Malek ran behind Neve, panting like a dog. Behind him, city guards sprinted to catch up with them. A carefree laugh bubbled up from Neve’s chest. Her smile stretched from ear to ear. She didn’t know life could be like this. The suffocating heat of her scarf was omnipresent, but it had grown to be a comfort. A physical reminder that she was protected. 

Feinting to the left, she skidded into an alleyway. She grabbed Malek as he ran past and pulled him next to her. She slapped a hand over his mouth to stop whatever tirade was sure to spill forth. Their heavy breaths were too loud in the quiet, but the guards sprinted ahead without a glance in their direction. Neve leaned against the wall, her head lolling to look at Malek. His cheeks were ruddy from exertion and anger.

“Why do I always get involved in your troublemaking?” he whisper-shouted.

Neve drawled, “Because you’re my partner in crime.”

“I don’t want to be!” Malek fell into a crouch, covering his face with his hands. “Father’s gonna kill me.”

Neve had to grimace at that. Argus Qualls was not a man to be trifled with. She had surely met men more dangerous and more intimidating, but the general’s demeanor told her that something was not quite right with him. His smile was plastered on for formalities, and his spine was stiff. His cold eyes froze even her into place. Malek’s mom was the only being in the universe to see Argus for who he truly was, and the way he gazed at her made Neve feel like she was intruding on intimacy reserved for true love.

“Rest in Eternal Slumber.”

“Neve!”

She shrugged, “What? You know there’s nothing I can do.”

“Weren’t you a soldier or something?” Malek knew exactly what she had been, but she gave him credit for not blurting it out. He also knew that she wouldn’t kill unless threatened. Not for him, not for anyone. 

“Your father was a general. He led one of the largest sieges during the unification. Besides, you love him.”

Malek was quiet. His affection for his father was a complicated love, just as hers was with her mother. She knew how hard it was to love someone who wouldn’t care if you were gone. Who would replace you as easily as you were lost. 

He replied, “I don’t know.”

“You love him.” Malek didn’t lie to her. 

“But I don’t like him.” 

She walked over to place a hand on his shoulder. “No one said you had to.”

He uncurled himself from his pity crouch, rising to sling an arm over her shoulder. He pulled her to his side and into a hug. She relaxed into his comforting embrace, her head resting on his chest. Her hands moved to grip his waist.

Malek grumbled, “Don’t steal from me, you little thief.”

“Try not to make it so easy.” Neve wrenched herself from his arms, holding up Malek’s ID paper between two fingers. He gaped at her and patted his back pocket. She tapped the top of his head with the paper before sprinting out of the alleyway and into the street.

Malek’s shouts of protest filled the air. She giggled, turning her head to look over her shoulder. His brows were furrowed into an adorably angry face. She went to say something to him when she plowed into the person in front of her. They tumbled to the ground in a mass of limbs. 

“I’m sorry,” Neve apologized. She hopped to her feet and held out a hand for the other person to take. An old, wrinkled hand slotted into hers. She followed the hand to the face, sucking in a breath when she saw it was Mirel. 

The old woman smiled at her as she helped the magician stand. Mirel croaked, “Hello, dear.”

“Mirel.”

Her body trembled in Neve’s grasp. “Thought our meeting in Minastav might be our last.”

“I thought that as well.” 

Mirel reached out to fix the placement of Neve’s scarf. Purple tendrils danced around her fingertips, and the scarf glowed a dull purple. Neve covered the helping hands with her own, extinguishing the magic. Mirel chuckled, “No one saw.”

“You don’t know that. There are eyes everywhere.”

“I see years of freedom has not softened your paranoia, Usoro.”

Neve grinned, her teeth on full display. “It’s not paranoia if the shadows actually listen.”

“Neve!” Neve and Mirel heard the approaching steps of Malek. The man was almost to them. 

“I suppose that is my sign to go. Remember, don’t take the scarf off.” Mirel started to walk off in the opposite direction of Neve and Malek. “I wish you a happy life.”

“The same for you.” Neve watched Mirel disappear into the crowd. The old woman was pushed and shoved by the other pedestrians, but she kept a steady gait. 

When Malek spoke next to her, it startled her. He asked, “What are we looking for? The woman you were talking to?”

“No. I’m not looking for anything.”

“Did you know each other?”

After one last, lingering glance, Neve pushed Mirel into the back of her mind. “We’ve never met.”

With that, they turned around and walked toward Malek’s house. The guards must have told Argus about what happened by now, and they wanted to be back before Argus had time to think about Malek’s punishment. Malek asked, “Can I have my ID back?”

Following a few paces to their rear, Mirel observed them. Unseen to those around her, the old woman’s skin melted from her body until a new woman stood in her place. The piercing eyes that replaced Mirel’s were trained on Malek and Neve’s back. Emerald green lips were quirked into a smirk, and a white glow circled her fingers. 

A new voice spoke, “You shouldn’t mettle, child. Leave the girl’s scarf alone.”

The woman turned her head to look at them. Nilalan’s presence was as overbearing and suffocating as always. The passersby around them shuddered as an unknown force made them uneasy. She wished the mere sight of her brought people to their knees. One day, she thought to herself, one day that dream would come true. She replied, “Don’t you have a future to control?”

They crossed their arms, “Yes, and you make it hard to do that.”

“I’ve kept everything in balance as I should. You know that.”

“That’s the only reason why I haven’t stopped you.” A hint of a smile crossed their face, “Of course, my child would understand the importance of universal balance. Unlike some.”

“I have plans.”

“Why do you care? Her fate isn’t yours.”

The woman turned her back on the god. She had seen how tightly her future was intertwined with Thuraya’s. She would be damned if she didn’t control it. A disgraced, would-be god had no business having authority over her. And soon, the asteris wouldn’t. 

The woman brushed a piece of hair behind her ear and faced Nialan. She beamed at them, “Didn’t you hear? Fate is dead.”