It was a long shot, considering that almost nothing was how it seemed in the book she’d read, but while Leolin had a fatherly apothecarist, Hesperus had his unrecyclable waste-of-space non-parental figure and an older sister who’d tried her best, Tristram’s family had been a complete blank.

Yes, his parents were dead, but what of Malory, who’d been deemed by the book to be of even less importance to the main cast than someone unrelated to the main plot, such as Claribel.

Ari ripped a piece of cheese bread, copying Natty’s newly-developed dainty motions that Claribel’s body seemed to remember, and waited for the reply.

~It’s… difficult.~

~No, it’s just… Tristram and Mal were very different people, placed in difficult circumstances from a young age. He was cold and… obsessive. She was the opposite, like a little canary, always flitting about and humming tunes. He became duke at a young age, so he needed to remain in Taur to shoulder the duties of his House. She was his only sibling, a lady from a weakened duchy, so she needed to remain in Eirene to… to gain the previous king and crown prince’s favour. Bonus if she could befriend any noble sons and daughters attending the Royal Academy of Magic.~

~She was a success. Trust me, I wasn’t her only friend… It’s just… a lot of mages fought in the Battle of Eirene. Many were lost.~

The book covered the battle, and although it had misconstrued most of its main cast, being factually incorrect about the climatic battle would have been a mistake on another level. She remembered those scenes well; after all, her favourite book of romance was ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’.

Duke Auster’s army had marched upon Eirene upon Rosalind’s passionate beseechment, joined by an elite force led by Tristram, and in an epic battle lasting three days, they drove out Duke Lyoness’s… Wait. The map that Ari had seen of the triangle-shaped Ventinon flashed to the front of her mind, clearer than the faces of anyone she’d met that day.

There’d been Aquilon at the northern corner, then Carnell in the south-west. In between the two, on the coast, sat the capital city of Eirene. A little further east from Carnell stretched the expansive Duchy of Auster. Then, in the south-eastern corner, where the corner of the triangle formed a peninsular, was the troubled Duchy of Taur, meeting the sea at the city of Leth, the hometown of Hesperus.

The offending duchy that had once been Lyoness, but had now been renamed Parime, was separated from Eirene by Aquilon on one side, and Auster on the other. Neither did it neighbour the sea, like Taur, so how had its army made it to Eirene?

~Is that your next–~

She scrapped the question about the mage that Claribel had killed; it had been relegated to a maybe anyhow, as she was in two minds about prying when the other spirit had looked so distressed and dejected over the truth behind that death.

More importantly, how did this reality differ from the book? And why…? Was it really words left unwritten, or was it because someone else made changes to the story, turning a three-day-battle into a…

~Three hundred days. It lasted three hundred days. There was a siege upon this city. The rest was mostly as you’d described. Lyoness had… compromised some marquises and earls originally sworn to Auster, so his soldiers could pass almost unimpeded to Eirene – and that was also why Duke Auster was so willing to join the fray and crush House Lyoness. Her Majesty’s beseechment had little to do with it; she knew that well enough. I got out – there used to be a tunnel from this house all the way to the port, but… it collapsed during the siege. From what I hear, there was fighting, but more than that, there was starving. Malory stayed here. She refused to come with me, refused to come to the safe and neutral Aquilon. She loved this city, you see? I… I want to bury her here. I don’t want to send her back to Taur. There’s nothing for her there.~

~I want to plant three cypress trees in her memory. That’s the heraldry for her House, and her favourite too. Three cypress trees with red, star-shaped flowers.~

~Mmm. Can I ask my question now?~

~All right then. What’s your favourite season?~

<…You do realise there’s only one more question left after this?>

~I do the accounts for my household. I know how to perform a simple subtraction under ten without using my physical fingers.~

Did Claribel already know everything else there was to know about her? Could she glimpse into Ari’s greatest fears?

The man was dressed in a chicken costume that had been blackened with what they later identified as shed paint. The chicken’s head lay beside the door, freshly painted red. The flimsy, white plastic table next to him should have been found carrying cake and squash at a summer fete; instead, it had been wrapped tightly in clingfilm, and bore a single can of baked beans, opened and turned upside down with the lid and ring pull resting over its upturned bottom.

The letter he’d written to her was resting under his chair, shielded from the deluge of insides that had splattered over the pristine, white walls from a localised bomb that he must have placed into his own mouth.

‘To my dearest Agent Ari Lee,

It is too my greatest regret that I was not able to take everything from you in this life. What a shame that Cain got there before me. Not to worry! We must stay optimistic through hard times. I shall see you in your next life, and because I am a true hero, my motto is: I will never give up! (Insert fist pump!)

Yours,

(Just kidding.)

Mine,

The Red Raven’

They’d found him in the summer, when the sun blazed through the window, onto the dead, sweatless body.

Why would someone who called himself a raven wear a chicken costume? she’d ask herself sometimes, but the answer always made a spot deep in her heart ache. Because he was not real.

On what level?

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

A question that should never be asked.

Max’s birthday had been in the winter too, just before the promise of spring. Perfect weather for hot chocolate in bed with all the trimmings. Once upon a time.

she offered, but it felt thin when Claribel had given more.

‘A scatter of plum blossoms in a nook

Braves the cold alone.

Even from afar it can’t be snow;

Its faint scent makes it known.’

Something like that…>

~We have plum blossoms in Aquilon! They’d be blooming in a month or two – perhaps closer to one, with such a mild winter. It’s a shame we can’t go and see them with the Great Tournament due to start…~

Empty words. Neither of them would want another year of this, being bound together against their will.

