The words struck Vierna like lightning, peeling away the layers of denial she had woven by trying to keep her mind busy during the celebration and after. Just when she had started to forget for a moment, Lina’s question dragged it all back—the weight of being branded a traitor. Panic and fear flooded her consciousness, drowning every trace of relief and joy she had felt.

  Her chest seized. Breath wouldn’t come. Then too much of it. Fast, shallow. The room narrowed to a tunnel. Her ears rang. Her hands went numb and prickled. Cold sweat slid down her spine.

  She dropped to her knees. Her lips shook. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked, small and useless. She tried to slow her breathing. It only sped up.

  Lina reached out to embrace her. She looked into Vierna’s eyes—still wide, still shaking in disbelief. “Hey… what’s wrong?”

  “Lina… I messed up. Spectacularly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Vierna reached to her pocket, pulling out the cylindrical object that she found after her hard won victory.

  “What is this smoky thing?” Lina took it and inspected it, then her eyes widened as she noticed the ouroboros sigil. A sigil she knew all too well too.

  “I found this thing when I finished off the cultists. I don’t think they were cultists, Lina… I think they were Arkmarschall Leopold’s men. Maybe he intended for us to find them.”“But for what?”

  “Maybe for us to coordinate with them. I definitely doubt that Arkmarschall Leopold wanted us to kill them.”

  Lina’s eyes widened with denial, If what Vierna said was true, then she was a dead woman walking. “Wait, wait, wait—this is your panic speaking. They could simply just stole this thing.”

  “No Lina, it didn’t make sense… I mean why would they steal a device like this? What it does is that it only shows us a violet trail, and apparently the only one who can see this trail is us, no one else in the room or during the trial seems to notice the smoke.”

  “No, there must be some logical explanation. Come here, let’s try to crack this thing. There must be something there.”

  Vierna and Lina put the cylindrical object on the table. The violet trail still emitted from it.

  The cylindrical thing was no larger than a man’s palm, cold to the touch and deceptively simple. No seams, no rivets, not even the faintest hint of where metal might have been joined. It looked carved rather than forged, its surface etched with looping runes that coiled inward toward a faint ouroboros sigil. The metal itself gave off a dull sheen, almost organic under the light, as if it was absorbing rather than reflecting it.

  “Hmmm…”

  “Lina, try to pour some of your mana on it, maybe it would react?”

  “Okay.”

  Lina pressed her palm against it and let a faint stream of mana flow inside. The glow from her hand rippled across the surface, but the device remained inert. The violet-pink trail that had lingered around it stayed the same, steady and unwavering, as if mocking their effort.

  “Did it do anything?” Lina asked.

  “Don’t think so, the smoke still the same, and the rune also didn’t glow.”

  “What the hell is this thing.”

  Vierna leaned closer, studying every line of the rune with narrowing eyes. She tried to recall anything from her readings, any script, any ward, any kind of binding mark that resembled this pattern, but nothing came close. Even the structure of the sigil was alien; it broke the conventional symmetry of known rune craft. Whoever made this didn’t intend it for public knowledge. It was as if it was crafted for a single purpose only.

  “Lina, if we are the only one who can saw the trail, lets assume that this device was created only to catch our attention and no one else.”

  “No, Vierna. Maybe there’s something here, something we missed.”

  Vierna looked at her. “Lina, what if the people I killed were actually sent by the Arkmarschall to help us gain the villagers’ trust? What if they were there to assist us? Think about it—the camp had far more supplies than two personnel would ever need. What if they were meant for us to bring back to the village, to make us look like heroes?”

  “How can you be so sure that was his intention?”

  Vierna’s voice lowered, trembling between reason and fear. “It’s because of the smoke, Lina. We’re the only ones who can see it. What if the Arkmarschall designed it that way—to make one of us find them?”

  Even now, Lina couldn’t fully deny it. She still hoped the device was some kind of important relic that a cult member had stolen from the Arkmarschall. But then again, if that really was the case, why were they camping in the woods instead of heading directly to the cult’s hideout? From what she’d seen back then, there were no caves, no abandoned structures—nothing the cult could have used as a base.

