“You okay?” Mouse asked from where he sat across Taiga.

  Taiga lifted his arms from over his eyes and looked at him. The carriage shook, and Mouse caught himself on his seat, grimacing and looking back out the window. With another shake, the window’s curtain dislodged from where he held it and fluttered over his face. Mouse spat it from him, smacking the small cloth with the same strength he used against demons.

  The curtain fluttered against the window, defeated. “I’m fine. Just…” Taiga didn’t even know himself. The image of the Guardian Spirit crying haunted him every time he shut his eyes.

  It’d been easier when they rampaged about. At least then, he could internalize it as if he were saving the citizens. But Nefedjukasb only cried to the end. And Taiga’s chest tightened whenever their whimpers echoed through his ears.

  “It’ll just take a while.”

  “I can do the next one.” Mouse’s earlier annoyance was nowhere in sight. Instead his eyes drooped, gazing at Taiga from beneath his curls.

  “No.” Taiga’s decision was resolute. If it affected him this much, he couldn’t imagine the despair Mouse would go through while slaughtering his own family. “It was my choice and my deal with Queen Nolara.”

  Mouse said nothing, watching him for a few minutes before looking back out the window. “I can handle it if it gets to be too much.”

  Taiga cracked a small smile for him. “Sure.”

  The carriage shook, tumbling Mouse into the walkway between their seats. Cursing, he slid back onto the platform. “I fucking hate carriages.”

  “And yet they’re all the rage with the nobility.” Taiga laughed.

  Mouse’s face went pale with another jolt. “I’m going to be sick. I swear I’ll murder everyone if I throw up.”

  Taiga reached into his pack, found a small sack of leaves, and handed a few to Mouse. “Chew on the peppermint leaves. They should help.”

  Mouse stuck one between his lips and closed his eyes for the remainder of the trip.

  When the carriage rocked to a halt, Taiga unlatched the door and stepped out. Mouse barrelled down after him, nearly knocking Taiga off his feet when he pushed past. Mouse dropped to his hands and knees. “Solid ground, I missed you.”

  “Come on,” Taiga laughed, pulling his partner up and brushing dirt from his pants.

  “Is Captain Farren rich?”

  Taiga turned to follow Mouse’s gaze towards a large manor with quite the lawn and garden fenced in. “He is of aristocratic descent. An Earl, if I recall correctly. But I didn’t realize Winolin had manors like this.”

  The carriage took them to the western part of Winolin, where the wealthy resided. A bell sounded, making both he and Mouse turn to see a church high on a hill in the distance. Taiga only ever saw a few in the past, and the bell rang pleasingly to the ears.

  Mouse, however, looked less satisfied, turning from it. “The fuck is the bell for? I thought we were under attack.”

  Ah. Fair enough, bells weren’t a common occurrence in Pall, and usually reserved for emergencies. Taiga considered explaining that maybe people just liked the sound, but he realized he himself didn’t really know the purpose of the church ringing it. So he let it go.

  An older man in formal wear approached them from the gate. “Lord Farren will see you in the sitting room.”

  “The fuck is a sitting room?” Mouse whispered once the man turned and they began following him.

  “I don’t know. Maybe some custom from abroad?” He’d never heard of it either, and he’d visited many noble homes in the past.

  They followed behind the man through the spacious foyer, down a hall on the first floor and into a large room with sofas and a short, long table nestled between them. The man instructed the two of them to sit before leaving them without a word.

  On the table sat a platter of sweets which Mouse immediately went for. He took the whole plate into his hands and shoveled several into his mouth. By the time the door opened and the older man returned, Mouse had finished off half the plate. The older man looked at Mouse with such a look of disdain that Taiga readied himself for a fight.

  But none ever came and shortly after, Captain Farren walked through the door. “Sirs Taiga and Mouse, glad to see you are well.”

  Without even a hint of sincerity in his words, he sat across from them. His eyes glanced over the half-devoured plate before eyeing Mouse. “While those are intended for guests, it’s good etiquette not to eat them.”

