"How long will this take?"

Donny raised an eyebrow. "Well, good evening to you, too. Glad to see you made it out of that gun fight in one piece."

Eijiro grunted, throwing Donny's arm off his shoulders and shoving his hands into his pocket. They walked down the hall, the place eerily quiet after all the noise he'd just heard. He looked over his shoulder, at the double doors they'd just come through. Was it really okay? Leaving her alone back there?

"She'll be fine," Donny said, a hint of arrogance melting off of his voice. "You worry too much about her, Eiji. She's–"

"She almost died yesterday."

Even as he said it, the image came back to his mind. Melia covered in blood. Melia gasping for air...

"Eiji."

Eijiro blinked. He hadn't realized he was standing in front of the double doors again. Music trickled through from the other side as his hands squeezed the handles, ready to throw them open.

Donny leaned against the door on the right. He looked concerned. Which, for some reason, Eijiro found extremely annoying.

"Look, you're worried," he said. "I get it. Your girl's been through a lot and you feel responsible. But the best thing you can do for her now is find the bastards who did this. Not the one who laid hands on her–I heard she took care of that herself–but the ones pulling the strings. You get ahead of them, you win the game. You win the game, you keep her safe. Understand?"

Eijiro wanted to be mad at him, but Donny was right.

Kuso, he thought. Since when had Donny Vitale become the sensible one?

He clenched his hands into fists and forced himself to step away. "So what do we do?"

"Attaboy, Eiji. I knew you weren't all stupid." Donny reached into his suit pocket and pulled out an hourglass timer. He tossed it to Eijiro. "Gimme ten minutes. I'll explain as much as I can."

Eijiro pinched the timer between his thumb and forefinger. It was bigger than the ones he'd seen in boardgames, but not by much. Turning it upside down, he watched as grains of sand trickled into the bottom half.

Donny opened a door marked as a conference room. Four men in suits came out. Donny spoke to the first one, a man with a hooked nose and auburn hair.

"Dieci minuti," he said to him. "Sai cosa fare?"

The man nodded. "Si, signore."

He signaled his men. Two went down the hall, following the direction Donny and Eijiro had just come from. The other went in the opposite direction. The man nodded at Donny, waving them inside.

Donny clapped him on the shoulder. "Grazie, Betto."

Eijiro followed him inside and the guard, Betto, closed the door behind them.

"This is a lot for a ten minute talk," Eijiro said.

Donny shrugged. "Ten minutes, sixty. It wouldn't really matter. We take our privacy very seriously around here."

He flipped a switch on the wall. Nothing happened. On a gut feeling Eijiro glanced down at his comm and saw he wasn't getting service, anymore. He tensed.

"Relax, Eiji," Donny said, sensing his thoughts. "I told you, it's for privacy. Look, mine's not working either." He turned his wrist to Eijiro, verifying what he said. "Besides, you can still Sense the kid can't you? With those little bows you left on her?"

Eijiro glared at him, but he reached out anyway. Sure enough, Melia was fine. Her pulse was elevated, but it wasn't like the embassy. She was probably just excited. Her hands gestured animatedly, as though she were talking to an old friend. Eijiro wondered if Donny's nephew had made an appearance, after all.

Schooling his face into neutral, Eijiro set the sand timer on the table.

"You got, what? Nine minutes now?" he asked.

"Mmm....more like nine twenty-five," Donny corrected. "I'm assuming you got our letter?"

"You mean this?" Eijiro pulled out the note, his face incredulous. "A.G.? Really?"

Donny turned his palms up. "What, that's your name, isn't it? Break it in half you get an A, and you get a G. Ain't that how this language works?"

Eijiro rolled his eyes. "And the part about shooting me?"

"Just the honest truth. My men don't like you, Eiji. And, to be frank, I don't either. But the girl's another story."

The conference room they stood in was small, the bulk of it taken up by a long table with six leatherback chairs lining both sides. Donny pulled out one of them and took a seat, motioning for Eijiro to do the same.

"I'm glad you came, Eiji," he said, his tone shifting. "Really, I am. We found something that might be useful to you."

"And how did you find it?"

The words slipped out before Eijiro could stop them. He hoped they hadn't sounded as harsh to Donny as they had to him, but when the other man raised an eyebrow, he winced. Donny looked like he wanted to punch him, but instead he unstrapped his wrist comm.

