Page 125 of Sunsplitter

He deserved to have this again.

Fi let her thumb brush his tail, a comfort. A promise.

“Sometime today?” Kashvi said. “This is my office. And I have other work.”

Fi was tragically lacking in things to throw at her.

“If you’re hoping for good news,” Syvr said in seasonspeak, “we don’t bring much. No signs of the aedari since our run-in. It’s laying low.Verylow. I’ve been listening in at every major city across the Season-Locked Planes, but not a peep about our target.”

Once Antal finished translating, Ixli waved a hand over the map. “What’s this?”

“Past aedari encounters,” Fi said. “As many as we’ve been able to collect.”

Despite the improved tensions, Ixli and Syvr flicked curious looks between Fi and Antal. Surprise that the human had answered, not the territory lord?

Fi bristled. They had the audacity to doubt her in her home terrain? She knew this Plane as well as any immortal. She had Void-ether prickling her stomach. If these daeyari didn’t think she was tough enough, she could show them otherwise.

Instead, Fi forced a level breath. Looked to Antal.

His first instinct was a flicked tail, posture taut, as if itching to shield Fi from a potential threat. He, too, forced a pause. This was a new dance they were improvising, steps to move in tandem, without driving allies away. Antal nodded, signaling Fi to continue. In exchange, she plunged her temper into an ice bath.

“We’ve been as thorough as possible,” Fi said. “Verified everything we can. Mostly Antal Territory, but we’ve been sweeping wider across the Winter Plane.”

“You gatheredall this?” Ixli said.

“I helped.” Fi nodded to Kashvi. “Our governor handled the coordination. With some of my colleagues doing the legwork.”

“Impressive…”

Ixli hoppedontothe table for a better look, crouching while her tail swayed over the side. Kashvi flinched at claws on wood. Fortunately, not a crossbow-worthy offense.

“All these records,” Ixli said. “So remote.”

“Which is why you aren’t finding shit in the big cities,” Kashvi said. “All the cases have been in smaller settlements.”

“Reasonable,” Syvr added. “If the aedari is trying to avoid attention.”

Fi considered the farmhouse on the Summer Plane, far enough outside town for an unusual visitor to avoid notice. She thought of equally remote tracks before that, one trail leading to an overgrown road.

“The aedari is hunting in the countryside,” she pieced together. “Near low-traffic roadsides, probably only used by locals. Waiting to find a target alone?”

Syvr shared a thoughtful look with Ixli. “Not much help if that’s the case. Too much ground to scout.”

“There must be a strategy.” Ixli leaned over the map. “The aedari is moving quickly, gathering information, trying not to be detected. And look at the dates.” She pointed to the closest pin. “All these dates on the Winter Plane, interspersed between the ones we’ve tracked on Summer. It’s hopping around. On Spring and Autumn, too.”

That gave them a theme, but still no trackable pattern. Fi scoured the map for the dozenth time, seeking something she hadn’t noticed.

Until a sliver of an idea emerged.

“That aedari could teleport,” she said. “Can he move between Planes? Or does he need Curtains to do that, like daeyari?”

Ixli and Syvr looked equally puzzled. It was Antal who answered.

“Aedari still need Curtains. They’re even more Plane-bound than daeyari. Only Voidwalkers can pass directly between Planes.”

Fi catalogued the pins, built some mental maps. Shit, this might be something.

“He’s using the Curtain network,” she said.