Aria sat just outside the inn, watching the sky grow lighter with the approach of the sun.

Suns.

She kept forgetting there were three of them here.

As usual, she'd woken up early. She'd come out to the main room to find that Kren was also an early riser. Maybe that was why he was tired all the time. She'd asked him how early he might consent to serving breakfast and he'd simply held out a hand. She'd dropped a few quills into it, and a short while later she was tucking in to breakfast. She'd have to remember to leave the guy a nice tip before she departed Denduron. Not the best attitude, but really great service, otherwise.

Once she'd finished, she'd decided to wait outside for the rendezvous. She hadn't actually watched a sunrise on this planet, so she thought it might be a pleasant use of her time. Turned out, sunrises on Denduron were pretty similar to sunrises on Earth. There were just…three of them. At the same time.

It didn't take long for Jani to show up. She didn't say anything, just sat down next to her with a blank, tired expression.

Aria tried to strike up conversation. "So…how are Dakka and Rill?"

Jani's head slowly twisted to look at her, owl-like. She didn't respond. Aria let out a low, awkward whistle and decided against conversation. They sat in silence at they waited for Tarek to arrive.

Fortunately, that didn't take long. Aria saw him approaching out of the corner of her eye, and stood up to greet him. He jogged up looking like Aria usually did early in the morning – bright and chipper and ready to start the day. Aria yawned and said, "Morning Tarek. Is Alder coming? Did he find anything yet?"

Tarek's expression grew a bit less cheerful. "Ah, he dropped in early this morning, just as I was waking up. He said that he would try to meet up with us later, but not to wait for him. I guess I might be going to the Bedoowan council myself."

"Oh," Aria replied, a bit worried. Had he encountered something dangerous last night? An animal? Was he injured? "Well, did he seem alright?"

Tarek brightened again. "Oh, yes. He was fine. A bit out of breath, though, like he'd been running. Probably he just saw another knight and didn't want to explain why he was wandering around off patrol in the dark."

Aria wasn't sure if she was satisfied with that explanation, but decided there wasn't much she could do about it. "Okay, well, I guess we'd better be going, then. Did everyone get breakfast?"

They both nodded.

"Cool," she said. "Uhhh…let's go."

She started walking in the direction of the western mine entrance; the one near the marketplace.

Behind her, Jani said, "You know, the other entrance is closer. Shouldn't we use that one?"

Aria paused. "Oh. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I think I can figure out how to get to the lab from there."

Jani looked at her irritably. "You think? You've done it before, how hard could it be?"

Aria flushed. "I'd be going backwards. I haven't done it backwards before."

Tarek laughed. "Backwards, forwards, what difference does it make? We'll be fine, I'm sure."

Aria shrugged. "Okay. But just to let you guys know, I'm severely directionally challenged. I can't tell east from west at noon, back home. If we get lost, it's not my fault."

Jani snorted disdainfully and Tarek said, "Duly noted." He sounded skeptical of her inability to stay oriented. He hadn't seen her try to navigate a mall.

The mine near the memorial was much closer than the mine near the marketplace, and the walk to the lab was sure to be shorter, too. Before they could enter, though, Aria stopped and said, "Wait. Tarek, I think you should stay here."

He looked nonplussed. "What? Why?"

Aria shuffled uncomfortably. "Well, we told them we wouldn't tell anyone else about the lab. How would we look if we showed up the very next day with one of our buddies in tow? Besides, you can flag down Alder if he comes by looking for us."

Tarek didn't look happy with her answer, but said, "Alright, I see your point. But–"

Jani stamped a foot impatiently. "Let's just get a move on. We don't have all day."

Tarek glared at her, looking like he had half a mind to rebut, but Aria looked at him imploringly. He reluctantly backed down and took up a watchful position at the entrance. Aria was sighed in relief. Tarek and Jani went together like fire and kerosene, and she resolved to try to keep them from butting heads as often as possible.

She and Jani entered the mine, Jani lighting the torch she'd brought along from her house. As predicted, Aria got confused on a few turns and Jani had to point her right, smacking her on the head each time she went the wrong way. At least one of them had an adequate sense of direction.

They approached the false wall, Arai rubbing her head from Jani's last smack. Jani once again grabbed it and heaved it to the side. As they squeezed through she said, "Hey, how's your side?"

Aria was surprised; both that Jani actually cared enough to ask, and also that she actually hadn't noticed it since breakfast that morning. "It's really good. It was hurting when I woke up, but it's been fine since then."

Jani heaved the door back into position and grunted, "Freak."

Aria was a bit taken aback. "What? Why?"

