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She picked up the glass of water on the bedside table and handed it over. He took a large gulp.

“Is it over?” He sat up.

Idonea looked away. “Yes.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “What happened?”

She took a shaky breath. “Nellith is dead. I…”

Alcaeus shook his head. “It is okay. And?”

"She told me, before she died, that I was a crucible. That she'd made me into one. The strongest of her daughters. The one who would survive the working."

He waited.

"It wasn't true. I was a threshold. The marks on my back were a door for Vinea to cross. Mother was telling herself a story about me to bear what she was doing. The story was wrong."

Alcaeus closed his eyes briefly.

"I had suspected something of the kind. I couldn't have said the word threshold. I am sorry, Idonea. I should've understood sooner. I should've taken you when I took Dyota."

"You couldn't have. I was too old."

"You were not too old. I was too tired."

A silence between them.

"I unmade it," she said. "The door. I closed the marks down. They are scars now. I will carry the lines, but the working is broken. He cannot use me. He cannot use anyone he might have used after me."

"And the relic?"

"Empty. There is a husk of gold somewhere in the Nexis."

Alcaeus exhaled. The exhale was long and shaky. He'd been holding the breath for too long.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what."

"For doing what I could not." Praise and grief tangled in his words, indistinguishable.

She looked away. "Well…" Idonea walked him through everything that had happened with the Templars, pirates and witches.

He gave a heavy sigh. “I am not sure how to salvage that.”

Idonea shrugged. “You were incapacitated. Technically, you’re innocent.”

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “I guess I will let the Brothers out once you leave.”

"You cannot stay here after that," Idonea said.

He looked at her.

"The Grand Templar will walk out of that terrace house and send a message south before nightfall. The High Hierophant will have a Republic execution squad in the northern pass within a fortnight. You defied both of them publicly. A Brother who stood against the Grand Templar, whose daughter destroyed a Republic official's escort and freed a cohort of witches—" She shook her head. "They will not forgive it."

Alcaeus was quiet, then he nodded. "Rusegrad might be nice." He looked at his hands, which were still faintly trembling. "It wouldn't be the first time I have started over."

"Take Lidiya," Idonea said. "She will not survive here with only the Templars."