Chapter 19

Every realm has a plan in place to defend its Gates, focusing resources on the most vulnerable, or the most important. They employ a range of magical safeguards and combat troops, depending on what kind of incursion is most likely. Unlike geographical borders, it is easy to focus resources on individual points.

But if that concentration fails, what then? Realms may have backup plans, but they're never as thorough, because they don't truly expect to need them.

Every pattern has a weakness, though. And no one is better than Serenthuar at identifying them.

At last Vhannor returned to the guest suite they'd been given for the night. It was a lovely set of rooms; princely, even. Everything was soft and vibrant, from the Serenthuar silk canopy painted with Ormbtai's forested landscape, to the delicate, ornate Serenthuar patterns decorating the glass teapot.

Every element designed to convey wealth, class, and comfort. Every element built on the ingenuity of Serenthuar to the benefit of Ormbtai.

Liris couldn't decide if Chancellor Ariurn meant the touches of Serenthuar, arranged in a way to show they were clearly both valued and elevating, to be a comfort to her, the way their absence was a cruelty to Shaisse. He also might have meant them to be a torment to her, whom Serenthuar had never valued.

Probably he wanted whichever reaction would encourage her to do more of what she'd already done for him. He was mean, not stupid.

Knowing he wanted a reaction from her did not prevent Liris from standing in the middle of the beautiful suite designed for anyone who mattered but a Serenthuar and feeling like if she touched anything she would be complicit.

Vhannor came up behind her and enfolded her in a hug, resting his chin on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"About what?"

Vhann snorted, darkly amused. "Need I choose? That you had to reveal what you did to him of all people, that we are still here, that I left you alone, that you were alone for so long, Liris—"

Liris turned in his arms to face him. "That at least is hardly your fault."

"Isn't it?" His gaze searched hers. "Serenthuar is... your elders are so afraid, Liris. I know what people are like. It should not have been a surprise to me that extended to their own people. To you."

Afraid.That was exactly it. The elders' pride and obduracy and ruthlessness came from the same source.

Liris leaned her head against him, speaking her words to his chest. "You know, I knew those field trips they took me on were messed up, and I thought I knew they were afraid I would mess up, but before today I hadn't realized that they were worried I wouldn't mess up. That making all those people perform for me was a way of separating us, to keep us from forming bonds, because the elders feared people might agree with my radical idea that Serenthuar didn't have to be the way it was. I didn't realize they were afraid of me."

"And now?"

"Now?" She drew back, frowning, because surely the answer was obvious. "Now I will drag the elders kicking and screaming into the future rather than let them mire Serenthuar in the past, and they can't stop me anymore."

Vhannor's snort that time was significantly more amused and fond. Liris smiled faintly, comforted by how well she could read him in the man's snorts, of all things.

Comforted by how quickly he'd become home to her.

"Then they will reap what they have sown and get better than they deserve for it," he told her. "You know I will lend you whatever you wish for to that end."

Liris studied him. "Why are you feeling guilty about this?"

"You have to ask?" Vhannor's gaze seared her to the quick. "I don't regret who you are, Liris, but I can wish you'd had to endure less. What is the point of my position if I don't use it to help people?"

"You... do realize you already have helped? While becoming the best field caster in the Sundered Realms, as one does, and leading Special Operations to help as many people as you can despite their governments, you've also specifically championed the Coalition that would make a meaningful difference to the future. You can't personally fight every battle, Vhannor, and I know you know this because Special Operations exists. I can't be sorry about the one you chose."

Vhannor bent to kiss her tenderly, then scooped her up under her knees to carry her cradled in his arms to a plush chair, settling her in his lap.

"Here," he said. "Is it all right if you don't have to touch anything, then? I'll happily serve as your stepstool."

She had to make a joke of it. "Ah, so the Serenthuar comes out on top?"

"All the standards Ormbtai upholds are beneath you," Vhannor answered, brushing her hair out of her face.

Oh, this man. Liris swooped down to kiss him swiftly before he said anything else and she stopped being able to say anything at all.

His arms tightened around her, and she melted into his chest, and even without his voice, he could center her and inflame her at the same time. She clung to him, this man, the most powerful field caster in all the Sundered Realms, who saw her and wanted her, and she wondered how she could ever, ever get enough of him.

