Mia and her sister had given their packs to Nise and Fen before walking straight to the biggest house Mia had ever seen to about the why, because Mia was still thinking very hard about that. Sister Mea said it was important not to take anything valuable with them, but Mia hadn’t understood why. There was a lot of why that Mia didn’t understand. It was a big question! It was the biggest question. Even if sister said it didn’t matter all the time, Mia was sure it needed to be asked. Mia’s hero book even said so.

So why were they stuck to opposite walls in a cold dark room where unhappy men kept coming to yell and be mean? Mia was thinking very hard about that, too. Mia had already been there long enough to get thirsty and hungry, and for those to go away. Long enough for Mia to need to go, and for that to fade away too. Those things never used to just disappear like that, and Mia wasn’t sure why they had this time, but was sure sister would know. If only Mia was allowed to talk. But she wasn’t. She promised not to.

Mia wasn’t supposed to say anything until she had made a decision.

“Use your shadows, stay quiet, and watch. No matter what happens, don’t say anything until you’ve made up your mind and decided. Promise me.” Mia remembered exactly what sister had said right before they met the angry man in the nice clothes. Mia always remembered what sister said, because it was important to listen and sister often said very important things about how to be a good hero.

So Mia promised! Because Mia was a good girl. She didn’t know why sister had made Mia promise to stay hidden, but Mia’s shadows would make sure no one knew she was there. No one would even remember she’d been there, either. That would give Mia time to think and listen, but she wasn’t sure she knew what it was she needed to decide. But it was a big promise and sister said Mia would understand and that she would wait until Mia did. Until then Mia just needed to watch and listen and be good, so she stayed on her side of the room and watched as a strong looking man came in carrying a roll of tools.

“Here to have some fun, big boy?” Sister Mea said, sounding strange.

“I am here to make sure you are in a talking mood for my lord,” the man said, making sister laugh. Mia wanted to know what was so funny, but she couldn’t ask yet. The man took out his tools and soon sister started making weird noises. They were so strange even the man seemed upset by them.

“Stop. Stop doing that,” he said, followed by a dull thumping sound.

“Oh, are you gonna make me?” Sister said again in that same unusual voice. There was another dull thump followed by a pained hiss from the man.

“You’ll have to hit harder than that,” sister said with a laugh. Was Mia’s sister being hurt? It didn’t sound like she was hurt, but Mia was confused. Then she remembered how sister had said they had special bodies, and that they were heavy, and the way Mia had broken that door by opening it too hard, and that Miss Byulla had said they were as tough as a building. Maybe the man couldn’t hurt sister, but was trying anyway? That was still bad.

It was bad and made Mia upset. Mia wanted to make it stop, but she realized she couldn’t and knew it was Mia’s fault. Her fault that they were trapped now, and that her sister was being hurt. She thought about it, and thought about it, and then thought really hard some more, but she had to take responsibility for her mistakes. Maybe that was the decision sister had talked about, because even if Mia didn't want anyone to die, not ever, Mia was coming to understand that that wasn't always an option.

She understood that now, and because of her, Mia knew they couldn't get out of the situation they were in without a fight. A fight where people would probably die. Mia just didn't know how to make things right, what the right thing to do was, now that it was all so wrong. If Mia decided to fight as hard as she could, and cheat, then she knew that they would be able to get free. But fighting to get free would mean lots of people would die and she wouldn’t get the answer to the big questions she had. Worse, Mia was sure that acting without understanding the consequences would just cause more problems in the end. Mia had to be patient and wait until she knew what was right.

She remembered what sister had said after the Invader had attacked them on the mountain, and threatened sister Mea. Mia had been so mad when sister was in danger that she fought back with everything she had. She broke so many things, and even then hadn’t managed to stop the Invader. Mia had raged and rampaged, and lost herself in the fight so much it was really scary. Made Mia scared of herself, that she could feel that way and do so many terrible things. But sister wasn’t scared of Mia, she had sat down next to Mia without being worried at all and talked about it.

