“Like Thael said, I’ll meet you all at our quarters,” Verena said, leaving Cyrus and Deckard.

“Oi! Where are you going?” Cyrus shouted after her. “Don’t forget to bring the scroll to the Council!”

Krystos had given Thael the new decrees for the Council, stating that all who Greyed would be granted the choice of remaining in the order, or given fifty gouls and safe passage to any of the realms. The recruitment of the initiated would no longer be through forced conscription, and only willing men and women would be allowed to take the trials.

The age of the arch queen had passed, and with it a new era had begun; the Era of Arch King Krystos the Just. It remained to be seen if his title proved true. Verena wondered what would happen to their cadre. Thael had grown distant in the past few weeks, not speaking a word to her for days at a time. He had been avoiding her ever since that night… when they had let go of their hardened shells and accepted each other for who they truly were.

There he was, striding through the settlement on the outskirts of the keep. Something wasn’t right. Thael never looked back once as she shadowed him. Verena knelt within the shade of one house, her Shroud blending with the shadows.

Thael halted before a house, knocking on its door. A Haolan woman opened it, and they spoke for a time before he entered. A boy holding a wooden sword ambled to the door, swung it wide open and paused just outside. He passed through, closing the door behind him.

So, Thael had fathered a bastard. She suddenly realized why he had always spent his time in the village during his leave, why he was so distant, why Thael shunned her…

The door opened once more. Thael, the woman, and the boy moved through the village. She trailed. It wasn’t hard to remain unseen, as they deep in conversation. They reached a meadow, Verena skirting from tree to tree, peeking past a trunk. It was a pretty image – amber flowers growing low to the ground, swaying like a golden tide in the gentle breeze. Thael knelt beside the boy, handing him the paper kite he had bought in Haol.

Verena remembered his words: I saw goodness in the world.

He spoke to the boy and pointed skyward. The boy nodded, Thael holding the paper kite as he began to run through the meadow. The colorful bird lifted aloft from Thael’s hands. The boy ran further, the kite rising high in the sky. Thael sat down with the woman, who laughed and smiled alongside him. Verena had never seen him smile. His smile was a gentle thing, something that could never survive in this world. She had to free him from such a fate.

She sat drinking in a piss poor shack of a tavern, the only one in Chegsda. The patrons, rough-looking men, kept their distance. They knew what her black cloak signified. Though the arch queen’s reign had been overthrown, the Empire’s monarchy had merely changed its rulers. Power belonged to those who wielded it.

These men, with their hungry eyes and ravenous smiles, could do what needed to be done. One such man sat across from her.

“You’re one of them officers from the Fort? You lot don’t usually come ’ere by your lonesome.” He grinned. “Let me buy you a drink.”

She pulled her cowl back, staring back at the sallow-faced man. His compatriots from another table grinned back at her.

“I’m here on official business of the Empire,” Verena stated. “Sanctioned by Arch King Krystos.”

The tavern grew silent at her words.

She continued, “There is a Haolan spy that lives in this village. She is a Haolan woman with a boy. Do you know her?”

The man nodded, eyes hard and feverish. “She’s the whore of some officer. Shouldn’t you take it up with him?”

“He has been dealt with,” Verena replied. She stood and cut a leather pouch with her dagger, gold coin spilling on the table. “The king would like this done quietly, to not disturb the peace. Kill the woman precisely by the next morn. These gouls are for all your service.”

The man took a gold coin and bit it. “It’s feckin’ real,” he proclaimed to the others. He leaned forward, close enough she could smell his sour breath. “Those feckin’ Haolans shouldn’t even be in our lands. No spy is going to live in our village. We’ll make sure of it, ma’am.”

Verena nodded and left.

Thael would be reminded how the world was, and always would be. She would make him see it; had to make him see it. It was the only way to escape such a fate, to be set free.