Meanwhile, with Rune, Kaelen, and Logan —
"Wait, wait, wait." Logan held up a hand. "You're telling me everything we've been taught about the other six crowns is a lie? That the shadows happened before, in the past? That the seven crowns were united once?" He gave a disbelieving laugh. "What's next — the old woman who eats children isn't a myth either?"
"Vesper doesn't lie," Logan added with a shrug, before Rune could answer. "So I'll believe whatever comes out of her mouth."
"I don't have time for this," Rune said, scratching at her hair in frustration — it had grown thicker and faster than any noble lady's had a right to, these past months, and she hadn't had time to deal with it. "Believe me or don't. I need to find Aliester and Cinder and get my notes back."
"Alright then. Let's go," Kaelen said. "If it's this important, we find this 'Aliester and Cinder.'" His eyes said the rest — that he trusted her, that he knew she hadn't thrown herself off that wall without reason.
"How exactly do we find them?" Logan asked.
"That won't be an issue." Rune's gloves flickered to life, projecting a holographic map neither of them had ever seen the like of.
Back with Cassidy — she brandished a lit torch at Percy and Vane. "I'm warning you! One more step and I burn this journal apart!"
Percy, unbothered, used his magic to draw the notes straight into his hand instead. "Now — where's my lady's brooch?" He drifted past Cassidy like she wasn't even there.
"Hey! Give it back!" Cassidy hissed. "I need that. Without it I might not have a chance to—" She cut herself off.
"A chance to what?" Rune asked, stepping into the doorway behind two towering figures — Kaelen and Logan.
Cassidy leveled the iron poker, knuckles bone-white. "Get out of my house! I'll scream, I'll burn it, I'll—"
"What's going on?" Dotty stirred awake. "Who are all these people?"
"You won't do any of that," Rune said, walking straight past the poker like it wasn't there. Her attention wasn't on the notebook in Percy's hand at all — it was fixed on the ashen, grey-tinted skin of the boy lying on the mattress behind her.
"Stay away from him!" Cassidy planted herself between Rune and her brother. "Wealthy people never bring anything good. You people don't care about anyone but yourselves." Her voice cracked. "If I didn't have those notes, the King would never have agreed to help Flint."
Rune's expression stayed unreadable, her mind working — she'd always had to work harder than most to read people, to catch what sat between the lines. Cassidy's words and her body language didn't add up. Not everyone with wealth was the same. "What do you mean, help him? Medicine isn't something you pay for." In Silax, healing was free — a right, not a transaction. Her brain was still catching up.
"Alright, let's everyone breathe," Vane said gently. "You're scared for your kid. I understand that — I have siblings too."
"Liars," Cassidy snapped, keeping Dotty, Leo, and Flint behind her. "Rich people only ever take. Only ever hurt."
"Kinda agree with you there, kid. Rich people do suck," Logan said. "And I get it — we look terrifying right now. I know what it's like to be where you're standing."
Cassidy's glare didn't waver — clearly she didn't believe him.
"You think I'm lying? You know how I ended up where I am?" Logan said. "My parents sold me for a loaf of bread to feed my siblings. Grew up in service to the royal family — not born into it." He nodded toward Rune. "And her — she looks like she's carved out of stone. I thought she was creepy too, at first. She is, honestly. But she's got a heart in there that won't let her kill a child, which is more than I can say for my former liege, and they grew up together." A pause. "There was a night she actually tried to kill someone. Couldn't do it. That heart stopped her — same as it's stopping her right now, looking at your brother."
"How does Duke Sam put up with that mouth of yours," Kaelen muttered, though there was no real bite in it. Logan didn't answer — just looked at Rune, giving her the silent go-ahead.
Rune didn't waste the moment. She pulled a vial from beneath her armor — a general remedy, not a cure, but enough to steady him until real medicine could be found. Vane hung back, still watching Kaelen and Logan like he didn't fully trust their good will yet.
Within minutes, Flint's eyes fluttered open. "Who are these people, sister?"
Cassidy's eyes welled up. Behind them, Percy gasped, finally spotting his princess's brooch tangled with his crystal ball. "Found it!" He did a small victory dance. Logan watched, unimpressed. All that fuss over a brooch. What a madman.