“Feelings motivate you, and that’s good. Without them you wouldn’t really want anything from life. They guide you in the world, feelings are how you figure out what your priorities should be, but they also change frequently and should never be the sole reason you do anything. Think things through first, so you know what feelings you should feed and which ones you need to starve, because following your emotions won’t get you what you want in life. Believe me when I say that.”

That was when sister had ruffled Mia’s hair for the first time. Even though they hadn’t been sisters at the time, it was still an important moment for Mia. After listening to Mea’s story, even if it had been a little hard for her to follow, Mia understood her sister a little better. Understood that Mea’s knowledge came from lots of mistakes, and not just from books or listening to people like Mia’s did. Mia hadn’t appreciated the difference until she had made a big mistake of her own. That’s why Mia knew that she had to be clever and smart from then on, not just strong, because even if she could win, that wasn’t good enough.

Winning in the wrong way could mean people dying, and Mia didn’t want to lose someone she cared about the way sister had lost her partner. Mia hung there in the dark, unable to do anything but think about things. She wished she could have met sister’s partner, because anyone who could keep up with sister was probably a good person to know. But she couldn’t, because sometimes mistakes were so bad that they could never be undone. That brought to mind the fact that Aur had also written about the same thing in the hero diary, after coming back to find a friend had been hurt while she was away.

“What matter that I regret? What matter that it pains me now? Were I to remain unforgiven it would be only just, as I am not able to unsay those words. I am not able to undo what I have done, or remake what I have broken in my hasty furor. That I was distraught is a given, and has brought me a measure of unearned grace, but would that I had asked why he had been hurt, instead of assuming. I must resolve myself to the consideration of what might happen before next I set my temper loose. I must keep my wits and seize the courage to be stronger than I am.” Aur’s writing was always hard for Mia to read, but that made her think about it more.

So Mia thought about it, about what she could do and what it would mean. About the why and the what might happen. Mia and her sister were stuck with magic and metal to walls made of big stones, and she didn’t know how to get herself free without cheating. Mia couldn’t do that, and if she said something that would mean she had made a decision. Mia hadn’t seized the courage yet, but she would need to if she wanted the strength to say no. Saying no was a big decision, one Mia thought about a lot after sister had told her about what it really meant to say no.

“Yes and no are asymmetrical options,” Mea had said when they were walking back to the city after fighting the goblins and were talking about the responsibilities of an adventurer and a hero, like setting up a watch rotation. Mia felt her face get hot just thinking about that. The hero book talked about those often, but Mia hadn’t thought about it at all. But sister’s talk had been about a lot more than that! It was like a lot of things Mia’s sister said and full of difficult words and ideas, but Mia liked that. Once she got sister to explain what the words meant, anyway.

“Everyone wants things, and they want to be told yes to those things. Saying no is different. Saying no means setting yourself against the yes of others, and that’s meaningless unless you can back it up. Your no literally means nothing unless you have enough strength to fight for your desired reality.” Mia wasn’t sure she understood that right, because people said no to things all the time and it didn’t end up in a fight.

“That’s absolutely correct, but it always could. Imagine there’s a big scary monster, and it wants to kill you. Imagine someone at the market wants you to buy something gross, like bad juice. Imagine that you find out someone you like wants to do something you know to be wrong, say if Anise wanted to lie to Miss Byulla. You don’t want any of that. So you say no, but they aren’t going to stop unless you can make them.

“Each of those takes strength to stop. The first requires physical force, the second one needs a social response, and the last just takes emotional fortitude, but that doesn’t make them different. Don’t make that mistake. They each require a kind of strength because you’re overwriting their yes with your no, so keep that in mind. Not every situation will be like that, which is good, but any situation could. Don’t be careless.”

The hero diary didn’t say anything like that, but there were lots of times where Aur said no to someone or something and had to fight for it. Reading those stories again after sister had explained something like that gave Mia a funny feeling, because the stories Mia loved would change even though they were the same. Mia wondered how many times she could read something and have it be different every time. Mia didn’t think there were any stories in the book that were the same as the situation Mia and her sister were in, but Mia thought that maybe after the adventure was over she would read them again and see how they really were the same after all.

