Page 91 of Guardian of Exile

“It’s better than actually dying. And you don’t need to show identification to send a letter to another planet. Your mother can travel legally. She could come here.”

“Why are you trying to convince me not to go?”

“Because you aren’t accustomed to combat and I don’t want you to die. Why are you so dead-set on going?”

“Because if that is a councilor in there, I want to see them. They left me to rot in this place when my mother reported me missing. And I may not be combat trained, but your chances of survival go up with me in there. Because I can cut their ties to the Station, and I can kill them if I need to.”

If Tristen thought he was invincible, he was going to get himself—and possibly the rest of them—killed. “Don’t think it will be that easy. These people have been alive for over nine centuries. You are not the first person to think you could kill one. You probably aren’t even the first Shaman to try it. They councilors are still here.”

“But you’ve killed one, haven’t you?”

To either side of Nyx, Morgen and Kaden tensed.

Tristen continued. “You told me you killed your uncle. I’m guessing it was on the paternal side. Because there’s a dead thread to that Station that feels nearly identical to your father’s.”

“Yes, I’ve killed one. And I nearly died doing it. I only survived because I was related to him, because I possessed half of the soul of our dead planet at the time, and because all of my friends helped me. I have no idea what the other councilors can do. I am not arrogant enough to think they pose no danger to me when I know they pose a danger to my father, who is much stronger than I am.

“I would advise you not to be even more arrogant simply because you’ve been living in a world that is largely without magic, where you are the apex predator. So come with us if you want. Help if you want. I won’t deny you that agency. But do something stupid that is going to get my friends killed and I will lock you in a windowless room in the Station faster than you can blink. Am I clear?’

He didn’t answer.

“Am I clear?”

“Yes,” he said grudgingly.

“The same goes for you two,” she said, glaring at Morgen and Kaden. “Talking my way out of this is preferable, which means I am the only person they will see when we walk in, and none of you had better do anything to change that unless everything has already gone sideways. Got it?”

“Yes, General,” Morgen said.

She didn’t tell him where he could shove his Yes, General only because his voice contained a tense undercurrent of worry no doubt brought on by the fact that Evra was inside without him. “Kaden?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Good. Let’s get this over with.” The others trailed her as she walked out of sight to remove the Hiding on herself, leaving it intact over the rest of them. Nerves fluttered in her stomach as they returned. She was acutely aware of the others behind her, of Evra and Griff and Temerex trapped inside.

As soon as she crossed the boundary, she felt them—five people in the cafe area. Her heart rate kicked up at the number. If half the remaining Council had come here... She felt through Kaliaris’s senses as she walked, remembering how Jevryn’s presence in the Station felt—the weight and power of him, the way he seemed to eclipse nearly everything else. Only one of the five within felt that way. The others felt unusual, but they didn’t have the first one’s weight of presence.

A little more searching and she located Griff in the Arrival Room. He was lying on his side, and she panicked before remembering that, now she was back in the Station, she would know if he were dead. Sinking deeper into the Station’s senses, she felt the soft rhythmic exhale of his breath against the floor. More importantly, she didn’t feel any liquid pooling onto that floor from his body. He wasn’t bleeding. He would be fine.

A nearby pressure from the ley lines was Evra trapped on the other side, with no one to let her through. “Evra’s still stuck on the ley lines, so she’s safe for now,” Nyx reassured Morgen. “Griff's alive but he’s unconscious. There are five more people inside, one councilor and four muscle. The other four are...different. They aren’t as old or as powerful as the councilor, but they don’t feel ordinary either.”

She considered making the descent into A-Queltr, to have that defense ready, but discarded it almost immediately. She would have to let go of her connection to Kaliaris to enter and hold A-Queltr, and she needed her tie to Kaliaris.

She also didn’t want anything that could tie her to Jevryn readily apparent. With Jevryn’s home planet gone, and the Salyrian race along with it, the magic of A-Queltr only existed within the A-Morridahn family. She couldn’t afford the risk that the councilor within was sensitive enough to magic to recognize the distinct feel of Salyrian death magic and realize exactly who she had to be. All her life, Nyx had buried that part of herself so deeply she hadn’t even known she had it. More importantly, even Jevryn hadn’t been able to recognize she possessed it until she actively used it. So instead of reaching for A-Queltr, she buried it.

On her hip, Alihana sent a flicker of portal magic over her wrist, requesting her attention. She couldn’t simply grasp the hilt without giving away the fact that the Hidden sword was there, so shoved her hand into her pocket so the bare skin of her arm, trapped between her side and the sword’s hilt, made contact with the latter. Knowing what they wanted, she thought of what she'd gleaned from Kaliaris's senses, so they could skim it and understand the situation they were walking into for themself.

Do you know which councilor it is? she asked silently.

I have nothing by which to determine this, at present. Remain in contact with me.

Then she was out of time for further conversation, because the Station door was in front of her and she couldn’t delay walking through it without alerting the person watching through the cafe window that she knew something was off. As it was, she had to have the Station kick up a breeze to catch the front door to explain why it stayed open long enough for the others to walk through unseen.

She walked in, stopping short when she saw the five people waiting, hoping her nervousness translated as the surprise she would have felt coming back from Earth Between to find them there under ordinary circumstances.

“Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t usually allow people behind the counter. Did my Avatar not offer to help you?”

Councilor Loclyn, Alihana said into her mind, and four of his Devoted.