Lieutenant Yaeger took in the moonlit sight of what remained of the Saison Bridge with a sullen expression on his face. The boy was low, to do something like this. "I was hoping the reports we heard in Newbarth were misinformed," he muttered to himself as he took in the sight of scorched rubble and blackened stone. "Looks like our scout was able to make it through before this happened." It was the only bit of good news he had for his men. He stiffened when he felt Caius approach from behind, and he tried to hide his discomfort by squaring his shoulders. "A minor setback," he announced with false confidence. "We will regroup at Newbarth and enlist a team to repair the damage immediately."

Behind Yaeger's back, Caius actually rolled his eyes. "And set your investigation back a week? I would not advise it, lieutenant. Your mark is younger than all of us, and he's not leading an entire scouting party. Within the time it takes for me to explain all of this to you, he can have crossed the capitol borders."

A low growl grumbled in Yaeger's throat. His 'consultant' was infuriatingly right. He turned to face Caius with a hostile expression on his grim face. "What do you suggest we do, then?"

Caius turned his scarred eye to the west. "Follow the river to where it narrows," he told him. "Fell a tree and cross where the gulch is deep."

Yaeger coughed in disbelief. "And watch half of my men fall to their deaths?"

The witch hunter's gaze fell back on the lieutenant once more; something in his expression was cold, empty and unfeeling. When he spoke, his words were quiet and clipped, hard as stone. "Better to risk their lives and catch your target than to allow thousands of Corona's people to perish at the hands of a wanted treasonous criminal because you were too cowardly to do what must be done to fulfill your assignment. Or is that not what you've been trained for?"

Yaeger felt a vein throb in his temple as his blood pressure skyrocketed, and every muscle in his body tightened as he fought the urge not to haul in on the man's face. "I was trained to value the lives of my subordinates," he hissed indignantly.

"Sentiment is not something that is trained," Caius remained completely unfazed by the man's bristled demeanor. "It is something your commanding officers allowed you to keep. Whether you value the lives of your men or not is a personal choice, lieutenant. That value does not lessen when you command your men to do what they have trained for…to follow orders."

Yaeger gritted his teeth. Whoever this man was, he was implacable. Yaeger had encountered people like this before, when he was just a boy on the streets. The only way to shake an implacable man was to cooperate…until you had the leverage to make them back down. Yaeger gave his men a sideways glance; they were tired, their dark uniforms stained by rainy road travel, their hair unkempt and their faces framed by day-old sweat. But devotion flickered in the depths of their eyes, like a candle flame through a foggy window. They looked to Yaeger, awaiting instructions. They too would cooperate, for better or worse. Yaeger reminded himself that he needed to trust them as much as they trusted him.

With a deep breath, he drew himself to his full height and turned to face the group. "Steel yourselves, men. We will not be daunted by the enemy's tactics. Marcus, take Felix and return to Newbarth to enlist immediate repairs by my authority. The rest of us will head west and make efforts to cross the Saison by our own means."

Marcus and Felix nodded. "What's the rendezvous location, sir?"

Yaeger set his jaw. "East, at the mountain base. Fischer will be there."

Under normal circumstances, Yaeger wouldn't bother with using code. But he didn't trust Caius any further than he could kick him, so using 'Fischer' – a key word for the capitol harbor – was necessary to preserve the integrity of their mission. If, for whatever reason, this mysterious man was consorting with the boy alchemist, it was a risk Yaeger refused to take. Marcus and Felix saluted, their eyes unblinking as they silently acknowledged their commanding officer.

"You have your orders," Yaeger said. "Move out!"

The effects of the chimera serum didn't wear off until Rudiger planted his feet less than a mile from Old Corona. The racoon's legs wobbled and shuddered, and Varian knew it was time. He dismounted and gingerly pulled Shay down to the ground. As Rudiger reverted back to his normal size, the sky on the horizon began to lighten into a rich, navy blue. Varian took in the sight with weary eyes. Had it really taken them all night to get here? They had stopped once, to bind Shay's broken arm. Varian was worried she had injured herself even more after…whatever it was that had happened at Lady Caine's camp. To his surprise, the thief girls had waited for him to finish his work before pressing on; they still hadn't said a word to him, and the night had gone by in frigid silence.