Thinking that felt nice, which was good because Mia was feeling pretty bad about having been so careless, even though sister had specially warned Mia about that. Mia had thought they’d find the town’s lord and ask a few questions to try to understand things better. Asking questions was supposed to be okay, but they had become stuck instead. It would take strength to make the bad things stop, but Mia didn’t think words would work.

Not Mia’s words, anyway.

Mia didn’t have the right kind of strength to make the bad things stop the way she wanted. Sister was strong enough that she could force the bad things to stop, but Mia knew that even sister would have to fight to escape. Escaping was a decision too, but Mia had gone to the lord man’s big house on purpose to ask why. Mia hadn’t figured that out yet, so they had to stay. Which left only emotional strength, to be quiet and watch while sister got hurt. Mia didn’t like it, but she was good, and she was trying to be strong.

What hurt most was that the one suffering was sister, in Mia’s place. Because it was unfair. Decisions were important and sister said that the person who made a decision was responsible for what happened. But it wasn’t Mia being hurt because of the decision, it was Mia’s sister instead. It was unfair if sister was being hurt because Mia wasn’t ready yet. It wasn’t right. Mia needed to hurry, but she couldn’t do that either. To save sister as soon as possible, Mia needed to take her time to make sure she made the right decision.

When they were hunting goblins, Mia had been in a hurry and had done things wrong. Mia had tripped and fumbled and let her target get away; it was bad and dangerous and had gotten them both hurt. Not much, but that it was Mia’s fault had been enough for her to start crying. Sister was always so nice and just told Mia that it was fine so long as she learned from it. Sister also told her that just because something needed to be done quickly, it didn’t mean that being in a hurry was good. She said that doing things wrong would take longer than taking the time to do it right, because it would need to be done again. Mia didn’t know if she was strong enough to watch as sister got hurt over and over again, just because Mia had been wrong.

“So hot,” the man complained, even though it was a little cold in the room. Mia was starting to think he was sick because he was sweating and shaking as he used his tools on sister, who was still making strange noises. She hadn’t stopped making fun of the man either, and Mia felt weird about that. It seemed bad to make fun of someone but, even if Mia thought that way, her feelings didn’t make it true for everyone. Mia’s new friends made fun of each other and seemed to like it, and so did the adult male adventurers that she had listened to. Even if Mia didn’t really understand why, there was obviously more to it than just being bad.

Mia also thought that maybe sister making fun of someone who wanted to hurt her was one of the things that she called social engineering techniques. When Mia asked about how to be strong with someone selling bad juice, sister had told her all kinds of things. They were ways of breaking expectations to control the flow, as sister put it. Mia understood it a little, but she wasn’t good at it. Not like sister was!

So maybe Mia’s sister was okay. One of those strange words sister used that didn’t really seem to make sense, but Mia understood it anyway and thought it was a good word. If Mea was okay, and in control of things, then Mia could concentrate on watching and trying to understand so she could make a decision. First she had to understand what kind of decision it was. To escape or not escape, to fight or not fight, maybe even choosing who had to die and who would live. Mia was sure that wasn’t all of it, either, because she knew there were many things she didn’t know yet, or wasn’t able to understand. That’s why Mia read her hero book again and again, and tried to remember everything sister would say.

One of those things was the idea that everything had a shape, beyond what was obvious. It was a very big thought that maybe didn’t quite fit in Mia’s head yet. Sister said that ideas had shapes; some fit people very well – like juice in a cup! – while others fit poorly, like the skin that sister had replaced with a canteen. Some ideas were shaped so nicely that everyone would fit them into their own lives without thinking, like there had been a place for it all along. Some were so bad that they didn’t fit into the world at all.

Mia didn’t quite understand that part, because she’d never seen an idea that bad before, but sister said they were out there and to be careful because they were often very sneaky. Mia wasn’t sure what to look for, but sister often said to be careful and Mia thought that was smart, so she tried to be, and always thought about things a lot.

