I breathe out, anxiousness vibrating my hands. “Is this because of Lucien? Is Varia really that afraid of him? He doesn’t know much—”

I freeze, my words crystallizing in their tracks as I remember yesterday. He knows about Weeping. And I’m convinced that shadow listening to Gavik and me was him. He knows much more than I ever thought possible.

“Come,” Yorl demands. “We have no time to spare thinking.”

I grumble. “Never thought I’d hear that from you, Master Polymath.”

“I seem to have acquired your curious habit,” Yorl admits. “Of leaping first and pondering later. Not the best stratagem, but you’ve shown me it can be effective at times.”

I scoff, my anxiousness lessened barely by a grain of pride.

Evlorasin is wide awake when Yorl and I step into the arena, tail thrashing so violently I feel a little stone shaken from the ceiling plink off my skull.

“Starving Wolf,” it says, voice somehow hoarser than before. Weaker. It’s under a caravan-load of painkiller concoctions but still suffering from its injuries, though Yorl insisted he patched those up.

“Good morning, Ev,” I wave, perhaps in the wrong direction. “Feeling any better?”

The valkerax pauses, then, “Ev?”

“Yeah. I’ve decided to give you a nickname.”

“Nicking-name?” I hear the confused thrashing of its tail again, feel the air displaced by it decimate my hairstyle I worked so hard on this morning.

“It’s a shorter name you give someone you like. Someone who’s close to you. And considering I’ve seen down your throat in perfect detail, I’d say we’re pretty close at this point.”

“We are a river of regret after the rains,” it admits. “Overflowing. We are sorry for the death of many. We had to run.”

I feel massive heat close to me and reach out blindly, my hand coming to rest on Evlorasin’s haunch.

“I know. Sometimes I feel like running, too.” I pull Varia’s white mercury sword from my hip. I run my knuckles over the delicately woven basket handle. “But it’s almost over. Today, we’re going to cut you with the white mercury I talked about.”

“The blade of metal to the throat of the song! We have waited eternally long!” Evlorasin’s voice sounds eager, and suddenly it can barely sit still, curling around me in multiple loops. I laugh—it’s almost cute. But my joy is short as I remember exactly how it rampaged in the tunnel, mouth open and ready to devour what felt like the whole world.