Esmera expected the cold nip of the fresh new day when she stepped out onto the balcony. Even so, she shivered, drawing her shawl tighter around her and rubbing her hands over her arms.

Too late, she saw Tauram standing with his elbows resting on the balustrades, looking out at the misty mountains that simultaneously laid his kingdom out before him and hid it from his view. It was the same every day, snow coating the rocky peaks, clumps of colourful houses dotting the landscape, but somehow it was a sight Esmera didn't think she could grow tired of. Tauram hadn't if the way he stared out at it was any indication.

Her hand rested on the doorknob behind her, ready to turn it and slip back into her room to avoid the awkwardness of his company. She bit her lip, weighing out her two choices: fleeing or going to Tauram and making things right. She had been harsh on him the previous night, and worst of all, it had been unwarranted. Just because her past had made her wary didn't mean Tauram was out to hurt her like the men she had known before.

Jammas tugged at her hair. Clearly, he had a strong idea of which option she should choose. Even as she understood him and trusted his judgement, her feet stood rooted to the spot.

Tauram glanced back. Esmera saw him see her. Even worse, he saw her see him see her, taking her choice away from her. It was too late for her to escape back into her room without making things any more uncomfortable between them, so she strode across the balcony, stopping beside Tauram with a fair distance between their elbows. Lundas made sure of that, growling when Esmera tried to inch closer.

Tauram made no acknowledgement of her presence, only gazed out at this section of Milatanur as if it had some fresh new sight to offer him. For all she knew, it did, but the look in his eyes the previous night flashed in her mind, and she knew that there was more to his frosty bearing.

She shifted on her feet, clearing her throat. "May I join you?"

"Only if you want to." Tauram continued to avoid her eyes, and she didn't blame him.

She wouldn't even blame him if he never wanted to talk to her again, but he had to if they wanted to save Milatanur. Even if that wasn't the case, Esmera wanted him to.

She frowned at that but thought about it no more, just pulled her heavy shoulders up. "Tauram, I owe you an apology."

His mouth curved, a shadow of his usual smile. "You don't owe me anything, Esmera."

"But I do." Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed his hand.

His eyes slid away from the scenery, resting on her, and for a moment, her mind went blank, empty even of the apology she had formulated before she went to sleep the previous night.

Without even knowing who she was, this man had lent her his coat when she was rain-soaked and storm-cold. He had given her a temporary home nicer than any she had ever lived in. His warm arm was always within reach when she was cold or lost or confused, and she couldn't bear to lose that.

The truth was, Esmera owed Tauram a lot, and an apology was a good place to start, even if it was for selfish reasons.

"I'm sorry about last night." She raised her eyes from the hand she held to Tauram's face. "I've had the weaknesses I admitted to people I trust used against me before. That's why I reacted the way I did. I assumed the worst of you, which was unfair because you've been so kind to me without even asking for or expecting anything in return."

That should've been the first indication to Esmera that Tauram wasn't like the men she was used to. Then again, she had been tricked before.

"Don't you think I know that about trust, Esmera?" Tauram's breath escaped him in a cloud that disappeared in moments.

"Of course," she murmured, holding his gaze that was so fierce she would've fled if she didn't know his anger wasn't for her.

"I was worried about you after I heard what you said to Jammas at SUAF that day. I saw the worn clothes you were wearing the day we met."

Esmera flinched at that. Although scratchy against her skin, Princess Namesha's pretty parsis made her feel like royalty herself, but she would never forget her extensive wardrobe of ten items back in Arkōsāra.

Tauram tilted her face up to his. "I saw the way you could barely look me in the eye. When I realised who you were, I realised you were an orphan with no one from this world to look out for you. I should've done more for you." He released her, running his hands through his hair. "You were mere minutes away from where I lived. I should've never let whoever or whatever hurt you get close enough to touch you."

"None of that was your fault, you know." Esmera's hand moved to cup his cheek by its own will.

To her surprise, Tauram didn't recoil from her touch, merely tensed his mouth as the anguish in his eyes flooded into it.

This was the fault of whoever had taken Esmera from Milatanur and abandoned her in Arkōsāra, far from the people who knew her and could love her. At the same time, she wouldn't begrudge them, whoever they were. Maybe they had done what they did because they didn't have a choice.

"It wasn't your responsibility to take care of me," she whispered. "You didn't even know me then."

Tauram's eyes settled lower on Esmera's face, maybe on her chin or her mouth. "But I made a promise when we were betrothed."

"You were a child." Esmera shook her head. "You can't have been expected to make and uphold a vow like that."

"I was young but not too young to know what a good, noble man should do, Esmera." His hand might be gentle where it landed on Esmera's waist like a snowflake kissing the ground, but his eyes were relentless.

