Zandrue rolled the Pearl between her fingers and stretched out, putting one leg over the arm of the large chair. She’d had no idea the Hall of Knowledge had chairs that were actually a little bit comfortable—other than the ones in Ezmelda’s office.

This was the first time she’d even been allowed in the Council Chamber. It was huge and took up almost an entire floor to itself. There was actually wood panelling on the walls, giving the room a much warmer look than the rest of the Hall of Knowledge. Hundreds of chairs were arranged around the room in two main sections, each angled to face both each other and the third, smaller section of chairs at the front of the room. There, ten chairs stood in a row, and behind them were three larger chairs, the centre one larger still than the other two. Zandrue was lounging in that chair now.

Ezmelda had a frown on her face, but said nothing, so Zandrue stayed put.

Nin-Akna slumped in a chair in one of the larger sections, her head in her hands. She had avoided looking at or talking to Zandrue since that strange case of mistaken identity. No one had given Zandrue much information about what had been going on yet.

Pedrin stood beside Ezmelda, while grumpy old Agernon sat near Nin-Akna. Beside him was another elderly Eloorin woman Zandrue didn’t recognise. There were a few other people spaced about the room, some of whom Zandrue vaguely remembered—all wizards. Corvinian sat beside her.

“Are you going to tell us why you’re here?” Corvinian asked. “Where’s Rudiger?”

Zandrue closed her fist around the Pearl. “One thing at a time. Where’s Felitïa?”

“Imprisoned by Lord Belone,” Ezmelda said.

Zandrue groaned. “He apprehended her again? What was his reason this time?”

“Different Lord Belone,” Corvinian said.

“Feodor Belone died of a suspicious illness,” Ezmelda said. “Danel Belone is lord now.”

Zandrue put her foot down on the floor. “That ass? When did this happen?”

“New Year’s Eve,” Ezmelda said. “You might not have heard while travelling on the road.”

“I...didn’t travel very far on the road. We’ll get to that shortly. Arnor City doesn’t know about this yet. How’s that possible?”

Ezmelda stared at her.

“Arnor City is a long way away,” Pedrin said.

Ezmelda shook her head. “You know better than that, Pedrin. The Church has a way to send messages quickly. They must have been prevented somehow.”

“There’s bad stuff going on in Arnor City now as well,” Zandrue said. “Specifically at the Royal Palace. Possibly a lot worse than Danel Belone taking over here.”

“He’s let Red Knights in,” Ezmelda said. “Apparently, their leader, Mitchal Plavin, is here too.”

“Shit.” There was clearly a coordinated effort going on between the two locations.

“Tell us what’s happening in Arnor City,” Ezmelda said.

“Okay, long story. To start…” She held out her hand and opened it palm up to display the Pearl. “This is the Pearl of Sestin. It’s what got me here. I don’t—”

Agernon leapt to his feet. “Pearl of Sestin? As in the Staff of Sestin?”

Zandrue nodded. “Seems likely.”

“One of the eyes!”

“Also seems likely.”

He grabbed his cane and hobbled forward. “I need to see that.”

Zandrue closed her hand, enclosing the Pearl again. “In due time. I want to know exactly what’s been happening before I give this up to anyone other than Felitïa.”

Agernon slammed his cane down on the floor. “Of course it will go to Felitïa. I’ve been studying the damn Staff it’s part of for her. Having that Pearl will make that study a hell of a lot easier.”

Zandrue sighed. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Agernon. It’s that I don’t trust any of the forces working against us. They’re very resourceful. Now, let me finish my story so I can hear yours.”

“How did you get the Pearl?” Ezmelda asked.

“We should probably start at the beginning,” Zandrue said.

She tried to keep it as brief as possible, although that was difficult given all that had happened. Combined with all the questions everyone had, it took until late in the evening for her to tell them everything, and she still hadn’t learned much of what had happened here—beyond a few comments in response to what had happened in Arnor City.

“Dyle tried to escape. There was a struggle and we got hold of him. I found the Pearl on him. He tried to grab it, and…”

She’d found herself lying face first in a snow bank at night. She rolled into a sitting position, looking around for Dyle—possibly Quilla and Gabriella as well, although she was pretty certain she’d just been transported by the Pearl, which meant she was possibly a long way from them right now.

