The anger in Gūla's eyes died down as she noticed the blood smeared across his clothes and Dapplegrim’s back. “Are you hurt?” she asked with a note of concern.

“Don’t worry - it’s not mine.” He pushed past her into the tent and started to strip off his soiled garments, but she followed him in.

“That’s a lot of blood. What happened?”

He felt a bit self-conscious as he tore the tunic off and tossed it to the ground. “Ran into a bit of trouble with something called a qas̆pa.” Not having time to go to the bathhouse, Jasper hurried over to the washbasin and started to scrub off the dirt and grime that caked his forearms.

“Oh, one of those poor sods,” Gūla clucked her tongue sympathetically. “I suppose one of the locals went mad.”

Jasper’s frenzied washing paused as the image of the farmer’s roasted corpse flashed through his mind again - an image he would not easily banish. “She was eating human flesh, Gūla. I’m not sure I’d characterize her as ‘poor.’ She was hella pretty though,” he added offhandedly.

“She was?” Jasper winced as he heard the sudden sharpness in her tone. “Uh, yeah, in a farm-girl sort of way,” he added hastily. Geeze, lady, it’s not like we’re dating.

“Well, I suppose you killed her,” she replied after a moment’s pause.

He finished scrubbing off his hands and headed to the wardrobe, keenly aware of her gaze following him as he walked. “Actually, she was dead by the time I found her. One of my scouts got her.”

The captain’s brow furrowed. “A scout was able to kill her. How weak was she?”

“I really don’t have any sense of how strong a qas̆pa should be, but I’m pretty sure Erin tapped into magic somehow. She was suffocated to death by the very wood of her cabin.”

“A mage in the scouts? Ridiculous,” she scoffed.

“Eh, he’s a bit of a special case. Has essence but hasn’t been able to use it thus far; I guess maybe the stress of the situation finally pushed him over the edge.”

Pulling the new tunic over his head, Jasper started to reach for his armor, but she shook her head. “You can’t wear armor to this party; they’ll take offense.”

“Can I least have a weapon?”

She shook her head. “You’re a mage - you are the weapon.”

Jasper shrugged. “It’s nice to have a backup. Essence isn’t unlimited, you know.”

“I don’t expect there to be any fighting tonight. We’re only there to observe.”

“Bet you have a weapon,” he fired back.

An amused smile flitted across her lips. “I’m afraid I can’t accept that bet.” She pointed to the glaive he’d rested against the bed. “Unlike you, I can hide my weapon.”

“I can put it in my bag of holding,” he protested.

“I didn’t realize your uncle had been so generous. By all means, bring what you want. Actually,” bending down, she pulled her dress up above her thighs and pried a carefully concealed knife off of her skin. “If you got a bag of holding, you might as well carry this for me.”

He accepted it with a grin and tossed it in his bag. “That’s a hell of a lot better than carrying the purse.” He paused a moment to check himself in the mirror. His brown hair was a bit askew, but some water from the basin was enough to bind the unruly mop in place - at least till it dried - and his chin was covered in stubble. “Do I have time to shave?”

Coming up behind, she had to stand on her tiptoes to peer over his shoulder. “You do, but why bother? I like the look,” she said running a finger down his chin.

Pulling his head away from her hand, Jasper offered her a quick smile. “Alright, I’ll guess I’ll leave it then. Shall we head out?” He continued quickly, papering over the unease that sat in the pit of his stomach. The flashes of jealousy and clinginess were kind of disconcerting given they weren’t in a relationship - or at least he was pretty sure they weren’t.

“I’m ready if you are.” He started to head toward the door, and she cleared her throat. “Aren’t you forgetting something,” she asked, staring up at him expectantly.

“It might be easier if you just tell me what I’m forgetting,” he sighed.

“If we’re going to the party together, you need to escort me,” she said, lifting up her arm.

Taking her proffered arm, the two headed out into the gathering night.

While Jasper had changed, one of his soldiers had scrubbed Dapplegrim down, cleaning the blood and grim off her lustrous coat. Gūla’s tsussîm had been tethered beside Dapplegrim. Now that night had fallen, its wings were folded up and useless, but she was still able to ride it in a more mundane fashion. With Gūla taking the lead, they set off toward the western side of the camp.

