Krayson took one step, and when his foot landed, he was no longer within the Senwood.

    The seals on his ether stores strained. He felt as if an ocean of ether fought to rush into him and fill the void in his blood. Around him, the assassins took in sharp breaths as they felt similar effects, only unhindered by seals. Any ether they'd lost from their stores was replenished in an instant.

    The landscape around him was different. Unfamiliar. Alien. It felt both unnatural and, at the same time, more natural than anything else he'd ever experienced. A primeval woodland surrounded him, dense and thick enough that he could not see more than twenty paces from where he stood. The canopy above him held violet and red leaves that glowed softly, providing the only light he could see.

    Awed, Krayson raised his foot to take another step.

    Dashar's hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Be still, Blood Runner. Should you lose yourself within the Ethereum, no power in either world could show you the way back out."

    Moon scoffed. "Clouded words. Blood-scented would be found by kith-spirits. They will gift him with path."

    The doppler regarded her with an empty expression. "Be it so, he would be hunted. My uncle still has a task for him."

    Krayson shrugged off Dashar's hand. "Don't remind me."

    The shifter looked to Maya. "Keep them in hand, Cousin. Esra and Maltus will have their eyes on them as well, so be sure there are no problems."

    Maya didn't look pleased at being ordered about by the creature, but she kept her distaste to herself. She stared after Dashar One, and that was why she and Krayson missed it when Moon suddenly let out a cry and pointed into the depths of the spirit forest.

    The Teulites had just come through the convergence and looked around with narrowed eyes at the alien landscape, and their attention snapped towards Moon. They and the assassins rounded on her and then looked in the direction she indicated.

    Krayson peered as well. There was something there. A light, a flickering light like a campfire. Moon took a step towards it, her eyes wide. Maya took her by the wrist to stop her.

    "Don't stray," Maya warned. "There's no telling what's out there."

    Moon whirled her head to look back at Maya. Her expression was wild, even frantic. "Must go. Can Star Hunter not scent this?"

    Maya furrowed her brow. "What do you mean? Is it dangerous?"

    Vintus walked towards them with languid steps. "Maya, what's the problem?"

    "I... don't know, Uncle."

    "Is not black!" Moon shouted. She grabbed at Maya's fingers on her and pried them free. "Must go!"

    Moon took one step, and she was gone.

    Vintus' easy pace sped up and he was beside them in an instant. "Maya!"

    Krayson blinked, as stupefied by Moon's vanishing act as the princess appeared to be. Nonetheless, he couldn't stop himself from grinning over it. Krayson had a triumphant smirk on his face as he looked at Vintus.

    Maya stared at where Moon had been a moment before. "I... She was just here!"

    "That means nothing in the Ethereum!" Vintus shouted. He rounded on the rest of the coterie. "Find the freg! Everything depends on it. Find her, and bring her to me alive!"

    Each of them took steps and immediately vanished. Krayson gaped after them. He didn't know what sort of spellcraft was going on to just whisk people away. It wasn't teleportation, nor was it enhanced speed. They were just... gone. It might've been a property of being physically within the spirit world, a new law of reality, but Krayson didn't understand how it worked or even what was going on.

    "Stay with the blood runner, Maya," Vintus snarled as he fixed her with a glare. "You haven't been here before, so I'll forgive this lapse. Just this once. Location works differently than in the physical realm. You go where your thoughts take you. Keep a firm hand on the prisoner, and he won't go anywhere."

    Maya grabbed Krayson's arm and held tight. "As you say, Uncle."

    "And you," Vintus growled, glowering at Krayson. He didn't seem to like the defiant look Krayson returned him. "If I learn you had a hand in helping your freg whore escape..."

    "Sod off, scum," Krayson spat.

    Vintus balled up his fist and drove it into Krayson's stomach. Krayson tensed his abdominals in anticipation of the blow. It hurt like a knife being slammed into him, but he didn't retch up the broth from earlier. Krayson grimaced and looked up into Vintus' eyes.

    "Whatever it takes," he growled, "whatever it costs me, I will fight you. Until my last breath, until the Beyond, I will never stop pissing you off."

    Vintus scowled and appeared to arrive at a decision. "So be it. You could've been useful, but you're just a liability." He drew his sword and pulled it back for a strike.

    "My life for Shan Alee," Krayson said. "Again and forever."

    Before the sword fell, before Krayson could use the alchemical spell hidden in his palm, something new arrived in their corner of the Ethereum.

