The next couple hours passed in a blur of all-consuming pain. I never quite passed out from it, but after a while things got so fuzzy I might as well have. About all I remembered was getting hauled to the hospital, and a few pony and caribou doctors looking me over and asking questions I couldn’t remember a second after I’d answered. I think they ended up going to Puzzle or Strumming for the rest of the info—both of them probably had a copy of my medical records anyway.

Eventually one of them did something, and after a bit the pain eased off. Judging by how fuzzy the rest of the world got after that, it was probably some sort of seriously heavy-duty painkiller. I was more than happy to drift off into semi-consciousness as soon as that happened.

I returned to the land of the living an indeterminate time later. I had a few vague impressions of what had happened since the fight, but it was all a huge pain-filled blur. What mattered now was that I was comfortably settled into a hospital bed. All the lights were off and the curtains were drawn. Judging by how the tiny sliver of light I could see peeking through the window covering stabbed at my eyes, I wanted to keep it that way.

I shifted around in my hospital bed and immediately regretted it as more or less my entire body flared up in dull aching pain. A second later I felt Kukri’s hoof on my chest. “Easy Shimmer-mare, don’t move too fast.”

I groaned and settled back into the bed. “Not gonna be a problem, kid.”

“Thirsty?” Puzzle asked, holding up a glass of water. He dropped a straw into the glass and moved it into my reach.

“Yeah, thanks.” I sipped the water, feeling a tiny bit more alive afterwards. Not quite normal, but a bit less weak and icky. “So how bad is it?” I reached up and rubbed my head, half-expecting to find some sort of bandage or gaping head wound. It would certainly explain why it felt like I’d been hit half a dozen times with a sledgehammer. There wasn’t anything like that, but I did discover something a touch unsettling. “Am I missing part of my mane?”

Puzzle grimaced and nodded. “They needed to partially shave your head for some of the scans.”

Kukri did her best to put on an optimistic smile. “It'll probably grow back before long. Or we could always find a stylist to try and fix it.”

“Yeah, sure.” I sighed and rubbed at the patch of bare scalp. “Well, at least I’m in good enough condition to care about things like having a giant ugly bald spot.” Considering how the fight with Starlight had gone, I could’ve easily wound up with much bigger problems.

Like being dead.

“Mom gave this one plenty of extra hats before it left,” Kukri pulled out a a bright orange knit hat a big puff on the top and a chin strap. “And really, it’s so cold out that there’s no reason not to just keep your hood up all the time anyway. Same for Freeport, if it’s really rainy when you go out. Or maybe you could try a spell or something to fix it?”

“I don’t know any mane-repair spells off the top of my head.” I could just try to muddle my way through it, but that sounded like a phenomenally bad idea. I’d probably just end up making the rest of my hair fall out, or have it grow insanely out of control. “Guess I’ll just have to wait for it to grow back on its own. If that's the worst problem I have to deal with, I'll be a very happy mare.” I sighed and turned to face Puzzle. “So how unhappy am I about to be? You said they needed to do brain scans?”

Puzzle took a deep breath. “Worse than you’re going to like, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. The simple fact that you seem coherent and more-or-less your usual self is a very good sign. According to the doctors, you suffered a brain aneurysm. The doctors presumed it was magically induced, given the circumstances.”

Ouch. I’d known there were risks to trying to jury-rig Argentium’s rune to do what I needed, but I hadn’t expected it to go that badly. “Okay, so there was bleeding in my brain. That’s...” I struggled to think of a word that captured just how bad that was. I could’ve wound up dead, or a vegetable like Metal Mome. I prepared myself for the worst. “How bad is the damage?”

Puzzle did his best to sound gentle and reassuring. “The doctors haven’t found any signs of permanent damage, but you can expect things like headaches, nausea, vision impairment, and a tendency to get a bit drowsy or confused. So long as none of them start to become more than minor inconveniences or persist too long, it should just be a normal part of the recovery.” He frowned at me. “You should consider yourself a lucky mare; most aneurysms end with the patient dead or disabled.”

“Nice to know I beat the odds,” I grumbled. Lucky was about the last thing I felt right now. “Let me guess: I’m going to be going through a bunch of tests before they let me out? And I’ll probably need to follow up with a neurologist as soon as we get back to Freeport, assuming they’re okay with me spending a while on a ship far away from any full-fledged hospital anytime in the near future?”