The first few minutes of their ride were silent. After the day he’d had, Jasper was happy to have a moment with his thoughts. When Barbartu had offered to take him back to Earth, he’d been surprised at how easy it was to say no, but days like these made him almost regret that choice. The qas̆pa’s insanity and the death of the farmer and the soldier - the second of which he felt a bit of guilt about - weighed heavy on his mind. There was certainly evil back on Earth, but Jasper had rarely had to deal with that. Perhaps he’d been sheltered, but his experience with serial killers and cannibals was mostly confined to episodes of Criminal Minds.

“You’re awfully quiet.” Gūla’s words broke him out of his reverie. “Something on your mind?”

Jasper shook his head, vainly wishing the movement was enough to clear the cobwebs in his mind. “Was just thinking about the qas̆pa,” he admitted softly. “Are they really doomed to insanity?”

“Most, it seems. Perhaps there are a few who manage to escape their fate, but honestly, so few qas̆pa live to adulthood, that it’s hard to say anything for certain about them.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“They usually die young? Does something about their condition kill them?”

“I suppose that’s one way to put it,” Gūla’s twisted wryly as she turned to face him, “but it would be little more than a euphemism.”

Understanding dawned on him. “Others kill them?”

“Wouldn’t you? Look at what just happened. Driven by pity, those villagers let her live amongst them and, in return, they’ve lost one of their own - and she took one of ours along with him too,” she added pointedly.

In truth, Jasper knew that the qas̆pa’s death count likely included at least two more villagers, but he saw no reason to make her case for her. “It seems cruel to kill someone for something they might do, but I guess I sort of get it.”

“Back home, we had a bit of a problem with school shooters. If there was some way to know that a kid was going to snap one day, I imagine we wouldn’t treat them very well. Probably wouldn’t kill them, though,” he grunted. “Lock them up for their own protection, or some crap like that, but I doubt we’d kill them.”

“Do these ‘school shooters’ of yours have magic?” He shook his head, and Gūla continued pointedly. “Then it isn’t really the same. You saw how dangerous she could be.”

“Maybe,” he said noncommittally and, not wanting to argue any further, he decided to change the subject. “So what exactly do you want me to do tonight? Just spam my truth spell at anyone that looks suspicious?”

“Hardly,” Gūla laughed. “There’s no need to waste your essence like that. As I told you, Lord Nas̆ru, the host of the party is one of my main suspects for the sabotage. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to get close enough to him to ask a few questions. Just use the spell when I’m talking to him.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, you’ll need to mingle. And there’ll be dancing, of course. Maybe even a few fights.”

“Fights?” Jasper raised an eyebrow.

“You know, if you have to defend my honor,” she said with a coquettish wink.

“I think you’re perfectly capable of doing that yourself,” he replied dryly.

The smile on her face dissipated. “I’m only partially joking. I don’t expect this night to go smoothly.”

“Something you’re not telling me,” he grunted.

The firebird captain grimaced. “Nas̆ru and I are not exactly strangers,” she admitted reluctantly.

“So you’re what? Schoolyard chums, best frenemies forever, former lovers?” Jasper started off joking, but when her cheeks paled at the last words, he realized he’d struck close to home. “Are you kidding me? Is this dude your ex?”

“Ex?”

“A former lover,” he repeated.

Gūla kept her eyes resolutely trained on the path ahead, avoiding his gaze with an admirable determination. “I wouldn’t use that term,” she said quietly.

“So what term would you use?” he persevered.

There was a long moment of silence before she finally responded. “My family doesn’t have much money or power these days, but our ancestry traces back to one of Nūradīn’s closest followers, Lord Qurūb. It gives us certain privileges that other families in our position might not possess.”

“How does that answer my question?”

“One of those privileges,” she continued coldly, “is marrying into other, better off, nobility. Like most noble girls, my father arranged a marriage for me when I was but a child, to the third son of another local noble. But when I awoke my firebird class, he saw an opportunity to reach higher.

“He broke my previous engagement and arranged a new one with Lord Nas̆ru.”

“Did you refuse?”

“How could I? To turn down the chance to benefit my family so greatly would have been selfish. I agreed to honor the arrangement, but unfortunately Lady Nahrēmah had other plans.”

“Nahrēmah?” Jasper’s brow wrinkled. “What does Kas̆dael have to with it?”

Gūla smiled sadly. “I was unaware of it, but I had already conceived with my former betrothed.”

