CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The teleportation left Jin breathless as she and the others arrived in the throne room within the Palace of Towers. She fell to her knees, staring with wide-open eyes at the silver-tiled floor beneath her. Her body shook, unwilling and unable to accept anything of what just happened.

Panes of glass rattled in their arched housings. Silver columns shook and cerulean banners fluttered in the aftermath of Maya's teleportation spell. The delegation arrived at the southern end of the pentagonal throne room, just outside of the antechamber with the great steam lifts. At the center of the room stood the circular dais, with steps leading up to where Cathis' throne sat. The dais was lined with clockwork mechanisms that could turn the throne towards any of the five walls.

It was the center of Althandor, the Five Kingdoms, and of House Algara's power. Today, it served as a refuge from treachery.

Maebh's voice was the first to speak. "Dashar, find Heron and Cassian. Summon every minister still in the city. We need to plan our response."

Dashar nodded and ran out of the throne room towards the steam lifts.

"Do we have everyone?" Cathis called out, even as royal guards came running towards the disturbance of their arrival. "Maya?"

"Where's Manon?" Maya shouted.

"I'm here, Cousin. Winds, did the empress really just..."

"Quiet," Maebh said curtly. "Stand next to Kiir until we get this sorted. Questions come later. Dashar's on his way. Josy, Tarlus, good. Valess, Ceruna, Zanda, yes. Everyone seems to be here. Gain?"

He stood over Jin, the closest to her of all her family. "Here, my queen. Brought two extra, it seems."

Gillwyn and Cana huddled together, looking around them with open fear. Though disoriented and frightened, they managed to bob anxious curtsies.

Cathis chuckled. "These young ladies? Jin's handmaidens."

Jin made a fist and struck it against the floor. Such ineffective violence wasn't enough to satisfy her. Before she could stop herself, she'd torn her sword from its scabbard and threw herself at Cathis with an enraged cry. Gain reacted too slow to stop her, and no one else was looking in her direction. Before anyone could shout a warning, Jin fell upon her father and tackled him to the ground. The wind was driven from his lungs by the force of her attack, and he folded beneath her.

She knelt on his stomach and gripped the collar of his doublet in a tight fist. Her sword drew back for a strike with the tip of the blade hovering an inch over his neck. Jin could hardly see him through the tears clouding her eyes, but even had they been dry, she'd be blind for the rage pulsing through her veins.

"Your Highness!" Cana squeaked.

"Jin, stop!" Maebh shouted.

Royal assassins and the arriving guardsmen all cried out to Jin in shock and alarm.

Jin ignored everyone except for Cathis. She bared her teeth while poised to open his throat over the throne room floor. When Gain came towards her to try pulling her off the king, Jin tensed and made her intentions clear. Gain balked and didn't come closer. One move from any of them, and their enemies wouldn't have to dream of killing Cathis the Algara anymore. Jin would do it herself.

Beneath her, Cathis was still. "Jin."

She wanted to shout at him and demand to know what gave him the right to speak her name. But, Jin couldn't. All she could do was tighten her grip on his collar and push her sword closer to his flesh. Closer, but no more. So many things fought to leave her mouth, but if she tried to say them, the only sound that would come out of her would be of her weeping. Tears fell from her eyes to land on her father's cheeks.

Cathis took hold of the hand gripping his doublet and held it gently. He never took his eyes away from her face. "If you truly believe it of me," he whispered, "if you think I wished any of this for you, then please do as you must. If you believe I could want to cause you pain, I have failed you more than I can ever hope to atone for."

Stricken, Jin felt a tremor within her chest. Her eyes opened wide as her teeth clenched.

Jin cried out and drove the sword down. It struck metal tile and bit deep, lodging itself three inches into the floor. Jin tried to hold back the sobs fighting their way out of her.

"I'm sorry," Cathis said softly. He sat up beneath her and enfolded her in his arms. "Winds take me, I'm so sorry."

"You're sorry?" Maya shouted. "You are? Correct me if I'm wrong, but who was it who capitulated to the Jade Empire and turned on the Five Kingdoms?"

Jin cringed in her father's embrace.

"Maya," Cathis growled in warning. "I wasn't accepting blame but expressing sympathy. What's the matter with you?"

