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"Did he believe you?" Ela asked.
Talin nodded his head. "Yeah, he did. Said his ring doesn't have teeth anymore either. Regardless, she's fine, Ela."
"Thank you, Zeal," Ela breathed, dropping his head with the prayer. "I knew I had to push that, but I hate how much damage I do to her."
"What about the others?" I asked. "The patrons who'll ask for you to use them like that?"
He blew that off. "If they ask for it, then that's their fault. I also won't see them again, Wraythe. Never mind that most of them will think they can break me instead, or that a good portion will be people who regularly abuse those in their power."
"Like my brother," Talin said. "He's a dick to his staff, doesn't care about their problems because clearly he was chosen by agodand they weren't."
"Why did Zeal even pick him if he's such a dick?" Ela asked.
"No idea," Talin said. "Because my family has been ruling the Temptation Barony for generations and Tath's the oldest boy? Because it worked into some other plan he had? I can't begin to guess, and I'm not dumb enough to ask."
"There's that," I muttered just as Nari and Anver walked into the dining hall.
But this time Talin was faster than me. "Nari!" he yelled. "Anver! We're over here."
"Hey!" Anver said, turning Nari our way. When he got close enough, he kept going. "You will never believe who showed up in Nari's last class."
"Let me guess," Ela grumbled, "Kinen?"
"Nope." Nari dropped into the chair beside Talin. "Zeal. I mean, the course is called the Words of Zeal, but here's the best part. Only one person in there couldn't see him, and she's the first-year."
"The…?" I asked.
"Path of the Word," Anver said. "Most change to it later in life."
"Sounds like there are only twenty-four initiate Priests of the Word right now," Nari explained. "That's both years of training. I want to say it's like thirteen second-years and eleven firsts, but I could have that backwards. Zeal said he's been getting picky, only approving those who actually believe in him, or who want to, like Livia."
"Livia?" Talin asked.
"The first-year," she said. "Like, I mean a real first-year. She just had her Choosing. Most of the priests in my class already served a decade or more in Protection or Body, and Vernie's my instructor."
"I like Vernie," Talin told her.
I happened to like the smile on her face and how excited she was about all of this. It was how she'd been back in primary, before Zeal had put all his lace on her body. Back when she hadn't been carrying the future of the gods on her shoulders - and it looked good on her.
"So, the other class you had?" I asked.
"High Society," Ela told me. "Easy stuff. It's all about recognizing the quality of fabric, trends in hair and cosmetics, and matching our dialect to the class of people we mingle with."
"Class?" Talin asked. "But it's called 'high society.' That's one class."
"It's really not," Nari said. "Merchants count, as do those with new money from industrialization. The nobility is actually a small fraction of what we'll need to worry about, even if it's the most important."
"So what comes after lunch?" Anver asked, glancing between me and Talin. "Saval said she put me in as many classes with you two as she could, but that didn't seem to include anything this morning."
"Strength training is next," I told him.
"Then close quarters, with mixed blades after that," Talin finished. "We just got out of Legalities of Force."
"Yeah, I took that last year," Anver said. "I had grappling and Laws of Calseth this morning."
"Which we took last year," I told him, meaning both.
"But I'm in all of those last three." He looked over at Nari. "What about you two? Hopefully nothing with Tish."
