Selene placed her hands back on the table.

"The original plan with Roen is cancelled. Roen is going to be out of commission for several weeks. I don’t have another equivalent guide available in Greywall right now. Mobilizing one from another city will take between five and seven days, and my assessment is that Liaraen shouldn’t remain in this house for more than two."

"Why only two?"

"For two reasons. One. The distraction you created with Brenwick is going to buy you three to five days, but as soon as Brenwick stabilizes his internal situation with the Table, both of them are going to remember at the same time that the merchandise never reached the final client, and the active search will resume with more resources. Two. Liaraen’s continued presence in a house operating under my protection creates ripples of theological detection that the official Church could start to notice if prolonged. My house is discreet but not invisible."

"So you need her gone within two days."

"Exactly."

"And your proposal?"

"The proposal is that you take her."

Nathan set his empty cup on the map, slowly, without making noise.

"Me?"

"You."

"Selene."

"Hunter Voss."

"I’m officially F-Rank. I’m not a guide. I don’t know the route. I have no long-distance travel experience. I’m exactly the worst possible choice to escort a daughter of an elven noble house across the continent’s frontier territory for nine days."

"Statistically, you are the worst choice."

"By far."

"But you’re also, right now, the only option that combines three critical elements. One. Liaraen trusts you, which means she’ll cooperate during the journey without argument. Two. Your Class, though you’re still learning it, has already demonstrated the capacity to neutralize an A-Rank extraction team. That puts you, in terms of combat capability, above most professional guides on the continent. Three. And this is the most important. Your presence beside Liaraen during the journey diplomatically justifies entry into the Northern Kingdom without you being interrogated as a suspect of being part of the organization that captured her. You’re her rescuer. That gives you, in the eyes of House Sael’thoryn, automatic diplomatic status."

Nathan was quiet for a moment.

"I hadn’t considered that last part."

"I know. But it’s real. If Liaraen arrives at the Northern Kingdom with a professional guide her family doesn’t know, House Sael’thoryn is going to subject the guide to extensive interrogation. If she arrives with you, with the version of events she already has prepared, you’ll be treated as a diplomatic guest of the highest rank available for a human visitor. That gives you personal security during the journey and access to resources during your stay."

"And on the way back?"

"On the way back, you take whichever route you prefer. House Sael’thoryn will likely offer you transport back if you request it. Or you can stay a while in the Northern Kingdom if you want. Those decisions are yours."

Nathan sat thinking.

*Escorting Liaraen myself. Nine days of travel through territory I don’t know, with a noble house’s daughter in hostile territory, with a criminal organization and two extraction teams potentially looking for us.*

*But also. Nine days where Brenwick and the Table are busy resolving things between themselves. Nine days where I’m outside Greywall, outside the reach of anyone trying to locate me here. Nine days with Liaraen, where I can personally ensure she reaches her home, instead of delegating that responsibility to a guide I don’t know.*

*Selene is right.*

*I’m the worst statistical choice. But I’m the only option that works in practical terms.*

"I accept," Nathan said.

"Without arguing?"

"Without arguing."

"That’s new for you."

"It is."

Selene nodded.

"Good. I’ll start preparations this afternoon. You and Liaraen leave at dawn tomorrow. I’ll provide you with an appropriate horse for the journey, enough provisions for the first four days, a documented route with the rest stops the Veil community system will recognize, and a letter of introduction that will open doors at every settlement along the way. This is covered by the favor we already agreed on. You owe nothing additional."

"Accepted."

"One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Don’t leave this conversation tonight thinking the information I gave you is everything. There’s more. But the rest can wait until you return from the journey. When you come back, if you want to talk, come here. If you don’t want to, don’t come. That part I leave to your discretion."

"Understood."

Nathan stood up.

Selene did too.

Before he left the study, she spoke again.

"Hunter Voss."

"Yes?"

"An observation, not an order." Pause. "Today you did three things that most bearers of SSS — Extinction in the seventeenth’s history never did in their first week with the Seal. Neutralize an A-Rank team without killing anyone. Deceive a Table coordinator in his own office without revealing your true capability. And accept a responsibility you should statistically reject—because the person you promised it to matters to you."

"I appreciate the observation."

"Those three things, together, suggest something specific. That the seventeenth chose well this time."

Nathan was silent for a moment.

"Is that information or flattery?"

"It’s information. I don’t flatter. It’s information you’re going to need later when you start doubting yourself. I’m leaving it for you."

"Accepted."

He left the study.

---

He went upstairs. Liaraen wasn’t there, which meant she was still with Roen downstairs. Nathan sat on the edge of the bed for a moment. Stared at the wall.

*Processing.*

*Processing.*

*Processing.*

It was a lot of information for one night. Selene had given it to him in carefully moderated doses, exactly as she’d promised, but it was still a lot. The seventeenth. The compatibility. The list. The observation from two years ago. The Gray Forest Latent. The modulated function expected of him.

