?Are you sure??

Jewell rolled the edge of her whiskey glass along the table, nodding. ?Yeah. It?s them.? She shook her head. ?I should have seen it sooner.?

He took a deep breath in through his nose. She could see him struggling to remain calm while the patches of scales on his skin expanded at the perceived threat to his lady?s life. ?Well? ****.?

She laughed. It felt like a dark humor but still good. ?So eloquent, Merai.? The knight grunted, drained the water from his glass, and held it out to Jewell. She obligingly filled it with amber liquid from the bottle on her right and then refilled her own.

He drank deeply before he felt ready to reply. ?Mira, the Temple??

The Temple of the Divine Mother

The words had escaped Lirssa?s mouth and struck terror in Jewell?s heart. All her joy (and relief) at seeing her young friend alive had withered instantly. The initial flood of panic and anxiety had overwhelmed her completely, but Jewell had been given time to process the information on her walk home from the Annex. The cool November air had cleared her head. The knight was not given that luxury. She understood why he was reeling.

?I know.? She ran her hand through her hair, causing her crown to tilt horribly to one side. ?It?s bad.?

?It is very bad,? he agreed.

?It could be worse though.? The look her knight levelled at her said he clearly didn?t see how. She understood that too. It did seem a bit of a stretch to say that things could be worse than a death cult, who likely possessed knowledge of true name, coming after her with bloody vengeance in mind. ?A lot worse. Cause at least now we know what we?re dealing with, right? No more guessing who is lurking in the shadows. No more hunting down rumors.?

He nodded slowly. ?Yes. I suppose that is true.?

She didn?t miss a beat. Jewell was fired up now. ?We?re the ones who can go hunt them down.? She stabbed her finger at the table. ?No waiting for them to come to us. They made the first strikes, but then they made a mistake. They should have taken me out when they could have. Foolish bastards. They don?t even know what hell I will unleash on them for this. I let them get away once. It will not happen a second time.?

Ishmerai visibly hesitated, ?Mira, you are taking this so? calmly.?

Calmly for The Empress was not breaking down and crying hysterically. Calmly was not shutting down completely. Calmly was not having her knight drag her out of some fight club at 2am with a concussion. Calmly was not cutting her arms to pieces to make her head stop spinning.

Calmly was planning death and destruction on a rather wide scale as simply as one would discuss what they wanted to eat for a late night snack.

It probably baffled the knight, but Jewell knew exactly why she had chosen a deadly calm over stumbling into the abyss once more: ?These **** killed Theo. They tried to kill Lirssa.?

She leaned forward, her grey eyes as cold as ice. ?They tried to kill Sapphire.?

It was as simple as that.

The tiny scrawl of coordinates and a time left on Alain's last note to Jewell led to one of RhyDin's more coveted side streets: a ten foot wide cobblestone way, lined with cramped and crooked little rowhouses and apartments, a tiki-adorned bodega closed for renovations, and a coffee shop called the Last Drop. Two old human ladies and a minotaur stood on a stoop, smoking pipes of tobacco and gossiping happily. Three of the goblins who were supposed to be painting the bodega were in the middle of a spraypaint fight, while their coworker berated them, blue painters? tape trailing behind him as he waved his little arms around. A few tables stood out front of the Last Drop, cluttering the narrow sidewalk, and three pixies fluttered out an open kitchen window to start grabbing teacups and saucers twice their size, but only from one table; the other two tables were left untouched.

There was a preciseness to the click of Jewell's high heels on the cobblestone street as she approached the Last Drop, a confidence and command to her posture. It masked the internal struggle to affect the composure she so effortlessly exuded. She was disquieted by the fact that around any corner a member of a hellish cult could be waiting for her. Although it was unlikely that Alain was working with the Temple, she did not entirely rule out the possibility. The timing of his congratulations was just a touch too coincidental. She could be walking into a trap.

When she reached the door of the coffee shop, the glance over her shoulder (which yielded a glimpse of Ishmerai) was ever so natural before she stepped inside. The Empress smiled warmly to the barista before taking a seat at a corner table to the right, her back to the wall. She shrugged out of her jacket, unwound her scarf, and pulled off her gloves. She would want her hands free for this.

A few minutes passed before any strangers appeared on the street: two young women, an elf and an Aurk, dressed in similar long coats and scarves. They smiled at each other as they approached the cafe, sharing a quiet word before they claimed the recently cleaned table. One of two short blue humanoids stepping out of the cafe's kitchen went out to help them, and they took in the street around them as they ordered their drinks, as casually as if sizing up a neighborhood for a future move. The other of the two servers lingered by the barista at the counter, picking idly at one slender gray fingernail.

The Empress had picked up a magazine off a nearby table while she waited for her date, but that didn't mean she wasn't paying attention to the comings and goings inside and out of the cafe. The large window on her left wasn't just to let the early afternoon sun warm her skin, and there were benefits to having the full range of her magic back that had nothing to do with fiddling around with water.

Then Alain stepped out of a door marked 'Office - Employees Only,' his voice audible before his back was visible in the doorway. "There's more where that came from -- more of the Vrasheen blends will have to wait for spring, but believe me, they're worth it." The manager, a middle-aged dwarven woman, shook his hand and said something in French, and Alain smiled as he turned away from her, towards Jewell's table. The server at the counter followed five feet after.

He was older since the last time Jewell had seen him: not by much, but by enough in RhyDin, and now leading a country outside of it, for it to begin to show in his features. Gray hair peppered his beard and his temples, and signs of the lines on his brow lingered after his frowns. Little remained of the boyishness that was one of the few possessions to his name upon his arrival in RhyDin ten years ago. And there was a hitch to his movement, a slight break in the rhythm for every right step, either from a single serious wound or the accumulation of many of them over time. But his expression and bearing were much the same, and he curled a grin and extended a hand to Jewell as he drew near: scarred on the palm, tattooed on the back. "Jewell... it's good to see you again."

She looked up a moment before Alain stepped out of the office, her smile coming unbidden to her lips. A friend was a friend until that friend tried to kill her. She couldn't fail to notice how he differed from the young man she had once hired when he was new to RhyDin, although the years that had left their mark upon him had not touched her the same. At least not outwardly.

She left the magazine open on the table, turned to a two-page article about her Overlord win, and stood. There was a warmth in her grey eyes that could not be glamoured when she took his hand and leaned closer to kiss his cheek. "And you, as handsome as ever!"

He clutched her hand as he kissed her cheek in turn and mocked her, affectionately: "Flirt. But I'd be worried if you weren't," he added as he released her, gesturing for her to sit before following suit.

She laughed sweetly like the coquette she was and would always be. "No worries there, darling. Some things never change." But they did. Just in more subtle ways. Like how she couldn't help fidgeting with her skirt, smoothing it out more than once after sitting back down. And the hint of strain to her smile.

His blue eyes studied her, warm but curious, taking her in and refreshing his memories, while also taking in the signs of her worried mind. "You've been very busy. And alive, that's been a big change, too."

?Very much alive,? she laughed. ?I forgot we have not seen each other, have we? It's been far too long."

Alain?s expression stilled for a moment. "Years. There's my family, there's my country..." He smiled slightly as he trailed off. "This city's a little more dangerous than the people around me like. But you," he leaned forward in his chair, folding his hands, "have been making a big name for yourself. Well. Bigger than usual," he grinned, and paused when the server finally closed the distance to their table. "Cappuccino."

"Same." Jewell smiled at the server, glad for the momentary interruption. The events of the past weekend had unnerved her too much. She did not like feeling like she was grasping for composure here. Alain was leaning forward, but Jewell was forcing herself to relax back in her seat as the server departed. "Gives me something to do with my time," she shrugged at his observation. "Being a socialite gets a little boring after a while."

"And brokering alliances and busting heads rarely does," he added, nodding his agreement. "Whatever else you can say about it, at least it keeps you on your toes. Looking over your shoulder too, though," and he smiled a little as he checked the door to the dumpster out in the alley, almost reflexively. The two women out front were holding hands on top of the table, but they rarely looked at each other: instead their gaze covered most of the street. "But, it's safe here. No assassins. No spies." He unfolded his hands, leaning back as his drink arrived, and took his time enjoying his first sip.

Jewell was certainly on her toes these days, and checking over both shoulders constantly as he could probably tell. Her eyes always returned to his, but they scanned the cafe often enough. "No assassins or spies," she repeated with the hint of a smile. "Except you?" she asked with an arch of her brow. Her playful tone took most of the challenge out of that question, and it was softened even further when she turned her attention to her drink as well. She managed to get a bit of the foam on the tip of her nose, and quickly used a napkin to wipe it away.

He snorted, as much at the question as the sight of foam on her nose. Never mind how much he had to suck from his whiskers. "I haven't killed anyone in a few years. Maureen Rae was the last one and, to be fair, she nearly repaid the favor." If that did not signal how comfortable he felt information could be in this place, he didn't know what else would. "Of course, death is what turned my eyes back to RhyDin. Election violence... and a few other political killings besides," he added, setting his cup down on its saucer.

She heard the signal loud and clear. It undid some of the tension curling in her chest and relaxed her shoulders. She did not go as far to admit that it had been a lot more recently that she had bloodied her own hands! Not yet. She wrapped her hands around her cup, leeching the warmth from it. "Things are becoming more tense in the city, and there are more players involved than I originally thought."

"I've been in the dark for a little while," Alain quietly replied, and tickled a finger along the burn-scarred palm of his right hand. Time and therapy had restored much of the sensation, but sometimes the pins and needles flared up.

It felt a little like she was taking a leap of faith, her heart in her throat, but she made herself say it anyway. She had decided before even meeting him that she wanted to. Needed to. "I was so sure that I had left my enemies in Faerie, but as you said before... I have made quite a name for myself here." She licked her lips, getting that bit of cinnamon that had been sprinkled on the cappuccino. "There's a group. I think they've been using Humanity First as a shield for their activities."

He frowned, ring clinking against the spoon in his drink as he settled the edge of his hand there. "Who are they?"

"They call themselves the Temple of the Divine Mother." Just saying it aloud made goosebumps crop up along her bare forearms. "I, uh.. may have pissed them off last year."

"They're new to me." She was taking a leap of faith; the least he could do was to be honest with her. "They used Humanity First, somehow... but you think they're here for revenge?"

Jewell took a very deep breath. In some ways, it felt good to unburden this on someone she thought she could possibly trust. Or at least someone with a rather cunning mind. "I thought I had.. removed them from RhyDin last year. Apparently, that is not the case. They seem to be pro-human, and have been using the Humanity First platform to reestablish themselves in the city."

Behind his eyes, now ticking to and fro in little motions, something clicked. "'Stand Together.' My knights have been stepping up patrols across the city since the election... We've seen a lot of those posters." He set his hands on the edge of the table, tipping them towards her. "Is there anything else you know about them?"

She nodded when he mentioned the posters. Ishmerai had brought one to her just the other day. She had ignored them at first, assuming they were related to Humanity First. "I don't have a lot more on them. Yet. When I first encountered them, I thought they were just some local cult. I think there's something bigger than that here, though. How else could they have reestablished themselves so strongly so quickly?"

"We could just ask them. Hang on." Alain slid something out of his pocket, what appeared to be a small slate-gray tablet, and tapped repeatedly on the screen, entering a very long series of censored characters. When it finished, he swiped through a few more screens -- what looked like apps, a list of documents, and then one document in particular. The first page was a scan of one of the posters, but the next was information: the points of contact for the group, listed at various businesses and houses of worship. He slid it over to her. "Recruiters for this Temple, I assume. We could try to get someone inside."

She handled the tablet carefully, not completely ignorant of technology (not nearly as much as she pretended) but not entirely comfortable with it, either. She scrolled through the list, nodding. When she looked back up at Alain, her smile was eager. This was exactly what she needed. "Let's do it. I don't trust them not to have anti-magic and glamour wards in place, or I would have done it myself." She slid the tablet back over to him. "And I'm afraid they must know all my employees already."

