text: Lilia had never seen Roh cry.
  
  "Roh?" she said softly. "Rohinmey? It is you, isn't it?"
  
  He nodded, covering his face.
  
  Lilia got up and sat next to him. "I'm so sorry, I–"
  
  "Li." Light. "Can I have a hug?" he said.
  
  She wrapped her arms around him. He trembled against her, sobbing. Lilia pressed her face against his neck. She wanted to feel something, but was mostly shocked. He sobbed for a long time, so long she realized it was not at all about her, but something else, something deeper, something very broken.
  
  "Hush," Lilia said. "Hush now. We're all right."
  
  "We're not," he said. "We're not, that's the problem."
  
  She pulled away and regarded him. His hair was longer, braided back against his head, the tails tucked under and out of the way. His skin was cracked and peeling, the lips chapped, and his knuckles were peppered in scars. His eyes, too, were very different. He seemed so much older. Maybe she did too.
  
  "What are you doing here?" she asked.
  
  He touched her wrist. "I figured you would go to the Woodland," he said. "Some Woodland Dhai helped us track various camps of outsiders. This was where they pointed us."
  
  "Ours was south of here," Lilia said. "You would have missed me. Well, it's a long story."
  
  "They know about that camp here," he said. "I'd have found you. What I don't understand is why the Tai Mora didn't."
  
  "The Woodland Dhai don't talk to Tai Mora," Lilia said. "They seem to be better at spotting them than many of us. The Tai Mora are especially bad in their understanding of the Woodland. I think it makes them stand out."
  
  "How did you… Why are you here, then?"
  
  "It's a very long story."
  
  "Mine too."
  
  They sat in awkward silence. Lilia had no idea how to even begin.
  
  Sola interrupted them. "How do you know each other?" she said.
  
  "It was a very long time ago," Lilia said. "I'm sorry, please help him."
  
  "It's all right, I'm glad you're better too. You were just a bit dehydrated. The bone tree wounds healed cleanly."
  
  Sola bent to tend to Roh's ankle, weaving tendrils of Tira's breath to mend him.
  
  Lilia got up and went back to her cot. Her mind raced. What next? Where was Zezili? What to do with Roh? He was a parajista, he could help her. She just needed to convince these people, whoever was in charge…
  
  Sola finished with Roh. He tested his ankle. Stood, put his weight on it. Lilia noticed his knees, then, how he had not fully bent them when he sat, and how he stepped gingerly now, more a hobble than a walk. What had the world done to all of them?
  
  "Thank you," Roh said. He lifted his head. "Lilia, I want you to meet someone. Kadaan. My good friend."
  
  Kadaan was a Saiduan name. Lilia had seen a few of them here, and met Maralah, the woman who insisted she wasn't in charge but who all of the Saiduan and many of the Dhai listened to, nonetheless. Lilia had immediately noted how much they looked up to her.
  
  "Roh, there's something very important I need to do," Lilia said. It came out in a rush. "You remember when Taigan came to the temple? He thought I was gifted, and… that's a very long story. But listen, I think there's a way to… Oh, it's very complicated. Listen, I was in Tira's Temple. The temple… keeper, something, a creature, told me that–"
  
  "What?" Roh said. He stiffened.
  
  "Tira's Temple. There was this device… and… This fifth temple that the Tai Mora dredged up? It's not far from here, and I think, I really think Roh, that we could have a chance to take hold of it ourselves. It will take a great deal of coordination, and we don't have much time, but we have an element of surprise. She will never think–"
  
  "Li, listen to what you're saying."
  
  "No, you listen!" she nearly shouted. Stopped. Took a deep breath. "Roh, I'm not sure you understand, but there's something very important that I've been working toward. You are a parajista. You can help. We can use the temples to destroy the Tai Mora once and –"
  
  "Stop," Roh said. "We need to back up a little. And take some time to talk. Really talk about this. You're talking about breaking the world. About powering the temples to push the Tai Mora back? Not just stop other worlds from coming here?"
  
  "How did you–"
  
  "Come," he said, holding out his hand. "Meet Kadaan, and we'll talk more."
  
  She took his hand, but her heart was already betraying her, thumping loudly in her chest. She felt a tugging sensation to the west: Zezili. What was Zezili doing now?
  
  Natanial and his people spent a day mucking through bodies, looking for a tall woman with a broken nose called Yisaoh. After a time, all the bodies looked the same to Natanial. He found himself drinking a little more wine at night, and another few slugs of it during the day.
  
  "She isn't here," Otolyn said when he came over to her tent the evening of the second day. He collapsed next to her. Huffed out a long sigh.
  
  "You stink," she said.
  
  "So do you."
  
  "Why don't we just fuck off?" Otolyn said.
  
