Leonotis was pulling the last strap tight on the tunic of his Lia disguise. The heat of the metal was already stifling, but the disguise was essential for the upcoming ceremony. He finished dressing and secured the wooden replica of the Ada Ogun to his back. It felt heavier now, not physically, but with the weighty truth of the spirit residing within it.

  He heard the distinct clank of heavy boots entering the room next door—Low’s boots. He waited a beat, then left his room and knocked once on her door.

  "It's open," Low's voice called out, sounding slightly weak.

  Leonotis stepped inside. The room was tense. Low, still in her battered Grom Stonehand gear, was seated on a low stool. Her dwarf disguise was torn in several places, and she was clearly somewhat weakened. Jacqueline was kneeling beside her, her hands glowing with soft blue water à??, which she was using to stitch and soothe the deeper lacerations on Low's side and arm. She carefully left the more superficial scrapes and bruises on Low's face and armor, ensuring the visible damage didn't look too suspiciously healed. Zombiel sat quietly in the corner, his fire à?? held tightly in check.

  Low looked up, seeing Leonotis enter in his Lia tunic. "Alright, talk," she said, nodding at the sword on his back. "Just how did you beat Silas? That guy was unreal. I wanted to tap out, but he brought that orb out. What happened?"

  Leonotis moved closer, keeping his voice low and serious. "I just... followed the advice I gave you: fast, chaotic, disrupting his flow." He unlatched the wooden sword and held it out. "But mostly, this."

  He pulled out the wooden replica of the Ada Ogun. "This sword," he said, tapping the hilt. "I don't know why, but it's connected to the real Ada Ogun. Gethii used to say he was blessed by the Sword Maiden—I always just assumed he was using a figure of speech. But there actually is a spirit in his sword named Ada Ogun."

  He paused, letting the revelation sink in. "She is the daughter of Ogun, and she was the one that gave me the advice on how to beat Silas. She even helped me fight him within that Void orb. I have no doubt that I would not have been able to beat him without her help."

  Low processed this, her eyes wide as she stared at the plain wooden blade. She eventually let out a rough laugh. "So, really, you only won because of the help of a spirit? Okay, I feel a little better for losing. I was on my own."

  Leonotis raised an eyebrow. "Low, you have a werebear curse, giving you super strength. I'm pretty sure we're even."

  "Naw," Low countered immediately, "you got Green à?? too, so that had already evened out me having the curse."

  Leonotis didn't have a retort to that. He grinned.

  They shared a laugh, short and genuine, a release of tension that came from surviving an enemy who should have been insurmountable.

  "Now," Leonotis said, his expression becoming serious again, "we have to focus on the rescue mission. Now that the Ada Ogun is with me, I think we will have an easier time saving Gethii."

  Jacqueline finished healing Low's arm and dabbed the water à?? away. "How?" she asked.

  "Ada Ogun seems to be able to feel Gethii, probably because they've been together for so long," Leonotis explained, gripping the hilt of the wooden blade. "She can probably guide us to him."

  The others murmured happily about this new development. A reliable guide was invaluable.

  "Great," said Low, pushing herself up and flexing her newly healed arm. "We just need to endure that stupid reward ceremony and wait until the King leaves on his expedition. Then we can go get Gethii."

  They all agreed. Jacqueline looked at Low's broken axe shaft, which lay on the floor. "I kind of liked this axe," Low said wistfully. "That armorer in the palace will probably have a fit when he sees what happened to it." She shrugged. "Not my fault. Silas did it."

  They shared another small laugh, and the world seemed, for a brief moment, to be looking up for the four allies.

  It was in that moment of lowered guard that they heard a quiet, firm knock at the door.

  Low immediately shed her casual demeanor, her eyes snapping to the door. She fully got back into the Grom persona, deepening her voice to a rough bellow.

  "Who is it?" she yelled out.

  "High Seer Jabara," the woman's clear, authoritative voice answered.

  The four of them froze in collective panic. The High Seer? What was she doing here? She was the most powerful seer in the kingdom, a woman who knew things no one else should.

  Low exchanged one last, frantic look with her friends, shrugged inwardly, and pulled the door open.