  “Oh. Well, they’re not at all good tasting. Must be why.” Mouse snipped back, licking the corner of his mouth with great enjoyment. “Decor crap.”

  The edges of Captain Farren’s mouth twitched into a smile. “A pleasure to see you, as always.” Then, he turned towards Taiga. “I apologize for the short notice, I’ve been summoned to Pall now that the investigation is closed.”

  “You’ve finished looking into the Bearthatch incident?” Taiga slid a hand over Mouse’s knee to keep him from doing anything in retaliation for Captain Farren’s comment.

  The captain nodded. “And into Winolin’s attempted breach.”

  “Did you find anything?” Mouse spoke up, his temper simmered for the time being.

  Captain Farren stared at Mouse for a long moment, said nothing, then turned to Taiga. “Onto the reason I summoned you here.”

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  So, he decided to ignore Mouse entirely.

  Taiga could feel Mouse tensing beneath his fingers, and Taiga gave his knee a squeeze to keep him in check. “We haven’t caused any more issues.”

  “Oh, please,” Captain Farren laughed, “finding demons inside Winolin’s city limits doesn’t count? Or perhaps your inquiries into Blackcap Mountain? Or legalizing two Monx fugitives that escaped custody which, if I recall, you captured in the first place?”

  Okay, so maybe they hadn’t gone completely under the radar.

  “Well, if you know all that already, I suppose we can skip the formalities and dancing around the subject.” Taiga sighed, leaning into the sofa. Exactly who ratted them out? Who worked for Farren that they crossed paths with in their everyday lives? All three of those incidents involved Jule and Ellio.

  Logically, they could’ve been spies of his, though Taiga found it unlikely, as their cause went directly against Farren’s. Preaching about a magical imbalance spread the exact information Farren seemed ordered to keep under wraps.

  “Do you plan to arrest them, then? Jule and Ellio?”

  Farren shook his head. “No. I didn’t catch wind of it until you already legalized them with those forged passbooks. I saw their licenses. It’ll cause more problems than it's worth to extract them. And it may risk exposing you both.”

  Well, at least they had one thing work out for them. But that did verify Farren was keeping tabs on them, even if they weren’t constant reports. As frustrating as that was, Taiga couldn’t do anything about it. He considered bringing it up, but Mouse would likely wreak havoc if he found out. So he let the obvious go, for now, since Farren allowed Jule and Ellio to pass beneath his watch.

  “Since we’re here, I want to ask,” Taiga cleared his throat, “what is the purpose of blocking information about the demon rises from flowing through Lanria? What is your plan to deal with the magical imbalance?”

  “So you’re aware of the imbalance.” Farren nodded to the question slowly, weighing his words in his mind before speaking. The older man appeared and placed down a poured cup of tea for Farren. He placed two empty cups for Mouse and he as well as a teapot before leaving.

  Farren waved for Taiga to pour himself tea, which he did. He slid a cup to Mouse first, who took it quickly before retreating it from his face. He dabbed a finger to his lips and scrunched his face in. “It’s hot.”

  Taiga quieted a laugh before pouring a cup for himself and sipping from it. Farren waited until Taiga set his cup down before continuing. “Let’s make a deal, Sir Taiga. I want to know what your mission is from the queen, as well as your future plans.”

  “Queen Nolara refused to tell you?”

  Farren’s smile faltered for only an instant, “that would take asking her, Sir Taiga, which I did not.”

  Because he knows she won’t.

  “Fine, then.” Taiga folded his arms over his chest. “The mission the queen gave us was to kill the Guardian Spirits of Lanria, who are corrupting due to an unknown illness.”

  A vein showed in Farren’s neck for a moment, his eyes studying Taiga for any lies. Then, he blinked away and stared out the window as if Taiga had asked about the weather. “I don’t think you’d lie about something so important. So I’ll take it as truth.”

  Farren’s eyes flicked to Mouse before returning to Taiga. “So your absence noted by the mercenaries in Bearthatch…?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded, breathing in deeply. “You’ve been… following her orders?”

