Once they’d climbed up and out of both Abylon and the Swallowed City, the trio made camp a safe distance away. Nick sat beside a roaring fire, enjoying its warmth. It’d been a long day, and between the specters, the impossible geography, and a battle against an ancient war beast, he wanted nothing more than to relax before sleeping.

  Sorrow was making that difficult.

  You may pry all you like, pillager, but my words are my own, he grumbled as Nick brushed his fingertips across the ancient runes cut into the obsidian.

  “I do have a name, you know,” he mumbled.

  I don’t care.

  “Being rude isn’t going to make anything better.”

  The heretical god-king reigns over the ashes of my homeland. Pray tell how forgoing rudeness will make that better.

  “So what’s it like having a sentient sword?” Frost asked, pulling Nick’s attention away to the two women sitting together on the opposite side of the campfire. He’d told the pair about finding the magical blade during the trek out of Abylon, to Violette’s fascination and Frost’s grim amusement.

  “You’d think it’d be fun,” Nick said. “But I somehow found a blade that absolutely hates me.”

  “Somehow.”

  “Still, Sorrow is ancient and magical and will surely come around to liking you eventually,” Violette said. “That has to make it worth the risk, right?”

  “Is that how you justified going into the Swallowed City alone?” Frost asked in return.

  “I have my magic to defend myself,” Violette said, leaning closer to the fire. “I just had to be careful.”

  “But what if something happened? Would anyone even know to look for you?”

  Violette had removed the tie of her ponytail, and she shifted so her long hair fell between her and Frost. Nick, however, could still see the frustration on her face as she spoke.

  “No. No one would look, and if they did, it would not be to rescue me.”

  It was a brief crack in Violette’s otherwise unflappable optimism, and Nick hated seeing it.

  “You said you were a scholar,” Nick said. “Surely you belong to a guild or organization or some such, right?”

  “I did,” Violette said, and her smile returned, this time not quite so wide and effortless. “I have always been fascinated by the Majere, the people who predated not just the Sinifel but the very first calamity. The way they viewed life and death, and the ideas they carried in regard to eternity, is so different from what we are taught by the god-king’s priests. But just like with the Sinifel, all texts regarding those beliefs are declared heretical. Much of what was held in the Goltara Library was burned in the great purge, and what remains is highly restricted.”

  She shifted upon the grass.

  “My interest in the Majere was always frowned upon by my instructors at the Silversong Academy, but I pressed on. This stagnant world of ours bores me. What more is there to learn? Even the seasons are halted. I’ve never known a winter, only read about it in books that managed to escape the purges. Every year, more and more books predating the Alder Kingdom are quietly disposed of. The history of this world, all its fascinations, its legacies, the great fall of leaves and the billowing of snow, is being forgotten. Vaan and his priesthood would have it all be lost forever.”

  She glanced between them.

  “I want to learn,” she said. “Everything. Experience everything that Yensere offers. And while some instructors were fine to turn a blind eye to my studies, not everyone was.”

  She closed her eyes in thought.

  “One day, the priesthood was informed of my research. I don’t even know by whom. Maybe an instructor. Maybe a jealous contemporary. It doesn’t matter. While I was away in the field, my room was raided and my belongings confiscated. By the time I returned to the academy, my judgment had already been reached and my fate decided.”

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  She fell silent. Nick watched the hurt on her face slowly fade back into hiding. Frost put a hand on her shoulder as the fire crackled.

  “How did you escape?” she asked softly.

  “A friend of mine within Silversong sent me warning before I reached the academy grounds. And so I just…fled. I wasn’t thinking much when I did it. I decided I would go to the farthest reaches of Yensere, to the places where Vaan’s influence was likely the weakest.”

  She sat up and forced a smile.

  “Besides, out here, I can still do my research. I can learn the history of Yensere, even if the god-king would seek it buried and forgotten.”

  Such a lovely, expertly woven tale to personify her as a blameless victim, Sorrow suddenly interjected in Nick’s head. But she is a blind fool. Vaan built his army preaching against the ideals our Sinifel Empire was founded upon. For her to think her research would go unpunished reveals a profoundly naive heart.

  “I’m glad you found a way to keep going,” Nick said, trying to ignore Sorrow. It hurt him seeing the seemingly cheerful Violette so crestfallen, and he wanted nothing more than to replace that forced smile with a sincere one. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

  “We?” Frost asked. “I have my sister to search for, remember?”

