Teorin watched Lev walk away as a hand clasped his shoulder. He glanced up at Jeron. “We need to talk,” Jeron said, gesturing towards one of the doors. Those were almost never good words to hear.

  Jeron didn’t wait for a response. He just strode toward the door.

  Teorin followed, slightly nervous.

  Jeron said nothing as they walked. The sunny weather and bustling atmosphere outside felt like a sharp contrast to the sort of brooding silence Teorin was getting from him. What could have put Jeron in this kind of mood?

  They passed through another building with a long hallway, doors lining either side. Jeron stopped at a door that didn’t seem any different from the rest and unlocked it, holding it open for Teorin to enter.

  The room was strikingly inviting compared to the other areas Teorin had seen at the outpost so far. There was a couch against one wall, and the wood floors gave the room a sort of warmth that the other rooms lacked.There was even a painting of an autumn forest scene on one wall. This was a place to relax after a long day’s work.

  Unfortunately, Teorin didn’t think that was what Jeron had in mind.

  A long wooden table stood in the center with eight chairs around the outside. Jeron gestured for him to sit, so Teorin did, but this felt far too much like someone confronting a wayward child. Jeron sat across from him with his hands on the table, fingers steepled together. He was silent for a few moments, and they just stared at each other.

  Finally, Jeron said, “You told Lev about Isi.”

  So that’s where this conversation was going. Better to keep it simple. “I briefly mentioned she might be involved, yes.”

  “That’s a dangerous move,” Jeron said.

  Was Jeron angry? Or did he just need to know why? Teorin hadn’t broken the rules. Jeron said no Novem resources. He hadn’t used any. None of that was worth saying. “Lev deserved to know,” he said simply.

  Jeron leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. Not good. “Teorin, we can’t afford that kind of heat right now.” His expression hardened. “And I know you were looking into Isi again last night. I checked your search history.”

  Bursts. Teorin didn’t want to know how much trouble he was in. “I didn’t use any of Novem’s resources. I just thought that maybe—”

  Jeron cut him off with a sharp look. “Was I not clear that Isi is off limits?”

  Teorin shifted in the chair, hands flat on the table. “I know she is, but that’s because we don’t have any evidence, right? So, I thought if I could link her to the investigation without using Novem’s resources…”

  Jeron sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.“I understand what you were trying to do, but you have to leave Isi out of it. Completely. The da Silvas are actively looking for a reason to take issue with what we are doing. I got a formal request this morning to share any relevant findings about their land.”

  Teorin hesitated. “Does that mean…”

  “No,” Jeron said, answering the question before Teorin could even finish. “We don’t have to comply. But it’s their way of saying that they know we found something. They will be watching us like hawks for any missteps, anything they can latch onto to get us to comply. Without concrete evidence of their involvement, anything that looks like we are actively monitoring any of their family members is going to be a problem. And we don’t have concrete evidence.”

  “You realize that if we take Isi out of the picture, we might not find Kara,” Teorin said quietly.

  “Yes.”

  Teorin frowned. The answer wasn’t a surprise, not after what Lev had said, but still… “I don’t know if I can live with that.”

  Jeron frowned, but finally said, “I’ll see if I can come up with some compromise, but there may not be one, Teorin.”

  Teorin wanted to protest, but Jeron clearly was done with the conversation. He reached for something on the chair next to him and tossed it onto the table. “I wanted to give you this.”

  It was a brown leather satchel, worn but well kept. And painfully familiar. Teorin hesitated, then caressed the smooth flap, his fingers catching on the clasp that held it shut. The last time he’d seen this bag, it had been slung over his father’s shoulder. “Is this…”

  “Your father’s?” Jeron finished for him. “Yes, it is. I would have given it to you a long time ago, but it’s considered evidence and was classified along with everything else.”

  Jeron flipped the satchel open, unzipped one of the inner pockets, and pulled out a flat wood panel. Its side was carved with seemingly random lines and a circle on the side.

  Stars, was that…

  Jeron pressed a fingertip to the circle and shifted it. As the circle spun, pieces of the wood shifted against each other, folding up and out until a wooden replica of an ancient city stood before him. “One of dad’s maps,” Teorin breathed.

  Jeron nodded before placing the wooden replica in Teorin’s hands.

  He traced the familiar wood contours. He hadn’t seen this exact layout, but maps like it had been scattered throughout their house in his childhood; most of them were tucked away in storage now. For his mother, they were too painful a reminder of someone who was never coming home, of the man who’d first noticed her because of the folding metal work on her wing jacket.

  And a reminder of the son who had taken up his father’s craft… and then never came home either. He shoved away the memory of Marcus helping him fix one of the origami mechanisms after he’d played too roughly with it.

  “Why show me this now?” Teorin asked as he brushed a finger along one of the city streets.

