Anne yawned widely and rubbed her eyes. It was very early in the morning (the sun had barely even risen) but Eva had insisted they should get an early start. So Anne was standing by the back entrance of the cathedral, swaying back and forth slightly as she tried not to doze off, waiting as Eva and a few acolytes packed the carriage.

Agis was leaning against a nearby wall, shoulders hunched over, arms folded.

“I still don’t see why we’re just giving up like this,” said Agis.

“We’re not giving up,” said Anne. “We succeeded in what we came to the capital to do. We found some noble allies for the rebellion. Sort of. And now we’re doing something else.”

“It still feels like giving up,” said Agis. “You know, when we first arrived at the capital, I swore to myself I wouldn’t leave until after this cursed city was burned to the ground.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to plan to leave just before the city is burned to the ground?” asked Anne.

Agis stared at Anne, his face blank.

“You know… so you don’t also die in the fires. Or whatever.”

Agis continued to stare at Anne.

“Anne,” came an unexpected voice. Corvina’s voice.

Anne turned around to see Corvina, her maid, and the Bastards’ Club, all wearing hoods that covered their heads. Anne guessed they were probably trying not to draw attention while sneaking into back alleys behind the cathedral in the early morning, or something. Collette waved.

“We came to see you off,” said Corvina, with a weak smile.

Collette threw her arms around Anne. “We’re going to miss you sooooo much! I’ll be counting down the hours until we’re reunited.”

Anne laughed. “I’ll miss you, too, Collette.”

“Please, call me Lettie,” she said.

“Okay, then, Lettie,” said Anne.

Collette finally let Anne go and wiped a tear away from her eye.

“Well, goodbye then,” said Belle, holding a hand out to Anne.

Anne shook it. “Goodbye,” said Anne.

“Well, then,” said Belle.

“Oh, come on,” said Collette, elbowing Belle in the side. “You’re gonna miss our new friend, too, aren’t you?”

“How could I miss her?” said Belle, blushing. “I barely even know her!”

“Yeah, but she’s a sworn comrade now! A fellow bastard for life!”

“Whatever,” said Belle, turning her head away.

While Collette and Belle bickered, Anne turned to Nia, who winked. “Catch you later, Saintess,” she said, with a stylish salute.

Anne squinted at her. How is she always so cool? she wondered to herself.

Finally, Anne turned back to Corvina.

“Listen, Anne,” said Corvina. She glanced around at the others, and then put a hand on Anne’s arm. “Can we—“ Corvina nodded her head in a way Anne took to mean can we go over there further down the alley so we can talk semi-privately?

“Oh, yeah,” said Anne. “Sure.”

As Anne and Corvina began to take a few steps away, Agis called after them. “Hey, where are you guys going?”

“I have some plans I’d like to discuss with the Saintess,” said Corvina.

“Why can’t I be part of the planning?” said Agis, glaring at Corvina.

“Geez, Agis, what’s up with you this morning?” said Anne. “Just chill out for a minute, would you? If there’s anything you need to know I’ll fill you in later.”

“Fine,” said Agis, settling back into his spot. “Be that way.”

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Agis watched with a sullen expression as Anne and Corvina stepped out of earshot, further down the alleyway. They immediately put their heads together and started whispering something.

Agis scoffed and looked away.

Agis wasn’t happy about any part of this whole turn of events. It had been deemed too dangerous for him to go to the palace for the announcement (even though he repeatedly assured everybody that he was highly skilled in stealth) so he hadn’t actually heard about what happened until later. And he wasn’t happy to hear about how those humans were talking about his sister. He didn’t think she was actually very happy about it either. But apparently it was part of the ‘plan’ so he was just supposed to let it go.

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And he really didn’t like feeling like he was running away.

And they hadn’t heard back from Elyon yet either.

Frankly, Agis had mixed feelings about Anne finally meeting their older brothers. And he kind of had mixed feelings about seeing them again himself. So it wasn’t like he was super eager to meet up with Elyon right away.

But it also made him nervous not hearing anything.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped, reaching for his bow.

Helen giggled. “Aren’t you supposed to be a super elite elven army scout who never misses anything?”

Agis took his hand away from his bow. “Well, yeah, normally,” he grumbled. “But I’m not on duty. And I was distracted…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” said Helen, placing a hand on his arm. “I don’t doubt your skills. I just wanted to give you this.”

Helen held out a little square of cloth, which Agis took from her.

It was a simple white handkerchief. In one corner there was the small embroidered image of a bow and arrow, framed by a wreath of green tree branches, each leaf separately embroidered. It was simple, but quality work.

“I’ll see you again soon,” said Helen. “But I wanted to give you a small token to remember me by while we’re not in the same city. I hope that’s okay.”

Agis stared.

Agis had never seen Helen look at all embarrassed or nervous about anything before. But now Helen was blushing slightly, and shifting back and forth from one foot to the other. She wouldn’t meet Agis’ eye. It was subtle, but Agis was transfixed by it.

Suddenly he didn’t care so much about all the things he’d been grumpy about.

