The m, my head felt much better.

  At least by now, it felt like a mere needle plumbing in the depths of my grey matter to cause me pain. Still an agonizing feeling, but less than the chisel that had been attempting to split it in twain the day before.

  I kept the curtains drawn, though. Light still hurt my eyes, and eveern I was currently using was only tolerable whe outside of my view. Hopefully, this would fade as fast as the pain in my head. My errant thought about just permaly adjusting them to see in the dark shouldn’t e true because darkness was all I could tolerate.

  Meanwhile, the pain in my head fading had brought something else back with it.

  You are certain that is all that was said between you three? The Imp questioned me once again.

  “For the fifth time, yes,” I replied irritably.

  I sighed as I put on the bodice of the pin brown dress I’d picked out for the day. Tagashin had at least left me other clothes aricted her prank to just dressing me in that frilly er, whiow sat at the very bottom of one of my drawers, hidden under as many other clothes as I could fit in there.

  The Imp chewed on my answer for only a sed less than it had the previous four times before speaking in my mind again.

  You reted it precisely as-

  “Yes!” I snapped as I finished. “Or at least close enough that any differences should not matter!”

  The Imp reawakening in the middle of my quiet supper up here had resulted in both a spilled bowl of soup and its awarehere had been a time where I’d been aware and it had not. It was reag poorly to this idea and had been interrogating me about what had happened during that time, and not taking my answers well.

  Infuriatingly, outside of my willio end my practice of Diabolism, I’d shared all details of my versation with Voltar and Dawes. Unfortunately, the Imp seemed unwilling to believe in the secretiveness of the Empire’s Greatest Detective.

  Voltar simply said he’d have them over for tea and spent the rest of the time discussing tea blends?

  “Yes.”

  Impossible. No one spend two hours discussing tea!

  I rolled my eyes. “People have different is, sometimes they intersed cause discussion. But yes, his refusal to discuss the subject more at the time was infuriating. Although he does have a good reason.”

  He doesn’t trust you, the Imp observed.

  “Of course he doesn’t. He’s returo his home to find one he sidered an enemy weled in without his permission. I’m astonished he’s being this le with me. And besides, the reason was waiting to have someone look at my head, which is much bet-”

  I paused. A door had opened down below, and I could hear the tread of shoes heading towards the attic stairs. Far too loudly, each step eg inside my head.

  “pany,” I muttered. “Do me a favor ahe entary to a minimum for now?”

  The Imp did not respond, which I would take as assent. There olite knock at the door.

  “I’m det,” I said. I was sitting on the side of the bed, standing up felt too unbang fht now.

  The door opened, and Voltar came in, followed by a -shaven dwarf with a monocle lugging a suitcase almost as rge as he was.

  “Too dark,” the dwarf said irritably, moving over to the window.

  Before I could even articute a protest, he threw my curtains open and my world was nothing but pain and blinding light as I tried to find the safety of my covers.

  “Halivik,” Voltar said chidingly. “I told you she likely has a cussion and you just open the curtains?”

  “’t work in no light,” the Dwarf grumbled. “Apologies though. Gonna try to make this better. Assuming your brai melt.”

  “Oh,” I said from underh what felt like my covers. “That sounds wonderful! What are you going to do to me?”

  “Attach a device. See art of the brain is most affected? Maybe tinker around and see if I alleviate some symptoms.”

  “Tinker around,” I repeated. “With my brain. I’m going to say no to that!”

  “He’s used it before, Miss Harrow,” Voltar told me. “The i described was years before now, and involved someone who was ver-”

  “No,” I said firmly. “You see what the extent of the injury is. You are not messing around with it.”

  After a few more attempts to e, I was back to sitting on the edge of the bed while Halivik attached something that weighed far too muto my head. It fit awkwardly around my horns, the sounds of moving gears far too loud. Mumbling the eime about how cellur degeion rates from the mae weren’t too high, which did wonders for my fidence.

  My eyes slowly adjusted to the light, and while they still watered, by the time he was done I could at least see.

  “Dr. Dawes was corre diagnosing coup-tercoup injuries,” Halivik said as he began unstrapping the device from my head. “She should recover over time. Nothing strenuous physically. Lots of bed rest. Unless she will let me adjust brain-”

  “No,” I repeated as he put the device ba the suitcase, it resembling some nightmarish mixture of knight’s helm and torture device.

  “Your loss. Call anytime, Mr. Voltar, as long as the money is good.”

  “Bit of an odd bird,” I said a mier the dwarf had left.

  Voltar chuckled. “Think of what some of my associates say about you.”

  Oh. True. But, since Mr. Voltar was already here and seemingly in a mood to talk, time to ge the subject.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Mr. Voltar, you mentioned getting both Lord Montague and Lady Karsin over for tea? I’ll admit to being at a loss on how you mean to aplish this.”

  Lord Montague had already tired of Voltar, ashin as Voltar, well before he probably assumed trol of the Shape-gers. His desire to avoid Voltar would have only increased sihen. Lady Karsin would be even less likely.

  “A good question Miss Harrow. Let me ask you, how would you aplish this?”

  I frowned, hused by having my question flipped on me. A test? Curse that Kitsune for making me pay for a random ent of hers.

  “I’m going to assume that threatening them or a loved o gunpoint would not be ideal,” I said.

  “Definitely not. Please, even i, suotions are impolite to suggest.”

  I resisted the urge to snort. I had read several of the publicized ats from Dawes of Voltar’s cases. Impolite to suggest too openly, maybe.

  “When trying to entice people hostile to you, you arm the trap with something worth the risk,” I said. “Cheese for rats, but I imagine when sg the cept to nobles, a very different cheese is required. Perhaps one of those fanes from Aarineau?”

