They walked through the house to Hireth’s room.

“Hey.” Eric knocked on the doorpost of Hireth’s open door.

“Don’t do that!” she shouted at Eric and Illius.

“I… I just knocked,” Eric said.

She let out a deep sigh. “Sorry, I was in the middle of something.”

Eric just waited, still blocking Illius’ path.

She sighed again. “I’m trying to come up with a solution.”

“For what?”

“Our Illius problem,” she said, and Illius felt a shudder run through his body. He knew that it couldn’t have been easy for either of them to take care of him, but Hireth had also never made him feel anything but welcome. Was that all… a lie?

“You do know he’s right behind me, right?” Eric jerked his thumb back toward Illius. “You’re gonna give him the wrong idea.”

“Shit, Eric.” A chair moved and quick footsteps sounded as she walked out the door. “Illius, you’re not a problem—that’s not what I meant. I’m just… not sure what to do with you.”

“Way to make it better.” Eric glared at her. “Don’t you think it’s his choice what he should do?”

“It’s not that simple,” she sighed. “Let’s go to the living room.”

Illius followed behind them and sat on the brown, fabric couch in the living room. Eric also took a seat, but Hireth remained standing. This would be the part where she said he needed to leave because he was endangering them. He braced himself, anticipating the inevitable.

“Okay, so… the reason that the guards aren’t really looking for you, Illius, is because they’re playing a waiting game. In about two weeks, if my calculations are correct, you’ll start to show up on their scanners, and they can find you anywhere in Patria.”

Illius’ heart started racing. He had no idea such a thing was even possible.

“What?” Eric sat upright.

“Think about it,” Hireth said. “The institution drained him of his magic for weeks. So, his body responded by desperately generating magic to stay alive. And because of that, they inadvertently expanded his magical yard. So, as Illius’ magic naturally comes back and finishes healing him, it’s going to be way more than he ever had before—enough to be detectable.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Back up,” Eric said. “Just so I understand, Patria just has… scanners lying around?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “They’re usually near the city portals, ’cuz there’s already enforcers around those. There are different types of scanners—most just look for a high magical volume, but some can search for a particular signature as well.”

“And signatures are…?”

“Your unique, identifiable magical signature. It’s like a fingerprint. There’s not a lot of scanners that look for that, and you have to be a lot closer. I’m not worried about signature scanners though—to my knowledge, the only one in Debendorf is in front of a portal leading directly to the Senate chambers in Parthik.

“The high-yard scanners are going to be a problem, though. Generally, the enforcers use them to identify mages of interest, and then they run signature traces after they capture them. People with large magical presences are… rare. Senators and high-up elders of the church are registered and won’t trigger anything, but anyone else will. The point is, we can’t hide forever. Within two weeks, they’ll be able to find exactly where Illius is.”

“Because he’ll have a… large amount of magic?” Eric asked.

“Yes.”

“And I will… not have a large amount of magic?”

“You weren’t drained dry for the past months,” Hireth said. “So no, your yard hasn’t expanded much.”

“Such bullshit,” Eric said, grimacing.

“So, it’s inevitable that they’ll find us?” Illius rubbed his hands together. “Because of me?” He had to leave—he couldn’t risk Hireth and Eric’s safety.

“No,” Hireth said, to his surprise. “Well, if we don’t change anything, yes. But there are things we can do—options, per se.”

“Which are?” Eric asked.

“We can move to the country—there’s fewer scanners out there, so we’d be a bit safer. It would buy time potentially, but frankly, we stick out. Mages always do. Especially here—and if you think city people are nosy, country people are gonna be all up in our business, and I don’t have a good story. Even if I said you’re both my nephews, Illius’ skin will stand out. And then there’s the entire problem of getting to the country without tripping any of their scanners. Portals would be the fastest way to travel, but all the city portals have scanners. I could potentially sabotage them, but that would take time to plan.”

“You have another idea?” Eric asked.

She nodded slowly. “Build a portal.”

“A portal?” Eric asked. “Like the portals in the courtyards? The portals that take years to build?”

“That’s because those are built out of stone, and they have to get the runes etched and everything. It’s because they want it to last. You technically don’t need that. It’s… the difference between using a fallen log to cross a chasm and building a stone bridge with railings.”

“One’s a lot safer than the other?” Eric ventured.

“Yeah… building a rogue portal is not without risk,” she said, nodding, “but it’s safer than staying here. And if I can build a portal, we can simply walk through it to Noviad.”

“You want to leave the entire country?” Eric asked.

“It’s… complicated, but I think it’s the best option.” Hireth sighed. “Even if we get out of Debendorf and move to a more remote corner of Patria, what kind of life is that? We’d live in fear, hiding everywhere we went.” She shot them both a tired look. “I don’t want to go to Noviad for… personal reasons—but at least they don’t hunt therians there. After the stunt we pulled at the institution, we’re always going to be looking over our shoulder here.”

“You don’t want to go back because it reminds you of my uncle?” Eric asked gently.

