Orenda hung the poster of the rabbit on her wardrobe and surveyed it for hidden meanings. It seemed rather innocuous, in that it was a normal rabbit, fat and fluffy, standing in a field being adorable. Behind the field was a vast ocean, stretching off into the horizon. For flavor, there was a silhouette of a ship against the sunset, or perhaps sunrise, it was difficult to tell with a still image. She eventually had to admit that there was nothing to be gained from studying the poster, and realized that she had been absentmindedly twisting the studs in her ears. She was supposed to do this, and it was an easy habit to fall into.

She sat down on the bed and took out the receipt.

It was much more interesting than the poster.

I don’t have much I can tell you, but I follow the path of order. I’ll try to help in any way I can. Quiroris is not one of us. Say nothing, and write nothing down. Burn this and I will give you a new receipt. I know you can. It is nice to see another fire mage.

It was so little, but it was the best solstice gift she could have possibly gotten.

There is a saying, “Nothing to write home about”. This saying meant little to Orenda, because she had no one to write, and no home to write to. But it applied to her nonetheless, as her life turned to routine, and the stagnation that she had feared began to eat away at her, wearing her sanity to threads.

She had said that a month was forever and a day. A year was torture. Time passed, and she hated it. She rarely spoke to Ali, but when she did, it was obvious that his health was in decline, and his mind had gone with it. He spoke of nothing but the voice, the voice in Lady Glenlen’s room, while his eyes grew more sunken and jittery, while his soothing voice became course, while his thoughts became more jumbled. When Orenda asked him when he had last spoken to his mother, he could not remember. When she asked him what information he had gleaned from his mission, he had to stop, collect himself, and remember that he had a mission. Orenda told him that he needed to scry his mother and request an extraction. He needed to leave. He was going to die in that place.

She spoke to Bubidder about it, but Bubbider did not know Ali’s mother. The Knights of Order were a secret, and communication was limited. Orenda felt herself going mad within the confines of the school. She felt the overpowering normalcy of it all, a mockery of safety in a world of madness. None of the people there seemed to understand the world as it really was, a place of fear, of pain, of exploitation, of genocide.

Orenda may really be the last of her people. And she was rotting away, for years, in a place that felt more like a prison than a school.

Spring was true to her word in that she knew nothing, but she was, at least, someone who trusted Orenda explicitly. Orenda did not return the favor. She did not ask Spring about Ali or his mother. When she retrieved her book she learned that the graphitti had been painted over, and the guards were getting more dangerous. They were, as Spring relayed, raiding sagehouses. Orenda needed to stay low, to stay quiet.

Four terrible, insufferable years passed in that hell. Orenda felt every second of it, and she seemed to grow no closer to her goal. She came to hate Quiroris with a fire fueled by his mystery, his determination that he was somehow protecting her, or somehow doing right by her, or that he had any right to seek redemption at all for the things he would not tell her he had done.

Ali had been right about one thing. She was going to be the one who would have to kill Tolith.

“Shit,” he said as he stepped on her dress and she hissed at him. “Sorry, sorry, let me find the music.”

“Oh my god,” Orenda rolled her eyes, “It’s a four four measure. You’re a nobleman.”

“I’ve got it, Rendy,” he hissed back, and under his breath said, “One two three and four, one two three and four.” He led them clumsily around the ballroom, and Orenda felt herself heating up.

“Getting hot, Rendy,” he warned.

“I’m going to set you ablaze,” she threatened, and he giggled despite her complete seriousness.

“Well you lead then,” he told her, “If you’re so good at it. Seriously, stop with the fire shield, it’s singing my gloves.”

“Your gloves are awful,” She told him, “Green looks terrible on you.”

“The whole outfit looks terrible on me,” he sighed, “But it looks worse on you. You should be in red.”

“You should learn how to dance!” She snapped.

“Lord GlenLen,” Professor Erakas put a hand on each of his shoulders, then slid them down to his hands, “Lady’s waist, lady’s hands level with your chin. Do you remember the steps?”

“Yes, sir,” he said.

“Please do it right at least once,” he instructed, “Less talking. And if you are going to talk, please remember your civility. Try again.”

“Ok,” he said, then under his breath, “One, two, three and four,” he stepped backwards, and Orenda followed him thinking of how terribly he was doing.

“I’m in hell,” Orenda told him, “this is a nightmare scenario.”