There was no sign of Quilla or Gabriella, but Dyle lay in the snow a few feet away, Quilla’s knife still protruding from his neck. The snow around him was red with his blood.

Zandrue knelt beside him and checked his vitals. Dead.

Good riddance. She certainly wouldn’t miss him.

She made a quick search of his body. One of the other pouches on his belt contained coins, which she added to her own. It wasn’t a fortune, but any money could be useful. Who knew where she was?

Another pouch contained a small crystal on a chain. The crystal was long and thin. One end—the one opposite the chain—glowed ever so slightly. There was a tiny pinpoint of light inside it.

She held it up by the chain close to her face to peer more closely at it, but as she did, the crystal turned of its own own accord to lie horizontally in the air. Was it pointing at something? If so, it was pointing vaguely ahead of her to her left.

Around her were hills of snow. A short distance to her left was a road—more just a trail of flattened snow, but it probably followed the path of an actual road. She jumped to her feet and trudged over to it. This was definitely not anywhere on the Palace grounds.

Down the road were the flickering lights of a small village. That wasn’t Arnor City either, so she’d travelled quite some distance.

Flickering lights.

She looked up. It had only just occurred to her that, while it was fully dark out here—stars even twinkled in the cloudless sky—there had still been light left at the Palace. That meant either she’d been unconscious for a few hours—which would probably have frozen her to death—or she’d travelled a considerable distance east. Probably at least halfway across the continent.

Shit.

This was inconvenient.

She still had the Pearl though. Maybe she could figure out how to use it and get herself back.

Or she could follow where the crystal was pointing.

Perhaps, first, she should find out where she was, so she set off along the road towards the town up ahead. The crystal was pointing that direction anyway. By the time she reached the town, she recognised it: Cromda, a town a couple days travel west of Quorge.

So she’d travelled almost all the way to Quorge. Holy shit. This Pearl thing was astounding. There was so much that could be done with it. No wonder Dyle and his friends had run circles around them for so long.

Quorge was convenient though. Incredibly so. She could head there and find Felitïa, who might be able to help her figure out how to use the Pearl. More importantly, Felitïa was supposed to have the Pearl—at least, according to Quilla’s mysterious Isyar. But even if that Isyar had lied, Felitïa was still probably the best person to have the Pearl. She was certainly the only person Zandrue would ever trust with that kind of power. Zandrue wasn’t even sure she’d trust herself with it.

No. She definitely wouldn’t trust herself with it.

She found an inn in Cromda. Even with Dyle’s money, she didn’t have a lot on her, unfortunately, so she decided to risk a bit of gambling at a local tavern. That worked out reasonably well, except she spent all night in the tavern, didn’t end up staying at the inn, and was too drunk to travel the next day. All the while, whenever she checked the crystal, it continued to point in an eastward direction.

The day after, she set out at first light along the road to Quorge. She turned back an hour later when it became clear a blizzard was coming in. Oh, how wonderful it was to be back in blasted north-eastern Arnor. Fucking weather. Fucking Belone province. Why did people live here anyway?

She set out once more the next day. No blizzard, but the road was piled so high with snow that a two-day journey became four days. The crystal continued to point east—towards Quorge—and its light was starting to get a little brighter.

She did finally make it to Quorge. The crystal now pointed in the direction of the noble quarter, perhaps towards the palace. Though for all Zandrue knew, it might have been pointing at something miles past the palace. The light was quite a bit brighter now, though.

Travelling to the palace was not what she felt was the best idea right then, so instead, she went straight to Agernon’s home, only to find there was just a pile of rubble there. “I want to know what happened there, by the way,” she told Agernon.

Agernon harrumphed.

“Then I came here,” she concluded.

“That was awesome,” Corvinian said.

Zandrue grinned. “Yeah, it kind of was, wasn’t it?” And she hadn’t embellished any of the story either. Well, not much of it anyway.

