“That’s a cane,” Vaetra noted.

  Seriously, she had expected Oris to find some support beam or a large rod, not a raggedy cane that was covered in webs and dirt. It looked like it might be rusted, but it did still have a solid core.

  Oris twirled the cane around, an enormous grin on his face that belied the actual scale of what he found. “It is, indeed, a cane. Very astute,” he joked, pointing the cane at Lio. “It’ll have to do.”

  It was still just a cane, but Lio did have to admit that it would actually work. The Xendarii apparently constructed the majority of the launchpad out of some sort of rock with very little metal in it at all. “It’ll have to work. It just needs to hold out for a few seconds, maybe a minute,” she conceded, grabbing the cane and dusting it off.

  Oris nodded, dropping onto one of the empty chairs with a sigh. “The Xendarii really need to incorporate more metal into their building structure. I am pretty sure everything else had been reduced to dust or chunks. This is the best we’ll get,” he said. He didn’t need to explain how this was the only thing he had found because it was already halfway uncovered.

  Sure, he had made some impressive strides in advancing his spatial senses, but it was nowhere near exact enough to pick out the light metal amongst rock and dirt. He wasn’t even sure if Vaetra would manage to, unless it was something heavy, like steel.

  “Okay, do we need to over the plan one more time?” Lio asked, unceremoniously whacking the cane against a seat to try to break off the rotten wood handle so it wouldn’t burn.

  Vaetra rolled her eyes. They had gone over the plan at least ten or twenty times already. “No.”

  “Wrong answer,” Oris said.

  Lio nodded sagely. “Indeed. It’s customary to go over the plan once, right before executing it. Just to get the last of the kinks out of it,” she explained, slamming the cane down again. “You two teleport the shuttle as high up as you can while leaving reserves in case of emergency as I start it. It should work, the shuttle doesn’t show any error messages or alarms anymore. The engine should work... probably. Oris, have Vaetra at the ready and please stand next to the engine- it might catch fire.”

  “Why would it catch fire?” Vaetra asked.

  Lio gave a sheepish shrug, one hand still wrapped around the cane as she tried prying off the decaying handle with a little too much enthusiasm. “Well, it’s not supposed to catch fire. But, you know. Old Xendarii tech. Built to last forever, but never actually tested in the field after a century underground.

  Vaetra stared at her. “That’s not comforting.”

  “Wasn’t supposed to be,” Lio replied cheerfully, finally cracking off the last chunk of the handle. A cloud of ash and dust puffed into the air, making her cough. “Look, worst case, it burns a little, and Oris puts it out with his brain. Best case, we all survive with minor hearing loss and trauma. That’s a win in my book.”

  “How am I supposed to put out a fire with my brain?” Oris asked, handing Lio the clamps that had been for the metal rod to affix the impromptu one.

  Lio gladly accepted the clamps and affixed the cane as she explained, “You control space, right? Compress it and smother the fire in pressurised air.”

  Oris raised a hand to try to argue the point with Lio, but lowered it a second later. “I guess that could work.”

  “Alright, let’s get going then!” Lio said excitedly, jumping up and rushing past Oris to the cockpit. Once there, she turned back and called back. “You two ready? Let’s get back to Caldrith’s shard. We don’t have too long until it passes overhead again if we fail this.”

  “One second,” Vaetra called, taking a deep breath.

  It had been a while since she had turned into her scythe form and she felt hesitant. It had always been natural for her, convenient during combat, but it always had a certain effect on her mentality.

  A singular thought. That was all it needed.

  Their wills aligned, and her form twisted into the thing she had literally been made for. She turned into a tool; the scythe meant to rend space apart.

  Her thoughts evened out, emotions turning distant as her senses got replaced. Vaetra’s form snapped into place with a whisper of displaced air. The midnight steel of her scythe-blade extended, a perfect curve glinting under the shuttle’s cold lights. In that instant, the last threads of her humanity receded- her will sharpened to a single point of purpose.

