Hypnosia looked up and then put the book down and stood, carefully.

"Fall," she said.

"Somnus, right?" Cinder said.

"Whatever," Hypnosia said. "What do you want?"

"Roman passed on your message," Cinder said. "I don't know why you told him to tell me that. I've been thinking it over...and all I could deduce is that you wanted to threaten me, or you were trying to drop some kind of hint. So which is it?"

"I thought it would make you come talk to me," Hypnosia said. "I had to see it for myself." She scrutinized Cinder. "I wondered why a terrorist-turned-dressmaker would be so anxious to keep fighting us. You could hole up in Argus, here, and leave us alone. Maybe we'd not be able to reach you."

"It's not in my nature to let a threat just stand," Cinder said.

"So I've heard. Why are you helping these people now?" Hypnosia said. "Aren't you all enemies?"

Cinder frowned. "It doesn't matter what we were or are. You people are far more deadly now than any of us. You threatened me just because I stopped you--and them just because they stand in your way."

"They once stood in your way."

"That was then... When you've saved the world together, things look different," Cinder replied flatly.

"I had thought once that you didn't think the world was worth saving."

"You seem to know a lot about me."

"Well, we try." Hypnosia leaned on the cell door. "Mala certainly doesn't like you. After you outed Teach and Calico, those incompetent idiots, she wasn't keen on you being around. But then she said she wanted us to bring you in alive. Which is probably worse... What they do to people they bring in alive is unspeakable in polite company... They brought in those from that raid, the one where you killed Bruiser."

"I had no choice," Cinder said. "He would have killed someone else if I didn't."

"Oh, don't apologize for that to me. Between the two of us, I'm not even sorry. That slob tried to have some fun with me--and most of the other women who are better looking than a mailbox. No one cares about that part. It's just the embarrassment of it. But I've had some time to think. Once I didn't do the kind of things they did in that tribe...but even on the island, I was slipping. Your friend Oscar tells me that it's the effects of bad company and their power of suggestion. And our own weakness. Fascinating to know that. But I'll get to the point: The tribe is only getting worse. Attacking children is a low I once would not have stooped to, but I did. If I would, they all would...and what's more, even people who wouldn't at first..."

She paused. "Look, the hostages they took, you don't know what they'll do to them. They might just abuse them, but if they have some promise...they could try to corrupt them."

Cinder shivered. "And does it work?"

"It works on some. Dolly, for one."

Cinder cast a look at her.

"Yeah, she wasn't one of us," Hypnosia said. "They snatched her from a town. Did terrible things to her... Once she was broken down enough, the Grimm started to work. I didn't get very close to that, and we usually ignored it. But, there it is. Probably why it shattered her mind so much when the Deimos attacked. She already was weak. She would follow what Mala said. Mala does not tolerate disobedience."

Cinder made a face.

"I take it from your reaction that you no longer support these methods," Hypnosia said.

"At my worst, I never forced that on anyone else," Cinder said. "I did it to myself, but that wasn't the same level."

"I see." Hypnosia paused. "Then it's true, you have changed... No one in the Baba tribe would believe it. But they don't believe anything now, I think. I'm new to them to begin with, but from what Mino told me, they weren't always quite this corrupt. Mala wasn't even always this insane. But about 5 years ago, or just under it, she and some others went to Vacuo to witness the new things that were going on. They explored around it, too. When they came back they said they knew about a new way they could make the tribe stronger. I don't know more about that. I wasn't there at the time. But the people who were say that it didn't work well at first. But they got better at it. And then they began to get more single-minded."

She closed her eyes "The older ones, they don't seem to realize it's madness. At first the initiated weirdos don't all like it, but they go along with it because they're afraid not to and they have nowhere else to go. They tell themselves it's not them doing it, so it's okay... But then they start to think it's not so bad...and then they might try it...and then they like it. It's disturbing. But it's like being put under a spell. And the leaders, you always go along with that they say. Maybe you're too afraid not to, or maybe you just feel like they own you."

Cinder shrugged, but she knew what that was like.

