “I think we can fit, even without touching the sarcophaguses. There’s a bit of space there.”

“That could work. Wait for a golem to pass, then follow it to the next corner and hide,” Hester surmised.

“Let’s give that a go,” Slick said.

They waited another minute and a half for the patrol to pass them again. It was perhaps to their luck that when not engaged, the golems’ passive senses seemed to be rather dull.

They snuck from nook to nook, with Slick and Hester occasionally providing a distraction. Slick’s crossbow, in particular, proved to be their greatest asset in this. It was quiet enough that the golems wouldn’t pick up the sound it made as it fired, but they would go investigate where the bolt landed.

Juniper’s call about the wards had proved a good one–like on the previous floor, there were enough wards placed randomly that Slick and Hester might have inadvertently tripped one if they’d gone on their own. As it was, they made it to the next stairs without a hitch.

Slick distracted the final pair of golems–the ones guarding the stairs–with a set of well-placed crossbow shots, and the team made its daring escape out of the second level and into the main crypt.

A grand door barred their way, and Juniper finally enjoyed a momentary break while Adar worked to pick its lock.

She took the moment to review everything that she’d done wrong.

Well, it was a single thing, really–she’d failed to realize the golems were more than inanimate suits of armor, which had nearly gotten Hester killed, and possibly the rest of them.

How had she missed it? She was pretty sure she hadn’t dozed off–she’d checked both the golems, individually.

The magic animating them seemed to have been anchored around their necks. Had it just been there, all along–just hidden? Was hiding a magical signature even possible?

She hadn’t learned anything of the sort, but then again… she was only a second year. It was entirely possible she hadn’t gotten to that part yet. But would such a thing even be possible? It was unlikely to be some kind of classified knowledge–the House of Ravens had its own mages. Surely it would know–and surely they would have warned her.

It was chilling to think, too. They’d avoided all the wards so far, yes–but how many invisible wards would they have tripped along the way?

Which was why Juniper thought this to be unlikely–someone would have intercepted them by now.

Perhaps it was something else–a remote-controlled construct? This was unlikely, for the same reason as before. A spell packed so tightly as to be nearly invisible? This seemed to have some merit, but she’d never seen anything of the sort.

Juniper sighed. She wasn’t going to figure this out any time soon.

She did wonder, though–was the golems what had killed them in every other iteration? Or were the wards she’d help them avoid something that deadly?

“You’re beating yourself up,” Hester said, breaking Juniper’s reverie. Juniper gave her a noncommittal shrug. “You are, I can tell. And it’s alright, you can stop now–I’m alive, you’re alive, we’re all alive.”

“You almost weren’t,” Juniper said.

“Almost is the operative word.” Hester shrugged. “Shit happens.”

“I don’t get how you can be so nonchalant about it.”

“Endless practice,” Hester said, breaking into a grin. “But no, really. You get used to it. Near-death scenarios are basically the norm in this profession. Thieves don’t die of old age, you know.”

Juniper suppressed a shiver. Oh, how she knew.

“And done,” Adar said, giving the crypt door a final push. It creaked open ominously.

Juniper raised an eyebrow. “Is that wise? I could have checked the other side first.”

“There’s no need,” Slick said with a shake of his head. “There shouldn’t be any security in the main crypt.”

It seemed counterintuitive to Juniper, but Slick had already explained this part during the planning session, so she didn’t protest. Since the main crypt saw regular visitors, it was deemed too much of a risk to install automated security–the last thing they wanted was a child going to visit their grandmother’s grave, and dying because they forgot to bring a ward key.

It also lacked human guards because humans were a superstitious lot who believed that crypts were haunted and that practitioners could turn them into frogs.

In other words, the crypts were the perfect point of entry for a band of thieves like themselves.

For once, they walked the halls unimpeded. It felt almost anticlimactic, having the final stretch be a literal stroll. Juniper still kept a magical eye out, but like Slick had said, the whole area was devoid of any danger.

Of the two walls the crypts shared with the vault, one was covered in sarcophagus nooks. The other was a plain brick wall, slightly worn in some places, but mostly solid.

“Time?” Slick asked.

Juniper took out her pocket watch. “Twenty past midnight.”

Slick sighed in relief. “Ten minutes early. Good.” He turned to the rest. “We’re almost at the end of the road. Drava, start looking for a weak spot. We’re bringing down the wall in ten.”

At half past midnight, Niman would be delivering spiked drinks to the guards in front of the vault–which would ensure they could ransack the place without any worry for at least fifteen minutes.

“Got it,” Drava said a few minutes later, poking at one of the more degraded spots in the wall. “Just need a small charge to get this brick loose and I can have a hole done in two minutes.”

Slick nodded. “Two more minutes, then you’re free to do it at your leisure.”

Juniper began to pace back and forth–it was the moment of truth. Was her being here enough to change the outcome? Was she going to come out of this alive?

Juniper froze as she considered something hadn’t considered before.

If she died, would she even return to the past again?

Something you should have thought of before embarking on a suicide mission, stupid!

Well, it was too late to back off now. She was pretty sure if she tried, Slick would kill her anyway.

The muffled sound of an explosive going off took her out of her musings. She turned to see Drava moving bricks out of the way.

