Duncan was surprised when the news about Mithra’s emotion mark reached him. He was less surprised about her assaulting a classmate and fleeing town. He knew one day the girl would snap, living under so much pressure. He just wished he could’ve been there for her, instead of dealing with the politics of Veridia.

  He expected her to arrive in the city any day now and was preparing for it. There was tension in the city, tension he very much wanted to protect her from.

  A woman in Guardian robes barged into his office without knocking.

  “Duncan…” She panted, bent with her hands on her knees, trying to suck in a breath. “It’s Mithra. She—”

  “Gods, Vin,” Duncan said. He filled a glass with water and handed it to his old friend. She drank it in one big gulp. “Sit down and breathe. What about Mithra, is she in the city already?”

  “No,” Vin said, having calmed her breathing enough to speak. “I ran here straight from the meeting.”

  The meeting. Vague, on purpose. There was only one meeting Vin would deem significant enough to tell him about. The meetings between the top brass of the Guardians and the head priests were kept under wraps as much as possible—even Duncan, as high on the totem pole as he was, didn’t know what was discussed. Or wasn’t supposed to know. Vin kept him informed. The ongoing cooperation between the clergy and the Guardians worried him, but it was needed to keep the fresh recruits flowing in. It was a necessary price to pay, even if the priests skimmed some kids off the top for their own use.

  “Shit, Vin. You didn’t think running straight to my office would out our connection?” Duncan said.

  She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter, now. They’re moving against you.”

  “They’ve been moving against me from the day I arrived back here. That’s nothing new.”

  “Not like this,” Vin said. She looked Duncan in the eyes, and he saw sympathy there. A sympathy that worried him. “They’re excommunicating Mithra.”

  “Over what she did to that boy? They don’t have a case. I’ve already sent money to his family and paid off whoever needs to be paid off.”

  “No, Duncan,” Vin said, agitated. “The priests are saying she attacked them and fled the Veil. They’re declaring her a heretic.”

  Duncan stared at her, dumbfounded. “That makes no sense. How would she survive outside, with only an emotion mark?”

  “That’s what you focus on?” Vin shook her head. “The priests spun some story about her divine flow and how it proved that she not only survived, but also blasphemed. The brass ate it right up.”

  “Of course they did,” Duncan sighed. “If it was true, it’d be the perfect card to get me out of the picture.”

  To all hells with them. If they laid even a finger on his niece to get to him, they’d regret it. “Do you know where she is? Are they holding her somewhere?”

  “I couldn’t find out, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have her. Obviously their story is bullshit, but they kept up the pretense well,” she said. “They even brought in a priest that Mithra supposedly stabbed. He didn’t even have an emotion mark. Paid actor, obviously, though his record seemed clean enough.”

  Duncan let himself think for a few seconds. They wouldn’t kill Mithra, that would be counterproductive to their goal. If the priests attacked her, which was probable, she must’ve fled them. They’d need a proper team to capture her with how well trained she was.

  “She’s probably hiding in one of the small villages on the way here.” Duncan sagged in his chair. “They’ll want me to make a statement soon. We have to find her before that, prove their accusations false. They must know they won’t succeed though, this story is preposterous even by their standards. What’s their angle here?”

  Vin shrugged. “No idea. This is a distraction at best for them, a self-sabotage at worst. If we find Mithra and prove her innocent, you’ll come out on top. They’d just waste time. They must be really desperate to get rid of you in time for Operation Echo.”

  That was the crux of it. With him chasing after Mithra, the top brass would have free reign to speed up the schedule and cut him out. Without his opposition, the operation would be able to proceed without issue.

  Thankfully, he had options.

  “Can you track her?” he asked. Vin nodded and took out a needle from her pocket. She pricked him in the arm without warning, a single drop of blood gathering on his bicep. Before it could fall to the ground, she smeared it on her finger and licked it.

  Immediately Vin’s eyes rolled back. She sagged and Duncan caught her before her head could hit the floor. An otherworldly whisper left her mouth and lingered in the air. It hung there for a brief moment before exploding in fiery wisps. He caught them with his power before they could singe his favorite desk.

  Vin’s eyelids fluttered, and she returned.

  “Gods, I hate when you do that,” Duncan said. Vin, as he noticed, wasn’t in a hurry to stand back up. Her weight was familiar on his arms and long-forgotten instincts flared, but he stopped them. They were a thing of the past. It was better that way. “Warn me next time.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Vin still wasn’t getting back up. She was staring at the ceiling, her eyes empty.

  “Vin? You okay?” Duncan lowered her into a chair carefully. This wasn’t the usual reaction she had to her blood magic. Something was wrong.

  “I—,” she tried saying. “Sweet Gods, they were telling the truth.”

  “What? Vin, make sense, please.”

  “The priests were telling the truth,” she said. “Mithra’s outside the Veil, and she’s in danger.”

  ?

  The priests led them to where Mithra crossed the Veil. Duncan could feel their smiles aimed at his back. They were getting everything they wanted with him leaving now, so soon after the King had summoned him. It didn’t matter. Family trumped all.