Puzzle nodded along. “Pretty much. The current tests all look optimistic, but they’ll want to check all your motor and mental functions just to be sure. Magical tests as well, once you’re feeling up to it.” He shot a pointed frown my way. “And no, this one isn’t going to help you break out of the hospital to avoid being tested.”

“This one either,” Kukri agreed. “It’s willing to stay here as long as it needs to.” She nodded to the cot she’d had set up next to my bed, with her bags sitting next to it. Evidently she’d been working on some of her homework to keep herself distracted.

I started to roll my eyes at them, but the gesture made my headache flare up again. “I’m not stupid, Puzzle. I know not to screw around with brain damage.” I frowned at him as another thought sprang to mind. “For that matter, when have I ever tried to sneak out of the hospital to avoid treatment?” Sure, I wasn’t a huge fan of them either, but when a job ended with me making a trip to the hospital there was usually a very good reason for it.

Puzzle met my ire with a patient gaze. “You wouldn’t have been the first to ask this one to try and get them out of a hospital. Just saying.”

I snorted and almost shook my head before I realized that would probably be a very bad idea. “Well unless they were stuck in some sort of situation where their doctor was trying to kill them, whoever asked for that was an idiot.”

“Incredibly so,” Puzzle agreed, “but that doesn’t keep people from asking. And this one is glad to see that the Shimmer-mare’s personality is unchanged from her ordeal. That was one of the things the doctors asked us to check for.”

“We’re just making sure.” Kukri bit her lip, awkwardly shuffling her hooves. “You’re ... we were worried for a while.”

I wrapped a foreleg around my apprentice, pulling her into a half-hug. “I’m okay, kid.” I cleared my throat and shifted my attention to Puzzle. “So, looks like my mind’s in good working order. Is there anything else to worry about other than the risk of brain damage?”

“Quite a few cuts and bruises of varying levels of severity,” Puzzle answered. “There are also a large number of city officials eager to ask you some pointed questions about why several buildings in the town square are currently a smoking ruin.”

“Figures.” I took a deep breath, then nodded to myself. “Let’s deal with the injury list first, I’m not going to be talking to the mayor, militia captain, and/or whoever else has questions until I can get out of a hospital bed.”

“The caribou should be pretty easy to deal with,” Kukri pointed out. “We can just tell them that Starlight’s a warlock we’ve crossed paths with before and now she’s out for revenge. Even if we’re outside the Shimmer-mare’s jurisdiction, it’s textbook self-defense: all the witnesses will confirm that Starlight attacked first. Plus, warlocks are subject to universal jurisdiction anyway.”

The actual law was a bit more complicated than that, since not everyone would recognize me as a fully legitimate magus and warlock hunter. Granted, I was reasonably certain Argentium and Celestia would acknowledge me as such, which largely settled that issue; the bigger problem was that Starlight wasn’t a warlock so far as I knew. She’d used plenty of nasty spells in the fight, but nothing that qualified as dark magic. That meant she was just a normal criminal.

Then again, her normal crimes were still more than enough to put her away for the rest of her life.

Puzzle nodded to Kukri. “Given that the Glimmer-mare is in a high-security cell while the Shimmer-mare is not under guard, this one thinks the locals agree.” He shifted his attention back to me. “The rest of your wounds are far less worrying. Not that stitches for a few of the worst cuts are a laughing matter, but compared to brain damage...” He pointed to my right rear leg. “They did say it would best if you minimize stress on that leg until the wound healed, given the wound there was deeper than the rest.”

I grunted and nodded along. “The one I had to pull a chunk of building out of, right?”

“Right,” he confirmed. “You should have been more careful about yanking that out. This one would hope that you know about the dangers of bleeding out when you do something like that.”

I grunted and frowned at him. “That’s why I froze it over.”

Kukri hesitantly spoke up. “Yes, but freezing it isn’t the same as healing it. If you’d been alone when you had that aneurysm, it could’ve melted before we found you.”

I sighed and resisted the urge to start grinding my teeth. “Fighting Starlight with a chunk of building sticking out of me wasn’t a good option either, and if I passed out either the aneurysm or Starlight would’ve killed me before ice melted in a Northmarch winter.”