Jani replied, a bit of a pant to her breath from shifting more than her weight in solid stone, "That cut is healing way too fast. Especially since you've been running around and getting all messed up since you got it."

She had a point, though Aria wasn't sure how to explain it. "I guess I've just always been a quick healer," she said.

Jani didn't reply. They made their way to the hall of lights and pushed open the door to the lab. It was just as busy as last time, and several people looked up as they came in. A couple of them looked alarmed and leaned over to talk to their lab mates, but their concerns were promptly waved aside by those who recognized them from their previous visit.

Not exactly sure where to go, Aria walked up to a pair who were still whispering to each other and said, "Excuse me. Are Kahlin and Steric here? We really need to talk to them."

The man she'd addressed frowned. "Yes. Kahlin is asleep in one of the bunks, but Steric is at his workstation, I think. Over there."

He pointed across the room, and Aria said, "Thank you." And went in that direction. Jani slouched after her. She didn't seem to care much for the lab.

It didn't take long for them to find Steric. He was adding drops of some pale green liquid to a murky brown substance. He seemed to be counting the drops – a titration, maybe.

"Sixteen…seventeen…eighteen…"

Jani heard this and butted in. "Nineteen. Fourteen. Twenty-one. Thirty-two."

Steric winced, but didn't look up. Aria took mental note of the actual numbers as Steric tried to continue. He put seven more drops in before the substance suddenly turned from brown to light red.

He picked up a writing utensil, looked at his notes and said, "Ah…twenty-three?"

"Twenty-five," Aria corrected. Jani scowled at her. She ignored this. "Good morning Steric. Sorry to bother you."

Steric, who had jotted down the correct number and described the reaction, finally seemed to realize that he had company. "Ah! Jani! Aria! It's fine, not a bother at all. How are you? Are you hungry? Have you had breakfast?"

Jani looked mildly disgusted at his overt hospitality. Aria smiled weakly at him and said, "We're fine, thank you. We ate before we came this time. I don't mean to interrupt your work, but we need to talk to you. Do you have time, or do you need to finish this?"

Jani spat on the ground. "Who cares about some stupid experiment? This is important!"

Steric winced again. "Actually, it's fine. I just needed to finish that last reaction. I can talk. What do you need?"

He stood there looking at them expectantly. Aria said, "It's a bit sensitive. Could we talk somewhere less crowded?"

Steric looked around as though surprised to see that he was, in fact, surrounded by other people. Aria sensed that he was the type of person for whom the world disappeared when he was focused on his research. He said, "Yes, of course!" And led them back to the conference room.

As they walked, Aria wondered exactly how she was going to start this conversation. She'd been thinking about it the whole trip here, but she was still exceptionally nervous about the whole thing. How exactly do you barge into someone's workplace and tell them, 'I need you to do what I say, otherwise I think the whole world is doomed'?

She decided to just go straight to the point, knowing that if she beat around the bush too much she would probably clam up. As soon as the door shut behind him Aria said, "We need to talk to you about presenting your findings to the high council."

Steric blanched. Jani just walked over and pulled out a chair. She sat down and started picking dirt out from under her nails, apparently content to let Aria do the talking.

He stammered, "Th-the council? Oh, no. No, we can't…I mean, the atmosphere up there–"

"Is tense," Aria interrupted. "And it's getting worse every day. All of the current problems stem back to the Tryptite shortage. We can fix everything by providing a new light source."

Steric, still nervous, said, "Ah, well, I don't know…at any rate, I couldn't even begin to make sure a huge decision, I would need Kahlin here at the very least…"

Aria responded at once. "Alright. Can you go get her?"

Steric said, "No! She's sleeping! I can't just walk in there and…"

But he had already gestured in the direction of the bunks, so Aria decided to take it upon herself to get Kahlin up. She was uncomfortable with this entire situation, but if she was doing this, she wasn't doing it halfway. "It's fine, I'll get her. If she gets angry, it'll be on me. Be right back."

She left the conference room, walked down the hall checking tunnels until she found the bunks, and went right in.

The bunks split off in two directions. A quick glance in each showed that one was for men, the other for women. Both had thick doors, probably to keep out the sounds of explosions. She entered the women's bunk and walked down the line until she found a bed that was occupied. The light in there was very dim, but a close look suggested this wasn't Kahlin, unless Kahlin had grown her hair out overnight.

She walked down a bit further until she found a woman with short, brown hair. Bingo. She leaned over and whispered, "Kahlin? Hey, is that you? Kahlin?"

