Yara spoke first.

  "The Wilds are the immediate problem," she said. "That goblin didn't wander out on its own for no reason. Something pushed it. Three thousand people with no walls, no knowledge of what lives beyond that tree line, and no idea what to do when something comes out of it." She paused. "They need help before something worse finds them. And something worse will."

  She let that sit for a moment.

  "The empire is the second problem. And in the long run the more dangerous one. If the wrong person stumbles across that town before we have any kind of arrangement in place, we lose the ability to control what happens next. If they find out about the weapons, about the knowledge these people carry..." She shook her head. "We need to move on this quickly."

  "Agreed," Merin said. "But quickly doesn't mean carelessly. We don't know these people. We know what Shai observed and what they told her in a single conversation. That's not nothing but it's not everything either." He paused. "The knowledge they carry is potentially vast. The weapons they described could reshape this world. Both of those things cut both ways. The wrong people having either one of those is as dangerous as the empire finding them."

  "You think they could be a threat to us," Koss said.

  "I think we don't know yet," Merin said simply. "That's why we meet them."

  Koss looked at Shai. Her tails had slowed again, amber eyes steady.

  "You spent time with them," she said. "Not long, but enough. Do you trust them?"

  The room waited.

  "Yes," Shai said. "I do."

  Koss held her gaze for a moment then nodded and looked back to the others. "Then I think we already know what we're going to decide."

  Merin leaned forward. "The question is how we approach this. What do we offer them and what do we ask for in return."

  "What they need most immediately is knowledge of the Wilds," Merin said. "What's out there, what's dangerous, what's safe to hunt and forage in the forest. That costs us nothing and starts building something between us before the formal meeting."

  "Training comes next," Yara said. "Their magic is combat magic with no foundation under it. Left to develop on its own they run the risk of it becoming dangerous to them before it becomes useful. We can guide that. We'll work with what they have, help them think through it, build their weapon skills alongside it." She paused. "You said one of them kept pushing past the point of sickness? Pushing is good, it builds the well, makes you stronger. But there's a difference between pushing hard and pushing through actual damage. If he doesn't know that difference he'll keep going back to the same well with a crack in it until it breaks."

  "That goes in the message tomorrow," Merin said.

  "In return we want full transparency at the table," Yara said. "Not just the weapons. Everything they know that could be relevant to life out here. Agriculture, medicine, building. All of it on the table."

  "They won't hand over everything in a first meeting," Koss said. "Neither would we." She paused. "From what Shai described they don't have a lot of anything on hand right now. We can help with that before we even get to what they know. Resources, information about where to find what they need, things we already have that cost us little to share. If we come to that table having already given something, we're not there to take from people who have nothing yet. We're there as partners."

  "Defence," Yara said. "They need to understand how to fortify, how the border works, what threats come in from which direction and when. That's years of knowledge we have that they don't."

  "And they have years of knowledge we don't," Merin said. "That's the principle we take into that meeting. Equal partners, equal gain. Not a transaction."

  "There's the supply question as well," Koss said. "They need things they can't produce yet. Livestock, grain, basics that take time to establish. If they start trading directly with passing merchants word gets out. Someone curious enough to follow a trail will find them." She looked at Merin. "We act as the middleman. Their needs go through our trade routes. Nothing unusual, nothing that raises questions."

  "It keeps them hidden," Yara said.

  "For now," Koss agreed. "Until we have something in place to protect it. After that we revisit. But until then anything that reaches the outside world goes through us."

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  Merin nodded slowly. "Agreed. And it gives us leverage we might need later." He looked at Shai. "You're meeting them tomorrow. Tell them three days. We'll come to them, to the edge of the grassland. No need to ask them to travel when we already know the way. Bring their leadership. We'll send a small group." He paused. "You'll be there."

  "I'll carry the message," Shai said.

  She reached across the table and picked up the watch. The ticking was steady against her palm. She fastened it back onto her wrist.

  Shai looked to the three of them. "Is there anything else you need from me tonight?"

  "No," Merin said. "We'll work through the particulars of the meeting ourselves. Go and rest. You've earned it."

  Shai nodded and pushed her chair back.

  "Oh, and Shai."

  She stopped. Koss's voice, warm and unhurried, with something underneath it, Shai could already guess what was coming.

  "Don't think I've forgotten about that talk we're going to have."

  She could hear the grin without turning around to see it.

  "I didn't think you would," Shai said.

  Her tail drooped. She shook her head once and walked to the door.

  Behind her she heard Merin's voice, quiet and dry. "You spend far too much time teasing that girl."