Puzzle held up a hoof to forestall my objections. “This one wasn’t saying that that was a bad call. Merely that it was a very dangerous one, and that you should be mindful of the risks involved. Especially when that wasn’t even the biggest risk you took in the course of that fight.” He shot a pointed look at my half-shaved scalp.

“Taking risks is part of fighting,” I snapped. “If I’d played it safe, Starlight would’ve either killed me or done ... whatever it was her master has in mind.”

“This one is well aware,” Puzzle answered calmly. “As it said, there was merit to your decision. It’s just that—”

“That you think I’m so dumb and reckless I’d refuse to get treatment for brain damage,” I scoffed. “What is even wrong with you?! Celestia above, I am so sick of everyone saying that I’m not good enough to cut it after what happened with Scarlett, and now Starlight!”

Kukri flinched, then gently put a hoof on my shoulder. “Nobody thinks that, Shimmer-mare.”

“Nor has anyone said it,” Puzzle continued, frowning thoughtfully as he stared at me. “Or at least, none of us have said that.” He took a deep breath, and when he spoke again there was a slow, careful deliberation to his words. “This one knows the last two fights ended badly, but they were both against extremely strong opponents. And ones who also had the advantage of surprise and preparation. It is not surprising that you struggled against them, but both times you found a path to victory despite the odds.”

I grunted and rolled over in bed, slipping out of the half-hug I’d been giving Kukri. The last thing I needed was both of them trying to do some sort of encouraging friendship thing. Like I was just down in the dumps over that fact that bucking Starlight Glimmer had apparently gotten so much stronger than me that I had to break out a crazy desperate gamble that nearly killed me just to stay on par with her.

“This one understands how losing can feel,” Puzzle continued, clearly not taking the hint that I didn’t want to listen. “It’s lost its fair share of fights over the years, and more than a few of them were quite embarrassing.” He chuckled to himself, wistfully shaking his head. “This one remembers a time when it had to help the Council by acquiring several ledgers detailing a large trafficking ring. It drew an elaborate twenty-stage plan for how to get past the guards by taking advantage of their habits and quirks or arranging carefully timed distractions to draw them out of position. It ... didn’t work out.”

“What happened?” I asked, mostly just to be polite.

“To start with, the guard at the front desk proved frustratingly difficult to draw away.” Puzzle let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a chuckle. “This one spent fifteen minutes chucking pebbles around to make a sound he’d want to go investigate, but he didn’t seem to care at all. It was tempted to try setting an empty building on fire as a distraction, but it suspects that even then he probably would’ve just looked up at it for a minute, then shrugged and sat back down.

“Fortunately this one had a backup plan: one of the guards always opened up one of the side doors for a bit of fresh air at exactly 19:45 every night, so this one could use that opening to slip unnoticed. Except he didn’t follow his routine that night. And when this one tried to sneak in through a window, it discovered two of the guards had stopped right next to it to discuss how their favorite hoofball teams were doing. It tried to wait for them to move on, but evidently bored night guards are capable of carrying on banal conversations about mundane things for hours.”

“So what’d you end up doing?” I asked, a bit curious despite myself.

He shrugged. “This one came back the next day with a good crossbow, walked in through the front door, and just shot the guard. It was much less trouble and far less embarrassing than weeks of planning and wasting an entire night.” He chuckled. “And a few years later, this one even tracked down that guard and put him in charge of this one’s warehouse security. A guard who’s that stubborn about refusing to be distracted from his post is worth keeping.”

“Okay.” I shrugged listlessly. “That was a story. Why’d you tell it?”

“The point,” Puzzle explained patiently, “is that we’ve all had our share of failures over the years. Sometimes, they help us realize what we were doing wrong, and how we can improve ourselves in the future.”

Kukri nodded along. “It’s not much different than getting a bad grade on homework. This one doesn’t like bad grades, but Mom and Dad always tell it that it has to know what it’s doing wrong in order to get things right. It’s not exactly the same, but...”

“I never got bad grades,” I grumbled.

Puzzle sighed patiently. “Right, you’re not used to failing.”

“It’s not exactly something you want to get used to,” I pointed out.

