Asees let out a loud laugh and Karam closed her eyes and leaned back onto her palms. These rare moments of peace in all the dire things the realms were trying to throw at them needed to be savored. The sound of her friends’ laughter and the feel of Arjun’s disgusting sweat-slicked arm brushing up against hers, like they were truly inseparable. The sound of his blade picking at the dirt while the trees sang them a lullaby.

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” Karam said.

Quick, like snapping a bone back into place.

“Leaving to go where?” Arjun asked.

“Tisvgen,” Karam said. “And then maybe Creije.”

“You mean you’re going to find Wesley, then,” Arjun said.

Karam stood and dusted off her palms, soil scattering back to the forest.

“I want you to come with me,” she said to her old friend. “I know that together we can bring him back and give our armies the last missing piece they need to win this war.”

“It isn’t even a question,” Arjun said. And then, quickly—perhaps a little too quickly: “And not because I care about the underboss. I just know you’ll definitely need my help.”

Karam was tempted to start sparring again, if only to knock some sense into him.

“You could at least pretend to ask for my permission,” Asees said.

She looked between them both with raised eyebrows, and Karam almost felt guilty for not considering that. She was Arjun’s Liege, after all.

“Come with us,” Karam said. “Arjun wasn’t wrong when he spoke about us making a great team. The three of us against the world? We could do this.”

Asees tried to hold back her smile, but Karam could see it. If there was a chance to hurt Ashwood—the man who’d nearly destroyed her Kin—then Karam knew that she would take it.

“I have been working with Saxony and the other Lieges to keep peace and strategize,” Asees said. “But I think she has that under control herself now. She is strong.”

Karam had always known that.

“I would be honored for you to join me in this,” Karam said. “With some of your Kin, too, if possible.”

“Ah.” A knowing smile dawned on Asees’s face. “So you were going to take my second in command and my Crafters, but not me?”

Karam only shrugged. “A few Crafters on my team couldn’t hurt.”

“It would be nice to stretch our legs,” Asees said. “I’m sure the rest of the Kin have been feeling a little trapped in this place.”

“We wouldn’t need many,” Karam said. “And since you and Arjun are Spiritcrafters, the rest we bring should be Energycrafters and Intuitcrafters. A good mix of gifts will be invaluable for seeing the course ahead and staving off the weather if the mountains in Tisvgen prove unstable.”