CHAPTER ELEVEN

Reyn burst into the sky woman's cottage, out of breath and sweating after running all the way from House Brandyn's stables. Her bad leg throbbed from the exertion, but the pain was the furthest thing from her mind.

She'd been attempting to get Spider to mate with his harem again. The empress came, accompanied by Princess Maya and her retinue, and dropped off Spider before going on a stroll to visit Kiffa. Not twenty minutes had gone by after their departure before Reyn received the most distressing sending she'd ever heard in her life.

"Where is she?" Reyn demanded.

By the befuddled faces goggling at her, Reyn supposed she could've been more specific. There were a number of "she's" she could mean, but Reyn had one and only one concern at the moment.

The cottage was more or less empty. Zanda and Maya's other two handmaidens appeared to be gone, as well as their mistress. Inaz and Mevek stood just outside the doorway, and Enfri assisted Lady Kiffa in tending to the vampire lying on the table. Reyn pushed through the bodyguards to get to her betrothed's side. Enfri stepped away from the table and her administrations to surrender the spot for her.

"Ah, dear one," Starra muttered groggily. "There you are."

Reyn went to her and took one of her hands. She cast her eyes over the length of Starra's torso, now wrapped in thick bandaging from shoulders to navel. Reyn's heart hammered in her chest so quickly, she thought she could faint. The only thing keeping her conscious was the sudden fit of absolute fury bursting out from her.

"You complete fool," Reyn scolded. "What were you thinking, going off to the Expanse and getting hurt like this?"

Starra wrinkled her nose. "Less angry, more doting, if you please. I'm dying, you know."

"She most certainly is not," Kiffa said. She walked to the other side of the table and replaced a compress tucked beneath Starra's bandages. The one she pulled out had only a slight amount of blood on it and smelled strongly of antiseptic. "Not anymore, at least. Lady Starra should avoid strenuous activity for the next few days, preferably a week or two, but she's no longer in any danger. Thankfully, she got here before she could lose too much blood. I'm told that's especially dangerous for vampires."

Starra nodded. "As to that, would one of you ladies mind terribly? I'm positively famished."

Kiffa jolted and put a hand to her neck as if to guard herself from errant bitings. "Soon enough. First, I need to..." The explanation trailed off to nothing, and Kiffa bustled to a row of shelves to busy herself with herbs.

It was around then that Reyn remembered a few details of Zanda's sending. She'd barely heard anything after being told Starra had an arrow in her chest. Now that she could see Starra was alive and would remain so for a while longer, some of those details started to come back. She touched Enfri on the arm to get her attention.

"Your Majesty," Reyn said carefully, "is it true? Jin was here?"

Enfri busied herself with sorting medicines and didn't turn to face her. She swallowed and gave a weak nod.

Reyn looked back to Starra. "I can't believe you."

"Now, don't jump to conclusions, dear one."

"Your so-called paramour you've been spiriting off to visit all this time?"

"I said don't jump to conclusions, because you have a penchant for jumping to the right ones. It's disturbing."

Reyn glanced up to Kiffa. "Is she strong enough to get thumped?"

"Um... no?"

Reyn sighed and took the next best option. She bent down and hugged Starra tightly about the neck and did her level best not to cry. "Do not ever scare me like this again. I could not bear losing you."

Nearby, Enfri spoke up in a whisper. "We should give you some privacy."

Reyn sniffled and ran fingers through Starra's hair to reassure herself. She pulled back to stand up straight. "Enfri, wait."

Enfri halted in mid stride and gave Reyn a surprised look. "I don't think I've heard you say my name since I became empress."

"Because I am not concerned with the empress right now," Reyn said. "I want to talk to you. What is happening?"

Enfri took a deep breath and didn't answer right away. Starra came to her rescue and gave one in Enfri's place.

"As you guessed, I was with Jin. I've been keeping an eye on her ever since... well, since her departure."

"Where is she now?" Reyn asked.

"With Maya," Starra said. "You missed a small sisterly spat. There was hitting, tears, profanity I won't repeat around young ladies, and that was just from Maya's side of things. Her Highness then took the other Her Highness outside, and I assume from the quiet out there, a good distance away."