    Vintus, Krayson, Maya, and the Teulites looked up as the canopy of glowing leaves parted and a stone face pushed down through the branches. It was huge, the face as broad as ten men standing shoulder to shoulder. It was the face of a giant statue, features indistinct, as if it were roughly hewn from the rock by primitive tools or weathered away by centuries of wind and rain.

    The giant stone face made a deep, echoing sound like the last sigh of an old man on his death bed.

    The Teulites fell to their knees in awe and prostrated themselves.

    "First of Thunders," Jak'm murmured.

    Vintus backed up two steps, his eyes fixed on the face above him. He was clearly caught off-guard. "That's not your ancient hero-king," he said quietly. "Winds and storms."

    "What is it, then?" Maya rasped. She seemed unable to decide if she should be attacking it or not.

    Krayson could only assume that any attack on this entity would be a bad idea.

    "A god," Vintus said. "A forgotten god."

    Maya furrowed her brow, unable to turn away from the deity's featureless stare. "Forgotten?"

    "Gods never truly die," Vintus explained, his tone hushed. "When mortals no longer pray to them, no longer pay homage to the concept they embody, a god withers, its power wanes, and all that's left is a husk such as this. There's no will driving it. It's a being of pure instinct, less even than the lesser spirits called on by witches."

    "Why is it here?" Maya hissed, inching closer towards panic. Her white-knuckled grip on her sword hilt was trembling.

    Krayson met the forgotten god's faded eyes of stone and almost felt like it was staring back at him.

    "No way to tell," Vintus said, some of his self-assured manner returning. He readied his sword. "Happenstance, or it may be drawn to mortals. Maybe something about us reminds it of what it once was. Whatever the case may be, it is no threat to us, and I won't be distracted from what I mean to do with the Krayson."

    Krayson rounded on Vintus. The prince was stalking towards him again, murder in his stance.

    Jak'm stepped between them.

    "I request you step aside, Your Greatness," Vintus said.

    "Do not be a fool, Althandi," Jak'm said in an even tone. He glanced upwards towards the forgotten god. "It is no coincidence when the nameless one arrived. Drawn, as you said. Drawn to the blood mage. It knew his defiance of you as his own."

    Vintus sneered.

    "Only a fool would tempt Fate so," Jak'm continued. "Would you spill this blood the nameless one recognizes, beneath his very gaze? Stay your hand."

    Drawing back a step, Vintus smirked at Jak'm. "And here I thought you disavowed all fatherly ties to the boy."

    "Do not bait me, Althandi," Jak'm warned. "Find your freg, and let us finish this business. I still await the second passage you promised my Horde."

    Vintus clucked his tongue, then after giving Krayson one last venomous look, he took a step away and vanished into the Ethereum. Krayson couldn't help but sag a little in relief, then he looked towards his father.

    Jak'm looked back at him, his expression unreadable. He gave Krayson a bare nod before returning to the rest of the Teulites.

    It was an uncomfortable thought, and Krayson didn't know if he even had the capacity to sort through what he felt over it. The atrophied emotions he once believed to be nothing more than ghosts whispered to him. They seemed just as confused as Krayson was. This was the second time that Jak'm, in his own way, had saved Krayson's life. The first had been when instead of execution, Krayson had been taken and left outside of Teularon.

    Krayson couldn't hold back his question. "For the Jak'm, Father?"

    "Always," Jak'm answered without turning. "That blood-traitor was liable to bring the wrath of the nameless upon himself. That would end our chance for the prestige of sacking the Spired City. I intend for the next Tiger King to also bear the name of Jak'm. My tribe shall reign over Teularon from the Citadel of Shattered Fang in this generation and in the next."

    Krayson allowed himself a smirk. "Careful. Some might say you're thinking like an Althandi with this talk of a dynasty."

    Jak'm looked over his shoulder, and there was a bare glimmer of a smile on his lip. "So long as he earns his title in battle, the Tiger King's rule is unquestioned. We watch our young warriors with keen eyes. We seek the one who will become tiger lord of the Jak'm after me, the one whose prestige will grant him the honor of breaking bread within Shattered Fang."

    The warriors of the Jak'm stood. Staccato and Velvet even laughed. All of their gazes passed between Krayson and the nameless god whose eyes he stood beneath.

    Maya was still throwing uneasy looks upwards at the unmoving face above them, and now she was giving equally wary looks at the Teulites. A few of their eyes were passing over her in return, though theirs had a more lascivious quality to them. Being a woman, she had an uphill battle in store for her if she wanted them to consider her as anything other than a financial manager or child bearer.   

