The biggest task of the moment was figuring out how to deal with the Silver Sentinels. On the one hand, she really did have the option of just going back on the former Head's word. Lord knew that they were worthy of destruction given half of what she'd heard about them. They'd abused their authority as much as anyone else had in this decaying atrocity of a city but they'd been worse just by virtue of the fact that they were ostensibly supposed to be acting with the best interests of the citizens in mind. That sort of behavior was pretty much par for the course with organizations big and small that didn't face accountability for their actions, but it still made her particularly angry when looking at the acts these assholes had been involved in.

  It had been hard to compile a full list of their transgressions, she'd had to do her best to keep it a quiet investigation that didn't ruffle too many feathers, but she'd still learned of extortion rackets, active participation in schemes to defraud citizens, several instances of enforcing Banishments on innocent families. All the typical terrible stuff that one might imagine of a corrupt policing force all with the Head's blessing and the power of a piece of paper backing them up. For the briefest of moments, she considered letting Cammie have her way with them, it wouldn't be so difficult, really, to let the shadowy gremlin loose in their ranks, dropping them like flies. She didn't fully understand the creature's limits but...

  "Oh, I could totally do that," whispered a creepily cheery voice in her ear.

  "Gah!" Len yelped. "Don't do that!"

  "What in the hells are you talking about," snapped Keris, always ready to be combative.

  "Not you," Len said grumpily. "Look, would you mind leaving for a bit? I need to have a chat with a particularly annoying shadow."

  "Are... are you all right? Jests aside, you might be overworking yourself."

  "I am. Sadly, this is another matter entirely. I'll explain it to you someday but not just yet. And, given that I think it'd be a touch too awkward for the both of us for you to observe a conversation that's just me talking to the air, a little privacy please."

  Keris looked supremely unconvinced that everything was indeed all right, but acquiesced all the same. Smoothing her dress, she stood up and beat a rather hasty retreat. No way of telling how much or little she actually bought of Len's explanation but at least she was gone. So freed, Len turned her gaze to Cammie.

  "What the hell?" she asked bluntly.

  "What? You didn't think I was gonna pass up a perfectly good opportunity to get involved, did you? You're the one who was thinking about me, it was only fair that I respond."

  "It was an idle thought. Not a chance in hell I'm gonna let you go all night of the long knives on these guys. I'm not about to make assassination my go to tactic whenever a problem's just a touch more difficult than 'minor headache'."

  "But that's so booooring!"

  "What are you, a teenager? I don't care how much you want to go slaughter folks, ain't happening."

  "It doesn't have to be slaughter, I just want to do SOMETHING. Come on, you've been at this for weeks now."

  "Just two days ago you were perfectly willing to accept that I needed time to do this. Is that really the limits of your patience?"

  "Yup."

  Len stared at the thing that looked like a girl, caught between irritation, bafflement, and amusement. Surprisingly, possibly due to getting more rest than had been typical for her lately, amusement won out and she doubled over laughing.

  "Thought that might cheer you up," Cammie said with a grin. "Now come on, let's do something interesting. You don't have to kill anyone or even let me kill anyone, but you've been in all work and no play mode since, well, before you named me. Doesn't have to be the whole day but let's get out of here for a bit."

  Len hated, genuinely hated, admitting that the shadow was right. If she was reaching the point where even the creatures looking to tempt her to destruction were telling her to ease back for a bit, something was pretty damn off. Either that or this was a terrible idea and she needed to reject the creature and get back to work. It didn't feel like a terrible idea, though, and that's what made it so much worse. Everyone kept telling her that she was working too hard but she didn't see how it could be helped. There was always going to be some next great challenge and it was always closer than she could predict. Sure, Claymar had been surprisingly quiet of late but that didn't mean he was gone or even something that could be forgotten for an instant. Astrid hadn't been able to tell her anything and he was clearly trying to recruit Taylor again.

  Hell, the very fact that Taylor had brought the attempted treachery to her attention might actually be part of a ploy to get her to relax her guard and give the assassin the perfect moment to strike. All it took was an instant of carelessness and everything could fall to pieces. How could she waste even a second to fantasize about taking time off as all of this was closing in all around her?! She shouldn't even be talking to this creature. It obviously wanted her to fail and/or get a chance to turn her into a mindless puppet. Her and that Pitch bastard had to be working together.

  Cammie snapped her fingers in front of Len's face, ripping her out of her reverie.

  "Yo, Boss. You okay? Kinda seemed like you were spiraling there."

  "Shut up," Len snapped.

  "Beg pardon?"

  "I said shut up! Who the hell are you to be advising me to take it easy. What are you trying to do here?!"

  "Uh..."

  "Where's your master? What's he trying to do by sending you here? What is the point of any of this? What's your angle?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Okay, hold up a second. I think this does actually call for a bit higher level of intervention. Yo! Pitch. Get your ass out here!"

