{-Seldir-}

  He understood how quickly this could get out of control. There was a very real chance that they weren’t prepared enough for this, and that things could very easily get much worse. But if he acted too soon, then something like that would definitely happen. So all he could do was hope that neither of them provoked the other.

  Though only a minute in, and he could tell even that might be too much to ask for.

  “Of course you wouldn’t realize—what it feels like to be nothing.” Allyna was more or less completely ignoring Seldir in favor of Kaylin. But there was something else he noticed about her—he had a feeling that she wasn’t in complete control of her powers. There hadn’t even been a fragment of a breeze when they came in here, but now there was enough to shake the curtains. She’d been gifted the spirit’s power of wind and, having acquired it so recently, probably didn’t have time to separate it from her emotions.

  Maybe he could use that to his advantage, if it came down to it.

  And the possible weakness only grew more evident the longer she talked. “I wasn’t one of you. I wasn’t even a plucky sidekick. I wasn’t meant to be anything, except the girl who stayed at home and waited until it was all over. As far as this whole multiple lives thing is concerned? I couldn’t even exist, and it wouldn’t make a difference.”

  “But you still had a place,” Kaylin remarked. “And you gave it up for what Dhymos told you.”

  “A place? From the moment we started ‘working’ together, it was clear what you thought of me. You thought I was going to get in the way—hell, I’d say you even ‘predicted’ that I’d ‘betray’ you, didn’t you? You never trusted me from the beginning.”

  “Well, I turned out to be right, didn’t I? All I was trying to do was to keep Rennyn from getting hurt. And I failed. Whether or not you’ve acknowledged it yet, you’ve also failed. You stopped protecting him the moment you decided that whatever Dhymos had to offer was better than staying by his side.”

  “Like you wouldn’t have just abandoned me at the earliest opportunity anyway…”

  For a moment, the only noise was the no-longer-as-gentle creaking of the house. Until Allyna decided that she wasn’t done.

  “I was wondering if you’d ever realize it—how absolutely clueless you were, and how little you really cared about your actions. I guess I got all of my answers now. The only thing that matters to you is whatever you learned about in those other lives of yours. Because of that, you think you’re better than the rest of us, don’t you? And with that ‘power,’ you can do whatever you want. So you make self-fulfilling prophecies and whatever you need to tell yourself in order to make it alright with you in the end. Is that it? Is that all you really care about?”

  Kaylin was perhaps seconds away from giving a response. Probably for the better, though, Seldir cut her off.

  “We shouldn’t stay here,” he tried. It was the best he could do, given the situation. “We’re only putting ourselves at further risk by doing this. Let’s go.” He glared at Allyna, making sure that she understood that he was prepared for a fight if he needed to give one. “Assuming you don’t have a problem with that?”

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  “I dunno,” she returned, glaring at him and finally pulling her attention away from Kaylin, “what else are you going to do once you leave?”

  “Nothing, if you don’t make us have something to say.”

  “Somehow I find that pretty hard to believe. There’s always something that you’re doing.”

  “Only because Dhymos gives us something to talk about. But you’re not him. You don’t have to listen to everything he says if you don’t want to.”

  Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say. The wind outside, at least for a quick burst, blew so aggressively the house creaked. And if Allyna knew about it, she made no sign of it. “And who’s saying that he’s making me do anything? All of this was my own decision. All he did was give me the option—the rest was all me.”

  Carefully, he tried sheathing his sword and raising his hands up. “And I don’t doubt that you’re a good person, somewhere. All I’m asking is that you listen to that part, and don’t make this go any further. We’ll leave you alone as long as you do the same to us.”

  She let out a tch, then turned away. “Fine. But make it quick, and don’t make me regret it later.”

  Seldir knew that there wasn’t any reason to wait, so he took Kaylin’s hand and led her back out.

  …

  By sheer coincidence—they didn’t talk about or agree on anything, just individually decided as much—they didn’t really tell Rennyn about Allyna. All they did was say that they felt like they should leave, so they did.

  Rennyn didn’t need to know all of the details, not right now. Seldir had the feeling that he wasn’t exactly ready to face the present reality at the moment—not when he was still spending so much time warding off the past. It was best to keep that part to themselves, and hope that things would be a bit better as time went on.

  “Were you able to figure anything out while you were there, though?” was the first question Rennyn asked. It was one they both could have predicted, though.

  Kaylin shook her head. “I wasn’t able to piece together much. What was there… I couldn’t make much sense of it. Seemed to be nothing that we didn’t already know—the fact that they’re planning something, but not very many details of what.”

  “Anything that we could tell the knights about, then? If there’s enough evidence towards something, we could let them handle it. At least them being there should be enough to deter Dhymos for a little bit…”

  “I don’t think so. There was nothing that could obviously be seen as a threat, and anything we have to explain would probably just be seen as us making something up.”

  Seldir shrugged. “I wouldn’t be quite so sure about that. There’s a lot of possibly suspicious stuff there, and from little I could see of the neighbors, they don’t exactly trust whoever owns that place. They made sure to stay away from it, and the few that saw us come in and out didn’t seem all that happy about it. Besides, the package from yesterday was still there. We could probably make some case about being worried about the owner for one reason or another, and let them see if there’s anything else we missed.”

  Rennyn nodded. “I think that’s what we’re going to have to do. We can’t keep hanging around it if there’s a chance that Dhymos’s minions are going to be lurking there. We’re just going to have to let the knights take care of it and hope they’re able to do something…”

  “Well, if it means anything, I’m glad to see that you’re considering the fact that we’re not going to be able to do all of this on our own. It might not seem like a very big step to you, but it’s certainly one of the best ones to take. It’s refreshing to see you willing and capable of understanding that you don’t have to handle everything. And with that, it’ll be a lot easier to handle what you do have to, with all the unnecessary weight out of the way.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping for, at least. I’ve probably got a long way to go before all of that, though…”