"If you want to stop them--" Hypnosia opened her eyes. "--you can't just go in there blindly. The hideout has all sorts of dangers in it, and even if you got past the guards and Grimm, the power they use, they cloud your mind, I think. It's just not possible to escape them unscathed, unless maybe with your gifts...but you still wouldn't know what to expect. You'd have to have an insider."

"So you say. But who would do that?"

Hypnosia raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you? Don't you not want to back there?" Cinder asked.

"No, I don't want to go back," Hypnosia said. "But I can't escape them like this. They'll find a way. The council wouldn't keep us here forever. Sooner or later, they'll attack our transport or find us wherever we land. It's just a matter of time. On the other hand, if you stop them, we could maybe be free."

"Or you could die," Cinder said.

"So I die either way," Hypnosia said. "I'm starting to feel like what I did cannot be atoned for any other way. I wouldn't say I was a moral person before this, but I wasn't a monster. I need to...I need to do something about it. I was hoping maybe you'd get that, if you were actually different."

Cinder paused. "Let's say I believe this... No one would trust you to do that; it could be a trick. I don't have any power here."

"That's not even all the problems," Hypnosia said. "We'd have to get there before they killed us. You can't do that with an Argus ship, no way. I can't say what I think, not if anyone's listening to this, but perhaps you could read my mind. After all, you've been working on this case for a while."

Cinder tilted her head.

Did she mean the pirates?

She held up her scroll (her knew one) and typed out those words on it.

Hypnosia nodded.

Cinder typed "how?"

"If I was able to leave here, I could do it," Hypnosia said. "As it is, there's not much I can do."

She winked.

Cinder wrote this out:

"Why would I help you with this? I can't do anything."

"You still don't understand what my message meant?" Hypnosia said.

Cinder blanched.

A part of her had already suspected this...but had hoped it was not actually the idea.

She wrote out: "Do you think I would be that crazy? I wouldn't survive that."

"There's a good chance," Hypnosia said. "How bad do you want them to be gone? Seems like, same as me, your days are numbered anyway. Yours, mine, and Mino's too."

She must mean she wanted him out too.

Cinder shook her head. "I won't," she said aloud. "I'm not that foolish."

Hypnosia stared at her.

Then she shrugged. "Well, I thought so. What do you care, right? You can live out whatever's left of your life in ease until they find you...or maybe your friends will find them. And the only people who have to suffer for it are the ones they get to in the meantime. Let everyone else take the chances. Sure, it's probably not going to work, but that's more smart, right? I'd probably do the same thing."

"Then why aren't you?" Cinder said.

Hypnosia tossed the book onto the cot in the cell furiously. It didn't seem to make her feel that much better. "I already tried protecting myself. I feel like s---. I guess at some point you've gotta stop running. At least, I gotta."

She moved to the cot and sat down. "Maybe someone else will do it if you won't. Just won't work as well. Anyone else probably would be shot on sight."

Cinder frowned at her and then backed up and left.

"What did you mean by that?" Mino asked. He'd heard all of it, of course.

"A way for us to get out of here," Hypnosia said.

"Yeah, but it won't work. You can't trust that witch to do anything."

"Maybe, maybe not... Might be better for us not to escape."

"I won't sit here in an Argus tin can if I can be out there," Mino growled. "The tribe will understand if we bring them something useful."

* * *

"So, did you learn anything?" Raven asked Cinder, when she found her at the base mess hall after that.

Cinder was staring at food she hadn't eaten.

"Nothing of use," she said. "Anyway, didn't you tap the room?"

"There's security cameras, but I disabled the sound," Raven said. "In case we still have spies at the base. I didn't want anyone to find it who shouldn't... It's a pain though. I hope you aren't overlooking anything significant."

Cinder shrugged.

"Maybe you need to take a step back from this," Raven said. "Seems like it's getting to you. I need clear-headed people to work on this."

"No, I don't need a step back," Cinder said. She looked up. "If someone in the tribe who we actually knew went back there, couldn't Theodore track them? He has that Semblance."

