18

Meredith exhales. "There's a point where it's no good talking to you anymore," she says.

There are enough other pressing concerns with the end of the battle that no one is paying your apparently one-sided conversation much heed, but you realize Verity is approaching you. Meredith sees her, too, and clearly doesn't relish the thought of Verity discovering her presence.

"This is what it will always be like, if we let Cadafel return," she says, straightening. "Remember that. Remember this." With that, she vanishes, and Verity steps up beside you.

"I have to tell the truth. Now. Look at this," she says, almost tonelessly. You can't count the number of fallen guards in the smoke. You wonder if Verity knows the number. "This is our fault. We did this. I knew that even before your story about Cadafel. We need to do what we can to make things right."

"Are you sure you want to run straight back into the same thing you were fleeing in the first place?" you ask, remembering her vehemence three years ago.

"I don't have a choice," Verity snaps.

Princess Despina forbade any dramatic gestures before the wedding, and it's difficult to imagine a more explosive one than revealing Verity Fairgrieve's true identity amid a haze of demonic smoke. You're not certain if anyone would even believe her claim at this point, with the new life she's built here in Elith, but it would certainly throw your story into disarray. Verity seems set in her decision, but she's looking to you for the final nudge.