Reibella’s attention remained on Zemmal as if the dragon had asked something she’d been waiting to answer for centuries.

  What are the steps Zemmal’s voice rumbled in Lavender’s mind, careful and heavy. He sounded like stone pummeling old bones.

  Lavender sat very still against the column. Her scars had cooled from angry heat into a steady, warning warmth; like coals that hadn’t decided if they were going to flare again. Brute paced three tight circles, then planted himself in front of her, blocking her view of the nearest archway like he could body-check an idea out of existence. She ignored him.

  The courtyard had shifted again while Lavender wasn’t paying attention. Columns a fraction closer, the stone smoother underfoot, the air colder in a way that felt deliberate. Zemmal remained coiled near the edge, watchful and rigid.

  Reibella tilted her head, as if listening to something. “Alright,” she declared. “Enough spiraling. We are doing this properly.” Lavender’s scars warmed at the word ‘properly’. It was unsettling how often that happened now. How her body responded to concepts before her mind caught up.

  Zemmal’s voice was low again. Explain the steps. Clearly.

  Reibella’s smile sharpened. “Yes, yes. We’ll do it in order so you can all feel less dramatic. Which is ironic.”

  Brute’s ears flicked. “I feel plenty dramatic. I’m just trying to be polite about it.” Lavender gave him a look. “You’ve never been polite a day in your life.” His mouth pulled into a grin. “That’s untrue. I am extremely polite to myself.”

  Reibella hummed, pleased, and leaned against a column that looked newly invented for the purpose of supporting her. “First, I will place you near Authority. Not inside. Near.”

  Lavender’s stomach tightened. “Near as in… how near?”

  “Near enough that you can reach the perimeter on foot before the days shifts,” Reibella replied. “Far enough that you can hide in the woods without their cameras spying you.”

  Zemmal’s gaze narrowed. Their sensors respond to magic.

  “Yes,” Reibella agreed, and for a moment the playfulness drained out of her face like water down stone. “Which is why you won’t go in, my beloved child.” Zemmal’s tail twitched once, displeased. Lavender felt his resistance like pressure in the air, but he didn’t argue. Not because he agreed. Because he understood what arguing with Death accomplished.

  Lavender turned slightly, meeting his golden eyes. “You’ll be close.” Zemmal’s reply came steady. Close enough.

  Brute lifted his head. “Close enough to drag us out by the scruff.” Lavender tightened her mouth. “We are not getting dragged out by the scruff.” His grin flashed. “You’re right. You’ll be carried. Dignity intact.”

  Reibella watched them with a look that was uncomfortably fond. “Second,” she continued, “you will wear a glamour.” Lavender resisted the urge to flinch. It wasn’t the glamour itself that made her uneasy. It was the fact that Reibella said words like wear as if reality were a coat. “Relax,” Reibella assured her, “You don’t have to enjoy it. If you make contact, you invite scrutiny. And scrutiny is a blade. “

  Lavender exhaled slowly. “So no talking.”

  “Minimal,” Reibella corrected. “Short answers, nothing emotional. No heroics. No sarcasm.”

  Brute stared at her. Lavender stared back. Reibella sighed as if personally offended by the existence of their personalities. “Fine, limited sarcasm. But keep it internal.”

  Lavender’s hands flexed at her sides. “What’s our objective?”

  Reibella’s expression settled into something precise. Calculating in a way that reminded Lavender, unpleasantly, of Authority itself. “You are going to observe,” Reibella said. “Only observe.”

  Brute’s ears angled forward. “No stealing.”

  Lavender’s voice went flat. “No saving anyone.”

  Reibella’s gaze softened for half a breath; just long enough to be dangerous. “Not today.” The words landed heavy. Lavender felt them in her ribs, in her scars, in the part of her that had spent years watching people starve and die in the Barrens with nothing to offer but her own survival.

  “What are we observing,” Lavender pressed. Reibella lifted a hand, and the air in front of them shimmered like heat from a fire. A map formed, a woven tapestry of Authority. Lines and nodes and faint pulsing points that made Lavender’s teeth ache when she stared too hard.

  “RC3,” Reibella said, tapping the central cluster. “This is their hub. Their spine. Their mouth.” Lavenders scars warmed as the map responded to attention, like the castle itself approved of being used for war planning. Reibella’s finger drifted outward. “Phase four is tightening around the Barrens. People are being taken. Sorted. Moved. The pattern is deliberate, and the reason is buried.”

  Zemmal’s voice carried restrained fury. The are feeding something.

  “Yes,” Reibella said softly. “And you are going to find out what.”

  Lavender’s throat closed. “How?”

