Allena covered her mouth in shock. The Phoenix had not only been sighted in Serevar, it had attacked. Capala simply shrugged nonchalantly.

“Bound to happen, wasn’t it?” She said coolly. “But I still need to pass this along, mates, so just tell me the rest. What else was on the iron token?”

“What about Violet Shoals? Are they okay?”

“No idea. What was on the other side?”

“A face. Nondescript, bald. No distinguishable features other than it being a face.”

Capala didn’t bother to hide her frustration. “That could be a few things. I need to see it.”

“We… lost it along the way.”

Capala squinted as she tapped her chin in thought. “Nah. Awful liar, you. Whatever suits you, though, it’s all the same.”

“But you know what it is, right?” Lura asked. “We’ve been trying to figure that out for ages.

“It’s a message. And a key. The right words at the right door will open it up. Nothing you need to worry on.”

“I’ll worry just the same,” Tanzik insisted. “We’ve risked our lives for this several times.”

Capala lifted one side of her mouth in a lopsided smirk. “You keep saying nonsense like it’s my problem. Don’t fuss at me for your making bad choices, yeah?”

“But why would the Rooks want it?” Lura asked. “They’re criminals in—”

“Yeah, I know who they are,” Capala said, her patience thinning with every word she said. “They’re the ones the boss hired to find this. All they cared about was the coin, just hired mercs is all. Lot of good they did, you sure mucked it up by stealing it from them. Or so I assume, they wouldn’t have trusted you with it.”

“Long story,” Lura said.

“Not interested. Look, this thing you’ve had is a sign of the end of the world. The Phoenix is going to burn it all down. Nothing we can do about that. I’ll pass the message along to the boss, but without the other side of the token, the message is incomplete.”

“I can draw it,” Lura said. “Had plenty of time to look at it trying to figure it out. Do you have anything to write with?”

Capala glared and crossed her arms. “Sure, let me just pull out the inkpot and quill I keep in my pocket. Go carve it on a rock.”

Lura was getting annoyed. Whoever this woman was, she was irritatingly flippant and dismissive, and Lura was close to having enough of her attitude. But she found a rock large enough to scrawl on with her dagger and carved a crude resemblance of the face from the iron token. She handed it to Capala, who looked it over.

“You sure this is accurate?”

“The forehead didn’t slope that much, but yeah. Close as I can get with a knife on a rock, anyway.”

“We figure it’s a noble or someone important,” Allena said. “Someone known only to a few people. Your boss should know if the token was meant for her.”

“Hm.”

“Oh sorry, didn’t realize this wasn’t good enough for you.”

Capala raised an eyebrow. “Oh this? Nah, this means nothing to me. I’ll have to show it to the boss, she’ll be the one to figure it out. Well, I’m off. Settle whatever you have going on, world won’t last much longer unless the farm girl and that bloody bilge rat figure something out. Not counting on that, though.”

“Who are they?” Tanzik said. “Can they help us?”

She scoffed. “Not likely. They’re on a fool’s errand. One’s a kid from Lanura, the other a kid from Obara. Neither one of them have any idea what they’re up against. But they have spirit, I’ll give them that.”

“I’d like to talk to them. If they can’t help us, maybe we can help them.”

“Look, mate, they’re Imperial agents and Serevar is the last holdout from the Empress’s power trip. The front blew up and no one believes in monsters, so they think it’s your fault. You won’t get within a hundred feet of them.”

“What about your boss?” Allena asked. “Can we meet her?”

“No. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got things to do and a long day tomorrow. And you girl,” she continued as she nodded toward Lura, “don’t even think about following me.”

Lura blushed. “Wh-what? I wouldn’t…”

“Yeah, I see the shifty look in your eyes, seen it before. Just… go live your lives. Whatever’s left of them.” She pocketed the rock and left.

“I don’t trust her,” Lura said as soon as Capala was out of earshot. “She knows something she’s not saying.”

“I think we’re all guilty of that,” Allena said.

“Well, yeah, but that’s different. It’s us. You used magic and she didn’t bat an eye. She knew about the Phoenix before you said anything. And her ears.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly.

“Allena,” Tanzik said. “The similarities are too many to ignore. You greeted her as Halcyon and kith, whatever that means. Who is she to you?”

“She’s… just that. Kith. Of a sort. We share the same home.”

“The mysterious, unknown place out in the Kolos Ocean?” Lura asked.

“Yes. It’s a dangerous place. Like I told you back in Serevar, I’m not welcome back there. My guess is, if Capala is here, she’s not welcome back either.”

“I don’t want to sound insensitive, but does everyone look like you?” Tanzik touched his ears.

Allena reached up and felt the scars. She closed her eyes for a second. “No. My scars are unique. Capala may have a similar story. Like I said, it’s dangerous there.”

“I wonder why she left, then,” he mused.