“I know,” Tolith agreed, “I can smell the brimstone.”

“Civility!” Erakas snapped his fingers in time with the band.

Orenda looked over her shoulder and saw Kassie dancing with a boy one couple over. Kassie noticed her and waved frantically, then realized what she was doing and fell back into step.

“Do you see them?” Orenda asked Tolith, “The way they move with the music?”

“One, two, three,” Tolith said, and Orenda heated the hand holding his until he let out a gasp of pain.

“Stop counting!” She hissed.

“That like, actually hurt,” he said, sounding as if his pride had been wounded.

“I hate this class,” Orenda whispered.

“It’s not my fault!” Tolith snapped back, and Orenda noticed that he was so concerned with the pain that he had actually fallen into step properly.

“There, just do that,” Orenda rolled her eyes at him.

“Hey Rendy,” He asked as they spun, “tomorrow’s the free day. You wanna go get something to eat? I’m paying.”

“You would have to,” Orenda told him, “is anyone else going?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” he said, “yeah, I guess.”

“Who?” Orenda asked, “Your girlfriend?”

“Shelly’s not my girlfriend, Rendy,” he frowned.

“I imagine she’d become enraged,” Orenda said, “If she heard you say that.”

“She’s not, though,” he pressed, “I just go to dances and stuff with her.”

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Orenda said, “But I could not care less about this conversation.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “You get bored easily. You’ve always gotten bored easily.”

They spun in silence for a few seconds before he asked, “Rendy?”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember, when we were little, and you told Kassie you were a princess, and she told everyone else, and there was a whole rumor around the school that a fire elf princess had burned down the bathhouse and just… all that?”

“Yes,” Orenda huffed, “It isn’t exactly the sort of thing one forgets.”

“I think,” Tolith pursed his lips and began again, “I think, sometimes… that you are a princess, and I am an adventurer.”

“People like to think a great many things that aren’t true,” Orenda shrugged.

“Yeah, but that’s not what I mean,” he said, “I mean that… some people just exude like… there are different kind of people, Rendy. And sometimes you can look at people, and you can tell that they’re supposed to be leaders. Some people have a divine right to rule. And you can look at other people, and you can tell that they’re supposed to travel. Some people have a wanderlust. Some people are just meant to do certain things.”

“How fatalistic,” Orenda mused. “I don’t believe that.”

“Well I do,” he said, and after a beat asked, “can we just go? Like, just the two of us? I don’t want to hang out with Shelly.”

“Why?” Orenda asked, “would you like my opinion on which engagement ring you should buy?”

“I need to get away,” he said, “and I’m not supposed to travel without bodyguards. I think if I sneak out, just the two of us, I’ll have a better chance than if I tried to go in a group.”

“Ah,” Orenda said, “Yes, I imagine that is quite stifling. How about a late dinner then, instead of lunch? Cover of darkness is always good for sneaking.”

“That’s a great idea!” He agreed.

“Volume, Lord Glenlen!” Erakas called.

Orenda found herself standing in the square, watching the sky turn orange as the sun set beyond the buildings, meeting the ocean. She liked the sky better when it wasn’t blue, at this time of day. The madman was on his normal post, shouting into the crowd that ignored him, and Orenda was considering walking up to him to take one his fliers, when a man in a traveling cloak approached her.

“I ditched my guards!” Tolith said in a voice that implied he was quite proud of himself. He threw back the hood and Orenda pulled it back up.

“You’re not particularly good at disguises, are you?” She asked.

“Don’t be mean, Rendy,” he huffed, “we both need a break.”

“I think everyone needs a break,” Orenda leaned against the building and motioned to the crowd, “Look at them, Toli. Just wandering about as if they’re made of clockwork and set upon a path. I wonder if it’s the same, every day? I wonder if they go through the same motions, do the same things?”

“Everyone has given up on their dreams,” Tolith agreed and leaned next to her, “I understand. It breaks my heart. There’s so much more to the world, Rendy. There’s an ocean only a few blocks away. There’s a mountain range behind us. Do you know how little we actually know of the world? How much of it is unexplored?”

“Where would you like to go?” Orenda asked.

“The dream,” Tolith said with a far away look in his eyes, “would be to chart the frozen north. They say that that’s where the Crystal City lies. When Morgani Magnus betrayed Thesis elves were forbidden to enter, and the location was lost. But I’ve been studying the sacred texts, and I believe it lies at the top of the world, in the frozen wastes. No one who has ever gone looking for it has come back, but I believe I could be the first.”