  Besides, Einhartturm was completely under Arkmarschall Leopold’s control, and the idea that someone could steal from him was absurd. That place was one of the safest places in the entire Reich. Vierna had even mentioned that Albrecht was placed there instead of his own county because it was safer for him. It was hard to imagine anyone escaping from that place unscathed.

  “That’s why she thought of us as Imperium…” Vierna continued. “Because she believed there’s no way an agent of the Reich would attack them.”

  “Hold on a second,” Lina said. “What if this was a test from Herr Leopold?”

  “A test?”

  “Yeah. You know, like we’re supposed to kill them to prove our strength. Something like that.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Vierna rubbed her chin, thinking it through carefully. “But doesn’t Herr Leopold hate wasting his people?

  I mean those soldiers. It’s clear they were Splittermarsch troops. That means they were his experiments.

  I don’t know about the larger one, but the girl I fought was so strong that I could guess she was close to a success. It took two of us to corner her, and even then she nearly overwhelmed us. Sending them to die just to test us would mean wasting manpower. Do you remember when Albrecht told us about Einhartturm military strategy?”

  “That it was vastly different from another place?”

  “Yes! I mean Herr Leopold didn’t even use Aschezug as canon fodder like other place. That was just how effective he was when using his man. And you are telling he sending his two almost experiment just to test either we are ready or not? That’s basically sending them do die for nothing.”

  “But they don’t die for nothing. They die to test us, and I don’t know, maybe that’s not a waste to Herr Leopold? He was preparing us for that super duper important mission remember?”

  “Then it would be even stranger if that was the case.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You weren’t there. If his intention was to test us, he would’ve made sure we were the ones fighting them. Not me and Fenric.”

  Lina frowned.

  “If this was a test, there were too many uncontrolled variables,” Vierna said. “What if it had been you, me, and a group of villagers instead? What if someone else stumbled on them first? That wouldn’t be a reliable test at all.”

  “But the smoke,” Lina said. “Only we could see it, right?”

  “That could mean anything,” Vierna replied. “It doesn’t automatically mean we were meant to kill them.”

  Lina looked at Vierna. “Then what should we do?” she asked, her voice almost breaking.

  “I don’t know, Lin…”

  Both of them looked at the floor, searching for something—anything—that could get them out of this mess.

  “Vierna… let’s run away.”

  “Where to, Lin?” Vierna asked softly, her voice cracking under the weight of exhaustion. The lantern light trembled across her face, tracing the dark circles beneath her eyes.

  “I don’t know. Anywhere. We could live together like we always wanted. You could hunt, and I could… I don’t know, but there must be something I could do. We’ll leave this all behind and find freedom.”

  Vierna smiled bitterly. “Then how about your revenge? Without the Reich, what can we do?”

  Lina took Vierna’s hand. It was cold—white and pale under the lantern light. “I still want my revenge. And we could still do that, but if they catch us, brand us as traitors, then it is a permanent good bye to that dream.”

  Vierna held Lina’s hand back, but she didn’t reply. The two of them stay silent for a while.

  “Or maybe we join the revolutionaries for real,” Lina said.

  Vierna half-smiled. “Haha… and fight against the Reich?”

  “Yeah. I don’t know, Vierna—as long as we’re both alive, I don’t mind becoming a rebel.”

  Vierna placed her hand on Lina’s face. Lina held it as if it were a treasure—something precious that would vanish the moment she let go.

  “I’m glad that you’re willing to go that far for me,” Vierna said softly. “However, I feel like I’ll lose myself if I run away.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Vierna looked toward the window of the hall. The moon hung distant and pale. “Lina… I love you. Running away with you feels like the only option.”

  “Then—”

  “And yet,” Vierna cut her off, “I can’t. I’m indebted to Herr Leopold—for putting so much trust in me, for curing me of my weakness. He saw something in me that even my mother didn’t. He believed in me, and I can’t return that belief with betrayal.”

  “But Vierna… what you did was a grave mistake.” Lina’s voice quivered as she spoke, each word scraping against the lump in her throat. “I don’t know if the Arkmarschall would even spare you if you stayed loyal. You killed his men, Vierna… and he’s not known for his mercy.”

  “But still, running away won’t solve anything.” Vierna’s voice shook. “We’d spend the rest of our lives worrying, always looking over our shoulders. The stress of it would consume us, and it would change me! What if one day I poured all my frustration onto you? I don’t want that. I don’t want to live in fear.”

