Robin left his seat and headed out of Nightshade’s line of sight, but Nightshade marked this, as well.
Does he do this often?
I would say it depends on how bored he is. Since the classes themselves repeat, and by your own estimation he has been here for some time, I would imagine that boredom has become a pressing issue for him.
I need you to ask another question.She looked down past her feet to see the crowning heights of shelves pass beneath them. She could not believe that she could be here—on a Dragon’s back—and bypass unwelcome intruders unseen. But apparently, this was a different version of reality; she tensed and held breath—as if her breath would be the most notable thing in the library—as the three Barrani intruders passed beneath her.
What question? Ask.
“Can you make that attempt? Can you try to speak with the Towers?”
He stared at her. Not at Nightshade, who had theoretically voiced the question, but at Kaylin, who was behind his eyes.
“What material benefit would that have?” he finally asked.
“It would—” Nightshade then took over, it being his mouth and his voice. “It would establish parameters—physical parameters. If the Academia survived the fall ofRavellonand the ascendance of the last and greatest of our defenses against what now dwells there, it is possible that the presence of the Academia itself can be strengthened.”
“To what end, Chosen?”
Since those words had been Nightshade’s, she grimaced. The fieflord’s face bore no trace of that grimace. “I think you need to be in control of yourself. You’re outside of the Tower’s duties and responsibilities. They aren’t set to watch against you or guard against you. And I think at least one of the six was aware of you, and valued you highly. At least one.” She shook her head; Nightshade again remained still.
Yes, he said with some amusement.I have some dignity and wish to retain it.
“There’s a border zone between each of the territories protected by the Towers. It’s shifting; it’s not static. I think—or smarter people than I think—that it’s part of the outlands. Part of,” she corrected herself, “the primal ether.
“I think you were valued highly by one of the Towers, but on ascension, all of the Towers agreed to somehow help anchor you, to maintain some element of your presence or life. They might have thought you couldn’t do it on your own, if the words—”
“They would be correct,” he said quietly. “You are...in the library.”
“I am. I have Arbiter Androsse and Arbiter Kavallac with me; we are searching for Arbiter Starrante.”
He closed his eyes, one luminous, one a void. She could see his hair begin to move in the windless room; could see a faint glow as it outlined the whole of his body. His mouth moved, but silently, or quietly enough that she couldn’t hear his words. Given that the ears she was currently borrowing were Barrani, she assumed the former.
“Arbiter Starrante is not situated within the library at this current time.”
“Do you know where heissituated?”
“He has not been removed from the Academia, although it is possible that such removal has been tried. Keep the Arbiters with you, if that is at all possible. I can hear them, and through them, Chosen, you. There is more life in the Academia than there has been in far too long.” His smile changed the contours of his face. “Ah, I believe I hear Lannagaros. It has been long, indeed, for Lannagaros.
“Too long, I think.” The smile fled his face as he opened his eyes and stared through the window Nightshade had become. “If you intend to attempt to repair me, as you once repaired others, you will be frustrated beyond endurance. I do not have, as the Towers or your...Helen...do, a central core, a central heart. When I was built—and that is a crude word that will only barely suffice because time is scant—I was not built the same way.
“But if you have been tasked with opening the library—and I will not ask by whom—I feel that you will come to understand this, in time. If you survive. I...do not see the intruders to whom Kavallac refers.” He smiled again, but this smile was softer and more careworn. “I do not believe you will accomplish what you hope to accomplish.”
“You don’t think we can get the library open?”
“That was not the goal to which I referred. Now go. You are interrupting my lecture.”
Kaylin.It was Severn. His voice reached her the moment Killian dismissed her—and it was a dismissal.
She nodded.
We have a...guest.
What do you mean?
A young man. An older child.He looked—was looking—in the direction of that child. It was Robin.
I thought you were in the endless hall?
