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Ophelia startled in the silence of John’s basement as the two front legs of Berkeley’s chair slammed back to the ground. All of them looked over at him, both surprised and with expectation, only to find that he’d almost fallen while he’d leaned on its two back legs.

“Sorry,” he grimaced.

Carolina sighed and loudly shut the book she was holding in one hand. “This is going nowhere. There’s nothing here.”

“Not that this isn’t the most boring thing I’ve ever done,” Berkeley stated, but gestured at the small stack of books that remained on the table. “But we haven’t searched through everything yet.”

“We’ve been at it for days,” Rue said, closing her own book.

“Berkeley’s right,” Ophelia told them. “Even if all the most relevant texts were returned to Vivienne’s descendants, the archivists are thorough. There has to be something here to give us a lead.” When she paused, Carolina gave her a small smile as though she appreciated the encouragement but was losing hope. “We just need to look closely enough and connect our own dots.”

“John?” Rue asked. “Do you think it’s possible?”

He looked at Ophelia while he thought about it, and then around at the others as he nodded. “She’s right about us being thorough. The main archives are here, but we have archivists all over the empire recording events. There’s information crossover all the time.”

“And that’s the way it’s always been done?” Carolina asked. John nodded, and Carolina sighed once more and said, “Let’s go over what we’ve learned again.”

“Vivienne was sent to the surface to aid miners,” Berkeley said .

“She married a nomadic shipwright,” Rue said, “who settled with her and her townspeople to build ships for Sovereign.”

“She wasn’t Ascended when she arrived,” Ophelia added, “so we can assume she found it somewhere on the surface.”

“ Where ?” Carolina murmured to herself. “Do you think we could find her husband’s tribe?”

“Not after a millennium,” John said. “We have no current record of Crimson Stone. If any descendants still live on the surface, they likely go by another name.”

They’d been over this information several times already, and though Carolina didn’t say it aloud, Ophelia knew the question she was silently asking herself. Where were Vivienne’s people when they were mining on the surface? But they didn’t know. They couldn’t know because it had still been early after the Great Rise, and in the exploration of islands, and they didn’t have accurate maps during Vivienne’s life.

Perhaps they could’ve taken what they knew to a cartographer. Maybe Omen’s own navigator, Queenie, would’ve been able to figure it out with enough information. But they didn’t have the information. They didn’t know what the islands above Vivienne’s people or the times of year were, and that was everything they would’ve needed.

So they all sat there, turning the information over in their minds and looking around at each other silently for almost a minute before Carolina said, “We need to keep looking.”

Berkeley did his best to hold back a sigh as he, Rue, and John went back to reading. Ophelia stood from her seat on the floor and wandered to the table Carolina was sitting at, and plopped down on the edge to face her.

“How’s your pain?” she asked.

Carolina made a fist and then splayed her fingers and rolled her shoulder. “Bearable.”

She studied Carolina’s face, and though she was masking the pain well, they’d been at John’s for over three hours. “Liar.”

Carolina chuckled, though the smile barely made it to her lips. “I guess it’s time,” she said, and held out her manacled arm.

Ophelia nodded and took Carolina’s wrist in her hands, and worked her magic to begin taking the pain away. But having been off the ship for such a long stretch, it was greater than she’d been growing used to, and she gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut as a stabbing pain moved up her forearm, like needles piercing her veins as they traveled to her shoulder. One of her hands immediately clutched at Carolina’s, gripping as hard as she could to brace herself for the rest of it. It burned through her muscles and seeped into her bones until they felt like they’d fragmented in a million different places. Carolina stood, wrapping her free arm around Ophelia’s shoulders to console her through the last of it, and when she was done, she just sat there, her hand still gripping tight to Carolina’s.

“I’m sorry,” Carolina whispered, removing her arm to set her hand around Ophelia’s, so that her hand was held gently between both of Carolina’s, and Carolina tucked it against her chest. She nodded, unable to open her eyes yet as she wondered if the frequency of these excursions off the ship were also making it worse. “I should’ve said something sooner.”

