The aftermath of the star was, well, undesirable to say the least. The day after, there was talk of nothing but the star. Come across two Yirini talking, and you would hear the wildest theorems and hypotheses explaining it.

And the day after that most Yirini, scared by the wild rumors floating around, stayed firmly in their igloos and refused to see anyone. The streets of Fernei were empty and quite forbidding, triggering even the braver Yirini to stay indoors.

Essentially, the star caused a sort of panic. Those who were not eyewitnesses heard exaggerated accounts from those who had been there, and they in turn told their neighbors, or in fact anyone who would listen, even more exaggerated accounts.

Yirini do not have superstitions and they do not have gods, either. But they are very excitable creatures and will, once aroused, exaggerate anything almost to the point of unbelievability. Once the excitement had died down, however, they will usually return to normal and all will be how it was.

This was most certainly not the case this time.

Rumours spread that the star was a messenger from the spirits of the ancients that lived in the under-ice city, and that Fernei was doomed. Some even went so far as to roam the streets, preaching of doom and destruction to anyone who would listen.

The next day, some Yirini started moving out of the city, into the far-flung wilderness that was the Narthilu valley. Most of the northwest quarter of the city was empty by the evening, and this only inflamed the panic. The city was in a terrible state, and despite all that the governing body of the city, the Maklu, could do, the city was falling apart at the seams. Just because of a single star traveling across the sky.

The city had never faced such a crisis.

"There you are, Grishgern! I've been looking for you for ages!" Angetuga ran along the abandoned street in the northwest quarter, carrying her tail and sprinting as fast as she could go on her rather short legs.

"Wha - oh, its you, Angetuga. What are you doing out?" Grishgern was not remotely like her usual self; she looked haggard and worn-out and she hurried along the street clutching a pile of papyrus. Her speech was not at all like the cheery, bouncy and slightly silly Yirinu that had been watching Angetuga carve in her igloo only a few days ago.

"You look terrible! You should take a break, a few hours at least!" Angetuga stopped at the sight of her friend.

"I don't have the time. Everything's a mess and the Maklu need all the Yirini they can get. I can't let the city down at a time like this!" Grishgern started to hurry down the street again, and Angegreli followed.

"Look, where do you need these taken to? I can take them for you and you can have a break."

"No, I can't -"

"Yes, you can." Angetuga said firmly, and took the papers firmly under her arm before Grishgern could even protest. "Where do you need these taken?"

"No! Give them back! You can't, you don't underst-"

"If you don't have a break, you will collapse soon and let the Maklu down even more than if you just took a quick break. Now where should I - Aha!" Angetuga looked down at one of the the pieces of papyrus, and spotted a small mark.

"Level C, room B17. Okay, I'm off! You stay here." Angetuga pointed firmly at the ground, and then marched off at a brisk trot, shutting out Grishgern's attempts to stop her.

She soon found her way to the Maklu Council cave, and entered. The cave was carved straight into a cliff face, hewn straight from the ice and earth in great caves illuminated by copious amounts of Bright Ice. There were, unusually, no guards and Angetuga found the going quite easy. After a few minutes of wandering, she found herself on Level B.

"Ah, just one level down." She smiled to herself. Soon she found Level C and began to search for part B. Having found that, she began to look for room 17. Room 15, room 16...

"Aha! Room 17." Angetuga strode into room 17 happily and deposited the papers on a desk at one side of the room. Mission accomplished, she made a satisfied sound and began to leave.

But wait.

Just as she reached the doorway, a piece of crumpled papyrus on the ground in a corner caught Angrtuga's eye. She stopped and, without really knowing why, picked up the little piece of papyrus and uncrumpled it with interest.

On it was a drawing of a long, cylindrical object with small triangles poking off the sides and a cone on the top. Just to the right of the cylinder was written 'They are coming' in a cursive, swoopy hand.

"Hey! What are you doing! This is a restricted area!" A large Narlu family Yirinu wearing the necklace and minor armour of security guard stood in the only exit, stone club in hand.

"Erm..." Angetuga dropped the piece of papyrus, but was not quick enough.

"Snooping, eh?" The guard grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards him. "Thought you could take advantage of the chaos? Think again." He yanked her out of the room and down a corridor.

"No, I wasn't -"

"Be quiet! You'll only make it worse." Angetuga decided that being quiet was probably her best option, so she did so. A long walk later, they arrived at what she recognized with a jolt of fear was the prison area.

"In." The guard said tersely, pushing her into the nearest empty cell. Angetuga noticed in mild worry that several of the other cells were already occupied.

"Look, Grishgern the record keeper sent me to deliver papers!" She tried in a last ditch attempt at clearing hername.

"Then why were you looking at that paper, hm? Try again." The guard snickered and locked the cell after her, then left. Angetuga rattled the steel bars. Probably imported, a voice in her head said.

"Let me out of here!" She bellowed.

"Yeah right. He's not going to do anything like that soon. A Yirinu in the cell opposite her spoke up. "That guard's a sadist. The worst of the lot." Angetuga gave him a questioning look, and he smiled. "Yes, I know them all. I used to work here, y'know. So, what're you in for?" He spoke in a slightly slurred, lilting fashion that Angetuga found quite pleasant.

"I was delivering some papers for a friend because she was too exhausted. Just as I was about to leave, I saw a piece of paper out of the corner of my eye and picked it up. Then, well, the guard arrived and grabbed me."

"Sounds like you won't be getting out of here any time soon. What area were you in?"

"Level C, B17."

"That's odd. How did you get in there? The place should have been crawling with guards, that's a restricted area."

"I didn't see any guards."

The Yirinu paced as much as was possible in his small cell, flapping his arms and looking very agitated.

