Page 120 of The Space Between Stars

“And if there isn’t a way to bring you back?”

Attilatia’s eyes narrowed. “Then they got what they deserved.”

Now, surely, he would chastise her. He would turn it in to ensure she didn’t have that kind of control over the Skywalk’s economic decline.

Instead, he cleared his throat. “A precaution, only. You will be the one to bring your knowledge to the homeland.” Pinto’s fingers folded around the bracelet. He placed it in an inner pocket of his robes, then gave her shoulder a squeeze. “And Jenolavia’s kin with it. Believe it.”

As though in response, a lamp on the far lab counter began to blink. Their heads turned in unison to stare at it. Its dim red light pulsed slowly at first, then rapidly. The message took a near minute to complete. Then it repeated thrice more. Attilatia sank to her knees.

‘Aetech plates manipulated. Tera’thian ambush plotted for Steila. I’m safe. Watch your back.’

She wove together the only story which made sense. It felt as if all the world were a black bag, cinching closed around her.

“What is it?” Pinto inquired.

“It is Dexe…” Her voice drifted off, and she clawed back control as she repeated Dex’s message to Pinto. “He—we—are in trouble.”

And the plates she’d made with a mind for Nelfinden defense had been weaponized. She’d thought she was getting Thedexemore to safety—away from the assassins that had pursued them for months. Had she instead placed him into the jaw of a Kovathian sympathizer? She traced her interactions with Rosakaad. He’d admitted to her they were in trouble, hadn’t he? Why would he, if not to help them?

Hiking up the hem of her tipiana, Attilatia stood and dug into a drawer for a second bracelet, identical to the one she’d given Pinto. She pulled a knife down from a holster on the wall. It hovered over the bead.

“What are you doing?” Pinto’s words broke through the sheer veil between her reality and madness.

Her heart pounded in her ears. “Taking out my insurance policy.”

Pinto stepped beside her slowly and pulled her hand into his. Her face contorted as she resisted the impulse to smack him.

“You are a marvel,” he whispered. “There are few minds in this world that could compare, and fewer still that have acted proactively on their talents. You are capable of so much good, and you are capable of so much destruction, and I can only imagine what a struggle every moment of your life must be, given that each must be a decision between one or the other.”

Attilatia’s nostrils flared. Damn him. Damn every whisker on his withered face.

“Before you do anything rash, I must ask you… Can you wait one more day and see if there is another means for resolution?”

She would ensure Thedexemore’s safety by any means necessary. He was the reason for all of this. “I don’t have a choice. What other resolution has been made available to me?” There was a combativeness to her voice that made her feel like she was fighting with her mother all over again.

“It would be a grave mistake, Attilatia Mitar.”

“How do you know?” she snarled.

“Live enough years, see enough pain, you come to realize that the things that you want in the moment are the enemy of the things you want for a lifetime. Laughter is more intoxicating than anger. Trust is sweeter than redemption. And love… love is all that really matters. What you are doing will not give you love.”

She bit her lip. Then she placed the knife back into its wall holster. Tears broke free from her eyes.

Pinto wrapped her in his arms. “How many times have you been here?” he murmured into her hair.

More than she could count, she didn’t tell him.

“It’s ok, Hakuni,” he said. “It will all be ok.”

“You think you’ll convince me to do what’s right? Pinto, I’ve killed people before. Not just people I hate. People I love. Even the homeland diagnosed my misanthropy. You can’t fix me.”

“Misanthropy.” Pinto tasted the word like it was something bitter in his tea. “That is a silly word to affix to someone who sees things differently. I have spent countless hours with you, and—given my knack for dinner parties—have countless friends to compare you to. Most people use the lens of simplicity to explain the great truths in life. You use the great truths as a lens to understand simple things. So there is nothing more wrong with you than someone who likes to eat their dessert before dinner.” He shrugged. “And the palate is cleaner at the start of the meal, so they might have it right. What I am trying to say is… why would I seek to fix you, when nothing was ever broken?”

Atti glared at him, but let him run fingers through her bobbed hair. Where had he been all her life? “Then what am I supposed to do? Just wait and see what happens?”

“For now, yes. Thedexemore is not in imminent danger. You’re both smart. You’ll think of a plan.”

Call it a moment of weakness—she was ready to go all in with this old silk trader, Chaos curse the repercussions.