“I don’t know. She seems comfortable here. Not like someone who wants to go back.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Do you? If you could, I mean.”

She smiled up at him and blinked the moisture from her eyes. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t.”

“What’s the worst they could do?” Lura asked.

Allena got a distant, faraway look in her eyes. “Turn me away at the shore, if I’m lucky.”

“Well, I have to say, this is all incredibly disappointing. We didn’t get all the answers we were looking for.”

“No, we didn’t,” Tanzik said. “There has to be some way of stopping the Phoenix.”

“There’s not,” Allena said firmly.

“But we don’t know that. And to be honest, I don’t think you do either. You only remember folktales from your childhood. There has to be more to it than that.”

“If there is, there’s no way to find out.”

Tanzik crossed his arms and frowned. “There is.”

Allena sighed in frustration. “You’re not understanding. My people are different. They won’t welcome me back home and they definitely won’t welcome you.”

“I’m going to follow Capala,” Lura said. “I’ll find out what’s going on from her or her boss.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Allena said.

Lura shrugged as she set off to follow her quarry. “I don’t think we really do those!”

Allena looked at Tanzik. He looked hollow, like he was trying to hold back the emptiness of his loss from imploding. “So this is it?” She asked.

Tanzik held her gaze for a moment. “Doesn’t feel like it.” He looked away. “The Phoenix is a monster, and monsters can be killed. We just have to find out how.”

“I can’t share your optimism.”

“You don’t need to. I don’t even have it.” He sat down on a bench and put his head in his hands. “I just… I don’t know. I have to do this. I can’t not do it. It’s…”

“It’s all you have left,” she finished as she sat beside him. “After everything you’ve lost, this is the only thing you can do. I feel the same way.”

“If I stop, I feel like everything will catch up. And I don’t know what I’ll do if that happens.”

“It’ll have to catch up sometime. There’s no wrong way to grieve, Tanzik, but you can’t hide from it.”

“Yeah. But I have to. At least for now. I just don’t know if I can for much longer.”

“Well, when it does catch up, and you feel the full weight of it all… you don’t have to do it alone. I’ll be right here.”

He said nothing, but she could hear his breathing deepen and saw his eyes water. He was trying to hold it back. She moved closer and leaned her head on his shoulder, then took his hand.

“Hey,” Lura said dejectedly as she walked back into the park. “Lost her. She completely disappeared on me. So that’s off the table, I guess.” She saw Tanzik on the verge of a breakdown while Allena comforted him. “We should find a place to stay for the night. Get off the street for a while.” She punched Tanzik’s shoulder gently. “You’re still wanted. Shouldn’t take any chances.”

Tanzik took a deep breath and got up, covering his face with a hood. Allena stopped Lura as she went to follow. “Take it easy on him, he’s going through a lot.”

“Yeah, and he’s doing a bad job of hiding it. He needs a mission. This will keep him together until we go to bed at least. He’s barely shed a tear and really needs to. But he can’t break down here where it draws attention.”

Allena smiled and nodded. Lura tried not to care, or at least make it seem like she didn’t, but she saw how much she cared for their friend and it made her feel a lot better about being with them.

“By the way,” Lura continued, “this kith of yours, is she magic? I swear she completely disappeared in the crowd. I’m usually pretty good at keeping my eye on marks.”

“I don’t think so. Magic is a rare gift in this world, and she doesn’t seem like the type with enough patience to learn it. My guess is she spent her time learning to avoid danger rather than weave magic.”

“Well, she’s good, I’ll give her that. Come on, let’s go back to the Tri-Corner Inn. Innkeeper weirds me out, but it’s one of the most comfortable places I’ve been to.”

“Yeah. After you.”

They left Our Lady of Stone Memorial Park and caught up with Tanzik, but as they walked down the street, they saw a few guards wielding torches block the road.

“Yeah, that’s him,” one of them said. “Vayán’s tip paid off, make sure he gets his bounty.”

“He sold us out!” Lura exclaimed.

“Tanzik Albard, by order of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Ermina, you are under arrest for the crimes of desertion, murder, and treason.”

“I knew something was off about him.”

“He performed a good deed for the Empire,” the guard corrected. “Come quietly, traitor.”

“We’re not going to let you take him,” Allena said. A menace crept into her voice as she stepped forward to his side. The guard scoffed and nodded his head to point behind them. They turned around and several more guards were approaching as well.

“No place to run, and if you try, we’ll make pincushions out of you. It’s been a long night, so don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

“It’s fine,” Tanzik said. “If this really is the end, it doesn’t matter anyway. Nothing else we can do. It’s time to stop running.”

“We’ll come for you,” Allena said. “I won’t let you give up hope. We’ll find away to get them to release you.”

“Oh, you’re coming too,” the guard said.

“What?” Lura asked. “What did we do?”

“Aiding and abetting. Hope you appreciated this morning’s sunrise. It’ll be the last one you see.”