Kommora had just slotted the last book back onto Sallows's bookshelf when a curt knock at the door alerted them of Edgard Woodbead's arrival. Sallows opened the door.

"You're lucky I didn't return to Sarre tonight, Sallows," Woodbead said, strolling in and removing his heavy, long black coat and hat, revealing slicked-back salt and pepper hair and curious blue-green eyes, which skimmed over Edden Rummage, now sitting in a chair by the fire, then Kommora, and then back at Sallows as he shut the door. Kommora had heard much about the esteemed military general Edgard Woodbead, although she'd never had a chance to work with him until now. "Whatever can be so urgent you need to summon me at midnight?"

"Celestial magic." The temperature in the room dropped by several degrees. Kommora's heart skipped a beat at the words. It got Woodbead's attention as well. Frowning, he sat down in the armchair beside the fire and tilted his head, indicating for Sallows to continue.

"The Teirrinese royal family attempted to resurrect celestial magic and succeeded. They sacrificed their country."

"I thought it was an energy resource explosion," Kommora said, leaning forward, her lower back pressed against the bookcase behind her.

"That's what we're telling the public, but it's just a cover. Teirrin was hit by the equivalent of a magical bomb. Wiped out all life."

Kommora's mouth dried. The last memory of Bovaria and Solmin, waving out of the window taking them towards Cliffe, came back to her mind's eye.

"Where did they get their hands on celestial magic? I thought that was the stuff of legends?" she said in a hoarse voice.

"That's not the issue right now." Woodbead's eyes narrowed at Sallows. "You're saying Kristen Harred, the king's mage, sent this man to kill you."

"Not kill," said Rummage weakly. "She just wants his reapings from Teirrin, but at whatever the cost."

"Harred wants the celestial magic. I've been watching her." Sallows stared at the fire, hands clasped behind his back. His king's mage's cloak lay on the back of his plush armchair behind the table. "I've been watching her since she apprenticed with that Ebanon Fernard. She's aspiring high — in the most sinister way possible."

"She's only been a king's mage for a month," Kommora said, taken aback. Sallows was a veteran, with over thirty years of magic use under his belt.

"Harred graduated King's one year early. For two years she'd been apprenticed with Fernard; she'd taken his research and given it a spin of her own. She created a type of organic magic that could irreversibly bind a mage's magic capacity, effectively stripping his magic ability. Given what we've heard about the potentials of organic magic, it was only our luck she was pregnant and unable to attend Acrise when Hanna invaded two years ago. We can only guess at what she would have tried out on the battlefield, given the chance."

"Perhaps if she'd gone instead, we'd be rid of one liability and still have Berrycloth with us," Kommora said with a grimace.

"My point is: there is something very concerning about that woman and I have a bad feeling about what she's capable of. Celestial magic must not fall into her hands, especially now she knows I have access to it and she is evidently not averse to using whatever tactics at her disposal to get it." Sallows turned around, his weathered face dark.

"Forgive me, but I'm not magical. What is so special about this celestial magic?" said Woodbead.

"It's the origin of magic. Unlimited potential. It could create, destroy, even breach the limitations of life and death — it's the mother of all the magic we know of today."

"So it cannot be destroyed."

"No." Sallows took in a deep breath. "Harred knows I have it and it's no longer safe here, with me. It won't be safe with any of us. She knows who runs in my circles. If I entrust it to a mage, it will manifest and make its presence known."

"So we leave the strongest magic in the hands of a non-magical person," Kommora said, eyebrow quirked. "That's not reassuring."

"Magic cannot manifest in those who have no potential to utilise it, is that correct, Sallows?" Woodbead said. Sallows nodded. "Then that's the safest spot. Volatile substances cannot ignite if stored in water. It will ensure this magic dies with the host and never fall into Harred's hands."

"You have someone in mind?"

Sallows heaved a sigh. "We need someone we can keep an eye on. Someone non-magical, not allied with Harred, with enough connections with both the military and mages to be safe from external threats. Preferably someone who will not catch the king's mages' eyes, so also one who has not outwardly spoken against Harred's ideals."

There was a moment of silence.

