Vlitavia Palace had become a second home to Lyrani since she started spending every free weekend she had within its glittering glass walls. She had grown used to the intersecting walkways sloping between the pavilions built along the tree branches and the gleaming silver, tapering archways that led into every building, but she wasn't yet accustomed to the winding, never-ending stairs that would take her to the king's office.

She panted, already breathless, and she was only halfway up the palace.

As it always did when it came to any mission, Lyrani's mind won over the rest of her. She pushed against the pain, gritting her teeth, steadying her nerves. She may be late, but no threat in the realm would ever accommodate her delay.

"Sorry!" Lyrani stumbled into a guard as she rounded the final spiral of the staircase and pulled herself up the last few sparkling glass steps.

There it was, a room contained in a gleaming box whose tinted walls kept the sunlight and any curious gazes out.

Lyrani straightened, smoothing her hair and then her tunic as she approached the guards. At first, they frowned, but smiles of recognition displaced their confusion. Lyrani thanked the stars that her face was familiar at Vlitavia Palace, or the guards might've had their spears buried in her chest before they realised she wasn't one of the enemies they had been trained to protect their king from.

"Lady Lyrani." The elf on the right bowed his curly head in greeting.

Lyrani was about to slide her ECISI badge out of her pocket as proof of her identity, but she closed her fingers into a fist before her hand could reach it. She wasn't here as an agent. She was here as a noblewoman from Irylen, and the king's concerned girlfriend.

The guard tapped his brown-gloved knuckles against the door, which swung open to reveal another guard Lyrani knew well.

"Lady Lyrani." Yaneez invited her into Nash's office with a sweeping gesture of his hand, and she accepted. They exchanged a look as she passed him, one that was silent but full of knowing.

Yaneez was one of the trusted few who knew Lyrani's best-kept secret - she was the ECISI agent who had rescued Nash. It had been hard to contain the truth, but Lord Dundor had done everything in his power to ensure that it was to keep Nash, Lyrani, himself, and ECISI safe.

Around them, the room was a deep gold as though Vlitavia's autumn foliage had enveloped it. The furniture stood out, dark wooden and intricately carved with flowers and berries. The doors were closed behind Lyrani by the two guards who flanked them, sealing her inside the meeting she had both anticipated and dreaded.

Lyrani was every bit the lady from Irylen who feared for the king she loved, but as she crossed the room, the feeble afternoon shadows trailing after her like frayed organza, she was also the assassin who would poison armies to protect him. Every eye in Nash's office swivelled to her despite her boots muting her footsteps.

The frown on Nash's face smoothed out when he caught sight of Lyrani. As if by some strange, lovely sorcery, the anxiety that had been twisting her insides into knots released her.

Nothing mattered, not her fear of the unknown threat facing Nash, not the long, ominous shadow that had already attached itself to her mysterious new mission. Nothing mattered except for him.

Nash smiled, and Lyrani's breath caught.

The last time they had been in this office, he had been bending her over his desk while she muffled her screams against its varnished surface. She remembered his firm hands as he steadied her, his burning, loving caresses, and the wonderful bliss that followed his touch.

The little smirk that snuck onto his beautiful mouth told her that the same memory was playing through his mind. Lyrani wondered if anyone could see the spots of heat searing her cheeks.

Now that she no longer had Nash's attention, the elf sitting beside him snatched her hand from where it rested on his knee. Lyrani narrowed her eyes as she met the woman's vivid hazel gaze.

It was almost too bright to be real. Lyrani had never seen this elf before, and in the business of secret intelligence, new faces were always reasons for caution. Like a dragon that had caught sight of a weasel-like ichneumon coating itself with mud to prepare for the kill, Lyrani kept her distance from that side of the room even though Nash's warm, embracing presence beckoned her towards it.

Lord Dundor turned where he paced the length of the room, staring out the window at the russet-hued Elvenland capital. His grey eyebrows were as bushy as ever, but worry weighed down his eyes. "Welcome, Lyrani. I'm glad you finally decided to join us."

The sarcasm underlying the most casual of Lord Dundor's remarks always made her feel like a child again.

"I was punctual this time, but my train was delayed. Technical difficulties, apparently."

Nash straightened in his seat, pushing a strand of his mahogany hair away from his eyes. "You should've informed us, Lyr. We were worried."

