I didn't stay beside the wagon for long.
Before they took Rowan's body away, I noticed the small white stone sticking out of one of his pockets. The same stone crossed by a blue vein, the one he'd found by the river and planned to give Sophie when he got home.
I carefully took it out and held it between my fingers for a few seconds.
I didn't know where his family lived. I only knew three names: Mira, Elias, and Sophie. I also had no idea how long it would take before I could learn anything else, especially now that the Rupture had turned maps, records, and roads into fairly optimistic suggestions.
I didn't make any promises.
I simply put the stone into one of the inner pockets of my bag.
Rowan didn't need anything from me anymore.
Rothen did.
For the next several hours, I did my best to stay busy. I helped clear streets, lifted beams that normally would have required half a dozen people, and held a barrier beneath a partially collapsed house while several guards pulled a trapped family out from under it.
I thought about Rowan more than once.
That didn't mean I had to sit there doing nothing but think about him.
That wasn't how I worked.
I could feel terrible about something and still keep moving. I could wonder whether I'd done enough while using my hands to help someone else. And, frankly, Rothen had enough problems to keep even a Legendary Heroine with ridiculous stats occupied.
By midafternoon, the town was finally starting to look a little less chaotic. The most seriously wounded had been moved into two buildings converted into treatment centers, several main streets had been cleared, and the guards had begun registering the displaced.
That was when I heard one of them say a word that immediately caught my attention.
"Demons."
I turned.
Two guards were talking beside a wagon. One had just received a message, and the other already had a hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
I walked over.
"What's going on?"
They recognized me immediately.
"Heroine. A scout found a group north of town, near some abandoned farms."
"Demons?"
The guard nodded.
"About twenty. Maybe more. Some of them are armed."
"Did they attack anyone?"
"No."
I waited.
"Then what happened?"
The other guard answered.
"The captain took several men out to contain them until we know what they want."
I didn't like the word contain very much.
I also didn't like the way several nearby soldiers were already preparing to leave.
I gripped my staff.
"I'm coming with you."
We found them less than half an hour from Rothen.
There was enough distance between both groups that nobody could stab anyone yet, but not enough for me to feel comfortable. The soldiers from Rothen kept their weapons ready while, across the open ground, several demons stood in front of the civilians behind them.
And they were civilians.
That was the first thing I noticed.
There were children. One woman held a little girl against her chest. An old man sat on the ground with an improvised bandage around one leg. Others had cuts, torn clothing, and the same exhausted expressions I'd seen over and over since waking up after the Rupture.
Only a few of them carried weapons.
The problem was that those few had their spears ready.
And the humans had swords.
Nobody was attacking.
Yet.
I stayed beside the guards and studied the group from a distance.
Then I saw a flash of blue lightning.
It was tiny, barely a spark snapping through the air near one of the demons.
Then another appeared.
I narrowed my eyes.
I knew those sparks.
I searched the group until I found a tall figure in dark armor, black hair marked by a blue streak, and backward-curving horns. She stood in front of several civilians, staring at the human soldiers with the expression of someone putting considerable effort into not electrocuting anyone.
Thundery.
Relief hit me so quickly that I almost shouted her name.
I stopped myself just in time.
The human captain was only a few steps away.
Announcing that one of those demons was the Demon Queen's security captain probably wasn't the diplomatic contribution the situation needed.
Thundery saw me too.
Our eyes met across the distance.
Her expression shifted slightly.
Then she slowly raised one hand toward the demons behind her.
"Lower your weapons a little," she ordered.
I couldn't hear every word from where I stood, but I could see what happened.
The spears didn't disappear.
They weren't put away either.
But the tips stopped pointing directly at us.
I looked at the captain.
"I know someone in that group."
The man turned toward me.
"Who?"
"That doesn't matter right now. But I can talk to them."
"I'm not letting you approach them alone."
"I wasn't planning to while everyone's still pointing weapons at each other."
I discreetly indicated the demons' weapons.
"They already took a step."
The captain understood.
He didn't look happy about it, but eventually raised one hand.
"Lower the points. Don't sheathe anything."
The soldiers obeyed slowly.
Thundery saw the movement from the other side.
I waited.
She started walking toward us.
No weapon in her hands.
I did the same.
The space between both groups felt much longer when you knew twenty nervous people were watching every step.
I kept my staff pointed at the ground and walked until Thundery and I met roughly halfway between them.
For a moment, we just looked at each other.
She spoke first.
"I thought you'd disappeared with the others."
"I'm glad to see you too."
"I didn't say that."
A tiny spark crawled over one of her fingers.
I'd learned enough about Thundery to know that meant exactly the opposite.
I looked over her shoulder.
"What happened?"
