The safehouse was nothing more than a cramped apartment above a shuttered tailor's shop, its windows boarded and its wards humming faintly. Zara dropped her bag on the table, muttering curses as she cleaned her dagger.
Nyasha sat opposite her, staring at her hand. The Emberheart's glow had faded, but the echo of fire still pulsed in her veins, restless. She flexed her fingers, remembering the enforcer's eyes clearing for just a moment.
"He was free," she said finally. "For a second, he was himself again."
Zara glanced up. "Until the others dragged him back under. That wasn't loyalty, Nyasha. That was slavery."
Nyasha's jaw tightened. "My father's doing."
Zara shook her head. "No. I've seen his dogs before—greedy, cruel, but human. This? This is something else. Something older."
She dug through her bag and pulled out a leather-bound ledger, flipping it open. Inside were names, symbols, trade routes—Zara's personal collection of smuggler secrets. She tapped one page.
"The Oathstone," she said. "Whispers about it have been floating through the markets for years. A relic from the Old Kingdom. They say it doesn't just bind contracts—it binds souls. Makes men fight, bleed, die without choice."
Nyasha's stomach twisted. "And my father has it?"
"Or it has him." Zara's eyes narrowed. "That's the part no one knows. If he's using it, he's either mad… or he's not the one in control anymore."
Silence fell heavy between them.
Nyasha looked out the cracked window at the glow of the city. Ten years of exile, ten years of hatred, all aimed at one man. And now—now she had to wonder if he was just a pawn.
The Emberheart pulsed against her chest, warm, insistent. A reminder, or a warning.
Zara leaned back, folding her arms. "So. What's the plan? March into the tower tomorrow, tear the Oathstone from his hands, and set the whole damn city on fire?"
Nyasha almost smiled. "Tempting." Then her face hardened. "But no. If the Covenant's real—the people behind this—then they'll expect me to rush in blind. We need information first. Leverage."
Zara raised an eyebrow. "Information, huh? You're starting to sound like a queen, not a soldier."
Nyasha met her gaze, steady. "I didn't come back just to fight him, Zara. I came back to take everything he built. And if there's someone else pulling the strings… I'll burn them too."
The Emberheart flared once, casting firelight across her face, as if in agreement.
And in the silence that followed, Zara's smirk returned. "Damn. I missed this side of you."