"If you ask me, something strange is going on." He muttered. "Very strange."

"What're you in for?" Angetuga asked with interest.

"Hm?" The Yirinu stopped distractedly. "Oh, things just got too hard for my family after I lost my job, so I had to resort to stealing." He resumed his pacing.

"In fact, what's your name?" Angetuga remembered. "I don't know yet. I'm Angetuga."

"Oh, erm, Grorbeh." He really didn't seem to be paying much attention to the conversation, so Angetuga let it droop and sat in the corner of her cell, thinking about the piece of papyrus and listening to the soft phit phit phit of Grorbeh's pacing.

It might have been seconds or it might have been a decade that she spent sitting there, but to Angetuga it felt strangely like both. The time both dragged and flew. It was... strange.

When the guard arrived therefore, she was completely unprepared. He rapped on the bars of her cage.

"Hey, you. The council will see you now." He unlocked the door of her cage, and Angetuga stepped out.

"Good luck." Grorbeh called after her as she was marched out.

~

"Why were you in section B17?"

"To deliver papers."

"You do not work here, you had no business doing that."

"I was filling in for a friend."

Angetuga found herself under a rapid fire of questions from a Maklu Councillor, and it was getting hard to keep up.

"Narlunra tells us otherwise. He says that you were looking at classified papers. Why?" The forbidding looking Yirinu the other side of the room asked forcefully.

"It was crumpled on the floor. I thought it was waste." Angetuga replied.

"If you thought it was waste, why did you look at it?"

Angetuga was stumped. Why had she looked at it? She didn't know herself.

"I - I don't know. It caught my eye." She stuttered, thrown off.

"Ha! You are obviously a spy. Narlunra, take her back to her cell. We will deal with her later." Narlunra stepped forward and grabbed her arm, yanking her out of the dimly lit room and into an equally dimly lit corridor.

"Let me go! There's no need to be like that!" Angetuga exclaimed as Narlunra pulled her hard. Narlunra simply pulled her harder.

They arrived back at the cell and Narlunra pushed her in.

"Stay." He grunted. It occurred to Angetuga that there wasn't much point in his saying that because, well, did she have much choice? She sighed and settled down in the corner of the room, and felt dejected.

~

Angetuga was awoken by someone shaking her. Not roughly, but just enough to awake someone from a deep sleep.

"Angetuga! Angetuga!" A hushed voice whispered in her ear. "Wake up! We have to go!"

Angetuga cracked an eye and looked up. To her utter shock, she saw Mortangar the thief shaking her! She nearly shouted in surprise, but refrained at the last minute.

"Mortangar?" She hissed. "What in the universe of black ice are you doing here?"

"Shh. Be very quiet." Mortangar made a shushing gesture with one claw. "We're getting you out of here!"

"We? Who's-"

"Shh." Mortangar repeated. "All clear?"

"All clear." Grishgern's voice floated through the door.

"Come on." Mortangar grabbed Angetuga by the arm and pulled her out.

"Where are we going?" Angetuga hissed, while running along at full speed.

"No time." Mortangar really was a lot more professional than he had been when he was younger. Angetuga would have sighed and rolled her eyes if she had the attention to spare. Right now, however, she was entirely focused on not tripping over anything and running as fast as her short legs would carry her.

A short and very tense run later they came upon the flight of stairs that led to the exit.

"I'll just check Grishgern is okay. Stay here, I'll be back." Mortangar pointed firmly at the ground before sprinting up the steps almost silently.

Angetuga waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Several minutes later with still no sign of Mortangar, Angetuga began to get a little worried. What was happening? Had they run into trouble? What were they doing?

She pushed her fears out of her mind for the moment, and decided to wait some more.

A time later with still no sign of Mortangar, Angetuga was very worried indeed. Had he been caught? Surely she would have heard something.

That was it. She was going up. She squared what Yirinu have instead of shoulders, set her stance, and began to march firmly yet quietly up the stairs. Voices floated down form the exit, and Angetuga didn't like what she heard.

"She'll be up soon, mark my words." A gruff, gritty voice cut through the air.

"No - she - won't! You'll see!" Mortangar's voice. But there was something wrong with it. The words were broken up and his voice was choked as if something was constricting his breathing.

Angetuga realized she was holding her breath and standing quite perfectly still, the latter probably being quite a good idea at the time. She quietly released her breath.

"What was that?" The gravelly voice almost made Angetuga's heart stop in fear. "I heard a noise."

"Oh stop being paranoid, I'm sure it was just the wind." Another voice, female, smooth and sweet as a songbird yet venomous as a pufferfish. It reminded Angetuga vaguely of a Thyra hovering in the sky, waiting to pounce on its prey.

"You can't be too paranoid in this profession." The first voice again. "Look you, if you struggle any more, I'll just kill you now and be done."

"You don't scare me." Grishgern's voice was obviously shaking, but she was putting up a brave front. Poor naive Grishgern... this was all Angetuga's fault. She had dragged her into this.

But no time for reflection. Only time for action.

Angetuga cursed herself for not carrying a weapon. Yirinu don't have the slightest concept of war, but there are several vicious animals such as the falcon-like Thyras and the wolf-like wild Penrins that stalked the icy wastes, hungry and vicious, that made it prudent to always carry a weapon. But, being her usual stupid self Angetuga had left her dagger at home yesterday morning. Great.

Now what?

Angetuga racked her brains frantically, afraid that the guards would lose patience and do something rash. Plan, plan, plan...

Aha! She had it. It was only a half-baked plan, but it was a plan and there was no time for hesitation.

She dived forwards out the door as loudly and as noticeably as possible.

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🦅—Aquila!