His fury wasn't for Esmera but for himself, and she wasn't sure that she liked that any better.

Only when Belaren cleared his throat where he stood at the other end of the balcony did Esmera realise how close she was to Tauram, close enough to see a beauty spot she had never noticed before at the edge of his hairline. Close enough to kiss him if she'd dare try.

"Am I interrupting something?" Belaren gestured back at the glass door. "I can go back inside if you two need a few more moments."

Tauram broke his gaze away from Esmera, taking a step back from her and looking over at his friend instead. "No, we should be on our way. There's no time to waste."

He was right. Every moment took them closer to the one where the gods would destroy the kingdom to undo the mistakes of its people. The sooner they left on their expedition, the sooner they could stop that from happening.

"Fair point." Belaren hurried to Esmera and Tauram, straightening his collar. Myresh peeked out of his pocket, blinking his sleepy eyes. He glanced at Esmera, then Tauram. Unimpressed by the company or put off by the early morning, he slid back into his dark, cosy place of rest.

"It's a little early." Tauram frowned at his wristwatch. "They're probably still having breakfast."

"I'm sure they won't mind us interrupting for a matter as important as this." Belaren smoothed his already impossibly silky hair with his fingers.

"Who's 'they'?" asked Esmera.

The two men exchanged a look.

"The memory walkers who might be able to help us." Belaren flashed her a cool, smug smile.

She nodded, impressed. That was a quick start on a task she and Tauram had only found out about the previous night, but as the prince had mentioned, they were too short of time to be anything but quick.

Tauram smiled down at his familiar who sat beside his feet, awaiting his order. "Lundas, if you wouldn't mind?"

Purring, the clouded leopard stretched his body out. Esmera, Tauram and Belaren gathered in a tight group with Myresh in Belaren's pocket and Jammas in Esmera's hair while Lundas circled their ankles, a sight that was by now familiar to Esmera.

She wove her fingers through Tauram's. He smiled faintly, squeezing her hand. He hadn't said that he forgave her, but he didn't need to use words if he could use his face instead. She leaned into him as the cottage vanished.

The sting of the crisp air told Esmera they were at the top of a mountain before she even opened her eyes. She could hear the wind hissing as it flew up ahead, wild, unrestrained, tearing at her hair while Jammas clung tightly to it.

She winced, opening her eyes and blinking as her cheeks smarted. Ahead, the ocean lined the horizon, its outline foggy in the early morning. Esmera heard the sea better than she could see it, the waves lapping against the shore, even the splash of a distant pod of whales surfacing for air.

At a tug on the hand Tauram held, she turned around. A mansion greeted her, formed by ivory pillars curved at the ends where they held up the red roofs and divided the space beneath them into rectangles. Green tiled stairs led down to the ground where they stood, as striking as the sparse clumps of grass at their feet. All of that lay beyond a metal gate whose curved bars were as imposing as they were elaborate.

"Where are we?" Esmera asked, unable to draw her eyes away from the impressive, intimidating building.

"Southern Milatanur." Tauram squeezed her hand.

Belaren gazed up at the mansion as though it was a sweet memory arising from the depths of his mind, almost but not quite forgotten. "The Vinsingh Estate."

Esmera gazed at him. He had only joined the team the previous night, but now it made sense that he had made sure to join Esmera and Tauram on this excursion. He had volunteered himself to oversee this agreement with his family.

The lord met Esmera's eyes for a second before looking away, and she wasn't sure whether it was nervous or uncertain or simply dismissive of her. Or maybe it was all of the above. It couldn't be easy returning to his home a decade later, not knowing how things would be the same and how they'd be different.

Esmera shivered. Tauram released her hand and draped a mindless arm over her, the same as always, but something was different. There was the protection of a decades-old promise in his partial embrace. Maybe it had been there before, but Esmera had never realised it. She looked up at him, but his eyes were on Belaren as they followed him to the gate of his family home.

Two guards flanked the gates, clad in blue tunics divided in half by a belt of bronze fabric. Bronze turbans wrapped around their hair. One man had round cheeks and a caterpillar sitting on his shoulder while the other's face was thin. A quail stood at his feet, cocking its head as it studied the visitors. As different as the guards looked, their moustaches were nearly identical, thick and black and curled upwards at the edges. They looked Belaren up and down in unison.

"State your business," the round-faced one was bold enough to say, eyes wary as if he was addressing an opportunist off the streets or a common criminal instead of a member of the family he served.

Belaren straightened, sweeping his loose hair back from his face. "I am Lord Belaren, returned from Arkōsāra. I would like an audience with my family."

