"Why did you lie to me?" Olivia said.

"What did you expect, Olivia? You'd just wander in out of the forest, and we'd tell you all of our secrets?" Irritation crept into Hina's voice. "Like you did?"

"I can't believe you!" She was sitting right at the edge of the barrier. "I have been nothing but generous and friendly, even when I thought you were ordinary."

"Ordinary! Yes, that's exactly why I lied! For all I knew, you could have snapped your fingers and left our guts steaming on the ground."

"It doesn't work like th—No. I'm done explaining things to you. What, are you some kind of third rate witch? Sneaking around the forest, poisoning people, and not being very good at—anything!"

"Your 'ward' didn't even work! The beast came right to us."

Olivia made a frustrated sound. "You're the ones who messed up at basic campsite procedures by leaving food everywhere. You left animal guts on the ground beside your beds! Of course you attracted a beast!"

"Why didn't you tell us?!"

"I thought you knew what you were doing!"

"We've got no idea what we're doing," added Kai, sleepily.

"Thanks Kai." Hina rolled her eyes. "That thing is after probably after us now. And we left a whole bunch of stuff back at the campsite."

"You can't go back," Olivia said. "Even if it's gone, there'll be others nearby. You can't just cut animals up and go to sleep in the same place—have you never been in a forest before?"

"No," said Kai. "We haven't."

Hina sighed. She supposed that was a fair point. "This was the first time we've caught anything."

"Well, that was stupid. There, I said it." She sighed too. "What is this circle?"

"Bell's Lesser Barrier."

Olivia's eyes went wide. "Where did you get that?"

"You're not the only strange woman we've met in the woods. The other one seemed friendly, too. At first."

"And she taught you a working? That doesn't make any sense, Hina."

Hina sighed. Better to let her read it, she supposed. She fished the letter from the academy out of her bag—which croaked. A little water stained, but still legible. Hina leaned forward to pass it over. "Here."

"Oh." Olivia read, her frown deepening. "So you're what, a baseborn charity case?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"And a strange women showed up in the woods to teach you workings? Restricted workings? Did she give you anything else?"

"An exercise on ambit strengthening," Hina said.

Olivia scoffed. "You'd need it."

"And the lesser sigil of guidance," Hina continued.

"What?" Olivia stared at her. "Have you looked at it? Have you used it?"

Hina nodded slowly. "Yes."

"The woman. She came back after," Kai said, "did something to fix Hina. Said that we owed her a debt." He shook his head. "Something's not right about her. The woman."

"I don't like when people lie to me," Olivia said. "Just tell me the truth, okay?"

"I'm not lying, I swear," said Kai. He looked at Hina. "I haven't lied at all."

"He's telling the truth," Hina said.

"Listen, Olivia," Kai said, "what was that thing last night?"

"A forest huld, I think. A little one." Olivia seemed distracted. "I didn't get a good look."

"A little one?" said Hina. "It was almost as big as a tree!"

"They get bigger. The trinkets, did they come from this woman too?"

"The trinkets?"

"You know what I mean. The salt shaker and the others—there are more in your bag. I can feel it."

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"The wolves we told you about. They chased us into this tower, only it wasn't ruined, all of these rooms and monsters were in there?" Kai said. "We found those things inside."

"What? What on earth were you thinking?" Olivia's voice rose. "You went inside a House?"

Kai and Hina looked at one another.

"What?" Hina said.

"What's a House?" Kai asked.

"They kill people, you know that? Especially ordinary people. Or even nearly ordinary people."

"It wasn't that bad. We fought what, three monsters? Got some stuff and then left."

"We were trying to get away from the wolves," said Kai. "We were trapped in there."

"You didn't make any deals or promises? To anyone or anything while you were in there?"

Kai shook his head.

"No, nothing like that," Hina said. Except for agreeing to help Alik, but she didn't think that counted.

"Well, maybe you got lucky, I guess." Olivia sighed. "Just... don't do it again." She shook her head. "My mother says that they all look different, but you can tell by the feeling when you step inside. There's a... wrongness that is supposed to make it obvious. You're supposed to leave immediately unless you're already powerful."

"And you're not? Already powerful?"

"No, Hina. I am on my way to the academy as a first year student, just like you. Apparently."

Hina reached forward and plucked her invitation back out of Olivia's hands.

Olivia groaned. "I guess we're going to be classmates."

Hina shook her head. On a whim, she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Olivia. I'm Mahina Gardiner, Student Candidate to the Qalarian Academy."

Olivia sighed and took her hand. "I am Olivia Moore," she said, giving Hina's hand a single gentle shake before releasing it. "A pleasure to meet you too."

"So, that forest huld, or whatever it was," Hina said. "Could you have scared it away?"

"Not a chance. You're supposed to avoid attracting their attention in the first place. I don't know what you were thinking."