    Judging by the leer Jak'm Jak'm was giving Maya, there was no doubt which of the two he thought her best suited for.

    Maya bent to speak in Krayson's ear. "Vintus is gone. Now's your chance to escape."

    "I can't do that," Krayson said.

    "If you're worried about Rippling Moon, I'll see her safely out of here."

    Krayson shook his head. "Not without me. I wouldn't say she and I are close, but I know her better than any of you. If you mean to find her before Vintus or his cronies, you need me."

    Maya pursed her lips then gave him a nod. "Find Rippling Moon, then get out of the blustering Ethereum as fast as we can. Once I have the two of you back in the real world and no thralls to see what I do, we can teleport away."

    Krayson hummed in appreciative surprise. "You learned to manifest teleportation."

    Maya smirked at him. "I picked up a few tricks. The best is yet to come."

    "I have no doubt."

    She inclined her head, and her smile actually seemed genuine. "Any idea what our pretty, hoofed friend was worked up about?"

    As Maya spoke, she held out her hand and made a beckoning gesture. She didn't look down as a tiny pink sparrow fluttered into her palm and changed into a mouse. Maya deftly tucked Zanda into a belt pouch.

    Krayson muttered a greeting to the Executioner under his breath before looking in the direction they'd seen the distant firelight. It was still there, but it seemed much more distant than before. What distance even meant in a place like the Ethereum was impossible to say. "She saw that light and grew desperate to reach it. I don't know why."

    "Fey are hard to figure out," Maya agreed. "I wish I payed more attention to them while I was with Shan Alee."

    Above, the forgotten god made that sighing sound again. Maya cast an anxious look at it. "Something about that thing..."

    "Gives you the willies?"

    "Sod off," Maya growled. "But, yeah. More or less."

    "Better to leave him behind, then," Krayson said. "Vintus implied movement here is tied to thought. I assume imprint connections come into play, also."

    Maya held onto his arm. "Take the lead."

    Krayson breathed in deep, held an image of Moon in his mind, and took a step. Maya matched his motion, and together, they were swept across the landscape before their feet landed.

    Trees rushed by them. Hundreds of trees. It was like they traveled dozens of leagues in the span of a heartbeat. Throughout the rush of motion around them, the firelight ahead remained as a fixed point in the distance. In the last moment, as the soles of their boots came to rest on the ground once again, the firelight shot towards them and resolved into the skeletal ruin of a stone cottage inside the depths of the spirit forest.

    The walls appeared to have long been rotted away. The roof was gone. All that remained were the masoned pillars at the four corners of the decrepit structure and a hearth burning with a crackling, happy flame. The fire burned in defiance of the ages, giving warmth and light to the small woman kneeling before it inside the ruin.

    Krayson breathed a sigh of relief. As he thought, his slight connection with Moon allowed him and Maya to reach her before the rest of the assassins. Even so, it'd be wise not to dally about. Vintus could pop in at any moment.

    "Moon," Krayson whispered as they trotted onto the creaking floor boards of the ruin.

    She slowly turned at the sound of Krayson's voice. Moon's expression was inscrutable. Pensive and melancholy.

    "Is Light Hoof," she said. Moon turned to look back into the flame.

    "Your brother?" Krayson asked. He looked around the ruin as he crouched beside Moon. It might've been his imagination, but the fire flickered agitatedly when he got close to her. "What is this place?"

    "Is kith-home," Moon said quietly. "Kith-home we have no more. Was taken by Black Tongue."

    "I don't think I..."

    Unexpectedly, Moon started to giggle. "You don't understand much of anything I say, do you?"

    Krayson blinked at the switch in dialect. "I like to think I'm getting better."

    She kept looking into the fire. Her face had gone pensive again. She touched at the House Algara livery she wore, and also at the stumps of her antlers. Rippling Moon gave off the sense that she was acutely aware of how she appeared less like a goblin now than she ever had before.

    "Is it wrong that I try to talk the way humans do?" she asked. "Princess Nkeoma's angels... I don't think they were allowed to talk in the manner fey always have. Whenever fey spoke near them, we could smell a longing in them. They wished to hear words like ours coming out of their own mouths. It was precious to them to hear us. We were free to speak as we wanted, and they scented warmer, as if just knowing that someone could talk like that, everything would be alright. I'd never thought of our words as... something precious... before knowing of angels."

    Krayson looked to Maya for help. They really didn't have the time for introspection at the moment. Frustratingly, Maya had gone pensive as well and was staring at Moon as if seeing her for the first time.