  "Can't," he said. "It's a long story. You're not bound, though. I know this isn't what you hoped for."
  
  "Life isn't want I hoped for," Otolyn said. She brushed back an oily hank of hair from his face. "Poor bored thing, aren't you?"
  
  "Just disappointed."
  
  "Want to have sex?"
  
  "Not really."
  
  "Wine?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  She handed him her jug. He drank deeply. On the other side of the camp, near where Monshara's larger tent was staked, a wink shimmered into existence.
  
  "Mother's calling," Otolyn said.
  
  "Let her come to me," Natanial said. He drank more of the wine and set the mug between him and Otolyn. "What you think the sky will look like, when this is over?"
  
  "About what it looks like now," she said, "just one more star."
  
  "You're so very Tordinian."
  
  "You're so very properly Aaldian. You don't even realize it."
  
  "Don't I?"
  
  "You were in love with that kid, weren't you? That omajista you found."
  
  "Could we not?"
  
  "Just saying, that's bad. Bring some dumb kid into this."
  
  "Thank you. Very insightful. I see the error of my ways."
  
  "Can't change them though, huh?"
  
  "No."
  
  "Natanial!" Monshara's voice. She waved at him from her tent.
  
  "What if I pretend not to see her?" Natanial asked.
  
  "Too late," Otolyn said.
  
  Natanial struggled to his feet and wended his way through the camp to Monshara's side.
  
  "We have another offensive," Monshara said. "I put a ranger on the tail of the survivors from this one, to see where they went."
  
  "And?"
  
  "Found another camp north of this one. They're using hazing wards of some kind. Not even a hundred people there, but some are Saiduan. That's concerning. Could have jistas. Sanisi. They aren't fun."
  
  "No, they are not," Natanial said. "When do we go?"
  
  "Dawn. Come in and let's sketch out the plan here with my line commanders."
  
  Natanial wanted to groan, but it came out a grunt. He went into the stuffy tent and stood with Monshara and her line commanders as they plotted out the terrain of the camp. It lay perched on a great cliff overlooking the sea, and had an easy escape route at the center: a winding tunnel that cut through the cliff and led down to the sea.
  
  "We circle them with winks, here, here, and these, here," Monshara said, marking out the areas with little brass circles. "Pour through here, overwhelm them. Sinajistas below, to catch any of the ones trying to escape through that sea cave. Be like sending dogs after rats. Easy enough."
  
  "You said sanisi," Natanial said. "What about them?"
  
  "The jistas will worry about them," Monshara said. "We aren't there for the sanisi. We're there for Yisaoh."
  
  When she dismissed them all an hour later, Natanial went back to his tent, alone, and slept fitfully. Otolyn woke him, already grinning, the blistering ball of Tira's green glow just over her shoulder.
  
  "Let's have some more fun," Otolyn said.
  
  Natanial splashed his face with water and helped his fighters break camp, then rode up to join Monshara and the other line commanders to the wink where Madah, one of Kirana's generals, waited to give their final instructions.
  
  "We're ready for you," Madah said, from the other side of the wink. She glanced behind her, to a rolling bank of greenery.
  
  Natanial considered telling her his people weren't ready for her, but supposed his choices were limited at this point. What if he told her no? He would be burned alive like that unfortunate man under the temple dome.
  
  "I'm thinking this isn't worth the money," Otolyn said, riding up behind him, voice loud enough for Madah to hear. With her she carried saddlebags stuffed with goods rooted out from the charred remains of the warren below. Food had been the most valuable loot in the aftermath of the slaughter.
  
  Madah glanced back at them, glared at Otolyn.
  
  "Better food over there?" Otolyn called.
  
  "Less talking, more moving!" Madah said. "I've got winks opening on the next field. Clear your area there immediately."
  
  Natanial called his forces together. "Circular assembly! Backs to the bonsa line!"
  
  The great heaps of bodies they had collected and sorted through from the Dhai camp lay smoldering. The smell had been oddly appetizing, which he found grotesque, but hunger and lack of proper protein affected all of them. He had lost six soldiers in the two days they had spent at the camp, each one a blow to his esteem as a leader. In truth, he wanted to join them. Perhaps they were the smartest of all of them.
  
  Natanial kicked awake a few of his hungover soldiers, and found two more were missing.
  
  "Smarter than the rest of us," Natanial muttered as Otolyn paced him up on her bear.
  
  "Maybe if we wait long enough it'll be over by the time we get there," Otolyn said.
  
  Natanial got back onto his mount. "Go run your line."
  
  "Yeah, yeah," she said, and turned her bear around to go inspect her portion of the troops. Such as they were.
  
  "We ready?" Monshara called from the front, fist raised.
  
  Natanial nodded to Otolyn. She raised their flag.
  
  Three winks opened ahead of them.