"It was an accident," Kai said. "We didn't know."

Olivia sighed.

"So, if it comes back?" Hina asked. "What should we do?"

"We're going to have to run," Olivia said. "We can't fight it."

"Can we hide behind a barrier?"

"What does this barrier actually do? Do you know?"

"Whatever's on the inside is harder to notice. And it makes a warning noise if anything intentionally crosses the barrier. Similar to yours, I think."

"Then no." Olivia shook her head. "It won't help—maybe if it's dark or it hasn't noticed us. Huld are smart, Hina. If it's looking for us, it'll notice the effect this thing"—she pointed carefully at the line of the barrier—"has on its attention, and it'll come straight to us. They like eating practitioners, more than anything else. The House is probably why it's here."

"What—why do they like eating practitioners?"

"They eat power. They'll take ordinary people if they can't get practitioners, of course, but they prefer us," Oliva said. "Like most of the beasts. We'll have to hope it doesn't see us. Or smell us, or hear us. If it decides to follow us, we'll be in trouble."

Birds were chirping in the background. Hina's backpack croaked. The morning light made the forest seem like a bright and cheerful place.

A tree branch broke somewhere off in the distance. Hina shivered.

"If we travel swiftly, maybe we'll be able to make it as far as Blandmanch before it catches up with us. It seemed a little too big for this forest. It probably can't move at full speed through the trees."

Hina nodded. "Okay. What are we missing? I know we left the cookpot. The bowls and spoons, my blanket at least."

"My spear," said Kai. "My blanket too. I got my bag, but I left my water bottle."

They both looked at Olivia.

"Oh, I lost a blanket, that's all. Nothing important."

"So we're going to have some cold, hungry nights until we make it to town. We're probably okay for water, but we'll be stopping to refill more often."

"We're pretty close, aren't we? To Blandmanch?" asked Kai.

"Yes. A day or two, I think," Olivia said.

"At the most," Hina said. "What are your plans, Olivia?"

Olivia paused for a few moments, frowning. "I think," she spoke slowly, "it would be sensible for us to stick together, at least until Blandmanch. We can reconsider after that, if that's okay with you two?"

"Yes," Kai said.

Hina nodded.

"I have a little food we can share, but it won't go far with three of us," Olivia said.

Hina's bag croaked again.

"Or four of us, I guess."

"We've still got plenty of beans, just no way to cook them."

"Just—if you could. I don't have any right to your life story, but if there's anything else I need to know—I don't like being lied to, okay?"

Hina was in the bakery, her hand on the knife as it slid—

She nodded. "Okay."

Kai looked at her and turned to Olivia. "Hina killed someone back at home—in self defence."

"Kai!"

"We're on the run," he continued, talking quickly. "From our family and maybe also the guard? I don't know—we haven't seen hardly anyone since we left. The guard chased us out of town, so we're probably gonna have to deal with that at some point? Hina thinks that if we get to the city we'll be fine, but..." He glanced at Hina before looking away, into the distance. "I don't know if that's true." He ran out of words and stopped talking, took a deep breath. He didn't look at her.

Hina's bag croaked.

Olivia's face went slack. She appeared to be fascinated by the trees.

After a few moments: "It wasn't... murder?" she asked, in a small voice.

Hina touched her face. The bruises had faded now, but she felt numb. "He was my bethrothed, I guess," she said. "He was trying to force me to stay—he was so so angry." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Maybe—I was just trying to get away." Her head felt hollow, her mind stuck on a loop of half finished thoughts. She didn't— She hadn't— It wasn't—

"Her face. It was black with bruises. They're faint now, but you can still see em if you look close," Kai said, shaking his head. "It wasn't murder. That man, he deserved everything he got. And more."

A warmth bloomed in Hina's chest.

"Oh," Olivia said. She shook her head. "Sorry. You didn't have to—I'm sorry I asked."

"It's okay," Hina said, watching herself talk. "It's—it is what it is."

"It was important," Kai said. "Like, I had to say something." He screwed up his face. "If I didn't, that was gonna come back to bite us later."

"Thank you, I guess?" Olivia nodded slowly. "Yes. You're right. Better to know."

In the distance, a heavy footstep, followed by another. Hina was distantly aware that the birds had stopped singing.

"We need to go now," said Kai. He stood and held out a hand to Hina, pulled her up. "Get ready."

He pulled his bag onto his shoulder, and helped Hina with hers. Bean croaked from inside the bag.

"Which way?" asked Kai.

Hina and Olivia both pointed in slightly different directions.

"Follow me," Olivia said.

Kai shrugged. "Okay," he said. The snap when he broke the barrier with his toe was loud.

Olivia led the way in a kind of half-walk, half-jog. Kai followed, pulling Hina by the hand.

The footsteps grew louder behind them.