The last person Valens wanted to see--though for reasons he could never have anticipated a month and a half ago--stepped into the prison suite around noon.

"Arbita," he said, his heart heavy with dismay as his wife stepped past the cart where he had piled the untouched dishes from the midday meal. She carried a silvery gray swathe of cloth over one arm. "Why didn't you run?" Now she was going to be a hostage, along with their unborn daughter, his parents, and his siblings.

His wife offered a small smile, glancing at the ajar door where the twins slumbered. She lowered her voice. "I thought about it," she said, frowning down at the untouched delicacies. Daedalus had insisted on fasting to remain "pure" to meet the Eternal Radiance, Domi had refused to eat, and Valens had ended up with no appetite. "But someone has to stay. The Rex needs to believe he has his leverage."

Valens gritted his teeth, glaring at the fists clenched in his lap. "You've heard, then?"

Arbita nodded, sinking into a chair beside him. "Yes. I'm his 'honored guest' to ensure you play nice." She added, voice quieter. "And I'm the only one."

Valens's head jerked up. "The only one? What do you mean? The Princeps said--" She gestured for him to lower his voice and he continued in a soft hiss, "Daedalus said the Rex was taking several hostages. What--"

"They're not here."

"What do you mean? Were they sent to another location for confinement?"

She shook her head. "Aix and I smuggled everyone out the instant the Rex sent the Electi to arrest Domi," she whispered, and sadness swept over her face. "At least, most of them. Comitas, Fons, and Peritia refused to go and are now in custody. The rest were sent to Urbs Hostiae to hide." She hesitated. "But we couldn't find Merula, Radix, Sidus, and Edera."

Valens sighed. "They're probably already in custody."

"I don't think they are," she said. She unfolded the silvery gray cloth held in her arms and Valens blinked. A tunica? "I found this in Merula's bedchamber. Do you know what it means?"

Valens reached for it in confusion, wondering what meaning an article of clothing could possibly possess. Then he gaped and laughed for the first time in days. "Rolled up sleeve. Domi told me that he used to do this as a Pullatus when thieving. Merula's got a coin up her sleeve."

"Of course she does," Arbita said dryly.

"How did you get the others out?" Valens asked. He'd been so worried about Domi that he hadn't stopped to think about the danger the others faced, but Arbita was several steps ahead of him. "Where are they hiding in Urbs Hostiae?"

"It's best not to ask," she said with an uneasy glance at the door. "I asked them not to tell me where they're going or their plans, just in case I'm questioned."

Valens swallowed. The Rex had many resources at his disposal, even now. And Princeps Buccina had a near-infinite number of magical eyes. "They're going to get caught. The promenia--"

"Merula and Radix have no prometus for the promenia to sense," she said, "and Comitas used Domi's authority to unregister them in the Compendium. Same with the others. That can't be undone without them present." She shook her head. "The promenia won't be able to identify them. None of them exist."

"Thank the Eternal Radiance," Valens breathed in relief. For one of the few times in his life, he spoke the words with genuine gratitude. But then his heart fell. The others had escaped, but Arbita surrendered herself to the Rex. "But what about you? You should have run with the others." Now it was too late.

She met his eyes. "Do you remember what you said to me on our wedding day, Valens? You said you made vows and intended to keep them." She shrugged. "I didn't want this marriage at first and neither did you. But you've kept your vows and I intend to keep mine."

His heart ached. "Arbita..."

"My place right now is here with you," she said, her voice firm. "And when you leave, if I can play my role as a hostage, maybe it will appease the Rex's anger when he finds out everyone else escaped." She offered a small smile. "Besides, until you come back, I'm one of the safest people on the planet. A dead hostage isn't a very useful hostage."

He swallowed. "There is no guarantee that we'll return successfully. And if we fail, we'll probably all be executed."

"I know." She tilted her head as she studied his face. "But you got into those ruins once already and came back. If anyone can pull this off, you can."

"I wish I had your confidence in my abilities." Valens sighed. "I'm glad Aix is coming as well, though. He may have an idea or two to help us sort this mess out."

"Yes." She drew a deep breath and rose to her feet, smoothing her pale gold paenula. "Well, since I'm here..." She glanced at the door and the huddled figures of the sleeping twins in the bedchamber beyond. "I saw Princeps Daedalus's sentencing earlier. He didn't look good at all. How is he doing now?"

"Better." He sighed. "Physically, anyway. He's resting. They bothered to clean him up a little, at least. Gave him medication to help with the pain." He gritted his teeth. "But the Rex didn't let a lifeholder heal him."

"I can't either," Arbita sighed, shaking her head. "The compulsion won't let me. I'll take a look at him, though. How is he handling..." Her face fell and her voice was softer when she spoke again. "Well, how is he handling it?"

"Better than Domi." Though he doubted that even as the words left his mouth. The eerie serenity he'd seen on the boy's face rose into his mind. Valens didn't buy it for a moment. No one faced death that calmly. It just wasn't natural. The kid was probably drugged or something. Or brainwashed. He gritted his teeth, a chill sweeping through him again as he remembered the kid's words, and with a shiver, he pushed it away. "He practiced his breathing peacefully and drifted off. Domi cried himself to sleep." Valens rubbed his forehead, where a headache throbbed. "They're both resting now."