  Vaetra’s breath hitched as the familiar tug began at her core- a subtle ripple in the fabric of her self that she had come to recognize, even dread. Her vision blurred at the edges as the world around her dimmed, the ambient light folding into deeper shadows. Every sensation sharpened for an instant: the distant hum of the shuttle’s engines, the grain of the metal floor beneath her, the faint thrum of Oris’s magic threading through her.

  Then came the shift.

  Her perception of time fractured: one hundred beats stretched into one, each heartbeat echoing like a drum in an empty hall. Vaetra felt the sinews of her body unwind, her limbs elongating and reshaping themselves into angles and planes that no mortal form should possess. Pain flickered- sharp, electric- where muscle met steel, but it passed as quickly as it arrived, swallowed by the greater force of her Incarnate form taking hold.

  In the next breath, she was no longer Vaetra. She was the scythe.

  The world rushed back with unnatural clarity and distance all at once. Her senses re-calibrated: touch became pressure and vibration, sight distilled into stark lines of light and shadow, and the warp of space around her stretched into a tapestry of unerring geometry. Emotions- once the vibrant undercurrent of her mind- retreated behind a silent glass wall. Joy, fear, longing, doubt: they still flickered in the recesses of her awareness, but only as muted echoes. What guided her now was singular purpose- a wedge of intent honed so finely it could split the very fabric of reality.

  Yet, it was still her. She had all her memories and her thoughts, but with the clarity of someone who looked at their emotions from the distance. It was like she was an observer to her own life in these moments.

  But then there was Oris. His hand was warm, a tether to the world that she could not do without. It was the only point of contact she had with others while a scythe, ignoring the occasional cut she inflicted on others.

  She sent a ripple into the surrounding space, feeling it radiate outward like a tentative first step after a long nap. Now that she had spent so long on her humanoid body, this scythe body almost felt... rigid.

  It allowed her to act as a focal point for Oris’s magic, to enhance his magic and feel the space around her so much more clearly. There were no other senses that were distractingly overwhelming or emotions that blurred her focus. It was freeing in a way, but restricting in so many others.

  No, that was just because Lio had brought it up. The thought had wormed itself into her mind like this incessant little doubt that refused to leave. It had been just her all this time. A different set of clothing but now it felt like it was even more different.

  She still didn’t think that it felt bad, but it should be disconcerting how she had never noticed how different this was.

  “We’re ready,” Oris said a few seconds after Vaetra had settled into his hand.

  Lio started going through the entire startup procedure, having etched notches into the appropriate levers and buttons for her to start up the engine and whatever else they needed- at least what she had figured out until that point.

  It took her almost an entire minute because she double checked every button press but eventually the engine hummed to life, cracked displays and the software on her tablet lighting up with green lights. She sat down on the central chair and pulled her tablet onto her lap, opening the control panel with a grin.

  Meanwhile, Oris and Vaetra had been busy constructing a spatial boundary around the shuttle, weighing the complexity of it with the general space it occupied. It was mostly guesswork on their part, their only guideline being their prior experiences with teleporting larger spaces instead of any sort of calculation or reason. It would need to be enough. They’d be cautious, teleport it as little as possible and keep enough to save all three of them in case of an emergency.

  Lio slowly increased the throttle of the engine until the bottom of the shuttle scraped against the ground. It damaged the hull a bit, but it’d help them not immediately crash again.

  The moment Oris heard it, he flooded the boundary with his magic and teleported it a few meters up and angled it upwards. “Go!”

  The engine roared to life as Lio punched the thrust all the way up, grinning as she saw the world below them move. Her grin immediately dropped as she saw the trees rapidly approaching- well, them rapidly approaching the treeline. “Oris, UP!” she yelled as she yanked the controls back.

  Something in the shuttle screeched, metal scraping against metal as she tried to force the shuttle to obey her will and not crash into the treeline. Oris helped, bending space to help it upwards.

  Oris’s magic flared in tandem with Lio’s desperate pull on the throttle. The shuttle lunged upward, but momentum betrayed them- the nose pitched too sharply, and the tail scraped the canopy in a shower of splintered wood and twisted metal.

