But I’m not so untried I will rush to fill any open silence.
I hold her gaze, and I wait.
We all wait. Destien, the guards, my sister. Even Evram.
That tells me something too: The grand magus, for all his arrogance, believes he needs to at least appear subordinate to the angel. I’m not sure how I can use that yet, but it’s something.
The silence continues.
Until finally, the angel, still looking at me, says, “Nariel. Show yourself.”
Dammit dammitdammit. Worst possible news.
No, wait: She may not know I was involved in dismantling the plague spell, or I’d probably be dead already—unless she has some other, longer-term plan for me that’s even worse than just killing me and getting it over with?
Scratch that, news is still extremely bad.
Do I deny that Nariel is here? I don’t know if the angel can feel his cloak. Do I deny that he’s with me? He very clearly threatened the grand magus on my behalf, but he didn’t actuallydoanything to the High Earth mages, so maybe I could make that stick—
Nariel coalesces out of the shadows behind me and before I’ve decided what to do about it says, “Koshiel. Time has been generous with you.”
I’m not totally sure what that means, but my guess is it amounts to passive aggressive for something like, “You look like you’re profiting off the magic of others through no merits of your own.”
Koshiel is looking at him, now, her expression going sharp like a hunter sighting her prey.
Wait, could she truly not locate Nariel in the shadows? Because that’s super interesting. I don’t know enough about how individualized angelic powers are.
I dare to focus on Evram, and he deliberately looks down at the wand he holds, then back at me with a wider smirk.
Fuck. That wand is made withangelicpower. I don’t know what that means for me, but it can’t be good. I won’t be able to break this wand like I did his last one.
Koshiel says, “Your efforts to circumvent the terms of your exile have not gone unnoted. Return to Dark Earth at once.”
“The terms of my exile are that I should be cast out from Bright Earth never to return,” Nariel says, his smooth voice threateningly sweet.
“You attempt to amass power to attack the very foundations of the world, and it will not be permitted.”
Wow, there is alotgoing on in that statement. My eyebrows lift speakingly.
Of course, Koshiel chooses that moment to focus on me again. “Do you have something to say?”
Not using my nameortitle. “So much,” I murmur.
Behind me, Brook snorts.
But I mean, really. Who is doing the permitting, and why do they get to? Are the foundations of the world she values theft? Do we punish supposed crimes without trial before they’ve even been committed?
So much.
But Nariel glances once at me, a mute request to keep it to myself. So I shrug casually with one shoulder as though deferring to his request, not obeying a command like Evram to Koshiel, and permit Nariel to lead for now.
And that’s an important point to remember: In this world, in this moment, channeling as much magic as I am, as it continues rushing back and no one else can access it,Iam the one who should be doing any permitting.
Koshiel is tacitly attempting to establish the terms by which I and other wizards will be treated going forward, but I don’t have to allow it.
How specifically tonotallow it, though—that’s a question, and my reaction will depend on how Nariel chooses to act.
Nariel says, “I have no desire to return to Bright Earth, Koshiel. I haven’t, for many years.”
