Upon hearing the captain’s booming voice from outside, for a moment, Rylan stood there with his mouth open, stunned.

  Zahra, however, practically flew out of the closet. “Loukas, key!” she hissed, holding out a hand as she rushed towards Rylan.

  The young guard tossed it over. She caught it even as she sank down in front of Rylan, gesturing at him to hurry up and present his ankle.

  Shaking himself out of his stupor, Rylan got down on one knee as well and hastily pulled up the leg of his britches to expose the metal band, engraved with the stylised thorny rose of the greater Thorn family. He practically held his breath as she inserted the key and twisted.

  There was a quiet click inside the infernal device, followed by a familiar sensation of loosening around his ankle as the ring’s locking mechanism released.

  However, in his excitement, he wasn’t quick enough to keep the heavy metal device from dropping onto the carpeted floor with a heavy thud.

  Cringing, he glanced over at Loukas, who was listening at the door.

  “I don’t hear any—” Loukas cut himself off with a frown, as the sound of running footsteps and opening doors could be heard from the distance.

  “Fog!” Rylan cursed, as he got up to his feet. “I’d hoped to at least have time to grab some supplies, now I don’t even know how I’m supposed to get out of here unnoticed!”

  Zahra smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she reached into her apron. “You know, in all the commotion, I never did get to hand these back in,” she said, pulling out a familiar set of keys and a glowband. “Think we can get you up on the roof from the balcony?”

  “I think we’re about to find out!” Rylan replied, grinning wide enough that it hurt his cheeks.

  Loukas grunted as Rylan moved his right foot from the young guard’s shoulder to the top of his head, and pushed off as hard as he dared. The light coming from the three moons that were out right now—plus the multitude of stars—glinted off the lacquered roof tiles as he struggled against gravity.

  On any other night, Rylan might have stopped to admire the rings around milky white Nebul, or the vibrant red of Calori. Right now, the only moon he had eyes for was bright blue Tempi, as it was linked to Zeph. Was it shining down a blessing upon him? He could only hope.

  Next to them, the door to the balcony opened as Zahra came out, having stayed behind to quickly straighten things up in the room.

  “Why isn’t he up there yet?” she hissed.

  “Would you like to—ugh—take over?” Loukas grunted in reply.

  The roof had been a bit higher up than they’d hoped, but Rylan was making good headway. As his friends bickered softly, he slowly but surely pulled himself up and over the edge.

  When he was finally fully onto the slanted roof, his heart racing, he let out a sigh of relief, only to tense up again from distant shouting.

  After a brief moment of panic, he concluded that they probably hadn’t spotted him. But still, there was no time to lose. Staying flat against the roof, he popped his head over the edge and grinned down at Zahra and Loukas. “All right, wish me luck!”

  Zahra beamed back, though there was a tremor in her smile. “Good luck, Ryles. Don’t forget to wri—”

  “Wait,” Loukas interrupted. “What about supplies?”

  Rylan shook his head. “Too risky to try and grab something now. I’ll have to catch what I eat. It shouldn’t take me too long to make it to another island. Then I’ll hitch a ride to a free city, probably Cliffport or Summit.”

  Cliffport was the city closest to Thistlebloom, only half a day of sailing away. That made it perhaps not the best hiding spot, but it was also the place they’d always talked about moving to and getting an apartment together.

  “What if we grab some?” Zahra asked.

  Rylan frowned. “I don’t know if I want you to take that risk for me, you’ve already done so much...”

  “Come on, man, you at least need a bedroll and a condenser,” Loukas insisted. “It gets really cold down there at night, and if you get lost in the cloudsea without a condenser, you’ll die of thirst in days!”

  Rylan bit his lip, considering it. When he’d planned to run last time, he actually had prepared stuff like that. Just because he was a Quinthar now, that didn’t mean he was safe from the more mundane dangers of the cloudsea.

  On the other hand, the clock was ticking until someone spotted him up on the roof, and he didn’t want his friends to get in trouble.

  Before he could make up his mind, a noise from the hallway filtered through to the balcony, causing all of them to freeze for a moment. After glancing over, Zahra whipped her head back up. “Just meet us by the basement entrance; we’ll get everything you need!”

  “Fine!” Rylan whispered back, relenting. “Oh, grab some knives if you can! And something to strap them to my body with!”

  His Skill would be useless without them. The little letter opener he still had in his boot was not going to get him far.

  “Just go!” Zahra hissed back, waving him off as she hurried after Loukas, back into the room.

