The world came into focus around her, the murky cell giving way to a morning-bright bedroom. Her bedroom. Allaster stood over her, his expression twisted into something she couldn’t discern and his arms a bracket around her, as if he’d meant to hold her. For one wild moment, she wished he had.
“Corynth,” he said instead, and it took her a moment to realize that he thought she meant the nickname. She hadn’t known what she’d meant, wasn’t sure why she had said what she’d said. She had been so lost in the nightmare that she hadn’t been thinking, but Corynth wasn’t the name she’d needed to hear.
They stared at each other—him waiting for her to explain, her waiting for him to ask. In the end, she said only, “The nightmares,” and Allaster didn’t push any further than that. Sometimes, she felt like all she was made of was lies.
“This is getting to be a habit.” He changed the subject, nodding to her bed. “I’d prefer if you stopped trying to get yourself killed.”
“How sweet of you.” Kasira sank back against the plush headboard with surprising ease. The pain and weakness she had expected upon waking was absent, her wounds reduced to pale scars like all the rest. The Library’s magic had done its work well.
“It takes months to build up enough stamina to endure what you put your body through,” Allaster chastised her as he sat. He’d pulled up a chair by her bed, his long legs crammed against the side of it. “You weren’t prepared to funnel that much magic.”
“You can do it,” she countered.
“My body is used to channeling magic. It has … adjusted. Yours hasn’t.” He spun one ring around his finger, his leg bouncing rapidly. “Though you do appear to have a natural proclivity for magic. I’ve never seen someone take to it so quickly or so effectively. The fact that you could summon away Morvir’s sword like that …” He eyed her as if he expected her to know the reason why.
“It sure doesn’t feel like that,” she muttered into the blankets. “One teleport and I felt like I had been hit by a Zeras. Everything after that was like wading through knee-high mud while someone set fire to my muscles.”
Allaster’s expression all but trilled,And you deserved it. “Yes, well, that was your body attempting to tell you that you were using too much magic. The same would happen if you tried to teleport too far or summon too large an object. The body can only handle so much.”
So that was why she had been able to keep accessing her magic, but it had been harder and more painful each time. She was lucky she hadn’t killed herself.
“Speaking of only handling so much,” he continued. “I had hoped to start introducing you to the continent’s leaders, but if you insist on insulting them each time I do, you’re going to struggle as Librarian.”
Kasira ran a hand through her unbound hair to push it from her face. “Well, how about you just don’t get yourself killed and then I’ll never have to be Librarian.”
Allaster went incredibly still at that. Then he was up and across theroom, pacing from one end to the next. “We’ve been neglecting the foreign policy aspect of your training. It’s important that you be familiar with the leaders of each realm and the delicate political terrain you’ll be navigating. Being Librarian isn’t all beasts all the time.”
“I—what is wrong with you?” He was talking so fast he sounded breathless.
He came to an abrupt halt. “I had two cups of coffee and have had nothing to do but sit here. Now, are you going to get out of bed, or do I need to drag you out?”
The image of him pulling her from the sheets rose unbidden, near enough to make her flush, and she scrambled free of them before the thought could settle. Allaster left so she could get ready. Iylis had yet to show himself, so she summoned her own food from the kitchen, a task that took several tries as the magic failed to respond at first. It felt almost sluggish, a sensation she was fairly confident had nothing to do with her after witnessing Allaster’s own troubles.
After downing a couple slices of toast and a cup of tea, she washed and dressed and met Allaster down in the main library. He was shelving a stack of books when she arrived, his brow furrowed in discontent. A leopard spirit sat nearby, looking castigated.
“Let me guess, more reading?” she asked, wishing now she’d had a cup of that coffee herself.
“What? No. I just needed something to do while I waited. You took forever.”
“It’s been ten minutes.”
“As I said. Come with me.” He quickly placed two more books on the shelf and then spun toward the far door, striding across the room as if the ground might melt beneath him at any moment.
She hurried to keep up. “Why are we walking?”
“So that you know the location of this room.”
She cast him a sidelong glance. “And the coffee.”
He winced. “I would appreciate it if you never let me drink it again.”
They crossed through two rooms and ascended a spiral staircase to a circular tower chamber much like his study. But where she had yetto see proof his office actually had a floor beneath all its clutter, this room was sparse but welcoming. A small fire burned in the hearth, and the walls were adorned with various maps, from individual countries to the continent as a whole. In the center sat a circular table surrounded by familiar faces.
May waved her over, and Kasira took the chair beside her. Allaster remained standing at Kasira’s other side, rifling through a pile of papers placed before his seat.
“I tended to Gievra while you were gone,” May told Kasira. “He’s eating well, but he still won’t leave his enclosure.”
“Thank you. I’ll check in on him after … whatever this is.” She scanned the table, spotting Warrin and Elyae, who sneered at her. There was also an older, bespectacled Jacari mage wearing a brightly patterned scarf bent over a pocket-sized notebook. They lifted their head long enough to give Kasira a curt nod before returning to their notes.
