Ariana didn’t mind someone who was confident; she found it rather attractive, in fact. Even so, the shit-eating, self-satisfied grin that Iree put on when she was pleased with herself was irksome.

Iree was wearing that smirk of hers as she sipped bland tea prepared by Hollyhock while she and Ariana hid in the attic of the Novak home to talk. The moment Ariana had reached her after departing from a tense lunch with Dorothea and the others to report about what had happened at the Creed library, Iree had dragged her off. Here they were, then, waiting for the commander to decide her next move.

“Do you think Dorothea’s going to do something?” Ariana asked. Again, the Sirpoan girl had spoken up to defend her. It was one thing to do so against strangers like she had in the diner, but to Shark and Cerid… Dorothea was really that invested in her saccharine beliefs. Even after facing the Ghurians in battle, even after believing she’d lost her home to them, she still believed in their humanity. Ariana didn’t know what to think of it all.

“She’s not that bold,” Iree dismissed. “With Shark and Rhys fully in line based on what you’ve said, neither of them are going anywhere. This war’s as good as won.”

“It doesn’t sit well with me to underestimate her magic,” Ariana insisted.

Iree nodded in agreement, but her smile didn’t drop. “We don’t have to worry about the magic if we understand the person, and Atlin’s transparent. She’s easy to manipulate and quick to get attached. The moment she made ties in Sacer, it was done.”

“And Rhys? You’re not just going to let him run around unchecked, are you?” He was obviously invested in Dorothea, romantically or otherwise, but Ariana wasn’t going to bring that up and risk provoking Iree more than she was already going to.

“Of course not, but he’s the same as Atlin. Neither of them are a threat.”

“Are you telling yourself that so you won’t have to dispose of him?”

Iree laughed. “A bit paranoid, aren’t you?”

Ariana bristled. Wasn’t she being too cavalier? “No, I’m not. Every single one of us knows he can’t be trusted. If he defects and lends the enemy his full strength, the results will be disastrous.”

“Ariana, trust me. I know Rhys better than anyone else. He’s with us.”

“Fine. Just don’t forget how high the stakes are.” She couldn’t have done what she had and come this far for nothing.

“I never do. Not for a single moment.” Iree patted Ariana’s back with far more gentleness than usual. “And I appreciate that you ask questions to keep me in line, too. We all need that sometimes. Some more than others, obviously,” she laughed.

“What next?” Ariana asked, unamused.

“It’s time to test Plan Creed with Atlin backing it. If we can carry out a trial run successfully, we can move to end the war in a single swift strike. I’m sure the council will approve. They’re in a good mood with Sunmer reclaimed.”

Ariana frowned, growing impatient. Optimism was a sign of carelessness. They couldn’t afford to take a single thing for granted. “What happens if Dorothea doesn’t cooperate with the plan?”

“Then we conduct the test without her. The real thing needs her there for us to succeed, yeah, but we can pull through on a smaller scale. I’d prefer to not let her know what it is, overall, but even if she does, I still feel confident that she’ll go ahead. Shark is the key. She’d never leave them behind. We can use them as leverage against her if we have to.”

True. Dorothea would buckle immediately if Shark were threatened. “Rhys doesn’t know, right?”

“He has no idea that Plan Creed exists, and I don’t intend to tell him.”

“Good.” Ariana still didn’t have a good feeling. “Be honest, though. If you have to, are you going to be able to cut him down?”

“It won’t come to that.”

“Bullshit. Don’t dodge the question. He’s been nothing but a liability for years now. Him following orders one time for Sunmer’s retrieval doesn’t excuse all of that. Regardless of your feelings for him—”

“Kingfisher. There’s a line, and you’re dangerously close to crossing it.” Iree smiled after the cold statement. “You know that, as always, I’ll do what I need to do.”

“I’ve put my faith in that for a long time. Don’t let me down, Iree.”

She winked. “Course not. I’m going to try talking to him one last time at Zeal’s Web. Maybe he’ll be feeling sentimental.”

The event certainly did stir people’s feelings up. “Good luck, I guess.” Ariana would wish away the festival from the privacy of her own home, safe from judgment. Days like that only reminded her of her loneliness.

