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They gathered in the largest tent with all the sides pulled up to let in the gentle evening breeze, the soft chimes of the goat bells and shushing of the oasis shore bringing in the night. Bellaphia sat on a large cushion in the center, her tiny snake weaving between her fingers and a peaceful smile on her face as Ivanora fussed around her—draping a blanket over her shoulders and nestling a cup of tea between her palms. Bellaphia smiled at her indulgently before insisting she sit down while the others gathered round.

“First of all, my thanks to the great healer, Emara Alik, for giving me this moment of peace from my ails. Although the voices are already beginning to crowd in once more, I am forever thankful for this respite and the time shared with my brother and sister.” She took a deep breath. “In return, I promised Emara I would send her home—”

“But moving a body is an incredibly powerful spell, Phi,” Ivanora interrupted, her face pinching with concern from where she knelt beside her sister. “It could take years to prepare. Besides are you in any state to—”

Bellaphia held up a calming hand, her face creased in a loving smile. “As you know, with my gifts, sister, I am always quite prepared. However, if you don’t mind gathering a basketful of heartcress shoots from the far shore, that would be helpful.”

“But you always pick the best sprouts,” Bellaphia said, her dark eyes large and sincere behind her thick glasses.

“I suppose… if you’re sure.” Ivanora weighed her sister with a penetrating glance before relaxing into a smile. “Anything for you, my sister.”

But before she could go anywhere, Bellaphia threw her arms around her, holding her tight. “Thank you, Ivy. Always know I love you with everything that I am.”

“Well, of course, Phi. I love you too.” She chuckled as she patted her back. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” She stood and lifted the small basket. “But it’s only heartcress.”

Ivanora shrugged, light as a young girl. “Worry not, Phi. We’re overjoyed to have you returned to us, truly one of Odriel’s miracles.” Then with a dazzling smile, she practically bounced off toward the oasis.

Emara had to prevent herself from goggling. The love between Ivanora and Bellaphia was physically palpable. How had this beaming, attentive woman brought Okarria to its knees? As Ivanora passed out of the tent, she winked at Elika with a smile, and he quickly looked away, reddening.

Bellaphia watched her for a moment before speaking again, her voice fast and low. “Now, you three.” She pointed to the guards and to Jai standing further in the corner. “You make sure no one, and I mean no one touches Emara and me. Understand?”

Jai shot to attention, and the three nodded with matching expressions of puzzlement, sensing the sudden change in the air.

“Chipo, Emara will need as much yanaa as you can give her during the spell. I’m much more powerful than the one who sent her here, but we cannot afford for her to be weak when she arrives on the other side.”

Emara squeezed her hand, their yanaas twisting together strong and sure. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Everard.” Bellaphia stood, her voice sharp with command. “You must handle Ivanora. Once she understands what’s happening, there’s no telling what she will do.”

“Can’t you wait? Does she have to be here at all?” Everard shook his head, a strange, intense grief folding his features. “You must know this will break her.”

“I do know. But it's the only way. We're too far down the path, and every other fork ends in darkness.” Bellaphia sighed. “Ivy has always felt everything so much—too much. We are like two faces of the same coin—one seeing, one feeling. And what is hate but the razor shards of shattered love?” Bellaphia’s face cracked, her raven-black eyes glistening. “But I have to do this while I have the strength, and I couldn’t bear to let her go without saying goodbye first.”

Emara cocked her head, sensing she was missing something. “She doesn’t know what we’re going to do? Why can’t we tell her?”

“She would never understand losing the sister she just got back.” Everard shook his head, folding an arm around his sister. “In any event, if Bellaphia says this is the way, then this is how it must be done.”

“My sister has told me enough, Guardian Rao. That is all we can ask. And, for the little it’s worth, I apologize for my harsh words. In my service to Okarria, I have done what I can to protect my siblings from the world, and the world from my siblings, but often the right path is the most difficult to travel.” Everard nodded sharply to Bellaphia, giving her another squeeze. “Regardless, I will do my part.”

“Thank you, brother. You’ve always been the best of us, carrying Okarria closest to your heart.” Bellaphia held his gaze for a moment too long before turning away from him, wringing her hands. “Chipo, Emara, come here. Let us begin.”

“You mean we’re not going to wait for the heartcress?” Elika asked, craning his neck toward the oasis even as he, Everard, Jai, and Durad formed a ring around Bellaphia.

“The heartcress bought us only a few minutes. She’ll come as soon as she feels the yanaa.” Bellaphia crouched and arranged a circle of etched stones in front of her. Then with a gentle stroke to the snake, she urged it into the strange figure-eight pattern. “This is a power amplifier, Emara, so you will not be drained like you were upon your arrival. Chipo, put your hands on her bare back, if you will.”

Chipo nodded, sliding her clammy hands up Emara’s shirt onto her lower back. “Are you sure about this, Mari?” she whispered, voice shaking as she rested her forehead against Emara’s neck.