"She turned on us, Father!"

Maebh took Maya by the arm. "We know. There are things that need to be done before anything else."

Fists clenched with frustration, Maya nodded. "As you say."

Gain offered Cathis his hand, and it was accepted. Cathis let his brother haul him to his feet, and he drew Jin up along with him. Once standing, Jin couldn't raise her eyes from the floor. She couldn't bring herself to look at any of them.

She was ashamed of herself. For being a fool. For doubting what she'd known to be the truth. For being weak and allowing hope where none deserved to be.

"Rise."

She heard Gara's command, and she was ashamed she'd neglected it for as long as she had. For the royal assassin Althandor needed to rise, Jin Algara— the weakling she let herself become— needed to fall.

In that instant, Jin dried her tears. Her face became an impassive mask. The trembling in her hands went still. So it was, as she'd always known deep down it would have to be. The moments in which she began to naively believe she could be happy with her sky woman were laid bare for the lies they were.

Jin Algara died again, and this time, forever.

"Forgive me, Your Grace," Jin said, her tone cold and emotionless. "I was disoriented. It will not happen again."

Cathis put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll not fault you for being out of sorts. Not after..."

"I am responsible for this," Jin interrupted. "It is my fault Enfri has come under the influence of past Dragon Emperors."

"I beg your pardon?" Maya asked. "You're telling us she pledged to Garret blustering Merovech because she's jilted?"

"I can think of no other explanation."

"She wouldn't do that!" Manon cried out.

Everyone turned to the youngest in the room. Maebh gave a hard look that commanded silence, but Manon was too beside herself to pay attention. Manon was only ten, but even now showing signs that she would appear very similar to Jin and Maya once she reached adolescence. She didn't look natural in her studded leather armor, and her arms seemed too thin and delicate to wield the short sword on her hip. Manon was built for dancing, not for fighting, though Jin knew from personal experience that this was something that could change given enough determination.

"Jin, Enfri wouldn't," Manon insisted, almost desperate. "She's a good person."

"Once," Jin said. "Perhaps. I fear I've destroyed her goodness."

"But..."

"Manon, be silent," Maebh snapped. "Another word, and it will be another hour in the yard tomorrow. I will tell you when your opinion is wanted."

Looking miserable, Manon lowered her eyes and nodded.

Maebh turned towards the royal guards coming to stand at attention. "Activate the palace warding sigils," she ordered. "Until further notice, the Palace of Towers is under full translocational wards. No teleports, no sendings, no divinations of any kind. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Highness," the guardsmen shouted in unison. They saluted, and half of them ran off in different directions to spread the command.

"My love," Cathis said.

Maebh stood at attention as she faced the king. "Yes?"

"Could you find Captain Falar? What's left of the Home Legion needs to be mobilized."

"At once, Your Grace," Maebh said. Before she left, she walked up to him and took him by the chin. "It wasn't your fault, my love. You tried to give her everything you could and more."

"Not enough," Cathis said. "Not soon enough. Until I see you next, my queen."

Maebh kissed him, stepped back to salute, then left while ordering Kiir and Manon to follow her.

Gain growled. "Half our delegation is still inside Aleesh borders."

"Zanda and I will retrieve them," Maya said. "We can cordon off a space to teleport at Evermist Station, outside the palace wards."

Mention of the Executioner drew the attention of the assassins. Nearly all of them cast wary looks towards Maya's bound partner. Zanda shifted beneath their combined suspicion.

Maya blinked as she became aware of the conflict of interests suddenly on trial. She furrowed her brow as she faced Zanda. "Have something to add?" Maya asked.

Zanda actually shook as she replied. Her fingers clutched at her skirt, and her eyes narrowed. "No, Your Highness."

"Unless you heard something different than I did just now, your empress just up and joined the enemies of Althandor."

Zanda averted her eyes and swallowed. Her entire body went tense.

Jin sidestepped surreptitiously to where she'd left her sword driven into the floor tiles.

"Zanda," Maya prompted. "Speak your mind, my Executioner."

"I won't follow where she means to lead the mighty," Zanda snarled. "So long as she bends the knee to demons, I have no empress."

Maya arched an eyebrow.

