Saiyun squinted as the first rays of dawn shone through the scorched rafters. After some searching, Aven had come upon a burned-out building he deemed safe enough to hide in. The smell of rot and mildew clung to the wall Saiyun leaned against, but he was too tired to care. Everyone else looked worse for the wear too. Yazwa sat on the ground, staring at the spots of light on the damp floor. Aven sat across from her, glancing up occasionally before looking back down. Ji paced back and forth like a caged animal as they rested, a deep scowl on her face.

He knew how she felt. After all those miles, all those close calls, someone had actually managed to capture Bill. An agonizingly familiar cluster of thoughts rolled through Saiyuns head. What could he have done differently? If he’d had a summon out, perhaps he could have helped before Bill was swallowed. If he had been faster, he could have intervened. If he had noticed the guards outside...

"I'm rested," Ji snapped, stopping her pacing next to Aven. "What next?"

Her curt comment snapped him out of his stewing. Replaying the events in his mind wouldn't help anything. "Next," he wheezed, clearing his dry throat. "Next, I suppose we figure out who we're up against. Could it be Azun? Those were some very large summons."

Aven shook his head, clearing his own throat. "Hilt hires a lot of summoners to help keep the peace. They were working closely with the guards, and you have to be high up to order that many men around. Someone near the top ordered this."

"But if..." Saiyun said, trailing off as he realized how stupid his question was. If it was the government, why didn't they just have him arrested at the docks? Because he was Headless Bill. He was sure the man had more than one way to slip out of custody. "He said he had connections here. Do you know who they were?"

"No," Aven sighed, rubbing soot off his hands. "He never liked to give out names, but it doesn't even matter since his connections couldn't protect him in the first place."

"So Bill's been captured," Ji huffed. "What do we do next?"

"Will he be able to escape on his own?" Yazwa asked, looking up with haggard eyes. "Maybe he already did. Is there a spot we can meet up with him?"

Saiyun frowned. If they knew enough about Bill to capture him with those big summons, they probably knew enough about him to keep him under lock and key.

Aven shared his pessimism. "He's probably been chucked in a cell like the one on the Golden Colossus, stone pit, high walls. Only way to hold an Ezu like him. I bet even Bill couldn't get out on his own."

"So how do we find the prison?" Yazwa asked, pulling herself to her feet. "I mean, if he's in a pit, he's probably on the ground level. We could probably get to him."

With a grunt, Saiyun pushed himself off the wall and pondered the problem. A city this size probably had many prisons, but they were all public buildings and easy to find. Narrowing down which one they brought him to would be the challenge. However, even in the middle of the night, someone would have noticed the summon holding Bill thundering through the streets. There would be rumors and gossip in the morning, which meant they could probably figure out which direction they’d gone, at least. That would narrow things down considerably.

"Why should we bother rescuing him?" Ji asked coldly.

The bluntness caught Saiyun off guard. "Abandon Bill?"

"We can't do that!" Yazwa piped up. "He...he got caught because he was trying to help us escape. We have to go help him."

Ji glared at Yazwa. "We already left him once. If we didn't help him in the street, why should we break him out of jail?"

Yazwa stammered, gripping her staff tight. "I...He..."

"Because we still need his help," Saiyun jumped in. "He has friends and connections everywhere. Yazwa needs to find the Achara Ata, and I need to clear my name. Aven will need his help going after Azun too."

"But his connections are useless, right Aven?" Ji asked, gently tapping Aven with her foot. "You said they couldn't protect him from that ambush."

Aven was silent for a moment, staring at the ground before he lifted his head. "She's not wrong. Getting piled on by all those guards is a sure sign he doesn't have any friends left in Hilt. I bet he's under a close guard too. Even if we can find him AND get him out, every guard in the city would be looking for us, and we have no way off the island. It would just be a matter of time before we got caught."

A heavy feeling settled in Saiyun's stomach. Now they just couldn't run to the boat and sail away. Whatever they did in Hilt would have to end with the authorities allowing them to leave. "There are other ways to get Bill out," he said slowly. "He knows the Tavada. We can get them to apply pressure. I can do the same with my embassy. Bill wants to destroy Azun's fleet, so that’s a good enough reason to want him out of jail. He said he'd been let go for service to the state before. We can make that argument again."

"Right!" added Yazwa. "We can use that."

Ji stabbed a finger at her. "You don't need him anymore, the Achara Ata will come back to Hilt one day and you can meet them then," she snapped before pointing at Saiyun. "You have the logs and you know where the shipyard is, just hand them in and get your pardon. We're running out of time, Ca Diro is coming!"

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"What?" asked Saiyun, watching as frustrated tears welled up in the corner of Ji's eyes.

"I know he's coming," Ji said, angrily scrubbing at her eyes as Aven put a hand on her shoulder. "Azun said there were more Blood Achali here, that they were going to make more of what they took from me. They're here, and he's coming."

"Ji," Yazwa said, stepping forward with her arms open, but Ji flinched back, and she stopped. "I know that–"

"You don't know!" Ji snapped. "He needs to die! We need to find the others, kill them, and lay a trap so he can never do it again. With your eyes and your summons, we can stop them now!"

