Seris would be proud.
"Renan." Koshin doesn't look at him. "Preparations."
"Yup." Renan stands, and his eyes meet mine. "Try not to do anything stupid while I'm gone."
"That's rich, coming from you."
His smirk turns into a wide, pleasing grin. Then he's gone, and it's just us.
Koshin doesn't move.
I wait. My body is screaming for sleep. My brain is screaming louder.
"Come with me."
He doesn't wait for an answer. Just walks out of the Hollow.
We don't speak on the way back. Through the corridors, up the stairs, past random runners and elites. The familiar route to his chambers—our chambers, I guess, though that still feels wrong to think.
The door closes behind us. I expect him to say something. Explain. Instead he crosses to the far wall—the one I've looked at a hundred times, bare stone, nothing special—and presses his palm flat against it.
A seam appears. Stone sliding back into stone, revealing a narrow doorway I never knew existed.
Of course. Of course there's a secret passage in the bedroom. Of course I've been sleeping ten feet from a hidden door for days and never noticed. This is Discord. Everything is secrets wrapped in lies wrapped in more secrets.
He looks at me. Waiting.
My legs are tired. My whole body is tired. But I stand anyway, and I follow him into the dark.
The staircase is narrow. Stone steps carved through rock—no railing, just darkness and the sound of our footsteps. Koshin moves ahead, silent, and I focus on not falling and try not to think about where we're going.
The air changes as we climb. Colder. Wind now—faint at first, then stronger—and gray light filtering down from above.
The passage opens.
I stop.
We're above the city. Way above—an alcove carved into the cliffside, raw stone, open sky, Discord territory spread out below. Wind hits my face and I can see for miles. Smoke from the fires. Distant House territories rising against the horizon.
Nothing here but stone. Bare walls, bare floor. No furniture, no comfort. Just rock and sky and deliberate silence.
Koshin crosses to the far wall and pulls the blade from his back—the one he always carries, the one I've seen strapped to him since the first day. Jagged. Pale—white, almost. The shape is wrong somehow. Not metal.
He sets it against the stone. Careful. Almost gentle.
My gut tightens. The blade matters. I can feel it matters. I just don't know why yet.
Koshin walks to the edge and sits, legs hanging over nothing, the city a fatal drop below him, his eyes fixed somewhere I can't follow.
I stay where I am. Looking at the blade.
"I've never brought anyone here." His voice is quiet. Wind almost takes it. "Renan knows the door exists. He's never been inside."
I don't have words for that.
So I say nothing. Just stand there, trying to make sense of why I'm here and failing.
"What you did tonight." He still hasn't turned. "In the square. No one does that."
