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“Perhaps it doesn’t breathe fire like in the stories.”

She raised a brow at him. Like they had such luck.

He shrugged. “What of the duchess? Will she send aid to the border?”

“No. We’re on our own,” Iryana said bitterly.

He cursed. “I’m not too surprised, though. And the conclave?”

“They’ve started experiments with dual-forgings, and they’ve discovered there’s an order to what magic can follow others, but no real successes yet.”

“That sounds… sacrificial.”

“They do what they want.”

“I do have one update.” Pyetar looked away from her. “I think we’ve discovered the temple Karvek was forged in.”

“Really?” Hope surged through her. If they had discovered that much, maybe they would know how he survived it.

“Don’t get too excited. We don’t know exactly where it is, but we have records that others have been forged there. The well is noted by a symbol but the names are numbers. We’re cross-referencing with the regular records. We’ve identified one person so far, but they were lost a couple of years ago. His friends said his forgings were definitely normal though. So this well can do normal forgings as well.”

Or perhaps the well is normal and Karvek was just strong enough to figure out the double-forging. Unlike her.

“Do we have enough information to go look for it?” She had hoped the temple would bring more answers.

He hesitated. “Perhaps. It shouldn’t be far. But it would require crossing through areas the largest packs of dakii frequent. It’s too dangerous just to go look around.”

“Alright.” Iryana stood, pushing away from the edge of the wall to face Pyetar. “I have another reason for visiting. I can feel Thelbiz summoning me through the mark. I think he wants to talk.”

His gaze locked onto her. “You’re going to seek him out? Do you think that’s wise?”

“I think there’s a chance something good could come out of this. And I can’t turn my back on that.”

Pyetar straightened, conflicted. “I have so much to do here to make sure the 18th is ready. They’re counting on me. But I can pull some other soldiers to accompany you—”

“No, I don’t want to risk angering the gods. Thelbiz seemed to think Voordiza wanted him to meet with us. That’s probably the only reason he tolerated our presence. Do you remember how easily he could have killed us? No, I’m not risking bringing anyone else into that.”

“Can your clan really spare you?”

“Only the First knows he’s summoned me, but the conclave and the duchess tasked me with finding Thelbiz again, too. I was going to ignore it until this.”

“For what reason did they task you with hunting down a god?” Pyetar grumbled. “He’s not a lost dog.”

“To beg him to stop the war, to explain it to us at least. To offer a place at Lake Vrasho and his choice of champions. To see if there’s anything we can do.”

“Shouldn’t they be going themselves?”

Iryana scoffed. “Apparently they think Thelbiz is more likely to allow us to find him again.”

“I’m not at the whims of the duchess or the conclave, they lost that chance more than a decade ago.” Pyetar’s words were hard.

“Regardless, I have to go. We’re blind here. And…” She swallowed. “The conclave can’t help with my magic. The only option they’ve given me will probably kill me. So unless Thelbiz can help…”

Pyetar narrowed his eyes. “What are you saying?”

“This magic will kill me eventually,” she said simply, her gaze dropping to his chest. She knew he’d be mad.

All the color drained from his face. “It’s killing you?” He abruptly took a step closer to her. “You let me take you out into the woods for weeks. You said it was just the arrow forgings that made it so bad. I could have gotten you killed!”