“I’m not sure I want to subject Istera to me either. If some other kingdom is willing to take me in, they’ll eventually gain the elder ashas’ ire and reprisal. Empress Alyx may try to hold them off whenever she can, but the Willows is a small kingdom on its own. It would be easy enough for them to enact their own sanctions independent of Kion.” I gulped, fighting back tears. “Likh and Khalad—they can live incognito if they want to. As long as I’m not with them, I doubt they’d be targeted. But… Oh, Kalen. Maybe I really should be hidden away, tucked into some vast wilderness where no one can harm me and where I can’t harm others.”

“We’re not leaving you, Tea,” Khalad protested.

“You won’t have a choice. You still have a duty to the kingdoms, and you’re not the type of person to turn your back on them. You’ll have hearts to forge, and you’ll find your own novices to train eventually. But without me, you’ll be safer.”

“And can you do the same?” Likh asked shrewdly, stepping into the room. He had forsaken his usual hua and was dressed in dark clothes and thick breeches, his long hair pulled back. “You’re not the type to turn away when you know people need help.”

“I’ll travel if I have to, avoid detection. I’ll visit villages, treat the sick to earn money.”

“And what if another daeva appears? If you take it down with the Dark, then you accomplish what the elder asha want—to have your life drained with every resurrection. And if you bond them like you did the azi, then you may as well shine a beacon revealing your location, because the asha will find you.”

“Let’s not make any hasty decisions,” Kalen said. “One thing at a time. Focus on the Drychta and Kance now, and we’ll weigh the rest of our options later.”

“I won’t let you come to any more harm, Likh,” I said. “But in the end, it might not be my choice to make.”

“Then for as long as we can still make decisions, I’ll go with you.” Likh hugged me, then turned to Khalad. “I would like to talk to you. Do you have a moment?”

The Heartforger cast a furtive glance at me and nodded.

“Did you mean that?” Kalen asked me as they stepped out. “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life living in the middle of nowhere like some hermit?”

“Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“I meant living in a small town under assumed names. I have enough funds to set us up in moderate comfort indefinitely. Complete isolation isn’t what I—Tea?”

I stared at the wall, awed.

“Tea?”

“Do we have enough time for a detour again?” I asked faintly. “Before we head to Kance’s army?”