Rhayne’s eyes are still wet.

She’s holding something in, visibly shaken, and I can’t tell if what she’s swallowing is fear or relief.

"I never went back to Earth after my first dive."

She speaks haltingly, the words coming out one careful piece at a time.

She turns her head toward the window, like she’s searching for words in the open ocean sky and finding a small comfort just looking at it.

"That was almost three years ago."

The first tear falls. Slow, but heavy.

I have a hundred questions for her, mostly about the spy thing, but I let her talk in her own rhythm. I brush the tear away with the back of my index finger.

It’s the only support I can offer her in this moment without breaking the thread she’s pulling on.

She continues. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"I’m an orphan. Like Lola. My parents were Divers. They died in Thirstfall."

More tears come. While she gathers herself to keep going, I let myself sit with what she’s telling me, trying to understand her side from the inside out.

An orphan. Three years here without going home. Which means she’s already crossed into the vegetative phase. When she finally goes back, the physical damage is going to be enormous.

I know that one personally.

My first dive in the previous life lasted almost three years. The GNC I earned from that first dive went almost entirely into rehabilitation on Earth. We stayed poor because of it. The dive-tank gel keeps you alive in here, but it doesn’t protect your muscles long-term. Past a certain point, your body starts forgetting how to be a body.

"I had a really hard time, and because of my talent I was always isolated as soon as I got here..."

I can’t tell her I understand without lying about whether I do. In this life I’ve been lucky. But in another one, I lived through everything she’s describing—and worse.

"You’re not alone anymore," I say.

A small smile starts on Rhayne’s mouth, but it dies before it can fully arrive. She breathes deep and gathers a little more confidence to keep going.

"There was a man who started looking after me almost two years before I met you. He taught me a lot of things. One of them was espionage. That’s how I made money. People don’t notice me. They look right past me. My passive ability practically erases my existence from a room."

"Were you spying on me?" I ask, careful with the weight of the question.

"No! I’d never. That would go against everything he told me."

"It’s even weirder. Everything he told her?’

Rhayne was never a spy in my last life. Something about her changed in this timeline before I ever made my first dive. Which shouldn’t be possible. If I haven’t taken any actions to alter the future, then Rhayne should still be the same person up until the moment we crossed paths.

The mismatch is starting to compound. More questions are stacking up at the back of my mind than I have answers for.

"Okay. Thank you for telling me that. But—what did this man tell you? Who is he? How did you meet him?"

The questions come out faster than I want them to. I can feel myself getting anxious and I can’t fully hide it from her.

She looks down while she delivers the answers.

"His name was Arthur. Arthur Lancaster. He told me that if I became a good spy and got myself enrolled at the academy within two years, I’d find someone who would take care of me. And then you showed up."

"Wait—within two years? That’s incredibly specific. Where is he now?"

"He just disappeared. Right after my training was complete."

’This is wrong on multiple levels.’

The timing is wrong. The specificity is wrong. The dates fall almost exactly across the window of my own return into this life. I don’t remember any Arthur from my last timeline, but the Lancaster family is well known in Thirstfall as information brokers. Selling intel is the entire family business.

I scratch the back of my head, openly thrown by the math.

"Don’t worry, Rhayne. It’s all right." I give her an honest smile. The kind I keep folded up most days because I don’t have many places to spend it. "I hope you feel a little better, opening up with us."

I look at her. Then at Veric.

Veric nods. "It must have been hard, Miss Vesper." He clears his throat. Twice. "I... I... I’m sorry. Please forgive me." His voice almost a whisper at the end.

I hold back with everything I have not to laugh and ruin the man’s first sincere apology in—possibly ever. But there’s one thing I can’t quite let slide.

"You what, Veric? I didn’t catch that."

"Damn it, Sands." He glares at me, visibly worked up. "I’m sorry, Miss Vesper."

"It’s all right." Rhayne smiles at Veric through her tears. Then her mouth tilts. "I also sold information about you for money."

She gives him a small, crooked smile.

"You little—! How did you—!"

I cut him off because this time I can’t hold it. I laugh out loud. Real laugh. Loud one. The first one since I came back to Thirstfall.

"You’re a good girl, Rhayne." I give her a thumbs up. "Best investment I’ve made on this side."

Veric exhales hard and lets it go. Some battles aren’t worth fighting.

"Come on. We need supplies. Then we duel."

I push myself off the chair.

But some questions remain in my mind, unanswered.

’Why did her past change, and how did she have such precise information about the academy?’

Two years before I came back. A man who knew exactly when I’d arrive, exactly which institution I’d choose, exactly the window in which she had to be ready to meet me.

’Maybe I’m just being paranoid?’A Lancaster who specialized in information that hadn’t happened yet? Impossible.’

Someone is moving pieces on a board I can’t see.

And whoever it is, they’ve been moving them for a while.