Horns blare. I look towards the spectator tiers, expecting an announcement. "Everyone, stop where you are and stay safe. There's been an accident. Help is coming." Something like that.

Not screams and shouts. Not the clanging of weapons and screeching of akhanas. From my vantage point, it's hard to make out what's happening up there. All I see is a chaos of moving people and the occasional glint of light on metal or chrysblade. Turning back I peer down at the pagoda, where the Heirs are in a panic as the water levels rise and the Mire flows rapidly closer.

"What in the depths?" Howla spits.

I shake my head, teeth biting into my lip as I argue with myself.

I could peek through the eyes of the people up there. See what's going on. But I promised I wouldn't use my abilities on humans unless it was an emergency. But this is an emergency, right?

Squeezing my eyes shut, I focus outward. Upward. Seeking a familiar Ember—and finding my mother's. Sending my awareness across the Web, I merge with hers to look through her eyes, and immediately feel as though I've swallowed a handful of broken glass. Beast-eater guards—their eyes oddly blank—are herding her, my aunts, and several others toward the exit at spear-point. Red dots of rage swim across our shared vision. I push against the traitor's Embers, trying to take control. To stop them.

But it's useless. My powers truly have no affect on them.

Opening my eyes, I return to myself.

"The beast-eater guards up there are turning on us. The Rhaj and Rhavani...they're forcing them out!"

"Not just them," adds Saffryn grimly, pointing back towards the pagoda.

I follow her gesture, blood going cold in horror to see that more than half the Heirs down there are in the water now. As I watch, a Falruni one manages to gain the pagoda's roof only for one of his own guards to climb after him and shove him off. The tendrils of Mire are only paces away from him. Flailing wildly for a moment, he manages to right himself before turning to run after the others through the chest-deep water.

More shouting and a growl from much nearer by snatches my attention back to my immediate surroundings. My own guards stand back-to-back near the center of the roof, circled by their blank-eyed peers. I clench the stone bars of my cage, fighting for a better view of their faces. One of Saffryn's guards lunges at Thrall with their spear, and finally I catch a glimpse of his eyes as he ducks down, the blow glancing off his shield as he slashes out from beneath it to catch the other beast-eater's leg with his blade.

He's still himself.

The other guard stumbles backward, expression impassive. In the same instant, Pash blocks another attack—knocking the offending guard's spear sideways as she strikes out with the wrong end of her pole-arm. It crashes into the side of his skull, knocking him unconscious.

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Kaidin groans from his cage, and my gaze goes to him in immediate alarm, but he's fine—just watching the Heirs in the water below us as the Mire, now flowing from multiple sources, closes around them. The black sludge-person wavers oddly on the spot before flattening out into a broad pool of shadow on the surface of the water. After some gesturing and encouragement from Rhetrien, two people climb on, but they're all that can fit. It moves slowly across the water, its edges fluttering like the fins of a cuttlefish.

While they make for a stair leading up to another rooftop, the remaining Heirs huddle close, working together to lift one of their number above the water. My khej-sister, Prisha.

I wrap my arms about myself, pressing back against the cold stone of the bars. Then the Mire flows across the surface of the water around them, triggering an eruption of chaos—but it's only one of many. Screams, shouting, and sounds I have no description for issue from parts of the labyrinth that are out of sight, or off in the periphery of my vision. But my focus remains locked on the group before me.

The Falruni Heir collapses immediately into iridescent liquid, dispersing into nothing. Gone. Rhetrien struggles to hold Prisha above the rising water, suddenly baring all her weight by themselves as the others writhe and contort around them. Beside me, Kaidin cries out, beating at the bars again. Saffryn's got her hands clamped over her mouth, silent tears streaming down her cheeks and over her fingers.

Rhetrien fights their way towards the stair with my sister while the Ariskolese Heir of their group disappears beneath the water, darting away moments later in a blur of dark fins and flashing scales. One of the citrine-robed Kolikai howls and spits as his bones crack and reform. His skin hardens into crystalline, segmented plates as his face elongates—taking on predatory angles, tusks erupting from his mouth.

The last, a Morovani Heir, stumbles drunkenly backward, momentarily submerged as she loses her footing completely. But she resurfaces a few heartbeats later, disoriented and drenched but her appearance otherwise unchanged—at least from what I can tell at this distance. But in the next instant, the Kolikai heir, now twice his previous height, strikes out at her, his eyes wild and jaws frothing.

Instinct and desperation converge, and in the next heartbeat my awareness is hurtling across the Web, taking hold of the crystal-armored Heir just in time to change his course, wrenching sideways and away from his would-be prey. I can feel his panic and confusion like the vibration of a thousand angry bees, but hot. Bees on fire. I snort at the thought, drawing myself back to my own body just enough to notice Howla staring at me, uncovered eye gone wide.

Then I'm back where I need to be, keeping the other Heir away from the rest. Trying to help them calm themselves as understanding dawns and their mind begins to return. I feel it in the subtle cooling of their Ember. Was it only a momentary loss of control?

Hesitantly, I release my hold on the Kolikai Heir. For a moment he just stands there, chest heaving, before looking around for some other way to go—perhaps not wanting to scare the others by following after them.

There's a heavy thud from immediately behind me as a guard lands against my cage, sending reverberations through the stone and straight into my bones. They slump sideways and down, but their Ember still glows faintly on the Web. Not dead. I call out to my guards, the last of those still conscious on the rooftop now.

"Pash! Thrall! Please, let us out! This can't be right,"

But they just exchange a tortured look.

"We don't know how," says Pash, rushing over me to stare at my cage door's locking mechanism."They didn't give us any information about the puzzles."

"What's going on with the other guards?" Demands Saffryn. "Why are you the only ones that didn't turn on us?"

Pash shakes her head, gritting her teeth. "Not sure yet," she says after a moment, eyes still fixed on my door's lock as though hoping it'll implode under the power of her glare.

For a moment, Saffryn looks as though she's about to spit out something nasty. Then her expression transforms.

"Wait, did you say puzzle?"