Reyn listened as Starra presented what had happened over the past couple days. How Jin was present during the Jade Empire's attack on the Expanse, how Starra used the excuse of assisting the Sapphires to go to her, and then spent the two nights since accompanying her on her wanderings. Through it all, Enfri kept silent while clenching her hands in front of her.

Once Starra finished describing how she came to be injured, the empress spoke.

"This is twice now," Enfri said quietly, still not looking towards either of them. "Twice, you've deliberately gone against my orders."

"Twice you know of," Starra said, and there was more pique in the response than could be considered proper. Or respectful. "And a bloody good thing, too."

Eyes hard, Enfri turned to face her. "Too much is at stake for me to tolerate disobedience, my lady. I told you all to leave Jin alone."

Starra pushed herself to sit up. "Too much is at stake for me to unquestioningly obey. You need my disobedience. Had I carried out all your commands, you'd already be at war with Althandor."

Reyn whispered her name, but neither Starra or Enfri seemed to hear her. Had they been tomcats, they'd both have their fur standing on end as they stared each other down.

"Incorrect, my lady," Enfri said. "I had an understanding with Maya."

"Oh, certainly," Starra muttered. "Because backing a coup never blew up in anyone's face. I can excuse Lady Claryss thinking it was a good idea. She's as unimaginative as she is cranky. You, however, should've known better."

Reyn frowned at Starra's awful behavior. "What has gotten into you? Sky Woman, has she been given mind-addling medicine?"

Kiffa did her utmost to pretend she wasn't listening to any of it and mumbled a negative while sorting through her vials.

"Your patience, dear one," Starra said. "It seems I'm in the mood to be combative to every young royal I care about today." She aimed her glare at Enfri. "Whatever some people might think, no good would've ever come from overthrowing Cathis. It would've weakened Althandor, no matter the outcome, and that's the last thing the world needs right now. Need I go beyond the political ramifications and explain why it would've been a disaster on the personal level, or is that not a concern for the Dragon Empress?"

"Of course it is," Enfri snapped, then she turned her head to hide a scowl. "That doesn't change how you've proven I can't trust you to tell me the truth."

"No, but you can trust I'll tell you what you need to hear. What you need to hear now is that you're acting like a bloody..."

"Moron," Enfri interrupted. "I know. I've heard it from enough people. I don't need to hear it from you, too!"

Starra scoffed. "I wasn't going to say 'moron'."

"Idiot, then," Enfri said in exasperation.

"No," Starra said coldly. "I was going to say a coward."

"Starra," Reyn gasped, "that is enough!"

"I'm not done!" Starra shot Reyn a warning look before turning back at Enfri. She slid off of the table with some difficulty but managed to stay on her feet. Showing a slight limp in her stride, she went right up to the empress. "Stop pretending you're fine, because none of us are buying it. She's here, Majesty, and she needs you. Almost as much as you need her."

Enfri shook, as much from anger as from fear. "It's not that simple, Starra."

"You think I don't know that? I spent five years as a courtier in King Gerard's court, and this is still the most complicated mess I've ever seen. I know it's not easy!" Starra poked Enfri on the forehead. "I'm telling you this as someone who cares deeply for your well-being. Not as my empress, but as a young woman I've come to love and adore. Go to her and make this right."

Enfri gripped her skirts in clenched fists and didn't look Starra in the eye. "How dare you act on your own and think you can meddle in my personal affairs?"

Starra had the audacity to laugh in Enfri's face. "What in the bloody embrace of hellfire makes you think I'm acting alone?"

Enfri looked up, shock and anger battling for dominance. "Who else is in on this?"

She looked at Reyn, who could only gape in scandalized amazement and shake her head in denial.

"That's not important right now," Starra said. "Jin is. Now, are you going to hide in here until Maya takes her away, or are you going to bloody do something about this?"

"What do you expect me to do?" Enfri shouted.

Starra threw her hands in the air and stormed away from Enfri. "Bloody hell, but shouldn't that be obvious?" She went back to sit on the table, then jabbed a finger in Enfri's direction. "Are you planning on enslaving the world?"

