The fire crackled between Lenora and Crysha.
For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
Then the crimson vapor surrounding Lenora’s body began to thicken again.
It rolled across the ground, curled around the campfire, and climbed into the air until it resembled a curtain being drawn across the present.
Crysha watched the forest beyond it disappear.
Lenora’s voice reached her through the haze.
“This happened after Lola asked me to stay with them a little longer.”
The red vapor shifted.
Walls emerged within it.
A wooden floor.
A narrow bed.
A window filled with afternoon sunlight.
The memory never became completely solid. Its corners remained blurred, and the colors trembled whenever Lenora hesitated. Yet Lola appeared with almost painful clarity—small, pink-furred, and sitting beside Lenora in the room she had rented above the café.
Present-day Lenora stared into the memory.
“At the time, I thought it was going to be an ordinary afternoon.”
Lola’s ears were still slightly lowered from their earlier conversation.
The younger Lenora watched her for a moment before speaking.
“Hey, Lola? Since the café is already closed and you have the rest of the day to yourself, would you like to walk around town with me?”
Lola blinked.
Lenora continued before the smaller rabbit could answer.
“We could visit your brother first. I still need to ask Garrett about mercenary work. Afterward, perhaps you could show me that bookstore you mentioned.”
Lola’s mouth fell open.
She inhaled so sharply that, for one alarming second, Lenora wondered whether she had forgotten how to breathe.
Then Lola launched herself from the bed.
“I would absolutely love to! We can bring Garrett his lunch while you ask him about work, and afterward I can take you to the bookstore. There is also a tailor nearby who could fit you for a proper dress, and I know a little shop that sells ribbons, and—”
She bounded through the doorway before finishing the sentence.
The door slammed behind her.
Inside the crimson vapor, Crysha watched the younger Lenora stare after her.
A small smile slowly formed across Lenora’s face.
“I remember wondering how someone half my size could possibly possess that much energy,” present-day Lenora said.
Hurried footsteps thundered through the hallway.
The door flew open again.
Lola stumbled into the room carrying a travel bag nearly as large as she was.
Lenora tilted her head.
“Lola, why are you carrying a bag large enough for a journey across three kingdoms?”
Lola looked down as though she had only just noticed it.
“We are going outside, so I thought I should make sure we are prepared.”
Lenora stared at her.
“We are walking through your town.”
“That still counts as going somewhere.”
Lenora opened the bag.
Inside were a packed lunch, a small pouch of coins, spare ribbons, two pairs of socks, a sewing kit, a wooden spoon, a candle, and several other mismatched objects whose purposes Lenora could not immediately identify.
She slowly looked up.
“We are not crossing the continent.”
Lola’s ears drooped.
“I may have prepared for slightly more than we actually need.”
Lenora knelt beside the bag and began placing unnecessary objects on the bed.
“The lunch can remain. So can the coins.”
Lola picked up the wooden spoon.
“Should I keep this in case we decide to eat something that requires one?”
“You are carrying lunch that is already prepared, so I believe we can survive without the emergency spoon.”
Lola reluctantly placed it on the bed.
“What about the candle?”
“It is the middle of the afternoon.”
“The spare socks might still be useful.”
Lenora stared at her.
Lola stared back.
Several seconds passed.
Then Lola quietly removed the socks herself.
“I understand your objection.”
Lenora tried not to laugh.
“Have you travelled outside the town very often?”
Lola fidgeted with the front of her dress.
“Not really. I rarely go anywhere by myself. When I do travel farther than the market, Garrett usually comes with me, and he always seems to know what we might need.”
The younger Lenora’s expression softened.
“You make him sound like a wonderful brother.”
Lola’s ears immediately rose.
“He really is. Garrett worries much more than he needs to, but he has always taken care of me.”
A faint warmth entered Lenora’s cheeks.
She fastened her sword around her waist and transferred several gold coins into a much smaller pouch.
“All right. Now that we have prevented you from accidentally preparing for a month-long expedition, where would you like to go first?”
“We should bring Garrett his lunch. After that, we can visit the bookstore because there is something I have been wanting to buy.”
Lenora paused.
