Chapter Text
It feels like my boots are echoing the quiet halls in Riorson House more than they usually do.
In the weeks following the disaster that was Draithus, Navarre and Basgiath tried their best to return to normality…with questionable results. But it means we are back to rune rotations, and with it, way fewer people are in Aretia at the moment. At least they skipped war games this year. An actual war going on right under their noses is probably “training” enough.
The closer I get to the assembly room, the more my hands clench at my side.
It's never a good sign to be summoned by them. I know they don't trust me, no matter how many times I've proved myself and where my priorities and loyalty lie. Well, that Violet is now the duchess and made sure I and the others from my year are stationed in Aretia didn't help my case.
I trust Violet with my life…the assembly, not so much. Especially since they learned that she hid Xaden's…problem for months.
Was it a shock? Yes. But did it surprise me? Not in the slightest. That's who Violet always was. If she loves someone, she protects that person with her life, even if said person turned venin.
I arrived at the heavy double doors that are the assembly room. So I take a deep breath and try to calm my nerves.
The guard at the doors nods to me, clearly having been told that I would arrive.
I open the doors and am relieved and confused to only see Violet; she is sitting on the stairs leading to the dais. I know she refuses to sit on the throne unless it is really necessary, most of the time to remind the assembly of her status.
On the other hand, it is not the first time that the assembly is summoning me and playing the waiting game with me. Letting me wait for hours a few times.
It's probably another meeting like this today.
So I just close the doors and head towards Violet. Once I'm sitting down next to her on the stairs, I take a quick stock of her.
The bags under her eyes are getting deeper each day, her eyes dull, and her hair in a messy braid. We all look a bit worse for wear, especially for the last three months, but Vi looks worse than all of us combined.
When we translated even more texts we found over the weeks, still hoping to find a cure for the venin and especially Xaden, so far in vain, I instead found old records of something called partner bond , and I'm almost sure that this is what Violet shares or maybe shared with Xaden. We learned that Andarna can sever bonds, and maybe she did so with their bond as well. Either way, bonded or not, I'm almost sure that this is what causes Violet at least emotional pain, being separated from her husband, and her potential human mate.
But I know that Violet is not ready to talk about this yet, if she even knows.
We sat in silence for a few minutes when I realized that it was Violet who summoned me, not the assembly.
“The others aren't coming, right?”
Violet lets out a deep sigh. “No, they are not. But with what I ask of you, I need to make it look as official to an assembly meeting as it gets.”
That piques my interest but at the same time, sets all my alarm bells off.
She can't be asking me, again, to try and find the erased memories of those damn twelve hours; she did so in private and around the rest of our squad enough times in the days immediately following Draithus.
“What's on your mind, Violet?” I gently nudged her shoulder with mine, like we did hundreds of times growing up.
That's probably the only good thing that came out of this situation: Violet trusts me again. Am I a stand-in shoulder to lean on for Riorson? I absolutely am. Do I care? Not in the slightest, I'm just glad I got my best friend back, not fully, not like before, but that's more than enough.
“I got an invitation from Loysam. They want to open negotiations with Tyrrendor and want me or a trustworthy ambassador to come there for a first meeting. They are holding a ball in celebration of their independence and want us to attend there.”
Loysam. The only island we didn't visit when we searched for the Iridis. The isle is dedicated to Loial. We basically know next to nothing about the people living there.
Violet must see the look on my face and know it means I'm already trying to gather all the things we do know about the isle.
"Violet," I start, knowing she will hate what I will say next. “I don't want to say what you can or can't do. I've learned from my mistakes, but…”
Before I can even finish my sentence, she's interrupting me.
“I can't go." “I can't leave Aretia, not even for a week. It could be fatal for Tairn not to be able to communicate with me, and I still need to work on finding a cure and protecting Tyrrendor in case of another attack. But we need allies in this war. So I need someone going there that I can trust, and I know that you are incredible at getting intel. I hate to ask this of you, but I need you to be the one going to Loysam, Dain.