“I mean for dinner,” Orenda clarified, “I was promised food.”

“Oh!” Tolith jumped up, “Actually, Rendy, I was thinking- do you think that we could sneak down to the docks? I’ve never been allowed down there. It’s not like it is here, it’s a known hangout for what my mother called the “dregs of society”. There will be people there like thieves, rough sailors, and pirates!”

“I don’t know that you should go among ruffians, Lord Glenlen,” Orenda told him, “You have such a delicate constitution.”

“I don’t think I do,” he said, sounding insulted, “Not deep down, not in my heart. I think that I’ve never had to build up my constitution, because my parents have kept me trapped in civility my whole life. I’m sixteen, Rendy! I’m old enough to set out into the world on my own! I don’t want to be trapped anymore.”

“Toli,” Orenda sighed, “You don’t want to be one of them. You want to walk among them, eat their food, speak to them, and then to go home to your warm bed and your wealth. You wouldn’t give it up.”

“I would,” he argued, “I would give it all up in an instant, board a ship, and head off into the unknown.”

“I don’t think you would,” Orenda argued back. “The world is not a kind place for pretty boys with more ambition than sense.”

She thought of Ali and how long it had been since she had spoken to him, and how terrible he looked. She was jerked, unceremoniously from these thoughts by a strange turn of events. A man in a tattered traveling cloak had walked slowly onto the public platform as they had been speaking, and Orenda, along with the rest of the crowd, jumped and turned at the loud sound of the cloak exploding. The man had tossed it high into the air, where it burst into flame and sent off sparks as if something inside of it had been enchanted.

It was surreal the way the entire city fell silent, the way all the attention fell upon this man.

Orenda’s heart leapt from her chest.

The man was dressed in the uniform of a Urilian Captain, but not in the green of the navy. His jacket and hat were a bright, fiery red. Long dreadlocks fell down his back and over his shoulders, the exact color of Orenda’s own hair, and though she could not see his face, two pointed ears stuck out from either side of the mask he wore, the color of burnt umber.

This man was a fire elf.

This man was a fire elf, like Orenda, and a fire mage, who had set the cloak ablaze! For the first time in her life, Orenda knew that she was not alone! She wanted to run to him, to part the crowd and demand to know who he was and what he was doing there, but Tolith had a shockingly strong grip on her arm, and pinned her in place. She went to jerk away from him, but the man on the stage lowered the arms he had thrown into the air, waved one gloved hand over his mask, and spoke in a voice so booming and loud that it shook the square.

“Now that I have your attention,” the man said, and it echoed over the still crowd, “I have come to request an audience with Lady Glenlen! I am Captain Nochdefache!”

The crowd came alive at this announcement. Orenda saw more people crowding in, shoving Tolith and her into the middle of the street to make room as they packed in. It seemed that the entire city was there in an instant, and Orenda, being taller than most of them, made out their faces. She saw her roommates, arriving later than most, and teachers enough to desert the school. She saw Quiroris fighting his way through the crowd and toward the stage.

She saw humans, sprinting from buildings or darting from alleyways, and she noticed Bubbider and her mother crowded behind a building they would have had to pass to leave the school, with a group of other humans, peeking their heads out to see the spectacle.

“What’s wrong?” Captain Nochdifache asked, “Send a courier! Have her meet me here! Don’t you see me? Don’t you believe me?”

Orenda saw a battalion of soldiers in their immaculate uniforms, weapons drawn, shoving people out of their way as they barreled onto the stage. She heard Tolith as he spoke, quietly, and with great fear.

“Dad, no,” he said, “Dad, no, please.”

A man with Tolith’s long blond hair stepped forward onto the stage and addressed Nochdifache.

“You claim to be the dread pirate Nochdifache?” He asked. “The scourge of the seas?”

“Oh, Commander Glenlen!” The man turned to face him, waved a hand over the mask, and the expression changed to cheeky glee, “I was hoping to speak to your wife- or, no, I suppose. Dreadfully sorry, old man, I heard tale of the divorce. It seems that she’s a rather difficult woman to satisfy. Nice to see that she kept you on staff, at any rate. I know a lot of the nobles kill their pleasure slaves once they can get no more use from them.”

