ina

n the parchment and shook her head hard, as i

High Lord is? His Black-Winged Wyrm Legion could g

nd leaned back agai

l Anderson, and Edmund won't dare breathe too loudly around him.

y room. "To the public, you're a Spirit-less outcast without a T

e glowing blue dome of the Tida

e knows his Tide-Spirit backlash is so severe he can't

back to

as no powerful clan backing to spy on his military, an

ng and stared at me

e, the logic works. But how do you even get near h

knuckles aga

e Pearl and Rose on Sixthday, don't you? Can you f

, then slammed her

ke on his own pride, I'm in! I'll check

ward and hugg

s is over, I'll buy you a wh

k with a snort, thou

e talking to him. Are you

at the faded h

, wants to push me into the

guild's secret crystal ledger onto clean paper, circling every sum Harrell had embezzled over the past three years. Every

y desk buzzed twice. It was an en

in the Inner Atolls. Harper had added a note at the bottom: the marble partitions in the corner booths h

ave his guards throw me out if I begged for a meeting at the door. Th

the brazier and watched th

the dead gray scale on my forehead. Before leaving, I took the small blood-jade token my father had lef

lock. I sat on a stone bench in a public garden to steady my breathing while passing nobl

ed me a secret signal: Harrell, my adoptive father, had already

smoothed my skirts and walked stra

en I showed him the VIP pass Harper had gotten me. Walking down the floral-s

pped my cold fingers around the porcelain cup,