An old man with hair white and thin as frost trudged past the royals, pushing a wooden cart laden with peaches and plums. Its wheels sloshed into a puddle. Princess Kerani cried out in alarm as the muddy water splattered against her legs. The man's eyes widened. He released his cart and fell to his knees on the damp ground in front of the Princess, his hands clasped in a plea.

"I beg your forgiveness, Your Highness! It was an accident." Fear deepened every wrinkle on the elderly vendor's face as he held her in his beseeching gaze.

Holding the no doubt cold, wet fabric of her pants away from her skin, Princess Kerani managed a smile at the commoner kneeling before her. "Accidents happen. It's just clothing. You may continue on your way."

Relief smoothed the man's face, but it came too soon. King Ruagu came up beside Princess Kerani. The air went still. Terror flooded the man's features.

He shook his head. "My apologies, Your Majesty—"

King Ruagu raised a hand. "I've heard enough. Not only did you not bow to us as you should've, but you also dared to push your cart past the Princess like she's some working girl."

The man looked down at the ground. "My apologies, Your Majesty," he said so softly Esmera might not have heard him if it wasn't for her ability. King Ruagu might not have even heard him, but Princess Kerani did.

"He apologised, Ruagu. Let's leave him be," she said.

King Ruagu's jaw tensed. "I will not tolerate this disrespect towards you, and you shouldn't either."

The old man kneeling before the royals looked between them.

Princess Kerani wrapped her hand around his arm. "It was an accident. Please stop this now." Her eyes skated past all the gazes fixed on them, this spectacle in the centre of an empty street. She tugged at King Ruagu's arm, but he didn't budge.

"I think this gentleman needs to be reminded of who I am. Who we both are." King Ruagu turned back to the crowd watching his every move in silence. "I think they could all use a reminder."

Princess Kerani's eyes went round. She must know what that meant even though Esmera didn't. So did Tauram, if his gasp was any indication.

"Ruagu..." There was such desperation on Princess Kerani's face that Esmera half expected her to get to her knees beside the civilian, but of course, Princesses didn't beg. "You don't have to do this."

King Ruagu ignored her. His hand darted out like a viper as he grabbed the vendor by the throat.

"Ruagu, please. Don't." Princess Kerani's voice broke as her words fell on deaf ears. She grabbed the King's shoulders, but her fragile strength couldn't contain him. His fury was an avalanche freshly unleashed.

Everyone else knew it as well as Esmera did. Most of them averted their gazes and shielded their children's eyes. Some stared at the display before them, unable to look away. Esmera was among the latter, even as the impending horror of the scene raised goosebumps along every inch of her.

"Tauram wouldn't do this." Something that sounded like tears constricted the Princess's voice, but her eyes betrayed nothing of her feelings.

She was Tauram's sister through and through.

The last thread of King Ruagu's restraint snapped as his face hardened.

"Tauram was a fool."

Esmera felt the rightful ruler tense where he stood pressed against her, but there was nothing he could do. There was nothing either of them could do without betraying their presence and their identities.

A rot spread out from King Ruagu's hand, blackening the skin of the man's neck. It took over his face before he could scream, freezing his features in an eternal mask of terror.

Ruagu flung him to the ground where he lay, unmoving, unliving. Esmera couldn't breathe for the horror that pressed in around her chest. She couldn't see Tauram, but she clutched him close to her. In this whirling vortex of horror, he was the only thing anchoring her to a version of reality that still made sense.

The corpse on the ground had been a man.

He'd had a family, people who loved him and needed him.

He had made a mistake and apologised for it.

Now he was dead at a single touch from a tyrant king.

Little in Arkōsāra had been fair, but now it seemed that Milatanur wasn't much better off beneath the veneer of cheer. It was as imbalanced by power, as riddled with unspeakable fear.

Princess Kerani shrunk away from the King, covering her face with her hands. Terror kept the townspeople silent even while it widened eyes and drained blood from faces. Nobody dared approach the body on the street, not while his murderer stood so near, straightening and dusting the edge of his cloak.

King Ruagu pulled Princess Kerani after him. She didn't resist him even while she avoided looking at him. She had probably known him long enough to know she'd never win against him. Nobody would, but Jilhari had thought Esmera and Tauram stood a chance together.

The goddess's mission had seemed trivial then, before Esmera had seen the usurper Ruagu and the Milatanurans cowed by his power. Now, she was finally realising the full meaning behind Jilhari's task.

A man had taken a throne that didn't belong to him. he terrorised people he was never meant to rule. None of this was meant to happen, but Esmera was meant to be here.

She was meant to do something about this.

King Ruagu continued his path, pulling Princess Kerani after him. He dismissed the townspeople with a wave of his hand. Like a video unpaused, they stood and returned to their work, as quiet as they had been while the King pierced them with his dark gaze.

King Ruagu may have gone on his way, but the fear he commanded remained behind, bubbling beneath the surface of every feeble smile, every comforting pat.

Tauram retracted his power, and he and Esmera and their familiars returned to view. Esmera stumbled back. She hadn't realised that she had been leaning into him so closely, that she'd had the corners of her tunic balled in her hands.

"Are you all right?" He raised his eyebrows as he smoothed out his clothing.

"I just saw a man die, Tauram."