Feelings had shapes too, like anger was hot and prickly, or sadness was heavy. Mia thought that made sense, because they felt just like that. Mia’s favorite part was when sister said that people had a unique shape, too! She said they could be shaped like rocks or rivers or monsters or even heroes! Imagining what all of Mia’s friends were shaped like was a lot of fun, and made Mia happy.

But the shape idea was even bigger than that! At first Mia just thought it sounded like a fun game, but then she read in her hero book about the time Aur solved a big mystery about someone who died. In the story, there were a lot of people who first said they didn’t know anything about the man who died, but eventually, because Aur was smart like sister, she asked amazing questions that put things together like puzzle pieces until she knew exactly who had killed the man, and how, and why.

The first time she read it Mia just thought that mystery solving sounded really exciting, but after hearing about the shape idea Mia figured out something new. The things that the people had said were the pieces that made up the puzzle, but lies were pieces that didn’t fit right because they had the wrong shape. But since puzzles were made to fit together, a smart person could find missing pieces by finding out the shape of the hole in the puzzle, even if they hadn’t seen the piece before. It was the same thing with lies, because the whole world fit together like a puzzle.

After reading about that, Mia started to see how the idea itself was a shape that fit into the world. It was an idea that helped make sense of things and how it all fit together, or sometimes how it didn’t. But the world was a big big thing! That’s why sister had said it might take Mia a lifetime to understand properly. But even if Mia hadn’t lived very long yet, she understood that the decision she was supposed to make would have a shape, too. She just couldn’t tell what kind it would be, but she knew that understanding everything about their situation would help her see what shape it would need to take to fit properly. Sister promised she wouldn’t give Mia any problems that Mia couldn’t solve, so she just had to keep thinking about it until it became clear.

“I cannot,” the man said in a strained and raspy voice as he stumbled away from sister. “Forgive me, my lord, I cannot endure,” he continued as he bashed himself against the frame of the room’s only door, leaving his tools scattered behind. He was sweating and panting and mumbling further to himself as he clumsily opened the big door and stepped out, leaving it half open.

“I gave him a little magical fever,” sister said with a smile that Mia could hear, even though sister’s face was hidden by her long pretty hair. “He shouldn’t be coming back. I’m aiming to get the lord himself down here, so we can find out your why.”

As with so many things that sister said and did, that one made her feel happy and uncomfortable at the same time. Having a fever was really awful! Mia had gotten sick so many times back before she was adopted by Kos and Ena, before the big one had come and saved Mia. It was before the dark place that she couldn’t remember very well, back when Mia was alone in the hallways of home. Mia remembered what it was like to be sick and too hot and too cold and scared and lonely. She didn’t want anyone else to suffer like that. But Mea had made someone sick on purpose!

Except Mia had always gotten better, and afterwards it wasn’t so bad, really. What was more important, Mia thought, was that there was no way a sick person could fight very well. That was important because Mia was starting to think her big decision couldn’t avoid fighting with all the people in the big house so they could leave, so maybe that was a good way to make sure they could escape while hurting everyone as little as possible. It was important not to hurt people when it wasn’t necessary. Mia’s hero book said that, and it seemed right. Hurt people were angry and wanted to hurt others, which made problems bigger. Mia wanted to be able to do what sister did. To make people not fight without hurting them.

Mia’s sister was really smart! To make people not be able to fight like that while defending herself without fighting, and also setting the board. Which was about a game that sister had showed Mia, that was supposed to be good for learning how to think strategically. Which was a good word, even if Mia couldn’t pronounce it properly yet. So if enough people got sick that the lord Kuelli man had to come himself, Mia would be able to hear why her sister had been hurt, and maybe even be able to find a good way to fix the problems.

Since being hungry or thirsty had gone away for some reason, Mia couldn’t tell how long they had been in that room. Mia knew that sister would have some way to find out, but Mia couldn’t even ask! So instead she kept watching as another tough looking man came, with more of his own tools, and even more upset than the first one. Unlike the previous man, the new one came with questions that Mia tried very hard to listen to.

