The dining hall looked pleasantly festive. It had not been my intention to make this dinner a particularly grand affair, but I had returned from the bay hours ago and decided to prepare for the evening early. Somehow, what should have been a rather simple task had turned into a deeply-focused period of ensuring perfection. The result was a splendidly-decorated entrance of vines and flowers, dozens more ropes of illuminated geodes swooping across the ceiling, fully-outfitted place settings, and an aroma of rich sauce and succulent meat in the air.

Octavia was to be arriving at any moment, and I was eagerly anticipating the sight of her luscious form and awe-inspiring face appearing through the adorned archway.

After receiving the validation from Katil earlier, I was in a stellar mood. Even if he was the only warrior under my command who felt honored to serve beneath me, it was enough. It meant I was making headway, proving myself to be a noble A’li-uud, or at the very least proving I was not the destructive and self-serving A’li-uud I was perceived to be. The only thing that would make the day better was Octavia, and I would be complete.

A high-pitched yell attracted my attention away from the dining hall. I paused and listened closely, trying to ascertain from whence the sound came and for what reason. I heard a deep but unintelligible response, and then another cry. It was all too reminiscent of what I had heard from my bedroom the day I had granted Octavia the freedom to come and go from the palace as she pleased, and I felt a stroke of irritation that she should be having trouble entering without an escort again. Striding purposefully out of the hall into the foyer, I flung one of the two doors open.

It was not Octavia arguing with my guards. It was Edie.

Her arms were flailing around her head in a frenzy, and her features were twisted with panic. Even from the distance, I could see her eyes were widened nearly to the point of bursting right out of her head. She screamed at Grivil at the top of her lungs, and I knew even the sounds of the budding nighttime crowd on the Merchant’s Walk would not be enough to drown her.

A hard knot gelled in my stomach as I descended the staircase to the path leading to her. I could imagine only one reason Edie would be outside my palace at the dinner hour in a state of utter hysteria, and it had to do with Octavia. Something was very, very wrong.

“What has happened?” I demanded. “What is the trouble?”

“Wise One, she is insisting on seeing you,” Grivil replied hotly. I needed no light to see his face was darkened to navy with anger. “She has lost her head completely. I think she needs to be taken back to the colony and placed under surveillance.”

“No, I don’t!” Edie bellowed at him.

I looked at her, and, to my horror, I saw a series of patches on her arms I could only guess were bruises beginning to form. Her hair was in complete disarray, and she held herself as if she was in a measure of pain. I held up a hand to keep Grivil quiet and asked her urgently, “What has happened to you, Edie?”

“It doesn’t matter what happened to me; Octavia’s in trouble!” she spouted, her words blending into a single breath. She lunged forward to grab my hand in earnest. Grivil took a step toward her, prepared to break her hold on me, but I stopped him with a jerk of my head.

“What is wrong with Octavia?” I asked. Pumping blood thrummed in my ears, and I was starting to feel as though I would be sick.

She could hardly breathe. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, and every inhalation was accompanied with a squeaking wheeze. She released me and pointed back toward the colony as she panted, “She was taken!”

“Taken? What do you mean, taken?”

“I was in the salon. She was doing my hair. I was the only other person in there because they were closed for the night.” She pressed her fist to her chest and gasped, and I reached to pat her back soothingly despite my growing need to double over and wretch. “Someone came in, an A’li-uud. A female A’li-uud. She wanted to know about you.”

Realization was beginning to set in, and in place of the nausea came raw, bitter rage. I needed more information, though, before I stormed off. “What did she want to know about me?”

“She wanted to know about your relationship. With Octavia,” Edie said. She turned her head to look back in the direction she was pointing, and the angle cast a ray from the rising moon onto her eyes. They were glistening, and I saw moist streaks painted on her cheeks. “She asked if you loved her.”

“If I loved Octavia?”

Edie nodded. My brain was starting to buzz dully, blocking out everything except the panic, and my fingers were starting to go numb with shock.

“What happened then?”

“Octavia asked her to leave, basically. She said she’d talk to her when she wasn’t at work.” A sob broke through Edie’s explaining, and she shuddered as the grief and fear threatened to take hold. “Then, she attacked.”

Though the sun was setting and the day was growing dim, I was blinded with crimson rage. I was fairly certain I already had all the answers I needed, but Edie continued to blubber on.

“She knocked Octavia down, and I started trying to fight her off, and she knocked me down, then she went for Octavia again, and I tried to stop her, but she shoved me against the wall and pulled a knife,” she wept. “She told me, if I moved, she’d spill Octavia’s blood at my feet.”

I had heard enough. I knew all I needed to know. Years of exile had not eliminated the knowledge and familiarity I had with my sister’s roguish ways, and the story Edie was telling me was as evidential as if I had seen the scene with my own eyes. Had the attack been impersonal and random, questions about me would not have come up, certainly not pertaining to my feelings for Octavia. No, there could only be one offender, and she was unstable enough that I realized every second I waited was a second closer to Ola’s complete mental breakdown and Octavia’s potential death.

“Grivil, please escort Edie back to the colony,” I ordered rapidly. “See to it she is safe and comfortable. Bring her anything she desires, and tell Zuran he is to be stationed outside her hut tonight.”

“Zuran has gone home for the day,” Grivil pointed out.

I shot him a warning look. “Then, fetch him from his home and tell him there has been a change in orders. Go. Now.”

He turned without another word, nudging Edie along with him back toward the colony. I wracked my brain for a moment to decide what my best course of action would be, but the pressure of wasted time was too great to bear. My saber was in the palace rather than on my person, which meant I was absolutely unarmed, and by Edie’s account Ola was in possession of at least one knife. It would have been prudent to dart back inside to retrieve the sword from my chambers, but I could not stand the thought of Octavia alone with my unbalanced sister for any longer period of time than she had to be. I made a rash decision and took off, kicking sand in every direction as I raced toward the Ka-lik’et gates.