Katerin sat in her office, rubbing her temples beneath her glasses and wishing for an interruption. Food storage and rationing procedure was not her forte, and calculating just how much the farmers had grown versus how much had to go to be stored for the army for the winter, versus how much had to go into storage was a migraine causing task.

No wonder Graiden had passed it on to her.

When she heard the knock at her door she stood, and as the door opened to reveal Lugaria, she sighed.

"You're back." She glanced him over, but found no sign of any injuries. Only a hint of stubble along his jaw.

"It would appear so."

Her gaze narrowed. "And? What did you learn?" She gestured from the chair across from her.

"It's good to see you, too," he said, as he sat.

"I spent my patience not bothering you while you were away. But I am glad you're home," she said, in a dry tone. "Drink?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll want one in a moment." He stretched his shoulders. "Mordai has taken the throne in Hearth-Home."

The wine decanter Katerin held shattered upon the floor as she stared wide eyed at Lugaria. "What?" her voice grew too high in pitch.

Lugaria glanced to the broken glass and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you should sit."

"He's done what?" Katerin felt as though her breath did not come fast enough. "How?" She glanced to the spilled wine and snapped her fingers.

Magic leaped from her fingers, and the liquid vanished.

Lugaria's expression told her he wanted to make some comment about her use of magic, but her gaze hardened. "How?" She asked again, leaning over her desk and ignoring the broken glass under her feet.

"I do not know. Bernard Varsly was killed, and Mordai sits upon the throne."

"Way to start with the worst news, first," she said, as she straightened.

"That's not the worst news." Lugaria eyed her with scrutiny. "The rest of the Varsly children are running, or dead. The only survivors I could name are the oldest children. Colin, Web, and Kieneltra. No one knows where they are, or how they escaped." His gaze hardened. "Katerin, sit the hell down. I'm not asking."

Katerin sat, unable to breathe, and staring at his face for some hint of a joke, though he was grim, and she knew he was not the kind to make jokes.

She had seen Bernard, before. She had met Kieneltra, too. Kieneltra had attended the Tower and had always been curious and kind. Her hands shook, and anger rose in her like a tide. Anger at Mordai, and anger at the thought of the dead children. "How do you know they're dead?"

"They are hanging on the keep's walls." Lugaria's teeth shown as his expression morphed into a snarl.

Katerin's stomach soured, and she swallowed back bile. "What else?"

"Your mother's house is watched at all hours. There are posters of you on every street corner, and I saw more than one woman with dark hair and a similar appearance stopped for questioning. There is a... resistance forming. In the very tavern you asked me to look in on. Their members are from some group, and some of them are in places of management in the city. The only name I could find for most of their group, was the Emerald—"

"Syndicate. The Emerald Syndicate..." Katerin groaned and pushed two fingers into the bridge of her nose.

"You look as if you don't want me to continue."

"Are Spindle and Gracie well? Are they being coerced? Is there more?"

When Lugaria nodded, she gestured for him to continue. "Your tavern keepers showed no sign of being forced to associate with the resistance, but I did not dig deep on that matter. The teleportation restriction on the city came from outside the Tower, and it is putting pressure on the city dwellers. The curfew they implemented has turned almost bloody. The army patrols the streets, now."

"The armies are marching?" Katerin almost felt dizzy at his words, and it seemed she could hardly comprehend their meaning.

"Out of the city. I couldn't tell you how much is left in Hearth-Home, but three sizable companies left the day before I did."

"Are you sure the Syndicate is against Mordai? He had connections within. If he did this without their help..."

Lugaria shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. I think they are playing their own game. I doubt they are fully supporting either side, for now."

The string of curses that fell from Katerin's mouth almost left her breathless, but she stilled, and her eyes snapped to Lugaria's. "What about Kindra?"

"Not in the city. I couldn't find anything about her." He sighed. "You should be aware that it is not just Mordai that wants you found. This Emerald Syndicate seems interested in finding you, as well."

"Why?"

"Best guess, is that it's leverage over their new king."

Katerin let out a sigh that was closer to a growl. Use me as leverage? "If the Tower didn't execute the ban on teleportation, who did?"