"What sort of question is that?" Enfri sputtered.

"One that apparently needs an answer, so answer it."

Enfri crossed her arms. "No, I have no desire to enslave, conquer, mass-murder, or otherwise be an evil arseface."

"Excellent, you answered my next three questions all in one go. Now-" She pointed at the door. "-tell Jin that, because it's not enough for her to hear it from me."

"What makes you think it'll be any different coming from me?" Enfri demanded. There was a shift in her tone, like cracks appearing in a pane of glass. Enfri sniffled. "I tried, and she wouldn't listen. She... she hates me now."

Reyn was already moving towards her before the crying started in earnest. Kiffa practically vaulted the table to get there. Once they both had Enfri thoroughly enveloped in their arms, Reyn shot Starra an accusing frown.

Look what you did, Reyn thought angrily.

"So easy to forget," Starra sighed. She slid back off the table. "There you are, the Dragon Empress, Lady of Opals, the last great hope of humanity, and it's far too easy to forget what you actually are."

"And what am I?" Enfri asked through her crying.

Starra came forward and cupped Enfri's cheek. "You're a nineteen-year-old girl who shouldn't have to face these burdens. It's not fair, and you most certainly don't deserve it."

Enfri sniffled again and pulled Starra into the group hug.

"Easy," Starra cautioned while wincing in pain. "Easy, girl. I'm still not all put together, despite your efforts."

"Sorry," Enfri mumbled, and she loosened her grip by a few degrees. "But you're not wrong. Not about any of it."

"Well," Starra sighed, "I do have one more thing you might not like."

Enfri groaned, though Reyn believed it sounded more petulant than despondent.

"Jin doesn't hate you. You're the only person in the world who thinks she does."

"Of course she does not hate you," Reyn agreed. "The nearest we have been able to deduce, Jin's devotion to you is what has led us here."

"Too true," Starra sighed. "You see, I'm afraid Jin isn't, well, completely sane."

Enfri jolted back as if stung and gave Starra a shocked look. "What do you mean?"

"The best way I can put it?" Starra said. "I'd say there's a sickness inside her mind. Not battle fatigue, and I don't think she's a risk to herself. Something... I'm not qualified to diagnose. Whatever it is, it runs deep, and it's been there for longer than you've known her."

Reyn kept a hold on Enfri, but she found her gaze drifting to somewhere many leagues away. Starra's words sounded awfully similar to what Josy Algara said of Jin in the desert.

"Sometimes, I think those two are more damaged than any of us."

Though she tried, Reyn couldn't think of what could be effecting Jin in such a way. She was forced to admit, that of the others in the Five, she really knew the least about Her Highness. Jin Algara was so soft-spoken, quiet, and stoic. Despite how she'd always been at the center of Enfri's rise to power from the start, Jin had never made her feelings an issue to be discussed. Until recently, when something pushed her past her breaking point.

Reyn recalled a day when she allowed Jin to lie in her lap and release the tears that accumulated throughout her time with Enfri. It occurred to Reyn that there were primarily two reasons a mortal cried. It was either because they were weak or because they'd been strong for too long.

She could only imagine how long Jin had held those tears in check behind the eyes of an assassin.

"Starra," Reyn said quietly, "you have known Her Highness longer than anyone else here. What is it we are failing to take into account?"

The question took Starra a little by surprise. "Not you, too, dear one."

Reyn narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not the one you should be asking," Starra exclaimed. "It's far past time someone gets it straight from the assassin's mouth, don't you think?" She scowled. "Not that she's exactly forthcoming, I admit."

"Please, speak plain," Reyn said.

"I suppose you can be forgiven for missing it," Starra sighed. "Jin has a habit of making it sound so natural. So normal. But the thing is, she can do that because she believes it herself. It's not natural, and it certainly isn't normal."

"What isn't?" Reyn asked.

Starra raised her hands as if it should be plain as day. "What she is, dear one."