Then they told her what had happened here. Except their story was mostly second-hand since Felitïa wasn’t here and Nin-Akna was not in much of a condition to tell it. She could make a pretty good guess now where the crystal was pointing, though.

Zandrue stood up and walked over to Nin-Akna. “Hey.”

Nin-Akna didn’t look at her. “Hey.”

“You know, you don’t need to be embarrassed about the hallucination thing. It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Let’s hope Jorvan gets here soon.”

“Yeah, let’s hope.”

Zandrue patted her on the back, and Nin-Akna finally looked at her, glaring. Zandrue backed away a bit. “Sorry.”

Nin-Akna went back to looking away.

Zandrue clapped her hands. “Right. First things first. We need a plan to rescue Felitïa. Second, we need a plan to defend this place when the Bloods and Belone’s forces come after it in two weeks. I don’t think we can rely on Jorvan getting here in that time. He had a long journey to make and an even longer one back. If he gets here, that’s an added bonus, but we can’t depend on it. We need to plan assuming he won’t be here to help. I think we should split into two groups: one focused on getting Felitïa out, the other setting up defences here. Agernon, Corvinian’s descriptions of your home’s defences sound pretty potent. Can you do the same thing here?”

Agernon laughed. “In two weeks? I had fifty years to set up things in that place and it was a fraction the size of this place. It wasn’t even the size of this room.”

Zandrue flashed him a smile. “How about something similar? Doesn’t have to be the same scale.”

Agernon groaned, but nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Perfect.” Zandrue looked around the room. She didn’t know much about the wizards here. She probably should have interacted with them more when she was young. However, she could guess most of them would rather work on defending the Hall of Knowledge. That was fine. The Hall needed more people on it, and rescuing Felitïa was better with fewer. “Nin-Akna, if you weren’t so tired, I’d have you with me setting Felitïa free.”

“If I weren’t so tired,” Nin-Akna said, “I’d’ve rescued her already.”

“I don’t doubt it. For now, it’s probably best if you stay here.”

“Probably.”

Corvinian leapt up. “What about me?”

“You’re with me, boy,” Agernon said. “I’ll need your help.”

Corvinian frowned for a moment, but then smiled. “Okay.”

Zandrue addressed everyone else. “The rest of you will work on the defence here, except one. I want one volunteer to help me spring Felitïa.”

Ezmelda raised her hand. “I’ll help.”

Zandrue raised an eyebrow. “All right. Now we’ve got the broad outline, we need to figure out the specifics. Suggestions?”

* * * * *

While the others discussed the defence of the Hall of Knowledge—ways to sabotage the remaining gargoyle at the entrance to drop on attackers, whether a group of wizards working together could possibly stand against Plavistalorik, and more—Akna sat by herself.

Mostly by herself, at any rate.

“I count as a person, don’t I?” Chica asked.

Akna looked around the room. Everyone else was too engaged in their planning to be looking in her direction. She looked at phantom Chica.

“Don’t think of me as a phantom. Please.”

Akna spoke as quietly as she could manage. “You’re a hallucination. A product of my mind.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re even picking up on things I’m thinking. Or course you’re a product of my mind.”

“You believed it was me when you saw Zandrue earlier.”

Akna shrugged. “It was a hallucination.”

“You still believed because you knew it was possible I was still alive. You have to come find me, Akna. Only you can save me. The people here, they don’t want you. You’re just in their way. You know where you have to go to find me, don’t you?”

Akna shook her head. “No, how could I know that?”

Chica smiled at her. “Oh, come on. Of course you know. Think about it.”

Akna stared at her.

Chica ran her hand along the side of Akna’s face and behind her ear. “You’ll figure it out.” She stood up. “I have faith in you.” She walked across the large room towards the doors, nodding to Pedrin as she passed. He nodded back and then she was gone.

Akna buried her head in her hands. She couldn’t take much more of this. Never sleeping. Endless reminders of everything she’d done wrong. She wasn’t even sure how she’d managed this long.

Anita. That was how.

But Anita wasn’t here. Neither was Meleng.

And Chica…

Akna jumped to her feet.

Pedrin had seen Chica! He’d nodded to her.