  “Some of Geran’s maps he made to display, to entertain, but they had a use too,” Jeron said, nodding at the map in Teorin’s hands. “They are easily stored, burstproof, and you can draw on the wood to add details. Paper maps are more practical in some ways, but your father always used these out in the field. He designed this one for his last expedition. This is the layout that he predicted for the site.”

  Teorin studied it. It didn’t exactly look like much, just a group of buildings. “He was convinced that this was the place?”

  “He thought this structure here could be a library of some sort,” Jeron said, pointing to a long building towards the edge of the wooden tablet. “He hoped that we might find something instructive there.”

  “But why give this to me now?” Teorin asked.

  “It took us a while to make our way back to that site. We spent a lot of resources immediately after the disappearance looking for your father and everyone else on that expedition, but we got around to investigating the site eventually. The building probably was a library, but there was a fire before we got there. Most of the books burned.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Teorin’s grip tightened on the map. A fire. “When? When was the fire?”

  Jeron sighed. “It’s difficult to tell. Dating ash is difficult. The fire could have been weeks or years before we got there. On top of that, we don’t know exactly when your father went missing. Communication with Torolt is difficult. We didn’t suspect anything was wrong for a while, even with no communication. We were concerned after a few weeks, but we weren’t certain until Cassius came back.”

  “So, we can’t prove the fire was related,” Teorin said.

  Jeron picked up the satchel again, carefully closing it and smoothing down the front flap. “We can’t prove anything, but yes, I always found the fact that the library had burned to ash suspicious, especially since everyone disappeared. This is all classified, of course.”

  “Of course,” Teorin murmured back. Had his father died for that? For whatever had been in that library? “Was there anything left in the library?” Teorin asked.

  “We found some scraps, things that weren’t totally consumed by the fire. One of them had a map that led us directly to the place where we found this new document. It took us a decade to overlay that map onto sites we’ve identified, but your father was right. There was something in that library.”

  His father had been right and might have paid the price with his life. Teorin stared at the map in his hands. This would have been one of the last things in his father’s possession before he disappeared.

  “Can I keep it?” Teorin asked, glancing up at Jeron. “The map, I mean?”

  “Yes, it’s yours now,” Jeron said with a sad smile.

  “Thank you.”

  “It’s all coming together,” Jeron said. “Years of work and expeditions, all culminating in what we are doing now. I know I’ve seemed perhaps overly cautious, but can you blame me? We’ve been close before and lost not just information, but good people. This time I don’t plan on taking second place, and I don’t plan on being taken by surprise. We’re going in prepared.”

  Jeron’s explanations about the pages took on a whole new meaning now. Jeron’s fear of someone destroying information wasn’t some far-off possibility. It had already happened.

  They couldn’t prove the library had burned because Novem discovered it, but what were the chances of random combustion sometime before? How could that even happen?

  It felt like the world was rearranging itself around him, reshaping itself into something new and mysterious and more than a little horrifying.

  Jeron continued, “I want you to be part of it, Teorin. We’re going to change the world this time.”

  Teorin stiffened. That was where this was going.

  Jeron didn’t seem to notice his reaction. “I know you miss your father. I miss him too. I know that I could never replace him, but you’re the closest thing to a son I have. I want to do this together. For us, for your father.”

  Teorin’s breath caught. Jeron didn’t say things like that. He always kept his cards close to his chest, especially when it came to anything related to emotions. He’d always been there after Dad died, but saying that Teorin was practically his son… It made him feel warm and achy all at once, because Teorin was about to cause more friction.

  He had to. He’d given Lev his word. With a shudder, Teorin forced away the numbness that had settled over him after seeing the map. After the secrets. The revelations were important. But he’d have to sort through everything later, or he’d quickly go along with Jeron out of sheer shock.

  Teorin took a deep breath. “Look, I appreciate this. I really do. You’ve always been a sort of father to me, but I can’t. I can’t go on this expedition.”

  Jeron looked at him sharply. “Why not?”

  Teorin winced. Why did this choice have to be so hard? And why did he have to keep making it again and again? Teorin steeled himself and pressed forward. “I’m going to stay and help Lev find Kara. I owe it to her and to Lev.”

  Jeron frowned. “That’s an honorable notion, Teorin, but we can bring in someone else to help Lev.”

  “Who?” Teorin asked. The question had been circling his thoughts for hours now. Novem had lots of resources, but this was clearly a job for one of the Novar, not just anyone. There was too much classified information involved for Jeron to send an outsider. Teorin didn’t know all the Novar, but he knew they weren’t exactly plentiful. Most of them would be off working on their own essential tasks, and Jeron was probably bringing anyone nearby on his expedition.

  Jeron didn’t answer immediately, which only confirmed to Teorin that finding an available Novar agent wouldn’t be such a simple task. “Silas would be a good choice,” Jeron finally said.

  Silas did have a reputation for negotiating with the clans. He was a skilled operative Teorin had only met in passing, but that wasn’t the most important question. “Is he here?” Teorin asked.

