Page 75 of Turncloak

Saffron reminded herself, for the thousandth time of late, that once she was successful in unmaking time, none of it would matter.

In the dark of night, however, a troubled voice called up from some internal coffin. Her subconscious understood that even though the suffering she wrought would be undone eventually, it was still real while it happened. Pain would still be pain, and fear would still be fear, and grief would still be grief. But this astute voice was inconvenient, incompatible with her mission, and so she tried to keep it buried, to focus only on the next few steps on this fraught path.

She nudged the patient awake.

Nissa blinked slowly, like a drowsy feline. She wasn’t one to spook easily, and where most would jolt or recoil from such a sudden appearance, Nissa merely sat up slightly straighter.

“Hells, Killor,” she muttered, voice thick with sleep, eyes bare of kohl, hair freshly washed and fluffy. “How did you get in?”

Saffron pulled the curtains around Nissa’s bed all the way closed, knowing that their muffling enchantments would conceal both her presence and their conversation. “Your smoking habit, and a levitation charm on my boots.”

“Admirably imaginative.”

“Happy to see you too—not least because you’re the only living soul who believes I’m undercover.” Saffron gave Nissa the kind of smile that hopefully said and I care for you deeply but know such a confession would make you wildly uncomfortable.

“Hells, I can’t believe Aspar didn’t have a contingency in place.” Nissa swigged from an old cup of cold mint tea on her bedside. “She knew that if she died, you’d be on your own. Trapped.”

“I was warned that this was deep undercover when I took the assignment. I just didn’t realize quite how deep she meant. Although I’m starting to wonder whether there was a record of the operation, and the new captain either hasn’t bothered to follow it up, or—well, something more nefarious. What are they like?”

“Vel Karvas? Famously close with Grand Arbiter Dematus.”

“Ah.”

Corrupt, then. Or at least corruption adjacent.

Nissa fixed Saffron with a warning look. “Even if he does reach out to you, even if he does try and reestablish contact…”

“I shouldn’t trust him.”

“No.” A loaded beat. “I told Auria you’re undercover.”

“Did she believe you?”

Nissa shrugged, but it wasn’t nonchalant, her shoulders stiff, too high up her rune-tattooed neck. “You know what she’s like. Sanctimonious, self-righteous, a downright zealot when it comes to the law, a hellsforsaken—”

“Are you still on the Bloodmoons, or have you been reassigned too?” Saffron hurried the conversation on, aware that every second she spent here was another in which she might be caught.

“Remains to be seen. I’m on bedrest for another week. But even if Karvas reallocates me, I’ll still work it on the sly. You need a bridge—someone you can trust inside the Silvercloaks.”

Now they were entering uncertain territory—territory Saffron herself had not yet figured out how to navigate. She spoke carefully, noncommittally. “There’s something you need to know. The kingpin found out that I’m undercover, and he spared me, but…he wants me to feed you false information. Keep the silvers off the scarlets’ backs, keep you chasing your own tails. And I have no idea how to navigate that.”

“It changes nothing. Just find evidence against them and bring them down.”

“Yes, it’s exactly that easy,” Saffron replied dryly. “Besides, with Karvas and Dematus presiding over the operation, any such evidence would likely be buried.”

“They’re not beyond reproach, Killor.” A certain fire had kindled beneath Nissa’s tone. “If you brought me something ironclad, and the corrupt higher-ups tried to make it go away? I’d go right over Karvas’s head to the commissioner. To the fucking king himself, if I had to.”

Ironclad.

Like evidence of treason. Evidence of collusion with Nyrøth.

“What’s the alternative?” Nissa added, tucking her legs beneath her slender body, letting golden light burn in her gaze. “You languish in the Bloodmoons forever? Jebat knows you’re undercover. I told him the truth, and he believed me. Seemed he already suspected as much. It wouldn’t just be Auria and me, newly minted Silvercloaks, approaching the commissioner. Jebat holds sway.”

Saffron pressed her lips together, tasting the sweet ghost of hot cocoa on her tongue. “I know. And if I uncover something substantial, I’ll find a way to get it to you.”

A lie. For now, she had to stay in the scarlet fold for access to their ascenite vaults.

Nissa’s stare shredded through Saffron like a prong of lightning. “Why did you come here tonight? Because we could’ve done this via wand without so much risk.”