  “Hold it! Hold it!” Lio screamed, white-knuckled on the yoke. Warning klaxons wailed as the hull groaned under stress.

  The shuttle groaned as it settled into flight. With the engine’s roars reduced to a steady thrum, Oris and Vaetra stepped into the cockpit. Vaetra had already returned to her humanoid form.

  “So what exactly did we need the cane for now?” Oris asked, sitting down next to Lio.

  She shrugged. “It wouldn’t start without a conductor there. I tried it, found the rusty and broken metal rod there, and figured I’d need a replacement,” she explained, quickly tapping away on her tablet and pressing buttons on the shuttles dashboard to control their flight.

  She had expected her thoughts to race in circles, to be completely overwhelmed at the sheer thought of actually flying a Xendarii shuttle from one island to another and not to use the airships that traders normally used to travel between islands. But it was surprisingly boring.

  Sure, the start had been exhilarating, with her thoughts racing and her struggling to get everything done in time to not crash against a tree, but the weeks of buildup and her scurrying around the shuttle like a raccoon were almost more exciting in her opinion. It was just a little disappointing.

  Now that they were in the air, hurtling back towards home, there was nothing for her to do. It was automatic, steered itself mostly.

  “Everything alright?” Vaetra asked, having leaned against the doorframe instead of sitting down. “You look... defeated.”

  “Yeah. It’s just that I thought actually flying would be more exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still writing down whatever I can and it is certainly interesting, but it’s basically automatic now,” she admitted with a sigh, leaning back in her chair and writing on her tablet.

  “I suppose that’s fair,” Oris said, his breathing short and measured. Teleporting the entirety of the ship had taken a lot out of him. “this shuttle was meant for just a few people to conveniently get around, right? They probably wanted to do as little as they could.”

  Lio didn’t like that answer. Flying should be something monumental, not a chore. She didn’t answer, just provided an exasperated sigh to hopefully get her point across.

  The room stayed quiet as the trio stared out of the front window. All of them had spent considerable time at the edge of Caldrith’s shard. They saw the endless smattering of islands stretch across the horizon hundreds of times, each island unique. But not like this. None of them had seen them from the cockpit of a Xendarii shuttle while flying.

  Lio’s voice came out unsteady, like she wasn’t sure if she should say anything or not. “That’s weird... Look at that island,” she said, pointing to an island peeking out just behind Caldrith’s shard, all black.

  She was the first to notice it, but the others quickly followed her outstretched finger to find it.

  It was an entire island, blackened like coal. It hadn’t always been like this. It used to be grassland, as lush as Caldrith’s shard but with none of the trees. Now, it was a desolate wasteland bereft of life with a pillar of smoke still rising high into the sky, like a calling for anyone with a thirst of adventure to come there and try their luck in its ruins.

  “That looks like...” Oris trailed off, not wanting to finish his thought. Maybe he feared that what he spoke would be true.

  Vaetra didn’t share his hesitation. “Like the Scarlet Death destroyed an island.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Lio said, tearing her gaze away from the island to look at Vaetra. “The Scarlet Death lives on Caldrith’s shard, not that island. There’s plenty of monsters and even some people that could do damage on that scale. I’ve heard of flames that you can’t extinguish- they’d just keep going no matter how hard you tried to extinguish them.”

  “But that island is completely destroyed. It wasn’t just a fire,” Oris argued, glancing at Vaetra.

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  Lio’s stomach clenched as she watched the ashen column of smoke drift lazily upward. “We’re almost home,” she murmured, more to herself than to anyone else. “But…” Her voice trailed off as the shuttle banked gently toward Caldrith’s shard, the blackened island growing larger in the viewport.

  Oris stepped up beside her, squinting through the reinforced glass. “Whatever happened there,” he said, voice low, “it happened recently. That plume couldn’t survive long in these winds without dispersing.” He glanced back at Vaetra, who still stood frozen where she’d entered. “Magic?” he ventured.

  Vaetra sighed, as though exhaling smoke in reverse. She pressed a hand to her temple. “Something more… elemental.” Her eyes reflected the ruin outside. “It’s as if the land itself turned on itself- burning from the inside out.” She shook her head in disbelief.