Eventually Liris pulled back, but only because she didn't need to torture herself by getting somehow more worked up over him when she knew sex wasn't on his imminent agenda.

And there was one relevant topic guaranteed to douse her mood.

"You haven't told me how it went with the chancellor."

Vhannor tilted his head back and sighed in frustration, and Liris grimaced.

"That well?"

She'd known she as a Serenthuar wouldn't be able to wring any concessions out of Chancellor Ariurn, but she'd hoped that with the stage she'd set Vhannor might have better luck.

"He still won't commit any of Ormbtai's resources, even to helping us get to Jadrhun and whatever he might have put in our way," Vhannor confirmed, eyes flashing with ire. "I did at least manage to establish that in the event we encounter a demonic portal that would require a larger team, Ormbtai will pay for damages incurred by not having supplied us adequately."

"He doesn't really believe Jadrhun or Serenthuar is worth taking seriously." Liris sighed too. "And Ormbtai's rich enough to pay whatever they're fined."

"Not this time, they're not," Vhannor said with a sort of grim satisfaction. "The price will be joining the Coalition of Tethered Realms under profoundly unfavorable terms, as reparations for knowingly standing by and doing less than nothing when the destruction of all realms is at stake."

Liris stared. Since the Sundering, there were technically agreed-upon clauses that could be invoked in cases of threat to the integrity of all the remaining realms, but they never had been successfully. "You really think you can do that?"

"Gods themselves couldn't stop me," he growled. "And more to the point, Nysia will be absolutely thrilled to ram it down Ariurn's throat. You've never seen her in her element, but I promise you when she digs in, she doesn't let go. And she will never let this go."

Liris had seen Nysia use protection spheres in ways she'd never imagined and never falter, be it in the face of a political enemy or a demon or a callout from her allies; if that wasn't her element, she didn't know what was.

But she said, "Elegant. Thank you for that."

"It's not enough." Vhannor sounded disgusted. "I know Ormbtai is not the backup you would want, but I would have felt much more confident knowing that officially they were bound to support us. I'll sneak out tonight to request backup directly from Ormbtai's casters. I know a few of the higher-ranked, and I think I can convince them it's worth their while. Still."

"I doubt it would have mattered." Liris leaned back against him, gazing at the beautiful, high windows inlaid with mosaic glasswork. "Of all the people I've met, I think these are the worst kind. As long as they're comfortable, they're not willing to do anything. It seems wrong that the elders should have been correct about this."

"You don't really think they have that many casters though, do you?"

She shook her head. "No. That was just to threaten the chancellor. Serenthuar never lets anyone do anything if they can't be perfect at it."

Vhannor grunted. "At least that means they're unlikely to have prepared anything we haven't seen before. Small comfort."

Yes. Because the elders were so determined to not change, they'd burn themselves and the world to the ground.

But she no longer had to let them.

They subsided into silence, while Liris mentally traced the outline of the patterns around the windows, then physically with her finger on Vhannor's arm.

"Hey, Vhann."

"Mm?"

"That Gate Jadrhun found in Theiraos, that no one knew was there. Not even the top casters who'd lived there for years, who definitely would have been motivated to find any leverage they could. How do you think he knew?"

Vhannor shifted his hold on her. "It's a good question. Casters didn't design the Gates, so we've always been working backward in studying them. We know we can cross Gates to other realms, we know they're different than demon portals because demons can't use them, but like a portal, the size of the Gate matters in terms of how much can pass through. But we've never had a good way to quantify magic in measurable terms, or creating spells would be substantially more straightforward. There's no way to map Gates without either stumbling into them or studying ley energy to find intersections, which—"

"—which is forbidden, to prevent a recurrence of the Sundering. But we can assume Jadrhun rejected that and went looking—"

"But he still would have had to learn how to find ley lines the way people have always found them."

Search for the gaps in patterns, the unlikely circles; the natural holloways and the paths birds won't cross.

Liris glared up at the ceiling for several minutes, trying to sort what she knew to ask the right question. "I feel like I'm on the edge of something, like if I just squint hard enough at the pattern everything will slot into place."

"What do you usually do, in that case?" Vhannor murmured.

