“Ah, you’re…” Lux waved at him, but their words died in their throat as they looked between Tobia and the faerie. Next to them, Marion stiffened. 

“What’s going on here?” she asked, shifting her feet wider. Her fingers twitched, maybe with the need to reach for the hood of her cape.

“Now, now,” the child said with a click of their tongue. They’d been pressing the tip of the pistol to Tobia’s back for the entire walk back to the table, right in between his shoulder blades, but they flashed it in the direction of Lux and Marion for a moment. The library was pretty much deserted on a holiday, so the only person who could have noticed what was happening was the woman at the entrance. 

“No need to get up in arms about this,” the child continued, as if they weren’t holding a dangerous relic loaded with enough magic to blow someone’s head off their neck. The King liked to wield his power in the same nonchalant fashion, daring people to force his hand and see what happened. “Actually, introductions are in order if we’re going to cooperate. I’m Wynn. A pleasure to meet you all.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” Lux said lightly. “What could a Favorite possibly want from three average fellows such as ourselves?”

Tobia sucked in a slow, even breath. Seeing that pistol had sparked the same suspicion in him, but his brain refused to speak his fears into words. After all, Favorites were exceptional individuals. Most people could only borrow magic from a nearby ley line if they wished to perform spells, and the strength of the spell corresponded to the caliber of the memory linked to the ley line. It was an imperfect, unpleasant process; a constant reminder of the wound the Apostate had inflicted to the world in her madness. Favorites, on the other hand, had the ability to interface with artifacts from the Old Times. They tended to have very specific affinities and intact, still-functioning artifacts were exceptionally rare finds, which meant some people might go their whole lives without realizing they were Favorites at all. That didn’t make their power any less frightening. The King himself was a Favorite, though his affinity was shrouded in mystery.

“Average fellows… Now, that’s not quite accurate, is it?” Wynn said. They had put their mask back on, but the satisfied, almost ferine smirk was audible in their words. “This one.” They jabbed the pistol back against Tobia’s back. “Is such a high profile fugitive His Majesty himself saw fit to request the services of a Favorite to hunt him down. And she,” they continued, pointing at Marion, “is a dragon. Quite a rare specimen this far from the mountains. I’d say the only average fellow is you.”

Lux shrugged. “Extraordinary people wouldn’t get to exist without us common folk.”

“Thank you for your service, then,” Wynn said, at the same time as Marion asked, “So what’s your deal?”

Tobia felt as if he was stuck watching a play unfold before his eyes, powerless to intervene. He could only wonder if his family was safe, or if he had endangered the entire village the same way he was dragging Lux and Marion into this mess. If Wynn tried to harm anyone that wasn’t him, he decided, he would rip their throat open before they could even take aim. He would find an opening. He wouldn’t let others get hurt because of his own carelessness. Somewhere deep inside of him, a slithering voice whispered, Haven’t they taken enough from you already?

Wynn sighed. “I’ll make it brief. I have orders to bring this guy back with me to the capital, dead or alive. You have two options: either watch me put a hole through his head right now, or help me out with a certain errand and then walk free. All three of you.” 

“How do we know you wouldn’t just shoot him the moment you got what you wanted?” Lux asked. They’d seemed strangely calm up until now, but Tobia could hear an undercurrent of cold fury in their voice. He doubted they were angry on his behalf, but he still couldn’t help feeling touched by it. 

“Because,” Wynn said, spelling the words out slowly, “you could say the thing I need help with is something of a wee act of high treason.”

It wasn’t that easy to make out people’s eyes in the shadows cast by the thick masks they were all wearing, but Tobia could swear he saw Lux and Marion blink in unison. It made them look like two confused owl chicks, staring up at a full moon for the first time. Wynn seemed to find their lack of outrage more frustrating than endearing; they brought their free hand to their head as if to run it through their hair, got their fingers stuck in the dyed straw instead, and yanked it away with an indignant huff. 

This is the person who’s holding me hostage, Tobia thought, feeling rather thrown for a loop. 

“You two are locals, right?” Wynn said, a little vexed now. “You know the big temple? The one where the Apostate’s feather burns, so that this whole area won’t turn into a barren slab of ice without her fire to protect it?”

“Of course,” Marion said. Tobia could tell she was dying to add colorful expletives to those two simple words, but she must have thought better of it in the face of Tobia potentially getting blasted to bits. In a way, that was touching as well. 

Wynn nodded. “Good. Ever wondered why, around a year ago, almost all the trained temple guards assigned to such an invaluable object got reassigned elsewhere, leaving the sacred relic that keeps the entire region alive completely vulnerable?”

Tobia frowned, risking to turn toward them. “Why would anyone in their right mind do that?” he asked.

“... A Favorite,” Marion said. “They snagged a Favorite. The temple has a built-in security system from the Old Times. All Behemoths do.”

Dizziness filled Tobia’s mind for the second time that day. Favorites might be powerful, yes—beloved by the ancient wonders most people couldn’t even begin to comprehend. That didn’t make them immune to the deluge of wild, horrible feelings that came with the usage of magic. Even something as intimate as shifting into your transformed form wasn’t something most people enjoyed; he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to operate an entire security system by yourself each day.

“That doesn’t make sense, though,” said Lux. “No one would subject themselves to harrowing torture out of their own free will, and someone with such a strong affinity would have no problem using that same security system to raze the whole place to the ground and escape, feather in tow. There’s no way the temple folks could keep them under lock and key in these circumstances.”

From where he was standing, Tobia saw Wynn’s jaw clench underneath the mask. A jolt of fear shot through him. He was about to signal to Lux they really ought to stop talking if they didn’t want to say goodbye to their head, when Wynn’s cold words cut through the silence instead. 

“None of that matters if they know your true name.”

They lowered their pistol then, but the gesture didn’t make them any less terrifying in Tobia’s eyes. Not after what they’d just said. “I need you people to help me kill the man who tricked my sister.”

Surprisingly, it was Marion who reacted first. She got up, deadly quiet in the tense atmosphere that hung around them, and she planted her hands on the table in front of her. For a moment, she only looked at Wynn, as if seizing her prey. Then, with a voice that made every hair stand on the back of Tobia’s neck, she said one single, heavy word. 

“Deal.”