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I bristle. “What does it matter where I’ve been?”

“You’re a human,” he says, as if that explains anything. “They’re Underlings.”

“And we are allies in a century-old peace treaty.”

Castor’s eyes change again with something heavier. “Were. That treaty was broken the moment they took you!” His jaw clenches. “I should have never let you walk back to the Watch by yourself that night.”

“Castor…” I start, but my words catch, no longer able to be spoken, piercing me with their disappearance, a wound deeper than layers of skin and bone. That night flashes before my eyes. Winning the Summit, dancing at Anita’s, walking back to the Watch… the ghosthounds I noticed first, then nothing. A blindfold over my eyes, taking away my vision before Ragnar’s voice. A traitor that became something other than that in the dungeons.

My chest tightens.

Castor comes around the desk and kneels at my feet, grabbing my arm. “I’m sorry.”

I nod, my vision blurring.

“You can’t go back there.”

I pull my hand away. “Terraguard is different from the Jord, and you know it.”

His dark brows furrow for a minute, then release. “Alright.”

“Alright?”

“I believe you, Akemi.”

“Th-thank you.” My chest expands with air, tingling as I gulp it down. The tension eases from my shoulders.

Castor pours a glass of water and sits with me, giving me time to settle from my panic. His hands are folded in his lap—an understanding in the silence, like he feels my pain. Knows it, even.

Eventually, once I’ve assured him that I’m okay, Castor returns to our earlier topic. “Do you have any idea where the moon stone could be? Perhaps another session with the stars will help?”

I sigh. “Probably.”

“What about the other stones?”

“Oh you mean, this one?” I place the Helios Blessing onto the desk from its spot in my deerskin sheath I used for my throwing stars last year, not chancing using the banned weapon again on campus without the excuse of the Summit.

Castor picks up the small golden stone. “The sun stone, I presume?”

“The one and only.” Even from here, the room seems to tilt on its axis to the small stone in Castor’s palm, tugging energy inward into its tiny yet powerful form.

He passes it back to me, and I tuck it again in its sheath. The strange power thumps like a second warm heartbeat I’ve gotten used to carrying. “Esther and I are working together to find all of the necessary spells in the library. Turns out there is a lot of material around the three ancient relics, but they’re never mentioned together.”

“And what of the third stone?” Castor asks hesitantly, almost expecting more bad news.

I tuck away flashes of the Jord’s dungeons into the deep recesses of my mind once more. Every time I think of that fucking star stone, it’s accompanied with pain. “I know where it is.”

“That’s great!” he flips through a few parcels of paper until finding a clean one, his pen at the ready. “Let’s prepare our plans at once.”

“It’s in the Cave of Silence.”

Castor’s expression falters. The mythical cave from Tellings has been passed down for generations, the story changing ever so slightly every time you hear it.

“I know what you’re thinking.” I bite the inside of my cheek. “The stars have given me visions. I’m confident I know where it is.”

“Then let’s go—”

“We can’t.”