Sophie groaned, dropping back to the grass hard enough to send Panakes petals scattering. “Please tell me you don’t think Lady Gisela messed with your memories.”

Oralie shook her head, making her circlet shimmer in the sunlight. “She didn’t. I did. Or… they did—whoever they are.”

“I have no idea what that means,” Sophie told her.

“Don’t you?” Oralie stretched out her arm and snapped her fingers, making a tiny glass sphere the size of a marble appear in the center of her palm.

A cache.

Sophie’s heart changed rhythm. “You’re saying stellarlune is a Forgotten Secret.”

“It’s part of one, at least. This one.” She raised the cache to Sophie’s eye level—and when the light hit the glass, it caught the tiny blue crystal set into the middle.

The only inner crystal.

“You only have one Forgotten Secret?” Sophie had to ask.

Kenric’s cache had glittered with seven.

“Empaths shatter more easily, so the Council has to be very selective with how often they involve me in their more fraught situations. And the only challenge that they’ve ever decided was desperate enough to need my help was this one.” She tilted her hand, letting the cache roll slowly around her palm. “And… it had something to do with stellarlune. So I’m willing to help you access the memory—but only if you promise we’ll face this truth together.”

Sophie plucked the cache from Oralie’s palm, watching the light shift in the tiny inner crystal, which was more of a pale blue than a deep blue. “If this is your idea of mother-daughter bonding…”

“No—this is about trust. If I show you what’s in this cache, I’ll be violating some of the most fundamental vows I’ve made as a Councillor. And you’re the only person I’m willing to take that risk for.”

Sophie snorted. “Right, because my very existence violates a ton more vows you made.”

Oralie sighed, but admitted, “That too.”

There was no warmth in her voice—no regret in her eyes.

But… maybe Sophie didn’t need there to be.

She didn’t need another mother.

She needed answers.

That’s what Oralie was offering her.

One, at least.

One truth that had been erased.

And Sophie wanted it.

Needed it.

And Keefe might never wake up without it.

But her conscience still forced her to say, “I thought the Forgotten Secrets were things that could damage your sanity if you remembered them.”

“They are. That’s another risk I’m willing to take. The question is, are you?” She let the question dangle for a second before she added, “It’s going to get ugly, Sophie. And I can’t guarantee your safety—or mine. All I can offer is truth—and I’m ready to get started. If you’re ready to trust me.”

She held out her hand, asking for her cache.

And Sophie hesitated only a second before placing it gently in Oralie’s palm, pressing her hand over it to seal their bargain.

She didn’t need to weigh her options or think through consequences or doubt herself or stress or panic.

She could do all of that later, as she fought her way through.

Right now, only one thing mattered.

“I’m ready,” Sophie told Oralie, doing her best to channel Keefe’s confidence as she added, “Bring it on.”