{-Kaylin-}

  It was just one thing—a quick in and out, and then they’d know everything that they needed to for now. They just had to make sure that they wouldn’t be caught unprepared.

  The four of them stayed together for a little bit, so that Seldir could set Lyrei and Noa up with something that he knew they could do, and that he trusted the commissioner of. Then once they were all set up, Seldir and Kaylin went to that cabin outside of the city.

  “Well, it at least seems like they didn’t expect us,” Seldir remarked. He carefully looked around, undoubtedly trying to find whatever evidence he could—whether it be good or bad. “I don’t see any signs of them here right now. I might even go so far as to say that they didn’t come back at all since we were last here.” He gestured towards the door. “The box is still here.”

  Kaylin nervously shuffled. “That only makes me more worried. If there’s one thing Dhymos has mastered, it’s the ability to make his enemies have a false sense of security. For all we know, all of this is just so then we let our guards down.”

  “But we don’t have any evidence of that right now, right?”

  “Hm?”

  “I’m guessing a part of what he does involves making people think there’s more of a threat than there actually is. That way, they’re too tired to deal with whatever else he might be planning. So if we just start worrying for no reason, we’re only going to be helping him, the same way that letting our guard down would.”

  “You’re right. And under nearly every other circumstance, I would probably be telling you the same thing. I don’t know what it is about all of this, but it’s certainly gotten to all of us, I think…”

  “It’s unprecedented. But it’s also worth remembering that the worst of it is almost over. We just have a little bit more work left, and then we just have to relax until Rennyn’s better and we can get a meeting with King Dain.”

  “There’s just this remaining.”

  With the words out in the open, she walked up to the door. She tried knocking on it again, but there still wasn’t an answer. She told herself that, if it was locked, then they’d leave it alone. But of course, just like before, all she had to do was push open the door. So, once Seldir had pulled his sword out, the two of them went in together.

  “We need to find a light,” Kaylin mumbled. “I don’t want to have to open the curtains and what little comes through isn’t really enough to tell anything for sure…”

  Seldir turned to the nearby cabinet and carefully looked through it. Eventually, he pulled out a candle and some matches. “I’m guessing this should work? It should last for an hour or so. That’ll probably be more than enough to get what we need and get out.”

  He lit the candle with one of the matches and showed the light around the room. Pretty much everything in there confirmed every bit of her fears.

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  To a regular person, all of the notes and symbols scattered around probably just looked like the works of a young child… or possibly madman. After all, they were scattered everywhere—yet they still held no “meaning.” An average person would probably see all of it, turn around, and pretend like they never saw any of it.

  But, for better or worse, neither Kaylin nor Seldir were normal people.

  “I’m guessing these all have more meaning to you than they do to me?” Seldir prompted.

  “They’re planning something. I… don’t know what it is, or how they plan to use it, but I know for a fact that it isn’t anything good…”

  “Is it something that we have to handle, do you think? Or could we drop enough hints in front of the knights to make them realize this is a part of a threat, and they’ll handle it for us?”

  “I’m not sure. Not yet. That’s going to take a little bit more digging in order to figure out…” She gestured for him to hand her the candle. “You stay by the door and keep an eye out in case anyone comes in. And… think of a reasonable explanation, if it turns out to be someone other than Dhymos’s minions.”

  He shrugged. “We wanted to make sure they got their package, and found the door wide open when we got here. We were checking to make sure that everyone was okay.”

  “That sounds like a terrible excuse. I doubt anyone would believe that, regardless of any other circumstances.”

  “Maybe, but they’re definitely not going to believe anything else we come up with. That’s short, sweet, and simple. No need for some elaborate cover story if they’re not going to buy into it anyway, right?”

  She mumbled an agreement, then turned her attention back to the notes around her. Even from a passing glance, she knew that they had to stand for something, but what that was wouldn’t make itself clear to her until she looked through them. Even if this type of code was somewhat familiar to her because of the other lives, it didn’t mean that she was fluent in using them. There were still many things she’d have to work out just by filling in the blanks.

  Which left far more possibilities for error than she would’ve liked, but it was the best she could do at this point.

  She tried not to interact with anything, instead just looking; if they could get in and out without it looking like they did, then that would be far better than making it obvious. But she wasn’t given time to just look at it for long.

  “I wondered why they asked me to come here and keep watch of this place. As far as I knew, there wasn’t anything worthwhile in here. Except for you now, I guess.”

  Kaylin turned around to see Allyna. There were too many thoughts and feelings swirling around to really do anything more than that, though. She knew exactly what she did, and she didn’t even seem bothered by it.

  Maybe she could pretend like nothing had happened—that she hadn’t been directly responsible for it—when she couldn’t see it happening in front of her.

  Seldir, however, was much less bothered by emotions; he firmly stepped between the two of them, and made it clear what he was willing to do. “We’re not here to start a fight with anyone. We don’t have to do this the way Dhymos does if you don’t give us a reason to.”

  “Your presence enough should be all the confirmation I need,” Allyna remarked. She picked up one of the stray notes, gave it a passing glance, then tossed it back on the ground. “Though it’s your loss for thinking the only direction I had was to attack you if it came down to it.”

  “And what else would it have been?” Kaylin prompted. “You betrayed Rennyn for him. I don’t see how we should trust you with anything after this. I don’t even know how we trusted you to begin with.”

  Allyna scuffed. “Of course you wouldn’t realize—what it feels like to be nothing.”