Commander Glenlen shook so hard the staff in his hand began to glow. Orenda knew what it was like to become so overwhelmed with rage that one would cast out of instinct, and she watched as the ground in front of the stage split, cobblestones scattering into the crowd with so much force that she heard them connect with bone, and strong, thorny vines shot from the exposed soil. They grew quickly, and snared Nochdifache, then continued to grow, lifting him from the ground. They had wrapped him so completely that it was difficult to make out his shape, spreadeagled and pinned by thorns thicker than Orenda had ever seen. They had torn his clothing, and were contracting upon him.

“Did I hit a nerve?” Captain Nochdifache asked, “Honestly, Glenlen, you’re probably better off. Oh, I’m so high! Look at that! I can see your son from here! Hello, Tolith!”

Tolith’s grip on Orenda’s arm tightened, and he held it as he pushed his way forward screaming, “Move! Move! Get out of my way! Dad! Dad, let him go, it’s a trick!”

Orenda found herself nearly upon the stage before Quiroris stepped in front of them and held Tolith with a hand on each of his shoulders.

“Be calm,” he told them, “return to the school.”

“He’s a fire elf!” Orenda snarled.

“I know,” Quiroris said, “return to the school. We’ll take care of it.”

“He has my name!” Orenda snapped.

“Go!” Quiroris demanded.

“Captain Nochdifache,” Commander Glenlen spoke loudly, trying to be heard over the crowd, “You are under arrest for-”

“Oh, let me guess,” Nochdifache said, “I rather like guessing games. Treason is probably highest on that list, but were I writing it, I would have led with the murders. You people don’t have your priorities straight. Then probably destruction of property, with a sprinkling of thievery.”

“Why isn’t he bleeding?” One of the soldiers asked, “This is unnatural. Something is wrong.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Captain Nochdifache announced, “I have come peacefully to speak to Lady Glenlen! She is holding a dear friend of mine, Lapus Lazuli, captive! He is, like I am, a Knight of Order! He fought alongside Sokomaur Sambress, and escaped the Emerald Knight! Lady Glenlen is fucking with forces she doesn’t understand! She will relinquish him at once, or she will suffer greatly!”

“You are under arrest for treason, murder, crimes against the church-” Glenlen began again, but Nochdifache cut him off.

“Honestly, Tiarus,” He laughed, “I have twice faced the Emerald Knight! I have seen my entire world buried by a shimmering stream of lava! I have seen the mountains explode and take everything that I have ever cared about! I was there the night your pathetic drones followed your false god to spill sacred blood on sacred ground! I have seen the wrath of Thesis first hand! What the HELL do you think you can do that hasn’t already been done to me!?”

“You are under arrest for-” Glenlen tried again, but was once again cut off.

“It is easy to catch the devil,” Nochdifache said, “Almost impossible to keep him! You tell your dear ex that if she does not release Lapus, hell shall descend upon her! She will not survive it!” He laughed and turned his face skyward, “Oh dear, look how beautiful the moons are tonight. I love a full moon, don’t you? Of course, it is a rather trying time for my beloved. You know women, how difficult it can be during that time of the month.”

The moons had, in fact, crested the horizon, and Orenda heard the long, mournful cry of a wolf.

The crowd split as if it had been a vase that had shattered.

“Go,” Quiroris shoved Tolith, “Go now!”

“Dad!” Tolith shouted as a pyre of flame engulfed the platform.

The soldiers stepped back from the heat as the vines that had imprisoned Nochdifache burned, tendrils of flame licking high into the night sky. Orenda watched the wood of the platform catch as Captain Nochdifache strode calmly and with purpose from the inferno he had created.

“Captain Nochdifache!” Orenda shouted as Quiroris grabbed both of the teens and began to run, pulling them with him in the direction of the schoolhouse. “Captain Nochdifache!”

“Dad!” Tolith cried with the same urgency, “Dad! It’s on fire! Dad! Are you alive!?”

Orenda watched the burning platform collapse in bits and pieces, only what she could see through the crowd. She watched bodies being torn apart and the severed limbs careening into the crowd and past her. She saw a dark shape, much bigger than any human, running on all fours throw its head back, saw the blood glistening from its maw as it turned to the moons and let out another long howl. Orenda watched Captain Nochdifache hop onto the back of the monster as if it was the most natural thing in the world- and then they were in an alleyway, running back to the school, and her focus narrowed to Tolith running beside her taking his breaths in great sobs as tears rolled down his face.