Then we knock it out of the sky.

C. 19 days, 29 hours since the assassination of rebel leadership

Eyes closed, Koruuksi took a long drag from his pipe, letting the hot smoke whirl in his mouth, adding just a bit more to the relaxed, heavy feeling in his limbs, before blowing the smoke up toward the stone ceiling and offering the pipe to Nomlana, who leaned back in his bunk, plucking at his mandolin. Even soft plucks of the strings grew rich and full in the small stone space.

Grinning, Nomlana paused his plucking to take the pipe and pulled from it before releasing a ring of smoke into the air, then handing back the pipe. A thin trail of smoke floated out past the open curtain into the common area.

Koruuksi checked what was left, then tapped it out into a small container he used for the ashes. He hadn't brought much, and hadn't packed the pipe too full either. Neither the ashes nor the actual violetsage smelled strongly, and Koruuksi and most people he knew enjoyed the mix of sage with an almost minty quality, but the smell was distinctive, and like in Wolfden, the herb was strictly to be used for pain and extreme cases of stress. The creeping, ever-present burdens of loss and multiple existential threats that affected them all, on the other hand, they just had to deal with.

The hum of the vents sometimes annoyed Koruuksi when he tried to sleep, but at the moment, he was thankful for their role in dispersing the smoke and odor from the pipe.

With his pipe and the ashes tucked away in a pouch at his belt, Koruuksi leaned back against the opposite corner of Nomlana's bunk, resting the back of his head against the cool stone. As much as his antlers would allow him, at least. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes again and listened to Nomlana's playing.

After a while, something caught his ear.

He cocked his head, opening heavy eyelids to gaze at Nomlana.

"That sounds familiar."

Nomlana smiled, eyes still holding some of the desire they'd had earlier when he and Koruuksi had taken advantage of Lysanda's absence.

"It's an old Samjati song. Easier to play on a mandolin than a lot of Natari music."

Koruuksi nodded, trying to place the melody. The fog in his head slowing his thoughts didn't help.

"It sounds sad. Was I that bad?"

Nomlana grinned, shaking his head. "You know you weren't."

Koruuksi grinned back, and Nomlana bit his lip for a moment, eyes traveling down Koruuksi's bare torso. That wasn't why Koruuksi had kept his shirt off, but he didn't mind the flattery.

When Nomlana looked back to his instrument, he shrugged. "I don't know why. I think—it makes me think of better times, but then I remember that we don't have much chance of returning to the way things were."

Koruuksi nodded, his mind travelling back to the last few days since his initial meeting with Mahele.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Mahele and her advisors since you met with them."

Koruuksi raised an eyebrow, shaking himself, "I'd say I've been with you or working with you and Lysanda far more than I've spoken with Mahele and Kytai." He rolled his shoulders, stretching his arms. "I think I'm finally getting used to working all day."

Nomlana grinned. "Almost there, maybe. And you know what I mean."

Koruuksi brightened his greynodes and clearnodes to disperse the fog slowing his thoughts. He didn't want the high to end, but needed to think a bit more clearly if he was going to deflect without being too obvious.

Before he could respond to Nomlana, however, his enhanced hearing caught a pair of footsteps just outside the door.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"What does Nomlana mean?" Lysanda asked as she pushed through the curtain, a curious smile on her full lips.

She looked at him, then Koruuksi, and arched an eyebrow after looking him up and down. "Really?"

Koruuksi matched her expression as she sat down. "What? Don't you want to have as few clothes on as possible when you don't have to wear armor and a lightcover in the heat outside?"

Lysanda rolled her eyes, leaning back in her bunk. Her coat hung open, but she still wore an undershirt.

"Of course. But I'm a woman, and he's my cousin," she said, gesturing at Nomlana.

"That's a Samjati thing," Nomlana said. "I could care less about tits. All seeing them does is make me glad I don't have to deal with them."

Koruuksi laughed as Lysanda folded her arms over her chest, cheeks turning a dark purple.

Then she turned her gaze on Koruuksi.

"So, back to my original question: what does Nomlana mean?"

"I said that he'd been spending a lot of time with the leadership."

"I've noticed that, too. A lot for someone who's supposedly trying to stay away from that, at least."