“No,” Puzzle agreed. “But as Kukri said, there’s a benefit to failing: you get to learn from your mistakes. No matter how gifted you are and how much you accomplish, nobody can go through life achieving only perfect success. The important thing is learning how to recover from failures and find a pathway to victory.”

“So what’s my pathway here?” I challenged. “I’m not going to pick up twenty years’ worth of experience overnight, and even if I had another one of Argentium’s runes to try that trick with again there’s no way I’d risk it.”

“Starlight found a way to get more power when she felt she desperately needed it,” Puzzle pointed out.

“Yeah, by making a bargain for it.” I figured that settled the issue, but instead of acknowledging that I was right Puzzle just kept looking at me. The implication was so crazy it took a while for me to work out what he must be thinking. “Are you saying I should—that’s crazy!”

“Making bargains with eldritch beings in the hopes of gaining power always ends badly,” Kukri agreed, dutifully repeating the lesson I’d drilled into her. “Nothing you could gain from a deal like that is worth giving another being power over you.”

“Not even your own life?” Puzzle challenged. “Or the lives of your friends and companions? This one fully understands that any such arrangement should only be entered into with the utmost care, but the last week has made it abundantly clear that there are threats the Shimmer-mare isn’t capable of facing unless she surpasses her current limits.”

“I’m not giving up my independence to be the lackey of some immortal being,” I countered.

“Sometimes sacrificing independence is part of life,” Puzzle countered. “If you want to be a fully independent being with no ties to or dependence on others, settle down on one of the out-islands as a subsistence farmer.” He grimaced and sank down onto the couch. “Take the job for the White Pony. She’s practically tripping over herself to offer you the strength you need to survive against threats like Starlight Glimmer or your own mother. This one would rather miss you for a few years than bury you because it pulled you into more than you could handle.”

“Oh.” I slumped down on the bed, rolling onto my back but not quite looking at him. Whatever I’d expected to hear Puzzle say, it certainly wasn’t that. But ... he had a point. I’d narrowly escaped death or imprisonment twice, and if a third time came up I probably wouldn’t be so lucky. And if I was going to sell out to someone, Celestia was just about the most benevolent being I could find. Not to mention if she taught me the secrets to becoming an alicorn I wouldn’t need to worry nearly so much about being overpowered by every random magus with a bit more experience or school dropout who made a bargain or picked up an evil artifact. “I’ll ... I’ll think about it, okay? It’s not a decision to make while I’m still in the hospital.”

Kukri stared at him for several seconds, her jaw hanging half-open. “Huh. This one’s ... huh.” She frowned, then slowly nodded to herself. “He’s right, Shimmer-mare. This one doesn’t want to see you get hurt again. If that means you have to go back to the White Pony for a bit, then that’s fine. This one would have to get Mom and Dad’s permission to come along, but it’s sure it could convince them.”

“I’ll think about it,” I repeated, mostly because I wanted to close the topic. I knew what they were saying made a lot of sense, but going back to Canterlot felt too much like giving up. Maybe I was just being stubborn about trying to do things on my own, in spite of the mounting evidence that I couldn’t. Maybe it was like Strumming said, and it was just a matter of pride and ego getting in the way of doing the smart and logical thing.

“We have more than enough to deal with in the meantime,” Puzzle agreed. “Starlight might be locked up for now, but we need answers for why she attacked us and who she’s working for. Not to mention working out what exactly we’re going to do with her.”

“And what she took,” Kukri nodded towards the dresser, where my armor had been freshly laid out along with a new cloak. And far more important than either of them, Chainbreaker was resting on the wall right next to them. “This one still can’t believe she had the nerve to steal away Chainbreaker! But...” She turned back to me, and in an instant she’d transformed back into the little kid who hero-worshipped me, a grin on her lips and eager glee in her voice. “Did you really use Chainbreaker in battle against the Glimmer-mare?! This one heard you did, but Puzzle wouldn't let it stay to watch the fight after the inn exploded.”

“Because this one was trying to keep you from getting hurt,” Puzzle pointed out. “And the Shimmer-mare specifically asked this one to see to your safety.”

