"Ma'am, please," Helix said.

He was in charge of the evacuation. Of course he was in charge of the evacuation. Syvila had said it was because he was a noble, and his status would help some of the people trust him.

As far as Helix was concerned, he was about fifty-fifty on that. There were certainly people who trusted him because of his status. There were others who hated him because of it, and there were still others that just didn't recognize him.

The last one was a little bit insulting. He was a very handsome and recognizable lizard! He was ninety-percent sure of that.

"No," the old human woman told him, and slammed the door in his face.

Eighty-five percent.

Hellix hesitated at the door for a moment, contemplating knocking on it for a moment — and then he sighed and moved on.

It wasn't that he didn't want to convince everyone he spoke to.

It was that he couldn't.

And the more time he wasted, the less prepared they would be when the time came.

Others would be back, he assured himself. They had no plans on leaving anyone in Elyra to fend for themselves — not even the nobles, although they were absolutely last on the docket, and no one intended to fight them just to get them to leave. That would put them at unnecessary risk. But if they wanted to evacuate, they would have the opportunity, like everyone else.

Helix only hoped his own family would listen when the time came. His siblings were getting close to understanding, he thought; it was hard to hide the effects that the lack of food was having on the populace, now, and although food was still coming in from Anderstahl, it was no longer enough — the wagons contained less food each day, and came further and further apart.

The plan was to go straight to Anderstahl and help them till their lands and grow their food. It would hopefully result in enough to sustain them all — especially since reports were that the lands surrounding Anderstahl were still rife with wildlife to hunt.

Helix only hoped that remained true.

"What do you mean, we have to evacuate?"

A little orc boy looked up at him with wide eyes, and Helix grimaced slightly. He didn't like talking to children — mostly because he was bad at it. Put him in a tavern any day, but children?

"Are your parents around?" Helix asked gently. He glanced around inside the home — it was warm and inviting, but he didn't see any signs that anyone else lived there. A small worry gnawed at his chest, but... it was probably nothing.

The child shook his head. "They left," he said. "They said House Julia called on them! So they had to go. They told me to be good. But I'm hungry... I hope they'll be back soon."

"How long ago was that?" Helix asked gently, trying not to let the pit in his stomach show. The boy thought for a moment.

"Two days," he said.

"You haven't had food for two days?" Helix tried not to let any of his anger show, but some of it must have bled through; the boy took a step back, and Helix hurriedly lowered his voice and his stance both, trying to make himself less imposing.

"They left some food for me!" the boy said. "But I finished it this morning. So I haven't had lunch."

Helix grimaced. On the one hand, he could ask this child to come with him... He wasn't sure House Julia would be returning anyone they called to arms. But if they were calling people to arms, this was information that the rebellion didn't already know. He composed a quick message to Syvila—

"Helix Ashion," a voice behind him said clearly, and before Helix could react, he felt cuffs suddenly click around one of his wrists. He reacted with a flare of magic — all of which was quickly drawn into those cuffs.

Shit. He could fight with his magic limited, but not well enough to beat a physical enforcer. "You're under arrest," she continued.

The boy hadn't stepped back because he was frightened of him. He'd stepped back because of who had slipped behind him.

"Mom?" the boy said. The woman that had arrested him glanced over his shoulder at him.

"I'll be back with some food soon," she said, but that was all. Her voice was emotionless. Her son nodded.

"I miss you," he said to her, his voice plaintive.

"Come quietly," the orc woman said, her voice emotionless. She shut the door in the boy's face, her expression not changing a bit. Helix clenched a fist.

This was House Wisfield's work, he was sure of it. One hand slipped to his side, and he cracked the rune that he kept with him — the Communication-Maintain hybrid rune that every field agent kept with them.

At least this way, the rebellion would know something was wrong, and could pass the message on to his brother. Helix managed a grim smile as he followed the orc woman.

Not even House Ashion had any idea how much Vex had grown.

"I'm glad you've made so much progress." Syvila managed a smile, gently shutting the book she was holding and glancing over to Ingress, who was the only one with her at the moment. The blacksmith was working hard on creating a cure for his father using the glyph-magic Vex had gifted them, and by all accounts, he'd made a lot of progress.

He'd visited to tell her the news, in fact. For the first time, he'd managed to find a combination of glyphs that allowed his father to speak. They shared their first words in years, and Ingress had wept deeply to know that he had not been wrong to keep his father alive; the man was as determined to live as ever. Too much left to do, he said. Too much left to learn.

He'd been worried. He didn't know that he was doing the right thing, keeping him alive in the midst of Rustbite; that disease was functionally torture. Syvila privately thought that Ingress should have let go of his father months ago, but she was also glad to know she'd been wrong.

