Page 96 of Legacy Ascended

I sit down and get my notes out.

Natasha waits until Faris is setting her materials on the lectern.

“So,” she says. “Did you prove it?”

I look over. “Prove what?”

“That your family didn't do it. I assume that's what yesterday was for.”

“No.”

“Nothing?”

“That's not what I said.”

Natasha turns around in her seat. “Then what did you find?”

“A couple of things that don't make sense yet.”

“Of course you did.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“You went in there looking for proof your family didn't do it. I'm shocked that's what you found.”

“That's not what I found.”

“No? Because I'm pretty sure by lunch everyone will hear how the Fourth House was framed.”

“I spent half the day reading evidence that makes my family look guilty.”

Natasha gives me a look. “And the other half looking for reasons it doesn't count?”

“Fuck you.”

“There she is.”

Faris looks up. “Enough.”

Natasha turns toward her mother. “What? I'm wrong?”

“You're not discussing the reading.”

“I'm asking whether Jessica went into that archive looking for answers or looking for the answer she wanted.”

That one lands, because it's a fair question buried inside a shitty one.

“I don't know what happened,” I say. “That's why I'm looking.”

Faris lets the silence sit for a second, then picks up her chalk.

“Page forty. Since you have this much energy before nine in the morning, Natasha, you can start.”

A couple of people laugh.

Natasha turns around.

“The settlement,” Faris says. “Why so many safeguards? These Houses were allies. They'd just won. Why spend the next four years designing ways to stop each other?”