"But they don't know mine," and Alain winked at her eager smile as he took the tablet back. "I have a knight in mind... former assassin, military experience, strong silent type... Just the kind of person a radical faction would love to recruit." He slid the tablet back into his pocket. "Like old times, right?"

"It will be once I get the Scathachians on board." The confident grin seemed just as fitting now as her unease had when they had first sat down. "Your wife won't be coming after me for this, will she?"

"Returning to RhyDin was a conversation we had together," he said as he dipped his head; then he added, "As long as you don't **** me, I think you're safe." He sipped his cappuccino again, mostly hiding the grin behind it.

Jewell sighed. "Well, there goes my plans for the afternoon."

Alain snorted. "I'll keep you appraised, and vice versa? What's the best way to reach you? A quiet way."

"Absolutely," she smiled. "I've got a few gnomes that I work with. Not exactly on the payroll, but they're very reliable."

"Not on the payroll is good," he nodded, and pushed aside his cup, scooted his chair back. "If we're lucky, maybe we can blackmail them out of this city. If not... we know other ways to make ourselves terrifying." He stood from his seat, leaning past the table for a quick embrace, a peck on the cheek. "It was, really, good to see you again, Jewell. Stay alive," releasing her with a smile.

Her grey eyes shined with such a pleasant mix of danger and delight. They certainly knew how to be terrifying. Not for the first time all week, Jewell was really looking forward to it. She landed a kiss on his other cheek before he got away. "Happy hunting, Alain."

There was only a moment to smile in reply; then he swept out the door, touching what appeared to be a revolver holstered under his jacket, checking its presence reflexively as he stepped out into the open. As one, the two women sitting out front moved to flank him, loosening the swords they'd tucked under their coats and tying them at their hips. They marched to the edge of the neighborhood and around the corner, towards the sound of an approaching engine, and Alain swept one last look across the street behind him before he disappeared.

((Adapted from live play with the great Alain and cross-posted here))

They walked home from the Old Temple challenge together. Although he would prefer to keep his hands free in case of trouble, Jewell had someone wiggled her way in close enough to force Ishmerai to wrap his arm carefully around her shoulders.

?That Overlord skybox is pretty nice, right??

?It was comfortable.? That was high praise from the knight. ?Although, I must say, you looked more comfortable when you were sitting on Mr. Delahada?s lap.?

Jewell ignored the jibe. The knight was correct, though. Salvador doting on her had been just the thing to cure her of the blues. ?It was a good series of fights. I?m glad that it was going to be a win-win situation for me either way, though. Aric or Cane, I need to keep Old Temple.?

Old Temple was where it had all started. Even with Alain?s Lodge there, Jewell didn?t want to take any chances by adding a renegade baron into the mix.

?I still do not see how having loyal barons means anything in this fight, Mira.?

?Maybe it doesn?t mean anything,? she admitted with a shrug. ?Or maybe it means friendly eyes watching my back in the different districts if and when I need them.?

Since Alain had proved that her faith in him had not been misplaced, Jewell thought it prudent that she be more open with her ally than she had been when they last met.

?This is everything?? she asked Ishmerai as she flipped through the dossier aimlessly.

?It is.?

?Including my account from last year??

The knight nodded. ?Yes.?

The Empress chewed on the much abused inside of her cheek. She didn?t really want to tell Alain about that, but there was a chance that he could glean something useful from the account of her initial run-in with (and eventual attempted destruction of) the Temple of the Divine Mother.

There was just one part that really made her hesitate.

Jewell turned through the papers more purposefully this time until she came to the section regarding her encounter with the Temple, written in Ishmerai?s steady hand. The copy she had attempted to pen had been mostly illegible. Her hand had been shaking so badly that she finally had to stop and ask for the knight?s assistance.

As she looked over the pages now, the words blurred together. She had to force herself to read them, focus on them, do not make them go away. She had left out exactly what the Temple had done to her after they had released her magic. It was too painful to discuss. No one needed to know those things. Not even Ishmerai. Included though was her first encounter with the Temple, how she had found them to begin with, her return to their sanctuary on that fateful morning in February, and the recounting of how she had gotten away (although completely lacking in the gory details).

Then there was the line she was looking for: In exchange for the unbinding of the greater part of her magic, Jewell signed a contract to divulge her true name to the man known as The Vessel.

?You need to leave it in there, Mira.?

She sighed. ?Are you sure? I mean, there?s a chance that they don?t still have it.? Jewell would continue to justify what she had done to her very last breath. Selling her name had been absolutely necessary to get her magic back. There had been no other way. But that didn?t mean she wanted anyone to know about it.

?If you are going to trust your friend, you must trust him with this. He deserves to know if he is putting his people in danger.?

?Fine.? She carelessly shoved the papers back into the accordion folder and handed it off to Ishmerai. ?Make sure it goes directly into Alain?s hands. I don?t want anyone else to touch it.?

The cold wind whipping in off the harbor could not touch the three companions in the enchanted garden on Overlord Isle. The mid-morning sun was warm and pleasant while the air was fragrant with blooming flowers and the neverending feast set before them. Jewell was still taking sips of her mimosa and picking at a bowl of cut up strawberries; her appetite really wasn't terrific these days as worried gnaw away at her, and nothing could compare to Rand's! "I know we were speaking about potential baronies the other night..."

He was still cutting a slice of ham into pieces that could possibly be considered small enough, maybe. Folded over and forked, he brought it to his mouth and nodded while he chewed. After swallowing, he shrugged a little. "We toyed with the idea. I'm happy sitting at home with Val too."

Returning her drink to the table, Val let out delighted laugh, glancing back and forth between the two. "Do not let him fool you, Jewell. I have not seen him so energetic as I have since he has been dueling again." Reaching slightly, she picked up a strawberry and nibbled at it.

"Energetic, huh?" The faerie grinned impishly at that. "Well, as loathe I would be to steal you away from Val, and I really don't want her to be lonely, I am in need of more loyal barons. But," Jewell looked between the two of them seriously, "I would not be offended or upset if you declined. Truly."

"Out with it, Empress Overlady Jewell! Just ask. Is there one in particular?" The fork in his hand cut through the air with a slash and a thrust. "Politics is for court, or... politics. We're friends." The fork stabbed more meat. Yum.

"I doubt I will be...short of the rings, I will be by his side, wherever it is...and besides, I have you and Eden to keep me company." His gallant display with the utensils made her attempt to hide her laughter in another sip of mimosa - she knew there was nothing he liked better than putting on his shiny set of armor.

Rand's statement (not the fork!) seemed to strike her. She blinked and actually had to take a deep breath because she was suddenly overcome with a bit of emotion. It had been a long few weeks! "You're right." She laughed. It was a good way to chase away even the slightest, tiniest hint of tears before they could manifest. "I'm not sure which one to ask you to chase after. There's just," she hesitated a moment. "Have you seen the posters in the city? The ones about ending human oppression?"

"Human oppression?" Rand looked at Jewell and then glanced at Val. "I think so, here and there. Isn't that more of that Humanity First garbage?" He picked up his mimosa and took a long sip as if to cleanse the thought from his palate."

"The group that blew up the restaurant near the house? I thought they were gone...they've been quiet lately. But I did notice some posters...in the Marketplace I think?" She tapped a finger against her lips, thinking.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "This group was just using Humanity First as a cover. They're much more devious. And they're spreading, growing stronger. They've got people all over the city." Jewell shook her head. "I don't know what they want or what they're doing, but they're certainly not friendly to me."

"But you never antagonize anyone, Jewell!" He was grinning, unaware of the severity. It was time for some fruit, pineapple bits. "What's this have to do with a Barony? Are they going to try to take them over?"

Reaching over, she rested a hand on his wrist, moss-green eyes watching Jewell's face. Servant's gifts...she could tell this was causing her dear friend more than the usual amount of concern. "Rand...darling...I think, perhaps, what Jewell means is that she wants...trustworthy people ... who can keep an eye out for her?" She loved her fiance, but food tended to bring out the hedonist in him. Food and beautiful women only made it worse.

Her smile was a slow thing and not as sweet as Rand and Val were probably used to. "I maaaay have antagonized them." The levity faded quickly. "They're awful. Terrible. Evil. I don't know what they're planning, but it's going to be bad. So Val has it right." She nodded to her friend, thankful for her gifts of perception. "Since I don't know what they're up to, I want to find out and I want to make sure the people I care about are safe."

"We'll keep you safe." Perhaps an empty statement, given that he had no idea what they might do or how to do it, nor what Jewell was really capable of, but the sentiment was genuine and immediate. His fork clanked against the plate as he set it down and he looked from Val to Jewell. "I'm not a fan of evil, terrible, awful people, whether they're actual people or something else."

"Of course we will do whatever we can." Her free hand moved to rest on Jewell's arm, the gesture meant as both comfort, and reassurance.

From the bright flash of the faerie?s smile, the sentiment was clearly appreciated. Her appetite returned as they fell to plotting together: baronies, cults, and espionage. Oh my!

((So much gratitude and love to Rand and Val for playing this with me!))

?What the hell was all that??

The fact that Ishmerai had so easily picked up on the vulgarities of RhyDin was completely lost on her at the moment. ?Keep it down!? The faerie hissed, glancing around.

They were a few blocks away from the Inn, lingering in the shadows in front of a hobby shop and outside the reach of any streetlamp. She knew this part of town rather well as it wasn?t far from The Line. There was no one else around at the moment; the nearest bar was over a block away. It was a safe enough place to talk briefly, but Jewell still used some added glamour to obstruct them before she explained what exactly had just happened. ?There were these kids, and this one girl?? She took a deep breath. This had disturbed her more than she wanted to let on. ?She stole a bit of my magic.?

?What?? He exclaimed louder than he intended. ?Mira, how could you??

?Me!? I was just sitting there!?

?When you are supposed to be on your guard.?

She folded her arms defensively across her chest. ?It?s not like I just let her do it. And I certainly didn?t let her keep it.?

?Yes, but you threw around quite a bit of power to get it back, right?? She looked away. ?Mira, I thought you wanted to be subtle. Keep a low profile.?

?Well, I did.? Jewell frowned, nudging a piece of loose concrete with the toe of her shoe. ?I just panicked a bit. I didn?t mean to reveal myself so much. I got angry.? The knight looked extremely displeased. Any regret she may have had for acting rashly evaporated, and she found herself rationalizing her actions instead. ?It?s really not a big deal, Merai. They totally deserved it! And maybe it?ll teach people to stop messing with me if they have even the smallest inkling of what I can do.?

He did not seem convinced, but he moved the conversation along with only a sigh. ?Was she human??

?Yeah. I think so. Clearly with some talent though.? She remembered the compact mirror. The smell of lavender and sulphur. The girl seemed to know what she was doing.

?How many others were with her??

Jewell rolled her eyes upward, trying to count. Girl who stole her magic. Guy who had blushed when she smiled at him. He had left before the trouble started. Guy with switchblade. She had committed his face to memory since she had not properly repaid him for his threat. Then there was guy she punched in the face for daring to touch her. She felt like she was forgetting at least one, but those were the ones directly involved. ?Four? Maybe five.?

Ishmerai?s green eyes gleamed dangerously in the shadows. ?Do you think they were with the Temple??

That was the question that made her stomach squirm into knots. ?I don?t know. I doubt it. No. Probably not.? That was hope speaking there, but hope had no place in this situation. She hesitated but quickly added: ?I don?t know. Maybe they were. Bunch of human teens? why else would she try to steal my magic??

She wanted reassurance from him. She wanted another explanation. Any explanation! She wanted something she could hold on to.

He couldn?t give her that.

?I think Lord DeMeur was right in his suggestion the other night, Mira. This is becoming too dangerous. Random people attacking you in the Inn? You are not safe here.?

Jewell scowled when she thought of Alain?s suggestion. He wanted her to run. "Jewell... please run. Leave town, go into hiding, tell no one where you are. Let your friends bury your true name," he had urged. From the start, Ishmerai had urged her to do the same. He told her to go back to Faerie. Spend some time with her uncle Dylan along the beach. Visit the Dragon Lords again. Maybe even go to court. They had the most fabulous parties and the most pompous, coxcomb beaux for her to toy with there. When she had refused, the knight had offered another suggestion: ?What about going home? Your brother may still be alive.? She had laughed in his face. ?I am sure you could wheedle Lord Ar?Din into taking you somewhere.? He had been truly desperate to offer that, and although it was tempting, the answer had still been no.

