The first thing Beinsho does at the Council of Kings is give Allayria a map. On it is a small, red dot in the middle of Jarles territory, just northeast of the Phoenix's Bend, a day away from the capital, Vatra.

"We think the hidden base is there," Beinsho says, glancing down at the sprawling map.

Ruben hums at her side, a hand pulling at the end of his beard, brows furrowed. The others have gathered too, and Chieftainess Aren Dost taps on a small square just at Roften's border.

"Eastwatch," she says. "It's our base up there, and we've recently reclaimed it. I won't lie: our hold on it is tenuous at best, but you will be welcome there, should we still have control of it."

"How comforting," the High King of Solveig, Rastirel Feuilles says.

Lei, who has so far kept a respectful distance, approaches at Beinsho's side, peering down at their destination. Both Ruben and Allayria had agreed it would be best if he came to this particular meeting. Now two members of the team will know the full plan, if things go badly.

"My first instinct is to go up through Roften," Allayria begins, tracing a path through the leaning, weaving kingdom.

"But the Eastern part is heavily infested with Jarles," the Chieftainess finishes.

"Keesark does not fare much better these days," the kingdom's king, Hai Sofo, wheezes. "Commander Sinfui acts diligently, but we have not been afforded the resources needed to launch preventative measures."

He aims a sharp look at Feuilles, who only arches a sculpted eyebrow.

"Complain all you like, Sofo," he answers breezily, "but complaints do not make crops grow faster, as I tell my beleaguered gardeners all the time."

"I was talking men, not crops."

"Those grow even more slowly, I thought you would know this by now."

"We will have this conversation later," Beinsho interrupts. "Right now we need to talk about what's in this."

He slams the small, black book on the table and his audience turns their attention to it.

He flips it open—open to that diagram of the child and Sofo wheezes.

"Really now," he protests, pulling out a delicate cloth and dabbing his nose with it. "Really, I am far too old to see these things. Is this necessary?"

"Yes," Dost cuts in, her eyes hardening as she focuses on the book. "We need to see what Abadi Chaudri is doing with our children."

"I have spent many hours with this book," Beinsho says, and his mouth curdles with the words, "and while Jernald Brezkin was not fully in the confidences of the Jarles commanders, he figured enough out that I believe I have put together what the Imperator is doing."

He turns and looks at Allayria.

"The first time we met you told me you fought a Jarles soldier that was a Nature-caller," he says and Lei stiffens at the words. "You said they called a club of ice, but they wore Jarles colors."

"Yes," she answers. "I did."

"This notebook," Beinsho continues, nodding down at it, "implies that the Jarles were looking to fit something onto other Skillers, some sort of device fused with their spine and bones that would allow them to manually control the Skiller. If your experience with that Nature Skiller is any indication, they have succeeded."

He looks around at the grave faces of the other leaders.

"If they have succeeded, we may be faced with some terrible decisions," he says quietly.

"I will do many things to save my kingdom, but I will not kill children," Dost interjects sharply.

"Nor I," Feuilles agrees.

Sofo huffs.

"Surely it will not come to that," he says. "If they can put them in, we can take them out."

"Possibly," Ruben murmurs, but the frown lingers on his face.

Beinsho shuts the book with a snap, distaste still lingering in his expression.

"If our goal is to prevent that from happening," he says, "then the Paragon's foremost objective must not be to liberate the children that are there, but to uncover information on how to reverse the process."

"You want me to leave them?" she asks, color immediately flushing to her face.

Beinsho grimaces.

"I do want you to save them," he says, "but saving a few and losing access to that information will condemn many more children to such a fate. You need to focus on finding a way for us to save them all."

He meets her gaze for a moment and holds it.

"No matter how terrible it may seem," he adds softly.

Easy for you to say, she wants to bite back, but she just looks away.

"Let us hope that it won't come to a choice of one or the other," Ruben says smoothly. "In fact, let's find a way to put the odds in our favor so that it won't come to that."

"I'm not sure how you mean to do that," Feuilles says, glancing around the map. "Do we even know what that Jarles base looks like?"

"No," Beinsho answers.

"If we can't help with the logistics of them getting in, maybe we can draw some of their troops out," Dost says, leaning over the table. "If we make a sudden push in, say down here—"

She points toward the southeast side of Keesark, sweeping up around the bottom of the Jarles kingdom.

"We know they have sensitive bases there, if we divert their attention south, perhaps we can ease the security around the northern bases."

"Perhaps," Feuilles allows. "It would be costly though. And it might not even work."

"Do we have something the Imperator wants?" Sofo queries. "Some bargaining chip we can entice her with? If we make ourselves look weak and then dangle it in front of her, maybe we can delude her into thinking her armies are safe."

"That could work," Ruben assents, and he sighs, folding his arms across his chest. "What would tempt Abadi Chaudri?"

"Land," Dost suggests. "Or something she can't easily get to: what if we told her we'd give her the Tree of Solveig?"

"The Tree of Solveig?" Feuilles repeats, aghast that the old tree Pang-Sing had shot all those centuries ago would be brought onto even a fake bartering table. "If my people heard even a whisper of that I would be deposed."

"We would not announce the offer to the public, Rast," Ruben says.

"What about him," Feuilles asks, and he points a sharp finger at Lei, of all people, who stiffens, a spasm of something close to anger, or fear, passing across his face.

