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Aviaryn stood several paces away, entirely unbothered, her arms crossed, her dark hair loose around her shoulders. Beside her stood the strangest creature I had ever seen. Three heads. All watching me.

"You were taking too long," she said.

She took me below through an entrance I had not found before, deeper than the tunnels I knew. The ceiling was too high to see. The air tasted of minerals and old water and something alive underneath it all.

"Umbrelai," Aviaryn said. Not to me. Just naming it as we walked through it.

I looked around. The name sat somewhere familiar in my memory and I could not place it.

The three-headed creature moved ahead of us. Aviaryn glanced at it. "Flag," she said.

Flag. All three of his heads turned briefly.

I had heard that name before, though I could not remember where.

I was aware of Colsar somewhere above me. I felt the weight of knowing he was there, separated by distance and a ward I could not currently reach. Teorin would already be suspicious. I could not stay long.

Aviaryn produced a small glass and held it out without comment.

I looked at it. Dark. Too dark for water.

"Is this⁠—"

"Yes," she said, with the tone of someone who had answered that before.

Blood. I drank it anyway. She watched me with the expression of someone waiting for a reaction she believed she had earned.

"Well?" she said.

"Thank you," I said. "For saving my life."

She received this as adequate.

"What were those creatures?"

"Slykars," she said. "Demon creatures of the sea. They have always been in Morrath. More frequently lately. They can be dangerous. They once ate a Morrak."

"They can smell the human in you," Flag said.

"They used to call them Siren's pets," he said.

"Why?"

"Because they do to humans exactly what Sirens do. Drain them of their magic. Their essence. Their lifeforce. Until nothing remains."

"Sirens can do that?"

"Of course," he said. "It is part of their biology."

I was still thinking about this.

Dali couldn’t be doing that to Teorin, I reassured myself. Maridale would stop her.

"Do you not wish to repay me?" Aviaryn said. Very still. Very pointed.

"What would repayment look like?"

She reached beside her and produced a thin book and held it out.