Page 130 of Legacy Ascended

"You've gone somewhere," he says.

"She's right. That's the problem."

“I hate when Natasha has a point. What did she say?”

I look out at the dark going down the mountainside.

"I stood up in that chamber and told them not to claim anything they couldn't prove," I say. "And then I opened my wardrobe and put on a dead House's colors and walked into their hall in them."

"Yes," Luke says. "I noticed. It was the single most effective thing anyone did this week."

"That isn't the same as honest."

"No." He turns his head. "Do you want it?"

I've been avoiding that question for two days. It has been sitting in the middle of my chest since Wren said the words standing, succession, restoration in the flattest voice in Europe.

"I'm going to ask for restoration," I say.

Luke is quiet for a second.

"Of the House."

"Yes."

"Do you know what you're asking for?"

"No."

That makes him smile — a real one, surprised out of him, nothing political in it anywhere.

"That's not usually how people announce things like this."

"I know what I want. I don't know what all of it means yet."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want it to exist."

Luke waits.

"I want the name back. I want the history corrected where we can prove it's wrong. I want a banner on that wall."

"And after that?"

"I don't know."

"Land?"

"Not until I know who lives on it and what taking it back would actually mean."

He nods.

"Council seat?"

"I don't know that either." I get my hands around the cold stone. "So I want restoration. I want the chance to work out what restoration means."

Luke looks at me for a long moment.