Kukri let out an impatient sigh and waved his concerns away. “Yeah yeah, but this one’s fine, and it missed the chance to see her use Torch Charger’s sword in battle.” She paused, frowning and rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Wait, she used his sword… Do you think that could mean…?” She turned back to me, her grin growing even wider and a hint of an ecstatic squeal slipping into her words. “We don’t have a full account of Torch's life, but there are rumors he went to Equestria once to ask the White Pony for help in the war against the Necrocrats! What if while he was there he had a secret love child, and now...”

Puzzle chuckled softly. “That seems like quite the leap of logic, little one.”

“She can use Torch's sword!” Kukri countered, stubbornly planting her hooves. “That means she might be related to Torch, right?”

“This one is pretty sure anyone can use Chainbreaker,” Puzzle answered. “The Glimmer-mare didn’t run into any problems when she drew the blade, and...” Puzzle went up to the sword and made a point of drawing it for himself, then carefully sliding it back into its scabbard. “Still, this one never expected to see this outside of a museum.”

I nodded along with Puzzle. “I didn’t see any sort of bloodline enchantment on it, so as far as I can tell anyone should be capable of wielding it.” Granted, I hadn’t really gotten a chance to do much studying of the sword. Though considering the fact that it had done plenty of damage to Starlight’s armor and the blade was still pristine, it obviously had some sort of magic on it.

Kukri frowned and slowly nodded. “Okay, fine, so anyone can use the sword. That doesn't prove she's not related to Torch, though.

“That’s ... technically true,” I allowed, mostly because it was impossible to prove a negative. “I'll let you check my family tree when we have time.” Not that I was expecting her to find anything, or that I thought Kukri would accept an answer other than the one she wanted, but if looking over my family tree would satisfy her curiosity why not let her? It would give her a project to work on if—no, I guess now it was when—I took the job in Canterlot.

Puzzle gave her a pat on the back. “The ponies of Canterlot tend to keep good records on that type of thing, so if there is any proof you’ll find it.”

Kukri nodded along eagerly, evidently satisfied with our solution. No doubt I could look forward to her spending hours endlessly pouring through family records in a desperate search to prove that her favorite historical hero was related to her currently-living hero. I cleared my throat and tried to get back to business. “So I guess Starlight stole Chainbreaker while she was killing Frozen Finds. I’m surprised she got away with it.”

Puzzle nodded along. “The security around Chainbreaker might be kept subtle enough to not get in the way of putting it on public display, but it is still considerable. Stealing it must have been very difficult, albeit not beyond the skills she displayed in her fight with you. Likely half of the Council’s agents are trying to track her.” He paused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “For that matter, that was probably what the Council wanted to hire you for right before we left Freeport. Not that they wouldn’t care about Frozen Finds’ murder, but it’s an afterthought next to something like Chainbreaker’s theft.”

“No kidding.” I frowned thoughtfully down at the sword. “The only reason they wouldn’t put every single agent they’ve got after the sword is that they probably don’t want it getting out that they lost it in the first place.”

Puzzle nodded along. “Doubtless they shut down the museum not only for a thorough investigation of the crime scene, but so they could put a replica in place to keep the theft quiet for as long as possible. This one suspects they would much prefer to just replace the fake with the real sword once they recover it and leave the public none the wiser.”

“But we know,” Kukri concluded. She looked between the sword and me, a grin working its way onto her features once more. “Are you going to wield it now, Shimmer-mare?”

“This one thinks the museum would like to get its sword back,” Puzzle answered. “It’s a priceless historical relic and a symbol for all Freeport’s inhabitants. The Council would doubtless object to anyone carrying it into battle for themselves. Not to mention this one’s friend Daring would give it an earful if it allowed a piece of history to be used so recklessly.”

“Yeah, Chainbreaker belongs in a museum.” I shrugged and added. “Besides, I’m not much a sword-swinger anyway.” I had been taking a few off-and-on lessons in physical combat ever since that one time I’d been pulled into a duel where I wasn’t allowed to use magic, but I was under no illusions about being a master swordsmare.

Puzzle tapped his chin. “Of course, that does bring up whether we want to make us recovering the sword public or not.”

I shrugged. “Let’s keep it quiet for now. We can always go public later if that seems like the better move, but we can’t make things private again once the news is out there.”

“That makes sense,” Kukri agreed. “Once we tell everyone, we can’t take it back.” She walked up to the sword, extending a hoof towards it before pulling it back as if she was afraid to touch it. “Well, at the very least you’d use it if there’s any more trouble on the way back, right?”