Zanda raised her eyes to meet Maya's searching gaze. "I have a princess. If my Beryl will have me, she will have her rose."

Maya nodded in acceptance. "I have my rose, then. Good enough for me."

"You sure about that?" Gain asked. "You sure about keeping a dragon on as a handmaiden?"

Maya scoffed. "I didn't take her on to be a handmaiden, Uncle. I took her on to help me kill demon thralls, so if Enfri's become one, I guess that puts her back on top of my to-kill list." She looked at Zanda sidelong. "Is that agreeable?"

"The mighty deserve better than to be ruled by a thrall," Zanda stated venomously. "I won't waste another moment of my life in the service of a coward and traitor."

Gain grunted again, this time in satisfaction. "Good. Let's hope more of your kind feel the same way."

"Less than I would wish," Zanda said bitterly. "If the mighty have a failing, it is slavish devotion to the blood of Inwé. They feel the debt our ancestors owed to hers, and they've grown enamored by the promise of receiving a bond. I fear most will follow her even into the service of the old masters. They are more likely to hate Althandor, which has hunted our people nearly to extinction, than to something that is little more than a myth like demons."

"But not you," Maya said with a tiny smile.

"I know where my loyalty lies," Zanda said. "It goes to the woman who's earned it."

Jin was pleased to hear it. She didn't want dragons to fall alongside their empress. If they could be saved, it would be a worthy undertaking. Jin wondered if there were many who harbored thoughts like Zanda's.

Others, undoubtedly, would stick by Enfri through anything, and Jin felt discomfort at the thought of friends now being among her enemies.

Jin pulled her sword out from the floor tiles and returned it to her scabbard.

"This doesn't make any sense," Tarlus mumbled.

"It really doesn't," Josy agreed quietly.

"No," Tarlus said more forcefully. "It makes no sense at all. Every piece of evidence the intelligence coterie pulled out of Shan Alee said their top priority has been earning formal recognition as a client kingdom. Why would the empress throw that away so easily?"

Jin turned her back to her family, even as she felt their eyes like an itch between her shoulder blades.

"That's crazy," Josy murmured. "Look, I spent a lot of time around Enfri. That's... that's just not the sort of girl she is."

"Don't forget who's in her head," Gain replied. "Part of the ransom bond forgers pay is opening themselves to the influence of the ones who came before."

"That makes even less sense!" Josy argued. "We know the truth now. Shoen sacrificed himself and his entire empire to kill a demon. Why would he make Enfri join them?"

"If there is no other option," Cathis said. "Winds take me, we backed her into a corner. We made certain she had few courses of action, limited her options for allies among the other kingdoms, made her desperate, and then put her in the path of an enemy we know next to nothing about. Then we expected her to fight to the death for us." Cathis laughed ruefully. "How arrogant we are."

Gain frowned. "That sort of talk won't help current affairs, Brother. We must warn the generals. That armada won't float around New Sandharbor forever. They could be here in seven days. I suggest we prepare for them."

Cathis looked around the vaulted glass ceiling of the throne room. "Oh... I fear you're going to commit regicide for what I'm about to tell you, Gain."

"I really don't want to hear that," Gain growled.

"My talks with Her Majesty included the possibility of evacuating her people here to the Spired City." Cathis paced in front of the dais with his hands behind his back. "That included my informing her of our plans of how to defend the city from aerial assault."

Gain glared at the king in disbelief. "Brother, you didn't."

Cathis blew out his lips.

"Cathis!" Gain shouted. "You told the Dragon Empress about the mist ward?"

Jin frowned and knit her brow together. This was something she'd never heard of.

"I'm afraid so," Cathis said, "including the gaps in our defenses once the ward goes up. It was my hope we could task the Arcane Knights to shore up where the legions are lacking."

"Gaps!" Gain exclaimed. "Brother, I and half the hierarchs in the city made certain there were no gaps!"

Cathis gave Gain a flat look.

"Winds take you, you found some, didn't you? Then, you just had to tell that girl about them in the interests of being blustering forthright to salve your guilty conscience." Gain stalked up to Cathis and planted himself in the way of his pacing. "If she knows that, the Jade Empire will, too!"

