I visit Pearl two more times after the first, once to ask for her help with the book and the other to return the book and talk more about Alchemy. Each time, I'm invited into their abode, and I try to observe without being too obvious about it. I get the general layout, which room is hers and which is her father's. And which room is also used as a study.

I see where the Knights stand and how they're distributed between the floors, a Knight in front of each door.

A knight also accompanies Pearl wherever she goes.

During the visits, Pearl and I talk a lot about alchemy. She exposes how some alchemic principles frame how they do magic in Pangea and how the Ravens are able to use that to form high-technology weapons.

"Ravens are not naturally born with wells of internal mana," she says. "Much like the Kabanni, our clan typically doesn't have tons of people with natural magical affinity. There have been a few mages but mostly, the Farrows and even some Western clans have way more magic than we do. And so, we had to evolve to survive. That meant figuring out how to imbue our tools and weapons with magic for maximum efficacy."

"Interesting," I say and truly I am interested. Even though I'm mostly visiting to scope our target out, I'm also eager to learn more about the mechanics of Pangean culture. I was only in Pangea for a short time in third life, and didn't make many friends there. While Pangeans weren't been as open about it as Northerners, they didn't like the Kabbani either, and saw us as little more than traitorous slaves, and dull subhumans who couldn't use magic. As such most native Pangeans ignored my existence and those that didn't were usually in the same position as me.

But also, I actively avoided making friends in Pangea. After the disaster in the second life, where everyone I'd cared about died, I promised myself not to open up to anyone again.

But I wasn't able to keep that promise. One long faced, big-eared little boy snuck his way past my defenses and became my friend despite all my attempts to push him away, even though I never knew his name.

Our friendship was short-lived because soon after we met he disappeared and I was captured by the Empress of Pangea, and tortured in her chambers by her army of Farrow Witches.

And my friend suffered an even worse fate than I did. A fate worse than death.

I shudder just thinking about it. My mind always goes back to that whenever I consider running away again, whenever I think about if dealing with the King's nonsense is truly worth it.

No matter how bad it gets here in the North I can never compare the King to the Empress of Pangea. The King is a short-sighted, vengeful maniac. The Empress is...there are no words to describe what she is.

But what she did to my friend was pure unnatural evil. And she did it to him and countless others without a single thought.

Talking to Pearl occasionally brings back bitter memories, but the best way to defeat an enemy is to know them. So I encourage Pearl to keep talking about Pangea, and I also learn that there is a long-standing enmity between the Farrows and the Ravens, stemming from their differing views on how to treat magic. Farrows want to keep things traditional and have an orthodox devotion to ancient magic principles and spells, insisting on upholding even the most archaic of customs.

The Ravens are a lot more flexible and are not necessarily concerned with worshiping deities and mana creators like the Farrows. They're care more about how magic can help them with mundane life, and of course, how it can help them make more money.

So the Raven see Farrows as old-fashioned, stuffy snobs, and the Farrows see the Ravens as uncultured, money-hungry, heathens.

Explains why Seir attended to the Pearl in my first life, rather than the Farrow Witch. Remembering that gives me an idea.

At the end of our second meeting, I decide to invite Pearl over to my library rendezvous with Seir the next day.

And so, the day of our ruse begins ironically with seeing Pearl Raven again.

She's in the library when I get there, at the back explaining something to Seir while surrounded by stacks of books.

Seir throws me an annoyed look when I arrive and I send him an apologetic one in return.

I didn't consider it much when I invited her but I thought the two would at least get along well. They're both interested in alchemy, both smart and perhaps Pearl's input could have been the thing that caused a breakthrough for Seir in the first life. After all, they spent time together when he treated her for a minor illness. No doubt she would have brought it up. I thought it would be a simple, pleasant get-together.

But that's not how things end up. As it turns out, putting two extremely intelligent people in the same room is a recipe for snark and passive-aggressive verbal battles.

Well, passive-aggressive on the side of Seir. I don't think Pearl knows how to be passive-aggressive.

She's just directly, unintentionally insulting.

“Do you not see where you went wrong?" she asks, glancing over Seir's shoulder as he writes down a formula for me.

His lips tighten. “What is wrong this time?”

“The calculation for Yoma's theory," she says. “You must add a cofactor that would allow the expansion of matter."

He frowns down at it. "Yoma's theory?"

"Yes,” she says. “Surely, you've heard about it?" She blinks and then rolls her eyes. "Oh wait, I forgot you two are using a centuries-old book. They probably called it Thunberg's theory in your book, and only later did Yoma refine it. That's probably why you didn't include the cofactor." She turns to me. "You should have asked me and I would have brought the more recent workbook."

"Oh. My mistake," I respond and now I'm even more sure of my theory that Pearl leads to Seir's breakthrough. Perhaps, giving Seir some of her more recent books will help him.

Although not right now. Seir looks too annoyed to take anything from her right now.

His lips press together but he ignores her and goes back to his calculation.

