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Ivain had a way of showing his displeasure that felt like a thunderstorm. His eyes darkened, and his voice was a low rumble, the calm before a tempest about to break.

“Taly, you seem to have inherited your father’s knack for attracting misfortune,” he said quietly when she finished explaining the night’s events.

They were all gathered around the breakfast table. The whole family plus Kato and Eula, who stood off to the side like she was still on duty despite repeated attempts to get her to sit down.

“I suppose if you’re going to cause a scene, it might as well be a good one,” Sarina groaned, slumped over with her head buried in her palms. Eliza’s famous hangover cure still hadn’t kicked in. “Atlas used to say that.”

“Sarina, that’s not helpful,” Ivain muttered.

“Oh, sorry,” she said. “Taly, don’t mistake the lack of sparks for indifference. I’m—” But she cut herself off and said to her brother, “Are we sure about this? I mean she did get the keys?”

“She chased the bastard halfway across town,” Ivain said flatly. “Was seen by who knows how many people.”

“Oh, that’s easy to explain. She’s the Savior. She was… savioring.”

“She left a trail of bodies.”

“You can’t blame her for what someone else did.”

“She used her magic in public.”

Sarina sighed, a long, theatrical exhale that seemed to say, Well, that’s inconvenient. “Alright, yes,” she said, turning back to Taly. “In the spirit of presenting a united front, I am extremely displeased.”

The delivery had real authority, right up until she belched quietly into her elbow.

“Well, I, for one, think it’s brilliant,” Aimee piped up. She looked as impeccable as always, stirring sugar into her tea. “Because what this family needed was more attention.”

Taly rolled her eyes. “I got the bad guy, didn’t I?”

“No,” Skye said, shoveling eggs into his mouth. Her eyes snapped to him. Not helping . “I was there. He definitely got away.”

A minor technicality that she would fix in the later retelling of this story to a less informed audience. “And because of my heroism—”

“Shards save us,” Aimee muttered under her breath.

“—we now have this.” Reaching beneath the table, Taly produced the metal box. It clanked as it hit the table. “You’re welcome, everyone. You know, for stopping a full-scale invasion. Two of these keys open riftways inside the city.”

Taly met Ivain’s gaze across the breakfast table.

His expression was unreadable, but the tight set of his jaw spoke volumes.

She’d expected his anger—anticipated it, even.

He wasn’t the type to overlook recklessness, and she could practically feel the weight of his disapproval pressing against her.

But he was nothing if not pragmatic. At the end of the day, he respected what mattered most: results.

He’d come around. Eventually.

“This conversation isn’t over,” Ivain said to her, his tone firm.

Taly resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Her aether was gone, and it left her feeling cranky, sore, and itching for a fight. But even she knew not to push Ivain’s buttons when he gave her that look.

“For now, regardless of the how …” Ivain took a long sip of tea to steady himself.

“Taly was able to gather some valuable new information. One,” he said, holding up a long, thin finger, “Aneirin is not only in the city, he can come and go as he pleases. Two, he can possess the bodies of both the living and the dead. Three, he can create portals through space. Four, those portals seem to have some sort of… degrading effect on magic. I can think of no other explanation for what happened to Taly’s glamour. ”

“It’s shredded ,” Aimee said with a mournful little sniff. Her fingers hazed blue, her magic probing at the bracelet’s many layers of enchantments. “This was some of my best work.”

“There’s a reason we can’t have nice things,” Skye said, chewing. Taly glared, but he only smiled and took another bite.

“Does the glamour explain why she’s… encrusted ?” Sarina aimed a bleary look across the table. “Or what happened to her aether?” She flicked her fingers, and a bright spark clipped a crystal from Taly’s collar. “Seriously, what is that?”

“I would also really like to know,” Taly said. Picking one of the larger pieces of stone out of her hair, she dropped it into an empty sugar bowl. Plink . “Also, how to wash it out.”

Adding water had just turned it into cement.

“I may have an answer for that.”

All eyes turned to Aiden as he shuffled through the mess of folders spread out in front of him.

“So, with Eula’s help, I’ve been able to retrace Taly’s path through the city following a map of localized blackouts. 32 reports came in last night, and we’ve found bodies at 27 of them.”

I hope you’ve been counting.

Taly tried to shake the memory, but Bill’s voice was as vivid as ever.

For all your talk of the sanctity of life, time mage, you exercise very little regard.

