Note: Unfortunately I have no idea how to make fake maps, but Arcana is nestled between France, Italy, and Switzerland. I hope this long chapter momentarily cures your quarantine boredom :) 

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"Thank heavens for that ambassador and his good sense! When I heard you'd been running around a city specifically determined to kill you, I started to wonder whether I'd taught you anything at all." Luna Chu was the first one to approach Juliana's small, nondescript black car as it pulled up in front of the looming gray warehouse. The High Commander nearly blended in with the quiet night around her in her black half-zip and joggers, but her sharp eyes were unmistakable. They latched onto Juliana with a hawklike gaze as she stumbled out of the car, exhausted after a two-hour long drive. 

"And what are you doing still in that suit? Are you trying to attract attention?" 

Juliana paused between Chu and the warehouse door, looking around her as she pulled her messy hair into a stubby ponytail. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this far out in the country. The stars in the sky were as clear as diamonds on black velvet, and as the car sped away behind her, it felt like she, Chu, and the warehouse were the only things that existed in this neverending expanse of tall grass and rolling hills. Although she hadn't been paying particular attention to the route Nelson's driver took, she had a feeling they were somewhere near the French border- pretty much as far as you could get from the capital without leaving Arcana. Combine that with the fact that for some reason, Harrow Industries had a warehouse out here, Lord Hewkin couldn't have chosen a better place to hide his government while they waited out the riot. 

"I'm talking to you, young lady!" Chu snapped as Juliana headed for the door. She paused mid-step, an instinctual reaction to her former teacher's irritation, and turned around to face Chu. 

"I'm sorry, Commander Chu. I was afraid for the Alpha Box. 'Protect the Box with your life.' That's something you taught me, too, isn't it?" Juliana chose not to respond to Chu's comment about her outfit- she couldn't bring herself to admit the real reason she refused to deactivate her suit. The showy silver dress she was wearing underneath it seemed like too untimely a reminder of what this evening was supposed to be in the face of what it was. 

Chu's eyes narrowed as she tilted her head to the side, scanning and judging every inch of Juliana's face along with the words she'd just said. This was one of the things Juliana truly respected about Chu. Despite her humble beginnings, perhaps because of them, she was a remarkably simple woman. Titles and politics meant absolutely nothing to her. Juliana was sure that if some day, a higher power descended from the skies and stood before Luna Elizabeth Chu, she would judge it just as she judged Juliana, her High General and Queen. 

"Once again, you fail to know your enemy," Chu shook her head, finally coming to her verdict as she and Juliana walked inside together. "Ravenna has never really wanted the Alpha Box. That was all Roy. Ravenna has never really wanted any kind of power at all, though she often tries to convince herself that she does. Your sister is all rage- she doesn't take for herself, she just destroys. If it is indeed Ravenna that we're dealing with again, I can assure you that the Box is perfectly safe." 

"Yes..." Juliana nodded slowly, only partially reassured by Chu's words. The 'Ravenna comes back for revenge' explanation didn't quite satisfy her anymore. It seemed much too simplistic, too childish and obvious to explain the  horrific chaos and destruction she'd seen in Arcana City. Now, looking at the Order members who had set up makeshift workspaces on the warehouse floor, turning crates into desks and dollies into chairs, she recalled her authorization of a preliminary investigation into the night's events. She could only hope that someone had turned up something helpful. She didn't know if she could go on much longer without any of the answers she so desperately sought. 

As Chu returned to the group of Order officers she was supervising, Juliana spotted Chase standing at a workstation across the room, the three monitors set up on the crate in front of him almost obscuring his face. A smile crossing her face for the first time that night, she approached him slowly, aware of how jumpy he could get when disturbed in the middle of his work. 

Chase wore a thin, blue sweater and cargo pants that looked like they had more pockets than everything in Juliana's closet combined. As he worked, he periodically raised his left hand to flick away a stray curl of light brown hair that seemed determined to hang in front of his eye. In his four years as an Order member, he'd refused to get contacts or cut his hair, opting to stick with the same wiry black glasses and floppy haircut he'd had since the day Juliana met him. Sure, the older, more traditional Order members griped about this, but once they realized they couldn't possibly convince Juliana that there was anything wrong with her boyfriend's appearance, they reluctantly backed off. 

He's so oblivious, Juliana thought to herself as she circled around Chase, standing behind him to inspect the screens in front of him. On one monitor was a map of Arcana City where he had pointed out the locations of major riots with red x's. Each x corresponded to an entry in an elaborate table that took up most of the other two monitors. 

"It looks like the probability anomalies are concentrated around the palace, the banquet hall where we were going to host that party, and the Order museum," Juliana mused, scanning the data. 