As color slowly returned to Flint's face, Cassidy hugged him, fighting not to sob.
Just as her tears started to settle, Rune pulled out a small pouch of gold, tossing it over without ceremony. "This should cover medicine and a few months of meals." She turned back to the others. "Right — back to business. Now that we have what we need, we have to find a way to His Majesty of Ignia, reunite Ignia with Estora and Aethria Isles, and figure out what's connecting the two pieces of the solution we already—"
"Can you breathe, for once?" Logan cut in. "Kaelen and I still need a real explanation before we can go back to our patrol, and you don't have an off-switch once you go full tactics-and-strategy." Rune shot him a look but explained everything anyway.
That was the moment Cassidy needed. She looked at her brother, breathing easy for the first time in longer than she could remember — then at the pouch of gold in her hand. These people, however frightening, had just given her family a future.
"You need an audience with the King?" she asked, voice steadier now, wiping the last of her tears. She reached into a hidden pocket of her cloak and drew out a sealed royal parchment. "Took me months of calling in favors in the upper districts to get this. A formal audience, tomorrow morning. I was going to spend it begging for Flint's life." She glanced at her brother, breathing, alive. "But he doesn't need that anymore. And you've already given us enough to get by." She held the parchment out. "Take it. It'll get you into the throne room without the guards attacking your armor on sight. But I'm coming with you — as your guide. Walk in there talking like a strategy manual, and the King will have you in the dungeons before you get to the word 'crown.'"
"Why?" Rune's eyes narrowed, suspicious — half-expecting some hidden angle, some price she hadn't named yet.
"Same reason you saved my little brother," Cassidy said simply.
"No — that doesn't track. People are greedy. Emotional. Illogical," Rune said, unconvinced.
Cassidy found the nerve to ask back. "Then why did you save him?"
Rune shrugged, like it cost her nothing to answer. "Pictured my niece, Jasmine Elena, in his place. If she were sick, struggling — I wouldn't be able to just stand there and watch." A pause. "It's not sentiment. Can't help it. Comes with this damn heart of mine."
As morning approached, Kaelen and Logan had to rejoin their patrol. "We'll hold the search off you as long as we can," Kaelen told the group. "I hope to every god listening that whatever you're planning actually frees us from these attacks." Hope, even against how hard it was to believe.
"We could use a hand back in Silax too," Vane said, handing both knights a piece of tech-magic so they could stay in contact.
"Better it goes to Logan," Kaelen said, tired. "Knight Vesper's going to be relaying in Morse code to avoid drawing attention — and out of the eleven of us, he's the only one who actually reads it properly."
"Spend your whole childhood around that stone-face and House Aethelgard, you pick up a few skills," Logan said, insufferably proud of himself.
"It's time," Cassidy said. "We need to go, now, to see His Majesty."
"You know you don't have to talk like Duke Sam to be taken seriously," Rune told Logan, before her eyes stayed on Dotty, Leo, and Flint. "You three stay here. Your sister will be back soon."
Dotty threw her arms around Rune. "Thank you for curing Flint, angel knight! Please take care of my sister too!"
Something in Rune lit up at that — the kind of warmth she'd sworn off ever since giving up on love and family of her own, and yet somehow small humans like this always found the crack in the wall. "I will."
They rode out on the tech-bikes — a delight and a novelty to Cassidy — toward a castle that gleamed almost gold in the light. Cassidy wore one of the formal dresses Rune had packed from Silax all those months ago, for exactly this kind of occasion, barely touched in the seventeen months since she'd left — it hung a size too large on her smaller frame, and she walked carefully, half-afraid of damaging fabric finer than anything she'd ever worn.
They entered the throne room and bowed together. The young man on the throne had dark circles carved beneath his eyes, a permanent crease of frustration on his brow — around Rune and Vane's age, and yet somehow older, worn down by exhaustion rather than years.
