Amron sat behind the bar, reading a book. He snapped it shut when the door thumped shut behind Luca. “Oh hey, you’re back!”

“Meredith says to get everyone out of town,” Luca blurted out.

Amron’s smile fell. “Oh.”

“I’m going to talk to the guards,” Luca added. Maybe they’d listen. Not everyone could be a murderer like Flavius. Sure, these guards had been sent to “thin out” the Darkness, but they couldn’t mean… Maybe they’d accept it if the Darkness just left. “I have to try.”

“Good luck.” Amron set the book down and called something out in a language Luca didn’t recognize– not Common, not even close. A response came from what Luca thought might be the kitchen.

“I still owe you a drink,” Luca noted, and dashed out before Amron could reply.

The captain was saying something to the innkeeper when Luca pushed the door open. Two guards glanced over, then one jumped up, calling out to the captain, and headed over to Luca.

Luca kept his hands clasped behind his back as the guard approached. Heat pulsed through his veins, echoing from his heartbeat.

“Where were you?” the guard demanded roughly. Her name was Lucille, he thought. “You're not supposed to go anywhere without telling one of us.”

Luca took a breath. “What are you going to do if you find any members of the Darkness here?”

“What sort of a question is that?”

“Please just answer it.”

“Cuff them and take them to Solaris to stand trial. Once they're proven guilty, we'll make an example of them, just like every time we've done this before. A few more teams should be here to help within a day or two.”

“You’ll kill them?” Luca desperately hoped she'd say no. He'd never seen any condemned prisoners in Solaris. Never seen death except at funerals. This couldn't be the case, Lucille would tell him he was wrong and–

“No.”

Luca's breath came out in a rush of relief.

Lucille continued, “We'll take them to their towns, or any other place we've seen Dark activity. Then we lock them up in whatever's available and leave them with signs declaring their crime. After a day or two someone puts them out of their misery.”

As she spoke, Luca's hand rose to his mouth in horror. Meredith was right. It was life and death.

“Don't look like that,” Lucille scolded. “They deserve it, for denying the Light. …What happened to your cuffs?”

Luca jerked his hand back down. “You're a monster.”

Lucille drew back.

“All of you are monsters!” The other guards turned toward his raised voice. “Murderers!”

“There's no call for that kind of language,” the captain said sternly. She approached Luca, a hand drifting to her sword. “Who have you been speaking to?”

“It's not Dark to know killing people is wrong!”

“It's self defense,” the captain said in a low, even tone that sent a shiver up Luca's spine. Danger, that tone said. “The Darkness would destroy our society if we didn't keep it in check.”

His voice shook. “Maybe a society that would happily kill a child deserves to be destroyed.”

The captain jerked her chin at the other guards. “Find out who he's been speaking to and arrest them. Him too, if he wants to parrot Dark propaganda he can be tried with them.”

Luca's breath came quicker, sharper. His fire vanished. Fear was not part of fire's emotional core, and right now, he couldn’t feel anything else. Just the fear, cold as ice in his veins.

Flames sprang up in a circle around him. The Lightguards jerked back. Luca tensed. These weren't his flames, he couldn't feel them. Another fire demon was here somewhere.

Before they could change their mind about helping him, he whirled and ran through the flames– they weren't even hot– and out the door. 

A whistle cut through the air. Luca skidded to a stop and searched for it.

Amron waved.

Luca dashed across the street to him. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving your butt, apparently. You can't get me a drink if those guards haul you off, can you?” Amron grabbed Luca's arm. “Time to run!”

“What do you mean,” Luca managed between breaths, the guards’ footfalls behind them clanking on the stone, “saving me?”

“Illusionist,” Amron explained. “It helps send messages. Like this.” As they ran, he raised a hand and made a throwing motion towards a door. A yellow ball with stylized rays appeared and sailed through the door. “I have to see where it's going, but I can get it to the other side of a door and it'll stay until I lose focus.”

“That's useful,” Luca said in surprise. He'd learned that illusions were mere party tricks. Illusionists were entertainers, nothing more.

Amron was so much more.

“I know,” Amron agreed, sounding pleased. He threw another sun at another door and pulled Luca into an alleyway. The guards ran past. Amron peeked out, then looked back at Luca. “Just a couple more. Can you help carry things?”

“Sure? What sort of things?”

“Kids.” Amron started jogging down the alleyway.

Luca stumbled. Amron slowed, but Luca picked himself up and kept running.

Kids. There were kids in the Darkness. The Lightguards– did they know that?

He couldn't tell himself they didn't. Not anymore.

No wonder Nico was so calm about Rory's death. He's probably killed dozens of children.

Luca wiped a hand over his eyes and found more energy.