When Lucas returned to the main room, he found Florence and Valerie waiting for him not two paces from the archway. They were stood side-by-side. Valerie's eyes went straight to the box he was carrying, then flickered back up to meet his gaze. He stared back, challenging her to say anything. She just nodded shallowly.

  Florence, on the other hand, had been glaring at Valerie when he emerged. Cutting off halfway through a hissed word, she turned a dark look on him, which was quickly wiped away when he held the box up. Her eyes went comically wide, to the point he was sure it was exaggerated, like she was acting. But the outrage in her words felt sincere, “What in the five hells are you doing, Ser James?”

  His grip tightened on the box. Its wood was oddly smooth, like it had been polished, but it looked dull as normal wood. When he tried to probe it with his mana, it outright rejected him. Evidently, it had some protections from tampering in place. Not that he would want to damage it. As of now, it was the most precious item he owned.

  Though, admittedly, his ownership over it was rather dubious. Florence wasn't wrong to be upset.

  “I want to find Lord James,” he said simply.

  “And that justifies you invading Lady Claire’s office, does it?” Florence grimaced, turning back to Valerie. “What is going on here, Val? How is some backwater lunamancer casually strolling through wards crafted by the world’s greatest Wand?”

  “It's a complicated situation,” Valerie said. Her body language was relaxed, not a hint of tension in her. Lucas found himself surprised by that. He would've thought she'd be ready to take action, when it appeared someone was suspicious of him.

  There was a moment of silence as Florence waited for elaboration. But Valerie said no more. The redhead made a frustrated sound, then whirled back to Lucas. “I don't suppose you would be willing to give an explanation, Ser James?” She paused, scowling. “Is that even your name?”

  “For what it's worth,” Valerie finally said, “I’m sure Lady Claire would be fine with him having it. Her repeated failure to bring Lord James back into the fold weighs on her heavily.”

  “Is there anyone who can succeed in that task?” Florence asked, her voice gaining a hint of disbelief.

  “I hold out hope,” Valerie replied. Her stare had not strayed from Lucas, and her expression was unchanging.

  “This is a compass,” Lucas said, holding up the box in the palm of his hand. Tapping its front with a finger, he watched their expressions as it snapped open easily. With it faced towards them, they would be able to see the ghostly pointer within. “But you've seen this before, right? She used it to track him down at some point. With the way you're talking, I assume she's done it multiple times.”

  “That is correct,” Valerie said.

  “I haven't seen it before, but I've heard enough about it to guess what it is as soon as I saw it in your hand,” Florence added. She was wide-eyed, her gaze going back-and-forth between him and the box. “I still don't understand how you got in there, but the vaults still stopped you.” She looked at Valerie. “That doesn't make sense. If he was just leaching off of your permissions due to whatever link you have to each other because of this arrangement you have going on to replace your pendant, he wouldn't have been able to enter Lady Claire’s personal quarters.”

  “That is correct,” Valerie said again. She looked at Florence for the first time since Lucas had returned to the main room, but she didn't say anything. Her expression didn't change, still utterly blank.

  So why did Lucas feel a hint of danger in the air? An image shot through his mind like a lightning bolt, drawing him back to the incident outside Pentaburgh. He saw Rena’s face in that final moment, before a column of shining white light engulfed her. He remembered Wick’s scream of despair.

  Before he knew it, he was taking a step forward, interposing himself between Valerie and Florence. Valerie hadn't moved, she hadn't even given a hint that violence might erupt. But he saw the way this might go if he didn't intervene. He understood the need to keep his secret. He really did.

  That didn't mean he wanted to kill someone for it, unless they knew for certain that person was a threat. He could forgive the death of Jyn and Rena, because it had become pretty undeniable that they were hostile to him, that they would have killed him in that situation without remorse, and undoubtedly inflicted violations on his soul for whatever purposes this Darkstar group pursued.

  Things with Florence didn't have to be that way. Sure, they didn't know her well enough to know if they could trust her. But they could find out.

  If things did turn out that way, if they really couldn't trust her, then he supposed there was no better time or place to find out than now, far away from anyone else in the tower, behind wards that would prevent anyone else from interfering.

  Fuck, he hated thinking about that. Considering killing a person before even discovering whether they were an enemy or a friend felt wrong on a visceral level. But that was the reality he found himself in. He was going to have to make these calculations more and more. When every person he met could be a potential danger, he had to consider what to do if a fight broke out.