  What a way to ask if they’ve actually been massacring the most precious beings in the world. “I made a deal with her. We’ll kill any Guardian that fully corrupts. In exchange, she’s allowing us to find a cure and save any we can.”

  Farren only nodded again, glancing back out the window. He stared out it for a long moment. Mouse, antsy from behaving, blew on his tea and swished it around in its cup before taking another taste. His furrowed face turned to Taiga. “They didn’t even put honey in it.”

  “Would you like me to ask for honey?” Taiga whispered back. Mouse shook his head, mumbling about how he hated the butler and why couldn’t they have brought it out with the tea.

  “What of your plans for finding the cure?” Farren asked finally, still gazing out the window.

  Taiga tried following his line of sight, but realized a rose bush blocked half the view and Farren stared at nothing of importance. “Not going well. Jule and Ellio established the imbalance of magic, we’ve found two rips,” Taiga watched for Farren’s reaction to the new information, but Farren only half-heartedly nodded. So he knew about those, “and discovered the Guardians are likely losing their base purity and are corrupting from nothing balancing them out. The cause of all this is still unknown.”

  Another long silence. At some point, Mouse had downed the remainder of the sweets from the table, and leaned into the couch, mimicking Taiga’s poor posture. Farren turned back to them, taking another sip of his tea.

  When he swallowed, he lowered his cup back to the table. “We’ve known about the imbalance for close to two decades. Before my time with the Gale Order, mind you. However, it’s been only in the last few years things started to become a problem.”

  This was barely anything they didn’t already know. Taiga almost said so, until Farren continued. “The delay in information was only ever intended to be a temporary measure. The court’s magicians and scholars are working on finding the source and are formulating a plan to correct it. The delay was meant to stem panic and buy time. The queen and magicians considered the risk of panic could leave the land vulnerable to further corruption and cause disorder.”

  Taiga supposed the thought process may have been reasonable. Afterall, he wasn’t in the position to bear responsibility for the livelihoods of every human in Lanria. But as time went on, and no source was found… did their plans not alter?

  “So y’all are doing nothing while some magicians in the capital twiddle their thumbs?” Mouse pulled his hands behind his head and stretched upwards. “What a shitty plan.”

  Before Farren’s quickly reddening face imploded, Taiga cut in, “have you spoken to the magicians? Do they have a timeline or any new developments?”

  This seemed to placate Farren momentarily, at the very least, because he returned to his calm demeanor. “Only the queen herself has access to her team of magicians. I’ve never received a word from them. In all honesty, you’ve gathered near as much information as I have. So let me tell you this; there is no way to seal the rips from what I’ve found. Only that a rebalance of the lands should hurry their natural closure. Until then, the queen’s and my goal is to ensure the least amount of casualties.”

  So their venture at trying to close the rips was pointless. Maybe this meant they should focus all their attention towards the Guardian Spirits instead. Farren stood, “I thank you for the information. I will suggest,” he let out a cough, which he cleared his throat for, “you hurry on your mission with the Guardians. It’s unfortunate winter is approaching.”

  The way his eyes glanced towards Mouse paused Taiga. He intended his words towards finding their cure rather than the queen’s orders of killing them. He knew of Taiga and Mouse’s histories. He knew what the Guardians meant to Mouse.

  Maybe… he was not as aligned with the queen’s vision as Taiga thought. Could he take a chance, then? “We plan to march towards Leryn Forest when spring arrives.”

  They would need to find a cure by then. No matter what.

  Farren blinked at Taiga, his face otherwise expressionless. “I do hope you find what you’re looking for, Sir Taiga. And…” he took a last glance out the window before turning towards the door, “I would not be adverse to helping you achieve it. This is a personal offer, not one of the Order. You understand?”

  Captain Farren of the Gale Order, offering help? It exceeded Taiga’s expectations. He wondered then, what else did Farren know that Taiga and Mouse didn’t? Was something happening in the capital that earned Farren’s caution?

  “I do.” Taiga bowed to him, dragging Mouse to do so behind him. Farren acknowledged it before opening the door and leaving.