“You enjoy reading?”
Lola placed both hands on her hips and lifted her chin.
“A lady should be allowed to keep at least a few secrets to herself.”
Lenora raised an eyebrow.
“That does not answer my question.”
“It was never supposed to answer your question.”
Lola grabbed Lenora’s hand.
“Come on. If we keep talking, Garrett is going to finish his shift before we even reach him.”
She pulled Lenora toward the doorway.
The memory rippled around them as they left the room.
The town materialized from the crimson mist.
Buildings rose along both sides of a wide stone street. Market stalls unfolded beneath a bright but distant sun. Faceless townspeople moved among them while merchants’ calls overlapped one another like echoes remembered through water.
Only Lola and Lenora remained perfectly clear.
Lola pulled Lenora through the crowd with surprising strength.
Whispers emerged from the blurred faces surrounding them.
“Look over there. Garrett’s sister finally came out of the café.”
“She looks adorable carrying that lunch. She must be bringing it to her brother.”
“Is that larger rabbit woman Garrett’s girlfriend? I heard he has always had a thing for beastfolk.”
“I thought she might be the little rabbit’s mother. Look at the way Lola is dragging her through the street.”
The younger Lenora’s face turned crimson.
At the campfire, Crysha slowly looked toward her niece.
Present-day Lenora folded her arms.
“Those comments are unfortunately part of the memory, so you are going to hear them exactly as I remember them.”
Crysha’s mouth twitched slightly.
“I was not going to say anything.”
“You were thinking something.”
“I am your aunt. I am permitted to think.”
Inside the vapor, the younger Lenora lowered her ears and attempted to ignore the crowd.
A relationship with a human? Mother would kill me.
The edges of the memory darkened.
A second image appeared behind the town.
Eclipsa stood above a long family table, little more than a distant silhouette surrounded by crimson haze.
“She and her sister were obsessed with preserving our bloodline,” Lenora explained. “Wolves were expected to remain with wolves. Rabbits were expected to remain with rabbits. Mixed children were treated as stains upon the family rather than children.”
Crysha’s expression immediately changed.
Another figure appeared behind Eclipsa.
A young girl was being forced through an open doorway.
Her face could not be seen.
Lenora’s voice became quieter.
“She was my older half-sister. Mother had an affair with a human long before I was born, and the daughter born from that relationship was eventually cast out.”
Crysha stared at the shadow of the girl.
“Your mother condemned her own daughter for being half-human when she was the one responsible for creating that child?”
“That is what I was told.”
A heavy silence passed between them.
“I did not know anything about this,” Crysha finally said.
Her voice had gone unnaturally flat.
Lenora looked toward her.
Crysha’s blue eyes remained fixed upon Eclipsa’s silhouette.
“Your mother hid one of her own children from the entire family. She banished a daughter because that girl was half-human, then stood in front of every family gathering lecturing the rest of us about bloodline purity.”
Crysha’s foot had stopped tapping entirely.
“I defended those gatherings,” she continued. “I attended them. I stood beside her and listened to those speeches without knowing what she had done.”
Lenora’s ears lowered.
“I never learned much about my half-sister. I was only told that she resembled me.”
The shadow of the banished girl faded away.
Such a hypocrite, Mother.
Lola’s cheerful voice broke through the thought.
“You are going to love seeing the town! Garrett is going to be so happy when he realizes you came with me.”
Lenora gave a nervous chuckle.
“I am certain he will find some spectacular way to injure himself the moment he notices me.”
Her thoughts drifted toward Garrett.
During the previous two weeks, the young guard had somehow managed to hurt himself nearly every time he attempted to speak with her.
Once, he stood so quickly that his knee struck the underside of a table.
Another time, he tripped over a chair.
On a particularly embarrassing morning, he walked directly into a support beam because he had been staring at Lenora instead of looking where he was going.
Remembering it made her smile.
Her heart skipped.
The crimson memory collapsed.
Crysha found herself surrounded by darkness.
The town vanished.
The fire vanished.
Even Lola disappeared.
Lenora’s crest burned through both the memory and the present.
A voice spoke from everywhere at once.
