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Thraigg released a confused-sounding grunt. “How’s that now?”

“As soon as we get Elle back, we can refocus on reuniting the crown, and once we have, Aurelia will be freed from the Sanctum.”

Nox lifted a hand to one of their horns, running a long finger down the side. “We shall have to see, won’t we?”

Cedric frowned. “That’s not particularly reassuring. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. We are hinging Elle’s freedom on begging a celestial for help, when they are sworn not to interfere with mortal affairs. It is the very reason for Aurelia’s banishment in the first place.”

Thraigg huffed a low laugh. “All we’ve been through already, and ye really still think there’s not celestial interference happening left and right, boyo?”

Nox continued stroking their horn contemplatively. “Things change over the course of decades, centuries, millennia. I cannot predict how Lord Noctis will react—what he will or will not say, what he may do or fail to do. All we can do is call and hope he will answer. All we can do is speak and hope he will listen.”

“That’s somehow even less reassuring,” muttered Cedric, his fists flexing around the reins in his hands. Curled up in his lap, Sid bristled—the personification of the knight’s irritation.

“Perhaps celestials are more fallible than we have all been taught to believe,” Nox said. “Perhaps after hundreds of years, boredom and restlessness might move one to interfere. To send someone to keep an eye on things.”

“Perhaps . . . ?” Cedric echoed, an unspoken question lingering in the silence that followed.

“Perhaps.”

“An eye on things?” Thraigg’s bushy eyebrows had shot halfway up his forehead. “Or an eye on someone in particular?”

The path continued to narrow, to the point that the horses could no longer traverse side by side. Nox snapped Vespyr’s reins, urging her forward. “Are the two things mutually exclusive?” they called over their shoulder.

“Quartered hell, Nox. Will you speak plainly, please?” Cedric sucked in, then blew out, a sharp breath. “I am generally accepting of the fact that you seem to want to maintain your mystique and thus prefer speaking in riddles and non-answers. Except I’m about sixteen seconds away from losing every ounce of my remaining sanity, something that has been in short supply since⁠—”

He cut himself off so quickly, Nox wondered if saying the words aloud caused the knight physical pain. They heard what was left unspoken anyway. Since I lost her. Since she was taken. Since half my heart was severed from my body, and I was left to slowly bleed out a little more with each passing day.

The quiet meow Sid released sounded a lot like confirmation.

Cedric continued a moment later, his voice rising. “And since I also accept that you somehow seem to know the inner workings of the entire stars-damned world, can we just skip ahead to the part where you educate us properly?”

“Fair point, knightling. Well made.” He’d been through enough, hadn’t he? Nox would take pity on the man.

Besides, they were almost there.

Nox placed a hand on the back of Vespyr’s saddle, shifting their weight so they could turn to address Cedric and Thraigg behind them.

“A very long time ago, I struck an agreement with the Warden of Shadows.” They tried to speak lightly, to keep the words casual, but there was no masking the darkness that seeped into their voice. “A thousand years of servitude.”

Thraigg’s mouth gaped. “A thousand years, Noxie?”

Cedric blinked, shock cutting across the planes of his face. “In exchange for what? What could possibly be worth making that trade?”

Nox shook their head. “That is irrelevant. The point is, I have served Lord Noctis in many ways, over many, many, many years. Emissary. Envoy. Procurator. Proxy. Agent.” They paused. “Assassin.”

Cedric and Thraigg exchanged a look but said nothing.

“When the Dark Warden calls, I answer. Whatever the Lord Noctis needs, I provide. Most recently, that meant embarking on a rather long journey to a seaside city in Nyrundelle . . . in order to keep a watchful eye on the Revenant.”

The knight’s brow furrowed. “That’s why you were in Coralith. How you ended up sharing a cell with Elyria before the Crucible.”

“We hardly shared a cell,” said Nox impatiently. “But yes. Lord Noctis had long kept an interested eye on her. Since the Shattering pulled her from his grasp, kept her from passing into the Hereafter. That made her . . . fascinating . . . to him.”

Cedric’s nostrils flared.

“What piqued his interest further were the flares of dark power he sensed from her every so often. He didn’t think much of it at first. And then, for whatever reason, one day he did. Right around when the signs of the Arcane Crucible’s approach started to appear. And so . . .” Nox made a loose gesture at themself.

“He sent you into the Sanctum,” said Cedric.