I was taken to an interrogation room that had been displayed in a million cop shows. A metal table in the center of the room with two chairs, and a single dim lightbulb hung above. The corners of the room were cast in shadow, giving the place an oppressive vibe. Evidently, the filter had pulled from the part of my brain where the cops beat suspects with phonebooks on television, rather than real-world examples where everything was clean and brightly lit.

  Despite the atmosphere, I was feeling calm. The fact that I’d been dropped off in a waiting room before someone had come to get me suggested that I wasn’t the focus of whatever was happening. Unless that’s what they wanted me to think?

  I shook the thought away. No, don’t get lost chasing shadows. Stay relaxed, and use the truth as much as possible. The more truth you wrap a lie in, the more credible the lie seems. Truth is a lie’s best defense.

  As I sat down behind the table, I glanced at the two-way mirror. Was there anyone on the other side? Was it even real, or was it another illusion being fed to my brain by the filter?

  Yorgos sat down across from me. It did little to diminish his intimidating look. Now this was someone who had not been filtered. He was as alien as I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t help but ask about it.

  “Why aren’t you being affected by the filter like the others were?”

  Yorgos chewed on the question for a moment, as if deciding how honest to be before speaking. “I chose to exempt myself because I do not believe in coddling the weak. Others disagree, but I am allowed to present myself as I am. Now, on to the real reason we are here. A tribunal has been convened to investigate the god Roan and the current Tower guardian, Tanver Vhar. You are here to give me an account of your interactions with these individuals.”

  I’d suspected this was coming. Multiple gods had mentioned a tribunal being formed, and I guess now it was finally happening. No wonder Roan has been so distracted lately. That being said, I had no interest in tying myself to them further and going down with their ships. If Yorgos wants information, then I’m going to want something in return. But I can’t make it too easy or I’ll look desperate. Better that I start off like the dutiful servant.

  I folded my arms and raised my chin. “And if I don’t feel like cooperating?”

  Yorgos darkly smiled. “I require very little in the way of sleep or sustenance. None of the beings we’re investigating age in the conventional sense, so time is not of the essence. I will simply remain in this room until you decide to cooperate. Even if that takes months or years, it would make no difference to me. I hope you aren’t on any deadlines that might be affected by such a choice.”

  He knew he had me. The Tower had a time limit before it collapsed, and even if I wasn’t physically present in the building, I was still tied to it. Its destruction would kill me even if I was on the other side of the universe. Only escaping off of the first floor before the time was up could free me from it.

  Still, while I had to cooperate, I didn’t have to tell him everything.

  “Oh, and do not try to lie to me,” he said. “We have your friend in the other room who’s telling us everything.”

  Okay, now he’d overplayed his hand.

  “You think that will work on me?” I asked. “Hugo is a rock. He’s been with me from the beginning. Loyalty means everything to him. He’d sooner die than reveal something that could hurt either of us.”

  Yorgos pointed at the two-way mirror and it became a screen. There it showed Hugo in an interrogation room. My confidence turned to dismay when I saw that the crow was eating something.

  “So you were saying about the Golden Door incident?” a voice off-screen prompted him.

  “Hmm. Yeah, that’s right. Pass me another donut, would ya?” A powdered donut slid across the table and Hugo pecked at it ferociously, taking large bites. “So yeah, we were there when it all went down. Lucas had met Vhar earlier and then again in the throne room.”

  Yorgos waved his hand, and the screen became a mirror again. “Start from the beginning,” he told me.

  I kept things broad as I recounted my meetings with other gods and Tanver Vhar. I left out Daisy, the Officiator, and stuff related to the void entirely. There was no way of knowing how all of this would shake out, and I wanted to hold something back in case I needed it later. Yorgos didn’t react to my words until I mentioned the graveyard where I’d met Vhar. Hugo wasn’t around for that part, so perhaps this was new information for him.

  Yorgos leaned forward, eyes alight. “Did he mention anything about killing one of them?”

  “Not that I can recall.”

  The interest on his face died, and he returned to a kind of resigned boredom as he gestured for me to continue.

  “Shouldn’t this all have been recorded? I thought everything in the Tower was broadcasted.”

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  “The broadcast is routinely edited, and parts of it have gone missing,” he replied with a hint of bitterness.

  Interesting that he would just admit to that. I’m assuming that since Vhar has control over the Tower, he also controls what the others see. I kept going with my story, but continued leaving out certain parts. As long as it didn’t directly involve Vhar, he didn’t seem to notice.

  “Okay, you’re free to go,” he said finally.

  “Wait, that’s it?”

  He nodded. “The tribunal wanted an initial statement from you before the trial convenes. We’re not after you or your friend.”

  “You’re trying to take down Roan and Vhar.”

  “If a consensus is reached for guilty, then the former will be executed. The latter is more complicated.”

  “You should stick to more realistic aspirations,” said Roan. “Like being able to walk through fire without turning into kindling.”

  The god emerged from a dark corner of the room in a perfectly pressed dark suit, and he was pleased to have startled Yorgos.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” said Yorgos. “How did you get in? There are no shadows here.”

  Roan pointed at me. “There are, according to him. What exists and doesn’t exist is really a matter of perspective.”