  “People,” Voltar corrected. “Nobles are ultimately people, with as wide of an array of thoughts and viewpoints. They certainly have one’s uo their social grouping, but no different from any other. But you are on the right track. What do they want that we have to offer?”

  “Our lives,” I said. “We are some of the few people who are actively looking into this. Taking us off the board rids them of the threat we offer. So we should probably expect shape-gers in their pce. Well, a different one from Lady Karsin for her.”

  “They won’t try to kill us,” Voltar replied. “Even if they were fident in our abilities to do so, there are much better times to try as such, and doing so would easily give away their plicity. Although Lord Montague already pys with fire by n to cut himself out of this game. Enough evidence has bee around of his plicity that even if he betrayed the shape-gers in such a way that made it appear he had no dealing with them, eyes will be on him for years, potentially decades, to follow.”

  “That still leaves us with the issue of having nothing to bait our trap with,” I said. “Unless you somehow have gotten Tarry’s notes from the archives.”

  Voltar chuckled. “Oh, I think my head would be sooio pike if I did anything like that. But we have something to pique their i. Alice Skall.”

  My lips pursed together, a protest about how we did not oip of my tongue, but I forced myself to think.

  “You wouldn’t wao sculpt myself into her,” I mused. “Or Katheryn Fara. They already suspect me of being her, assuming the younger Montagues kept it to themselves. Tagashin then?”

  “Tagashin,” Voltar firmed. “I wish to rattle their fidence. Having what they believe to be truth proven false should do nicely.”

  “I’ve ‘died’ at least once so far, and whoever tipped them off about Malstein’s raid probably told them I went with him,” I tered. “They probably guess we have someoh the ability to ge shapes w alongside us.”

  “Yes,” Voltar said. “They have to wonder who that might be, though.”

  Ah. One piece fell into pce.

  “You mean to make them think Hawkins has turned on them?”

  “Yes, or at least expand on a thought that must already have occurred to one of them,” Voltar firmed. “I expect their minds will fill in what the worse possible results of that might be. And they’ll act accly.”

  “Ah, so you mean to use my trap as well?” I said. “How relevant do you sider the bait, though?”

  Voltar paused, thinking for a few seds.

  “It’s perhaps not the greatest pie their pn, but it’s enough I think they’ll move on it. And it is a more violent trap than I would wish, but it’ll do. Shape-gers might be tricky to subdue. With Hawkins, you ma, but not any others.”

  I scowled. “I didn’t have as much choice as the others. But essentially, even a core of magic has its limits. They ot store power, or manipute its output, just simply gee it. The cores will vary in the amount, always within a certain ra ultimately limited. The shape gers themselves store some, but it would be ineffit and limited. In Hawkins’ case, I exhausted his reserves and the amount of life energy his ceed, f it to save some minimal power for keeping him alive aing him from the ruined shell. With the other two, I sent diabolic magic desigo degrade life into the cores themselves. With Hawkins I cut his tendons, with the other two I stabbed their hearts.”

  “How difficult it is to cut tendons then?” Voltar said. “I’d prefer them alive instead of dead. We need more than the one alive.”

  I frowned. “We have Hawkins. We have what I’d argue to be very good suspects for the masterminds behind this. Holy, while I uand being cautious because they are nobility, I’d argue we’ve fihe culprits well.”

  Vrimaced. “One ever be certain, Miss Harrow. But besides that, we need exaumbers on the shape-gers iy. Even one unated for could be disastrous ter on.”

  True enough.

  “I’m assuming you’ll wahere as well?” I asked. “As evidehat I am not Katheryn Fara?”

  “Yes, but there’s something else that o be addressed first,” Voltar said, retrieving a letter from within his coat and passing it to me. “This arrived for you while you were unscious. I didn’t mention it yesterday because you seemed in quite the state already.”

  Frowning, I undid the seal and started reading. Halfway through, my blood felt like it was boiling, and by the end, it had cooled. Infuriating, but empty, threats. Phrased just the right way to make me feel an impotent anger I didn’t o experienymore.

  I stared at the paper, eyeing the tents before looking at Voltar.

  “You wao hahis now?” I asked. “I thought things were frozen regarding this.”

  “Frozen, yes, but unresolved. And unresolved matters have a case of ing back when they are least wanted.”

  I sighed. I couldn’t deny that. And putting if off even longer would only result in this versation being more difficult, not less. Mind you, I wao be in a better state for it, a light pounding still hammered at the foundations of my mind.

  It was still a meeting I did not want to have. But sometimes wants met with reality and cshed. It was time to go see mother soon, anyway.

  ***

  It was weird revisiting the hospital. People I knew ag like I was a strahe underlying fear and ahat had been there for Katheryn as well, but not to this extent. Was it because they’d growo Katheryn, or that the news about her being a secret diabolist had spread so far? They would know I was her associate, she’d been my appoio chey mother.

  My mother y in her bed, as unresponsive as she’d been these st eight years. I’d gripped her hand, the warmth the only sign besides the slight movement of her chest I was o a living human and not a corpse.

  I noticed wheered the room, moving to the other side of the bed. I ignored him till he’d sat down, the chair creaking under his weight. I gnced up.

  His face was drawn in a tight scowl. Oh, he was angry. Good, at least I had inspired some rea from him besides paternalisti and scolding.

  He seemed to wait for me to speak first. I was tempted to just wait and see if that cooled his anger, but it might stoke those fires instead.

  Besides, I’d been putting this off for years now.

  “Hello, Uncle Liu.”

  Saithorthepyro