Koruuksi sighed, thinking.

It really hadn't been that much. He'd sought out Mahele and Kytai twice, partially to check on the gem he’d planted and get a better feel for their guards, and partially to get a feel for things and ingratiate himself with them a bit more. The raid was happening today, so if he heard anything, it would be in a few hours or some time tomorrow, but he'd been impatient. Paiz, he'd checked on once. Koruuksi had quickly decided to leave the woman alone after that.

That could work.

"I just wanted to make sure I'm on their good side," he said, “I’m the only full Auroramancer besides Estingai that doesn’t serve the Imaia. Paiz does not like me, and I got the hint that one of Mahele's bodyguards might not, either. I thought talking more with Mahele and Kytai might help balance that out. I’d like them to see me as an ally, but at the very least, I need to make sure they don’t see me as a threat.”

Koruuksi’s friends nodded, and he bit his tongue after that. His interactions with those two had gone well enough—Kytai seemed to have no problem with him and even appreciate his company and presence in the base—but after speaking with Mahele, he wasn't sure Last Shadow’s leader was entirely stable. Koruuksi didn't blame him, but still, it didn't bode well for Last Shadow or his mission, especially with the man's daughter so suspicious of him.

Lysanda looked about to say something, but a wave of ambient footsteps and murmuring washed in from beyond the common room. Koruuksi and his companions turned toward it for a moment—he saw a few people in the common room do so as well, with one getting up to check—but it died down after a thirteen seconds and he looked back to Lysanda.

She was grinning at him. He raised an eyebrow.

Lysanda’s grin morphed into a smirk. “You could flirt with Paiz to get on her good side.”

Koruuksi rolled his eyes, then noticed Nomlana shaking his head.

"I'm pretty sure the guard that doesn't like him is Yktoron," Lysanda’s cousin said, “Paiz’s… something."

Nomlana grinned at Koruuksi. "You're good, but I don’t know if you're that good."

Koruuksi matched Nomlana's look, grinning back, and the two of them laughed.

"What about flirting with Mahele, then?” Lysanda suggested. “Older men are fun."

Koruuksi shot her a look. "Is he even interested in men?"

Lysanda shrugged. "He's Samjati, so probably not. You might be charming enough to make him curious, though." She smirked at him, then looked toward her cousin. "He's pulled that off before."

Nomlana blinked. He stopped plucking at the mandolin and leaned in. "Really?"

Koruuksi grinned. "That was back when I had a bit more fame attached to me. And there was a lot of violetsage involved. And alcohol. He didn't regret it, but wasn't eager to go again the next morning."

Nomlana laughed, throwing his head back.

Koruuksi grinned, enjoying the moment as Lysanda joined in, then picked up his mask from beside the bunk and started turning it over in his hands. It was unmarked save for the snowglyph of his name on the cheek.

"Do either of you know much about Paiz?"

Lysanda and her cousin shared a look. Both shrugged.

"Not much," Nomlana said. “She keeps to herself. Very business-like. Even more so since Vila's death. Some of what you've told me about Estingai makes me think of her, honestly. I don't know if Paiz was with Yktoron before her mother died, but they've been more open about it since then. Or Yktoron has been more protective of her, at least."

"So the fights I hear about between them are lover's quarrels?" Lysanda asked.

Nomlana nodded. "That's what I've heard." He turned to Koruuksi. "Anything specific you wanted to know?"

Koruuksi shrugged, taking a moment to think.

"Did anything happen in the days leading up to the meeting and Vila's death? Just trying to find any reason why she's so suspicious of me and Estingai."

Lysanda and her cousin frowned. The noise from outside grew again, sounding more frantic.

"There was some talk of a raid, or even a strike at the Imaia," Lysanda said. "Things we would need more—"

She cut off as whatever was going on in the halls reached a level too high to ignore.

Something about it put Koruuksi on edge. He brightened his clearnodes further, trying to pick out words that might give him some clue as to what was happening, but there was too much noise to sift through.

Koruuksi rose to his feet, putting on his mask. Just in case.

"What is it?" Lysanda asked, as she shrugged on her jacket.

"I don't know, but I'm going to see what's going on. Come on."