Liris winced. "Either squint harder or go to bed."

"Then tomorrow is soon enough." He kissed her temple. "You've had enough revelations for a year, let alone a day. Save some for tomorrow's Liris."

"There are always more revelations," she said, but half-heartedly, still not moving. She'd do better looking for possibilities, not obstacles.

Ironically something she'd learned from Serenthuar's perseverance, that it had not learned itself.

But—"I think my brain is still moving too fast to sleep."

"Hmm."

Something about the low, speculative note in his voice caused Liris' core to stand up at attention.

"I have another suggestion," Vhannor rumbled against her ear, "to give your brain a rest."

Wait. Surely he didn't mean—

He picked her up and carried her to one of the beds, setting her down gently.

Then with a quirk of his eyebrows, he crouched down at her feet and unlaced her boots.

"Now you want to do this?" Liris asked incredulously as he pulled one off, then the other. "In voiding Ormbtai?!"

He grinned at her, and Liris' heart thundered to life.

Maybe she wasn't that tired after all.

"I told you I was waiting for a bed," Vhannor told her, making rapid work of his own boots. "Ormbtai ought to be good for something, despite themselves."

Liris scooted back to make room for him as he knelt on the edge of the bed at her feet, still not quite convinced this was happening. "I mean I'm not exactly opposed to defiling their furniture, at least in their eyes," she said. "But given all your talk I'm surprised you're suggesting our first time be spite sex."

Vhannor paused with his hands poised to touch her, and deliberately looked up to meet her gaze.

The orange in his eyes caught the light, smoldering like an ember.

For her.

"I'm not," he told her seriously.

And then he did, finally, touch her.

Which was silly; he'd been touching her. She'd just been sitting in his lap, for gods' sakes.

But this was different. The intention was different, and she could feel it.

Feel it as he slowly stroked up her legs, up and down, and bent and kissed her ankle, like a shot straight to her core.

What in the name of—her ankle? That wasn't even an erogenous zone! Or was it—?

"I want your joy," Vhannor told her, his burning gaze wholly focused on her. "I want you to feel limitless. I want you to believe that no one can take your joy from you, that they can't limit you, even here. I want you to sleep restfully, with no regrets and no shadows, and for me to follow into your dreams and not them."

His last words came out not just emphatic, but almost with a growl, and Liris wasn't sure she could breathe enough to manage to tell him that at this rate there was absolutely no chance she would be dreaming about anything or anyone else tonight.

Before she could, Vhannor said reverently, "You were incredible today. Every day. And I want you to feel it."

He still hadn't done more than touch her legs. But he was higher now, slowly closing in on a key part of her body that was beginning to ache for him.

Beginning to, ha. As if it hadn't roared to attention at the first sign that they might finally be doing this.

And yet she couldn't let him just continue like this, void take everything.

"What about your joy?" Liris got out, her voice coming out breathy.

Vhannor looked at her, and her breath vanished altogether, as his thumbs stroked up the inside of her thighs.

"You bring me joy," he said simply. "More than I ever thought possible."

Sudden tears pricked Liris' eyes.

No one had ever said anything like that to her. Until this moment it wasn't something she'd even realized she wanted.

Not just to be useful.

To be a source of joy.

And Vhannor chose that moment for his thumbs to circle right at the crease of her thighs, so close to where she wanted him.

Ohhh no. He was not going to distract her that easily.

Liris levered herself upright and slipped her hands under his shirt.

His pupils contracted as she felt the hard planes of muscle beneath, touching him skin-to-skin.

"Liris—"

He broke off, sucking in a breath as she pressed a kiss to his neck.

Take that, Lord "I never prioritize myself" Vhannor.

"This is our first time, together," Liris murmured against his skin, smiling as the feeling of her breath made his hands grip the juncture of her thighs more firmly. "You don't get to make it only about me."

Vhannor let out a disbelieving breath. "Are you negotiating sex?"

"If that's what it takes to get my hands on you, absolutely."

He made a strangled sound that she thought was a laugh as he lowered her back to the bed.

And then he cupped her mound.

Liris gasped.

"My turn first," he told her, rubbing gently.

Of course he wanted to be in charge. He'd probably get off on instructing her—and she would too.

But not this time.

