I walked my fingers across the paper folders that stood upright in the desk drawer, annoyed at the seeming lack of order. For a rare moment, the elder's study was vacant while she had dinner downstairs in the private room with some visitors. I was also free from my responsibilities since when the elder heard one of the knights knew I was a witch; she banished me upstairs.

There was no lock on the study door and no curses to be found in the room. The second was so the knights had no evidence, but the first seemed lazy. However, there was no real reason for this room to be protected because there was nothing of interest inside.

I pulled out a sheet of paper, skimmed over the costs for the inn from a year ago at this point and slotted it back in place. Everything here was related to the running of Marchland Inn without so much as a mention of the abbey or alchemy. I gently closed the stubborn drawer and pulled out the next, rifling through the assortment of items inside.

I pocketed a stylised clip for holding together sheets of paper, even after telling myself not to. The brief shiver of satisfaction that ran down my spine wasn’t worth the potential of the elder finding out someone had been in her study, but I didn’t put it back.

The rest of the dim room was occupied by shelving, and another desk with a terrarium sat atop it—nothing that could speak to the coven’s plans. The centipede inside the terrarium wasn’t interested in anything outside its glass enclosure and refused my offer to be let out.

I stood from my crouch behind the desk and walked around it, taking one last look before leaving. There were a number of sealed letters I wanted to get into, but that was a step too far since I couldn’t re-melt the wax seal.

I stopped, reexamining this week’s budget at the centre of the table. It had been the first item I looked at, and I hadn’t given it any attention besides a cursory glance. After skimming through many of the older budgets and how they were done, I saw it in a new light.

The older reports of weekly expenses, sales, room occupancy and our schedules were done in full ten-day weeks. They had writings on them that overlapped days and notes in the margin for what to remember for next week. The one sitting on her desk with a pencil resting across it was for twelve days, two extra columns scribbled in.

We were already most of the way through the week, yet there was no writing on the margin, and none of the schedules extended past the eleventh day.

There were no orders to restock the kitchen written after yesterday, even for the items I’d noticed were in low supply. Nothing new was planned to enter the inn after today. I opened a different drawer where I’d found a movement for the inventory. Some of the abbreviations and symbols didn’t make sense, but the overall message was clear. The inn was almost out of its food stock.

There was a chance the elder had just been lazy, that the extra days didn’t mean anything.

Yet I was certain the aim was to leave the inn soon.

I arranged the paper and pencil back in the exact spot where I’d found them and quietly left after sensing no one was in the hallway. There was no reason for me to be on the top floor where the study was, so I quickly descended to where our room was located.

Ulia and Darine were still inside, trying to occupy themselves for the remainder of the day.

“Still not ready?” Ulia asked after noticing my empty hands.

“A little while longer,” I said, having used checking if dinner was ready as an excuse to leave. I thought about broaching the subject of not going back to the capital but cowardly carried on with mundane topics. I still had four days to talk with them until the twelve of the budget ended.

…

I continued that mentality each day as I woke up and the countdown dropped. ‘I still had tomorrow’ was today’s excuse. It was the last day of the week when the inn was supposed to be the busiest while everyone else enjoyed a break, but we were closed for ‘repairs’. Two days left, and I was more confident than ever that we were abandoning the inn.

The number of runners from the abbey had increased as the vaults in the basement were emptied. Given no reasoning behind the move, we spent the day in a line to pass the items down the ladder to the tunnel. The prevailing sentiment was that it was annoying busywork and we would be doing the opposite in short order, with some suggestions about an impending raid from the knights.

Darine stood alongside us, leaning against a cane when her arms were free. She’d received partial treatment to fix her leg that didn’t fully regrow the muscle enough to hold her weight. We lacked the mana crystals and funds to get the job done despite handing over exactly that to the runners in the tunnel.

Individuals and businesses needed a licence presided over by the remnants to extract and sell items from the capital, which were heavily taxed.

I knew that firsthand, as I’d tried to follow Petrick and his group into the capital and was turned away at the gatehouse. There were only two pathways to take inside: through a narrow gated section between marble blocks in the gatehouse or up a ladder to use the rooftops.

Both had knights waving through those they recognised while the line to exit was thoroughly inspected for items they may have found inside.

According to the elder, we had no way of selling off the crystals, gems and gold without putting the inn in unnecessary danger. ‘Unnecessary’ was the keyword, and I watched Darine as she handed off a mana crystal to the next person in line.