It was the same answer she gave him again now: ?No. Absolutely not.?

Until she knew for sure that the Temple had her name, Jewell absolutely refused to give in to fear. She would stand her ground. The Empress was strong. Unmovable. Stubborn beyond belief. Even Alain?s final promise had not moved her: "If you ask, I will drown your name in their blood."

The only person who would be drowning anyone in blood was The Empress.

?I?m not running. These fools think they can intimidate me? Bother me when I?m out with my friends? Force me out of my home? Not a ****ing chance. I?ll show them what it means to mess with a s?dhe.?

Jewell groaned, setting the file she had just finished reading aside and pushing back from the table. She was beginning to understand why her friends had seemed so sad at their parting this afternoon. Michiru had hugged her tightly, unwilling to let her go. Haruka had brushed the hair from her face tenderly. Then she had kissed her goodbye.

Her friends didn?t expect to see her alive again.

After reading all evening, she understood why. She looked across the table at her valiant knight. ?Maybe you should just go to sleep, Merai. I?ll finish going through these.?

?I do not think I could even if I wanted to.? He admitted, draining his glass of water before standing and heading towards the kitchen for a refill. ?Can you??

?No,? she admitted. She wasn?t sure if she?d ever be able to sleep again. A shudder ran over her as she thought back to some of the files she had read earlier. No, sleep would not come easy, so she went back to work, hunching over the table and picking up the next file from the folder her friends had gifted her. It contained all the information they had been able to gather regarding the Temple of the Divine Mother. It even included highly classified stuff that wasn?t ever supposed to leave CPA headquarters. Yet here it was, spread out across the dining room table of The Empress in Little Elfhame.

It made her sick to her stomach.

?Did you read this one?? she looked over at Ishmerai when he came back, accepting a fresh glass of water from him while holding up the file she had just started with her other hand. The picture clipped to the front was of a pile of rubble.

?Is that when they leveled the whole city with a mana bomb?? She nodded. ?Yeah. That was pretty grim.?

Grim was an understatement. The Temple of the Divine Mother had decided that the city had been so overrun by non-humans that it was a lost cause. They didn?t even bother to evacuate the humans living there! They just turned the entire city into rubble.

And that wasn?t even the worst. Each file contained a different atrocity. Enslaving an army of demons to fight their foes. Starting a civil war between different groups of non-humans so they wiped each other out. Inciting a conflict after arming the one side with technologically advanced weapons while all the other side had was bows, arrows, and swords. Releasing a plague which killed everyone but the homo sapiens. Using an ancient spell which removed everyone?s magic, making non-humans ripe for the slaughter.

Jewell had downed a glass of whiskey after reading about that last one. Then she kept reading. On and on and on. These people had attacked world after world. Countless realms. They had carved a path across the multiverse.

And now they were in RhyDin.

She made it through several more files before she slammed the one she was reading down on the table and shoved the entire pile aside roughly. Collapsing forward, she buried her face in her arms on the table, forcing herself to breathe in slowly through her nose to stop the rise of bile in her throat. ?I think I?m gonna be sick,? she muttered.

Ishmerai frowned, reaching over to grab the file she had just been reading. It described how the Temple had summoned a mass of fire elementals, bound them to their will, and then used them to kill any non-humans on Planet X19. ?Enslaving non-humans to accomplish their goals.? He sounded disgusted. And scared.

She raised her head, and their eyes met. It was all coming together now. The contract for her name. Unbinding her magic. Testing to see what she could do.

?Mira??

For the first time, Jewell seriously considered Ishmerai and Alain?s request to run. ?What the **** do I do now??

?And what can the great lady of Little Elfhame need of me today, hmm?? Guiscard asked her with a friendly smile as he set her cup of tea down before her.

It had been a few years since she had first made the acquaintance of the bookshop keeper, and they had become fast friends in that time. The faerie treated him like an old beau. There was a bit of a pep to the elf?s step that hadn?t been there when Jewell first came to the neighborhood. His long white hair was more neatly kept, his vest was trimmed in real gold that matched his hazel eyes, and his pantry was well stocked. All thanks to The Empress. Unfortunately, the cleaning woman she sent over to assist him once a month could not keep the books from overflowing the store below into his apartment. They were slowly taking over.

She wasn?t one to complain. Jewell thought it made the space more homey and comfortable than her luxurious penthouse space. She wrapped her hands around the offered tea cup, leaching the warmth away and careful to keep it far from the stack of rolled parchment at her elbow. ?Can I not just visit an old friend??

He laughed as he slowly eased into the seat across from her. ?You can. You can. But I don?t believe you are here for that. Not today.?

?No.? She smiled sweetly. He knew her too well. She often dashed across the street for a late night chat when she needed advice or a sounding ear that wasn?t Ishmerai. ?Unfortunately not, as pleasant as that would be. I need your help, friend.? He nodded for her to continue. ?I need to know everything you know about true names: how they work, why they work, how to divine who has them.? She took a deep breath. ?And I want to know how a person can control themselves if someone else uses their name.?

He suddenly looked very grave. ?What have you gotten yourself involved in now, my lady??

The Empress held the blood soaked rag to the side of her face, waving away her knight impatiently.

?But Mira, it will only take--?

?What else, Haizea??

The girl glanced quickly at the fae knight, who was silent but glowering, before lowering her eyes and continuing her report to her lady. ?Everything is pretty quiet now. We rounded up twenty-three people. Sent them to the Tower of Gulshan like you said.?

?Where they?ll rot,? Jewell spit out.

Haizea hesitated before continuing, ?Uh.. yes. So the twins took them to Gulshan while Samantha made sure anyone injured was taken to the hospital.?

?How many??

?Forty.?

That was a lot. ?Any of ours??

?No. I mean, a few of our people were hurt. One of the wisp employees. A few of the girls have some cuts and bruises, but Meric and Rosemary have been tending to them.?

?Good. Any fatalities??

?Uh.. one.?

Ishmerai cut in as he handed Jewell a fresh towel to press to the side of her face, accepting the bloody one from her in exchange. ?The fool would not let Meric tend to him. Called him a ?low-life, knife-eared, soul stealer?. He died on the way to the hospital.?

?Idiot.? Jewell pressed the fresh towel to her face. The deep gash that ran from her hairline to her cheekbone soaked the fabric rather quickly. Damn iron wounds bled a lot. She was a fair mess overall. They had torn her jacket off of her. Ripped at her dress. Her arms and legs were covered in cuts, bruises, and iron burns. But the faerie had given as good as she had received. Better even. Of the forty that had been sent to the hospital, she was sure that at least fifteen were because of her.

Her magic might not work so hot around iron, but she could still wield a blade better than anyone in the crowd. After all, she was The Empress Overlady.

?Was there any trouble in the rest of the district??

Ishmerai took a seat next to her, nudging a glass of orange juice closer to her hand. ?We have heard a few preliminary reports but nothing substantial yet. There are still protests ongoing in the marketplace, and there was some trouble at the Sassy Owl Saloon earlier.?

?Claire?s place?" The Empress smiled as she picked up her glass of juice. "Those poor bastards probably didn?t know what hit them.?

?Can you not just go and physically take the stone from her??

Jewell laughed. It was a desperate, sad sound like she wanted to cry instead. She did. The tears were continually stinging at the corners of her eyes. She kept blinking them away as they obscured the sight of the calendar sitting in front of her, the last weekend in January circled in red. There wasn?t enough time. Not enough time to cry. Not enough time to save herself with ShadoWeaver. Things were falling apart too quickly. She had many allies on her side (including the Scathachian Sisterhood after her chat with Issy the other day), but Jewell did not feel confident. She felt dispirited and oppressed.

Alain?s people had raided one of the Temple compounds the other night. They had been trying to take out the Namekeeper. A Namekeeper. They weren?t sure. What they got instead was dead and a little foregleam of what the Temple had planned for RhyDin: sucking the power from non-humans and using it to empower their supporters. The one thing they still didn?t have was the when. When was the Temple going to make its big play? They just knew that it would be soon. Probably very soon. The Temple wouldn?t risk having the Namekeeper in RhyDin otherwise.

And if the Temple of the Divine Mother was moving soon, that meant Jewell had to move even sooner.

?Him. KC is a man. And no. That?s not how it works. You?re only the holder if you win it. If I don?t win it, the stupid Opal won?t do anything for me. I mean, not on the level I need.?

?That is??

?Bullshit.?

?I was going to say disappointing.?

She shrugged. ?Same thing.?

?Are you going to try for it anyway??

?Well? yeah. I mean, unless we all die first.? He didn?t smile at her gallows humor. Jewell wasn?t smiling either. ?Even if Alain is wrong and the Temple moves later than we think, it still may be too close, though. But that doesn?t really matter, does it? I have to go after it...?

Ishmerai verbalized the rest of that thought, ?Because what other choice do you have??

?Yeah.?

?We have to think of something else anyway, Mira. Even if you can get the challenge done in time, there is no guarantee that you will win it. We have to have a backup plan. There has to be something else we can try.? She shook her head. They had thought of everything. They had gone through all of Guiscard?s books. They had gone through every scroll in the Ta-Neer library in Faerie. She had even visited The Eagna and asked for her guidance.

Nothing. There was nothing else she could do.

Ishmerai paced in front the windows before turning back towards her, eyes bright. ?Once we figure out the day of the purge, we can make a warding circle to contain you.?

She looked at him dully. ?You seriously don?t think I could smash right through something like that??

?Right.? He turned away again, gazing out over the patio and the city beyond.

Jewell stared at the tabletop, tracing an indent in the wood with her fingertip. ?I could go to Faerie. Make a deal.? She said it quietly. Reluctantly. Unwillingly. That had been the suggestion of The Eagna. That had been the only hope the creature had offered her. It was a dim hope. Jewell actually considered that the fae might be in league with the Unseelie Queen to even suggest such a thing. Or maybe The Eagna just knew how desperate her situation really was.

The knight frowned as he returned to the table, placing his palms on it and leaning towards her. ?With whom would you make such a deal??

She shrugged, unable to to meet his eyes. ?Someone. Anyone. Anyone stronger than me.?

?A queen.? She locked her jaw and nodded. ?No.? Ishmerai backed up a step, shaking his head. ?No. Absolutely not.?

?It?s not a great idea.?

?Not a great idea? No, that is a bad idea, Mira. A terrible idea!?

?Terrible,? she echoed him. It was a terrible idea. Like the worst idea ever. Perhaps even worse than trading her true name to get her magic back. But just like then, she was starting to feel pretty desperate, and when Jewell was desperate, terrible ideas were tempting. The problem was that if the Temple didn?t have her name (although it seemed likely that they did given the presence of a Namekeeper in the city) and she went ahead and made a bargain with one of the queens anyway, she could very well be signing her freedom away for a very long time for nothing.

Yeah, it was a really terrible idea.

She ran her hands up into her hair, palms pressing into her temples and fingertips digging into her skull. ?I guess I could always give someone strong willed my name.?

Ishmerai frowned before admitting reluctantly, ?I had considered that before.?

?Me too.? Neither of them had said anything about it though. It wasn?t a sure plan. Whoever at the Temple had her name was probably strong willed too. It could easily become a battle for control with Jewell jerked back and forth between them. There was no knowing what damage she could still cause or what kind of damage it would cause her. What would it be like to have control of her body and soul traded between two people over and over again? The faerie shuddered to think of it.

There were also too many people running around with her name to make her eager to add another person to the list anyway. The more people that possessed her name, the more vulnerable she was. The weaker her name was. The weaker she was.

?Who could you trust??

She looked her knight in the eyes. She thought of a million times when he had stood by her side (even against his better judgement). Countless incidents where he had caught her when she fell. Innumerable reasons to trust him. ?Only you.?