"Also you’re wrong about this too," Pearl points to a symbol on the page, undeterred by Seir's silence.

"I’m not wrong,” he says.

"Yes, you are,” she said. "There are only three propositions for a Cure for All Ills."

“There are four,” he says. "If you include the symbol noted down by both Karl York and Avi Priest."

"I've never heard about that."

"I wouldn't expect you to,” he counters. "Only those who have truly studied the original text enough to understand subtleties in language would comprehend it. If you rely on other translations, obviously you will miss out on a lot."

Ha. One point for Seir.

"Hmm," Pearl says, and rather than be offended, she seems thoughtful instead. "Interesting."

I smile and remain quiet as she keeps peppering him with questions and suggestions, while Seir only answers begrudgingly. It's like watching a duel with words back and forth they go until the sun is low in the sky.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Ah,” she hops to her feet, stretching her arms over her head. “It's nearly dark. Father will want me home soon. He'll scold me for being late again, even though it's everyone else that's early."

“We'll be leaving then,” I tell Seir.

“Praise be,” he responds without looking up from his book. I give him a fond little hair ruffle as we head out, joining Pearl's Knight who was waiting by the door.

Unexpectedly, Pearl laces her arm through mine as we walk down the market. I can feel eyes on us from the late evening stragglers, and the vendors closing up shop. I suppose we make an amusing pairing, the outcast with the Raven Lady and her Knight. We're likely loathed for different reasons but loathed all the same.

"Hmm," Pearl comments lightly.

"What?" I ask.

"This is nice."

"What is?"

"Holding hands. I often see the ladies of the ton do it but I never had a friend to do it with before."

She thinks I'm her friend? The thought stuns me right as I catch sight of something strolling through the market square.

I nearly freeze as I lock eyes with the figure at the edge of the square, and only keep moving due to Pearl's momentum. The woman has her face half turned away, but I can recognize that sneer anywhere. It's my mother.

I dropped the rest of the coins at her home days ago, so I'm not sure why she's glaring at me. I avoid her gaze looking away.

I start to pull my arm out of Pearl's hold and she releases me.

“My apologies,” she says. “It probably wouldn’t help your reputation to be seen with a Raven, would it?”

“It’s not about my reputation” I respond. “But it wouldn’t be good for you to be seen with me."

“I don’t care what they think,” she says. “I like you and if they’re not smart enough to like you too, then that's their problem."

Her statement, so honestly uttered like all her other ones, makes me blush and brings an odd warmth to my chest. I should not be feeling like this for someone who is supposedly my enemy but I really, really like Pearl Raven.

I also feel a tinge of guilt for what we were about to do. She thinks I'm truly her friend, yet my friendship is a lie.

Or is it?

Because truthfully, I have started to enjoy her company. I enjoy her frank albeit offensive way of speaking and I also learn so much from her. She has taught me a method to read, that makes it way easier for the words not to swim around so much in my mind.

And now I'm repaying her by spying on her.

This is necessary, I tell myself. It's for the good of the North, and it's the only way to save your friends.

"I cannot wait to see you dance tonight," Pearl says. "I think I'm a fair dancer but my brother, Roderick, says I have two left feet which is by definition impossible and an asinine way of telling me that I can't dance. And I told him that he must have two left feet too because he stomps on the heart of a young delicate woman such as myself."

"How old are you?"

"I’m twenty-two."

I start. I thought she was the same age as me. To find out she's four years older is surprising.

"I turned twenty-two last month," she says. "Father threw a grand party and he cried while giving a speech."

"Oh." I think about my eighteenth birthday. It passed a few weeks ago by my calculation. While I was in the Dark Forest.

Once again, it passed without event.

"I suppose they didn't think I would live this long," Pearl continues.

"Why not?"

"I had a strange disease when I was born. My mother had it too but much later, and she fell into a coma at the age of twenty-five. Father is worried the same will happen to me, but I'm fine."

"Yes, you look fine. And young for your age, if it's any consolation."

"I get that a lot. My father said it's because I'm sheltered and don't know much about life. Roderick says it's because I don't eat enough and weigh the same as a mouse." She glances at me out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sensitive about my height so please do not make jokes about it."

"I wasn't about to," I say. "But also you’re not short."

"You only say that because you northerners are abnormally small. Because you're all so malnourished."

"We're not all malnourished," I counter.

She purses her lips. "True. That friend of yours doesn't look malnourished at all and neither does the Prince. How come? My father always told me that you lot were all starving and did not have anything to eat because the Emperor destroyed your allies' croplands. Father always felt bad about it, but it wasn't like he could change the Emperor's mind."

I blink in surprise. "He tried?"

She nods. "All the time. The Ravens have been trying to get Emperor Maximus to end this war for a while. War is bad for business. But the Emperor is bloodthirsty. It would be much easier to convince the Empress but–"

"She’s too selfish to care," I conclude.

Pearl regards me oddly. "Why would you say that?"