"Don't know. I couldn't walk into the castle, and all I found at the Tower was a guide who tried to insist I buy every little magical trinket she thought to offer, and an herbalist who couldn't seem to shut up about some new genus of ivy."

"Probably because you don't look the type." At any other time, the thought of Lugaria arguing with a Tower herbalist would have had her laughing hysterically, but no joy or humor could pierce through the numbing cold she felt as he spoke.

"Your Tower is excellent at wasting people's time?"

"If you don't know how to handle them, yes." She sighed. "What else?"

"A civil war doesn't seem unlikely. The whole of the city is tense. The guard on the walls is thick. Getting in was almost challenging, and that was before the armies marched and the curfew tightened." Lugaria continued on for many minutes, belaying the details of his stay.

Katerin took notes with shaking hands, her thoughts hazed with anger and a strange sense of loss.

Bernard had been a good King. Just to his people. That Mordai had dethroned him was one thing, but hanging the children from the walls... that was something she could not imagine him capable of.

Mordai had always been petty: concerned with his looks and his wealth. But he had never been cruel. His tongue was too sharp for his own good, and Katerin remembered a man who often ran from trouble, and left her and Kindra to deal with the aftereffects of his ill-thought out quips. What had changed him to be so violent and cruel?

Children she could not believe. But Lodyne could, and a whisper began in the back of her mind. It was a sensation she had felt before, one that had increased since her return from Alkyrindaun. Whispers that promised terrible dreams, thoughts of those children, and the details of their death.

Once Lugaria finished speaking, there was a long moment of silence. Katerin laid her quill down and the sound was almost too loud, even as Lodyne's presence pushed in on her thoughts.

Lugaria watched her with a stern expression. "Do you want me to return and keep looking for Kindra? If—"

"No. I'll go myself."

Lugaria let out a bitter laugh, and in the moment it reminded Katerin of how intimidating he could be. "Are you that stupid?"

Katerin's eyes widened, and her fists tightened. "Excuse me?" She felt the lines along her arms tingle, and the glow from them sharpened the lines of her cheekbones as her jaw flexed.

No, Lodyne told her. Not stupid of you to go. Pain is experience.

"If you do anything, it should be staying the hell out of this."

"And how do I do that?" Her tone was a challenge to both Lugaria and the voice in her thoughts.

"Ignore it and walk away." He gestured to the parchment on her desk. "Don't you have enough to keep you busy? You stick your nose in this and someone will cut it off."

She scoffed. "Not but a moment ago you offered to return, and now you want to insult me for mentioning it?"

"I offered to return. The whole of the city is not hunting me. Do you want to be executed for a king you hold no oath to?"

He thinks he's better than you, my child. Thinks he has hurt more and has learned more.

"Bernard was a righteous king." She spit the words, daring him to belittle another aspect of Hearth-Home while simultaneously working to ignore Lodyne's assumptions.

"So? You would go to die for a righteous man who never knew of your existence?" His tone finally softened again, back to its usual gruffness.

"It isn't even about the dammed king! Mordai is... he was a friend. I need to know why."

A friend who only betrayed you.

"You cannot even discern a friend from an enemy and you question my warning not to return." Lugaria scoffed at her and shook his head. "What do you owe him, nitwit? What if he only wishes to have you executed and hung upon the walls like he did the children?"

Stop, she thought towards Lodyne. "I don't owe him. I owe Graiden! Is that at least something you can relate to, or do you view Graiden as yet another man who I hold no oath to?" Her tone was now equal parts anger and pleading, and she stared at Lugaria with a pinched gaze, as tears threatened her composure. "Mordai didn't rob me. But he robbed Graiden and presumably used that coin to assassinate a king, all while here on my invitation. Mine! Not anyone else."

Lugaria's jaw snapped close, and Katerin stared at him until he spoke again. "If you involve yourself in this, you are a fool, Katerin. You may be strong and intelligent if you take a moment to think, but never dissuade yourself that you can outwit the games of kings. It is not some gallivanting adventure to go learn, or train with giants. Leave it to those who know how to handle it."

Maybe he's right. You have not challenged a king before. But the city was your home... how it must hurt to think of it in peril. Lodyne tsked, and Katerin could picture her shaking her head.