    "Is it wrong?" Moon asked again, this time in a whisper. "I don't want to throw away something precious."

    Krayson didn't feel qualified to give an answer. His ghosts seemed to think he should be. A Teulite boy once forsook his own upbringing in preference of a new land. Krayson had never before thought of it as a mistake. Why now did he wonder if he'd lost something important?

    "You wouldn't be throwing it away," Maya said, unexpectedly giving an answer in Krayson's stead. "You said it yourself. The value lies in having the freedom to choose. Speak one way when you wish, the other whenever you want. No one can take that choice from you."

    Moon closed her eyes and bowed her head.

    "Are you proud to be a goblin?" Maya asked. Rather forcefully, at that.

    Moon looked up at her, startled. "Aye."

    "Then, be proud. When you speak as us, you are not meeting our expectations. You are granting us a kindness. Make all who hear you know that they should be honored to have the chance."

    Moon blinked slowly before giving Maya a slow nod. The look she was giving the princess was one of surprise. Perhaps a little awe, too.

    "We must go," Krayson insisted. "Wherever we are, the battlefield coterie will find us eventually. They seem more familiar with how this place works than we are."

    Moon breathed out through her nose. "Is spirit-home," she whispered, staring once again into the hearth fire. "Is home to my kin."

    She reached into the flame, and Krayson bit back a cry as he reached out to stop her.

    The fire parted around her four-fingered hand, the small tongues of flame lapping at her skin like a caress. It didn't burn her. It would never. The fire spirit loved his sister.

    "Light Hoof speaks so that I will hear," Moon said. "Black words. Black paths are being walked. He sights this unclouded from spirit-home, and he speaks to me of what path I must walk."

    "This fire..." Maya said, soft and reverent. "This spirit, he's your brother."

    "Is thing that is," Moon said with a fond smile. "He is rocker, but he is unclouded. My path lies in spirit-home. My rybka is not the key they sight her as. Demon-blessed is his own key but is clouded to this. Is not enough to escape. I must end this path they walk." She turned towards Krayson. "Blood-scented must end this path. He is red chosen by Imprisoned One. Only he can see the web as Imprisoned One wishes it walked."

    Krayson furrowed his brow. "What do you mean Vintus is his own key?"

    Moon touched at her belly. She then looked up at Maya. "Is same thing. God-sighted... they do not sight their own eyes." She shook her head. "Star Hunter, do you not know? Do you not know what you are?"

    Maya's eyes narrowed. "I... What am I?"

    The sudden emotion in Maya's voice put Krayson on edge. Hiding this from her no longer felt like the wise precaution it'd once been. "You're the Eidolon."

    "I keep hearing that word. Others say it as if it's something I should already know. What is it? Winds and storms, what am I?"

    "Star Hunter is spirit-blessed," Moon said. "As rybka is spirit-blessed. As all god-sighted are spirit-blessed."

    Krayson gaped at her in shock. "Spirit-blessed? You mean..."

    "Feylings," Moon confirmed.

    Maya took a step back, dumbfounded. She raised her hand to touch near to her eyes, and her gaze didn't rest on any one thing for more than a moment. They darted about as if seeking anything to make sense of the revelation.

    "Osteomancers are feylings," Krayson murmured. "How..."

    "But Star Hunter is special," Moon continued without letting herself get sidetracked. "Light Hoof speaks this. She is thing old masters wish for. She is the end. She is reason old masters wished for kith to be called in the first place. But, she came too soon. She was meant to be born in next age, the age of fey the old masters seek by ending this one. The age to bring the rise of new race. The final race. A race of feylings. A race of many Eidolons. Old masters feared her. They feared her coming too soon and unclouding their path. Wanted to end her to keep their path clouded to our eyes, but they now walk path to make her theirs. They are so close to winning forever."

    Krayson leaned closer to Moon. "How does Light Hoof know this? No one knows what they want. Not mortals, not gods, not spirits. How can he know?"

    "They have played their card," Moon said, looking into his eyes. She grew more intense, and she raised her voice. "They unclouded their traitor, and the world will burn for it if we don't end their path. End it now!"

    She pulled her hand from the fire and stood, drawing Krayson up to his feet with her.   

    "Moon?" Krayson asked. He wasn't ashamed to admit his voice was trembling. "What are you saying we do?"

    "We must walk path with demon-scented. Let them sight us as theirs, so they take us down their path. Blood-scented must find Fate. He must save Fate from them." She looked at Maya. "Will Star Hunter help?"

    Maya didn't answer right away. She was grappling with a great deal and could only stare back in silence.