There was a short exhalation of breath, but otherwise she gave no indication that she was awake. Aria knew from experience that lightly touching a sleeping person was probably more likely to startle them than just grabbing their arm and shaking them gently, so she put a hand on her shoulder and pushed a bit, whispering more urgently. "Kahlin! Wake up, okay?"

Immediately the woman rolled over, eyes popping open. "Who is that?"

"It's me, Aria. Sorry to wake you, but something's happened up there. We need to talk. It's important."

She was really worried that she was about to get chewed up and spat back out for waking the stern woman up, but was surprised when Kahlin rolled straight out of bed and said, "Alright. Let's go."

Aria blinked. Grateful that she wasn't in immediate danger of being blown up with tak by a sleepy scientist, she led Kahlin out of the bunks to the conference room.

Upon nearing the door she could tell something was wrong. There was shouting coming from the other side. She rushed into the conference room, Kahlin close behind.

Jani was standing a foot away from her father, red in the face. Steric looked like he was about to faint.

Jani was bellowing at him. "What do you even think you know about me? You're never home! And don't you DARE try to tell me what mom would have thought! You have no right!"

Great. She'd left the two alone for five minutes, and apparently Jani had felt the need to address her abandonment issues with her father in that period of time. Because it wasn't like they had other, really important things to talk about.

She was torn between pity and frustration. She felt bad about what Jani was going through, but she had enough on her plate at that moment without mediating a familial dispute. With that in mind she stepped forward. "Jani, I'm sorry, but this needs to wait."

Jani ignored her. "You think that some righteous, greater good purpose gives you the right to just up and leave? You – you–"

Aria put a hand on her shoulder, and Jani whipped around. Her fist came up and Aria thought she was about to make good on her promise of violence from a few days ago. She clenched her jaw and shut her eyes.

At the last moment, Jani seemed to come to her senses. With a last screech of fury she ripped her shoulder out of Aria's grip, shoved her father against the wall, then stormed out of the room.

The three stared after her for a long moment.

Awesome. That was a great way to start her pitch.

She took a deep breath, then said, "Sorry about that. But, like I said, we…I…need to talk to you about something."

Steric leaned against the wall looking miserable. Kahlin looked at him, then drew out a chair and gestured for Steric to sit down. He did so numbly.

Kahlin took a seat, and Aria wasn't sure if she should sit too, or remain standing. She decided to remain standing. Kahlin nodded at her to begin.

Aria gathered her jumbled thoughts in a heartbeat and blurted out, "Councilor Grail is missing."

Oof. She regretted that. It wasn't the best lead-in to her pitch. However, it did seem to catch their attention. Steric looked at her more fully, and Kahlin's eyes widened. If she was taken off-guard by the news, she didn't let on. "How long has he been gone?" She asked immediately.

"Since he went off with councilor Maal to talk in the forest yesterday at noon. There are search parties running all over. I don't think anyone's found anything as of this morning."

Kahlin nodded. "Very well. How does this affect us?"

Aria swallowed. Alright, here goes. "Well, Grail's disappearance will notch up tensions like crazy, and if something isn't done, there will be war."

Kahlin sounded somewhat impatient. "We know that things have been growing tense–"

Aria cut her off. She didn't want to seem disrespectful, but she also needed to convey the seriousness of the situation. "Do you? Are you sure you know exactly what's going on up there? Because, and forgive me if I'm wrong, it seems like you spend an awful lot of time down here, away from all of it."

Kahlin raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Aria continued. "The night patrol has increased insanely over the last month or so, and a lot of Milago are getting really worked up about it. Fights have been breaking out almost every day, and the Milago and the Bedoowan are starting to get fed up with it. Almost all I've heard since I got here are stories about the old days, about Transfers and the arena and all the other horrible things the knights and nobles used to do, and it sounds like most of the Milago are terrified it's all going to happen again. They've already driven the Bedoowan out of the village. If things don't change, the Milago will resort to violence – especially if Grail doesn't show up. And honestly, I don't think he will."

Kahlin and Steric looked downright alarmed, and it even took Kahlin several moments to process the information. "Transfers? The arena? People haven't spoken about such things in years."

Aria shrugged. "I heard a dozen different stories in one afternoon. It's all the older generation is talking about."

Steric looked worried. "Kore will have much more sway, if this is the case. His daughter was killed in the arena, you know. They usually didn't send women in, but every now and then…"

Aria shuddered, finally understanding why Kore was so bitter towards the Bedoowan. She supposed she would be, too. Still, that didn't change anything. "Listen…I know that things are rough on the surface, but almost everything had be traced back to the Tryptite shortage. If we can solve that, lift the curfew, reduce the knight presence in town…"

"Things may start to calm down," Kahlin finished.