  As the door shut behind her, Rylan took a deep breath and carefully started crouch-walking up the slanted surface towards the little metal dome housing the cistern on top.

  It rose from the very middle of the rectangular building, and, unlike the tower, was fed by a straight fogtube that came up along the roof at an angle.

  Rylan’s heart beat in his throat as he tried key after key on the exterior door, feeling very exposed so high up on the roof. Down below, he saw guards with oil lamps moving around in pairs, searching through bushes and keeping an eye from the watchtowers lining the walls.

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  So far, none of them had looked up.

  Finally, the lock clicked. The door thankfully swung open soundlessly, and he closed it behind him as quietly as he could.

  Never before had he been so relieved to be surrounded by fog, and utter darkness.

  Despite the cold metal hurting his skin, Rylan kept his ear pressed to the hatch leading into the basement of the servants’ quarters. It seemed no one had thought to search the fogtunnels yet, but when someone inevitably did, Rylan had no intention of getting caught.

  Seconds passed like minutes, and minutes like hours as he waited. With little else to do, he prayed to Zeph.

  “Blessed spirit of skies and storm, bringer of change,” he mumbled, his eyes closed and his hands clasped over his head in supplication. “Please send your winds to guide me, that I may find my path to freedom.”

  When he finally heard footsteps coming down the stairs, his heart practically jumped into his throat, but he quickly recognised them, and twisted the key to unlock the hatch.

  Zahra smiled at him as he carefully pushed it open and walked up out of the mist, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Loukas should be on his way with a fog condenser and bedroll soon,” she said, placing down the backpack she was shouldering. “He got roped into the search.”

  “Makes sense,” Rylan replied, his initial spike of excitement at seeing her quickly fading as he took in her subdued mood.

  She loosened the drawstring on the sturdy kelp backpack, kneeling down next to it as she pulled it open. “Right, so we got you about a week’s worth of rations—”

  “Wait, you stole food for me?” Rylan asked, aghast. “Zahra! What were you thinking?!”

  “Relax,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s from my parents’ pantry, not the Thistlethorns’. I’m not stupid.”

  Rylan breathed a sigh of relief, before she continued.

  “Anyway, you’ve got plenty of uncooked rice, some dried mushrooms and cloudweed—nothing fancy, I’m afraid—and a simple pan with a firemetal heating element to boil water and prepare meals with. Oh, and some leftovers from our dinner, since you skipped yours.”

  Rylan gratefully accepted the paper-wrapped package, opening it to find rice balls. His stomach rumbled at the smell, so he immediately produced one and took a bite, only to find they were stuffed with a delicious paste of what he suspected was ground redgill filet, spiced to perfection.

  Zahra was so lucky to have a chef as her father.

  While munching, Rylan watched carefully as Zahra pulled out one thing after another to show him. She’d clearly taken the liberty to raid his dresser, as she quickly produced the small pouch of coin he’d kept stashed in there, plus the sturdy boots and the light-brown, wool-lined leather coat he wore in the colder seasons. Helen had gifted him that one a year or two ago, but it thankfully still fit.

  “You’re going to need to bundle up; it gets really cold down there, especially at night,” she warned him, her brows crinkled with worry. “Loukas is always red-faced and shivery when he returns from patrol.”

  Rylan nodded, already sitting down and tugging off his work shoes with his free hand. “Good thinking; I’ll put them on right now. Though I hope not to spend too long down there, of course...”

  “Well, you never know what might happen, so it’s best to be prepared,” she replied firmly. “Speaking of which, as requested, I brought you some knives.” Zahra carefully took out a cylindrical leather package, which she then rolled out to show off the handles of seven different knives, each sticking out of its own little pocket.

  Rylan’s eyes immediately went wide. “Is that your dad’s personal knife roll?!”

  “I didn’t have time to actually make it wearable for you,” Zahra said apologetically. “But I’ve included some leather straps here, and put a sewing kit in this pocket, so hopefully you-you can...”

  She sniffed, taking a moment to take a deep breath as she wiped at the corner of her eye.

  “Thank you,” Rylan said quietly. “For everything.”

  “Don’t talk like that,” Zahra said, shaking her head, a tremble in her voice. “Like we’re never going to see each other again. I can’t stand it.”

  Wordlessly, Rylan crumpled and tossed the paper that had contained the leftovers, and shuffled over to pull her into a hug. Zahra clung to him as sobs started to wreck her body.