With some difficulty, Enfri extricated herself from the three women hugging her. She let out a long and shaking exhale as she smoothed the fabric of her skirt and allowed Kiffa to reorder her hair beneath her shawl.

"Alright," Enfri whispered. "You're right, Starra. I'll go talk to her right now."

oOo

Jin sat on the edge of a duck pond and idly wondered which of the creatures angry with her was the more shrill. In the end, she decided Maya was winning that contest, but the large goose floating several paces away in the water was making a decent showing.

Bellamy loosed a hiss of displeasure with each of Maya's tirades, until he tired of being ignored and rejoined the rest of his flock. Jin watched him swim away and didn't catch half of what her sister was shouting at her.

That goose scratched out Tarlus' eye, Jin remembered suddenly. There are not many creatures in the world who've defeated a royal assassin in battle. He is to be respected and feared.

The duck pond lay in a shady corner of the countryside. The construction of the new city hadn't claimed it, as if it was being purposefully preserved. A copse of trees surrounded the pond, and a shallow stream brought cool water in and through the small wood.

It was peaceful when it wasn't invaded by Althandi princesses, with the possible exception of when Enfri's geese waddled in to wage verbal warfare with the wild ducks.

"Winds and storms, Jin, are you even listening to me?"

Jin kicked her legs, half submerged in the cold water of the pond. She touched at the bruise forming over her cheek where Maya had struck her. "I am not, Sister. Forgive me."

Maya went to one knee beside her, glaring at the side of Jin's face. Jin didn't turn to look at her, mostly because she knew that was what Maya wanted.

"Start listening," Maya warned. "It's been half a year since you left home. Things are changing in the Spired City, and more in the last three months than in the last three centuries."

Jin doubted that was an exaggeration. She heard plenty from Starra and settlers about the goings-on in the City of Althandor. There was no reason to disbelieve it.

They'd left Maya's retinue behind to have a private moment between sisters. Jin was a little surprised that Ceruna and Vayless were still attending Maya. She assumed they'd have either tired of Maya's temper or been released from service at a whim by now. If they'd lasted as Maya's handmaidens for this long, Jin thought they might actually be around for the long haul.

"Father is coming," Maya said. "Coming here. He's all but named the empress his vassal already. Don't you get it, Jin? You have what you wanted!"

When Jin didn't respond, Maya stood with a growl and started pacing behind Jin's back.

"Everything was going perfect," Maya shouted. "Not what anyone predicted, but winds take me if it wasn't what we needed. Uncle Vintus is dead, demons are out in the open, and if we could've only gotten an easy truce with Shan Alee, we could secure the western front inside a day. Now, who knows what will happen?"

"Have you forgotten so easily?" Jin asked quietly.

"Oh, this ought to be good. Forgotten what?"

"What the Queen Founder fought against."

"I won't hear that from you!" Maya kicked at a stone, sending it skittering across the water's surface. Bellamy started up his infuriated protests once again. "Not after how that's what we tried to remind you all throughout the contract to kill the blustering sky woman in the first place. But no, you had to go and fall in love with her, like we all knew you would, and then run off and help her restart a dead empire!"

Jin wrinkled her nose and shot Maya a skeptical look. "Knew I would?"

"Come off it. The entire house knows you're a disaster around women, especially bashful cute ones with big..."

"Maya, bite your tongue!"

"She's bigger than I remember," Maya said, holding her hands out in front of her chest to illustrate her meaning. "Is it the improved posture, better diet, or have you been slipping something into her tea?"

Jin felt her ears start to heat up, and she turned away.

"And that backside... Winds, but I'm almost willing to marry her since you won't anymore."

"Whatever you are trying to accomplish with this vulgarity, it will not work."

Maya came to a stop right behind her. "I mean it. One way or another, Father needs our houses to be joined. If you're out of the picture, we'll have no choice. The terms of our treaty will include my betrothal to Empress Enfri."

Jin didn't believe it. She leaned on her knees as if that could make her too small to be seen.

"I don't want to," Maya continued. "There are few things I want less, but I'll do what my king and nation require of me. I'll marry her if I have to. I'll be her consort, and she'll be my queen. She'll carry my children, and once we sort out which are bond forgers and which are royal assassins, I'll have to explain to them why they've never met their Aunt Jin."

