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Marasi silently charges an Allomantic grenade in her pocket. Wax edges down a step toward his sister, gun out. Wayne is hopping from foot to foot at the back of the room, glancing around as if Set gunmen are about to come through the walls. The last time they saw Telsin she had betrayed them on a mountaintop and nearly gotten Wax killed; Wayne had answered with a shotgun blast to her chest — the first time he had fired a gun in years — and she had bled out into the snow and then quietly healed and vanished. She is a Hemalurgist with at least Bloodmaker healing and hints of two other powers. She is here alone and not even pretending to be worried about it.

*This is marvellous,* she says, taking the basement in. *Remarkable how many of our secrets he managed to sneak out, considering. Who would have thought our greatest danger wasn't armies, or constables, or even you, Waxillium? It was a miserable, bald old chemist.* Maraga ducks behind Wax and snaps that Tobal was a good man. Telsin settles on the bottom step and rolls her eyes at Wax's gun. Wayne perks up — *good, can I make her talk? Scale of one to broken, how do you fancy your kneecaps?* — and Telsin explains, with the air of explaining to children, that a Feruchemist can store their pain in a metalmind, and that the Set has learned to hide their metalminds so they cannot be ripped out. *Torture me if you want, Wayne. I'll find it boring, but nothing more.* Wayne backs off like a puppy whose chew toy bit him.

Marasi worries more about Wax, frozen and grim — his last close living relative, who played him for a fool. Six years ago he had thrown himself at rescuing her from forces she was in fact part of, and now she has thrown her lot in with a god planning to end the world. *Why are you here, Telsin?* Telsin is here, she says, to *warn* him. He has *two precious days* to solve this problem. Wax curses and signals Wayne for a speed bubble; Wayne throws one up, freezing Telsin and Moonlight outside the time-shell so the team can confer privately. Wayne is bewildered that his shotgun blast does not appear to have impressed her in retrospect. Marasi: *Wayne, it's not like you gave her your virginity.* *No it's not — I give that away all the time. This was special.*

Wax reads the deadline as a trick — Telsin is trying to make them think they have more time than they do. The fact that she is here in person says she is desperate; she is not afraid of being captured or killed by them, because Harmony has said she is at least in some small way part-god — Invested by Autonomy as her avatar of Trell on this planet, on a leash that lasts only until she fails. Wayne requires a basic refresher on who Trell, who Autonomy, and who the woman on the steps are. *That on the steps is my sister. A woman representing the god Autonomy. Using the title of Trell — an ancient god from this world.* *And all three are utter knobs?* *Utter knobs.* As they watch, Marasi could swear that Telsin's eyes glow soft red for a moment, then go dark again. This feels above their pay scale. Wax insists there is no one else — but if Telsin is here in person, she is genuinely worried they will spoil her plan. She wanted to detonate weeks ago and can't, because the technology won't yet work.

Marasi proposes the split. Wax sees the shape of it instantly — two teams. *Kim* is trustworthy enough, she thinks, and knows the city; Marasi will take her and find a way into the Set's cavern network beneath Bilming to look for the bomb's launching mechanism. Wax and Wayne will take Telsin directly, interrogate her, sift truth from lies. They will radio whatever they find to Steris and Captain Reddi; he worries local radio operators may be compromised, but it is the only way they have. Marasi asks him to remind Allik to leave the city. *It's not selfish to want to save those you love.* He pauses. *If you don't hear from me, Marasi, know that I trust your judgment. If you have a chance to stop the bomb, do so. Whatever the cost.* She returns the same. The speed bubble drops.

Privately, Marasi notes that this also puts her alone with Moonlight long enough to pry. She tells herself she will share whatever she learns with Wax and he will understand. She is faintly embarrassed not to be embarrassed; mostly, she is excited. Wax walks over to Telsin. *You and I need to talk.* *Agreed,* she says, already standing for the stairs. He follows her, then stops for a word with Wayne: *be careful with that Kim. I think she's fakin' about somethin'.* Marasi thanks him for the warning — she agrees Kim knows more than she is saying, but she does not think Kim is working for the enemy.

Wayne, on his way up the stairs, has a small parting moment with her. After six years he is not used to letting her march off without him. She raises her fist; he taps it. *I'm glad you walked out of the stories and into my life. I'd rather have a friend than a legend.* *Same.* He winks — *they will [call you a legend]* — pinches an old bowler off a rack near the door and hangs a stapler tied with a ribbon in its place, and follows Wax and Telsin up out of the basement. Marasi is left in Maraga's tin-walled room with Moonlight, Maraga, and an entire cosmere's worth of secrets to start unpicking.