Wic pulled his knees to his chest, shivering. The cell was freezing cold, although he only half-registered it in his confusion. He still didn't know why the duke had suddenly turned, but things had gone downhill even faster in the weeks since. He didn't get much news from his cell, but it seemed like Belt's life was crumbling around him. First the thefts, then man after man deserting him, and now he was being accused of embezzling from the Gate treasury. It seemed that maybe soon Wic would be seeing Belt himself in a cell down the hall.

Wic's musings were interrupted by the door of his cell swinging open. In the doorway stood an unfamiliar guard. As Wic opened his mouth to ask what was going on, the guard forestalled him in a familiar voice. "Shut up and come on. I'm getting you out of here."

Too shocked to speak, Wic stood and followed his sister. As they darted down the hall, he managed to ask, "Why?"

"You're still my brother." They raced through a door and into an alley. Kit turned to Wic, handing him a small ring. "Put that on. Anti-tracking."

Wic slipped it on, then gasped as a jolt of pain rushed through his body. He fell to one knee. "What...the hell..."

Kit shook her head. "You didn't even think to doubt me, did you? You betrayed us, sold us out, got half my family killed, and yet you assumed that I'd come and save you without question. You didn't even question whether I was telling the truth about what I gave you." She knelt next to Wic, now gasping on the floor as waves of agony ran through him, her eyes sad as her voice became quieter. "You may have grown up in a thieves' guild, but you never were very good at distrusting people. Made you a better liar. I think you believed your own lies." She watched Wic yank at the ring on his finger, trying to pull it off. "It's not going to come off. It's enchanted. Shift to your true form."

Wic held out for another few moments before giving in, transforming to his pale-skinned, white-haired form. Immediately, the pain vanished.

"Tun and I disagreed on what to do about your betrayal. He wanted to kill you painfully and then repurpose your death as a message about what happens when you cross him. I won the argument, though, and we got that little trinket enchanted." She tapped the ring. "It's a very simple and elegant form of revenge. As long as you're in this form, your true form, nothing happens. You're fine. But if you shift..." She shrugged. "Any form but the one you were born in, and that pain you just felt will be there. For as long as you're shifted."

Wic glared at her. "What happened to promising to protect my choice, Kit?"

In a blur, there was a dagger at his neck, and fury and grief spread across Kit's face. "Your choice? Your CHOICE? As far as I'm concerned, you lost any right to a choice when you deprived our family of theirs. Ri, Stripe, Ul, Shae. All DEAD because of you. Our mother, dead. I made that promise to my little brother, but then you showed EXACTLY how little that meant to you." She sheathed her dagger. "You were so disgusted with what we were that you were willing to let us die for it. And now you'll never escape it. But I'll give you one last suggestion. Get out of town. I may want to leave you alive, but Tun'll have no qualms about sending someone to kill you in your sleep. Leave the Gate, never come back, and hope to the gods that we never see you again." She stood and turned back to the door.

"Where are you going?" Wic asked quietly.

"You're not the only person on my list tonight." And then Kit vanished through the door.

Wic lay in the street for another long moment. Then, slowly, he stood and walked down the street.

He had a trip to plan.

Duke Belt pushed away his food. He hadn't been able to eat much, although he had drunk three goblets of wine. "Everyone out." Once the guards and servants were gone, he rubbed his head, feeling tired, drained, weak. What had happened? Everything had gone bad so quickly. His musings were interrupted by the entrance of two servants. "I said everyone out."

"We know." The door's lock clicked as Belt looked up, and both servants' forms shifted to white-skinned, pale-haired humanoids.

Belt leapt from his chair--or at least tried to. A wave of weakness swept through him, and he nearly fell, just catching himself on the desk. "What the..."

"Yeah, none of that. Took a bit to infiltrate your kitchens, but we wanted to make sure you wouldn't be swinging a sword at us." Kit crossed the room in a blur and pushed Belt back into his chair. "You recognize us, right? It'll make this easier."

Belt nodded slowly. "Six years ago. The Shadows hideout. My men cleared it out."

The slash across his face was so quick he didn't feel it until blood started running down his face. "They slaughtered us. Families. Little children. They came with nets and blades and tried to kill us all."

"You were criminals."

Kit shook her head. "We're not getting anywhere with this argument." She sits on the desk. "So, here's the deal. That poison currently inside you is going to continue to sap your strength. Eventually, you'll be completely helpless. I wanted to drop you off somewhere interesting and gritty like that, see if you could last the hour it'll take for the poison to wear off. But, well...I won the argument about what to do with Wic. I had to give Tun something." She stepped back, and the other changeling, a dark-eyed male, stepped forward with a cold little smile.