“Rolly, make sure nothing leaves these walls,” Alana snaps.

My colorful helper snaps into existence over my head. I watch Khan carefully. Though his eyes move to the lueorale, he isn’t surprised. Something else he knew? By the saints, where is he getting his information?

“No worries, my heroine. I can read a scene. This is where your mysterious brother reveals a conspiracy with the fate of the world at stake.”

I scoff. “Forgive her, she loves being dramatic.”

“No, your friend is quite right.”

Eh?

“Eh?” I say dumbly.

The moment is interrupted by the return of Bell who enters the shelter carrying five plates, having grown two extra arms and balancing the last on the end of her tail. Our little server hands them out before settling in front of Khan. Still untrusting. Or maybe she’s reacting to my tension.

Alana ignores her food, which is a testament to how serious she is. “This better not be a joke.”

“I don’t have much humor.” He swallows a spoonful of soup and his face lights up. Heh. Not even his strange knowledge couldn’t prepare him for Geneva’s cooking.

“Talk or I take it away,” Alana snaps.

“Ah.” Khan freezes, lowering the spoon he was raising. “I seem to have caused some distress. While the situation is quite serious, it isn’t dire. There is no risk of immediate consequence. Me appearing before you now has already prevented the worst potential future.”

Oh no. Oh, saints protect me. Please tell me I didn’t hear what I think I heard. Because if I did—

“To eliminate any confusion, let me clearly state that I was directed here by a seer.”

“OUT!” I yell. Bell leaps at Khan, knocking the bowl of soup from his hands as she grabs his cloak. He goes limp, playing dead as my imp prepares to drag him from the shelter. Hurry up, hurry up!

“Wait, Lou!”

Alana grabs my arm but I shrug her off. He’s talking about a seer. A saints-damned, Abyss-cursed, deadly as a plague, future-reading seer. My future brother Khan may be but I want nothing to do with whoever he’s working for.

“Lou!”

Alana’s next attempt to grab my attention is more abrupt. As in, she tackles me to the ground. It’s been a long, long time since Alana could do anything more than tap me unless I let her. I don’t look it, but my prime form is rather heavy. It takes a lot to lay me flat, even when I’m not expecting it. I’m impressed. So impressed it startles me out of my panic.

“Calm down!” Alana snaps, lips pulled back in a snarl. The expression softens a moment later, as her hand pats my cheek. “Please.”

“It’s a seer, Alana.”

“I know. It’ll be alright.”

Her soft voice calms me down. I take deep breaths as I stare into her eyes, mustering all my will to slow my racing heart. Okay. I can handle this. Never mind that every tale involving a seer, every single one, has ended in massive tragedy. Kingdom-ending tragedy. And this bastard is dragging us into such a plot.

Nope, not calming down.

“Coo?” [Master Lou, do I remove the boy?]

“Breathe, Lou.” Alana’s hand sneaks into my hair as she whispers to me. “Breathe. Breathe.”

“I’m breathing.” And against all odds, my heart slows and my panic recedes. Bell, leave him be.

The imp lets out a disappointed coo as she releases Khan who lets out a soft breath of disbelief. He straightens and retakes his place against the wall. His eyes go to his spilled bowl of soup. “A shame.”

“Take mine.” Bell takes my untouched bowl to Khan, who smiles broadly. My arms loop around Alana’s waist, pulling her tighter against me. “And convince me not to throw you to the monsters.”

He must sense that my patience is thinner than a hair as he talks quickly around his spoon. “I am the only person who can move freely through the north. Because of that, they found me before I could cause irreparable damage by sharing things that are not meant to be shared.”

“Don’t make us ask,” I snap.

“I wasn’t going to. The Lords of Winter found me, under the direction of their seer. Though they call themselves the estrazi. A loose translation is eternal guardians.”

“You must be pretty chummy with Victory’s eternal enemies if they are giving you language lessons,” Alana grumbles with a glare.

“They are not our enemies. They are our guardians. Keeping us out of the north is for the good of every creature in the world. It is Victory’s fault that this must be done with violence. The estrazi attempted peace first. It’s unfortunate that they made contact with humanity on the eve of war. The general assigned the conquest of the north was not in the mood for negotiation.”