The lips of the elf beside Nash twitched in blatant disagreement with the king's statement. Lyrani would've liked to know what the other elf found so amusing about her being late for one of the most important briefings of her career as an ECISI agent, but for the sake of the meeting, it was better she didn't find out.

"I tried, but the call wasn't going through," Lyrani told Nash, shrugging. "My call crystal was experiencing some sort of dysfunction as well."

A snicker sounded from the opposite side of the room, a sound dry like a desert. Lyrani bristled, turning in search of its source.

"Agent Phen, is there something you would like to say?" Lord Dundor sat behind Nash's desk and clasped his broad hands on the table.

The other elf, another new face that Lyrani hadn't noticed when she entered Nash's office, spoke. There was a mocking edge to her gravelly voice. "I apologise, Lord Dundor."

The smile she hid behind her hand made Lyrani doubt the sincerity of that statement. She refrained from snapping out her observation, instead gritting her teeth.

The elf must've realised that her hand wasn't accomplishing the discretion she intended because she lowered it, baring her sardonic smile for everyone in the room to see. "It's just that I've just heard so much about Agent Esch. She's one of ECISI's legends, and I was so keen to be working with her. I didn't expect her introduction to me to be this...underwhelming."

Legends? Working with her? Underwhelming?

Lyrani simply stared at this unfamiliar agent, speechless.

"That is enough, Agent Phen." Lord Dundor's voice was a knife being hurled. "We do not disrespect our fellow agents."

"Understood, Director." Agent Phen nodded, her stubby little high ponytail bouncing.

Lyrani wasn't convinced by the obedient smile or the eager agreement. She could read the scorn in the other agent's eyes when they settled on her as clearly as if it was a word on a page.

Agent Phen.

Lyrani ran the name through her mind. No first name accompanied it. She can't have worked with this elf before, but they must've interacted in some way for Agent Phen to have developed this strangely strong distaste for Lyrani. Try as she might, she couldn't remember seeing Agent Phen before or doing anything to offend her.

Perhaps that was the offence, she realised when she caught Agent Phen staring at her, her nose scrunched as if she smelled something foul.

Nash cleared his throat. "Lyr is here now, so we should begin the briefing without further delay."

Lyrani tossed him a grateful look before sinking into the chair beside Agent Phen that Lord Dundor waved her towards. The king gave her that grin that made her weak at the knees.Honestly, he should know better than to do that in a meeting as serious as this one.

Lyrani looked away before the rising heat burned through her skin and gave Lord Dundor something else to reprimand her about.

Nash and the other elf sat facing Lyrani and Agent Phen like a rival army, even though they were on the same team. Or supposed to be, at least.

"Let's start with introductions, shall we?" Lord Dundor cleared his throat. "Lyrani, this is Agent Meiyla Phen." He gestured to the elf beside Lyrani. "She will be the junior agent accompanying you on this mission."

Lyrani forced a smile at the other agent. Agent Phen simply looked Lyrani up and down with her narrow black eyes, and turned away, unimpressed. Lyrani clearly didn't live up to the reputation that preceded her, but she found that she didn't care much for what Agent Phen thought of her.

Friendships were best kept out of missions, just as love was. Lyrani had learnt that the hard way.

Trelle's laughter rang through her mind with the shocking clarity of reality. Lyrani started. It was as if the other agent was right beside her, but she couldn't be. She had died at the old Vlitavia Palace over a year ago.

Even so, her laughter and her memory would haunt Lyrani her whole life, even though the soulfyre that gave her life had long run dry.

"This is Anesse Lach, Nash's new advisor." Lord Dundor's voice rooted Lyrani in the present moment as he indicated the blonde elf beside Nash. "As she is a former Irylen ambassador to the other clans, we have recruited her to aid in Nash's campaign to smooth over the conflict brewing between Elvenland and the rest of the realm."

Lyrani thought back to her crystal calls with Nash on those nights she couldn't spend beside him. He had mentioned he was getting a new advisor, but he never said that she could be this handsy.

Unlike Agent Phen, Advisor Lach tried to be cordial, but Lyrani didn't trust her smile.

It was like the grin of a Phouka before it went for the kill.

"Pleasure to meet you, finally."

"Likewise." Lyrani returned the smile, leaning back in her seat, but her eyes never left the other elf.