  “By watching,” Reibella replied, as if it was the simplest thing in the universe. “By learning routes. By marking times. By seeing where the trucks go. Where the prisoners are taken. Who is present. What insignias appear in places they shouldn’t.”

  Brute shifted closer to Lavender’s leg. “In other words, eyes open, mouth shut.”

  Lavender shot him another look. “That’s rich coming from you.”

  “I contain multitudes,” Brute said solemnly. “One of them is restraint.”

  Reibella’s smile returned, thin. “Your second objective is to locate the research tier’s access point. Not enter. Locate.”

  Lavender’s stomach dropped. “Research.”

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  “Yes,” Reibella said, eyes bright and sharp. “Their new initiative is not housed where their soldiers sleep. It is buried. Guarded. You will identify what doors exist. What security patterns repeat. Who goes in and out.”

  Brute’s ears flicked. “And then we leave.”

  “And then you leave,” Reibella confirmed.

  Lavender’s jaw clenched. “That’s it.”

  “That is enough,” Reibella said, and her tone made the words absolute. “You are not dismantling Authority today. You are not becoming martyrs. You are gathering information so that the next step is not blind.” Zemmal’s tail lashed once, but he didn’t argue.

  Lavender’s mouth felt dry. “And if we’re noticed?”

  Reibella’s gaze sharpened like a knife being tested against a whetstone. “You will not be.”

  Brute made a low sound. “That’s not an answer.”

  Reibella’s eyes slid to him. “it is the only answer that matters.” Brute held her gaze without flinching. “I asked what we do if we are.” Silence stretched. Even the castle seemed to still. Candles in distant corridors pausing their slow drift. She exhaled, and the warmth returned as if she’d chosen it deliberately. “If you are noticed, you disengage. Immediately.”

  Lavender frowned. “Disengage how?”

  “You retreat,” Reibella simply advised. “You do not escalate. You do not prove a point. You do not fight to win. You fight only to create distance.” Brute’s tail thumped once, reluctant agreement.

  Zemmal’s voice came slow. If they pursue?

  Reibella’s eyes met his. “Then you intervene.”

  Lavender’s chest tightened. “Zemmal…” His gaze held hers, steady and old. I will not allow you to be taken, Little Flame. She swallowed hard and looked away before her eyes betrayed her.

  Brute nudged her ankle, softer than his usual bluntness. “We’re not dying in a hallway, Lav.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” she muttered.

  Reibella watched the exchange like she was memorizing it. Then she waved a hand once, brisk. The map dissolved into mist. “Now,” she said. “Logistics.”

  “What,” Lavender blinked. Reibella looked genuinely annoyed that Lavender required words. “We will not teleport you directly onto their doorstep,” she said. “That would be rude. And obvious. And I am trying to avoid obvious.”

  Brute grinned. “Rude is your brand.”

  Reibella’s gaze snapped to him. “I am exquisitely polite. The universe just has poor manners.”

  Zemmal’s voice came edged. Where? Reibella tilted her head again, listening to nothing. “There is a ridge line northwest of the RC3 compound. Old forest. Thin patrols. The land there still remembers how to hide. You will arrive under cover.”

  “Under cover,” Lavender’s voice was sardonic.

  “A hollow,” Reibella said. “A fold. A pocked of trees that have learned to keep secrets. You will have enough distance to orient yourselves before you move.”

  Brute glanced at Lavender. “That means we’ll be hiking.” Lavender sighed. “Of course we will.” “You love hiking,” he said cheerfully. “I love not being shot,” she replied. He nodded, approving. “Practical.”

  Reibella stepped away from the column. “Before we go, we review the plan one last time. For the dramatic among us.”

  Brute lifted his paw. “That’s me.” Reibella ignored him. “Lavender and Brute enter as employees. You do not touch anyone. You do not speak more than necessary. You do not engage with questions you are not asked.”

  Lavender’s eyes narrowed. “So basically, act like Authority.”

  Reibella smiled thinly. “Exactly.”

  Zemmal’s voice rumbled. And I wait.

  “You wait,” Reibella confirmed. “You remain in the woods. You keep your presence low. If you flare, their sensors will sense you through concrete.” Zemmal’s gaze hardened. I can restrain myself. Reibella’s smile turned faintly amused. “Can you?” Zemmal did not respond. Lavender felt the restraint in his silence.

  Reibella turned to Lavender. “If you feel the glamour strain, if your scars heat too sharply, if the air tastes like attention… you retreat.” Lavender nodded. “And if Authority tries to stop us?” Reibella’s voice went quiet. “Then you do not let them touch you.”

  Brute’s ears angled back. “No contact.”