“Tayka!” the elder shouted from the door to the cellar.

“On an errand!”

“Patela!”

I paused for a moment, surprised to hear my name as the second option. I left my place in the procession and shuffled past the other girls in the cramped hallway.

The elder didn’t stay too long, pointing towards the seating area. “Go serve those ingrates while I send a runner. Just keep them seated.”

“Yes, elder.”

Our front door had been locked, and a sign had been nailed to it, so I wasn’t sure why we had guests. The mages and steel in the room gave me pause, but one set of chainmail was in the shape of a horse's body, so I went in.

The group all turned from where they had each been reading a sheet of paper. “Ah, they sent the clumsy one.”

The tone was light-hearted, so I smiled and walked up beside Petrick. “I’m supposed to ask if you want anything.”

“Supposed to?” Nicholas asked.

I skimmed through the contracts they were holding. Petrick, after noticing my interest, held it out so I could see better. Maisie had convinced the elder this was the group to give the task to, not that she had many options. “Very vague.”

“Indeed,” Dyana said. “Could you comment on what it is you want us to do besides a ‘dangerous but well-compensated task.’”

“Well-compensated is an understatement. These figures are far past what an inn could earn in a lifetime,” the mage, Naimeen, said.

I dragged a chair from another table to theirs and plopped down. “It is, but you don’t want to get involved with these people regardless of the payout.”

“These people?” Petrick asked, looking pointedly at my apron.

“I’m leaving after today,” I said.

“The words of disgruntled staff then,” Nickolas said dismissively. “You were better off claiming to speak for the establishment if you wanted to dissuade us.”

“Not when I want to accuse the establishment of being involved with the Opera House incident in Drasda,” I said.

His eyebrows rose. “They caught the people responsible for that.”

“Except for the witch,” Dyana said, eyeing my face.

“None of them here match her description,” Petrick said, probably taking of Ulia.

“But this is the first place I’d choose to hide out in if I was running from any of the duchies,” Naimeen said.

“So now she’s accusing the inn she works at of collaborating with witches,” Nickolas scoffed. “I don’t see any substance in your accusations.”

“We haven’t accepted the contact yet; stop being so defensive of it,” Dyana said.

“You know, I was there that day at the gambling house,” I said, all eyes locking on me. “I’m sorry about what happened to Aisling.”

“Kind of you,” Petrick said with a frown. “But what bearing does that have on this discussion.”

“So, I’ve seen you fight. And you’re not strong enough to go after what they want you to.”

Nickolas slammed a fist on the table and scuffed the flooring with a hoof. Petrick raised a hand before he could let out the tirade building up behind his lips. “Your warnings are as vague as the contract. Speak plainly.”

“They want you to go to the castle at the centre of the city and retrieve—”

Naimeen tearing the contract in half interrupted the rest of my very persuasive speech. “I already didn’t like this. If you sign, you’re doing this without me.”

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“She’s lying. No one credible has made it past the second wall yet,” Nickolas said.

I tilted my head, not adding another unbelievable story to the conversation.

“We don’t take jobs without everyone’s agreement. It’s over. I had my reservations from the start, but this seals it. I’m out too,” Dyana said.

Petrick sighed, letting the contract fall to the table. “Fine. Do we need to report these people to the knights?”

“We’re not getting involved with them again over the words of some girl,” Nickolas said.

“They already know,” I lied. “Why ‘again?’”

“Mana-infused ghouls have been appearing at the edge of the outer district,” Petrick said. “The smaller teams are complaining about them, but the knights claim it's a temporary migration issue. Whatever that means.”

I shrugged, not willing to divulge more and get in trouble before I had a chance to leave. “If you leave quickly, you can avoid an awkward conversation, and I’d rather you not tell her why you’re turning down the contract.”

“Can I have a cup before we leave?” Nickolas asked.

“No.”

Once the grumbling ended, the group left, offering scant thanks despite my saving their lives. They asked about who I was and my involvement on their way out, but I said little. The one interesting tidbit I overheard was them discussing going back to Drasda for the arrival of Aisling’s parents. I thought of asking to go with them, but I felt like I’d already pushed their patience to the limit.

I got a pot of tea and poured it into four cups at the table to show I’d done my job at serving them. I sipped on each and drained Nickolas’ in case the elder knew about his proclivity for tea.