She'd had some less-than-ideal mission setups in the past, but having to work with a snarky green agent and a slithery-eyed advisor who didn't know the boundaries of professionalism was a new low.

Even so, she'd sit through this meeting. She'd accept the mission, regardless of its conditions, for Nash.

"You already know Camlir, of course." Lord Dundor turned in his seat to indicate the elf in the chair behind him.

Where they peered over Lord Dundor's shoulder, Camlir's eyes went wide behind his round spectacles as every gaze in the room focused on him. The gadget master was someone Lyrani had only ever seen in his underground lair at ECISI, experimenting with magic and mechanics to create devices unlike any other to aid the agency in their various quests.Despite the curiosity raising her eyebrows, she gave him a small smile and raised her hand in a greeting he returned.

"Your mission is simple." Lord Dundor broke the silence that had settled into the office. He leaned forward on his elbows, his hands still clasped.

Lyrani suppressed a sigh. Those simple missions were never what Lord Dundor portrayed them to be.

"There is evidence to suggest that another clan is plotting against Nash."

Lyrani frowned, resting her gaze on the director. "What sort of evidence?"

As smoothly as if they had rehearsed it, Lord Dundor gestured towards Advisor Lach. Lyrani tried to shake off the nagging sense that they had practised this briefing before she arrived, knowing that she examined allegations closely before believing them, knowing the questions she would ask.

"There have been some weird incidents here at Vlitavia. Wobbly steps, wandering shadows at odd times of the night...occurrences that might've been able to be explained away as random if it wasn't for the strange elves I keep glimpsing around the palace."

Advisor Lach had barely finished speaking before Lyrani was firing off her next question.

"Advisor, you've been working at Vlitavia Palace for how long, exactly?" Lyrani cocked her head.

"A month, Agent Esch." Advisor Lach fidgeted with a blonde ringlet that had fallen over her eye.

Lyrani smiled. It was good to make people nervous. That was often when the truth in their words showed itself, and she was certain that Anesse Lach was hiding something.

"And in that month, you're sure that you can recognise every elf who works in the palace and every one who doesn't, with confidence?" Lyrani asked.

Agent Phen surprised Lyrani by murmuring her shared scepticism at that. Perhaps she was going to be a more sensible partner in this mission than it had seemed she would be initially.

Advisor Lach bit her lip. "Not quite..."

"Then what do you mean when you say these elves are strange?" Lyrani raised her eyebrows.

"I—t-t-they—" Advisor Lach stuttered to a stop. "They have the" —she touched the long, pointed tips of her ears— "the ears."

"Elves with pointy ears." Lyrani nodded in mock earnestness as if she understood Advisor Lach's nonsensical explanation. "How very strange."

"Lyrani, that is enough," came Lord Dundor's cool voice from behind Nash's desk. "We are on the same team. There is no need to interrogate and intimidate our allies."

Advisor Lach fixed her eyes on her hands, which rested in her lap. Her mouth trembled, and with a sinking sense of shame, Lyrani wondered whether she had been too hard on her.

Anesse Lach wasn't a rebel leader or a rival clan's assassin. She was just a fellow elf from Irylen, and as much as she grated on Lyrani, she seemed to care about Nash enough to be at this briefing, contributing to a plan which Lyrani was derailing out of...what? Pettiness? Jealousy?

"Sorry, Lord Dundor," Lyrani said softly. She looked across at the sunshine-haired Irylenian sitting beside her boyfriend. "Advisor Lach, I'm really sorry."

"It's no matter, Agent Esch." Anesse offered her an unsteady smile. "I know it's not awfully solid evidence to go on."

"I'd say it's solid enough." Lord Dundor pressed his fingertips together, forming a spire on the desk. "The aforementioned elves didn't have typical elven ears, Agents Esch and Phen. They had small ears like those of humans that tapered into a little tip much as ours do."

The realisation took a moment to sink in.

"The Outcasted." Lyrani's eyes widened.

Even Agent Phen's mouth fell open as Lord Dundor's revelation sent her and Lyrani reeling.

Children born of an elf and a human weren't welcome in Elvenland or the human kingdoms, Mensdom. They were killed at birth by mothers who couldn't live with the shame of what they had done, at worst. At best, they were cast out into the wild to die as nature took its course.

Lyrani shook her head in disbelief. She would've never thought enough halflings would survive to form a resistance, let alone that they would unite in the name of a common purpose.

