The banquet continued late into the night. The food seemed as endless as it was diverse. Every time Cass was sure they had cleared a plate on the table, it was replaced with another new dish without so much as a ripple of air displaced.

All of it was delicious. None of it was poisoned as far as Identify, Foraging, or Herbal Concocting was aware. And Cass learned that although her slyphid body did not get hungry, it could become overstuffed.

When the third dessert tray appeared on the table—a candied fruit dusted with sugar and then drizzled with honey—Cass excused herself for some air.

The right side of the hall was lined with doors open to the night. Cass slipped through one of them to be greeted by an empty balcony and a sky of stars.

Cass sighed in relief as she leaned against the palace’s outer wall, her head tilted to the open sky.

She didn’t need to look at it to feel the lack of clouds. She knew the air was clear for miles, the way she knew the distant tree line was green. It was simply something her senses told her and nothing more.

But looking at it filled her with a sense of rightness she couldn’t explain. Was it a slyphid instinct or an Earthen human one? Clear night skies were for star gazing. It was that simple. Perhaps it was something both the human and the slyphid could agree on.

Though the stars above her were unfamiliar. Colder. Brighter.

Their arrangement was foreign. It had been a long time since she’d last looked at the night sky and not been able to find one constellation she was familiar with.

The big dipper. Orion’s belt. Cassiopeia’s throne. All absent.

What kinds of constellations did they watch here? What stories did they tell? Did Alyx know any of them?

“There you are,” Alyx said as if summoned by her thoughts. She held Cass’s staff in one hand.

“Oh, I guess I left that at the table?” Cass took it back from Alyx. It was weird to have a weapon at a party. It was weird to take it with her when she went out for air.

“I’m surprised your minder let you wander off without it.” Alyx glanced around the balcony. Salos was nowhere in sight.

Cass shrugged. “He’s here somewhere.”

She could feel him in the banquet hall still, probably spying on someone.

“Well, as long as he’s staying out of trouble,” Alyx muttered.

Cass wasn’t sure he was, but then again, it would only be trouble if he got caught.

The wind gusted over the balcony. Alyx stepped up to the railing, leaning out over the edge. This side of the palace overlooked rolling hills and low-lying Spires, all dark with the late night.

“How are you doing, Cass?” Alyx asked.

Cass shrugged. “I haven’t died yet.” That counted for something.

Alyx nodded like that was good, informative information. Her hands laced together tightly. They shook. Not much. But Cass could feel it in the air all the same.

“How you doing?” Cass asked.

Alyx spun around, a grin pasted across her face. Her hands clenched around the railing behind her. “I’m fine. Better than fine. I—” Alyx’s breath caught in her through. “—I beat him.”

“Your brother?”

Alyx nodded. It was a sharp, jerky nod. “I don’t think I’ve beaten him since I was twelve.”

There was more Alyx wanted to say. Cass waited for her to find the words.

Alyx turned back out over the balcony again. “I might have a real shot at this. I might win.”

“Can you do it alone?” Cass asked. Their conversation from much earlier that day echoed through her head.

Alyx’s hands clenched tighter around the railing. “I have Marco. It won’t be alone.”

“Alyx,” Cass said softly. “Why won’t you let me help you?”

“Why do you want to?” The question had a defensive bite. It shoved Cass back even as Alyx curled tighter away. “Do you even know what the Catacombs are like?”

Cass shrugged. “Full of monsters?”

She didn’t love the idea, but it couldn’t be that much worse than Uvana.

“People die in there, Cass. I might—” Alyx’s voice wavered.

“What? Die?”

“It’s a possibility.” Alyx looked away.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Then I definitely can’t let you go alone.”

Alyx shook her head and took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was hard. “I don’t think you can handle it.”

Cass crossed her arms over her chest. Alyx was probably right. Cass was only level 19. Alyx was level 26 and Marco was higher still. If this was going to be difficult for people at their level, was there anything Cass could contribute?

And yet, that evaluation stung.

“I killed the Lord of the Pass.” It came out more defensive than Cass had meant it to. And the words kept coming. “I survived Uvana at level 1. How much worse can the Catacombs be?”

She’d killed the giant spider that had grabbed Alyx. She’d survived the lightning-phased lion, the ancient centipede, and the caretaker. She’d more than carried her weight against the bartiang apes on the road.

Despite everyone in this world claiming the contrary, there was more to fights than level alone.

“I know that.” Alyx shook her head. “I know you can handle monsters.”

“Then what is this really about?”