"You've said a lot of horrible lies to me in your time," Jin whispered, "but that stands out as the worst."

"I wish it was a lie!" Maya shouted. "Can't be Tarlus or Josy after Vintus' betrayal, and Dashar sure as Hell won't remarry. It has to be an exalted princess. The last thing I want to do is become some blustering skulk who marries the same gender for politics, but it doesn't change the reality of the world. Without Shan Alee, Althandor dies. Without a marriage between Algara and Yora, there's nothing to guarantee the Aleesh won't stand aside and let us burn."

Jin pulled her legs out of the water and hugged them to her chin. The cold water left them numb, as unfeeling as the rest of her felt. Numbness, all over and throughout what remained of her soul.

Maya knelt beside her again. Her tone changed, no longer shouting. It became a plea. "Jin, don't make me do this. If not for her and not for you, then for me. I need you, Sister."

For as far back as she could remember, Jin couldn't recall ever hearing those words out of Maya before. She looked at her out of the corner of her eye. And wondered.

You've changed, Maya, she thought. Was it being named Father's heir, or did the change come before that?

Maya looked off to the north, back towards the cottage. "You know," she said, more calm now than before, "I've started to see what it is you saw in her."

Jin frowned and narrowed her eyes.

"Not that," Maya said. "Look, I know a pretty girl when I see one, and I like looking, but it ends there with me."

"Aesthetic attraction?" Jin asked.

Maya shrugged. "Is thing that is."

The goblin phrase took Jin by surprise.

"But don't misunderstand," Maya continued. "That's not what I'm saying. I'm not talking about why you think she's pretty. I'm talking about why you fell for her. I see it now."

"I can only imagine what you think you know," Jin said cooly.

Maya sneered and sat on the edge of the pond beside Jin. She was hesitant to get her leggings wet in the same way Jin had, but she did it. Her hand went into a pouch at her waist. "More than you give me credit for, blustering twerp."

Jin kept a sharp eye on Maya's hand. Her eyes widened as Maya drew out a handful of vials, each filled with blue liquid.

"Here. You have to be almost out of oren by now, right? No idea where you've been getting any all this time."

Jin's hand shook as she took hold of the vials Maya held out for her. She kept control of herself, held her assassin's mask in place, and placed them gently within her own pouch, empty for the past three months.

"You're stretching the doses out, aren't you?" Maya asked forcefully. "That's dangerous, Jin. You should know better than anyone. Didn't oren withdrawal almost kill you in the Dunes a year ago?"

Jin closed her pouch and did her utmost to refrain from drinking all five vials down immediately. "It has been... difficult."

"Will wonders never cease? You admitted it. Some things actually are difficult for Jin the Stoic."

Jin gave her a half-hearted glare. Thankfully, raising her pique made ignoring the oren a little easier.

"Come off it," Maya chuckled. "When you get down to it, we're not that different."

"Are we not?"

"Where it matters, though plenty is different, I admit." Maya leaned back and looked upwards to the sunlight shining down through the boughs. "I never had to work hard to get what I wanted. Not when we were younger. Mother's training, the sorcery, the osteoforms, it came naturally to me. I had the ether stores I was born with, more than I even knew I had."

"The Eidolon," Jin murmured. "Starra informed me of this."

"Then she probably told you Vintus had ether seals on me, more than the regular ones they put on children with sorcery. He lied when he told me and Father that they were removed upon my coming of age. They were only lessened. I spent all twenty-six years of my life thinking I was nearly as strong as a hierarch, but I was only accessing a tenth of my real power. And from what I've been told, there's no limit to how much stronger I can become."

Jin picked up a stone and idly tossed it into the pond. "What is the point of telling me this?"

"I had everything handed to me. I was the eldest. It was more or less assumed I'd be the greater of the king's daughters. But you... you didn't accept that."

Jin gave a slight shake of her head. "That was never my motive. It was not about you."