“By Lord Kuelli’s decree, you will answer these questions.” Unlike the first man, this one wasn’t big or strong looking, but he was so mean looking that Mia instantly didn’t like him.

“Will I?” Sister asked, with that same smile in her voice. The man hit her. Mia almost yelled at him, but stopped herself in time. Sister wasn’t hurt, but the man shook his hand a bit.

“You will answer these questions,” he said again. “Where is the Guard Captain? What have you done with her?”

“Who?” Mia didn’t know, either. Mia and her sister didn’t know many people in the town at all, so how were they supposed to know someone specific?

“You do not ask the questions here.” The man said, hitting sister again. It was obvious to Mia that his hand was hurting afterwards. Sister just laughed.

“Oh really now? Well, good luck with that,” she said, still laughing. He raised his hand again, but stopped, instead pulling out a short knife and waving it at her. “You sure seem awfully pleased with yourself,” sister said, “waving something that small around in front of a woman like me. Must be tough for you, poor thing.”

“Captain Yizell,” he went on, ignoring what she said. “Commander of the City Guard.”

“Never heard of her.”

“It is known that you were involved in her disappearance!”

“By you, maybe.”

“Enough of your lies. Adventurers are known to prize the function of their bodies, so I shall begin by taking yours.”

“Not the worst come-on I’ve ever heard, I’ll be honest.” Mia didn’t understand what that meant, but the man made another noise like he was mad, so it was probably making fun of him somehow. Mia didn’t like not understanding things, and decided to ask sister about it later. The man, meanwhile, was using the knife to try and hurt sister but Mia could tell that it wasn’t doing very much.

“Dissemble if you wish, the truth will come plain soon enough. You were seen in the company of several of the noble soldiery, and you will tell me what you know.”

“Oh, is that all? Sure!” Sister said, quite cheerfully. Mia was relieved, since she knew the answer to this one, too. Maybe Mia could finally find out why things had ended up so strange with the town’s lord, and why the two of them were stuck in that room answering questions.

“Yeah, they were very helpful. They took us straight over to that shop, we finished our business there and then left. If you don’t know where they went after that, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.” The man didn’t like that answer. Mia thought it was strange, too. Sister’s answer wasn’t wrong, but it skipped some important parts! Sister knew that, she was very smart. Why would she skip things like that? Mia started thinking about that, too, because she was sure sister understood everything already, and was just waiting for Mia to catch up.

Mia hated that feeling. Hated being a burden on sister, hated making sister be the one who got hurt because Mia didn’t understand things. Mia wanted to be smart like sister and grown up, too. The hero diary had lots of stories about that feeling, and that there wasn’t any other way than just experiencing the world and being wrong, and then learning from that. Mia just wished things weren’t that way, because Mia loved her sister the most and didn’t like what was happening. But if sister just told Mia the answers, she wouldn’t be able to grow up properly or be smart at all, the book was very clear about that. So Mia went back to paying attention.

The man kept asking the same question about the missing person, and the one about the missing guards, but Mia didn’t understand why. It didn’t make any sense. Mia hadn’t met anyone like that, sister said so too! Mia didn’t know what had happened to the guards either, or why sister had skipped past that. It seemed important, but they had all left already when Mia had come to the guard room, so why did the man keep asking the same things over and over again when he had already heard the answer? Maybe he thought sister was lying?

Soon enough the man left, the same as the one before, dripping with sickness sweat in the cold room and sounding hoarse. New ones came, one by one, but since the questions never changed sister sent them all away. Mia didn’t learn anything new, except that the lord was very mean to keep sending all those men, and obviously didn’t actually care about sister or what sister had to say.

Eventually an older woman with pretty hair came into the small dark room. She walked in a careful way that Mia thought looked nice, and wore a fancy dress. She went directly over to sister and talked quietly for a long time; she didn’t use the tools or get angry or hit sister at all! The lady’s voice didn’t sound mean either, even though Mia couldn’t really hear what was being said, which was why it was so surprising when the lady simply fell over, sweating and shivering. Mea had made her sick, too! That didn’t seem right, since the lady hadn’t done anything but talk.