Now, Varian breathed in the familiar smell of autumn blowing across the fallow fields of his home village. The scent of cold earth and dry leaves mixed with the unpleasant ghost of metal and oil, remnants of the battle he'd waged against the princess the year before. Once, it had weighed his spirit down with grief and anger. Now, he just felt tired and empty, like a pitcher run dry.

Angry and Red jumped down from their fatigued horse, their legs quaking underneath them as they rested from their ride. Red sat down, cradling her head in her small hands. Angry continued to stand, and as she turned to face Varian, she finally spoke. "This is where we say goodbye, alchemist."

Varian looked up from where he'd placed Shay on the ground, his brow furrowed with confusion. "Aren't you going to try and turn me in?"

Angry looked to her companion. Red glanced up from her hands. She said nothing. "We'll give you a head's start," Angry answered slowly. She sighed shakily. "We have more important business than chasing after someone who…might have helped us." She stepped over to Red and placed a hand on her head. "We should go."

Red nodded, and she shakily stood. As she turned to remount, she paused. She rounded on Varian, her eyes wide and clear. "She's wrong, you know." Her words were quiet, but piercing. "The Lady. You're not like her."

Varian blinked, surprised. "I…" He hung his head and looked away. "I could have been. Once, I almost was."

"But you've changed." Red gave a weak smile. "Like Eugene."

Angry frowned, but she said nothing. When she looked at Varian, her expression was softer. "Come on." She climbed back up onto the horse and hauled Red up after her. They both winced as they settled back into the saddle. Angry shot Varian one last look, blinking once. "See you around, Varian." Then they turned and rode east, towards the brightening horizon, their black and red heads growing smaller and smaller.

"I hope not," Varian mused to himself. He took a moment to drop back into the grass; he wanted a rest, just for a moment. The moment almost instantly turned into an hour of sleep – Varian didn't even feel Rudiger climb up onto his chest to join him. He didn't dream, and he wasn't visited by any strange phantoms. He just slept, unthinking, unfeeling, for one precious hour.

He was drawn back into the morning light by the sound of Shay crying; broken whimpers so mellow and weak, he almost thought it was coming from a child. He woke up, then bolted upright, and Rudiger jumped into the crisp grass. He scrambled to reach his bag for a painkiller, then realized he didn't have it. He'd left it at the Lady's camp…an entire trove of evidence. Horror gripped his insides, and he raised a hand to shove his dark hair out of his pallid face.

There was nothing he could do about it now. He had to prioritize. After a few seconds of panicked thinking, he had some semblance of a plan. He crawled over to Shay and reached for her, tugging her upright. "It's alright," he said, wiping her face with his hands. "We're safe, now."

Shay said nothing, but she nodded numbly.

"Can you stand?"

Another nod. Varian helped her to her feet, steadying her as she swayed. "Killy," he heard her moan.

"I know," he said. "I'm sorry. We have to keep moving. It's not far from here." Through her tears, she managed to give him a questioning look. "You'll see," he answered, forcing himself to meet her bleary gaze. "Just…don't freak out."

The distance wasn't great; Rudiger had brought them very close. But their footsteps were heavy, and Varian's head ached. Shay fell into silence behind him, like a wraith coldly creeping at his shoulder. The fingers of her good arm pinched the fabric of his jacket sleeve, as if she might slip away. Twice, Varian opened his mouth to speak to her, then decided against it. Rudiger was louder than usual as he trailed along, rustling and panting through the dying fields.

As the Sun broke at last over the trees, the sight of Corona's capital wall appeared. Varian felt Shay stop as she stared, backlit by the sunrise as her watery, mismatched eyes took in the scene that splayed out before her. The gaping hole in the wall, bricks shattered and spread in gruesome glory, the black rocks stretching forth like wicked thorns from the earth, ancient automatons rusting in hues of red and green, flecks of glass glittering in the dust and dirt.