  Taking a deep breath, he faced Valerie, his back to Florence. He met her eyes for a moment, then gave a significant look downwards, towards her heart. Again, barely anything about her changed. But this time he did notice the difference.

  Her eyes had hardened.

  Spinning on the spot, he faced Florence. He met her eyes too. They were a deep green, so vibrant and luscious, he wondered if that was where she got her name.

  For barely a month he’d been skulking about, taking on his friends’ names to hide his identity. First Rian, then Jamie. Even as he understood the need and even agreed to it, it frustrated him. He didn’t feel like some great world-saving hero at all, but the fact of the matter was this world expected him to be one, and there was more to that than quietly building his power. The Star wasn’t meant to be just a warrior. They’d sacrificed more for him than the others for a reason.

  He was meant to be a leader, too. That had to start somewhere.

  “My name is Lucas Brown,” he said. “I’m the Great Star.”

  Silence reigned for a long moment. Florence blinked. Her mouth flapped open, but no sound came out. Her eyes searched his, then roved over his face, lingering every now and then on little details, then they went distant, her attention turning inward, thinking. She seemed to rock on her feet, like she’d been about to take a step back then stopped herself. A shaky breath escaped her, and she shook her head. Her shoulders slumped, then she appeared to square them.

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  Lucas waited, watching her. This was a gamble, he knew, and there’d be a steep price to pay if he was wrong. If this went poorly, at least one person would die as a consequence.

  But she had said she'd be willing to give him a chance.

  Time to see if she meant that.

  When she’d finally gathered herself enough to speak, her voice was brittle and her eyes were misty. “You’re not lying. Valerie would never be misled by some conman.”

  “It’s difficult to determine the exact dates, but I believe he arrived in the Grand Summoning Hall in Pentaburgh precisely 101 years after the original summoning,” Valerie said from behind him, sounding shockingly unbothered. She’d evidently taken a silent step or two to the side, giving her a line of sight to her comrade. “I hadn’t expected to encounter him out there, hoping only to study the summoning array itself and gather some clues as to what might have happened.”

  “What did you think you were going to be able to do, if even Lady Claire didn’t know why Lord Lucas hadn’t arrived with the others?”

  “I don’t know,” Valerie admitted. “But I had to try.”

  Florence drew in another shaky breath. “Explain everything,” she said. Then she glanced back at Lucas and winced. “Please,” she added.

  Valerie did most of the storytelling, since she had more context, and better understood how to relay a mission report to a fellow member of their order. She glossed over how she had backed out of Claire's mission with the express intention of heading to Pentaburgh, and spent little time on how she’d formed her team. She only gave Jyn any special mention, and that was in the context of elaborating on her investigation into the Darkstar group, whom she had been trying to convince Claire to deal with for some time.

  “Why does she not take these groups seriously?” Florence asked, frowning. “You have more insight into her mindset than most people. I never understood her lack of interest in these groups that railed against her.”

  Valerie shrugged. They had ended up moving to Claire’s messy office, where Valerie had pulled open a map as a prop for her tale. “I have spent a lot of time around her, but that doesn't mean I understand her. I don't need to.”

  Florence’s frown deepened at that, but she let the matter drop.

  The rest of the story went by quickly. Valerie deemed the journey to Pentaburgh up until encountering Lucas irrelevant. She gave her perspective, revealing she hadn't even suspected him at all at first, though she had noticed discrepancies. She had dismissed, mostly believing his story of being a country bumpkin. Men like him were not uncommon, apparently. It was only when they reached the wall of the city, where they found the graves without their rites performed, that all of Lucas’ strangeness was recontextualised and she realised the truth.

  “And I assume the pyromancer had to die,” Florence said neutrally.

  Valerie just nodded. She went on to explain all she’d seen Lucas accomplish so far. While he made his mistakes, and was clearly not on the calibre of the other great heroes, who'd been around for years, the progress he had made in his skills was undeniably unnatural. According to her, not even the greatest prodigy would have been able to improve as rapidly as he had, nor would anyone pick up new skills as simply. For proof of this, she revealed that Lucas’ lunamancy had been gained only two weeks ago; she told the tale of the Demon and the pendant in the process.

  Florence looked faint by the time it was all done. She was gripping the edge of the table, and her hands were trembling. “This is madness,” she whispered. “Utter insanity.”

  “It’s the truth,” Lucas said. He had kept quiet throughout most of the story, but even so, Florence’s gaze had barely strayed from him throughout. It was only at the end, when it seemed the reality of the situation had settled in, that she had closed her eyes and bowed her head over the table.

