“Good people can still do terrible things.” His eyes darted to the blade before returning to my face. “Do you think, with the power of the bone shard magic at her fingertips, she’ll just give it up? She may be returning the shards to people, and she may be dismantling the constructs, but what do you think will happen when she faces an immediate crisis that can be solved with her magic? You’ve been around her: you know her better than any of us Shardless Few. Do you think she won’t use the power she has at her disposal, even just this once, to handle it?”

I thought of the way she’d so cavalierly offered money and workers to develop the mine near Riya when we weren’t even sure what was causing the islands to sink. “She wouldn’t,” I said, and made myself believe it.

“You’re choosing the wrong person to be loyal to. She won’t be Emperor for long, not when the supply of caro nuts dries up.”

He said it like he knew. “You. You’ve had something to do with that, haven’t you? There are other islands that produce nuts, and the Empire’s coffers are deep enough to procure them. When there’s enough money, someone is always able to provide.” It was the same with witstone. He knew this; everyone did.

Unless he’d brokered a deal with the Ioph Carn too. I narrowed my eyes as I regarded him and he didn’t waver. He had, hadn’t he? But this wasn’t my fight. Lin would have to find a way to deal with both the Shardless Few and the Ioph Carn. I brushed past Gio, Mephi on my heels.

“Jovis,” Gio called after me. I didn’t turn or stop. “Keep hold of that. You don’t know what it does.”

“You don’t either,” I called back to him. “And don’t expect to receive any more letters.”

No one bothered to stop me on my way out.

It had started to drizzle by the time I made my way back into the forest. I felt lighter than I had since I’d begun this whole endeavor. No more lying to Lin, no more secret letters. Mephi handed me the scabbard; I slid the sword into it and strapped it to my back. He shook his head like the scabbard had tasted bad.

“Don’t like it,” he said. “Or the sword.”