"Depends a little on what it is - and how many faces my guards make at me about the danger levels."

"Forgery, arson, murder. Maybe a little kidnapping and extortion. Some blackmail."

"Too risky for direct participation, your Highness." The guard sounds a bit long-suffering about this. "Providing intelligence, however, would be acceptable from a standpoint of physical risk. I cannot evaluate political nor moral risks."

"Then I suppose it depends on why. And assisting in forgery shouldn't be physically dangerous."

"As you say, your Highness."

"The why is sending a message. And getting paid for our troubles."

"I can provide assistance with the 'getting paid' part."

"That's not to be underestimated."

"Do you have a plan already?"

"Yep." She smirks. "I'm going to sell the council the Goedmedbridge."

Time to get down to business, then. 

And in the meantime, maybe other people can go catch up somewhere else?

...Yeah.

Hug. "Are you okay?"

Tight hug. "I've got you back, and..."

"I feel better than ever - more alive." She looks different, too, from how Nina last saw her - she'd been wan, her body already drained and whip-thin from her time in Hellgate. The parem had destroyed her, ruining her appetite, wracking her body with fevers and shakes and sweats. She'd been worringly pale, beginning to waste away, what little fat she had sliding off and the parem instead burning her muscles from the inside out in a desperate quest for fuel. Nina'd barely been able to heal her, her reserves were run down so far. She'd been sick, far worse than even grisha who never use their power get, her mind alternating wildly between desperate cravings and crushing despondence.

Now...

Now her color's back, and she hasn't put the weight back on yet but her eyes are bright and it's like she's lit by an eternal glow, like a grisha at the height of their power. 

"Nina... Something - changed. In me." She tucks her face into Nina's shoulder. " - I should show you."

"Okay," she says. "I'm here for you."

Deep breath - 

And she tugs Nina out of the (mostly unused) catacomb the team has been using as a hideout, past the Shu princess's guards, into another catacomb - white like marble, like ice, with patterns of trees and swirling wind carved in relief, fish darting around the roots. 

This catacomb, unlike the other, is actually in use, with bodies buried in the dirt beneath their feet, in caskets lining the walls. One back chamber - deep and partially hidden - contains only two caskets, far nicer than any others they've passed. Feilan's carefully removed the lids, even made an attempt to clean them. 

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes -

And bones rise from each casket.

She doesn't pull away.

"That's... different."

Quietly, the bones assemble into their respective skeletons, standing there relaxed, as if they're living, merely devoid of flesh. 

"It's unnatural. True witchcraft - not something like Healers, or Tidemakers, or Durasts, where they're useful. It's not something anyone could accept, Fjerdan or not."

"It's an insult to Djel, everything I swore to protect my people from."

The skeletons move, then, like they're coming to life - and begin to dance with each other, incongrously, an old-fashioned waltz like was popular in Kerch's ballrooms the last time this island was in use, like they may have danced with each other in life. (The inscriptions on the caskets announce them as spouses, each beloved, dead only a single day apart.)

"And it's mine!" she exclaims, and looks at Nina, her cheeks rosy, her eyes full of sparkling life. Rapidly, the words tumbling out of her mouth: "I earned it. And isn't it appropriate, if I've passed through Hell thrice, through the very throes of death, that I should have this power, unnatural or not? This protected Inej, took vengeance for her." The light in her eyes is almost manic.

"I can't Tailor anymore. It makes me shake and vomit, crave parem like I'm dying again - I'm not who I was." 

"I'm a Deathwitch. And I've never been more alive."

"Feilan, I-"

"Well. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disturbed. But you look better. Sound better. I'm really, really happy about that."

"I feel better."

"It disturbs the others, too - not Inej, she's been giving me ideas for practice, and not Trassel, but there's a reason I'm practicing all the way over here."

"I don't... Get it."

"Which part? The change, or the reactions?"

"The reactions. It's not like any of them are all that religious."

" - Oh, there was a pirate crew, Sturmhund's, that helped us out. The two heartrenders working for Sturmhund weren't bothered, but they're not... Us. There was also this one Ravkan friend of Inej's who insisted it's merzost until proven otherwise, and probably fundamentally evil and unnatural, so the Darkling would definitely want a Deathwitch of her own... But everyone else - Sturmhund, her crew, Kuwei, and the rest of our crew are just..."

"I don't get it."

"The change is a mystery but it's the kind I can do research and practice at, though I think that actually was the main thing alarming Kuwei? That there's something more going on with parem."

"I can try to explain, if you want. But- it may make more sense after a nap?"