Now this pseudo summon makes sense. The assembly would never allow me to be the one leaving, to be the one representing Tyrrendor. It's ironic that I, of all people, should do this. Given my father's role in Navarre and my past actions.
“How much time do we have left until the ball, and how much longer can you keep it a secret? Does someone else know?” I'm already calculating every possible step. I have never been on a mission outside of the wards alone; gathering intel is nothing new for me, but the circumstances are.
“The ball is in eight days, so you would need to leave in four days just to be sure you get there a day before, and I can probably stall for three days until I need to let the assembly know about the invitation, and yes, Imogen knows. You know why.”
Of course, her signet. How could I forget? So three days to plan the route to get to Loysam without running into too much trouble and learning as much as I can about the isle.
I just nod and rise to leave, time is from now on of the essence. But Violet grabs my arm before I can go fully up.
“There's another thing.” I don't like the tone of her voice. At all.
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I try, and fail, not to think too hard about what Violet said before letting me go.
I understand that Loial is the god of love, but why on earth would Violet need to go alone or send a couple as ambassadors? After everything that happened in my second and third year at Basgiath, dating was the very last thing on my mind.
“So, should I call you 'Denial One' from here on out? It has just as nice a ring to it as “Smart One."
Nope. Not going there, and Cath knows this. He lives in my fucking mind.
“Yeah. And this is exactly why I know that dating is very much on your mind.”
Gods I want to scream. At this point, it's useless to throw my shields up again; Cath could easily topple them down.
“I'm definitely not thinking about dating anyone. Any opinion on the route we can take to Loysam without ending as venin food, though?”
It's a distraction tactic, but Cath loves a good strategy, so maybe thinking about our route helps me getting off his hook.
“Ah yes, I know you don't want to date anyone. Only a certain someone.”
Zihnal hates me today because luck is not on my side. I can't even help myself but immediately think about sky blue eyes that burn with so much passion. About long blonde waves and how I want nothing more than to run my hands through the silky-looking strands. Urgh, I hate myself just as much as Zihnal does.
But even more than this, I hate the fact that I need to play the part with another person. That someone needs to play my girlfriend for several days and be convincing enough to make the servants of Loial believe we are in love so they open negotiations.
Who do I even ask? Imogen would be the obvious choice since she knows about the invitation, but I can't see that working out. She's too honest…and angry to play anyone's girlfriend. And I'm sure Garrick would kill me. Gods, they need to figure their shit out, it's so obvious it hurts.
I just can't even imagine kissing anyone else but S…
“Sloane?!”
I rounded the corner to the floor I'm living at without even realizing it and almost toppled Sloane, who turned around the other side of the corner, to the ground, but I grabbed her quickly at her waist and stabilized her.
She glares at me for a second before realizing it's just me. A few months ago, she would have used some creative insults to let me know how much of an idiot I was to almost knock her down and touch her without permission. But since Draithus, we train her signet together, and she has become less hostile. Did this in any way help the deep connection I feel towards her? Not at all, but I just can't stay away from her.
“That's probably the closest thing to you confessing your feelings to yourself as it gets. I will keep our old nickname.”
“There are no feelings I could confess, not to you, myself, or anyone else.”
“Denial One it is then."
I double down on my earlier thought and slam my shields back up.
“Dain?” Sloane's voice drags me out of my thoughts in a heartbeat. I'm still not used to her using my first name.
“Hm?”
Now she's tilting her head, assessing me.
“I asked if everything is okay. It's not normal for you to run heedlessly around the house.”
“Yeah, I'm fine. I was just lost in thoughts, and Cath was a little bit distracting as well.” And I'm grateful that he apparently got the message and doesn't barrel through my shields.
Sloane's eyes narrow a bit, and before I can say more, she starts signing.
“Something to do with the envelope I saw Imogen smuggling under your door?”
Ever since word spread of how many high-ranking people in Navarre were and still are working with the venin, we often switched to sign language to prevent bystanders from overhearing confidential conversations.
