Satsu had expected the summons. She knew the risks of bringing Roman here, of doing what she’d done. She was prepared for the consequences.

The note—a vague, innocuous invitation—was delivered by a girl in a plain mask who may have been hotel staff. Or maybe not. It didn’t matter. Satsu knew who the note was from.

The knock at her door had come only moments after Roman had left the suite. The timing told Satsu they’d been watching, waiting. That they knew their business as well as they knew hers.

But Satsu, too, knew what she was about. It was why she had booked at this hotel, in this suite.

Meet me for tea? The note read. The usual time and place. Yours, O.

Tea meant immediately. The usual told her it was safe, that she could take just the standard measures to protect herself. And O—well, that told her exactly who wanted to see her.

Satsu withdrew into her bedroom. Max followed, his ears down and he gave a soft whine. Max had always been sensitive to her moods. Satsu rubbed his head—a brief moment of indulgence—before she pointed at the door and, in a firm voice said, “Guard.” As she spoke, she reached into him and flared the feelings of territory and protectiveness. He let out a low growl and settled into a watch position. No one would be allowed in.

In the closet, at the top corner of the back wall was a switch. Satsu pressed it, holding it down till she felt the tingle of the nima recognizing her. The wall slid open and Satsu went through, then closed it behind her.

The small hidden room had another door leading out the other side, and its only features were a plain black kimono hanging on the wall next to a black silk hood. Satsu stripped and changed into the black ensemble, pulling the hood’s attached mesh screen down over her face. The long sleeves covered her hands, and the padded shoulders and loose folds disguised her shape. No one would know her.

The door opened into a tight corridor that led her down a seemingly endless stairway until she emerged into the tunnel system that ran under the streets of Kanto.

The tunnels were a dimly lit maze with no signs or landmarks to guide any untrained stranger who stumbled in. Satsu counted her steps, made note of every turn. Even knowing her way, it would be easy to get lost.

In this fashion, she crossed half the city until she reached the door she needed. She pressed her hand against it, once again waiting for the nima to recognize her. After a moment, the door slid open.

Satsu had to pass through two more vestibules guarded by two more nima doors, arranged and managed so that people coming in and people going out would never see each other. She emerged into a waiting room, with soft lights and decorative plants and a thick carpet that made a very comfortable surface on which to kneel as she waited.

Satsu didn’t have to wait long. The door slid open and Satsu bowed her head, but the man who stepped into the room with her was not at all who she had expected.

In a golden mask that covered the whole of his face and a long black coat that bore the Miyōshi crest outlined in gold, he towered over her, his physical presence imposing. But to her other senses…

Satsu’s blessings were strong. In school, she’d been top ranked in a class hand-selected as the most talented youths in the clan. For her empathy, that meant that even the most subtle etherics among her peers had been unable to hide entirely from her.

Satsu was used to a constant background noise of feelings around her, even in a room full of Serpents. From this man, she felt nothing. He might as well have been made of stone. It was unnerving. And unquestionable who he must be, even if this was the first time Satsu had ever been in his presence.

“Lord Miyōshi,” Satsu said, her eyes trained down.

“Oshiro Amanita.” Miyōshi Tōru used the name she’d set aside years ago to take this assignment. It was both reminder and reprimand, delivered in an even, patient tone.

“My lord summoned me?”

“I have a puzzle perhaps you can solve.” He spoke at a slow, deliberate pace. Making her wait for him. As though they had all the time in the world. “There is a woman, Varya Satsu. A soldier in the armies of the Wolf clan. She has come to Kanto, bringing her friend, Hayashi Roman.”

He paused, giving her the opportunity to respond. “Kanto is a popular vacation spot. Even among Wolves and Griffons. Varya Satsu’s presence here is nothing of note.”

“An unremarkable visit, yes. However, it was recently brought to my attention the arrangements Varya Satsu made before her arrival. Favors called in from people Varya Satsu has no history with, allowances and accesses obtained for places and services Varya Satsu should not know.”

This time, Satsu remained silent. He was correct, of course, and she wasn’t sure yet whether he was looking for apologies, explanations, or something else. Excuses—or lies—would be the worst mistake she could make with Miyōshi Tōru.