“It’s alright,” she said, shaking her head as she finally opened her eyes. “You’re trying to get as much time as you can to search. I understand.” She focused on the soothing feeling of Carolina’s fingers as they pressed into the back of her hand and then worked up her arm, massaging as much of the pain away as she could. And it did help, and though she would’ve preferred to stay there and let Carolina continue massaging her for another hour until the pain faded to bearable, there were several reasons why she couldn’t. “I guess we shouldn’t waste any of that time then, hm?” she asked.

Carolina smiled and nodded, and Ophelia grabbed another book and wandered back to her spot on the floor. She sat down to begin flipping through pages, and the room fell silent again as they all went back to work. An hour passed while each of them finished their books and grabbed another, so that there were only two left on the table of resources and Carolina was visibly discontented by it. She stared at the two remaining books for over a minute before letting out a heavy sigh and returning to the one she was holding. Ophelia did the same, skimming through the next page but slowing down over something interesting. And when she finished the page, she couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

“What?” Carolina asked.

“Well, it’s not relevant to our task,” she explained, “but there’s a funny story here about one emperor.”

“I want to hear it,” Berkeley said.

“Me too,” Rue agreed .

Carolina also nodded at her, so she said, “One night he got extremely drunk and decided he wanted to urinate over the edge of the island. Only, he didn’t realize until he started that he was facing the wind.” Rue snorted, and Berkeley leaned forward with a wide, eager grin. “He panicked and, whilst scrambling to wipe himself off, fell over the side.”

John gasped. “Did he die?”

“No,” she giggled, “one of his bodyguards was a Summoner who sent a mistling after him. That guard was friends with the archivist who wrote this passage, and there’s a detailed and hilarious description of the emperor’s scream as he disappeared. It was, and I quote, like a nightwing in heat.”

“It’s no wonder he wanted the tale destroyed,” Carolina laughed.

Rue cackled, “If I was that bodyguard, I would’ve been laughing too hard to rescue him.”

“Stupid,” Berkeley added, shaking his head, “you always check the direction of the wind before pissin’ off the edge.”

Ophelia’s eyebrows lifted. “You’ve done it?”

“You really need to ask?” Carolina said.

“Of course I’ve done it,” Berkeley answered.

Ophelia laughed and passed a curious look at John, who blushed as he admitted, “Yes, I’ve done it too.”

“Tell you what, though,” Berkeley added, “nothing will sober you up quite like an almost-tumble over the edge with your willy out.”

“That’s the truth,” John agreed.

“Can you believe them?” she asked Carolina through a laugh.

“He’s entertaining,” Carolina teased, “why else do you think we keep him around?”

“Ha-ha,” Berkeley said. “You know you’d do it if you could.”

“Maybe,” Carolina chuckled.

They all giggled about it for another few moments before falling quiet to keep reading. It was only a couple minutes after that silence fell that Berkeley inhaled an audible breath like he was about to say something, but he shook his head and kept reading.

But a few seconds later he inhaled again and said, “I’m not sure if this is something…”

“Let’s hear it,” Carolina told him.

“There was another shipwright who made a lot of Sovereign’s ships back then,” he said, following the information in the book with his index finger. “But Crimson Stone was infamous for having the best metalwork.”

“And?” Carolina asked.

“And they imported all their smithed ship parts from Crimson Stone.”

Ophelia set her book aside as Carolina looked at her, and every one of them leaned toward Berkeley with interest.

“Who was the shipwright?” Ophelia asked.

“Um,” he glanced down at the book, “a man named Sergio Rameni, with Highland Sails.”

Carolina looked at her again and stared for several moments before saying, “This could be our best lead.”

Ophelia nodded her agreement. “We’ve been through almost every book and it’s the closest thing.”

“That’s it?” Berkeley asked hopefully, rising from his seat. “I found it? We’re done?”

“What island did Highland Sails operate on?” Carolina asked.

“Wallowford,” John answered instead, his mouth curling with a smile. “Highland Sails still operates in Southeby’s Landing.”

Carolina grinned and shot to her feet. “We’re done.”

Berkeley yelled and rushed forward to hug her, and did the same to Ophelia when she stood up from her spot on the floor.

While Rue went around the room and collected the remaining books to put them on the organized shelves, John said, “I hope this lead works out for you.”

“Thank you,” Carolina told him, still smiling as she marched over and grabbed his hand. “And thank you for all your help and hospitality.”

