They stopped by the Dossier as Elara asked. She had apparently slipped away when Lenda, after a brief shopping trip, had inserted herself into a fight ring and won a few hundred coppers. Now there were at least twice as many people working on the Dossier as before—all of whom had lost to Lenda in the ring.

Apparently, it was very boring down by the docks.

Lenda was taping up her bruised knuckles, sitting on a foldout chair in the mouth of the hull. “What? It’s not my fault they lost.” A guy passing them carrying new coils for the solar engine high-fived her. “Besides, work’s been pretty sparse with all the shit going down in the kingdom. And I’m still payin’ them.”

Ana quirked an eyebrow. “With what money?”

“The money I won off ’em in the fighting ring, obviously. Oy!” Lenda called around them, pointing to a squirrelly man folding up some of the Dossier’s laundry on the docks. “Fold the towels left side first! Goddess’s spark, gimme a minute.” Slamming her hands on the armrests, she pushed herself up and strode down to the dock.

Xu had pulled out a box and was sitting on it at the edge of the ramp, their legs crossed beneath them, letting a beautiful monarch butterfly rest in the middle of their face where, if human, their nose would be. The butterfly flitted its wings, fanning them out like a skysailer in full glide. Ana couldn’t imagine this Metal, with the patience of a saint, ever donning the Messier uniform.

But then again, she’d never thought Di would, either.

Ana and Robb grabbed a rucksack with a few provisions from the galley—a few fruit preserves, a flash-dried nutrient bar—and as they were about to leave, Lenda asked, “Has the guard captain found you yet?”

Ana frowned. “No, I thought she might’ve come back here. Maybe she’s still praying?”

“She isn’t one to just disappear on us, though,” Robb added, slinging the sack over his shoulder.

“What would you do if you were tortured for six months?”

To that, he pursed his lips.

“Perhaps she needs time,” said Xu, startling the butterfly off their face. They watched it flutter away before adding, “I am sure she still has . . . things she must sort out on her own.”

Ana agreed. “And we’ll be here when she wants to talk. Lenda, if we’re not back by sundown . . .”

“Tell the captain, yeah,” Lenda replied, looking up from her taped knuckles. “You know, Xu says the ark is off-limits. To everyone.”

Ana rolled her eyes. “What are they gonna do, arrest a dead Empress?”

“They could arrest a live one,” Xu replied.

She sighed at that. “Do you know about this Koren Vey?”

The Metal shook their head. “I cannot say. I made a promise.”

The more she thought about Elara’s timing in contacting her as Starbright, the more suspicious all of this became.

Lenda ran her fingers through her hair. “Just be careful. I don’t want the captain having my head.”