The doctor shrugged. “I don’t know, but I have it on good authority that even if your kind discovered the place, you would never be able to get into the labs.” He bared his teeth at us. “So go to Osero, if you must. You won’t get in, and if the Ur-God is just, you might very well end up being our first victims.”

* * *

We briefed the Minister in the comfort of his home, before retiring to our rooms at the Crystal Hotel for a much needed late-night dinner. We would leave for Parabas just before noon, after grabbing a few hours of sleep. The Minister would contact the Chief Mage of Osero and ensure his full cooperation with our mission. The Capitol library would provide us a map of Nika and its environs before we left, so that we could be prepared for what lay ahead.

“It is quite possible that we may not be able to get into the lab, as the doctor suggests,” Iannis said, his arm curled around me as we lay in bed, showered and fed now. He’d booked two adjoining rooms, my luggage was in the second one, but I had no intention of sleeping in a separate bed. “Certain wards are impossible to break, even for me. In that case, we may have to destroy the entire building from outside.”

“And kill all the people in it?” I frowned. “What if they have innocents in there? They may use test subjects they’re experimenting on, perhaps even mages, if they are trying to create a formula to target them specifically.”

“It would be regrettable, but I don’t see that we have a choice,” Iannis said. “We cannot risk the lives of the entire Federation for the sake of a few.”

I sighed. I hated that sort of thing—sacrificing one to save the lives of many—but I couldn’t argue against the logic in this scenario. If the Resistance was using innocent test subjects, they were probably going to die anyway, so blowing up the building would only accelerate their tragic fate. “Still, if there is any way to stop this madness without resorting to mass killings, we should try to find it.”

“Of course.”

I slept uneasily that night, despite being cradled in Iannis’s warm, comforting embrace. My thoughts were too tangled up in my worries for me to settle down. How were Annia and Elnos faring? What was Noria up to? Had Comenius received any word from them? I wished I could rush to their side now, but I had to admit the news about the Osero lab was extremely troubling. If I was being fair and logical, shutting it down was more urgent than rescuing my friends.