“Anything for a friend,” he said, returning her enthusiastic shake.

She used her grip on his hand to pull him in and give him a one-armed hug around the shoulders. “If you ever need anything, and I mean anything , John, reach out to me.”

“I will,” he said, grinning as she let him go. “Good luck.”

Ophelia took her turn saying goodbye to John before Berkeley and Rue did the same, and then they all climbed the ladder back up to the house to leave.

“I can’t believe we found it,” Berkeley said as they headed out the door. “How far is Wallowford? ”

“I’m not sure,” Carolina answered, turning to wave at John one last time before they disappeared up the darkened street. “We’ll ask Queenie as soon as we get back.”

“Do you think they’ll know anything?” Rue asked.

Carolina shrugged. “There’s no telling.”

“Hopefully they’ve kept some record,” Ophelia offered. “An old registry remaining from previous generations or something like that.”

Carolina looked over to smile at her. “Hopefully.”

They ambled up the road for the next ten minutes, Carolina swinging her arms while Berkeley whistled a happy tune. Their joy was palpable, and Ophelia couldn’t help bobbing her head along with his song as she strolled at Carolina’s side. As their pile of records had begun to dwindle, she’d started to lose hope that they’d find anything of use in the archives, and she’d never been happier to have been wrong.

She was about to tell Carolina as much when two soldiers ran past them, so close one of them almost collided with her shoulder.

“Maybe we should get off the main road,” Rue suggested, but several more soldiers sprinted by before they could.

“Where’s the fire?” Berkeley asked as they all turned around to see where the soldiers were going. “Oh, shit,” he mumbled, “it’s an actual fire.”

There was a black pillar of smoke rising into the starry night sky, but… the direction it was coming from…

“Oh no,” Ophelia whispered.

Carolina took off running as she shouted, “John!”

They all sprinted after her, following her back down the road as fast as they could, until they all skidded to a stop in the shadow of an alley up the street from John’s house. Bright flames had already consumed half of his home, and more smoke was pouring out the windows and the open front door. Two soldiers emerged from the smoke, one leading the other, who had John slung over his shoulder. When they reached the safety of the outdoors, the soldier set John down on the street as gently as he could before buckling over to cough from the smoke just like the other soldier was. But John wasn’t moving.

“I have to help him,” Ophelia said, surging forward with every intention to sprint over. It didn’t matter if the soldiers realized who or what she was, they could deal with that later. They could run. What mattered then was making sure John survived the smoke inhalation .

But Carolina caught her arm to hold her back as a third soldier draped a coat over John’s unmoving figure, and she murmured, “You can’t.”

“We were just here,” Ophelia said, slumping back to Carolina’s side as tears welled in her eyes. “What happened?”

Carolina didn’t answer, and they all stood there in silent shock for almost a minute before Ophelia could bring herself to look at the others. Berkeley and Rue were too stunned to have had any reaction yet, but Carolina’s eyes were full of tears too, and her lips were pursed as tightly as her jaw was clenched.

“If our traitor had anything to do with this,” Carolina growled, “there’ll be hell to pay.”

“But why?” Ophelia whispered to herself, and then, to Carolina, “Why would the bounty hunters do this?”

Carolina inhaled a breath so deep it took a handful of seconds for her to finish, and then let it out in one short rush as she shook her head. “I’m not sure anymore that this is about you.”

“But we saw Piers,” she said. “We know they’re still in pursuit.”

“Carolina,” Rue said quietly before Carolina could respond, and they all looked at her. “Are we putting Highland Sails in danger if we go there?”

“No,” Carolina said.

“How can you be sure?” Rue asked.

“Because,” she said, pausing as her jaw worked back and forth. “If we see the bounty hunters, we’re going to find out what ship they’re on, and we’re going to kill them.”

It seemed no sooner than that had left her mouth did someone run past the entrance of the alley. It happened so fast that all they caught was a glimpse, but it couldn’t have been who it looked like. Right? There was no way it had been Piers whose eyes she’d briefly met as he blew past them.

Only, as each of them stared toward the opening in surprise and confusion, Piers back peddled until he was standing right in front of them again. “Help,” he huffed, gasping for air. “Please, help.”