But Mia remembered when sister had told her that words were weapons too.

“You can just ignore them, words don’t mean anything,” Anise had said when Mia asked about why she was supposed to show her pretty dark green colored adventurer card to people who were being mean. Nise and Fen had followed them to an inn after coming back from the goblins, and wanted to talk about things. Mister Mougein had gone back to his family though, which was sad because he was so funny! The inn was called The Substantial Hind, which Mia remembered because sister had laughed about it for a long time, even though Mia didn’t understand why a big monster’s back mounted on the wall was so funny.

“No,” sister had interrupted, even though she had been quiet for a long time. Mia didn’t know why, but sometimes sister just stopped talking for long periods of time and would ignore everyone. “Words are easily the most powerful weapon.” Mia hadn’t understood, and had said so, which made sister reach over and mess up Mia’s hair. “Everyone has things that are important to them. You, for example, are very important to me, and of course juice is very important to you,” sister had said with a laugh. A very nice laugh, Mia thought, but she always liked the way sister sounded. Almost always.

“Mia. Look at me,” sister had said, even though Mia was already looking. “What I’m about to say is a lie, because it is not true and I do not mean it, but it is useful for me to say so that you can understand the truth. Okay?” Mia didn’t understand, but she knew she would if she just listened and thought about it enough, so she nodded.

“Juice is gross. It is the worst thing anyone has ever made, and anyone who likes it is stupid and a bad person. If you like drinking juice, then you can never be a hero.” Mia had started crying when she heard that, and it took a long time to hear the rest of what sister had to say. Even thinking back on it while knowing it wasn’t true, and knowing why sister had said it, still made Mia feel terrible. That was also exactly why sister had said it, and why it was good for Mia to remember it.

Words could be dangerous because people took them inside, and repeated those words back to themselves over and over. Words could make people believe things that weren’t true, just because those people were scared the words might be true, or because the words sounded good, or even because they sounded bad! Words could hurt more people than weapons, because they could be repeated from person to person until everyone felt so upset they started being violent. So if sister thought that the lady’s words were dangerous, Mia could understand why she had been made sick like the others. But why had she fallen down and not just left? Mia didn’t know, but she wasn’t laying there for very long before someone outside noticed.

“My lady!” Exclaimed a much younger woman in a plain dress with an apron tied on as she came bursting into the room, followed immediately by two men in shiny armor. They all crowded around the lady on the floor, asking if she was okay, but she was sleeping and didn’t answer. The two shiny guys carefully picked the lady up and began taking her away, but the apron woman went over to where the metal rings kept sister tied to the wall.

“What have you done to her, you butcher?” The apron woman slapped sister, but immediately cried out while cradling her hand. “Monster!”

“Rude,” sister said, sounding angry for the first time since they’d been put in that room. Mia agreed. It was bad to slap sister and really mean to call her a monster, even if she was scary sometimes. The apron woman began to suddenly sway in place, and Mia could hear her breathing hard. She began backing away while keeping her hurt hand clutched to her chest, because sister’s eyes had started glowing that soft gold again. Mia didn’t know why that happened, but what was important was that sister was looking right at Mia as the woman fell to the ground.

One of the men who was helping to carry the older lady shouted something as the apron woman began shaking while on the ground, arms and legs twitching with her eyes rolled back. That was more than just sick, Mea was going to kill the apron woman! Mia felt completely certain of it. The shiny man who had shouted came over to stand between Mea and the apron woman, but as soon as Mia desperately shook her head the glow disappeared, and the woman seemed to calm down. Mia didn’t know what sister had done, but the woman didn’t wake up even when the shiny man tried to shake her.

“Relax. She’s not gonna die, she just got too hot. Deserved it, though. If you’re not part of the game, then you shouldn’t interrupt,” sister said in an awfully scary voice at the shiny men, more of whom were coming into the room with their swords out. “Just call your boss, I’m growing bored of playing with you.”

