K’ivin had made coffee; with the initial burst of adrenaline wearing off, he was beginning to need the caffeine desperately. He and the interloper were seated in the small sitting room, sipping their drinks.

“Now that we are settled, please explain to me exactly what you are doing here,” K’ivin said softly, but forcefully.

“We do have to make this brief, so I will give you the abridged story of my life,” Av’ry smiled amicably.

“Please,” the man was obviously humouring him.

“Well, to start with, I’m a hound from Esrasea. I used to work with a woman you may have known, Taevyn Fox?”

“I didn’t know her, but I knew of her. Her work was brilliant. At least, before…” he trailed off, remembering. “You were close?”

Av’ry smiled sadly, nodding.

“Then I am sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” Av’ry looked at the floor; it still hurt to remember.

“Anyhow,” he continued quickly. “She knew of you, too.”

“What?” K’ivin raised an eyebrow carefully, “What would there be to know about me?”

“I imagine quite a lot,” Av’ry replied off-handedly. “The unofficial spymaster of Maaskal likely has more than a few interesting secrets.”

“Spymaster?” K’ivin chuckled. “My life is hardly that exciting. I am merely an advisor to the emperor, nothing more.”

“I am sure most people believe that, don’t they? Void, I doubt the emperor himself even knows half the things you have your fingers in. I happen to know better, however,” Av’ry smiled. “My friend checked up on you, had a nice little file compiled, actually. From the highlights I skimmed, you and your people were responsible for the fall of the Desert Wasp rebel faction, thwarting the assassination of Duke C’rellin Comaran and retrieving the stolen imperial jewels, before anyone even noticed that they were missing. An impressive résumé. I get the distinct impression that you know everything that happens in this empire; and most of your neighbours too,”

The older man’s jaw dropped,

“How could you know that? Any of it? No one knows. I made sure of it.”

“Don’t ask me how she knew. I never could figure out where she got half of her information.”

“It’s impossible.”

“Yeah, well that never stopped Fox before,” Av’ry chuckled. “But that isn’t really the point. I am not here to trade old stories with you. The only reason I mention it at all is to explain why I am coming to you.”

“And why is that, exactly? You mentioned stopping a war, I assume that was just a bluff to get in the door.”

Now that he was fully awake, K’ivin felt somewhat foolish for admitting the man in the first place.

“Not entirely,” Av’ry replied. “I am here because I really do think that I can help you. If you let me.”

“Normally, I would call the guards and have you put in the stockade for showing up here like this. But these are extraordinary circumstances, and I am desperate. Still, all I can promise is that I will hear you out. Convince me you know something useful, and we’ll go from there.”

Av’ry pulled out his notes,

“Surely, you know about the events surrounding the death of the King of Esrasea a little over a year ago? What impression do you have about it?”

“Of course. It was very suspicious. But I saw no need to press an investigation. Political assassinations are a dime a dozen in Esrasea. A bloody coup in a foreign country was not my concern.”

“You might change your mind about that,” Av’ry muttered darkly. “Here’s the thing, the new Queen, Istaria, had apparently been planning that takeover for quite some time. And it seems that it was only part of a larger scheme. The evidence I have seen suggests that there is something you have in this country that she needs. Something she is willing to start a war over. But I don’t know what it is. I was hoping you might.”

K’ivin placed a pair of glasses with thin wire frames on his nose and picked up Av’ry’s papers.

“Where did your partner get this information?” he asked, after perusing for a moment. It was obvious that he was impressed.

“Afraid I can’t tell you much about that, she guarded her sources very well. Some even from me.”

“Incredible,” K’ivin read in silence for a time, looking over the material Av’ry had read before; he waited patiently, sipping his coffee. Finally, K’ivin set the papers down.

“It makes sense,” K’ivin muttered. “I had wondered about Istaria’s sudden rise to the throne; the power that no one knew she had. An accomplice of some sort would solve several of these problems. But who, and why? And what are they looking for in Maaskal?”

“That I don’t know. And it’s also why I’m here. I only recently learned of all this. The investigation was… unfinished, when Fox died. She suggested you might be able to help me continue it.”

“Well,” K’ivin stroked his chin, deep in thought. “There might be something to find if we trace Istaria’s movements, before her ascension. Something to tell us why she decided to focus on Maaskal as the epicentre of her search. If we could figure out what she wanted here, then… But all of this supposition is premature. I need to I finish going over what you’ve brought.”

K’ivin sat down heavily and reached for the satchel that Av’ry offered.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“So, does that mean that you are on board?”

K’ivin sighed,

“I am tempted. As I am sure you’ve noticed, I do owe my success, in part, to my many paid informants of dubious credibility, and you are certainly no less trustworthy than most of them.”

“Gee, thanks,” Av’ry muttered sarcastically.

“But,” K’ivin continued. “I’m not making a final decision until I look over all of your information and independently verify some of these facts. Then, I will decide what I am going to do. Give me some time to get my people on this. In the meantime, you look exhausted. Come back tomorrow night, once you have had some rest.”

“And after you have had a chance to check up on my story. Got it,” Av’ry chuckled as he got up to leave, but K’ivin stopped him.

“I have to ask,” he said. “Why are you doing this? You are Esrasean. Why betray your people? Why should I trust you?”

“As to trust, there is nothing I can really say to reassure you, except that by the looks of things you have little to lose. And I am doing this because I made a promise to a friend, and I intend to keep it. Esrasea may be where I was born, but I have little loyalty and less love for the Queen,” something dark flickered behind his eyes, “especially given what I know now. My homeland itself has many flaws and if it decides to start this war, it certainly doesn’t deserve to win it.”

K’ivin nodded solemnly. Then dismissed Av’ry with no further words. Opening the balcony doors, Av’ry left the way he had come. K’ivin looked out into the darkness and wondered how much luck he really had left.

