Senera rolled her eyes as she asked the Name of All Things one more time.

We both watched as she traced a number on the table.

A large number.

“Is that minutes? Months?” I was confused. It couldn’t possibly be years.

Senera’s eyes widened. She ignored me and ran to her desk, pulling out paper and graphite before bringing both back to the table.

She concentrated again and wrote out a single word: voras.

That didn’t clarify matters. “What does that mean?”

Senera looked exasperated. “I thought Thurvishar was supposed to be educating you lot.”

“Don’t lump me in with the spurned wives,” I snapped.

“Back before the Quuros Empire,” Senera explained, “many years before the Quuros Empire, there were four immortal races: the voras, the voramer, the vorfelane, and the vordredd. Each race except for the vorfelane has been forced to give up its immortality in order to keep Vol Karoth imprisoned. The voras were the first; they became human.”

“I’ve never heard of the vorfelane.”

“That’s because we call them vané now.” She waved a hand. “You’re missing the point. The cub wasn’t born a polar bear. It was born human, or the immortal equivalent of a human. It was born voras.” Senera wrote down the large number sequence a second time, this time with charcoal on paper. “Those are years.”

“Over fourteen thousand?” I said. “How can a polar bear cub possibly be over fourteen thousand years old?”

“It can’t. That’s why I asked what race the cub was when it was born.”

“What’s its name? What’s its birth name? I don’t know what Wyrga calls it, but I’d have to assume she’d lie if I asked.”

“I almost can’t bring myself to ask.”

“Do it, anyway.”

Senera concentrated on the artifact in her hand and then wrote out a single word. “If I’m right…”

Cherthog.

Cherthog, the Yoran god-king of winter.

We both stared at the word.

Senera said, “Fuck.”

After that … everything was quiet.

I don’t mean to say nothing happened. We continued training. I kept looking for how I might safely pass through the poisoned stone caves to recover the spear. Duke Kaen started asking for my opinion on Joratese strategies, giving me access to his war room and plans. He slowly began testing my loyalty, which wasn’t always pleasant.

Veixizhau was hardly forgiven by the other wives, but everyone seemed willing to leave her alone until she gave birth. No one knew what would happen to Veixizhau after the baby was born—it was entirely possible that Duke Kaen would still have her executed for adultery. Because of that impending threat, the other ex-wives overlooked her tantrums.

I avoided her whenever possible.

A week after Senera and I discovered the truth about Wyrga and her “pet,” a messenger told me the Hon wanted to see me.