I drew in a bracing breath. “Okay.”
Suhai brought the lens close to my face and peered through it into my left eye. I opened it wide, looking just above the lens at first. As his yellow iris filled the entire expanse of the giant lens, however, I couldn’t help but glance right into it.
My head spun, as if I stepped into a twister and it swept me away. Letting go of Timur, I flailed my arms to grab onto something for balance. Timur caught my hands and pressed me to his chest tightly.
“Are you done?” he snapped at Suhai. “She doesn’t like it. You have to stop.”
Suhai removed the lens from between us but didn’t move away, staring at me with his yellow eyes.
“Do you see my face clearly now?” he asked.
He was so close, I could feel his breath on my skin and see the tiny dots of shimmer on the tip of his nose.
“Yes,” I said. “I can.”
“In every detail?”
I focused on his features. Like all fae, he was beautiful. I couldn’t guess his age, but that was also normal with shadow fae. They stopped aging for several centuries after reaching adulthood. But there was something else in his seemingly neutral expression. He stared at me so intently as if trying to see all my thoughts and feelings, while keeping his own shut away from me.
“In more detail than I want to…” I muttered.
“Well, we’re done here.” He leaned back abruptly.
It felt as if a plug had been yanked out of my throat, and I could draw a full breath again.
“That’s it?” I blinked, confused.
“That’s all I needed to know about your impairment.” Suhai put the lens back onto the cart and lifted a slim dagger from it instead. “You have everything you need to see just as well as anyother human. You’ve had no injuries and have no damages that need healing. You just need a small…um, adjustment, which I’m happy to do.”
He twirled the dagger in his hand, then leaned closer, aiming the tip of the blade at my right eye.
“You want to cut my eyes?” I gasped, shrinking away from him.
“It’s not happening,” Timur snapped gruffly. “Get your blade away from her or I’ll use it to slice your skin into ribbons.”
The mage’s jaw slacked in confusion. He took a cautious step away from Timur, then carefully placed the blade back onto the cart.
“I don’t understand,” he mumbled. “Isn’t that what you hired me for, General?”
“I hired you to make her new eyeglasses, not to carve out her eyes.”
It occurred to me that the mage, despite all his skills and magic, might not know what eyeglasses were since shadow fae had no use for them.
“Eyeglasses are two lenses, one for each eye,” I explained quickly, gesturing over my face where a pair of eyeglasses would be worn. “Framed and connected right here over the nose with a little metal arch. And held by two curved metal things that are curved to fit over the ears, like this.” I curled my fingers into a hook to demonstrate, glancing between both Suhai and Timur. “Do you understand?”
Both men looked at me with concentration, visibly trying to understand, but I wasn’t sure how much of my explanation they actually got.
Timur tilted his head, gazing at me in wonder. “Fascinating.”
“Did you wear something like that before?” Suhai asked in bewilderment.
“Yes. Many people wear eyeglasses back in my world. The surface of the lenses is curved in a certain way to correct each person’s vision individually. Timur said you came from Kalmena. Does no one of the queen’s Joy Vessels wear glasses?” I asked the mage.
He gave me an indulgent smile.
“Oh, sweet thing, if the queen favored me enough to grant me access to hersarai, why would I ever need to come to Ashgate?”
“So, the queen doesn’t like you then?” I prodded, curious.