"If he'd met them," Raven said. "But that would have to mean two things: 1, that I trusted any of them enough to send them back, which I don't and I can't. With the power the Grimm have over their minds, even getting close might be a bad idea for them. And 2, the tribe clearly does not deal well with people who fail. They might kill them before they even got to the HQ, and then we lose our lead and our informants. That idea is mad."

"It is mad," Cinder said. "Unless there was a way to be sure they'd be allowed in."

"There is no way to be sure of that," Raven said. "You can't trust the Baba tribe to be rational."

"I know." Cinder frowned. "It's just infuriating..."

"Just go home," Raven said. "You're grating on my nerves."

Cinder left, but she didn't really sleep. 

The next day, she dropped by the Arc household without announcing herself.

Pyrrha was home, and so were the kids, except for Ben, who'd gone out with some new friend he'd made from Sanctum Academy, where he was now going to be enrolled. (They'd had an open house.)

Pyrrha had Lux out playing in her boppy pillow with those chewing toys babies seem to love.

"I didn't expect you to show up here," she said to Cinder, sitting down with some coffee and laundry to fold. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"Something must be wrong. You don't just come to see me for fun," Pyrrha said.

Cinder frowned. "Yeah...there's something I have to ask you--but you can't talk to anyone about it if I do."

"I'm not sure I should agree to that," Pyrrha said.

"It's important. Life or death."

"Okay...I can only promise not to if it's not against my better judgement."

Cinder debated what she should tell her then.

Then she shrugged. "There's something I'm thinking about, something I could do to finally put an end to this war with the Baba tribe. If it worked. But the odds of it working are pretty slim...but it's just possible. It's possible that if I don't do it, it could be months before it ends, if it even does. In that time more people would suffer than just us, but also us, possibly. They may not want us to have the chance to find them. So I would need to do it now...but I don't know if I can do it."

"I...have the strangest sense of deja vu..." Pyrrha said oddly.

She had once said those exact words to Jaune.

She hesitated, and then, lowering her coffee, she said, "Listen, Cinder, I have no idea what you're talking about. Once I was told to do something, when the person didn't know what it was, because they thought I simply doubted myself...but I doubted also whether it was right to do it, whether it was something I could bear to do to myself. I think you know what it was. You would not have hesitated then, but you had no people to worry about. If you do now, and this is something that would probably put your life at risk, I can't just tell you to do it."

"It might, but it might not," Cinder said. "What if the alternative is more certain death than the action I'm considering?"

"If that's the case..." Pyrrha was silent for a long moment. "Well, to be honest with you, I would do it. But...you know what happened to me when I did that before."

It was killingly ironic that Cinder was asking the person she'd ensured this decision ended badly for before for help.

But Pyrrha started to wonder if she was asking her not to judge the wisdom of the action, but to judge the motive.

"And do you regret that?" Cinder pressed.

That seemed to confirm it.

"I do not regret giving up my life for Beacon," Pyrrha said firmly. "I never have. But if I would do it so easily again...? I have more to lose now. More people who rely on me. I can't be reckless, but I also cannot always refuse to risk things, even now. I still have to fight. I do wish that what happened had hurt my friends less. And that it had accomplished more. I guess all I could tell you is, if you're going to take a huge risk, make sure it is one that will count."

Cinder frowned. "What if I don't have to live for it to count? I just have to live long enough."

Pyrrha grew even more somber. "Then you have more likelihood of survival than I did fighting you," she said. "And I think you know what I would do anyway. But do not let me make this decision for you. I hardly think you would, but I don't want to sway you if your gut is that it's a bad idea."

"I know it's a bad idea," Cinder said. "But it might be the best idea." She clenched her skirt in her hands. "I don't want to do it."

"At least it's not something like sacrificing your own soul, I hope," Pyrrha said.

Cinder smiled almost bitterly. "That might depend on how long it takes to pull it off."

"I wouldn't do that then," Pyrrha said. "I do regret that decision. I would never make it again. You must not risk that. Our lives are one thing, but our souls are another. No one lives forever, but their soul will."