Her expression changed.
"The Rupture."
"I figured that part out."
"We were at the castle when it started. After the first wave, we evacuated some of the staff toward the outer courtyards. Then another one hit."
She glanced back at the demons.
"When I came to, I was here with them."
"Were all of them at the castle?"
"No. Some were. Others appeared later from different regions. We've spent hours gathering anyone we found before running into your friends."
She looked toward the human soldiers.
"Who turned out to be incredibly welcoming."
"They'd probably say the same thing about you."
"They pointed first."
"And you responded by pointing back."
"What did you expect us to do?"
"Preferably something that doesn't end with me explaining to Morgause why I personally had to stop a battle between her demons and a human town."
Thundery went still.
So did I.
I'd mentioned Morgause without thinking.
"Was she okay?"
The question came out much faster than I wanted it to.
Thundery understood immediately.
"Yes."
Something inside my chest loosened.
"You saw her?"
"Personally. When I disappeared, she was still at the castle giving orders."
"Was she hurt?"
"Not that I could see."
I breathed.
That didn't mean she was still fine now.
It didn't mean she hadn't been displaced afterward.
But she had been alive when Thundery vanished.
For now, I'd take it.
"Thank you."
Thundery watched me for a second before looking back toward the humans.
"What do we do about them?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"We have no intention of attacking."
"Perfect. Then half the problem is already solved."
"The human half is still armed."
"I'm working on it."
I went back to the captain while Thundery returned to the demons.
"They're not an invasion force," I said.
"How can you be sure?"
I looked toward the group.
"Because the Rupture dropped them here the same way it dropped me in Rhel. They have wounded people, children, and people who don't even know where their families are."
The captain didn't lower his guard.
"They're still armed demons inside Aldren."
"And you're armed humans pointing swords at them. If we keep describing obvious things, we're not going to get very far."
His expression told me he didn't find that particularly helpful.
I continued before he could answer.
"I'm not asking you to trust them. They don't trust you either. I'm saying neither side has attacked, and we already have enough wounded people without manufacturing another twenty."
The captain watched the group for several seconds.
"And who's responsible for them?"
I looked toward Thundery.
I wasn't going to say who she was.
"Someone I know."
"That tells me nothing."
"It tells you what matters. I trust her to keep her people under control."
"And if you're wrong?"
"Then I'll stop them."
The captain held my gaze.
"Them?"
"Whoever attacks first."
That made him go quiet.
"I'm not taking a side. I'm trying to stop both of you from doing something stupid because you're afraid."
There was more arguing.
A lot more.
But eventually the weapons came down.
Rothen agreed to accept the demons as temporary displaced civilians. The wounded would receive treatment, and the group would stay in an assigned area near one of the outer warehouses while everyone figured out what to do next.
It wasn't trust.
Some humans still watched them like they might attack at any moment, and several demons seemed to think exactly the same thing about the humans.
But nobody died.
After the last few days, that felt like a perfectly acceptable victory.
When we returned to Rothen, I found Thundery helping settle the wounded from her group.
"I might be able to get back to Valcrest soon," I told her. "If I find a way to bring you with me, we could go back together."
Thundery looked toward the demons.
A woman was trying to calm a child. One of the few fighters was helping the injured old man sit down.
"No."
"No?"
"I can't leave."
There was no hesitation in her voice.
"These people don't know Aldren. Some of them don't even know what happened to their families. And just because you convinced the humans not to run them through with swords doesn't mean they're friends now."
I watched her for a moment.
Thundery looked back at her people.
"As long as they're here, someone has to take responsibility."
That made me smile slightly.
"Morgause chose her captain well."
A tiny spark appeared near her ear.
"Don't start."
"That was a compliment."
"With you, I'm never sure."
The opportunity to return came before I could annoy her any further.
My plate started heating up inside my bag.
I pulled it out and watched the engraved runes light up one after another.
Then a magic circle appeared beneath my feet.
Thundery stepped back.
"What did you do?"
"Surprisingly, nothing."
I recognized part of the structure.
Summoning magic.
Caelum's voice came from the plate through heavy interference.
"Nellie... if you can hear me... remain inside the circle."
I couldn't help smiling.
"I never thought I'd be this happy to hear that man."
The transmission came through in fragments, but I understood enough. After studying the residual effects of the Rupture, they had discovered that the Summoned Heroes' signatures were still connected to the original circles in the Central Hall.
They couldn't retrieve every displaced person.
But they could find me.
I looked at Thundery.
"Looks like this is my stop."
"Go."
"If I see Morgause, I'll tell her you're okay."
"Tell her I'll return once I can leave these people somewhere safe."
"I will."
I thought about adding something else.
