"I was accosted earlier," I said, sipping my tea. Lyana had taught me manners, after all.

"By?" Jenny had already downed her entire mug. It was barely a café, just a couple of tables in front of a storefront that barely existed.

"Men," I said.

She sighed. "I need more information than 'men'. Why were they bothering you?"

She was the one who had demanded we sit down and talk. She'd chosen to leave before, claiming we drew in danger. I could have lived with that. I could. I knew I could, is at least what I kept telling myself.

"They didn't like what I was," I sneered in the vague direction of the square. I'd remembered my way, or at least I hoped I had.

"A Kindred." Not a question. A statement of fact.

"A woman," I corrected her. "They were probably the ones who took my coin purse."

Jenny shook her head. "Not a chance they'd draw attention to themselves. Anyone else? Anyone brush past you? Bump into you? Talk to you?"

"Why are you here, Jenny?" I asked. "Sitting here with me. Why aren't you marching in the protest? You're For Peace, you should be with them. But you're sitting with me."

"Do you not want me sitting with you?" she asked slyly. Her fingers curled around her empty mug like a glass of wine.

"I didn't know you were married," I teased, switching the topic and pointing to the wedding ring hanging from her neck. "Or are you widowed?"

Her lip twitched as she tucked the necklace into her shawl. "Not yet."

"Jenny, you were very clear about how you felt about travelling with us," I said, my tone serious again. "How you felt about travelling with me."

She shrugged. "Things change."

"What changed?"

She kept me waiting awhile before speaking. "Danger finds you," she sighed. "But me, I go looking for it. I'm hunting someone. Someone I want dead. And it's dangerous. You didn't intend for those things to happen, but they did. The world came after you, and that's what makes it so dangerous to travel with you. Whether you want it to or not, eventually, the world is going to catch up."

I stared at her. She was upset with how Eskir and I were at risk, but she wanted to go chase down that danger herself? And somehow that made it better?

"Me," she continued, pushing down against the backs of the edges of her fingernails with the table, "I'm hunting it. I know when I'll die before I actually do. I'll see it coming. You're in danger Xera, but me, I'm—"

"What are you talking about?" I interrupted. "Do you seriously think you'll see your death coming? You could die in three seconds if someone in that protest just happens to throw a knife our way." I jabbed my finger towards the crowd hammering their way past us through the city. "You could die from choking on a muffin."

"I know that!" she snapped. "I knew it before, I obviously know it now." Her eyes hit the floor. "I meant the big stuff. Hunak big."

"So what changed," I asked again, grumbling.

She kept her eyes fixed downwards.

"Jenny," I coaxed.

"... the red wastes," she said at last. "I knew Deacons were bad, but... and everyone in this city is ignoring it. Pretending it never happened. Even these idiots." She pointed at the For Peace protest. "We can't protest that. We can't negotiate with a Deacon. If he decides people are going to die, people die. I'm trying to say, I want to come with you. But I have conditions."

I wanted to ask her why she thought we'd take her along. She fought with Eskir constantly, and she had no idea what we were doing. She hated Kindred and didn't even know I had been royal guard. But the truth was, I wanted her to come with us. I didn't care where. She felt like a touch of home.

I missed my home.

"Okay. What are your conditions?"

Her eyes thinned to a point that could cut steel. "When the time comes, stay out of my way."

"You want me to let you kill someone?" I asked.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"I want to come with you to make sure it happens," she said. "After he's dead, I don't care what happens to me. But I can't die until it does. I can't risk stumbling across a Deacon or a Kindred who's having a bad day. Or being caught in the middle of a warzone. Again. You keep me alive, and I'll help you with. Well, whatever you need help with. I have no idea what the deal is with you two. Well, I'm assuming Eskir survived. He seems like the kind of cockroach who would."

"Why do you want to kill him?" I asked. She was For Peace, wasn't she? Though I did remember something about her insisting with fervor that she wasn't a pacifist. Maybe it was a warlord?

"That's private," she said resolutely.

I let the conversation fade for a moment as I sipped my tea. My gaze drifted to the protest. Most of it had passed us now. The crowds were beginning to thin.

"Why hasn't anyone stopped them yet?" I asked.

"What?"

"For Peace," I said. "There are a lot of terrorist acts committed by its members. A gathering like this, ont this magnitude, should have every guard and soldier in the city ready to shut it down."