"Yet, out of the choices, I might be the only one who could do this, whose soul might also survive." Cinder rubbed her head. "This cannot come down to me. It's not possible. And it's not fair."

Pyrrha was silent again for a while, and then she said slowly, "Cinder, once I asked you if you believed in destiny, remember? I asked it twice, actually. Both times you said you did."

Cinder glanced at her warily.

"Both of us were wrong about what our destiny was," Pyrrha said. "And yet we weren't entirely wrong. I thought my destiny was to be a huntress and save Remnant. And I was half right. I did become a huntress, and I did save Remnant, but it was not just me, and it wasn't by my power or my own life, but by supporting the thing that actually would, and standing firm when people said it was wrong, and then the gods tried to beat it out of us. So my destiny was to save Remnant, but it wasn't what I thought. And you thought yours was to become more powerful than anyone else, and be feared, and to win...and you were half right. You have become more powerful than any Grimm and feared--by the Grimm--and by the false gods themselves and by evil people...and you did win, but only once you stopped trying to win for yourself and tried to win just to end the war. I believe Shine has said to us many times, 'All get what they want. They do not always like it.'"

She paused again and then went on. "What I'm trying to say is, if it falls on you to do something, and you're sure it can only be you, I hope you are wrong...but there are times when it is only you who can do a thing. As we've seen. All of us helped, but all of us had to make the choice for ourselves to fight our own personal battle. No one can do it for you. I would not try to end this by yourself...but if there is a role you can play and only you...then I cannot tell you not to do it. I prefer you to be safe, but I know it is your life and your call, and who am I to say what is your destiny?"

She clasped her hands. "But I warn you, I think I'm one of the only people who would think so. If you're planning to go behind the others' backs, they won't like it. Maybe I can understand it, but you saw what happened to me. Is that something you want to risk? Don't do it blindly."

Cinder leaned on her hand. "Even you came back..." she said, "to my annoyance at first, but who knows what the end of things really is?"

"If you think that can happen for you also, then perhaps it can," Pyrrha said. "But...other people just die. I don't know still why some can be restored. I can't tell you to count on it."

"If God was for it, then nothing could stop it, right?" Cinder said. "But if it's my crazy way of thinking, then it won't work."

"But if you can even ask if it's crazy....how crazy can you be?" Pyrrha said. "To me, that's your answer right there...but even so, I hope it's not. I feel two different ways about it."

"Well, that's more than I deserve from you anyway." Cinder stood up, speaking rather dismissively, as she usually would if she said anything like that. "I suppose that's the answer I knew I would get."

"Then did you come here to confirm what you were going to do?" Pyrrha asked. "Or to decide not to do it?"

"I don't know," Cinder said. "But I think I know what anyone else would say. I had a feeling you were the only one who would give me that answer. The only one who would understand what I mean without me actually explaining it."

Pyrrha shook her head. "I know we're not exactly friends," she said. "We have too complicated a history for that...but still, after all we've been through, I can't wish any harm to you. I would never tell you to do a thing for that reason."

"Oh, shut up, I knew that already," Cinder cut her off. "I don't think you can be petty even if you try. Well, good-bye, Nikos."

She left.

Pyrrha didn't like how she said that last part... It sounded kind of final.

Jaune found her when he got home, sitting by the finished laundry, which she hadn't moved to put away yet, chin in her hands.

"Are you...okay?" he asked.

"No," Pyrrha said. "I told someone to do something that I'm not sure they should do, Jaune. It was the honest answer, but I'm very afraid now that it won't work out well."

"What did you tell them?"

I can't...tell you that," Pyrrha replied. "They asked me not to repeat it...and I can't see any real reason to except for my own peace of mind, which isn't the reason I would take exception to it."

"Well, whoever it was, I'm sure you told them the best thing you could have." Jaune knelt down next to her and put an arm around her. "If they think they should listen, that's up to them. It's not your fault if it doesn't go well."

