Mariella took one last look in the direction of Tybalt and the Commander’s body.

  At last, Tybalt and the beastfolk had killed Volusia. The necromancer lay on the ground, still bleeding profusely, but alive. Mariella had faintly heard him muttering something, and no one had cried out as if he had suddenly died. So he would probably be all right.

  They’ll take care of him, the fire mage told herself. She felt a little pang of guilt mixed with anxiety at the thought of leaving him in their care. But there was no way the beastfolk would let the man who had turned the tide of battle in their favor die.

  Mariella had seen it all from a distance. How the necromancer’s zombies and skeletons had broken the back of the soldiers’ shield wall and then done as much as the beastfolk to take the men of the Army apart. How a number of them had also managed to kill some of those fighting in the larger group, the mostly miner group, when the beastfolk were struggling and losing at least two men for every one they killed. It had been Mariella herself who had functionally ended the fight by calling the retreat for the soldiers, but it was unmistakably Tybalt who had won the skirmish for the beastfolk side.

  She knew she couldn’t do much for the necromancer by staying close. She had no health elixir, and her meager medic training would be nothing to the injuries Tybalt had sustained.

  Please do a good job, she thought. She had been distracted by Tybalt’s fight with Volusia—had interfered in that fight almost as much as she did in the larger skirmish—but now she had to think of her duty to the Kingdom. She focused on the retreating soldiers and miners.

  If I go now, I can take command of them, by my legal authority or my power as a mage if necessary, and they’ll either fall into line or die. That was the best way to get the few surviving soldiers out of the Salt Waste and submit them to the King’s justice. Otherwise, they would only be slaughtered by the beastfolk or slaughter the beastfolk in turn when reinforced by more miners. Either way, that outcome was not justice, just vigilanteism.

  “Going already?” came a feminine voice from behind her.

  She approached nearly silently… or she’s been waiting there this whole time?

  Mariella’s head snapped to the side, eyes widening.

  “You…”

  “You remember me?” The foxgirl smiled, a hint of mischief in her expression.

  The fire mage swallowed and resisted the impulse to turn and look back toward Tybalt.

  “Did… did he ask you to approach me?”

  Does Tybalt need me after all?

  Vidalia’s expression turned to one of concern. “Honestly, he’s barely alive right now, so he isn’t exactly giving orders.”

  Mariella turned and stared at Tybalt’s limp form in the distance. I thought he would be fine. He’s surrounded by beastfolk! They seemed friendly… How can they let him die? His wound must have been much worse than I realized.

  “They’re—they’re not able to help him? Is there anything we can do?”

  She sees the future, Tybalt said so, she knows what’s going to happen, right?

  “Don’t worry, I’m sorry to scare you. My sister is taking care of him. We made a plan for this. I’m certain he’s going to survive. Right now, the one I’m worried about is you.”

  “Me? I didn’t get a scratch on me.”

  Because Tybalt’s plan actively risked his own life while keeping me away from any danger…

  “That’s not what I mean. What were you just about to do?”

  Mariella told her.

  “Yeah, I thought so. You think you can just take command of the remaining soldiers after you helped kill the boss? You don’t think anyone noticed that, noticed you lighting them on fire, or what?” The foxgirl’s tone was incredulous and almost scolding.

  “The military have something called chain of command,” Mariella replied. “Laws and hierarchy that we rigidly follow. I had a legally justifiable reason for what I did. The Commander was breaking the King’s Code… Perhaps more pertinently, there are only a few soldiers left alive. I’d just threaten them with violence if they didn’t listen.”

  “I could tell you some stories about what your King’s Code is worth… but wait. You’d take your chances with a knife in your back while you sleep?”

  “I’d also put the soldiers in manacles, and I would have a handful of the miners Volusia deputized accompany us back for safety. A few of them have to go back to get their payment for helping the squad anyway.”

  “You’re talking about the same men the soldiers were just fighting alongside?”

  “They thought they were here to defeat a necromancer. I would explain the crimes the others have committed, and—”

  “You think they care?”

  The words stung. They echoed something Tybalt had said, something the fire mage still didn’t want to believe.

  “They’re human beings, not yet hardened killers.” But Mariella could hear the doubt in her own voice.