He is not the one.
Then sunlight violently returned.
Inside the memory, Lenora stumbled.
Outside it, present-day Lenora immediately reached toward her lower back.
Crysha noticed.
“That warning actually happened while you were thinking about Garrett?”
Lenora kept her hand over the hidden crest.
“Yes. I remember hearing those exact words.”
“Did you understand what the warning meant at the time?”
“I had absolutely no idea what it meant.”
Crysha looked as though she wanted to pursue the question.
The memory continued before she could.
Lola glanced back.
“Are you feeling all right? You suddenly looked like you were about to fall.”
Lenora forced her hand away from her back.
“I am fine. I simply lost my footing for a moment.”
The lie came easily.
Too easily.
Lola squeezed her hand.
“If you become tired, tell me. We do not have to rush.”
Lenora looked at the small hand holding hers.
“I will tell you if I need to stop.”
Lola smiled and started walking again.
The younger Lenora followed.
But the smile she had worn while thinking about Garrett was gone.
The memory jumped forward.
“Some pieces are missing,” Lenora admitted. “I remember walking for approximately ten more minutes before we reached the guard station.”
A gray stone building formed from the vapor.
A guard leaned against the front post with his arms folded.
His face remained indistinct.
His contempt did not.
“Well, look who finally wandered over here. It is the half-wit beast girl belonging to our half-wit guard.”
Lenora’s hair rose.
Her fingers moved toward her sword.
Lola responded as though she had heard nothing unusual.
“Hello, Bert. Do you happen to know where my half-wit brother is stationed today?”
Bert grunted.
“Wait here while I find out.”
He disappeared through a side door.
His voice remained perfectly audible through the wall.
“Stupid beast scum comes over here and makes things difficult. Now I actually have to work because that useless brother of hers cannot stay in one place.”
Lenora’s fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword.
Lola quietly shook her head.
That small gesture stopped her.
Several minutes later, Bert returned.
“Your brother is at the training grounds. They have him wasting his time with the new recruits.”
Lola smiled brightly.
“That is wonderful. Thank you for finding out.”
She reached inside her enormous bag and removed a second, smaller food basket.
“I brought you something as well. Please do not eat everything at once.”
Bert took the basket without thanking her.
Lola waved.
“Have a good afternoon, Bert.”
Then she hurried away, pulling Lenora behind her.
The memory slowed.
Lenora looked back.
Bert waited until Lola could no longer see him.
Then he threw the basket into a refuse barrel.
The soft thud of the discarded food echoed unnaturally through the crimson vapor.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
At the campfire, Crysha’s expression hardened.
“Lola never saw him throw away the food, did she?”
Lenora’s gaze remained fixed upon the refuse barrel.
“She never saw it happen.”
“Did you tell her what he had done?”
“I kept it to myself.”
Crysha turned toward her.
“Why would you protect someone like him by remaining silent?”
Lenora was quiet for several seconds.
“I was not trying to protect Bert.”
She drew a slow breath.
“I had already been wrong about people’s intentions before. I trusted a man who called me a lady. I had mistaken kindness for safety. Then I spent years assuming everyone around me was dangerous.”
Her jaw tightened.
“Eventually, I stopped trusting my own judgment.”
Crysha said nothing.
Lenora continued.
“Part of me wondered whether I had misunderstood what I saw. Perhaps there was some reason for throwing the food away that I did not understand.”
Her eyes remained fixed on the vapor.
“And part of me was afraid that if I told Lola, she would look at me and ask how I could possibly know what a man meant when he believed a woman was no longer watching.”
Inside the vision, the younger Lenora stopped walking.
Her expression hardened as she stared back at Bert returning to his post.
“There are details that time eventually softens,” present-day Lenora said quietly. “That sound never did.”
The thud echoed one final time.
Lola tugged her hand.
“Come on. Garrett’s training grounds are not much farther away.”
Lenora reluctantly allowed herself to be pulled onward.
Is this kingdom really different from the others?
Her jaw tightened.
Or has it simply learned how to hide its hatred better?
The memory shifted again.
Lola was moving faster now.
Lenora rubbed her forehead.
