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When she speaks again, it’s in a smoother, more cloying tone.We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. I apologize. I should start by properly introducing myself. I’m Julita Laonek of the county of Nikodi, dedicate to Creaden, in my second year at the Sovereign College.
She may not realize how much she’s told me with that single sentence. Her last name uses the masculine ending, which means her family styles themselves an impressive one by carrying on an earlier ancestor’s name rather than her using the common form of adapting her mother’s. Yet she’s not even from a major family overseeing an entire province but some county I’ve never heard of.
If she’s dedicated herself to Creaden, most likely she’s planning to either take over the family estate or run her eventual husband’s. Or rather, she was, before the unfortunate incident with the knife.
Compared to me, she’s minor royalty. But to her peers at the college, she’d be little better than a nobody.
Maybe she’s gotten in the habit of laying on the airs thick to distract people from that fact.
And you are?she prods as I take everything in.I’m sure you don’t actually work for Master Radir.
The corners of my mouth kick up. “No. I’m Ivy, and I don’t work for anyone except myself.”
Ivy?
I ignore her prompt for more. There isn’t anything more to the name I took on for myself after I fled my family’s home, and I’ll be garroted before I tell her my old one.
It’s no longer really mine anyway.
Instead, I let a prick of my own curiosity guide me. “What were you doing wandering around the alleys of Slaughterwell, Julita Laonek?”
I was attempting to investigate the local temples for signs of illicit magic.
Of all the things she could have said, that’s definitely not anything I’d have guessed at.
My gut twists into a knot. “What kind of illicit magic? Are you working with the Crown’s Watch?”
She couldn’t know, or even suspect—?
My unwanted passenger gives a huff.No, they wouldn’t listen. We need more evidence first, which is why I was out looking for it. If any devouts were supporting the conspiracy, it seems most likely they’d need to be from the smaller, out of the way temples to escape notice.
I pause, knitting my brow. Not anything to do with me, then. But… “What conspiracy? What are you talking about?”
There’s much more at stake here than my life. Someone at the college is experimenting with the same sort of magic that brought on the Great Retribution.
“What?” I sputter through a jolt of deeper horror. “But—if the godlen realize—they could punish us all over again. Who would be stupid enough to try?”
People who don’t care what happens to anyone else if they can gain a little more power,Julita mutters.People who think they’re so smart they’ll manage to sneak it past the gods.
“Are you sure? At the royal college—right under the king’s nose?”
She takes on an arch tone.I know what I’ve seen. They’ve tried to cover up their rituals, but there’ve been signs. And they nearly killed the prince the last time the royal family toured the college. That’s when I knew I had to do something.
I rub my temple. “If they’re attacking Prince Jacos, why isn’t the army doing something about it? What more proof could you need?”
They think he simply got sick. Whoever’s in on the conspiracy, they’re stealthy about it. What I’ve observed isn’t something I can hand over to the Watch or the royal guards. It’d only be hearsay.
Despite her haughtiness, an urgent note threads through her voice. She truly believes the threat is real.
And I can’t imagine much short of a potential continent-wide catastrophe bringing a noble to the reeking streets of the outer wards.
Still, I have to confirm that I’m understanding her correctly.
My voice comes out hoarse. “So you’re saying that there are students at the Sovereign College who are… sacrificing entirepeopleto add to their gifts?”
Possibly professors are involved too. I haven’t been able to determine how far the conspiracy goes, but based on the effects of their attempts, there have to be more than a few of them. You shouldn’t sound so shocked. They killedme, didn’t they?
She has a point there. I was too startled to put it together, but now that she says it, it’s obvious. Not only why she’d have been out there, but why someone would want her dead, if she’s on the verge of uncovering crimes this horrifying.
