He rose from the table and swept out of the room with Daliah close behind. The magistrate quickly took the lead when Angel realized he had no idea where his friends were staying. They navigated through the camp, soldiers rushing to get out of their way as soon as they spotted Daliah coming.

“Your men have a lot of respect for you,” Angel observed. “I’ve heard that magistrates are more feared than anything else. What do you do differently?”

“Pay them better,” Daliah replied with a grim smile. “Especially the ones that I have working for other Magistrates. A little bit of discontent in the right place goes a long way. My offer is still open to you, by the way. Silver was more than happy to take it.”

“I admit I was wondering a bit about his willingness to throw himself into dangerous situations,” Angel drawled. “Out of curiosity, just how much–”

“One hundred Vei a week,” Daliah said. Angel nearly tripped over his own feet before he managed to catch himself and plaster a nonchalant expression over his face.

“Oh. That’s it?”

Daliah snorted. “You aren’t fooling anyone, Seeker. Your friend in Bronze city held out for longer than I thought he would, but he eventually folded and told me everything about you after I offered him fifty Vei. You’re practically destitute.”

“There are things more important in this world than money.”

“And you get them by paying money.”

“Not researching Old World Magic.” Angel crossed his arms. “You can’t buy that.”

Daliah cocked an eyebrow. “But I can pay someone to do it for me.”

“Fair point,” Angel admitted, the wind rushing out of his sails. “But I’m not interested in working for a Magistrate. Sorry. I’ve had one master already, and he was more than enough. I prefer to be free. I wouldn’t be opposed to working together with you from time to time, but no employment.”

“We’ll see,” Daliah said, coming to a stop before a tent. “You’ll come around eventually. Everyone does.”

Angel grunted and pushed the flap open with his stiff arm, stepping inside. Alison, Vanessa, and Tilly were sitting on the ground, studying a burnt sheet of metal engraved with runes. Jake was curled into a ball behind Tilly, who was using the bird monster like a backrest.

“Hey, that’s one of the plates I made for you all,” Angel exclaimed. “I thought those were lost in Molten Ridges!”

“I retrieved them at Vanessa’s request,” Daliah said with a smirk. “And liberated some of your work as well. Consider it a finder’s fee.”

Vanessa gave Angel a helpless shrug.

“Magistrates.” Angel rolled his eyes. “How are you three doing?”

“I think we should be asking you that,” Alison replied, sending a worried glance at his arm. “What happened in there?”

“Killed Reave. Rebuilt my arm without any good material and no time to work with,” Angel replied. “I can’t recommend it.”

“He’s really dead?” Vanessa asked, swallowing. “But… he was like level three hundred. How did you kill him?”

“The System isn’t everything,” Angel said. “And Reave wasn’t anywhere near what he should have been. It’s a long story, but I don’t think we’ve ever really fought the Reawakening, unless you count Lilian when she was working against us.”

“Is that why Soul didn’t seem that strong?” Tilly asked, glancing up from the scrap metal. “I mean, he was scary and all, but from what Alison told us, he should have been terrifying. Instead, he ran away as soon as Daliah showed up and didn’t seem to be that strong when they were fighting.”

“My army is nothing to laugh at, even for someone as powerful as Soul,” Daliah said, crossing her arms. “Nor am I.”

“It’s not that,” Alison said, chewing her lower lip. “It didn’t feel like he was actually trying to kill me. He kept attacking, then backing off and giving Lilian time to get on him while I ran away.”

“Speaking of Lilian, where is she?” Daliah asked. “I’ve got questions for her.”

“Not now,” Angel said, waving his hand as his brow furrowed in concentration. “This is important. Alison, what was the copy of Reave doing while Soul was fighting you? And did it seem like he was doing anything else strange?”

“He just kind of attacked normally. Lilian was able to beat him back pretty easily. He dove at me a few times, but Lilian kept him from grabbing me so nothing ever happened. Soul mostly stood back and fought whenever Lilian came for him.”

Angel let out a contemplative grunt. “But he did occasionally attack you, seemingly without intent to kill?”

Alison nodded.

“What about when he fought Lilian?”

“I’m not sure,” Alison admitted. “I really don’t know how to fight hand to hand very well. I can’t really tell if someone is trying to kill someone else, but it didn’t look like he was holding back. Lilian got pretty banged up, but her Star Fragment healed most of the damage.”

“And Heart just… annoyed you?” Daliah confirmed. “If I understand correctly, Heart was entirely metal and incredibly heavy. He should have been able to do significant amounts of damage if he even tried slightly.”

“I wouldn’t know. He never hit me,” Alison said, glancing between them. “Do you think Soul was after me?”

Angel nodded. “I do, but I don’t know why or for what purpose beyond it having to do with Old World Magic somehow. He obviously saw you using it when we were fighting, but I can’t see why he’d want to capture you unless he thought the magic had somehow returned fully and you knew how to bring it back.”

“I mean, that could be it, couldn’t it?” Tilly asked. “If Alison was casting Old World Magic, it’s not too crazy for Soul to decide that she somehow knew someone that had brought it back or had brought it back herself.”

“If it was back, it would be fully back,” Angel said, shaking his head. “People have different levels of magical energy that they can control. Alison has so much that she can skirt past the pressure issue that the rest of us face. While incredibly impressive, I don’t think Soul would immediately jump to the conclusion that she’d figured something out or that Old World Magic had returned. That said, if Heart was lunging for Alison, it really sounds like they were trying to grab her without injuring her.”

“Could he need her increased magical power to activate the Vault?” Vanessa questioned.

“No, if he needed energy, he would have drawn it from Reave when he died,” Angel replied. “It was Alison herself.”

Alison shuddered and Tilly put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Well, are you certain that Soul wants to destroy Old World Magic?” Vanessa asked, running a finger along a greave in the metal plate. “What if he was trying to trick you and is actually trying to return it?”

“Then he’d be working with me,” Angel said. “Not that I’d ever work with him again. But none of his actions would make sense. Nothing he’s done up until this point made sense until we learned that he was working against the Reawakening, not with them. It’s just too convoluted for no reason. No, he wants Alison because she somehow can either help him stop the magic from returning or is a threat that will make it return.”

“If I was a threat, wouldn’t he have killed me?” Alison pointed out.

“Probably, but that’s one thing I’m not entirely sure about,” Angel said, sitting down with a weary sigh. “If he’d never trained me, he’d have had no competition at all. Nobody would have even known where to find him until it was too late. Then again, I’ve been doing everything that he’s wanted me to for who knows how long without ever realizing it. He could be planning to trick you into helping him somehow as well.”

“And that leads us back to how,” Daliah said grimly.

“What if Soul wants to figure out the way her magic works?” Vanessa asked. “He’s a researcher, isn’t he? Like, he seemed sincere about being interested in magic when you knew him from what you told us.”

“That’s true,” Angel said slowly. “I think he fears what it could do if it returns, which is why he’s so determined to destroy it. But he was certainly interested in it. That wasn’t fake. But this isn’t just mere curiosity – you might be onto something, though. Alison, we need to find out exactly how your power works. Could you summon a spark of energy safely?”

“If it isn’t an actual spell, I’ll probably blow something up on accident,” Alison replied. “I could put one into a rune circle, though.”

“No, that’s no good. It drains the magic away and makes it very difficult to study,” Angel said.

“As does it blowing us up,” Vanessa pointed out.

Angel glanced down at his metal arm, where his Star Fragment was sealed. “I need to see how the magic works better than Soul did. He’s got more experience than I do, but I can access the source without a spell warping it. I’ll drain the magic right before it explodes, which should give me a very short window to try and figure out exactly what’s happening.”