2
Ibreatheda sigh of relief as the carriage set off for our long ride back to Solantha Palace. Part of me wished we could have taken the steamcar, but these silly four-horse carriages were traditional when it came to attending high-society events. And besides, the ride gave me some downtime with Iannis without anybody else around tointerrupt.
“I thought this evening would never end,” I said as I leaned my head against his shoulder. “The sooner we get through the next few weeks, thebetter.”
“I do understand how you feel about these parties,” Iannis said lightly, rubbing my shoulder. “They are not my favorite activity either. But in reality, they only account for a fraction of your time. You’ve been able to get quite a bit done, haven’tyou?”
I nodded. “There’s still a lot of work to be done on reforming the Enforcers Guild,” I said. I’d presented my commission report a few weeks ago, and the recommendations were being implemented even now, albeit with quite a bit of foot-dragging and teeth-gnashing. “The veterans in the Guild aren’t exactly thanking me either. They’re still clinging to their stupid sense of entitlement, and hate that the wages of the younger enforcers have been raised more than theirown.”
“That’s not surprising,” Iannis observed. “Many people would rather pass up a raise than see somebody else get a biggerone.”
“Well that’s just stupid,” I said, shaking my head. “And they still are not taking the new unit for fraud and financial crimes seriously. Without bounties dangling in front of their noses, a case is just not on theirradar.”
“Nothing worth doing was ever accomplished overnight,” Iannis said. “It will take time to root out the corruption and bad habits, and it is especially difficult when top management is refusing to acknowledge the size of theproblem.”
“You’re telling me,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll have to keep an eye on them in the meantime, and keep pressure on Captain Skonel to preventbacksliding.”
We fell silent for a while, and I brooded about the problem for a bit longer. I’d gone from being the underdog at the Enforcers Guild to the unofficial top dog, and while some of the enforcers appreciated my efforts to even out the system, it was still a largely thankless job. I could see how leaders and politicians could easily become jaded fighting for people who didn’t want or appreciate their help. It was a good thing that I had my friends to rely on, or I might have torn my hair out a long timeago.
“That was quite a show you put on tonight,” Iannis said, interrupting my train ofthought.
“Well, you did tell me that I could use higher-level magic,” I said. “I think I made a good impression on the ones that still think I’m a weakling, don’tyou?”
“Yes, and you embarrassed that group of ladies tonight as well,” Iannis said dryly. “While I appreciated the joke, and don’t doubt those women thoroughly deserved it, such pranks are hardly worthy of you,Sunaya.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “We have to ‘keep up appearances’ and remember the dignity of yourposition.”
“It isn’t about keeping up appearances,” Iannis said. “It’s about learning to rule with a steady hand. You can’t let your feathers get ruffled every time someone makes a snide remark about you, Sunaya. If I did that, I would have blown the palace to smithereens a dozen times bynow.”
I scoffed. “Give me a break, Iannis.Nobodymakes snide remarks behind your back. All the mages loveyou.”
Iannis’s eyes narrowed. “Really? You think that all my staff are pictures of adoration at all times? That they never balk at my orders, or give me the side-eye when they think I’m notlooking?”
“Maybe they do,” I shot back, “but at least they respect your abilities. They don’t consider you a weakling or a savage, and they certainly don’t think that you don’tbelong.”
Iannis sighed. Silence stretched in the carriage, and for a minute, I thought he wasn’t going to respond. But then he said, “I do understand how hard it is for you. I might not have to deal with prejudice now, but I did in my far-off youth, and I didn’t like it any more than you donow.”
“You?” I stared at him. “But you were born into a magefamily.”
“Not a pure-bred one,” he reminded me. “The Tua look down on all humans, mage or not. In their eyes, I was a bug not even worthy of beingsquashed.”
“Oh.” I blinked—Iannis almost never brought up his Tua heritage. The Tua were a mythical, powerful race of beings who existed on another dimension entirely, though they had been known to come to Recca every once in a while, and had inspired many legends. They were so powerful that humans didn’t stand a chance against their magic, and whether an encounter turned out well or badly depended entirely on the Tua’s whim. Manuc, the island country where Iannis had been born, seemed to be their favored spot in our world. But as far as I knew, even there Tua sightings were extremelyrare.
“I didn’t realize you interacted with them, other than your mother, I mean.” Iannis’s mother was half-Tua, and the source of his extraordinary purple eyes as well as his unusual magical power and longer than normal lifespan. “Have you ever been to the Tua realm?” According to all the stories I’d ever heard, humans who were carried off to that other dimension didn’t return, at least not in the same century. But then, stories could be misleading, especially since, in this case, there weren’t any first-handaccounts.
“I was taken there once, when I was very small,” Iannis said, surprising me. “I must have been about five or six, and small for my age, as the Tua blood made me slow tomature.”
“What was itlike?”
He was silent for a moment, contemplating. “Very strange. For a young child, difficult to take in—everything was so huge, the colors were off, the animals seemed bigger and deadlier. It was both beautiful and terrifying, and gave me nightmares for years after, even though I only stayed for less than aday.”
“What were you doing there?” I couldn’t imagine why any parent would think it was a good idea to take a young child to a different, and not to mention dangerous,dimension.
“My mother went there to present me to our kin, on my grandmother’s orders. But their clan head disapproved, we found, and told Mother to never bring me back. They said that I would not be able to survive the dangers, and they had no desire to be saddled with such a fragile, vulnerable burden.” His expression was rueful, but I could imagine how he must have resented that verdict, even as a youngchild.
I snorted. “Burden, my ass,” I said. “If only they could see younow.”
Iannis shrugged. “The Tua have very little interest in our governments or countries,” he said. “They would not find me impressive unless I ruled the entire world, and I have no intention of doingso.”