Ishmerai shook his head. ?No. That is not right. That is not the way of things. I should not possess such knowledge. Not of you.?

Her hands slipped free from her hair, and Jewell sat up straighter. ?No, I guess it?s not. But it may beat having you kill me, right??

He finally sunk down into the chair caddy corner to her own. This fight was wearing on him. She could see it in the lines around his eyes and mouth. The furrow in his brow. He didn?t even waste his energy responding to her taunt. ?I wish you could run.?

?I know.? Her shoulders slumped again. Jewell could run. She could make tantalizing promises to Kal, get him to go away with her. Not forever. Just long enough for this mess to be over. They could go back to that little villa on the beach. The one with the hammock. They could drink and laugh and kiss and screw.

And then a world away, someone would whisper her name and her little vision of paradise would go to hell.

?Will any of the other stones work??

?Opals,? she corrected, before chewing on the inside of her lip. ?Maybe? I don?t know. I don?t know enough about them.?

?You should find out.?

This was serious if Ishmerai was encouraging her to look into the Opals. He had been the one to warn her so strongly against them when she first came back to RhyDin. ?Yeah. Maybe I should stop by the Heavenly Boutique tomorrow.?

Her handwriting was sloppy on the napkin pilfered from the Outback. The eyeliner pencil danced in her trembling hand as she tried to write out the words, fatigue from the night of fighting and anxiety for things to come at work within her.

Andrea,

I challenge you for PathFinder.

It was an honor to face you during the TerraMaster tournament. I look forward to doing so again.

Sincerely,

The Empress Overlady
Jewell

?I just don?t know if it?s going to be enough.? She stopped pacing her office, wandering over to peer over Ishmerai?s shoulder at the list he was compiling for her. It followed her rather scattered thought process.
Who do I want with me in a fight? Who can I trust? Ishmerai, Alain, House of Summer girls
Temple can?t know we know--find a way to tell everyone
Letters can be intercepted
Lirssa
Rand/Val
Issy
Safe Havens?
What kind of weapons will they have? Do we need weapons?
PATHFINDER
Cane/Sal?
Barons?
Keepers?
Koy/Matt
I can tell everyone in person maybe--think of something better
Wards against transference spell--ask Mallory immediately
Where are they doing the spell?
Kal? Rather not ask if can avoid it
Jake--maybe

?What am I missing??

The knight drew a line down the side of the page. ?Making sure we discreetly reach out to members of the community that you trust is probably the most important part after making sure we are ready to take these people out. It is hard to see how we can stop this. It is already set in motion. The least we can do is help as many people as possible.?

?Right. So I need a way to tell a bunch of people as discreetly and efficiently as possible.? Jewell moved away from the desk, collapsing back onto the settee with her bruised legs stretched out in front her. She was still achy from the Diamond Quest. Still tired. But she forced her brain to think. She needed to get this right. People were depending on her even if they didn?t know it. February 14th was coming up fast. The faerie could either save a lot of lives or end them. ?We could get some of the pixies to do it??

?I would not trust them,? Ishmerai shook his head. ?They would have to understand the message to convey it correctly too.?

?True.? She curled her toes into the plush carpet. ?I guess I better start talking to people.?

?But that could bring undue attention on them and you. The Temple is bound to notice that you are having these conversations.?

?Ugh.? Jewell flopped back. ?You?re right. So I need a reason to meet with a bunch of people all at once to warn them without it looking like I?m warning them.? She mulled it over quietly for several minutes but kept coming up blank. She lifted just her head off the settee to look over at the knight, ?Any ideas??

?Charity event??

She let her head hit the cushion again, shaking it back and forth. ?No. Too many people and too much work that I can?t take on right now.?

“Something simpler then??

?Yeah. Simpler.? The Empress chewed on the inside of her cheek. ?Cocktail party simple.?

Despite anxiety twisting her stomach into knots, Jewell stood at the entrance of the garden to welcome all of her guests to Overlord Isle personally with grace and a perfectly affected smile. Now and then though, her nerves got the better of her and she cast a glance aside to check for Ishmerai. The fae knight was keeping to the shadows tonight, leaving his lady to play hostess alone. Lirssa was also lurking around, having arrived well before the start of the party, eager to be of assistance and observe the others. The rest of the guests arrived in a trickle over nearly an hour, by as diverse means as the city they all inhabited.

Alain and Sophie DeMuer arrived early, emerging from a sliver of green light at the edge of the garden, followed closely by two of their knights; Vaeluthil Whitevale appeared only a few moments after the DeMuers and their knights by way of rowboat that seemed to have no need for rowing, likely thanks to Cael, the druid still grumping about being roused from his evening nap; Rachael Blackthorne arrived not long the Baroness of Seaside on one of the regular boats used to travel to Overlord Island as did Juliane Smith and Isuelt; and Andrea arrived early as well, already drinking so she?d be ready to depart as soon as she could.

A few minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start, Rand and Val arrived by Mist, directly in the garden; Claire Farron, accompanied by Cooper Gallows, showed up abruptly at the end of the isle's dock just shy of the party's start too; Myria came to the cocktail party alone to represent the Crew at Jewell?s request; Cane and Sal had made their way into the gardens at some point and lingered on the fringes of the party; and Koy and Matt joined later than they meant to because, Koy confided in The Empress, she had struggled with deciding what to wear for an event appearing on the surface to be a social calling but carrying the subtext of something more akin to when the Simons served the city?s government.

After about a half hour of allowing everyone to mingle and keep up the appearance of a social event, Jewell called attention to herself by walking up two stairs towards the manor house to be above the crowd and tapped her glass with a fork. ?Friends, if I could have everyone?s attention?? She waited until all eyes were on her before continuing, ?I wanted to thank you all again for coming this evening. Unfortunately, as I indicated to many of you, although perhaps rather cryptically, this is not an occasion just for socializing.?

She took a deep breath. This was it. She?d held back this information from everyone for too long. ?Many of you have likely noticed the continued presence of pro-human protesters in the city. While they have caused some damage to our neighborhood and businesses, they pose a much greater threat.? She licked her lips. ?They?re called the Temple of the Divine Mother, a group I?ve unfortunately had dealings in the past. After much perseverance and work on the part of Lord DeMuer and his people,? she gestured to Alain, ?we have discovered their purpose and plan for RhyDin.

?On February 14th, they will attempt to cleanse the city of all non-humans.?

A murmur went through the crowd and someone laughed (or perhaps coughed), but Jewell didn?t allow any time for conversation to start up before she continued. ?We don?t have a lot of details on how they?re going to accomplish this, but we have enough and we know their history.? She had hit her stride now, speaking more confidently. ?We know that they have been gathering people to their cause and that they have been educating and arming these people. We also know that they are going to use a transference ritual. This will allow them to draw power and abilities from different non-humans and give it to their supporters to use against us. We believe they?ll be powering that ritual with lust from the Saint Valentine?s Day celebrations happening that evening.?

She hesitated a moment, taking another deep breath, ?And we also know that they have a history of summoning creatures via their True Names to fight for them. So we could be looking at the use of demons or elementals on the fourteenth.? The Empress glanced aside at Alain, ?Anything else you wanted to add??

?We have reliable intelligence on their combat capabilities,? Alain began; he handed his drink to one of the knights as he and Sophie approached the steps; they turned to face the other guests, he with his hands clasped behind his back. ?They?ve been training their supporters in melee and unarmed combat, provided firearms training, and schooled them on the strengths and weaknesses of various nonhuman races. The instructors they have acquired are like-minded and stand to inflict serious damage during hostilities.

?I can provide more detailed information on these people on request,? he added, with a careful look aside at Jewell.

?Thank you, Alain.? Jewell nodded before looking back at the guests. ?Does anyone have any questions??

Koy gave a look over at Matt before raising her hand, ?Who else can we enlist ta help us? I?d like ta ?ssume most of our human neighbors would side ?gainst this but? I?ve ?lready underestimated how strong the sentiment is fer hatin? wha?s different.?

Jewell bit at the inside of her cheek a moment, ?I?d say anyone you can trust. The important thing is that we do not want the Temple to know what we know. The sooner they know, the more prepared they?ll be for anything we set up against them.?

The baroness of New Haven spoke up next, ?The Manor that I am custodian of has been attacked twice recently. In the first attack, the perpetrators used cold iron filings to taint the paint which proclaimed their messages of hatred, the mildest of which was ?Death To Fae Lovers?, as well as scattering such filings on the grounds. I may be human, but many of mon family are Fae.?

Her sapphire hued gaze, shielded by the dark lenses of her sunglasses, flicked over those gathered. ?The night previous, another similar attack was made on the Manor. The security precautions made by mon husband Ian after the first attack? dealt with the perpetrators, efficiently. As for who can be enlisted to assist, I can trust Ian, Johann, and mon familiars to be? discrete. What is discussed here, will not go further than them.?

The Empress nodded to Rachael for the information before looking around again. She could see the concern in the eyes of the people she called friends and allies, but few seemed willing to speak up. Finally, Andrea did: "There's not much I can do on the front lines, but what I can do is open the Tower of Earth to refugees." She started to pull gloves from her coat pockets and slipped them on. "It's not like many are using the library right now anyway, so it won't be too much of an inconvenience."

"You still have the sword I made you?" Andrea posed her question to Jewell, and the Empress nodded. "I'll make you a shield to go along with it." Her short time here at the cocktail party seemed at an end. She started to turn away from the meeting while saying, "You'll owe me a dress from Koy's shop as repayment. Be sure not to die during all this." Andrea then headed off to make for the ferry.

Jewell smiled grimly at that last order from Andrea, exchanging a nervous glance with Alain as the Keeper and opal holder turned away. ?To clarify,? Alain said, signaling with a raised hand not far from Jewell?s side, ?any detailed plans we want to make should wait until everyone has had a chance to ask whatever questions they have.? His gaze ticked to Jewell and back once more, as if looking for a tell.

There was nothing to elicit concern. The Empress managed a brief, relieved smile at him before looking to field any more questions. Movement toward the back of the gathering caught her attention in the process of glancing around. She watched Cane?s and Sal?s quiet departure as they followed Andrea to the dock. Understandably, no one else seemed to have any questions just now. She knew it was a lot of information to take in all at once. The meeting had given everyone mere minutes to digest it while the faerie had months to do so.

Jewell was just about to turn things over to Alain when Jesse piped up from her hiding spot behind a rose bush. "Sooo.. I'm just going to say this since it's obviously on everyone else's minds.. What about the bodies? Because, before anyone else here calls it, I'm going to call dibs right now. Let me have all the bodies of the fallen and whatever you need of mine tower will be yours in the coming planning stages.. Well, not everything. I can't give you full access to the elemental plane of fire, and it's not as if the keepers abilities are absolute in the realm of Rhydin, BUT, there's still a lot.. A LOT.. of things there that can be used."

?Uh? I guess you can have the bodies? Or at least some of them.? Jewell didn?t sound so sure since, despite what Jesse thought, she at least had not been thinking about the bodies. She rushed to move on, ?All right, any other questions?? She didn?t really wait to see if anyone did. ?No? Okay, good. Alain, I think you can take over now.? She gestured to her chief ally in this fight as she stepped out of the way. Without offering any further explanation, she turned to head quietly back to the manor house.

The raised voices of her friends plotting the defense of the city chased her out of the garden and onto the veranda. Although she had agreed from the start with Ishmerai and Alain that she was to take no part of the planning process aside from throwing the party, she was still frustrated. It was not in The Empress to sit still and wait for her doom to fall. She wanted to be doing something. Needed to be doing something. Anything.

But she was a security risk. A liability. Once the Temple of the Divine Mother used her name, they could force her to tell them whatever she knew about this little band of resistors she had gathered and what they were planning. So instead of being useful, she was shunted aside. Instead of strategizing, she lingered on the veranda, staring across the water at the twinkling lights of her city, impotent hands curled over the cold, stone railing.

((Written collaboratively with many wonderful people and edited to focus more on Jewell?s point of view. Thank you to everyone who took part!))

She could hear the silence.