Pyrrha started to cry. "I'm not sure...you'll say that if it happens..."

"Pyrrha--" Jaune pulled her in. "Come on...are you sure you can't tell me?"

"I wish I could, Jaune...but it was very serious, I can tell you that. Life or death, maybe."

"Wow... Well..I don't know what to say... Maybe we should just...pray about it?"

"Yes...yes, we should..." Pyrrha sniffled, wiping her eyes.

* * *

"You sure you can pull this off?" Cinder asked Neo, outside the holding area.

Neo rolled her eyes, then she shifted to look like Raven and marched in.

The guards saluted and didn't stop her or even ask her why she was there.

Neo got to the cells with the bandits in them and unlocked the door. It was the same kind of lock that had been used before with Roman, and she knew how to hack it.

Hypnosia's door clicked open without setting off an alarm.

"You?" she said, looking up.

Neo motioned at her.

Then she narrowed her eyes. "Neo."

Neo reached down and unlocked her Aura-blocking cuffs expertly.

"I guess you're still good at breaking into places," Hypnosia said in a low voice. "Do you think the guards are going to buy this?"

Neo made a motion at her like "sleep".

Hypnosia clenched her hand, and her Aura crackled back into view.

"Right," she said.

Cinder was waiting outside.

Neo unlocked Mino's cell also but didn't, wisely, untie him. Just jerked him out of it.

Hypnosia made a shushing motion at him and winked, so he didn't fight it.

Neo then marched them toward the guards.

"You sure you won't need back up, Commander?" one said, then suddenly he fell asleep, and so did the other guard.

They joined Cinder outside the hallway.

"There's more guards," Cinder warned, "so keep quiet. This is already enough of a crime to get my probation completely revoked. But it won't matter if we get out of here, since we'll die anyway."

Neo nodded at her to show she agreed.

"How did you get her to agree to help?" Hypnosia said.

"It was easy once I said I might die," Cinder said.

Actually Neo had said she was mad, but Cinder had talked her into it after laying out the full plan.

Neo shook her head dryly now.

"How are we getting off this blasted base?" Mino said quietly.

"You keep your mouth shut," Cinder warned. "You'll blow our cover easily. Try to look like you're not happy about being moved."

Neo snapped her fingers to disguise them all further.

They snuck around the other guards pretty easily, and Hypnosia put any to sleep who were too close.

They made it to the airstrip.

"Scroll." Cinder tossed a new one to Hypnosia.

"I can't call them here," Hypnosia said. "We have to be outside of Argus. They won't risk coming here."

"And it won't be so easy to steal a ship without clearance," Cinder said. "Not with my lack of credentials. Argus and their stupid rules."

Neo pointed to herself and winked.

Shifting into one of the pilots on the base, she slipped toward one of the ships.

"Someone's coming," Mino said suddenly, twitching his tail. "I can see them. They can't see us yet."

"Get down." Cinder pushed them behind some pallets of supplies.

That last person she wanted to show up walked into view.

Royal. He was dressed to go flying, so he must have had a delivery.

"Cinder?" he said, spying her before she could hide. "What are you doing here...dressed for work?"

She was wearing her combat clothes, including her cape with Grimm resistance, which she'd had washed since the brush with the sala-dragon.

"I...have a different assignment," Cinder said.

Not a convincing lie.

"Right..." Royal didn't buy it. "What are you really doing?"

Neo spotted him and shook her head at Cinder.

Cinder decided to just tell him the truth--some of it.

"Listen--" She yanked him behind one of the planes and pointed to where the two bandits were hiding. "Don't make any sound."

"What the--? Have you lost your mind? " Royal saw them.

"He's going to snitch," Mino said. "Atlas people always do."

"You shut up," Cinder said. "You're lucky you're alive right now."

She turned back to Royal. "Sand (meaning Hypnosia) has a way to find the pirates, the ones who run for the tribe. If we find them, we can get closer to the tribe. She thinks she can convince them to do it with the right persuasion."

"That's great," Royal said. "Let's go tell Raven."