"Who might that be? Hmm? The Emerald Syndicate? You? You think I should just walk away, but Hearth-Home was my home, once. What would you do for your home? Would you leave it in chaos and laugh as it burnt?"

"No."

"Then do not ever expect me to make that same choice. I will fix what I can, and I will repay Graiden that debt that I owe. Not because it is my debt, but because it was partly of my doing. Think all you like that I ran off to the Stormlands for an adventure. But you have no idea the reason." She met his angered gaze. "I very much prefer the man who thinks before he speaks."

You are always so adamant that it must be your choice... Lodyne's whispers seemed amused.

"I have thought plenty!" He shook his head. "You need to realize that you could be the very splash that dumps the pot into chaos. Or civil war."

"How?" Katerin's fist clenched. "At least I am not content to sit by and do nothing."

Lugaria's nostrils flared, and he stood. "You are stuck between two places, Katerin. Two people. You need to make your choice, before you lose that chance. Because you will lose one, and likely the one you need the most. If you go, you will not enjoy what it does to you." Despite the look on his face, his voice was the softest it had been during their entire conversation. The look in his eyes was fury, but it was only thinly masking an expression that spoke of experience in such matters.

He's right, Katerin. You need to choose. You can't keep this up forever.

As the door closed behind Lugaria, Lodyne's voice faded, too. Katerin resisted the urge to throw a bottle of ink at the wall, and instead she busied herself with cleaning up the glass she had broken. She breathed through her nose as she worked, gaining more than one minor cut as her hands shook. Damn him, she thought. Why did he have to argue instead of help? Why was he so adamant that she stay here? It was not because he worried for her. It was not because he cared whether she stay or go.

So why speak at all?

Because it was honest.

She had asked, and he had answered, despite her agreement or anger. You are stuck between two people. She seethed at the words, and the opening they had left for Lodyne. Why should she have to choose between Hearth-Home and Itrea? Why should she have to choose between the lady or the studious mage? Why did she have to choose between the whispers of Lodyne, and what she felt to be right?

Once the glass was cleaned up, she sat at the leather-wrapped chair at her desk, staring blankly at the parchments before her. There was a quiet knock on her door, and Fykes poked his head through.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure." Her voice was toneless.

He eyed her with curiosity. "Are you okay?"

As she looked at Fykes, she found the will to pull herself together. She straitened her hair and answered, "I'm fine."

"Well, you certainly put Lugaria in a mood. We heard the yelling."

"You heard?"

"The volume. Not the words. I take it all is not well in Hearth-Home?"

"No," she said, and the pain that tore into her chest made her voice crack.

Fykes pushed the stray papers aside and sat on the edge of her desk, taking her hand. "I will say I'm surprised that neither of you two are bleeding."

Katerin snorted out a laugh. "I am, too." She leaned forward and rested her forehead on his knee, taking advantage of his presence to calm herself.

"Tell me what is going on? I'm sure we can figure something out."

Katerin kissed his hand, and sat up straight, before explaining all that Lugaria had uncovered on his visit to the city. When she had finished, she had found her composure once again, and she studied Fykes' eyes, seeking nothing more than his opinion.

"He says I am a fool for wanting to involve myself in this mess. And he isn't wrong... but Fykes, I cannot just leave this to fester. Mordai... he killed children. He watches my mother's house. I cannot let him threaten me like that. King or not." Tears fell from her cheeks, despite how she gritted her teeth to keep them at bay. "For years we held each other accountable. Every trouble he found I was there to help him out, and he for me. But this... I don't know if I can help him. In fact, I am tempted to kill him, instead."

"You'll need a disguise."

"A disguise?" She blinked at him with confusion.

"If we are to go to the city, you can't look like you."

"I can manage that with a spell."

"Will it hold up to scrutiny?"

"Do you trust me?"

"When have I not?"

Katerin's fingers flicked the parchment edges. "You don't agree with Lugaria?"

"I don't think he was entirely wrong, but I won't ask you to turn your back on the city." Fykes shrugged. "I would go, if it were my home. Even if it is likely an awful idea."