Oh, that’s right - she’s a fertility goddess to the Djinn. “So what happened,” he asked more gently.

“As soon as Lord Nas̆ru learned of it, he broke the engagement. His response was understandable, although the hatred he spewed my way was not - he knew I’d been previously engaged.”

“So, did you have to marry the child’s father?” Jasper felt a sudden pin-prick of worry, as the realization that he might have unknowingly cuckolded a noble hit him. Last thing I need is some vengeful husband coming after me.

“No. Mārīl’s father was incensed with my father for breaking the engagement and,” she said with a bitter smile, “I suppose I can’t blame him. It was an insult to his honor, and after such faithlessness, there could be no hope of an alliance between our houses. He refused to allow our betrothal to resume.”

Jasper nodded shortly, not sure how to respond to the suddenly heavy turn of the conversation. It certainly put a new perspective on Gūla’s jealous and insecure behavior. Does she even need my help at this party, or does she just not want the man who dumped her to think she’s single? It also cast her judgment into doubt. Is Nas̆ru really the best suspect, or is she just focused on him because he wronged her?

Feeling the need to fill the silence, his mouth moved on its own. “So you’re a mother,” he asked lightly. “Boy or girl?”

Gūla had been studiously avoiding looking at him, but the question seemed to catch her by surprise. Turning to look at him, she studied his face for a moment without responding. The color seemed to come back into her cheeks, and the corners of her lips lifted up in a small smile. “That wasn’t the response I was expecting."

“Why?” Jasper replied with a shrug. “Bastards are pretty common in the Royal House. Hell, I’m one of them.”

“I’m not royalty,” she countered flatly. “Sure, if you’re powerful enough, there’s no one to tell you ‘nay,’ but for those of us less important folks, there’s rules. Manners. Decorum that should not be broken.”

“It sounds to me like you got screwed over by your father more than anything else,” Jasper shot back.

A look of disgust flitted across her face. “More than you know,” she muttered. “I was forced to bring her with me on this campaign because my father refused to allow the ‘bastard’ to stay in the house without me.”

“He what?” Jasper asked incredulously. “War’s no place for a child.”

“No, it isn’t,” she agreed softly. “But I had no other choice, at least not until the king himself offered this post. Now I should be able to stay off the front lines and keep my daughter safe.”

“You didn’t work for the king before?”

Gūla shook her head. “No. When the king commanded the tribes to provide troops, my father was quick to volunteer me. I’m an embarrassment to their house, after all,” she spat bitterly. “But before I was set to depart, a messenger arrived from the king, offering me the chance to work directly for him, under Lord S̆arrābī’s department. Needless to say, I took it.”

“My father, of course, was outraged as that he meant he had to send someone else from our household, but I was glad to be rid of him.”

“So you’re not actually an expert spy? You’re a newbie just like me?”

The Djinn stiffened. “I tricked you easily enough, didn’t I?”

“Touché,” Jasper agreed amiably, “but, sadly, I’m not sure that’s much of an accomplishment. I’d like to think I’m not a complete idiot, but I’m certainly no James Bond.”

“James Bond?” She repeated blankly.

“A famous spy from our world,” he explained shortly.

“Well, you’re certainly not that,” she smirked, “but neither, I think, is Lord Nas̆ru. If our suspects had grown up in the courts of S̆addānu or Dūr-Yarha, I’d be concerned, but the lords of Kubarru favor power over subtlety. I’m confident we can catch them in the act.”

Bright lights spilled over the dark road as a row of brightly lit pavilions loomed in front of them. Lit by dozens of torches planted in the ground - many of which, Jasper privately thought, were far too close to the tents for comfort - the night was driven back. Dozens of nobles wandered between the tents, dressed not in their uniforms, but in opulent clothes that would have looked more in place back at the courts, and above the quiet buzz of conversation rose the dulcet tones of stringed instruments. “Guess this is the place,” he said, stating the obvious.

Nudging her tsussîm over to the waiting poles, Gūla tied her mount in place and waited for him to do the same.

“Yas̆peh,” she said quietly. “I know this isn’t really relevant to our task tonight, but can you do me one favor?”

“And what’s that?” He asked.

“Can you pretend we’re a real couple?”

Damn it. She wants to win the break-up. But as he took in the pleading look in her eyes, Jasper found himself begrudgingly agreeing. “Of course, darling.”