  He had a small team with him. Only volunteers were allowed to join him as it was his honor on the line, but it didn’t matter. They were veteran Guardians all, and more importantly, his oldest friends. They’d jump after him into fire, even after all the years apart. They have, in the past.

  Lucas wove a bubble of air around them and squeezed, enveloping each of them in a skin-tight aura of protection. He came a long way, from the young boy who could barely produce a gust of wind to cool them when they shared a barrack.

  To Duncan’s left stood Mildred, his hand resting on the pommel of his sword. They were rivals once, and through the rivalry they forged a bond stronger than steel. When Duncan asked him for help, he didn’t question why. He simply grabbed his sword and followed.

  Vin was there too, of course, a steady presence at his side. She’d already determined the direction Mithra left in. It wasn’t too precise, her visions rarely were, but they’d manage. There was only one ruined city she could’ve reasonably passed through.

  Together they crossed the Veil, leaving the priests behind.

  ?

  “Duncan, look at that,” Mildred called from inside one of the houses. Duncan followed his voice through a fresh hole in the wall. The house seemed to have survived the war relatively intact, until Mildred got to it that is. Inside, it was obvious someone used it as a hideout recently. There was ash in the fireplace and the remains of a backpack on the ground. Veil-made.

  Duncan crouched next to Mildred, who was rifling through the abandoned things. The man fished out a wooden carving of a Sky Terror and handed it to him.

  “You mentioned your niece used to like carving animals,” he said. “Could it be hers?”

  “Yes,” Duncan said. He remembered this particular carving from Mithra’s shelf. So, it really was true. He couldn’t deny it anymore, even inside his own head. Before, he still had hope Vin was wrong. His voice choked. “I… It’s hers. Good job.”

  He took the wooden piece outside, and handed it to Vin, who was watching the perimeter with Lucas.

  “Will this serve as a focus?” he asked. Vin tilted her head critically.

  “Do you know if it was made by her, or given to her?”

  “Made.”

  Vin smelled the figurine, closing her eyes. “There’s blood sealed in the wood. Her knife must’ve slipped when she carved it. It’ll do. Roll up your sleeve.”

  With a resigned sigh, Duncan bled over the wooden Sky Terror.

  ?

  Before Duncan was a sea of brown dried blood and rotting corpses. Lucas whistled.

  “Your niece’s a piece of work,” he said. “Killing all these by herself? You’ve taught her well.”

  “I did,” Duncan said, but there was an emptiness to his voice. Mithra was a good fighter, true, but not that good. Worry twisted his stomach into a knot. How badly must she be injured after a fight like that?

  Next to him, Vin looked sick. She was crouched, her hand touching the blood-stained floor. “Duncan…” she said. “This blood. It’s Mithra’s.”

  “Obviously, she wouldn’t get away without a scrape,” Mildred said. “Even I wouldn’t.”

  “Can you use it? How far is she?” Duncan asked, frantic. Mithra was in danger, she’d fought for her life not too long ago, and he wasn’t there to help her.

  “The blood’s too old. At least a week, maybe two. Can’t do anything with it that I couldn’t with a focus and your blood.”

  “But she’s alive? You’re sure of it?”

  “If she wasn’t, I’d know,” she said. “Your blood would’ve told me.”

  “Come on then, we have to keep going.”

  ?

  It was their second week of travel already, and still nothing attacked them. It was unnerving. Normally, the road north teemed with predators, but now it was empty. Even when they abandoned caution for speed, nothing jumped them. It was uncanny.

  Twice a day, Duncan bled. Twice a day, Vin corrected their course. Mithra was constantly moving with a speed that shouldn’t be possible for her. She was further away from them every time they checked, to the point they began marching through the night, leaving only three hours for sleep. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, she stopped.

  “Are you sure? Check again.”

  “Duncan, I’ve checked three times already. Any more and I’ll be dangerously close to overusing my mark, and you know that doesn’t end well,” Vin said. “She’s somewhere in the Great Salt basin. There’s nothing else in that direction.”

  “How would she make it down the cliffside?” Mildred joined in. “And why’d she stop?”

  “Not you too,” Vin said. Her voice was low, it always dropped an octave when she was irritated. “She just did. Maybe she got down the same way she can breathe out here, how’d I know?”

  “Better question is,” Lucas said. “How do we make it down the cliffside?”

  “We’ll figure something out.” Duncan ended the discussion. “How far from us is she?”

  “Three days, give or take. That’s if she stays still, of course.”

  “Which she may not. We move out. Double time.”

  They were already moving double time, but they could go even faster for a few days. They were close, he could feel it. A few more days of walking, and he’ll see Mithra. Duncan didn’t care what she did to get here. Didn’t care who she made or didn’t make deals with. He didn’t even care that the plans that he’d been working on with the King were now undoubtedly in ruin, without him in the capital. He’d take care of everything, when the time came.

  He just wanted to see his sister’s only daughter home safe.