"According to my ledger, this morning's slot belongs to a commoner — Cassidy Auram, requesting aid for a sick relative." His voice cut through the room like ice. His eyes narrowed on Rune and Vane. "I wasn't aware the slums of Ignia had taken to hiring a Silaxen knight, an Estoran knight, and a mage as escorts. State your names. Your true purpose. Before I let my guards test how strong that quartz really is, down in our dungeons."
Vane stepped forward. "Your Majesty. We haven't come to fight. We're asking for Ignia's help reuniting the crowns against the shadows."
"And what makes you think Ignia would agree to this little union of yours?" the prince said. "Metal-thieves, a manipulative giant, and a devil-summoning freak — why would I trust any of you?" A pause. "Tell me — are the other four crowns already in on this?"
Percy's grip tightened on his staff, ready to answer that insult with a spell, but Rune caught his arm. "We need his favor, not another war," she murmured. Percy swallowed hard and held his tongue.
Rune turned back to the throne. "Your Majesty," she said, calm and even. "As a royal myself, I understand exactly the kind of pressure you're under right now — especially given whatever's happening with the King."
The prince's jaw tightened. "What?"
"He's not here," Rune said simply. "Which means he's either traveling, or unwell. Possibly worse." She had his full attention now — years spent circling Duke Sam's manipulations had taught her more than she liked to admit. "Let's talk plainly, then. If the shadows take the seven crowns, Ignia's economy goes with it. You'll burn through resources trying to hold the line until there's nothing left to rebuild with. That won't end well for anyone here." She held his gaze, steady on the outside — though beneath it, her grip tightened on the small plush charm tied to her sword strap.
What if he decides to go to war with Silax instead — Inser's voice screamed somewhere in the back of her mind.
Or he might be convinced. Pull yourself together, Inser — Avery snapped, borrowing Reverie's authority to shove the panic behind bars. It isn't a failure until it actually is one.
"Impressive," the prince said. "You very nearly had me, lady knight." A pause. "But what would outsiders know about Ignia — and with my father's condition, I can't afford to trust a word out of your mouths." He raised a hand, and the guards moved to take them to the dungeon.
"W-what if we cured His Majesty?" Cassidy blurted, panic breaking her voice — she wasn't about to lose the only chance she had to repay the people who'd just saved her brother.
The guards froze. The whole court held its breath. The prince's tired grey eyes landed on her — even Rune, Vane, and Percy looked stunned.
"I— I mean, if you let us try, in exchange you agree to an alliance — to help us reunite the seven crowns," Cassidy said, forcing her voice as steady as she could make it.
The prince's mouth curved into something sharp, almost delighted at the audacity of a commoner making him this offer. "Very well. I'll give you—" he considered "—a month. If you can't cure my father in that time, we'll see how well you last in Ignia's dungeons instead."
The prince, generous in his own strange way, gave them proper quarters to stay in — and since Cassidy couldn't be away from her siblings that long, the Ignian knights were kind enough to bring Leo, Dotty, and Flint along as well. The three children marveled at the suite's polish, pressing their faces to the balcony view.
"What were you thinking," Rune asked Cassidy, low, careful not to let it turn into a real scolding in front of the kids. Vane and Percy stood quietly beside her.
"I couldn't let them throw you in the dungeon, could I?" Cassidy said, bracing for anger. "You just gave me and my siblings a reason to hope again. I couldn't just let you walk into that."
Rune caught the fear behind Cassidy's eyes and sighed, the frustration draining out of her. "I'm not angry at you, Cassidy. I'm angry this happened without warning — and that you're now stuck with the single dumbest Silaxen alive."
Vane's brow furrowed at that. Dumbest. This was the woman who'd navigated two kingdoms, saved two royals, solved problems that should've been unsolvable, out-strategized and outfought the strongest fighter in Estora. What exactly would the smartest Silaxen have managed, by comparison? It sat wrong, hearing her say it about herself.
"Guess we start today," Rune said, one hand on her hip, the other raking through hair that had gone from long to unruly in the past months — she tied it back up out of habit. "Visit the King, then spend as much time as we can in the library, learning everything there is to know about medicine." A pause. "I wish I still had contact with Elizabeth Hera. Her Grace is one of the finest medical minds in Silax."
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