  “I know. I believe you. Both of you. But, fucking hell, let me take it in for a moment. I just can't believe I'm standing here, one of the first people on Aerth to meet you. This isn't supposed to be my life. This isn't supposed to be the kind of thing I get caught up in.”

  “But you are, and I need your help, just like I need Valerie's help. I need all the help I can get, frankly. Valerie wants to wait for Claire, and I understand her rationale. Training me up to a level that I can survive some of the things this world can throw at me before I make any kind of public debut is definitely the right way to approach things.”

  Valerie glanced at him sharply, but he held up a hand to her before she could complain.

  “I'm not deviating from that plan. I'm not stupid, however it might've seemed in the last few weeks. That was just…” He trailed off, searching for the right words. He leaned his hip against the table. “Let’s call it an adjustment period.”

  “I don't begrudge any of your decisions,” Valerie said. “You were plunged into a situation you were not prepared for, facing death and worse when you've been a normal person living a normal life for years. It was only natural that you did not perform perfectly. A little known fact, at this point, is that the other four made plenty of mistakes of their own in the early days.”

  Florence snorted. “Blasphemy.”

  “Lady Claire would tell you herself,” Valerie said. “But she recognised the need for the legend of the heroes to be as spotless as possible.” She showed a slight frown. “Obviously, we are well past that point.”

  “Yes,” Lucas said. “It seems like a lot of people have low opinions of Rian and Jamie. And Claire too.” He paused, and let out a sigh. “And even me. Even though I haven't done anything.”

  “For those people, the fact you haven't done anything is rather the point,” Florence murmured. She shook herself. “Well, I can never claim I was one of the most devout members of the Order. I didn't think about it too hard, but I guess I never actually believed you'd show up someday. But here you are. If Valerie vouches for you, then I trust you are who you say you are. The Great Star is finally among us.” Those words seem to shake her again, a visible shudder thrumming through her body. She took a deep breath. “What does that mean for us, though? What do you want to do, Lord Lucas?”

  “I want to train until I'm strong enough to hold my own, to the standards of the Order. Then I want to go and find Jamie. I'll bring him back here, where we’ll hopefully meet up with Claire. Wherever Rian is, we’ll track him down, too. And Aarya…” Lucas paused, having to swallow past a sudden lump in his throat. “We’ll find a way to bring her back. There has to be a way. She can't be dead.”

  Florence and Valerie exchanged a look. Valerie spoke softly, “Lord Rian went missing when my grandmother was a young girl, so any accounts of him are second-hand at best. But they say before he left, he spoke a lot like you were doing just now. Lady Claire does not like to talk about him.”

  "I don't care,” Lucas said. “If you need five heroes to defeat this Demon Lord and save the world, then you need all five of us. There's no way any of us can do it without the others.”

  They lapsed into another silence after that. Lucas’ gaze strayed over Claire’s office, but he constantly found himself being drawn back to the archway, beyond which lay that personal room, the one with the paintings. The urge to go back there and just stare at the lifelike visages of his friends was almost overwhelming. His very soul cried out to look upon them, to remember every detail.

  Distantly, he noted Valerie and Florence whispering to each other, but didn’t pay any close attention to it. His mind was on his friends. The last time he’d spoke to them all as a group had been at the ice rink, as part of their weekly outdoor activity—it was a tradition of theirs to go out and do something ‘fun’ every weekend, and they rotated through who chose the activity. Ice skating had been Aarya’s idea. Next would’ve been Lucas. He was planning to take them all kayaking on the Thames. He’d found a good spot online. Had been looking forward to it for ages.

  That was barely a couple of months ago for him. It would’ve been over a century for the rest of them—aside from Aarya, for whom it’d be just over a decade. He wondered if any of them would even remember that day on the ice, or if he’d be the only one laughing if he brought up the moment when Rian had fallen on his arse trying to impress some girl or other.

  Either way, he wanted to tell them all.

  Valerie’s voice brought him out of his melancholic musing. “Lord Lucas?”

  He turned from the archway, looking at the two skycloaks. They were both watching him with twin looks of determination, and the relief that sight brought made him feel like he was deflating.

  “What are your orders, Lord Lucas?” Florence asked, green eyes burning.

  Lucas squared his shoulders. If he wanted to tell his friends about that dumb memory, he was going to have to shape up and be worthy to stand side by side with them.

  “For a start, you two are going to beat the absolute shit out of me,” he declared.

  Discord :)