  High Seer Jabara stood at the doorway, her colorful robes rustling softly, carrying an unmistakable air of unwavering authority and intent.

  High Seer Jabara stepped fully into the room, her gaze sweeping over the four figures with unnerving speed. She saw Lia tunic on Leonotis, the battered dwarf disguise on Low, the nervous water à?? residue fading around Jacqueline’s hands. She held a look of recognition as if something had just dawned to her when she saw all their faces.

  Low, still playing the role of Grom, rose to her full height, her voice rough and challenging. "High Seer. This is an unexpected visit. I'm preparing for the prize ceremony."

  Jabara ignored the persona entirely, addressing the truth she saw. "Spare me the performance, Grom Stonehand. I already know you aren't a dwarf."

  Jacqueline’s hands clenched, ready to fight. Leonotis’s hand instinctively went to the hilt of the wooden Ada Ogun.

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  "We don't know what you're talking about," Leonotis stated, stepping forward slightly, trying to place his body between Jabara and the others.

  Jabara sighed, her expression softening into one of urgent frustration rather than malice. "If I meant to expose you, do you think I would be standing here, alone, knocking politely? I was just in the gallery with the King's lapdog, Diviner Zuberi. I know what the King has planned."

  She fixed her intense gaze on Low. "The King knows you are a fake. He knows you are not a dwarf. And he believes the power that defeated Silas was the Green à??born, and he aims to prove it during the prize ceremony."

  Low bristled. "He thinks I'm the Green à??born? That's insane."

  "It's another trap, Low," Leonotis cut in, his eyes wide. "He's going to try to force your power out during the ceremony."

  "Precisely," Jabara confirmed. "The Sunstone he plans to give you isn't just a prize; it will be enchanted with powerful detection à??. It will attempt to draw out the strongest power you possess, your true à?? natural affinity."

  Jacqueline stepped forward. "Why are you helping us? You're the King's seer."

  "I serve the Orisha and the balance of this kingdom," Jabara said sharply. "King Rega is sacrificing both for his own ambition. The corruption Silas wielded, Njiru's necromancy, and now the pursuit of the Green à??born—these are dangerous variables that will destabilize us all. I need to know what happened in that orb, and you are the only one who can tell me."

  Low looked at Leonotis, then back at the High Seer. "And what if we tell you? You just let us go?"

  "I will do better than that," Jabara promised. "I need time to perform my own divination and understand what Njiru intends to do with Silas's corpse, and how best to prepare the kingdom for the inevitable war the followers of Iku plan to unleash. For that, I need you alive and free to rescue your master."

  She pointed directly at Low. "I know it was not you, girl, who defeated Silas. It was the powerful, clean Green à?? that left the Void orb destabilized. That power is what the King wants. You might not be the à??born, but you clearly know the à??born."

  Jabara turned to Leonotis. "I was given a vision by my Orisha. She gave me four faces of children who will help me in the future. One image of the vision was of a boy covered in vines. Just who might that be, I wonder?"

  Leonotis involuntarily touched the wooden Ada Ogun.

  "I need you to tell me everything about that Green à?? you weild Leonotis—its source, its signature, and where it came from," Jabara instructed. "And in return, I will give you the precise details of the trap, and a contingency plan to survive the ceremony."

  "How do you know my name?" Leonotis said.

  "It's on your wanted posters child. Well, do we have an agreement?"

  Low looked at Leonotis, a silent conversation passing between them. Leonotis hesitated, then nodded. They needed the escape route.

  "Alright, Seer," Leonotis conceded. "Here's what happened..."

  Leonotis took a deep breath. With the High Seer's sharp, intelligent gaze fixed on him, it was time to drop the fa?ade of the clumsy palace guard entirely.

  "My mother was an à??weaver who had a strong affinity for Black à?? — that's the poison type," Leonotis explained, running a hand over his short hair. "She worked in the palace, and I guess I inherited that. But a Dryad escaped from the cellar. Chinakah said the Dryad killed my mother and then kidnapped my father before escaping."

  Jabara went very still.

  It was barely perceptible — a slight suspension of breath, fingers tightening fractionally around her staff. To Leonotis, the High Seer was simply listening. But her mind had lurched forward. Chinakah. The woman currently in the dungeon below them, who had spoken of her ward. She had said he was safe. He was in an orphanage.