“You’ll have to crawl a bit, but it’s serviceable,” Drava said with a shrug.

“Juniper, anything to watch out for on the other side?”

Juniper shrugged. “It’s all glowing to me–I can’t tell if it’s wards or artifacts from here.”

“You’ll go in first, then–but no further than a step, not until Hess clears it,” Slick said.

Juniper nodded, then shimmied through the opening. There was so much magic in the room it was making her dizzy. Still, she concentrated. “There’s a ward straight in front of the entrance, and I’m not sure about the center. The sides are clear, though.”

Hester was in a few moments later, her lantern casting new shadows on the room. “All clear. Come in, guys.”

One by one, everyone shuffled into the room. Juniper turned her magical sight down a notch, wanting a better view at the treasures they’d worked so hard to get at.

The vault itself was nothing too impressive–a small, square room, with metal shelves on each side and a single display case in the middle.

What was in the display case, however…

A single, small vial–no bigger than her pinky–sat on a green satin pillow. To the naked eye, it looked wholly unremarkable. To her magical vision–the vial glowed so brightly Juniper had thought it occupied half the room. It was the single most powerful magical aura she’d ever seen, by an order of magnitude–if not more.

She suddenly understood why the House of Ravens was willing to do anything to break into this vault. One glance at Slick all but confirmed it.

He was staring at the vial as if it contained the solution to all of his woes–and honestly, it probably did. Juniper couldn’t even begin to imagine how much the vial was worth–whatever it was.

Adar had already gotten to work on the safes inside the vault, while Hester and Drava were busy stuffing their bags with whatever artifacts they could find.

“Juniper,” Slick called out. “The vial–is it warded?”

“I can’t tell,” Juniper said honestly. “Its aura is drowning out anything around it. If there’s a ward, it’s as good as invisible.”

“Pity,” Slick murmured. “It would have been nice to know for sure.” He glanced around the room. “Everyone, you have five minutes to grab whatever you can–then we take the vial and make our escape.”

“And if there’s a ward?”

Slick shrugged. “If it’s lethal, then I die–and possibly the rest of you, too. If it’s an alarm, then you best be good at running.”

That didn’t fill Juniper with much confidence, but it was too late to do anything about it. Instead, she focused on stuffing her bag with anything that looked interesting. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to it–the artifacts didn’t come with labels, and divining their usage took time and knowledge she didn’t have. She focused on quantity over quality.

“Time’s up,” Slick said. “All of you, get out. Take my bag, too. I don’t want you in the room if it goes wrong.”

Juniper’s eyes widened–she hadn’t expected him to be the type to make a heroic sacrifice. Still, she wasted no time scurrying out the way she came. Slick had his motivations, and she had hers–not dying, specifically. It was a very powerful motivation.

“Here goes,” she heard through the wall.

A few moments later, Juniper found she couldn’t move.

“Well, well, well,” a new voice rang out, smooth like a viper. “Duchess Braccus, it appears you have a rat infestation.”

The wall separating them–the back wall of the vault–suddenly blew outward, spraying bricks into Juniper, Drava, and the twins. Juniper’s loss of control was so complete she couldn’t even feel if she’d been hit, but in the corner of her eye, she saw a brick catch Drava in the head.

Through the now absent wall, Juniper caught a glimpse of the newcomers. A man in a smooth silken robe with a cloud pattern, a stunning woman in a crimson ball gown, and…

Niman.

Traitor? Juniper wondered. Niman was bent over slightly, his posture submissive. Had he been discovered, and forced to out them? Or had he done it of his own volition?

Slick was still in the middle of the vault, his hand just shy of touching the vial–frozen in that position, like Juniper, unable to even move his eyes.

“My deepest apologies, Lord Graeme,” the woman–Duchess Braccus?–said. “I shall see them apprehended immediately.”

Lord Graeme snorted derisively. “Is that what you do to criminals here?” he asked. “No wonder your world is so weak. Look, Duchess–this is how we deal with vermin on Cassia.”

Juniper’s heart was beating so fast she wondered if it was going to break out of her chest. What was he going to do? He wouldn’t just kill them, would he? Surely he’d want to question them first, at the very least?

Juniper felt her neck twist the wrong way, then her body fell limp.

Oh, was the last thing Juniper thought before she died.

***

Juniper opened her eyes again, and she was once again back in Thermodynamics. She scratched at her neck, appreciating the feeling of being whole.

She’d just died moments before, but Juniper was calm. The horror of looking death in the face had led her to a strange kind of tranquility. She was calm. So very calm. Calm enough that one might not see the deep anger underneath.

Anger not at the Ravens’, who’d all but led her into a trap. Anger not at Slick, who’d forced her to continue against her will. Not even anger at Lord Graeme, her actual murderer.

No, the person she was angry at was herself.

What the fuck was I thinking? Juniper asked herself. The answer was obvious: she hadn’t been. She was a reckless, thoughtless, stupid–

She’d had no assurance she would loop again. She could have died for good, and she would have had no one to blame for it other than herself.

Well, at least now she knew. She could die, and she’d be alright.

But she couldn’t keep frittering around the way she had until now.

She needed a paradigm shift.

Juniper turned in her paper, and left for her room.

It was time to see about that Path.