"Mmm. No."

She palmed his erection through his pants.

Vhannor hissed.

"Together," she reminded him archly. "Partners take care of each other—it doesn't just go one way. Isn't that what you told me?"

"If you want to go together," he bit out, dipping his hand underneath her pants, "you'd better let me get you ready, Liris."

His finger stroked the lips of her sex, and he groaned, finding her already wet.

"I'm always ready, Vhann," Liris breathed.

She thought that would make him laugh, but he leaned over and kissed her instead, his lips caressing her in time with his finger below, the combined sensation so dizzying she held onto him for balance.

Then without warning, he plunged that finger into her.

Liris arched off the bed. She writhed against him, trying for more friction, her kiss urging him for more, but he stayed slow, slow, slowly driving her mad.

And then he added a second finger.

Liris broke off their kiss with a moan as his fingers stretched her.

Which gave Vhannor a chance to murmur, "Can you keep up with me, then?"

Oh, was that how it was.

She sat up again, pushing him backward.

But his fingers never left her, and with the change in angle they hit differently inside her and Liris' vision went white for a moment.

When she could see again, Vhannor was smirking at her, eyes fully blown fire, and it was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen.

Then he stroked inside her, hitting that same spot again, and again, and again—

Liris exploded, holding onto him as he kept stroking her though the orgasm, as he murmured softly in her ear, his voice her anchor in a spell, her attention split between it and his always-steady hand and his eyes, watching her, seeing her, all of her, and she was unable to look away.

But when she could finally breathe again, the catharsis hadn't passed out of her.

Liris tugged at his shirt. "Off," she commanded.

Vhannor obliged without protest, lifting his shirt over his head, all his demon-fighting muscles revealed for her at last.

"Well," she said, "I guess demons may be good for something after all."

He snorted. "Glad to be appreciated."

Liris met his eyes. "I do appreciate you. More than I can say."

More softly, almost wonderingly, Vhannor said, "I know."

And then, jerking his chin at her own clothes: "Your turn."

Her heart thumped.

Liris paused. "Just so you know, I'm not sure I can come a second time. I usually..."

Never had time for myself. Learned to be efficient with my needs. Came once, came quickly.

This was already so much better, but—

"Do you want to stop?" Vhannor asked.

"No! I just..."

"Liris, you can't fail at sex," he said. "You know that, right? The only failure is if one of us stops having a good time. So if you're not enjoying yourself anymore, we stop. If you want something different, we do that. But as long as I'm still bringing you joy, I'm in no rush. Never with you. I'll enjoy you as long as you let me."

Well.

Liris rolled off the bed. "In that case, I will definitely let you."

To make sure there was no confusion on this point, she rapidly took off her top, and then everything else, too.

For one moment, Vhannor's gaze wasn't intent. It was more like she'd smacked him in the face with a spell and he was stunned, taking in all of her.

That was even better than words, Liris decided. Especially from someone whose facility with words was nigh unmatchable.

Still, she waved at him. "Keep going, oh mighty Lord of Embhullor. You may not be in a rush, but I am. You've been putting me off for days."

That made him smirk, and it was unreasonable that his smirk could enflame her like this when he wasn't even touching her.

"You just can't wait," Vhannor teased, complying with her demands.

"Never again," Liris cheerfully agreed.

But when he was finally naked, she paused.

Here they were, finally, with no barriers between them.

And Vhannor waited.

Even with his cock that hard, he would stand there and wait for her forever if she needed him to.

"I didn't think," Liris said, "I'd ever prefer any vision of you to how you looked at the ball, when we looked like we belonged together."

And then Vhannor didn't wait for her after all—he went for her.

Closing the scant distance between them, he ran his hands up her arms, pale gold to her bronze.

"We do belong together," he said.

Just their selves, as they were. No preparation. Raw and naked and glorious and them.

Vhannor lowered his mouth to hers, a slow seduction. Like he could convince her with just lips and tongue to hold still for him.

Then again, maybe he wanted her to move, because his hands found her breasts and Liris gasped into his mouth.

Vhannor swallowed the sound and never stopped, like he would drink all of her down and keep coming back for more forever.