    "We need you, Your Highness," Moon said, and her eyes started to glisten with unshed tears. "Because... my red isn't coming."

    Krayson felt a pit in his stomach. "Lord Ban?"

    Moon lowered her eyes. Her voice was numb, as if she couldn't believe her own words. "He is Ban no more. I'm ashen for not seeing. Pacifica saw, but I didn't. Why didn't I see?"

    Krayson didn't have the slightest clue what she meant, but it didn't sound good. None of it did. All he could think to do was to keep Moon in the present so she wouldn't have to dwell on her husband's fate. "You really think we should stay with Vintus?"

    She nodded.

    Krayson looked to Maya. She furrowed her brow and looked down at her waist. Zanda's mousey head peeked out of her belt pouch.

    "I don't like this, Your Highness," Zanda said. "Lady Claryss didn't want you away from the capital longer than necessary."

    Maya bit her lip in consideration.

    "Your Highness?" Krayson asked.

    "There are..." Maya hesitated. "The Cabal is taking a risk while we're away from the City of Althandor. The greatest risk they've ever taken."

    "Of what sort?" Krayson asked.

    Zanda sighed. "A big one. It was convenient to have Vintus away while it goes down. Even more so to have Maya gone for a couple days, but she'll need to return to the Palace of Towers soon if everything's going to go the way we want it to go."

    Krayson drew in a shocked breath. "You can't possibly mean..."

    "Heron is helping them," Maya said. "As we left, the thunder we heard, it wasn't an approaching rainstorm."

    "Teleporters," Krayson breathed. "I showed you the weakness in the palace wards. The Cabal is going to..." He nearly fell back down to the ground. "There's been a coup going on ever since we left the city."

    "My father is likely already dead," Maya said, emotionless. "I must return to Althandor and assume my throne."

    "She does not want this," Moon said. "I scent it on you. You scent of sorrow."

    Maya's expression hardened. "I've learned that it's not about what I want. It's about what has to be. I must become the Highest Queen." She looked over her shoulder, in the direction the convergence should have been in normal circumstances. "But... you're right. I made a promise to someone important to me. I can't become queen until I prove myself worthy of it. I'll take this path with you. We'll stop my uncle dead in his tracks. Whatever he wants, he can't have."

    Moon pursed her lips and crossed her arms. "Star Hunter is rocker."

    "Is that a good thing?" Maya asked.

    Moon shrugged. "It can be."

    Maya gave her a wan smile. "Then I'll take it."

    There was so much more left to say, but Krayson knew they'd been afforded a lot more time than he could have reasonably asked for. If they were going to walk this mad path— this thundering, suicidal path— they needed to leave immediately. He was about to say as much when the Ethereum proved once again what a strange place it was.

    Odd, ephemeral lights began to swirl about the ruined goblin cottage. They were dim. Ghostly. Multitudes of the wispy, smoke-like things began to gather around them as if drawn by Light Hoof's flame.

    Maya's hand went to her sword again, even though it was probably a useless gesture. "What are these, now?"

    "Lost," Moon whispered. "The traitor was unclouded, and so they are lost."

    Krayson eyed her askance, wishing he had the time to learn more of what she found out from her brother.

    Moon held out her hand, and one of the wisps approached her and hovered above her palm. She regarded the wisp, and her eyes sparked to life with a momentary anger. They then calmed, and Moon let out a sigh.

    "Clouded rocker," Moon murmured. "She sights now that she was ashen."

    Maya peered at the wisp with a furrowed brow. Her eyes widened with something like recognition. "Winds..."

    Krayson frowned. "We really don't have the time, ladies."

    Moon raised her palm, sending the wisp away. It didn't go far, remaining close by as if it wanted to stay at their side. "It is cleansed," she whispered, and the wisp almost appeared to wilt in relief before fading away.

    Krayson decided that he could spend a lifetime in the Ethereum and never understand a fraction of what it had to teach him. He had a passing thought that a witch should be better equipped for this, but he'd never been an avid student of spirit lore. "Back to the beginning, then?"

    Moon and Maya exchanged a look and a nod. They turned towards him.

    "Take the lead, Krayson," Maya said. "I'll tell them Moon came back on her own." She smirked. "She couldn't just leave her lover behind, after all."

    Moon squawked. "Is this thing they think?"

    Krayson gave her a contrite shrug.

    Moon scowled. "Is not worst thing to think, but still..."

    Krayson tried not to feel insulted as he held both women by the arm. Taking in a bracing breath, he took a step and thought of his father.