“Lola, you need to slow down. My legs are beginning to hurt.”
“We are almost there. I promise it is only a little farther.”
“You have been saying that for at least ten minutes.”
Lola pulled harder.
Lenora planted her feet.
Then she reached down, placed both hands around Lola’s waist, and lifted the smaller rabbit directly off the ground.
Lola squeaked.
“Lenora! What are you doing?”
Lenora turned her around and held her at eye level.
“I am making certain you actually listen to me. My legs hurt, and I would like a moment to breathe before you drag me across another district.”
Lola did not answer.
Her eyes darted frantically from one end of the street to the other.
Her ears flattened against her head.
The laughter disappeared from her face.
A marching rhythm entered the memory.
Boots struck the stones in perfect unison.
The blurred townspeople moved aside and lowered their heads.
Guards began forming from the crimson mist.
The person walking among them remained an empty silhouette.
“I never saw the prince’s face that day,” present-day Lenora told Crysha. “The memory cannot show me a face I never saw.”
Inside the vision, Lola’s expression became genuinely frightened.
“Could you please put me down? We need to leave this street before the prince arrives.”
Lenora lowered her carefully.
“The prince is coming here?”
“Yes, and I really do not want to be standing here when he arrives.”
“Why are you afraid of your own prince?”
Lola glanced toward the approaching escort.
“Because he is strange, and I would rather explain somewhere he cannot find me.”
Together, they slipped into a narrow alley moments before the royal escort reached the intersection.
They crouched behind several wooden crates.
Lola covered her mouth.
Lenora rested one hand against her sword.
The guards slowed outside.
One of them spoke.
“That is strange. I heard Lola was outside today with a larger rabbit woman.”
Lenora’s ears flattened.
She knew exactly where that information had come from.
From a post they had visited less than twenty minutes earlier.
From a man who had watched Lola offer him food and then thrown that food into the rubbish.
Bert.
The younger Lenora understood it at the same moment Crysha did.
Her face remained expressionless because Lola was still beside her.
Another guard laughed.
“The new rabbit woman? I heard she has quite the body.”
Lola’s ears trembled.
Lenora’s grip tightened.
A second guard snickered.
“I heard the same thing. Apparently Garrett has been staring at her every chance he gets.”
Another set of footsteps approached.
Slower.
Measured.
Unhurried.
The guards immediately became silent.
The prince remained nothing more than a dark silhouette within the crimson vapor.
“You fools.”
His voice was calm.
The threat beneath it was not.
“If I ever hear either of you speak about Lola—or this woman traveling with her—in that manner again, I will personally have your heads removed.”
The guards immediately straightened.
“Understood, my prince. It will not happen again.”
The prince stopped beside the alley.
His shadow stretched across the stones until it nearly touched Lenora’s boot.
Lola clutched Lenora’s sleeve.
“Barrett said she was outside,” the prince continued. “Did I miss her?”
One of the guards answered carefully.
“No, my prince. Our sources reported that both rabbit women passed through this area some time ago.”
“I see.”
His shadow remained over the entrance.
Lola’s heartbeat pounded loudly enough that the memory seemed to amplify it.
After several agonizing seconds, the shadow withdrew.
“Continue searching. Perhaps we will encounter them before the afternoon is over.”
The guards marched away.
The faceless prince dissolved back into crimson mist without ever revealing himself.
Lola did not release Lenora’s sleeve until the final footstep disappeared.
At the campfire, present-day Lenora looked down at her hands.
“I thought about him for a very long time afterward.”
Crysha remained focused on her.
“He threatened his own guards for speaking about Lola that way,” Lenora continued. “Then he ordered those same guards to continue searching for her when she clearly did not want to be found.”
She paused.
“I could never separate those two things.”
Crysha’s eyes narrowed.
“You could not determine whether he was protecting her or treating her like something that belonged to him.”
“Exactly.”
Lenora looked back toward the fading silhouette.
“I did not know whether he was dangerous, obsessive, genuinely protective, or some combination of all three.”
Crysha remained silent.
Inside the memory, Lenora leaned closer to Lola.
“Lola, why are the prince’s guards searching for you?”
