I woke up in a cell.

I felt numb, but it wasn’t the magical cold of the ghosts. This was familiar. I’d felt it a few days ago, when another ghost ruined my life.

I was in shock.

The cell door was closed, the bars were metallic, and the stone floor was cold. Duncan was in a cell across from me, Finn was in the cell next to mine, and I didn’t see Gavin or Aislin. Stairs leading up, two guards at the top, and no other ghosts in this part of the dungeon.

Who am I?

I should have been thinking about escape, or my friends, or survival, but that was the only question I could focus on.

Seven years. Closing on eight. That’s how long I had been on this path. Seven years where my only goal was claiming the title of chosen one and all the accolades that went with it. Then I fucked it all up. The council, and the temple, and the empire. I wasn’t diplomatic enough. I wasn’t smart enough. I wasn’t strong enough.

The chosen one wouldn’t give up. The hero of prophecy would never accept defeat.

I looked at Duncan. She was still waking up. I’d never looked at her this closely before. Her body language was like a caged animal, which, at the moment, she was. She had nice arms. There was a fire in her eyes. She hadn’t given up.

Just like her to spite us, even here.

Was it? Had she ever done that? Could I trust my memory, when all I’d seen of her in the past week defied that interpretation?

Regardless, I wouldn’t let her outshine me. I shoved down my doubts and took a few breaths to steady myself.

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

She nodded. “How? And what do we do once we’re out?”

A cool, feminine voice interrupted us. “I believe I can answer that.”

A ghost drifted to the space between our cells and turned to smile at me. Her smile was thin, but playful. She had sun bleached hair, fancy eyeliner, and a silky white dress that bared her shoulders. There was a dagger on her belt.

“Hello there. My name is Bellistrix Avicus Augustine, but you may call me Strix. I’m here to help you, provided you help me in turn.”

I raised a cautious eyebrow. “Help you do what?”

Her grin widened. “Why, we’re going to kill the emperor, of course.”

Duncan muttered, “We just tried that. Didn’t go well.”

Strix glanced back at her. “You needn’t lurk in that cell, you know. The doors aren’t locked. Please, let’s have a proper conversation, all together.”

I looked at the door to my cell and hesitantly gave it a push. It creaked open. Duncan and Finn did the same, and then we were all huddled in the hallway facing the grinning ghost.

“We don’t have much time, so we should really get going. I’m sure you’ll all be much more receptive to my offer out in the open air, yes? Dawn is on its way, after all, and I’d hate to be caught out in it.”

Duncan just pointed at the two guards.

I folded my arms and said, “I appreciate the thought, I do. But I’ve got a hundred questions right now, and I’m still aching from getting beaten down by a dozen specters. The biggest, most obvious one: how are we supposed to kill the emperor if we couldn’t kill a single ghost?”

Strix drew her dagger with a flourish and turned on her heel. She walked up the stairs, slit one man’s throat, then plunged her dagger into the other’s back. They both slumped to the floor, groaning, and she turned around to face the three of us once more. “Like that.”

We slowly emerged from the dungeons, glancing around anxiously for more threats. I gave Strix a wary look.

She sheathed her dagger and said, “You can’t kill them, because you’re living. But a ghost can kill a ghost. And this city is just crawling with ghosts. Interested in my offer yet?”

She explained a little of her plan as we crept out of the palace and towards the harbor.

There were dozens of nobles in the city, many of them important enough to have personal militia. If the ghostly nobility could be persuaded to lend their forces to the task, the palace could be assaulted. Nero would be ousted from his throne and the library would be free to access, free to pillage for what we needed.

Of course, that required convincing a bunch of crazy ghosts who hated each other to work together towards a common goal. It would mean spending a lot of time working towards a goal that only indirectly helped us get into the library. And it was founded upon trusting Strix, another imperial ghost with unknown motivations.

We arrived at the ship with minutes to spare.

Strix spared a nervous glance at the horizon, then spread her hands and said, “Well, I’m sure you have lots to discuss amongst yourselves. I’d advise getting a bit of rest too; if you intend to stay here any length of time, you should adjust to the different sleep cycle. I’ll return at evening, or you can find me in that building over there.” She pointed to a nearby warehouse. “Please, do take my offer seriously. We can do great things together, I promise.”

Then she left, and the three of us walked onto the ship and sat in the map room.

It took a few minutes before any of us could speak. It was still all so much to take in. A city of ghosts, a palace filled with threats, and an utter inability to harm said ghosts. All our training, all our preparation, was worthless.

There were more immediate concerns though, and they were easier to think about.

“We have maybe a month of food that isn’t fish, and we won’t accomplish anything nutrient-starved. Options?”

Finn blinked a few times like he was waking up. “Um, right. Well, we can’t go back home. And I doubt any food stores in the city will still be good, even without the concern of mold and insects.”

I nodded. “Raiders have fruit. I hear they’ve managed to get a few farms going on their own little islands. Not much, but something.”

Duncan finally woke up as well and shook her head. “We don’t have anything to trade, and we don’t have the numbers to take it by force.”