Hireth hesitated. “There’s just… a lot of bad memories there. People I’d like to avoid.”

Eric sighed. “What about contacts through the resistance? Would you know anyone that could help us? Maybe sneak us through the border?”

“Um… maybe, but we can’t sneak Illius through the border with his magic as high as it is. They absolutely have signature scanners at all border points. Not to mention, the more people we involve… the riskier it becomes. There are people—even in the resistance—who would jump at the chance to turn a therian in. There’s two people I trust, but opening that door is going to complicate things in a big way.”

“Complicate… how?” Eric pushed.

“It’s a long story. Just trust me; it would make everything harder.”

Eric made a face. “You’re avoiding people in Noviad, and people here complicate things?”

“Yeah, see, I didn’t learn my pyromaniac skills from Sister Betsy’s Home for Good Little Girls. I’ve made some powerful enemies, and I’d rather not draw attention to myself.”

“Were you part of the war?” Her nephew narrowed his eyes.

“Something like that.” She brushed it off.

Eric let it go. “So, we can’t sneak through the border, and getting out of the city is a temporary solution?”

“Correct,” Hireth said. “So, we build a portal.”

“So, we build a portal,” Eric echoed. “How do we do that?”

“It’s complicated,” Hireth said. “I’ll have to do some research, but I think I can remember. The bigger problem is after it’s all built.”

“Which is?”

“It takes a lot of magic to activate.”

“Can we do it slowly, so they won’t notice?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t think you understand. Portals can be kept open with a steady stream of magic, but to open one… It’s going to be noticeable. Not only that but I’m going to need more magic than I currently have, which means I’m going to have to unseal a section of my soulforce.”

“Unseal?”

“The particulars are… complicated, but in order to hide from the scanners all these years, I sealed a lot of my magic.”

“Okay…” Eric shook his head, clicking his tongue. “So, what happens when we unseal your magic?”

“They’ll know exactly where I am. But… we can open the portal.”

“And you have enough magic to open this portal?”

“Mmhmm.” She nodded.

“You have more magic than Illius?”

“Y-yes,” she admitted, avoiding eye contact. “More importantly, I can control mine.”

“I always thought therians had, like, a ton of magic.”

“Yes, therians have a lot of magic. I have more magic.”

Eric and Illius glanced at each other.

“Let’s back up to where you said that you were going to unseal your magic,” Eric said. “You healed Illius, so you clearly have magic. How are you supposed to unseal yours if you already have it?”

“I’m… not normal.” She bit her lip. “I was part of an experiment when I was younger. It allows me to use multiple colors of magic… Or it would have, except my dominant magic eats the rest.”

Eric and Illius shared a dumbfounded look.

Hireth sighed. “I don’t like to talk about it, okay? It wasn’t a pleasant experience, and I’d like to forget all about it. Soulforces aren’t singular colors—they’re a prism where a dominant color is usually the only one you see. With… uh… They can do certain things to allow other colors through that prism. The bottom line is I sealed my dominant magic, so the enforcers can’t find me. I can unseal that magic—theoretically—and open a portal with it.”

“If you sealed your magic,” Illius asked, “can you seal mine?” A small part of him dared to hope.

“No.” Hireth shook her head. “For one, I’ve never tried sealing someone else’s magic. It’s a personal process. I could teach you how, if you had time, but you’re a therian. Your magic works differently. If people would stop experimenting on them and start looking at how their magic actually works, we might know more. The truth is there’s very little research or knowledge about how therian magic actually works. My theory is that therians’ soulforces channel raw elemental magic, and they don’t have a prism the same way.”

Illius cocked his head. “What does that mean?”

“Let me think of a good way to put this. The difference between non-elemental people and therians is that if Eric and I wanted to start a fire, we would send orange magic running through wood until it burst into flames. Well—we’d use a rune that neutralized our dominant element and converted it to orange magic, which would heat the wood enough to burst it into flames. On the other hand, if a therian is a fire elementalist and wants a fire, they can just generate a flame in their hands.”

“That’s… pretty cool.” Eric’s eyes sparkled.

Hireth nodded. “All this is to say, if we tried to seal your magic, Illius, we might kill you.”

Eric’s lips thinned. “Because you think his life force is his element?”

“Right. Mine branches, so I can seal portions, but if my theory is correct, therians only have a single magical element.” She gave Illius a furtive look. “Also… I’m just gonna guess that you’ve probably had enough magical experimentation performed on you lately.”

He nodded, grateful for her understanding.

“The entire other aspect of this is if either of you even want to go to Noviad.” She glanced between them. “Yeah, it’s the safest option in the long term, but… it’s permanent. Think about it, sleep on it. We don’t have to decide right now.”

“I think…” Eric started to speak, but Hireth held up her hand.

“Your brother is still here somewhere, Eric. Don’t… make a decision you’ll regret. Alright. I’ve got bread to bake. You two mull it over, and I’ll keep thinking of ideas.”