"I'm so close," Ingress said. "There are glyphs for Metal and Oxygen — we've reverse-engineered them from similar looking spells, and I think I can use them to decompose Rustbite — but I need to make sure I don't do more damage in the process. I might... I might have to wait for us to evacuate to be able to do more. I think I'll need a healer present for the next step."

"Healing magic getting weaker is worrying," Syvila commented, sighing in thought. Things were moving slower than she'd hoped.

"It is," Ingress said. The human swept a hand through his hair, messing it up slightly. "I'm sorry. I know I should be more worried. It's just, my dad—"

"I understand," Syvila interrupted. "I am glad you've made progress. Keep us updated. We all want him to get better."

"Thanks." Ingress gave her a relieved smile, and turned to leave—

A bell rang, and both Ingress and Syvila froze.

Once, twice, three times. Ingress turned to stare at Syvila. "Is that bell the one I think it is?"

Syvila cursed. She was already reaching for her stack of books — she sorted through them in an instant and picked out the right one.

Library magic, unbeknownst to most, was great for recordkeeping. It was even able to keep tabs on people, as long as a particular book was written with that intent. It was, technically, something she could have been awarded nobility for if she'd ever bothered to report it — but Syvila had never been interested in nobility.

"Yes, it is," Syvila said. The words tasted bitter in her own mouth. "Three of our agents captured, at around the same time. One of them is Helix. The other two are part of his group too."

"Do you know where they're being taken?" Ingress leaned forward to try to peer at her book, and she nodded.

"The House Julia cells," Syvila said, marking the spot on the book with a claw. She felt a coldness grip her heart. "The nobles have been ignoring us and the evacuation order as just a minor threat, but..."

"Not anymore," Ingress said. "Should I send out retrieval teams?"

"Against House Julia?" Syvila shook her head, looking worried. "We don't have anyone that can handle Julia. Or we do, but that was Helix, and he's... well."

"How in the world did Helix get caught, anyway?" Ingress muttered.

"Careless," Syvila said. "Me, not Helix. I shouldn't have sent him out when he's this valuable, but the nobles haven't really been acting against us after that meeting, and I didn't think they'd be able to get him. Or act against him without House Ashion getting in the way."

"He should be immune," Ingress agreed. He seemed equally concerned. "If Julia is acting against him, they probably have permission from Ashion."

"We'll send messages out to his brother and make sure the Guild is aware of what's happening," Svyila decided. "It might be time for the Guild to drop the neutrality act."

"Should've known you were behind this, Dad," Helix said.

He sat with his back pressed against the cell wall. It was uncomfortable. The stone was cold, and there was no real place for his tail to go, and so it was pressed uncomfortably between his body and the stone. He'd move away from the wall if he could, but the cuffs kept him from moving.

"I didn't want to do this to you," Karix said with a sigh. "Your mother is worried about you, you know. You could have answered our summons and come back to us."

"You know you're just pushing us further away, right?" Helix let his playful demeanor fall away for a moment. He stared at his father with all the solemnity he could muster. "If you want to get Vex back, this isn't the way to do it."

"What makes you think that's what I want?" Karix snapped. "Maybe I'm just tired of having two of my brightest children shame House Ashion. Maybe I want you two to figure out where you belong."

Helix couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You can't seriously tell me you believe what you're saying."

"You're staying here until you learn your lesson." Karix's voice was cold, and Helix tried not to show his anger. The man wasn't even trying to understand. The fact that he'd directly acted against him only showed he was getting worse, not better.

He had no idea how else to get through to either of his parents.

"We don't need all this power, Dad," Helix finally said. It wasn't going to work — he knew before he even spoke. Vex had had this same conversation with Karix dozens of times, and each time their father had dismissed his brother's concerns. "There are bigger concerns right now than Elyra, and prestige isn't a good enough reason to torture Riss or take food that the people have. We can find something better. Vex has found something better."

"And he shared it, so it's useless," Karix said with a scowl. "We represent Elyra's military and political power. It only makes sense that the majority of the kingdom's resources should go to us."

Helix sighed. "To protect the kingdom," he said. "That's the point of our military and political power. If we let the people starve, we're not going to have a kingdom left to protect."

Karix frowned darkly at that. "And yet you rebels want to evacuate Elyra," he said. "It seems to me like either option leaves us without a kingdom."

He hadn't denied what Helix had said. The lizardkin tried not to let his hopes rise too much. "Is a kingdom its buildings?" Helix asked. "Or its people?"

Karix glowered. Helix thought — hoped, just for a moment — that he'd been able to get through to his father.

Then Karix turned and left, letting the cell door swing shut behind him, and Helix's heart sank.