Five feet in and Andromeda already hated the staircase.

The walls were made of moist dirt that crumbled when she touched it, but the stairs themselves were stone. The only light came from the ball of magic in her hand.

Maybe I should turn back. It's probably just some old storeroom Chamomile never told me about.

But the curiosity and mystery of it all was too much—besides, if she went back to Sorren now, they would just say "I told you so" and Andromeda would never hear the end of it. She just needed to go down there, find Dragon getting something from the storeroom, and ask what he was doing last night. Then he would give her a completely normal, reasonable answer, and everything would be fine.

It's kind of a weird place for a storeroom, though, her mind whispered. Why not have it back at camp?

Shut up, she thought back.

Halfway down the staircase, Andromeda dissolved the line connecting her to Dragon. The closer she got the more noticeable it would be, and if she needed to stay hidden... not that it would do her much good with Dragon's mindreading.

A chill had grown by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, penetrating her very soul. There was a door at the end of the staircase, the wood old and starting to rot through, and the once-golden knob was now covered in rust.

"I'm tired of waiting, Dragon."

The voice stopped Andromeda in her tracks. It was Belladonna, the same person who was with Dragon last night. Her voice was sharpened to a precise point, ready to pierce her target.

"I just—I need more time. Please." That was Dragon. "I'll have something figured out in a couple of weeks, I promise."

"You say a couple of weeks, but you mean a month, maybe two. Isn't that right?" The point in Belladonna's voice pressed a little harder.

"I--"

"Don't lie to me, Dragon."

"I'm not! It's just that with Chamomile gone, I have more time--"

Andromeda drew in a sharp breath. Chamomile? What does her leaving have to do with anything?

Dragon paused, and she silently cursed herself. Of course, the mindreading.

"Dragon?" Belladonna said. "Is someone there?"

"N-no. I just thought of something, but it's not important."

"Hm. Well, either way, we need something to work with."

Andromeda found a hole in the door and slowly lowered herself to peek through it. The room beyond was small, perfectly square, and lit by a single candle. Dragon's and Belladonna's faces were cast in shadows, but she could've sworn Dragon's gaze flicked to her for just a moment.

"Well... if she's gone, we don't need to act yet. We can wait until she comes back to decide if we should have an open confrontation or--"

"There'll be no need for that. I don't need your indecisiveness. I'll send someone out now, and they'll take care of it. Just tell me where she is."

Dragon hesitated before unfurling a scroll and spreading it on the table in the center of the room. "I've been putting together what I could from Chamomile's thoughts. It's not much, really; she's surprisingly good at shielding her mind, but she still reveals some things to me. Apparently, I'm one of the only people she trusts." He gave Belladonna a sad smile. "Ironic, isn't it?"

Andromeda's hopes started to sink. Sorren was right. They—they've betrayed her.

She was about to leave to go warn someone—she wasn't sure who, with Chamomile gone—but Dragon shot her another look. Not a warning or a threat, but more of a pleading. Like there was something he needed to show her.

"According to her thoughts, I think she's heading to the far north of Icekeep," he continued. "She's going to meet someone... or a group of someones. It wasn't entirely clear."

Belladonna leaned over the paper. "Good. I can send someone over there in a day or two."

"Send who? You aren't... you aren't meeting with anyone else from the Order, are you?"

Belladonna snorted. "Ha, no. They're just more of the same incompetent idiots. No, you don't need to worry about my connections. You don't need to worry about anything else from here on out, really. I'll take care of Chamomile."

Dragon, what's going on? Andromeda broadcast her thoughts in the hope that Dragon would hear. What are you going to do to her?

"You're right," Dragon said with another meaningful glance at the door. "I don't need to worry. And you probably won't need to worry either. Seeing that your connections are taking care of everything, right?"

Belladonna narrowed her eyes, tracing Dragon's gaze. He tried to snap back to her, but it was too late.

"You're awfully fond of that door," she said. "Are you sure you checked that no one was there?"

"Yes!" he said, a little too quickly. "I-I've been keeping an eye on it."

"Then it wouldn't do any harm if I made sure, right?" Belladonna strode over to the door and, before Andromeda could react, flung it wide open. A sneer was etched across her face, framed by her raven-black hair.