"Then we have seven days in which to solve this problem," Cathis said. "I'm sorry, Brother. I was too eager to form an alliance. Clearly, it has backfired in the most spectacular way possible."

Gain rubbed at his temples. "Winds save us. Tarlus! You've a head for aerial logistics, don't you?"

Tarlus startled. "I wouldn't say that exactly, Uncle."

"Nonsense. You solved the problem of taking Sky Corps airships to kingdoms without mooring towers. Come with me, and we'll see if you can figure out a way through this mess."

Gain took Tarlus by the shoulder and led him out of the throne room towards the steam lifts.

"Your Grace," Josy said, "no one's answered my question."

"What was it again?" Cathis sighed.

"Why's Enfri doing this?" Josy asked.

Cathis held up a palm towards her. "I think that's been made all too clear, Niece."

"It really hasn't!" Josy insisted. "The more I think about it, the less sense it makes." She looked to Jin for support. "You should know better than anyone. This isn't an Enfri thing to do. It has to be a trick. A performance. Winds and storms, Jin, she wouldn't..."

"Betray me?" Jin asked, and it came with more emotion than she intended. "As I would never betray her?"

"Essence of all spirits," Josy breathed. "What happened to you two?"

Jin felt her knuckles crack from how hard she clenched them. "We woke up."

"She revealed her true colors," Maya said. Her mouth had a bitter twist to it. "You're right, Josy. There was a performance. The bumpkin sky woman with the kindly manner, the pretty smile, the one who said she wanted to be our..." Maya trailed off and swallowed when her voice nearly broke. "That was the act."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," Josy said. "Look, I get it. You wanted to have faith in her, but you're telling me you'll give up on Enfri just like that? You'll call her a thrall and be done with it? No, I'm not buying that!"

"What would you have me say?" Jin demanded. "That I wish you were right? Very well, because I do. However, I know that is not the way the world works. I have given her every reason to despise me, so please, Cousin, do not stand there and tell me otherwise."

Josy scowled, then stormed off towards the steam lifts. "Fine, then. Must not've been much of paramour if she meant that little to you, anyway."

Cathis called after her.

"I'm finding Heron!" Josy shouted while throwing her hands in the air. "Winds know, I should try to be useful somewhere!"

Jin grit her teeth and lowered her eyes. Josy's parting words stung, even as she knew they had no right to anymore. Those feelings belonged to a dead woman.

"Maya, go get our people, would you?" Cathis asked.

"As you say, Father." Maya walked with a stiff spine, and as she passed by Jin, she reached out and touched her on the wrist. "I'll find you when I come back."

Jin nodded without looking at her. "As you say, Sister."

Maya hesitated. "I'm sorry, Jin," she whispered so no one else could overhear. "This isn't what I wanted. Not for you."

"I know, Maya," Jin said in the same quiet tone. "Thank you."

Maya looked Jin up and down before continuing on her way. As she walked with her handmaidens in tow, she told Valess and Ceruna to wait for her return in her chambers. Zanda was to accompany her as she teleported to retrieve the people they left in Shan Alee.

Jin became aware of Cathis turning in place to look around the throne room, his brow furrowed. She gave him a bemused glance. "Father?"

"Devara," Cathis said. "Didn't she come with us?"

Jin searched her memory. "I believe she was present in the reception hall. Did she leave with Dashar?"

Cathis rubbed his forehead. "She must have. If not, Maya will bring her home with the others."

"Devara is capable," Jin said to reassure him.

Cathis nodded and sighed. He began walking towards the dais of his throne. His eyes fell on Gillwyn and Cana as he went. "You have my deepest apologies, Goodwomen. I'm unsure of what brought you into my daughter's service, but I can't imagine this was part of your plans."

They murmured something that might've been a reply under their breaths and dipped into another round of awkward curtsies.

A slight smile tugged at Cathis' lips as his eyes flickered between them. He turned away from them and beckoned one of the royal guards over. "Would you escort these young ladies to the west tower. See that the steward gives them rooms for as long as they need them."

The girls looked to Jin, and she gave them a small nod. "I will not be long," she told them.

As the guardsman led the girls away, Cathis took the steps up the dais towards his throne. Hesitantly, Jin followed after him but paused at the foot of the steps. She recalled the last time she'd climbed them.

