“We have to leave this town.”

“No! If we leave, we’re far more vulnerable. A single location is better.”

“You want to be sitting ducks?”

“We have extra protection here!”

Falynn sat nervously on a bench as Taiki and Leonov paced back and forth, arguing over their next step. Roni was beside her, putting a new string on her bow, and seeming totally disinterested in the interplay between their two allies. Falynn didn’t know who she agreed with, but she didn’t like to see them fighting. For the time being, however, she couldn’t think of a worthwhile idea or compromise to offer.

“There is no protection for you here,” Taiki growled. “The guards will not lift a finger to help a foreigner.”

“I don’t mean the guards,” Leonov shot back, equally as frustrated. “You forget, I’m trained in military tactics. There is protection in a fortified and fixed location!”

“Not if your enemy vastly outnumbers you and you’re on unfamiliar territory,” Taiki pointed out. “Or do you believe that you can withstand any number of surprise attacks?”

“I do fine myself,” he said. “Even Mitaka Shimonseki thought we were in the right. He said it himself, didn’t he? We were the ones attacked, so we’re not going to be held liable for their deaths.”

It took a moment for Taiki to find a new point of contention for his argument. In fact, she returned to a previous point. “We don’t know how many underlings he has. He bought our excuse this time, but I don’t think we can continue to fool him forever!”

Finally, Roni did speak, though she didn’t look up from her bow. “I still say we should have taken the chance to kill him when he showed up last night. He certainly didn’t expect it then. It could have worked.”

“But then we’d have the entire town’s worth of guards collapsing in on us,” Leonov said with a loud snort of derisiveness. “We’re not on a suicide mission.”

But to Falynn, it certainly felt that way. She couldn’t see a way to accomplish the mission with their enemy so close. As before, she didn’t feel this thought was important enough to share, so she kept it to herself. Instead, it was Taiki that spoke next, forestalling Roni’s next words. “Leonov is right. We have no proof that he’s the mage that killed my family and committed all those crimes.”

“That’s an oddly reasonable line of thought, coming from you,” Leonov said, eying her closely. “Since when do you agree with me about safety?”

He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw her eyes flick to the side, where Falynn was sitting. Her face gave nothing away, so perhaps he’d imagined it. In any event, she shook her head. “I’m not fond of having every slight change in my motive questioned, Leo.”

She hadn’t meant to shorten his name, and fell silent the instant she did, realizing what had happened. Even he looked shocked. He actually stopped pacing for a moment to stare at her incredulously. “What did you just call me?”

Falynn, unable to stop it, let out a high-pitched giggle. “Leo? I kind of like it.”

The battle-hardened warrior spared her half a glance, then turned away, but not quickly enough to hide the slight flush that had crossed over his face. “The only people that call me that are my friends met in battle.”

“Which we kind of are,” Roni pointed out. She had a knack, as always, for disrupting the flow of a conversation.

“Think rationally,” Falynn said, finally making up her mind. She rose to her feet and crossed to stand beside Taiki, which stopped the tall warrior from pacing as well. “We can’t hold two rooms on our own indefinitely. You can’t stay on watch throughout the whole night without sleep for weeks. None of us can.”

“Who said anything about two rooms?” Leonov said. “We can all share a room.”

But it was Taiki that shook her head vehemently in protest of that idea. “It will not be allowed. It is seen as improper.”

“But you three came to visit me in my room after Shimonseki left,” Leonov pointed out, looking perplexed.

“That is acceptable,” the Nihon-Jan warrior explained. “One woman on their own, no. Three, that is acceptable. But it is not proper if you were to stay in the same room.”

“They’re that conservative?”

“It is very important that a woman’s purity not be questioned,” Taiki said, nodding in reply to his question. “You are not of this land, so they assume that you are already impure before bonding. But the rule will still apply to Falynn and Roni, even if they are perceived as impure.”

“Let me guess,” Leonov said dryly. “It’s some tedious rule about not setting a bad example for the ladies that do live here.”

Taiki nodded again. Falynn, surprised at that revelation, spoke up. “But I’m not, err…”

“Impure?” Roni finished the sentence for her, a smirk plastered firmly on her face. “Of course, you’re not. But they don’t care.”

“They should know that you aren’t either, Roni,” the druid girl said, her face hot. She wanted to get the attention away from her as quickly as possible. “You’re a maiden of Minerva. Everyone knows what that means, right?”

“Not here,” Taiki said firmly, resting one hand on her hip. “Minerva has no presence here, given that she is from the westernmost country known to the world.”

“Wait,” Leonov said, frowning. “Minerva is from Attos?”

“Knireth,” Roni hissed, looking more than a little insulted. “You didn’t have that country as long as you think, pawn.”

An equal flash of irritation crossed Leonov’s face as the pride of his homeland was challenged. Before either of them could say anymore, Falynn physically moved herself to stand between the two of them, forcing them to look at her. “Weren’t we deciding whether to stay or leave this town?”

Leonov took a deep breath, then another, and nodded. “Right. Thank you, Falynn. Yes. We should stay.”

“I don’t think we should,” Falynn replied, shaking her head. “I don’t think it’s safe here.”

