“Are you out of your mind?!” Lucia hissed, yanking V close by the elbow before dropping her voice, teeth clenched. “Hack the Node? Do you know how many have ended up in the cryo-penitentiary for even thinking about it?”

  V rolled her eyes, tugging her arm back. “Obviously. You think I’ve been living under a rock? Like you’ve been, in this hellhole?”

  Lucia winced. “You praise the convent as the perfect blindspot of the Node so you can attack it—and now you denounce it? What bullshit!”

  “What’s bullshit,” V said, grabbing Lucia’s shoulders, “is that you aren’t excited. If you really believed in your analog faith, shouldn’t you be leaping for joy that someone’s willing to gut your enemy? This is a revolution. An opportunity of a lifetime, you idiot.”

  Lucia shoved her back. Even when they were tucked between the library stacks, voices echoed off the high shelves despite their whispers. “This is why you waited till now to reveal it, huh? Your mission.”

  V crossed her arms, her gaze sliding over Lucia. “And the fact that you didn’t guess it the minute I said I lead the Southern branch of the Lantern. I’m thoroughly disappointed.”

  Lucia groaned. She knew V’s assignment was possibly Node-related. But she only assumed her sister was here to steal something inside the convent. She never imagined the convent itself was the cover, the shield, the safe house.

  “Anyway.” V flicked her hand lazily. “Our deal still stands. You can’t back out.”

  Lucia’s eyes traced the curl of her sister’s smile. Despite all that bravado, V had little leverage, and they both knew it. But V also knew Lucia.

  “I never back out of deals we make.”

  V smiled, her hip leaning against the window sill, triumphant. “Exactly. Why do you think I waited for you to come to me first?”

  Lucia felt defeated. Deals with her sister always left her on the losing end. Even that night, the night of the Upheaval, was because of one.

  “Although…” V lifted a finger. “I didn’t expect a counter-deal. Teresa, huh?”

  The name hit like a blow. She almost clamped her hand over V’s mouth before V slapped it away, smirking, ready with a remark, when suddenly a voice startled them both.

  “There you are!”

  Lucia jumped. V straightened her back, forcing a smile.

  Down the aisle came Clarence, bright and bubbly as always, waving a small booklet.

  “Sister Clarence,” Lucia stammered, “I didn’t know you were looking for me…”

  But Clarence patted her shoulder, beaming as she handed the book not to Lucia, but to V. Guide to Ropes and Knots: Advanced.

  Lucia froze. No. Clarence and V had never met. She’d made sure of it. V was too volatile, and Clarence was her one safe anchor. Their collision was dangerous.

  “What’s this?” Lucia asked sharply, reaching for the booklet, but V was faster.

  “Sister V here expressed her interest in the Handy Nun community,” Clarence said proudly, as if announcing a prize pupil.

  Lucia’s stare burned into V until her sister finally met her gaze, serene, unbothered, as if she’d planned this exact collision.

  “Is that so?” Lucia pressed. “Funny she never mentioned it to me, her mentor nun.”

  “Oh, I may have led the conversation there,” Clarence said, flustered. “She was asking me about knots—”

  “I’ve always been fascinated by knots,” V added smoothly, gesturing for Clarence to continue.

  “—And one thing led to another and she said she might even list our department as her top preference.” Clarence clapped her hands together, gleeful.

  Lucia’s jaw tightened.

  “Well, she has until the end of the week to finalize her decision,” Lucia said flatly.

  “Please, Sister Lucia. Sister Clarisse here has been nothing but supportive,” V cut in, deliberately mangling the name, drawing Clarence’s gaze. “A potential novice nun joining her department during their first year is unheard of, I hear. Are you trying to dim her light?”

  “It’s Clarence,” Clarence corrected gently, though she already looked rattled. “Maybe I overstepped—”

  “Don’t apologize, Sister Claire,” V said, throwing the blame squarely back at Lucia.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “It’s Clarence,” Clarence tried again, shrinking under the tension, panicking that she had suddenly made her sweet Lucia clash with a novice nun for no apparent reason.

  But Lucia had already stepped in front, gently pushing Clarence aside, dropping to a whisper, “Stop it.”

  V only smirked then made a face that only Lucia knew what it truly meant: What would you do if I don’t?

  “There you are!”

  This time Cathy’s voice rang through the stacks. Lucia nearly cursed. Of all days, the entire convent seemed intent on suddenly converging here.

  ***

  Even at sundown Lucia was still fuming, watching the light drain off the far horizon and take the day with it. Ever since V’s arrival, days have dragged longer, troubles have spawned out of thin air, her life stuck in a looping fever dream.