It was a buzzing in her ears that slowly turned to a faint ringing. It was the first sensation she was aware of when she woke up. Then there was the dry, stale taste in her mouth. The leaded weight of her head. Sluggish thoughts. She must have been dueling last night. And drinking. A lot. Like a whole bottle of whiskey a lot.

Sleep beckoned her back, but panic and urgency tightened her stomach as it tended to do on the morning of a big day. She was forgetting something. She had something to do. Something important was happening today. She needed to wake up. Jewell groaned and opened her eyes to a bright blob of nothingness that made her cringe.

Confusion. She didn?t know where she was. She tried to force awareness, but it resisted, coming in bits and pieces. The world slowly condensed from a formless nothing into tangible details which coalesced into a larger picture. She was lying on her back. Her arms stung. She was not in her bed. She was not with Kal. She was alone. Something was trickling down her leg. Blood. The air smelled like smoke. It was thick with dust. She coughed. Her body was wracked with pain. Her throat stung. She twisted her head to the side. It hurt. The dark blob next to her was a piece of broken concrete. She was on the street. She was lying in rubble. Something bad had happened. She could lift her arm. There was something sticking out of her skin. It burned. It was iron. She had smelled iron earlier. There had been iron in Beyond the Veil.

The box. The delivery man. Ishmerai shouting her name.

Ishmerai

Jewell shot upright and the world spun violently out of control. She turned her head to wretch, bringing up bile, coffee, and pixie sticks (her diet for the last few days). She coughed as the mixture burned her already stinging throat. ?Ishmerai?? she tried to call once her body stopped heaving. Her voice was a rusty, dry, croaking thing that couldn?t properly form words. She tried again, ?Merai??

The knight did not instantly appear. He didn?t come to her.

Something was wrong.

She got to her knees, driving the bits of iron deeper into her skin and eliciting a cry of pain. That wasn?t the worst though. The slightest movement sent the world careening out of control. She planted her hands against the cobblestone street, just noticing now the extent of dust and debris strewn across it as it wavered up and down. The faerie forced her eyes closed, swallowing a mouthful of blood and grit to keep the bile back as it rose once more.

The vertigo wasn?t going away. She didn?t have time to wait. Jewell stood up.

And almost immediately fell over again.

She pressed her hands to her thighs and by sheer willpower (and a lot of practice in the Outback), kept herself on her feet. She straightened slowly and looked around. The world was still a silent, buzzing place, obscured by thick dust and smoke. Looming directly in front of her was the broken shell of her store. Their store. They had built it together, but it was unrecognizable now. The windows were gone, the brick crumbling, and the stairs in ruins.

Somehow, her shoes had stayed put on her feet. Jewell stumbled in the red high heels, scrambling over scattered bits of storefront to get inside. She had to find Ishmerai. She was hurt, her property had been destroyed, yet the knight had not come to find her. He had not rushed to her side. Worse than the iron and the blood and the pain and dust and the way the world kept swaying and spinning was the dread curling in her stomach.

Where are you?

The body of the faux RPS man, or what was left of him after he had shielded the faerie with his body from the brunt of the blast, was at the bottom of the stairs. Jewell stepped over him, single-minded in her task. Find the knight. Find the knight. Find Ishmerai. Inside the store, the counter, tables, and chairs were nothing but kindling. The ceiling had partially collapsed, presenting a mess of beams and flooring from the hotel above for her to navigate. The back wall was blown out into the storage room beyond.

That?s where she found him: a broken, ruined body amongst shattered bottles and obliterated shelves.

?Merai.? His name was a sobbed, hallowed whisper. Without hesitation, she knelt at his side in an alarming pool of blood, carefully but adeptly turning him from his side onto his back. ?Nooo,? she groaned, ?no no no no no.?

Her entire world fell apart in that moment.

His body was a ruin of flesh and blood, torn apart by the explosion and the iron. His scales had done little to protect him. The burnt piece of metal pinned over his heart (a gift from his lady last month) had likely done more. But not enough. It wasn?t enough. Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she placed her fingers on his throat, trying to find a pulse beneath all the blood.

It was there. Thready and weak but there. For now.

?Stay with me, Merai,? she begged. Jewell was usually able to manage calm and control in a crisis, but she couldn?t handle this.

She couldn?t be calm. She couldn?t breathe. This was Ishmerai. This was her knight. He was everything to her. He had to be okay. He couldn?t not be okay. He couldn?t leave her.

Tears cut through the dust, dirt, and blood on her face as she desperately tried to staunch his wounds with her hands and her magic, but she was impotent, made weak and incapable by the iron in the air and her body. Still, she tried. She poured everything she had into him to stop the bleeding, to keep his heart going.

To keep him alive.

?You gotta stay with me. Please. Just stay with me.?

He tensed momentarily at the words. The other day, when he?d pointed out the flaw in having Ishmerai do it, he?d almost volunteered himself to replace him. As a joke. Now it was somewhat less amusing.

Kal took a long moment before speaking, flipping the idea around in his brain. Could he do it? Aye, he figured he could. He?d never hesitated on a contract in his life. Not that this was a contract, but maybe it was close enough. They?d shared a lot together over the years, and beyond that there was still the slight tug of the apprentice bond he?d formed with her, though her ascension in ranks and skill had largely dissolved that. That would make it harder, but not so much so that he should deny her. Should he do it though? That was a harder question. The fallout could be significant. He rolled the ring on his left hand around with his thumb as he considered his answer.

?How do you want it done?? His decision made, he skipped past the questions of whether she was sure there was no other way or if there was someone better suited to the task. She was. There wasn?t. Hesitating might have spared her feelings a bit, but given the events of the day, he felt that what she needed most right now was surety on this one thing.

She exhaled her relief without ever realizing she had been holding her breath. As cruel and cold as his lack of hesitation was, it was exactly what she had wanted from him. It was why she had come to Kalamere over the few people she considered both trustworthy enough to do this for her and with half a chance of walking away from it alive in the end.

She didn?t need hesitation. She didn?t need sentiment. She didn't need to argue about the necessity of this course of action. She didn?t have time for any it. What she needed was reassurance that the job would get done. She needed to know that her soul wouldn?t be subject to the Temple of the Divine Mother and their whims forever.

Kal?s unspoken agreement was a relief.

It also hurt. A lot. But she couldn?t think about that now. There was already too much hurt from the day to process. Besides, if they didn?t get this right, it wouldn?t matter anyway. ?How?? She pulled and twisted a bit of her hair. ?I don?t know. Fast. Otherwise you?re dead.?

He couldn?t help the grin that found his lips. The timing was inappropriate at best, but that last statement of her?s was practically a challenge and he was nothing if not competitive. Best not to go talking smack as to who would kill whom though. That might have crossed a line.

?There?s an herb.? he began as he stood and moved to the bedroom of the studio loft where he unlocked and opened the oak footlocker at the end of the bed. She stretched into the space he had been occupying on the couch, leaning over the arm to watch him. ?It reacts badly with silver. It crystallizes any liquid less viscous than oil it?s been saturated into on contact.?

?Sounds lovely.?

Shuffling things around, he removed a box of vials and a few assorted daggers and other weapons from the box until he found a small tin. He gave it a shake to hear the tablets inside rattle around, then opened the lid to inspect the count. Two dozen. Satisfied, he returned to the couch and held the tin out for her.

She sat up and accepted the box from him, giving the red tablets a careful sniff. Minty. ?If you were to be taking an herb like that, you?d need to ingest a bit twice a day for at least two days. That?d assure circulatory saturation an make the prick of a silver blade lethal in seconds. Probably want to leave any silver to sit in the jewelry box for a while. Suicide by broach pin would make a terrible eulogy.?

?I guess that?ll be fast enough.? She didn?t sound so sure, but she didn?t have the energy to argue with him either. ?Just don?t think it?ll be easy to get close to me because it won?t. I don?t care how good you are.? She hadn?t missed his grin or its implications. On a normal day, if he hadn?t royally piss her off first, she?d probably bet on Kal in a fight between the two of them. But this was going to be anything but normal. Jewell was going to be at the top of her game, and she was the only one that really understood what that meant.

?And don?t go deriding my Plan B either because I?ll do it that way if I have to.? Killing herself had always been an option, but it was one she had largely avoided considering since there was always the chance that the Temple didn?t have her name. The Empress wasn?t so altruistic that she was willing to die unnecessarily.

She snapped the tin closed. ?But I don?t want to have to. Please don?t make me do that to myself, Kal.? There was an edge to her voice now. ?Promise me you?ll do it. Promise me that you will kill me if they have my name and use it.?

The grin long gone, a frown replaced it as she drew the promise from him. ?Aye, darlin, you have my word. If they call your name, I?ll do it.?

((Co-written with the ever-amazing Kalamere))

?I just have to grab a few things before going back to The Line,? she told Haizea, but she still didn?t move. She just sat on the edge of the couch, hunched over, looking small and subdued.

?Of course Lady Empress! Don?t you worry about a thing. Everything is under control, and the cleanup is already under way.?

She nodded, fingering the hem of Kal?s shirt. She had lifted it from the half-elf?s closet. It was either that or wear her torn and stained dress from yesterday, but she had taken one look at it and had felt immediately sick to her stomach.

It had been soaked with Ishmerai?s blood.

?Are the preparations for Tuesday still okay??

Haizea smiled at her bravely. ?Don?t even worry about it. I have already spoken with Lady Isuelt and Lord DeMeur. Ishmerai?s--? Jewell flinched as she named him and the woman hesitated, ?uh? his absence should not adversely affect the rest of the planning process. Everything will be taken care of.?

?Good.? That removed the last of her concerns. She had already made sure that her part on Tuesday would be taken care of, but without the fae knight, she didn?t know who would be working with Alain and making sure Little Elfhame (and the rest of RhyDin) didn?t burn to the ground. ?Thank you, Haizea. I really appreciate it a lot. Do you think...? her mind went blank, the words just slipping away for the moment as she forgot what she was going to ask. She was so tired. She was so numb. She gave up and started over, ?Is there anything you need from me??

?No, my lady. We have it all covered. You just rest now, okay? We?re all very worried about you.?

?Of course.? She managed a thin smile for the young woman. ?I will do that, thank you.?

Haizea moved towards the foyer and out. The door shut loudly behind her, echoing in the empty house. The Summer girls had taken all the pets to their place for the time being. Sapphire was away in her time.

And Ishmerai was gone.

She curled forward even further. She was supposed to keep focused. She was supposed to get moving. Instead, she sat there listening to the grandfather clock ticking away in the other room as she crushed the piece of paper Haizea had handed her earlier inside her fist.

An update from Faerie.

She didn?t have the heart to read it. What if he was dead? What if Ishmerai had died and she was not there with him? Who had held his hand? Who had said the parting words to him? Who had promised to avenge him? What was the last thing she had said to him? Had she told him she loved him? Did he know that before he died?

When the clock struck the second hour after noon, she uncurled. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she forced herself to unfold the crumpled paper and smooth it out over her thigh.

Jewell began to cry before she even read the words.

knight stabilized for now
should live

As exhausted as Mallory felt right now, it could not compare to what she had seen in the eyes of the woman on the other side of the door. Since Ishmerai -- since the bombing -- there was a different energy to Little Elfhame and its hapless godmother. Pixies still flitted by in bursts of bright light, but without any tricks or laughter; Jewell was as beautiful and graceful as ever, but there seemed to be less of her now.

The witchling was tired, struggling with an uneasy dread, and a little heartbroken over Ishmerai, but she was still present. Jewell had let her finish the final inscriptions for the Ward of Solitude, separating her penthouse from any sense of the outside: the degree to which that protected against the call of a true name remained to be seen. She had even let her take a lock of her hair for a Curse of Binding -- with a warning not to abuse it, a now-rare impassioned moment from the faerie -- and now Mallory stood ready to complete the ritual.

From the inside, with the Ward, Jewell was protected from the outside. From the outside, with the Curse, Mallory hoped to seal her within.