  She pulled the door shut on whatever Koss said back.

  Outside the air was warm and still. She stood on the step for a moment and let the tension she'd been carrying since the treeline finally seep out of her. Her shoulders dropped. She breathed.

  Torren would be in his garden by now, or close enough to done with his baking that he'd be sitting outside with whatever he'd made. Rika was likely still with him. She'd have followed him there the moment she realised Shai wasn't coming back quickly, and Torren wouldn't have minded. He never did. He said once that Rika's energy was like finding a warm fire on a grey morning. Shai had laughed at the time. She didn't disagree.

  She headed across the training ground toward the smell of woodsmoke and something savoury.

  "—and they were absolutely not talking," Rika said, leaning forward on her stool. "I'm telling you, Torren.

  Behind the east barracks. Both of them."

  Torren's wine stopped halfway to his mouth. "Davan and Sara."

  "Davan and Sara."

  He stared at her for a long moment then let out a low rumbling laugh that came from somewhere deep in his chest. "You're lying to me."

  "I am not lying to you, I saw them with my own eyes—"

  "Those two argue every single shift—"

  "I know—"

  "Last week Sara threw his lunch in the dirt—"

  "I know—"

  "He reported her to Shai—"

  "Torren I know, and yet." Rika spread her hands. "There they were."

  Torren shook his head slowly, still laughing, and lifted his wine. "Well. Good for them."

  "Good for them? That's all you have to say?"

  "What else would I say?"

  "I don't know, something more than—" Rika stopped. Her eyes moved past Torren to the gate. She changed direction without pausing for breath. "You left me mid-sentence earlier."

  Torren turned, smile already settled on his face. "Here she is," he said warmly. "Our beloved captain, returned at last."

  Shai opened the gate. The smell of the pie had reached her halfway across the training ground. "What did I miss?"

  "Nothing," Torren said.

  "Davan and Sara," Rika said at the same time.

  Shai stopped. "What about them?"

  "Nothing," Torren said again, still smiling.

  Rika opened her mouth. Torren gave her a look. She closed it again and took a long drink of her beer with the expression of someone who had not finished with this topic, merely paused it.

  Shai pulled up the spare chair and sat down. Torren was already reaching through the open shutter behind him. He came back with a plate, set it in front of her, and poured a glass of wine from the jug on the small table without being asked. The pie was still warm.

  "Made a nest of fire-leaf to keep it warm," he said simply.

  Shai looked at it for a moment. "Thank you, Torren."

  "Don't thank me, eat it."

  She did. Rika watched her with the patient expression of someone exercising enormous restraint. She lasted about thirty seconds.

  "So," she said. "The meeting."

  Shai ate another mouthful. "The elders are going to meet the town leadership in three days."

  Rika stared at her. "That's it? That's all you're giving me?"

  "I recommended the alliance. They agreed."

  "Shai."

  "What?"

  "I have been sitting here for the better part of two hours with only Torren and a pie for company. I deserve more than three sentences."

  Torren said nothing but the corner of his mouth moved.

  Shai looked down at her plate. "They came from another world. Their town was pulled from somewhere else entirely and dropped here. No magic where they came from, no other races, nothing like what's out there." She nodded toward the treeline. "They've had magic for less than a day. They had no idea what any of it was."

  Rika had gone very still.

  "Another world," she said, slower this time.

  "Yes."

  She looked at the mug in her hand like she'd forgotten it was there. For once she didn't say anything immediately. Torren watched Shai with the careful attention he gave everything, unhurried, waiting to see if there was more.

  "The one who gave me the watch," Shai said after a moment. "He was the one who stored the goblin. He has lightning magic." She paused. "He was nervous when I walked out of the trees. They all were but he seemed nervous more than the others. I'm not sure why."

  Torren smiled. "You liked him."

  "I liked all of them."

  "You liked him specifically."

  "I spoke to them for a few minutes. I barely know anything about him...them."

  Shai ate another mouthful and didn't give them anything else. Rika had turned fully on her stool now, mug abandoned, eyes bright.

  "Tell me about the lightning one," she said.

  "Finish your drink, Rika."

  "Shai—"

  "I'm going back to give them the message tomorrow," Shai said. "And you can ask him yourself."

  Rika opened her mouth. Closed it. Looked at Torren, who shrugged in a way that clearly said don't look at me. She picked up her mug and took a long drink with the expression of someone storing up an enormous number of questions for later.

  Torren leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky. The afternoon light was still warm across the garden. Shai felt the last of the tension from the day settle somewhere quieter in her chest.

  It was a good ending to a long day.