Lola’s expression twisted with embarrassment.
“The prince has developed an extremely unfortunate crush on me.”
Lenora blinked.
“That is why you are hiding in an alley?”
“He constantly tries to take me on dates.”
“That does not sound dangerous by itself.”
Lola glared at her.
“He has a horrible bunny-girl fetish.”
Lenora stared at her.
Then she laughed.
Lola puffed out her cheeks.
“I am being completely serious! You should not laugh at someone else’s suffering.”
Lenora attempted to regain control of herself.
“I apologize. I simply was not expecting that explanation.”
“You thought someone liking me sounded adorable.”
“I still think someone having a crush on you sounds a little adorable.”
“There is nothing adorable about having a prince appear at your café because he wants to watch your ears move.”
Lenora’s smile widened.
“That description certainly makes the situation less adorable.”
“I am glad you finally understand.”
Lola turned toward the alley wall and began pressing individual bricks.
After several attempts, one shifted beneath her hand.
She pulled it aside, revealing a concealed iron knob.
“There it is.”
Lenora raised an eyebrow.
“How often do you hide from this prince that you know where secret handles are built into alley walls?”
Lola grabbed the knob.
“Often enough that Garrett showed me every emergency gate near the café.”
She pulled.
A section of the wall released and swung inward.
A narrow passage descended beneath the nearby buildings.
Lenora stared into it.
“Your town has secret tunnels connecting the shops?”
“Only some of them are connected.”
“That answer raises considerably more questions than it resolves.”
“You can ask all of them after we are inside. I do not want to remain outside while the prince’s guards are searching for me.”
Lola took Lenora’s hand again.
Together, they descended.
The passage was narrow.
Small enchanted stones embedded in the walls gave off enough light to reveal the steps beneath their feet.
The sounds of the town became muffled overhead.
Boots passed across floorboards somewhere above them.
Lola remained close to Lenora.
This time, the grip around Lenora’s hand was not excited.
It was frightened.
Lenora noticed the difference.
She tightened her fingers around Lola’s.
“How long has the prince been doing this?”
Lola kept her eyes forward.
“Long enough that Garrett stopped finding it funny.”
“Does your brother know the prince sends guards searching for you?”
“He knows some of it.”
“That does not sound like all of it.”
Lola’s ears lowered.
“Garrett already worries about me constantly. I do not want to make it worse unless I have to.”
Lenora studied her.
“You should not have to hide inside tunnels because you are afraid that telling your brother the truth will make him worry.”
Lola gave a weak laugh.
“You sound exactly like Garrett when you say things like that.”
“I am beginning to understand why.”
The passage turned twice before ending at another concealed door.
Lola reached beneath a wooden support beam and pressed a hidden latch.
Golden light spilled through the opening.
The crimson memory shaped itself into a bookstore around them.
Shelves crowded with old volumes rose toward the ceiling.
A wooden counter had been worn smooth by years of use.
The air carried parchment, ink, dust, dried herbs, and something faintly sweet Lenora could not identify.
An elderly shopkeeper looked up from behind the counter.
He glanced at Lola.
Then at Lenora.
Finally, he looked toward the emergency passage closing behind them.
“Well, this is unusual. I rarely have customers arrive through the emergency entrance.”
Lola released a nervous laugh.
“We were hoping to avoid someone outside.”
The shopkeeper’s expression changed only slightly.
“Then I imagine the emergency entrance served its intended purpose.”
The hidden door closed behind them with a heavy click.
The sound rolled through the crimson vapor like the sealing of something old.
The shopkeeper folded his hands upon the counter.
“Now that you are safely inside, what can I help the two of you find?”
The memory stopped.
The bookstore froze around Crysha and Lenora.
Then the shelves, books, counter, and golden light dissolved into drifting crimson mist.
The campfire returned.
Crysha remained silent as the final traces of the underground passage disappeared.
Lenora watched the flames.
“That was how we entered the bookstore that afternoon.”
Her brown ears slowly lowered.
“We did not enter through the front door.”
The last crimson mist curled around the fire.
“We entered through a hidden passage beneath the town.”