?Not a step beyond, thou of blue hair,? she said, and allowed herself a smirk as she poured a line of salt across the hallway. ?Not a step beyond, Jewell the fair. Within wilt thou dwell, in thy prison cell; but not a step beyond, have a care.?

The rhyme was not a necessary component, but it helped to focus her power, and as she used the lock of blue hair (tied with a hair band) to brush the salt into a broader, more even line, red sparks leapt into the air. With the last stroke, she felt a thread snap into place, sharp like an electrical bolt and pulling somewhere behind her eyes. She stifled a sharp cry into her arm, clenching her eyes shut until the count of five, and took a deep breath.

It was set. It ached still, but it would not hurt like that again, not unless Jewell tried to break it.

There was a moment of regret and true pity for the woman within, despite the wealth of her home, and all of the other advantages life had given her; she shook off the momentary feeling of Montresor dooming Fortunato, and quickly packed her things to return home. The Ward needed monitoring from afar, because once it broke, the Curse would soon follow, and she had a mind to fight it.

She wasn?t a fighter, but there?s no one left standing, so it?ll have to be me. She hurried down the stairs and out into the street, to the sound of bells tolling the call to Sunday worship across town.

It was sunset when Mallory felt the flux.

She had been in the middle of a divination ritual, her third attempt at one more complex than she had managed before: a pile of letters clipped from magazines and newspapers floated on the surface of a basin of quicksilver. A pocket watch -- taken from a dead man?s waist coat before his funeral -- hung over the surface, swung in slow, even circles by her practiced fingers. The letters had stirred dozens of times so far, but she had only made out three words: mask; murder; well.

There was a momentary thrill, her heart beating faster as she thought, at ****ing last I have it? But the surge of energy had nothing to do with her. Or did it? She had a nagging feeling, like a stranger had pried open a window and crept into the hall, waiting to bring harm to her housemates.

She dropped the watch on a silk handkerchief (likewise pilfered from the same dead man) and crossed her room to the gaudy dollhouse that served as a model for their home, marked in red wherever she had placed one of her wards. Only a moment of stretching her fingers like a spider spinning her web, and she could feel the threads as Mist had taught her -- active, and uncut.

The house was safe.

?Jewell,? she hissed, and a white light flashed before her eyes as something tugged inside her head. She cried out and bit her lip, clenched her eyes shut and held out her hands. As soon as she felt the thread, she grasped it, pulling herself along, winding across her room as her mind?s eyes saw what her own eyes were too pained to see.

A strange hallway, awash in gray and blue. No -- Jewell?s hallway, and her front door. The walls looked thin, strange and uneven, like an X-ray, and a brilliant shape stood behind it, dispassionate eyes studying the wall, tracing patterns, searching? finding.

The woman beyond the wall touched a ghostly cluster of Greek letters, and an invisible thread shimmered in the air; Mallory bit back another scream and plodded forward, her feet moving as if through wet sand. The walls were getting thinner, and as she pressed her hands to the door and held her weight against it, she could see the remaining threads of her Ward of Solitude, now cut and useless as they fluttered around Jewell?s apartment. What remained had an angrier energy, the Curse of Binding, and as each of its anchors was discovered, Mallory glimpsed red sparks before she was blinded for a moment with white hot pain.

Jewell pressed her hand flat to the wall. Every anchor glittered; every invisible thread, now visible. Their hands were so close? Mallory followed the line of her arm to her shoulder to her face, and found a pair of cold black eyes staring at her, disconnected from the faerie?s own soul. ?Jewell,? she pleaded, desperate and afraid.

The door exploded, and Mallory screamed as her sight returned to her, a dizzying whirl of color as something hard impacted her side and arm, sending her sprawling onto the floor of her room. Her vision went black, returned as she pushed herself up on her sore and throbbing arms, and looked over her shoulder at her door:

Cloven cleanly in half and torn most of the way off its hinges, dangling precariously from them. She groaned as she pulled herself up to the edge of her bed, and she heard panicked footsteps racing up the stairs towards her room. She didn?t want to see them. Nothing was broken. She needed a moment alone, to deal with what was broken:

Jewell was out. And the Temple had her.

The faerie stood in the basement of Sanctuary, a puppet whose strings were not currently being pulled. She had been standing there for hours. Ever since she had killed Malcolm, entered the car, and was driven by a circuitous route to the nightclub where the Temple of the Divine Mother was planning its final spell to destroy the city she loved. Her arms, legs, and throat were marked by deep iron burns; the left side of her face was dark with bruises; and the cotton dress she had been wearing when summoned was soiled and torn. She did not care. She did not fix the mess that was her wild blue hair. She did not turn her head. She did not think. She only saw what was straight ahead of her, listened, and obeyed.

"Sir, trouble." One of the soldiers said. There was a pause then, "You all know the drill. Mother Bless us."

The other soldiers echoed him, "Mother Bless us."

The blue haired woman standing in front of the stone slabs didn't say anything.

She heard the commotion outside and the beat of the music from upstairs. She saw but did not see her friends come in the side entrance, concealed by brick pillars: Issy, Lirssa, Rand, the Knights of Drasill. She did not move to greet them. She did not attack. She did absolutely nothing.

Until the Namekeeper told her to do something.

The man known as the Namekeeper looked to the faerie as her friends started to engage the soldiers. "Protect the priests. Kill the intruders."

Only then did the faerie lift her head, her grey eyes dilated almost completely. One of the soldiers was in her line of sight as Issy and the knights lead the charge inside. The faerie seized all the water in his body and spread her hands apart, turning the man into a fine mist of blood that filled the air while what was left of his body hit the floor. Then she started forward to meet the intruders.

Protect the priests. Kill the intruders.

She didn?t pay any mind to the startled expressions of friends and enemies alike as she turned a soldier into a mist of blood. She didn?t care when the soldiers? weapons turned against them and failed to work. She didn?t even notice that the soldiers had surged forward with her and wasn?t phased when she came face-to-face with her friends and the knights she had met over the last few months.

Protect the priests. Kill the intruders.

She reached out, taking hold of the water running through the pipes hidden behind the brick walls. She gave a tug, and the pipes burst through the bricks, sending streams of water into the air and across the floor for her use.

Arish, one of the Knights of Drasill, charged ahead, swinging his axe at the faerie. She lifted her left arm, catching the glancing blow of the blade with her forearm as if it was a shield. She didn?t react with more than a blink as it cut so deep it hit bone. While his blade was thus engaged in her arm, she kicked the knight away from her with strength far beyond her petite frame. Then she raised her hands, blood pouring down to her elbow, and a pillar of water rose up around Arish. The knight writhed, swimming in his watery prison for a few terrifying moments as it twisted around him before surrounding him completely. The faerie lowered her arms and brought her hands together, creating enough pressure for the water to crush the knight caught within it. There was a crack, and he hung limp in the trap, his axe slipping loose and clattering to the floor.

Protect the priests. Kill the intruders.

The faerie looked around for her next victim, choosing another knight. There was action behind her, but she paid it no mind until the Namekeeper called to her again: "Summon some elementals and then take out the witch!"

She had to obey.

Summon some elementals

Her body trembled, sweat forming on her brow as she accomplished a task that she was normally in no way capable of doing: summoning elementals. The faerie tore a portal through her world and theirs, calling them forth. They emerged from the water that now coated the floor. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them to join the fray with the soldiers. Then she swayed, a little unsteady on her feet as she turned to find Mallory.

Take out the witch!

The witch in question was on her knees in between two slabs, keeping a low profile, eyes shut as the water soaked through her hair and clothes. She lifted her head to see Jewell staring at her. "The Devil ****ing take you, you were supposed to be stronger than this!" Then she crushed something: a clay tablet, inscribed in Hebrew. Three lines of golden fire swirled out from her along the floor, and the water around her started to turn red.

The blue haired faerie stalked--slow and confident--towards Mallory as if she were prey. She didn?t break her stride when Rand blocked the pipes, preventing more water from entering the room for the time being. As the water already on the floor roiled and thickened into blood, she lifted some up off the ground, combining it with the blood pouring down her left arm, and formed it into razor sharp nails along each of her fingers.

Then she really started to move.

The faerie vaulted easily over one of the stone slabs to come face-to-face with the young witch, swiping at her chest. Mallory broke first: she did her best to whirl around, to protect her face, to get away from the faerie, and she screamed as two of the nails landed in her back -- one sticking out of her right shoulder blade, the other passing in and out of her side. She swiped one bloody hand, clutching one of her wounds, across her mouth, licking it. "Take my bitterness -- make this ash in my mouth," she whispered, and spat at Jewell. Steaming black liquid, a type of blinding venom, aimed at the faerie's eyes.

It hit her in the face, blinding her momentarily. The faerie hissed. Just as she had done to the priest at the start of the fight, she seized control of all the water in Mallory's body blindly. But she was weaker now. Slower. Lirssa, hidden amongst the stone slabs, had been siphoning off some of her energy. Still, she was under command. She couldn't stop. She couldn?t stop even if she was bleeding profusely, her energy was depleted, and her body was failing under the stress of the battle. Instead of pulling the teen's blood from her, she tossed her across the room. Mallory cried out again as she thudded against the floor, then the wall opposite the stairs. She curled into herself in pain; both of her bags were scattered beside her, several vials of powders and liquids rolling free.

Take out the witch!

The faerie paused, drawing a hand across her eyes to pull away the liquid venom and restore her sight. Then she looked around, found where Mallory had landed against the wall, and made as if to throw something overhand at the girl. The remaining icicle nails made of blood went flying at her.

Mallory was crawling away into an archway, clutching her bloody and aching ribs with one hand and her satchel with the other. She didn't get to cover fast enough, groaning and letting out a whimper as two more of the nails thudded into her -- one in her thigh, the other tearing two of her fingers as it embedded in her side. Blood was welling out now... blood, and power in it. She withdrew the hilt of a broken sword from her bag and began to whisper: "Let me not die of misfortune; merciful Luck, lend me a blade... lend me a blade..." The blood welling out of her side and suddenly melting out of Jewell's crimson ice-spikes began to bubble and coalesce under her hand. She lifted her head to stare at Jewell.

The soldiers were being slaughtered. The Namekeeper was also staring at Jewell, his sharp eyes narrowed. "Summon more elementals!"

The faerie took two steps towards Mallory, intent on finishing her off as commanded, but at this new order from her master, she paused, chest heaving as she tried to obey. Sweat poured down her face as several more elementals spawned from the tide of blood covering the floor.

Command obeyed, she started for Mallory again.

The Namekeeper was not impressed. Chanting under his breath, he called the name of a handful of minor demons. Circles formed on each of the stone slabs, drawn before the fighting had ever begun, and the demons rose forth from within to attack the remaining knights and defenders.

When they appeared, the strings controlling the faerie slackened.

Somewhere deep inside, Jewell stirred.

Unfortunately, the charge was still there, driving her body forward. Take out the witch! She stalked after Mallory, moving on automatic. "Look at you," Mallory spat, though her breaths were shuddering and weak. "Not so strong... too weak to stop this...!" The witch tore her hand away from her side, drawing a long iron spike, almost a short javelin, out of it and hurling it through the air at Jewell... though her eyes were focused somewhere over the faerie's shoulders.

Jewell moved easily on reflex, dropping down and rolling to the side to avoid the large bit of iron that would most certainly have killed her. She popped back up, pulled by those invisible strings that demanded she kill and not hesitate in doing so. She paid no mind to the priest that had accepted the iron javelin in her place. She had to take out the witch!

Things were a bit more chaotic than Kalamere liked, knowing he was going to leave himself exposed. If Jewell kept on and killed Mallory though, he'd have failed in his task. This all sounded much more straight forward back when he'd agreed to it. He slid from the shadow he'd found cover in, pushing away from the wall to move forward, not quite putting himself between Jewell and Mallory, but close enough to be in her line of sight. "Jewell," he called to her, hoping for a bit of recognition in her eyes. "Darlin', fight this." His voice low and soft, thick with affection. If he could get her to hear him, remember who she was, who they were, for just a moment.