Iree smirked. “I’ve never needed luck.” She gestured to the ladder bridging them to the lower floor. “Mind leaving me alone to think? Thanks again for your report, too.”

“Yeah.” Ariana didn’t need to be asked twice. She wanted to be alone too. It was strange how often and how desperately this was her desire, yet, when she settled into her home, she was consumed by a persistent feeling of emptiness. In moments like these, memory overtook her in its insistent, pestering way.

The forests of Ghuria were deep and dark and filled with delicious secrets. When lying beneath the pines on a bed of scrapped needles, one felt as if they were at the center of the world. That was along the lines of what Petunia had said, anyways.

She was filled with dreams while Ariana was fit to burst with bleak observations of reality. For Petunia, the woods were a place of magic. The footprints of beasts, fallen feathers and sudden bursts of flowers in their path were signs to follow to a better place. If they kept walking forever, they could reach it. Ariana saw their trips for what they were: two mixed-blood children traipsing about because there was no one else to play with and no place more safe in its seclusion.

Ghurians and Sacerians seemed to at least agree on one thing in that dabbling about in one another’s bloodlines wasn’t to be done unless it was in Sirpo. In another life, the union of Ariana and Petunia’s parents might have been seen as romantic. Separated from her allies after a surprise attack from the enemy, a Ghurian woman met a Sacerian man. They both unsheathed blades from their hands, the woman’s of ice and the man’s of grass. For a moment they were still, marvelling at this similarity, the odds of their meeting and the connection that had been created by the happenstance. To their children, they cited love at first sight; that was the only justification the man had needed to betray his home for Ghuria. The patriotism of the two led them to instill within Ariana and Petunia the belief that the only right thing to do when conflict loomed was to take up arms. Neutrality was a way of surrendering power and saying you didn’t care about the well being of others.

That said, when the expected war greeted them—they were told that the Fall family had broken some contract, so, thanks a lot—the sisters glimpsed no other path than to take responsibility for their own strength and fight for Ghuria. One sister, however, was a realist. If history revealed a destiny of Ghuria’s ravaging by the war’s end and if she absolutely had to fight, Ariana saw sense in siding with the faction that would allow her to live. Like her father before her, she turned her back for the sake of desire. The isolation and vitriol were nothing; this had been her entire life. It was the expected treatment of muddled blood in warring lands. Children learned the hatred, acted it out, and grew up to teach their own children how to fight and how to hate and how to kill.

Petunia, the dreamer, envisioned a day where Ghuria would stand proudly as the ultimate victor. It was futile to try convincing her to listen to reason and come to Sacer. Honestly, Ariana had been banking on her immediate acceptance. She hadn’t once considered that Petunia wouldn’t follow her before the moment came, and it threw her. Her flight to Sacer was filled with fear and hope, both towards the idea that her family would come after her.

Soon, she came into the logic she had lived by for the past six years. If Petunia had to die, and she would when Sacer won, then Ariana had to be the one to kill her. She had to take responsibility for the decision she had made. The thought of her own blood dying by a stranger’s hands… At least Ariana would be quick and merciful. There was no other way than to hunt what she had once sworn to protect.

Yet, when the perfect moment had landed in her lap, she had faltered. She had watched frozen as Petunia’s life had been taken by Shark and restored by Dorothea, and then nothing was resolved. The relief when it had been someone else to dirty their hands and the relief to be given another chance to uphold her bloody vow clashed, filling her with rage and confusion. Iree’s plan to end the war was a quick and efficient cull. That gave Ariana a very short window of time to track down and eliminate her prey. Her sister. There had never been another path than this. She, no, all of them, had to keep fighting until it was over.

The world they lived in was one where only one side’s version of the future could be allowed to stand. Ghuria’s slow death was evidence of that. There was no hope for compromise or peace. If such a chance presented itself, if there was a way to resolve this growing feeling of regret…

Damn. What useless thoughts. She’d made her bed. After Zeal’s Web and if all went to plan, the final days of the war would be upon them. As for what awaited her after that… Well, a life standing on the bones of her family was better than death.

Probably.