"We didn't do nothing illegal, if that's what you're thinking," he said. He laid his comm on the table and double-tapped the screen, opening up the holoversion. "My guys at the precinct didn't lift any evidence, all pictures we have were taken by private citizens, and we used our own connections to piece together the rest of it. So, no harm no foul."

Eijiro grunted. "Sounds like you got more than I...." His voice trailed off, suddenly realizing what Donny had said. "Wait, Donny. You...you have guys at the precinct?"

Donny didn't even look up. "Of course. How do you think I been staying ahead of you all these years?" His finger hovered over a file on his screen. He grimaced, then lowered his hand. "You were in Kartha, right? Remember a group called the Legion? Or a guy named Everaum Miliare?"

Eijiro nodded. "Yeah, I burned his house down. So what?"

Donny rolled his eyes. "You know it wasn't just his house. His crops? The factory? To this day the Miliare fire is still considered the most expensive in Karthinian history."

Eijiro shrugged. "He had it coming."

Of all the trafficking rings Eijiro had infiltrated, Miliare had been at the top. He was Eijiro's last target, the one he had sold himself to when Kelly found him. In fact, Kelly had helped to take Miliare down.

Miliare had slaves running everything from his plantations to the pleasure rooms he owned throughout the country. He had a reputation for purchasing families for the sole purpose of exploiting them in front of one another. He emasculated men by beating them in front of their wives, tormented mothers by ripping them away from their children. It didn't matter who or what was involved; if Miliare saw an opportunity to flex his power over another person, he took it.

It had been particularly enjoyable burning his mansion to the ground.

"What's Miliare got to do with this?" he asked. "He should be dead."

Donny shrugged. "He might be, I don't know. But if that's his crew running around, someone's leading them."

If ever there was a man who deserved to die, it was Miliare. Had Kelly not interrupted, Eijiro would've done just that. He had Miliare beaten to a pulp and was ready for the finishing blow, but Kelly wouldn't allow it. He had morals.

"Leave him for the authorities," he had said.

Eijiro remembered holding Miliare by his shirt collar. The former underlord had his head lolled to the side and his face beaten to a pulp.

"He's practically dead, anyway," Eijiro had told him. "If we leave him, he'll probably pass before anyone finds him."

"Better that than to have his blood on your hands," Kelly insisted. "You did what you came here for, now let him face the consequences for his actions. This is what law enforcement is for."

Grudgingly, Eijiro had complied. He did it more to get Kelly off his back than because he actually bought into anything he was saying. Now, because he had listened, Miliare was back.

Thanks a lot, Kell, he thought.

Eijiro hadn't thought to study the Legion last night. Up until ten seconds ago, they had been a world away. He had always meant to go back, but life in Zaram hadn't exactly gone as planned.

Now that he thought about it, the Legion fit perfectly. In many ways, they fit that hole Eijiro was looking for: a group that was opposed to natural magic.

Legionnaires believed those who had powers needed to prove they were worthy of them. And if they weren't, legionnaires took it upon themselves to "purify" their contaminated blood. Eijiro wished they wouldn't call it that because it had always been...messy.

Donny hesitated again. "We've suspected the Legion has been branching out for months, trying to weasel their way into our territory." He made a face, looking disgusted. "But this is what kinda tipped it off for us."

He opened the file, his holoscreen filled with an image of a cardboard cutout with a picture of Melia's face taped to it. The words FALSE GOD were sprayed across her eyes, and someone had set the effigy on fire.

Eijiro's mouth went dry. He saw shadows of people crowding the effigy. Donny swiped left, revealing images of the mob stomping and shaking Melia's charred image before ripping it to shreds.

The panic he felt at the embassy began to claw its way back up Eijiro's chest. His hands shook under the table, every muscle in his body twitched to get out of there. To run back to Melia and take her home before she could get hurt again.

Donny squeezed the side of the comm, turning off the screen.

"I know you don't need me to tell you this," he said, "but I'd be extra careful with your girl until this all blows over."

Eijiro nodded. He felt Melia's steady pulse through his Cloth Sense, and found it bizarre that she was more calm than he was. A part of him worried he'd find her suffocating again, but she was fine.

For now.

He tried to swallow, but with a dry mouth he ended up with an awkward cough. "So, the Legion is after her, then?" he asked. "This whole thing–all of the attacks–you think it's to get to her?"