What? Allayria thinks—and almost says, but Beinsho's face is iron and his voice cuts across the room.

"I don't know what—" he begins, his tone a steel whip of warning, but Feuilles interrupts.

"Well, he is the Imperator's son, isn't he?" His finely curved eyebrow arches at all of them, looking superiorly baffled at their slowness.

Allayria thinks she could not move even if the whole Jarles army came charging in.

Her son?

She stares at Ruben, but his eyes are only for Lei, who has whitened, but for bright pink splotches on the tips of his cheeks.

Feuilles waves a hand in Lei's direction. "We need something on the Imperator, we have it right here, sitting with us. Are we just going to ignore that it's here?"

Ruben stirs at this, face blanched too, but his eyes glitter with a fury Allayria has not seen since the clifftop at Lethinor. He sits up, fingers curling into fists, but Lei beats him to it:

"My mother," he says, his mouth barely moving and his jaw a sharp edge in the sunlight, "would only have me back to see me drowned. You are mistaken if you think I am some bargaining chip, sir."

Feuilles opens his mouth—probably to reprimand Lei for using the wrong title—but he finally catches the expression on Ruben's face and, miracle of all miracles, stays silent.

"Lei is not a hostage," Beinsho retorts instead, his expression thunder, flushed and purpled. "He will not be bartered with as one. If you have a problem with this, I suggest you come talk to me, Your Highness."

Feuilles waves a hand around.

"It was a thought," he says lazily as three furious men glare at him. "I wasn't suggesting we actually send him back—just use him as bait... But if he isn't valuable to the Imperator then there's no point in trying."

"No, there is not," Ruben spits out.

An ugly silence follows until the Chieftainess, with an air of mulishness, pushes forward, talking about troops and tactics and they all begin to haggle back-and-forth on possible ploys to dangle in front of the Imperator. Allayria can barely follow the conversation: she keeps stealing glances at Lei. Patches of bright red still burn on the tops of his cheeks, but he's determinately not looking her way.

Her first, furious thought is that someone could have given her fair warning. It would be, of course, pertinent to know if one was being guarded by the son of a known enemy.

But then, she thinks, the ire dwindling as she watches his face, there is no one in the world who is a worse actor than Lei. He'd have never made it past the front gates if he was a Jarles informant. She remembers quite well the last time he tried to pretend to be something other than himself—in a dusty, dying city of revolt and suspicion. It was so bad she had to shove him into the middle of the group to hide him from view.

And though dour silence is typical for him, as the meeting drags on Lei won't quite meet her eye. He's stiller than usual—locked in place like an animal in mid-freeze to hide from a predator. He's ashamed, perhaps: ashamed of the family he comes from, or ashamed that his family did not want him. Allayria can't decide which would be worse.

When the council is dismissed the pair walks in silence, back up the drafty staircases, around the winding halls, until they reach her room. Allayria opens the door for him, and Lei walks inside.

He gravitates toward the window, gazing out as he sits on the desk.

"So now you know everything," he states, and it's the first thing he's said since she found out.

Allayria stares at him, unsure of the things twisting and turning inside her, breaking apart her carefully constructed ideas, her well-ordered feelings and perceptions.

"My mother would only have me back to see me drowned."

"I had been alone a long time when I met the Cabal," she says quietly, taking a seat on the corner of her bed. "I ran away from home when I discovered I was the Paragon. They were the first people who understood what I was looking for, the freedom I craved—freedom from the expectations others had of me, freedom from the choices others would make for me. They were my friends. They meant more to me than anything else. And Ben—we, well... freedom can be a lonely thing, and it was lovely to finally have someone..."

She swallows.

"I knew they were hunting the Paragon long before Lethinor. I knew they were going to kill the Paragon. I didn't care," she says in this bright, sunlit room. "I was trying to find a way to break my powers because I would have rather saved the world with them, powerless, than alone as the Paragon. And I thought... I thought if they knew it was me, they too would try to find another way."

He has turned back and he's watching her now.

"Well, you know how that turned out," she says looking down at the white bedspread beside her. "And now you know everything."

They're both quiet for a moment, and then Lei says in a soft voice: "People shouldn't hurt the ones who love them."

A/N: I hope no one saw that coming! We'll get more context for Lei's past next chapter and... on.

In other exciting news: 20K reads! AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Thank you so much for making this end-of-semester bloodbath so much more bearable. I'm currently reigning as a reluctant dictator over two group projects and chafing under the irritating weight that is disappointing and under-performing teammates. If ever there was a convincing argument against sweet democracy, it's a group of 9 (!) people who a) cannot understand simple tasks unless they are explained 5 different ways and b) cannot stick to decisions. My reign has been swift and terrible, but by god, we will have something up to snuff for next week or so help me—!

It's fine. I just have to push through one more semester. I'm fine.

In actual, relevant shop-talk: Allayria is thinking back to the display of Lei's mediocre acting skills in the "City of Ghosts" chapter of Partisan. We've also heard of the Tree of Solveig before; as sharp-minded readers might remember, Ben talked of it and the very cheerful Pang Sing in the "Removing the Linchpin" chapter of Paragon. Allayria's run in with the Nature-caller Jarles soldier was also in the "Only Souls in the Universe" chapter.