Arbita nodded, stepping with him into the twins' bedchamber and lowering her voice. "Daedalus's prometus will drive him to sleep as much as possible to prioritize healing," she whispered as Domi groaned and shifted under his coverlet. "That should help speed his recovery a little." She swallowed hard, sorrow in her eyes. "But..."

"But it won't matter, soon," Valens finished for her softly. "Not anymore."

Arbita dipped her head, brushing a tear from her eye with the back of her hand. "But he's still here now. He shouldn't hurt more than we can avoid in the little time he has left." She straightened her shoulders. "Have you checked his prometus yet, to see how he's recovering?"

Valens frowned. "What? How am I supposed to do that?" Only a lifeholder could examine a person's prometus. Well, technically another could as well, in a limited sense, but it didn't apply to him. He could check Domi's prometus levels and gauge how badly the boy was sick or hurt based on the amount of unoccupied prometus that responded to his examination, but not Daedalus. "I'm not his..."

He trailed off, mouth falling open.

Eyes devour...

Arbita's lip quirked in a sad smile. "You're registered to Daedalus too, Valens. He's your alumna, technically speaking."

Valens closed his eyes. He wasn't. Just because the Compendium listed him that way did not mean he bore any true responsibility to the kid. He'd never wanted even one alumna, but by a bizarre twist of fate, he technically had two? It was absurd.

Still. Very soon, he would only have one again. And if the trip to the Blightlands didn't go well, he would have none.

He swallowed hard. "I'll check his prometus now," he murmured.

<>

"The Rex requires your presence in his tablinum office."

Valens snorted at the Electi who had stepped into the prison suite around midafternoon. He didn't bother looking up from his book. "Does he?"

Arbita, folding a cloth over Daedalus's forehead in the other room, frowned. "Valens..."

His jaw tensed. "Fine." If the Rex wanted to talk to him, they'd talk. Valens had a thing or two he wanted to say to his monarch, too.

He followed the Electi out of the prison suite and to the Ruby Palace's tablinum. A chill permeated the room, held at bay by boards patching the broken dome above the cracked desk and a quartet of glowing braziers.

The Rex sat in the corner, a low table spread with delicacies before him. Two place settings rested amid spiced strawberry sorbet, nut-stuffed dates, dried figs, and honey-drizzled ostrich tarts.

"Ah, Valens," the elderly monarch said, gesturing for the Electi to depart, "Please join me. My staff tells me you didn't eat your lunch."

Valens sat across from his ruler and sneered at the meal. "Food. Impressive. So I get a feast and the sick and hurt kid you're slaughtering gets a pathetic meal of little more than bread and water and then twenty-four hours of starvation. You are a generous and just ruler, Augustus."

The Rex put his fork down with a thump. "Hold your tongue," the old man snapped. "You are well-loved, but I can barely stand to look at you now."

"The feeling is mutual, Augustus."

The Rex's eyes narrowed. "You expected me to what? Allow a traitor whose deeds rained death and destruction down upon the world to walk free?"

"Which traitor do you refer to? The child who couldn't bear the torture of high office? Or the one who didn't want to let you murder his brother?"

"We all make sacrifices for the public good. Even children." The elderly man shook his head. "It is unfortunate and I wish it were not so, but it is so."

Valens's nails dug into his palms. "Yes, and look what generations of sacrifice brought us. The Trellis was propped up by piles of dead twins and still fell. All those children. Can you even imagine how many?"

The Rex's gaze narrowed. "One hundred thousand every year, in the modern era. Eleven million, two hundred ninety thousand since Vola Apertus's founding." He folded the napkin in his lap and dropped it on the table as Valens stared. "I do not need to imagine. It is my duty to know and to continue making the necessary choice for the good of all."

"You have a strange idea of the meaning of 'all', Augustus," Valens said, bitter. "Eleven million. And you want me to restore the monstrous thing that feeds on the lives of kids?"

The old man leaned forward, voice lowering to a dangerous rumble. "You will if you want your wife and unborn daughter to live. And your alumna. And the people who escaped." He offered a humorless smile as Valens stilled. "Don't think for an instant that I won't find them."

"We'll see."

The Rex nodded. "Yes, we will."

For a long moment, they stared at each other. But Decus Astralis always outmatched him in patience. Valens gritted his teeth. "We aren't going to succeed. You have to know that. You're sending us on a suicide mission that's going to fail. Three people?" he scoffed. "To claim the Restoration Tower, let alone figure out how it works?" Valens shook his head. "It isn't enough. You're sabotaging this mission from the start."

The Rex relaxed, sighing heavily. "With the extent of the damage around the world, I can't spare Lightholders for the task. Not if we want a chance at any kind of future should you fail. And yes, I acknowledge that you very well may fail." He shook his head. "But for all your noble words about the evils of sacrifice, I hope you will risk sacrificing yourself and your alumna for this chance the world so desperately needs." The Rex spread his hands. "If you succeed, you and your family will live. Your alumna will be celebrated as a hero." His eyes narrowed. "But if you fail, the boy will be executed as a traitor. And so will you, your wife, your child, and all the traitors who think they escaped. So, Valens, I advise you to focus on finding a way for you all to live."