  There was a shimmering in the air and Len felt everything around her stop. The stillness of the world around her made it clear that Pitch had used his time stopping trick again, meaning that she wasn't even in control of her environment anymore. Was this it? Was this the final strategy where he'd reveal his true goals."

  "Oh dear," said the oily creature, assuming his human form. "What is going on with you?"

  "Dunno," Cammie answered as Len cast her eyes about searching for some weapon to use. "Did you break her?"

  "I don't believe so. It's always possible that the tinkering I did with some of her awareness had some less than desirable effects but this seems a touch too extreme to be as simple as that."

  "Tinkering with her awareness? The hell's that supposed to mean."

  "None of your concern, thrall. It is for her benefit and ours. She must get stronger if she's going to survive as our primary vessel. Need I remind you that our fates are now permanently bound to hers?"

  "Seems like all the more reason not to be messing around with her head, if you ask me."

  "Will you two just shut the hell up?" Len roared, throwing herself at Pitch and raining down a flurry of blows with all the rage and desperation that she could muster.

  The shadow didn't seem particularly perturbed by her assault, taking the blows as if they were from a child and otherwise ignoring them. He continued his conversation with Cammie as though Len weren't even there.

  "No, this is something different entirely. It's possible that she's experienced some sort of mental break due to the constant strain she's been under, but I doubt that's it either. It seems to me that the obvious cause is an attack."

  "What kind of attack would do this to a person?"

  "Tough to say. Possibly one of our kind, but it doesn't feel quite right to be one of us. I suspect this has something to do with either that Keris woman or the assassin."

  "Taylor," Cammie put in helpfully.

"I don't actually care what their names are, thrall." Pitch said pointedly. "No, somehow the Namethief has lost a great deal of her sanity after interacting with those two. Probably best to just kill them both. That girl she's so fond of, too. Can't be too careful."

  "Hold up, you're just going to wipe out the people she's been around based on the flimsy assumption that one of them might be related to what's going on with her? Don't you think that's a bit... dumb?"

  "I didn't ask for your opinion on the matter, Thrall. Your job is to do what I tell you to, and I'm telling you what must be done."

  "Uh, not a chance, buddy. My job is to do what SHE tells me to, kinda like you're supposed to. Where is any of this coming from, anyway?"

  "We're wasting time here. She's getting involved with all of these meaningless activities when she should be focused on preparing herself. You know as well as I do the threats facing us."

  "Why the fuck do you two keep acting like I'm not even here?" Len growled, rage boiling so hot that she actually found herself focused again.

  "Oh, have you actually decided to rejoin us?" Pitch asked in an infuriatingly arrogant tone.

  "Rejoin, what are you talking about?"

  "Well, if you'll pardon the observation, you've been acting a touch hysterical up to this point. I much prefer things now that you've regained some semblance of discipline."

  "Buddy, you are walking on ice so thin it might as well be water. Talk very carefully."

  "Oh please, Namethief, do we really need to waste our time with empty threats. You can no more harm me than you can yourself. If you're quite done with the histrionics, shall we get on to the task at hand?"

  "Do tell me what that task might be you son of a bitch."

  "Name calling, now? You're usually so much better at this. What even could be going on with you?"

  Much as she didn't want to admit it, she did feel something was off. There hadn't been much time to consider it, but she'd been starting to feel off for several days now. She'd attributed it to Pitch's revelation that he'd been tinkering with her psyche, a thing she really needed to figure out how to put a stop to, but if that wasn't the cause, she really needed to track down whatever WAS responsible. She didn't have time to have a nervous breakdown and she didn't have room to screw up.

  "All right, fine," she said through gritted teeth. "What do you know."

  "What you do, sadly. There is something affecting you more than usual. Your state of mind is fractured to a concerning degree. On the surface you're keeping things together admirably, but it only takes a minor push to make things spiral out of control. This isn't simply a matter of overwork, your brains chemistry is being altered to a dangerous degree."

  "Any guesses? Is it magic or something else?"

  "It's definitely not magic, at least not any sort that I'm aware of. That sort of thing tends to leave a residue that I can..." he paused. "I'm not actually sure how to describe what the sense is like. Taste, I guess? Doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it doesn't have the taste of magic. Perhaps it could be something chemical in nature?"

  "What, like someone's been poisoning me? How's that even possible, most of my meals are simple bread or things I grab from the food stalls. Hell, the only thing I even have consistently is... the... chakkar. The chakkar that Keris has been so helpful in making sure I have plenty of access to today."

  "Well, that certainly helps narrow things down," said Pitch ominously.

  "Oh please tell me that you're not going to have any objections to me killing her now," said Cammie with a wicked grin on her girlish face.