Liris grasped him tightly as her head spun, using him as her anchor as he anchored himself to her. Feeling all of him, the strength and deliberation of his hands on her as she explored his body him in turn. Always focused on supporting her, no matter what he needed, and when she gripped his ass and his cock twitched in response, she decided she wasn't going to stand for that.

With an act of will worthy of a powerful spellcast, she tore her sensitized body back from Vhannor to see him looking almost dazed, so completely had he focused on her.

He wasn't the only one who could bring a powerful focus to bear.

Liris pushed him back onto the bed and crawled over him.

Vhannor opened his mouth—to ask, to protest, she didn't know, because when she lifted one finger to her lips in a request for silence he went utterly still.

Except for his cock, which twitched again.

His lids lowered as he watched her raptly for whatever she might do next. Trusting her completely, without a word, and Liris couldn't think about everything that meant right now.

She had ambitions.

She brushed her hair to one side and looked at Vhannor through her lashes. She knew full well what she looked like—she'd trained this in the mirror—but watching Vhannor's breath stop filled her with power and made her wonder if she did, in fact, look different now.

Now that she believed she had power.

Now that she had him.

Liris drew a single finger down from the center of his chest to his stomach, his abs bunching and flexing with the light touch.

Then with a light brush of her nails over his cock, standing at attention and leaking, as he gripped the mattress to hold still, Liris softly cast an anti-pregnancy spell.

"I'm a quick study," she murmured, kissing the spell low on his abdomen, and then his tip as Vhannor choked. "Are you a good teacher?"

His eyes blazed up at her. "Find out."

Liris didn't think she could feel any hotter, but at that challenge she went liquid.

Positioning herself over him, she dragged his cock through her folds. They both hissed.

"You didn't think," she managed, "I was going to be passive, did you?"

Vhannor reached up to grip her hips. "Never."

And then Liris couldn't wait any longer, and lowered herself onto his length.

Slowly, little by little. Every part of her so sensitized she couldn't tell if she was, in fact, enjoying this.

But Vhannor let her lead. His hands held her hips for stability, guidance, but he made no move to control this because he would wait for her when she needed him to. And Liris ached for him somewhere deep inside, so she kept going until she was full of him.

Opening her eyes, she found his were on her, all fire, all for her.

Her breath caught.

For a long moment they stayed there, poised on the edge of something together.

Then Vhannor lifted himself up onto his powerful arms.

And began to move.

Slowly, testing her response, and Liris wasn't totally sure what she felt until all at once she was.

Vhannor repeated his thrust, stroking his head over the same spot again, and Liris opened wider to him, knees spreading frantically, and he somehow hit even deeper.

Liquid heat built in her core, and she was sure now she was enjoying this, so much, that word sounded impossibly mild and almost blasphemous for the depth of feeling surging through her. And she thought he was too.

But she was not a person who would ever settle.

Liris leaned back a little and urged Vhannor to sit up, too, their bodies connected the whole time as she wrapped her legs around him and he did the same. Until she was sitting in his lap, their legs wrapped around each other, faces close together, and at this angle it felt like he was reaching all the way to her heart.

Vhannor gently cupped her face and smiled.

Not a smirk. Not amusement. Just a perfect, happy smile, and Liris melted around him.

"This position may be slower," he warned her.

Liris pressed a kiss to his palm. "We have all the time in the world."

And she meant that, but somehow still it was a lie, it was a lie, because the tender, intent look on his face made her want this to last forever. There could never be enough time.

Vhannor kissed her again, and Liris almost sobbed with the intensity of it. And then he oh-so-slowly began to rock inside her.

She matched him, wrapping her arms around him like a parasite, like she could hold on so tightly he could never be rid of her.

He grasped her breasts again until she gasped, like he'd hold her with him, too, like he'd keep up with her forever if that's what it took.

And when Liris was so full of everything she felt like she might actually burst if she tried to hold this moment longer, Vhannor reached between their bodies and ran the rough pad of his thumb over her clit.

Liris thrashed, but he was holding her up, always, inexorably pushing her higher, and then her orgasm tore out of her.

She clenched around him, hips moving wildly, and then let herself fall backwards as he followed so he could pound into her, control unleashed at last, for her, eyes on fire and all his strength chasing her over the edge until with a shout he came too.

