“The only way she can be dead because of you is if you were the one who killed her. Did you?”

“No!” Kiora says. “I loved her. I didn't kill her.”

I take a deep breath.

This development aside, I need to find Dom. He's the one who would have the answers. Was Arbor killed so she could become another one of those weird floating bodies? What are the bodies being used for?

“How do we get you home?” I ask.

“I need a shadowstone.”

I raise my eyebrows. “A shadowstone? Really?”

She nods.

Shadowstones are witchstones that open tiny bubbles into the Shadow Vaile. They essentially speed up time where they’re thrown. If you drop one at your feet, a bubble will pop up around you and you'll be moving so fast that the rest of the world seems frozen.

“How is that gonna help you get to Belladonna?” I ask.

Kiora stares at me for a long time before finally shaking her head no. “It's not my place to say.”

“What does that mean?”

“Go to Belladonna first. If they decide you're allowed to know, then you're allowed to know. I can't make that decision. I would be betraying my entire species.”

“Can't have a species betrayer on our hands…”

She stares at me, unsure of how to react.

“That was a joke,” I say.

“Oh.” She nods slowly. “It was funny.”

Silvy starts giggling, but I ignore her. “So I need to find Dom and you need a shadowstone.”

The only way I know of to find Dom is to get another witchstone from Blackhart. A locationstone.

Add in the stone Renald wants—well… the stone his boss, whoever that is wants—and that makes three stones I need to retrieve.

I need to figure out what the stone they want really does. As far as I know it only amplifies the user's magick ability. I don't think it's so powerful that it would cause all the trouble it has.

“Yeah, okay,” I say. “We'll go back to Sulis and sneak into Blackhart.”

“You can't just open a portal into Blackhart?”

I shake my head. “No. It doesn't work like that.”

“Why not?”

I lick my lips. “Blackhart isn’t exactly in Anara. It exists in a tiny bubble within the Shadow Vaile.”

“You work in the Shadow Vaile? How do you not—” She quits speaking, trying to work her head around it.

I shrug and recite a shortened version of the lumadex entry for Blackhart. “It is said that Blackhart can only be held by a Covington.”

She frowns at that. “What's that supposed to mean?”

I shrug. “I don't know. Something about our blood keeps us from losing our minds.”

She nods. “Okay, so we have to go to Sulis to get into Blackhart and you'll get my shadowstone?”

I raise an eyebrow. “You'll buy a shadowstone.”

She nods. “I guess I don't need money if I’m going back to Belladonna.”

I'm not trying to hold her over a barrel or anything, but if she's gonna give me all her money because she's leaving this plaine, I'm not about to stop her.

“Okay,” I mutter. “I need a location stone, a shadowstone, and the stone Renald wants. “

Kiora perks up. “You know Renald?”

Everything freezes for me in that moment. I stare at her, my mouth hanging open.

“Wait. You know Renald?”

She looks at me, wiping the tears from her face. “Yeah. He was a regular.”

Okay. Not good.

“Regular.” I try to keep my voice level. “Sure, a regular. Of course. So, uh... for how long?”

Kiora shrugs. “Two years?”

The amount of time I've been in exile. What is going on?

“You know, darling, if I were a betting familiar, I would bet that this is all connected.”

“Thanks, Silvy. I'm getting that feeling too.”

If Renald knew Pixie, and Renald knew Kiora, what were the odds that he also knew Arbor?”

I chew on my lip for half a second before blurting out the question. “Did Renald know Arbor?”

Kiora nods. “Of course. He was one of her professors at Bristlebloom.”

The room spins and I pull out one of the chairs to sit at the scheme table.

Renald knew Arbor and if he works at Bristlebloom that means he works for the Austerium.

I lean forward and hold my head in my hands. I can't wrap my mind around what's happening. Arbor. Renald. Pixie. Marist.

What’s going on? Why are they all coming to me? What do I have to do with any of this?

And then there's Lebec… He came to me too. Why did he reach out to me, someone in exile, to help him with this?

I close my eyes, not wanting to believe Lebec has anything to do with this.

“I think I'm gonna be sick.” I grab the edge of the table and hold on to it, focusing on how it feels beneath my fingertips to keep my mind off my churning stomach.

My thumb slips across something smooth and the body of a woman from the staircase descends. It floats towards the table. Its legs left and bend as the body floats closer to the floor and then into the seat across from me.

Her hair is frizzy and her eyes are blue eyes. She stares at me, waiting.

“Uh, what the fuck?”

The woman smiles and nods, but her eyes dart in every direction. It's terrifying to watch. The woman's face and body are completely still, but her eyes jump to me, over to Kiora, down at the table, and back to me on an endless loop.

I swallow. “Are you okay?”

The woman doesn't say anything, just nods as her eyes shoot in all directions.

“Can you say anything?”

The woman doesn't respond, her eyes just keep darting everywhere.

“Can you blink?”

The woman's eyes lock on me and don't move, then they start darting around again.

I chew on my lip as the woman blinks and her eyes continue moving.

I snap my fingers and the eyes lock onto me.

Okay, so she can hear.