“Their seer couldn’t tell them that was a bad idea?” I ask, trying to pretend having to say that word doesn’t make me feel a little nauseous.

“Reading the flow of fate is not an exact practice or so I’m told. There was a chance for peaceful negotiation, albeit slight, so they sent a messenger while preparing for war. I’m told their messenger was mistaken as a monster. I am their second attempt to resolve a conflict peacefully.”

He meets my eyes. “If you leave in the morning, there is strong chance you will encounter a second storm by nightfall.”

Alana scoffs. “You want me to believe two storms will hit in the same place…” She stops, gasping as her eyes widen in surprise. “A whisperer?” she hisses in obvious horror. One of my hands rubs the small of her back as she begins to shake.

Khan nods gravely. “Exactly. For those who do not know what we are talking about, the whisperer is the most feared monster in the north.”

“A monster has you spooked, little star?” Kierra chuckles, clearly amused. The mess with the goliath hasn’t deterred her, unlike me. If it weren’t so cold and desolate, she’d have fallen in love with this place. As always, telling her there’s a bigger challenge only serves to excite her.

Alana shakes her head vigorously. “A whisperer is not a monster. No one knows what it is because no one has ever seen it. Sometimes, two storms will pass by the same area within a short time. The whisperer always comes in the second storm.” She scowls. “I nearly forgot about it because it’s so rare. There have only been…damn it.”

“Twenty-one recorded instances in the whole history of Victory,” Khan answers when her memory fails her. “It is not a threat that knights train for because it is not a threat they can train for. The whisperer does not fight. We don’t know if it conjures storms or if they harness the storms they travel in but they have the power to scatter those in its path anywhere in the north.”

“Doesn’t kill a single person,” Alana continues, “but being dropped in a random place, separated from your army, either alone or with unintended companions, is a death sentence. Especially because being dropped too far north beyond any landmarks means there is no way to find your way back to Victory. Anyone who survives does so through pure luck.” She sighs. “If what Khan says is true, my army would have been annihilated.”

“Your army, huh.”

She glares at me. “Yes, Lou. I know you’d keep me alive even in the face of one of the worst threats in the north. Not the issue.”

Heh.

Khan finishes his soup with a noisy slurp. “Yes, every member of your house survives, though one of your creatures is separated from you. Afterwards, you are dropped far to the north, deep in estrazi land.”

“I don’t see why that is such a problem,” I say. I’m not such a battle fiend that I’d attack people willing to make peace. I also don’t have the same biases as a Victory native.

“They are guardians.”

“Which implies something to guard,” Alana muses. “Something they clearly do not want anyone, particularly Harvest, to know about.”

“Something you are unable to ignore,” Khan says, staring at me. “Whether they try to deceive you, explain things to you, subdue you, or kill you, they are unable to prevent you from doing something that should not be done. It leads to…very bad consequences.”

“Stop being ridiculous.” Come on. I may not be the most responsible individual or even the most insightful but I’d hardly do something that could endanger the kingdom, let alone the world.

“I don’t know the specifics. All I know is that, no matter the path the estrazi took, they could not keep you from making a regrettable choice. Therefore, it was decided the best option was to keep you from the north.”

“Did your seer not foresee this path leading to an encounter?” Kierra asks. “This is not dissuading me. I am very much tempted to drag my Lou into the path of this whisperer to see what is so terrible it demands the involvement of a celestial.”

“You will not.”

My elf doesn’t like his certainty. She sneers at him with narrowed eyes. “Oh?”

“They won’t let you.” He nods his head toward Alana and me. “My sister will not take such a risk without more information and I don’t need a seer to tell me that her bannerwoman wants nothing to do with this.”

It’s true. The more I hear, the more I want to throw my future brother-in-law out of our shelter and forget about this entire conversation. He doesn’t want us to march tomorrow? Great. We take a break for a day and get on with our lives, preferably without any further interference from anyone or anything with the celestial affinity.

My wife must realize the same as she lets out a huff of disapproval before relaxing. “You are annoying.”

“I apologize for making a nuisance of myself.”

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this that easily.” Alana climbs off me, slapping my hands lightly until I release her. Then she sits in front of her brother. “You have a lot of questions to answer, brother.”