She blinked. The Stare was gone.
“We don’t need to be told you feel superior when you look at us that way.”
I expected her to argue. To defend herself and her kind. Instead, she cocked her head to the side.
“I hadn’t realized,” she said finally. “And did not mean to condescend you.”
“What were you thinking?” I asked, expecting her to lie.
“That it was foolish to use brute force against your own guards when doing so would alert them to trouble.” She paused. “And that it was very Gyorian to do such a thing.”
She was not wrong. Even so.
Our gazes held, and something, I could not be sure what it was, passed between us.
“The Sovaen Whisper.” Her voice was barely above a whisper itself.
“Is merely a legend,” I said.
“Is it?” Lyra asked, picking up her wine.
By her question, I expected not. Which meant… surely, she could not perform it? Even in the legends, very few could manipulate an Aetherian Whisper and allow the wielder to enter a subject’s mind. Induce calm, a fogged memory. Or even sleep.
“If it were real, its wielder would be branded a mind-bender. A criminal offense in every clan,” I reminded her.
“Indeed,” she agreed. “One of the reasons it was outlawed by Aetherian scholars and twisted into legend. Its power to manipulate without consent was seen as unconscionable.”
Twisted into legend.
“Only those trained,” she said between sips, “as kings or queens, or Shadow Diplomats, were taught fragments of it, in secret, to be used for missions where violence could spark political fallout, or war.”
“In the legends?”
“Nay, Terran. Not only in the legends. Not every war is won on the battlefield. Some are never declared at all.”
“An Aetherian proverb?—”
“More than simply a proverb. ’Tis a creed of Shadow Diplomats. A reminder to use magic such as the Sovaen Whisper judiciously.”
It could not be.
“An Aetherian Shadow Diplomat is also naught but a myth, used by non-Aetherians to keep young ones in check.”
She watched me.
My mind raced with all I knew of Shadow Diplomats. Trained in magic never seen performed, their presence never recorded and actions never acknowledged by the crown as they were purportedly trained in emotional manipulation and advanced negotiation tactics.
Shadow Diplomats were real, and Lyra—as well as her parents, I’d guess—were among their ranks.
It would explain how she could navigate royal politics, walk into enemy territory, and hold her own with kings.
Which meant, the outlawed magic they used was real too.
“The Subvocal Arts?” I asked.
“Legend.”
“Wordbinding?”