"My daughter."

Kommora thought she'd misheard until Sallows nodded, grim.

"You're shitting me," she said to Rummage. "Your daughter is nine years old, Rummage."

"She turned ten just last week."

"You realise the gravity of what you're suggesting, Rummage?" Sallows said, ignoring Kommora's outraged disbelief. Rummage nodded, hands curling into fists and not meeting Kommora's eyes.

"Loren's not magical and she's good friends with your boy, Woodbead," Rummage said, nodding at Edgard, who surveyed him with a stony expression. "She's known to Kommora and is happy just being a normal little girl. She has no idea the kind of missions I go on. Like Kommora said: she's just a little girl. Kristen Harred wouldn't suspect her. She's our best option."

"No." Kommora straightened up, shaking her head. "No. We deal with this between us, as adults, as mages. We don't bring in little girls to shoulder burden we're too chicken shit to face ourselves."

"Loren Rummage might be our only chance of keeping celestial magic away from Harred's hands. We are potentially saving an entire country by doing this."

"That's bullshit," Kommora snarled at Woodbead. A military man wouldn't understand the innocence of children. He'd had no qualms shooting Hannan children when faced with the conflicts at Acrise. Of course, he'd be willing to sacrifice the few for the many.

"Haigh." Sallows's utterance stopped her fury. "If you've other suggestions, I'm open to hearing them."

Kommora's mouth snapped shut.

"It's just some documents Harred wants, right? You can easily dispose of paper without needing to drag in someone else."

"It's not just paper." He sighed and ran a hand through his long hair. He seemed to have gotten greyer since the last time Kommora had seen him up close. "The people that were killed in Teirrin were used to revive the actual celestial magic. I don't hold instructions on how to recreate it. I hold celestial magic itself."

"Then I'll take it." Blood drummed in her ears as she uttered the words. Sallows's eyebrows rose. "If someone has to take the risk of being murdered by Harred, then it should be someone who knows what they've signed up for."

"It's not as simple as that."

"Of course you'd say that." Kommora snorted. "But it's simple enough to just throw it at a ten-year-old?"

"Haigh—"

"Bullshit."

"It's not something so simple people can just use. We don't know what it will do to anyone, just what it's capable of so far — destroying an entire country." Sallows's tone took on a deadly seriousness. "You haven't seen Teirrin, Haigh. It's a pure wasteland. It'll take all of us to protect Loren Rummage, but if luck is on our side, that magic will stay dormant in her non-magical body, forever. And hopefully, the events of Teirrin will never happen again."

Kommora had a feeling Sallows wasn't fully forthcoming about the reasons behind his reasoning, but it was evident he had no plans to discuss any of that further. Gritting her teeth, she merely glared back and swallowed her protestations.

"Haigh and I will alter your memories, Rummage," said Sallows. "We need to ensure the events of today are fully wiped and reinstated, but indigos aren't that easy to control or that predictable. There may be side effects — potentially severe and lifelong."

"I understand."

"I shall orchestrate a plausible explanation for your failure," said Woodbead. "My men accompanied Sallows's return to the office early and overpowered you and your men, but the details will never be publicly announced. It will involve honourably discharging you from the military to keep Harred's control away from you and your family, but I'll ensure your family live comfortably from now on. There will be protection, day and night, from one of my family's personal guards."

He strode forward and rested a hand on Rummage's shoulder as he got up. The man had begun to tremble.

"You're doing the right thing, son. You're saving the country."

"Yes, sir," Rummage murmured. He and Rummage exited. Kommora watched their backs disappear into the night. Loren Rummage had no idea what was in store for her.

"This is such bullshit," Kommora said as Sallows shut the office door again.

"For the greater good. One day, Kommora, you'll have to make decisions like this and stand by them, see it through to the end. You'll face people like Harred, who'll twist and tug your conscience, have total disregard for collateral damage, and force you to make underhanded moves to save the lives of many at the cost of a few. That's what being a leader means."

Sallows paced around the office before facing her.

