Lucille takes a sip of her tea and considers this. After a moment, she looks up to Valec, not me. “Ideal thing for a crafter like her is to forward her on to a station, then to Volition.”

Valec crosses his arms. “Best place to contain all that juice, I suppose. Especially with the attacks increasing.”

“Attacks?” Sel asks.

“What’s Volition?” William says. I notice he’s already helped himself to the tea Mariah’s offered.

“You’ll see,” Mariah answers. I give her a look, but she just smirks.

Valec responds to Sel. “Lesser demons have been crossing over more frequently lately. Hunting aether users, strong ones. Consuming them to gain power.” Valec’s eyes narrow. “Word has it that they’re foot soldiers. Scouts, ahead of something big coming from the other side.”

Sel’s attention sharpens. “Camlann.”

Valec’s eyes snap to his. “One of the few ancient words our worlds share, but yes. There are rumors of Camlann. Well, the Camlann of Camlanns, really. Folks are talking like this could be the last one.”

“Last like, final, and then there are no more Camlanns?” I ask. “Or last like… big boom and it might be the demons, might be the humans, but in the end, one group is in control of the world?”

Valec shrugs. “Either scenario is bad for business, as you might imagine.”

“One of those scenarios ends with humans subjugated to demons though?” Mariah says, disgust plain on her face.

“Oh, sure. That’s the worst one, definitely,” Valec confirms. His grin does not at all instill confidence. “In that one, the Shadow Court comes to play.”

“Excuse me?” I ask.

He smirks. “Ancient rumors about the endgame of Camlann and a demon court trapped on the other side that can match the Table in numbers and strength. Before they were allegedly put away, they were beholden to no law, no belief but their own pursuit of chaos and terror.”

“Bedtime stories,” Sel spits. “What they tell little Merlins who think they can single-handedly win the war.”

Valec smiles. “I bet that was you, wasn’t it?”

“Quiet!” Lucille waves a hand. “I have appointments and I don’t have time to watch two cambions snipe at each other.”

“Neither do I,” I murmur.

Lucille nods curtly. “Listen to me. The stations are how we move Rootcrafters whose powers are big enough to draw attention from Merlins,” Lucille says pointedly. Sel shifts in his seat as she sends him a hard look. “Hard-pressed to use our network to help hide you, your friend, and these two. I need a better reason than you’ve got powers you can’t control and the Order’s looking for you. And we got more than rumors about Camlann to worry about. There’s word the Hunter’s afoot again.”

Valec curses. “Jesus.”

I freeze. “The… Hunter?”