The guards' eyes widened as if they were seeing a ghost. Maybe they were if they had worked here ten years ago, long enough to have seen Belaren before and maybe even remember him. They scanned him again, taking in his long green shirt dotted with shimmering golden circles and exchanged a look.

"And who is your company?" asked the guard, turning his suspicious eyes on Esmera and Tauram next. They lingered where the prince's arm rested on Esmera, but he didn't let her go, only held her tighter.

"Prince Tauram and Lady Esmera Finnaz." Belaren gestured between them.

It shouldn't have surprised Esmera that both the guards' wide eyes landed on her. She should know by now that everyone knew who she was, probably even better than she did. Even so, she shifted under their intense stares.

"Please wait here." The guard nodded at his colleague. He unlocked the gate with a key he withdrew from his pocket, keeping his eyes on Esmera and her friends. The second guard locked it behind him as if Belaren and his company had every intention of robbing his own family home.

The first guard strode between the trees lining the path to the house. They were plumes of green rising into the air, eventually overlapping to hide his waddling figure as he hurried along.

The second guard, the silent one, stood watching Esmera and her friends as if he expected them to change form and turn out to be someone other than who they said they were. It seemed impossible to Esmera, but in a place like Milatanur, it was probably more than likely.

The guard's eyes kept settling on her. She was a real ghost, someone who should be dead and somehow wasn't, and she didn't know whether that made her more intriguing or terrifying.

She settled for terrifying, looking at the way the guard's grip tightened on his spear.

The other guard emerged from between the trees with an older woman beside him. A bright turquoise bird soared above her before landing on her shoulder. She patted its head, crooning.

She was draped in a glistening, grape-coloured fabric that came to an end over her shoulder, fluttering as she scuttled to keep up with the guard. She saw Belaren as she stopped behind the closed gate, and her round eyes went wide.

"Is that you, son?" Her words trembled with cautious hope as she clasped her aged hands in front of her.

The guard beside her unlocked the gate.

As it clanked open, Belaren gave a small smile. "I'm home, Amma."

The woman ran to Belaren and threw her arms around him. He returned her embrace, smiling in a soft, uncharacteristic way.

"I'm so glad you're back! It has been terrifying not knowing what became of you all these years." The woman pulled back, studying the face of the son she hadn't seen in a decade. "Have you been well?"

"Yes." Belaren smiled.

He might've asked the same thing if he hadn't, like Esmera, seen the grey streaking through the woman's black hair and the lines etching out her worries on her face and gotten the answer for himself.

Belaren's mother took his hand. "You must come in. Your family would love to see you." She finally moved her eyes from her son to his company. "Tauram." Her face lit up.

It was somewhat reassuring that Esmera wasn't the only person Tauram had this effect on.

Belaren's mother drew the prince into a hug. "I see you haven't changed in the last decade."

"What does that mean, Amma?" Belaren raised his eyebrows.

She waved a hand at Belaren. The deep red varnish on her long nails sparkled as they caught the bleak sun shining down on them. "I mean what I say, son. No more and no less." She turned to Esmera next. "And who might this radiant young lady be?"

Esmera tried not to blush or hide behind Tauram even as she wanted to. She wasn't used to such lavish praises, especially not from strangers.

She squared her shoulders to be the noblewoman she should've been raised to be or emulate her at least. "Lady Esmera Finnaz." She held out a hand and immediately regretted it, not sure if it was respectful or even acceptable in this world, but it didn't matter.

Belaren's mother enveloped her in a hug that smelt like wet wood and fresh spice. "It is an honour to meet the last of the Finnaz family. A true tragedy, that." She shook her head, taking Esmera's hand between both of hers.

There was such genuine sorrow in her dark eyes that Esmera couldn't help but share her sentiment. The fate of the Finnaz family was a tragedy, but Esmera was going to get to the bottom of it and see that justice was served.

Meeting Esmera may not be such an honour if Belaren's mother knew the truth about her life in Arkōsāra, but Esmera said nothing, merely smiled. The truth was, she liked this.

She liked the kind words and the warm hugs, even as they felt strange and not meant for her, a fluffy sweater she had stolen from a shop that was so warm it didn't seem real. Despite that, she would clutch it close, even though she felt like a criminal.

"Esmera, this is my mother, Lady Hetal Vinsingh." Belaren smiled at them both. It was nothing like that cool smile that was his facial expression of choice. It was warm, embracing in a way that reminded Esmera of the woman standing before them.

"Come now, we can continue introductions inside. For now, let's get out of the cold." Lady Hetal pulled Belaren after her with speed Esmera wouldn't have thought possible for someone who appeared so frail.

Tauram and Esmera followed them. She looked back to see the sun glitter off the highest points of the gate as the guards locked it and resumed their posts on either side of it.