  “I… that’s… would you please stay for a bit and forget about your semi-suicidal plan? I know that Tybalt would want to try and persuade you to stick around if he could, I want you to stick around, too, and I want you to get to know me and my sister… but most importantly, our darling would be devastated if you left him right now, when he’s almost been killed. So would I. I know you’re… going to be very important to both of us. I have to try to be lightness and peace and joy for him. Darling’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it’s only going to get more intense. If you could just carry a little of that weight with me… with us…”

  The foxgirl had used a variant of the word “darling” that in the Nietian language had connotations of a spouse.

  A little irrationally—she knew it even as she felt the emotion—a twinge of jealousy pulsed within Mariella. Right, she is the one he’s trusted with all his secrets, isn’t she?

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  “Why would he even care if I leave for a while, when he has you and your sister to comfort him?” She felt bad about it as soon as she said it, but she hadn’t fully processed how annoyed and upset she was that Tybalt had kept so much from her for so long.

  “Wait, the way you said that, are you… are you fucking jealous of me?” Vidalia asked, her tone incredulous.

  Mariella turned pink and began trying to formulate a denial.

  “No, it’s—”

  “You’re quite literally the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I wish I had your curves or those cheekbones… and you consummated your relationship with him before I could even meet him in person.” The foxgirl sounded slightly jealous herself. “How could you possibly envy me?”

  “That’s… I… You’re very kind,” Mariella managed.

  Vidalia herself was gorgeous, with angelic features to her pale oval face. It was a fact that she was not as well endowed as Mariella. The foxgirl’s frame was so slender that it was obvious she was malnourished. But none of that seemed as important in the moment as who Tybalt had trusted his secret to first.

  “I’m not being kind,” the fox maiden said, slightly insistent. “If I could look like you… I’d happily give up my powers. That’s not even getting into how strong you are. In all the visions I’ve had where you’re a part of the family, you’re the one who keeps us safe.” She gave a little sad half-smile. “Compared to you, I’m a little bit useless. Kind of cute. Sweet most of the time. Sometimes able to give good advice. But otherwise useless.”

  Mariella suddenly recalled something she herself had told Tybalt just days ago.

  I said I wanted to be more like Lena, the wife my dad actually admired, rather than the wife he took for alliance reasons. I said a man like dad doesn’t really care so much for ornamental, useless women. Is that… how Vidalia feels about herself?

  “Still, you’re the one Tybalt trusts the most,” Mariella said. “You knew about his class when he was still lying to me about it.”

  “Not because he trusted me,” Vidalia said instantly. “No one trusts a seer who invades their dreams to that extent. Most people are more afraid of my powers than anything else. I know about Tybalt’s class because I can see the future.”

  “Well, thank you for saying all that. I guess I felt a little insecure, because I don’t entirely know what the relationship between me and Tybalt is. There’s definitely an intense physical attraction on my side, and I think on his, but I don’t know whether he feels more for me than that. And I… almost the entire time I was getting to know him, I was getting to know a lie. When I take a step back and think, I don’t know if we’re anything to each other besides two comrades and a… convenient way to satisfy a base desire.”

  “Mariella, I’d like to let Tybalt tell you how he feels when he wakes up, if you’re willing to stay,” the foxgirl suggested. “Anything I said would just ring hollow by comparison.”

  There was quiet between the two women for a few awkward seconds.

  “You really think I’m beautiful?” the fire mage asked, slightly embarrassed by her own question. There was a difference between being truly beautiful and just getting a lot of unwanted attention, and silly though it was, that part of what the foxgirl said had stuck out to Mariella.

  “I mean, even right now, despite being kind of frustrated with your naivete, I… would really like to kiss you myself,” Vidalia confessed, her big blue-gray eyes locked on Mariella’s. Her demeanor was a strange mix of innocence and intensity. “You’re super cute. More than cute. Yeah, you’re beautiful.”

  She can just… say all that out loud? It’s not taboo for the beastfolk, I suppose.

  The fire mage realized the first part of what the foxgirl had said required an answer, or deserved an answer, at least.

  What do I say to that? Do I… want to kiss her back?