“This is the same thing as the forest,” Leonov countered. “Only Taiki will know the countryside. We cannot count on her to lead us down the safest and most direct path for the entirety of our stay here.”

As he said it, he gave her a look to take the unintentional insult from his words. She gave a disdainful shrug, not bothered either way and said, “Actually, if what you all told me about your crucible is true, it’s nowhere near the same.”

Now everyone was looking at her in confusion. It was Roni that spoke the question they all had in their minds. “What do you mean? We’re facing an enemy much stronger than us. It’s exactly the same.”

“So your solution is to hide?” Taiki asked. Her face was mask-like as ever, but there was an unmistakable challenge to her tone. “Remind me. How well did that go against Master Kanora?”

A look of dawning comprehension fell on Leonov’s face, and he let out a low curse. “Damn! I don’t know how I forgot that already.”

“She’s right though,” Roni said. She’d finally set the string in her bow and now slung it over her shoulder as she rose to her feet. Moving to stand beside Falynn, she added, “Far be it from me to advise against stealth, but you’re all terrible at it anyway. And our best chance is aggressive action.”

“So you agree with them,” he said. “You think we should leave.”

Roni grinned at him. Not a smirk, but an actual full smile showing her teeth. It was not a cheery expression. “Who said we should leave? You’re all ignoring a third option.”

“Which is?”

Gadderoth, who’d been flying in slow lazy circles above them, landed directly on her shoulder now that she was standing. She reached up to rub his snout, and her eyes were gleaming with the thrill they all knew could only come from the prospect of a hunt. “We neither stay in this inn nor leave the town. We take matters into our own hands and hunt the bastard here.”

None of the others replied for a minute, too shocked by the boldness of the proposition to give a proper response just yet. Finally, Leonov shook his head. But it was not a gesture of denial, merely a way to express his uncertainty about the idea. “I don’t know, Roni. That might be the most efficient way, but we’re not familiar with the city.”

She scoffed at that. “You think every beast I’ve ever hunted has had the courtesy to travel within my territory?”

“But this isn’t a beast that we’re fighting,” the Attosian replied, looking impatient. “It’s a man. A thinking, speaking, clever human with a small army at his beck and call.”

The ranger gave a dismissive shrug. “I’ve hunted magical beasts that could think and speak before. I see no difference. And we don’t have to kill the entire pack. Just him, right?”

“That’s not how Issho-Ni works,” Falynn interjected, glowering at Roni. “We’re here to capture him and turn him in to face justice.”

“Actually,” Taiki said, looking over her head to lock eyes with Roni, “Even Issho-Ni accepts that he must be taken down. He’s far too nefarious to be allowed the public platform of a trial.”

“The job is to actually kill him?” Falynn asked, her eyes widening. “That’s what Grandmaster Tokugawa said?”

“He told us that we’re here to aid Taiki in getting revenge,” Leonov said. He deliberately avoided looking at Falynn, knowing how she felt about the idea of killing another thing. “Her goal is to kill him.”

“Falynn,” The Nihon-Jan warrior put a hand on the druid girl’s shoulders and turned her around to make eye contact. “You believe in nature, yes?”

Mutely, she nodded. She tried not to blink, to let the tears that were pooling in her eyes to escape. The warrior continued. “Nature is about the preservation of life. I know this. But it’s also about balance. What is Grimr Longfang above Guardian of the Wilds?”

Of course, Falynn knew the answer. She’d been a devout follower all of her life. She knew it, even if she did not like it. After a few seconds of silence, she couldn’t avoid answering the question. “He’s an Ancient.”

“And what is his purpose?”

Again, there was a long pause, as Falynn tried to find a way of avoiding the question. But it was impossible, and she knew that she had to confront the truth of the matter. “To protect the balance.”

“Exactly,” Taiki said. Then she offered a smile, the first they’d seen on her face since she’d been thrown into the cells. And it wasn’t a nefarious or bloodthirsty expression, either. It said quite plainly that she sympathized with the druid girl’s struggle. “We’re serving that same balance by removing Shimonseki from power.”

Falynn let out a low breath. “I don’t like it. But you’re right.”

She opened her eyes again and turned to the other two. They looked surprised at her sudden acquiescence. “But you’re wrong about one thing.”

“What’s that?” Leonov asked. The change in Falynn’s eyes, one that she seemed unaware of, intrigued him.

“This will be exactly like the crucible,” she said firmly, gripping her staff. Before their very eyes, it’s form began to change. The head of it split, branching out like roots, as a pale blue sort of crystal formed to rest between them. It glowed just as brightly as her eyes, and radiated a new kind of power from its core. It wasn’t something that they’d ever experienced personally, but they had no trouble recognizing it.

“But that,” Roni said, taking an uncertain half-step back, looking unnerved for the first time in their journey together, “But that’s… That’s chaos.”

Falynn smiled. Her old familiar small smile. A kind gesture, but it was at odds with the rippling power that radiated out from the gem. “Yes. You three seem to forget that I’m not just clumsy limbs and shy nature. I’m also a Master Druid. More than that, Elderclaw gave me a new power.”