“The point is that the path doesn’t matter,” Eva said.

Pan blinked fast. The path mattered. It mattered a great deal.

Pan stared at the screen. Sotir’s map dominated everyone’s attention. They would pick between the third and fourth paths, where Volanter patrols ruled the skies.

Pan preferred something else. The first.

She remembered and drew herself up. “The path matters.” Pan laughed, without humor. “A lot more than you realize. We don’t have a choice. We need to take the shortest.” Pan pointed. “The one that goes by their home.”

Mumbles scattered around the room.

“And,” Pan added. “We need to destroy it.”

The mumbles gained volume.

So much for gold, but Pan thought the Volanter deserved it.

Alban cleared his throat. “You want to destroy a bubble of timelessness? That’s insane, Pan.”

Apparently, anything she said would be insane in this moment.

“What’s insane is all of us dying because we can’t leave this area fast enough.” Pan put a hand on Sotir’s shoulder. “He isn’t the only one who can read the future. If we take any of the other paths, we’ll be nice and predictable. So, so predictable. Let’s surprise them.”

Alban and Rooks exchanged a glance.

Rooks straightened and set a dark gaze on Pan. “We’re not prepared for that kind of a fight. We’re two ships-”

“We’re not prepared for any fight.” Pan narrowed her eyes. “We have the best chance on the first path. And, the only chance to destroy those contracts. They might not have one for the Scaldin. In fact, I’m sure they don’t. But, they said they have one for Iruedim. They might be able to find you anywhere. If we don’t take the first route, we might escape, but they’ll follow and force you to your knees.”

“Can I…just say something,” Camellia piped up. “They keep their children in the time bubble. That’s where all the families live. And, are we just going to assume that all the Volanter think alike?”

“Exactly,” Rooks agreed.

Alban cleared his throat. “We don’t know how to destroy it anyway.”

Pan took a step forward. “No. Let’s think about what it would take to destroy it.” Pan looked at Meladee and the other Iruedian mages. “There must be something you could write.”

Inez and Eder met each other’s eyes. Then, they caught Meladee’s.

Meladee shrugged. “Decay spell.”

“On children?” Rooks scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

“What if…” Camellia stopped as all eyes turned to her.

Rooks gestured for her to finish.

“What if we could make the decay spell move slower, and they had time to get out.” Camellia frowned at the room. “I don’t know if that would destroy the contract though – it’s just a bit of genetic material. They’d probably save it. Who knows if it matters? They can probably figure a way to Iruedim without it.”

Rooks turned to her mages. “Inez. Eder. Do you think you could write a spell that slowly decayed the bubble? Something that could give the Volanter plenty of time to evacuate? Assuming you can even decay magic.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Inez nodded. “Should be able to. It’d be easier if we knew the spell they used.”

“Do we?” Rooks asked the room.

Pan thought the timeless bubble must be in her book, but she didn’t know it. A simple ask of the thread could find it. Pan reached for Irini.

Camellia’s eyes lit up. She tapped her Florian on the arm, and he nodded.

Camelia said, “We do. I mean we might have it. There’s something called Standstill. Usually a small spell, with limited range. I have to double check, but it could be possible to effect on a large scale, probably performed by thousands of Volanter in tandem. The ring might even be visible from space.”

“A ring that could be countered,” Pan said.

Camellia cocked her head. “In theory, but not by one mage. We’ll still need the decay magic.”

Eva stepped into the center. “This is what we need to do. If they can reach Iruedim without our help, they just might do it before we get home. If we destroy their home, they will be scattered and distracted.”

Alban snapped his fingers. “The first path it is.”

Inez rubbed the back of her neck and thought aloud. “I think we could make a decay circle that fits all the requirements. We should stay well clear of it though. We’d probably need to send it ahead, and then…When they’re panicked sneak the bigger ships through.”

“I vote that,” someone shouted.

“I second that.”

Pan smiled. She shared the smile with Sotir and found him looking back perplexed.

More voices agreed to the first path.

Camellia said, “Is this right?”

Meladee countered, “We gotta do what…”

“What happened?” Sotir whispered.

“We all died or ended up captured. Ships destroyed,” she whispered back.

Sotir stiffened.

“Aren’t you glad I relearned time message?”

“She might be a bit monstrous.” Camellia pushed their files aside and pulled glasses from the cupboard. She set them on the counter hard.

“Ruthless maybe.” Florian took a seat.

“I can’t believe that Eva and Meladee would agree to this.” Camellia shook her head. “If we destroy their house, what’s going to prevent them from coming for ours?” Camellia spun around.

Florian shifted. “I think the idea is that they won’t be able to follow.”

Camellia huffed a sigh. She picked up both glasses and filled them with water. She gave Florian his and plopped into her seat. The water nearly sloshed out of her glass.

Florian drank with great caution. “Think about this situation the same as you would the Zaris household.”

Camellia frowned. “Why?”

“The Volanter are kind of like your dad.” Florian stared into his drink. “You don’t want contact with him, right?”

“No,” Camellia said.

She wasn’t sure if she meant it. Having no family of Florian’s or their friends nearby affected her. She felt lonely, especially in places that reminded her of the bad times. Camellia ran into one of those places every other week – a specific room in the AAH, the hotel that she used to hide in, and the road that led to the Zaris home. There were more still.

“We don’t want to talk to him, so we shouldn’t want to talk to the Volanter. The Volanter who want to control us.”

“Right,” Camellia agreed. “But...” She turned her glass around in her hands. “If I burned my father’s house down, do you think he would leave me alone?”

Florian sat stiffly. “No. Probably not.”

“No, he would come and burn our house down.” Camellia laughed.

“Would he really?”

Camellia continued to laugh and got a smile from Florian, though her laughter was deranged.

“Don’t ever make him mad,” Florian said.

“We just can’t burn his house down. We can make him mad, as long as he has a hole to crawl into.” Camellia felt the smile melt off her face. “If we get rid of their hole, I think there will be consequences.”

“Yes. There will. But, Pan thinks this is the only way to get home, and I’m going to trust her on it.”

Camellia raised her eyebrows as if to say really?

Florian rose from his chair and headed for the counter where they kept their tidied files. “One of the spells she reaped, back in her bound form, was the time message. Did you read up on it?”

Camellia shook her head.

“It allows her to send a message to her former self. She saw something on one of those paths that made her think this is the way.” Florian brought the file to the table.

Camellia sighed and thumbed through. She skimmed the spell and tossed the file on the table. “Alright. I guess we have to do this. It’s so much worse than what we did to Ah’nee’thit.”

“We were nice to Ah’nee’thit. Far nicer than we had to be.” Florian picked up a blank piece of paper. He pushed it to Camellia. “I’ve been thinking. It might make you feel better to write that thank you note.”

“To my father? He sent nothing.” Camellia put a hand to the paper. “Oh, you mean to a dead man. Not much better.”

Florian handed her a pen. “I know he’s dead. That just means you’ll save on postage.”

Camellia took the pen. She might have a way to send the letter. If she asked Pan to conjure up Cernunnos, Camellia could read her composition to him, but then Pan would hear it. With that plan in mind, Camellia would temper everything she wanted to write, and Florian’s idea was for her to write unfiltered.

She couldn’t ask Pan for that service. She could never get up the courage to speak to Cernunnos’ ghost anyway.