As we float downwards, Kiora relaxes her hand, but I clinch tighter.

“You don't want to let go here,” I whisper. “There are things already watching us, already preparing.”

Her own fingers clamp down on mine.

“Good,” I whisper.

We're in a part of the Shadow Vaile I've never seen. Off in the distance, right on the horizon, is a faint green light, spreading its ill brightness across the landscape.

And that landscape is completely barren.

It looks like a desert floor, just dirt and sand. As we continue falling, my eyes search for Silvy.

Where is she? What is she doing?

Kiora gives my fingers a sharp squeeze, bringing my attention back to her.

I never should've brought Cerulea into Coffee and Content. I caused this. This is all my fault.

Below us the empty landscape looks to be sinking, but then I see what's really happening.

It's not sinking at all.

The depression tears open into a mouth and inside, lining the edges, are squirming creatures. Three-headed snakes with needles as teeth. Red and green eyes gleam.

Kiora lets out a little cry and I put my arm around her, wrapping her in a hug so she won't look down.

Before we get any closer to the gaping maw, a portal opens below us and we slip through.

We hit the lobby of Sulis hard. Kiora rolls off to the side and I see tears on her face.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

Sitting on the ground, she pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. She doesn't speak.

“Kiora, are you okay?”

She slowly shakes her head no and I search the lobby of Sulis for Silvy. She sits on the first step of the staircase.

“What was that?” I ask.

“We’re not related.” Silvy shrugs. “If it bothers you that much, bring some water next time. Most creatures from the Shadow Vaile hate water.”

“No, not that. I mean why did it take so long?”

“That's just how it is sometimes, darling,” Silvy says. “The Shadow Vaile is always moving, changing. It’s alive you know.”

Kiora whispers, “It felt like being in Belladonna. For the first time in so long I was warm.”

I nod. I know exactly how she feels. Even though I'd had the drink she’d given me moments before, being in the Shadow Vaile was a completely different experience.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Drinking the drink she made me was like putting on a coat that had been sitting on a heater after walking outside in the cold. Being in the Shadow Vaile was like slipping into a sauna. Instant warmth versus following warmth.

“Yeah,” I say. “I know what you mean.”

My mind slips back to Arbor. Arbor and Pixie, but right now I need to focus on Arbor.

“How did you know that Arbor was dating Dan?”

Kiora shakes her head. “I really think his name is Dom, and she isn't dating him. She's seeing him.”

I raise my eyebrows. You said dating earlier.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“He was tutoring her.”

Dating to seeing to being tutored.

“Tutoring her? Tutoring her in what?”

“Scheme.”

I chew on my lip. I didn't know they had tutors for that.

“Personal coaching?” Kiora suggests. “I'm not sure. All I know is that he was teaching her.”

“So Arbor wanted to learn how to play scheme. Why?”

“I don't know,” Kiora says. “If I did, maybe we wouldn't be here.”

“Maybe,” I say, “but maybe we still would. There must've been some reason why she was learning.”

Some reason you’re not telling me.

Kiora chews on her lip.

“What?” I ask.

“There's something else.”

Something else. Always a bad sign.

“Oh?” I ask.

“Yes, they were meeting here.”

“In Sulis?”

“No. In Nightsbridge. This is where he was tutoring her.”

This doesn’t make any sense. Why would a scheme tutor be teaching a witch scheme in the stick world? Why not in Anara?

“Where?” I ask.

“I don't know where. I don't know Nightsbridge.”

“What did Arbor say about the place where she was learning? Did she ever describe it?”

Kiora starts to shake her head no but stops. “She said it was old. She said there were broken boards. Broken windows.”

There's only one abandoned house in all of Nightsbridge. The rest of the abandoned houses have been burned down or leveled, shiny new houses or developments taking their place. The only abandoned house left is on the outskirts of the town, right up against my exiled boundary.

“Did she say it was on the outskirts?” I ask.

Kiora shakes her head. “She just said it was in Nightsbridge. She didn't specify where in Nightsbridge.”

I nod.

“She was there the night—” Kiora’s words choke off in a quick sob. She takes a moment before trying to speak again. “Have you been there a lot?”

“To that house? No. But I’ve seen it a few times driving—”

“No,” Kiora interrupts, “the Shadow Vaile. Have you been there a lot?”

I shrug. “Several times. I don't go unless I have to, if that's what you're asking.”

“Growing up on Belladonna, we were taught that anyone who visited the Shadow Vaile, even once, was cursed. I'm cursed. You’re cursed.”

“I mean, I'm cursed, sure.” I glance up to my horns and back to Kiora. “But you're not cursed. The Shadow Vaile is just a place.”

Silvy chuckles from the step she's lying on. “It's so much more than just a place.”

Kiora shakes her head. “It's supposed to be were all luma is created. It's the source.”

I don't know much about the history of the Lumaverse, or its mythology, but I shake my head. “I thought the Builder was the source?”

Kiora shakes her head. “The Shadow Vaile came first. The Builder was born in the Shadow Vaile and left once he grew tired of the darkness.”

I nod, not really understanding, but what am I supposed to do? Argue with her?

My mind drifts away from the Builder and onto Arbor, onto that abandoned building where this Dom guy was supposedly tutoring her on how to play scheme.

There's a lot of money in scheme if you can play it well. There are underground tournaments where you can even play a deadly variety called Death Scheme. Original, I know.

I'd played several games of this variety. Only when I was at my lowest and needed to quickly come up with rent for the Austerium gateway.

Kiora looks over at me again and I can see that there's fear in her eyes. She's scared of me.

Because I've gone to the Shadow Vaile several times? Seems like a strange thing to be afraid of someone for. It has to be something else.

I decide to change the subject. “Those two witches who came to visit you. Who were they?”

“They're from Hive Duress.”

“That means nothing to me. What did they want?”

Kiora doesn't speak for a long time, but when she does, she doesn't answer the question. “You have to help me.”

“Help you? Help you what?”

“You have to help me get back to Belladonna. Those witches want to kill me. They're from a warring hive.”