"Welcome to Old Corona," Varian said, gazing with dead eyes at the remains of his home. "We'll get to my house and resupply there. What's left of it, anyway." He continued as he led the way down the hill. "We shouldn't have to worry about anyone finding us here. They'll be looking for me elsewhere, now. Besides, I don't think they'll be expecting –" Fingers pinched his sleeve once more, and he stopped when he felt Shay tug. He looked to see that she was giving him a very worried look. "What?" Then it dawned on him, and he smiled sadly. "I'm okay. This isn't the first time I've been back here. Come on."

He escorted her through the abandoned streets, the empty houses and metal debris. "Watch the spikes," he cautioned as they tread warily around clusters of the black rocks. As he passed, Varian could have sworn he saw embers stir in the depths of the ethereal stone. Crossing the old bridge spanning the stream that fed his land, he reached the remains of his father's house. There was no door for them to walk through, but half of the walls still stood after Varian's raging charge. The black rocks, of course, still stood there, fractured floorboards spitted precariously on menacing tips. Varian led Shay through it all, until they reached the decimated hole where he'd first erupted from what was left of his lab. The soldiers had left a fairly well-structured ladder in the wake of their investigation, something Varian was now grateful for. "Take it easy down," he warned Shay as he went first. He stepped down into the dark, ready to catch her if she fell. With only one arm, Shay's climb was slow, but she eventually made it down to his side.

Varian's lab remained untouched; it seemed the soldiers had been instructed not to touch any of his equipment, in case it was dangerous. Nothing had changed since he'd last been here. The rocks remained, and his father remained. His faint reflection in the amber seemed to mock him, and the frozen form of Quirin stood still and unmoving. The sight of it did little to Varian now. There was nothing he could do, yet. He brought up an overturned chair and gestured for Shay to sit.

Shay settled shakily down into the seat, her eyes refusing to leave the sight of Varian's father. Her hair was strewn in straggles around her pale face as she let Varian address her broken arm. "I didn't know," he heard her whisper as he carefully undressed the crude splint he'd fashioned in the woods. "You told me, but…I didn't imagine it like this."

"Wait here." He stood and crossed over to an untouched drawer, returning with a bottle of white cream. "This should help with the swelling."

As he reached to treat her, she held up her hand. "Wait." She swallowed thickly. "There's a spell in my mother's book."

But Varian shook his head. "You're too weak to cast spells."

Shay nodded wearily. "Yes. But you're not." With difficulty, she managed to produce the Crimson Caster's journal. It hovered patiently in the air, almost expectantly. "Take it," she told him. "It will show you the right page."

Varian stared at her for a long moment. Then he took the book, and it settled lightly in his shaking hand. He opened it, and the pages turned, snapping swiftly to the page he was looking for. Among the Celtic words, he saw the spell. "It's music," he observed aloud, tracing the inked notes and meter with his finger. He read it, and realization struck him like a lightning bolt. "I've heard this song before," he breathed. "But I-I don't know how to sound the words here."

"The words don't matter," Shay explained; her head hung low with fatigue. "You just have to understand it." She reached for his shoulder with her good hand. "I don't have weeks to wait for this to heal," she whispered as tears wet her face once more. "I know you can do this. I don't know how, but you can. Try. Please."

"Okay." Varian licked his lips. "Okay." He studied the measures, the beats, sounded the notes in his mind. He remembered the princess, the sound of her voice. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and he started to sing. At first, he couldn't remember the lyrics she'd used, but as his voice grew stronger, some of the verses came back to him:

Heal what has been hurt

Change the fates' design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine

Blue light spun in rivets from his fingertips, zipping and zooming like fireworks over Shay's swollen, purple skin. As the light faded, the bruising dissipated, like ink in water. Her fingers twitched back to life, and she flexed them without a wince. She hugged her fully healed arm to her chest, pressing a hand over her mouth. Eventually her fingers fell, and a grateful, relieved smile wobbled across her trembling lips.