I hadn’t expected an opportunity to talk to them to be dropped in my lap and had planned to find them later if they’d accepted the deal. The elder would be more mad at me this way since I was there when they declined, but I didn’t care. I already had a knapsack with all my gauntlet, some coinage, and clothes hidden amongst the bushes in the garden, ready to leave.

The only thing left I wanted to do was talk with girls I shared a room with about not going back, yet I hadn’t found the opportunity to broach the subject.

I sat in Petrick’s spot, sipping on the rest of his tea, debating whether or not to leave before the elder got angry at their departure.

The elder walked in to find me collecting tea cups onto a tray and froze, the door almost hitting her as it swung closed. “Where are they?”

I shook my head while pouting. “One said it wasn’t worth it, and then they all started agreeing and left.”

“You think gold is an issue here? You were supposed to keep them in their seats! I could have offered double, triple. How long ago did they leave?”

I shrunk in on myself. “A while ago. They didn’t listen to me or care when I offered them free lunch.”

She ran a hand through her hair while the other tensed, almost crumpling a sealed letter. The elder said nothing else before storming off towards the cellar, probably to send another runner.

I wiped the frown from my lips, straightened my back, and took the tea set back to the kitchen. The back door was a few steps away, and no one was around to see me leave. Instead, I returned to the cellar to help unload the rest of the treasure, confident in my ability to leave later.

Until the elder called us all upstairs for an announcement.

The two groups of us that did most of the tasks around the inn, the women sitting next to their partners and shop owners from around the settlement who I hadn’t known were aligned with the witches, were just able to fit in the available seating. I also recognised many of our regular customers who hadn’t made any indication they knew what was going on at the inn.

The announcement that we all needed to leave this evening and start packing shocked the room, bar me. Everyone had their gripe with the announcement: Tayka and her group were annoyed to be leaving their rotation halfway through. Those with partners didn’t want to leave the homes and lives they’d built outside the abbey. The shopkeepers and merchants had no interest in leaving behind their stores and businesses.

“Quiet!” The elder said after letting everyone run their mouths for a while. “I’ve just received word from our people. The knights know our names and addresses—”

She kept trying to talk, but the outcry drowned her out. I kept quiet, wondering how this would factor into my leaving.

A piercing whistle brought back everyone’s attention, only to be broken by a question from the audience. “How did this happen?”

“We don’t know.”

To my surprise, there were no indignant shouts. Everyone turned to their neighbour, wondering if it was them who had outed everyone. I was worried for a moment, but I hadn’t done anything that could be misconstrued as betrayal and tried to calm down.

“The raids are planned for first light. Return to your homes, pack up your valuables and meet back here before midnight.”

“We can’t all fit in the abbey,” a mother with a girl sitting on her knee said.

“Don’t worry. Ambuya has a plan. We won’t be staying in the abbey for long. They will have far more pressing issues to deal with besides a few missing people.”

The elder took a few more questions, using her answers to assuage the growing worry more than inform everyone what would happen.

The girls and I went to our room to pack with the others living at the inn.

I piled clothes into a spare knapsack while my real valuables were already outside in the garden and threw out my long-winded and carefully planned speech to convince the girls to leave with me. “We don’t have to go back to the abbey.”

Ulia looked up from where she sat on her bed, re-stringing her bow. Darine paused in her hobble across the room to where her books lay. Andria and Maisie poked their heads out of the lavatory, where they were snaffling the soap. “You want us to stay where the knights know who we are?”

“No,” I said, realising the gaping hole in my argument. “I want to go somewhere else in the kingdom. Anywhere else.”

“Now’s not the time,” Ulia said.

“I don’t want to go back either, but I don’t see another option,” Maisie said.

“We walk out of the settlement and keep walking till we find somewhere better.”

The shaking heads were discouraging, but I continued. “Anywhere is better than the abbey. Look at what happened to Darine, and the elders couldn’t bring themselves to help properly.”

“Don’t use me for your argument. I understand why,” Darine said, using her cane to find a bed to sit on.

“You deserve better than to be used for their plans, whether that be getting to the interior or menacing Drasda with dragon’s breath,” I said, looking pointedly at Ulia.

Tayka came to hurry us along, and I continued the attempt to persuade them in hushed whispers as we went downstairs. Maisie was the most open to leaving, but I couldn’t break through the fear of the knights capturing her.

