“What?” Nocren started forward, unease twisting in his gut. “What is it?”
Froley put their hand out to placate him. To Eren, they said, “Tell him. You owe it to?—”
“What do I owe a Sentinel?” Eren snapped.
“You owe it to all of us if what you’ve said is true.” It was Zhenya who spoke up, with a fierceness Nocren hadn’t known she possessed.
Froley thumped Eren on the back. “We’ve already made our bargain, and I’ll honor it. Now talk.”
Nocren looked back and forth between them, fighting the urge to grab the other man by the collar and shake until answers fell out.
Several seconds passed where Eren didn’t speak. He simply stared down at the table, at his hands, as if seeing beyond their emptiness.
“Your researchers. The wards the Helm girl is looking for. Matthias. All of it,” he said at last. “It was us. But they said they had it under control!” He looked up, a feverish gleam in his eyes as he searched Nocren’s face. “It was. We were so close to finding a cure. We would’ve, if we’d just had more time. If Song hadn’t gotten herself caught. Left us with Avenor. He had to run his fucking mouth…”
“What are you talking about?” Nocren asked.
Eren ran a hand through his hair, making the thin strands clump. “We were so close. I was going to save Rhell, you have to believe that. To hell with Avenor and the Coalition. I did it for my kingdom. I would’ve…”
“You’re talking about the Eyllic poison.” When Eren didn’t answer, Nocren grabbed his shoulder. “Hey. The researchers from Sylveren. They’re alive?”
He nodded absently. “Alive. Working on our experiment. Containing it.”
“You’re certain?” Zhenya asked, in a way that suggested he’d made such assertions before but she still needed to hear the words.
“Yes,” he hissed. “For now, I am certain.”
“The poison,” Nocren said, revulsion rising. “Here?”
“It’s… complicated. But I’m not lying—it is contained.”
“For now,” Zhenya said bitterly.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Nocren snarled. “A fucking Rhellian. You should know?—”
“What does a Sentinel of the Valley know of Rhell?” Eren was on his feet, rage making splotches of color bloom on his pale face. “Your home is safe! Your people aren’t living—dying—under a curse. Years of this and no end in sight! I don’t care what paltry steps the Restorers of the Alliance claim to have made. A victory means nothing if it does nothing to change what the war has wrought.”
Nocren got a vague sense he was witnessing a man on the verge of a breakdown. He raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Just tell me where to find them.”
“West of the site you’ve already found. Toward the mountains.” Eren hung his head. “Go. Don’t go. You will make no difference. It’s going to run its course. You can’t stop it, only pick up the pieces once it’s done.”
A series of taps sounded against the door. Froley peered out the window. “Your boat’s here, mage. They won’t wait.”
Eren picked up his bag, then faced the others. “Song had her reasons. I have mine. But with Avenor’s incompetence...” The fight drained out of him. Only a tired, defeated shell of a man remained. “I thought I could save Rhell. I failed.”
He left without a backward glance. Nocren turned to Froley, gesturing incredulously after the Rhellian. They only shook their head, closing the door once more and leading Nocren and Zhenya into the bakery’s empty front room.
“Does he go to face judgment from his king?” Nocren demanded.
“I’m sure he will one day.” Froley dug through one of the upper shelves and pulled down three glasses and a bottle of clear liquid. “Our deal was that he send word to Rhell. Ensure that we’re freed from the Coalition’s chokehold.”
“He swore with blood that whatever is wrong here, it’s not the same as the poison in Rhell,” Zhenya said, raising anguished eyes to Nocren. “We have to believe that.”
Believing something and it being the truth, those weren’t always the same. But Nocren didn’t have the heart to give the young woman more anxiety. What else could they do?
He watched Eren through the window until the mage was swallowed by the night. “He commits treason and gets away with it. You agreed to that?”
“Lesser of two evils.” Froley shrugged. “We have to live differently out here, Sentinel. And we’ll be here long after you’ve gone back home.” They poured liquid into the glasses and held one out to Nocren. “I don’t know where he’ll end up, but he doesn’t get to go back home.”