  “Your sister?” Violette asked. “Where is she? What happened to her?”

  Frost squirmed uncomfortably.

  “Irina didn’t…I knew she came here, but where, and why exactly, I don’t know.”

  Violette shot to her feet. “Then let me help! I’ve learned a lot about Vestor, especially all the ruins and forgotten places no one should know about, and those are the places people go to hide!”

  Frost still didn’t look convinced. She pushed to a stand, and she gestured at Nick.

  “Mind if we have a chat in private?”

  “Sure thing,” Nick said.

  Am I allowed to observe or would you prefer I “give you a moment of privacy”?

  “The more the merrier,” Frost said, apparently also hearing the question and answering for the both of them. Nick followed her from the fire into the shade of a massive jut of stone emerging from the earth. Frost leaned against it with her arms crossed. Her gaze lingered on Violette, who hunched closer to the fire with her head resting in her hands.

  “I’m not sure I’m ready to trust her,” Frost said before Nick could say a word. “Her waiting for us inside the Swallowed City feels a little too convenient.”

  Nick shrugged. “And who was she waiting for? Me? I’ve never met her in my life, nor heard of the Silversong Academy. What about you? Is there anyone on Yensere who would know where you were going?”

  Frost shrugged. “Only Irina.”

  “Then maybe we need to trust that coincidences happen. She did help defeat the war beast. We owe her for that, at least.”

  “Some of us aren’t as trusting as you, Nick.”

  Nor as foolish, or hasty, or foul-looking…

  I am perfectly handsome, he mentally snapped at Sorrow, annoyed the sword was listening in.

  In the eyes of mothers, perhaps.

  “Look, I am here in Yensere to learn more about what all this is,” Nick said. “And in that regard, I would love having someone knowledgeable with me. And with all she knows, if she can help you find your sister, then why not bring her along?”

  Frost’s fingers clenched the sleeves of her chain mail shirt.

  “I know she’s pretty and bubbly, but that isn’t reason enough to trust her, not completely.”

  “I trusted you immediately, and your personality isn’t bubbly at all,” Nick argued.

  Frost smirked at him. “Is that your way of saying I’m pretty?”

  Nick’s mind hiccupped.

  While beauty is not a cataloged statistic, Frost meets many historical standards of attraction—would you like me to confirm this to her?

  I’d rather die.

  “No changing the subject,” Nick said, attempting to do exactly that. “Violette can be helpful, so I say, let her be helpful.”

  Frost pushed off the stone, and she put a hand on Nick’s shoulder. The playfulness on her face was replaced with dire seriousness.

  “Violette isn’t like us,” she said. “Not a visitor. Not from outside Yensere. She won’t follow the same rules, and if she dies while traveling with us, she dies. No coming back. Even if she is willing to accept that risk, are you?”

  Nick put his hand over hers, and he wished he knew more about Frost and the perspective from which she saw things.

  “Outside Yensere, that is the way of everything, yet I still have friends and family I trust,” he said. “If it’s the same with Violette, then that’s fine with me. It’ll be no different than real life.”

  “Nothing about this place is real life,” she said with surprising venom. “Don’t you dare forget that, Nick, or you’ll be lost to me, too.”

  She pushed away his hand and returned to the fire. Her composure shifted, and there was no hint of the venom in her voice when she addressed Violette.

  “Decision’s made,” she said, plopping down beside her. “You’re coming with us. Welcome to the party.”

  “Thank you!” Violette said, throwing her arms around Frost in a decidedly one-way hug. Before Nick could arrive at his own seat, she jolted to her feet and ambushed him as well. Her slender arms wrapped around his waist as she pressed the side of her face to his chest.

  “Thank you,” she said again. “I can be alone if I must, I just…don’t like it. It’s never something I’d choose if given the choice.”

  Nick gently returned the hug, then lightly pushed her away by the shoulders.

  “Just remember, Frost is in charge,” he said. “Searching for her sister comes first. Any research for Majere stuff comes second.”

  “If you insist.” Violette stepped away, and she crossed her hands behind her back. Her dark hair fell across her face, momentarily hiding her eyes. “You won’t regret this, either of you. I promise.”

  “I pray it so,” Frost said, grabbing her pack of supplies. “Now, let’s find some food. I’m starving.”