The angry man with the nice clothes that Mia had seen when they first arrived, who must have been the town lord, came into the room not long after that. There were several men in shiny armor and a different woman with the same dress and apron came with him. The fancy man stood around with his shiny guards while the new apron lady cleaned up all the tools that had been left behind by the previous men, then took them out of the room with her. One of the armored men brought out a ball with a white light on it and handed it to the lord man, then they all took up places surrounding sister.

“My Captain of the Guard is missing,” he said. “Captain Yizell. You were seen in the company of her unit entering that,” he trailed off for a moment. Mia couldn’t see his face, but from behind he looked tired. “That place,” he finally spat, becoming energetic again. “That being the case: you are my only link to her, and to the guard force that maintains the peace of my city.

“You have been singularly and shockingly uncooperative in this matter so far, but that comes as no surprise. You are no elf, nor are you a resident of my city, nor are you even a citizen of this country. Just some vagrant adventurer from somewhere irrelevant.” Mia realized she’d never thought about how the people in the town would see them. The man also seemed very reasonable, and Mia wanted to help him, but she didn’t know how.

“That you should choose to be callous and refuse to help me find them is disappointing, but expected. But no matter what the king or the magistrates say, here in Venbuelli, mine is the final word. Barbarous foreigners that cause trouble in my city are subject to my justice.” He kept the ball with the white light in plain view the whole time. Mia wondered what it was for. It had to be there for a reason, like the tools had been, even if Mia didn’t know what that reason was yet.

“So. I have made things clear enough, I trust?” Mia thought it sounded like a threat. That the man could do what he thought was right, without regard for anyone else. Mia thought that following the rules was good, but sister said that it wasn’t always the right thing to do if the rules themselves were bad. But sister also said that if Mia was going to break bad rules, she had to be willing to suffer the consequences. Mia didn’t think the lord man was willing to do that, and it made her doubtful of him. “Now, tell me where Yizell is.”

“If I were acquainted with this Captain of yours maybe I could help you, but I don’t even know what she looks like! I already explained to one of your men about the guards and I agree that if they all vanished it’s a problem, but what do you want me to do about it?” The man stared at the unchanging white light on the ball and frowned.

“I know it was you,” he walked away from sister momentarily to accept something from one of the armored men. “A stranger just happens to show up, is detained by Yizell’s men, and then they all just vanish? Had that been the entirety of the story I might have believed it a coincidence. But you have stirred up my city. The rumors that reach me speak of a woman of unrivaled strength and a demeanor so terrible that none dare approach. They tell me this woman from a dead people walks the lost alleys without a guide, they tell me that the gangs that trouble this city were put to the sword, they tell me of the slaughter of entire camps of monsters, they tell me that even the master of the adventurer’s guild is himself scared. Of you.”

Mia watched as he paced slowly back and forth in front of sister as he spoke, and thought about what he was saying. Though Mia heard him and understood the words, she didn’t understand why that made sister responsible for the Yizell person. Mia also didn’t think sister was terrible or hard to approach either, even if she was sometimes a little scary.

“You are called butcher out there, did you know? For myself, I think that a fit title for one such as you. After all, what more evidence of your savage nature do I need than all the servants you’ve sent to sickbed with no more than a touch? Incidentally, you need not bother attempting that trick on me, I have seen through it and taken steps to ensure my immunity.” He took something out from under the collar of the nice coat he was wearing and dangled it in front of sister as he spoke.

“I doubt you even know what this is, but no matter,” he said, tucking it back in. Mia thought it just looked like a necklace, but maybe it really could stop people from being sick. If it could then Mia wished she had one, and also wondered why it hadn’t been used already by everyone else.

“In short, you are no meek girl and you may as well drop the act.”

“I’m not sure what you want me to do here,” sister said in the slow way people did sometimes when they were confused, even though she sounded as calm as always. “I’m obviously not without my strengths. I’m proud of them even.” The man sighed and took a long breath while looking at the ball and pinching his forehead.

