Broomstick took the horses off to find a place to drink, and Sora tucked herself between a mossy rock and a scraggly tree growing sideways to protect itself from the wind. She began to call on her ryuu particles to form a tiny dragonfly, then she stopped.

Her messengers didn’t have to be dragonflies. This was her magic. She could make the messenger anything she wanted. Sora smiled a little. When life seemed impossible, holding on to small joys helped her get through to the possible.

Sora closed her eyes and rested her head against the moss. She wanted to create something beautiful, because there was enough that was ugly in the world right now.

She remembered her Level 10 year. The apprentices had learned to dive like the pearl divers did. Sora still recalled one of their lessons when their teacher had led them to the bottom of a sandy canyon and motioned for them to be still.

He’d pointed a stick into the distance.

Sora squinted for a moment, not seeing anything in the sandy water.

Suddenly, though, something emerged from the haze. A fever of eagle rays—eight in all—flapping their wings majestically and in perfect formation like elegant raptors flying in the sky, except they were massive beasts in the bottom of the Kichona Sea. Sora had let out a gasp and forgotten for a moment that she was underwater, that she needed to conserve her breath. Daemon had been there to quickly nudge her chin to close her mouth.

Sora envisioned that dive now as she called on the ryuu particles around her. They coalesced into a shimmering, emerald eagle ray, although much smaller than the ones she had seen. Sora also made it visible, not just ryuu particles that she could see, because otherwise Daemon and Fairy wouldn’t know it was there.

Broomstick returned with the horses. He gawked appreciatively at her work.

But whatever joy Sora had felt at creating the eagle ray vanished as she wrote the note to go with it.

Dear Daemon and Fairy,

We got your report about Prince Gin’s shipyard and how quickly he’s going to be ready to declare war. We have to stop him as soon as we can. Keep searching for Empress Aki and hurting Prince Gin in whatever way possible.

Broomstick and I just passed the Striped Coves, and we’re about two days away from Naimo Ice Caves. Along the way, though, we’ve learned a few things—

1. With Zomuri as Kichona’s patron god now, Zomuri’s viciousness is leeching into the people. They’re more irritable than usual and, sometimes, flat-out mean.

2. Mama didn’t have much on the Lake of Nightmares other than a few notes, including one that the Lake of Nightmares is made of water that causes hallucinations, making anyone who tries to swim in it believe the worst version of themselves.