James Islington - The Shadow Of What Was Lost

Elocien hesitated. "And though your word on that is important, you should also know that Erran will be Reading you if you give it. Any hint of a doubt on your part, and he will erase your memory of everything you’ve been told here. It’s tricky, but I’ve seen him do it before. You’d stay on as Representative, but would remember nothing of this. And you would be shut out of the investigation into the attacks entirely."

There was silence for a few seconds as Asha gathered her thoughts. Though she didn’t want to believe it, somehow she knew that the duke’s memory was real - that what she’d seen had actually happened. She shuddered as she remembered the eerie crowd of slowly swinging bodies. It wasn’t as if she had experienced it in a detached way, either. She remembered being there . Remembered her disgust, her fury at the Shadraehin.

"You have my word," she said softly.

Elocien and the others all looked at Erran, who was staring intently at her. There were a few anxious seconds of silence, and then he nodded, giving her the slightest of smiles.

"She means it."

There was a collective sigh as the tension went out of the room, and Elocien smiled at her. "Then I am glad I took the risk."

"So is she," noted Erran.

“Don’t, Erran.” It was Fessi, her tone reproving. “She doesn’t know how to shield herself yet. You’ve done your job. Leave her be.”

“You’d do it if you were able to, Fess,” Erran grumbled, but he kept silent.

On the couch, Kol stirred for the first time.

“I cannot say I like this,” he said bluntly, never taking his eyes from Asha. Something about his expression seemed almost fearful.

Elocien grimaced. “It had to happen, Kol. I couldn’t be your Scribe forever. You knew that.”

“But it did not have to be now .” Kol shook his head, clearly angry. “And not with her . How are we supposed to trust her, after she made a deal to spy on you - with the Shadraehin of all people? She may be loyal now, but what is to stop her from changing her mind again?" He held up his hand preemptively as both Elocien and Erran opened their mouths to protest. "I know what you are going to say, and it doesn’t change my mind. In my opinion, this puts us all in danger.” With that, he rose and walked out the door.

The girl called Fessi stared after him, her face set in a confused frown. “I apologise, Ashalia,” she said, pushing a long wisp of hair from her face. “He’s not usually like this… I don’t know what came over him. We’ll get better acquainted later, I’m sure.” She hurried out the door after Kol.

“I think I know,” murmured Elocien, so quietly that Asha wasn’t sure she was supposed to hear it.

There were a few moments of silence, then Elocien sighed, turning to Asha. “That part didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped,” he admitted. “Don’t worry about Kol - he’s overreacting, but I’m sure he will calm down soon enough. Still… before we go any further, I do need you to swear to me that none of this will leave this room. I’m not just talking about the Shadraehin this time, obviously. Needless to say, if word of what we are doing here got out, it would be disastrous. Not even my brother knows about it.”

Asha hesitated. “And what, exactly, are you doing here? There’s clearly more to this than just trying to find out what happened at Caladel.”

“That’s true,” acceded the duke. “We’re protecting Andarra. The Augurs use their talents to help me inform my advice to the king. It’s saved lives many times.”

Asha’s eyes narrowed. “That’s all you use it for?”

Elocien shrugged. “I don’t use it for personal gain, if that’s what you mean.”

“None of us would be doing this if he was,” supplied Erran.

Asha hesitated, then nodded. There was no way to verify any of it, but for now she had no choice but to trust them.

“Very well," she said. "You have my word that I’ll not speak of this to anyone.”

The Northwarden glanced over at Erran, who studied Asha for a second, then nodded. “She’s nothing if not truthful,” he said cheerfully.

Asha avoided looking in Erran’s direction, suddenly self-conscious. Knowing it was that easy for him to Read her sent a shiver up her spine, regardless of her having nothing to hide.

“So how do I fit in to all this?” she asked, still a little dazed at the turn of events.

“Two ways.” Elocien leaned forward. “The most pressing being that I cannot continue to meet with Erran or the other two in secret. As the king’s brother, meeting with anyone privately is cause for speculation. If someone starts to notice I’m regularly going into a Lockroom with people who are, ostensibly, servants” – he paused, shooting Erran an apologetic look – “ it will raise some questions.”

“We’ve been getting by with me as Elocien’s manservant,” explained Erran, “ but the problem is, I’m not very good at it. People around here tend to notice things like that, and then start wondering what the real reason is that the duke keeps me around. It’s unlikely they’d guess the truth, but too much attention in itself could cause trouble.”

“As Athian’s Representative, you’ll have an excuse to meet with me every few days,” Elocien continued. “Normally that falls to the senior Representative, but I’ll insist it’s you. That shouldn’t raise any questions; given who I am, I doubt anyone will think it amiss that I’m more comfortable with a Shadow than one of the Gifted. In fact, I’ve already started spreading it around that it was me who made Athian send a Shadow as one of their Representatives - a kind of penance for their return.”

“But won’t that draw more attention to me?”

“Yes, but it’s the right kind of attention," said Elocien. "You’ll be a curiosity for a few days, and then people will… dismiss you, to an extent. If you’re only here because Tol Athian is being punished, they won’t think of you as much of a threat.” He grimaced. “I want to be honest about what you should expect. People will ignore you, sneer at you behind your back, perhaps tell you to your face that you shouldn’t be here. I doubt anyone outside of those you’ve already met will be friendly. But nobody will fear you, or watch your movements. And that’s what we need.”

Asha nodded, trying to keep the disappointment from her face.

“So I can meet with you without raising suspicion, and I can talk to the Augurs without anyone noticing,” she said. “Is my sole purpose to be passing messages?”

Elocien smiled at that. “Not at all. As Kol so graciously brought up before, the main reason you’re here is to become our Scribe.”

“A Scribe?” Asha knew the word, of course, but Elocien had said it more like a title.

Erran spoke up. “You get to tell Elocien when to panic.”

Elocien grunted at that. “Before the Unseen War, no-one was allowed to act on an Augur’s vision unless it had been confirmed,” he explained. “The Augurs weren’t allowed to discuss what they’d Seen with anyone, even amongst themselves - instead they had to write it all down and deliver it to the Scribe, who would then try and find other visions that contained similarities. If two Augurs had Seen the same thing, it was considered confirmation that it was going to happen.”

Asha frowned. "But weren’t the Augurs' visions supposed to be infallible?" She hesitated, glancing at Erran uncertainly. "Or, was it because of what happened to the old Augurs, at the end…."

"No," Erran rushed to assure her. "Everything we’ve Seen so far has come to pass. Whatever the problem was twenty years ago, it doesn’t seem to be affecting us."

“Then why wait for confirmation?” asked Asha, puzzled.