“Then we shall move on,” he said, looking at sister again. “My left-hand man, what little of him you left unbroken, told me his tale. I would have my signet back. You took it – that, at least, there can be no dispute about – and now I ask that you tell me where it has been taken so that I might have it retrieved.”

“A signet? I’m not sure what you mean by that,” sister said. Mia didn’t know what a signet was, but she was more surprised that sister didn’t seem to either. Mia’s sister knew everything! Though Mia could only see from the side, the ball’s steady white underlit the lord man’s face as it twisted when he looked up from it to glare at sister.

“You think to make a mockery of me? My dagger, the very symbol of my office!” He said, showing off an empty but fancy looking sheathe. “It was to lend credence to my retainer, should he need it. You took it, and I have that from numerous verified witnesses. Let us get on with this farce, woman. I needs must find my people, and you are my only clue.” Mia thought that sister might have been holding a knife before, at the tavern place where she was attacked, but couldn’t remember it clearly.

“But you already took everything I had,” Mia’s sister said, sounding a little unhappy. “I don’t know your Captain, I don’t have your dagger, and I can’t help it if you don’t know where the guards went!” The lord stared unblinkingly at the white light before taking a very long breath. Then another. Then he nodded to himself.

“I suppose I bear some fault for expecting better from a demielven itinerant.” He shook his head with a sigh. “I shall state it plainly. You lie. The evidence is mountainous, and I am personally beyond certain of your guilt. Therefore, the device must be defective.” Mia thought he sounded stiff at first, but with every new question he became more angry. He glared at the ball for a moment before speaking.

“I am not yet an adult,” he said, and for the first time the light changed, blinking to a bright red. “I am unwed,” it switched back to white. “The world is round,” red again, “I am the sovereign and invested lord of this city,” and white. Mia suddenly realized it must be a lie detector, which she thought was a very good thing to have and wanted one for herself.

“Hey, that thing works right? So why not just let me go? I’ll even help you look for—”

The lord man roared as he threw aside the ball and leapt at sister. Mia saw his hands closed around her neck before his body blocked the view. Mia wanted it to stop, she wanted to go back to fun adventures and camp bread and sister’s hugs, but she had to do the right thing. She just didn’t know what that was, and that feeling was becoming a worse cage than the small room and the metal bands holding Mia to the wall.

“It does not matter what the device says, I know you are guilty!” Mia was startled to find that those words resonated in her mind. She had heard them before. Sister had said them to Nise, when the two were awake late at night at the inn place. Mia had been asleep but the voices outside the window had woken her up.

“Where is Yizell? Give me my sister back! Why are you smiling? I will see you die, freak, make no mistake.” The angry man’s yelling went on as he kept shaking Mia’s sister by the neck until a hissing sizzle sound sent the man tumbling back into the arms of his shiny guards with a shriek. Sister started coughing while the guards carried the screaming man out of the room, leaving the two of them alone again. Mia’s sister had found a way to make him stop, just as Mia knew she would.

Mia concentrated on the memory, because she felt that it was important to remember and Mia had been too sleepy to really hear the conversation with Nise that night. Mia had also been trying to ignore it, because mommy Ena had said eavesdropping was bad, but even so Mia remembered that sister had said it was wrong to assume that someone was guilty, and that it had to be proven instead. The man had thrown aside the lying ball when it didn’t tell him what he wanted, because he had already made a decision. He had the power to do that, even if it was wrong, and he didn’t care about what sister wanted. About what Mia wanted. But Mia cared and even if she wasn’t strong enough to say no by herself, she wasn’t alone. Mea was waiting.

Mia knew the why now. The angry man’s sister had disappeared, along with important people. The man decided that sister was guilty, because she was a stranger in the town, and because the man could decide things like that. Sister had once said that people didn’t listen when they had power, because they didn’t need to. Mia understood that, now. They would have to fight, there weren’t any other options left. They had to fix things, set them right, even if that meant people getting hurt. Even if people died. The man had too much power and didn’t care how he wielded it, and that meant Mia had to act, had to fight. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want anyone to die. But saying no to bad people was necessary.

Mia made a decision.