I pointed in the general direction of the city. “This city looks way more preserved than any of the places we’ve found before. The salvage here would be more than worth some food, if we put in the effort.” Privately, I had my reservations; it would take days to make the trip, and the raiders might not put the same value on fallen trinkets as the islanders did. But we didn’t have much other choice.

Duncan hesitated, but agreed. “Probably our best bet.”

Finn tried to say something and cut himself off. I waved for him to speak. He slowly managed, “I… I’m just wondering how long we’re actually going to be here. Are we taking that ghost up on her offer?”

Ah. There was the part I didn’t want to think about.

Duncan and Finn both looked at me for an answer. I rested my face on my hands and sighed.

“I don’t know. We… we have to. No matter how crazy her plan sounds, no matter how long it takes, right now she’s my only option. I can’t get into the library. I can’t get past those guards. I can’t stand up to that dead emperor and his army. I need a ghost on my side, and she’s the only one offering.”

The next part terrified me to say, and I fought myself every syllable, but I said it. “I have to do this. But, you don’t. You can go back. They’ll take you in. They’ll forgive you. You don’t have to consign yourself to this fool’s errand. You can take the ship, too. If I open the library I’ll find my own way back.”

“How?” asked Duncan.

I laughed bitterly. “Same way I got into this mess; there’s a Gate in this city, and I’ll bet you anything I can activate it.”

They glanced at each other, communicating nonverbally.

“I’m serious. If you want out, this is your chance. I’m about to help a dead woman overthrow an emperor. That isn’t what you signed up for.”

Duncan looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I signed up to help the chosen one save the kindred, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. You’re not going to scare me off that easily, Gwyn.” She winked at me.

Finn was a little less confident, but his resolve was firm. “I believe in you. I believe in the three of us. If anyone can do it, we can.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I wasn’t sure I could do this on my own. Okay, we need to start planning. Long days ahead of us. Long nights, rather. I’m not willing to trust everything on this ghost. I think we need to compile all we’ve learned from this little expedition.”

Duncan leaned back and made a thinking face. “Well, we’re starting to learn more about the old empire. Looks like they had more than just a few slaves. They must have conquered whole worlds.” She didn’t look very happy about that. “Whatever killed everyone, it spared the kindred from a kine revolt.”

“Maybe that was the point,” I conjectured.

That disturbed her even worse. “You’re saying they might have done it to themselves? That’s awful!”

I shrugged. “Better to die than be killed, right? I don’t necessarily agree, but I get the logic.”

Finn frowned. “But then, why would so many of them be… unprepared? It looks like almost every kindred in the city died ‘improperly’. I can’t imagine that being intentional.”

I drummed my fingers on the table and pondered that. “You’re right. Maybe it wasn’t a unanimous decision, then. I don’t know. Maybe Strix will have answers, tomorrow. Okay, next issue: our gear is useless. Armor doesn’t slow them, weapons don’t hurt them. Finn doesn’t even have sorcery, so our arsenal is pretty limited.”

Duncan looked at her blade and grimaced. “Hardly seems worth the trouble to even carry them around.”

I nodded. “We probably don’t need to bring much with us at all when we venture into the city. We can always come back here for whatever we’re missing, and it seems the ghosts can’t get onto the boat. This is our safehouse, for now.”

Finn gestured to the maps. “Should we bring any of these?”

“We don’t need any of the nautical ones, but it might be worth it to sketch a map of the city. Though, that’s also something we can ask Strix about.”

Duncan let out a deep breath, then said, “Okay, so, speaking of her, there’s something I’ve been thinking about. We’ve been focusing on the palace library because it’s the only place that would have physical evidence, books that are still whole, right?”

Finn and I nodded.

“Well, what if we don’t need physical evidence? What if we just bring a ghost with us, have someone who lived in the empire vouch for the prophecy?” Her tone was uncertain, but tentatively hopeful.

I leaned forward, steepled my fingers, and worked it over in my head.

Duncan continued, “The lady we met yesterday said something about it being hard for ghosts to cross water, but she didn’t say impossible. It might be easier than taking on an emperor and his military.”

I slowly shook my head. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. The council wanted hard proof, and it would be all too easy for them to dismiss anyone we brought. It would still be our word against theirs. They have ghosts from the fallen empire, lurking in that crystal formation. Besides, Valeria talked about fate like it was a stage trick or an idle curiosity. I doubt the average citizen will think much of it.”

Duncan deflated a little, but sighed and said, “Yeah, probably. It was worth a shot though.”

“Agreed. I’ll bring it up with Strix, she if see has any leads. If she does, we can try to negotiate a deal, a piece of help for a piece of help. For now, best to plan for the worse.”

I glanced at the hallway and saw a few rays of morning light slip in.

“We should get some rest. Tomorrow… or, I guess, tonight… we find the ghost and hear her out.” I managed a half-hearted smile. “Maybe this’ll only take a few days, and we can return home vindicated before the food stores even take a dent.” I didn’t believe that, but it was a nice thought.

We departed for our bunks and slept as the day broke.