“Perhaps,” Androsse said, entering the conversation, “you might bring him here. It is neither our place nor our desire to leave the library; the library is the heart of the Academia.”
“I’m afraid that will not be possible.”
“Oh?”
“I see that you are both materially whole. Starrante is not, and he cannot be easily moved.”
The silence took a turn for the chilly. Kaylin turned to the Arkon. “Give me Starrante’s book.” To his credit, he didn’t hesitate.
It was, as it had been every other time she had touched it, cold. She wondered if the Arkon himself felt the ice of it. She turned it in her hands until she could see the rune emblazoned on its cover. The rune that the Arkon couldn’t see.
Killian had not taken the book. The Arkon had carried it; Killian had implied that the message might be delivered at a better, or different, time. But Larrantin could touch it; Larrantin could carry it. Larrantin had meant for Kaylin to deliver it to Killian.
Killian, however, had not seemed interested in receiving it, perhaps because he didn’t recognize it? It had been Kaylin’s belief that Larrantin had given her the book because she was the only person present he could see—and the only person present who could see him.
She revised that now. He had given it to her because she was Chosen. And because he understood what the book represented. Starrante had been removed from the library.
She turned her thoughts to Nightshade as she looked at the book in her hands.Ask Killian, she began.
Ask him yourself.
Fine.“Can the interim chancellor grant access to the library?”
“Indeed. The interim chancellor has most of the powers granted to the chancellor himself, when someone is willing to take on the burden of that role.”
“Most?”
“Most. There are some permissions that cannot be granted to someone who does not serve fully.”
“Are there qualifications to be interim chancellor?”
“Yes. They are theregaliaof the office; the external trappings.”
“And they’d be found in the office itself?”
“Yes.”
“Can they be removed?”
“Not easily. But if the Arbiter has been removed, it is possible theregaliahas likewise been relocated. Location is not of relevance, but theregaliais required for rudimentary control of the Academia.”
“And that rudimentary control includes control of you?”
“Some elements, yes. But I am, as you guess, far more awake than I was when Karriamis’s Lord first contacted me. The interim chancellor has provided a very modest student body. The Arbiters Kavallac and Androsse have been awakened, and they are whole: I can hear their voices.
“They are not...pleased,” he added softly. “Regardless, Starrante is not visible to me. I would suggest that he is not within the remit of my current existence.”
“You think he’s outside the Academia?”
“I believe he is in what you would call the border zone.”
“But...”
“Yes?” This was a sharper word; it implied annoyance at the continued interruption.
“You’re in the border zone.”
“I would suggest, instead of plaguing the class with questions that do not pertain to the subject I am attempting to teach, that self-study might be of value.”
