“Given how trigger-happy she is, she’d likely reduce me to ash andthenask questions,” Terrano snapped.
“IfKaylinsays something Shadow-like succeeded in penetrating your defenses, what happened to it? Kaylin?”
Ugh. One of these days she was going to learn toshut up. “It turned into a ball.”
“Pardon?”
“Hope breathed on the wisps of Shadows that exited Terrano’s wound. The blend of Hope’s breath and those wisps became a sphere.” On the other hand, sometimes the truth was just going to upset people.
“Where is that sphere?”
Hope squawked.
“Pardon?”
“It disappeared when we managed to get back to our normal reality. I’d been carrying it in one hand—it wasn’t heavy—but it wasn’t there when Mandoran pulled me out.”
“You didn’t drop it?”
“I’d bet money against. But it wasn’t in my hand when I got back to the border zone.” Kaylin grimaced. “I was worried that somehow I’d absorbed it.”
Squawk.
“But none of the sentient buildings—and their many defenses—sensed anything wrong at all. I didn’t lose or surrender any of the Marks of the Chosen. I didn’t have to let Hope bite my arm off. It just... wasn’t there when I got out.”
Bellusdeo turned to Mandoran. “Did you see what happened?”
“I was kind of busy.”
“You knew that it was something formed of Shadow and familiar’s breath, and you weretoo busyto pay attention?”
“I was more concerned with leaving—with Kaylin—than I was with whatever she had in her hand. Terrano had been injured—possibly mortally injured—while standing in that plane, and to heal him, Kaylin had to be able to touch him. I wanted her to do just enough that we could pull out without becoming two more casualties.”
“Wasanyof your cohort paying attention to Kaylin and what she carried?”
“Serralyn, maybe? We were worried about Terrano. Sedarias wasveryworried. It took me longer to get to where Terrano was standing than most other planes—and Serralyn was offering what advice she could. She’s not so good at making transitions, but she’s aware of the... she calls it the structure of the space or spaces.”
There was a longer pause from Bellusdeo, and when she next spoke, she was Logia again. “Apologies,” she said. “Bellusdeo is—for obvious reasons—very sensitive to any mention of Shadow. Shadow evolves. Its method of attack evolves. Things that seemed harmless to us became deadly poison in an instant. But we didn’thavesentient buildings. We had the Norranir and their ancient customs, their drumming, their ability to sense approaching and encroaching Shadow—but it’s not the same.
“Bellusdeo is a bit calmer, now. She’s usually a good tactician, but, well.” Logia’s shrug was not a fief shrug. “We often tried to be the voice of reason in the past, but we all died. And even if we’re with her now, our deaths drove her while our world still existed. If Helen thinks you’re safe—and thinks she’s safe—Bellusdeo will live with the risk.
“But I don’t believe you dropped that sphere.”
“Neither does Bellusdeo,” Mandoran replied, although Logia had been speaking to Kaylin.
“She says you’re perceptive only when it’s inconvenient.”
Mandoran nodded. “I hear that a lot.”
“I have so, so many questions. Most of them involve theplanes that Terrano can naturally visit. But you have things you have to discuss. Helen?”
“Yes, Logia?”
“Can I visit again when things are a bit calmer?”
“Of course. Bellusdeo lived with me for a short time, but she was one of my guests, and as I told her when she left to take up residence in her Tower, she will always be welcome here.”
Technically, Kaylin’s permission was required. But that was a polite fiction.