  “I think we just found our next mission,” Oris deadpanned, glancing around the cockpit to try to see if he could figure out how long their flight to Caldrith’s shard would take. Finding no way he could decipher, he asked, “How long?”

  Lio shrugged. “A few minutes? That’s if the fuel actually holds. Maybe keep supporting the ship with your magic if you want to be really safe. The fuel gauge was broken, and I didn’t think it’d be vital. You saved us from falling to our death once. You can do it again, right?” she said, pointing at the broken needle.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “Yeah,” Lio said with a grin, turning around her tablet so Oris could see the fuel gauge in the program. “It should be enough.”

  Vaetra gave Lio a disappointed look, but didn’t comment, instead leaning against Oris’s chair. Lio eased back in her seat as the shard below grew from a speck into the sprawling forest they knew all too well.

  “Hold her steady,” Lio murmured, more to herself than to Oris and Vaetra. Her fingers danced over the tablet, coaxing the shuttle’s yaw and pitch to settle into a glide. The shuttle’s undercarriage shuddered as she tried to lower the landing struts. “Fuck. landing gears are broken.”

  “What does that mean?” Vaetra asked, walking over and sitting down in the free chair, grabbing Oris’s hand in case they needed to intervene.

  Lio grimaced, tapping away at her tablet with increasing fervour as she tried to slow down the shuttle enough that they didn’t crack open on Caldrith’s shard like an egg. “Everyone in Hollowmere is going to know we arrived. You like to make a dramatic entrance, right?” Lio asked, trying to better the situation by using humour.

  It didn’t work. Oris and Vaetra shared a glance and Vaetra transformed back into her scythe form, settling back into Oris’s grasp with a familiar weight.

  “I’m gonna slow us down. Just try to get us as close and as slow as possible to Hollowmere, so I actually have enough power to stop us from going splat,” he ordered, recreating the spatial boundary around the ship.

  Lio’s breath caught in her throat as she coaxed the controls. The cockpit lights flickered; the broken gauge sagged toward empty. “Just… a bit more,” she muttered, fingers ghosting over her tablet’s interface, deploying every compensating algorithm she’d been too terrified to trust before. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She could taste the metal tang of panic on her tongue. It didn’t matter if her programs were stupid. They just needed to work long enough to get them on the ground safely.

  Oris did his best to accommodate Lio’s steering, bending space around the shuttle to slow it down and let it glide along the edge of Caldrith’s shard.

  The shuttle’s descent slowed from a plunge to a lurch, and then to a trembling glide. The undercarriage groaned and sparks danced along the skids as they scraped the treetops. Lio’s teeth were clenched so tight she could taste the acrid snap of stress. And then-

  They were on the ground.

  But it didn’t stop there. The momentum of the ship kept carrying them forward, displacing earth and grass as they plunged through the field of corn. Rows upon rows of corn splattered against the front of the cockpit, sending greenery flying everywhere as the inside of the ship rattled. The spatial boundary dissolved, their magical reserves dipping to zero.

  They stopped just at the edge of the fields, their vision clearing for a moment before they stopped with one last, long suffering tilt of the ship before slamming back down.

  Silence fell upon the shuttle as Vaetra transformed back into her humanoid form, breathing heavily. They were absolutely tapped. No more magic until they got a chance to recover.

  “Well, I’d say that’s the most successful landing of a Xendarii shuttle in the last years!” Lio said, her face split open in a huge grin. It didn’t matter that it was the only one. They did it.

  Then, only a few seconds after they had stilled, a ripple seemed to wash over the field. The plants that remained on the shuttle stirred and grew, their roots intertwining and spreading over its entire surface like a net. They grew impossibly thick, anchoring themselves to the ground and locking the entire shuttle in place.

  “Identify yourself!” Someone shouted, his voice tempered with the experience of someone who was used to being annoyed and had already decided that this situation was not something he wanted to deal with.

  “Is that?” Vaetra asked.