*

They had been riding hard all day, and Mikiva would have rather continued a while longer, the more distance she put between herself and that house the better, but the horses were exhausted and so they finally decided to call a halt for the night. Jade built a fire while Mikiva gathered more wood in the sparse forest around them. The weather was cool, but pleasant, and the calls of night birds and crickets filled the air. Sitting down near a small stand of trees, Jade leaned back and warmed her feet by the crackling fire as Mikiva arranged the wood in a small pile nearby, mentally calculating if it would be enough to last the night. Satisfied, she settled on the ground opposite Jade. The two women sat in silence for a time, just listening to the night music. Jade prodded idly at the fire with a branch, watching sparks swirl up into the night,

“So, tell me something, how did you become a spy for the crown?” she asked.

“It was sort of an accident, actually. I just happened to have the necessary skill set,” Mikiva laughed. “When I quit my last job a few of years ago, K’ivin approached me with an opportunity. I wasn’t really doing anything else, so I figured, why not?”

“Old job?”

“I really don’t like to talk about it,” her tone told Jade to let the subject drop, quickly. “How about you, how did you come to be in Avrinly’s employ?”

“Pretty typical story really,” Jade shrugged. “I was born to a woman in slavery. When I came of age I was sold to a new master. When my old master died, I was sold again and came to Avrinly.”

“What about your mother, do you ever see her?”

“No. Not that I can remember,” she replied offhandedly.

“You don’t know?”

“I never really think about her,” Jade shrugged. “Not unless somebody asks. It’s just never seemed that important.”

Mikiva frowned. Seeing her face, Jade raised an eyebrow,

“Why? Is that unusual?”

“I don’t really know. To me it would be, but we have led very different lives.”

“Yes, I imagine we have” Jade forced a laugh.

“Speaking of, what are you going to do, now that you are free? What are your plans?”

“I’m not really sure, yet. Maybe I could tag along with you?”

“I don’t know how my boss would feel about that,” Mikiva chewed her lip, eyeing her new friend.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to this woman than she was saying. Maybe that didn’t mean anything, she wasn’t telling Jade everything about herself either, after all. On the other hand, perhaps she was missing a trick here. She had agreed to the woman’s terms because she hadn’t seen another option at the time, but she couldn’t help wondering if she had been played, somehow. Was bringing her back to the capital, to the spymaster, a mistake? She couldn’t be sure. For now, she decided to just observe, see if she could learn anything more. If not, well, she would just have to let K’ivin determine it for himself.

“I will have to think about it,” Mikiva continued.

“That’s all I can ask.”

A few moments of silence passed before Mikiva cleared her throat awkwardly,

“We should try and get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

“Good idea,” Jade agreed, settling down by the fire.

Mikiva watched her close her eyes before leaning her own head back. She listened carefully to her companions breathing and to the darkness outside the firelight. She tried to stay awake herself, but she had barely slept in days, trying to make her modifications and complete her notes in time. Before she even realized, she had slipped into a fitful sleep.

Jade lay on the ground by the fire, gazing up at the moons. It was very late, well, early depending on how you looked at it, Jade reflected. The blue moon was hanging high in the sky, and the silver moon was just beginning to dip down below the horizon. She knew that she should be sleeping, there was much to do tomorrow, but she just couldn’t seem to drift off. Instead, she lay on the ground, thinking. She still couldn’t believe that she was here, that she was free and away from that place. Jade already knew the first thing she was going to do when they reached town, she was going to buy some clothes and a hot meal. These were things that ordinary people took for granted, but they were a luxury to those who had never had the option. Imagining that proved a pleasant diversion for a moment, until she remembered that she had no money and no real skills. Jade wondered what kind of work she could do, how she would earn a living. That part was concerning. Perhaps Mikiva could help, at least give her some advice about where to start looking. Maybe there would even be work at the palace, though that was likely to be domestic work, and she didn’t really want to go back to that. It might be a good place to start, though, save up some money before moving on to other things. The thoughts swirled around in her mind, a dizzying mixture of excitement and trepidation. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. Sleep wasn’t coming, maybe a walk would clear her head.

Jade rose silently and headed out of the glade and into the woods. Frogs and other creatures scurried from her path as she walked, and the cool grass brushed against her ankles. Eventually, she came upon a stream. Stripping off her shoes, she sat on the bank and let her feet dangle into the frigid water. The temperature was notably below ambient, which meant that the stream must be from mountain run-off. Cold, melted snow, now far from home. The gentle rippling and the cool embrace of the water was soothing, it calmed her mind, let her think more clearly.

Her own feelings were hard to sort through; she was used to the imposition of order, to having few choices about the direction of her own life. She didn’t know if she could cut it out in the world, she had never had the chance to try. And as much as she had hated her old life, as much as she had wanted to get away, now she found herself suddenly afraid that she was going to fail. The doubt had been gnawing at her insides since shortly after they left. She knew that Mikiva would never understand these thoughts, she had lived her whole life a free woman, made her own choices, faced the world and won, that was all she had ever known; people like that never understood how servitude and pain could be comfortable, how anyone could want that for themselves. But just because something was unpleasant, didn’t mean that it wasn’t also comfortable. It was, in a way, like her feet in the stream; eventually you just became numb, and it didn’t hurt anymore. But when you got out of that water, that was when the feeling returned, that was when you started to hurt.

Jade shook her head; she couldn’t think like this. Doubts aside, she knew that she didn’t regret her decision. It was her life, and she was going to live it however she pleased. Pulling her feet out of the water she let them air dry for a moment, then pulled her socks and boots back on. The fear of the unknown was not going to stop her from pressing forward. This was just… cold feet. Jade chuckled at her own stupid joke. Maybe she could get some sleep tonight after all.