  He was not in the orphanage.

  Jabara kept her face composed and said nothing.

  Leonotis continued, unaware. "That's what Chinakah said happened. Oh, and I was attacked too, and when I woke up I had amnesia. I had almost no à?? at all."

  "Chinakah," Jabara repeated, her voice level, careful. "This is who raised you? After the attack?"

  "Yeah," Leonotis said. "Her and Gethii. They're both in the dungeon now. That's why we're here."

  Jabara absorbed this with a slow nod, as if it were merely another data point. Internally, she was recalculating everything. Jabara felt the sensation of having been several steps behind without knowing it.

  "After six months living with Chinakah and training with Gethii," Leonotis went on, "I was dropped off at an orphanage. I touched an attribute stone, and then my à?? was Green. Ever since then I've slowly been getting better at using it."

  Jabara refocused. "What you're describing should be impossible," she stated, her voice resuming its sharp, analytical quality. "à?? affinity does not change. It is given at birth by an Orisha — an alignment of soul and patron. A shift from Black to Green would require the direct, forceful intervention of a major Orisha, or something far more catastrophic."

  Leonotis shrugged helplessly. "That's just what happened."

  Jabara pressed her lips into a thin line. "I would need to commune with the Orisha to understand it fully. Your story doesn't actually explain the why of any of it." She studied him. "Is your patron Orisha Oko?"

  Leonotis shrugged again. "No idea."

  "Did you try to commune with any Orisha?"

  "No... wait," Leonotis said, remembering. "I did have some dreams with a woman in a forest. I don't know if that helps."

  "The Orisha do send prophetic dreams to those they wish to guide," Jabara said, slightly intrigued.

  "No, she was just straight up talking to me," Leonotis corrected. "She even told me to rescue a Dryad from a lab."

  Low and Jacqueline exchanged a look. "Oh," they said together, the realization dawning. "So that's why you wanted to go there! You could have told us!"

  Leonotis shifted uncomfortably. "I wasn't sure you'd let me go. I wasn't even totally sure if I believed the dreams myself."

  Jabara's focus sharpened. "What has the spirit said recently?"

  Leonotis shook his head. "I haven't seen her since we failed to rescue the Dryad."

  Jabara took a frustrated step back, pressing two fingers briefly to her temple. "This isn't as enlightening as I had hoped." She looked at him with an expression that was equal parts professional exasperation and something harder to name. "Well," Leonotis continued, trying to simplify. "If you want to know how I beat Silas: I gave him light attacks, dodged, and filled his black hole with à??. The daughter of Ogun, the Ada Ogun, helped me, and Silas's own black hole was his undoing. That's really about it."

  Jabara seemed satisfied by the clear tactical summary, her mind already moving forward. "I want to make sure of one thing. None of you are followers of Iku or Oko."

  Leonotis and the others quickly shook their heads.

  "We don't care about Iku or Oko," Leonotis stressed. "We are here to rescue Gethii and Chinakah from the royal dungeons."

  She nodded. "Very well. The trap is set for the ceremony. I will use my influence to ensure the King leaves on his trip as planned, and I will create a momentary distraction during the closing ceremony to ensure you can all escape the palace before nightfall and the lockdown."

  She then delivered the catch. "But you will have to leave without the Sunstone."

  "What a cop out!" Low exploded, forgetting her disguise entirely. "We won that Sunstone!"

  "Yeah but I mean, what would we do with it," said Leonotis.

  "I don't know... It's still unfair though," Low pouted.

  Jabara looked at the small group, and were now arguing about a prize stone. Her gaze settled last on Leonotis. Chinakah's boy. Safe in the orphanage.

  "You really are just kids," she said.

  Her tone was dry, as intended. But underneath it, quiet enough that none of them would hear it, was something that might have been relief — that Chinakah, at least, had not been entirely wrong. The boy was still standing. Still breathing. Still, against all observable evidence, largely intact.

  She turned toward the door before any of them could read her face.

  "Stay in this room until the ceremony is called. I will send word through the appropriate channels when it is time to move."

  She left without waiting for a response, pulling the door shut behind her with a soft, deliberate click.