A familiar hooded figure slouches near the entrance-way.

[https://i.imgur.com/wggtAIV.png]

[Rat]: You sure took your sweet-ass time.

I grimace.

[Rat]: Don’t want to talk? Great! You don’t have to - but I still need to tell you what I learned last night.

[Rat]: I checked the [Tiger]. She’s innocent.

[Yuri]: …is Lily inside?

[Rat]: Sorry? I didn’t catch that.

[Yuri]: …where’s Lily?

Stolen novel; please report.

[Rat]: Dead, probably. Did you see her room?

I did, but in my mind the room’s fuzzy and unfocused.

[Yuri]: You don’t know that! She’s just hiding!

[Rat]: If I’m someone who doesn’t know anything, why’d you want to ask me in the first place?

[Yuri]: Because while I don’t trust you, I think that you’re somebody sharp. So I’m asking you, commanding you, begging you to tell me - where is she? Why is she late?

[Rat]: Because she’s dead.

[Yuri]: But it doesn’t make sense that she’s dead! She’s someone the Seer has information about, so the Healer should have protected her! And the Wolves shouldn’t have attacked her if they thought the Healer would guard her, and besides, it’s her! She wouldn’t, couldn’t, can’t-

*Tk*

He strikes me. Or at least, he almost does. He slows his palm at the last moment so it’s just a single light tap.

[Rat]: Pull it together. I don’t need your tears, I need your brain for the tTrial ahead.

I clasp my cheek and my stare burns into him, into dark eyes that I could not read, like a glimpse of the night.

He meets me then turns through the door. Waiting just for a moment, I follow him like an automaton, not from any wish I myself had but from numb obedience to the Trial rules.