  Oris nodded, his tentative smile from earlier falling. “Yeah. Of course, it’s Caelis who finds us first.”

  Stepping over to the hatch, Lio pounded against it, but couldn’t even move it an inch due to the roots covering it. She grabbed her tablet and accessed the speakers, relaying her voice outside. “Lioran, Oris, and Vaetra. We come back from another island. Remove the roots from the hatch!”

  The entire shuttle shifted as the plants beneath it bucked, depositing it completely out of the field and onto the path leading around Hollowmere. Then the roots shifted, twisting around the engine and the front instead of letting them go completely.

  “Step out one after another,” Caelis ordered, her voice impossibly clear even inside the shuttle.

  Lio opened the hatch and stepped out first, quickly followed by the other two. Oris jumped down, looking around to where he knew Caelis would be standing to look down upon them.

  Just like he expected, he found Caelis standing atop a pedestal of roots like a queen looking down at her subjects. Her wiry frame covered in green robes and leathers to blend into forest and ruins alike, Verdant Echo, a whip of living brambles coiled on her back- her Incarnate. Yet, a second Incarnate, Resonant Gale, a set of wind-chime, floated near her with a constant soft song. Earth toned skin, marked by countless faint scars, spoke of her experience with nature and combat. Her thick, dark curls were threaded with small living blossoms, framing moss-green eyes flecked with silver that glinted silver.

  “Good to see you again,” Oris lied, stepping forward and in front of Lio.

  Caelis waved her hand dismissively, roots breaking from the ground and wrapping around Oris’s legs. He let them. “What is the meaning of this?” she asked, her voice low and melodious. “You were sent here to investigate the island, but completely dropped any and all communication after pissing off one of your superiors. And now you arrive in a Xendarii shuttle, like nothing ever happened.”

  “We were attacked by the Scarlet Death and something else we assumed is the cause of the disturbances in this island’s magical fields. I can assure you that Lio has kept everything well archived, and we did our best to return here and report,” he explained, motioning at the shuttle, “This was our best bet after getting tossed through the island.”

  “You expect-“ Caelis stopped as Resonant Gale played a low note, drawing her attention. “Did you just say through the island?”

  Vaetra sighed. “The hole was already there. We just got tossed into it and we were too drained to catch ourselves before it was too late. Could we talk inside Hollowmere? We’ve had nothing but scavenged food for weeks.”

  “Yeah. I can show you the files while we eat,” Lio added, reaching back into the shuttle to get her backpack she had almost forgotten. “I assume your archivist is somewhere nearby so if they could come by I’d appreciate it. Having someone else with the Xendarii implants makes checking logs a lot easier... and I don’t need to give you my tablet.”

  “Let’s head to the inn,” Caelis said, stepping down from her root pedestal and removing the roots from Oris’s legs.

  Oris stepped up next to her, Vaetra and Lio directly behind him. “Do you know what happened to the burnt island? We saw what remained when we flew over.”

  “The Scarlet Death burnt it,” Caelis explained, her Incarnates remaining transformed at her side. “Something sent it into a frenzy around the time you left. It burnt all the cities except for one, and the fires spread over the rest of the island.”

  Lio pulled up her tablet and connected herself to the servers in Hollowmere, downloading the files that had been uploaded while they were gone. While they walked, she read through them and started uploading her logs to the server for others to read. “Interesting. What is your mission here?”

  “I was sent here to clean up after you three,” Caelis explained, her steps quick and measured. “After Oris insulted Seryn, they put in a request to discipline you, but it got denied by Vaelyn. They didn’t explain why, just immediately shot it down and refused to elaborate.”

  “Vaelyn, the living Inferno? That Vaelyn protected us?” Lio asked, looking up from her tablet and dismissing all windows in her holo overlay. She stared at Caelis, trying to figure out if she was lying or not. Lio couldn’t think of any reason why Vaelyn would protect them so decisively, and Caelis didn’t look like she was lying, either. “Why would she? She wasn’t even there.”

  “I don’t know. You should just count yourself lucky that she did,” Caelis said, waving her hand and letting her Incarnates return to their humanoid forms.