Jewell had her eyes on Mallory, but the Namekeeper had relinquished some of his precious control and now there was a greater call. When Kal said her name, she paused and turned, shifting her focus to him. She lifted her left arm, slick with blood and trembling; a bit of silver energy flickered to life in her palm as if she was going to blast him to pieces.

But she didn't.

She just stood there like that. "Kill him!" The Namekeeper screeched, but his rule over the faerie was not as firm as it had been earlier in the night. His commands meant less. He had made a mistake in splitting his attention between the blue haired woman and the demons scattered across the basement.

Kill him! Kill him! Kill Kalamere!

Jewell took a deep, shuddering breath at the Namekeeper?s command and then lowered her arm. "Tha's right, lass. Ye' can fight this," Kal stepped towards her, searching for her eyes with his. His silver blades clattered to the ground at her feet as he tossed them, surrendering himself. "Listen ta yer heart, darlin', fight 'em off an come 'ome." He held out an arm for her and took another step.

The fingers of her right hand twitched, as if she were about to cast something, and then stilled once more. Jewell took a hesitant step forward and then another, moving slowly as if each one required a Herculean effort. Her grey eyes were still dilated, glazed over, distant but there were tears there now too, cutting through the blood on her face as she got closer to Kal.

His daggers already on the ground, he moved to meet her, his right arm reaching to pull her near. He brushed back a bit of that blue hair and kissed her forehead. The iron blade, more needle than knife, that appeared in his left hand might well have been summoned for the speed with which he drew it and, as he stepped into the embrace, plunged upwards beneath her ribs to prick her heart.

He could say the words and she might have looked for a moment to have had the tenacity to break the Namekeeper's hold, but Kal knew better and so had Jewell.

A name given and used... there was only one way to truly break that hold.

She gasped as the iron blade slid home, unexpected yet effective. Her exhale was a sigh of relief. Right before her eyes closed, they returned to their normal, warm grey. Then her legs gave out beneath her.

?No!? The Namekeeper roared. "Kill them! Kill them all!"

Jewell didn?t move. Her name no longer held any power over her. The Namekeeper no longer held any power over her.

She was free.

"I'm sorry?" I began, speaking to an unconscious Jewell. I'd threatened my way into her room, past glowering nurses and a pair of security guys who took a look and thought better of stopping me. Sleeping in the small hospital bed, leads and IV tubes attached and machines beeping rhythmically, she looked almost at peace for the first time in a long while. Without her glamour she was bruised and beaten, though still beautiful as she lie there, her blue hair haphazardly framing her face.

"It was your idea. Mostly." This was only true to a point. Stopping her heart, sparing her friends and others a fight against her as the Temple pulled her strings, sparing her the anguish of knowing she'd been responsible for some of their deaths when it was all said and done. Yeah, that part was her idea. The how of it, not so much.

"The thing is, I couldn't know how much of you would still be there. On the surface. Possibly remembering the plan and taking measures against it. It had to be a feint." Which was also true. True name callings don't always work the same way. Sometimes you're nothing but a puppet, just a hint of consciousness lingering at the edges. Others allow for almost complete self control, the spell more a warping of a mind set - pulling a different set of strings, turning you into a believer. I had no way of knowing which it would be. I also didn't actually have any of the herb that reacts with silver. That stuff is insanely hard to find. What I did have? Knowledge of a different weakness, confidence it could be exploited, and a cruel streak wide enough to do so.

It had been cruel. I wasn't going to kid myself over that. I mean, sure, dead is dead, so maybe the means didn't really matter and I'm pretty sure I get *some* credit for arranging the hospital part. But still.

"I love you. - Jewell" Pencilled on a takeout receipt and affixed to the tree with a hundred other lover's wishes. Another lad might have seen that and rethought things. Hesitated or even outright broken his oath. To me it spoke that I was on the right path; the best means of fulfilling a promise and escaping unscathed.

"Hearts can't be trusted, darlin'," I admonished.

The side table of her room would soon be full to bursting with floral arrangements, cards of love and best wishes, balloons telling her to get well soon. For now it sat barren though, so I'd make the first deposit. A slender branch of magnolia, a trio of snow white blossoms budding but not yet blooming. I wondered if she'd remember as I finished tying off the silk wrapping, a blue so dark it might well have been black. I used the pin she'd given me for Christmas to fix it to the branch, the blue threads running through the silver a lighter color, contrasting against the silk. I used it so there'd be no doubt where this came from. I used it because, right now, it was too personal to keep on me.

I turned back to the bed to look at her, sedated and silently recovering from a hole in her heart I was responsible for. I brushed back a long lock from her forehead and kissed her there. "You're going to be fine, darlin. Just a bit of time."

And then I left. Others would be here soon and I still needed to stop by The Line and chat with Jerry before getting out of town.

?Do you want to hear what the doctor had to say earlier??

?No.?

?Do you want to know his recommendations for therapy??

?No.?

?How about a walk around the floor??

?No.?

?Do you want to go over Haizea?s latest report? They found the body of the alpha pack member that the normies killed with silver.?

?Don?t say normies,? she responded absently while her brain fixated on something else entirely: Killed by silver. Jewell rolled the silver dagger pin between her thumb and forefinger. It was never far from reach. Neither was the dark blue silk he had left her. It was tied around her left wrist. The branch of magnolia was in a vase on the table nearest her head. She slept better with them there. The three white flowers were blooming.

But it was the pin that she was obsessed with.

The pin that was her Christmas gift to him. ?With the hair... it can kind of act like a ward. To keep you safer,? she had told him. As small as it was, it was an actual blade too. It was sharp. It could be used as a weapon. The prick of a silver blade would be lethal in seconds. She pressed the tip of it into the pad of her thumb. Even with the narcotics flooding her body, she could still feel pain. She pushed it down harder and harder until it broke the skin and drew a bead of blood. Then she waited. One, two, three, four, five?

Nothing. She wasn?t any more dead than she had been Wednesday afternoon when she first woke up: disoriented, in a world of pain, and incredibly confused about being alive.

Unbelievable.

?Mama??

?What?? She looked over at Sapphire. She had arrived early Friday, throwing her backpack on the floor and insisting that she was staying for as long as she was needed regardless of any objections that the city wasn?t safe and that she wasn?t needed at all. Jewell didn?t have the energy to argue with her. If she thought about it, she would realize it was a relief to have her there.

She didn?t think about it.

Sapphire handed her a tissue to press to her thumb. ?You?re bleeding.?

?Oh.? Jewell just stared at the tissue.

?For your thumb? because it?s bleeding.?

?Right.? She took it and tucked her thumb inside the fold.

Sapphire shook her head. ?So, did you want to hear Haizea?s latest report??

?No.?

?Lamont?s??

?No.?

Jewell had been ignoring everything. She ignored the regular reports Haizea and Lamont brought her about the status of things in Little Elfhame. Four buildings damaged beyond repair. Five pixies dead. Extensive carnage caused by the redcaps supposedly in the defense of the neighborhood. Reports of remnants of old gangs--like Fae Dynasty--rising in the aftermath of the fighting. Of new people rushing to fill the power vacuum in Little Elfhame and in neighboring areas. Of the alpha male in one of the werewolf packs run down and skewered with silver daggers by a handful of humans.

She tuned out the doctor when he came in with the long list of things wrong with her--a hole in the heart, deep laceration to her left arm, iron burns, mana burns, fractured cheekbone, magical burnout, stress on all her organs, muscle damage, nerve damage--and what it all meant: fatigue, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, weakness in the limbs, dizziness, loss of appetite, loss of physical strength, nausea, headaches.

And she didn?t respond when Sapphire pressed her for details on what had happened with the Temple. She didn?t talk about the icicle of blood that had killed Malcolm. The things the cult had done to her while she was with them. The way the nameless soldier had burst into a fine mist of blood. How Arish had died, crushed in a pillar of water. She didn?t talk about chasing Mallory across the basement of Sanctuary or how she could still hear the Namekeeper?s voice inside her head.

She didn?t want to think about any of it. Couldn?t focus on any of it. It was too much. Everything was too much. She could only focus on the pin. The blood stained tissue had already been abandoned on her lap, forgotten. She rolled the tiny dagger between her fingers, watching the way the light made the strands of blue in the metal sparkle.

Sapphire sighed, flopping the stack of papers back on the bedside table. ?Do you want me to strip down and do a little dance in front of the hospital staff??

Jewell stared owlishly at the girl. ?What??

?Wasn?t sure if you were listening,? the young woman huffed.

?I?m listening,? she insisted, even as she looked back at the pin.

?Mama,? Sapphire leaned forward, reaching for her hand. She frowned when Jewell initially shied away. ?I?m worried about you.?

?I?m fine,? she promised, trying to give the girl?s hand a reassuring squeeze, but all it did was emphasize how weak she was. How thin she was. How her hand trembled. How there were iron burns on her wrist still and IV tubes sticking out of her arm. ?I?m just tired and these painkillers they have me on? they make it impossible to think straight.?

To be fair, she was tired. It was only four days ago that she had died. The painkillers did make it difficult to think.

But there was more to it than that and they both knew it. There was an elephant in the tiny hospital room with the two, blue-haired women: Jewell Ravenlock had lived on Tuesday night and she wasn?t sure why.

?Yeah.? Sapphire sat back, frowning. ?Okay.?

?So what did they want??

?It?s none of your business.?

?It is my business!?

?It?s not.?

?It is because this afternoon you were feeling pretty good and then they come in here and now you look like death again.?

?I?m fine.? She didn?t really feel fine though. She felt empty. Undone. Michiru and Haruka had wanted to know everything. The Council for Preternatural Activities wanted to know everything. They needed to know it, and Jewell had told them because there was a chance that they could finally go after the Temple of the Divine Mother.

There was a chance they could end them.

?Stop lying to me!?

?I?m not lying to you, Sapphire!?

?But you?re not telling me the truth either, are you??

Her fingers curled into the blankets covering her legs. ?What do you want me to tell you, Sapphire? Do you want to know what it felt like to watch these people hurt you and then Lirssa? Do you want to know what it was like to cradle Ishmerai?s body as he bled to death in my arms? Do you want to know how I had to go the man I love and ask him to kill me? Do you want to know what that was like? Do you want to know how it felt when he agreed without a moment of hesitation? How we had to sit around together and plan it out? Do you want to know what it was like when they called my name? Or how Kal kissed my forehead as he--?

The machines all around started wailing. The hysteria rising up her throat was choking her. She wasn?t getting enough oxygen in her blood. Her heart was beating too fast. It was palpitating. Jewell doubled over in pain, trying to remember how to breathe as all her limbs turned to lead.

?Stop stop!? Sapphire sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around the faerie. ?I?m sorry. I?m sorry, okay? Just stop. We don?t have to talk about it. We don?t have to talk about any of it. I don?t want to talk about it. I don?t want to know. I?m sorry. Just stop and breathe, okay?? She stroked her hair. ?Just breathe. It?ll be fine. We?ll make it fine. Just breathe.?

She paused inside the entrance to The Line. The last time she had been there was a little over two weeks ago. It felt like forever. The place hadn?t changed. She had.

Jewell tugged a little on her short, dark hair as she looked around, moving for the bar as she undid her jacket. She hadn?t even walked all the way over here, but she still felt winded and her limbs felt heavy. The doctors told her to expect that, but it didn?t make it any less annoying. She hesitated a moment before tugging her jacket off and dropping it on one of the barstools. She rubbed at her damaged arms a bit self-consciously; her grey t-shirt was loose and did little to cover the lingering iron burns, the bandages on her left arm, or the bruises left behind from the IV and picc lines. ?Hey Jerry,? she smiled at him when he was done serving a patron. ?He in the back??

Jerry heard Jewell?s voice and turned from the patron he?d been handing a beer to with a smile on his face. A smile that almost immediately vanished to be replaced by blinking confusion at the sight of the faerie with the short black hair. He stepped backwards, out from behind the bar and a few steps down the hall to knock twice on Kal?s office door before swinging it open. She frowned a little as Jerry turned away. That was not quite the reception she had expected, but she wasn?t here to see him anyway.