"I grant command of this contract to you, my daughter. Make me proud."

Jin sucked in a sharp breath and felt ashamed once more. She failed that contract, and now the world could burn because of it.

Above, Cathis let out a breath as he sank into his throne. His eyes found Jin poised with one foot midway between ascending or remaining below.

Only osteomancers were permitted to ascend the dais. It was a place reserved for the Highest King and his marked bloodline. The queen also, because spirits save the man who tried to keep Maebh from her husband's side. Or was it more keeping the master-at-arms from her head of house's? In twenty-one years, Jin hadn't been able to decide which of those relationships was the more important to her mother.

"I would have you up here with me, Jin," Cathis said.

Swallowing, Jin placed her foot on the dais and climbed towards the throne. There were twenty-five steps, five times five, a holy number by most dogmas. In spellcraft, base five structures proved the most stable and efficient, and spells with structures incorporating twenty-five were even more so. It was only natural that architects incorporated the Law of Five into the palace's heart. And each step felt a trial for Jin to take.

Nearly to the throne, Jin spoke as she took the last steps. "Once more, I apologize for my actions, Father."

He watched her with a neutral expression. "You're already forgiven, or are we not talking of you almost running me through?"

Jin's feet slowed until coming to a stop on the final step. "I failed you," she said softly.

Cathis shook his head.

"I failed the contract you gave me, and what is worse, I did not want to succeed."

He leaned forward. "I shouldn't have given that contract to you in the first place," he said. "You'd already proven yourself, to me and your uncle. I knew of your feelings for the sky woman, and it was wrong of me to put her life in your hands as I did."

Jin lidded her eyes and remained silent.

Cathis looked away from Jin. "Had things been simpler," he said, and it felt like a lament. "Had things only gone as I expected them to. I believed you'd return with just another half-breed Aleesh, one I could grant clemency without raising any eyebrows or ruffling any feathers. Ambrose wanted her kept safe for her father's sake, and I wished to repay the man who gave our house justice for your brother. I couldn't save Yora Page from Vintus, but I wanted to at least say I could save his daughter. The least I could do."

Jin nodded. She'd suspected as much since receiving command of her first contract, ever since it was realized who Enfri's father had been. Yora Page, the spearman, and the Hero of Drok Moran. It was known he possessed a bond to a dragon— and that was the reason Vintus gave for executing him without trial— but few believed a soldier in the Althandi legions could've hidden that he was a bond forger. And so there hadn't been much credence given to the possibility of a simple sky woman in Sandharbor being one, either.

In hindsight, it seemed foolish to have acted with such a lack of conviction.

"Nothing is simple," Jin said quietly.

Cathis had a pained look in his eye as he watched Jin. He opened his mouth as if to speak before his gaze flickered to the royal guards stationed around the throne room. He wilted and couldn't look Jin in the eye.

"I wish I could tell you everything will be well. That all will go as it must. I can't tell you that. All I can tell you, Jin, is that I love you, and I feel ten years younger to have you back home."

Jin bit her lip. A part of her grew fearful to hear him say that. She'd heard much the same from the others in Shan Alee, and that hadn't ended with her feeling at all loved.

She blinked, recalling something Jiranthis said to her in Marwin.

"I have faith in you, Father," Jin said. "If I am to choose what to believe in, I would believe in my family."

She caught sight of a tremor in her father's lip as he rose to stand. Jin took the final step and let him take her into his arms.

"I'm sorry, Papa," Jin whispered. "I'm sorry I ran away."

He stroked her hair and held her to his shoulder. "I'm not."

Jin looked up to his face, and he put his hands to her cheeks.

"What I'm sorry for is that I made you feel as if you needed to. I'm sorry I didn't have the faith in you that you deserved." He took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry I pulled you into this life. You were never made to be a royal assassin. You were meant for better."

Jin furrowed her brow. "Being a royal assassin is all I ever wanted for myself."

"Well," Cathis said, "then I'm sorry for that, too." He gave her cheeks a pat. "I sometimes wonder who you might have become if you hadn't been born with those eyes."

Jin gave it a moment's consideration before shrugging with one shoulder. "I... would have been just a princess, I expect." She gave it another moment's consideration. "No, I believe I would still have pursued Mother's training. If not a royal assassin, I would have wished to be the next master-at-arms."

