Upon hearing Cerulea's voice, I try to spin around. It doesn't entirely work that way though. The point pressed into my back turns blunt, widens. My hands, down at my sides, are wrapped in something hard and cold hard. They're yanked behind my back. I glance over at Kiora and see that the same thing has happened to her.

The worst part? I know exactly what's happening.

We're both in Austerium cuffs.

And the thing about Austerium cuffs is that they're connected to the person who places them. They're essentially cursed arcana that can't be removed unless the person who places them decides to remove them.

“Did you think I was going to forget about you?” Cerulea asks.

“Kind of?” I say.

She laughs. “Not likely. Two witches? In Anara? That just can't stand.”

How did she find me? Is she working with Renald?

I take a deep breath and blow it out.

You getting paranoid. You're seeing shadows where there are none.

I'd taken Cerulea to the Red Market. I'd let her know about the only other place I might be.

How did she get here without an invite?

“So who did you bribe?” I ask.

Cerulea snorts. “Do you not think the Austerium has people on every plaine and shard?”

I've always assumed they had people in most places, but I didn't think they had anyone here in the Red Market. And that brought up something else.

If I alert the Red Market that she's an adept, she'll be done for. She'll be murdered and quickly.

“What's to stop me from letting everyone know what you are?” I ask.

Cerulea doesn't say anything for a few moments.

“You didn't think ahead that far, did you?” I ask. “You just thought you'd get us, hoped you'd get us I should say, and then return us right back to the Austerium and nothing would happen? No fallout?”

“If you say anything,” Cerulea hisses, “I'll kill your friend. The Austerium may be going soft on you, half-witch, but a real witch? I'm legally within my rights to execute her right here, right now. The Austerium gives me that power.”

I could try to run, but the Austerium cuffs will stay there until I die or cut my hands off. Even if Cerulea dies, the cuffs will stay.

I have one other option. It's an option I don't entirely want to use but based on the situation I don't see any other choice.

I glance over at Kiora and mouth the words I'm sorry.

Cerulea picks up on this. “You should be sorry,” she says. “I can't believe you came back here. I can't believe you came back to the one place I knew you had access to. Embarrassing. Truly.”

“That's not what I was apologizing for.”

“Oh.” Cerulea laughs. “Maybe you’re apologizing for the fact that you got your friend here killed. I might not be executing her yet, but the Austerium most assuredly will destroy her once we make it back.”

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“Assuming we make it back,” I say.

I look around for Silvy.

My eyes travel to a cart where a man is in tight negotiations with another man. On the cart between them is a black dagger. There there's a stain along the edge and the crust of something long since dried.

Silvy is jumping back and forth between their two opposing shoulders.

She glances over at me and shrugs. Her paw shoots out and she pops the button off the man's collar, catching it with her other paw and making it disappear.

I mouth two words to her and she smiles. She blinks out of existence and reappears on my shoulder.

“Are you sure?” she asks.

I nod my head a fraction of an inch. I don't look at her again, but I can feel her smiling.

“Cerulea,” I say putting every bit of regret in my voice I can muster. “I apologize.”

Cerulea laughs. “Your apology means nothing. You mean nothing. I thought you knew that by now?”

I smile and shake my head. “No. I apologize for what's about to happen to you. I'm not entirely sure that you deserve it, I mean, I think you do, but sometimes you can't be entirely sure.”

“What are you babbling about?”

“Yes,” I say. “What am I babbling about?”

“Keep walking,” she hissed.

“I do have one question though. Something you can maybe help me out with?”

Cerulea doesn't say a word as we move towards a part of the Red Market I've never been.

“Do you know where the Forbidden Library is?” I ask.

I feel her stiffen and she clears her throat. “Yes.”

“What's the problem?”

“Nothing,” she says. “I'm just wondering why you want to know about the Forbidden Library.”

“I have my reasons,” I say.

“Well… don't.”

Cerulea has always come off as the type of person who enjoys lording information over someone else. The fact that she's so hesitant to talk about the Forbidden Library is an interesting development.

“Okay,” I say. “I'm starting to get bored now.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means we’re going on a little trip.” I quit walking and make a quick sidestep in front of Kiora, who bumps into me. Cerulea turns and lunges at us, believing we're trying to escape.

Just like I want her to.

“Whoops,” I say and look down. Cerulea does the same and sees what blinks open below us.

A portal.

She screams as we fall through and float downwards in the Shadow Vaile. My hands, still cuffed behind me, make changing positions in the air a little hard.

We are in a part of the Shadow Vaile that I've never seen. That sickly green light was still just at the horizon.

Does it ever fully come out?

I push that thought away. I don't want to know where that light is coming from.

Below us is what looks like water. It flows in a rapid current, but there's no landmass to be seen.

“We're back.” Kiora breathes out a sigh of pleasure. “I can feel it in my bones. So warm.”

She isn't the only one. The warmth fills me, feeds me. All the exhaustion weighing me down from using the witchstones dissipates as warmth flows through my veins.

“Where are we?” Cerulea asks. Her head keeps snapping to the left and right, looking at new things, trying to understand where we are. Trying to understand how the power has shifted so drastically and in only a millisecond.

I looked over at her. “Where do you think we are?”

Cerulea shakes her head, but I can tell she has an inkling.

“Silvy,” I say, “while we're here can you open a portal to the Forbidden Library?”

“Of course.” Silvy yawns, her glowing eyes slowly spinning, clockwise. “I am a familiar.”

“Thank you,” I say. I turn back to Cerulea and smile. “First time here?”

She doesn't respond.

“You know, with you knowing all the places I've been, I figured maybe you would know about this place? The Austerium has people everywhere, right?”

She doesn't say anything.

“I guess they do now,” I say.

The water below us shifts and starts whirling in a vortex. As the void at the center of the vortex descends, faces press out against the wall of water. These faces are humanoid but are missing noses and eyes. At the center of each phase is a gaping mouth filled with yellow teeth.

Cerulea looks at me. “Get us out of here.”

“Maybe,” I say. “You never know though. Maybe we'll just stay a little.”

“Get us out of here.”

“You know, the thing about magick, is that witches can eat it.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No,” I say. “I'm not threatening you. I'm letting you know a fact.”

I glance over at Kiora and she nods. Her horns glow and Cerulea screams.

I roll my eyes. “She's not eating your magick, you coward.”

Behind my back, I feel the cuffs disappear. I fold my arms in front of my chest and shake my head at Cerulea, disappointed.

“What did you think?” I ask. “Did you think magical cuffs were going to work on a witch?”

Cerulea looks up and I can finally see the terror in her eyes.

Silvy yawns as we continue floating towards those mouths waiting below.

“Good news and bad news,” Silvy says.

“What's the good news?” I ask.

“I found the Forbidden Library.”

“And the bad news?”

“It's wizards only.”

Cerulea chuckles at that. “You can't get in. I can't even get in. The entire library is warded against anyone with magick abilities less than those of a wizard.”