"I did it?" Varian looked from Shay to the book. "Did that work?" Shay nodded. A sound cracked from his throat; a single chuckle of incredulous laughter. "I did it!" He felt elation fill his chest, bubbling into a fit of excited giggles. The euphoria was contagious, and Shay was soon laughing with him. He set the book on the ground and took her hand, turning her forearm back and forth. "I can't believe that actually worked!" After everything that had happened, everything he'd been through – to see an experiment succeed, even if it was magic – it was something he thought he'd never feel again. Dizzy with excitement and fatigue, flushed with the power he'd been given, he grabbed her startled face and planted a fierce kiss on her forehead. "It worked!"

Shay sat there, dazed and speechless. She reached up to touch the spot on her brow, and Varian felt her face grow warm as she stared at him. He realized how close he was; he was still holding her face. Sobriety returned to him in a hot wave, filling the space between until he had only two options: see what would happen if he leaned in, or throw himself backwards and tumble into a stammering fit. He chose the latter, looking everywhere except at her expression. If he had looked, he might have caught a glimpse of somber dejection. "I-I-I didn't – I was just…" He held his arms rigid at his sides, burning. "Food!" He suddenly gulped before she could say anything. "I'll, uh, food us find. I mean, find us food. Yeah, that's it." He turned awkwardly on his heel and half-walked, half-stumbled to the storage pantry at the back of the lab. He closed himself inside, stealing a few precious moments of solitude. He leaned against the shelves, trying to calm his hammering heart. A part of him wanted to stay in there for the next few hours…or years.

But he couldn't. He had to handle this in a mature manner. Whatever this was, that is. Yes, he could do that. Once he had collected himself, he cracked the door open enough so that he could see the contents of the storage. He grabbed two jars of blackberry preserves and sucked in a deep, clarifying breath before stepping back out into the lab.

To his surprise, Shay still sat in the chair; for some reason, he thought she might have left. The joy she had shown before was gone, and her mother's journal had disappeared once more. Her face was flushed, and she had made an effort to straighten the tangles in her hair. Rudiger had settled in her lap like a cat, his eyes closed as she scratched behind his ears. She was staring openly at Quirin's strange amber prison, brushing the back of her thumb over her lips. She jumped when she heard Varian fumble with a pair of measuring spoons in a drawer, and she barely acknowledged as he held out a jar for her to take. Varian crossed over to the other side of the lab and hopped up onto a cluttered table, broken glass vials disturbed as he sat heavily on the surface. Without a word, he began shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth; any excuse to not speak. He could feel her gaze on him, like the heat of a bright red poker boring between his eyes.

"Varian," Shay asked after a few moments of awkward, jam-eating silence. "Can we talk about what happened?"

Varian nearly choked on a swallow of blackberry as his heart started ramming his ribcage again. He'd hoped that something intelligent would come out of his mouth, but all he got was "What?"

"Can we talk about what happened at the…at the gulch."

"Oh." Relief washed over him like a bucket of cold water; Varian could almost feel the steam of it as his skin cooled down.

"I know you're tired," Shay continued, "and you really should get some rest. But if you could tell me…"

Varian swallowed down his discomfort and let out a reluctant sigh. "Well, I'm sure you probably don't remember much."

Shay shook her head. She looked anxious, afraid of what he would say. "I need to know…Did I hurt anyone?"

Varian struggled to find the right words. He worked his jaw, trying to speak. "Not…seriously hurt." He set his jar down, tapping his lip with the cold, blackberry-smeared measuring spoon. "This has happened before, hasn't it? That's why you asked if anything had happened when you passed out the first time."

