“Do we know exactly how it’ll go for us, should Taeral’s endeavor fail?” he asked, lowering his voice, not wanting the others to hear.

Caia sighed. “We’re not sure. Once the life-chains turn black, we die. That’s for sure. It will likely coincide with the Hermessi hitting five million of us, or it will be followed by it, shortly thereafter. I guess our bodies will be theirs for the taking as soon as we’re dead, but they’ll only be able to complete and unleash the ritual once they have all five million of us.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve gathered, as well,” I said. “Either way, we die, unless Taeral saves us.”

Ben nodded slowly, his brow furrowed. He didn’t like the sound of that any more than I did. But it was our current reality, and there wasn’t much else we could do at this stage.

Lucas had his gaze fixed on Crane, who only had one healthy link left on his life-chain. Hopelessness defined his features, his shoulders slumped as he sat next to his crystal casing. “I’m not liking the looks of him,” Lucas muttered. “None of the fae spirits were able to help him.”

“You heard the Reapers earlier,” I said. Kelara, Malleus, Rudolph, and the others were close by, watching us carefully, without participating in most of the conversations. They’d been trained to keep their distance and not engage, after all. “His will to live must be dwindling.”

“Yeah, but how do we get it back up?” Lucas replied. “I’m really not interested in finding out what happens when one of us dies,” he added, and looked at Sidyan, his Reaper. “Hey, you! Reaper tool! Can’t you do something about this?”

Sidyan rolled his eyes. “For the umpteenth time, no. You sound like that old grandpa who keeps forgetting basic things, like where you put your car keys or the fact that you’re not allowed to drive anymore.”

I stifled a laugh. As dark and as cold as he seemed, Sidyan was so salty and sassy, it was impossible not to appreciate him. He seemed tailor-made for Lucas, who was just as acid, if not worse, on a good day.

“And you’re useless, as usual,” Lucas replied.

Kelara smirked. “It’s not up to us anymore. You know that.”

“I just find it hard to believe that entities as powerful as yourselves can’t just pitch in and do more,” Lucas said.

“We’re not all-powerful,” Sidyan replied. “We’re agents of Death. Our abilities are limited, as they should be. Not everything can be fixed, just to make you more comfortable or to help you feel better. That’s not how the world works, not even in your storybooks.”

“So what happens when Crane dies?” Kailyn asked.

The Reapers gave us a collective shrug. “We have no idea. Only a handful of us were there during the previous ritual attempt, myself included,” Sidyan said. “And I can tell you for a fact that it didn’t get that far back then.”

“There’s nothing we can do to help him,” Kelara interjected, noticing that my attention was focused on Crane. “I am sorry, for what it’s worth.”

“The best we can do is brace ourselves for the worst,” Ben concluded. “If Crane won’t help himself, if he dies, his body will be an open conduit for the Hermessi. It’ll be the beginning of the end for us.”

“You should at least warn the living about this,” I said. “If Crane’s body becomes a danger to them, they should know. They can take appropriate measures.”

“It’s not allowed,” Malleus replied bluntly.

“But we’ve already agreed that what’s going on here isn’t natural, and therefore open to your intervention,” I protested.

“Yeah, as far as the spirits are concerned,” Malleus replied. “Everything else stands, written in stone. The living may never see the dead.”

Caia smirked. “We’re not dead yet.”

“You’re killing me,” Malleus groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“The rule still stands. You are spirits, and the living cannot see the spirits,” Rudolph cut in.

“It’s not fair,” I said.

Kelara seemed to agree, but she didn’t respond. The others just ignored me, unwilling to discuss this any further. Even so, I was quite satisfied. Noticing Kelara’s expression had allowed me to discover an opening. If I could get a Reaper to break the rules and reveal us to the living, it would definitely be Kelara.

With Crane so close to dying, however, I needed to move quickly and subtly, without triggering the other Reapers. A strategy was necessary, and, as I glanced at the Novaks, I had a feeling that they might be the perfect helpers for this. Someone would need to keep the other Reapers busy while I drilled Kelara until she agreed to reveal us to GASP. Easier said than done, as usual.

Taeral

We spent the morning gathered around the map again, having decided on three new and more probable locations, since Emperor Tulla had been kind enough to give us the rosy fish sanctuary locations—which Medina had failed to deliver, even lying about her knowledge of them. We were looking at BemHur, on the southeastern shore of the Rose Domain, close to the White Peak mountain range; Mollyn, on the northwestern mountain ridge of the Samotarcis Domain; and Sigmar, down south from Mollyn. All three were known to have rosy fish sanctuaries in their vicinity, best matching what Fallon had remembered from Kabbah’s memories.