And now, the journey to the Northern Kingdom. With Liaraen. Starting tomorrow at dawn.

*I’ll process it on the road*, he thought. *I have nine days to do it. I’ll probably process it better while moving than sitting here.*

He stood up. Walked toward the door.

And then he stopped. And smiled, without anyone seeing him.

*Wait.*

*There’s one thing I need to do before leaving tomorrow.*

*One specific thing.*

He went downstairs. Found Liaraen sitting beside Roen, who was awake now, drinking an infusion the healer had prepared for him. They both looked at him as he entered.

"Sprout."

"Hunter Voss."

"Change of plans," Nathan said. "Selene told me we’re leaving at dawn tomorrow, both of us. I’m taking you to the Northern Kingdom."

Liaraen went very still.

Her face maintained perfect aristocratic posture.

But her eyes blinked once, which in her equated to a broad expression of surprise.

"You?"

"Me."

"Just the two of us?"

"Just the two of us."

"Nine days of travel, the two of us, to my home?"

"Nine days."

Liaraen processed that for a second.

And then, without either of them anticipating it, a small smile crossed her face. It wasn’t an aristocratic smile. It was a specifically young smile—of a sixteen-year-old girl who’d just been told she was going on an adventure with someone she liked.

"Acceptable," Liaraen said, immediately recomposing her formal expression.

"Your smile lasted exactly half a second."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"I saw you."

"You didn’t see me."

"I saw you, Sprout."

"Not authorized."

"Yes authorized. We discussed it this morning."

"I temporarily forgot the conversation. It will be reauthorized after dinner."

"Acceptable."

Roen, from the bed, laughed briefly. A weak but genuine laugh. He looked at both of them with a specific expression Nathan couldn’t interpret but was probably recognition.

"Hunter," Roen said, his voice still weak. "Take care of her on the road."

"I will."

"And learn. What you can. The road teaches things cities don’t."

"I’ll learn."

"Good."

Roen returned to his infusion. Liaraen adjusted the blanket’s position over the guide’s legs. And Nathan, standing in the doorway of the room, watched them both for a moment.

Then he turned to Selene, who had come out of the study and was standing at the foot of the stairs watching the scene.

"Selene," Nathan said. "One more thing before I leave tomorrow."

"Yes?"

"I need to go to the guild tonight. Before it closes. To report to Mira."

"Report what?"

"That I delivered the complete package."

Selene raised an eyebrow.

"Didn’t you report this morning that the delivery had failed?"

"I tried. Mira stopped me mid-explanation. I told her I’d come back later to complete the report. Which is still technically true. I’m going back now to complete it. Only the report I’m going to deliver is going to be different from the one she was expecting."

"Why do that?"

Nathan was quiet for a moment.

Then he said, with the specifically serious voice of someone disguising a frivolous motivation beneath a practical justification:

"Because my professional file as a Hunter is the only official thing I have in this kingdom. If I leave for the Northern Kingdom tomorrow having left my file with a failed mission and an interrupted conversation, I’ll come back in several weeks to a complicated administrative situation. If I close it properly tonight, I come back to a clean file. It’s basic logistical preparation."

Selene looked at him.

"Hunter Voss."

"Yes?"

"That’s a well-constructed professional explanation."

"Thank you."

"That doesn’t entirely hide that you actually want to see Mira’s face when you tell her you completed the delivery."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"You specifically want to see it. Probably with a smile. You’re probably going to take your time describing the details of the fictional combat. Probably, knowing you, you’re going to suggest you might deserve an additional recommendation on your file."

"That’s speculation, Selene."

"It’s professional reading, Hunter Voss."

"Acceptable."

Selene smiled slightly. The third smile Nathan had seen from her in less than twenty-four hours. This was the broadest of the three.

"Go to the guild," she said. "Enjoy it. You’ve earned it."

"Thank you."

"Come back before midnight. We need to leave early tomorrow, and you need to sleep."

"Noted."

Nathan walked to the door. Put on his cloak. Adjusted his jacket. Before leaving, he turned one last time to Liaraen, who was watching him from the room with the specifically curious expression of someone who’d clearly understood about half the exchange between Nathan and Selene and wanted details on the rest.

"I’m going to the guild," Nathan said. "I’ll be back in a couple of hours."

"For what exactly?"

"To boast."

"To boast about what?"

"That I completed a delivery against all odds."

"That’s vanity, Hunter Voss."

"It’s deserved vanity, Sprout."

"...Acceptable."

Nathan opened the door.

Stepped out into the street.

And as he walked toward the guild, with the setting sun illuminating Greywall’s rooftops in orange tones, he felt, for the first time in four days, something that felt very much like being okay. Not exactly happiness. Not exactly satisfaction. Something between the two. The specific sensation of having survived a week that should have killed him three times over and still having energy for a small personal victory before the day ended.

He walked toward the guild.

And internally, he began rehearsing the exact phrase with which he was going to open the conversation with Mira.