Cathis chuckled. "You're incorrigible, Jin. I fear we pushed you too hard."

Jin wrinkled her nose dubiously. As she recalled, the problem was being held back, not pushed.

Her father released her and turned to sit back on the throne. "Tell me, Jin, what do you think? Is Josy on to something? Might this be Enfri's ruse, and her real goal is to become our agent in the demons' midst?"

Jin braced for the pain of hearing such a question. Unexpectedly, blessedly, there was none. With satisfaction, Jin knew that part of her was gone.

"I saw in her face the presence of the ancient emperors," she said. "I felt her cruelty as she twisted the knife in my heart. She allowed me to believe she was still mine, then she took pleasure in ripping that hope away. The sky woman is no more, Father."

He seemed surprised by that answer, then his expression fell. He spoke in a low tone that was difficult for her to hear. "I'm so sorry, Jin."

"Do not be," she said. "I am grateful for the time I was granted. It was more than I had cause to want for myself, but all fantasies must end."

Cathis shut his eyes. "I'm sorry."

She frowned. It was starting to annoy her that he wouldn't take her word that this was for the best. Overdue, and Jin had indulged this naive way of thinking for long enough. She understood now that she would never be like Enfri Page, and she had no choice but to count Enfri the Yora as an enemy.

Jin was a royal assassin, and Enfri was the Dragon Empress. There was only one way this could end.

"I must see to my guests, Father," Jin said. "I can only imagine what they must be feeling."

Cathis gave himself a shake. "Ah, yes. Might I ask? Just what's the story behind those young ladies, anyway?"

Jin glanced towards the royal guardsmen and thought better of speaking the whole truth. There was no telling where the old masters had their ears, and Krayson had reported that thralls had wormed their way into the royal guard before.

"They were being held in domestic servitude by a group of vagabonds in the Expanse," Jin said.

Cathis looked appalled. "Winds, really?"

Jin gave a small nod. "I felt it my responsibility to see Althandi girls to safety. They mentioned it would not be safe for them in Moorhaven, where they hail from, so I am open to ideas of where to send them."

Cathis blew out his lips. "Well, I can't much say where it's safe these days. For now, I imagine they're safest right where they are. With you."

Jin nodded, then got a suspicious look.

"You have been in need of a handmaiden or two since you came of age," Cathis said with a shrug.

"Handmaidens are usually drawn from noble applicants," Jin pointed out.

"Then, why haven't you?"

Jin grimaced.

"House maids, then," Cathis suggested. "I'd think just having something to do will help keep their minds of their troubles, whatever you decide to call them in the process."

Sighing, Jin realized she'd lost this argument before it even began. "As you say, Father."

There came a loud grinding sound of the steam lift doors opening. Muffled conversation began to filter into the throne room as the officials Dashar fetched began to arrive. Cathis looked grieved to have duty put an end to this talk, but Jin was content with the strides they'd made.

"I will leave you to your ministers, Father," Jin said. "I feel I should return to my chambers and rest."

Cathis hummed. "Yes, do that. Don't forget to pick up oren from the alchemists on your way." He pointed a finger at her. "I haven't forgotten you haven't taken any since waking up."

"As you say."

He smiled. "Well, then. Goodbye, Jin."

"Not goodbye," she said, returning a slight smile of her own. "Until next time."

It wasn't until Jin descended from the dais, was past the ministers and courtiers filing into the throne room, and riding a steam lift down several levels to the nearest skybridge that she realized something. That way of promising a next meeting was a phrasing she'd learned in Shan Alee.

Ruthlessly, Jin tore it out. There was no place for it within her.

Her passage to the west tower, where she kept her chambers before leaving the Spired City, was surprisingly unremarkable. Jin had expected to be stopped by servants or courtiers, but it seemed that word of something terrible happening in the west and the Highest King's abrupt return had spread. There was a tension within the Palace of Towers, an underlying fear that the darkest days of Althandor still lay ahead.

