Beltran was given several vials and instructions for when to drink them, after his head wound was cleaned up and stitched. He stood up too quickly, wavered, then steadied himself, gingerly walked to a mirror in the infirmary, and rearranged his hair to cover the obvious damage. Kordas sat in one of infirmary’s chairs, elbows on his knees, palms over his eyes.

There’s a lot to think through, but we had another purpose in going to the Annex, and now it feels more urgent than ever.

The Healers left them in the little room they had been taken to when they first arrived, returning to whatever they had been doing when Star brought them here. Nothing, probably. He very much doubted that they saw much work here in the Palace other than patching up dueling wounds.

Maybe they thought we’d been doing some odd variant on dueling that involved blunt instruments.

Come to think of it, that wouldn’t surprise him.

“We’re going back. Now,” he said curtly, and walked to the nearby Gate, only glancing to see if Beltran and Star followed. He had to give credit to Beltran—even after that ordeal, the Herald was game for whatever Valdemar needed from him.

Kordas asked his companions, as the Portal activated beside him, “You steady?”

Beltran nodded, and straightened his tabard. Star answered, “Broken but not beaten, my Lord,” and they stepped through.

Half a candlemark later, with a brief pause to pull those giant splinters out of Star and discard them, all three stood outside a double-sized, heavy door painted in repeating red stripes. It didn’t have handles or locks, but rather, levers connected to heavy bars that crossed the door-width to socket into brass shackles. Unbidden, Star explained, “Former magical laboratory. Industrial production enhancements, which made what was done within especially valuable, since it impacted Imperial power. Thus, protected from explosions within and intrusions without.”