My spot on the railless balcony attached to my room is the perfect place to watch the day die. I sit peacefully and observe the bloody struggle as the lights of Paragon City wink and flare their encouragement. The display feels fitting for what’s to come.
The com ring on my finger pings unexpectedly, and the sound jolts me from my macabre thoughts. I’d almost forgotten I’d put it on. The silver band is thin and has little flowers carved into it. A flat black oval sits at the top of the ring where the tech is housed. It’s fancy and dainty and does a bunch of stuff I can’t be bothered to figure out, but I expect nothing less from Lorn. Only the best of the best for the princes’ pet.
The ring arrived at the same time as the mirror, but I’ve been so wrapped up in figuring out the Syphon Glass that I became distracted.
I sit up and brush my hair out of my face, schooling my features so I look bored and too rich to care about anything. I need to be very careful how I go about this and be sure not to do anything that might tip off whoever I’m certain will be monitoring this call.
I answer the incoming feed, and Nixy’s face pops up, floating above the flat black oval on the top of the ring.
“I apologize, dragoness, for the wait. I just saw the message requisition that I contact you,” Nixy offers politely, but her blue-hazel gaze is sharp as it takes me in.
Good, she knows something is up. The fact that I have access to a com device now is probably a big giveaway.
“Is now a good time to discuss your dress for your Naming and go over the plan for tomorrow?” she asks, her tone even with just enough push in it to let me know that she understands we’re not alone on this call.
“Yes, I can speak to you now. How’s everything coming?” I inquire smoothly, working through my plan of how to tell Nixy exactly what I want and need without outright telling her what I want and need.
“I’m excited for how the look is coming together,” Nixy tells me, sounding genuinely enthusiastic. “I struggled at first with a direction, but then it came to me.” Her smile shifts from polite to cheeky. “I went with thecaterpillar to butterflytheme you mentioned at our last fitting. I’ve still got some work to do, but if you’d like to see it, I’d be more than happy to show you.”
I wave her off. “No. I’d rather see it when it’s all finished and I’m trapped in it with no way to escape. But if there’s a way you can make the dress shoot lasers at anyone who gets too close or dares to ask me to dance, I promise it will quickly become my favorite dressever,” I tell her half-joking and half-hopeful.
Nixy laughs. “Getting someFirst Dancejitters?”
“If complete and utter revulsion at the idea of dancing or having to socialize with Horde nobility counts as jitters, then yes, I’malljitters over here.”
“Has anyone gone over what you should expect?” Nixy asks, her smile amused but the look in her pretty eyes trimmed with concern.
“Yes and no. I know it’s all very fancy and formal. I thought a Naming Day would be more like a birthday. But it’s not a celebration at all. It’s a weird pageant where all I do is prance around like some show pony on display. It’s nothing more than an ancient rite of passage steeped in a bunch of boring history with traditions that no longer seem relevant. But apparently, I get gifts, so there’s that.”
“Sounds…fun,” Nixy teases, and I roll my eyes.
“Anyway, while I have you on the line, I was wondering about the loungewear I requested when I saw you last,” I tell her, knowing full well we’ve never talked about anything of the sort. “I’m having trouble sleeping, and I was curious if you found that fabric I mentioned. I’m hoping if I try to sleep in something familiar, I might feel more comfortable and it’ll help.”
Nixy pauses for a second, and I hold my breath, hoping she picks up on my rudimentary hints.
“Yes, I did find it,” she answers after a beat. “But I couldn’t find the gray color you wanted; I was only able to track down black, green, and orange.”
Relief floods me as she matches my rudimentary code with one of her own. Black is the color of The Scorch. Orange and green are Enslee’s and my most noticeable features: orange for our hair, green for our eyes. It’s not an unbreakable code, but it’ll do in a pinch like this.
“That’s fine, they’re just for sleeping in. Black, green, and orange are perfect,” I repeat, instantly feeling lighter. I’d hoped that the mention of sleeptroubleand wantinghelpto find somethingfamiliarwere the right clues to get Nixy on the same page as me, but when it comes to improvising this kind of clandestine shit, you never know which way it will go.
“I can get started on those right away. Would you like me to send them up to you tonight, or would tomorrow work better?”
“Tomorrow is fine,” I assure her, letting her know my request for help isn’t urgent and that she has time to set things up.
Nixy nods with understanding.
“I can pick everything up when I come to get my dress,” I add, hoping she can set up whatever tech she used before that allowed us to talk without my guards realizing.
“Actually, dragoness, it’s been requested that you be fitted in the keep tomorrow before the assembly,” she tells me evenly, but I see the edge of strain in her gaze.
“Oh. But you can’t come to the keep,” I point out, confused as I try to think why they’d suddenly not want me to leave.
Maybe it’s because of what happened last time with the guy and the camera, or maybe it was because of the Tainted. We never did discover any definitive proof, other than that brief whiff of rot we all smelled, that they were even there.
“Not to worry, dragoness. I’ll be there via com for the fitting, and Azo will be the one to get you ready. We’ll have plenty of time to sort out your loungewear and to make sure your dress for the evening is perfect.”
I blow out a tense breath and nod. I would have preferred seeing Nixy in person, especially since the content of the message I need to send to my sister is sensitive. But I can make do with Azo. In the end, it doesn’t matter how my warning gets to Enslee, only that it does.
