Chapter Twenty-Two

Maika is forced to rethink her entire past and future when she finds herself in the center of a dangerous conspiracy against the Known World.

## Plot Summary

### Maika

Maika attends a council with the Blood Court, who discuss the alliance between the Dusk and Dawn Courts. Maika again tries to determine the Baroness' identity, but the war-masters only know her as an assassin, saboteur and diplomat. The Lord Doctor appears to know the Baroness is Tuya, suggesting the Baroness is a best friend and lover, but does not explicitly reveal this to Maika.

The Blood Court appears threatened by the notion of peace, a growing sentiment amongst humans and arcanics alike. Va'lan reveals the Federation navy has moved to sea, further away from the Cumaea's control, reinforcing tensions between the witches and their human government; another war-master reveals a Federation delegation is traveling to Constantine to treaty with the Dusk Court. Maika tells them the old gods are amongst the Cumaea, possessing the Mother Superior and others, and insists that if the old gods break free of the Gaol, it will spell doom for the world. Agata Tong Numma acuses Maika of housing an old god, Zinn, in herself, but the Lord Doctor defends his daughter. She insists peace is the best weapon the races have against the old gods, but the Doctor insists that Maika's bloodline makes peace an impossibility.

After the meeting, Agata and Uliaza Grimm speak with Maika, hoping to gain her trust and learn if the old gods truly do hide among them. When Agata speaks to another arcanic in Adyjje, the silent language, Maika asks her to interpret Zinn's strange signal from before. Agata reveals it means, literally, "trust only blood", but more generally, "trust only those who bleed for you." The Doctor interrupts the conversation, where he insists Kippa and Ren will soon be reunited with her. Maika threatens to kill the Doctor if he betrays her, to which the Doctor insists he refuses to harm his family - anymore.

Alone, Maika entreats Zinn to wake up. Seeing her father's pictures of her as a child, which show Zinn's sign on her chest, she instead tells Zinn to stay asleep, and steals the photos from their frames.

As Maika searches for a place in the compound to hear Zinn, Yvette finds her. She reveals she can no longer hear her old god host ever since the Lord Doctor took the Mask of Power fragments into his laboratory. Yvette then reveals the truth of "that night in the desert" - that, with two fragments, the Cumaea and Moriko unwittingly opened a portal. (It is hinted that this is when Yvetta was possessed by an old god.) Moriko had hidden Maika's true nature from them and when, in the aftermath, the Cumaea sought after Maika, Moriko burned a Cumaean victim's corpse to trick them into thinking Maika was dead. Yvette mourns that Moriko did not save herself instead.

The Doctor finds Maika and leads her into his sanctum, which displays the recorded memory (as a "dream") of an ancient, star-faring civilization. The Doctor reveals this magnificence is the goal of his plotting, admitting a desire to once again take to the stars. Maika finds him in possession of another sarcophagus, the same kind used by the Dusk Court to imprison her, but the Doctor insists it is useless - only good for one use. He then returns her belongings to her, including the Mask of Power. He has no interest in the mask itself, saying he would not activate it even if he could. He then shows Maika his experiment: a captured Gull, being drained of blood.

### Kippa

Kippa and Yafaela find themselves surrounded by sentinels and speak with their master, the Lady Dracul. While Yafaela cannot understand the dracul's language, Kippa can. The dracul reveals that her kind are not from the Known World - nor are the old gods, though both races are kin. Yafaela is then taken away, but Lady Dracul recognizes Kippa's fox-mortal nature and reveals her race's tale of traveling amongst the stars, until an undisclosed war destroyed the means of interstellar travel. The Lady Dracul, like many of her kind (and the old gods) then made her home here.

Lady Dracul releases Kippa and Yafaela in peace. Kippa asks Lady Dracul to leave with them, but the Lady Dracul demurs, believing the surface world too dangerous. She nevertheless warns Kippa of a coming conflict, letting her go out of a belief that Kippa might come to play a positive and important role.

As Kippa and Yafaela leave via boat, Kippa asks the sentinel boatsman to hold Yafaela back while Kippa escapes. Outside, she discovers a wounded Corvin, and rushes to distract the nearby Blood Court soldiers searching for him.