When Anur had spoken of his experience of the Hunting Rite they'd called down on the one once called Eshkal, Kir had been intrigued by the deliberate invitation Anur had been issued to join in the Hunt, and had honestly assumed that the invitation and Anur's acceptance of said invitation was the reason behind the joint Voice manifestation. The fact that Aelius had been caught up in the manifestation's wake had also made sense, especially now that he had independent confirmation that the Herald-Companion bond was anchored in the pair's souls.

The fact that he could feel the Voice's presence against his mind where his brother should have been, where his brother still was, was terrifying and gave an entirely new reason for why a joint manifestation might be worth hoping for. Aelius' presence was threaded with the same, the Companion was not speaking, and he could only hope that whatever was happening on Aelius' end was either blatantly Sunlord-adjacent or subtle enough no one would notice something was going on.

He could feel some of what was happening, echoes of the utter clarity of purpose and focus and intent, and it was all he could do to not try and build shields between his brother's mind and his own when he couldn't, he hadn't even been able to try to separate their minds when Anur had finally taught him the proper technique for mental shielding and he had been reasonably well-rested by the time that had come about, if he were to try such a thing now –

It would be pointless anyway. You couldn't shield yourself from the Voice.

Kari carefully stretched out across his legs and Kir buried his fingers in the Cat's fur, because even keeping his hands clenched in white-knuckled fists hadn't been enough to hide their shaking, and the people here were nervous enough. They could likely only catch occasional glimpses of him, between their own focus being necessarily elsewhere and his use of irregular curtains of fire to try and bleed off some of the stress of the situation, but if one of them glanced this way and found the current anchor to the safety of this operation so obviously stressed –

Well. Anur had borrowed enough trouble for them already. No need to borrow any more.

His brother wasn't there this was awful.

A set of sparks almost caught him off guard, but he managed to breathe through the rush of panic and worry and stars he just wanted to burn something but not now and it was quiet. It was so, very quiet. His brother was missing.

He still couldn't hear anything, but he could feel Kari's whole body vibrating with his purrs, which was almost as soothing. His brother was not missing, his brother was fine. Anur was fine.

His vision flickered and he briefly saw a man with webs and nets and cruelty practically dripping from him, and he knew that the one he was seeing was once named Bertrand.

The one once called Bertrand had been caught, he knew at once. Would be brought low and not allowed to escape. He would answer for his crimes. But with a moment to think, with sparks currently absent, his own flames a quiet rumble, the Voice's presence focused like a lance of light on someone not him, he could realize the problem.

One of the bracelets Anur had burned had been unsafe to remove by normal means. That sort of spellwork would be unchanged by a declaration of Namelessness, but how many knew that? How many once-victims might hear of the Nameless One's arrest, of his sentencing, and think themselves safe? Might think those traps disabled and harmless?

The number, he suspected, was non-zero.

The idea of the Oathbreaking wretch bringing even one more innocent down with him was unbearable, was so utterly wrong, but what could he do? The man had clearly been skilled at warding, warding against mage-sight was tedious but not hard, and he had been doing this for years, if not decades. They would not be able to find everyone he had trapped under his webs, certainly not before a tragedy occurred.

The Voice was right there.

One of these days, he would have to sit down and write Father Gerichen a letter. He wouldn't be able to properly explain, not until after Midsummer, but he certainly owed that man thanks. For now, though, he breathed, gave himself one moment to determinedly squash out as many potentials for sparks as possible, to acknowledge his terror as something he could not let guide his actions, and asked.

Vkandis Sunlord, Giver of Light, innocents have been caught in a trap I cannot free them all from. I cannot even begin to imagine how we mortals could free all of them. Please.

=pagebreak=

Technically speaking, removing Maude Nolans' bracelet was straightforward. All it had actually taken was a gradual insulation process to break enough of the spell-hooks anchoring it to the groundwork spells that had either been the first things to transfer over from the bracelet or had been in place before the bracelet. Carefully wrapping Maude's wrist in layers of silk, keeping the silk between her skin and the bracelet, had done the trick – the difficulty had lain in ensuring Jaina didn't touch the bracelet with her own skin, and that the layering actually happened instead of wrinkling or slipping out of place, and that had been what she called for extra help for. It was really for extra hands.

Having an extra set of mage-trained eyes on the problem to make sure she wasn't making any critical mistakes or missing anything in her interpretation was a bonus she had no reason to avoid asking for, and there were more than enough decent mages in Sunhame for her request to be reasonable. The fact that Holiness Ulrich was familiar enough with Honored Hansa to have been briefed on the basic situation already and be brought here directly without being distracted by a Firecat's presence made him the perfect candidate, so far as she was concerned.

