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The sound of that voice in my head startles me. Tessa looks at me weirdly, as I listen to words she can’t hear.

It’s Lucius speaking this time. His aura is one of burning rage – yet, it’s ever-so muted. He’s thinking clearly, not blinded by the anger I sensed in him before – the one that’s as bright as the sun.

“They took me to… Oh, sorry.”

I realize I’m speaking out loud. I’m still new to my powers.

Tessa looks at me even more weirdly now – her eyebrows scrunching together as she tries to understand who I’m speaking to.

“One second.” I rub her foot to reassure her – then telepath to my triad:

They took me to the same room as Tessa.

I squeeze shut my eyes and visualize the path the Sentinels marched me down. Just as Ling taught me, I visualize each and every distinctive detail along every step of the path to Tessa’s room.

As I do so, I realize I canfeelLucius, Marcel, and Quint’s general direction – but not enough to pinpoint their exact location. I focus as hard as I can to overcome that, transmitting my location, at least.

The Aurelians answer back in turn. They transmit their own journey through the bowels of this ship, just as I did. Now, piecing together my mental blueprint, I can narrow down their location to within ten feet or so.

Now, I know where they are.

I know, because I’ve been there before: The throne room.

Knowing their location makes me feel closer to my triad, and that fills me with strength. Then, they transmit an image. I canfeelthe sights they see – and I realize they’re standing in front of both the Toad Lords gathered on this ship – two of the ten Fingers of the Toad King.

As he sits on his throne, I see the image of Lord Oblog’s lips moving – lazy and slow. No sound emerges from his lips, or gets transmitted through the Bond, and then the image flitters away even as I try to focus in on it - like how a dream slips more quickly from your memory, the more you try to recall the details of it.

The image I’d been sent hadn’t been crystal clear. It was like an old memory from childhood – one that you remember the feeling of, more than seeing the details in your mind.

“Who are you talking to?”

Tessa’s voice snaps me back to the here-and-now.

“The Aurelians,” I tell her. “We can… I don’t know how to explain it. I cansendthoughts to them. Images.” Then, I step away from the bed. “I’ll be right back.”

I’m focused now, and the more focused I become, the more I feel the need to wash this Toad scum off my legs. I look around and see a barely-defined doorway across the room – which I instantly sense is the bathroom.

As if sensing my eyes upon it, the door opens – and I see a showerhead hanging from the ceiling beyond.

I step forward – but the moment I release her foot, Tessa sits up, eyes wide.

“Don’t take too long.” She looks nervously toward the doorway. “There’s no one to talk to out here, and…” She squeezes shut her eyes. “My thoughts. They keep...”

Then, her frightened eyes snap open.

“Please – just leave the door open, okay?”

There’s no more of her weak smile, or whispered quips – not like when we were in the Aurelians’s chambers. She’s shivering – traumatized. I know that look. It’s the same one I’d seen in the eyes of the slaves I freed, fighting alongside Ling.

That’s how they all looked - some for just a few hours after we’d liberated them, some for days, and some I knew would be destined to wear that frightened, soulless stare for the reminder of their lives.

Tessa is broken.

And the moment I realize that, I realize something else: I can’t trust Tessa any longer.

A terrified slave would sell out her own mother for the promise of freedom – and it’s not her fault.

It’s nothing to do with courage, or morality. The survival instinct just takes over. The slaves that don’t have that survival instinct? They never lasted long enough for Ling or I to rescue them.