Thundery must have seen it on my face.
"I do not need to know what else you're planning to do when you see her."
I closed my mouth.
"One day you'll learn to appreciate romance."
"Go, Nellie."
Light wrapped around me.
The ground disappeared.
For one unpleasant moment, it felt like every organ in my body had chosen a different direction.
Then I hit stone.
"Ow."
I looked up.
Central Hall.
Valcrest.
I was back.
Several mages surrounded the circle, some of them so exhausted they seemed to be standing through pride alone. Caelum stood in front of them, his magical lens fully illuminated.
"It worked," he said.
I slowly got to my feet.
"It's incredibly reassuring to learn that was still a question."
"There was a significant probability of failure."
"Next time, save that part until I'm sitting down."
A familiar voice came from my left.
"You're still complaining. I guess they brought all the important parts back."
I turned.
"Blazer!"
He was alive.
And unlike me, he looked like he'd spent the last few days with access to an actual bed.
I walked over and hugged him before thinking too much about it.
Blazer took a second to react.
"Well. This is new."
I pulled away.
"I thought you'd disappeared."
"I wasn't displaced."
I stared at him.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"I hate you a little."
"I'll accept that."
The relief of seeing him lasted until I remembered the others were still missing.
"Elizabeth? Monkar? Sogard?"
Blazer shook his head.
"They haven't managed to bring everyone back yet."
I looked at Caelum.
"Can you?"
"We're trying to locate their signatures. Yours was the first one we managed to stabilize enough for a return."
It wasn't the answer I wanted, but at least they were looking.
Then I thought about Morgause.
She had been alive when Thundery disappeared.
And I was back in Valcrest.
That meant I could return to the castle.
Now.
Immediately.
Preferably before another dimensional crack decided to interfere with my love life.
Just imagining the reunion improved my mood considerably. Morgause had probably been worried. That justified a hug. A long one, given the circumstances. Maybe even a kiss could reasonably count as confirming that we'd both survived intact.
And afterward, in private, we could perform a considerably more thorough inspection of—
"Nellie."
Blazer's voice interrupted my thoughts.
I looked at him.
He was serious.
My imagination stopped immediately.
"What happened?"
Blazer exchanged a look with Caelum.
The director spread a map across a nearby table.
"While you were gone, we detected an anomaly."
I stepped closer.
An area northeast of Valcrest had been marked on the map, near Aldren's eastern border.
"Another Rupture?"
"Not exactly. Most residual spatial distortions have been weakening since the incident. This one is doing the opposite."
"It's growing?"
"Yes."
That didn't sound particularly pleasant.
Blazer pointed at the location.
"We're going to have to go there."
I looked up.
"We?"
"As soon as we can put together a team."
I looked back at the mark.
Perfect.
I'd returned to Valcrest only to discover that I would probably have to leave again.
"Fine. But I'm going to the castle first."
Caelum opened his mouth.
I never heard what he was going to say.
Because a voice had just appeared inside my head.
Not from the room.
Not from any of them.
Inside.
She shouldn't be here.
I froze.
"What...?"
Blazer frowned.
"What's wrong?"
I looked around.
Nobody else had reacted.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
Then the first image came.
It wasn't a memory.
It was too sudden, too foreign.
For a fraction of a second, the Central Hall disappeared.
I saw black stone under dim light.
A chain stretched across the floor.
Then everything vanished.
I brought a hand to my head.
"Nellie."
Another image struck me.
A wrist locked inside a dark shackle.
Thick metal disappearing into a wall.
Fingers tensing.
And then red.
Long red hair.
Unmistakable.
My breath stopped.
"Morgause..."
The vision shifted again.
I saw part of her face, her head hanging forward, another chain holding one of her arms. I couldn't tell whether she was conscious. The image shook and flickered as though someone were trying to show me something through shattered glass.
Then I saw an opening in the stone.
Mountains beyond it.
Two high peaks, and between them, a curved rock formation.
The vision vanished.
My eyes returned to the map Caelum had just spread across the table.
The marked region.
My hands went cold.
"Nellie, what are you seeing?" Caelum asked.
I couldn't answer.
The voice returned one final time.
This time much clearer.
The Queen shouldn't be here.
And then it stopped.
The Central Hall became completely still again.
Blazer stood in front of me.
Caelum was still watching.
But all I could think about was the red hair, the shackles, and those chains disappearing into the stone.
Morgause was there.
Or she had just been there.
And she was chained.
I tightened my grip around my staff until my fingers hurt.
There were plenty of questions I should have been asking.
Who had spoken to me.
Why I could see those images.
What any of this had to do with the Rupture.
But none of those came first.
Only one did.
What the hell had happened for Morgause to end up like that?