‘Daemons lie, Qi-Oh,’ she says. ‘That is what you said.’ She starts to pace the circle, her voice hoarse and raised. She punctuates every word by pointing her finger at me. ‘But you are the one who lied.’

‘I have never lied to you.’

‘You promised me vengeance!’ she shouts. ‘In the chapel. In this circle. You swore it.’

‘Enough!’ I shout back at her. ‘I will not have this from you, Qi-Oh.’

I stare her down.

‘I asked you before we set sail for the Throneworld if you had quarrel with me, and you told me no. Yet you looked me in the eyes and disobeyed my direct orders. You put all of our lives at risk for the sake of your own pride.’

Qi-Oh stops her pacing. ‘Pride,’ she says, in a low, dangerous voice. ‘You think this is about pride?’

She approaches me, stopping just short of crossing the circle.

‘Calyth is dead,’ she says. ‘She was hacked apart by weaklings. By those who shed their faith like a cloak the moment the darkness got close. And for what?’

I hold her stare. ‘For the sake of our duty.’

Qi-Oh shakes her head. Her hazel eye is glossy. ‘No,’ she snarls. ‘It’s all for your sake. The slaughter. Calyth’s death. Everything. It is all because of you.’

Those last six words echo in the hollowness of the training hall. They seem to echo in my head, too. To settle heavily on me, like the cloak on my back and the sword at my hip.

Like the blood, all over my hands.

‘You’re right.’

Qi-Oh blinks. She lowers her sword, just a little.

‘What did you say?’ she asks.

‘I said that you are right. None of this would be happening were we not taking the path laid out for me.’

Qi-Oh shakes her head. ‘Don’t do that.’

‘Do what?’

‘Be so humble,’ she says. ‘So damned forgiving. I disobeyed you. Dis­respected you. You said it yourself. I deserve a reprimand. I should bleed for what I’ve done.’

It is my turn to shake my head now, because I see what she wants from me, and I will not give it to her. ‘I won’t fight you, Qi-Oh. Not this time.’

‘Why?’ she shouts. ‘Because you are blessed? Because you are chosen? Because you are so much better than me?’

‘Because you are my Sister,’ I shout back.

Those words echo between us, too. They resonate, like a struck chime. Qi-Oh watches me for a long moment before lowering her blade.

‘No,’ she says. ‘I have no Sisters. Not any more.’

She turns her back on me and limps towards the centre of the circle, and I realise that she is much more than just the anger I saw before. That rage is just the exposed, ragged edge of something buried much deeper. Something she is ashamed of, as I am.

Grief.

‘I know that it hurts,’ I say.