  She sat on her bed, tugging hairpins free one by one from her veil. Each eased the ache in her scalp but multiplied the ache in her thoughts. The Lantern’s plan: hack the Node. A sliver of a chance on paper, guaranteed failure in practice. After all these years, no one had managed to so much as poke the bear sleeping in the vaults underground. And V, of course, wanted to be the one to prod it. Lucia could picture her at Lantern headquarters, pitching the impossible, bargaining her way into the honor of suicide.

  Lucia was ready to pull off her veil when hurried footsteps approached her door. The knob rattled.

  “Who is it?” She blurted.

  “It’s me…your Analog Highness.”

  Lucia rolled her eyes, unlocked the door, and V breezed in, dumping an armful of contraband onto her deflating mattress. Books, cutlery, candleholders, even trousers.

  “You were stealing all this?”

  “I don’t have my equipment. And so I improvised.” V stripped off her tunic, hands on her hips as she surveyed her haul. Lucia hurried to lock the door, checking it thrice.

  “Did anyone see you?” Lucia asked, then fell silent.

  V had reached for her sweat drenched veil and pulled it off. For the first time, Lucia saw her sister bare-headed. Short black hair streaked with indigo, buzzed along the sides, tied into a messy tail. The tattoo of the Lantern peeking. Sharp, reckless. The opposite of everything within these walls. And it suited her.

  Lucia almost forgot to breathe.

  “What?” V asked, catching her stare.

  “Nothing.”

  A beat of silence passed. Then, softer, V said, “I shaved it when I joined the Lantern. A token of seriousness.”

  Lucia remembered. Ten years ago, V skipping ahead, her hair a dark river behind her. Whispering about shaving it all off to join the rebellion. Meanwhile, their mother cut Lucia’s hair short, always short, never allowed to grow.

  Lucia paused, then almost instinctively pulled her veil loose, unwound her bun, and let her hair spill free. V turned—and froze.

  “I’ve grown mine ever since I joined the convent.”

  A flicker crossed V’s face. Genuine, brief melancholy. Lucia knew what it meant. Little V had always begged their mother to let Lucia grow her hair out. But their mother never caved.

  Taking a step closer, V brushed her fingers through the strands, “It fits you.”

  Then almost immediately she recoiled, snapping back to herself.

  Lucia followed along, pressing. “We need to talk. About Clarence.”

  V snorted, but listened.

  “Whatever you’re doing, stop. Leave her out of this.”

  “She’s my route into the tool shop. And that shop has everything, mostly—”

  Lucia pulled a key from her pocket, shoved it against V’s chest.

  V laughed. “You stole one already? Impressive.”

  “And now you leave Clarence alone. You don’t talk to her without me there.”

  V grinned. “What an amazing friend you are. Does she even know?”

  “She doesn’t need to.”

  V chuckled, needling. “What’s her name again? Clara?”

  Lucia didn’t correct V. She knew her sister was only being petty.

  “Well, regardless,” V slipped the key into her pocket, then grabbed a booklet from the pile and tossed it at Lucia. Behavior of Fire and Control Methods.

  Lucia frowned. “This is getting ridiculous.”

  V ignored her, dragging her to the room window. Outside, across the sky, the vibrant pink was transitioning to a cool blue. The Cathedral dome gleamed in the last light.

  “You remember the flashlight signal from last night?” V asked.

  Lucia nodded then turned to ask, “Actually, I think Sister Teresa was—”

  “We’ll get to Teresa after tomorrow night. I promise.”

  Lucia blinked. “What’s tomorrow night?”

  “The flashlight from the desert was my signal to proceed as normal. That is, follow the exact plan we set at the Lantern headquarters. According to the plan, tomorrow night, I will receive a delivery. My own equipment.”

  “That's impossible. Convent deliveries go through rigorous checking and scanning.” Lucia shook her head. “You have to file an official request. Besides, no novice nun gets outside contact.”

  V smirked. “What makes you think I would go through an official channel?”

  “There is no other inlet. Only the underground delivery track—”

  “Wrong.” V pointed out toward the far desert, then began tracing an invisible line. “There’s a clean shot from out there to the Convent’s highest point.”

  Lucia followed her finger to the thin spire jutting from the dimming Cathedral dome.

  “They’ll launch my equipment up and across the barrier. Straight to that peak. The official point of contact.”

  Lucia’s eyes widened. “And you’ll be there?”

  “Exactly.” V’s grin spread. “And I’ll be there to catch it.”

  Lucia shook her head. “That won’t work. Anything crossing the barrier will trigger a Code Red. The whole convent will see you.”

  “But that’s why I have you.”

  Lucia’s brow furrowed.

  V continued, “You’ll give me cover. A distraction worthy of the entire convent to miss me scaling the Cathedral dome…”

  V tapped the book still in Lucia’s hands.

  “...You’ll be setting the convent on fire.”