“Do you not like it?” asked Helen.

“Oh, no!” said Agis. He could feel himself blushing. Probably a lot more than Helen was blushing. “I really like it,” he said, clutching it in his hand. “Thank you.”

Helen sighed in relief. “I’m so glad. It’s been so long since I embroidered anything, I didn’t know if I would still be any good at it.”

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While Helen and Agis continued their conversation, Nia was a few feet away, standing with her hand on her hip, watching as the carriage was loaded with luggage.

Sister Eva, with her bright red hair and her empty smile, was directing the acolytes, but also doing some of the work herself. After she finished tying a trunk onto the top of the carriage she lightly jumped down the ground.

There was something Nia suspected about Eva. Something that life experience had taught her to be especially sensitive to. Something she wasn’t sure anyone else had noticed yet.

Nia wanted to be certain.

Nia pushed her sunglasses higher up her face, so she was viewing the world through their darkened tint. Then she made her move.

The lenses changed the color of the world, giving everything a dark blue tint, just like you would expect, but they also made the world appear… slightly distorted and off in a way that was almost imperceivable. It tended to make people nauseous when they weren’t used to it.

Nia was used to it.

So far this was a standard level of background distortion. Nothing particularly notable.

“Excuse me, Sister Eva,” said Nia.

Eva looked over. “Oh, Lady Nia, I presume?”

“Yes,” said Nia, holding out her hand. “I don’t believe we’ve formally met yet.”

“Indeed,” said Eva, shaking her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Was there something you needed?”

“Well, with you leaving the city, I wasn’t sure I would get a chance to speak to you again, and there was something I wanted to ask you,” said Nia, carefully watching Eva’s face.

“What is it?” asked Eva.

“I hope you’ll take this as an earnest question and answer honestly,” said Nia. “Sister Eva… why are you doing all this?”

“What do you mean?” asked Eva, her expression unchanging.

“Leading the rebellion, seeking noble allies, conspiring to kidnap the crown prince… all of this,” said Nia.

The view through the lenses grew even more distorted, especially around Eva’s mouth and head, like the image was being twisted around something.

“To stop the Saintess’ terrible prophecy from coming to pass, of course,” said Eva.

The image returned to normal.

A standard deflection, thought Nia. Not unexpected, not particularly revealing. She shook her head.

“That can’t be all there is to it,” said Nia. “As I understand it, the Saintess only received her prophecy recently, and you’ve been a leader of the rebellion for several years now. As a cleric you don’t have to worry about personal poverty or repression, and I don’t think you particularly care about the waning power of the church. So why try to overthrow the Emperor?”

The image distorted even further while Eva thought about her answer.

Here we go, thought Nia.

Finally, Eva answered, “Because I care about justice for the common people, of course.”

As Eva spoke, other words came out of her mouth, not audibly, but as floating text emanating from her twisting visage, visible only to Nia, appearing briefly in the air before disappearing back into the ether.

After a moment, the text became overwhelming, covering Nia’s vision entirely. Nia had caught glimpses of true thoughts behind distorted speech before, but never this forcefully. She removed the sunglasses and instantly her vision cleared, leaving Nia with only an innocent-looking cleric to look at.

“Interesting,” said Nia.

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Meanwhile, in their spot away from the others, Anne and Corvina were conversing in low voices.

“When you arrive in Longren, just lay low for now,” said Corvina. “Keep an eye out for any correspondence from the elf princes. I’ll follow you in a few days. It will be safer and less suspicious if we space out our trips like that.”

“Okay,” said Anne, with a sigh. “That’s fine. It’ll be nice to eat the Longren church’s pastries again, I guess.”

Corvina took Anne’s hand in hers. “Listen, I hope you’re not still upset about what happened yesterday,” said Corvina. “It’s for the best. Trust me. And these kinds of plans can be ruined by the smallest unexpected change. That’s why it’s often better not to tell people anything until they absolutely need to know. There are fewer opportunities for things to go wrong that way. I know it doesn’t always feel good, but I hope you can understand that.”

“Um…” said Anne.

“After we’ve both been in Longren for a week or two and worked out all the details with the elf princes, then you can write to Sebastian and invite him to come visit you,” continued Corvina. “He likes you enough that I’m sure he’ll jump on the chance. And as long as he doesn’t know anything before we arrive in Longren, there’s no chance anything will go wrong.”

“Look, Corvina, about that,” said Anne. “There’s… um… something I need to tell you.”

There was a sudden thundering of hoof prints that drew everyone’s attention as a horse came galloping into the alley. A cloaked figure jumped off the horse and removed their hood, revealing themselves to be Crown Prince Sebastian.

“Anne!” shouted Sebastian. He grabbed her shoulders and said, “I’ve decided I’ll do it! I’ll let you kidnap me! If all I’m good for is being a useful tool, I might as well choose who gets to use me, right? But you have to take me with you to Longren now before I chicken out, okay?”

Corvina looked at Sebastian, and then at Anne, and then back at Sebastian again, with an expression of shock on her face.

“So I may have told Sebastian some things…” said Anne.