Jammas nuzzled Esmera's neck with his little head as she spoke. She wrung her hands, looking down at the ground as she swallowed her urge to be sick all over the Prince's shoes. She had taken out enough of her terror on him.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that." He put a hand on her shoulder.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. She knew what she had seen, but it felt more like a scene from a movie than an event from reality. It was only the fear that made it so real, only the pain that the man had been too slow to cry out. But Esmera had seen it. She had seen in his eyes a moment before they rotted away.

"Ruagu hasn't changed a bit in a decade." Tauram shook his head.

Esmera raised her eyes to Tauram. "So, he was always able to kill people with a touch?"

"I believe so, though I only found out about that the night of the coup. Charming, isn't he?"

"I'm not sure 'charming' is the word I'd use." Esmera's breakfast heaved against the walls of her stomach.

Tauram gave a wry smile as he pushed back a curl that had fallen over Esmera's eye. She blinked. Was he smiling about what she had said? Of course he was. This was a man who found amusement in Esmera's clumsiness and blocked off any question she asked about him.

He may be able to lock himself and his feelings away from people, but not Esmera. Not anymore.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He had seen his sister after so many years. He had seen the man he used to call his best friend kill a man who was his subject. Esmera didn't think she'd be able to stand so straight and composed if it had been her in his place. As it was, she was barely able to keep standing.

"I'm fine." Tauram sighed, and for a moment, Esmera thought he was going to elaborate. Then he said, "We should get out of here before Ruagu comes back."

"Tauram..."

"Come on. We need to get within sight of the house."

Tauram offered Esmera his arm. She looped hers through his as they strode down the alley, away from the main street and hopefully the king with the touch of death.

It wasn't fair that Tauram always checked up on Esmera but never let her do the same for him. Esmera gave him a sideways glance, but he was right.

The longer they remained in Parnakshi, the higher the chance they'd bump into King Ruagu. Without the mysterious Finnaz weapon in their possession, there was nothing to stop them from matching the wretched fate of the partially rotted corpse on a street.

It was safest to leave the town, and soon.

Esmera and Tauram crossed the spaces between buildings in silence with Lundas padding along soundlessly beside them and Jammas perched on Esmera's shoulder. Maybe it was their fear of the man who would hunt them if he knew that they were here. Maybe it was the thoughts Tauram constrained within him that kept him so quiet.

Esmera peeked up at him, but like his cursed lips, his face betrayed nothing of what was on his mind. His eyes, however, portrayed his preoccupation.

Tauram had to have some opinions about what they had seen, some feelings about how King Ruagu had dismissed Princess Kerani's pleas, some thoughts on the kind of King Ruagu had become, but before Esmera could try to pry them out of him, they came to the edge of the town.

It wasn't always the edge. Walls lay in scattered pieces of rubble at Esmera's feet. There was a neat brick rim between her and Tauram and what lay beyond it. Her mouth fell open. Lundas snarled at an invisible enemy and Jammas tossed his head in agitation.

Houses were crushed. Trees had been felled. Esmera imagined that if she had enhanced vision instead of hearing, she might've been able to see the remains of people among the dirt that had swallowed up this section of the town.

Nausea rose within her. "What is this?"

"I'm not sure." Tauram frowned. "This wasn't here when I left, but it sounds like what Jilhari described." He paused, his voice a little unsteady when he continued. "Nature is falling into chaos, and it must've engulfed a section of this rebellious city."

Esmera felt numb. How many people must've died when the earth turned over itself like this? How many more would die when the gods' wrath claimed more of Parnakshi, of Milatanur?

The king's touch could rot people, and the nature spirits' fury could render a landscape barren.

The spirits could only be stopped if the king was.

A realisation struck Esmera with the force of an earthquake. She knew what she had to do.

"Tauram, I'll do it."

"What?" Tauram turned away from the horror in front of him to face her.

She met his gaze. He may be able to control his words so that they gave nothing away, but his eyes showed the depth of his terror.

"Jilhari's mission." Esmera took a deep breath. She had never undertaken anything as big as this. "I accept it."

Tauram's brow furrowed. "Are you sure? You've seen what Ruagu is capable of... and now what the spirits can do as well." He gestured out at nature's graveyard before them.

"That's why I need to do this. I can't let this suffering continue."

The words rushed out of Esmera's mouth. They sounded like they belonged to someone else, but there was no one else.

Only Esmera could do this. She was the only person alive who could wield the weapon Jilhari thought could defeat King Ruagu.

Maybe she would still fail as she had feared despite her newfound resolve, but she had to try, at least, for the sake of these people. Her people.

A gentle smile brightened Tauram's face like the sunrise. "Welcome to the team, Esmera."

She raised her eyebrows. "There's a team?"

He laughed softly. "There is now. Belaren is still sulking about being brought back here, but I should be able to convince him to cooperate with us once he grows tired of his tantrum."

Esmera wasn't sure whether they could count on that, but Belaren had stuck with Tauram through all the years of his banishment. Maybe he was a better friend than he had seemed since she met him. Maybe they could depend on him.

Then it would be the three of them against King Ruagu. It wasn't much, but three was better than two. Now all they needed was a plan. A team wasn't much use without one.

Esmera sighed. "It seems our only chance of dethroning Ruagu is if we find the Finnaz weapon, but I have no idea where to start looking for it."

Tauram grinned down at her. "Lucky for you, I do." At his ankles, Lundas gave a purr as smug as his sorcerer's smile.