  “It’s still better than dying!”

  “I know, Lina, I know… everything you said makes sense. It’s just—I can’t do it. I don’t know why, but I can’t!”

  Vierna’s voice echoed through the hollow hall.

  “When he asks me,” she continued, “I’ll tell him the truth—that you had nothing to do with the mistake. That would—”

  “Don’t you dare!” Lina’s eyes were now brimming with conviction, a will made of iron. “If he’s going to hang you, he’ll have to hang me too.”

  “What? Lina, I don’t want you to die. You could still find happiness even without me.”

  “What happiness?” Lina shot back without hesitation. “Without you, I’d just be the girl who wanted to die—like who I was back then.”

  “There are a lot of people who are better than me, Lina. Please, for my sake… I don’t want you to suffer for my mistake.”

  “Vierna, you were always there for me. You accepted me—my imperfections and all. You never tried to dissuade me from getting my revenge. That acceptance is what saved me. So if you’re going to die, I’ll follow you.”

  Lina held Vierna’s hand firmly. “Just like you never ridiculed my quest for revenge, I won’t ridicule your conviction. If this is the path you choose, then it’s the path I choose too. No matter what, we’ll stay together.”

  “Lina… why? Why are you like this?”

  “I could ask you the same, you oaf. But here we are—two idiots stuck together. All we can do now is face whatever’s coming.”

  Hearing Lina declare her loyalty again and again made Vierna question herself. What had she done in her previous life to deserve someone like Lina? Even with the Faintborn’s blessing and a mother who never loved her, she would still choose this life again if it was the only one that led her to Lina.

  “Thank you.”

  They hugged each other for a while, clinging tighter than either of them intended—as if their bodies understood something their minds refused to accept. Vierna could feel Lina’s heartbeat against her chest, quick and uneven, matching her own. Neither spoke. The hall was silent except for their shallow breaths and the faint creak of old wood beneath them.

  They finally pulled apart. The cold air rushed back between them, and for a moment, the emptiness of the hall felt unbearable. They sat down again, side by side, the echo of their warmth still lingering between their shoulders.

  “So, what are we going to do tomorrow?” Lina asked.

  “Well, I’ll just continue with this mission. I’ll try to gather more information from Fenric and pretend I didn’t just fuck up royally.”

  “No… With all that wound you suffer?” Lina said as she inspect Vierna’s bandage. “You are resting tomorrow.”

  “I want to Lin, believe me but we had to keep our disguise, right now we are on massive debt you remember? We need to pretend to try our hardest to pay Korrn’s debt, if they didn’t saw our desperation they will suspect something.”

  Lina rubbed her chin, thinking about what Vierna saw. Despite her complain that she didn’t catch the situation with Yvlaine, Vierna was still sharp.

  “Hmmm… Okay then, I’ll do the same,” Lina said. “Right now we know the tea’s name. Loran’del didn’t come to me today—maybe he wanted me to stay here so he could monitor me—but after everything, I don’t think he’ll keep that up. So I’ll go to Aila tomorrow.”

  “Aila?”

  “Yeah, she’s the beastkin who stitched my back, right? Maybe she works as a healer or something. And like I told you, I know a bit about herbal medicine and ointments, so I think she’ll welcome an extra pair of hands. While I’m at it, I’ll snoop around and see if she has any books on food poisoning—maybe Hairon Root poisoning is listed there too.”

  “Hmmm… but would she even have that kind of book?”

  “My mother was a healer, and she had one, so I assume every healer keeps something like that.”

  “That would be really helpful. I also think there’s a medicine for Hairon Root Tea’s effect. Fenric ate something back then, and it seemed to help him a bit. I didn’t ask what it was—it seems the tea only harms you if you lie, so I didn’t want him to suspect anything.”

  “That’s good,” Lina said. “Well, I won’t ask anyone either if that’s the case. I’ll just take a look at that book if it exists. I really hope it does—I don’t want Moony to stay injured for too long.”

  “Thank you, Lin… you’re the best.”

  “Hehe… we both are the best. Now let’s sleep. I’m exhausted.” Lina smiled.

  Both girls departed to the back of the hall. Pretending, for one last night, that everything was going to be all right.