"We'll have to keep our distances, you, Woodbead, and I, after today. If the time comes for you to investigate into the Teirrin business again — and, for runes, I really hope that day never comes — you'll find all my documentation. But you'll have to work hard to uncover them. You know I don't suffer fools easily. You'll have to prove your worth as my successor if you want to take my place."

Kommora stared at him in silence. Sallows was not a man of humour. Indeed, the atmosphere in the room was not dissimilar to that of a funeral.

"Now come and help me prepare." Sallows opened his briefcase, drew out a heavy, leather-bound book, and placed it on the table. He then peeled back the separating leaf in the middle of the briefcase. Beneath it was a piece of parchment sandwiched between two active violet runes — stabilisers. With gentle fingers, he eased the parchment out, still held within the runes. Kommora spread a large, plain scroll over the middle of the office and Sallows laid it in the centre.

"That's the...?"

"Indeed. It won't do anything right now because I've got the stabilising runes on it, but it'll run out soon. After that, it'll seek the nearest source as host — and we have to direct it to Rummage's daughter."

Kommora's chest tightened and she swallowed. Under Sallows's instructions, she replicated the stabilising rune onto the large piece of paper on his floor. He placed the celestial magic carefully on top.

"That will hold — for now. Right, now come help me design this indigo rune. It won't be easy to wipe an entire event so thoroughly from a man's head."

"Not leaving him a vegetable will be the hard part, you mean," she muttered.

When Woodbead and Rummage returned with little Loren Rummage, Kommora had resigned herself to reality. The little girl was barely awake, rubbing her eyes, her blonde hair sticking up at odd angles, before peering curiously up at each of their faces. Kommora hadn't had much contact with the young girl, but Inara Rummage, the housekeeper at the Haigh house, had often spoken of her fondly and shown everyone pictures of her daughter whenever she could.

"Hello, Loren," Sallows said, crouching. Loren blinked at him and shrank behind her father's legs, peering from behind his knees. "We're going to play a little game. It's called a game of lights. It means you have to lie very still whilst we play with lights on your body. Can you do that?"

Rummage nudged her, his face pale. Swallowing, Loren nodded, wordless.

She lay down on the celestial rune and shut her eyes, her lips trembling and her fingers clenched on her abdomen, the knuckles white. Sallows waved his hand and dispelled the stabilising rune. Loren Rummage sucked in her cheeks and squeezed her eyes together, keeping surprisingly still. A blinding bout of white light expanded along the length of her little body, coating every part of her skin in its brightness. It was like nothing Kommora had ever seen before. The celestial magic poured over the little girl, devouring every nook and cranny, its surface glistening like polished marble.

It coated Loren Rummage for several minutes, pulsating in this beautiful, dazzling light before it dissolved into her skin. The room plunged into darkness in sharp contrast. Kommora blinked, unable to see until her eyes adjusted.

"Loren!" Edden Rummage swept his daughter in his arms. Her head lolled, her eyes shut.

"It'll take a bit of getting used to, such tremendous power. Let her rest for now. We have more pressing matters."

Rummage swallowed audibly. "Y-yes, sir."

"I'll take her," Woodbead said. "One of my men will take her home. We just need you here for the rest of the plan."

"Yes, sir." Rummage's voice was hoarse. He kissed the top of Loren's tousled head and passed her over. His shaking hands did not go unnoticed by Kommora.

Sitting down in a chair offered by Sallows, Rummage cleared his throat and stared ahead with renewed determination. Without a word, Kommora took the indigo rune she and Sallows had created and knelt before him.

"We did our best to specify what we wanted you to recall, but the remainder will depend on how your own mind reacts to Sallows and me," Kommora said. She'd never done indigo runes to this scale — she doubted Sallows had, much, either. It was a risk they all had to take.

"Before we start, Mage Haigh..." Rummage's grey eyes stared into Kommora's. "Please promise me — should anything happen to Inara and me—"

"Nothing will happen to you two. We'll keep you well-protected."

"—please promise you'll look after Loren. We're all she has."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Please."

Kommora fought an urge to roll her eyes and did her best to project her professional side. "Fine. Of course. I'll look after her like my own if anything were to happen to you two."

Visibly relieved as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Rummage nodded.

"Begin. Please."

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