Kimba’s brows furrowed when the captain gestured for both Emiko and the scribe to follow him to the hallway. The polite thing would be to answer her, but everyone just started moving to the door, even when she didn’t.

“He coming, too?” she asked. Another unanswered question. The scribe didn’t look up to her again, just shrunk in on himself and his notebook and skirted around the edge of the room. “What, is he my babysitter or something?” Her frustration came through when she started to follow the three of them. “Hey! I asked you a question!”

The captain looked over his shoulder, then invited her to pass through the door ahead of him. He muttered his reply, so she had to strain to hear him: “Answers soon. Come on.”

“Soon” wasn’t soon enough. She wasn’t the most patient woman. Even when she sat with her companions and the captain poured wine into a cup for her, it didn’t help her nerves from what was coming. She tapped the table with her fingers incessantly, no matter how annoying it seemed to be to everyone else. Emiko disappeared after they’d all sat at the table with Nina and Rin, something about “fetching another.”

Captain Ignatus didn’t wait for this individual, though. Instead, he rose to make sure the doors were locked.

“Comforting,” Kimba muttered.

“Did you take the mission?” whispered Nina to her left. Kimba nodded. “What is it?”

“We’re about to find out.” This prompted both sisters to stare at her as if she’d grown a second head.

Captain Ignatus introduced himself as he took a seat across from the three mercenaries. Nina and Rin simply stated their names. It took Kimba a moment to notice the scribe didn’t offer his own name, and instead nodded to the captain to accept being introduced. “This is…,” he hesitated. “This is Tallo.”

This lackluster introduction didn’t impress Kimba, clearly, because she just looked at him with a raised brow. The way she dragged her gaze from his head to his folded hands at the table made it abundantly clear he hadn’t made a very great impression.

“Charmed,” she muttered sarcastically. He wasn’t yet important to her. I could see the details that went into perfecting his image, though. The yellows and reds and browns that went into creating depth in his face, the way the black and dark brown threads entwined to create a look of short, curly hair. His eyes, a cool and dark amber color I never used all that often for much beyond moonlit redwood tree bark. When he sat across from her, he had a little more confidence, and could meet her eye-to-eye, rather than when he stood alone and off to the side.

“Tallo needs to get to Tiagate as soon as possible,” Captain Ignatus answered. Kimba squinted at Tallo, then back to Captain Ignatus.

“To the Three Wise Magi,” she recognized. It was the easternmost island of the developed nations, I seemed to know innately. Through the Empire of Darhi, through Filmir and across its river, through the rest of Filmir’s old lands, and finally, a boat ride across an ocean to a supposedly rocky and difficult to reach island. “I should have asked for more money.” Tallo’s otherwise stoic gaze seemed to darken.

“Kimba,” said the captain. “This quest is important. Just as important as Tallo reaching the Wise Magi is this mission’s secrecy.” Kimba waited a few moments to nod, to show she actually thought about the words. She still looked to Tallo and his uncalloused hands.

“What’s so special about you?” she asked. Although Tallo’s gaze fell under her scrutiny, she didn’t get the sense he didn’t also understand the importance of this task.

“Listen,” Captain Ignatus said, glancing to the doors to ensure privacy, “when I mean the secrecy is just as important….” This caught her attention again. Kimba straightened her back and nodded.

“Got it. Less I know, the better. Don’t ask questions.” The captain chewed on his cheek; it was his turn to stare at the table now.

“And what do you plan to do if someone else were to find out what you were doing?” Now she understood why they sought out a mercenary, specifically.

She tried not to sound perturbed. “You need a guarantee that no one alive knows.” I could almost taste the sourness of her words on her tongue. She didn’t like thinking it, saying it, considering it. As the captain nodded, three knocks sounded at the door. Tallo rose to answer it, oddly enough. She waited until Emiko brought through a skinny, young boy with red hair. She hardly glanced at him, though.

“Fulmosk,” he said in introduction.

Kimba looked to Tallo as he sat back down as she asked, “Anyone else know about this mission?”

“Other than everyone in this room, just the king and queen,” answered Emiko. It was a little strange that the various cabinets of the kingdom’s affairs didn’t know about this. Kimba glanced to her companions. They hadn’t been doing this as long as she had; the mention of secrecy made them pause their snacking and drinking, which was a feat in and of itself.

“Well,” she started slowly. The twins looked to her, anticipating. She knew they would follow her to the ends of the world. But she wouldn’t ask them to do anything beyond their merits. She would take care of anything they couldn’t. Kimba looked back to the captain and Tallo. “You have my word that should anyone find out what this mission is, for whatever reason, I’ll kill them.”