Lord Dundor looked between Lyrani and Agent Phen, no doubt revelling in the aftermath of his announcement as he tended to do. "The Outcasted."

The confirmation of Lyrani's worst suspicions rang through the room, chilling it. Agent Phen's eyes were wide when she glanced at Lyrani.

Lyrani met Nash's honey gaze across the room. He wasn't surprised, only worried if the furrow between his eyebrows was anything to go by. Beside him, Advisor Lach was as unsurprised and far more composed. She rested her hand on his shoulder, but at a look from Lyrani that must've been more vicious than she had meant it to be, she folded her hand back into her lap.

Lyrani looked over at Lord Dundor, frowning. He only set his mouth into a serious line. He wasn't joking with her as he often did. He wasn't exaggerating either.

He had spoken the truth, or what he believed it to be, at least.

Decades of being outcasted would be enough to build an appetite for revenge, but why would the halflings strike now, when Elvenland was taking steps to address the mistakes of past rulers?

Lyrani shook her head. "Why would they be targeting Nash? He has done nothing but try to help them since he gained the freedom to make his own choices."

Since we eliminated the old hag who controlled him with her acts of vengeance and prejudices was left unsaid, but Lyrani didn't need to remind Nash and Lord Dundor of the first few years of his reign.

"It might be decades-long grudges that they're enacting now. They have been historically oppressed by the House of Astor. With Queen Rayn gone, taking her cruelty and her cunning with her, it might be the first time they've sighted revenge." Lord Dundor's eyes hardened.

Like Lyrani, he had many things to blame Rayn for, not just possessing Nash. She had killed people they loved, left her claw-like marks in their lives even though she was gone for good.

Lyrani let out a breath, resting her head in her hand. Why Nash?

His right-hand man, Benje, was like family to him. As a halfling, he might've been outcasted had Nash been any other Astor ruler, but Nash had kept him at Vlitavia Palace under his protection, giving him the importance and status many other elves would've fought for.

Nash had wanted to extend the same protection to the Outcasted who hadn't been fortunate enough to be born to a princess's maid, but the halflings had been hard to track down despite his best efforts. Many more pressing conflicts had required his immediate attention, many clans threatening war, many demanding a greater portion of Elvenland's resources than what had been originally pledged to them in their treaties. Even so, Lyrani couldn't help but wonder if they should've made more effort for the Outcasted, sent more secret agents on their trails, sniffed out whichever shadowy corner of the realm they had made their own. Perhaps then Nash wouldn't be in danger.

The king was kind and gentle, but in a realm this relentless, it made him weak.

It made him an easy target.

"This isn't fair." Lyrani folded her arms. "Nash has paid enough blood."

"Some may not agree." Advisor Lach wrung her hands. "Some may believe that Nash owes more blood for the murders ordered by the Astors."

"That is ludicrous." Lyrani clenched her fists.

She had once pulled Nash free of a barbed trap set for him by some enchanters. Nobody could say he hadn't bled enough for his unwilling crimes.

Agent Phen focused her cool stare on Advisor Lach. "How do you know that?"

"I've heard whispers during my diplomatic visits to other clans." Advisor Lach squared her shoulders.

"I wouldn't sound so smug if I were you." Lyrani narrowed her eyes. "Surely an elf so intimately acquainted with the realm's politics would know a threat to Elvenland's king threatens his people."

A kingless kingdom was chaos. Lyrani had seen enough of those. She had even been the king's end in some of those cases.

Advisor Lach looked down at her lap, her lip quivering.

"Lyr." Nash shot her a look before patting Advisor Lach's shoulder.

Lyrani sighed. Advisor Lach's unsettling unfamiliarity was no excuse to obliterate everything she said.

Even when she took the slightest opportunity to brush against Nash when he was out of Lyrani's reach.

Lyrani took a deep breath and released it to calm herself. "So, what's the plan?"

Lord Dundor cleared his throat. "Agents Esch and Phen, you are to track down the Outcasted. If, after infiltrating the clan and uncovering their plot against King Nash, you deem the halflings amenable to diplomatic intervention, Anesse will lead a party to negotiate with them. If there is little chance of reconciliation, do what you must to eliminate the threat." Lord Dundor steepled his fingers.

Lyrani knew what that meant.

Kill all who must be killed.