The lack of technical skills necessary aside, she was still taking a few moments to breathe after the bracelet's removal and enjoy the tea they'd purchased as a justification for taking over this room.

"I will deal with the groundwork spells, Mistress Nolans, I simply need a moment," Jaina said, sitting back in her chair and bringing her teacup with her. This merchant house sold some truly fantastic blends for reasonable prices, which was the only reason she'd been here often enough to find out that they also rented out small rooms for groups to drink some of said teas, served in dishes made a few doors down and with pastries made by a decent enough Inner Eighth baker.

"Of course, Your Holiness," Maude said, the Outer Eighth baker doing much the same, though she stayed close enough to the small table to take a few bites of her pastry of choice.

"I like your pastries better," Jaina admitted, forgetting herself for a moment, "But their teas are fantastic… Mistress Nolans."

The baker took a sip of her own tea before giving a shaky sigh and saying quietly, "You can call me Maude, Your Holiness."

"And you can call me Jana," she replied, hesitating before having to laugh, shaking her head, "As many times as we've complained about our mutual idiot brothers, I rather think we can forget formality, at least when I'm not in uniform? Only if you're comfortable, of course."

"If anything I'll get too comfortable and entirely forget you're a priestess," Maude admitted, smiling wryly, "I had plenty of theories about the things we never talked about, but priestess was never one of them. You had a family."

"The Kin of Vkandis mantra isn't usually taken so literally, true," Jaina agreed, remembering her first few years as Incendiary with a grimace, "Even Kin of Ari was less than literal, until relatively recent years."

"Kin of Ari?" Maude repeated, sounding puzzled, and Jaina realized that phrasing was likely unknown in the laity. The story of Ari was very rarely told outside their Order, nowadays.

"A formal phrase for the Firestarters, Ari was our founder," Jaina explained, breaking off a piece of her scone, "Maude, I plan to continue wandering Sunhame as Jana for – well, for as long as I can. Certainly for as long as Valerik does. I would consider it an immense favor if you would continue calling me Jana and treating me no differently."

"I owe you my life and more," Maude told her, sounding bemused, "There is no favor to be owed, Jana. I will tell Garth much the same, though I suspect he will be on the same page as me."

"Likely," Jaina agreed, drinking the last of her tea and sighing slightly. She would definitely be buying a packet of that blend for herself this season.

"Right," she said briskly, setting her cup aside, "Groundwork spells, as I said, make it easier for other spells to be laid down on top of them – the bracelet's spells latched onto you very easily, because they had those groundwork spells to serve as either a bridge or an anchor, I have no way of knowing whether or not these groundwork spells were on you from the beginning or if they simply transferred over from the bracelet first."

"I'd guess long term," Maude admitted quietly, "My brother – he's been extorted before, with my life as leverage."

"I wish I'd known," Jaina replied, feeling utterly furious with herself for little reason, but if she had just once looked at Maude with mage-sight, she might have caught something sooner, might have seen these groundwork spells and been able to remove them. Been able to track down the person who put them on her and end them, because there were no innocent reasons to lay those spells on a lay-person.

"I would have had to have been exceptionally careless, and that I can't wish for, but I do wish you'd somehow known earlier too," Maude said, smiling wryly, "A Firestarter would have actually been able to do something."

"Depending on his political allies, it would have had to be delayed and quiet, but I would have ensured he died, at the very least," Jaina said, grimacing, "As complicated as this net sounds, we'd have been better served by an investigation, but that might not have happened. At least now it can happen, and we can get names from him."

"If he's caught," Maude pointed out, hesitating before asking, "Will it take long, to get these spells off?"

"A mark, at most," Jaina assured her, pulling her chair over so they were facing one another and clasping Maude's hands in her own, "I have quite a bit of practice with these."

She had also raised shields in this room to block external spells from reaching them without her consent, and had yet to take them down, but better to remove the groundwork spells quickly. Besides, they had to head to Fourth Court, and the sooner the better; having the neighboring merchant's daughter manning Maude's booth would work, but it'd be better if Maude was there in person, especially to break things down at the end of the market.

Eyes mostly closing, she bowed her head and focused on the misty layers wrapping themselves around Maude's mage-sight visible form, obscuring her own natural networks and providing so many little gaps and corners and anchor points in their weavings for spells of all sorts.

