I knocked twice on Alois’ door before swinging it open, he was expecting me, and I wanted to waste as little time as possible.
“Rohak! You’re a sight for sore eyes, my friend,” Alois exclaimed as he stood from the leather wingback chair near the fireplace. His ever-present glass of whiskey was in hand, another poured for me sat waiting on the small table, and he wrapped me in a one-armed hug. At first, my body was stiff, neither expecting the affection nor truly knowing what to do with it. Alois and I were closer than brothers, but we weren’t often affectionate.
He didn’t relent, however, and I gradually wound my arms around hisbody. He was fleshier than I remembered, his muscles softening from disuse and the excessive drinking he seemed more prone to. Alois pulled back and regarded me with his sharp gaze.
“What?” I barked, frustration from the last few weeks bleeding into my tone. Alois raised an eyebrow at me and I huffed, relaxing my body as I did so. “You’ve heard already.Of courseyou’ve heard already.”
“It is my home, Rohak. Did you really think you’d be able to put someone else in the guest rooms, a stranger no less, without me knowing?” He wasn’t angry, but his voice was laced with skepticism. Our friendship was most likely the only thing holding him back from caustic anger—our home was a sacred space, and I had intentionally violated that with no warning.
“We should sit for this conversation,” I said, “everything ties together. And yes, I will tell you about the strange woman first.”
He slapped my shoulder and gestured to the chairs by the fire. I took my seat and snatched the whiskey, throwing it back in two long gulps. It burned going down but left notes of honey on my tongue.
The cask from Hestin.I rarely drank, especially with what was inevitably going to happen tonight, but I needed something to take the edge off, andgodswas that whiskey good.
Alois simply chuckled and poured me another two fingers before gesturing to me. “Speak.”
I sipped lightly on my second glass, content with the warmth burning in my stomach from the first.
“She’s a Rune Master,” I said, and Alois’ eyebrows hit his hairline. “And a damn good one. The best I’ve ever seen, Alois.”
“She could be a fraud, Rohak. Do you know how many ‘Rune Masters’”—he air quoted the word with his fingers, one hand still clasping his glass of whiskey—“we’ve had apply for this position since you left?” I shook my head because, obviously, I didn’t. Alois scoffed. “Too many to count. They just show up and start drawing random images without any fucking clue what they’re doing or playing with. They pour some blood on it and mumble a bunch of words. I’ve started having some of the acolytes vet them beforehand. Only a dozen have made it through to me, and that was because they could perform the basic Bonding Runes. It’s pitiful, really.”
“Can’t you just ask them if they’re a Rune Master?” The answer seemed obvious to me, especially with Alois’ power.
“You would think,” he ground out. “The problem is that they all trulybelievethat they’re Rune Masters.” He barked a laugh and ran his hands over his eyes. And I took a moment to look at my friend, truly look at him. Alois was tired, though we all were, but the bags under his eyes were heavy and looked almost black.
Was he not sleeping? What was plaguing my best friend and why did I not know about it?
I turned the tumbler between my fingers as I regarded him.
“What makes you think this one is different, Rohak? And why is she living in our house?” he sighed, eyes still closed.
“I saw her work,” I whispered, “she saved Sol and created some sort of link between her and Thandi. It was . . . incredible. Truly something. She also constructed wards the likes of which I’d never seen. She’d be terrifying if she weren’t so quirky.” Alois was suddenly silent; he dropped his hand from his brow and regarded me with a hunger in his eyes.
“Wards, you said? She saved Sol?” he breathed, and I nodded.
“I swear by all the gods, it’s true. She’s the real thing, Alois.”
Alois reared his head back at my confession. “Youneverswear by the gods,” he said, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“I believe in her,” I admitted.
Alois leaned his head against his tumbler and regarded me with his shrewd gaze. “You like her.”
I laughed. “Not in the way you think, Alois. I respect her and admire her mind and power. That is all.”
Liar.
Alois barked a true laugh before throwing back the rest of his whiskey and setting the empty tumbler down on the table. “I think that is the first time in nearly four decades you’ve lied to me, Rohak.” I scratched at my beard, suddenly uncomfortable with his line of questioning. “What’s her name? I want to meet her and vet her before the night is through.”
I nodded, expecting as much. “Fay,” I said. I never called her that, but for some reason, it rolled off my tongue instantly.
He can have Fay, but Faylinn is mine. I shook my head to clear those possessive thoughts.
Alois leaned back in his chair, his hands tapping lightly on the armrests. “What else. Tell me everything that happened.”
And I did. It took three hours and another glass of whiskey apiece, but I debriefed Alois on all that happened over the previous weeks. He interjected every so often to ask a clarifying or probing question, but he took all the information I fed him and filed it away for later. He was unsurprised when I admitted there was a Keeper hiding in the village—we both speculated that’s what initially drew the rebels to the area, especially becauseshecould sense their souls.