For a moment Liris lay there just trying to breathe, not exactly intellectually stunned by the strength of her reaction to him but also, fundamentally, very stunned.

Then Vhannor gathered himself enough to roll to one side, gathering her to him and kissing her hair, her cheek, her neck, continuing to touch her like he couldn't get enough.

Liris was the same. Just as greedy for him, for them, together, to live endless moments just like this.

Eventually Liris managed, "So when do I get to learn sex magic?"

And Vhannor laughed, loud and bright and perfect.

When they finally went to sleep, Liris wasn't thinking about missing anything at all.

She was thinking about how she could keep this, keep him, forever.

But by the time sleep claimed her, she hadn't arrived at any answers.

Footsteps, yelling, pounding on the door. Liris clawed herself to wakefulness as Vhannor, always ready, cast a protection sphere around them just before the door to their guest suite burst open.

She took a single second to peer at the window, orienting herself: it wasn't quite dawn.

They'd cleaned themselves up last night and dressed in case of emergency but hadn't really expected one.

But if whatever this was couldn't wait until morning or for them to answer the door, something was badly wrong.

"Explain yourself, Chancellor," Vhannor said in a dangerous voice that echoed through the rooms.

Now fully alert, Liris turned back to the display in their doorway. Guards surrounded Chancellor Ariurn as he stepped forward into the bedroom. His flesh looked doughy, ashen; his eyes too wide, an official robe thrown haphazardly over night clothes.

He swallowed. "There's no time. The Serenthuar Gate is under demonic attack."

Liris and Vhannor exchanged a glance, then rolled out of opposite sides of the bed. All it took was Liris pulling out her spell pad and them arriving at the same time, side-by-side at the foot of the bed, and they were ready.

They stepped forward as one, and Chancellor Ariurn stumbled back.

"Explain as we move," Vhannor instructed, not slowing.

The chancellor scrambled. "I told you, there's—"

"Make time," the Lord of Embhullor said implacably.

Ariurn shot him a look. "I was going to say, there's not much more to tell. We received a call for backup to the Gate. Everyone who survived the initial assault will be retreating—"

"What?"

Liris answered him. "Ormbtai's security procedure. In case of breach, they withdraw out of the forest and will set the whole thing alight with magic, frying anyone caught inside."

Vhannor's visage darkened. "Well then, Chancellor, it looks like you'll be coming inside with us."

"I will do no such—"

Vhannor whirled on him. "You think I'm stupid enough to go into a magical trap you can set behind me? No, Chancellor. You came to us for help: this is not optional. You will not sit safe in your castle as you condemn those who would save you to death."

"If that procedure were sufficient to contain the threat, I wouldn't be here," Ariurn snapped.

"If I trusted you not to act opportunistically, I wouldn't care," Vhannor said.

"Wait," Liris said. "Chancellor, did you already try?"

"Yes," he bit out. "The forest is dead. The demons are not."

Vhannor swore.

"We've summoned every fighter and certified caster in Ormbtai, but they will not get here in time to save all those who live here," Ariurn said. "This city is one of our largest. The death toll will be catastrophic if we cannot delay the demons until backup arrives."

They passed the same windows and view of the forest as the day before. Horror spread through her.

In the dawning light, all that remained of the forest was spindly branches twisting out of the ground. Like they'd all been hit with magic like lightning, and burned, and warped.

A translucent magenta wall surged between them and the forest; flickered; fell. Another wavered into being behind it.

For a barrier of that size, it would be all the casters could do to keep it going.

Sooner or later, they would break.

Vhannor said quietly, "How long."

"Less than a day." Ariurn cleared his throat. "But we sent messengers out to neighboring realms and intercepted a message saying that other reinforcements may arrive faster."

Liris did not believe for a second that he wasn't expecting her and Vhannor to take the full brunt of responding to a demonic attack on themselves.

"A runner in Theiraos brought word of a force dispatched from Special Operations, and we've cleared them for entry," he continued, and she glanced at him sharply. "If they're traveling half as quickly as that scout, they'll arrive to help you hold the line."

Coming through Theiraos at that speed? How in the world—

Liris sucked in a breath. The new Gate.

Chaeheen was backing them up after all.