  “As soon as I get to a free city, I’ll write you every week,” he murmured into the crook of her neck. “And once I’ve settled my debt, and gotten a little stronger... I’ll visit. Or pay for you to visit me, we’ll see.”

  “I’m going to miss you like crazy,” Zahra sobbed, and Rylan felt his own eyes tearing up as well.

  The door at the top of the stairs opened then, causing them both to tense up. Thankfully, it was only Loukas, who quickly made his way down the stairs, clutching some stuff in his arms.

  Zahra finally let go of Rylan, still sniffling, and smiled warmly at the young guard.

  Loukas grinned at them and quickly placed down a thick bedroll and a small metal device shaped roughly like an hourglass.

  “The bottom twists off into a handy cup like this,” Loukas said with a quick demonstration. “It doesn’t have a huge capacity, but since you’re a fancy Quinthar now, you can charge the cloudmetal with mana from over here, if you want a quick refill.”

  Having finished putting on his leather boots and wool-lined coat, Rylan got up to pull Loukas into a hug as well. “It’s perfect, thank you so much.”

  The young guard stiffened at first, clearly surprised by the affection, then chuckled and hugged back. “You’re welcome, buddy. Just don’t forget about your old pal Loukas when you become a fancy lord or something.”

  Rylan snorted as he drew back. “Couldn’t if I tried. Trust me.”

  “I’ll take that as the compliment it was clearly meant to be,” Loukas replied with a big grin, before his eye fell on the leather that Zahra was carefully rolling back up. “Wait, is that what I think it is?!”

  Zahra glanced up at him, mischief dancing in her still-reddish eyes. “I said I’d get knives, didn’t I?”

  Loukas looked a little sick as she stuffed it back into Rylan’s new backpack. “Oh man, your dad’s going to be so pissed...”

  Zahra shrugged. “I’ll handle him.”

  She beckoned Rylan to kneel down next to her then, and proceeded to show him the rolled-up straps of cloth hanging from the sides and how to use them to tie the bulky bedroll on top.

  He ended up stumbling a bit from the weight as he slung it onto his back. Loukas steadied him, then showed him how to adjust the straps with the buckles.

  Finally, the young guard hesitated for a moment, then took the sheathed dagger off his belt, and held it out for him.

  Rylan started to reach for it, then stopped halfway. “Are you sure? Won’t you get in trouble for this?”

  He shrugged with an easy-going smile. “Maybe. But those knives in your backpack aren’t going to help much if you run into something tonight. Go on, take it.”

  He did, and hooked the sheath over his belt. He wasn’t sure if his Skill would recognise the dagger as a knife, but even if it didn’t, he’d at least have a dagger.

  Finally, there was nothing left to prepare.

  “Well, I guess this is it,” Rylan said. “You should probably both get out of here soon, join the search or whatever. You know, try not to look too conspicuous.”

  “You worry about yourself,” Loukas replied resolutely, putting an arm around Zahra’s, who leaned into the touch appreciatively. “We’ll be fine.”

  “Good luck out there, Rylan,” she said, her voice starting to tremble a bit again. “And be careful.”

  Rylan nodded. “I will. Thank you. Both of you. And... I won’t say goodbye, so how about this instead: until next time.”

  “Until next time,” Zahra agreed, smiling at him.

  “Until next time,” Loukas echoed.

  With that, Rylan took a deep breath, turning around, and walked down into the roiling mist.

  As he turned around one last time to close the hatch behind him, he saw Zahra bury her face into Loukas’s neck, and felt the tears in his own eyes spill forth as well.

  The bulky backpack—and particularly the bedroll on top—made manoeuvring through the tunnels a little more difficult than usual, but at least the fog helped reduce the weight, and navigating towards the exit was as easy as ever.

  All Rylan had to do was move against the flow, and he was no stranger to doing that.

  He reached the heavy outer grate that led into the marina without any trouble, and did his very best to unlock and open it as quietly as he could. Afterwards, he didn’t bother closing it or removing the keys.

  If it were up to him, he’d never need either again.

  Rylan kept his ears and eyes perked as he took his first step out into the thick syrupy fog that filled the marina, but despite this, he still nearly jumped as he heard a most unwelcome sound from beside him.

  “Hello, Rylan,” Soren said, from where he was leaning against the outer wall next to the heavy grate.

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  : Unnatural Laws

  : Unusual Enemies

  : Unimagined Adventures

  : Unchained Potential

  : Untamed Spirit

  : Undivided Worlds

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