Page 122 of Sunsplitter

“They’re nice daeyari,” Fi said.

Kashvi’s brow rose, her dark hair tied in a skirmisher’s tail. “By what standard?”

“Well…” Fi held a hand level with her thigh. “Verne and Tyvo are down here. Avroz is…” She considered. “Ok, also down here. But Syvr!” She lifted her hand to a generous shoulder height. “And Ixli…” A notch down, about chest level. Ixli was growing on her, by badassery if nothing else.

Kashvi’s brow never lowered. Neither did the crossbow.

“Delightful,” she said. “So long as you vouch for them, by all means, let yournicedaeyari come. I’m itching to meet them.”

“Could we put the crossbow away? Please?”

Kashvi grumbled and slid the crossbow under her desk, not fully out of reach, but a less immediate threat. Tiny steps.

With that settled, Fi saw to final preparations. Antal would arrive with their guests soon. She started coffee brewing in an energy-heated kettle then circled the windows, pulling blinds shut, dimming the room to more daeyari-friendly ambience.

Kashvi moved to the table at the center of the room. She braced her knuckles on the edge, studying a map full of pins and annotations.

The trail of an aedari, as best as they could reconstruct.

Clarence had tackled Fi’s request for information with stunning success. While she’d tracked Summer trails with daeyari, Clarence had hunted down every report of mysterious burned buildings and disappearances in Antal Territory—then, the same for most of the Winter Plane. Kashvi kept pace behind him, verifying reports and collecting investigation records. The resulting map was labeled with dates, names, any information they could scavenge.

Fi joined Kashvi at the table. The scope of the work was stomach-churning.

Their earliest record of the aedari’s trail was right here in Antal Territory. Earlier than any of the Summer Plane instances, a lumber mill in the countryside near Runeyska. This danger, so close to home from the start.

Kashvi waved a hand over the map. “How do you feel about…all this?”

Fi heard the uncertainty in Kashvi’s voice. Entirely warranted, with a rogue immortal wandering their woods, snatching humans like the monster in some old folktale. She debated her usual mask of false bravado.

But Fi had promised to be better.

“It’s terrifying,” she admitted.

Kashvi looked up, eyes narrowed.

“It’s so much,” Fi went on. “The refuge we built in Nyskya was wonderful, but so small. Even overthrowing Verne feels small compared to this. Warring immortals. Winged beasts that feed on energy. And here’s our city, caught in the middle.”

Kashvi nodded. “It’s huge. But I wouldn’t want to be back in Nyskya.”

Fi was surprised to hear it. Of course, Kashvi’s terrifying work ethic made her an excellent governor. And Iliha was giddy with the success of her new tavern. They’d both fallen in love with Thomaskweld as much as Fi had. Still odd, to hear the stubborn woman admit it.

“If we were holed up in those mountains right now?” Kashvi said. “All this would still be happening. We just wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. At least here, we can.”

Fi couldn’t have said it better.

This fight was huge. Terrifying. She wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, could ask for no better ally than Kashvi, prickly and steel-willed like a wolverine.

“And I suppose,” Kashvi said, “I’d rather work with acooperativedaeyari, versus the alternative.”

Fi needed this in writing and signed by a notary, it was such baffling progress.

A knock sounded on the door. Kashvi flicked a glance to her desk. At a glare from Fi, Kashvi sighed in surrender.

“Come in,” the governor said.

Kashvi donned her usual stiffness when Antal entered. Clenched her fists, when Syvr followed on easy strides. The subtlest eye twitch, at Ixli prowling at the rear.

The door shut. Fi braced as she scanned the room, as if Avroz might leap out at her from behind a sofa. His absence was equal relief, and unnerving.