Because I learned from personal experience.

I remember the Empress' cold emotionless eyes, as I was tortured within an inch of my life.

All she cared about was some magic stone she was convinced I had.

The Emperor was mad and cruel. But in my opinion, the Empress was so much worse.

"I think you don’t know her well enough,” Pearl says. “I’ve always liked her when I met her. And she.. saved me once. She's the reason I didn't die as a babe. She convinced the Emperor to purchase shares in the Elfen mines, and we found some mana stones that would help revive me. She used her own funds to get it too, simply because she was friends with my mother, who was a commoner and was previously one of her ladies in waiting."

"I see." Pearl won't convince me easily of that woman's kindness but I understand that she sees things differently from me.

"I'm not trying to convince you," Pearl says suddenly. "Just offering a different perspective."

I look at her sharply. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Know what I’m thinking before I even say it?"

She blinks. "I do that?"

I regard her closely as she shakes her head. "I’m not sure what you’re talking about."

She seems honestly perplexed but I'm unsettled. I'm not sure if it's my natural paranoia talking, from the multiple betrayals I've suffered, or if the girl has a mind-reading ability I don't know about.

I don't feel like my mind is being read, but then again I've only had my mind read by a Farrow. Maybe Raven magic is different, more sophisticated.

"When my father married my mother, the Emperor was against the union," Pearl continues. "Because my mother was a commoner. That was why when I was born sickly, he thought I should die. He thought it would be a fitting end. But the Empress saved me. And she paid for defying him."

I don't want to hear any more about the Emperor and Empress of Pangea. It raises too many bad memories.

"I'll take your word for it," I say before we reach the point where we must part.

***

The knock on Wolf's cottage door is Savannah's. It's strong and steady.

As I open it, I eye her clothes, a loose-fitting robe, covering swathes of fabric that show off our arms and legs.

I'm wearing a similar outfit and we stare at each other in silence punctuated by her breath passing somewhat unsteadily through her lips.

“Nervous?” I ask Savannah.

“How could you tell?" she responds with a smirk. “I don’t know if I'm more nervous about the damn performance or the other thing.”

"It’s ok,” I tell her. “We'll be fine.”

She grins and once again the familiarity hits me like a thread of fate stretched taut between us, the present a copy of the past. We often shared the same nervous smile before important missions, but usually, she was the one giving me the optimistic comforting words. She was the one coming up with the plans and I simply followed along.

She was also the one with Wolf.

We’ve switched places thoroughly, and now I'm borrowing her role in this story.

Sooner or later, I'll have to give it back.

And where does that leave me?

The two of us head to Black Castle and are allowed in by the Elite Guards with no problems. We're taken up the stone stairs of the tower and everything is laid out just as I expect with the knights divided between the bottom floor and the top floor. We're then allowed into their living room, where they've all gathered, after finishing their dinner.

I notice they've decorated the place somewhat, with scarlet rugs thrown over the spartan walls giving it a little color and sparkle.

"Ah," Lord Raven says when we walk in. "Our entertainment has arrived."

A few men chuckle and Savannah frowns at them. Lady Raven throws us a wink, as she goes to sit by her father, holding a square box in her lap. She presses a button and soft music begins to play.

Savannah and I share a look and her eyes are wide with surprise. I never told her about the Raven's magic music box.

Nevertheless, we take a second to familiarize ourselves with the tempo of the tune and then start dancing to it, swaying and sashaying as we go. We kick our legs high over our heads, turning and lacing our bodies around each other so we resemble one being.

"Oh how artistic," Lord Raven says and his compliments encourage us.

We continue, amazing them with our leaps, our spins, our turns, sommersaulting into each other, and mimicking moves that could either express a battle or an intense love.

Our arms hook together and we spin in circles. Then Savannah throws me up onto her shoulders and I flip off it, landing in a crouch. She crouches too, staring me in the eyes.

We smile.

We hear them fall silent, as we entrance them. Savannah goes one step ahead, drawing all attention with a series of Mazai flips that have her swirl in the air and give the illusion of a wheel with feet that don't touch the ground.

"Amazing." Pearl is especially fascinated by that, clapping her hands together.

And I can't lie, their appreciation feels good.

This would have been my life if I entered the Performance Academy. I can't help but think about it. Simple. Beautiful. Art.

I'm so focused on dancing that I almost don't hear the signal.

But I ultimately do – a high bird call that sounds almost like the night birds but with a higher pitch.

When I hear it, we keep dancing for a few more minutes, but then I stop suddenly as though realizing something.

“What is that?” I say.

Suddenly, the Knights leap to their feet, weapons drawn, glancing around in alarm.

I stare at the study door and point. "That wasn’t open when we got here."

The Knights spin around to the Raven's study eyeing the open door. Three of them immediately charge into the room, and a second later we hear a shout.

"An intruder! There's an intruder."

And then they drag out a struggling Tia and throw her on the floor.