  Verdant Echo turned out to be a tall, wiry man with deep olive-toned skin and sharp green eyes that immediately got to work studying his surroundings as he fell in step next to Caelis. His dark brown hair was worn in rough, shoulder-length dreadlocks, tucked back with simple twine. His clothing leaned practical but rugged- earthy tones, durable fabrics, reinforced boots- giving him the appearance of someone used to traveling rough terrain.

  Resonant Gale was slim and slightly shorter than Verdant, with light tan skin and ash-blonde hair that she wore loose and a little windswept. Her gray-blue eyes were bright and lively, darting around to catch small details the others missed. She favoured layered clothing- loose shirts, fitted jackets, scarves- that gave her an easygoing, slightly artistic look without seeming impractical. There was a restlessness to her posture, a habit of shifting her weight or tapping her fingers when she stood still too long.

  “Heya, nice to see you two again- and nice to meet you for the first time, Lio!” Gale called out, waving her hand as she turned around to look at the trio while walking backwards. Her expression quickly changed to a smile as she examined the trio. “You all really need a bath. You kind of stink after so long in a jungle. Jungle, that was what you said earlier, right?”

  Verdant shared a look with Oris, his expression belying a quiet sort of respect he held for Oris. They were kindred souls in some ways, and he recognised that.

  “A jungle yeah, actually...” Lio started to talk, and then never stopped.

  She began telling their adventure from the very start, including every detail she could think of- to the utmost excitement of Gale. While Oris and Verdant shared blessed few words, Vaetra and Caelis did participate in the conversation from time to time. The talk lasted long enough for them to arrive at the inn bordering the marketplace and get a table, as well as food ordered. About halfway through the story, Caelis’s archivist joined them, a nondescript man with short dark hair.

  “Anyway, that’s when the landing struts gave out and we had to... improvise,” Lio ended her tale between bites, grabbing the mug of ale and downing half of it. She slammed the ale back down with a satisfied sigh. “Ahhh! I really missed ale. It’s a lot better than drinking rainwater every day.”

  Caelis nodded, keeping quiet to digest the rest of Lio’s tale while she ate her food at a much more sedate pace than the trio. Gale and Verdant ate nothing. After swallowing her mouthful, she answered, “Yes, indeed. As I wanted to say earlier, Seryn has been appointed the Court liaison for Caldrith’s shard with the goal to make a permanent residence here and investigate the Scarlet Death. They have turned their house in this city to a Court residence which you could stay in if you’d like.”

  “Probably not,” Vaetra deadpanned, glancing at Oris. They had directly antagonised them the last time they had met, and Oris probably wouldn’t want to stay there, anyway. “How long are you staying here?”

  Caelis shrugged. “Now that you’re here, probably not for long. I might go on a walk through the forest and-“ she said, but Lio slapped the table and stood up.

  “I’ve got seeds!” Lio exclaimed before shrinking back down onto her seat with a blush. “I mean, from the jungle island. I gathered as many different seeds as I could to plant here.” Her voice got quieter still. “I was- thought that you could help. You can control plants, right? That could be interesting for you.”

  Verdant held out a hand to Lio, not bothering to ask for the seeds.

  She quickly grabbed her bag and fished out a few different seeds before dropping them into Verdants hand. “Here.”

  Verdant Echo turned the tiny seeds over in his large palm, studying their varied shapes and textures. He met Lio’s wide-eyed gaze and gave a slow nod. “These look healthy,” he murmured. “I can feel their potential already.”

  Gale leaned forward, one elbow on the table, chin cupped in her hand. “Ooh, what kinds are they? Any flowering vines or useful herbs?” Her gray-blue eyes sparkled with genuine curiosity.

  Lio’s grin returned full force. “A bit of everything- spicy plants, probably medicinal roots, even a few luminescent blooms I found near the archive crystal. I thought Hollowmere could use some color.” She glanced around at the group. “If Verdant helps me plant them in the Courts courtyard, maybe we can convince the locals the shuttle crew isn’t entirely trouble.”

