Page 107 of Daughter of No Worlds

Chapter Thirty-Six

Every single thing in Zeryth’s office looked too expensive to touch. It was large and vast and meticulously decorated — furniture crafted with accents of platinum, curtains of wafting white chiffon, beautiful classical landscape paintings clinging to the curved walls. The room was closer to the size of an apartment than a typical office. Half of the wall was one massive sheet of windows, exposing miles and miles of thrashing sea from a truly dizzying height. Zeryth’s office was located at the second highest floor of the Order of Midnight. The top floor, he told me amiably on our way up, was where he lived.

Now, I sat in a little white velvet chair in front of a desk made of marble and mahogany. Zeryth settled into his own chair, leaning back and propping his heels up on the edge of the desk, regarding me with that ever-present smile.

Nura stood in front of the window, back straight, hands clasped behind her back. When Zeryth offered her a seat, she merely shook her head. He shrugged and flicked an almost-roll of his eyes.

“So,” he said to me. “Tisaanah. Thank you for joining us.”

My fingers were twined together in front of me, the pressure slowing a heartbeat that threatened to race. I carefully guarded my mental barriers — I didn’t need either Zeryth or Nura to know how nervous I was, especially not when I still could not get Max’s face out of my head, the sound of his voice begging me to leave still echoing in my ears.

“We’re here to discuss my evaluations, yes?” I said.

“Yes.” Zeryth swung his legs off of his desk and leaned forward, grin widening. “Well, you passed! Congratulations.”

I waited for more. He said nothing else. Nura paced behind him in long, slow steps.

“That’s wonderful,” I finally said, flatly.

“Are you pleased with yourself?”

“Yes. But I am more interested in what is next.”

Nura continued to pace.

Zeryth looked pleased with this response. “Of course. That is why we called you to meet us here today, after all—” Mid-sentence, he whipped his head around to shoot Nura a sharp look. “Must you loom like that?”

“I am not looming,” Nura shot back, looming over Zeryth’s shoulder.

“You are testy today. Nervous energy?” He gestured to the empty chair beside mine. “Have a seat. Relax.”

“I’d rather stand.”

The thread of my patience was growing tighter and tighter. “What are we here to discuss?” I cut in.

Zeryth shifted back to me. It was amazing how quickly and seamlessly his expression changed, his hard-edged frustration melting away. “This is not yet public knowledge, but early this morning, we received some deeply upsetting news. Our Queen Sesri had to throw another traitorous noble family out of power. This was a Ryvenai one this time. Nearly two hundred soldiers and civilians were killed in the resulting skirmish.”

Gods!Two hundred.

“There were Wielders involved on both sides,” Nura added.

“And it will only get worse from here,” Zeryth said. “There will be retaliations. And it has become clear that a much larger rebellion against Queen Sesri is—”

“Civil war is an inevitability,” Nura cut in. “We stand on the precipice of a war that stands to be as deadly as—”

Zeryth snapped his neck around again, his composure shattering into a glare. “Again, with the looming. And the interrupting.”

“Again, I am not looming.”

“Sit down.”

A sneer twitched at Nura’s lip. “I’m not a child.”

“No, but you are my subordinate.” Zeryth flicked his finger, and the other chair screeched across the tiled floor, as if sharply yanked by an invisible hand. “Sit.”

Nura fell heavily into the seat, her expression carved in ice.

I sat still, trying not to visibly react. I wondered if this show was for my benefit.

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