?Hey boss, I think that rift might have opened again. There?s a Jewell here to see you.? Without waiting for Kal to answer or even looking to see what he was doing, Jerry waved Jewell back and then moved into the storage room to find some supplies he needed for the bar. Or, at least, that?s what he would say if asked. Mostly he just figured this was Kal?s problem.

Normally, she wouldn?t wait for Jerry to knock. There had been any number of times when she had just breezed right past him and into Kal?s office, unannounced and uninvited. Today was not one of those days. She had to push away her hesitation as she moved down the hall, and she lingered in the doorway instead of going right in. This was the first time she had really seen him since the Sunday morning when she had kissed him goodbye. The first time she had seen him again with eyes unclouded by the summoning of her True Name, and although this was what she wanted, her heart was suddenly doing a funny little thing inside her chest that made the blood pound in her ears. Still, she couldn?t help but smile, ?Hey.?

Kal's desk, usually neat and organized, was a disaster. Things had piled up while he was out of town and despite being back for a week, he'd barely made a dent. With Madness on the horizon, the paperwork and scouting reports were coming in faster than he could get through them. He dropped a spreadsheet to the side and looked up from the disarray to see Jewell walk through the door. The real Jewell, despite Jerry's assumptions about the new look. He could spot the remnants of the fight at Sanctuary lingering, even if it'd been two weeks since last he'd seen her. The hair did, however, bring a curious glance.

?They finally let you out, aye? Looking much better than the last time I saw you. The arm?s good?? Asked, because obviously the arm had been the most traumatic of her injuries.

She laughed; it was a bit weak but genuine. ?Why thank you. You know, I was waiting for someone to come bust me out of there. Finally decided to take matters into my own hands.? It was a playful reproach without any venom or sting, but she meant it too even if she had known all along that he wasn?t going to come. Jewell stepped inside, nudging the door closed behind her. She ignored the question about her arm, taking in the mess that was his desk and then him. ?Where?d you run to??

"Here and there.? The where wasn't really important, she wouldn't have known the place anyway. Mostly it was just important that it hadn't been here. Hadn't been to see her in the hospital or been the one to bust her out. He'd weighed that, back and forth over whether or not he should have, but in the end he hadn't. It felt wrong on too many levels. "You know me, world traveler and all. I had some work to look to. A desire not to be hunted down by Issy. Typical stuff."

Kal slid open the bottom desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of scotch and along with two glasses and looked at her as he filled the first. "Doctors letting you drink yet? If not, are we ignoring them?"

?We?re ignoring them.? She crossed the room, avoiding the available chairs. Instead, she nudged aside one of the piles of paperwork scattered across his desk and perched on the end of it on his side, effectively taking away the physical barrier between them. There was already enough other stuff in the way. ?And no one is hunting you down. Not Issy. Not Ishmerai. None of them.? There was a more serious reproach in those words, like he should have known that she wouldn?t let that happen. Even dead, she would have somehow ensured his safety. She had taken steps to ensure his safety. She held her hand out for her glass, ?Or me.?

"Ignoring them it is. What do they know anyway?" He handed her the glass and then filled the second. He wasn't going to comment on who was hunting whom or why. He'd felt safe enough to return to RhyDin after a bit of time and allowing cooler heads to prevail. A tap of his glass to hers, "To a speedy recover," and sipped at the single malt. She only took the tiniest of sips despite her apparent disregard for the doctors? orders and failed to echo his sentiment. A full recovery, if it was ever achieved, was not going to be speedy but he didn?t need to know that.

"I saw Sapphire's in town." Sure, a drink and a bit more small talk about injuries and visiting family, why not? There was an unusual tension in the air between them, despite her newly found perch on the desk. More meaningful words needed to be spoken. He knew this and her posture seemed to say she did too. Just maybe not yet.

?To take care of me, she said. Boss me around is more like it though.? She rolled her eyes but there was no hiding the smile that came unbidden to her lips. ?She cut my hair for me.? And glamoured it because Jewell didn?t have the energy to do even that simple task, but that was something else he didn?t need to know. She tilted her chin up, ?What do you think??

?Kids,? and not for the first time, Kal thanked the powers that be for having never been so blessed. ?Short an dark is a big change, but you pull it off well.? He considered her a while longer and took another sip of the scotch. ?So, what brings you by, lass? Too soon to be placing bets on the Madness tournament and I have no doubt the doctors would be displeased to know you?re walking about town. Probably Sapphire too.?

She stared at him, wanting ever so much to ask why she needed a reason to stop by at all. But she did have a reason. A good one. One that had nothing to do with Madness bets, drinking his scotch, or talking about her hair. ?The doctors? right.? She looked down, swirling the scotch in her glass carefully, ?The ones you secretly arranged to save my life.? It hadn?t taken too much work to figure all that out. There was only one Cupid in her life these days.

Now her heart was really starting to feel funny. It hammered away unsteadily at her ribs, prompting her to take a sip of her drink before setting the glass aside and looking at him. ?Why?d you do it??

"Why?" that seemed an odd sort of question to ask. "Because, as slim a chance as they told me you'd have, it seemed worth trying? I mean, who wants to be known as the lad who killed the Overlord? That?d be terrible for business. Hmm.. though I suppose I could have sold it as you being delinquent on debts.? He feigned pondering that for a moment, then smirked as he added, ?Ahh well, too late to take it back.?

?The lad who killed the Overlord,? she repeated softly, nodding. ?Right,? she strung the word out, her grey eyes hardening. ?Of course that?s it. You didn?t want that hanging over your head because it?d be bad for business. Mother of Nature, you?re unbelievable and I don?t care if this kills me,? she grabbed her glass and emptied it in one breath before holding it out to him. ?Is it really that hard to say that you didn?t want me dead or is it just not true? Because the reason I actually came over here was to thank you? you know, for saving me and then saving my life, and for the flowers. But if all this was about was business then refill my glass, we can settle my supposed debts, and I?ll leave.?

"There's really no reason I would have wanted to see you dead. Well... see you stay dead," he corrected, since the dying part had been on purpose and he had to admit he'd have been pretty annoyed with himself if he'd missed. It probably would have been him dead, though that wasn't worth thinking about just now. "That I also didn't want your death hung on my shoulders and the little bit of hell that likely would have rained down on me over it? You'll have to forgive me that bit of self indulgence as I kept the promise you asked of me." Where'd the small talk about kids and doctors go? He should have gotten bigger glasses for the scotch. "You're welcome though."

The anger and frustration that had fueled her bled away just as quickly as it rose and she shrunk back as if his words stung. ?You?re right. That?s not?? Her right hand drifted over the spot on her ribs. It still hurt at times. It felt like it hurt worse right now. ?Of course you didn?t want to deal with that. I?m sorry. That wasn?t? it?s not what I came here to say. Not like that. I?m sorry that I had to ever ask that of you. And you did keep your promise, and I can?t? You don?t know what that means to me. What you did for me? You didn?t leave me to them, Kal. It would have been easier to if you had. Safer. But you didn?t. If you hadn?t...? Jewell couldn?t even think about that.

?It?s done, no sense dwelling on it.? No possible good could come from diving into the whats and wherefores; they didn?t matter anyway. ?The calling broken, various bonds severed. You?re healthy.. ish or at least on the mend. Have your magic and your, well, Sapphire. A title to defend, businesses to rebuild, lads to enchant with that smile. Too much you should be looking forward to, to waste time looking back. Just maybe don?t share your true name with anyone again.? Which always seemed like excellent advice.

Only the whats and wherefores did matter. They mattered a great deal to her. ?Various bonds severed,? she repeated. That hurt worse than the cold iron touching her heart, and it was reflected in her smile. ?Is that the price then for my mistake? For letting them have my True Name? Is what I paid not enough? Having them call my name, what they did to me, what they made me do, having to ask you?having you...? She had to stop a moment. She couldn?t catch her breath. Between the scotch and the way her heart kept faltering as it beat quicker every second, she felt like she was starting to drown.

?Isn?t it enough? Don?t make it greater. Please? I?m sorry. I?m so sooo sorry that I had to ask you and put that burden on you. I?m not upset that you did it or agreed to it or how you did it. None of it. I don?t care. I don?t want to think about it anymore. I just want to get on with my life. The life you gave me back. And I still want you in it.?

"Save a life by taking it." He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of his being the one to do that. Thankfully it didn't always work that way or he'd have a lot of really ticked off clients out there. "I wasn't the one to give you your life back, Jewell. Thank the lads at the hospital for that. I was the one that ended it. Armed with an iron shiv and shielded by a note you'd pinned to a tree. I did what I ..." he stopped short on that. Did what I'm good at? Did what I get paid to do? This was something he didn't talk about with Jewell and wasn't about to start now.

Kal gave a sigh and shook his head once more to start over. ?I?m not mad. I don?t need apologies. It?s done and you?re well, and that?s really all that matters. So, no, don?t think about it. It?s good for you to take your life back and for you to get on with it. That?s all I want for you.?

?Get on with it. Without you, right?? Jewell shook her head before leaning forward towards him, ?Do you think that note ended up on the tree by accident, Kalamere? Like it was just some passing, romantic whim of mine? I knew what I was doing. I was doing my best to make sure you walked out of there alive. And it worked, didn?t it? The words worked because I meant them.

?I love you. I?m not ashamed of it and there?s nothing new about that except me saying it. I loved you before you saved my life. Nothing that happened two weeks ago changed that, certainly not for the worse. And I still don?t expect you to feel the same way in return. I never have. I haven?t been waiting around for you to suddenly fall madly in love with me. I don?t care. I know what this is and what it?s not. So that hasn?t changed either. The only thing that has changed here is you.?

She straightened up again, ?So what is it? Are you bored with having me around? Bored with screwing me? Tired of making me breakfast? Found some other lass you fancy more? Can?t stand the dark hair??

"Well, you know I rather prefer blondes." His instinct to deflect with humor had the joke rolling off his tongue before he could stop it. His timing obviously sucked. There was a small wince as he realized it and then rushed to return to a more serious tone. "Might be I didn't see it. Might be I just didn't want to. Truth is I can't..." No, can't wasn't the right word. It'd go against a lifetime of training and the magic of his ring could well kill him, but it wasn't a technical impossibility. Also, saying can't felt like a cop out, like shifting blame to some mystical force rather than taking this on himself.

"I don't return it,? he corrected. ?You say that you aren't waiting for me to and that you don't care. That's good, but I do. It's too unbalanced, too much like taking advantage, for me to want to be a part of it. So aye, you're right, I want you to get on with things without me."

She did not cry the second time he broke her heart. ?I could have lived with can?t, Kal. I really could have. Happily. We could have just gone on the way things were before. It wasn't so bad, was it? And I just would have always hoped? I would have thought that maybe, just maybe, if you could, if you were capable of it, it?d be me.? She was starting to feel breathless again, and it was hard to get the words out. ?But it was a silly hope, wasn?t it? And I just can?t live with don?t. I won?t.? She paused and shook her head, ?But you knew that already, didn?t you??

Jewell stood, a little unsteady, and ran her hand back through her short hair. ?It?s a shame though. We work, in our own way. And I tried to be good to you and not ask for more than you were willing to give. But I won?t force my presence or my love on you. I think you deserve it, though. When?s the last time someone truly loved you? I would have. I have, and I don?t regret it. Not a moment.? She smiled at him, but it was missing all its glamour and the way it lit up her eyes. ?Guess I should have just gone blonde this time, huh? Then maybe I?d have a chance.?

"There be any number of things I likely deserve, lass, but not that." A sardonic grin found his lips at the statement. Kal had no illusions about who he really was, the things he?d done or would do again tomorrow. He had a personal code of honor and a moral compass to guide him, but it rarely found true north. "You though. You do deserve better, and I hope that comes your way."

?Maybe,? she tried to say it like she believed it. She didn?t. ?Unfortunately for me, it?s you I want.? Jewell leaned over to kiss his cheek, ?Take care of yourself, handsome.?

Then she turned and walked out of his office, out of The Line, and out of his life.

((Co-written with the amazing Kalamere. Many thanks <3))