  “The filter,” Yorgos groaned.

  “I’m here to collect my people.” He then smiled. “Or are you going to stop me?”

  Yorgos stood up and looked like he was considering it before his eyes flicked to the right. He was receiving a message. The door behind him then opened on its own, and he grunted. “All of you are free to go. For now.”

  Roan strode out without saying another word and disappeared around the corner. Not wanting to lose sight of him, I hurried after the man.

  “This isn’t a safe place to talk,” Roan said as he took long, loping strides down the hallway.

  I scowled. “I’m aware.”

  I was getting sick of being treated like a small child.

  “How serious is the tribunal?” I asked.

  “Very, but I have it under control. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to face something like this. Hopefully, the body count won’t be as high this time,” he said cheerfully.

  We stopped in front of a door. “Ah, here we are.”

  Roan waited, as if expecting it to open on its own. When it didn’t, he knocked. When that failed, he punched a hole through the door and ripped it open. Inside, Hugo stood on a table along with a young man dressed in a white robe. If Yorgos had been startled by Roan’s sudden appearance, then this young man was petrified. He had backed all the way into the corner with wide eyes.

  “Hey guys,” Hugo waved.

  There were no snacks on the table. Even the crumbs had been destroyed. The only evidence remaining was the powdered sugar around his beak.

  “Let’s go,” said Roan. “It won’t be long before you’re sent back to the Tower.”

  Hugo flew to my shoulder, and we followed Roan down another hallway. I could tell that Hugo wanted to ask me about my own questioning, but he knew we could do that later.

  After taking another turn, Hugo and I both stared. The next hallway was made of glass and we couldn’t help but admire the view. We were floating in space. Thousands of stars, a sun not too far away, and a dark planet below. This wasn’t another planet; this was a space station.

  “Woah, are we going into space?” Hugo asked excitedly. “Is there a spacesuit that would fit me?”

  “We’re not,” said Roan. “We’re going there.” He pointed down to the dark planet that even from this distance was experiencing a wave of dark storms. It gave off a foreboding vibe.

  The glass hallway led to a hangar where various space craft were docked. Hugo eyes them all hungrily, but Roan merely opened a portal.

  “You can’t open a portal on the station except here,” I surmised.

  Roan nodded. “Good thing one of you is still paying attention.”

  We went through into what looked like the foyer of a castle. It was very dark inside, with only a scant few dim bulbs on various walls that showed old banners and weapons. The place was cold and desolate. There was a window nearby and peering outside showed only a wasteland of rock at night.

  “Welcome to Drakahn,” Roan said.

  I could not see the space station from this distance, but I still looked up at the sky anyway. It was nothing but dark clouds and lightning storms.

  Hugo and I didn’t say it out loud, but this whole place seemed miserable.

  Roan mistook my concern about our new surroundings for fear of retaliation from above. “Don’t worry about the tribunal. They always park outside the subject’s planet as an intimidation tactic. Planetary defense isn’t an issue.”

  Oh good, he’s got some kind of hidden shield or weapons.

  “Because there’s nothing on the planet worth defending,” he chuckled.

  Hugo and I exchanged a confused look, and Roan got serious. “Look, it’s like this. The gods all have enormous egos. The only way to satisfy those egos is by conquering planets. Some do it with violence, others do it with gifts of healing and education, but it's all self-serving at the end of the day. Now, a god without a planet becomes weird to them. It draws their focus. Then suddenly the weird god becomes a target.”

  “So by having this planet, they leave you alone?”

  “Oh, heavens no. I get petitions all the time for meetings, requests to take part in assassinations, quarterly Tower budget reports, that sort of thing. Those are easy to ignore though, and outside of that, I was left alone.”

  “Until now,” I said, not having much sympathy for him. It was his choice to ally with Vhar that had gotten him into this mess.

  Roan agreed and seemed to acknowledge his part in things. “Like I said, time is short. Get to Daisy. Once the three of you are together, I can get to her and dismantle the potential walking bomb she could become. Then I can use it to end this tribunal nonsense once and for all.”

  Hugo and I glanced at each other. Companion chat still wasn’t working, and we desperately wanted to have a private conversation about this. I did not like the idea of handing Roan some kind of super weapon.

  “I don’t know if we should do that,” I said slowly.

  What little light that was in the room vanished, leaving us in total darkness. The brands on Hugo and myself lit up. Not enough to be painful, but enough to feel its heat.

  “It’s a little late in the day to be switching teams,” Roan said, his voice echoing around us. “This is all very simple. You bring me Daisy, and she will get all of her memories and her true name back. Not only that, but she will be free of me for good. Once I have what I need from her, I can use that to scare away the other gods so that they will leave us alone. That includes Yakeshi and Samara. Do I really have to spell out how this would be a win for you?”

  “I want you to remove our brands as well,” I said.

  “I can’t do that yet, not until Vhar is dealt with. But that’ll come after. One thing at a time.”

  I felt a strange tug over my body and suddenly I’d snapped back to the Tower and back to standing on my tile. Hugo too, had returned to his tile. There hadn’t been time for us to answer Roan, but then there wouldn’t have been a point. All three of us knew that he hadn’t made a request. Just like he knew that we would do it because we didn’t have a choice.