"No, I get it. It was because you wanted to be a royal assassin. It didn't matter that your stores were half of anyone else in the house. You didn't care that you were a runt or slow or sickly. You bullied Mother into training you, and you forced Uncle Gain to accept you into his coterie. Now look at you."

Jin chanced to look at her sister.

"You're a better assassin than I'll ever be," Maya said. "You trained harder, you pushed yourself farther, and you've done things I could never have done had I been in your place. You're stronger than I am, you're better at swordplay, and you're even blustering taller than I am now, you dratted twerp."

Jin averted her eyes, unaccustomed to receiving praise from this source. "You beat Dashar," she mumbled. "No one has ever beat Dashar."

Maya shrugged in false modesty. "I did at that. Though, I can't help but wonder if I would've managed it outside the Ethereum. Even there, it was a near thing. In the mortal world, there's only one assassin near to his level." She lolled her head to look at Jin and smiled.

"Stop, Maya," Jin said. "I cannot even hold an osteoform."

"That's not true. I heard it from Enfri's bodyguard, that Protectorite fellow. He saw you use an osteoform at the Battle of Sandharbor."

Jin furrowed her brow. She had no clue who it was Maya referred to.

"The Peridot that was just with her. Inaz or something."

Jin's lips parted as recognition came to her. She remembered a sergeant from House Yora. An excellent soldier, as she recalled. He'd fought beside her throughout the entire battle, the only to do so and survive to tell about it.

"So then," Maya said, rising to her feet. "Show me. I've never seen yours."

As she spoke, Maya's arms extended. The flesh covering them stretched until it tore, fibers of muscle barely clinging to the bones outgrowing the confines of Maya's body. The bones warped and shifted, becoming a pair of limbs like scythes. Plates of bone armor layered over their length. The armor was segmented like the body of an insect, providing a minimum of protection to allow for maximum mobility.

Maya's osteoform was a simple one, designed to her preference as a pure weapon.

Jin remained seated. "I told you. I cannot."

"Calling the Peridot a liar, then? He doesn't seem the sort."

Jin shook her head. "I was not myself. Something happened. When Omolade banished the fey, I felt..." Her eyes widened and looked out over the pond.

"Because you and I are feylings," Maya said. "Starra told you that much, didn't she?"

Jin nodded absently. She remembered feeling as if a part of her soul snuffed out as the banishing wind fell upon her at the Battle of Sandharbor. At the time, she thought it was due to seeing Rippling Moon apparently ripped out of the mortal world. Jin had attributed that hollow sensation to her grief over losing one of her dearest and most admired friends.

That was the moment I told myself I had killed Jin Algara, she thought. I thought I had killed Moon and her child with my actions. I knew there was no redemption for me. Could that feeling have come from the fey in me being...

"Weird," Maya mused. "Having the fey bits scrambled for a little while made it so you could summon your osteoform? I never had the same problem."

"Because you are stronger than I am," Jin said.

Maya scoffed. "Same goes for Kiir and Manon, too? They're both covered in bone plates nowadays, and you won't convince me they've got stronger ether stores than yours." Maya tapped the blade of her scythe arm against Jin's backside to coax her to her feet. "Impossible. You've been strengthening your stores since you were five. You have to be leagues ahead of most arcanists now. Above average, at least."

Jin stood while telling herself she only did so to avoid more pokes to her rump. She sighed and decided it would be best to humor her sister and prove once and for all that osteoforms were still beyond her. The one she formed at the Battle of Sandharbor must've been a fluke brought on by... something.

"Come on, Sister," Maya jeered. "Show me your osteomancy."

Jin held her arms out in front of her and made fists. Concentrating, she could feel the bone essence flowing through her. She could perceive it with her ethersight. Forcing her will upon those threads of power, Jin exerted her will upon them.

Pointless. She could channel osteomancy through another's blood, either to crush an enemy or to mend the bones of a friend, but her own had always been out of reach. The only time she'd ever manipulated her own skeleton was during the frequent attacks when she was young and hadn't yet gained control of her elder magic. That control remained a part of her, and surrendering it became anathema.

Jin lowered her arms. "You see? It is useless."