  “You stole blooms from the natives?” Vaetra asked, a chuckle bubbling up at Lios antics despite herself.

  Lio pouted. “I did not steal!”

  Vaetra raised an eyebrow, the spoon perched halfway to her mouth. “You sure it wasn’t ‘acquired without explicit permission’?” she teased, but there was a warm gleam behind her words.

  Lio bristled, then threw up her hands. “Fine- ‘liberated’ from a patch nobody else was tending.”

  Verdant Echo tucked the seeds into a small pouch and passed it to Caelis. “I can help you replant them,” he said in his quiet drawl. “There’s a spare courtyard behind the Court residence. It’ll need careful soil preparation, but-”

  Caelis nodded, lips curving. “I’d like that. A bit of life in these grey stones will do us all good. And demonstrating cooperation between hunters and the Court never hurts.” She glanced at Oris and Vaetra. “Perhaps you two would join us for the planting? A public event- proof of goodwill.”

  Oris exchanged a look with Vaetra, then shrugged. “Sure,” he said, sounding more diplomatic than usual. “If it means fewer barking orders from Seryn.”

  Lio’s eyes lit up. “Great! Tomorrow morning, then? Early- best time to work soil before the sun bakes it.”

  Gale clapped her hands softly. “I’ll catalog every variety. We can make an extra file for it on the servers- ‘The Jungle’s Bounty,’ or something catchy.”

  “What about our orders?” Oris asked, turning to Caelis with a raised eyebrow. “I assume Seryn wants us to report the moment we were found. They do not seem like the kind of person to care about us getting a break.”

  “I was told to lead you to them, yeah. Vaelyn gave me other orders, to get your version of the story and report to her while you go to Seryn. Don’t tell them, of course,” Caelis said, leaning back in her chair. “Finish your food and then head to Seryn. He’ll give you the address.” She motioned towards her archivist.

  With that, Caelis and her two Incarnates stood up and walked away.

  Her archivist sent Lio the address. “Sorry about that. She gets kind of dismissive of others when she’s got orders. I’ll see you around, kay?” he asked, but followed after Caelis before they could answer.

  “All right,” Lio said, wiping stew from her chin. Oris and Vaetra had already finished their food, and the only things remaining in Lios bowls were what she didn’t like to eat. “Seryn’s office is on the north edge of the market district. We’ve got just enough time to rest before the planting- and Seryn wants our debrief first.”

  Oris pushed his empty bowl aside. “Debrief. right.” He exchanged a brief glance with Vaetra, whose lips curled in a half-smile.

  “I’d rather get covered in dirt again than sit in another stuffy office,” Vaetra muttered, but she stood, gathering her things. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “I’m gonna do my best not to insult Seryn again,” Oris said.

  With that, the three rose and slipped away from the crowded tables, their footsteps echoing on cobblestones slick with last night’s rain. They wove between lantern-lit stalls- fresh produce piled high, the scent of spiced bread drifting on the air, a vendor’s laughter mingling with the clink of coin- to a narrower lane where the throng thinned. Here, shopfronts gave way to quiet courtyards and shuttered windows, the chatter fading behind them until only the soft clip-clop of their boots remained.

  Lantern-lit stalls gave way to the quieter side streets, quickly leading to a large building with a neat sign in front. “Court of the Elements: Liaisons office,” it read.

  At the end of the side street, a low stone wall opened onto a small forecourt framed by potted ferns and trimmed hedges. Lanterns hung from wrought-iron brackets, their pale glow illuminating a neat sign carved in dark wood: “Court of the Elements: Liaison Office.” Above the arched doorway, a circular emblem- eight symbols encircling the stylized waves of Aether- gleamed like burnished brass.

  “I do not want to deal with Seryn,” Oris said, but walked onto the forecourt anyway, making his way to the front door. He knocked, the sound ringing out hollow.

  A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal Seryns form.

  They looked up at Oris, the glowing slits in their shadow narrowing. “Welcome back, Oris, Lioran, and Vaetra. I really hope you had a good reason to vanish from your mission and drop any contact for weeks.”