"We have a permit to protest," she said with a sneer, but it wasn't directed at me. "Like I said, how willing they were to ignore the red wastes on their doorstep. These people are spineless. They refuse to even march in circles without the government allowing it."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a protest?"

"Obviously," she said with a sour chortle. "But try telling them that. They're given set city blocks they're allowed to walk around at set times. This city used to be a city for the people, by the people. Now look at them. Walking around in circles with no rhyme or reason at all."

"Then why are you with them?" Especially after that long speech about wanting to murder someone, I was questioning her logic.

She sighed. "There are good ones and bad ones. I'm not denying the terrorism. Lots of these shitheads would, but it's the reality. But For Peace members have made a difference. Not with whatever the fuck this is, but before Senvia fell, laws were changed. Things happened. When was the last great big war? Senvia's last big expansion? For Peace has done a lot, and it's because of the people who are working at it."

"And you want someone dead," I pointed out.

"And I want someone dead," she confirmed. "I'm not one of the good ones, Xera. I'm not here to make a difference. And believe me, nobody in any world that you can think of is ever going to miss that piece of shit. He deserves to die slowly and painfully, and the only problem I have with that is that I know I won't be patient enough to give him what he deserves."

She looked back out at the few people on the rear line of the protest march. The stragglers were scattered, some of them barely looking like they knew why they were there. A few teenagers were playing tag by dodging their way through the people stuck at the tail-end.

"But For Peace... we're fighting for the right thing. They're fighting. I don't know anymore. The world needs to stop. Some of them think that we should make it stop, even if that means burning enough of it down that the rest will listen. Others are too much of pacifists to do anything."

"Where do you sit?" I asked. There were hints of tears glistening her eyebrows, and I didn't want to push her too far and scare her away. But this, I wanted to know. If she was so ready to kill someone...

She looked at me. "How many children do you think have died because of war in the last few months?" she asked, her voice half-broken.

I tried to rationalise the number. Some provinces, like Merity Point, could afford to hire as many Kindred mercenaries as they wanted. Others, like Durn, relied on different tactics and sources of power. But some could only make up for their lack of military might with conscriptions. Heldren was one of them. They were amazing stoneworkers, even making my ring, Stoneguard. It's why we called them Stonekeepers. Their castles were grand, impenetrable fortresses. The mountain range that ran from Elann ended with Heldren at the southern point of Avengard, and the mountains there were shorter. Instead of towering natural peaks, they were adorned with the castles of Heldren, entire cities built into the mountain sides. Some were situated on peaks, others at closer to sea level, with several right against the ocean, and each of them were splendid.

They were also easy to defend. Heldren didn't have many Kindred. Stonemasonry did not bring them the wealth of provinces like Merity Point and Espara, especially when so much of their skill was kept to their province. Instead, they recruited their military from their population, mostly humans. Mostly young. Too young for war.

I thought of Bell Haven and Dengal and Eckshire.

Jenny had asked me how many children, and I gave her the only answer I had. "Too many."

She nodded. "It needs to end. I'm not the right person for that. I'm really not. But if I meet someone who is. I'm going to help them. Senvia needed to fall. Senvia deserved to fall. Not the people in the city, all those innocent lives... The empire needed to end. Only with it dead can we fight for peace. Properly, this time. And we're still fighting it." She sighed. "The soul of the empire is still here. In this city. In every city. The chains are unlocked, but people haven't realised yet that they're allowed to take them off."

"Provinces have kings," I reminded her. "Lords. Ministers. Even elected officials, here in Bell Haven. I think most of them are fighting to keep those chains on."

She laughed. "But picture the council, fighting off that crowd. That's why they need the permit. It keeps them in line, a line well away from anything important. Stops them from being a problem the government needs to listen to."

The noises from the protest were already fading, but in a matter of seconds, they vanished.

The people around us had stopped too. The silence held unabated for several seconds before a low murmur crept back into the city block.

"What's going on?" asked Jenny in a hushed voice.

I shrugged, bewildered.

Across the road, a shopkeeper was staring up at the sky.

"Xera," whispered Jenny.

"Look at him," I said, pointing at the shopkeeper. "He looks bewitched."

"Xera."

"What?"

"Look at the sun."

I twisted my head and gave a sparing glance at it, trying to shield my eyes as best as I could.

There was little need. The sunlight didn't burn or scald my eyes as it normally did. Instead of the familiar whitish yellow, the sky was bathed in a deep red by a sun the colour of blood.