"No." Cinder grabbed him before he could move. "If everyone goes, they won't do it. They're too suspicious...but if just one of us goes...well, there's a shot."

"And you think the person they're out to kill is the one?" Royal said.

Hypnosia spoke up. "They won't kill her," she said. "They're supposed to take her alive..." She gave Cinder a knowing look. "So we can fool them. Once we're close, I'm going to knock them out, then we can take their airship. They won't think I'd do it; they'd never expect me to be working against them. It's a pretty low risk plan, all things considered."

"Then we can call in the others," Cinder explained to Royal. 

"And you trust that Somnus will do as she said and this isn't a lie?" Royal said.

Cinder gave him a long look. "I think she's serious about not wanting to help the tribe anymore."

Mino looked angry about that. But he didn't speak.

"And this guy?" Royal gestured at him.

"He's to make it more convincing," Hypnosia said. "I wouldn't go back to them without bringing him along--that would be unusual for us. He's tied up, as you can see."

"This might work," Royal said, "but you can't just take a plane. Once this is over,  you'll get arrested for it."

Cinder sighed... This was why she didn't want to get caught.

Neo motioned at them to hurry up.

"Who is that?" Royal asked.

"Neo," Cinder said.

"Oh, okay...hey!" Royal frowned. "So you were just going to steal...wow."

"Old habits die hard," Hypnosia said. "Problem with your girlfriend doing illegal stuff? I think you're with the wrong person."

"We're not together," Cinder said.

"You're not?" Hypnosia said. "Huh...I'm usually on point about that. But I really don't care. Are you going to turn us in, Good Cop?"

Royal sighed. "This is a bad idea for me to do... I could get my license revoked...but on the other hand, it could work... Fine. Let's just take my ship."

"What?" Cinder said.

"I'm already leaving for Mistral," Royal said. "I guess a detour is okay. You have a better idea? Plus this way I can make sure you're only doing what you said you were. No fighting these guys alone."

Cinder hesitated.

"I'd say this is a golden turn of fortune for us," Hypnosia said. "Why are you waiting? Besides, it's not like he'll be in any danger."

"I guess," Cinder said.

Neo shrugged, then, resuming her usual form, she threw out the words: "I guess this is where I get off then. Good luck, be home by midnight." She winked.

"You're hilarious," Cinder said flatly.

Neo skipped away.

* * *

"I still can't believe you tried to do this alone," Royal said, on the flight.

"Just focus on driving," Cinder said.

She moved to talk to Hypnosia.

"So what do you want to do with him?" Hypnosia said, holding up her hand. "He can't come. Too obviously a trick then."

"Did you get in touch with them?" Cinder asked.

"Yes, they'll meet us out there." Hypnosia nodded. "Only too glad to have something to do. But once we meet up with them, there's no going back."

"Just wait till we get close." Cinder glanced back at Royal. "I'll deal with him...and you both aren't going to mention a word about him helping us."

"No reason for me to," Hypnosia replied.

Mino just shrugged. "I want you to untie me."

"No," Cinder said tightly. "Not till it's absolutely necessary. I don't trust you."

"The feeling is mutual," Mino retorted.

When they were somewhere over the forests of Mistral--not far from the Whispering Woods, as it happened--Cinder asked Royal to put the ship on autopilot.

"This is a dangerous area to do that in. There could be Grimm," he said.

"The scanner will say if there are. All of us need to confer," Cinder said. "Just hurry."

Royal did it and moved to the back seats with them.

"So do you guys have a plan?" he said.

Hypnosia shrugged and motioned at Cinder to explain.

"Yeah, we're going to find the headquarters," Cinder said. "Once we do, the rest of the squad can follow us." 

Royal noticed that she was wearing her glass shoes for some reason... They didn't look like her usual ones though. Why would she do that for a combat mission?

"But how do you plan to do that?" he said.

"Can we have a minute?" Cinder asked Hypnosia.

Hypnosia shrugged and moved back farther.

Cinder drew a deep breath. "Listen, before I go into the plan, I need to say something."

