“Gisa, would you mind running this today?” Nomi asks. “I have a personal stake in an issue that’s coming up.”
Or she’s not going to use her position to bias the town.
But, she’s making an active point of that, so everyone is aware and her trustworthiness isn’t called into question.
Clever.
Gisa, the old woman from this morning with the sharp insight, gets out of her chair in the front row.
“Gisa was mayor before she retired and Nomi took over,” Teren whispers to me. “She’s been a representative too, so people know her and trust her. She’s almost always the one who fills in if Nomi is sick or has a conflict of interest, so this won’t make anyone uncomfortable.”
Which means they won’t be on edge. Okay.
“Well, well,” Gisa says. “I admit I’m surprised you’re bringing some personal business in today when I’m sure we all have a big question on our minds, so let’s talk about the dragon in the kitchen, shall we? I’m old, I don’t have time to beat around the bush. What in the gods’ names is with all the priests we’ve seen in town the last couple days?”
An uneasy murmur sweeps through the room.
Gisa’s eyes are only for Nomi, though, who doesn’t flinch.
I sit waiting for her to answer, say anything, my tension rising each moment.
“Shit,” Teren mutters. “I should have realized we wouldn’t get to ease into this. Gisa always gets straight to the point.”
Zan covers my clenched fist in his. “Nomi is waiting for us,” he says, his voice carefully neutral in a way I hate even though Iknowit’s armor. “Your home—”
“Ourhome,” I interject sharply. Iwillget him to accept this, gods damn it.
“—is on the mountain,” Zan finishes. “If people know the mountain is accessible...”
Then they might access it.
Cutting people off from the mountain was never my intention; it was collateral damage.
Will people want to hike up the mountain? At least some.
I take a breath. I can probably cope with that, I think.
But.
“You won’t have a private landing pad, if people can come up whenever,” I say softly.
“There’s no stopping that,” Zan says tonelessly, squeezing my hand. “People will realize eventually.”
Isthiswhy he thinks he has to leave me?
Gods damn it, does he actually havemultiplegood reasons?
No.Rationalreasons, not good ones.
Hewillhave a safe space, if I have to establish a whole damn new dampening field to make it for him.
“You’re getting a lock for our door, I will make a lock for your landing pad,” I growl, standing up.
At the front, Gisa’s eyebrows lift, and she says, “Do you know something about this, Yora?”
All eyes turn to me.
Performance under the gaze of a suspicious audience is nothing new to me.
