Seyari pulled her wings closer against the chill of the night’s wind. She stood alone on the highest balcony of Castle Astrye, the room that would be come her and her wife’s behind her. Down below, in the valley, Astrye lay sleeping, some few flickering glows in windows as smoke rose skyward from hearths.

Somewhere out there, beyond the hills, Mordwell was plotting. Envy and Styrix, Avarice, were also out there making plans for war. The city here had no wall, and it was very cold comfort to know that one wouldn’t matter much anyway.

Already, blinds and watchposts were being built in the surrounding hills. Old mines were being explored and mapped—some caved in. The work was harder without Renna, though old Nadya was an earth mage of middling power and contributed greatly.

Worse yet, the section of the castle wall Seyari’s wife punched down was a total loss, so there was nowhere to retreat to if they were attacked. Food was running low, fuel was getting there, and dissent simmered underneath all of it.

Scouts from the other towns in the region now under Renna’s rule were due over the next few days, and what news they would bring could and probably would make all of those problems worse. At least the pass was clear enough to use until the next big storm, and at least Seyari felt strong enough to fight.

I miss Renna, she thought. The bed, even with her newfound fire affinity, was too cold and simultaneously too small and too big—she couldn’t get her wings comfortable. And unlike her wife, Seyari had to sleep; their vow hadn’t suddenly made her a full angel. Though, she suspected she was even less of a mortal than she’d been before.

Outliving Mordwell wasn’t a victory, though. Killing him was.

Seyari shook her head, wishing the cold would snap her out of her spiraling thoughts. But she’d have no such luck, and she stared up at the moon until she felt too tired to stand and retreated inside, collapsing onto the bed in a cocoon of red feathers.

In the morning, waking up to Nelys knocking softly on her door, Seyari snuggled tighter against Zarenna… and promptly fell off the bed in a tangle of wings and sheets.

“Are you alright?” Nelys called through the door.

“I’m fine,” Seyari replied groggily.

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“But I heard—”

“Nothing.”

“Didja fall off the bed tryin’ ta cuddle your pillow?” Taava’s laughter chilled Seyari’s blood.

“Why are you here this early?”

“’Cause you’re late?”

Seyari scrambled up out of the blankets as best she could and glanced at the windows covered by improvised curtains. Light streamed in from the ones that hadn’t been broken and covered over. Shit. Seyari wracked her brain, but all she could think of was a meeting with Nadya and some business owners.

“Taava!” Nelys chided, still through the door. “She’s not late for the meeting and you know it.”

“Yeah.” Seyari could feel Taava’s eye roll. “But those scouts who showed back up’d sure consider her late.”

Scouts? Scouts! Seyari threw the sheet off her wings and dashed to the half-broken dresser, throwing on the first clothes that’d fit. “How are they? What happened?”

“Tons!”

“Taava!” Seyari snapped. “Keep treating this lightly and honest to gods I am defenestrating your tawny tail!” She slammed the door open, wings flared and eyes glowing.

Wide-eyed, Taava backed off and bowed.

“Next time you say you can ‘get her awake and moving’ quickly, I’m not taking you up on the offer,” Nelys said dryly. “The scouts are downstairs, and only one needs treatment.”

Seyari narrowed her eyes. “That wasn’t entirely truthful, Nelys.”

Nelys looked bashfully away, tentacles curling under the hem of their long coat. “Could you give us privacy?”

Seyari called upon her wind magic and threw up a barrier of hot air around them. “Done.”

“Joisse healed one.”

“What?”

“No one knows! He was gonna die otherwise—she was working reconstruction at a farm near where they came in from and he wouldn’t have made it to the castle, even if you’d been awake and—”

“Was it Joisse’s decision?”

Nelys nodded rapidly. “It was, yeah.”

Seyari glanced at Taava.

“I didn’t do anythin’!”

“Can you keep your ears open and listen around? I want to make sure this doesn’t get out.”

“Oh! Sure thing, Second Boss. But, uh, what about the guy she healed and the others who saw?”