“Can you use your eyes like you would your head to nod up and down for yes and shake your head left and right for no. Do you understand?”

Her eyes darted up and down twice.

“Can you move?”

Her eyes dart left and right.

“Do you know where you are?”

Her eyes dart left and right.

I swallow, considering my next question and what the answer will mean.

“Do you know what Anara is?”

Her eyes dart left and right.

She's a stick. I look over at the staircase that leads to an upstairs filled with floating bodies. They're all sticks.

“Have you ever sat at this table?”

The woman's eyes move left and right.

“Do you know a man named Dom?”

Her eyes start to move left and then come back to center. They slowly move up and down.

“Did he do this to you?”

The woman's eyes do a complete counterclockwise rotation before coming back to center.

“Is that a maybe?”

Her eyes go up and down.

“Okay, so you don't know.”

Her eyes go up and down.

I put my hand back under the table and slide my finger in the opposite direction across the witchstone that's embedded there. The woman's eyes slim shut and she lifts up from the table, moving back towards the staircase, her body fully extended, her head facing the ceiling, her fingers stretching out towards the floor.

“Well…” I say in a quiet voice, “that's fucked.”

Kiora nods. “What's wrong with you people?”

“You people? Who are you talking to?”

“You. You work for the Austerium. This is your fault.”

I stare at the staircase for a long time before looking at Kiora. “I just got here. I've been in exile for two years. This whole thing with you, Renald, and Arbor? I'm just now getting pulled into it. What's wrong with you people?”

Kiora crosses her arms and turns away.

“That's what I thought. Now, do you want your shadowstone or not?”

She nods.

“Good. Then let's go get it.” I turn to Silvy. “Open a portal to the alley across the street from Sulis.”

“Why don't you just open it inside of Sulis?” Kiora asks.

Silvy answers for me as a portal opens below us. “Because we don't know who might be watching Sulis.”

I fall and came out through the wall of the alleyway, hitting the ground hard. Kiora is right after me and if I hadn't rolled to the left, she would have landed on top. Silvy floats through on her back, kicking her paws in the air, yawning.

The portal closes as I looked out onto the street. I can only see a small section of Sulis, but what I can see looks fine.

“Can you go out there?” I ask Silvy. Sending someone with invisibility makes more sense than sending a wanted suspect which I probably am now.

She rolls her eyes but floats down the alleyway and into the street. Once she's there, I watch as she spends and returns to sit on my shoulder.

“People are watching it,” she says. “Lots of people

“Great.” I point to the wall to my right. “Okay, open a portal on this wall right here and put the other side on the ceiling of Sulis. I’ll look in and see if anybody's inside.”

Silvy does just that. The portal opens on the wall and I stick my head in, looking around. I see no one and not to myself. They must be watching all the entrances and exits. Maybe they even think I'm inside and they're waiting for me to leave.

“Can you move the portal next to the mirror now?”

“I suppose,” Silvy says.

When I stick my head through again, the portal is where I requested it and I still see no one. I step through and wait for Kiora to come through as well.

When she's standing next to me, she shakes her head. “I'll never get used to that.”

“Let's go,” I whisper. “Walk through the mirror.”

She looks at me with confusion on her face, but then walks towards the mirror with a brave look on her face. Silvy starts giggling before she even makes it to the mirror. I start to ask Silvy why she's laughing, but then I watch as Kiora hits the mirror, hard, and falls down, clutching her nose.

She looks at me with betrayal on her face.

I hold my hands up. “I thought everyone could go through.”

I bend down and put my hand on her shoulder.

She glares up at me, holding her nose.

“Okay,” I say. “Just wait here. Give me a second.”

I step up to the mirror, put my hand against it, and watch as my hand slips right through as if the mirror is nothing more than water. Kiora's eyes open wide at that and I step through. I don't have time to waste.

I make my way directly out of the back room and into the showroom of Blackhart. I grab the stone Renald has been so insistent about, I grab a shadowstone, a tracestone, and several other witchstones that I load into my holster. I make sure to grab a waterstone, just in case we run into anything ugly in the Shadow Vaile.

Once that's finished, I turn around and start walking out.

There's a buzz from the front of Blackhart and I turn to look.

The light above the gateway is on.

Green.

Someone is ringing the buzzer on the stick side of the gateway.

I swallow and the light turns gold. Someone is also ringing the buzzer on the Anara side of the gateway. I watch as the lights flash back and forth between green and gold.

I'm in trouble. Someone knows I'm in here.

I make my way into the back room and look out of the mirror again. Everything is fine. I can see Kiora. Sulis is completely empty.

Frowning, I step through the mirror.

That's when it happens. Five human figures press out from the opposite wall. They step forward and I watch as the paint from these figures melts away from them so that I'm staring at three cloaked men and two cloaked women.

They watch me.

I can take five.

From either side of the mirror, three figures step forward, pressing out of the paint.

Eleven is kind of hard.

From the top of the staircase, a voice calls down to me. “Didn't I tell you I was going to kill you, gutter rat?”

Renald stands there, surrounded by six more cloaked figures.

Eighteen is impossible...