As expected, Medina didn’t seem too pleased when she came into the meeting hall and heard our search plans. She made an effort to keep her composure, but even I could see that none of this was in any way convenient to her.

The crew and I had also agreed to let her think she was still calling the shots, mainly because we knew she’d give herself away, sooner or later. Eva’s truth serum was currently fermenting inside a sealed glass vial hidden in her backpack, waiting for its opportune moment. We were all curious to see what Medina was planning, so playing along with her had seemed like the smoothest way forward, without igniting a diplomatic conflict. If we accused her of any wrongdoing too early, we risked her destroying whatever evidence we might come across farther down the line.

“Are you sure these are the right places?” she asked, frowning at the map.

Riza smiled. “Yes. They best match our search criteria. We were thinking of starting with BemHur, and, if that doesn’t pan out, moving over to Mollyn and Sigmar.”

“Hm, I don’t think that’s wise,” Medina said. “I didn’t notify the BemHur guards of your arrival. You should start with Mollyn, while I send word to BemHur. That way, you won’t have to wait for any clearance.”

Raphael eyed her carefully. “You could come with us to BemHur, first. It’s closer.”

“No, that’s fine. You know what you’re doing, and I’m still a civilian. I strongly advise that you go to Mollyn first,” Medina replied. There was a strain in her voice, one that I hadn’t noticed before. We’d definitely irked her, but she couldn’t exactly forbid us from going to BemHur—not without raising some troubling questions. It also further proved that she was up to something, so we agreed.

“Okay, we’ll head out to the Samotarcis Domain, and, should those two locations prove unsuccessful, we’ll go to BemHur last,” I said.

I could almost hear her pulse relax as she breathed out and offered a curt bow. “Good. I can assign a garrison to shadow you along the way, if you’d like. Just in case you have any Hermessi-related troubles.”

“That’s not necessary, thank you,” I replied. “Unless someone gave us away, the Hermessi don’t know we’re here yet. We still have an upper hand, for the time being.”

She nodded slowly, her gaze drifting away from mine. “Very well. As you wish. Good luck out there.”

We thanked her and left the meeting hall. Our backpacks were prepped, with pulverizer weapons loaded and mounted on top of them, ready to be pulled and used at a moment’s notice. Our shield bracelets were activated, and our swords and knives had been sharpened the night before. We were more than ready for this, despite the fearful tremors in our chests.

“This is it,” I said slowly as we linked hands out in the hallway. “It’s going to get messy, quickly. You know that, right?”

Eira sighed. “If Medina is cooperating with the Hermessi, they’ll be waiting for us, regardless of the location we visit first.”

That had been a leading theory after last night’s dinner. It fitted Eira’s narrative about Trap having been framed, as well, and it made the most sense as to why Medina had lied about the rosy fish sanctuaries. We’d had the option to follow her, using our invisibility paste, but chances were she’d be aware and try to lead us away from Eirexis’s possible location—if she was, in fact, working against us. No, if Medina was involved, she would be specifically told to stay away from Eirexis. Our reasoning and our plan made more sense and better use of the little time we had.

“But we can still distract them, even if only for a short while,” Varga replied, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to make sure Medina wasn’t eavesdropping from inside the meeting room.

“We can head over to Mollyn, on foot, and see if we’re followed or, worse, attacked,” Eva said. “Whichever happens first, Riza or Tae can just teleport us straight to BemHur. The hostiles will be scrambling to come after us, but they will be stretched thin for at least a few minutes, maybe even an hour, if we’re lucky, because there are more locations for us to try.”

“They’ll concentrate their efforts where Eirexis is,” I muttered. “But Medina won’t be there.”

“Yeah, she’d do everything she can to keep us away from it,” Herakles agreed.

“But if we go there straightaway, they’ll definitely be locked and loaded and ready for us,” Eva said. “We might as well play dumb, pretend we trust Medina and distract some of the Hermessi’s minions, just enough to get some of the pressure off our backs. With Devil’s Weed and invisibility spells on, even the Hermessi will have trouble, since they won’t see us coming.”

Herakles grinned. “I’m on board with that. We stay visible and seemingly gullible till we get to Mollyn, then vanish and slip on the invisibility spells.”