Tova handed her a mug and flopped onto the edge of thebed, striking a fire in the iron grate across the room with a flick of her wrist. Aya loved her friend fiercely for more reasons than she could count. They’d been inseparable since they could walk. And during their training for the Dyminara, it was clear that Tova was someone you wanted to fight alongside you, not against you. She was the Queen’s General for a reason.
And while her loyalty and ferocity were some of Aya’s favorite traits, Tova’s ability to warm a room in the winter was a close second.
‘I hear you had an interesting evening.’ Tova raised a perfectly arched eyebrow as she took a sip of her drink. The firelight danced across her pale face, a constant flush of pink beneath – as if the warmth of her fire as an Incend was always just below the surface. ‘Nice to see you got the gore off you.’
‘Our suspicions of Trahir breaking our trade treaties are confirmed, and all he shares is gossip about a bar fight. Pathetic. When did he tell you, anyway?’
‘This morning,’ she said, sweeping her long hair over her shoulder. Aya could just make out the inverted triangle tattoo peeking out from behind Tova’s ear, its three horizontal lines dividing it into four sections. While some Visya tattooed their order on themselves, others honored theirs in simpler ways – like Aya’s mother, who had worn that same inverted triangle, marking the Order of the Dultra, the Elemental Wielders, on a silver necklace that she never took off. It was somewhere at the bottom of the Anath Sea now.
When Tova had pulled Aya into the tattoo parlor three years ago, Aya had considered getting two concentric circles on her wrist for the Espri, the Manipulators of Mind, Emotion and Sensation. But the scar on her left palm from her blood oath to the Dyminara still stung, and she felt a surge of pride every time she saw it.
The Dyminara was her new order. Her home. A way for her to honor what Saudra had given her by doing exactly what the gods had decreed of the Visya: protect the realm.
She needed no other marker than that.
‘He was up rather early waiting for Elara to put out the chaucholda,’ Tova was saying. ‘He looked as tired as you do. As if he’d spent all night with someonespecial.’
‘Probably paid a victory visit to Marie after a productive evening,’ Aya muttered, picturing the sweet-faced brunette she’d seen Will dining with the other week. ‘Gods help her.’
Tova snorted into her clay mug. ‘I suppose there are worse people for her to spend the night with.’
‘Are there?’
Tova shrugged. ‘His arrogance doesn’t hide his looks. Not that it makes him any more tolerable whenever he opens his mouth. If only he weren’t so good at his job. We wouldn’t be forced to suffer him.’ Her wide hazel eyes sparkled with mischief as she nudged Aya, who watched the sloshing contents of Tova’s mug warily. ‘So didyoureward yourself with a victory romp?’
Aya rolled her eyes. Tova knew that Elias was far too proper to come back to the Quarter at such a late hour. Or cowardly. Why he’d agreed to get twisted up with Aya was beyond her, especially when they both knew a match between them was impossible. Elias would need a noblewoman. And Aya …
She’d long learned she couldn’t afford such distractions anyway.
Tova set her mug on the bedside table and picked up the Conoscenza, flipping idly through the pages before tossing it onto the white duvet. Aya bit the inside of her cheek. Tova was constant chaos, always picking up things andleaving them in places they didn’t belong. Her friend loved to upset the precious balance Aya kept in her life.
Aya loved order. Structure. Control. There was something soothing about knowing things were exactly as she left them; about the predictability of setting something one way and keeping it that way, regardless of what was going on around her.
‘Do you ever read anythinggood?’ Tova complained.
‘By good, you’re referring to those horrible romance novels you can’t get enough of?’
‘You say horrible, I say passionate.’
Aya grinned. ‘Tala’s bloodthirsty general by day, hopeless romantic by night.’
Tova lifted a shoulder. ‘We can’t all be serious and stoic all the time.’
‘I have fun.’
Her friend leveled her a look. ‘Your idea of fun is carving a block of wood. I swear, blades are melded to your hands. Maybe try a hobby that doesn’t involve weapons or worship?’
Aya settled back against her pillows, arms crossed. ‘I went out with you two nights ago.’
‘Yes,’ Tova sighed dramatically as she picked at the duvet. ‘And you hated it.’
She hadn’thatedit. They’d met up with a few Anima who served in the queen’s general forces. Tova laughed easily with them. She knew them on a level Aya never would and never truly cared to. For Aya, it was enough to just be near. She’d never been the vibrant one; not like Tova, whose fiery passion drew everyone to her. Tova was a natural-born leader, and the warriors she commanded loved and respected her deeply. Aya preferred to stay on the edges, going unseen and unnoticed. Silence suited her just fine.
‘So,’ Tova mused, pulling her from her thoughts, ‘asidefrom discussing Trahir’s impending doom with Gianna, what’s on the agenda for today?’
‘Preparations for the Dawning.’
Tova groaned as she flopped back onto the pillows. ‘Hepha help me. My mother is probably already losing her mind. Remember how much garland we had to hang last year? My fingers still have sap on them.’