Shay nodded, her chin tucked close to her chest. "Once," she mumbled, "when I was a little girl. Before my father died. Mother took me into the woods to look for potion ingredients. Poppies, elder moss, simple things. I strayed too far away from her, and I slipped down into a ravine." She gestured absently to her temple. "I hit my head. She looked everywhere for me, she said. My father came, and…" She sighed shakily, and her eyes drifted to Quirin's frozen form. "By the time they found me, it was almost dark. They said I was awake, but I don't remember. There were six wolves. A pack had found me, and…They were all dead." She hugged herself, and Rudiger reached for her half-eaten jar, oblivious to her distress. "Since then, my mother would lock my door at night, when I slept. She formulated the location spell I know, the one I used in the crypt. She was afraid something like that would happen again. I was afraid something like that would happen again." She refused to meet his eyes, and she bit her lip as it started to tremble. "Eventually, she realized it happens only if I'm seriously hurt. It's like a –"

"Defense mechanism," Varian concluded for her. "Survival instinct. Your magic takes over when you have no control, to protect you." He forced levity into his voice. "Well! Now we know how to make sure that doesn't happen again. You just need to not get hurt. So we'll avoid any and all gulches and escaped criminals from now on."

Shay finally met his gaze. "Varian. There's something else. It's something I should have told you, the day we first met. It…well, it wasn't –"

Varian held up a hand to stop her. "I know." He took a deep breath and sat up straight. "You lived here once. Since you did, I'm sure that means we've met before." He smirked when she gaped and struggled to find words. "It makes sense. It's why you keep giving me strange looks, why you were so surprised when I first came to your mother's cabin. Why my father had a map leading me to you." He shook his head. "I should have figured it out sooner with that last one."

"I – I don't understand!" she gasped. "How did you…" She shook her head helplessly. "You knew this whole time?"

"Not the whole time," Varian admitted, planting his chin in his hand. "And I don't know why I don't remember, but I bet you know that, too." She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. "You said it wasn't your secret to tell. I'm still not really sure what that means," he mused aloud. "But after everything that's happened, I'm going to go against my better judgment and trust that you have a good reason for not telling me." His expression turned bitter. "What I don't understand is why she didn't say anything about it."

Shay squinted confusedly. "'She?' 'She,' who?"

Varian hung his head, steeling himself. "She told me not to tell," he admitted slowly. "I shouldn't." He sighed again, long and slow. "But you deserve to know. I just hope you don't hate me for it."

Shock crossed Shay's tired, petite features. She stood and crossed over to where he sat on the table, drawing herself up next to him. She didn't say anything as he told her about the strange dreams he'd had. He told her about the vision of his father and the Crimson Caster. He recounted her mother's visit in Newbarth as she'd slept. He recited Lyra's message about the Celestials, and, after one more moment of hesitation, he confessed about the request the woman had made, to keep her trapped in Haderon's tomb.

By the time Varian finished, Shay was almost expressionless, emotionally wrung out and defeated. "I wish she had come to me," she whispered into the quiet morning air. "I suppose I'm jealous." She stared up at Quirin's frozen form once more. "I miss her."

Varian's hands were clenched fists in his lap, and his blue eyes drooped with grim resolve. "I know." He opened and closed his fists, and a few lilting sparks sputtered like blue embers. "But we'll get her back." He followed her gaze to where his father stood, fixed in amber like a statue. "We'll fix this, all of it. I promise." He dredged up the courage to look at her, his jaw set as he gritted his teeth. "And when I make a promise, I never, ever go back on that promise."

"Varian," Shay hesitated. "We're almost there, aren't we? To the capitol."

Varian nodded.

"How will we…How will we –"

"We will," he said. He didn't know how they would find Xavier, or what would happen when they did, or how he would avoid capture. But he had to believe that they could do it. He hopped off the table and repeated himself. "We will. Trust me."

Shay said nothing at first. Her hands twitched in her empty lap, longing for the warmth of her lost hare. As she watched Varian cross the lab, talking about sleep, she placed a hand over her healed arm. "Varian!" He turned, his blue eyes wide with alarm. "Thank you," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Varian gave a weak smile, but it faded as he turned, his face falling back into shadow. He whispered to himself, the words bitter and coated with self-doubt.

"Don't thank me just yet."