“I’ll speak with them,” Seyari said flatly, turning and starting to walk down the hall, wings tucked and folded.

Taava darted ahead of her with a wave, turning down a side passage and away, presumably to eavesdrop.

Nelys jogged after the three-quarters angel. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” Seyari answered truthfully, focusing to reduce the ethereal echo of her voice. “We’ll see.”

“Please don’t hurt them, or anything like that. They’ve been through a lot already.”

Seyari sighed, relaxing her jaw. “I know, I know. I’m just… the thought of Joisse getting caught up in her own magic’s controversy in addition to this war just makes me want to hurt something.”

To Seyari’s surprise, Nelys smiled. “You’re a good mom, Sey. I think. You mean well.” Their smile fell into a frown, and they cast their gaze down at the scratched stone floor.

Before her and Renna’s vow, Seyari would’ve brushed this off. But now, just as she hoped Renna would curb her excessive altruism, Seyari took a page from her wife’s book and inhaled slowly. “Is something wrong, Nelys?”

For a moment, Nelys was silent. Then they spoke, softly. “I… I want to go home. See my family again and just… know? Seeing you and Joisse and Renna makes me feel worse even though I know I should feel happy for all of you.”

Seyari found herself at a loss for words. Not for lack of trying, but… how does this come so easily to Renna?

“Seyari?”

“Hmm? Oh! I was just thinking of what to say to that.”

Nelys glanced back at the hall floor, shoulders slumping.

“I think… I think Renna will want to help you. Get to see your family, I mean.”

“But the war? I can fight now, so I need to.”

“I don’t think you do, if you don’t want to. At least Renna would say that—I know she would.”

“Well I want to, but I also don’t want to and… gah.” They switched to Turquoiser. “Why does this have to be so hard! There’s no answer that doesn’t leave me with a hollow feeling.”

“Think on it then,” Seyari replied in kind. “We’ll be glad for your help, and we appreciate you, but we don’t own you. Don’t stay because you think you have to.” She finally seemed able to put her thoughts into words, channeled from her own honest feelings.

Nelys turned, and started down a set of stairs ahead of Seyari. “I’ll stay the winter, and I’ll leave in spring. If Renna or you or anyone wants to come with, they can, but I’ll be the one leading.”

“Sure.” Seyari smiled a sharp smile.

“Good! It’s the room just ahead here. Joisse is still with them, and we have Razz and Brynna guarding the place from prying eyes. A lot of people want to hear the news.”

“And there’s a reason we haven’t told them yet?”

Nelys’s face fell. “Yeah.”

Seyari looked up at Brynna and Razz, the two lupael sisters slouching to attention at the sides of an unadorned door in the relatively dark hallway. “Razz, Brynna, could one of you fetch Nadya? I think I’ll need her expertise.”

“I knew it was bad,” Brynna muttered.

“I’ll go,” Razz said. She turned to her younger sister and ruffled her hair. “And I never said it wasn’t, just that we should—”

“Try to look for the sun through the clouds. I know.”

Razz gently boxed Brynna’s ears. “Then don’t grouse.”

“I’m not a kid anymore!”

“Older sister privilege.” With a toothy smile, she nodded at Seyari and Nelys, then walked off down the hall. “I think she’s with old naked-tail Keran right now. Shouldn’t take me more than an hour.”

“No trouble then?” Seyari asked the remaining sister while watching Razz go.

“None,” Brynna replied. “People are anxious, but willing to wait—for now.”

“That’s a relief.” Seyari pushed open the door. To her surprise, Nelys stayed outside. “You coming?”

They shook their head, curls bouncing. “I’ll be right out here. I figured you’d want to handle this yourself.”

“I do… thanks.” She closed the door behind her and looked inside the room.

Makeshift cots had been set along the wall, and only three had occupants. Of them, one was sitting up and playing cards with three others at a table they’d pulled close to the bed. Another occupant was sleeping, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm under a blanket, while the last was sitting up, arm in a sling, and staring right at Seyari.