Maya frowned. "I'd say you didn't try, but I had my ethersight on you the whole time. You should be sprouting spurs ten-feet tall from all the ether you put into yourself."

"As I said, an osteoform has always been beyond my ability."

Maya shook her head. "Who trained you in osteomancy? It was Uncle Gain like with me, right?"

Jin nodded. "As well as Father. Heron and Cousin Marson tried giving me advice, also."

"Gain wouldn't let this stand," Maya said. "There's something wrong here. Almost like... something's fighting to keep the bones where they are just as hard as you try to move them. Try it again. I need to see what's wrong."

Jin exhaled heavily before complying. The last thing she expected out of this day was a training session in osteomancy. Once she was certain Starra was alright, she meant to have a curt word with her about disrupting carefully laid schedules.

Out of the boughs overhead, a rose-hued sparrow flitted down to alight on Maya's shoulder. "Is all well, love? After the shrieking died down, I worried one of you killed the other."

Maya blew air out her lips to ruffle Zanda's feathers. "Just a little test, my Executioner. Hush."

Jin blinked. It wasn't Zanda's presence that startled her, but the way Maya addressed her. As if she were the rose dragon's Beryl Knight. A royal assassin bound to a dragon, partnered to a dragon, something Jin had assumed from the start was something that could never— would never— be allowed. It was a bond Jin knew she herself would never deserve.

Her heart clenched, and the control fled.

The pain tore through Jin's arms, shocking and new, but at the same time, familiar. Blades tore out from her forearms, arching two feet over the backs of her hands. More erupted from her elbows and shoulders, and plates of bone grew to cover her bare arms all the way to her chest and throat, even extending up her chin and the back of her skull. Once the growth ended, she had a hauberk of bone covering her arms and upper chest, as well as an open-faced helm.

Maya blinked and shook her head, as surprised by the sudden appearance of Jin's osteoform as Jin was.

Control. The osteoform came in the same instant Jin felt a lapse in her control. Had it really been that simple? All this time?

She'd been unconsciously hobbling her osteomancy with her ingrained need for unwavering control.

Discipline shot me in the back, she thought, incredibly displeased with herself. With Gain, too. Her uncle might've mentioned this if it was really that simple.

She let the control slip just a little once again, and the open-faced helm closed off. An angled, arrowhead plate grew over her face. Jin concentrated to guide the growth and allow thin slits over her eyes so she could see.

It was the osteoform she remembered using during the Battle of Sandharbor. She recalled little of her time with it. She'd been consumed by the emotions from thinking she'd lost Moon to Omolade, to the need to punish Melcia for going against her warnings and attacking Shan Alee. She'd been so angry, so consumed by hate for the world and herself. She killed everything that stood against her while wearing this osteoform.

Zanda flapped up to the branches of a nearby tree as Maya took a fighting stance.

"Not bad, Sister," Maya said. "Show me what you can do with it."

Jin had had enough. She stood straight and resumed control. The osteoform receded back into her flesh. The rips it caused in her skin resealed. "I've no desire to fight you."

Maya made a petulant face. "Aww. No fun. What then? Planning to run away again? Now that I know Starra can find you, I can just have her take me wherever you go."

Jin scowled. "I am certain she would enjoy that."

Maya blinked and looked rather uncertain of if she wanted to make good on that threat.

"What I do is no longer your concern," Jin said. "I have killed Jin Algara. Your sister is dead."

Maya wrinkled her nose. "Winds save me, you've gone off your nut." She glanced past Jin's shoulder then looked back. She reverted out of her osteoform. "Lie to yourself all you want, but you'll never be able to lie to me. I know you better than anyone, and I can tell when you're hurting. The dead feel no pain."

Jin's lips parted, but she couldn't muster up a response. What Maya said hit too close to the mark, and everything else she'd said made Jin doubt her reasons for even coming to this path.

It was such a simple question to ask, but now Jin had empirical evidence that solutions to problems she thought to be insurmountable could be much simpler than she ever believed. Had she been wrong all this time? But that was a question she couldn't answer on her own. The answer could only come from someone else.