I thought about that for a second. “I mean, if I really need a sword and we have one right there...” I shrugged. “I was alright with using it against Starlight, so why not?”

“No sense letting a perfectly good sword go to waste if that’s the tool we need to get the job done,” Puzzle agreed. “Especially since if we do get attacked again, it would quite likely be by someone who would use the sword for nefarious ends.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his headcrest. “Still, the complications mean we’ll be staying in Northmarch a bit longer. In addition to however long the Shimmer-mare’s recovery takes, the caribou have their own questions for us, and there is the matter of Starlight to deal with. Not to mention whoever might be holding her leash and sending her after us. The Heartstrings-mare has tried interrogating her, but she has been less than cooperative.”

“I guess I can give it a shot once I’m out.” I stretched out my limbs, trying to get a good feel for them. Everything was in working order so far as I could tell. “I suppose our next move would depend on what we can find out from her about what’s going on. However, unless something big comes up I do have a duty to Freeport right now. She needs to go back to face trial, and Chainbreaker needs to be returned. From there we’ll either come back to Northmarch if there are any loose ends that need to be tied up, or else ... I guess I’ll be going to Canterlot.”

Puzzle grimaced a bit, but nodded along. “Yes, evidently so. At least dealing with the local authorities has gone relatively smoothly. Sigil vouched for your credentials, so the only potential complication is if they’re opposed to extradition.”

“I can’t see any reason they would be,” I shrugged. “She’s not a citizen, and she outright confessed to the crimes while we were fighting. You’d think they’d be glad to be rid of her.”

“Very true,” Puzzle agreed. “Though of course she does have to answer for all those she hurt here, and all the property damage she caused.”

“Yeah, but the general rule when someone’s committed crimes in multiple jurisdictions is to let the biggest crime go first,” I quoted from one of those lessons on international law that Celestia drilled into my head years ago. “Unless anyone died or she stole a national treasure, Freeport gets first claim.” I thought back to the fight, with buildings getting wrecked and the fact that I’d had to block a couple of Starlight’s attacks instead of dodging to avoid collateral damage. “Um, did anyone…?”

Puzzle shook his head. “No, just some injuries from debris flying around.”

I let out a relieved sigh, while Kukri shot a proud smile up at me. “You did an amazing job protecting everyone, Shimmer-mare.” She paused, a thoughtful frown on her face. “So if the family tree research turns up promising, does that mean this one should start calling you Charger-mare instead? Because that would be ama—”

“No, Kukri,” I cut in as gently as I could. Odds were if she went back far enough she could find some way to tie a Charger into my family tree, but that hardly meant I deserved the name. Even if everything Kukri dreamed was true and Torch had gotten into some sort of affair with one of my ancestors, that was over four hundred years ago. I didn’t have any real claim to the name, and I wasn’t going to appropriate it. Besides, despite the rocky relationship with my birth parents I was kind of proud of being a Shimmer. Not that it was a huge deal or anything, but I wasn’t going to throw it away either.

Puzzle nodded approvingly. “The Chargers have been gone for a very long time. Best to let the dead have their rest. This one rather doubts the clans would approve of an outsider who wasn’t born into the clan and isn’t even a pegasus trying to claim the name.”

“It would come across as appropriation,” I agreed. “Considering Torch’s reputation in Freeport everyone would just assume I was trying to steal some of his glory.”

Kukri’s ears went flat. “This one supposes that makes sense.” Her ears perked up a moment later. “But what if we...” She trailed off, sighing and shaking her head. “No, even if we showed everyone the family tree that probably wouldn’t work, would it?”

“Anyone the least bit suspicious or hostile to us would say we just faked the records,” Puzzle agreed. He gave her a reassuring pat on the back. “But at least we would know. We’ll look into her family tree once we deal with some of the more immediate problems facing us.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” I took a deep breath, then tried a basic telekinesis spell to lift up my water glass. It seemed to work just fine, though it did make that dull throbbing pain in my head pick up a couple notches. “In the meantime, let’s get all the medical tests and paperwork sorted out.”