Akna ran to where Pedrin was standing near the door. He was watching and listening to the others’ discussion, but not participating much. “The woman who just left. You saw her?”

“You mean Granita? Yes, of course I saw her. Why?”

“What does she look like?”

Pedrin squinted at her. “You saw her. She was talking to you.”

The woman was actually talking to her? “I was hallucinating again. I need to know what she looks like, so I can go after her and...and apologise.”

“Ah.” Pedrin scratched his neck. “Middle-aged Eloorin. Not very tall, though a little taller than you. Light brown skin, brown hair.”

“That describes a lot of people outside,” Akna said.

Pedrin grimaced. “Yes, sorry. If you’re quick, you can probably catch her before she leaves the building.”

Akna nodded. “Thanks.” She hurried out the door.

She found her in the entrance hall. At least, Akna assumed it was her. The woman still looked like Chica. She was walking towards the exit, her long hair lifting just a little in the draughty room.

What had this Granita person actually been saying, and what had she thought of Akna’s nonsensical responses?

“Hello?” Akna called out.

The woman stopped and turned. “Akna?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you. I just wanted to apologise for sounding so odd. I don’t know what you know of me, but I’ve been suffering hallucinations. I thought you were my dead friend. You still look like her.”

“I am your friend, Akna,” the woman said.

Akna smiled and approached a little closer. Why couldn’t she see this woman for who she was? “That’s kind of you to say. My words must have been very strange to you. I thought I heard—”

“Akna, it’s me. Chicahua.”

Akna laughed nervously. “I’m still hearing her—the hallucination’s—words, not yours. Sorry.”

Chica—the woman—lowered and shook her head. “I’m glad, at least, you’re looking for me. You know where I am. You’ve just forgotten, but it’ll come to you soon enough.”

Akna put a hand over her mouth and looked away. “Gods, Chica, I wish that was true.”

“See you soon,” Chica said, and faded from view.

The hall was empty.

Akna choked. But there had been a real person behind the hallucination! Pedrin had seen her. What the fuck was going on?

* * * * *

Akna sat in the Council Chamber again, staring at the floor. Corvin was sitting beside her, a hand on her arm, but she was mostly ignoring him. She was trying to ignore everything.

“Granita left Quorge...had to be ten years ago,” Ezmelda said. “We haven’t heard from her since.”

“That’s right,” Pedrin said. “But I could have sworn…”

“And you didn’t think seeing her was a little odd?” Zandrue said.

“I…” Pedrin was quiet a moment. “No, I didn’t. But…”

“Yes?” Zandrue prodded.

“I was thinking of her just a few minutes before. Something Ezmelda said during the discussions reminded me of her.”

“And this mentalist, whoever they are, drew on that thought,” Ezmelda said. “Such power. To appear as one person to Akna, another to Pedrin, and to hide from the rest of us.”

“But why appear as anyone to Pedrin?” Zandrue said. “Why not hide from him, too? If Nin-Akna is the target, why appear to anyone else?”

Akna looked up. “Because they’re playing with me. They’re trying to drive me crazy.”

Zandrue shrugged. “Yes, but—”

“What does it matter?” Akna pushed Corvin’s hand away and stood up. “They’re pretty much succeeding at it.”

Zandrue sighed. “I’m just trying to understand this person. The more we understand them, the more we can predict their next actions.”

“I’m much more concerned by the fact they just walked right in here,” Ezmelda said. She shook her head. “Such power.”

Zandrue began to pace back and forth. “Then we have to make uncovering this person one of our top priorities. We’ll never be able to defend this place otherwise.”

Akna rolled her eyes. “No kidding.”

Zandrue waved her hand. “True, it’s obvious, but sometimes, you have to start at the obvious to reach the unobvious. Now, we know this person must be a mentalist, but there are no mentalists remaining in Quorge—not openly, at least. This person has targeted Felitïa and Nin-Akna. Why? Let’s start there. Reasons to target Felitïa?”

“Because as a mentalist herself, Felitïa would be most suited to unmasking them,” Ezmelda said.

Zandrue passed Ezmelda and nodded. “Yes, but it’s also probably something to do with the whole Will-Breaker thing. Okay, what about Nin-Akna?”

