‘It was not intended to be a joke,’ Ashava says. ‘Merely an observation that perhaps you struggle with Eugenia because she is so much like you. Because you are to her what Adelynn was to you.’

I shake my head. ‘Adelynn was a hero.’

‘And you are not?’ Ashava asks. ‘You survived Ophelia VII.’

‘So did you,’ I reply. ‘So did plenty of others.’

‘Not like you did,’ Ashava says simply. ‘You are a symbol, Eva.’

I feel my face flush, and it makes the edges of the mark on my face prickle as though they are alight. ‘How is it that we are talking about me again?’

‘Because that is what I need from you, Eva,’ Ashava says, looking down at herself. ‘I cannot be swift for you now. I cannot use the sword how I once could.’

‘Ashava–’ I begin.

She shakes her head. ‘I look not for pity. It is merely fact. I will find another way to fight, but I do not need my swiftness or my blade to listen to you. It is something I can do just as well as I could before.’

‘All right,’ I say. ‘If that is what you need.’

‘I think it is what we both need,’ she says. ‘Burdens shared are more easily borne. That is why we are a Sisterhood. We are stronger together.’

‘You are right,’ I say, thinking of what I told Eugenia earlier, about my Sisters being my family.

‘So tell me what is troubling you,’ Ashava replies.

I exhale a slow breath. It clouds the air, just as it did in my dream.

‘I have been dreaming,’ I tell her. ‘For the first time since I was a child. The first came to me as I healed, the second as I knelt to pray.’

Anyone else would drown me with devotion, but not Ashava. She remains calm, and kind.

‘What was it you saw?’ she asks.

‘The same thing I saw all that time ago,’ I tell her. ‘A path of ninety-nine aquila-stones that lead to a set of ironclad gates, wrought in Saint Katherine’s likeness.’

‘Do you think you dream this way because of how you arrived at the convents?’

‘It is what led me to the convents,’ I say. ‘As a girl, I thought it a sign, but tonight when I dreamt it again, it had changed.’

‘Changed,’ Ashava says. ‘How?’

‘When I was a child, the dream would always end at the gates,’ I say, keeping my eyes fixed on the tiny eagle and his laurel wreath. ‘But this time, I went beyond them.’

I tell her then about the pedestal and the Shield and about Adelynn, too. I tell her everything save for those three words.

Are you ready?

‘I asked Adelynn to tell me how to find the Shield,’ I say. ‘But she told me that I already have the answer. That I need to trust in myself to find it.’