  “Not yet,” Jeron said slowly. “He was out in the middle of nowhere. He’ll miss the expedition, but he could help look for Dr. Tanel. He’s very capable, and he’s dealt with the Clans and mercenaries before. He’ll help Lev find her.”

  “And in the meantime?” Teorin asked. “If he’s out of contact, it could take him a week to show up here.”

  “That’s unlikely,” Jeron said.

  “But possible.”

  “Yes,” Jeron admitted.

  Teorin looked Jeron square in the eyes and shook his head. “I can’t take that chance.”

  Jeron tapped a finger on the table. “We still don’t know where Kara is. Finding her could easily take longer than a week. That would put Silas in position to deal with it when he arrives.”

  “If we keep searching the way we are, it could take a month! Sasha and Marcus are ghosts. The only reason they might emerge from the woodwork is to go after the pages again. That’s if they realize what they have is useless, but Isi–”

  “I said no, Teorin.” Jeron’s hands tightened into fists. “Isi is off the table.”

  “She’s the only person we stand a chance of finding! No one is officially looking for her. She doesn’t have any obvious reason to go into hiding.”

  “Teorin, the plant Dr. Tanel found grows right on the border between our land and the da Silvas’. We can’t afford to be on their bad side right now. Any sort of negotiations will be a nightmare if they levy accusations against us. We don’t know where this expedition will lead, but time is of the essence, and we need every possible avenue immediately open.”

  “It’s not like I’m going to send the media after her! I’ll be discreet. But I at least need access to any camera feed you can give me, particularly in Kalin Bay. Isi has already shown an interest there.”

  Jeron rubbed his temples. “I can’t–”

  Teorin didn’t let Jeron finish. “Pin it on me. I don’t care. Chalk it all up to family drama. I have plenty of reasons to be looking for Isi. She’s practically my sister-in-law. If they come after you, and you have to claim that I misused resources, so be it.”

  Jeron just stared at Teorin, but he didn’t look surprised, just sort of melancholy. “There could be consequences,” Jeron said slowly. “I can’t protect you if that’s what you choose to do.”

  “I know.”

  “These are career-ending consequences. Life-altering ones,” Jeron clarified.

  Teorin’s stomach clenched. He knew that, but hearing it aloud, so final, made his hands feel cold.

  Clearly, Jeron had already thought this through. He didn’t even need time to consider the implications… Was that why he had pushed so hard for Teorin to go with him? To spare him from this exact scenario? Because Jeron knew if he stayed, he would eventually resort to searching for Isi?

  The weight of what Teorin had just volunteered to do started to sink in. He would be risking everything he’d ever worked for. If they had to pin this on him as misuse of Novem authority and access, Teorin would be thrown out of Novem. Jeron would be legally obligated to do so.

  But it didn’t make sense to commit to this course unless he was all in. If things went south, Teorin would go down with the ship.

  He took a deep breath. “I know the risks. It doesn’t matter. I have to go through with this.”

  Jeron studied Teorin for a few seconds before finally nodding. “Then I won’t stop you. But understand what I’m giving you.” He folded his hands on the table. “Full Novar access. Command over the Kalin Bay team. Do with them what you will, just… don’t keep me in the loop. It’s easier that way.”

  Teorin nodded grimly.

  Jeron pursed his lips. “I’ll make arrangements today, but… promise me you’ll think about it. This isn’t something to take lightly. Make sure this is what you really want, Teorin. The plane is leaving today, but the ship won’t leave until tomorrow morning. Think about it, and let me know what you decide in the morning.”

  Teorin nodded, but he had already decided. He’d give it time though, if only to appease Jeron.

  Jeron stood then, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I need a drink.” He went over to what looked like the liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle and a glass, but before he could pour, a knock came at the door. “Yes?” Jeron called.

  The door opened a crack, and a woman peeked in through the opening and said, “Jeron, we need you in the hangar. There are some last-minute decisions that need approval.”

  Jeron gave a sharp nod. “I’ll be right there.” His fingers lingered on the bottle for a moment before he sighed and put it back unopened. He turned back to Teorin. “Find Fredrik. He’s in charge of rooms for the moment. He’ll assign you to an empty one. Ask for two next to each other. After Heidi finishes up, you’re in charge of Lev. He’ll probably sleep for a while, but I need Heidi prepping some equipment. Keep him out of trouble. Got it?”

  Teorin sighed but nodded. Fortunately, Heidi would have to knock Lev out to treat those burns. That gave Teorin time to dig into where Isi could possibly be and the name on Sasha’s ticket before having to face him again.

  And it gave him time to deal with all… this.

  He felt raw. Knowing that his father had found something and died for it, it was worse somehow. Teorin wasn’t sure why. But the horror he felt at the thought of sabotaging his own career seemed almost trivial in comparison. He tried to twist that into some kind of bright side. He couldn’t quite do it.