Her scream echoed in the shell of the building, the only sound as she fought to take control of her breath. Saiyun looked over to Yazwa and he imagined she looked just as shocked as he did. Aven was stone-faced, gently whispering to Ji as she tried to calm herself down. "That's still a bad plan for the reasons Bill said yesterday," he said, trying to keep his voice even. "Hilt is huge. We can't search all of it by ourselves and if Yazwa or I get caught we're in for a world of trouble. There are other ways-"

"Do what you want," Ji hissed, turning to Yazwa. "You'll help me, right? You're an Atemzlite. You know how bad they are!"

Yazwa stood rooted to the ground, staring into Ji's wild eyes. "Why now?" she asked, taking a step towards Ji. "Why does it have to be right now? We can–"

Ji let out a feral scream and slammed her fist into the charred wall, sending black splinters flying. "You're all weak! You won't even help me because all you can think about is rescuing Bill! Let's go!" she said, grabbing Aven by the arm and yanking him away.

"Wait wait wait," Saiyun said, stepping up beside Yazwa before he was stopped by Ji's hateful glare. "Splitting up is the worst thing we could do right now. We need to look after each other."

"Then help me!" Ji spat.

Aven grabbed her hand and gently pried it off his arm. "Let me talk to them. Wait outside for me somewhere high up."

For an instant, the rage dropped on Ji's face and she looked like a frightened child. "You...you are coming with me?"

"Of course, I'll be right out, I promise," Aven said, gently ushering her out. When she was gone, he took out his purse and handed it to Saiyun. "Take it. I can get more."

Saiyun stared at it. "You can't be serious."

"Aven she...she's," Yazwa stammered, struggling for words. "She's losing it!"

"I can keep her safe," said Aven, jingling the money pouch. "If it's just the two of us, it will be easier to move around unnoticed."

"She has a tail, Aven!" Yazwa shouted.

Aven threw the money pouch at Saiyun. "We'll be fine if we move around at night! I know Hilt, so I know plenty of places to hide out. We'll be fine together while you two reach out to the Tavada and the embassy. When you go to them, tell them you know a few secrets about Azun's new fleet, but don't give them the logbooks. They'll just take them."

The pouch felt heavier than it should have as Saiyun picked it up off the ground. "The three of us barely managed to survive a fight with Ca Diro. If you two are alone-"

"She NEEDS this!" Aven hissed. "You saw what he did to her. Once she gets her revenge she'll be fine and forget about everything else!"

Saiyun flinched backward. "Forget about what else?"

"Never mind," Aven muttered, backing away. "Once we're done, we'll meet at the dock where Cai dropped us off. We can figure out what to do after that."

"This is, wait!" Yazwa shouted as Aven turned on his heel and bolted out of the room.

The twists and turns of the charred hallways slowed Saiyun and Yazwa as they chased after him. When they burst out into the street, all they saw was the early morning crowds of people making their way to work. No Aven, no Ji. Saiyun scanned the rooftops, hoping to catch a slight glimpse, but he saw nothing. They had vanished like smoke in the wind.

-

Ji lay on the roof of a nearby building, biting back the sobs as best she could. They had betrayed her. After all they had been through after they rescued her from Ca Diro, now they were going to abandon her? How could they? They knew what he had done. They had seen it with their own eyes. How could they turn their backs on her? "They're weak," she said to herself, angrily scrubbing the tears from her eyes. That was it. Now that Bill was gone they were too afraid to chase Ca Diro. If they were too scared to follow her, then good riddance.

There was a rustle of movement as Aven climbed up on the roof and crouched low, crawling over to her. "I think I lost them," he whispered, peering over the peak of the roof.

Ji followed his gaze. On the empty street, Yazwa and Saiyun ran by, looking left, right and down an alleyway, they passed. A few of their words drifted up to them and their frantic tone made Ji's resolve waver. Was it really right to leave them? Would they be able to survive in this dangerous city? "Where will they go?" she whispered to Aven as Yazwa and Saiyun raced further down the street.

"I gave them all our money," Aven replied, sitting up when their friends passed from view. "It should get them food and shelter for a few nights until they can work something else out."

Ji nodded, pushing doubt aside. What happened to them wasn't her problem. "But," she said, hesitating as she pondered what Yazwa had said in the burned-out building. "How are we supposed to find Ca Diro now? Without Yazwa's Sight, we can't find blood magic anymore."

"We don't need it," said Aven, reaching out to pat her shoulder. "Hilt is huge, but there are only so many places a Blood Achali can hide"

"Where?" asked Ji.

Aven held up one finger. "First, it can't be anywhere there are a lot of Atemzlites. There's too much risk of an Achali accidentally catching sight of something." He held up a second finger. "Two, it has to be somewhere where no one will think too hard about people going missing. Three, it must be somewhere with a lot of privacy. There are only a few places in Hilt where you can find all three of those. That's where we-AH!"

Ji threw herself at him, wrapping him in a crushing hug as tears flowed down her cheeks. Aven knew how important this was. He wouldn't abandon her. He wasn't weak. "Thank you," she said hoarsely. "En Chitei put us together for a reason."

"You're hurting me," Aven grunted, struggling against the embrace.

"Together, we can do anything," she said, releasing him and smiling through her tears. "With our strength combined, no one will be able to stand in our way."

Aven rubbed the red marks on his arms where Ji's fingers had dug into his skin. "That's right," he said. "Let's get started."