Page 138 of The Amber Sunburst

“Alrighty, everyone,” Ophelia booms, using Alexander’s empty chair to climb onto the table. “Four days from now is the final Trial and our moment of truth. Listen well, and we can do this.” She winks at Eudoxia and holds her hand out to Arete, who passes her a small stack of cards from the tarot deck Kallias gave her. “The Emperor and the Empress will make their way to the left emergency exit, disable the camera, and signal when they’re done,” she yells, throwing cards at them. When Eudoxia picks hers up off the floor—five feet away from her because Ophelia can’t aim for her life—it’s a stylized image of a woman titled ‘The Empress’.

“The Star and the Sun—” she continues, haphazardly tossing cards to the other side of the table.

“Shouldn’t I be the Emperor?” Alexander interrupts. “You do know I was the heir of an actual empire, right?”

“Let me finish!” Ophelia scolds in childish frustration. Alexander looks ready to argue back, ever a child himself, but Kallias cuts him off with an eye roll, grabbing his face with one hand.

“She’s right,” he says with finality. Then his expression unfocuses like he’s lost in Alexander’s eyes and he adds, much quieter, “You are the sun.”

Silence settles for a millisecond, and Alexander smiles so wide it’s almost heartbreaking. That snaps Kallias out of his trance. “Because you’re so blindingly horrific to look at,” he finishes.

Alexander laughs sweetly. “You flatter me, gorgeous.”

“Thanks for the interruption, now shut up,” Ophelia says, sticking her tongue out. “The Sun and the Star will do the same on the right side. Kallias has the map down, but you two—” she points to Zeno and Eudoxia “—have to memorize it. I, the High Priestess, will trigger the emergency exit when I see the signal.”

She throws another card. “Lazarus, the Hierophant, you go out the losers’ exit and pick up Arete to meet us by Arc Eight’s port.”

Lazarus looks momentarily offended by his role in their tarot court but then sighs and nods. She wants to say he deserves it—he did threaten Kallias after all—but since then he’s been so subdued it’s worrying.

“As for tomorrow,” Ophelia continues, sliding a piece of paper and some money across the table, “here is the list of things you need to buy, Lazarus.”

“Laser pointers, handheld mirrors, keys, cloaks, and… wait, what’s the tia⁠—”

Zeno puts a hand over Lazarus’ mouth to shush him. “Need-to-know basis,” he says, sharing a grin with Alexander.

“And here’s the money for the distraction, Alexander and Zeno.”

Alexander tosses Zeno one of the two coins Ophelia hands him. “Can’t wait.”

“Neither can I,” Zeno replies.

No one knows what they have planned, but it’s sure to be very stupid.

“Attention,” Ophelia shouts, stomping her foot on the table. “Ready to do this?”

A collection of ‘readys’ echo around the table, and Ophelia exclaims, “Then, my noble friends and brothers, consider yourselves dismissed by your honorable High Priestess.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Alexander and Zeno are idiots.

Their “very-thought-out-super-smart-don’t-even-worry-about-it” plan was to, halfway through their patrolling of Arc Three, pay someone to steal an old lady’s purse and then chase them around in circles to keep the Guardian on-duty’s attention.

What’s stupider than the plan itself is that the plan is actually working. With the other Auxiliaries spread around the Arc and the Guardian distracted, Lazarus is able to slip into the local Drachma Store unnoticed. She and Kallias linger nearby to watch the entrance.

It’s been ten minutes since Lazarus went in and neither of them has said a word to the other. She’s still pissed at him for what he said to her about Arete, and presumably he’s mad at her too. Not that he’s shown any signs of it, but does he ever?

It isn’t until they both snort at Zeno and Alexander’s antics that they even look at each other.

She assumes they’ll go back to being quiet, so she returns her gaze to Zeno in all of his perfection. Alexander’s words from days ago ring in her head. She knows how Zeno feels about her—the only reason nothing has happened is her. Because she’s scared.

Just like the second Trial said. He’s love and she’s fear. But she can’t let it end this way. If one of them doesn’t make it out, she couldn’t live with herself knowing that he thought all she wanted was to be friends.

If she doesn’t act on this soon, she’ll regret it, but she can’t even imagine what ‘acting on it’ would entail. The moment is never right, and what if she messes things up and he never talks to her again?

Just when she fades fully into her daydreams, Kallias breaks the silence. “Are you gonna do something about that?”

Does he initiate conversations now? When did that happen? “About what?”