"Cinder, this better not be one of those cliche times when someone says something nice before doing something really dangerous," Royal said.

"Shut up," Cinder said. 

She brushed her hair back. "I'll make it brief, all right? I just realized that I've never really thanked you for all the times you've saved me in the past... I didn't want to admit I needed it. But that was ungrateful."

"I still don't like the sound of this," Royal said. "If you're that worried about how dangerous this is, just don't do it."

"One more thing," Cinder said. Her hands were shaking, she realized. "I still don't know where we really would have ended up...about that other matter, but, I was at least thinking about it... I hope that means something."

"It does, but why are you saying this now--" Royal said.

Cinder put a hand over his mouth. "Shut up and listen," she said. "Carefully. Sand and I and Toro, we're not actually just going to fly close to the hideout, we're going into it."

Behind her hand Royal said, "What?!" but it was muffled.

"The tribe wants me alive," Cinder explained quickly. "For whatever reason, I don't know. Once we're on our way to meet up with the pirates, I'm going to tell Theo what's going on. He can track me without needing a device, which they'd be sure to take off of us if they could. If we can survive for a day or so, the rest of you can catch up and crush the tribe. There's a good chance we might not make it very long, so he should be here before we even reach their headquarters... Sand says it will take maybe an hour from where we'll meet the pirates."

Royal pushed her hand away. "Have you lost your mind?" he said, furiously. "That's suicide! Do you know what they'll do to you? Even if it was only hours, any time there, with those people, could mean any number of atrocities. You can't fight them all."

"It won't matter," Cinder said. "They're going to find us sooner or later. Might as well face it head on. If I can bring them down with me, I don't mind it so much. I'm telling you this so that you can tell Raven the plan. Don't expect to hear from us once we get in there. There's a good chance that Sand and Toro will still be in trouble for failing even if they bring me in, but if they aren't, they'll be reinitiated into the tribe. It'll take time for it to work on them fully, so it's better to find it within 48 hours."

She looked back at Hypnosia and motioned at her. "Is there anything about getting inside that would be difficult?"

"The door has a password," Hypnosia said. "If you even get that far. It's sesame. I guess it's after the first person who used it, their name or house or something."

"Sesame, that's important." Cinder turned to Royal.

"I don't care about that. You're not going to do this," Royal said. "I won't allow it."

"This isn't your choice," Cinder said. "It's mine."

"An added note," Hypnosia said, "if it takes you longer than 2 days to find us, be prepared for us to fight you if you do... They have a way of breaking people in there." She shuddered. "But if you pulled us out once, maybe you can again. Just so long as we're alive."

"This is foolishness," Mino said.

"For once I'm with him," Royal said. "I won't do it. I'll turn this ship around..." He trailed off as the look on Cinder's face, and Hypnosia's, sunk in.

"Oh...you're not going to let me," he said slowly. "You...lied."

"I did warn you I could lie better if I wanted to," Cinder said wryly. "I'm sorry...Royal. I wasn't going to ask you for help, but you insisted, and I couldn't waste time. We would have been caught."

"Are you done?" Hypnosia said impatiently. "Do you want to kiss or something?"

"No, that would be too cruel." Cinder turned away. "Just do it."

"Don't you dare!" Royal started to move after her---but Hypnosia had already snapped her fingers.

He fell to the floor.

Cinder looked down, kind of guilty.

"Oh, relax," Hypnosia said.

She touched his head. "I can make it last a few hours, but it'll take most of my Aura... I can't do anything else but stop the pirates, probably. But if you don't want him to wake up in time to stop us, I have to."

"Fine... It won't hurt him, right?"

"Oh, no, it won't. I can't really do that," Hypnosia said. "Not without using way more energy than this. He won't even have a headache later. And he'll remember everything, no worries. I just hope he's smart enough to call in help the way you said. If he comes after us instead, he's dead."

"I think he'd know better than that," Cinder said uneasily.

"Just call your friend," Mino said crossly. "I want to get this over with."