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‘It’s a shithole,’ Torj finished for him. ‘And we have no Guild Master. Our resources are limited.’

‘Then let’s talk about the Guild Master,’ Esyllt said, turning to Thea, determination blazing in his eyes in a way that made the hair on her nape stand up.

‘What?’ she blurted.

‘It’s yours,’ Esyllt said. ‘The Guild Master title.’

Thea couldn’t help herself; she laughed. ‘You’re joking?’

‘I wasn’t, no…’ Esyllt replied, frowning.

‘All I ever wanted was to be a Warsword. Not a princess, not a Guild Master: a Warsword.’

Esyllt blinked at her as though she’d just spoken in the ancient tongue of the Furies.

‘There is a person far more suited to such a role,’ she countered, swinging her gaze to Audra. ‘You, Audra. I can think of no one better. Take Thezmarr. You and the women it belonged to long ago. Take it back and make it your own.’

Something sparked in the librarian’s eyes. ‘Oh?’

‘Forget the part about it being a shithole,’ Thea forged on. ‘Rebuild it. Forge it into what it was meant to be. The next world is what we make it, right?’ She echoed Audra’s own words back to her.

The corner of Audra’s mouth twitched as she turned her attention to the other Warswords. ‘And no one would have an issue with this?’

Wilder and Torj both shook their heads, while Vernich snorted. ‘I’m retiring. Do whatever the fuck you want.’

Thea grinned at her former warden. ‘Congratulations, Guild Master.’

Audra didn’t quite return her grin, but the glint in her eye said just as much.

‘What of our prisoner?’ Adrienne asked, refocusing them on the task at hand, ever the general. ‘What is to become of the former Guild Master?’

‘Death,’ Thea replied. ‘We agreed that for his crimes, he is to be sentenced to death.’

They had laboured long and hard over that decision, debating as to how it reflected the new world they wanted to create. But in the end, it was the only justice for someone of his station who’d sold them out to monsters, who’d assisted Artos in framing a child for the evils that cursed Thezmarr long ago.

‘Where is he now?’ Wren asked.

‘He’s being held in one of the old alchemy workshops, guarded by several of Audra’s best warriors,’ Esyllt said.

Wren nodded. ‘Good.’

Audra cleared her throat, looking to the Warswords and Adrienne. ‘What news of the Veil? What consequences have arisen in the wake of its fall?’

‘None,’ Wilder said at Thea’s side. ‘By all accounts so far, it was not the barrier of protection we were told it was. It doesn’t – nor did it ever – harness a world of darkness beyond… But you already know that.’

‘Many suspected,’ Audra admitted. ‘A secret kept for millennia, its origins unknown. I always knew there were realms and kingdoms beyond it.’

‘That’s where your warriors were all this time?’ Thea asked.

Audra looked amused. ‘That’s not my tale to tell.’

‘What happens now that the Veil is no more?’ Cal asked. ‘Do we send scouts?’

‘We might have to,’ Esyllt replied. ‘While we destroyed a great many wraiths and reapers, a handful escaped. They’re our responsibility to hunt down, before they wreak this kind of horror on another realm.’

Thea’s gaze flicked to Wilder. The hint of his dimple showed beneath his beard, but his eyes were trained on Esyllt.

The weapons master brought his hands together on top of the table. ‘Now, onto the matter of —’