These spells were hard to see, hard to detect, especially if the person they were cast on was a mage and had any sort of spellwork of their own in place. In that respect, the Oathbreaker's likely use of these spells on primarily lay-people would be useful, because she wouldn't have to spend too much time explaining how to spot the spells to others capable of mage-sight before turning them lose to survey as much of the populace as possible.

She highly doubted they'd find them all. Not before something awful happened, and that was just with the man's groundwork spells strewn about like seeds for any of his allies to take advantage of. The Oathbreaker had undoubtedly bound so very many wrists with bracelets himself, and if even one person heard about his arrest and thought that meant the bracelets were safe to remove without precautions…

She could save Maude. She would save Maude. She would save as many people as she possibly could, and she would hate herself for every person she didn't reach in time. Sunlord, let that number be few.

Carefully exhaling, she sent out her own magic as if it were, of course, fire, devouring the first layer of the spell net, and then running it over the same layer again to ensure no faint threads or quietly reinforced patches were left behind to spread again. Pause, let things settle, watch the weave for any shifting, for any signs of recovery – ah, there was a patch. Definitely something that had been long term, for the layers to be this resilient individually. Perhaps another two washes of fire before she could go to the next layer.

She suspected this was a four layer weaving. This was probably going to take that full mark.

She gasped, hearing Maude echo her, sparks of golden fire appearing at her fingertips and suddenly a swarm of sparks formed, spiraling up Maude's arms and becoming one rippling wave of golden light-and-warmth-and-cleansing from head to toe that pulsed once-twice-thrice and faded to nothing, faded to sunlight, streaming through the window.

Maude's hands in hers were shaking, and every trace of those groundwork spells was gone.

"I heard – I heard a voice," Maude said, voice trembling, "Are the spells – are they gone?"

"They are," Jaina confirmed, letting her hold on her own mage-sight fade and hearing her own voice shake even on just those two words.

"He can never hurt me again," Maude said, voice filled with a wonder that was heartbreaking to hear, "He can never hurt anyone again."

"This happened to others, then? Not just your spells were removed?" Jaina asked, needing to hear it even if she felt she already knew the answer, because Maude would have been freed, would have been safe. There was no true need for a miraculous dismantling of the groundwork spells that Jaina was in the middle of removing. But if the same sort of thing had happened to every person Bertrand had caught in his web?

That had been very much needed.

"Yes," Maude said firmly, "Every one of his victims is free."

Squeezing Maude's hands briefly, she let her go and sat back in her chair, unashamed of the near giddy smile she could feel on her face, saying, "That is excellent news. I need to take down the wards I raised here, then we can go to Fourth Court."

"He isn't dead yet, either," Maude said, smile more than a little vicious and Jaina didn't blame her at all, voice taking on a singsong quality as she quoted, "Judgment has been rendered, but mortal justice remains."

"Even better."

=pagebreak=

A new priority this season was definitely teaching the other Firestarters how to manage the Hunting Rite on their own, because Anur never wanted to do this again. Last time had been strange, had felt bizarre, and they had spent an entire day recovering from their day and night and another day spent in pursuit. This had been far less strenuous in that regard, he seemed to have missed the noon bells tolling but no additional bells had been rung, so at most he'd spent a half-mark as a half-aware observer in his own skin. That hadn't been the problem.

No, the problem had been when he came back to himself and the Voice didn't leave. Kir was gone and the Voice had taken his brother's place. The only reason he was able to speak to the crowd, to explain to the Captains, was because Aelius had very deliberately heightened his presence against Anur's mind, taking care to partially insulate him from what was happening to Kir. The fact that Aelius had been able to do that without Kir protesting or wondering what was wrong had been entirely alarming in its own right, and they were never doing this Rite again. Especially not if one of them was stuck where they were for some reason, and unable to be invited along.

:I entirely agree,: Kir said, Hansa's Jump-borne flames fading slower than usual, but they finally cleared up enough he could properly see the still-bustling blasted-out courtyard he had left.

His brother's mind-voice had, for the most part, given everything away. But seeing Kir standing in full Sunhame-standard vestments, barring a missing Sun in Glory emblem, practically encased in flickers of fire, and listing distinctly to one side made his exhaustion far more immediately concerning than mere tone of voice could manage. When he had a bit longer to process, the not-quite hovering Sunsguard would be a lot more hilarious, he could practically see their thought processes – Sunpriest, just manifested the Voice, obviously favored, about to fall over, but fire – but for the moment he bypassed all of that and shoved the Oathbreaker towards the pair. Same pair the Justicar's Lieutenant had sent to help them get Kir and the others out of the storeroom, actually. Convenient.