Jin placed a hand over her heart and felt it racing. It beat so rapidly that it hurt. This was fear, and it was also shame. Jin's breaths came heavily as her eyes threatened to well up.

"Before I go anywhere, I have to talk to her."

Maya exhaled in relief. "Good. Turn around."

Jin's breath caught, and she did as she was told. There was nothing she could've done to prepare herself. As with every time she saw her sky woman, it was like staring with naked eyes at the sun. Jin felt as if she could go blind with Enfri's face seared into her memory and never feel as if it was a poor trade. So bright, so beautiful, and so perfectly suited to being alive.

She stood there, ten paces away and leaning with one hand against a tree. Her plain linen dress was bloodstained from tending Starra, an apron tied about her waist. She wore a floral shawl over her golden hair, and only a few strands of it fell from its confines around her face. Her green eyes glistened with unshed tears, and her lips trembled as she struggled to say something.

Jin swallowed and felt her heart calm itself. She remembered. Her heart never felt whole unless Enfri was near. It had never truly lived until they were together. This brilliant and beautiful woman was as integral to Jin's life as her own heart, and so Jin called her that.

"Enfri," Jin said. It came out suddenly, as if she were gasping for air after being pulled from the sea. She fought back the sobs she felt coming out of her. "My heart, I'm sorry."

Enfri stumbled as she ran forward. Her eyes clamped shut, but she kept coming anyway. She couldn't speak for the gasping breaths coming out of her, until she threw herself into Jin.

"I'm so sorry, my light," Enfri cried. She kept her arms tucked between them, and she buried her face in Jin's shoulder. "I never meant to. I never meant for any of this to happen. I'm so sorry."

It was wrong. Jin betrayed Enfri, and still Enfri blamed herself just as Starra said she did. That was so wrong, and such... such an Enfri thing to do. Jin sank to her knees, taking Enfri down with her. All throughout the journey from standing to kneeling, Jin could only marvel at how decisively she could be proven wrong so quickly.

Her sky woman was still Enfri and would always be Enfri.

"I should've known better," Enfri said, halfway to a wail. Winds, she sounded angry. "I should never have asked for that stupid, stupid promise. My father did practically the same thing to Deebee, and look what happened. Then I go and do the same blustering thing like a moron!" Enfri cringed. "No, shut up! You can't talk to me!"

I... I won't?" Jin stammered.

"Not you," Enfri sniffled, and she pounded a fist against Jin's shoulder.

"Shoen," Jin whispered.

Enfri cringed even more.

"You still fight against him," Jin murmured. "I feared that even if I was wrong, I'd driven you to start listening to him."

Enfri shook her head, still not pulling away from Jin to look at her face. "Never."

Jin looked over her shoulder, hoping Maya would tell her what to say, but her sister was already twenty paces off and getting further away with every step. Maya joined the small cluster of women trying unsuccessfully to hide themselves. Trying, aside from Starra, who made no effort at all to conceal her blatant eavesdropping.

"There's so much I have to say," Enfri said. "So much I should've said a long time ago."

"I as well," Jin said. "More than I know how to say."

"I'll listen." Enfri pulled her head back, gave a hard sniff, and opened her eyes. She looked up into Jin's face. "I'll listen to everything. Even the things you don't know how to say. I'll still hear them. Because I love you, Jin. I've always loved you, and I'll never stop. I don't know how to stop, and I don't ever want to try."

"I..." Jin had no breath left in her lungs to speak. She couldn't breathe at all. Even worse, she could not think.

But then, what had thinking ever gotten her? Feeling, though. In this moment, Jin felt she could feel her way out of anything.

Enfri's hand came to Jin's shoulder, holding on with a desperate grip. Shaking, Jin's hand rose to meet it, and the moment their hands touched, the tremors began to fade. She enfolded Enfri's hand in her own, and the shaking stopped so completely that it felt as if it would never come back.

Her hands knew where they belonged.

Jin held on tight and meant to never let go again. It never failed to amaze, how perfectly Enfri fit inside her arms. If only for one moment, Jin believed she could be loved by a sky woman. Jin closed her eyes and let them fill with tears of joy.