"Whoa!" Chase whipped around, his finger automatically sliding toward the button at the center of his right glove. It took him a few seconds to realize that the person standing behind him was only Juliana, at which point he slowly lowered his arms. "Stop sneaking up on me like that," he whined. 

"I was explicitly trying not to sneak up on you- you're just that blind," Juliana countered with a slight smile. "Did you do all this yourself? This is a lot for just... an hour, right? You can't have been here longer than that."

"It's how I deal with stuff," Chase shrugged his shoulders. "When the world feels like it's ending, just do some math, I guess." 

Juliana couldn't argue with that. 

"You're right about the palace, the banquet hall, and the Order museum, though. Most of the manipulations there make sense- patriotism was lowered, aggression and doubt were raised. It's not so much what's there that bothers me, but what isn't there," Chase put his hands behind his head as he looked over the data he had constructed for the millionth time, still trying to see something new in it. 

"What do you mean?" Juliana questioned, her curiosity aroused, as she stepped closer to Chase and the screens. 

"These circles represent fires that were started around the city," Chase explained, pointing at his diagram. "I've checked all of the locations at several different times- there was no alteration of the flammability of the buildings, or of anyone's arsonist tendencies. Basically, no probability manipulation that has anything to do with starting fires. At all." 

"So... the fires were started by means that have nothing to do with the Alpha Box." It wasn't a far stretch of Juliana's imagination to picture her crazed sister running gleefully through the streets of Arcana City with a can of gasoline and a lighter, but as she looked at Chase's map, she realized that theory couldn't explain how fires had simultaneously started on opposite sides of the city. 

"While we're on the topic of fires, we found something at the Order museum that might be interesting." Hayley approached Chase and Juliana with a tablet in her hands. The sleeves of her oversized green sweater were double-rolled so she could type and her hair was pulled up into two messy buns. Of all the members of Project PROB present, she looked the most comfortable. "I'm sure Chase told you this, but he figured out that the most manipulated locations were the palace, the banquet hall, and the Order museum. The palace and the banquet hall make sense- they're the places we were most likely to be, so someone trying to scare or kill us would obviously attack there first. But the Order museum just seemed so random. The only people who'd be there on a weeknight are middle schoolers on field trips and nerds on impromptu dates." 

Chase and Juliana exchanged an embarrassed look at this last statement. They had most definitely been to the Order of Chance museum on multiple impromptu dates. "Yeah, like you two," Hayley chimed in without missing a beat. "Anyway, given their limited time and the size of their task, it doesn't make sense that Ravenna and her unknown ally would attack such an insignificant target. It really doesn't make sense that the museum is actually one of the most intact buildings in the government district. According to the security footage, there's only one thing wrong with it: the Nebulik exhibit was sacked, and two of the Red Knight suits are missing." 

Both Chase and Juliana went silent at this revelation, their eyes turning back to Chase's dynamic map of Arcana's capital. It showed the location of every fire in the city at thirty minute intervals from 8 PM to 11 PM. Sure enough, they were all started in pairs. Two Red Knight suits. 

"So you're telling me the Red Knights of Nebulik came back from the fourteenth century to burn my city?" Juliana laughed. At least, she tried to laugh. She wanted this theory to be too ridiculous to be true, but she had to admit to herself that the facts fit it perfectly. Just one question remained. How? 

"It's not so implausible," Hayley said seriously. "Think about it- the Red Knights were all shot after Nebulik's revolution failed, but a lot of them had wives and children. Some of those children could've carried the gene- they could've hidden it to avoid persecution. Throughout the centuries, there have been stories. People who ran into burning buildings to save others and came out impossibly unscathed. Witches who were burned at the stake and survived. Doesn't it seem possible that the Red Knights have been biding their time, waiting for someone or something to spur them into action to reclaim what was once theirs?" 

"But who's that 'someone or something'?" Juliana questioned. "I don't think it's Ravenna. She doesn't know enough about Arcanese history, and this really isn't her style. So we have Ravenna, and the Red Knights- assuming it is really them. These are people who've lost something important because of me or my family, people who, from their point of view, have very legitimate reasons to want me dead. Just think back to your criminal psychology classes- those are people with motive, the easiest kind of people to manipulate. I don't know about you, but I don't think any of them orchestrated tonight. There's someone behind them all, a bigger mastermind. If we want to stop this, we have to find them." 

"And in order to do that, we need to look through all the clues we have. Everything from Maddie's kidnapping to tonight. No criminal leaves zero footsteps behind," Chase suggested. From his answer, it seemed like he was on board with Juliana's idea. 

"Well... have we done that?" Hayley asked. 

"Almost. There's only one thing left." Juliana felt her stomach sinking with dread as Chase finished his sentence. "The Evarbors' security just extracted them from their house by helicopter. When they get here, we need to question Harry."