"Oathbreaker," he said rather needlessly, not waiting to watch them secure the man; Nameless Eight wasn't exactly capable of resisting any longer, and Hansa was settling at those guardsmen's feet beside. Rather, Anur went straight to Kir's side, frowning when Kir leaned heavily against his shoulder the moment he could, flickers of fire enveloping both of them and Kari alike.

"Easy," he murmured, examining Kir more carefully, "Thought you said your lung was healed?"

"It was," Kir replied lowly, huffing a tired laugh, "I think all my traumatic injuries were. Still tired, still sore, and the mental strain hasn't eased at all, but breathing isn't painful, and I shrugged without regretting everything so my back is likely fine too."

"Your back," Anur said flatly.

"Cracks at most," Kir murmured, next exhale shaky, one hand going to his head, "Sorry. Spark flurry. There was a long gap with nothing though. Might be getting close to being able to leave."

"And are you actually going to?" Anur asked pointedly, "Kir, you said you could manage for a mark at most, and it has definitely been well over half a mark since you gave that estimate. If you need to leave…"

"They're halfway through dismantling," Kir said lowly, "I can give them a bit longer, though not double time."

"I'm holding you to that," Anur promised, adding, :Hear that, you two? Kir is not staying for much longer, kindly hold him to that.:

:Of course, Anur,: Kari said, the Cat sounding rather tired himself, but for the moment more amused than exhausted.

:I can do that,: Aelius agreed, sounding distracted, but quickly coming back to them and continuing, :I think my part of that manifestation went unnoticed, no one is eyeing me any more oddly than usual.:

:…not precisely reassuring, witch-horse,: Kir said, tone distinctly wary and Anur couldn't blame him at all. Oh certainly, they had heard Aelius referencing the way the stablehands were tiptoeing around him and Riva, and had even just yesterday been laughing about the possibility of Aelius receiving a stud-fee offer. But for Aelius to consider odd glances and sidelong looks normal?

:Oh will you two stop fussing, I know exactly what I am doing. If we were here longer term and more frequently there could be trouble, but so long as we dodge that Brahnas visit and continue our same pattern of visit frequency and length, we'll be fine, especially until Midsummer,: Aelius retorted, tone distinctly scolding as he added, :Focus. On. Your. Problems. Thank you.:

:Sir, yes sir!: Anur replied dryly.

To that end, he told Kir, "Let's get you back to a bench, I assume you still want me to go with the Justicar when he leaves?"

"Yes," Kir said, brow furrowing as he looked over his shoulder at the bench he'd left, "…have you seen my coat?"

"The one that has been apparently replaced with very fancy vestments? No," Anur replied, following his brother's gaze and seeing a distinct lack of anything resembling a coat. "Hopefully it was just moved or swapped out, not transformed."

"Vestments don't have pockets," Kir mumbled, Anur ignoring that non-sequiter to speak to the two soldiers. The patrolman was holding the Oathbreaker's arms, while the Corporal was glancing between their target and the pair of them.

Catching his gaze, Anur asked, "The Justicar is still here?"

"Yes, Lieutenant-Enforcer, they're gathering an estimate on the difficulty of entering this one's office," the Corporal reported, indicating the building evidently holding said office, "Once that is done, Holiness Jeryl professed intent to return to Fourth Court with the witnesses in need of more detailed questioning and, now, the Oathbreaker."

"Good, I need to have a brief discussion with Kir, but will be accompanying you to Fourth Court, kindly pass that along if His Holiness returns while we're talking," Anur replied, returning the man's salute before focusing on Kir again, grimacing when his brother didn't even protest as Anur hooked his arm over his shoulders and his own arm around Kir's waist before starting to walk back to that suspiciously coat-free bench. Anur had no idea why the Voice had needed to leave the bench in the first place, though it was likely something about drama and visibility. That was the only reason he could think of for another miraculously induced wardrobe change, after all.

Examining the sleeve hem that was now nearer eye-level, he hummed thoughtfully, cutting across Kir's disgruntled muttering about where exactly his string and tea packets and arrowheads had better have ended up – that explained the vestments have no pockets comment at least – and saying, "Kir, I think these are your old winter vestments with the fancy additions Jaina commissioned. I see some of those pinpricks from letting out the hems, though it looks like most of them have been disguised by the broader brocade edging."

"How bad is it?" Kir asked, glancing down at his vestments, "I honestly can't get a solid grasp of how fancy they are with the whole fire bit covering them up."

"Definitely fancier than your usual," Anur decided, helping Kir sit down and finally believing more than he doubted the fact that Kir was mostly healed. There weren't any hisses of pain, or carefully hidden flinches. This was tiredness.