Aria nodded. "Yes. I know you've been waiting for things to calm down, but they won't. They'll just keep getting worse, and eventually peace just won't be an option any more. Besides, the longer you wait, the more likely it is that someone will find the lab on their own. And when that happens…"

Steric winced, and Kahlin's eyes hardened. She nodded, listening but obviously not sold. "And what do you propose we do?"

Aria continued, relieved that they were at least listening to her. "I think we should bring a sample of the tak-light to the councils, right away. If we're careful about how we do it, we can introduce the tak-light without giving either side a chance to seize the mine, or to suspect the other of possessing weaponized tak."

Kahlin frowned. "You wish us to reveal ourselves now? Without any preparation? That is simply not possible. The moment we do so, we will be pinned down here as the councils place sentries at the entrances to the mine in order to keep the tak vein from being seized. We will not be able to transport the supplies we need to live down here. Eventually, we will have to leave if we do not wish to starve down here, and when that happens we will all be at risk. Furthermore…"

She paused, eyebrows creasing. It looked as though she were debating whether or not to go on. At last she sighed and said, "The fact is, the moment we reveal ourselves we will lose our independence. Whatever came next, we would not be able to live as we have so far – dedicating ourselves purely to our research, not having to worry about mandates and politics. Our ability to study the tak would be severely curtailed."

Aria didn't really think that scientific independence was a top priority, given that they were on the brink of a war…but at the same time, she could understand Kahlin's distress at the thought of losing it. As soon as politics got involved in science, things tended to get…muddled.

She seemed about to continue, but Steric interrupted her. "Honestly Kahlin…as much as I have enjoyed the lack of oversight, I think she is right." He started off looking down at his hands, but once he started talking he straightened up and spoke more surely. "We should come forward. Working down here is making me a nervous wreck. This can't keep going on forever, and the longer we wait the more desperate things will become."

"And the less likely either side will be to accept a peaceful resolution," Aria added, looking desperately at Kahlin.

The woman crossed her arms, leaned back, and stared at the table. Aria stood silently, praying that she had made a convincing enough argument. If not, she wasn't sure what she would do.

She didn't want to seem like she was pressuring the woman, so she stood back, leaned against the wall, and looked down at her feet. Several minutes ticked silently by, Kahlin giving no indication of what she may have been thinking. Steric just sat there, looking at her hopefully.

At last, Kahlin responded with a slow shake of her head. Aria's heart sank. "I'm sorry. There's no way we can come forward with this. At least not straightaway. We will need time to prepare. Time to store resources in the event of a siege, time to safeguard our research, time to–"

The sounds of panic erupted from down the hall.

Their eyes widened. The three of them made for the door but before they could open it, it was flung wide. A scientist burst in and said, "There's an intruder in the lab! Hurry!"

They were already moving. The ran out the door, down the hall, and emerged into the main room.

Across the lab there was a huge commotion, people milling around a small arch that seemed to lead to a storage room of some sort. Kahlin and Steric ran over to see what was going on, but Aria heard something that completely drew her attention away. A loud, raucous howling was coming from the far end of the room, near the entrance. Aria had heard that voice enough times over the last few days to recognize it immediately.

Jani.

She ignored the commotion near the arch and sprinted past panicking scientists to where her friend was crouched near the doors to the hall of lights. She was sitting on the ground, screeching in pain and rage, and Aria paled as she saw blood on her leathers.

She knelt down and said, "Jani, are you okay?"

The Milago girl gritted her teeth and nodded. She was covering her face, and blood was leaking between her fingers. It looked like she'd been decked pretty hard. She had a nasty slash on her upper arm, as well a long cut on her upper thigh. They were bleeding pretty badly, but they didn't look too serious. Then Jani's eyes locked on something across the room.

Aria turned and saw the knight.

He was tall and wiry, had short red hair, green eyes, and it seemed to Aria that his armor was a bit fancier than Alder's had been. The man had extracted himself from the crowd and was running towards them, and the exit. One hand was fisted around something Aria couldn't see. The other held a knife.

Someone in the crowd yelled, "Stop him! Don't let him get out!"

Aria stood up, fists clenched at her sides, forcing her panic down. If he made it out of the lab right now, everything they had worked for could be jeopardized. If she could hold him up, only for a few seconds, they might be able to stop him. She brought her fists up and stood in front of the door.

Then the knight's eyes met hers. They flashed from green to blue, and were burning with rage. A shudder passed through her, and her side twinged in remembered pain.

It was Saint Dane.