“Less apparent,” Ezmelda said, “but probably something to do with her association with Felitïa.”

“She’s Felitïa’s friend,” Corvin said.

Zandrue circled around Corvin and Akna. “Exactly, and if we assume Felitïa is the primary target—no offence, Nin-Akna, but she probably is.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Akna said. “She probably is.”

“Assuming Felitïa’s the primary target, Nin-Akna is also a target because she could protect her somehow.” Zandrue stopped pacing. “But Nin-Akna’s a warrior. This is all mental stuff.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Ezmelda said. “Friends, particularly close friends, are more likely to get through to her, help her get past whatever’s been done to her.”

Zandrue nodded. “Makes sense. But why only the two of them? Felitïa has other friends here. Corvinian’s powers probably protect him, but what about Agernon?”

Agernon harrumphed.

“This person is powerful,” Ezmelda said, “but even powerful wizards have their limits.”

Zandrue smiled. “Okay, so is there any way to push this person beyond their limits? Wizards can burn themselves out, can’t they?”

Ezmelda nodded. “They can.”

Agernon chuckled. “A wizard that powerful isn’t likely to be tricked into overexertion.”

“Fair enough,” Zandrue said. “But it’s always something to consider. We still have to figure out who they are. They can’t be living in total seclusion. They must have contact with someone.”

“Doesn’t mean anyone they have contact with knows what they are,” Ezmelda said.

Zandrue groaned. “True.” She threw her hands up. “There has to be a way to find this person!”

They stood in silence awhile.

Chica wanted Akna to find her. Maybe that was what she should do, but not in the way Chica—or whoever she really was—meant. Maybe it was time to take direct action, rather than sitting around waiting. They’d wasted so much time over the last couple months, studying when they should have been acting. That was Felitïa’s mistake, and Akna’s mistake for going along with it.

Akna walked up to Zandrue. “There is a way.”

“Go ahead,” Zandrue said.

“Whoever it is was here today. Right?”

Zandrue nodded. “Seems like it.”

“Then we wait for it to happen again. I’m pretty sure most of my hallucinations are just that. I thought you were Chica, Zandrue. I thought Felitïa was Chica once. I see her at night when I sleep. But this person must be set up in some place where both Felitïa and I were regularly, which means the palace. Yet I’m here now, and have been for a while. That puts me far away. Mentalism doesn’t have an unlimited range, does it?”

Ezmelda shook her head.

“So this person must have to come to me from time to time to make sure all their spells or whatever are still functioning, or renew them, or something, right?”

Ezmelda nodded. “That would make sense.”

“Then someone needs to stay with me every minute of every day, and I will say when I’m having a hallucination. I will tell every bad dream, everything that looks weird. The other person can then tell if someone else is there and call the alarm.”

Zandrue stroked her chin. “Nice idea, but couldn’t our mentalist friend just hide themself from your watcher like they did with people here? They walked right into a room full of wizards and went completely unnoticed.”

“You said it yourself. There’s one person who is probably immune.” Akna took Corvin’s hand.

Zandrue smiled.

“But Corvinian didn’t notice anything just now,” Ezmelda said.

Agernon laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Ezmelda said.

“Because Corvinian spent his time napping while we were discussing defence, didn’t you, boy?”

Corvin lowered his head. “Yeah, but it was really boring and there was nothing for me to do.”

“Think you can stay awake for this, Corvinian?” Zandrue asked.

“If I have to, yeah.”

“You’ll need to be with Nin-Akna every moment, no exceptions. Never leave her side. Of course, you’ll need to sleep sometimes. It’ll have to be when Nin-Akna’s trying to sleep. We’ll figure out something to do then, but otherwise, no exceptions. Always by her side, even in embarrassing moments like when either of you have to pee. All the time.”

“I understand.”

Akna squeezed his hand. “What do you say, Corvin? Want to be my watcher?”

“You bet!”

“Corvin,” Zandrue said. “Cute. I like it.”

Akna took a deep breath. She hoped this worked, because if it didn’t, she feared she was going to go mad.