I just nod and tilt my head towards my door. Sloane immediately moves to the door and enters the room. We all altered our wards after Draithus, only letting those in we could one hundred percent rule out as enemies, so basically Iron Squad and the first years of Fourth Wing, as well as Imogen, Bodhi, and Garrick. The sound shields we all set up are not even worth mentioning.
I quickly scan the envelope that Imogen left me and find mentions of Loysam and their customs and such in books in the Aretian version of the archives. It's way smaller than the one at Basgiath, but at least the texts are unaltered and tell the true history, not what Navarre wants us all to believe.
I decided to fill Sloane in; maybe she can help cover for Violet until the assembly can't stop me and whoever else is coming with me from leaving. I deliberately don't mention the part about having a fake relationship for the time being there.
When I'm done, she's silent for a while, clearly talking with Thoirt, then she looks back at me, determination flashing in her eyes. Determination I don't like one bit.
“I'm coming with you.” She says it with so much confidence, I'm taken aback for a moment.
“No, you can't and you won't. Do you know how dangerous it is out there? You know what happened when we left the last time.”
“Of course I know what happened. You seem to forget that Cat and I got closer since she came back. I can't believe I'm saying that, but she's a friend by now.”
I can only agree. I may have threatened Cat to throw her down the cliff myself, but Cat really changed…a bit at least since the isles.
“And.” My gaze snaps back to Sloane. "You also seem to forget that I was fostered by aristocrats. Terrible aristocrats, I might add. But I know my way around court. I did almost nothing else but gather intel and get drunk people to spill some more at fancy balls for the better part of six years. I will be a valuable asset to the mission.”
My brows furrow deeply at her words. “Why would you gather intel at your foster home?”
Sloane crosses her arms over her chest, and it takes everything in me not to look at said chest.
“To blackmail them," she says it so matter-of-factly. I'm sure she can see the surprise on my face, so she elaborates further.
“I wasn't given food every day. Most days, but not every day, and then most of the days I got something to eat, it was barely enough. Same with shoes or clothing. I was wearing the same shoes at sixteen that I was wearing at fourteen. I used my knowledge to get what I needed to survive. Later I also used it to get the three books I owned when I came here. And I'm not ashamed of it.”
Gods I hate when she talks about her foster home. I'm sure, if I were to ask Thoirt to team up with me to burn them to ashes, she would agree.
“She would.”
Cath confirms, sounding almost motivated to test my theory, and choosing this moment to re-enter the conversation.
My fist clenches at my side. “There's nothing to be ashamed of. But I'm honestly surprised they let you go, with all this knowledge.”
Sloane just shrugs. “Well, they never let me train for the quadrant, so I'm pretty sure they thought I would just fall off the parapet and take their secrets with me. But here we are. So. When do we leave? Thoirt already said she would fly out with you and Cath. I think she's on her way home so she and Cath can plot.”
I should press her to let it be. To stay here. It's a terrible idea for so many reasons. She is just a fresh second year, and while magic doesn't work on the isles, she would still need to protect herself, and I know she just started to make progress on her sword and dagger training with Imogen, and there are so many other reasons she should stay here, inside the wards.
But I learned one very important thing over the last year. If Sloane Mairi ever sets her mind on something, you don't change it. She ignored almost every single order I ever gave her as her wingleader, so I know that she won't listen to me saying no.
And for the fraction of a second I let myself imagine how this could play out. Us, acting as a couple, but the bubble bursts in the very same second.
That is how I will get her to stay. How she will change her mind for the first time in probably forever. While she is getting better with me being around her, I know she still blames me for Liam and will always do so. She would never play my girlfriend.
So I just tell her that. Tell her the one condition Loysam set up. Her eyes widen, her jaw taut, but a slight blush creeps up her face. But then she straightens her posture, and her eyes look in on me.
“Okay. I'm in. I will play your girlfriend for the mission.”
Excuse me, what did she just say?!