He took advantage of it to scoot away a bit, get a better angle to look at said vestments. About the only thing that remained of the winter-weight vestments they had started as was the standard cut and the crimson wool. He suspected it had been re-dyed too, mostly because they might as well do so before adding all the flash. Thicker black edging than before, with sunburst motifs stiched on top of the black in copper beads, flanked on both sides by quarter-width golden brocade that had even more beads stitched overtop it in a zigzag pattern, and those beads he suspected were actually gold. The same style was repeated at the bottom hem of the robes and the overlaying mantle, dyed a slightly darker red, and each shoulder was elaborately embroidered with additional sunbursts, the rays trailing down front and back and with flame motifs stiched between each one.

But as elaborate as they were, he had seen the formal vestments the other members of Solaris' Council wore, and some of the ones Jaina had worn when she was Incendiary when they had been pulled into dismantling some of the more redundant sets under Lumira and Fabron's direction. These were practically understated in comparison.

"You look a little ridiculous without a Sun-in-Glory," Anur commented, "They're too elaborate to go without one."

"There are beads," Kir grumbled, apparently finally spotting said beads and blatantly ignoring Anur's implied offer to return his loaned Sun-in-Glory.

Rolling his eyes, because he could have guessed Kir wouldn't want him going anywhere without every possible visible sign of authority, Anur switched tracks entirely to get some good teasing in, "You're so shiny!"

:You'll have to both make sure I get to see your fancy new uniforms,: Aelius insisted around snickers, :It's only fair!:

:Just wait, witch-horse, this Midsummer I'll get to commission you your own fancy Sunhame uniform and I will make absolutely certain there are so many bells,: Kir promised, tone direly sincere and Anur had to cackle at Aelius' horrified spluttering. His Companion deserved it, he'd been far too smug over the fact that he was a mere horse, and could get away with a quick polish on his Sunsguard tack, while he and Kir had been fitted for all manner of utterly unnecessary formal uniforms. At least he'd been able to dodge the turban, only Captains and above were required to wear them. He had no idea how to wear one of those and Kir would be no help.

He knew Kir had been thinking over the issue of ensuring Aelius-as-Companion was more obvious without necessarily resorting to all of his blue and silver tack once again, but had yet to make any solid preparations or even more than tentative ideas. Anur suspected that was about to change.

Wondering at something, Anur stuck his nose against Kir's shoulder and inhaled, Kir definitely staring at him and sounding bewildered when he asked, "What are you doing?"

"They don't smell like spice-tea anymore!" Anur complained, straightening with a disgruntled frown, "I thought maybe it had just faded, but they smell like cedar chips again."

"Which is a good thing," Kir said pointedly, eyes narrowing, "And is not something you need to fix."

"Shows what you know," Anur grumbled, making a mental note to get a more finely woven satchet and perhaps whole spices used in spice tea rather than literal teabags. Or both! Both could also work. Before Kir could continue to protest, Anur refocused on the issue at hand and said, "Right, Kari, kindly stay with Kir and take him back to the District once this mark is up, and stay there, unless urgently needed elsewhere. Medical attention, Kir. And not setting everything around you on fire.

"After I get medical attention I might ask Kari to take me to the Trial room for a while," Kir admitted.

"That – would work, even if it makes me uncomfortable," Anur conceded, quickly insisting, "But Kari has to stay with you in that case!"

"Deal," Kir agreed.

Kari nodded his own agreement, leaping up onto the bench on Kir's other side and saying, :Hansa agrees, and he will stay with you and the Justicar. Dispersal is continuing, and will simply proceed with more caution and less urgency when you are gone, Eldest. Also, I could not sense entirely what was happening with your manifestation, but I could sense enough to know that I have questions.:

"So do we all," Anur grumbled, shaking his head and standing, "Less than even a half-mark, Kir. Let me know what the healer says, please."

"Of course," Kir promised, tangling his fingers in Kari's fur again. Anur could feel the warmth increase behind him, so Kir's shimmering curtains of fire were back in full force. He'd have to follow up with Aelius to make sure they actually left at the end of this designated mark, because while the Justicar had evidently been willing to wait a bit, he now had three additional witnesses for repeat questioning and the Oathbreaker all assembled and ready to go. There was no reason to delay any longer.

Time to get some questions answered.

"Wow, three whole pages for only one day? City life really is faster!"

"They sound very committed to never having to do that Hunting Rite again."

"No need to sound so disappointed, Devin."

"There is every need to sound disappointed!"