“Yes,” Emara said, surprised to find her voice steady and confident. “But I’ll miss you, Chipo. Thank you. For everything.”

Hot tears slid down Emara’s collar as Chipo shook silently. “I’m so proud to be your grandmother,” she whispered.

Jai’s gaze swiveled between the crying Chipo, to the somber Everard, back to the hand-wringing Bellaphia. “Wait, what am I missing?”

Emara offered him a smile, a strange, almost weightless serenity coming over her. Now it was her turn to reassure him. “It’s okay, Jai.” And although suspicion burned in his eyes, he kept silent as she turned back to Everard. “Take care of him.”

Everard didn’t get a chance to respond before Bellaphia grabbed one of her wrists. “Are you ready?”

In a heartbeat, Bellaphia had the knife in hand. A small, simple thing with a blue-tinted blade, and Emara’s eyes narrowed, thinking of the knife Everard had forced into his own chest before she woke up half-dead on the Austerden docks. He’d given everything, even the scraps of his life force to send her here, but now they had Chipo and the power amplifier. It would be different this time.

The blade nicked quick lines across her skin in a flash of pain, swirling characters in an ancient language Emara couldn’t begin to comprehend. Her heart drummed faster as Bellaphia muttered something and immediately the yanaa flowed between them, as overwhelming as a tidal wave.

Chipo’s cool yanaa rushed from her fingertips, almost directly into Emara's heart, and from the other side, Bellaphia’s power intensified.

“It’s too much,” Emara said, the pain of it threatening to suffocate her. “I won’t be able to control it.”

“STOP!” The shout turned Emara’s blood to ice, and she couldn’t help but turn to see Ivanora running toward them, the basket of heartcress spilling out on the path. “What are you doing to my sister?”

“Focus, Emara,” Bellaphia snapped, but Emara couldn’t draw her eyes away, something niggling at the corner of her mind. The familiarity of all of this. “Concentrate on the thread to lead you back.”

“No! That’s too much, they’re going to kill Phia!” Ivanora shrieked, a swell of yanaa starting to swirl dangerously around her.

Then Emara realized, Ivanora was right, the power was too much. She tried to pull her hands from Bellaphia, but the magus tightened her hold. “You’re planning to sacrifice yourself to send me back.”

Ivanora’s yanaa whirled into a vortex, lashing out like a wild beast. Her needle-like sword sang as she pulled it from its sheath. “This is dark yanaa, Everard. Step aside.”

Ivanora slashed at him with the sword as if he were nothing to her, the blade cutting him from shoulder to hip. “I won’t lose my sister again.”

Now it was Bellaphia who faltered as her glasses reflected her brother’s bloodstained body. “Everard!”

Ivanora reached out a hand and without even touching him, flung his body aside, green yanaa coiling over her hands and tears streaming down her cheeks. Black filled the whites of her eyes as they bored into Emara’s. “I don’t know who you are, but get your blood off my sister before I drain every last drop from your walking corpse.”

Emara shifted to try to put Chipo behind her, but with Bellaphia practically hanging from her bloody arms, she was nearly defenseless. “I never wanted this,” Emara pleaded.

Emara screamed long and loud, but even as she did so, Bellaphia’s power coursed through her, and her vision started to blur.

“No! You can’t! Jai!” she screamed, trying to send her yanaa to him, but it was somehow tied to her and Bellaphia and something else.

“That’s right, Emara, keep the thread.” Bellaphia turned the knife on herself. “Please, Guardian Rao, healer of minds and walker of time, deliver us from this madness and heal the world we love.” Then the knife stabbed through her too, her glasses flying from her face, and Ivanora’s scream added to the din as Bellaphia’s blood stained the rugs, the glow of her body almost blinding in the wash of blue light.

“You wretched, murdering girl!” Time seemed to slow as Ivanora’s all-consuming rage turned to Emara. “You did this!” She turned to pull her blade from Jai only to find he was still standing, and the blade wouldn’t budge. In fact, the blade hadn’t gone through him at all—he’d caught the flat of it between his arm and side. An illusion.

And then Everard tore Ivanora away in a swirl of yanaa. With another blow, Ivanora went limp in his arms, and the maelstrom abruptly ceased. In the sudden, foreboding calm, Jai rushed to Emara, while Bellaphia's unmoving body lay at her feet. The outline of him turned fuzzy as he scooped up Bellaphia’s blood-smeared glasses, still glowing blue with yanaa, and tucked them in his pocket. Emara gasped as his words hung in her ears… I tried to steal from a magus…

Elika’s voice cut through the strange buzzing in Emara’s head. “You two, we need to get out of here. Now. Before Ivanora comes around.”

“Goodbye, Mari,” Chipo whispered. “Odriel’s Wings.” Then her hand, the only thing tethering Emara to this world, pulled away, and the light started to fade.

“Emara!” Jai leaned in one last time. “I’ll look for you at the docks every morning.” He brushed his lips to hers… but they went right through her. “Just in case.”