“I couldn’t get a read on that Lord d’Eshu,” he spat his name with an extreme amount of vitriol.
“What do you mean, you couldn’t get a read on him?” My tone was sharp.
Please don’t let this be another thing to add to our list of problems.
“That’s just it, Rohak. I couldn’t read him. Nothing that came out of his mouth.” Alois rubbed a hand across his jaw in obvious agitation.
“At all?” I was in complete disbelief.
“At all. And before you ask, no, it’s never happened before. And it puts us at an extreme disadvantage because now we must rely on more traditional and less reliable methods to discern his intentions,” he grumbled.
“Do we really think he’s worth looking into? If he’s just some random lord from the South, is it an effective use of our resources?”
“Yes,” he practically hissed, “it’s aneffective use of our resources. He’s tying himself to Hestin! Practically tying himself tomeand he’ll use Ellowyn like a puppet on a string.”
I sat with that for a moment. Ellowyn did seem like the type that would allow her husband total control, her interactions with her family proved as much this weekend.
I blew out a breath.
“Fine. I will address it when we get back.” Which would be soon, judging by our speed and the changing landscape. The farmland that dominated the edges of Hestin was slowly giving way to the foothills that comprised the eastern edge of our territory. The ride to the capital was only an hour or two, at most, if we continued at this pace and didn’t encounter any issues.
My response seemed to pacify Alois as he simply grunted in response, retreating into himself once again to brood on the thought of Ellowyn marrying the Southern Lord d’Eshu.
While I was hesitant about Alois’ newfound obsession with Ellowyn, I couldn’t deny that the timing of d’Eshu’s arrival was suspect at best, I just couldn’t figure out thewhy.
I felt like I had a thousand puzzle pieces and no clue how they fit together. The information was there, I just couldn’t connect it, couldn’t even begin to separate the edges from the middle to begin to construct a frame. Itwas maddening, especially because I considered myself an intelligent person.
I sat back and continued looking out the window, fiddling with the crystals in my pocket, desperately trying to figure out how everything fit together. But the longer I thought, the more the answers evaded me, and I was no closer to a solution when we arrived at the capital than I was when we left Hestin.
Chapter 23
Rohak
As I predicted, we arrived in Vespera around an hour and a half after we crossed the border out of Hestin. While Hestin was a larger territory, it was dominated by one primary city with sprawling country estates and extensive farmland. Vespera, in contrast, was primarily urban. It was a smaller territory, mileage-wise, and the edges continually expanded and grew over time until it seemed like the entirety of the territory was all just one large city—so much so that everyone simply referred to the entirety of the territory as Vespera. That’s not to say that everything was urbanized—there were still a plethora of hamlets and smaller villages and even some sparse arable land used primarily to grow grain—but those places were becoming fewer and far between.
The constant bustle and sounds of people were comforting, and staying in any other place that didn’t have the same sounds as a city unsettled my soul and made it difficult to sleep.
Why would someone ever want to live in a place where there aren’t other people or modern conveniences?
There were some territories in the far North, and even some of the Border Territories, where people thrived in seclusion and lived off the land. There was even a rumor of a group of people—nomads, really—who lived north of the Ice Shelf in complete isolation.
I shuddered at the thought as I strode up the steps that led into the administration building. That was another thing that I loved about Vespera—everything necessary to run the city and its allies was separated into appropriate buildings away from the main living space. Alois and I still hosted some meetings, especially those relating to public concerns, in a meeting room on the main floor of the palace, but for the most part, the palace was reserved strictly for our private residences and the occasional social event.
As the General of Mages, the majority of my work took place in the barracks and extensive training grounds connected to the Academy, and the training grounds are where I would much prefer to spend my time. I felt at home on the sand or in the grass, working with Mages and their Vessels to create a truly formidable fighting force. But, as Alois’ second, there was an incredible amount of paperwork and strategy, which is where my focus needed to be today, no matter how much I longed to unleash some magic with my Mages.
I sighed as I pulled off my gloves after entering through the main doors. The administration building was a modest two-story structure that held, as the name suggested, offices for the administrators within Vespera. It was a grey stone building with floors to match, and lights illuminated the hallways through a bit of magical science. I wasn’t sure how the magic worked, but if I clicked a certain button, some type of Fire Magic would ignite somewhere and miraculously light a series of orbs secured to the ceiling.
Like I said, magical science. If Ireallywanted to know how those orbs were lit and the magic behind them, I could speak with one of the Mages in the Magical Experiments Department. But they were all a bit . . . odd, to put it nicely, and I had really no desire to investigate the nitty-gritty details that I wouldn’t even comprehend. So, I simply let my understanding stay as “I pressed a button and the orbs illuminated.”
I quickly climbed the stairs at the back of the building that led to my office on the second floor. There weren’t many offices up here, just mine, Alois’, and the dean of the Academy, but both Alois and the dean tended to complete their administrative tasks in their own buildings. While I could do the same, I knew that I would never accomplish anything if I brought my work with me to the training building, so I kept my office here.
When I reached the door to my office, I placed my right hand on anotherglass orb. While this one looked like the orbs on the ceiling, its purpose was to verify my magical signature. It was an extra mode of security for the rooms on the second floor, which I was extremely grateful for. If the rebellion really wanted to cripple us, all they had to do was steal a few documents from my office and our entire strategy would be revealed. If someone tried to break into my office, however, the magic inside the orb would alert its Mage, who would then alert the nearby guards.
Once the orb recognized my magical signature, my door’s wards were deactivated, and I was able to enter my office. The room was narrow, but extremely long, spanning the entire length of the building, and I used every inch of available space. There were no windows—a security thing, again—and the walls were decorated with maps of Elyria, both past and present, drawings of battle plans and formations, thoughts on ways to better utilize our Mages, and current troop numbers, just to name a few. I had started to categorize everything at one point, but ultimately abandoned that venture as work continued to pile up with no end in sight.
I reached my desk, a dark wood monstrosity with carvings that depicted the birth of Vespera. The triple-wide top was currently covered in mountains of papers and requests, all of which I would have to get through and address at some point today if I wanted to rejoin the Mages later tomorrow.
I sat heavily in my chair, blew out a breath, and rubbed my temples before rolling my neck and beginning the never-ending paperwork. I sifted through papers with no expectation of actually finishing my paperwork this afternoon, especially after our travel back from Hestin. I also didn’t expect my office would be a constant revolving door of people needing to see me.