She didn’t want anyone to get hurt. But letting him get away with those keys would’ve hurt even more people.

Skye’s hand slid into hers, and she gave it a grateful squeeze.

“I know how it sounds,” Aiden said gently.

“But we’ve only counted two casualties so far.

The shopkeeper and his wife, who were already showing symptoms when Skye and Taly arrived on the scene.

The primary being a dark, web-like rash spreading over the body.

In fact, every… host , I suppose? All presented with similar symptoms.”

Skye idly rubbed his shoulder, some phantom pain. “So, they were Cursed?”

Aiden shook his head. “No. Not a single one.”

Ivain’s brows rose. “Explain.”

Aiden shrugged. “They’re not Cursed,” he repeated. “We tested them, and they came back healthy. All of them. Even the shopkeeper and his wife.”

“But we saw them die,” Taly pointed out. “They were definitely Cursed.”

“Or they just looked like it,” Skye offered.

Ivain raked a hand through his hair. “So, what? Now we’re chasing something that mimics a Curse but isn’t? Surely, there must be something else at play here.”

Aiden grinned. “That’s because there is.

” He slid a folder across the table to Ivain, who flipped it open and began reading.

“So, when we break down the pool of hosts into bloodlines, Shardless fared the best. Some confusion and dehydration, and there were a few broken limbs that needed to be set. Otherwise, they were fine. With the Lowborn, however, we saw a much broader range for severity of symptoms, but no casualties until we get to the shopkeeper and his wife, whose symptoms were, by far, the most advanced. Anyone see the pattern?”

The comb in Taly’s hand stilled. “It’s human blood.” Aiden nodded, grin widening. “The Shardless who fared better—they had more human blood.”

“Or put another way,” Aiden said, “those with Fey blood fared worse. Pretty exponentially, in fact. In a typical case of possession, the dynamics would be reversed—the Shardless body would expel the Fey presence. I have no explanation for what we’re observing here.

And while I’m not sure yet what makes it fatal in some cases and not others, you’ll never guess the cause of death. ”

Aiden let the silence hang, clearly savoring the buildup. His eyes gleamed. “Acute aether-induced thrombotic occlusion leading to a catastrophic circulatory failure.”

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Sarina muttered, holding her head.

“Sorry,” he said, sheepish. “But seriously, does no one else think that’s interesting?”

“We don’t know what it means,” Kato said around a mouthful of porridge. “Can someone translate?”

“It means their aether turned into a solid mess that plugged up their heart,” Taly said. She’d picked up a few new words and phrases at the healing park.

“Exactly,” Aiden said. And with that, he pulled a little drawstring bag from inside his coat, upending it.

Countless tiny, white crystals scattered across the table.

“This, Skye, is what I took out of your shoulder,” he said, sorting the larger bits of stone from the powder.

“It’s the same residue we found in the blood of every host, clogging up their veins and arteries. Look familiar?”

Silence fell across the table, all eyes turning as Skye picked an identical piece of crystal from Taly’s hair and held it up to the light.

“Now give it a push with your magic,” Aiden said.

Violet aether pulsed around Skye’s fingertips. But the crystal showed no signs of life. No flicker, no hum, no response at all. It was as though the crystal absorbed nothing, reflected nothing back—a complete and utter blank.

“It’s hyaline,” Skye said after a moment.

Ivain straightened. A bleary-eyed Sarina lifted her head. Kato’s spoon paused halfway to his mouth. Even Aimee had gone uncharacteristically still.

“It’s unorthodox,” Aiden said. “I’m aware. And it doesn’t fit with anything that we know about hyaline. But it is scientifically sound to say that aether can undergo a change of state, even if we’ve never observed it.”

“Wait. Back up,” Skye said, still staring at the tiny shard of crystal pinched between his forefinger and thumb. “Are you saying her aether transformed into… hyaline?”

Aiden shrugged. “I don’t have any other explanation.

It was the same in every case—aether inexplicably gone, hyaline crystal clogging up their circulation.

Except for in humans, where we found only trace amounts.

How do you get something that looks like a Curse but isn’t?

” he said with all the finality of a closing argument. “That’s how.”

“But why did Taly’s aether crystalize on her skin instead of inside her tissues like it did with all the others?” Sarina rubbed her temples in slow, deliberate circles. “And why doesn’t she have the same marks?”