Her voice was even sharper than before. "Well, well. What do we have here? Chamomile's little brat, I see." Belladonna glanced behind her shoulder. "Looks like your mindreading abilities are running a little short, Dragon. You should get them checked."

Andromeda took the opportunity to leap to her feet and sprint up the stairs. Her heart pounded against her ribcage. Each beat filled her ears until she couldn't think. She wheezed for breath but couldn't stop.

She was out of the staircase in moments. A bolt of magic whizzed past and exploded a tree. But Andromeda didn't stop, she just kept running, running until she didn't know where she was. All she knew was that she couldn't hear Belladonna behind her.

Her mind was crammed with thoughts and questions when she slowed down—Probably enough for Dragon to notice, she realized. Someone needed to know about what just happened. Chamomile was gone, although she wasn't exactly the most empathetic and understanding person in the world. Then there was Sorren. They were the only person she could really talk to—the others in the Order of the Dandelion were nice and all, but Andromeda didn't have nearly as deep as a connection with them as she did with Sorren.

She took a few moments to collect her bearings. The camp wasn't too far away, and she reached it in about fifteen minutes at a jogging pace. She was about to enter when a movement caught the corner of her eye.

There was Sorren, already waiting for her. Their slightly tan freckles were warped just a bit as they grinned at her, their sandy hair adding shade to their forehead. "So? What'd you find?"

Andromeda hesitated for the briefest of moments before saying "Y-you were right, Sorren. Dragon and Belladonna are up to something, they--" She bit her tongue to keep herself from crying.

Sorren's face fell and moved to comfort their friend. They wrapped their arms around her with a soft touch, and Andromeda leaned into them.

The story came tumbling out of her. About how they were planning to kill Chamomile, how Belladonna had contacts so skilled she, the least trusting person in the Order, was going to let them take care of the dirty work. How Dragon had betrayed their leader. And, although she kept this one quiet, how Chamomile had kept things from her.

"I-I just... I don't know what to do," she said at last.

"Well, first things first, we need to get you out of here." Sorren steered Andromeda away from the camp and towards Meridia. "Dragon and Belladonna are probably still looking for you, and since Dragon can read minds, you need to get out of the forest. They could be anywhere." They shot the trees a murderous look as if they were expecting someone to melt out of the woods and attack.

"And go where, Sorren? I mean, I guess there's the location of the old camp, but I have no idea how to get there. And I can't just let them kill her."

"Yeah, I know." Sorren lapsed into silence for a few moments as they headed for Meridia, walking at a quick pace, but not fast enough to arouse suspicion. "No one would believe us if we tried to warn the Order, with Dragon being the second-in-command and all and after your father--" They stopped and glanced at Andromeda before continuing. "They'd think you're just jealous and want the position yourself. Especially now that you're coming up on fifteen years."

Andromeda sniffed. "I mean... I guess I could find her on my own..." Suddenly, an idea clicked into place. "Hey, that's it! I know where's she headed—the far north of Icekeep, somewhere where a lot of people hang out. We just have to get there before Belladonna's... whatever they are do."

Sorren gave her a skeptical look. "Yeah, but... that's Icekeep. Unless you know more about that place than I do, we're dead."

"It's my only choice, Sorren! I can't beat Dragon and Belladonna, they're way too strong—wait, did you just say 'we?'"

"Well, duh. If you're really set on going to that place, I guess we'll just have to die together."

Andromeda blinked at Sorren, tears starting to well in her eyes. "R-really?"

"You obviously don't know how friendship works, loser." They laughed softly. "And it's time I repaid you for all those years ago."

Andromeda just nodded, and they walked towards Meridia, their pace slow. The world was before them, and anything could happen. They could very possibly not find Chamomile at all, or it might be too late.

But the future didn't seem so bleak anymore. Not at all.

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Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote and leave feedback if you have any.

I made quite a bit of changes in this chapter. Sorren joining Andromeda is new, and a bit of a spur-of-the moment thing (hopefully this doesn't come up and bite me later 😅) but it felt like the right thing to do, and I'll be able to develop their relationship more over the course of this book. 

What do you think? Where do you think the story will go from here?