“So Vihaela wouldn’t have cared about getting the focus back at all.”

I nodded. “She knew it couldn’t be cracked. As long as it was out there, lost, it was doing its job. She hardly had to do anything, really. Once things were set in motion, she just had to wait for the Keepers to figure out what was going on and move against White Rose themselves. Levistus was the one trying to put on the brakes.”

“So what are you going to do with that focus?”

“Keep it as a souvenir, I guess. Not like anyone can read the thing.”

“Levistus could.” Luna thought for a second. “He was the one behind that attack on you and Caldera, wasn’t he?”

“Either him or someone on his team. I think they were hoping that by disappearing Leo they could dead-end the case. If Leo hadn’t talked before they snatched him, it might have worked.”

“What do you think happened to him?”

“You mean once they finished ripping everything he knew out of his skull?” I shook my head. I knew there was no way Levistus would have let him live.

Luna was silent, and I found myself thinking about Leo. He’d been abused by White Rose, used as a slave and as a disposable messenger. And then when he’d fallen into the hands of Light mages, the people who were supposed to be his protectors, they’d abducted, interrogated, and finally executed him. It was a miserable end to what had probably been a miserable life, and to a certain extent, it had happened because of me—it had been Caldera and me who’d inadvertently led Levistus’s agents to where Leo was hiding.

I hated that things worked like this. I hated that children like Leo and that nameless slave of Vihaela’s could be casually murdered, while the rulers slept easy at night, protected and safe. Sometimes a mid-level mage like Marannis would fall, but for the most part the ones who paid the heaviest price always seemed to be the ones who had the least to lose.

“It doesn’t feel like we won,” Luna said.

Luna and I think alike in some ways. “White Rose is gone,” I said. “Maybe Leo didn’t get to see the benefit of that, but the other slaves did.”

“This . . .” Luna took a breath. “This wasn’t all because of me, was it? I mean, I was the one who talked you into joining the Keepers, wasn’t I? Everyone who was killed in that battle . . .”

“No,” I said. “This fight was going to happen, one way or another. If it hadn’t happened this way, it would have happened somewhere else.”

Luna nodded. I could tell that it was still bothering her though, and I had the feeling that might be a good thing. In a few more years, if everything went to plan, Luna would pass her journeyman tests and become accepted as a mage. She was going to have to get used to her actions having consequences, even for people she didn’t meet.