Next to that cot, Joisse had pulled up a chair. Still in human form, she looked sheepish and unsure, red eyes widening as Seyari strode inside.

“I’m sorry,” Joisse muttered. “I just wanted to help, and—”

“Stop,” the man sitting up said tiredly. His dark hair was a mess, and Seyari only now noticed the points of two folded-down ears sticking up just out of the mess. Lupael, then.

Joisse started to mutter again, but Seyari put a hand on her shoulder and she stiffened. “What happened here?” the three-quarters angel asked.

“This girl healed my partner, but it changed him. Teeth like mine, and horns.”

Seyari walked around to the other bed, looking at the figure under the covers. A human man, he had nubs of black horns peeking out from short-cut bangs. He looked a little pale as well, but whether that was blood loss or the effects of Joisse’s magic, Seyari couldn’t tell. She reached a hand for his forehead, aura sight active. Nearby, the card game stopped, its players staring at the three-quarters angel.

“Marchioness?” the waking man asked.

Marchioness? Are Zarenna and I both Marchioness?

“He’s healthy.” Her magic confirmed as much. “I heard he was on the brink of death.”

“He was, but—”

“Then I fail to understand how you could be anything but grateful toward my daughter.”

The man’s eyes went wide. “Daughter… But—what if he’s not the same person?”

“I sincerely doubt that to be the case, but if so, then we will discuss this further. If the only other option was death, then this is better than nothing. And don’t give me platitudes about the memory of your partner.”

“Yes, Marchioness. My… apologies for treating Lady Joisse harshly.”

Joisse waved her hands frantically. “N-no, it’s fine! Really! I understand and I’d probably feel the same in your shoes. I am sorry that my magic changed him—I really, truly am.”

“Joisse.”

She snapped to attention. “Yes?”

“You shouldn’t apologize. You saved a man’s life.”

Joisse drew in a breath, eyes growing damp. Before she could start, Seyari reached over and ruffled her hair, jolting her out of the mood.

“Hey!”

“We can talk more later. Right now—” she turned to the rest of the room “—I need to know what you all found, and what dangers you ran into.”

“Mostly bad news,” the injured man replied. “We—” he winced, and doubled over, coughing.

Seyari moved quickly beside him, feeling out with her magic. He’d taken a heavy hit on one side, and if the blood flecks from his cough were any indication, he had internal damage. She placed a hand on his chest, feeling the swollen flesh above broken ribs.

“This may hurt. Brace yourself.”

The man took a shaky breath and nodded, and Seyari went to work. He grunted, but didn’t cry out, and with what felt like no more than a drop of her mana, Seyari healed him. The man took a deep breath and leaned back, relaxing.

“Thank you.”

“Of course. Now, what did you find?”

“Empty towns.”

Seyari set her jaw, suppressing a shiver. “All of them?”

The man shook his head. “No. The more remote ones—some were occupied still. Some had sent away invaders and lost people to monsters in the night. Others were ‘abandoned’ just as we arrived.”

“Shouldn’t they trust you?” Joisse asked.

“They should, yes.”

“Then our enemies are using your own people against you, unless you think they would be fooled by dress and complexion.”

“No, you’re right.”

“What attacked you then?”

“Some kind of monster. A demon, maybe. It set upon us in the night, near a remote village. We lost one, but his screams woke the rest of us.”

“Did you kill it?”

The man shook his head again. “We wounded it. It was healing quickly, but the arrows we’d been given drove it off. I fear we’d all be dead otherwise.”

Murmurs from the others broke into an argument.

“I’m telling you, we were set up!”

“No! That thing was just ambushing us. It was probably hunting the locals!”

“Silence!” Seyari hissed, waving a hand in a cutting motion, her wings twitching. The room fell silent, and she continued, “One at a time please; I will hear all your concerns. We will also send a force to dispatch what is probably a lesser demon.”

“Lesser demon?”

“If it were a greater demon, you would’ve lost more than one person.”

The scouts at the card table broke into grumbling, so Seyari pointed at one of them. “You first. I want every last detail from each of you. We’ve defenses to build and a border to secure.”