Luna lasted about ten minutes in the Barrel before she was found.

Common street thugs, closing the alleyway on both ends—two in front of her, one behind. The one at her back stood afar, a gun held out, obvious enough for her to see, but not yet pointed at her. The other two carried long blades, elaborate enough to be military-issued—and maybe they were.

"'Afternoon, miss," one of them greeted her. He was soft-spoken, his attitude almost unthreatening—if not for the hulking mass of a man standing next to him, or the way he definitely blocked her path. "Did you lose your way? We don't see many of your type in these parts of the city."

His gaze ran across her body, not with the hungry look she expected but with a calculating edge to it. Luna couldn't help but glance down at herself, self-conscious. Her white, short dress was perhaps a bit too much—and yet, it had been her purpose to draw attention.

She put on her best princess's smile. "I am, actually," she said. "I don't suppose you know where the man known as the King of the Barrel lives, do you?"

"The Barrel knows no king," the hulking man hissed, taking a menacing step towards her. "Everybody knows that."

Luna managed to take one step forward as well, before her instincts made her freeze. She glanced at the man's bare forearm. "And yet you bear his mark," she noted. A winged skull was tattooed there, and while she couldn't see the other men's arms, she wagered they bore a similar mark. "You are Reapers, aren't you?"

"Our Leader calls himself Oracle," the soft-spoken man said.

"These days," Luna retorted. A title he stole, she thought, but without bitterness. She wondered if it meant he still thought about her. Even if he didn't, she was glad she had provided him with some safety, albeit indirectly.

The men in front of her exchanged a hesitant gaze, and the hulking one turned back to Luna. "Only fools call him King of the Barrel."

"Then I must be a fool. After all, that's why you cornered me here." She suppressed a grin as best as she could.

The man came at her with no warning, his blade drawn, but Luna was ready. She ducked, and called forth the sunlight, focusing it into a beam directly into the man's eyes. He staggered, and she punched him twice in the stomach and rammed her knee up, letting the man collapsed in a heap at her feet.

The other thugs had barely reacted, but Luna would not lose her momentum. With a flick of her hand, she directed her beam of sunlight at the gunner behind her, blinding him. She then slashed through the air, focusing light into the Cut and narrowly missing the soft-spoken man but leaving a searing cut in his jacket.

The man dropped his blade and raised his hands. "You've made your point." He nodded at the man behind Luna, who dropped his gun as well.

Luna was not going to take his surrender at face value. She picked up the thug's blade at her feet, and asked, "Now will you take me to him?"

"We don't see many Sun Summoners in this city. Most Grisha who come here risk to be captured and forcefully indentured."

"Then you understand the risk I took to see your boss."

"That kind of fanatic devotion has more chance of getting you killed than getting you what you want."

She held his gaze. "If I don't get what I want in this matter, I might as well die."

They took her to their boss. She'd been prepared for them to double-cross her as they walked through the streets of the Barrel to a nondescript house, but the man waiting into the office was exactly who she was looking for after all. He was a few years younger than her, and the last time they'd seen each other, he had been but a child while she was in her teenage years already, but he was now an adult, looking out the window from the comfort of a chair that she doubted he'd acquired in a legal way.

"Noctis," she couldn't help but say when she saw him, overwhelmed with relief. His name—the hope she'd clung to all these years.

"It's Oracle to you," he said, standing from his seat. He still wasn't looking at her, but even then, his confidence struck Luna as shaky at best. Others—his gang, other street thugs—might buy this façade, but she knew him better than that. Or at least, she hoped so.

"Last I checked," Luna retorted, "I was the Oracle."

"What?" He turned sharply to face her at that, a surprised frown crossing his features. He studied her as he walked around his desk, his eyes widening ever so slightly—the only hint of expression on his face.

"I am Lunafreya Nox Fleuret," she said, though it felt unnecessary; she was certain he'd recognized her. "I've come to seek your aid."

His eyes narrowed with distrust. "How did you find me?"

"There are many Sun Summoners in Ravka since the previous Darkling's fall and the Sun Saint's sacrifice," Luna said. As she did, she waved her hand, flicking sunlight between her fingers for demonstration. "But as far as any of us know, there's only one new Darkling. You were difficult to track down, but it's hard to hide completely when every trace you do leave is so…unequivocal."

Noctis let out an angry sigh. "Now what? Are you going to bring the power of the Second Army down on me?"

"I would never do that," Luna let out. The words came almost in a whisper, shocked as she was that he would even think that of her. "I came seeking your help."

He scoffed. "Overthrowing the usurper?"

"You're the true king of Ravka. Why wouldn't you want to—"

"Why would I?" Noctis erupted. "Why should I? No one tried to help me, during all these years. My father sent me away as a child, and that's the end of that. I don't owe the people of Ravka anything."

Luna read his anger, and the tension underneath. "Noctis—"

"I built something for myself here. And I don't care if you think it's worthless, because it's mine. So go ahead, tell me how I'm wasting my life—"

"I think it's admirable, actually," Luna interrupted. "You've shown you were a capable leader."

The tension in Noctis's shoulders fell, and his gaze turned intrigued. "You must be desperate if you're willing to praise a good-for-nothing gang leader."

"You must have been through a lot if you can't even trust in someone's praise," Luna said. She felt pity for him—never in all these years had she considered that, while he was safe and free, Noctis was also alone in a cruel world. But she refused to let it get the best of her. "You say you received no help, but you made it out of the country safely. You made it here safely. People stopped the rumors of a Darkling from reaching the Second Army, enough that most in Ravka believe you are dead."

"But you didn't?"

She ignored the question. "I don't think you're angry at the people. I don't think the problem is the life you built here—your father never let go of his life as a privateer, you know you could do the same. I think you're afraid that you can't help."

Noctis fell back against the desk behind him. "Well, what can I do?"

Silently, Luna raised the pendant hanging from her neck. A ring hung from it—a ring she'd fought hard to keep, to hide, after all this time. "You know what this is, don't you? The Ring of the Lucii. An amplifier—attuned to you from birth."

His gaze fell on the ring and stayed there. "Bribing me with power?"

"If that's what it takes," Luna said, letting the ring drop back into her cleavage. "With it, you can do what no one else can. You can get rid of the invader. After that, use it however you please."

"I could just take it from you here and now," Noctis said, with an edge to his voice. As he did, shadows crept from the corner of the room, threatening to swallow Luna whole.

She stood her ground, letting sunlight wrap around her. "As your thugs might have told you, I'm not going to be manhandled that easily."

There was a moment of immobile silence between them. Then, finally, Noctis cracked up a smile, and the shadows receded back to their natural place. "I assume you have a plan, Oracle. I'm listening. But no guarantees."