“What are the laws of the Serpent, Agent Amanita?”

“Loyalty to the clan,” she whispered. “Commitment to the mission.”

“Yet here you sit before me, your cover endangered, taking risks of discovery…for what?”

Satsu had prepared a speech, an evaluation of the pros and cons of her actions that she had practiced until her delivery was smooth and perfect. But in her planning, she had imagined delivering that explanation to Lord Oshiro herself, or possibly to her son, Oshiro Hamilton, who was the person Satsu reported to directly. In all her contingencies, she’d never imagined having to come before Tōru himself.

All her carefully constructed narrative fled. “Roman’s my friend,” she said simply. “I care about him a great deal. He needed this.”

She risked a look up, but it told her nothing. Tōru's stance was unreadable. His eyes—the only part of his face she could see—were devoid of expression. She reached harder with her other senses, but to the nima, he was invisible.

“That’s your reason,” he said. “Now tell me how you planned to justify it.”

“Not justify,” Satsu argued reflexively, then stopped. Reset herself. “Yes, I’m sorry. I was going to try to justify my actions. I was going to talk about Roman as a potential asset. That I would have this secret over his head and I could…”

She looked up into his golden mask, at the artificial frown. His dark eyes gave nothing away, and she felt off balance without being able to read any hint of his emotions. “Roman is my friend,” she repeated. “I wanted to help him. And…the Wolf are struggling. They haven’t been given a chance to recover from the Eclipse, and it’s starting to look like they aren’t going to. They started this interval at the end of their strength, and it’s not getting better. They can’t afford to lose Roman.”

“You were thinking of the Wolf?” he asked softly, neutrally.

“Don’t we have a duty to the Empire? You don’t see them, Lord Miyōshi. How tired they are. How hard they work. If I could help, even a little…”

“You take a great risk with a secret that doesn’t belong to you.”

Satsu bowed deeper. “I know Hayashi Roman and I know the Wolf. He won’t share this secret. He can’t. They’d take away his wings.”

He nodded, the first physical response he’d made since their conversation started. Satsu hoped that was a good sign.

But he wasn’t finished asking questions. “Tell me how you knew about that house.”

“Lord Oshiro sent Agent Amanita there when it was decided she was to become Varya Satsu. So she would not go into darkspace without ever having encountered a demon.”

“Very well.” He fell silent.

Satsu should have waited, silent, for his judgement. But there was more, and if she was to be given this opportunity to speak directly to Tōru himself, she wasn’t going to waste it. “This interval has been strange. The demons are more active than they should be. The Wolves all shrug and say it happens. Which, perhaps it does, but Roman’s experiences strike me as unprecedented, and I don’t know how many other oddities I might hear if all the scouts confided in me as he does. If I’m to be punished, I understand and accept that. But someone needs to be embedded with the Wolf. Someone needs to be watching.”

Having spoken her piece, she fell quiet. She had time to wonder what was happening to Roman, how his own encounter might be going. Time to question whether she’d made the right choice before Tōru said, “You will continue on this path.”

Satsu held her body stiff. She couldn’t let her relief be obvious.

“You will report to me further developments with the Wolf and with Hayashi Roman. Any reports you send to Oshiro Hamilton, I wish to receive as well.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“I will expect better judgement in the future on the matter of clan secrets.”

She bowed low, her forehead nearly touching the floor. “Yes, my lord.”

“Go,” he said. “Varya Satsu should not be found absent.”

Satsu held her poise all the way back out to the tunnels, at which point she collapsed against the wall, sliding down to hug her knees with her head leaned back against the stone.

She allowed herself a couple minutes in the isolating darkness to let the panic she’d been fighting since Tōru had walked into the room rise up and run through her. She breathed through it, not fighting, but letting it spike and run its course. As her heartbeat slowed again, as her blood stopped pounding its drumbeat against the silence, Satsu stood again and began the careful trek back to her hotel.

She’s betrayed the clan. In a small way, yes, but that almost seemed worse. One small transgression and Tōru himself had come to take her to task.

She wasn’t foolish enough to believe she’d been forgiven. But she still resolutely believed she’d done the right thing. All she could hope was that when Roman returned, she’d be proven correct.