The one servant Jin talked with, a junior steward Jin remembered being just an apprentice six months ago, didn't seem to realize that Jin had been absent in the intervening time. He gave the automatic formal bow and proper address, answered her questions with brevity and clarity, and was in all ways a model of decorum. Jin narrowed her eyes with suspicion as he informed her that Gillwyn and Cana had been given rooms on the floor beneath her chambers.

Jin's suspicions plateaued and remained well after the man was out of her sight. Shifters could be anywhere, or worse, proteurim.

After what felt like half an hour of navigating the palace, Jin finally came to the door to her chambers. It was the highest level, the uppermost ten stories, of the west tower. Jin's chambers were on the third floor from the very top and took up the southern half of this story; Valess and Ceruna's suites were just around the bend. The hallways outside Jin's door were, in her opinion, among the most beautiful in the palace. A stained glass window stood opposite her door and depicted the tale of Ozwyn and Siobhan, a favorite bedtime story of Jin's from her earliest years. Polished wood floors and spellwrought marble walls gave it a clean and natural feeling, deep browns and bright whites. The illusion of feeling outdoors was aided further by marble plinths supporting tiny Shotoese banzai trees, an art form Jin appreciated though was hopeless at replicating whenever she tried.

It felt familiar to walk these halls again. Familiar and comforting.

"Your Highness, your pardon," said a high and reedy voice ahead.

Jin stopped short as soon as she recognized the speaker. There'd been a moment where she found nothing strange about finding this person in the palace. Then Jin remembered that, to her knowledge, this particular steward had never been to the City of Althandor. They'd first met in Ecclesia.

"Mistress Hana," Jin said. "What are you doing here?"

She came out from the alcove of Jin's door where it seemed she'd been waiting. Hana was a short and stocky woman, aged into her late sixties, with grayed hair holding onto traces of her youth's auburn and gray eyes flecked with gold. Her Altieri features would've normally been out of place, though Jin found the differences between their races lessened with age. She wore a simple shawl over her head, and the livery of a House Algara steward.

"Your pardon, Highness," Hana repeated with a remarkably graceful curtsy for a woman of her years. "I learned of your arrival as I performed my duties and thought it would be best if we spoke sooner rather than later."

Jin had no trouble recollecting why Enfri once lived in terror of this woman. "I fear you have misunderstood me," Jin said coldly, putting a hand to her sword. "Why are you in Althandor and not in Espalla."

Hana's eyes briefly landed on Jin's sword hand before returning to her face. Unfazed, she continued speaking as if she was in no danger. "I believe the phrase is 'up to my old tricks', Your Highness."

"Most spies wouldn't declare themselves to the one person able to identify them as such," Jin said cautiously. "Are you here to ask after Her Majesty? If Espalla is allied with the Jade Empire, perhaps you are curious of if Althandor believes Enfri's defection to be genuine."

"Is it?" Hana asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Would you believe me if I said it was so?"

Hana folded her hands in front of her. "You would be surprised of the things I could believe. However, I am not here about Her Majesty. Not directly."

"Then explain yourself," Jin said. "The Espallan tribes have declared war on Althandor alongside the Jade Empire. I suggest you make your case quickly."

"I have indeed come here at the behest of my sortha-son," Hana said. "As one of the few among the Amak'talan able to speak Althandi and the only one able to navigate the noble houses, I was the natural choice."

"Why?" Jin asked, losing patience.

"The Espallan tribes have never been united," Hana said, "save when facing attack from the steam men of Althandor. We squabble and even make war among ourselves, much like the people of any other kingdom. That has changed now that our precious friends in the west have called for our aid."

"And so Hagen of the Amak'talan sent you here to spy on us?"

Hana shook her head. "No, Highness. The hallah'ha sent me to warn you."

Jin held back from scoffing. "A bit late for that, is it not?"

"That depends on the warning. I will be blunt, Highness, so might we speak in private?"

Jin glanced to her chamber door. "Of what?"

"You know for certain of where one demon is," Hana said. "You know of Carinae dwelling within the false god-emperor of our precious friends. You also speak of Antares masquerading as Hasanvor. If you will permit me, Highness, I would tell you of a third, one I believe you are already somewhat aware of."

Jin frowned. "The Espallans are tracking the old masters?"

"We have ears," Hana said. "Now, do you want to know what Algol is up to in your city or don't you?"