It took two days for me to get out of the hospital, mostly because of all the checks they needed to do and wanting to hold me overnight for observation. I think they probably would’ve wanted to keep me there for longer, but I had a whole lot of issues to deal with and since I didn’t have any of the warning signs of further problems there wasn’t much they could do other than keep me in the hospital just so I’d be right there if any complications sprang up.

In any case, it was past time for a chat with Starlight Glimmer. Coldharbor’s city jail was a squat ugly stone building that actually had an old-fashioned moat around it. Not a moat with water in it, just a really deep trench to make it hard for anyone to get to the windows or try digging their way out. The drawbridge would also do a good job of sealing everything up and limiting it to one entrance. It was almost like a very small, very ugly castle.

Strumming and Sigil met me at the entrance, the spy casually waving to me. “Hope you have more luck with her than any of us, she’s been stonewallling hard. If I had to guess, she figures whoever’s holding her leash is gonna come to get her back eventually.”

“She might only be a pawn, but a unicorn of her power and potential is a very useful one,” Sigil grimaced. “It’s part of why the extradition request went so smoothly; if she does have some powerful master planning to rescue her, nobody is especially eager for them to come here.”

“And finding her on a single moving ship in the middle of the ocean is a lot harder than a town where her attack is probably the number one piece of gossip on everyone’s lips,” I pointed out. “So she hasn’t said anything?”

“S’like talking to a brick wall,” Strumming grumbled. “But the working theory is that if anyone’s gonna get a rise out of her and make her open up a bit, it’s you.”

“Probably.” I didn’t entirely understand why she’d decided to launch some sort of vendetta against me, but it existed. If anything was going to make her start talking, it would be having me right there in front of her.

“How you holding up, Bacon?” Strumming asked, shoving some crisps into her mouth almost fast enough to hide the genuine concern in her tone.

“Better,” I answered simply. I was still sore and bruised on just about every part of my body and nursing a killer headache that flared up at the worst possible times, but it wasn’t quite as bad as it had been yesterday.

“Nice letter opener you got there.” Strumming nodded to Chainbreaker strapped across my back. “You bringing that in when you go to see Glim-Glam, or you gonna leave it with the guards?”

“Bringing it,” I answered. “If we’re trying to make her talk, seeing that I’ve got the sword she stole might be an extra little kick in the dock to make her open up. You’ve got her chained up and horn-ringed, right?”

“Yup,” Strumming shrugged. “I wanted to have them only feed her gruel, then I’d eat some nice tasty snacks right in front of her to see if that got anything out of her. Apparently the Northmarchers think that’s cruel and unusual. It’s not like I was suggesting we flay her alive, that can wait until we’re back on the ship.” She glanced over to Sigil, who was staring at her in open-mouthed horror. “What? It’s a joke!”

“Jokes are usually funny,” I pointed out. “Anyway, let’s get this done with.”

We marched into the jail, going past the low-security cells for drunks and pickpockets. As we moved deeper into the jail the walls and bars got a lot thicker and both the guards and the prisoners started looking a lot meaner.

Starlight’s cell sat at the very heart of the prison, surrounded by a thick layer of runic wards. Sigil nodded to them as we went past. “I wouldn’t advise using any magic while you’re in there. The wards should distinguish between you and the prisoner, but...”

“Yeah, I’ve had enough of being on the wrong end of runespells to last a lifetime,” I agreed.

“Mmm.” Sigil gave me a quick once-over. “I recovered the rune lady Argentium gave you. Altering one of her runes was reckless, but it produced impressive results for the time it lasted. And the change itself was inspired. If still reckless.”

“I knew the risks when I did it,” I grunted out.

“Always fun when life puts you into the position of saying ‘I know this is a horrible plan, but it’s the only one I have,’” Strumming agreed.

I grunted and waited for the guards to open up Starlight’s cell. The mare herself was chained to the wall, with a triple layer of bindings around her horn to keep her contained. I probably should’ve been happy about how many bandages she had on and how many visible bruises I could see if not for the fact that I had more. At least I had armor and robes to cover them up. Starlight turned her head to briefly look at me, then grunted and pointedly turned it away.

Guess they weren’t kidding about her stonewalling. Apparently it was up to me to get things started. “The local authorities have approved our request for extradition. You’ll be heading back to Freeport as soon as we finish a few modifications to the Venture for secure prisoner transport.” Captain Weyland hadn’t been happy to find out we were turning a chunk of the cargo bay into a magically warded cell for an extremely dangerous prisoner, but she came around once we’d explained the situation to her.