  “No contact,” Reibella echoed.

  Lavender drew in a slow breath. “And if something happens that we can’t ignore?” Reibella’s gaze pinned her. “You will ignore it.” Lavender’s jaw clenched. “That’s easy for you to say.” Reibella’s expression flickered; something like pain, quick and alien. Then the quirk returned, too bright. “Yes,” she said lightly. “It is. That’s one of the perks of being Death. I’m allowed to be heartless in public.”

  Zemmal’s voice was low with warning. Mother… Reibella’s eyes snapped toward him, and the air thickened for a heartbeat. Lavender felt the castle respond, stone tightening, light dimming. Then, Reibella blinked, and it released.

  “Fine,” Reibella sighed. “Not heartless. Strategic. You will have time to save people later. You cannot save anyone if you are dead.” Lavender swallowed. The logic was brutal. It was also true.

  Brute leaned into Lavender’s leg again, grounding. “We go in, we watch, we leave,” he said quietly. “We come back with a better map and plan than we have now.”

  Reibella smiled, pleased. “Yes. Very good. Look at you using sense.” Brute snorted. “Don’t get used to it.”

  Stepping into the center of the courtyard, the stone beneath Reibella’s feet darkened, as if shadow had spread like liquid. The air tasted suddenly like cold rain and electricity. Lavender’s scars warmed in response. The thread. “Before I move you,” Reibella said, voice carrying a strange softness, “you will listen to one more thing.” Lavender held still. Reibella’s gaze mt her, mismatched eyes mirroring Lavender’s own in a way that always made Lavender’s stomach twist. “If things go poorly,” Reibella said, “you run.”

  Lavender began to protest, “I’m not…”

  “You run,” Reibella repeated, firmer. “You do not ‘stand your ground.’ You do not make speeches. You do not decide this is where you become a legend. Legends are dead people with better marketing.”

  Brute made a sound that might have been a laugh. Reibella glanced at him. “Don’t encourage me.”

  Lavender swallowed, then nodded once. “Fine.”

  Zemmal’s voice came slow. And if she cannot?

  Reibella’s smile sharpened again. “She will,” she said, and Lavender didn’t know if it was faith or threat.

  Brute shifted closer to Lavender’s side. “Ready,” he said, even though his voice carried a tightness that betrayed him. She exhaled, “no.” Brute’s grin flashed anyway. “Same thing.”

  Reibella lifted both hands, palms outward. The air rippled like a curtain drawn back. The courtyard’s edges blurred. Lavender’s stomach dropped as the world decided to become something else.

  “Close enough to travel,” Reibella murmured, almost to herself, “far enough to hide. Woods that still know how to keep their mouths shut. Yes. That will do.”

  Lavender felt Brute press into her leg harder. Zemmal’s presence became stronger, protective and restrained. Reibella’s eyes softened for a half a second. “Remember,” she said, voice quiet. “Observe. Gather. Return.” Lavender’s scars pulsed once, steady.

  Then the world folded. Not like falling or flying. Like being turned inside out and then politely returned to herself. Cold air hit her face. Damp. Alive with pine and soil. The smell of a world that had been scrubbed clean. Lavender staggered one step and caught herself on instinct. Brute landed beside her without losing balance, as if this was merely another irritating Tuesday.

  They stood in dense woods, the trees tall and close enough to blot out the sky. The ground was soft with needles and moss. Somewhere in the distance a faint hum muted by the terrain echoed that didn’t belong to nature.

  Authority.

  Zemmal’s massive shadow settled behind them with a low, controlled exhale. He arrived slightly farther back, half hidden between trunks, his scales already dulling to match shadow.

  Reibella remained for a moment, standing among the trees like she belonged there as much as the roots. Her presence made the forest feel too quiet. “You have enough distance,” she said. “You will move when the patrol shift changes. Brute will lead. Lavender will watch… Do not die,” Reibella finished bright.

  Brute’s tail thumped, “We’ll try.”

  Reibella tilted her head, listening to something far away. Then she stepped backward… and the forest forgot she had been there. Only her last words lingered, threaded into the air like a warning and blessing at once.

  Lavender stared into the trees toward the distant hum of Authority’s control, her heart hammering, her scars warm and steady as if the world itself was waiting to see whether she could pass through the mouth of the machine without being swallowed.

  Brute nudged her leg. “Alright,” he whispered. “We’re employees now.”

  Lavender swallowed and forced her breath to steady. “Then let’s go be forgettable.”

  Thank you for reading my story. I spent a long time working on it and am glad I get to share it with others. Not your speed though? Check out another cool author below to give a try!