“You have no reason to join me.” Alyx still refused to look at Cass. “I owe you my life and you casually talk about helping me further. I know you don’t intend anything by it. I keep telling myself that.”

There was something hollow about that answer, an excuse but not a lie.

“Is it so hard to believe I just want to help you?” Cass asked.

“You should focus on finding your way home,” Alyx said. “I can solve my problems and pay you back for everything you’ve already done.”

“You can’t pay me back if you’re dead,” Cass shot back. And she didn’t want Alyx to die for this ‘debt’. She’d rather Alyx didn’t die at all.

“I won’t die.”

“You just said that it was a possibility!”

“I won’t die,” Alyx repeated, meeting Cass’s eyes again for the first time.

“You don’t know that.”

“You can’t come.” Alyx made the declaration like it was final.

Cass glared back. “You’re out of excuses and so you’re shutting me down now?”

“I don’t need to explain myself.”

“So you owe me your life, but not a simple explanation?” Cass’s face was hot. Her chest was tight. Her hands curled into frustrated fists around her staff.

Is something wrong? Salos asked, his voice distant but his presence approaching quickly.

I’m fine, Cass snapped.

Alyx looked away. She muttered something.

“What?” With Cass’s Perception and the bonuses of Atmospheric Sense, she heard the words just fine, but they didn’t make any sense to her.

“I don’t think you can handle the people,” Alyx repeated, louder.

The wind stilled between gusts. The low murmur from the banquet hall filled the empty air between them. Salos appeared at her ankles. His gold eyes glared up at Alyx.

“The people?” Cass repeated. That still didn’t make sense. “What about the people?”

“Can you handle people trying to kill you again?”

Alyx’s words were like ice water in Cass’s blood. “What?”

Alyx shook her head. “You can’t.”

Cass’s mind whirled, trying to square the information she had on this event. The goal was to get to the bottom of the catacombs and return with the goddess’s blessing. There was a bonus for doing so first. There were monsters down there.

Was it like the Paris catacombs, dotted with dark corners overeager urban explorers never returned from?

It had to be muggers or traffickers. Ugly for sure but—“I can handle criminals.”

Right?

The faces of the assassins in Hervet floated over her vision. Her stomach turned.

“Criminals?” Alyx repeated. “I’m talking about the other contestants. My brothers. My cousins.”

“What?”

“There are only two dragonlings,” Alyx said as if that explained everything.

Ah. Salos nodded.

“And people kill over them?”

“Do you have any idea what it means to be a Dragon Knight? It’s more than just an impressive steed. It’s more than just my family’s approval. It is the difference between irrelevance and power.”

Cass stared at her. She knew this shouldn’t surprise her at this point. Yet the incredulous words burst from her lips, anyway. “And killing for power is reasonable?”

Alyx’s hand clenched around her sword’s hilt. “When the alternative is dying for someone else’s power, yes.”

“It doesn’t matter how you dress it up. That’s just murder.”

Alyx stared at Cass, an unspoken ‘And?’ hanging between them.

“And murder is wrong!” Cass yelled. It shouldn’t need to be said but, here she was.

You are being unreasonable, Salos said. Killing the competition is a time-honored tradition.

Don’t you start! Cass hissed.

“I knew you wouldn’t take this well,” Alyx muttered. She looked away again. “You should stay in the city. Stay with Telis. You’ll be safe here. I’ll pay you back. I’ll send you home.”

I agree, Salos chirped.

“And what about you?” Cass demanded. “You’re just going to go kill or be killed? You think I want you to kill for me?”

“Maybe it isn’t for you,” Alyx spat back.

“Then why?” Cass asked. “You mean to tell me power is important enough to you to kill for it?”

“That’s how the world works. People die. There is no authority keeping peace in the catacombs. Your power is all you have to protect you.”

“And you expect me to just accept that? That’s just how it is? Should I have accepted Levina’s offer to betray you because my survival was more likely that way? Murder is just the way the world is!” Should I have just accepted you’re my slave because that’s the way the world is? Treat you as nothing more than a servant to Command as I please? That’s the way the world is!

Ridiculous. All of it.

Let her go then, Salos said lazily. Let her die for those beliefs without you. We have other leads. We do not need her. She was convenient. That was all.

Don’t talk to me like you’re better than her right now, Cass warned.

The wind gusted around her. She couldn’t stay here and talk about this. This wasn’t an argument she wanted to have here.

It wasn’t an argument she wanted to have at all.

Cass forced the heat from her voice. “I’ll meet you back at the manor.”

“Cass,” Alyx called after her.

Cass ignored her, Stepping onto the wind and letting it carry her into the night.