My mouth clamped shut as we entered the lobby again. A leaking knee-high barrel sat in the centre of the tables and chairs while another was being rolled in. The man set the barrel upright and yanked a cork plug from the base.

A piece of dragon’s breath dislodged with the water flowing out and floated onto the floorboards as the barrel drained. He placed a wax-coated length of silver wire into the hole and slowly trailed it towards the cellar.

Instead of ducking into the kitchen and leaving out back to never be seen again, I followed after the man with everyone else. A line of people were already passing luggage and boxes down the ladder. The length of wire was dropped down alongside them, joining three more.

Stranglers joined us in the cramped and empty cellar, adding their belongings to the line. Once everything was gone, we started to climb down. I stayed in the back, ready to turn and leave with every step forward in the queue.

I was one of the last to start the descent. The safe with the hollowed-out bottom couldn’t close with the detonation wire in the way, so I didn’t feel trapped. I wanted to check if there were more barrels in the tunnel and if seeing their use would persuade at least Maisie to come with me. I could always stay in the back of the pack and stop walking, leaving me behind to fade into the darkness.

I stepped off the last rung and took the last space against the wall. Everyone else was still nearby, leaning against the wall to allow the elder to walk along the corridor. Our baggage was further ahead, also piled against the wall. The younger children were upset at the limited light from a few lanterns and the dark shadows we cast in the musty space.

The wires carried on into the darkness with no other barrels nearby.

“That everyone?” the elder asked. We all looked around to see if anyone was missing. A few names were called to check, and answers were given to all. “Good.”

“One more thing before we leave,” she said, pulling out a cursed needle from an iron tin. “Someone here will need to answer for their crimes against us.”

The curse was concentrated in the head of the needle, which was too small and complex to determine quickly, besides knowing it wasn’t immediately deadly.

“Is this necessary,” a father said. “There are children here.”

“Never too early to learn what happens to those who sell out your families to the death squads.”

The elder brought out the letter I’d seen her with after I chased away Petrick, the same I’d seen on her desk. It was now open. I took a step towards the ladder, not liking my slight connection to the evidence being produced.

“This is a list of all of us here,” she continued. “It was handed back to me after one of our own tried to have it delivered to the knights, not knowing her courier was with our cause.”

I took another step towards the ladder. The few men, now absolved, looked at the woman around them.

“Why? Why did you give this to those mercenaries, Patela?”

Most people didn’t know who I was to turn to, but those who did turned in shock.

“No, no! You were the one with that letter, and they left before while you still had it. Open it! That’s not my handwriting.”

Everyone now knew who the accused was and stared at me as I backed into the ladder. The elder unfurled the letter, presenting it to everyone. “It isn’t? Does anyone here wish to second that claim?”

“No one else has seen my writing in Common. This—this—You’re just using me to force everyone out of the settlement. I didn’t write that. I didn’t know half these people existed before today.”

A few heads turned towards the elder for an explanation, but more angry glares stayed levelled towards me. The man that had brought in the barrels stepped towards me.

“It’s true,” Maisie said. “I don’t think Patela met most people here. I didn’t even recognise a few.”

“We can debate this at the abbey,” Darine said. “I don’t think Patela could have or would have done this.”

The elder was halfway to me, the needle pinched between her fingertips. Those beside her leaned away at her passing. “Do you not feel ashamed, Patela, that the people defending you don’t know your real name? That you lied to us about your mother?”

My heart racing, I lifted my food, failing to put it on the rung as the man reached out to grip my wrist. “No…I didn’t do this. I’m just the easiest to blame for your scheme. You wrote that letter. You want this as an excuse to make people leave.”

“Really, Valeria? So many lies. You think we didn’t check on your story and find that you lied about Caoimhe?”

The elder was steps away from me, a wicked smile on her face. She passed those who had previously defended me and now only looked at me with hurt and confusion.

It was over. No defence was left despite my innocence for the worst of the crimes.

I took a deep breath as the elder closed in and raised my hand. She paused, blinking slowly in confusion. A wave of air burst from my palm, launching her along the gap. Everyone hid their faces as their hair flew wildly in the tempest. The needle flew into the darkness and tumbled out of the range of my senses.

The grip on my wrist tightened as the offender watched the elder skid to a halt. I formed claws on my opposite hand and dug them into his arm until he let go.

Before anyone lifted their head, I turned to climb out of the tunnel.