Starlight grunted. I waited a bit to see if she had anything more to say, but that was it.

I took another crack at getting her to open up. “If you’ve got anything to say that might convince them to show clemency, now would be a good time. Because as it stands, the facts look very bad for you.” I waited, and still got nothing. “You said Frozen deserved to die. If he did something to you or someone else, let us know. It might convince the Council to go easier on you during sentencing.” I didn’t think that particularly likely; stealing Chainbreaker was bad enough that she’d need one hay of a story to not end up in prison for the rest of her life.

Starlight kept giving me the silent treatment.

I gave it one last shot, shifting tactics to try and shake things up a bit. “So who’d you end up making a bargain with? It’d have to be someone who’s really desperate, if they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel to get you.”

Starlight scoffed and refused to take the bait.

Strumming swooped in. “Tell you what, I’ll give you a couple crisps if you say something.”

Starlight’s eyes flicked over to her, and after a couple seconds her shoulders heaved in the closest she could manage to a shrug while chained up. “How long before we leave?”

“We’re getting the ship ready as fast as we can without doing a bad job of it,” I answered, wary of giving her any specifics just in case she was planning something.

“Better hurry,” she murmured. “He’s coming for me, and if I’m still here when he shows up he’ll kill everyone in this miserable little rathole of a village.”

None of us were quite sure what to make of that, until Strumming broke the silence. “Well, that’s not ominous at all.”

“Who is ‘he’?” I demanded, getting as close to her as I dared.

Starlight snorted and turned away from me, evidently deciding she’d already said more than enough. As she turned, I spotted a thin line of scar tissue along the back of her neck. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there last time I’d seen her.

We spent a couple more minutes trying to cajole the truth out of her, but nothing came of it. Short of trying to beat answers out of her, we were out of options. Eventually we gave up and left her alone. Once we were out of the cell Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Well, that was pretty much a bust. I say we shift tactics on her—just ignore and give her the silent treatment. Grilling her all the time gives away that we need the info, which puts her in control of things.”

“It’s worth a shot.” I shrugged. “We’ll have plenty of free time to give her the silent treatment while we’re sailing back to Freeport. Though that doesn’t mean we’re completely dropping the investigation; that armor of hers was weird enough to follow up on.”

“Already did,” Strumming answered with a smug grin. “It’s a real vintage set. The guy we took it to said the design went back to the Crystal Empire War. Or at least, that was the best he could tell from what you left of it. Guy was a bit miffed you wrecked such a valuable antique.”

“Her fault for wearing it in a fight,” I answered. “So it dates back to when the Crystal Empire was around? That kinda indicates her boss is local. And old.”

“Same thing with her saying the guy was coming for her,” Strumming agreed. “Lot easier for him to come bail her out if he’s not going halfway across the world the pull it off. Not to mention that lines up with the runes.”

“Yeah, there were runes on her armor,” I agreed.

Strumming and Sigil exchanged a look. “Nooot the runes I mean, Bacon.”

At my baffled look, Sigil explained. “There are runes carved into her back.”

Oh. That explained what those weird scar lines I saw on the back of her neck were. But getting a bunch of runes cut into her was... “Okay, that had to have hurt a lot. Who would do something like that?”

“A good question,” Sigil concurred. “I’ve done my best to study them, but I confess that they are somewhat beyond my expertise. There was another I could consult, but...” He trailed off uncertainly, which was a bit unusual.

“Yeah, Argentium’s probably still busy looking into the Blightspawn, isn’t she?” I concluded.

“Not who he had in mind, Bacon,” Strumming corrected. “Though her high dragon-ness is pretty busy doing exactly that, we’ve got another expert who just so happens to be in town. Of course, she’s been keeping a very long ways away from anything to do with you, precisely so she won’t piss off Argentium.”

It didn’t take long to connect the dots. “Oh. Right. Her.” I took a deep breath and thought it over. For a moment I was tempted to say no but... “The stakes are too high for personal grudges. I’ll be professional if she will.”

Sigil nodded gravely. “I will let Archmagus Runeseeker know, then.”

Author's Notes:

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