~Once we find a way to acquire a body for you, we will visit together. Separately. But together.~

~With no body awaiting you there?~

~Nobody awaiting you there.~

Claribel flashed her a half-smile. Did she know? When Ari tried to show her the briefing from the Chief when she first arrived in Claribel’s world, had a glimpse of flames slipped through? Of course it must have, considering how much else Claribel had managed to glean.

~Of course…~

~…Admit it. I did it better. Also, you’re really stubborn.~

~A crime or into an asylum?~

<…All right, all right, your win again.>

~Do I get to ask two questions in a row then, like you did?~

~Here goes!~

Ari braced herself for the final attack.

~In your world, where… I think I see these huge mansions that are very tall. What are they made of?~

~Concrete?! No, no, no, it can’t be concrete. That thing snaps.~

~Well, yes…? I have already been on my pilgrimage to the Taurian Sea. The Grand Cathedral’s domed roof is made of concrete. It is amazing that you can pour stone into any shape you desire, but how is yours different? In the visions I have seen, you are able to build ten, no, twenty layers of living quarters on top of each other. That means your concrete must be strong enough to build workshops and storerooms, correct?~

~I want it. I want your concrete. If it works, it will be so much faster and cheaper than bricks, and the glass district we are developing won’t burn down quite as often if we can replace all the wood and straw with it! Do you have the formula to stop it snapping?~

~Are you sure?~

~Never mind, this is not going to work. In my world, there’s a phenomenon where things get bigger in the heat, and shrink when it gets colder. No two things react in the exact same way. Adding steel and concrete together will just mean that our buildings will rip themselves apart from winter to summer.~

Ari was coming to regret her specialised education. A normal person from her world would most likely know the exact chemical composition of reinforced concrete and understand how to recreate it in a different world with the materials at hand; all she knew was how to smash someone’s head in against a concrete wall and how to maximise the chances of skull fracture.

~I see. No matter. We can work with that.~

~Don’t apologise. It helped.~

~Of course. When you’re working towards the unknown, but you know it will work, it’s completely different from stumbling around in the dark, hoping for the best. That’s why you’re so worried here, isn’t it? In your world, you know that even if there’s a price to pay, things will turn out the way you’d expect. Not well, perhaps, but expected. But here, anything could happen. It could be that Tristram died for nothing, that we’ll never find the truth, that you’ll never find Miri. It could be that it all means nothing. I have been having these thoughts too since your arrival.~

~You’re from hundreds of years into the future. I know yours is not exactly our future, but your past was similar to ours… and… I thought it’d be possible to build something good. I thought… if we could get the right king on the throne, the right structure to aid him, the right crafts and crops for the people, and the right laws to protect them… I thought if we could build good relations with our neighbours, train the right army to defend ourselves… then in three, five hundred years, people could live peaceful, happy lives. But it is not true. Then what am I even doing?~

~I saw you hungry, Ari.~

~Will it really? Since meeting you, I’ve been thinking… You know, there are some who believe that the Fated One is there because the Creator created us all wrong from the very beginning. Otherwise, there’d have just been the Creator and some everlasting, perfect creations. There are those who believe that we, humans, are created to be competitive, self-important, self-destructive destroyers. That is why the Fated One must take us, crush us, mould us into another person, hoping for a better result next time. Except we can only be as good as what we’re made from. And so the cycle continues until… the Fated End.~

Ari imagined a creature resting at the bottom of the sea, in Taur, ripping each spirit into more manageable pieces, then grinding them together into one mushy pulp.

One of the serving boys slid a plate of milk-white cheese in front of her. It crumbled as she cut into it, leaving her with a taste of cream, salt and applewood.

~Eek! No! Why would you say that?!~

Ari said, hoping to bring comfort to Claribel through logic.

~No… but I don’t see…~

~…I have no idea what you’re talking about, but… thanks. You can ask me your next question now. It’s the last one, isn’t it?~

It was. And the true question she wanted to ask someone, anyone, was: what had Hesperus done to Agent Hannah Temple? But the only one who could answer that was Hesperus himself. She had to find a way to make him talk.

~Why can’t we just visit him at his manor?~

~But can’t you just ask him about your friend? Hannah, right? If you explain your side of the situation properly – that it’s not an invasion, and you’re just here to find Miri – then I’m sure he can help. He knows about your world, so there’s no reason to report us to the Church for Khurammian spirit possession. Isn’t that great?~

…see the look on Hesperus’s face? For a flash as the woodlice scuttled away, there’d been something in his eyes that ran darker than religious fervour.

Hadn’t there?

A split-second expression that Claribel couldn’t detect. Was it a superpower or a curse?

~All right. Then… I will be going to see Nanny Jesse. Tomorrow, I shall request some ointment for her leg from the apothecarist. We will need to see him anyway, for Tilly, and to refill my own pills. How’s that?~

~You need more than one?~

It would take more than one visit to make him spill the truth. Just as he’d somehow made Agent Hannah Temple spill hers. Experienced Agents didn’t go around spilling their secrets out of their own free will.

Ari had only made that mistake once. How many lives was her first name worth?

~We can… we can make Tilly befriend Finn, I suppose. They’re around the same age. Hes might be more welcoming to her too, considering she’s another commoner mage.~

Children: pawns in a grownups’ world. As it was. As it will be. Prove your worth, Ari Lee.

Ari scooped up the last purple carrot in her bowl of stew.

The past. The questions.

Done, and done.

~…You’re really not going to ask me about the secret passage.~

~Maybe… when the time comes, I will need your help.~

Promises weren’t lightly made; she owed Claribel this much.