Donny tilted his head. "Maybe. Still too soon to say for sure. When my guys saw this last night, they didn't actually hear the name drop. But I think it's fair to say that legionnaires are here, and they see your girl as a potential threat. One who, in their eyes, doesn't deserve the magic she has. With the peace conference coming up, I'd say she was more of a coincidence to them than an actual target."

Eijiro frowned. "The peace conference?"

"Of course," Donny raised an eyebrow. "It's three and a half weeks from now. Don't tell me you forgot about it."

Eijiro didn't tell him, but he had. With Melia's near-death experience and all the old baggage Sayuri brought with her, he'd forgotten that she was here for the IPC. How ironic that her mission of peace so far had brought nothing but violence.

"You think the IPC is causing the attacks?" he asked. "If that were the case, wouldn't there be attempts made on other ambassadors?"

Again, Donny gave a non-committal shrug. "Well, if we've established that the Legion has come to Zaram, and that their leader is likely not dead, who do you think he has the most beef with?"

Eijiro clenched his teeth, wishing he had a drink.

Of course, he thought. Of course this is my fault.

If Miliare was alive, and had some of his old connections, his first move would've been to take Eijiro out. Make an example of him for any slave that would dare challenge him. And if he was coming for Eijiro, of course he'd go for Melia and Sayuri. They were the only family he had left.

And now, because of Eijiro, they were both in danger.

Kusso. He needed a drink, but squeezed his hands into fists instead.

"That still doesn't answer the question," he pointed out. "If Miliare is after me, then the IPC is irrelevant. His real target is Sayuri."

"Under different circumstances, that would be true," Donny admitted. "But the IPC theme this year is ending human trafficking. I know you don't think of him as such, but Miliare is a businessman. He doesn't want other countries cutting out his biggest asset. I'd wager he plans to make an example of them for even thinking about it."

"How's he gonna do that?"

Donny paused to consider. "If it were me, I'd use a bomb. That's something that would make the headlines. And in a city stacked like this, a large-scale detonation would be devastating. Plus, it's not something you can stop."

He nodded at Eijiro. He hadn't meant that as an insult, but Eijiro was annoyed, anyway. Mostly because Donny was right. That sounded exactly like something Miliare would do. It was nice to have a little direction, but now Eijiro felt even more overwhelmed. On top of keeping his loved ones alive and catching an assassin, now he had to find. a bomb.

If Donny had offered him alcohol at that moment, Eijiro likely would have drank it. He needed a drink so badly...

He shook his head, forcing himself to think. There was protocol for potential bomb threats. Eijiro reviewed the steps in his mind, thinking of everything he would need to go over with Kelly. Then be remembered something else that had been bothering him.

"Why the botched attacks?" he asked. "If Miliare wants to make a statement, he could've done it more effectively. Hells, I'm sure he could've killed if–"

He stopped, the image of Melia covered in blood flashing across his mind.

Across the table Donny winced, as if he'd seen the same thing. While Eijiro knew that couldn't be true, it helped a little to know Donny cared about his apprentice.

After another pause, Donny spoke. Carefully, as though he wanted to make sure he wouldn't upset Eijiro.

"You're right that he wants to make a statement," he said. "And if I were to guess, I'd say he's leaving something of a calling card. You almost killed him, but you didn't, because someone stopped you. Now he's almost killing everyone you care about, just to remind you of what you did. But in the end, like what we saw with your girl, he doesn't have anyone stopping him from going all the way. The fact that she was hit harder than your sister means something. I think it's his way of saying he's done with the fake attacks. The next one will be the real thing."

Eijiro's heart dropped. Melia had barely survived the last attack. If another ape-man came after her, she would die. And while Sayuri's attendants were capable, Eijiro wouldn't be surprised if Miliare found a way past them. He could not let that happen.

Above them the light flickered. Eijiro ignored it, but Donny looked up, brow furrowed. The light flickered again. First once, then three times, and once again. He sighed.

"I wish I had more for you, Eiji, but that's all I got right now," he said. He glanced at the table, a grim smile on his face. "Besides, it looks like our time's up, anyway."

Eijiro looked down, surprised to see the sand timer was empty. How long ago had it run out?

Donny strapped on his comm, then flipped a switch on the wall. Eijiro's comm beeped as service came back.

Pushing his chair back, Donny grabbed his fedora and nodded at Eijiro.

"Nice talking to ya, Eiji," he said, "But if you'll excuse me, it appears we have a few unwanted guests I need to take care of. Not in the dining hall, so don't you fret. And if I don't send you a body, you can rest assured it had nothing to do with this conversation."