"If they are hostile to Ormbtai, we expect Special Operations will take full responsibility," Chancellor Ariurn added.

Liris snorted. Of course. All these people who will help just so long as it doesn't inconvenience them.

Or, more charitably: they might not risk their own selves, but when others fought, they would do whatever else they could. Not everyone could face a battle like this.

That was why she was here.

Vhannor said, "Special Operations will remember all assistance rendered us. The scout—white-haired?"

"You know her, I take it."

"Indeed. Let no one slow her down, for she will not stop for them."

Shry was coming.Liris shouldn't have wanted her friend here too, but her breath came a little easier nevertheless.

Liris might not have much experience fighting demons, but Shry did.

She was not, however, here yet.

"Take us to whoever is leading the wall defense, bring our skimmers, and summon messengers," Vhannor said.

"There's no—"

"This is how we make sure there will be time," Vhannor snapped.

Ariurn let out a breath, got a hold of himself, and started snapping orders. In short order they were packed with their skimmers, the chancellor, and his guards into an escort to the wall as Vhannor fired off messages: to the casters trying to hold the wall, to whoever might follow them, to Shry and the forces from Embhullor who might catch up.

Liris stayed quiet, leaving him to this. She might know patterns, but she didn't know how to coordinate a battle, and this was not the time to learn.

They hurtled toward the ominous orange light, and she tried not to think how she still didn't know enough. There was no more time to not know enough.

Liris closed her eyes, breathed; opened them, and took in the world around her.

White-faced, tight-lipped guards, glaring at her, like this was all her fault.

She would not go into battle with this simmering behind her.

One woman's fist was clenched on the hilt of her weapon, and Liris met her eyes directly. "Are you individually responsible for the Ormbtai government's decisions to limit and delay food and medicines, which have killed my kin?"

The woman's brow furrowed.

"The answer is yes, that you personally are complicit, because in Ormbtai you have the freedom to choose how you will spend your life, and you have explicitly chosen to defend the members of the government who make those decisions. I have chosen to oppose my government. Reconcile your own hypocrisy before you dare consider any other individual as though they're a representative of a monolith."

This broke the seal, as another guard demanded of her, "How do we know you're not with them? That you're not leading us exactly where you want us so the demons can get us? You could have been pretending all along."

The first woman nodded. "Arranged that display with your ambassador to fool the chancellor, fooled the Lord of Embhullor—"

Vhannor rolled his eyes on cue but didn't interrupt his message writing.

"You said it yourself," the woman continued. "Serenthuar doesn't let you choose what to be. They're all proud, and you're no exception. Thinking you can take on all the demons in there? Serenthuar wouldn't have kept training any ambassador who couldn't fool all of us, and they wouldn't have just let you run off."

Then again, maybe she would leave this behind her.

Liris looked out at the landscape they approached, the feeling of the air shifting even before they'd reached the forest. "I am not my people's pride," she said quietly, "but you're right about one thing. I am proud. And I deserve to be." She glanced back over her shoulder. "And you had better hope I'm right to believe I can stop Jadrhun, or have you considered what it will mean when no other realms care about Ormbtai because you've been devastated by demons and you don't have access to Serenthuar's goods anymore because the Gate is gone? Tellianghu had other Gates to tether them, but not Serenthuar." Not now.

The guards exchanged a look. "That won't happen. Sundering isn't possible."

Liris shook her head, turning away from them. "It must be nice to be so comfortable you can pretend problems aren't real rather than deal with them."

Vhannor switched languages to ask her quietly, "You sure you want to emphasize the precariousness of Serenthuar's position? They're already going to be at a profound disadvantage even if we can separate them from Jadrhun."

"If we win, Serenthuar will know what Chancellor Ariurn will be like and will have to join the Coalition out of desperation."

"The Coalition will judge them too."

"They deserve to be judged. But they don't deserve to be held accountable by someone whose core incentives are greed and their loss."

"Dragging them kicking and screaming indeed."

Vhannor paused long enough to clasp her hand, and she met his gaze, reading there all his intensity, his commitment, his love, his concern for her.

"I wish we had more time," he whispered.

That was it: she was trying to focus on everything, rather than on what mattered, and on what she could do.

Liris squeezed his hand and calmly, surely said to him, "We will."