  Mariella hadn’t devoted much thought to the situation of herself and Vidalia and Tybalt, but it was mainly because the Tybalt part of that equation had taken up so much mental energy over the last twenty-four hours. She wasn’t confused at all about what Vidalia wanted, though. The dream had seemed to make that perfectly clear. The foxgirl was interested in the two of them sharing Tybalt… and also enjoying each other’s company.

  “But I’ll wait,” Vidalia added after a moment. “I really want my first kiss to be with Tybalt. After… after he starts to really trust me. After I earn it.” She swallowed nervously. “You and I will spend a lot of time together, though. Don’t disappear on us.”

  “I have to leave,” Mariella made herself say. “I owe the Kingdom my loyalty. I swore an oath.”

  “Screw the oath,” the foxgirl said. “The soldiers and miners alike mostly deserve death. Just… let Tybalt take care of them. He’ll give them what they deserve.” She locked eyes with Mariella. “You could swear new oaths. With Tybalt. With me.”

  The fire mage averted her eyes and tried to ignore the last part of what Vidalia had said—and how appealing it sounded. “As I said… that’s not justice. Just… killing them. It’s not their hands that have killed your people. The soldiers, yes, but the miners… That said, I have to admit, I had some doubts about my plan, and you’re right, it’s a little stupid. I’ve just been desperate for life to get back to normal, I guess. To remain on the right side of things. It’s hard trying to cope with the feeling of… conflicting loyalties.”

  “To help with your doubts, the mining colony has been here for decades. Some of our people have married miners occasionally… and made them very happy. They know we’re here. They’ve always known. Our people were here when they showed up. They knew exactly what happens to us every time the Kingdom sends its men out here.” Her voice broke. “They just don’t care. They call the Kingdom’s soldiers out on us whenever we’re too inconvenient as neighbors.”

  Mariella stayed quiet, but Vidalia seemed to be adamant about persuading her. After a pause for breath, she kept talking.

  “Do you know how many of us there were when we fled our homeland to the desert?” The foxgirl didn’t wait for an answer. “Our oral tradition says ten thousand. We have lots of kids, it’s not abnormal for a woman who lives through her twenties to end up having six or more, so our numbers should have grown pretty drastically, right? Guess how many of us there are now.”

  “Less. I… I don’t know how many.”

  “Two thousand, scattered across a dozen mountains. Maybe three thousand. Couldn’t be four. It’s hard to get accurate numbers when the only way we survive is by hiding like rats. Over the centuries, we learned not to fight the boot that crushes us. Better to hide. I’ve given that advice myself. Run. Hide. Every generation or two, there’s some brave idiot who forgets the lesson. But mostly, we remember. They’ve reduced our population to a fraction of itself. They’re trying to wipe us out. It’s not an accident. It’s… a decision someone made somewhere. A coolheaded person sitting in beautiful surroundings, maybe even on a throne, thought, ‘I don’t want these unsightly demihumans existing in my country anymore,’ and they actually had the power to act on that. And it became the Kingdom’s unofficial policy for over two hundred years. They ran off the elves, but we didn’t have mages to evacuate us or a bunch of islands to flee to. We left our homeland because we would be killed if we stayed, not because we thought this was a nice place for a vacation.” She let out a deep breath and forced a smile back onto her face, though there was obvious tension there.

  “Sorry to put that all on you. I don’t have the crazy idea that it’s your fault. I’ve seen enough different possible paths we could take to know you’re a good person. You and Tybalt are proof that good humans do exist. But that’s the Kingdom you’re so worried about staying loyal to. Their faces are the ones we see in our nightmares—and often as not, right before we die. They’re the monsters in the scary stories fathers tell their children… before dad goes missing, because of one mistake, one stupid mistake…” She wiped away a tear, took a deep breath, and slowly opened and closed her eyes. “Sorry again.”

  Mariella closed the distance between herself and Vidalia and took the fox maiden’s hand.

  “Don’t be sorry,” Mariella said slowly. “Thank you for saying all that. Maybe I do need to stay a while and try to learn something from you. I don’t think what’s happened—what my people have done to your people—is excusable at all. I want to understand why—and whether we can ever live together in peace.”

  Vidalia squeezed Mariella’s hand, and for a minute or two, the two women just stood there in silence. Then Mariella allowed herself to be led away, back to Tybalt’s side.